This is one of my favorite times of year, but also one of the most stressful. It’s when we all dress up and spit-shine ourselves to pretend we like to network, enjoy small talk, and can’t hardly wait for the opportunity to sit down and “sell” ourselves and our stories to industry professionals. Eeek!!!

And yes, I’m being somewhat sarcastic, but also serious. For an introvert like me, these things are incredibly stressful, but also, I’m very thankful for the opportunity and I do look forward to this all year. One of the things I look forward to most is hooking up with friends I only see once a year, and looking forward to new friends I’ll be anxiously waiting to see next July!

So with that said…out I traipsed today to see who I could meet!

It’s the day before most everything gets started, but registration did open this afternoon. Nothing overly exciting happening there…those RWA women have this thing down smooth after 30 years. No, there hasn’t been a conference for each of the last 30 years, but this is RWA’s 30th anniversary. Anyone out there know how many annual conferences there have been? Hmmm…wish I’d thought to ask that at the registration desk.

With bag of goodies and a conference program slung over my shoulder, my next stop was the bookstore. Yep, it opened today and I have to admit, I haven’t yet purchased anything, but seeing that many of my favorite authors in one place, not to mention all the writing books I don’t yet have, it’s a wonder I didn’t come out a couple hundred dollars poorer! The thing I didn’t get a shot of here was their setup outside the main bookstore doors. They are showcasing the Nook this conference, letting people take a look if they haven’t seen one, and they also have all kinds of nook covers I’m sure many people will love!

After managing NOT to spend all my money on the first day, I went to the lobby to hang out. I met a new friend, Candy from DC, and I enjoyed a lovely lunch with her and my bud Trish downstairs at The Fountain. I won’t even tell you how big the ice cream cones are down there!

I also met three fabulous PAN members in the lobby. They were gracious enough to let me snap their picture! (Hello, ladies! I hope you stopped by to check out the blog!) From the left is Ann Macela, writer of magic in her contemporary paranormals, Faye Hughes, co-writer of The Everything Guide to Writing a Romance Novel, and Christie Craig, author of action-packed sexy and funny contemporaries.

So many more things were going on today – trips to Disney, lazing by the pool, and lots and lots of squeeing and hugging as old friends met up. There’s nothing to me like an RWA conference. I love watching more and more women trickle in throughout the day, hearing the volume level in the lobby escalate, and watching the wide eyes of those who aren’t part of the conference gape in awe as they wonder who are all these women taking over this resort?!?!?

That’s it for today! I wish all of you unable to make it this year could be here, but hopefully, even though you can’t, we’ll manage to bring a little bit of the conference to you instead!

The first time to finish a first chapter, enter a contest, survive blistering feedback from a contest, go to a conference, get good feedback from a contest, finish a book, final in a contest, pitch a book, get a request for a partial, submit a book, have your name show up in the RWR or online for being a finalist in a contest, get a rejection, recover from the rejection, win a contest, have your name show up in the RWR for winning a contest, get a request for a full, get a “nice” rejection, chat with an industry professional without being stupid nervous, have someone recognize your name from winning/being a finalist in a contest, have an editor/agent say she loves your writing/story/voice, see your picture online for being a finalist in a big contest, see your picture on a giant screen at a conference of a couple thousand people, stand on stage in front of the thousands of people and attempt to say thank you, see your picture on the freaking back cover of RWR for winning the contest, get a rejection with requested revisions, do the requested revisions—

Wait…stop.

As you can see, there are many, many firsts writers go through while learning this craft and traveling the road to publication.  Some experience all the items listed above, some less, some experience more.  And the best go on to experience things such as: getting an agent, getting the call, signing your first contract, seeing your cover with your name for the first time, and seeing/holding your book in the bookstore for the first time.  Not to mention, there’s best seller’s lists, reviews, good reviews and bad reviews, and geez, I don’t even know what all else I’ve got to look forward to.

But for me, the list at the moment is stalled at Do the Requested Revisions.

Yes, as excited as I was to start the revisions, I’m sick to death of them now.  You see, I’ve been a little overwhelmed by this process even though I had fair warning my first time would not be easy.  I’m stubborn that way, and just didn’t want to accept how difficult this would be for me.

