A few tips and notes to myself – Why I should write more about my work and what I wish I knew before I started [thread] ✍️

Hello, writers! How about a thread on LITERARY AGENTS? How to get one, how to talk to one, how to keep one happy. Spoiler alert: I am 100% pro agent and can't imagine not having one on my side. 1/

Why would you want a literary agent?
* you want to be traditionally published
* you want someone experienced to help guide your career
* you want to learn how to edit like a pro
* you want to sell foreign and movie rights
* you want answers to your newbie questions 2/

Why you might *NOT* want a literary agent:
* you want to self publish
* you're not willing to compromise on your edits
* you don't think their expertise is worth 15% of your advance
I... can't think this way. Literary agents have been crucial to my career. 3/

So, how do you get a literary agent?
1. Have a finished, revised, edited, polished manuscript.
2. Write a query letter for your book
3. Send your query to agents who rep your genre and are open to submissions
4. Repeat steps 1-4 until you're offered representation. 4/

So, let's go through those four steps. First of all, you must have a finished, revised, edited, polished book, and it must be sellable. That is, you can't sell a 600k picture book or a 40k adult Fantasy, etc. You must read extensively in the genre you're writing. 5/

Want to know the secret to getting past the blank page when you sit down to write?

Here's how I've mastered it. THREAD!

1. You need to write an ugly first draft.

This doesn’t have to be pretty, make sense, or go into detail yet — it just needs to be words on the page.

I’ve seen lots of people talk about the idea of “writing ugly” at a high level, but not many that spell out how to do it.

2. First things first: Create a framework.
Before you try to get too in-depth, create a loose framework. It should look something like:

· Intro
· Background
· Specific Points/Ideas/Tips
· Conclusion

This allows you to visualize what you'll build upon. It’s your road map.

3. Middle First

You’ll want to focus on the middle section of your outline first. Nail down the examples or points you want to walk through.

Include internal + external resources (and quotes!) for reference. Bullet points work well here.

4. Background

Once you have the middle section complete, look at it as a whole to determine what kind of background information you need to share so the reader has relevant context.

This could be a fictional scenario, a story, a quote — something that provides a backdrop.

I can feel it in my bones: NaNoWriMo starts soon. If you meant to do some novel planning this month but never quite got around to the planning part, here are a few questions to help you think through your story arc.

These questions are based on Hollywood screenplays, the hero’s journey, and the work of writers who are much smarter than I am—looking at you @RachaelHerron and @LaniDianeRich and @darynda. I didn’t invent any of this.

And, it's totally okay to do no outlining and just wing the whole dang thing! Or do your planning in a wildly different way. But I've found these questions useful. So.

To start, you’ll need a main character. Let’s assume your main character is an orphaned boy whose horrible extended family has forced him to live in a cupboard beneath the stairs. Question #1: What’s missing from your main character’s life?

All of us are missing something. Maybe it’s a feeling of danger or true love or a sense of higher purpose. Maybe it’s a large animatronic penguin that can dispense boba tea through its nostrils. For our orphaned boy, it’s a sense of belonging.