N.R. Wick

New covers!

2012-01-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

So, I've been a busy beaver over the weekend and into part of this week. The first draft of Land of No Mortals is nearing the halfway mark for completion, and I've been doing a bunch of other publishing related things that have kept me quite productive. An artist by the name of Karri Klawiter has designed two covers for me over this weekend and start of the week and I thought I'd share them with you.

As we know, Picture Evil has gone through a couple of cover changes before. Nothing seemed to really work for that poor, disturbing story, but I think Karri really captured the heart of it with the cover she did for me. She did an amazing job!

The next one is for a new short story that was recently published in Dark Ascension: A Demon Anthology. Doppelganger really deserved its own spotlight outside of the anthology and Karri did an excellent job of designing the perfect cover for it. This short story should be available in a couple of days.

Pretty neat, huh?

Researching the Post-Apocalyptic World

2012-01-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

How is it possible to research and write about a world where there is no electricity, every day pleasantries such as new cloths, easy transportation, and easy meals are no longer an option? One of the most fascinating and fun things about writing a world with so much technology but no way to use it, is trying to figure out alternatives that are not too far outside the realm of possibility. Sure, the world of Land of No Angels has earthly magic, but that doesn't mean people can just magically fix things like lack of electricity or lack of food.

When I wrote Land of No Angels (and am currently writing its sequel), I had to do a lot of research about what the world would be like if there was an apocalypse and a lot of people were gone. I remember finding this fantastic page that gave a general timeline of how long electricity could stay on without human interaction depending on how their electricity was gotten. It also had a timeline of how plant life would overgrow and what the buildings would do. It was really interesting stuff.

Some excellent questions crop up when writing about a post-apocalyptic world. My favourite one was: How would an average girl survive on her own? And that's half of what sparked the book(s) idea. Other things I grew very interested in were small things like: What sort of foods would be eaten? Sure, for a while canned goods would work out, but what about when those were gone? Would people have to revert back to the ways of hunting and gathering? In the Land of No Angels universe, many of the typical animals like deer, horses, dogs, cats, bears, birds, etc. have disappeared. How long will it take before this fact royally screws up the ecosystem?

I had to do some interesting research for the second book. How to make a cake-like food for a celebration without things like chicken eggs, milk, baking powder, flour, an oven etc. Even though it's never explained how it was done in the book, it was important for me to understand whether or not it could even be done and if so, how would one go about producing such a thing. I'm sure they made such things when ovens were not invented, even if they were different than they are now.

One of the fun things I had to research in the first book was how to feed an infant without breast milk and without formula. The Ashford girls end up using cans of evaporated milk and water they had stored in their tornado bunker, which is far from good for the baby. But in my research, I discovered that 40+ years ago, it was actually used for babies. It was an interesting way to solve this problem.

Even though it's impossible to know how things would work in a post-apocalyptic world, it's so fun to make conjecture based on things we know, or can guess, or by using research from things that happened a long time ago.

Happy New Years!

2012-01-01T00:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's amazing that today starts the first of a new year. This means, reflection and goal-setting time. If you are into that sort of thing. Which, I'm great at the setting part, but not so great at the following through part. All in all, 2011 had some real bad times and some really great times.

I moved twice this year, was pretty much homeless for a while, couldn't find work, etc etc. But I also wrote and published a novel. That in its self was epically amazing. I also earned my MFA in Creative Writing and wrote and published four more short stories. So, those things were great. One of the best things, though, was that my Husband and I finally made it back out to Kansas and are doing better. We have a place to live, we make enough money to survive, and I have a job that is part time but makes enough money to help support us so that I can have time to write as well. Pretty good year in the end, despite the bad.

For 2012, I imagine it's going to be great. Hopefully, anyway. My number one biggest goal for the new year is to learn to focus and maximise my productivity. I have issues with following through on things, even if they are important, unless it's for something like school or a job with foreseeable negative impacts like getting a B or losing your job. I started an exercise in productivity a week or so ago, and I will work on it some more to see if I can retrain myself to stay focused and work my ass off to do the things I want and love. Since all of those horrible, negative things that happened last year should not effect me any more, I will be able to get writing things done without feeling guilty too.

My second goal is to write three (3) novels next year. It's a huge stretch for me, but if I can get myself focused and productive, it really shouldn't be too hard. Ideally, I'd like to also publish those three. It would be great to write and publish a short story every other month too, but I don't want to push it to the point of no getting anything done.

I want to make 2012 a great year, not only for my writing and my business, but for me to have some fun too. There was so much stress last year that 2012 should be the year of awesome. I'm going to try my damnedest to make everything I want come true.

Also, there had better be snow in 2012, or so help me... *shakes fist*

I wish for the best 2012 for everyone and hope you all had a great 2011! Let me know if you have any cool 2012 goals or plans too!

N.R. Wick's Top Ten PG-13 Horror Movies

2011-12-08T14:11:00.001-08:00

I love horror movies. Shocking, right? B-horror, teen horror, slasher movies, 80s horror. I love them all. Some of you might be wondering why I chose to list the top five best PG-13 horror movies rather than just any old horror movie. We all know the R rated ones can show the most boob and the most spilling guts, but there's something to be said about those that have been rated PG-13. Besides, I write books primarily for teens and young adults, so I wanted to make a top five that they could see without using a fake ID.

So, here we have it. N.R. Wick's top Ten PG-13 horror movies.

10. Prom Night - I know, I totally went here. While this movie is completely filled with cliches, it's a pretty good slasher film for teens. Also, there is some surprisingly fantastic cinematography in a couple scenes... if you're into that sort of thing.

9. The Haunting in Connecticut - Kyle Gallner is amazing. Also, ~~Casey Jones~~ Elias Koteas is in it. Half of the appeal of this movie is the two of them, but there are some other great things about it like spewing ectoplasm.

8. One Missed Call - Shannyn Sossamon has the emotional range of a rock, but this one's creepy. Who wouldn't be scared by getting a phone call from a dead friend and a message of themselves being killed?

7. White Noise - Great movie with ~~Batman~~ Michael Keaton obsessing over EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). Have to admit that I love stories like this one, but I won't say much about it because I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it.

6. The Ring - Let's face it, this one never gets old.

5.The Mothman Prophecies - This is another one of my favorite types of stories. Some may or may not classify this as straight out horror, but it's a great movie.

4. Lady in White - Kind of old, but I love this one.

3. Last Exorcism - Not your typical exorcism movie, and it's shot in a documentary style.

2. Insidious - This one is a pretty recent one and it was not only creepy, but it's got a few fresh tropes in. Also, the paranormal investigators are darkly hilarious.

1. 1408 - Probably one of my favorites movies in general. How can you go wrong with a Stephen King story and JOHN CUSACK? You just can't. This one reminds me a little of the Silent Hill games (NOT movie).

There we have it. Trust me, it was hard to decide on only ten since there are many other awesome PG-13 horror movies.

[Edited] I wanted to add two that are technically rated R but I'm not really sure why. They aren't any worse than the ones on my list, and they are really great movies. The first is People Under the Stairs, which is an older movie, but it's creepy and funny and disturbing. The other, is The Orphanage, which is a foreign film, and is amazing.

[READER RESPONSE: What's your favourite PG-13 (or lower rating) horror movie?]

I Refuse to "Dumb Down" My Writing

2011-10-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

A very interesting topic on vocabulary popped up on an writer's discussion board I participate in where someone questioned why an author would choose a "fancy" word over a more commonly known word. First, I wonder what a "fancy" word is. Is it just a word out of the reader's known vocabulary? Or is it a word that is rarely used in general public during this time period? Is it a word that is way too formal for the story/narrative? And really, is it a big deal if the author uses a word you don't know? Sure, you had to pull yourself out of the story to look it up, but now you know a new word. Education is always good, even while entertaining yourself.

As a writer, I refuse to "dumb down" my words, especially when I know it's the appropriate word. It's insulting to my readers. And I'll be honest, I don't have a huge or "fancy" vocabulary, but I DO write for children, teens, and young adults. Because of this, I have to be aware of what words I choose. For example, I had several fantastic beta readers for Land of No Angels, but had one mention that I should consider changing a word because it may be too advanced for the YA audience. The word was "equidistant", which I don't think is a very "fancy" or advanced word, but I considered the comment before ultimately keeping the word.

Had the book been a Middle Grade I may have changed it, but because it's a Young Adult book and my target audience is between 15-20, I felt that if they didn't already know this word, then they should. Don't YAs learn this word in high school math? I'm pretty sure they do. If they don't, then it's a great way to introduce them to the word. Why use two or more words to describe something that one word can? I trust that my readers are smart enough to either know the word, guess what the word means, or to educate themselves and look up its meaning.

Now, if the "fancy" words are used arbitrarily for no other reason other than to abuse the thesaurus and try to make the writing sound smart, that's where I draw the line. It tends to be easier to point out these instances since the vocabulary tends to be awkward when read with the rest of the story.

In the end, as long as the vocabulary is appropriate to the style, time period, narrator, and the audience, I don't see a reason to "dumb it down".

Writing The Opposite Gender

2011-10-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

So, today's a writing day and because the task ahead of me is so daunting, I'm here procrastinating instead of doing my work. Due to some news and business advice, I decided that instead of working on my Middle Grade novel, I was going to bang out this Young Adult novel that was next on my list. One of the biggest struggles I've come across in writing this story is that the main character is the opposite gender that I am.

I've written male leads before, and I'm by no means a girly girl, but I have to consider my audience, my limited knowledge of the male mind, and the story of this novel when I'm writing. For example, I believe more females read YA than males do, so my book having a male lead could be harmful if not done well. I noticed that of my two published short stories and my novel, the one with a male lead character and male on the cover does not sell as well as my other two. Could it be that the cover is just not as strong as the others? Perhaps, but when I consider how many YA books out there have a male lead, it makes me wonder.

