Ready, Set, Write!! 2009 Goals

So here's the place for our 2009 goals. Let me know if you need to be added or updated.

Remember, what's in the past is in the past, just focus on being the best you can this year!

Dream

Dream - I'm taking a break from proofing and printing the cover letter for my proposal for Hungting Danger and the first three chapters. DH has a copy of the first two and didn't find any typos or grammar errors.

I still have to proof and print my synopsis. I think the whole package will all go in the mail tomrrow.

I wanted to get it in the mail today, but I'm cross-eyed right now. LOL

So, I'll definitely make my Jan goal of submitting HD.

My next goal is plotting Christmas Deception by March. Looks like I'm good to go.

Nike, you always have the best titles.

Margaret 

Keep up the good work!

I'm still plugging away on the polish.  Thanks for the encouraging words, Lyn!  I like that title!

Which brings me to a question.  I read the submission guidelines, and unlike some of the other lines, SH doesn't mention whether they prefer just a query letter by itself or with a synopsis & first 3.  I'm targeting Love Inspired with this first novel, and am about ready to write the query.  Just need to know whether to include the synopsis & 3 or send it by itself.  Thanks!  The minute it's in the mail, I plan to get back to work on the heroine's best friend's romance, set in in the same small town.  I'm already pretty well acquainted with the heroine of book 2, but still have to work on the Hero.  (He's a cowboy, though.   )    Oh, and since I've already finished another novel targeted at LIS, should I wait until after the second book of the small town series to try to sell that, or go ahead & submit to LIS after I hear back on book one?  (I'm just full of questions tonight.  And now I need some sleep, which I've been getting too little of, trying to make my deadlines on time.)  Many thanks!!

Oh, yes.  Thanks, Janet.  I didn't mean I'd send in two at once; just wanted to know about submitting to a second line before I'm well established with the first....  Thank you so much for the advice.  I will get the synopsis & 3 ready to go with the query letter, then.  I am so looking forward to getting this in motion.  I rewrote another scene today.  I'm getting close to the end of the rewrite.  I just need to add another couple of scenes, which means, since I'm already at the word limit, I'll have to cut elsewhere.  Hopefully I'll be able to cut without doing anything drastic.  A few word changes here, sentence eliminations there... I still need to write the synopsis, too.  I had already done one, but I think it could be better.  I want everything to be the best it can be.  Query letter included! 

I do want to go ahead and write the second book soon, while I've been "living" in the small town.  I've been paying attention to the continuity, as mentioned in the excellent article in the "Learn to Write" section, so I started a file and have been adding to it as I notice things.  I probably ought to do that for all the novels, in case there are sequels or others about secondary characters.  I'm about ready to write Bev & Dusty's story now.  Then I can put in about Trina and Zeke planning for their wedding. 

I will.  I pray it's soon.  I set my deadline for the 31st, and it's approaching faster than I'd like! 

Maybe you could start a continuity now, even though you've written so many.  Who lives where, etc.  Oh, and I saw your book with Barbara in it at the library the other day!  I really liked that one.  

Dream, Janet, Margaret, Hope, Lyn - It's in the mail...went out this morning. I'd hoped to get it out Thur, but forgot I had some routine medical tests scheduled for Thur. Fri I got completely compulsive about more proofing. After re-reading it a few more times, I said, it's going. That's it...and I took it this morning. Boy it feels good to have it in the mail. I made my goal.

Now I have to start plotting for Christmas Deception. Margaret I'm glad you like the title of both of them. I go for short titles...think it's more suspenseful.

Hope - I sent a query, 3 chapts, and a synopsis. That's what I did the last time I sent to Krista. Of course, looking back, she was right to reject. Boy I really think my writing has grown...and some of it is due to the few remarks Krista made in her rejection. But most of it's due to posting here, taking the Harlequin writing courses seriously, and really listening to my cirt partners...not always agreeing, but really listening to them. As you might recall one of them is very hard on me. I don't know if HD is where it should be. I'll find out soon though. It's a long way from where my first submission was. I know some SH authors were rejected several times before a ms was contracted.

