I got cast!

I got a part in the musical Nine at Kensington Arts Theatre! It's a small part (not the one I specifically auditioned for), but I should get to sing in all the chorus numbers (8-9 songs or something like that) and be on stage for most of the show. My first rehearsal in Tuesday. The show opens May 19.

So now I'm going to be really busy, especially if I continue my plan to do the March writing (only I'll be revising) marathon with OWW. But busy is good! I always get more stuff done when I'm busy. It gives me less time to be depressed and wallow in self pity. :) I will have to work out a schedule. That will appeal to my anal side.

I'm hoping my friend who auditioned gets cast too, but she's up against someone else, so I don't know yet.

Went to auditions

I auditioned for the musical Nine with Kensington Arts Theatre tonight. I think it went pretty well. There were not a lot of people tonight, so unless a ton of awesome people show up tomorrow night (which is possible) I'm hopeful of my chances of getting a part and possibly even the part that I want, which is Claudia. However, I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much. I don't even know if I've gotten called back yet!

If I do get called back, those will be on Thursday. Another round of stuff to go through! groan. Hopefully, no more dancing, but that's possible. And spoken lines. eek!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I should hear if I'm called back either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Then if I'm cast in the show I'll probably hear on Saturday, but if I'm not cast I'll probably have to wait until Sunday to hear that.

Anyway, crossing my fingers.

Deadlines approach

Two deadlines are approaching and they're both stressing me out. Next week, I'll be auditioning for a show with local community theater. While I was in school, I didn't have time to do any theater as the rehearsal conflicted with my class schedule, but now that I've graduated, I have time again. But it's been about 2 yrs since I was in something. Auditions are stressful, and if I don't get in, I expect that I'll react badly.

The second is the post-mark deadline for the novel writing contest that I want to enter. The entry fee is $35 and the top prize is only $100. But they have a category for science fiction/fantasy/speculative and all entrants will apparently receive 2 judges critiques of their submissions. That's why I'm doing it. And since a book entered cannot be under contract to a publisher or an agent, it will help keep me from submitting to agents until I'm ready.

To enter, I need to get ready:
1. The first 25 pages of my novel (easy, that probably won't even include chapter 2)
2. A one-page DOUBLE SPACED synopsis (extremely difficult as my synopsis is 4 pages, double spaced, I'm afraid the story won't make much sense in a page.)
3. Novel summary in 40 words of less (I think of this more as a hook or pitch rather than summary--I have some ideas.)

If I happened to tie or advance to the final round to compete for the grand prize, they would read the last 25 pages of my manuscript. This is the part that worries me because even though my book is complete from beginning to end, it's not in final form and my # of pages will probably change. But they can't fault a writer for submitting her best work, right? And if inspiration strikes (which I'm sure it will me, since I'm actively trying to get it to do so) they can't blame her for changing the things that need changing?

Anyway, I doubt I have much of a chance to get that far. I really just want the critiques to help make my first pages and synopsis the best they can possibly be before I submit to agents.

I'll know probably by the end of next week if I'm in the show. It will be June before I know the results of the contest. I say to myself, "Break a leg!"

Melodramatic much?

Actually, I went back and read my rant about writing a synopsis and it's not as bad as I remembered. I remembered making a complete fool of myself. :-) But I guess I only really freaked out to a couple of my friends.

I have to admit that being melodramatic and overreacting to things is one of my...well, we'll call it one of my charms.

I was reading this page about rejections (a suggestion of Miss Snark's on her blog) and it got me to thinking about my rejections. I've gotten enough of them to be a little used to it and I generally try (unsuccessful, but I try) not to get my hopes up too much. Not matter how much you know that it's a long shot, it's always a shock to the system to get that rejection. It's really, really hard not to take it personally. Your writing is just so wrapped up with who you are, it's practically impossible not too.

A lot of people get angry, and I can't say that I don't, but I tend to shake it off pretty quickly. It's actually things like this synopsis critique or disappointing paper grade that will upset me more. Or not getting into a show I've auditioned for, that's just awful. I've been trying to get published for over ten years, so I've developed some thickness of skin in terms of rejection letters at least.

Watch me go compeltely beserk the first time I get a rejection from an agent for this book.

At least whatever happens, I can count on myself NOT to write a nasty note to an agent. An ex-boyfriend...been there done that...an agent? No.

Snowed In!

We got over a foot of snow! Down on my little cul-de-sac I doubt we'll get plowed out by tonight at the earliest. Still don't know if I'll have to go to work tomorrow, but the public schools will probably be cancelled. The questions becomes if the colleges and universities will be as well?

Sadly, the terps lost their game yesterday. But they played with heart.

And I am very discouraged. No one likes my synopsis. And I feel very overwhelmed about my manuscript. I guess the difference between me now and when I revised my last book is that now I understand how much work it will be and I have a better concept of how much work it actually needs. And I haven't even gotten to the really rough part yet!

