WoaW: DRAGONFRUIT Prep Edition

Dvorak Update: Since my last post, I have made definite progress with the demons now inhabiting my keyboard. I no longer quite remember how to type QWERTY, which is good. Less good is the mini-seizures that happen when I get overly excited about what I want to say. (WHERE IS K?! HOW TYPE THIS?! EOHUXUEUCEURCKCTBT!!!) But overall, I have made progress. Hooray! Or, in Dvorak ... Drrpaf!

Hey, remember last month, when I whinged about my WIP and insisted that it would all work out in the same breath? Well, it didn't work out.

I'm still not sure what went wrong. I love WONDERLAND. I love the wonder and the hunger and the gutwrenching INTENSITY of it. But however hard I tried, I couldn't get the magic to happen on paper. The characters were flat. The scenes that were supposed to be gripping were actually just dumb. And after months of desperate scrambling, of writing and rewriting, I finally had to admit it.

WONDERLAND isn't ready. I still don't know why. I believe in the story, and I want to write it. I WILL write it someday. But, well, that day is not today.

The bright side of all this is that I'm now free to tackle Camp NaNoWriMo, the summer session of my favorite writing challenge. This July, I intend to do a page-one rewrite of the first novel I ever finished.* This is a huge project, as the first draft in question weighed in at around 250k.***

And, well, it wasn't very good. I mean, it was GREAT when you take into account that I was fifteen, and it was my first book, and I wrote all 250k of it in a little over nine months. But I had no idea what I was doing, and it shows.

So for this draft, I am doing a COMPLETE RENOVATION of this book. New setting, refocused (and shortened!) plotlines, fresh paint ... the whole shebang. Which means I need to let go of a LOT of preconceptions about this story and build a new, fresh approach.

Which, for me, means clustering. Lots and lots of clustering.†

So I thought I'd share a few of the things I've turned up in my mad quest to figure out this book ... which I'm going to call DRAGONFRUIT online because a) the story involves dragons and b) I think dragon fruit is awesome.

(Not that I've ever tried it. Has ANYONE tried it? I want to try it. It has an awesome name, and it's spiky and oddly colored, which ought to mean it's delicious, right? And ... oh, yeah, the book. Right.)

TEN THINGS THAT MAKE ME WANT TO WRITE DRAGONFRUIT THIS VERY SECOND, AND MAYBE EAT SOME TOO:

1. DRAGONS
2. FEVER
3. PINE TREES
4. SWADDLE
5. TATTERED PAPER
6. FIRST KISS
7. BARE LEGS
8. HEARTHFIRE
9. FULL BELLY
10. ITCH FOR MORE

And with that, I'm off to see if I can dig a little deeper into my first scene before dinner. Until next time!

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* Finished being a relative term. I've obviously never polished a book to shiny, query-ready (not quite) perfection, or I would be querying with it. This is the first book I typed The End on, which is quite a feat and not to be sneezed at.**

** Unless you have hay fever like me. In which case, have a tissue.

*** For those of you who don't speak word count, that's about the length of the fifth Harry Potter book. YEAH, I KNOW.

† I may do a post on my clustering technique in the future. Until then, this is the woman whose course, HOW TO THINK SIDEWAYS, got me started. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. (And that's my affiliate link, so anything you buy through it helps me out of my current state of miserable poverty, which is kind of fabulous. But the courses are more fabulous ... which is why I'm so poor to begin with. Well, that and jaw surgery. And mental illness. But I digress.)

Dvorak Typing: Taking The Leap

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I just made the switch to the Dvorak keyboard layout. If you have ever tried this, you know that I am currently going nuts.

My fingers, just this morning able to fly across the keys without a thought, now stumble over every letter. (Except, of course, for the letter a. And m. Three guesses what my new favorite word is.*) It's maddening. It makes my fingers itch and my head ache. It has taken me half an hour so far just to type this post.

But here I am. Still plugging away.

When I first heard about Dvorak typing (which was last night, at Holly Lisle's blog,) I immediately knew that I had to try it. I did a quick web search, figured out how to switch my keyboard over, flew off to this handy typing tutorial ... and faltered.

Don't be stupid, said the mean little voice in my head. You're doing Camp NaNoWriMo in a month. You can't afford to mess with Dvorak right now. Besides, you have DEPRESSION. You barely made it out of bed this morning. DON'T YOU REALIZE WHAT THIS WILL DO TO YOU WHEN YOU FAIL?!

I have spent years with the mean little voice. I knew what to do.

Push off, I told the mean little voice. Then I started typing.

And it was HARD. Fifty minutes later, I was still struggling on the home row. The mean little voice was back, louder this time. You're worthless, it said. You can't do this. Switch back to QWERTY and go make me a sandwich.**

I wish I could say I blew a metaphorical raspberry at my imaginary tormentor and typed the next hundred words with a will. But I didn't. I caved. I switched back to QWERTY and I went to bed.***

And then, this morning, I decided to try again. I ignored the mean little voice screaming in my head; I ignored the fear and the shame and the WHAT IF I FAIL OH SOMEONE STOP ME. I opened my computer. I took the leap.

And, so help me, I am going to fly.


* If you guessed 'am,' you're wrong. Sorry, but all I want to type these days is 'MAAAMAAAA!!!'

