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Okay, I know that rejection is no laughing matter.  But if you’re an active writer (i.e., you have finished a manuscript, article, something else that’s ready to submit), then you’ve probably experienced your fair share.  Think of all the opportunities for rejection that lurk out there between literary agents and book and magazine editors.

Sometimes you’ve just got to have a chance to laugh about it, though.  Remember, J.K. Rowling was rejected by an editor, too.  And isn’t he sorry he turned her down? 

When I stumbled across a funny post about rejection and an even funnier web site, I had to share.  The website is http://rejectioncollection.com/  and it touts itself as: “The writer’s and artist’s online source for misery, commiseration, and inspiration.”  Chances are, you’ll see many versions of your own form letter rejection here.

I also came across a great blog entry on the agent blog “The Rejecter.”  The anonymous literary agent assistant on the blog states that authors will find fault with any rejection they receive.  That’s probably true.  Here’s a sampling of the agent’s possible rejection language and the author’s possible response to it:

Rejection: “Thanks, not for me.”
Author: “What, she couldn’t take the time to write more than one line?”

Remember that everyone goes through rejection.  If the letters are personal enough to give you writing or revision tips, take the advice. And just keep on trying.

A while back I referenced “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” as a great tool for mystery writers to use when working on their manuscript.  It is a great tool and offers advice like “the reader should have the same opportunity as the detective to solve the crime,” and “the villain has to be someone who plays a prominent part of the story” (no sudden introductions of the killer at the end of the book).   The list of rules reminds us that the killer shouldn’t be a professional crook, or a servant (none of “the butler did it.”)  

One of my favorite parts of the mystery writing rules states:

20) All of the following tricks and devices are verboten. They’ve been done to death or are otherwise unfair.

a) Comparing a cigarette butt with the suspect’s cigarette.
b) Using a séance to frighten the culprit into revealing himself.
c) Using phony fingerprints.
d) Using a dummy figure to establish a false alibi.
e) Learning that the culprit was familiar because the dog didn’t bark.
f) Having “the twin” do it.
g) Using knock-out drops.
h) If the murder is in a locked room, it has to be done before the police have actually broken in.
i) Using a word-association test for guilt.
j) Having the solution in a coded message that takes the detective until the end of book to figure out.

Good reminders.

As great as it is, though,  this list of rules was compiled in 1936 by author S.S. Van Dine and includes some possibly outdated advice, too….like “the detective should not have a love interest.”  I don’t see a lot of problem with the detective having a romantic interest (poor guy or gal has to have some fun in the book.) 

A different version of a mystery writing rules list can be found here.  It’s an About.com article on modern mystery rules.  It does repeat some of the items on the earlier list, but also adds things like: “The culprit must be capable of committing the crime,” and “wait as long as possible to reveal the culprit.” Their reminder to make sure to research your details is also a good one. 

Okay, here’s the situation. I’ve just come back from a fun, but busy, weekend out of town. I returned to a bunch of laundry, suitcases to unpack, school forms to sign and return, a child with a nasty cold, a Monday morning doctor checkup…oh, and I pulled my neck somehow when unloading the car. Sigh. BUT–amazingly enough I was able to scrape together a page of my manuscript yesterday.

The reason yesterday’s writing was easy was because I already knew what I was going to write. I was actually in the middle of the denouement scene (no, I’m not done with the book. But I knew how I wanted it to end.). Because I knew where I was picking up and what was going to happen in the scene (I could see the action happening in my head), it made it much easier to write. I had a roadmap for writing that day.

Here’s one way I’ve found to easily hop into your writing with no delay on a day where you might not have time to figure out which scene you need to work on.

First of all, I have a folder in “My Documents” labeled with my book’s name. Inside that folder, I have many different saved documents. You can plan ahead the scenes you’ll need to write in the future. With a genre mystery (cozy, police procedural, etc), this is pretty easy. You know you need a scene where the first body is discovered. You know you need a scene where each of the 4 or 5 suspects is interviewed about their opportunity and possible motive (that’s 4 or 5 separate scenes right there). You know you need to plant clues and red herrings. You know you may need a scene where a second body is discovered. Possibly a scene where your protagonist is in danger and a scene where the killer is apprehended. You see what I mean.

I’ve already named and explored the character of each of my five suspects. So one day I created five separate Word documents. Each one had the name of my sleuth (Myrtle) and “interviews ________(suspect’s name).”

On a day where you just need to jump right into your manuscript and write it, having your book divided into its components makes it easy. You can even print out the document if you’re on the go and take it with you to scribble on while you’re out. You can write at the top of the page some notes for yourself on what you want to accomplish with the scene (“have suspect lie about their alibi” or “have suspect implicate another character”, etc.)

Later you can assemble your book into one manuscript by copy/pasting it in to approximately the right place. Once you print it and read it through, it’s easy to add scene transitions, segues, etc.

There was an interesting post at the Editorial Ass blog recently that you can read here:

Editorial Ass: how does a stay-at-home mom go about creating a platform?

Want to build a name for yourself (especially online) and make yourself and your manuscript more interesting to potential agents and editors? Moonrat explains how to go about getting some serious writing credibility, especially if you’re new to the game. 

Some of her recommendations: blog, submit stories to your local newspaper (then the state newspaper), write for online magazines (webzines), then to national magazines, become an expert on a subject and write about it.

There are lots of good ideas there.  And it sure beats “I’ve always loved reading and am so excited to have finally written my first book” on your query letter.

I love Agatha Christie stories for lots of reasons:  the familiar sleuths (Miss Marple , Tommy and Tuppence, Hercule Poirot), I love the coziness of the locations (the small village, the large country house), and…I love the chapter where Agatha Christie spent several paragraphs introducing each suspect.

The characters were all conveniently located in one place.  If you forgot who someone was, you could easily flip back and reference it. In many of Christie’s books, she even thoughtfully provided a cast of characters with the name and a brief explanation of their role in the novel. 

With too many books these days, I lose track of characters.  I’ve even gotten close to the end of a book, read a character name and gone “Who the heck is that?!”.  Either the author created too many people for me to keep up with, the characters’ names sound too much alike, or…let’s be honest…I’ve been interrupted so many times when reading that I can’t remember who’s who. 

I can’t help but think there are other readers like me out there–scatterbrained folks who love a good read but don’t want to keep up with too many names.  Maybe they’re moms or other busy people who just want to keep it simple.  I can usually read just 20 minutes at a time before I’m running up to take laundry out of the dryer, dashing out the door for a carpool, falling asleep after a long day, or hearing “the doctor will see you now.”

I’m making a conscious effort to limit the number of murder suspects for my books.  Five is really a good number–not so many that you lose track of them, but not so few that you don’t have any sense of surprise when the killer is revealed.