You’ve arrived at stop #19 of the The Writer Mama Two-Year Anniversary Blog Tour Giveaway! I’m honored to be a train stop on this virtual tour. A little background, Christina Katz — aka The Writer Mama — decided to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the book by eTraveling to a different blog every single day of March. So this spot here is part 19 (Darn! I missed my favorite number by one). To read the other parts of the blog tour, find the shortcuts at The Writer Mama Riffs blog.

And there’s more! You have a chance to win a copy of Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids! Remember to check at the end of this post for the 411 on how to win a signed copy of Writer Mama! I’ll announce the winner tomorrow.

I never wanted to own my business. I never considered becoming a writer until it happened. After all, you hear so many folks saying they want to write. I never thought I had any talent or anything special. My writer mama story started with the arrival of my second child. I enrolled in New York University’s online program in Internet Technologies with plans to go for a career in web design.

Got the certificate, did a few web design projects and hated it. No eye for design. No patience for fixing complicated bugs that worked right in one browser and not the next. No enjoyment.

Before all this, I had subscribed to email newsletters on web design. After discovering my dislike of doing the design work, I continued to stay on top of web design. The field of making web sites still fascinated me. One of the newsletters would give away a full-blown copy of Photoshop (!!!) if it published your article. That sparked my writing career. I wrote a few more articles for the same publication, which led to my first paid gig.

Babies. Talent. Segue to Christina’s entry. Thank you for stopping by. Come again, y’all!

Post #19: Writing is Rewriting

There is no such thing as talent. I’ve learned this from observing my own successes as well as my peers and my students. When Anne Lamott wrote the popular writing book, Bird by Bird, I bet writers around the globe breathed a collective sigh of relief. Surely if Anne Lamott writes “shitty first drafts” then there is hope for all of us, right?

And that is why you might nail a chapter in your book on the first try… or the tenth. Or you might be on the verge of wanting to pull your tongue out before the darn introduction comes together. You might simply be unhappy with the guts of a chapter or two because they don’t quite accomplish what you are trying to say. Or maybe you feel that your book draft is somehow incomplete but you’re not quite sure how.

When a piece of writing works, I always think back to something one of my students said once: it’s like a song. Every single word is just right. There’s a harmony in the words that just works. And that’s a great feeling, generally brought about by many rewrites rather than talent.

In book writing, we are striving for that same feeling of completion, of wholeness, of near perfection that is like a song. But saying this and getting there are two different things entirely. And each of us has to decide to get there and then do it however we can. Let’s take a look at the three rewriting phases that typically follow the book drafting process:

Rewrite your brains out: Until you turn in that first full draft, you can rewrite your book as much as you want, whenever and wherever you want. If the book hasn’t been approved as an entirety, by all means, keep rewriting to make it as good as it can get. But be careful not to become so obsessed with rewriting that you don’t make it through your full first draft. Remember Anne Lamott and just bang that “shitty first draft” out.

Approved with suggested rewrites, additions or cuts: Once your editor has gone over the full draft of your book, she will likely request changes ranging anywhere from simple to major. Suffice it to say that most editors would rather make small changes at this stage rather than major changes, but it’s not unusual for an editor to ask for an additional chapter or two, the restructuring of a certain section, or even a cutting of a chapter or two. Trust your editor. She very likely knows what she’s talking about and has the reader in mind.

The copyediting stage: Perhaps the most loathed and appreciated person you will ever encounter is your copy editor. You may initially dislike her with some gusto in the short run and then appreciate her a lot more in retrospect. Luckily for writers, a thoughtful copy editor knows that a little bit of appreciation for all of your hard work can go a long way even as she nitpicks your grammar to death. And even an ungenerous soul with an eye for excellent usage can bump your book to publication-quality from wherever it was. I say, go ahead and let a copyeditor feel superior (if that’s how you think she feels—she might, then again, she might not). And, since you will likely never have to encounter your copy editor face-to-face, since they are typically hired out as freelancers, you don’t ever have to worry that you will have the opportunity to tell them what you really think of them after you’ve just reviewed an especially “bloody” red-line of your hard-wrought efforts.

