What's Up Wednesday

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk that allows us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's going on in our crazy writer lives.

What I'm reading

Three words, you guys: THE DREAM THIEVES. Oh man. So, I'm not sure if I've talked about my favorite book that I read last year, but it was THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater. Following at a close second was THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater. As you might be able to tell, I have a thing for Maggie's books. I've never read something and been so overwhelmed with how pretty the sentences and paragraphs are but these books do it to me every time. I actually took a picture of one paragraph and saved it in my phone as "What Character Descriptions Should Be Like!" Maggie just has a way with words and THE DREAM THIEVES, which is the follow-up to THE RAVEN BOYS is everything I hoped it would be. I'm a little bit obessesed. Just in case you couldn't tell.

Read them!

What I'm Writing

I'm still working my way through edits, trying to strengthen it wherever I can. I love this book so much, but honestly, I'm not sure I planned for anyone else to read it when I wrote it. I just wanted to write something different from what I normally do. I grinned and giggled a lot while drafting it and it's probably the most fun I've had writing a book. Which says something because there is probably nothing else in the world I love doing more than writing the first draft of a new book. I need to get it done though because The New Idea was ok'd and I'm ready to roll with it for NaNoWriMo!

What Else I've Been Up To

I probably picked the wrong season to do this, but I've been dragging myself back to the gym these days. Maybe it's because all I want to do is eat and bake and bake and eat, and if I don't go to the gym I wont be able to fit through the front door, but it's happening. I'm not one of those people who loves the way I feel after the gym (normally just tired) or feel a runner's high (I'm convinced it's a myth made up by personal trainers) but the big 2-9 is coming up, so that's motivation enough.
 
What Inspires Me Right Now


I think writing is what's really inspiring me right now. As I've mentioned here, I'm working a lot and last week I didn't have a chance to write or edit at all until the weekend. When I was finally able to sit down and put words together, it was almost like I exhaled. It just feels right, which sounds cheesy but it's true. Hell, I'll take my Writer's High over a Runner's High any day. ;)


What's up with your Wednesday?

Thoughts on a Friday

Okay, so you know you haven't blogged in a really long time when your blog host changes the entire layout of things and it took you five minutes to figure out how to post something new.  Whew!

Anyway, the Semester That Will Probably Kill Me did not, in fact, kill me, but it was hairy there for a while.  I was hoping to graduate this summer but due to mix-ups and the universe's hobby of making my life more complicated, I have to make it through the fall semester.  The bright side is that the classes I have to take are fun, besides one math, but I'm in denial about that right now, and it won't be as intense as this one.  Look who is focusing on the positives! *pats self on the back*

So I plan on finishing up revisions on HOOD now that I have a little more free time along with beta reading and reading new books because, you guys, I haven't read a book in over a month!  I know.  I flew through the last two books of the Hunger Games when the movie came out (my feelings on that series would take another blog post, maybe two) and since then I haven't touched a book.  I'm remedying that this weekend.

Since I do have more free time, I'd looove some book recommendations.  I have a small pile that I need to get through right now, but I'm hoping it won't take long.

So, what should I read?

Monday Writing Meme

Which words do you use too much in your writing?   "Just" haunts me.  I probably use "anyway" waaay too much.  And in the latest WIP I'm revising, I wrote the word "alien" like it was my job.
Which words do you consider overused in stuff you read?  I've noticed a lot of "startled" lately.  Characters startling all over the place.
What’s your favourite piece of writing by you?  I can't really choose.  I love all of them differently.
What blog post do you wish you’d written?  Oh, I don't know.  I'm sadly not up-to-date on popular blogs.
Regrets, do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadn’t written?  I wish I hadn't taken so much time off from writing a few years ago. 
How has your writing made a difference?  For my life, writing kind of keeps me sane.  My head starts to get very jumbled when I don't write.  I don't sleep well and am just in general not fun to be around.  Although, I've been told I'm not fun to be around when I'm really into a WIP either, so who knows...
Name three favourite words  Any curse word, asshat and fantastic.
…And three words you’re not so keen on  I'm not really sure.  I'm not big on all of the startling, that's for sure.
Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?  Everyone who writes is an inspiration to me.  I like knowing everyone's stories and processes.
What’s your writing ambition?

