NaNo Wrap Up: 4 Things I learnt About Myself Through NaNo

So it is the end of NaNo. I didn’t manage to hit 100,000 words like I wanted to but I’m proud of myself anyway. Several days in a row I managed to hit 6,000 words and one day I even had a 10,000 word day. I tried for another one yesterday but sadly it was not meant to be. This month I began three different novels, I learnt to knit again, I gained some valuable work experience and I made some very important life choices. I also learnt some very important things about myself and my writing process;

1) I’m part plotter and part pantser
I like some detail before I start writing. I like to know, roughly what each chapter will involve and how the story will develop within it. A brief description of each chapter and various scenes is all I need to be able to start writing a story and have it go the way that I want. I cannot work off a vague idea, it’s fine for a couple of chapters but after that I need some clue as to where it’s going, even if it’s a general thing. But I can work best off a partially plotted storyline.

2) Too much detail kills my writing
My first idea for NaNo was very planned. Each scene was written in meticulous detail, ridiculously so, and once I started writing I started to hate it. My writing had nowhere to go, the characters had no room to develop and I just started to hate the story. I don’t want to hate my writing but I need to be able to have fun with it, to let it go off-track and wander in its own direction before I brought it back to the main storyline. So clearly over-detailed plotting is not for me.

3) My characters develop as I write.
My characters in o.S.a.M (which still needs a new name) were quite well detailed; I knew what they looked like, some of their history and a rough idea of their personalities. This was all before I started writing it. Once I started writing the novel though my characters grew, they developed bigger personalities and odd quirks (such as Will and Gabe’s friendship being reminiscent of Turk and JD in Scrubs) and their back-stories shifted into something that I didn’t even think of in the beginning (who knew Gabe was a prince of Labolai?!). The same happened for a contemporary fantasy police novel I started writing on Monday. I knew roughly what the characters were like but as I wrote they too developed and one even revealed that he had multiple personalities.

4) I start to go off track towards the end
For the last few days I’ve been reluctant to actually write anything even though I’ve not finished the novels. I think it may be because I’m focused on writing and not doing much else but now that I know November is almost over I’ve started planning what I plan to do once I’m free of writing each day.  Having to focus on just one thing at the expense of everything else is clearly not for me, I like the freedom of being able to work on what I want, when I want.

So there we go, 4 things I learnt about how I work when I was doing NaNo.

Oh and incidentally, right now I’m at 80,339 words and I still have 3 hours left of November 30^th. Maybe I’ll manage to up that, maybe not.

Keep Writing!

NaNoWriMo #28: Winning and Aiming Higher

This is just a quick check up post today. I won NaNoWriMo on Sunday night and got fully validated. Now I’m desperately trying to reach 100,000 words by Friday. I managed a 10,000 day yesterday and I’m aiming for the same again today.

The novel write of o.S.a.M is coming along well. I’m getting down important parts and a fair bit of dialogue but I’m a little worried that I’ve gotten too exposition-y. I’m working out stuff about Labolai and the world it’s set in as well as the magic system as I go so I tend to write down every little thing that I can think of. Actual world building is something that I plan to work on once NaNo is over. For now I’m hopping between stories and different chapter, starting a new one when I finally figure out how to start a new story and going back to others when I figure out where it’s going.

I’ve also started a new novel, one that I just make up as I go along. It’s an idea I got from watching too much Death Valley and I’m not really sure if it’s actually going anywhere. I have fun, lots of fun with it, just typing in any strange situation thing that I can think of and it fits because the world it’s set in is crazy enough for it.

I’ve completely left the first story behind, just leaving it sitting there on my hard drive. Sure I might go back to it at another point but for now I’m just including it as a failed experiment. I’d need to go back and take out the parts that are dares and work on the description and dialogue but the bare bones are there. It helps that I didn’t keep working on it even after I began to hate it. If I had done that there’s a good chance I would have failed to win NaNo at all.

As it stands I am currently at 67,152 words. By the end of tonight I hope to be at 77,000 or even possibly 80,000. How’s your NaNo going?

Keep Writing.

NaNoWriMo: Day 21 - Slowing to a crawl

Well what to say this week. It’s really been the same as ever. I’ve been writing every day. Some days the words come easier than others but for the last few days, for the last week even, I’ve hit the NaNo daily target of 1667 and often going a small bit past it. I am not however, where I wanted to be at this point, both in the story and in terms of word-count. I’ve been consecutively 30,000+ words behind every day. I could put that down to my illness last week but that’s still on going and I’m managing to write a fair amount each day. I could put it down to hating my story at the start and having to change it.

Those excuses are too easy, too cliché, too... not enough. A lot of it is sheer laziness, on days where I have nothing to do at all, few and far between though they may be, I’ve not written much. In fact, when I think about it I’ve written less on those days then i have on the days where I have to squeeze in my writing time. Who knows what is going on in my head though, even I don’t have a clue.

For now I’m going to plow through and keep writing.

I’m also still seriously consider including the word-count for my blog posts on the NaNo site, as they have all been written in November. Should I?

Keep Writing!

Day #14 of NaNoWriMo: Back on Track but still a little behind

I know, I know, I’m a very bad blogger. I said that I would update every Monday with a writerly post and I missed this week. Actually it was less that I missed it and more that I came home from work, wrote a few thousand words and then promptly passed out in bed. I’m a bit poorly sick basically. But I have been working on a post that I find very interesting and I may actually split it into two parts and put it up on two consecutive Mondays. Who knows?!

Anyway, it is Day 14 of NaNoWriMo and if I were sticking to the word goal of 3334 words a day that I originally aimed for I would be trying to hit 46,676 words today. Unfortunately my stalling last week and a deeply unproductive weekend has put me behind by about 10,000 words. Instead of being in the 40,000s I am currently sitting pretty on top of 27, 569 words. It’s a fair bit more than the count given by the NaNo site is and I’m happy with it.

My novel is developing well, the switch to turning Of Swords and Magic into a novel seems to have paid off and the words are flowing. I’m actually hitting about 2,000+ words a night, not bad considering I’m mostly making it up as I go along and I’ve spent the last two nights exhausted. My biggest hope is that I can keep this up, get in a couple of good writing days over the weekend and as a result bump up my word count. I might even manage to hit par for 100,000 words at some point next weekend. I’m 19,107 words behind at the moment and all I really need is a few really good writing days to get me up there.

Or I could be a bit cheaty and include my blog post counts in there.  That would certainly bump up the count a little. Actually it would bump it up quite a lot. What do you think?

How is everyone else handling NaNoWriMo?

Keep Writing

In which I ramble about my writing and making the time to write

As I sit here, taking a break from my usual NaNo writing (which is going better than it was earlier this week incidentally) I tried to figure out what to talk about. Fridays are the day that I talk about my writing or thoughts about writing that relate directly to my experience. Then I thought ‘hey, I’m working and writing during NaNo at the same time for the first time, I’m working and writing at the same time for the first time full stop. Why not focus on that?’ So I am.

Writing is one of the most important things in my life. I think about writing and my ideas most of the time, even when I’m watching brain-numbing TV. I read about it a lot, I’ve got close to 20 books about writing on my Kindle alone, with a couple more physical books in my room somewhere. I searched for and downloaded podcasts about writing. Hearing about other people’s experience in doing what I do and learning from the mistakes they may have made or adapting ideas that they use is something that interests me, it inspires me. So I want to try to inspire you dear readers as others have inspired me.

