Pages From The Heart Contest

Pages From The Heart Contest is open now through June 30! Entry: Electronic entry of the first 25 pages of your original, unpublished, and uncontracted novel-length (or projected novel-length) manuscript. See entry form on our website:http://fthrw.com/pages-from-the-heart-contest Published Author: the writer is contracted or published, but the entry itself must not be contracted or published. Self-published authors are welcome. The manuscript must be your original work. Unpublished Author: the writer has not accepted a publishing offer for, or self-published, a work of original fictional narrative prose of 20,000 words or more (by the contest entry deadline). The manuscript must be your original work. Pages From The Heart Contest is open to RWA Members only. Contest Categories: Historical, Contemporary (single title or category, includes Novel with Strong Romantic Elements), Paranormal/Futuristic/Time Travel, Romantic Suspense/Mystery, Inspirational, and Young Adult/New Adult Judging First Round: Three Judges per entry. The lowest score will be dropped, but will be used in case of a tie. Second Round: Ranking completed by professionals in the publishing industry who actively acquire in the categories they’re judging. A comment section will be available for judge feedback, though it is not required. See our website for a list http://fthrw.com/pages-from-the-heart-contest Prizes All prizes are for all categories in both unpublished and published authors’ divisions. First Place:  critique of your submission by an independent professional editor, Lynn Crandall Editing Services + name in contest winners section of the RWA Report + website/avatar graphic + printable e-certificate. Second Place: 1 Year Free Membership to FTH + name in contest winners section of the RWA Report + website/avatar graphic + printable e-certificate. Third Place: name in contest winners section of the RWA Report + website/avatar graphic + printable e-certificate. Honorable Mention receives a website/avatar graphic + printable e-certificate. Hero of Our Heart Prize: Top three entries in this special “judges’ choice” category will be ranked by an agent or editor. Finalists do not have to final in the Category contest. The winner receives 1 Year Free Membership to FTHRW and a website/avatar graphic+ printable e-certificate. – All finalists’ and winners’ names will be listed on the FTHRW website with a link to a social media contact of the writer’s choice.  – All entrants will receive the score sheets from each judge along with their judged submission, including the dropped score. Judges are encouraged to give additional feedback comments at their discretion.  – First-Round Judging Score Sheet as well as Judging Guidelines are available so potential entrants can see what’s being evaluated. – We stay connected to you every step of the way through our contestants’ “Contest News” yahoo group. You will be updated when the contest closes, when Judges have received entries, when Judges have started returning entries, etc. – Upon exiting the contest, we will encourage feedback from contestants, judges, and other volunteers. We want to provide a contest that YOU want to be a part of! Entry fee: $20 FTHRW members/$25 RWA members (US funds paid through paypal on entry form.) Multiple entries: $15 for subsequent entries (US funds paid through paypal on entry form.) Please note that each manuscript can only be entered once. Additional entries must be from different manuscripts. More than one manuscript can be entered in the same category or in different categories. Formatting: Entries will be the first 25 pages of your manuscript saved as a DOC file. If formatting guidelines are not followed, the entry will be returned to author for correction. Standard industry formatting rules apply: -One inch margins, double spaced, font: Times New Roman 12 or 14 or Courier 12. -Header: division, category, title, and page number. -Author’s name must NOT appear anywhere on the manuscript. For more information: PFTHContest @ fthrw.com (delete spaces.)

Word Count Madness

Debra takes a look at the word count of Star Wars.

When I opened my browser the other day, my eyes scanned down, like they usually do, the list of top stories of the day. I almost always find something to click on that distracts me from what I was supposed to be doing on the computer in the first place. Usually it's an article about William and Kate or about a recent tv show or movie I have an interest in. One in particular caught my eye for two reasons. One, it was about Star Wars. I am a huge Star Wars geek and can't wait for Episode 7 next year. Two, it mentioned the words in the original movie, now dubbed Episode 4. Since Ana had recently discussed the merits of Ogden's 850 words, clicking on this particular time-waster was a no brainer.

Someone (Who has way too much time on his hands.) counted all of the individual English words used in the first Star Wars movie. I don't know if it's the original version, the extended version, the DVD version, or the whatever version. There have been so many I've lost count. Turns out, according to this article, there are 1,695 individual English words used in the movie. The most common is 'the', which is used 368 times.

Not only did said person apparently count all of these individual words, he then alphabetized them, and then arranged the corresponding movie clips into an almost 45 minute video. (Which I haven't watched...Yet. But being the giant Star Wars nerd that I am, I more than likely will at some point. It's officially summer break, so I can enjoy these types of indulgences.)

