Well hello there :) Nanowrimo didn't exactly go as planned, ahem. After day three, my sister and I were tackled by a boat load of stuff. We were in our school's pit orchestra for the fall musical, so as the month went on, we just became busier and busier. That being said, I wasn't able to write a single thing until about the 25/26th. We had a combine 15K from the first three days from Chosen Destiny, which was going fairly well. But then we were stuck since we were having some difficulties. So in order to keep the steam going and last this Nano round, I decided to work on To Be Found. Remember that one? Probably not, haha. Anyway, so I mainly worked on that one for the last few days, writing an additional ~80 pages and ~35K words. So I finished Nano with 50,006 words on the 30th. Twas very crazy, how close I was cutting it this year O.o. But it's all finished now. I think I might take a break from TBF once again (even though I was just getting to the good stuff with all the lovely cumbubble of my sister and my characters meeting together!). I accidentally mixed up two important characters of my sister's, so I'll need to go back and fix that sooner or later. Just don't really feel like doing it right now. :) It's about 10+K to fix, yknow. So I might work on Chosen Destiny, or go back to SSChron (once again hurrah!) to pass the time. I'm not sure when's thenext unofficial Nano. Possibly January once again, just for tradition. We'll see though, hopefully things become more smooth sailing.
Oh! And might I mention about that one writing competition I submitted an excerpt of SSChron? I mentioned it in the September 29th post, about the 'speculative fiction' part. Yeah, that one? Well I won :) I was blushing happy since this was the first writing competition I tried, and I actually won. At first I didn't think I won, though. They said they would reply by Nov 15th to let us know if we won. And I didn't receive an email, so I was pretty bummed. But then a couple days later, my English teacher told me that she got an email about it (I put her name down as an adult person who yadda yadda all that important stuff. She was the one who told me about the comp). So this Thurs, as a prize, I get to skip school and go to a writer's convention. Yayy! My sis wasn't able to submit anything for the comp since she was too boggled down by everything else, but she's allowed to come along, apparently. Lucky duck :) So that'll be interesting!
So that's about it. PS. As a Spy Scout, my sis's book she wrote two years ago.. it's awesome. Has really awesome characters and all that good stuff. Three parts too. My fav part is part 2 of course, with Criieath and Reu. :) Reu is a main chara from TBF. He's like the link that brings the two worlds– mine and sis's–together. And as I mentioned way before, TBF is really just a spin-off of AS and what happens from Jennif's persp with Reu vs Criieaths. So all that fun stuff. Once I get over this little bump, hopefully there will be smooth sailing. It's a pity I accidentally mixed up Kent an Joshua's characters. Heh. Oops.
Alright, good bye.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
November 2, 2013 Updates
IT'S NANOWRIMO 2013!!!! Huzzah :) I'm co-writing with my sister this year. We're working on a story that's going to be, blatantly put, brilliant. Can't tell you much otherwise the idea might get stolen haha ;) Anyway, it's the second day, and we've got 9200 done so far. Our goal is to hit 100K by the end of the month, so we're actually about 2500 words ahead of schedule. Yay. Alright, that's all for now. Peace ~
Sunday, September 29, 2013
September 29, 2013 Updates
Hello! Long time no see, hehe. School's started, boo. I haven't really thought much of my books for a while, just busy with other things, I suppose. Well, anyway, sometime in the past month, my sister and I have been collaborating and discussing an idea of an online novel we'd like to write. It's one we've always wanted to write ever since... well, a long time :) We're only in the planning stages, but I'm excited to start it once we have all the major plots down. For those who've read our other books, it's going to be quite interesting to read as it has many characters who are almost identical to other characters we've written, but not quite. That might be the book I'll be working on for Nanowrimo this November, if we don't start it before then. For at least Nov, I want to actually go by the rules, so to say, and write from the beginning of a book, versus continuing with SSChron haha. Of course I plan on writing SSChron when I can, but we'll see.
As a side point, I'm considering writing a short story for a writing competition thing. Most likely, it'll be a 'speculative fiction,' which is utopia/dystopian, post-apocalyptic, science fiction, fantasy, etc. It has to be less than 25 pages double spaced, which is about 7K words, in my reckoning. It's due in a little under two weeks, so I'll see if I can pull it off. If I do, I'll start it with the words:
"I'm a dreamer. I'm a writer. And I sacrificed everything in order to stay with him." Or something like that. I've been rewording it several times in the past week or something. It's going to be a story about a girl who realizes that her dream world's time isn't quite in sync with the real life and that if she stayed in her dream world, she'd be able to do so much more. And in her dream world, the time and place switches every so often, but for some reason, a certain brown-haired, brown-eyed figure keeps reappearing. She notices that he has certain characteristics and traits to that of one of her book characters and thus calls him "Draven." Most likely, she'll put herself into some kind of comatose state so she remains asleep although the rest of her body is still functioning, in order to stay in those dream worlds. But something goes wrong (as something always does), and she'll have to wake up sooner or later. But yeah. It's actually somewhat based on a true story, as I've had a Draven figure in my dreams all too often (if you read my dream blog, you'd know what I"m talking). So if I don't write this short story for the comp, I might just write it sometime or later just for fun.
That's about it, cya later~
As a side point, I'm considering writing a short story for a writing competition thing. Most likely, it'll be a 'speculative fiction,' which is utopia/dystopian, post-apocalyptic, science fiction, fantasy, etc. It has to be less than 25 pages double spaced, which is about 7K words, in my reckoning. It's due in a little under two weeks, so I'll see if I can pull it off. If I do, I'll start it with the words:
"I'm a dreamer. I'm a writer. And I sacrificed everything in order to stay with him." Or something like that. I've been rewording it several times in the past week or something. It's going to be a story about a girl who realizes that her dream world's time isn't quite in sync with the real life and that if she stayed in her dream world, she'd be able to do so much more. And in her dream world, the time and place switches every so often, but for some reason, a certain brown-haired, brown-eyed figure keeps reappearing. She notices that he has certain characteristics and traits to that of one of her book characters and thus calls him "Draven." Most likely, she'll put herself into some kind of comatose state so she remains asleep although the rest of her body is still functioning, in order to stay in those dream worlds. But something goes wrong (as something always does), and she'll have to wake up sooner or later. But yeah. It's actually somewhat based on a true story, as I've had a Draven figure in my dreams all too often (if you read my dream blog, you'd know what I"m talking). So if I don't write this short story for the comp, I might just write it sometime or later just for fun.
That's about it, cya later~
Saturday, August 10, 2013
August 10, 2013 Updates
Just returned from a lovely ~2 week vacation. Looking forward to continuing writing (during the times I'm not doing summer homework) :)
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
July 23, 2013 Updates
Heyo!
I've been taking a break from writing this past week, and it's been quite relaxing, for the most part :D Tomorrow, my family and I are leaving on a 1.5 week long vaca to Kansas City, MO, for a teenage conference (for my sibs and I), and then my sis and I are going to a leadership camp somewhere nearby in a city that starts with C. So that'll be interesting. I'm going to bring a notebook so if I come up with some brilliant idea for my bookie book, I'll jot it down. Right now, I'm at 62K for the Camp (I set my goal down to 60K). I probably could have reached 75K easily if I actually tried this past week, but instead I decided to watch movies and play Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Hehe. My guy just got married and had a kid who my sis named Sam, huzzah. That's about it for now. Oh, and recently, I totaled up the number of WC and pages for what I've written in my book.
