MISSING: One Garden Gnome is in the mail, trucking it's way across the country to Delacorte Press in New York to be judged in the Delacorte Yearling contest for Middle-Grade Readers.
A few interesting stats about the contest:
--This is the 18th year for this contest, and was formerly known as the Marguerite de Angeli contest
--Award: $1500 cash prize and $7500 advance, plus bragging rights.
--since 1992 only 7 winners have been declared in those 17 years. Many years the award has gone unawarded
--Since 2000, only two books have won the award: 2004 Prizefighter en Mi Casa by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo, and in, 2007 Born to Fly by M. J. Ferrari
--Odds of my winning are virtually none
A few interesting stats about me in relation to this contest:
--I can meet a looming deadline: Granted, there was some freakage going on, but I DID IT!
--I think I finally found 'my' genre to write in
--I can write tremendous amounts of wordage in a two week period (> 30,000 words), puking it onto the page without an outline and only a loose idea where I was going with it.
--It is better to know your POV going into the story than to dick around with it during the story
--I can envision the cover of this novel: white background with Travelocity gnome statue centered on the page with Rory Leafhopper leaning against it with his arms and legs crossed. Never happened before.
--Puking out the story gave me 38K words. Second draft: 46K Third/polished draft: 47K Though tweaking will continue, I think I'm virtually finished with this story
--Idea conceived in late February 2009, some writing but mainly thinking accomplished in March and April 2009, with the majority of writing in May 2009, editing in June 2009
--If you have major POV changes it is better to rewrite it instead of trying to fix it, even if it is only a paragraph at a time.
--I still have problems writing emotion into the intense scenes, as I tend to rattle off what happens without digging deep.
--any additional edits will most likely involve deepening the emotional impact.
#1 thing I learned:
--don't say you can't do something until you really put your heart in it and try!
Write on!
--and I will be as I hammer out a synopsis and a query letter!
Showing posts with label tight deadlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tight deadlines. Show all posts
7/1/09
6/29/09
Beta Readers
I sent out the call for beta readers last Friday. Yes, it was a last minute SOS and I knew I would be pushing my luck getting anyone to respond to me by this AM.
--Remember: my deadline is tomorrow. I have only today and tomorrow morning to make the needed changes. The manuscript must be in the mail with tomorrow's time stamp on it!
Many people had stuff to do this weekend so I didn't expect a whole lot. So far I've only had 2.5 responses.
--#1 beta reader is my SIL and I talked to her last night. She journals and reads a tremendous amount of books. She's the only person, other than Deb Dixon, to read the entirety of The Leprechaun Connection. Oh, since I couldn't sell that story, I stole some of my characters and put them in this book.--HEY! It's my own stuff, I can recycle. Her input concerned the first two chapters. She felt as if I had changed POV. Well, I had. :-) From the mom's POV to the daughter's POV AND into first person. I need to rework the first two chapters, especially since the daughter thinks/speaks older than her age, BUT I have an answer for that and I hope this will fix the problem.
--#2 beta reader writes MG/YA stories. She had the same issues with the first few chapters and caught some stupid stuff (missing words, wrong word, wrong tense, missing -ed's, that sort of thing)
--#0.5 beta reader was only able to finish 1/2 the story. This reader is published by Harlequin American. Now, this reader was awesome! She found so many missing things that I'm in shock! Definitely, head-whacking stuff. It is amazing how the eye and brain supply the missing words.
--one friend, not counted as an official response, but still has a valid point, is published with Wild Rose Press, has critted for me in the past. She sent me a quick note questioning the main character's maturity for her age and offered a suggestion.
Two things stood out for me. Missing words and MC too mature. Both are fixable in my time frame.
1) I will offer a sound reason for my character's maturity in the first few pages. The scene is already in place, I just need to enhance it.
2) Find and fix missing words/tenses, etc. For me this will involve reading the story out loud. My jaw will get tired, but I'm game.
Heck, I've been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone out loud to my kiddo before she goes to bed, I think I can do this.
Write on! . . . or should this be . . .
READ ON! . . .
. . . and edit!
--Remember: my deadline is tomorrow. I have only today and tomorrow morning to make the needed changes. The manuscript must be in the mail with tomorrow's time stamp on it!
Many people had stuff to do this weekend so I didn't expect a whole lot. So far I've only had 2.5 responses.
--#1 beta reader is my SIL and I talked to her last night. She journals and reads a tremendous amount of books. She's the only person, other than Deb Dixon, to read the entirety of The Leprechaun Connection. Oh, since I couldn't sell that story, I stole some of my characters and put them in this book.--HEY! It's my own stuff, I can recycle. Her input concerned the first two chapters. She felt as if I had changed POV. Well, I had. :-) From the mom's POV to the daughter's POV AND into first person. I need to rework the first two chapters, especially since the daughter thinks/speaks older than her age, BUT I have an answer for that and I hope this will fix the problem.
--#2 beta reader writes MG/YA stories. She had the same issues with the first few chapters and caught some stupid stuff (missing words, wrong word, wrong tense, missing -ed's, that sort of thing)
--#0.5 beta reader was only able to finish 1/2 the story. This reader is published by Harlequin American. Now, this reader was awesome! She found so many missing things that I'm in shock! Definitely, head-whacking stuff. It is amazing how the eye and brain supply the missing words.
--one friend, not counted as an official response, but still has a valid point, is published with Wild Rose Press, has critted for me in the past. She sent me a quick note questioning the main character's maturity for her age and offered a suggestion.
Two things stood out for me. Missing words and MC too mature. Both are fixable in my time frame.
1) I will offer a sound reason for my character's maturity in the first few pages. The scene is already in place, I just need to enhance it.
2) Find and fix missing words/tenses, etc. For me this will involve reading the story out loud. My jaw will get tired, but I'm game.
Heck, I've been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone out loud to my kiddo before she goes to bed, I think I can do this.
Write on! . . . or should this be . . .
READ ON! . . .
. . . and edit!
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