As I stated before, my plan was to take the month of December off from all creative endeavors so that I can get back to editing in January. All in all I thought it was a fantastic plan. The stress of NaNoWriMo would be over, I could handle the holiday stuff without worrying about fitting in time to write/edit, and my poor brain could take a short respite before I send it into overdrive (I plan on having my draft out to beta readers by my birthday in March).
The best laid plans... It took me so long in November to finally come up with a plot that by the time I reached 50k I had just gotten to the part where it was starting to get good. Since I am not one to walk away from a project, I have decided to take this month to figure out how it all ends. I will wind up taking apart the beginning and getting it to make sense with my plot direction. I am hoping that I'll be able to touch it up enough that it can sit in a completed draft form until I'm finished with my other revisions.
Luckily, for me, it is the slow season at work so I'm not near as worn out when I get home so I can dedicate more energy to my projects. Maybe one day I won't have to try and do it all. Someday I'll be able to stay home and focus on what matters most to me. Until then, however, I will continue to do it all.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
NaNoWriMo and Beyond
So last year I didn't update at all during NaNo and that's because I was trying desperately to come up with something that I could string together for 50k words. I was able to put down 50k at the very last minute, but there was nothing together about it. It wound up being a bunch of scenes about the same characters that had a tiny little portion of things in common. Thus the label on my drive of, Do Not Open Ever Again.
This year, I don't think that I'll struggle to get to 50k. However, I am struggling to get to my plot. I bored my way through 15,000 words of minor happenings and background(ish) information to finally come up with a plot. So I know things are going to happen and there will be a general story arc if/when this thing is ever completed. I just wish I had come up with said plot line earlier. Then I wouldn't have to try and lead every single string back to one point.
I guess that is what writing is all about though, isn't it? Learning and perfecting the craft. I do figure that what I have finally come up with will make for an interesting story. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to pick it back up and do something with it. But I have plans, big plans.
I'll be taking the month of December off but come January I'm hitting the revisions hard on my MS that I've been toying around on. I will be finished with said revision by my birthday in March. Then, I will finally send it out to the beta readers I have met this past month. And then, with a few more revisions, I WILL submit for representation next year. I have learned a lot about not putting things off recently and I'm tired of waiting for something to happen to me. I'm going to make it happen myself.
This year, I don't think that I'll struggle to get to 50k. However, I am struggling to get to my plot. I bored my way through 15,000 words of minor happenings and background(ish) information to finally come up with a plot. So I know things are going to happen and there will be a general story arc if/when this thing is ever completed. I just wish I had come up with said plot line earlier. Then I wouldn't have to try and lead every single string back to one point.
I guess that is what writing is all about though, isn't it? Learning and perfecting the craft. I do figure that what I have finally come up with will make for an interesting story. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to pick it back up and do something with it. But I have plans, big plans.
I'll be taking the month of December off but come January I'm hitting the revisions hard on my MS that I've been toying around on. I will be finished with said revision by my birthday in March. Then, I will finally send it out to the beta readers I have met this past month. And then, with a few more revisions, I WILL submit for representation next year. I have learned a lot about not putting things off recently and I'm tired of waiting for something to happen to me. I'm going to make it happen myself.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Apologies and Updates
First, I'd like to say that I'm sorry it has been so long since I posted. I received some tragic news while I was on my working vacation and I have been slowly trying to piece things back together. Although I have a long way to go to get there I am going to try and use my writing to keep me occupied while I heal.
As for updates... As all of you know it is November. (Yes, I'm extremely observant) As some of you may know November is NaNoWriMo. This being my third year participating I took on a Municipal Liaison position, along with a very good friend of mine. That means a lot of my time has been spent putting together goody bags, organizing write-ins, and general NaNo shenanigans. Sadly, my writing has taken a hit. I'm so far behind in the word count there is a good chance that I will not finish this year. But I'm ok with that.
For the first time ever, I have decided that it is ok to "fail" as long as I have fun doing it. And I am having a blast! I've met so many new and awesome people that I actually spend most of my time at write-ins just chatting away. That's not to say I haven't been writing because I've put together a good 15,000 as of today. And I plan on continuing that.
The biggest problem I'm facing is that I have NO PLOT!! I keep hoping that as I write more something plot like will come along but so far it is all in vain. I have characters, a setting, a couple minor events, and a bit of background information, but where it is all going to go is still a mystery to me. I'm hoping it comes up soon, I can only handle so much boring-ness.
