I had an email from Christine (aka Docu-Chick) yesterday letting me know she checked with the individuals doing the RWA Idol session at Nationals in Reno and they are all fine with her filming the session. At first, I didn’t think I’d be able to make the session as it started at 11:00 AM and my editor appointment with Abby Zidle fell within that timeframe. But I received the time for my editor appointment and it ends at 10:40 AM, giving me enough time to get make it to the session.
The RWA Idol sounds pretty interesting. According to the info in the booklet, you bring the first 2 pages of your manuscript to the instructive workshop, which will be modeled after American Idol. Two pages of randomly selected manuscripts will be read aloud and then agents Miriam Kriss & Irene Goodman, and Avon editor Lucia Macro will give their instant reactions. It promises to be a highly illuminating glimpse into how an unsolicited manuscript is treated and judged when it arrives in their office. I have no idea if my manuscript will be chosen, but they promise to do as many as time will allow. And the camera crew will be there to record all of it.
Christine is also planning on doing daily interviews (or should I say nightly, as they’re planned for around 10 – 11 PM each night) with myself, Kathryn Smith and Kayla Perrin. I’m guessing at that point of the day, I’ll be pretty bleary-eyed and possibly incoherent, so the interviews could be interesting. Who knows what’ll come out of my mouth. Then again, who knows what’ll come out of my mouth at the best of times. I have nasty habit of talking to myself and then realizing I said something out loud. Ooppssss… Should make for some fancy editing for the docu-crew. I swear I’ll do my best to behave, but I just know there are going to be moments where I’m overtaken by the Dark Side. Moohahahaha…ahem…pardon me.
Meanwhile, back at La Rancho del Writing Room (it’s my goal in life to give everything a nickname whilst massacring a bevy of foreign languages in the process)… I started writing my scene capsules this morning using my summary outline. I did the first 21 scenes and then realized I needed to do some research on country house visits/parties before I could go any further. I brought the books with me to work to read on my lunch hour, provided my co-workers will keep the noise level in the kitchen down. I’d hate to have to jab them somewhere unpleasant with my fork should they not cooperate. Oops, there’s that Dark Side showing through again…
Anyhoo, enough of maiming my co-workers. I just have to say I am thrilled with the way the story has developed with D&B. It has been such an easy process using the Story Evolution worksheet. Even though, in my rush to get this done before I go to Reno, I’ve worked the process a little out of order, it still seems to be working great. I definitely can’t recommend First Draft in 30 Days strongly enough, especially if you find you end up doing a lot of rewriting, or have sagging middles.
And speaking of sagging middles, I’m off chocolate for the next two weeks to get mine in shape for that little black dress I’ll be sporting at Nationals. I expect to suffer severe withdrawal symptoms, therefore, I cannot be held responsible for my actions during this time.
6 comments:
No chocolate for two weeks? Are you insane? *grin*
No way! Paula better not steal my thunder. Although if I do get picked to have my manuscript read, I then have - on film - what they really think about it. Which is great if it's good. Not so great if it's bad.
Kelly,
You do most of your writing in the morning before work. What time do you get up? And what time do you go to bed? Don't you even just want to roll over and say screw it?
I get up at 5:50 every morning and after shower and breakfast, that puts me down in front of the computer by 6:30 and I write until about 8:15. Bedtime for me is at 11 pm.
There's definitely some mornings where I want to roll over and say screw it, but since I've started writing in the mornings, I've only done that twice and both times I was sick with the flu. Turns out I like writing more than I like sleeping. And I usually only need about 7 hours anyway, so by the time the alarm goes off, I'm usually awake or in the process of waking up anyway.
Oooh, the Idol contest sounds like fun.
I'll definitely see if I can find First Draft in 30 days. Sounds neat. :)
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