drives writers nutso, at least it does this writer. Oh, I'm not talking the grammatical comma or the serial comma or any one of the thousand of comma uses available.
I'm talking about the 'troll' comma. The one that appears from nowhere and lands somewhere in your sentence. Troll commas make no sense. They are just THERE.
As I mentioned, I made it through to the second round of Lori Brighton's first paragraph contest being judged by her Kensington editor, Megan Records. YAY!!
Anyhoo, those of us who made the next round were to send the first page, including the submitted paragraph, to Lori. Once I finally FOUND the stupid manuscript, I read/tweaked/edited my first page and copied it to Lori. A couple of days later, I thought, 'Well, if by some freakin' miracle I make the next round then I'd better clean up the rest of chapter one."
And guess what?
Yep, I found a troll comma. In the very last sentence of my submission. Place right after 'would' and before 'poof'. Aaaarrrggghhh! I HATE troll commas. They make absolutely zero sense, but they happen.
Now, do I get totally freaked about this?
No. . . well, maybe . . . naw, not really.
Because what can I do about it? NOTHING. It is out of my hands and in the hands of the editor judge. But I like to think that the troll comma won't make or break my submission. I hope it's my words and how they are used that would be the selling point of my page.
Who knows? I don't. But when I come across a troll comma in contest entries or in CP's work, I highlight them and go about my biz. I'm not going to count it against the writer--unless the submission is riddled with erroneous commas, then there's a problem to deal with--I like to read, envisioning the big picture and how the author tells the story.
How do you deal with 'troll' commas? Do you go ballistic? Roll your eyes? Heave a sigh and think, "Crap, I just sent that to twenty agents."?
Well, I fixed the comma and moved on.
Now, it's time to . . . Write On!
11/9/09
11/6/09
Why Count Words?
My buddy Jody had a mini-rant in the comments of my last post. (Aside: I HATE blogger!! It won't let me cut and paste--I had to retype the darn quote!! Aaarrrggghhh!) It bothered her that I tried to set a daily word count.
". . . you've GOT to just drop the whole "word count" beeswax. Word count means NOTHING. You can write 5000 word and they can all be CRAP. Or you can write one absolutely stellar passage."
". . . I set a goal to work out a particular section, chapter, passage, scene, whatever."
Of course, Jody thought I'd get pissed at this, but I just chuckled. Why? Because there is no one way that works for everyone, in every circumstance. If I had a short article to write, I might approach it in a different manner than I would a 100K novel. But I doubt it.
I've tried the tweak until it's perfect route, BUT I get so bogged down in the immediate that I tend to lose sight of the big picture. For something short, it doesn't matter. Because it's finished in a couple of pages, giving the writer plenty of time to tweak. In other words, writing a 500 word picture book is vastly different than a 25K word novella or a 100K novel. Yes, I have done them all. Each style has it's own challenges and requirements, but they all have to have pacing, plot, character arc, etc.
For my novels, I've recently discovered the 'puke it out' method, otherwise known as the Karin Tabke method. I used it for my middle grade story, MISSING: One Garden Gnome. I don't plot, which means I figure out the story AND characters as I write. I started this story in the mother's third person point of view, but finished it in the eleven-year-old Rhee's point of view. I had to go back and delete the first two chapters. There was no tweaking involved. Trust me, a kid does NOT think like an adult. Oh, the scenes were technically the same, as in the same location, but that's it.
--If I had tweaked this scene until it was perfect, I still would have had to delete my 'perfect words'. They wouldn't have fit my story.
BUT, an online friend sent this question and answer for Dean Koontz link to my goals group. Mr. Koontz is a tweak each page as you go type of writer, sometimes diddling with it for 20-40 PASSES! It works for his process.
So I count words. Jody perfects her scenes. When I still worked at a hospital , I wrote from 4:00-4:45 AM. The only way to find out what works for you is to try different things.
Write on!
". . . you've GOT to just drop the whole "word count" beeswax. Word count means NOTHING. You can write 5000 word and they can all be CRAP. Or you can write one absolutely stellar passage."
". . . I set a goal to work out a particular section, chapter, passage, scene, whatever."
Of course, Jody thought I'd get pissed at this, but I just chuckled. Why? Because there is no one way that works for everyone, in every circumstance. If I had a short article to write, I might approach it in a different manner than I would a 100K novel. But I doubt it.
I've tried the tweak until it's perfect route, BUT I get so bogged down in the immediate that I tend to lose sight of the big picture. For something short, it doesn't matter. Because it's finished in a couple of pages, giving the writer plenty of time to tweak. In other words, writing a 500 word picture book is vastly different than a 25K word novella or a 100K novel. Yes, I have done them all. Each style has it's own challenges and requirements, but they all have to have pacing, plot, character arc, etc.
