Good Wednesday, y'all! I'm feeling all kinds of insecure. How about you? It's time to unload our worries with Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh and his fabulous co-hosts, Christine Rains, Dolarah @ Book Lover, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Yvonne Ventresca, and LG Keltner!
So last Thursday was the IWSG Twitter Pitch Extravaganza. I made a list of tweets and fired off my first one shortly after 8 a.m. La-da-dee-la-da. An hour passed. Nothing. Oh well. Sent off number two. Hum-dee-dee-da-doo. Another hour passed. Nada. I started thinking that maybe I should add #whatwasIthinking? or #Istinkatthis but of course, there wasn't enough space.
And then it happened. A "like". I felt like Annie Potts as the secretary in the original Ghostbusters: WE GOT ONE!
Now this month's IWSG question has to do with pet peeves. I'd been tinkering with my novel for some months now and I was happy with its progress with one exception: the word count. It was too long, like 112K. (Stop laughing, it was 118K a few months ago.) Anyway, as I browsed through this agent's website, I found an article that states she doesn't read anything over 100K. Oh, SugarHoneyIceTea.
That's it. I was doomed. But then I thought about that quote by Faulkner. You know, the one I'm talking about: In writing you must kill all your darlings. Baby, it was a bloodbath. Thursday night, I went to bed at 102K. Friday, I ripped out 3K more.
For the next three days, I tweaked the query, rewrote my synopsis 83 bajillion times (and I still don't like it), and got my sample pages in order. On Tuesday, I hit send. Whew!
But I can't relax yet. I still need to reread the thing one more time (or two, or three) and make sure all the lhllllllllhhhhhhkkkkkk my cat typed while sitting on my keyboard are omitted. Really, Dove?
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Okay, I'll admit it. I missed the celebration last Friday. If you read the stuff above, you'll know why. And that's not the half of it. But first, let me acknowledge the host of this shindig: Lexa Cain, and her awesome cohosts: L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker.
As if my first Twitter Pitch (and the aftermath) wasn't enough excitement, my two darling children were in a production of Hairspray! this past weekend. The shows were outstanding. The cast only had three and a half weeks to prepare and they did such a marvelous job. Here's a picture of them in their costumes:
Micada (green) and Sedona (black, purple)
Here's a professional snap from the finale. Sedona is right behind the lead (Tracy, center stage) in the checkered dress and Micada is behind the girl in red on the right. You can't see them except for a knee and an elbow. Oh well. They were both on stage in several scenes and had a blast. I am so stinking proud of them.
And the events keep coming. Today I'll be making nine more of these centerpieces for my in-laws up-coming 50th wedding anniversary!
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Have you participated in a Twitter Pitch event? Have you seen Hairspray as a play or a movie? Are you a crafty critter?
Fingers crossed for you on those sample pages! Good luck! :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck on cutting words. I had to cut 30,000 once. It took a long time to make all the cuts.
ReplyDeleteBet your daughters had fun.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got a hit from #IWSGPit! Hope you get good news.
I dug the Ghostbusters reference.
Looks like your daughters had a blast doing Hairspray! I don't think I've seen the movie or the play.
ReplyDeleteI keep replaying that scene in Ghostbusters in my head. It's making me laugh a little at work.
And I am a crafty critter! I have fun making things!
Wishing you all the luck with your writing :)
Congrats on the "like" from an agent!
ReplyDeleteDove is such a cute name for a cat. There's been times when I leave my computer and then come back and there's lllllllllttttttttttqwioh in my story. And a lot of spaces. lol
Cutting words is usually a fun task for me, but that doesn't mean it's easy--especially when you have to take out something you really love but doesn't really fit the story!
ReplyDeleteGood story, Tamara, about your editing. I usually start long and edit to short. The trick is not making it to 'too short'.
ReplyDeleteThat's great news! Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteWe had fun planning for my in-laws' 50th a couple years ago.
Hoping for you and very impressed with making those big cuts in your novel. I love Hairspray. I'm a bit crafty.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the Twitter Pitch and fun events! I hating writing the synopsis -- it's my least favorite part.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your twitter pitch success! That's great. The play looks like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteWell thank you for making me smile – several times in fact!
ReplyDeleteI participated in the Twitter pitch in so much as I liked a few of the Tweets (sorry if I missed yours). I’ve not seen Hairspray, but I would like to and no I’m not at all crafty.
Congrats on killing your darlings...that sounded creepy. And congrats on the LIKE.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a fun production of Hairspray. You must be a proud Mom!
You're lucky. I have the opposite problem with word count. It is much harder to add words to a MS than it is to subtract them. Subtracting words tightens the story. Adding words... It's like padding it.
ReplyDeleteI bet "lhllllllllhhhhhhkkkkkk" shows up in more than a few manuscripts. :-) Well done on the blood bath. It must have been a doozy, but I guess it had to be done.
ReplyDeleteHope you get a good response from your submission! It sounds like that production was a blast. :) I've been known to be crafty, but not in the usual sense. Where people crochet or decorate bird houses, I'm painting squirt guns into steampunk ray guns. That probably wouldn't make a good gift for a 50 year anniversary. :)
ReplyDeleteI used to do Twitter pitch parties, before deciding to go indie. Congratulations on the submission!
ReplyDelete118K is a drop in the bucket by my standards! Historical sagas spanning many years and featuring ensemble casts have, well, historically been extremely long. It's not a genre I associate with short wordcounts, though my Atlantic City books tend to be under 70K because most of them only span a few months each. If I combined some of the ones that lead right into one another, they'd be more along my usual doorstopper lines.
I'm sure I've said this before, you are amazing, Tamara! All the luck with everything. Happy Anniversary to your in-laws. How exciting for your girls. I loved being in plays.
ReplyDeleteBravo for killing your darlings. That is sooo difficult. All the best to you!
Phew! I can't imagine cutting that many words that fast! Lately my editing involves more adding than cutting. Well, cutting then adding new stuff, I should say.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to your daughters! Hope they had an awesome time in the play!
Great job cutting so many thousand words. Good luck with that agent.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos of you girls' production.
I loved your daughter's photos. Thanks for sharing. All the best with your word goals!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations and good luck! You did awesome to cut so many words. And love those photos!
ReplyDeleteCongrats and good luck. Sounds like you did serious mayhem on your book. I need to do that with one of mine.
ReplyDeleteYou made me laugh about the bloodbath!! Congratulations on the successful pitch, that's so awesome!! I hope you get a great response now.
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats to your kiddos - how fun!!
I hope you hear back soon about your submission. As long as you're cutting unimportant darlings, then that's good. :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a great production of Hairspray. I've seen the movie and the live TV show they did recently. It's a great musical.
Awesome!
ReplyDeleteAnd good going on getting those words out too. Fingers crossed she likes it. ^_^
I often envy those of you who write long and then have to cut. I'm always the one coming in WAYYYY too short on word count and trying to figure out where I went wrong!
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