Well, in addition to all the planning that goes into events, finding venues and what not, I have found a little time to puzzle out my novel for this year. I started with one idea, based on a physical journal I have. I started creating characters to go with the story, but realized the plot was lacking for what I wanted to do (2 novellas of 40,000 words each - the same story from two perspectives using a journal as a vehicle). The characters morphed, and fleshed out, and I've been getting more and more ideas for my new storyline.
So far it seems to be taking a YA kind of perspective, and I'm seriously considering writing it in 1st person, though to be honest that really scares me. I'm mostly a 3rd person, omniscient kind of gal.
I've spent time (read procrastinated) doing research on things that mostly relate to my character's back-story, but it should help make her more real. At least, that is what I tell myself. Research topics so far have included meanings of names, foxes, lions and pedophilia. Still on my plate to research: shape-shifting lore from various cultures, making soap, and laws regarding kidnapping.
Should be interesting :-)
Oh, and as it stands, I do plan to post my story here, friends only, so if you'd like to read along, and you're not already on my friends list, just let me know, and I'll add you.
- Mood:
chipper
So, my goal is to write a short story every day, one that exists on the front and back of a single sheet of lined paper. No longer, no shorter - [though I can adapt my handwriting if I feel I need a small cheat ;) ]
Today I was mostly successful. I feel the end could be tightened up a bit, but I ran out of space, so it was kind of abrupt. I'm happy with it though, a story I had no ideas about before I started writing. I created a new thing from nothing, in less than an hour.
Perhaps, when I have some time, I'll add some of my better stories from this experiment here.
Very first draft -I haven't re-read it even.
( DM High )
- Mood:
Meh - Music:Li's theme from Cardcaptor Sakura
This past Tuesday, July was announced as Writers Month in Alachua county. Members of 3 writing groups in Gainesville were present. None from my group, though. I was out of town on a work conference, and didn't think to send anyone to represent us. When I saw this article on one of the other writers group's site, I got really down on myself for that.
I came up with a grand scheme to create a portal page that links to all writing groups in Gainesville, as I know of a few that have been formed on the erroneous belief that none already existed, because they couldn't be found on the web. I figure the site will be a place to match writers and writing groups. I've chosen Drupal for my platform, but now that it is installed on the server, I have to learn how to set up a site using Drupal. I feel like perhaps I've gotten in over my head.
I also had a grand scheme, shared with not only my writing group, but also another, to have writers learning workshops, like go horseback riding with an expert, or talk to a lawyer of a certain kind, to help authors learn things they need to make their stories more real. And I've fallen flat on that one, too. Too boot, the other writing website has posted a blurb, and I haven't given her more information, which I promised to do before I left for vacation in early June.
I have a writer's group meeting today, and I don't know who will show up (last one canceled due to lack of attendants, and my just being back from vacation.) Had anxiety dreams about that, last night. I don't know if there is anything on the table for critique for today's meeting, either. I am woefully behind on my critiques (again, I claim vacation when they were sent out, but I've been back long enough that the excuse kind of falls flat.)
I have heard from my sister-city ML for NaNo WriMo, and the preparations she's already done for this November have blown me away. I haven't started thinking about it yet, but we are starting dialogue this week.
I've signed up for a single day of a local writing conference (all the time I was comfortable asking off work after my vacation and conference attendance), and I'm started to get worried about it. Will it really be worth the money? Am I, a single day participant, entitled to the meals of the day? Where do I sign in? How am I going to get there? Whatever there is to worry about, I'm finding it.
I haven't submitted anything to my writing group lately, because of the phase of where I am in my writing process. Wrapped up in re-writing a novel - I don't want to pull out old short stories for critique, because they aren't something I'm really actively working on. I don't want to take away writing from my novel, because this is the project I think is most important right now. So I feel like I'm not contributing.
At ALA I had the chance to talk to many authors, including Margaret Weiss and Neil Gaiman. I asked each what their writing advice for amateur authors would be. I have it all jotted down, and will compile a list to post. And yes, I got to talk to Neil Gaiman (nerve-racking but oh-so-cool!)
For November, and NaNo WriMo 11 (my 8th year participating), I have 3 ideas in mind, one is pulling ahead in the ranking right now, and if I do it, I'm going to try to shoot for 80k, I think, since that is the shortest length for the good first-novel range.
