Well friends, National Novel Writing Month is over. Nationwide, goals were set, worked towards and hopefully met. I set a goal with Tristi Pinkston (and others) to each write 50,000 words in up to three different books in the month of November. (See the original challenge post here.) Amazingly, I was able to complete my goal of writing 50,000 words this month! I can't believe it, but it's true!
Project #1: (Molly's story) I completed this contemporary romance on Thanksgiving day. It's a project I started years ago and it feels so good to have it done! There were some trials along the road (read my other No-No Na-No posts for more details). For several days, I didn't think I would ever get to 50,000 words. It was a big struggle! But I finally got over the hardest parts and was able to hit some great writing strides. It felt so great to write the last lines of that story! As I've said, it needs a lot of editing work, but I look forward to getting it completely finished.
Project #2: I knew I wouldn't have 50,000 words left to write in Molly's story, so while I worked on that I wondered what other project I should work on. I had a few ideas (another Regency novel, a few scenes from a Sci-Fi/adventure novel I am planning) but I didn't have a lot of plot outlining done with those yet, and I want make sure those are well planned before I start writing. So I started a little novella I have had on my mind for a while. This is a Regency romance with a main character who spends his time collecting hearts of women he does not mean to keep. It's been an interesting journey, and it's fun getting back into my Regency writing. I was hoping to finish this book too by the end of the month, but I still have a few chapters left. So I am going to try to pound it out in the coming week!
My final word count for the month of November: 51,196!
I have never written so much in one month, and I am so proud of the work I have done and how much I have accomplished! Completing goals feels awesome! I hope anyone else who had a writing goal for the month was able to complete it, whether it was writing, editing or plotting. If you weren't able to complete the goal this time, dust off, jump up and try again! Set new goals that you feel you can honestly obtain. Keep working hard!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
No-No Na-No Progress Update
Three days left until the end of the National Novel Writing Month Challenge! I can't believe that a whole month has gone by already. I don't know if it was just me, but November has flown by. Where does the time go?
This last week has been very successful! On Thanksgiving day, I completed Project #1! (Let's call it Molly's story.) My contemporary romance is complete! Well, except for all the editing work that is ahead. I was not being smart when I started writing this one and, as I think I've said before, I needed to revise a lot. Now comes the process of rereading, editing, correcting flow, and oh yeah, splitting it into chapters might be a good idea too. Yeah, right now its one long (long, long, long) story, no chapters. Like I said, not smart writing and lots of work ahead. But I think I'm going to shelf this one for a month or two (depending on what happens with Circumstance) and give it a pair of fresh eyes then. I don't love the idea of shelving Molly's story, but if I do shelf it for a while it will be because I'll be working on something else very fun and exciting! More on that later!
Progress on Project #2, the Regency short story, is coming along very nice. Today's writing session led to a turn of events I wasn't totally planning on, but I like where it has taken my characters. It's always interesting when that happens. I'm really enjoying this little story. I look forward to sharing it with you. As of now I have 14,138 words written in that story.
My grand total: 45,625 words! With three days left to complete the goal of 50,000 words, I'm thinking I can make it! Hopefully even surpass it! Best of luck to all you Na-No Writers out there!
This last week has been very successful! On Thanksgiving day, I completed Project #1! (Let's call it Molly's story.) My contemporary romance is complete! Well, except for all the editing work that is ahead. I was not being smart when I started writing this one and, as I think I've said before, I needed to revise a lot. Now comes the process of rereading, editing, correcting flow, and oh yeah, splitting it into chapters might be a good idea too. Yeah, right now its one long (long, long, long) story, no chapters. Like I said, not smart writing and lots of work ahead. But I think I'm going to shelf this one for a month or two (depending on what happens with Circumstance) and give it a pair of fresh eyes then. I don't love the idea of shelving Molly's story, but if I do shelf it for a while it will be because I'll be working on something else very fun and exciting! More on that later!
