Author: Torg

Writing Teacher at App State, Head Women's Basketball Coach at Watauga HS in Boone NC and podcaster at Torg Stories

How Do I Find Time to Write?

“The dawntime is precious; the world is quiet.  No one will interrupt you; you are rested and ready.”  –William Stafford

When I’m asked how I find time to write, I begin my answer by talking about my wife.  Because I try to write everyday, at least a page, that means that she spends at least the first three hours of everyday by herself taking care of our two kids while I’m holed up in the basement talking to myself and zipping away on the keys.  If I were a father with no wife, I am sure I would write much less.  I’ve heard of writers who practically resented their families because of the time it stole from their writing, but I write much more a married man with children than I ever did single.  There was too much time spent late-night in bars, too many sleepy and lazy mornings.  I work best when I am working off the foundation that my family provides.  I work best when I know that if I don’t write first thing in the morning, I probably won’t write.

When I first decided that I wanted to write, I re-arranged my life so that I could do it.  I taught at Vance High School in Charlotte where classes began at 7:15 in the morning.  I quit that job and began teaching at Weddingtion Middle School where school started at 8:30 and I knew the janitor got there at 6:00 to open the doors.  That gave me at least two good hours of work before my day actually began.  Back then I thought 5:30 an ungodly hour to get up, but I wanted to write more than I wanted to sleep.  Now I get up at 4:45 three days a week when I am teaching.  I’ve decided that I like to write more than I like to play golf, more than I like to watch sitcoms or see the New York Knicks play seventy of their games.  I’ve read that those who read on the web like bulletted lists.  Here’s my list, in order of importance, of how I think I’m able to write:

  • I have my wife’s blessing to do it first thing
  • I get up early
  • I try to write everyday
  • I know that work leads to more work.  What feels like work today is a little closer to fun the next.

Note:

My novel, Love on the Big Screen, is forthcoming with Cherokee McGhee press in January of 2011.  If you’re on Facebook, I’d appreciate it if you’d become a fan of the press and send me a message hello.

Comment on Potential Covers

Vote for your favorite cover for LOVE ON THE BIG SCREEN.

My novel, Love on the Big Screen, is forthcoming from Cherokee McGhee Press in January of 2011.  Right now, the press has posted three drafts for potential covers.  If you’re interested in voting for the one you like best and leaving feedback on them all, follow these instructions:

  • If you’re on Facebook, become a fan of Cherokee McGhee Publishing.
  • You can reach that link here:  http://bit.ly/c04cmM
  • Click on the “photo” tab at the top of the page.  You’ll see a window there for my book, Love on the Big Screen.  If you click on that, three covers will come up.
  • Click on each cover and leave comments on what you think.  Don’t feel like you have to be all positive.  I know I would love some blunt criticism, and I think my publisher would too. Hope you are well!
  • Love to have you as a facebook “friend” too if you’re willing.

Literary Agent Queries

How do I query a literary agent?

I’m writing you not as someone who has an agent, but as someone who worked as a reader for an agency, has queried a lot of agents and received requests for full manuscripts, and as someone who now has a forthcoming novel with an independent press.

What’s my background?  After I earned an MFA in creative writing from Georgia College and State University, I got a job teaching in the Institute For Writing Studies at St. John’s University.  The summer before I began my job, I contacted Folio Literary Management in Manhattan and inquired about being a reader for them.  This meant that I attended a weekly editorial meeting where I was given manuscripts to read and the next week I’d let the agent who ran the meeting know if I saw anything I thought they might be looking for.  After a summer of doing that, I developed my own strategy for sending queries.

I look for agents on the Publishers Marketplace website.  I limit my search to pages that have been updated in the past ten days.  To me, this means I’m only querying agents who have recently said they are accepting queries.  I read about the agent to see if they represent anything “like” I have written.  The agents receive many queries a day, and so I know I only have a couple of words, if that, to get them interested. I have the title of my book and my last name as the subject line.  I have a 2-3 sentence hook.  For example, for the novel I have forthcoming with Cherokee McGhee Press, I said that Love on the Big Screen is set in 1990 and tells the story of a college freshman whose understanding of love has been shaped by late-eighties romantic comedies.  Then I give a little bit about me:  my degrees, my current job, and my short list of publications.  After that, I copy the first two pages into the text of the email.  I don’t send attachments.  All this makes me think very hard about my title, the two-sentence pitch, and the first couple of pages. I think it’s good for me to think about those things a lot even before I first begin to write.

If there are any specific instructions, not too elaborate, I follow those.  In general, that just means that an agent might want a synopsis or a different length of sample.  Sometimes I hear back from agents the same day.  They want the full manuscript or they’re not interested.  Other times, sometimes six months later, I’d get a short note that the agent isn’t interested.

Keep in mind, this is only my perspective.  Agents get a lot of emails from writers wanting them to represent their work.  This means that you only have a few words, if that many, to get their attention.  You should try to find out a little bit about the agent