Total WC: 146,088 (P1) + 37,007 (P2) + 62,723 (J Camp) = 245,818
Total Pages: 377(P1) + 166 (P2) + 160 (July Camp) = 703
Huzzah. P1 is starting to close up. P2 has 50-100 more pages to go. I've been considering kicking out 2 characters in P2 that I'm about to introduce because I don't think they're necessary. What do you think? They're the street kids, but I don't know what they can bring that will enhance the plot. Well, we'll see, anyway. That's all for now. Cha ~
I've been taking a break from writing this past week, and it's been quite relaxing, for the most part :D Tomorrow, my family and I are leaving on a 1.5 week long vaca to Kansas City, MO, for a teenage conference (for my sibs and I), and then my sis and I are going to a leadership camp somewhere nearby in a city that starts with C. So that'll be interesting. I'm going to bring a notebook so if I come up with some brilliant idea for my bookie book, I'll jot it down. Right now, I'm at 62K for the Camp (I set my goal down to 60K). I probably could have reached 75K easily if I actually tried this past week, but instead I decided to watch movies and play Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Hehe. My guy just got married and had a kid who my sis named Sam, huzzah. That's about it for now. Oh, and recently, I totaled up the number of WC and pages for what I've written in my book.
Total WC: 146,088 (P1) + 37,007 (P2) + 62,723 (J Camp) = 245,818
Total Pages: 377(P1) + 166 (P2) + 160 (July Camp) = 703
Huzzah. P1 is starting to close up. P2 has 50-100 more pages to go. I've been considering kicking out 2 characters in P2 that I'm about to introduce because I don't think they're necessary. What do you think? They're the street kids, but I don't know what they can bring that will enhance the plot. Well, we'll see, anyway. That's all for now. Cha ~
Thursday, July 18, 2013
July 18, 2013 Updates
First note: Summer school is poo. Like, seriously poo D:< Blech. Over the last two weeks, I don't think I've once written the 1666 daily quota. It's rather sad. Good news, summer school courses ends tomorrow. Bad news is on Wed, I'm going out of state to a conference then a week long unplugged camp, so I'm missing lots of days. And bad news, I still have to do summer homework for classes I will be taking this following school year. But anyway.
So, what have I been doing in the past 12 days? I stopped writing in part 2 because the characters just weren't developing in the way I wanted them to, so I needed to take a break from them and think for a bit. I went back to Part 1 and completed the arc I was working on, and then I moved on to the next place. That's what I'm working on right now. I've got the beginning set out, but as always, I'm having trouble getting from point A to point C. Sigh. I have vague ideas, but not really.
Yesterday, I had a nice book-nerd convo with my sister about our books (she's also doing the July Camp. The one she's working on is really awesome— nice descriptions and characters and plot that needs to be written) and I came up with one of the ultimate crossovers of all times in SSChron, which connects my book with one of hers, My Dreams are Nightmares, or for short, MyDAN. Part 3 is going to be interesting to write. Part 1 is finishing up; it will be about 450 pages. Part 2 is working there, it's probably going to be 350-450 pages. And I'm not sure how long Part 3 will be. If there's enough to write about, there might be a Part 4, otherwise, I'll be writing a coolio trilogy.
Oh, right. I forgot to mention that I finished the 50K goal. I changed it to 75K now (originally I was going to do 100K since I finished 50K on day 13, but I'm going to be gone, so that won't work). I could have finished the 50K on day 10 easily, except that's when I started getting a bad case of writer's block when I didn't know what to write in the Brand arc in Part 2, as well as not sure what to do in Part 1. So yeah. So in 5 days, from the 13th to now, I've only written a little over a thousand each day, on average, which is very sad compared to the 5-7 thousand average per day I maintained for a good 10 days. Oh well. We'll see how the rest of the month goes. I'm hoping I'll get some good inspiration in the meanwhile. So that's all for now.
So, what have I been doing in the past 12 days? I stopped writing in part 2 because the characters just weren't developing in the way I wanted them to, so I needed to take a break from them and think for a bit. I went back to Part 1 and completed the arc I was working on, and then I moved on to the next place. That's what I'm working on right now. I've got the beginning set out, but as always, I'm having trouble getting from point A to point C. Sigh. I have vague ideas, but not really.
Yesterday, I had a nice book-nerd convo with my sister about our books (she's also doing the July Camp. The one she's working on is really awesome— nice descriptions and characters and plot that needs to be written) and I came up with one of the ultimate crossovers of all times in SSChron, which connects my book with one of hers, My Dreams are Nightmares, or for short, MyDAN. Part 3 is going to be interesting to write. Part 1 is finishing up; it will be about 450 pages. Part 2 is working there, it's probably going to be 350-450 pages. And I'm not sure how long Part 3 will be. If there's enough to write about, there might be a Part 4, otherwise, I'll be writing a coolio trilogy.
Oh, right. I forgot to mention that I finished the 50K goal. I changed it to 75K now (originally I was going to do 100K since I finished 50K on day 13, but I'm going to be gone, so that won't work). I could have finished the 50K on day 10 easily, except that's when I started getting a bad case of writer's block when I didn't know what to write in the Brand arc in Part 2, as well as not sure what to do in Part 1. So yeah. So in 5 days, from the 13th to now, I've only written a little over a thousand each day, on average, which is very sad compared to the 5-7 thousand average per day I maintained for a good 10 days. Oh well. We'll see how the rest of the month goes. I'm hoping I'll get some good inspiration in the meanwhile. So that's all for now.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
July 6, 2013 Updates
Well, I decided to move on with Part 2. And just for fun, since I have the time, I'm going to briefly tell you about all the places I've come up with in my book thus far. Let's start with Part 1.
1. Cestrain: This is where main characters Dart and Elle come from. Not much is said about it except that it's a beautiful place with hardly any fighting (and if there is, it's usually outside of the 'country'). There are flowers and green grass and some market places. In the center is the Cestrain Palace, where D and E live (They're the royal kids, after all).
2. Klaeth: This world centers around the village of, no surprise, Klaeth. It's a place that specializes in clothing (and in that world, I guess there are many, many villages, but they're pretty spread apart). Outside of the village are large planes of grass and farming areas, where people farm (wow). The place is also fairly peaceful. A while back, evils truck the village, but someone came along and helped them out; he's well-known around this areas.
3. Claymore City: This was the first place I dreamt of. It introduces 2nd/3rd main characters, Zitto and Selena. The city is typical, rather modern, and not too bad with technology (especially computers and the like). It has restaurants, malls, etc, but cars are usually only used to go from this city to the next (the only other, unnamed, city mentioned is where the high school Braeta High is). The main focus of this 'arc' is around Claymore High, where the four attend. It also centers around the activities of the Student Council, the four most popular (and smartest) students of the school, of which Zitto is a part of.
4. Herlith: This is the second place I dreamed of; it is a more technically advanced country in comparison to Claymore City. This place is a crossover from the novel I wrote (only Part 1) in the Nanowrimo of last November, involving mecha action, infiltration actions, and four very cool characters from that novel (well, 3 are cooler than the 4th haha).
5. Denzlei: This one is only started. It's about three main cities in a triangle formation, each specializing in their only things. The first, Denzlei, is male-only, specializing in machinery. The second, Laupa, is female only, specializing in clothing and goods. And the third, Stiga, is both genders, specializing in wood-made products (toys, furniture, etc).
And now with Part 2.
1. Sandair: This is where main characters Rune and Charlotte come from. Unsurprisingly, it's a desert-area, with fierce temperatures and weather. The two live in one certain area with a group of people (there are many other places, but unexpected sandstorms often prompt people to stay in the area instead of venturing out). Their place in particular is infested with odd creatures.
2. Deila. This is a world where everything is split perfectly in half. Come to think of it, it may possibly be a flat world :) One side has vegetation, trees, and grass, and the other is only made of pure and pretty water. A large cliff and waterfall called the Foss separates the two realms; each have many people inhabiting them. The land people of Vollar are dressed in green, brown, and those kinds of colors, and the water people of Foss (who have built watercrafts to transport them from the surface to their underground, bubble-protected city) are usually clad in silver, blue, and purple. There's a legend that surrounds the place involving a stone lion and a mysterious orb within the waterfall.
