NaNoWriMo: Wrapping it up

Obviously November is over, and so it seems December is already more than half over.  Anyway, I figure I need to wrap up Nano in case you were wondering how it went for me.  Well, here it goes:

November 1-20 I wrote like made, wracking up 28,000 words - yay!  And then I got sick.  Not like the flu & cold kinda sick - but the "I've got a baby growing in my belly" kinda sick.  Did you catch that?  I'm expecting child number 3 in late June 2013!

So, I found that I felt so icky a lot of the time and to top it off, after my kiddos went to bed at 7:30, I hit the hay myself.  How sad is that?  A grown woman going to bed at 8pm.  Fun!

So needless to say, I fizzled out at the end this year during Nano and I am so bummed.  I really wanted to make the word count goal this year, and I figure I would have if it weren't for the nausea and tiredness.

Now all my excuses are out of the way for why I didn't make the 50K word count goal - now all there is left to do is to go on and finish the Nano novel and then start making plans for next year's Nano!

Writing Tips: Opening Lines

Have you ever picked up a book, flipped it to the first page and read the first couple sentences and were utterly bored to tears?  Or perhaps you pushed on hoping the first page would get better, only to find that, no, it didn't.

No?  That's wonderful!  Your scope of reading must be incredible!

Yes?  Well, that's what I'm here to talk about today.  Err...write about today?  Anyway, in writing the novels I have (either started or completed) I've come to realize the EXTREME importance of the opening lines of the book.

I'm sure we've all perused a bookstore looking for our next read only to be deterred by opening lines such as:

Yesterday, my dog peed on my shoe.  I hate when that happens.
or
She woke up feeling exhausted from her restless sleep.
or
I really hope I will ace my trig exam today.

Okay - those are all made up first lines...and they are really bad.  Honestly, would you want to read on using those first lines as the basis of the whole story?  I shouldn't think so.

Alright, so here we're going to get into the opening lines of some of my favorite YA novels.  After reading each one, think about if the lines make you want to read on.  If they do, why?  If not, why not?

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Locked in darkness that surrounded me like a coffin, I had nothing to distract me from my memories.  Vivid recollections waited to ambush me whenever my mind wandered.

Divergent by Veronica Roth
There is one mirror in my house.  It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs.  Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
She was born Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she did not open her eyes for three days.

Eve by Anna Carey
Ignoring the letter to Eve in the very beginning....
By the time the sun set over the fifty-foot perimeter wall, the School lawn was covered with twelfth-year students.  The younger girls leaned out of the dormitory windows, waving their New American flags as we sang and danced.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.  My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress.  She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother.  Of course, she did.  This is the day of the reaping.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
In these dungeons the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind.  One that had so far proven correct, as Oll's maps tended to do.

So here is my advice, take a look at your writing.  Read over your opening lines, do they draw you in as a reader or do they leave you feeling blah?  If you're having a hard time determining the catchyness of your first page, hand it off to someone else and ask their opinion.  It never hurts to get someone else's take on the matter.

My Reading List: Reached

Reached by Ally Condie

Cassia’s journey began with an error, a momentary glitch in the otherwise perfect façade of the Society. After crossing canyons to break free, she waits, silk and paper smuggled against her skin, ready for the final chapter.

The wait is over.

One young woman has raged against those who threaten to keep away what matters most—family, love, choice. Her quiet revolution is about to explode into full-scale rebellion.

With exquisite prose, the emotionally gripping conclusion to the international–bestselling Matched trilogy returns Cassia, Ky, and Xander to the Society to save the one thing they have been denied for so long, the power to choose.

My Reading List: The Pregnancy Project

 

The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez

It started as a school project…but turned into so much more.

 Growing up, Gaby Rodriguez was often told she would end up a teen mom. After all, her mother and her older sisters had gotten pregnant as teenagers; from an outsider’s perspective, it was practically a family tradition. Gaby had ambitions that didn’t include teen motherhood. But she wondered: how would she be treated if she “lived down” to others' expectations? Would everyone ignore the years she put into being a good student and see her as just another pregnant teen statistic with no future? These questions sparked Gaby’s school project: faking her own pregnancy as a high school senior to see how her family, friends, and community would react. What she learned changed her life forever, and made international headlines in the process.

In The Pregnancy Project, Gaby details how she was able to fake her own pregnancy—hiding the truth from even her siblings and boyfriend’s parents—and reveals all that she learned from the experience. But more than that, Gaby’s story is about fighting stereotypes, and how one girl found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to forge a bright future for herself.