Draft 1: Complete

I just finished the first draft of my novel. Woooo wooooo!

I began writing on Sept. 23 and only took a few weeks off in November to work on my thesis--so I'd guess about 2.5 months to write the draft (which is likely poorly written at this point). I know that I rushed the ending a bit (because I wanted to be done with it, I think), but that will be rectified in the editing process. It's 413 pages or 141,054 words (twenty three chapters and a short epilogue).

I'm struggling with what to call it. I'm creating a list of possibilities now, but maybe I shouldn't worry too much about it since it might change in the future? Who knows. When I first started this project back in high school (ohhhh so long ago--I'm so old) it was called "A Fallen Gift" and while that title still suits the story in some ways, it's changed so greatly since those first eight drafts that I think the title needs to be just as new.

I just wrote down "The Falling" which may be good. But would I call the sequel "The Rising"? Boo, both are boring and not very original. I don't know. I just feel like it needs a working title.

Here's a very brief summary of the story:

"Evelyn has returned to Falls, New Hampshire, in search of Lucas, a friend who she was forced to abandon with no warning when she was just a child. During her search she finds herself drawn to mysterious Cameron and discovers that he is not what he seems to be. When painful secrets about her life and her past come to light she, and her relationships with Lucas and Cameron, will be changed forever."

[Note: I'm slightly worried that "Falls" is too close to "Forks" (Twilight's setting) as a name of a town. Opinions?]

I bet I can get the summary a bit tighter, which I'll need to in order to pitch it in a query letter to agents (the step following editing). I guess I'll go with "The Falling" for now (gag)... I don't know why I feel like I need a title on it before I print out the first draft. Eccentric writer behavior I guess? :)

Hello World!

So, I was playing around with my blog, changing a few settings and whatnot and I found something totally cool: statistics for who looks at my blog.

Hello to the 102 page viewers in the United States!
Hello to the 18 page viewers in the United Kingdom (which I like to think of as my home away from home although I've never been)!
Hello to the 10 page viewers in Latvia!
Hello to the 9 page viewers in Canada!
Hello to the 4 in Germany!
Hello to the 4 in Denmakr!
Hello to the 3 in New Zealand!
Hello to the 2 in Belgium!
Hello to the 2 in France!
Hello to the 2 in South Korea!

Now, I'm well aware that perhaps there is really only one person in each of the above places and maybe they've been doing all the looking, but I'm going to pretend that these are all individual page views. Hello world! We need to diversify a bit more :) Yippie for blog stats.

Facebook

I've been toying around with the idea of creating a facebook page for myself? What are people's thoughts on this? :)

Really Finished!

I finished school Wednesday night! I now have my MFA in Writing degree from the University of New Hampshire. I can't believe it's over and that 2.5 years have passed. It's crazy that it's been that long, but it's over and done now. That means I can finish up the new novel that I started a few months ago and get to editing that (and publishing) and I can focus on writing new things.

I've also made a decision: When I take down "A Starter Boyfriend" from FictionPress (likely when I finish up my new novel and send it out), I will re-post "Hostile Kisses" because I've had a handful of people request it. It will still be a while (maybe summer or early fall) before that happens, but at least it will give a few people something to look forward to. :)

Anything Supernatural

So, I am an addict. I love reading YA/teen supernatural romances. I like the ones that lean more on the supernatural side of things rather than the romance. I like romance to be an added bonus to an amazing story. I'm trying to do that very thing in my latest novel, although it's a bit of a love triangle at the moment. The story isn't centered around these relationships though, but more about the struggle or the change of the main character. [Image from www.desiwalls.com.]

Some good books to read: "Wings" and "Spells" by Aprilynne Pike; "Beautiful Creatures" (it's good, but really dense and long) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl; and "Paranormalcy" by Kiersten White. I've mentioned the last before and I thought it was really well done. Don't Read: "Crusade" by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie. It wasn't good--too many characters and I didn't care about any of them. Harsh but true.

Writing is going well--although I haven't written in a few days now because I'm back to working on my thesis. My goal, however, is to have a draft done by Christmas and revisions done a few months after that, which means I should be submitting to agents/publishers by May. If all goes well and I stick to my schedule. Lately another story has been creeping into my mind.

Some of you probably read my "My Darling Bunny" short story on Fictionpress. Well, I'm a sucker for the Victorian/Jane Austen era and I've been thinking about new characters from this time period. It would likely be another long short story, like MDB. The main character's imperfection is her clubbed foot. The hero is..... hot :). No, I see him as a prince/royal in hiding? Of course they would fall in love and then badda-bing-badda-boom. Happiness. I don't know when I'll start writing this, but it would definitely be one that I posted on FP. Speaking of posting... I hope everyone's still enjoying "A Starter Boyfriend" I haven't seen or heard of any foul play, so the story will stay up. (Probably until I'm ready to work on it... by May hopefully).

Cheers everyone!

Still Pluggin' Along

Hey everyone. Sorry for the lack of posts, but there's been no news to report. I'm still working on my new novel and have hit page 297. I haven't written for the last few days because I fell into this odd funk, but I'm going to try to get back into it this afternoon. I'm really close to the end I think--maybe four more chapters? Who knows though... I worry that this is becoming too long and then I remember that I'll definitely need to go back and delete/add things to help the story along. I'm happy with it overall. Soon I'll post a summary and maybe even the first chapter to get a little feedback. I do think that this novel will be the one that I try to submit for publication first and after I do that I'm going back to "A Starter Boyfriend" which needs some edits and whatnot. I'll have to take it down from Fictionpress when I do that, but I'll give people plenty of notice.

I'm currently reading "Paranormalcy" by Kiersten White. It's a good read so far!

Anyway, that's all for now.

Full Steam Ahead!

I've reached 230 pages on my new project. I'm well over the halfway point, but there's still about nine chapters or so to go. Well, I've mapped out nine, but I haven't been following the map lately. It's weird not posting each chapter on FictionPress like I've done with all of my other stories. It's also a little rewarding too. For the last two years, while I've been in school, I haven't really written for myself. I feel like I am now--at least with this first draft. I haven't even let my first reader--my little sister--read any of this book. She will in the end as I hope ALL of you will. I still don't have a title for it. Though I've re-written the same story like eight times, using the same title each time, I don't want to recycle it this time. Why? 1) the story is COMPLETELY revamped from all the other versions, and 2) there are way too many titles out there now that refer to fallen angels. It needs to be fresher.

I've decided that after I finish this story (editing, revising), I'm going to work on editing "A Starter Boyfriend." I get so many positive comments on that book and I feel very encouraged by everyone who reads it. Of all of the old stories that I have on FP, it's one that will need less rewriting on a structural level, and more proofreading and maybe a bit of fill in missing sections. Unlike my first "Killing Memories" book in the Es/Moo series, which needs a complete overhaul. Not that it's bad, I just remember it being all over the place with no real trajectory. I love those characters and just thinking about them now makes me excited to re-approach them.

Anyway, just a little update! Take care all. :)