3. Fugal: This world introduces main characters 7 and 8, Daell and Mahal. It centers around an orphanage quite stranded from the rest of civilization (a village called Rothal is a few hours walk away). It's full of naturesque (apparently that's not a real word... but it sounds nice anyway haha) landscapes and animals. Daell and Mahal live in the orphanage, taking care of the children there. From this world on begins to introduce some other main characters that I shan't say. :)
4. Heima: This is the arc I just finished writing yesterday. It's another crossover from my other books, ROI, PT, and WOC, as I mentioned in the last blog post. I decided to use the characters from WOC just because it would have been easier to involve them in some plot. It involves kingdoms, bandits, and all that fun stuff I used to only write about (until Nanowrimo of last November).
5. Brand: I am writing this right now. It's about a dying city ruled by two groups of people, or "brands." It introduces the last 2 main characters, Soren and Braor, kids who grew up on the streets, learning how to fend for themselves by either fighting or flighting. And that's all I will say for now.
And that's all for now. I'm fond of them all (some more so then others ;D hehe), but after I finish these and maybe one or two more, then the plot will start to get kicking. If you're wondering what's the point of all these worlds? Well, you'll see when you read my bookie haha. Cya for now, time to write ~~
1. Cestrain: This is where main characters Dart and Elle come from. Not much is said about it except that it's a beautiful place with hardly any fighting (and if there is, it's usually outside of the 'country'). There are flowers and green grass and some market places. In the center is the Cestrain Palace, where D and E live (They're the royal kids, after all).
2. Klaeth: This world centers around the village of, no surprise, Klaeth. It's a place that specializes in clothing (and in that world, I guess there are many, many villages, but they're pretty spread apart). Outside of the village are large planes of grass and farming areas, where people farm (wow). The place is also fairly peaceful. A while back, evils truck the village, but someone came along and helped them out; he's well-known around this areas.
3. Claymore City: This was the first place I dreamt of. It introduces 2nd/3rd main characters, Zitto and Selena. The city is typical, rather modern, and not too bad with technology (especially computers and the like). It has restaurants, malls, etc, but cars are usually only used to go from this city to the next (the only other, unnamed, city mentioned is where the high school Braeta High is). The main focus of this 'arc' is around Claymore High, where the four attend. It also centers around the activities of the Student Council, the four most popular (and smartest) students of the school, of which Zitto is a part of.
4. Herlith: This is the second place I dreamed of; it is a more technically advanced country in comparison to Claymore City. This place is a crossover from the novel I wrote (only Part 1) in the Nanowrimo of last November, involving mecha action, infiltration actions, and four very cool characters from that novel (well, 3 are cooler than the 4th haha).
5. Denzlei: This one is only started. It's about three main cities in a triangle formation, each specializing in their only things. The first, Denzlei, is male-only, specializing in machinery. The second, Laupa, is female only, specializing in clothing and goods. And the third, Stiga, is both genders, specializing in wood-made products (toys, furniture, etc).
And now with Part 2.
1. Sandair: This is where main characters Rune and Charlotte come from. Unsurprisingly, it's a desert-area, with fierce temperatures and weather. The two live in one certain area with a group of people (there are many other places, but unexpected sandstorms often prompt people to stay in the area instead of venturing out). Their place in particular is infested with odd creatures.
2. Deila. This is a world where everything is split perfectly in half. Come to think of it, it may possibly be a flat world :) One side has vegetation, trees, and grass, and the other is only made of pure and pretty water. A large cliff and waterfall called the Foss separates the two realms; each have many people inhabiting them. The land people of Vollar are dressed in green, brown, and those kinds of colors, and the water people of Foss (who have built watercrafts to transport them from the surface to their underground, bubble-protected city) are usually clad in silver, blue, and purple. There's a legend that surrounds the place involving a stone lion and a mysterious orb within the waterfall.
3. Fugal: This world introduces main characters 7 and 8, Daell and Mahal. It centers around an orphanage quite stranded from the rest of civilization (a village called Rothal is a few hours walk away). It's full of naturesque (apparently that's not a real word... but it sounds nice anyway haha) landscapes and animals. Daell and Mahal live in the orphanage, taking care of the children there. From this world on begins to introduce some other main characters that I shan't say. :)
4. Heima: This is the arc I just finished writing yesterday. It's another crossover from my other books, ROI, PT, and WOC, as I mentioned in the last blog post. I decided to use the characters from WOC just because it would have been easier to involve them in some plot. It involves kingdoms, bandits, and all that fun stuff I used to only write about (until Nanowrimo of last November).
5. Brand: I am writing this right now. It's about a dying city ruled by two groups of people, or "brands." It introduces the last 2 main characters, Soren and Braor, kids who grew up on the streets, learning how to fend for themselves by either fighting or flighting. And that's all I will say for now.
And that's all for now. I'm fond of them all (some more so then others ;D hehe), but after I finish these and maybe one or two more, then the plot will start to get kicking. If you're wondering what's the point of all these worlds? Well, you'll see when you read my bookie haha. Cya for now, time to write ~~
Friday, July 5, 2013
July 5, 2013 Updates
5th day of the camp and currently 35,349 words. Yayy! I just finished the arc in Part 2; it's 90 pages long, which is the longest one in part 2 (compared to the 160 page arc in Part 1.. but that's another story haha). I'm going to go back to what I wrote in the past few days, edit just a little and add in a few scenes I've been thinking of. And then I have to quickly decide on whether to keep going with Part 2 or move to the unfinished arc in Part 1. Needless to say, I finished writing this arc in a much quicker pace than I thought I would. Hmm. In part 2, the next arc is going to introduce 2 more main characters, the last of the 10 that need to be introduced. So yeah, that's about it for now. Cha~
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
July 3, 2013 Updates
Well, I'm pleased to tell you that the July Camp is going well. The June planning didn't end so well, I'm sad to say, though, haha. I finished reading and editing the story on the 29th, which was much later than I anticipated. June was quite busy, much busier than I thought it would be when the month started. Anyway, I had a very short time to plan out what I was going to do. After frantically scrambling through old notebooks (ROI, PT, and WOC), I came up with _very_ brief ideas of what I would write about. And then July came along, and I just wrote and wrote. And now it's the 3rd day of the camp, and I've had the _best_ beginning of any Nano I've ever done. As I write, I have 19K words, which is well over the 5K I need by the end of the day to meet the 50K in 30day quota. *pleased smile* The only other time I've ever bested this was one day in January, when I had a weekend pretty much free (it was Janowrimo, by the way), and I wanted to get ahead. I did, and wrote about 25K in just two days--Friday and Saturday, something I haven't done before and haven't been able to do since. So yeah, it's going well.
I'm working on an arc in Part 2 that I started but didn't quite finish in the April Camp. (I ended the camp with 2 unfinished arcs-- 1 in part 1, and 1 in part 2). For most of June, I was thinking on how to write the empty arc in Part 1, but then when I decided to write the one in Part 2, it was much easier. After all, I used a nice crossover and switched up some plot a bit to make an interesting mash up of characters from my current book and beloved characters of mine from the genre I used to only write in, of kingdoms and bandits and cool people ^_^. All right, that's about all I have to say for now.
My cabin is mostly unchatty. I got together with some cabin buddies from the April camp, which is nice. Now, time to write some more, haha. Cha
I'm working on an arc in Part 2 that I started but didn't quite finish in the April Camp. (I ended the camp with 2 unfinished arcs-- 1 in part 1, and 1 in part 2). For most of June, I was thinking on how to write the empty arc in Part 1, but then when I decided to write the one in Part 2, it was much easier. After all, I used a nice crossover and switched up some plot a bit to make an interesting mash up of characters from my current book and beloved characters of mine from the genre I used to only write in, of kingdoms and bandits and cool people ^_^. All right, that's about all I have to say for now.
