October Secret Agent Early Info

Please note: This is NOT the call for submissions! The contest will open NEXT Monday, October 11.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (please read carefully):

* There will be TWO SEPARATE SUBMISSION WINDOWS. Each window will be open for 2 hours and will receive a maximum of 25 entries. This is to accommodate my other-side-of-the-globe readers.
* SUBMISSION WINDOW #1: Monday, October 11, NOON to 2:00 PM EDT or 25 entries, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.
*SUBMISSION WINDOW #2: Monday, October 11, 7:00 to 9:00 PM EDT or 25 entries, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.
*2 alternates will be chosen from the second submission window.
*PLEASE NOTE: You are responsible for figuring out your own time zone. "Time Zone differences" are NOT a reason for not getting your entry in.
* Submissions received before the contest opens will be rejected.
* Submissions are for COMPLETED MANUSCRIPTS ONLY. If you wouldn't want an agent to read the entire thing, DON'T SEND IT. If an "entire thing" doesn't exist, you shouldn't even be reading these rules.
* Manuscripts THAT HAVE BEEN IN A SECRET AGENT CONTEST DURING THE PAST SIX MONTHS (April-September) will not be accepted.
* You may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT if you've participated in any previous Secret Agent contests.
* Only ONE ENTRY per person per contest. If you send more than one, your subsequent entry(ies) will be rejected.
* If you are a PAST WINNER, please DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. (Unless it's a different manuscript.)
* Submissions are for THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. Please do not stop in the middle of a

Your submission for this contest should be formatted EXACTLY as follows:

SCREEN NAME: Your Screen Name Here
TITLE: Your Title Here
GENRE: Your Genre Here

(Followed by the excerpt here.)

* No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.
* You will receive a confirmation email with your post number.
* Submissions go to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my facelesswords address. Or any other address.
*PLAIN TEXT is your best bet! And if you receive a rejection notice that claims you didn't include TITLE, etc., please TYPE THE SCREEN NAME, TITLE, AND GENRE BY HAND and resubmit. (In other words, don't copy and paste that part.)

This month's contest will include the following genres:

• Adult commercial fiction (NO SF/F)
  
• Young adult

Questions below!

Time To Nail Your Log Line!

You may call it a tagline, a hook, or a log line, but they're all different terms for the same thing:

ONE OR TWO AWESOME SENTENCES THAT TELL US WHAT YOUR STORY IS ABOUT.

The week after next, we're going to spend some time critiquing log lines. If you're interested in participating, use the next two weeks to work on your log line. Because critique for this sort of thing could be brutal.

Good log lines are hard! But we're all capable of learning to write killer ones.

There's a reason I'm doing this, of course. It has to do with the VERY SPECIAL SOMETHING I have planned for December.

(Pausing while dramatic music swells.)

The VERY SPECIAL SOMETHING is for:

• Manuscripts that are FINISHED, POLISHED, and READY TO QUERY
• Manuscripts for which the author has written a LOG LINE (HOOK, TAGLINE)
• Manuscripts that are NOT currently represented by an agent or under consideration by a publisher

Interested? Work on the log line for your completed novel and then enter our log line critique sessions the week of the 18th! (One on Tuesday and one on Thursday--stay tuned!)

"But but but...how do I write a log line?"

More about that tomorrow! Consider this an early heads-up.

Questions below! But no specific questions about the VERY SPECIAL SOMETHING. I'm not telling yet.

Friday Fricassee

Every morning a little before six, I make a pot of coffee. Most of the time, this little ritual goes smoothly. And you all know how I value my start-the-day organic coffee.

Well. Today I forgot the coffeepot.

No, really. Filter, beans, water--it was all there, ready for brewing. I hit the "start" button like I always do. And proceeded to unstack the dishwasher, like I do every morning while the coffee brews.

Then I heard coffee hitting the floor. Because, yeah. No pot.

I have never moved so quickly at 6:00 a.m. in my life.

