Tag Archives: work in progress

250 Word Critique Blog Hop – This is what we’re gonna do.

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Jennifer M Eaton | 14 comments

Have you ever just had “one of those weeks”?

Yeah, well, I’m there. I had all these plans, but they went NO WHERE. I need three of me, I swear.

Anyway… There were enough people interested last week to start up a Critique Blog Hop. Every day I sat down to contact everyone to start this week, but, well, you know how life gets in the way. Sorry about that.

I even had all the rules typed out, but they are stuck in a “cloud” that is spiraling forever and not opening when I click on it, so I can’t post them now all pretty like.

So, for next Sunday, if you want to join up, comment below and leave your blog address in your comment. I will paste them all together in a blog hop list that everyone can paste into their own posts if they like.

Next Sunday, be prepared to post your first 250-ish words from your current work in progress on your blog (250 and until the end of that sentence)

We will all hop around and critique. I’ll post a rules page (all about being nice and stuff) as soon as I can get into that stupid cloud.

Oh! I’ll also create a button that you can place in your widgets or somewhere easy to find so we can click on it and easily find your post if we don’t get to you on Sunday and you post something else.

Sound good?

Oh, also, if you can think of a catchy name for the blog hop, let me know. If no one can come up with something by Sunday afternoon, I’ll make up a button that says “Sunday Snippets Critique Blog Hop” but I’m totally open if someone can come up with something catchy-er.

Join up and let’s get critiquing!

New short story and poetry critique blogs! (morgenbailey.wordpress.com)

Work in Progress Challenge. Yup, I’m actually gonna do this one. Why?

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Jennifer M Eaton | 16 comments

Oh, goodie. I’ve been tagged. – If you didn’t catch that – there was an intentional little snark there. Part of me grins with glee when people think of me. Honestly, I usually thank the person, and move on. [She hangs her head in shame] because there are just not enough hours is a day to do EVERYTHING I need to do. Nor are there enough days in a week to post all the stuff that bubbles out of my brain.

But this one caught my attention. This particular tag, I believe, adds value for my readers, and also for myself.

Here’s why:

Recently I started doing interviews in preparation for the Blog Tour for the release of the “Make Believe” Anthology. (by the way –shameless self-promotion warning—I’m doing interviews now if anyone would like a guest-post – [Wink] 🙂 )

Anyway… I found myself looking at some of the questions and thinking. “Duh… I have no idea” and moving on to something simpler. The problem is, when you have five interviews in front of you, and dinner burning in the kitchen, and laundry piling up, and a kid crying with a skinned knee (you get the point) you just want to finish FAST and not think too hard. So I didn’t answer the hard- hitting questions that more accomplished authors tackle all the time.

What the Work in Progress Challenge is… is a list of questions very similar to many that I came across during the interviews. Some of them are hard. Some questions like this I skipped over because I was embarrassed of the answer, and I was afraid to admit it. Here, (among my 600 or so best friends) I will force myself to answer them honestly.

For one thing—so when you guys get to that point, you don’t feel alone and stupid. Secondly, so you can think about this for your own works, because you might have to answer these questions yourself someday.

I’m going to post this “introduction” now, and then go back and answer the questions. This is mostly a prod to myself to make sure I don’t skip any because “I don’t wanna” answer them. This is me… putting it out there and forcing myself to do it.

Hopefully, going through this exercise will help me be better prepared for the harder questions coming up this tour, and for the next round of interviews when my novel hits the world.

Stay tuned tomorrow. 🙂

16 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

Tagged Answer, Ask an Expert, author interview, blog tour, Candidate, challenge, Humor, Interview, Question, work in progress

Flash Fiction Friday on Wednesday – He had to Run

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Jennifer M Eaton | 6 comments

This is the character study I did for my character “David” in my new WIP, Fire in the Woods. This scene will not be in the novel, but this is how he comes into my MC’s life.

David jumped and landed on the soft turf. A trail of desolation lay behind him: fallen trees, scorched soil, and burning branches. Sparks drifted over his head, silent among the roar of the growing flames.

His plane, burning and cracked in two, lay on its side. A total loss. A Failure. His failure— just like everything else he touched. It was a miracle that he survived.

Dual beams of light broke the darkness behind the trees. Red and blue lights swirled. A moaning high-pitched sound broke the night, echoing above the crackling flames.

David backed away from his aircraft, away from the lights, and the subsequent voices that came from the same direction. He’d be blamed for this. He knew it. He slipped into the trees, away from the warmth of the flames.

He had no choice. He had to run.