A Sordid Tale

Once upon a time, there lived a young woman who procrastinated working on her NaNoWriMo outline, even though November was just a few weeks away.

On Thursday, before lessons, she procrastinated by reading about mermaids and the National Archives on the interwebs at Paradise Bakery after writing only a few sentences. (Mmmmmmm cookies!!)

On Friday, before lessons, she procrastinated by reading Octavian Nothing whilst getting her tire fixed, then shopping (at Walmart!! She never shops at Walmart!). In the evening, she procrastinated by eating pizza and watching Seinfeld with friends. (Mmmmmmmm pizza!)

On Saturday, she procrastinated by getting up at four in the morning to take her sister to the airport, then returning to said sister's apartment and zonking out until noon-thirty. At which point she procrastinated by drinking tea, watching a movie, showering, and cooking eggs. Which effectively wasted the entire day, because after that she went to a bachelorette party and ate WAFFLES. (Mmmmmm waffles!)

On Sunday, inbetween church services, she procrastinated by going shopping and buying a fabulous hat, and when she finally returned home circa nine in the evening, she procrastinated by watching three episodes of Stargate SG-1 on Hulu and chatting on Facebook until she passed out from exhaustion.

Right now, she is procrastinating by writing this blog.

Things are looking very grim for that outline.

The Most Boring Post Ever

Happy Wednesday, peeps!

Not a whole lot going on over here in Joanna-land, I fear. Been outlining The Last Garden (and keep finding plot holes—argh!!), enjoying the suddenly gorgeous weather (SO gorgeous), and trying not to think too much about the full still floating out in agent-land. **sigh**

In other news, I finished A Coalition of Lions yesterday and liked it pretty well, though I didn't find it quite as haunting or compelling as The Winter Prince. I'm still eager to read the third book, though.

And that's about it. NaNo lifts off in twenty-four days!

I'm off to make some tea and enjoy the clouds. :-)

NaNo is Coming! NaNo is Coming!

It's October, and you know what that means? Less than a month till National Novel Writing Month begins! The site's been relaunched. It's all fresh and shiny and waiting to inspire thousands of crazy people all over the world to write a novel in a mere thirty days. Feel the power. Eeeeeeee!!

So to celebrate, I thought I'd give a low-down of my NaNoWriMo experiences thus far:

2005
My first NaNo. Ah, the memories! Wasn't sure at all if I could a) write a novel in a month, or b) write a novel in first person that was a mixture of fantasy and very-badly researched historical fiction. :-) I committed to writing 2,000 words a day to give myself a buffer zone, and when, lo and behold I hit the glorious 50,000 word mark with part of the month still left to go, I decided to see if I could buckle down and get to the actual end of the novel. I finished The Rose Queen on the 30th of November with 84,495 words. Yikes!


2006
Year two. The fear: could I really do this again? The answer: yes. I was way excited about my crazy story idea and went in armed with a detailed outline. That helped. On November 30th I had 104,009 words and the completed first draft of The Whale and the Tree. Did I mention I get a little obsessive and competitive when it comes to word count? Um, cause I do.

2007
Year three, and my first year participating in the NaNoWriMo Viddler group (which rocks). I gave up trying to deny the fact that I was going to go way over 50k, and started typing like a fiend. By the end of the month, I had 103,888 words, but only half of a novel (my main characters had only, erm, just met). It took me until the end of March to finish the monster that is The Fire in the Glass, which eventually clocked in at 209k.

2008
Year four. I kicked it off in Tucson (a drab little town a couple hours south of Phoenix. Sorry people who live there, but it's true) with fellow writers I met through the Viddler group, and proceeded to once more lose myself in the delicious heady rush of noveling at high speed. On November 30th I had 112,253 words and another unfinished novel. I completed the first draft of The Silver Crane at the end of March with just under 193k.

2009
Year five. The goal? Actually finish the novel during November. Wish me luck with that. :-P 

So those are my NaNos in a nutshell. I cannot gush enough about what a fantastic experience NaNoWriMo is. I've met fabulous people, written a proverbial ton of words, and drunk lots of tea whilst staring out windows. What isn't to love about that??

Off to get lunch and make me a donation and buy me a t-shirt,

Joanna

In Which Joanna Finishes her Story

Evening, ladies and gents! I would like to announce the successful completion of Seraphine, clocking in a few hours ago at 18,110 words. My weird little not-really-all-that-short story is doooooone!

*cue fanfare and flowers and marriage proposals*

Ahem. Anyways.

