April 2016: I think I'm going to need a bigger trunk

And we've made it through editing! Hopefully. If you are still stuck there, all the chocolate and cake for you.

All the more cake for me, then. I'm always stuck there. My inner editor is very stubborn.

Trunked Novels

Have you ever set a novel aside? 

Yes- many times, as I have never finished one.

Was it finished or unfinished?

Unfinished- see above. :P

 Why did you abandon that novel? 

Usually, I run out of ideas, get tangled up in the plot, end up so annoyed with my lack of progress that I scrap the entire thing with the intention of starting over, edit my original plan  ( ie. - no, MC, your personality makes no sense for a fourteen year old. Ah well- what if I speed up the plot and make all of the characters two to four years older?) get 5-10k into my "re-write" and lose interest. Defeated again.
Or, my life goes haywire- college, grad school, health issues, most recently full time employment- and I write so seldom that I forget the plot entirely.

What would it take for you to go back to it? 

Inspiration, a pot of tea and a mountain of chocolate.

Bonus: Post an excerpt of your trunked novel.

I guess I need all the bonus points I can get.... here goes:

     Tsora stood and stared moodily up at the first year tower. Well, I suppose I have now been successfully shipped off to boarding school. They couldn't get rid of me fast enough. There should be a limit to being scared of people. Even at school, they tuck me away in the top floor of this unnaturally tall tower. I mean, give me a break! I haven't done anything yet! 

     Depressed, he began hauling his trunk up the winding tower stairs. What did they put in this thing? It's heavy! I knew I should have packed myself. Well, I guess I'll find out when I open it. I wonder what my roommate will be like- though the powers that be may have decided not to bother giving me one. I'm not as dangerous as all that.

     Lost in thought, he stumbled, nearly tumbling down the stairs. Darn- I wish I could use magic for this! too bad I was banned until I get to training. It would be much more convenient- I am an Air mage, after all. Finally, he reached the top of the staircase, setting his trunk down on the landing. He waited until he caught his breath, then walked over to pull open the door to his new room.

     Inside was fairly bright, despite the setting sun outside. there was a mage light bumping against the ceiling, and a bunk bed against the far wall. Under the windows to the left were two identical desks, books already stacked atop them. Well, guess I do have a roommate. I hope at least he won't be too much of a jerk. And not like the cousins at home, either. I mean, he won't even know me. so, as long as I'm civil he won't have reason to dislike me, right? I just hope the world really works that way. If it doesn't , school won't be much better than "home." Though it hasn't felt like Home in years- I really prefer wandering the city. People are so interesting, and as long as they don't know who I am, we don't run into any problems. If they did- I don't know what would happen. Well, I suppose that mages don't generally wander around the districts outside the market- but I'm not doing anything illegal, just wasting time. It isn't as if father wants me around. I know I'm just another chore to him. I wish he'd pay me some attention, though. I'm not another one of his paintings. I enjoy talking to people. At least my roommate won't be as bad as he is---

     "Excuse me." said a quiet voice behind him.

     Tsora spun around, then stood frozen. 

     "Whoa- A ghost!"

***

     Saeki stood in the hallway, dripping. The headache had only gotten worse after dinner-he had hoped the shower would clear it, or at least lessen it. No such luck. and now that he had climbed the long twisting tower to the top floor that was his room assignment, there was a stranger standing in the doorway, looking in. He has Chestnut brown hair cut short, and was slightly taller than Saeki himself. And I was hoping to have a room way from other people....

     "Excuse me." he said quietly. The stranger half turned and nearly jumped a foot into the air. 

     "Whoa- a ghost!"

     Here we go again. Saeki thought despairingly.

***

     The ghost rolled its silver eyes. "My name is Kuroni," it said sarcastically. Water dripped from long silver hair, rapidly collecting around the ghost's feet. Wait, ghosts don't have feet- he's real! My roommate?

     "Um, are you my roommate?" Tsora asked.

     "Why else would I be at the top of this tower?"

     "I apologize- that was rude of me. My name is Tsora. Tsora Silvena. So- you're a Kuroni. What's your first name?"

