In Which I Get What I Ask For

So a few weeks ago, I totally won a full MS critique in the Write Dreams Auction. Which was awesome and I really really wanted it.

So I sent her my Break Free MS, which I am still plugging away it, revising and line editing and loving and revising and... well you get the idea.

I really needed a full MS critique to spot BIG ISSUE things. You know, plot holes, character arcs and development. I'm usually pretty good at spotting big issue things in other people's work, but there's no way in hell I can spot it in my own. The blinders are totally up once I finish that first draft.

So she got back to me after two weeks (super fast, right?) and her critique was EXACTLY what I wanted and needed. Some of the things I worried about, she loved and had no problem with. And some things I didn't even know had problems were problematic. Perfect. I was so happy she was able to spot things I couldn't.

So what happened?

I sank into a pit of despair.

Yep.

Fun.

This is figuratively me. Not literally, obviously. I don't wear denim baseball hats

Sometimes that happens to me, when I get a good/helpful critique. Even though I'm excited about it, I'm still disappointed that I have to make changes and am, you know, not perfect. Which obviously I'm not, but sometimes you have to trick yourself to feel extra good about your writing so you don't lose momentum. Or at least I do. Maybe that's just me.

It's just irritating. Because had I got a not helpful critique back, one that said something like "this is great! I loved it! Good job!" and that's it, I would've been flattered, but mostly irritated because I need constructive criticism, not just feel good happy times. Right? Right.

Anyway, I knew my bad mood would pass once I was able to fully absorb and accept the critique. And it did, about three days later. And now I'm back in the saddle, working even harder on the MS. Prepared to really make this one THE ONE. Yeah? Yeah.

What about you? Do critiques, even good, helpful, critiques, send you into the pit of despair?


(OT: OMG guys, I managed to write this whole post, without a single typo! It's some sort of miraculous record for me!)

.

In Which I Make A Decision

So, after a week or so of contemplation (and a lot of crazy amounts of work at the day job which doesn't look like it will be slowing at all for the rest of the month) I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to participate in Authoress's Baker's Dozen auction. I just don't have time to get my MS where I want it to be.

I mean, what if I was selected as one of the people in the auction, and an agent requested a full or something and my MS just wasn't up to snuff? That would be a wasted opportunity. I'd rather just take my time and make sure the MS is as good as I can make it and just query normally. Cuz I like querying anyway, and there's no reason to rush things.

I thought briefly about entering Glimpse. But a few of the agents on the list of participants have already seen my query or the MS or still have the MS, so it would kind of stink if I took up a spot for only a few agents when I could just query them. Also, I haven't yet made the change to Glimpse that I want either.

This also means I can let Break Free sit a bit before I start on line edits. It also means I can give NaNo much more of my attention, since I haven't yet started my outline or query (or really even come up with a stable plot)

The new NaNo website is supposed to roll out today. I'm excited to check it out.

How about you? Are you doing NaNo this year?

In Which We Discuss NaNo (Again)

I know, I know. Another NaNo Post? And not even yet October?
Yes. Yes it is.

So I know a month or so ago I was leaning towards not doing NaNo, just because I had so much other stuff I wanted to work on.

BUT, now I'm leaning towards doing it. Why? Multiple reasons. One is that after some fixes in Break Free, and a list of what I need to do for it going forward, it turns out it might not need as much work as I thought it did.

Another reason would be that NaNo would give me an excuse to take a break from it and let it rest before I dig into line edits. Which is always good.

Also, my NaNo story idea has been really developing over the last few weeks via day dreams and junk. Clearly my drunken muse is telling me to get on board for writing it in a few months. And I have to say, I don't really disagree with her.

(NaNo project has things in common with the below pictures:)

BUT, we'll still wait and see. It's not yet October, and October is the month I really spend time ramping up for NaNo, with the beginning of the snowflake method, a first draft query and a scene list. So there's a chance that, come October, I just won't have time to do all that. And if I don't have time, I'm not doing NaNo because I don't want to screw up my story just because I didn't have time to properly plan and nurture it first.