To me, this seemed like a small amount of words for a two hour movie, and again had me wondering how many individual words I use in my stories. I'm sure there's some tool/app out there that would help me figure it out. But, sigh, my time would probably be better spent getting new words down on the page in order to finish my WIP. Right?

Until next time,

Happy Reading! (And may the Force be with you.)

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

P.S. If anyone is interested (aka as big of a geek/nerd as I am, here's the link to the article/video.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/3/5775200/watch-every-word-from-star-wars-sorted-from-a-to-z

I Did It!

Jennifer spoke to Hadassah...

Last week, I wrote about a speech I was giving to a Hadassah chapter (a Jewish women’s group) about my book. The speech, “How A Nice Jewish Girl Became A Romance Writer,” was last night and I had so much fun!

An old friend of mine arranged for me to give the speech. She and I served on numerous committees at my temple prior to her moving to another part of the state. I joined her and her husband for dinner at their home prior to the speech, where we caught up on news and she filled me in on the group to whom I’d be speaking.

She brought me over a little early, which gave me a chance to meet several of the women and to set up a small table of my books and postcards. Then it was time for the meeting to start. They took care of organizational business and then Patty introduced me.

Surprisingly, I was not nervous. There were about 50 people there, maybe more, but I didn’t know any of them, other than Patty, so I think that helped. In any case, I didn’t forget to breathe.

They laughed in all the right places and most of them looked as if they enjoyed listening. I'm always nervous when speaking to a large group of women, because I know not everyone is interested in the topic, but either I held their attention or they were really polite. :)

Afterwards, I answered questions for about ten minutes and then many of the women came up to me to talk to me. I sold many books and some of them plan to contact me for other speaking engagements.

I can’t wait!

Could you limit your writing vocabulary to these 850 words?

Basic English, created in the 1930's by Charles K. Ogden, is used as an ESL teaching method. It has been adapted for futuristic novels like Orwell's 1984.
Ana wonders if she could unlearn all the other words she knows...

OGDEN's BASIC ENGLISH
Word List - in His Order

---

OPERATIONS - 100 words

come, get, give, go, keep, let, make, put, seem, take, be, do, have, say, see, send, may, will,
about, across, after, against, among, at, before, between, by, down, from, in, off, on, over, through, to, under, up, with,
as, for, of, till, than,
a , the, all, any, every, little, much, no, other, some, such, that, this, I , he, you, who,
and, because, but, or, if, though, while, how, when, where, why,
again, ever, far, forward, here, near, now, out, still, then, there, together, well,
almost, enough, even, not, only, quite, so, very, tomorrow, yesterday,
north, south, east, west, please, yes .


THINGS - 400 General words

account, act, addition, adjustment, advertisement, agreement, air, amount, amusement, animal, answer, apparatus, approval, argument, art, attack, attempt, attention, attraction, authority, back, balance, base, behavior, belief, birth, bit, bite, blood, blow, body, brass, bread, breath, brother, building, burn, burst, business, butter, canvas, care, cause, chalk, chance, change, cloth, coal, color, comfort, committee, company, comparison, competition, condition, connection, control, cook, copper, copy, cork, cotton, cough, country, cover, crack, credit, crime, crush, cry ,current, curve, damage, danger, daughter, day, death, debt, decision, degree, design, desire, destruction, detail, development, digestion, direction, discovery, discussion, disease, disgust, distance, distribution, division, doubt, drink, driving, dust, earth, edge, education, effect, end, error, event, example, exchange, existence, expansion, experience, expert, fact, fall, family, father, fear, feeling, fiction, field, fight, fire, flame, flight, flower, fold, food, force, form, friend, front, fruit, glass, gold, government, grain, grass, grip, group, growth, guide, harbor, harmony, hate, hearing, heat, help, history, hole, hope, hour, humor, ice, idea, impulse, increase, industry, ink, insect, instrument, insurance, interest, invention, iron, jelly, join, journey, judge, jump, kick, kiss, knowledge, land, language, laugh, law, lead, learning, leather, letter, level, lift, light, limit, linen, liquid, list, look, loss, love, machine, man, manager, mark, market, mass, meal, measure, meat, meeting, memory, metal, middle, milk, mind, mine, minute, mist, money, month, morning ,mother, motion, mountain, move, music, name, nation, need, news, night, noise, note, number, observation, offer, oil, operation, opinion, order, organization, ornament, owner, page, pain, paint, paper, part, paste, payment, peace, person, place, plant, play, pleasure, point, poison, polish, porter, position, powder, power, price, print, process, produce, profit, property, prose, protest, pull, punishment, purpose, push, quality, question, rain, range, rate, ray, reaction, reading, reason, record, regret, relation, religion, representative, request, respect, rest, reward, rhythm, rice, river, road, roll, room, rub, rule, run, salt, sand, scale, science, sea, seat, secretary, selection, self, sense, servant, sex, shade, shake, shame, shock, side, sign, silk, silver, sister, size, sky, sleep, slip, slope, smash, smell, smile, smoke, sneeze, snow, soap, society, son, song, sort, sound, soup, space, stage, start, statement, steam, steel, step, stitch, stone, stop, story, stretch, structure, substance, sugar, suggestion, summer, support, surprise, swim, system, talk, taste, tax, teaching, tendency, test, theory, thing, thought, thunder, time, tin, top, touch, trade, transport, trick, trouble, turn, twist, unit, use, value, verse, vessel, view, voice, walk, war, wash, waste, water, wave, wax, way, weather, week, weight, wind, wine, winter, woman, wood, wool, word, work, wound, writing , year .

