Lucky 7

I've been tagged for the Lucky 7 meme by Medeia Sharif and Traci Kenworth.

I'm sure you all know the rules by now but, just in case:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WiP
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences or paragraphs, and post them as they're written.
4. Tag 7 authors.

My current WiP has a huge spoiler on page 77 and, as I'm hoping a few of you might want to read it after the A to Z challenge, I decided to go with the other one that I keep going back to revise bits of. The working title is The Bad Mother, but that's only because I have absolutely no idea what to call it.

Beth took both of Amalia's hands in her own.

“Listen to me, maybe it's time to let go. Get on with your own life. Yes, it's sad that some women don't get to have babies but maybe we have to look at the bigger picture. Society works pretty well the way things are.”

Amalia was aghast.

 “Beth, I can't believe you're saying these things. You were as horrified as I am when you found out about all this. I thought Matthew was getting somewhere, however slowly.”

“He is, and that's what worries me. What if all this comes crashing down on his head. Is it worth it?”

“Yes.” said Amalia firmly.

So, there you have it. As clear as mud :-)

I love reading snippets of people's work, but I know lots of you have done this aleady, so if you'd like to take part, consider yourself tagged!

Musical Stories Special Edition: The End

And so it ends. This special edition is the last chapter of my Musical Stories. I've been a bit self-indulgent this week, so I hope you'll forgive me but I'll get to that in a moment. We have three Fridays before The A-Z of Blogging begins, and I thought I'd use that time to try out the new series before I take a break. This could be absolutely brilliant, or I could fall flat on my face, but we'll see.

I was going to give you all the details here, but it made this post far too long, so I'll do that separately on Monday. If you're interested in taking part, all you need to do right now is have a short pitch or query, whatever you like, ready to email to me after Monday's post. It will be up to you whether or not you allow critiques. There's no word limit, but remember, shorter is usually better (leave me something to work with though!).

To end Musical Stories, (and I suppose to introduce the new feature, although there's no blurb), I decided to choose three songs that represent the story I'm currently revising right now. Like I said, self-indulgent, but I'm really excited about this project, (turns out I didn't hate revising, I was just working on the wrong story), and I want to share. Just for fun, see if you can guess what genre it is. And 1000^th Monkey, you're not allowed to guess :-)

No explanations this week, just enjoy the music.  

Lyrics here


Lyrics here


 Lyrics here

Starting with the basics

Now that NaNoWriMo is finished, it's time to turn my mind back to editing. I had just started to edit one of my stories at the end of October, and I thought that I would continue that whilst writing something else. I realised very quickly that it wasn't going to happen. Still, another month of leaving it to sit won't have hurt it at all.

I'm after some recommendations, if any of you have any, as to some good books that might help with the editing process. I've got a ton of posts from around the web, saved in my editing folder but, faced with a mass of my words, I'm really struggling to know how to do this. I know that you should leave the small stuff until last. What's the use of correcting punctuation and deleting adjectives if you're going to rewrite great swathes of the story? Still, it's those little things that I find myself focusing on because I'm not exactly sure how to go about fixing the big picture.

What's frustrating me is that sometimes I'm sure there's a good story buried among the rubble, I'm just not sure how to find it. I'm scared I'm going to end up as one of those people who just write story after story, and never edit any of them. I have four now, and not one of them has had a proper edit. To steal someone else's analogy, I've painted all the bedrooms before I've built the staircases. Can anyone help me with a good carpenter?

Guess what I did?

Guess what you guys, I did it! Yesterday I finished my first ever first draft of a full length novel, (66,000 words counts as full length for YA, right?). The only thing I've managed before this was something that was supposed to be a novel but is complete at 36,000 words so I'm very happy.

I know the more experienced among you are probably grinning to yourselves and thinking, 'yeah, that was the easy part kid'. (I'm not sure why I imagine any of you would call me 'kid' but let's go with it). I expect that revising this novel will be tough, not just because of all the things I'll discover when I read it through, but because of the things I already know need fixing, due to me changing my mind as I was writing it and not going back to edit it. I have nine pages of notes that say things like 'Sam's broken leg in ch 11 is now a sprained ankle' and 'Glenda isn't needed, take her out and turn her son into one of Lola's mates'. My MC's Mother died and came back to life on four separate occasions (and no, this isn't supernatural!).

My favourite change will be the title. I gave this book a working title of 'Joe and the Angels'. Yes, I know it's rubbish but I had to call the files something. The only thing is there are no longer any Angels in it and he isn't called Joe. Other than that, the title rocks :)

I had to change my MC's name because I imagined Joe as a particular boy who had some very specific experiences and talents. He's changed beyond all recognition but I know that one day I'll want to go back and try again to write the story of my 'ordinary Joe'. I can't imagine him being called anything else, so this Joe is now Jamie.