Here’s the situation.  I’m a plotter.  I believe any of you who follow this blog might be aware of that fact.  I plot, I spreadsheet, I think things to death.  And then I write.  My first draft is the worst time of my life and I have learned to painfully get through it as fast as possible, knowing that what comes afterward is pure bliss.  I LOVE TO EDIT.  That’s correct.  The art of fine-tuning and polishing to a nice, glossy shine is what I live for.  Not rewrites, but edits.

Therefore, the daunting task of a rewrite worried me somewhat, but stupidly I kept telling myself I love to polish and edit, so surely I could do this without that much trouble.  Additionally, I’ve heard MANY authors say that once they went through revisions with an editor on their first book, the finished product was nothing at all like the original.  I didn’t get this.  Let me repeat…I. Did. Not. Get. This.

Well, now I do.  Oh, my.  I’ve decided revisions are like childbirth.  You just can’t imagine how painful it is until you’re about nine centimeters along and your precious baby decides to stall a while.

You see, I plot, I spreadsheet, I think things to death.  This means my brain is very structured.  This means I MUST have done something at least once to fully figure out my process for the best way to get through it.  These last few months have been my “once” to figure out my process.  And yes, I stalled at 3 centimeters, 6 centimeters, 7 centimeters, thought it was never going to happen at 9 centimeters, and now I have an itsy, bitsy teeny sliver to go and I can finally deliver this baby.  Ugh…exhausting!

And even more shocking, my finished product IS NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL!!!  I get it now, but wow, I’m not sure I can explain it.  My characters are the same…mostly.  My conflict is the same…mostly.  My town is the same…exactly.  But of all my scenes, only five originals remain…mostly intact.  The rest are completely new.  Completely!  I had to write another whole freaking first draft and I wasn’t even aware of that fact until I was about two-thirds of the way finished.  Did I mention first drafts are the worst times in my life?

So yeah, wow, what a process.  And going into it, a lot of what stalled me was worrying I wouldn’t love this book at the end as much as I’d loved it the first time around.  I really worried about this.  I won a Golden Heart with the manuscript, so I had some major panic about resubmitting a new version which paled in comparison.  Heck, who am I kidding, I still worry about that.  What if she hates it?

But at least I don’t have to worry about me hating it anymore.  I’m about eight to ten hours away from retyping “The End” (which should happen sometime later today) and I finally know I’m going to love the finished product as much as the original.  Possibly even more.  In fact, I’m very anxious to get to the final read through so I can enjoy it as a reader instead of a writer.  That’s how I always know I’ve done a good job, when I look forward to reading what I’ve just spent the last four months hating.

I just hope the editor loves it as well!

So what about you?  Have you done requested revisions before?  Did they make you want to do things like scrub floors or toilets just to delay having to get back to them?  Or what other firsts have you experienced that I don’t have listed above.  I’d love to know what else I have to look forward to!

Sounds like a silly question, right?  But if you’ve never been a finalist and don’t know what to expect, don’t let yourself fall behind the curve on the first day you get that call!  If you might be one of the lucky few to answer your phone next week to the words “Congratulations, you’re a Golden Heart finalist”, then check out my top ten list on how to be prepared.  Then get busy!

1 ) Make sure your website is updated.

One of the things I heard mentioned last year (because I did not have my website up and running when the call came) was that hits on the finalists’ sites skyrocketed those first few days.  Also, many hits came from New York. Hmmmm….fun to wonder if industry professionals spend time looking up finalists, right?  I happen to know for a fact they do.  Some of my own Ruby-Slippered sisters have been contacted just that way.

So if your website is languishing and out of date, give it a quick spit shine and polish in preparation for the big day.  And if you don’t have a website yet, at least consider loading up a front page with contact information.

2 ) Have a list of agents ready to query.

Do your research now.  Make a list of agents you’d be thrilled to have represent you and your career, and be ready to send out those queries.  It was quickly determined last year,  the knowledge of being a Golden Heart finalist will open the doors for requests just a bit quicker.

3 ) Write that query letter!

Get busy writing and polishing the best darn query letter of your life so when you contact all those wonderful agents they’ll be jumping through hoops to have you submit to them.  OK, possibly there will be little literal hoop jumping, but they can’t stop you from imagining them this way.   The thing is, this is a big opportunity, so don’t waste it on a mediocre query!

