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Articles

Winning Contests 101
Emotion: Its a Complex Thing
The First Sale Paradox
Now What?
The Pits of Pitching Hell
Uh, Who Are These People and What Do They Want?
You Thought You Were Done?

Winning Contests 101

I’ve had some relative successes on the RWA contest circuit recently.  Not as many wins as some, but enough.  And while I’d like to think my stellar storytelling abilities have garnered this success, I know that isn’t the truth.  Or rather, it isn’t the whole truth.  Certainly, I couldn’t have gotten as far as I have without some natural ability, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret. 

It takes more than talent to succeed.

So what tiny tidbits of knowledge can I share that might help you succeed as well? 

Know Why You’re Entering

If feedback is what you hope to gain from plunking down your pesos then that’s what you should focus your attention on.  Ask around to find out which contests provide the best feedback, the most detailed score sheets, the ones that encourage judges to write detailed remarks.  Or even, the ones that guarantee published authors for every entrant in the first round.  And then don’t be disappointed if you don’t place.  Keep your eye on the prize and what’s most important to you and your career at this moment. 

If finaling and recognition are number one on your hit list, then enter the more prestigious contests, the ones editors, agents and other unpublished writers immediately recognize.  Ask for recommendations at your local chapter meetings and/or on message boards.  Ask published authors which contests they participated in before they published and which helped them the most or garnered them the most recognition.  In short, do your homework.

If you’re looking for perks along with your win then concentrate on those contests that provide more than your name on the winners list.  I’ve seen several ultimate prizes offered: cold hard cash, a golden heart necklace, a rose pin, or even an alpha smart.  One contest provides the entry fee for the national convention to the overall winner.  Pick which ones offer something you’re interested in and spend your money wisely.

If getting your baby in front of a prize editor is your end goal, then you need to concentrate on contests in which that editor is a final round judge.  And possibly on the lesser known contests.  The smaller contests tend to have less competition – you’ll still get that editor’s attention if you final but that final might not carry as much weight/recognition as some larger contests.  You also need to make sure your work will stand out amongst the twenty to fifty or even several hundred other entrants who are targeting that editor with the same type of manuscript you just sent off in a pristine priority mail envelope.

Know What You’re Entering

Entering an inspirational manuscript into the long contemporary category the senior editor at Harlequin Blaze is set to judge might not be the best move.  Or it might be depending on what you want to accomplish.  Just be aware that most of the competition will probably be manuscripts targeted to Blaze.  That might help or hurt you depending on your first round judges.

If the guidelines ask for a specific amount of pages, don’t feel you must stretch to fill the requirement.  Stop your entry at an intriguing and high-tension moment.  You want the judges to flip that last page and groan because they want the next page/chapter/scene to read. 

And always assume anything you send in will be judged – even if the guidelines say it won’t be.  Some contests require you to submit a synopsis to be judged.  Some ask you to send it for clarification purposes only.  Know that there’s a high probability anything you send will be read.  And that if you dash off a one or two page synopsis at the last minute in order to beat the deadline you’re liable to have hurried yourself into a non-finaling place.  It’s human nature to judge – we do it anytime we meet someone new.  Anything the judge reads will influence their opinion on your entire entry.

Dos and Don’ts

Here are some simple things you can keep in mind while preparing your entry and blazing your way through the contest circuit.

·        Do Follow the Guidelines Specifically – There’s nothing worse than going through all that effort only to have your entry returned because you forgot to double space your 2 page synopsis

·        Do Submit Professional Work – Don’t submit anything you wouldn’t want an editor or agent reading.  You aren’t likely to final if you do this, but think of what might happen if you did.  That prize editor you’ve been dying to have read your work just did – and she didn’t appreciate the .25 margins or the hot pink font.

·        Do Thank Your Judges – No matter what you think of their opinions, they took time from their busy schedules because they wanted to help.  It doesn’t really matter that they didn’t.  Their intentions were good (for the most part).  Why else would they volunteer to judge a contest?

·        Don’t Enter Every Contest – A long list of credits is nice but it’ll also cost you a fortune.  And probably won’t gain you anything more than placing well in five or six strategically placed contests.