** This is a dramatization, and as such, may be inaccurate on a few of the finer points. In this particular instance, the voice requested a drink of water, not a sandwich. I felt that the substitution better represented the spirit of the demand.

*** I didn't make anyone a sandwich, which would be more of an achievement if I hadn't made that part up for the post.

[P.S. If anyone's looking for a good book to read, MIND GAMES by Kiersten White is only $1.99 through June 24th! Sisters! Psychics! Teenage assassins!]

[P.P.S. Looking at the page, I see that PARTIALS by Dan Wells is on sale too. Post-apocalyptic adventure on an epic scale plus save-the-babies equals one of the best books I've read in years. Read it. You'll see.]

[P.P.P.S. And don't forget ONE by Leigh Ann Kopans! Teenage quest for independence! Superpowers! Kissing! SO MANY GOOD BOOKS!!! SO LITTLE MONEY!!! *passes out*]

ONE comes out tomorrow! (Final Comic Teaser!)

That's right: ONE, the highly-anticipated (particularly by me) debut of author Leigh Ann Kopans, comes out tomorrow. I've already gushed about this book in my previous post, and alas, I've left this one a bit late, so I'm just going to have to post the teaser and scarper.

(But not before telling you all to BUY THIS BOOK! And also, to express my gratitude to Leigh Ann for letting me help promote her really fabulous novel, even while the current craziness of my life made me less than a dream team member*. You're great, Leigh Ann. I hope everyone buys your book and you buy a throne made of chocolate.)

Now, for the comic.

*Note the fact that this post is being written ON THE DAY IT NEEDS TO GO UP.

(So gorgeous, right? I love the colors in this one.)

About ONE (by Leigh Ann Kopans)

[Release date: June 11, 2013]

"When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak.

It makes you a One.

Sixteen-year-old Merrin Grey would love to be able to fly – too bad all she can do is hover.

If she could just land an internship at the Biotech Hub, she might finally figure out how to fix herself. She busts her butt in AP Chem and salivates over the Hub’s research on the manifestation of superpowers, all in hopes of boosting her chances.

Then she meets Elias VanDyne, another One, and all her carefully crafted plans fly out the window. Literally. When the two of them touch, their Ones combine to make them fly, and when they’re not soaring over the Nebraska cornfields, they’re busy falling for each other.

Merrin's mad chemistry skills land her a spot on the Hub's internship short list, but as she gets closer to the life she always wanted, she discovers that the Hub’s purpose is more sinister than it has always seemed. Now it’s up to her to decide if it's more important to fly solo, or to save everything - and everyone - she loves."

Add ONE to your Goodreads and learn more about the author here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17251203-one

Find a full list with links to the other installments of this series on the author’s blog: www.leighannkopans.blogspot.com

Or follow the author on Twitter @LeighAnnKopans for daily updates!

Two Weeks Till ONE Comic Teasers - Installment #7!

Today we interrupt our regularly scheduled horribly erratic programming to celebrate a fabulous YA debut that's coming out in LESS THAN A WEEK! (!!!)

That's right, it's time for ...

About ONE (by Leigh Ann Kopans)

[Release date: June 11, 2013]

"When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak.

It makes you a One.

Sixteen-year-old Merrin Grey would love to be able to fly – too bad all she can do is hover.

If she could just land an internship at the Biotech Hub, she might finally figure out how to fix herself. She busts her butt in AP Chem and salivates over the Hub’s research on the manifestation of superpowers, all in hopes of boosting her chances.

Then she meets Elias VanDyne, another One, and all her carefully crafted plans fly out the window. Literally. When the two of them touch, their Ones combine to make them fly, and when they’re not soaring over the Nebraska cornfields, they’re busy falling for each other.

Merrin's mad chemistry skills land her a spot on the Hub's internship short list, but as she gets closer to the life she always wanted, she discovers that the Hub’s purpose is more sinister than it has always seemed. Now it’s up to her to decide if it's more important to fly solo, or to save everything - and everyone - she loves."

You guys, I am so excited for this book. I've been lucky enough to be part of the street team for ONE, which means that I got an ARC, which lamentably sat neglected on my computer for far too long*. But when I finally read it, I was blown away.

I love this book. I love Merrin, the clever, angry, unsure-where-she-fits-in-the-world protagonist. I love Elias (mmm, Elias) her equally clever and utterly adorable boyfriend. I love the conflict between Merrin's need for independence and her growing attachment to said wonderful boyfriend. I love that.

And so it is with great delight that I present the seventh installment in a super-cool comic adaptation of the first chapters of ONE. Drumroll ...

HOORAY!!! Now, some more info about the book ...

Add ONE to your Goodreads and learn more about the author here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17251203-one

Find a full list with links to the other installments of this series on the author’s blog: www.leighannkopans.blogspot.com

Or follow the author on Twitter @LeighAnnKopans for daily updates!

Thanks for stopping by! Come back in a few days when I post the final installment, and don't forget to pick up ONE once it comes out! (Now, back to the WIP. This book may possibly be melting my brain.)

* My ARC was unfortunate enough to arrive at roughly the same time that depression ate my life. And also my homework. But that's neither here nor there.