The very nice literary agent over at Pub Rants discusses a curious event wherein she judges a writing contest and likes an entry so much that she asks the writer for a full manuscript:

Ultimately, she had to tell me that she had submitted chapters to the contest for a manuscript she had not finished. A little tip: You never want to put the brakes on an agent's excitement.

Which is certainly interesting and somewhat inspiring advice for the writers out there, although it's sort of intimidating for those of us who don't have full manuscripts behind every good idea or sample we have. We certainly don't want to piss off any agents, but, well, as the agent puts it, often "life gets in the way."

Food for thought for when you interact with agents, old or new, in any capacity. I'm curious to hear readers' thoughts on how to avoid this sort of awkwardness, if possible at all.