For my novels, I've recently discovered the 'puke it out' method, otherwise known as the Karin Tabke method. I used it for my middle grade story, MISSING: One Garden Gnome. I don't plot, which means I figure out the story AND characters as I write. I started this story in the mother's third person point of view, but finished it in the eleven-year-old Rhee's point of view. I had to go back and delete the first two chapters. There was no tweaking involved. Trust me, a kid does NOT think like an adult. Oh, the scenes were technically the same, as in the same location, but that's it.
--If I had tweaked this scene until it was perfect, I still would have had to delete my 'perfect words'. They wouldn't have fit my story.
BUT, an online friend sent this question and answer for Dean Koontz link to my goals group. Mr. Koontz is a tweak each page as you go type of writer, sometimes diddling with it for 20-40 PASSES! It works for his process.
So I count words. Jody perfects her scenes. When I still worked at a hospital , I wrote from 4:00-4:45 AM. The only way to find out what works for you is to try different things.
Write on!
11/4/09
Crisis of Faith
--writing faith, that is.
For some reason, this week has been rough for me. I think it's because so many of you are doing NaNo and producing some truly impressive word counts--one online friend wrote over 11K in 3 DAYS! I must say my fingers would be bloody stumps if I had written that many words. But more power to her, and all you NaNo over-achievers!
I was putzing around with my suspense and managed to get stuck. . . again. I knew where I wanted the story to go, but I just couldn't get it there. So, I started looking at my books about writing craft--trust me, I have a lot--but one caught my eye. It isn't a craft book, but I stuck it there because of the impressive bibliography, it's Michael Crichton's TIMELINE. I opened it and read the first page. Love the story, it's on my desk for another read. And this morning, I was doing my usual blog-hopping and read Donald Maass's post on Writer Unboxed. Wow! What an eye-opener!
THIS was why I was stuck writing Rosewood Manor (RM). RM has the potential to be a HUGE conspiracy book, BUT I'm not at the point in my writing career to write it to it's full potential! I keep wanting to shove it into a romance, but it isn't. So, for the moment, RM is shelved. I still love the story--and the ghost--she is my Aunt Mary, so I have to like her! I'll return to this story when the time is ripe and I'm a better writer.
Onward to some better news!
Last week, Lori Brighton, held a first paragraph contest with her Kensington editor as the contest judge. I found out that one of my good friends didn't final, so I figured why bother looking if she didn't final. Well, when I hit the 'L's in my blogroll, I pulled up Lori's post. What do you know?!?
DEMON CONNECTION was listed as a finalist, #7 on the list! Whee!
I don't suck as a writer!!
So I had to send in my first page to Lori. Uh, I looked in my file--Nada. I looked in my sub files--Nada. I checked my recycle trashcan that I always forget to empty--Nada. At this point I was having a major freakage attack, but finally found it! Yay! So, with minor tweaks, I sent it on it's way.
Now, my mission is clear: tweak Demon Connection so it will be ready if needed. And if it doesn't make the next round, then it will be ready to query.
Write On!
For some reason, this week has been rough for me. I think it's because so many of you are doing NaNo and producing some truly impressive word counts--one online friend wrote over 11K in 3 DAYS! I must say my fingers would be bloody stumps if I had written that many words. But more power to her, and all you NaNo over-achievers!
I was putzing around with my suspense and managed to get stuck. . . again. I knew where I wanted the story to go, but I just couldn't get it there. So, I started looking at my books about writing craft--trust me, I have a lot--but one caught my eye. It isn't a craft book, but I stuck it there because of the impressive bibliography, it's Michael Crichton's TIMELINE. I opened it and read the first page. Love the story, it's on my desk for another read. And this morning, I was doing my usual blog-hopping and read Donald Maass's post on Writer Unboxed. Wow! What an eye-opener!
THIS was why I was stuck writing Rosewood Manor (RM). RM has the potential to be a HUGE conspiracy book, BUT I'm not at the point in my writing career to write it to it's full potential! I keep wanting to shove it into a romance, but it isn't. So, for the moment, RM is shelved. I still love the story--and the ghost--she is my Aunt Mary, so I have to like her! I'll return to this story when the time is ripe and I'm a better writer.
Onward to some better news!
Last week, Lori Brighton, held a first paragraph contest with her Kensington editor as the contest judge. I found out that one of my good friends didn't final, so I figured why bother looking if she didn't final. Well, when I hit the 'L's in my blogroll, I pulled up Lori's post. What do you know?!?
