Hitting the Deadline...

I did it!

My entry into the New Talent Award was emailed to the competition address this afternoon, and the small entry fee paid.

The competition is part of the Love Stories Awards, and administered by the Kate Nash Literary Agency.

For anyone who may have missed the details, the competition was part of this year's Festival of Romance, but when the festival weekend was cancelled, the new talent competition carried on under the Love Stories banner.

This year's competition is looking for writers of the future, so I really couldn't ignore it...

I've learnt a lot from the experience of editing the first chapter for my entry, which will help me in the future when I'm editing my other stories.

A couple of weeks ago when I gave up on my first choice and opted for my Nottinghamshire story, I didn't think there was too much to do. But I was so wrong.

I hadn't realised how much I've learnt since I finished that first draft, nor how the characters had continued to develop while I was away from them.

All that was needed was an opening chapter, nothing else, and as I was almost ready to start the revisions on the Nottinghamshire story anyway, I had nothing to lose by trying.

Well four versions later I was ready to do the final checks this morning (Thursday). The maximum word count was 2,500 words, though I was a couple of hundred under that by the time I finished.

After every set of changes I made, I read the chapter aloud, so five hours later, when it was ready to send, I think I'd gone through it vocally ten times...

It won't be perfect, but it was as good as I could get it for now.

Of course I'd like to make the shortlist, but if I don't, it won't be the end of the world. I still have the rest of the story to revise and edit, and as I've learnt over the past fortnight, change can be good.

I'm looking forward to a restful weekend, then I can get back to creating the happy ending for the couple in my contemporary romance. Once that first draft is complete and put aside, I'll be back to the historical and chapter 2... :-)

Getting On With It - Editing...

After my down spell last week I'm pleased to say equilibrium has been restored and I'm getting on with the first chapter rewrite.

Keeping Balanced...

The deadline for the competition is Thursday night, and I honestly don't know if I will have it ready in time. It's fortunate entry is by email so I don't have to take the post into the equation.

I experienced one of those editing moments where I cut a phrase-well actually a couple of lines that I thought were good. But looking at them closer, they just didn't work.

When I stop worrying about the editing and just go with it, I find the analytical editing side of my brain switches in, but not to the exclusion of the creative part.

The longer you are away from a writing project, the clearer you can see it when you come back to it.

As the weekend rarely gives me quiet time to write I've started to use that noisy time to do all the other things that lurk around the edges of my conscious, as it helps clear my mind for the editing.

I've created a 20th century Fashion and Beauty board on Pinterest. One of the ideas that has been lurking in my head for years but wasn't fitting into my usual time periods, finally started to make connections once I moved it into the 1920's.

While the majority of pins on the board are 1920's, it also covers 1900 to the late 1950's.

It will be some time before I can give the idea proper attention, but I think it may turn out to be a longer short story...

I've also discovered some of the new changes in Blogger which have made a few things easier.

I now have all my Social Media links showing under a tab- much tidier than being in the side bar.

There's now a tab for My Writing. I still have one thing to add yet, so it's half done.

So, now that's all done it will be back to the chapter one rewrite Monday morning...




Image courtesy of Vlado & www.freedigitalphotos.net