Mentor Workshop

(Had to start this post with a pic of my little guy. He's my world!)

On with it. I forgot to give an update! The mentor workshop went well. I enjoy being around like-minded individuals. It's so inspiring to me. They push me to be my best self.

So the night before the workshop, I get an email asking for me to bring in a printed copy of my first 30 pages. Wierd, right? I'm thinking "Oh no! They lost my work!" Arghhh!!!! Well it turns out that my work was submitted to Marissa Walsh of Fineprint Literary. She had reviewed my work at last year's conference and felt that a new agent/editor should look at it so I could get different feedback.

She was nice enough to read my newest version of Armstrong and give feedback. I also got critiqued by Allison Wortche of Knopf. So I'd say all in all it was a great day.

Marissa gave me some really thought-provoking questions. For example: What is Armstrong's motivation? Why should we the reader feel sorry for him?

I've been using these questions to drive my writing. I can't wait to see where Armstrong takes me!

Thanks Marissa, Allison and the NJSCBWI team for a successful workshop. See you at the next one!

Women Who Write, Westfield Chapter

Yesterday, I met with my fellow Women Who Write ladies. We meet every other Saturday at the Westfield Library. I tell you, these ladies keep me going! I learned a lot yesterday.

* Using any tense of feel is a no no!
* Contractions are ok for dialogue, but not for prose.
* Don't use was (seriously that's HARD!!!)
* And speaking of "seriously", adverbs are the ENEMY!
*Point of view- it was suggested I tighten up my "close third" POV

So much to learn...ah! But you know what? I enjoyed every second of it. I feel my writing getting stronger. I am just hoping to meet my January 1st deadline.

Finding the time to write is difficult with a 9 month old, but I steal moments every day, even if it's for 15 minutes. So far, I haven't gotten past chapter 5. I've decided to break up the backstory into smaller chapters. My original chapter 5 was a huge info dump!

And so I continue to plug away :-)

It's been a looong time

So I took a break from blogging for a while. Wanna know why? Because I had a baby! My little Christopher is the love of my life! He is almost 10 months now. He has inspired me to give this writing thing another try. I have taken it very seriously for the past few months. I joined a writer's critique group in Westfield. We meet bi weekly. It's a small group of awesome female writers.

I have signed up for the NJSCBWI Mentor Workshop. It will be held on Sunday November, 14th. I'm really looking forward to that. My goal is to wrap up Armstrong as I ring in 2011. I plan to then re-submit, with the hopes that someone out there will take an interest.

Will update on the Workshop once I return. Toodles for now!