ROW Update 5/29

Ugh, I totally missed Wednesday! And Friday! I'd nearly forgotten, but my cousin was getting married on Saturday and I had to find a dress and pack and everything, and then had to spend 10 hours in the car to get there (oh my gosh, it was nearly unbearable) but it was worth it. And now that I got back home (only a few hours ago) I'm so tired but relieved that I made it back without hurting someone. (Five people in a compact car is not fun. At. All.)

Anyway, I did manage to get some writing done while I was gone, only a little though, and by a little I mean less than 1k. But there wasn't much time to write, I'm a bit proud that I even found the time to do so.

I'm also switching back and forth between The Chronicles and The Journalist now. I've had some interesting ideas on how I could fix some plot holes in The Journalist and have been eager to work on it, and it gives me a break from The Chronicles when I get too frustrated with it, so it's a win-win I guess.

As for  how it's going with my goals for both of my challenge thingies I think I'm going to utterly fail the May Madness, and still have to try and keep up with the Round of Words. I admit I'm not pushing myself too hard on either challenge but I don't want to turn my writing into something that isn't. . . fun, at all. I mean I know that there will be bad times but I think it'll be more detrimental than anything else if I work myself to the point that I don't enjoy it anymore.

How do you guys feel about giving yourself a goal? Helpful or harmful? I lean towards helpful myself, but sometimes I wonder. . .

Here's the linky for other ROW80 participants.

ROW Update 5/22

Still wondering about my story, piecing things together and throwing things out. I'm also reading, gosh it's been awhile, I'm so glad I started reading again. The reason why I don't usually read while I write is cause the stuff that I read. . . rubs off on my writing. Like, if I read, say, The Name of the Wind while I write, there's a good chance that my character will suddenly become a musician, orphan guy until I realize what I'm doing - 15,000 words later. I suppose I'll just have to keep a better eye on what I'm doing while I read. It's just when I like something that I read I unintentionally write it into my story in a very plagiaristic way and sometimes, the whole story changes. Until I come to my senses anyway.

So. . . I hope that doesn't happen this time around. Does this happen to anyone else?

And here's the linky for other ROW80-ers!

May Madness Update 5/20

I think the reason I'm having trouble writing is because I'm forcing it. There's. . . something in the story that's not working. I don't know what it is yet and am trying to figure it out. This is maddening for me! I don't really want to change anything but I think I'll have to if I want the story to work.

This has to be one of the hardest parts of writing a book. Knowing that something is wrong, trying to figure out what it is, and then changing it. Especially when you are attached to what has to be changed, it feels like your killing something. Or maybe just wiping it out of existence to haunt your dreams. I don't know but I hope it won't end up like that. I feel like that hope is futile though.

So when you feel something is wrong with your book, and for the life of you don't know what, how do you figure it out?

ROW80 Update 5/18

Hi everyone!

Still behind but still trying to catch up. I have to say that I'm in a good mood today, I'm going to try and get my word count in, we'll see what happens (as always ^^;). And, yeah, the guitar and violin is distracting me cause I really want to do that all the time instead of writing. Maybe it'll wear off, cause right now it's still new. I hope it doesn't wear off completely though, cause I don't want to stop doing it.

I think I'm gonna catch up on my reading too. I haven't read anything in. . . weeks? Months? It's been awhile and I miss it, I haven't let myself read anything because I'm writing and don't want to be distracted but. . . I just can't not read anymore. It's probably hindering me more than helping.

Do you guys read, or not, while you write? And if not, why?


The linky for ROW80 participants.

ROW80 Update 5/15

Things aren't going so well on the word goal front or the worldbuilding/etc one. I'm slacking a lot. Though yesterday I was struck with an idea for my old Angels story and wrote that, it didn't come out to too many words. I'm thinking that maybe I should have chosen a smaller daily wordcount, like 1,000 or something. But oh well, I'll still try to keep up with this one. Honestly, I think I'm slacking because I keep messing around with the guitar and violin, impatient for lessons. I've got to get back on track.

So, I'll try and get the words in today. Don't know what'll happen but I've got to try.

Here's the linky for ROW80 participants.

What do you do when you can't seem to write? Anything that inspires you?

May Madness Update 5/13

Well I'm trying to make up for the missed days of writing. Going slow but we'll see I guess. I'm trying to work out some kinks in my story, mainly the way it begins and the main plot points and such. So yeah, I did start from chapter one again, and so far it's a LOT better than before. More exciting, more. . .everything! I'm really glad I decided to start from the beginning again. Good thing I did so before I'd written anything else. I have to remember that sometimes it's good to start over. And I can't wait to continue writing cause I stopped writing at an exciting part! Maybe I should do that more often, it'll give me more incentive to get writing everyday. ;)

I got to meet my violin teacher the other day and go through the books I'll be learning from. I have a violin lesson on Tuesday and a guitar lesson on Monday. Can't wait!

