I spotted this quote on a pretty leather-bound journal at Barnes & Noble when I took my extra-long dinner break there last night:
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars.
It was a nice reminder to “go for it,” “just do it” or any number of motivational sayings. We all need a little shot of enthusiasm from time to time.
Today, I spent some quality time with my synopsis. I’d like to pare it to 4 or 5 pages. Right now it’s about 5 1/3.
How is it that something I never thought much about before last week is now popping up everywhere?
I just checked out The Seekers blog, and their latest post is about “writing ‘guy.'”
Last week, after checking out another post, I found myself asking if guys really speak in shorter sentences. (It was something I’d never considered — guess that’s the curse of having a loquacious boyfriend.)
Apparently, most men aren’t so talkative … and they’re not as tortured by feelings as our heroines are. Who knew that while she’s torturing herself with a play-by-play of what went wrong on their latest date, he’s thinking about car repairs?
At least that’s Dave Barry’s take, as posted at Seekerville. I think I need to get his book … or some other one that’ll help my men sound more like men.
Hmm. Something else to worry about before I send off the manuscript to the Golden Heart contest. Aargh!
Well, at least I had a productive morning before our NARWA board meeting yesterday. And we had a great meeting. Now it’s time to get to work on the next issue of our chapter’s newsletter.
Oh, jeez … more stuff to do. Why’d I have to go and think about that?
My work week starts today, after a four-day weekend. I’m also gearing up for a busy week with NARWA. Thursday is our board meeting, and Saturday is plot group.
I can’t wait! I love the chance to talk with other writers, work toward making our chapter better and get inspiration to keep writing away.
I got a few more pages edited yesterday — up to 120 of 213 now. But I’m wondering if I should forget the rest of the book to go back and polish the first 50 or so pages that will be judged for the Golden Heart.
Then again, they do want the whole thing … so I should revise to the end and THEN polish some more.
A quick update: I’ve been editing up a storm on my Golden Heart entry. I’m 111 pages into the 213. I’ve been rewriting — adding things and taking some out — and am still right at about 58,000 words.
I’m looking forward to the next installment of the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood’s blog. The topic? How to write a great hook. I’m beginning to think I need to work on that, so it’ll be extremely helpful, I’m sure.
For the moment, I’m off to take a walk. Then it’s back to the computer to do some more work — in my workout clothes, most likely. I definitely don’t glam up to write. I don’t make myself fabulous to go to work, either. I’m definitely one of those gals who needs lessons on applying makeup. Guess I’ll cross that bridge when I become a GH finalist.
Note I did not say “if.” Positive thinking works wonders! 😀
I thought I was making good progress in getting my manuscript ready for the Golden Heart competition. I’ve edited 80 pages, trying to dig deeper into the minds of my characters and getting rid of a lot of “he said, she said” tags, replacing them with action tags instead.
I’ve even succeeded in making good, ol’ dependable Brad a little less boring — at least I think I have.
So I’ve been hard at work and I thought I was getting the job done. Then I read today’s entry over at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood. Now I’m not so sure.
Am I choosing vivid enough nouns and verbs, instead of relying on adjectives and adverbs? Sometimes.
Does each scene end with a hook? Well, maybe. I want to keep reading … but that may be because I know what’s coming up next.
Do my characters’ speech and interior monologues sound natural and appropriate to their backgrounds, interests, etc.? I certainly hope so, but I’ve never given it much thought.
Do their speeches take gender into account? God, no. Do men really speak in shorter sentences than women? I didn’t know that.
Do the syntax and paragraphing creatively showcase my voice and make it distinctive? Hmm. I just write and my voice shines through — I hope.
Have I used short paragraphs to speed up the pacing? Ha! I have that one covered. As a journalist, I’m used to writing shorter paragraphs.
Is my synopsis short and concise, focusing on the hero and heroine’s GMC? Short, yes. GMC? Not so much, considering the story was until recently short on that.
