Reading Fun

I've been having a huge amount of reading fun thanks to a little contest for the best first paragraphs. I've waded through about 700 of the close to 2700 entries (gasp!) and am just tickled at all the different voices and ideas out there. Plus, since I'm NOT going to read my boring English homework, at least I'm learning something and not wasting six hours playing Bejeweled.

Although, I do think hand-eye coordination is to be practiced every once in a while.

I've noticed something. When trying to read that volume of material, I have started skipping if a sentence is awkward in any way, or if a word is used wrong, or the voice does not capture me. Fewer and fewer stick out. Hmmmmmm. Maybe he's SHOWING us something instead of trying to TELL us. Hmmmmmmm.

I will endeavor to read them all. I'm going to print out all 600 pages and really read them. I think there are some fabulous writing minds out there, and I intend to, for free, learn what I can from technique, style, and masterful creation. Plus, it will be interesting to see if I pick what anyone else (Nathan) would. I have to say, I wouldn't pick mine. I think the voice is okay, but it didn't flow nicely. Now that I've read all those others, I see what is lacking in mine. I'm not sure how to fix it, but I have a better idea of what "good" is.

Just now, this minute the contest is closed. 2651 entries. I guessed 3000 so I was a little short, but I have to go now and start reading.

Peace,

Jo Taylor

First Paragraphs

One of the agent blogs I follow is hosting a first paragraph contest. I love contests, so I submitted my best first paragraph (I think) which happens to be from Trauma Queen. TQ is the novelized version of my ambulance days (years, really - all seven of them) with my smart-aleck voice and lots of growing up. Today is the second day of the contest which is open to entries for four full days. There are over 1,000 entries already! OMGosh.

I have no delusions of winning, or even being read very much, but I like to be brave and put myself out there now that I know how to do it. My style does not lend itself to an attention grabbing first sentence or paragraph usually. I'm okay with that. As long as you can set up some kind of interest in the early going, I think you have a shot.

The amazing thing is how many are soooo good! I keep going ohhhhhh, I want to know how that comes out. It lets me know how really keen the competition is for shelf space and that good enough - won't be. My writing will have to be spectacular to be published. Or I could be lucky. I'll take lucky too.

So here's my contribution for your reading pleasure:

It's a strange business. I provide care to the sick, the injured, the dying and the insolent unharmed. The phone rings or the radio calls, and suddenly we dash off to a stubbed toe, or six people dead on the freeway. It's kind of hard to prepare for that; hard to come back to normal from life lived at ninety percent boredom and ten percent sheer terror. My next career will be something that looks pretty and smells good. For now, I’m a trauma queen. It’s like being a drama queen, only messier.

I don't think it's the best thing I've ever written, but the contest rules included no angst, so I took that to heart.

Thank you Nathan B. for hosting a fun contest and taking on all the work to wade through what may end up being 3,000 entries. That's right. I'm predicting a cool 3,000. He's silly. But what a great way to get writers to read each other, support each other, and maybe, just maybe, some very lucky (and good) writer will be discovered. I will be sincerely happy for that author. Even if it's not me.

Peace,

Jo Taylor

New Character

Well, I'm leaving Margaret and Honey behind for a while. Just there, sitting on the shelf. They haven't misbehaved or anything, but it is time to get ready for NaNoWriMo. It starts November 1st and requires a novel from scratch.

This novel is called Road Clothes. I have the general idea, and the main character name and sketch, but other than that, her story will flow onto the page starting in November. Not a moment sooner. The idea for this particular story has a simple and interesting genesis.

I have always been fascinated by things I see by the road. Perhaps this is because we drove, A LOT, when I was a young Army Brat. Daddy didn't like to fly, so we drove everywhere. Texas to California, to Texas, to Kansas, to Maryland, to California. And of course all the places around there in between the big moves. I think it is why I got interested in medicine and working ambulance. Road kill, skid marks. I got car sick very easily, so there was no reading while Daddy drove, or the big black trash bag would sit with me for the rest of the journey. So, I looked around.

I would see signs, or names, or stuff on the road and make up stories about how they got there or what they meant. Nothing stellar, or even anything I really remember, but I did it to amuse myself. Somehow or other, I never stopped making up the stories. If I'm driving my car and I see skid marks, I try to think of what happened and all sorts of dialog that may have been overheard if I was a little fly in the flying car.

Anyway. One day just recently, my son and I saw a jacket in the roadway. Road clothes. Haven't you ever wondered who they belonged to and why they were in the middle of the freeway, expressway, country lane, or highway? Well, I have. I guess my son has too, because he turned to me and said, "Mom, why do you think that jacket is in the road?"

I whooped loudly and he cringed at my inappropriate response, but I had just gotten a great idea for a story! Son, what if we stopped to pick it up, and there was an arm in it?

A slow but satisfied grin spread across his sweet face. "That would be AWESOME!" Just the reaction I'm looking for about a story.

Peace,

Jo Taylor

I Guess I Write Poetry

I'm thrilled to announce that I have won my very first writing contest . . . for poetry.

