A couple of months ahead of my plan, I wrote my first query letter tonight. My friend Lin told me after work today about the Pitch Wars submission window this week (read more here) and we both decided, what the hell, we have complete manuscripts (though both of ours are still in the beta process), let’s go for it.
In order to “go for it” I need to have a query letter and synopsis (along with the first chapter) ready to go by the end of the week. I’ve never written a query letter before but Lin talked me through it, then I read a bunch of articles, then I wrote one, and called Lin again in a desperate plea for help.
I actually think I did okay for a first pass (after a lot of validation from my friends, bless)– I’m going to revise later this week with fresh eyes (and I still have the synopsis to do), but all my writing energy tonight has been wasted on this first query draft so I thought I’d share it here:
Jack Porter tries not to think about it. Not about the home he left behind. Not about how his resurfaced father, and new guardian, is treating him more like an untrained housepet than a son. Not about the Worst Day that sent him to the middle of nowhere Texas in the first place. Jack took a duffle bag full of donated clothes, a few old magazines, his cat (named Cat), and turned his back on the rest.
As Jack starts his freshman year at Crescent Lot High, not thinking about it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. Everything he wants to forget shows up in his nightmares anyway or gets bullied to the surface by Luke Cruz — the loud, omnipresent football star who can’t seem to leave Jack alone. Jack’s not sure he wants him too. He tries not to think about that either.
Despite his best efforts, Jack gets pulled into a steady routine in this new life — full of photography and pizza parlors and late-night runs. Moving to Texas always felt temporary, but there might be a real future for him here. If only his past would leave him alone.
I TOOK THE CAT WITH ME is a queer young adult story about what we do to survive and how we wake up again. It is complete at 80,000 words.
If you were an agent, would you request a full manuscript?
With Love,
Natalie
Cool! Good luck!❤️