If I don’t write I get grouchy. If I have no access to paper or pen, if I can’t get hold of anything to put down my ideas I get grouchy. If the words just won’t come out I get grouchy. This grouchiness, for me tends to lead towards the beginnings of depression (something that both sides of my family are genetically inclined towards, I don’t know why). This is something I’ve experienced at least twice before, once earlier this year when I was doing mind-numbing clerical work for 7 hours a day and once earlier this week. Thankfully I caught the shift in my mood quick enough and made changes to what I was doing so that I felt fulfilled and happy. The bad mood shifted away pretty rapidly after that and now I don’t feel like I’m going to break down in tears at any moment. That’s how much I love writing. Not being able to write or not feeling like I’m writing the right thing gets me down and has that much of an effect on my mood and mentality.

Working full time for the last couple of weeks and the next couple of weeks to come I need to make time for myself to write. Thankfully I have few obligations to family and friends which means that I generally get left alone. A pair of supportive parents who understand how much I love writing has certainly helped. They let me lock myself away in my room to hammer out a few thousand words and only interrupt me with important stuff, the news that dinner is ready or, my favourite, to bring me a cup of tea. They ask me how it’s going; they want to read my work and let me mumble about misbehaving characters. They don’t complain that they don’t see me for hours. In fact they remembered that come November I’d be out most of Saturday every single week. They encourage me and drive me onwards. In fact my mum gave me an idea on how to get more time for my writing once I get back from work this week. She said I should do it as soon as I’m home, when I’m still in a mildly professional zone and before I veg out with a computer game or book. And she was right. The first few days of NaNo I’d come home from work, play a game and then try to write. The words wouldn’t come. I’d gotten out of that zone and lost my focus. So I tried doing what she suggested and I found it amazing, a real improvement. The time it took me to get out a certain number of words was less and the words were all better quality. For a woman who doesn’t write that was some pretty savvy advice.

Originally I intended to take some time to write in the mornings, just to get a few words out before I got sucked into spreadsheets and attendance lists. That didn’t really happen as the buses to work are too uneven in when they arrive at the bus stop. I couldn’t write on the bus either as I get travel sick. Instead I’d listen to podcasts on writing and think about my characters and my plot. I also planned to write in my lunch break, to take a quiet 20 minutes or so to just get some ideas down. I even bought a notebook with just that purpose in mind. That didn’t happen either. My work colleagues are too fun to chat to (conspiracy theories and existential conversations abound in the canteen) and I tend to lose track of the time during lunch. Plus I didn’t want to become that odd work experience girl who sits in the break room covered in paper. 

As it turned out though I didn’t need to do any of this; my word-count is healthy (about 20k+ at last count) and I’ve got plenty of time to write in the evenings. I may not be getting as much written each day as I could hope for but that has less to do with me having no time and more to do with the number of distractions I allow myself; namely surfing the NaNo site, sitting on Facebook and looking at blogs. So I decided to give myself some incentives. I bought a new game on Saturday and began to play it. I had to stop quite early as it was bedtime but I was really into it. SO I’ve decided that I can’t play it again until I hit 45, 000 words. I also use chocolate bars as an incentive, giving myself one entire row every time I hit the daily word goal. I ate the entire bar by the end of Saturday. I need to buy a new one tomorrow. I have also got plans to buy a new notebook. Which one that will be I don’t yet know but what I do know is that I can’t have it until the end of the month or when I hit the 100k+ that I’m aiming for, whichever one comes first. I make myself write for an hour with the internet turned off and I refuse to move my butt from my chair until I’ve got 1k down, even if I really need to pee.

Incidentally withholding that kind of thing (peeing or cigarettes) from myself actually gets me writing more than I plan to; I did it earlier to get to 2000 words. When I added it up and topped up my word count on NaNoWriMo site I found I’d written 200 words past that goal. That little extra incentive to write lots and to write quickly really spurred me on.

What about you dear readers? If you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo this month;

what do you do to encourage yourself to write?

How are you making time to write if you have a busy schedule?

With those questions I leave you, to continue writing and to see what it is that’s making that loud banging noise I keep hearing.

Keep Writing.

NaNoWriMo: Day #7 - Stalling and downers

NaNoWriMo has... stalled a bit for me. That’s really the only way I can describe it. I’m making sure I write daily, don’t get me wrong but it feels like the words are forced and I hate the story. No, actually it doesn’t feel like I hate the story. I actually hate the story. I don’t know why as I was really jazzed about it last week, I got loads of writing done, hitting 13,000 by the end of the first weekend. I think that may be the problem though, I’ve burnt out before I’ve barely begun. I’m trying to balance working 5/6 hours a day with an hour’s travelling time each day, the need for at least 8 hours sleep and writing an word count goal of 3000+ words a day. It’s too much. I can’t do it right now, not when I hate the story and would rather be doing other things.

I knew the story wasn’t quite right, particularly once I started adding all the dares. Some of them, are cool and have helped develop the plot some more, some are just fun inserts to right. If I’m brutally honest though I think they’re making the story suck. Suck so much that I think I’ll just leave them out from here onwards. Apart from the ones that really appeal to me. Despite feeling all this though I’ve kept going and this feeling of hatred towards that story is slowly creeping over me. I don’t want to hate the story, it actually seems like quite a good one but all these dares that I’ve added have just made it seem silly. The only answer is to take out the dares.

It probably doesn’t help that I’m getting all these ideas for The Darkling Watch, how I’m going to edit it and then a bunch of ideas for the o.S.a.M rework and other novels set in that world. I jot them down with the intent of coming back to them later but really all I want to do is write them now. I’m actually thinking about being a bit of a rebel, using The Death of Yggdrasill as practice and warm up each day before I start editing or rewriting The Darkling Watch. But I’m not ready to do that. I know The Darkling Watch isn’t finished in the first round of read-throughs. It’s not properly planned out. So there isn’t much I can really do except for hit each day’s word-goal and keep writing but ignore the silly parts of the story.

Maybe it is hormones, maybe it’s burn out or maybe it’s a completely other reason that I don’t know about. All I do know is that I refuse to let myself burn out or hate my novel, hate any of my novels. SO I’m just going to write the bare minimum I want to write until this weird mood lifts or I hit 50k. Whichever comes first.

Keep Writing.

NaNoWriMo: Day 2

NaNoWriMo is upon us once more. Writers everywhere are desperately scribbling words however they can, trying and praying that they reach the 50k word goal by midnight on November 30^th. Parents go ignored, spouses go neglected, children are left to turn into feral Lord of the Flies style wild children, hamsters escape and hide under the fridge.

Me though... I’m somehow not neglecting my life. It’s already two days in and I’m at over 6,000 words. I’ve been spending quality time with my family, working full time and I even did a little bit of shopping today now that my money situation has been sorted out by the nice people at the Job Centre. I’m as shocked as you. I work all day and still manage to write roughly 3000 words a day, give or take. The night is still young too which means that this word-count may go up even more by the time you read this. I can’t figure out how I’m managing this. Although that may have a little something to do with the fact that my narrator has become a character in his own right.

