After a hiatus of critting I just did one. Whats funny is now I think I know how to fix a few problems with BP :P.

lj is eating my words..... seriously.

Nano is draging a bit. rl flared up. will catch up this afternoon.

I am now back at OWW. It has been YEARS and they had my account still! w00t!

I made up for no counts the past couple days by kicking out 3125 words today, tonight actually.

Snip ahead

( opps forgot to put it behind the cut. )

this brings my nano count to 19147 words of suck. :)

Yesterday I didn't get writing done. Since I am ahead I didn't stress about it today. So far this evening I have only written 134 words, of course I barely just started. But I rearranged/re-wrote a paragraph that was buggin me. I posted it as part of a scene the other day so I thought I'd go ahead and post the new revised version. I know, I know, not supposed to edit during nano, but I couldn't help myself...

oh well


Things had settled back into a normal routine quickly. Tagis was surprised at how badly he'd missed the tribe. The youths of the tribe watched him work closely while in the distance children laughed and the waves crashed against the shore. A woman was singing a lullaby to a child while the older members of their little band sat around the cook-fire preparing the next meal and gossiping. The subjects changed, sliding from one thing to another their voices rising and falling like the ocean waves. Birds of the forest sang, gulls over the fishermen cried out. The sounds of home. Tagis finished securing the new spearhead and was carefully dipping it into the juice when he noticed Roff was yet again at his feet peering in wide-eyed wonder and hands behind his back.

For some reason I am having issues. I am not being very dedicated to the number of words I am writing. What I mean is, I keep spacing on how many words I am writing exactly. In word wars I have found myself just writing and at the end when we tally it up I realize that whoops! I forgot to get the wc before starting.


Doesn't really matter I guess, I just passed 16k last night. **insert banana dancing here** but whats more is that the story is being told. I like this story very much. And it seems to be working out well. I feel like I am getting a good grip on the nature of storytelling. On how to tell the story I want to tell. On how to focus on the part of the story I want to tell and on resisting those nifty not-going-anywhere subplots that my older work is riddled with.

I will get a hang of this stuff. Really I will.


writing links:

How to Respond
How to avoid getting an agent

I was too beat last night to post this.

Forbidden Island; Nano 2009

16022 / 50000 words. 32% done!

( SNIP of Suckage! )

Happy nanoing folks!

I write first thing in the morning and before bed after the munchkins are asleep. I have been doing a piss poor job of keeping track.

So I just started recording each chapter size. I seem to be doing a chapter a day or so. When I started to tot was 12379. Now that my morning words have been written I have a total of 14316. You guys do that math, I gots to run to the store. But here is a snip for you. and yes this is suckitude (OH NOES! THE FIRST DRAFT SUCKS ISN'T THAT A SHOCK?)

( Cut to spare bleeding eyes )

and yes I need to do some more research into pacific islander weapons but for now I got to run to the store.

Forbidden Island; Nano 2009

9060 / 50,000 (18%)

queenoftheskies have I mentioned how much I appreciate you sending me that code? Thanks again. :D


today, 2756 words. I am highly impressed with myself.

I have never been so relaxed about NaNo as I am this time around. I think because I know when I crack down on it my daily averages hit about 2k.

I have no doubts I'll do 50k this month, barring RL of course.

ok folks. Time for bed.
Take care all.

Survival

3,555 / 50,000 (7.1%)

the final tally for NaNo day 1. 3555 words. Not bad.

The last sentance:
"The mountain is awake." he said, his voice thick with emotion. "And we must prepare ourselves to get out of her way."</b>

night lj

Primitiveways.com


Oh. WOW.

This site is COOL!!!


in other news. Well I am sure glad that this is only the 1st draft


Edit

Canoe and Kayak building

Hawaian Canoe building

Word Meter

I miss Zokutu. Just saying.

I found this one which I think is kinda cute AND it is based on the Zokutu word meter!!


Survival; NaNo 2009

1,026 / 50,000 (2.1%)

night

1 hour to go.

well 1 hour and 15 min.

**bounces excitedly**


The MC, Tagis is patiently waiting for it to start. His love interest, Dana, is about as impatient as I am. They are going to be fun. :D

Bastard Prince is sortof a pillgramage. It is an epic story following the life of a runnaway prince. I ground to a halt in writing it when I hit the really tough emotional part of the book. You know the part that starts everything falling apart for him.


