Ready for Round Two

It's been a while my friends, but I am back. For months there I was inundated with work, life and everything that goes with it went by the wayside. But now I have a new job and a new work-life balance that is much healthier. Yay!

One thing this means? That I get to write again--well, I get to force myself to write again LOL In fact, I've been thinking about writing so much that with the help of some friends' encouragement I signed up for a writing class at Gotham Writer's Workshop here in NYC *gasp!*

So, starting the week of January 17th, I'll be taking a 10-week long, once weekly 3-hour workshop on children's book writing, getting a jumpstart on the YA novel I began when I was 16 years old. With 88 typed pages written it feels like a waste not to finish it, even if it bites. My super-strong "writer's block," however, has been a bit of a deterrent for me and my silly book for years--why should now be any different?

This is a question I've asked myself for a long time, trying to figure out what would get me motivated, attempting to understand what's so massively missing from the old draft that I can't overcome it. I was clueless for the past, umm, decade *blush* but it finally hit me.

I'd started with an idea at 16 that I ran with for a couple months. Then, some time later,I came up with a new twist to the idea and went back and added in a parallel storyline for a couple months. Then, I put it down again, only looking at it every once and a while, ready to type but unable to get over the immaturity of my work, unable to determine where the story was even going. (The end goal is, of course, still up for grabs--I haven't a clue what's going to happen at the close of the story.) But that initial change in the story--the birth of a new storyline to be interwoven--is what got me stuck.

At the time, I was obsessed with writing in the third person, so that's what I did. Storyline 1 is in first person, storyline 2 is in third. But a third person POV isn't the easiest thing to use in a YA novel where you need to get inside your character's head. It seems so simple, so miniscule, but when I realized that this was holding me back, it was like a firecracker went off in my head. I have to rewrite the entire storyline in first person. Then I'll be able to move forward.

So, with that realization in mind, I'm not going on a bit of a journey to get back in touch with my story and its characters, to reinvent the book from page one. My friend Allison has given me until my class starts to rework what I want to rework, and then I'm supposed to go full-steam-ahead.

It's off to a good start though, or a start of some kind at least! Last night, I wrote 650 words. Not a lot to many of you, I'm sure, but to someone who hasn't written a word of anything in months, it's pretty damn good. The work itself isn't great, but hey, I'm doin' it!

Now here's hoping the POV is actually the issue LOL

First three chapters, revised (well, kind of)

Once more I have been slacking in the writing department. I figured, as a means of inspiration, I'd post the (almost) most recent version of Cara's work-in-progress. I went back the other day and fleshed a little bit of chapter 1 out and still have to work through chaps 2-4. This version doesn't have the flesh-out, but it's different than the previous postings.

So, if this is your first time joining us and you're interested in meeting Cara and crew, take a look at this version, rather than the previous two ;)

HERE IT IS!

A new poem

180

The pounding of my heart

Echoing in my mind

The thrill of moments

Full of starlight

Hopeful hours and beams of promise

The warmth of what's to come

Sweeping through my soul.

A tiny crack slinking through my resolve

Climbing the crumbling walls of fear

Primed with empty sunrises

Oceans of tumult and vanishing shadows

The melting sinews of what could have been

Freezing in my memory.

A really bad poem, but a poem nonetheless

Yesterday was not a good day. But as a result, I spouted out a poem in my broken down, teary, and disheveled state. It's not anything I'm proud of but figured I'd share just because I actually wrote something haha


I can still hear your laugh
Echoing in my heart
I can still feel your kiss
Aching in my soul
A shattered piece of heaven
Thrust into my core
Bleeding out
Spinning away
Fading into oblivion
Nothing I can do
To stop the spiral
From swallowing me whole
If only I could stop the sirens
If only I could turn off the sting
Maybe then I could stand still.

Meet Cara Anne :)

I've been slowly progressing with my story (which needs a working title by the way). But I've hit a pretty big wall seeing as I only very very vaguely know where it's going. I also don't know my characters quite well enough yet. So, last night, I did part of a character tree. I still have some more areas of her personality to outline, but this was a good start.

Meet Cara HERE

Believe it or not, I have actually been writing lately. Not as much as I would like, but I am making progress. I'm using my third writing prompt as a jumping off point for a novel. I have 20 pages so far, which I know doesn't sound like a lot, but for me it really is! I'm hoping to get some more done in the next few days too. I have a little fleshing out I want to do of one scene and then I'd like to write a few more before I try to work out some sort of outline.

I'm not exactly sure where the story's going though. At writing group last weekend (three friends of mine and I have created a little group that meets every 3 weeks and we read each other's work and get feedback and discuss anything the writer might be stuck on) we talked a little about the possible arc for my story. My fellow writers had some great ideas, one of which I'm really considering taking, though I want to do something a little different with it. So, we'll see. I need to do more brainstorming, of course :)

But for now, I'd like to share with you the pages I have thus far. I probably won't post the material from here on out, at least not more than a scene here and there, as I don't want to give you the whole thing now or you won't want to read the finished product! :-p But here's a little taste...

What I've been working on...very slowly

So, since I haven't completed anything recently, and don't really think I will, I thought I'd share with you all the next writing exercise I started working on a little while ago. I don't have very much at all yet and I have some ideas for where it's going, but I'm not sure when I'll be ready to keep working on this one. It's a little too emotionally intense for me to handle right now with so much real emotional intensity is going on in my life. But who knows. Maybe I'll end up writing more tomorrow.

Let me know what you think! (And if you think I should continue on this one!)