Yup that’s right. I have a narrator that is not omniscient and is now a character. He has no name, a paranoid, bonkers personality and a tendency to go wildly off topic. I also struggle to get him to describe anything happening properly. Oh and let’s not mention the fact that there are apparently two people in his brain, him and someone called Cecil. I’m only halfway through the first chapter! I’m getting the feeling that this novel may actually kill me if I ever finish it and get to the stage of editing.

I think one of the biggest influences in my success so far is the CD I got sent by a fellow NaNo-er (I would include a link to the forum thread this spawns from here but the site is down AGAIN). It’s full of a variety of music and most of it is really inspirational. I pop it on as I start writing and it really helps me to get into the flow. It’s about an hour long and once I reach the end I know that I’ve finished an hour of writing, (with a few distractions). If I’m still in the writing zone, which I usually am I’ll pop on my own playlist that I plan to burn onto some blank CDs in the next few days to send off. That’s just over an hour long as well so I know that once it’s finished I’ve been writing for at least an hour (again with a few distractions). Within the next couple of weeks I should hopefully have another two CDs with lots of interesting music to inspire my writing.

I had planned to do an inspiration filled post tonight about how I love the NaNo spirit at the minute but I’m just too tired. Personal problems made sleep an issue last night and it’s almost my bedtime now so I’m flagging a bit. Before I go though I thought I’d share a big bloggy decision with you all.

As of Sunday I will have a regular update schedule. Well, sort of. On Sundays I will be doing my usual RoW80 post as I try to fulfil more of my goals there. On Wednesdays I’ll be making posts specifically about how I’m finding NaNo and some of the tricks I’m employing to get through it all; including a day of my schedule, inspired by this series of blogs. Any other day is fair game with a possible post about basic writer related things and links to other blogs and articles that I’ve found very interesting.

Keep Writing!

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Tonight has a lot of significance for many different people. For most of us it’s Halloween, a night to dress up, eat candy and scare ourselves silly. For others it’s the Pagan New Year, when the veils between the worlds are thin (and yes, that is now a plot bunny in my head). Others still have it as the Day of the Dead, a night to remember and commemorate those we have lost. For me though it’s NaNoWriMo’s Eve. Tonight, right now, people all over the world are setting out to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

I’m not going to talk about NaNo tonight though. I’m looking back at the last month, at how much I’ve accomplished and how much I failed to do. I was looking at my monthly plan for October today. I got the most important bits of what I wanted to do, done. I managed to get my NaNo outline all done, a lot more of The Darkling Watch edited and a few more entries of The Feral Diaries written.

What I didn’t get done was as much on o.S.a.M as I had hoped. In fact I barely got anything done. That was the major disappointment of October.

So I decided something. Obviously, with NaNo and work, I’m having to cut down on what I’ve set myself as goals for RoW80 and my own November goals. I’m focusing entirely on NaNo with a little bit of a focus on the Darkling Watch read-through as well as more blog posts about NaNo, RoW80 and another post each week about something else. Maybe when I’ve got time I’ll do a bit of work on Feral Diaries and o.S.a.M.

My post is short tonight, I’m focusing on finishing the plans for NaNo and getting enough sleep for work and doing some writing. I’m a little disappointed that I won’t be able to take part in the midnight kick-off but I’m still looking forward to it. Hopefully once my money problems are sorted out I’ll be able to put together a bunch of incentives for myself as well.

Keep Writing!

A Very Late RoW80 Check-In

I’m a little late posting this, I know, I know. I’m very bad. Real life caught up with me in the form of vodka. A lot of vodka. But it’s alright. I needed it. I needed to unwind and relax and spend a day doing nothing involving my novels or my blog or my comic. Every day, no matter how minor it is, I end up doing something involving them. Except for Sunday. Instead I spent it lying in a nest of quilts on my living room floor watching Grey’s Anatomy. Yeah, that was my hangover day and it freaking rocked!

Now though it’s over. I had my first day at work (an unpaid work placement) and I’m tired. I’m so very tired. But I want to make this post. I’m driven to make this post. I suppose it’s truly become a habit for me. All day at work I was thinking about what to say, what to talk about. I’m going to start with my progress on RoW80.

Work on o.S.a.M once a week  -  I actually did some of this last week. I wrote a few detailed scene outlines of the first chapter. I may not have gotten loads done but I got enough done to be happy with it.

Edit The Darkling Watch – I did quite well with this one as well. I managed to separate out 3 more chapters and made notes on what I need to expand with them. I’m happy with it. While I may be taking a break from editing during NaNo I’m not going to stop thinking about it, working out how I’m going to attack it again once my placement is up and figuring out where my plot needs to go to get two books out of it.

Write The Feral Diaries – I was a bit disappointed with this last week. I got nothing done. And when I say nothing I mean diddly squat. I wrote one entry and that was it. Not good. I won’t lie, it bothers me a little but that’s just because I feel like I let myself down and disappointed myself. I am putting this to one side as well while I take part in NaNo.

Post twice a week – I did good with this one. I know I did. I managed to blog about NaNo and about my crazy organisation thing. I’m planning to do the same this week, even with NaNo starting properly and the fact I’m going to be working full time. I can’t guarantee that my posts will always be readable or that they’ll make normal person sense but I will try. I have to. I already know what I’m going to be posting about. I hate to admit it but it will be mostly about NaNo.

Plan/Write NaNo – My planning went really well last week. I got my entire plot twisted out, the first few chapters detailed in scenes and I’m tracking which dares I use where. I have lists again. I really like lists. I’ve even decided how I’m going to manage to write and work at the same time, a new experience for me. That will come on Wednesday, Halloween. I won’t be taking part in the midnight kick off like so many of my fellow NaNoers will be, simply because I’m useless without 8 hours sleep.

For now though I’m going to work on my outline a little more, get changed into my PJs and snuggle into my comfy bed for a good nights sleep. Look out for my post all about NaNoWriMo on Wednesday.

Keep Writing!

My Thoughts on NaNoWriMo

There’s 6 days to go until NaNoWriMo kicks off. I think that by this time last year I’d made 2 or 3 posts about it already. Part of this was just the sheer excitement of having found such a new challenging thing. Another part was that I never really thought about what I’d post each week. This year not so much, I’ve been focused on outlining and editing and writing The Feral Diaries and RoW80. As a result I’ve barely thought about blogging about NaNo.

I thought I’d talk about it at last. I learnt this week that I’m being put on Work Placement with the JobCentre. This means that for the first time I’ll be really learning whether I can handle writing and working full time. The last time I worked I’d just finished writing The Darkling Watch and was taking a break after the intensity of NaNoWriMo. It will be a new experience for me, writing with NaNo at the same time as working 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. I’m considering it an experiment at living in the real world.

My NaNo this year is again drawing on Norse mythology but it’s focused more on the Young Adult market. I’m considering putting it up on Amazon once it’s finished and edited to the point I’m happy with it but if I don’t it won’t be the end of the world. I have ended up spending too much time on the NaNo forums, particularly in the dares thread. As a result my outline is now full of strange events and quirky characters. There is a chance I’ll have to take them out once I’m editing but there’s also a chance those dares will make it funnier and more interesting than I could ever hope.