I picked it back up a few days ago in an effort to try to keep from starting working on the NaNo.

I just wrote one of the hardest scenes in this book. I cried.

Maybe it is just me.

There will be more. Lots more. Cities will fall betrayals will happen. Hearts will break.


I'm writing again! :D

Writing Schedule through Dec.

Mind you this is very tentative as we are also planning a move.


Editing.
Oh man I have so much stuff that is just languishing on the hard drive (flashdrive actually). Playing for the Dead needs to be edited.


Writing/Finishing.

Last night I wrote up a list of half finished projects that really need to get finished. Bastard Prince, though smooshed with the old version of Crossroads still has placecard areas that need to be finished. So I would really like to finish it.


Fresh Writing.
NaNo.
A survival type romance set in a Polynesian-based culture. Mind you it is a fantasy world, not earth but it has a very Island feel to it. This is for fun, a different type of story. A huge writing exercise for me.

Gots to go.

I just blew an entire evening re-reading old projects. The theory was that I was going to list off all of my projects and what needs to be done for them to be 'finished'. The reality was I opened up Crossroads and found myself doing a few editing things. Just fixing punctuation mainly but also adjusting some phrasing.

I finally tore myself from Crossroads, got the word count then opened Bastard Prince and lost about twenty min re-reading over a few fight scenes and fixing some punctuation. I forced myself to get the wordcount and open another Avaria project but not before thinking that some of it wasn't as sucky as I thought it was.

Then another idea struck me.

For nano, seeing as I have actually won it a couple times, perhaps I should just chose a half-finished or mostly finished project **cough Bastard Prince cough** and use Nov to finish it. My goal for BP for instance is something like 120k and it is sitting at 60975k.

I dunno, I do have a nano idea I was thinking about. (actually drew a map of it at church today **hangs head**)

My NaNo idea (officially) is about a group of tribal people who have to flee their Island home because it goes Krakatoa on them. It is also a romance (I don't write anything but :P ) and I really like this idea and I adore my main characters and even have a bit of an outline to it.

So what to do. I suppose it is stupid to sign up for nano at all. Nov is our busiest month. But I love the energy, the friendships I have made through nano have been wonderful. I love cheering people on I love seeing people's progress. I can't NOT do it, you know?

Anyways, I think what I'll do is poke at BP until Nov then write the Survival story then when I finish it (I don't see it being longer than 50 tbh) go back to BP to try to finish it.

**shrugs**

Ok time to go to bed.

This happens every nano.

I am now looking at several stories which sound like fun.

**pulls hair out**

which one? Which one?
My main world I write about, and am most comfortable writing in is coughing up several stories that I have thought of more as backhistory

The one about Zander's mother?

The one about the Lady of the Light?

The one about Mikial and his origins?

Or just start 'at the begining' and write a 'History of Avaria' (good grief it would be a HUGE volume if I were to ever actually....write it.)

Then there are other ideas in worlds I have not messed with much.

From the Harp Player story I have a Four Swordsmen idea.

Then the desert sorceress one has been languishing for a while

There is always the world of The Magic Maker to play in

and out of nowhere (actually it was inspired by Virtual Villagers) a survival story about a group of primitive types forging a new home on a strange island after theirs goes Krakatoa on them. Probably done lots of times.

But man it sounds fun.

---

ROF has reopened their submissions. Over here Their guidelines are over here

I am considering dusting off Magic Maker and/or the Harp Story, tightening them up and submitting one or the other. If for no other reason than to start bringing in more rejections.

I have one. From like three years ago. **hangs head in shame** and you wanna know why I haven't gotten any more? Cause I haven't been subbing. Why?

I think because I am a master at procrastination. And I suck at editing.

Well right now I do. I need more practice at it.

Ok time to write up another lj post over at the other lj and then head to bed.

Happy Writing folks!

1)

2)

3)

:S apparently none of them are working

Either a) I copied the code wrong or b) it won't be effective till Nov.

Both sound right to me :P

man I miss zokutu

Also known as the month of the fruitcake.

In one of the busiest months of the year (in my home at least) we have a challenge. 50k words in 30 days.
Break it down a bit and that comes out to roughly 1666.6666666666666 words a day for 30 days.

Now mind you I know writers who average twice that a day, every day, all year. **bats eyelashes at them** My hats off to you!

For someone out of practice (like me at the moment) it is a shock to the system.