This book I'm working on will have a much stronger romantic element to it than anything else I've written/published thus far, so to help attract the most people, I intend for the cover to show both an attractive male AND an attractive female. Doing so should keep it more neutral. I don't want to give anyone the impression that it's a paranormal romance, because it's a paranormal mystery of sorts, but I think highlighting the romance will help me reach my target audience, which is young adults between 13 and 19.

All that aside, the actual writing can be a challenge at times. In a good way, of course. But how much teenage boy do I want to include in the story before I start losing girl readers? I've been thinking about good YA I've read with male lead characters, and most of them were written by women. For example, Beautiful Creatures is a great book and has a male lead, and while the characters voice was there, I don't recall him feeling very manly. Teenage boys think about boobs and girls and nice legs, don't they? But I don't recall much of these things happening in the YA books with male leads written by women. I'm not saying that they have to overpower the story with the character talking about sex or boobs, but if a girl's blouse is too low or skirt too high and all the character does is mention this like an asexual third party observer, then what does that mean?

It's possible that I'm just over-generalizing teenage boys and that the majority of them don't sneak an (un)intentional glance at an attractive girl's chest when she leans over in her low cut top, or they don't notice long sexy legs in a short skirt. Maybe all of the guys in the books are too effeminate or too much of gentlemen to do such things. Or maybe the women writing the stories don't think it's important enough to mention, and maybe it isn't. I'm not sure, but I always found it strange that the point of view male characters were never as teenage boy-like as they should be. Again, it could just be me not knowing what I'm talking about.

So, how can I convey that this main character is in fact a teenage boy and not a woman trying to write a teenage boy? Voice and characterization are key, but how do I do this without making assumptions or stereotyping the character? An idea I had was in the way they notice things. Generally, I would say men are more visual and women are more intuitive. This is not to say that every single case is exactly the same or that both genders can't be both visual and intuitive. I know this happens and that's fine, but I'm speaking in general terms for the sake of this example. If both a man and a woman were to walk into a restaurant scene, how would their narratives differ? Would their narratives still differ if they were written in 3rd person rather than 1st? As a writer, I would tackle them differently, even in 3rd because the things they notice and the way they notice them would be different between them, not just because they are different people, but because they are different genders too.

[READER INTERACTION]: What are your thoughts on the subject? If you write, how do you tackle this challenge? Know any great examples of an author writing a lead/POV character of the opposite gender?

In Defense of the Thesaurus

2011-08-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

The thesaurus is one of those things that can either be beneficial, or it can be the key to your undoing. General consensus deems that the thesaurus is a troublemaker for professional and amateur writers alike. Stephen King has even gone on record to say, "Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."* While I adore him and his writing, maybe I'm just too naive or too inexperienced to agree completely. Another source of my sudden need to defend the thesaurus was in a book I am currently reading, Robert's Rules of Writing. Even though I'm enjoying the book and there are some wonderful little snippets of advice, I can't help but slightly disagree. For example, "Thesaurus words are words you would never use on your own; the fact you had to resort to the thesaurus just to find them proves it." (Masello, 293-98) I don't disagree with this statement completely, but I do have to come to the thesaurus' aid.

I have a confession: I use the thesaurus. Often. All the time, really. My desktop dictionary/thesaurus is open almost the entire time I write or am on my computer at all. Why? Because I don't have a vast vocabulary, nor do I remember the exact meaning of every word I (or anyone else) have ever used. This doesn't mean I lack skill, or that I'm an amateur, or worse: just and idiot. It means that I have a zillion other things going on in my head at one time and I can't always remember things, even when I really do use them on a daily basis.

Let's do a quick scenario. I'm looking for a different word for a colour. It's red, but not the typical cadmium red, or tomato red. Crimson's not quite right either. Also, who wants to use those couple of words over and over again in their writing? Not me. I'm thinking of a dark reddish colour with maybe a hint of purple, but I can't think of the word. I know there's a word for it, but for some reason I can't remember what it's called. It's a word I use plenty in my vocabulary, and, hell, I can even tell you exactly how to mix the paint that will make that exact colour. But for some reason, the word escapes me. Should I put "He wrapped a dark, reddish-purple colored shawl over her shoulders and sat down next to her." and use so many words? Or should I take the two seconds out of my "organic flow" of writing to type in 'red', click enter in my dictionary/thesaurus program, and find BURGUNDY sitting in there among the other different types of red? Heh, which do you think I picked?

This happens to me plenty of times with other things too. Completely common words that I can't think of during my focused writing time. Sometimes I'll just go back and edit, but my brain doesn't work that way. If I'm writing about an imp and it's fleeing from someone, shouldn't I use a better word than 'run'? Maybe that word doesn't reflect how he's actually moving. So let's work through some words I could use: dart, bolt. Okay, sure, those are pretty good. It implies quick movement, which works for an imp. Scamper or scurry would be better, though. Sometimes I can't remember the meanings of words, so I will check the thesaurus and the dictionary to be sure the words mean exactly what I'm visualizing in my head. I don't want to use the word 'run' when I meant the word 'scamper'. Run is NOT the right word. Scamper is. No matter what any other author tries to say. Should I leave it as run because I had to use the thesaurus to remind me of the word scamper?

There are so many different and commonly used words for many things that sometimes, to make the writing clearer and less wordy, it would be better to use one of those words. Maybe I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, or maybe I'm just not as awesome as those who hate on the thesaurus. And I can understand. Some people... even extremely famous authors *cough* abuse the thesaurus with inane synonyms that people haven't used since who knows when. Funny, though, that this same author uses a few other words so many times in the same page that it becomes ridiculous. At any rate, when used well and not mistreated, the thesaurus can be a useful tool. And I'll continue to use it without shame.

[READER RESPONSE] How do you feel about the thesaurus? Do you ever use it? Why or why not?

_{*Quote found on http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Stephen_King}

Dragon Dictate and No Hands Writing

2011-08-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time working with a dictation software called Dragon Dictate (Formerly known as MacSpeech), and thought I would share my experience and how using such software will optimize my writing experience. First, I'll preface this by saying that Dragon Dictate is the mac version of Dragon Naturally Speaking, only it's more expensive and doesn't work as well. From what I've read, anyway. However, I've found Dictate to be an amazing and fun way to dictate my handwritten work to the computer, and I'm even trying to dictate directly, skipping the handwriting process.

Beginning with the training. When you first get the program, you will have to train it to recognize your voice. The training doesn't take long, though, and you're on your way. You can dictate to a lot of different programs, but I chose to just dictate in the Dragon window, then copy/paste it into my normal program (Scrivener), because it's less buggy in the dragon window. Sometimes in Scrivener it was adding random letters for no reason I could understand or find.

I began officially dictating with chapter two of my next novel project, which is the sequel to Land of No Angels. So, there are a lot of little word quirks, such demon names. Often times if the name sounds like something else, I will have to retrain it almost every time. For example, the demon name Halpas is impossible for the software to understand no matter how many times I retrain or correct it. Often times it won't even show up in the list of words to choose from when trying to correct it. Luckily, the name hasn't come up much, yet, but when it does, I'm going to lose my mind.

There was another name, one that is a normal name and was actually already in the program's vocabulary, that I had trouble with: Nadia. No matter how many times I tried to get it right, the program always changed it to Nokia. In the end, I deleted Nokia from the vocabulary and I haven't had another problem since. This can't be done with Halpas, though, because the words that pop up for that name are words like "help us" or "helpless". Basically, words I will need at some point. Even if I emphasized the 'ah' (as in autumn) and 'a' (as in at), the program changes it to 'hall pass', which, I suppose, is closer than the others, but still not right.

Strangely enough, it immediately had no issues with the name Errol the first time I spoke the name. Though, at times it will now change it to Carol. For the most part, though, it recognizes my words just fine. I enunciate pretty well to begin with, and it does worse when I'm slurring some, but it's not so bad. I correct as I go and am still doing pretty well with productivity. Reading from my two handwritten chapters took a lot less time than typing them. Usually it would take me an entire week to write them out, but this took three days.

Today I decided to try dictating straight from my brain, to my mouth, to the computer for chapter four. This was amazingly difficult to begin with because I like to write things down. Seeing the words makes them more understandable for me. At first, straight dictating felt awkward and I struggled a little, but after a while, I was much better at it. In the end, it was just as fast to dictate than it was to write by hand, and much faster than typing myself. Normally I only write for 30 minutes in an hour because I get distracted and I suffer pain in my hands and wrists. But with dictating, my hands hurt less and I was more focused and interested in what I was doing. Somehow it made me focus more. I'm not sure how, but it did. Perhaps I was more focused because it took a lot more brain power to translate the narrative into speech rather than the silent translation of narrative to my fingers.

A couple awesome things I noticed while straight dictating:
-Dialogue was a lot easier to dictate than narrative and went a lot faster.
-My dialogue felt more real because I was actually having the conversations out loud.

[READER RESPONSE] If you've ever used dictation software, how did/do you like it? Did you find it more or less useful? If you haven't ever used dictation software, would you like to? What problems could come with using such a software?

Themes: Siblings and Family

2011-08-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

One of my most favourite themes has to do with family, and particularly siblings. It pops up in my writing a lot and I enjoy writing about brothers and sisters looking out for one another. I'm the eldest of four, and my sister is 7 years younger while my twin brothers are about 8 years younger. It's a pretty big responsibility to be the head sibling. This was especially the case for my family, but despite everything, having siblings is great.

Land of No Angels has a strong theme around family because the main character, Rebecca, only has her sister left. She's the eldest of the Ashford sisters and looks after Errol, who can be a trouble maker at times. In the setting of the book, there is constant danger because of the demons and the idea developed from some of my own fears.

When I was younger, and even now on rare occasions, I would have nightmares about my own siblings and about how I couldn't save them from some horrible monster. Whether it be the evil leprechaun from that terrible (but hilarious) horror movie trying to boil them alive, or a car with no driver trying to run them down in the street, the dreams were a compilation of Eldest Sibling Fears. The fear that you won't be strong enough to look out for them, or the fear that you will be helpless to stop horrible things from happening to them. It doesn't even have to be supernatural like in my books. It can be real things like "Are they making the right decisions?"

