Eenie Meenie; Which SNI Should I Write?

Well, I think we all have moments when we are working on a serious project, a tiny spark ignites in your head. Like a blister on your feet, at first, the symptoms are small, but overtime, they reach a size so big you can't even control yourself. And what do you do? You open that Microsoft Word document--the one that's fresh, new, and blank. Won't be blank for long, since you're punching those keys with your fingers. Soon, you have 1.2k worh of words, more than you'd written that day for your "serious" project; your supposed number one priority.

Now not everyone struggles with this, but both my sister and I do. One moment, I'm writing something I think is going well, the next, my sister tells me what she's up to and I am suddenly inspired by some new idea. Some ideas are usually not better, however.

Now I'm no expert at giving advice, let alone WRITING advice, but here are my two cents jus in case there are those who have this problem like we do:  

I believe there are pros and cons when it comes to a million SNIs in your hands. Leaving a WIP for a new SNI is a very risky thing to do (of course, you can always returnto your previous WIP, but it might be difficult to get the feel of that WIP back). On the other hand, you should try to see how the SNI works out because you never know, it might be the one. Also, I never believe writig something that doesn't work out is a waste of time; it's practice to help you get better. 

Having too many WIPs and SNIs can confuse you, so it might be best to keep a couple, maybe three or four at the most. But having a lot of SNIs can also be a good thing. If you are not taking one of the SNIs seriously, try to steal a scene/idea/quote/etc. From it and try to incorporate it into your main WIP.

I always write my SNIs to get them ot of my head. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they actualy stick around and become my main WIP, so I would recommend writing down your SNIs whether to wash them away from your system or just to see whether it works.

However, the most difficult part about having so many SNIs and WIPs is figuring out which one to write at what time. The answer can be as simple as, "write the one you feel like writing". But I struggle with picking which one because I get excited over every one, and if I could, I'd write all of them at once.

The best way to go by this is to write the WIP or SNI you believe in the most, which in a sense, the WIP or SNI you are feeling. 

So these are the procedures I follow when in doubt of which WIP or SNI to write. When in doubt, do not panic, just write what you want and feel like. Maybe overtime, one of your new SNIs become your number one priority when it comes to writing. 
      

Teaser Tuesday - SLOW

Sorry we didn't post last week--caught in the IB Program acceptance and stuff. Anyways, here's a scene where Drew and the girl bond a little. And finally, we find out her name. Sort of.

Long, so:

"She has the most honest eyes I ever read."

I'm standing by my window, enjoying my nightly cigarette (I found a pack under my books inside my bag) when the girl interrupts my thoughts. I don't know why I'm not complaining about her being on my bed, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with her stubbornness.

I flick some ash off the cigarette, its flakes falling into the snow below, and take a long drag before asking her what she means.
She examines a picture of me and Jo on the wall, the day we went to some shitty carnival a few blocks north from here in some huge empty lot. I remember feeling so far up, scoring someone like Jo, while Liam, sadly, had to accompany someone like Jess.

Jess and Jo. The J Hotties. One classy, one trashy.

"Let's ride the Ferris Wheel," I'd said, pointing at the rusty circle carrying zero passengers on its crates. Jess and Liam had jumped right on it, while I stayed with Jo as she hesitated.

"I always hated those," she'd confessed, looking up at it with scared eyes. "There's a lot of ways you can kill yourself on that."

"Jo," I'd hugged her. "It's always a good thing to face your fears." And then I promised her that I'd hold her hand and stare at her while we rode it. In the end, Jo faced her fears. It always did work out in the end with her.

"I can see a lot in them," the girl finally answers. She points at the picture. "Her eyes. They're black, and the pupils even darker. That shows mystery, but it can also show integrity. The shape of them. Narrow. That shows confidence. Was she a swimmer?"
I almost dropped my cigarette out the window. "How'd you know that?"

The girl smiles a secret smile. "Her eyes. The size of her whites are water blown."
I'm taken aback and decide to see for myself. So I flick my cigarette out the window and stride up to the picture. All I see are normal looking eyes. Beautiful normal looking eyes, but still ordinary. Something I wouldn't have been able to guess if I never met Jo. "Hm," I answer. "That's freaky."

The girl fishes her hand inside one of the many chip bags inside my room. WIth the noise she's making, I'm still not one hundred percent sure about her being here.

School's tomorrow. How do I keep her from wandering around the house?

"Hey," I say. "We gotta talk about what happens tomorrow."

She puts the Doritos in her mouth and chews. "What's tomorrow?"

Like every single kid on the planet should, I roll my eyes. "I go to school."

"School?" she asks. There's a hint of curiosity in her eyes that just gives her away.
She either doesn't know what the hell a school is or she's never attended one before.

"You know, the shitty place they teach you stuff at?"

