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Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Drafts from the past

Today I stumbled upon this annual opportunity with Text Publishing, The Tenth Annual Text Prize, which is taking submissions targeted at children and young adults until 3 February. I am not hopeful, but I thought it would provide some motivation for me to dust off an old manuscript and edit with a goal in mind. 

So I opened my NaNoWriMo project from 2013 for the first time since I last edited it in September 2014. And, yikes. Cringe. I've got a lot of work to do. I would like to think that my writing has come a long way since I first typed out WALLS, but I guess there's a chance I am still as terrible at writing now as I feel I was looking back at that manuscript. 

I am also still job-hunting like a headless chook and working on an academic paper that's due at the end of January, so in all honesty, it's very unlikely I will have edited all 85K+ words of WALLS to the point where I'd be happy to submit it anywhere by the early February deadline. At least I have made a start, and maybe this will get the ball rolling for me again properly. 

Happy New Year. What are you working on? 
Bonnee. 

7 comments:

  1. Oh, it can be rough looking back, can't it?

    I recall reading the first chapter of WALLS way back when; I think it's well worth dusting off and putting time in on, though it is always a question of time, isn't it? Best of luck with the job and the paper, and what's a a chook? I'm guessing it's some kind of chicken, since over here we say, "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

    Happy New Year!

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    1. I found the document you sent back after reading the first chapter for me! You gem. I figured I put so much work into it already I may as well keep going with it.

      Ah yes, chook just means chicken. I didn't realise until you asked, but apparently it is Aussie slang. :D Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. It's good that you can see areas which need work as realising that is a big step towards solving the issues.

    I'm working on short stories and a novel and a couple of collections and pitching articles...

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  3. Isn't it amazing how much we grow as writers over time? That's a good thing! Good luck.

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  4. All kinds of secret things...

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  5. Patsy: Sounds like you're keeping busy as usual on the writing front. Thumbs up!

    Donna: It's scary! Why can't we all just be awesome writers from the get-go?

    Andrew: I am intrigued! :o

    Thank you all for visiting :)

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  6. Wow, your January is going to to be really busy. I wish you luck on the children's ms, the academic paper and the job hunt. Go get 'em!

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