My NaNoWriMo's Novel

"Disaster! Complete disaster! No matter how I imagined it I predicted everything going wrong, from all angles."

So begins Marty Day's journey. She trying to live a christian's life in a dangerous place and failing.

So far my word count for NaNoWriMo is 5,041

yeah I'm behind. But I have a plan. Put butt in chair and have an award program for reaching so many words through out the day.

Surrender of a Siren Book Review

Tessa Dare's second book "Surrender of a Siren" is better then her first book! Her strong plot run smoothly from cover to cover. Sophia is a living breathing person from the first page. I cheered for her the whole way, hoping she receive her heart desire. Gray, the hero.... aha what not to love about a pirate... I mean a ship captain . I don't want to give the plot away but I enjoyed this book. Tessa Dare belong on the shelf right next to Julia Quinn!

Rush to the nearest bookstore to buy this book and all of Tessa Dare's books! Put this author on your "can't wait for in 2010" book list. She has a new trilogy coming out next summer!

What books have you read lately you want to shout to the world about?

This blog need some work!

I need to work on this blog, update the links, and change the placements.

Julie and Julia

Julie & Julia is a movie for the girls, weather it with your girlfriends, your mama, or your daughter and if you can’t find a girl to go with, well take your guy he might learn a thing or two from this movie! This is a movie worth seeing! I give it 4 ½ starfish!

About Me

Hi, thought I share a little about me.

Name: Annie Gray

Email: AnnieLGray(at)gmail.com

Genres: Teen and Tween – Contemporary Fantasy, Adults - Christian Contemporary

I love zinnia. How they can be so many different colors and shapes, oh I just love it! I have some on my kitchen table now. Pinks, reds, and yellows, so pretty! LOL!

My books:
-On the Wings of the Dawn: A Contemporary Teen Fantasy, (Work in Progress)
-Always Keep Faith: (working title) A Sci-Fi Teen Fantasy (First Draft)
-The Truth About Angels and Demons: A Contemporary Teen Fantasy (Idea)
-Sky Princess: (working title) A Tween Fantasy (Idea)
-No title: An Adult Christian Contemporary (idea)

found a day job

So I finally found a job... with benfits! Benfits are always a very very good thing! I also going to give writing my christian fanasy novel another go.

God Bless You, and Your Dreams!

What do birds have to do with writing?

What do birds have to do with writing?

I intend to have an answer to that question as I read "Bird by Bird; Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott.

Re-plotting

I re-read my first draft. Calling it a long outline is more correct then a first draft. To put it mildly it needs a lot of work!
For starter it more then a one book outline, more like a two books outline. I kind of hope a three books outline. How cool that sound! But three books outline is pushing it. So I'm taking what happened in the first 80 or so pages and re-plotting the first story.

So off to the drawing board to re-create my characters, plot, and background.

Later,

From Amelia Earhart

"Fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life, and the procedure, the process is its own reward." - Amelia Earhart

I need this quote posted where I can read it everytime I fear writing my stories or working on my rewrites!

voted off (your secondary characters)

Last night (Wednesday's night) to the shock of many Alexis Graces was voted off season 8 of American Idol. Ryan say at the beginning of every show "Anything can happen" and last night it did.

Now how to transport this into a lesson on how to write... Well I don't know about other writers, but I always have to many secondary characters in my story. People tell me all the time that my stories are confusing because the reader can't tell who talking or doing what.
So I have to "vote off" my secondary characters. I have to look at their performance to decide who stay and who goes.
Are they written well?
Are the a "whole person" or a "stick drawing person"? What i mean are they well developed or are they flat on the page like a stick drawing a child does.
And most important Do they move the story a long?

Dear Reader,
Do you think the judges and the people who called in made the wrong decision by letting Alexis go? Also what do you think of secondary characters you come across in books, TV shows and movies. And writers what do you do about your secondary characters?

Characters' desires

Dear Reader,
For you to enjoy a book or any other type of story, do you have to know what the main character wants or desires?

What is the character's desires in your favorite books and what are the titles of those books?

And other writers, how do you chose to express your characters' desires?

Characters' habits

The best way to change a bad habit is to change it to a good habit. We are creatures of habits might as well have many good habits vs. having many bad habits.

I think when I notice a character in a book having a habit, good or bad, it make them more human and real.

I often write my heroes running their hand through their hairs when nervous.

Dear Readers,
what habits do you notice in books or real life? If you are a writer what often show up in your books?

Rewriting- my first mistake

Turned out the best first step to rewriting a novel is to take a break from the first draft. *Laugh* I knew this but I didn't give myself a break. I jumped right in and started trying to fix the first problem I came across. A bad begining. Then in turn I decided I need to start over and just write the story again. I didn't give my story a chance before I decide to change the whole thing.

Last night I read in an article on the Writer’s Digest website that you need to take two weeks, at least, off from your first draft. A month is better but who can wait that long? The article was titled "Revising Your Manuscript"

So I'm not to think about Keep Faith for two weeks. No more trying to change it, for now. ;)
Then once the two weeks is over, I'm to read my story as if it's a book I just brought. And go from there!

Oh my the way, for Lent I'm staying about from reading others' blogs. So my Internet friends I'm be back commenting on your blogs after Easter!

So
Dear Reader
What do you do to remove yourself from your first draft?
or
What do you do to escape the world about you?

Are your characters normal?

I heard this Title of this book yesterday, "Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them" by John Ortberg. I laugh everytime I think of it. I haven't read it but I bet its funny.

Anyway,
Are your characters normal? I hope not! I hope they stand out and have something loveable about them, hero and villian.

