Resolved: to write words

December 2014

We made it. A whole year of writing and a whole year of blogging. Pat yourselves on the back. You deserve it. I hope you kept up with your friends blogging there will you. There may be a quiz.
But for now, there's only the last prompt of the year.
     No, I don't- cause I caught all this up in January, like the delinquent I am.

Resolutions:
After your year of writing, you've seen the good and the bad that happen as time goes on. You know your high months and you know your low months. You should know where you are lacking and where you're awesome. Take that all into account and give us five (5) resolutions for your writing next year.

Heh. This is going to be painful.
1) I am terrible at consistency. 

Resolved: to write at least 700 words a week.

2) Plots. Plots everywhere. 

Resolved: to write the dang things down, even if only on a stray sticky note, 

and keep them typed up in an idea project in Scrivener.

3) I read far too much fan fiction this year.

Resolved: Write something to post on AO3.

4) I never seem to be able to focus on one story at a time.

Resolved: Plan for this- use snowflake method for what I'm not working on,

and "multi-track" novels. Because Tatra's Excel spreadsheet is awesome!

5) I never finish anything.

Resolved: Finish one story this year, Preferably Kings Shadow

or the co-written So Funny spin-off.

Bonus: Tell us how you plan on completing each one!
     Um- I think I just did? Now all I need is a writing buddy to keep me accountable and motivated....

The Anti-NaNo Post

November 2014

We're going to do this blogging month a bit differently... Because it is NaNoWriMo, for crying out loud!
Progress
Every week, at the least, post a blog of your weekly word count (total and week-only) and an excerpt from your novel. We'll cheer you on.
     Um- as I am not doing NaNo, that doesn't really apply? I've got a few k, but I'm basically just taking November off writing. I am exhausted, the words are gone. I'll try to pick back up in December/ January- but really, I've been spending more time working on my craft projects.
     Though I am also working on fully plotting out The Kings Shadow with Snowflake Method. Very Slowly- I made it to Character Synopsis. Three more steps before Rough Draft....

Plans to Plot, Plots to Plan and- Who might you be?

October 2014

Challenge:
Just one month left before NaNoWriMo! That means we don't have much longer to plan... I hope you're having fun with our OctoOctober prompts!
Let's go revisit some of the planning from earlier in January, but with a new spin...

NaNo Planning
What is the most important thing for you to have done before doing a NaNoWriMo novel? I need to be excited, have driving characters and a full plot outline, though "full" means from beginning to end, not in depth.
Do you have to have it fully planned to get that 1,667 every day, or do you have a title and a main character and go? Title, MC, Idea- go.

Bonus: Show us your NaNo planning - handwritten or computer screen!
     Not really planning on NaNo this year- no inspiration- but Here's a "Planning in Progress" pic anyway...

Faster than the Speed of a Snail... Barely.

September 2014

We've made it this far, ladies and gents! Only a little be longer to go. So, after our experience with the Three Day Novel, let's talk about speed...

Speed Writing
How fast do your first drafts go? Speed of the snail times 28 wpm divided by procrastination.
Do they take you a year?... If I could stay interested for a year, sure. 
A month? HA! In my wildest dreams. 
Is your speed more of a NaNoWriMo style writing or trying to nail down each word perfectly the first time? Nailing everything perfectly the first time, then starting the rewrite before finishing the first draft.
What suffers because of your speed? My motivation and Inspiration- and I'm usually interrupted by another more interesting story.

Bonus: What was your shortest novel? Your longest? And what was the main problem in each?
Not applicable...Not applicable ... Not Finishing??

A... Short Summer's Tale? Ehh??

August 2014

What is more fun in August than our short story challenge, Show Us Your Shorts? Let's talk about how short stories can impact a writer right over here...

Short Stories:
Do you write them? No, I do not.
Do you hate them? I'm not a big fan of Original Fiction short stories, but I've read a few really good Fan Fiction/Spin-off pieces.
Do you think they're lovely but there's no market for them? For those who wish to be published, many people will tell you that short story publications get your foot in the door. And while that is definitely true, I'm not sure how many people really focus on the short stories. So tell me about your own views on them. Have any been published? Are you looking to publish some? 
 Lol, no, there are people who love them to death- just not me. I don't really care whether I'm ever published or not- I write only because I want to and because I love the online writing community.

