So week two could have been better, but I'd say it picked up considerably in the past couple of days. ^_^ Here are my stats so far.
My week two stats are as follows:
Day Eight: 242 total word count
Day Nine: 0 total word count
Day Ten: 97 total word count
Day Eleven: 198 total word count
Day Twelve: 285 total word count
Day Thirteen: 288 total word count
Day Fourteen: 891 total word count
Week Two: 7,368 total word count
So I may have sort of fibbed a little last week when I said I'd be starting on the second chapter....I've only started on the second chapter since Saturday (13th). Although, I am now well into it at a nice total word count of (so far) 7,984. I have promised myself that I will get to 8k, then go to bed. And I am shooting for a total count of 10k for the day. I figured it up, and since I'm a bit behind, I can shoot for 2.6k a day and still have my 50k at the end of the month. If I shoot a little higher for a few days and hit 3k instead, I can finish a tad early.
At any rate, I'm just happy that it's still do-able. I mean, I was going to finish my novel anyway, but it's a certain sense of accomplishment to be able to say to some random stranger, "Hey random stranger, guess what? I'm a novelist, and I finished it in 30 days! Yep, you heard me right, I wrote 50k in thirty days. I'm one of those crazy writers you hear about." One could say while smiling to oneself and walking off quietly while the poor stranger stands there, scratching their head and saying to themself, "These kids these days....." Hehe.
Anywho, so once again, you may notice a lack of wordage on one particular day. And no, I am not blaming the boyfriend or any of his wonderful family this time. In fact, I'd like to have a little shoutout to my super smart boyfriend, as he helped me out of some crazy writer's frustration quite easily. A few rounds of Q&A and I had one of my characters better figured out that I had neglected to take the necessary time to get to know prior to Camp NaNo. But said character is now figured out on why they are the way they are, and what chain of events has caused them to be this way. Also what they're likely to do in the future. But my dear readers, you shall get to meet this character soon enough. I am so excited to be able to share this story with you finally, after 6 long years of writing and re-writing, as well as editing and re-editing. It's been a long process, but an exciting and eventful one to say the least.
Oh, and as an update to last week's post, this week has gone much better as far as words coming to me much easier. Especially in the past few days. I had told the boyfriend, who's debatably more excited than me for the novel to finally be finished....even though he wasn't exactly around for the first 5 years of the novel, lol. Anywho, I had told him that once I got past the first chapter, the words would be coming to me much easier. But because I am re-writing my early chapters completely, I wasn't sure what I was doing in the first chapter. Plus, my characters have been doing very well at taking me into an entirely new direction than I had planned. But I love it! I love it when my characters show me some new direction I didn't even see before, or in a case like earlier tonight, they show me they have a certain spunk, and much more of it than I had originally thought too, lol.
But anyway, it's really late...or maybe it's early...something like that. In any case, it's well after 3am, nearly 4am, and I still have just over 100 more words to go before I'll allow myself to go to bed already! Here's hoping I can make it to 10k later today! I hope, I hope! :)
Just along for the ride....just don't tell my characters they're driving....
-Liz
Monday, April 15, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
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
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
Sunday, March 31, 2013
It's the final countdown...
Here we are in the final hours before the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo starts, and I am so excited!! For the past couple of days, I've been so giddy about finally getting to finish my novel! And I have a bit of a confession to make...I once again "broke the rules" and wrote a little early. My prologue I had already written a couple of years ago, but this is the first chapter. See, I had this breakthrough moment the other night, and after some serious debating, I finally decided to just go on ahead and write the short scene I had come up with.
Overall, I am now a little over 4,000 words ahead of schedule. So basically, that means I'm easily 2 days ahead already, and the month hasn't even started yet! And as soon as that clock hits midnight, I'll probably be writing some more and be that much more ahead. I can't wait to really get going on this novel and to finally finish it after 6 long years! Camp NaNoWriMo won't know what hit it once that clock hits midnight. Haha.
And of course, once April is over, the editing process will begin, my beta readers will enjoy a hopefully non-cheesy story, and then once I get some critique back the (::insert fanfare::) publishing process will begin!!! :D I hope to possibly publish this novel sometime this fall. And I am so excited to finally share this story with y'all!! Oh, and I should be back to blogging this month at least. Ironic, I know, but I'll actually have stuff to blog about. I'm going to try to keep y'all updated on how it's going, and what my current word count is out of the 50k. I also have a word counter widget in the sidebar where it will be consistantly updated with where I am in my novel.