And I have decided that my goal is to finish re-writing Divine Madness (my 2005 NaNo WriMo novel) by the end of October. That'll give me a clean slate for November. And besides, I wrote the first draft in a month, no reason I can't finish the second in three (and some change) months. Honestly, part of the reason that I've been falling flat on all the writing community stuff is because the past few weeks, Ive been spending my free time writing. Yesterday is an exception (ran errands, watched HP6, cleaned the house and hosed a "good-bye" party for friends who are moving to Texas), but today I'll jump right back in to things.
Friday I had to go out and seek reassurance that my decision to write was right. That the other stuff is fluff, because how can I really claim to be part of a writing community if I am not, first, a writer. Luckily I had friends and family there to support me through self-doubt. Even got a cool picture of a WordWeaver from my sister.
And that is a "brief" update of me, with regards to writing.
The pantheon is full of demi-gods (half god/ half mortal). They are all the equivalent of 8 years old. They find they suddenly have more of the divine power than they used to.
What would an 8-year-old do with that power? Suggestions?
- Mood:
curious
My quintet went from being:
Darah, Sebastian, Cail, Chandra and Chase
to:
Darah, Sebastian, Kail, Chandra and Garret
Honestly, I'm still a bit iffy on Garret (Garrett?), but that's the one that made the biggest impression on me.
Deciding to rename those characters and choosing new name was the easy part. Not so easy: Renaming the 2 pantheons of gods (now complete) and renaming the countries (my current task at hand).
I don't think I would have had such a problem with the gods, except that I was looking a renaming all the child gods (both from the living pantheon, and the pantheon that were destroyed in the Purge). That was a total of 40 gods. There were a few names I particularly liked, and was able to reuse, but for the most of them / the big picture I figured my best bet was to come up with some sort of criteria for each pantheon of names.
Both pantheons consist of 10 sets of twins. Each pair of twins consists of one male, one female. I did some adjusting as to what their titles were (getting rid of Theon's Scent in favor of Theon's Generosity - to pair with Theon's Greed - formerly Fury), then decided that each pair of gods would start with the same letter, and have the same number of letters (this was really a hard choice, and I'll tell you why in a minute).
I decided to end names in a vowel for the female gods, and end with a consistent for the male gods. Finally, I decided that the first pantheon of gods I'd use 4 letter names, and for the second pantheon (the living gods), I'd use 5-letter names.
As I previously mentioned, I had some names from the first draft that I really liked, and fit the new criteria. Some names got reassigned to the opposite pantheon (for length) or to a different god, if the gender was wrong. I was able to take one or two names I liked that were too long and adapt them to shorter names that fit my new criteria.
The only problem was that I was dead set on the eldest male of the first pantheon being named Krys. It was a non-negotiable name, and part of the reason behind some my my criteria decisions. I also really liked his twin sister's name as Leal. But that didn't fit the criteria. I struggled with it for a while, so much that I almost considered leaving it, and setting the criteria for the 38 OTHER gods, An exception to the rule it because it was the first set of children born to the father-god, and perhaps HE didn't have a naming scheme then. I finally came to terms with how that would weaken what I was trying to do, and decided on Kyra for her name. It means light, and is appropriate to the character, though I still lament the loss of the name Leal. (I retired the name, rather than see it on some other god of her pantheon.)
After naming 40 gods - 2 pantheons of 10 sets of twins, you must think the hard part is over. I did. Then I realized it had hardly begun.
Naming characters is a cake-walk when compared to naming countries.
Break-down. 10 countries existed when the gods were born. In the current time of the story there are 7 countries (after wars, royal marriages, natural influences making lands uninhabitable, etc). Part of the challenge for my questers lies in the fact that they don't know much about the 3 countries that are gone, so those countries which no longer exist still need names.
I had 10 names, 3 of which are passable, I think, as country names. The other 7 stink.
I mean, I named one of the countries Bort.
I have been agonizing over renaming these countries for over a week. I give my self headaches trying to figure out what makes a good country name - should I base it on geographical features (if yes, then I'd better flesh out my map); names of rulers past (founders); names of the gods which were born there (each country has 4); or something else entirely?
With my sister's help, I have a new map - one which does not make me cringe, and it even has some topography (though, admittedly, it needs more). The biggest help was the country lines - past and present. Once I had those, I was able to sit down and start doing brief descriptions of the different countries - which ones failed and why - who go their lands, etc. All with the hope those would lend themselves to names.
