Let's Go Pitch Wars!

Editing, while undeniably critical, is enough to drive me insane.

Large scale problems, like pacing, or voice, or plot is totally do-able. And despite the fact that I’ll still catch spelling and grammar mistakes on my 999th read through, I don’t mind that. But I tripped over this last-minute editing checklist, and it’s been a tremendous help for pointing out tendencies in my writing.

However, the last two weeks of trolling through my work for overused words, sucked BALLS. I’m no longer sure just is spelled J-U-S-T, and the word 'was' can go play in traffic. All in all though, I think my manuscript is the best it’s ever been.

I should bloody-well hope so, because this morning I submitted the first chapter to Pitch Wars! Query Shark and Reddit’s r/PubTips have helped me hone my query into the least shite version. (If I manage to snag a mentor, I’m really hoping they can help steer me in the right direction on that front.) And Pitch War’s website pointed me at the easiest way to write a 1-page synopsis, with which I turned out a not-terrible submission. Now the waiting begins, and while I’m anxious, the excitement of preparing the submission documents has been keeping me up at night.

Now I get to reward myself with Jim Butcher’s latest installment of the Dresden Files (I went to Chapters a day early though), and then I plan to distract myself with my latest WIP, the Ninety-One Deaths of Arikeall; writing about a demon/summoner pest control business on a spaceship is exactly the kind of ridiculous nonsense ordered by D.R. Romero (that’s me, by the by, though I am neither a medical doctor, nor the other kind).

Best of luck to everyone submitting to Pitch Wars; I’m already looking forward to browsing the agent showcase in February!