How about you? Are you going to participate in NaNo 2011?

In Which I Went Shopping

Hi all, sorry about yesterday's post, The link for the bread recipe was included, but I realized it was kind of hidden between the pictures.

So here's the link to the recipe again, for anyone who wanted it: Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread.

Here's what mine ended up looking like. And I'm not going to lie. It was delicious.








So, last week I mentioned shopping therapy at the RenFest. I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything this year because, as mentioned, I am pretty broke (AND Doggy Tula has come down with a serious itching problem over the last few weeeks. She will be getting a second vet visit later this week. Sigh).

Anyway, so they we were, hanging out at Renfest, studiously NOT thinking about how Twin's car was stolen and how someone was in our house while we were sleeping, and THERE IT WAS...

Now, I know I've mentioned before how I'm jealous of Twin's ability to look good in hats. It doesn't come as easy for me. In fact, my steampunk writing hat in my blog pic is really the first awesome hat I've ever owned.


Until. I found. THIS!!!





That's right! A mothereffing steampunk Bowler/Derby Hat! Holy hell guys. I wanted it IMMEDIATELY.

So I bought it.

For reals. I would've totally regretted not getting it.


So, now I have another steampunk hat. This one, though, will be a steampunk EDITING/REVISION hat. I think I may change my blog picture to match the hat of whatever I'm doing at the time. So, for example, since I'm revising Break Free right now, I'll be changing the above picture to match.

So, there you have it. The Siren call of the steampunkery sucks me in again. Man, I would buy so much cool stuff if I had a lot of money.

How about you? Bought anything frivilous necessary lately?

In Which A Great Thing Happened

That's right.

I FINISHED MY WIP!

Well, just the first draft. But let's get serious here, that's the first major step.

And what does finishing a first draft entail? Why it entails A MOTHEREFFING DANCE!





And maybe a fist bump




So. That was good. It ended up just shy of 80K which is awesome. Lots to play around with there. I was really pushing hard the last two weeks. I would just be exhausted in the evenings after writing so many words. Now I have to begin the revising and editing. I think it will need a fair amount of revisions, but nothing I'm not up to.

Mostly, I really really really want to be able to participate in Authoress's Baker's Dozen Auction this year, it was really the motivating factor on keeping me working at such a hectic pace. So, I've got a few months to get this MS in tip top shape, which means hectic revisions from here on out.

LET'S DO THIS!!

In Which I Provide An Update

So it's been awhile since I've given an update on my goals and junk and today seemed like a good day to do so.



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



I'm still querying Glimpse, though I've decided to take a bit of a break to make a change in the MS, then get back on the query horse. I'm hoping things will be back on track by the end of august (assuming amazing things don't happen before then and I get an offer or something. ohmygodcouldyouimagine?!)

I'm in the midst of my first draft of Break Free, and I'm totally loving it. I had a bit of a rough time with it the last week and a half, a combination of a tough couple of scenes to organize and write combined with a ticking personal deadline and a busy dayjob, but I think I've managed to power through the worst of it. I hit 50k earlier this week and suspect I may have hit or passed the half way point of the story. I won't know for sure, though, until its done. Just because I'm a plotter, doesn't mean there's no mystery. There's tons of mystery!

My current goals are to try and finish the first draft of Break Free by August. I don't know if I'll hit this goal (part of the reason I was having troubles with the writing) but I'm still going to try. Once I do finish the first draft, I plan to put it aside and make the change on Glimpse. Once that's done I'll send Glimpse back into query waters and start to revise Break Free. I was really hoping to be able to finish revisions on Break Free before NaNo, but the clock is ticking and I don't think that will be possible. I still have plans to participate in NaNo, at least right now I do, but we'll see how things are going closer to November.

I'm behind on my goal to read 55 books this year. Not too far behind, (by the end of July I should have 32 read and I'm at about 28, 29) but still. It's no big deal if I don't make this goal. It's just for fun.