So far I have 3 countries named - one which is no longer in existence called Prativ, and two current countries: Grenul and Ardway.
Only 7 more to go - and I've set Sunday as my deadline to get them done.
Let's hope I still have hair on Monday.
- Mood:
thoughtful
We finished up things with the TGIO party / potluck on Friday night, and as some of the participants left, thanking me for the past 3 years, knowing that most of them are graduating and not going to be in Gainesville for next Nano, I almost started crying.
A great group again this year, and the TGIO party was lots of fun. *sigh*
So, on Sunday, Nov. 30th I reached and passed 50,000 words - validated, and then set back to writing - as I had not yet finished the story. I just stopped keeping tabs of how many words were on each line and doing mad-math at the bottom of each page to keep my running total.
When I stopped on Sunday, I had 3 and 3/4 chapters left to write. I met my regular writing buddy on Tuesday and knocked out 1 and 3/4 chapters. Same with meeting her on Thursday, knocking out the last short-story chapter, and starting the epilogue chapter. Since that one goes back to first person, and back to the characters I had in the first chapter/prologue chapter I stopped writing to read that first chapter written oh-so-long-ago. Today, (she says hopefully) I finish the novel.
Then I just have to see about inputing it in to my computer - combination of speech recognition software and typing, I'd wager. I'll post the story here as I get it in the computer.
Plus, my mind is already spinning with other writing projects, and all I can really think is *good*
- Mood:
accomplished
I've also started to worry that Neal is more cardboard than he his, because of how I'm telling the story, or rather, how HE is telling HIS story. But I will overcome. I won't let my insecurities stop me now.
As for local events, lots of good turn out, and I'm generally pleased. I wonder, though, if I have enough energy to get through the month.
Saturday we hosted two write-ins, one from 10 - 2, during which we also held a word war vs. our sister region, Peoria Il. They won the war by average words per person, we won in sheer volume of participants (16 to their 5).
The second write in was from 9 pm until just after 2 am (the second time) - taking advantage of the change from daylight savings time to standard time, we wrote the hour from 1 am - 2 am twice. I got 16 more words when I wrote the hour a second time.
At the end of the night, I had two chapters done, and started the third. (I was originally planning once a day). My pre-midnight word total was 2088 words, and I am now hovering at 3714, but am just sitting down to write for the evening, hoping to knock out chapter 3 (which takes place in the Netherlands) and then move on to chapter 4, in Denmark.
Gainesville vs. Peoria, baby.
I guess it is due to everyone who may be following along with this year's novel to tell you a bit about it, and a bit about how I am writing it.
1) I am writing this year's novel by hand, and then inputting it into my computer using
2) Once again I am friends locking my story, so if you want to read along, drop me a comment, and I'll friend you.
3) And now, for the story: (I.E. the ideas I have so far)
My main character, Neal, finds himself going on a long-anticipated trip to Europe alone. Which was not his plan. Neal, who has always considered himself secondary to, well, everyone else in his life, is now in a situation where he is the main character of his own life. Only, he doesn't see himself that way.
The format: most of the story will be told in the third-person, by way of Neal's travel journal. My hopes are 28 stories (caped on either end by a first-person segment). One story a day, trying for 2000 words (or there-abouts) per story, to get to the 50K goal. And note I did say "stories" not "journal entries", for Neal, the only way he can conceive of relating his adventures abroad are in a removed, third-person story telling kind of way.
Really, this year, my big challenge is with writing the outline, and with the format. Can I develop my main character through his stories? If you'd like to find out, feel free to follow along. Oh, and also fictionalizing some of my own travel experiences to act as a base for Neal's travel, of course changed, altered, beat into submission of my story line, and sprinkled generously with events that DIDN'T happen, in order to make this Neal's story, and not my own ;-)
Oh yes, and the title of this year's masterpiece? Dogs of Pompeii
- Mood: hopeful
Of course this year, like every year, is a bit different from the last. With regards to being an ML, this year is different in that we have already arranged for locations for all our events, baring the TGIO party, as we are planning to poll our participants about what kind of event to have.
We also have a webpage for our region - chock full of information: gainesvillenano.wordpress.com And we have a sister region - Peoria, IL. We will be competing against them in regional word wars, matching up buddy/enemy pairs, and other fun stuff.
