NaNo Day 15

Wow. It has been so busy! I've had like three violin lessons in addition to my usual weekly ones in preparation for recital and then (though this is entirely my own fault) had a Harry Potter marathon which I just finished yesterday.

Actually, finishing the Harry Potter marathon and watching the last movie in my own home, it's really really hit me that Harry Potter is pretty much over. I'll always be able to read the books and watch the movies but there won't be any new movies or books to look forward to. I'm feeling sorta sad about it, I'd never thought before that I'd feel so sad about Harry Potter ending and yet. . . I'll probably watch the last movie a couple more times over the next few days. I would turn it on right now if I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow.

So I haven't written anything at all since the 10th, I think. I know, it's horrible! I've gotta catch up! My word count is currently 27,242. I've gotta get writing again!

And of course I'll be getting the video game Assassins Creed Revelations tomorrow and therefore waste more precious writing time. Why? Why did it have to come out this month? Of all the months of the year, this one?

At least there's a write in this week. Maybe I can make up a decent chunk of wordcount there?

I hope everyone is writing exciting things and that your muses are being kind to you (probably not to your characters though ;p)!

Nano Day 5

So today was great! I went to another write in and wrote about 5k words today. I've got a total of 14,441 words, 10k of them in my story Sun Touched. Things are going pretty awesomely with Sun Touched really. I didn't know how far I'd get with the idea before I got stumped but ideas are popping up like crazy and the general idea of the plot, saving the world from a dying sun, is coming along nicely.

I'm really glad I switched from the Chronicles to Sun Touched because when I had been writing the Chronicles I was getting stumped and I wasn't even 5k into it yet. With Sun Touched? Bring. It. ON!

I'll go ahead and explain a little bit more about the characters (because I can).

Dalon Av Baen is 159 years old and lost his power a century ago when the sun began to die. His outlook on life is predominantly negative and memories haunt him. He's pessimistic, sarcastic, and I like writing him :) I view him as the main character of the story even though his POV time is split with. . .

Nara Belvene. A sun-touched around 20 years old. She is rather optimistic and this irritates Dalon to no end. She thinks she might be able to save the world and drags Dalon from place to place as she tries to figure out how to do this.

I like writing about both of them because while Dalon is very negative, Nara is more positive and I like the contrast between their POV's.

Anyways, I'm getting to a part of the book that will be exciting. I think I may be getting close to the first plot point. They're about to come upon the ruins of a sorcerer city. There will be some rather nasty surprises there, and some good ones too. But for some reason I can't wait to write about the nasty ones. I almost feel bad for my characters, they have such a cruel author. *evil grin*

My grandparents are coming to visit tomorrow (Sunday) so we'll see how much writing I get in. If I wake up early I might be able to get some writing in but somehow I don't think that will happen. Seeing as I'm writing this at 1 o'clock in the morning. Cause that's how I roll.

Goodnight everyone! Have happy dreams of making things unbearably difficult for your characters! :D

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.

The Troll

Inspiration for stories is strange. I mean, it can come from anywhere. Or nowhere. Half the time I've no idea where an idea actually originated from, cause it's just so strange or something it just makes me go 'O.O?' Other times I see this tv show or movie and an idea strikes. But most the time, I don't have a clue what my brain is doing.

It's like there's some kind highly unintelligent troll in my head that just grabs random things and squishes them together. Then just chucks these blobs of randomness at me, expecting me and my muse to do something with it.

(The Troll)

 

I usually write most of these unusable ideas down, just in case.

And then the troll goes back to work.

The troll seems to work best when you're being entertained by a good book or show, using the information it's being presented with to put together some of the more usable blobs. And those ideas that kind of seem pointless. . . Well, he just couldn't find much material for use at the moment.

But those rare strikes of genius, the ones us writers live for, it's as if the troll had been working on a masterpiece, and sometimes this only occurs once in the trolls life. The troll isn't usually apt for genius.

The troll is more commonly known for throwing together some vaguely recongnizeable blobs, sending it to you and then passing on to the muse who tries to get something out of it, and convinces you to write on it for awhile before you both realize the troll has fooled you.

And he's laughing at you.

But even though the troll is a small, dim, sometimes unsavory fellow he works really hard, doing the dirty work by putting together the base of a story idea, before giving it to you and your muse to work on. Without him, there'd be NO stories.

And even if he's laughing at you, it was still an idea that you learned from, and something he can use for better material.

Perhaps for that masterpiece he's working on in the basement.

Happy Thursday

:)

Just Writing

I have been terribly sidetracked from writing by some other hobbies. Thus, my writing is progressing slowly. I can only wonder how long my interest in this stuff will last before I return solely to writing again.

But, despite this, I have written nearly 5k so far, have three different versions of the prologue, and the first chapter. I'll soon be re-writing the first chapter to fit with the prologue I've chosen, though.

I'm really excited about writing this, I love writing it and wonder when this feeling will go away. Will it be like Nanowrimo, and three weeks into this I'll be all like 'Oh no! What have I done?! It's horrible!!!! D:' I sure hope not.

But, I don't think that will happen. Since, this time around, I'm not just focusing on quantity, but quality as well, giving into that inner editor some. It's really quite pleasant to actually think about the words I'm about to write before I start spitting them out. And going back through to reread and fix errors when I see them, satisfying and stress free. Well, mostly stress free. Lets not get into the actual plotting and planning.

And you know what makes me really happy? When I write a chapter and realize it was in the wrong POV or needs to be written in a future time frame or whatever, and I rewrite it, it all still counts towards my word count for the year and it's what I want! It's a win-win!

So in conclusion, while I dearly love Nanowrimo for the deadline and excitement and all, it's just been so wonderful to write without deadline or word count only in mind.

Do you guys feel the same way?

Going to Write My Book! (And a vid)

Okay. Tomorrow (or today, whatever), I think I'm going to start writing again. Even though nothing is really properly planned or outlined I can't wait any longer to get writing. Not to mention I'm also nearly 50k words behind my word count schedule. I think that things will probably end up rewritten before I even get a first draft out, as things become clearer and I go back and fix things.

And (because I'm too sleepy to really write a post, sorry), here's a video on how to write a book, by Kaleb Nation. He is probably the most inspirational person for me with my writing because he came up with his novel idea when he was 14 years old and worked on it until it was finished and published in 2009. His book is Bran Hambric: The Farfeild Curse and his second book in the series, released last year, is Bran Hambric: The Specter Key.

Enjoy the video!