4 ) Have your manuscript polished and ready to go.

You could get requests as soon as the day you final if you are on top of your game.  I know time is limited at this point, but if you are close to being complete, polish those suckers up and put a big, fat virtual red bow on them, just waiting to rush them out into cyberspace.

5 ) Have a nice picture of yourself.

Yes, you will have some amount of time after the announcement to get a photo taken of yourself and submitted to RWA, but that time is very limited.  And the last thing you want is that ginormous screen at Nationals staring back at you (and everyone else) without the best picture of you possible.

6 ) Be prepared to pick your pen name!

Yikes!  Yes, they ask you DURING THE CALL what name you want to use.  RWA will be posting the lists of finalists on their site later that day, and numerous blogs (including this one) will be posting them as well.  Decide now which name you prefer so you don’t end up with the early blogs listing you as one name and the awards ceremony listing you as another.

7 ) Know that it’s pretty customary for someone to create a yahoo group for the finalists.

RWA does not do this, but usually there will be someone in the group who’s been a finalist in the past who will jump out there and get it started.  Then you just have to find it!  If you can’t locate it, and you have your contact info updated with RWA or on your website, one of the other finalists might eventually hunt you up to let you know about the group.

8 ) Have your contact information updated with RWA.

Not only phone numbers so they can call you on the big day, but if the email address they have is out-of-date, take a minute to go online and update it.  This way, if another finalist is trying to hunt you up later to get you on the loop, they’ll stand a better chance of finding you.

9 ) Prepare to spend a lot of time in the upcoming weeks online and replying to email.

Seriously, know that your writing time will go down for a few weeks.  A lot of the additional messages will be from the yahoo group, but my email did ratchet up across the board following the announcement.  Your excitement level will remain off the charts for a good long time, and you’ll want to get to know your new finalist sisters—as well as talk to anyone who asks you about the final—so go ahead and give yourself permission to take that time without feeling guilty.

10 ) Be prepared for the ride of your life!

Being a finalist was nothing short of spectacular.  From the moment of that phone call through today, it has changed my life and given me so many lovely memories.  New friends, being treated like a queen (from writing friends and at conference), and a total excuse to spend the money to go to Nationals.  There’s truly nothing like it.

I wish you all the best of luck!!!  I know only a select few can final and have the ride this year, but I wish everyone could experience it.  So if you don’t make it, keep pushing forward.  There will be another chance (if you don’t sell before November!), and it’ll totally be worth taking that risk!!

Now tell me…did you enter?  Are you going absolutely insane waiting to hear the list of finalists announced?  Or maybe you’ve been a finalist before and can offer a bit of advice I forgot to mention?  To celebrate all that I and my sisters have accomplished this past year, and all that the 2010 finalists are sure to accomplish in the upcoming year, I’m giving away a $25 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble to one lucky (non-sister) commenter.  Good luck!

Everybody excited yet?  I hope so.  This is one of my favorite subjects, so I can’t help but want everyone to love spreadsheets as much as me.    Seriously, though.  Even if you’re not a spreadsheet lover, I hope you find something here you can use in your own character development even if it never makes it inside the cells of a spreadsheet!

This month I’ll build on what I talked about last time.  If you missed it or just need a refresher, check out my Character Requirements worksheet or last month’s post.  I use these two worksheets to develop my hero and heroine, and if I wrote suspense I’m sure I would use them for my villain too.  I complete as much as I possibly can before ever writing anything, because for me, I’ve learned that if I don’t fully see my characters before I start writing the story, I just make one big fat mess and end up having to start all over.  And I am not a fan of tossing things out and starting all over!

OK, let’s get started.  I’m going to touch on everything at a high level because there is seriously a lot of information at this stage and going into too much detail will make this post way too long.

Once I’ve figured out everything from the previous worksheet, what I do next is work on personality type, archetype, traits, strengths, flaws and GMC.  By the way, if you haven’t read Deb Dixon’s Goal, Motivation and Conflict, it’s one I highly recommend you find a copy of and read.  Understanding your characters are key to writing stories your readers can’t put down, and GMC is critical to this understanding.

