Posts in Category: The Grave Winner

How To Write the First Draft of a Sequel in 6 Easy Steps

On June 5, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 8 Comments - First Drafts, Sequels, The Grave Winner, What Gifts She Carried, Writing

What Gifts She Carried, book two of The Grave Winner series, is coming along. Not nicely, but it’s coming along. I’m already on page 36, so yay for that! It turns out that writing a sequel, much like writing any book, is hard. If you’re going through this too, here are some tips to keep from stabbing yourself in the eye with a french fry:

From www.bestuff.com

1. Open book one on your computer for reference. You don’t want your MC’s little sister to have a potty mouth or have a sudden fascination with vampire unicorns when she didn’t in book one. Well, I guess you could as long as there’s a reason for it.

2. Sneak in bits of back story throughout the beginning chapters. Readers may have forgotten what’s happened since reading book one and could use brief reminders here and there.

3. Look back at book one and remind yourself that it was crap too at one time. Don’t let the first draft blues suck your writing confidence through a straw.

4. Keep your novel outline close, but don’t be afraid to push it away every once in awhile. If a good idea comes to you that’s not on the outline, use it. If it surprises you, it will surprise your readers.

5. Resist the urge to go back and edit. Resist, I tell you! Puke up the story first, clean it up later. Ugh, sorry about that metaphor. I hope you weren’t eating.

6. Keep writing. Yes, that’s a given, but even if you’re not feeling it some days, keep writing. Have a daily word count goal or a daily that-would-be-really-cool-if-I-got-this-many-words-written-but-whatever-goal. I do the latter ‘cuz that’s how I roll.

Anyone else have some tips?

It’s Summer!

On May 22, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 4 Comments - Summer, The Grave Winner

Hurray! School is out, which is good because my brain is toast. I brought home handfuls of books to read over the summer after promising the mean old librarian (me) that I would bring them back unscathed. The plan is to sleep for two days, then get started on them. Oh, and there’s editing to be done and that sequel to The Grave Winner that needs to be written and the trip to Denver and the trip to Washington, D.C…. It’s going to be a crazy busy summer, but I can’t wait!

What are your plans for the summer?

The Lucky 7 Meme

On March 20, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 8 Comments - Lucky 7 Meme, The Grave Winner

I’ve been tagged by the lovely and talented Tania Walsh for the Lucky 7 Meme.

The rules of this meme are:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors
5. Let them know
 
So, the following lines are from The Grave Winner:
 
            Other than the black stump of a tree and Sarah’s footsteps burnt into the grass, everything looked normal. If it weren’t for the police tape, I’d think I imagined the whole thing last night. After leaning my bike against a nearby tree, I parked myself next to Mom’s headstone.
            It’s me again, Mom. I can’t stay away from you.
            Movement caught my eye. Tram walked towards me, scooping back the hood that covered his head. His curls turned in the wind. I scolded my heart when it did a little flip.
            “I was here earlier. Where were you?” I asked.
The seven authors I choose are:
2. Ian
If I don’t get around to letting you know you’ve been tagged, my apologies. Time hasn’t been a friend to me lately. 🙁

First Page Critique Contest

On February 18, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 12 Comments - Contests, The Grave Winner

Jamie Ayres is hosting a first page critique contest to celebrate Heather Birch’s debut novel Halflings. Participants are to post their first 250 words on their blogs, then hop around to everyone else’s to read their entries. Jamie will randomly draw five names to receive a critique from Heather. Does that make sense? After a 17 hour work day, that’s the best I can do. Anyway, here’s my first page from my YA dark fantasy titled The Grave Winner:

Dad, Darby, and I stood rooted in place long after Mom’s funeral. The weight in my chest threatened to suffocate me if I looked at the lid of her gleaming casket any longer. Instead, I focused on the black birds cutting across the sky in a sharp V formation. They pressed on until the clouds took them from me.

A different flutter in the corner of my eye pulled me back to earth. The movement took a few seconds to penetrate my numb brain. It was a girl. She crept in and out of the crumbling headstones, her body thick with mud and grime. Torn scraps of what looked like a prom dress hung from her scrawny frame. Her mouth sagged open like she was about to scream.

           
A shudder raced across my shoulder blades. I shook my head, afraid I might be dreaming. Darby stood next to me, and I reached out to touch her. She was real. Her ache was real. I felt it in the quiver of her bony body. But beyond her and the heaviness pinching my lungs, I couldn’t be sure of anything.

           
Inky black footprints tracked behind the dangling hem of the girl’s dress like a trail of burnt breadcrumbs. She stopped beside a tree and leaned her back against it.  More darkness pooled at her feet and crept up the trunk behind her.

           
Sweat trickled down the back of my dress. What was this girl doing? And what was all the black stuff dripping underneath her?