My Inner Critic and No More Reading

Has anyone read leofair's post on the inner critic? Well, that little bugger has just begun attacking me. I was looking at my wipey board outline and the inner critic suddenly appears and tells me: "No one's going to like that! That's a bunch of trash, why are you even working on it? You should just give up right now because everyone will think it's a stupid story!"

You see, this fell little voice has done many things to me in the past. It has gotten me to give up stories and ideas that were probably good, only allowed me to write a chapter or so before viciously attacking me and making me give up. It didn't attack me for most of last years Nanowrimo though because there was no time to concentrate on anything other than clicking the keys on the keyboard. But halfway through the month it did end up attacking me and I almost gave up, if it wasn't for my writing buddies I probably would have abandoned it and all of Nanowrimo. But now its attacking me before Nano has even started and I have to remind myself that it is a good idea and to ignore it's depressing words. The voice has left me alone for now but I'll just have to keep the uplifting thoughts in store for when it returns.

Does anyone else face the inner critic? What do you do to get rid of that foul little voice?

So is everyone else just to twitching in excitement for November to start? Twitching in horror? Is November coming too fast for some of you or not fast enough? I can't wait for November to get here, even if my outline is unfinished! Speaking of I've gotten to chapter ten on my outlines, but the complicated chapters are just coming up so we'll see how I deal with those. . .

Also what are some things you wont be able to do during Nano? (other than the general not able to clean/eat/sleep/etc.) I won't be able to read. I mean, I've got this pile of unread books that I've just gotten in the last month that I haven't even cracked open even though I've been dying to. Why you ask? Well, every time I read a book while trying to write something a large piece of that book makes it's way into my story. Whether it's the writing style or physical objects, they somehow sneak into my stories. You should see the poor idea I was writing when I was reading the Lord of the Rings! Poems and riddles were suddenly all over the place, you should see the poor bit of manuscript they made it into DX So I'm gonna have. . . at least 8 books that I'll want to read once November is over (don't let that number fool you, there is numerous more, those were just the ones I haven't started reading yet =O). So what are you distancing yourselves from this Nanowrimo for one reason or another?

Oh, one more thing. I'll be trying to post everyday during Nano to document my experience through it and I'll try to make things interesting for all you guys reading my blog.

Anyways, I'm off to knit some fingerless gloves, last year my hands were freezing cold while I was trying to type, too bad I didn't think about fingerless gloves last year :(

The "NaNo Mood"

Well I'm starting to get in the NaNo mood. I wasn't even aware I had one until today, seeing as this is only my second time around. But I suddenly got the urge to break out my fuzzy knitted scarf and soft faux fur hat that I seemed so fond of last year in November and just wear them around the house. Weird. I have actual writing totems that I didn't know I had. I'm wearing them right now as I type and am getting a tad nastolgic thinking about last year and excited about next month. Let me snap a picture of the items real quick. . .

So there they are in all their glory!

Another tradition I think I'm developing is buying a whole album of soundtrack songs to listen to will writing my novel. Last year I got the twilight score and soundtrack (but don't worry, no vampire made their way into my story), and later into the month the Avatar score. I've been getting the urge to get a soundtrack for a week or so now and today I finally did! I got the soundtrack to Assassin's Creed II. Despite it being a video game soundtrack it is very good and very movie soundtrack-esque sounding, more of a score than anything else. The songs on the album had more of the feel I was leaning towards and many of the songs have a thoughtful emotional edge that I'm loving, I can't wait to write to this soundtrack!

What do you guys listen to while writing? Does anyone else buy songs especially for their books? And does anyone else have certain items they use or have near them during Nanowrimo?