DEMON CONNECTION was listed as a finalist, #7 on the list! Whee!
I don't suck as a writer!!
So I had to send in my first page to Lori. Uh, I looked in my file--Nada. I looked in my sub files--Nada. I checked my recycle trashcan that I always forget to empty--Nada. At this point I was having a major freakage attack, but finally found it! Yay! So, with minor tweaks, I sent it on it's way.
Now, my mission is clear: tweak Demon Connection so it will be ready if needed. And if it doesn't make the next round, then it will be ready to query.
Write On!
11/2/09
Dis and Dat
I need to buckle down to Candace Havens' Writing Game challenge. I sent her note asking about where to link her--and got NADA. True, she's busy pimping her own books, but still . . .
--Speaking of which, I'm already a day behind and a day late. 632 words in the hole that I need to write on top of the new count for today.
Food for thought, peeps: No matter where you are in your writing career, DO NOT alienate your readers, and potential purchasers, of your novel. True, you are only one voice, but many single voices add up to substantial numbers. Think about it.
I HATE cleaning house, but I like the end product--A CLEAN HOUSE
My family claims to eat leftovers, but they DON'T.
--And they complain that I don't cook enough. At the time of this blog post, I have in my fridge from last week: Beef Enchiladas, Homemade spaghetti sauce, pizza--two kinds, and yes, I make my own crust, chicken tortilla soup, a big vat of chili, and a smidgen of homemade marinara sauce. Feel free to come over and chow down!
Let your writing sit for a couple of months, if you can, prior to your final polish. For some reason, I pulled up a picture book story that I wrote earlier this year. My comment, "Oooohhh.....crap!" Now this isn't to say that it was a rough draft, it wasn't. This story had been through about six edits--four of them documented into a new word document. I read three sentences and my fingers itched to rework it!
--I guess it is a good thing I never queried this particular story! :-)
Today is laundry day. Laundry day is usually a good writing day. Why? Because of the built in breaks. Don't look at laundry as a chore. Look at it as an opportunity to take those much needed walkabouts from writing!
AND GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE NANO PARTICIPANTS!!
Write on!
--Speaking of which, I'm already a day behind and a day late. 632 words in the hole that I need to write on top of the new count for today.
Food for thought, peeps: No matter where you are in your writing career, DO NOT alienate your readers, and potential purchasers, of your novel. True, you are only one voice, but many single voices add up to substantial numbers. Think about it.
I HATE cleaning house, but I like the end product--A CLEAN HOUSE
My family claims to eat leftovers, but they DON'T.
--And they complain that I don't cook enough. At the time of this blog post, I have in my fridge from last week: Beef Enchiladas, Homemade spaghetti sauce, pizza--two kinds, and yes, I make my own crust, chicken tortilla soup, a big vat of chili, and a smidgen of homemade marinara sauce. Feel free to come over and chow down!
Let your writing sit for a couple of months, if you can, prior to your final polish. For some reason, I pulled up a picture book story that I wrote earlier this year. My comment, "Oooohhh.....crap!" Now this isn't to say that it was a rough draft, it wasn't. This story had been through about six edits--four of them documented into a new word document. I read three sentences and my fingers itched to rework it!
--I guess it is a good thing I never queried this particular story! :-)
Today is laundry day. Laundry day is usually a good writing day. Why? Because of the built in breaks. Don't look at laundry as a chore. Look at it as an opportunity to take those much needed walkabouts from writing!
AND GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE NANO PARTICIPANTS!!
Write on!
10/31/09
Recap of this week
Uh, not good, peeps!
But my kid won her soccer game today! WhooHoo!
Yeah, on the writing front not so good, BUT tomorrow starts NaNoWriMo! Now, I haven't signed up because I'm in the middle of writing my current novel, but it doesn't mean I can't play along! I have many friends playing the game and I intend to be there to cheer them on! AND one of my nieces sent me an email yesterday telling me that she wants to write a book! Yay! She has wanted to write a novel since high school and decided she would regret it if she never tried--so she's doing NaNo! Go, Jen!!
AND Candace Havens is having her Writing Game challenge starting tomorrow! I love this challenge! She randomly picks a number between 100 and 2500 words and that is your goal for the day, BUT you can bank your points for those days when you can't meet the goal--this is the weight watchers of writing! :-) Now, if you aren't writing new stuff, but are editing instead, she has goal pages posted.