THINGS - 200 Picturable words - picture list

angle, ant, apple, arch, arm, army, baby, bag, ball, band, basin, basket, bath, bed, bee, bell, berry, bird, blade, board, boat, bone, book, boot, bottle, box, boy, brain, brake, branch, brick, bridge, brush, bucket, bulb, button, cake, camera, card, cart, carriage, cat, chain, cheese, chest, chin, church, circle, clock, cloud, coat, collar, comb, cord, cow, cup, curtain, cushion, dog, door, drain, drawer, dress, drop, ear, egg, engine, eye, face, farm, feather, finger, fish, flag, floor, fly, foot, fork, fowl, frame, garden, girl, glove, goat, gun, hair, hammer, hand, hat, head, heart, hook, horn, horse, hospital, house, island, jewel, kettle, key, knee, knife, knot, leaf, leg, library, line, lip, lock, map, match, monkey, moon, mouth, muscle, nail, neck, needle, nerve, net, nose, nut, office, orange, oven, parcel, pen, pencil, picture, pig, pin, pipe, plane, plate, plough/plow, pocket, pot, potato, prison, pump, rail, rat, receipt, ring, rod, roof, root, sail, school, scissors, screw, seed, sheep, shelf, ship, shirt, shoe, skin, skirt, snake, sock, spade, sponge, spoon, spring, square, stamp, star, station, stem, stick, stocking, stomach, store, street, sun, table, tail, thread, throat, thumb, ticket, toe, tongue, tooth, town, train, tray, tree, trousers, umbrella, wall, watch, wheel, whip, whistle, window, wing, wire, worm .

QUALITIES - 100 General

able, acid, angry, automatic, beautiful, black, boiling, bright, broken, brown, cheap, chemical, chief, clean, clear, common, complex, conscious, cut, deep, dependent, early, elastic, electric, equal, fat, fertile, first, fixed, flat, free, frequent, full, general, good, great, grey/gray, hanging, happy, hard, healthy, high, hollow, important, kind, like, living, long, male, married, material, medical, military, natural, necessary, new, normal, open, parallel, past, physical, political, poor, possible, present, private, probable, quick, quiet, ready, red, regular, responsible, right, round, same, second, separate, serious, sharp, smooth, sticky, stiff, straight, strong, sudden, sweet, tall, thick, tight, tired, true, violent, waiting, warm, wet, wide, wise, yellow, young .

QUALITIES - 50 Opposites

awake, bad, bent, bitter, blue, certain, cold, complete, cruel, dark, dead, dear, delicate, different, dirty, dry, false, feeble, female, foolish, future, green, ill, last, late, left, loose, loud, low, mixed, narrow, old, opposite, public, rough, sad, safe, secret, short, shut, simple, slow, small, soft, solid, special, strange, thin, white, wrong .

An 'Intriguing' Puzzle

Paula wonders how to sort out her story!

I’m on the third draft of my current story. In the first draft, the heroine broke her ankle and had to stay at the hero’s house, which admittedly resulted in some interesting scenes. However, by about Chapter 13 or 14 (approx. 50,000 words), I realised a broken ankle was too restricting for the heroine. She couldn’t recover from it in a couple of weeks (unlike some of the ‘miraculous’ cures we see in the soap operas), so it was time for a rethink.

Second draft – sprained ankle – less serious – but again, by the time I got to the dreaded Chapter 13, I decided the story was going nowhere. It was a ‘how we met and fell in love’ scenario, with internal conflicts for both hero and heroine i.e. why neither of them wanted to be involved in any new relationship, but no real external conflicts.

Even I was yawning at this plot!

After doing the edits for ‘Irish Inheritance’, my editor suggested the possibility of a spin-off story about Charley (the heroine’s best friend).

…Thinks…

Can I move this story to Ireland instead of the English Lake District? Can I change the heroine’s name to Charlotte (Charley)?

