Breaking Ice

I've just written a new scene-- not really a whole scene, just a new addition-- but it's the first really new material I've put into the manuscript in a while. It feels like breaking fresh ground.

Excitement is high though. I'm all settled back into school and life is a little less hectic now. I've been getting some organizing done, rearranging things in the outline and outlining new scenes that have to be put in. But this is the first actual change I've made to the document. It's the beginning. This is the big edit.

I'm ready to chop up this thing and make it good! TOUGH LOVE!

I'm only a little overwhelmed thinking about it.

There's a new thing, though! I'm in the writing club at my school, and we meet every other week to workshop. I'm starting to send them all my manuscript bit by bit so I can get critiques on it. The first meeting was the other night and it was the first bit of the prologue- the absolute oldest part of the manuscript (though arguably the most heavily edited so far) and it went really well. For what I think is one of the choppiest and immature bits, getting good comments really gave be some hope.

Hopefully this will give me momentum to be ruthless.

There's just so much of it.

That's all for tonight, I'll be back in a week with more.

Jigsaw-ing!

I'm currently going back through my problems outline-my giant list of doom- and fitting things together. 

I'm just going through and figuring out solutions, where i need to add/drop a scene, which characters need more page-time. I also have a list of new conflicts and subplots I'm going to expand, and I'm going to fit those in as well. It's a lot of color-coding and marker-juggling, but it's coming along.

Right now I'm not panicking- everything is pretty easy to solve according to this. Fitting things into the current writing however will be another task.

The last few weeks I've taken some time from the story, started a new novel that I may end up saving for nanowrimo, and done some illustration and reading.

I've just finished my first week back at college and getting back into classes and learning things is really energizing. I'm up for challenges right now.

I'm still running the writing tumblr, were I'm posting more about my other writing and illustration projects. Feel free to take a look! The url is wilsathethief.tumblr.com!

Here's what my mess of a notebook is enduring right now:

 

Have a great Saturday everyone!

End of Book One

11:35 PM 4/20/2013

It's done.

I just finished the first complete draft of my first manuscript. Ever.

Hold on, let me do math for a second...

It's been 536 days since I started.

I can't believe this.

Final Word Count: 191,169

Now I'm going to go surf the internet and grin like an idiot until I come down from this high and can go to sleep. Goodnight, everyone.

Tomorrow I'll start planning the edits.

Sweating

I've been sitting on my bed all day trying to get these last two scenes out. Two. Two more sentences in my outline. I've been listening to classical music and Walls by Benton Paul-things that I've been waiting to pull up and use for these very scenes to set the mood. I'm so close.

I've been writing about the last night in this story for two days now, and I'm losing my mind with it. I can't get a fast word count out because I'm so flitty and excited, but hopefully what I am writing is decent. I also keep having to go back through earlier parts of the story to remind myself of certain characters that haven't been present for a while.

The suspense is killing me. By this time tomorrow I could have written a book.

-fidgets-

Back to writing now. I'll let you know when I get there.

Current Word Count: 188,992

On Style

Looking through my sketches, a lot of them are just character designs- my sketchbook is filled with people, as that's what I usually like to draw. Here's some pulled from my sketchbook that show how my characters tend to dress.

I call this dapper gentleman Simon Tylor[subject to change]. He's a minor character, but he was escorting the main character to a ball, so I drew him to get out of a rut when I wrote that part last July. In this fancier getup I decided to draw most of my inspiration from seventeenth century styles. Seventeenth century has since been where I get the basic shape for most male characters, but I'll never be comfortable enough with those tights so it's been modernized somewhat. Women's styles in the story I usually create drawing from Renaissance art.

On the left is a Renaissance girl, not one of my characters, but a sketch that shows what I have in the back of my mind designing the women. I modernize their outfits to my liking a bit as well. The story isn't technically in a different time period, just removed from ours and lacking an industrial revolution since hey, magic. On the right is another design, not taken strictly from the Renaissance, but also relevant to the styles in my book.

I realize that what the characters are wearing isn't of the utmost importance, but I'm very visual and it's part of how I immerse myself in the world. I draw to make it real to me and to make me able to see the characters and how they would interact and move within a scene and with others. And let's face it, I like pretty dresses.

