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Paris On Less

The Writerland contest continues through Wednesday at midnight, so keep commenting! I love hearing what everyone’s favorite books are. (And don’t forget to “follow” this blog over in the sidebar.) I mentioned in my previous post that one of the changes coming to Writerland in 2010 will be the introduction of some non-writing-related posts. The first of those will be a regular column (I’m not sure how regular yet) about my book, Paris On Less Than $10,000 a Day. POL is a memoir about the six years I spent modeling in Europe and Japan, from 1988-1994, and you can read an excerpt of it up there on the Paris On Less page.

So far, I have queried about eight agents, received requests for the full manuscript from all but two, and received nice rejection letters from all those who requested fulls. I’ve also hired a freelance editor to help me revise it and gotten her comments back TODAY. So now I have a lot of work to do and thought maybe you could help me. I’ll post stuff here and you can tell me what you find interesting and what you find boring, and maybe that will make the revision process less painful. Because right now I’d rather scrub the toilet, or maybe have a root canal, than revise my book another time. But this is what separates the girls from the women, right? Who gives up at this point and who holds her chin up and starts typing away? (Sigh, consider taking up drinking caffeine again. Decide against it. Sigh again.)

What about you? How do you keep working on that story/chapter/book when you are so sick of it you could cry?

5 comments to Paris On Less

  • Chocolate and Dr. Pepper are the only things that get me through. Although, I've vowed to stop drinking Dr. Pepper *she says as she takes a sip from her Dr. Pepper can*. I didn't say when, though! Bwahahaha…

    : )

  • "But this is what separates the girls from the women, right? Who gives up at this point and who holds her chin up and starts typing away? (Sigh, consider taking up drinking caffeine again. Decide against it. Sigh again.)

    What about you? How do you keep working on that story/chapter/book when you are so sick of it you could cry?"

    Oh man. I can't even tell you… 4 days ago I decided to drink caffeine again. (In tea vs. soda though.) And last night I had a (VERY) minor breakdown with some (teeny tiny) tears of frustration included.

    How do you keep working on it? You just "suck it up, cupcake," as my boyfriend likes to say. I wrote through the tears. And I wrote poo. But I wrote, and I'm glad I did.

  • Also, just read the excerpt! (Thought I had already, lol, whoops.) SO exciting to "be" backstage like that, thank you! I'm not into fashion at all, so I have to admit a lot of ignorance about this world, but you certainly make the show sound crazy and fascinating and fun. Also, I LOVE the line about the teddy bear mom and how you wonder if all the models miss theirs.

    I'm looking forward to reading whatever excerpts you post here. Hopefully I (we) can be of help!

    (Also also, I hope you plan to have pics to accompany your book/stories. 'Cause as silly/superficial as it is, people are going to want to see. I know I do!)

  • Kimberly – I eat a lot of dark chocolate!

    Kristan – Good for you for writing through the tears! It's hard to keep going, but I'm so glad you did. And thanks for the feedback on the excerpt. Believe it or not, I'm not into fashion at all either. I wear jeans and tennis shoes every day and often the same T-shirt (how embarrassing). But I will put pix up with my stories. I've already scanned a bunch.