Contests are subjective. I like to take some of that out of the equation with an equalizer like a free pass! It lets someone who might not make the finals go before agents and get help from mentors. This is one of my favorite parts about any contest I help host.
So let's talk about this opportunity.
All you need to do is leave a comment on this post and use the rafflecopter to be entered. Everyone gets a free entry. There will be other extra entry options that you can skip or use for bonus chances.
Your comment should be to tell us your scariest writing weakness that comes up in editing. For example, I have trouble with transition thoughts between paragraphs and inside paragraphs. I guess my own thoughts tend to jump around and that gets translated to my writing. Sometimes the writing isn't quite smooth enough. Maybe for you it's dialogue or plot holes, or filtering. Maybe you don't like cutting wordage or have trouble with kissing scenes.
It's always good to know your own weaknesses. This will help with your actual editing. So take a moment to think about the subject and get it off your chest by commenting. I look forward to seeing a wide variety of trouble spots.
This free pass will run from today until October 9th when the rafflecopter will pick one winner. The Free Pass winner will bypass the slush and become one of Michelle's Minions for Nightmare on Query Street. They will work with a mentor to polish and then be entered in the agent round, where 20+ agents will read their work.
Don't forget to use the rafflecopter after you comment or your entry will not be processed.
And that's it!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Since I'm a panster, I have to be careful about bringing up ideas for twists and then forgetting to ever mention them again. I always fear I've missed something, even after rereading several times because I get lost in the direction the story went, instead of where I intended it to go.
ReplyDeleteI am a pantser too. My weakness is short first drafts. I'm lucky if I get to 50K! But I add more when I'm revising/editing.
ReplyDeleteMy weakness is conflict. I hate doing bad things to good characters!
ReplyDeleteSecond-guessing my character and plot on the twentieth edit. And cutting scenes I loved because they seem stale then.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I have many weaknesses. But two of my biggest ones are paragraph transitions and saying the same thing twice, maybe a few paragraphs apart. I really want to get my point across, you know?
ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness may be info-dumping in an attempt to explain things I find interesting that end up being distracting to the reader. Much of my editing involves pruning away those extraneous branches until the true shape of my story is revealed.
ReplyDeleteI always hope my editing removes filters and puts the reader into the heart of the story. I'm always worried that I'm telling and not showing, or the dreaded info dump.
ReplyDeleteLike Gregory, I love exposition a little too much. I tend to info dump, and then I fall in LOVE with the info dump, so I struggle to cut it. My editing process largely consists of looking for long paragraphs that give away backstory and finding ways to sprinkle those details throughout the rest of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI hate cutting and refining dialogue. I love writing conversation between characters, and I feel that it's so easy to lose the character voices if I get too aggressive with the red ink pen.
ReplyDeleteI tend to overwrite and repeat things a lot. So drafts end up much longer than they need to be. But on setting, I always end up being far too sparse.
ReplyDeleteThe major con with me while writing has to be paragraphs. I tend to write the whole thing in one go, which is obviously wrong. And sometimes, I fall short of good words to describe the thing or situation.
ReplyDeleteThe scariest for me is that I am a slasher. I can (and have) cut an 80k draft down to 45k and then struggled to add more to it.
ReplyDeleteI write fast, trying to keep up with the inspiration and sometimes leave off the "ed" on past tense verbs.
ReplyDeleteI tend to miss really stupid things in my own work. For example, something should read "to" but I write "too" and don't see the extra "o" no matter how many times I read it. I also leave out words and I don't realize it. I read outloud. I read backwards. I read outloud to people. I still miss the most random errors.
ReplyDeleteOne of the scariest parts of editing my own work is when I do a search on the finished document for the word "that"... *shudders*
ReplyDeleteMy writing weakness is dialogue. I always think my characters sound stupid. I also have to be careful with making sure I don't repeat something a character says in their internal monologue.
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ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness currently is including too many subplots. I want to do all of the things!
My biggest editing scare is losing track of my own work. One of my readers was trying to talk to me about a character I had killed off at the end of my manuscript, and it was news to me. I've always had a spotty memory, but adding a preschooler and toddler to the writing mix means my brain function is at an all-time low. This also makes editing kind of fun because I read my work like somebody else wrote it.
ReplyDeleteI over explain and repeat things I've already stated. Also, I tend to try so hard not to overuse words that I use words that don't fit the text.
ReplyDeleteI think what scares me the most in writing is dialogue. Even if I read it out loud, I always feel like it sounds kind of dumb.
