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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A FIRST KISS Critique Round

What better way to kick off February!

I'm opening submissions at 5:00 pm EST TODAY (February 1) and will accept the first 30 submissions (plus one alternate). 

GUIDELINES:
  • Please submit your 150-word "first kiss" scene.
  • The scene may be from a finished manuscript or a WIP.
  • Agented and unagented authors may enter.
  • Please: NO UBER-GRAPHIC KISSES. This is a PG-13 site. (Discretion mine.)
  • Format as follows:
SCREEN NAME: (type your screen name here)
TITLE: (type your title here)
GENRE: (type your genre here)

(Type a 1-sentence lead-in to your kiss scene here.)

(Type your 150-word kiss scene here.)

Yes, I've padded the word count to accommodate the lead-in.  But you've only got 50 extra words, so don't be verbose. (Heh.)

Post your questions below!

35 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. "The submission address for all in-house critique sessions is authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com."

    It's on the "crits and contests" page.

    :-)

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  3. This is SO GOOD!

    I'm terrible at love scenes, can't wait to see how the pros do it!

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  4. Love this! Probably won't enter, but I look forward to reading everyone else's submissions!

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  5. Hm, this sounds like fun. Hope I can get the e-mail to accept my entry this time.

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  6. Oo, this was a lot of fun the last time. Can't wait!

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  7. Sounds like fun! Probably won't enter, but might have a look through the MS anyway, just in case it's not as bad as I remember.
    Looking forward to reading everyone's entries!

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  8. Count me in! I set a reminder so i can be prepared to send it right at 5 EST. *crosses fingers*

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  9. Awesome! Thanks for the lesson, Authoress.

    Maybe I'll do a FIRST KILL scene on Halloween...

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  10. this may be the dumb/obvious answer of the day, but does the 150wc include the lead in sentence?

    [word verification: lowin
    the chances of my entry making it through.]

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  11. If we don't want to have a lead-in can we use the full 150 for the kiss?

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  12. Did I interpret the guidelines wrong or do we count the lead in sentence separate from our 150 word first kiss scene?

    Very excited about this critique opp :)

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  13. Y'all! I really did specify the word count thing:

    Yes, I've padded the word count to accommodate the lead-in. But you've only got 50 extra words, so don't be verbose.

    That's 150 plus 50.

    Capiche?

    XOXO

    (word ver: grunti)

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  14. Question: Is the lead-in the sentence prior to the kissing scene, or is the lead-in just a summary to set up what's going on?

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  15. The lead-in sentence should set up the scene for us, since we're going to be dropping into the middle of a story.

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  16. 150 words? Pft! You know I can't write a first kiss in under 800. :-P

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  17. LOL! I TOTALLY heard your voice in my head when I typed the "150." I kid you not!! :)

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  18. I am so happy I read back through the guidelines because the 5:00 pm EST finally sunk in. I completely forgot that I live in the central time zone and therefore it will be 4:00 for me O_O That was a close one!

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  19. wish I could set my clock by yours...
    any chance for countdown html someday?

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  20. 150 is hard, I'm looking through manuscripts to see if any make sense in that word count. Maybe it's a hint to me to tighten up first contact? A challenge anyway.

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  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  22. I might try this one - will require editing, though. The kiss isn't graphic, but some of the language is.:)

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  23. Ah! I've edited the kiss scene to make it fit 150 words. I think I'll keep some of the changes in the wip.

    Thanks for the opportunity!

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  24. Sent mine at 5 (4 my time) on the dot so hopefully I'll make the first 30 *fingers crossed*

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  25. :(

    Sent it at 5 on the dot and it kicked back. Sent it again and it was full.

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  26. Well shoot! I apparently sent mine 1 minute too early, then resent it only to find out it's full!! *boggle*

    Good luck everyone! :)

    Lisa

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  27. Drat! My submission was disqualified because my email has an automatic signature which sent the word count over!

    Guess I'll try again next time.

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  28. Posting this to generate a screen name...

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  29. I'm bummed that I missed this. My MC and his crush share a pretty hilarious first kiss.

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  30. It's nice to have understanding employers (here in New Zealand) who are happy for me to hit 'send' in the middle of a work day.

    Shame I didn't squeak in. Maybe next time.

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