Getting words on the screen

Last fall during NANOWRIMO, I discovered an amazing tool that helps me to push past hiccups in my writing.  I can't take credit for the idea, because it wasn't mine, nor can I give credit where it's due; I don't know who came up with it.  But IT WORKS!  I find on a good day, I can write up to 500 words in my novel in 15 minutes.

To some, that may not be impressive, but at times when you're struggling to get the words to flow, 500 words in 15 minutes is HUGE!

So, here it is, my secret to getting words on my screen:

Word Wars and Word Sprints

You may be shaking your head and thinking, yeah whatever.  But maybe that's only because you don't know what they are.  Relax and be rest assured, I will explain.

First of all, word wars (ww's) and word sprits (ws's) are pretty much the same thing, but some people use one over the other for whatever reason.  And that is okay - you can too!  Here is what they are:

You and 1 or more writerly friends (because it only works if you have a little friendly competition -- not that writing is a competition, because it's not -- neither are ww's or ws's -- it's just for fun and word count, people -- jeez!)  Okay, back to the subject at hand.  You and 1 or more writers meet online - or in person if you have a writers group - and you set a timer for X amount of minutes.

I like 15 minutes because it goes fast and I find myself racing...myself at times.

While the timer is counting down you write.  Write hard and write fast.  Get those keys clicking and fingers moving.  At the end of your set time period, everyone posts how many words they were able to write, knowing some will write 53 and others will write 867.  And that's okay -- I promise!

Whether you write 53 or 867 words, it doesn't matter, it's not about the number.  It's about getting the words on the screen and making progress.  You'll never write a novel if you don't write the words.  Trust me, it's true.

So, if you're looking for friends to do some ww'ing or ws'ing, post on Twitter or Facebook or any other social media outlets you're a part of and start filling your screen with the words.  All the words.

And they're off!

My query letters that is. Phew! Chasing Forever is now in the hands of several amazing agents and now I wait. And wait.

Here is the final draft of my query:

Dear AGENT,

In twenty-year-old Jemma Bowers’ life, rules are not meant to be broken, even if she’s the one who created them. Friendships have boundaries, relationships mean trouble and don’t even get her started on sex. Haunted by the death of her mother and then at an early age, her father’s abandonment, not to mention a traumatic miscarriage at seventeen, Jemma finds herself hungry for something normal but is afraid of what may happen if she chases after it.

Jemma always dreamt of marrying a rock star and when the rocker of her dreams ends up in her care (okay, so maybe she kind of kidnapped him) she begins to feel she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Jemma finds herself caught between the troubled rock star, Jordan Capshaw, her teenage fantasy crush and the real-life affections of someone she never saw coming. A budding romance with Vic Harper, a swoon-worthy firefighter from her past, and the failing health of the one person Jemma could always count on, just may be the driving forces to push Jemma to break the rules she created three years ago in order to protect her heart.

CHASING FOREVER, is a new adult contemporary romance novel complete at 71,000 words, and is told from two points of view about a girl who tries too hard to keep her distance in order to save herself from heartbreak and a rock star determined to prove his father wrong and find himself along the way.

Thank you,

I'll keep you all posted as much as I can!

Juggling editing and writing

I'm often bombarded by characters or story lines and find myself jumping projects quite a bit.  However, over the past nine months, I've worked hard on focusing on just one novel at a time.  Has it been easy?  No.  There are a few things I've noticed which creep their way in trying to distract me, and now that I know what they are, I know to avoid them.  Sort of.  Hey, I'm doing my best.

But, here I am finished with, let's call it Project K (since I have a bunch of projects before this one), and working on editing.  Let me tell, editing is So. Much. Fun.  Please tell me you can sense the sarcasm...Yes?  Anyway, now that I'm editing Project K, my son keeps bugging me to finish Project I, which I will do...when I feel inspired.  But in the meantime, I wrote a tiny little blurp for a contest and I would love to work on that one, Project J.  Of course then there is Project L which I posted here on the blog a couple days ago.

Project L is what a REALLY want to be working on - because the story is there and ready to be written.  The characters keep pestering me to write them and so I'm finding it hard to juggle the editing, which I NEED to finish and the writing, which I WANT to do.

So how do you choose?  Do I have to choose?

I don't think so.

I've decided that while I want to write (and will) on Project L, I'm going to set an editing timer and do at least two 30 minute to 1 hour editing sprints each day until I finish it.  Which, in the grand scheme of things, shouldn't take me too long since I'm 2/3rds of the way finished with round 1 edits.

So, wish me luck.  I'm going to need it.

New Project in the planning stages

I'm a sucker for matching actors/actresses to characters in my novels because it helps me really hone in on their physical descriptions. It's also fun to imagine those actors/actresses actually playing the characters. So, now that Chasing Forever is in it's editing phase, I'm ready to start planning out my next project! Yay!

Honestly, I don't have much "story" to go on yet, but the characters have been popping into my head lately and I wanted to share them with you.

First, is the leading man in the story. He's quiet and reflective, deeply passionate about his younger brother's success in the world even at the expense of his own possible failures. He's more interested in living in the moment than planning for his own future. He doesn't do relationships, he thinks they're messy and doomed to fail anyway.  At this given moment, he is nameless in this new story, but I'm sure it will come to me soon.

