Posted by Aeryn Traxx

2009 was not a banner year for me by any stretch of the imagination. There were a few high points but ten times as many lows. With 2010 only a few hours away I am looking back and find the words of a friend echoing in my ears. “You are letting yourself be overwhelmed by the big picture. Take smaller bites and you’ll do just fine.” She was right. In looking back on the disaster that was my life in 2009 I did let things overwhelm me on far too many occasions. I am embarrassed to say this applied most succinctly to my writing. Instead of focusing on one piece, a chapter at a time I got too overwhelmed with the big picture. Instead of reaching out for help I let a little speed bump keep me from finishing a story. I let a beta’s remark about a chapter of a story derail the entire story. In trying to see my writing career for the Imax screen that it is I lost my way, got overwhelmed and shut down completely. I have a novel waiting to be edited. I have a short story that needs to be pimped to e-pubs and I have over 400 works in progress that need to be finished but for the life of me I can’t seem to get a handle on things. I have two conventions I want to go to in 2010 which will require a lot of preplanning, a divorce, a 16 year old daughter going thru some trauma and an evil day job. I have a lot going on but I know others who have even more on their plates so I suppose I shouldn’t whine. I need to chop things up into smaller parcels so I don’t get overwhelmed. Everything in moderation is a phrase that certainly comes to mind. My writing is important and while I would love to devote every spare minute I have to it I would feel guilty about putting the family on hold while I did that. So my one objective for 2010 is going to be all about moderation. Taking smaller bites. There are lots of cliché’s that would apply but I’ll leave those for someone else to use. My friend was right. Looking at a small corner of the picture may be exactly what I need to do in order to stay focused both in life and my writing career.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Tess MacKall, moderator at Avoid Writer’s Hell (pssst…I also write). So what do I do as moderator? Mainly stare at the computer screen and scream at everyone to trim their posts. Nah…not really. What I do is pretty cool, actually.

I think of exercises for the group to participate in, trying my best to make them as interactive as possible. What kind of exercises? Anything from punctuation and grammar to word usage and point of view issues. We work on sexual tension, mood, characterization, etc. You name it, and we’ve touched on just about every facet of writing possible.

Recently, we started having contests. Our first one entailed flash fiction. Group members were given a prompt and wrote a five-hundred-word story. Our winner was Carol Percer. Nita Wick took second place, and Blake Devereaux rounded it out with third. Many thanks to those who worked so very hard on their stories.

Right now we are accepting five-hundred-word excerpts for editing. Michelle Ellis, Editor Extraordinaire, will receive excerpts from me with no name listed. She’ll edit the members “blind”.  Catch the double entendre there? She won’t know who the members are and at the same time will catch every error she can find. This exercise is designed to give authors the feel for what an agent might think when they read your work. She’ll give feedback that will be genuine, but firm—no holds barred.

This coming weekend a new contest will be begin. Best First Page. We’ll be looking for first line hooks as well as usual editing issues, and whether that first page can hold a reader’s interest. Prizes will be awarded.

In addition to all the exercises and contests, daily discussions take place on everything from publishers and editors to agents and cover art. The last two days have explored our author’s feelings on forced seduction in romance. And that discussion branched out into injecting realism in our stories. If there is a publishing issue out there, we’ve got the hot button covered.

So what is our mission? Regardless of what you write, erotic or non-erotic. Suspense or paranormal. Contemporary or historical. Psychological or legal thrillers. Whether you are bound for print or prefer the world of e publishing, we’re here to help. And what do we expect in return? To see you BLOW ‘EM OUT OF THE WATER!

Many thanks to Faith for allowing me to be a part of such a wonderful group. And thanks to my bud, fellow author and AWH Puppy, Lex Valentine, for helping us out with this brand new blog. Lex is a damn fine writer and you can find her work at Pink Petal Books.

http://pinkpetalbooks.com

And finally, thanks to all the AWH Puppies for making the learning experience fun!

Come join us. Http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Avoid_Writer’s_Hell