My outlining has been very in-depth. It’s overly complicated but it works for me. First I outlined the novel as a whole. Then I went through the outline, breaking it up chapter by chapter. Then I outlined each chapter in more depth before separating out each scene. I’ve got a whole 31 chapters and an epilogue done like this so far. Now I’m going through with each scene and going into detail with each of them. I’ve also tried to get a better grip on my characters by interviewing them as well as doing character sheets. It seems to be working actually.

With so much detail going into my planning process and the fact I’ve only got 6 days left means I’m going to have to work my backside off to get this all done before November 1^st rolls around. Here’s hoping I manage it. Last year when I went into NaNo I only had half of my novel detailed properly. The rest was only vaguely outlined and detailed and The Darkling Watch came out crazy towards the end.

I'll let you know how it's going over the month, making sure to have at least one post a week detailing my progress throughout the month. This will be on top of my RoW80 posts and another independent post. Hopefully I can juggle all this stuff. If you don't hear from me assume I've gone a little bonkers and had to be locked away. Or at the least that my parents have taken my laptop away from me.

Keep writing.

Crazy List Lady

Today I want to talk about organisation and some of the methods I use. These personally work for me, but they may not work for everyone. If it does, great! Let me know. If it doesn’t then fair enough, I hope you find one that does soon. Essentially what I’m trying to say is that there’s no right or wrong way to organise for everyone, it’s about finding what organisation methods fit you. Anyway, on with the post;

With so many projects going on in my head and in my writing I’ve found that being organised is key. I tried many different things; list making, using files on my computer, daily to do lists and self timetabling. Nothing really work though. Then I saw an amazing video made by a woman who’s also a writer and artist, Amy Brucker. Now her organisation tips are more directed to small business owners and the self-employed but I’ve found that with a bit of tweaking they are also a good base for writers.

I watched it, I made notes and I decided to give it a go. At first I was trying to do too much in one day, not really thinking about how long it took me to do each activity. Then I began to look and notice the patterns that were emerging in what I was and wasn’t doing. I realised that I was happily getting more done for the stuff that I wanted to do but the things I didn’t want to do I wasn’t really doing or I’d half-arse it. So I cut down on how much I tasked myself with each day and forced myself to do the things I really didn’t want to do or that I was feeling less enthusiastic about first. I also kept things new and interesting by making sure that no two days had exactly the same activities. The idea of doing exactly the same things two days in a row really seemed to get me unmotivated. So far it seems to be working. Granted my lists aren’t as colourful or highly decorated as hers, I prefer to focus more on the activities I’m setting myself than drawing pictures but it’s bright enough and eye catching enough that I notice it.

I also do a monthly to-do-list. This is basically an A4 sheet of plain paper with the month at the top. I’ll then write down each project I’m working on that month and leave plenty of space around it to set myself tasks. For instance in October I’m focusing on The Darkling Watch, The Feral Diaries, o.S.a.M and NaNo. Beneath each little title I’ll write three or four overarching tasks such as plan Book 2 of The Feral Diaries, get a complete NaNo idea written down. I’ll draw a little check box next to it and then I let myself loose with my Copic markers and decorate it. As the month’s gone on I’ve written little post-it notes to myself about other things that I didn’t even think about, mostly related to research and little ideas I’ve had.

Both of these pages are on separate doors of my wardrobe which is right beside me as I sit writing. That means I can look to the right and see what I’ve accomplished each day and what I’ve managed to do for each month. Once the month or week is over I switch it round, usually on Sunday night which is a slow day for me. I’ll put the old sheet in the back of my planning folder and put the new one up.

Then I found Amy Brucker had made another organisation video, focusing on something she’d mentioned earlier, the ideas journal.

I started making notes on the parts of her ideas journal that interested me. At first I was just writing on a single sheet of paper in a small folder where I kept my lined paper and notes on research I was doing. Then, as more and more ideas started coming to me, as I started writing a list of potential blog post ideas and The Feral Diaries pages started raking up I realised I needed to expand. So I bought a lever-arch folder and transferred it all to there. I used the larger cardboard dividers to separate out different sections; Darklings, The Feral Diaries, o.S.a.M, the blog, my research, NaNoWriMo, ToDo lists.

Then I divided each section down into what I needed from it. For Feral Diaries it’s outlines, Book 1 and Book 2. For the blog section its ideas, outlined ideas and published ideas. I could go on and on but I figure you’ve got the idea by now; I split each larger section into small bits focusing on different parts of the project. Even the weekly to-do list sheets get their own section at the very back (but that isn't split). At the start of each large section I’ve created individual to-do lists for those areas, just so that I can look at those when I’m working on the to-do lists each week and so that I can see how far I’ve come.

I like working on paper. It gives me freedom. I can go nestle in the living room with a trashy film on and slowly write out random bits and pieces for my writing. I can jot down a random idea about ninja parrots or something if I’m in the middle of town. I usually get struck by random ideas when I’ve not got my laptop on or I’m on the middle of the bus so can’t really dictate a note to myself without looking crazy. Basically the plot bunnies attack when I least expect it.

But I’m not unprepared. I make sure that I have a little notebook with me at all times. It’s a little bruised, a little battered but it’s mine. When I get an idea I write it on top of a fresh page and continue to develop it onto the other side of that page if it stays with me. If it’s got to that point I know it might be a keeper. Sometimes I don’t or can’t go any further with it but if it’s a random scene or character I’ll pop in a post-it just in case I can use it for some other story.

When an idea’s gotten to the point where it’s stuck in my head and begging to be planned I’ll copy it into the pages of another book I have, a notebook that was a birthday present this year from a fellow writer. It’s actually one of the notebooks that NaNoWriMo sells and has “There’s a book in you that only you can write” on the front. I think this is quite fitting really as this is where I put my bigger ideas as they develop. Yes I’ve split it into separate sections as well. I leave enough room for 3 double sides of writing per idea, 6 sides of paper in total. If an idea covers those 6 pages and especially if I’ve started to add in little post-its with notes on them I know it’s time to start planning it properly.

This all might seem really complicated to you but for me it works. If I need to take a break from something  that I’m currently working on or I’ve got a block on that project I can put it aside and do a little planning for something else. I love lists so they feature heavily in how I organise myself. I like to work on paper more than on the computer for the initial planning stages of a story. I like to keep all my ideas in one easy to reach place. 

If you want to give my methods a try and they work for you I’d love to hear it. If you try them and they don’t I’d still like to hear about it and why they didn’t work for you. If you have your own method that really works then please, share it. I like hearing about this sort of stuff, and who knows, it really might help other people too. There’s no right or wrong method for everyone, it’s an individual thing.

Keep Writing.

Also a big thank you to Christina who left a comment on Sunday's blog post and explained to me how to add those web-badges I was on about. As you can see her instructions worked and I'm one step closer to getting the blog looking the way I want it to. So thank you Christina, big hugs to you.

RoW80 Check In

So it’s another week down and yet more failures on my part. Except... I’m not classing them as failures. I may not have done as much editing or writing as I planned to but I’ve been doing things related, however distantly, to my goals.

I didn’t write any new entries for The Feral Diaries but I did do the long promised blog post about it yesterday. And I received some positive feedback about it. I also did some planning about the storylines and figured out a rough idea of what happens when. So although I didn’t meet the specific goal of writing and editing I made progress, even if it was in a different direction than I planned.

