DAY TWENTY-TWO of NaNoWriMo: Going Places

Wow, it's been awhile but right now I feel as if I have so much to say.

I got distracted last week by A Very Potter Musical with Darren Criss,  Absolutely hilarious, great actors and the music is fun too.  Watch it, you know you want to :P

Anyways, despite the fact I'm behind, I have every intention of catching up all this week.  I've got 2 days off and since I managed to do 6k yesterday, I plan on doing at least another 6k words on my days off.  Hopefully, I'll also do some 4k days and 2k days until I'm finished.  I'm only at 19781 and I haven't done my writing for today as of yet but I will get on that as soon as I finish the update and select some writing music.

Also in all of this, I've already come up with an idea for next years NaNoWriMo, crazy as that sounds, I'm a whole 11 months ahead of schedule for that but I'm going to try and hold off on writing it until next November while still getting all of the info I need in order to get it done.

Off to write...

DAY EIGHTEEN of NaNoWriMo: New Discoveries

Yesterday I did the most writing I have ever done in one sitting of about 1 hr.  If you saw the previous entry, I had to cross out what I did and put in my new total.  Really excited about that progress and the story itself seems to be coming along well.

But I got to do some advertising.  While going around on the NaNoWriMo Forums, I saw something about getting those 50000 words and someone suggested a nifty program. available both for the web and for your desktop, called Write or Die.  I gave myself an hour to do 1000 words, and I did it in less than 45 minutes.  I would do it again today but it slipped my mind and I'm not feeling to good myself now.

I counted out the printed pages for my "novel" and it was 41-pages (and then I added another 8 pages from what I wrote last night).  It is a 12-point font (which seems normal on screen but it's huge in print in my opinion) and 1.5 spacing for editing later.

Word count for tonight: 13391.  Almost a thousand extra words but not quite.

DAY SEVENTEEN of NaNoWriMo: Still Behind but I don't care

I have almost come to the conclusion that it is very unlikely that I will reach to 50,000 words by the end of this month but that's okay.  Today as of the time I am writing this, I have reached (hold on let me check my total)

10,178 12,461

I am absolutely thrilled that I have made it this far and I hope to do a lot more.  I am in the middle of Chapter 5, well more like the beginning because this chapter is supposed to be a long, really long message left as a warning for my main character, Taylor Bellamy, from her dead lover David Pillar who's also a ridiculously strong precog.  I can ramble as long as I want to for this part, I love it but this chapter will be soooooo long :D

Anyways, back to my writing.

DAY FOURTEEN of NaNoWriMo: Making Progress

Alright, so I missed a bunch of days of updating this journal, but I also hadn't written anything for like three days.  Today, however I had nothing major planned but to sit at my computer and work at my novel and now I am almost at 10,000 words (I'm shy by 103 I think which I will probably work on later tonight).  Completed  three chapters in total and I'm working on the fourth.

My grandfather thinks I have a computer addiction like a drug addict.  I actually had to sit down and explain to him what I was doing for this month especially today since no one else was home and no one was asking me for anything or to do anything.

I also had a bit of time wasting (more like hours) playing the Sims 3.  And just because David who is not my main character needed a cross tattoo, I went to the store and bought Ambitions.  I added in some slider hacks and then went about improving my David Pillar and Taylor Bellamy, snapping pictures as I went...or so I thought.  I ended up with one picture of the new improved Taylor and nothing new of David.  So here's Taylor:



And Taylor on her trip to China



Plans for tonight, backup my novel, turning off the computer, do some housework and continue by hand later on tonight.

DAY TEN of NaNoWriMo: No somewhat witty title today

Nothing done today.  Being frank and honest.  Not well, although last night my mc's parents were introduced.  Dad's a chronic joker, rarely takes anything seriously, almost the exact opposite of his daughter.  His wife (and the mc's mother) is definitely there to balance the couple out.  I think I may do some character development tonight before I go to bed to see exactly where these two stand in relation to their daughter and the rest of the family.

I didn't do a drabble today because I didn't even look at my phone where the tweets come from until I woke up much later than expected.  Honestly, I haven't thought or done anything about writing at all today.

