The Contest Season is Here

The first RWA contest closes in just 2 days. High 5 is for category writers and requires just the first 5 pages of your mansucript - after all, if these don't capture an editor the rest of the pages won't matter.

Not for you? RWA also has the STALI (single title and loving it), Selling Synopsis, Emerald (judged by readers), First Kiss and Valerie Parv Award. Amongst that mix there's a contest for everyone.

Why enter? There are a number of reasons to enter contests... getting your manuscript in front of an editor/agent if you final, anonymous feedback on your writing and incentive of the deadline.

If you want to know more, visit the contest page of RWA's webpage.

I'm going to be entering some contests again this year - wish me luck!

My First Kiss

Not my first kiss, but my hero and heroine's. I entered RWA's First Kiss competition (you submit the scene the first kiss occurs in) and I have just received my results.

Overall the judges liked my entry. There was no one place which pulled me down. Some common ground between the judges was:

• my characterisation is good
• my writing's very visual
• the internal thoughts of my hero slow it down (less thinking, more feeling needed)

I'll leave you with my favourite comment: I feel this writer's imagination is an asset to her writing career.

Dilly Dallying

Goal number 6 for this writing year was to enter RWA's First Kiss competition. I was going to, absolutely, definitely... and then I started editing. The criteria for this contest is 1 scene with a maximum count of 1,500 words. Uh, oh. Here was my problem. You see, THAT scene was well over the 1,500 word limit. So I started cutting, 100, 150, 220 the words began to disappear. But the more I cut, the harder it got to cut them. Until I had just 120 words to still chop.

No more. I couldn't do it. Into the 'too hard' basket it went.

Until one of my fellow Bootcats asked if I was still entering - I had been, then I hadn't been she said. What was I doing?

Thinking about that made me feel guilty. After all, it was a goal for this year, and I knew I'd feel bad if I didn't achieve it, but feel fantastic if I did. So I dragged that scene back out and slashed ruthlessly: 1,498 words. I did it.

My entry is going in. How well it does, we'll see. But regardless, I feel good.

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.

My Blog's 1st Birthday

I can't believe it. It's been a whole year since I started my blog.

When I started I didn't really have a goal, but after I did Susan Meier's goal setting workshops I decided I would blog once a week on my writing experiences and how I was meeting my goals.

I haven't done too badly, having blogged 51 times already this year. Some weeks slide by without a posting, while for others I keep my blog quite busy.

So how are my goals going? Well, I can tick the boxes for the following:
- enter First Kiss competition
- enter Valerie Parv Awards
- attend RWA conference
- pitch at conference
- enter High 5 competition

It's very rewarding knowing I met my goals for the first 9 months of the year.

The last few months of the year are a different story. I was lucky enough to have a successful pitch, and get a request for a partial - with the added requirement of starting the story further on. So my focus has been on rewriting and editing my submission, getting it to shine. So it's not so much I won't meet my goals, more the goal posts have just shifted


So this is my new list for the downhill run to Christmas:
- enter Emerald competition
- submit partial to Mills and Boon

I can't wait to see what the next year brings - and don't worry, you'll read all about it on my blog.