Briana Vedsted is a young write of Young Adult western fiction. Please help her out and spread the word :)
Category: Writing
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Thank you so much to Jade Reyner (Jade’s Jungle) for tagging me in her Work In Progress Report Meme. As is customary I shall share my WIP and then pass the meme on!
Photo credit: Wikipedia
1. What is the name of your current WIP?
The Widow’s Club: Book 3
2. Ready to do a cover reveal?
Oh, god, no, I haven’t even outlined the novel (whoops, should I have admitted that?)
3. How many words are you into it?
Ahem … (cough) … 0 … (cough)
4. Goal word count by the end of the week?
This week? Let’s just say I plan to produce at least 50,000 words by end of July.
5. Goal word count for the entire manuscript?
Hmmm, I don’t do word count goals, except during NaNoWriMo writing challenges. As long as a novel tells a story well, what matters if it is 50,000 words or 500,000 words?
6. What genre does your work in progress fall within?
Mystery/Suspense
7. When would you *like* to publish this project?
Within my lifetime or by end of 2014, which ever comes first.
8. Go to page 5 of your manuscript and pick a sentence at random to share with us!
Mary would have preferred a simple divorce case, the old “spy on my spouse so I can get evidence for a divorce” type of investigation.
(I’m cheating. This sentence is from The Widow’s Club: Book 1.)
9. Will this WIP turn into a series book?
Actually, Book 3 is the end of the series, unless the series becomes wildly popular. Then perhaps 6 or 9 books. Must be divisible by 3 because I love the number 3.
10. What has been the hardest challenge in working on this WIP?
Right now answering these questions because the WIP is still in my head. Seriously, convincing myself that I have a viable enough concept to continue writing. I have three main characters–Mary, Maggie, and Melissa–and the novels alternate among their POVs as well as other characters such as the victim and the perpetrator.
11. What has been your favorite part of working on this WIP?
Writing from different POVs. The cousins (Mary, Melissa, and Maggie) are very different from each other and it’s a fun challenge to write from the perpetrator’s perspective as well. (My husband worries that I enjoy imagining the mind of a sociopath much too much.)
12. Any special treat planned for when you finish the final draft of your WIP?
Eat a whole pint of Americone ice cream.
13. Tag three people to complete this WIP meme!
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Candace offers great advice for improving your writing through peer editing. Go forth and read her post :)
If you are serious about your writing, you’ve probably searched for the magic formula that will guarantee publication of your work. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but there is no magic formula.Writing is hard. Writing well is hard work. Writing well enough to see your work published takes time, dedication, ruthless editing, and yes, a bit of luck.
Luck isn’t something you have much control over . . . but you do have control over time, dedication, and ruthless editing.
Millions of words have been written about finding and making time to write, so you’re probably working on that, and you’re already dedicated to your craft or you wouldn’t be reading Stephen King’s On Writing and searching blogs for ideas on how to make a living in this crazy business.
That leaves ruthless editing as your ticket to instantly improving your writing.
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Michelle gives us a humorous rundown of her first book signing as well as some important lessons she learned from the experience. If you have yet to face your first book signing, do read Michelle’s post. If you have survived your first (and perhaps many other) book signing, please share your experience. Us newbies want to learn :)
I am happy to announce that not only did I survive my first book signing, it in fact went fairly well — huzzah! Pictures/video will come sometime in the next week as my photographer/videographer/hair stylist Rhiannon assembles the footage, so we’ll have to stick to text for this post. I now present …
A basic run down of what happened yesterday (aka My First Book Signing!):
8:00 AM — Woke up. Ate Cheerios. Surfed the internet.
10:00 AM — Took a shower. Got dressed. Remembered to put on deodorant.
10:30 AM — Rhiannon arrived. Sat in uncomfortable wicker chair whilst she styled my hair. Shouted at brother to hurry up in shower so I could retrieve my make-up.
11:30 AM — Applied make-up. Asked mother what time it was. Heard “11:45 AM”. Had minor panic attack.
11:32 AM — Discovered it was only 11:32 AM. Calmed down.
11:40 AM — Got…
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A great opportunity to help a fellow writer and a chance to get something in return (beyond the obvious satisfaction of helping a fellow writer). Please visit her blog for more info!
It’s almost here. After a grueling year bringing Pipe Dreams from its creative inception to a finished work, the novel will launch on June 3rd.But why should you care?
- Because you love dystopian fiction?
- Because Pipe Dreams is fast paced, immensely enjoyable, and hard to put down?
- Because it speaks an important truth about how society evolves?
Maybe, but I think the real reason you should care is that I’m paying it forward. 25% of the sales of this book — at least through the end of June — will go to an individual in pursuit of his or her dreams.
That person could be you. If you want to see why I’m doing this, click here.
Here’s how you can be entered to win and/or help someone else with their creative process.
