Wyld Tales

Color Scheme

2012-01-31T04:51:00.000-08:00

I'd like to show you something lovely that a friend of mine was working on.
She drew this amazing peacock and then colored it in digitally. See tumblr entry! Click!

It was lovely and I enjoyed the sight of it. I love things in rainbow colors. They are so bright and cheerful. Have I mentioned my undying love for Rainbow Brite?

But one user made a suggestion to choose a specific color scheme. My lovely artist friend did so, and this is the result. Suddenly, it felt more like a peacock. Keeping it to those blues, greens, and that bit of pink added a coherency. The rainbowsplosion is nice. This, though, it is lovely.

Now, I've learned something of visual art in my dabbling around online art communities. One of the skills I learned about was that keeping a consistent, coherent color palette in any given piece makes it feel unified.

I found it to be true when I was working on costumes and teddy bears and other such sewing projects, too.

Surprise, surprise, it also applies to writing.

I've been realizing it more and more as I work on things with PGC.
As a teenaged writer, I saw everything I loved in all my favorite books and I threw it all in one giant pile of joy and gladness in my own writing. Of course my setting would have all the things I love. Why shouldn't it? All the things I love in stories are good. All the things I love all in one story would be even better, right? Right?

The last couple of days, it's finally set in that I need to choose my color schemes with care and consistency. My dearest oldest setting, my precious Wyld, has become a rainbowsplosion over the years as I layer on more and more of the things I love.
I love the core of Wyld too much to let it go. It's a treasure to me. But for Wyld to be its best and purest, I must choose a consistent scheme. I must peel back what fits and what doesn't.

There are some things that I know will have to be chopped off as a result. This isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's a wonderful thing. Those chopped-off bits can become their own worlds. They'll have the proper room to grow and expand. All my settings, all my characters, all my stories will be better for my choice to use a consistent scheme.

Besides, no one said that an author can't write crossover fanfiction using their own stories, characters, and settings. If I ever get in the mood for rainbowsplosion of a story, I can just call it a crossover fanfic and get it out of my system.

Perfect solution.

Right?

We write together

2012-01-26T20:27:00.001-08:00

With certain stirrings of certain decisions being made by certain people far up the food chain, it's easy to get caught up in the fervor, or to get lost in it.

This isn't about that particular fervor, for the record, but it is one of the things that has me thinking, along with the things Brent Weeks said in this opinion column about how readers and writers interact online and Grant Faulkner's introduction as the new Executive Director of the Office of Letters and Light.

Now, the fervor had me feeling lost. I could imagine what a child who long dreamed of becoming a radio star might have felt like when she realized that television changes everything. What does it mean for her dream? How does she follow it now? Does the dream evolve?

It's in the shadows and away from the extremist perspectives on both sides of the matter that I found my heart and my hope. It's in what Brent Weeks had to say about the GRRM situation. It's in the spirit of Grant Faulkner's introduction. It's right there in my mind and heart from my time as a writing consultant in college. It's in the friendships I have made in writing and roleplaying communities online.

Internet replaces nothing and expands everything.

It is nothing like what we have had before. It does something that I think everyone yearns for. It connects us to each other. We find people like us, people who understand us, people who want to share with us, people we want to share with.

Here on the internet, we write together.

My writing has grown up online. Find any of my old usernames, old defunct sites or artsites, and I'm sure you'll find things that trace all the way back to when I was twelve and chilling in that Pokemon Chat, or when I was fourteen and found myself obsessed with Rainbow Brite and other wonderful Eighties Cartoons. Throughout high school and college, when I tried to find a place on art sites. I wasn't the most loyal of members, but I made friends and I grew.

Regardless of skill level, age, or end game, online we write together. Our words can do things now that they could never do before. Authors and readers have this wonderful capability to interact. I cried when I learned that Diana Wynne Jones had died, you know. She is an author I would have loved to meet. I never took a chance to write her or seek her out. Readers these days have that capability to reach out to authors, and some others reach right back. Others focus on other things. But there is this opportunity for us all to come together. It is beautiful.

I've grown to be what I am because of the internet. I can never turn my back on that.

We write together.

Knowing a story inside and out

2012-01-16T23:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when I'm working on the Phoenix Girl Chronicles, I'll find myself saying, "I know this story inside and out. Why isn't it finished yet?"

Usually, it's right after I say those words that the story proves me wrong. Its characters look at each other and look back at me and they decide to explain how they've been lying to me.

Today one of the characters confessed that he isn't even what I always believed him to be. He's something else entirely, something that makes more sense in the whole context of the setting and the story. The reasons for his actions are different, too. He himself lied to another character, who didn't even know he was lying, so she perpetuated his lies thinking she was telling the truth.

It can be a bit frustrating. But it's also a relief. It's moments like this that keep the story alive inside me. They give me new clarity and direction.

I suppose by now I should accept that I won't know this story inside and out until it actually is finished. And even then I might find myself rereading it some day and realize that there is something else undiscovered tucked inside of it.

Writing, it may surprise you to know, is an awful lot like reading.

I've read my favorite books many, many times. But every time I pick one of them up to revisit the pages, I see new things. I'm comforted by the familiar passages. The words themselves never change. It's that I do. My experiences change me, and they change what stands out to me as I read.

Suddenly the way a character acts makes sense in a whole new light, or the description of the setting clicks because I realize it's similar to some culture or location I've become more familiar with. Even something as small and seemingly inconsequential as the use of colons, semicolons, and dashes suddenly stands out when I've been toying too much with grammar. Even that changes the meaning.

Maybe it is impossible to know any story inside and out.

And maybe that's part of the reason why we keep sharing them.

Knowing

2011-12-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

This isn't about writing, or at least not exactly. Everything is about writing to a writer. I just ramble enough about music this time around that it would feel odd to transition the ramble to writing. Let us begin!

Three weeks ago, I was asked by a woman in my church congregation to sing "Oh, Holy Night" for the church Christmas party. Now, everyone knows the melody of "Oh, Holy Night." (All generalizations are dangerous.) It's a Christmas favorite. You can't go a December without hearing it played somewhere at some time in the United States--and apparently you can't in Japan, either. So, I accepted readily enough and I found some sheet music we could print up to use for the pianist, and mostly considered that good.

I went into it with the same attitude I've always had with music--which is not the most productive, I'll admit. I absolutely, positively love music, but there's this spark of passion that sets true musicians apart from dabblers. I know this because there's a spark of passion that sets true writers apart from dabblers, too. Everyone dabbles. Only some people immerse themselves. I don't tend to immerse myself in musical studies the same way I do in the language arts.

But then... well, there are three verses to "Oh, Holy Night." Everyone knows the first well enough. I knew the first and a bit of the second and third, but not especially well. So I had to get to memorizing the words.

It was as I ran through them a million times in my head and aloud on the drive to the church today before I was to sing this song that I started to realize how perfectly the words fit together. The rhyming scheme in the song is so subtle, but it connects the pieces, and it made it easier to remember which lines go where as I gave that some knowledge. The individual lines use such lovely alliteration. It's smooth off the tongue. Some words carry through from one line to the next, or at the least synonyms do. And the content, the meaning... each verse has a purpose, and all together they show the whole life of Christ.

And as I actually considered not just the words, but weighed their meanings in my mind, I began to know the song. I began to comprehend how it has become so popular. These little details, the sounds of the words, the timing of the phrases, the rise and fall of the notes? The song is incredibly well-written, so well-written that anyone who hears it feels the fact without having to take the time to figure it out.

But a singer ought to do more than appreciate a song. They ought to know all the reasons why a song is beautiful so that they can better convey it to the audience.

The sad truth? On the car ride to the church before singing a song is not enough time to take the seed of knowing and let it grow deep. I wish I'd had at least one or two more days to feel the roots take hold in my heart. The song meant more to me tonight as I sang it than it had ever before, but tomorrow night, or a few nights later, given the chance to process the meaning and translate it into better dynamics and better pauses and consider my physical expressions, and I would have truly been able to perform.

Even so, I've learned something about music, and I've learned something about passions, and about digging in and /knowing/ a thing. I learned these things too late for it to truly count tonight, but the next time will come.

Finding what it is that makes it yours

2011-12-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

Things that make life awesome? Fabulous authors being all active on the internet. I love reading their blogs and interviews and what have you because in a lot of ways they tell me I am not alone in the world. I don't quite know how else to describe it, except to say it's wonderful.

When I'm back in the States, I look forward to bbeing able to go and attend the sorts of conventions where these fabulous authors frequent, just for the remote chance that I might be able to shake hands with one of them, flash them a smile, and say, "Thank you."

Today's particular praise goes to Brent Weeks--actually for his twitter interview. It resonated with me in a lot of ways. A couple of key quotes.

Brent Weeks says:

"The beauty of writing is that you learn so much of it subconsciously. You learn by reading and loving what is good. Some resonates. Pay attention when you read as a writer. What do you love? What clunks when you read it. Take note. The art can be taken apart."

That is so true. That's why I love to read all types of novels, as well as watch a variety of television shows and movies, to feel all types of situations. More and more, I can see not just what sort of stories satisfy me, but also how the author does it.

And it really is subconscious, and it's subtle, too. It's not only in the events of the story or the types of characters or the genre. It's layers and layers of information folded into these sentences, these actions, even the individual words and their meanings. It's which words are used, and when they are used. It's the timing and rhythm. The more I look for just what it is that made me love a book, or even a part of a book, the more I comprehend it, and the more I'm able to see if it's something I can transition into my style, or if it just doesn't suit me.

Brent Weeks says:

"Everything has been done. I just try to do it MY way, and with a lot of passion and belief."

Also a line that just spoke truth to me. I remember a discussion I had with one of my creative writing instructors. He asked me, more or less, if there is any art in making a fork. At first I replied that there was, though he made some compelling arguments. There are only so many ways to make a fork, and really, and I started to see his point. Why bother making forks when they've all been done?

But we all need forks. Even if it's the same tired silver fork with the four prongs, we still need it to eat. And sometimes we trade the fork out for chopsticks--and oh, how many ways there are to make chopsticks!--or a spoon or a knife. They're all the same and they're all different. It's the timing and it's the food we're eating and the people we're eating with.

You know, my mom thought that there was one particular spoon in her kitchen growing up that was special specifically because you could see your reflection upside down in it. She didn't learn until later that all spoons do that, but that spoon still stands out in her memory.

