Hello and welcome! November is almost over and for those of you still working on NanoWriMo it is the last day to get to 50,000 words. I wish you all the best of luck on this! If you are like me though, and even at 50,000 you are still not finished with the actual story, keep it up! Try to get at least a little something done every day, just remember you don't need to do the 1667 word count, but any progress is good progress!
I have stated before how much I like the idea of having a daily word quota, it helps give you a goal, and a rather simple one that each time you complete it, you feel proud of yourself and before you know it your story will be ready for editing. Now as for what that quota should be, that all depends on the time you have during the day. With my own projects, I have to balance it is with a weird work schedule and other such life things, so I do my best to get at least 1000 done (or close to it) before I go to work, or get to 10:30, whichever comes first.
It's not exactly a word quota, but it is an attempt to get something done every day, and with my own project only at the half way point, there is still a lot more than needs to be done. I would like to say it would be done by January, but we'll see. With Nano being almost over, it's time to think about how to finish the projects, either with more writing, or editing. Yes getting 50,000 words done in one month is an incredibly accomplishment, what's important now is making sure you don't immediately drop the momentum and look away from your work.
When you were working on Nano, what did you find that worked in order to get you to that goal, and whatever that was, keep it up! Obviously it works, admittedly you may not be able to dedicate your life to a high daily word quota, but what's important now is to take that working method, if necessary maybe pull it back just a little so you can make sure you can still make progress but also enjoy that life thing everyone's talking about so much. It can happen, trust me, just no matter what don't just stop writing because you just got to 50,000.
Thanks for stopping by again! Friday will have another posting of a book you can find on smashwords. I will do my best to get it up at a reasonable time, I have an appointment that morning, and we'll see how well I'll be able to see after that happens. There will be a posting though, that I can promise. Until then, have a good couple days and keep up your writing!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
11/28/2011 Magnificent Monday
Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a good long weekend (if you celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US) and that it was full of good times and lots of food. My NanoWriMo work was finished on Wednesday, so that means I am good to go on my normal schedule. Getting to 50,000 was tough when only able to do just over 2100 words a day, but I made it and I am happy for it!
I had heard about setting a daily word quota, which is something I highly recommend for someone wanting to write, but finding it hard to find motivation/time, but I had to impose a word limit on myself, and that was difficult. All through my school-life when it came to having to write a paper/story/essay/whatever I could always reach the minimum number of words needed for it, but had absolutely no problem writing more. So when it came to this year's NanoWriMo I needed to make sure that I paced myself appropriately so as not to cause more damage than last year had already done, and after some thinking and rough estimation, I decided that roughly 2000 words a day should be fine, and even then it ended up being more.
I am proud of myself though, I learned (somewhat) how to pace myself, and even though I finished really close to my self-imposed deadline, I still made it. It helped me see that I can still get things done even if I'm only adding about 3 1/2 pages a day (depending on font size and spacing and whether or not that part if full of description or dialog) and that was incredibly helpful. I think that is something that's important for any writer to come to accept, it's not a big deal if you don't write like the wind and get as much done as quickly as you can, it's more important that you actually get it finished. If it takes you one month or 3, or even a whole year, that's perfectly fine, the important part is that you completed your work and want to share it with the world.
I'm glad everything is back to normal though. I hope to see you all back here Wednesday! Also, I recommend seeing the new Muppets movie, it was positively delightful and made me remember why I liked them so much as a kid. "The Light Rises" is also still 50% off until Christmas with coupon code: UQ59B to help with your e-book shopping needs!
I had heard about setting a daily word quota, which is something I highly recommend for someone wanting to write, but finding it hard to find motivation/time, but I had to impose a word limit on myself, and that was difficult. All through my school-life when it came to having to write a paper/story/essay/whatever I could always reach the minimum number of words needed for it, but had absolutely no problem writing more. So when it came to this year's NanoWriMo I needed to make sure that I paced myself appropriately so as not to cause more damage than last year had already done, and after some thinking and rough estimation, I decided that roughly 2000 words a day should be fine, and even then it ended up being more.
I am proud of myself though, I learned (somewhat) how to pace myself, and even though I finished really close to my self-imposed deadline, I still made it. It helped me see that I can still get things done even if I'm only adding about 3 1/2 pages a day (depending on font size and spacing and whether or not that part if full of description or dialog) and that was incredibly helpful. I think that is something that's important for any writer to come to accept, it's not a big deal if you don't write like the wind and get as much done as quickly as you can, it's more important that you actually get it finished. If it takes you one month or 3, or even a whole year, that's perfectly fine, the important part is that you completed your work and want to share it with the world.