So what I do is bring my character’s identity and essence over from the first worksheet.  This defines the Character Arc throughout the story.  How they will grow and change internally.  Along with the arc, I determine their Archetype.  I use the book Heroes & Heroines, Sixteen Master Archetypes, by Cowden. LaFever, and Viders to help me out here.  Sometimes my character is a combination of two archetypes, or sometimes they start out as one type and morph into another before the end of the book.  That just depends on each story and each character.

The next thing I do some of my friends find as total overkill but I happen to love.    I define my character’s Myers-Briggs Personality Type.  I have a very handy book for this as well.  What Type Am I? Discover Who You Really Are, by Renee Baron.  It touches on the personalities in an easier to understand way than some of the more dense books I’ve seen on personality types.  For each section, say Extravert or Introvert, there are lists of statements that quickly help me figure out where my character fits.  Once I have their type defined, I type in the brief description (in the large box below personality type) found in the book.  Doing all this not only helps me to really learn what type of person my character is, but adding the description to my worksheet makes it easy to immerse myself back into my character’s head when everything else about the story begins to get too muddled in my mind.

Next…GMC.  What does the character want?  Why do they want it?  Why can’t they have it?  Thanks to several worksheets that have been shared with me in the past, along with multiple workshops I’ve taken, I’ve combined what worked of those into what works for me.  I’m assuming not all of this will work for everyone, so please, use what does and toss what doesn’t.

I break GMC down into External Goals: Big Goal, Story Goal, and the Internal Goal.  Then, I add another layer of Initial Goals and Ultimate Goals.  Initial vs. Ultimate helps to show not only how the character changes, but how the story does as well.

As you can see from the screen shots I’ve uploaded, the Big Goal is the character’s life ambition.  Sometimes this is the longing from the previous worksheet.  Not always, but quite often.  Additionally, throughout the course of the book, my character may find that what she thought she wanted out of life at the beginning of the story is not exactly what she wants by the end.  The character may or may not accomplish this goal within the pages of the book, but even if the initial event which set the story in motion never took place, the character would still have this Big Goal for their life.

Story Goal.  The Story Goal is the purpose of the book.  What goal initiates the action of the story?  Often this is how the character attempts to escape, retrieve, stop, or win in reaction to the event that has happened.  Again, the goal at the beginning of the story may be modified somewhat throughout the pages of the book and look differently before the story is over.

Internal Goal.  This one ties into the character arc and the character may not even be aware it exists.  It is, according to Michael Hauge, the embodiment of longing or need and the only way they can get it is to step out of identity and into essence.  Goal – What is the character’s subconscious need?  Motivation – Why do they need it?  Conflict – Why isn’t the Big Goal meeting this need?  It’s the tug-of-war between the essence and the identity.  And yes, it too may morph throughout the story so that what they need at the beginning may not be exactly what they need before the story ends.

One note about Initial vs Ultimate in all the goals.  I’m not always able to define this change.  Most times I do, but sometimes trying to see this clearly before the story is written ends up frustrating more than helping me.  Additionally, all of these things have been known to turn out to be something somewhat different by the time I finish my first draft, but I need this roadmap or I never get out of chapter one!

Next, Error in Thinking and Lesson the character must learn.  Take a look at what you defined as the character’s Belief in the first worksheet.  That would be the Error in Thinking.  And what the character has to learn concerning this belief, as they change throughout the story, is the Lesson to be learned.

The remaining items I either fill in from digging through the archetypes and personality books, or simply fill in pertinent background information which I might need help with keeping straight later.  Two key items on this last page are the Central Strength and Default Action for problems.  I spend some amount of time on these pieces of information because when my character is confronted with difficult situations, those are the things that need to consistently come through.  Also, though it’s not clear on the worksheet, I usually place an * by the biggest flaw so I make sure to show that throughout the book as well.

Alright!  So that’s it.  Like I said in the beginning, I fill out one of these for both main characters before I start writing, but then I also constantly modify them as the story unfolds and my characters show me they’re just a bit different than I first believed.

What do you do to figure out your characters?  Are you one of those people who completely discover them as you go along through the story or do you do something similar to me and chart them out before ever beginning?

My name is Kim, and I’m a spreadsheet addict.

