Tag: writing a nonfiction proposal

DONE!

I. FINISHED. THE. PROPOSAL.

I am so excited! I finished my proposal for Missing and Mentally Ill in Mississippi last week in time for my mentor, Ellen Ann, to look at it and pronounce it good. I worked so hard to finish the last sample chapter. I need to get to work on the second chapter because some of the agents I want to send to require X number of first pages or chapters. So that will be tomorrow night’s writing sprint.

I sent it and a query letter to two agents this past Friday–I want to sell it on proposal so I am not investing my whole life into it only for no one to pick it up. So that is the plan right now.

I also plan to finish my light rewrite of Hurricane Baby this month as well. I know one big change I’m going to make to one of the upcoming stories in the list–I need to lose a scene that was in the original document but sadly has to go in this iteration from Tommy Hebert’s storyline. I hate it but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

I feel so accomplished just making the major attempts I am making. Doing things I’ve never done before. Keeping on pushing myself to grow and learn and practice. We will see what happens!

Keep writing. Keep going. Keep dreaming. Keep on keeping on. You can do it!

Moving Right Along

I drafted a first chapter of Missing and Mentally Ill in Mississippi in my writing sprints this week, about 9,000 words. It needs maybe a few stats to fill it out, but I finally worked out the arrangement of the scenes and what order I wanted everything in. I had to figure out what I wanted to accomplish, which was introducing major characters and drawing parallels between us, then summing up what I wanted to do in the book. So I feel good about it.

Now I need another sample chapter and an introduction to my proposal. Then I’ll continue to draft more sections and see if I can get an agent on proposal only. I am selling it as true crime, so we will see how that stacks up with what agents are looking for.

My writing friend is really keeping me accountable. She reminds me it’s a writing day and that we start at 6:30 p.m. and write for an hour. Other times I remind her. But we check in at the beginning, then give a word count and what part of the story we wrote after we’re done. So it’s nice to know someone wants to hear about your writing when you finish.

Onward and upward!

Progress!

So far I have typed 3000 words on my current work-in-progress. I’ve done the writing sprints with my MFA buddy Shannon and am making progress past my initial fear about taking such a project on. When I start I just think, “It’s only for an hour.” And I just write!

The more I write the more excited I get and the more daunting it gets, but I’m not letting myself think it’s a book; I’m treating each chapter like a newspaper article. That’s helping, too.

I can’t wait to get back to it Monday night!