It's the same with stories. We all need stories. We need the heroic tale that holds us through the dark, lonely nights when the entire world is falling apart around us and we just want to know that somewhere there is a hero that will make it all right. We need the sad tales and the love stories. And they've all been told, but that doesn't change.

Because my rambling isn't complete if I don't reference a thousand obscure things, my students' English text book contains the story of Tsutomu Aragaki, blind tenor raised by his grandmother and then a minister. His motto is, "Try to be the only one, not just number one."

You know your favorite singer's voice--their distinct way of singing. Writing is the same. Yes, stories are stories. Songs are songs. Forks are forks. No denying that. But there is always room for another fork in the drawer, another singer, another writer. No one is truly absolutely identical. Similar, yes. Identical, no.

So we read and we write and we read and we practice until we finally find what makes it ours and only ours--that full unique combination of factors.

I don't want to be a bestselling author like J.K. Rowling or Brent Weeks or whoever else has been on the bestseller list whose writing I enjoy. I love 'em to death, but I want to be the best writer I can be and tell the stories only I can tell.

Well, enough of this rambling. Time for me to head to bed. Christmas break is around the corner, and I want to do everything I can during Christmas Break to have a Phoenix Heart manuscript that's worth writing a cover letter for. Wish me luck!

EDIT: As I looked at the posts I'd made, I found one that was half-written that never actually got finished. It contained a link to this particular bit of lovely work that I think applies to the journey of discovery of every single kind of artist there is. Rather than finish that post, which would more or less say the same as this one, I decided to go ahead and add it to my pile of random right here.

Timelines

2011-12-08T21:04:00.001-08:00

As part of working on The Phoenix Girl Chronicles: Book One, I found myself looking at the series as a whole today. There are a number of strands I want to see woven together neatly in the final book (fourth or fifth, not sure yet), and part of that weaving has to come in straight from the first book.

Any "Supernatural" fans out there? Season five brought everything together. Rewatching the earlier seasons, you could just see how much thought and planning went into the overall story. From the first episode, there are ties into what is to come, deeper than you would know at a first glance and so much more meaningful on the revisit. I loved that feeling of wholeness and the way the story just all came together.

I want that for PGC. I don't want it to suffer from "I didn't mean to write a sequel but they liked the first one so I will" syndrome. I want it to be whole, complete, one smooth story. I want to make sure I know my end from my beginning, and ease the reader toward it. Hints here and whispers there.

Considering I have been building Wyld for something like twelve years now, I know so much about the setting, and I'm sure I can bring the pieces together. I know it is possible because I feel the depth of the history and I know the endgame.

I made a decision about the fate of one of the side arcs today. (No spoilers today.) This decision led me to the realization that I don't have a timeline for Wyld. I have timelines. Plural. And none of them do a good job of interconnecting certain important details that I would like to have connected. Also, the timelines vary in some descriptions because they were written at different times, when I was in different mindsets. Ten years feels somehow too long to work on and off at one series. Things just get muddied.

So I need to start on my own personal Official Wyld Canon Timeline. (If anyone has fancy software that makes really shiny timelines, I'd love to hear about it.)

I love perusing my old archived Wyld info files, regardless of the mess. There are a thousand gems in there that I hope to polish. The one I just opened dealt with the Red Dragons and... more spoilers, my friends. More spoilers. I started hearing characters whisper and I had to shut the file to keep from getting drawn away from PGC. It is Celeste's time. I know it. The rest falls in place around her.

And it will be grand. I hope it will, anyway. :-)

CVC is your friend :-)

2011-12-06T18:18:00.001-08:00

Most random post ever? Maybe.

I like toying with grammatical things, thinking about those mechanics, pondering them. It is part of what I love about teaching English in Japan. When two languages are just so different, you have to think about things twice as thoroughly.

CVC isn't really one of those "think thoroughly about it" things. It is, in fact, a random subtle thing that mostly seems to go unnoticed. It has to do with doubling consonants when you add -ing to a verb. Adding -ed too, for that matter. (Run-->running, for example.)

The primary teacher told the students what I always used to believe about doubling the consonant. More or less, you just have to learn when it happens. I'm sure a lot of native speakers do it instinctively (or trust spell check). We are lucky enough to have a lifetime of exposure to reading and writing in our baffling language.

But it isn't random! It's CVC!

CVC stands for Consonant-Vowel-Consonant. The rule is, when a verb ends in CVC, where emphasis is placed on the end, you double the final consonant.

Run ends in a CVC pattern. You double the final consonant and get running.

Begin ends in a CVC pattern, and the emphasis falls on the end (beGIN). You double the final consonant and get beginning.

Travel ends in a CVC pattern, however the emphasis is TRAvel. In US English, we don't double the final consonant. We get traveled and traveling.

A side not on travel: British English for whatever reason does still double it, but then the British do have a habit of making words more lovely by including more letters. (I am not being sarcastic. I like the look of travelled and travelling more, as well as colour and other such words. There is something simply lovely about British spelling.)

Abandon, the emphasis falls like aBANdon, so the final consonant isn't doubled. We get abandoned and abandoning.

If a verb ends in VVC or VCC, the consonant is not doubled. Ever. (Teem-->teeming, lick-->licking.)

Oh, and if a verb ends in "e," I'm sure you know to drop the "e." You do NOT EVER double the consonant then. The sun often shines. The sun is NEVER shinning, though it is often shining. (Is this a spelling error pet peeve? Why, yes, it is. How could you tell?)

I spent a couple of long afternoons back in my college writing center between consulting sessions trying to break CVC. I couldn't find a verb that didn't fit the pattern--except where British English did the doubling and US English stuck to the rule, as with "travel."

Now, today I didn't suddenly interrupt the lesson to explain this. The students were trying to grasp the whole verb tense that comes with "(be) (verb)ing," so it would have been a distracting digression. (In other words, they were learning "I am studying English now" and "He is cooking dinner" and "They are watching TV.")

Thus you get this random blog entry instead. I couldn't contain the CVC musing.

Maybe I will randomly be grammatical more in the future.

NaNoWriMo Prep

2011-10-29T00:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since my last update--been busy with living in Japan, which is a lot of fun, let me tell you! But it is that time of year that brings me back to blogging like nothing else. It is the NaNoWriMo Season. NaNoWriMo is just days away now, and I am thrilled.

What's the number one thing I'm doing to get ready? I'm cleaning my apartment. Top to bottom. Every little stray piece of paper. Everything that could distract me from writing during NaNoWriMo proper, everything that I just don't need to pull me away from noveling, it all needs to get put away.

Writing is hard enough in a suitable environment--a place that's just the right loudness and cleanliness for you.

Now, I don't mind living in a bit of a mess. Life is a mess. Keys sitting out of place on a shelf mean I made it home safe. A couple of stray papers from something remind me of that cool thing I did last week.

The problem is, I tend to let things accumulate until they become piles and piles of out of place things.

And I've currently got piles and piles.

So I finally got around to repairing the torn seam of that skirt this morning. I finally washed my bedsheets. (Did you know that people who regularly clean their sheets tend to get better sleep? True facts. Don't ask me how long it's been since I cleaned mine, though...) I put away the random hair stuff I had out and I threw out all the papers I kept that I don't really need at all. I sorted through my recycling. I cleaned my pirate boots. They were in need of a cleaning.

Thesea re all tiny little things that could distract me in November, but I just don't want them in the way when I want to focus on writing.

For the record, I have a job now, so I'm not going for the million this year. Oh, some other time. And there will be another time. I will once more attempt to write a million words in a month some day. I know my mistakes from last year, and my discovered strengths. (Writing 4000 words in one sitting ranging from an hour to an hour and twenty minutes, repeatedly, is electrifying.)

I am doing something fun and exciting and different, though. It'll probably be closer to the standard 1,667 words a day. It will be a lot of fun. And, well, I'll give you a cliche sort of rabbit hole to fall through in an upcoming post.

That's all digressing now. The point is, it's getting close. I'm getting prepared! Anyone else gearing up?

Everybody needs a hug

2011-07-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

Fact is, I am strange. I've long accepted this truth. Sometimes I wonder just how strange I am in comparison to other writers and authors particularly, and at the same time I'm quite content to assume we are all strange in our own special ways. Especially after I read author blogs and acknowledgements at the end of books. They may not say it outright, but their words thrum with brilliant strangeness.

I am who I am, and I only hope to be good enough to take my stories out of the dirt and give them some life. Everything else is a bonus.

A lot of why I love to write is in little moments like this one. The dialogue in this particular scene, you see, had a few problems, but I worked on polishing it all up, and by the end of the editing session I just had to hug my computer.

So I did.

Sitting there in a Japanese Junior High School Staff Room, during my off period, which I was using to edit, I hugged my computer

Maybe I could have held off the congradulatory computer hug until some later moment, a little more private, but really, there are times when you just have to be yourself.

Website Revival

2011-06-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

Due to some technical difficulties, my website went down for a little bit there, and if nothing else, it served as a solid reminder to me exactly why I should be paying it more attention.

I love it!

I love to write, to talk about writing, share my writing, and just generally embrace the awesome that is writing. My habit of participating in online text-based role-playing games lets me do a lot of talking about characters and plots and all sorts of great things with other people who love to write for fun. (And my current circle of fellow players is completely amazing.)

This website and this blog are where I get to share about the stuff I'm working on, all that fun, all that joy I feel about my own writing.

I have made a pledge with myself. I must finish revising at least one novel before I do another NaNoWriMo. We've got July and August's Camp NaNoWriMo just around the bend, and of course the traditional November NaNoWriMo not far beyond that. I don't think I'll make it in time for the start of July, but we'll just have to see about that.

When I'm drafting, the words come flowing out because it's just between me and my characters. We set out for adventure together to places unknown. We don't have to think about where we're going or why. If it starts to feel like something is wrong, we can backtrack and explore and then, bam, forge right on ahead again. I love NaNoWriMo for drafting. It's freeing and it's fun and you're completely surrounded by fellow writers.

It is and it isn't a challenge for me. Of course making it to the end of the first draft of a novel is a challenge. Every single time. But for me, it has become more of a treat than anything else. Even a day of angst at how the rough draft is progressing is more satisfying to me during NaNoWriMo than any other day of writing work of the year. It hurts, and I certainly feel the weight off failure when I don't make my NaNoWriMo goals, but then it's still a day with meaning. I've still done something more with that day than played Plants Vs. Zombies or watched old episodes of some TV show I like.

