Yet another moonwalk

[megwrites]

The queries to the agents have been written, but not sent. They're sitting in the drafts folder of my email. I'm going to take a break for lunch and come back to give them one last looking over before I send them out.

I think moon walking is a pretty apt metaphor for the process of querying, at least for me. Walking on the moon is a big moment. It's glorious, perilous, and strangely tedious. It's also the culmination of a lot of work over many years. From the barest outlines to the training to the revising to the last minute details. And that's just what it takes to get in the damn rocket.

More than that, the moonwalk is not the end of the process, rather it's just the middle. Because the point isn't to get to the moon, the point is to get to the moon and come back alive. So you can't just shoot a monkey into space, you have to retrieve the monkey. And that's the tricky part.

The point isn't just to write a novel and query an agent. The point is to write a novel, query an agent, and get the agent to say "Yes, I love it!" and then to get the agent to get an editor to say, "Do Want! Here have this big pile of cash and a three book deal!" Or something like that.

So this is only half the trip. Here's to not burning up horribly in the atmosphere or skipping off into space never to be heard from again!

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I love the metaphor! It takes the wind out of your sails a bit to realize this is still just one step followed by another hurdle, and another. But you should celebrate each milestone, because each one is still farther than most people make it.

I've been behind on LJ, but I'm catching up, and I'm thrilled that you're getting Tower!Guy back out there. Good luck with this round!

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the metaphor came across all right. And yeah, it does sort of take the gusto out of it, but I try to remember that if at first I don't succeed, I'm runnin' about average. Especially in the writing business. Because it seems like most writers have to do this dance four or five or ten times before they hit paydirt.

And thanks for the good luck wishes. I'm crossing my fingers as well!