ReplyDeleteThe worst for me is when I add something new but need to keep the old stuff. Sometimes blending the two of them is a nightmare. It either takes forever or I can never seem to get it quite right. A lot of times I need to wait and see if my betas catch it before I'm satisfied I've smoothed it out.
ReplyDeleteMine is lack of setting. Sometimes I can't picture settings and so my descriptions are vague and everyone exists in a gray blob. Also keeping the tension up consistently between chapters.
ReplyDeleteMy (current) biggest weakness, I believe, is striking the right balance with strength of emotions. Too little and the scene falls flat. Too much and it reads like trash.
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ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is cutting. I write massive, detailed worlds with meandering subplots and then when I need trim to make the writing palatable, I fret that I will lose the magic.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness is my inability to get close to my characters. I headhop and write 3rd person omniscient without meaning to. I really have to have a beta reader help tighten all of that up.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness is word count. Always too many words. I'd happily lend (no, give, you can keep them!) thousands of words to whoever doesn't have enough to make their word count. If you need extra words, give me a shout! (Or a scream!)
ReplyDeleteI tend to draft with a lot of floating bodies. Lots of dialogue, nothing around it. I've got to fill that in later.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is that I'm not able to communicate exactly what I mean.
ReplyDeleteLook. I use the word look/looked too much. I'm usually decent with finding good words but the word look is a crutch for me.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm Sarah M. Morin. I didn't have any of those profiles to select.
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ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness is nailing the emotional conflict. I usually know how I want it to go, but it usually gets muddled and doesn't come out the way I intend.
ReplyDelete(Repeat comment from above. sorry, my bad)
ReplyDeleteLook. I use the word look/looked too much. I'm usually decent with finding good words but the word look is a crutch for me.
Also, abusing the word "that" gratuitously.
ReplyDeleteStarting too many sentences with the word "But." The word search is in the hundreds...
ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness when editing is adding "just" everywhere. Every time I edit through a MS I have to delete a large number of them.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness is making things too easy for the characters. I love them and have trouble making their lives as miserable as I should!
ReplyDeleteI have quite a few weakness and it takes several revisions to fix them. The biggest would be exposition. I tend to over explain and repeat the same things. I also overuse words like 'just' 'even' Sometimes my imagery takes flight and I ramble on. But that's why we have first drafts. I have to let myself write at will to get the plot in my mind down on paper. Revision comes after, when I tighten and polish. Revision is never ending.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness is writing action scenes. I feel like they come across too bland. I also use 'just' a lot...I just can't help myself.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest editing weakness is not finding every unnecessary prepositional phrase and killing it. Also generally having to edit 150,000 times before I've chipped away all the other words I don't need.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest weakness is using the word “just”. A lot. And short first drafts.
ReplyDeleteI often have trouble with flashbacks. When I write in the past tense and I have to refer to a scene from a time before that, it's sometimes hard to find a balance, and past perfect can become a nightmare (all those "had" in the text..).
ReplyDeleteFilter words... I have so many of them (just, that, eyes, breath, etc.). I spend days and days deleting them or replacing with other emotional cues.
ReplyDeleteIt hurts to cut good prose. Even if it needs to go, still hurts.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I write characters that are real and flawed to me, aren't sympathetic to readers
ReplyDeleteMy Scariest weakness is writing scenes without much setting description so it can seem like floating heads are speaking
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is the overuse of similes.
ReplyDeleteI have a tendency to show, not tell, and have to revise carefully for this. It's very tough to hold back sometimes, especially because I'm detail oriented like most writers are.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say: I sometimes tell too much instead of show.
ReplyDeleteI think my biggest weakness is killing my darlings...which I think I'm about to have to do 😬
ReplyDeleteToo many words. The horror.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest weakness is knowing when to trust my instincts. When critiques come in left and right, sometimes I'm not sure which advice is right for my story and my writing style.
ReplyDeleteI hate to "loose a darling." Cutting a character I've come o know well is so hard!
ReplyDeleteI have no problem addressing anything during an edit but my scariest weakness is grammar...
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is wanting to overwrite. As such, I've become the queen of "slay those darlings."
ReplyDeleteScariest weakness is writing YA contemporary dialogue. An authentic voice is key, but keeping apace with YA slang/casual talk is a nightmare!
ReplyDeleteScariest weakness is writing love scenes...doesn't even need to be erotic, it just sounds so cheesy to me.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Ansley's, I sometimes miss issues with YA voice, in or out of dialogue. It's a special challenge when writing unusually smart kids, because they do speak more like adults, but they're immature as well.
