suzyawinwrites

It's exactly what the title of the post says. I withdrew my queries. Meaning I'm no longer querying... for now. It's a little sad to take a pause after months, but honestly? It's probably for the best. It had been a really long time since I sat down, and gave another critical look at my manuscript. I completely understand why agent would reject my queries in the first place.  It was not the query letter it's self. Heck I'm not even sure if the synopsis was the issue. But I'm 100% confident the first pages were what killed me even before I sent out my queries. Exposition. Exposition. Exposition. I was so eager to share my world, I forgot the one important thing the first pages should do. Focus on the main character! Arghh so simple, yet something drowned out by the worldbuilding and backstory. Bogging down and distracting the little actions happening in the scene. But anyways, I can't mope around forever. The manuscript isn't going to edit themselves....

Hey all! This is a new series I've started on YouTube to document my (hopefully successful) journey from first draft to published novel. Check out the the video below and subscribe to my channel if you wish! I have to plans to be more active and grow my channel, so any support helps! Link to video on YouTube

Hey all! It's been a while. Apologies for that! Forgot to update last month, so I figured I'd quickly do a life update before I move on to my brief overview of my current progress into querying! First off, I haven't been as active as I wanted to be for weeks (with very valid reasons too!). In the early stages of querying, I had gotten a rejection within the same day, and thus held a free art giveaway. Unfortunately, while I was in the middle of drawing said piece, I broke my graphics tablet and was without it for a week or so. Of course, I've got a new one and that was that...at least I hoped it was. A week or so later, my computer's PSU exploded on me while I was using it. (for those who know nothing about computers, a PSU is basically the power supply of the computer!). The PSU was just a few months past warranty, but thankfully I was able to afford another PSU to replace my broken one. Unfortunately this delayed a lot of things I wanted to finish before the end o...

So, in case you didn't read my first blog post, I stated that Shining Force I and II were one of the main inspirations behind my fictional universe (which THE STRAY SCALES is set in). I want to delve a little deeper into the universe, and briefly explain how one of my favourite videos games inspired it, and mention various other media that influenced the shape of the universe! So first and foremost. You're probably wondering what the planet in the universe is called. Is it: A ridiculously long fantasy name that no one can pronounce? A frankenstein of words? Some random name I dreamed up that turned out to be something entirely inappropriate in another language? If you guessed the third one, you're wrong. In fact, none of these are correct.  The correct answer is simple. The name is as generic and boring as it sounds.  Tellus. * But wait. Isn't that just Latin for 'Earth'? Yes, it is. It was meant to be temporary but it’s kind of become on purpose. ...

Just a quick little post to annouce I've finally sent out my first batch of queries! I've finally lifted the burden of hoarded query drafts off my shoulders, and I can breathe a sigh of relief before I get back to con prepping and await the responses for my first submissions. I expect rejection (and maybe no replies at all) and dread but that's just what querying is! I'm not new to rejection at all. I can only continue looking up and hope it rains down with an offer haha! That being said, I decided I'd make this a little more fun, and made a little graphic for myself for milestones I end up attaining during the whole journey. Feel free to borrow it or twist it to your own liking!     I'll try to update my querying journey each month or when something interesting happens, so if you're interested, keep an eye on this blog page or sign up to my newsletter through my website ! (Psst...I plan to give free art to one lucky winner from the pool of people who sign u...

Need a way to keep track of all your queries? Like statistics but hate maths? I scoured the internet for other writers' query spreadsheet to download for my own use, as I was too lazy (initially) to make my own. They were great, and had everything you needed, but I noticed quickly on that they were all missing what I hadn't realised I wanted. Automated graphs. You see, I like seeing statistics, and I knew that if I was ever successful in querying, I wanted to be able to share numbers with other aspiring writers. The problem is, I really really hate maths. I was also thinking about the hypothetical situation of being at a point of having 100 queries out. I would lose my mind trying sort out and tally all the query statuses. So, after a few days of setting up the google sheet and scouring the internet for how to make dropdown options work with automated graphs, I was able to set up a query spreadsheet for all my fellow lazy writers who hate maths too! Query Spreadsheet Query...

This is my first official blog post (like ever), and while the former coding student in me would have just let this single blog post be 'hello world', I figured why not introduce myself with ten facts? So, without further ado, here are ten fun facts about me! 1. My favourite food is fried chicken. (favourite dessert would be cheesecake though!) Not really sure why it's become my favourite. Maybe it's affordability? Not too tough to chew? Less likely to have a weird aftertaste? All I know is that there's not a lot of chicken dishes I'd dislike (with the exception of any organ related meat). Friend chicken is my favourite way of eating the meat, although I lean heavily towards Korean fried chicken (preferably Yangnyeom) and occasionally Nashville style hot chicken. 2.  My favourite video games are Shining Force and Shining Force 2 (excluding number 2's ending, which I absolutely detested.) In the days where my household never had internet, my ...