Tuesday, January 29, 2013

            The grave had not changed in the last three days, and yet, it felt different being back.

            Ezra had brought Monday to the graveyard to pack up her things and to see Alyson again. As Monday stood before her clean and safe, Marcus’s meeting was replaying in her head. The grief and guilt had boiled back up, but now Monday felt a new emotion; angry. Monday hated the fact that in the last few weeks she would wake up from the nightmare of Alyson’s last words repeating in her head; the sobs, the drop, the sounds of her mother crying. Monday felt guilty about her part, but Alyson had brought this on herself. Alyson just had to drag her to hell with her.
           
Thursday, January 24, 2013
There will be no Chapter 3 today.
...
I have been trying to write but it's not happening. This week has been to caotic. School has been kicking my butt, and I'm having some other issues that are not helping. Wednesday was going to be my catch up day but it didn't work out. Wednesday was just a good day.

So what does this mean? It means that there will be no chapter this week but next week. I know that it's to early to be skipping weeks but I'm tired and my work is suffering. I have a higher reaspect for people who do this for a living and never fail to post anything. This is just not my week.

Instead, to keep people instrested, I'm going to upload a secound book. For thouse who come back and read, there will be to storys. Just a few diffrences:
1. It's not a Nightling Novel
2. This is also a NaNo novel but a hugely unedited one. This is what I literately wrote last November. No one has read it, not even my own mother.
Kinda of how in 2010, my mother read The Nightlings when it was still at 50,000 words. It was bad, but it was fun. It's a novel that I might want to finish one day but untill then, it's in draft 1 mode. I need to keep posting something.
With that being said: Nightings is coming back next tuesday.

With all due respect,
Megan
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
I should have posted this early but held onto hope that I could do it, but sadly, no Chapter 3 today. First week back to school has been tough but once I get back on a regular schedule, then Chapters should start coming out on Tuesdays.
Until then, I have a question for all of my readers; what do you think about the town? When you imagine Syringa, what comes to mind? I ask, because I want to know. I personally like writing dialogue more then descriptions, in fact, sometimes, I'll add the dialogue first then go back an ad detail. After my mom read the first draft of my novel, I asked her about how the characters looked, what did the town look like, basically to see how well I did on detail work.
Everything she told me about how she remembered the book was wrong. Hopefully after years my descriptions have gotten better.

With all due respect,
Megan
Thursday, January 17, 2013


            BEEP BEEP BEEP

            Monday jerked awake, her head aching and for a minute, she forgot about the night before, but when she looked around, panic and confusion set in. The room was cozy, Monday laid in a soft bed under a tan blanket in a room with blue walls and wood furniture; after the crypt, this was heaven. Monday sat up and felt her head, the pain was terrible and she could feel a knot right above her eye. Trying to remember the night before, she looked down and muffled a scream. She was coved in dirt and blood. Last night flashed back to her; the stone angel, Pat’s neck splitting open, and the cold, black eyes of the monster that caused it all. Monday began to shake.

            Looking around for a way out, she saw that there were no windows and only one door. Monday climbed out of bed, stumbling a little and approached the door, but as she put her hand on the doorknob, she heard voices behind it.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013
To those who are following my blog might have noticed that Chapter 2 is missing today. I promise that I'm not slacking and it will be up. There are two reasons why it's missing; 1. I haven't finished yet because I was going to do that today but instead bought a computer, and 2. I bought a new computer!

To those who don't know, I've been having computer issues for awhile now. My faithful Dell decided that it was it's time to go, it held on to the end and is now in a coma, waiting for a power supply to come in to see if it can be resurrected for someone new; I needed a new one anyway (I love my dell, but I love having a fast computer that works two) Today, I was lucky enough to get my scholarship for school that afforded me the luxury of having a new commuter for the first time, literally the first time, every computer I've ever owned was handed down, refurbished, or built from scratch.

But enough about Windows 8 woes, I wanted to bring up something else. I was talking to my friend Rusty the other day and he asked me what my writing schedule was. I thought about it and realize that routine was wake up and if I feel like it write. Bad, bad routine. And now being on a schedule, I think it's time I take his advise and set own times during the day as writing time. Not school time, not Castleville time, or even YouTube time. Writing time.

Here is my idea; Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I write an hour of my two hour lunch at school. As for Thursdays and Tuesdays, its twos hours at night. I think this might be a good start. What do you guys think?

With all due respect,
Megan
Thursday, January 10, 2013
This is not a chapter, instead, it is a post to clear a few things up.

First of all, thank you to everyone who is reading this blog. I love and appreciate any feed back on my work. My goal with make my writing progress public is to encourage myself to keep going even if I don't want to. Maureen Johnson, author of 13 Blue Envelopes,  says that the best advise she can give to authors is to give yourself permission to suck. Not everything you write is great or even good. When working alone, I have a hard time doing that. I don't like this chapter so i'll start over OR I want to change this plot point so I'll go back and rewrite this OR this book is going no where, I'll finish it someday when I'm a better writer. BAD, bad thoughts to have. In fact, this is why this book started out as a NaNoWriMo project, NaNoWriMo gave me permission to suck by pitting me against myself. The book doesn't have to be good, it just has to be written  For Example:
"Monday Caldecott used to wonder if they felt it when they died. If the moment her teeth ripped into their neck, they felt pain when she drank them dry. Did they feel pain the way there victims did when they beaten, raped and killed them or were they empty and numb. She used to wonder but after the first few kills, she pushed the thoughts back." 