School spoiled me, I guess. I could only realistically work on short chunks of my book and I wrote too many short stories. But as I learned writing IS revision. And I always like this part before. I'm thinking too much in terms of the big picture. I just need to get through his read through. Then I can start doing one thing at a time.

I can do this right? No matter what people think of my synopsis. I know the story is good; the world is even better. They both need to be excellent.

Mavelle (my main character) often says, "If I can just keeping singing..."

If I can just keep working...

Writing a synopsis sucks!

<>

Have you ever tried to sum up a novel that is 150,000 words in less than a page (about 500 words)? Well, it's awful. Apparently I've cut so much out (including even mentioning 3 POV characters) that there doesn't appear to be enough conflict to keep a novel going! That comment made me laugh in a kind of despairing way. There is certainly enough conflict to last for a whole novel (I wouldn't have been able to write the whole thing if there hadn't been, the problem is conveying that in such a limited space without overwhelming the reader (i.e. agent) with a list of confusing events.

Of course i could make the synopsis longer, but I really wanted to keep it below a page. And I'm entering a novel contest that requires a double-spaced synopsis of a page or less. Are they INSANE? That's more like jacket cover copy. sigh.

So maybe I should readjust my thinking a allow myself two pages, at least for the synopsis that I'll be sending out to agents. I have to get into more of Tavin's motivation, and even some more of Mavelle's, or otherwise the events don't matter, right? But I also have to get in more about all the obstacles they face, which are plenty and I still have to keep at least information about the world. One person wanted more about the gods. And the Mother and the Destroyer are so hard to explain, especially since I don't even know if I'm doing it well in the book!

It's IMPOSSIBLE!!!

< /vent >

On a better note: i did start reading my manuscript over last night during and after the opening ceremonies to the Olympics. I'm just trying to refresh everything in my mind and spot major structural and/or tension problems. The good news is that the first part of the book still reads well to me (this is the part that was included in my book for school and has been gone over a lot) but since that's the part I'm most familiar with, I may not be distant enough from it. But on the whole I think it's tight and polished.

The second part is more troublesome. I have to rewrite the early Amaris scenes to reflect the change in the character. And there is a huge drop in tension between when Mavelle leaves Felice and when she gets to the next place she sings. HUGE HUGE drop in tension. So that obviously needs to be fixed. And that is where the two preti I may be including into one character are introduced so that all might need to be worked out as well. And that's as far as I got. About 150 pages into the ms. Not bad.

We might get lots of snow here, so there is a slight possibility that I might get a day off on Monday, but that's probably being too hopeful. It would be nice though to have another day to read it.

Maryland bball game today: GO TERPS!!! Show those Dukies they should FEAR THE TURTLE!
Ok, it's a long shot to win, but it would be awesome.

Inspiration from the mental stew

So, I haven't started looking at my manuscript yet. Yes, I know I said I would, but I haven't. Still, it isn't a bad thing for me to let it breathe for awhile. It's been stewing in my mind and inspiration has struck!

While working on my synopsis, I realized that events need to be tightened. At one point Amaris, who is a cantella trying to save people from the Destroyer before Mavelle gets there, is found and led to a hidden city. This woman is a servant of the force that eventually helps Mavelle. Then later Amaris runs into Mavelle and that's how Mavelle gets to the city. Well, I thought, that's just too convenient. Tavin is already having these dreams earlier in the book, I should use them to lead Mavelle where she needs to go. I can cut the scenes where Amaris goes ahead. She can still meet Mavelle and Tavin at the same point, but I'll have to rework some of what she's doing before then. Anyway, once I figure it all out, it should be a tighter story, but there will have to be some reworking.

The other thing I thought of was the awkwardness of some of the revelations that come to Mavelle. I think if Wilhenn, the expert in everything the Order knows about the cataclysm and what life was like before, was given enough clues, he could help put things together. For example, the keeper of the spiral, might not only be guarding the spiral but other things, such as a book, or fragments, things in a language that they have forgotten how to read, but Wilhenn might be able to. Anyway, it's a thought.

Probably the most difficult thing about my story is explaining all the stuff that the characters don't know, but need to find out. I guess I need to thing about exactly what they DO need to know and what they don't.

On a side note: I am reading Sebastian by Anne Bishop because she is one of Jennifer Jackson's clients. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I am disappointed to see that there is a force in the story's world called "The Eater of the World" who is escaping from a prison. This is unfortunately similar to my Destroyer who is escaping from his prison and has an army of Eaten. sigh. There is even the concept of something being divided. In this case The Light and The Dark. In my case The Mother and the Destroyer. Well, I'll just have to hope all the OTHER stuff in my book is original enough in concept or combination.