I hope y'all liked the drawings!

Current Word Count: 187,767

Last Panic

I've had yet another unproductive week. I'm kind of stuck at this one point because I feel it might not fit into the story well, even though it was in my original outline. I've decided to write it anyway to give myself the option to take it out when I edit, but it's really awkward and hard to write when I'm constantly doubting myself. I'm also afraid writing something really awkward might mess me up for the ending scenes, which are supposed to be really nice and heart-warming and fun and I'm sooo excited to write them. Part of this is probably nerves- the procrastinator in me is freaking out that I might actually finish something and is stomping on the brakes, but I'll push through. -dramatic music-

I just went through all my sketchbooks from the past couple years and pulled anything slightly related to the story, which was surprisingly little-eleven sketches. One of which Picasa somehow shrunk down to one blue pixel, so I'll have to upload it again. The amount of things I've irreparably screwed up by hitting the wrong button is too large to count. (also why I have my manuscript saved online and in three other places)

So here's one- From a moment in the prologue. But believe me this character comes into play later as well. Just much, much later.

 Yes, that one is missing a finger. It'll all make sense later. Eventually.

Current Word Count: 183,793

Character Sketches

These are four stylized character profiles from a while ago. Bear with me-I really cannot draw older people well, which is why the bottom right is so strange looking. Will learn.

From left to right, top to bottom: Main character Elle, Queen Daniella, Officer Daryn, and Advisor Darius.
More sketches to come, once I charge my camera and stop being lazy. (ha)
I'm now realizing how old these are and thinking I might redo them. We'll see.

Also, I haven't written that much due to a huge project this week. I ended up presenting the thing in the school auditorium and it was quite a trial. Glad it's over.

Current Word Count: 183,686

The End! Kindofsortofnotreallyyet

Good news for anyone interested in NaNoWriMo- "Camp NaNoWriMo" begins today! I'll put it up on the links list, I actually didn't know when it began until logging onto Facebook a minute ago. It's just like the November run, it seems, only for April.
Speaking of which, April is National Poetry Month. I have at least one friend participating in a Poetry Month challenge, and she'll be writing a poem every day, and I think posting it on her tumblr blog. I'll link to that as well, I guess; it's called Misused Words. I'm not much of a poet myself, but I think my English Lit teacher is planning to have our class do something.

As for my own story, I know I've said this before (kind of) but I'm almost done with my first draft. Seriously; I only have the final showdown and then the resolution, and I'm incredibly pumped. My word count is severely behind schedule, but seeing as I'm so close missing my Easter deadline wasn't that disappointing. I'm waiting until I'm actually done before setting a deadline for the edits, but I think I might shoot for my graduation this June-a deadline that is probably wishful thinking, as I know I left myself a lot of work in editing.

In other news about my personal life I just recently sent my first deposit in to my College of choice! This means, for those not "in the know" about American colleges, that the first check has been mailed and I am, upon the check's arrival to the school, officially enrolled for the coming Fall. I'm very excited as I love the school I chose and their art department is amazing. I know less about their English department, but it's a very well-known school and I doubt I'll be disappointed based on what I've seen thus far. I can't wait to be immersed in what I love- both the subjects and the process of learning. I plan on a double major in Studio Art and whatever Writing major they have (the terminology changes for each institution and I forget theirs at the moment). I've also been playing recently with the idea of minoring in History as well. We'll see, I suppose. But all this is very invigorating, and I feel that teenage sense of stagnation lifting finally.

Current Word Count: 179,654
[for now Blogger doesn't seem to be letting me add links to the list so they're http://misusedwords.tumblr.com and http://campnanowrimo.org]

Progress and Ignorances

I'm really getting stuff done! I'm at a point in the story that I've been waiting to write for forever, and felt like I would never get there. It's exciting! Of course I have no idea what I'm doing, as it involves a war and I'm really lost with army rankings and strategy and such, so I'm mostly fudging it. We'll see if it comes out horribly. If any of you know about military ranking systems, I'd love for you to explain it to me! I've looked it up, of course, and gotten a better feel for it but it's still hard for me to understand because I've had no prior exposure to it.

