Writing Update #5 - Balance

February Goals

• Word Count Goal: 10,855/85,000 
• Finished 1st drafts: 0/1 
• Books Read: 0/1
• Blog Posts (Every Friday): 2/4 
• Genre Stretch Challenge: 0,688/2,501

Today concludes the first week of February and I hate to admit it, but I'm behind. Not a big deal. Today is Friday, I'm not doing anything since it's early morning on Friday. Okay, that's not true, I have to run a few errands but that probably won't happen until the afternoon.

If all goes well, I'll be spending all day writing because I want to catch up but also, because I'm really enjoying my novel right now. Nested is turning out better than I had planned. Waking up everyday at 5am seemed to be what I needed to get writing again. Things certainly have changed in my novel since I wrote it for NaNo. I might have to change my cover...even though I love my cover art for it. It was simple and actually made a lot of sense.

Now...it could makes sense in a way. I'll make samples to see if I like it but that's only after I catch up or I reach my word count goal for the month. Not the year...that would be crazy since that will take me until next week to catch up if I dedicated all of my free time to writing but this month, I've finally found my balance between writing, reading, and crafting/art. It works out rather well in my favor and my inspiration has been endless. Knock on wood, I might have jinxed that. I'm really doubting that - even still, I'll beat up that writer's block, no problem.

I started my Genre Stretch Challenge this week. The short story is called Stowaway and it has gotten a little strange. I honestly have no idea what's happening in my story, I just know a character popped up that seemed completely out of the blue but my muse explained to me why he was in the story. Makes sense now, and why it's called Stowaway. During one of my sleepless nights, I made up a simple mock cover for my short story but I might remake it. It's not great.

Well, I think that's it for my writing. There is my cellphone novel The Abandoned City but that's coming along slowly and I won't add the word count until a chapter is finished...and I only work on that novel when I'm out of the house without my laptop.

So that concludes my week, I guess. Today, I'm going to remember to add a song. This song is currently stuck in my head. It's not a song I usually listen to unless it's playing on the radio but since it's stuck in my head, I have to buy it....yeah, sometimes, I don't make sense (actually a lot of the times I don't).

Anyway, here is the song.

WriYe 2013 rambling

WriYe 2013 is going to begin in a month and I have things that I need to plan. I want to finish Tanghin and the other novels that go along with it...loosely. I also want to get through How To Think Sideways, completely. I've never been able to finish it. I have a really short attention span. That is my main reason. So in 2013 I am going to finish the class completely while I'm writing.

I have yet to decide what I want to aim for. I know that in November,  my goal is to write 300,000 words. And I know I can do it if I keep a steady writing pace. At the very least, I'm going to write 3k a day. I'm going to try to go for 1 million words this year. I sat here looking at my screen for 20 minutes, trying to decide.

It's a goal I try to reach every year and I never make it. I'm always 100,000 words off. I'll get it this year. I will. I'm going to push myself. I'll probably spend half of my time on twitter doing annoying updates every day telling everyone of my progress.

Maybe this year will be dedicated to the Fantasy Genre. It's my favorite to write but I'm going to throw in one novel that will not be Fantasy and I think it will be the last one I write for the year. It will be a rewrite for that general romance novel I wrote two years ago. Nothing smutty. Smut is what I write when I'm freaking out about my word count. I'm going to try to keep away from those as much as possible. I don't want that in my novels.

Oh, and I want to have one complete novel - edited and everything by the end of March. It looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me.

For now, I'm signing off and going to write a list of everything that I need to do during 2013.

The Start of a New Novel

I am starting the planning for this novel today (it should have been yesterday). I'm currently seeing a difference between the first novel I planned for November and this novel. That's just with how to go about planning.

Since this is a plot driven novel, rather than a character driven novel (like Nested), I need to approach it differently. I need to start with research on poisons. I'll probably use some of the poisons that I had used during the first draft but I'm going to aim for a few more specific poisons. Tanghin being my main poison. It's what's going to start the novel and will keep reoccuring.

I'm not sure what others I will include but I have my trusty book of poisons with me so it shouldn't be that hard to find one that suits the situation.

This novel will probably not have a mindmap unless I really need one. If I do, it will be small and I'll probably make it on the computer rather than using up my poster board. Instead, after the research, I'll need a sequence board. This isn't like a story board. It's far more general than a story board. I just need to know which order the poisons will go in my novel, etc. These aren't scenes. I guess I'll have to show you in my next post when I take a picture of it.

I will be working on this tonight and tomorrow when I'm not doing last minute babysitting jobs...I seem to be the only one who can do it today. I'm okay with that. I need the money. I need a job.

- Cylee

It's just a month away

National Novel Writing Month is coming up quickly. I'm still preparing for it though I haven't really been doing much on here. I'm still looking for a job as well. I've got one possible ending picked out  and I have the beginning...sort of. It's still a little uncertain. I've decided to let that part play out itself. There are some events in the middle that are a bit iffy. I'm going to sort through those soon to figure out what I need. I'm not too worried about getting everything ready for the month. I have my jar of writing prompts and some other things that can help me along. I've always been better at winging a good portion of my novel.

As long as I get the basic plot down, I'm good. And I've got the basic plot. I did most of my world building. Really, there isn't much left to do...for this novel at least.

I've decided to try to reach a goal of 300,000 words this year. I believe that was my goal last year but I failed after I finished my first novel.  The two novels I have picked out are both part of a series...but aren't the same series. One is a little more sci-fi while the other is completely fantasy. The three genres I'm going to work at are:

Cyberpunk - First attempt to see if I like it.
Science Fiction (Not Heavily) - Post apocalyptic - no dystopian/utopian societies. It may seem more like a fantasy and can easily be changed to fantasy with a little tweeking. It might change later. Then all of my reasearch and notes will be wasted. 
Fantasy - these novel I've been working on for the last nearly 7 years. I've been fine tuning them and now I have everything I need to create these novels.

I probably won't start a new novel until I finish one.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo Early

My Prompt Jar

November is approaching and that means National Novel Writing Month. I always look forward to November for this reason. This year will be my 9th participating in this event and I'm hoping for my 9th win.

Since I'm writing something different than I usually write so I need to get started on outlining and plotting. My first task is prompt writing. I have a jar of writing prompts that will help me continue to write. There is a chance when I won't use these but I will keep my jar at my desk throughout November.

I've decided to take my novel Nested, that I started, and write it for NaNoWriMo instead. I started it and decided that I needed to change the P.O.V. but then I decided that I would build onto the plot more before I started writing it. I have a long way to go when it comes to the world too.

Next will be my sketches and some world building. This might take a good chunk of the month if not the whole month.