Bonus: What is your favorite magazine/anthology of short stories? Send us a 
picture of the cover! (Especially if you have a favorite issue.)
Because Boba Fett makes EVERYTHING more awesome! Even Short Stories.

Safety Parameters and Acceptable Limits

July 2014 

With horror writing abounding over in Zombie July, let's talk about our own writing limits.

Remember - keep reading and responding to your fellow WriYers! I want to see some connections happening 

Limits
What will you absolutely not write no matter what?
Horror. Ugh- I greatly dislike horror- refuse to watch it, hate reading it, can't get it out of my brain and am stuck with it in replay for far too long. Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde- brrrr. Thanks, English Lit class. Frankenstein wasn't anywhere near as bad. Though, in my odd little worldview, zombies do not necessarily count as horror... Even if the story tends to lead toward it. Um... not sure, besides the above mentioned? Swearing, except as part of a specific character. If they must needs swear, I'll make up my own- it's more authentic anyway.
And where do you put your foot down in your genre? Do you write fantasy but not darker than a medium shade of grey? Yes? But I see that as more of a lack of development as a writer than a limit? I am more limited by my current abilities to pull things off...


Bonus: For fun, what genre will you never ever ever write?
     Contemporary realistic/ slice of life fiction. Bleh- can't stand the stuff. It's like Vegemite- some people's bread and butter, but to me it tastes like poison.

Shall I describe it to you- or do you want me to find you a box?

Our purple month means we have to start talking about the most deadly weapon in the writer's arsenal - purple prose. Too much description can kill a man... So let's talk about our methods of sprinkling it!


Description
How much is too much for you? I'm actually not sure- I greatly enjoy Tolkein, but I can't stand the third and fourth Eragon installments. I guess- for me, it's instinctive, not planned.
How little is too little? Adjectives are brilliant. Adverbs are better. Some phrases make the chapter- use them. I often get frusterated because I have difficulty describing a scene the way I want to.
How do you find your happy medium? WHat is this "medium" you speak of?
What must you describe about every character when you write? ... Oddly enough, their eyes.
What's the worst way to use and/or reveal character descriptions? All at the same time for multiple characters. Ugh- I hate that. It gets so confusing!
How much of the scenery do you put into your novel and why? Um- not enough. I'm working on it. Fantasy novels- it's still in development. You know what that's like, right?

Reign of Words- and Unfortunate Rebellions

Software:

What do you use to write?

     Generally, I write in MS Word (the 2007 edition) or Scrivener. When working on a co-written project, I work almost exclusively in Google Documents.

     I recently acquired a smart phone and have written into its note feature several times, when wi-fi (and thus Google Documents) were unavailable. Generally, I find it better for jotting ideas than writing, as transferring thing to my computer is a pain. 

What do you use to supplement your writing? (Music? TV in the background? YouTube channels?) 

     I usually like music, occasionally movies I've already seen far too many times. Not the TV. A significant portion of my writing music was originally discovered as AMVs, and I've compiled the "good ones" into YouTube channels by story (hooray for procrastination tactics...?)

Do you shift between software for different parts of writing: planning, writing, editing, etc?

     Not really. The only reason I shift at all is access- sometimes notebooks are just closer to hand than my laptop- or severe need to flee the internet and the myriad distractions therein.

Bonus: Give us a screenshot of you mid-writing. Seriously. Pause, snap, post.

Choosing A Race (Because Every Story Has One, or Several)

And welcome to April, everyone- it is technically fully spring, the days are finally getting warmer (more or less quickly, depending on where you live), Camp NaNoWriMo has officially started and there's a new blog topic for the group:

Genre, that tricky little classification tool that I take great pains to completely ignore while I'm actually writing, lest it get in the way of my still evolving plots. Ah well, it had to come up eventually.

What is your main genre?
My main genre- would be loosely categorized as "fantasy", I suppose. I've dabbled in contemporary fiction and sci-fi, but generally prefer doing more world building to doing more research. I like working with magically talented characters- though the rarity of such skills encompasses the spectrum. In some stories, such as Drakaeo or Caelmare, the non-talented people are the strange ones, while in others, King's Shadow in particular, there is no such thing as magic. As far as setting goes, I generally write pseudo-medieval cultures and countries.

