My chapter is missing. I have emailed Anna to ask her what has happened to it but as she won’t be back in the office till the 30th, I haven’t had an answer yet. This is my contest entry chapter I’m talking about. Don’t they understand that millions of people are waiting with bated breath for this to appear? Don’t they know that my inbox is groaning under the weight of the hundreds of thousands of emails that people are sending me asking me, “Jackie, for the love of all that’s holy, where is your fabulous chapter? We’re desperate to read it!”
Well, okay, maybe not millions, or even hundreds of thousands. Maybe five. But still.
The longer it takes, the more embarassed I feel about it. I’ve learned so much since I wrote it that all I can see are the archetypes I made my characters and the great, gaping holes in the conflict. Oh, what am I talking about? There wasn’t any conflict! At least not good, internal, Modern Heat conflict. Ah well, c’est la vie. At least it will be a good example to others about what NOT to do. 🙂
Aaaaanyway, now I shall resume twiddling my thumbs, whistling tunelessly and not managing to write a word while I continue to wait….
Oh Jackie, waiting is horrid.
And there are definitely more than 5 waiting for your chapter to be posted.
You’ve obviously been on a pretty steep learning curve these last few months – but don’t you dare be embarrassed. That chapter won you a placing – be very proud of it.
We’ll all be looking for the good points that the editors picked up on and hoping to copy what you did right.
Oh, thanks Suzanne! I did think it was okay at the time but when I got the editorial comments it was like “Doh! Why didn’t I see that?”
All well, they’ll only put a few of the editorial comments on the site I’m thinking but I’m happy to share more with anyone who wants to know – it’s applicable to any aspiring writer, not just me.
Can you post it here? Or will they get snitty? This learning curve is like Everest, isn’t it?!
Actually Lucy, I did think about posting it here, but thought they probably would get a bit snitty. And then it felt like it would be tooting my own horn a bit much. Oh well, I’ll see what happens if Anna gets back to me about it.
Everest is a great analogy. Except the risk of death is smaller. 😉
Some of us are a bit further down the mountain, can you throw us a rope???
Hope they finally get round to posting the chapter soon Jackie 🙂