So, revising is the next challenge. Revising is something I must learn to savor as much as I savor NaNoWriMo. The end result of a focused session of revision--weighing out the options, finding what's missing and filling it in, adding even more shine to what's there--is that either I feel better about the story or I feel worse. By that I mean, it's either the soaring highs of seeing how amazing the story is or the deep down lows of feeling like I'll never be able to make the words come together to form the brilliant story I want them to.

But when you don't work, you don't get anything done. When you don't make decisions, you have nothing. With NaNoWriMo, I've found empowerment in just forging ahead, in doing, in letting the story take me. Revision takes more time. Revision requires more thought, but it's still the same adventure in the end.

Not only do I get to reread a grand adventure when I revise, I get to make it even more amazing.

Time to get on that. Will I finish revising Phoenix Heart before August CampNaNoWriMo? Maybe. It's a daunting goal. But, aren't those always the best?

Have I mentioned lately that I'm insane?

2011-04-29T03:26:00.000-07:00

I do wonder sometimes if I ought to be in a mental instititution. I mean, there are characters. Talking. In my head. That on its own is enough to make me wonder sometimes if I'm imaginative or absolutely nutty. And if I am lost to the world, should I even care? I'm thoroughly entertained by it, and I function well enough in normal society to buy groceries, have an (awesome) job (as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan!), chill out with people now and then in public, generally not embarass myself on Facebook with lame status messages. You know, the important things.

I love it--the way my characters whisper to me. I love that as I was walking through Kairakuen today, as I passed into the bamboo forest and the thick greenery shielded all the world from my view, Celeste began to whisper that this was what it felt like to travel to Wyld, that she always knows that magic is a mere step away from today's Earth, and all she has to do is look for it and she can find it and breathe it in, just like this.

It stirs my heart and it inspires me to get to work. These characters do want their stories shared some day. Sooner rather than later. And as many as possible. Oh, so much work to do!

The Fear of Finishing

2011-03-09T00:33:00.000-08:00

The strangest and most difficult to understand of all my fears is, apparently, the fear of finishing.

I find myself pondering this fact while staring at the individual cut out pieces of a costume piece. I cut out those pieces probably two years ago now. This project is a remake of a previous pirate shirt I made. You see, a mouse got into my costume closet some years ago and decided to make a nest amongst some of my older pieces. Most of the bits of costume survived well enough, or it was just the hem or along one seam, or a little run through the washing machine got out the smells. But my most cherished burgundy velvet pirate captain shirt, with its cream lace and its general awesome? That was ruined beyond any ability to save it in a simple fashion.

Now, this pirate shirt, it wasn't perfect to begin with. I was still an impatient novice when I made it, and there were more than a few faults. Plus I didn't like the zipper closure in the back. Never even unzipped the thing, so why even have a zipper? I knew what I would change going into this remake. I bought the fabric, the lace, the trim. I looked at the little tissue paper pattern pieces and adjusted measurements. As previously noted, I even got through cutting the fabric out.

Then...

I don't know what happened except that it all ended up sitting in a bag with a bunch of other unfinished sewing projects in my closet.

I have sorely missed my cherished pirate shirt, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed wearing it and showing it off for no good reason whatsoever--and for good reasons, too. I was proud of the original. Super proud.

Apparently that pride hasn't been enough for me to kick myself past this fear that if I do finish this remake, it'll fit wrong or look ugly or just generally not live up to the original. Can I really go through with these little modifications? Should I just follow the directions and put in a zipper even though I don't want to?

Worryworry, fretfret.

Same exact thing happens when I start to revise. I enjoy this story. I know it's a good one. And yet when I start to think about revising to a point that I'd really feel ready to submit to publishers and agents, I feel the chill fear of finishing. What if it's not good enough?

Well, you know what? As I helped a friend make some adjustments to a wool coat recently, and I was hesitant about this alterations thing, and what if it went wrong, she said something to the effect of, "We've got nothing to lose. I can't use this as it is, so it can only get better."

Considering the coat went from being a straight-lined mancoat to a curvy-cute ladycoat, she was right about that one.

It's late. I'm making sewing metaphors. Believe me, I doubt if the connections are all coming out clear.

The whole point here is, I have nothing to lose. Finishing these sewing projects or finishing revisions on a novel, I can't use the pieces as they are for anything fun or useful. Maybe it'll work or maybe it won't, but the only way to find out is to follow through. Fear of finishing is ridiculous!

Oh, Busy Days!

2011-01-20T16:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't checked in in a while, and I was looking black at my blog to realize the last thing I'd said was, "I'm in a funk, sad me!" I decided this must be remedied, right away! The holidays were a great way for me to work out my funk

What have I been up to? PGC revisions most of all. Phoenix Heart is getting closer and closer every day. Bit by little bit, I'm making words more keen and ready for the sharing. It's exciting to see these characters of mine from stories now ten years old looking as good as they do. Revision is hard, but it is so, so worth it. And it's easier with online writing buddies who I can ask for suggestions. Nontraditional writing group though it may be, my writing group at the moment may just be my favorite one ever.

Something else has been keeping me busy, too. I'm going to be going to Japan to work as an Assistant Language Teacher. It's so exciting! I've had an interest in Japanese culture ever since middle school. I'm so thrilled with the opportunity to not just see but experience a new part of the world. I've had a lot of preparing to do for that--starting to think about what I need to move across an ocean, refreshing my old high school Japanese, and such.

Words are wonderful!

The Post-NaNo Funk

2010-12-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've actually updated my blog since the end of NaNoWriMo. For all my great efforts and striving for more words, I gained just about 425,000 words, five books, one short that will become a full book now that it actually has villains, and the start of a seventh book. The Academy of the Chosen Ones is half finished, or thereabouts--at least when it comes to drafting.

Nope, not a million words. But still an awful lot of writing done in November. And there's always another time, another chance. I know where I fumbled and how I write my fastest. I know that I am always my own greatest adversary when it comes to any goal. If I can get past myself, I can get past just about anything.

So now wee enter the post-NaNoWriMo Funk. It is a sad and pathetic time where I find myself wishing I were doing more while playing flash games on Facebook.

It's funny how much more time you seem to have during NaNoWriMo, in so many ways. You're so much more aware of every minute, of not wasting it, of taking care of something so you can get back to focusing what's on important. I've heard several wrimos say this. It's very true for me. If I took ten or fifteen minutes to play a flash game or randomly surf the internet during NaNoWriMo, it would be a brain break between writing sessions. Ever conscious of how there are other things that need to be taken care of first--dishes to watch, food to eat, writing to do. Then, if you're too tired or if you've achieved enough, that's when you get to relax. Goals leading to work ethic and time management.

You appreciate everything more, too. When you aren't snapping at everyone who distracts you from your writing. Or, I do. Little lucky coincidences--green lights instead of red, short lines at the grocery store, someone saying just the right word to get you spinning a new thread for that story. Everything is so much more important, so much more valuable and precious. Part of what I love about NaNoWriMo is just that.

You wouldn't think it would be that hard to set a new goal, to keep using time well. Maybe it's human nature, or at least my nature, to slip right into being a bum when no one's looking, when it doesn't count any more. To lounge around in a funk.

I know I'm in a post-NaNo funk now, in fact, and it may very well be floating a gloomy cloud of grump over my head. Still my own worst enemy, even outside of NaNoWriMo. Give it a bit of time, a bit of distance, and I'm sure I'll be back up on my feet, charging ahead drafting or editing.

Because it isn't the writing that ever got me down, not even for a minute. It was the times when things got in the way, the times when I got in my way. I'm not tired of it. I'm saddest of all that I'm not doing it any more, in fact. I miss it. I love writing so much.

Back up and out soon, back to PGC, or to the Academy of the Chosen Ones, or to the Fall of the Bellringer. Whichever it is, it will be great.

Halfway Blues

2010-11-15T18:10:00.000-08:00

Here's how I envisioned the halfway point: I sit atop a pile of 600,000 or 700,000 words, looking down a nice leisurely tumble to a million words at the end of the month. I smile in satisfaction knowing that my work has been swift and sure, and that my passion for writing is unwavering.

Well, I got the last part of that image right. I do smile in satisfaction knowing that my work thus far has been swift and sure, and that my passion for writing is unwavering. I couldn't be loving the words more. They tumble out of me from some magical place, characters whispering in my mind. Unfortunately, the first half of the vision was not nearly so accurate.

I sit at 340,000 words, give or take, staring at a mountain that I don't think I'll be able to conquer by the end of the month. The idea of writing a million words in a month is daunting and amazing. And maybe next year, or maybe some other month, when I find myself in a similar situation, with so much free time and so little responsibility, I'll go for it once more.

Right now, I'm going to revise my goal to be more like somewhere around 750,000-900,000 words. Oh, the million, it would taste so satisfying, but if I tried to surge for it now, I wouldn't have the time I need to think between the words, to stay on course.

The last couple of days, I slowed down as I realized that I needed better, clearer villains--the sort you just love to hate, the ones you can really sink your teeth into. So rather than put all those hours I should have toward pouring out words that lacked villains, I brainstormed. I pestered friends to help me brainstorm. I worked on something that was missing from the story.

A quality 750,000 is going to beat out a strained 1,000,000 every time.

That's why I really admire those who take so much time to meticulously plan their 50,000 words and think through them with more care, you know. It's just not my style to think that meticulously before I'm in the thick of it and I've got to figure it out. Which makes for an insane rough draft, and a lot of fun revising.

I have so much fun ahead of me. The Dragons' Story has changed dramatically from what I first envisioned. And then I get to go into Daniel and Mariah's tale, and those two, oh boy, those two are really going to bring the villains out to shine. The Keepers. *shiver*

Then Bastian! Bastian's tale of all the tales of the Chosen Ones is quite possibly the one I've been looking forward to the most, for the longest. Oh, I can't wait for Bastian's tale!

And then a couple more stories that all lead up to the big final epic battle, that I might not quite reach this month, since I might not quite reach the million--and I don't even know if a million words could have contained everything, either. But after I hit the end of November, I'm going to keep on rolling strong with this story right up until I finish the whole series, so that then I can lay it all aside to rest a while and await the editing process, which will only serve to make it shine all the more.

What an amazing first half of the month it's been! How wonderful it's felt to be able to immerse myself in the words! The highs and the lows, the internal drama, the exhaustion, it's all be so worth it. And I know the rest of the month will be, too.

Tomorrow, I will be back on my feet in full, with the characters I needed to flesh out more solid in mind to help carry me to the next pages.