I know she doesn’t understand, but she's making progress by nodding.

"Anyways, we have to arrange somethin' so you don't wonder out of the house and get yourself killed."

"I can take care of myself," she says. "I'm not stupid."

There's a pinch of attitude in her voice that I don't like. "It's not about stupidity--" I'm about to call her by Jo's name when I realize the girl still hasn't told me hers. "Listen. I know you're shy and stuff, but it's gonna be pretty hard living with someone for four months without knowing their name."

The girl sits up and shrugs. "I don't have one. I told you."

See what I have to deal with?

"Fuck it," I say, and start walking around my room.

"What're you doing?"

"You won't tell me your name," I answer her curtly, and start by looking through a stack of video games. "So I'll just give you one."

"A name?"

"I think that's what I just said." My hands sift through the piles. Bloody murder games, war games, Liam's perverted games, (Italian) gangster games--you name it. There's a lot of names to use. No need to research. No need to stress.
I pull out every name in every single fuckin' video game. "Alice?"

Even I can tell it doesn’t fit the girl. She doesn’t seem interested, either. "Okay, too white. How about Jane?"

The girl shakes her head. "I don't think I need a--"
"Briana?" I look her up and down fast, so I don't get caught up. "Kind of sounds black, but still too white. "Bridget? Too sexy."

I go through this about a million times until I stumble upon Liam's ultimate video vixen crush. I laugh out loud as I pull it out. "There's no freakin' way, absolutely not."

"What's wrong?"

I flash her the case for Lara Croft. "Lara Croft. Tombraider. Old, sick video game. Ever heard of it?"

Just like I expect, the girl shakes her head. "I like that name, though."

"What'd you say?"

"Lara. It's pretty."

I almost say something stupid. "Lara…" I say, trying to feel the connection with the girl's face. I feel like some expert, looking at every corner of her face, matching it with the letters, the curve of her lips, trying to make sense of how it would sound coming out of them during an introduction.

"Lara," she repeats. "My name's Lara."

"Don't be so sure."

"You gave me a name," her eyes are wide. "Now I have one."

"You mean now I have a name to call you by," I correct her. "Lara obviously sounds better than your real name."

She doesn't say anything.

"So, tomorrow, Lara, you'll stay in this room by all means. That means no going downstairs, Ashley's room, or anybody else's room. Just here."

She nods, then frowns. "But I'll be alone. I told you; things are out to get me."

"Hey," I hold my hands out. "It's this or nothin'. I can't bring you to school. They'll annihilate you."

I can imagine how Principal Digby would handle it. Rednecks and sticks.

"You know what that means, right?"

"They'll kill me," she says defensively.

"Don't get defensive. It's the truth."

She ignores me and angrily bundles herself inside the new white sheets. I can't see the hole behind her head, so I don't panic. But then again, it can leak through that thick hair of hers anytime in the middle of the night.

"What're you doin'?" I ask rhetorically. "This is my bed. We made a bargain. I let you stay here, you let me have my bed."

"You promised me you wouldn't leave me alone," she murmurs under the pillows.

I snort. "Well, guess what? Life's a bitch, especially in Freedom. Now get off my bed."

I wait three seconds and nothing moves.

"Lara," I say, trying out her new name. "Don't make me--"

"If you want the bed so bad, why don't you just get in here with me?"

For a second, I almost do exactly that. If the invitation had come out of Jo, I'd jump right in. From Jess? Fifty-fifty, depends on my mood. But this girl? I actually had to think of the words. I had to know if she said it, really. Weird thing is, I don't feel disgusted. I just act like I do.

I clap my hands quietly. "Smart, Lara, smart," I say bitterly. Sarcastic. "I know what you're tryin' to do here. Mess me up before tomorrow. Well, you know what, screw you. It's not gonna work."

I stand there, waiting for a response or an apology, but there's nothing. Just breathing. I'm frustrated, but I don't make her know. It's because it's what she wants. Or at least what I think she wants.

I flip her my birdie finger while I get ready for bed. I pull my shirt off and throw it onto her bed, hoping it makes the covers heavy so it could suffocate her. And then I plop down on the floor, thinking to myself why I agreed to this in the first place.

She's black, a bitch, and completely worth killing. I have blood on my hands. I betrayed my own shitty town. For what? A girl who can't take anything thrown to her?
All because I'm crazy and I hear Jo's voice inside my head?

I want this shit out of me. Just like I want Lara out of my town.

Teaser Tuesday - SLOW

Hey, guys! Another Tuesday, another Teaser. I'll be reading everyone's as sson as I get home from school!

Now, this is another teaser from SLOW, since Selena's still a bit self-conscious with sharing anything else from Brothers. Last week, a caring side of Drew is shown. This week, it's a little different, because it sort of goes back to the past, but really in a dream. So this is the first of these kinds of dreams that Drew starts having--and he's starting to remember what could've happened to Jo.