     "That is no concern of yours. Just call me 'Kuroni.'"

     "I can't do that!" Tsora objected. "There are dozens of Kuroni's at this school! Come on, what's your name?" 

     The silver-eyed boy stared back stubbornly.

     "Fine, I'll come up with something else to call you. You can be - Ayaki! Because in runes, "aya" is silver." Hearing no objection -'Ayaki' remained sullenly silent- Tsora decided that the name was perfect. It was fitting enough-  his roommate had silver eyes and hair, and very fair skin. It didn't help that he was also wearing very light grey clothing; he really did resemble a ghost.

Hiding from my Inner Editor

March

EdMo - the Month for Editing. Let’s just talk a bit about it for this month’s prompt.. Revision

Oh, must we? I've locked my inner editor away and moved into a tower on a different continent where she can't find me and harp about how terrible my writing is...

What is the one thing you struggle with when it comes to editing? 

     When Editing, I struggle most with restructuring the plot and scenes. I loathe the "re-writing" phase, because I have so much difficulty getting the words down on the page in the first place. I am not a prolific writer, and I want the scene to "just be right" the first time, requiring at most grammar, spelling and sentence structure corrections in editing, and maybe dialogue re-working if my character comes across incorrectly when I'm re-reading.

What is the one thing that you find easy to do? 

     I like editing for grammar- I find it simple, and most of my mistakes are just because I was writing quickly (or while overtired, which happens more often than not.)

What is your favorite editing tip?

     If you don't know the meaning of the words off the top of your head, don't use it (unless it's a cultural thing). I have been a reader for years, and my vocabulary tends to be wider than most. If I don't know the word- actually don't know it, as opposed to looking it up for specific definition or spelling- then anyone reading my writing would probably need to look it up as well. And who wants to stop in the middle of a story to go grab a dictionary?

Bonus: Take a selfie/novel-ie of you/your novel in the midst of revision.

     Nope, sorry- these pictures do not exist. I don't currently have anything in the editing process, and if I stop to edit now, I'll never get back to the first drafts. This is a proven fact, and a major reason that after seven years of writing, I still have no finished works.

Missed Connections- Because February is late

February

Onward! This month's prompt...

Character Connection:

How do your characters connect with one another? 

 Generally, my characters connect somewhat by accident.  I'll start a story with one character, and more introduce themselves (or just barge in) as I continue writing. For example, I started a new story in January with a character named Jafar. I knew very little about him, except that he lived in a lord's household and was somehow related to the "main family." And then I met his mother, step-father and two half sisters who live more than two weeks journey away, and his Uncle, who apparently is in charge of his education. This took about... two hours of staring at blank pages.

What kind of connection do they have? How do you connect your characters to the reader? 

     I like having mentor relationships- thus the Uncle- and struggle with writing multiple characters the same age and/or peer group. I generally prefer writing with a buddy to avoid the struggle to create both sides of a friendship or romantic relationship before I really fill in the characters personalities. 

     I connect (or attempt to connect ) the characters to the reader by getting their thoughts onto the page and making them believable in their interactions and reactions. 

Bonus:

Share with us an excerpt from your current or completed novel(s) that demonstrates your favorite example of character connection.

     “Rakae, I need you to listen.” Rizek stated firmly. He waited until Trakaen nodded his understanding, and then continued. “I do not blame you for- for how things turned out.” He held up a hand when Rakae made to interrupt, “No, let me finish. You were not precisely blameless, but what happened was not solely of your own making. We all made mistakes. We assumed that your father would allow you to return to Illum after he had spoken to you- all of us. It is true that you left us no way to contact you, but neither Izel nor I thought to ask for one. 
When you left- you spoke in good faith, fully expecting to come back and marry her. When you never came back- well, we all did what we had to, Rakae. You became your family’s lord, I married Izel, and Izel had your child.” Rizek paused for a moment, considering. “Did you give your brother a chance to explain why I mad the journey to see you, or did he tell you that I was here and you ran off before he got to the point?” Rakaen dropped his gaze  to the floor guiltily. Rizek shook his head and sighed. “Izel’s child- your child, Rakae. You have a son. We have taken care of all of our children as best we can, but- you can give him more, here. Imael told us that if we needed to, we could bring him to this house and the K’vorne family would take care of him. My- our other option is to indenture him. We don’t have the money to apply for an apprenticeship, and we’ve two daughters now.”
     “Rizek- I- of course we’ll take him! He’s my- my son. I have- Desrella is pregnant. If this child lives, he might never inherit, even if he should be my heir by birthright alone, but- he is my blood, Rizek. It would be an honor to be allowed to educate him accordingly, especially after- what I did not do, over the last several years.” Trakaen looked up and met his former friend’s eyes, “How can you- even think about offering this to me, Rizek? I don’t even deserve the chance to-”