My cabin is mostly unchatty. I got together with some cabin buddies from the April camp, which is nice. Now, time to write some more, haha. Cha
Saturday, June 22, 2013
June 22, 2013 Updates
I'm starting to get pretty nervous abut the upcoming Camp. Not only do I still have 110 pages to read and edit through, but I hardly have any idea what I'm going to write!! Ahhh!! And my camp cabin is still not right, so I'm trying to fix that so I have nice people in it. -_- Oh the tragic and stressful life of a writer haha. Alright, well I'll see what I can do. There are two arcs that I need to finish, one in P1 and one in P2 but I'm not sure what'll happen in them yet. I should probably plan those out, huh? Yeah.. I'll get to that. Well, that's all for now, chall later! (that's cya all + chat with you all later)
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
June 18, 2013 Update
AHHH!! July Camp Nano is coming soon and I'm not ready -_- <3 <3 <3 (that's me going "huff, huff, huff")...
Well, my goal of June was to go through my book and edit everything. But I kind of forgot that I needed to outline a bit of what I was going to write in July or I would be in a pickle. So yeah. I'm a little bit behind editing since this month has been oddly crazy busy. I've been going from tutoring to eschool to other summer school to more tutoring to tennis and tennis and tennis some more to homework and then to volunteering and more volunteering. Whew! And thus I've only edited about 300 pages, which isn't too bad, but I need to start outlining. Ahhhh!!!
Anyway, in terms of outlining, I'm going back and adding in sections and character development. As I mentioned before, I'm keeping all the characters I have, but I'm going back to their background stories and adding it in so the readers can begin to understand their outer motives a little better, and they'll (hopefully) see how each character plays a slightly different role than all the rest. Alrighty, that's all for now. Wish me luck in the last 12 days of June!
Well, my goal of June was to go through my book and edit everything. But I kind of forgot that I needed to outline a bit of what I was going to write in July or I would be in a pickle. So yeah. I'm a little bit behind editing since this month has been oddly crazy busy. I've been going from tutoring to eschool to other summer school to more tutoring to tennis and tennis and tennis some more to homework and then to volunteering and more volunteering. Whew! And thus I've only edited about 300 pages, which isn't too bad, but I need to start outlining. Ahhhh!!!
Anyway, in terms of outlining, I'm going back and adding in sections and character development. As I mentioned before, I'm keeping all the characters I have, but I'm going back to their background stories and adding it in so the readers can begin to understand their outer motives a little better, and they'll (hopefully) see how each character plays a slightly different role than all the rest. Alrighty, that's all for now. Wish me luck in the last 12 days of June!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
June 4, 2013 Updates
I've somehow found some time to edit/write. In the past two days, I've written 3043 words (7-8 pages), which ALMOST meets the Nano quota of 1666 per day. And considering I haven't really written much ever since the last Camp in April, I'm pretty happy about that.
As for SSChron, I decided to keep all ten major characters for this and that reason. I'm going back and adding to the backstories of each character right now. I realized that out of the eight I've introduced thus far, the readers don't really know about who the characters are in terms of background, except for one, or maybe one and a half :) I decided to start in Part 2 for backstories just because they're easy to write about, not to mention that there are characters in that place that I enjoy writing about.
So that's what I'm doing right now. Hurrah. I'm hoping that while I continue editing, that I'll get some inspiration for what to write in... wait for it... July's Camp Nano!! Whoo, I'm pretty excited. It's the second and last camp of the year and is pretty much the same thing as the April camp. As usual, my goal is 50K although it would be lovely if I wrote more. I'm hoping that I'll dream about the next place to go, actually. Because whenever I receive direct inspiration from a dream about what place to go to (not small details that I add in such as the eye color etc), those places are the most enjoyable to write and always become my favorite places with my favorite characters. Alrighty, good night. ~~
As for SSChron, I decided to keep all ten major characters for this and that reason. I'm going back and adding to the backstories of each character right now. I realized that out of the eight I've introduced thus far, the readers don't really know about who the characters are in terms of background, except for one, or maybe one and a half :) I decided to start in Part 2 for backstories just because they're easy to write about, not to mention that there are characters in that place that I enjoy writing about.
So that's what I'm doing right now. Hurrah. I'm hoping that while I continue editing, that I'll get some inspiration for what to write in... wait for it... July's Camp Nano!! Whoo, I'm pretty excited. It's the second and last camp of the year and is pretty much the same thing as the April camp. As usual, my goal is 50K although it would be lovely if I wrote more. I'm hoping that I'll dream about the next place to go, actually. Because whenever I receive direct inspiration from a dream about what place to go to (not small details that I add in such as the eye color etc), those places are the most enjoyable to write and always become my favorite places with my favorite characters. Alrighty, good night. ~~
Saturday, June 1, 2013
June 1, 2013 Updates
Well yesterday I was working from the very beginning of SSChron, editing. And so right now I'm at the beginning of chapter one. Whoo. That's all, really. I haven't been able to write much because of extracurricular activities, homework, and anything and everything in between. I can't wait for summer so I have some time to write and do what I want. Of course, I'm taking summer courses and some jobs, so I may not be able to write as much as I want to in the first place. Not to mention that nobody is being particularly supportive of my want to write so I am having ZERO motivation to write anything. Alright, that's all for now. We'll see if I am able to write anything.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
May 18, 2013 Updates
Not much happening here. I haven't written anything except for a few tweaks here in there in SSChron. Recently, my mom bought me a few books I wanted to read about screenwriting and film making. I started reading Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge and am quite enjoying doing so! As I'm sure I've mentioned a few times in the past, I often imagine SSChron as a TV series more so than an actual novel, so I was interested in seeing how I could improve it in that sense.
The book has provided numerous insights, I have to say, and it has prompted me to do some major edits for my book. These past few weeks, I've been wondering why my book hasn't been as gripping as I've wanted it to. And the book has helped me come to a few conclusions why. And thus follows a semi-not-so-maybe-so-lengthy reflection.
In the first few chapters (I haven't completed the whole book yet), it mentions a concept called 'outer motivation' and 'inner motivation.' An outer motivation is a "visible goal with clearly defined finish lines" or "what the character visibly hopes to accomplish by the end of the movie," or the 'what' statement. And inner motivation is defined as "the reason for the outer motivation, which the character think will lead to self-worth," the why statement (80). The author continues with outer motivation, saying how effective outer motivations consist of certain qualities: "it is visible, it has a clearly implied endpoint, the hero will pursue it until the end of the story, the hero must desperately want to achieve it, the hero must actively achieve it, it's within the hero's power to achieve it, the hero must put everything n the line to achieve it" (43). I feel as if my characters are lacking this kind of outer motivation in many senses. They were sent on a certain mission, but for the most part, none of them really know what they're doing, and so they aren't "desperately trying to achieve" their goal.
Already before, I realized that this was a major flaw in my novel and tried to somehow fix it, but I'll most likely have carefully think over how I can fix the problem more efficiently than before. After all, if the characters don't even want to do something, the reader won't particularly care about it either.
And so that leads me to another point I read in the book, concerning character development. One necessary aspect of a character, as Hauge explains, is that the audience needs to empathize for the main character(s). Hauge gives three methods for creating empathy (he also mentions that the earlier the audience empathizes with the character, the better): sympathy, jeopardy, and likability (good-hearted, well-liked, funny). My characters face jeopardy in many situations, but I don't feel as if it makes the audience empathize with them in any way, unfortunately. In some situations and with some characters, yes, but with other situations revolving around other characters... not really. Especially for the first two characters introduced. Even thinking back on them now, they don't seem particularly special in a way that I have sympathy for what they've faced, and they're not amazingly and uniquely likable either -_-. Yeah, I'll be needing to do some major character editing.
