Fear is no excuse! Update on Jocosa of the Earrings

It’s been close to six months since Jocosa of the Earrings took a vow to not cut her hair until her book was published.

Recap: at the Surrey International Writers Conference (SiWC) the God Agents asked to see the first 50 pages of the re-write of her manuscript. She took the vow. I said she was crazy and decided to document her demise into hairy sasqutchness (not that I don’t believe in her talent as a writer, it’s just that publishing is slow and hair grows fast).

It’s time for an update.

The manuscript is called The Blonde on the Inside and here’s the blurb: A Louisiana housewife strips her way to independence. Kaitlyn thought nothing could be worse than her husband leaving her for a blonde call girl--But she was wrong. So what were the parameters I asked her? Can you trim the ends? Or shall no sharp object come in contact with your hair?

Here was her answer:

I've actually thought about this a lot.

If I went with the no sharp object until publication--I'm basically saying I'm ready to murder my hair. And no self-respecting Broad--who is on her way to being a NYTimes bestseller-- would ever do that. So there might be a necessary snip of dead ends from time to time to keep things healthy-but no measurable inches. I'm going to reactivate my bangs--other than that the length grows on.

Here’s a reminder of what her hair looked like in October.

Here are a couple of pics from the end of January when I was in NY. The second one reminds us of why she is called Jocosa of the Earrings.

Here’s an update on her progress of re-writing the first 50 pages and submitting them to Donald Maass the God of Agents:

Was I jazzed or what when the God of Agents requested my first 50 pages--following a rewrite of course. Rewrite? No problem. I'd already finished 5 drafts--one more, no biggie. Plus the amazing workshops & presenters at the Surrey International Writers Conference had my creativity revved. On the plane back to the States, I was jotting down all sorts of ideas. So once I handled the laundry, cleaned the house and sifted through my notes I sat down to reread my last draft.

The slashing and cutting began immediately and was followed by the insertion of sharper dialogue and the identification of better chapter openings and closings. Marvelous. Now all I had to do was begin. Again, no problem. The God of Agents had clued me in on what to do with the first chapter. Did it. Done. Brilliant. Chapter Two. (Beat) Chapter Two. (Beat) Chapter Two. Yikes! Nothing. Nada. Brain Fart. Just the idea of honing those first 50 pages immobilized my fingers and squashed my creative juices like a waterlogged elephant. Fortunately fear is no excuse. Words can continue to color the page even when you're in a state of fear. But I needed a jolt of inspiration. So, where did I turn? The God of Agent's Angel, of course, Lisa Rector. I sat in on two of her workshops at SiWC. Marvelous. One of her revision suggestions was to grab chapters at random. Then ask yourself does the opening grab you? How about the end? Can you lift a line out of the middle and discover tension? And so it began. I started jumping around following threads of conflict and plot arcs and polished up the last 2/3 of my manuscript....

What happened next? A catharsis, a rain storm, and taking literary stalking to a whole new level – next blog post.

This video shows that we're not the only ones who think The Donald is a God for writers, and his books Writing the Breakout Novel and The Fire in Fiction are must reads.