Well, November—and NaNoWriMo—is half over! I only have one more week before my time is up. I'm definitely going to hit my personal goal of 60,000 words (if I don't get too lazy!), and I miiiiiight even make it to the end of the story, if I push. We shall see! Marching straight into the final third of the novel—everything's changing up now, including moving from past to present tense. Should be interesting!!
STATS:
Day: 14
Word Count: 45,732
Chapters Completed: 16/22
Number of Times Author Deviated from Outline: at least 3
Number of Kisses Main Character Received: 2. :-)
Number of Heartbreaking Scenes: 1. :-(
Number of Times Author Just Wanted to Blow off Writing and Eat Cake: 7.
Sanity of Author: 74%
Friday, November 14, 2014
Thursday, November 6, 2014
NaNoWriMo 2014 ~ Day 6 Update
Hi, all! I come to you from the marvelous and exhilarating land of First Drafts, where all the words count and you try not to worry about fixing things until later…
The novel is going well! Feeling extraordinarily sleepy today, but managed to eek out 3K anyways (it was a struggle!). But it's so great to be WRITING (not editing or revising or rewriting) again. Nothing like rough drafts to let you revel in the awesomeness of sheer creativity!
My biggest challenge with this novel so far, I think, is that I tried to write it as a short story last year, and I've been rewriting (from scratch) scenes that I remember liking pretty well in the short story, and it feels kind of weird. But LUCKILY, I've nearly reached the point in the novel that surpasses the short story, so hopefully it will go more smoothly from here. Obviously this thing is going to need editing (what rough draft doesn't??), but I think this first draft is at least approaching how I want the story to be, so that's good.
Anyhoo. Enough chit-chat (that was 185 words I just wrote—can I count them towards my novel? Just kidding), it's time for some STATS!
Day: 6
Word Count: 23,175
Cups of Tea Drunk by Author: Many
Cups of Tea Drunk by Characters: Even more.
Number of Characters in this Novel Named after Characters from Crime and Punishment: 1.
Has Author Managed to Write a Novel Without Mentioning Books and Pianos: Hahaha. No.
Number of Times Author Has Been Surprised Even With Her Detailed Outline: 2.
Number of Times Main Character Has Been Horribly Scarred: 2. One literally. One emotionally.
Sanity of Author: 80%.
The novel is going well! Feeling extraordinarily sleepy today, but managed to eek out 3K anyways (it was a struggle!). But it's so great to be WRITING (not editing or revising or rewriting) again. Nothing like rough drafts to let you revel in the awesomeness of sheer creativity!
My biggest challenge with this novel so far, I think, is that I tried to write it as a short story last year, and I've been rewriting (from scratch) scenes that I remember liking pretty well in the short story, and it feels kind of weird. But LUCKILY, I've nearly reached the point in the novel that surpasses the short story, so hopefully it will go more smoothly from here. Obviously this thing is going to need editing (what rough draft doesn't??), but I think this first draft is at least approaching how I want the story to be, so that's good.
Anyhoo. Enough chit-chat (that was 185 words I just wrote—can I count them towards my novel? Just kidding), it's time for some STATS!
Day: 6
Word Count: 23,175
Cups of Tea Drunk by Author: Many
Cups of Tea Drunk by Characters: Even more.
Number of Characters in this Novel Named after Characters from Crime and Punishment: 1.
Has Author Managed to Write a Novel Without Mentioning Books and Pianos: Hahaha. No.
Number of Times Author Has Been Surprised Even With Her Detailed Outline: 2.
Number of Times Main Character Has Been Horribly Scarred: 2. One literally. One emotionally.
Sanity of Author: 80%.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Tick tock, tick tock…
NaNoWriMo is almost here!!! I'm anxiously awaiting typing those first few words into my Scrivener document, I've updated my profile, and there's nothing left to do but watch those last hours tick away!
I'm planning on doing weekly or bi-weekly progress updates, so look out for those.
Ack! So excited!! Is it time yet???
I'm planning on doing weekly or bi-weekly progress updates, so look out for those.
Ack! So excited!! Is it time yet???
Monday, October 27, 2014
October Updates
We're mostly settled into the new place (which is so lovely!)—just the back bedroom/office to sort through now. Tragically, my writing desk didn't make the move… A few years ago we rescued it from a dumpster, and it's been slowly falling apart since then. It ended in an explosion of particle board and dust, alas. Hopefully a new one will take its place before the year is out!
The hubs got me a mandolin for our anniversary, and it's so awesome! I used to play violin, so the transition (at least note-wise) is fairly smooth. Just trying to build up callouses on my left hand so I can play for longer than twenty minutes at a time!!
Getting pumped for NaNoWriMo! Looking forward to Saturday so I can start writing—super glad I finished my outline back in September! I've firmly decided on the fairy-tale retelling/mashup, and have been composing the opening scene in my head for several weeks now. Should be fun!
Just like last year, though, I'm going to try and be finished by the 21st, when my sister and brother-in-law come into town for the holidays. I'm HOPING to have a complete first draft, but if that doesn't happen, at least 50K of a first draft. I'm guesstimating this book will clock in at around 70K, so if I don't finish in November, I should be able to in December. Can't WAIT to start drafting!