So how about you? I want to know where you're at with your writing goals? TELL ME!

In Which I Revise Backwards

(OT - is anyone else having blogger formatting issues? It now makes me code with html all my paragraph breaks and hard returns. It makes me want to punch every bee in the face.

Sorry. Onto the real post.)

So whenever you read articles or books about revising, almost always people will tell you the same, or similar, thing:

Do the big stuff first, then the little stuff. Which, for the most part, makes sense. I mean, it would stink to do a whole bunch of line edits, then change things around and have to re-do the line edits.

So, logical. But that's not for me. I mean, first off, I rarely have to make any huge changes. Or at least, I have yet to have to do so.

Sure, I may delete a few scenes here or there, or maybe need to add some scenes but nothing massive and crazy. And certainly no huge amounts of rewriting. You know how I feel about that.

This is probably because I'm an outliner, and once I have that story structure built, I don't realy veer that much from it.

SO, because of this fact, I tend to revise backwards. That is, I line edit first. Crazy? Maybe. But I can't stand moving scenes around if there's clunky prose and typos.

Also, I tend to revise as I write as well. Once I've written my bit for the day, then I read back over it and fix it up some. Since I'm a sloppy typer, there are always things that need fixing - so I don't end up with typos like "She had long, stinking back hair" when I meant to write "She had long, striking black hair".

True Story.

Anyway, that is why I line edit first. Maybe sometimes I end up editing something that I then later delete, but you know what? I'm OK with that.

What about you? Anyway you break the revision mold?

In Which I Search For Some Betas

Well, the time has come. I'm allllllmost done with my most recent line edit on Glimpse (just finishing up the whole "read backwards" edit. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a great way to edit each sentence on it's own merit)

The novel has been read by Twin, and by the sparkling (but not in a vampire sort of way) Hannah and is in the hands of my other Crit Partner Teebore. It's also been sent to a few non-writers (Brother and some fabulous friends) So, now it's time to reach out to the rest of my awesome blog pals.

I am looking for a few Beta Readers for my YA Fantasy Glimpse of Another Shore.

logline = A boy rescues an orphaned sea serpent and discovers a way to save his home from war.

My sea serpent is not this scary

Things I would require in a beta reader:

• I'm looking for someone who reads YA. I really need someone who has a good feel for the YA audience.
  
  
• You have to be willing to read the entire manuscript. I'll email the whole thing to you.
  
  
• You have to be willing to read the entire manuscript in a month or less. I want to give people time to read it, but I also want people who will be willing to commit.
  
  
• You have to be willing to answer a questionnaire sent with the manuscript. It's not a huge list of questions, but it'll be included with the email.

In return, I can beta read for you if you would like me to.

If you are interested and fit the criteria, either comment on this post or shoot me an email at sarah.ahiers (at) gmail.com. I'm looking for 2-3 peeps and I hope to hear from you.

Otherwise, how are you doing? Are you working with betas for your novel?

In Which I Do A Dance

The "I finished a novel" dance of course!

It looks a little something like that, though to be fair I kinda hurt my back shoveling on Saturday, so it was much more restrained. You can ask twin, she'll vouch for me (she'd better...)

So, the working titled Glimpse of Another Shore is now completed at 58K words. Also, because I edited as I wrote (which was awesome by the way, I highly recommend it) I'm also technically done with my first line edit as well! wOOt!

Here are some fun stats:

This is my second novel completed in 2010 (though to be fair, Foxfire was started in late 09)

This is my first novel written in First POV (though I've done many a short story in first POV)

This is my first full length YA novel. I had a lot of fun and now think I may delve into YA more often. Also the shorter length required for YA is kinda nice.

I love it. A lot. I think some of my love has to do with the very minimal amount of editing and rewriting that needs to be done, but I don't even care. I LOVE IT.

So now I'm giving it another read through for a quick line edit. I'm also adding chapter breaks instead of just scene breaks. Then it will go to Twin for a read (since she's my alpha/beta reader) and also Hannah and Teebore who are my awesome crit partners.

