Wrote an awesome 3,354 words yesterday alone. I was super inspired and wrote almost to eleven o'clock last night. Unfortunately...it was all in a new story. Again.
However, this is a new story for one of my Series 1 siblings, for the eldest brother, Kaven. This is much, much more important than any of the Series 2 books I had been writing over the past four months. At least this is something that needs to get done sooner rather than later, and I have a good seed started on Kaven's plot. Not so sure about the heroine's name, etc., but after eight pages of writing in the past two days, it'll give me something to think about as I work on finishing "Kray".
Oooooooh yeaaaaaaah...
I'm supposed to finish a novel this month. **Grumble**
We're at 115,000 words currently, 222 pages. My finished cowboy novel is at 136,000 words, 236 pages. That's pretty decent sized, and I'm striving for that. More pages equals more fodder for agents and editors, which means the stuff they take out won't leave shit and bare bones.
Perhaps I'll think of the younger brother Kane and his story. If I'm inspired, perhaps I can squeeze out another 3,300 words. Maybe even 4,000...or 5,000!
As the younger titled son, he would tend to focus on a career in the military or politics or education or the like. So we'll put him in the military, and we'll make the heroine the nurse of his enemies. How does that sound? Cliche enough?
JLH
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
JNoWriMo is halfway over.
We've just rounded the hump that marks the middle of JNoWriMo for Februrary 2012. How much have I written this month?? 22,870 words.
So...I'm 2,200 short.
(Well, add a little bit more to that as the 15th isn't exactly the middle of the month. Being as how this is a 29-day month, I should be closer to 26,000 words than 25,000.)
The deficit is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. 2,200... that's, theoretically, a bonus day of writing. It's funny how all my shortages over the last few weeks have added up, however. From not writing any on some days to being maybe two- or three-hundred words away from my quotidian goal on others. Then there are the days when I write over 2,000 words (seriously...what was I smoking at the time that inspired me enough to write that much?) Whatever the outcome of each day, there really is no excuse to not write the predetermined 1,724 words each day.
I'm at a particularly exciting part of my story as I'm ramping up to the climax, too, and yet I can't write past a certain point! Slugging through this one story is not as appealing as writing bits and pieces of a brand new one, or meditating on characters and new plots. I know, I know...there's no real way to measure meditation except that it is a complete waste of time considering all the writing I could be doing. I mean, that's what I do when I write--I meditate.
This weekend will be tricky as I have a ton of stuff going on. On the flip side, I'm PMSing (might have something to do with my writer's block), which means that it's the eve of my follicular stage, which usually means (and I've noticed a trend here), that I'll be more excited to write. The weeks leading up to ovulation seem to be stimulating enough for me, and that will take me through the finish line of JNoWriMo.
I'll let you know how that goes.
JLH
So...I'm 2,200 short.
(Well, add a little bit more to that as the 15th isn't exactly the middle of the month. Being as how this is a 29-day month, I should be closer to 26,000 words than 25,000.)
The deficit is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. 2,200... that's, theoretically, a bonus day of writing. It's funny how all my shortages over the last few weeks have added up, however. From not writing any on some days to being maybe two- or three-hundred words away from my quotidian goal on others. Then there are the days when I write over 2,000 words (seriously...what was I smoking at the time that inspired me enough to write that much?) Whatever the outcome of each day, there really is no excuse to not write the predetermined 1,724 words each day.
I'm at a particularly exciting part of my story as I'm ramping up to the climax, too, and yet I can't write past a certain point! Slugging through this one story is not as appealing as writing bits and pieces of a brand new one, or meditating on characters and new plots. I know, I know...there's no real way to measure meditation except that it is a complete waste of time considering all the writing I could be doing. I mean, that's what I do when I write--I meditate.
This weekend will be tricky as I have a ton of stuff going on. On the flip side, I'm PMSing (might have something to do with my writer's block), which means that it's the eve of my follicular stage, which usually means (and I've noticed a trend here), that I'll be more excited to write. The weeks leading up to ovulation seem to be stimulating enough for me, and that will take me through the finish line of JNoWriMo.
I'll let you know how that goes.
JLH
Saturday, February 11, 2012
My thoughts on rejection; editing my cowboy novel in JNoWriMo.
As I sit in the sun on a glorious, lazy Saturday morning, working on (finally) editing my cowboy novel so I can start sending it out, I started thinking more and more about the process of sending stuff out, what that means, and what it means to get rejected.
