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]
Monday, April 1, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
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
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
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
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
Current Word Count: 140,504
Sunday, November 25, 2012
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
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
Monday, October 8, 2012
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
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
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Mick
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.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
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
Current word count: 124,258
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