Wordsmithing

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Too tired to focus on the keyboard for more than .... zzz

STAYING LOST

I did my first piece of Beta Reading with my captive audience. Wouldn't let the class go home until they'd read part one of the book ;)

Nah! Four enthusiasts read it through for Guided Reading - AF1, AF2, AF3, AF4, AF5, AF6 and AF7 all in one thirty minute session. I did them a favour, really! They had the opportunity to question the author and have an input into how the story could have been improved to meet the needs of the target audience.

I added the sections they thought would help them. Apparently it is a great idea to be rescued, at high speed, from a rugby match but could I slow down, and write more detail when I was doing it: music to my ears!

Nanowrimo Word Count verified at 3,997 zzz

RETURN: YA Paranormal Romance

I was running late. But, it was nothing I couldn’t make up with a bit of effort. I shook my head. Confident and happy? I smiled. Increasing my stride, I pushed until the muscles in my legs burned. I kept up the pace even when the hill grew steeper.

Magpie Lane was hardly wider than a ribbon that edged the woods but that didn’t stop traffic using it to get to the motorway quicker. Large trucks and fast cars loved Magpie Lane. They sent vibrations running through me rising from the soles of my trainers. I felt the disturbance in the ground, even before the air pressure tried to knock me off balance. I hunched my shoulders as the cab hauling a container spat stones up at me.

Jogging on the spot, at the entrance to woodland, I ached to leave the road and go inside. My Mum was probably still asleep but I could hear her you-never-know-what might-be-in-there lecture buzzing on repeat inside my head. I should run safe. Not even I would argue that running through the woods on my own was the best definition of safe but I wanted to run-wild and the woodland offered me that. This early, I should be safe from axe murderers or perverts in the trees and besides, I was fast.

I jogged down the slope into the trees. From two paces in, I felt different. Freer. It felt so right. Running in the woods did great things for my style. Avoiding the roots and dodging branches forced my stride longer, I had to step higher. The woodland, The Weald, was only a sliver of ancient woodland that the developers forgot to build on but it felt like it could have been anywhere. Everywhere. At any time. The oaks and beech trees dominated the space and the skinny, silver-birches squeezed up beside them. I laughed. For a second, the woods reminded me of school and I needed to run a lot faster.

Pages

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Too tired to focus on the keyboard for more than .... zzz