Taking my time researching Twilight, Entering into a contest at the Knight Agency

Hi, you guys. I know it's been awhile since I've written a real blog. I've just been so busy and my head has been filled with so many ideas that I haven't had time to write much of anything. Anyways, I've been taking notes and reaserching Twilight lately and even though it's taking a little longer than expected (I'm halfway done with it, it's just that the book is sooooo long!) I'm still writing journal entries on what I've noticed every time I read three chapters at a time (I would read three chapters then take notes on what I noticed). But I have to admit that my research of what Stephanie Meyers is doing in the middle portion of Twilight is kind of boring.

I kept talking about the scenery and dialogue for the last two (or three) journal entries since I've read it until I can't talk about it anymore so I'm deciding to change it up by talking about her techiniques she used in the chapters into writing excercises I could do in order to improve my writing of The Electric eel Bandit (Which I'm thinking about changing it to 'Bandit' since the first title seem to scare some literary agents away). I'm also thinking about posting some of my journal entries on my blog so that people can get a better idea of what I'm talking about when it comes to what I observed in twilight and share it with everyone else too.

In other news, I've been reading some newsletters from my inbox and there was one newsletter that caught my attention this week from the knight agency (You can find it on their website here under the newsletter section of the website). It was an article from Lucienne Driver titled 'beginnings' and offered great advice on how to start your novel in a way to make your readers go 'hmmmm'(I especially like the part about using dialogue to get your readers attention). This article gave me several ideas on how to rewrite the beginning of the 'bandit'. I liked this article so much that I decided to print it out and keep it into my writer profile to use in the future. (Although I have to admit that I need to put all of my writing articles in order but I'll talk about that later). In addition to that, I also read a good article on what they are thankful for this holiday season as well as what they want to see when looking at manuscripts. You should really check it out.

Finally, There is a contest on their blog on submitting a manuscript for consideration here by none other than Deidre Knight. I think it's a good idea for anyone who might be interested. I'm thinking about sending one in myself ('Addicted') just to see where it takes me. I should get started on it right now since I'll probably be exhausted by the time I'm finished with it.

Until we meet again

Dominique

Letting my writing lead to whereever it takes me, still doing twilight

Hello, long time no writing. I have to get better at this. I'm still trying to figure out ways to make my blog sound less boring so I can search for some people to read my blog. I'm not being too serious on a project right now because my head is filled with crazy ideas in many different genres so I'm going to let my ideas take me to wherever it wants to go. I'm going to try and get better at this but again, no guarantees.

Dominique

Made up my mind (again), Changing it back to YA and going into screenplays

Hi, everyone. I’m so happy to be back. I have to admit that I was sick for awhile but now, I’ve come back and I’m hoping that I could come up with some new ideas about how to get people to read my blog. One of my ideas that I read from a website is to read and review books and that’s what I’m going to start doing. I’m already reviewing TWILIGHT but like I said before, I don’t want to use some of the quotes in her book if it’s in violation of her book rights. So far, I have journal entries (Two) that deals with what she’s doing in terms of pacing, plotting, dialogue, POV etc. and I think it would make a good journal entry but again, I don’t want to violate her rights. Anyways, I’m still reading and researching TWILIGHT and I’m about to reread another book called GOT FANGS by Katie Maxwell that I bought a long time ago so I could take notes on it.

In other news, I’m sticking to my original plan (after much thought and consideration and my latest rejection letter in the romance department) to finish up my manuscript of THE ELECTRIC EEL BANDIT. I have to admit that it’s going really well and I’m starting to like this version better than my second draft. There will be a few changes with it however and one of them being that the manuscript will be strictly between two-hundred and three-hundred pages PERIOD. No if, and or buts about it. After this rewrite, if the agents still doesn’t show any interest in my work, I might have to send it to some small presses (Milkweed editions, Flux etc…) and see if they like my work more than the agents do. Oh well, I can’t be here for too long. I have to get back to work.