These may be more the sort of things parents should worry about for their children rather than the head sibling. However, I love my sister and brothers very much and when I hear about my sister's friends getting into deadly car accidents or my brothers' friends doing stupid things and getting into trouble, I can't help but worry about them. I know that my siblings are smarter than that, but it's still something on my mind. It must be the nature of being the big sister.

[READER RESPONSE:] Are you the "Head Sibling"? Or are you the middle or youngest child? What's it like for you? How do you feel about the theme of family in books?

Two Weeks of Awesome!

2011-08-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

So, in case you haven't heard: Land of No Angels is on Sale for a super awesome BIRTHDAY price! Why? Well, because August is the month for birthdays in my family. Mine is on the 19th, my husband on the 27th, and my dad and HIS dad are also in August. So, to honour so many birthdays, I thought it'd be fun to have a sale. It's only going to last through the 14th, so don't miss the chance. Also, if you wish to get your copy through Smashwords, please use coupon code CT22E for the discount.

Also, I'm finally able to show off the book trailer for Land of No Angels. It was super fun to create, and if you missed the blog post where I talked about my process for creating the trailer, you can check it out here!

The cool thing about the two weeks of awesome is that at the end of it, my young adult short story will be available for your reading pleasure. So, yeaaaay!

[READER RESPONSE] This reader response is going to be a bit different. If you were stuck in the demon apocalypse, would you hide, fight, or die? If you would fight, what would be your weapon of choice? Also, name one person you would fight to the death to protect from demons and why?

Special Guest Author: Jerry Hanel

2011-07-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today we have an excellent guest, Jerry Hanel, author of Death Has a Name, for the release of the second book in his Brodie Wade series, Thaloc Has a Body, and it's very exciting! I'm going to hand this post over to Jerry so he can talk about his awesome new book.

My name is Jerry Hanel, and the book I've written is a paranormal mystery/thriller called Thaloc Has a Body. It is the second book in the Brodie Wade series.

What is a "Thaloc"?
Thaloc was an Egyptian creature that was believed to take the form of anyone. I've embellished the legend of Thaloc slightly, adding a few points from "experts" in order to explain how the villain is connected to the murders, but I tried to stay as true to the original legend as I could.

As far as how Thaloc relates to the paranormal world, thus how he would relate to Brodie's ability, Thaloc was a spirit being, very similar to the western concept of the Grim Reaper. Using that template, you can see that it's not a far cry from the first book, with with an Egyptian twist, and a plot twist that I think will leave the reader stunned and amazed. Time will tell, I suppose.

So, how do you pronounce 'Thaloc'?
I'm not sure, to be honest. I've actually had several differing opinions given to me on that. Some say Thay-lock, others say Thahl-lock. I even had one person quote it gangsta-style; The-lock. For me, I refer to it as Thahl-lock. I guess that's part of the mystery, but also part of the history of this creature. He is an unknown. A black hole. Since he can become so many different things, having a single pronounciation of his name seems almost too rigid. Pronounce it however it is comfortable to you in hour head. I guess that's the best way of all.

How did you come up with the idea for the book?
In the first book, Death Has a Name, Brodie had to confront the Angel of Death and his apprentice. While, I have a personal belief about humans and alternate realms, and such, I always want my characters to battle other humans, not necessarily non-human entities. It just makes for a much more dramatic story, in my mind. In Death Has a Name, I pushed even my own boundaries on that personal rule. Brodie still had to battle the apprentice, but there were a few plot twists that I really struggled with, internally.

For Thaloc Has a Body, I wanted Brodie to have to confront actual flesh-and-blood people, without any gray areas and I thought that a shape-shifter would be the perfect medium to make those encounters much more interesting, while remaining true to the themes started in Death Has a Name.

What do you think readers will enjoy most about your book?
Two words; Jamie Stanford. She is the love interest that was briefly introduced in the first novel. Brodie was so freaked out (as he normally is) by the case at hand, he missed the signs of her trying to flirt with him. In this book, she takes matters into her own hands and invites herself on a date. Through that character, we get to see so much more about Brodie and get past his angst-riddled brain into his heart. He really is a caring man, and Jamie brings out so many facets in Brodie that we've never seen before.

Who is your favourite character?
Picking a favorite is hard. All of my characters are reflections of some aspect of me. Even the villains are the darker side of my past, expounded a thousand times, of course. I mean, I wouldn't want to actually kill someone, much less do it in the way that they do. But I can see how someone could be drawn down those dark paths and deluded into doing the things they do. And even those dark characters have a soul somewhere deep in there that I guess my soul can identify with.

If I absolutely had to choose a character, and my life depended on it, I would say Brodie. He's the unsure, scared little boy inside me that has never really grown up. There are so many qualities to Brodie that make him socially awkward that I can relate. But when you get past those awkward moments, he's probably the nicest, most caring man on the planet.

Do you listen to music while you write, and if so what music for this book or in general?
When I write, I generally have my headphones on, listening to whatever music will set the mood for the scene I'm working on. My favorite bands are "The Letter Black", "Red" and "Thousand Foot Krutch." They all seem to have themes dealing with dark, painful issues, but they all have this brilliant, bright, shining thread of hope, grace and redemption that inspire me, despite their dark themes. I guess I can relate to the music, reflect on my past choices, and apply those to the scene I want to create to come up with the story in my head.

Tell us where to find you online and buy your book.
This series is all over the internet right now; Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc. But I really think Amazon has it down to a science. They give my readers the best price and they are really good to me as an author in the process, so it's a win-win situation.

You can reach me directly on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/JerryHanel

Or on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/Jerry-Hanel-Author

I also have a blog:
http://www.jerryhanel.com

Thank you for taking the time today to interview me. I've really enjoyed it.

-Jerry

Thanks a lot Jerry for being a guest here at nrwick.com and good luck with Thaloc Has a Body!

Readers, if you are interested in reading Death Has a Name or Thaloc Has a Body, I've provided links below.

Cover Reveal: The Undertaking

2011-07-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Coming this August! I'm officially announcing my next short story from Dark Ascension: A Demon Anthology. It will be available in ebook formats on August 15th. Check out the awesome cover below.

Joanna was a star gymnast at Pencourt High, had a great social life, and perfect grades until a mysterious pregnancy prompted her parents to remove her from school and away from her friends. Now she’s close to giving birth and strange things are happening to her. Disturbing thoughts plague Joanna’s mind while she fights the burning desire to harm people. Worst of all, a sinister man is stalking her. Does he know what happened to her the night of a party that resulted in her pregnancy? Or will Joanna kill someone before her baby’s born?

The Undertaking is a young adult short story at approximately 5,000 words or 21 pages long.

Also, for anyone who is interested: I designed the cover myself using stock images from IQuitCountingStock and tkrain-stock of deviantART.com
Links to their stock galleries:
http://IQuitCountingStock.deviantart.com
http://tkrain-stock.deviantart.com/

Creating a Book Trailer

2011-07-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

The last couple days, I've been creating a book trailer. I know I'm behind on my writing and I'm sure it's just my way to procrastinate, but I think after the nightmarish week I had that I just needed a break and I needed to do something a little different. I read an entire book in one day (which isn't shocking for me, just not something I've done in a while) and I started a book trailer. It's been a blast working on it, and I thought it could be fun to write a blog post about how I tackled the book trailer while I wait for artists to get back to me.

The first thing I did was browse deviantART(dA) for images that I thought would be useful. Links to the images I liked or chose when onto a page in my Land of No Angels Scrivener file, then I took the images to use as place holders. I used about 5 images and have one or two additional ones that I kept as back-ups in case the artists didn't want me using the images. When I decided for sure which ones would be needed in the trailer, I contacted the artists on dA asking permission to use them in my book trailer that will be posted to youtube. (Also, give yourself enough time. Sometimes it can take a week for people to get back to you. Keep that in mind.)

Let's sidetrack for a second to talk about dA and about images and permission and all that good stuff. Before I became an author, I was an artist (click on the art link in the menu bar to see some of what I did) and you know one of the biggest pet peeves of artists is? People jacking their artwork without asking. It's kind of the same for writers, right? Well, some people seem to think that if it's on the internet and/or you can find it by searching google, then it's free use. This is not the case. There are copyright laws in place that do not allow people to randomly take and use images off the internet. And let's face it, it's just plain rude. Plenty of people try to justify it and act like it's no big deal, but it is. Always find the artist and ask for permission, even when it's photography. Always.

As for why I went with dA instead of a stock photography place, there are two reasons. The first is that there is a higher likelihood of being able to use the images for free as long as I credit the artists and link to their work, and second I needed images of demons and apocalyptic settings. It's not exactly easy to find those is stock photography and nothing beats the artsy feel of beautifully crafted artwork and photo manipulations. Yes, I have to wait to upload the finished project until the artists agree to let me use their images, and yes, may have to change some of the images if I'm rejected, but for the most part dA artists are pretty cool and don't usually have a problem as long as you give credit and links.

Anyway, back to the trailer. After I found the images, I wanted to find the perfect background music. It took a bit of time, but I found something I thought fit. Two pieces of royalty free music that I found on Flash Kit. They fit together perfectly and I went through using Audacity (or Cacophony) and spliced them together, did a little looping, and had what I wanted. Husband loved it. It was kind of dark metal, rock, grungy sort of tune, but my best friend (who's also one of my crit partners) didn't like it. She sent me over to Incompetech and we found something that possibly fit better. It's about 38 seconds long and I think it works.

With those parts finished, I needed to script my trailer. This was the hardest part for me. I struggled and struggled and went crazy over how to entice people, get the story across, be interesting without rehashing my book blurb, and have something that worked. I was able to get the first couple of lines out okay. It took a while, but the second half just would not work. There was so much to say about Rebecca and Errol and the adventure and the horror and everything. In the end, I decided that less is more in this case. Cool imagery, good music, and intriguing text that doesn't give too much away are perfect. But, the script took hours to decide on and I hadn't even finished it while I was working on the actual trailer.

