I did it, I did it. *hands together shaking them in celebration* #NaNoWriMo

I wrote 51,530 word in November. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I knew the whole time I could do it, just didn't know how. Thanks to the NaNWriMo staff and their website www.NaNoWriMo.org for their support and the challenge. You can support them by donating, the funds go to youth writing programs.

Confetti, applause, slaps on the back. Yay me!

I will be interviewing myself in a few days, unless a few folks have some questions about my experience. Oh please, oh please ask me some questions.

About My NaNoWriMo Experience

 First off, a lot of you... my two followers probably have read NaNoWriMo somewhere, either on my blog, Facebook, and Twitter, but what is it. It's a challenge to authors or to people who want to be one, to write 50,000 word in November. Wow, seems like a lot right. That's what I thought last year when I heard about it, which may have prevented me for doing it, plus I was in the middle of writing my book Zombies: The End is Just the Beginning (plug, plug). This year though I heard about it again about two days before it started. So I decided, "Hey, why not." Plus I needed to grow as a writer, and what a better why to do it, then to write. 


Also NaNoWriMo.org can explain a few more things about it. They do this annually to raise money for youth writing programs, but to be honest, since I'm new to the whole thing I haven't donated yet.


About my personal NaNoWriMo adventure: I had written out my outline for November, but reached the end of my outline and still had about 20,000 words left to go. I thought about going back and adding a lot of the detail I meant to put in, but I didn't feel like I had the amount of time I needed to do that and write 20,000 more words. So, I continued with the story, even though I had no intention to keep going. 


The end I had initially outlined was where I wanted the story to end so I could continue with another story idea that lined up with it. BUT, I needed 20,000 more words, so I continued forward. At first I didn't like it, but then I discovered an interesting story that was yearning to get out of me.

NaNoWriMo The Sing Off and Grimm

Random Blog:

It’s been a while since I’ve giving you an update on my search for a Literary Agent. Well, there isn’t one. I’ve been very busy this month with NaNoWriMo (November writing challenge 50,000 words in one month).

It’s been fun and I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t have any trouble with finishing, but once done, that doesn’t mean this is a completed book by any means.

I think some people think an author writes a book and then it goes to print, or they have an editor that comes along and finishes everything else up. Maybe if you’re the greatest writer in the world. Most authors thought write a first draft, which is rough, very rough. Then they take another stab, and details, cut story arcs, shift characters speaking because one would say what you wrote, but another might. I’d dare to say there’s a lot more work after you write the rough draft then there was writing it in the first place.

Plus I think most writers go through, “Is this any good, will someone want to read it, and question life as a writer.” I’m not even published or doing it full time, but I’ve spent time thinking those very things. One thing though that I do know is I love to write, I love creating stories, characters, and throwing these wonderful people I create into horrible, life threatening situations. So I keep writing.

Here’s where random part 2 comes in. 

The Sing Off… fan or foe?

I’ve been watching the show, The Sing Off, I enjoy listening to most of the groups sing, but I can get pretty worked up if the judges blatantly choose groups “I” deem not good enough to move on. So here’s my two cents on the subject. The fans aren’t stupid, we know which groups did a better job, and which ones can’t cut it. Just so you know, you’re not pulling one over on me, or anyone else for that matter.

I don’t like watching most reality TV because it’s such… crap. But the Sing off has real talent but they’ve simply selected the more boring groups to move on. For instance, Afro-Blue, yes I get their talented, but they’re boring and they always seem to fall apart during every song, doing these ninth chords over a fifth or something silly that just sounds like someone saying, “Look at what I can do,” but the viewing audience sees it, as boring, and out of key. Urban Method has a good rap guy and one of their girls, the dark skinned girl can sing her butt off, but the girl they put out front is truly average. Her tone is boring, she doesn’t command the stage, and has nothing original about her. Compare her to Angie who was in Delilah and you see she’s just a subpar performer. She may be the nicest girl in the world, but she can’t sing like some of the other people in the competition. All she has is that she can go up two octaves, but it’s horrible just hearing that. Not impressed.

North Shore was another group that could sing circles around any of the kids on the show, they had one slightly lackluster performance and they’re eliminated. I’m pretty sure that was a producer that said, “Get rid of them.”

Vocal Point was kicked off last week, and although not my favorite they performed a hundred times better than Afro Blue. During the judge’s comments they said Vocal Point needed to experiment more…did you see the Kinks song they did. That was pretty ballsy, just two weeks earlier. Not sure what crack the judges are smoking, but if I smoked cracked I’d want some. Keep in mind the audience isn’t stupid like you think we are, and if you don’t the show won’t stay on the air.

Not like anyone will really care what I say, but a lady I work with who loved the show until they got rid of all the good acts, besides Dartmouth, and Pentatonics. She decided she didn’t want to watch anymore because the judging was so bad.

Random part 3. Grimm!

Okay now for some fun. Has anyone been watching Grimm? This show is stinking awesome. I wish it wasn’t on Friday’s; what a horrible time frame. But they’ve got a fan in me, I’ve watched three episodes and it’s so much fun. It’s like every week, we get new characters, inventive stories, and some pretty good laughs too. (I don’t get paid anything for this rant) Watch it on TV, on line, or whatever you do, but just watch so they don’t cancel the best thing on TV. Support what you like, and not what you don't is what I always say.

