Misadventures and Chaos | Writing Prompt
The Jumpoff: Issue #8
Welcome! A cute lil springboard for writers, The Jumpoff will be serving up bi-weekly creative prompts to get you out of your head and onto the page.
To “jump off” means “to set off quickly, usually with success; a point of departure.” And that’s what we’re doing here, folks—we’re dolling out exercises to jolt your brain, jog your memory, spur inspiration, stimulate that genius wit of yours, cue the masterpiece!
Whether you’re writing fiction, poetry, nonfiction…what even is genre anyway? Who cares! The Jumpoff doesn’t, and you shouldn’t either…so whatever the prompt is giving, feel free to take and interpret on your own terms. Jump in…the water’s fine!
PROMPT
I recently rewatched Trains, Planes, and Automobiles, as one does over the holiday season. It truly is a quintessential tale of an unlikely friendship in the most unfortunate of circumstances—a comedic misadventure across the country that has remained a heartfelt holiday classic.
Write about a holiday misadventure or a misadventure in general. Write a scene confined to a plane, a train, an automobile, aor mode of transportation that was planned or made happen on the fly. Write into the chaos!
It's hard to find an agent who's the right fit. But querying agents can be easy--once you understand the makings of a strong and successful query letter.
Drafting a query letter can be intimidating, and for some of us, it might be the first time we condense our book project into less than 500 words (hint: much less). Not to mention, there's a lot of conflicting information out there on the best tone to use in your letter, how to choose comp titles, exactly how many paragraphs constitute a "succinct" summary, and the list goes on.
In Query Letter Bootcamp with Haley Swanson, you'll take a close look at a few different types of query letters--nonfiction proposals, memoirs, novels, and short story collections--before breaking them down into digestible (and replicable) sections.
Leave with confidence in your project summary, in your author bio and in your ability to quickly pull together a query for any agent!