What is your opinion on starting your WIP over? Even when your, like, half-way through? Would you rather finish it and revise or not?

EDIT: A comment on my last post was lost! From Claire I think? I'm sorry it was lost! (Even though it's not really my fault. mumble grumble.)

Row80 Update 5/11

Well, there's not much progress to speak of  these last three days. I didn't write anything on mothers day, nor Monday, and not yesterday either. I slacked one day and then everything falls apart. I'm gonna get back on track today.

During these three days though, I realized some things that were very wrong with the story so far. So I'm going to try to fix them, get things a bit more organized in my mind.

Starting next week I'm going to be taking guitar and violin lessons. (That's what I was doing yesterday, getting my violin looked at and fixed.) I know it'll be a distraction from writing but it's something I really want to learn, just as much as I love to write. And I really do need to learn how to work with distractions cause right now I just can't. So we'll see how that goes.

Does anyone here play an instrument? I have to say I'm curious :)

ROw80 Update 5/8

I was doing pretty good keeping up with my goals until yesterday. I got started finishing the journal I'd been making and well, just didn't have time to write cause it was already morning.

And today I'm going to my aunts and uncles for mothers day, my grandparents will be there too,  and probably won't be back until evening but I'm going to try to write while I'm over there and I'll write when I get back and do the outlining/plot refining stuff.

You know, I didn't realize that mothers day was such a big thing. The banks closed and stuff around here for the event. Don't take this the wrong way (I really do appreciate my mom), but it almost seemed a bit superfluous. I mean, mothers day isn't exactly Christmas or Easter. Maybe I just feel that way because I didn't realize that it was this 'big'.

Anyway, gotta go celebrate 'Mothers day' now. And try to get some writing in there on the side. And Happy Mothers day to everyone who's a mother!

May Madness Update 5/6 and Beginning Boring-ness

May madness is going wonderfully so far! I'm so glad I decided to do it, I'm writing normally again, it's great :D I've written 10,000 words in only five days, that's just so awesome! And then coupled with ROW80 I'll be unstoppable. Unstoppable!! >:D Um. Yeah.

The only problems I'm having right now is that the beginning is boring. I'm trying to get to the part where things start happening as quickly as possible without just skipping to it. I'm not going to worry about rewriting or anything just yet but I know it needs some work.

I've been thinking about that general rule of 'make it harder' for your character but should you really do that in the beginning? Like within the first 50 pages should you really start making things harder? I'm under the impression that that sort of thing should wait until a bit later. Am I wrong?

What do you guys think? Does that rule apply to anywhere in the book or not?

A Round of Words in 80 Days

So! I didn't find out about A Round of Words in 80 Days until yesterday. I saw people doing it, but I didn't actually go check it out. Stupid of me, really, cause I love these contest type things.

So, I decided that I'd join in, late as I am to the party. I think they're already a month into round two. I'm sooo late, but that's okay. There's still plenty of time left this round and then there's round 3 and 4. . .

Mkay, so my goals are:

• Write at least 2,000 words a day. (I know this is more words a day than my May Madness challenge, but that's proving to be somewhat easy.)

• Spend at least 30 minutes a day refining my plot, world building, figuring out my characters and other important things.

And that's it. It'll be a challenge though to do that every day but I hope it will become a habit. So I can write everyday and all that, and finish my book faster and stuff.

Here's the linky for other bloggers who are participating!

My Dragon Species and May Madness!

I'm developing my dragon species, because, yeah, there will be dragons in there. I've got rough ideas of what they're going to look like but have only properly drawn one of them:

This species is temporarily called 'Dark Dragons' until I find something better. From the dawn of their existence they have lived deep inside caves because the sunlight burned their weak eyes and was too hot on their frail skin. After millennium their wings have become small and weak their eyes near blind and their bodies thin to squeeze through small spaces. This picture is of the first Dark dragon to venture out of the caves and into the Outside world. He will be the first of many to leave the caves behind in favor of Outside and there will soon be two distinct factions among this species. Those who remain in the caves and those who live outside.

And today is the beginning of my self inflicted challenge May Madness where I will write lots of words! I've decided on 50k words to write instead of 100k. A little too ambitious, that. Here's the chart:



And now I have to get writing!


Does anyone else like designing different creatures for your stories, or just for fun? And how do you like the new blog look?