CONTEST

I enter contests!

Why?

Why not!

The latest one is from Writers Digest. Check it out.  http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents

I am going to send in the first 165 words -- as they  requested -- of my middle grade novel, OPEN DOORS. Keep your fingers crossed. It's a good book, but I worry about the beginning. I've changed it more times than I should. Every time I attend an SCBWI conference, some writer/editor/expert goes on and on about how to start/write a first sentence. 

"If an agent/editor doesn't like the first page, you're manuscript is toast." I'm told this over and over. Scares me. So I rush to my computer and add, subtract, edit, and revise my story to death.

My bother -- you know -- the one that eats dirt is visiting me. He has been doing the same thing to his YA novel. The one he self-published. Evidently he can go into some link and change it at will. Yesterday he asked, "When do you know it's done?"

I said, "It's done when you make the decision to stop adding, subtracting, editing, and revising."

The main reason I enter contests is practice. I love the challenge of coming up with an idea and then molding it into a story. I figure I'm a winner either way. If I don't win the contest I have a picture book or magazine article ready to submit.

How cool is that!