Christmas memories of a child bookworm

I passed my first bell ringer for the Salvation Army yesterday, and last night, I saw several homes in my area already decorated with Christmas lights. So as I pondered what to write today, my thoughts turned to Christmas.

When I was in third or fourth grade, I received one of the best Christmas presents of my life – I got an entire boxed set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

I loved these books. By the time I received the set, I’d already read all the books, probably multiple times. But that didn’t matter. The fact that I had my very own collection was a really big deal. The books smelled new and were in perfect condition, and fit together inside a special display box. And I cherished them. They captured my heart and my imagination.

I remember Christmases in the Big Woods with only a peppermint candy stick in a sock stocking for Laura and Mary, and the Christmas that Laura got her rag doll, Charlotte. There was the Christmas on the prairie where Mr. Edwards crossed the swollen creek, and the Christmas when Almanzo braved a blizzard to get home to see Laura. (Probably the first ‘romance’ I ever read!)

Today, the collection is still complete, though the pages of the books show their years with yellowed edges, a few dog-eared. I rarely flip through them anymore, and they didn’t seem to touch my daughter the way they did me, although she, too, has always been an avid reader. These books from my childhood are still part of my library, sitting in a place of honor on my shelves, and I love having them.

woo-hoo

Woo-hoo! Cha-cha-cha. Woo-hoo! Cha-cha-cha!
That's the sound of me doing a little dance. Just completed the "final" edits on my manuscript. It is d-o-n-e. Done!
Now it's time to hit the contests and send the queries. Calling all agents . . .

what's the rush?

One of my favorite romance authors is Judith McNaught. I was hooked after reading just one of her books – Paradise. Since then, I’ve read many of her novels, and read them many times.

When I began thinking about writing some stories of my own, I went back and read through a few of my old favorites, including a couple by McNaught. It’s funny, but this talented, New York Times bestselling author just might have a hard time if she were starting out today.

I’m guessing she’d be told that her story starts in the wrong place. Not enough action. There’s waaaay too much back story. No body cares. Chop, chop. The pacing is too slow. Get to the point.

In Paradise, the heroine doesn’t even meet the hero until page seventy-six! Copyrighted in 1991, the book is twenty years old. Yes, I get that times have changed. People supposedly have less time to read (never mind that each generation thinks they’re the busiest ever) and won’t tolerate pages that aren’t action-packed from the get-go. Sadly, impatient give-it-to-me-quick readers will miss a few gems.

There's a light

Thirty chapters. Ninety-two thousand words.

Critiquing Confusion

Feedback is a good thing. A critique group is a good thing. But too many opinions from multiple sources can be too much of a good thing!

Too much critiquing can, in fact, muddy the water and be more confusing than helpful when you're trying to edit and improve a manuscript. I recently paid to enter a couple of contests in order to get some constructive feedback from other writers. It turned out to be almost a waste of time and money because so many of the judges' comments were in direct conflict with each other. While one judge loved the first couple of lines of my story, the other judge was not impressed. One was unsure of the conflict and where the story was headed, while the other loved the multiple conflicts and thought it might be hard to get everything resolved by the end of the story. One judge gave one of my manuscripts a 5; another gave the same manuscript an 8.5 (on a 1 to 10 scale).

I ended up no further along than I was before entering the contest. Which judge should I believe? I didn't know their background, what kind of books they read or write or whether they were published or unpublished authors.
A critique partner recently had a very similar situation -- so much conflicting feedback, that she simply had to put her manuscript away for a couple of weeks because she was so confused on which direction to go.

So what's a writer to do? When it comes down to it, we decided, you have to like your story. You have to like the flow, the characters, the plot, the scenes, the conversations. Reminds me of a song from a ways back -- You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself.
Truly, there are hundreds of thousands of books out there, and they don't all appeal to the same people equally. Just because one person doesn't "get it" doesn't mean the next person won't love it.

My thinking is that you take the information you get and study it, listen to what makes sense to you and discard the rest. If you get the same response from two or three trusted readers, consider yourself lucky and go with it. It's so fun when both of my critique partners make the same comment about one scene, character, sentence, word, etc. That's when I know I can confidently make a change that strengthens my manuscript. And that's a good thing!

Good news!

And now for a bit of good news . . . I was notified over the weekend that I made it through the first-round judging of a writing contest I entered a couple of months ago! The flash-fiction contest is sponsored quarterly by Women on Writing. I entered two pieces, a middle-grade coming-of-age-type story, and a snipet from my current work in progress, which is a women's novel with romantic elements.
At a maximum count of 750 words, both entries are very short.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure which one is moving on to final judging. But I'm excited for the chance to get my writing in front of agent Elaine Spencer from The Knight Agency. She handles both of those kinds of writing.

It seems that I'm getting just enough little positive tidbits to keep me from trashing everything and giving up on the whole writing/publishing endeavor. Guess I'll take that as a sign to keep plugging away!

Critique Group

A critique group! I finally have one – and it's working very well.
Just three people, all serious about getting published, meeting once a week.

The good news is that we seem to be clicking, each of us making progress, and enjoying the process. So far the comments have been valuable, their input helping me see where my manuscript is dragging, what needs cutting or expanding, etc. And so far I don't think anyone's had their feelings hurt. :-)
The bad news is that even though I've almost accomplished my goal of hitting 80,000 words by the end of the month, I still have a lot of work to do! Lots of re-writing and re-thinking. In the end, though, it will be a stronger, more compelling story.

It wasn't easy pulling this together. Had a couple of false starts. Worked with one gal who just couldn't move along as fast as I wanted to. Was invited to join another group, but they rarely met and they read only a few pages at a time – and out loud. I hate that. So finally, I think I have something that's working!
Can't wait to toast success with these ladies. I'm confident we'll each get there eventually!