I'm about a week and a half behind in my word count due to a huge school project a couple weeks ago that killed my momentum, but I'm making it up quickly. I've passed the 150k mark! That's so exciting to me. It's funny that I care so much about these landmarks and yet I always just write right through them and realize a few hundred words later.

I was procrastinating last night and looking through my blogs and I noticed I don't actually have many sketches up here. When I have bad writing habits I've found that I tend to draw more, so I have quite a few from those five months I did nothing. I'll look through them and post a couple.

Current Word Count: 160,991

Caught My Breath

So it's been three months and I have finally begun writing regularly again. I've been in a real funk the past five or so months, and feel that I'm finally coming out of it. Of course I may have just jinxed myself, but let's hope not. It's not that I'm really inspired to write, but I finally feel decent enough that when I sit down I want to, and once I do I am able to get into that where-did-the-time-go zone of it where I write a thousand or so words without once looking at my progress. I'm slowly getting over my disappointment in myself that I didn't have the first draft done by Christmas, but I've now set another goal; Easter. If I keep up at the pace I've been holding for the past two weeks I should be able to get there. Of course I don't know how many thousands of words I will need to complete the story-originally I thought I would be done in 150k but I realize now it's going to be a bit longer than that-but I think another fifty thousand should at least get me close. It's funny how, after writing so much, and after a summer of writing roughly 10k a week for two months, that doesn't seem like so much anymore. Once I finish this book I wonder whether it will be easier or harder to complete NaNoWriMo.

Current Word Count: 140,504

Unproductive Month

So it's November 25th. Last year at this time I was rounding out my last ten thousand words before finishing my first successful NaNoWriMo challenge. This year there isn't the same amount of excitement, and alas, for this month I have only written three thousand words and counting. I'd like to say it's because my Nano challenge for this year isn't the same, since I'm just continuing an old story (because it's like an old shoe now; comfortable but not shiny and new and flashy) and besides, I had a rocky start with no power for the first two weeks of this month. But that's not why.

However, it is a good segue into talking about Hurricane Sandy, as if you haven't surely heard enough about it already. (If you live in the US, anyway. Blogger has informed me I have international viewers, so thanks and holler to y'all) I live in central New Jersey, which was literally smack in the middle of the storm. It was scary as heck, but I don't live right on the coast, and I'm also on high ground so flooding wasn't a problem. I did lose power for almost ten days straight, however; seven days from Sandy and then two days later, another three day outage from that badass snow storm we got. The snowstorm was really the scariest, though it wasn't as violent. We got about five to seven inches of really wet and heavy snow-- heavier than I've ever seen before in my seventeen years, but the scary part was that I live in a heavily wooded area and we literally had trees bowing under the weight. There were trees taller than the telephone poles that had their higher branches tugged down so far that I could jump on my driveway and touch them, assuming that I wanted a potentially painful faceful of snow. The night of the storm we realized that there were trees (that we could hear very loudly groaning and cracking under the weight) bending and swaying directly over our roof and specifically my room. Between the audible stress on the tall oak trees and the neon blue explosions of the transformers up and down the road we were pretty terrified. At some point we got our coats and shoes and were ready to walk out for fear of trees crushing the house. (I live kind of in the middle of a small forest with a bunch of heavy trees)

The reality of all this though, is that I really got out scott-free. I know people whose cars were flooded out, who lost their homes either to the storm on the coast or flooding farther inland, or for other reasons have had them condemned. People are equating this with the damage Katrina wrecked on New Orleans, which I think is a bit excessive, but it's a valid point, seeing the damage on certain areas. There's a really (dare I say cool?) interesting collection of before-and-after satellite photos of the worst of it, which I'll link to. The Jersey Shore and boardwalk is seriously an icon for everyone who lives in the area and to see some of the rides, like the huge ferris wheel making their way towards Europe in the ocean is really startling. Most of the damage is due to us Northerners not being prepared for hurricane or tropical storm-force winds, which is our fault, but that's really because we never expected to deal with it. That's historically Florida's cross to bear. (and ironically where we send most of our old people) So basically this isn't related to my writing much but it really sucks for a lot of people, and here's my high five to everyone dealing with it like bosses. It's kind of funny that this happened right before Thanksgiving, because it's given me and a lot of other people cause to think of how really lucky we are and how thankful I am for everything I have and everything that hasn't been taken from me. It's more than just 'thank you for not smiting me with a branch to the head, God'. I am sincerely thankful for everything I have, all the opportunities I've been given (yes, even those I didn't take) and everyone I know, whether I like them or not.