1. Tweet about the book and encourage people to check it out. Use hashtag #pipedreams…
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Valeriu writes in three languages and so his words and images are often deeply moving. For instance, this: “love goes to waste like air that escapes breathing, like a light in the world of the blind”
Trilingual text
in this very moment
a baby takes his first breath
a soul sleeps out of a body, like a wonder, too early
in this very moment, in the sheets of a bed, orgasm is achieved –
another is merely simulated,
a human being, as a shirt of another, tries the worst pains,
another is subjected to violence in this very moment
we reach new heights in all times famine, we give prizes for disease
rounds of applauses, high emotions that take your breath away, nominations for high positions
historical discoveries and betrayals, abominable plans are concocted
in this very moment
I wrote all the above as if at the same time, while you read it
this unique and countless choir, like a joint plea,
turns the planet
love goes to waste like air that escapes breathing, like a light
in the world of the blind
in questo stesso…
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You were one of my firsts. Clicked LIKE and sparks flew through miles of fiber optic wire across swamp and desert
A cry for kindred souls
Voices in the still silent night
Loneliness, confusion, loss were in your orbit, but you, your core, is solid shining spirit
Angel with wings folded, arms open, walking among the rocks, sand, dirt, cacti
Toward your followers
You offer moonscape, landscape, songs, beauty
Your journey is one we all know but is still your own to own
Walking in your shadow, two steps behind, I reach out and touch the glow that surrounds you
My fingers stroke a gentle tuft of feathers
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Victoria is a writer after my own heart. She captures my feelings about writing so well: “Maybe the discoveries, the uncertainties, and the twists and turns involved in writing a novel help us deal with the uncertainties of life.” She teaches me about writing through her blog, making me think hard and productively about why I write the way I do and how I can improve my writing. And she’s a fellow “pantser” :) Please visit her blog, and enjoy!
Creative Writing with the Crimson League
What do fiction and chocolates have in common with life in general? How does creative writing relate to a sweet tooth? That’s the topic of today’s post.
Forrest Gump’s mother, played by Sally Field, once told her son, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna git.”
Well, writing a novel can be a lot like life, at least when you’re a “pantser” like me and don’t use an outline.
Maybe that’s why we write. Maybe the discoveries, the uncertainties, and the twists and turns involved in writing a novel help us deal with the uncertainties of life.
I’ve written before about a time I went to the grocery store just to pick up a couple of items I needed. I had a plan for dinner, or I thought I did. Then I ran into a friend, who got to talking about meat, and all…
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These lines–Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind–should be familiar to any college student who had to read early American literature. These are lines that, when I first read them, I didn’t quite understand them. It was the late 1980s and while my husband and I were starting to tread carefully into personal computer ownership, we were still technologically young enough to be giddy over our remote controlled TV and new CD player. As the years passed and we accumulated more gadgets and at a faster rate than we could have anticipated, those lines of Emerson‘s spring to my mind more and more frequently.
In a society where consumerism is nearly a religion and oftentimes used to show “patriotism,” it’s difficult not to fall into a depression of sorts when the It of “is this it?” is not enough. You buy gadgets that reportedly will enhance your life, and six months later they are obsolete. So you purchase anew to feel purpose in life and the cycle continues. It’s not only a sad way to live, it’s unsustainable. Unless you’re incredibly wealthy, at some point you run of money to buy the things that you think will give your life meaning. Hence, the lottery. A quick fix. A desire to be wealthy without having to work for it (unless you consider standing in line work). When I’m in one of my Peggy Lee moods and start humming Is That All There Is?, I:
- go for a walk without my iPod so I’m not distracted from the song and flight of birds, the squirrels chasing each other up and down trees, the hum of insects;
- pick up a hardcover book and feel it’s weight in my hands and the dryness of paper as I flip through the pages;
- hug my husband;
- pet my cats;
- call a friend;
- write
Granted, some of these things cost money: shoes for walking, books for reading, food for husband and cats, phone for calls, pen and paper for writing. But none of them requires a gadget, a technological device that has been partly designed to make me feel lost without it (even the phone mentioned is one that we’ve had for about 20 years). We are existential beings struggling to make sense of a world that often makes little sense. We are sold things with the promise that we can derive meaning for our lives through these things. But do we? How many of us, every so often, decide to go “off the grid” in a quest to find true meaning, sustainable meaning, meaning that will outlast every technological advance we embrace?
Recently, our DSL had an interruption in services for at least a day. I admit, when I realized that I could not connect to the Internet, that I could not check my blog or my favorite blogs, I panicked. I didn’t know why I couldn’t connect and the thought of being disconnected for unknown hours was chilling. It was early morning, before I had to leave for work and I was in a panic that I could not “log on” and get my blog fix before setting off for my day job. But, my husband was still there. In fact, he was oblivious to my panic because he was on the porch reading a book, his morning routine before setting out for work. My cats were still there and actually annoyed that I was in more of a tizzy over the loss of my Internet access than I ever am when it’s their feeding time. My books hadn’t disappeared, and I still had drawers of pens, pencils and paper to write on. I didn’t check my phone because I actually hate phones.
It was a wake-up call for me. Should I be so dependent on technology that I stop breathing when I open Firefox and get the message: “Error. Server unavailable”? Should I allow these things to ride me? Or should I embrace the sudden silence, the sense of time slowing, the drawn-out minutes when I can pick up an unread issue of the New York Review of Books or Harper’s or The New Yorker and feel reconnected to that time, 30-some years ago, when I read these periodicals as soon as they arrived in the mail?
I don’t want to go totally off-the-grid. I wouldn’t have a blog if I did, but I don’t like feeling controlled by technology, made to feel that every second I don’t own an iPhone is a second lost to me. [Disclaimer: I do own and love my iPad2, but note it is an iPad2, not the newest iPad and, like all my other gadgets, I’ll likely still be using it long past its obsolescence.] So, fellow bloggers, and any one else who stumbles across this post, are you in the saddle, or are things?
Marie at 1 Write Way 