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Monday, June 25, 2012

My YA Book Is Off To A Great Start!---6/25/2012---10:25 a.m.

Hey Readers,

Since my last post I've learned one thing, I need to have a little more faith in my work. When I was reading some of my comments from the last post, I realized how nervous I am about everything all the time. I think it all boils down to first impressions. People are entitled to have their opinions about everything, and some people really let you have it. I think my nerves boils down to making the right first impression for me. I don't care about having negative comments, but I'd rather have good ones first. You know, being a new name has a better chance if you have good recommendations and a few dislikes. It's harder when you start off with terrible comments and then you try to improve later. Well, the latter is something I don't want to be faced with and I'm sure every new author has been nervous about their first review.

Anywhoo, I haven't been home since Friday and I've already gotten a lot of work done. I stayed up until two a.m. this morning just to finish Chapter 1. I have been procrastinating for the past month. At first, I was always distracted with my sister and her horrible kids living in my house, but by the time I get two hours alone, the last thing I want to do is write since I be screaming for sleep by the time they leave the house. Thankfully my other sister let me crash at her house and I slept half of Saturday. Then, I got up to cook dinner, because I was expecting my mother and I wanted to at least have everything on the stove by the time she walked through the door. I got a little housework done and got kids squared away. Folding clothes is not something I do often. I hate it with a passion, but I actually washed and folded my clothes and washed my mother's clothes too. After we ate, I slept from then until Sunday. Now I actually woke up pretty early Sunday. My church traveled to Dallas yesterday, so I didn't have to worry about missing service. I'm still a kid at heart, so I watched cartoons until about noon. I have to watch my Smurfs and Winx Club on Sundays. After that went off, I grabbed my laptop and said I have to finish this chapter. I had promised myself that I would finish it, but the weekend was almost over and I was about to break another promise to myself. Of course, I had to procrastinate one last time, so I played one of the yahoo trial games. Ya'll know those trials only last an hour, so I didn't actually start writing until one. I actually got a little buzz going on and that's when my other sister's boyfriend called my mama. He was like, his daughter called and said somebody was trying to break in the house and both my sister and she were out of breath. He was talking to her and the phone cut off. He tried calling back but the line stayed busy and that’s when he called the police. He doesn't have a car so he's stuck at his parent's house. That's when my mama, my other sister and her kids, and I drove down there. Before all of this, my granddaddy had left like at seven that morning and my sister had had her car broken into while at work. She's even heard people messing with her car and our dogs barking frantically when my mother and I aren't home. My sister gets involved with strange people, so I thought she had pissed off the wrong person. We stay deep in the woods so it seemed ridiculous for somebody to break in our house. I mean, first of all, somebody had to find us and where we live, you won't find us if you aren't looking for us. However, with the past instances, to me, it made sense that if somebody was after her they would wait until she was home alone with her kids.

Now we get down there and we meet the cops coming out of our road. We get to the house and my sister came back to the car and said our niece and nephew had been playing on the phone. I come in, my oldest sister is fussing and my granddaddy is sitting on the arm of the couch. I didn't even know he had come home. You see my sister was in the bathroom taking a bath. When she came out to get dressed, her youngest son told her that the cops were outside. Of course, this was the very first time my sister or my granddaddy was hearing anything about this alleged break in. It turns out that my oldest nephew had lied to his other grandmother and he was acting like he was his sister. Ya'll know the bad girl that I told ya'll about in a past post that I got into a fight with. I told you she lies, so it made sense that she would've done it. Everybody thought she had done it, but the one time she was telling the truth nobody believe it until she started explaining her case and her story matched ours. Anywhoo, my nephew told they granny that somebody was breaking in so she past the phone to her son, which is their father. Our phone lines are nigga rigged so one wrong move can unplug the lines, which is exactly what he had done and didn't know it. Therefore, he didn't get a chance to tell his daddy he was only joking. That explains the phones mysteriously cutting off during the conversation. It also explains why the line stayed busy when we were trying to reach them, which is why their father called the police. Our grandfather said that the police wanted them to talk to the children, because if our number shows up for real the next time it would seem like The Boy Who Cried Wolf. You know the law doesn't condone whipping your kids, but being from a southern black family we read the bible and we firmly believe in the scripture that says, "Spare the rod, spoil the child." To each it's own, but I am glad my mother whipped me. I turned out perfect fine, so did my sisters, so did my mother and her siblings, and their mother and so on and so forth. There is a difference between chastisement and child abuse, which is where most people get confused...end of story.

Anywhoo, I finally made it back to where I was staying for the weekend around three something. I went to the store and made it back to my laptop around five. I stayed on my laptop from five until two this morning. Counting the hour I wrote before I was interrupted, I spent a good ten hours working. Now you see what I can get done when I'm not bothered?

Finishing my first chapter is, for me, the most important stage in writing a book. Finishing the first chapter is like signing a contract for me. You know once it's finished, I'm stuck until the contract expires, or rather, the last chapter is finished. The first chapter is the most difficult for me because it determines how the rest of the book will go. It's like my road map, and after I finish my map, the rest just comes naturally. I have nine chapters to go and if I work at this rate, I will be meeting my two month deadline.

Now the second most important stage for writing a book, for me, is the cover. I usually start working on my cover anywhere after the hallway point, but a ways before the ending. Then, I release it. Releasing a cover creates your "buzz." It also serves as motivation to complete your book. Of course, it's tempting to throw your book out, or ideas rather, when you haven't finished chapter one. However, I find it just as easy to throw in the towel when you are chapters into a book, but you just happen to get stuck. You can end up with writer's block anywhere from a few days to a few years. It took me a few years with my first book, but everything after that I only had it for about a week tops. Anyways, when you get stuck and you know you want to continue, just create your cover and release it. The cover not only makes it seem real for you, but it makes you feel like you have to finish because if you don't you'll look like a quitter to your fan base. Then at that current time, your fan base is so small that you'll do anything to keep them, so the last thing you'd want to do is release a cover and a book summary, and then rip it all away as soon as the public gets excited about it.

Anyways, that's my advice for the day. Of course, when you accomplish one thing, another problem arises. I am beginning to tap into a whole-nother genre and I feel like I am starting over with everything, but I'm willing to take that risk. With that being said, I am going to start another blog, but I don't know what it should be about. It is solely for my YA author image, but I'm not looking to do any type of review. I think review blogs are too common and starting one would just give me more work. I barely have time to write, let alone read and critique. And then there is this blog, my followers from here knows that I talk about whatever comes to mind on this one, so the last thing I need to do is start another blog just to do the same thing. After all, things would become sort of redundant and that's the last thing I want. I still want my topic to be YA fiction related, but I want it to be out of the box. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in a comment or just email me at qbreean@yahoo.com. Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Until next time, tell me what you think...

Queen B.

4 comments:

  1. Glad to know you're in the world of procrastination, too! Just get up and do it! Following your new blog, now.
    http://pgshriver.blogspot.com/

    Good luck!

    P.G.

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  2. Sometimes life gets int he way of writing, and then we just have to power through and tough it out!

    New follower here - I found you via bookblogs. My blog is nickieanderson.blogspot.com

    Congrats on putting together a cover for your book -- that's always exciting! It makes the whole project come alive.

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  3. You are so right, and, in my case, I tend to let life get the best of me, but I'm learning to embrace all the bad and turn it into something positive for me. Thanks for the follow. I will definately check out your blog.

    ReplyDelete