How has it evolved for you in the past few years and how do you think it will evolve further - both in your own writing style and in the publishing field overall?

I wouldn't say that my genre has evolved, personally. I started out in other fields and worked my way into it. My only recent attempt outside the strict fantasy Genre was in Dystopian, which is probably a close cousin in the scheme of things. Well, I suppose the Sherlock fan fiction is also Not Fantasy, but that was more my writing buddy's decision than my own. Though I've plugged more words into that than anything else this year...

Is there any genre you think blends easily with your niche? Or maybe you write in one that hasn't really emerged yet. 

That would be a case-by-case question. Several of my works in progress are fully into J.R.R. Tolkein/ R.A.Salvatore style fantasy, and another is paced more like Tamora Pierce- so I'd say the genre has definitely emerged, I just happen to be writing in several niches at once. Lucky me?

Bonus: Doodle us something that describes your main genre to a T. (Like hearts for romance. But you can't take that now. Haha.)

... It would be the week I have neither a mouse nor a scanner. Maybe I'll get something up once I've fixed that particular problem.

March Progress Report V

     So, Anime Boston 2014: Magic&Mischief is over. It was totally awesome, my costume held up pretty well, and I am sorry to see it go. First order of business was to catch up on sleep.
    That accomplished, I now need to catch up in WriYe, make enough money to pay off the credit card bills, finish putting the ConCave together and organize it, do some job searching... and basically get back to normal life. Oh, and post pictures, game, and read.


Writing:

• 437 words into Drakaeo
• 3936 new words between KS, Drakaeo and Never Surrender (Dan AU)
• 1-2 hours Editing

Crafts/hobbies: 

• TERA Rising: 4 hours

 Other: 

• WriYe 1st Quarter Verification almost ready to send in
• Finally watched Disney's Frozen

... And Don't Forget the Bugspray!

Camp NaNoWriMo- April 2014

     Yes, I have definitely been waiting for this since- well, last November. Hoping desperately that it will get me back on track for writing in the fast and furious frenzy that it so obviously requires. Planning on rebelling (aka, writing already started stories) in a desperate attempt to finish something.

     However, now that it's finally here... I find that I would really like to start something new. Everything I'm currently writing has been going for some time, and lost some of it's allure; at least the scenes which I'm working on at the moment. Especially Kings Shadow, which will be so much more fun once I actually get Aiden to Jhalvior.

     When I signed up for Camp earlier this month, I plugged in a title- "To the Last." I'm sure there are interesting characters, tons of world building and a plot to go along with it. I just- have no idea what (or who) they might be. Perhaps I will just rebel multiple works until I manage to hit on an idea. Or perhaps- I'll try writing without a plan, as frightening as that is.

     Or I could try writing Dan's back story- though I don't think I will. I couldn't do it justice at NaNo pace, and it isn't ready to be written yet.

March Progress Report IV

Greetings from AB '14!


Writing:

• NO words into King's Shadow- Go work on the cosplay.
• 510 new words between KS and Never Surrender (Dan AU)
• Editing- NONE- Seriously. Work on the Cosplay.

Crafts/hobbies: 

• TERA Rising: NO hours, Finish your cosplay and get to Boston!  
• Klein cross-play costume completed! 

 Other: 

• Read an entire trilogy- yeah, this was instead of writing....

March Progress Report III

Greetings from the ConCave! Well, we're now less than a week out from AB, still have a few things to wrap up, but we're nearly ready (good thing, too!)

Writing:

• 1200 words into world building for King's Shadow
• 6610 new words between KS and Never Surrender (Dan AU)
• Caught up to WriYe word count goal

Crafts/hobbies:

• TERA Rising: logged about 10 hours 
• Katana- painted, added clear coat finish- just needs the handle bound 
• Plate armor and katana sheath are done, need to be attached with straps
• Sewed small "plates" onto right sleeve
• Wig cut/style- outsourced, waiting for call to pick up

Other:

• Read two books
• Started cleaning out desk

Crafting +1 and other Achievements

     So, as you may have guessed from the post title, I've been playing a few hours of MMORPG this week, and as WriYe (or Jono) would have it, my prompt for this month is editing. In my currently pixel-ated brain, the two functions seem to mirror one another, so I'll run with that.
     Why do they mirror one another? because both take time, skill, and effort to be of any use. You need to be invested in the craft- be it weapons making or writing- and then refine your work to create a useful item. Writing without editing is like gathering without crafting- just so much extra stuff in your inventory. Aren't you glad you don't live in my head?

