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My friend (and former publisher) Lori Lake calls that hybrid between being a pantser and an outliner a panty-liner. Good joke. It's how I write too. I do have an outline of major points (I use Blake Snyder's Save the Cat outline, but I let the characters dictate how we get there. I'm 2/3rds the way through my next novel right now. And I appreciate your honesty in how it is to attempt such a feat. (And mine is not deep, but still...) Much love to you.

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Panty-liner! I love that so much. It's perfect. Going to have to look up the Blake Snyder thing because, of course, if there's a Save the Cat outline, I am all about it. Is there anything more important than saving the cat?

Trying to think of the novel-writing as like a muscle which has gotten a bit weak from lack of use, but with some practice, will get stronger again. Fingers crossed.

Much love right back at you.

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Thanks Robyn and good luck. Remember if you can do it once you can do it again. Usually : ) Hey don't answer if you don't want to. "I self-published Fair Game in 2023 after a couple years of unsuccessfully querying agents." Were you ever asked for the full ms? Did they ever get back at all? I ask because too many pro's have told me no and no. Something's not quite right.

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Thanks, Richard. Yes, I have written novels, so in theory, I CAN write novels. We'll see.

I was asked for the full or partial ms for FAIR GAME 15 times. More than one agent said they really liked it, but just couldn't imagine who they could sell it to. A more publishing-industry savvy person than me could parse exactly what that means. It was young adult and I know that's it's own market with its own rules.

All I can say is that getting an agent isn't just about how good your book is. It's about all these factors that are very much out of your control.

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Thanks Robyn.

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Mar 14Liked by Robyn Ryle

Wow.

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Update: I am totally astounded by the amount of time I can spend at my computer doing all the things except writing this novel. Like, is there a world record for writing procrastination? My husband asks me what I did this morning and I have no fucking idea, except that I did not write.

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Sounds familiar:-) Eudora Welty said, "Every story teaches me how to write it but not the one that comes after it." Which--after more than forty years of writing novels--is one of the few things I know for sure. Keep at it!

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I love this quote! Of course it comes from Eudora. I went to college in Jackson, Mississippi, and sometimes we would still see here in the grocery store (called Jitney Jungle No. 14) across the street.

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OMG. How cool is that! I saw her read once. She was quite old and sat on the stage with her turquoise pocketbook on her lap. But when she started reading, it was as if she were twenty. "Why I Live at the PO." My favorite. It wasa fabulous.

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That is very cool. I never got to see her read. She was quite old then (this was the 90s). One of my English professors was sort of THE Welty scholar and quite close to her.

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It was, maybe, the late eighties when I saw her.

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