Progress on Project #2, the Regency short story, is coming along very nice. Today's writing session led to a turn of events I wasn't totally planning on, but I like where it has taken my characters. It's always interesting when that happens. I'm really enjoying this little story. I look forward to sharing it with you. As of now I have 14,138 words written in that story.
My grand total: 45,625 words! With three days left to complete the goal of 50,000 words, I'm thinking I can make it! Hopefully even surpass it! Best of luck to all you Na-No Writers out there!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
No-No Na-No Progress
So it's been two weeks since I updated. Sorry readers! But I have great news about my progress! I have been terribly inconsistent with my day to day writing. But I have had some great writing sessions and have cranked out 30,704 words! By the end of today I need to be at 34,000 words, so I'm a little behind, but not bad at all!
On my first project, the contemporary romance, I'm almost finished with it. I have less than one chapter left and I think i can wrap in up if I put in a good solid hour or two. I'm not going to lie, right now, it's not great, and needs a lot of work, but being finished with a first draft is a long way from where I was three weeks ago! The plot point that I changed has altered the story a lot from what I originally planed, but I like where's it gone, and it's made the book more believable for the modern setting. I'm so excited to finish it!
A few days ago, I got a little tired of that book though. I was a little stuck and needed a break, so I started on a new Regency Era romance. This one will just be a short story/novella kind of a thing, at least that's the plan for now. I'm hoping to release it before I publish Circumstance so that I can let you guys get a taste for my Regency writing style. We'll see how that goes. One thing I've learned is that in writing, plans change! But I'm enjoying this little story, it's a fun twist to your typical romance and has a flirtatious rake of a man in it! He's fun to write! Anyway, once I'm done with Project One, I'll be tackling Project Two full time and hopefully have it finished up by the end of the month too!
If you're participating in a Na-No of some kind, or have other writing goals, I hope you're accomplishing them and making good progress on your projects!
Let's get writing!
On my first project, the contemporary romance, I'm almost finished with it. I have less than one chapter left and I think i can wrap in up if I put in a good solid hour or two. I'm not going to lie, right now, it's not great, and needs a lot of work, but being finished with a first draft is a long way from where I was three weeks ago! The plot point that I changed has altered the story a lot from what I originally planed, but I like where's it gone, and it's made the book more believable for the modern setting. I'm so excited to finish it!
A few days ago, I got a little tired of that book though. I was a little stuck and needed a break, so I started on a new Regency Era romance. This one will just be a short story/novella kind of a thing, at least that's the plan for now. I'm hoping to release it before I publish Circumstance so that I can let you guys get a taste for my Regency writing style. We'll see how that goes. One thing I've learned is that in writing, plans change! But I'm enjoying this little story, it's a fun twist to your typical romance and has a flirtatious rake of a man in it! He's fun to write! Anyway, once I'm done with Project One, I'll be tackling Project Two full time and hopefully have it finished up by the end of the month too!
If you're participating in a Na-No of some kind, or have other writing goals, I hope you're accomplishing them and making good progress on your projects!
Let's get writing!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
No-No Na-No and First Week's Progress
Hello world!
For those who don't know, the month of November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNo WriMo for short, or NaNo for shorter. To be an actual particiapant in NaNo WriMo, you have to write 50,000 words in the month of Noevember. The thing is, you can't have started the book before November 1st. You can do plot planning and outlining, but you can't have started your novel in order to be officially qualified. Also, your 50,000 words all have to be in one book.
Now, my main problem is that when I'm not actively working on getting a specific book finished, I write what I feel like writing. At any given time, I have at least 2 possible book ideas floating around in my head. So I just write out a scene or two to get my thoughts out and because I love to write! But unfortunately, that means that I have scenes written from many of the stories that I plan to write, which disqualifies each of those stories from NaNo. The book I wanted to finish now is about halfway done, and definitely does not have 50,000 words left to write, so that double disqualified me. But while I'm making some decisions about Circumstance, I wanted a goal to set, and wanted to try NaNo. Well, there are NaNo Rebel groups and such out there, but this year I decided to join with Tristi Pinkston in her No-No NaNo Challenge. (See the original post here.) Her rules are simple, write 50,000 words in the month of November, but they can be in a book you have already started and can be in up to three books. Perfect! I am really excited to accomplish this goal!