When I hit 500,000K? Cake Batter Ice Cream. I'm makin' it. I don't care that it's winter.

High Times, Hard Times

2010-11-09T23:21:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the living is sweet
And sometimes there's nothing to eat
But I always land on my feet!
(From the song from Disney's "Newsies")

Today I had a tough time with words all morning. I got three sessions done today in the time that I took to do five yesterday, and the reason is most of all that today was such a pivotal and tragic thing for one of the characters. You might say that I get too close to my characters, and I'd essentially be prone to agreeing with you every time. But for me, at least, I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't stand a book where I don't connect with the characters, so if I'm not feeling it, then I just don't like it.

So, yes, I cried. And I wished that I could reach into the story and give the character in question the biggest, warmest hug that I possibly could. Of course, the fact that the character doesn't actually exist limits my ability to hug him in a way where I'd get anything out of it. So, in the afternoon, I found myself trying to push for words and just not quite having any success with feeling them.

And then, oh wonder of wonders, a friend called up. Her cousin had tickets to go to a Lemony Snicket lecture. Well, it wasn't Lemony Snicket but rather this Daniel Handler guy who apparently knows Snicket well or something like that, but, hey, it was an author giving a lecture about writing and such. I had to debate whether or not to go because I technically have other Tuesday night obligations that I ought to see to, but then the opportunity was just too perfect.

Oh, it was like an evening-long pep talk. I laughed so hard that I cried for the mirth. I felt words that resonated deep within me. I wasn't taking notes like I properly should have, though there are still a few things that stood out in my mind. The fact that I wasn't taking notes especially means that the things I might say about what I heard may or may not be the most accurate, so rather than ramble about them as though they were direct quotes, I'll just say this.

I love to write because I want to know what comes next. It isn't about the moral of the story--though some of my characters are far more moral than others, with greater values placed on certain things. It isn't about there being some point or everything turning out okay--though personally I'd prefer that in general it does, so that does tend to happen in my stories. I just want to know what happens next.

Also, I thoroughly look forward to Snicket's pep talk.

The Sun Came Out Shining

2010-11-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a sunny for a few days now, and with the sun shining bright yesterday and glowing gloriously this morning, my heart too is rising and shining brightly.

Now, I wrote 27,000 words yesterday--about 8,000 words shy of where I needed to be at to meet my necessary minimum daily goal (which is now about 35,300 words a day instead of 33,334)--but I did it in six concentrated bursts of writing--six hours wherein I wrote 3700 words, plus a few thousand words extra on the sides here and there. I didn't do a great job of getting myself going in the morning. Most of my writing happened after 6:00. I did four of those six bursts then. I think. Pretty sure that's how it fell out, anyway. When you write a whole bunch of words you start to get a bit fuzzy on the details.

There was a point, around 10:00 last night, when I sort of fell into this zen writing state. I felt a little bit like I was writing it, but most of all like I was there and not, floating somewhere between the words. Like that calm, serene feeling you get from peaceful meditation, just sitting and breathing and clearing your thoughts, only with words coming pouring out of my fingers. It was pretty awesome.

The plan today is not to procrastinate. I put off most of my writing until the evening, and I got too tired by about 11:30 to be able to keep going. I hope to do ten hour-long sessions today--four in the morning, at least two in the afternoon, four in the evening. (I like being able to do stuff in the afternoon most days! I'll see if I get in an extra one in the afternoon, depending on how things go.) When I do this, I'll have written 37,000 words today. And that's 2,000 words more than what I need at least.

What's the secret of 3,700 words? Of all the numbers to choose, why that?

Well, I'm using Write or Die. (I have the desktop edition because I love it so much.) Now, for some reason, it tends to fluff up my word count by about one hundred words for every thousand, give or take. So if I put 4,000 words in Write or Die, I end up with 3,700-3,800 instead. At my easy-going typing pace of 70 words per minute, that's 52 minutes of writing. Which means that I get an eight minute break in that hour, which is plenty of time to update my word count, run to the bathroom, have a little snack, and then get back to pounding out those words. As I type faster, I'll get a bit longer between writing sessions, perhaps, or perhaps I'll just start the next one a bit sooner and get some more in. I know that when I do typing tests I tend to score more like around 110-120 WPM, but that's copying someone else's words instead of writing my own, so we've got to account for the brain's creativity speed, too!

In between those hour-long sessions or when I'm on the go, I will have my alphasmart with me, or my phone, and I can get in a few extra words here and there to give myself an extra burst.

The first three days of NaNoWriMo, I wasn't feeling like I could produce enough words in an hour to make it so I only had to write for ten hours a day and I could have the other fourteen hours of the day to eat, sleep, and behave like a normal human being. Vincent reminded me that this is a marathon, not a spring. High fives to Vincent! Rachel yesterday rooted me on--and I had the fun privilege of reading her awesome short story for her fiction class, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I've started to conquer myself. Now, if only I could conquer the part of myself that results in me blogging in the morning instead of working toward my words, that would be quite perfect, wouldn't you agree?

Here's to ten sprints today, 37,000 words--maybe even 40,000 words! You know, if I make it to 125,000 today I get to end my day with my first Cadbury. That's 42,000 words... I wonder if I can make that.

(I... have stashed away eight Cadbury Creme Eggs from Easter because they are my favorite candy in the whole wide world. I am rewarding myself at every eighth of my overall goal with one!)

Okay, now, focus! To work, fingers! Be brave, write fast!

And in that corner...

2010-11-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

So, on Day One the battle was with my inner-editor. I realized that on Day Two, and had some friends help me to slay her or stash her away until next month, whichever happens to work best for her right now. She’s well away and I’m writing well, too. I don’t miss her. Kerry, my narrator of sorts, is sitting cozy in her seat and dictating more story to me. Even if she doesn’t like it when I ask her to take it a certain way, just for me, she at least stays with it and keeps going strong. I appreciate that. She’s amazing like that. She knows what it’s like to be a writer, trying to put a story together.

Day Two began a new battle, one that I’m finally coming to understand today. The adversary of this second battle is none other than myself and my own determination. The thing about self-fulfilling prophecies is that they work both ways. They can be your success or your downfall. In my head, I was thinking, I started bad. I have play rehearsal. I can’t write enough today to make up for it. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to make up for it. I’m probably not going to make the million. Not that I’m giving up on it, but it just seems like it’s far out of the way and I won’t be getting to it.

My thanks for Vincent for reminding me. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The speed out of the entry gate doesn’t matter nearly as much as pushing the whole distance to make it through at the end. I said before, I think, You don’t ask a marathon runner for coffee halfway through their run. And that’s why I won’t be doing a whole lot besides writing this month.

But I was starting to say if I make the million. Not When. If. And that’s what I do far too much all around. I use if instead of when. If I finish editing this thing, but instead why don’t I do that shiny thing over there?

So this is going to begin a month-long battle with my own if. With my own human desire to take the easy road and not push myself to my limit, but rather to push myself to my comfortable area of success. Today I know the adversary. It is me. And I am a tough cookie to defeat. So, me, let’s bring it on. We’re going to write, and then write some more, and then write some more, and if our fingers aren’t stubs by the end of the month, then clearly we have not written enough.

I’m doing it. I’m writing a million. No more ifs. No more. It’s going to be when from now until the end of the month. I’ll be speeding up my pace. My fingers will fly as the story rises from the depths of my minds to them and comes churning out with full and glorious awesome. I’ve had a slow first few days as I ease myself into this writing habit and strive to reach the speeds I need to succeed. No more.

Now, I have more story to get to. Moving right along!

Words my Inner-Editor can take with her

2010-11-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm removing "Only" from my vocabulary this month, at least when it comes to statements about word count. I hope every other wrimo on the planet is doing that, too. Because there is no "only" when it comes to hard-earned words.

The Shout-Outs forum is a place that ought to be filled with joy, but sometimes when the heavy rollers try to shout out, they get grumps thrown their way, which makes me sad. 5000 or 50,000, no matter how fast the words come, is hard work. The fact that one person got 50,000 in the time it took the other person to get 50,000 doesn't make that work any less amazing, outstanding, beautiful. Words you didn't have before, stories that weren't told, now on paper for the world. Well, granted, with editing is what you're wanting to go for.

Am I behind on my wordcount? Oh, yes. And I've got a lot of work to do today to try to start catching up. But I'm sending the word "only" with my inner-editor, and it makes me feel good to think that. Every word I write matters. Every single word. To put the "only" tag on them makes them seem less valuable, and if they don't know I value them they might go away. Words are fickle like that.

I value you, and the characters and places and stories you carry, my words. Come play today. And pay many visits to all the other writers out there in the world working hard on their novels, too.

(Do I already sound entirely insane, and it's only Day Three? Wow. I guess my sanity really did break up with me.)

A Slow Start to a Grand Goal

2010-11-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

By midnight tonight I expect to have 25,000 words, maybe a little more. I'm not quite there yet, just two sprints or so away. I've had unexpected characters pop up that I needed to name and puzzle through, and I've let myself be more distracted than I intended to today. But I've learned some things about myself on day one.

First of all, I can totally do this. Today I've let myself get side-tracked, but I know where the distractions are and where the necessities are. I know which places I can put myself, and how best to settle down and right like mad--and that's with my alphasmart, not with my laptop. My average words in 25 minutes has been about 1600, with my peak a 1900. When I started out, I was at 1200, and that was much much too slow. Now, if I can keep it at least at 1600, or better yet at 1800, then I will have about ten hours or less of writing to do a day, which is just as expected, which is how I know I can do this thing. I just need to make those ten hours more focused instead of letting myself get cocky and celebratory about things.

Second, I love this story. I know that it's going to take me in some random and unexpected directions, and that is going to be part of the amazing good times of it. It's easily going to take me the whole month to go through all these characters and their tales. I love that I feel like I'm reading it for the first time. Second draft means revisions and refinement of the random, but for now I'm just embracing it and going with the flow.

Third, my support team is awesome. I love them. My mom made me lunch today. I don't think she fully realized she was being my support team when she did it, but moms are just like that. And my puppy fell asleep on the back of my neck and kept me seated for an unplanned thousand words during my lunch break--even if for much of the rest of my lunch break my puppy was being all un-house-trained and out of hand so I didn't get a lot of writing done otherwise. Jenée scolded me for being on Facebook, and she was totally right, of course. Online friends are rooting for me, and I love that I get to root for quite a few of them, too. Yay for Val, Jonnie, Cait! Yay for SheezyArt buddies like Catleen, Kori, and Rieal Dragonsbane! And Yay also for Matt and Ame!