Dominique

P.S. I have also decided that an addition to being a YA/Children’s author, I’m thinking about writing a few screenplays as well and becoming a screenwriter. I have wanted to do this for awhile but tried to ignore what I’ve been feeling in my heart all along. Now, the only thing I have to do is act on it. I’ll have more about this later on down the line. For now, I have to get back to writing.

Changing my YA into category romance... Sent off submission to contest

Hi everybody

I'm not going to be long, I have work to do. I recently sent off a partial to a contest that mills and boon sponsored back in July for Medical submissions and I went for it. They received my submission and said they were going to give me a response by the end of August. I'm also thinking about rewriting my YA novel (again) into a paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne. I think it may have a better fit for them since the literary agents keep rejecting my idea. More information soon!

Sincerely,
Dominique Gibson

An observation on query letters

Hi, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve written. I’ve been busy with a lot of things lately, the latest being that I’ve been sending query letters out to literary agents with no such luck. At first, I was upset about this but after reading my query over again, I’m starting to see why they have rejected me (It’s been six times so far but I’m still not giving up). Here’s a sample of my query letter that I sent to one of my agents.

Dear Agent:

I don’t know about you but I think that the vampire/werewolf genre is a little overdone in the publishing world. When people say the word ‘Shapeshifter’, They automatically think about the one animal that’s been grazing the publishing world for years: Werewolves. Today, I’m hoping to put a brand new spin on it with my 115,000-word YA paranormal titled The Electric eel Bandit.

Bradford Mayfield is a shape shifter on a mission: To find out who killed his parents five years ago. When Bradford goes to a homeless shelter to search for the truth, he runs into all sorts of problems along the way including meeting another shape shifter who’s only intent is to kill everyone she gets her hands on, fighting bad guys across the globe without anyone getting suspicious about who he really is and falling in love with a girl who could cause him to die all over again.

This story has all the action, romance, and suspense that a YA paranormal should have, not to mention that there aren’t any werewolves or vampires coming along to save the day. Brief bio: This is my first novel. I have a B.A. in Fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago.The manuscript is ready to submit at your request. Thank you for your time and consideration on reading my query and sample chapters of my novel. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
Dominique

What I did wrong:

First of all, I didn’t give them a hook or something that could connect me to that agent on why I’m contacting them in the first paragraph (i.e. why did I contact him? What made him think he was the best person to represent me?). I gave out this huge speech about how my manuscript is different from every other book that’s out there in the universe! Yikes! Back to the drawing board again.

Secondly, The manuscript is too long. I managed to look up the word count on my calculator by 250 words per page for courier (I still don’t know how to add the word count in Times New Roman, sorry guys) and I found out that it was 116,000 words (464 pages to be exact) which is WAY TOO LONG for a YA novel!!! Luckily, I have cut it down since then and it’s now 107,000 words (428 pages) and I’m still trying to find ways to cut it down to at least 90,000 (360 pages) if I can.

The Second paragraph is where things tend to get a little tricky. I think it could have been better if I had summed up the entire story in three sentences. I should have given this agent more information on why he’s searching to find the person he suspects killed him and his parents (His stepfather Vernon Stevenson). I think I should have summed it up the second part about the obstacles that he faces along the way in one sentence and then tell them about the ending (As much as I would love to give you an example of this, my mind has to require total concentration for this to occur. Who knows? I may post it later).
The third paragraph is the worst. I should have made the fourth paragraph my third paragraph and be done with it altogether. Why did I have to be such a show off about everything? Why couldn’t I have researched query letters before I wrote one? Sigh. You live and you learn.

Luckily, I’m researching query letters as I speak and starting all over again. This time, I’m going to study it and incorporate what I see into my own writing. I better get started on it now. See ya soon.

Dominique

Forget doing a blog every week, still reading and writing

Hi,

In the future, I have decided to do my blog every month until further notice. I just have way too much stuff to do at this time in order to keep up with it. I'm still doing 'Addicted', I'm starting on the third rewrite of 'The electric eel bandit', and I'm reading two books: All the pretty gilrs by J.T. Ellison and Eclipse By Stephanie Meyer. I know, I know I'm doing too many things at once but I can't stop myself. After I'm finished with both of these novels, I'm taking a break.

