Michael Crichton

In the midst of the Presidential campaign many people missed an important piece of news. Michael Crichton died battling cancer. I’m not too sure what type of cancer, or exactly what age he was, but this is huge to me in so many ways.

I was part of the generation of children who grew up on JURASSIC PARK, a book Michael Crichton wrote. I remember being so excited to see that movie, and loving every single moment of it. Crichton introduced the world to the Velociraptor, and gave virtually every person a new favorite dinosaur. Sure, Spielberg helped, but the movie wouldn’t have been made without the wildly popular book. In my senior seminar class for my English major I was required to make a list of books I thought were new classics. I put JURASSIC PARK on that list, and I meant it. It’s an amazing book that inspired an amazing movie. I saw JURASSIC PARK so many times, and it inspired me.

There are so many other bestsellers he had, so many other great books with great movies based upon them, and a great TV show he created called ER that has stayed on the air for quite a while, but Jurassic Park sticks out to me the most. That and THE LOST WORLD that followed it mean the most to me. Most forget about THE LOST WORLD because the movie was just okay, but I would not say the same thing for the book. I read that when I was in sixth grade, and loved it. If the movie had been based on the book more I would have loved it just as much. Those stories were amazing for very simple reasons. Everyone loves dinosaurs. Michael Crichton realized that, and really just wrote a book based on “what if dinosaurs were in our world?” What a simple, brilliant concept. It did so well not just because kids loved it, but because everybody loved it.

As a writer I truthfully owe a lot to him. I know I’ve revealed very little about VALDEN’S HEIR, the book I’ve written, but it’s his success with JURASSIC PARK reminds me everyday that it’s a great concept. Dinosaurs play a very large role in VALDEN’S HEIR. Michael Crichton’s success with the JURASSIC PARK series is one of the main things I can point to as a reminder that people love dinosaurs. Books with dinosaurs can be huge. I may not have ever written VALDEN’S HEIR or gotten the original idea that inspired the entire series based in the world of VALDEN’S HEIR without JURASSIC PARK. I would have kept my love of dinosaurs a secret passion, and might never have realized that I could use them quite successfully as a writer. I owe that knowledge largely to Michael Crichton, and if I am ever lucky enough to be published I will not forget that debt.

So, I may not have written the most eloquent eulogy that anyone can. I may not have gone into the finer points of his career, and life. I’m sure others have and will, but that’s not really what I was trying to do. I wanted to be simple because a simple, brilliant concept is the reason I first loved Michael Crichton. He was an amazing writer with a beautiful imagination. His loss is a blow to all of us who desire to take readers on a journey to strange yet familiar places filled with exotic creatures. He will be missed.

Taylor

Synopsisilizing

Well, I took a brief break from the agent research to do something actually related to it. I wrote a synopsis. I did this because a lot of the agents submission requirements listed a desire for one. So I did it.

Now for those of you who know very little about writing a synopsis I'll tell you the most basic rule. The shorter, the better (I'll get into formating in a later post). I tried to keep this in mind when I wrote my first draft on Monday, but my synopsis somehow ended up running 12 pages (double spaced)! This was not good. Unfortunately, I lacked the time to tweak it then, and waited until Tuesday. I did, however, think about what I could do the rest of the day.

It soon became obvious to me that I talked about subplots far too much, and talked about stuff directly related to the main plot way too much. When I went back to edit my synopsis on Tuesday I found that it was impossible. The whole thing needed to be rewritten. So I did so. By hand. Not something I enjoy, but it was necessary. Helped me compress my thoughts. When I finished the synopsis it certainly seemed a lot shorter, for it only took up two pages of paper. Today I typed it into the computer, and found that it was in fact a lot shorter. It was 3 pages! That's 75% shorter! Celebrations abound! Now I am fairly confident in my synopsis, and won't be afraid to show it to a prospective agent.

On another side note, I did a review of my word count for VALDEN'S HEIR. Found that 120,000 words seemed like too much. Using some math expertise (ya, I can do math) I discovered that it is more likely around 115,000 words. A major shift that I believe is a very good thing since most say 120,000 words is the maximum length for a first time fantasy novel. Now that I'm below that I'm feeling pretty good.

Taylor

The agent search, part 2: preliminary research

I just finished doing my first step of the research process on those 56 names I mentioned in the previous post. This step of research is very general. I'm not looking to find out the information I need to know to make the query more personal. Instead, I'm trying to answer two questions that every author should try to know the answer to before querying anyone:

1. Is this a legitimate agent, or someone who might try to rip me off?
2. Would this agent be interested in what I wrote?

Those are the two main questions all should ask themselves. I had some others such as "does this agent accept unsolicited manuscripts?" Here's the end result.

Initial number of agent names: 56
Current number: 35

This number won't fall much more. I'll only remove someone now if I find out some new disturbing fact about them. My next step is to do in depth research on each of these agents so that I can figure out who I want to query first. I think I'll pair them up in two groups of 12, and one group of 11. I'll have to do stuff like make sure I'm not querying two agents in the same agency, and stuff like that. Have to tailor my query letter, synopsis, sample chapters, and other things to each one. Sounds tough, but it really shouldn't take very long. I'll post again when I can update on any of the things related to this whole writing and submitting process.

