My critique partners have been really busy lately racking up accomplishments. Today, want to give a shout out Carmen Steele for having her flash fiction piece, Kindred Chronicles: The Blood Prophecy, published over at Wicked Jungles. {click link to read it}
Congrats lady, keep it up.
I had to borrow from Eric B. and Rakim to properly set the tone for this post. I’ve been past swamped the past month or so, and I’ve not updated my blog here, or at my personal blog since then. I’m not upset with myself though, mainly because I made a promise to myself to properly balance all of my writing related activities with those of my personal and professional lives.
But that said, I really want to update my blog at least once a week. So I’ve decided to commit to updating my blog more often. While I don’t think have much going on right now that’s really exciting, I have a couple ideas I want to run with. Namely, doing a series of editorials and some craft related articles. I’ve not nailed anything down 100%, but I will continue to brainstorm on it.
I do have a bit of news (not good or bad) to share. I was asked to re-submit my submission package to an editor that requested it at the Moonlight & Magnolias conference I attended in 2009. The good news is that I’ve made some major changes in the heroine’s GMC. While this means quite a significant amount of revisions to the 40,000+ words I’ve already written, I believe the story flows better and I know longer feel like I am trapped with a plot element I just don’t like and connect with.
Anywho, I sent the editor my submission package (which consists of a totally rewritten first 3 chapters). I’m nervous about her reaction/decision, but I feel MUCH better about the content I sent.
Okay, off to produce some words, I’m out–but it will not be as long in between my posts again. 
I reached another milestone in my journey towards publication. Yesterday, late afternoon-ish, in the midst of a very trying day, I received my very first rejection letter.
And oddly enough, it made me feel better. Yes, I have been accused of being strange (in fact I was told to my face quite emphatically this very thing yesterday by a friend ), but it my mood actually improved after I read it.
Yes, I’m disappointed that the very first agent I pitched to, and sent my very first submission packet to, didn’t connect with my writing as I’d hoped. But this is more than a simple “Thanks, but no thanks”, it’s badge of courage, as well as part of the progress. Several of my writing buddies were very supportive of me in accomplishing this milestone and have the courage to “put myself out there” as they put it.
Rejections are par the course for writers. Success in the publishing game is all relative. You can be hot today and not two weeks from now. Many authors, after selling one, or several, books find themselves in a position where they’re having a tough time selling their new book(s).
So cheers to me on my very first, and probably not last , rejection letter and to me accomplishing one of my writing goals for this year. Woohoo! So in the spirit of true perseverance, I will carry on with my wip, polish it up til it shines, and shop it around again. Who knows, I still have one more submission package out there so there’s hope I may get a request for a full.
After a couple of weeks of preparation where I completely reevaluated by contemporary romance. Once I thought about what it was I wanted to do and the general direction I wanted to take, I tucked in and: redefined my characters (I had a lot to learn about them apparently), reshaped their GMC’s, drafted out a timeline, then worked on my W Plot.
Once I got these 4 things done, I had the foundation I needed to do my synopsis. The synopsis took a lot of work, even though I told myself to keep it high level and to concentrate on just moving the story from beginning to middle to end. So 4 hours and 7 pages later I had the complete synopsis in my hand. (And yes, it took me 2 hrs longer than I’d planned to finish it).
So today, I woke up with a plan. A plan to get through at least the prologue and first chapter of the new & improved draft. Silly me, I went into this little challenge thinking this would be a breeze since I already had (in theory) the prologue through chapters 7 already done (from the previous draft). Let me tell you, small changes to an outline can have a huge impact to the actual chapters. So about 6 hrs later (probably more, but I refuse to acknowledge that I have now been sitting on my butt in one spot for over 6 hrs), I have my new prologue and chapter 1 down in the books.
CHA-CHING!!
I had to do a fair amount of deleting (painful), re-writing & tweaking of old words (time consuming) and addition (which was flowed much better than I’d thought). I produced 4.895 words today, a personal best for me; yet one I don’t think I will ever try to do again.
