Thursday, June 30, 2011

CYA Competition entry submitted!

Today I decided to go ahead and submit my entry for the CYA Brisbane's Children's and Young Adults Writers competition For those in the know, I've been working the last 3 years (yes, for that long) on a children's novel aimed at girls in grades 5 - 7. The competition required me to send in the first 1,000 words which is lucky because even though I've written about 24,000 words and a complete outline I'm still about 10,000 (yikes!) words off my goal.

So after spending three days trying to find the emotional energy to edit just one final sentence, I finally sat down today and just did it.

Chris was always so supportive of my writing, even when it was crap. Whenever I asked him how he could be so excited about such rubbish writing he'd say "We are here to build each other up, not tear each other down" (How could I not have fallen in love with such a sweetheart?)

I don't have any expectations for the competition because the first chapter is probably too narrative for the judges who I assume would be hoping to find the next Paul Jennings (which I'm not) rather than the next Roald Dahl (which I'm definitely not but like to think I am).

But still I feel good that I entered and has now helped me with a plan for my life for the next few months. I'm not going to be returning to work until at least September, maybe longer. So from tomorrow I'm moving on to starting the final edits on the first 3 chapters to enter the chance to win a 3 day workshop with editors at Allen & Unwin (my dream publishers). From there the next goal will be to finish my novel over the next 2 or so months.

I don't think I would have been able to do this if I wasn't already so far ahead with my novel but editing and creative writing is something I can do in my own time in between fits of hysteria in my bed so that works for me.

1 comment:

  1. Good for you gorgeous. Here if you need a beta reader... xx

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