After that I may look for a few other betas as well, peeps who read a lot of YA, preferably fantasy YA. So if that's you, we may be chatting later if you're interested (I'll make a post about it in the future)


So, how is your WIP coming?

In Which NaNo Flies Away For One More Year

So, here we are, December first and NaNo 2010 officially behind us.

How did it go for everyone? I think my NaNo buddy list was about 50/50 for winners, which is pretty awesome.





My final word count is almost identical to last year's, and even though it seemed harder to do the actual writing this year, I don't know if I'm reading into things.

But know what was awesome? Editing as I went. Never again will I shut off my internal editor and just go go go. That just leads to horribly depressing edits later. Nope, from now on I'm going to allow myself to edit as long as I first get my word count in.

This year's NaNo is already leaps and bounds ahead of last year's, so that is awesome.
It's not quite done yet, but I'm on the final climax of the story so I don't see it being more than another 10k.

I want to get it completed as fast as possible so I can give it another quick edit and then get it out to Betas. 2011 is going to be the year of the query. This I vow.

So, how did your NaNo turn out? And I don't want to hear just about your word count, I want to hear about the actual story.

Ready, set, TELL ME!

In Which I Edit

So October has been my own personal editing month - a PeNoEdMo, if you will.

I made myself a little spreadsheet (because I know you all know how much I LOVES spreadsheets) to keep track of where I'm at.

BEHOLD!



As you can see, when I took this screen print it was last week. (UPDATE - I added a more recent screenshot)

It's not a super pretty spreadsheet (unlike my NaNo counter which has colors and special formatting and junk. I'll whip that baby out once NaNo has started)

I've been pretty good about doing the line edits, but not as great transcribing the changes onto the digital copy. Le Sigh.

Ah well, I'm totes on track to be done with the line edits before the beginning of NaNoWriMo (Excitement!!!)

Are you ready for NaNo? Have you been editing, and if so, how's that going for you?

In Which I Receive A Promising Rejection

My short story Hole Ridden has been out on submissions for just a little over 2 months.




It's received two rejections, all very nice, but I recently received a third, promising rejection.

More or less they said they can't accept it now, but if I wanted to make it a bit longer and perhaps draw more of a connection between the MC and the otherworldly aspect (the hole) they would be excited to take a look at it again.

Which is, of course, very exciting. Puts me one step closer on the road to publication.

Of course, now I need to figure out how to make it longer and rework it some. I'm not so worried about the reworking, but I am a little intimidated by the "making it longer" aspect. Since I don't make things longer. Ever. I always cut cut cut.

Ah well, hopefully the re-working will lend itself to a longer length. The key is to rework some of the middle without effecting the end and beginning all that much. Especially the end. The pacing is too tight, so any messing around in there could really muck it up.

How's things for everyone else? Anyone have a short out on submission as well?

In Which I Did Some Shopping

Look what I bought!

Yes yes, I know I'm pretty broke. But I can be spontaneous when shopping.

Why is it in the grass you ask? Because the lighting is shitty in our house and the sun is outside.

Isn't my handwriting so super? I know, you're jealous (this is why I don't handwrite anything. Well that and I'm sane...)

Also, don't look too closely at the pink star in the lower right hand corner.

I SAID DON'T LOOK!!


Yay! A Whiteboard!
While line editing, it has become clear to me that my scene re-arrangement is not done. Oh not at all.

And I don't want to have to move all my post it notes around again now that they've found homes in the notebook. So the easiest solution was to buy a whiteboard. Then I can write a list of scenes and draw arrows and junk to demonstrate where I want to move them. If it doesn't work, I can just erase it and start over.

I'm a super visual person and can't do it just on the word document. I need to see it.

What about you?
Do you have a fancy whiteboard? Do you even need one?

In Which We Discuss NaNo

So I had originally set a goal for myself to be done revising Foxfire by November, so I could set it aside during NaNo and concentrate on a new project.

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to quite make it.