I don't like the format I used this week, so I'm ditching it for my next week challenges. I'll try something new. Don't know what, but I'll pull it out of my a$$ and figure it out. I DO think accountability is a big thing.
Speaking of which, here are my totals for this week:
Margaret: 5449/15000 words written, 5 contest entries judged, scores, and commented--will verify scores and send back today
Jody: wrote some, tuned air guitar, partied hard on her birthday weekend
Karin: MIA, but anxiously awaiting grandbaby, did write 2000 words via FB contact and tried to unplug to write more
But my kid won her soccer game today! WhooHoo!
Yeah, on the writing front not so good, BUT tomorrow starts NaNoWriMo! Now, I haven't signed up because I'm in the middle of writing my current novel, but it doesn't mean I can't play along! I have many friends playing the game and I intend to be there to cheer them on! AND one of my nieces sent me an email yesterday telling me that she wants to write a book! Yay! She has wanted to write a novel since high school and decided she would regret it if she never tried--so she's doing NaNo! Go, Jen!!
AND Candace Havens is having her Writing Game challenge starting tomorrow! I love this challenge! She randomly picks a number between 100 and 2500 words and that is your goal for the day, BUT you can bank your points for those days when you can't meet the goal--this is the weight watchers of writing! :-) Now, if you aren't writing new stuff, but are editing instead, she has goal pages posted.
I don't like the format I used this week, so I'm ditching it for my next week challenges. I'll try something new. Don't know what, but I'll pull it out of my a$$ and figure it out. I DO think accountability is a big thing.
Speaking of which, here are my totals for this week:
Margaret: 5449/15000 words written, 5 contest entries judged, scores, and commented--will verify scores and send back today
Jody: wrote some, tuned air guitar, partied hard on her birthday weekend
Karin: MIA, but anxiously awaiting grandbaby, did write 2000 words via FB contact and tried to unplug to write more
10/30/09
Day Five
What a sucktastic week! I don't know what went wrong with my plan, but something sure flew out the window!
I had every intention of writing 15K this week. I know I could do it, as I have done it before, but I only have a little over four thousand words. Me thinks I'll need to find writing time this weekend.
Oh, and I believe I'll mention this again--What's up with giving my kid a day off?? Union is the only school in the county that seems to have done this. For goodness sakes, we just had fall break two weeks ago--then all last week my kid was sick, and on Monday she throws up! *sigh* the stars are aligned against me! Or is it a Halloween trick? Just for letting her out of the zoo, I'm taking her to her pediatrician for her H1N1 shot--BWAHAHAHA!
Margaret: 4544/15000 words written & 5 contest entries read, judged and commented on This was what I did yesterday! Entries were anywhere from 18-28 pages long. The scoring system had some redundancy, but rule-follower that I am, I followed. None of the entries stunk, but none of them really stood out. The ones that had a great voice, did poorly with dialogue, plot, conflict. And, of course, the ones that had a great plot fell flat in the voice and characterization department. One of those entries really stuck with me. No it wasn't the highest scoring one, but one that had a wicked WHAMMY! on page 18, the end of the entry. I'm going to go back to this one and offer some additional comments and suggestions. It was loaded with world building that needs to be cut to the minimum so the WHAMMY! is placed between 3-5 pages. Why? Because many agents will request a couple of pages with a query--send them your best stuff!
Jody: air guitar tuned and she even wrote a little. Resting up for a weekend of partying!
Karin: MIA but I found out via FB she intends to unplug this weekend and write, but I fear her grandbaby girl will have other ideas. Wouldn't it be cool to have a Halloween baby?
I plan to continue my writing challenge next week as I follow Candace Haven's challenge, beginning on Sunday. I want to get this stupid story down so I can start fixing it!!
Write on, peeps!!
I had every intention of writing 15K this week. I know I could do it, as I have done it before, but I only have a little over four thousand words. Me thinks I'll need to find writing time this weekend.
Oh, and I believe I'll mention this again--What's up with giving my kid a day off?? Union is the only school in the county that seems to have done this. For goodness sakes, we just had fall break two weeks ago--then all last week my kid was sick, and on Monday she throws up! *sigh* the stars are aligned against me! Or is it a Halloween trick? Just for letting her out of the zoo, I'm taking her to her pediatrician for her H1N1 shot--BWAHAHAHA!
