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If you've got a novel ready or almost ready to query, check out the Query Challenge below in Writning Challenges. Even if you've already started querying, trust me, you can always improve your query letter. Posts: 4633 | Registered: Dec 2008
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So is anyone else participating? So far there are only three entries. Do people usually wait right up until the deadline?
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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I put up an entry a couple of days ago. It is my very first attempt at a query, so please feel free to give some construction criticism Posts: 1043 | Registered: Jul 2010
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This is my first try at a query too. Thank you Meredith, for setting this up and setting such a good example.
Posts: 1993 | Registered: Jul 2009
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Yes, Deadlines are good, they get the juices flowing. I am planning on doing it. I have 2 I am working on now. 1 for a novel done, and another for one in the works. While I might not be at the end of the deadline, I do want to put my best foot forward so, I figure I am still about a week off.
Posts: 1168 | Registered: Mar 2008
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I was thinking about doing one. I will be needing one in three to six months depending on finding a First reader and all that and how many times I go over the novel. And I will possibly be needing two more not too long after that, depending on other issues I have to decide on.
I did two queries around four years ago, I could use as examples but I would still need to take time off from my writing. Which is the bigger issue. It's one of those challenges that I want to do and don't want to do. As I said I will be needing to do it sometime during '11, doing it now would get it out of the way.
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Okay I'll do it. Looking at the deadlines again I would have seven days to do the query. Depending on how picky and/or indecisive I get it may take that long.
How many people have said yes? If I counted right there are now 7 queries posted.
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It's almost time to start critiquing the queries. Well, actually, you have almost a week still to get your queries in under the deadline.
I was envisioning the critiques either in the same thread or opening a new thread for the critiques and the voting. After all, critiques on 250 (or so) words are bound to be pretty short and it's the same sort of reply you'd get if you posted the query in F & F.
Does anyone have another preference? What say you?
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We normally vote at the bottom of the entries thread.
I've been meaning to ask if one person can submit multiple entries. I had a lot of fun trying to boil my book down to 200 words and would love to try it again for my other book.
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Usually, for a challenge where the material is as short as this, I'd expect to put the critiques and later the votes in the same thread. That's what I was expecting and probably should have made clear at the outset. Of course, if we're going to do that, we shouldn't start posting critiques until after the deadline for entering the challenge, just to keep anybody's query from getting lost in the middle.
For challenges on longer content (short stories, synopses), where the content has to be collected and then e-mailed back out to the participants, it's common to e-mail the critiques and votes back to the person who started the challenge. Then that person posts the critiques, usually in bunches so the source is more or less anonymous.
Alternatively, I could start a new thread just for the critiques, keeping the entries and the critiques/votes separated. If we do that, I can open the critique thread at any time.
I'd rather use options one or three. Either way, I think the critiques of all the queries should be public. Often, you can learn almost as much from the critiques of someone else's work as you can from the critiques you recieve or do yourself. We all want to get the most we possibly can from this challenge.
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Personally, I like the way we've done the critiques with the 13 line challenges.
1. Good opening, weak adjectives, I would read on. 2. Great! Made me laugh.
Etc etc.
I would definitely not recommend opening a new thread now as that could sway opinion. I want to vote for the winner based only on my own feelings, not others.
Just got caught up with this thread. I ended up sending my first crit via E-mail and it would seem that, unless I'm missing something somewhere which could be, one or two others must have received crits via E-mail since they have already posted a revised query.
So when the deadline comes should I post that crit on this thread or the one with the queries?
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I don't want anyone who was planning to enter the challenge to be discouraged by the fact that critiques are already being posted. If you were planning to enter, the deadline is still the 21st. Go ahead and post your query and I will try to make sure that everyone remembers to critique it.
Posts: 4633 | Registered: Dec 2008
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