So stay safe everyone, and brace yourselves for the holidays, where everyone is going mushy. The Lifetime movies have already begun.

Sandy Before and Afters: http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/hurricane-sandy-before-after-photos/

Current Word Count: 130,966

Blockage

Writer's block is something that I've always been stupid about. You know how you'll see people on the news, or read about, for instance, accidentally pregnant teenagers? (Sorry; I watched the Pregnancy Pact last night while I wasn't writing.) They stereotypically say "I never thought it would happen to me!" as if the world is at fault due to their ignorance. Well that's me, with my writer's block. I never thought it would happen to me.

NaNoWriMo is the cure for this, but unfortunately my writer's block is very specific, as in it only applies to my book. Thankfully, I suppose, because not only can I still write rambling blog posts complaining about it, but I can still get school work and college essays done. But I also can't do NaNoWriMo with a mostly finished story; it's just wrong, and I also wanted to be done with the first draft by the end of this month. I'm not so sure it's going to happen now.

I've never had real writer's block before, figured it was just something I could push through, like the rough patches I've hit before, but it isn't. Maybe it's this bad now because of other stuff that's been going on. I haven't been having a good time lately, vague, I know.

Anyway, I just wanted to vent, since I set aside almost four hours last night to write and came up with a measly 1.5k. Ah, helpless frustration.

So that's why I haven't had a lot to post about lately.

Current Word Count: 127,874

Mick

There's one character that I've noticed I have a habit of drawing.

This is Mick, the top two are not exactly alike, I know, but that's because I don't exactly know what she looks like as a young woman. The one on the right is actually my favorite, but I didn't know I was drawing her until I was done.

In the story she isn't this young; she's around seventy, and looks more like the vague drawing at the bottom.
But I like drawing her young; both because I can't draw old people very well, and because she's full of life. She cracks me up, at least in my mind. I'm sure it doesn't translate as well onto paper.

But that's what editing is for.

No updates on word count.

And Writing...

I just wanted to update y'all. Though I haven't written much in the past week (I go back to school in two days!) I feel like I'm nearly done. Maybe another 30k words to go before I start editing. Maybe I'm just in a hopeful mood.

Current word count: 124,258

Interested?

Elle had never known anything but the path she was shown, until the older people in their dark cloaks came to fetch her from the orphanage, two years early. These strange people knew she was destined along a different path, on which power beyond her wildest dreams would catch up with her. But they hadn't been the ones to set this path. The prophecy had.

Current Word Count: 113,600

Hello All

Thank you for visiting. My name is Leigh Shine, and right now I'm in the midst of writing. Writing what? Well a book, naturally. It actually is yet to be named, but for now The Prophecy sounds dramatic enough, so that's going to be the page name. That won't change, even if the book title does. This story has been in my head since I was five, growing each night as I told it to put myself to sleep. I decided, for the past year's NaNoWriMo to use this story, after failing the challenge in the 2010 round. (If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, check out the link in the sidebar!) I finished the challenge, writing fifty thousand words of the story in the month of November, and am now on a quest to finish it. I'll update with my word count as we go along, and I'll have a premise up soon. Please, stay along for the ride, and hopefully the book will be finished soon.

On this blog I'll post character and setting sketches, and maybe a teaser or two once I get into editing. I'm currently a bit over halfway through the story, with nearly one hundred thousand words. I plan on finishing the book by the fall, and spending November to edit it.

If you want, you can check out the blog I run with my good friend Alison, over at LithographyoftheMind.blogspot.com -- that's in the links also.

Well wishes,
~Leigh