Writing Exercise 5

So this one isn't from the book (Making a Scene), but I had so much fun I thought I should include it anyway. I got this from a Goodreads group, which had a writing contest. You had to write a short story or poem about the line: Love like there's no tomorrow. Live like there's forever. I thought I'd give it a little twist. ;-) Let me know what you think!



No one really knows how much time they have. It could be years or moments and I never really cared. Life was life. I spent most of my time drifting aimlessly, like a bee buzzing from flower to flower just following his nose. Whatever I wanted to do I did. Any carefree, just for fun, kind of action I was all over it. Anything that caught my fancy could keep me busy for hours. Boredom was just not allowed.

You wouldn't think a dead dog could change your life, but for me it did. I found it on the side of the road off in a ditch and half covered by the tall, dry grass, but the scent touched the air and told me where it was. I was just watching it wondering what happened when I saw her. Dark, almost black skin, bright eyes and slender legs. She was beautiful, a fresh breath of heaven.

I could tell from her size that she was a bit older than me, but that didn't stop me from getting a closer look. Still when she noticed me I froze, my tongue got all wet and then all dry so that I was afraid it would fall out of my mouth and onto the ground. Her eyes practically hypnotized me. I felt a bit dizzy and stared at her until her eyes doubled and then tripled all around me. I pulled myself away and tried to think of someway to break the ice.

"Hiii...." My voice caught.

"Well, hello cutie." Was she speaking to me? It looked like she was, but I checked behind me just to make sure I was the only guy about. The coast was clear.

"Where have you been all my life?" She was suddenly very close and now I was sure my tongue was hanging out.

I shook my head and managed to utter, "Waiting for you."

Like an angel she floated away and I bounded after her. Suddenly life was more than life. It was alive. Every day I'd lived doing whatever I wanted seemed like a poor, dull existence. I wanted nothing more than to be with her forever. I'd seen other girls but none were like her and I didn't even know her name. Together we landed on a low hanging branch and deep down inside I knew her name didn't matter. She was the fly for me.

What's to come in ABNA

In case you are not familiar with Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award, here's how things work. There are five genres, General Fiction, Romance, Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror, Mystery/Thriller and Young Adult. Each genre is allowed a maximum of 10,000 entries which would be winnowed down until only one from each genre remains. Each round would judge a specific part of the manuscript, or be judged by different methods and the one who survives gets a publishing contract, which is really cool.

So I entered my book into the contest on January 14, 2013 and had to wait until February 13, 2013 to find out if I made the first cut. It was based on my pitch, which I agonized over not sure if I was even doing it right or if it was enough for me to make the cut. A cut that would be from 10,000 possible entries to 400. Yeah. Making 4% didn't seem that possible, but somehow I did. I can only assume it was a combination of luck, with a smidgen of talent, a sprinkling of a happy reviewer and a giant heaping of miracles from God.

Once I made it I had to wait until the next round which would focus on the first 5,000 words of my novel. Originally this was the round I felt the most confident in because I worked hard at making the first two chapters in my book shine, but as I started to look at the numbers (of the 400 only 100 would move on) I began to wonder if I would be one. Despite my fears March 12, 2013 rolled around and my name was on the list.

Which leads us to now. This round is based on my entire manuscript. The cut is from 100 to 5. Yep, just 5! Only 5 manuscripts will be moving on. As much as I would like to think my book is a good, solid story, I have a hard time thinking it would be in the top five of the contest. There are so many good writers out there and so many writers who can do things I would never be able to imagine in my wildest dreams for the simple reason that I am different from them, as they are from me.

If by some miracle I do make it to the top five, then I would need your help and the help of anyone you could find because the next round is judged by you! Everyone with an Amazon account can cast one vote for the story they want to win and the story with the most votes moves on to the next round and a publishing contract. Not that I would expect you to vote for me, I hope you would vote for whichever one you loved the most even if that is someone else's story. In fact, don't vote for me at all unless you really, truly want to. It would actually be a greater honor to know all the votes I received were sincere. Then I can rest in the knowledge that people honestly do like my story and aren't just voting for it because they feel like they have to.

This is a bit off topic, but have you ever had someone come up to you and tell you something really nice and at first you were happy, yet when you had time to think about it you weren't sure they really meant it? If you've had that experience, I'd love to hear about it!