As I mentioned in my post last week, I'm taking part in the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm rewriting my novel, Snow, which is a retelling of Snow White involving superheroes and epic plots. A couple of weeks ago, Heather@Sometimes I'm a Story tagged me for the 777 Tag, which requires me to go to the 7th page of my book, look at the 7th line, and share the 7 lines following that. Now, my book has two narrators, so I'm going to bend the rules a bit. I'm going to share the regular 7th page 7th line excerpt, and an excerpt from the 7th page of the other character's point of view. Two excerpts for the price of one!

Now, on to the excerpts:

Bethany, the other female member of their group arrived too. She always looked like she was sneaking around. It had to be something to do with her being an empath, because frankly Nicola had never seen anyone creep around like Bethany did. It was so annoying. Like, did she think they were going to eat her if she made a noise? Then there was just Jonathon to go. And apparently he had forgotten that they needed him to be able to start the meeting, because several minutes ticked by without any sign that he was going to arrive. For a genius, he had the worst memory in the world. Nicola drummed her fingers across the tabletop and picked at the fraying edge of her t-shirt. “Is he actually coming?” she said at last.

This not particularly exciting excerpt comes from the first meeting of  the teenaged mutant crime fighting team where they receive their very first mission. Nicola is the secondary narrator, a sarcastic, reckless mutant with aquatic powers.

Excerpt number 2:

Eric let his power build up inside him. If Sam wanted to go head to head then he was going to give him a fight no one in this playground would ever forget. Cold poured out of his hands, wreathing them in a fog of cold steam. He rolled away from Sam’s attack, climbing to his feet. “Last warning,” he said. Sam laughed. Eric’s control snapped. He took a deep breath and blew it out into Sam’s face. Ice coated his eyelashes, hair, cheeks. His skin froze. Eric grabbed his wrist with a hand that he knew would burn with cold. Sam let out a yell as his hand connected. He stumbled back, terror filling his eyes.

This excerpt is from Eric's point of view. He's the main character in the book and, as you can probably tell, he has ice powers. In this scene he's getting into a fight at school defending another mutant from the school bully.

So there we have it, two excerpts from my book. Now it's your turn. Share an excerpt of your novel in the comments below!

It’s nearly November folks, which means that it’s nearly NaNoWriMo time. At this point, writers are scrambling to get ready to start writing on the 1st of November. (Not sure what NaNoWriMo is? Check out my post on it here). Sometimes it can be overwhelming trying to decide what to prepare before the big day. Do you need a full plot outline? What equipment will you need? Well, I'm very excited to announce that over the course of the next two weeks, I'm going to be running a blog series designed to help you get ready for NaNoWriMo, and which hopefully will answer some of the most pressing questions.


I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo every year since 2011 and, while I am by no means an expert, I have picked up a few tips that help me get to the end. Every year I see people give up in the first few days because they didn’t realise how hard it was, or because they simply weren’t prepared. I learnt the hard way that preparation is key to making your month as easy and productive as possible, even if that preparation is only understanding exactly what you’re going to be facing. Hopefully this blog series will leave you a little more equipped to face the challenge.


Of course, not everyone will be doing NaNo this November. And I totally understand that. However, I hope you’ll still stick around, even if you’re not doing it, because many of the tips I’ll be sharing work really well for every day writing as well. So to everyone, welcome to NaNoPrep, the blog series designed to help you make the most of your month of writing.


Also, last week I was tagged by Heather from Sometimes I’m a Story for the Watch Me Write challenge. Basically I needed to record myself writing and then turn that into a video so people can see what I’m like when I write. In this video I write and edit a piece of flash fiction. I'll leave it down below in case you're interested in reading the whole thing. Please note that it is not what I would call 'finished'. There's plenty more editing needing doing I know, but it'll do for an example. (See the picture that inspired it here. Music from here. If the quality is too bad, watch it on YouTube. The quality is slightly better.)

There’s no moon tonight. He relies on the wavering light of his torch as he picks his way up the side of the hill. Grandpa says tonight is the night, that the sky is going to put on a show. By rights he shouldn’t really be here. There’s school tomorrow, and the wind is bitterly cold. But the siren call of the stars brought him out into the night.

At the top of the hill, he turns off his light and settles down, wrapping his arms around his knees to keep himself warm. Overhead, the stars stare down, silent and still. He waits, patient, silent as they are. Grandpa said to come, and Grandpa knows. He watched this same sight, oh, a lifetime ago.

The first star falls, streaking across the sky, trailing a fiery tail behind it that slowly fades away. Another star follows it, and then a third. Now all the stars are falling in a shining cascade. Together, they shoot across the sky, vanishing over the horizon. His mouth hangs open as he watches the stars fly away in bursts of light. He will never forget this night.

Maybe one day, he’ll tell his own grandchildren of the night he sat on that hill, staring up at the sky. He’ll tell them of the star’s fiery tails, the shimmer and shine as they flew away. And his heart might swell with the same wonder and awe that he felt on that night. The night when the stars fell.

If you enjoyed this, then I challenge you to have a go. Record yourself writing something and leave me a link in the comments so I can see it


What are your best tips for NaNoWriMo? Leave them in a comment below. How many times have you done NaNoWriMo? Have you made a Watch Me Write video? Leave me a link!

Jollygirl

 Closing her eyes, Briar took a couple of deep breaths and tried to banish the nervousness, without much success. She'd just have to do her best. Slowly, Briar let down the magical guard in her mind that blocked out the sound of people's life songs. Every person had their own unique life song, as personal to them as a fingerprint, or a voice. Only a magician could hear these songs, a gift granted by the magic inside them. By singing this song and using her magic, she was able to speed the healing of a wound or illness and restore a person to perfect health in seconds. Unless of course they were dying. Even magic had its limits.

The captain’s song was strong, with a marshal beat like that of drums. Briar drew in a deep breath, then joined the song. As the first notes left her lips, the world around her disappeared. All the sounds and the light and the other novices around her seemed to vanish. The music of the life song swirled around her like water. As she sang, the aches of the captain's body transferred themselves to her. Her left ankle twinged with a strained muscle. A bruise on his upper arm throbbed on hers. The pain of a large cut sliced across her right forearm. General weariness hung over everything, making every movement a chore. Briar released her magic into the song. It shivered through her whole body, charging every note with a buzz of magic, throbbing through her blood. The song spun out of her lips, chasing away the man's pain. As the pain from the wounds disappeared, so too did the wounds vanish.

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