BookingIt

I've been in the midst of judging contests since November and I'm starting to see a pattern with entries, enabling me to see what I need to work on in my own writing. RUE Resist the Urge to Explain This manifests as telling most of the time. Good showing needs no explanation. A grin says more than "she was happy." RUE doesn't just occur in telling though. Sometimes the sneaky bugger pops into narrative (and there's a fine line, imo, between internal narrative and telling). For example, something will be said in dialogue or shown in action, and then we like to jump in and drop a few lines explaining what just happened. Just like in life, sometimes it's better to RUE. Another weakness I'm coming across is lack of conflict . I think many writers (including myself) make the mistake of thinking that bad things happening to our main character equals conflict. I've been pondering it though, and I'm beginning to realize that conflict cannot e

I'm busy in revision land, so I just wanted to throw out some encouraging shout-outs. I started reading the blogs of most of the bloggers below Pre-Agents/Pre-Publication, and now they all have contracts and/or books released. You never know when it'll happen to you! So here they are: Proof that writers CAN get pubbed. :-) Jody Hedlund I started reading her blog before she had an agent. Now she's on the bestseller list! Katie Ganshert I started reading her blog pre-Agent too, back when it was called Brain Throw-up (which I still think is genius! lol) Anita Howard Been reading her blog since before I had any commenters on my blog! Elana Johnson Yep, before she had an agent or a contract. Now look what she has coming out! Julie Jarnagin I met her after she'd received her contract but have to do a shout-out because her debut just released! Kristen Painter Was reading her pre-contract; now she has books coming out everywhere! I feel like I'm missing someone, so if it&#

When I first started writing, I did a lot of research. One of the things I began to notice was how long it took for authors to get published. The average, if I remember right, was 3-5 years from the point of starting to the point of contract. The numbers boggled me. Could I write for that long? With no guarantee? Of course, I could. It helped to think of the first few years as college. Still, I was overwhelmed by the thought of how long it took so I decided to stop thinking about it and just write, query, etc. About a year ago, I suddenly realized I'd been writing for three years. Somehow the time had flown by. How? Well, the best thing about publishing is that while there's a wait, there's also always things changing. For example, after I finished my first manuscript it took time to write the query. Then time to figure out who to send it to. And then I started a new story as I waited for responses. Between all that was editing and critiquing and contests. Basically, I'