 

 

 

Nike -- thanks for your remarks on Snowbound.  It's one of my favorites.

If you accept slackers here, then I would like to set a goal to write 3 chapters...in a row....to the same story...

In other words, I'd like to start writing a book.  My dh says my excuse of "no time" is not an excuse.  Apparently he thinks that if I spent half the time writing that I spend reading, I could be published 10 times over. 

Maybe it's time to stop hiding behind other people's writing...cautiously peeks out from behind Donna Alward's "The Rancher's Runaway Princess"....

 

EDIT:  Let's say I attempt to do this by June 1st.

Oh, yes, setting goals here really helps keep you going.  It's the accountability factor, and even when you don't make your goals, or have to reset them to a later date, it's such a help knowing you aren't doing this all by yourself.  Everyone here will cheer you on! 

 

It made me smile to see Barbara's book there.  I'm glad she's in the one you're writing now! I think you have Dry Creek so firmly set in your mind that you don't really need a continuity file.  

I've been thinking about Bev & how her story needs to be.  I'm reading Gayle Gaymer Martin's WRITING THE CHRISTIAN ROMANCE.  I'm just loving it.  It has so much good information.  I'm getting close to ready to submit DESERT DREAMER now.  (How many more days till the 31st???)

 

Nike, congratulations on getting it into the mail.

Hope, you are really going to town.

Margaret 

~~~because I just got my proposal for DESERT DREAMER in the mail!!!!!  PTL!!!!! 

Here's some cyber-chocolate for everybody!  (Carrot sticks would probably be better, but.....)

It's a blessing, a relief, and once I get that album done (goal of mid February, God willing), I'll think about setting another writing goal.  I wrote a synopsis for another novel this morning, and I need to write one for the romantic suspense I did as the '08 NaNo.  Then I need to write one for Bev's Buckaroo...but first things first. 

Have some cyber-chocolate!

Hi Nike,

Sorry about the rejection but I still get them too. Pacing is really important. It means keeping the story moving. Suspense books usually have a faster pace than straight romance. But all modern fiction is faster paced than earlier fiction.

Here are a few ways I check my pacing. 1-I use Margie Lawson's EDITS system. If you haven't taken one of her online classes, I highly recommend them. She has a color system writers use and Yellow is the color to mark a character thinking. If you have too much yellow on a page-that will slow down the  pace.

2-Have you read Dwight Swain's TECHNIQUES OF  A SELLING WRITER? This is another great book. He came up with the terms: scene and sequel. Scenes are the action producers and sequels are where the main character tries to decide what to do next. Longer sequels (more thinking) slows the pace.

3-Finally, Rubie and Provost wrote HOW TO WRITE A STORY and they have an excellent chapter on pacing.

So from your post, I would guess that you gave too much detail about police stuff. That slowed your story and then I would bet you had characters who were thinking more than they were doing things.

Does this help?

 

 

 

Ah, I'm sorry about the rejection.  I know they sting.  I haven't written for the suspense line, but I think you've already thought of some of the things that will improve the pacing.  Another thing you might check is to see if the minute-by-minute motivation is there.  Is there a ticking bomb (that kind of thing).  Why do the characters need to act now?  I also find it helps pacing in a regular romance or a historical to keep scenes a little tilted (that probably sounds nuts, but I don't know a word for it -- I just try to make sure that every scene has a mini-conflict within it that puts it a little off-center-- like in my Calico historical, when I first wrote the first scene it was about a woman being recently widowed and bereaved (her baby had just died). That worked okay, but was so straight-forward that it was a little tame so I added the fact that she thought she was dying of the fever (which gave it the ticking bomb kind of thing).  That was better, but then I added another layer to it of her being spitting mad at God but not able to say anything because she wanted to be welcomed in Heaven so she could see her dead daughter again.  That gave the opening much more tension than I had the first time I wrote it.  You might go through some of your major scenes and see if they are too static like my scene was at first. 

Hope - Thanks for the feedback. I sat down immediately and got something down toward my next SH goal of finishing an outline of Christmas Deception by the end of Mar.

I will try again at a later time with HD according to what's in the letter. I was glad for the specifics in the rejection. The last letter I got was positive and encouraging, but very general. This one had specifics I can start working on.

Also I didn't mention, but she wished me well in my career. I've been rejected by a few secular editors (harsh letters) and now this is my third rejection by a Christian editor (much nicer letters), my second at SH. It's the first time anyone suggested I had a career.

As far as a crit partner. Julia has been my partner, but she doesn't write suspense and she's kinda at my level in terms of where she's at in the business...which is good, someone way ahead of me would feel like a teacher not a partner. Right now Julia is having health issues and family issues. Please pray for her and her family. I think the Lord has put us together. While our child issues are not exactly the same, they have similarities. Julia and I have gone down a very deep spiritual road together this year. We've done as much praying for each other as we've done critiquing.

I also have my ACFW crit partners, but they all write YA and all live in small towns, most have never been to a huge metropolitan area. Still I value them, though one of the ladies doesn't get my writing at all. The Lord said to me, not all readers will so she's valuable. If I can make her understand a scene, most will get it.

Nike, you might see if you can get some critique partners through ACFW who are writing suspense. Email Linda Rondeau who heads the critique groups in ACFW and see if she can do that. Lyn had great suggestions. Always keep the suspense thread evident--even in thinking. When action occurs, have sentences that are shorter to speed the pacing. Cut down on the description may be another way to speed the pacing. You have to have some but keep it short and sprinkled throughout.

Hugs on the rejection but it's a good thing that she took her time to tell you what was wrong in detail.

Margaret 

I read this on one of my email loops and am posting it here for any of our suspense writers.  They need more entries in the unpublished inspirational suspense category particularly.

