Wednesday, March 2, 2011

First Impressions & Not Being A Big Fat Chicken

You Can Handle Anything - 8.5 x 11 art print
by Kathy R. Jeffords of Think About Rainbows & The Dreamy Giraffe



So... I decided in January, that 2011 is the year Marisa stops being a big fat chicken. BA-GOCK!

It's not easy. I'm really great at being a big fat chicken. But when it comes to writing, putting on my big girl pants and stepping outside of my comfort zone is kinda necessary... especially as I'm trucking through the revisions of my book, knowing that querying agents is just around the corner (eek!).

So, when Dianne Salerni (author of WE HEAR THE DEAD) and Marcy Hatch announced that they'll be doing a series of First Impressions posts on their blogs - taking the first pages of volunteered manuscripts and critiquing them publicly - I thought, "Oh, how BRAVE are all those folks who send their first page!" Then I thought, for only a second, "Hmmmm... maybe I should be brave, too." And before I could think on that and lose my nerve, I copy & pasted my first page and emailed it to Dianne.

And as soon as I pressed send, I thought, "Nooooo! Abort abort! Give me my email back, I changed my mind!" BA-GOCK!

Well, my email wasn't aborted, and today is my First Impressions day, so if you're interested in seeing two critiques of the prologue for the YA (young adult) urban fantasy story I've been pecking away at for the last year and a half, head on over to Dianne's blog In High Spirits and Marcy's blog Maine Words, and take a look.

Am I glad I put on my big girl pants and sent my first page to Dianne and Marcy? YOU BET.

A huge THANK YOU to the both of them for taking the time to critique my first page!

xoxo,

14 comments:

SewSweetStitches said...

I'm imagining you in that scene of My Best Friends Wedding when she tries to go back to the office to delete the email before anyone sees it haha.
But anyway, congratulations, you're amazing!

TMCPhoto said...

good for you for hitting the send button before you started to thinking! I'm headed over to read those impressions.

KJ said...

YOU GO!

Off to read!

And just so you know, I'm with you, girl!

2011 is chicken-free!

Alyssa S. said...

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! See, I knew you had some big girl pants tucked away in that drawer :) When I first read your post title I thought it said something about you and The Big Red Chicken. Obviously Dora is haunting my thoughts. I'm so entirely proud of you for putting your stuff out there for public critique...even if I know some names have changed ;)

Marie said...

You are so talented Marisa! I'm sure you know this but you've gotta put your stuff out there to see what happens!! You go girl!!! Lol.

Tia Colleen said...

I'm on my way to read it right now.

I'm proud of you for not being a chicken :)

Dianne K. Salerni said...

I'm glad there's no such thing as an UNSEND button! I was happy to get your page and it was a really fun one to do for my very first one!

Tina Laurel Lee said...

Way to go, Brave Girl. Your book is truly beautiful!

Jonathon Arntson said...

L O V E the updated look!!

Miss you.

Meeling said...

Brave girl indeed...I don't know if I would have had the guts. I would kinda relate it to me cooking for Mario Batali or something! I'd be scared!!!

I read both their review and what you wrote..obviously...great job writing and I can't wait to read more! :-)

mshatch said...

marisa I'm glad you hit send, too and I really enjoyed reading your first page. I do love a good fairy tale.

beka said...

i'm heading off to read them. :)

good job! takes guts:)

Anita said...

Good For You!!! I'm also being brave this year...I think mommyhood makes people scared sometimes...like we discover all this stuff we should be scared about...not for me, anymore, though.

Janna said...

Congrats on not chickening out! I went over and read the links, and now I want to read your whole novel! I don't know a lot about writing, but I liked your first page just as you wrote it.

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