With almost a whole week under our belts in this new 2013 can you say you feel any different? Still working on your diet, keeping up with your writing challenges, doing your exercises, etc.
I’m doing well. I’ve entered my second (week 16) of the Sinful Sunday Challenge and I’ve kept up with my writing. I also got a great rejection letter….I guess I should call it a growth letter. Why great? Well it gave me some information that was needed. I have a book called A Wish Granted that I wrote when I didn’t know much about writing. The first 15 pages won an honorable mention for me a few years ago with Passionate Ink’s Stroke of Midnight contest. I entered it in the Contemporary/ Category romance section. Not knowing the rule of category…like it shouldn’t be first person (mine is). I’ve had several people read this novel and love it but I should have known from the contest it would need work.
The highest score in the contest was 118. My three scores were 115, 112 and 58. You read the last one right Fifty Eight. I was happy that I’d found two people who really enjoyed what I wrote but was interested more in what the third judge thought was wrong. She gave me 3’s (equivalent to a C) in almost everything a few 4’s (equivalent to a B) and two 5’s (yay for A’s). The 5’s were for POV (which come on it was first person how could you screw that up) and my sex scenes that made me happy (of course). She may or may not have questioned my grasp of the English language and comma crimes (I did graduate from The University of Pittsburgh). I do admit there is a big difference between research papers and romance novels.
The judge #227 told me what she thought was wrong in every category on the sheet. I still have that because #1 the fact that she took the time to share what she thought was important and #2 as a writer I’m always interested in how I can improve.
Ok…so getting back to my rejection…I mean growth letter. The editor gave me her thoughts about how I could make the book better and I really appreciated it. I’ve had two other Growth letters for this same story and even though neither of them gave me an explanation (We’re going to pass but we hope you find a home for your story…blah…blah blah.) While each letter that says they don’t want your writing hurts it’s an easier pill to swallow when they tell you why. I know the reason they don’t is they don’t want to argue or debate with the authors, but for most of us. Especially the newbies it would be helpful if a little information to help them change what’s wrong with their MS.
So because of this I was looking into editing software to help me see some of the big problems like sentences that are too long and using my favorite words too often. I got ProWritingAid and can’t wait to see if it helps. You know I’ll keep you posted.
I don’t know who is even going to read this but I wanted to add a cute picture. How about the one that is helping me plot the Christmas novella I’m working on.
Leela Lou Dahlin 