     Rizek interrupted him, his voice low and fierce, “Because he is your son ! If he is to be given into the  care of anyone but his mother, it should be you. Because we trust you to love him, as well as take care of him as we cannot. Because, despite what happened after your father called you home, we loved you. We still do, even though we can never go back.” Rizek breathed in deeply, then exhaled, forcing the tension to leave his shoulders. “You were her betrothed. And you were my lord, but more than that-  you were like a brother to me. We lost a part of our family when you left, not just an employer or a contract. I always wanted the son of yours I was raising to know you, and so did Izel, as much as she did not wish to lose contact with her child. He has that chance- you have that chance. Even if he does have a half-brother and cannot be your heir within the K’vorne family- let him be a part of your own family. If he grows up to be like you and your, he will be a good man- and there can never be enough of those in the world.”

Editing: Minecraft for Writers

March

EdMo - the Month for Editing. Let’s just talk a bit about it for this month’s prompt...

Revision

Easy question: why is it necessary? 

Editing is necessary because the first draft is all about getting the story and characters out of your head to where someone else can look at it. My first crack at making that happen may be passable, but it wn't be great- I'll still have all those pesky typos and characters changing their names mid paragraph and pathological liars with three different but similar backstories because the timeline kept shifting in my head as the character developed.... 

Well, you get the idea. 
No one really wants to read that- they want all the loose ends woven back in and character consistency and THE ONE TRUE STORYLINE and all that jazz.

Hard question: do you enjoy it?

Yes and no. I can enjoy editing when I'm in the mood for it- grammar is usually the fun part where you find the totally bogus mistakes or your phone tried to auto-correct to something completely out of context... and setting my characters heads straight on what exactly happened during their childhoods and when. All the fun and joy of tricking out my imaginary library in the sky and making it look awesome before I allow anyone else to see it.
On the other hand- editing takes forever. It's a constant struggle to keep doing something constructive instead of being pulled back into re-reading the story just for fun. Like fighting monsters instead of gathering enough stone to make the rest of the roof....

Bonus: Take a selfie/novel-ie of you/your novel in the midst of revision.
Uh, this may appear at some unspecified time in the future?

So I Hadn't exactly examined my motives before...

February 2015

Character Motivation:

What is the main motivation behind your characters?

Generally some version of protecting the people they care about. Which is generally friends and occasionally family- and I didn't realize that I did this, so thanks for the question.

Where do you come up with that motivation?

I find that it's generally intrinsic to the characters and becomes a force in the plot- even if the motive wasn't there to begin with.

Do you tend to use the same sort of motivation in every novel, or do you tend to mix it up more?

I'd say that they're all aspects of hte same thing? I have difficulty in varying my main characters, though I am working on a story that I hope will be different, but it's still in the plotting stages. The characters haven't had a chance to hijack it yet.

What is your favorite example of character motivation?

I like the selfish ones that accidentally start caring and being responsible. Oops?

Bonus: Share with us an excerpt from your current or completed novel(s) that demonstrates your favorite example of character motivation.

No bonus points for me, it's all in my head. Which is kinda sad...

Unplanned Disorganization

     Yay, "Compose" has returned to me! It refused to work Wednesday...

     Right- I'm one of those people who enjoys organizing but is constantly disorganized anyway. :P Usually its at a manageable level (Defined as: where I can find what I want with less than five minutes of searching 90% of the time). The continued disorganization is caused by two things- the reworking of systems I don't like, and well, adding more stuff. Which brings me to my current state.
     Currently- well, all except my largest pieces of furniture have been kicked out of my bedroom because the carpet is being cleaned. 