Do I think this story is good? Yes I do. Do I think it will be the one that makes me a published author? Probably not, but that won't stop me doing my very best with it, and making it the best YA thriller that I can.

I know that in the grand scheme of things, writing a first draft (especially for the first time) isn't that big a deal, but to me personally it is. It's a sign that I believe in myself, that I think I'm worth taking seriously enough to actually make the time to sit and do this every day. Whether I still think that after a few weeks of revisions is another story, but for now it's a good feeling.

I'm going to take a few days off and read a book called Radix by A.A. Attanasio. It's something that Techno has been urging me to read since I first met him, and promises to be a very strange experience! After that, I'll start writing something else and in a few weeks time I'll start revisions on my first ever novel. I love saying that :)

P.S I forgot to add that I had to write quite an emotional part in the last chapter, and I made myself cry! How weird is that?

MYWYN Update 3

So, we're at the end of day 32 on the MYWYN challenge. When I last posted about this, on day 18, I was over 5,000 words behind. My total word count so far is 32,280. Yay, I caught up!

I had a major crisis of confidence this week. I wrote a long post detailing all the ins and outs but, as the post involves someone else and I haven't spoken to them about mentioning it on this blog, I've decided not to post it. I will say this though. The kind words and actions this week of one of our own have reminded me, as if I ever needed reminding, that the community I'm now part of, is a generous, supportive one that I'm proud to belong to. I also realised that, in spite of not being published, in spite of having a blog that's only two months old, in spite of not even finishing a novel (except one, but it's only 36,000 words long so it doesn't count) I am part of it and that rocks!

I don't know if there's any connection, but in the last couple of days my WiP, which I thought was going to idea heaven along with the last one, suddenly sprang to life again. I had been going to abandon it, but decided to trudge through, just for the experience of actually finishing something, when I realised what was wrong with it. It isn't an urban fantasy, it's an urban mystery. This was a bit of a shock, since the fantasy part was the kernel I started with, but suddenly it made perfect sense without it. Sometimes humans are just good or bad without supernatural interference. I know this means I'll have to do a major rewrite in the first five chapters, (well, four as I can drop chapter one completely), but that's okay. I'm back on the right path and I'm so happy!

On that chirpy note, I'll point you in the direction of Sally Jenkins, who's rounded up a couple of interesting looking competitions if you've got something that might be suitable. I actually thought about adding a bit to my finished short novel and entering it for the second one. Yeah, no. Good luck if you do though!

MYWYN Update 2

I thought it was time for another update on my May – You write your novel project. As I'm sure you know by now this is where participants write 80,000 words in 80 days. That's the only 'rule'. Luckily for me there isn't another rule that says you need to write 1,000 of those words per day .

Today is day 18 and my word count is – drum roll please – 12,812. Yes, you read that right. I've managed to fall over 5,000 words behind in less than three weeks. For the past few days, I've only managed a few hundred words a day, most of which I've deleted the next time I've sat down to write. I've finally admitted (temporary) defeat on the story I'm working on.

I've tried, but I'm not a 'pantser'. I don't need a detailed outline but I do need more than a couple of characters to be able to write a story. I've given myself until tomorrow to decide between two other ideas I have, and I'm going to start one of those instead. One is, I think, a really good idea but it might require some complicated plotting to make the story work as I want to tell it. The other is one that I keep promising my girls I will write as it's a subject dear to their hearts. I'm just not sure there's a full length novel in it. I'm still undecided but I have to make a choice soon as I have a lot of catching up to do!

I'm determined that I will have finished something by the end of this challenge, but to do that I really need to start again. I think I should stop calling myself a writer until I've actually managed to type 'The end' on something longer than a blog post.!

MYWYN Update 1

So May – You Write Your Novel is on day nine. How am I doing?

I'm keeping up to the target. My official count at the moment is 8847 but that doesn't include today's total of which I've so far written about 500 words so I'm over the magic 9000 words mark. I've found it harder than I expected to write 1000 words a day – it's more likely to be 2000+ every two days – but that's due to other things happening. I'm working on that. For now, I'm happy to be keeping up.

The way I'm writing this novel is a real departure for me. As I explained here, at the last minute I chose to try writing something based only on a vague outline I had of a few characters. I've never worked on something where I didn't at least think I knew the ending, even if I changed my mind along the way. So far, it's gone surprisingly well. Every time I sit down to write I wonder if today is the day that I have to give in and plot something out, but so far so good. It has to be said though, that I haven't read anything back yet so how much of what I've written will actually be usable is debatable. I know there's at least one thread that, at the moment, is just hanging in mid air so will either have to be deleted or added to in the first edit. In chapter two, my MC briefly met someone and learnt something about her that was really amazing. I'm now on chapter four and this hasn't been mentioned since. I'm sure there are other places where similar things are occurring but isn't that what edits are for?