And, hey, I just found out another friend is going to go non-traditional and do comic pages throughout the month! Good luck, Emi! NaCoDraMo is so much fun to say! NaCoDraMo in NaNoWriMo! Rawr!

And I got a lovely break-up letter from my sanity via Jason. I guess Sanity decided to take a vacation along with my inner-editor. I'll see them both in December, but I won't miss them. They're spoilsports, anyway. Maybe they'll go on a nice cruise and get some fabulous time to relax and lighten up.

So, it's been a high day and a low day. I am thrilled, excited, jazzed for the rest of this month. I'm not worn out. You might expect me to be after writing so much in one day, and with the thought that there are many more days ahead just like this one. I'm not. I'm so excited because today has been amazing. NaNoWriMo Joy for everyone!

When They Smile

2010-10-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, yes, I find myself blogging a whole lot more in and near NaNoWriMo than at other times of the year. Maybe if I blogged more during JulNoWriMo, I'd actually manage to write a novel in July, too! Now, more to the point.

I was having a nice quiet drive back to my sleeping place--I'm house-sitting right now, so it isn't my home, but it is a nice home nonetheless--and I started to ask my characters questions. They were whispering a bit here and there. It started out with a certain character upset because a psychopath might be visiting her sister in California. (Thanks a lot, Jason, for that news. If Amora keeps me up all night, it's your fault!) But of course I came quickly to thinking about my NaNoWriMo cast.

I find that drives are sometimes great times to ask characters questions. Like passengers in the car, they keep me a little more alert and in the moment somehow. Some of them more than others. I asked one character and another how they were doing, and then I noticed the way in my mind one of the characters was sitting there, smiling that knowing smile, waiting for his turn. Not insisting on it. He knew it would come around. That question I had for him--the one about a deeper bit of his history.

His answer, oh, it turned me right toward another character, who doesn't talk sense a whole lot. Crazy characters tend to be a bit like that in my mind. Sorting through their crazy is part of the fun, though. I studied this particular character closely, looked back to the first, puzzled it, mulled it over, and he continued to smile.

He hadn't come right out and told me what was what. Characters rarely do that. Except the especially chatty ones, like the aforementioned Amora, who at the moment is being less chatty and more pacing about in the form of a tiger--she's a shapeshifter, so she'll do that from time to time.

No, not a direct and crystal clear thing, but when it settled on my mind, I knew it was the truth, no doubts. It made perfect sense. If it weren't a secret, I'd be using a lot more specifics as to which characters were revealing what. But a secret it is. So you will have to wait.

Oh, yes, when they smile, I usually know something is up. And more often than not, it's something good, too.

Why a million?

2010-10-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

A wrimo on the forums asked why we million-word overachievers seek to write a million words, and this is my answer.

Why go for the million? I think that's a question that anyone has to answer for themselves before they decide to do it. I think that there are many kinds of runners, many different events for them in the Olympics and at track meets--hurdles, sprints, relays, the marathon--and just the same way there are many different writers and we deserve to go at it our way--weekend warriors, lunch break word bashers, steady 1667'ers, overachievers, non-traditionalists all.

For me, there is a whole bucket full of reasons specifically for going for the million.

First of all, I love to write. I never want to have to do anything else for the rest of my life. This, I know, is a lofty and ambitious goal, and in order to achieve that goal, I need to prove to myself and to everyone around me that I have the work ethic for it.

Second, I've been in school for the last twenty-ish years, from preschool through to college, studying this, that, and the other thing, and I'm now graduated, and this for me is a bit of a sigh of relief. I can do something I love, sort of vacation from being in school or employed, and have a lot of fun with it. For me, there is no vacation to compare to the idea of sitting somewhere and writing. Even when I've gone on cruises with my best friend, she can attest that the days at sea, we would find nooks and crannies on the ship and write, and if we weren't writing, we were talking about writing. And when we were on excursions, we were talking about our how our characters would react to those excursions. And who knows what else.

And who knows when else I'll be able to have a noveling vacation like this, once the real world sinks in and I have to get a job while waiting for that novel manuscript to get picked up by a publishing company? There is *no* time like the present. I may never have an open NaNoWriMo to write a million words, ever again, so I'm seizing the opportunity.

Third, I have so many ideas built up in my head that if I don't start vomiting them out soon, my brain may melt out through my ears, I would die, and then my family and friends would be sad and miss me!

To put a million words into perspective, I looked it up, and the Harry Potter series is around 1,088,000 words. So, fourth, the plot that I have in mind is easily as long as the Harry Potter series, page-wise, though it's more like ten+ books of shorter length than the Harry Potter series. I am in love with the cast, and all the potential stories that could spring forth from them. I don't want to leave another series just part-started or half-finished. I want to see them through to their finale. Or as much of a finale as it might be.

Now, I wasn't sure if I was even going to make my plan to write a million words public or just say I was going to write a whole lot in November because I'm not doing it for the prestige--whatever prestige is available to a million-word-in-a-month writer. But I know I'm going to need it to be public to own up to it. Broadcast your goal to the world, and you're accountable for it.

So, yes, this year I ended up not making myself a new Halloween costume because I was plotting. I may very well do nothing for Thanksgiving because I'll be writing. But it will be of so much more valuable for me to write a million words, right now, than anything else in the world could possibly be. It's an awakening, a refining fire, a seemingly insurmountable and unconquerable thing that I will defeat.

And that, I think, just about covers the why for me.

Writing in Corners

2010-10-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Writing in corners is going to be one of the biggest things for me to make it to my goal, and I think that's true of every single wrimo on the planet. I'm waiting for someone to show up? I can pull out my cell phone and start emailing myself a hundred words here, a hundred there. I'm at play rehearsal and it isn't my scene? Out comes my alphasmart! I'm half-asleep but I still have words in me? My alphasmart again! It's all lightweight and I can curl up with it perfectly to knock out another five hundred words. (I did it last night as a test run.)

By my math, I have to write for somewhere between eight and sixteen hours a day. If I can write 4000 words an hour, it's eight hours of work. 3000 words, and it's twelve hours. 2000 words, it's sixteen hours. Of course, exact word counts per hour will fluctuate depending on the hour, the location, the other things. If I have one hour where I get in only five hundred words in a corner, though, it's just as important as all the other more focused hours.

I've set this insane goal, and I'm going for it, every single part of me. I'm so excited for it that I wish it were November now!

I've been preparing by working on character profiles and hashing out fun ideas pertaining to storylines. The spirit of the story is coming out more and more to me, and I am totally loving it. These characters are ready for their adventure.

I realized that a million words is somewhere just shy of the length of the Harry Potter series, so it's not super likely I'll get beyond Chosen Ones. Especially since there are so many stories to be told from it! If I did an "episode" a day, I'd still not have all the potential episodes done and through with by the end of the month. I'm still having so much more prepared for just in case.

Now, I need a brainstorm buddy to get online to rock the brainstorm. Couple of plot points I wanna work through, y'know?

The Roadmap to Insanity

2010-10-22T17:20:00.000-07:00

So, yes, it looks like I'll be pushing myself to write a million words in November. I've done the math and I've looked at my month and I know that it's possible. What's especially important at this point is that I definitely have my best friend behind me, pushing me forward and forward and forward. I know she'll make me do it.

It's funny. Thinking of doing this goal, daunting as it seems, it makes me feel a lot more like myself. I love to write. I have a deep and undying passion for it. I've said it more than once--if all I had to do all day every day was write, write, write, I would be the most joy-filled person in the world. Filled with joy even when the plot takes an unexpected twist and suddenly nothing feels quite right and I have to go back and rewrite that part, joy even when stressed out and angsting.

There are all sorts of writers in the world, and this crazy goal isn't for everyone, but I know it's for me.

So, the game-plan!

I'm going to start out writing "The Academy of the Chosen Ones." I was already expecting it to last about ten books, possibly somewhere between eight and twelve. I'm going to take a bit more time to outline things more thoroughly in the next week and see just how many books and what'll be in store for each one. Those ten books will take me at least to the 500,000 word mark, perhaps to 600,000 or even 700,000. My books tend to end up being around 65,000-75,000 words when I finish the first rough draft, after all.

However far that takes me, I will then move on to The Phoenix Girl Chronicles: Book Three and Four. That'll complete the Celeste portion of the Phoenix Girl Chronicles. There's also the one offshoot story--"Walking on Wyld." And I don't know if I'd put stories about Celeste's children under the PGC series title or something else... Well, that doesn't matter so much, as I don't think I'll be working on them during this month.

After I finish up with PGC, depending on how many words those two books take--probably somewhere between 150,000 to 200,000 words there--I will probably be in need of anywhere from two to eight more stories to write.

The next most fleshed-out epic adventure I have in store, the one that's been sitting in sore need of drafting is no doubt The Adventures of Kayla and Thundling. (That one will be fore all you Color Kids on the Rainbow Brite Mailing List, at long last!) These two have about two books, personally, before they end up being cameo characters in, like, everyone else's story on the face of, well, every planet. They get to dance across all the worlds I've created through those two books. I'll need to map out which ones and for how long, though.

If Kayla and Thundling don't get me to the million, then I'll be going next to "The Fall of the Bellringer."

And if the combined efforts of Jeneva, Sunniva, and Aiden in each of their storylines in "The Fall of the Bellringer" don't make it--and the one book of the series that's sort of the "lost" book, Claire's story, I guess you could say--then I'll probably be so much in an Attinor mindset still that I should be able to do the single book that is "The Rise of the Bellringer."

Now, those books ought to tide me through all combined. But if they don't?

I'll be heading back to Wyld for the most awesome stories pertaining to the Sun Kingdom: Crying Phoenix's story and Izzy and Cora's story. I'm going to be outlining Izzy and Cora's story as I work on preparing for the PGC stretch of NaNoWriMo, anyway, since Celeste writes letters to them through the second and third books and Izzy and Cora come back to help her out through the fourth. Now, Crying Phoenix is another who's been waiting too long. Matt, Jeff, Ashley, and the rest of the Labyrinth gang--she'll be for you guys.

If the Sun Kingdom doesn't make it?

Oooh, it's time for Wyld's Sister Earth's Vampire Wars to get some air breathed into them. Noah and Livia will kick things off with some awesome. And then Sam, Tigra, and the rest of the ghostie gang. The other part of the Chaos Court, with Chrysanthemum. And then Reapie!