     I store almost everything in my bedroom. (Pauses to be thankful that I did not have to empty the closet as well.) My wardrobe is in three different rooms with limited accessibility, and most of my several hundred books are packed in boxes or stacked precariously atop an ottoman/blanket chest in the spare bedroom. The trinkets, makeup and jewelry, writing stuff and photos are everywhere else. And I mean Everywhere.
     *cue screaming in fear and agony*

     It took about four hours to dismantle my room yesterday, and as I wait for the last section of carpet to dry, I am dreading fitting everything back in. I finally had a (mostly) working system, and now I can't find anything. Again. *headdesk*

     I may like organizing, but I loathe cleaning. I had to scrub the walls- though that was mostly scratches from moving furniture. And everything needs dusting before it finds a home. My mother smirked and told me I might have my room back by the TWENTY FOURTH.
     Obviously, I'm unsure of how to deal with that- thus my ranting. Online, where mother can't hear me... ;)

Gingerbread Village... Wow, I hadn't made these in years.

     So, today my boss and I made "Gingerbread houses" for the library raffle. I got to her house about 10:30, and we proceeded to decorate for about five hours, with a short break for lunch. There was so much candy.

The first house- I had far too much fun with the roof
and cheerfully overdid the red and green

Also, I added a lean to to the house and "made" a tree...

The house of Gumdrops and Good'n'Plenty- With accompanying dog
(though the younger patrons have informed me that it's a mouse...)

Build #3- Piroulines, Necco, Smarties and S'more Candy corn with KitKats and Andie's Mints.
 Definitely the on I'd most enjoy eating.
There's a marshmallow snow fort in there too, though it's hard to see.

The last house I did. My theme was chocolate and licorice.
That's one of my Boss' creations in the background.

These totally count as art projects, right? ;)

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??

... 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.

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 ;)

Choose a character of yours to represent each of the four seasons

So, I found this prompt the other week and have been having far too much fun with it. (read: immediately began classifying all my characters by season, before coming to the conclusion that I was procrastinating on writing.) That said,

Winter: Dan Mandel, 24.
     He's a distrustful hit man/body guard who has been on this writing journey about as long as I have. Blond hair, green eyes, roughly six feet tall, he tends to be of Anglo-German decent and if I don't watch him carefully will randomly pick up and adopt troubled children.

Spring: Sirael, 16.
     This one is a young man who has been blind since age four. At sixteen he is technically 'captured by the enemy' and taken to another country by a party of raiders. However, once there he is healed of his blindness and discovers a talent for healing magics himself. He is also one of my more hopeful character personalities.

Summer: Tsora Silvena 14.
     Usually cheerful to the point of annoying the less sunny personalities around him, Tsora has a rather difficult home life and back story. His father is often busy with political matters, and many of his peers are afraid of his potential power and erroneously believe that he caused the death of his own mother in an outburst of uncontrolled magic. There is also a certain quality of naivete surrounding his character, as he both takes things at face value and tends to get into situations without thinking them through completely first.

Fall: Drakaeo Llewellyn, 16.
     Drake is a reserved and responsible personality. He does seem to collect people, but he's more of a "protector" than a "caretaker." He'll do what he needs to, is open to mentoring younger characters, but he loves to have time to himself to fly or read; whatever suits his fancy that particular day. He has a particular love of staying up late when the moon is bright and sitting on the roofs of towers and in the upper branches of trees.


There, I have actually managed to choose only one character for each season- none of which share a story with one another. ;) It's an interesting exercise, best done with characters you know well.

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.

A Reflection on the Nature of "Downtime"

    Downtime requires just as much commitment getting something accomplished.
On the other hand, it is also just as necessary as using one's time to accomplish the myriad tasks which must be completed in a timely fashion. So- "downtime" is therefore created, not found.

Today, I created downtime. I browsed for college scholarships. I worked on a now 75+ page document that I'm writing with a friend. I plotted to begin another story line with another friend, and did some basic character description and world building for that.