The Saturday Slash

Don't be afraid to ask for help with the most critical first step of your writing journey - the query.

I’ve been blogging since 2011 and have critiqued over 200 queries here on the blog using my Hatchet of Death. This is how I edit myself, it is how I edit others. If you think you want to play with me and my hatchet, shoot me an email.

If the Saturday Slash has been helpful to you in the past, or if you’d like for me to take a look at your query please consider making a donation, if you are able.

If you’re ready to take the next step, I also offer editing services.

My thoughts are in blue, words to delete are in red, suggested rephrasing is in orange.

Henry Hinkleton is a nonbeliever. In Bigfoot Township, the only thing worse than that, is being Bigfoot himself. This is a good opening line, but you need a little bit more. Why is it bad to be Bigfoot? It sounds like they celebrate the creature with the festival. When Henry is chosen to play Bigfoot in a weeklong town festival, he goes to the woods for inspiration and accidentally does what no one else has--comes face to face with the legendary beast! Henry quickly realizes that this rock juggling, cannonball diving, log racing creature is not the dangerous beast he has heard of, and he is also not the only Bigfoot living on the mountain. Cool, but we need more. Can Bigfoot talk? Does he communicate with this animal? Is he scared at. first, but then a friendship develops? Give us a better feeling for this relationship.

As the festival goes on, so does the rebuilding of the dam outside of town, and Henry learns that the diverted river is threatening the survival of Bigfoot’s home. Henry secretly helps the creatures fix the dam before it is too late, Confused by this - so the dam needs to be fixed in order for the Bigfoots to be safe? Usually a dam is what destroys habitat. and Mayor Grildy, who will stop at nothing to keep the feared beast exiled,How is it not already exiled, by nature? Why would the threatening of the home mean that the Bigfoot is no longer exiled? Does the Mayor know that Bigfoot is real? becomes suspicious. As time runs out for saving Bigfoot’s home, Henry discovers the truth about the creatures, the township, and that he alone can save Bigfoot. Now Henry must decide what to do with the truth. But what does this actually mean? What is the truth, and why would Henry hesitate to use it? A query isn't a place to tease, so put it all out there.

FINDING BIGFOOT is a middle grade novel complete at 38,000 words. It is fun and adventurous like FINALLY SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS, and has the heart and humor of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. It is heavily based on legends and documented materials. It also highlights the use of sign language. Really? How? Sounds like that answers my communication answer above. Get that in the query!

I am an active member of SCBWI and am a former fifth grade teacher and reading and writing specialist. I have been a middle grade novel fanatic since the age of ten. Good bio!

When People Make Assumptions About Writing

by Tasnova Malek, MD

When you’re a writer, questions from friends and family run the gamut from worry to envy and everything in between.

How do you ignore distractions?

Aren't you worried you won't make enough money to survive?

Where will you get your story ideas?

My answers to the first two were cut and dried.

• I'll do my best not to.

• Yes, but not for a while since I've done my financial homework.

As for the third, it called for more explanation. When most people hear you're a writer, they assume you're working on the Great American Novel. And while obviously, it's true for many, as a primarily nonfiction writer, it wasn't, and still isn’t, true for me. And oddly, this matter of writing non-fiction, far from satisfying their curiosity, elicited a widely held assumption.

“But Wouldn't You Make More Money With Novels?”

Yes, if I wrote books that amass a huge following like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books or Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series have. But when you look at the big picture, according to Forbes magazine, adult non-fiction books have been out-selling adult fiction since 2013.

“Isn't Writing Non-fiction Boring? Kind of Like Writing a Term Paper?”

Non-fiction calls for wide-ranging research and using the information you find to creatively craft an article in a way that will hold a reader's interest. If you’re successful in this, you can pique someone’s curiosity so much that they’ll seek to find out more about the topic. It calls for being a wordsmith and putting a lot of thought into the words you choose. And after you select the right words, you’ll probably need to flip them around like an ’80s era Rubik’s Cube until they click perfectly into place. To me, that's anything but boring.

“But Wouldn't Writing Fiction Be Easier?”

I think that's a misconception, but it's a tribute to authors who make it seem so effortless — as if the words just flow out their fingers. In reality, writing fiction can be grueling. What you see on the page is probably at least the third iteration of the novel. It's the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

Before a writer finishes her first rough draft, she likely spends hours staring at the ceiling waiting for the story she had in mind to take some sort of shape. And when it does, she has to trust that it will take her to where it wants to go, if only she lets it. This is not the time for making sense of it. It's the time for trusting that this spark of creativity will grow bright enough for the second step — mapping out a credible story line. And since it's not yet built in stone, she may have to untangle the line and reweave it several times before she can even think about the characters who will live in it.

And that brings us to the third task, creating a world populated by characters that her readers will either love or hate. Creating the first type of persona is actually the easier of the two. But any story that readers can get their teeth into has to have an antagonist as well as a protagonist. It needs a white-hatted good guy to identify with and care about, but it’s the black-hatted villain that keeps the readers turning pages late into the night. Compared to these foundation steps, putting the words down on paper (which is what most people think of when they think of writing a story) — is practically effortless.

“Sure, Writing is Hard. But Writers Have All Day to Do It in the Comfort of Their Homes.”

First of all, not all writers work from their homes. And when they do, that comes with its own challenges. It’s far easier to get distracted when you’re surrounded by your favorite books, your family, your pets, and endless other diversions. 

And the idea of having all day to work on a project can lead to procrastination, especially when you’re up against a subject you’re not particularly interested in. So keeping to a schedule is key. Some writers do their best work later in the day, and so they tend to sleep in. This can put them out of sync with family and friends, and life can become pretty isolated if they let it.

Isolation can open up the door to taking a drink to relax and inspire. And as the creative juices loosen up and begin to flow, one drink can lead to two to keep them flowing. Authors like Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and John Steinbeck are well known for their propensities for writing while under the influence. But theirs was not an old boys club. Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carson McCullers, and Dorothy Parker also famously took a sip or two as they wrote. This is not to say that all writers overindulge in alcohol any more than all doctors, lawyers, or chefs do. It's just that the comfort of being home plus the ability to write at any hour can grant permission to turn to alcohol or drugs to stimulate creative juices.

And so writing is great work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try — and try, and try again. Success in writing — like in most fields, only comes with hard work and dedication to your craft. But if you love what you do, it often doesn’t feel like work at all.

Sources

investopedia.com - The Top Selling Book Series of All Time

newyorker.com - Man of Mystery

forbes.com - Traditional Publishers Are Selling Way More Non-fiction Than Fiction

yourdictionary.com - Wordsmith Meaning

Sunshinebehavioralhealth.com - Non-12-Step Treatment in Colorado Springs, CO

Tasnova Malek, MD, graduated from Bangladesh Medical College and practiced as a primary care physician for six years in Bangladesh. After moving to the USA, she worked at Emory University Hospital in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Hospital medicine research. During COVID-19, she worked as a crisis counselor in Florida Corona Virus Emergency Response Team. Currently, she is working in the National Suicidal Prevention Center. In addition, she has extensive research experience in medicine and psychiatry in the USA.

Amazon Bestselling Author JK Ellem On Knowing Your Strengths & Limitations

Today's guest is JK Ellem, author of the Amazon bestseller Mill Point Road. Jack joined me to day to talk about treating your indie publishing career as a lean, mean startup, focusing on your strengths, and treating your book as a product, and knowing what pieces to snap off - audio, foreign translations - and sell to others to produce.

Listen to the Episode Now