Which brings me to how I made the trailer. For this, I used Flash. When there are so many easy programs to use and even ones online that allow you to quickly and easily set up a movie, why did I choose flash? Well, several reasons. I'm familiar with flash. I know how to use it the way I want. Before I was an author, part of my artsy job(s) was to use flash. Worked on a film using Flash, created educational graphics with Flash. All of that fun stuff. So, it was a comfort thing. Some people may use animoto or windows movie maker, but I'm on a mac and I have/know Flash. So, it was the most convenient and easiest option for me.

After spending half of yesterday working on the trailer, it's mostly finished. I'm working out some kinks and I'm adding/syncing the music properly. The only thing left is for the artists to give me permission to use their work and it will be ready to upload. I can't wait to share it with everyone, though.

[READER RESPONSE] Have you ever created a book trailer for your favourite book? Or maybe your own book? Some people like to make music videos too, have you ever done that before? If so, tell us about it!

Writing Challenges

2011-07-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

This month, and probably next month, I'm involved with a few writing challenges. Not only am I participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, I'm also participating in A Round of Words in 80 Days.

My goal for Camp is to write 50,000 words in 31 days, while my ROW80 goal is to write a minimum of 1,613 words a day but to aim for 2,000 words a day until I finish this book, then use the rest of the time to type it up and edit like crazy (I'm sure I'll be adding a huge amount of words during the type up since I edit so heavily). These are both pretty doable goals and it will be fantastic because I will have finished writing the sequel to Land of No Angels.

Why do I participate in these challenges? Well, a lot of it has to do with accountability. If I'm a part of something where others are in the same boat as I am, then there's a sense of camaraderie and I have more reason to keep pushing myself to get things done. Also, challenges are fun. You get to see what everyone else is doing, how their doing, and it's just fun to tell people about how you're doing some amazing thing.

Something I've been considering as a way to "up the stakes", as they say, is to maybe become sponsored. NaNoWriMo has this thing where you can become sponsored and have people donate money to the Office of Letters and Lights (the gang who run NaNoWriMo) so they can keep their awesome programs running. The only reason I haven't yet is because I'd like to prove I can win one first. Also, I don't think anyone would donate. Not anyone I know of. How sad is that? It's not their fault, it's mine. So, for now I'm just sticking to the regular "let's write 50,000 words in a month" thing.

READER RESPONSE: Do you participate in any challenges, whether it be writing or art or even sports? Why do you do it and what do you get out of it?

The Great INDIE Summer Read Giveaway - International!

2011-06-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

So, between June 15th and July 31st, Coffee Mugged is hosting giveaway of epic proportions. There are 100 books to giveaway and they are all by indie authors, including my own Land of No Angels. Yes, you read that right: 100 BOOKS. Awesome right? Most of them are ebooks, but I recall seeing a few print copies in there too. There's nothing cooler than winning free books, right? RIGHT!

Click here is you want a quick peek at the list of books.

The grand prize winner will get 10 books, and many people will win at least one book as long as there are books available. How cool is that? Very! Best of all, the giveaway is open internationally. Also, there are tons of ways to add extra entries, so be sure to keep up with the daily giveaway posts. If you are as excited as I am, then you should hurry and go sign up! Click on the logo at the top of this post or the logo on the sidebar to the right of this post and enter!

Ebook for Land of No Angels is now available!

2011-06-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to announce that Land of No Angels is finally available in ebook format through Amazon and through Smashwords. Sadly, Barnes and Noble is having an issue with something on their end that is making the B&N version unavailable right now, but hopefully it will be fixed soon. Luckily, if you own a nook, you can still order the epub version on Smashwords until B&N get their butts in gear.

+Download Land of No Angels for Kindle on Amazon.com
+Download Land of No Angels from Barnes & Noble
+Download Land of No Angels from Smashwords (file types include epub, mobi, pdf, html, rtf, and others.)

The print version of Land of No Angels should be available next week through Amazon, and likely Barnes & Noble, as long as it's not still messed up. Also, there is still a giveaway going on at GoodReads for copies of Land of No Angels. It's ending on the 13th and I'm giving away three copies! Be sure to sign up if you want to enter to win a copy! There's a link on the side bar to the right.

Outlining

2011-06-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write a post on outlining today because I've spent the last week or so working on the outline for the sequel to Land of No Angels. And since tomorrow is the start of my 75,000 words in 45 days marathon, I suppose it would be good to talk about outlining.

There are many different ways to outline something. Some people choose not to outline at all (generally called "flying by the seat of your pants" or "pantsing", while others use a very meticulous outlining method called the Snowflake Method or the equally tedious Phase Outlining Method. I'm not going to tell anyone which option is right or wrong, because it would be pointless, but I will tell you that I personally outline everything I do whether it be a short story, a school essay, or a full length novel. That's just how I roll. It works for me because I don't like feeling around in the dark. Too much time will be wasted having me sit there staring at my screen if I don't have some sort of clue.

Even though I am a plotter/outliner, it doesn't mean I go crazy. I don't used any of the methods I mention above because I find them tedious and insane. There's something fun about discovering certain things along the way while still maintaining a sense of structure. Basically, I'll plot out the whole book with a series of plot points, scene points, and other important notes. Once I begin writing the story, I will read through some of the outline in order to know what's going on. Then I will write the scenes and chapter. Sometimes I look back at the outline, others I don't.

When I wrote the outline for Land of No Angels, I'd done a lot of note taking on the post-apocalyptic world. I wrote up a five page outline on it too, but in the end I barely looked at. If I were to compare the original outline to an outline of the actual book and the differences would be immense. In fact, I took a look at the old outline a couple days ago (days before the ebook release date) and realised how many things I forgot to add because they didn't flow with the natural current of the story. Additionally, in the original outline there was a lot less conflict. Everything seemed to be solved with ease and nothing was hard to overcome. But as I wrote the actual story, conflict naturally appeared. A lot of conflict.

So, outlining is always where I start and it's a great thing, but never feel tied down to it. It's kind of the best of both worlds and I intend to keep using this method until it grows into the perfect method.

[Reader Response] Do you outline? Why or why not? What's your pre-writing process?

I have proof!

2011-05-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

A proof copy, that is! Muwahahaha! Yes, I received the first proof copy for Land of No Angels and it looks amazing! The artwork is beautiful, the colour perfect, and the interior is so great. I'm quite pleased with the font I chose and the way the inside looks. Now, Husband and I have to go through it with a fine comb to make sure that everything was copied correctly and to double check any spelling or grammar mistakes. It's all very exciting! So, I've posted a couple of pictures for you to see!

Also, before I finish this entry, I'm holding a contest over at GoodReads! I'm giving away THREE (3) copies of the physical book. So, sign up for the contest on the GoodReads website. There's a link to it in the sidebar of this webpage, so go on and enter already! Look for more giveaways coming up in a couple weeks here on this site, and on twitter! I'll be giving away another copy or two of the print book and several copies of the ebook.

Accountability

2011-05-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

Today I want to talk about accountability, mainly because I have to have accountability to get things done. I'm a serious procrastinator when it comes to difficult tasks or tasks I don't really enjoy, so it's important for me to hold myself accountable. The difficult thing with this, though, is finding the most effective way to do so.

For example, when I'm doing work for homework, it's easier to get things done because I know my grade depends on it. I also know that I will see results pretty soon after, so it helps me understand that if I choose not to do whatever it is, then I will hurt myself in the long run.

It's also easier when I have a project that is important to someone else. For example, when I was working on edits for my book that needed to get out to a beta reader by a certain time, I knew that I couldn't screw around. If I took too long, then she'd lose her window of opportunity to read it without having to pile it on top of other projects. Since I didn't want to burden her with excess work, I was able to use accountability to get it done on time.

What about a project that has only myself to worry about, though? I still struggle with this. I have a writing timeline that I need to follow if I want to get my stories and books out when I say they should be out. What happens if I don't stick to the timeline? Nothing. Not really, anyway. Nothing really happens because I don't get a bad grade because of it or fail to keep a promise to a friend. There is no visible waste of money, either. But what do I get if I stay on track? Nothing. Again, nothing really... at least not in the short run.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things I get screwed on if I don't, but because they are not immediate, it's much easier to blow them off. For example, the short story I'm still working on, which was supposed to be finished almost a month ago, is just sitting here unfinished. It's not making any money, it's not helping me promote, it's not getting out there to the world. Why? Because I'm procrastinating or doing other things. Not working on it is only hurting myself.

So, how can we come up with ways to hold ourselves accountable when there are not any tangible or immediate consequences? Haha, well, I'm still working on this, but some things that help me are telling people what I'm working on and when they can expect to see it. By giving them a date, I've made it so they will expect something then. On my website, for example, I have release dates for some of my books. They are tentative, really, but having them up there and public helps me a little. If I tell someone that they will see my book in December and they look forward to it, then I'd be stupid to blow it off.

Another thing that works for me is to have writing buddies. Whether I'm word sprinting, at a write in, or #wordmongering on Twitter it's better to have other people around who are in the same boat. If I join in, then they ask "Did you do any writing?" I don't have to feel like an idiot by saying "Dur, nope. No writing." Instead, I force myself to work and get things done.

With all of that said, and of course it is much easier said than done, I'm still working on this whole accountability thing. If I want my dreams to come true, so to speak, I have to work for it. I've got to actually DO things. I can't expect it to happen while I sit around and do nothing, right? Hopefully I can find a good balance and keep myself from backing off when I should be pushing forward.

[READER RESPONSE] How do you create accountability? What things have you done that made you successfully work and finish things when you didn't feel like it. Any words of wisdom or awesome tips?

