Weekend Writing Warriors

Hey there! Sad day, since this is my last snippet before summer since spring semester has started. It’s been great to be back over break, thanks so much for everything! To meet some new authors, read some great writing, or join in the 8-sentence fun, stop by at Weekend Writing Warriors!

This is a continuation from last week’s snippet (here), though I have skipped some paragraphs and rearranged for the sake of snippet flow. In this scene, Falcon has been captured by the Helyx gang and is being harvested for her Amaranthine magic. Creative punctuation has been used to fit into the eight sentences.

_________

With one last awful gurgle, Scar stopped struggling and slumped against the wall.

I stood over him, blood trailing from the corners of his eyes, his mouth, lines raked into his neck where he had try to claw the blood out–I had done this, this horrid, violent thing.

I had boiled a man from the inside out, without touching him.

I balled my hands into fists to stop them from shaking–Blood snaked down my arms, mirroring the lines that glowed silver-blue with Amaranthine.

I stared down at my hands–They had done this, I had done this. I grinned–My magic wasn’t useless after all.

It was deadly.

I turned and ran, leaving my victim slumped against the wall.

_________

There you have it! Thanks so much for all the support over break, and I look forward to being back this summer 🙂 Until next time, happy 8sunday!

Blog Post and Novel Excerpt © Victoria Davenport and the Coffee.Write.Repeat. blog

Weekend Writing Warriors

Hey y’all! Classes have started again, so I’ll only post one more snippet to finish this scene before the spring semester gets into full swing. To meet some new authors, read some great writing, or join in the 8-sentence fun, stop by at Weekend Writing Warriors!

This is a direct continuation from last week’s snippet (here). In this scene, Falcon has been captured by the Helyx gang and is being harvested for her Amaranthine magic. Creative punctuation has been used to fit into the eight sentences.

_________

Scar’s face turned red–He coughed, and it caught at the back of his throat, trapped–choked. A gurgle slipped out, mangled–The bowl fell from his hands, and shattered as it hit the ground, dashing my blood against the wall.

The boy froze, and cast an anxious look at him, “Are you alright, Scar?”

Scar couldn’t speak.

His hands went to his throat, clawing at his skin and drawing blood. His skin paled to ash, his eyes bulged–His scream came out a strangled gurgle.

The boy ran to him as Scar’s legs buckled beneath him–He cried for help, and two more boys rushed in, shooting a glance at me before rushing to Scar’s side in panic. They circled him like headless chickens, lost.

_________

That’s it! I will finish this scene next week, so make sure you check it out 🙂 Thank you for reading, and look forward to your snippets this week! Happy 8sunday!

Blog Post and Novel Excerpt © Victoria Davenport and the Coffee.Write.Repeat. blog

Keeping It Real

In my last post, I touched on how YA faces the hardest parts of life, head on. Life, love, and loss–nothing is too intense for YA. Sometimes, it’s even more intense, super-charged with young emotions. It’s also so important to be true to these emotions, and be raw and honest when it matters, especially when dealing with sensitive and difficult subjects.

A lot of my most recent writing is very emotional and powerful. I’ve been exploring love and relationships, loss and grief, despair and depression. I’ve already pushed my characters to their breaking points and beyond, and now I’m handling the effects of that. After such extreme conflict, my characters are going to be forever changed. Some of them will learn and grow from it, some will never be able to recover. All of them will have scars, both seen and unseen, just like in real life.

As I’ve been writing these intense scenes, I’ve struggled sometimes with just how raw they are. I knew they were going to be, but seeing everything in words, stripped bare on the page, is something entirely different. Honestly, it’s even a little scary because in going to those raw places, there’s also a lot of deep and personal pieces of myself on the page. In exploring my characters’ scars, I’ve revealed some scars of my own.

So how much is too much? Is there a such a thing as being too raw, too deep, and too honest in your writing?

For me, I don’t think so. It might be scary to be so open and vulnerable, but that’s what writing is. It’s our blood, poured out in ink. And I think as writers we have a responsibility to be as open and authentic as we can. If we aren’t, what is the point of writing?

This week, I let a friend of mine read my MS. It’s the first time a non-writer friend has read my work. At first, it was a little terrifying. It felt like I was revealing this deep, inner part of myself. But I gave in, and she read the entire book in two days, cried at the end, and is already begging for the second.

That is exactly why we can’t be scared of being raw and authentic. That is the writing that affects people, even changes them. And if my writing has the ability to do that, I consider that the highest success of all, best-seller’s lists be damned.

