You know what is difficult? Querying an agency that asks you to include “a favorite sentence from the manuscript you are submitting” in your submissions package. That is difficult.
What kind of sentence does one choose? I looked back over The Dogwatchers to pick one.
A pretty description? Hmm, I bet lots of people choose bits of description. Plus, I’m not sure I want my ONE SENTENCE TO RULE THEM ALL to be one in which nothing actually happens.
A funny line? Risky. If they don’t think this is funny, it’s a total flop. Plus, it’s hard to find one sentence that’s funny out of context.
My action scenes use mostly short, to-the-point sentences, no one of which is a show-stopper, and many of which make no sense out of context. Dialogue, probably my favorite part of my writing, can be hard to convey well with just one sentence. Besides, the most eloquent characters of The Dogwatchers don’t necessarily talk about things that make for a good One Sentence. (The sentence I ended up choosing does, however, come from dialogue.)
It occurred to me that if the submission guidelines asked for a paragraph, I’d be stumped because I had too many I’d like to send, rather than for the opposite reason. I’m sure the agents do take into account that lots of great lines require setup, but this was still highly unnerving.
What about you guys? Does anyone feel like it WOULDN’T be terrifying to pull out one sentence from a novel and say, essentially, “In my opinion, there isn’t a better line in here than this”?
In other news, I finished making my Halloween costume!
I’m a werewolf! I’m going to be a werewolf of London, but this is just me with the ears and tail that I made. I have a complete outfit, but it’s waiting for Sunday.
Aaand, thanks to the the backgrounds available in Photo Booth, I’m an American werewolf in Paris! Rowr!
Just wait until I get the whole outfit together and wear it to work. That’s what you get for scheduling me for Halloween, Carrboro Branch Library!