Carolyn's Blog

Saturday, March 29, 2003

87,475. Now, though this may seem like I'm going in the wrong direction, I'm not. I have the ending pretty much the way I want it. Feeling pretty good about things right now. Been thinking about Griffin Farrer. I wonder how fast I could rewrite that?

(0) comments

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Well, gosh. I promised Kate I would have the completed MS for The Spare in the mail on June 16, but she emailed me and said she'd put July 1 in the contract, which gives me two additional Mondays. So, now I have to get cracking. Will do. Can do. Only Sunday eve I went to bed at 1:am and got up a 5:00am and then Monday night to bed at 11:45, up at 5:00am and now I can hardly keep my eyes open. Anyway, to bed because I need my brain to write.

(0) comments

Well, my agent says Leisure Books wants The Spare and I've left her a message telling her to accept. Nothing signed yet, of course. But this is good news considering how much I was stressing over it.

(0) comments

Monday, March 24, 2003

89,206. Ahem. Never mind (well, mostly) the last post. I've already been there (the "I should just quit because obviously I can't do this" there) and realized before that I still wouldn't stop writing stories, which I also realized again. If I'm going to keep writing them, I might as well keep trying to sell them. So, yes, I cut a bunch of stuff from the end, it was boring and off point. And I have reordered the ending chapters - what a shock. Have had a couple more emails from people who enjoyed Lord Ruin, that's really nice to hear. So, I should be fixing those ending chapters right now. I'm recognizing a pattern which is that I write/fix a couple of sentences then jump up and walk around or futz around with, oh, say, a blog or something, thinking "What do I do next?" (Plus imagine a panicky desperate feeling and the hope that someone else will have fixed it while I was out.) and then I go back and .... You see?

(0) comments

Saturday, March 22, 2003

91, 876. Still feeling discouraged. Have been here before. But maybe this is too hard, I should just give it up.

(0) comments

Am working away at The Spare. I have a mood today. And that mood is - well, despair up front with determination to fix it behind. Interesting. I feel like I made a mistake sending the material I did to Leisure. I believe I'll have a really compelling story when it's done, but it isn't perfect yet and hasn't been reviewed by anyone but me. Just day before yesterday, I layered in some additional material and corrected a logical error about my heroine and have now got more complexity.

I've been pretty active on the email lists etc but I'm feeling perhaps that I should not be any more. Lately, there's been a lot of complaining about judges (not me because I haven't done any lately) and I must say it's disheartening to hear about judges who don't temper their remarks or who make what seem like hurtful comments (telling people to give up) But there's a flip side to that which is what about all the writers who can't hear the suggestions? I'm sorry, but if you want to succeed in this business, you have to sigh be able to hear messages that your work needs improvement. Besides, that's one of the risks of contests. The point is NOT to win, not really. The point is to get feedback so that you can revise your work and get it to an editor who wants to publish your story.

(0) comments

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Hmm. Made some really interesting tweaks to Chapt 1 yesterday. Am feeling better about the state of this. Will have additional changes to the full MS in by this weekend, I think. Then fix up the end and see if sigh I can get it in front of some critiquers. btw, I have been plotting Emily and Devon and am feeling better about them, too. I think I'll have a nice little story cooking along.

(0) comments

Sunday, March 16, 2003

90,446. Well darn. Blogger ate the post this should have been. Not a happy camper. Ok, quick recap. First, I joined then unjoined a critique group and got nothing done for my work. What a freaking waste, I'm really annoyed with myself for this. Someone took issue with my critique and really, truly went off on me in an email made public to other members of the list. I don't have time for that kind of, well, forgive me, but that nonsense. Example, I spent one sentence to point out a consistent punctuation error and she replied that she knew her punctuation is wretched and how dare I bring it up. I also told her her story was good but I felt she was perhaps not taking full advantage of the hero she started out with and who was not present in the rest of the work. You know what, in all those long horrid years when I was really really struggling with issues exactly like hers, I wish to heck I'd been an RWA member and getting help (however painful) from writers who had paid their dues. Trust me, I have paid mine. And then there was another member whose work was fantastic. I am so jealous of her, except for this one thing, which is she stopped working on it. Well, shoot. I could just bop that woman on the head for depriving me of her story and I'll just say this: Less competition for me.
So, The Spare. Working on it. Improving it. Reordered some chapters (!!) Going well. Fixing stuff. Adding spark where there wasn't any. And need to find a critique group with some people who have their heads screwed on right.

(0) comments

Sunday, March 02, 2003

89.5K, Ouch! My cat just jumped on my neck. And the other one's shedding on my printer. This is, uhm, Sunday. I am in the dumps. Very far down. I fixed parts of The Spare, yes, parts that I sent to Dorchester. I like the Spare. The Spare is really good, but I am a complete and utter idiot for ever sending anything that isn't done and hasn't been in front of a critique group. Tomorrow is my get-up-at-5am-like-usual-but-work-on-writing-instead-day. I have to get all the way to the end of the story before I can make the beginning as good as it should be. This is me, slapping self upside the head.

(0) comments

Twitter Updates

follow me on Twitter