Late and Incomplete

This never happens to me. Ever. I am never late and I always finish what I start. But both have happened this week.



Late:
I turned in an almost-3,000 word essay to FEE for the Bastiat Essay Contest on January 15, 2011. The original due date for the contest was December 15, 2010 and they extended the deadline to January 10, 2011. Somehow, I got confused and thought the due date was January 15, 2011 (the day I turned it in). I never ever turn things in late... but five days late? That's pretty bad. And pretty disappointing. So, after spending a good 50+ hours on that essay over my Christmas/New Year's break, I turned the essay in five days late and it will not be considered for the competition this year.

and

Incomplete:

I have not finished My Holiday Novel on time. I am not quite half-way through Ten Plagues (I am on chapter four of ten). So, even if I wrote all day, it wouldn't be complete. But, I kind of saw this happening at the beginning of January (as you might could tell from my 2011 goals). I will finish the first draft of this book sometime in 2011, though. I like the story and the characters and I'll keep working on it. Not completing a project is rare for me, but this time, it just happened. I wrote about 6,300 words these past three months which is probably about 6,000 more than I would have done otherwise. So, this was somewhat successful but it is still incomplete.

Bastiat Essay

Back from my vacay -- had a blast! Now I just need to get back to writing. Half a month left in My Holiday Novel challenge -- we'll see what I can do with it. I wrote a few hundred words on the trip. Not a whole lot but at least I did something. I am finishing up an essay that is due today for a competition that is about Frederic Bastiat's book "The Law". After today, I'll get back to Ten Plagues.

Frederic Bastiat

Aim High

I am almost done with Chapter 3. I could cut it off where it is but I'm going to try and add a bit to make it a little longer. Right now it's about 1,400 words. The whole book is past 5k now :) Chapter 3 is about gnats - so gross! And Chapter 4 is flies...not a whole lot better. Actually, not better at all. But all ten plagues are awful so, you can't really compare them. I asked my mom which one she would hate the most...she couldn't decide. She finally decided the tenth plague (which involves a lot of death) but all are sad and miserable.

Ahh, vacation coming up! The holidays aren't over yet! And I'm taking my computer to work on Ten Plagues and to work on an essay for a competition. The essay is due by January 15th. After I turn that in I'll have one of ten writing competitions on my goals list complete! I heard on the radio the other day that in order to ensure that you achieve your New Year's Resolutions, you should "aim low". You know what I say to that?

"Lame." 

I would like to achieve all four goals I listed on this blog  but even if I only achieve half of them, at least I did that much. Aim for the moon and if you miss at least you land in the stars, right? Aim high! Dream big! But keep everything in perspective.

Again, happy new year! I'm glad it's January.

A Bit Behind

*cough cough*

Ok. So. The 750 words a day thing didn't exactly work out. I am now at a word count of 4,375. I wish it were more. Not to mention that I am in chapter 3 of... 10. At this rate, I won't finish the first draft until October 2011. I cannot let this happen! Even if I don't finish the challenge on time I can't be eight or nine months past the proper deadline! Oh dear. I have only just begun chapter 3 but I am going to try and finish it today.

On the flip side, my New Year's celebration was so fun! We went camping from December 31-January 1 at a camp site about two hours away. Some friends from Austin met us there. We just visited mostly and had some s'mores and cider. I was so cold that night in our tent that I didn't get much sleep. But all-in-all, a great way to start 2011.

I'm going to go write now.

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 :)

A Slow Start

The first eight days of My Holiday Novel have gone by with. . .not much. I have written around 1,300 words which is. . .not much. And I am still in the first chapter which is. . . not much. At the same time, I did not set a word count goal for this novel or this challenge so I can't say I'm really behind or anything. I hope to finish chapter 1 by Wednesday, though. I have 10 chapters to get through and possibly an epilogue so I need to get a move on. That's a little more than a chapter a week and it has already been a eight days.

So, not off to a great start with this one but I am off to a start.

As far as the story goes, I do like the plot. I went with the Bible story idea. My novel is third person but I am focusing on a little Egyptian girl who sees firsthand the ten plagues that God inflicts on Egypt. Throughout the story, she begins to loose faith in her gods and goddesses and wants to know more about the Hebrew God.

Turkey day is this month! :)

My Holiday Novel - Writing Challenge for the Holiday Season

Anyone want to join me? I am not naming a specific word count, although you can if you would like. I just want to write a novel for children over the next three months and hope to get someone to join me. My targeted age group will probably be 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. I have an idea based on the old fairy tale The Water of Life and an idea based on a Bible story. 

If you would like to join, please let me know by commenting below or contacting me another way. I begin on November 1, 2010 and end January 31, 2011. To complete this challenge you must start and finish a children's novel in the alloted time. No word count is set, just complete the first draft of a children's novel. Please note that "novel" probably means more than just short story length; then again, that would depend on what age the children are you are writing to. 

If you are doing NaNoWriMo (as I often like to do but already did this past summer), you could kill two birds with one stone and write a children's novel in November having it count for both challenges. Or, just work on My Holiday Novel in December and January -- completely ignoring it in November. Or another variation... Whatever fits your schedule and your stories best. 

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Happy Holidays!