Travel Often

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” — Rosalia de Castro

Love Deeply, but Laugh Along the Way

"Happiness is only real when shared." - Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

View Marriage as an Adventure

"Love is a flower which turns into fruit at marriage." ~Finnish Proverb

Fuel your body with GOOD (It's the only one you get)

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything. - Arabian Proverb

Open your Soul to Motherhood

A Grand Adventure is About to Begin - Winnie the Pooh

A New Kind of Love is Born

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.

Showing posts with label critique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label critique. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Love all year long contest

Writing Contest!

I'm participating in another writing contest for my completed manuscript. I'm super pumped about this contest because it's all about LOVE! Got to love me some LOVE!

I'd appreciate you taking a moment to read over my 750-word love scene and let me know if I can improve my writing, scene, hook, etc. Basically I want to know if you want to read more! Or if there are any glaring mistakes.

The rules: To enter this contest, you should post a love scene from a finished manuscript on your blog this Sunday, June 12th. The excerpt must have a maximum length of 750 words, but it could be less if it ends on a hook (remember, sometimes less really is more). There is no minimum word count. The scene we're looking for can show love in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of genres. The scene should be romantic, but not necessarily a kissing scene. We're looking for any kind of love here. Go here if you want to play!

The fabulous agent, Weronika Janczuk, of Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd. will be judging!

Wish me luck!

Title: WANTED: GROOM FOR MY $100K WEDDING
Genre: Women's Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Manuscript word count: 90,000

“Reservations for Jack Reid and Ella Dirks,” Jack explains to check in.

The short redhead with the turned-up nose hands him two cards. “Room nineteen-twenty-four, our fabulous royal suite. We’ve been expecting you two.”

My eyes bug out. “Royal suite?”

“There must be some sort of mistake,” Jack interjects. “We should be under two separate reservations.”

“Yes, we’re on Good Morning America tomorrow,” I explain in a panic as I grip the counter.

“Honey, I know who you are,” declares the redhead with a stern tone. “Your wedding is in seven weeks and this is your fiancé.” She points to Jack with an authoritative finger.

I shake my head. “No. No. You have it all wrong. I’m looking for a fiancé. This is just the editor-in-chief of the magazine sponsoring the dream wedding…”

She frowns and lets out a sigh as she taps her acrylics along the keyboard, shaking her head. I admire her careful bob as it manages to stay in perfect form. “Nope. That’s not what we were told. Enjoy your stay.” She slides to her right and waves over the next customer.

I open my mouth.

Jack’s large hand hooks my wrist. “It’ll be fine.” He pushes me along by the small of my back. “There’ll be plenty of room in the suite and we need to go to bed anyway.” He glances at his watch. “We're getting up in less than four hours.”

As we enter the three-bedroom suite, I realize Jack is right. Plenty of room. My eyelids grow heavy with each blink. I walk into my room and plop my suitcase on the large bed, falling back onto it. “I can’t believe I’m going to be on Good Morning America,” I say as my head adheres to the row of luxury pillows. I pump my feet along the mattress and let them slide over the Egyptian cotton sheets.

I roll to my side and glance at the clock. Fear creeps in as each minute ticks by. What questions will they ask about my wedding? Will they bring up how Chance left me? Will I say too much? Will America laugh at me? Will I cry…and on television? I swallow hard. A knock at my door startles me.

Jack walks in with a pillowcase wrapped around his head, blow dryer in hand, standing on his tiptoes. “Hello there Ella Dirks,” he speaks into the blow dryer sweetly. “It’s me Melissa Rycroft from Good Morning America and The Bachelor. I have a couple questions about your search for the perfect groom,” the pitch in his voice raises. He tilts the blow dryer from his mouth to my lips.

I roll over and laugh hysterically in my pillow.

“What? My hair not dark enough?” He showcases his hands over the pillowcase and smoothes the material. “My abs not flat enough like hers?” His mocked dainty voice catches and he coughs.

