Because I am a lazy person...

Actually, that isn't a very good title.

Moving on from that, because I have hardly anything to do this summer besides read, write, and drive, I thought I'd get back into critiquing things.  It's been ages (okay, since inkpop went poof, so a few months, right?) since I've critiqued anything.  So, I came up with a little idea: what if I host a giveaway, offering three prizes?  First prize would be a full manuscript critique.  Second prize, 100 page critique.  Third, 50 page critique.  If a lot of people like the idea (not a lot; maybe, oh, five to ten?), then I'll go ahead with the giveaway.

Plus, everyone holds giveaways after they reach their blogoversary, right?  Might as well hop on the bandwagon.

If you want to have a say in whether or not I should hold this giveaway, go and vote in the poll off to the side.  It'll be up until my birthday Monday, so you've got about a week.

And those inkpoppers who received a critique at least once from me know how I roll.  I try to be as thorough as possible, and will help out with grammar as well as character, plot, plot holes, etc.  I may as well do something for the next few weeks!

Peace out for a little while!  I'll be posting some reviews as soon as I finish the Need series.

... I think I've said that already, in a previous post...

Waiting on Wednesday (6)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week, I'm trying to wait for SWEET EVIL.  I read the first chapter of this book way back in 2010, when inkpop was still getting out there, and I was still rather new to the judging-a-book-by-its-content.  All I remember is that I absolutely enjoyed the first chapter.  I can't wait to read the whole thing.  Good thing it's coming out soon!  I just don't know if my mom's willing to buy it, considering the stacks of books in my room... I just might have to use some of my own money to get a book.

Sweet Evil
By Wendy Higgins
Publication Date: May 1, 2012


What if there were teens whose lives depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil.

Tenderhearted Southern girl, Anna Whitt, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

A cross-country trip to meet her father forces Anna to face the reality that hope and love are not options for her kind. When she confronts her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

(Goodreads)

So, what're you waiting on this week?

Happy Leap Day!

Today is a kinda sad day. It is the last day inkpop will be around, and I was only 9 days away from my 2 year anniversary!  Ah well, I guess I'll have to live.

But I think, at the moment, my writing's taken a big hit. I've always wanted to receive a review from HC, which was a pretty strong motivation to get things done, but now it's just like ... two more years until it is recommended that I can query (darn me for being so young, and agents wanting 17+ older query-ies if that's even a word). So, for now, I'll just try to finish my current works and see about

• editing them
• finishing a series
• and creating a writing/critique circle. You know, in published books, the author's always thanking a handful of people who helped critique the work? I wanna be in one of those. :o

And, I have no clue if I'll let people read my projects again. A handful of people who I email a lot, yes, but I don't know what else I'll do. (Speaking of which, I should email my friends the first chapter of Enigma  (Smolder rewrite)...)

Now I shall get to writing and help my mother make dinner. Happy Leap Day, and I hope all of you inkpoppers go far with your writing (same to everyone, too)! (And inkpoppers who need/want to contact me, I'm on wattpad.)

Oh look, a new idea!

Yes, I think I'm going to make a weekly Sunday appearance.  But, now that I'll have internet access whenever I go to my friend's house, that might change a bit.  I promise that, for next month, I'll be a little bit better at posting. (Even if I have an evil research paper due at the end of that month.)

As the title suggests, I've got a new idea. And (grand pause) it's contemporary!  (For those of you who don't know: I generally write fantasy or paranormal novels.)  I'm pretty certain it's a load of crap, as it feels like nothing's going on, so now it's time to fix things up!  (Hopefully...)

If you're interested in reading the accursed thing, it will be posted on inkpop on Valentine's Day, so just stop by my account and check it out.  (But be warned, it's horrible.) (I know, I know, I'm not doing very good at pitching this story.  I just speak the truth when I say it needs work, but that's predictable.)

So ... um ... yeah.  Let's see, I'm reading Everneath right now, and I don't know whether I like it or not.  Definitely not what I expected.

And I think that's it.  I need to get to editing so the Accursed Thing isn't so horrible when I release it on inkpop in two days.

For those American students who get tomorrow off, I hope you have a nice three-day weekend!

Ta-ta to all and have a nice day!

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award?