Well have an awesome day and all that good stuff.

Nanowrimo challenge!!! And encouragement!

Okay, taking a little break from NaNoWriMo this morning to try and encourage a little.

Writing is hard work, and it can be even harder to write without editing. If you’re going to succeed in the NaNoWriMo challenge you have to push that side of your brain away, lock it in a room, and hide the key. Kind of like when you do a brainstorm session and everyone throws out whatever comes to mind. You don’t laugh; you just write it down and move on.

I’ve talked to several people about this challenge and one person said there was no way they could do it without going nuts. I know what that feels like, I write using Word, and it always highlights my mistakes, which is great, and truth be told I try and fix the easy ones because those red underlined words drive me nuts. Here’s my only real advice, just try, and keep trying. Don’t stop, keep writing even if it’s horrible. Red lines, bad grammar, misspelled words be damned, write your heart out.

My biggest problem so far is that I have a great outline, but a key plot point just wasn’t there yet. I wrote the first thing that came to mind, and it SUCKED. What was I going to do, this was a major point in the story which drives us to the third act. It was a little over 800 words, but I deleted and wrote just about another 800 words to take their place. Guess what, it wasn’t the greatest either. So at least within NaNoWriMo, just keep going, don’t delete. I thought about just skipping to the next main section in my outline, which is what I should have done.

Anyway, I’d just like to encourage you. Keep writing, keep plugging along, and if it sucks, who cares, but if you come up with something brilliant, publish it and then we all win.

I play guitar, and heard some many of my friends’ say, “I wish I would have learned to play.” I say, “Well you’re not dead yet, you still can.” So if you ever wanted to write, no matter how old, or young you are, just do it.

 Grab your computer, a piece of paper, or chalk for cheese sake, and write.

The first book I read that helped a bunch was, A Complete Idiots Guide to Writing a Novel, it was awesome and helped out a lot, go get it, and write.

Nanowrimo... November 50,000 word challenge

Hey ya'll,

Showing my Okie'ness there. Not really one, just an implant for Washington the State mother truckers. hehe!

I joined the November writing challenge which is to write 50,000 words during the month. I'm over 13,000 words in, in just the first 7 days. Way to go me!

They have a web site just for this, and it's been going on for quite some time. www.nanowrimo.org
They've got some pretty cool things going, which to be honest I haven't even scraped the top of it all. But they send out encouraging emails, twitters, and blogs.

If you're already involved, "Way the go!" *hands in the air cheering* If not, you can still be a part of it, go check it out, plus it's never to late to start writing. Well for this event, probably but writing in general is extremely fun, (for me), and challenging too.

No more news about Literary agents, kind of been wrapped up in my new story. I'll blog more about it later.

For now, all you rock star writers, keep up the good work!!!

Update on the Query process.

As most of you know, I'm trying to find a literary agent. I'm not one to ramble with nothing to say, well at least I try not to. So I'll keep it short. I was rejected for the 3rd time. No biggie. I've decided to continue to keep working on my book, and each rejection pushes me to make the book better, and the query letters better. I could kick myself though, with this last query. In my opening statement I didn't put an "S" on the end of a word, so I'm pretty sure from the get go, they decided that's a big NO. Sometime I read, re-read, re-re-read, but I miss it. So I need to make it a regular practice to print it, and check again. I know that the "S" was probably not the kill shot for the query letter, but it doesn't help to start off on the wrong foot.

Most agents now seem to only want the query letter, and the first 5 pages of your story. That doesn't give you that much time to grab their attention. I had about 2 pages of build up before I reveal it's a zombie invasion going on, but I removed that and started with the action. If the name of the book doesn't give it away then it must be zombies reading it. The beginning did nothing to advance the plot, or build the main character in any way, shape, or form. So I ditched it.

Also, another big change; It's been going out at a 100,000 word manuscript. Although I think it works at that length I did a little research. Okay, so I asked a literary agent on Twitter if 100,000 was too much for my first story and she said probably so. So now I'm editing it down to 80,000 words. I don't think this is the main issue either with not getting representation, but I think this will help. Plus by editing down to the essentials drives the story forward more, adding more tension, and it seems to be more humorous this way.

The rejection letter didn't give me a lick of information to go on, and after reading a lot about them on Query Shark, I don't expect their help either. But, and it's a big BUT... I'm moving forward, progressing, and getting better. So one step forward, is a step in the right direction.

I read an article today that said Zombies bring over 5 Billion to the economy... I'm just asking for a small chuck of that.

God Bless you all... and Happy Halloween!

Helpful Literary Query Info

In my search for a literary agent, I've found a couple really good resources I'd like to share with you all.
1. Would have to be Query Shark: This is a site run by a Literary Agent that will actually look at your query letter and give you honest to goodness feedback. Plus there's a crap load of previous ones on her site. She prefers that you read all of the ones on her site, and in her archives first, which may answer your questions. Just check it out, I think it's very helpful. I really thought I had a pretty good query but after ten minutes there I picked up a few tips, pointers, and necessities to improve my queries.

http://www.queryshark.blogspot.com/

2. I found another literary agent who gives great advice. She's currently not taking queries, which seems silly, because you never know when you might find the next great author, but I guess she knows more than I.

http://www.rachellegardner.com

Enjoy!!!