Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Wish Me Luck
And cross your fingers too. (Smile) I've been working on a non-fiction book for writers to help them, what else, but write. An agent who handles such non-fiction books looked over some of it and asked for the complete. I mailed it out today after spending the last few days getting it polished and ready to go. Now all I can do is wait.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Found Missing Gril
The missing gril I wrote about in my last post has been found. :-) She isn't home yet, but an aunt and uncle who weren't too far from where she was found, picked her up and in a couple of days she will be back home.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Help Find Missing Girl!
One of the ladies on my e-mail group has a daughter who has been missing for over 12 hours as I write this. This lady has her daughter's picture up and information about her on a website. I have added the link to it below. Please take a moment to look and to pass the link on.
I know this lady. She has been a member of the RWC group a very long time, so this is no joke.
http://www.marjoriejones.com/staci/missingx.html
I know this lady. She has been a member of the RWC group a very long time, so this is no joke.
http://www.marjoriejones.com/staci/missingx.html
Monday, June 05, 2006
Rewrite Without Fear
I've put the manuscript aside that I've been working on, or trying to work on. The short story starter helped me accomplish a lot, but I think I'm still caught up in that sagging, dragging middle blues. In other words, I just felt like I needed a break from it, and maybe another long story would move along better for me right now. Instead of allowing myself to start something new, I decided the best use of my time would be to work on a finished story I have that I really like, but that could use some touch ups--some kind of big ones.
Each time I opened the file and started to make those deep changes I had in mind, I froze up. I finally realized I was fixating on all of the hard work I had already put in on that manuscript, and how it would be lost if I deleted big sections of it, reworked the story, and found it had worked better the way it was to start with.
I don't know why I hadn’t thought of this before, but suddenly I thought of a way to set myself free from that fear. It was so easy that it was just a duh moment. (Smile)
I simply copied and pasted the whole manuscript into a new Word file, renamed it so I knew which copy was which, and pulled out the word hatchet. I could delete, add, move around, or what ever else I wanted to do with the story with complete freedom without any worry of what was lost or messed up.
With that freedom I've made some big changes to the plot, to one of the main characters, and even added a few other characters. I’ve only reworked the first few chapters so far, but I don't think I'm going to need to go back to the old copy. I have a feeling the story is coming out much stronger in its new reincarnation.
So the next time you aren't happy with a story and you think it needs some deep cutting and some major reworking, free yourself to play around with it without fear. Make another copy and just let yourself go. You might come up with almost a totally new story, and one that is so much more interesting than the original. You don’t have anything to lose if you give it a try.
Each time I opened the file and started to make those deep changes I had in mind, I froze up. I finally realized I was fixating on all of the hard work I had already put in on that manuscript, and how it would be lost if I deleted big sections of it, reworked the story, and found it had worked better the way it was to start with.
I don't know why I hadn’t thought of this before, but suddenly I thought of a way to set myself free from that fear. It was so easy that it was just a duh moment. (Smile)
I simply copied and pasted the whole manuscript into a new Word file, renamed it so I knew which copy was which, and pulled out the word hatchet. I could delete, add, move around, or what ever else I wanted to do with the story with complete freedom without any worry of what was lost or messed up.
With that freedom I've made some big changes to the plot, to one of the main characters, and even added a few other characters. I’ve only reworked the first few chapters so far, but I don't think I'm going to need to go back to the old copy. I have a feeling the story is coming out much stronger in its new reincarnation.
So the next time you aren't happy with a story and you think it needs some deep cutting and some major reworking, free yourself to play around with it without fear. Make another copy and just let yourself go. You might come up with almost a totally new story, and one that is so much more interesting than the original. You don’t have anything to lose if you give it a try.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Win Four Free Books
Hi everyone,
One of the e-mail groups I own and run is RRC. All the other groups are for writers, but this one is for romance readers....though writers are also welcome.
RRC is holding its first RRC Summer Read contest. I've lined up four wonderful authors who are willing to put up prizes--each author is offering one of her books. In fact, I had more than four authors offer books, so I did a kind of random pick to line up the first four for this first contest. There will be another contest later, maybe even more than one. :-)
The first four books are....
Dance of Desire
by Catherine Kean
www.catherinekean.com
The Prey
by Allison Brennan
www.allisonbrennan.com
Rawhide Surrender
by Elysa Hendricks
www.geminimoon.org/
Virtually Yours
by Crystal Inman
http://chryswriter.tripod.com
It's really easy to enter the RRC Summer Read contest. All you have to do is belong to RRC. To join, send a blank message to RRClist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit the group page here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RRClist/
The winner of the above listed books will be drawn randomly on July first. I will announce the winner on the RRC group. She will then contact me off list and give me her snail mail address. I will pass that address on to each author listed above, and each will send the prize they offered to the winner.
Best of luck!
Charlotte Dillon ~ www.charlottedillon.com
One of the e-mail groups I own and run is RRC. All the other groups are for writers, but this one is for romance readers....though writers are also welcome.
RRC is holding its first RRC Summer Read contest. I've lined up four wonderful authors who are willing to put up prizes--each author is offering one of her books. In fact, I had more than four authors offer books, so I did a kind of random pick to line up the first four for this first contest. There will be another contest later, maybe even more than one. :-)
The first four books are....
Dance of Desire
by Catherine Kean
www.catherinekean.com
The Prey
by Allison Brennan
www.allisonbrennan.com
Rawhide Surrender
by Elysa Hendricks
www.geminimoon.org/
Virtually Yours
by Crystal Inman
http://chryswriter.tripod.com
It's really easy to enter the RRC Summer Read contest. All you have to do is belong to RRC. To join, send a blank message to RRClist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit the group page here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RRClist/
The winner of the above listed books will be drawn randomly on July first. I will announce the winner on the RRC group. She will then contact me off list and give me her snail mail address. I will pass that address on to each author listed above, and each will send the prize they offered to the winner.
Best of luck!
Charlotte Dillon ~ www.charlottedillon.com
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Avon Editors Have A Blog
If you are a fellow romance writer and hope to send a manuscript to Avon, there's good news if you'd like to know a little more about the editors there. Right now the Avon editors are working together, posting info to the Avon blog--taking turns as it was. May Chen has a post up about herself today.
You can check it out here.... http://www.avonromanceblog.blogspot.com/
You can check it out here.... http://www.avonromanceblog.blogspot.com/
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