Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Starting and FiestaCon

Okay, first off, I am doing FiestaCon this year! Very cool! In case you are around Phoenix, I'd love to see you there! Here is where you can find me specifically!


Thursday:

Reading at 4:00 PM

Signing at from 5:00-6:00PM

Panel: Children's Classics...Today! (With Janni Lee Simner, James Owen, and Michelle Welch.) 7:00-8:00 PM

Saturday:

Panel: Media Promotion (With Jack Mangan, Diana Gabaldon, and Michael D'Ambrosio) 10:00-11:00 AM

Panel: How to Write to YA & Kids (With Janni Lee Simner, Michael D'Ambrosio, and Chris Paige) Noon-1:00PM

KAFFEEKLATSCH 3:00-4:00 PM

Sunday:

Panel: LIT-Muggle Tech vs. Wizardry Tech (With Sarah Clemens and Nola Yergen-Jennings) Noon-1:00PM

I'm really looking forward to this! It should be so much fun! Seriously, if you're around, come!

Okay, so I started the third Wings book today. For the second time. I technically started the file for the third book about a month ago and the scene I wrote was so full of fail that I can't use a word of it. No seriously. It was the dumbest beginning ever. We shall never speak of it again.

So I started [again] today.

Well, it wasn't quite as abysmal. I may be able to use about a page of the four pages I wrote.

Why are beginnings so hard!! I mean, I have the picture in my head of what I want this scene to looks like (It's not even about finding the right place to start!! I KNOW where to start!) it just. Isn't. Coming. Out. Right.

At all.

It's coming out all angsty and weird.

It's a great moment!! A moment I have been looking forward to since I was writing book one!! It is one of the most incredible moments in the whole series!! So why does it feel all mopey?

I think beginnings are difficult. I have never had a beginning of a novel that I kept. Never.In fact, in both Wings and it's sequel, the beginning like five pages all got cut. And that is after I completely changed the original beginning. I do pretty good at endings, but beginnings kick my trash. (In fact, in the next couple of days I will be posting my deleted beginning from Wings. It's kinda fun!)

So tomorrow I will take my laptop to my MIL's house where we are going to visit with family and I will open a fresh file and try again.

And leave out the angst. Hopefully.

Ciao!

17 comments:

Jessie Oliveros said...

Yes, beginnings are tough, but maybe tougher with the force of a bestseller and a four book contract behind you. Have fun in Phoenix and good luck getting the perfect beginning at your Mother-in-laws.

Anonymous said...

Have fun in Phoenix and, rest assured, it's one or the other for everyone. I looooooove beginnings. Endings not so much.

MeganRebekah said...

I didn't nail my beginning until I was half way through my book. The scene never changed, just the way I presented it.
Good luck with getting started!

MARY IN SCOTLAND said...

Oh wow I'm so excited!
My SISTER LIVES IN PHOENIX! I'm gonna have her get her prego belly out there to the FiestaCon!

I'm excited to hear your deleted beginnings to WINGS!
HOW FUN!

I'm not good at beginnings either...I just don't know how to start the novel I have in my head....any tips?

Amber Lynae said...

I wish I was near phoenix that would be so much fun.

I can't wait to read your original beginning. Beginnings are very hard, I keep rewriting my beginning unable to get the right feeling to it.

Georgia said...

I didn't know you are in phoenix :) Of course I am out of town to Utah when all this happens. Ah well, I bet it will be a great time for everyone who goes, I have some friends planning to go.

P.S.
I suck at beginnings ;) and endings too... middle I can do though. LOL

Tara McClendon said...

I'm excited to read the other beginnings. As for the new book, it sounds like the inner critic may be sneaking in. Kick it to the trash and write the scene you know you can create.

Tere Kirkland said...

Beginnings are always the hardest for me, too. Since your opening is for the third book in a series, that definitely offers some unique challenges.

Is there any way you can skip it for now and come back?

Have fun on at Fiestacon and don't worry too much about it. It will come.

Writer 421 said...

While this probably sounds weird, I agree with Jennifer, except for the ending part. Beginnings are very easy for me, but endings are to. Middles...well, if I have the scene in my head its easy.
I use prologues the work great for me!

moonrat said...

wow, the third book already? that was SO fast.

you'll get there :) i'm not worried. DYING to read the 2nd, though.

Teri said...

FiestaCon sounds amazing. I saw that Diana Gabaldon was on one of the panels and I'm currently immersed in her Outlander series. Surely a treat!

Yamile said...

I wish I were in Phoenix. I missed u last month in UT and now I'm in TX. Good luck with your beginning. I'm 40,000 into my MS and I've decided to change the POV. A lot of rewriting ahead of me! But I'll finish this one first MS first to get the story out of my system!

Lauren (Tears) said...

Beginnings are quite easy for me. But then, my beginnings always start up with quick action. When I write, I like to cut to the chase and leave all the slowness away. Which, I think, is my downfall.

Well, I can't wait to read the deleted beginning. That will be nice.

I hope you have better luck.

C. Michelle Jefferies said...

Fiesta Con sounds like a blast. Congrats.

I am good with beginings and endings. It's the grammar and sentence structure I struggle with.
Either way, good luck at your IL's. Hope you get a great opening.

Anonymous said...

i can't wait to read ur deleted beginnings to the 3rd book.
Do u know when the 2nd book will be coming out????
I can" wait much longer for it :)

Kasandra said...

I can't wait to read the deleted parts. and i was wondering, i remember when you sent off Wings and everything you knew it would be coming out in 2009. so i was wondering if you knew when the second book was coming out? is it gonna be 2010 then 2011 and so on...like each year the next one comes out? I absolutly LOVED Wings and can't wait (well i know I have to but I don't want to :)) for the second to come out...or even to just know the title or backcover sum of what will be happening. Any news I can get. I read the book then searched it on line and found your blog. :) I read EVERY entry you made, anything I could find out about it. I was so amazing reading about your whole journey to becoming a published author, then to make number one on the NYT bestsellers list (which is awesome and you totally deserve it). I'm not a fellow writer but I love to read fantasy-fiction (harry potter, twilight, and not WINGS) and it has been so hard for me to find books that I want to read, I love to read but I don't like everything so when Twilight came out I hear the hype from my sisters and mom and didn't read the book until a year after the movie came out and didn't watch the movie for a few months either. I just didn't wanna start a book if I wasn't gonna like it, but I borrowed my sisters and LOVED it. then I was like, now what I am I gonna read, what is gonna top that? then on weread.com I put in the books I like and the recommended Wings for me, so I bought it off half.com and I was so absorbed by it! I'm a reader that if I like it then it is SO hard for me to put it down until I'm done...but I am a SAHM so I have kids and a house to take care of so I had to put it down...it was SO hard! you are an awesome writer, and after reading your blog, you as a person are awesome also! Thank you for writing such an awesome book for me to enjoy!

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

I agree - the beginning is tough byut I love it when all of a sudden you kick in and cant write fast enough b/c it is pouring out of you. Good luck!