The galley stage: You’d think after all of these editorial reviews your book would be on the brink of divinity, right? Sadly, no. The layout folks likely accidentally deleted a few sentences here or there. And if there are tables or graphs, you’d better finger-read every word and make sure all your logic is parallel or whatever it’s supposed to be. There are plenty of typos in your book and this is your last chance, before publication, to find them. Sticky notes come in handy at this stage. You may as well purchase them in bulk, just in case.

Today’s Book Drawing: To enter to win a signed, numbered copy of Writer Mama, answer the following question in this blog’s comments:

Describe your typical rewriting process. Do you usually nail it on the first try or do you have to progress through multiple rewrites?

Thanks for participating! Only US residents, or folks with a US mailing address can participate in the drawing. Please only enter once per day.

Where will the drawing be tomorrow? Visit http://thewritermama.wordpress.com/ to continue reading the rest of the Writer Mama story throughout March 2009!

We have a lot of prizes to award today, so I’ll hold off our guest entry for tomorrow so the prizes don’t steal his spotlight!

From the Google Me! entry, we have Airport Mania: 2 copies (1 Mac and 1 PC) and one copy of Andy King’s upcoming Website Optimization.

Winners: Joanna Young wins a copy of Airport Mania and Yvonne Russell wins a copy of Website Optimization. We had no Mac comments in that entry, so the Mac copy remains unawarded.

Telling the Hard Truths of the Writing Life entry prizes include a book by Tara Calishain and AWAI’s Accelerated Six Figure Copywriting program.

Winners: Karen Putz (yes, you read that right!) wins a book by Tara Calishain and John Hewitt wins AWAI’s Accelerated Six Figure Copywriting program!

Prizes for The Fear that Holds Creative Writers Back entry are one custom banner for a blog or web site created to the winner’s specs and preferences, valued at $200. Men with Pens ask for a 7 to 10 day turnaround from the point that the winner transmits her/his specs, and two copies of Ricochet Infinity.

Winners: John Hoff and Ceci win Ricochet Infinity. Karen Putz (Again!!! This is your lucky day, girl!) wins the the custom banner!

Congratulations, everyone! Keep playing.

Please remember you can get more entries telling others about the prizes by linking back here — it won’t lessen your chances of winning — it’ll increase them. More copies of Website Optimization are up for the taking at CSS Collection.

We have our first winners in this whole 8th blog birthday shebang in our first drawing for two copies of Magic Farm. The winners posted comments in 7 Things You Must Know Before Moving Your Blog. Random.org did the hard work in drawing the numbers.

eDrum roll, please…

<eDrum rolls>

Yuwanda Black

Ecommerce Newsletter

Congrats, you two! I will send you an email with the details.

Wow. I’m eight. Old enough to be …

• In second grade.
• 56-years old in dog years.
• An octagon.
• A sphenic number.
• 1000 in binary code.
• The atomic number of oxygen.
• The second magic number in physics.
• “Strength” in a tarot card.
• Lucky in Asian culture.
• An octave.
• A byte (eight bits make a byte).
• The number furlongs in a mile (eight furlongs = one mile).
• Number of kids in Eight Is Enough.
• The number of men out.
• The number of people in The Brady Bunch family.
• The time required for rodeo cowboys to stay on a bull to receive scores. 8 Seconds. Meryl grew up in Fort Worth — like I am going to skip a rodeo fact.

The guest bloggers have submitted some great stuff. Their entries will start appearing tomorrow.

$5000 jump out of a plane challenge. If we had raised $5000 by today, Meryl would’ve had to jump out of a plane. Fell short by one c-note ($100)! I did a lousy job telling the world about my birthday. Typically, Meryl would say it was close enough and just do it. But seriously, this girl is scared of jumping out of a plane.

Not gonna be sad I couldn’t add a little excitement to my birthday celebration. It’s supposed to be a happy occasion.

So get ready to win some prizes! Oh, if you still want to contribute a guest post — it’s not too late. Just let me know. Meryl said I could use her contact form as I don’t have my own physical inbox.

What a week to be busy serving clients! I’ve hardly social networked this week, so it’s a good thing Twitter hasn’t been feeling well.

Oh man… $100 from $5,000. No more prizes! Hurry up, June 1!

