The VPA Happy Dance

I've finalled in the Valerie Parv Award. Happy dance time!!

First place wins Valerie as a mentor for a year. Wonderful for me if I win, possibly scary for Valerie if I do, lol.

Regardless of what happens (the placings are announced at RWA's awards dinner at the August conference) I'm thrilled to have made the top 6 of 80 entries, and wish my fellow finalists (Madeline Ash, Bridget Gray, Cornelia Kamp, Bronwyn McEvoy and Cassandra Samuels) all the best.

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.

The Write Stuff

The finalists of the Valerie Parv Awards (VPA) have just been announced. For those of you who aren't members of RWAustralia, this is one of the *big* romance writing competitions for unpublished writers.

So what made their manuscripts stand out among the 97 entries?

Of course Point of View, Show not Tell, Dialogue, Story Structure, Pacing... all the functional components must be spot on. But these are all things any manuscript can have tightened during the editing process. Yes, not everyone will have the skill to do this, but over time, and with practice, they can be learnt.

So what is it? I think it's the ability to tell a story. A good story. An intriguing story. One that engages the reader, has heroes and heroines the reader desires or aspires to be. A story with a difference. A story you become, not just read.

What do you think?

With my pitch now gone, I can only hope that my story also has the 'write' stuff.