I've been on a bit of a writing high since the conference got over last weekend. As part of that high, I've been pondering writing more about writing here on the blog. Not sure what that means, but in my head I'd think of it as another place to be accountable. Maybe get a little feedback, maybe just vent the frustrations and/or excitement. Maybe share the journey more, talk about what I'm working on, what I'm learning as a I go through the process and etc.
What do you think? Interesting? Boring? Whatever?
Well, I'll try it for awhile and see how it goes. Deal?
So this week, trying to ride that high I talked about, I've managed to add anther few thousand words to my story. This is the story I wrote for my first Nano experience in 2013. It's a YA contemporary romance with a touch of paranormal. Except now after LTUE I want to call it instead, with a touch of horror. Right now I'm at almost 74,000 words, but I'm feeling like it needs to be at least 80,000 for a "normal" YA length. But it's still very very rough and I have ideas on things that need to be added, so I'm hoping it will be easy to get to that number.
Plus I haven't actually finished it yet... the last few chapters have yet to be conceived! But I'm very distracted because I'm dying to go back, and edit from the beginning, and to start going through my long list of notes I've been jotting down. And I have actually started doing that because I've been taking my first chapters to the library critique group and such. Also, I'll be doing book camp at Storymakers for my first chapter too. So the beginning is a lot on my mind, even more than the ending.
But I should probably actually finish the story at some point, don't you think? :)
In the writing help book I'm reading right now, Save the Cat, one of his points is to be able to sum up your book (in his case it's movies) in one sentence. Here's the one I've finally come up with for my story:
Sixteen year old Mandy longs for adventure and romance when she comes to spend the summer on her grandparents farm, however, what she finds instead is an old diary belonging to her great great grandma that tells a sinister tale of love and betrayal laced and woven with Native American Indian lore, a tale that seems to be circling around and catching Mandy right in the middle of it.
What do you think? Too wordy? Does it tell you what you might want to know about the book? Did you at least get these details:
- YA
- summer away from home
- romance
- a diary that will whisk readers to the past
- Native American myth/legends
- ties to the past
- small town life
- cowboys/farm boys
- grandparent/grandkid relationship
- a little bit scary
Anyway. So that's what I'm working on. My goal for the next few months is to actually finish it, then go back through it all, revising again, adding some back story and detail and additional scenes. Then, after that, I'm hoping it will be ready for some beta readers! Because bottom line, I really want to know. . . is the story worth pursing farther than that.
Good luck and that sounds like an interesting story :) Cheers you on
ReplyDeleteJulie: Thanks!
DeleteI think it's super cool you are writing a story! I've tried and failed (mostly because I haven't tried very hard) to write one and I'm just not ready, I guess. Anyway, it sounds like a fun story and I'd totally read it :)
ReplyDeleteMelissa: It's hard, that's for sure. Maybe you'll be able to read it some day! :)
DeleteArgh! Blogger ate my comment. Let me see if I can remember what I wrote ... I like what you say about the accountability thing - very true! When I was doing NaNoWriMo people were so supportive when I blogged about my progress. And Save the Cat is a great book!
ReplyDeleteBelle: WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO YOU???? Is there something I can do to fix this? Dumb Blogger...
DeleteI'm always up for hearing about your story. And I think your sentence covers all the important ideas. :)
ReplyDeleteKathy: Do you think I can cut it down and leave something out?
DeleteThat's quite the long sentence. I think it describes your story well and makes it sound interesting to read. But, the editor in me wants to punctuate it differently.
ReplyDeleteJenni: What? Would you throw in a few semi colons? If I shortened it up, what should I leave out? What is not necessary to know?
DeleteI'd read your book based on that sentence. But I would like an ending???
ReplyDeleteThat's a great synopsis - gives readers a great idea of what the book is about without appearing to give anything away.
ReplyDelete