Posts Tagged ‘synopsis’
That’s how much my Golden Heart entry weighs. It’s 36 pages of 6-page synopsis and 210 pages of the first 42 pages of my MS.
How do I know how much it weighs? Easy — I put it on my trusty kitchen scale. (I knew there had to be a use for it besides weighing food!)
I have decided it’s time to let my entry go. I can’t read through it one more time without going absolutely bonkers. Besides, If I hang onto it much longer, I’ll be paying extra for express shipping — and since the Boyfriend is fronting me the money to pay for the mailing, he’d appreciate it if I didn’t have to do that.
I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment after printing out those six copies. I called one of my NARWA friends and told her that it was done. She’s still working on her entry (in a different category).
As an aside, my Brother laser printer works great. I bought it a couple of years ago, fairly cheap. At the time, I had an iMac still running on OS9, and it was one of the few printers that was OS9 compatible. I’m glad, because my pages look beautiful — much better than they would on an inkjet printer.
I plan to head to the Post Office either Thursday or Friday, depending on when the Boyfriend gets me that money. My next NARWA meeting is Saturday, and I have the weekend off.
Now, instead of devoting it to finishing the GH entry, I can concentrate on upping my NaNo word count. I managed to break 14.5K today, but that’s still low compared to everyone else.
Today I thought I was ready to print my full MS for the GH entry. Unfortunately, it was the first time I’d noticed that all my pages were 1.5-spaced instead of double-spaced.
That’s ALL the pages — in the full MS and what I thought was getting close to a perfect GH entry.
When I put my 45 pages into double-spaced format, they suddenly grew to 57 pages — and that’s much too long. (With a six-page synopsis, I can only have 49 pages in my entry — and I can’t cut down the synopsis any more.)
Of course, I now have to find a new hook to end my entry on. I think it’s on the new Page 47, but I’m not sure. I don’t like it nearly as much as the old hook, but I don’t want to end on Page 49, because that’s even less of a hook … and I can’t end it much before Page 47 without cutting out a crucial scene.
This is a problem I can overcome. And I’m glad I noticed now instead of AFTER I sent it off. That would be a crappy way to get disqualified!
On the NaNo front, I wrote about a thousand more words today. That gives me 64 more pages than I had last month. Not too shabby!
That’s what my blog is doing … I haven’t been giving it as much attention as I should, I guess.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been giving the NaNo the attention it needs, either. After a great write-in with friends Wednesday morning (at which the MS topped 10,400 words), I was woefully lazy on Thursday and Friday. This morning, I managed to write another couple hundred words …
The good news is I realized this morning (as I lamented my lack of progress over the last few days) that I have 55 more pages of Blind Date Bride than I did before I started the NaNo on Nov. 1.
So I might not be where I should be word-count wise, but I’m much better off than I’d be had I not signed up for NaNo.
As for the GH entry, I spent some time last night making the edits from my last read-through. It looks like I’m going to be shipping off 500+ pages, though (6 copies of the 45-page entry, 6 copies of a 6-page synopsis and a 216-page full MS).
Wow! That’s a lot of pages. Wonder how much that’ll cost me?
No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth … even if it might seem like I did. I’ve been busy, busy, busy trying to balance my writing life with the day job and my attempt to hit my goal weight (which I’m still 15 pounds away from, darn it).
I still wonder if I might have bitten off more than I can chew this month, but I’m trying my darnedest.
A quick update:
• The NaNo MS is up to nearly 10,500 words (and that’s 10,500 more words than I had at the beginning of November!).
• I’ve printed out another paper copy of the GH entry (pages and synopsis) to read through tonight. I plan to make any final changes and hit the post office tomorrow. It’s payday, and I need to pay for the mailing while I have the money to do it!
That’s what I’ve been up to. How about you?
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