Contest Heirarchy of Novel Warfare

Ah, contests. They either lift you up or grind you into the ground. It takes pretty thick skin to enter writing contests. The judges have no vested interest in your work like a crit partner or friend might. But that's not what I'm writing about today.

Why enter contests? Almost every RWA chapter runs a contest for unpublished authors every year. For them it's a way to draw attention to their chapter and make money for the programs they provide for their members. For the person entering? It depends on where you are in your writing career. Because it's usually not for the first prize. Which can be your entry fee back or a cool trinket (I've gotten a crystal heart pendant and am getting a cake serving set)

When you are just starting out sending out to a contest is a test of sorts. How well received will my first pages be when I send them to an agent or editor? The feedback from 1st round judges vary. Some make you think you could be the next Sherrilyn Kenyon and others make you think you'd be better off as a fry cook. But these are people who don't know you and that's important. They don't have to be harsh, but they can be real about what they think. If they are allowed to be feedback. Something to be aware of when looking for a contest. This can be a testing ground for an idea you aren't sure about.

When you start to get better at writing (which you should always be getting better), you enter contests because of the final judge or judges. Maybe it's your dream agent or editor. This is the real prize. Some editors will tell you what they like or dislike about your entry, but generally they'll just rank you among the other two entries. However, the real prize is the request for a full. This lets you bypass the query stage and the editor slush pile. You get to write "Requested Materials" on your envelope.

Obviously, the MS needs to stand up to the expectations of the piece you submitted to the contest. When L.A. Cinderella won the Marlene, I got a cool heart pendant and a full request. This eventually led to Silhouette Special Edition buying my book. With Fallen, I placed 2nd in the Golden Gateway which gave me a free membership to FTHRW, but I also got a request from the final editor who is on my list when this MS gets done again.

Finally a Bride contest is an interesting contest. You can enter this contest if you've finaled in a contest during the year but didn't get 1st place. So the entries are all top notch to begin with. Making it to the finals was amazing. Winning and getting a request is crazy. So I'm happy as a peach.

One final note on contests, the Golden Hearts is the contest put on by RWA National. You get a number score and that's it on your MS, but if you happen to final, you get noticed by agents and editors. It's the equivalent of winning a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. You may not get the keys to the factory at the end, but the ride will be really cool.

Cheating

So I've given myself a little leeway while waiting for my Beta readers to get back to me on Exposed. I started the followup to Exposed and then got stalled on the heroine's career. So I turned to FALLEN. Yes, I enjoy beating a dead horse. Actually I'm enjoying it a lot more the third time around. I cut it back to around 3000 words. I've always loved the opening, but the book didn't keep the promise of the opening. This time it will. I sure hope at least. Why cheating then? Well, as soon as I ship off Exposed to my agent, it's back to Charm. I need to finish my proposal for a three books series and I need to develop the series overview for FALLEN, which will be changing names after the pleathora of FALLENs that have been flooding the market. *sigh* That would be my fault for having to rewrite it over and over again.

Done Again!

The ending wasn't the best on Exposed, so I rewrote the ending. I ended up with a lot of words and will be sending to another set of crit partners to look for all the stuff I missed, including missed opportunities. Never underestimate a good critique relationship. If you find someone who finds what you miss, grab on and hold.

I also have a new design on my website and blog. Check out the links above for the home page. I'm excited about L.A. Cinderella's upcoming release. At some point I'll get back to my paranormal, but the characters are talking for my category romances.

Done!

Alright, my next attempt at SSE is done as of today. It stands at 59K but will need tweaking. Yay! I finished. I finished. Yes, I'm doing the happy dance. My line edits for L.A. CINDERELLA are staring at me from the end table. So those are next. I sent my agent my plan for rewriting FALLEN and am waiting to hear back on that. Yay! So I've got stuff to do, but I finished one thing, kind of. Woot!

I Haz a Sad

So I still have a few thousand to go on Exposed and now I have major rewrites on Fallen. I knew something was off base with it and in the back of my head I probably recognized all the issues that I didn't want to rewrite all over again. But now, I'm working on restructuring the plot and as soon as I finish Exposed, I'm going to write the heck out of Fallen. That means NaNo is a no go, since you are supposed to start a new project. :( Hopefully I'll be able to schedule so I can do a project in NaNo next year. Will I write 50,000 words this month? Quite possibly and it's still a goal. So I may still use the NaNo meter to track progress, but I won't be confirming my win, if I make it to 50,000 words on three different MS.

NaNo

Well, for me so far NaNo has been mostly No. As in very little progress on the NaNo book. First off I want and need to finish Exposed (not the whole title, I like to keep you guessing), see off to the side I put a shiney new ticker just for it. I'm flowing into the black moment and found that trying to write on the NaNo while this one was screaming at me to be finished just wasn't going to work out. So I will be cramming for NaNo once I finish this one. I love my Hollywood flavored books. So hoping my editor will love my next one too.

I get to watch E! and read People and claim it's research. I also get to look up things like the Oscars and fabulous clothing and shoes. My most recent was London movie premieres. The Leicester Square Odeon is the movie theatre. They even have a live webcam which is sweet and can spur a whole new array of ideas. Okay, back to my characters. Cheers!

This Year is Amazing

FALLEN is a finalist in the Finally a Bride contest sponsored by Oklahoma RWA and I'm seriously bouncing for joy. I scored my first ever perfect score. Anonymous judge, I think I love you. I'm working on getting the final packet ready to go off to the final editors...that's right, editors. Two to be precise. Yay!

I am working on finishing up my next potential SSE(Silhouette Special Edition) and have started NaNo. For NaNo, I've decided to do FORSAKEN. The beginning needed a rewrite, but I'm finding it very difficult to get into the story with the SSE rattling around in my brain. So to focus I'm going to finish the SSE as quickly as possible and hopefully still manage to write the 50K needed on FORSAKEN for NaNo.

I'm going to be missing my writing partner, Kristi, for NaNo this year. I completely understand her position and should have probably skipped it this year as well. She was my main driving force the past two NaNos since she has younger children than me and a full time job. If she could do it, damn it, so could I. :) Not that there aren't others out there to motivate me and Kristi probably wasn't even aware how competitive I'd become with her :).

My agent (woohoo!), Becca Stumpf from The Prospect Agency, is looking over FALLEN and supporting me as L.A. Cinderella makes its way through the jungle of publishing. Together we'll whip FALLEN into something fabulous.

Okay, gymnastics is about over. Hey, a busy mom has to find time somewhere and thank goodness for my new Mini. Dear Mini, I think I'm in love. Happy writing and if you see me online, ping me I'm always up for a sprint or two. :)