So I'm off for the night!

DAY NINE of NaNoWriMo: Encouragement?

Anyways, I printed out part 1 of Chapter 2, which worked out to be about 6 pages at 1.5 spacing (trying to leave room for editing later).  I came home, I wrote for 45 minutes and now I'm tired.  I've made it to 5075 words in total [let's see 1667 x 9 days is 15003...1/3 of the way to today's goal].  I wonder if I can do about 2000 a day and make it up?  That's almost where I was at today but at least the story feels like it's making progress.

I got an email from some one named Aimee at NaNoWriMo, and I actually ended up printing it up, putting it in the binder with my story, and enjoying the read.  It really is encouraging.  All about letting your mind be free and follow the tangents since you never know where they lead and it may end up being more interesting than setting out the path that you so rigidly laid out.

I'm done for the day, at least on the computer...wow I think this is the shortest entry.

Note:  I put up a drabble I did maybe last week Thursday here: Drabble #021.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the story I'm writing but this is one of my favorite couples from a saga I started when I was 14.  Now those original stories are something that need work.

Drabble #021

Prompt from Twitter (@NaNoWordSprints) - I can't remember exactly what it was but it was something about a tempting dessert of some sort.
Universe: Chronicles
Characters: Cheslea S., Alexis W.

   “Delicious,” purred Chelsea as she looked her spoon.
   Alexis tried to keep his breathing as even as possible. He was sure she was tempting him with what he couldn’t have and it had nothing to do with the dessert on her spoon. Seeing her lithe tongue flicking out of her moth tasting the next spoonful was torture. He never knew why he put himself through taking her out to her favourite dessert joint but he could never deny her anything. She wanted to go to Audrey’s Café, Alexis would take her Audrey’s Café and allow himself to fantasize and suffer all in one go.
   “Want some?”
   Alexis looked up from his fingers, not even seeing them and looked up into Chelsea’s eyes; pale brown. He could swear he saw mirth in her pale brown eyes.
   A spoon approached his lips and he could feel the cool air drifting of of it but he felt anything but cold.
   “It’s your favourite,” she sing-songed.
   Alexis almost went cross-eyed looking at the spoon right in front of his mouth. If he opened his mouth and allowed her to put the spoon in his mouth, he would never be able to let her go. To hell with her boyfriend and his commitment issues. To hell with a relationship she’s been in for over 10 years. If he took that spoon in his mouth, all bets were off. No more hedging, no more lying, no more avoiding. Alexis Walters would go after exactly what he wanted and wanted for over 10 years.
   Alexis’ lips began to part for the cold confectionary when Chelsea’s phone rang.
   Alexis was crestfallen. He lifted his hand, took the spoon from Chelsea and put it in his mouth himself.
He hated that ringtone. It made her face light up. It put a smirk on her face. It distracted her to the point that she didn’t even realize that he had taken the spoon out of her hand.
   Alexis couldn’t get involved no matter how much he wanted to. It was never in his nature to fight dirty. Hearing that ringtone made her happy and Alexis would do anything for her happiness.
   She hit talk on her phone and with a smile she answered “Hey Casey.” She giggled and then said, “I love you too baby.” And Alexis felt his heart breaking just that little bit more.

DAY EIGHT of NaNoWriMo: I think I forgot to do something this weekend

So me and my update schedule for this has apparently been changed.  I had planned to do one every day and somehow (umm...distractions) I didn't find the time to update over the weekend (or barely write anything as well).

My word count is still not where I want it to be but since I did add 1000 words in less than 24 hrs, I am somewhat pleased with my progress.  My main character is not exactly being portrayed as well as I'd like her to be but with the joys of first draft, I can edit her to my content after this month is over.

I managed not to play TS2 since I started this challenge however, I did do a bit of TS3, just because I want a picture of what my main character could look like and I think I can achieve it better in TS3 than TS2 (besides, with TS2, I'd get way too distracted and start playing my neighbourhood and absolutely no work would be done)

So meet the happy couple, David Pillar and Taylor Bellamy.

