JUST for My Followers Winner!!!

So RANDOM.ORG chose a winner today!
And she is....

Jenilyn M. Tolley!!

Congratulations, Jenilyn! ;D 
I wanted to post a cute "congrats picture," but blogger wouldn't let me :( 
Ack ack ack.
Anyway, email coming soon, Jenilyn!


And Random.org chose a second place too! I will read the first 5 pages of....

Kimberly Sabatini!!! 
(What are the odds, huh, sistah? <3)

And you guys, since I think this was a success and there are still many who want me to beta read the first 10 pages of their mss,  I'll do this JUST for My Followers Contest next month, too! So stay tuned.
<3
Monica

JUST For My Followers :)

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. 

Thanks for participating!

As you guys know, sometimes I like to beta read and help other writers with their mss. And right now I have a little time.
SO.
I'll beta read the first 10 pages (double spaced, 12 pt. font) of one of you. To participate, just leave a comment below and your email addy (in case you win). You DON'T need to tweet, blog, or spread the word, since I'm doing this JUST FOR MY FOLLOWERS, because I <3 you, guys.
It doesn't matter if you are agented, or unagented. I mean, we agented writes sometimes need a little feedback, too, right?
I'll choose the winner randomly on Wednesday, and see you around!
<3
Monica

Do Dashes and Ellipses Make You Stutter?

So I just finished reading a published book, and no, I won’t say which one was it, and I found a GREAT amount of m dashes (—) and ellipses...  especially in dialogue, through the whole novel.

So it kind of read like this (I'm exaggerating, of course):

“What do you mean? Could it actually—”

“I mean—yeah, it could happen.”

“Oh right. So I think—I think that… wait. Did you see that?”

I had the impression everyone was stammering while they spoke. And seriously? Sometimes I didn’t even have a clue about what the characters were going to say because the writer interrupted the dialogue plenty of times.  And the flow—the flow—was… was terrible for me.  

 

So I guess that I’m just saying that I prefer when the dialogue “sings” till the end (most of the time), and we aren’t left wondering what the hell the character was going to say. 

Okay, so maybe that was just a pet peeve of mine. What do you think? 

PS:  A lovely thirteen-year-old writer interviewed me for her blog--if you want to check it out, go here. ;)