Don’t be scared of going there. Our instincts always tell us to build walls, and lock those parts of ourselves away. It’s terrifying to knock those walls down and lay things out in the open. It will feel vulnerable and personal, sometimes too much so, but those are the words that will make a real difference.

Tear down your walls. Be open and authentic. Grab your demons by the horns, and wrestle them on the page. That’s what will resonate with readers.

Weekend Writing Warriors

Hey there! Winter break is coming to an end, so only two more posts until I have to go back for spring semester. Going to make the most of it, though 🙂 To meet some new authors, read some great writing, or join in the 8-sentence fun, stop by at Weekend Writing Warriors!

This is a direct continuation from last week’s snippet (here). In this scene, Falcon has been captured by the Helyx gang and is being harvested for her Amaranthine magic. Creative punctuation has been used to fit into the eight sentences.

_________

The boy seemed eager to comply.

I grit my teeth against another scream as his ragged knife tore into my flesh, prying skin from muscle–Desperately, I tried to focus my energy as Asa had tried so often to teach me, his chest glowing with energy, skin and fiber knit together at his touch.

But nothing happened.

Of course it didn’t, it was hopeless–I may have Amaranthine blood, but I was pathetically, hopelessly human.

Scar leaned against the wall, sipping from the bowl as he watched the boy harvest me. I stared at him, and willed all of my rage against him–He was everything in this world I hated. He had hurt the only friends I ever had before I met the pack, he hurt everyone he ever came in contact with, and enjoyed it–He lived off of everyone else’s pain.

And now he was going to kill me.

_________

That’s it! Read on next week to find out what happens 🙂 I cant wait to read all of your snippets this week, happy 8sunday!

Blog Post and Novel Excerpt © Victoria Davenport and the Coffee.Write.Repeat. blog

Weekend Writing Warriors

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you enjoyed the holidays 🙂 To meet some new authors, read some great writing, or join in the 8-sentence fun, stop by at Weekend Writing Warriors!

This is a continuation from last week’s snippet (here), though a couple paragraphs have been skipped. In this scene, Falcon has been captured by the Helyx gang and is being harvested for her Amaranthine magic. Creative punctuation has been used to fit into the eight sentences.

_________

I could see the taint of madness in his eyes–He was beyond reason, but I had to try. “But my blood is tainted with humanity–You can’t know what effect it will have on you.”

Scar laughed, a sound that reached out with dead fingers and gripped me by the bones, “Lying isn’t going to save you–You’re nobody’s Pet now. We’ll drop your body off at your doorstep so your perfect little family can see the pain you died in.” He ordered the boy with the knife to bring over the bowl that collected my blood–It sloshed with the movement, a dark red-black, and laced with a shimmer that only I could see–Amaranthine.

As I watched, Scar raised it to his lips and drank. He grinned, and his teeth shone red with blood–A wolf tearing into a kill.

“I’m done with her–Drain all of it, even if she’s dead.”

_________

There you go! I will continue this scene next week, so make sure you check it out 🙂 Thank you for reading, and look forward to your snippets this week! Happy 8sunday!

Blog Post and Novel Excerpt © Victoria Davenport and the Coffee.Write.Repeat. blog

Weekend Writing Warriors

Hey there! Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas 🙂 To meet some new authors, read some great writing, or join in the 8-sentence fun, stop by at Weekend Writing Warriors!

This is a direct continuation from last week’s snippet (here). In this scene, Falcon has been captured by the Helyx gang and is being harvested for her Amaranthine magic. Creative punctuation has been used to fit into the eight sentences.

_________

“What do you want?” I hissed through clenched teeth, “I’m not with Crank anymore.”

“Yeah, I know, got yourself a pretty little family now–But this has nothing to do with Crank, I only want you.”

“If you’re going to kill me, just get it over with–You get nothing out of torturing me.”

A snake of a smile crept across his lips, “Oh I’m not torturing you, but you’ve been keeping that precious magic of yours all to yourself–It’s rude not to share, ya know.”

The other thugs laughed, too hard–Eager to please their master. They were weak, nothing more than sheep following a wolf, but I knew just the monster that Scar was. I’d seen the marks he used to leave on the other girls–Being Crank’s Pet was the only thing that had saved me from him. But there was nothing to save me now.

