Orlando, FL - July 31, 2010 - Day Six

Words written: 0                                                             Weather: 95 High (heat index says it feels like 107)
Hrs. writing: 0 (unless you count this blog!)                                     79 Low
Hrs. shopping and sightseeing: 0                                                     45% Humidity

(Picture is the WDW Dolphin Hotel from our room on the 7th floor of the WDW Swan Hotel.)

You'll notice that there's no "Orlando, FL - July 30, 2010 - Day Five" of the conference. No, it didn't get deleted. It was a blur of workshops, lunch, and more workshops, then we collapsed for a few minutes, went to dinner, then came back for an early night - except for the whole, gotta hone my pitch thing and was up until after 10:30pm, getting some last minute, on-line help from friend Linda Smith.

Last day of conference, so I decided to pitch. Someone else took over my body when I wasn't looking, because I HATE to pitch. It's never going to get easier for me. Period. No matter how many times I do it. After signing into the "Wait List", I sat down and realized that my pitch was too long. Now, mind you, I stayed up last the night before, perfecting this pitch. It was PERFECT. But not if I wanted to breathe, or have time to have a conversation (not taking a breath leads to Darla on the floor, blue).

So, there I am, frantically writing, honing, paring my beautifully crafted sentences. It was a stroke of luck that I wasn't called until I was nearly finished (yes, I was still scribbling on my index card while standing in line!). The agent understood that I was nervous, and asked if it was my first time. Um, no ... 100th actually (Um, yeah-I didn't SAY that, just that no it wasn't my first pitch, LOL!). So I read my perfectly crafted words ... ran two sentences together and forgot to breathe. Yep. Looked up at the agent, who looked at me quite concerned and said 'Breathe'.

After a couple of deep breaths and I finished my pitch, she had a couple of interesting things to say (like, R/S is flat, and that is kinda hard to sell right now). But she was gracious enough to give me her card and that she'd like to see the first three chapters. WIN.

I went back to the waiting area and struck up conversations with other writers also waiting for an editor or agent opening so they could pitch. It made it so much more pleasant, and the waiting not so long. It was a long time later that a volunteer announced that one of the editors was going to stay late and take pitches for those who waited so patiently.

Other than the pleasant women I waited with, I'm sorry to say that I wished I would have just went on my way to a workshop. It was brutal. The editor said to give her the elevator pitch. You know the one, two lines or less to describe a 90k + word manuscript. Then proceeded to interrupt me twice, once to say that my story line was trope (what the HELL does that mean?? I looked it up, and still don't know), overdone, and interrupted another time to suggest that maybe I should look to category. I graciously tried to exit, but she was so busy explaining that she wouldn't be so brutal if she had more time, that SURELY I'd read similar stories already published, they were EVERYWHERE. Yeah, right.

I just wanted OUT of there. Before I embarrassed myself and started crying. I didn't want to cry, not for someone's opinion I didn't believe. I said-gently-that I've read a lot of books, along many genres, and I'd never seen my storyline written before. Maybe something similar (woman gets physic powers after a brutal event, etc), but my book has a unique twist, etc. Didn't matter. The editor just wanted her day to be over, despite her assurance that she could stay late and take more pitches. I just wanted to be somewhere else. FAIL.

So, I got out of there and went to lunch with good friend & RCRW Chapter President Kim Wollenburg and tried to let it go. The Fountain was busy, but Kim and I were lucky enough to get a spot at the bar and got food before I passed out from hunger. Didn't really make it to any more full workshops, though after mailing my books off, I heard the last half of The Secret Life of Pantsers. It sounded like great information, wished I would have been able to hear the entire thing. Su was there and took notes, so hopefully I'll get to cheat off her :-)

The Awards Ceremony is tonight, I'll try to take pics of friends and fellow RCRW members for posterity. Then tomorrow its off into the blue yonder @ 10:15 for home. Have to say, I'm looking forward to being home and away from vicious editors.

Rough Week

Hopefully your week went better than mine. Broke my tooth last Friday and lived with the accompanying pain until Tuesday, when the dentist extracted the offending tooth. Of course, writing wasn't really an option, as pain is not a good conductor to imagination or romance.