Cover Reveal: Announcing Land of No Angels

2011-05-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm so excited because the cover for Land of No Angels is officially finished. The ebook version of this young adult horror will be available by the 6th of June through Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and all other format from Smashwords. The print version will be available hopefully by the 13th or the 20th depending on final proofing and distribution times. Also, I have several contests in the works where I will be giving away free copies of both the ebook AND the print book. It's going to be great! So, look forward to the announcements for those.

Now it's time for the cover!

Isn't it awesome? I love the model; she makes a great Rebecca. Also, for anyone who is interested: The cover was done by Razzle Dazzle Design and I highly recommend them.

Pen Names

2011-05-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

So, I wanted to talk a little bit about pen names. Some time ago, I didn't understand the reason for pen names or pseudonyms, but now that I'm publishing my own book and am aware of branding, I understand the need for them. This is especially clear when I read an article last week about a teacher who is catching a lot of flack for writing erotica on her free time.

Writers choose to use pen names for various reasons. For me, I write under my initials, which is a moderate pen name. I'm not trying to hide my identity, though, nor am I too worried about people discovering who I am and what I write. My reasons are related to separating my identity from that of another person online with my same name. This person is associated with things I not only disagree with, but also would be very embarrassing for fans or anyone to stumble upon and think it's me. So, I use N.R. Wick (or NRWick for usernames) in order to separate myself and my brand from someone else with my same name.

Pen names can be tricky, though. If you want to really disassociate your real name from your pen name, that makes sense, but I know of plenty of budding writers who believe they need to have a pen name for no reason. This is something I don't understand. Well, actually, maybe I do in a way. For marketing purposes, it seems like a good idea to have a pen name similar to a popular author in order to get your book noticed. For example, if you write horror novels, would you rather have your real name, Aaron Zhan, or your pen name, Craig Kimball? Which would more likely be found closest to popular horror authors' books? The second one, right? But it Aaron Zhan really that bad? But if your name is very hard to pronounce, having a pen name might be the way to go.

[INTERACT: Do you have a pen name? Why did you choose this name? If you are not a writer, what would your pen name be if you had to have one?]

Thesis Approved and Independent Publishing

2011-04-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a while because I've been so busy with finishing my thesis. Speaking of which, my thesis has been approved and finalized and now I just need to send it off to a binder to have it specially printed for my school's thesis library. It's a really great feeling! I just have a couple of class assignments left and I finish at the end of May, but the important thing is the thesis and I'm finished. My last few assignments have to do with query letter writing and it doesn't really apply to me.

Why doesn't this apply? Well, my dear friends, the reason is because I am going to independently publish my work. Self-publish, for those who don't agree with the term Indie. No, I'm not crazy. No, I don't suck and can't make it in the traditional (legacy) publishing world. The point is that I don't want to try. Not yet, anyway. Maybe for my next book I might, but honestly I have a problem with the way that side of the book publishing world works. Some things just don't add up with me and I'd rather take it directly to readers. Additionally, there may be a higher chance to make a living by going this route. No guarantees but I'll take my chances.

With that said, I'd like to announce that Land of No Angels will officially debut in ebook format sometime in July, hopefully mid July. The print version will be available by the end of July, so there will be two formats. It's pretty exciting. I'm expecting to have contests and swag and copies of the book as prizes. It will be great fun, I think. The book cover should be ready sometime in June and I'll talk about that more as time goes on.

There we have it. It's a short post today, but I'm going to be having some Scrivener posts coming up soon because I haven't gushed about it lately.

I followed. He followed.

2011-04-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

[Note: This post was previously an article on NRWick.com, but due to changes in the way the website will be, I am reposting it here so not to lose it completely.]

I will be the first to admit how much I loathe first person narrative. The argument that first person brings a reader closer to the characters and events of a story or that somehow it makes the reader empathise more escapes me completely. More often I find myself reading a few sentences into a novel written in first person and by the time I near the end of those first few sentences my eyes have completely unfocused and I am no longer reading but gazing vacantly at the inky print.

Why does this happen? The reason is due to the way most first person narratives are written. So many of them are written like glorified lists of actions and self inserts. It always feels as though the narrator is listing off things that happen, even if they are "showing" and not just "telling."

Then, there is this bizarre concept that first person is not only more personal but makes the reader connect more with the main character. The idea that a reader can only delve into the dark depths of the main character's thoughts and feelings through the use of first person is a destructive one when so many stories are prone to obvious self inserts and lack of substance. A main character that is devoid of their own well developed characteristics and mannerisms in order to be a place holder for readers seems more like a marketing ploy rather than an acceptable writing device.

In addition to this, I always wonder how skewed the narrator's perspective of things are. It drives me crazy. If it's unclear, then I spend the whole time wondering why I should care or trust anything they say. If the author's point is to make the reader doubt the validity of the narrator's perspective, then there should be clear signs of this. That doesn't mean it needs to be 'over the top' or 'in your face.' Subtlety is acceptable, unclear is not.

This is not to say that there is a lack of well written novels in first person. I know there are; I read one about a week ago. Stephen King's novella The Mist is written in first person. Had I known beforehand, I may not have picked it up despite my adoration for Stephen King. (Yes, that is the depth of my irritation for first person narrative.) However, the amazing thing is that while The Mist is in first person, it wasn't distracting and it didn't FEEL like first person. I did find myself wondering why the story was even in first person rather than third because it was written in a way that flowed as well as third person, but used the words 'I' and 'my' in place the words 'him' and 'his.' Not only did I not mind the first person narrative, I actually enjoyed it.

It was then I discovered that I don't loathe first person; I loathe first person that is written this way for the sole purpose of attempting to connecting with readers. With this understanding, I bring myself to the dilemma of which narrative to use in my new WIP. Normally, I wouldn't give it a second thought. I'd write it in third person and never look back. Even as I write this, I'm annoyed by the notion of considering first person. But the main character of my WIP is telling me her story and I am merely writing it down as a novel just as Stephen King wrote down David Drayton's story in The Mist. Do I go against my instincts to write in third person, even though I know that if I write in first person it will have a third person feel, or do I follow my instincts and write in a way that I don't particularly care for?

How to Handle Deadlines

2011-04-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Deadlines are one of those things that are necessary and important but can sometimes make you feel rushed and suffocated. No matter if you work at home for yourself or in an office building for someone else, deadlines are an integral part of business. It's much more difficult to get anything finished without some sort of deadline because your mind rationalises the importance of projects based on their due date and their rewards. For example, are you more concerned about a 3-day project due tomorrow, or a 3-day project due in two weeks? What if the latter project is of higher value than the former? I'd bet you are still more concerned about the project due tomorrow.

What happens if you are not given a clear deadline? Well, I had a lot of experience with this in my old job. The setting was fairly relaxed but my job was integral to the company. I wrote all of the website and marketing content (and sometimes wrote articles for the company's ezine), created marketing graphics, flyers, brochures, etc. and I filmed, edited and compiled video... among a number of other things as well. I did this primarily on my own with very little, if any, supervision and the workload was hefty. It was important for me to know which projects were of top priority and which were not, but I rarely had this luxury, and I was rarely given a set deadline.

In a perfect world, you would work together with other members of your team to write up a calendar and have a clear plan, but often times this doesn't happen. Instead, you are stuck making your own calendar. Try to prioritise your projects by the ones you feel are most important. If you know they are time sensitive, then be sure to take that into consideration. The only problem I find with doing this is that sometimes it makes me lazy. I'm a big time procrastinator when the pressure to finish on time isn't there because no one is depending on me at that moment. It gets even worse when I'm working on something I don't like to do (like making seminar power points! UGH!).

Right now, I've been making writing calendars to organize when I need to have my writing projects finished by. Since I'm a procrastinator, it's been a major help. For the most part, I've been on schedule. Not only is it something I'm passionate about, but it's something I want to make a living off of, so I need to be very disciplined if I want to make it work.

INTERACTIVE: How do you handle non-existent deadlines and/or work you don't care for?

What I Learned From the First Draft of My Thesis

2011-03-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Last week, I turned in the first draft of my thesis, which is also my first full length novel. The feeling was amazing! Not only had I finally written a full novel at 63,000 words (I intend to revise it and get it up to about 70,000), but I had finally completed a longer piece. While I’ve written plenty of short stories, I’ve never finished a full novel and it’s a completely different beast.

First, a little background on my thesis: I am writing a novel for my MFA creative thesis. It’s a young adult novel in which I wrote the first 26,000 words last year and the remaining 37,000 words during the entire month of February and the first week of March. What is really telling about this information is that I actually wrote the bulk of those remaining words in about 2-3 weeks. I had a tight schedule and could not afford to not finish the book before March 7th.

One of the things I learned throughout this first draft is the importance of outlining. I could not have finished without some sort of plotting before hand. Did I stick to the outline? Haha, not at all. I mean, the “outline” (which was really a list of plot points) was originally written ten months ago, and changed a lot over the course of working on the book. But, it was a place to start and I had a vague idea of how it needed to go. Once I realized the novel was deviating, I started revising the plot as the story continued. This worked, for the most part, and at times I even had to plot out individual chapters.

The biggest thing I learned from this first draft was my ability to focus and get work done. With typing directly into Scrivener, I could write about 1500-2000 words a day if I really focused and used the timer method. However, in the last two weeks of working, I still had about five chapters left to write at about 16,000 words. What saved me was hand writing these chapters. I discovered that by writing these chapters by hand, I was able to write twice as much (between 3000 and 4000) in less time. Sure, afterwards, the hand-written work had to be typed up, but it didn’t take very long to do so. In the end, it worked out better this way.

Whether writing the story by hand brought me back to my childhood where I’d hand write stories every minute of my free time, or whether I was just less distracted by hand-writing because I was away from the computer, there is no way to tell for sure. When I wrote on the computer, it was necessary to keep Apimac Timer open and do “word sprints” with myself. Write for ten minutes straight with no distraction, then screw around for five minutes. It worked really well for a while, but on the days where I was feeling lazy, those five minutes of screwing around turned into fifteen minutes, then turned into forty-five minutes. It’s much easier and works much more efficiently to do sprints with other people, but I know the timer method is good for me when I don’t feel like hand writing.

