Aug
6

Judging

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So a few weeks ago, I got suckered asked to help judge a few contest entries for a popular online writing group. In truth, I owed the requester a favor, so I signed on. I’ve entered quite a few contests myself (and waiting on a bunch…hello? Judges? Hurry up!), but this is the first time I’ve been on the other side of the wall. And now I see why it’s such a subjective thing. If I’m stressed out, or tired, or someone cut me off in traffic, then it’s quite possible I’m not giving the writer my full attention. It doesn’t seem fair, but there it is. (And I suspect this probably is the case with agents and editors as well. Given the sheer numbers in their slush piles, an entry had damn well sparkle if it’s going to go anywhere.) Still. The score sheets kind of bug me. We… Read more
Aug
3

Query Letter Hell

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One thing that I seem to have discovered about the pubbing process is that there are very few straight answers to anything. Everyone has their own opinion, and they can vary pretty widely. Take Query letters, for example. Most people agree that as long as you do this, you’re already heads above people who don’t: 1) Use complete sentences 2) Address the agent/editor correctly 3) Follow submission guidelines And I believe that is true. I’ve been trolling a lot of agent blogs in the last few months and most of them say the same sort of thing. The idea here, of course, is to make things easier on the agent. The more difficult your letter is to read, the greater chance it’s just going to be rejected outright. The thinking being that if the author can’t even bother to follow directions for a simple query letter, what are the chances… Read more
Jul
27

Submissions

Posted in craft, submissions, tor, writing | Leave a comment
Well, finally, I managed to get my crap together and get that submission package sent to Tor. I don’t know why it took me as long as I did – for a little while I got stuck in that cycle of “it’s just not *good* enough”. And I edited and edited and edited and edited some more. And the truth of the matter is that no matter how much editing I did, I still felt like it was never going to get there. Probably just an excuse on my part. Fear of rejection sucks, though it’s probably something I’m going to have to get used to. Finally, I just decided that it was as good as it was going to get, for the moment, and I bit the bullet and sent it out. Of course, I sent it last night and got the return receipt this morning. So now I’m… Read more
Jun
19

Drafting

Posted in craft, editing, writing | 1 Comment
Well, after working until 1:30 every night this past week, I’ve finally finished the editing. Or at least the second run through of it. Plugged in plot holes. Got rid of plot points that either never went anywhere or didn’t make much sense. (Damn my panster-self!). Is there more to do? Oh yes, but less than there was. Kind of freaks me out, honestly. I printed it out at work today and I have to say it’s a bit overwhelming to think I managed to write nearly 400 pages in a year. Less than that, actually, if I’m really honest with myself. Even though I started the process about this time last year, I didn’t become *serious* about it until the fall. I had about 28,000 words by then, but I was still half-assing it. Come January, I instituted my 1000-word-a-day policy and stuck to it. By the end of… Read more
May
21

It’s Thursday! Yay?

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Ok, so the end of another crazy ass week approaches. Except for the pita that work has been with this migration it’s been pretty good. Well, that and my rejections, but I’ve stopped worrying about that. Printed out my reject emails and posted them on the wall at work. Inspiration at its best, I suppose. Chapter 1 has been reworked again. It’s shorter and mostly rearranged as opposed to rewritten. Some of the backstory has been removed, but I’ve reworked a lot of it back into the story elsewhere. Seriously, Chapter 1 has been the bane of my existence. The funniest thing? I’m right back where I started. Last year when I first started writing it – I had a few paragraphs of Abby and the *bam*, the incubus walks in the door. And then I made the mistake of showing people and I got a lot of – we… Read more