The first week has gone by, and it has been rough! The book I am working on is a contemporary romance novel, and its one I have had a lot of fun writing so far, and I've been enjoyig the modern setting. Well, the main plot point of my book didnt really fit with a contemporary setting, it actually felt pretty Regency. I have so many fun little moments written already though that dont fit into Regency times. So then I had a decision to make, try to find a plot point that works with my story and keep it contemporary, or rewrite the whole thing (43,000 + words as of November 1st) and make it Regency. After many hours of thoughts and discussions with my mom and husband, we came up with something that worked for the setting I had it in, but I would have to make several changes throughout the novel and delete several long passages. Needless to say, that took up the first few days, and it felt a lot more like editing than writting, which was not so fun. But last night, I hit several sections where I got to write lots and lots of new prose! It was so fun that I ended up staying up till 4 AM writing! I wont be doing that again tonight, but it felt great to get so much writing done. As of yesterday morning, I had only 3,000 words written, not a good start for being 5 days in. But after last night's writing extravaganza, I have 9,171 words! Yay! I'm only about one day behind now, and I feel much more on track.
If you are doing some form of NaNo, I wish you luck! Let's get writing!
For those who don't know, the month of November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNo WriMo for short, or NaNo for shorter. To be an actual particiapant in NaNo WriMo, you have to write 50,000 words in the month of Noevember. The thing is, you can't have started the book before November 1st. You can do plot planning and outlining, but you can't have started your novel in order to be officially qualified. Also, your 50,000 words all have to be in one book.
Now, my main problem is that when I'm not actively working on getting a specific book finished, I write what I feel like writing. At any given time, I have at least 2 possible book ideas floating around in my head. So I just write out a scene or two to get my thoughts out and because I love to write! But unfortunately, that means that I have scenes written from many of the stories that I plan to write, which disqualifies each of those stories from NaNo. The book I wanted to finish now is about halfway done, and definitely does not have 50,000 words left to write, so that double disqualified me. But while I'm making some decisions about Circumstance, I wanted a goal to set, and wanted to try NaNo. Well, there are NaNo Rebel groups and such out there, but this year I decided to join with Tristi Pinkston in her No-No NaNo Challenge. (See the original post here.) Her rules are simple, write 50,000 words in the month of November, but they can be in a book you have already started and can be in up to three books. Perfect! I am really excited to accomplish this goal!
The first week has gone by, and it has been rough! The book I am working on is a contemporary romance novel, and its one I have had a lot of fun writing so far, and I've been enjoyig the modern setting. Well, the main plot point of my book didnt really fit with a contemporary setting, it actually felt pretty Regency. I have so many fun little moments written already though that dont fit into Regency times. So then I had a decision to make, try to find a plot point that works with my story and keep it contemporary, or rewrite the whole thing (43,000 + words as of November 1st) and make it Regency. After many hours of thoughts and discussions with my mom and husband, we came up with something that worked for the setting I had it in, but I would have to make several changes throughout the novel and delete several long passages. Needless to say, that took up the first few days, and it felt a lot more like editing than writting, which was not so fun. But last night, I hit several sections where I got to write lots and lots of new prose! It was so fun that I ended up staying up till 4 AM writing! I wont be doing that again tonight, but it felt great to get so much writing done. As of yesterday morning, I had only 3,000 words written, not a good start for being 5 days in. But after last night's writing extravaganza, I have 9,171 words! Yay! I'm only about one day behind now, and I feel much more on track.
If you are doing some form of NaNo, I wish you luck! Let's get writing!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Sense and Sensibilty
Today marks the 201 year anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. This is one of my favorite Austen stories, I love the Dashwood girls! Which is your favorite movie rendition of Sense and Sensibility?
