wow.
Thank you very very much for everyone who has entered the Surprisingly Essential First Page Challenge! There are many a Surprisingly Essential entry (around 400 between Blogger and Myspace), and the thread will be open for entries until tomorrow at 5:00 PM Pacific. Please continue to enter in the original contest thread and only in the original contest thread. Some people have missed the mark. I know the original post is getting so large that some people (especially those who are on dialup) are having some trouble entering. If you absolutely cannot make it work, you can e-mail me your entries and I’ll post for you. But for the sake of my inbox, please try everything short of summoning the entire Geek Squad of America to your house before you take that last resort!
In other news, I hope Holly will be speaking to me by the end of the week! Have you checked out her blog? Promised her cat toys and ski encouragement? I hope so! I seriously cannot thank Holly enough for agreeing to help out. This is quite a task.
And in other news, I hate to mar what has otherwise been an extremely fun contest that I am still very excited about (despite the morale meter dipping), but I think I need to address this, so here goes. Some people have expressed concern that their entries are being critiqued on other blogs, and that this isn’t something they signed on for. I’m sympathetic to these concerns — while this is a public forum and people can see their entries, they might not have known that others would be critiquing their efforts, and ultimately I’d just like everyone to feel good about participating. Yes, being critiqued is something that happens when you’re a writer, but this contest is just supposed to be fun. It’s not like anyone is getting paid for this.
So I proposed what I feel like is a very fair compromise: I asked people who were critiquing to please refrain from critiques for the moment, but since I know there are many people who would love to hear feedback, I’d be happy to mention their blog on tonight’s update to send people their way if people want critiques. That way, the people who want critiques can get critiques, and the people who don’t want critiques don’t have to be critiqued. Everyone wins! Even the monkeys, and they never win.
Unfortunately, while one critiquer was extremely gracious about bowing out (I really can’t thank her enough, she was very kind about it), another has disagreed, and UPDATE: Chro has agreed to pull unsolicited critiques and critique all comers! I wish him luck! Check out his blog if you want feedaback! But other than those who have agreed with the compromise, the critiquers aren’t excerpting material, and besides offering a compromise, my hands are somewhat tied here. People are going to do what they’re going to do, apparently. So I apologize to those who are uncomfortable with what’s happening, but I hope it won’t mar their enjoyment of the contest. I tried!
Ultimately, I hope we can move on from this — I hesitate to say there’s a lesson in this (there isn’t!), but from here on out I’m going to be deleting further comments that relate to this issue (I’m serious about this). Let’s just all enjoy the contest and let’s all just get along, and really: we need to remember that Spencer is the real problem here.
Thanks again to everyone who entered! Keep on entering (I didn’t plan on sleeping tomorrow night anyway… or the next day), and I’m seriously amazed and impressed by all the talent out there. You guys are awesome.
That’s true Nathan. Everytime I look more people have entered. I wouldn’t be suprised if it exceeds last years tally!
On another note, Party Francis has cancer and her book THE LIARS DIARY came out yesterday.She’s a debut author (like myself and others hope to be), and unable to promote her own book. click my link for details, and visit her website (linked in my blog), for info on her book. Thanks!
adaora a, I put her on my amazon wish list! If no one gets it for me by payday, I’m going to. It sounds great! Thanks for the comment about my first page on my blog!
Wow, you blew right past “having second thoughts” there, didn’t you? It’s a good thing there’s still a lot of orange left on that graph, because otherwise I’d start to worry. This is shaping up to be quite the contest!
I’d love to know what other people think of mine. But I’m a little confused as to how I’ll find out. Is there a list of links somewhere that shows people who are giving critiques?
Mine’s somewhere around #475, no title but it’s the one about Daniel at the shrine, if anyone would care to give some feedback.
@jennifer- Your very welcome! I’m pleased you’ve added P.F to your list. I have plans to buy the book come pay day at work. I happen to be broke as a joke right now lol! Damn uni and excessive dress/skirt buying.
shalanna-
Please feel free to post that again without the second paragraph.
I wouldn’t mind have my critique either. Thanks!
Why is everyone stressing and doing silly things they wouldn’t normally do? This contest is a favour (yes that’s Canadian spelling Nathan just try and stop me)!
Just take a deep breath and enjoy it. Don’t get too hot and bothered over it all.
Yikes! (Favorite word these days, alongside ‘dodgy’)
PS: I love how when you type in the wrong security code it gets progressively thicker and clearer as if to stress stupidity. “YOU NUMBNUT…DON’T GET IT TWISTED.”
Did your security code thing make you type in NUMBNUT, too? I thought it was just me.
I’m certainly open to any crits. Although now I’ve lost track as to who is doing them.
Cheers, Nathan
Eric- Tweed & Scissors
Aloha writers–wow, 564 entries so far–go Nathan!
