High 5 Results and Finalists

Firstly, congratulations to the six finalists: Anne-Louise Dubrawski, Bernice Greenham, Cornelia Kamp, Dorothy Martin, Melissa Smith and Jennifer St George. At the moment their High 5 entries are in the hands of Harlequin's Charles Griemsman who is judging the final placings. Best of luck to all of you!

Now for my results. Another mixed bag (seems to be the norm for me). For my current wip I received two very high scores, but the third was quite low so dragged down my overall score - I seem to have that happen a lot! I think (reading between the lines of the judges' comments) that I have a good story and voice, but perhaps there were some elements of craft that let me down. So two judges went with the story and voice (hence the high score) and the other pulled me up on the craft (hence the low score). But I am not disappointed. The craft issues were pointed out to me before the results came back so I was expecting it, and I am thrilled that my story was loved.

What more could you ask for?

Contests so far...

I've entered both the High 5 contest (the first five pages of any category manuscript) and the Selling Synopsis contest so far this year. I'll be very interested to see how these go, as I have put in two entries in both: a new story and an old one.

I think my newest story shows growth with my writing, so am curious to find out how they go with the judges to see if they agree with me. I'm also curious to see how my old story (which has been entered in these contests previously) fares with different judges.

Seemed like fairly logical reasoning at the time.

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!

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.

12 months on...

It has been one year since I decided to get serious about my writing. I'd lost my day job, and with little chance of finding another that would allow me to work around being a full-time mum, my husband and I agreed this was the time to put my writing first.

To get the ball rolling and just see whether 'published author' was a pie in the sky fantasy, I entered RWA's High 5 competition - for unpublished category writers. Turns out my entry seemed to have a good plot idea, great voice and a lot of potential.

Today I was having a bit of a 'down' day with my writing. So I dug out that entry (a different ms to the one I'm working on now), and reread those 5 pages. What a great pick-me-up to realise maybe my writing isn't as good as it is going to be, but it is certainly better than what it was.