There is all sorts of negative crap going on and on about the 'bad quality' of work. Screw that. Seriously. NaNo bashers piss me off. If they put their energy towards constructive use maybe they would be happier.

NaNo is when people who might otherwise never even attempt to get a story written can jump in with both feet and get that story down on paper. I have won NaNo. I am damn proud of that win too.

Go NaNo-ers!!!

I am going to do the Blood Oath. A fantasy invasion/romance thing.

I am still debating on doing NaNo.

I am a busy woman to begin with. And I don't know that it would be successful. Yet I am nuts and thinking I have this interesting idea which might work.

The idea has quite a few nifty elements that have kept me up at night thinking about them.

A band of three brothers in exile.
A Blood Oath.
Seven powerful sorceresses.
An invasion and overthrow
A prince in hiding.
A sacrifice of some sort.

Overall I can see a series (I don't think in stand alones tbh) that might hit seven or eight books. Revolving around these sorceresses. NaNo would be the first one.

Lots to think about really.

What are your NaNo thoughts?

I have many projects. Some may just stay mere figments of thoughts. Others have grown, been recorded but they sit generating e-dust as I fight a fear I can't quite put a finger on, so I decided in true OCD fashion to analyze what is holding me from taking the next, oh so necessary step in writing.

Fear of Editing something to death. BP and Crossroads have flaws that I need to iron out before I can go forward. Why? because those flaws will affect the outcome of the story. But I'm afraid I'll get sucked into an endless cycle of editing and editing and...

Fear of ruining the story. This one makes me shake my head at myself with a huge **facepalm** I mean come on, I have backups of my backups backups, If I screw it up I will be able to simply load up the original.

Fear of rejection. Everyone has this one. NEXT

Fear of the editing process in general perfectionism strikes again! Things have to be 'perfect' to edit (Perfect as in, the right situation, the right pens, the right paper, the best light, the right frame of mind, the right shade of blue in the sky ;) ok so I'm not that extreme but you get my drift) Once I start editing my brain throws a temper tantrum and I discover something as it shouldn't be and next thing I know I am doing dishes and laundry asking myself why the hell I chose that for a hobby. Couldn't I have just as easily picked up quilting? Which results in the printout being shelved, the story shelved and me playing Crisis Core or some other form of Final Fantasy game to 'recharge' (hide).

Fear of Sucess whoa... what? Uhm, egocentric much? But srsly, what if I actually sell something. What then? That is frightening uncharted territory. What would I do? How would I act? Would I be required to get up in front of people? **insert angsting here** If I don't do anything then I don't have to worry about it, right? Right?


They may not make sense but I know for a fact that I am not the only one who has these fears.

**sweeps them into the nearest dumpster**

**Takes a deep breath**

Then you boil down to the question of why do you write (I use 'you' as a general term)?

Good question.

It is soooooo easy to get caught up with the write to be published crowd. You know who I'm talking about. The folks who dismiss writing for any other reason than to sell it. Sometimes you feel guilty for writing a piece that, quite simply, will only see the inside of your computer and never the slush pile. You feel guilty for writing without intention to be published, for writing as a 'hobby'. These people are quick to negativity, quick to shred others. These are NOT the hardworking writers who actually, you know, feed their kids with their writing, these are the folks who have never been published and are quick to voice their opinions that YOU will never 'make it big'.

Why do I write?
Well see I have these stories in my head...
They play like mini-series in my head. I find when I write out the images I see they stop or slow down. If I don't they bounce around and make living in the RL difficult.

I also happen to like sharing my stories with other people. If someone says they enjoyed it then I have succeeded. If someone has pointers on how it can be made better, then I feel as if I have learned something.

Getting paid for it would be nice. Sharing my stories with a larger audience would also be nice. But the bottom line, which I have to remind myself often, is overall I write for me.

You see when I write for fun I find I am 'free-er' with my writing. I Write better when I am writing something because of the sheer joy of the story. Will that work in the publishing business? I dunno.

I want to share my stories. I want other people to enjoy them. I want my stories to be good enough for other people to enjoy.

I have finished stuff that needs to be edited. Small pieces, shorts and snippets. Scenes that are self contained within a few hundred to a few thousand words. The oldest of those should be dusted off, prettied up and tossed into the great sea of submissions.

I was considering listing them off but I am almost afraid of jinxing myself.

So you, what are your fears?

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