_________

Thanks for reading! I will continue this scene next week, so I hope you stop by. I look forward to reading all your amazing posts this week! Happy 8sunday 🙂

Blog Post and Novel Excerpt © Victoria Davenport and the Coffee.Write.Repeat. blog

Weekend Writing Warriors

Hey all! It’s been a long time, but I am finally on Christmas break and I’m so excited to be able to join in again for a little while 🙂 I thought I would share some snippets from my manuscript Ember, which is out on submissions now. You can read my previous WeWriWa snippets here. To meet some new authors, read some great writing, or join in the 8-sentence fun, stop by at Weekend Writing Warriors!

In this scene, Falcon has been lured and captured by the Helyx gang and wakes up being harvested for her Amaranthine magic. Creative punctuation has been used to fit into the eight sentences.

_________

Pain snapped me back into awareness.

A scream tore from my throat at the fire lacing its way up my arm–I opened my eyes to find a Helyx tracing the lines in my skin with his knife. I thrashed against my bonds, and the knife jolted across my arm, taking strips of flesh as it went.

A man watched from the end of the room, his eyes wicked in the flicker of candle-light–A scar ran from his forehead to his jaw, revealing him as the leader of the Helyx gang, Scar. “Stop,” he said to the boy cutting my arm,  “I want to talk with her.”

He stopped–The blade dripped blood onto the floor in fat drops. My fists curled, my nails dug into my palms to fight the pain in my arm.

“Didn’t think you would see me again, did you Pet?” Scar taunted with a grin.

_________

There you have it! The next few posts will continue this scene, so I hope you come back next week. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with y’all and reading all the great posts this week! Happy 8sunday 🙂

Blog Post and Novel Excerpt © Victoria Davenport and the Coffee.Write.Repeat. blog

TBAS Snapshot

Hey all! With the semester almost over and the holidays coming up, things have been a little crazy but I’ve still managed to get some editing in. If you hadn’t heard, I finished my WIP Nightfire! You can read my post all about that here. But I know that y’all have liked the snapshot posts, so I thought I would continue them as I dip my toe into the editing phase, and eventually get into major revisions where I’ll be picking apart my beautiful shiny MS completely.

I created To Build A Story to take you through the writing process and journey with me–which doesn’t stop when I’ve finished the first draft. I’ve changed up the snapshot a little bit so I can give you a better look into my editing process.

Title: Nightfire

Current word count: 67,505

Words written this week: 500

Words cut this week: about 100

What I’m working on: My first full read through of the story start to finish, with some light edits and tweaks. I’m actually surprised by how well it turned out. I expected I would have to destroy most of it since it is only the first draft. But I think that the beginning is very strong, though it does start to change around the middle, with the parts I wrote for CampNaNo. They’re not awful, but they’re not entirely working, though I need to figure out exactly where I want them to go before I try to fix them. I also finally divided (most of it) into chapters! So at least there is some sort of organization and logic now.

Favorite lines: 

In this ever-shifting world, only two things are sure. Tangible, unchanging.

The breath in my lungs, and the drumbeat in my chest.

I sit crouched in my vantage point, my muscles stiff with cold yet poised to strike, an arrow notched in my bow. My breath crystallizes as it meets the frigid night air, swirling clouds from my lips. Here in this austere silence, instinct pulses through my veins and my humanity falls away.

I am a predator, born to kill.

Goal for next week: I’m a little over halfway through, and I hope to have finished this read-through by then!

Crossing the Finish Line

I apologize for the lack of posts this week, but I have a good reason: my sister is having a baby! By the end of this weekend, I am going to be an aunt, and I couldn’t be happier 🙂 So life has been a little crazy in between classes, social life, and getting ready for the new addition to our family. But I have some big news for you all today!

Despite the craziness, I was struck with a few good sessions of manic inspiration, and I finally did it.

I finished Nightfire! 

It has officially gone from a WIP to an MS, with a final word count of 67,154. I can’t even begin to explain the feels I have right now. I was crying while writing the final scenes, which I hope is a good sign (or maybe just means I have issues). I feel very strongly about this manuscript. I think it has a lot of promise and could be my best yet. Though it is still very raw, I can’t wait to share it with y’all, and I am so looking forward to all of the plans I have for it and the rest of the series.

Writing Nightfire has been a whirlwind. I started in the end of June this year, wrote 20,000 in July for CampNaNo, then took three months to write the next 20,000, and by November, five months later, I’m finished. It has by no means been a smooth ride–which if you have been following me, you are well aware of. (If not, you can check out my posts tagged either To Build A Story or CampNaNo). But everything is so worth it in this moment. Because though it is still raw and imperfect, I have a shiny, new, beautiful manuscript.