Just to make people not want to put my book down, to meet readers and write books until I run out of ideas.

 

The voices in my head won't shut up.

This post might make me seem a little crazy... well, a little more crazy than I've already admitted to being, anyway.  But I'm going to admit it: There are people living in my head and they won't shut up.

As you know, I've been working on revisions of MISFITS.  I'm at the print-it-out-and-be-picky stage, which I'll start this weekend.  I've held back from writing MISFITS 2, so I don't get anything mixed up between the two and to give myself a bit of a break.  But then, last Wednesday I woke up with this girl in my head telling me about her life and how the first chapter of her story will start. 

Obviously, I don't actually have voices talking to me but I have all of these people, stories and worlds in my head and it makes me feel a little bit nuts.  I have three stories taking up room in my mind that have me researching some things for The New Story, trying to add oomph to MISFITS and thinking about how that story will continue in the sequel.  It's so much that I'm having trouble sleeping.  My mind simply won't turn off!  I love the new ideas but oh, how I love good sleep...

On the other hand, I can't even tell you how excited I am about this new idea.  It's way out of my comfort zone, the new main character is going to be a handful and I'm thinking I'll actually start working on it when I finish my revisions on MISFITS with hopes of being done before November.  This means I can spend NaNoWriMo working on MISFITS 2.  I would wait on this new idea for November but it's going to involve a lot more research and as much planning as I can do without going crazy. None of that lends itself to writing quickly for me.

Um, crazy is a huge theme of this post.  Let's ignore it, huh?

Anyway!  I'm headed out of town on Wednesday for my sister's wedding, (second time's a charm!) and will be away from humanity, (read: In Delaware) until Saturday.  Maybe a long drive will help clear my head.

So, am I really crazy?  Or are these people in my head something all writers deal with?  Or are we ALL crazy?

-Brandy

Quick hello!

It's been over a month since I blogged last! How in the world did that happen?

Well, actually I know how.  For some reason I thought it would be smart/fun/a good idea to sign up for three intense summer courses (I'm desperate to graduate, really) and these courses basically stuff everything that you would learn in a full four month semester into one month.  It's not just my online friends who haven't seen me lately... no one has.

I haven't returned e-mails, I haven't tweeted as much and obviously, I haven't blogged.  So if you're waiting to hear from me, give me a day or two and I'll be back in action.  I'm currently procrastinating while I should be finishing a final project, and decided to post something to explain my absence.  So I'm not back for real quite yet.

A quick book/writing update:  Somehow, I found time to do my first round of revisions on MISFITS during these intense classes.  I still love this book and actually can't wait to dig into it for the second time... I'm thinking I'll end up doing three to four rounds, reading it a different way each time, whether on my Nook, laptop or on paper.  I have three weeks off before a very full, but not nearly as intense, fall semester starts and I'd like to be done revising by the end of August.

Also, while I'm revising MISFITS I'm working on a new WIP.  I swore on Twitter I wouldn't talk about it, but I'm among friends here, right?  Right.  So, the other night I accidentally sat down and wrote the first chapter of MISFITS 2.  I know, I know.  You shouldn't write a sequel to a book that hasn't been repped or sold yet.  I know.  But I've been in a tiny (read: HUGE) funk lately and while I sat around wondering what I could do to cheer myself up, I realized it was writing the next story for my MISFITS characters.  I'm only doing this for me, and I swear I'll write something new in November for NaNoWriMo.  MISFITS 2 is really just me wanting to write it, without thoughts of what will happen when I put MISFITS 1 out to agents.

