VIVRA'S WORDS

I'm still here...

2010-01-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

Still here but still exhausted after the holidays! Happy New Year, by the way.) Weather here in East Texas has turned a wee bit chilly--just now, at 4 p.m. it has reached the 30F mark (-2C). My home country (Britain) is suffering under several feet of snow with more expected--brrrrr, too cold for me.
I really don't have too much to write about yet. The Husband and I have just become--ugh--Great Grandparents. Our oldest granddaughter had a baby boy, Traycen Wesley Munn, on December 28th--mother, father and baby doing fine. He weighed 6 lbs 7 oz.
I don't mind the idea of being a Great grandparent--what horrifies me is that my daughter is a Grandmother--hard to believe.
This is all for now, I'll write more when something eventful happens in my writing life.

Old Year's Resolution! And Lots of Words--yeay!

2009-12-08T10:03:00.000-08:00

Wow, nothing on here since July. So, I've made an "Old Year's" resolution--I will blog more often from now on.
As for the "Lots of Words"--how about 50,800 in 30 days? That's what I did during November. I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is the annual challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days--and I did it. So now I have a wonderful 50,000 word outline for my years-in-the-planning story involving four hundred year old witches and a parallel universe.
Of course, the really hard work starts now--editing, revising, expanding scenes, deleting scenes. Well, any writer reading this knows what I mean.
I also found out that the son of a good friend in the UK discovered this blog, which means that if the blog reaches way across "the pond" I had better start posting, so that there will be something here to read.
I will report frequently about my novel-in-progress--hope to "e-chat" again soon.

Long time No post!

2009-07-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a while--not too much happening in the writing category! However, at the last meeting of our local writing group (East Texas Writers Association, hereinafter referred to as ETWA), we had an interesting discussion about prologues. We were having a critique session; I had taken the prologue I've written for RAVENWOOD PORTAL --my work in progress YA novel. I used the prologue to set the atmosphere for the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say.

The discussion centered around the fact that most editors did not like to see a prologue and very often would throw out, without reading, manuscripts that began with a prologue. Many suggestions were given as to how I could set the atmosphere and describe the happenings set forth in my prologue, by interspersing details in the story itself. One idea attracted me, and I will experiment with it. I won't mention what it is until I feel comfortable using it--I think it will work wsell, though.

Ironically the very next two books I read--both by favorite authors--began with prologues!
♦

Still Trial-ing

2009-06-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hey, I have a follower! Thanks, Jody.

There's a benefit to putting a manuscript away in the back of a file for a few months (ha--try years!) When it sees the light of day again, it reads totally different than it did when put away! I recently brought out a short story I wrote some months ago, called The Wisteria Vine (working title.) I took the first five pages to our East Texas Writers Association (ETWA) meeting for a critique session.

I had to read it aloud first, then receive feed back from the members. One member took her copy with her and yesterday I received a wonderful written critique, and I saw my manuscript through somebody else's eyes--very clearly.

Based on her suggestions/recommendations I am revising the whole story. I totally agree with her criticism--and know it will be a much better story when I'm through.

This is all for today--now I've got to read up on this follower business and find out what I have to do (if anything.)

Introduction

2009-05-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hello, this is really just a trial run. If it looks good I will try to write something here every (other) day or so.

My next post will tell what I am working on now in my writing. The novel I'm working on has taken several years to incubate! Things seem to be falling into place, however--I was trying to control my protagonist and she wanted to go her own way. So I'm letting her. I wanted her to be a typical American 19-year old with an attitude--she considers herself above that, and sensible with it. So I have to give her other character traits, stronger ones than merely attitude.

More later...