Tag Archives: Writers

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

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Thanksgiving is a designated time to remember what we are thankful for in life. For many, it’s having our health to spend time with family and friends while gorging on amazing meals until our stomach feels like it will explode. But there are others who might be joyful they survived a fatal illness to be here celebrating with people they love. Or maybe, there are those thrilled to still have a job, maybe paid a mortgage off, or even happy because they got that iPhone they’ve always wanted.

As for me, I’d like to thank:

  • My family and friends who’ve supported me with my writing.
  • My readers. (Because without y’all, I’d have no reason to have a blog!)
  • All my critique partners, beta readers, and anyone who has ever glanced at a few pitches/pages/chapters and offered feedback (The list is SUPER long and I LOVE you guys!).
  • Contest hosts for supplying fabulous opportunities with agents and mentoring, and for selecting me at some point in the past for one thing or another. (For example: Brenda Drake, Authoress, and Jessa Russo.)
  • Slush readers. (I know your eyes cross and we don’t send enough chocolate!)
  • The creator’s of Preditors & Editors, Writer’s Beware  and Absolute Write Forums. (Trust me when I say they’ll save you from agent and publishing scams.)
  • All the Amazing author’s who’ve allowed me to interview them this year!
  • And finally (but not last), to God for giving me the strength to get through each day. (For numerous reasons, but especially my health.)

I’m sure there are many things and other people I may have forgotten, and ask forgiveness if I have. Everyone in my physical and virtual life are very important to me. Y’all give me strength to become the best me. And yes, you complete me! (Go ahead, grab a tissue.)

Whatever your reason for being thankful today, I wish you the Happiest of Thanksgivings!

XOXO

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA Fiction

Pitch Contest with Entangled Publishing, hosted by Brenda Drake

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The Queen of Contests, Brenda Drake, is hosting a pitch event with Entangled Publishing on November 10, 2014. If you write romance, or have romantic undertones in your novel, this pitch event might be for you.

To enter, you’ll need a 100-word pitch (max) and the first 100 words of your manuscript. You will also need to research which line your MS falls under and know what the editors are looking for.

Single-title Imprints

Category Romance Imprints

Brenda breaks these lines down and offers a link to the editors likes here. The event will be live on Brenda’s blog, so be sure you’re following her! You’ve only got a few more days to polish those pitches.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction

 

Contest: 2014 Baker’s Dozen Agent Auction by Authoress

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This post is to remind you that the submission window opens tomorrow for the 2014 Baker’s Dozen Agent Auction. This contest is hosted by Authoress on her blog Miss Snark’s First Victim. Here are some important dates to know:

SUBMISSIONS:

October 28: Adult fiction (no erotica), 9am-5pm EDT (100 max)
October 30: Adult fiction (no erotica) , 9am-5pm EDT (100 max)
(Note: NA is included with the adult rounds and should be labeled as such.)

November 4: YA/MG fiction (all genres), 9am-5pm EDT (150 max)
November 6: YA/MG fiction (all genres), 9am-5pm EDT (150 max)

November 14: Adult winners will be notified via via email (25 total)

November 21: YA/MG winners will be notified via email (35 total)

November 28: The 60 winners will be posted on Authoress’ blog
December 2: Agents begin placing bids at 11am EDT (Auction closes 11pm)

December 4:  Winners announced

Authoress has lined up a total of TWENTY-ONE agents for this contest! How awesome is that? Here is a list to entice you to enter:

If you’re not familiar with this contest, know that it has an entry fee of $15 US dollars. Follow Miss Snark’s First Victim blog for further details!

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction.

PITCH WARS: MEET THE AGENTS

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In case you’re wondering, PITCH WARS is a super cool contest hosted by the fabulous Brenda Drake. And, of course, it’s a writing contest. What else would I post? And what’s seriously special about this contest is writers will be selected for mentoring. That’s right, winners will get help polishing their ENTIRE manuscript to get it ready for the agent round.