On top of that, I received a rejection that same day from an editor I'd queried a couple of months ago. Writer's are such strange people ... I didn't read the email (even though it could have, right there on my phone) until I got home. In my flawed logic, as long as I didn't read the email, I wasn't rejected.

When I finally recovered from my Vicodin-induced haze, her polite rejection said, "I think you have a really intriguing premise, but it just didn’t quite resonate with me. This is only one editor’s subjective opinion, of course.

I wish you the best of luck with your manuscript."

What the h*$$ does that mean? I'd love to sit down with the editor to get the unvarnished truth of what she saw, or didn't see in my manuscript. Because something is missing, and I'm stumped as to what it could be. The problem is, editors are afraid to tell writers the truth, for fear of retribution or an angry reaction.

So, without a way to get an answer, the best thing I can do is go on. Back to writing at least an hour every day. Listen to workshop tapes and polish my craft.

My goal is to top 30K words on my manuscript. What's your goal this next week?

Flying into the Mist ....

Mentioned in my prev blog, when I started my current project - tentatively titled THE GATHERING PLACE (named for the bar the heroine owns) - I was pretty much "flying into the mist"; not unlike driving at night, on a dark back road, in the fog. In talking with my BFF yesterday Susan Lute (yes, I'm still twelve, LOL!) I realized that I LIKE not knowing where I'm going on a manuscript. I trust the process, that my muse (or girls in the basement) will come through.

That way, I get those unexpected scenes that pop up out of the fog, like when the Heroine's ex-boyfriend shows up, appearing to stalk her. This ties in two - no, three - ways: First, the Hero gets all protective and jealous - yay! Perfect timing. Second: it introduces back story without an info dump - I may be able to delete some earlier back story narrative. Third: he could be the bad guy. Score!

Have you had those unexpected scenes show up that became a pivotal part of your book?

Oh, and I topped 21k this week and am in Chapter 8. So ...

Fly into the mist, my friends, you'll have company and the weather is great :-)

A Painful Journey to Discovery - Part Deux

(continued from previous blog) For someone who has always had the next book just begging to be written, I was all but hyperventilating with panic. Then a good friend of mine (thanks APD!) said to just describe the bar. Not really write a scene or anything, just write it down in detail. That did it. As soon as I imagined what the bar looked like, the first scene popped fully-formed into my head.

Since that day a month ago, April 28th to be exact, I’ve written at least one hour every day. My original goal was 625 words (2.5 pages) a day 6 days a week, and felt that was pretty ambiguous considering I thought I wrote about 1 page per hour. That would give me approximately a chapter a week, so 90,000k book in about 4 months. The first few days, sitting at my favorite writing spot, I wrote blind, not knowing much about my characters. And wrote. And wrote. Exceeding my original goal almost every day that first week. Any research needed is done at night, when I type the pages into the laptop. The story grew organically and it became clear that I don’t need to know where I’m going.

To challenge myself, the original goal was bumped up to 675wds/day, 6 days/week for a weekly goal of 4,050 wds. I’ve keep my head down, writing that 1 hour a day, for a month today. If I need to catch up, I have that 7th day to write. I didn’t recalculate the 90k/4mo projection, giving myself a little wiggle room, in case something happens to knock me off my path. Life happens. I don’t berate myself for not making my daily goal, because it’s not the end of the world.

So far, I’ve exceeded the weekly goal, by several thousand words – remember that OCD – because I’ve written *something* every day, even on my “day off”. I feel like a writer. I act like a writer – see my website at www.darlaluke.com – AND I’m writing.

So my advice to writers: Know Your Process. If you don’t know it, try different ways of writing until you feel comfortable and can WRITE. Don’t put yourself in a box by saying ‘I can’t ____’. Susan Lute kept telling me that she’s a contemporary romance writer (she’s published in it, that must be what she is!) and she can’t write paranormal, even though she loves reading them. Until she sat down one day and did a writing exercise by putting two of her favorite characters into a different setting. A paranormal setting, it turned out. And an Apocalyptic paranormal romance was born.

I'm at 18,000+ words and counting. Are you writing … every day? What’s your goal?