final assignment

I've got my final assignment short story back from Massey - for the Grad dip in English I'm doing. And I got an A. A real, honest to goodness, full A. So I can write literary stories. Which doesn't mean I want to, but it's nice to know I can.

Floating POV

POV issues are a real sticky problem for me at present. Then I read this terrific post about 'floating POV' which made so much sense.
 http://ffnp.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-not-just-point-of-view.html

Omniscient 3rd person POV sneaks into my work all the time, particularly in "Hathe", the book I'm currently editing. And while on the one hand, I have  a distinct mistrust of writing ideologies that set limits on the techniques an author can use - the proverbial insistence on using deep 3rd person that pervades present day genre fiction, in order to make the story a page turner - this idea of a 'floating POV' really made sense to me. Basically it seems to be what happens when the newbie author doesn't really know who is telling the story at any given point in time. And not knowing what you're doing or why you are doing it is shoddy storytelling in anyone's book.

RWNZ Strictly Single contest

I've found out that I've finalled in the RWNZ 2010 Strictly Single contest. Very exciting  - and finalling has the most fantastic reward. For entry you have to send in the first 7500 words plus a synopsis of your book. I finalled for "In Hills of Gold",  a NZ Historical Romance. And the fantastic reward - the 6 final entries are forwarded to Emmanuelle Morgen from Judith Ehrlich Literary Management and Meredith Giordan from Berkley Publishing Group for final judging. How great is that! To get your work in front of a New York agent and a US editor from a major publishing group - wow.

Deep in Editing Country

I'm currently deep in editing country. It's a strange place - sometimes so tortuous and riven with hazards and darkly plunging gullies, you just about give up ( then you have to remember all the sayings about talent being 90% perseverance); other times, it's a skip in the park; and then there are the very rare and truly glorious moments when you re-read a section of your own writing and just fall in love with it. That's supposed to be a bad sign, I have been told. That those are the parts that ought to be cut, as you as author are too in love with the words to be able to judge whether or not they add to the story. But hey - authors are readers too. If I enjoy it, then won't a reader? And part of the judging part of editing is knowing what to leave in, as much as it is knowing what needs cut or re-written. That's my argument, anyway.