Blog Schedule

I post on Monday with an occasional random blog thrown in for good measure. I do my best to answer all comments via email and visit around on the days I post.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Mentorship With Angela

As some of you may be aware, at the end of last month I won a three month mentorship with Angela who's wonderful blog, The Bookshelf Muse, is an inspiration to all writers.

As time permits I will share some of the things I am and will be learning.

First, I had to decide which of my novels I wanted her to dissect. Angela suggested I chose the one I thought was most commercially viable. Well, that would be my YA, A Place Called Hope's Well. It made it to a finally reading at one publisher before being turned down. And I got a personal positive rejection from an editor at another. I think it's a good story, even though I don't consider myself a YA writer. I like MG. But my MGs are not so CV as I would like to think. So...I went with Hope's Well.

Second, with thumping heart I sent it off. Angela has now read and made line item edits/comments on all of it. It is splatterd with red ink.

Third, breathe in, breathe out. Aside from pointing out some rather glaring flaws (GAK how could I be so blind?) I thought I'd caught all those repetitive words like: just, that, so, I, she, always, then, etc. etc. etc. I thought I had a handle on the deadly passive voice.

But nooooooooo.
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THIS is just what I've needed/wanted for I can't tell you how long, someone to look at what I've written with clear eyes. I'm just too close to my own work. It's almost impossible for me to see where the problems are. AND I have already learned from Angela's maticulous line edits how to see those things I didn't see before. I already know that what I'm learning now I will be able to apply to other work.

Confession time. I'm one of those people who loves the thrill of writing that first draft. I love discovering who my characters are. I love how they show me where they want to go, how they surprise me with the things they say and do. But once it's down on paper I quickly loose interst. (I must have the attention span of a pea.) So, when I began to recieve the pages of red-ink I had heart-stopping moments where I seriously thought about giving up. It looked like too much...AWRG WORK!

BUT, I am EXTREMELY happy to announce that Angela is not only a most excellent critiquer, she's a wonderful cheer-leader. I've calmed down. I'm breathing into it and I'm fully ready, willing and able to go the distance.

SO...

...I've got a lot of work to do. If you don't see me around as much, if I don't comment or post as often as I usually do, know it's because I'm deep in Hope's Well working to strength it's walls from the bottom up.

22 comments:

  1. Yay, I'm glad to hear you're digging in. Angela is awesome and you are, too, so you're going to come out of this with something awesome times two.

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  2. It sounds like such a wonderful mentorship! Best of luck with ripping your WIP apart and stitching it together again! ;)

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  3. Congratulations on winning that mentorship - what an awesome opportunity! I won a partial critique from KarenG at Coming Down the Mountain and it was so, so helpful!

    I'm back from break and it's so great to catch up on everyone's blogs - I've missed you guys!

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  4. I can't believe I'm just hearing about this now! That is the most amazing prize ever. Angela rules. Congratulations Bish!

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  5. She sounds like an awesome mentor.

    Best of luck with the work. ;-)

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  6. As a winner from her previous contest, I agree with you about her critting skills. Angela is amazing. And if you think you have work to do after her crit, I ended up writing 10 new scenes and managed to cut my word count from 80,000 to 77,000 despite those new scenes (I also had to delete a few scenes and parts of scenes). But her suggestions helped me deal with some issues that another beta reader had brought up.

    Good luck with the rewrites!

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  7. That is such a fabulous prize! Your manuscript will be that much more wonderful!!!
    Good luck with the revisions and enjoy Angela's advice!

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  8. Bish is great to work with, and her book was a pleasure to read. It's got a strong central premise and a very compelling voice. I'm really happy to be able to help and it's good to know we have three months to work together, because as anyone who's received a crit from me knows, I comment on a lot of things! :) The three month window will give us time to really go through all aspects of the book and discuss what might strengthen it as a whole.

    Thanks everyone here for commenting, and Stina, thanks for mentioning your experience. I'm very happy my critique allowed you to get your work to the next level!

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  9. Wonderful Bish! Such a great prize and good luck with Hope's Well!! ;)

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  10. What a great opportunity. Isn't it so much WORK? -- but SO satisfying to dive into it all the same.

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  11. That's fabulous, Bish! You're so lucky!

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  12. Bish, I am revising right now and "feel your pain"

    Good for you for sticking with this and taking your writing to the next level. I love the thrill of discovery, and I love polishing shorts, but egads, revising 50K words is WORK.

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  13. Hey Bish! Critiquers and test readers are awesome people. They help us be better writers.

    And I promise my book is not fantasy masquerading as science fiction!

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  14. I can't believe how terrible I write sometimes. It makes me crazy . . . well, crazier than usual. I know the crit you're getting will be the key to your book going between two covers.

    Thanks for the wonderful Drac facts over at the Write Game.

    Speaking of crazy . . . I thought I'd been following you for ages, but I guess not. Anyway, that's remedied as of this visit.

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  15. I'm looking forward to hearing all the advice she gives you. Congrats on the win.

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  16. Go, Bish! Go! *waves pom poms wildly*

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  17. Hurray for you! This is wonderful and exciting! Best of luck revising! I love revising and I hope you learn to, as well!

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  18. Wow. This is an excellent opportunity for you. I'm sure you will learn a great deal, and I'll be checking out your blog to see what you've learned.

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  19. Great news about the mentorship!

    I love first drafts, too. I have several yucky first drafts lolling around my desk drawers because they were fun to write. Revision is work to me. So yeah, not so many completed, CV mss.

    But good luck! Revision is necessary if not as bright and shiny as new beginnings. (And we'll forgive you if you have to cut back on your blogging)

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  20. Go ANGELA! Go BISH! I'm glad you found her critique wonderful, I always learn to step away from the work and let the thoughts settle before making my opinion known. I feel so much better after stepping away from the red ink, to see all the helpful tips left behind!

    Good luck with all the work ahead!

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  21. AWESOME. I love your attitude of working harder to make it better. Congrats on winning the internship with Angela!

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  22. Good luck with your manuscript, Bish. I'm sure your hard work will pay off in the end. :)

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