Pages

Monday, May 3, 2010

First Kiss!

Okay, I'll admit it--this one's for me. Recently, I wrote my first kiss scene, and it made me incredibly twitchy. And since our new, automated system means I can play, too (except for Secret Agent contests, in which I will continue to not participate), I'm going to hover over the send button along with you.

So for this week's critique: SEND ME THE SCENE IN WHICH YOUR PROTAGONIST AND HIS/HER LOVE INTEREST HAVE THEIR FIRST KISS!

Submission Guidelines:
  • Submissions will open at NOON EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME today.
  • Submissions will remain open until midnight or 50 entries have been received.
  • Send your submission to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. Please remember that NO OTHER ADDRESS WILL WORK. So if you send your submission to one of my other addresses, it will not be submitted to the contest.
  • The maximum word count is 250. If your submission is too long, it will be rejected.
  • Please bear in mind that this site is rated PG-13. As such, please don't send a kiss scene if it leans too close to erotica, or leads directly to sex. The focus is FIRST KISS.
  • The scene can be tender or passionate, tentative or volatile.
  • Please format your submission in the following manner:
SCREEN NAME: type it here
TITLE: type it here
GENRE: type it here

Type a BRIEF lead-in to your kiss scene here. Emphasis on BRIEF! Like, if they're on a ship, say so. If she's a zombie, say so. Don't give us their entire backgrounds; just a setting. (Remember, everything you type counts toward your word count.)

Type your entry here.

(And remember, to be on the safe side, remove any signature tags from the bottom of your email.)

Ask questions below! I'll try to get to them before submissions open.

66 comments:

  1. I think it should be a rule that The Authoress is allowed to participate in EVERY secret agent contest!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have that many manuscripts. :D

    *loff* *hugs* *my favorite person today*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Authoress. I've not entered a contest since your new, fancy automated system. My question is this: will the screen name, title and genre above the actual 250 words count towards my word count?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nope, they don't count, so long as you format them the way I told you to! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm sorry to seem stupid, but do we actually type SCREEN NAME: etc. or just type our name ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. You actually type it exactly as above.

    SCREEN NAME: Poppyseed

    etc.

    If you don't have the words SCREEN NAME, etc., the program won't know you've got them up there, and it will reject your submission.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why do I always have to be at work when these things are happening??

    (And no, I'm not goofing off at work right now. I'm not even here. You never saw me.)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I missed the last in-house crit, so glad I have a chance at this one!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ooh, awesome idea. I love reading first kiss scenes. I don't have anything to enter right now but I can't wait to read them all!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a fun idea! If this goes well, do it again soon. I have a second manuscript I'd love to submit for First Kiss too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ohhh, first kiss scenes. SWEET! Can't wait to see the entries!

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is gonna be tough to critique.

    My respiration and heartbeat are increasing even with the thought of reading all these entries, but I'll plow my way through 'em.

    ReOWWWrrrrrr. hubba, hubba

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Authoress,
    The evil bot says my entry is 255 words but it really is only 250. What should I do?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Authoress,
    The evil bot (mentioned above) says my word count is zero! What should I do?

    ReplyDelete
  15. The bot never lies! :) Check for sig line in your email; if you have one, delete it.

    Check to make sure you have a colon after SCREEN NAME et al.

    And recheck your word count.

    Amanda, if it said "o" it can't read your text. Try resending in plain text.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow. My wordcounter must be so different from yours. Mine told me it was 248 and it was rejected as having 298!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Please let more words if we are allowed to set the scene. My entry was 246 words, but with my "brief" explanation, it came out to 257, so it was rejected. I took out the explanation and it went through. Whew!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Word is saying it's at exactly 250. I have no signature and my top stuff is formatted exactly how you have it. I tried a second time but it came back with the same email. I even hit the space bar a few times to separate the top stuff from the formal 250. I'll try again.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Try resending as plain text, as that is often the easiest fix. with formatting, etc., there are often "characters" and things you can't see (like, if you cut/pasted from a rich doc) and the bot will count those. Plain text is "what you see is what you get".

    Let me know if that solves the problem.

    ReplyDelete
  20. the first contest using your new system seemed to work without a hitch.

    This time, following the same instructions, I am getting a refusal.

    Might have to bow out of this one.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hurray! It worked this time. Looking forward to reading the entries!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I cut my down, tried again and am having the same problem.

    ReplyDelete
  23. That's the trick, Authoress!!!! Sending it as a plain text. You are a genius -- for many reasons. I'm in. Thanks a bunch. I really look forward to reading everyone's entries.

    ReplyDelete
  24. No, I'm not a genius; I've got Michael in g-chat! LOL

    Huntress--what message did your rejection email contain?

    ReplyDelete
  25. (beating head with shoe, exclaiming, You idiot)

    plaintextplaintextplaintext.

    Okey, Dokey, it works great :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. LOL Well, okay then. :P

    Michael says you're all using really buggy email clients. :D

    ReplyDelete
  27. sending it in rich text, it said I did not include screen name, title, genre at the top.

    Plain text is the key. I will keep my shoe close by next time.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Authoress, if we get no reply, does that mean our entry's been accepted?