·        Don’t Revise – Revising your manuscript to fit the specific guidelines of a contest will get you nothing but trouble.  If you add a murder/sex/first kiss/reunion angle to the first three pages of your entry so it’ll pop a little more for a specific contest, final and get a request from the final round judge, what have you done?  Set yourself up for some major revisions because the editor who asked to see that manuscript is going to want the one that matches the three pages you sent – not the completed secret baby/cowboy/runaway bride full you’ve got waiting in the wings.

·        Don’t spend all your time polishing – Having the perfect first chapter – or even partial – might get you finals, wins, and recognition.  But if you don’t have the full to back it up then you’ll never earn the ultimate prize – the call. 

Cold Hard Truth

There’s one piece of cold, hard truth that is irrefutable when it comes to contests.  Placing well does not mean you’ll sell the manuscript – or any manuscript for that matter.  I remember listening to one Golden Heart winner this past year talk about winning for the third year in a row.  She obviously has talent.  But that doesn’t always mean success. 

One of my manuscripts that’s done well this year - one 1st, two 2nd and one 3rd place finishes – will not be published.  At least not without major revisions.  I might not have gained a contract from these contest entries but what I did gain was knowledge.  I received feedback from three different editors on the problems and strengths of the story (and I’m waiting for one more from my 1st place win).  I know what’s wrong with the story now.  I’ve just chosen not to invest any more time in it.

Common Sense

And to help you along the way I've included a list of my favorite contest resource sites.

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Emotion:  It’s a Complex Thing

Emotion.  It’s that elusive thing that gives our writing heart and our characters soul.

Have you ever read a book that you just couldn’t put down?  One that drew you in and consumed your thoughts until you could finally finish it?  And when it was over you were disappointed that you couldn’t live vicariously through the characters anymore?

That’s emotion.

When the characters are larger than life, have true emotional depth, then we believe in them.  We empathize with their trials and tribulations.  We root for them and we want more. 

It’s the emotional roller coaster that gives us the euphoric high when the story is done and the characters have come out triumphant.  Most of the time it isn’t the characters we wish we could continue with, it’s the emotional gratification that we’ve experienced through them – in the safety of our homes, without being chased by kidnappers or risking our own hearts.

So how do you capture that magic in your own writing?

It’s simple, be honest and dig deep. 

Emotional integrity is one of the most important things you can offer a reader.  You must understand the way a specific emotion feels in order to portray it effectively. 

I’m not suggesting that without experiencing something tragic - like losing a child - you can’t portray the emotional depth involved.  What I am saying is that in order to effectively convey the feelings of loss, grief, pain, anger, or even guilt that might go along with such a horrific experience, you must be able to empathize with each emotion.

Pulling from our own personal experiences helps to isolate each emotion and remind us what it felt like, what we thought, how we moved, how our body reacted. 

It’s a common technique in acting.  Draw from a personal experience to achieve the emotion that you want and then channel it into the scene.  As an amateur actress in a previous life, I’ve found the technique to be helpful, even cathartic. 

I’ve often turned my anger and frustration from dealing with my six and three year olds into frantic writing sessions.  I pinpoint a scene where the emotions I’m feeling are needed and channel all my negative energy onto the page instead of at my family.  Each and every time I’ve come away from the process with not only a scene I’m proud of but a sense of calm – and living children. J  

It seems like a fairly easy process, right?  Need guilt in your story?  Pull up a memory from your childhood where you stole a piece of candy and then couldn’t eat it because you felt so terrible.  Transfer emotions to paper and voila, guilty hero appears. 

Unfortunately, there’s nothing about the process of pulling from personal experiences that’s easy.  In fact, because you’re delving into your own emotional memories - memories you may have tried to forget - it can be very difficult.  In order for the process to work, you must be honest with yourself about the memory and the way you experienced it.  If you aren’t, the picture that appears on paper won’t be accurate and authentic.  The reader will know.    

