#Authormentormatch, You Belong Here, and Nicholl

• Post By: Meghan Maugeri
• Date: March 26, 2018
• Category: Uncategorized

Happy Spring! I wanted to give a short update on what I’m working on! First, for other writers out there, I encourage you to become members of the Twitter #amwriting community. There are all sorts of helpful things and connecting with other writers has been really positive for me. This month there is a thing called #authormentormatch going on. There are about 40 authors who volunteered to be mentors to aspiring writers. You can check out more information on www.authormentormatch.com.

I submitted my upper middle grade contemporary novel, working title You Belong Here, to Author Mentor Match last week. Applicants had to submit the first fifty pages, a synopsis, query, and application answers. I was really pleased that they requested the entire manuscript right away. It’s just a small competition, but the encouragement was really helpful because although I’ve had a lot of encouragement when it comes to playwriting and screenwriting, this is the first time I’ve gotten positive results for fiction. A big reason for this may have to do with the fact that I often get excited with a new idea and start new projects before I fully complete novel revisions. Novels are a much bigger time commitment than screenplays and stage plays. Anyway, I’m trying to get two novel manuscripts revised this year. They’re finished, but need revision. So, pairing up with an author who could help with revision would be a huge help. The winners are announced on April 6th. Even if I’m not chosen, getting the request is honestly a big positive for me. Enough was working right that they requested more. Yay! You can find more info on You Belong Here on the novel page.

Other than getting You Belong Here revised, I did get two feature screenplays into the Nicholl Fellowship this month. They allow three submissions, so I’m currently in the process of revising a third film. It’s is a comedic satire and I’m so very happy with it. I’ve decided to keep the premise under wraps for now, but I’ll share more about it later. Last year, I submitted to Nicholl for the first time. I submitted a film called Keys which is about a 10-year-old musical genius. Although it didn’t advance to quarterfinals (top 5% of about 7000), it got two positive reviews and the feedback was really helpful. So, I’ve revised that one and sent that in as well. The last film, Keep, is based on a play I wrote. It’s a sci-fi drama and very different, so I honestly have no idea what their reaction will be to it. Either way, getting the feedback will be incredibly helpful and I’m really excited about my screenwriting projects these days.

On the negative side, two more rejections for stageplay development opportunities came in this month. One arrived in my email just a few hours after the Author Mentor Match request. It went from yay to nay very quickly over here. And such is the writer’s life.

That’s about all for now! Thanks for reading and keep trucking!