2011 Goals

Here are my writing goals for the coming year:

1. Edit Shiloh's Children well enough to show my family and friends
2. Enter at least 10 writing contests
3. Win NaNoWriMo 2011 with at least 100 words over the 50,000 words required
4. Finish the first draft of Ten Plagues

I chose number 1 as a goal because my family and friends have supported me for over a year and I have yet to show them any of my novels. I want them to see what I've been working on and what they have been supporting.

I chose number 2 as a goal because I want to have plenty of  writing experience to put on query letters I will be writing in the future. A query letter is a letter that prospective authors send to publishers. It gives the publisher info about the book and the author's writing experience. Contest wins and past publications are part of the letter.

I chose number 3 as a goal because I have won NaNoWriMo for the past two years and it is loads of fun so I definitely want to do it again. But, I have always just barely crossed the finish line. In '09, I was 54 words over. In '10, I was only 4 words over. I want to win by a little more than that this coming year, even if it's just 3 digits over instead of 1 or 2.

I chose number 4 as a goal because I would hate to leave this novel unfinished due to my lack of dedication to it these past two months. I love the story and my main character. Even though the going is slow on this book, I want to finish it. 

Happy New Year!

Ten Plagues Excerpt

Ok, so, I'm at 3,300 words. That's about 50 words a day since my last post. HA! That's pretty darn bad. I think this month has just slipped away...I've been trying to finish classes and swim team is keeping me pretty busy. But school is on hold for now and there won't be as much swim so I can focus more on friends and family and writing. Thanksgiving was great but seems like a century ago. Christmas is in 6 days and I still have presents to get, friends coming for a visit, and two songs/one monologue I have to get ready for a Christmas Eve service. I am preparing for the busy week ahead but want to write about 750 words a day if possible (check out 750words.com). That would add almost 10,000 words to my novel by the end of December if I could muster (yes, muster) the time to write that much. Really, 750 is not hard at all. And translated into book form, that's about 3 pages. 


Here is an excerpt from the prologue of Ten Plagues. My MC is named Jendayi but is called Jen. She is nine years old.

After she finished her chores, Jen and Ebonique, Jen’s older sister by one year, were playing in the street. They lived just on the edge of the Hebrew community. In fact, their house nearly touched that of the Hebrew homes. They dared not enter the defined threshold, though. The Hebrews were slaves. And although Jen and her family were poor, they were not slaves and they did not share the same beliefs as the Hebrews – an even larger reason not to associate with them.

            “Ebonique, you better get in here and finish your chores,” Jamila called to her daughter.

            “You didn’t finish your chores?” Jen asked with a laugh.

            “Well,” Ebonique said, “Not exactly,”

            Ebonique ran back to the house and Jen sat on the sand, wondering what she would do now that her playmate had to go. She stuck her finger in the sand and started to draw a simplistic depiction of a little girl. She soon opened her hand, though, and cleaned her drawing slate. She drew a little triangle next as she thought about the pyramids that surrounded the area. But that did not take long so she erased it as well. She now had no inspiration.

           Jen lifted her head and started looking around for something to draw. She caught a glimpse of the Hebrew community as she sometimes did but she never looked for long. This time, though, her eyes did not bounce away from the eyes of a little girl, a Hebrew, staring back at her. The girl looked about the same age as Jen but she looked so different. She had lighter skin, blonde hair, and bright eyes. The girl smiled at Jen. Jen looked away. 

Merry Christmas
I'm going to go write now :)