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!!
You can still make it, Margaret!
ReplyDeleteI KNOW what's wrong with your plan!!!!
ReplyDeleteFarmville.
Try spending some time in WRITEville.
:)
I think I just finished judging the same contest that you did. I lucked out though-- for the first time EVER in a contest, I had more fabulous entries than poor ones. And since I had 9 to judge, well that says everything right there.
ReplyDeleteFour of my entries were outstanding.
1 was good
1 was okay
And 3 were ACK!! material.
Not bad odds for a change.
Hey, Trish!
ReplyDeleteI don't usually mind judging five entries, but I thinked I'd be a drooling idiot after NINE!
I judged one contest this summer where ALL of them were wonderful. Three were ready to submit--the other two had some issues, but they were easy fixes with some judicious editing.
I've had a few of those 'ACK!!' ones in my time.
--Uh, I have an ice pick you can borrow if you want to jab it in your eye and swirl it around. It's . . . uhm . . . less painful than some contest entries. :-P
I was honestly shocked when I got the nine.
ReplyDeleteAnd ROTFLMA about the ice pick. There was one entry where that ice pick might have really helped. lol
And the timing wasn't the best since I was pushing to wrap up the first draft of my WIP by Oct 31. Still, everything worked out great. I finished the rough draft on Friday morning and still had the afternoon and night to finish up the last two entries.
Why is it I always wait until the last minute to judge these things. I had way over a month, but I waited until the last nine days.
*shaking my head in disgust*
My problem with contest entries is the exact opposite. Just the idea that I have to do them drives me crazy--crazy enough that I can't concentrate on my own writing.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I signed up for any more this year, other than the Golden Heart . . . I hope.
I LOVE judging the GH. I can let the story pull me away into another world without worrying about scoring.
Now to get my $hit together and finish my GH sub!