Writing Wrongs

July 15, 2004

Had the thought this morning that I�m glad I�m not going to the RWA National conference in Dallas, Texas. One word: hot, Hot, HOT.

Okay, that was three. Still, even though most time will be spent inside, I don�t think I�ve sufficiently recovered from the heat and humidity of Alabama. For a conference, I�d rather go somewhere I�ve never been or somewhere I love. Dallas is neither of those. Next year is Reno. I�d go to Reno, mainly because I�ve never been there. I�d go back to New York in an instant.

The other night, I had what probably constitutes a new twist on a writer�s nightmare. I was in a room with a bunch of editors from a New York Publishing House (the name escapes me, but it was a blend of Avon and Penguin). I wasn�t there to pitch my own books. In fact, I knew I didn�t have anything appropriate to pitch.

What I had was a stack of partial manuscripts from �friends� (who these people were, I don�t know) and I was supposed to pitch their books for them.

This had the editors peeved, to the point that I knew I had lost all chance of ever pitching one of my own books, a classic case of shooting the messenger. Still, we went forward. It was then I realized I hadn�t read any of the partials.

So I shuffled through the first, trying to pull pertinent details from the synopsis. One clich� after the other followed, followed by me saying, �It�s much better in the actual book.� One peek at the manuscript told me it wasn�t. What to do? Trash a �friend�s� book in front of editors or pitch something that wasn�t ready?

At this point, Kyra cried out and I woke up.

For the past two weeks or so, all my dreams have been like this: vivid, disturbing, and all about writing.

So, Dr. Freud, what say you?

Writing Progress: I did more than a little �tweaking� on the synopsis. Try major overall. But I�m pleased. Today, I�m going to apply the �why� question to all major actions to make sure the motivation is clear in the synopsis itself.

What I�m Reading: More Ella Enchanted. Andrew still does that little boy eye roll when I pick up the book, but he�s an awfully intent listener.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 9:06 a.m.

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