Now, before anyone freaks out that I wrote a book in such a short time, don’t worry. I’m still going to be editing and revising it. My thesis mentor should have her notes back to me some time next week, then I’m spending a week or so fixing the first draft (it will make the draft at v1.5) before I send it out to beta readers for more feedback (still have to find me a couple betas). The final version is due at the end of May, I think, so I will have all of May to rework the trouble areas.

I’m sure there will be more posts on my thesis/first novel journey since there is much more to learn, but this is it for now. I really learned a lot about my process and about how to write faster and more efficiently. There is no reason to let your “inner-editor” stop you from just telling a story, and I won’t lie, there was some bad writing in my first draft. But I remembered there will always be time to go back and fix it, and didn’t waste my time worrying about it.

Focused Writing

2011-02-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

I can always tell when I have a tight deadline and a lot of work to do because I seem to post a lot of blogs, tweets, and facebook statuses when I'm stressed out. (I also seem to get a lot of cleaning and errands done during this time.) I've been working on my MFA thesis, which also happens to be my YA novel, because I have to finish the first draft by March 7th. I'm at about 40,000 words and would like it to be around 65,000 by the time I'm done. So, I have about 3 weeks to write 25,000 words. This actually wouldn't be an issue, but I'm a procrastinator and I've been struggling a bit with my process and getting words out.

For almost a week, I wrote only 600 words. In my defense, I was doing other things as well, like working with my thesis mentor to finalize my schedule and reading list, reading a book from my reading list, and playing video games with my Husband. So, this week started and I panicked. Only 3 weeks left and I was writing too little. With the thrill and cram-sessions of NaNoWriMo gone, and no useful way to continue word sprints, I decided to try a few new things.

The first thing I did was start chapter nine by hand. The entire chapter was written by hand in the end and it's going to be about 4,000-4,500 words long. doing this gave me the opportunity to keep myself away from distractions on the computer and was a nice change of pace for once. The second thing I did, was to set my own word sprints. I'd set Apimac Timer (a freeware timer for macs) for 10 minutes at a time. In those 10 minutes, I would write without interruption, then stop and take a break for 5-10 minutes TOPS. Sometimes, I'd be on a roll and not want to stop, so I'd continue passed the 10 minutes or reset the timer. But if I was in a distracted mood, I'd stop working for five minutes to allow myself a break and to keep my focus.

Surprisingly, this method works wonders for me. I wrote about 1,300 words in two hours, and half of that time was spent actually writing. The day before, I spent 5 hours trying to write and had only written 500 words. My brain starts to see Timer Time as "Getting Down To Business" Time and I focus.

For chapter 10, which I'm starting tonight after husband goes to work for a 4 hour shift, I will try to type it up using my timer method. I'd like to hit 2,500 word tonight (about half the chapter), but I know I type slower than I hand write, so I'm not sure how it will compare. I want to see if I can still maintain the same level of focus whether I'm hand writing or typing.

Well, that's all I have to say on the subject for now.
-N.R. Wick

[READER RESPONSE] What method do you use to get the max amount of writing done in the amount of time you are given to work? Do you have any useful tips to share?

Note: This entry has been cross-posted to my personal Live Journal blog.

The Writing Workshop: Coping With Criticism

2011-01-20T23:42:00.000-08:00

I was going over the critiques from classmates in regards to two chapters I submitted for workshop. Since I have to do a revision for these chapters and I have to go through them thoroughly, I thought I'd write a blog about the process. Keep in mind, this is mostly in regards to critique in a workshop or beta-reader type setting.

When I first turn in something for critique, the feeling of nervousness and excitement fill my body. I'm always worried that they might think I'm an idiot or that my writing sucks. It's scary turning in work for a workshop, but it's necessary. For my class, everyone has to read and critique whatever you post and by the end of the week, turn in a 250-700 word critique and there are about 15 crits in the end.

This time around, I screwed up. I submitted two chapters, both near the middle of my book, and one of them was in the same setting as a previous chapter. Why does this cause a problem? Well, first of all, posting chapters in the middle of a book are difficult to critique because there is no way to know if the chapters before or after answer questions posed within the chapters presented or if they fit well with the rest of the story. The worse issue is that critiquers may get bogged down with details they can not imagine because they are not described in the current chapters. For example, I submitted chapter 7, which is a second half within the same setting as chapter 6. If my characters come back into a room in chapter 7 that I've already described in chapter 6, then it makes sense that I would not re-describe that room. However, for those who are coming in at chapter 7 and don't know what the room looks like, they may get tied down with comments like "this needs more detail" or "I can't visualize this". For the most part, my classmates were able to push past these. Who can blame them if they weren't able to? But, I suppose, the major reason I bring this up is because of frustration when reading critiques.

How does the writer handle critiques? In a perfect world, we'd embrace them with love and and an open mind, but this is not a perfect world. How many of you have read through a critique only to go "What the hell are they talking about! They are crazy!" or "That scene is perfect!"? If you have never raged about a critique, no matter how right or wrong the critique may be, then you're either delusional or a literary genius.

It is not uncommon for one to get angry about critiques, even good and helpful ones. There is nothing wrong with that, and don't let anyone tell you different. However, the problem starts when you can't push past the anger, get over it, and analyze what has been said in order to better your work. Seriously. They are there to help you. Don't let your bitterness keep you from listening to good advice. So, if you want to yell at your computer screen about how stupid the crit is, do it. Just remember that you know they are probably right and you'll have to fix it, and remember how thankful you will be when your work is better because of it.

Here's how I deal with critiques:

After I get critiques, I read it over (more so skim). I roll my eyes a lot and rage about anything they may have said that makes me wonder if they even read the same thing I wrote. (It's happened before. I got a crit telling me that I had to be careful with writing about vampires since the industry is saturated with them... only, I was writing about demons... animal like demons that didn't suck blood, sparkle, or even, in many cases, talk. I mentioned this many times. How could they have missed this?) However, usually I'm just annoyed about things I disagree with.

Once that's done, I give it a week or two without looking at my chapters or the critiques. I don't even think about them. I work on something else, go to the beach, have a latte. Whatever I want. Once it's time to come back to them, I read through them carefully and make a list of everything I agree with, and everything that I may not agree with but should probably take a second look at. For example, if I get three or four comments saying that I need to describe something clearer, I will put it in my 'agreed' list. But if I get only one or two people who didn't seem to catch a small detail, I may put it in my 'concede' list so I can go back during the revision stage and see if I agree or disagree.

It's funny because often times I will agree with what's been said. Not always, but it happens a lot, even if I was annoyed by it in the beginning. On occasion, I will change something out of anger at a comment and will end up liking it a lot more than before. There really is no way for me to explain how I choose what to fix or how to fix it. It's somewhat innate. You feel your way through it and see if people respond well to it. This is not to say that you should listen to every single comment and change it to conform to what the critiquer wants.

Also, there are times when I get conflicting critiques. In those cases, I will leave it with the majority and go with my instinct. Always go with your gut. If everything inside you is saying to keep something you have, then keep it. If you can, find a way to amend it so you can keep what works and clear up what might not work. It's hard coping with criticism, but keep in mind that they are meant to help you.

To Win or Not to Win

2010-12-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Woo! It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry for that, but last month was insane! Between finishing a class and having to turn in 26 pages of a film script for it, working on NaNoWriMo, and being extremely sick for 2 weeks, it was just a crazy month.

So, yes, I officially did participate in NaNoWriMo. No, I did not win, but I'm okay with that. I wrote 18,000 words in a week and a half! I was and still am so thrilled! It puts me at about 26k total for my thesis novel. But, after that I got so sick for almost two weeks and couldn't write anything. Since I had a final coming up, that took precedence over NaNo. By the time I was able to function enough to write, I had a week and a half left and it meant I would have to write 3200 words a day in order to finish.

At this point, I decided that I would continue to write every day, but not give myself an insane goal. While it is possible for me to write that much, I worried that I would start to burn out if I didn't go along with my natural flow of writing. Forcing myself to write 1700 words a day for NaNo was easy, but forcing 3200 words? I just couldn't do it.

Even though I didn't "win" I feel like I did what I set out to do. When the whole thing started all I really wanted out of it was to write my novel every day and to get a good section of it written. I did. I'm just over 1/3 finished with the novel at 26,000 words and I intend to make a 1700 word a day goal to finish it up this month, since I need it finished by the end of the year in order to give myself a month away from it before I have to start editing it like crazy starting February. My thesis is due at the end of May, I believe, so I want to be sure to have a few months to edit, send to a couple writing partners and then re-edit. So, December has unofficially become my PeNoWriMo or "Personal Novel Writing Month". Haha!

[READER QUESTION] If you participated in NaNoWriMo, how did you do? If you didn't participate, how many words per day do you usually write?

NaNoWriMo 2010

2010-11-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting a chance to blog! I decided to join NaNoWriMo this year for a number of reasons. I had a bit of time since I'm only taking one class this month. Also, I decided that using NaNoWriMo as a way to get my novel out. I have to write my novel for my thesis anyway, and since my thesis courses are starting in February, I'd like to give myself plenty of time to revise and rewrite as needed. By getting most of it, if not all of it, written during NaNoWriMo, I will have the time I need and I will have finally finished a novel.

I'm doing pretty well, I feel, even though I am a day behind (I was 2 days behind yesterday). As of right now, I'm at 10, 036 words. It's pretty exciting! I wrote just over 2,800 last night in a span of four hours. Also, when I say that I wrote 2,800 words, I don't mean that I used any little word count boosters or wrote too much description in order to make it seem like I was writing more. I wrote the same exact way as I always write. Sure, I ignored a couple of things that I really thought I should edit, but in order for this process to work, I had to shut off the editor.

I'm an edit as I go person, so it's been difficult. When I get the feeling like I want to edit something, I just move back to my current spot and stare at it until I decide on the next thing to write. There's no special trick used to keep me from editing. I pretty much just try not to think about it and keep moving forward.

