annietupek.com blog

I got my schedule for the NorWesCon writers workshops and it was just what I needed to bring me out of my writing funk.  I must admit, for the last week I’ve totally slacked off writing, spending most of my time (previously scheduled for writing) knitting.

My excuse is that my sister requested a sweater and sent me the yarn and pattern for it, and a friend has a birthday coming up and I wanted to knit her something special.  Oh, and I finally started a sweater for myself from the aran yarn my mom bought for me in Ireland five years ago.  But really, it was all procrastination.

See, I’ve been putting off submitting two short stories, one to Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and the other to the Intergalactic Medicine Show.  Oh, and that novel that I’m shopping around, yep, been procrastinating on that one too.

Getting that email from the writers workshop has spurred me to get back to work.  Today I printed the short story for Asimov’s (they don’t take email submissions so I’ll drop it in the snail mail tomorrow since today is Presidents Day and those lucky postal workers and bankers have the day off).  I’ve also worked out the query letter for the short story for Intergalactic Medicine Show, the daunting task that prompted my knit-a-thon.  And that query for Necali’s Domain?  It’s on its way to an agent, so cross your fingers for me.

Why does every agent/editor want different things?  Why can’t there be an industry standard?  I know, I know, we’re all different people.  Still.

My synopsis for Necali’s Domain, if you’ll remember, is ten pages long, about 5600 words.  Well, now I’m submitting it to an agent who only wants a two page synopsis.

Which means a heck of a lot of red pen.  Not that I mind.  I understand that they read hundreds, if not thousands, of queries every week.  Two pages takes less time to read than ten, but it was hard to break down the plot into ten, now I have to further reduce it to two.  So I got rid of all the secondary point-of-view characters except for their interactions with Necali.  It’s all about the Empress.

Sigh: Why does the business fo writing have to be more work than writing itself?

This whole query process is a lot harder than writing the actual novel.  Take something big and make it smaller.  It’s a top-heavy pyramid with 136,183 words on top.  Now reduce it to a synopsis.  My detailed synopsis of Necali’s Domain is 10 pages single-spaced, or 5,657 words (what can I say; it’s a complex plot with seven point of view characters?).  That’s 4.2% of the manuscript (I may be a letters, not numbers, person, but I still like to play with them.)  But that’s too long; we need it short and sweet.  So then there’s the pitch:

The Empire of Kianama is falling down around Empress Necali Ber’an.  After five assassination attempts in three short months, Necali flees her palace to seek help from distant kin.  During her journey she meets powerful Curates and learns her gothic-era Domain is only one of a multitude of worlds managed by Overworld Curates.  Prime Counsel Calvo, Necali’s advisor and the man behind the assassins, is actually a Rogue Curate running from Overworld law who wants to rule Kianama himself.

Necali struggles with her newly-discovered insignificance and the Curates scorn her, until it is discovered that she possesses the rare ability to manipulate the environment around her in the same way as the Curates.  The Empress and Curates join forces; together they must eject Calvo from Kianama before he isolates it from the other Domains.

That’s about 135 words.  Which ends up being 2% of the synopsis, or just 0.1% of the total manuscript.  Next time I’m going to work up from the pitch.  But Necali’s Domain grew organically through several drafts, and character kills, and full-on plot revisions.  456 pages.  Double-spaced.  Do you have any idea how freakin’ long that takes to print on my home printer?

But it’s done and I’m ‘currently seeking representation’ for it.  I have been released from the prison that was Necali’s Domain and am free to move on to something new.  The sequel is outlined in full, but I’m going to go back to short stories for a while and kick around a few other novel ideas before returning to the Overworld Curates and their Retia Domains.

Uber thanks to my cousin Cyndie of Cynsational Images for designing this fab website!  Great work Cyn!  She’s down in Arizona, another Illinois emigrate.

So, I’ve begun the query campaign for Necali’s Domain.  It’s finished at last; 130,000+ words.  Insane.  I’ll be posting teasers on the homepage, be sure to check it frequently.

According to Bowker, more self-published books were produced last year than those published by actual publishers.  Guess there are more writers than readers out there…

I will not be self-publishing Necali’s Domain, but I will be getting some copies bound for distribution to special friends.  It’s easier to read it in bound form than on 1000+ loose pages.  Look for an upcoming contest with details on how to get your hands on a copy.

Another draft of Necali’s Domain is finished.  I wanted to get it done before I went to Chicago for Sammy’s birth, but I just missed the mark.  I think one more start-to-finish revision will do it.  And then the endless final polishing that never seems to be done.  I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve gone through it, the number of characters that have been changed or deleted, the honing of the storylines.  It’s been quite a journey.  One of these days I should track down the original first draft, just to see how much it’s changed and how far it’s grown.

The sequel is already mapped out in my mind and I’ve started putting notes to paper.  It’ll be a much faster production than this first book, now that the characters and storylines are solid.  Thanks to Emily Clymer and Dave Lokken for taking on the rough draft, and I’m sorry to have to put you through yet another one!