Respond in the comments and I'll post my favorite soon!
(Hollywood version)
(BBC version)
Respond in the comments and I'll post my favorite soon!
Friday, October 19, 2012
Confession of a cautious reader
I love to read. Plain and simple as that. I love it! If given the chance, I can read for hours at a time. I love getting sucked into a book and becoming captivated by another time and place. Reading is how I relax, reading makes me content. Other than writing, reading is how I bring myself out of any bad mood. I love so many genres too, mystery, romance, sci-fi, suspense, fantasy, you name it. I LOVE to read!
And then there's the confession. As much as I love to read, I really haven't read that much in the last several months. And here's why. I hate spending lots of time at the library, looking over dozens of books, finding one that sounds amazing, only to get into it and discover all the things I don't want to read. Offensive language, extreme violence, explicit "bedroom" scenes, all that lovely stuff. An example, I found a book that was a modern twist on a Jane Austen story. I love Austen, so I was excited for an easy, fun read relating to something I loved so much. My excitement was short lived. Within the first three pages, I was offended multiple times. So I scanned the next five to see if it was a fluke or if it would be a trend throughout the story, and it clearly was. I sadly put the book down. Worst of all, I was on a trip, and it was the only book I had brought to read. I was really upset about it. While I don't like reading the offensive stuff, I can understand why writers put it in from time to time; it can add authenticity to a story. I'm not even the type who insists on a super, squeaky clean book, just a mostly clean book. Think PG-PG13 rating. However, the language this author had put in was extreme and rather pointless, which was just frustrating.
And that, my readers, is why I haven't read much lately. I simply don't know what to read and I don't like to be surprised by unpleasant things. My one aid in this struggle has been Goodreads. If you like reading, you will love Goodreads! You find your friends, they rate what they've read and you can see what they have liked. There are many other perks as well, I love it! I highly recommend joining if you love to read like me. It's free, easy to sign up for and easy to figure out. I'll even give you the link to the website: www.goodreads.com.
What about you? What clean books have you read lately that you couldn't put down? I'd love to hear your comments!
And then there's the confession. As much as I love to read, I really haven't read that much in the last several months. And here's why. I hate spending lots of time at the library, looking over dozens of books, finding one that sounds amazing, only to get into it and discover all the things I don't want to read. Offensive language, extreme violence, explicit "bedroom" scenes, all that lovely stuff. An example, I found a book that was a modern twist on a Jane Austen story. I love Austen, so I was excited for an easy, fun read relating to something I loved so much. My excitement was short lived. Within the first three pages, I was offended multiple times. So I scanned the next five to see if it was a fluke or if it would be a trend throughout the story, and it clearly was. I sadly put the book down. Worst of all, I was on a trip, and it was the only book I had brought to read. I was really upset about it. While I don't like reading the offensive stuff, I can understand why writers put it in from time to time; it can add authenticity to a story. I'm not even the type who insists on a super, squeaky clean book, just a mostly clean book. Think PG-PG13 rating. However, the language this author had put in was extreme and rather pointless, which was just frustrating.
And that, my readers, is why I haven't read much lately. I simply don't know what to read and I don't like to be surprised by unpleasant things. My one aid in this struggle has been Goodreads. If you like reading, you will love Goodreads! You find your friends, they rate what they've read and you can see what they have liked. There are many other perks as well, I love it! I highly recommend joining if you love to read like me. It's free, easy to sign up for and easy to figure out. I'll even give you the link to the website: www.goodreads.com.
What about you? What clean books have you read lately that you couldn't put down? I'd love to hear your comments!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Welcome!
Welcome one and all to my website! It's pretty basic right now, but you can check here for information about my books, and to get to know me and my stories better! I look forward to sharing my love of writing with you and welcome your comments! Thank you for coming along with me on this awesome journey!
Happy reading!
Happy reading!
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