Something that saved me last night were NaNoSprints. I know there is a twitter version (click here if you want to visit), but I have a difficult time focusing because twitter can be so distracting. Instead, I am a part of a Live Journal NaNoWriMo Community that runs sprints via AIM (I join them through Adium, but I don't think it matters). This way is the best for me, and I'm considering keeping up with the sister community AllYear_Sprints when NaNoWriMo is over because they are THAT helpful.

What is a sprint? For those of you who don't feel like clicking links and all that, Sprints are basically a times writing session. They range from 10-40 minutes or so, depending on what people want. (I prefer 20 minutes.) The group chat is completely silent for the entire time of the sprint, and once the sprint is over, everyone can talk and share their word count while they take a short break (usually 5-10 minutes long).

The funny thing is that I'd been seeing a lot of posts and comments about doing word wars or word sprints and thought "Meh, I don't think so" but I was desperate last night and for some reason, Word Sprints were the key to my motivation and, thus, my success. So, I highly recommend Word Sprints to anyone struggling.

Tonight when I get home from work, I want to write 3,000 words before bed. (That will give me from 8pm until 1am, with an hour in the middle knocked off to pick up Husband from work and any potential food or potty breaks.) I'm pretty sure I can do it. I'll be thinking about how I want the next chapter to start while I'm at work so I will be ready for when I get home.

[READER DISCUSSION] Have you joined in on the NaNoWriMo frenzy this year? What are your thoughts on the matter? How do you feel about published novelists participating in NaNoWriMo? And, if you have joined in on the fun, how is it going for you?

Special Guest Interview! Cassandra Marshall

2010-08-31T18:57:00.000-07:00

If you are not already aware, I am currently earning my MFA in Creative Writing at National University. I started a class last month that was an internship course and was lucky enough to build my own internship with Beta-Reading and Editing. It's actually been a lot of work! One of my assignments, though, was to interview someone in the field I am interested in, and because of this, I asked Cassandra Marshall. She is a freelance editor, a writer and an intern for a literary agency. She has a fantastic blog at camarshall.com and does #queries with her twitter account CA_Marshall. If you haven't already checked these out, then you should because they are awesome and packed full of helpful and interesting information!

On to the Interview.

Nicole: What do you do for a living and/or What is you full time job?
Cassandra: I do freelance editing. It pays the bills, keeps me sharp, and I love it. Plus I get to work in my pajamas and at two in the morning if I want. Best job ever, behind writing.

Nicole: What do you do as a hobby?
Cassandra: I do a lot of crafting; sewing, crocheting, paper crafts, terrariums, jewelry, etc, plus gardening. I've got an organic veggie garden out back. It's nice to get outside every so often, get those butt muscles working.

Nicole: How does your job and your hobby co-exist?
Cassandra: Pretty easily. If I'm hungry, I'll head out to the garden for a cantaloupe and maybe pull a few weeds while I'm out there. My dog Mollie also gets a bit of outside time to stalk some birds. win-win-win.

Nicole: Describe a typical day in your life.
Cassandra: It varies. Sometimes I may wake up around noon (you'll understand why so late later), take Mollie out, grab some breakfast & maybe watch a movie, respond to emails, do the google reader thing, head to twitter, do some editing until supper (around 8p), grab supper while possibly watching another movie/reading a book, do some queries, do some more editing, get tired, read a book in bed, snuggle with Mollie and go to sleep around 2-3 in the morning. Other times I might just read all day, ARC's, fulls from editing clients, library books, critique partner fulls, etc. Some days I lay around a crochet a blanket, or sew a winter sweater for Mollie.

Sometimes I spend all day over at my cousin's house down the road letting her boys play with Mollie. Sometimes I go shopping all day with my brother. I'm very flexible and setting my own hours is amazing. I don't have to get dressed unless I have to leave the house for a trip to the store, library, or post office. I have more pajamas than I do actual clothes. Some people are excited by a great pair of jeans or stilettos. Me? Just give me a catalogue of pajamas.

Nicole: How do you make a living Editing, Interning, and Writing?
Cassandra: I don't make much editing. I think I've made about $5k this year so far. A quarter of that goes to taxes. I don't go on trips (life is a vacation, honestly), the house is paid for, and Mollie's a small-ish dog. Interning is my own time on my own dime. But I'll do it for free forever if The Agent wants to keep me around that long. It's nearly been a year now.

I haven't made any money writing yet, but it'll happen eventually. I've just started querying this past week. The only things I have to pay for are food for Mollie and me, car insurance, student loans, internet, and odds and ends. I'm not rolling in money, but I'm comfortable. If I had a husband or kids, I'd be a different story, but for now I'm ok.

Nicole: What is your ultimate goal?
Cassandra: To have a small house by some water with a shelf full of books that I've written and have helped others to write.

Nicole: Have you achieved this goal? If no, what are you doing to achieve this goal.
Cassandra: A couple of the books I've edited have gone on to get agents, so hopefully they'll go on to sell. It's still early in my career though. I've only been seriously editing for about six months.

Nicole: What drew you to the writing/publishing field?
Cassandra: I like to make things. I like to make stories come to life, I like to share experiences with others. I like to work in the background of things. I'm a natural helper. I love learning. Writing/editing/interning is all of that. Awesome x 3!

Nicole: Have you always been passionate about it?
Cassandra: Not really, no. I'm not the kind of person that will say they've been writing since they could hold a pen. I did artsy stuff. I almost got held back in kindergarten for ignoring the other children and hogging the water table. The only thing I remember about middle school is gobs of glue and tissue paper. I didn't much care for my english classes in high school.

In college my dissertation was a collection of poetry. Not until 2007 did I switch to short stories and then for my dissertation for my MA I started a MG novel. Three years later, I have that MA, a successful freelance editing business, an awesome internship, and two completed books under my belt. Who knows what can happen in the next three years.

Nicole: How do you feel about the publishing industry?
Cassandra: I love it. It's not so much the nuts and bolts about how it works, but more about the people I get to meet and work with. There's an amazing sense of community, even if most of it is in NYC and I'm in a cornfield in Michigan. Afterall, any job would absolutely suck if you hated your co-workers. Publishing just isn't like that.

Nicole: In what ways do you see it changing?
Cassandra: Everything is always changing. Way back when, a woman wasn't allowed to write, especially the landed gentry. Now everyone can write. When books were first printed, a lot of people couldn't afford them. Now a lot of us can't afford e-readers. There will always be people moaning about the death of the industry and that their way is better.

The truth is that no one's journey to be a published author happens the same way as someone else's. Just because this guy did self publishing and this girl did traditional doesn't make either of them better than the other. Everyone must find their own way of going about it and I for one am thankful for the changes and the many opportunities that they bring.

Nicole: How did you become a freelance editor?
Cassandra: I worked on a few manuscripts for friends/critique partners and they started recommending me to their friends. Eventually I started charging small fees to make up for my time, and then decided to make a go of it with a legitimate business. I wasn't finding much work around town and this was a way to pay the bills and do something I loved.

Nicole: How did you land your internship at a Literary Agency?
Cassandra: I saw a posting for a remote intern and decided to apply. I never thought they'd take on someone as inexperienced as I was but they did and I'm ever so grateful for it. It never hurts to try.

Nicole: What is your job like there and what do you do there?
Cassandra: I read queries when they come in, reject/forward them to The Agent, read fulls when The Agent requests them, write readers reports, and other odds and ends.

Nicole: How has this internship and your editing work affected your writing and who you are as a writer?
Cassandra: The internship has given me the most amazing insights into the query/publishing end of things. Understanding more about who you're working with and what their life is like makes you really think about how you relate to them and how you can best serve them in response to them serving you.

As for editing, I'm constantly finding things in client manuscripts and queries that make me wonder if I'm doing them (or not) in my own writing and so I've got all these tidbits and things to look out for and remember to do/include and it's definitely been beneficial. I look back at that first book I finish just last year and I've grown so much already as a writer.

Nicole: What is your favourite genre to read and write?
Cassandra: YA, deffo YA. Some MG. I've even got a few favorite picture books. I do occasionally read adult stuff too. But YA is my love.

Nicole: Are there any trends you see booming in these areas?
Cassandra: Trends are tricky. If an agent has 60 vampire queries in their inbox, that's a trend, but then you'll be completing with those 60 people (and the million or so other writers who are trying to cash in on the trend too) and by the time you get that book written and revised and ready to submit, it's been a year, agents are sick of vamps, and it'll still be two years before your book hits the shelves and who knows what the trend will be by then. There will always be room for amazing stories. Just focus on what makes your story unique and go for it. Forget about trends.

Nicole: What sort of schooling did you get and how did it help you as a writer?
Cassandra: I have a BA in English (professional writing) and an MA in Creative Writing. Do they help me as a writer? You betcha. I have learned a TON from both rounds in school and it's been worth every penny.

Nicole: With the huge influx of social media websites, blogs, and e-readers, how do you see these things influencing the industry, and how have they helped you grow as a writer, if they have at all?
Cassandra: Writers have so much more information now. They can get to know agents and editors and they're not as scary as they used to be when it took months to hear back from a letter you sent in the mail to someone you've never met. Blogs and twitter are a chance for writers to see exactly what kinds of people agents and editors are and what kinds of things they're looking for.

Websites and blogs can teach you so much about craft and technique and formatting. There's no reason for a writer to be stuck at home behind a typewriter and to be lonely. There's a whole community of people just like them who are willing and ready to help you be the best writer you can be; to cry with you when things don't go so well, and to celebrate with you when they do. It's the best.

Infinity and Craft

2010-07-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! I'm going to share an exercise I did using 3 AM Epiphany, which is one of the most useful book of writing exercises I have ever used. The point of the exercise was to write something that felt the way an infinity symbol looked, and gave an episode of Start Trek (when the ship gets stuck in a time loop) as an example. I've always been a huge fan of this type of story and wanted to give it a try.