I'm glad everything is back to normal though. I hope to see you all back here Wednesday! Also, I recommend seeing the new Muppets movie, it was positively delightful and made me remember why I liked them so much as a kid. "The Light Rises" is also still 50% off until Christmas with coupon code: UQ59B to help with your e-book shopping needs!
Friday, November 25, 2011
11/25/2011 Fantastic Friday
Hello and welcome back to my more normal routine! Nano has been completed, though the story is not, but at least now I can get back to taking care of things on my own schedule and not some crazy one. With that being said, let's get back to business shall we?
Today we are looking at "Agents of Light & Shade" by S.L. Pineda. It follows the story of an ex-superhero who's looking to capture the glory they once had, and a former super-villain who's fresh out of prison and just wants to have a quiet normal life.
It takes place on the world known as Auda, and I really enjoy the fact it takes two tropes that people are familiar with and kind of turns them upside down. I love stories about people who try and make their lives better and things end up going a bit differently than they had intended. In this case you have a superhero who is trying to bring back the spark they once had in order to save themselves from monotony and insanity. You also have a former super-villain that sees what they have done in the past and just want to move away from it. I can easily see this being the first in a series.
"Agents of Light & Shade" is available currently on smashwords, and will likely soon be in the premium catalog. It is $2.99 and with the holidays and all, is an inexpensive gift to give anyone with an e-reader.
Thanks for stopping by and putting up with my lack of anything for the last 20 or so days. Doing Nano again was lots of fun and I was able to make a pretty significant amount of progress on my prequel. I also hope everyone had a good holiday so those who celebrated, and for those doing holiday shopping, "The Light Rises" is still 50% off with coupon code: UQ59B until Christmas. I'll see everyone on Monday, have a good weekend!
Today we are looking at "Agents of Light & Shade" by S.L. Pineda. It follows the story of an ex-superhero who's looking to capture the glory they once had, and a former super-villain who's fresh out of prison and just wants to have a quiet normal life.It takes place on the world known as Auda, and I really enjoy the fact it takes two tropes that people are familiar with and kind of turns them upside down. I love stories about people who try and make their lives better and things end up going a bit differently than they had intended. In this case you have a superhero who is trying to bring back the spark they once had in order to save themselves from monotony and insanity. You also have a former super-villain that sees what they have done in the past and just want to move away from it. I can easily see this being the first in a series.
"Agents of Light & Shade" is available currently on smashwords, and will likely soon be in the premium catalog. It is $2.99 and with the holidays and all, is an inexpensive gift to give anyone with an e-reader.
Thanks for stopping by and putting up with my lack of anything for the last 20 or so days. Doing Nano again was lots of fun and I was able to make a pretty significant amount of progress on my prequel. I also hope everyone had a good holiday so those who celebrated, and for those doing holiday shopping, "The Light Rises" is still 50% off with coupon code: UQ59B until Christmas. I'll see everyone on Monday, have a good weekend!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
11/23/2011 Writing Wednesday - NaNoWriMo Edition!
Hello! Yes it still says 'Nano' edition up top because I'm not sure what magician worked out their 'you'll be done by ___ day' thing on their site, but if my average word count is 2200 and they say I'll be done on the 22nd with 3800 words to go, they are not correct. I will however, be done today, so yay almost celebration times!
I thought I would talk about characters a bit more today. I was talking to my boyfriend about his own story, and he said he needed to develop the characters more before he could dive into it a bit more. I thought about this and realized that each character, whether they're main characters or secondary/support characters should deserve a full background story. If they have a name, and are even a shred important to the story, you should at least know where they're coming from, that way you know their personality, their drive, their motivation for helping/hindering the party of protagonists, everything.
I think I said it before that I feel that my time being a table-top gamer has helped me with this greatly. The characters that I have made have all needed backgrounds in order to be played correctly, during party creation the players all need to know if they're going to be good/evil and why their characters have chosen that path. It's the same for writing, and as I said, it goes for every character. From the normal person who has been given super powers, to the all-powerful one that no one can determine for certain if they're descended from a God or are one. It's backstory that really makes the character, take Superman for instance; he's nigh-invulnerable, does pretty much everything ever and always wins even after being killed. This is a character no one would care about if it weren't for the fact he was raised by the Kents (spoiler alert?) in Smallville, KS and learned the importance of humanity.
Long story short please gives your characters backgrounds, it makes them so much more interesting and helps readers get attached to them. It's the reason why if you choose to kill off someone incredibly important to the main character, or hell, the main character, you get the reactions that you do. It's the reason why the 'big reveal/twist' is so important, because those are the scenes people are going to be talking about for decades to come.
Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back Friday after stuffing myself with delicious turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate! I'm thankful to all of you who have made this blog a success and have helped it get over 500 hits. I'll see you all then!