The same is true of Darkling Watch. I’ve done very little editing of it. Barely any of my read-through in fact but the stuff I did do on Monday led to three whole chapters being separated. That’s quite a lot for only three hours work. And I had Jeremy Kyle on in the background, which surprisingly helped with the arguements. Not to mention that I started roughly planning the novel about one of my favourite characters in the book. I plan on plotting that one out properly next year in fact and may share something about it at a later date.

I didn’t do anything related to o.S.a.M this week but I’m not actually bothered by that fact. It’s a series of short story web-comics connected by one long theme. I’m still trying to think of a new name for it as Of Swords And Magic does, as a friend told me, sound like a dissertation title for fantasy literature. I’m thinking something to do with curses. It still needs work. Anywho, the reason I’m not too bothered is that with the new storylines roughly plotted out for the most part I’ve got to let them settle. I need them to come together in my head, not just on the paper. For a good three or four months the story was one direction, not a direction I was really happy with, but it was a certain way. Now that I’ve started again from scratch with a bunch of different genres I’m happier with it. I’ve still got to get used to it in my head.

As for NaNoWriMo... well. It’s going splendidly. I’ve got a rough idea of my characters, the events and a couple of the subplots. The subplots aren’t as clear as the primary plotline but they’re getting there. I’ve also stepped a bit away from the Young Adult genre and into the realms of the completely ridiculous. I spent too much time in the Dares thread of the NaNoWriMo forums and so I’ve got a bunch of small events that I’m planning to put in to the story somewhere. The outlines right now are so rough that I can. For instance I’ve got a very basic scene of someone telling my MCs what’s happening. I don’t know how, I don’t know what’s said or what the characters are all doing. Thanks to the dares though I can expand on it a little, make it funnier. Maybe it won’t work and I’ll have to take those weird sections out but who cares! I’ll have fun doing it. Last year I took NaNoWriMo very seriously, not including any dares or experiencing much of the fun of NaNo that people talk about. Now though, with one whole novel under my belt and another one well on its way to reaching the editing stage I feel happy enough in my abilities to put weird events in and make them work. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a hit on my hands.

And finally, the last goal of blogging more than once a week about topics other than RoW...I nailed it. Not only did I write the promised posts about The Darkling Watch and The Feral Diaries but I also did one more than intended, specifically the Liebster Award entry. I’m still trying to figure out how to get that badge on the site incidentally. I want to put it in one of my sidebars, along with a NaNoWriMo badge/link and a RoW80 badge/link but I don’t have a clue. If you know how let me know.

So it’s been a successful week for me. Not as productive on the writing front as I’d hoped and I didn’t exactly reach my specific goals but I did work around each other them and that makes me happy. Now though I return to my NaNo planning and trawling the NaNo Dare thread for more insanity to put in my novels.

Keep writing!

It's all about the ferals

I know I promised the low-down on The Feral Diaries yesterday but I got completely enfolded in planning for NaNo. I literally spent the entire day working on my outline and character notes. Now though I’ve decided to write the promised post all about the Feral Diaries.

As the name suggests The Feral Diaries is a series of diary entries about the creatures known by my characters as Ferals. It’s kind of like a zombie novel and does in fact draw inspiration from Living with the Dead, a blog diary that I’ve mentioned before here. I was originally going to write it in novel form, with each chapter being a weekly entry and other bits and pieces such as emails and lab reports inserted at seemingly random points. After thinking about it though I’m planning to put The Feral Diaries online, at least three posts a week, done in real time. It’s going to take some work, particularly in explaining how the internet is still working in a country that’s lost much of its infrastructure (I’m thinking dongles but if anyone’s got a better idea let me know in the comments).

You’re probably wondering what the Ferals are exactly. I’ll tell you. They’re people, or at least they used to be, mutated by a contaminated vaccine that’s offered all over the country. They’re vicious, bloody thirsty and look a bit like a werewolf mid-change. All this is told from the point of view of an alternate me in a little village that fights to survive. There’s rebellions, famine and attacks from deeply unpleasant people as well that they have to deal with.

Planning the thing is a bit of a task. In my original outline I used prompts from a LiveJournal group called RunAwayTales. I still am as I work on my first draft in fact. I’m getting all the important points covered and reading back every 10 entries or so, figuring out how to separate all the stuff up. I’m also having to juggle the realistic side of how long it would take to build a wall, collect supplies and the like. I’ve had a lot of help with this aspect actually and it’s quite good. My assistant as I shall call her (she’s shy and doesn’t want to be named) seems to have a crazy amount of experience in the things I’m working on and she’s got an incredible mind for figuring this sort of stuff out.

The outlines have been done in 6 month groupings and I’m still on the first group. I’m almost at the end though and it’s coming along well. Now I just need to make the adjustments, copy it all up and expand on some of the entries. I’m planning to leave some leeway so that I can allow for real-time events of the natural kind (floods etc) that might be big news outside of the UK. I don’t know when I’ll be ready to start posting but I hope to have at least a month’s worth of entries all ready to go, maybe more.

I’ll let you know when I do get around to putting it online. It’ll be on a different blog site though. I’m also still iffy about the name The Feral Diaries.

In the meantime I’m gearing up for NaNo and working on my RoW80 goals so expect a post about RoW80 tomorrow and one about NaNo on Tuesday.

Keep writing.

Writerly A to Z (ignoring I and Q... 'cos those letters suck)

I saw a blog the other day that was an A – Z of writer type things and I really liked it. You can find it here. I realised that it really gave an idea of what the writer was like, in terms of their personality and what’s important to them. So... I decided to do my own. I know that I and Q are missing but I really couldn’t think of things to put there. Anyway, here’s my Writerly A – Z;

A – Acceptance. It’s a big deal to me that my parents accept that I want to be a writer. Of course they push me to find a job to tide me over and to get me away from the computer but they know that my dream is to be published. It’s actually gotten to the point now that they’re so accepting that they tell random strangers that I’ve finished a novel (no word of a lie, my mother actually said this to a couple we met on holiday recently. That’s another story that I might tell another time though. If you ask nicely)

B – Blog, blogging. I actually enjoy blogging so much. Yes, I know, I completely missed two months worth of posting but I honestly just forgot. I’m sucky like that. I do still love you all though and feel very guilty for ignoring you, however accidental it was. In seriousness though I use blogging and this blog as a way to work stuff out about myself, primarily how I write. Granted I have a writing journal where I jot down specific things for projects I’m working on but it’s easy to write for myself, it doesn’t matter. Trying to make my ideas understandable to strangers is harder and it makes my ideas become clearer in my mind. Yup, basically I just ramble at you all.

C – Characters. A novel would be nothing without them. They are the plot, their actions creating the tension, the drama, the really boring bits that you just end up skimming through. I have so many characters living in my head it feels like a hotel or a concert (possibly Justin Beiber. More likely Dolly Parton). We writers need characters to play with otherwise our megalomaniac tendencies or God Complex rear their ugly heads and we start trying to take over the world. We need these characters to do our bidding, to take the beatings we dish out, to act as stand-ins for that guy in the van who cut you up on the motorway. Is it healthy? Probably not. Is it fun? Hell yeah. Writers without characters are just weird people that mutter to themselves. We need them.