For myself, I have a personal challenge this year, and that is to write from an outline. That means writing an outline. I am traveling for the first half of October, and plan on crafting my outline on the planes and trains were we will passing a lot of time.
I have an idea, and will try to stretch my writing fingers by making 30 chapters, one for each day of the month, and a minimum 1,667 word count expectation for each chapter (round up to 2k for giggles). We'll see how well I manage to plot out the story, and character development (which has me most worried) in advance.
And finally, I'll be writing Dogs of Pompeii (working title) by hand. Yep, good ol' pen and paper pad. Once written, I will transcribe my story to my computer via speech recognition software. Why all the hulla-balloo you may ask. I'm having problems with my hands, arms, fingers, again. I still want to write, but I need to do so in moderation, and wisely. So, wish me luck, and lots of icepacks.
Once my story is transcribed (and cleaned up from the speech-recognition version - first draft of those is always entertaining, to say the least, if not what I intended to write), I will be posting it here - friends only. So, while it might not all go online in November, if you'd like to read my story, drop me a line, and I'll friend you.
- Mood: stoked
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bookshelf_elf was kind enough to give me a shorter character development worksheet (than the normal 100 question interview) I use. Below are the results of my character creation. I will probably update weekly with the "assignments" that I've written for my character. I was going to put my story, and Tessa's on my webpage, but she is worried that if it is on the Internet, people might see her idea, and steal it. ( Meet Meribel )
I think we have some later ones, but I don't have those readily available to post.
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
Go Home - Barenaked Ladies
Somebody's Miracle - Liz Phair
Today - Smashing Pumpkins
It had to be You - Harry Connick Jr
Closing Time - Semisonic
Just My Imagination - The Cranberries
Free To Decide - The Cranberries
My Doorbell - The White Stripes
Who Needs Sleep? - Barenaked Ladies
Baby Got Going - Liz Phair
I Can't be With You - The Cranberries
The Emperor's New Clothes - Sinead O'Connor
One Last Time - Veruca Salt
Learning to Fly - Tom Petty
Dry Your Eyes - The Streets
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
Well, some or many of you may know that I participate in the Gainesville Fiction Writers group. Sadly many of our members have moved away from the Gainesville area, and our group has grown small (or rather, has refused to grow beyond the steady number of 4 members). I am happy to say that this morning at our meeting we finally came up with an action plan. We are going to hold an "open house" type event here in Gainesville to see if we can drum up more members from the region interested in participating in the group.
Also, we are going to move a bit more online with our work. We have created a Yahoo group for the group, and use it to announce meetings as well as post stories and chapters of books for critique, and discuss what our next anthology will be. Since we have such wonderful tools available to us, we have decided to turn our attention a bit more to the virtual world. We are reaching out to our former members who have since moved away, and to other interested writers, and try to provide a place where they can participate in a writers group, receive feedback for their work, and provide a place for them to talk about their writing woes. To that end, I have posted a link to those who are interested in joining our writing group. Please feel free to sign up directly, or you can leave any questions for me here, and I'll be happy to answer them.
Click to join gvwriters
~2 hours last week
1/20 1.5 hours
1/27 45 minutes
2/3 1 hour 10 minutes
2/3 30 minutes
2/7 40 minutes
2/14 1 hour 10 minutes
2/21 40 minutes
2/23 1 hour
-- 9 hours 25 min for first draft (minus epilogue) 1st edit
Oversight
time?
- to completion for draft
Final Exam
Original version: 1 hour
re-write version:
2/2 4.5 hours
Divine Madness
2/24 1 hour 15 minutes
Moleskin Project story
~15 min re-write
- Mood: accomplished
Edit a Nano novel (most likely Divine Madness)
Edit my two Mr. Smith stories for the GFW anthology
Edit the Simon and Millie story with Alison
Participate in NaNo EdMo in March, logging in 50 hours of editing in March
Read books on writing and editing interspersed with my "for fun" reading
I have edited and resubmitted one of Mr. Smith stories, and made a fair start on the second.
Tonight I worked an hour and a half on some formatting and spelling (and correctly spelled but wrong word) errors in the Millie and Simon story.
I think I might start a log for hours towards editing, maybe set a goal for each week (which would be adjusted during March, of course).
But it's only the second week of January, and I feel I've already got a good start.
And thanks to Allie for switching one of our regular writing days to an editing day. It'll help keep me on track, I know.
- Mood: accomplished
