Skip to main content

An Update

Hello, friends!

     I thought I would pop in to give you a quick update.  I hope you don't mind.

     First of all, Broken Clouds is back in full swing.  This story is a bit of a learning curve for me, full of new things that I haven't tried before.  And I've added yet another new thing: I am now writing it with two POV characters.  So far, so good.  I am now on Chapter 19, more or less, but some of my chapters are really short and may need to be fleshed out later.  Also, I sent the first 5 chapters to a reader to get her initial reactions and received positive feedback.  So I am happy with the way things are coming -- at least for a first draft.

     In reading lately, I devoured Jill Williamson's Safe Lands trilogy.  It had pros and cons to it, but I did learn some useful things for writing.  And her multiple POVs gave me the courage to write with two POVs in Broken Clouds.

     It is only 5 weeks and a day until the Rooglewood Contest winners are announced.  It's hard to not think of things you wish you had done better before submitting your story.  I have purposefully not read my story since I submitted it because I didn't want to fret over new "errors" I found nor did I want to continue editing until my copy looked vastly different from the copy that the judges were reading.  But the story still lives in my head, and I occasionally think of something I could have done differently.

     I read several posts on http://ahalfbakedplot.blogspot.com/ today. She's taking a break from posting now, but she had several posts in her archives that I found quite helpful.  Her instructionals usually leave me teeming with excitement and inspiration.  I also caught up on posts by K.M. Weiland at http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/ which were equally fascinating.

     That's pretty much it, as far as writing goes, except that I am living a full life.  One day, parts of it will end up in book form.  :)  How are you doing in your reading and writing?

Comments

  1. I just saw that Rooglewood Press is now announcing the winners on February 1st!! I follow them on Facebook, plus I have a friend who entered the contest so I've been keeping on eye on it. =) Oh, I love the blog "Helping Writers Become Authors" too! It sounds like you're having a good reading and writing month so far! I've been working on a novel about Hans and Sophie Scholl, resistance leaders in Nazi Germany. Also, my friend and I are writing a story together which we're alternating on our blogs. As far as reading, I'm currently enjoying, "Unbroken". =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What?!?!?!?
    Oh, wow, Emily! Thanks for telling me! I had no idea that they moved the date to February 1st. That's only 3 days away now!!!
    Yes, I like KM Weiland's blog. :)
    Your resistance leaders sound amazing. I love those types of stories and am inspired by their courage. I have been watching your research posts as you are working on the Scholls.
    I have been reading your Ain't We Got Fun stories. They are quite engaging. I love the way that you and your friend are doing them together -- that's absolute genius.
    Thanks for commenting!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye and God Be With You

It's rather fitting that some things come to a close on this day -- the last day of the year. I submitted my last entry into the Rooglewood contest this morning.  I can hardly believe it took me until the day of the deadline to send it in because I'm usually earlier than that.  And, even with the extra time I took, I still felt a little bit like maybe I could have done better if I had more time. But there was no feeling of regret when I hit "send."  Mostly it was just a prayer that Rooglewood would hear the heart of the message when they read it and that maybe, if I win, they could help me bring the full potential out of my little story.  And there was also a feeling, after working on these stories for more than six months, that it felt good to close that chapter and move on to the next one. I did it.  I wrote them.  And I'm really proud of them. Last year, the act of hitting "send" on my contest entry catapulted me into an anticipatory state....

The Countdown: Eight Days

Eight days.  Do you know what that means?  Barely over a week.  Tomorrow will be one week from the announcement date. Are you excited? I am. So, today, I want to talk to those who wrote something for the contest, whether or not you entered it in the end. What made you start writing your story?  What was the first inkling of an idea that tickled your brain?  What was it that you liked about your premise?  As you wrote, did you have a favorite character or a favorite scene?  And are you glad you wrote it down?  Do you feel like you learned and grew in your ability as a writer as you tried out things for this contest? And, if your story isn't included in this year's Rooglewood anthology (either because you didn't submit it or because it didn't fit with the other four stories selected), what will you do with it?  Will you market it elsewhere?  Or will you lock it away in a drawer?

Wherein I Still Have My Nose and Ears

     I decided to take the plunge.  I was going to chop a plot thread out of AAM so the story would fit in the contest word length restrictions.  I saved my old version and set up a copy for me to modify.      Stories are like woven cloth.  Each plot thread is woven into the entire story.  So if I decide to cut a character or a side-theme, I have to go through the whole book, chopping out the references to it.  This leaves gaping holes and sometimes it looks like the whole story is going to unravel.  Everywhere I chop, I have to readjust the whole scene to keep the flow.  It's a rather ticklish procedure.      Over the dinner table, I mentioned that I was chopping a sub-plot.  My younger sister protested loudly (she hasn't read it, but I previously told her the general idea).  Then my mom (who also hasn't read it) offered to read it and tell me what she thought could and couldn't be chopped. ...