I’m a little over halfway to my goal, and a little over halfway through my novel too! At the moment, I have absolutely no idea how long it’s going to turn out to be, so we’re just going to have to wait and see.
I’ve been doing more research than normal too, and I’m quite proud of myself. 😛 Researching supernovas (because reasons), giant desert centipede bites (extremely painful *sadly pats my characters*), jet packs (surprisingly hard to describe), whether a Hydrogen Peroxide and Dyphenyl Oxalate ester mixture could work as a house lighting system (sort of, in two hour bursts before it has to be replaced with a fresh batch), whether golden metalic-like tattoos are possible (they’d be toxic apparently 😯 ), among other things.
I also had another character idea for a totally new novel, so that’s been trying to distract me. Woe to the plot bunnies! *hides* I shall not give in. 😉
Since it’s first drafting season(!!) I thought it was the perfect time of year to share some snippets, and—with perfect timing—my friend Rosey Mucklestone tagged me for the 7-7-7 challenge. So here I am.
The challenge is very straight forward. You go to the seventh page of your WIP, count down seven lines, and then share the next seven paragraphs from that point.
My Camp NaNo project Falling Sun is the culprit today, obviously, and the seventh page actually landed on the meeting between the two POV characters. So that was basically perfect. 😛
– – –
“Do you live here?” She asked it so quickly, I barely caught the words, but managed a nod.
“Where else would I?” As soon as I asked the question, and echoing question replied inside my head. Where did she live? No one could survive on their own. They’d be eaten by jackals even if they did keep out of the sun and manage to hunt enough food.
She stood still for a moment, then twisted around, pointing somewhere behind her. “The Undercity?”
A thrill went through me and I prised my fingers from the dagger hilt. There was something else here. Something we didn’t know about. Other people. A city? My breath quickened and I leant sideways to try see past the girl. She twisted back, saw me right beside her, and flinched back with a yelp. The sand slid away beneath her and she tumbled down, hitting the sand and skidding away down the dune. I jumped after her, my knees bent and my weight on the balls of my feet to keep me balanced as I slid down right behind her.
The girl tumbled right to the bottom, ending up in a heap. My surfing slide slowed as the slope lessened and I finished with a stumbling step to catch myself. I bounded over a rocky hole—probably from a horned viper—and stopped at her side. She flipped the rosy hair from her face and half propped herself up, wide eyes staring up at me. I offered my hand down to her. “Careful of the sand slopes.”
Her neck moves with a swallow then she slips her hand into mine, white fingers standing out in contrast to my brown fingers and dark palm-gloves. I drew her up, then pulled my hand back, flexing the fingers just to make sure she hadn’t somehow cursed them to turn to white stone.
“Roxanne Wilde.” Her voice snapped my gaze up, though I did not understand the word. She offered her own hand forward, as if I needed help also.
I glanced at her hand, then back to her face. Her eyebrows went up a little ways and she wiggled her fingers slightly. I took her hand again, gripping it, but instead of pulling me she simply shook our hands a little, then let go again. I dropped my hand back to my side and scrubbed it clean against my pants just in case.
– – –
Because surfing on sand like Legolas surfing down stairs is goals, and you never know when someone with incredibly pale skin might be carrying some sort of contagious disease. xD
I’m going to tag ALL of my wonderful Camp NaNo Cabin members, because they’re all amazing and a great bunch of friends. I don’t know if all you guys do tags, or if you want to do tags at the moment, but here’s a shout out to you anyway. No pressure. 😛 (Or you could even just share a snippet with me in the cabin.)
All the folks: Jess, Clare, Quinley, Sarah, Catherine, Mem, Kendra, Brie, Jasmine, Ral
And anyone else who wants to share snippets…feel free to steal this tag, or drop some snippets in the comments below! I’d love to read them. 😀
Your turn! How is your July going so far? Have you been writing? Share some snippets with me!
Mwahahaha. I love this xD *happy claps* Very nice. These two characters must be fun to write. I mean, they don’t understand each other. At all.
Gah. Can’t wait to keep hearing more!
(And oooh yay. I now have a blog post to do…)
Half of Ashal’s POV chapters involve him getting confused and having no clue what anyone is talking about. 😛 It’s quite funny.
Thank you for your endless excitement about my novels. I don’t think I’d be able to keep it up without you. <3
(Haha, you're welcome. 😉 )
OH MY GOSH. What an awesome snippet!! I already love your characters! <3
Actually every time you include snippets of your writing in posts or your newsletter, I GOBBLE THEM UP AND LOVE THEM. Just fyi. You're such a great writer and you inspire me. <3
Yay for Camp NaNo!! I'm glad you're making such excellent progress! For NaNo this month I'm reading through my fairy tale retelling and taking notes, and it's been going really well – I'm having a lot of fun. 🙂
Aww, Lila! You’re too sweet! *hides*
GIRL, thank you so much. <3 That's so amazing to hear. You inspire ME. 🙂
That's so cool! Are you planning to move into edits over the next few months?
You’re so welcome! And AW, THANK YOU. <3 *my turn to hide* 😊
Yes, I am! As I'm taking notes, I'm getting fresh vision for the story, which means I have a little bit of a game plan now for editing, which makes me happy – and excited to start! 🙂
That’s super exciting! I hope edits turn out really well for you! 😀
I always love your snippets *happy sigh*
I’m not doing camp nano this year, but yep, I’m writing stuffs! 😛
(btw…i just couldn’t help myself…I have a website! 😀 )
Aw thank you!
Yay for writing! What are you working on?
(EEK! I’m going to go check it out right now!!)
I’m actually working three projects, hehe…a historical, a superhero one, and rewriting a novella. 😉
Wow that sounds like so much fun! My brain would totally explode if I tried to do that, so go you! (Superhero books are also the best so yaay. 😛 )
This looks so fun!!!
NaNo is the best. I’d like to take part again in November, but what usually happens when NaNo comes around then is . . . I’m editing, not writing. 😉 It took years for November to coincide with writing! But, hey, I made the word count goal, so that was fun.
It is! (You should totally give it a go! 😉 )
Ah noo. That’s so annoying that your schedule doesn’t fit in nicely. NaNoWriMo is amazing. I actually often order my schedule to fit in with the NaNo events. 😛 But sometimes it doesn’t turn out quite how I was expecting, despite that.
Jane I love your writing. I’m looking forward to reading some. Everything is so secret now (sad face from the guy that doesn’t do emoticons)
Aww, I’m hoping you’ll be able to read PRINCE sometime soon! Depending on how Camp and ASoG editing goes…We’ll see. I’m hoping it’ll work out, though. 🙂
This tag couldn’t have come at a better time…I need to liven up my camp updates….LOL.
Thank you for tagging me!
Catherine
Haha, I’ll look forward to seeing your snippet!
You’re welcome. 😉
Aww…thank you, Jane! 🙂 For the shout out and also thank for the tagging me. 🙂 I love the snippet. (Also surfing down the stairs like Legolas is a cool goal. (Which I may add we talked about in the cabin XD))
-Quinley
Aw, you’re absolutely welcome. <3
Thank you! Surfing down stairs (or sand) is absolute goals. One day I'm going to do it... 😛
You should have done 100-100-100. LOL. This is awesome!
Haha! I’m not actually sure that my book even had that many pages. 😯 You just want to read the whole thing, don’t you… 😛
Yes please!!!!!!!!! X3
Maybe one day! XD