Margaret: 4544/15000 words written & 5 contest entries read, judged and commented on This was what I did yesterday! Entries were anywhere from 18-28 pages long. The scoring system had some redundancy, but rule-follower that I am, I followed. None of the entries stunk, but none of them really stood out. The ones that had a great voice, did poorly with dialogue, plot, conflict. And, of course, the ones that had a great plot fell flat in the voice and characterization department. One of those entries really stuck with me. No it wasn't the highest scoring one, but one that had a wicked WHAMMY! on page 18, the end of the entry. I'm going to go back to this one and offer some additional comments and suggestions. It was loaded with world building that needs to be cut to the minimum so the WHAMMY! is placed between 3-5 pages. Why? Because many agents will request a couple of pages with a query--send them your best stuff!
Jody: air guitar tuned and she even wrote a little. Resting up for a weekend of partying!
Karin: MIA but I found out via FB she intends to unplug this weekend and write, but I fear her grandbaby girl will have other ideas. Wouldn't it be cool to have a Halloween baby?
I plan to continue my writing challenge next week as I follow Candace Haven's challenge, beginning on Sunday. I want to get this stupid story down so I can start fixing it!!
Write on, peeps!!
10/29/09
Day Four
Another non-productive day! :-( Again, no real reason except that it was chopped up and I couldn't get my mind around my story. My day is actually longer than posted, but in theory this is my writing time. No, I don't function AT ALL after dinner, so no late night writing for me!
8:15 submitted two first paragraphs (DC and RM) to Lori Brighton's contest to bejudged by Kensington editor. Both are in first person POV, not holding my breath. At least the top 20 will know that it 'fits' Kensington's lines.
8:35 walked kiddo to school
8:45-9:45 goofing off and blog hopping. Erica Orloff did an impromptu pitch feedback session. Subbed MOGG. Good feedback, needs a little more to make it better.
9:45-11:00 hubster called, meeting early for lunch, tried to get back to computer, but cat had vomitus ups issues, did laundry, cleaned up cat room--only to have to clean it again due to him using the litter box and sprinkling crunchies around the laundry room.
11:00-1:10 Lunch, shopping at fabric store, back to his work to get flu shot
1:10-2:00 Shopping at new Target. Of course, the layout is freaking different. And why the hell are the light bulbs near the baby clothes???? Okay, they are near the automotive and furniture area, too. But still across the freaking store?
2:00-3:15 put up groceries, stared at computer, updated FB status--felt like crap. Due to shot or front moving in?
3:20 got child from school
3:30-4:15 helped child with homework
4:15-6:00 started Chicken Tortilla soup while kiddo watched new Tinkerbelle movie, worked on my farm in Farmville
There you have it, my non-productive day broken down into segments.
Arm still hurts from shot, but my Tylenol PM did the trick and I 'feel' better, except for my shot arm.
Margaret: 4,504/15,000 completed--no new words. Okay, a few words, but I'm saving them for today's total.
Jody: No new words. Day job stuff. Tuning air guitar for Halloween/birthday weekend
Karin: MIA
I HAVE to get it together today. I just found out the kiddo is out of school tomorrow.
What's up with that Union School District???
Write on!
8:15 submitted two first paragraphs (DC and RM) to Lori Brighton's contest to bejudged by Kensington editor. Both are in first person POV, not holding my breath. At least the top 20 will know that it 'fits' Kensington's lines.
8:35 walked kiddo to school
8:45-9:45 goofing off and blog hopping. Erica Orloff did an impromptu pitch feedback session. Subbed MOGG. Good feedback, needs a little more to make it better.
9:45-11:00 hubster called, meeting early for lunch, tried to get back to computer, but cat had vomitus ups issues, did laundry, cleaned up cat room--only to have to clean it again due to him using the litter box and sprinkling crunchies around the laundry room.
11:00-1:10 Lunch, shopping at fabric store, back to his work to get flu shot
1:10-2:00 Shopping at new Target. Of course, the layout is freaking different. And why the hell are the light bulbs near the baby clothes???? Okay, they are near the automotive and furniture area, too. But still across the freaking store?
2:00-3:15 put up groceries, stared at computer, updated FB status--felt like crap. Due to shot or front moving in?
3:20 got child from school
3:30-4:15 helped child with homework
4:15-6:00 started Chicken Tortilla soup while kiddo watched new Tinkerbelle movie, worked on my farm in Farmville
There you have it, my non-productive day broken down into segments.
Arm still hurts from shot, but my Tylenol PM did the trick and I 'feel' better, except for my shot arm.
Margaret: 4,504/15,000 completed--no new words. Okay, a few words, but I'm saving them for today's total.
Jody: No new words. Day job stuff. Tuning air guitar for Halloween/birthday weekend
Karin: MIA
I HAVE to get it together today. I just found out the kiddo is out of school tomorrow.
What's up with that Union School District???
Write on!
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