That's the original first paragraph from the NaNoWriMo version. Granted  the timeline is different and the plot has changed but it still really needed to be revised. After two years, that turned into this: 
"The grave had changed in the last month, like Monday’s life, it had acquired an air of abandonment around it. The January snow had already begun to cover the hill of dirt that once told Monday where to find her friend, but Monday had visited the grave so often that she knew its location by heart. As she stood in front of the grave surrounded by the dead, she marveled at the fresh headstone and envied the dead girl. Just arrived this morning, Alyson’s tombstone, accompanied by her parents, who lingered only a few minutes before leaving in their grief. The headstone was a shock. Until this morning, Monday felt like she was in a fog, that the death wasn’t real but until this moment, the arrival the marker had made the death real. Monday realized in her weakened hungry state, with no home to go back to, for the first time in her seventeen years she longed for her own headstone and to join her friend six feet under."
Much better.

Second point I would like to make is the grammar and spelling errors. I would like to say, I'm sorry. My computer does have word on it and Scrivener, the program I use to write with, doesn't have the best spell checker. I got an A in remedial writing and still mess up sometimes (okay a lot) My Dyslexia makes it hard for me to pick up on the little things, usually my mother goes through and helps fix the Meganese but shes gets these chapters the same time as everyone else.

Third point, and kinda a big one now that I think about it, this book will have adult content. There will be more deaths and they do get more graphic  Not to mention the book does touch some controversial subjects. If anyone is uncomfortable with touchy subjects then you don't have to keep reading. I will not hate you and be mean to you in real life, I understand. (If you want to know some of the touchy things the book with touch then highlight the rest of the sentence. It does spoil a few things. Things that will happen or are implied; rape, sexual abuse, more swearing, more deaths and suicide.)

And the last thing I would like to say, my current plan is to have Chapters go up on Tuesdays and blog post on Thursdays  My theory is that the more I post, the more likely I will not abandon my book. So if you have any questions or things you want me to talk about then post them in the comments does below. Chapter 2 is coming along and will be up on Tuesday.

With all due respect,
Megan
P.S. the first person who can name where the signeture comes from can have a sneak peak of Chapter 2.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013


The grave had changed in the last month, like Monday’s life, it had acquired an air of abandonment around it. The January snow had already begun to cover the hill of dirt that once told Monday where to find her friend, but Monday had visited the grave so often that she knew its location by heart. As she stood in front of the grave surrounded by the dead, she marveled at the fresh headstone and envied the dead girl. Just arrived this morning, Alyson’s tombstone, accompanied by her parents, who lingered only a few minutes before leaving in their grief. The headstone was a shock. Until this morning, Monday felt like she was in a fog, that the death wasn't real but until this moment, the arrival the marker had made the death real. Monday realized in her weakened hungry state, with no home to go back to, for the first time in her seventeen years she longed for her own headstone and to join her friend six feet under.

But then who would look after the dead?

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Every New Years I have the same resolution: Finish my novel. I've been writing for a few years now, it started in High school where I spent more time writing stories in my head, than I did making friends. I took one creative writing class and I found out how much I loved to write. In November of 2010, I participated in NaNoWriMo, where the goal is to push yourself to write 50,000 words in 30 days. 30 days and 50,051 words later, I had a novel. Granted, I read it December first and found that it sucked but I still accomplished something that most writers never do.

I had finished my first draft.

This past November, I celebrated my 3rd anniversary doing NaNoWriMo, but something bugged me. In that last 3 years I would tell people about my first draft and my dreams of publication but what had I done with it? Nothing. I rewrote a few new scenes and plotted all of the changes that I made but beyond that, I did nothing with it. I'll write it. I'll get it done. I'm working on the plot. I'm doing research. I'm too busy. Three years later, that flame of passion I had after writing my first draft was slowly being snuffed out.
Not. This. Time.

Inspired by my friend Rusty, I've decided as the motivation that I need, I'm going to work on my book, chapter by chapter, and post it all on this blog. My goal is to post twice a week, either a new chapter or if I get behind some behind the scenes things (research, character history, deleted scenes) Something once a week to keep me going. I hope that, by posting it all online, my friends and family will give me the motivation and criticism I need to keep working. Who knows, maybe once I finish this book, it will lead to another one. All of the history out of the way, on to the book!

The Nightlings, is a urban fantasy that tells the story of Monday Caldecott, A young girl who after running away from home after the death of her close and only friend, becomes homeless in the city of Syringa. Syringa is a safe, perfect city that lives with the town legend of the Nightlings, wing creatures who kill and feed off of thous that escape justice. Monday is pulled into the world of the Nightlings and finds that the life that saved her, could be the same life that destroys her with what is corrupt and what is moral. If she can keep herself alive.

Expect a new post on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Chapter 1 on the 7th.
With all due respect,
Megan