And if the Vampire Wars isn't enough? Not to fear! That's when Ether-Earth comes back in action. My 2004 NaNoWriMo was open-ended, indeed, and Calliope, Synne, and Brogan can come back out to play with us--those Spellcasters. Then to Serenade's story. Poor girl's voice has been missing for far, far too long! And then the Violet-Eyed story.

And if I still have time? Well, obviously that means it's time to go to Greimara's story! And then to Vampire Cinderella! And then to Blood of the Gods! And then perhaps to the Alternate Universe PGC where Celeste is put into a deep sleep for a couple hundred years, the Chaos Court wins the Vampire Wars, and vampires took over Earth and Guroil's demonic forces claimed Wyld! Oh,no!

See, I have the time. I have the material. We're going to make this work and then some. This is going to be so awesome. You have no idea how excited I'm now getting. For the next week, I'm going to go through this list and road map and outline each thing, at least in a basic sort of rough way.

The only thing between me and a million words is thirty days of literary abandon.

I might be insane

2010-10-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

For the record, I might have lost my mind a couple of days ago. I might not be back in my right mind... well, ever again. But it probably won't be sane-ish until December, anyway.

I'm going to try to write a seemingly-impossible amount of words in November. At first I was thinking 300,000 words was reasonably possible. Then I decided I could definitely do 500,000 words. Now I'm starting to think I can go higher.

I don't know how much I'll really be able to do, or how sane I'll be as a result. It's going to be a very tough thing indeed.

Between now and November First, I must outline as many of the potential ideas that I have as possible, start laying the road maps. If I don't have the setting and character stuff ready especially, I won't be able transition easily from one novel into the next.

There's only maybe two people I know I can count on to cheer me on instead of either not care one way or the other or ask me to stop and come play and not drive myself crazy. *Maybe* two. Most people don't get it.

Now, what matters most is my own opinion, my own assessment of myself. I look at the amount of time I have and the amount I want to put into my writing. I compare that to the amount I actually have put into my writing in the last six months. NaNoWriMo is the best sort of time to reaffirm writing resolve and move onward and forward--to make up for lost time spent in too much doubt and uncertainty.

It *is* insane, and it *is* pushing limits that there's no good reason to push. But you do realize, don't you? People do insane things all the time. Marathon runners aren't told, "Jeez, you don't have to run that far, there's nothing waiting for you at the end, so just stop halfway and come to the movies with me!"

This is, in a way, my sports season. My Writing Olympics. My chance to light a fiery torch of passion and lift it high. My chance to see what it is I'm fully capable of if I put my mind to it. My time to be something more.

So, yes, I'm doing something insane. Something that few will understand. But I'm doing it.

Night of the Living Wrimo

2010-10-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

Here I am, sitting around excited for NaNoWriMo to come with not a whole lot to do until the start of the noveling. It's October, which means an abundance of horror movies. It just so happened that I was watching Night of the Living Dead. I don't watch zombie movies often. Before now, I didn't really get their appeal. They're just the brainless shambling undead. Whatever, right?

Not whatever! There's something about zombies I started to realize. The thing that makes them terrifying is that they don't stop. You kill them. They don't stop. You break their bones, they try to crawl at you. Cut off their arms, they still have their teeth. Break their neck, shoot them, stab them? It doesn't matter. They just keep going. Each one pulls others into their ranks. They are single-minded. Persistent. Slow, perhaps, but you don't need to be fast when death will inevitably come to everyone.

And, all of the sudden, it dawned on me. Here I sit, watching the picture of the wrimo.

For the wrimo is single-mindedly focused on one goal: 50,000 words. The wrimo may lose a meal, a day of exercise, a movie, but they keep going toward that goal. Persistent. Unwavering. The wrimo may take hits from unexpected twists in their novels, rapid-fire gunshot wounds as characters make strange revelations, broken bones from scenes that just feel wrong, wrong, wrong. But they. Keep. Going.

And this wrimo disease, just like the zombie disease, is highly infectious. We have a tendency to grasp hold of those around us and tear into them with our talk of 1,667 words a day, our plot bunnies, our word wars, our music. Every year, we drag more down into our ranks.

Can you imagine? Before long, there will be a few last hold-outs, the only ones left sane during the month of November, staring at the single-minded masses gathered together in libraries and coffee houses and bookstores around the world, their eyes glazed over in the glow of their computers, hands stained black with ink from their pens, fingers worn to nubs from typing away on their AlphaSmarts.

These last few hold-outs, they may believe themselves to be the last hope for humanity. They will stare at us and they will feel the dread, the sure knowledge that Wrimos will consume the world. We'll have them surrounded.

And when we consume them, they will know the sheer awesome of the persistent, single-minded, goal-oriented wrimo. They will be one of us. And they will love it as much as we do.

((I initially posted this to the NaNoWriMo Forums. Click the link. And check out the Forums for more awesome just like this.))

The Excitement Continues to Grow

2010-10-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

As a way of getting some of my excitement for NaNoWriMo out today, I updated the Projects page to include a rough summary of my 2010 NaNoWriMo Novel(s). Yes, Novel(s). I'm not sure exactly how many they'll end up being exactly. I just plan on vomiting out as many words as possible.

I've been having a touch of fun exploring the forums, and if anyone out there is reading this and not already in the know, I'd love to share a couple of fun threads with you right now!

The first thread is just hilarious. I am now using this thread to convince anyone I possibly can to join NaNoWriMo. You know that fabulously hilarious Old Spice commercial? Well... Hello, Wrimos...

The second thread is equally fun but in a different way. To think, around the world, there are men and women (and the family of men and women) serving in the military, and they, too, are doing NaNoWriMo. Noveling care packages, anyone?

I continue to push forward with editing Phoenix Heart to get it off my table and away so I can really focus in on this Chosen Ones story. November will creep up on me surprisingly swiftly, and I know it.

Now, time for me to get to sleep before another round of NaNoWriMo joy kicks in and starts me doing some fresh new NaNoWriMo insanity...

NaNoWriMo on the Horizon!

2010-10-09T00:14:00.000-07:00

National Novel Writing Month is magical. I've just spent the last two hours or so experiencing a rush of creative energy and joy at the thought that NaNoWriMo is on the horizon, just ahead, so very near.

Ever since my first NaNoWriMo, in 2004, I have been so grateful to the friend who introduced me to its wonders. I started a couple of days late, my computer died, but I experienced the whirlwind thrill of writing 50,000 words against the odds. I rejoiced.

Over the course of my six years doing NaNoWriMo, I have essentially written nine novels. (I did three one year and two another year, and one each of the other years.) Now, editing, that's a lot harder for me personally. But out of those nine novels, one is (perpetually) inches from getting sent out--The Phoenix Girl Chronicles: Book One. One is more like a month of solid editing away--Jeneva Book One. Five are a further off from being ready, need more time in revisiting them--PGC: Book Two, Aiden/Mina Book One, Sunniva Book One, Patchwork Earth, and The Spellcasters. Two--well, one of them I'm just not sure I'll ever come back to, honestly. Not soon, anyway. It's crookedy in my mind. Poor Alaura still isn't sure how her story goes. (I barely eeked out 50K that year. It was a struggle.) The other, I might use fragments of some day, but it almost feels like it doesn't quite fit the overall storyline of the series it would be part of. I'm not sure. (Black Castle!)

Things I love about NaNoWriMo? I feel productive with my writing. I feel like I'm giving characters the voices they deserve. I get to spend time online and in person with other reckless crazy writers, which is just an amazing feeling. It just makes me feel somehow whole inside.

So I'm going to finish editing the current draft of that one novel that's perpetually inches from getting sent out. I'm going to work on the database of heroes and villains in preparation for Chosen Ones. I've already prepped my Goal Sheet to keep me on track and pushing forward, and I've ordered my NaNoWriMo Gear. I should dust off the ol' mug and make sure to prepare myself an abundance of hot chocolate mix. Love Alton Brown's recipe for that!

My AlphaSmart died on me about a month back, and so I have ordered a new one, too, which I'm excited for. Alphie is great for distraction-free writing. I also have a new tool in my arsenal this year--my android phone. Whether it will be help or hindrance, we'll have to see!

I've spent the last three hours now in a state of elation at the thought of NaNoWriMo. It's wearing off and fading into a feel for the need of sleep. I have the faintest feeling that I used too many parentheses in this post partly because of sleepiness. I use more parentheses when I'm sleepy.

And, oh! I'm practicing some bookbinding :) We'll see how that goes, too!

The Waiting Period.

2010-10-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

There are a whole lot of reasons, I'm sure, that people avoid sending out manuscripts. I'm sure I have more than a few reasons, rather than just one in particular. But to day the thought of waiting struck me as being a big, scary thing. And what is it that's so scary about waiting exactly? I mean, it's not like you're doing anything when you're waiting, right?

Well, think of it this way. The second the manuscript is off and in someone else's hands, it's not in mine any more. I am not in their mind to know what they're thinking. I don't get the play-by-play as they read through it. I just have to sit and hope for the best. There's nothing much I can do to change how someone else judges the material I've given them. I just have to hope I did enough good work prior to the beginning of this Waiting Period.

The worst thing about the Waiting Period may very well be that you don't really know when it ends or how it will end. But really, there are about two options: "Yes" and "No." That's a fifty/fifty chance at a "No." Oh, rejection! Oh, woe!

But, you know what the Waiting Period means, though? It does mean that I've finished something I feel something resembling confidence in. It does mean that I'm proud of my work, proud enough to share it. It does mean the chance that the work will move forward to being more than just files on my computer.

And the Waiting Period does not mean a time to stop work. There are always and ever more characters and stories in my mind and heart waiting to come out. Whether it's continuing work on what I've sent out or focusing some attention on another project while I await the end of the Waiting Period, I can still act.

Just... not on what I'm waiting for. And... aren't we all just a little impatient sometimes?

Time Flies

2010-09-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

Time flies by when you're having fun. It's the truth. I've been incredibly lucky these last couple of months with my writing. When I work with a community of writers, amazing things start to happen. When I work with a community of writers who are amazing (whether or not they realize it), all the more. I've learned so much about characters and pacing and thoughts and actions in these last couple of months, and all from something that many would call a game.