More to the point, can I lift this story from the ‘meeting and falling in love’ scenario into something more interesting?

Thinking about a title for this spin-off, I came up with ‘Irish Intrigue’. So that meant I had to work out the ‘intrigue’ part of it. With the help of a friend (a non-writer but a great brain-stormer!), I came up with various ideas - plus some possible red herrings to keep the reader wondering.

It all seemed to be working well – until I hit the dreaded Chapter 13 again! I know (roughly!) how the later chapters are going to pan out, but now I’m stuck with this ‘sagging middle’ syndrome where I’m trying to work out how to get my characters from where they are at the moment to where I want them to be eventually. I’ve tried writing a list of the main turning points – and then moving them around. It’s rather like one of those 'sliding tile puzzles' where you move tiles in a small square in the hope of getting them all in the right places to complete the picture.

At the moment, my story is rather like this picture – and I’m wondering if I can ever get all the ‘tiles' into the correct places!

Another Speech

Jennifer's working on another speech...

Remember a couple of weeks ago I wrote about a “speech” I was planning to make and how nervous I was about four lines? Well, that was nothing compared to what I’m doing now. Now, I’m writing a 20-30 minute speech!

The four-liner was nerve wracking because I was planning to put my complaint on record at a meeting I was attending. I don’t like public speaking and don’t like confrontation, but it was really important to me that I said what I needed to say. So I wrote it, agonized over it, read it, responded and was finished. The reason I wrote about it here was not because it had anything to do with writing, but because it illustrated the difference between finding the right words when speaking and when writing (at least for me).

However, this next speech has everything to do with writing. A friend of mine asked me to speak to her women’s group about my books and of course I said yes. “Of course,” because no matter how much I dislike public speaking or how nervous it makes me, I’m going to say yes. Since I’m not Nora Roberts, I have to market my own books, and speaking opportunities to women’s groups is a great way to do that.

My friend is a wonderful woman and I’m thrilled that she thought of me. I asked her what she wanted me to talk about and she said, “How a nice Jewish girl like you became a romance writer.” Okay then.

The women’s group is part of a Jewish organization, and they’re interested specifically in my book, The Seduction of Esther. Since I just signed a contract for the sequel, the speech is timely. And with the number of people they’re expecting to attend, 50-75, I hope to sell quite a few books.

So, I sat down and tried to figure out what I would say. There are a few ways to take her topic. I could look at it as an apology of sorts, but I don’t like that message. I’m proud of what I write, even if discussing it with certain people does sometimes make me blush. Instead, I took it a bit tongue-in-cheek. My goal when I wrote my speech was to make is enjoyable and hopefully, funny. On my personal blog, I have a particular voice that I’ve been told people like to read, so I tried to keep the tone the same. And having spoken to groups before, I know that even though everyone there knows the topic of my talk, not everyone there is a romance reader. I want everyone to enjoy what I have to say, to find it interesting, and perhaps, to convince them that they might even like to read my book. So I went for light and engaging.

Seventeen pages later—large type, double spaced—I have an approximately 20-minute speech that I think works. I ran it by a few people, all of whom like it (now I’m thinking I need to run it by someone who doesn’t like it, just so I have all my bases covered, but that might be a bit paranoid).

All that’s left is polishing and practicing. I’ll let you know how it goes!

A Script

Ana reads a script. 

I have not read many film scripts, but yesterday I read one that my daughter has been asked to produce. The story is a twist on the coming-of-age genre. A reclusive, about-to-turn-thirty woman is obsessed with staying young, with never dying. She doesn't know her free-spirited, sun-worshiping mother, with whom she lives, has stage 4 cancer.

Script-reading takes some getting used to. The dialogue is centered on the pages in a column. Lots of white space--I suppose for actors to write notes in.

The actors' movements (narrative) are in wider paragraphs and are explicit.  Eg.:
"Alpha walks through her messy hallway back to her bedroom and opens her closet. All her outfits are white or cream-colored and hung up neatly on a rack. Alpha changes out of her BATHROBE and into a white cropped T-SHIRT, HIGH-WAISTED PANTS, a tan 1970's silk TRENCH COAT and orthopedic-looking SANDALS."

It takes imagination to read a script, with its bare-bones descriptions of setting, tone, internal emotions. The abbreviations imply you are in a secret society. I've figured out that VO means 'voice over,' as in when the main character acts as a narrator. INT, EXT, DAY. NIGHT: setting cues are capitalized.

So different than writing a novel, where we labor over descriptions. Making sure the reader can follow the action and transitions.

Of course, the story is told (as all stories are) in the editing room. My daughter and her friend will edit. I will watch with interest.