Now wait, don't get me wrong. I'm much further along than the above makes it seem. It's just the line editing is taking much longer than anticipated. Mostly because I tried something new when writing Foxfire, and that was not editing as I wrote.

Normally when I write, I look over what I wrote the day before and do a quick line edit. When I wrote the first draft of Foxfire, I didn't do that. I just kept pressing forward. And now I have a rough draft that needs a lot of line work.

I did some math and calculated that if I line edited every day (M-F, not on the weekends) then I would have to do about 4.5 pages a day to be done by November. Totally do-able.

Of course, that doesn't take into consideration that I line edit on paper and therefore also have to make the changes on the digital copy. So technically it's about 10 pages a day. Still, I think I can handle that.

Then, once the line edits are done, I can work on the few scenes that need overhauls and start checking off all the things I need to do in each chapter (raising the conflict and action, weaving in themes, all that junk). So really, when I finish this line edit, I'll be well on my way.

And then it will be time for NaNoWriMo 2010!! wOOt!



I'm really excited for this year because I suspect I'll have a lot more writing pals to buddy with. And since I've got a competitive streak in me, I'll be motivated to write all the faster when I see everyone else's meters filling up.

Looking for a NaNo buddy? Look no further! My username is Falen1
I'd love to be NaNo pals with you.

In Which I Share An Update

It' s been awhile since I've mentioned Foxfire, especially with all the excitement about Hole Ridden.

I'm still on line edits. They're taking a bit longer than anticipated, but what can you do? I still hope to have most, if not all, revising done on it before NaNo, but we'll see. November is coming up pretty quickly. I'm going to try a few new things this NaNo, including allowing myself to read over the previous day's work and correct typos etc. All assuming I have time that day.

Right now I've got about 1/4 of Foxfire line edited. But that includes both on paper and on the digital copy. I do about 10 pages by hand, and then upload those changes on my computer. I've already seen a few big changes I want to make regarding scene organization and possible scene cutting, but we'll see. I'll have to come up with some sort of additional conflict or action if I decide to cut a few scenes, just to fill it out (not that you can ever really have too much of either)

I'll still need one or two more line edits after this one is done, but once first line edits are completed it'll be much easier to handle the other revisions with a cleaner manuscript.

How's your WIP coming? Are you writing, revising? And will you be doing NaNo 2011?

Also, did you see Inception? Cuz we did and it was AWESOME

In Which I Share My Editor Critique

I'm back with my critique for Hole Ridden.



I had a good half a month between when I was notified of the editor's choice pick and when I received the crit so I had plenty of time to be impatient for it. I really wanted to send Hole Ridden out on submission asap so delays were a little prickly (good thing I had Foxfire revisions to keep me distracted). I also knew that once I got the crit I would most likely be upset for a day or two, which is typical for me. Be upset, wait 1-3 days, then address the issues.

BUT after I read this crit, I found I wasn't upset at all. I was excited and energized. I plan to finish up Hole Ridden this week, and then make a list of submission options. Then it will be all growed up and ready to branch out on its own.

Anyhoo, here's the crit. My thoughts will be pasted in red.

Here's another definition of the Editor's Choice Review, from OWW:

"If a submissions of yours is selected as an Editor's Choice, it's partly going to be used as a teaching tool for other members: the editors pick submissions that can be reviewed in such a way as to help both the writer and other workshoppers learn something about their craft. But rest assured: it's also a compliment"


THE CRIT

While it stands as a solid piece of short-story telling as it, the problem with "Hole Ridden" is that -- even at just barely 2600 words -- it's still too long. (this was a surprise to me. I had a few crits from readers who expressed that they wished it was longer. Since I don't really make things longer, I had dismissed these thoughts. But this was the first time someone actually came out and said, "make it shorter") Sarah tends to find moments upon which to linger in order to provide her central character, Janice, time to consider/judge/dismiss things so that the concept of this ever-opening maw of Earth will be accepted by the reader. For the most part it works, but there are a couple of instances where Janice's hesitation in the face of a singularly terrifying truth see, either, a) put there in order to draw out the suspense a little more, or, b) make Janice seem naïve (and borderline stupid). (this is something that I've struggled with throughout the drafts so it doesn't surprise me that he caught a few instances where it's not quite there yet)

A secondary problem lies in Sarah's narrative voice. For easily 80-90% of this story that voice is in complete control, which is one of the main reasons that the tale zooms along, barely stopping to catch its breath. The pacing is excellent, but because the story remains about 300-600 words too long, it could be even better.

