Rules Are Only Guidelines In My Book

Following rules. Everyone is supposed to do it. It keeps things organized and flowing in the same direction. Rules keep everything standardized and people in line. But someone has to enforce the rules and with that comes power. The power to condemn or praise, to send someone to the head of the line or stick them in the way back where the sun don't shine. Granted there is a place for rules in the world. Most people actually like rules. Makes them feel secure. Makes them blend into the crowd and go unnoticed. That's cool. I can appreciate that, but hiding in the shadows will never allow you to reach your full potential. Not unlike a seedling trying to grow. Oh, it might grow a bit, but not like the one who gets put out in the full sunlight, fully exposed to the world.

That's how I felt the other week. I broke the rules and got caught by one of those who had power over me. I got pulled over for failing to use my turn signal. Good grief. The policeman had it all wrong. No one, and I mean no one, in my world of Idaho uses their turn signal. I'm always looking now, trying to illustrate the injustice of it all. Anyway, all that aside, there I was, singled out because I broke the rules. I was noticed. I was in the spotlight for the time it took for him to write me up.

So I got to thinking about all of this following the rules thing. After months of writing query letters, getting rejections, studying successful letters, rewriting my query, getting a lot of no responses from the powers that be, I realized I was in a crowd of a bunch of nobodies (nobodies only because we haven't yet been discovered) that are being lead through the whole road to publishing process. Do this and you'll get this and if you don't follow the rules of the query process exactly, you go to the back of the line, deep in the shadows (that's where most of us go, because it is said that once you get the big "R" from an agent, you aren't supposed to query them again on the same project). So how do you stand out? Simple. Break the rules. Do something with your novel or letter that is going to get you noticed. Don't embarrass yourself by any means, but do the unexpected. I'm still plodding along the traditional route, but starting now to think of ways to deviate from the crowd. Do the renegade thing. I believe in my writing and I will shine. I'll keep you posted on the outcome...

In the meantime, my young adult novel is shaping up really well. I'll share some of that when it gels a little more...