Are contests really worth it?

I recently entered my first contest and encountered a new species...contest junkies. Who are these chicks that enter every single contest out there, and what motivates them to continually enter?


My first encounter with these self proclaimed contest sluts (their words not mine) was on the RWA Pro loop, where writers were complaining about the GH scoring. Several writers complained that their ms had placed in 4 or 5 different contests, but still received a low GH score.


My question is this. Is it really worthwhile to enter the same ms in several different contests?


At what point do you say enough is enough?


Back to the contest I entered. I didn't final. Didn't expect to. I mostly entered for the three detailed critiques that I would get on the first three chapters of my ms. For twenty-five bucks that seemed worth it. When they announced the finalists, I recognized three out of the five in my category as having finaled in other contests.


Something to consider when entering a contest...there will be several other entries that have already won elsewhere.



After reading at least fifty emails on the Pro-loop about the GH contest, I would have to think long and hard about enetering the GH. With no feedback, authors that receive low scores or are in the bottom twenty-five percent are left very discouraged.



As one GH contestant put it--"I know they hated it, but I don't know why..."




I'm not completely turned off by contests. I still may occasionally enter one based on the type of feedback or who is judging, but next time around I'll be a little more savy.


What do you think about contests? Are they worth it...or not?

drop and give me twenty!

it's not about the paper.

it's not about the ice.

and it's definitely not about the glam.

it's about

AUTHORITY.

POWER.

CONFIDENCE.

damn. i'm talking about my kind of hero. why would a chick sweat a playah? a playah takes orders from the coach. i want the man who's in control. yeah, that's hot. the playah prances around on the field, does as he's told, unless he's rebellious, then he sits on the bench for a while and repeats the process. the coach, damn, bosses everyone around. playahs, assistant coaches, refs. take the above picture, for example. there are at least 30 playahs, 200+pound playahs listening to the coach. he's in charge. some of those guys are twice his size, but he's still in charge. yeah, that's really hot. authority, power, confidence. hero musts for me. oh yeah, the hero has to be HOT too. but, HOT is different for everyone. i personally have a thing for stocky jocks. and of course, leos. other chicks like tall dudes, smart dudes, bad-ass dudes. the cool thing about writing is - we're in CONTROL! we get to be the coach of all our characters. including the men.

so, what's your description of a HOT hero?

I Got Nothin'

I'm addicted to You Tube. Admitting it is the first step. Whatever.

I spend hours watching useless videos. HOURS. I don't watch tv. Why should I when I CAN WATCH IT ON YOU TUBE?

My latest find? ARTEMISBELL. She has been a member of youtube for 11 months. She has 322 videos. THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO VIDEOS. Can someone do the math?

ENJOY:



Wasn't that AMAZING? Oh, honey child, that's just the beginning. Look her up and laugh for hours. And the artwork on the wall changes. A LOT.

I told my boss I was going to video tape myself dancing just to make sure I don't look like this...because I think I can move BUT WHAT IF I CAN'T AND I LOOK LIKE THIS?

How does this help with writing? It doesn't...unless you need some comic inspiration.

Here's hoping next week I have something intellegent to write about...

Peace out.

P.S. We're keeping you in our thoughts and prayers, Angie, and we're here for you if you need us. Much Spankster love and support to you and your family.

Random musings

Writing a book is like selling a house. Everyone has an opinion on what you need to do to make it sell faster, but the truth of the matter is that you only need to fix the foundation, the rest is trimming. In the book world this means to beef up your writing, learn the skills necessary to make it in this business, but filter out the things that don't help you. There are a lot of ways to write a book and what works for one person might not work for you. You have to decide. Just b/c your favorite writer does things one way doesn't mean that you should too. You have to decide what will work best for you.

You don't want the comparison to the house. :)

sharing a man - wrong. reading a romance - right.

i have to say i’m a little fascinated by the whole polygamy thing going on south of us. it blows my mind that these chicks have no clue of what’s going on outside walnut grove. i certainly don’t mean that in a taunting way. they just don’t know anything other than what they’ve been taught. seriously, imagine if this was all you’d ever been exposed to?

now, if the table was reversed and the chick got to have multiple husbands, this place might be somewhere we all might want to visit. for research purposes only, right, chellie?

anyway, here’s what i propose: let’s send these chicks some romance novels. let’s start with a harlequin american or maybe an inspirational, then we can work our way up to a single title. the point is, these chicks need to see that a relationship is between two people—one man and one woman—only. and the best place to see that is in a romance novel.

can I get a spank that?

Research....sort of....

So. Tonight's a big night for me. Not because it's my birthday or an anniversary or because my 3 year old has finally realized she's outgrown her terrible two's. No. It's even better.

It's the UFC rematch of Georges 'Rush' St. Pierre (my future husband in my next life) and Matt 'The Terror' Serra (give me a break).

I'm trying to fit this blog in between the no-name fights while waiting for the main event. I know, I'm a girl and mother and should probably oppose violence and all that and I do, except if it's in the octagon. Then it's just fine.

I'm not going to go on and on about fighting but watching the fights tonight made me think about research and how jealous I am that Lori Foster wrote and published MMA books before it ever crossed my mind.

I have a love/hate relationship with research. I hate doing it. Time spent researching it is time I could have spent writing. However, how good would the writing have been if I didn't do my research? So that's why I love it.

It turns out to be time well spent if I can make a reader believe that my hero plays ball and knows how to play well. None of that he hit a grounder to third and scored a basket. Which is exactly what BB book #1 would have been if I hadn't spent endless hours walking around ball fields, chatting with players and schmoozing them with bribes of free lunch (btw, they always picked up the tab).

And it was such a hardship, let me tell you. Hanging out with all that testosterone just sucked. Really.

NOT.

And I've met some really great people, both in person and over the Internet. Forums are a wonderful thing for lurking and trying to understand the mindset of individuals involved in a specific trade that you are trying to understand.

For example: The Military. These guys have groups and sites and blogs galore that have been 100% helpful to me as I delve into their world and I believe their voices make my voice better. More believable.

And it's a hell of lot less scary than sitting down face to face with some retired bad ass just jawing to chew on me.

So, that's all I got this week. Nothing spectacular or mind altering, just another thing I love about doing what we do. The endless quest for knowledge that in the end makes our works of art all that much better.

I'm heading back to the living room to bite my nails and pray St. Pierre pulls this one off without getting hurt. I don't want anything marring that pretty face of his.

What's in a beginning?

What's important about a beginning, particularly the first line of a book? Everything. That first line has to pull the reader in and make them read the next line and the next. Writers anguish over that first line, hoping to make it compelling.

It needs to raise questions that the reader wants answered. Dean Koontz is one of my all time favorite authors. His word usage is often stunning. In his book "The Darkest Evening of the Year" the opening line is: Behind the wheel of the Ford Expedition, Amy Redwing drove as if she were immortal and therefore safe at any speed.

From that one line we know that the heroine is driving fast and maybe a bit recklessly. But why is she in such a hurry? Is she being chased or is she chasing someone?

In Kresley Cole's "A Hunger Like No Other" the first line is: Sometimes the fire that licks the skin from his bones dies down.
The visual from that one line is powerful. Who is he? What has happened to him?

That first line is so important but before you spend hours or days anguishing over that one line don't forget that the rest of the book has to come after it. And every page must keep pulling the reader forward until the end.

I find those first lines to be really hard to write. I'll write something and think that it's good and after a few days I read that line again and decide it's crap. So I have to write it again. Sometimes the first line comes after all the others then you find the perfect first line.

How do you come up with the perfect first line?