Girls wanna have fun

Today Brenda posted the awesome lineup of agents that will be participating from agencies such as The Bent Agency, Dystel & Goderich, Sarah Jane Freymann, Park Literary, Writers House, Andrea Brown Literary, and—and more! So go check them out here.

The submission window is fast approaching…August 18th, 2014 to be exact. Get your fingers flying on those keyboards and finish that novel to submit. I know you can do it!

Good luck and happy writing!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction

 

PITCH WARS CONTEST IS APPROACHING

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This is not an event where writers sit around a table spitting saliva all over each other fighting for a chance to get the attention of the agent they strapped to the center, all while spewing their loglines. Oh no, this is much safer…and dryer. I promise.

Girls wanna have fun

(Photo used with permission.)

 

This is a wonderful contest hosted by the contest queen herself, Brenda Drake. What’s great about this particular contest is the winning entrants get mentored by either an agented (and published) author or a professional editor. These are people who’ve been in the trenches and/or worked in the writing industry long enough to offer priceless feedback. And further, they will critique the winner’s entire manuscript. That’s right…THE WHOLE ENCHILADA.

And after months of the winners pulling their hair out making all requested edits, they will be rewarded with an agent round. It begins November 4, 2014. What does that mean? The participating agents will begin requesting their favorite entries to read from pitches posted to the blog. This years agents haven’t been revealed yet, but you can go here to see the agents from the previous Pitch Wars.

You must have a polished manuscript to enter the contest, but no worries because submissions start August 18, 2014. But know, this date will fall upon you before you realize. So, get to crackin’, er tappin’!

And don’t forget, check out the mentors for this year here and be sure to follow Brenda’s blog for updates on the contest.

As always, good luck and happy writing.

 

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA Fiction

AN AUTHORESS CONTEST

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For all writers who haven’t noticed, the lovely Authoress posted a #Blogpitch contest on her website Miss Snark’s First Victim. This starts as a logline contest on twitter in which 10 winners will be picked to get critiques. All persons leaving critiques will be entered for a chance to win a 15 page line edit from the wonderful Authoress! How cool is that?

To Qualify:

  • Follow Authoress on Twitter
  • Have an active writing-related blog (posting at least once a week)
  • Have a clean manuscript. Although it can be a work “in progress”, absolutely NO FIRST DRAFTS!

How to enter:

  • Submission window starts  noon (EDT) on Monday, June 30 and ends at noon (EDT) on Tuesday, July 1, 2014.
  • Tweet your 128 character (or fewer) logline to #BLOGPITCH on Twitter

How it works after the tweets and the dates:

  • Authoress will choose 10 favorite loglines (Announced Thursday, July 3)
  • Winners will be invited to post their logline + first 250 words ON THEIR OWN BLOGS.
  • Winners MUST send links to Authoress by Sunday, July 6.
  • Authoress will post the 10 links on BLOG CRITIQUE TOUR DAY. (Posted on Wednesday, July 9.)
  • Everyone, including winners, can visit the blogs and leave a critique. (Each critique=1 entry in drawing for a 15 page line edit from Authoress.) Critiquing starts immediately. All critiques entered by Friday, July 11, will be entered into drawing.

(Note:  All genres except erotica or erotic romance will be accepted.)

SHOW DON’T TELL

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If you’re a writer, you know I’m not talking about things your partner says to you in the bedroom. Pah-lease, don’t get me started on that! I’m talking about the ever important sentences explaining your character’s emotions. This lures the reader into the characters head feeling the moment with them, instead of being told how they feel.

Telling: Anna was excited about going outside after seeing the sun shine through the window.

Showing: The sun beamed through the window of the door, warming Anna’s face. Her eyes sparkled as she reached for the knob and unlocked the bolt in a rush. Darting outside, she spread her arms allowing the sun’s rays to bathe her.

Sometimes it’s hard to think of ways to describe emotion, especially without using clichés. (I know, I know.) Although some overused phrases will be tolerated, most readers yawn if they see them used over and over in your writing, so get creative. A friend, Natasha Neagle, told me about a wonderful book to help authors. It’s called THE EMOTION THESAURUS by Angela Ackerman. And because I was too daft to think about it myself, I needed another friend, Susan Roebuck, to tell me to visit Angela’s website because she offers a lot of freebie advise. Her site is called Writers Helping Writers.

