It's Tuesday... Where's the Teaser?

I have been hard at work trying to finish my first draft so that I am able to completely focus all my energy on finishing NaNoWriMo this November. I am very close to making my goal. Unfortunately, I will not have any teasers that are from the new writing as it may give too much away and it is all hand written in a notebook rather than on my computer.

Today's teaser comes from Chapter 10:

**Snipped**

Teaser Tuesday

I have not done a Teaser in such a long time. I hadn't written anything new in such a long time, but now that I have some progress in my WIP, I decided to share some of my new writing. This is an unedited first draft piece from Chapter 11.

**Snipped**

A Little Progress

I have finished two more chapters of my current work in progress, Serenity. I have an ultimate goal now set for this novel. I am aiming to finish the first draft by October 1. I want to participate in NaNoWriMo and actually stand some kind of a chance. Writing this story and attempting to write another story simultaniously did not work out too well for me at all. My head was too wrapped up in my first story. This year, my first story will be complete. Come October, I will begin looking at the fifty other ideas I have floating around, do some character profiles, some plotting, some outlining, and I should be able to choose one of my new ideas for November.

Cross your fingers for me that I may be able to accomplish this goal. Hopefully, the writing spike will equal a blog post spike.

Let me know what you think of my new blog look. I fought with Blogger for 2 hours last night trying to get it just right. Still not perfect for my tastes, but close enough.

Until I post again, thank you for following :)

No Postings

Well, my apparant lack of writing in Serenity has filtered into my poor blog. I am so sorry to all of you who check my blog and have found nothing new. I am horrible, but life has gotten away with me. Apparently, the days are getting shorter because I seem to be running out of hours in my day.

An update on my progress in Serenity, or lack of progress... I am still stuck, but I am working at getting unstuck. I have printed all of my current progress and I am reading through, hoping to get a feel for where I want the story to go. I do have a basic outline, but the next two chapters are a little difficult to shape into what I need them to be.

I will be updating the blog a little more frequently than once a month, but for today, I need to get back to my sick little boy.

Thoughtful Thursday

I have decided that I will not set any writing goals for myself. Yeah, do want to write at least 30 minutes everyday, but Serenity comes out better when I'm not setting a time to finish a certain part. Plus, with kids, I prefer to delegate my time for them and when I have something I need to write, I will. Yeah, a story won't write itself, but it won't come out very well if I try to rush it along. So, I will now set my new goal for Serenity. I will write the story when it needs to be written, not when I need it written.

There you have it, my reasonable goal. :D

Teaser Tuesday

This is from Chapter 9. It is very rough, so please forgive if it isn't fantastic.

*Snipped. Thank you for the comments!*

Wordle Word Cloud

So, out of boredom, I decided to place what I have completed of my first draft into http://www.wordle.net/ and it generated a word cloud.  I most definitely had an issue in the first few chapters with over describing eye movement... a lot of that junk will be cut out in my first full edit sweep.  My character names are HUGE, meaning I've used them the most in my manuscript.  I will be looking into ways to cut down the name usage.  Besides the overdescription of eye/ head movement, and overusing names, I think the word usage is pretty balanced thus far.

Quotable Thursday

Here are a few quotes in my WIP that I like.

He kissed her with a sudden fierceness and overwhelming passion.

A ghost of a smile twitched at the edges of his mouth.

Tuesday Teaser 01/12/10

Yet another Tuesday where my teaser is from an earlier chapter. This snip is from Chapter 5. Seryn, Xander, and Clay are walking to Esterial, attempting to race the darkness to get to Esterial (an old church) before creatures that thrive in the darkness can get to them.

**Snipped** Thank you for all the comments.

Monday Mayhem

Mondays, I hope to blog about my goals for my WIP during the course of the current week and keep everyone updated on my progress from the week before.

My goals for writing this week are:

• Write at least 30 minutes every day at naptime
• Write at least 30 minutes every night after the kids are in bed
• Finish Chapter 10

Currently, I have completed writing chapter nine of Serenity. I am anxious to get chapters ten through thirteen written so I can start with all the reveals. Chapter fourteen is where everything begins to unravel.

Serenity word count 01/11/10: 20,319

I would state a word count goal, but it would not work well for my writing style. I have found that I need to take this story one chapter at a time. Hopefully, I can have my first draft completed by the end of February.

Keep checking in for more updates.

Tuesday Teaser

This is an older snippet. I think it is from Chapter 7.

**Snipped. Thank you for all the comments. :)**

Tuesday Teaser

From my current chapter in Serenity. This is very rough.

**Snipped**

It's Tuesday Teaser Time! (On Wednesday)

This is from Serenity. Seryn is running after Clay and Xander is close behind. This is a first draft and very rough.

*SNIP*

Tuesday, but no teaser... yet

Hey all! I think I may finally be in the writing groove today. Nap may prove to be an inspirational time for me today ;) Well, I hope to get something written while the munchkins are down for nap. If I am able to get something written, I will share a snip with you.

Meanwhile, if you haven't seen the blog: The Bookshelf Muse: Massive Followers Contest!, I recommend checking it out. It is a great resource for writers. They have put together an Emotion Thesaurus, a Setting Description Thesaurus, and a Colors, Textures, and Shapes Thesaurus. Plus, for reaching 100,000 hits to the blog, they are running a contest. Check it out!

NaNo = Not This Year

I starteed NaNo before finishing the first draft of Serenity. Not a very smart move considering how different Serenity and Undo are. I could not invest in Undo with Serenity reeling through my mind. So, to be fair to Undo and its characters, I have decided to drop from NaNo this year. It was not a fun decision, but word count was severely suffering and the story was going nowhere fast. There is always next year. Of course, once Serenity is complete, I could challenge myself to completing the first draft of Undo in 30 days. Hmmm.

Final word count: 3,405/50,000