I thought I would talk about characters a bit more today. I was talking to my boyfriend about his own story, and he said he needed to develop the characters more before he could dive into it a bit more. I thought about this and realized that each character, whether they're main characters or secondary/support characters should deserve a full background story. If they have a name, and are even a shred important to the story, you should at least know where they're coming from, that way you know their personality, their drive, their motivation for helping/hindering the party of protagonists, everything.
I think I said it before that I feel that my time being a table-top gamer has helped me with this greatly. The characters that I have made have all needed backgrounds in order to be played correctly, during party creation the players all need to know if they're going to be good/evil and why their characters have chosen that path. It's the same for writing, and as I said, it goes for every character. From the normal person who has been given super powers, to the all-powerful one that no one can determine for certain if they're descended from a God or are one. It's backstory that really makes the character, take Superman for instance; he's nigh-invulnerable, does pretty much everything ever and always wins even after being killed. This is a character no one would care about if it weren't for the fact he was raised by the Kents (spoiler alert?) in Smallville, KS and learned the importance of humanity.
Long story short please gives your characters backgrounds, it makes them so much more interesting and helps readers get attached to them. It's the reason why if you choose to kill off someone incredibly important to the main character, or hell, the main character, you get the reactions that you do. It's the reason why the 'big reveal/twist' is so important, because those are the scenes people are going to be talking about for decades to come.
Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back Friday after stuffing myself with delicious turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate! I'm thankful to all of you who have made this blog a success and have helped it get over 500 hits. I'll see you all then!
Monday, November 21, 2011
11/21/2011 Magnificent Monday - NanoWriMo Edition!
Greetings all and welcome back! I hope your weekend was spent well and if you're in the states, looking forward to having a few extra days off later this week. I love short weeks, they're always so nice. Though this year I'm doing a little more in the cooking area than I normally do, it will be an interesting experience. I just hope the food I'm making that isn't just a dessert comes out well.
Nano is almost done, and I'm somewhat convinced their website is lying to me. In the corner there is a little calculator that says 'at this pace you will be done by X day' and it keeps telling me I'll be done by the 22nd, however I still have just over 5000 words to go, and with an average of 2200 words a day, that isn't going to have me be finished by tomorrow. I'm not good at math though, so I could be wrong, it just doesn't work out in my head.
I have had a lot of fun this year though. I have discovered that I can, in fact, pace myself, and still not only get work done, but have somewhat of a life along with it. Sure there are times when I want to write more, faster, but I know it is for the best, and it is overcoming that compulsion to do more than I should that tells me that I truly can do this a bit slower than I have in the past and still make a deadline. I don't think the story will be finished by the time I get to 50,000 words, but this has been a wonderful addition and hopefully I'll be able to continue at a similar pace until it is finished.
Hopefully by Wednesday I will actually be done with Nano so things can go back to a little normal here. Friday is still on for a normal book promotional post, so look out for that! In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and have a good Monday!
Nano is almost done, and I'm somewhat convinced their website is lying to me. In the corner there is a little calculator that says 'at this pace you will be done by X day' and it keeps telling me I'll be done by the 22nd, however I still have just over 5000 words to go, and with an average of 2200 words a day, that isn't going to have me be finished by tomorrow. I'm not good at math though, so I could be wrong, it just doesn't work out in my head.
I have had a lot of fun this year though. I have discovered that I can, in fact, pace myself, and still not only get work done, but have somewhat of a life along with it. Sure there are times when I want to write more, faster, but I know it is for the best, and it is overcoming that compulsion to do more than I should that tells me that I truly can do this a bit slower than I have in the past and still make a deadline. I don't think the story will be finished by the time I get to 50,000 words, but this has been a wonderful addition and hopefully I'll be able to continue at a similar pace until it is finished.
Hopefully by Wednesday I will actually be done with Nano so things can go back to a little normal here. Friday is still on for a normal book promotional post, so look out for that! In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and have a good Monday!
Friday, November 18, 2011
11/18/2011 Fantastic Friday - NanoWriMo Edition!
Welcome back and happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a productive and at least interesting week. Nano is past the half-way point, and according to the site I'm still on track to be done on Tuesday (though I don't know where they get their math from, but whatever) so next Friday should be good to be back to normal.
I have come to realize that the novel, while having 50,000 words added to it, will not, in fact, be finished once I reach that point. I'm not sure if that counts as a success or victory, but I'm going to count it as something! Hopefully I will be able to finish the story shortly there after so that I can pretend it doesn't exist for a while, then dive into editing when I can look at the tiny words I've printed again.
