Daisy Whitney's Blog, page 22

Write yourself into a corner? Hah. Write yourself out of it!

Ever wondered what it's like to write yourself into a corner? Neither have I! Because it's technically impossible. You can always write yourself out of it. Here's my video on that topic…

Slush Rules!

The Wall Street Journal ran a story on January 15 suggesting that the era of unknown writers being plucked from obscurity is over. Called "The Death of the Slush Pile," the story points out that when Random House pulled Mary Cahill from the slush pile in 1991 it was the last time the publisher published a work from its slew of unsolicited manuscripts. The writer adds that authors such as Philip Roth, Anne Frank and Judith Guest were all discovered from slush. But now, the slush pile is a...

Are you naughty or nice?

My darling, wonderful, fantabulous writer friend Suzanne Young's first novel releases in just a few days – February 4 to be exact. And in honor of her book The Naughty List I'll be wearing The Naughty List tee-shirts in my videos and on This Week in Media for the next month. Don't worry – I'll mix it up! After all, I bought The Naughty List tees in pink, white, lavender and yellow! Aren't they yummy???


make custom gifts at Zazzle

Why All Writers Should Go to Local Author Events

The first author event I attended was in July 2006 shortly after Emily Giffin, one of my most favorite authors, released her third novel "Baby Proof." She was (and still is) witty and kind. She didn't read from her book but instead took questions from the audience. I was only four chapters into writing my first novel, but slung a few questions at the pro. She asked right away if I was a writer and I said, "I'm writing a novel." And then during the signing, she asked me more questions about...

A woman needs a chair of her own to write fiction, preferably without an ass dent in it

Virginia Woolf famously said in a "Room of One's Own" that "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

I think the part she left out is "and preferably a couch or chair that doesn't have an ass dent in it."

Because let me tell you, ass dents in furniture can wear you down after a while. (And the couches too, but that's a whole other story.)

Anyway, I don't have a room of my own. My office is the former formal dining room in my house since – big surprise – I...

Longhand in a Shortshot

Note: One of my regular blog readers is the lovely and talented A. Grey, who mentioned in a comment recently that she wrote in longhand. That turned my brain into all sorts of bizarre shapes as I tried to imagine writing anything longer than a Post-It note by hand. I wrote back immediately and asked her for a guest post on all the secrets, hows and whys of writing the draft of a novel long longhand!

By A. Grey

When Daisy asked me if I'd be interested in writing a guest blog post on writing...

I got my book contract!!! And I didn't sign it in the bathroom…

A very happy moment for a writer!!!

What TO DO when querying a novel

To finish my series on dos and don'ts of querying, here are some tips on what worked when I was querying in 2008 for my current agent. In this case, I had learned from my slapdash experience with my first novel.

So for my third novel (the one that landed me current agent, but not the book we sold first), I actually did something pretty crazy for a writer. Ready?

I finished the first draft it in March 2008. Then I worked with a freelance editor to refine it. By May 2008 it was ready. So rather t...

What NOT to do when querying a novel

As promised yesterday, here's what not to do when querying a novel.

I speak from experience since I did all these things three years ago when querying my first novel (note: this novel never sold).

Don't change from third-person point of view to first-person point of view in one week while
Don't email back agents who have the third-person point of view version and ask if they'd like to see the first-person
Don't mail the manuscript to an agent and then two days later frantically...

Yeah, so polishing a book before you query might be a good thing…

Here's a bit of advice for the agent-seeking writers who read my blog. Be sure to polish, spit shine, and then refine your manuscript again before you query.

Sounds obvious, right? I mean who wouldn't do that?

Um, me.

Yes, little ole me. (This is another post where you can have a good laugh at my expense!)

When I queried my first novel, it was, to say the least, a mess. It was hardly done, barely edited and needed massive revisions. Amazingly, I still found an agent though it took about 100...