Sorry - I know this isn't a fiction piece; just a question! I started my Martje story in the fall of 2011, and have written over 700 handwritten pages so far! The rough draft of Book One is posted here, and it's going to get serious re-writes before I even glance at publishers' addresses. In the past two years, I've lived and worked (sometimes even found housing for free!) to make my storytelling my main focus, and I want to continue this lifestyle with a potential writer's residency. I'm applying to several, and they are asking for a chapter sample, but I don't know which is best. Are there any scenes or particular chapters that jump out at you? - or that have stuck in your memory? That's my question, my dear friends. :)
...I also have to write a synopsis, 1-2 pages, and everything I come up with is seeming disastrous to me. If anyone has any suggestions for that as well (basically answering the question, "What is 'Martje' about?") - even one sentence - that would be so helpful!
In gratitude,
Sarah
Comments
700, no revisions
...or crossing out or anything... I am just counting everything altogether :) And maybe it's college rule? I'm actually not sure.
Thanks for your reply, Megan! And I know you read this story at sort of a young age, but I always, ALWAYS appreciated your comments, even if you felt like you couldn't grasp the full meaning of things. That's okay... I didn't feel like everything had to be understood to get the feel of the story. The medicine part was Olaf's suicide attempt. :/ I myself didn't really know what should've been in the bottle, so I didn't specify. I just alluded.
I used the beginning of the story and the elbows off the table scene, and a couple others.... we'll see how it does!
Thanks again!!
Without looking back and
Without looking back and reading, I would say that I most remember the first sentence with Martje and those eyes and something about the mulberry bush. Also the scene Elbows off the table! Also drawing the happy family, and that medicine the boy that starts with an O drank.
I really can't say which one was the best chapter without reading them. Also, since I am young, I do admit that some times I did not quite catch what it was about - never got the medicine part. So you basically can say that I have struggled to understand fully your story, and catch the intensity and seriousness of situations. But basically what you had written as summary on your nanowrimo is a good summary of what Martje is about. If I were older, I could probably give you a summary, but not now. Especially since we only have part one and I have not read it for awhile.
When you say seven hundred pages, do you mean seven hundred no revisions, no crossing out and starting over again on the next page...you know, when I write in my notebook I usually have three drafts of each essay before typing it out, and lots of crossing outs....so what do you mean? Also how big is the notebook - college rule?
"It is not the length of life, but the depth of life." Ralph Waldo Emerson