5DI - What an Experience!

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to participate in RWA's inaugral 5DI  - Mentoring for Excellence, a five day intensive manuscript development workshop.

I was mentored by the wonderful Lilian Darcy over the week, and was afforded some amazing insights into my work. Weaknesses and strengths were highlighted and a clear direction for my writing established.

After just 5 minutes with Lilian I decided I would firmly switch from aiming for the Sweet/Romance line to SuperRomance. The manuscript I started the week with was pushed to one side (never to see the light of day again) and a new manuscript started.

Oh my gosh. I cannot say how brilliant it was to be able to plot my new ms and develop my characters with Lilian keeping my work focussed. Once the plotting (the strongest I've ever done) was complete I started writing... and re-writing *grin*.

By the end of the week I had the first two scenes written and polished and the love scene (about ch8) well under way. This scene will be the moment where the story starts moving towards the black moment, so is quite pivotal.

I'm very excited about this story and am looking forward to the journey it will take me on.

In addition to the writing I *loved* the experience of being with a group of romance writers for an entire week - and the fact I had no cooking, cleaning, home responsibilities of any sort. :o) I also met some lovely people and made some firm and lasting friendships.

5DI was everything I hoped for and more. Thanks RWA!!!

Post in Absence

I'm at 5DI this week (a week with no internet). In fact, today will be the last day I meet with my mentor, Lilian Darcy. Tomorrow we'll be packing up and heading home; no doubt with heads brimming with information, and hopefully excited about the new potential to be had in our manuscripts.

I'll post next week about the week I've had.

5DI - I Got In!!

Woot! It's true, I'm going to be participating in RWA's inaugral manuscript development workshop, 5DI 2010.

With 23 other participants spread between 3 genre pods I will spend 5 days at Griffith University doing nothing but writing, writing, writing. I, and seven other category writers, will be working on our manuscripts under the watchful eye of our mentor, Lilian Darcy. Double woot!!

I'm really excited. This experience is going to be awesome.

Just a few points

A little update...

WooHoo. Yesterday I crossed off another of my 09/10 goals. I've sent in my application for RWA's inaugral 5DI program. This puts me half way at the half way mark :) Oh, and my fingers are now crossed I get a place *grin*.

This coming Friday (8th Jan) I'm putting myself in the spotlight and revealing a few secrets about myself in my RWA Blog Bite column. Please visit on the day and leave a comment so I don't feel lonely.

Am doing a January edit challenge at the moment with my Nanowrimo buddies. So far am running a little behind (trying for 5 pages per day), but hope to catch up before the week is out.


Bought new bookshelves today. Very excited. Unfortunately they are still flat packed (lol), but will fix that tomorrow. Am currently rearranging a few things in the office to fit them in. But am sooo looking forward to filling the shelves.

That's all for now. But I will share some photos of my bookshelves once they are assembled and filled :)

Goals

For me, the main purpose of my blog is to chat about my goals and how I'm going with them. Making them public is really good incentive to actually meet them.

So it's about time I shared with you my revised goals, the ones that should see me through until the middle of 2010.

1. Sub partial
2. Finish revised ms
3. Enter High 5
4. Enter Emerald
5. Apply 5DI
6. Enter First Kiss
7. Write next ms
8. Enter VPA with 2 mss
9. Enter an American contest
10. Attend and pitch at conference

So, how am I going with these goals?
I'm pleased to say I managed to get my entry into High 5. And, surprising even myself, I have already entered an American contest, the Silicon Valley Gotcha! contest. The next goal to achieve is entry in the Emerald. This needs to be sent quite soon, and it's not quite ready, so will have my work cut out getting it done. But I will!

It's exciting having goals. While it can be stressful trying to meet them, the satisfaction you get from ticking each one off is great.