Dominique

Sent Off Query letters to agents...

Hi,

I know, it's almost the end of May and I should be a lot better at this whole blog thing but to tell you the truth, I've been busy. Not only am I still working on my novel, I just sent out some query letters and sample pages to three literary agents for review. I'm hoping that one of them will like my work enough to at least consider representation. Nothing else to brag here except I still have to type up the notes from Twilight and post it on here on this blog for next week. In the meantime, I have a lot of catching up to do...

See ya.

One busy girl...

Hello,

Sorry for the two week delay. Promise I’ll get better next time. The next blog entry I’m going to submit will probably be the notes that I took from the paperback edition of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and how I can incorporate what she’s doing in her book that I should be doing in mine’s. For now, I’m still reading the first three chapters of Twilight, Still trying to catch up on J.T. Ellison’s All the Pretty Girls, still working on ‘Addicted’ and trying to work on my first book ‘The electric eel Bandit’. Well, considering the way the economy is going, at least I’m keeping myself busy…

Sincerely,
Dominique

Addicted, All the pretty girls, and Columbia college

Hello,

I have a lot on my mind today. I’ve been preoccupied with my new book and today, I took a leap of faith and decided to print out the first two chapters (with notes attached) of the second draft to the first book of the Truson S.E.T. series The electric eel bandit. This should have been done weeks ago but since I was so busy with trying to find a job and writing everyday with my new project, I got a little distracted. There is a lot more I need to do in order to keep my writing afloat including reading!!! I should devote more time to reading as well as writing but sometimes it’s really hard to do that when your writing everyday and getting caught up within the story but I’m going to try and do better.

As a matter of fact, I’m reading a book right now called ‘All the pretty girls’ by J.T. Ellison. It’s about a cop name Taylor Jackson who is in search of a serial killer known as the southern strangler. So far, this guy is a sick dude because after he kills his victims, he cuts off their hands and keeps them as souvenirs (The victims are all college co-eds who seems to be doing something with their lives until they were killed). I think I’m on chapter eleven and I really like it. Who knows? Maybe it’s time for me to take a break from writing for a week, start reading books and taking notes like I used to do in my Critical Reading and Writing Classes at Columbia College.

At Columbia, we always read a couple of pages a week and then write about what elements the author was using to make the story come alive when it comes to pace, setting, theme, tone, dialogue etc. Maybe that’s what I need to start doing in order to get a better grip on my story. Maybe that’s what I need to start blogging about for awhile instead of bragging about me working on my new book all the time (it is pretty boring). I think I might do that for awhile (but I’m probably not going to do it everyday considering I need time to write.

Anyways, enough bragging. I have to get back to work if I want to get this writing thing done. See ya.

Still working on my book, nothing exciting

I wish I could give you better news then I'm still working on my book 'Addicted' but I can't. The truth is I haven't been working on this blog because I have been working so hard on my book. On top of everything else, I'm thinking about sending a query letter, synopsis, and the first five to ten pages (Depending on the agency)of the electric eel bandit to literary agents across the U.S. Lately, I have been procasinating about sending it outfor fear of what they might say about it but I know that if the rejection comes my way, I'll be able to handle it. Bust day ahead. Gotta go!

Sincerely,
Dominique Gibson

Back on Track with my goals on what I want to do

Hello,

I'm officially back on track with my manuscript 'Addicted' after a temporary setback. I have so many ideas on what I want to do with my writing that I'm going in many different directions. But I'm sticking to the story I have now and there's no turning back. I'm up to the part where my characters are in the junior part of high school and how everything's about to change because of it (including the relationship with Barnard and Yvonne - two of the main characters in the novel). Anyways, gotta go. Don't know when I'll be back writing this blog again because I need to focus more on my writing and less on blogging. See Ya.

Dominique