However, honestly conveying an emotion through character thoughts, actions and dialogue isn’t enough.  In order to achieve that moment where the reader sighs as they close the back cover, you must go one step further.  Unfortunately, I’ve often felt that was a step I continually missed. 

After taking a class by Alicia Rasley, that final puzzle piece fell into place and the step became crystal clear.  If you ever have the opportunity to take her emotion class I highly recommend it!

Alicia boils emotion down to one miniscule – and often overlooked – idea:  Emotion isn’t just about what your characters feel.  More importantly, it’s about what your readers feel. 

Think about that for a moment, because until I read her first lesson, I’d never considered emotion that way.  Yes, conveying your character’s emotion is important.  But it’s more important to identify the emotion you want your reader to feel. Doing that allows you to figure out what scenes, plot points, and turning points need to happen (and in what order) so that your reader’s emotional experience is so intense that her heart pounds right along with your heroine’s. 

However, there is something to keep in mind...strong emotion can be almost like a cliff.  You can lead the reader to that emotional edge.  You can push them over...or you can induce them into taking the plunge themselves, to jump with your character into the empathy of feeling and experiencing that moment together.

Alicia sums this idea up in one concise statement, “If your character cries then your reader doesn’t have to.”  In other words, allow your reader to plunge off the cliff instead of watching your character fall and she’ll exponentially experience the drop.  

Isn’t that manipulative?  Absolutely!  And there’s nothing wrong with that.  Our job as writers is to provide an experience for our readers - the best, most intense, emotionally grabbing experience they can get.  Why?  Because they deserve it.  And because you want them coming back to you again and again for that same emotional roller coaster and the sigh at the end.

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The First Sale Paradox

June 5, 2007, at about six PM I received that wonderful, exhilarating and scary phone call.  I sold my first book to Harlequin Blaze.  After fifteen minutes on the phone with my editor, I hung up and promptly starting making phone calls of my own.

You would think that in this moment I’ve worked almost five years for, all I would experience was excitement.  But you’d be wrong.  I felt guilty.  Guilty that I was experiencing this moment but some of my closest friends - the people I wanted to share that moment with the most - weren’t.

While there was no doubt they were happy for me, I knew there was the distinct possibility that they were also sad for themselves.  They’d been working just as hard as I had without that final payoff.
How do you prepare for this paradoxical moment?  This moment where everything should be happy but somehow just isn’t?

The five of us, all friends from our website – www.writingplayground.com - and our local RWA chapter, tackled the problem by discussing that possibility before it ever happened.  We even pulled in multi-published friends and our own playground counselor to seek advice. (You can view Counselor Shelley’s article on jealousy at http://writingplayground.com/clinicarchive.html#green)

The number one thing we were told was that guilt and envy were natural emotions and we shouldn’t hide them, deny we felt them, or pretend that others in our group didn’t feel them.

But there’s an important distinction here.  Notice I said envy, not jealousy.  While the two words might sound very similar, they really aren’t.  Envy is wishing you had what someone else had.  That’s easy.  My friends wish they had a first sale.  The thing is I wish they had one too.

Jealousy is desiring to take something from someone else so that you can have it.  That would be my friends wishing I hadn’t gotten that phone call so that they could have.    The problem with this logic is that publishing is not a zero sum game.  There are plenty of opportunities out there for everyone. 
Several months before the call came in, a dear and trusted friend approached us all and said she was worried about how we would handle the situation when it happened.   And that made us...not worry exactly but decide to tackle the issue before it became a problem.  There has to be a first, the “canary down the mineshaft” as we like to call it. 

So we sat down and discussed the situation.  We each talked about what we expected to experience both if we were the one to receive that first call and if we weren’t.

  Don’t get me wrong, putting everything out in the open didn’t lessen the emotions I did feel – like guilt – but I think it did lessen the impact that emotion had on our friendship.  It allowed us all to be honest with each other.

If one of my friends had answered the phone that night and said, “I’m so excited for you, Kira, but can I call you tomorrow?”  I would have understood.  If the roles had been reversed, I certainly might have felt the same way. 