I am just so excited, I feel like it's just bubbling out of me. I'm trying to not freak out some random stranger in public though. I mean, I don't want anyone to think I'm crazy or anything... ;) But such is the life of a writer, and I do love it so.
Off to see the wizard...and camp buddies...
-Liz
Overall, I am now a little over 4,000 words ahead of schedule. So basically, that means I'm easily 2 days ahead already, and the month hasn't even started yet! And as soon as that clock hits midnight, I'll probably be writing some more and be that much more ahead. I can't wait to really get going on this novel and to finally finish it after 6 long years! Camp NaNoWriMo won't know what hit it once that clock hits midnight. Haha.
And of course, once April is over, the editing process will begin, my beta readers will enjoy a hopefully non-cheesy story, and then once I get some critique back the (::insert fanfare::) publishing process will begin!!! :D I hope to possibly publish this novel sometime this fall. And I am so excited to finally share this story with y'all!! Oh, and I should be back to blogging this month at least. Ironic, I know, but I'll actually have stuff to blog about. I'm going to try to keep y'all updated on how it's going, and what my current word count is out of the 50k. I also have a word counter widget in the sidebar where it will be consistantly updated with where I am in my novel.
I am just so excited, I feel like it's just bubbling out of me. I'm trying to not freak out some random stranger in public though. I mean, I don't want anyone to think I'm crazy or anything... ;) But such is the life of a writer, and I do love it so.
Off to see the wizard...and camp buddies...
-Liz
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Decisions, decisions...
Ever since I started daydreaming about becoming a published writer, I always envisioned being signed with a publishing house, and (hopefully) being mentioned in the New York Times Bestsellers list at least once. But now that seems to be changing slightly. I'm starting to really consider self publishing at least my first novel. And who knows? Maybe I'll get picked up by someone after then. The idea of self publishing is still very new, and only slightly intimidating to me. But I do have a couple of pretty great people I know who have helped me out.
One being Sir Andrew Gaeta, my newest writer friend I met through NaNoWriMo 2012. See, he's already been self published twice (see his novels here), and is currently working on getting a third published, if I'm not mistaken. Haha, seems like he's always writing, which is good. He's sort of given me the kick in the pants I needed to quit ho-humming around and finish my projects already.
Of course, my amazing and ever so supportive boyfriend is a huge help too. He's easily my biggest fan, and I love that he's always so enthusiastic about my writing. It's a little bit funny though when I hint about something I'm planning for later in my novel, but won't share it with him. Unfortunately, he doesn't always get special treatment. ;) He does get to read my works eventually, but I also want him to get the full effect with twists and turns and whatnot. Haha, he's rather impatient right now to read The Unknown as I write it next month. I assured him that he will get to read it as soon as I'm done editing it-I don't let anyone, not even my mom or best friend to see my rough drafts. He's also a writer, and a fantastic one at that! I look forward to the day when I get to share his debut novel with all of you. :) I'm definitely the proud girlfriend there.
In my debates with myself on self-publishing, I created a couple of accounts to play with and I am having so much fun with it! I'm getting even more excited about finishing my first novel next month and getting that much closer to publishing it. I can't wait to share my stories with you. :)
-Liz
One being Sir Andrew Gaeta, my newest writer friend I met through NaNoWriMo 2012. See, he's already been self published twice (see his novels here), and is currently working on getting a third published, if I'm not mistaken. Haha, seems like he's always writing, which is good. He's sort of given me the kick in the pants I needed to quit ho-humming around and finish my projects already.
Of course, my amazing and ever so supportive boyfriend is a huge help too. He's easily my biggest fan, and I love that he's always so enthusiastic about my writing. It's a little bit funny though when I hint about something I'm planning for later in my novel, but won't share it with him. Unfortunately, he doesn't always get special treatment. ;) He does get to read my works eventually, but I also want him to get the full effect with twists and turns and whatnot. Haha, he's rather impatient right now to read The Unknown as I write it next month. I assured him that he will get to read it as soon as I'm done editing it-I don't let anyone, not even my mom or best friend to see my rough drafts. He's also a writer, and a fantastic one at that! I look forward to the day when I get to share his debut novel with all of you. :) I'm definitely the proud girlfriend there.
In my debates with myself on self-publishing, I created a couple of accounts to play with and I am having so much fun with it! I'm getting even more excited about finishing my first novel next month and getting that much closer to publishing it. I can't wait to share my stories with you. :)
-Liz
Friday, March 8, 2013
The adorableness of a child's logic...
