Day 4

Day 4 and I’m already behind on Nano.  The first two days I managed about 1,000 words (lame, I know).  Yesterday, I was back to work on it, but wrote on my AlphaSmart instead of my laptop.  That way I could avoid the distractions of the evil intranets.  I don’t know how much I got done yesterday because I haven’t transfered it to my laptop yet.

I’m having a hard time with this story.  I can’t get a hold on the characters or the order of things to happen.  I’m going to try today to write down some scenes that I know need to happen.  I might end up writing this out of order and then putting it all together afterwards.

A slacker again!

Almost another two months… I have got to knock that off.

Okay, November 1 is just around the corner and you know what that means… Nanowrimo!

I’ve attempted to do it in the past and usually make it about a week before giving up.  Not this year!  I’m not giving up.  Okay, I might not get the full 50,000 words but I’m not going to beat myself up over that.   The key thing is writing every day.  I need to be back in that habit.

I’m participating along with a couple of friends.  I will try to keep my progress updated here.  I’m venturing into a new genre.. YA.  It’s paranormal YA, so still somewhat in my comfort zone but I really like the basic idea I have for the plot.  Now I just need to flesh out some details and I’m off.

Goals

Goals are good.  At least for me they are.  Yesterday I decided to make a goal for myself to enter the Golden Heart contest this year.  For those you don’t know, the Golden Heart is the big contest for unpublished authors by RWA (they also have the Rita for published authors).  I plan on entering the paranormal category, which covers paranormal, sci-fi, and fantasy (I personally don’t think they should lump them all together, but that’s the way they roll).

I’ve had an idea for a fantasy novel rolling around in my head for a couple of years.  I started working on it yesterday and knocked out over 2,000 words.

Openings

Since my post last night, I’ve been thinking about Demon War and the opening 7 pages (the non-finaling pages ).  I think I’m going to refocus my efforts on writing this in 3rd person pov.  Looking back at the current opening I can objectively see some “mistakes”. 

For example, I started it with the main character waking up (once at a writer’s conference I heard how that was a big no-no for the opening of the book — so why do I keep doing it?).  We then head off into a lot of exposition and info dumping with very little action.

The new opening will start with the character waking up, but instead this time she’s woken up by a phone call with only a couple of minutes to prepare before she’s headed out into action. 

Then:  It was thunder that woke me only seconds before lightning illuminated my tiny studio apartment.  The light teasing rain that fell when I went to bed three hours ago now beat against the window threatening to break the glass.

Now: “We’ve had a breach along the south wall.  Be ready in ten.”  The call woke Lianna Bettis from the first good night’s sleep in three weeks.  If the team was headed south, then she was the last call and that ten minutes would be more like seven.

Well, even though I wasn’t a finalist with Demon Storm (that’s the new title), I’m going to keep plugging away on it.  Though I might change the pov from first to third.  I know that first tends to be the predominant trend in urban fantasy and I feel like I have a pretty good voice for first person, but there’s a lot of people out there that just don’t like it.  Plus, it opens up the ability to see things that the heroine doesn’t.  Though I did just read a book that switched back and forth between first and third (first was for the heroine and then third for all the other scenes, though the author stayed primarily in the hero’s pov in those sections).

I’m also a big fan of how Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes her Retrieval Artist series — each chapter is from a different character’s pov (typically she has 3 povs in the story) including the MC throughout the series, and then eventually the three tracks of the story converge into one.  But with having each chapter seen through the eyes of someone different, you avoid the issue of head-hopping.

Definitely different techniques to ponder as I continue on…

Not a finalist

Unlike last year, I am not a finalist this year in the Emerald City Opener contest.  Oh well…  I thought my opening seven pages were pretty strong, at least as engaging as last year’s entry.  But, I suppose in the end it all depends on who is doing the judging.  I write a lot in first person pov and I know that some people just can’t stand to read that.  Maybe that played a role.. or maybe they just didn’t like it.  I guess I will have to wait until I get my entry back to see the comments.

Three months????????  Man, I am a slacker.  I really have to remember that this place exists and update it.  Let’s see… since the last post… I got pregnant, got married, bought a house, and submitted an entry to the ECWC contest.

The entry was the first 7 pages of an urban fantasy/paranormal romance that I titled Demon War.  Of course, later I changed my mind and now I’m calling it Demon Storm (the couple of people who have read the opening will understand why the change).

I’ve also written a couple little fanfic pieces, one for an exchange on LJ.

But the greatest thing is that I got an AlphaSmart.  If you don’t know what an AlphaSmart is, go here.  It’s so easy to tote this bad boy to work and do some writing at lunch.  I can also write on the train (of course it’s been so long since I took the train – due mostly from being so sick every morning for the last 3 months).

I promise I will be back more and more.  I might even start doing some book reviews over here.

I start this new blog and then I’ve been seriously lacking on getting over here to write. Next Saturday will be our monthly RWA chapter meeting. At each meeting we have something called the Goal Bowl. If you want to participate, you write down a goal on a slip of paper, drop it and $1 into the bowl. Then the next month at meeting, they see who has completed their goal. Everyone that has completed their goal is eligible for all the money in the Goal Bowl.

This was the first month where I decided to put a goal in the bowl. My goal is to write 2 chapters. So far I’ve written a paragraph.

A PARAGRAPH!

So, in the next week I need to get two chapters written. Actually, I know I can get it done. It’s just getting the willpower back again to sit down in the evenings and write after work.

Hello world!

Welcome to my new blog.  I’ll be using this one to record my writing journey.  I have several WIPs as well as a request for a full manuscript from an agent for an urban fantasy tentatively titled Soul Catcher.