Writing Angst

Another month gone and my writing goals have not been accomplished at this point! So much as I try and try to finish Troll Quest, it seems to be taking its own sweet time as the sub-plots become more involved. Do I merely try to get the main plot finished and then go back to flush out the rest, or should I develop it all at once? I don't seem to be getting through the book as quickly as I would like.

On the bright side, I will be working hard during April because I am going to the SCBWI Writer's Intensive plus I have an entire week with no worries from school to distract me!

What happened to February?

I really am not sure what happened this month...it's almost over and it feels like it just began (although this was an incredibly LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG week at work!). Writing has not gone as well as I would have liked due to overwhelming demands of two different fundraisers and Girl Scout Cookie Sale coinciding. There are also the forty-odd blankets that are knitted and need to be crocheted to be finished...they take up a large part of my living room and will be donated to Project Linus when finished. (Two knitters using up odds and ends of yarn = forty+ blankets!)

So, with March on the horizon, what will I do? First, and foremost, is to finish Troll Quest. After that, I'll be editing it and moving forward with my YA book. (And no, the characters do not all have names...yet...just strong personalities!)

Dear Lucky Agent

There's nothing like a great contest to enter your novel in! The latest "Dear Lucky Agent" contest is for middle grades or young adult novels! Information on entering is at:
www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog

What is REALLY in a Name?

So the trolls are on their way to meet the queen of the sprites, and all is well in the land of Marf. The names for the characters and places were so easy to develop in that novel that I actually have a lot of great trolls who have not even been mentioned! That leads to the problem with my YA novel...names.

This is a futuristic sci-fi novel (not fantasy, for once!), and I want names that reflect the progress (as well as the lack of progress) of humanity. My MC's are twins, a boy and a girl. The girl's name came quite easily with the help of a good friend. Her brother, however, is simply a ? in the outline and manuscript beginning. So is his best friend. And their father. Nothing sounds "right" for any of these characters! I'm staying away from those stereotypical and slightly ghastly sci fi names you see WAY too often. There are no characters named Galaxia, Orion, Neptune, etc. Nothing that sounds as if it came from a bad sitcom or attempt at remaking Star Trek. If you have any ideas, I know I want the brother's name to start with a "N" sound and end in a strong consonant. Feel free to pass along your suggestions. Maybe one will work or, at least, go through a metamorphasis into the right name. For now, Enalia and ? are busy discovering who they really are and how to save themselves and all of the other "Imperfects"...

Submissions

Today is "Get the Submissions Ready for all the February Deadlines" day.

(What? That's not on your calendar? Hmmmm. I wonder why it's printed in such large block letters on mine? Oh, well.)

What submissions? Well, there's the contest for SCBWI Carolinas that must be postmarked in February. Then there's the application for the spring retreat. Oh, and I cannot forget the WIP Grant application. On top of that, I've sent six queries to agents. One e-jection and no news from the rest yet. While waiting to hear from all of the rest, I've polished the synopsis (again!) and revised the query (again!). I've also edited chapter one (AGAIN!).

And in between that, I took advantage of the snow and went sledding with my children.

Snow sledding and first pages

Last night, as it snowed (and then sleeted), a first page came to me. This is usually what happens to me with new ideas. I "see" the first page and hear the dialogue, see the setting and characters. Now I have a YA novel beginning in my mind to write down. (If the page is "still there" in the morning, I write it down. If I forgot it or hate it in the light of day, I write down the premise and leave the rest alone.)

The thing is, the first page is the inspiration, the tone. I get the voice started for the entire novel even when the words and events of the beginning change. For Josiah's Orchard, the first chapter became the second chapter with a LOT of differences. In J.T.'s story, that first page was broken up into small pieces of backstory scattered throughout the first two chapters (although the first sentence remained). Fortune's first page ended up deleted in favor of something new. Despite all that, the original first page of every story is the most important because without it I'd have nothing to write.

This work isn't titled yet. I'm not even sure of the MC's name. But I do know I'm intrigued enough to work on this and see where it leads. If it goes well, it will be a sci-fi YA set in 2140. No flying cars, no "Jetsons". Instead, a lot of things rooted in today's culture that have altered humanity and life on earth. We'll see...

Snow!

Hopefully, anyway. It's either snow then sleet, snow then sleet then freezing rain, or just sleet and freezing rain. I'd rather have the first and none of the ice!

On the bright side, the laptop is completely charged and ready for some writing time even if we lose power!