ReplyDeleteMy weakness is bringing in details to really round out the character, the every day things, gestures, movements etc that keep it all real. I get so involved in the main story elements I forget to show the "real world" of my characters.
ReplyDeleteSo many weaknesses... Self-blindness, probably: I only work out what I'm doing wrong after the fifth draft every time
ReplyDeleteGreatest Weakness - cutting through the flowery writing. Every scene, sentence and description must move the story along. Great writing sometimes translates to less words, and cutting can be painful.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest weakness is digressing into the past! Flashback anyone? Here have another. What year is it again?
ReplyDeleteThank you! My scariest weakness is OVER writing—tweaking over and over again before the writing settles and I can make sense of it.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem is probably too much internal monologue from my main characters. They tend to ask a lot of questions and analyse everything that's happening, and I'm still learning to cut that down so as not to overwhelm and alienate my readers.
ReplyDelete:-/ Sorry, it didn't put my name, just my blog. I'm Zoé Perrenoud.
DeleteMy scariest weakness is a lack of dialogue tags. I just want to get what the characters are saying onto the page. I always have to go back and fill in conversational mannerisms in later drafts.
ReplyDeleteWord repeats on the same page in a manuscript aren’t cool. Specific words need to stand alone to come alive. To provide an impact. Repeating words are tiresome. But some words are very specific. Such as the word, word. Oh-oh. How do you write your way around that one? And how about specific? That’s a little easier… Some words are very unique. Rewording to avoid word repeats is a frightening challenge and a thesaurus can help only so much. The power of an individual word is not to be ignored!
ReplyDeleteJoanne Elder, jelder1@rogers.com
My weakness is too much description. My background is in journalism so I’m a stickler for details—so much so that I often times get in my own way as I’m trying to tell a story. I always have to go back and pick and choose during edits, making sure I leave some things up to the readers’ imagination.
ReplyDeleteGreatest weakness is probably plotting. My characters run away with me a lot and get lost sometimes. I don't always wrangle them well!
ReplyDeleteMy greatest weakness is show vs tell, mainly deep POV. Sometimes I add too much background/description, when I need to trim it and sprinkle it through the novel. I used to have an issue with commas splices too.
ReplyDelete"Is" is my greatest weakness. I say something "is" or "was" way too much. Using a tense of the verb "to be" or not "to be"--that is the question.
ReplyDeleteI have so many to chose from, so I'll say my worst one is relying too heavily on nonverbal cues. My characters lean on or away from everything and are practically mute, frowning/grinning/shrugging bobbleheads.
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ReplyDeleteI tend not to not include enough sensory information. It is all in my head and I don't get it efficiently onto the page. That is one of many weaknesses.
ReplyDeleteMy greatest fear is having to cut out scenes/dialogue/even characters that I really liked, which I realize upon a second/third/fourth read aren't necessary to the plot. It's always hard chopping up a beloved manuscript! </3
ReplyDeleteShowing versus telling. It's my kryptonite.
ReplyDeleteI am the worst at end of chapter hooks... I naturally want to add a resolution which totally kills the desire to read on!
ReplyDeleteI struggle with making dialogue sound natural and character-specific.
ReplyDeleteI overwrite, then say the same thing ten different ways, then can only manage to let go of one or two of them. Eek, I'm doing it again. It's scary all right.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness that comes up in editing is my misuse of hyphens. I sort of despise them because I feel like they're from a bygone era (Moby Dick used to hyphenated). Luckily this is a thing I can conquer.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness that comes up for me in editing is overuse of commas. I'm a big fan of them and get worried that I'm using them too much.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is knowing how a scene goes in my head and assuming that the reader knows. I always have to go back in and write the stuff that made sense in my head, but didn’t quite make it into the draft.
ReplyDeleteI have poor sense of direction and little sense of place, so for me setting descriptions are the worst.
ReplyDeleteUgh! I always feel I have to include all my research! Edit #10xxx it all comes out!
ReplyDeleteOverthinking the first draft instead of letting creativity flow.
ReplyDeleteI think my biggest weakness is allowing myself to start editing too early in the process to the point where I end up throwing out a manuscript and starting over again. I'm lucky I finished this one, finally, and got a process where I can finish and be proud of what I've done at the same time, but I'm a severe perfectionist. Comes at the cost of taking *looks at watch* four years to finish something. And I've got a series to write 0.o
ReplyDeleteTerrifying: Finding the happy medium between under-describing the setting and using so many descriptive words that it drives my word count up. I know what the scene looks like in my head; sometimes I forget that the reader doesn't.