Congrats to one of my writing buddies and critique partners, Mynfel, for selling her book today.
And not only did she sell her book, but she got a 3 book deal in the process. So big shout out to Mynfel, you go girl.
You may or may not know, but I have been actively working on my first contemporary romance novel. I spent some time getting my characters and plot together, then I hit the ground running. I ran into a few snags here and there, but I pushed through it because that’s what writers do. Then I got to the halfway mark and felt I was pushed into a corner. Things were not moving along fast enough for me, I wasn’t feeling a particular element of the plot and I was far more interested in working on a new project I’ve been brainstorming. Not a good sign.
So last week while chatting with my CP, I told her of an earlier version on my story and something clicked. I turned away from an idea in favor of what I thought was a better plot point. Now, 12 months later, I’m going back to my original idea because apparently that new idea was NOT the way to go.
So I’ve started over by rethinking the plot and doing some indepth character development. I must say, I am really feeling a better energy surrounding this project now so I am beginning Worth Fighting For anew. My goal is to complete my first draft within the next 4 to 5 weeks. I know I can do it, I have fresh energy & motivation on my side, plus I have close to 50,000 words from the first draft that can be salvaged in some way, shape or form.
I’ve reset my word counter, untied myself from the current draft (which was much harder than I thought) and now it’s time for me to get busy. Today is Day 1 on my new journey with this project.
The River City Romance Writers’s (my local writing chapter) annual Duel on the Delta contest is open and accepting submissions in the following categories:
New this year, the submission process is 100% electronic. So polish up your first 15 pages and enter. For complete contest & submission details click here.
2010 marks the 4th annual Chase The Dream contest hosted by Rachelle Chase and Leigh Michaels. This year, the final judges are Alex Logan of Grand Central Publishing, Deb Werksman of Sourcebooks, Theresa Stevens of Red Sage, Susan Swinwood of Harlequin/Mira/Spice, Esi Sogah of Avon Books, Kelli Martin of Kimani, Christine Witthohn of Book Cents Literary Agency, Laura Bradford of Bradford Literary Agency, and Elizabeth Pomada of Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency.
For those of you unfamiliar with this contest, weekly winners are chosen from the pool of submissions for that week. At the end, all of the weekly finalist will be review by the panel of final judges and they will choose a winner.
So if you have a killer first 1,000 words, stop by and enter. I’ve already submitted my entry for the first week of consideration.
Through tomorrow, January 6, Kelly Martin, Senior Editor for Kimini Romance, is giving you the opportunity to pitch to her. Click here for details. You can find Kimanin’s guidlines here.
And in strangely beautiful news, author Leanna Renne Hieber has posted the official book trailer and 3 excerpts from “The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker” on her blog. Darkly Luminous is the much anticipated (at least by me ) follow up to her best selling gothic Victorian fantasy “The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker”. For those interested, you can find my review of Strangely Beautiful here.
Nina Simone said it best with:
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
2009 marked my first full year of taking my writing seriously and actively pursuing my goal of becoming a published author. I started the year with a set of goals and a plan. I looked over my 2009 writing year and I have some things to be proud of, and some things to work on. It’s these things I learned about myself that shaped my writing goals for 2010.
My overall objective for this year as a writer is to the cultivate my strengths while depreciating my weakness. This means eliminating distractions, excuses, and negativity (especially the self-generated kind). Actually, as I think about it, this is no longer my goal for this year; this now is my main focus as a writer, period.
So to help me reach my goal this year, here are some specific, concrete goals I will strive to complete in 2010:
1. Set a writing schedule and stick to it
2. Read my top 3 craft books
3. Complete at least 2 manuscripts this year
4. Send least 5 queries or submissions this year
5. Set up my office
6. Create a binder to better track my writing activities (workshops, conventions, receipts, etc.)
So here’s to a success year.