And the last thing I'll mention right now. Of course, Hauge is talking about film making from cover to cover, not writing films, but much of what he has to say concerning plot concepts and character developments is completely relevant to novel writing as well. I'll quote him to bring up my next point: "My strongest advice to those considering writing a multiple-hero feature film is simply don't. Such a screenplay is extremely hard to pull off, because multiple heroes tend to diffuse the focus of your story and make it confusing. It is also tough to sell such a screenplay, because it is often difficult for a reader to keep all the characters straight in written form... The best approach is to stick to a single basic hero— or perhaps two heroes [and then he gives examples to where that can apply]" (71).
The first thing I thought when I read that was, 'Huh. That sounds just like my book.' For that matter, I originally planned on having 10 main characters: a lot, I know. But in some sense, they would all be essential to the major plot, or so I thought. Not that I think about it, I realized that subconsciously in my mind, I realized that I didn't really need all of them. When I was talking to my sister about my book, I even told her something along the lines of, "Chara A is more important that Chara B, Chara C more than Chara D, etc. These five are more important to the plot, but the other five are also kinda important in their own sense." I briefly thought about trying to narrow the main characters to two, but I decided that was impossible considering my story plot. So now I'm considering narrow the main characters down to five. And by that, I'm thinking that I'll completely erase the other five from my book, not just make them minor characters.
I know as a fact that I tend to have too many characters to count. I've had that problem too many times in the past, such as with ROI and WOC. I like having many characters, but I've come to realize that although I enjoy creating many many characters, I doubt readers will enjoy trying to keep them all in check. So with ROI and WOC, I limited many characters down to a generic term: a Pherealen citizen, a bandit, etc. And I've found that that makes it easier for the reader. After all, in most cases, when a name appears in books, it generally means that that character will play some part in the book, but in my case, many of my characters were only there as side-plots that don't really affect the main plot in any sort of way. End of tangent :)
And so that's what's going on in my head right now. Cut off five characters that I've already established in 450 pages that aren't necessarily important but that will change the past 450 pages in several ways? I'm sure it'll eventually be worth it, but it really is going to change a lot of what already happened in subtle ways that do pile up. The dialogue that will disappear, the connection between some characters, the events that wouldn't be recorded because one character was awake while the other (more major) character was asleep, etc, etc. Or should I just write two versions of the book? >:P
And I just thought of another concept that Hauge talks about. The four categories of primary characters: hero, nemesis, reflection (character who most supports hero's outer motivation or is in the same basic situation), romance (80). Of course, a book doesn't need a romance to be good, but it definitely needs a hero and nemesis.
As it is so far, 450 pages written and still going, my main nemesis... has yet to be mentioned, seen, or even talked about! It's crazy now that I think of it, but it's true. There have been 'nemesis-assistants,' as I will call them, who work for the top bad dude, but he's never even been seen before (as I just mentioned). Yeah, I'll need to change that. : |
Alright, and I'm done with the semi-not-so-maybe-so-lengthy reflection, hurrah! :D As I said before, the book has provided many new realizations that I've already somewhat guessed but didn't really know about! And I believe that it will make my book a better one in the long run once I apply what I have learned in the past few (and by few, I mean three) chapters I've already read—man, they're LOADED with good stuff! Who says film-making books aren't for novelists? (If anyone ever said that... I don't know one haha). Peace out ~~
Louise Esli
The book has provided numerous insights, I have to say, and it has prompted me to do some major edits for my book. These past few weeks, I've been wondering why my book hasn't been as gripping as I've wanted it to. And the book has helped me come to a few conclusions why. And thus follows a semi-not-so-maybe-so-lengthy reflection.
In the first few chapters (I haven't completed the whole book yet), it mentions a concept called 'outer motivation' and 'inner motivation.' An outer motivation is a "visible goal with clearly defined finish lines" or "what the character visibly hopes to accomplish by the end of the movie," or the 'what' statement. And inner motivation is defined as "the reason for the outer motivation, which the character think will lead to self-worth," the why statement (80). The author continues with outer motivation, saying how effective outer motivations consist of certain qualities: "it is visible, it has a clearly implied endpoint, the hero will pursue it until the end of the story, the hero must desperately want to achieve it, the hero must actively achieve it, it's within the hero's power to achieve it, the hero must put everything n the line to achieve it" (43). I feel as if my characters are lacking this kind of outer motivation in many senses. They were sent on a certain mission, but for the most part, none of them really know what they're doing, and so they aren't "desperately trying to achieve" their goal.
Already before, I realized that this was a major flaw in my novel and tried to somehow fix it, but I'll most likely have carefully think over how I can fix the problem more efficiently than before. After all, if the characters don't even want to do something, the reader won't particularly care about it either.
And so that leads me to another point I read in the book, concerning character development. One necessary aspect of a character, as Hauge explains, is that the audience needs to empathize for the main character(s). Hauge gives three methods for creating empathy (he also mentions that the earlier the audience empathizes with the character, the better): sympathy, jeopardy, and likability (good-hearted, well-liked, funny). My characters face jeopardy in many situations, but I don't feel as if it makes the audience empathize with them in any way, unfortunately. In some situations and with some characters, yes, but with other situations revolving around other characters... not really. Especially for the first two characters introduced. Even thinking back on them now, they don't seem particularly special in a way that I have sympathy for what they've faced, and they're not amazingly and uniquely likable either -_-. Yeah, I'll be needing to do some major character editing.
And the last thing I'll mention right now. Of course, Hauge is talking about film making from cover to cover, not writing films, but much of what he has to say concerning plot concepts and character developments is completely relevant to novel writing as well. I'll quote him to bring up my next point: "My strongest advice to those considering writing a multiple-hero feature film is simply don't. Such a screenplay is extremely hard to pull off, because multiple heroes tend to diffuse the focus of your story and make it confusing. It is also tough to sell such a screenplay, because it is often difficult for a reader to keep all the characters straight in written form... The best approach is to stick to a single basic hero— or perhaps two heroes [and then he gives examples to where that can apply]" (71).
The first thing I thought when I read that was, 'Huh. That sounds just like my book.' For that matter, I originally planned on having 10 main characters: a lot, I know. But in some sense, they would all be essential to the major plot, or so I thought. Not that I think about it, I realized that subconsciously in my mind, I realized that I didn't really need all of them. When I was talking to my sister about my book, I even told her something along the lines of, "Chara A is more important that Chara B, Chara C more than Chara D, etc. These five are more important to the plot, but the other five are also kinda important in their own sense." I briefly thought about trying to narrow the main characters to two, but I decided that was impossible considering my story plot. So now I'm considering narrow the main characters down to five. And by that, I'm thinking that I'll completely erase the other five from my book, not just make them minor characters.
I know as a fact that I tend to have too many characters to count. I've had that problem too many times in the past, such as with ROI and WOC. I like having many characters, but I've come to realize that although I enjoy creating many many characters, I doubt readers will enjoy trying to keep them all in check. So with ROI and WOC, I limited many characters down to a generic term: a Pherealen citizen, a bandit, etc. And I've found that that makes it easier for the reader. After all, in most cases, when a name appears in books, it generally means that that character will play some part in the book, but in my case, many of my characters were only there as side-plots that don't really affect the main plot in any sort of way. End of tangent :)
And so that's what's going on in my head right now. Cut off five characters that I've already established in 450 pages that aren't necessarily important but that will change the past 450 pages in several ways? I'm sure it'll eventually be worth it, but it really is going to change a lot of what already happened in subtle ways that do pile up. The dialogue that will disappear, the connection between some characters, the events that wouldn't be recorded because one character was awake while the other (more major) character was asleep, etc, etc. Or should I just write two versions of the book? >:P
And I just thought of another concept that Hauge talks about. The four categories of primary characters: hero, nemesis, reflection (character who most supports hero's outer motivation or is in the same basic situation), romance (80). Of course, a book doesn't need a romance to be good, but it definitely needs a hero and nemesis.
