How to Meet Me in Five Easy Steps

Step One: Buy The War Horn.
Step Two: Buy the One Year Adventure Novel (OYAN) curriculum, if you don't own it already.
Step Three: Do the OYAN curriculum.
Step Four: Sign up for the OYAN Summer Workshop.
Step Five: Go to the OYAN Summer Workshop.

The reason step one is there is because The War Horn is funding my quest to go to the Workshop. ^_^  If I can somehow get two thousand dollars...I'll be there!

So!  I've got news.

First and foremost, I received an email from Amazon shortly after I published my last post on The War Horn. In short, they gave me the go-ahead for The War Horn.  (In length, they said that *I* couldn't publish it on my parents' account, but my parents could publish it on my behalf.  Which is the same thing. XD)

So I've been working on The War Horn, and I'm hoping to have my parents and also pre-readers be reading it by mid-January or sooner, so we'll see.  Right now I'm doing some research to make my historically inaccurate novel more accurate.

I have, however, come up with a few plot kinks that need working out.  Because I had received numerous critiques of my opening scene (and I rather agreed with them) I cut it and I'm working on finding another one. But it's difficult, since the novel (after the scene I cut) opens with my character waking up.  Which is not a good place to start a novel.  It's positively boring.

See, the problem with my novel is, it gets steadily better in terms of plot/excitement/stakes as the novel goes on.  If my readers stop at the first chapter, they won't realize what they're missing.  So I need to do something to really catch their attention - BUT, I *need* to start at the beginning.  Which is normal life.  So I'm going to work on two things.

1) Questions.  I'm going to raise a few questions in the first chapter and work with my monologue so that, even though the questions aren't particularly intense, they'll want to keep reading.

2) Prose.  I'm hoping to establish an easily-readable writing style that draws the reader in.  Because there's certain books you read that just draw you in if only for the writing style, right?  Mark Twain's work, for instance, is epic because he writes in such a clear voice that it's a joy to read the most boring of things.

However, I think I've pretty much gotten my research covered, so I'll be moving on from that to working on the first chapter.

So, writers, how's your writing coming along?  Written anything you're particularly proud of lately?

And, on a completely different note:

^The official trailer for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", coming out in December 2012.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

2012 is far too long to wait!  I can't stand it! D:  It doesn't help that I'm rewatching Lord of the Rings, either.  This trailer is, in one word, EPIC.

What do you think of it?

Talk to you later, and remember to check out the rather important poll on my sidebar.  And thank you to those who have already voted!