***!!!*** Newsflash ***!!!***

A few days ago, I found out that I'm out of the running for the Emerald award run by the RWA. I'm still waiting to receive the feedback, which I hope will be useful. I'm feeling quite okay about it. It was fantastic to be in the top 15 from so many entries. And for an aspiring writer, this kind of rejection should be viewed as both expected and essential on the road to being published. Aren't I just so wonderfully magnanimous? Time to go off now, and have (another) glass of red.

Finally put the baby to bed

Today, after many, many hours 're-working' my previously completed novel, I went to the post office with four copies and sent it off for the next stage of the competition. As I walked away afterwards, I experienced a feeling I've felt before, usually after the completion of something big: a round of exams, the end of VCE (called HSC, when I did it), the end of a uni course. Okay, this effort wasn't quite so enormous as those, but it did take up the best part of the last three days. The feeling was: Now what do I do? Of course, there's no shortage of things to do, but for a moment, I was at a loss. Such was the extent to which this thing has had me in its grip.

The problem was that my manuscript, though 'technically' 51,000 words, only came up to 45,000 odd words on word count. The reason for this discrepancy is that I wrote my manuscript in 'Courier New' font (double spaced), which gives an average 250 word count. 'Times New Roman', single spaced, packs in a lot more. Therefore, my 205 page 'Courier New' manuscript translated to 66 pages in ARC (see previous post). And that was the problem. Minimum number of pages to go to the next stage in the contest was 75. And I only had 66!!!

After 're-jigging' the damn thing numerous times, I had to face the cold hard fact. I just didn't have enough words in the manuscript. Near blank pages don't help, either. When a chapter ends only a line into a new page, the usual convention is to begin the next chapter on a new page. But when doing the 'average' count in 'Courier New', every page counts, and that includes the blank ones.

Adding new scenes meant I had to completely change my initial structure of chapters. And then I had to choose which parts of the novels could do with some 'beefing up'. One of these was the only sex scene in the novel. I'm generally quite coy with these, since writing sex is difficult, and doing it badly is oh, so cringe-worthy. But since the manuscript was in ARC format, and I was looking over it in 'Full Screen Reading' view, it was quite easy to work out where I hadn't made the most of a pivotal moment, or where I'd rushed unwisely. The sex scene was one such place. At the time I wrote it, it seemed long enough, but since I find writing sex difficult, a few lines seemed like the entire bible and the gospels put together, (except that in the bible, they only bring up sex metaphorically, in terms of snakes and apples, or men 'knowing' women - oh that would be sooo much easier!)

And let's get another thing straight. This thing I'm calling a sex scene is no such thing. I should call it a love scene, because there's a lot of warm fuzzy stuff in it, a good set-up, and then I leave it up to the reader to work out which bits go where. Except that this time, it was as if I'd set the scene, lit the fire, so to speak, then slammed the door on the reader, leaving her outside in the snow.

So I put in a bit more. Went as far as the characters undressing and getting into bed. And reaching for a condom. Which was the furthest I'd ever gone with any of this, so that's where I called it quits. Once the condom comes out, I think we all know where it's going. Oh, I realise it could get really interesting at this point, but for now I'll leave it to the experts like Jennifer Crusie. When I think I've written a sex scene as well as she does, I won't have any qualms about putting it in.

But aside from THAT scene, I put in a few others, that, surprise, surpise... actually improved the novel. Too bad I've already sent it off to Harlequin Mills & Boon in London. I intended the new scenes to be nothing more than 'fillers', but it was only afterward, as I read them back, that I realised how vital they were to the story, and how much they added to character development. They focused on the finer minutiae of life, moments spent in the backyard having a glass of wine with the person you love while his child enjoys herself on her new swing set, or rugging up in your woollies and taking a carton of fish and chips onto the beach in winter. It was in scenes like these that my characters' personalities were revealed a bit more three-dimensionally than I had managed to do in the original manuscript. These scenes were the 'feel-good moments' that we so love watching in films. The moments when we truly get to know the protagonists and fall in love with them, when we begin to care and desperately want to know what happens next. And it's knowing the protagonists this well that makes us laugh at their antics, or shed a tear when things go wrong.

Through this painful and frantic process of having to come up with a fair chunk of new material in a short time, I learned a valuable lesson. One that may not help me much with this manuscript, but that will definitely kick my current WIP up a gear. And all the writing under pressure? Well that was valuable too. Good practice for jumping to the crack of an editor's whip.

Goin' Crazy!

Yep, that's what writing does to me sometimes.

When I got notification that I was among the finalists in the Emerald, I just smiled and allowed myself a week to luxuriate in the good news, knowing my manuscript was complete. I'd already sent it off to Harlequin Mills & Boon in London, after all. Last September, no less.

But when I turned on the computer and put it into ARC format (single spaced, landscape page orientation, Times New Roman 12 point font, two columns, fully justified text), I freaked. Yes, literally freaked, because my 51,000 word manuscript did not come up to the required 75 page minimum ARC format for the competition!!! Even though the length of my novel is standard category romance length.

Since then, the formerly relaxed and a tiny bit smug Scribbly has been pulling her hair out, rearranging chapters, writing extra bits, resurrecting old sections that were thrown out in the final edit in September, all to make the entry comply.

And this little bit of procrastination isn't helping one bit. Better get back to it.

2008 rolls to a very lazy start

I'm back from a blissfully relaxing holiday, ready to face the year. Amazing how much a couple of weeks of lazing about sets me up for the usual hustle and bustle of returning to work, kids back at school... and the rest. Leaving the beach two days ago was almost physically painful. The weather was pristine and the beach looked divine as we drove away, back towards the city. The shallow water on 'our beach' was so baby blue, receding to a strong turquoise, then deep blue, that this heavenly spot only an hour out of the city looked so exotic it could have been Thailand.

While away, AbFab broke the happy news that we're once again finalists in a competition. This time, the RWA Emerald. I was just walking on to the beach for the day, when her phone call came. She said, 'Are you ready for some good news?' I kind of froze, and just said,' Yes,' when what I was really thinking, was, 'I'm always ready for good news.'

This comp required the entrants to submit the first three chapters of a completed novel. Now through to the second stage, I'll have to submit the entire novel (4 copies of it) for further judging. Good luck to us, AbFab!!!

Contest Epilogue

This week (or was it last week - time goes so fast), I found out that I didn't place in the competition I entered recently. Seven finalists were selected out of 61 entries, and these were sent to a Harlequin Mills&Boon editor. Still, to be in that top seven ain't bad.

But the great news is that my dear friend and critique partner, AbFab, wait for it.... WON!!!!!!

It's a fantastic achievement, and I'm thrilled for her. A step in the right direction, and no surprise, since her writing is of such obvious stand-out quality. Congratulations, friend. A well deserved accolade.

Drum roll...

A couple of months ago, I entered the first five pages of my novel (the one I subsequently sent off to Harlequin in London) in a RWA competition, "High Five".

Today, I received notification that I'm a finalist! I am absolutely chuffed to have made it this far. What a thrill. I'd like to wish all other finalists (one of them my great friend AbFab) luck. The entries will now be judged by a Harlequin editor, which is such a wonderful opportunity. I look forward to getting some helpful feedback.