Contradictions

After I finished Spectacle, I surfed the net looking for tips on writing the much-needed query letter. I didn't think it was a big deal. I mean, I was a friggin' secretary (executive secretary, executive admin. asst., etc.) for years. I'd written letters to (and for) tons of people in various industries and at varying levels of importance. Writing is a business. Therefore, a query letter should be no more than a standard business letter, right? I searched and searched. I found bunches of sites giving helpful hints on how to write a great query letter, and it didn't take long for me to notice that the hints some people gave were directly opposite to hints others gave. I'm not a big fan of contradictions. To paraphrase my favorite author, in my favorite book: "Contradictions don't exist. Whenever you think you see one, check your premises."

Makes sense to me.

So I checked my premises. Writing is a business. Now this is true, but it's not like any other business. Seems like it would be, but nope. Therefore, a standard business letter isn't the way to go. Agents and publishers want to be wowed; they want to be 'hooked'. Got it.

Another premise I held that needed checking was: these helpful people on the internet know what they are talking about. There's an assumption that is guaranteed to make an ASS out of U and ME. And I knew better. Just because someone posts something on the internet doesn't make it correct, and it sure as hell doesn't make them an expert. I checked and rechecked my facts when I wrote my book; I should've done a better job checking when I was trying to sell my book.

Lesson learned.

In the end, the contradictions I was facing were a combination of my not knowing what I was doing and them not knowing what they were doing. So the lesson learned from all of this is: Acquire as much knowledge as you can before you start and then take the time to check your sources.

It's a lesson applicable to more than just writing when you think about it.