Happy writing, all!
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
When September Ends
Well yikes, last day of September and I haven't posted in a while!
Things are pretty slow on the writing front, I fear. Kind of dragging my feet finishing up that sequel, most likely because I really don't know what happens at the end and I'm at the point where I kind of NEED to know so I can write it! Ack. This, friends, Romans, countrymen, is why I'm such an advocate for outlines…
I'm also angsting about what to write for NaNoWriMo. I'd pretty much settled on the vaguely Russian fairytale-mashup, but now I'm kind of pondering this other idea and I just don't KNOW which to do. HALLLP.
We're also moving down the street coming up in a couple of weeks, and I've been packing up the office (and the books. oh so many books) and it's just going to get seriously chaotic before it settles down again. I'm sure I'll feel much better when we're all settled into our new place—just got to survive the actual moving!
Also—and I want to do an actual review sometime soon—last week I finished the PHENOMENAL book The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski, and you guys I seriously loved it SO MUCH. It hit me right in the Queen's Thief series feels and I kinda felt like it was written just for me, and there's two more books in the series but they're not out yet, and the second one doesn't get published until MARCH, and I just want it right now because SERIOUSLY IT WAS SO AMAZING.
Anyway. Quite possibly my favorite read of 2014!
Hope you all have a fantastic last day of September!
Things are pretty slow on the writing front, I fear. Kind of dragging my feet finishing up that sequel, most likely because I really don't know what happens at the end and I'm at the point where I kind of NEED to know so I can write it! Ack. This, friends, Romans, countrymen, is why I'm such an advocate for outlines…
I'm also angsting about what to write for NaNoWriMo. I'd pretty much settled on the vaguely Russian fairytale-mashup, but now I'm kind of pondering this other idea and I just don't KNOW which to do. HALLLP.
We're also moving down the street coming up in a couple of weeks, and I've been packing up the office (and the books. oh so many books) and it's just going to get seriously chaotic before it settles down again. I'm sure I'll feel much better when we're all settled into our new place—just got to survive the actual moving!
Anyway. Quite possibly my favorite read of 2014!
Hope you all have a fantastic last day of September!
Friday, September 5, 2014
POV Experiments
First off, a brief update!
Alas, I did not get picked for Pitch Wars **cue buckets of tears** but I DID receive some pretty sweet feedback. So… to the traditional querying wagon I go, Batman! I will also be participating in PitMad next Tuesday, and have all my pitches scheduled and ready to go on Tweet Deck. Hoorah! Basically I'll be tweeting (well, Tweet Deck will!) twice an hour all day with variations of my 140-character pitch. So beware, Twitter followers!
In writing news, I've decided to keep my fairy tale retelling/mashup for NaNoWriMo, so in the meantime I'm going to finish the novel I was working on last November (which I started way back in 2009). I already wrote over a thousand words on it today! Feels good. And it'll be interesting, too, as I'm not ENTIRELY sure how this thing is going to end…
Which leads me to today's ramblings about writing.
I like to try a little something different with each new book that I write, because 1) I get bored easily and 2) I like the challenge! Mostly, the "something different" has to do with POV.
Once upon a time in 2005, I finished my very first actually novel-length novel. I wrote it in close third person from a couple of different POVs.
Later that year I wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo, and chose first-person-past. It was my first heavy-fantasy-elements book, and I pulled a shocker POV change at the end to try something drastic.
My next novel I went back to close third with a couple more POV characters, and occasional sections of myths from an omniscient POV which gradually wound into the main storyline (if that sounds like the novel I'm currently querying, that's because IT IS! :-))
Next I tried out a dual first-person POV, partially in present tense, partially in past tense. It was a MONSTER of a novel and still remains an absolute mess, but it was super fun to write.
Next I went back into my myth-universe and returned to close third, with intermingled omniscient sections following an at-first-seemingly-random woman in an enchanted dream world.
Which I think brings me to 2009 and the novel I'm currently working on finishing. Back to close third again, but somehow I wound up with SEVEN viewpoint characters. Balancing all their arcs is a huge challenge, but it's really fun to be able to hop around to the different storylines.
After that I did a dual first-person POV in past tense—and one of the POV characters was blind. That was a SUPER interesting challenge, focusing on textures, sounds, etc. instead of sights.
So anyway. A little random look into my experiments with various POVs/tenses. I can't decide which one I like to write best—I think different things work for different stories, and I try to be true to the voice I hear in my head when I'm first brainstorming/outlining (I hear voices in my head, guys—run away!!).
I think my fairytale retelling/mashup novel will be first person, partially present tense, partially past. As a side-note, I generally dislike reading present tense, because often the writing sticks out to me and feels kind of awkward. There are some books I've read, however, that pull off present-tense so well I'm not even aware that it's happening. That takes some major writing chops, people! We'll see how I do. :-)
Happy weekend, and happy writing!