Okay, specifics: The story opens with this exchange between Janice and Arthur:

"Are you sure that thing will be able to move a rock that size?" Janice gestured with doubt (already established with the gesture, so repeating it here is redundant) ) to Arthur's tractor. (I can't believe I missed this redundant tag. Gestured with doubt is just another way of saying gestured doubtfully. Smooth Sarah)

Then, in the middle of sentence (he must mean paragraph here...) which was until now solely from Janice's POV, you wrote:

Arthur wrapped a chain around the boulder and paused to look at his machine. He glanced at Janice, nodded and returned to the chain.

Which means that the next line of dialogue below if from Arthur, yet his actions remains attached to those of the last speaker, Janice.

"Yep, it'll hold it all right." Arthur rubbed dusty hands against his overalls and straightened his back. "Now you sure you want me to move it? God doesn't put something like this here for no reason."

Action always remains with the speaker; always. Everything after "Arthur's tractor" in the opening exchange needs to be separate from Janice's opening line an initial gesture.

(I was a little irritated at first by this part of the crit. When you upload work to the OWW system, it doesn't convert easily from Word so you have to go in and add a hard return between each paragraph. This was just a spot where I missed adding the hard return. A typo, more or less. But then I remembered that the crit is also supposed to help everyone else too, and I'm sure there are writer's out there who need help with this area.)

Shortly after this, as Arthur readies to removes the rock, you have a lovely observation from Janice that goes like this:

Janice nodded and retreated a few feet. Poor man had probably never even had champagne, though he seemed confident in his ability to remove rocks.

It's a sweet moment for a couple of reasons; this is the first - and I believe only - time in the story Janice spares a sympathetic thought for anyone but herself, and she's so jaded she doesn't even realize how outrageously condescending it is.

(This comment I enjoyed because the above line is one that I got mixed feedback on. I was glad to see that he liked it and understood the reason I had put it in)

That leads me to the next problem. You skirt far too close to the line of caricature with Arthur and Janice; she being the hard-bitten, cynical, judgmental, impatient, take-no-prisoners type who would have been played by Jane Fonda; Arthur, the almost too-laid-back neighbor and jack of all traits with so much homey wisdom and advice he's just waiting to share. You don't cross this line, but it comes close. (This is something I know the story has issues with. I've been slowly trying to fix it, but it's been difficult since many of my solutions seem to be related to another cliche) But there's an easy fix - and you're not going to like it. (when I read this, I got really worried. What wasn't I going to like? And why? Would I have to lose a character? Rewrite the whole story (I soooo don't do rewrites))

Move Arthur's story about "stopping a hole with a hole" into this scene, along with the few other pertinent bits of information that are exchanged out by the pickett fence Arthur is repairing. This confrontation scene simply doesn't work; it seems forced, it reads forced, and seems to serve no other purpose than provide someplace for Arthur's "a bigger hole to stop a hole" theory. There is no sense of culture clash, no reason for Janice to so vehemently accuse Arthur (even she knows that she didn't hear the tractor start up), so there is no point to this nasty little confrontation they have here.

Cut it. Take what necessary information you need from the scene and scatter throughout the opening sequence.

(After I read this part I was like, "That's it? That's what I'm not going to like?" Clearly Gary doesn't know me at all. Because cutting a whole scene (in a story that only has 3 or so) and moving the important info elsewhere, is not an issue for me. Not at all. I'm actually looking forward to playing around with it. So, huge sigh of relief when his major suggestion was something that I actually enjoy doing with revisions. Also I think he's completely right. I always knew that scene was the weakest. It actually used to be much much worse...)

