Come with me into a world of pure imagination...
Rules of the Game.
1. Start with a COMPELLING, ORIGINAL IDEA.
Agents are forgiving of moderate writing, which they can fix, if the idea itself is sound, different and compelling. Combine the two and you'll make their day.
2. Look for the UNUSUAL IN THE MUNDANE.
We've all opened a door, tied a shoelace, drank a glass of water. But what if the door opens to another universe, the shoe deciphers a combination of events elsewhere, or a drink of water empties a world of micro-beings living within an atom?
From birth we are compelled to look at the world a certain way, understand its rules, obey its precepts. A child suffers none of this. They have active and engaging imaginations that sees a building in a stack of empty boxes, the transformation of a tooth into money, a city enterprise in a bag of dolls, a soap opera in a Wendy house, a garage full of spanners that walk around in a cellar trying to create their own universe. As adults we have learned to tame our extravagances and perceptions to the point we know what is happening from dawn until dusk, all our actions are determined and arranged. At some point we become so part of the system we perhaps stop seeing what it actually is. We miss the wonder. Escaping the constraints of conventional wisdom may involve a little childish behaviour and thinking to prompt that everlasting thought, "What if", into our minds. It's one of the surest ways to dump writer's block in the bin. Better than just siting watching the world pass by in many everyday circumstances with blinkers on imagine breakout situations. Come up with an interesting character to write about, a funny situation that can be stretched to the absurd, and help yourself by keeping a notepad handy. I use my mobile phone to jot down ideas all the time; something that popped into mind because of an advertisement, a funny video on a game show, a chance meeting in the street, an idle thought. What if cars had personalities of their own? What would they be saying to one another in a car park? Does that spark a few ideas?
4. Effective FISHING.
Your first idea may not be your best. Sometimes it is. Worked for Jaws. At the first nibble write it down. At the second nibble work through where the idea goes, before the idea, how it branches, where it might lead, how does it look now? And when fully formed give it a good jerk out of the ethereal water and flesh it out to become something more solid. Write out of passion not out of a system. After finding the idea refine it. Find the real story. Find a way to convey it. What voice will you use? Whose perspective is it? What sort of characters fit with your story - then throw the polar opposite at it to gum up the works. Celebrate failure as sunken stones keeping your head afloat while you move on to the next idea.
5. SHOW don't TELL.
Put simply, describe how your characters are feeling, what they are seeing, how they are moving, what motivates them. "She stamped her foot in frustration by the broken down car." says far more visually than:"The car broke down. She wasn't happy." which simply tells a reader what happened.
So that when you add: "The cold winds of the twister drew ever closer." In comes your suspense that makes the broken down car situation a lot more tense. What happens next? How do you describe it. The idea can go a thousand ways so long as you show, don't tell.
Remember when you do, verbs are stronger than adverbs. What's an adverb? Basically, anything with "ly" in it. "She ran merrily along." Merrily is the adverb. (That sentence is also a split infinitive by the way.) The other good thing about adverbs is if you strip them out you don't change the sentence. It reads: "She ran along." Or you could say: "She skipped along with a happy spring in her step." It's stronger, more descriptive - showing the reader not telling them.
6. The cauldron of ideas.
Don't shun it, embrace it. Brainstorm it onto a whiteboard. If you don't have one, get one. Refine it. The golden rule of developing an idea is CONCEIVE - DEVELOP - CONVEY. When conceiving, work on your effective fishing model. When developing it, work through the type of characters you need - BEFORE you put pen to paper metaphorically speaking. What will your ENDING look like. Is it happy or tragic? Resolved or unresolved? Okay, so you don't have a beginning or middle yet. No problem. If you know how it ends you'll be able to backtrack to the starting point by regressing the story through a number of situations and levels. It's best to write down your situations - that's where the whiteboard comes in handy - until you get back to an interesting starting point or point of view.
For example: A twister is approaching a town and will likely destroy a good part of it. (That's your story). There's a handicapped school in the way. (That's your situation). A locum teacher drafted in from a University in California working on predictive modelling has an interest in this phenomenon. (That's your protagonist). She has a handicapped child herself. (That's your affinity). An estranged husband won't leave her alone, asking for money. (Your bad influence). In twelve hours the worst storm in years is going to strike and break apart the dam wall twenty miles away flooding the valley (that's your suspense element). She's only there because her plane was diverted. (That's your hook). Pull out several ideas from this scenario. The turn in plot could be she's clinically deaf and that's something you don't have to reveal until much later when it matters. She can't actually hear the twister as it's coming in and is struck down trying to get the children out who turn the tables by leading her out instead through a maze of buildings. One of them has been stealing cars all his life and steals a bus. Having the kids playing in them could be your starting point when she pulls into town looking for a place to stay. Now your dead ends are eliminated, you have several avenues to get to the conclusion, and you could throw a love interest in, a difficult mother she's never gotten along with, or find them racing away in a bus at the end trying to outrun the twister and escape the valley, picking up parents as they do who never believed they were in danger from the dam.
Simpler still? A deaf teacher drafted into a school of dropouts helps them learn the power of overcoming their own problems when she sells her house to come to live with the kids. The name of the book: Borstal Hotel. That could go in a dozen different directions.