Revision Goals

My mind is already spinning with all the things I need to do to fix my manuscript, and there are many. Right now I'm mainly thinking of big things like combining characters, adding a character, fixing a subplot. I'll think about smaller things like adding more description, avoiding the passive voice and not repeating information to the reader later.

1. Combine the characters of Wilhenn and Jorrniss. Wilhenn's character is to provide conflict; he is someone who causes trouble for Mavelle. Jorrniss's main purpose is to provide information, though he also helps Mavelle deal with Wilhenn. I think one character can perform both these roles and also be more interesting. If Wilhenn doesn't like Mavelle, doesn't believe in her, it will be MORE interesting for him to end up being the one to provide so much useful information.

2. Figure out what to do about the gods. In earlier drafts of my manuscript, there are "interludes" from the gods' POV in which they discuss their plans. These are very short and most readers disliked them. I stopped using them for the last 2/3 of the novel and am not sure they would fit as well there anyway. But without the Interludes, I feel the first part of the book is lacking something. Also the purpose and actions of the gods become more inscrutable to the reader without them. If I bring Benny's POV up earlier in the novel this could help take care of this, BUT I'd need to someone work in the gods into conversations with his brother. I'm not sure about this. Perhaps it is enough for Mavelle to be thinking about the purpose of the gods' actions?

3. Expand on the sections of Benny's POV and move them closer to the beginning of the novel. I need to introduce the character of Lovak in these sections and develop Chera's character more early as she becomes more important later, more important than i thought she'd be.

4. The earlier scenes from Amaris's POV need to be reworked some to make her sound older, more confident and drop hints about what could otherwise be an unfair surprise later.

5. Mavelle's relationship with Tavin needs to be worked on. I think I can build tension without being so explicit early on. It will bring more impact to the scene where they finally get together if there aren't so many make-out scenes earlier. I'm definitely keeping the one in the cave however.

6. I think Rylin will be more effective if I introduce him later and make him Chera's husband rather than her brother. That way I can take him out of the Sharlis incident and clean that whole sequence up some. I think he can be introduced in Hydrelt instead. He will have been pestering the cantellissima there for help and either she can bring him and Mavelle together or it can come as a surprise.

7. Bea's character needs to be move developed. After she serves her purpose I kind of drop her. If that's all she's good for, I should find out some other way to do it and cut her. Otherwise she needs a more important role in the end.

8. Georth needs to be more developed as well, I think.

9. There is a dip in tension between when they reach Hydrelt and they flee for the hidden city. I think this will be helped by introducing Rylin later, but I need to make sure the story keeps moving here.

10. The other men from Brom need to be move developed so when they die it is more painful. I'm not sure how I will do this, but it needs to be done.

I'm sure there are many other things that I will think of, but this is plenty enough for me to start with. All right, my plan of attack. I'm going to read through the whole manuscript, noting places where I can do some of these things and other places where the tension is low or there are problems, without actually stopping to fix them. Once I have done that read through, then I will go through and work on all these things.

There we go. Time to get started.

So what's your book about anyway?

I started writing the next post about all the things I need to do to revise my manuscript and realized that absolutely none of it would make sense unless I first gave at least an overview of what my book is about. Well, here is the pitch paragraph of my query to agents (that I can hopefully send out soon!):

SONG OF THE PROPHECY is set in a world where the gods have demanded exorbitant amounts of sacrifice for hundreds of years, causing devastating natural disasters when they don’t get what they want. Only the cantelli, women with power in their voices, have been able to keep the gods from wreaking complete havoc. When a mysterious god starts demanding human sacrifice, the cantella Mavelle is told that she is the one prophesized to defeat him. Despite the wealth being a cantella has brought her, Mavelle longs for a normal life. With her desire for freedom eating at her willpower and her voice her only weapon, will she be able to destroy a god?

On her journey Mavelle fights the gods, falls in love, discovers an ancient power and makes some sacrifices of her own. I don't want to give too much way here. I want everyone to read the whole thing when it's published. *crosses fingers* The synopsis that I'm having a horrible time with will give away the ending, of course, because that's what agents want.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you'd do if you were an agent. Would you request a partial manscript from me?

I'M FINISHED!!

I've finished writing the 1st draft of my book!! I'm so happy. Finally. Finally. It's been so long since I finished one, I've forgotten how good it feels.

Now I just have to revise the whole thing. At least the first six or so chapters are in pretty polished condition. That's something at least. (And the part I'll be sending out to agents!)

But enough thinking about that. I'm getting ahead of myself. Now is the time to celebrate. Well, first to sleep. and then to celebrate. whoo hoo!

Anyway, here's my stats:

genre: fantasy (of course--what else is there? j/k)
Time from original germ of an idea: 10+ years
Time from serious start on manuscript: approx. 2 years, 5 months
Length in page: 491
Length in words: about 150,000

Whoo hooo!