A few months ago I entered a contest a my friend told me about. I sent in the first few pages of my book. I Lost. Last night I received an email from them, it included score sheets from the judges and their comments. So many good things included! Even the bad was good because I can learn from it. Nobody told me to throw it away, one even said she was waiting for me to finish so she could get in line to by my book! She is my favorite, my score from her was 77/100. The worst was 34/100. All but one liked my story, she/he can suck an egg.
The most interesting thing was all but one liked a secondary character better than the main, which really doesn’t surprise me as that character had been coming alive more than any other when I stopped writing and started editing for this contest. The judge who did not like her referred to her as a “penis chaser” and that made me giggle, especially since there is no mention of sex in the pages I sent in.
I’m going to take the one piece advice they all agreed on: take some time and develop the characters before continuing the story. I told that to myself a while back but haven’t really followed through. The story is almost complete, just lacking an ending and that is because I just don’t know what they would do.
So if you hear me talking about people you think are not real, don’t worry. They are very real in my head and hopefully you will meet them soon.
anamaree designs 