Revision Hell

picture by photosteve101

Hey all!

I know it's technically Saturday because it's past midnight, but I'm doing it!

I have been busy the last few days trying to revise and work on my story. I've been going over some beta comments, which have been EXTREMELY helpful, and I've been going back through and changing it all from past to present! The story definitely flows better now that it is in present and I'm really excited to have it all done!

I've even come up with some new scenes to add in, something I told myself I didn't think I'd be able to do, and I'm very excited about them! Have to keep them under wraps for now though, because I'm not sure how they'll turn out, so who knows, I may not even keep them! Revising is a fun and scary time for my writing, but I'm trudging through it!

I'm really excited to just have a finished manuscript (and I say finished lightly as I know if it ever gets picked up it will be changed again). I mean I guess I have a finished one, but not a polished one! Okay, now I'm rambling.

In other words, I'm having one of my good friends recommission my cover, and yes I understand that if I get picked up they'll make their own cover, but it's just fun and exciting to have a cover! I know I have a past cover, and you can see it in THIS blog post, and I appreciate every minute that was put into making it, but I feel like it no longer fits my story, as I have changed it and somewhat matured it.

Another dilemma I've been facing lately is the name of my novel. I originally named it Divided We Fall, and I also feel it has outgrown this name. Now I'm faced with trying to think of something that will do it justice.

Anyone out there have suggestions on book title brainstorming?

Happiness Is A Warm Pen

Hello all!

Late Thursday night, and Friday morning, were both just full of awesome things for me. Thursday night I finished the first draft of my work in progress, which I have mentioned before. I am very excited to be able to say I've written a novel all the way through. I know it has a lot of work and it will take a long time, but that doesn't mean I didn't finish.

Then on Friday morning, while brushing my teeth, I opened an email that basically led to this GIF.

My happy dance. (Also my best friend reacted the same as Amy Poehler.)
Picture own ed by SNL.

My school's undergraduate literary magazine, Grassroots, emailed me to inform me that they are going to be publishing one of my short stories and a poem! I was in shock at first, then the rest of the day I was Tina Fey. This will be the first time I will ever be published and that's, just, pretty exciting, haha. There's no other feeling like being told that your work is being selected to be published.

This really set the wheels in motion for me and I have fallen back in love with my writing. A little thing that bothered me was, I had JUST edited the short story they chose a few days before so now I feel like they don't have what was really meant to be seen! But that's okay! Happy dance^^^!!

So, because I'm happy, I am going to post another excerpt for Divided We Fall. I would like to remind people that everything posted is subject to be changed, and most likely will! Enjoy!

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          Then something caught my eye. Five stories up I saw her, standing in a floor length window that was on the far side of her office. Helen stood, arms crossed, staring down at us. I couldn't see what expression she was making, but her stance looked guarded, almost angry. As I stared at her, the ground started to shake. I grabbed onto Winnie and the violent jerks beneath us continued. I heard yells and screams from the other side of the wall, telling me we weren't that far away from other people.

          “Fi, what's going on?” Winnie whimpered. He his voice cracked with fear. I felt Adler as he wrapped his arms around us, trying to protect us.

          “Just hold onto me, okay? I won't let anything happen to you.” I looked up at Adler who looked just as confused as I felt. Behind him on the wall the chimeras ran back and forth frantically while the harpies batted their wings as if they were about to take flight. Some of the looser bricks began to fall off the wall, crumbling as it hit the grass below. Then it stopped. The ground stopped trembling and there was no more screams. I turned to look up at Helen but she was gone.

          “What is she?” Adler asked to no one in particular.

          I gazed at the window. “I don't know.

Sickness Blues

picture by t0msk

Hello all! I would like to apologize for it being so long since my last post. I wish I could say something cool, like I was out on a spy mission, or on some fancy Christmas-time vacation. However, the truth is, I was sick. I have noticed that a lot of people have been cropping up sick lately, as always, and this year it got me!

It was terrible and full of coughing, sore throat, and congestion. The whole she-bang. I was secretly waiting for someone to sing me soft-kitty, but alas, it did not happen. However, I have been severely drugged up for about a week and a half and am now feeling much better.

Since my recovery, only a couple of days, I have banged out page upon page in Divided We Fall (my work in progress). I'm really happy with where the story was going and I'm really excited about the section I am writing.

I will admit, through the month of December I kept coming up with excuses, and I did have finals, but I could have been writing some of the time. I'm just happy that with the New Year will come new opportunities. One of my New Years resolutions is to write more everyday. (Yes, I know this is broad. If you have suggestions about a more specific one, comment and let me know.)

I am interested in everyone out there's New Years resolutions (writing and non-writing ones alike). So comment below and let me know! What is it about the New Year that inspires you?

I know this was a short post, but I just wanted to let everyone know I am back and I'm sorry for being gone for so long! I will be posting again within a few days, promise! Make sure you come back and read, and comment below people! I like the comments!

Keep writing!

End of a Road, Beginning of Another

Photo by amanky

Even though NaNo is over, and it was a tough road, we have to keep going. We writers need to find a new road to work on, or go back and fill in those over looked potholes!

I'd like to say I would like to apologize for this being late! But on the plus side, NaNo is over for all of you participating! You either achieved word count or not, there is no going back. All of you that tried are winners though, just remember that!