As it is so far, 450 pages written and still going, my main nemesis... has yet to be mentioned, seen, or even talked about! It's crazy now that I think of it, but it's true. There have been 'nemesis-assistants,' as I will call them, who work for the top bad dude, but he's never even been seen before (as I just mentioned). Yeah, I'll need to change that. : |
Alright, and I'm done with the semi-not-so-maybe-so-lengthy reflection, hurrah! :D As I said before, the book has provided many new realizations that I've already somewhat guessed but didn't really know about! And I believe that it will make my book a better one in the long run once I apply what I have learned in the past few (and by few, I mean three) chapters I've already read—man, they're LOADED with good stuff! Who says film-making books aren't for novelists? (If anyone ever said that... I don't know one haha). Peace out ~~
Louise Esli
Monday, May 13, 2013
May 13, 2013 Updates
Hello!
So *ahem* I don't think I've written anything since last post. I decided that I won't be doing a Nano event this month because I want to take some time and relax a bit and write at my own speed. So that's what I'm doing right now! :) I've been thinking of some ideas, though, so don't worry, I've been doing something at least! Alright, that's all for now.
So *ahem* I don't think I've written anything since last post. I decided that I won't be doing a Nano event this month because I want to take some time and relax a bit and write at my own speed. So that's what I'm doing right now! :) I've been thinking of some ideas, though, so don't worry, I've been doing something at least! Alright, that's all for now.
Monday, May 6, 2013
May 6, 2013 Updates
Whoo. So I began writing again. I wrote a sentence in SSChron then gave up because of writer's block. Typical. And so, like I did in April during the Camp, I fell back to the short story, Starless Night, and began writing a bit in that. And that's what I'm doing right now as well until I find some source of inspiration to continue with my main novel, which I am still proud to say is my longest book ever (though the one I believe will be least likely to be published). Why is it the least likely to be published? First off, it's plot might be to confusing for the majority of people. After reading maybe 25 pages, they'll probably wonder, 'Wait. Why are they doing this and where are they going. Oh, wait... no, I don't get it', and then they'll probably close the book. Yeahh, so that's one reason why.
Also, the book doesn't center around two or four characters like most do; there are too many characters and oftentimes difficult to understand who is on who's side. I have three 'sides,' so-to-say. One side is fairly obvious, beginning with two and slowly adding a few more, and then a few more. And then a new side is slowly introduced, and then the third... and then it gets hard to differentiate between the second and third. Unless the reader is myself and possibly my sis, they won't know it all until at least part 3 or 3.5 when everything is a bit more explicit. And even then, they might have to read back to catch everything that they missed the first time around.
So yeah. I can imagine my book being a TV series, due to its 'arc' style of format, where events are bunched together into mini plots. The mini plots will eventually come together in part 3, as I mentioned before. But I'm still writing parts 1 and 2, so there's still some more writing to go. :) I think there will be part 4 and even 5, as far as things are going right now. Whew. But I'm loving writing it, so even if it's not published, I'll be happy that I even wrote it. As I mentioned before, the book I'm writing right now is a genre I haven't touched before, so it's something fresh. Alright, I'm heading going back to the writing board now!
Also, the book doesn't center around two or four characters like most do; there are too many characters and oftentimes difficult to understand who is on who's side. I have three 'sides,' so-to-say. One side is fairly obvious, beginning with two and slowly adding a few more, and then a few more. And then a new side is slowly introduced, and then the third... and then it gets hard to differentiate between the second and third. Unless the reader is myself and possibly my sis, they won't know it all until at least part 3 or 3.5 when everything is a bit more explicit. And even then, they might have to read back to catch everything that they missed the first time around.
So yeah. I can imagine my book being a TV series, due to its 'arc' style of format, where events are bunched together into mini plots. The mini plots will eventually come together in part 3, as I mentioned before. But I'm still writing parts 1 and 2, so there's still some more writing to go. :) I think there will be part 4 and even 5, as far as things are going right now. Whew. But I'm loving writing it, so even if it's not published, I'll be happy that I even wrote it. As I mentioned before, the book I'm writing right now is a genre I haven't touched before, so it's something fresh. Alright, I'm heading going back to the writing board now!
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Additional Information
Hello again! Twice in a day, I know, crazy! :P
Anyway, I just took some time and read through the entire blog for fun and noticed a few things. First off, I began my blog by signing my name with "Amanda Louise S. Sora." Just as a quick correction, I've changed my pen name once again. I believe I 'officially' changed it during last year November to "Louise Esli." If you're wondering what in the world Esli means, keep guessing. :) Doubt you'll find out unless I tell you hehe.
Second of all, I had a few chuckles when I read about saying things along with publishing books and whatnot. Where everything is right now, I doubt I'll try publishing for a while. The soonest will probably be after highschool graduation. As I've mentioned several times before, I like to edit, re-edit, and re-edit some more! Which is why I still consider ROI not good enough to be published yet. Every year, I come back to a book and think that I can improve it in some way by adding descriptions and cutting out unnecessary dialogue and POVs. Additionally, I don't feel as if the characters come across as I want them to :\ But we'll see. You won't be seeing "Louise Esli" on a book anytime soon, I believe :)
Lastly, as a random side-note, I realized that I repeated quite a bit of information over and over again in my blog because I couldn't remember writing about it already (guess that's what happens when I take a week/month/half year break). Like, I believe I said that I am changing RoPT to PT about four times. I didn't feel like editing it out after re-reading it, because that takes the charm away from it ;P
Anyway, that being said, I also find it humorous that I keep saying things like "Thanks for your support" or "I hope you're looking forward to this and that" and whatnot even though nobody really reads this blog anyway :)
Nuff said. I'll start writing now..
Anyway, I just took some time and read through the entire blog for fun and noticed a few things. First off, I began my blog by signing my name with "Amanda Louise S. Sora." Just as a quick correction, I've changed my pen name once again. I believe I 'officially' changed it during last year November to "Louise Esli." If you're wondering what in the world Esli means, keep guessing. :) Doubt you'll find out unless I tell you hehe.
Second of all, I had a few chuckles when I read about saying things along with publishing books and whatnot. Where everything is right now, I doubt I'll try publishing for a while. The soonest will probably be after highschool graduation. As I've mentioned several times before, I like to edit, re-edit, and re-edit some more! Which is why I still consider ROI not good enough to be published yet. Every year, I come back to a book and think that I can improve it in some way by adding descriptions and cutting out unnecessary dialogue and POVs. Additionally, I don't feel as if the characters come across as I want them to :\ But we'll see. You won't be seeing "Louise Esli" on a book anytime soon, I believe :)
Lastly, as a random side-note, I realized that I repeated quite a bit of information over and over again in my blog because I couldn't remember writing about it already (guess that's what happens when I take a week/month/half year break). Like, I believe I said that I am changing RoPT to PT about four times. I didn't feel like editing it out after re-reading it, because that takes the charm away from it ;P
Anyway, that being said, I also find it humorous that I keep saying things like "Thanks for your support" or "I hope you're looking forward to this and that" and whatnot even though nobody really reads this blog anyway :)
Nuff said. I'll start writing now..
May 5, 2013 Updates
Laugh at me if you want but I haven't written anything since May 1st. Sigh. What can I say? I've been busy with homework or doing nothing these days. That being said, I recently decided to change the title of Send Me into the Sherou S. Chronicles for various reasons :) Maybe I'll tell you the full name later and what it all means, but not now. I'm going to try writing some words now! Cha later ~
Thursday, May 2, 2013
May 2, 2013 Updates
Well, the unofficial MayNoWriMo started yesterday and by the end of the day, I will be behind. Sighh. YEsterday I wrote ~2600 words, but today I've only been able to write 200 words (busy all day until about now, which is 10:30pm). Gotta finish up studying and whatnot, so by the time I'm done, it'll be to late. Anyway, that's all. Hope whoever is reading this is doing well. Thanks for following!
