Did I Mention I Finished....

Okay so last year I tried to write every day of the month and we all know how that turned out (not quite).  This year I wasn't sure if I was even doing Nano until the 31st of October and then at about 10:30 that night I decided what the heck.  I went ahead and let it rip and it more or less fell.

I started out slower than normal but I had already figured that I wouldn't make the same totals as last year considering that my time is way busier this year.  Still I was doing better than I thought.  The problem was, or at least the problem in my opinion, was that I was writing like three different novels at once.  I would have a thought about this one and I would write that but then another one would pop in my head and I would write that one.  It was really starting to get confusing but one jumped out and was like "no you are writing me" and that was all she wrote or rather I wrote.

I found myself concentrating on a novel that I had start around the first of the year but never really went any further than a couple of pages of a prologue and a little bit of a synopis and character introduction.  Yet these character would not sit still.  They came into the forefront and the next thing I knew I was really writing.  Like every chance I got writing.  I even managed to reach the 50K before my birthday which is always a goal and something I had done the previous two years.  To say I was surprised would be like saying the economy sucks.  Obvious.

Anyhoo, I was also using a new software called Scrivener and although it isn't a "new" new software it was new to me in the sense that I had downloaded the beta to test it last year and really did nothing but look at it and say "it's pretty" and then move on.  This year I really dove in and wrote the whole thing in it and in the process fell in love.  I tell you that software kept me on target way more than any other time I have ever written anything.  I even did a rough outline using their index card method and the biggest surprise of the month was that I actually FINISHED THE NOVEL!!!!

You read that right.  I got to those elusive word "The End" and was able to write a little bit of the sequel.  I can't tell you what a joy it was to actually finish.  I have finished a few short stories and almost all the fanfiction that I have written but never one of my own original novels; never something this long.

Now there are A LOT  of edits that need to get done but I can't wait to dive back into it and start.  That is on hold until after the first or at the very least after Christmas as I have so much to catch up on, namely sleep, but once I am back at it I think I could really turn this into something.

So there you have it.  I know that I didn't do the updates that I normally do but can you blame me when the result is an COMPLETED NOVEL!!!  Sorry but I can't stop saying it.  Oh well, I am off to finish my real work and hopefully get to the movies this afternoon.

Talk soon-ish,

Back at it for 2011

Yes I decided to put aside my fears that I won't write as fast as I have in the previous two years and do NaNo again this year.

We are four days in and let me tell you they have been a crazy four days.  I have changed stories about four times, I have written all over the place, I have topped my previously high number of words in an hour and to top all that off I am still just under 10K; go figure.

I was right when I thought about doing this is realizing that it would be a challenge this year.  My time is so crazy and adding this in has pushed it almost to the brink.  That being said I really think if I could pick one story and just focus that I could get to 50K fairly easy.  Getting to the end would be a completely different story but hey that is part of the challenge.

Alright my wonderful wrimos I am off to make the couple of calls that I need to handle today and then writing for a few hours before I tackle my room.  Wish me works.

Ps. I am also glad that basketball got pushed back this year.  I miss it but I would have been crazy trying to watch the games at the same time as everything else.

To NaNo or Not to NaNo; That is the Question

Boy has it really almost been a half year since I posted and a year since the last NaNoWriMo.  It is hard to believe but it's true and the saddest thing is that I am still working on by novel from last year.  It is way to long and at the present moment in time not finished but that isn't the one that I want to work on this year which leads to my problem.

This has been a crazy year and my time has been so insane of late that I for the first time in three years I am thinking about not doing it.  However, I wonder if I don't want to it simply because I'm not sure that I can finish in the time frame that I have before.  I know it is silly but it might be the truth that or just the fact that I really don't know if I can devote the time to it that i should.

Truthfully, I want to do it if for no other reason I have like three different idea in my head that i would love to get down on paper and doing NaNo might give me the motivation to actually sit down and write them.  Plus with my time being so limited then it might also give me the focus that I need to ACTUALLY finish the novel instead of just reaching the 50,000 mark.  Either way I'm still not sure which is sad because I only have 8 days to decide.  What to do, what to do.

Whatever I decide I will be sure to keep you all posted.

Denver Writing Still Slow

I had this great idea that I was going to finish my novel and then edit it while on vacation in Denver. Well, that didn't pan out. Then I came up with a back up idea that I would finish it while in Denver and then edit it when I got back. So far that plan is going about as great as the original.

I have been visiting for a little over a week and so far I have only really edited about two or three chapters and cut about a thousand words. It is really insane. I know that I need to get this done but I just can't seem to get my mind to work on it. Every time I sit down to write or edit then I get sleepy and I can't concentrate.

Part of that could be that I'm with people that wake up really early in the morning and I am just not a morning person so I find that I feel tired almost all day long.

I have another week or so up here and I am determined to get this done. Wish me words and I will keep you posted.

To Finish or To Start New; That is the Question

And that is my drama as we speak.

I want to finish my original NaNo novel so that I can get it submitted to Createaspace by the deadline in June to receive my free copy. This has been my main goal since I started writing especially since I didn't get my one from 2009 done in time to have a copy of that on my shelf. Yet with a just a few months to go I still don't have it finished and worse I feel as if it needs to be rewritten.

Now I am sitting here I am trying to decide if I should trudge through and finish that one even though I think it would feel like I did just that in the end or should I start the new novel that I have in my head. It is quite the quandary.

One one hand I really want to finish my original novel from November because is would be such a great feeling to actually finish it. Little known fact but I have never actually finished any of my own original work. Finished FanFiction I got coming out of my butt but nothing of my own. Plus to be well of 100k and not finish would be so disappointing.

However, I feel as if I might loose the story ideas for this new one if I don't get them down as they come. I have a tendency to forget the string of thoughts that I have if I don't write them when I have them. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't be able to write the story later or that it wouldn't be as good as the thoughts that I have now but it would just probably be different from what I am thinking and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

The third option which is the one I am leaning toward, is just to write what I have in my mind now and then when I run out of steam, story or both stop and go back to my other work. I think I could do this but my only concern is that they might be too close to the same idea for me to not confuse the two. I don't think I would but I can't be too sure.

Either way it feels good to be writing again considering I have been in a slump since the first of the year. Maybe now I can get back to all my stories that have been sitting on the back burner and finish them all this year. That would be a great goal. I like it!

Don't You Hate When That Happens?

I have been working on finishing my NaNo novel as well as getting started on a couple of other idea that I had floating in my head when something dawned to me; I think I need to start the darn thing over again. That's right. I am over 100K words into this novel and almost at the end and I think the whole basis of the story needs to be reworked.

I don't really know what it is but it feels like something I have read before and the characters, with the exception of the main two, don't feel like mine anymore. How does that happen?

I think the problem was that I had this idea in my head for awhile and when it first came to me it was based off a fanfiction that I had planned to write. I thought I had flushed out the new characters that I had created enough that it wouldn't still feel the same but it still does or at least it feels more like a remake of someone else's fiction than my own.

Don't get me wrong, I love my characters and I still want to write Shane and CeCe's story because I really think that would be something really different and maybe that was the story that I should have written last November instead of thinking that I should wait until the upcoming November to write it. I am just not sure and I think that if you aren't sure it shows in your writing.

I came up with a little bit of a different take on how to start the novel over as well as how to make the story different. Now the problem is the logistics of what I am thinking. I am not really sure that it can exist in reality. That is such a funny thing to say considering that my story isn't really reality based but I want to stay as close to real as possible. After all it does have to be believable if not achievable.

Now it is just a matter of finding the time to write it or re-write it whichever ends up working and then I can get it submitted by June so that I can have at least one copy sitting on my bookshelf.

My First Love

When I first started writing the only real thing I wrote was poetry. It was a fast and easy way to express the feels that I was experiencing. At thirteen or so I was angry with the world, hurt and lost and really felt there was no one that I could share those feelings with. I don't really remember where the thought came from to write those emotions down I just remember one day writing. It was to me what I would imagine walking feels like to a baby. One minute you are crawling around and then the next you are like I think I can stand and then you are walking. Just instinct.

As the years went on I have written many different things from short stories to long fiction to even fanfiction which I still credit with getting me back into writing today but somewhere along the lines I have moved away from poetry. Sure I write a poem here or there but not with the same sitting in a room with a notebook focused on getting the words just right intensity. I even thought a couple of years ago to make a goal of writing a new poem everyday for the year. I think I actually wrote about three.

Then today I was watching Oprah Winfrey's new station and she has a wonderful new show called "Master Class" and the guest for today was Maya Angelou. As she was speaking I realized how letting that part of me go has really hurt me in some ways. Poetry was and is such a huge part of who I am. I can still quote poems I learned in high school and college and when I hear a poem that really touches me then I am moved beyond. So why have I not written a real poem in really over a year? That thought hurts.

At one point I even thought to publish a book of poems and still I have done nothing with the poetry that I have around my home. It's painful to think that I am sitting on something that is so dear to me and yet not expressing it.

While watching the show I could feel a poem coming to me and I really want to work on it and explore that aspect of writing again. I am not going to say that I am going to write a poem a day but I am going to work on putting together a book of sorts with my poetry and looking into sharing it with the world. Thanks Maya.

So Confused

First off Happy New Year to you all. I wish I could say that my neglect of this blog had been because I have been seriously writing the next great American novel but at last I have been suffering from holiday hangover. I also have been trying to get a few things organized over the last few weeks so my time has been a little scattered but I like to think that I am back and ready to type :).

That is why I am so confused. For almost four days now I have had this story floating in my head every time I start to go to sleep. I can hear the characters and they sound really funny and like they are going through some crazy stuff but again it is when I am going to sleep. There are plenty of times that I would normally get up and just write it down but I haven't because I have been really drained of late. So I kept sleeping instead of writing.

I finally after two days of thinking about this story decided to write it. I sat down ready to roll and barely got through four pages. The story wasn't nearly as funny as it had sounded in my head. I almost felt sorry for the main character and the way it was going the dad wasn't going to cause everyone to get arrested like he had in my mind. It was a complete and utter mess. Not even close to what I had been thinking.

This got me to thinking. Most of my stories sound funnier to me in my head then I feel they do once I start writing. What does that mean? I'm not sure but I started wondering if maybe I should record myself speaking the novel and then type from there. Maybe that would keep the excitement and the laughter in the script. I'm still working out how I would do this but I am really hopeful that this might work.

As for my NaNo script. I keep meaning to finish it but I have a few new ideas in my head and I am trying to at least get out the premise of those before going back to finish and that is only half the battle. Once it is finished then I am going to have to start editing. That is going to take some time as I am sure it is waaaayyyy to long. The problem is that I love it and I'm sure that I am not going to want to cut anything even knowing that I must. It is going to be a bear to get into.

Alright, so now that I am back in the saddle I need to get to work. Talk to everyone later.