The Misplaced Comma . . .

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!

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!

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!