Learn through play--that's a principle for teaching children. And it's true that you just love learning so much more when you can have fun doing it. I love every chance I get to take writing and play with it. And the writers I've been playing with lately? Oh, they show me more of myself and more of good writing every day.

Maybe some day you'll meet them. I hope you do. I hope they're taking as much from what we're doing as I am, and I hope that I'll see their names on shelves next to mine some day down the line.

Of course, making it to those shelves, now, there's the rub. It really is time for me to get serious.

I suppose.

Working with writers... and characters

2010-07-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

Working with a community of writers is an amazing feeling, or at least it is for me. All of the sudden, the fact that I have a whole army of voices in my head, some of whom actively get on each other's cases from time to time, doesn't sound so insane. There are others out there with these same voices, bursting with personality, whispering urgently for their stories to be told.

In my mind, I picture a green room of sorts--it's a very comfortable one. Very big, cushy chairs. Magic table laden with any sort of food you could want at any given moment. The changing rooms aren't that far away for characters to be able to go and get in the right costume for the scenes they have coming up.

The thing is, there seems to be about twenty plays going on at the same time--at least. Some characters show up in multiple plays. Some only in the one. But they do all interact in the green room. It's very amusing, how they do.

Working with a community of writers is almost like being able to do a tour of someone else's green room. "Ah, this is how you feed your characters. This is how you keep them on track. This is where you sit in the green room to listen as they tell you what they plan on doing, and this is how you make your way so quietly up to the control booth to watch what happens and try to pretend you have control."

Yup. pretend you have control. That's exactly what it feels like to me. And, in a community of writers, all of the sudden I am able to see that for some it's the same way. Others must be incredible directors because they've always got their characters right in line. Me? I feel like I'm along for the ride with them as much as anything else. When I try to force them, they're likely to come at me later and tell me how wrong things were. Then they'll show me how it should have gone.

Now, you might now be saying, "Wait. This is all going on in your head. You are the writer. Whatever words you use, however the events go, that's how it goes. That's how it's written."

For me, this is not the case. There's just words and there's right words. When I'm doing something like NaNoWriMo, I tend to get a lot of just words in between a few really great words. I have to mop up that vomit and figure out what's supposed to go there instead. But at least, by charging through everything, I've gotten material to work with. All of the sudden, me and my characters can look at those just words, and then my characters can start to set me straight. I have right words to work toward.

All of the sudden, after analyzing some chunk of the story, maybe I'll realize that I was totally wrong about the villain's motive. But the only way I could see that was by forcing my way through some scenes until I got to the right place for other characters to figure it out. Then I can go back and edit in the proper motive. Or maybe I get blocked on a scene where I'm trying to make a character do something according to plan, but they have something else in mind entirely. It probably still gets us to the same general destination, but it's more right because it feels more like what the character would do.

The writers I spend time with and the characters in my head all work together to make me a better writer. Even when we aren't on-task, looking just at one thing I've written, just by being around other writers, I start to realize more and more about the world, and my characters get more voice. It is awesome.

The Magic I Love

2010-05-03T04:34:00.000-07:00

I just started reading Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones last night, and this thought has been tickling at me so much that when I woke up early, I realized I'd have to get it out if I ever wanted to get two more hours of sleep before I actually have to get up in the morning. So, here we go.

Diana Wynne Jones, Patricia C. Wrede, and some other authors I like whose names aren't making this list mostly since it's four in the morning and I don't want to think that hard, do this thing with magic. Somehow, without explaining its technicalities and ins and outs in thorough detail, they manage to capture its essence and wonder. They don't feel like they're trying to convince me that magic is there or give me a whole rundown on the things I must do if I ever become a wizard. It's just accepted by the characters, and then I accept it.

It's fabulous. It makes me feel the magic-wonder. I love it.

Don't get me wrong. I love a well-built world, and I am entertained by descriptions of the concrete technical stuff. Yet, even in those stories with the technical side, where I really love the magic is when it's in action, being wondrous.

Yes, I do think that's all. On a non-writing note, I'm in the midst of student teaching. These children that fill our world are amazing. They're just... amazing. I look around at them and wonder where they'll be in five years, in ten, in fifteen. I hope I am able to do something that will make them better able to be the masters of their future. You know, like any good legendary mentor that helps young heroes on their journeys. (Only, not nearly as old or bearded, or carrying as much angsty baggage, thank you very much.)

Novel Cheater

2010-04-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a big, fat novel cheater. I cheat on my novels constantly. If I never get published, now you know the reason why. I've known this is a weakness of mine ever since I read a NaNoWriMo pep talk written by Meg Cabot, in which she described her milk crate full of abandoned stories. I just can't give it up.

So, even though I keep saying I want to focus on Jeneva's story, I keep going back to the Phoenix Girl Chronicles in my mind. (Or the new Chosen Ones idea, which I'll probably be using for JulNoWriMo.) And now that I've reread my 2009 NaNo draft of PGC, I'm feeling a strong pull to go back.

Really, haven't I been cheating on PGC for over ten years with every single novel or story I started working on? If I look at it that way... Well, I get even more confused.

I'm in love with all of my stories, is the thing. Maybe the author/novel relationship isn't necessarily monogamous. (I talked to Rachel about it a while ago, and she said I was being ridiculous for calling it cheating.) Or maybe it's just that different things work differently for different authors. But I'm feeling that it's time for me to dive back into PGC. After the reread, it felt like it was about three plot points and some rewording away from a solid manuscript I'd be willing to pass off to beta readers. And the Phoenix Fire is just burning bright in my heart, besides that.

So I'm going with it, novel cheater that I am. And, you know my weakness.

Lines that Inspire

2010-03-19T10:31:00.001-07:00

Every now and then, I get a bit down on myself about my writing. I start to feel like the ideas and pictures in my head are great, and the characters are so interesting, but I just don't have the skill to find the right words to convey that to readers.

That's when I'm finding it's time for me to reread.

True, my rough drafts are often lacking in the brilliance of any of the authors out there I consider great, but these little gemstone lines pop up here and there, things that make me crack a smile and remember again that it's worth it. They are "rough," after all.

Then I dig out the word polish and sit down and get back to the arduous work of getting the lines around those gems all shined up.

Saving it for JulNoWriMo (SA Repost)

2010-03-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

(Posted this journal entry on SA, give or take a few words.)

I'm already plotsin' some novely goodness. (Yes, I know I spelled it "plotsin'." That's how it sounded in my head when I thought it, and I'm sticking with it.) I don't know if I'll have the time and sense in November to really be able to throw myself at a Novel, but I'll bet my July will be pretty open--thus the JulNoWriMo plotting. Heh. Who knows, though?

Now, I sort of hate it when I start plotting something for a novel-writing month too far in advance. I get afraid that I'll lose that sweet, delicious glee that a new idea bestows.

I'll probably do some some rough outlines of character and setting ideas to get the glee down on paper, then turn my attention back to Jeneva between when I finish scribbling out ideas and when JulNoWriMo begins.

What's the idea, exactly? More of me playing around with things I love that are also sometimes super cliche. Chosen Ones. Yay :)

The idea is much more straightforward than Attinor's interlinked mages and dragons and wizards and vampires. (I wonder sometimes if it even makes sense the way things interlink between Attinor and Attinor's Earth. Then I think about how it's not like I'll be throwing an Encyclopedia of Attinor at anyone. The stories reveal the links gradually and hopefully digestibly. Anyway...)

Simple, straightforward Chosen Ones called to save the world from various evils. They range in age from three to thirty-something and in their progress toward their individual destinies from "just prophesied" to "mission complete." They work together to help each other prepare, and they fight side-by-side against the evils of the world. They do this despite the fact that it's against the hidden magic culture's norms and expectations for Chosen Ones. (They're One, alone, supposed to face their own destinies, after all. If anyone else could do it, they would have been Chosen instead.)

Anyway, the story could last forever and ever or just be a one-shot depending on how I feel. Plenty of characters with destinies to face. Problems ranging from magic-culture politics to, you know, the end(s) of the world.

I'm excited for playing with it. And I should totally be doing finals-crunch things. (And focusing on Jeneva.)

When an idea strikes...

2010-03-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

As a general update, I'm trying out Plurk. Thus far, I like the visual of the timeline, and I like the look and feel of the response system. My plurk account is linked to my Twitter account, so if you're watching my twitter feed you'll still get all the updates. If I like Plurk enough after a couple of weeks of use, I'll probably add a widget to the WyldTales homepage.

Now, to the interesting stuff.

I've been trying to focus on editing Jeneva, getting the rough draft ready so I can recruit some beta readers and get new opinions on it. but every now and then, a pretty butterfly of an idea comes fluttering by my window. For the most part, I've been able to just say "No" and maybe jot down a quick note about the idea and leave it for later, but this latest one is just so pretty. It's not just fluttering by; it's pounding on the window.

So I'm caught in a debate. I'm sure it's one that everyone who writes faces. I wonder if writing a quick short with these characters and ideas will quiet them long enough for me to be able to get back to focusing on Jeneva. Considering how loud and insistent the idea is being, that might be the only option.

A Novel Journal

2010-01-31T22:29:00.000-08:00

My fabulous (former) boss and Writing Center Director gave me a wonderful gift--a novel writing handbook entitled "The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing." Reading about the craft can spark ideas in me sometimes. For me, it's a lot about testing something out to see how it works for me, then adapting things that sort of work even more to my needs. This novel writing handbook features articles from a bunch of different authors on different stages and types of writing.

Today's discovery was the concept of having a novel journal, suggested by Sue Grafton in her article "The use of a journal in writing a novel." She outlines her whole process very nicely, and I'm not going to go into much detail and steal her thunder. What I gained from the idea, though, was a way to get around my personal editing roadblock.

See, I love NaNoWriMo for all the freedom you get, the sheer joy of writing for nothing but the words, no worries if they're the right words or angsting over whether or not that scene really fits into the whole plot. Editing is a lot less... free, even if editing does free a story from all the dust and grime of rough-draft-i-ness. I just feel better when I get to write freely. I love drafting.

Using a journal will give me a taste of freedom. I get to write whatever in the world I want about the story and scene I'm working on, nice and freely, before I get into the nitty-gritty editing stuff. Today, at least, it worked for me. I was able to focus in and get through a solid scene of Jeneva without my usual habit of getting distracted by the littlest things. If it keeps working as well as it has thus far, it's definitely going to be a solid part of my writing habits.

