Quick stats: I'm 26, female, married to hubs for 2 1/2 years, work in public relations and marketing, about 5'7" (no, I'm not telling you my weight), have a cat, live in San Diego county, I LOVE Disneyland, my favorite color is blue, and I've been writing since late January 2011. Nice to meet you!
Progress on my WiP
I've written 30 pages so far and created an outline. So far I've revealed a little backstory, introduced a few characters and set up some mystery. I'm wondering if I have enough conflict planned for my MC though. I don't really have a "bad guy," but just a mystery and conflicts. Do you think I should definitely have some type of villain? The genre is contemporary fantasy.
Writing has been very slow so far. My day job keeps me away until after 6pm, and then there's maybe exercising, dinner making and showering. By then it's after 8pm and I have to choose whether to write a tiny bit, read, or snuggle with hubs and watch a TV show. But it takes me a while to get back into writing mode so usually I don't get much done. I rely on weekends, Sunday afternoons in particular.
The other night I managed to fine-tune my first 10 pages and send it off to Leah Clifford, author of YA novel A Touch Mortal, because I won a critique from her on QueryTracker. Woo! I'm really excited to hear what she thinks. I'm sure she'll rip me a new one and I kind of hope she does because I need it. In just the short amount of time I've been writing, I already feel like my more recent passages are much better than the beginning. Hey, that means I'm learning already! Well, whaddya know?
Personal Stuff
My family (mom, dad and sister in particular) are big into running. I try to join them about once a week and we usually run down by the beach. Most of the time we're jogging *slash* looking for sea glass. Everyone stops when we think we find a piece. It's not the most efficient, but it's fun!My family and I just signed up for a half marathon in June. That's 13.1 miles! Or 21.1 kilometers, which sounds a lot more impressive. This will be my second half marathon (I did one in November), my mom's first, and my dad and sister have done several. So now I'm trying to get back into shape. I managed to exercise a little every day since last Saturday (besides Sunday and yesterday, so four days total). I'm trying to stay motivated. I like yoga but cardio is more effective, and running on the treadmill at our condo's gym is BORING. Who wants to run for an hour just staring at themselves in the mirror looking all sweaty? I didn't find it very entertaining. I couldn't even entertain myself with Twitter because it made me dizzy. Do you have any exercise recommendations? I do like the free workouts on Cox On Demand in the Freezone.
Fun Stuff
I saw this on Linda Grimes' blog and thought it was funny. You know those fake words you have to type in to "verify" that you are a real person? I've been writing them down for the past week when I visit other people's blogs and came up with some definitions. See if you can think of a better one!
Myounh - Meaning "this is mine, you keep away from it"
Pormyst - A mystical adult film. Possibly with actual mist. Or vampires.
Undsongn - A song you sing to your underwear, or vice versa. *wonders what song underwear would sing* *probably Lowrider*
Eatis - The gangsta way to say "eat this, not that". Though I probably wouldn't eat something a gangsta gave me.
Rempo - A rockin' tempo.
Mibion - A cool way to say you are a minion of the amphibian king.
So what's going on in your life? Do you have any questions for me? What are your favorite things that you've seen on my blog or others so I can do more of that?
Nice to meet you, too! I love Disneyland, too, although I haven't been there for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI think every story has to have some type of villain, even if it's a personal demon. Just something keeping the MC from their goals and dreams.
I recently won a full critique and it was great! The author had a lot of helpful pointers and she was so sweet about it, too.
Good luck with your half marathon. Funnily enough, I only enjoy running on a treadmill. I think its because I can zone out and don't have to worry about running into mailboxes or something. I've never run on a beach before. Maybe that would change my mind.
Those word definitions are hilarious! I especially like "rempo". I'm going to start using it casually. "Ooh, I love this rempo! This is an awesome song!"
Yay for half-marathons! My husband and I have signed up for a few in the past although sickness and pregnancy has coincidentally kept me from running them. Maybe next year!
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy working out with a treadmill desk. Although it's not running, it does the keep the feet moving and heart rate slightly up while writing.
Always nice to know more about the fabulous Keriann!
Keriann,
ReplyDeleteyou crack me up! The fake word definitions are hilarious; I particularly like "Eatis." Very clever.
The one piece of advice I'd give you to help make exercising less boring would be to alter your routes and incorporate some music. I'm a big fan of the song "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. The lyrics are surprisingly effective :)
P.S. Just had to type "Knartall." Like canoodle, but for Alien couples i.e. TMZ reported seeing Zendora and Jabieko knartalling on Saturn's rings last night.
ReplyDeleteI don't like running. I sometimes wonder if I would do better with a treadmill desk, or at least something I could read on while exercising.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you HAVE to have a villain. Just major conflicts/obstacles. Though often a villain is the best way to visualize those things :-)
Nice bio, Keriann! The seaglass is sooo cool! I was just thinking the other day that I should start some kind of collection. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteThe random word defs are hilarious! I'm going to do that on my blog one of these days. LOL.
I'll be sure to post a link to you for sparking the idea. ;-)
Congrats on your WIP progress, and on winning that QT contest. Hope you get some awesome and helpful feedback. Keep up the writing and I'll see you on twitter, QT, and in the blogasphere. :-)
@Jeigh - Thanks! That's great you got a full critique. It's sooooo helpful having other people read my stuff. I don't understand people who can keep their work private. I have to share and get feedback to keep me going. I guess I don't have the confidence yet.
ReplyDelete@Marie - I'd love to see your treadmill desk sometime. It sounds difficult to write and exercise at the same time - like patting your head and rubbing your belly :).
@Jenna - Ha ha! Knartalling, that's a good one. I like your alien names too. You could write an alien love story.
@Adam - Yeah, I'm sure I'll have to find more obstacles for my MC. I have a possible villain but that won't be introduced until the second half of the book. Hmm.
@Anita - Thanks! My mom has a friend who is really into collecting seaglass and has HUGE vases around her house full of it. There are some beaches that collect a lot of trash, which is where you find the seaglass. I'm so glad to meet you! Good luck on your selling MS :).
Nice getting to know you better. The critique sounds exciting and they are always so helpful. Best of luck training for the half marathon.
ReplyDeleteMibion and Rempo are my favorites! Rempo would be a good name for a character. I'm visualizing a barefoot beach musician with dreads. . .
ReplyDeleteI never did much running but I've heard tell of people listening to books on tape while on the tread mill. That might take out some of the boredom at least.
Running... I remember what that was... I used to be able to do it, I think?
ReplyDeleteNow I just make my horse do all the running. Much more efficient for me that way. HA.
Poor pony.
I think it's awesome you guys still all meet up to run :) Nice to have a family activity together! And love the word ver definitions.
I'm sure I could have more to say, but, at least this time, I will keep it to this:
ReplyDeleteAn actual person villian is not required. Remember, there are three basic types of conflict:
1.man vs man (in which you would need an antagonist)
2.man vs nature
3. man vs himself
The "villian" is not required, but the conflict is.
http://strangepegs.blogspot.com/
And here was my confirmation word:
ReplyDeleteastersl
I'll leave it for you to figure out what it means. :)
@Anita - Thanks!
ReplyDelete@Taryn - Ha ha, that would be a good character name. Maybe I should use some of these words in my WiP as names or places.
@LT - Aw, your poor knee. At least you can still dance! I hope you got to visit your pony the other day. It didn't rain as much as I thought it would.
@Andrew - Nice to meet you! Thank you for the help. That makes me feel better because I do have #2 and #3 on your list for sure. Hm "asters" reminds me of that show "Dexter" because the little girl is named Aster, lol.