They are very much works in progress.  I downloaded sliders after I created them and have already adjusted David more to my liking but I didn't take any pictures.  Taylor's no where close to done.  I'm having a hard time adjusting to the sliders in TS3 for females.

Anyways, word count is over 3000, maybe about half way through chapter 2 and I'm still working on my outline for the future chapters.  Not giving up and still gonna keep on working

DAY FIVE of NaNoWriMo: Write What?

On my twitter, I joined NaNoWriMoSprints and actually participated (prompt about dessert and decadence). Loved it.  My best friend loved when I showed it to her.  And it has absolutely nothing to do with my novel.

I still haven't added anything more than 153 words to my previous total.  Last night was really busy with domesticity and today was work, bus traveling (which is not conducive to writing at all), visiting my other family (3 younger siblings who always want your attention), an hour car ride (again, not conducive to writing), choir practice and catching up with my best friend (after chasing her off her own computer to type up this entry before midnight (I'm just a stickler like that).

Nothing all that new to write and I'm off!  Hopefully more will get done over the weekend since I have a ton to make up for.

DAY FOUR of NaNoWriMo: Realizing I'm late on the outline

I didn't do as much writing today but that's okay.  Since I changed the story I was writing about like the night before I started, the only outline I had was in my head.  And since I finished the first chapter (YAY me yet again), I started to see where things were going to go  in a way that makes sense.  So I have made FIRE!!! No, really I’m starting to figure out what goes where and in which chapter.  I’m writing down little character quirks.  I still have to figure out how to do everything in LSB with the outlines.  That the next thing I’m off to do now.

I wrote a bit more, didn't type any up so I have no word count but my mind is spinning with ideas and I'm actually busy doing other things at home like cooking, cleaning and baking cookies...for some strange reason I'm feeling especially domestic.  I always say roll with it while the feeling is there since I very rarely ever want to do it in the first place.

I do have a few links I wanted to share for anyone who needs help using Liquid Story Binder (really it's a resource post for me...shh! don't tell)

LSB Tutorials
-  http://www.todayiwrote.com/tag/lsbxe/
-  http://notenoughwords.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/liquid-story-binder-tutorial-part-1-setting-up-for-brainstorming/
-  http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com/tutorialsxe/tutorials-liquidstorybinderxefiletypes.html

And I found a great community for anyone doing NaNoWriMo in Toronto, apparently we've got our own website and Errol, the singing updater is hilarious too!

Toronto NaNoWriMo Group (especially, check out this entry with him singing: I Am The Very Model Of A Wrimo Individual)

Off to go clean now and hopefully write a bit before I go to bed.

DAY THREE of NaNoWriMo: A Small Feeling of Accomplishment

So last night, while partially watching "Dancing with the Stars", I started to write.  I didn't make it too far, a few more pages in my notebook that when I typed it into LSB, I made it to 1160 words!  Yay!  I made it to my 1000 word goal of the first chapter.  Now I need to progress it to the second part.  I got lots of little sticky notes with personality descriptions like David's tattoo and his personality.  I tempted to pull create a sim of him in TS2, and then again in TS3 just so I really have a picture of him.  I'm just missing the expansion pack that does the tattoos for TS3 (and then I just got distracted and went looking for David's Cross Tattoo - Celtic Design like these but I'm really leaning towards the bottom left one).

I'm still drastically behind but I'm not going to give up just yet however, I may need to reassess my final goal.  I know I could get a lot more words if I actually had the opportunity to go back and edit what I have done to add in my description...or possible bright idea!  Use what I've got as a general outline, meaning write the first chapter without as much dialogue and use it as a rough outline and then go back and fill in the spaces of a lot of missing description.  I've noticed with a lot of my writing when I read it back to myself, I don't describe much even though I have a vivid picture of the person, the location, the scene and the emotion in my head.  Maybe I'm trying to get too much out before I forget it that I leave out all these other things that I want to say.  Maybe I need to revamp the rules regarding editing a bit and give myself certain limits like I can only add in more and not take out and I only have a limited amount of time to make those edits within like 30 minutes or maybe once a week on like Sunday for a couple hours when I have no work or other events to deal with.  And maybe I should stop using the word maybe so much in this entry.

