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Row80 Check In 11-16-11 Short and Sweet (Like Me)

First off, sorry I missed the check in on Sunday. I didn’t get back from St. Paul until late, and Row80 completely slipped my mind.

I had a great trip and got a lot accomplished. My friend (who is a writing/reading prof and a writer herself) and I spent a lot of time on the synopsis for INTO THE DARK. We cleaned up the prose quite a bit and reworded it so it read more like a suspense novel, because that’s what the book is. The romance is a strong part of the book, but it’s driven by the suspense/conflict. Combing through the synopsis helped me to uncover three plot issues that were minor but made the book less believable. I fixed those, and then we came up with a great query. We used part of what I had, but the new query again focuses on the suspense instead of making the book sound like it’s all romance. I’m really excited about what we accomplished!

Goals for Sunday check-in
*Get Thriller Thursday written
*Get two page synopsis down to 3-5 paragraphs
*Get full MS ready to submit to e-publishers
*Write 500 words on THE PROPHET

How are your Row80 goals coming along? Has the upcoming holiday messed up your writing time?

27 comments on… “Row80 Check In 11-16-11 Short and Sweet (Like Me)”

  1. If you think you’re sweet, I’m a saint.

    Kidding aside, some weeks just go better than others. I am, if anything, proof of that. And I think the holidays effect us more than we think. There’s just something about this time of year that screams, “Do nothing!”

    • Ha-ha! Far from it, on both account;)

      Yes, the holidays definitely affect us. I’ve already got in the back of my mind how much shopping I need to do, and how much money I’ll have to spend. That in itself makes me want to sleep.

  2. This is FANTASTIC progress Stacy! Wowzers. It has to be so exciting to be at this stage of your writing. Woot woot! Keep it going…here’s to another bang up week ahead!

    • Thanks. I’m just ready to get querying, even if it means a pile of rejections. I’ve done all I can for the book at this point. It’s good, but it’s time to find out if it’s good enough. I think once I can start sending the queries, I’ll be able to focus more on The Prophet.

  3. Nice one! I’m glad you worked on your query with your friend. I think the saying that two sets of eyes is better than one applies to queries and synopsis too.
    Keep it up!

    • Thank you. The thing about my friend is that she’s a fantastic writer and she’s not really in my target audience. She’d rather read more forensic oriented books. So we thought if we could come up with a query and synopsis that would make her want to read the book, I’d have a good shot. We’ll see!

  4. The upcoming holiday hasn’t changed anything for me because we still don’t know where we are spending Thanksgiving. We aren’t looking forward to it at all. I’m not one for turkey, cranberry, stuffing, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie, so I’m good with passing this holiday right by.

  5. Ooh, nice job on catching the plot points. One of the most interesting parts about editing for me is discovering the things I thought must have worked, finding out that they don’t, and figuring out how to fix them! Usually, the fixes end up solving a bunch of other problems I was having, too, so it’s like falling dominoes of awesome when that happens.

    I live in a different state from my family, so I just have Thanksgiving with my roommate’s family, and since I work retail, the only thing really throwing me off is the fact that I work retail and have extreme dread for the upcoming Black Friday! I will be so relieved once Saturday the 26th swings around, you have no idea.

    Keep up the awesome work, Stacy, and have a great week!

    • Thanks. At first I was upset because they were things I should have seen a long time ago, but that’s what happens when you’re so close to the project. And yes, fixing problems in the MS is pretty interesting. It’s just tough to stay objective when you’re so close to it.

      OMG, you poor thing having to deal with Black Friday. No sale in the world could make me go out in those crowds. I’d probably end up in jail. Good luck! And thank you, have a great week yourself.

  6. Stacy, thats great you’re still chugging away even with vacation. I just totally fell off the wagon with this…sigh….Cant wait to hear how it goes with your queries! Keep us posted and best wishes

    • Thanks, Donna. Part of the reason for the trip was to get this stuff done. Don’t worry about it – you were a big help. Thanks so much:)

  7. It’s so helpful to have someone else read the synopsis to make sure your focus is where you want it to be. I’m glad you got it tweaked! Great progress. Have a terrific, productive week!

  8. I like your check ins, keeps me on my own track.. Clinking mugs of coffee to you (too early for libations here in San Francisco).

  9. So glad your edit session went well. I’ve got my Most Excellent Crit Group tonight, can’t wait! They also have such good ideas.

    • Thank you, and very cool. It would be nice to have a group to actually sit down with. I’m lucky to have two crit partners that are savvy AND honest:)

  10. It’s amazing how much you see about your story when you synopsize it. (Or better yet, when someone else who has read it synopsizes it.) Good luck for Sunday.

    • Yes, it is. I’ve got a rough synopsis of my new MS (took Roni Loren’s advice on that one), and it’s made a big difference in the plot.

      Thank you!

  11. Great that you worked out a query you’re excited about, Stacy. It’s so important to feel you’ve got one that really represents your novel. Your friend sounds wonderful, to help you so much. That’s a lot to accomplish in one visit!

    • Thank you. The problem is you never know if it’s good enough because part of querying is subjective. But I know it represents the book really well, and I’m exactly about that. And yes, she definitely is!

  12. Very good check-in. How encouraging to have a friend like that. I’m jealous 🙂 It sounds as if you have been rather busy. But it also sounds like it has been a good busy. Congrats on all the progress. Keep up the good work.

    • Thank you! I will say I wouldn’t be doing any of this without my friend. She’s the one who convinced my writing was good enough to give it a shot, and she’s put a ton of time into working with me.

      Have a great rest of the week!

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