Another confession (I'm a slacker)

Today is Monday, and for me this particular Monday follows a weekend full of absolutely nothing at all. Well okay, nothing in relation to revisions. Instead, I had a "date" on Friday night, spent most of Saturday adding all my CDs to a "rate your music" website (I have a lot more CDs than I thought, as it turns out!!), then on Sunday I caught up with the girls for snacks, coffee and a movie (we saw Water for Elephants - very cute movie).

So yeah, I'm a slacker. I've really fallen off the revision bandwagon. And oops, I have a Chrysalis story pick to do today. Better get on that... Speaking of Chrysalis, I've slacked off there too. Usually I will get around to every participant's blog and read their stories, but I haven't done that in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if I burned myself out on all this stuff in general! Hehe.

On another note, my fellow Chrysalis ladies and I are plotting something special for July - relating to JulNoWriMo but not relating to actual novel-writing, more like novel planning. It's going to be open to anyone who wants to participate. The details are not yet entirely figured out, but we'll get there. It'll be nice to have a break from short stories & get onto something different for a month.

I did get one thing done over this weekend though (other than my hair on Saturday) - and that was finishing another book. I read Mother Love, and you can see my (spoiler-riddled) review here. Now I'm onto reading Isobelle Carmody's Cat Dreamer, which is part of The Quentaris Chronicles that various authors write stories for. I'm just past page 50, and so far I like it!



So anyway, that's my current status...and I also haven't read any blogs over the weekend. So I need to get on that. But first thing's first - Chrysalis!

Rejection #1 (I feel all proper writer-like now!)

Today I'm going to talk about rejection, because I recently got my first one! This will also double as a bit of a confession (it's been a while since my last confession...). Today, I confess that I'm not ready to query! I shouldn't enter contests where the prize is a chance to send pages, or to have a partial or full manuscript considered, or anything like that. Why? Because I'm not ready. I know this. So from here on in, I'm going to remember it!

Anyway...my rejection story. A while back I entered one of those pitch contests with my MG project. I didn't win, but my 140-character pitch still got some attention. I received an email from pretty big deal agent, requesting that I send in my query and pages. Because I knew I wasn't ready for that, I wasn't expecting much to come of the whole affair. It was still flattering, and exciting. Still, I had to wonder if I should email back saying, "Sorry! I'm not ready! Entering that contest was a mistake!" Then I thought, how stupid - no way could I do that! So I did some last minute frantic revision, ending with a totally new query and a half-new first chapter (and no time to get either critiqued). I was happy with the changes, but still sensed I wasn't ready. Particularly as my word count remains just a little too high.

Turns out I was right - and rejected. However, it was one of those "nice" rejections. I was told I'm "a terrifically strong writer". My project got a lovely compliment too. It just wasn't suited to the agent in question. Maybe not to MG in general, either. This is something I've worried about, but I also think my introductory pages don't completely reflect the overall silliness of the story. Something I need to think about when I get to revisions.

Anyway, that's it - my first rejection! And all in all, I was pretty pleased with it. I've seen other writers blog lately about how they can't wait for their first rejection, because at least it means they're out there making a go of this writing thing! I know how they feel...and I now know the healing power of a good, kind rejection, too. :)

In other news, this is what happens when I don't pay attention. My former first chapter of SUNDOWN was an entrant in this contest, and I only found out after the voting week was over. D'oh! I got one comment, which came in today, and it was nice: "Good writing style! I'm not big on first person reads but this was done very well. Story pulled me in!" I'm pretty sure that's the only attention anyone paid to it (including me, the damn writer!) but I'm okay with that. That chapter is gone now anyway...

A confession

First off, between last night (at about 9:30 pm) and this morning (before 8:00 am), you guys wrote 52 blog entries!!! Cripes. No wonder I get so behind so quickly. ;)

To those who posted on the last entry, thanks! You gave me some focus.

Now, onto my confession.

I talk to myself as if I'm my characters.

It's actually to help me figure out what they would actually say. Oh, how I love me some dialogue. But only if it's realistic. I don't like stupid dialogue that nobody would actually say in reality. So yeah...my characters.

I'll talk it all out, the things they would say to each other, and then go and write it down. Unfortunately sometimes while I'm talking it out, I'm in the middle of my hallway trying to feed my cats, or vacuuming up bits of a dead cockroach, or I'm in the laundry getting my latest load of washing out. So I'm far from my computer or from a bit of pen and paper, too far to write anything down. But usually I can at least remember the gist of what "my characters" had been saying (with me as their mouthpiece).

So yeah. That's my confession.

Got anything embarrassing you want to tell me about your writing habits, to make me feel better??