As friends and family are urging me to get my stuff out--damn near coercing and using shrill tactics to hide their passive-aggressiveness on the topic--I continue to tell them that it's not about the destination so much as it is about the journey. I love writing and I love the prospect of coming home after a shitty day at work, open up my computer and pick any time period to write in. I become my favorite characters and live vicariously through them. Of course I want to be published someday, but I'm perfectly content to "float around aimlessly" for awhile, as I told a friend recently. Her response: "That's fine for awhile, just don't get lost." :/
Could it be my friends and family think I'm afraid of rejection? Could it be they're trying to "force" me to get my stuff out because maybe they think I won't do it on my own? Am I afraid of rejection??
While the prospect of being rejected isn't appealing, I truly find myself not really caring. Perhaps after all the rejection, I know I'll still have my writings to keep myself warm at night, even if they aren't available for other readers to do the same.
Plus, I've been rejected from so many jobs in the last four, five years that the idea of another rejection is just meh at best--I'm simply numb, and not afraid of rejection by any means.
And what I said is true: it's not merely the destination that matters, but the journey.
So as I battle time and again with my friends and family about my timeline of submittals to agents and publishers, I must keep in mind that they're doing it for my own good.
As long as they realize that I will continue on the next step when I'm good and ready.
That being said, it's time to dust off the cowboy novel I finished in 2010 NaNoWriMo. First rounds of editing have been sitting for the last year on the 10th page from the end, and that's just freehand edits--I still need to type out the corrections. DH said once again last night how I need to finish it and start sending it out..."no matter how bad it is or how much you don't like the story anymore." Got nothing to lose, right?
But in true NaNoWriMo form, a NoWriMo is reserved for writing ONLY. And while in an ideal world you should have a NoWriMo every other month, those "rest" months should be reserved for editing. That's what I gathered...Or, maybe, that's just a self-imposed plan that I have yet to follow through on. And if I follow this plan, that makes March a NoEdMo--Novel Editing Month.
My 1,724 word/day goal for February's JNoWriMo is still calling, which leaves little time extra for anything else.
Suck it up, J. Leigh. No excuses. Just shut up and do it!
And so I shall.
JLH
As friends and family are urging me to get my stuff out--damn near coercing and using shrill tactics to hide their passive-aggressiveness on the topic--I continue to tell them that it's not about the destination so much as it is about the journey. I love writing and I love the prospect of coming home after a shitty day at work, open up my computer and pick any time period to write in. I become my favorite characters and live vicariously through them. Of course I want to be published someday, but I'm perfectly content to "float around aimlessly" for awhile, as I told a friend recently. Her response: "That's fine for awhile, just don't get lost." :/
Could it be my friends and family think I'm afraid of rejection? Could it be they're trying to "force" me to get my stuff out because maybe they think I won't do it on my own? Am I afraid of rejection??
While the prospect of being rejected isn't appealing, I truly find myself not really caring. Perhaps after all the rejection, I know I'll still have my writings to keep myself warm at night, even if they aren't available for other readers to do the same.
Plus, I've been rejected from so many jobs in the last four, five years that the idea of another rejection is just meh at best--I'm simply numb, and not afraid of rejection by any means.
And what I said is true: it's not merely the destination that matters, but the journey.
So as I battle time and again with my friends and family about my timeline of submittals to agents and publishers, I must keep in mind that they're doing it for my own good.
As long as they realize that I will continue on the next step when I'm good and ready.
That being said, it's time to dust off the cowboy novel I finished in 2010 NaNoWriMo. First rounds of editing have been sitting for the last year on the 10th page from the end, and that's just freehand edits--I still need to type out the corrections. DH said once again last night how I need to finish it and start sending it out..."no matter how bad it is or how much you don't like the story anymore." Got nothing to lose, right?
But in true NaNoWriMo form, a NoWriMo is reserved for writing ONLY. And while in an ideal world you should have a NoWriMo every other month, those "rest" months should be reserved for editing. That's what I gathered...Or, maybe, that's just a self-imposed plan that I have yet to follow through on. And if I follow this plan, that makes March a NoEdMo--Novel Editing Month.
My 1,724 word/day goal for February's JNoWriMo is still calling, which leaves little time extra for anything else.
Suck it up, J. Leigh. No excuses. Just shut up and do it!
And so I shall.
JLH
Friday, February 10, 2012
I need to focus more...
Well. I can see that JNoWriMo is continuing on with mixed success.
While I continue to stay on track with my word count (with ebbs and flows, admittedly), I'm still being naughty and writing in stories that are far, far down the road. The goal is to finish "Kray" and then "Kayt", but I'm working on the kids' kids' stories instead, like "Arick", "Dimitri", "Lyuba" and "Darwin". And while I was proactive in my post-it frenzy, and while that helps a bit with organization, it's all time spent away from one goal: completion.
