A round of words in 80 days!

Lately I have been working a lot on National Board Certification, fundraising to get my class iPads, and reading... so where am I on writing? Well my manuscript The Owens Legacy: Revelations is being read by a few fellow bloggers (thanks ladies) but lately I have a new story popping around in my head and I really need to start putting "pen to paper" or rather "fingers to keys."

Anyway, thanks to my friend Komai over at In Which I Write Nonsensically I found this blog that makes you set a goal for writing and you have to complete it in 80 days... You check in on Sundays and on Wednesdays. I don't want to say this is going to force me to write but it is going to make me step up my game on my writing, just in time for summer where I can really focus on it!!

I am going to make two separate goals. One is to write 15,000 for my sequel of TOL:R. My second goal is to write 10,000 words for my new project. So my goal 25,000 words in the next 80 days!

To focus on my current manuscript, I was wondering if anyone out there has done some investigating on ePublishing or has ePublished. I have several letters out to agents - but as you can guess, no such luck... Quereying is tough! I really want to explore my options. I have already had an editor look at it.

Anyone have some advice? And if you are a writer, sign up with me to take this challenge!

Writing contest!

It was a usual Sunday morning. I was reading some blogs and came to Lindsay Writes and she posted about this contest. If you are someone who is looking for some help with your young adult manuscript, this is the contest for you.

ONLY the first 150 entries will be counted!

Um? Are you still here?

Maybe you should head over there.

COME ON GO!

Writing conferences?

I was curious about where my fellow writers and readers go for their conferences. An awesome reading conference is TBF. Its free for students so I always take a few but it is a great place for me to see what teen are reading, plus I score a few signatures! A writing conference that I discovered near me is Writer's Workshop at Chautauqua. This is a five day conference literally twenty minutes from my house. I am pumped...downside 2,500 smackers... Is this normal? I guess I just don't know enough to be sure I am not getting dooped. I also think if I were to go near Cleveland or Buffalo I would pay for a hotel...but like I said I don't know.

I do know it is important to go to events like these. And I want to! I guess I am looking to my blogging friends for a bit more guidance than Google.

So a few questions -

How much do you pay? or rather would I be paying too much or am I right on the money?

What conferences do you go to?

And have you ever been to one of these?

Staying true to your narrator's voice?

I have started my second book and I am telling the story from another character's point of view. My first character, Piper, is a sassy mouthed, do then think, character. My second character who is tell the second book is Ryder, level-headed and not mouthy. It's very different and I worry that Ryder's voice is going to sound very much like her sister's. And being sister's they should have a few similarities but I do not want Ryder to turn into Piper.

I'm also reading a fellow blogger's book, which is great btw! And she is telling the story from a girl's point of view and from a guy's point of view. She does a great job "being a boy." And I wonder how that was when writing. Like, I know how I would sound if I were to reply, but boys reply differently.

This lead me to think of all the different, countless voices that are seen in literature and how much work a writer has to do to stay true to the narrator's voice.

How do you stay true to your narrator?

Sequels...

My first manuscript is done (done in the sense that it still needs revising - anyone want to tackle a 180 page monster?) and I have really started to think about the sequel. I have ideas for it but I can say that if I were to choose not to, my novel could be a single book. However, my characters have really come alive for me and I can't end them, and I don't know if someone of you have noticed, but I am a pantster. Yep, I don't write from the beginning, I write scenes and then connect the dots later...

I am really proud of my first book. I committed to it. Got over the whole, I-don't-want-anyone-to-read-it-bc-I'm-super-sensitive-about-it phase. And I am over the rejection of my first agency (thinking about ePublishing). And after all that, the sequel is the most...i don't know...daunting. I have written a few scenes but am still a little hesitant about diving in.

Anyone have this problem?

Big Hopes.... Total Rejection

I really have been taking my writing seriously and have begun the process of query letters and agents. In fact this weekend, I sent out my first email submission. I was so excited and (even though I read the likely hood of finding an agent with the first letter is like 1 to 1,000,000,000) was so hopeful and thought this was it!

Well, due the Internet and how quickly people can receive emails now, I got my first rejection. Yep, same day! It hurt! I know that the agent was doing her job and that they have to be picky and not to take it personally. And I knew this was going to happen. I was going to get rejected, but man did it hurt!

So I was feeling blue and decided to curl up with my NOOK. Well, my mastiff, Mia, decided she wanted to curl up too! Leave it to a 95 pound dog to make me feel better. Later, my collie Fergie, curled up too! Leave it to two fur balls to make this part of the writing process better. Now, (still curled up with Mia and Fergie) I am making a plan of attack, being positive, and remembering that S. King, S. Meyer, and Dr. Seuss all were rejected multiple times and they turned out A-OK!

I wonder if they had dogs.

