One of my writing buddies, Jus Accardo, put together a 12 step programs for any and all writers who are WIP-Aholics.  No explaination neccessary.  You know who you are.  And you’re on the fence about whether or not you’re one, remember,  admiting you have a program is the first step- LOL.  

1.  We admit we are powerless against our WIPs—that they hold our muse—and our hard drives hostage.
2.  We believe something greater than ourselves—the revision process and editing that comes with it—can and will restore our sanity.

3.  We have made the choice to give our lives over to the care of our Muse.

4.  We will cease extensively researching and move forward with the revision process so that our WIP will one day grace the desk of our dream agent.

5.  We have admitted to ourselves, and our fellow writers, our flaws—and will make a conscious effort not to indulge our WIP obsession until we have made at least one submission.

6.  We acknowledge that we are ready to move forward and tackle our enormous pile of WIPs—by focusing on them one at a time.

7.  We offer chocolate, caffeine, and other indulgent gifts to our muse in exchange for urging us onward toward our publication goal.

8.  We have made a list of the WIPs being neglecting, and are now willing to make amends.

9.  We will continue to move forward with our neglected WIPs, admitting freely when the urge to start another surfaces.

10.  We will, through chocolate and coffee, improve our relationship with our muse, begging for her/his knowledge and guidance.

11. We will not make excuses.

12. We will, having had an awakening of epic proportions due to these steps, go forth and spread this message to all other WIPaholics.

I loved this so much, I asked permission if I could share.  So all you WIP-Aholics, take time to review the above affirmations.  Become friends with them.  Then… stop procrastinating & get going. 

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.

Without a strong rhyme to step to”

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.

WOOHOO!! Congrats lady

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.

I want to take a minute and congratulate one of my chapter members on the publication of her first book. Today marks the release of Along Came Quinn by Suzanne Rossi.

Congrats Suzanne!!  

 So I asked Suzanne to share a little about the book  with me & she sent me over the book trailer and a blurb:

     Alexandria Montgomery doesn’t like or trust adventurer, Quinn Rafferty, but needs him to guide her through the jungles of Guatemala in search of her thieving ex-boyfriend who has stolen a priceless treasure map.     

    Deep in the jungle, Alex learns love can strike at any time with the least likely of men, and Quinn comes to the realization an uptight antique store owner, who upon their first meeting shot him, just might be the woman of his dreams.     

    But what will happen when Quinn discovers Alex has lied, and the treasure, earmarked as a way to provide for his mother and grandmother, doesn’t exist? Can he forgive her betrayal, or will he just walk away?  

If you like what you’ve seen and read so far about Along Came Quinn, please visit Wild Rose Press and pick up a copy.  Available in both ebook format and print.  I’ve already ordered mine, I’m getting a sexy “Indiana Jones in the Jungle” type vibe from the trailer and the blurb.  Now come on, what not to like about that combo?

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:

1. Mystery/Romantic Suspense
2. Historical
3. Contemporary
4. Mainstream/Single Title
5. Young Adult
6. Inspirational
7. Paranormal

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.