1st day of snowed in writing project

Sunday's night a big snow storm hit the South. And I ended up snowed in at the house I'm house sitting. So I have no company around, it's the perfect day to get some writing in.


I also finish reading Alex Flinn's Beastly.

Yesterday I wrote 1,500 more words on my novel current title Keep Faith.
Today I'm snowed in again so I hope to get another 1,500 words done.

Nanowrimo day 1

So today started nation novel writing month 2010. I'm trying once
again to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
This year again it's a young adult novel.
Already the words are dragging out of me. I had planned on posting my
favorite line of the day. Nothing stand out for me right now.
Hmmmm word count 586 words so far in nanowrimo.
The words will flow better tomorrow and I'll have a favorite line to
post.
Later

~ Annie Laurie

Hunger Games

Just discovered Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins WOW!!!! All I can say
is WOW!!!!

~ Annie Laurie

Book Review: L.A. Cinderella by Amanda Berry

Career-driven accountant Natalie Collins wasn't the type to wish for a Hollywood hero to rescue her. She preferred life away from celebrity glitz. Too bad the man who drove her wild was an A-list actor.

With her understated beauty and brains, Natalie was the one person Chase Booker could trust. He could see the strong, sexy woman beneath her shy exterior, and she stirred a blinding passion in him that made it easy to forget that they were from different worlds. But when she was in his arms, their worlds were dangerously close to colliding....




I love how Amanda Berry took our American Royalty, Hollywood Movies Stars, and made a dreamy and also real hero.  She also created a beautiful (not in the Hollywood glamour way, but real world way) heroine.

Natalie is the everyday woman of America, hard working and well grounded.
Chase is every American woman dream guy when they watch the magical silver screen.
Berry does a magical job of colliding the real American world with the glamours Hollywood world.

BTW Love the ending of Chapter 3

Story: 5 stars
Cover: 3 stars.  (The model is not how I picture Natalie, to tall.)
Ending: 5 stars

The Child On The Page

As I say last week I went to Auburn for a writers conference called The Child On The Page.
I learned a great deal there.
Here a list of the writers
Julianna Baggott
Peter Huggins
Peter Campion
Irene Latham
Elizabeth O. Dulemba
Dan Latimer
Rachel Hawkins
Emma Bolden
Judy Troy


And the one agent
Holly Root
This is going to sound crazy but I went just because Holly was there, and I didn't take her workshop "Polish Your Pitch"  The idea intimidated me to much.  Being in her class to polish a pitch for a novel that not even out of the beginning chapters of the first draft, didn't sound like a good idea at the time I signed up for the conference.  But now I WISH I had taking the workshop anyway!  I mean I want to meet her but I only got to say something to her about the cookies at the coffee table set in in the middle of the foyer.  And I didn't realize at the time I was talking to her.  I looked at her name tag after as she deciding which cookies she wanted and then I'm speechless, lol.  Lucky I don't think she noticed lol.
Anyway....
At the panel the next day she and her client Rachel Hawkin had a great conversion with the amazon 11 years old girl who interview them.  Wonderful! Funny! Really wish I took her workshop! lol
ok a few things I learned from the workshops I did take.

From Judy Troy:
Stories are made up of background facts and plot. You become the character through the background facts.
Fiction is not life, its a illusion.  There nothing random about fiction.
Don't make your character a victim.  Don't set her or him up against to many bad things.
Surprise yourself.  End up writing what you didn't know you knew.  Go Deep.  Tell the Truth. 
No tears from the writer, no tears from the reader.  Writers must feel as they are writing.  Go Deep (into your own emotions and memories)

What I learned from Rachel Hawkin.
"Write the **** book."

On the next day, from the panel I learned:

From Julianna Baggott:
"When there's no wind, roll."  talking about inspiration, and the lack of.
From Peter Huggins
"Leave yourself behind."
Judy Troy also said something about this in her workshop the day before.  It's something I need to work on and just let my characters tell thier stories.

I really really had a great, wonderful, fun time and hope to make it to next year conference, The Haunting Muse.

~Annie

Back to old story

I have decide to put Daughters of Wisdom on hold and work instead of my first draft of Keep Faith.

Daughters of Wisdom has changed into something different, more small scale then the idea before and I believe a better story.  I need to let it brew in my head for a short time.
So...
I have decided to give Keep Faith another try.
The thing about Keep Faith is I realized when reading the first draft I had more of a trigry then a single title.
So I'm going to try to work on the "first book"
Now I have to go work on it.  Talk to y'all later.
~Annie

Auburn Writers Conference

Hi, I'm going to Auburn, Alabama for The Child On The Page Conference this weekend.  Its their first one!  I'm so excited! Rachel Hawkins will be there and Holly Root! 

writing-getting back in the seat and hands on keyboard.

I'm back sorry I haven't updated in a long time.  I started back to work at school and the board hired me for full time! So I don't have as many free hours in the day anymore.  Plus I got sick, but I'm better now.  So now I need a plan to write for two hours everyday.  And I plan to write from 6 pm. to 8 pm everyday. This is another attempt at Project Nora.

