"Old" People Writing for Teens V

mellymel

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Thanks, Netz! I like the idea of coming up with 10 different ending/scenarios. Even if I just do it as a list, it will get my juices flowing. I'm at the very end of my stalking story (which is the main one I'm working on) and I think just playing around with different possibilities is a great way to get me going! Thanks!
 

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I started to get excited about my YA SF today, but did I work on it? No, I did not.

I did, however, figure out the ending song to the soundtrack. Baby steps.
 

Netz

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Congrats on that achievement, Sage. :roll:

I'm trying to summon up the mental energy to revise my query following feedback in QLH. My baby steps have been making sure I send rep points to everyone who's commented. :roll:

Are you going to do the Beta Project this year? I don't have anything new to enter, but I expect I'll be able to beta read if anything takes my fancy (currently out of work with nothing looming on the horizon for the foreseeable future :( ).
 

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My brain hasn't really been in a place for the Beta Project, but usually someone asking me for it gets me thinking about it until I run it. OTOH, I worry about the amount of activity that's been on AW. I don't want it to be like the writing contest, and only have a few participants because people aren't thinking about writing or reading right now. I know I don't have anything new to enter (even though I revamped the beginning of SSLS again). In an average year, I worry about participants for the first week anyway, and I can see that going to the extreme this year. Also, I can't hang out in my beta puzzle haunts :cry:

However, it would be a good excuse to use my shiny new computer a lot :greenie And figure out the new version of Scrivener without the frustration of doing that with a novel. Hmmm.
 

CoffeeBeans

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I started to get excited about my YA SF today, but did I work on it? No, I did not.

*whispers in her best ML voice* July is a camp nano month.....

I'm trying to summon up the mental energy to revise my query following feedback in QLH. My baby steps have been making sure I send rep points to everyone who's commented. :roll:

That's progress! I'd definitely tweak 250 words instead of poking around on the internet for a list of people who scare me.

I'm hiding from my novel. Again. I'm also hiding from writing a query for a different novel.

On the other hand, On Look! A SNI!
 

JKRowley

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Netz, giving rep points is definitely worth your while. You are doing great at creating good feelings and connections. That is very important in this industry.

I was feeling unproductive, and I noted something Kate DiCamillo said once. She said she writes 2 pages a day. That is her goal and she doesn't stop until she gets there. I am no Kate DiCamillo, but I do want to finish the first draft of a WIP by the end of summer. So I decided to write one page a day. Somehow I landed on 350 words. I'm pretty sure that falls short of one page, but that's what I have, and that's what I'm sticking to. And I've been doing it...and more! If I keep this up, this first draft will be done by the end of September (the end of summer).
 

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250 words is the traditional "one page," so you're actually past that.

I'm testing the site's speed (so fast!) with this post, and seeing if I need to put in an "I am human" for a post or just when I come back after being offline

ETA: Not for posting, yay!
 

Netz

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Are you getting the 'Captcha' screen, Sage? I was getting it fairly regularly recently, but not so much in the last few days.

350 words is good, JKRowley - it's better to set yourself a realistic target you know you can achieve, and it all soon adds up. Good luck getting your first draft done! :)
 

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There was a brief thing where I had to prove I was human. This time, though, it only gave me the "Just a moment" screen, but it's still really fast
 

JKRowley

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Writing 350 words a day is hard, y'all! And also good. My manuscript is moving forward, perhaps in ways I did not know.

I hate Captcha stuff. I do marketing and PR for the library and deal with a lot of that when submitting events to online calendars. So...freaking...annoying.
 

Bookgirl2021

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I haven't gotten any writing done in a while, either. I did, however, work 21 hours in the past 36. Never doing that again. But now I'm off for a week for a vacation--the first I've taken since I started this job a year ago. Hopefully will have some writing time!
 

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Hi everyone. I used to be an active member here about 8 years ago (god - time flies). I took a long hiatus and am back and querying my YA thriller. It's currently paused while I work on an exclusive R&R with my dream agency. Anyone got any great positive stories on exclusive R&Rs?
 

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Thanks! I'm worried. Everything I've read says R&R have a large rejection stat.
 

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Good luck on the R&R! at least you get a chance to try something different with the story, whether you choose to keep that version going forward or not. Hope they love it!
 

Bookgirl2021

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One of my jobs asked me to come on full time today. I'm kind of stressing about it, because now I'm going to be working 60-70 hours a week instead of 40-50. ...Because I'm not willing to leave my other job, even though it's only part time. It's going to be interesting to see how this goes. I'm sad I won't really have any writing time for the foreseeable future. But it will be nice to not be as stressed about money.
 

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Congrats, BG! Although, as someone who's been working 50+-hr weeks for the past month, I can't imagine doing 60-70 hrs. :flag:
 

Bookgirl2021

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Yeah. I did quite a few weeks where I was working 40-50 this summer, and during the last school year I was working an average of ~47. It was actually harder doing 40-50 at one job rather than 40-50 between two. I think it's because I absolutely love the other job. Unfortunately, there's no chance of it becoming full time, because school districts are annoying like that (partly because they kind of have to be because they don't have the funding they need).
 

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Having an inkling for a NaNoWriMo novel. One of the members of my quartet was telling us about finding her birth family through @ncestry.c0m, and how the brother wrote her this awesome e-mail about being assimilated into the family like they're the Borg, and how the brothers all can't get through those mistreated dog commercials without crying, and how excited he was that she was in a chorus...anyway, as she's reading us this e-mail, I'm picturing a YA protagonist finding a sibling soulmate through the same situation. And then she tells us that one of the brothers said something that hit a political red flag with her, and she did a little research and found out that the whole family are Trump fans, and she is very much not. But I start noodling on this idea I had...only what if instead of being Trump fans, the YA protagonist learns they have roots in magic or they're demons or mad scientists or whatnot. I personally cannot write a contemporary without making it SFF (or at least implying it), so I was thinking about the Star Trek references he made, and what if something sci-fi was happening and she has to call on the brother she never met to help save the world (or whatever)? Could be something fantastical too. Super abilities without calling them superheroes, whatever. I'm still working on it, but I got her permission to use the situation as inspiration, and I'm excited to have something in September to consider for NaNoWriMo.
 

mellymel

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Hey guys!

Life has been CRAZY. I'm a first grade teacher at a public school in Florida and we started out 100% virtual, which I was totally rocking. Then on Monday, parents had a choice to send their child brick and mortar or stay virtual. I have 10 students B&M and 8 virtual and it is SOOOOOO hard to teach both at the same time. And so many tech issues! It's all just so overwhelming. But, I know this is not the way things will always be, so I just have to suck it up, find a way to make it work, and not cry in front of the kids when I'm completely overwhelmed. LOL It's really the wifi/connectivity issues and kids not being so independent yet that makes it so hard. I'm running around helping the kids in the classroom and my poor babies at home have to just wait and listen to me repeat over and over again, "Sorry, guys! I'll be right there! Just helping a student!".

Chanelley, are you the Chanelley from England???
 

Bookgirl2021

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Ugh. I get that, Mellymel. One of my jobs is at a middle school, and it's been crazy trying to get everything working. We've been in person since school started, with parents having the option of doing online. We were all hoping to not have to do online after all the tech issues in the spring, but at least because of doing it in the spring they got a lot of the issues fixed. But still. I try not to complain, because I'm mostly just glad to get to see and work with my kids again. I can't even imagine doing this stuff with elementary school kids.