What can we learn from #10Queries feedback?

Why is hearing takes on other writers’ queries so much less painful than writing our own? Thank dog the editors’ posts from Revise & Resub’s recent #10Queries Twitter competition were anonymous! And though it sometimes seemed as if, for every 10 editors in a room there were 20 answers on how to write a perfect query, some issues in the submitted query letters appeared often enough to generate consensus.  

Issues such as: conflict – whether it’s a fistfight or a galactic war. And stakes – what will be gained or lost by the conflict. Conflict and stakes are the heart of stories, but one editor after another posted comments like: “conflict is unclear. What’s at stake?” Or, “motivation and stakes for the main character need to be upped. What are the personal stakes if they don’t succeed?” Or, “focus on conflict and stakes and what makes them unique.” 

But can’t a writer just narrate to the reader – agent or editor – what happens in the novel? Won’t that cover the issues of conflict and stakes?

Sorry, as any reader of this blog – or attendee at the Dallas-Fort Worth Writers Conference’s  infamous query gong shows knows -- spending significant query real estate on plot still may not make clear why the characters are running around like Energizer bunnies.

Gerd Altmann for Pixabay

#10Queries editors weren’t as brutal as agents at the gong show contest about saying that what they read was sometimes too darn long. Instead, they used more diplomatic language such as “heavy on setup and introducing characters but. . .” And “too many details about the story but at the same time is too vague on the important points.” Or, “feels more like narrative than tight, concise query.” Or the just plain, “simplify.” 

So far, it may sound as if the editors were focused on the what than the who of authors’ queries. Not so. Remember those “personal stakes” mentioned earlier? So, editors also included such comments as, “give us more of (the main characters’) motivation,” and “tell us why they care about the particular event in the query.” Or, “Clear goals but no motive. . . goals are nothing if the character doesn’t have a reason for the goal.”

Editors also wanted to meet the characters who have those goals right away. One gave a “hm” to a writer who didn’t mention the main character until the second paragraph (but recovered with sharp voice and wit). 

And while editors loved characters who “feel so authentic,” they could also say, “make it clearer who the main character is.”

And on the issue of the unlikable character one editor noted, “the woe-is-me character right from the get-go makes him a bit unlikable. . . I want an emotional connection before I can agree that him dying would be a bad idea.”

One editor also posted a “random thought” about two issues that have always bothered me – “the importance of hooks and comp titles.”

Obviously, a hook is something that will immediately catch a reader’s attention, but what does it take to do that? As someone who’s tried starting with action only to receive a “meh” response, I dug further and found this answer (of a sort) at the site Literary Devices: “. . . not all hooks are based in action. They can also present a character, or group of characters with interesting traits, a thematic opening statement, or a mysterious and intriguing setting.”

Beware though – in a query letter, that hook had better be short!

And comp – that is, comparative – titles? Editors at #10Queries could say that a writer’s comps were “amazing!” as well as note that they were “a bit unfamiliar.” 

Probably like most writers, I feel that my stories are unique. What can we possibly find to compare them to? The Reedsy blogs – among other resources – make suggestions, including dos and don’ts for comp titles. 

My personal suggestions are to check our Goodreads followups of the “you finished X, now what” variety, and Amazon’s listing of books also bought by those who read the books we loved to read. And then, to actually look at the suggested books.

I’ll close with the easy stuff from the #10Queries editors, but not so easy that I didn’t have fails in this area. Remember that it’s the writing that counts, not the clothes it wears. Don’t make the query, as one editor noted, “difficult on the eye,” with small fonts and chunks of italics. Don’t forget to include age group, genre, word count and title – the last in all capitals.