Not remotely sure if this story is a) coherent b) good or c) anything like what I originally envisioned. Kinda scared to read it, to be completely honest, but I'm sure I'll succumb to temptation momentairly. :-)

At any rate, I'm rather sad that it's all over—I enjoyed my little whirwind romance!

Goodbye, Seraphine.


Hellooooooooooooooo NaNo prep time!!

The Novelist and the Not-Quite-Happy Ending

I hate how the smell of coffee can permeate one's clothing in under thirty seconds. Especially if one happens to be a tea drinker. I spent a couple hours in Starbucks writing this morning, and even after a shower I still stink. Yuck. And in case anyone was wondering, the tea at the old Bucks of Star leaves pretty much everything to be desired. What they lack in taste they make up for in central locations, I guess.

Anyways. Between Saturday and this morning, I pounded out another 3k on Seraphine and am hurtling myself towards the ending (at least I think so). Made an important discovery about the plot today, and am feeling kinda smug about how clever I'm being. Don't worry, that's sure to evaporate as soon as I go back and read this thing. :-) Also, there's no way out of my tragic ending. I'm such a hypocrite about endings. Happy endings with a tinge of bittersweet are my favorite kind to read, with plain old happy endings a close second. I hate sad endings. I don't know why I write them. Just following the demands of the story, I suppose.

Speaking of which, I was up until nearly one this morning finishing Shannon Hale's The Actor and the Housewife, which, incidentally, never quite made it over to my "Currently Reading" tab. The book follows the quirky friendship of Mormon housewife Becky Jack and famous British actor Felix Calahan. It's hilarious, and sad (I cried. Shannon Hale made me cry. We're talking Kleenex, here.), and didn't end the way I wanted it to, but the way it probably should, even though I'm not sure I want to admit that. Ms. Hale's writing is bright and bouncy and lyrical all at the same time, and she's penned some of the most witty dialogue in the history of prose. All told, an enormously touching book. *sniffle*

And now, for this week's goal: finish Seraphine by Wednesday.
And this week's incentive: ordering my NaNoWriMo t-shirt.

October looms nigh. Which means November is right around the corner. Which means I really need to figure out what's happening at the end of my novel.

After Wednesday, of course.

Here an Update, there an Update and another little Update

Happy Friday, peeps! As the title promises, here are some updates:

Seraphine is up to 10,036 words, and I'm ready to be finished with it but I'm not yet. :-P How quickly the romance dies! I still like the story and I think it could be good, one day, after lots of editing, but I'm really feeling the lack of outline and wondering if it's turning out anything like the original idea. But I am glad I'm doing it, and I do think the story has merit, and I'm gonna finish it!! I'm hoping I can wrap it up in another 5k and be done by the end of the month. We'll see. Incidentally, what does one call a story that's 15,000 words long? Certainly not a short story and nowhere near novel (or even novella length). Hmmm. This is why I've been calling it a not-so-short story; guess that will have to do!

The partial of Whale and the Tree was rejected yesterday. :-( Sad, but the agent was very nice and the letter left me feeling ever-so-slightly encouraged. Maybe because I'm irrepressibly hopeful, but you'll have that. Still waiting to hear back from the full. Trying not to hope too much on that one, but... I definitely am. :-P I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for all your comments regarding the Roen/Wren post from Wednesday. I've decided I'm definitely keeping Wren's name, so hooray!

Rose Queen edits didn't get very far this week. I think I worked through part of a chapter on Tuesday, making a few very minor word-choice changes. So pretty epic fail on progress there.

And the elusive ending for this year's NaNo? Still elusive, though I feel like I'm *this* close to figuring it out. Here's hoping!!

Book Review: The Winter Prince

First published in 1993 (Was that really sixteen years ago???), The Winter Prince, by Elizabeth E. Wein, tells the story of Medraut, eldest—and illigetimate—son of Artos, high king of Britain, as he struggles to come to terms with his jealousy of his younger half-brother, heir to the throne.

This is a gripping, powerful book, at times disturbing and dark, but always beautiful and elegantly told. The story, the characters, the setting, the history—all are marvelously drawn. The writing itself is exquisite. We're talking Charlotte Bronte-level gorgeousness of prose, here:

We rode through a tangle of dripping trees, then burst into a cloudy brown clearing, silvered over with mist, to see the rusty deer bright bounding through the winter bracken.

Sentences like that make me my little INFP heart soar. Dripping trees! Cloudy brown clearing! Silvered mist! Rusty deer bright bounding through the winter bracken! I want to marry this sentence!

Um, at any rate, this is a beautiful story told by a fabulously talented writer, and I highly recommend it.