Skip to main content

No Matter How Bad You Have It...

...There's always someone in worse circumstances.



Which I found peculiarly inspiring.

I just found out that one of my contest compatriots is also cutting words to make her manuscript fit the requirements.  Only she is cutting it down from 33k words.

Wow.

I thought that cutting from 24k was bad.

But, hey, if she can cut 13k words from her story, I certainly can stop whining about cutting 4k from mine.

Link arms with me.  We can do this.

P.S. Also, please join me in a round of applause for my compatriot.  Because she is amazing.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Skye HoffertNovember 29, 2017 at 8:12 AM

    Here I'm complaining about having 2,000 words left to write.
    We all can do it. Also, cool Jack Reacher.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Esther Brooksmith (wisdomcreates)November 30, 2017 at 4:39 AM

      Yes, you can. So excited for your story in all its Glory! And if you stay below the word limit, you can go straight to editing and skip the struggle I currently find myself in.

      And, of course Jack Reacher! I finally got to see the second movie last week, and I liked it like the first.

      Delete
    2. Skye HoffertNovember 30, 2017 at 9:28 AM

      Thanks, I hope it meets your expectations. That's what I'm hoping. I can't imagine, I wish you didn't have to cut anything.

      I love those movies, the second one was so good, loved seeing him kinda be a Dad.

      Delete
  2. Helena GeorgeNovember 29, 2017 at 8:50 AM

    *claps madly* I could never cut anything out of my stories...the pain y'all must be feeling!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Esther Brooksmith (wisdomcreates)November 30, 2017 at 4:40 AM

      Thank you, Julian! I'm pretty sure I'm bleeding from the story amputations, and I hope it has enough limbs left to hobble through the judging process!

      Delete

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....
18 comments
Read more

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. ...
7 comments
Read more

Rooglewood Countdown: 12 days

     For the next 12 1/2 days, as we do our final countdown until March 31st, I'm going to do 4 posts asking about something you would like to see in the Snow White collection.      There are so many ways all of us, writers and readers alike, can win in this contest.  Maybe a familiar name makes it into the final five -- hurray!  Maybe a story in your favorite genre ended up in the collection this year -- woohoo!  Maybe you finally get to read a winning story about an evil king and his Snow White son -- how awesome!      So, in celebration of all the many things we can root for, I want to know some of the things that you think would be cool to find in this year's set of winners.      Without further ado, here is my question for the day: What is a point of view you would like to see in this collection?  Would you like a story written from the prince's perspective?  A story from Snow White's p...
9 comments
Read more