Last point; your final line:

"If it came down to that, she knew exactly where to put the final one."

This is almost exactly the same thing you did in the story's opening line, only here, instead of voicing doubt while making a gesture of doubt, you have Janice look at her gun, make the connection ... and then tell us what that connection is, just in case someone doesn't get it.

Please cut the final line and use "...Maybe the only way to atop a hole was with another hole." As the final one. It'll be less obvious and much more chilling as a result.

(This one hurt a little. Not because he isn't right (because he so so is and I'm a little sad that I didn't realize how blatant it is) but because I always liked the final line. This will be a "kill the darlings" sort of revision for me, but I think the story will be much stronger if I follow his suggestion.)

In case I forgot to mention it, the entire central conceit of the story is exceptionally clever and compelling, and when the earth starts falling into itself as Janice makes good her escape, I was on the edge of my seat.

(Yay!)

What you have here is an excellent story. I think it can be made even better with some judicious pruning and re-arranging of smaller moments within scenes.

--Gary A. Braunbeck


So there you have it! After reading the crit I was super relieved that he didn't tell me to rewrite, eliminate a character etc, all things I probably wouldn't have done, even to make the story better.
His suggestions were right on the mark and he hit all the spots I knew were the weakest.

I was also excited to see the the Editor's choice for Sci-Fi was a member who had exchanged crits with me, he on Hole Ridden and I on his sci-fi novel chapter one. It was kind of like knowing someone else who had been chosen. Like when you see a friend or family member on TV. (I KNOW them! you think...)

Anyone else get some exciting news lately?

In Which I Share Exciting News

So how was everyone's weekend? Did you have a good time? We did (well except for when we saw The Last Airbender. I'm a HUGE fan of the show. Mr. M. Night Shyamalan, I hereby revoke your movie license. The writing was terrible. Writing 101 - Show Don't Tell.)



Remember how a few weeks ago I requested some crits for Hole-Ridden, well they were super helpful, so thanks again everyone.

A few months ago I discovered a little community called the Online Writer's Workshop, or OWW for short. I actually learned about it from Colleen Lindsay and since I have a bit of a literary business crush on her, I do pretty much whatever she says.

It's an online writing community for sci-fi, fantasy and horror writers. You critique people's submissions which gives you a point and when you have 3 points you can post a piece of your own (up to 7k words) to be critiqued.

I had done something like this before, with The Next Big Writer about 5 years ago. At first I liked that system but then it became clear to me that the crits I got back from the other writer's weren't at my level and so therefore I wasn't getting out as much as I was putting in.

OWW seemed a bit better because they make sure the crits are valid (no one sentence, "good job" allowed) and also OWW has a lot of professional authors as members (Elizabeth Bear, Karin Lowachee (and you all know how much I heart her)).

The first month is free (cost is $50 a year) so I signed up and submitted Hole Ridden to see what kind of crits I got. They were OK. There were a few that were helpful and a few that were either below my level or just clearly didn't understand the story or horror writing in general.

And then, I got the email...

"Hi! A submission you made to the workshop last month has been selected as one of our Editors' Choices (to be reviewed in the next newsletter)"

I freaked out!

What is an Editor's Choice you ask?

"Each month our Resident Editors select one outstanding submission in each category as an Editors' Choice and review it in the newsletter. Editors' Choices do not count against a member's three-submission limit, and remain on display, with their editorial reviews, in our Editors' Choice archive for about four months."

If I had a sci-fi piece that was chosen as an Editor's Choice, it would be critiqued by Karin Lowachee (swoon). Alas this was horror so it would be Gary Braunbeck while Jeanne Cavelos is out.

This would be a crit to end all crits! I was excited because I knew after this crit Hole Ridden would be probably as strong as it could be. But I was also worried. I thought it was pretty strong as is, so what was he going to find wrong with it?

