My work in progress

I’m about 13,000 words into my first draft of a young adult fantasy novel.

I’ve been writing as much as I can during my spare time, evenings and weekends, and I’m really happy with how my draft is coming along so far. I wish I could write a little faster though, and dedicate more time to it, so I’ve decided to take part in NaNoWriMo this November. (Add me as a Writing Buddy!)

I’m not sure I’ll manage to write 50,000 words in 30 days, but having such an ambitious target and a clear cut deadline will (hopefully) help me to write a good chunk. Maybe even finish my first draft by Christmas! *wishful thinking*

I know that first drafts are always terrible, and it’s in rewriting and editing that the magic happens, but I keep falling into the trap of editing as I go. I need to just get my head down and write until there are at least 80,000 words on the page for me to play with.

I read a good piece of advice on Tumblr yesterday, someone said that rather than editing your draft in the same document and just amending it, you should print it out and start a new document. Completely rewrite it, because that way you are really reading and analysing each line, rather than skimming over your writing and accepting things that are ‘good enough’.

By retyping every line, you’ll end up with a completely different and ultimately superior novel to the one you wrote in your first draft. You’ll play with sentence structure, remove entire paragraphs that become irrelevant, choose your words more carefully.

And let’s face it, you’re a better writer at the end of the first draft than you were at the beginning. So if your first few chapters suck, this way you get to completely rewrite them, and not only are you a more skilled writer now, but you know your characters and plot inside out.

I expect my second draft to take twice as long as my first!

So, let me introduce you to my WIP 🙂

Title: The Fair Queen

I love my title! My original working title was Hart of Jade (awful, I know) but as I plotted and planned this title just came to me. During planning the novel also became a duology, so the sequel will be called The Solitary King.

Protagonist: Aria Colling

Seventeen, looking for adventure and an escape from her daily life in the small rural village of Hartwood. Secretly in love with her gay best friend, Jasper and afraid that she doesn’t belong anywhere.

Synopsis

Aria is a few weeks away from turning eighteen, her best friend Jasper is going away to University at the end of the summer and she’s afraid that she’ll never leave their small town of Hartwood.

Girls have started disappearing, but Aria isn’t concerned, until one night she is kidnapped from her home by a group of strange men.

They tell her she is the daughter of a King, hidden in the human realm as a baby for her own protection. She is in danger because the evil Celeste King has discovered her whereabouts and has sent his men to kill her.

They take her through the veil to the Fair realm, and set off on a journey through the Five Kingdoms to reunite Aria with her true father, the Salamander King, so she can take her rightful place as his heir.

OK, so that’s my WIP, I hope you like the sound of it!

Let me know in the comments, and tell me what you’re working on 🙂

Lyndsey