Last Sacrifice Contest

Want a signed copy of LAST SACRIFICE by Richelle Mead?

The final installment in the Vampire Academy series has been perched atop the bestsellers lists since its release on December 7th, and for good reason. It more than lives up to the expectations fans have come to expect from the award-winning series.

Thanks to Richelle Mead's generous signing policy, I not only have my own personal copy... I snagged one to giveaway to one lucky winner as well!

I'm not particularly big on contest rules, so there's only a few for entering mine -- (which runs through January 23rd):

1) Follow my blog. (Old. New. Writer. Reader. Retired Elvis Impersonator...all are welcome to join)

2) Leave me a comment in this post and share with me the name of your favorite book, movie or TV show with a supernatural element to it.  (There's no real reason for this, other than I'm  nosey & always looking for new paranormal material to check out. So, if you don't have one, I won't hold it against you.)

That's it!  That's all you gotta do. The winner will be announced on Monday, January 24th.

Please note: If you refer someone to the contest, make sure they know to mention your name in their comment/entry and I'll add an additional entry in your name for each referral. 

Good Luck!!!

Overwriting: A/K/A Exceptionally Prolific & Verbose Prose

Before I get to the actual point of my post, I want to take a second to Fan-Girl squee . . .Only 7 more days until Last Sacrifice (final chapter in the Vampire Academy series) is released.  Booyah!!  (edit: you'd think someone who was squeeing wouldn't type the wrong title)

Okay, I swear, it’s out of my system now.

Teeheeee!!

Okay, no really, I’m done.

*focus, Tracy, focus*

Overwriting.

That’s the number one complaint we hear from editors, agents, fellow writers & sometimes even ourselves. They say the fastest way to kill a great idea is to overwrite it.

What they don't do is tell us a surefire way to spot when we're doing it.

It’s not always about using an abundance of adverbs & adjectives, or spending too much time describing the scenery. Sometimes we try so hard to put a fresh new spin on things we create convoluted sentences that would sound much better if we simplified them.

I wish I had some steadfast rule to dole out on how to avoid going overboard, but I can be just as guilty as the next person. I’ve only found, for me, one tried and true method for detecting when my writing crosses the line into too much.

I read it out loud . . . and if I start sounding like a stand-in for the movie trailer voice-over guy, odds are good I've run into some serious overwriting. No lie.

In a world where Tracy tries to drum up too much drama, in a time fraught with good thoughts that fall short of reaching their potential, only one thing stands in her way. . . Over-Writing.