And, no, you don't get to read my novel journal. It's personal. That's probably the best part, since it means I can rant or rave about story things to myself without worrying about spoilers :-)

Back to Jeneva

2010-01-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

After a lot of musing and considering, I have been drawn back away from the Phoenix Girl Chronicles and back to the Bellringer stories. I love Celeste and her adventures dearly. I really do. It's just that I've been going over all my writing options in my mind right now, and the Bellringer stories stand out as something I can commit myself to, something I can truly bring to completion.

That means coming off my writing vacation and getting serious again. I was focused and dedicated all through NaNoWriMo. December and January have been times of celebrations and new starts and things so far, but I'm back in a regular daily cycle. It's hard for me to get focused when I have whole long days of nothing much, but surprisingly easier when my days are crammed with things to do.

And, today, I do have some cramming. I've got house chores, articles to read and journals to write for classes, personal reflections to do on my practicum thus far and how I can improve myself to be more ready for next week, and a birthday party in the evening. Monday is, of course, a holiday, but you never know what'll happen. If I get in a solid hour of internet-browsing-free editing time on Jeneva, I will rejoice. Two hours, and it's a hearty rejoicing. Oh, yes, hearty.

All right. Time to get to work!

Ear Candy

2010-01-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

There are some musicians, some songs, that make my brains get bubbly with joy when I hear them. I love them. When they get stuck in my head, they don't feel like worms crawling through my apple-brains. They melt like a delicious hard candy that I want to savor so much.

Owl City is my new ear candy. Every single song I've listened to by Owl City has given me the bubbly, tingly joy. I could sit with my eyes closed and listen, just listen, for hours. I love it enough that I'm blogging about it. Oh, yes. :-)

Rereading Raw Drafts

2009-12-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

One of the things I tend to do in NaNoWriMo is stop in the middle of a scene when it isn't going well and start to brainstorm, right there in the file where I'm typing my story up. (The words count toward my total word count, after all.) At the moment of drafting, it gives me material to go forward with. Usually after a paragraph or two of rambling, I know where I need to take the scene and I launch myself forward. Apparently, it's also good for a laugh later.

I was just randomly rereading one of the novels I wrote for NaNo '08, and in the middle of one of the scenes, there was a letter to one of the characters. I laughed myself into a coughing fit (because I'm sick and coughing quite a lot), it was so funny to me. It probably wouldn't be funny to anyone else--I was using personal references to other characters in other stories and threatening to replace the particular character with someone else if he didn't toughen up a bit.

I don't usually write letters to my characters, so I don't know why I did that instead of a standard brainstorm blurb. I'll tell you, though, it brought a huge smile on my face today :)

NaNoWriMo Reflections

2009-12-04T00:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I made 181,521 words in November. That's just a little more than 600 words double-spaced. I finished rough drafts of the first two books of the Phoenix Girl Chronicles, and the series is starting to look like it's four or possibly five books long at this point. (I'll probably know by the end of the third book whether it's four or five.)

This year was interesting for me because the times of day that I wrote and the way I worked writing in really seemed to reflect how it'll have to be as I go into my teaching career. I wrote a little around mealtimes, a lot after 8:00 in the evenings, and a whole lot on weekends. Otherwise it was work and class. I have to treat writing with the same attitude of necessity as any other job I have going on if I want to be taken seriously. And I did great, all things considered :)

Editing is a different beast, and I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with myself just now. I'm actually exploring some of the PGC characters' side stories just now, stories that don't get told in the main arc (and probably won't be included at all) but that help me know why things go the way they do. I'm thinking about shelving PGC completely for the next month or two, then coming back for a reread to start on revisions of these first two books. While it's shelved currently, I was thinking I might go back to the Bellringer books and finish revising Jeneva's first book. My other option is to keep drafting PGC until I know how it ends, wait until I get to the end, and then start revising the series as a whole.

There are pros and cons all around, and I'm still trying to figure out my own personal style to decide for myself what's most right. Whatever the case, NaNoWriMo's left me with a lot of material to work with since 2004 and especially in the last two years, and I know it's about time I actually get to work on it.

And, really, I've got to make banana bread for the potluck at work tomorrow. That means I should be going to sleep now, so it's time to conclude this ramble. Nighty-night!

20,000 in One Day :)

2009-11-27T00:21:00.000-08:00

There are many things that I'm thankful for on a beautiful Thanksgiving day. I'm thankful for the love and support of all my family and friends. I'm thankful for the opportunities I've had in school and in work to learn and grow quite awesomely. And right now, as let out a long sigh of relief and get ready to curl up and go to bed, I'm thankful for how I wrote 20,000 words today.

I don't know if this is true of all people who have written 20,000 words in one day, but I learned two things doing it today. First, it has to be one of the most exhilarating, page-turning ways to get through a hefty chunk of a first draft. My blood was rushing, and I was right there with my characters working through some intense moments. It was awesome. Second, I hope I never *have* to produce 20,000 words in one day. It's exhausting, intimidating, and draining, even though it's also exhilarating and amazing.

So, yes, I'm going to go to sleep a happy, thankful young woman tonight :)

Distractions and Musings

2009-11-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

I've been distracted all morning thinking about literary rock stars, and who my literary rock stars are. Just like a song that I come back to and enjoy when I'm in a certain mood or I want to remember the way I felt that other time I heard the song, there are some books I come back to over and over again, some writers who manage to captivate me with all or almost all of their books.

Mo says it just right. "If you take a book with you on a journey, an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it ... yes, books are like flypaper--memories cling to the printed page better than anything else." (That's from Inkheart by Cornelia Funke)

As I've gone back to books I loved when I first started to write The Phoenix Girl Chronicles, those memories, too, have come back to me. More thank the sights and smells and tastes--the feelings and thoughts I had. I remember so well the day when I first saw the cover of Dealing With Dragons as I explored books in the library looking for my next fix. I remember how captivated I was by the characters and the dynamics of that fantasy world. I remember my laughter, and sometimes I laugh at new parts that suddenly make so much more sense

And now I know how to look at the pages and see more clearly what it was that I loved. I learn from my rock stars instead of just rocking out to them.

I also get distracted by them when I should be cleaning up in preparation for Thanksgiving and/or writing feverishly to see myself through to the end of NaNoWriMo ;)

Props for Write or Die

2009-11-16T00:13:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I've given so many props to Write or Die in other places, but I want to give it an extra special acknowledgment today.

Essentially, Write or Die is a web app with a little text box into which you type whatever it is you're working on. If you stop typing, then after a short grace period, punishment ensues. I found it last NaNoWriMo, and it helped me a lot that year. It's been just as helpful this year, too.

I have the Desktop Edition. The Desktop Edition has the added bonus of a full screen mode (and a bunch of other fancy stuff). I can set either a time or a word count goal, and then I can't do anything but type in the text box until I reach my goal. No stopping after a paragraph and going to check that website, no opening up a thrilling game of Solitaire, just one giant text box slowly turning red any time I stop typing until I reach that next goal point.

That full screen mode has helped me so much today. I'm willing to bet that distraction is the natural enemy of any writer on the face of the planet. At the very least, it is for me. There are times when I'm writing and I couldn't get distracted by anything else in the world, and then there's the other ninety percent of the time when distraction, on some level, is just so appealing. Yes, ninety percent. So anything that helps to cut out even a little bit of the distraction means more focused writing time for me. Yay!

Today, after a few slumpy days, I finally kicked myself by using longer and larger goals in Write or Die so that I couldn't let myself get distracted, and I was able to push myself to write ten thousand words. It's especially satisfying after having such a low day yesterday. First, starting this blog gave me a kick that got me to a place where I could at least use Write or Die, and then Write or Die came through for me :)

Are any of those ten thousand words good, you ask? Well, give me until January or February, when I'm going to start revisions, and I'll really start to carve 'em out then. For now, I need words to carve, and that's what NaNoWriMo (and all rough drafts) are all about.

A New Blog, and NaNoWriMo Joys and Woes

2009-11-14T22:33:00.001-08:00

I've decided to swap over to Blogger from LiveJournal, at least for my writing blogging. Since it's NaNoWriMo, well, I don't think I'll get this immediately attached to my website, but then again, I'm hitting a teensy wall. We'll see :)

I feel like it's appropriate to start on NaNoWriMo in a way. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, a month where writers all around the world take a leap and try to write a sloppy, wordy first draft of a novel in thirty fabulous days. I've participated (and won) since 2004, writing a total of seven novel drafts over the years. (Last year, I wrote three, if you're wondering how the math adds up exactly.) I absolutely love it.

And, yes, that's a lot of drafts laying around that really need editing and tweaking and submitting. As I've worked in the Writing Center over the last two years, I've grown more and more resolved to do just this. All month, my coworkers and classmates have been telling me that it's horrible how I've bragged about my word count but I won't let anyone read those words just yet.

At any rate, The first half of this month has been fabulous. Some may call it cheating, but I started out by rewriting the first book of the Phoenix Girl Chronicles. My first complete draft of this story, I wrote over high school, and first tried to send queries out to get it published just after I graduated. Fortunately for the world, agents and editors are smart people who know when a girl needs to grow a bit more :) I've learned a lot in the last five years, and I'm pouring that learning into the second draft of the first book. I'm nearly to the end. Big climax, all that stuff, right around the corner.

Now, once I wrap this tale up, I'll dive straight into Book Two of the Phoenix Girl Chronicles. I was very excited about diving into Book Two until a couple days ago, when I realized I was almost there and I only vaguely know where I'm going to be going with it. Book One flew out of my fingers like the cold winter wind that's been cutting down my street all month, most of all because I know it. And I'm afraid that once I get into Book Two, it'll all stop flowing. So afraid, in fact, that I've been dawdling and procrastinating.

There's this thing about procrastination that a friend told me recently. It comes from fear. Acknowledge the fear, face it, and it might just help make the procrastination go away. I can tell right now that fear of Book Two is keeping me from finishing Book One.

So, you know what's wrong about that? It's ridiculous, is what. I almost always write first drafts from the top of my head with minimal outlining, then go back and outline to see what's needed in revision. Approaching Book Two will be no different. In fact, I know these characters so well that it will probably flow out just as well as Book One has thus far. I should be super excited to finally move beyond the first book!

I'm going to push myself hard as I can tomorrow to power to the end of Book One and tumble into Book Two. Hopefully, I'll get to talk to my best friend about the plot tomorrow and gain some reassurances. Talking to friends is one of my number one favorite ways to work my way through any story woe :)

And that's that! Welcome to the new Wyld Tales Blog!