:D
:D
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
May 1, 2013 Update
So I finished Camp Nano with 60 765 words, which is 10 000 ahead. Hurrah. I am planning on writing MayNoWriMo this month, but we'll see how it goes with finals later on this month and whatnot. My ultimate goal is 50K, of course, but I would be happy just getting 35K. I finished yet another arc in P1 of SM two days ago, so yesterday, in order to finish up the last 3500 words to get 60K, I had to quickly outline a new arc and start writing that. So yeah, that's what I did yesterday. Tada. Wish me luck in MayNano!
For SM:
Total pages— 456
Total word count— 173 001
For SM:
Total pages— 456
Total word count— 173 001
Monday, April 29, 2013
April 28, 2013 Updates
Hello. There's only a couple more days of the Camp left! Well, two days ago, I surpassed the 50K goal. Hurrah. For the first time, I became a rebel :) After hitting a writer's block in part 2, I started a short story called Starless Night (based on a side plot in P1) as well as returning to Part 1. I mainly wrote SN to get over my writer's block for that day. So far this month, I've written 54499 words.
Send Me P1: Page 338 with 127 157 words (including Jano/Febru work). I wrote 12 591 words just this month.
Send Me P2: Page 101 with 39 385 words.
Starless Night: 2540 words
So since the beginning of the year, SM has 439 pages and 166 542 words. It's my longest novel so far, and not even half way finished :)
For the Camp Nano in July, I most likely will still be working on this book! Nothing is better than falling in love with your own book, really :) I've come to love all my characters quite a bit, and I enjoy inserting connections that the reader will have to make throughout concerning unnamed characters and plots. The next time I update, I will probably be saying my final April word count. My goal is 60K by the end of the month, but we'll see. This week will probably be busy, and I'm finishing up an arc and will have to think of a new one to continue Part 1 (or get over my writer's block in Part 2).
Send Me P1: Page 338 with 127 157 words (including Jano/Febru work). I wrote 12 591 words just this month.
Send Me P2: Page 101 with 39 385 words.
Starless Night: 2540 words
So since the beginning of the year, SM has 439 pages and 166 542 words. It's my longest novel so far, and not even half way finished :)
For the Camp Nano in July, I most likely will still be working on this book! Nothing is better than falling in love with your own book, really :) I've come to love all my characters quite a bit, and I enjoy inserting connections that the reader will have to make throughout concerning unnamed characters and plots. The next time I update, I will probably be saying my final April word count. My goal is 60K by the end of the month, but we'll see. This week will probably be busy, and I'm finishing up an arc and will have to think of a new one to continue Part 1 (or get over my writer's block in Part 2).
Sunday, April 14, 2013
April 14, 2013 Update
Oh goodness... it's been a looong time since last update! I haven't really been blogging in either of my blogs, really. Let's see...
I haven't written TBF for at least six+ months, but it's on chapter 7, page 137. So... looking back at the August 18, 2012 Updates post, it's only 12 pages more since then, haha! Yeah.. haven't written much in that book. 50, 906 words
I suppose the main reason why I haven't written much in TBF was because I took a break from it to write a spin-off story, called TTE (To the East) centering around J and R's travels past the mountains. It's at chapter 3, 68 pages, 23, 963 words. Just as a reminder, I'm using 1.5 spacing in Microsoft Word with 1" margins all around. It's somewhat nearing the end... maybe another couple of chapters. Similar to TBF, I haven't touched it in 6+ months.
I believe sometime in the 8 month gap, I retouched ROI.. Anyway, it's completed with nine chapters, 196 pages, 70, 344 words. Including the appendix, it's 221 pages and 79, 051 words. So yeah. My only completed baby, haha! I still feel like editing it a few more times, though. For some reason, every time I read it, I feel as if there isn't enough something in it, not enough to pull readers into the characters and plot completely. I want to characterize my peeps a little more, add some more inner dialogue, etc etc.
What about RoPT? I'm going to change it's name to PT sooner or later. Anyway, no changes in status whatsoever. Still need to transfer all the data. Good thing I keep all my notebooks in one place so I still have the data somewhere... unless the house burns down, of course.
WOC, with 304 pages, still needs some major edits. I haven't touched it in a long time as well (If you're wondering what I've been doing.. I'm getting there in a moment!) I'm rather proud of it, actually, as I feel it has quite a bit of character development just through events and dialogue. But as I mentioned some post ago, I was going through and having the book from less peoples' perspective to have a better flow and whatnot.
SO! Now I'm sure you've been wondering what in the world I've been doing for the past 8 months, right? I would too! Well, I've actually done more writing in these past few months than I have in a while, thankfully. I've actually been writing most of the time, so don't worry about me being writing deprived!
In September/October, I'm sure I was working on TTE or something like that.
Last November, my sister did Nanowrimo and excelled in it, so this year she encouraged me to do it with her. And so I did. basically, Nanowrimo, aka National Novel Writing Month, is when people from all over the world try to write 50, 000 words in just one month. The general rule is that you can't continue writing something that you haven't written before. So, after some thought, I decided to write a completely different genre from my usual ROI, RoPT, WOC, TBF, TTE genre and try something new :) I would probably define it as fiction mecha. I called it Behind the Mask. I completed Nanowrimo with 52, 279 words and ~145 pages. I haven't created a synopsis of it, I just realized, so I probably should do that sooner or later. When I come up with it, I'll post it.
In December, I didn't write much since I was busy with this and that. It was a busy month! BtM has about 55, 000 words now, so I guess I wrote a little then, haha! Not sure what else I did. Around the middle of the month, my sister, a friend, and I decided to do an unofficial Janowrimo, so I began to plan for it. We decided to begin on January 5 and end on Feb 5 because my sis and I were going to be out of state until then.
Being a horrible planner, I didn't start any major planning until January 4 at 10:30pm. At that time, we were in the car, driving the last of the 10 hours home. My sis has a tradition of writing her first word of Nanowrimo at the strike of midnight, so I decided to join in the tradition and began crazily planning away. And to the great surprise of myself, a rather large plot formed in my head, and I typed away the very very short outline and ideas on my lovely iPod, the same one I used to write the first 150 pages of WOC back in the days :D And so at 12 sharp, I wrote my first word and section of the book, Send Me. Janowrimo was a huge success for myself, actually. I finished Janowrimo on the 31st so I could do Februwrimo the following month. I took a break on the 31st to plan a little bit. So on January 30 (27 days later), I had 9 chapters, 76, 661 words and 208 pages. Whoo. I actually have a synopsis of sorts for it... it's kinda like the back cover of the book that kind of tells you what happens but not really, haha. Oh yeah, so SM is a self-dubbed fantasy/multi-dimentional fictional epic. It's another genre I haven't touched before but enjoy writing!
Synopsis of SM: The royal siblings, the students, the book worms, the orphans, and the street kids. Although they never realized it, they were bred for a single reason: vengeance. Two by two, they were sent to fulfill a quest, a quest that could claim their life if they dropped their guard. Traveling from world to world, the ten teenagers searched for clues to find their destination... only to discover they've been mislead from the very beginning.
Wow, intriguing huh? Haha just kidding.
Anyway, for February, I continued off from where I stopped in Janowrimo (I know, I was kind of a rebel). I wasn't as successful because 1. the month was a lot busier than I thought it would be 2. I hit major writing blocks every few days, which is never good when I have to write 1666 words a day to maintain the 50, 000 word goal. Eventually, I just stopped writing at the end of the month, haha! I finished with 35, 9743 words. Combined with Janowrimo, SM is at chapter 13, with 306 pages and 114, 550 words.
