I've committed to do the NANOWRIMO

I had so much fun with the Write-a-thon for a week writing challenge. I decided to really push myself and I signed up for the NANOWRIMO starting November 1st - 30th. 

Check back here often as I will be updating my novel here. Scary! People will be reading my first draft. Those are meant for the bottom of the drawer or the delete box on my computer. The rules say no edited for the month of November and let the creative juices flow. I'm excited and scared all at once.

The count down is on... 5 more days. 

Write - a - thon challenge 4,5,6

Challenge #4
Take the current book you are reading, or if you aren't reading one now (shame on you!) the last book you read. Try to write a one sentence “pitch” of the book. 

This challenge may sound simple (only one sentence!), but don't let it fool you!

My challenge:

"Witches of the Three Sister Island have to come together to save the island from the same fate as Atlantis."

(I'm reading Nora Robert's 3rd book in the series of the Three Sisters Island. You can read my book reviews on my other blog juliemartinwallace.blogspot.com )

My thoughts: Finding how to describe a book in one sentence is really hard to do. But those taglines are so important. 

Challenge #5
Make a list of the Top 10 Books (You Think) Every Writer Should Read. You can cater the list toward whatever genre you write (i.e. Top 10 Books Every Poet Should Read, Top 10 Books Every YA Contemporary Writer Should Read, Top 10 Books Every Picture Book Writer Should Read, etc.)

October Madness Challenge #5

My challenge: Top 10 YA Paranormal/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Romance every writer should read:

1. The Host by Stephenie Meyer

2. Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

3. Great and Terrible Beauty series by Libba Bray

4. City of Bones series by Cassandra Clare (city of bones) (book-review-city-of-lost *Spoilers)

5. Clockwork Angel series by Cassandra Clare

6. Kissed by an Angel series by Elizabeth Chandler

7. My Unfair Godmother series by Janette Rallison (My Unfair Godmother book review)

8. Erasing Time by C.J. Hill (book-review-of-erasing-time-by-cj-hill)

9. Dragon Slayers by C.J. Hill (book-review-of-slayers-by-cj-hill)

10. Eon & Eona series by Alison Goodman (book-review-of-eon) (book-review-of-eona-by-alison-goodman *Spoilers)

My thoughts: It's really hard to narrow my list to only top ten. I think as a writer, reading lots of books is the best way to learn. I included another top 10 of my favorite books I read over and over. They are in all kinds of genres but they help mold my writing. 

1. How I Write by Janet Evanovich  & Stephanie Plum series

2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

3. All's Fair in Love, War, and High School by Janette Rallison

4. Dangerous Favor by Joyce DiPastena (Dangerous Favor book review)

5. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

6. Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

7. The MacGregor series by Nora Roberts

8. Zenobia - Birth of a Legend by Russ Wallace (book-review-zenobia-birth-of-legend)

9. Wizards First Rule series by Terry Goodkind

10.Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (book-review-hunger-games) (Catching fire book review)(Mockingjay review)

Challenge #6 
Set a writing goal for yourself to complete by the end of the year. Make sure it is easily measurable. Also, make sure it is something that is possible to accomplish, but also push yourself!

My challenge: 

By the end of this month I will have "The road to my love" completed and enter Writer’s Digest short story contest. 

End of the year goals:

I will have "Far From Normal" edited 

I will have query letter, synopsis, and 1 minute pitch perfected

I will send a query to agent Gary Goldblatt 

I will write first full draft of "Far Far Away" book two

My thoughts: This week has been a great motivation for me. I really dropped the ball on my writing and now I'm back on track. Can't wait to accomplish my goals and be a published writer. 

Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines - Brian Tracey

Write-a-Thon Challenge #3

Today's challenge involves poetry. 

1. Grab a dictionary.
2. Randomly open up to a page and point at a word.
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 two more times.
4. Take your 3 words and use them to create a haiku.