So, last year I wanted to enter, but I didn't have a completed manuscript. This year, I have two (Nightland and Rush). The problem is not only deciding between the two, but they both need editing. One doesn't even have a second draft. The other's second draft is far from completion. So what will I do?

Work my butt off one the one without a second draft. I don't want to enter the other one just because I really really want to work on that one more. And it has been, oh, at least six months since I've gone through it.

The first thing I should do is probably read through and fix stuff. A lot of stuff, like the opening. It doesn't really have a good one. Good thing I've got over a month, and winter break starts in a week. I hope I have the time. The other thing will be the motivation.

And, another thing would be some peer critics. (I don't really know what to do to find people.) I have a feeling I'll have to resort to inkpoppers to get some critiques, which is the opposite of a plan of mine. *sigh*

If you don't know what the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is, click here. And if anyone would like to work with me, I'd love to help out with your manuscripts! My critiques on inkpop are rather in-depth, and I won't be afraid to point out things, or help with grammar. Leave me a comment or shoot me an email if you're interest!

What are your opinions on the ABNA?

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The book I can't wait for is Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins. It comes out on May 1st next year. So long to wait. ;-; I got to read the first chapter before it was on inkpop.

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen
angels in Sweet Evil.

Anna, a tender-hearted southern girl, was born with the sixth
sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of
a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger,
but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring
Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her
will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned
you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

A cross-country trip forces Anna and Kai to face the reality
that hope and love are not options for their kind. When it's
time for Anna to confront her demons, will she choose to embrace
her halo or her horns?

Pitch from goodreads. What's your WoW this week?

NaNoWriMo, here we come!

Thus begins the last few days of the month. Which is really not good for me.

Why, you ask? Well, let's see...
My novel, Deception, is in inkpop's Top 5. Which means I need to make sure it is as close to how I want perfect as I can make it. And I'm only on chapter seven of twenty-five plus chapters. Not good, being that I'm adding scenes and rewriting things.

It doesn't help that I have to play at a football game this Friday, and then my school's hosting a marching competition Saturday. So I have the rest of tonight, Thursday, some of Friday and Saturday, hopefully all of Sunday, and then Monday night (yay for no rehearsal for marching band!). Not a whole lot of time. So, I'm partially freaking out.

And then NaNoWriMo begins a week from today. I've already planned the first three chapters for my steampunk, Wanderlust, which is good. I should be able to survive the first day or two. Then I have to plan. A lot. That's between marching band, football games, and competitions. Next month is going to be chaotic.

So, anything big coming up for you? Are you going to participate in NaNoWriMo? If so, let me know a bit about your novel.

Have a good day/evening!
-Dylan

How to Write a Novel

Some of you may know that I’ve written two novels. Only two, but this is something many writers find hard to do.

The first thing would be to find an idea that you just want to write. If you don’t enjoy the ideas you get, don’t force yourself through them.

To build onto this would be to plan the story. Of course, that depends on what works for you. Some just need a brief summary and build the story off from that, writing whatever comes to mind, while others write a synopsis with character plans. Either way, make sure you have something in mind so that when you hit a rough spot, you still have an idea to push the story forward.

The next would be to set goals. Notice how I didn’t say write? Well, when you have a goal (and a reward, of course), if gives some people the means to get stuff done. Maybe plan to finish this 50000 plus word manuscript before the end of the year. Have a daily goal, like maybe 500 words every day for the next five days. But if you have a sudden burst of inspiration and write more than 500 words in 10 minutes, make sure you keep going.

With plans and goals in hand, it’s time to write. This could be the hardest and best part of the process to write a novel. Some have already envisioned the first five chapters, but once you pull up Word (or Pages, you Mac owning people), the blank white page either inspires you to write, or you sit there for hours on end, staring at the chapter’s title.

This is where you can word vomit (writing everything and anything that comes to mind, not making sure it’s pretty), think so more, or force yourself to write (like using WriteorDie.com). Once the words start following, it shouldn’t be hard to work past the first chapter.

But if you end up staring at the screen after page one, it may be that you need to take a different approach to the chapter. That, or do what I do and force myself through the rough spots. They say that forcing yourself to write doesn’t help the writing’s quality itself, but rather getting through that spot so you can just write.

