Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Writing Exercise


Blogless_Troll's comment on the Time article linked to in the post titled "A New Publishing Model" (a few posts below) inspires this exercise. How would an agent feel about receiving an e-query in which there were several links to semi-relevant web sites?

Step 1. Use this random number generator to get one integer between 1 and 593.

Step 2. Search the blog for the Face-Lift with that number.

Step 3. Choose one of the five fake plots, (Don't change the title.), and write a query letter for that book.

Step 4. Insert two or three links that barely have some tangential relevance to the query. They can be real, working links, or fake ones you make up. No real links to porn sites, your own (or your friend's) web site or blog, or sites that are more entertaining than this blog.

Deadline: Sunday, 10 AM eastern. 250 words max (no address, closing, date etc. need be included).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do we count the URLs as a word?

And do you realize that Blogger only truncates the link, it doesn't show a target word. So that will mess up the formatting.

Evil Editor said...

The urls count as one word. If it's a real link, just send the url, I'll convert it to a link.

none said...

Nice one BT!

ril said...

No real links to porn sites, your own (or your friend's)...

Damn. And I spent so much time building it...

Robin B. said...

Well, of course it will depend upon which Face-Lift I end up with, but how about a link to something that's all about you?
Would that be all right?

This will be fun!

PJD said...

No real links to porn sites, your own (or your friend's) web site or blog, or sites that are more entertaining than this blog.

What if I have a link that is all three?

Xiexie said...

I love these exercises -- though I find it a lot easier to do for something that's not yours. As for the forbidden links.............meh, I'll behave.