10.02.09
Countdown to NaNo
Here we are, October 2nd. The boards have been wiped clean and are fresh and sparkley for new posts. Time to really panic.
I have a plot, I have a murderer, I have a victim. Fab.
I’m missing a title, no big deal.
I AM MISSING A MAIN CHARACTER. Usually they show up early, leaving me little ear worms. This time I’m not hearing little whispers, seeing brief glimpses…so if she could come out hiding I would really, really appreciate that.
Hopefully she’ll come to me in the next few days so I can get her sorted out with plenty of time before NaNo starts.
10.21.08
Laying It All Out
My plot that is.
After some more fiddling with yWriter I’ve found that I can actually use it to lay out my plot…or outline…that’s what the label is in yWriter. After I add the chapters I want, I can put in a brief description so that I can easily see what each one is about. Then to each chapter I can add scenes, as many or as few as I want. Each scene has several things you can do, add locations, characters, who’s point of view you’re writing in…very handy stuff.
So how did this solve my need for paper? Once you’ve got your scenes worked out you can print them out into a card format. Love this feature.
Now that I have my basic scenes worked out I think I need to beef them up with a good sub plot. Before I even do that I need to finish rounding out the rest of my cast. Which I definitely feel up for now….so I’m off for outline and plot revisions…huzzah.
10.20.08
NaNoWriMo Insanity Is Creeping In…
Well here we are. Twelve days until NaNoWriMo, and I’m getting sucked in slowly but surely. I was having a problem getting my enthusiasm up and I wasn’t terribly enamoured with my plot. I stuck with it though and slogged through the vague ideas I had and I’m finally now able to work out a plot line.
The character’s details always come after the for me. I find that once I get my plot all lined up I choose someone to follow, the plot for me is what gives my characters a voice.
So today I’m trying to continue work on my plot line. I’m tired of wading through my messy, hand scrawled notes. While I enjoy having sheets of paper to handle, I prefer to have them typed up and easier to read…never mind that you can fit more on one sheet. So now, I just have to figure out the best way for me to type out my time line so that I have some direction….which will come in handy around word 23, 452 when I start denting the wall with my head and wonder why the heck I do this to myself.
So…what do you do with your plot? How do you keep track of who does what and where they do it? Do you need paper to handle, places to scribble in extra notes? Tell me all about it!
07.29.08
What In the World??
Pardon the silence I’ve been sucked back into NaNoWriMo crazies. I’ve realized that I’ve only got a little over 4 months to create an entire world. Not just the physical world, but the people, their laws, religion, guilds, armies, governments and lord knows what else.
I’m currently stuck on names. I’ve chosen to use Germanic names for my little characters and I really like the sound of them.
I have a love/hate relationship with NaNo, as I’m sure most do. I find myself getting sucked in for a few weeks of preparation and then I can ease off and let go again until the actual insanity of actually writing the words takes over.
So if I’m quiet over the next few days I can guarantee that I’m either at some obscure little website learning about armies (wtf?), or guilds (thank goodness I know the basics from WoW), or I’m off in my little alternate universe creating a history of an entire people.
4 MONTHS. Someone remind me why I do this?
Need help building your world? Try this. What about a map? You need to know where you little being are living right? Both of these sites have been a huge help, although I did feel a touch of panic when I saw all of the things I need to do. I’ve never built an entire world before and the amount of work involved was almost enough to make me choose to give up and move onto something easier…but what’s the fun in that?
Wish me luck.
07.04.08
The Flat Shimmy
I went to my first daytime belly dance class today. It was a nice mix of intermediate and beginner ladies with a varied age range. A nice change from the normal 30 somethings I usually have class with. This class seemed much more relaxed in their dancing…not that they weren’t trying hard, there just seemed to be a zen feel to the room. Joharah kicked our asses with leg and shoulder exercises and I’m already feeling the pain. Ugh.
Beautiful day today! Nothing like sun and warm breezes to make the day right.
My writing is feeling kind flat, no real reason why…just flat and bland. I’m never sure why this happens but there it is…that flat line of the death of creativity. I’ll just keep writing until I get through it I guess. Nothing quite as exciting as reading an uninspired blogger trying to work through a massive blockage.
05.08.08
Let’s Hear It for the IT Guy!
It’s a real bonus to be married to a computer geek! He found out how to get my USB key working again, there was some kind of hate on for Vista. Now I have most of my story…which means I didn’t save the whole thing onto that key. I guess now I have no excuse for not reading it. So I aim to do that this week. This is step one in editing as far as I can tell and it’s bound to be painful to not actually make any corrections. I suppose this is good practice though for when I actually write something that has a chance in hell of being published. I think I need to work on my writing confidence.
Pretty quiet day around here, having some friends around for burgers. She hasn’t met MC yet so this should be funny. He hates meeting new people, he goes mute and won’t let go of me.
05.07.08
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid
Seriously…I feel really stupid right now. I had my NaNoWriMo saved in THREE places plus one hard copy.
- Laptop – Which then died a slow and painful death so I put it on…
- USB Key – Which won’t work, but I thought ahead and saved it on…
- One of the other desktop computers – Which is no longer hooked up and now I’m starting to doubt I even saved it there.
So what does that leave me with? Retyping over 60,000 freaking words.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. It’s okay just ignore me as I bang my head against the wall.