Once you’ve typed the last line (and survived through writer’s block), it’s time to edit. Do not start querying right off the bat. It is very likely that the manuscript has errors upon errors throughout the story. What you do now is simple: let the story sit for a month or two. The story is still fresh in your head, which means you need a distraction. Maybe start a new story and work on that until a month or two has passed.

Then you really start editing. What you do now is read through the story, maybe jot down a few character descriptions so Fred doesn’t end up as a blond one page, brunet on the other. This is also the time you cut out any unnecessary words and scenes (the things that don’t push the plot forward). Sometimes, you have to remove that character you loved so much, but wasn’t necessary to the plot. Plus, having a few trust-worthy friends (ones who will point out that a certain character never reappeared after chapter 2 and that there was a scene that left completely confused) read over the story helps, along with finding critique-circles. You’ll learn a lot from both experiences.

(Plus, there are many great reviewers on inkpop (and you could just post little sections of your story, if you’re worried about copyright infringements) that would love to help out.)

It is hard, but worth it when you can tell friends that “I’ve written a novel and I’m proud of it.”

This ends the novel writing process.

My next post should be about some writing quirks that can be hard for beginners—even hard for those who’ve been writing for years!

Yours truly,

Dylan

It is done!

Sorry that it's been so long since I last posted. Been quite a while....

Anyways, I have great news! I completed the 1st draft of Rush at 81300 words. Which means I get to now read over everything and fix up as much as I can before posting it next week on inkpop.

Great news, I know. Other than that, though, there isn't anything else that's happened, besides the fact that I wrote a short story. It can be found here. It's pretty short--only a thousand words. Hope you enjoy if you read it

.

And I don't really have anything else to say. I need to figure out what exactly to start talking about. Oh well, I'll manage to find something else to blog about. Maybe some editing tips....

Ta-ta!

-Dylan

Are you in a rush this summer?

I am, in a way. This summer, I plan to write a whole novel and edit both the novel I'm writing in a month, along with one that I finished in May. My New Year's resolution this year is to write three novels. So far, I have written one. But I do believe I know what the other two novels I'm going to write are.

The one I'm writing now is as follows:

Run, run, you can't catch me,

I'm the guinea pig of a scientist man.

Everette is a fifteen-year-old guinea pig in the eyes on the American government. For the past five years, she lived a meaningless life filled with bloodshed and death. She only sees two people throughout the day: the scientist assigned to her and a guard to keep her in line. But she's ready to fight back against the men who took her life away, ready to break free from the cell.

Once freedom hits, she runs. She, along with the eight others used as guinea pigs by the government, hides from these men--the people who want their pets back. This group of teens is done with the government, especially after the side effects that riddle their youthful bodies. Now they want the cure, one found in men and women who have these lab rats' new powers naturally.

This cure equals life for the teens, but with the governments' eyes always on them, always searching, there's no way in leaving the States to look for the cure, much less their San Diegan home.

All they ever wanted was freedom. Now a disease ties them all down, even with the beloved fruit close to their lips. Ever's job is to bring these two strange groups together, hopefully in time to find the cure.

Only time will tell, either taking their lives or granting them just enough time to find the cure.

That is the pitch for Rush, which will appear on inkpop.com on July 28th. Time will tell, on inkpop, if Rush deserves to be read by a Harper Collins editor.

Well, I just wanted to make a post. If you like the story idea, feel free to leave a comment!

-Dylan

Welcome!

This is just me writing a first post, because I really need to work on my online profile--or something like that. Anyways, this is my hello to anyone who checks out this blog.

I plan to review novels (I have quite a few to read), talk about what I believe makes up a good novel, and other random things about myself. Not a lot of things, I guess. But I will start off by saying that I'm an aspiring author who has completed one novel--which I'm currently rewriting. It may take me a while to actually finish reading a project. And another thing is that I love critiquing things. Right now, I am not really editing anybody's project. I'm also a bit busy with rewriting my own project and trying to get it noticed on inkpop.com to actually read over someone's project. But I will offer my editorial--no, I am not a professional editor, I'm still a high school student--services as soon as I get the time.

And for now, I will leave off as this. I'd love to receive any questions about writing, because I do know a good amount of things editors and agents may say. Leave a comment asking me a question that I could discuss in my next post.

Until then, I shall go off to write! Ta-ta, my little followers.