ROW80 Update 8/10

Things are going great so far. I keep trying to world build and keep up with camp nano (which my wordcount is a bit behind at the moment). And I keep hitting world building snags that I need to work on like, why do they were clothes like that? And why do their houses look like that? And stuff like that.

Actually, the writing is going really good. I'm finally getting to the meat of the story where the things start to happen and I didn't rush it like I usually do when I start writing. I'm usually so anxious to get to the part where the MC goes places that I just skip the other important things. But I didn't this time.

There's still so much I have to figure out though, even though I've started writing. Like I still don't know how the magic should work, really. I mean, should they use wands or staffs? Not need those? Is it ritual like? Do they have to say certain words or no? Movement?

And then there's the laws  of the magic I have to figure out. What are the limits? I don't have a clue. But I'll just have to figure it out somehow.

I'm trying to look around at mythology and - believe it or not - science to get ideas for the magic in my books but so far I've still got nothing.

But otherwise, thing are going great. :)

To find other ROW80-ers, go here.

Research

I have officially begun to research things for my book. 'Officially' meaning that I have got books about certain subjects and am reading them to generate ideas for my books and world. Namely, I am reading books about witchcraft and runes, divination and all that stuff. And witchcraft, or Wicca, is far, far, from what I ever expected it to be. From my understanding of it so far, it's (almost disappointingly) about order and balance and good stuff. Maybe I was naive to think otherwise but that's not what I thought it'd be about. Anyway, it's giving me many ideas on different ways I can go with the magic system in my books, which is really really good because I had absolutely no idea how it would be before. The subject I can't wait to read about though is alchemy and I'll have to wait until tomorrow for those to come in the mail.

I've also got a load of writing books that will be here in a few days, most of them are recommendations from storyfix.com. I found one of the books he recommended at the bookstore, it's called The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler. Oh my gosh. I wish I had this book the first time I decided to write a book! It's like the best thing in the world! It explains the different character roles that come up in books and the structure and everything and I can see it all now; next time I write a draft I will actually know what goes in the middle! I can't wait to get my hands on the other books now!

I'm also getting The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder since I may want to create my own language. His website here gives a lot of information about how to create realistic languages as well, so, if you've ever wanted to create a language go check it out, it's got some very useful information.

Also, you may have noticed the word count chart in the sidebar (from here). Those are my goals for each month! 25,000 words a month, I have no idea if I can do it. Though I'm sure that NaNo will catch me up if I'm behind ;) And yes, I really haven't written a single word this month. I'm still developing everything.

And you might see the blog background and templates and stuff change a bunch until I find something I really like.

So, what books have helped you with your writing and idea generating process?

Christmas is almost here!

This is the reason I haven't posted in so long. I had to get gifts for my parents and help my mom figure out what to get everyone. I got my dad a tomahawk. Still don't know what he'll think of it but it's really cool looking. I got my mom a silver necklace shaped like an angel wing, reminiscent of my '09 NaNo about angels and how my love of angel wings came to be. She'll love it, I know. We got my dad one of those electric cigarettes and we're going to slowly get him to quite by lowering the tobacco content over an extended period of time, haha :) But that was a wild goose chase, we originally bought it at the mall, one of those little booth stores in the middle, and went home, got online to see if we could get it cheaper, thinking we could return it if we found it somewhere else. We did find it, way cheaper. So cheap we could buy three (two extra for gifts for others in the family) and a bunch of different flavors. My mom called up the people we bought the cigarette from at the mall and they said that the website sold refurbished ones. So she then called the website when finished with the mall people and they said they weren't refurbished in any way, so she ordered them.

So, today we went to the mall to take back the other one, and find out that they don't do refunds. Only exchanges. My mom was livid but there wasn't really anything she could do, no matter what she said. The people did not tell us that they didn't accept refunds and that's just not right to do to you're customers. So, we exchanged it for a case and refill things and, well, that's it. But we learned our lesson. Don't buy something until you check online first, and don't trust those people at those stores in the middle.

Whew. Anyway.

I really like the atmosphere of the time leading up to Christmas, it's jut a kind of lighthearted feeling that doesn't really come around during any other time of the year. Even in the chaos and stress of making sure you get everyone gifts (and what are you supposed to get everyone anyway!?) and you don't spend every last penny. What do you guys like about Christmas? Other than getting gifts, I mean ;)

I've been slacking off my story a bit this month, I thought I finished my map finally hardly a week ago but I've got to move the continents around some before I'm done and add in the islands. And I have been messing around with things like myths, customs and, cause of all this holiday cheer, potential holidays and where they may originate from for my worlds countries.

I'm also going to compile my list of goals for next year before the month is out, though I have a strange feeling it will have to do with writing.