Outside Opinions

Today the fabulous C.A. Marshall sent me her thoughts on my book. If you don't remember, I won her contest last month (I still haven't stopped smiling about it). She brought up some very good points, things that made me slap my forehead and go "duh! Why didn't I see that?"

That's the thing about writing, for me at least. I get so wrapped up in the world I'm making that I forget some of the obvious parts of the story. And I know this world, I've dreamed it, I've imagined myself living in it. I know every single detail. But sometimes I forget to share said details with the readers!

Outside opinions, especially those of generous freelance editors, really help you see what else you have to do for your book, which must be cajoled, scolded, worked on diligently, ignored, stripped down to the bare essentials and rebuilt from the foundation up, given up on in disgust only for you to wait nervously by the phone for it to call begging for help, and allowed back in, coddled, because it is your baby.

A good critique is worth its weight in gold. Plus about four hundred dollars because it's actually weightless.

One More Time

I'm glad you guys like the list of writers' resources! And there are so many more, it's not even ridiculous. You heard me.

Anyway, this will be a brief post (don't want to take away yesterday's thunder), but I do want to remind you today is the last day to enter CA Marshall's free edit contest. Great contest or greatest contest?

Click the button on the right sidebar. You know you want to.

Something You Should Enter, Even if it Decreases My Chances of Winning

Fabulous editor C.A. Marshall is holding another contest! What is the prize you ask? A free full edit of up to 100 K words I say! Wow. Just wow. Click below for the link (I put a button on the side, too, but more because of extra entries than generosity! I'm so bad).

I think it's really generous of her to give away her editing time like this since she's not only a freelance editor, but also a writer and a lit agency intern. I'm also pretty sure she never sleeps. You can enter once per day, so don't forget! It ends December 10th!

I'm probably going to mention this every day until then, but don't worry. I'll keep up with the nonsensical ramblings you know and love.