Comments on: gut check

By: liz

liz — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:17:31 +0000

OKAY, let me try this again. i should have known we would think the EXACT SAME THING. i have been watching and hoping Carla would take the top honors. isn’t it funny how after all these years we still have the same thoughts…not so funny? just plain weird….

By: liz

liz — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:15:29 +0000

well i should have known we would think the EXACT SAME THING!

By: ~Linda~

~Linda~ — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 04:32:23 +0000

Sadly, I wont be at RT this year :O(
To many accidents andto much missed work.

I do hope you will be at RWA..*and stay at your table enough to be found* :O)

With it being in DC I am most certianly going.

By: Toni McGee Causey

Toni McGee Causey — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:41:32 +0000

Thanks, LaDonna! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that… if I’ve communicated well enough now that it’s made people curious, then I have hope.

By: Toni McGee Causey

Toni McGee Causey — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:40:30 +0000

“They tumble out of the imagination like a jar of marbles spilling across the scarred linoleum floor of the story, scattering like jewels across the patch of sunlight filtering through the window high above.”

God, Silver, that’s beautiful. I love that image.

And thank you, for the vote of confidence! Y’all have really helped. Seriously.

By: LaDonna

LaDonna — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:14:06 +0000

Toni, lovely post! I’m a gut-gal too. Thanks for sharing Carla’s story. And like others have mentioned, I can’t wait to read that story inside of you. You go!

By: Lisa Alber

Lisa Alber — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:49:33 +0000

Hi, thanks for a great post. Glad I found this blog! Here’s my example:

Elizabeth George, the crime novelist, invited me to write a short story for an anthology she was putting together–women writers writing to the theme of lust or greed. (It’s called “Two of the Deadliest, coming out April from HarperCollins. This newbie is excited!)

Nervous like you wouldn’t believe, I wrote my story and sent it to Ms. George for editing. (She edited all the stories herself.) I’d tried to be splashy, “original” and special. Her feedback told another story. She gave it to me straight: my story needed a lot of work and these were her suggestions, and so on.

I was devastated on one level. On the other, I was professional enough to know that revision is a fact of life. But, something else tickled at me: The story I’d written just wasn’t that good and never would be.

The easy thing would have been to revise the existing story per her suggestions. Plus, all the work she’d put into thinking about how I could improve the story! She’d spent time on her editoral letters/edits!

But, still, my gut told me I needed to start fresh, quit trying to be “original,” and write the way I write, which is a little more down-to-Earth. My gut said to suck it up and do all the extra work this entailed. My gut said that however scary, I’d best email Ms. George…

I was nervous to email Ms. George, so I slept on it. I felt like a big loser, but the next morning I wrote her that I was going to start again. And I was SOO glad I did. Ended up that she was okay with this, and it ended up that she loved the second story by the time it was done. Yay!

By: Silver James

Silver James — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:57:30 +0000

Toni, I may be late, but I wanted to chime in. What’s that quote? “Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.” When a writer puts her heart in it, the words sing. They tumble out of the imagination like a jar of marbles spilling across the scarred linoleum floor of the story, scattering like jewels across the patch of sunlight filtering through the window high above.

I have no clue what historical incident you are referring to, but I WANT to read this book. And you haven’t even written it yet. I can feel how it resonates inside you, how it echoes in your words when you speak of it. Please write this book. For yourself and for all of us who want to listen to your voice as you tell it.

As long as I’m spouting quotes tonight, I leave you with this thought. As Eleanor Rooesevelt reminds, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

By: Alice

Alice — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:16:26 +0000

Toni, I’ll read anything and everything you write. Heck, I’ll bet even your shopping lists are positively seeping with talent.
My gut has never ever failed me. The best gut decision I ever made was to marry my husband. We started planning our wedding two days after we met and were married less than 4 months later. My poor mother was beside herself, but I just KNEW that I was making the best decision of my life.

By: Toni McGee Causey

Toni McGee Causey — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:18:26 +0000

Hey. And a fine group of women y’all all are, so that is a *very* smart gut you’ve got there. I wish I was seeing all of you at RT this year! Maybe next…