And that’s key.  Not only was I able to identify with their point of view, but I was also willing to accept their reaction as understandable and valid.  I didn’t expect them to disregard their emotions simply because I was excited and happy.

There were months when it could have been any one of us receiving that first phone call.  And I have no doubt that I won’t be on this side of the fence by myself for very long.  And maybe, in the end, that is what truly helped us all through the situation.  I’ve surrounded myself with intelligent, talented, business-savvy women, all of whom will experience a first sale moment of their own.

Ultimately, like most anything in life worth having, keeping our friendship stable required a bit of work, honesty and understanding - challenges we were all willing to take on.  Because in the end, the friends you want with you on the rest of the crazy publishing journey are the ones willing to put in that hard work, appreciate the honesty, and reciprocate the understanding. 

Kira Sinclair, ecstatic about her debut book with Harlequin Blaze, plans to spend the next months rooting for her friends to receive that first call too.  This side of the fence is lonely and they all deserve that heart-pounding moment. 

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Now What?

What happens after that first sale?  After the parties, the screaming and the joy?  The waiting begins.  But while you wait months or even a year for your first book to hit the shelves there are several things you can do to position yourself for the moment your sale becomes reality – not to mention the million things you’ll need to do for your publisher.

The first thing you should do is write another book.  For me it was months of being in limbo.  My publisher didn’t want to talk about another book until we’d gotten the first one through production.  This makes sense for them.  But for me it was torture.  It already felt like forever before my book would hit the shelves and without something to focus my energy on time seemed to slow to a snail’s pace.  So I wrote another book.  Ultimately, my publisher has asked me to focus on two other projects.  However, that doesn’t mean the one I have stashed away is dead.  It just means it’ll be awhile before I do anything with it.  I do not consider that time wasted.

There will, of course, be a laundry list of requirements from your publisher – art fact sheets, revisions, line edits, bios, head shots, dedications...the list is endless depending on their needs.  The problem is that these things trickle in.  Two or three now and then nothing else for two or three months.  The key is to handle each of these things quickly and professionally because you are establishing your relationship with not only your editor but also other employees at your publisher.  And if you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask! 

You’ve handled your publisher’s needs.  Is there anything you can or should do to help position your book for monster sales? 

The most important – and cost effective – use of your time and money at this point is establishing a good web presence. As soon before your release as possible take steps to set up a website and/or blog.  Getting an electronic presence can be expensive, not to mention time consuming if you design the media yourself.  But don’t skimp here!  This is the place your readers will come to interact with you, where they’ll learn more about you as a person. 

If blogging isn’t your idea of fun then consider finding other authors to share the burden with you.  But remember the most important rule about a web presence is to keep it current!  Change the content of your blog or website on a regular basis – even if it’s just to add a picture of your favorite pet. 

One question I’ve struggled with personally is whether to place any ads or buy promotional items.  Ultimately, for me, the answer came down to cost effectiveness.  I would have to sell an additional 667 books in order to break even on an ad or promotional campaign that cost me $200.  Now, I’m no marketing genius but I know that sending 200 items into the big, bad world can not gain me three times that amount in sales.  I’d be lucky if it netted me five.  So, for the same $200 I’ve decided to invest in a promotional item that I can use for the next several books – changing the sticker I apply for each book I have out.  While I’m still spending the money I’m also stretching the potential return and increasing the likelihood that the item results in sales. I’ve also streamlined my target audience.  I’m going to focus on booksellers and librarians – people who will potentially hand sell all of my books once I’ve established myself as opposed to someone who might only purchase one book. 

I’m electing not to place any ads at this time.  I may change my mind for subsequent books but for right now I think this is a strategy that will work for me.  Of course, my release will be part of a category line.  If I were publishing single title then my choices would quite possibly be different.  I am, however, planning to design a book trailer through a free or mostly free site.  This trailer can be placed on my website, blog and My Space page.  The cost is minimal so the potential for a return on my investment is pretty good. 