     And now for Jono's questions: 
What is your favorite method of editing? Do you print it all out and paint it red? Do you use a computer program like Scrivener or Liquid Story Binder to arrange things? Or maybe you just trash the first draft and try it all over again?
     I like to print it all out and attack it- I need paper, and at minimum, a pen.
     Optimally, I want a pen (black or blue), a red pen, sticky tabs, blank lined paper and a highlighter.

• The highlighter (battle axe) is for the obvious stuff, like spelling and run on sentences- things that fix easily once I get back to the keyboard. 
• Regular pen and paper (sword and shield) are for notes- adding plot twists, things that I need to re-write into intelligible English, character connections I just thought of making (Oh, wait- the Ambassador, Kei's uncle- he's the other captain in Capt. Darien's back story!), those corrections. 
• Tabs (map markers) are for plot holes, the urgent ones- the why does my MC tell five different back story timelines to three characters in less than ten chapters?- plot apocalypse level urgent. 
• The Red Pen (bow with multi-shot) I use mostly for punctuation errors- mark your target so that it's easier to find. 

     With these weapons equipped, I then read through the entire dungeon- I mean story- with appropriate music blasting into my headset.

What do you find the most in your editing? Are you a repeated-word-abuser? A comma-phile? Or maybe your grammar just ain't no good?

     The punctuation errors- They are the minions of my editing dungeon, popping up everywhere and often. This is mostly due to my typing skills being sketchy around the edges. I almost never have repeated words- the writing program I did in high school made me almost allergic to that error; they drive me insane. Recently I've become something of an "en-dash-phile," I suppose but I try not to let it get too out of hand while I'm working.

     The dungeon bosses, however, are definitely the alternate plot lines- time consuming and difficult to kill, and sometimes rather disorienting. They are always deserving of tabs, so that they may be found and beaten into submission of the main story.

Bonus: Give us a picture of one of your stories mid-editing.  

This picture will randomly appear when I do my next camera upload ;)

March Progress Report II

And yet another busy week! I hope we finally have all the materials for this cosplay stuff. (Two weeks until Anime Boston! We're cutting it close!) But oh how my writing is suffering...

Writing:

• Managed another 3k this week, still about 3k behind my goal. I was doing great until ...Friday?
• Got another several pages of editing done
• Updated word count spreadsheet

Crafts/hobbies:

• Started playing TERA Rising again, logged about 15 hours
• Katana shaped out of foam, added hilt and enameled
• Plate armor and katana sheath cast out of plaster
• ConCave craft area reorganized and mostly cleaned up

Other:

• Moved uncle's boxes and furniture from basement to storage
• Dismantled office desk and moved from balcony to basement
• Signed up for Camp Nano in April
• Ran Tech Sunday morning

March Progress Report I

Writing:

• Another scene of King's Shadow
• Plotting for the next 'arc' of the story- filled out, created more characters
• Over 10k in Dan's story during the month of February- all after the 14th.

Crafts/hobbies:

• Found a home for ALL of the scrapbook- stuff
• Bought the rest of the materials for Kleina costume

Other:

• Cleared out the Island of Misfit Toys/Moria (In common tongue, the un-insulated room above the garage- did I mention that is was cold this week?) for several hours during the week and pretty much all of Saturday 
• Played in the Elder Scrolls Online BETA (So much fun, even if I am a flailing newbie whose sister set up non-archer characters. Archer= only MMORPG character I have logged more than two hours on. I was trying to play a mage.)
  The mudcrabs though- I remember those from Morrowind- those should just DIE. (Kill on Sight) 

February Progress Report II

Oh, that's right- I need to post this on Sundays. I have the feeling that this is going to be a recurring theme, forgetting the progress report...

    Writing:

• Started scene two in "The King's Shadow"
• First read-through for editing R'anna's In the Wake of Ambition (first 150 pages)
• Continued working on Novel Bibles
• Added another scene in Dan
• Began editing Dan

    Crafty things:

• Completed Quilt
• Organized Scrapbooking Supplies

The Speed of Thought- which is Rather Unstable

How do you develop your writing ideas?

