Author: Morgan Hazelwood

Morgan Hazelwood (she/her) is a fantasy novelist who blogs and vlogs writing tips and writerly musings. She likes taking pictures of the sky, reading a good book, and ambiverting from her living room. She's also a voice for the fairy-tale audio drama: Anansi Storytime and its sister podcast: Legendsmith. She's been known to procrasti-clean her whole house and alphabetize other people's bookshelves.

#26 Query Corner: ‘WHEN DREAMS COLLIDE’

Welcome to:

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Morgan’s Query Corner:

Fresh Eyes For Your Query Quandaries

WHEN DREAMS COLLIDE is an adult contemporary romance with hints of magical realism.

Awakened from a coma, Josh Michaels learns his beloved wife was a dream. Meanwhile, Maggie Forsett dreams of a better life–and her dream lover. When they’re drawn together in real life, can reality ever match a dream?

Overall Impression:

WHEN DREAMS COLLIDE sounds like a sweet romance with some of the genre’s favorite tropes — comas, dreams, meant-to-be.

Some agents like a tagline first, so I’m going to leave that in here. Good job showing both character’s points-of-view and showing what they want.

A couple of things to think about:

  • Give details – keeping things vague show how you’re like all the other romances, details show how you’re different
  • Try to tell each character’s paragraph in their voice, but keep it in the 3rd person present tense

The 4 Components Necessary To Bring A Scene To Life

When writing, we all strive to bring our scenes to life, but it’s easy to forget a component.

One can have the most involved and choreographed scene, full of action and danger, but it won’t leave the readers on the edge of their seats if it’s missing the other 3 components.

One can have the most intricately described setting, that the audience can fully envision, down to the taste of the stew, but if it’s missing a component, the audience won’t care.

https://youtu.be/lW4hMqsUsrM

So. What ARE the components necessary to bring a scene to life?

One Method For Incorporating Feedback In Your Writing

If you’re a writer, at some point between you putting the words down and it going out to its intended audience, you’re probably going to solicit some feedback (and if you don’t, you probably should).

Be it from one or all of these:

  • an alpha reader
  • a flock of beta readers
  • a writing group
  • a critique partner
  • a paid editor
  • an agent
  • an acquiring Editor for a publishing house
  • or your mom

you’re likely going to receive some feedback other than, “I loved it! Don’t change a thing!” (Unless your mother is very different from mine)

But, when that feedback is more nebulous or overarching than typos and wording, it can be tricky to know where to start.

https://youtu.be/pmRmXKkqyPU

Here are the 6 steps I follow when receiving reader feedback

3 Techniques to Fix Your Pacing

There’s a writing skill that many novelists struggle with.

It’s something that read-a-chapter-a-month critique groups often miss.

Pacing.

We all know that you need to start off with an inciting incident — at least by the end of the first chapter. But after there, it can get a bit fuzzy.

3 Techniques To Help Your Pacing