D – Darklings. It was the idea of the Darklings (yes, I know, you still have no idea what or who the Darklings are because I’ve been so silent on the topic. That will change. Soon.) that actually spurred me to look into writing a series. It’s such a flexible world with so many different characters for  me to play with that it seems ideal. Granted I’ve only dabbled with one or two different books right now but hopefully, once I get some more past the planning stage I can change that.

E – Excel, Microsoft. Excel is like my brain on the computer. I use it for everything; charting daily word-counts, tracking which characters are alive or dead (yes I’ve actually had to do that with the Feral Diaries), their roles, the different acts in each novel and so much more. Without Excel I’d have so many sheets of paper lying all over the place. I wouldn’t have room to move in my bedroom or on my desk. The ease of changing entries, the limitless possibilities... I love Excel

F – Feral Diaries, The. My newest novel idea (outside of the NaNoWriMo idea). Well I say novel but really I mean something else. There’ll be more about this in another post next week but for now I’ll just say that I’m really excited about it and it has the possibility of going further than I can imagine right now.

G – Garth Nix. He’s an exceptional fantasy writer and his books helped me to get through school in my teens. I hated school but I was guaranteed that when I read his books I could slip away into a whole other world. His books also helped me to get into writing fantasy novels, encouraging me to look into writing Young Adult too.

H – humour. I’m not really that funny. I know it, you know it, hell the bus driver I see once a week knows it. I try though, in the blog posts and my novels. I don’t specialise in laugh-out-loud humour though. I’m... witty I suppose, and sarcastic and dry, very dry. It works for me though and usually the funny happens when I’m not even trying to be funny. I’ve actually considered a career in stand-up comedy if the writing thing doesn’t work out for me.

J – Josh Guess. He’s a brilliant writer. I discovered him recently when I got a couple of books for my Kindle before I went on holiday. I read his novels Living with the Dead and I couldn’t put them down. Seriously, I’d be stood at the back door, having a cigarette with my Kindle clutched there in my hands, devouring the words. The way he writes is quite philosophical at times but it’s not a boring kind of way. He challenges his characters, does horrible horrible things to them but manages to make it better without using one of the old ‘the wizard did it’ clichés. That takes talent. And he’s dedicated.

K – knitting. I knit in winter. Not summer or when it’s too hot as my hands end up sweaty, I drop stitches and the wool goes ca-ca. Right now though all I can do is straight up knitting; squares, rectangles and long scarves. I need to learn to turn a heel or a toe or even to knit a hat. I find knitting helps me when I’m writing too as I can just sit there, playing with my wool and needles and think things through for my characters. It gives my hands something to do while my brain works. And if you know me in person you know my hands and brain are always going.

L – Living with the Dead. I mentioned this above. The idea is one that I’ve seen before but never that’s lasted this long. It’s the story of a zombie apocalypse (which if you know me you know I love) that started in March 2010. The thing is that it's not just a long running novel series. It's a daily blog. Since then Josh Guess, the author, has made a post almost every single weekday. That’s over 2 years, 5 days a week. It’s incredible and it’s inspiring. Most importantly it’s a really good read. I thoroughly recommend it if you like zombies or the apocalypse (maybe like is there wrong word there). This series has given me some pretty cool ideas for the Feral Diaries too.

M – my Mum. I’ve mentioned my mum up under A but she needs to be mentioned again. She is ridiculously supportive now that I know what I want to do. She tells people she works with about me being a writer. Sometimes she even takes supplies from work that she knows they’re throwing away and brings them home to me to use if she thinks they’ll be useful. She wants to read Darkling Watch in fact. But right now... no way. Either way, she supports me, encourages me and makes sure I don’t drive myself mad working on my novels. I love you Mum.

N – NaNoWriMo. It was NaNoWriMo that helped me to realise that I seriously wanted to be a writer and that I could actually manage it. In a month I almost finished a complete first draft of Darkling Watch and I wasn’t even fed up of it. I’d been getting ideas the entire time for other stories linked to the Darklings and the characters within the novel itself and I started work on those as soon as I was done. Granted in a normal month my word-count is nowhere near that high but it’s nice to know I could, and can, do it.

O – o.S.a.M. My pet project. My baby. The webcomic that just won’t be written. I’ve been working on this idea for over 6 months now and I’ve still not cracked it. I thought I had until I found some massive flaws and took it back to the drawing board. I’ll do an entire post about this at a later date, as I’ve said in my post on Monday. But in all seriousness, o.S.a.M is my baby and I’m going to keep working on it until I crack it and manage to do something with it. Who knows, it may even turn into an illustrated novel rather than a webcomic.

P – planning. I used to do the bare minimum of planning and when it came down to writing I’d be left with huge gaping plot holes or my novel would putter out of steam. Now though I’ve thoroughly embraced planning; creating timelines, character sheets, chapter outlines. I feel awkward and lose track of what I’m writing. I know some people are pantsers and that’s really great for them but I’m just not one of them. If you are though my hat goes off to you.

R – Research. Research is my life-blood. I love researching. Sometimes when I’m researching something will spark my imagination and a whole new idea will pop out at me. That’s how my idea for NaNo this year came about. Research is key in many of my novels, dealing as they do in history and mythology. I like to make sure the information I give is accurate although often things that I research barely show up at all, usually just a line or two if that. It makes me happy though and gives my writing a bit more of a 3 dimensional feel to it. Plus, I can always use it for other novels once it’s in my head.

S – Shan, Darren. Another fantastic fantasy/YA author. It’s from Shan that I’ve been encouraged and inspired to write long running novels. Often his novels come in series of 5 or more books, each with their own individual plots but with a long running story going through all of them. It’s fascinating reading them with a critical eye, seeing how the little bits and pieces build up into one interesting story. There’s a reason most of his story series are called Sagas.

T – targets. I have to set myself targets or I never get anything done. I’m inherently lazy sometimes, not doing anything unless I really have to and having targets, whether they’re weekly, monthly or daily just gives me a reason to work. Plus I just love seeing each item ticked or crossed off the list. I plan on writing an entire post about targets and why I love them though so I won’t go into too much detail of why I do right now.

U – unexpected, the. So many of my novels evolve past what I first imagine because I end up writing unexpected things. For instance, when I started writing The Darkling Watch I never imagined that it would turn into a three book thing. Nor did I imagine that the main antagonist would be Loki and the story would be piled high with mythology. Unexpected things happening in my writing is something that I love. It makes it richer, more intriguing and just a hell of a lot more fun. It also means I generally have more work to do in the editing stages though.

V – vacations. Or holidays as the British call them. I love taking a break, going away somewhere new, seeing new things, eating new things, doing new things. More often than not the change of scenery is really good for me. I get new ideas, fix old ideas or just get stuff done. It’s nice to just unwind as well and get a bit of reading done.

W – Webcomic. I’ve tried so many times to start a webcomic and I’ve either realised I’ve jumped in too soon or I don’t actually like the story I’m working on. So now I’m taking my time. But this one isn’t about my webcomic. It’s about webcomics in general. I love to read webcomics. They’re fun, quick and a daily source of entertainment for me. Plus, they more often than not give me some kind of inspiration, whether for a tricky plot point or a new idea. I like them and read a lot of them. Speaking of, I should really get caught up with the ones I’ve missed since I went away.

X – x-rated material. I have x-rated material in the Darkling Watch. There’s probably going to be x-rated material in The Feral Diaries. No matter what I end up with some kind of sex scene in my novels. They get taken out usually. Sometimes I leave them in if they’re actually  useful to the story. It irks me though that these scenes keep popping up in my writing. Maybe I need to get laid....