Taylor

The Agent search, part 1: Getting names

Now that I've finished writing and editing VALDEN'S HEIR, and since I've sent it to a few people I know to read, the search now begins for an agent. I expect this entire process to take around a month (finding names, doing research, writing and editing queries, etc.), which is why I've started already even though I just sent out my book for others to read. I told them to try and finish the book within a month, and if at least a couple of them do I'll have their comments about the same time that I'll be ready to fire off query letters.

Anyway, I just finished the first step in the process. Getting names. The first thing I did in this process was go to the blogs of agents I am already familiar with (will provide links to these one day). I found which ones represent epic fantasy (since VALDEN'S HEIR is just that), and put them at the top of the list. Then I went to Agentquery.com, and searched for agents who represent fantasy. 134 names came up. I wrote down 56.

The most common reason I didn't write down a name was because the agent didn't accept e-mail queries. I prefer to e-mail for free before I have to pay the now more expensive postage to mail anything. Second, I didn't write down names of agents who don't accept unsolicited manuscripts. There were some other reasons beyond that, but those were the two main reasons I didn't write down a name.

The next step in the process is researching the names I have. I need to find out who works at the same agency (it's a rule to only query one agent in an agency at a time), who is an AAR member, who's actually a real agent, if the agent is actually enthusiastic about representing fantasy, and a number of other things. I'll go in depth about this stuff in a future post, but right now I just have names. I'll post again when I've done some research.

Taylor

Finally! a final edit

After much work I have finally finished my final edit of my book. Well, the final edit before I allow others to read it.

Initial page count: 485
Initial word count: aprox. 150,000

Final page count: 413
Final word count: 121,000

Just 1000 words above my goal, but I still managed to cut about 30,000 words, and that is significant. I believe this is worth celebrating. I suppose I can reveal something for the first time. The book's title.

Valden's Heir

Hey! It makes no sense to anyone besides me, right? Well, it will if you read the book, or once I decide to release more information. Sorry, but I'm paranoid about releasing too much information too fast. This is a very original idea, and I want to ensure it is never stolen.

Well, with that said, I've got to tweak a little guide I made for the book (mostly change page numbers), and then I have to decide who I will let read it, and what my parameters are. Don't want them taking a year to read it or anything. Have to make sure they know that.

Taylor

Unexpected edits

Here's another tale of the winding adventures of a writer to tell you about.

I thought I was done editing my book. Seriously. I had it at 475 pages, 140,000 words, and while I thought that was long I really didn't think I could do much to shorten it. I let my wife read it beginning to end, during which time I worked on other projects. A thought kept poking into my head, however. Want to know what it was?

Make it shorter.

I know, crazy. I thought it was already as short as can be, but that thought kept pestering me. Then I read this entry on swivet (a blog by an agent, not an agent blog) followed by this one and I knew that I was right in thinking I needed to shorten it. Suddenly, thoughts of a million major ways to make the book shorter began coming to me. So, after my wife had finished reading, despite having already done the BIG edit, and despite feeling like the book was good as it was, I sat down to the task of making it even better by making it shorter.

I'm happy to say that I succeeded. I've finished this edit I did not expect to do, and now the book is 429 pages and approximately 125,000 words. That is a lot of editing! Keep in mind that the book was almost 500 pages when I first wrote it, so I've cut nearly 20% of my original material. There are also more cuts to come because there were some BIG things I wanted to change, but I couldn't until I saw what changes would need to be made at later points in the book. I hope to have the book below 120,000 words when all is said and done, but I'm not going to force it. Every edit I've made, every sentence I've cut, every scene I've replaced by a shorter one has been in an effort to make the book better, not just shorter.

So this post is me trying to teach by example. The writing process doesn't always end when the writer thinks it does. Sometimes unexpected edits come up, hate it or love it (Fortunately, I love editing). Those edits need to be done. This doesn't mean edit your book forever. Don't get in that vicious cycle. Just don't be afraid to do an extra edit if neccesary.

Chapters that hurt my head

I will give simple advice tonight that I think is very useful. Don't make chapters too long! Readers hate it. I hate it.

Sounds simple, and perhaps even amateur to some, but it's advice that should almost always be followed. I understand the temptation of writing very long chapters because of how scholarly it seems, but long long chapters are just annoying. I don't want to have to read 50 pages or more just to get from chapter 1 to 2. Twenty-Five pages should be a maximum, and I can't say what should be a minimum. I would have said five once upon a time, but the success of writers like Dan Brown with their frequent 1 page chapters shows that a writer can be successful with really short chapters.


Obviously, there are always exceptions to the rule, but there aren't many. Long chapters are usually unnecessary, and always bog down the reader. Many readers that get bogged down don't finish a book. Readers that don't finish a book don't recommend it to others, and that's sometimes how a book ends up in the bargain bin at the dollar store.

Taylor