Tune in tomorrow for a special Tuesday post regarding my editor critique of Hole Ridden!

In Which We Discuss Wordle

I mentioned last week about how I ran my short story "Hole Ridden" through Wordle to find any over-used words I was unaware of (apparently, I used "back" much more than anticipated.)

A couple of blog pals mentioned that they had never used Wordle before or didn't know what it was.

Wordle is a website that lets you paste a chunk of text that is then turned into a word cloud. The word cloud will show you the most used words and it will also let you remove words you don't want counted (typically character names if you're using it as revision assistance)

There are also other websites, so if Wordle doesn't work for you, you can also google "word clouds" and find other options.

Wordle also lets you choose colors, fonts, languages and how the words are displayed to make your word cloud as much a work of art as you want.

When I ran Hole Ridden through Wordle (and I left in the character names) this is what my word cloud ended up looking like:

I giggled like a school girl when I saw this because it seemed so ominous with the giant "Hole" front and center.

Anyone else throw their work in Wordle? Either as a revision assitant or just for fun?

In Which I Discuss Duotrope

First off I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for those of you who offered to beta read for me. Everyone's crits were very helpful in catching things I had overlooked and a few aspects I had questioned myself (note to self: if I question something, it's probably worth changing).

Just a bit more work and it's off to the world of submissions (GASP!)

I'm going to use Duotrope's Digest. Have any of you used it before?

If you haven't, it's awesome.

It's a (free) website where you can search for markets for your pieces. BUT, you can do fun things, like sort by pay scale, or sort by markets that respond the quickest or that have the highest acceptance rate.

If you register it lets you save your searches and make reports on markets that accepted your work or declined you etc.

Honestly, every time I go there to play around, I spend at least and hour looking through all my market options.

I haven't done any work on Foxfire since Friday. Mostly because when I look at it now I'm all "Eff off Foxfire, I'm hanging with Hole Ridden right now".

And that, right there, is why I'm not typically allowed to work on more than one project at a time.

I don't really know why I picked up Hole Ridden. I had been planning on revising it soon, but I'm not sure why Friday was the day.

Oh well, the revisions will be done shortly, then I can send it off and I can go back to Foxfire, who may or may not be angry at me for not giving it any attention over the last few days.

Also I want to apologize to everyone who didn't see comments from me on Monday. With Blogger's dickery, most of my comments didn't save. What a jerk move, Blogger.

In Which I Request A Beta

Hi all!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? We pretty much just sat around and played video games. Which was awesome, of course.

Also I did a bit of a blog cleanup so there's now a few more pages to visit if you're interested (and yes I know I've received more blog awards than that. I had them saved in a blog post draft which then accidentally got erased. Le sigh)

I didn't get much work done on Foxfire, but I did, however, get tons of revisions done on a favorite short story of mine, Hole Ridden.

It needed one more large-ish rewrite (well I thought it would be large but it turned out to be really easy). It had to be retyped because somewhere along the way I lost the digital copy (this was before I started using Dropbox). Good thing I still had a printed version. So I typed it up, gave it another line edit (since I've clearly grown a lot since the last line edit) did the rewrite, ran it through Wordle (genius, btw. Does anyone know how to save your Wordle word cloud? Mine looked so ominous that I wanted to keep it...) and then saved it.

So now, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in beta-ing it for me? Both Teebore and Palindrome have read it multiple times before, and though I'll probably shove it their way again (haha! Surprise!) I was hoping maybe someone who hasn't seen it before would be interested in taking a look at it?

I'd be mostly looking for a high level crit, mostly what works and what doesn't (though if you want to do a bit of line editing, I certainly wouldn't turn it down.I just don't want you to feel obligated).

It's not too long, just a bit over 2500 words, and you could certainly take your time.

Also it's in the Horror genre (as most of my short stories tend to be), though it's not gory or anything like that.

no vampires this time, promise.

So if you're interested, let me know either in the comments or via email.

Can you believe we're already into June? I can tell already the summer is going to go too fast.