Amazingly, I salvaged almost the whole ten cups. It was a little sludgy, to be sure. But overall, a grand rescue.

That was the start to my day.

A borderline nerdy analogy popped into my head as I sipped my first saved-from-the-brink-of-death cup of coffee: Sometimes, my plots are missing a coffee pot. Lots of "right things" in place, but missing something basic.

And because of the something-basic that's missing, everything else sort of spills out all over the place. Then I've got a big mess to clean up.

Sometimes it's a worldbuilding basic (why does the technology work that way in the first place?). Sometimes it's a character arc basic (what is the character's motivation to do what he just did?). And sometimes it's a bare-bones plot basic (how did they get from A to F without hitting B through E?).

But hey. I'm learning to place my coffeepots now. It's all good.

There you have it. Wisdom from a missing coffeepot.

Or maybe I'm trying REALLY hard to justify one of the dumbest things I've ever done in my life.

Happy weekend!

From Pantser to Plotter?

I wouldn't go that far. Despite my increasing penchant for planning, I can't deny my natural bent toward organic writing.

Still, I've been letting you in on my authorly journey for some time now, so I thought I'd share some visuals so you can see just how PLOTTERISH I'm looking these days.

I am in the midst of a fairly large revision. While staring at 30 chapters, extensive notes, and a blinking cursor, I decided the best course of action would be to break the chapters into their individual scenes. It took me a whole afternoon at the vineyard, and it was SO. BORING. I don't do well with tedium or anything remotely repetitive, you see.

But I persevered. And ended up with 144 lavender notecards, as such:


Yes, that's a Scrivener screen shot. It's too tiny to read the words, which are mostly cut off because of the size of the cards, anyway. But a simple click on each card reveals the bullet items I included on each to let me know exactly what's in the scene. Part of Scrivener's coolness is that you can drag the cards around. So changing the location of a particular scene is easy.

As I finish each chapter, I color-code the corresponding scene cards. That way, I can see the chapter breakdown at a glance. If I decide at some point to move a scene from one chapter to another, all I have to do is drag it and change its color.

At any rate, I've completed nine chapters so far. So my bulletin board now looks like this:



Isn't that pretty? The uber-dork in me gets all excited each time I get to choose a new chapter color. And the anal retentive administrative assistant in me (yes yes, I used to BE one) is all excited by the high level of organization here.

So there you have it. Breaking the novel into its smallest components has been HUGELY successful so far. Those of you who already use the write-in-scenes approach may be rolling your eyes at my slowness. No matter. I'm absolutely giddy over this.

Mind you, this is a completed novel. I haven't tried my hand at scene-plotting a new story. My brain doesn't work that way! But my love affair with colored notecards is flourishing, and I heartily recommend it to any of you who are feeling overwhelmed with a large, looming revision. Each completed scene feels like a wonderful accomplishment -- even if it's only 280 words long. And you all know how important those little psychological boosts are.

Happy plotting, happy scening, happy editing, happy revising, happy WRITING to you!

Winners! Winners!

I'm happy to announce this month's winners in the Secret Agent Contest:

Honorable Mentions:

#34 PRAYER AND PREY
#32 BLACKBIRD

THE PRIZE: Ms. Townsend requests that you send your full manuscript.

Third Place:

#15 ROSE WINTER, WOLF SPRING

THE PRIZE: In addition to requesting your full manuscript, Ms. Townsend will critique your query.

Second Place:

#50 CURIOUS INVASION

THE PRIZE: In addition to requesting your full manuscript, Ms. Townsend will give you a query critique and editorial feedback for at least the first twenty pages.

First Place:

#43 WITCH WAY DOWN

THE PRIZE: In addition to requesting your full manuscript, Ms. Townsend will give you a query critique and editorial feedback for at least the first fifty pages.


BRILLIANT prizes, yes? Winners, please email me at facelesswords(at)gmail.com for specific submission instructions.

Congratulations, all!