What's Up Wednesday

Posted by Raven M on 2:53 AM in goals, nico, reading, ready. set. write!, starfall, unfair, what's up wednesday, writing,

 

 What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk where writers post about what's up by answering four questions. If you want to participate go here.

WHAT I'M READING

I finished Faking It by Cora Carmack a few days ago and it was much better than Losing It so if you're looking for a well-written NA Contemporary Romance I highly recommend this book. I'll try to get a review up sometime soon.

I won Slammed in a contest along with a few other NA books so it looks like my summer is going to be NA-tastic. I also still have a lot of other books to read, so I think I'm going to be covered reading-wise for the rest of the year. I've never read anything by Colleen Hoover but I like her writing style. It's simplistic and even though I'm the kind of person who likes to read books with descriptive writing (because it's the way I write) it's nice to read different writing styles, you know? The main character Laken...well let's just say we have a love/hate relationship. I was about ready to throw my Kindle the other day because of something she said and...ugh.

This book is taking me a long time to read but that's mostly because I spend more time writing than reading. Speaking of which...

WHAT I'M WRITING

So the good news is: Starfall has a new beginning. I really like it and it's an improvement from the last one because things are happening and it's not boring. Bad news: The writing is not going as fast as I want it to. I know what I want to happen in this chapter but finding the words to write it is difficult at the moment.

Here is the new and improved beginning:

 

Seren

I notice two things when I pull up to my house: there’s a van parked in the driveway with Curly’s Carpet Cleaning Service printed on the side and the front door is wide open. None of this would be a problem if we had carpeting in any of the rooms in the house, and if my mother had been home to let them in.

Three weeks.

That’s how long it’s been since we spoke to each other. I have gone over our last conversation so many times in my head, trying to see if something she said would give me an idea of what could’ve happened to her, but there was nothing. We talked about the usual things. How sophomore year was coming along, whether I was seeing anyone, and if I remembered to take the taser with me whenever I went out at night with my friends. My mom wouldn’t care if I was failing all of my courses and thinking about dropping out of school to be with a drug dealer twice my age. Just as long as I had the stupid taser she made me promise to never leave the dorms without, everything would be okay.

I would be safe.

But now it seems as though she’s the one who’s in danger.

I decided to participate in Ready. Set. Write! so I can get some writing done this summer. If you want to know more about it go here and (if you're interested) sign up. I am excited about working on Starfall now that I have a shiny new beginning and know how the story is going to end. I even typed out the last line. It feels good having a starting and an ending place. It makes writing this a lot less scary and more hopeful...like I can actually do this.

I'm looking forward to having people to write with this summer. And since I haven't talked about goals, here are a few that I want to reach:

• Daily Goal: Write 500-1,000 words every day. If I can write more than that, then that's fine but if not...that's also fine. Just as long as I'm writing.
• Weekly goal: Try to churn out anywhere between 3,000-5,000 words a week. I'm approaching the 1K mark, and would like to have at least 4K written by Friday, and around 6K written by the next What's Up Wednesday post.
• Summer Goal: Since Starfall is outlined in Acts/Blocks I want to finish half of Act 1 before I go back to school. I think that's around twelve chapters, but I'll have to double-check to make sure. If I somehow (magically) reach this goal early then my goal for the rest of the summer will be to finish Act 1.

I might add to these goals/revise them but as of now this is what I hope to get done this summer. (I also have a super secret side-project called Unfair. It's a darker retelling of Snow White and the only thing I'll say about it is that it's not about Snow White and...apples of the poisonous variety are involved. If you're curious, you can find Unfair's Pinterest board here. I'll work on it to keep myself writing whenever I need to take a mini break from Starfall or get stuck. I might tell you guys more about it if it ends up going anywhere.)


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

My wip is actually what's inspiring me right now. I can't wait until I get to write the action scenes and when both of my MCs lives really start to change. I'm excited to see how both are going to react to the situations that I throw them in. Poor things...the next couple of chapters are going to be tough.

Also, have you ever dreamed about your wip as a movie? Sometimes I just sit and daydream about what Starfall would be like on the big screen. I want it to have the same feel as Alias with a dash of Men In Black and Falling Skies thrown into the mix. If Starfall ever gets published and someone decides to turn it into a film, he might be a little too old by then but Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy is what Nico looks like in my head (especially in this picture and this one) and he would be perfect for the role.

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

Nothing much. My birthday is on the 21st (which is next week Eep!!!) though and I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do. I'm thinking about going to go see Monsters University (I'm a big kid...I know) since it comes out that day and then out to dinner with my mom. Hehe, can you tell I'm not that big on birthdays?

How about you guys? What are you up to this week?