Insecure About Queries? #IWSG

Welcome, Insecure Writers! If you haven't yet joined this wonderful group--created by Alex J. Cavanaugh--jump over here and fix that!

Are you feeling insecure about writing a query? Me too!

Two of my books were released last year, and when I go back and read the queries, I'm so proud that I wrote them. The query for The Boy Who Loved Fire helped me sign with an agent. It's perfect for that book.

As I entered the "new query" stage for another project, I was frozen. I couldn't snatch the words floating in my head and put them in a logical sequence that captured an entire story--even though I'd drafted a query pitch before I wrote the book. Was I losing my skills? Had I taken a step back?

No. It felt this way before I wrote the query for The Boy Who Loved Fire, and before I wrote the query for The Summer of Crossing Lines.

The trick for me is to do the following:
Research "how to write a query," to remind me what works and what doesn't.Dive in.Diving in can be the hardest. But once the crappy words are written, they can be deleted, replaced, and shaped. We can't do that with a blank page. So my crappy words are written, and I'm in the pruning stage. I'll get it right--with time and hard work.
If you're insecure about the query, like me, here are some links that may help: Writing a Query Letter, by Elana Johnson; articles about writing a query by Janice Hardy; and How to Write a Query Letter over at AgentQuery.com.
How about you, fellow writers? Do you struggle with writing queries? Have you nailed it? Any tips you can share with the rest of us?