Y –Young-Adult. I’ve started to branch out into writing Young Adult novels. It’s not something that I really considered before but I realised that maybe I should. The plots tend to be less tangled, the characterisation a lot simpler and they’re actually entertaining without going plot or exposition heavy. The Darklings series (not Darkling Watch) already has a couple of ideas mapped out for YA novels which surprises me as The Darkling Watch is a decidedly adult novel, what with the death and the sex and the drinking. But yes, I like to read YA novels and I think I might actually enjoy writing them too.

Z – zombies. I couldn’t mention zombies twice for other letters without including it here. I love the zombie genre, in film, graphic novel and book form. I found some truly unique ways of making it work in writing and some... well, really clichéd examples of bad zombie novel writing. The genre is so adaptable, it can be used to make a profound comment on human society or it can be just a good read/watch. It depends on how hard you’re willing to work. Hopefully, one day soon I can write an actual zombie novel myself instead of just reading them.

So there you go, hope you enjoyed reading that and seeing into the inky depths of my mind. Catch you Sunday with one of my RoW80 Check-In posts.

Revelations and Alterations

It’s been an odd week. After all the excitement of the weekend I seemed to get stuck in a slight rut. I was barely drawing, barely writing and if I’m honest getting a little depressed about my life. Then I had two girls and a baby hiding in my bedroom for an hour. While they were hiding we got chatting and they both said things that made me think. They have both worked to get what they want and they seem relatively happy with what they have. I haven’t.

I coasted through school and university doing the bare minimum and I got by fairly well. Every year after university was done and I returned home for the summer I’d kick myself for not applying myself and yet when I went back I’d just fall into the same habits and coast along. I’ve started to do that again now, now I’m graduated and trying to join the real world. I’m sitting around, doing the bare minimum to reach my goals and for some reason feeling proud of this. Well... not anymore.

After a couple of weeks easily managing to attain the majority of the goals I realised that they need reworking, they’re too attainable. I’m reaching them easily and it’s not actually pushing me to grow as an artist/writer. So from my own thoughts and the feedback of other people participating in RoW80 I’ve edited them.

• Edit 100 words of DW daily.

This was both too easy and too difficult. On a bad day I would generally get over 1000 words editted, working on entire scenes rather than brief chunks. I tried to edit in small 100 word bursts but it just didn't work. The blocks didn't really connect and everything felt discombobulated. With that in mind I came up with a new one goal based off the original idea that pushes me to my limits and makes me work harder to attain my goal;

• Edit 1 chapter (2,500 words) of DW a day.

• Draw one full art piece a week

With sketching thumbnails, writing and all the planning I'm doing I just don't have time for even more art on top of it. Full-time artists and writers have told me that they even struggle to achieve this goal so I don't feel too bad about altering it. So, with that in mind I tweaked the goal, keeping the general idea but changing the time-frame for it;

• Create on full art piece a month.

•   Write everyday

This was too easy. I included any form of writing I did, whether editing, planning for NaNoWriMo or even a blog post. I needed to write something that wasn’t included in the other goals, that I couldn’t use as an easy out for completing that goal and so I tweaked it, edited it and came up with;

• Write something non-NaNo, DW, or blog related each day.

 And so, with my goals and targets reworked I set to work again, with the hope that I will start taking my work more seriously than I already am and actually succeed in achieving not just my RoW80 goals but my life goals as well.

Dancing on tabletops

Last night I danced on a table top dressed as a punk.

 Yes, I’m serious.

 No, that’s not the opening line of a new novel. It could be though.

Writers and writing advice often tell us to write what we know and to live life in order to find new things to write about. Well after last night I have a whole list of things I can write about.

But that’s not really what I’m talking about today. I’m going to catch you up on how well I’m reaching my goals, two weeks into Round Three. I’ve been doing surprisingly well actually. Writing a little every day, drawing a little every day, editing a little every day. Even when I’ve not been physically editing DW, the work in progress, I’ve been thinking about how I would change certain parts or how I could get it to more resemble what I’d first envisioned when I started writing it last November. Most of my other goals have been completed as well. I’ve been writing everyday by working on my Camp NaNo planning and that’s also coming along swimmingly. I’ve also been drawing everyday by sketching page thumbnails for oSaM. It’s helping me figure out character designs and how the characters hold themselves at the same time. Slowly but surely I’m getting more and more ready to actually start drawing that monster. I still haven’t decided on an art style or how I’m going to produce the actual pages yet but it’s on my list of things to do.

What I’m having serious trouble with is the middle goal; completing one full art piece every week. Both weeks something’s come up just as I’ve been settling down to work on a full piece of art and I’ve just not gotten around to sitting down to work again. I’m starting to think that I may have to remove that particular goal from my goal lists. I don’t really want to though as that would be admitting defeat and I don’t like to do that. I hate the feeling of failure and I’m determined to treat that goal as a challenge.

I can never resist a challenge.

And maybe next time I’ll tell you how I wound up on top of the table.

Maybe.

A little something-something

So, not one day after I post about my RoW80 goals and seem so optimistic I fall from the wagon. Yesterday, despite fully intending to work on my targets I failed to do a single thing. I don’t know whether it was because it was the weekend and my brain didn’t want to work or I was simply being lazy. I’m not too bothered though, considering how much I’ve managed to get done since the start Round Three. I know it won’t be the last day off I have either. As long as the number of productive days outweigh the days where I do nothing I shall be happy.

I remembered yesterday that NaNoWriMo runs a mini-NaNo type thing in June and August. I signed up immediately and plan to use one of my story plans for it. The reasoning behind this is two-fold.
a) I don’t think I’ll be able to manage to write or complete three separate novels in one month.
b) I wanted to start releasing parts of the one I’m working on come August part way through December which doesn’t leave much time for editing and what-not.

I’m looking forward to it though; the excitement of kick-off, the thrill of reaching each 1,000 word mark, seeing the graph creep higher and higher with every passing day. I’m a little odd in that I find visual confirmation of my progress as a great motivational tool. Or, in simple English; seeing my little line go up makes me write more. Sometimes I worry I get carried away with the long words and forget I’m not at uni any more... it’s a flaw.

I’m also working hard on the thumbnails for oSaM. I set myself the challenge of doing 60 whole thumb-nailed pages by the end of July. So far I have one. I think I made a mistake. But, in all seriousness, if I get a move on, sit down, and really get into it there’s a good chance I’ll be able to make it. Or at least make a pretty decent dent in the number of pages I need to thumbnail.

Oh and I quit smoking.... wish me extra luck with that one....

RoW80: Round Three Goals

So after 5 days of a family holiday and isolation from the internet I have finally returned home and can, at last, tell you all about my RoW80, Round Three goals. I have started working on all of them already and hopefully I can keep working on them for the next 80 days. I’ve come up with at least 6 and may or may not add a seventh.

First up are the big two:

1) Draw everyday

Even if it’s just a 5 minute doodle I need to do a little bit of drawing every day. So far that’s going well.

2) Write everyday

I plan to write something non-forum related. Whether it’s 100 words of world building, 500 of story planning or even 2,500 words of actual writing, I want to get something written every day.

