The Diary Entry Experiment.

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So this morning my brilliant editor Beth Brezenoff sent me a link  to a contest by Nathan Bransford. Huge Literary agent. Here is the contest for any of you that might want to participate. Check it out!
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

I read the contest twice. Silence.

Didn't type anything back about the contest other than.
" I want that book. I heard it’s really good..."
To that she answered. "You should enter the contest"
I let out a sigh...saw that it had already 350 entries and typed back to her
"Let me see if I can come out with anything over lunch...It's due today?..."
" It’s worth a shot, I’ll edit what you write if you do it by the end of the day...” She answered.
"You sure? I don’t know what to write about" I typed. <Yes I'm really insecure>
“You could just do something from Elle’s diary, doesn’t have to be from the book but using her as the character...but don’t feel pressured, if it doesn’t come there will be other contests and opportunities!” She is always such a doll.
"Okay... Let me see what comes out.."
------ Resuming this is what happened over lunch... You know I've been writing for a year and half for fun and games. Not that long compare to most. I write because I simply love writing, and can't image living without it. It's my drug of choice, and no, I don't write for living, as you can tell by my writing. =)
Sometimes I'm amazed I had the crazy drive to finished writing the first novel in the trilogy. That was 3 months ago. Now Beth has the novel in Google Docs under her power spell to edit.  Plus I started book 2 where 1 off... So what ifsss. Keep looking forward right? I have 4 girlfriend reading as I write... It's been a CRAZY but Amazing experience.
So over lunch I decided to let Elle do her entry, go wild and see what came out of it... Here it's. Edited by Beth's Magic touch the full 799 words of the entry before she cut it to the requirements that were 500. Ouch... but then again an awesome exercise for us as a dream team. God there is nothing better to a person that loves to write, than an amazing, understanding and supporting editor. Cheers to you Beth. ------

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Dear me,
I’m writing this to remind you to forget it. Forget about everything you want it to be, and give it up. Life is not fair, so stop pretending it is. Things have changed. And there’s no going back. This is you. This is what you are, and always will be. So stop pretending to be normal. There is no normal in your life. Normal days are over, finito, terminado, gone. Quit whining. Chin up, straighten your shoulders, wipe your tears off, and breathe.

Let’s talk about the good stuff. What you got out of this.


1- You got to date a guy who liked you for a while. Big plus: Now you know what first base is all about. (Okay, sure, there’s a minus: He left you heartbroken and hating mankind. Moving on...)


2- You now, for the first time ever, have an ex-boyfriend! Someone to hate and obsess over. You didn’t have one of those before, when you were invisible, remember? You didn’t have anybody, other than Sam and Livvy. (Now you wish you could keep them away in a safe box, so they wouldn’t get hurt again. Hurt by your purpose in life. Hurt by what you are and what they want out of you, who they want you to become. The monster. The judge, the executioner. But I digress.)

3- This one is a HUGE advantage. You can drink! Cheers! Livvy, if she were still talking to you, would be SO jealous!


4- You get to carry weapons. Always a plus.

5- You get to physically hurt creeps as part of the job. Come on. That’s an awesome plus.


6- You get to wear funny looking leather gloves in summer, so that you don’t induce people into a coma at the mere touch of your hands... Okay. This one is tricky. Honestly, I can’t think of any good side to this one, other than maybe making some kind of stupid fashion statement—and we all know fashion isn’t your strong suit.

7- You get to have a guardian. (Plus: it’s nice to have someone watch your back. Minus: remember that ex? Yeah, same guy.)


8- You get to drive nice cars. Fast. Why? Because you can.

9- People have a tendency to stare, because of what you are...you are NOT INVISIBLE ANYMORE


10- You have the council working for you. Yeah, you heard it. Old folks listen to you. Yeah, you’re 17, but they think you’re a prodigy. So you get your way a lot. Even when you’re wrong.

Enough with the list. Look, Elle, I know if you’re reading this diary, it’s because you miss how things used to be. How simple it was to be invisible, live through other lives, watch your friends have the interesting lives. While you wait. While you hide in a corner, reading another chapter of yet another imaginary life while you feel bad for your loser self.


Don’t you remember? Come on. Admit it. You were a loser. Krissy was right every time she said it. You lived afraid of everything, afraid of saying the wrong thing, doing something else that would make more people talk about how big of a freak you were. You lived afraid of living.
The irony is that now you live afraid of dying. Funny how things change.


The fact, is you should. Be afraid of dying, I mean.

Here’s what I want to say to you. Me. Take what’s happening to you as a good thing. Not everybody has that power. In fact, nobody else has the power to reach out to people’s minds. Yeah, it feels like a curse. Yeah, it sucks to know more than what you want to know about people. To keep your hands to yourself.  

But it’s a gift. Your hands, even though they are some kind of tool of deliverance, or whatever they call them. Your hands are pretty cool. All that power.

I’m writing this here so I (you) remember it. Invisible is not good. Invisible is being a zero. Admit it. Being someone’s soldier is the best thing that has ever happened to you.


Now is better than before. Now you can feel. You can speak. You can be you (me). With all your creepy quirks, funny hands, and bad hair. You. Me. Elle. Helena. Because deep inside you already accepted that truth, which is why you’re reading this entry for the hundredth time. You know this is the real YOU. Being the Sacred One is only part of it. Being Helena is what matters. Everything else is secondary.


You’re different from everyone else in the entire world. Accept it. Live it. Embrace it. Now close this book and move on. Be you and go shake things up. Take care of you. Me.

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Cheers Elle Sawyer, We love you.

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