YA and Beyond discussion

Hey, folks.

I'm just gonna take up one thread here. I'll post one comment per challenge I'm doing this year, for this group and others. After(if) I complete them, I'll copy them from here and paste them where they need to go.

ABC TITLE CHALLENGE:

26/26

A:
B:
C:
D:
E:
F:
G:
H:
I:
J:
K:
L:
M:
N:
O:
P: *graphic novel
Q:
R:
S:
T: *graphic novel
U:
V:
W:
X: X-iles(not on the site)
Y:
Z:

ABC AUTHORS CHALLENGE:

13/26

A:
B:
C: Emily Carroll
D: James Dashner
E: Ellery A. Kane
F: Brian Farrey
G: Gene Luen Yang
H:
I:
J: Erika Johansen
K: Kazu Kibuishi
L: R.L. LaFevers
M: Maggie Stiefvater
N: Patrick Ness
O:
P:
Q:
R: Robert Kirkman
S: Michael Scott
T:
U:
V:
W:
X:
Y: Rick Yancey
Z:

COVER COLOR CHALLENGE:

I'll give it a go.

Blue Cover -

Green Cover -

Red Cover -

Black Cover

White Cover

Yellow Cover -

Pink Cover

Purple Cover

Orange Cover

Gray Cover

Brown Cover -

Colorful Cover

SERIES CHALLENGE:

I'll go for Hands Are Full - Finish 5 to 10 series.

13th Reality - 4/4

Raven Cycle - 3/4

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel - 6/6

Vengekeep Prophecies - 3/3

Vampire Academy - 2/6

Theodosia Throckmorton - 4/4

Monstrumologist - 4/4

Bone - 9/9

Amulet - 6/6

Series completed: 7

Wow. I am impressed with your challenges! We used to have monthly group challenges similar to these - maybe we should return to them.

Heidi (Yup. Still here.) wrote: "Wow. I am impressed with your challenges! We used to have monthly group challenges similar to these - maybe we should return to them."

Hey thanks :) I'm more of a long haul challenge guy, but if there were similar monthly challenges, I'd definitely check them out.

way cool Tommy! That's a lot of challenges. Yea, we had those before but we can always resurrect it if people want ^_^

I should add to my challenge list:

I want to get 2 books written and ready to submit. Whether they publish or not, who knows, but I want to finish 2.

Good luck Tommy!

Hey thanks :)

I second Heidi's remark.

Thank you guys both so much! Now knowing that folks here know about it I feel more pressed to go go go! haha.

I did a bad thing. I didn't want to, but I decided it had to happen. It's related to one of my goals for the year. Specifically, this one:

Tommy wrote: "I should add to my challenge list:

I want to get 2 books written and ready to submit. Whether they publish or not, who knows, but I want to finish 2."

I had a first draft over halfway finished. Well over halfway, actually. Perhaps 2/3 of the way finished. Well, I quit it :/ It was a dystopian I was writing in full on pantser mode(no plan, no outline). And it wasn't bad, but somewhere along the line, I lost steam. I took a day off from writing it, which turned into a week, then a month, and before I knew it I just lost my love for it.

I decided to just pull a Frozen(Let It Go) and move on to another story that's been kicking in my head for years. I'm going with a different approach and outlining like crazy. So far I have 12 pages of outline and am not done. And I am REALLY loving it. I think this is a step closer to what will be my ultimate writing style. I'm still going to aim at two books written, but if I only finish one, that's okay. PROGRESS!

Sorry Tommy! I am sure you will find inspiration elsewhere. Good luck!

Good luck with your new story, Tommy! And who knows, maybe you'll return to the first one eventually. It's always okay to take a break and come back to it. If it still has potential but you need to re-work it, you can also totally start over––which is something I tried recently, and it actually worked out! :P

better to write one book you love, than two that you rather you didn't!

Good luck on your writing steam this time around.

Thanks, guys. It's weird because from a reader's standpoint I do like the story, but from a writer's standpoint I'm just not feeling it. So much happened to keep me from it for so long and when I was able to get back to it I just couldn't. Maybe I'll restart it at another time, if not I can always mine it for gold to apply to other stories :)
This new project is something that's lived in my head longer and I am really excited about it. Instead of having to force writing time I'm having to force myself to get away from it to do other things haha.

I think your plan sounds best Tommy. Good luck!

I finished chapter one of of my first chapter today :) Gonna start chapter two but gotta be awake for work in 6 hours so I can't do too much tonight :/

Yay Tommy! :)

Karen wrote: "Yay Tommy! :)"

Thank you :^]

I finished chapter two tonight as well. I'm gonna try to have it finished, edited and ready to pitch by August at the latest. A tall order, considering I've never finished a novel draft, but I think(or at least hope) it's doable haha.

Since my last post I've finished chapters 3 and 4 of the first draft :)

p.s. I'm sorry if using this thread as a kind of writing journal isn't appropriate, and will stop if told to. I don't want anyone to think I'm just trying to bump my own folder. It just felt appropriate to post such things, since putting this out this year is technically a 2015 book goal of mine.

Anyway, mods, let me know if it's not okay, because otherwise I'll keep at it haha. Having a public progress tracker(even if only a few might look at it) feels like it will keep me motivated. I don't want to look the fool when my posts or progress just stop haha.

Haha well personally, I don't mind! Congrats on getting those chapters done. :D

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Haha well personally, I don't mind! Congrats on getting those chapters done. :D"

Well, thank ya. And thank ya haha.