Ultimately, the time between that phone call and the moment your book appears on the shelf can feel like a time of hurry up and wait.  Before you know it you’ll be scheduling signings and writing your next book, take these months to tackle time consuming tasks like web design that you might not have time for later.  Don’t rush to action simply to fill the void of impatience.  Do the math before spending any money and evaluate potential gain against cost.  If you do these things you’ll be well prepared to tackle that year. 

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The Pits of Pitching Hell

You’ve signed up to give a pitch to Brenda in June, or at the national conference in San Francisco. And now you’re panicking because you have no idea what to do next. The first thing to do is to take a deep breath. And follow these simple steps.

1. Research the editor/agent you’re pitching to. This is the most important rule of pitching! If you don’t do anything else, make sure you do this. There is no reason to pitch an inspirational book to Brenda just like there’s no reason to pitch a self help book to an agent who only represents fiction. You must know that the person you’re pitching to is interested in buying/representing what you have to offer otherwise you’re wasting not only your time but theirs. That’s not a very good way to make friends and influence people.

2. Don’t take up the entire 5 or 10 minute slot with your book blurb. Your actual pitch should take no more than 2 or 3 minutes. It should be similar to the blurb that you would include in a query letter or the cover copy you’d see on the back of a novel. You can take in notes – I recommend note cards.

3. Open with your hook or high concept.

Hooks:

• Cowboy
• Marriage of Convenience
• Woman in jeopardy

High Concept:

• Basic Instinct meets The Bodyguard

4. Description of your characters – not necessarily their names but WHO they are. What makes them different and sets them apart?

• Occupation
• Characteristics
• Description

5. Goal, Motivation and Conflict – you can weave the who into this statement :
Your characters wants ________ because ________ but can’t have it because ________.

A by the rules Air Force Public Relations Officer will stop at nothing to succeed in her high profile career because she craves the approval of her Major General Father. But if he ever finds out that she accidentally married the hot shot pilot he’s never liked she’ll lose his respect...not to mention her career.

6. Plot turning points – NOT everything! The most important things.

• The inciting incident
• The black moment

7. Tying it all together

• Tying in the title
• Closing with a question – never in a synopsis but it can work in a blurb. A synopsis is to tell the editor/agent that you have followed through on the idea and can sustain the story through the length of an entire book. A pitch is designed to grab their attention and make them ask for more.

8. After the pitch wait for the editor/agent to ask you questions about the story. Be sure to have
answers prepared.

• Character goals, motivations, conflict – be able to go into more detail
• External forces
• Sub plots
• What books have you read lately in the genre/line you’re pitching for?
• What authors do you think your voice most resembles?
• What publisher/house do you see your book fitting well with?
• Be prepared for just about anything. Have additional pitches ready just in case the editor/agent asks if you have anything else available.

9. Be prepared to ask the editor questions of your own – about her line, her job, her likes/dislikes, anything that makes you sound intelligent and informed.

10. When you’re finished be gracious and appreciative whether the editor/agent asked to see
more of your work or not. This business is small and a bad reputation can get around faster than
the latest viral video.

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Uh, Who Are These People? And What Do They Want?

How do you make your characters pop off the page?  What makes them the kind of people your readers stay up till midnight for only to open their eyes in the morning consumed yet again with their story?

Uh, I’m not sure.  As long as I’ve been writing, I’ve struggled to find the answer to these questions.  Just when I think I might, maybe, possibly have the answer... Yeah, no.  Something happens – like revisions, critiques or just rereading my work - and I realize I don’t quite have it.

Since coming up with believable, interesting, likable characters is something I constantly struggle with, I recently decided to take a class – Plotting via Motivation with Laurie Schnebly Campbell at WriterU (writeruniv.com).  And while I don’t think I learned anything I didn’t already know, I discovered something about myself. 

I need to be constantly reminded about the characterization tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years.  And I think that’s where my problem boils down to – I get into writing and start focusing on how to fit all the pieces of my puzzle together, and forget to remember the people – and picture – that’s forming on the page in front of me. 

So, now that I’ve shared my personal revelation maybe I should share the characterization tips that I was so eloquently reminded of in the class.