And guess what everyone!? I actually got some outlining done today! I've outlined up to chapter four and, believe it or not, I filled a gaping plot-hole up while outlining the prologue/chapter one! It was amazing! I had been worrying about this for awhile cause whether I could fill this plot-hole or not would decide whether Aurenna, a woman who lives in Siron's (the MC) head, would remain or be thrown out and I am rather fond of her. But now she's staying cause that worry has gone and a lot of other things have come up that could potentially fill up other plot-holes I have, so hurray! And to think I got all this from outling only four chapters! Imagine what I'll get from all the rest :D

Only 3 more days till Nano, I hope everyone is having the good luck I've happened to catch (compare this attitude to yesterday's (yes I just totally linked myself :P))

Have fun!!

History and Magic

I have finally - finally - done a bit of outlining and planning and stuff :D Yesterday I outlined another chapter or two and I started to further develop my magic and I'm trying to learn just what it can and can't do, creating the rules and structure and all that. I have to say that I particularly enjoy doing that type of thing, thinking about the way things should be with the magic and the world. I've also created a legend that has, for a long time, become a children's bedtime story, and it will be relevant to the story so I didn't make that just for fun. . . But it was fun.

So today I think I'm going to continue with the magic development and start to figure out the things about the remnants that have been on my mind for awhile now. The remnants have a very interesting history that I can't wait to dig into, that will be fun :D I wonder how much of their history will actually make it into the book though. . .

I think it's kinda funny how we will develop all this interesting history and magic rules and things about their world and tons upon tons of other things that probably won't even make it into the book. Even though we know that there's no way a bunch of this stuff will get into the books we write it anyway. Like I was just talking about the remnants history up there? Well very little of what I discover about it will probably make it into the book and I know this yet I will figure it all out anyway. Then I got Siron's mothers past and her family that I have to figure out and lots of her history will get into the book yet I'm not as interested in figuring all that out as I am about the remnants.

How many of you guys bother about making a history for your world? Or how much do you figure out about their magic rules and boundaries? And how are your outlines going, if you're outlining at all?

Outlining. . . Maybe

I haven't exactly started on my outline yet, it's still in my head :p I just don't really know where to start, never having outlined before. Well, I suppose you start from the beginning of course. I think an outline might keep me on track, if only I could start it. . . I should do that, like right after this post.

I'm also going to start making my book cover! I love making covers for my books, it's just so fun! This is my cover for last years NaNo Angels:

I would've uploaded the larger version but my computer recently broke and I lost nearly everything. . . Here's the signature banner that went with it:

This years NaNo shall be the first book of my trilogy Chronicles of Siron. The first book is going to be named 'Remnants' unless something better comes up. I wont give out a summary of it just yet but it's fantasy and does have magic. But it's going to be awesome.

OH! There's this awesome website you should check out. You post in some of your writing and it tells you which famous writer you write like. I don't know how reliable this thing is but it's fun and inspiring! It told me Angels was like J. K. Rowling and Stephen King! Yay! xD

Now, about that outline. . .

And So We Meet

Suppose I should first say hello. Hello (>_>). I had a lot of trouble trying to find an owl layout or header of some kind before deciding to make one myself. I think it turned out wonderful, better than I expected anyway!

So, the reason I made this blog in the first place was because NaNo is coming up (Notional Novel Writing Month). Great place that is, the best thing I have found for writing so far! It takes place in the month of November, you try to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Fun, very very fun, but equally as stressful!

This will only be my second year (last year was a win!) and I already can't wait! I'm itching to write so many different stories right now! But I'll wait. I don't want to exhaust myself only a month and a half before November, that would just be a waste!

So right now I'll just keep myself busy with plotting and outlining. Quite a new thing for me, outlining. I know it's easier and much more fun and stress free to write when you know step by step, I figured this out while rewriting a novel of mine, but I haven't ever outlined before I wrote the story. Very hard for me cause I can't really imagine what will happen step by step until I start writing. This strategy usually leads to dead stops when I have no idea what's suppose to happen next.

Not to say I don't have the plot! I usually already have the plot all done but the problem is that I don't know how to get from point A to point B. I'm good at writing the beginning and the end but suck at writing middles. . . So that's why I'm going to try outlining!