There’s so much to think about — more than I realized. I really do have my work cut out for me.
Happy birthday, self. This is going to be your year … to enter the Golden Heart contest, to start seeking an agent, to get serious about your writing career.
You never intended to be pushing 40 and not have a published novel under your belt. When you were in high school, you thought you’d have hit it big by at least 35.
Well, sweetie, that mark passed you by three years ago. Now you’re 38 and it’s past time to get back to work on that elusive goal of getting published.
You, my dear, are a romance writer. You’ve tried writing other types of stories, but the romance always creeps in. Better yet, you write romantic comedy. Sure, the experts say there’s not much market for that right now … but in today’s world, we all could use a good laugh. And your stories provide that. So get to work! Get them out there so others can see them!
The only thing holding you back is yourself.
Love, Arlene
I want to know why I seem to get more writing done at Starbucks than I do in my own home.
I guess it’s the distraction factor. At Starbucks, the TV is not on (though there is music), so I don’t get sucked into the lives of those poor hapless guests on “Jerry Springer,” and there are no dogs running around trying to sniff my keyboard every five seconds, so I’m not constantly yelling at them to behave.
Plus, there’s no Internet to distract me from the real reason I turned on my computer. I have gotten better about working first and playing later, but I still let the siren’s call of Facebook get the better of me from time to time.
With the Golden Heart deadline looming and lots of work to do, I have a feeling I’m going to be spending a lot of time at Starbucks. I know I’ll be there Wednesday. It’s my birthday, and some of the gals from NARWA are having a write-in for me.
I can’t wait!
As I get more involved in rewriting Brad and Erin’s story, I’m finding less and less time to blog — both here and on my other blog.
I guess I should take that as a good sign, eh? 😀
Today, I had a pleasant lunch (complete with sinful dessert) with a writer friend from NARWA. We’re both entering the 2010 Golden Heart (in different categories) and met to talk about our progress.
I passed along some of the tips I got in my critique, because they seemed to apply to her manuscript, too.
It’d be fantastic if we both were able to final in the contest … but I’m not counting on it, especially since I’ve never entered before. I’ve heard some people enter for years before finally getting the call that they’ve finaled.
Guess it’s a good thing that I’m still relatively young. I still have long years of writing ahead of me!
I had the day off but did not spend it with the Boyfriend, which was a bummer for me, but great for the novel.
I headed to Starbucks, ordered some low-fat coffee cake and an unsweetened iced tea and set up camp near an outlet. A couple of hours later, I’d rewritten a couple of scenes, using suggestions from the critique I got last week. (She was definitely right. She didn’t tell me a whole lot that I hadn’t already started to suspect on my own.)
Already, I can feel an improvement. Brad is shaping up to be a lot less boring. And still I’m at about 58,000 words, which leaves me with plenty of room to rewrite the remainder.
I spent some time this weekend looking through Debra Dixon’s infamous “Goal, Motivation and Conflict,” in case you couldn’t tell.
The goal, of course, is “what.” Motivation is the “why.” And conflict is the “why not.” Your character wants _______ because ______ but ________.
It seems so easy. Yet when I tried to put the principles to work in Brad & Erin’s story (my Golden Heart entry), it was short on both motivation and conflict.
Hmm. I’m back to that whole “polishing this thing for the GH is going to be more work than I thought” thing. It seems to be a recurring theme here.
I thought I was being smart by going with the already-finished manuscript instead of the one that still had 40,000 words to be completed. But by the time I fix it up, I’ll probably have done just as much work. I’m thinking I’ll have to take a week’s vacation right before the deadline to hole up somewhere and work on it. (Well, that’d be one way to burn one of the four weeks I get and have no idea what to do with — it’s not like I have the money to travel.)
Guess I’d better get to it. Poor Brad and Erin don’t have the ability to fix themselves — and I’m not going to let my entry fee go to waste.