~~~ PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED AND APPRECIATED ~~~ Ask and you shall receive. Well, readers have asked and publishers
are answering as the INSPIRATIONAL MARKET continues to soar. The
DAPHNE DU MAURIER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN MYSTERY/SUSPENSE has been
on the receiving end of awe-inspiring manuscripts and books for both
the Unpublished and Published side of the contest in the past. We
have faith this trend will continue in 2009. Have you noticed the
Inspirational Romantic Suspense books lining the shelves?
Inspirational Romantic Suspense and Mystery is alive and well. Published Authors: Does your book have a 2008 copyright? Unpublished Authors: Do you realize we have a great agent and editor
lineup of the 2009 Unpublished Inspirational? We hope this inspires
you to enter today! Of course the contest is open to other mystery and romantic suspense
subgenres as well. Check out www.rwamysterysuspense.org for
information and to enter. Deadline March 16, 2009. 

 

Go Nike! Glad to see you pressing forward.

 

~~ to remind everyone about our new Steeple Hill Chat!

http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/cafe-social/chat-room/find-our-ch...

Join us for the first-ever Steeple Hill chat at eharlequin.com at 8 PM
Eastern Time.  We've been asking for a chat of our own for ages, and
they've finally given us one, so please come help make this initial
chat a huge success!  Some of the Steeple Hill authors are planning to
attend, along with Dream, the Steeple Hill hosty. 

We hope this will be the first of many monthly chats about some of the very finest in Christian romance!

That sounds wonderful!

Whoopsie...Dream, I forgot to post my goal. LOL!

I just sold two more Wings of Refuge stories (#6-Vince's story) and (#7 Chance's story). My goal is to finish Vince's story by April 1, 2009 so I can send it to my critters (waving to Dream, Cyn, Camster) for feedback, wreckage and other various forms of slaughter. HE!

Hope...also meant to say I'm so proud of you for going great guns!

I've missed you all!

 Cheryl Wyatt

Thanks, Cheryl!  And congratulations on the sales!  Glad Chance's revised story has made the cut at last! I liked him a lot.

New goal: get synopsis finished and EVEN THE NIGHT entered in new Daphne inspirational mystery/suspense unpublished category by March 16th.  (I was chatting with the bats about it, and realized I hadn't entered it as a goal, and it definitely IS one.)