This is a tad off topic, but this has been really irking me and I wanted to see if anyone knows the answer:
Word count issue: when my MS word file of my ms is open, it gives the word count as 89,000 words. If the file is closed, however, and I right-click and look at the properties of the clsoed file–it gives the word count as only 76,000. What’s up with that disparity? Which is correct? Should I take the average? Anyone else encounter this?
Without trusting the word count in the program, what’s a good way to estimate using number of pages if you’re going with standard 12 pt Courier font, 1″ margins, double-spaced?
Thanks for any input.
Sam it did!
Wasn’t just you.
(Tweezing eyebrows as I type this)
YOU’RE calling US awesome??????
I’m speechless.
If anyone still wants to critique entries, would you critique mine please? I think it’s number 91, but I’m not sure. It’s called Sincerely, Me, by Emily Rose. Thanks! 🙂
So true Heidi. And he wonders why he is baraded with queries and questioning emails (people want to pretend he’s actually a potential agent for a little while longer).
If anyone is interested in critiquing my first page, I have posted a revised version on my new blog.
Chris
https://cnoel70.blogspot.com/
Ack! someone is critiquing them? Where? Where? I wanna see!! (And yes, include me)
um, yeah… there are, like, over 600 entries…
I can’t get the page to load past yesterday around 11 am.
Next time, let’s do something much shorter. Like “Best use of a semicolon.”
Ding, ding, ding! Over 600 comments below! Even subtracting the comments that aren’t entries, I’m guessing there will be around 625 entries by 5 PM.
Oh hi, I just decided to post critiques on my blog too (postponing hours worth of homework). I’m just going to go down this comment thread and find the people who agreed to be critted and go by that.
https://thepaperairplane.webs.com/blog.htm
Ok. I’m diving in now. Wish me luck, but not as much luck as Senor Bransford there.
I’d love a crit of mine, Jordyn. 🙂 #80, “These Humans All Suck.” Thanks for helping us out!
Ditto for me. I’m #8, Love Undelivered.
Thanks Jordyn!
If anyone wants to critique mine, have at ‘er. It’s at https://lmashton.com/2008/01/basement_of_the_universe_the_f.html
with thanks in advance. 🙂
Uh, *cough* the URL didn’t show up correctly, and I can’t edit the post, so here’s a second try at that…
https://lmashton.com/2008/01/basement_of_the_universe_the_f.html
Thanks. 🙂
Um, really sorry about that. Apparently, the link is too long and rejects the end of it. I’d love it if I could delete at least the middle comment. *sigh*
If anyone wants to critique my first 500 words, please feel free. It’s
The Basement of the Universe.
jordyn, i’ll take one – #17, this brief freedom. thanks!
and suddenly, i’m really paranoid that i misspelled ‘brief’ on the contest entry. i just typed breif. uh oh.
Laurie, do you see a little gray blob on the left-hand bottom of your post? It’s actually a garbage can and if you click on it, you should be able to delete the bad post.
Bonnie, I don’t have that. It’s probably because I’m not a blogger.com person and therefore don’t get the cool kids toys. 🙂
I’m willing to look at entries and critique them. I personally love feedback and I’m always looking for more, and I’d like to give back to the writing community that’s helped me so much. Having said that, I’m on dial-up, so if you want your entry critiqued it would be much easier for me if you emailed me your entry. I’m Kami–kamila at easystreet dot net. If you’d like a public lashing, er, I mean, public critique let me know and I’ll post my comments on my blog, https://kzmillers.blogspot.com
If you’d like your entry in whole or part included in the post I can do that (please specify what I can and can’t do in your email.) Advantage–others may read your entry and agree/disagree with my opinion, possibly generating more comments. Disadvantage–um, I’m sure there are folks who don’t want their entry posted in even more places, I guess.
I hope I don’t live to regret this. 😛
About the idea stealing thing–if someone can steal your whole idea from reading the first page, that’s either some impressive black magic telepathy going on (in which case, why not steal ideas from Jay Lake?) or there’s way too much of the plot revealed in that first page. Don’t worry. Your deathless prose is fairly safe from theft in this contest. Besides, there’s now a public record of this being your work, and we’ll back you up on it!
I’d appreciate any comments on my opening.
I’d like to get better. (Sheesh. . . sounds like I’m suffering from mental problems. But then, I call myself a writer and I guess that goes with the territory).
anon 1:06,
You can estimate word count at 250 words a page.
Feel free to critique my entry. I don’t know the number. It starts with “The universe vomited.” and I’ll post it on my blog.
Good Luck, Everyone! Lots of great entries.
TG
I have no idea what number entry mine was, but have posted it at my blog, if anyone wants to critique it.
https://astonwest.blogspot.com