This weekend will be a standard 4,000-6,000 word goal, which will make up for some bumps I had this week.
Focus, J. Leigh. Stay on track.
JLH
While I continue to stay on track with my word count (with ebbs and flows, admittedly), I'm still being naughty and writing in stories that are far, far down the road. The goal is to finish "Kray" and then "Kayt", but I'm working on the kids' kids' stories instead, like "Arick", "Dimitri", "Lyuba" and "Darwin". And while I was proactive in my post-it frenzy, and while that helps a bit with organization, it's all time spent away from one goal: completion.
This weekend will be a standard 4,000-6,000 word goal, which will make up for some bumps I had this week.
Focus, J. Leigh. Stay on track.
JLH
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
More fun with post-its.
I played with some more post-its and figured in the two brothers' stories in with the five sisters' stories:
Still don't know what to write about for the two boys, but I think I'm going to have Kane be a soldier fighting in some war on Earth. There he meets the heroine. Not sure if he's wounded and she's a nurse? Or is she just a civilian? Is she the enemy? Who knows.
Then I wrote out the list of the kids' kids in two orders: birth order and book order.
The two columns of the book order (the right side) delineate the six kids who are on the ship (left) and the kids who have their own independent stories (right). The "ship" story is sort of a series within a series, but we'll see how the other stories intertwine.
JLH
Still don't know what to write about for the two boys, but I think I'm going to have Kane be a soldier fighting in some war on Earth. There he meets the heroine. Not sure if he's wounded and she's a nurse? Or is she just a civilian? Is she the enemy? Who knows.
Then I wrote out the list of the kids' kids in two orders: birth order and book order.
The two columns of the book order (the right side) delineate the six kids who are on the ship (left) and the kids who have their own independent stories (right). The "ship" story is sort of a series within a series, but we'll see how the other stories intertwine.
JLH
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Day 2 of JNoWriMo.
February 2012's JNoWriMo started off with a bang when I exceeded my daily word goal both yesterday and today. Unfortunately, it was all for the wrong story. I want--no, I need--to finish "Kray" before I do anything else, or I'm going to wind up writing myself in circles and getting horribly frustrated in the process.
What I've been writing in these past few days is another of the kids: Kaven's son, Leviticus Vaughn. Another sweet story of a highborn prince falling for someone below his station. Very Cinderella-esque, but without all that evil stepmother and fairy godmother bullshit.
The other thing I worked on yesterday: the post-its and posterboards. The family tree is a very nicely organized series of columns of post-its, with spaces reserved for those who have no names yet (a few of the kids, and both Kaven and Kane's spouses.) We're getting there.
Here's the fantasy family tree, post-it style:
A bit harder to read, I know, but this is my bedroom door with ideas for planet names and the regions/continents/countries/kingdoms that go with each one. A serious work in progress. Thank god I don't have children yet.
JLH
What I've been writing in these past few days is another of the kids: Kaven's son, Leviticus Vaughn. Another sweet story of a highborn prince falling for someone below his station. Very Cinderella-esque, but without all that evil stepmother and fairy godmother bullshit.
The other thing I worked on yesterday: the post-its and posterboards. The family tree is a very nicely organized series of columns of post-its, with spaces reserved for those who have no names yet (a few of the kids, and both Kaven and Kane's spouses.) We're getting there.
Here's the fantasy family tree, post-it style:
A bit harder to read, I know, but this is my bedroom door with ideas for planet names and the regions/continents/countries/kingdoms that go with each one. A serious work in progress. Thank god I don't have children yet.
JLH
Thursday, January 19, 2012
An update.
I've officially given up on JMoWriMo for this month, mostly because I wanted to wind down a bit more from the holidays. This February is a shorter month, true (though, not too short with the Leap Year and all), and already promising to be a bit more low-key. I'll pick up my monthly challenge again in a couple weeks.
I haven't written in "Kray" since NaNoWriMo because I've sort of reached a wall and can't figure out the next step in the story. I don't know what I want her and Rok to find in the compound after eradicating the Ratiri, but we're damn close to climax right now.
I also wrote myself into a bit of a corner: this book not only introduces Kayt and Kailyynn--Books 2 and 4--but it also introduces the oldest of the two brothers, Kaven, whom as of yet has no timeline, no story and no heroine. I had always planned the five sisters to have two brothers, but they have never--never--played a role in the sisters' stories until now.
And now as I sneak my way into pre-planning for the series after this one, the one that focuses on all of their children, I'm pissed that I not only have the sisters' eleven children to write stories for--that's right: eleven--but what roles do brothers Kaven and Kane and their wives play in the stories and on the island? And their children?
