It's Complete!

I finished my novel, well not complete we (mom and I) need to edit it and I need to send it into some publishers, but on the writing aspect it's all done. I finished it with 205 pages a little over 90,000 words, and a feel of accomplishment. When I started this novel/memoir I never thought of having it get so long, I've never written over 100 pages, so why would I think that I would write a novel, that I could possibly publish? It was mainly started because I was moving, and I didn't want to move. One of the easy things that I've found with writing this novel, is that when you're writing about stuff and feelings that you've had makes it easier, but when you go into areas, like college, that you haven't experienced then you go into the "fiction" part, and it is very hard to do! But all 205 pages are written. For my Languge Arts we're doing letters, so instead of writing some letter to some invisible company, mom (aka: my teacher) said that I should write the cover letter to publishers, so I can kill two birds with one stone. I am now trying to find publishers that would work with Young Adults, and Young Adult books, so if any of you know of one in the New England area, and would like to let me know, that would be great, as an author it would be greatly appreciated.

Since you listened to me talk about the book, I'll post a page up for you guys. It's from the section 11 Months Before

I wake up and find some warm clothes to stay in, since it is too cold in the morning to wear a dress at the time of the sunrise service. We get there a little bit before the service starts, and I am wrapped up in my blanket because it is just way too cold to be out here. Robyn comes over and you can just look at her and she looks like she is cold.

“ROBYN! I am cold! I say and I run over her and she takes an edge of my blanket and now it is the both of us under the blanket, which I do not mind, she’ll keep me warmer then Rachel and her younger sister Victoria come over, and they get under my blanket, so it is the four of us under this little pink blanket keeping each other warm, it was fun, the service ended and we said goodbye. My family and I went back to our church, to eat breakfast at the Fellowship Hall, which the Deacons made for us. We finished, and helped clean up the kitchen and everything. We went back home, and packed up dad’s truck, and then we went off to go back up to Massachusetts today. We finished unpacking, cleaning the U-Haul©, and dropped it off. We then went to my grandmother’s house, so we could have some Easter dinner, with her. After dinner, I fell asleep on the car ride back home. Thursday I went to the library, and mom to Bible Study. The Librarians got me a little gift together and everything, it was cute, I have been volunteering at the library for a while now, and I have always enjoyed it. The librarian joked, that in my new town that I am moving too, that the librarians over there, will not know what hit them, and that they will half to change their hours, to normal hours, no 3 hour days! I started laughing, it was funny, but also sad at the same time, I did not want to leave them. I did all the DVD’s, Video’s, CDs, and Books on Tape within 45 minutes. I walked around the library, started reading a short book, when one of the librarians came out.

“Caelyn, do you want to punch these new cards out?” The librarian asked me, see the library just got new cards, and well you need to punch them out a way, because you want the patron to take out the card, and the key chain card, not you. I started, and then I saw my mom, I figured I could finish these up. Mom came over and asked if I needed help, I said sure, and we worked on them, I was doing 3-5 sheets at one time, and she was doing like 1-2 sheets a time, but I understand the first time I did this, that is what I did when I started, because you would think that it would be easier, but no it is not, and plus this way it shortens the length of time. Once we finished I brought all the cards back to the librarian, and said goodbye, for my last time, and this time I did not get any books out….It must have been a first, to leave a library, and not take any books out. I got into the car, and we went to the little restaurant in Durham, most of the Bible Study people where there, we were just waiting for Elven. Once Elven showed up we all ordered and talked about Bible Study, and moving, I would prefer the Bible Study subject, but you cannot avoid it sadly. The number one question that I got was “So are you going to school there?” I get it all the time considering I am homeschooled, I even got it when I wasn’t moving, and it is really annoying, to answer this question, see I really want to go to public school, but then part of me wants to stay homeschooled, because I could excel at a high pace, so it is a really hard question to answer. Elven asked how mom was doing on her sermon for this Sunday, See Elven asked my mom to do the sermon this Sunday since it is out last Sunday in Durham.



~ Till Next Time
Dear Daughter ♥

How to Write a Novel (or Not to)

Six months ago, I started writing, I didn’t expect what I was writing would actually turn into something that is something like a novel. One of the reasons that I started writing was because of the move that I was going through. My family and I moved from my small little hometown in Connecticut, into a smaller town in Massachusetts. During the move and selling the house, I didn’t want to move, I didn’t even want to think about moving. To express my feelings, and not blowing up at my mother I started writing, within the past six months I have writing over 136 pages in this book. It mainly just started from my thinking ‘hey wouldn’t it be a cool idea to write a novel?’ Don’t get me wrong it is a cool idea, but there is a lot of work that goes into it. I’ve broken my novel up into three parts, and it’s more of a fictitious memoir, then a novel.