ReplyDeleteI believe my scariest writing weakness is that I am dyslexic. Sometimes my words get jumbled in my sentences or misspelled. I have to Really watch myself to make sure that what I'm writing makes sense, but that can sometimes block my flow.
ReplyDeleteI forget to add descriptions- especially about characters. And when I do, it's usually their hair color.
ReplyDeleteI have a few... Two big ones come in editing. Word count and basic grammar/spelling. I get caught up in the story and have a hard time finding places to chop ( doesn't help that my books tend to climb over 130k to start...hehe). Add to that my tendency towards spelling and grammar misses, a clean draft takes a long time to complete and still somehow tends to be running a bit long...
ReplyDeleteOne of my biggest weaknesses is not recognizing things that my subconscious brain has laid out for me. I have definitely moved/combined/deleted scenes or characters and then gone back to the way it was originally because it actually worked the first time I just didn't realize how it all fit together.
ReplyDeleteUsing "just" too often. I should know better by now!
ReplyDeleteNot describing the scene enough. I picture it so completely in my head that I forget to make it real for the reader. In editing, I have to go back through and add in scenery.
ReplyDeleteMY scariest writing experience with editing is my descriptions, or little descriptions. I need to make sure the world in the book comes alive off the pages along with its characters.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I' am Mariah Rose Cota. I don't have any of those profiles.
DeleteGetting lost in research, and by "research" I mean twitter. Ha ha. Also, setting. I do an entire pass just to layer in setting.
ReplyDeleteI’m always scare my edits aren’t going to be enough. That I’m going in circles and will need to start over because I wasted my time in prior edits
ReplyDeleteSomething that scares me when I edit, is being sure I use typical MG language especially in dialouge.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI struggle to balance dialogue, narration, etc., in a way that conveys character thoughts/feelings while still allowing them to react to their environment.
ReplyDeleteI have an issue with emotions. I lack empathy and usually hide what I'm feeling. So I have no idea how to "show" readers how my characters are feeling in a situation. It's frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI tend to change the planned plot as I go along, replot, and change the plot again. My second read-through is always smoothing over the crazy plot paths, taking out things that were meant for plots #1-10 but not the final one.
ReplyDeleteGrammar. Grammar. Grammar. I spend way too much time debating whether to add a comma or not.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness while editing is being reluctant to scrap scenes or move them around in the manuscript, because that leads to more editing.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is sticking to 1st person voice when probably 3rd might be better.
ReplyDeleteI'm terrible at interior monologue. I love dialogue too much and write a ton in first drafts, then I have to tighten it and add emotion and depth later.
ReplyDeleteBiggest weakness is obsessing over every word. I can spend hours or even days perfecting 1 line!
ReplyDeleteI edit five bajillion times, second guessing myself, only to fall back to what I originally wrote. *sigh*
ReplyDelete- Michelle Reardon
When I think I've made my character's motivations and emotions abundantly clear and CPs/beta readers are still confused!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think my biggest weaknesses in editing is refusing to be satisfied with the work. I'm on draft 8 of my MS and still don't feel like it's ready! If that doesn't count though I do struggle a bit with fight scenes.
ReplyDeleteI took a class on writing a novel, and was told that the story is the emotional arc, and the plot is how the MC moves through the arc. So, I took my plot and created a story under it. Now, do I query the story (which is an old one) or the plot (which is unique) when I'm told that agents are looking for an MC they care about? My query is a schizophrenic mess.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest is on this ms: it is told w/alternating voices. Because of this, I have to make sure not to repeat things UNLESS it's important to the story or character arc.
ReplyDeleteMy scariest writing weakness is head hopping. I tend to go from head to head like a bunny sampling what's growing in every row of a garden. I'm very aware of it, but do it anyway. Scary!
ReplyDeleteThe scariest thing for me is that I will tell the story and it will end up being too short. I go over and over my manuscript to make sure I have enough detail, but that it isn't just fluff.
ReplyDeleteMy stories often lack any descriptions of places or the characters' physical features! I always have to add that. My betas often say, "I love the story but they're walking down the street and I have NO idea what it looks like."
ReplyDeleteI have the problem of lack of description also. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI have the problem of lack of description also. Sigh.
ReplyDelete