But I can’t help it!  Because of the way my brain works, I need this structure to help me organize not only my characters, my scenes, and my turning points, but…well, basically everything.  So, in an attempt to share the scary madness that goes on inside my brain, I’ll be spending the next few of my posts trying to explain how I map out my characters and plot—and I do this all before I ever type a single word into a document.

Please note, if the mere thought of spreadsheets and structure strike fear in your heart and compel you to run screaming from your computer, I do apologize.  I’m not trying to change you, and I do understand that not all people are like this.  Honestly, I wish I was less like this.  But please don’t leave!  At least scan through the post and leave me a comment telling me how insane I am.   Hopefully, though, you’ll pick up a nugget or two of information you can use at some point in your own process.

And if structure makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, and a smile lights up your face simply from the word ‘spreadsheet’, you ARE in the right place!  I can’t guarantee my process will be exactly right for you, but again, hopefully I’ll share enough that you’ll find something that works for you, and you’ll finish this article even more warm and fuzzy than when you started.

OK, let’s get going.

To begin with…Characters.

Although what often kicks off a story in my head is a plot idea or location, I always start by mapping out my characters first.  They drive everything for me.  And even though I’ve tried to do it differently several times, if I don’t know my characters well enough—their loves and desires, motivations, and messed up and twisted backgrounds—I just can not get very far in figuring out anything else.  So out I pull the first of my character spreadsheets.

Spreadsheet #1 – Character Requirements

NOTE: A couple years ago, I had the pleasure of sitting through a two-hour workshop given by Michael Hauge at RWA’s National Conference.  This workshop solidified several things in my mind with both creating memorable characters and intertwining the character arcs, the relationship arc, and the plot all together.  I took the majority of what I learned that day and fit it into the worksheets I already used.  My Character Requirementsworksheet comes entirely from his “Journey of Transformation,” though it isn’t nearly as thorough and complete as his definition.  If you ever get the chance to see/hear Michael Hauge in person, I HIGHLY recommend it!

This worksheet consists of seven things you need to figure out about both the hero and heroine before moving on to spreadsheet #2.

1) Longing

The longing is the deeply held desire the hero(ine) is paying lip service to, but not pursuing because it is too frightening.

2) Wound

The wound is an unhealed source or continuing pain the hero(ine) believes is behind her, but is actually only suppressed because it is not healed.  It can be a single event, usually occurring in adolescence, or an ongoing situation.

3) Belief

The belief is what caused the wound, how the world works, etc…

4) Fear

Because of the wound, a belief is taken on, and that causes fear of it (the wound) happening again.

5) Identity

The identity is the hero(ine)’s persona or false front presented to the outside world.  It is the mask they wear that protects them from the fear happening.  Answering the following question will find the character’s identity:  I’ll do whatever is takes to [achieve my goal], just don’t ask me to __________, because that’s just not me.

6) Need

The longing is expressed, but not pursued.  The need is not expressed.  It is generally a need for connection.  (You do not have to have both a longing and a need for your characters, but you must have at least one.)

7) Essence

Who do they have the potential to become?  Remove all the protective stuff, and the essence is what is left.

*****

That’s it for the Character Requirements spreadsheet. Fairly simple, huh?  But keep in mind, this is the basis for everything that drives your characters, so understanding these seven pieces of information is one of the most critical components in creating well-rounded, credibly motivated characters.

I tend to come back and tweak this first phase several times throughout both the up-front analysis and the actual writing of the book.  Things always change no matter how well I think I’ve got them figured out.  But there’s no reason you can’t go back and change it if you get into your story and your character seems to have slightly different issues than you’d previously imagined.  Trust me, they’ll let you know if your initial outline of them was right or not.

I won’t go into my other character spreadsheet, Character GMC Chart, today.  It’s the meatiest one and I fear that if I tack it onto this post, it’ll not only make the pantsers eyes glaze over (any of you still with me?), but the plotters as well.   So, I’ll save that for a post all on its own.  As a preview, though, the Character GMC Chart covers: character arc, archetype, personality type, GMC (internal and external as well as story and big goals), defining traits, character flaws, error in thinking, lesson to be learned, background and just general characteristics.  Whew!  See why I’m saving that one for its own day?

But I will give you a few more pieces of genius from Michael Hauge before I stop.  These apply specifically to the seven items I just covered, and carry forward to the next step where I define goals.

