What Not to Do Wednesday | Cathy C. Hall Writes

How many times has this happened to you?

The most brilliant idea ever comes to you and you race to the computer to typity,typity,typity away and when you look up, five hours of your life have passed by? Wow! That’s exhilarating, isn’t it? Until you stand to take a bow and bam! Your back is killing you.

Or maybe your leg has fallen asleep and bam! you hit the floor, your mouth full of carpet and dog hair. The point is, sitting all that time, hunched over at the computer, moving only a few brain cells and fingers, can be detrimental to your health. I was reading a post over at Writer Unboxed last week about Deep Vein Thrombosis and how it could affect those who remain in a sitting postion for long periods of time. If you’re encouraged to walk around on long plane rides, it stands to reason that you should also get up and walk around during long periods of writing.

When the weather turns warm, I don’t have this problem. I’m forced to get up every half hour or so and find my “lizard-bashing” stick (Don’t worry. I don’t kill the lizards. I just give ’em a little bash so Sally dog will quit whining at the window).

But during those long, cold days, I have taken a tumble or two when my leg has fallen alseep after prolonged sitting. And I’ve taken an ibuprofen or two for my back as well. To tell the truth, I’m not as young as I used to be. Those backache spells take longer and longer to heal.

So don’t sit at your computer all day without taking a little break, grasshopper, no matter how scathingly brilliant your writing is going. Get up and put a load of clothes in the washer. Take a shower, for heaven’s sake. Or help me find a bashing stick. ‘Cause Sally dog just found another lizard.

When I was perusing the March Premium Green market guide (more info here) I came across an interview of freelancer Kristin, um, gee, well, I ‘ll check on that later. Anyway, the point is that Kristin had tons of great ideas. And great ideas are pretty darn important if you’re working towards Fame and Fortune in the publishing biz.

Smack dab in the middle of my perusing, it hit me. A classic What Not To Do was staring me in the face. Unfortunately, I was the one guilty of it. To wit: I hadn’t been effectively using the old “hook” in my query letters. Kristin made an excellent point about grabbing an editor’s attention. To wit: “If you haven’t got a lot of clips, you have to come up with an idea that an editor doesn’t dare pass up.” And that idea better be the very first thing in your query letter.

So listen, grasshopper. Don’t blah, blah, blah away in your query letter talking about anything and everything under the sun. Slap that editor with an idea so awesome, he or she won’t know what hit ’em. And you better get right to work on that. Because I’m telling you. Kristin had tons of great ideas.