Categotry Archives: FanLit
What's Your Writing Process?
I love talking about writing process. It’s always interesting to hear how others suffer or talk about my own suffering. So lets talk about how you go about your entries. I know one writer who likes to think about it a while, then write it all out fast. Last time I did it three ways. I whipped out Of Cats and Canaries in the first three hours and posted with barely a proofreading. I stewed over it that night and […]
Turn My Head, Why Don't You
You guys over at FanLib are spoiling me. In fact everyone everywhere – except my mother – has been spoiling me rotten with compliments. This in spite of my low scores. I’ll tell you, it makes a big difference in my willingness to keep doing this contest. My favorite, of course, is “Wow”. I mean the good kind, like “Wow this is good” rather than the “Wow, what the heck do you think you are doing?” or “Wow, was that […]
Making Comments
I’m lousy at comments. I don’t mean to be, honest, but I’m just not as bright and smart, and supportive as I ought to be. And somewhere along the way I just know I’m going to put my foot in my mouth. In fact, I already have. I said things in the comments that got quoted in the forum as a bad example, though I don’t think I’ve made it into the Hall of Fame yet. Well, maybe. I haven’t […]
Promos
I’m simply not getting the invites like I did the last round. Or maybe it’s still early and I have gotten into reading the entries sooner this time, having put one out in the first few hours. Regardless, I find myself short on reading material. I’m actually using the vote button. *Shudder? No – sigh.* So I’m paying attention to promos again. Knowing me it’s not surprising that I would find a bunch of things to say about promos. First, […]
Gossip
I’m going to get myself in hot water here, I just know it. Oh well. Remember yesterday when I talked about zero bashing? Well I just want to say thank you to Laura T for NOT caving. She gives 5’s willingly, complements kindly, and is generally the kind of reader I wish we had a lot more of. I think Snydley’s little ruse on the Chapter 2 discussion forum was very well done, but “his?” entry wasn’t nearly as bright […]
Voting
Every entry I have made in the FanLit contest so far has received a large number of both zeros and fives. As near as I can tell my averages seem to be between 2.2 and 2.9. Why is this? I know a lot of it is a matter of taste. I’ve always had a strong effect on my readership, like it or not and the better my writing gets the more polarized the reactions to it. I don’t really mind […]
"Best of Luck"
There’s a lot of that going around on FanLit right now. (Would you stop groaning already? I know I’m obsessed with it. FanLit, FanLit, FanLit. So there.) It occurs to me that luck has a lot to do with it. For instance, I had terrible luck the day before yesterday. I didn’t have enough time for that third entry. Then I got bumped off the computer by family members a dozen times. And my scores are getting the usual trouncing […]
Top of the World
I am having so much fun! I got into the invite option on FanLit, and spent part of yesterday and all of today talking people into letting me invite them to rank my entries, and getting invites from them. I’m a lot nicer to people who invite me. I am much more likely to read them all the way through. I don’t skip at all from an invite. I leave comments on invites where I don’t leave any without. And […]
Just when you thought it was safe to drop by
FanLit again!!! Oh quit cringing. At least most of my FanLit blogs have been short. I am finding this FanLit thing a very humbling experience. It is teaching me that umpteen million years of writing and a vast amount of education in the field of writing is not enough to overcome reader apathy. In other words, trying doesn’t necessarily make you a good writer. Wait a minute. Exactly what was the smelly stuff that just hit the fan? It’s true. […]
Avon FanLit – of course.
I know, you’re sick of hearing about it, but it’s what my world revolves around for the moment. It occurred to me that I hadn’t really described it. In the couple of weeks before the first assignment a bunch of people signed up to participate, and to vote for which combination of setting and premise we were going to use. The winner was a Regency in which a darling of the ton may or may not be a fraud and […]
Obsession
Avon’s FanLit had triggered my obsessive tendencies. I haunted the site for three days after I made my first submission. I feaverishly started working on my second submission. I voted like crazy and posted comments all over the place, and generally made an idiot of myself. I totally neglected my blog, my bloground – such as it is – and my crit group. Not a good thing. But at least I still got dinner on the table and didn’t call […]
Whewh!
I did it! I got my first submission done and in. I get one more chance at it, and I’m planning on doing that right before the deadline. They had an “invite a friend to vote” thing at the end of the submission form. I don’t know if I have to actually invite people through it in order for them to vote, or if you can simply go and do it. Anyone who feels like voting, I’d be much obliged. […]
Big bites bite big
I never bite off more than I can chew, but sometimes I fill my mouth a little more than is pretty. This is one of those times. It all started with Avon’s FanLit contest. Avon is a house I have drooled over for some time. So far I have sent then two submissions – a query that received my fastest ever rejection and a partial that got swept out with the rest of the slush pile when the editor who requested […]