I continue laughing and he joins in, taking a seat next to me on the bed. I catch my breath and sit up. “Ohh, if you’re Melissa, does that mean you were also on Dancing with the Stars and have to dance for me?” I jump up and race over to the large sixty-inch flatscreen in the other room. I flip through the channels until I find one of the bumping music stations. I turn up the volume. “Okay, Melissa. Let’s dance.”

I begin pumping out the Roger Rabbit. He grins and pushes me aside as he moves his arms like a sprinkler. I grab my abs and let my head fall back in laughter. A slow song comes on and my head snaps forward. We both freeze. I bite my lip and study the freshly vacuumed carpet. Jack spins me around and pulls me in, holding me tightly against him. We sway back and forth and for a moment the world stops. I feel safe as I breathe in his wonderful soap smell and rest my head against his chest, listening to his heart drill against it.

As if something entered his mind, he steps back. “I’m sorry about that.” He clears his throat. “I’m sure you’re going to find a real nice groom, Ella. You’ll do great tomorrow. We should probably go to bed.” His brown eyes soften as he searches mine.

I shift my eyes to the floor, wishing he didn’t pull away, but push the thought from my mind. Would my future groom be watching me tomorrow on television? “Yeah, you’re probably right." We both walk into our rooms and close the doors. I spend the next few hours dreaming of my one-hundred-thousand-dollar wedding and the most perfect groom waiting to find me.

THANK YOU! And good luck to all the participants!!!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Why Manuscripts Get Rejected by Literary Agents

Time to get back to work writing!

February began my query process. And guess what? Today, yes, I'm still querying hoping to snag that one literary agent who screams, "I LOVE THIS! Yes! Yes! Yes!" (i.e. the one who LOVES my story, my writing...and me as a person:))

Bite they have. I can't ignore this or get discouraged either (though it's so easy to)! I feel like I get so stinkin' close (so close) and then "poof" it's back to focusing on sending out more query letters again. I can't wait to show off my color-coded excel agent-tracking system someday on here. It's kind of like planning for my wedding all over again! Yeah!!

I needed one of my critique chicks - the awesome Julie Lindsey - to remind me today that she believes someone will sink their teeth in my mss. She mentioned some of her writer friends have received close to a hundred "no thanks" from agents and can't seem to get past the query stage. I've been able to get past it.

In the meantime, I'm working on making my manuscript (mss) better. 

Julie is right - I'm able to stir up some interest. But I can't help and think, if I haven't received a solid "yes", does that mean something is more than wrong with it? I've been very fortunate to have some really great agents read my work. They were kind enough to spend time writing back personal emails saying the story is definitely there and they like it but what I need is an agent who loves it and they believe he/she is out there; it's just not them.

Sigh.

But they know these things! I trust what they're saying. And so appreciate the feedback!

I also have a few literary agents who still have a partial or full right now, and I'm praying and hoping something is going on behind the scenes and that's why I haven't heard back from them just yet. (Have I mentioned I live in bit of a fantasy world?)

I have this email saved from my other critique pal Gabi that's a perfect analogy [for me]. She used my husband as an example. Back in my 20s, I wanted to get married so frickin' bad and was fed up with playing bridesmaid 20 million times and watching everyone else fall hopelessly in love. When would it be my turn?? I dated a lot of frogs, something was always off...my patience wore thin. Blah, blah, blah. Sometimes I wanted to pull my hair out or cry myself to sleep wondering if I was destined to be single. Would someone magical be out there for me? Were all the good ones taken? Well, well, well....someone perfect did come along at just the right time. Took timing, learning and letting go to get there, but he sure was someone I fell totally head over heels for and he the same for me. And it's still happening day after day. I can't thank God enough for what we have. And that's what I need in an agent. Okay, okay...not all that lovely dovey stuff, but an agent who's crazy about my writing! Someone who supports me and wants to cheer for me and wants to see me grow and light up the world.

