u/GrabIll8225

If anybody didn't already know, a book that helped me a lot was The Broken Mirror by Katherine Phillips. I read it when I was about 22 years old. And I think it set the foundation for dealing with body dysmorphia. Before then, I truly believed my own thoughts. After reading the book, I realized what the illness was. And though it took years to really get over the disease, having read the book truly made me see that I was not really how I thought of myself. I began to truly heal.

I'd love for someone to look over my query letter. Hopefully it's not what's keeping me from being seen.

Let me know what you all think.

Thanks!

SUBJECT: QUERY: The Dark We Might See (Fiction, 105,000 words)

Hi,

I’m seeking representation for my novel The Dark We Might See, a work of literary fiction with speculative elements, complete at 105,000 words.

Eli has spent years drifting through a hollow career in finance until his childhood friend Damian introduces him to a hidden underground beneath New York City, a space where each visitor encounters the one thing their life has been missing. For Eli, the emptiness lifts. He meets Victoria, a woman who seems to understand him in ways no one ever has, and for the first time in years, his life feels anchored to something real. But the more time Eli spends there, the less stable that reality becomes. 

After months of increasingly hallucinatory experiences underground, Eli is approached by two detectives. Victoria has been murdered. Damian becomes the primary suspect. Eli is certain of only one thing—he has seen the killing. The problem is, he doesn’t know how. The memory feels real, but it doesn’t feel like his. Eli is forced to confront a possibility he can’t resolve: either the underground is distorting his sense of reality, or it has shown him what he is capable of. To understand what happened, he must determine whether what he experienced was imagined, or real.

As a native New Yorker, I worked for a decade in finance, which informs the novel’s backdrop. I have lived in Colombia, Germany, and Spain, the experience of which has shaped characters in the story. This is my first novel.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

Leo

Hey guys,

I'd love to get some feedback on the first 1,000 words of my novel. A work of speculative fiction, Eli and his closest friend Damian work hollow careers in finance when Damian introduces him to an underground speakeasy that gives anyone who visits access to other people's dreams, allowing them to fill in the parts of their lives that are missing.

Let me know what you guys think. I'm actively querying agents now.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e-NobsroaNlW1WYJyEBLdGkaEC6X76OK/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102558054964655598264&rtpof=true&sd=true

Basically the title. I quit January 2025 after smoking for 4 years, a pack a day. A month ago I stupidly had one cigarette with a drink. Since then I've been smoking.

I frequent a coffee shop where I work remotely. There are people here that smoke and I've been buying cigarettes from them here and there. It's amounted to 2 a day, sometimes 3. I'm still not buying packs. But I see where this is going and I'm worried I can't stop now.

I need to tell someone who knows the struggle. So here I am.

Body dysmorphia hit me hard at 14. I can almost remember exactly when it started. I would not allow myself to be seen. I missed birthdays, parties, days at the beach or the pool. Summer brought anxiety because I knew I would need to show parts of my body I hated showing. It was impossible for me to be intimate with a woman. When I was, I could not be comfortable being touched.

This lasted until my mid twenties, and it never fully went away. Eventually it got better, closer to 30 years old. Now it's practically non-existent. But over a decade of my life spent hating myself and my body and restricting intimacy and love. All because of this perceived defect.

And now it just did its damage and left me to pick up the pieces. So much life I could have lived, but was unable to.

It's a horrible thing. You're not alone, like me. I was there, too. And remember what it is. You're not "defected" in any way. And you need to remember that. You're capable of being loved, and there is someone out there who will love you. You should let them in, even slowly, little by little, as much as you are comfortable doing so.

Just don't do what I did. Don't totally shelter from the world because of it. Let people love you. Let them help you. That's all I wanted to say in this post.

Love you all.

I'd love for someone to look over my query letter. Hopefully it's not what's keeping me from being seen.

Let me know what you all think.

Thanks!

SUBJECT: QUERY: The Dark We Might See (Fiction, 105,000 words)

Hi,

I’m seeking representation for my novel The Dark We Might See, a work of literary fiction with speculative elements, complete at 105,000 words.

Eli has spent years drifting through a hollow career in finance until his childhood friend Damian introduces him to a hidden underground beneath New York City, a space where each visitor encounters the one thing their life has been missing. For Eli, the emptiness lifts. He meets Victoria, a woman who seems to understand him in ways no one ever has, and for the first time in years, his life feels anchored to something real. But the more time Eli spends there, the less stable that reality becomes. 

After months of increasingly hallucinatory experiences underground, Eli is approached by two detectives. Victoria has been murdered. Damian becomes the primary suspect. Eli is certain of only one thing—he has seen the killing. The problem is, he doesn’t know how. The memory feels real, but it doesn’t feel like his. Eli is forced to confront a possibility he can’t resolve: either the underground is distorting his sense of reality, or it has shown him what he is capable of. To understand what happened, he must determine whether what he experienced was imagined, or real.

As a native New Yorker, I worked for a decade in finance, which informs the novel’s backdrop. I have lived in Colombia, Germany, and Spain, the experience of which has shaped characters in the story. This is my first novel.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

Leo