Keep using it if it helps Tommy! Keep up the hard work :)

Thank you kindly :)

Been in a bit of a writing slump. Still managed to write everyday, but very little. I think with the things life throwing at me, mixed with how much nonsense(of the very awesome variety, like Goodreads haha) that I have to keep up with when I sit at my computer to write have been too much.
So I decided that after chapter 5, which I just finished, I would switch back to writing it out on paper, thus eliminating said awesome nonsense while writing and putting it in the back of the line where it belongs.
I want to be a professional writer who publishes stories in many formats(novels, short stories(check), comics(check-ish), TV shows, movies, etc. And the only way I'm gonna do that is to make sure I'm spending ample time DOING it.
So you may see me here a bit less, or at the very least in focused slots of time when I'm not either working, writing, or reading.

Best of luck Tommy!

It's impressive that you manage to write every day, even if it's not a lot! Ever since I turned in my senior project about two weeks ago, I haven't written anything ... I want to finish something that I haven't worked on in almost a year, so I've been trying to re-read it and familiarize myself with it again, but it's taking forever. :P Anyway, writing by hand is not a bad idea. I've tried that a few times in the past few months to try to eliminate distractions.

Hey thanks :) And best of luck on your writing. Maybe we'll be reading each other's books someday.

Best of luck to both of you writers!

@Tommy - Yes, I hope so! :D

@Heidi - Thanks!

What's your story about, Brigid, if you don't mind me asking? If you're one of those writers that keeps it to themselves til their done, I won't be offended. Just a bit curious.

I don't mind! Well, I have two main projects right now. One is the book I started for my senior project, which I plan to continue: It's about a fifteen-year-old girl who lives in rural Ireland in 1846, just as the potato famine starts. She has to take care of her mother, who suffers from hallucinations––but then she starts having visions of her own, of a parallel faerie world where she is trying to help a boy find his lost soul. So ... it's historical fiction with some surreal Irish mythology and stuff!

The other thing I'm working on is this book I started like three years ago. It's basically a zombie apocalypse story, and focuses on two girls who team up to kill lots of zombies. :D I just really wanted to write something that focused on female friendship, because there's not enough of that in YA. And also ... zombies. :P

What about you? What are you writing about?

I would legitimately read both of those. I don't typically go for historical fiction, but the mythology would pull me in. And zombies! haha.

I have a lot of ideas and semi-started projects, but the one I'm working on right now is about a dead boy and girl traveling through the afterlife in search of loved ones. The boy(who is technically the main, though it is very much a co-captain deal) is trying to return to life and get back to his still living sister who is now without him in an abusive home, and the girl is looking for her parents, who are dead and somewhere in the afterlife.
They meet three sisters--one missing here eyes, another her ears, the other her tongue. The sisters tell the kids that they can introduce them to a man who can help them both in exchange for them retrieving said missing things.

So the majority of the book will be the search/retrieval of those things, I suppose.

FINALLY finished chapter 6. I fear I won't reach my goal of having this pitch ready by August(that's 1st/2nd draft, beta read and final edits) unless I hit a stride equal to or greater than the writing slump I've been in these past few weeks.

Work, life, and other people just drain me. Just leave me alone and let me write! Haha.

People drain me too Tommy!

Heidi (Yup. Still here.) wrote: "People drain me too Tommy!"

Right? I like you guys much better than real life people. I prefer my friends as little icons and following words.

hahaha I love my GR peeps too Tommy!

Tommy wrote: "I have a lot of ideas and semi-started projects, but the one I'm working on right now is about a dead boy and girl traveling through the afterlife in search of loved ones. The boy(who is technicall..."

Whoa that sounds amazing! I will totally read it if/when you ever need beta readers. :)

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Whoa that sounds amazing! I will totally read it if/when you ever need beta readers. :) "

Hey, thanks! And I will gladly extend the same offer to you, whenever you're ready to have a pair of unbiased eyes look over your work. Us writerly folk gotta stick together :)

So, good news/bad news for me.

The good news: Writing is going well. Things may be back on track.

The bad news: My laptop died, taking all of my written on the computer stuff with it. chapters 1-4 are savable since I emailed them to my gf to get early thoughts, but 5 will just have to be written again which will slow the train.


So, I guess I'll be on here much, much less haha.

That really sucks Tommy. So sorry :(

Using my gf's laptop now. Chapters 1-4 recovered and working on writing 5 again. I HATE having to go back and write again before finishing the draft and it will almost definitely hurt forward momentum, but, that's where I'm at.

Then I'm gonna copy 6 onto this computer and get back to writing 7.

Phew!

Tommy wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Whoa that sounds amazing! I will totally read it if/when you ever need beta readers. :) "

Hey, thanks! And I will gladly extend the same offer to you, whenever ..."

You're welcome! And thanks, that would be awesome!

Sorry your laptop died, that sucks. :( But I'm glad you were able to recover most of what you've written. It's difficult to rewrite something you've already written, but I've found that sometimes it's actually quite helpful––because I think you end up keeping the parts from the original that worked well, and subconsciously leaving out the parts that weren't working as well, if that makes sense. :D

Yeah, I wanted to avoid rewriting until draft one was completed, but it is what it is. The chapter is looking better but taking so much longer than it should haha. It'll still get there, though, so it's okay.

And as far as reading each other's stuff, feel free to send me a message whenever you want a read and we'll go from there :)

Generally I don't do much rewriting until I've finished at least a first draft, but I've been in situations where I kind of wrote myself into a corner so I couldn't really take the story further without rewriting. :P Anyway, I'm sure your chapter will turn out great!

Sure, thanks! I will let you know. :)

I'm so in awe with authors. I really dont know how you guys can jyst write a book withouy ot being all jumbled up in your head. Seriously, when i think of a great book to "write" all i can think of is the beginning and the ending. Hahaha...! I give you guys kudos!