Heath Sommer's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"
The Protagonist
So it seems to me that people, maybe all of us don’t really get what a protagonist is. The protagonists that I meet in fiction, contemporary or classic are usually, for instance, one-dimensional, bland, predictable. We don’t think of the protagonist as someone who is also a villain. Some stories, such as the hero of Shmayalan’s Unbreakable, have supposed flaws and weaknesses, but really not so. It is clear from beginning to end that the hero will emerge, that the audience will fall in love with the dedication of the hero, and that some form of resolution will occur.
For me, that is not how protagonists really function. For me, protagonists are also villains—people with mean, deep prejudices. People who cheat the government in taxes while spanking their kids for being dishonest. Who argue for purity while subtly evading it.
I don’t know, for me that is more interesting in storytelling and in life. To have a relatable, meaningfully genuine protagonist rather than the president of the boy scout association. But then again I’ve always been about the real. The tangibly intangible. The knowing the limitations of our own selves, and not using such axioms as an escape but also not over expecting our own repertoire.
For me, that is not how protagonists really function. For me, protagonists are also villains—people with mean, deep prejudices. People who cheat the government in taxes while spanking their kids for being dishonest. Who argue for purity while subtly evading it.
I don’t know, for me that is more interesting in storytelling and in life. To have a relatable, meaningfully genuine protagonist rather than the president of the boy scout association. But then again I’ve always been about the real. The tangibly intangible. The knowing the limitations of our own selves, and not using such axioms as an escape but also not over expecting our own repertoire.
Two more cents on query letters
Certainly the only thing more disturbing than knowing one has to write a query letter for literary representation is the notion that one is going to have to accept countless opinions of its merit. There is something almost helpless about the suffocating feelings that arise as email after email and letter upon letter are returned with the range of responses, to include “excellent, yet not publishable,” to “crap, crap, crap, crap …” To this end from one familiar-with-harsh-replies author to another I post a few bullets regarding query letter “yeahs” and “nays” derived from my own historical successes and failures.
1.Axiomatically, the letter must be polished, polished, polished (and polished, polished, polished). After one harried night on the town I sent a few queries out only to notice afterward (yes, infer my post-mailing proofreading neuroticism here) that a last minute insertion contained a subtle syntax error. Wouldn’t you know that once I fixed the letter I had a twenty percent positive response, but zero of the batch I sent with the error replied with interest.
2.Include an intriguing statistic (or parameter for those of you who are mathematically esoteric and if one exists). Statistics are easy to acquire and always relevant to any provocative pitch. A rich, accessible, and valid source available at almost any library of repute is the United States Statistical Abstract.
3.Personalization really is key. I know there are mass query letter services that champion volume over fit, but I have found much better success when sending a personal letter to a specific agent over the flood-and-await strategy.
4.Further, it really does matter that the agent of interest specializes or at least posts interest in the literary domain in which you are writing.
5.Pay better attention to the class of literary fiction you are representing, but don’t try to sell an incorrect typology to an expert who knows you’re full of bull. Even if you already wrote the book, diagnose it correctly after ample research on the subject. For example, is it better to describe it as literary fiction or American literary fiction, and what is the difference?
6.Finally, maybe this reflects my own cognitive deficits more than anything of substance, but always send a query letter first even if the submissions page doesn’t explicitly state this. I got some bad advice from a dear seasoned author who indicated that in his early days he’d just send a few chapters with all his queries. Well, frankly, gone are the days of the unencumbered literary office (if they ever existed). To restate the point, if the site is vague about whether a query should precede a submission, QUERY, QUERY, QUERY first.
Now this is obviously one of endless tidbits on querying, but it is the kind of point-by-point I wished I understood better from the get go. Would’ve saved a lot of time wasted deleting rejections …
1.Axiomatically, the letter must be polished, polished, polished (and polished, polished, polished). After one harried night on the town I sent a few queries out only to notice afterward (yes, infer my post-mailing proofreading neuroticism here) that a last minute insertion contained a subtle syntax error. Wouldn’t you know that once I fixed the letter I had a twenty percent positive response, but zero of the batch I sent with the error replied with interest.
2.Include an intriguing statistic (or parameter for those of you who are mathematically esoteric and if one exists). Statistics are easy to acquire and always relevant to any provocative pitch. A rich, accessible, and valid source available at almost any library of repute is the United States Statistical Abstract.
3.Personalization really is key. I know there are mass query letter services that champion volume over fit, but I have found much better success when sending a personal letter to a specific agent over the flood-and-await strategy.
4.Further, it really does matter that the agent of interest specializes or at least posts interest in the literary domain in which you are writing.
5.Pay better attention to the class of literary fiction you are representing, but don’t try to sell an incorrect typology to an expert who knows you’re full of bull. Even if you already wrote the book, diagnose it correctly after ample research on the subject. For example, is it better to describe it as literary fiction or American literary fiction, and what is the difference?
6.Finally, maybe this reflects my own cognitive deficits more than anything of substance, but always send a query letter first even if the submissions page doesn’t explicitly state this. I got some bad advice from a dear seasoned author who indicated that in his early days he’d just send a few chapters with all his queries. Well, frankly, gone are the days of the unencumbered literary office (if they ever existed). To restate the point, if the site is vague about whether a query should precede a submission, QUERY, QUERY, QUERY first.
Now this is obviously one of endless tidbits on querying, but it is the kind of point-by-point I wished I understood better from the get go. Would’ve saved a lot of time wasted deleting rejections …