These two are designed to encourage me to treat writing and drawing as my job, just like I want it to be. Hopefully if I can get into it enough it will become a habit and no longer will I feel as though I’m wasting my time every day.

3) Finish one art piece a week

So often I start to draw something big and never actually get it finished or it takes months to finish. I’m hoping that pushing myself to do this will encourage me to actually finishing things. Plus it’s a great incentive once I start actually drawing the pages of my web-comic. Which leads on to....

4) Work on oSaM daily.

As long as I do 30 minutes of work, at least, on oSaM every day I will be happy. It could be character designs or page thumbnails or anything else related to it. I’m going to make sure that the 30 minutes is uninterrupted and gets something productive out of it. Just thinking about it doesn’t count.

5) Edit 100 words of D.W. daily.

I’ve been putting off editing it and it’s really beginning to annoy me. I know what I need to do and I’ve already thought about things I need to fix/remove.

And finally;

6) Plan for NaNoWriMo

I’ve not got a set amount, time, words or otherwise for this one as it’s sort of an open book. I’ve already got the ideas brewing and a few notes made so from now until November it’s just going to slowly build and build. I’m hoping to work on 3 or 4 novels or short stories throughout NaNo so there are lots of things that I can flick between.

So for now, that’s it on the RoW80 front. I’m hoping that this time I’ll be able to stick to them much better than with Round 1 and who knows, I might actually enjoy it.

Ciao!

A little bit lost

So I’m at a bit of a loss. I’ve been imagining this day for ages but never actually thought about what I’d do when it got here. You’re probably wondering what on earth I’m blabbering about. Well I’ll tell you.
I finished the first draft of Darkling Watch.

It’s a big deal to me, a massive accomplishment and I’ll tell you why. My biggest downfall in my writing is that I’ve never finished anything. I’ve got dozens and dozens of works in progress on my computer and in my room. Everything I start I seem to leave by the wayside. Today though is one of the first times I’ve ever actually finished something. I’m so proud of myself and at the same time I’m shell-shocked. I’ve dreamed about being able to turn around to my parents and say ‘it’s done’ but now that it’s here I don’t know what to do. I feel like I should be jumping up and down on the bed and running around squealing. But I’m not. Instead I’m sat here, trying to figure out what to do next. It’s pretty awe-inspiring. I’ve just completed the first step on the path to possibly getting published. Editting will come soon enough and then submissions. I’m finally reaching towards my dream and I can’t believe it is happening.
It doesn’t feel real. I’ve felt this feeling before; when I got into uni, when I graduated, when my first article was published in the student paper. It’s not a new sensation. I just never thought I’d get it for my writing though.

I’m sitting here wondering what else I can spend my day doing, not that I spent hours and hours just sitting there writing. A lot of the time I was procrastinating.
I suppose I could work on the Young Adult novel I’ve been planning, actually start writing it. Or I could rewrite Witchan or Loves Complications, sort out their plots and actually get onto drawing the pages again. Maybe.
Or maybe I could just revel for the day in the joy of the fact that at last I’ve finished something. I could use it as a starting point to prove to myself and everyone else that at last I’m no longer just a doer. I’m a finisher. I start things, I do them and I get them finished. 

I’m not going to lie. It’s a nice feeling.

Creative Explosion

So what can I say?  My creativity seems to have gone boom. It seems like all of a sudden I’ve got a ton of ideas that I’m working on and I’m actually seeing progress that I’m pleased with. 

My creativite mind... or at least what I imagine it looked like.

Image courtesy of http://pastorhobbins.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/explosion-big-bang.jpg

                My NaNo novel.... is titled and almost finished!! I couldn’t be prouder, my baby is almost fully born. I’m even looking forward to doing the editing and multiple drafts. There is one... flaw, I suppose you would call it. As of right now the total word count is 100,000 words. Now I’m no expert on the lengths of novels, even though I read a lot, but I think that may be too long for just one novel. It may be a case that in publishing it’s split into two. If I manage to get that far anyway. But apart from that things are rolling along nicely. I’m managing to get from my exposition right near the end to the actual climax at last. For weeks I’ve been staring at that part of the story, trying to make myself fill it in. Then in the last few days, as I’ve apparently hit a creative streak it’s started to work, I’m writing 800 to 1000 words of it a day, when I’m pushing myself, more than that when I’m not really trying and the ideas start pinging around my head. I’m glad of this really. It means that I’m on the home stretch and I’m one step closer to reaching my dream or at least trying for it.
                I’m working on my basic groundwork for Script Frenzy. Script Frenzy is ran by the same people who do NaNoWriMo and the basic idea is that you try to write 30 pages of script for a movie, tv series, anything in a month, starting on April 1^st. I decided to give it a go seeing how much success I’ve had with NaNo. I started searching for an idea last week, only wanting to make sure I had one because I didn’t want to leave it until the last minute like with NaNo. The idea got away with me though and now I’ve got the plot... at least most of it... and I’ve got my characters. I have a vague idea of what they look like too and what sort of style I’m going to use. I’m even building up a reference library of things that I can use to do my drawings. I’ve got twists, I’ve got back-story, I’ve got a page limit. All these things give me the feeling that for once, I may actually manage to do it. I don’t start writing the script until April so I’ve got time to develop my characters, draw settings, profiles, expression pages and a chance to test the drawing style. But I’m happy.

              In other news, I’ve canned Witchan. I’m not happy with the story, I haven’t been for a while. The general premise I like but I feel that it just needs more work and I have, as an authorial choice, taken the pages offline and I’m planning to work on the script some more at a later date. I want to rework the characters, rework the script, tweak the plot around. There are parts of the story and the idea that I love, most of the characters I love. But I just have this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I rushed into it all way too quickly. I’ve not even finished writing the thing, I’m not happy with the art and I have no idea what my main characters really look like. I think that I’m just going to have to pause the story, trash the pages and start over. So that’s what I’ve done. Once I’ve got the novel finished and the Script Frenzy idea rolling properly I may well go back to it. Who knows I might even dip in and out of it as I’m working on other things.
                Right now however, as well as Darkling Watch(the NaNo Novel), Of Swords and Magic(the Script Frenzy idea) and Chains in the Basement(a young adult novel I’m currently plotting), I’m working on a new old idea. Love Complications was one of the first stories that I actually finished. I decided that I wanted to turn it into a web-comic. So I did. I managed to get to the second chapter, almost the end of the second chapter in fact before I began to get the feeling that there was something off about the whole thing. The art I actually quite liked, even after it had changed a couple of times. It was the plot I was having issues with. The story was basically the wish fulfilment fantasy of a teenage girl, as I wrote it at 16 when I was having a few... issues with my school life. Now I’ve taken off the pages and I’m reworking the script. The basic idea is the same but the points along the way are changed, the characters are going to be more well-rounded. And most importantly, I’m going to take my time! With everything. Because I’m an impatient bugger.

Me with my ideas... I am a woman

Image courtesy of http://www.activegarage.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/dirty-dozen-6-impatience

              

If I don’t wait I’ll end up unhappy with it all again and just have to repeat this cycle over and over and over and over and over and... well you get the point. Planning needs to be balanced with actually creating and my ideas need to keep flowing. Working on a load of projects at once and giving myself deadlines seems to help spur me on so for now, I'm gonna stick with it.