Thursday 31 May 2012

Deadline Update

Since I set a deadline of the end of May for submitting my ms to Mills and Boon, it's high time I updated.

I've finished my synopsis and cover letter, and formatted my ms to the layout given on the Harlequin website. I'm just waiting for my friend to finish reading it. I'm itching to just go ahead and send everything off, but I know if I do that my friend will come back to me saying I've committed some howler of a typo. I've worked so hard to get this far, I'm not going to mess it up by being impatient.

So I'll wait for my friend to finish, make any necessary corrections and send it off then.

I can't believe I'm nearly there! For so long, submitting my work has been a misty goal, way in the future. Soon it will be a reality. Then the nail-biting begins...

Sunday 27 May 2012

The inspirational effect of wearing rubber gloves

As painful as it's been, writing my synopsis has been a valuable experience. It's really made me get to grips with my hero and heroine's conflicts.

Towards the end of the story, there's a scene that I felt wasn't moving the story forward, so I was going to delete it. However, I kept hesitating to do it, because I had a nagging feeling that it was necessary. I just couldn't put my finger on why. Doing my synopsis - in fact, I was doing the washing up after a spell of working on the synopsis - it hit me why the scene is important. It's the moment where the hero lets go of the toxic emotion that's kept him from the heroine; I just hadn't realised it myself. A bit of tweaking later, to make the moment more obvious, and now the resolution of the conflict is more convincing. All thanks to the synopsis.

I'll never moan about synopses again. Well, not until next time...

Sunday 20 May 2012

Synopsis Blues

With my first three chapters still with my friend, I've been trying to write my synopsis. All I can say is, I'm glad I had no idea how difficult this would be before I started or I'd never have found the motivation to finish the first draft. But now I've got this far, I would never forgive myself if I didn't actually send it off.

Saturday 12 May 2012

A scary step

I've done two things today that I'm proud of. First, I mowed my lawn. That might not sound like much, but between illness, holidays and torrential rain, I hadn't been able to do it this year until now. That meant it was a jungle that really needed to be attacked with a machete, instead of my flimsy Flymo. But I did it. It was so wet that now the lawn looks like it's been nibbled by a rabbit with most of its teeth missing, but it's still an improvement.

The other thing I did was to email my first three chapters to a friend from my writing group. That's definitely the most scary thing I've done in a long time. I didn't want to do it - I'm terribly self-conscious about showing my work to people I know - but I had a stern word with myself about needing my MS to be the best it can possibly be before I send it off to Mills & Boon. As much as I really don't want to hear about all the bits that need improving (or, heaven forbid, scrapping and completely rewriting) I've just become too familiar with my work now, and blind to its faults. It definitely needs a fresh pair of eyes.

But I know I'm going to cringe next time I see my friend...

Wednesday 9 May 2012

A Grumpy Post

I'm back from a lovely, if wet, holiday in Wales. Unfortunately I managed to pick up yet another cold and this time it's gone to my chest. So now I'm feeling grotty, miserable and, yes, grumpy. Therefore, while I'm in the mood, I'd like to take the opportunity to get something off my chest. Possibly not the best expression to use, given the chest infection, but here goes...

Why is it that when I tell people I work from home, they always take that to mean swanning around, doing nothing? I've been inundated with calls this week from friends, all starting with, "As you're free, I wondered if you could help with..." In each case I wanted to point out that I wasn't free, I was in fact trying to work, in between hacking fits of coughing, but I just don't seem to be able to do it. As a result I've got all sorts of niggling little jobs to do for people when I'm desperate to get down to work.

Knowing how to say 'no' is a useful skill, and one I don't have. Just call me 'Doormat' *sigh*