I’ve been enjoying it as much as I can, as long as I can. I read almost half of it in one sitting, cozied up in a blanket fort with a cup of coffee and my dog curled up beside me. At this moment in time, no one else has read this story, known this world, fallen in love with these characters, but me. I love that. And I love everything about this story, even in all its imperfect glory.

Though it’s not the first time I’ve fallen in love with a story, I am still head over heels for this one, and I never want it to go away. I know it will, when I get deep into the edits and start picking it apart into pieces and have stared at it until I want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. That day will come, but it is not this day. This day is for cuddling my fresh, pink little baby and shielding it from the world as long as I can.

Five months is by far the shortest time I have ever taken to complete a novel. I have learned so much about myself in this process, and grown so much as a writer. This is the first time I have written a novel while connected to the online writing community, and it is a completely different experience.

There are both positives and negatives to this. On one hand, I had to consider others’ opinions and the context of publishing, which I’ve never really had while writing before. On the other, I have never had such amazing support through both the highs and lows. I’ve had all the wisdom and advice of the entire blog and Twitter-verses combined, right at my fingertips. Needed a word? No problem. Advice on a scene? Got it. Without word sprints and words of encouragements from my fellow bloggers and Twitter peeps, Nightfire would not have happened. Well, it would have, but most certainly not in five months. With everything that has been going in my life lately, I doubt I would have finished in a year, or maybe even at all.

So as much as this is a moment for me to feel proud and accomplished, you all should too. Without you, I couldn’t have done this.

In a way, we all wrote Nightfire together. And one day, when it is on the shelves, you’ll be able to pick it up and say, “I helped make this.”

We did it.

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I had planned to do another snapshot post for y’all, but I had most definitely not planned to finish before I could. So I thought I would leave y’all with a final snapshot in this post, and maybe do some more as I begin the editing process.

Title: Nightfire

Current word count: 67,154

Words written this week: 3935

What I’m working on: I finished that pesky battle scene, wrote a transitional romantic scene that was so perfect for these characters, and wrote the climax and resolution. I really surprised myself, and I love how everything turned out. I pushed Kera and the others to their brink, and farther. And I ended with a little bit of mystery that alludes to events in the next book, which I am so excited to explore.

Favorite lines: 

His words fall on the austere silence, with only me and the black stalks of the trees as witness. I look up, searching his face. The raw, unnamable pain rooted in my chest is mirrored in his features. “I am sorry,” I breathe.

“I promised him that I would find a way to bring him back. But every year I get older, and he gets older, just rotting in that tank, waiting. And I’m no closer to finding a cure than I was six years ago.” Torren’s voice catches and he clamps his jaw shut, his temple trembling.

“I know the feeling,” I say.

Our eyes meet, and something unspoken intertwines us, binding us through this shared, unnamable ache. We have both known joy and the desolation that comes with having it taken away. Grief deeper than words can touch, lodged beneath our hearts like parasites.

Words left to write: Zero! *throws confetti*

TBAS Snapshot

Hey all! So I thought the snapshot last week worked out pretty well, so I’m going to try it again this week. It is finally starting to feel like fall here, which I am loving, but I haven’t gotten many words down with Halloween weekend and trying to catch up in school. Not to mention I’m starting to get sick, but I hope it will give me some time later this week to write some more, and hopefully I’ll have a better word count for y’all next week. 🙂

Title: Nightfire

Current word count: 64,134

Words written this week: 1345

What I’m working on: Still working on the same battle scene (sigh). I haven’t written much this week though, either. But I am very close to the end of it! I have the action all down, I just need to fill in some details and the aftermath. I also surprised myself with some awesome bits of gore.

Favorite lines: 

She is gone.

I cry out involuntarily, a strangled mix of frustration and grief.

“Kera?” Torren says from behind me.

“Hana,” I manage, my voice raw with a sudden, searing ache. “Hana!”

My voice is swallowed by the clash of metal and bone, by the garbled cries of dying men. I throw aside the bow and take up the sword, running headlong into the fray, only one thought in my mind. I have to get to her.

I can’t lose her again.

Words left to write: Around 4k, maybe even less. It really depends on how long the climactic scene ends up, but it shouldn’t be too long. Really looking forward to the next couple scenes!