Putting It Out There

I sent my first 500 pages to the Kidlit contest today.  Yes I waited until the very last day.  This is just the way I am.  I have a hard time putting anything out there unless I've done everything in my power to make it the best it can be.

I'm really anxious to get this feedback and I think it's an amazing opportunity to get a 500 word critique from someone so experienced, and whose oppinion I have come to value so much.

I have to work hard to turn-off the fantasy that I've created and focus on the reality that this will make me a better writer no matter what.

Repetitions Removed

I finished editing my book for repetitions.  I'm excited to get it typed up and see how many words I was able to cut.  I'm betting it's down to 30,000 words.  The story gets tighter with each revison. 

One thing I notice though, is that I seem to make fewer and fewer changes as I go along.  I think I just poop out and let things slide that I woul dhave nit-picked earlier.  This concerns me.  It also tells me that I'm reaching a place where I need professional help, and no I don't mean Psychiatry,  although...

I picked up a few more editing books, Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules among them.  What a crack up.  I was going to take it into the gym and read it on the treadmill.  I'm glad I skimmed it first, because the whole book took me less than 20 minutes to read.  Yet every word was dead on, including hooptedoodle.  So I'm trying to follow Leonard's advice.  The hardest one is getting rid of all exclamation points.  He says you're allowed two for every 100,000 words, which means that I'm not even allowed one.  Ha!  That might be tough.  But since punctuation is the bane of my existence to begin with, what did I expect.

The thing that is impossible is to not describe my characters.  I could normally go along with this suggestion, wholeheartedly, and have at least one book in mind, where I will never give a physical description of any character.  But for this book their physicality is essential to the story.  They simply must be described.  However, I do try to show the descriptions of the main characters instead of giving a "police blotter" summary.

Repitition Revision

I thought I was really close to finishing my revisions when I came repitition revision.  This involves going line by line, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, chapter by chapter and looking for any place where things have been repeated.  Wow, this is hard.  I've got so much to do. 

It's funny the things you notice when you start breaking down one task at a time like this.  What sounds perfectly normal in your head, when you pick through it in detail sounds funny. 

It may take a while to finish this revision, and based on the amount of changes I'm making I may have to re-type and print before I can do anymore revising.  But I'm almost at the end.

The last revision is the dreaded grammar, comma placement, style, etc..  But it will be a while before I get to that.  I'm not stalling really!

Kidlit Contest

I've been working really hard to get my manuscript up to snuff so I can enter this contest on Kidlit.com.  Mary Kole, with Andrea Brown Literary Agency is running the contest.  One of the requirements is that you post the contest to two other web-sites.  Sound simple right?  Unfortunately, I'm such a neophyte at this blogging, social networking, thing that I'm not at all sure I did this right.  I posted it to the SCBWI discussion boards, and on my blog on Jacket Flap.  However, I've already seen the same information posted on these sights previously.  I hope this doesn't disqualify me. 

I really am trying to get this all figured out.  It's unbelievable how much information is out there for writers.  Frankly it's overwhelming.  Anyway, Mary's site is one of the best out there.  She tells it like it is, but she really tells it.  She posts daily about things writers need to know.  I honestly don't know how she does it, because like all agents she has a full day of work, and then reading slush, etc. after hours.  And I'm not just saying this because she might check up on my blog. 

Whether you enter the contest or not, check out her blog, along with Kristen Nelson's they are two of my favorites.

Kidlit Contest

Very Short Blog

I'm still working on typing up all my re-writes from my last five revisions.  I have to have a clean copy or I'm going to get confused.  But it's taking soooo long.  I will finish for sure tomorrow night, so I can make another print out.  I know some people can work off the computer, but not me for a couple of reasons. I have to have a print out that I can take with me, and I have to be able to see it in print. 

Also, I am almost unable to walk after Saturday.  It keeps getting worse.  I did my regular 60 min on the eliptical thinking it would loosen my calves up, but they are seriously damaged.  I think boot camps not my thing.  I swear I can't put my legs straight when I walk I have to walk on my toes.

Beats and Boot Camp

Today I finished highlighting all  the beats in my manuscript.  Now I need to go through and make sure that none of them are strangling my dialogue.  Also to make sure that I have beats where I need them.  I'm still hoping to eliminate a lot of the "saids" in my manuscript. 

Tomorrow I need to type up all my changes from the past 5 reviews, and make another print-out, so I can continue reviews.

I also have to get my first 500 words up to perfection for the contest.

So what's boot camp?  Well although this blog is 99% about my journey as a writer, I thought it might be good to include some funnies from my day-to-day life.  So boot camp has nothing to do with writing.  It's a class I took at the gym.  It was an intence one hour hell of areobics, weights, spin, all together.  Oh Lord help me, I'm pretty sure walking is going to be out of the question tomorrow. 

Here's the thing, I didn't just haul my big 44 year old behind out of bed one day and decide to go to the gym and do "boot camp".  For one thing, my behinds not all that big, for another, I work out 28 days out of 30 and have been doing for over two years.  I spend an hour every night on the eliptical machine, sweating like a pig and shedding 600 calories.  So I thought, boot camp, sounds tough, but I can handle it.

HA

Oh my what a joke.  I thought I was going to die about 3 minutes into the initial warm up (laps around the classroom which progressed to bunny hops.)  Milo would be disgusted with me, 'cause this girl cannot hop.  I think it's because of my ankle, even after three years it's weak after the break.  I'll have to get a wrap for it. 

So they only do this every other Saturday.  I don't know how that's going to work out with my schedule.  I'm serious!  I'm not just slacking, I swear.  If it's on a knitting Saturday, I can do it.  But when the weather gets better if it's a zoo weekend I can't do a 11:15 program. 

Thank Heaven for SCBWI

Let me start by saying that if you write for children and you're not in SCBWI, you need to join.  http://www.scbwi.org/

Through the Society of Children's Book Writers in Illlustrators, I have joined a critique group which has been very helpful.

I also posted a question about "Interior Monologue" (see previous post) on the SCBWI discussion boards.  I got some amazing answers from expert writers. 

Not to mention last weeks mini-conference about Social Networking. 

Thanks to everyone who makes SCBWI possible.