I want that. I deserve that.

However, I can't help myself from researching some of the other reasons my manuscript might have been rejected. I know agents are crunched for time. There has to be more to it and I'm on a mission to learn and grow. This is my dream we're talking about here and I can't just throw in the towel. Here's what I've found from several bloggers, agents, etc.

It's time to get to work!

Note: If you click on some of the highlighted words, they'll take you to the whole article.

1. Mechanical Problems
2. Passive Voice
3. Stale story ideas
4. No recognizable genre
5. Unsuitable word length
6. Too many adverbs (and flowery words/purple prose)
7. Predictability
8. Too many killers
9. Out of control point of view
10. Prologues that don't work
11. Plot with no spine
12. Writer uses phrase "fiction novel"
13. Doesn't seem organic/authentic
14. Too complicated
15. Too boring
16. Writer offers no reason to care for the character
17. Slipping into a sliding point of view
18. Too many stock characters
19. Too "moral"
20. Writers says how great book is over and over
21. Too many cliches
22.Unpleasant tone and attitude
23. Pacing is off
24. Genre isn't doing well
25. Bad dialogue
26. Not having the protagonist involved in climax
27. Spending too much time at the beginning on the story on a character who seems to be a protagonist but isn't.
28. Story starts too slow
29. Too many characters introduced too quickly (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has this and made it big. Hmmm)
30. Too much backstory
31. Flashbacks too early and too often
32. Story starts too quickly

For those who've had their mss rejected, what have you noticed? Please share!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

312 Words of My Manuscript

312 Words Birthday Bash!

I'm participating in a fun little birthday party event from the ever-so-awesome Gabriela Lessa (Happy Birthday!) from my critique group. Not only are we celebrating her, she wants everyone in on her party! Yes, she's that cool. She asked authors and writers alike to post the first 312 words of their manuscript on his or her blog. Today she'll review by going to each participant's blog. The top 12 winners get critiques from an awesome agent: Lora Rivera of Claire Gerus Literary Agency!!! How exciting, right?  So below is the first 312 words of my manuscript Wanted: Groom for my $100K Wedding. No less. No more. For everyone else, let me know if I have you hooked or if you're ready to take a snooze.

Title: Wanted: Groom for My $100K Wedding
Genre: Women's Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Status: Completed and querying!

First 312 words below....

Eyes fixate on the eighteen of us the moment we stumble in, frozen and sober. I force a cough. Anything is better than the glares tallying at record speed on the hundreds of guests’ faces. Their overwhelming reaction transforms the hairs on the back of my neck into cactus needles, and the experience serves to emphasize what I’ve been feeling most of the day: singled out. Empty beer bottles spill over the open bar and a handful of servers slouch in the corner of the grand hall, defeated. To a degree, I’m okay with the ring bearer wailing at the top of his lungs. Can’t the DJ play some music?

If only I had my BlackBerry, I could tweet instead…

A quick glance over my shoulder, with a clear shot of the narrow hallway, I spot an escape route—restrooms. Since our grand entrance no one appears near or around my safety net. And it’s only a matter of time before guests circle the bride and groom and start asking questions.

Frostbite manifests over my skin thanks to the short, cobalt blue bridesmaid dress and slingback heels I’ve been forced to wear in January. I continue coughing and dodge away quietly for cover.

Every muscle from my curvy backside pushes the lavish, oak door shut and I rest my head against it, inhaling freedom. The scents of fresh ivory and sweet pea fills the air and awakens memories of being a little girl, twirling in a wedding gown ten sizes too big in Gram’s pink powder room, my best friend Tony drowning in Gramps’ blue suit. And the promise he made.

The sound of a woman’s voice causes me to jump. “Who allows a caterer to run out of food at a wedding?”

As I make my way over to the vanity, three sets of shoes shuffle within the row of stalls.