Alas, I did not get picked for Pitch Wars **cue buckets of tears** but I DID receive some pretty sweet feedback. So… to the traditional querying wagon I go, Batman! I will also be participating in PitMad next Tuesday, and have all my pitches scheduled and ready to go on Tweet Deck. Hoorah! Basically I'll be tweeting (well, Tweet Deck will!) twice an hour all day with variations of my 140-character pitch. So beware, Twitter followers!
In writing news, I've decided to keep my fairy tale retelling/mashup for NaNoWriMo, so in the meantime I'm going to finish the novel I was working on last November (which I started way back in 2009). I already wrote over a thousand words on it today! Feels good. And it'll be interesting, too, as I'm not ENTIRELY sure how this thing is going to end…
Which leads me to today's ramblings about writing.
I like to try a little something different with each new book that I write, because 1) I get bored easily and 2) I like the challenge! Mostly, the "something different" has to do with POV.
Once upon a time in 2005, I finished my very first actually novel-length novel. I wrote it in close third person from a couple of different POVs.
Later that year I wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo, and chose first-person-past. It was my first heavy-fantasy-elements book, and I pulled a shocker POV change at the end to try something drastic.
My next novel I went back to close third with a couple more POV characters, and occasional sections of myths from an omniscient POV which gradually wound into the main storyline (if that sounds like the novel I'm currently querying, that's because IT IS! :-))
Next I tried out a dual first-person POV, partially in present tense, partially in past tense. It was a MONSTER of a novel and still remains an absolute mess, but it was super fun to write.
Next I went back into my myth-universe and returned to close third, with intermingled omniscient sections following an at-first-seemingly-random woman in an enchanted dream world.
Which I think brings me to 2009 and the novel I'm currently working on finishing. Back to close third again, but somehow I wound up with SEVEN viewpoint characters. Balancing all their arcs is a huge challenge, but it's really fun to be able to hop around to the different storylines.
After that I did a dual first-person POV in past tense—and one of the POV characters was blind. That was a SUPER interesting challenge, focusing on textures, sounds, etc. instead of sights.
So anyway. A little random look into my experiments with various POVs/tenses. I can't decide which one I like to write best—I think different things work for different stories, and I try to be true to the voice I hear in my head when I'm first brainstorming/outlining (I hear voices in my head, guys—run away!!).
I think my fairytale retelling/mashup novel will be first person, partially present tense, partially past. As a side-note, I generally dislike reading present tense, because often the writing sticks out to me and feels kind of awkward. There are some books I've read, however, that pull off present-tense so well I'm not even aware that it's happening. That takes some major writing chops, people! We'll see how I do. :-)
Happy weekend, and happy writing!
Monday, August 25, 2014
I'm Seriously Drawing a Blank for a Post Title, So You Get This One
Happy Monday, all!
I'm sitting here drinking tea and perusing the interwebs whilstanxiously patiently waiting for September 3rd and the announcement of the Pitch Wars picks!
What have I been doing writing-wise in the meantime? Well, last week I started outlining a brand new novel! It's the idea I attempted to write as a short story last year that was simply too big to keep under 10,000 words. I've got the whole plot outlined and most of the characters sorted out, and have already begun (though barely) my scene outline.
I'm super excited about it! I've been floundering deep in revision purgatory with two different manuscripts for nearly two years, and it's awesome to be back at the anything-could-happen and everything-is-wonderful-and-new-and-shiny brainstorming phase!
I don't really like to discuss projects in much detail when they're still delicate fledglings, but I will say it's a fairy-tale combo retelling that's making me squee.
In the meantime, I threw my hat into the writeoncon ring last week. It's an online writing convention that gives you the opportunity to give and receive critiques on other writers' queries and novel excerpts. There's also some ninja agents popping in this week, which could get interesting! Free to participate, but you do have to register to view the forums. Here's my query (which is also my Pitch Wars entry).
I also finished Ruin and Rising over the weekend, and it gave me ALL THE FEELS. You should have heard the whimpering noises I was making towards the end there. It got pretty serious.
And that's about it, folks!
I'm sitting here drinking tea and perusing the interwebs whilst
What have I been doing writing-wise in the meantime? Well, last week I started outlining a brand new novel! It's the idea I attempted to write as a short story last year that was simply too big to keep under 10,000 words. I've got the whole plot outlined and most of the characters sorted out, and have already begun (though barely) my scene outline.
I'm super excited about it! I've been floundering deep in revision purgatory with two different manuscripts for nearly two years, and it's awesome to be back at the anything-could-happen and everything-is-wonderful-and-new-and-shiny brainstorming phase!
I don't really like to discuss projects in much detail when they're still delicate fledglings, but I will say it's a fairy-tale combo retelling that's making me squee.
In the meantime, I threw my hat into the writeoncon ring last week. It's an online writing convention that gives you the opportunity to give and receive critiques on other writers' queries and novel excerpts. There's also some ninja agents popping in this week, which could get interesting! Free to participate, but you do have to register to view the forums. Here's my query (which is also my Pitch Wars entry).
I also finished Ruin and Rising over the weekend, and it gave me ALL THE FEELS. You should have heard the whimpering noises I was making towards the end there. It got pretty serious.
And that's about it, folks!
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