I think I'm liking the third option might work best for me.  Gonna try typing instead of hand writing because my right hand feels like it's starting to cramp a lot sooner than it used to. 

BTW, the tattoo design obviously is not my own, found it through google images from a site called Wicked Tattoo Designs!

DAY TWO of NaNoWriMo: Dealing with Distractions

Apparently, I don't write as much as I think I do.  Yesterday, I finished with 744 words....at this rate, it'll take me a good few months to reach goal.  And today, I haven't even started yet!

Last night, I got sick.  Kept waking up like every hour.  Called into work and used a sick day.  You would think since I have so much more freetime on my hand that I could use it to write.  Nope, didn't happen although I did watch "What Not To Wear" on TLC, went on the computer to do an entry on my journal and ended up playing Collapse on Facebook and for some strange reason, the storyline that's been going around my head for the past 3 or so weeks suddenly decides to shut up.  Not good at all.

I don't have constant access to a computer like I would prefer (one computer to 7 people in the house? not happening).  So I've been doing everything by hand and then typing it on the computer once or twice a day.  My family also doesn't seem to get the concept of "trying to get some me time" either.  I tried to write at the dinner table (no desk in my room) and my mother decides to get me to start inputting phone numbers on the phone.  I love my mom dearly but she is so technologically impaired, it's ridiculous.  If I could get all the info from her at one time, it could have been a one time thing and go back to my writing.  She'd tell me the name of the person, give me the area code and then go off and have a conversation on the phone while I'm standing there like "Can we just get this over yet?"  People kept stopping me asking "What are you doing?".  This happened at work, at home, at the local pizza place...or they think I'm doing homework.  If I was really doing homework, would you really ask me every single time "Are you doing homework?"  Homework is not the only reason people write you know!.

So, I'm gonna take this opportunity, since I am at home and have no tv shows that I feel like I desperately need to watch until 8 o'clock, pull out a pen and paper and write.  Headphones in, everyone else out!

DAY ONE of NaNoWriMo: Giving it a shot

First post that is not a drabble in this journal. Most of these ones here are from JulNoWriMo which I failed at miserably but I got good ideas and prompts from

I wasn't actually planning on starting to write until just about now, 5:30pm on the first of November.  However, by 9:00 this morning, while on my break from work, I pulled out my note pad and started writing the first chapter of my novel.  So far it's sweet.  I want to go back and start editing what I wrote but according to the rules (and the advice I have received to get this thing done), I can't edit until next month when it's some kind of editing month.  It will be so tempting BUT I've compromised with myself and allowed myself post-its with quick notes so I remember what "great" and "astounding" idea I had at the time and hopefully keep the idea to make this novel better.

While doing this, I'm also making use of Liquid Binder (how it's still active even though it's been well over the free month I will never know) for this challenge.  But maybe I should keep a backup in rtf/doc format just in case.

50,000 words is a lot but so far I have made it over 300!  YAY Me.  I've seen it written that that works about to about 175 pages, typed I believe and sinceI generally prefer to do long hand, that gonna be a lot of paper.  And then typing it up little by little?  Feels like it's gonna take forever.  Sigh!  As time goes on for the month and I reach to about 5-10 pages, I'll start printing it out as a hard copy for myself and put it aside for editing.  Maybe then I'll feel like I'm making progress and it will urge me to continue,

So the basic history of this writing.
The Tentative Title: Last Weekend (it will definetly span more than a weekend, maybe around a year in this character life)
Main Character: Taylor Bellamy, 3+ generation witch (as of yet a type of my own creation, not following Wicca)
Location: Somewhat real world based, dealing in present-ish time.
This is actually an offshoot of a previous generation story (Circle of Five) that I started many years ago (and I was going to continue for this NaNoWriMo but changed my mind as of last night).  Taylor is from the Circle of Seven, possibly 2 of 7 and if I ever decided to continue writing about the others in her circle, than the name of this little novel will be changing (another tentative title: The Second of Seven)
So, off to go find my comfy place in my house, plug in my head phones, pull out the pen and paper and get to writing.