Thanks for the comment guys!

My Buried Life List (So far)

Okay, so, there's this show called the Buried Life that's inspired me in many ways, not just in life, but also my writing. After watching that show, my fuel to write just sort of bubbled a little more. There's so much inspiration that can come up in a less than thirty minutes, and when they put the sad music on it's just the best. It just shows everyone that nothing, NOTHING is impossible.

So I made my own little list of what I want to do before I die, basically what the show's all about.

In no order:

* Kiss a shark
* Give a graduation speech at an Ivy League College (when I'm older, of course)
* Bathe in chocolate
* Be a part of an action movie
* Pull out 7 days worth of all-nighters (a week of no sleeping)
* Drink my first legal shot/glass/taste of alcohol
* Be in a music video
* Get my book published, and then some
* Go streaking
* Face my fear of heights
* Shoot a gun (at a dummy, of course)
* Run a six minute mile
* Go on a joy ride with my friends (I need a license first)
* Read every classic literature piece before I turn 30
* Go to Antarctica
* Hug a bear
* Meet Emeril
* Gather with all my childhood friends and play tag at a cemetery at night
* Try out for American Idol
* Write a song with lyrical genius Tom Delonge
* Join the Peace Corp
* Do a collaboration with all my favorite authors (once I'm published)
* Kiss a stranger
* Go cliffdiving off of some Australian cliffs
* Run around my neigborhood screaming "The world's gonna end!"
* Give Stephenie Meyer a copy of Nightlight by the Harvard Lampoon
* Fall in love
* Save a life or many using my words
* Win the lottery and donat 50% of it to charities
* See a tiger give birth
* Jump in a moshpit
* Interview a racist
* Go to a heaven-looking rivefield I always dream about and just lay down
* Buy my mom a mansion
* and meet the Buried Life guys


What do you wanna do before you die?

I Might Sound Lame...

But Woot! Andrew Garcia,



Alex Lambert,



and Tim Urban are on the Idol Top 24!!!

Teaser Teaser Teaser - SLOW

Alright, y'all. First off, we just wanna thank everyone who commented on our teaser last week, and just thank everyone who had time to read it, even though they couldn't comment. Thanks!

This week, we have a teaser for Serena's SLOW. In the previous two teasers from this, MC Drew is introduced. Now, jumping ahead a little bit, Drew kind of shows a different side of him. Of course, to put all the pieces together, you'd actually have to read ALL of SLOW. But for right now, here's a little piece:

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Slow Cover Art

I've always loved covers with symbolism, and here, there's a lot. Maybe some of you can infer what the story's about...

Teaser Tuesday : BROTHERS

So for the last two weeks, you guys have read from Serena's WIP SLOW. But this week, it's time for Selena's rough WIP entitled BROTHERS (for now :P) to be released in the world. It's still rough, however, because it's just something I started writing one day and it grew into something more.

Brothers is about learning to be your own man and not always depending on the ones closest to you. It's about choosing between loyalty to your family, or saving yourself and getting everything you want. And of course, about the real bond twins have--the one everyone thinks is just a myth :D.

Add in a mysterious book, a completely different territory on the other side of a river, a very different girl, a Local legend that just might repeat itself, and splashes of Native American Mythology, and this WIP is what it is.

Anyways, back to the teaser.

It's in a guy's point-of-view, and his name is Evan. :D


Thanks for reading!


What do you think?

WIP Wednesday - SLOW premise and Trailer

As promised (I think), we decided to be have a new blogging schedule. So far, we've schedule what's to be for Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and although that might not seem a lot for the hot-shot bloggers out there, it was an accomplishment to us :P. Anyways, this Wednesday, it's only appropriate to introduce my WIP, SLOW, to fellow bloggers out there. The teaser comments have been supportive and it's been great hearing--reading--them, since this is the first time I--Serena--'ve ever written something like this or close to it.

SLOW is a story about a boy named Drew Prendergast, who just happens to be a real-life person that kind of inspired me to write this story. This WIP started out as nothing but a "I'm-going-to-pass-time-now-since-my-first-book-is-out-to-betas" *deep breath* thing, and the plot isn't half what it is now. I still remember. November 18th, 2009, and I really wanted something to do with snow, and I just wrote this endless thing. I kinda forgot about it the next day and left it there until the new year began, and my sister and I knew that we'd have to put GLACIALIS, our other project, away for awhile until we're ready to revise it again.

