Ah, I Hear Voices

If you've ever been in a conversation with a writer, you'll slowly wonder if she's actually going insane as she prattles on about the characters that talk to her or interrupt what she's doing. What is it really that goes on in our brains? Well, there are characters and plots roaming around up there. Do we actually hear "voices"? Yes and no. The voices don't tell me to do things or try to control my life. What they are are the characters I've made up revealing themselves to me. They are ideas, conversations, discussions, concepts. They are integral to me actually being able to write. I don't tell the story. My characters do. I don't plot the story. I may have a plan that the characters may or may not choose to do as they reveal their personalities and what makes them special.

Is this the unique voice editors and agents go on about? I think so. Because I have a certain style of writing, but the way it's written is determined by the character whose point of view I'm in. Each character thinks about things differently, expresses him/herself differently. They build the novel not be. I just take dictation from the voices in my head and help them when they get stuck on a word or two. To work on your voice, you have to listen to the characters or in other words walk the story in his/her shoes.

Sven is Back

70 Days of Sweating is back. Go over and see if this writing challenge is more your speed. 1000 words a day for 70 days.

Contest Found

Greyhaus Agency is having a contest from Oct 1 - Oct 31 for category romance writers. Look here about half way down. Because of my word count and the type of stories I write, they might be a fit for Silhouette Nocturne. I don't have a lot to lose, I have Fallen complete and have ideas for multiple stories along the same line. I would love for Fallen to be a single title, but unless I can figure out or have help in bulking it up. But I would be very satisfied to find it at Harlequin. Sharing with the rest of you who may have ideas for category romances.

Progress

I has it! Too much LOLCats. I've made some good progress over the last few weeks and hope to make more tomorrow. I've decided to do NaNo with a Silhouette Desire I plotted out for a class I was taking. But I'm going to keep going on Forsaken as well, which may get complicated. Category romance has a certain voice and the characters won't be in life threatening situations, the emotions will be stronger and the drama will be full force. Now, what a minute, emotions are strong in both stories. Hmmm. Well, they are different. One's about an accountant **grin** and her boss and the other's about Fallen angels and a daemon hunter. Desires are supposed to be between 50-55k according Harlequin's submission guidelines. So here's hoping. I'm using Forsaken as a treat as long as I have my word count caught up for the Desire. Okay, back to work.

Blogs I Visited Today

http://www.routinesforwriters.com/2008/10/21/nanowrimo-building-an-outline-karen-wiesner/ - linked from my Endurance Writing group - on outlining for NaNo

http://www.knightagency.blogspot.com/

http://varkat.livejournal.com/ - Article by Marjorie M. Liu on urban fantasy

http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/ - I swear I started this before I visited her blog.

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/ - Interesting article about agents and selling

http://raleva31.livejournal.com/ Nothing new

http://theswivet.blogspot.com/ She makes me laugh and I had to follow her link to http://www.darkfantasy.org/fantasy/?p=1018

http://www.pbackwriter.blogspot.com/ - Reviserable - Another John and Marsha installment

http://www.alisonkent.com/blog/ - Still on Hiatus

http://70daysofsweat.com/wordpress/ Nothing new

http://www.amiestuart.com/blog/ - One of my first crit partners

http://www.naughty-and-spice.com/2008/10/21/an-open-letterto-everyone/ - Amie's post at NAS

http://skimdecafmochawithwhip.blogspot.com/ - Damn everyone has new posts. I'm glad to read them, but when it all happens on one day it's a bit much. I'm not blaming you, Kristi, it's just what blog I was on. Kristi's the best. You should read her blog. :)

Last but not least http://bibliothecariusalpha.blogspot.com/ - Merry, I found through NaNo last year when I lived in Sheffield, England. She lives in Derbyshire (darbysure) which I miss immensely.

Fortunately, I've already done 2700 words today, so I don't feel guilty for looking through blogs. Sometimes I go through a few more. Like, all of the ones listed on the side.

FAB Contest Entries Back

Okay, so three judges and drop the lowest score. 97, 96 and 75. From this I know competition was fierce because those are some pretty good scores. The 75 didn't like the story and thought it might work for erotica, which made me laugh. While the story is filled with sexual tension, there is very little sex. I did try to downplay the first scene which has the heroine making moves on someone that creeps her out. I tried to inject it with this guy is creepy and I'm only doing this to capture him. While it works for some, it didn't for this judge. She made comments on the judging score sheet and was very thorough as to why she marked me down. I know how hard it is to judge a contest and trying to be objective while you really aren't into the story.

Regardless, I did well with two judges and am thrilled to bits. I just hope agents like my writing as well as they did. Everyone's comments are important and I'll be looking at the first chapter with critical eyes particularly the 75 judge's eyes. I'm a bit of a comma less person, which got me docked. Commas are wonderful things, really. I just don't use them as often as I should. Fortunately, I've got a crit partner who is the comma police. Wow, I can't wait to find out what the other people scored. They are sending out a matrix at the end of November.

Need to Know More About An Agency

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=151221&postcount=2

http://www.agentquery.com/

I'll post about the agencies I've researched too. But these are a couple of good starting points. If you are a member of RWA, they have a listing of agents and what they are looking for as well.