►   Character Arc is the transformation from living fully in one’s identity to living fully in one’s essence.

►   The internal conflict is the hero’s tug-of-war between their essence and their identity.

►   The only way to get your longing (or need) is to give up your identity and live in your essence.

►   Identities have one function—to keep us safe (emotionally, etc.), and your characters must believe their identities are who they really are.

►   Giving up identity is scarier than death.

►   You can live in identity and be safe but unfulfilled, or you can go after your essence and be scared to death.

That’s it for today!  I hope this wasn’t too long, and that a few of you got something from it.  If it only made your head hurt and your eyes cross, please forget you ever read this!

What you do to figure out your characters?  Do you have your own worksheets you start with?  Or maybe you have character worksheets you fill out after your first draft, after you’ve gotten to know your characters a little better?  I love learning what others do so that I can improve my own process, so please share!

That’s what I thought the first time I heard the suggestion.

No way.  I don’t like the sound of my own voice.  I WOULD FEEL STUPID!!!

And those were my answers.

But in completing my third manuscript—the one that WON the Golden Heart this last year—I was so certain it was close to being a winning manuscript, that I wasn’t about to let anything slip by undone.  So after I had edited it in its entirety at least six times, and was certain I had all the typos and “wordy” parts fixed, I closed myself up in my bedroom, stretched out across my bed and began to read out loud.

(Please note…the husband wasn’t even allowed in the house during this as I was still certain I would sound stupid.)

Upon beginning, I really didn’t expect to change much of anything.  I mean, I had gone through the sucker so many times I could practically recite it word for word!

And let me also mention, I didn’t start this until some time after noon that day, figuring that would be plenty of time.

Wrong on both accounts.

If you’ve never read your work out loud, try it.  You’ll surprise yourself.  I had read a scene or chapter or two in a mumbling fashion, but with this, I read it out loud, making sure to look and read every single word, and also read it loud enough to be heard by someone other than myself (if they had been allowed in the house.)

What I learned was it’s very hard to hear the cadence of the story as accurately when read silently in your mind.  Very hard.  It was just tiny little things, but things that, when changed, show the difference between fairly-well edited and seriously polished.  And agents and editors notice seriously polished! That was what I got from my experience.  I would be reading along and suddenly hit a tiny bump.  Usually it was just something slightly off, like an extra syllable in one sentence, or too many sentences near each other that “sounded” the same.  But I knew it when I heard it.  And it couldn’t always be fixed with a one word change. 

I didn’t read incredibly slow during this process, but as I mulled over how to change the bumps I’d hit, I would easily spend thirty minutes to an hour reworking a single sentence and going back over it—out loud—to make sure it fit just right.

It was a LONG process, and I have to admit that I did finally let the husband come home, because I was up until three-thirty the following morning finishing it!  I still didn’t let him come into the room, however, where I was reading, and I think I might have made him go upstairs, just to lower the risk of him hearing me. 

But what I took away from that experience was very vital.  In the grand scheme of things, I didn’t change the total word count that much.  It was a 58,000 word manuscript, and I ended up shortening it by only about four hundred words.  But this was a manuscript I was CERTAIN would not be changed during this final reading.  By removing those additional four hundred words, and spending well over twelve hours reading it out loud, I grew to understand even more, what it means to polish a manuscript.  Every little tiny word has to be looked at over and over and over again to get it just right (at least for me.)  And in the end, I was very proud of that manuscript, not only with the effort I’d put into it, but with the finished product.

So what about you?  Do you read your work out loud?  Would you?  If you knew it would make a difference in whether you sold or not, would you?  I haven’t sold yet, but I do believe that what I learned by going through that process will help get me there sooner rather than later.  Let me know what you think.

NOTE:  If you’re wondering about the “Three Acts” part of the title of this post, I’m simply playing upon the notion that novels, like screenplays, are structured in acts.  Some people break it into three, some four, some none at all, but for me, it’s three.  If you’re lucky, some day I’ll share my over analytical, completely geeky spreadsheet that lays out the three acts, turning points, and character and relationship arcs, all on a simple, concise, nine-page document.  Definitely a subject for another day, however.

But after thinking about the question a bit more, I reminded myself that not everyone always thinks as I do, so I did some serious contemplating of why the risk of that $50 + postage will always be worth it to me.

