The Closet and Some News

This is just a quickie post to say I'm over on the Sister's blog talking about coming out of the closet. And no, not that particular closet in case you were wondering. :-) Just a small post about being loud and proud of your work.

And now for the news - I've been handed on to another editor following my High Five win. Weirdly I am left in the same position I was in when I came runner-up in the Feel the Heat contest. Then I was handed over to another editor who then looked at the two subs I had in and picked the one with most potential. That sub got to the second revisions on a full stage. So here I am again with two subs in and yet another editor looking to see which has most potential. Dejavu!

I'm hoping at least one of them does actually have potential and I finally do one poor editor proud. It's amazing I haven't been ditched yet really. To lose one editor may be regarded as a mistfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness....:-)

I shall endeavour not to be careless this time.

Putting the E Back Into S*x

Okay, so, I've got over my rejection. Actually I'm well over it. Much more so than the previous one. Odd considering how much time and effort I put into this story. And maybe that's part of it. I've learned SO much just in the writing of it that I didn't feel any of that effort was wasted. Certainly if I hadn't put my all into getting that submission right, I would not have been able to write IT Girl.

Bottom line though is that I didn't get it right. And I know why. To be honest, I suspected that I might not have pulled it off about a month after I'd sent it. Such a horrible feeling. But I really hoped I'd be given the opportunity to correct it...Sadly not. Oh well. I still think the story holds up and I do plan to rewrite it at some stage. You will not have seen the last of it!

Anyway, at least I now know the problem with one night stand stories. How to get that balance between sex and emotion. The partial was rejected because there was no emotional connection between the two characters, which made their romance unbelievable. This approach is okay for something like Blaze, but not so for MH (or any of the M&B lines probably). There HAS to be an emotional connection between the characters first. My thought was 'but if these two felt an emotional connection, they'd run a mile. And they weren't looking for one anyway'.
That is true. But here's the thing - only the reader needs to get a hint of it. The characters themselves don't need to know. Subconsciously they might feel 'something' is different about this person they've met, something that is totally unlike anything they've ever experienced but do you think they will admit it to themselves? No way. They'll explain away the feeling by saying to themselves 'it's just physical' or 'it's just that he's unbelievably arrogant' or that 'I don't like people who don't do what I want' or some other excuse to explain this weird intensity.
But the reader - who likes to know things the characters don't - will be going 'aha!'
And there you have that vital emotion. And that's what was missing from my partial.

Interestingly, none of the other mss I've got suffer from that so at least I don't have to go back and rewrite all of them!

Actually, now I think about it, that's why this R doesn't suck too badly. Because I know what the problem was and I can see it what I wrote. Which means I can fix it for next time.

And speaking of next time, yes, I have my next sub ready to go. Will get the eds thoughts on the premise first and if she's interested, it's gone!

Onwards and upwards, my friends. Gotta keep climbing that mountain. :-)

Revisions or What the Ed Said

So, been examining the ed's email in great depth and having a think about my story. There were a number of points that she pointed out were wrong and here are the main ones:

1. My conflict was too obvious, too early. I really needed to give hints of it, not reveal it so starkly.
2. My characters were...drum roll please...too self aware! Which is always a besetting sin of mine. I did a post about characters being too self aware actually and was quite relieved to note that I'd done it in February - at least a month after sending this partial, so I have progressed!
3. My characters thought too much about the past. They fell into old patterns and the romance didn't feel like something new and exciting.
4. The setup didn't work.

However, they did say there were some lovely moments and that my character consistency was better.

So there you have it. More bad than good really but at least they gave me some suggestions about how to fix it. I admit to feeling quite daunted about this - at least every time I read that email I do! But in the past couple of days I've been discussing suggestions for fixes with various people and now I think I have a plan of attack. Going to post more about it as I go because I got some other feedback about lack of goals that has been hugely helpful too.

Anyway, bottom line is I'm going to nail this, by jingo!!