As for updates... As all of you know it is November. (Yes, I'm extremely observant) As some of you may know November is NaNoWriMo. This being my third year participating I took on a Municipal Liaison position, along with a very good friend of mine. That means a lot of my time has been spent putting together goody bags, organizing write-ins, and general NaNo shenanigans. Sadly, my writing has taken a hit. I'm so far behind in the word count there is a good chance that I will not finish this year. But I'm ok with that.
For the first time ever, I have decided that it is ok to "fail" as long as I have fun doing it. And I am having a blast! I've met so many new and awesome people that I actually spend most of my time at write-ins just chatting away. That's not to say I haven't been writing because I've put together a good 15,000 as of today. And I plan on continuing that.
The biggest problem I'm facing is that I have NO PLOT!! I keep hoping that as I write more something plot like will come along but so far it is all in vain. I have characters, a setting, a couple minor events, and a bit of background information, but where it is all going to go is still a mystery to me. I'm hoping it comes up soon, I can only handle so much boring-ness.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Working Vacation
I had all intentions of posting this on Monday but I've been a little forgetful lately. So here it is, Wednesday evening and I'm finally getting around to it. My bad.
I took this week off from work with the intentions of doing a re-write on a novel that I wrote and have been revising for almost 2 years, really it was the whole reason I started this blog. After one and a half rounds of editing I decided that it really wasn't working as I had initially written it. That is as a 1st person Multi-POV. About a month ago I decided that it will be so much better if I go back to writing in 3rd person which his how I started it in the first place. I thought it was going to be an easy fix. Me now wants to go back to Me then and laugh in her face.
You see, in dropping a POV I am tasked with deleting now unnecessary scenes, as there is no reason to now have the same scene play out from both when omniscient narrator can see it from both sides. So that cuts about a third of my writing to start. And when you're floating somewhere in the 60k range that is a large part. Also, by changing from 1st to 3rd I can't just copy and paste from the last draft. I literally am rewriting the entire thing. And I thought I could get it all done in a week. Now Me finds this hysterical for some odd reason.
On the bright side, some of the ideas I had before I started are really boosting what I had in the past draft and covering for my now missing word count. I would say that of the chunk I have completed almost half of it is new material. It has help close up plot holes that I knew were in there and it has also given me some new threads to weave in. So it's not a total disaster.
Now I just need to find time after my vacation is over to finish it before November. NaNoWriMo is fast approaching.
I took this week off from work with the intentions of doing a re-write on a novel that I wrote and have been revising for almost 2 years, really it was the whole reason I started this blog. After one and a half rounds of editing I decided that it really wasn't working as I had initially written it. That is as a 1st person Multi-POV. About a month ago I decided that it will be so much better if I go back to writing in 3rd person which his how I started it in the first place. I thought it was going to be an easy fix. Me now wants to go back to Me then and laugh in her face.
You see, in dropping a POV I am tasked with deleting now unnecessary scenes, as there is no reason to now have the same scene play out from both when omniscient narrator can see it from both sides. So that cuts about a third of my writing to start. And when you're floating somewhere in the 60k range that is a large part. Also, by changing from 1st to 3rd I can't just copy and paste from the last draft. I literally am rewriting the entire thing. And I thought I could get it all done in a week. Now Me finds this hysterical for some odd reason.
On the bright side, some of the ideas I had before I started are really boosting what I had in the past draft and covering for my now missing word count. I would say that of the chunk I have completed almost half of it is new material. It has help close up plot holes that I knew were in there and it has also given me some new threads to weave in. So it's not a total disaster.
Now I just need to find time after my vacation is over to finish it before November. NaNoWriMo is fast approaching.
Friday, September 30, 2011
And I Made It
So, tomorrow was my deadline to finish my current work. That would have given me a week off to deal with a definitely going to be stressful week at work before diving into revisions on a previous work that has been haunting me for the last couple of weeks. And as of about 15 minutes ago I wrapped up the last chapter that needed to be done on this project!
I checked my note cards to make sure that I have covered everything that I wanted to in this draft and I have done so. And a whole lot more! It really veered off in its own direction as I was writing, as most of my stuff is wont to do, but that is perfectly ok. This was actually the first time I had a beginning, middle, and an end before I even started writing. Usually I have one of the three and then kind of fit things around it. It is, by far, bare bones and maybe a little incoherent in places but that's what revisions are for. It has everything a story needs; it just has to be polished until it shines. And polishing will probably start in January.
