Word Imperfect

"From the beginning" versus "In the midst of things" I have heard two very different schools of thought on where to start a story.  It is such a contested subject that there are words for both methods. Ab ovo: From the beginning.  Followers of this method argue that a reader cannot car about a story if they do not first care about the character.  In this method the story starts with the main characters day to day life and gives you an opportunity to get to know them and care about them.  This does not necessarily mean you see the them from birth, you just see their normal life before the inciting incident (the event that happens to the protagonist to change their life from the norm and sparks the action of the story). For example: We see Dorothy in Kansas before she goes to OZ.  We see Katniss in District 12 before the reaping.  We see Harry with the Dursleys before the owls start to show up.  There are many who start their stories in the most lo...

Well, today is the 12th and no email.  That means that I was one of the 29 eliminated from the YA category.  I'm not going to lie, it hurts a lot more than I thought it would, but it isn't the end of the world.  It certainly isn't the end of my writing.  In fact, it's just the beginning. So, where do I go from here?  Truth is I don't really know.  I am hoping to hear from the judges who had my entry.  I want to see if they can give me some insight into why they didn't pick me and what I need to do to improve things.  I know I need to add a few thousand words to the manuscript.  I need to find a freelance editor, though I have someone in minds if she'll have me as a client.  After I have this thing perfectly polished and tweaked I'll try querying some agents one on one.  If that doesn't work I guess I'll self publish. Thank you all for your support and positive thoughts, please know that this is not over, not by a long shot. A ...

I have been writing, in one way or another for most of my life.  From little poems and stories when I was small, to longer fan fictions for my kid sister in my teen years.  For the last ten years I have been working on an original series.  I made it about 17 chapters in only to have it be destroyed (this was before online backups and external hard drives).  Then, discovering that the plot line needed a lot of work anyway, I dove into intense research, plotting and outlining.  By January I had outlined a trilogy. Earlier this year I sat down and put pin to paper (well, fingers to keyboard) with the goal of finishing book one before the years end. As fall approached I had nearly 20K words, but it was nowhere near what I needed.  Hoping for helpful push, I signed up for my very first NaNoWriMo .  In 30 days I wrote 29k words.  Again, it wasn't what I'd hoped for but it was amazing. In the end, I didn't finish by New Years Eve, but on January ...