I'm baaaack (again)

Wow, so it's been a long time since I last blogged. I've missed this, but quite honestly, I've had an extremely rough year as far as my writing goes. No matter how badly I wanted to write something, it seemed that every time I sat down at my laptop, I would end up just staring at the blank screen. And that annoying blinking cursor. I'd be lucky if I got a paragraph down. But it happens. I find it hard to believe that there is a writer out there who doesn't struggle with the occasional dry spell. Or as one of my best friends calls it, writer's frustration.
The years since I've started writing and working toward that lovely goal of being a published author have been very up and down as far as total word count. Sadly, with most of the years being a very low word count. But I was-and still am-always, always writing a story in my head. I'm always brainstorming on an element I'm trying to expand, whether it be a character's back story, or trying to figure out how they would respond to any given situation. Or even trying to plan out how my fantasy world looks for my future dragon books. That one will take several more years, probably.
Anyway, my point is, even though I've had even lower world count than my usual low word count, I've been brainstorming a lot on my different projects. And I actually have several newer projects I'm working on now.
Which brings me to this month: the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm using this month to try to give myself that kick in the pants I need to get a few projects done. Several short stories, and a couple of novels I'm trying to get started. You can find them on Wattpad once they're done. And yes, I will be posting on here to give a heads up that they're there.
I'm going to try to do a weekly update as the month goes by (edit: whoops...ok, maybe an end of the month update on how the Camp session went), and I have a few other blog posts in the works too. Here's a preview of what's to come (in no particular order):

• How seven words can make a difference
• A few book reviews (I haven't forgotten about those....I just need to finish the books first...)
• A little more detail on a few of my current projects
• A different kind of blog hop
• A letter from me to you

So I'm just easing myself back into the writing world. I always forget how much I love to write. But when I do begin writing again, it's like a familiar feeling very much like seeing an old friend you've known your whole life, but don't get to see very often. It's that thrill and excitement of getting to see them again, and you're just giddy for a while. It sinks in, and you begin to realize just how much you've missed them.

I'm not making any plans for sitting down and finishing a novel. If it comes, it comes. I'm just playing everything out by ear right now. I'm trying to finish a few short stories and getting a good start on a couple of side project novels. I'm not making any plans on if I'll try NaNoWriMo in November yet. I'll make my mind up once the month gets closer. Although, I will say that this month has really gone very differently-in a positive way-than I would have thought. It's really given me quite the boost in my will and enjoyment to write than I've felt in a long time. And truth be told, it feels really good. I'm feeling more of a sense of accomplishment than I have since I don't know when. I don't know when that first great (I hope) novel will be finished and out there. For now, I'm just enjoying working on the things I am at my own pace, steadily getting them closer to being finished. Once I get these projects done, there will be a bit of a blow up on my Wattpad page, lol.
Oh yeah, and since the post previous to this one was about my dragon short...I am still working on that one. I know what I want to do with it, but my mind's been everywhere and back again for a while. Rest assured, soon enough, it will be up on my Wattpad page, and possibly on here. For now, I'm focusing on a few of my other projects and I'm making some nice progress so far. Here's hoping it continues to go that way. :)

     Always writing (even if in my head)...
          -Liz

April Camp NaNoWriMo 2013: Week One

So week one has gone alright so far. It definitely could have been better, but here are my stats so far.

My week one stats are as follows:
Day One: 4,091 total word count (Pre-written prologue and part of first chapter)
Day Two: 301 total word count
Day Three: 329 total word count
Day Four: 182 total word count
Day Five: 161 total word count
Day Six: 0 total word count
Day Seven: 304 total word count

Week One: 5,367 total word count

And all of this for the prologue and first chapter. I start on the second chapter on the first day of the second week (today). I'm really hoping those creative juices will start flowing more and I can pick up the pace a good bit. Mind you, I am now roughly 8k behind (today included), but with the words coming easier and writing a little over each day's goal, I should be able to catch up. I'm still a little optimistic about my outcome this month seeing as most of the month is still ahead of me. And I have nothing to do tomorrow but to write, write, and write some more, so hopefully I can get a chunk of that 8k taken care of. We'll see.
Tuesday, my boyfriend is supposed to help me some with this ridiculous writer's block...well, no, it's not so much writer's block as I suppose maybe...writer's frustration, as one of my best friends used to call it. It's where you have the ideas, you know what you want to happen, but either the narration or dialogue just will not come to you. But thankfully, there's room for a spark of creative genius to hit you, which is what I'm hoping will happen to me. As of right now, I know what I want to happen, but the dialogue won't come to me. I'll play with various conversations tomorrow (or rather, later today), and see what I can come up with.
Meanwhile, I did actually talk to said best friend on the phone today, and I read to her what I have so far, and she really liked it, which made me happy. It's definitely better than my old chapters, so that's good. But then, my writing style has also improved greatly since I was 15, so I would hope it sounded much better.
And if you're wondering, "Hey lady, y no wordage on day six??" well random person who speaks in Meme....that would be because I spent the day at a Scottish festival with my boyfriend and his younger brother. My family has gone every year almost since they started it, and it was my chance to include the boyfriend and his brother. I think they enjoyed it too; all three of us tried the knife and tomahawk throw. I think I managed to hit the stump with a knife, and it bounced off....everything else missed all together, I aimed too high. Meanwhile the boyfriend stuck his tomahawk, which I have photographic evidence of. I was quite proud of him. :)
So yeah, that's how my week went. Hopefully this week will go much better. I feel like once I get past the first chapter, it'll all come easier to me. I've explained before that it's moving so slowly because I'm fully re-writing the beginning chapters, so I have less of a clue of what's going on. But I do still have my old chapters that I'm using as a guideline, so that's helping. I can't wait to finish this and do my happy dance around the room and to finally share this story with you. :)

     Dreaming of happy dances...
          -Liz

The Unknown Stationary

So a year or two ago, one of my besties randomly made some stationary for me to use as inspiration for my characters in the main book I've been working on. I've told her almost everything there is about this book (almost...some things need to remain a surprise...even to a bestie). But she does know that Derek never fell out of love with Kelsey.
I may not ever get a chance to use the stationary, but I rather like it either way. I included a picture below of what it looks like. It starts off with "My Dearest Kelsey," and ends with "Yours Forever, Derek". And the picture used for the watermark was, at the time, the current picture I was using for the cover. It's changed since then, but I think this works much better.
Thank you, bestie, for always being supportive of my writing. :)

          -Liz