For March, I took a break from writing since April would be the nanowrimo dubbed "Camp NanoWriMo." It's the first camp in April the Nano people have created, so my sister and I decided to do that. So... I'm not a great outliner. At all. And so my outline was rather minuscule by the end of the month. Even though I said I wouldn't write at all during the month so I could focus on April's writing month, I broke the self-promise. I wrote just a little in SM. Honestly, it was to calm my mind and re-remember my characters. I was actually becoming off-edge around that time, and writing really calmed my mind. I decided not to torture myself from staying away from writing completely, haha.
And so, it's April right now. SM has a large plot. It has many little plots but a major plot that's only been hinted at and mentioned but not fully explored yet. Anyway, during Jan and Feb, I was working on Part 1. Because I was hitting writer's block, I decided to start Part 2, which is set at the same time but in another place. As of now, I'm kind of on top of things. I doubt I'll be able to beat my Jano high score... but we'll see :) Right now, I'm at the end of chapter four, with 74 pages and 28, 875 words. According to the 50, 000 word trend-line, I should have 23, 333 words by the end of the day (I haven't written anything today yet), so I'm only slightly ahead. It was around this time in January that I wrote 23,000 words in just to days.. it was a weekend, but thinking back, that's a LOT to me.
So yeah! That's what's going on over here. All the Wrimos have definitely upped my writing in the past few months. I've been able to try out some new genres, which was exciting. I believe I will be working on SM for quite some while at the rate it's going. I'm not even close to being half way done, really. I will try to update more, alright? I know I say that a lot but don't really, but hopefully I'll be a little more committed in the future ^_^
I haven't written TBF for at least six+ months, but it's on chapter 7, page 137. So... looking back at the August 18, 2012 Updates post, it's only 12 pages more since then, haha! Yeah.. haven't written much in that book. 50, 906 words
I suppose the main reason why I haven't written much in TBF was because I took a break from it to write a spin-off story, called TTE (To the East) centering around J and R's travels past the mountains. It's at chapter 3, 68 pages, 23, 963 words. Just as a reminder, I'm using 1.5 spacing in Microsoft Word with 1" margins all around. It's somewhat nearing the end... maybe another couple of chapters. Similar to TBF, I haven't touched it in 6+ months.
I believe sometime in the 8 month gap, I retouched ROI.. Anyway, it's completed with nine chapters, 196 pages, 70, 344 words. Including the appendix, it's 221 pages and 79, 051 words. So yeah. My only completed baby, haha! I still feel like editing it a few more times, though. For some reason, every time I read it, I feel as if there isn't enough something in it, not enough to pull readers into the characters and plot completely. I want to characterize my peeps a little more, add some more inner dialogue, etc etc.
What about RoPT? I'm going to change it's name to PT sooner or later. Anyway, no changes in status whatsoever. Still need to transfer all the data. Good thing I keep all my notebooks in one place so I still have the data somewhere... unless the house burns down, of course.
WOC, with 304 pages, still needs some major edits. I haven't touched it in a long time as well (If you're wondering what I've been doing.. I'm getting there in a moment!) I'm rather proud of it, actually, as I feel it has quite a bit of character development just through events and dialogue. But as I mentioned some post ago, I was going through and having the book from less peoples' perspective to have a better flow and whatnot.
SO! Now I'm sure you've been wondering what in the world I've been doing for the past 8 months, right? I would too! Well, I've actually done more writing in these past few months than I have in a while, thankfully. I've actually been writing most of the time, so don't worry about me being writing deprived!
In September/October, I'm sure I was working on TTE or something like that.
Last November, my sister did Nanowrimo and excelled in it, so this year she encouraged me to do it with her. And so I did. basically, Nanowrimo, aka National Novel Writing Month, is when people from all over the world try to write 50, 000 words in just one month. The general rule is that you can't continue writing something that you haven't written before. So, after some thought, I decided to write a completely different genre from my usual ROI, RoPT, WOC, TBF, TTE genre and try something new :) I would probably define it as fiction mecha. I called it Behind the Mask. I completed Nanowrimo with 52, 279 words and ~145 pages. I haven't created a synopsis of it, I just realized, so I probably should do that sooner or later. When I come up with it, I'll post it.
In December, I didn't write much since I was busy with this and that. It was a busy month! BtM has about 55, 000 words now, so I guess I wrote a little then, haha! Not sure what else I did. Around the middle of the month, my sister, a friend, and I decided to do an unofficial Janowrimo, so I began to plan for it. We decided to begin on January 5 and end on Feb 5 because my sis and I were going to be out of state until then.
Being a horrible planner, I didn't start any major planning until January 4 at 10:30pm. At that time, we were in the car, driving the last of the 10 hours home. My sis has a tradition of writing her first word of Nanowrimo at the strike of midnight, so I decided to join in the tradition and began crazily planning away. And to the great surprise of myself, a rather large plot formed in my head, and I typed away the very very short outline and ideas on my lovely iPod, the same one I used to write the first 150 pages of WOC back in the days :D And so at 12 sharp, I wrote my first word and section of the book, Send Me. Janowrimo was a huge success for myself, actually. I finished Janowrimo on the 31st so I could do Februwrimo the following month. I took a break on the 31st to plan a little bit. So on January 30 (27 days later), I had 9 chapters, 76, 661 words and 208 pages. Whoo. I actually have a synopsis of sorts for it... it's kinda like the back cover of the book that kind of tells you what happens but not really, haha. Oh yeah, so SM is a self-dubbed fantasy/multi-dimentional fictional epic. It's another genre I haven't touched before but enjoy writing!
Synopsis of SM: The royal siblings, the students, the book worms, the orphans, and the street kids. Although they never realized it, they were bred for a single reason: vengeance. Two by two, they were sent to fulfill a quest, a quest that could claim their life if they dropped their guard. Traveling from world to world, the ten teenagers searched for clues to find their destination... only to discover they've been mislead from the very beginning.
Wow, intriguing huh? Haha just kidding.
Anyway, for February, I continued off from where I stopped in Janowrimo (I know, I was kind of a rebel). I wasn't as successful because 1. the month was a lot busier than I thought it would be 2. I hit major writing blocks every few days, which is never good when I have to write 1666 words a day to maintain the 50, 000 word goal. Eventually, I just stopped writing at the end of the month, haha! I finished with 35, 9743 words. Combined with Janowrimo, SM is at chapter 13, with 306 pages and 114, 550 words.
For March, I took a break from writing since April would be the nanowrimo dubbed "Camp NanoWriMo." It's the first camp in April the Nano people have created, so my sister and I decided to do that. So... I'm not a great outliner. At all. And so my outline was rather minuscule by the end of the month. Even though I said I wouldn't write at all during the month so I could focus on April's writing month, I broke the self-promise. I wrote just a little in SM. Honestly, it was to calm my mind and re-remember my characters. I was actually becoming off-edge around that time, and writing really calmed my mind. I decided not to torture myself from staying away from writing completely, haha.
And so, it's April right now. SM has a large plot. It has many little plots but a major plot that's only been hinted at and mentioned but not fully explored yet. Anyway, during Jan and Feb, I was working on Part 1. Because I was hitting writer's block, I decided to start Part 2, which is set at the same time but in another place. As of now, I'm kind of on top of things. I doubt I'll be able to beat my Jano high score... but we'll see :) Right now, I'm at the end of chapter four, with 74 pages and 28, 875 words. According to the 50, 000 word trend-line, I should have 23, 333 words by the end of the day (I haven't written anything today yet), so I'm only slightly ahead. It was around this time in January that I wrote 23,000 words in just to days.. it was a weekend, but thinking back, that's a LOT to me.
So yeah! That's what's going on over here. All the Wrimos have definitely upped my writing in the past few months. I've been able to try out some new genres, which was exciting. I believe I will be working on SM for quite some while at the rate it's going. I'm not even close to being half way done, really. I will try to update more, alright? I know I say that a lot but don't really, but hopefully I'll be a little more committed in the future ^_^
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)