    ReplyDelete
  29. I had same problem as Huntress- it said I didn't include the genre, etc. I typed the entire thing in by hand as a regular email- no cut and paste and sent again.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Krista -- No!! You will always get a response. Check your spam folder. Wait a few minutes to see if your response has been delayed.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Woot! That worked, but I was rushing worried that i wouldn't make first 50. I hope its not loaded with typos.

    ReplyDelete
  32. And there's the reply: accepted! *wipes brow* Phew!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Once again, sorry to be stupid, but what is the diff between rich text and plain text? Or how do I know which i'm typing in?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Your email should give you an option, along with all the other options you may have (font, etc.). In gmail it's at the top of the box you type your email message in.

    ReplyDelete
  35. This is probably a stupid question, but I've never entered any of these contests...what is our screen name? Like our name here on the blogs?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Yes, whatever you go by when you leave comments here. Your screen name will not be shown on the actual post.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Finally got accepted! It took four tries, but in the end all it took was typing it manually in plain text. ;) Now I'll put aside thoughts of email formatting and focus on the elusive art of writing a good first kiss scene. Thanks for another great critiquing idea, Authoress!

    ReplyDelete
  38. WHEW! Accepted! I was so afraid I wouldn't make the first fifty. I didn't type a lead-in though because I was so close on word count. Hopefully the entry speaks for itself. ;)

    Thanks for the contest, Authoress!!! I think this is the first YA kiss I've written, so I'm anxious to see what people think.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Is this for YA only?

    ReplyDelete
  40. How do you take out a signature line? I use hotmail and it automatically puts something there.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Yes, hotmail is evil and should be avoided. :D

    I think Michael has fixed it so that the dumb hotmail sig doesn't mess you up. Give it a try.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Ok, let me try it again. It already rejected me once as being fifty words over what I thought I had.

    ReplyDelete
  43. OHMYSWEETGOODNESS. I think your bot works for the Secret Service. On my sixth attempt, I was able to get in. Wooo hooo! I really thought I wasn't going to make it. It's symbolic of the journey to get published, don't you think? If you get rejected, try try again. :)

    Wow. That's deep.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Don't worry too much about the signature line. Most of them will be removed automagically.

    If you aren't paying for hotmail, it's actually against their usage policy to remove the advert sigs. :(

    ReplyDelete
  45. Ok, it made it in. Good to know that the sig line will be removed. I'd hate for that to be the tantalizing cliffhanger to my scene...

    ReplyDelete
  46. I'm having trouble, too. Sent right after noon. Didn't get any reply. Just sent again and still nothing. But I did get my notification that the e-mail address had received it. So there's hope?

    ReplyDelete
  47. I have tried sending something to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. and my computer keeps saying there is something wrong with the address. How else could I address this submission?

    ReplyDelete
  48. I've tried twice, but this is what I'm getting in reply:
    Dear Henya,

    I'm sorry; your entry has been disqualified for the following reason: It looks like you tried to reply to the contest address. Unfortunately, this is only for automated submissions.

    I KNOW I sent it to the right address.

    ReplyDelete
  49. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Yay! I made it. Tip for people who are having problems: I made it in only when I took out any spaces after the colon.

    I'm glad to be back on this site. I can't figure out how to post as my former identity, Blodwyn, but I'll go under my name. Can't wait to read all of these!

    ReplyDelete
  51. Henya, You may not have an RE: in the subject line, or the bot thinks it is a reply email. Resend without an RE: in your subject line.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Hi Authoress,

    I goofed on my first submission (post 43)and didn't get the entire scene into my email. SO, I sent you my corrected version (post 45). Can you please delete my first entry, pretty please? Sorry for the user error.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Urgh. I will ask my fearless bot master how to proceed. :P

    ReplyDelete
  54. Huh. Saved it in plain text, but it didn't go through in plain text, because I got an e-mail. I redid it in Word as plain text and copied and pasted. I hope it works.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Hmm. Well, I got a confirm on the number, but then an e-mail from Michael saying to reformat as plain text, and then a confirm as an alternate - probably am an alternate? :( Oh well, I will enjoy reading the others!

    ReplyDelete
  56. Maybe too late for the party, but thank you as always for these fun breaks in my day!

    ReplyDelete
  57. Yes, thanks authoress! Is it wrong to be excited when your kid is sick so you can stay home from work and enter your awesome contests?

    ReplyDelete
  58. I'll probably be too late, but I'll try.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Probably way too late, but I'll give it a go! :)

    ReplyDelete
  60. Aww, It is probaly too late, since Elizabeth was an alternate and she posted at 3 o'clock. :(

    ReplyDelete
  61. The new system absolutely cuts out anyone out of the timezone given. Mine came back of course. And in the end I just assume I won't make it so won't submit. By the time I get even to my email, all the slots are already taken. It's such a disappointing exercise.
    ZP

    ReplyDelete
  62. Do you mean the time window? Because I'm in another time zone and it worked out ok. Let's all be really nice to Authoress to hosting these when she really could probably do other things like go get a pedicure...

    ReplyDelete
  63. If you are in a different time zone, you can go to this site:
    http://www.zeitzonen.de/eastern_standard_time_est_-_connecticut_delaware_district_of_columbia_flori.html (its all one long string)
    It's an all German site, but the time beside the flag is the current Eastern Standard Time (EST). Then, you'll know when to post.

    ReplyDelete
  64. oh man, i didn't get to my email 'til today. at least i'll enjoy reading the others...

    ReplyDelete