Anything you do from now through most of June counts toward entries for the prizes. So you don’t have to wait until June 1 to do anything. (Initial birthday bash entry)

Reader entries

• 25 entries: Create a video mentioning meryl.net and post it on Youtube (send us the URL. Add 5 more if we can see the meryl.net mention for those of us who can’t hear.
• 10 entries: Follow me at Twitter at http://twitter.com/merylkevans
• 10 entries: Make a blog post about the birthday celebration, the prizes, and link to this page.
• 10 entries: Link to any May or June meryl.net blog entry.
• 10 entries: Subscribe and activate to our RSS feed by email.
  • Subscribe to both meryl’s notes blog and games
  • Subscribe only to meryl’s notes blog
  • Subscribe only to games
  • Subscribe to Bionic Ear Blog
  • Subscribe to meryl’s notes, the newsletter (not the same thing as the above)
• 5 entries: Twitter about meryl’s notes and link to this page (Need to comment a link to your twitter so we can verify it)

Post-specific Prizes and Rules

Some prizes will be given away on a specific day (the post will let you know). So check back often to get a chance to win these prizes. Since only those responding to the post receive an entry for these prizes, your chances for winning are higher than the rest. Plus, you can win more than one of these prizes. A person can only win one of the rest of the prizes.

These prizes are those with specific requirements that not everyone has. For example, software may only be available for Windows users and not Macs. I will put these up in a blog entry and anyone who comments within five days of the blog post (to be fair to those on vacation) will get an entry for the prize of the blog entry. Comments must be at least 30 words to ensure they’re valuable to readers.

Here are the prizes that will be up for specific posts (more prizes may be added… watch the blog for more prizes given away for commenting on a post).

• $800 DVD set from marketing extraordinaire Seth Godin.
• $450 basic WordPress customization package from Kim Beasley.
• Lifetime subscription for RadioTime.com RedButton software — TiVO for radio where you can pause and record live radio.
• One full copy of Orchidia PC game from Joyboost. See Meryl’s Orchidia review.
• One full copy of Spinword PC game from Joyboost.
• One full copy of Astraware Classic Collection, which includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire, and Astraware Board games. Astraware is one of Meryl’s favorite — if not the best — developer of handheld software.
• Ted Demopoulos: One copy of Secrets of a Successful Blogging System digital audiobook with What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting (in which Meryl appears).
• Two full copies of Magic Farm Game PC games from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93. One copy for a reader and one copy for a guest blogger. My Magic Farm review.
• One Alawar PC game package including full copies of Virtual Farm, Curse of Montezuma, and Alex Gordon.
• Full copy of First Class Flurry PC game from Chanon Sajjamanochai of Viquagames. Meryl’s First Class Fury review.
• Full copy of Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper PC game from Mark Kanter of Bang Out Games. Meryl’s Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper review.
• Big Kahuna Reef 2: 2 copies (1 Mac and 1 PC)
• Ricochet Infinity: 1 copies (PC)
• Airport Mania: 2 copies (1 Mac and 1 PC)

You can still be a guest blogger and earn 25 entries. Just contact me.

As always, if you keep a list of what you do to qualify for entries and send it to me before the drawings for the final prizes — it’d be much appreciated.

• Fifteen places you must put your keyword phrase and why [Link: Copywriting Maven]
• Powerful writing in 30 words or less e-book
• Why twitter matters
• Writer’s Digest Annual Best 101 Web Sites for Writers
• AngryJournalist: What not to do.
• The Street-Smart Writer: Self-Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World: Book by Jenna Glatzer available as ebook free — no strings. Just sign up with Wowio (where you download the book).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Doodle 4 Google contest results for kids in grades K-12. The national winner is a middle schooler — wow. I didn’t know about the contest — I wish I had because I was the Arts in Education chair at a middle school and could’ve encouraged our kids to enter. [Link: My mom! Of all people... usually I'm giving her the links]
• Music video with only sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98. Remember the BSOD during a Bill Gates presentation? Classic! [Link: Zo'c]
• Junior High Sweethearts meet in math class 12 years later… complete with captions. OK, so there’s no audio. [Link: PopURLs]
• All Gaping Void cartoons in one long page.
• All my life for sale returns… Reed takes it over from Brian Thompson.

And of course, remember the celebration!

Wow! Meryl is overwhelmed at the generosity of donated prizes and guest blog posts in celebration of this blog’s 8th birthday on June 1, 2008. Thank you for helping me (the blog) give her a little break. If only she would take a vacation OUTSIDE of Texas. That’s another battle.