Below are the topmost reasons why I entered last year:

1)  I have entered with every one of my manuscripts.  I simply made that decision when I first learned of the contest and discovered its worth.  I’m in this for publication, for a career, and I see the GH as a giant stepping stone to getting there.  So no matter what, I will enter.

2)  It’s a good gauge of where I stand in the grand scheme of the unpublished romance world.  You never know what kind of judges you’ll get, but it does (in my opinion) give you a pretty good feel for where it stands with the general reading public.  After all, we writers are all readers first, right?

If four out of five people love it, that’s 80% of love!  Pretty darn good.  If everyone judges it middle of the road, then I know I have some work to do. I’m ok, but not quite yet making anyone stand up and shout “give me more!”  And if everyone judges it the worst thing ever, then I have some crying—possibly a night of drinking—and then a lot of work to do.

3)  In my opinion, the GH has the potential to be judged a little differently than local contests, and I always hope it might turn out to be a benefit.  Since there is no feedback, and none of the scoring is broken down to force judges to think about each individual area of the entry (POV, characters, first page, etc.), my theory is that if you give the reader a great story and lovable characters, and end with a page-turning hook, then they don’t always do that “breaking down of scores” quite as much themselves.  They just score it as a whole on how much they enjoyed the read.  Therefore, the score could potentially end up a little higher.

Does that make sense?  I know I’ve read some entries that completely crushed me not to have the remainder of the manuscript to read.  It was then hard to judge much less than a nine when I’m dying for more, right?  Of course, this theory could also work against me as a lot of us have seen.  If the judge just flat out hates my voice or something about my writing, they don’t break it down and think about the good things that are there too, I just get the bottom of the barrel, East German score.  But I’m a pretty optimistic person, so I always go in hoping I get the positive response.

4)  When I did have a crazy score in a local contest with that manuscript, I often had another that told me how much they loved it and was certain it would be published.  I thought if I could luck out and get just enough of these types of judges in the GH then I was definitely in.

5)  I really believed in that manuscript!  I still do even though the darn thing hasn’t sold yet!  I can’t speak of this belief enough.  When you’ve worked hard and have done the best job you possibly can, believe in yourself!  If you don’t, why should anyone else?

6)  And most of all, it was simply a risk I was willing to take.  On the crazy chance I got five judges who loved it (or four and the East German Judge + standard deviation), the payout of being a GH finalist—and possibly winning!—was just easily worth the $50 to me.

Additionally, last year I also entered the manuscript I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post that recently did not final in a contest.  At the time of the GH, it was mostly a first draft, with the first three chapters polished up a bit.  I entered that one for some of the same, and some different reasons.

1)  I had set a deadline for myself to get the first draft finished in time to enter it.  I started it on Nov. 9 and had to have it at the Houston office by Dec. 2.  I wanted to see if I could push myself and meet a deadline of that shortened length, and knew the fact I’d already invested the $50 would help push me.  There were a few scenes that pretty much read something like [love scene needed here], and I seriously almost didn’t make it, but in the end I had the word count and surprised myself with how complete it really was.

2)  See #1 above.  I enter all manuscripts.

3)  See #2 above.  I wanted to see where it stood.  To see how much of my voice and raw writing talent was coming through at this point in my writing without the normal amount of editing.

4)  See #6 – what if it did final?  Then I could be a double finalist!  It actually ended up in the top 25% so I was really pleased.  In my opinion, another $50 well spent.

Probably way more than you ever wanted to know about what goes on inside my head, but there it is.  I firmly believe that if you have a manuscript you have poured your heart into, if you’ve done the best you can possibly do, and if the $50 won’t make your kids starve (the occasional starving husband is ok), then you should go for it!

So what do you think?  Do you have a manuscript you believe in?  Do you believe in yourself?  Then what are you waiting for?  I can personally tell you, the feeling of stepping up on that stage to accept the award—even if you are the first category of the night and SCARED TO DEATH!—overrides any fear I could ever dream up about whether to enter or not.

Let me know your thoughts…is it worth the risk for you?  What reasons do you have for entering?

Today I’m giving away your choice of either a first chapter critique (up to 25 pages) or one of our fabulous Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood mugs.  So comment often for more chances to win!

-Kim