Shark Summer Poetry Contest

SHARK SUMMER POETRY CONTEST
http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/sharksummer/poetry_contest/
—
Express your feelings about sharks and rays. The winner will
have his or her poem posted on the Aquarium’s website and
published in the Aquarium’s exclusive magazine Pacific
Currents, along with passes to the Aquarium and a behind the
scenes tour for four people. Entries will be accepted online
or via mail through July 31, 2009. Poems must be no longer
than 200 words. You must be 16 years old to enter. Only one
entry per person. All entries must be received by July 30, 2009.
Submit online or at:
Shark Poetry Contest
Aquarium of the Pacific
320 Golden Shore, Suite 150
Long Beach, CA 90808

Revision

Revision. When I was working on my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, an adviser told me, “Revision is seeing our stories again. Seeing them differently.”

This month, I’m participating in Holly’s and Jolie’s  Summer Revision Smackdown.  My goal is to revise my young adult romance novel. This is a novel which I started at the end of my MFA program, and has been emerging very slowly.

In September, I vowed to make this novel my focus for as long as it took to finish. It’s now June and the manuscript has been progressing steadily.

In the Fall, I fast drafted to the end, and then used Darcy Pattison’s Novel Metamorphosis to do a full manuscript revision. The novel shifted and changed with the help of her wonderful revision program!

In November, I revised again and rewrote the manuscript during National Writing Novel in a Month Challenge. This was my second year to participate and win in NANOWRIMO and I love the process!

And then, I let the novel sit for a couple months while I worked on other things–beginning to brainstorm and plot out a middle grade novel.

Late this winter, I submitted the young adult novel to one agent who told me, “There was a lot to love but it wasn’t strong enough for this market.”

So, I decided to hunt down the experts–the manuscript critique experts, and I found Bev Katz Rosenbaum. She’s a former editor of Harlequin along with being a young adult writer herself. I figured if anyone would know how to write romance it would be her!

I was right! I sent the manuscript off to her, and she returned it with me six pages of revision notes–with the main emphasis on structure–or restructure.

The novel is written in alternating voices, and Bev helped me see when and how to change point of views, and how to increase my stakes for my female character. She also helped me understand a bit more about the arc of plotting a romance with enough tension to keep turning the pages!

I’m very pleased with this revision, and moving along quickly. Up to page 100 and hope to have the whole thing finished by the end of the month–Go Revision!