Show all three of these wonderful authors some love and follow their websites, maybe even buy a book or two! (That was a shameless plug that none of them asked me for. But ladies, I’ll gladly except cheese as payment on future sales resulting from this post. Just sayin’)

Seriously though, following writers that share the knowledge of things that often took them months or years to learn is always worth a new authors time. Research and follow those that interest you, or those that write in the same genre and category as your stories.

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA Fiction

ONE WORD A DAY

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Sure, the process is as slow as molasses running down an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. But one word a day will get you closer to your goal of a completed manuscript. Do I mean only type one word a day for life? I may have some rocks loose inside my noggin but I do know how to count! This process may be okay if you are writing books for children, but it isn’t practical for a novel of 70,000 words. It will take 191 years to write and I am not immortal.

So, what do I mean? On the days you believe you’ve no time to write at all, sit and write one word. Yes, one word. It will do two things.

1) Give a sense of progress for your manuscript.
2) Get you closer to finishing.

It sounds silly, but make it a goal. Actually, make it a writer’s pledge. Repeat after me: “If I can’t write for hours, I’m going to write at least one word.” There. We can swap spit and shake hands. We have formed a writer’s virtual pact to complete our manuscripts.

What is amazing, you may find it difficult to write only one word. Usually, a complete sentence gets structured, maybe even two. We do this because we are writers. It’s in our blood.

Now, let’s presume most days you will write two sentences at an average of fourteen words per sentence. You could finish the novel in approximately seven years. And if you only write one word on some of those days, you could still finish in approximately ten years. It’s a goal that’s more feasible than 191 years! (Thank goodness we don’t need to be bitten by a vampire to continue writing. However, I’m not objecting if you know one.)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to write a novel in one month. Well, I wasn’t speaking to James Patterson. This is a good rule to follow for those who work another day job…maybe two day jobs! If you are breathing, you can write. Jot what you can, when you can. If it takes longer to get there, it’s better to complete your manuscript ten years from now than never at all. Don’t hide behind you’ve no time.

And there you have it…one word a day CAN get you closer to your goal. Just don’t be a noodlehead about it.

P.D. Pabst
Writer of YA and Blogger

KISS MY…WORDS

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Ever want to tell someone to kiss your words because they said you wouldn’t make it as a writer? If you’re having moments you believe them, maybe you should tell them. Don’t listen to their words:

• “You’re from a small town, no one will listen.”
• “You’re not smart enough.”
• “Your style isn’t right.”
• “Get your head out of the clouds.”
• “You’re too young/old.”

I could ramble endlessly about things I’ve heard people say to writers. Even family and friends can be negative unintentionally. Remember, it doesn’t matter what they believe. You must believe in yourself. Tell them to kiss your words! When they look puzzled, just repeat and walk away with a smile. (Yes, I said smile Mr./Mrs. Sourpuss!) Sure, being an author is a difficult road. But believing in yourself keeps you determined to find the tools you need to succeed. You don’t need to explain to negative people how you plan finding your way into the writing world. Just keep writing and you’ll get there.

What’s that? All those rejection letters are piling up and making you doubt yourself. If I have to hand you a tissue, I’m going to throw the box at your head. Many famous authors were rejected before they found success:

• John Grisham: A Time to Kill was rejected by 16 publishers.
• James Patterson: Rejected by more than a dozen publishers.
• J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishing houses.
• William Faulkner: Sanctuary was said couldn’t be published.
• Nicholas Sparks: The Notebook was turned down by 24 literary agencies.

And even though I would love to add Chronicles of Narnia author, C.S. Lewis, rejected 800 times before his first publication, those numbers are still in question. But if they are true, the promise for publication is great for new writers. Everyone gets rejected…EVERYONE. So, chin up and keep believing in yourself!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger