It Begins Again

So my experimentation with these writing contests is advancing and I'm assuming at the moment that after a month long writing contest one requires about three weeks of off time. I've come to this conclusion from the fact that though I entered National Novel Finishing Month and said I'd finish off my Arkanos Book One, I've written a measly 1K during the whole of December. However I won't call it "epic fail" because it's 1,000 words of that final chapter of Electrostatic Fantasy that I never wrote! :)

But New Year's is fast approaching and so are two new contests. JanNoWriMo as well as Writing Year. And sadly yes, the "I didn't do any writing" does extend to plots as well, for my January novel is but the first few sentences planned. This cloud has a silver lining though.

After working on something as intricate and complicated as Arkanos, I yearned to write an epic fantasy which was a bit more...oh what's the term?...linear and straight forward. I mean for the love of pie Arkanos has enough plot twists to tie half my brain into a bow, I need some distance after enduring 50,000 words of it! Don't get me wrong, Arkanos is my baby and I intend to see her to the end, whether that be a fine or a bitter one. But I don't think I'll be writing a story as massive and complicated again any time soon.

This is where Through Glass comes in. That's the story I'd mentioned before: "Through the Looking Glass". I'll be writing that in January and updating the My Novels tab about it too. Although the plots are...nonexistent...the plot is far less tricky and meticulous that my previous project. I've already got a basic idea of how the whole time line will play out, I just need to work out a few fine points. I should be able to pull through okay even without exhaustive plotting...hopefully. ^_^

I have no idea how Writing Year (WriYe) will turn out. It's a big jump, I'll admit, to go from planning a word goal for a month (when you've written nothing before) to planning one for a whole year (when you've written 130K total). My initial target for 2011 is 510,000 words, but we'll see how that changes during the year. ^_^

Well I better get plotting Through Glass before I dose off. Wouldn't want to waste a perfectly good night of writing. Ha ha!

I'll post again before the new year to send you guys holiday wishes properly. ^_^

Holiday Mayhem

That time of the year has arrived. Now together everybody! Let's run around like headless chickens trying to get a month's worth of work done in under 24 hours! I mean it wouldn't be Christmas without a bit of a lot of chaos, right?

I mean what fun would there be in Christmas if there weren't a few things...like say computer programs or websites for example, testing your patience? What interest or excitement would there be in Christmas if you'd gotten the most important presents handled ages ago and wouldn't have that overbearing pressure of a ticking clock on Eve's eve?

I've got pretty much all of my presents bought and ready and my wallet is finally letting out a long sigh of relief. Only thing is my handmade presents aren't finished and now I've got 18 hours to get them done. -_-;;

Now that also wouldn't be a problem if one of them wasn't in the first stages.

Needless to say my writing has suffered. I must admit here in public, I've only written 600 words in the whole of December. I have done some plotting, but of course it doesn't compare in the least to November's type-a-thon.

Now that I think about it that means I've got until New Year's to complete plots (or at least get them rolling) for Through the Looking Glass. I'm probably going to rename it though. JanNoWriMo is fast approaching, and so are the rest of the months. Oooh nelly. I better not think about all the work that's piling up too much or it'll make my head spin. ^_^

Drat, have I got to get typing so that I'll have some nice stuff to post into this blog as well. :) But for now...

!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW !!!

And a huge thanks to absolutely everyone for visiting my blog :)

The Dog Prince by Fun London

So a few days late but here it is! I promised to write about a short story by Fun London called The Dog Prince. First book/story review I've ever done as well. ^_^

This is the story of how a dog became the prince of an entire country, for indeed without him there would have been no country to rule at all.

Set about 5000 years ago in the small kingdom of Brink, the story tells of the young boy Ammed and his trusty friend Paint and their adventure during the Festival of Loaves.

There's a short excerpt of the story on Fun London's webpage which you can read here.

I really enjoyed the Dog Prince! The most pleasant surprise for me was how well it was written for a short story. Personally I struggle with short stories because I can't really get my head around how to fit the many ideas in my head into such a limited number of words. Literally I worry that my description will end up over-short and the reader will be left seeing question marks. But The Dog Prince definitely didn't fall into that question mark category, no sir. My favourite part was how easy it was to picture the world and action.

I think its a great tale, and from a writer's point of view a good example of a well written short story.

I warmly recommend it. The Dog Prince is on sale at Amazon.com, there's a link on Fun London's page and it's only $2.99. Go ahead and check it out guys. ;)

It's Addictive...And I Know I Should Resist Temptation...

But I can't help the fact that studying Japanese just seems so much more interesting than the rest of life right now. T_T

Oh woe I had a bad feeling about this. There was something churning in my gut that said once November was over I'd hit the lazy hay. I've got Christmas cards which I should be making, I'm about 5,000 words behind on my NaNoFiMo, I've a package that needs sending, blogging that should be getting finished...and what am I actually doing? Sitting in front of my laptop, glued to the internet watching Bleach episodes and surfing on language learning sites. I re-discovered LiveMocha.com and I've been surfing around there. I feel glued! Anime and 日本語 (nihongo = Japanese) are taking over my life. I should be writing!

On top of that the weather here is horrific. Cold. Snow. And LOTS of it. It literally turned from a grew to a winter wonderland

scene overnight, and I'm not kidding. I'm not even exaggerating. One night I got to bed and I can see the same old asphalt I've been staring at all summer. I wake up in the morning and everything is white. Now I don't want to put one foot out of the door. It's not really the cold that bothers me, it's the ritual of preparations that I have to go through before walking 50 metres to...get the post. It's ridiculous. I mean look at that scene!!

I just noticed that in a single day at the end of November I'd written nearly 9,000 words. Yeah, I smashed nearly 1/5 of November's bounty in 24 hours of brutal, non-stop and slightly excruciating typing. Right now, just like after drawing a great picture, I look at it with hindsight and say "how the hell did I pull that off?" But it was done. It was possible and it was done. So now I think that if I could get through that catching up with all the deadlines fast approaching right now isn't actually half as difficult as it might feel. So I will pull myself together now and catch up. That's a promise!

Tomorrow I'll be posting my first book recommendation about a story by a talented up-and-coming writer, Fun London. I love reading works by other budding novelists. I've come across works by non-published authors which have made me think "just exactly why isn't this published again? It's darn well good enough to be!" This is one of them. But more on that tomorrow.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to sneak off for another guilty Bleach episode (at 1.20 AM) =^_^=

I Said I'd Do It And I Did

Well, there it is. 50,180 words of Arkanos typed out and verified by the original, notorious word-eating NaNoWriMo word count validator, believe it! :D (Incredibly, this year it gave me 3 words. My yWriter counter says I've got 50,177 words :P But meh, can't argue with the machine ^.^)

Arkanos is by no means finished. Heck I haven't even spotted the midway point on the horizon yet. I'll be participating in NaNoFiMo and batting out some more words on it, hoping to at least hit halfway home. I know if I drop off for a long time and only pick this up to continue say next July, I know my mind will have zoned-out of the setting to such a degree I won't really remember what's happened. Especially those mid-Write or Die session epiphanies that sound great but maybe aren't which you never bother to note down anywhere, but not like you'd have time to anyway. Those will be in risk of vanishing into the realm of not-coming-back if I just drop everything now as is.

I remember end of '09 NaNo I somehow felt so exhausted and like I just couldn't drag it out of myself to continue with Electrostatic Fantasy. It was missing two, three chapters and in dire need of editing. I told myself I should keep going, to get editing and finish up by the new year. Heck no, I was exhausted and slightly exasperated with the thing (and perhaps I'm not the only NaNoer who gets this). So I decided to take a short break, enjoy the holidays and get back to it later. Mistake. "Later" turned out to be three months later, then another break and then again a bit of editing in July. And by that time I'd "relaxed" so well and truly I couldn't remember the finer points anymore. My concept of my own story was, "oh yeah, there's that mermaid guy and he goes around and they do this kinda stuff don't they? And, oh yeah! There was that one character there, wasn't it?" I felt like walking up to someone else and asking what had happened!

Thank heavens it was pretty much completely written (okay, save for the final chapter which I haven't first-drafted to this day ^v^;;)

But I am nevertheless a NaNoWriMo 2010 winner!! XD

I can't get enough of that. And I've probably 24 hours worth of sleep dept to show for it too. :) I wanted that pretty certificate on my wall and I got it. Yeah, you heard correctly. My main reason for doing all of this was to get a certificate that had the number "2010" on it and which I knew I'd earned fair and square.

Today I took a day off of everything I've been working on: the greetings card making, the novel plotting, the novel writing (oh God yes!)... just everything. I slept until 4 PM and since then have been playing Valkyrie Profile 2. Then a nip into the sauna and voila! I feel like I've had a day at the spa. ^_^

And tomorrow I'm gonna start on a project I'm quite excited about: plots the next novel which I'm planning to write during JanNoWriMo. The current name is Through the Looking Glass, and you guessed it, it's also fantasy. Wha? No it's not an Alice in Wonderland spin-off or anything (although I love doing those!) Ironically the story bears no similarity to Lewis Carroll's work at all. I'll write more on it in another post and I'll probably be updating the My Novels page eventually about it too.

Until then...still basking in this moment that comes only once per a noveling November! ^_^

Some Excellent Advice For Getting Through NaNoWriMo, Getting Unstuck In Writing And Finishing Your Novel

TYPE, DAMMIT!

Oh dang...

I'm behind!

Day 17 of NaNo and I'm still hanging at just below 25K. Thank heavens I had that 3K buffer when I decided to take a break or I'd be so deep in the ground right now.

Although I have almost finished playing Aqua's story in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep... See? I've been doing something. ^_^

Hoping to get on and bust out a nice 3K today. And according to my trusty calculator that's about what I'll need in order to catch up. Okay, strictly speaking it's 3.5K, but who's being that pedantic? ...*cough, cough*

The slightly worrying thing is that my interest in slightly waning. It's just that I'm approaching the magical 30K mark where Arkanos Book One died last time and I'm slowing down. Fingers crossed there won't be any repeat performances. =/ Just got to keep going I guess.

Better hurry off before I get stuck doing something else online again. Like watching Bleach or streaming YouTube vids or...

Not to give anyone the idea that I've got a standard list of stuff I get stuck doing or anything...

Boo-yah!!

I guess the capitalised Week Two of NaNoWriMo is the one that gives the most trouble to quite a few writers. It was the week in which, last year, I went three days without typing a single word, and finally had to force myself onto the keyboard lest the whole thing drop entirely.

This year, without even realising it until now, I applied the perfect cure to the Week Two curse before it even started. Extended Word War!

I'm having so much fun. I'm competing with a Writing Buddy to see who gets the higher word count by Friday midnight. And honestly, it gives me such a kick in the pants just thinking about this competition I'm in.

I might be ahead right now, at 20K. But I keep thinking that if I stop and take a day off, the next time I log in, next to his username there's going to be sparkling a number 5k bigger than mine with the words "mwa ha haa" materialising next to it and I'll have to re-enact a Luke Skywalker backwards suicide dive through the Death Star.

In other words, I doubt I'd be half as inspired right now had there been no Word War.

I also keep switching playlists; although I am still sticking mostly to RPG background music tracks, except for the occasional lapse into Breaking Benjamin albums for fight scenes (they're tough enough to write as it is, I need some sweet motivation ^__^).

And I finally got that synopsis written on my NaNo profile! :D *roars and applause* Better late than never, eh?

Yesterday was such a fantastic day! After getting past the first real fight scene on Tuesday, yesterday I wrote out a big dialogue & explanation bit and it was such a breeze. How refreshing to get to write a bit that is actually my forté. I bashed out a nice 3K as well!

Just need to keep the trend going. I'm expecting that I'll need to enter NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month) in December though. I mean I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch or anything, but I'm still not seeing this thing unfolding entirely in just 50K.

Well, next two weeks will say for sure. :)

NaNo Day 5: It's All About "De Mood"

Okay, vague Little Mermaid reference there, but it is all about "De Mood."

NaNoWriMo '10 has started and I'm frankly elated as a party balloon right about now. It's going well. It's going better than well. And that means it's going A LOT better than I feared it would just a month ago. This is all good stuff.

Right this minute my yWriter is announcing a total of 9485 words exactly and I'm not even done for the evening. :)

I never did write that synopsis in time (which I still need to do) but I did accidentally find the perfect playlist for fueling my keyboard tapping passion: I'm listening to game background soundtracks!

And not just any games, the Valkyrie Profile background soundtracks! XD All hail YouTube!

And this is what I mean about "de mood." When I tune in to those tunes, it sends me right into de zone. I mean I tap, tap, tap a little, check my count, turn on some beats, tap, tap tap some more and oh goodness how did that thousand words go by?

I'm also at the end of Chapter 2. Yay!

I wrote a letter to my grandma and in it I actually (again, accidentally) wrote one of the best synopses of Arkanos to date and I saved a copy of it. I should really translate it and get it posted on here and on NaNo. But right now, I'm way too tired for that (midnight).

Okay, need to get back to typing now. Sacramento has declared an official word war against Finland on their NaNo regional forum, and that means I've got to help my guys beat them. =3 They won last year, but only by 12 words per person. We were ahead of them until literally the last few days.

But not so easy this year. OOOOh no! XD

I Find This Out Now?!

Great.

Funnily I was assuming that my backpack, which I used for carrying my laptop to NaNo meets last year, was lying safely forgotten at the back of my closet unused. But last night I sort of got thinking, "Hmm, yeah, the backpack. Should probably start getting it out right about now. Just a week of preps left." And then it hit me, shoot, it's not here!

And it's not just a matter of "oh I forgot it at grandma's." No I didn't forget it at grandma's. I didn't forget it at work. I didn't forget it in the car. I forgot it abroad.

Yes. Total shoot-yourself-in-the-foot moment, innit? So unfortunately it isn't a simple case of just popping next door and picking it up.

I've got a small job from which I should be getting a bit of coin so I can pay the public transport for November. Hopefully I'll get that in time, and then it's just a case of dashing out like a mad chicken to find another bag. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping (and I mean really love shopping). Just kind of annoying. I could use that same money to buy something more useful, like...the next Kingdom Hearts game or the latest DVD installment of Naruto.

Last week of October is turning out to be the most hectic. I'm not 100% if the money will make it in time, if I'll find a decent bag in time, and also I haven't gotten in touch with my writing rival yet. I wonder if he's doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Besides that, and it was probably kind of inopportune, but I've re-discovered the magic of my PS2.

Oh man, I wonder how November will go... LOL ^__^

Oh-ho-ooh Dear...

Yeah, umm...last post when I said I was halfway through my plotting...yeah, I kind of lied. That's what happens when you post before counting the actual pages that you've been plotting on. I'm not halfway through. In fact I think I'm more like a quarter of the way through. Yikes!

And I have *mutters while counting off the calendar* oh, just about 10 days left...

Yikes!! O_o

However, after some weaving and sewing and a bit of knitting together of the plot threads, Arkanos is still holding together and I'm daring to believe it will pull through the madness of November.

I've actually gotten into chapter four of Mistborn Book One as well, which I'm pretty dang happy about since I'm not as active a reader as I probably should be. I admit, I take a lot more inspiration from anime and manga than I should. Reading Mistborn really brings into view how much benefit reading literary novels instead of graphic ones brings to my writing. I've already discovered several answers to simple questions and confusions I had, mainly about writing style. So if I were to read a few other kinds of novels too... My general tripping point is the fact that I just take ages to read. It's not that they aren't interesting, it only that I know it will take forever. Although Mistborn is right up my alley, which is the reason I know I'll finish that one.

Dang...I never know quite how to end these things off. Same freaking thing with my novels. *Sigh* Better get back to typing stuff up then...

50/50

So October is going fast.

We're pretty much halfway through the month and luckily I'm about halfway through my prep book! Well...sort of. I'm honestly relieved though that the story is jelling as well as it is. At the start of October my biggest fear was that right about now the plot would resemble a ball of yarn after a kitten has gotten to it. Just about that level of clarity and order.

But it's actually going well. And for one, I'm not bored with it (another massive factor in whether or not a novel will die or live with me). Honestly, if all I can keep thinking about while writing is, "why are my characters bothering with this adventure?" then I just can't find the determination to get that 50k out of me.

Finally managed to clean my room as well, which is nice.

Hmm...I'm running out of stuff to say. I guess I'll leave it at this and write something giant another day.

Burning the Midnight Oil

And a bit of the wee-hours oil while we're at it.

I don't know if my being on the computer has gone a bit too far, but at least last night's late surfing was for a good reason.

Since now comes one of my equally favourite parts of NaNoWriMo, the ART!

Last year went by mostly amidst my manuscript, since I'd decided to go with a not-yet-my-darling story idea for my first time. And I didn't really get any illustration done on time. Well, actually I still haven't finished it, but why get caught up in the details...heh.

Anyway, after some toiling and three different variations, this is the banner I chose as a banner for the NaNo forums.

Only annoying thing was that I had to use the JPEG version, which came out a little...scruffy-er. But sadly, even with reduced dimensions, the next smallest file type already fell about 20KB above the max limit. Oh well, even though a new year with new toys (graphics) is a fun idea to play with, in the end it's the story itself that's the most important, isn't it?

Which reminds me, I still have to write that synopsis!

It's been fun getting back in touch with all my NaNo buddies and competitors from last year! The more I chat with them again, the more I start to itch for this coming month. Last time I had some really even and tough competition from some, and quite simply ate the dust of others. And it was fun as anything the whole way through!

So on that note, I'm going to end off on a little plug for those guys, and say that everyone on my Writing Buddies list on NaNo is a tough and awesome writer! ;)

Okay, Deep Breath, Stay Calm...STAY CALM!

Getting into the swing of actually doing something after a streak of wanting nothing more than late nights with chaining Bleach episodes, is curious but not as hard as I thought.

Okay, maybe it has something to do with the fact that NaNoWriMo is only 21 days away *whiskey shot in here*, I admit it. But still that "actually doing something-ness" carries the freshness of a tangy lemon drink :D

All joking aside, it feels good to be active in my trade again. I've mobilized from my bat cave and finally gotten on with "healing" the broken plot of Arkanos Memorycatcher. Alongside that I've updated some of my files on my magic system, made copies of my calendar pages for October and November (want to cross those days off, but don't want to mess up my awesome manga calendar XD), started posting again on the NaNo forums and eaten 15 yogurts and 32 jelly beans.

I should be reading more of the first Mistborn book too, for pointers on fight scenes and just because I think it's the cat's PJs, but one baby step at a time I guess. Haha!

I'll update the synopses and excerpts of Arkanos soon as I can during November.

And now I better get back to procrast— I mean novel related plot and writing style research.

Teehee? ^__^;;

NaNoWriMo 2010!

Yes, that last year went a lot faster than I was expecting last December. And yet, here we are! NaNo 2010 will kick off very soon and thus now begin the preparations of hoarding food and writing materials into the place that shall become one's Den for the month of November. And without a doubt, I am definitely going to bring home another certificate for my budding Wall of Stuff I've Actually Finished. Wohoo! :D

Okay, I admit it, I'm definitely a bit more nervous than I was last year. I'm going to be working on Arkanos again and now I'm untangling the plot which gave way during JulNoWriMo. NaNo is definitely bigger than its spin-off companion, but still I remain slightly worried and keep hoping that the plot will not drop off so drastically that I lose interest to write or strength to fix some barrier. But chin up, stomach in and chest out! There are definitely more up sides than down sides.

I'm truly happy about the fact that NaNo is so international now that even here in Finland there are NaNo meets which can be attended. And let me tell you how encouraging they can be! And besides that, funny and unexpected stuff can happen. Last year, when we all gathered at a café called Wayne's, a guy approached us and asked to take a picture since he'd "never seen so many computers in one place at the same time before."

Surfing about the forums, I see that the buzz is already growing! If anyone would like to get in touch and have a word war or just otherwise chat, feel free to visit my NaNoWriMo page.

May the games begin!!

Take A Leaf From Someone Else's Book

Isn't it interesting that before you actually go out and do something in practice that there are some questions and difficulties about said subject that just won't occur to you beforehand? I definitely learned that when I came to fighting my first fight scenes. Well granted it was NaNoWriMo time and of course the rule there will be "WRITE IT, no one cares about the quality." It's wonderful to just be able to write anything that pops into your head since you're confident that this version will never see the light of day anyway. But oh the woe when editing comes about.

So a friend of mine suggested the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, said the fight scenes are well written. I finally managed to buy the first book, and I'm loving this!

Okay, so I might be at a bit of a disadvantage since I've never really been good with thick books (and now I've got myself a two-incher). But text is so addictive XD

On a similar note, I made the mistake of taking in the date and...screamed. NaNoWriMo 2010 is just around the corner, and I've got to get plotting! And I'm definitely going to win this year, because it's a nice and lovely even year. I'll be completing Arkanos, the story that I had to drop back in JulNoWriMo 2010.

Although, armed with Brandon's Mistborn and a few example style tips from the text, I should be able to write fight scenes easier. But hey, it's NaNoWriMo. So push come to shove, I'll just hum and tap the keyboard aimlessly!

You Know It Needs Editing When...

So I'm reading my EF aloud to my mother. Yes, granted I'd only gone over it once for the first edits. But it's a funny feeling when you read over something you've written yourself and find yourself saying: "What they saw was...*pause*...uhh, wait...what?"

For me it was the funniest thing when I realized I wasn't sure what the text, of which I was the creator, was saying. That's got to be the point where it dawns on one that there's still some work to do.

Actually, it was then that I realized what a fellow writer friend of mine meant when he commented that "it's a little hard to follow who's talking all the time. Suggest substituting fewer nominal references with pronouns." Yeah, funny thing was I got the exact same thing when I was reading. Only thing was, on one or two bits, I didn't know what it was saying at all. Of course after a few obscure pauses I was able to remember who was talking and about what, so I was alright. But I did get what it must have been like for someone without the privilege of that insight.

But I know I was correct about something: at first I thought it might be best for me to re-write the whole of Electrostatic Fantasy and make some major plot changes. But the more I carry on with my "tweaking," the more I know that all it needs is a tune up and not an overhaul.

My initial estimates on schedule are that the final draft should be finished by October. I'm also expecting word length to end up at 55k, although, admittedly, I was hoping for at least 60k =/

Get Your Butt In That Chair and HOK TAM!

Okay, so it's the 20th of the month now, and plenty of away time from stories achieved. With SeptNoWriMo about to start, and more importantly, NaNoWriMo right on its heels, it's more than time I got back to my babies :D

And I don't mean these either>

But I'm not going to wait around another week to start edits. Nothing like that acronym which is the author's best friend: BIC HOK TAM (Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard, Typing Away Madly). So I went and started on E.F. ahead of schedule. In keeping with the theme I decided to post my favourite except from the novel on here =3

After my pretty reaches it's final form I'm going to take a new challenge: acquiring 100 rejection letters exactly! And after I get 100, I'm going to start collecting 200 =3

Anyone want to make bets on how I'll do? ^__^

Procrastination Supreme

Nothing like an online RPG to completely suck one's attention totally away from writing :P

Lately it feels like I could spend all day and night just roaming around GaiaOnline and collecting several, actually useless, virtual items to jazz up my avatar.

And then there's my dragons...

However, in the midst of it, I haven't completely forgotten my novels. Been cleaning up a few ancient notes I've made and filing them. Also, another story which is still on the planning board Cuckoo Bullet Train has gotten a little addition to its idea bank. I love that story, it's based almost exclusively on random dreams I've had.

Oh yeah, it's September soon isn't it? Well, it's not like it'll be September tomorrow or anything, but for a writer months tick by all too fast =/ Might want to start prepping for SeptNoWriMo eventually.

I'll be researching Hawaii a lot more than I thought I ever would...

The End Of The Race...And My Ride Is In Pieces

Yes, JulNoWriMo has officially ended two and a half hours ago. Arkanos sadly didn't find life in its midst but luckily it didn't die either. I have placed my baby in the protected haven of the noveling ER and there it will be taken good care of.

But unlike what I planned originally, I think I'll be taking a break for August and not participating in AugNoWriMo.

By accident (well, sort of) I went and got addicted to this online game GaiaOnline, and spending more than healthy amounts of time on such vital matters as browsing for the cheapest alternative to that lovely pink kimono and that giant broadsword that would just totally complete my look. ^__^ On one hand I'm thinking that I must quit playing around and get back to work. But strangely, it hasn't had as negative of an effect as I imagined. Having thought about something else for a while, the planning of Arkanos doesn't feel so arduous anymore. Guess sometimes it's good to have a little space from your babies for a bit to get one's head cleared out.

That and these virtual slot machines are just sooo inviting...

So next it's SeptNoWriMo, the editing challenge which I'll be facing. Time to return to E.F. and confront all that research I had to *cough* abandon in June due to the urgency of JulNo preps.

But from this Master Author's manual I've gotten a few tips, and I'll definitely be implementing a change or two into E.F. which weren't on the list before.

September is so close, so I must make sure to put in extra procrastination time to charge up my batteries fully and be completely ready...

Teehee! ^__^ *Cheeky monkey!*

Eats, Shoots And... Shoots Again.

Yup, Day 25 has just finished and I've dropped out of JulNoWriMo at just over 31,500 words. What went wrong?

The darn plots again.

Again the text got boring and weak and I found myself feeling like I'm meandering again. Only one explanation, the plots aren't done. And I just didn't have the energy to get back up and start over a third time.

I signed up for AugNoWriMo before my ship went down, but hopefully I'll be able to participate. I don't know though, with just a week to plot, it's not looking good.

I started reading the Master Authors' Secret Handbook to help with the re-design of the plots. Best stop being lazy with watching online vids and start reading.

Maybe should scribble some short stories for therapeutic reasons?

Do It Blindfolded

I just figured out a handy little way to get writing done without Mrs. Inner Editor butting about how every sentence that goes down is somehow incorrect or needs immediate literary surgery.

Do it blindfolded!

Literally, I mean it. Although it only works if you can touch type.

I put bandage over my eyes and turned the radio on (mega distraction, since music with lyrics I can understand throws me off). I wrote more words than I had on the previous days and stopped critiquing every sentence.

A bit out of the norm, but then I'm the self-proclaimed inventor of the odd-yet-practical methods of getting things done in my house ^__^

Well, if it gets words down on the keyboard...

It's Not That Crap After All...

Yes, it's Day 19 JulNoWriMo and I'm behind my word count target —.— I've reached a whopping 29,000 when I should be just shy of 31,000. Yeah, okay, that's not such a great difference, I'm only a day behind. But since my writing pace has been dragging, it feels a whole lot bigger! O.o

Even after tweaking the plots and beginning over, for some reason my belief in my creation was dying again. Thank the monkeys it wasn't boredom this time, because if your bored with your own work, that if anything is a sure sign of literary death right then and there. But now I was thinking "this really sounds awful." Worse, I was thinking, "my previous WriMo turned out much better." I've been constantly comparing what I'm writing to arbitrary concepts of 'my other manuscript' and some undefined, vague 'general concept of literary canon.'

So, fearing I was brewing some horrible slop that is deadly at the mildest whiff, I decided to read a portion of this raw version to my mother. Okay, fair enough, she was half-asleep when I did, and surely mothers will always compliment their children's work no matter its market quality (least my will ^__^). But that wasn't what changed my viewpoint. Reading it out loud, I actually heard myself what potential the text had. I heard that it was just fine, just as good as my previous manuscript. The only point where the text got a little shakier was the point I'd started doubting and second-guessing myself. Otherwise it was perfect text (from a first-draft viewpoint).

Okay, I can't say if writing will be quicker now, since I haven't written anything more yet. But I'm much more sure now that struggling through is definitely worth while. And I'm very sure that the Mrs. Inner Editor is definitely and over-stressed, uptight and critique-ridden fool who needs to be given a permanent vacation. Not even when I'm editing does she me much good. And she's the nastiest, meanest cow I know. And she never pays her rent on time.

And I'm betting a lot of authors out there who feel their writing is bad, are writing far better quality that their Mr. and Mrs. Inner Editors will ever let them know. And I know this because I've read some stuff from my friends, and minus one or two perfectly forgiveable quirks they shone with potential to be best sellers.

Least, it's what I think.

Graphic Madness!

es, and it threatens to be the second day in a row that I produce, what? Zip, zilch, nada in terms of word count. It's amazing how addictive a better-than-a-freebie-but-no-photoshop graphics manipulation program can be.

But today I finally managed to materialize my ideas for cover art of the Arkanos books! :) Okay, granted, I only had a plan for the second book's cover. After I finished I kind of just got this other idea and this other idea. Before you know I've spent the whole day doing everything else except writing...again. Bad. Very bad.

But at least I've got loveable cover art to show for it!

Now...better try and type something into the actual s

tory file (instead of this blog or my e-mail) befor

e it's 4am again. So only three hours to go. Haha!

Arkanos Pt.I - Memorycatcher

Arkanos Pt.II - Neon Lights

Little Motivation

Over the JulNoWriMo forums I've heard people rate the internet among the most addictive procrastination forms. And I'm sure it's not a new concept to totally unplug from this insidious World Wide Web in order to get some word count done.

But my internet unplugged from me!

I mean it just blew up! Well, not literally. But one minute we have connection and the next we do not. It just up and died.

And what's the first natural reaction? "Oh lord, no! How am I going to update my word count on Julno?!" But after a few deep breaths and a re-analysis of my situation, this turned out to be a very good opportunity. Now there truly was no way for me to be distracted by my greatest weakness, the horrid online threat. And sure enough I bas

hed out the highest single-day word count for the past week.

And here I am, Day 11 just past 22,500 words, but the embarrassing part of it is (I find) that only about 5,600 of those will remain after "Editing in Progress" is stamped onto the first page. Should this be a blush-subject? I mean, I've no idea if other writers generally see this same phenomenon a lot. "Yes, I wrote about 80k for this WriMo, but actually I'm only in chapter 5 of my book and I chopped well over half of the words the minute the month ended." I can't help feeling that for the sake of my pride I am now basically obligated to write 17 thousand words over the 50k goal. On one hand I'm just hoping to reach the end of the story before August roles around. I looked at my '09 NaNo novel during edits and noticed I'd never written the last chapter. NaNo ended, that was it. So considering, I'd be more than grateful if I could reach the final scenes at least still during July.

On that note, there's no motivation like a broken internet connection :)

(And on a tangent, I really should start backing up every evening. There's nothing scarier than the blue screen of death!)

July Novel Writing Month

WriMos, or "Writing Months." That host of spin-offs from the original National Novel Writing Month that are used to light the fire under one's creative, writer butt.

Yup, and this summer I've taken part in JulNoWriMo.

After participating in NaNoWriMo in 2009, I didn't exactly feel like waiting an entire year just to get another 3k+ manuscript done. '09 was a screaming success story for me, but it begged the question, would spin-off WriMos have the same spirit as the original Nano? So what the heck, I decided to give it a shot and here I am at Day 9 with just over 19,200 words.

For NaNoWriMo I wrote Electrostatic Fantasy and for JulNo I am writing Arkanos (which E.F. is actually the sequel to :P). I decided I wanted to finally finish Arky after having it collect dust for over a year. And anyone might have guessed I'd run into troubles. Only thing is I didn't guess what kinds.

I had to split the manuscript in half. Yup, sliced right down the middle. Because I suspect that the whole thing might even reach 150k word count, three times the amount of single-story prose I've written in my life. Then I had to spawn over forty new characters (mainly minor ones) as well as replace a major character with another. Although I half expected to need character hire. But then the plot holes. It gave me a jump because I'd been utterly convinced my plot was tight-knit and perfectly configured and aligned. But when JulNo began I found my ancient plot line perhaps deservedly moth-eaten to the point of fish-netting.

After 17k was passed, my laziness in prep caught up with me and I came to a dead-end. Four days of next-to-no production. And why? The text was so boring! What on earth was happening? I was dying at the hands of my own creation. But the story was riveting, I knew it...right?

What did my problem turn out to be? I'd added a "prologue" which showed events a week or two before the "actual" story started, but I had failed to decide whether to treat it as an actual part of the story or a cute "extra." It's like trying to build a house on quicksand.

So now I've re-started Arkanos Pt.I-Memorycatcher for the third time over (I would've had to do that anyway with the way things were going) and I think I'm finally getting somewhere. Now the "prologue" is actually the beginning of the story, and my characters are liking it :)

Hopefully I won't find any equally-giant problems anymore so that I can finish before July ends. Not exactly guaranteed that, but I'd at least like it if I didn't have to start over from the beginning anymore.

The Den of the Mad Monkey

Hello and kudos to anyone who has been brave enough to wander into the den of this mad monkey. I'm sure if you'll pry your ears open and keep listening intently, you can hear that crazed typing emanating from somewhere within this dark lair. There is but the faintest glow of light and the scent of Fanta wafts on the air.

Yes, that is me! Monkey With Fanta (or just Monkey, affectionately). Indeed, I am another candidate who has chosen to dive into that whirlpool of novelists all doing their best to claw their way to the pedestal of the published. I have never kept a blog before, but I thought it was high time to at the very least take a swing at it, the purpose for it being mostly monosyllabic: I want to make spiffy notes along the road as I try for that pedestal myself.

Monkey is hardly versed enough in sciences and such to educate people. But Monkey likes to make people laugh :) It's great if someone should find it fun to follow along. I hope I can give others a few giggles with my musings. With luck I might even inspire someone or pass on a tip or two.

In part it will be fun to leave notes elsewhere than just the ancient school books which get lost in the numerous house-moves anyway, to see later on where one started off.

So here I state the challenge I'm embarking on: to become published.

Details----

Time allotted: Difficult to pick because I don't have any idea how long it might take to find an agent. So I'll draw "two years" out of the hat and let's go with that for now.

Primary Genre of Choice: Fantasy

Agent? Preferably since I'm relatively new to the publishing half of the writing business.

Target: To finish 3 manuscripts to final draft and then start querying agents.

Plan: Type like a mad monkey?

Here I go! ^.^