Our Masterpieces...Err, Our Novels

Monday, May 7, 2012

MAY I Tell You Something About...Our First Drafts!

Taken from rodneygainousjr.com
Writing Song of the Day:  "For the First Time" by The Script

Hello lovelies! Throughout May, we will be participating in the Blog Me MAYbe blogfest, which you can learn more about here. Since Mondays are all about telling you something dealing with writing, Quita and I thought we'd share some info about our new WIPs.


You see, we've been planning for WEEKS to complete a brand new WIP during the month of May--kinda our own self-imposed NaNoWriMo. We were going to give ourselves most of April to finalize our ideas and begin plotting.


And then April passed, and we still hadn't settled on which stories we wanted to work on.


I fluctuated between writing a companion novel to the last YA I completed, a dark story revolving around a love triangle, and a humorous tale about two exes setting up each other on blind dates. Quita kept deciding between writing a  supernatural historical story, or a contemporary thriller. But no matter how many times we plotted and tried to start the first chapter, nothing seemed to stick. These ideas were dying to get out of our heads, but the execution was always lackluster.

Finally, this past Sunday, we vowed to just write nonstop for two hours to see what we come up with. I've now settled on writing a contemporary YA retelling of Hansel and Gretel, and Quita's creating a historical YA about the bootlegging scandals in the 1920s (I think that's the decade--hey, she's the history buff, not me). With all of our recent whining, we finally found stories that we're excited to write.


The downside? In order to meet our self-imposed deadline, we have to hold off on reading Insurgent--as well as City of Lost Souls for me. :(


The upside? Once May 31st hits, we'll have some awesome novels waiting to be read--not to mention a juicy burger from Five Guys. If you've been a long-time follower of this blog, you know how much we loves us some Five Guys.


How are all of you doing with your writing? Any new stories you want to share with us? Also, do you have hard time, too, deciding which project to work on next?

8 comments:

Rachel said...

OMG Bootleggers of the 1920s? (Btw that is the right era, Pam). THAT SOUNDS SO COOL. As does a contemporary H&G. I'm dying to read them, so write them and get them to thy agents :-P

I just finished up my senior year O_O and now have time to get back into my WIP revisions. WAHOO! My goal is to have them done by end of August/September/October. (Its an R+R) I feel like its a reasonable goal and one that I can manage. :)

Stephsco said...

I like the 1920s era for YA - I was a little bit disappointed in one of the newer YA series covering that era, but there's so much opportunity there I think you ladies can make a great story. I'm loving that different historical time periods are opening up for YA lately!

It's always a tough call to put off reading to write, but those self imposed deadlines can work well to get a good start. best of luck!

Jennifer Pickrell said...

Hansel and Gretel is probably my fave fairy tale and a contemp version??? Heck yeah! And I just read a good MG about bootlegging, so lots of interest in that subject. Good luck, ladies, and have fun!

Katy Upperman said...

I'm holding off on INSURGENT too! Also, BITTERBLUE. I've bought them both and have them waiting in plain sight while I work on finishing my rewrite. Happily, I've been making some great progress, so I might get to read those novels yet. Happy writing to you both, and good luck! :)

Carrie-Anne said...

I'd love to read your 1920s historical, since that's one of my favoritest decades. I was kind of disappointed in some 1920s YA historicals I read recently; they just seemed too much like Gossip Girl in period clothes, without a real pervading sense of the era beyond outward things.

I finished up my YA historical and decided to use the rest of the material in the long short story/piece of backstory it originated as for a second volume. I'm really pleased I found such a natural break point, instead of just writing through to the end and then thinking about if there were a natural split. Now it just feels right that the story is in two books instead of everything in one, as much as I ordinarily enjoy crafting long sagas.

Patricia JL said...

Both your stories sound interesting. I just finished a first draft fantasy YA and had a new idea the other night I'm itching to start. I have a few other WIPs that I need to get finished as well before I start shiny new idea though.

Jessica Love said...

YAY NEW PROJECTS! They both sound awesome. Good luck, girls!

Claire Dawn said...

Just finished Insurgent :P

I'm also writing this month. I had this crazy idea about a book in 2 weeks last month. Only ended up writing 4 days. lol. But I've got 20K, so I'm trying to take that up to novel-length this month.

Good luck!