One thing I really wish I'd done from the beginning is create my usual 'bible', where I list names, places, descriptions etc. as I'm writing. The story is going so well at the moment that I'm scared of jinxing it if I read it back so it'll have to wait, and I'll just have to try and remember people's names as I go along!

So, for now, I'm very happy with the way things are going. Here's to another week!

80K in 80 Days

I submitted my competition entry on Sunday. I might blog about it later if I can get over feeling embarrassed about it, but for now I have something much more fun to talk about, and that's my next project.

Remember this post? I said I had a new idea that I couldn't start until May. Well, it started yesterday, and it is – as I think my post title may hint at – 80k in 80 days. Yep it's that simple. A whole bunch of us are going to try and write a novel in 80 days, and cheer each other on while we do it. The lovely little badge to the right is designed by Dawn Amos. 'MYWYN' stands for May – you write your novel. Does exactly what it says on the tin!

Due to circumstances beyond my control (domestic duties) I've actually started today. I'm only about 500 words in at the moment but intend to be caught up by bedtime. Oh, and I'm not working on the YA sci-fi that I thought I was going to be. It's, well, I don't know. All I have is a courier, a child, a mysterious bad guy and freak environmental conditions. For the first time I'm going to have a go at writing something without having much (or any) idea of the beginning, middle or end. It should be interesting!

Thanks to Sally Quilford for coming up with the idea, and setting up the blog so we can all (okay, me) be impressed by how much everyone else has written and GET ON WITH OUR OWN. Okay, I'm going, I'm going. Wish me luck that at least half of today's 2000 words will make sense!

Hiding the joins

When I was younger I liked colouring in. Sometimes I didn't have time to finish so I would have to come back to a picture. Even if I used the exact same felt tipped pen you could still see the place where I'd started again. That's how I feel about my writing at the moment, so much so that I'm seriously considering a complete rewrite. I've added in a lot of description and I'm convinced that the 'joins' are showing, so I was pleased to read today's post at The Other Side of the Story. I need all the help I can get in this area at the moment and this is seriously good help. I've taken a few days off from the WiP to see if I can view it objectively, but it's not looking good right now.

While I'm letting 'The Bad Mother' rest I'm trying something different. I should add here that 'The Bad Mother' is a working title and not an insulting description of my WiP ( in which case, I'm sure it would be 'Mutha' but that could just be me). Yes I know that's a terrible title but I had to call it something for the file names and at the moment that's all I've got. Anyway, the 'something different' is a short story for a competition. I know winning is unlikely but the discipline is good. I'm having to write to a deadline, and within someone else's parameters. What really attracted me to this particular competition is that one of the requirements is that the story is set in a specific area and that it evokes a strong sense of place. Now if that's not a good exercise in descriptive writing I don't know what is! It's also tougher than it sounds. My first few attempts ended up sounding like a travelogue but I think I'm getting there.

This is a link to the competition in case you're interested. There are some nice prizes including one hundred books. One hundred books people! In one go! How awesome would that be? Oh yeah, and also two days in Sweden.

I found out about the competition here. This is a lovely site and I know Sally does her very best to make sure there are no vanity competitions listed (or as I like to call them, 'cons') although, as ever, it's down to us to check it all out.

Has anyone ever won a competition? Do you enter them regularly? I never have before but I must admit it's tempting. After all, writing is awesome. Being paid for it would be even more awesome. Even if it's in books. Especially if it's in books.

Invisible people in an empty white room

I've sort of finished the first draft of my current WiP. I say sort of because it's about half the length it needs to be. This surprised me as I'm normally an over-writer, but I'm not worried. Yet. Ask me again in a couple of weeks and it might be a different story but there's no sense fretting until I have to, right?

What struck me though as I read through the story yesterday was the distinct lack of description. One character's hair colour was mentioned, and a door was stated as being made of 'varnished wood'. That's it. It's not such a big deal of course, after all it's not like I don't have any spare words to use to add some in, but what's making me think about it so much is the fact that I don't actually want to put any in. I can't decide if this makes me a bad writer, or just someone who hates wading through pages and pages of description so much that I've deliberately gone the other way and favoured the 'minimalist' approach. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle. I may not be a very good writer (it depends what day you ask me as to what answer you'd get to that question) but the fact is I've noticed it and I will, of course, layer in some description; and it's not like I'd ever show an editor this scruffy, raw first draft so it's not really a major problem.

But how much description is too much? Are you a reader who likes to be told exactly what a character, a house, a street looks like so you can see what the author saw when s/he wrote the novel? Or do you like to decide for yourself what people and places look like? And when is the right time to describe your main character? Too early and you could lose a reader who wants to jump straight into the action but too late and you risk annoying the person who's already formed a mental picture of the character – and it doesn't match anything you wrote.

I suspect that getting the balance of description right is just one of the things that separates a good/okay writer from a great one. Now, if you'll excuse me I've got to go and describe all my characters in 10,000 words or more!