Within the three sections (50 pages at minimum) the main character Caelyn goes from hating moving, hating the new town, into loving the new town, and she becomes glad that she moved. I’ve only finished two parts of the story, and I’m working on the last section, but my mom decided that we should go through some sentence structure and paragraphs, Yay! (Not really). I have to admit that I stink no suck at spelling and language arts as a whole; it’s always been my downfall even in 1st and 2nd grade. If it wasn’t for spell check right now, you might be looking at some words and thinking ‘what is this girl on?!’ Needless to say, the editing of my novel is harder than I thought, mom and I are going through about 112 pages for only the two finished sections, and then we have about another 50 pages to complete after I finish the last section. I highly recommend when writing a story know sentence structure, and how to spell . . . It helps . . . A lot!

Now I’m not a famous writer who’s blogging just for the heck of it, but I will give some of those aspiring writers out there some tips, that I have learned throughout the past six months.
1. Know Sentence Structure (It helps!)

2. Write when you have muse, I’ve had days that I’ve written for hours on end, and other where I just can’t think of one paragraph to write.

3. Write in paragraphs, not sentences, you want the story to flow, so instead of writing ‘The Cat ate. The Cat went outside’, write ‘The fat black cat, sat at his window and ate his food. Once he was done he hopped down with a loud ‘thud’ and went outside.’ Which one do you like better?

4. There will be a lot of edits, editing isn’t a onetime deal, you may need to go over it 6 or 7 times, before you even send it into an editor

5. Set yourself a Goal (I only know this from Girl Scouts), for example I have to make a SMART Goal for my Gold Award in Girl Scouts, and I incorporated my story into one of the SMART Goals, SMART Goal: By January 1st 2010 I will have finished the half of the last part in my novel, by writing at least 3 pages a day to get half way through the last part of my novel so that I can get one step closer to revising it and hopefully publishing it. The SMART Goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timey

6. Have a rough draft of your story, before you go into writing it, unlike me who didn’t really think about it until my mom asked me. For example my Novel is called Moving as a Teenager;;My Life;;Told By Me, it is broken into three 50 page sections Section One: Connecticut-CT is about Caelyn learning she is moving, and absolutely hates it! Section Two: Connecticut to . . . To. . To. . . –CT to. . .to . . To . . . is about Caelyn living in MA, but wanting her life in CT to be there more, she becomes a bitch to her family, and says that she hates it here. Section Three: Massachusetts- MA is when Caelyn learns that MA isn’t that bad, she finds things in her life that make her realize that she has two lives, one in CT, and one in MA, but she likes the MA one better.

7. When you are given critiques, don’t get upset, they’re there to help you! I only know this from personal knowledge, I have a way of getting worked up when people critique me or something that I have accomplished

8. Ignore that Word Count! If you are writing and just can’t stop, ignore the word count, don’t look at the word count until you are done for the day, or done with the piece that you have written, for me all my sections are roughly over 50 pages, I didn’t look at the section CT until around 60/70 pages in.

9. You can do it! No matter what people say you can do it! Don’t let them stop you, just keep on doing it, eventually your writing will be finished, and you can show the doubters that look you finished it despite what they said! Quote to help: “There’s always going to be another mountain I’m always going to want to make it move Always going to be an uphill battle, Sometimes I'm going to have to lose,”

10. Focus, for me focus comes with music, when I sit down and plan to write me story for at least an hour, I turn on the local radio station, or open up I-tunes.

11. To make your story more interesting add in little things from your hometown. For example my hometown has a coffee shop called Perk on Main, I featured Perk On Main (with permission from the owner) in my story, Perk became the place where Caelyn goes to hang out.

12. Go for the Gold! You might finish editing and everything, and think ‘oh well, it’s not that good.’, don’t let it take space up in your computer, bring it to an editor, send it to a publisher, you never know your book just might be what that one publisher is looking for!

I hope that if you’re writing a story that you continue, if you’re not writing one you might want to, or if you’re publishing one that these hints might have helped, but just remember “There’s always going to be another mountain”, so don’t give up.

By: C

P.S. there are 1,141 words in this post P: