Writer Friday: The Story Lives

I have officially decided to dedicate every other Friday as Writer Friday. On these days I will post something about the current status of my writing/stories if not a tip/trick/topic that any who wants to is more than welcome to respond to. So, to start us off, this Friday is a quick review of what I am actually writing and where I am.

 "Eyes on Fire"

This is the main novel that I have been working on and is kind of my biggest baby. The story came from a dream I had of this very vivid scene of a girl making a pact with a spirit to save her own life. The story of why this happened to her evolved in my head over a few years, then one summer I became compelled and wrote the remainder over a period of about 3 months. The story is now sitting at 90% done, with the end waiting for me to actually put it to paper. At that point it will need to be read through and edited.

This is the novel that I want to send out for beta reading, edit, and send to publishers. If I go into a Ph.D program that allows me to use past work, I would like to have this be my main work as well. This story does have a sequel, but it is bare bones in my head at the moment.


"WTTS" [Working title]

The working title of this book is "window to the soul" and focuses on a girl who can see into others souls via their eyes. The idea that the eyes are the "window to the soul" is a very old proverb that has always intrigued me and quite honestly, I think could really be true. So the idea came to me, "what if you really could see into someone's soul through their eyes...or worse...mess with them?" Thus, this story was born. The main idea had been bouncing around my head for a few years until the story finally came to me.

I have just begun writing this story since I stalled on EOF, so I have maybe 30+ pages on it. I am still hammering out the plot, but I have at least 50% of it figured out. This is a companion piece to the book below and is in the same realm as EOF.


"CC" [working title]

CC is actually the abbreviated title for an anime that I got the tiny, tiny inspiration for this story from. The main reason that this story exists is because it's main character popped right out at me and stated that she has a story to tell. Her story is pretty much known to me and how her story fits in with WTTS is also clear. The rest, however, is not so clear. I have some plot written for this and a little bit of the main characters' back story so that I remember it for when I start writing.




If anyone here is interested in beta-reading any of my stories, please, I would love to hear from you. I have at least one that's ready and perhaps that would get my booty in gear to being active on the rest of the.

Writer tip: Write. Write write write.

[Writing] Some of that Writer Input I was telling you about.

Not only do I hope to give those who read this blog some input on the novels that I think are shining in the YA genre, but also some input from a YA Writer herself. Over the next few months I hope to post on topics including "characters that sound similar but aren't", "writing is like a marathon", and "writer tough love". Until then, here is some info about me as a writer to wet your palate.

A little about me and my writing experience: 

The very first instance I remember creating stories was probably when I was about 4 or 5. I had gotten together a bunch of toys and had created this whole elaborate story line (a princess was in danger, a prince helped to save her, there were some evil henchmen) which I actually think was stolen partially from Beauty and the Beast. I remember being so excited about the story that when I had come to the end of the tale, I tried to set it up again and act it out for a 2nd time.

As I reached the ability to write my ideas down on paper, I did so how ever often I could. At the time, it didn't even occur to me that I could physically write these things down. My first full length, written out story was a fanfiction for Amelia Atwater-Rhodes nyeusigrube vampire world. That was my crack. I started writing fanfiction (fiction written by using already existing literary works and expanding upon them) like it was my business. I believe I have about 15 or 20 different stories for about 5 of my favorite shows as a middle/high schooler. Sadly, I was only ever able to finish perhaps one.

To this day, my inability to finish a story I have started still haunts me. My process is one that most writers would caution against. I like to work out a story in my head, and then, when I feel comfortable about it, I write it down. Slowly and surely, I've been putting myself through "write it down" boot camp, which actually propels my stories further. A lot of my stories also come from dreams I have. My very first novel series came from a dream that I had that was so vivid, I was forced to write it down. As I began to ask why certain things occurred in the dream, the story itself came to me.

As of now, I am working on two stories in two seperate veins. One only needs its ending, and the other two are currently being written. Writing, to me, is a release. It gives my brain a chance to take all of the things it sees in one day and allows me to form those thoughts into ideas, those ideas into voices, and those voices into characters who try to find their way in the worlds around them.

In Which I try to do NaNoWriMo....again.

Soon it shall be that time again!

And I shall be trying NaNoWriMo....again. For those of you that don't know nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. From November 1-30th the goal is to write a novel, ie 50,000 words.

I tried this event last year and failed miserably ( I never started). However, I think that my problem was that I tried to start it with a new story and got stuck in the brainstorming. This year I already have a story in mind and I'm going to use NaNo to flesh it out. I think that way I'll be much more productive and actually be able to get it done.

So wish me luck! Here is my NaNoWriMo site!! Keep posted!

In the Beginning

There was a blog. (As I'm sure you've already learned)

Origins
You see, this one time a young woman, who had just graduated from College, had a life altering summer. In an effort to create something productive out of the lovely black hole that ensued, she decided to start a blog, chronicling her efforts at the one thing that she never lost, writing.

The Blood and Guts....so to speak
Within this blog you'll find an array of things such as sections of my actual projects, things that inspire me, insights on my process, and anything else about my writing that fancies me. Hopefully, this blog will follow me as I attempt to start my second novel and go back and do some writing on my first. You might find some insights on my reading life as well, as I have a pile of 50+ books that need reading and I am very far behind.

The Name, The Name
For the curious. The origins of the name of this blog "Last Exit in Ohio" comes from a sign I saw while driving back from college a couple of years ago. The sign literally said and was the "last exit in ohio" and there was something infinitely poetic about that. I always aspired to give that name to my imaginary band (cause doesn't that sound like a GREAT name for a band?), however, I think naming a writing blog after it is just as honorable.