There’s still time to contribute a prize (Help us get Meryl to jump out of a plane! Keep reading.) or to an article. Here are the upcoming guest bloggers and prizes.

Guest Bloggers

• John Hewitt of poewar.com
• Janet Lee Johnson of janetleejohnson.com
• Peter Bowerman, the The-Well Fed Writer author
• Yuwanda Black of InkwellEditorial.com
• Paige Eissinger, one of 2smartchix.com
• James Chartrand, one of the menwithpens.ca
• Bob Younce, The Writing Journey
• Jamie Grove, How Not to Write
• Anne Wayman, The Golden Pencil
• Yvonne Russell, Grow Your Writing Business
• Jon Phillips of Spyre Studio and Freelance Folder
• Joanna Young of Confident Writing

Prizes – Almost $6000 as of June 25

If we get We received $5000 worth of prizes by June 1 (birthday), so Meryl has to jump out of a plane at Skydive Dallas. This is no easy task for Meryl as she’s afraid of doing such a thing (she’d do the tandem jump complete with a video). Looking at a later June date.

She did it!

Now $5000 sounds impossible, but we have two sponsors that are coming who should help things along.

Prizes added June 26, 2008

It’s never too late to add a prize… well, maybe 2009 would be ridiculous.

• Softpowerhouse donates three copies of PowerReuse, a document assembly software designed for boosting productivity for professionals.

Prizes added June 16, 2008

• Five copies of Andy King’s Website Optimization.

Prizes added June 4, 2008

• Four copies of Business Daffynitions: Humor from the Workplace, one copy of Wit and Wisdom of a Regular Joe, and one copy of New Idiot-Proof Guide to Customer Loyalty from Joe Heuer, the Rock and Roll Guru.

Prizes added June 2, 2008

• Two full copies of Unicorn Castle Game PC games from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93. One copy for a reader and one copy for a guest blogger.

Prizes added May 29, 2008

• Custom blog design by Jon of Spyre Studios and Freelance Folder. Prize includes:
  • typical blog layout.
  • design mock-ups (usually two to four designs)
  • coding: css and xhtml valid
  • Provides the design files (PNG/PSD if needed)
  • Built on WordPress (the person would need his/her own domain name and hosting plan)
  • 30-day support + PDF ‘how your new WP theme works’
  • WP installation and plugin configuration
  • link in the portfolio section of spyrestudio.com
• Reflexive contributes a total of 10 copies of three games! Some are for Mac.
  • Big Kahuna Reef 2: 4 copies (2 Mac and 2 PC)
  • Ricochet Infinity: 2 copies (PC)
  • Airport Mania: 4 copies (2 Mac and 2 PC)

Prizes added May 23, 2008

• AWAI’s Nick Usborne’s Million Dollar Secrets for Online Copywriting
• How to Make a Living as an SEO Writer from Yuwanda Black
• Access to Teaching Sells for two months from Copyblogger Brian Clark
• 80 Photoshop Brush Packs from Jacob Cass
• Five ebooks on writing from Anne Wayman

Prizes added May 22, 2008

• $800 DVD set from marketing extraordinaire Seth Godin. The guy admits he skipped the books so he can get Meryl closer to jumping off a plane (yes, the plane is way up in the air, not on the ground).
• AWAI’s Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting
• $450 basic WordPress customization package from Kim Beasley.
• One $100 gift certificate to Amazon from Mark Wegner of The Diamond Games — the guy responsible for me starting the separate games section.
• Lifetime subscription for RadioTime.com RedButton software — TiVO for radio where you can pause and record live radio.
• One full copy of Orchidia PC game from Joyboost. See Meryl’s Orchidia review.
• One full copy of Spinword PC game from Joyboost.
• One full copy of Astraware Classic Collection, which includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire, and Astraware Board games. Astraware is one of Meryl’s favorite — if not the best — developer of handheld software.