Likeability factor – people generally want to read about nice people.  There’s a simple reason for this – as the reader we tend to place ourselves in the role of the main character.  And in a romance we tend to fall in love with the opposite character.  We don’t want to be a mean and nasty person, nor do we want to think we’d fall in love with someone who’s despicable.

Ultimately though, you can’t make your characters too perfect.  Perfect human beings aren’t interesting – or really likable for that matter.  We all know someone who thinks they’re the end all and be all...my guess is you probably avoid that person as much as possible.  And we don’t want anyone avoiding our characters!   

Everyone has a flaw – and your characters should too.  Something they don’t like about themselves.  An inner seed where their desires aren’t very noble or heroic.  What’s the one thing about them that they’d prefer no one in the world knew?  Or the one thing about themselves they’d readily change? 

Motivation – Yes, I realize this should probably be a no-brainer but I don’t just mean the character’s motivation for the overall story – although knowing that and keeping it front and center in your mind as you write is important.  I mean their motivation at each step, in each scene, at each turning point, at each crucial relationship moment.  How does what they want in that moment align or oppose their overall goals and motivations for the story?  If they’re acting against what they’ve said they want, why?  And would they really act that way?

Another thing to keep in mind as you set up your characters at the beginning of the story; you have a greater source of conflict if you set their motivations and goals to oppose each other.  Although, giving them the same goal but providing the characters with opposing ideas on how to reach that goal can accomplish the same thing.  It’s easy to realize that a character who wants freedom probably won’t see eye-to-eye with a character who wants nothing more than family.  But how about two characters that want safety above all else?  One’s idea of achieving that is locking themselves into a closet until the danger passes.  The other’s is to pursue the danger and eliminate it at all costs.  Lots of room for conflict when they disagree about the approach to achieving their goal.

The Power of Why – My four year old daughter certainly understands the power of why – it drives mommy to frustrated fits when repeated incessantly.  But when you’re digging into the motivation of your character that one simple word is undeniably important.  It’s so easy to simply scratch the surface, come up with something that’s believable and maybe entertaining.  But the deeper we dig into a character’s motivation the stronger and more dynamic their story will be.  The one thing that struck me as the golden piece of wisdom from Laurie’s class was that you keep digging and tormenting your character with questions and whys until you get to the thing that makes them unheroic.  Because at that point they’re real – and like us.  Until then they’re just the hero in a story doing the heroic thing.  And while pleasant on the surface, that isn’t the kind of story that will keep you up at night until two AM. 

A flawed character fighting outside sources and inside demons makes for a much more interesting and gripping read.  Especially when we know at the end they’re going to triumph over everything and not only find the thing they most desire, but fall in love with the person that makes them better and whole. 

I’m certain I’m not the only one who’s ever read a book with flaws - maybe some not so great writing, plot holes or contrived situations.  But as long as the characters enmeshed in those contrived plot points have grabbed at my heart strings and caught my attention I continue on for the ride because I CARE about what happens to them. 

While there isn’t a formula or magic code for writing interesting and emotionally gripping characters I definitely think these tricks will help me make mine as compelling as I possibly can.  I hope they help you as well.  And if you ever have the chance to take a class from Laurie Schnebly Campbell I highly recommend it!

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You Thought You Were Done?

Revisions.  Behind synopsis I think that’s the second most dreaded word for a writer.  At least it is for me.  I love the creative part of writing a first draft, the fun of chiseling away at the thousands of possibilities on the blank page to uncover the characters and plot that shape the story. 

Revisions are like sit-ups.   I know I need them but I don’t necessarily enjoy doing them.  Don’t get me wrong.  I know they are important and necessary and I definitely appreciate the end results – just like those sit-ups.  Writing the first draft is, if not always easy, at least fun.  Revisions are work. 

What stays?  What goes?  What’s working?  What isn’t?  So often I have a hard time finding the answers to these questions.  It’s difficult for me to be objective and evaluate my story from an editorial perspective.  Often it’s the smallest tweaks in characterization and plot that can take a good story to something great. 

So how do you tell the difference?