In any case, draft whatever comes to mind and draw out from that, see where it goes, and keep a good tally of the most useful ones by pushing the ideas into a synopsis. There are a lot of useful helps on the Internet about that. Do that before fleshing out chapters, and from that point you've got a handle on your story. Hit the page one word at a time from first thought, you'll end up with 50,000 words of meandering blurb which could be deemed "creative thinking" when a catalogue of ill-thought through ideas could be the result. Your book might not work. There may be no market for it. Your genre might wander from Romantic Fiction into hard-boiled thriller and you could lose yourself in the plot. The successful journey has an end, a middle and a beginning. Or to user a snooker analogy; see where the strike ball goes before hitting the white. That determines exactly how you start. (Other sports are available).
I love this: "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away." Yep, you guessed it. Where is your mind now? A long time ago in another galaxy. So what? The point is you get there in nine words. It shouldn't throw away your plot or your ending. It should make the reader look at your novel, which they've just picked up off the bookshelf on their lunch break, and wonder what happens next and why. "I died this morning, last week and I'll likely die on Tuesday." What of? Why? Then you learn the person talking is a Siamese twin and she's talking about her sister, and how the rigorous operations she's going through impacts her health too. They're in this together. One wants to undertake the difficult operations, the other doesn't. The question is, do you want to get to the bottom of the story and find out how they resolve these difficult, complex issues?
8. Know your market.
Children - Lots of pictures and repetitive learning stuff likely to keep them interested.
Middle Grade - 10,000 words. Keep it fun and fluffy
Young Adult - 20,000 words. Keep it light and entertaining.
Adult - 50,000 words. Keep it tight and descriptive.Adult - 100,000 words. Mix your plots and ideas and don't patronise your readers.
Adult - 120,000 words+. You are in literary fiction mode. It could be one of the most entertaining pieces of prose in history if you have a rich, compelling narrative. Or it could be the worst drivel ever unless you follow the basic premise rules, starting with... who will read this.
9. Think like a literary agent.
They like steak. Don't serve them spam. To an agent all queries are spam. They look at them often on their own time and at their own expense. Don't serve up dozens of typos, wrong grammar and poorly constructed sentences. And by the time they get through the first page (not the first three chapters) there has to be enough content to give them a taster of what is to come. Example: Jurassic Park opening scene is of a dinosaur that causes a worker's death. In comes Sam Neill (playing Alan Grant), special bone person nerd who happens to be working on a dig, and is paid handsomely to review and endorse Jurassic Park, the real thing. The first scene gives a flavour of what is to come without giving the game away, and the reader is drawn through to the next series of events via some interesting groundwork. More to the point the novel can be summarised in a couple of sentences. Any novel that crosses an agent's desk 20,000 words and over must pass this basic test of readability and interest or they won't bother reading the second page - period.
And when picking an agent see what they've sold. It's the best groundwork for aligning your work to theirs. It's a highly subjective view agents take, and they are also readers too and like to be entertained. A Children's novelist turned literary agent is not going to be interested in your slasher script for middle grade consumption. Honest.
10. Learn
No writer is complete; not even the good ones. Every day is a school day. Eat humble pie and learn from other other writers, authors, and agents, and read widely and often and if you are covering subjects that require a little learning then do your learning well. There are experts that will pick apart your text if you don't. So if you are writing about tornadoes learn about them. If deafness visit someone, go to people that work with it or experience it. If schools, spend time talking to teachers and kids. Talk to your own! Learn what it is you are writing about. The only exception is probably fantasy where your brain runs wild. Then again when it comes to classy writing even this genre has its exponents and critics. Combine and consolidate. Write and re-write. Be sure of your outcome. All that is left is to pick after that is a great topic extruded through your thinking glands and then making it the most entertaining work you've done to date. Let it rest. Visit it a couple of times. Get some peer review of your work. Test your markets. See what it is people are reading. And dare to be different. Rejection is the name of the game. It will happen. The only way to truly fail though is to stop trying.
True story from an agent....
I recently heard an interview from 2011 where a man sent his manuscript by snail mail; his last attempt before finally giving up after years of trying. His manuscript was picked up and he was so certain it would fail he didn't even put his address on it so the agent had to hunt him down. It turned out okay for the author.
Final thoughts...
So you wrote a great novel. You need an agent.
Two routes: self-publish (you at least get a book). Or go through traditional publishing. If the latter it's a bit like finding the perfect marriage partner. The odds of you turning a lot of heads are remote - unless your name is Dan Brown, JK Rowling (who both all ready have the inbuilt ingredient: fame). Then again they were both starting out once upon a time facing the same uphill struggles we all do.
We the un-besieged have to woo the right agent at the right time with the right story. It's the timing that matters, which is why we have to be persistent as obscure writers and not fall into the trap of self doubt. Get the timing all wrong they'll go right off the boil. It's a little like telling your lover she's the most wonderful thing you ever saw, right about the time you lean over her for the TV remote. You just wrecked her expectations. So it is with agents. Love them right. In a saturated market going through major upheaval nothing does that more than an original compelling idea hitting their mailbox, potentially launching you into at least a 1,000 novel hit, or far further if you are good enough, if there is enough uptake, if the agent can swing a publisher, and if the cosmic tumblers combine to align your work with the world's expectations right about the time you type: "The End" - you will do well my friend.