So the other day, my mom directed my attention to this ridiculously adorable moment on this author's Facebook page that she follows...the conversation went as follows...
Breeana Puttroff:
My daughter, finder of plot holes at age five:
Little Goose: "I'm thinking of putting Lilly in a class where she can learn how to speak." (Lilly is her favorite stuffed animal dog.)
Me: "That sounds like fun. Is Martha Speaks going to be the teacher?"
LG: "Mom, Martha Speaks is not real."
Me: "Oh. Okay." (Still *trying* to play along.) "Are they going to eat alphabet soup?" (Alphabet soup is how Martha on the show becomes a talking dog.)
LG: "Alphabet soup is not real."
Me: "Yes it is."
LG: "I mean, it's not alive." (There's a "duh" sound in her voice at this point.)
Me: "Well, no soup is alive."
LG: (exasperated sigh) "I MEAN, since it's not alive, it can't travel to Lilly's brain and make her speak."
Me: "Oh." (Of course. How could I be so obtuse?)
LG: "And if it DID travel to her brain, it would be stuck there, and then, because it's soup, it would get rotten up there, and she would die."
And there you have it...a moment of adorableness in a child's logic...
In the meantime, I am hard at work on finishing the interviews with Kelsey and Derek, and hopefully they will be up within the next week. :)
I am also doing so much brain storming and planning ahead for my April Camp NaNoWriMo next month!!! EEEEHHHH!!!! I'm so excited!!! I'm really hoping they will post some word count widgets so I can post one on here. In the meantime, I have a link set up in the sidebar if you'd like to check out my novel I'll be working on. Right now, all there is to see is the synopsis, but as soon as April starts, I will be posting an excerpt to see as well. I feel like this will be a successful attempt for my novel-finally!! :D I can't wait to see that finished manuscript, and be that much closer to publishing it! And then writing and finishing the sequel this summer! AHH!! I think this is going to be a great year for my writing. :)
Always thankful for any and all readers (of blog or stories)!
-Liz
Breeana Puttroff:
My daughter, finder of plot holes at age five:
Little Goose: "I'm thinking of putting Lilly in a class where she can learn how to speak." (Lilly is her favorite stuffed animal dog.)
Me: "That sounds like fun. Is Martha Speaks going to be the teacher?"
LG: "Mom, Martha Speaks is not real."
Me: "Oh. Okay." (Still *trying* to play along.) "Are they going to eat alphabet soup?" (Alphabet soup is how Martha on the show becomes a talking dog.)
LG: "Alphabet soup is not real."
Me: "Yes it is."
LG: "I mean, it's not alive." (There's a "duh" sound in her voice at this point.)
Me: "Well, no soup is alive."
LG: (exasperated sigh) "I MEAN, since it's not alive, it can't travel to Lilly's brain and make her speak."
Me: "Oh." (Of course. How could I be so obtuse?)
LG: "And if it DID travel to her brain, it would be stuck there, and then, because it's soup, it would get rotten up there, and she would die."
And there you have it...a moment of adorableness in a child's logic...
In the meantime, I am hard at work on finishing the interviews with Kelsey and Derek, and hopefully they will be up within the next week. :)
I am also doing so much brain storming and planning ahead for my April Camp NaNoWriMo next month!!! EEEEHHHH!!!! I'm so excited!!! I'm really hoping they will post some word count widgets so I can post one on here. In the meantime, I have a link set up in the sidebar if you'd like to check out my novel I'll be working on. Right now, all there is to see is the synopsis, but as soon as April starts, I will be posting an excerpt to see as well. I feel like this will be a successful attempt for my novel-finally!! :D I can't wait to see that finished manuscript, and be that much closer to publishing it! And then writing and finishing the sequel this summer! AHH!! I think this is going to be a great year for my writing. :)
Always thankful for any and all readers (of blog or stories)!
-Liz
Monday, February 25, 2013
Interview in Progress...
So I thought I might should drop y'all a little note explaining in advance how I sadly will not be posting during spring break. I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon for Denver, CO on a mission trip with my college group, so alas, I will yet again be MIA for a bit. However, since we are driving up there-yes...we are driving. And I actually prefer that instead of riding a plane seeing as how I have never flown on a plane and am terrified of them.
Anywho, so since we are driving the 18 hours there and back, I am taking a couple of short stories with me, as well as Clue to work on, and will hopefully get some considerable work done on them. I'm going to do my best to try to get at least one of the short stories finished though, if not two of them.