     I have about a dozen off the cuff answers to this question, ranging from 'carefully' to 'I don't, they just show up,' all of which are true at certain times.
     On the one hand, I have been heard to plot an entire story over the course of two and a half hours- I was talking to a writing buddy on the phone.  The prompt was "identical twins," and that became the basic idea for my current work in progress, The King's Shadow.
     On the other hand, when it comes to the actual story writing, my pace slows to a crawl. I over think things. In the words of another writer friend of mine, "You do over think things. You want to know too much before you start. You won't work with the characters until you know them, but you can't get to know them until you write them, because until then they aren't doing anything."
     Ouch. Sad, but true.
     The world building just... happens while I'm not paying attention. Character development is my Achilles' heel.
     Unfortunately, I have yet to discover a way around the issue- though once I do, my output will hopefully increase dramatically.

February Progress Report I

    In an effort to keep the forward momentum going, an update on this week's progress! (I'll be posting these on Sundays, hopefully.)

    Writing:

• Finally finished the first scene of "The King's Shadow"
• Printed out what I have written for the other four stories I'm currently working on, so that I can re-read them and start writing again.
• Mid-creation of novel bibles for all five works in progress.

    Crafty things:

• Hand sewed center eight blocks of Quilt (January). Need to set up a sewing machine to do edge word and bind.
• Started sorting "scraps" for SMASHbook (Just My Cup of Tea) and two scrapbooks (ConCave and an unnamed personal one). It looks like a craft store blew up.

    Other:

• My Taxes (definitely deserves a mention)
• Read two books
• Researched for a professional portfolio (at least 2-3 hours)

Character Relationships: Spatter Painting with Purpose

   This month's prompt:
      Character relationships.
         Oh joy- this is going to about kill me.
     Bonus Points: Give us a picture of your planning process when it comes to characters!
         I'm going to do the easy part first:

Spatter painting with Purpose!

       How hard is it for you to create character relationships? 
         This depends entirely on the character. I mean, All characters (bar hermits, psychopaths and sociopaths) have relationships of some sort. The majority of my characters begin with facsimile relationships because they themselves are still "flat" characters when I begin writing- as they grow into themselves, their relationships become more dynamic and believable.
         Interpretation- insultingly easy to absolutely impossible.

       Do you pre-plan them or do you end up letting them develop as the novel goes on? 
         Some relationships I build into the framework of the story- best friends, Main Character love interests, mentors,  how they relate to their families... The rest just sort of spring up along the way.

       Have your characters betrayed you and ended up with someone you didn't expect?
         You had to get me started. I have this one character duo who have taken this to the level of headache inducing. Saeki and Tsora. They're elemental mages from rival clans who are roommates at boarding school. Neither of them has a good home life, and they have a really odd exclusive relationship. The best way I can describe it is that they're in an asexual relationship with one another.

      Give us the story of how your favorite written characters got together and what makes their relationship the strongest.
      Confession time! My favorite written characters are not both mine. They inhabit a story I've been working on with my writing buddy Kinkatia for over a year. Dan Mandel (originally Dan Mandarion from a Star Wars fan fiction I did with another writing buddy, Teva, when we were thirteen; which we then proceeded to rework at least four or five times over the next eight years) was lent out as a mentor to her character, Sebastian Moran, in the art of being a freelance assassin/bodyguard. We found their interaction so interesting that we traveled back in the timeline to write the back story for their relationship, and then an alternate ending to Kinkatia's original story.
      In the beginning, Dan picks Seb up after he was wounded in a knife fight and objects to the man dying in his kitchen; Seb survives and becomes Dan's apprentice, then partner (professionally). They separate and work individually for some time, during which Seb ends up in a relationship which ends tragically when his partner suicides. Dan picks up the pieces and they go back to being professional partners for another several years before Seb's little sister forces the issue of their 'feelings.'
      *phew* And that was the short version. The story itself is well over 150k, and still in progress, as well as having spawned its own AU in which the evil partner (Dan's opinion) never existed.
      This was originally a BBC Sherlock Fan Fiction, but we may, with a little tweaking, be able to have Dan and Seb stand on their own as an original work.