Friday, January 28, 2011
Wild Wednesday Leads to Thoughtless Thursday
Great story flowing onto the paper Wednesday night, so much so, that I stayed up past my usual 12:30 AM self-imposed curfew. The story intrigued me. I couldn’t stop right in the heart of the action. Finally, after two in the morning, the Mountain Dew wore off and I came to a stopping place that would be easy to pick up the next night. The next day went swimmingly until late in the afternoon when having only four hours sleep hit me. I made it through until last night when I sat and stared at the computer screen. I knew what I wanted to say but it just didn’t make it to the keyboard. A vacant spot the size of a tennis ball occupied my skull. Something was missing. I slept my usual six hours last night, so maybe tonight will be better.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Wow! What a Morning.
Today I spoke with God. I confronted demons face to face. I traveled forward and backward in time. For a short while, I visited another planet. I witnessed the death and rebirth of planet Earth. …all before breakfast. Do you want to hear about the rest of my day?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style
What a great little book. Call me a nerd, but Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” Fourth Edition answers many of my grammar questions in one neat little publication. From simple punctuation to more complicated issues of structure, this book covers it all. William Strunk, Jr.’s original “Elements of Style,” published in the 1930’s and sometimes referred to as “the little red book,” is updated to fit modern writing tastes by E. B. White in this little silver book. If that’s not enough for the grammar nerds and writing enthusiasts, this little style manual is now available in an illustrated version. That’s right, illustrated grammar. What more could a word nerd ask for?
You can find your own Strunk and White's here and the illustrated version here.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy 2011!
Sayonara, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu, Adios 2010. You kicked my heart right in the mouth. Good Riddance. I hope the door hit you in the butt on the way out. Now listen to me 2011. Don’t get any wise ideas from your predecessor or there’s gonna be trouble. You don’t want any trouble, do you? Happy New Year everyone! Be safe and stay well in 2011!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The Twelve Days of a Writer's Christmas
On the twelfth day of Christmas my writer love gave to me,
12 New stories started
11 Chapters to edit
10 Characters to find names for
9 Split infinitives
8 pages workshopped
7 Nights a week without sleep
6 Books on writing finished
5 Computer crashes
4 New Agent rejections
3 Queries emailed
2 Contests entered
And one more year without a story sold
Monday, December 20, 2010
Agent Query Rejection
Other than the typical "We wish you the best of luck in finding a home for your work elsewhere,' here is a list of the Top 5 most creative rejections to my query letters.
#5. We urge you to submit your work to other agencies
#4. We hope you will soon find an agent with whom you can establish a productive relationship
#3.Our team appreciated the chance to hear about your project, however...
#2. Thanks so much, this looks very interesting, but...
And, the number 1, most creative rejection...
Thanks so much for thinking of us, but the story line is too close to something we are already considering. (Really? Are you kidding me?)
Have you received any out of the ordinary or particularly creative rejection letters? Let me know about it.
Labels:
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Nebraska Writers Workshop,
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