But the point of this post is to say that I am taking about 110 interview questions to narrow down, and I will be interviewing Kelsey and Derek from The Unknown (April Camp NaNoWriMo), and those interviews will be posted here when I get back. I'm thinking there will be between 15 and 20 questions per person. So be looking for that!
Interviewer mode: on
Anywho, so since we are driving the 18 hours there and back, I am taking a couple of short stories with me, as well as Clue to work on, and will hopefully get some considerable work done on them. I'm going to do my best to try to get at least one of the short stories finished though, if not two of them.
But the point of this post is to say that I am taking about 110 interview questions to narrow down, and I will be interviewing Kelsey and Derek from The Unknown (April Camp NaNoWriMo), and those interviews will be posted here when I get back. I'm thinking there will be between 15 and 20 questions per person. So be looking for that!
Interviewer mode: on
-Liz
Monday, February 18, 2013
Reasons for being MIA
Alright everyone, so my sincerest apologies for being gone so much the past few weeks! But I have good reasons, I promise.
So my college group is going on a mission trip to Denver, CO over spring break, and every spring we do a mission trip fundraiser. It's a musical of sorts where we take different Broadway songs and perform them. In years past, there has also been a Disney montage that was pretty awesome if you ask me. Only this year was a little different because the theme was country. So there was no Broadway, and no Disney. But it was so great! It always is anyway, and the audience reacted so well to everything! :)
I've been going to rehearsals since early January, up until show time this past weekend, so that's where my brain's been the past few weeks. Sadly, this means I've gotten very little writing done. But now that all of the musical theater stuff is done, my schedule's opened wide up. At least for the next week, then my brain will be on the mission trip. I'm taking a blank notebook with me to hopefully get some writing done on the 18-hour drive up there-yes, we are driving. I kinda prefer it that way too. It gives me more time to get some potential writing or editing done.
And then when I get back, my brain will be back on writing, and hopefully I'll be able to post more short stories and chapters to Clue. So that's what I'll be up to for the month of March. And then come April (dun-dun-dunnn) CAMP NANOWRIMO TIME!!! :D Hoping I can finally finish my novel I've been working on since I was 15.
Overall, I'm hoping this will be a good year for writing, and I have a pretty good feeling it will be. I do, after all, have plans to finish two to three novels this year. :)
But anywho, it's really late where I am now. But I did want to finally explain my absence for so long. I'm going to try my best to get back in the blogging swing of things. Unfortunately, it seems rather easy to fall out of habit, and for that I am truly sorry. Maybe finishing my first novel will make up for it? :)
Finally breathing after the madness...
-Liz
PS. To those who have been hinting, or just outright bugging me to get back to blogging...here it is, finally. Happy now? Hehe. :)
So my college group is going on a mission trip to Denver, CO over spring break, and every spring we do a mission trip fundraiser. It's a musical of sorts where we take different Broadway songs and perform them. In years past, there has also been a Disney montage that was pretty awesome if you ask me. Only this year was a little different because the theme was country. So there was no Broadway, and no Disney. But it was so great! It always is anyway, and the audience reacted so well to everything! :)
I've been going to rehearsals since early January, up until show time this past weekend, so that's where my brain's been the past few weeks. Sadly, this means I've gotten very little writing done. But now that all of the musical theater stuff is done, my schedule's opened wide up. At least for the next week, then my brain will be on the mission trip. I'm taking a blank notebook with me to hopefully get some writing done on the 18-hour drive up there-yes, we are driving. I kinda prefer it that way too. It gives me more time to get some potential writing or editing done.
And then when I get back, my brain will be back on writing, and hopefully I'll be able to post more short stories and chapters to Clue. So that's what I'll be up to for the month of March. And then come April (dun-dun-dunnn) CAMP NANOWRIMO TIME!!! :D Hoping I can finally finish my novel I've been working on since I was 15.
Overall, I'm hoping this will be a good year for writing, and I have a pretty good feeling it will be. I do, after all, have plans to finish two to three novels this year. :)
But anywho, it's really late where I am now. But I did want to finally explain my absence for so long. I'm going to try my best to get back in the blogging swing of things. Unfortunately, it seems rather easy to fall out of habit, and for that I am truly sorry. Maybe finishing my first novel will make up for it? :)
Finally breathing after the madness...
-Liz
PS. To those who have been hinting, or just outright bugging me to get back to blogging...here it is, finally. Happy now? Hehe. :)
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