New Year's Resolution!

For 2011, my New Year's Resolution was to write three novels. I wrote two and a fourth. Or two and two sevenths, but I think the former sounds better.

This year, I plan on doing a few more things (which is probably silly, considering I'll be entering Junior year of high school) like...

• Complete three novels OR finish writing a series/trilogy (Nightland is a four-book series; Rush is the first in a trilogy)
• Edit one of my completed projects until I'm happy with it
• Read 100 books
• Be nicer to people

And those are my resolutions for 2012. I hope to get a jump start, considering how I have a whole week for break. Plus, I'll have a three day week in the middle of January. Then comes the two semester projects I'll receive... Oh what fun comes with this new year.

So, what are your New Year Resolutions?

Now NWO?

No, that is not a typo. While playing with the covers I make for inkpop (for my own projects, of course) I had an idea: a Novel Write Off! You may have noticed the badge (which I learned to make through Evie's blog post) at the bottom, on the side. Well, here's my idea for Novel Write Off!

-Pick three novels that you want to write/love the idea of.

-Once you know what novels you want to write, blog about it, along with what NWO is. (Or just leave a comment, telling me which three novels you want to write, and what they're about.) (And maybe add the badge to your blog. ;D)

-You will then wait for me to decide on word counts and dates. I'll make sure to keep them simple, especially since some are going back to school (including myself) and may be busy (like me).

-What we will do during these is simple: blog about your writing goals for the day, like what project you'll work on, how much you plan to write, etc.

And onto the point:

The point for this would be, if you are working on three novels (you could just work on one or two), is to write a certain amount of words for each novel. For example: from August 1st to 2nd, we'll write 2000 words per project. If you're working on two novels, 3000 words for each project. If you're working on one novel, 4000 words for it.

Right now, I don't know when exactly I want to start this, but I will definitely blog about it as soon as I have some suggestions/opinions. If you could answer some questions, I may be able to figure out just how much should be written during the first week.

1.What is the most you've written in one day?

2.What is the least, besides nothing, that you're written in

one day?

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I'll update my post and explain every question.

I hope to have a starting and ending date sometime this weekend.

In the act of defiance...

Lately, I've been thinking about NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what it is, let me explain.

For National November Writing Month, you write 50000 words throughout November, starting the minute your clock strikes 12:01 on November 1st, ending at 11:59 on November 30th.

Now, why am I thinking about NaNo so early? Because I now what I plan to write for that month, and have started planning. Yes, you're allowed to plan ahead of time, you just aren't supposed to start writing until November starts.

So, are you going to participate in NaNoWriMo? Let me know in a comment!

For NaNo, I plan to write Defiance: a utopia about a boy who joins a group of rebellions trying to make this Utopian world what it should be.

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

Pitch me!

So I've decided to start editing people's pitches. This could be for a query letter (though I may or may not be the best at that) or for a simple pitch you want to use on a website. Whatever the cause, I will gladly edit it.

And I may as well list a few things that turn me off from novels, be it in the pitch or first chapter.

#1 Mary Sue lived a normal life...
This is one of the classic first lines in a pitch that turn me off. If the life wasn't normal before, sure, say that in the pitch. But the reader should automatically assume that the character's life was, before the novel, normal. Which is why I, as a amateur author, avoid this. To me, it is like saying 'The sky was blue before the storm'. A 'no-duh' saying.

#2 Mary Sue's parents recently died...
This seems to another classic line found within a pitch. There always seems to be something wrong with the parents, which also bothers me. And then, within the story, there's the way the author goes about killing off the parents: car accident, usually during the winter. There is only one book that I've read where the parents died in a different type of accident not in the winter: The Wicked series by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie. The main character's parents die in a kayaking accident. This makes the whole 'parents dying' thing unique.

#3 The hook
This bit just talks about the hook of a story. Mostly the first sentence. Many times, the story starts off with either a bit of dialogue or description. To be truthful, description tends to bore me, though dialogue can be interesting. With dialogue, though, it is best to avoid using just the main character's name. That bothers me. And with the descriptions, they tend to be lengthy and not really important.
What I like in a first sentence is a sort of fact that goes with the main character, something that means a lot to the character or the story, or both!

Those are the three things, off the top of my head, that bother me in a pitch and hook. One thing that's nice to see in the first sentence of the pitch is the main character's first name. (Hint hint: some agents prefer to see a main character's name at the very start of the hook in the query letter.)

And now I wrap things up, because I've run out of things to talk about.
Thanks for reading!
-Dylan