Kim Savage
The 777 Meme
Ive been tagged by Albert Wendland for the 777 meme!
The rules:
Go to the 7th line of the 7th page of your work in progress.
Post the first full 7 lines.
Then tag 7 friends.
My work in progress is my second title contracted with Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers. I wasabsent the day tagline-writing genes werehanded out, so thinkgenerous thoughts when you read the below. Here is my stab at a one-sentence summary of the plot:
Six former playmates, now grown apart as seniors in high school, discover that the chest of jewelrythey found and kept secret as children is an infamous collection with a profound purpose, andwearing the jewelry has comeat a price for each of them.
Myfirst complete novel draft came in 50,000 words too large, so Im not sure if there will be six or four main characters in the next draft. Such is the revision process!
Anyway, one of the characters, call him Brett, is struggling with abuse at home. His own Consequences have grown less scary as hes grown larger than his mother, but he watches helplessly as his sweet, six-year-old brother endures some of the same things he once did. Bretts particular upbringing has left him with some confused ideas about the nature of his power with respect to women/girls.
This passage is part of his introduction in chapter one. To all the line-counters out there: yes, I cheated, and this is more than seven. You can stop reading after seven if you like!
Hed never set out to be a bad boy. Somehow it just happened.
He and Julie had fallen behind on the getting drunk part of the night, and Julie was racing to catch back up with the group. Festivities moved on from I Never when Jade and Oscar finally came downstairs and suggested a dice game. Julie swallowed half a can each time it was her turn.
Hey, Brett whispered. He turned his face to her ear so no one but Julie would be able to hear him. Slow down, there, chugger. You okay?
Yeah. She nodded and forced out a grin. It was the Im not alright but Im trying to pretend I am face. He hated that face. It meant she was going to cry later. It meant he was a jerk.
Well, he was, wasnt he? Hed asked her to go down the hall, even though she was the one whod said yes. Hed kissed her first, but shed kissed back. Hed taken the lead from there, and shed followed right back. Theyd both had some beer, but like some girls did when they wanted to fool around, and wanted their forwardness blamed on the alcohol, shed been pretending to be more drunk than she possibly could have been. Hadnt she?
Hadnt she?
(And, yes, Brett’s piece from the collection is a ring based off the one you seeabove.)
So there you have it. Next up are seven wonderful writers Ive had the pleasure of working with:
Speak up:
2 comments| TAGS:
777 meme, Albert Wendland, Anne Lutz, Chandler Baker, Cindy L. Rodriguez, Jewelry, Kim Savage, Lee Kelly, Sally Bosco, Virginia Boecker, work in progress#mywritingprocess blog tour
Ive been tagged by my Freshman Fifteens buddy Kim Savage, author of After The Woods, to participate in the #mywritingprocess blog tour. Her writing process can be found here. As a taggee, Im supposed to answer the following four questions, so here goes:
1) What am I working on?
Well, I just finished the first draft of my second YA book in my contract with Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. Tentatively titled Jewelry, its the story of six high school seniors living with the (magical, disturbing) consequences of discovering a jewelry chest in a back yard pond when they were ten years old. Now that the manuscript is in my editors hands for a bit, I have to decide what to work on nexta revision of one of my two earlier manuscripts? Something entirely different? (I actually think I know the answer, but for now its a secret!)
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Im not sure it does differ. That implies most other books in the genre are the same. Todays YA field is wide and complex, with room for genre-blending, experimentation, and a wide range of age-appropriateness. There isnt a formula to be different from, except for the requirement that the protagonist be a young adult. Almost anything goes, and thats one of the reasons I like writing YA so much. My two contracted books are a genre mix of contemporary, fantasy, and romance, and both contain a mysterious element. I also like to believe my stories have a takeaway that makes a reader think even after theyve finished the book, though I certainly am not the first YA author to hope this.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I bet theres a whole psychoanalysis of me that can be done to answer this question. The short answer, though, is that I write what I feel like writing. I chose to be a high school teacher for fourteen years, and now I write for that audience, so I guess I find something fascinating about that time of life. I also love science fiction and fantasy because I feel those genres have the potential to test characters in unusual and meaningful ways.
4) How does my individual writing process work?
Generally something like this: I develop a concept and some characters, like a boy who can create worlds or a group of kids who find a jewelry chest. Then I brainstorm a bit about what could happen in the story and what the ending might be. Then I write. One chapter at a time I let the story unfold for myself, occasionally pausing to think about where Im headed. Its like reading any other book, wondering whats going to happen next. I often have no idea until I write the words. Both of my contracted books ended in a far different place from where I thought they might go, and that process of finding my way through a plot is most of the pleasure of writing for me. Of course, the downside is I find myself having to revise my beginnings quite a bit to match my endings!
Next up: Two writers who have been an integral part of my journey to become a professional writer. Rhonda Mason‘s writing spans the gamut of speculative fiction, from space opera to epic fantasy to urban paranormal and back again. Her space opera trilogy, Empress Game, launches from Titan Books July 2015. Writer/Producer Diana Dru Botsford‘s work runs the gamut from novels to the screen including several Stargate SG-1 novels, the Star Trek TNG episode, “Rascal’s” and the award-winning science fiction webseries “Epilogue.” She most recently contributed to the up-and-coming Stargate short story anthology, “Far Horizons,” due from Fandemonium this fall.
