BookingIt

If you all didn't know, over the holidays Agent Jessica Faust over at Bookends took pitches and randomly critiqued them. Of course I read through them and added one of my own. :-) Some pitches were good, interesting, succinct. Some were not. And some just made my brain hurt. In all of these, a common word began to pound at my eyes. MUST The hero must do this. The heroine must do that. But somehow the pitches were not setup in such a way that I felt like the protagonist "must" do anything. This is bad, but I'll confess it anyways. All those musts began to annoy me. I began to grit my teeth every time I saw one. Lesson: Don't use must. Just say what the protagonist decides to do. I just discovered this pet peeve, so I hope I haven't offended anyone with this post. It's only my opinion, which is only worth the value you give it. :-) Anyways, I thought you all would be interested in reading those pitches. It is a great exercise to see what works and what does...

Christmas is over, can you believe it? For my family it was a lovely time. No drama, no fighting, just yummy food and laughter. But now it's time to shake off the addictive lethargy of dark chocolate and apple pie and push myself back into the groove of things. My goals include finishing my wip before 2009, revising and submitting a different manuscript to an editor, and beginnning a new story. I also want to put my family before my writing and make sure they don't get shoved to the side. Which reminds me. I probably should make a goal of reading my Bible every day. It's ironic to sit down and write romances that glorify God, when I haven't even spoken to God before putting fingers to keyboard. But that's a post for another day. :-) My fears: Seeing my eldest off to kindergarten. How humiliating to know that I feel teary thinking about it, and this big event is months away. Finally, my dreams for 2009 include landing an agent or a contract. At this point in my writi...

For a blog break. :-) In the meantime- "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life." And- "...looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the JOY (that's us) that was set before him endured the cross..." It's my prayer that as you celebrate Christmas, exchanging gifts and hopefully experiencing joy, you'll know about the greatest Gift of all, given out of love. Given out of a passionate desire for relationship. Because of this, Jesus sacrificed himself to break the sinful divide. And he counted our being near to him as Joy. Sounds like Good News to me! Merry Christmas, everyone!

We watched Batman: The Dark Knight last night. It was very good. I couldn't help but contrast Batman to Ironman. Not the movies, but the heroes. In Batman, in his normal state, the hero comes across as suave, sophisticated and somewhat serious. (I thought) In Ironman, our hero is completely different. Rakish, a charmer. Hilarious too. Different personalities and yet both undeniably heroic. Have you seen these movies? What kind of heroic traits do you like to see in the male protagonist of a story?

A new blog is coming to town! Hosted by four fabulous writers, MuseTracks is going to cover all sorts of delicious writing tools, tips and probably gossip. LOL They just started so maybe you can pop over and check them out. Interested in a manuscript critique? Story Sensei is offering a discount on full critiques. Camy Tang is a good author and very knowledgeable about the craft. Her synopsis class was also super helpful. Then Susan Reinhardt has an interview with Linore Burkard . This author is especially interesting because she self-pubbed her first book and it was so good that a Harvest House editor asked to publish it. At least, that's what I've heard. :-) Recently, I read a bestseller that, while interesting, contained no character arc for the heroine. NONE. Then I found this excellent post by Amy Deardon and thought you guys might be interested in reading it. She brings up popular characters who are also static. (unchanging) What do you guys think? Do you agree? Have you...

I don't think I've posted about this before. A lot of people think passive writing is simply using the word "was". It's not. You can have 'was' in a sentence and it still be active. A passive sentence is one in which the action happens to the subject, rather than the subject performing the action. However, the word 'was' usually indicates weak writing. So check that manuscript! A word of caution. I'm reading a HUGE bestseller that's filled with 'was's. I keep mentally rearranging the sentences. So don't go overboard and change everything. Sometimes 'was' is necessary and sometimes it makes the sentence sound better. The important thing is that your writing zings. Watch out for passives and that will help propel your words to a stronger level. Here's some links to articles that say it better than me: http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/passive_writing.htm http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/284976/active_writing_...

After battling a cold and five little boys (lol) I'm tuckered out. So the next "real" post will be Tuesday. In the meantime, I have so many books that I want to do another book giveaway, but this time it's going to be a contest of sorts. I have a fun idea... And can't wait to see what you think. More on that later. At the risk of sounding corny, Happy Sunday everyone!