All the while this is going on, the boy at school that's been my best friend (and crush, hehe) since last year, made a real derogatory remark that I took to the heart. It wasn't addressed to me, personally, but I knew it might as well be that way, because what he said, man it can be offensive to ANYBODY. For days, I asked myself if what he says is true. If he really meant it and if he did, would he be able to change. Being myself, I asked him a week later. His answer? Yeah, he meant what he said. But what shocked me about all that was the fact that he said it wasn't his fault. That whatever he thought came from his parents, and what they thought made him say those words. Again, being selfish, I told him he was stupid.

We didn't talk for about two weeks. One horrible day, I went to my recycle bin (you know, the one on your computer)to retrieve some English homework I deleted by accident. There it was: the document, titled "slow" in small caps. My curiosity made me open it, and since I haven't seen it for so long, I thought to myself: did I plagiarize this? This does not sound like me. But it was. And angry as I was, I knew I needed to write. SO I started writing. Named my nameless guy MC Drew because it sounds like a completely annoying boy name and pounded on my keyboard. I remembered everything my ex-guy-best-friend said and typed it all down in the point-of-view of this jerk MC, who's running away from something.

And you know what? It felt good. Besides the fact that a few "from"'s were "forms" and "of"'s were "fo"'s, it read pretty well. I was happy by the end of the day, and forgot to retrieve my english homework.

Ironically, the next day, jerk ex-guy-best-friend comes along to my table at lunch and starts yapping off an apology. He still stood by what he said, but he also admitted about his "mistake" of ignorantly saying it wasn't his fault. I told him that it wasn't, but he could change. And then a light bulb lit up right there and then. What if Drew had no choice? What if he had no choice but to HATE, or PERSECUTE those who were DIFFERENT? What if his entire freakin' town was home to the world's most close-minded, close-hearted people? Would he take the exact same step as ex-guy-best-friend who turns into now-best-guy-friend and invite me over to his house, even though his parents hate people of color?

This got me thinking. What if the girl in my story is not only colored, but is also different? As in, not of this world different? What if she thinks Drew hates her for being out-of-this-world different, instead of just being colored? Get the gist?

Then, the revamped SLOW is born. Drew is now not only running away from the truth (finding his girlfriend Jo's blood in Silver Creek, but no body), but also running away from what he might be feeling for this girl he found trying to jump off the exact same bridge Jo did. And then, like every story, there's a connection. The girl and Jo--very connected. Drew just doesn't know this--yet.

Throw in a bunch of complications, mythological elements, self-transformation, and there you have it: a story that I really love writing. Hopefully, it'll sound better once it's done and collected and has a query or synopsis or whatever.

As a closing note, I'll leave you with the cast pictures (how I picture them, at least) and the trailer :3



Drew Prendergast, 17, The life of the party until his girlfriend's blood is found in Silver Creek. No body, no goodbye. At least, that's what everyone thinks...



Liam Hawk, 17, Drew's life-is-good best friend who constantly pushes Drew to move on by throwing girls like Jess Kensington on him.



Girl, found by Drew trying to jump off the bridge. Jo's voice inside his head forced him to save her. Has no home, has no car, no phone number, total dinosaur. Now he's stuck with protecting her from the prejudice of Freedom.



Jo, 18, Drew's dead(or is she?) girlfriend who he keeps hearing voices from and dreaming of.

Now, the trailer:



Next Week: A teaser from Selena's WIP BROTHERS.

Teaser Tuesday

Another teaser from SLOW this week, since it's gotten real positive comments last week. We'll post more about it soon (characters, plot, etc.) so you'll have a feel of where we're coming from with this.

Backstory: Last teaser, Drew's sulking about his girlfriend Jo's death, and he sees something unbelievable. Well, he follows that figure when "she" runs away, and sees her again on the bridge (it used to be the Well, but I changed it back to bridge) Jo jumped off, about to do exactly what Jo did. And the setting is changed - from a South Carolina island summer to a Georgia winter - so it's a lot different.

Now, just a warning, this might not be for the weak stomached. Drew is close-minded and really, really annoying, even to me, but as the story goes, he changes a lot, and in a good way. Here it goes:

Thanks for reading, guys!

Teaser Tuesday

Okay. We know we've been sucking A LOT when it comes to posting, considering our last post was December 30th. Twenty-six days ago. Yeah. But we've been really busy and we're just trying to figure out what to do with our WIP's and stuff.

But don't worry, to anyone who still follows here. Today we actually have something(YAY!). We're still working on Glacialis, so right now, we'll post something from a new WIP of Serena's temporarily called SLOW.

It's about a close-minded boy. It's about a different kind of girl. And it shows what happens when you choose to make a difference rather than sticking to the status-quo. And of course, we can't write anything our genre yet, so there're a little bit of magical, mythological elements to it. We'll post more of it soon, along with Selena's WIP temporarily called WRITTEN.

It's in the guy's point-of-view, and his name's Drew (it's kind of long and rough, so we apologize):

Thanks for reading, guys!