Since I started writing tidbits of "Luciana", Sebastyan and Kailyynn's daughter's story, I've planned out a bit for a few more, including two of Rowan and Kayt's sons, Darwin Alexander and Marshall Maximillian, and Dagibyr and Karyi's second son, Arick.
(Incidentally, "Arick" shook out a few juicy scenes [and by "juicy" I don't necessarily mean sexy, although there was a scene or two of that] at the end of last week. And I became a writing fiend in the desperate need to get all the dialogue and plot points down. From Friday the 13th to Monday the 16th, I wrote over 12,000 words.)
I figured that second brother Kane and his wife would have twin daughters, and then I thought it would be cute to give them an A-name and a Z-name, so there you go--Ava and Zoë.
As the royal family tree started turning into the family Great Banyan Tree, an idea occurred...
Posterboard and post-its.
A do believe tacking a posterboard with people, plot points and planets will not only keep me sane and my thoughts on track, but it will inspire me more each day to see my ideas come to fruition. I will wake up seeing that posterboard glaring me in the face, and I will smile and think, Yes, indeed, I am quite pleased with the name "Leviticus Vaughn" and my choice for his journey towards love and passion.
Which brings me to another point: geography. I had already decided long ago that this takes place in our Universe when other livable planets have been discovered. I never had any names or descriptions of these planets until very recently. Pretty soon I fear my entire bedroom will be masked in posterboard with poorly-drawn maps of fake planets, along with the biospheres that encompass them and the groups of people who inhabit them. I'm no cartographer, geographer or sociologist, and yet this makes me giddy with anticipation.
Hold your horses there, J. Leigh. You still have a series of five (actually seven) books to finish.
And thus is my problem. I get so damn excited about future and beyond-future projects that I forget about the stuff that I'm working on currently, the stuff that has the best chance of being done because it's almost done.
JNoWriMo will be all about that: completion. Every other month will be editing, research and dabbling in other stories.
Sounds like a good plan.
JLH
I haven't written in "Kray" since NaNoWriMo because I've sort of reached a wall and can't figure out the next step in the story. I don't know what I want her and Rok to find in the compound after eradicating the Ratiri, but we're damn close to climax right now.
I also wrote myself into a bit of a corner: this book not only introduces Kayt and Kailyynn--Books 2 and 4--but it also introduces the oldest of the two brothers, Kaven, whom as of yet has no timeline, no story and no heroine. I had always planned the five sisters to have two brothers, but they have never--never--played a role in the sisters' stories until now.
And now as I sneak my way into pre-planning for the series after this one, the one that focuses on all of their children, I'm pissed that I not only have the sisters' eleven children to write stories for--that's right: eleven--but what roles do brothers Kaven and Kane and their wives play in the stories and on the island? And their children?
Since I started writing tidbits of "Luciana", Sebastyan and Kailyynn's daughter's story, I've planned out a bit for a few more, including two of Rowan and Kayt's sons, Darwin Alexander and Marshall Maximillian, and Dagibyr and Karyi's second son, Arick.
(Incidentally, "Arick" shook out a few juicy scenes [and by "juicy" I don't necessarily mean sexy, although there was a scene or two of that] at the end of last week. And I became a writing fiend in the desperate need to get all the dialogue and plot points down. From Friday the 13th to Monday the 16th, I wrote over 12,000 words.)
I figured that second brother Kane and his wife would have twin daughters, and then I thought it would be cute to give them an A-name and a Z-name, so there you go--Ava and Zoë.
As the royal family tree started turning into the family Great Banyan Tree, an idea occurred...
Posterboard and post-its.
A do believe tacking a posterboard with people, plot points and planets will not only keep me sane and my thoughts on track, but it will inspire me more each day to see my ideas come to fruition. I will wake up seeing that posterboard glaring me in the face, and I will smile and think, Yes, indeed, I am quite pleased with the name "Leviticus Vaughn" and my choice for his journey towards love and passion.
Which brings me to another point: geography. I had already decided long ago that this takes place in our Universe when other livable planets have been discovered. I never had any names or descriptions of these planets until very recently. Pretty soon I fear my entire bedroom will be masked in posterboard with poorly-drawn maps of fake planets, along with the biospheres that encompass them and the groups of people who inhabit them. I'm no cartographer, geographer or sociologist, and yet this makes me giddy with anticipation.
Hold your horses there, J. Leigh. You still have a series of five (actually seven) books to finish.
And thus is my problem. I get so damn excited about future and beyond-future projects that I forget about the stuff that I'm working on currently, the stuff that has the best chance of being done because it's almost done.
JNoWriMo will be all about that: completion. Every other month will be editing, research and dabbling in other stories.
Sounds like a good plan.
JLH
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)