Jai Courtney (Terminator Genesis Jai Courtney, not Divergent Jai Courtney)




The leading lady is in a way opposite of our leading man. She's a planner, scheduler and likes things in a precise way. She's not afraid to go after what she wants when it comes to jobs or schooling.  She expects perfection in everything she does as well as those around her. 

Britt Roberston (The Longest Ride not Tomorrowland)





The younger brother is a senior in high school with excellent grades.  He's smart, amazingly athletic with a full scholarship for soccer.

Phillip Phillips (see, him and Jai Courtney could actually be real brothers)



The friends, what is a novel without it's supporting characters?  Well, these are the people who help our main characters get through the book.

Maia Mitchell


Chris Egan


The brother's girlfriend is clingy and doesn't want him to go off to college and leave her.

Elle Fanning


Alright - that's where I'm at right now with the planning, I have a long way to go, but it's a start.

This week in Twitter Contests

Oh man, this week has been crazy for me!  Which is a good thing, I promise.  It started on Saturday when my oldest son turned 8 and was baptized!  On the same day I took part in #CPMatch on twitter.  CPMatch is where you post a quick tidbit about your book and see if anyone else in Twitterland, who also has a finished manuscript, wants to become a critique partner.  Well, I ended up with two and both their books are so great so far!

Then fast forward to Wednesday.  Wednesday was holy-hecka crazy.  Two Twitter contests and I took part in both.  The first was #Pitch2Pub and then later in the day was #NewAgent.  Whew!

#Pitch2Pub required you to create a 140-character pitch to give to 27 publishers.  If they liked your pitch they would favorite it and then you submit your book to them.  Well, I had 6 publishers give my pitch a favorite.  SIX!

Here is my pitch:

20y/o fix everything Jemma takes in substance abusing rock star crush then finds love in the one guy she never coming. #Pit2Pub #NA #CON #R

Let me tell you, summing up your novel in 140-characters is NOT easy.  I wrote at least a dozen before settling on the one above.  I'm still researching the publishers and will be submitting my manuscript to at least two of them soon.

And back to #NewAgent.  So this contest is a little more intense.  It's a mentoring contest with published authors and new agents in the industry.  It sounds like an amazing opportunity and I hope I get selected.  For #NewAgent you submit the meat of your query letter and the first 250 words to the host and then the mentors read through them and select the ones they are considering mentoring.  They had over 250 entries, so my competition is fierce!

Here is what I submitted:

Title: Chasing Forever
Word count: 71,000
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Query:

Twenty-year-old Jemma Bowers always dreamt of marrying a rock star and when the rocker of her dreams ends up in her care she begins to feel she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll don’t have a place among the rules she’s created to avoid heartbreak.

Troubled by the death of her mother and then her father’s abandonment at an early age, not to mention a traumatic miscarriage at seventeen, Jemma finds herself caught between rock star, Jordan Capshaw, her teenage fantasy crush and the real-life affections of someone she never saw coming. A budding relationship with Vic Harper, a swoon-worthy firefighter from her past, and the failing health of the one person Jemma could always count on, just may be the driving force to push Jemma to break the rules she created three years ago in order to protect her heart.

CHASING FOREVER, is a new adult contemporary romance novel complete at 71,000 words, and is told from two points of view about a girl who tries to hard to keep her distance in order to save herself from heartbreak and a rock star determined to prove his father wrong.

First 250 Words:

I haven’t kissed anyone in over a thousand days, so when my date, Cody, leans in for the customary end-of-the-first-date-kiss, I step away, bringing my fist to my mouth and pretend to cough.

“Sorry,” I say, quickly trying to come up with a valid excuse as to why I dodged his kiss.

“I’ve been fighting a cold or something for a couple days.” Lame? Yes. Effective? Apparently. He backs away, shoves his hands in the pockets of his khaki Dockers and clears his throat.

“Alright, well…goodnight. I’ll call you.” He walks away from the door to my dorm and I have the distinct feeling I’ll never hear from him again; so much for Trish’s attempt to have me break my no dating rule.

“How’d it go?” Trish asks eagerly as she looks up from painting her toenails an obnoxious hot pink color. She’s wearing a thin-strapped pink camisole and matching pink shorts. Her silky black hair spills over her bronzed shoulders and not for the first time, do I wish I had her body. Instead, I’m stuck with my five foot four inch frame with subtle curves. I’m stacked well for my size, but if I had Trish’s height I might feel more comfortable in my skin.

I plop down on my bed, which sits across from hers, sigh and pull my pillow over my head. “It was fine until the end and I pretended I was coming down with something so he wouldn’t kiss me.” I cringe as I await her reaction.

Round 1 edits under way

Ahh editing, the joy of every writer.  Can you sense my enthusiasm?  Round 1 will likely take me a couple days and then its off to a few beta readers.  And then more edits, yay.

But the good news here, is the first draft is finishes which means it's one step closer to publishcation!

And the end is near

So the title has grown on me and Jemma, Jordan and Vic's story is coming to a close.  I'm so excited to be finishing up this novel though I can admit, I'm not looking forward to the editing phase.  Writing a novel is almost like adding another child to your family - a part of you feels very maternal about the whole thing.  The great thing about that is novels don't eat!

So what's next?  As I mentioned, editing Chasing Forever.  Then I will finish up Terry Tarantula and possibly do some more drawings so it can be ready for pitching in August to agents.  And finally, I have a story in the plotting stages that I'm anxious to start writing, but will hold off until Terry is finished.