I got my word count, a day early, might I add! ;) Anyway, I promised that I would give an explanation about what my novel is about and an excerpt. So here it goes.

BY THE WAY! This is a rough draft, I have not yet even looked back over it. So if it is terrible, or has lots of punctuation and spelling mistakes, ignore those. This is just for a fun read!

Synopsis: Fiona wants nothing more than to live her life with her sister after her mother died and her father went missing. However, late one night a group of cloaked figures come and kidnap her from their remote cabin home. Fiona, wanting to hold on to the last shred of the family she has, goes on a journey across the wilderness that is left after the War that is plagued with vampires, harpies, mermaids, and things she's never even heard of. As Fiona goes searching for her sister, she starts to learn things about her father that she doesn't want to believe. Along the journey things around her start to happen that she can't explain. As her friends seem to start to turn against her, she has to decide who she will remain loyal with and who she has to leave behind.

Excerpt:

            I started to take a step forward, glass crunching under my foot. I stopped as a wolf rounded the corner. I quickly shrank against the wall. “It's a werewolf.” I started breathing heavily, thinking about my encounter with the werewolf I had run into in the forest. “These bullets won't do anything,” I said, starting to panic. Adler stepped out in front of me. “Adler don't!' I hissed, trying to reach out for him.

           He whistled, causing the werewolf to snap its head up to look at him. It growled and bent its front legs, ready to pounce. It jumped at him. I screamed and ran forward right as Adler put up his arm and a loud bang went off. The bullet hit the werewolf right between the eyes. The force of it blew it back a few feet. It immediately shifted back to a human. The boy looked like he could only be fifteen or sixteen.

           I ran over to Adler who was standing with his arm to his side. “How did you know it was a silver bullet?”

          Adler smirked. “Rhett told me.”

          Little tingles ran down my arms. I punched his arm as hard as I could but he didn't flinch. “You couldn't have told me?”

          He shrugged and gave me an innocent looking smile. “I was going to, but I figured, first one, I had to have a little fun with you.”

          I rolled my eyes. “Winnie, come on.” I nodded my head in the direction we had to go. We got to the broken window and I peered out. Some of the buildings were on fire. I didn't understand how at first until I saw some people running around, throwing bottles with flaming rags stuffed into them at buildings.

          “What the hell are they doing?” Adler asked as he looked over my shoulder.

          “They must be with the werewolves. Come on.” I turned the corner and started running in the other direction of the people with the fire.

          “Fi, what if they get Rhett's book store.” I stopped suddenly. I couldn't just leave Rhett to die. I closed my eyes, trying to decide what to do when I found myself turning around and running towards the people with the flaming bottles.

          “Hey! You!” I started screaming and waving my arms, trying to get their attention. They all looked at me once and smiled. They started running towards me and I stopped, feeling the two boys on either side of me. Mid run they jumped and shifted, turning into werewolves. “Adler get ready!” I screamed, holding the hand gun with two hands, aiming it at one of them. “Come on,” I whispered. I needed them to get close enough so I wouldn't miss. There were only three. Hopefully I could take down two, or Adler could.

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So that was my excerpt. Let me know what you think about it. What I could change and what not. Any feedback is appreciated!!

I hope all of you writers out there keep up! (And keep up on reading my blog in the upcoming months!)

The End Is Near

Hello fellow NaNo-ers. The month is winding down, as well as our word count. I am still a little bit behind (about 2 thousand words or so) but I've been pushing myself these last couple days and I have managed to plow through and write a ton. I know it's not a masterpiece, and I know I will have to write more after NaNo to finish the story I want to tell, but I will successfully complete NaNo.

It's weird to think about what I will do after November. I mean, I've been writing every single day trying to achieve this and once it's achieved... well it's done. I have plans of editing it and what not but I won't have the same community that I had during NaNo. If anyone out there reading this knows of any communities or writers, or things like NaNo that go on all year, please let me know so I can join in on the fun!

On a bright note, I ran across a fellow NaNo writer on the Artisans board and found someone to make me a cover.

Cover!!! By This amazing person =]

Sorry if I credited you wrong and you want it a different way, let me know!

Anyway, now that I have a cover to my work, it makes it all feel so much more real. When writing a story I have this idea of what I want it to look like and this cover capture it perfectly. It made me all giddy to see it and I sent it to all of my friends. I just like to think that maybe one day my book will actually be on a shelf out there.

Also, I realized I haven't once talked about what my story is actually about so I'm thinking maybe tomorrow or the next day I will create a post that will basically just talk about my story, the characters, ideas, an excerpt maybe, things like that.

I wanted to give some advice to those out there that think they can't finish, or are having a hard time finishing, but I'm afraid I'm giving advice when I have no room to. I guess all I can say is, don't give up. You can finish, no matter what you think. If you are determined to finish your story, and you want to get it out, then get it out.

Just remember this, don't let any number tell you you've won. All of you out there that have written anything at all have won. You have taken that step that many writers out there can't. You put pen to paper. (Or fingers to keyboard, typewriter if you're really old school.) You're getting your idea out. Also remember, don't be afraid to let your idea be heard. Let your story out.