So Dear Reader
What not normal about your characters?
And yes I'm trying to answer that story about my own characters. Luke is the flirty, charming bad boy who might turn out good. Marty is .... well I'm having a harder time getting to know Marty. I don't want her to turn out like me, I want her different. I have a bad habit of creating heroine who have my personality traits, so I'm working on that. Starting with Marty.

A writer's woe

In the world of writers there is a lot of criticism about our works. Some days we take it well, others...not so well.

I have had a bad week of not so well. First I posted the end of a chapter on Miss Snark's First Victim. Great blog, by the way. In her drop the needle critic section for this month. I had so many grammar errors everyone who commented thougth English was my second language. I laughed, everyone I shared this comment laughed too. I made fun of it.

It sat in the back of my mind every time I sat down to try to rewrite my story. In those times I did not find it funny. The serpent, who some people named self doubt, and others have a different name for him, had crept in. I just took the time to check a dictionnary to see if crept or creep is correct. In case you are wondering I had creep written first. People I found this comment funny because I have an hearing loss, I know for a fact I don't hear the ending of words. So I mess up on present and past tense when writing as well as when I speak. People always want to know where I'm from. At the time I posted part of my chapter I was not thinking about my grammar. In fact I believed I pretty good grammar. Wrong! I glad I know now. I'm taking it with a big shovel of salt.
And then today I sat in my writing class after reading the first two pages of my YA novel, taking more criticsim. This time I'm told I need to state what my main character wants. While I had a hook, no one could tell what my MC wanted. The teacher also said a few things, basicly saying I had to learn how to set up my plot. Needless to say, I wanted to quit.
By the way, I'm not quitting!
I'm taking the writing class for a reason. To learn!
So back to the drawing board.
What does my main character want?
At what point does she start wanting it? Start the story there.
Find out how to increase tensing in plot.

Dear Reader,
What do you think?

Feel that Fire

When it come to romance in real life, is wanting to feel that "click" on the first date realistic? Or should we want take things slow and go on a few dates before we pull the "lets be friends" line?

Dear Reader,
What do you think?

February Goals report

January thru March goals
February Report
Write 2nd draft of Keep Faith
I realize what is wrong with my story and now (fingers cross) I'm ready to begin.
Start Memoir of an Angel Seer
Ideas and words are floating around in my head for this one. I ever have a different title now.
Write on my blog everyday
As you can see I did not write everyday in January. So new month, new attempt.
On the first of every month I hope to write an report on how I’m coming with my goals.
It is February 3rd, only a few days off. Not bad, not good either.

top of my TBR pile

1. Inkheart by Cornella Funke (on night stand)
2. The Guardian by Dee Henderson
3. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
4. Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn
5. Kansas Weddings by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Writing Workshop Intro

So today I started a writing workshop. I want to share something I feel is very important. The teacher said when you don't know where to start, start anywhere and write, and write, and write, and write, and write... When you get to the end look back and decide what goes well with the ending.
Really he said write that many times, actually I think he said write more times then that!
oh and he said don't worry.
So
write, write, write until you have no more to write
and
don't worry!
It's your first draft!

No more FEAR!

No more fear! If you have heard me say I'm scared to rewrite my story then I'm sorry I said it to much. Today I'm turning over a new leaf! Today I start my rewrite!

a trip

Tomorrow I'm going to Florida. So really my goal to post everyday just isn't working out. To many days where I draw a blank on what to post about.

On the Write side of my life
I realized what wrong with my story. The last 20,000 words or so what don't go with the first 15,000 words. They are two different stories. I realized that my heroine doesn't need to run away, she leave the plot behind. There really isn't any story after that part just a set of events. The story really take place in the first 8 chapters. I need to keep her in one place and have her faces her monsters head on. It'll make the story more interesting.

What problems have you noticed in your story once you started revising?

Revising started today

I'm now revising my "long outline" I'm working on ch. 2 of the long outline. It's now ch. 1. Ch. 1 in the long outline was not needed. It was just me trying to get into the story.

No Guts, No Guy

A few years ago my college roommate and I read an article titled No Guts, No Guy. We were both transfer to a new school and wanted a new start. We were shy each in our own way. So we made a banner to go across out dorm room's doorway. In big letters it said NO Guts, NO GUYS. And in our case it was true. We didn't have boyfriends or any guys to date. It seem like a good way to encourage us to smile, flirt and have a good time.

The same is true for heroines in novels. Most heroines have guts! Or if she doesn't get grow braver and stronger in her journey. She get the guy because she out there making then world better or worse in same cases. The point is that no guts, no guys is so true in novels.

So what is your heroine doing to show she has guts and will get the guy in the end? Mine is trying to save her father.

Be Bold!

So since it a new year I want a change. One of the quickest way to have a change is to have a hair cut. For the past few weeks I desired the Pixie also known as the Chop. I think there a few more names for this hairstyle. Only today I changed my mind. Right now my hair is pass my shoulders. So maybe a Pixie is too bold, so now I'm thinking a Bob. If I like my hair that short maybe later I'll ask for a Pixie.

Courge

Right now I'm sitting in Best Western breakfast room, listening to chairs squeak, a 24 hours news channel, and people waking up over coffee and juice. I'm visiting a small town in south Alabama, to hear Bill Johnson preach about supernatual courge. If you think about it, God gave a good many people in the Bible supernatual courge.

If anything is misspelled I'm sorry my connect is weak so it not going to spellcheck.

Later,

dog lovers

I think dog lovers need to go see Marley and me!

2009 Goals

2009 Writing Goals

Write an 2nd and 3rd draft of Keep Faith.
Write Memoir of an Angel Seer
Write Good vs. Evil (Working Title)
Write Daily on my blog

January thru March goals

Write 2nd draft of Keep Faith
Start Memoir of an Angel Seer
Write on my blog everyday
On the first of every month I hope to write an report on how I’m coming with my goals.