Thursday, October 21, 2010

Prep work

I've been trying to get the house in tip top shape so when November rolls around I can let things slide. That way the house will still be semi-intact at the end of NaNo.
Plus it gives me somthing to do to keep my fingers off my keyboard.
Now that I've got the story brewing in my mind it wants out!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

NaNoWriMo

I contemplated doing NaNo last year but was in the midst of a really intense round of edits on my book in progress and decided jumping into a new project wasn't a great idea.

This year however I managed to talk not only myself into it, but my sister as well. Since we live so far away from each other I thought this could be a great thing to bond over.

After signing up I had a minor panic attack...what was I going to write about? I've been so focused on THE STONE SLEEPERS for the past couple years that I haven't begun to think what other projects I could begin developing.

I remembered a few great instructions from my writing class this spring.
First develop your characters, learn about your protagonist, what do they want? Make sure it's not something easily obtainable. We should know what the conflict is by the end of the third chapter. Find ways to keep them from getting what they want.

It was surprisingly easy to come up with a rough idea of a potential novel and start sketching an outline for it. Last night I dreamed up a whole new cast of characters and I can't wait to start writing about them.

Have any thoughts on NaNoWriMo?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Making time to write.

My usual writing time is in the afternoon as my kids nap, something that has to change now. As they have recently been staying up until ten or even eleven at night they need to be weaned off the napping.

Since my computer desk sits in the middle of a very high traffic area of our house I don't get much done duing normal 'business' hours, -the kids run around momming me every five minutes.
Nor do I get any writing time in the evenings when my oldest daughter gets home from school and husband from work. Admittedly I get distracted quite easy. The sound of the television in the next room, the dog barking outside, my husband typing away on his keyboard next to me all fight to keep me in the present, instead of letting my imagination wander into my story. No wonder it takes so long to finish a novel.

Two more years till the little guys are off to school...I can't wait!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Where do your character names come from?

I took some time this morning to browse through other writers blogs. One thing I noticed were story ideas with (unnamed character) inserted. Of course the majority of these were fantasy/science fiction/paranormal types, but it made me think back to how easy it was for me to name all my characters -even those in books yet to come.

My main character and her little sister borrowed their names from my daughters middle names, but practically everyone else in the story came from the World of Warcraft. Yes, secretly I am an online gamer *gasp*

Some of my 'guildies' lent their fictional names to a whole new type of fiction, imagine that.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Something in the water?

A while ago my friend Chris told me something about an author in our area doing a book signing. I have to admit that I had no idea that we had any published authors in our middle of nowhere corner of Albera. So imagine my surprise when I went looking for her yesterday and learned that not only do we have location in common we also share a passion for YA paranormal.
Of course I ordered her book 'Under my skin' right away and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival.
Her website is http://judithgraves.com/ with all kinds of interesting tidbits about the book and her current book tour.
It's inspiring to know that authors from Canada don't have to be from Toronto to get some edgy fiction published. So congrats and thanks to Judith Graves.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Almost ready to query!

With the help of a very supportive and helpful mother I've managed to get enough kid free time to finish off the most difficult round of editing so far. After sitting on my story for so long I knew all the things I needed to change for my book to make (the most) sense. Which meant tedious rewritting. Many, many, many trips back and forth through my manuscript and I'm done with those last important details.
Now it's a matter of re-reading and slight tweaking and I should be ready to query. I've been working on my query letter for over a year, knowing that it's by far the most important 250 works related to this book.
I'm hoping to test the waters by the end of the month.