I also need to post my reviews for

When writing allow yourself to be bad

When writing allow yourself to be bad - the wrost writer you can be. lol  (note to self)
I have to remind myself over and over to allow myself to writing badly.  When I write first I have to get the thoughts out, or I never make it to the end.  If I look back and try to fix my story - like editing sentences- I will go back and fix a scene when from whatever reason I can''t move forward a story and the night before God reviled what wrong, often a scene before need ajustments. but I can't go back and fix every sentences as I write.  I mean I tried that on my first story - well second story-  well third story-

yes as I write I remembering the few first storiesI wrote and then THE story I wrote- that I really spent years trying to write but never never got pass the 1st or 2nd chapter because I would go back and rewrite every pargraph and make it perfect- this destoryed the story in my head. DESTORYED IT! Now I just write try to get to the scene in my head and then move to the next scene in my head and so on and so on. 

Yes, I have finished a 1st draft have I ever wrote a story I really like hmmm no not yet.  I'm still learning

and here Maureen Johnson who I think said it best.





what writing advice have you learned over the years?

~Annie

Project Nora

So I finally fixed chapter 5 and then made some adjustment to chapter 6. Now I have a beginning of chapter 7... will see where it head tomorrow. 
~Annie

Project Nora (dont remember what #day)

The last few days I have been stuck.  Then I realized I needed to change a part in ch.5.  So today i stared at it and had no clue how to change it.

I need Marjorie to agree with her gandmother, in order to do that, Grandmother need to be a "nicer" person.... I need to brainstrom ideas for a nicer Granny Rose.

~Annie

Project Nora day 6

Today I think I wrote for a total of 30 minutes. I think I need to just write through this chapter and come back to it later and see if I have anything interesting to add or if it not as bad as i think lol.
But I did write something.

~Annie

Project Nora day 5

Today I stuggled to get the words out.  But I did write some.
I don't really know how Marjorie going to make friends and enemies at school lol
Plus first day at a new school is a hard experince.
I been through a few, as I'm sure many of you have. lol

a twitter pitch for my story

If right now I was to twitter pitch my story I would tweet:
After her daddy made a deal with the beast (her mother's estranged family) a teen girl made a small decision that might have cost lives.

But my story not ready as you can see from my Project Nora posts.
and plus my pitch could change as i finish the rest of the story.

~Annie

Project Nora day 4

Still going strong!  I'm writing and right now that all that matter - getting the bones down!  I'll worry about everything else later  (I really hope what I'm writing is workable and fixable.)  Like I said I'm not worrying about it!!!!! (note to self)
Anyway I'm somewhere in the middle of chapter 6, its the first day at a new school chapter the place where friends and enemies are made!

~Annie

quotes, writers' humor and stuff!

Hi I have found a cool website Romance Yardsale.
Where you will find stuff to buy with quotes about writer's humor or just some famous writing quotes on them.  They even have 2 funny quotes about the Twilight series.  You can buy, t-shirts, sweatshirts, bags, mugs and a number of other stuff with your favorite quote on the site.

Fun, fun go check it out! Here another link  
oh and my favorite is
What do you mean I need a plot?

Project Nora Day 3

I had another good day of writing for the two hours. 9:00-11:00am
I finished chapter 5 and wrote one sentence in chapter 6.  I'm moving along in my story finally!  I started early since I wish to take zumba class at the Y at 12, with the class and weight machines I didn't get out until almost 2. 

Project Nora Day 2

Project Nora Day 2 yeah I skipped sunday.  I did get about 15 minutes of writing done but it was not a good day for me.

Today I wrote from 7:45 -9:30 not quite the whole two hours.  I went shopping with Mama and she told me she pick me up at 10 but it turn out to be more like 9:45 lol.
I finished chapter 4 and started chapter 5.  Marjorie about to face a fate she doesn't want.

~Annie

3 Things you don't know about me.


1. I have an hearing loss. (but I can hear voices just not birds and other high pitch sounds. It is a little bit more then that but hearing loss is really hard to explain)
2. My favorite pet is dogs, but I grow up with dogs, cats, fish, birds, and one bunny.
3. Best subject in school English (Reading) but not until after 3rd grade. Before then I hated reading! (all that reading out loud and stumbling over words. [It worse when I'm nerves even to this day, I stumble over words when I'm nerves.] (is that spelled right, it looks to me like I'm spelling the body part not the emotion.)

I added a few pages to my blog this is what under my about me so far.
there nothing under books at the moment.  I still need to learn more about my story before I can explain it.
 
~Annie

Project Nora (Day one [for me])

So today is my first day of Project Nora.
I think for the first day I did pretty good.  Hard to focus at first and the last 15 minutes. lol.
Yeah I wanted coffee at first which is a bad habit I have, drinking coffee while I write.  I gave in and made a coffee. Anyway I'm still in chapter four but it turning into my longest chapter.  This is good!  I need some long chapters.  I'm not going to give a number on my words.  Like I said before I'm not counting until Aug. 31.  It feel good to write without the presure of a word count, to just have a set time to write.
I think I wrote more then I have in a while! Yay!
So maybe I'm on my way to be like Nora Robert and have a lot of books written lol (I have write first before I can publish) 
Thank You Amanda!  Here a link to Amanda's blog for more information.
~Annie