It can be overwhelming to look at a story and think of all the things you need to double check for – continuity, characterization, plot holes, grammar, voice – especially when you’re tackling a 300 or 400 page book.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m always afraid I’m going to lose one of those threads if I revise for all of them at once.  My favorite technique is to layer.  I do it when I’m writing and I like to continue the thread when I’m revising.  I pick one specific thing and read through the chapter, partial, scene or entire book for that one single thread. 

For me, it takes away some of the pressure to get it perfect the first try.  Of course, like just about everything there is a downside.  By the time I revise an entire book I might have read each scene or chapter ten to twenty times.  By then I’m thoroughly done with the project and usually want to kill the characters in a fiery crash.  Luckily, I usually get a few weeks or months between then and when I get revisions from my editor and get to start the process all over again.

So why do this?  What’s the upside?

I know that when I’m done I’m going to have a finished product that’s better than when I started.  That alone is worth the blood, sweat and tears (sometimes) that revisions require. 

But that’s just my approach to revisions.  I know there are others.  In fact, I know there are writers out there who live for the revisions stage, who think that’s really where the magic happens.  I envy those people.  It’s not that I don’t understand the importance and the benefits of revisions…it just isn’t as much fun for me as the actual writing. 

There are so many books out there designed to help you edit and revise.  Quite a few of them are great and if this is an area that you have trouble with I highly recommend a trip to your local bookstore to find one or two that might work for you.  However, my favorite resource when revising is a great first reader.

Often another set of eyes – someone you really trust - will not only see things you can’t but also bring another perspective to the story.  However, the number one caveat is that you must filter any feedback you get through your own instincts as the author of the story.  You and only you will know whether a suggestion works for the characters and plot that you’ve built.

Finishing the book is an amazing feeling, but the process doesn’t end there. From there, the real work starts. 

Some helpful resources for editing/revising:

• Self Editing by Lori Handeland - This is a great article with lots of information.
• Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King - Angel swears by this book.
• Revision and Self Editing (Write Great Fiction) by James Scott Bell
• The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide: How to Make Revisions, Self-Edit, and Give and Receive Feedback by Becky Levine – I’ve never read this book but it looked very intriguing. 
  

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Yahoo Groups

rwacontests 

To subscribe: rwacontests-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Discussion of RWA national and chapter contests

romancecontests

To subscribe:  RomanceContests-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Announcement only listserve for contest information, finals and wins.

ContestsJudges

to subscribe: ContestsJudges-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Announcements and requests for judges in RWA chapter contests. 

*If you plan to enter contests I strongly recommend judging some as well so you have the experience and know what’s involved.  It’s also highly helpful to spot problem areas in another manuscript and might help you spot those same issues with your own.

ContestAlert

To subscribe: ContestAlert-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Group informs you of contest deadlines, finalists and winners

Website Resources

Charlotte Dillon

An excellent resource including detailed listing of contests for published and unpublished by month.  Links to chapter sites and contest details.  Also, contest articles.

Mia Zachary

RWA chapter contests listed by month.  Includes links to chapter sites, notations about contest specifics including Mia’s notes about the contests – price/anything that makes it stand out/deadlines

Eharlequin – message boards – write stuff – entered a contest lately?

This thread does not include detailed information about contests but does provide a place for conversation and questions.

Divas With Tiaras

List of contests and deadlines.  Also the place to see the yearly list of RWA contest Divas.

Click here to visit the article archives.

Favorite Links

www.writingplayground.com - Come join Kira as she works and plays with the other children on the playground.

www.heartofdixie.org - The north AL chapter of RWA.  Heart of Dixie is responsible for helping Kira in her daily struggle.

www.southernmagic.org - Another AL chapter of RWA, also responsible for Kira's success. 

www.rwanational.org - The national organization.  Find information and statistics about the romance industry.

www.eharlequin.com - Information about Harlequin/Silhouette the publisher Kira is targeting.

www.soapboxqueens.com - visit with Rhonda Nelson, Jennifer LaBrecque and Vicki Lewis Thompson as they talk about writing and life

Beyond Her Book - Barbara Vey with Publishers Weekly talks about reading women's fiction.

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