Saturday, October 30, 2010

Goodbye October

After a dreary week of rain, the sun is shiny and a carpet of colorful leaves blankets my yard. Hopefully I can get out tomorrow and rake a few before the little trick or treaters arrive.

But I'm determined to get this MS finished and I've been writing furiously for days. The last 5,000 words are a mess and I'm writing the final two scenes this weekend. I'm also preparing my submission and having a crisis of confidence. How did I not notice the amount of adverbs on the first page? The passive writing? The talking heads? And I'm second guessing myself now that I know I'm sending out my baby for strangers to read.

I participated in a chat last week with the new editor at Desire. Seems they might want to expand the stories a little bit - less CEO's and maybe a few more ranchers or alternate occupations. They still love babies and billionaires though. She said she was happy to see Canadian Settings and loved family saga's and she's okay with secondary characters (yeah!) I also learned a new term "wealth indicators." Apparently they're an important component of Desires.
 
Have you heard about Harlequin's new program "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN WRITE" that starts on Nov 1st? I'm not clear on exactly all it entails but I'm hoping to get some direction and guidance for my next MS. I've learned a lot from writing this MS that I hope I can use to make writing the next story just a little bit easier. Or is that wishful thinking?

Are you planning on participating in SO YOU THINK YOU CAN WRITE?




3 comments:

Unknown said...

I think you learn all the time - you can't help but carry that forward. I'm concentrating on Nano this time, but always amazed at how Harlequin really reaches out to writers. Good luck with it Anne!

Unknown said...

I thought the chat with Stacy was interesting. She mentioned she liked the humor of Barbara Dunlop and Kate Carlisle. Which made me happy because I like a little funny in my sexy.

I'm also intrigued by the "alternate occupations" description.

Good luck with your ending. I hate them. Something about having to wrap it all up and say good bye doesn't work for me...

Annette Gallant said...

I've been trying to check in with the SYTYCW blog all week, but I haven't had a chance to listen to any of the podcasts yet.

I agree with Michelle. Harlequin really does try to provide lots of guidance and support to writers.

Keep going, Anne! You're almost there. :) Love what they said about alternate occupations and Canadian settings for Desire. Always good when there's a lot of variety in a line, IMO.