Oh, wow... so this wasn't as quick of a post as I thought it would be.  I should go finish this project.  After that, I'll be back for good though.

I MISSED you all!

-Brandy

Can't stop, won't stop.

So, last week, a week before my self imposed deadline to finish my current WIP, I wrote the last word of my first draft.  Exciting!

As I mentioned in my last post, I'd kind of been immersed in writing , so much so that my friends were begging to talk about something else and my first readers were tired of the 20 questions (fine, 100) that followed everything I sent them.  I'm not saying I was mean, really, just... focused on getting answers.

Anyway, I love what I have, although since the book took a little bit of a turn as I wrote it, I know I'm going to have to re-write a lot of the beginning.  After my last revisions on KC, I feel like I have a better idea of my revision process although, (like I do about everything else in the writing world) I worry that it's completely the opposite of what I should do and what everyone else does.

First off, when I'm working on a WIP, I write 2k words a day.  I'm a pantser, so I don't outline or anything, I just jump right in.  I'd like to say that I don't write on weekends but that kind of goes out of the window when I really get into the groove of writing.  I actually took two days off before finishing this WIP and started recapping when I wrote again, like I was starting the second book and needed to remind the reader what happened.  It was a mess and I think I was doing it for me because I felt like I hadn't written in MONTHS but really I just took the weekend off.  Anyway!  I don't like taking time of from writing.

I always read and revise the previous chapter before I write a new one, just to get back into the groove of what my characters are up to.  These aren't in depth revisions or anything, I'm basically catching myself every time I write "my" instead of "me" which I do ALL THE TIME and I don't understand why.

On Wednesdays, a slow day life-wise for me, I double up.  I've dubbed this Double Up Wednesday, which is really just a way for all of my friends and family to know that when it's DUW, I don't want to be bothered.  On these days, I try to write between 4-5k but I split up my writing.  I've got this weird eye thing happening, where my eyes get really sensitive to light if I'm on the computer for a while, so I take a break and go to a bookstore, lunch or even grocery shopping.  Anything to get away from the WIP and the computer.  The bookstore always helps get me motivated to write more because I see all of those fancy, shiny books and I want one to be mine.  I love DUW.

All of this means it normally takes me about a month to write a first draft.  I know a lot of people say to walk away from your WIP for a long time but I can only last about a week, which I'm in the middle of right now.  It sucks.  Next week though, I'll dig back in.

What I feel is weird about me, (in a long list of weird things) is that I don't cut down my word count during revisions, so much as add them.  Sure, I cut scenes that I don't think are needed or that slow down the pacing but I still end up adding words.  I word build a lot during revisions, and add things that only finishing the first draft can show me need to be added.  During my last revision of KC, I added 4k words.  And I cut out a lot.  Weird.

Then, of course, I read the WIP somewhere around 9,849 times.  I read it on the computer, on my nook, printed out, on the comp again, maybe one more on the nook, who knows?  It's just a lot.  And this time, I'm going to send this (as well as KC) out to beta readers.  I'm on the hunt now in fact, so if anyone is interested in reading my stuff, let me know.  I'd totally be willing to swap too.  And then maybe we'll be friends forever.  Probably.  In my head, we will be.

So July is my revision month and hopefully I have a new, shiny idea for another book while that's happening, so August can be a writing month, followed by September being another revision month.  We'll see how that goes with school.  All I know is, November is officially reserved for NaNoWriMo.  I'm so stoked for this because I've never been able to participate because of The Old Job, which maybe I'll talk about soon.  The only thing that will interrupt this will be a day to celebrate my birthday and a day to celebrate my little baby niece's first birthday. (And of course, if an agent wants to sign me before or during November, I will do whatever the hell the ask me to do.)  Other than that, I'm writing.  I need a doorknob hanger for that!

So what's your process like?  And don't forget, anyone interested in being a beta for me, let me know.  Remember the lifetime of friendship, okay?

-Brandy