Original Prizes

• One $80 gift certificate to Amazon from Meryl ($10 for every year)
• Full version of Microsoft Expression Studio 2.
• Tara Calishain, two books
• Peter Shankman: signed copy of his book, Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work–And Why Your Company Needs Them
• Lou Rosenfeld: Rosenfeld Media‘s Luke Wroblewski’s Web Form Design.
• Lou Rosenfeld: Rosenfeld Media‘s Indi Young’s Mental Models.
• Ted Demopoulos: Two copies of Secrets of a Successful Blogging System digital audiobook with What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting (in which Meryl appears).
• Problogger Darren Rowse provides a copy of his book, Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.
• Men with Pens: one custom banner for a blog or website created to the winner’s specs and preferences, valued at $200. They ask for a 7 to 10 day turnaround from the point that the winner transmits her/his specs.
• Two full copies of Magic Farm Game PC games from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93. One copy for a reader and one copy for a guest blogger. My Magic Farm review.
• One Alawar PC game package including full copies of Virtual Farm, Curse of Montezuma, and Alex Gordon.
• Full copy of First Class Flurry PC game from Chanon Sajjamanochai of Viquagames. Meryl’s First Class Fury review.
• Full copy of Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper PC game from Mark Kanter of Bang Out Games. Meryl’s Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper review.
• Microsoft Expression Software (more details coming soon).

How You Can Win

The contest has three (ouch, not “two” as I put in the first entry — Boy, I was not off to a good start with my notes about this. I also messed up the email I sent to friends and colleagues about this.) parts: Readers, prize sponsors, and authors.

1. Readers get entries for a chance to win prizes by simply leaving valuable comments, linking to this blog and its sponsors from their own blog, and telling others about it by Stumbling, Digging, and all that (keep track of what you do so you can get an entry for each one!).
2. Readers part 2: Some prizes will be available only to those who comment. These prizes are those with specific requirements that not everyone has. For example, software may only be available for Windows users and not Macs. I will put these up in a blog entry and anyone who comments within five days of the blog post (to be fair to those on vacation) will get an entry for the prize of the blog entry. These are the ones where you can win more than one! Comments must be at least 30 words to ensure they’re valuable to readers.
3. Prize sponsors: Automatically get 10 entries for donating a prize and links to their sites. Readers gain entries for linking to sponsors, which means more linkage!
4. Authors get entries into author-only prizes for their contributions. Articles can cover any of the following:
   1. Writing
   2. Freelancing
   3. Marketing
   4. Web site design, usability, etc.
   5. Technology

Participation rules coming soon. Meryl needs to take care of her clients. Here are the entry guidelines. If you want to contribute a prize or an article, we’d appreciate hearing from you by June 1.

Here are the guidelines for articles — and yes, it’s OK to have a longer article, but we’re trying to respect your time.

Guest Blogging Guidelines

* 400-800 words
* Self-promotion / bio goes in last paragraph (About the Author).
* Material must be original (it’s OK to re-use material with modifications) and first published on this site. 30 days after publication, you can re-use the article anywhere you please.
* I reserve the right to edit or reject the article for any reason (rare as most of you are great writers.)
* Due June 1 (willing to negotiate if needed).

The list will be updated as more offers come in. Thank you to everyone who stepped up.

Hey, guys. I’m gonna be eight on June 1! Seriously. I’m too embarrassed to show you what Meryl posted in her first entry on June 1, 2000. But she and I have grown a lot since the early days of blogging.

So I tell Meryl that she oughta take a vacation from blogging as a way to celebrate. But she says she can’t do that — the blog needs to stay regularly updated as she won’t take me for granted.

Then an idea comes to me. A contest! Prizes! Well, maybe I cheated a little as her friend John over a PoeWar is doing this. Here’s the deal:

• Prize donations: In exchange, you’ll get a link with a short write up of the link. Also, readers will be encouraged to link to sponsors in exchange for entries.
• Guest bloggers: Anyone who writes a guest blog entry will be entered into a contest for guest bloggers only.

Once we get these figured out, we’ll flesh out the details. In summary, the contest has two parts: Readers, prize sponsors, and authors.

1. Readers get entries for a chance to win prizes by simply leaving valuable comments and linking to this blog and its sponsors from their own blog.
2. Prize sponsors: Automatically get 10 entries for donating a prize and links to their sites. Readers gain entries for linking to sponsors, which means more linkage!
3. Authors get entries into author-only prizes for their contributions. Articles can cover any of the following:
   1. Writing
   2. Freelancing
   3. Marketing
   4. Web site design, usability, etc.
   5. Technology

Do two or three to increase your chances of winning. Sound cool? Spread the word so you get a chance to win cool prizes.