Success for a New Novelist!

A couple of years ago when I started on TheNextBigWriter, I started reading a story that I fell in love with- Priscilla the Great by Sybil Nelson. It was still in the process of revisions but even then I knew it would eventually be published. During the past year or so, I've been following Sybil's journey to market her book and get it published. Well, it finally happened!

Priscilla the Great was picked up by a publisher, and is now for sale on Amazon! I'm so excited for her! She has put in so much work throughout the entire process, and is truly an inspiration to me.

What's even better is that as part of her marketing plan she is going on a blog tour and will be making a stop here to do a guest blog on December 23rd! While you're waiting you can check out an interview with her here.

Plodding Along

As excited as I am with my revisions, I really feel like I've just been plodding along. I finished Nano and even though I had the words to win, I didn't really feel like a winner. Nothing like last year when I finished Songbird. So when I started tackling the revisions to Raven's Mark (Evolution of Janie) I was already in a funk.

So far, I've managed to get to chapter 4 with revisions and I already know I have another round to do, because the feedback I've had from my reviewers on the first three have pointed out things I knew and was dreading. Restructing parts of the first chapter, to establish setting sooner., working on sentence structure to build sentence fluency and decrease the choppy phrasing, which although commonly found in YA is not how I want my work to read. The part that's really killing me though is reducing all of my repetitive words, and ideas.

My first major revision of Raven's Mark was drastic, I pretty much massacred the thing and it came out three hundred percent better. The round I want to know that at the end I've got it solid. That it really will be ready to send to agents. I still have my hopes for the two agents with my original partials, but at this stage I'm moving on. I refuse to just put this piece on the shelf. I will get this story in shape. Even if it takes me forever to do!

On my iPod:

"Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars

Name Change

The Evolution of Janie is no more. Well, at least the title. That itself had been bothering me for a while. It was just too long, and there is, of course, that pesky book titled The Evolution of Jane. This past week I've been stewing over what I want to do with Evolution. I still have two partials out with agents, but I've been stalling over sending out more, because I've had this voice in the back of my mind saying it still needed work. And I've finally admitted it's right.

The plot was too complicated, too many holes needed to be closed, and there's those dreaded Twilight comparisons still coming. My last revision was focused on characters and pacing. Characters, fixed. Pacing, partially fixed. Well, it's time to bring on the revisions.

Not only is the Title gone, but I've altered the originals of the myth that the story is dependent on. I'm still using the Raven shape shifting element, but focusing on Norse and Scandinavian myths, as well as a bit of Germanic legends. Everett will no longer be in Montana. I'm going for Western Colorado, think Telluride area. 

With taking out the Native American myth, I've had to adjust some of my character's physical attributes and their names. The names are what's driving me crazy so far. I keep thinking Janie, but she's not anymore. She is Anya. Marcus is Davin and Beth is Elin. Thank God for the Find and Replace function in word, otherwise I'd end up confusing everyone reading it!

So the new title?

The Raven's Mark (subject to change when something better appears!)

On my iPod:

Breaking My Own Heart by Duffy 

Nano Burn Out

Didn't think this would happen. Twelve days in and I'm ready to burn my Nano novel. I hate to not complete the contest, but I just can't do it. At least, not with this piece. I was really excited to start. The character of Maddie had been in my head for a while, and I had this great idea for what was going to happen to her, but the more I write, the less I like how it's developing.

It's just not flowing the way I wanted. It's a complex idea and I guess I've learned my lesson after the massive rewrites I had to do to  The Evolution of Janie. I need to do a lot more planning before I'm ready to work on this. 

At this point I'm not ready to give up on Nano. I'm simply done trying to force this novel out. Instead, I'm going to work on The Reconstruction of Janie. Not a bad plan as far as I can see. Career wise it probably makes a lot more sense. If I find an agent for Evolution then I'm going to need to get my ass in gear with the sequel.

Now I just need to find a way to get back into motion!

On my iPod:

mmm Papi by Britney Spears

Nano Express 2011

NaNoWriMo is 6 days in! Last year I hesitated to enter, waiting until the last minute to sign up. I just wasn't sure I could give it the right amount of commitment it needed. I was rewriting The Evolution of Janie and had no idea what I would work on. Then on the first, Songbird started. This year entering was an easy choice. It was the question of what I would work on. I have the sequel to  Evolution started and I'm more than 30% done Liar.

But the purpose of NaNo is to start a new piece. I know that not everyone does this and I don't have a problem with others using a WIP but for me I just felt that it would get me moving on a new idea I had.

The piece I'm working on is The Pass (a very tentative title). It's centered on Maddie, a young girl who even after two years is struggling to understand all of the changes since a car accident which should have killed her. When she woke from her coma, nothing and no one was the same. People she thought were her friends didn't even acknowledge her, but urged by her father, she pretends things are normal and two years later those false memories have faded. Then getting struck by lightning, she wakes up to find everything different again. The only person who can explain it is Lucas and he's not exactly full of answers himself. Finding herself in an alternate universe is scary enough but having to trust Lucas is terrifying, especially after she learns he was the last person to see the alternate Maddie alive.

My NaNo pace has been right on target and I'm pretty much writing a chapter a day. I'm feeling good about where the story is going. I have a basic idea of where it's going and how it will end, but the in between stuff reminds me of last year when each day I sat down with absolutely no clue what I was going to write. Although, I'm hoping this year I don't lose steam after November 30th.

On my iPod:

Breaking My Own Heart by Duffy