SOPHIE LI

Happy Hump Day!

It was SUPER hard to choose today’s snippet, because this is going to be the last snippet that I will be posting from Matt and Olivia’s story*. Now that I’ve trimmed, formatted, and compiled the novel into a neat PDF for beta-readers**, it doesn’t quite qualify as a WIP anymore. It’s a bittersweet feeling :’)

Curious about the final word count of my novel, after revisions? Well, I was able to reduce the length from 147K to…

103K!!!

Not bad, I’d say 🙂

My other announcement is that I will be taking a break from WIPpets for the next 2 weeks. That is because I will be away in China with minimal, if any, access to WordPress (thanks to the Great Firewall of China.) After 2 weeks, I promise to be back with a snippet from my new WIP, a young adult / adult science fiction titled Children of the Sun.

*I’ve cycled through 3 titles for this novel, only to leave it unnamed :’) If you guys have any novel-naming tips, do let me know!

**Although I already have a few trusted beta-readers, let me know if you want to join in. (My story does contain sensitive content such as suicidal ideation and self-harm. Please please please don’t ask to read if any of these can be potential triggers for you.)

Today’s snippet is from a deleted scene that I absolutely love. On the way to a concert, Matt makes fun of Olivia for rolling her eyes too much, because apparently excessive eye-rolling can cause your eyes to fall out.

“I mean, for all you know, maybe your eye fibres are already loosening up,” Matt says. “Since you roll your eyes so much.”

“No!” Olivia says.

“Although, I hear that there’s a way to remedy that.”

“What?”

“Oh… I don’t know,” He says. The corners of his mouth lift up into a smile. He can’t help it. He’s having too much fun.

“Come on, you gotta tell me,” She says.

“At a price,” He says.

“What? What’s the price?”

“Hmm,” He says.

Except, there is something that Matt wouldn’t mind doing. As they walk side by side, they are so close that their shoulders are just an inch apart, which means their arms are just an inch apart, which means their hands almost touch. Matt’s hands feel wet and clammy, he wipes them on his jeans.

“Come on, Matt!” Olivia says.

“We could, maybe, you know, hold hands,” Matt says. But at that moment, a streetcar screeches past on its tracks, and a group of teenagers chase after it, pushing between Matt and Olivia. When they are gone, and the street is quiet again, there is a wide gap between them.

“What’s that, Matt?” Olivia asks.

WIPpet Math: 25 sentences for the 25th of October (Phew! That was easy :’) )

WIPpet Wednesdays is a blog hop where writers can share a snippet from their WIP. The only stipulation is that the excerpt is somehow related to the date. Be sure to check out some of the other lovely WIPpet snippets here. Thank you Emily Wrayburn for hosting.

How is your week going? What is the title of your WIP and how did you think of it? Any naming tips? Are you guilty of rolling your eyes?