Qurey Letters

If writing a novel wasn't hard enough, you ad the Q. Letter. I'm at that point where I should start writing it. I have talked to several friends about this done research on the net, and picked up a few books and you would think with all that information, it wouldn't be so hard... OMG, it is far more difficult than writing my manuscript!

The first part of a Q letter is a concise one-liner that sums up your novel, (yeah, 99,849 words broken-down into twenty words. I have 6 possibles that I have sent to Nadine, but I know she's going to point out something that I should include, which means starting at square one at the one-liners.

With all my research and my knowledge of English, I know how important the Q. Letter is. I know how perfect it needs to be, how it needs the WOW element, and that it is the first impression and agent, publisher, and editor will get of your and your writing style.

It's super hard.

In fact, I would categorize it as unbelievably hard.

I did find this website, AgentQuery, to be helpful. I liked the voice of the website and how they gave examples and links to other sources.

Still need a title :(

Done editing, for the third time! I vote to redefine the word editing. I would make it read "never ending process." :) But all very much worth it in the end.

Nadine, edited the book for me this time and I am giving it to a fellow teacher and one of my more advanced students. I think it is time for someone in the group I am targeting (adolescents) should read it. Here's hoping the reviews stay positive!

But, the point of this blog is to talk about title significance. I have been writing this book for over two years now and still am at a loss for a title. It's sad, I have the second book's title picked out but am very hesitant about the one. It sets the tone. It draws people in! What if I pick the wrong one?!

I recently went over title significance in my senior class and how it helps let a reader know what to expect from the text and for the first time, I am feeling the weight of this.

I still need a title!

Second Draft Done and Making a Difference

The second major revision of my book is done. It took all summer and part of fall to do, minus the months of August and September because of the house, but it is finally done! Well, this section, at least. I finally have a full understanding of when people say "A piece of writing is never done." I mean, when I first finished the novel, I really thought it was ready for the editors. Stephanie Meyer, look out, I was going to be on Forbes too! Haha, OK maybe that was bit over-reaching for my first book. But, I really thought, I was in good shape. It is with this second draft, that I know Nadine is going to send it right on back to me with errors and gaps in it, and once I fix that Marie is going to turn right around and do it too! But that is OK. It's the process.

On a side note, I just received a text message from a former student and her college English professor told her she was the best writer in the class, that she was only person who knew how to cite correctly, and to thank me for doing a good job! I am very proud of Christian and also a little proud of myself!

Stemming from that, Christian participated (probably unknowingly) in one of my favorite activities: Make a Difference. It's where a person tells another person how they have made a difference in his/her life. It really does go along way!!!

A writer as a sketch artist? OK let's not go too far here!

I finished the grammar and mechanic edits that Marie did for me a few days ago. It is amazing how you miss things (like commas) that you know!

I have been talking with Nadine about about a new segment I need to add and I am very excited about it because I think will only expand my manuscript! Sorry to be so vague!

But what I wanted to talk about was how I have moved on to "plumping" up my novel. I have completely re-written the setting of my story, which is a boarding school. I did take some inspiration from a local college campus, Mercyhurst Main in Erie, PA. To fix my setting problem (which it was too vague), I had to draw the layout of the school, name the buildings involved, and come up with textures, colors and details. I have a very non-impressive sketch, but a sketch that helped to guide me writing... who knew that as I wrote, that I would draw!

My next job for the next few days is to develop some crucial characters that got passed over because they are not "main" characters. I have a great twist to add in too! (Again, sorry about being vague).

Scrivener

For all the new writers (or even experienced writers) this program looks like it would be great for visual people, like myself. As soon as school is out, I am going to test out the 30 day trial and help with the novel that I am currently working on. I am hoping that will help me "fix" the problems Marie, Nadine, and I are finding.

And on the teacher side, what a great program for a Creative Writing class or for the English classroom in general. It looks like it could really help develop student writing (and mine) and it would be great for students who need the visual map to help them (like me).

http://literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

ePublishing

ePublishing is my latest branch of research that I have been exploring. I have read several blogs talking about the success and the downside of ePublishing. http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ This blog was very informative and gave me a more concrete understanding of what is the trend and what one could gain or lose from ePublishing.
An important and old fashioned thought clings to me. I would love for people to read my books and if ePublishing is the way to do it, I will gladly go that route and hope for success. However, there is an old fashion side of me that would like to see my books in hardback on my shelf. There is something very beautiful about that vision and I don’t want to completely let it go.
But from the few blogs I have read about ePublishing, I have discovered there is a lot to learn including the rights on the internet, profit of selling on the internet versus print. There is a SUBSTAINAL difference is percentage, the increase in eReaders, and the self-promoting involved with ePublishing opposed to the promoting you would get with a publisher and/or agent.

Stemming from eBooks, I found this article http://ireaderreview.com/2010/04/24/kindle-vs-nook-review-2010/ for those interested in getting either a Nook or Kindle. It is the latest comparison of the two.