Editing, Prepping for Query and Playlist

After I completed the first draft of my second novel, Volare (insert happy dance here), I flew down to LA to celebrate and work. It was also Halloween, which worked out nicely. 

Now that I'm back, I've been jack-hammering away at the draft, editing and fixing beta-reader-found holes. I'm pretty excited though. Everyone seems to be loving the piece so far. Most request are to actually add parts to the 83,000 word draft. I'm feeling pretty blessed about this already and I haven't even sent off a query.

I've also been drafting a synopsis to put into a query letter. This is an exercise in conciseness and adjective-killing.

In other news, I've decided to make a playlist of songs that I was listening to in my life during the time of the actual writing. These songs make me feel like my characters (and self) are badasses, as well as helped me picture the scenery/themes/motivations/overall feel. 

(In no particular order.)

1. Crystallize- Lindsey Stirling
2. The Sweetest Thing- Lauryn Hill
3. Take Me To Church- Hozier
4. Elements- Lindsey Stirling
5. Knights of Cydonia- Muse
6. Cherry Bomb- The Runaways
7. Violet Hill- Coldplay
8. Universe and U- KT Tunstall
9. The Little Things- Danny Elfman
10. Rap God- Eminem
11. Cracks [Flux Pavilion Remix]- The Freestylers
12. Crave You [Adventure Club Dubstep Remix]- Flight Facilities 
13. Apothéose The Sleeping Beauty- Tchaikovsky


"Eclectic Taste" at this point would be an understatement.  

Surprise!

I have been looking forward to writing this post for some time now.

I can finally say that I have completed the first draft of Volare. It feels like a lot of time has passed, but from start to finish I wrote it in about 9 weeks. As of now it clocks in at 82,000 words.

When I look back at the story lines and themes in the piece, it's crazy to see how much of your life creeps in, even when you don't intend for it to. I mean this is a young adult, sci-fi/fantasy piece, so it's interesting to see how characters from different worlds relate to us. (Excuse me while I get all Socrates on ya.)

("Y-A" Did you get that? :)

Anyway I'm crazy excited about this piece. I'm really in love with it, which means now it's time to chop it to bits. #dexterMode

I'll try to write on here more regularly now that I've got the story out of my mind... For now.

Updates and Motivation

I know that I'm not as regular on here as I would like to be, but I promise it's for a good reason.

And I know I was excited about my book before, but I dare say at this point that I am ferociously writing this book. 

Here is part of a quote from Les Brown that I feel pertains to me. He is an awesome motivator, check him out on the google. 

"If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, to work day and night for it, to give up your time, your peace and your sleep for it...
If all that you dream and scheme is about it, and life seems useless and worthless without it..."

I'm not going to give you the rest. Like I said before, "use the google."

Oh and here's a quick update on my book if you wanted to know where I'm at...

Lock Down

I locked myself in the room for ten hours today and plotted and wrote and plotted some more.

I just finished writing the first two chapters of this book. It's about 10 thousand words so far.

Today was a great day.

Story Outlines and New Goal

So I kinda lied on my last post. Well, sort of...

The new story is a love story/tragedy, but it is definitely in the YA category with sci-fantasy elements.

I'm pretty much done with the basic outline and now I'm going to expand it out and play with the threads and sides stories before I really write.

I believe there are two basic types of writers, pantsers and plotters and I am definitely the latter. I don't have anything negative to say about either style, I just feel that I naturally do better with a roadmap.

So here is my goal, I'm gonna plan the crap out of this book until it seems so rich and alive that the world and characters write the story themselves. Not too much planning to the point where it's dead, but just enough till it is fully alive and fighting to be read. And I'm gonna sit in front of my computer and write the mess out of it until it's done.

Wish me luck.

New Romance Project

A story came to me last night and considering how these things stay with me until I set them free, I'm gonna start to write it.

I'm nervous because it's in the Romance/Tragedy genre. I've never written anything of significant length in that genre.

Oh well, here goes everything.

Course Planning- Lemme in/Stalk-mode

I’ve been playing around with the idea of going to grad school for the better part of the last 27 years. (I’ll be 28 in April.) 

Today I tried to sign up for classes with North Carolina’s online engineering program. 

Long story short, I didn’t get to sign up for the class that I needed to start the program and of course every other class has that particular course as a prerequisite.

Being the practical human that I am, I already signed up for my backup local school just in case. This is only less than desirable because I would rather take the classes online. This would have given me more time to write... and party to my hearts content. 

The situation has me thinking back to how I got my four year bachelor’s degree in only two years of college. 

Regardless of varying views on how difficult this is or if it even helps in life at all, I think people surely underestimate the OCD-esque planning involved. 

When doing something like that you have to pick your classes, major, even the times of the classes several quarters in advance. But Treyci, how do you do that when the available courses aren’t usually released that far in advance? 

My answer: Activate Stalk-mode.

Yes. It is what it sounds like... mostly. Kinda.

With overcrowded Universities, like University of Washington (the school I finished at)classes, especially prerequisite classes, fill up quickly. Also keep in mind there are varying priority dates when students can sign up, with the newer students usually getting the last picks.

Your goal is to look at the previous quarters classes and see which professors are likely to teach the classes you need. Next you PERSONALLY CONTACT THE PROFESSORS. Either by email, but I think in person is better. Just something quick like:

“Hey Prof. Smith, I noticed you taught Calculus 1 last quarter, do you plan to teach that course again? I was hoping to take it with you.”

Usually they’ll feel flattered that you prefer them, even if it’s just because you need the time slot they may offer. They’ll either tell you if they plan on teaching it, (if they know already) or they might recommend a different professor who will teach it instead.

If you plan your classes without knowing for sure and wait for the course schedule to get  posted, you are playing Russian Roulette with your graduation date.

This brings me back to my foolish mistake of attempting to sign up for a prerequisite, online class (as a new student) at NC State. Yeahhhhh, it don’t work like that brah. 

Hello, World!

This is my first post for my new blog. (I will make a more detailed introduction post later.)

I will try to keep this blog focused on my writing projects and habits. Inevitably, since my life is crazy, it will touch on everything from blow drys to computer science, but at least I'll say I tried.

Cheers!