Fairy Tales and Fantasy
Welcome, dear friends and readers, to the Hunger Games!… I mean, the submission series! Honestly, it can feel like a fight to the death when manuscripts are being evaluated. Which one is better? Which will be the last one standing?
In this third installment of my submission success series, we’ll be looking at the best way to get your story all dolled up and ready for the ball, without a midnight curfew.
Are these metaphors getting weird? They’re getting weird. Onto the point, then!
I hate to say it, but I’ve abandoned my novella for the time being.
I’ve never been able to just take a sliver of an idea and just write, like some writers I know (and admire). I like to let ideas percolate and develop. And with the time crunch (writing upwards of 20000 words, editing, polishing, and getting feedback by the beginning of January) the story just wasn’t coming along quickly enough. I was stuck with only a vague idea of where I wanted to go. I was also struck with that writer’s curse, the “I’d really rather work on that other story” niggles that only seem to pop up once you commit to one project.
That being said, I’m not abandoning the story forever. I just need to let the idea simmer for a while before I come back to it.
And I’m not abandoning NaNo, either. I’m working on a different project that I already had started, so I’m still planning on hitting the 50000 word mark (fingers crossed!).
I’ve got a special treat for you today, word nerds. But first, let me tell you a (short) story.
Four years ago I was a tiny freshman at Taylor University in the Professional Writing program. Two years ahead of me was another student, Chandler Birch. I didn’t know him terribly well, but he was obviously very passionate about storytelling.
Last week, Chandler’s debut novel came out.
That’s right folks, you can find The Facefaker’s Game online or in a bookstore near you. I think it’s pretty incredible.
I reached out to Chandler and he kindly agreed to answer some questions for me, and by extension, you.
It’s November 5 and National Novel Writing Month is in full swing. My project for the month (which has the oh-so-creative working title of The Dancer) is coming along pretty well. I’m over 2,000 words in at this point, which I’m taking as a success, considering I work 40 hours a week. Most of my writing is taking place in the evenings and, hopefully, over the weekends. I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far, considering I went in with little more than a premise and a vague idea of where I wanted it to go.
I’ve also made the executive decision to not do any videos this month. I’ll still post at least once a week, but filming, editing, and uploading videos cuts into my already limited free time and I’d rather use that time to write this month.
Not to worry though, I’ve already got some fun videos planned for December.
Until next time, word nerds!
(Sidenote: I had all this recorded, but my weekend’s been a little crazy so I haven’t had a chance to edit and upload it. I figured it would be fatster to just type this.)
It’s almost November, the time of year when writers go crazy (well, crazier than usual).
National Novel Writing Month.
We writers shorten it to NaNoWriMo (or just plain NaNo). You might recall that two years ago, I participated in NaNo for the first time. I managed to hit the 50,000 word mark that year (though I didn’t finish the manuscript until later) and I couldn’t believe how well the process worked. I had been working on that manuscript (both planning and writing) for almost two years and in the space of two or three months, I had a completed manuscript. I had never finished a book before (despite having more ideas than I know what to do with) and I was so excited after I finished NaNo.
It’s that time again, my friends. Time for me to sit at my desk, pull out the last month’s worth of story manuscripts, and wade through some very. . . interesting submissions. And you lovely word nerds get to benefit from my experiences.
That’s right, it’s part two of the submission series!
Today’s topic is all about doing your research. I mentioned this in my first post, Crafting Your Cover Letter. And something that you’ll notice is that a lot of these tips tie in together. I mentioned that research was important in creating a cover letter. But it’s also key in knowing where to submit and how to tweak your work.
And that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
I’ll break it into two major points.
I share what I really think about Cinderella’s fairy godmother.
Until next time, word nerds!
I’ve discovered something new. Well, new to me, at least.
Until next time, word nerds!
I’ve had a very interesting week.
Until next time, word nerds!
Hey there word nerds! I’m back with more fun fairy tale facts! Today we’re looking at Charles Perrault’s “Diamonds and Toads”.
“Diamonds and Toads”, or “Les Fées” (The Fairies) as it was originally titled in French, was written by Charles Perrault and included in Andrew Lang’s translation of Perrault’s stories called The Blue Fairy Book (1889). You can find the text for free online, though, if you’re interested in reading it.
Kate G. Jameson