The next month is dedicated to working on round 2 revisions of my previous work and also planning for NaNoWriMo. But stay tuned, because I have something that I'm toying with right now and if it works out the way I want it to I will have something completely new (for me) coming soon.
I checked my note cards to make sure that I have covered everything that I wanted to in this draft and I have done so. And a whole lot more! It really veered off in its own direction as I was writing, as most of my stuff is wont to do, but that is perfectly ok. This was actually the first time I had a beginning, middle, and an end before I even started writing. Usually I have one of the three and then kind of fit things around it. It is, by far, bare bones and maybe a little incoherent in places but that's what revisions are for. It has everything a story needs; it just has to be polished until it shines. And polishing will probably start in January.
The next month is dedicated to working on round 2 revisions of my previous work and also planning for NaNoWriMo. But stay tuned, because I have something that I'm toying with right now and if it works out the way I want it to I will have something completely new (for me) coming soon.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Breakthrough
So, the other night, in my attempt to get to sleep, my mind wandered off into novel land. Normally, I fully enjoy being there as I know that it means I'm making progress towards something, but this time I was a little perturbed. You see, the breakthrough I had was NOT for the ms I'm currently working on! How is this fair? All I want to do is finish this WIP before the end of the month so when I take my vacation from work I can focus on the project that said breakthrough was about. It's too hard to have both story lines going on in my head right now. They're very different types of stories and it would not be good to confuse the two. I have 14 days (eep!) to finish 4 chapters, if nothing else in this ms comes to light it's completely do-able.
That being said... I'm so excited about this breakthrough!! I've never really been able to piece everything together on the project and it's been so frustrating. There always seemed to be something missing but I could never put my finger on it. And then, there I was, laying in bed all ready to go to sleep and there was the answer. "It's HER he wants!" I'm 99% sure the words actually flashed up along my eyelids, in neon. It was the weirdest thing ever. And I know that statement probably means nothing to you but it will. If I can get what I want done during vacation I will be starting to post more about my actual work than just what I'm working on. Promise.
I really want to get started on this and see how it makes different parts come together but I know that I need to finish my current WIP before I do. If I abandon it now it will never get finished. And it has to get finished! I'm really trying to get on this finish what you start bandwagon. So I will finish in 14 days and in the mean time I will take notes on everything having to do with her.
That being said... I'm so excited about this breakthrough!! I've never really been able to piece everything together on the project and it's been so frustrating. There always seemed to be something missing but I could never put my finger on it. And then, there I was, laying in bed all ready to go to sleep and there was the answer. "It's HER he wants!" I'm 99% sure the words actually flashed up along my eyelids, in neon. It was the weirdest thing ever. And I know that statement probably means nothing to you but it will. If I can get what I want done during vacation I will be starting to post more about my actual work than just what I'm working on. Promise.
I really want to get started on this and see how it makes different parts come together but I know that I need to finish my current WIP before I do. If I abandon it now it will never get finished. And it has to get finished! I'm really trying to get on this finish what you start bandwagon. So I will finish in 14 days and in the mean time I will take notes on everything having to do with her.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Moving Right Along
So surprisingly enough I actually did something I said I was going to do regarding this WIP. A week or so ago I went chapter by chapter of stuff that I've already written and made a note card with a brief synopsis of what happened in the chapter, characters introduced (if any) and where I thought it needed to go. After a few hours of that I pulled out my little pop-up tape thingy and taped all those little cards in a straight line. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped back to view it all. Guess what! There aren't as missing elements as I thought there were!! Woot.
I still have quite a bit of work to do just to finish this first draft, but it really isn't as patchy as I originally thought it was. I am super excited about it. It has given me the motivation to get working again. Maybe it was actually seeing the whole thing laid out in front of me or the fact that it was a bunch of little pieces that made up the whole but I'm feeling (somewhat) good about this thing. So I plucked one of those fill in type note cards and sat down to writing. Only 6 more to go!
I still have quite a bit of work to do just to finish this first draft, but it really isn't as patchy as I originally thought it was. I am super excited about it. It has given me the motivation to get working again. Maybe it was actually seeing the whole thing laid out in front of me or the fact that it was a bunch of little pieces that made up the whole but I'm feeling (somewhat) good about this thing. So I plucked one of those fill in type note cards and sat down to writing. Only 6 more to go!
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