I've seen haikus appear EVERYWHERE lately, so I thought this could be fun! For the purpose of this challenge, we're just using the most basic rules of a haiku: 3 lines. Line one has 5 syllables. Line two has seven. Line three has 5.

My three words: 
Comic - amusing; funny. The humorous element in art or life. 
Parable- A short, simple story teaching a moral lesson
Sculpture- the art of shaping stone, clay, wood, metal, etc. into statues figures, etc.

Without a comic
The parable will be dry
Making a sculpture

My thoughts: This was a different but very entertaining challenge.

My goals: 
I worked way over an hour on both of my books edits and truthfully I'm still not done. Just took a break to post my challenge for today. Back to work.

October madness write-a-thon

I'm a day behind on posting for the write-a-thon hosted by Britney Gulbrandsen. http://www.britneygulbrandsen.com/.

This is a great way to get back on track with my writing. I didn't get to post my goals so I'll post them here:

These are my long term goals and this week during the write-a-thon I will work one hour on each.

Goal #1 - Finish editing short story, "The road to my love" a historical romance. Get it polished and ready to enter Writer's digest contest due by Oct 31st. http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/romance-writing-competition

Goal #2 - Edit a chapter a day on my WIP, "Far From Normal" a YA paranormal romance and complete edits by November 17th.

Goal # 3 - Get "Far From Normal" query and synopsis ready for submitting. Work on my pitch for agents at the writers conference in Feb. http://anwa-lds.com/pitchsession

It's pretty scary to actually voice these goals and put it out there for the universe to see if I succeed or fail. But since it's October and it's time to face the spooky scary world of contests, queries, and writer conferences. Here we go...

Monday writing challenge #1: The story must have a hellhound at the beginning. The story must involve a sack in the beginning.

My five minutes of writing:

     Aaron whirled around and pointed his finger in my face. I could feel his hot breath from standing to close.

     “Seth if you don’t get this job done your going to experience the agonizing bite wound of a hellhound. I put my neck out for you and I can’t and won’t take the downfall if you mess this one up. How hard can it be to make a stupid, worthless girl follow you? Throw her in a sack and take her away, show her how miserable life is and make her regret the choices she has made. It’s as simple as that.”

My thoughts: I kept writing and erasing so my five minutes was up pretty quickly and I didn't get much written. My creative juices weren't flowing but I took two characters from my WIP and added hell hounds and a sack to one of their discussions. It was fun. 

Tuesday Challenge #2
Pick your favorite character from a book. Add this character to a scene in your WIP. 

My favorite character is Zenobia from my father-n-laws book Zenobia - Birth of a Legend. Zenobia is a 3rd century girl and she would rip my current WIP character Krystal Teigen to pieces for not standing up for what she believes in. Here goes the writing:

     "What is the deal with me and ghosts?" I threw my hands up in surrender. The women standing there was tall and extremely beautiful. Her dark hair and skin were like milk chocolate and her dark eyes watched me intently. I could have sworn they sparkled a little. I blinked a couple times hoping that my mind was playing tricks on me and I wasn't seeing another strong women from the past. I mean Princess Kristina was an ancestor so her visit was normal. Well as normal as having ghost visits you are. 

     "How can I help you?" I decided to be straight forward and find out what this marvelous looking woman wanted. I knew she wasn't from my time not only because I sensed the spiritualism but her attire was straight from Roman times. The white tunic had a gold rope wrapped around her waist. She had a bow around her shoulder and arrows in a pouch behind her back. She looked absolutely deadly as a sword hung on her hip tied to the golden rope. Her whole persona yelled,
"Ready for war." When she didn't answer right away I thought maybe she didn't speak English. 

     "Krystal, I am here as a friend to help you see your worth." Her voice exuded power and she looked deep into my eyes. 

I wanted to squirm but I couldn't look away from intense look that held my interest. I knew whatever she had to tell me it was going to be important and life altering.

My thoughts: This was fun because I like both characters a lot and would love to see how a girl from today would interact with Zenobia from ancient history. 

Now to work on my goals. Happy writing.