I entered my second assignment into a contest and guess what?

It came in third place. Check it out here:

http://www.watchmebounce.com/front/3rd-place-winner-in-fiction-not-today/

It's basically the first scene in Second Chances series only this one has an ending.

This is exciting. Of the three entries I sent in a couple of months ago, two have come back and put huge smiles on my face. The third is still in the judging process.

If you've been following along, you may remember the blog I posted about using contests as a stepping stone in May/2012. Here's the link if you want to re-read: Use Contests as a Stepping Stone

Happy reading, writing, researching, revising and contesting.

Critique of my story "No Laughing Matter"

If you remember I entered this at the WOW site  I didn't place, but I did receive a great review and here it is:

CRITIQUE

Scores: 1-5 (5 being strongest):
Subject: 5
Content: 5
Technical: 3


OPEN PROMPT (Any genre in fiction)
Word Count: 750 max

SUMMARY


Subject (Is it fiction? Appropriate for WOW! readers? Brief summary):

The story is fiction and appropriate for WOW! readers. A girl is bullied at school


Content (Is the story well developed? Is there a plot/point to the story? Is it compelling? Are the characters well-drawn?)

Plot/point: There is a plot/point to the story
Compelling: It is compelling because of the tension
Characters: We know enough about the characters to carry the story


Technical (Did they follow the rules--is there a title and proper word count? Check for proper spelling, punctuation and grammar, correct tense, active not passive sentences, overuse of adverbs, use of "wrylies"):

Title: There is a title and it is appropriate

Word count: 281 words

Dialogue: The dialogue is good
Past tense/passive voice: This is written in active voice
Word choice/word usage: The word choices are good
Adverbs/adjectives: There are no adverbs or adjectives that stand out
Grammar/punctuation: The two commas should be periods. An em dash is two dashes with no spaces before or after—like this
Unnecessary words: There are no unnecessary words
Phrases: There are no awkward phrases
Clichés: There are no overused clichés



Overview (This is where you give your general impression about the writing style, how the story affected you, etc.):

"I really like your story! The fact that you were able to tell a complete story in less than 300 words is hard to do, but you did a great job. I like the way you characterized Brenda, and kept wishing she wouldn’t turn her story over. I wondered what the extra credit word was, and Susan let everyone know. I laughed at the end, and from now on, every time I hear the word “nincompoop” I’m going to think “ninja poop”! Nicely done!"

Critiqued by Literary Agent Regina Brooks

I'm doing the happy dance inside and out

Happy contesting

Closing a store is harder than I thought

I've been too busy getting loose ends tied to write, read and barely time to think.

A story woke me up at about 2 am Thursday and demanded to be written. I asked it to wait until I woke for the day. It did and as my husband was driving to open up his workplace, he was sick and I didn't want him alone, I wrote the story. Now it's done and ready for revision when I'm ready to revise.

I read an article about writer's block that was really good for the house. Here it is. I recommend using it especially if your house needs cleaning too:

http://thewritepractice.com/unproductivity-fuels-productivity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheWritePractice+%28The+Write+Practice%29

Happy writing, revising, unblocking and cleaning

Character Description List

As promised, here is my revised and updated Character Description List. If you have any other recommendations, please feel free to comment. Can't know too much about your characters. Even if you don't use everything in the story, you'll know enough to give them reality and possibly have a better idea of how they'd act in a situation.

Gender-

Age-

Physical Description-

Hair-

Ears-

Eyebrows-

Eyes-

Eye-lashes-

Nose-

cheeks-

 Lips-

Mouth-

Distinctive feature-

Height-

Build-

Complexion-

Clothing- Dress-

Personality-

Sound

Voice-

Laugh-

Often says-

Smell-

Touch-

Character type-

why this way-what in life made her this way-

How does she feel about herself-

Does she want children-

What does she think about men and marriage-

Problem solving-

Does she want to change the world?

*Education History (past and present)-

*Family History (relationships, past and present)-

*Sexual History (past and present)-

Religion-

Parents-

Childhood-

Family life-

Pets-

Love Interest-

Hobbies-

Friends-

Employment-

Most influential person in your character's life and why-

Fun-

Greatest embarrassment-

What do other’s say when she leaves the room-

Greatest fear-

Favorite food-

One thing your character won't eat-

Most important person in character's life now and why-

Favorite color-

Hidden motivator-

Reluctance (won't do)-

Inability (can't do)-

Dreams active-

Dreams inactive-

Dreams dropped-

Favorite place to visit/stay-

Favorite books-

Favorite movies-

Most meaniful song-

Favorite actors-

Favorite TV shows-

Books, Movies, TV shows that influence actions or thoughts-

Happy writing, researching and revising

Things have been kind of hectic

around the store, so I haven't had much time for research. We don't have online access at home so I've been reading two books. I'm almost done with Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing. I'm really impressed with this book and feel I'm coming away with a lot of great information. Some of which I'm contemplating working into my writing schedule. One thing I learned is that the more you write the better you get and until I got to the essay Zen and the Art of Writing, I hadn't really thought about the fact that practice makes perfect. He says write 52 essays a year and soon you'll have pieces you can submit. I know there isn't anything that I'm good at that didn't required repeat attempts. So why should I think my writing would be perfect right from the start. Anyway, I really like the idea that he says not to look at the money, but to enjoy the writing. The money will come when the writing deserves it and it'll be a great benefit of the fun. So I'm going to keep writing for fun.

I'm also working with the book 45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. It's really interesting. If you remember, shortly after starting this blog I posted the characteristics I try to discover about my characters. This book brought out some questions I hadn't considered so I've added to my list the ones I felt were relevant. I really like the way this book is set up with the many archetypes. I learned more about Kate and how to make sure she stays true to the character she's become over the years of working on Second Chances. I'll explain more about archetypes and how I used this book to round out Kate's character. I've started on Theodore's as well and he'll be giving us some insights in the future as well.


Since my husband is gone I've been spending the evenings reading through the various archetypes and have totally finished my characterization of Kate. There are a few small things I haven't learned, but I'm sure she'll tell me when they're needed. I also had a talk with her this weekend and she told me about her childhood, loss of her sister and how she met David. This information is posted or will be posted at our facebook page for Second Chances. As soon as the cover for the book is done, Tori is working on it, I'll start a blog for Second Chances and put the materials about the characters and the trilogy there as well. My author website will be up and running soon too. Check back for details.

Happy learning, bringing your characters to life and have fun writing. 

What I Recently Learned

A while back an instructor recommended throwing away the thesaurus and reading. I refuse to throw away my thesaurus, I love it, but I understood her recommendation of reading and have tried to read higher quality books-those with big words.

I'm reading Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury and he recommended the same, although he added poetry. Sounds like a great idea. So, soon, I'll add poetry to my reading and see where that goes. I'm sure I'll pick up some more nuances and may not have to rely on the thesaurus, but I'm keeping it close. Sometimes I can't remember that nuance and the thesaurus reminds me.

Happy reading and growing.

A lightbulb went off

I've Despicable Me saying 'light bulb' in my head.

My patience has paid off. A really great idea to fix some of my concerns with Second Chances arrived a couple of days ago. I made the changes yesterday.

I've been working on my research for Assignment 6 since the last post. Tedious gathering, but interesting information.

Too busy today to do any research or reading.

Found some contests to consider entering. I've worked some on a couple of assignments and am consider entering them. Don't forget to google writing contests and find contests you're interested in entering. Still no results for the ones I previously entered. They're stating so many entries that they're running late. Waiting patiently.

Happy reading, writing, researching and entering.