The problem I've been having is that I'm afraid it's jumping around too much, I'm trying to put in the significant things that were in "The Light Rises" and I'm sure it's fine, but as I'm writing it I'm afraid certain things will end up being cut in editing, or shortened, or whatever. I think the re-read will help, but who knows right now. I have been told everything is flowing nicely though, so I am taking that to heart and pushing forward. I love things being internally consistent, continuity is probably one of my favorite things next to stuff making sense. Your readers will appreciate you too if you make sure that all the 'rules' of your world are followed in every story you write that's in the same one, or if things are different that you clearly explain why. I get to that at some point (a story and a half from now) so that'll be interesting to see how that goes over.
I thank you all for stopping by again during my time writing for NanoWriMo. I hope you're all having as much fun with it as I am. As always, feel free to post, comment, and contact me. Also, remember, purchase "The Light Rises" now until Christmas and get it 50% off with coupon code UQ59B.
I have come to realize that the novel, while having 50,000 words added to it, will not, in fact, be finished once I reach that point. I'm not sure if that counts as a success or victory, but I'm going to count it as something! Hopefully I will be able to finish the story shortly there after so that I can pretend it doesn't exist for a while, then dive into editing when I can look at the tiny words I've printed again.
The problem I've been having is that I'm afraid it's jumping around too much, I'm trying to put in the significant things that were in "The Light Rises" and I'm sure it's fine, but as I'm writing it I'm afraid certain things will end up being cut in editing, or shortened, or whatever. I think the re-read will help, but who knows right now. I have been told everything is flowing nicely though, so I am taking that to heart and pushing forward. I love things being internally consistent, continuity is probably one of my favorite things next to stuff making sense. Your readers will appreciate you too if you make sure that all the 'rules' of your world are followed in every story you write that's in the same one, or if things are different that you clearly explain why. I get to that at some point (a story and a half from now) so that'll be interesting to see how that goes over.
I thank you all for stopping by again during my time writing for NanoWriMo. I hope you're all having as much fun with it as I am. As always, feel free to post, comment, and contact me. Also, remember, purchase "The Light Rises" now until Christmas and get it 50% off with coupon code UQ59B.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
11/16/2011 Writing Wednesday - NanoWriMo Edition!
Greetings all and welcome back! Though I am still fending off the remainder of my cold, I am more focused and remember I have this blog thing to do. I also think I may have fixed my ctrl key so...that'll at least stop some of the rage I've been feeling when trying to copy/paste things throughout the day.
So far on my quest to complete Nano before Thanksgiving, I have done a lot of writing, currently I'm up to ~32,000 words, I consider this a victory, but I know there are others that struggle with getting to the based 1667 a day. Whenever I tell my mother how far I am, she is convinced that all I'm doing is writing the same word repeatedly, then reminds me it's 'quality of quantity' I try explaining to her that's what editing is for, and that the point of the month is to write as much as possible in the time given, but that doesn't work, then it dawned on me: that could be why some people get caught up in the word count.
I understand wanting to do quality work, and I'm not saying mine isn't, or that anyone else who participates in Nano doesn't write quality work, however as I tell my mother, that isn't the point of the month. The idea is that you vomit words and plot onto paper/digital page and then once you're finished go back and fix any issues during editing month. If you don't have a name for something just yet, that's ok put it in little brackets like this: and go back later and figure out a name. If you know you want to put something between two scenes, but you're stuck on what it is, but already know what's happening after, put some **** there and hop over to the next scene, then come back later. Whatever it is, don't let it hold you back from accomplishing your goal, no one writes a book and has the first draft done so sparkly perfect it's ready for publishing.
Thanks again everyone for stopping by. As a reminder, I have a holiday coupon going for "The Light Rises", use the code UQ59B and get 50% off until Christmas! Keep up the Nano progress, I should be done by next Tuesday if everything keeps up, so hopefully next Friday's post will be back to normal. Until then, have a good day!
So far on my quest to complete Nano before Thanksgiving, I have done a lot of writing, currently I'm up to ~32,000 words, I consider this a victory, but I know there are others that struggle with getting to the based 1667 a day. Whenever I tell my mother how far I am, she is convinced that all I'm doing is writing the same word repeatedly, then reminds me it's 'quality of quantity' I try explaining to her that's what editing is for, and that the point of the month is to write as much as possible in the time given, but that doesn't work, then it dawned on me: that could be why some people get caught up in the word count.
I understand wanting to do quality work, and I'm not saying mine isn't, or that anyone else who participates in Nano doesn't write quality work, however as I tell my mother, that isn't the point of the month. The idea is that you vomit words and plot onto paper/digital page and then once you're finished go back and fix any issues during editing month. If you don't have a name for something just yet, that's ok put it in little brackets like this:
Thanks again everyone for stopping by. As a reminder, I have a holiday coupon going for "The Light Rises", use the code UQ59B and get 50% off until Christmas! Keep up the Nano progress, I should be done by next Tuesday if everything keeps up, so hopefully next Friday's post will be back to normal. Until then, have a good day!
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