I wrote my very first poem in March or so, because I read somewhere that the discipline of writing structured poems encourages good word selection and the development of an ear for rhythm in prose. This made complete sense to me, and wanting to write well, I started learning how to write sonnets and other structured forms. I've written about twenty or so poems. Last month, I decided to submit one to a poetry contest on a site called ReviewFuse.

After I submitted said poem, I promptly forgot about it because, well, I don't really write poetry. I guess I do write poetry now though, since a poem I wrote won a contest. This is giggly funny to me. Not because I think it was not good, I'm pretty proud of it. Not because I think the judges were wrong - I have no idea who they were and am honored they thought my poem worthy.

No, none of the usual reasons are why I think this is funny. I think it is funny because it is so typical of me and my life. I am just one of those people who always does things backwards of how I intended, and usually it turns out just fine. What does that say about me? It says I'm pigheaded but grateful, sure of myself but clueless as to what my strengths are (in my writing).

jomicn776 is me, my ID on both FanStory and ReviewFuse.

Here's the link for the poem with great thanks to ReviewFuse:

Update 2015: the site has closed and the link is no longer available. 
Here is the poem:

Unending Thread

Unending thread, between your heart and mine,

awaits the tug of distance to reveal

a purpose borne of using the divine

to loose our forms, yet strengthen soul’s appeal

that we not tarry in the ether mist,

behind a tattered veil for feigned delight.

Sweet nymphs and stirred emotion, lightly kissed, 

are not the true love promised by the night.

The thread pulls back, we reel through space and time

believing all we see is here and now.

Illumination bares the truth in rhyme,

existence rests its head on lover’s brow.

Returning from the dream to find you there,

a halo brume encircling your hair.

Again I want to sleep and travel far,

beyond the earthly bound’ries of my form,

and meet you near the heavens’ blazing star;

the kindly light feels safe and free and warm.

We circle round the azure shrouded world,

the thread has bound us surely down the nave.

Remains of day and night before unfurled

and carried on a crimson, golden wave.

Forever we will journey through this life,

no fear of crossing to the farther plane.

Between the two, the best room truly rife

with charity and love in His domain.

No matter if we wake or if we sleep,

Love’s bond a truer marriage couldn’t keep.

I think I'll continue writing poetry. I think this may make me see myself just a bit differently. I've entered exactly fifty seven short story contests and have won none of them. Even when I'm only up against five other stories. Most of those contests are on another site, FanStory, of which I am a proud member.

Both sites are set up for a writer to submit work, have it critiqued, and critique the work of others. I am light-years ahead of where I was when I started my writing journey in December of 2008, mostly thanks to these sites and the people I've connected with through them.

I personally choose to enter contests, not so much to win anything or to stroke my ego (which is a good thing, because with a big 0 for 57, I may have quit writing a long time ago), but I work best under a deadline and I wanted to stretch with unusual topics. I have my stats as a badge of honor on my profile page to keep me humble. For every "Your writing is great!" I hear, I can look at my win - loss record to be pulled violently back to reality.

Which brings me to the ultimate point I am getting to sometime today: What people like, and what is good work, is ultimately a subjective thing. Is my poem really the best of the 325 submitted? For those judges, that day, it was. Don't rest on that. Do better, work harder, keep going. Write, write, write. I am so appreciative of my work being recognized because it is not easy. I've worked hard. But just as I occasionally rationalize a close loss (mine was better), so I should put a win in the same category.

I should, I really should. But just for today, just this one post: Hooray!

Peace,

Jo Taylor

The Long Road to Being Published

I started writing in December of 2008. The idea for Margaret's story came up as I was working on a short story for a writing contest. Not a big contest, mostly a writing exercise that gets posted and competes against ten other stories. By now, August of 2009, I have a portfolio of about fifty short stories. Most okay, some pretty good, and at least one that is very good. Good enough to almost get published.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the one that is very good was the first story I wrote. The first. It got an honorable mention for Glimmer Train in February 2009. At the time I sent it in, since it was the first thing I wrote, I had no idea if it was any good, AND I had no idea that Glimmer Train is kind of a big deal.

Now I know. I don't know whether to take the honor as signs of bigger things to come, or as notice that I've already passed my peak. I choose the former. I would really like to be published. First, I need to write something good.

Here's the link with my name, Jo Taylor, as proof. Just because it's cool (I think).

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/glimmertrain/09-February-VSF-HONORABLE-MENTION-list.pdf

The email I received with this link said I could post it on my blog. I didn't have one then, but it was part of the prodding I found everywhere to start this up. Like a sissy, I'm doing it under a character's identity, but I've already explained why. I've gotten more brave (braver?) lately, so I'll be changing the profile to accurately depict what I'm doing here now, now that I have a clue myself.

What I'm doing is using the blog as a way to let characters speak for themselves: As an exercise in finding voice and developing character. Right now it is just the characters in Margaret's Story, but I can see how this may be useful in working with other characters. Besides, I will have a one stop area for reference. Where's that list I made about the things Margaret likes? Oh yeah, right here. No more boxes of dead trees with black ink.

So even if this is not interesting to anyone but me, it has its purpose and I intend to use it fully, on the long road to being published.

Peace,

Jo Taylor