Something I discovered afterward was the style in which I wrote the exercise. I've been reading a lot of Hemingway for another class and am really fond of the minimalist style in which he writes. I took a minimalist approach to this exercise using mostly dialogue and only detail when necessary. I often tend to write like this, which is often my downfall in novel writing, and I think doing so for this exercise helped with the feeling of mystery and dread I was trying to convey. However, I don't think I did it on purpose. It was more of an instinctual thing, which is good, but I wonder if I will have to remind myself of these things later when I'd like to replicate the effect or if I will do it naturally again.

Main Character CPR

2010-07-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

While I was trying to write a different blog post about the writing process, I realised that I have a problem with the main character on my current work in progress. A major problem. My main character is flat. Sure, she has fears, which is a major part of her character, but I realised that there was nothing to make her unique. She was kind of just going with the flow.

My main character was suddenly overshadowed by my further developed secondary characters. This is a problem because the story has to be told from her perspective. It's her story, not her sister's and not her love interest's even though they may seem like bolder, stronger characters than she is. Also, I understand that my novel is plot-heavy, but it's very important for my main character to three dimensional and grow because she (and the secondary characters) is so important to the story.

No matter what I did, I seemed to skirt around the main character. The love interest suddenly became the most three dimensional, relatable character. Perfect. He likes to read. Okay, but in a desolate environment, this could prove challenging. If I am able to write a second book, he will also struggle with his identity in that book.

The main character's sister is out of play for most of the novel, but even in the short time she is there it's easy to see that she has a strong personality and it's unique to her. Her character is natural for me and it comes to me without having to work too hard. This is not the case with the main character. She has flaws; the type that cause her to doubt herself and her actions a lot. But I realised she didn't have any likes or desires (other than the desire to hide and for things to be normal again). After talking with my best friend and going through some ideas with her, I found something that would not only make her unique, it fit her personality and actually enhanced it.

[READER INTERACTION] What do you do when you realise your character is flat. How do you handle this situation?

Thoughts and the Unreliable Narrator

2010-06-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about my writing lately and about teaching because my first two classes in the graduate program where fiction writing workshop and creative writing pedagogy. I had to write a huge paper (okay, huge meaning 8-10 pages and mine turned out to be about 10 pages) about my statement of pedagogy. Before this class, I didn't even know what the word pedagogy meant, but I learned quickly. I finally got around to reading Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and found it to be a great read. I think every fiction/creative writing class should be required to read this book. And one day, if I ever get to teach creative writing, I will make it required in my class. I learned a lot about myself as a potential teacher and myself as a student of writing during this class. I will definitely post my paper to my website, if anyone is interested. (Also, a kind of funny side note: I wrote a paper for the AWP Forum about students blogging as a means of learning creative writing.)

So, with a new class starting up comes new exercises. This class uses a book called 3 AM Epiphany. It has a series of interesting writing exercises meant to help one write critically as well as creatively. They are fantastic exercises. One day I wish to write a novel with an unreliable narrator in third person who is believed to be reliable the entire time, but ends up being unreliable.

[READER INTERACTIVE] Please feel free to try this exercise. It involves 500 words written in third person, intimate and must be written in a way that makes the narrator seem reliable, but actually is not. Post your version in the comments or post a link to it.

Changing Points of View and Voice

2010-05-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

So, a week or so ago in class, we did this exercise about changing view points. We had to write a narrative in third person limited about a group of people doing something and change points of view for each character while keeping their voice. I like the exercise because I prefer to write in third person and often times it can be difficult to give a character a strong voice. Here is what I wrote for this class exercise:

Lily relaxed her body as she listened to the deep breaths of three clients sitting around the circular table in her spiritual parlor. Her grimiore lay open in front of her; behind it in the centre of the table, stood four white pillar candles. Lily held out her palms to either side and invited her guests to hold hands. As the others closed their eyes, she gazed at the candle flames, watching them wane and bloom in succession. Her eyes drooped as she chanted words from her book; she knew them by heart, but insisted on keeping the grimiore nearby.

Amanda was losing her patience. She’d been sitting around the creepy table for almost an hour and nothing had happened. She rolled her eyes, then shut them again. What was she doing here? The card someone, she assumed Lily, slipped under her apartment door had a date, the time and directions to a location with the words ‘In need of a Spirit Medium?’ written across the top with red grape coloured ink. While she wasn’t in need of a psychic, Amanda’s curiosity got the better of her and she found herself at Lily’s homely cottage anyway. At least she wasn’t like the poor SOBs who came hoping to talk to their dead kid.

A cool breeze blew over Danny’s neck, sending shivers through his body. He wished Madame Lily would close the window, but didn’t want to interrupt her. Danny brought his wife, Erin, to Madame Lily because she was having trouble getting over the loss of their daughter 4 years ago. He received a card inviting him and his wife, and under any normal situation he would have just tossed it, but they had tried every “normal” option without avail. Danny gave Erin’s hand an encouraging squeeze. He couldn’t stop shivering. Was the wind blowing that hard? The only sound Danny heard was Madame Lily chanting.

Tears fell from Erin’s closed eyes as she thought of her baby. She never forgave herself for falling asleep on the couch while three year old Anna wandered outside the house and into the street. The sight of her child bleeding and broken lying in the street bore into her mind unlike any memory she’d ever had. Half of her baby’s grated face was flecked with black from skidding across the assault. Erin felt sick. An immense moan echoed throughout the room and Madame Lily flew to her feet. Lily insisted that they would have to resume at a later time. Erin thought what little was left of her heart was breaking. She tried to protest through sobs, but the words refused to come out. Lily lead them to the front door as she explained something to Danny that Erin couldn’t comprehend through her disappointment.

[READER INVOLVEMENT] Feel free to try this exercise and post it or a link to it! How do you feel about voice and changing points of view?

Learning your Craft

2010-05-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

So, I've been under the radar for the last month or so due to school starting and, more so, a horrible back injury. I was bedridden for a couple of weeks and while you would think I should have been able to get tons of work don, this was not actually the case. I couldn't sit up for 3 weeks and typing while flat on my back was just plain hard. But, I managed and now I'm doing better. Still sore and all that but I can sit for long periods of time and get work done.

As I mentioned, I started school during my absence. I'm earning my master's in creative writing and I may go on to earn my PhD. We'll see about that. At any rate, I turned in the first two chapters of my novel, Land of No Angels for critique. Now, this is a graduate level class, so the expectations are high, but in general the response has been good so far. I definitely have things to work on and my classmates gave me plenty of things to think about. I'm pleased because I feel like I'm finally on the right path, not just with my book, but with myself. I know that once I finish this book, it will be publishable and that thrills me. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect it will be easy, I just believe that at some point this story will be worth publishing so many others can enjoy it.

Other things we've done so far in this class are weekly writing exercises. One of the recent exercises had us write a 150-300 word narrative using sentences with a max of 7 words in it. That one was devistating when I did it. The second part of that assignment was to write another narrative or the same story (I chose the same) up to 300 words long using only 1 sentence. I will never understand why anyone needs a 300 word sentence, but this part of the exercise seemed a little more like how I naturally write with long and short lines. For fun, I will post it here.

Leslie ducked behind a tree, narrowly missing three whizzing arrows to the chest; he scrambled to run deeper into the thick forest and regretted getting caught stealing the precious Kalic amulet, but knew it would be worth it to trade in order to get Aurora back; besides, getting into a Kalic prison was easy, getting out alive was not so much; several towering Amazon-like women chased after him; he used the thought of Aurora’s warm, sweet skin and her large brown eyes which seemed to encompass Lesley’s entire soul in rapture to motivate him, pushing past dry shrubs and rotting, fallen trees; a fourth warrior woman dropped down from a tree in front of Lesley’s escape route with a fiery arrow in her bow; it was too late for him to dodge the blazing projectile and in a single shot to the chest—right through the heart—he went up in flames, shrieks of pain cut through the early morning air.

It ended up being 159 words long. If I saw this in a book, I'd either skim it or stop reading the book entirely, even though I know this sort of sentencing happened a lot a long time ago.

We also did an exercise in class where we had to write without any adjectives or adverbs. It was a serious nightmare. Adverbs are easy to keep out for me because I try not to use them anyway, but adjectives! Noooooo! The exercise wanted us to think outside the box for ways to describe things without depending on adverbs, which I think are crutches, and adjectives, which are important even though sometimes people abuse them. The exercise made me realise how dear to me adjectives are.

I recommend either of these exercises to those who are having trouble coming up with something to write. [Reader Interaction] If you try either of these, feel free to link me to them or post them in a comment! If you have any other good exercises, please share them!

Details, Details, Details!

2010-04-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my work-in-progress YA novel, Land of No Angels, a bit over the last few days. It's been a slow process lately due to life issues and the lack of cooperation from my brain. However, during the time I stare at my manuscript vacantly and wish I could just spill my guts all over the digital page, I find myself wondering about the details.

For the most part, I can follow the "Don't think. Don't self edit. Just write." concept while working on my first draft. But sometimes, I get this idea that all of the details I add or need to add feel awkward. For example, I'm writing a scene with two sisters outside in a some-what post apocalyptic setting, who fear for their lives being out in the open and they need to hurry their conversation to get back to their safe zone. There is so much information that needs to be conveyed or even just introduced in this scene, but I find it hard to place these details and bits of information without feeling like it's too awkward. Sometimes this even happens with describing a little of the surroundings when it doesn't directly relate to the character(s) in focus.

When I try to explain things in a little more detail than "they were in a forest" and "she his under blackberry brambles" I start to get an awkward feeling. Like when you are reading a book in first person and the main character starts describing his/her own physical appearance while gazing into a mirror. Awkward! This first scene I'm working on is sort of intense and I wanted it to FEEL and READ just like the main character's breathing: short, sharp breaths that sting her lungs. Which... actually makes the scene go fast. A little too fast maybe? So the suspense isn't building properly....

Okay, so I took a break from this blog post after I had an epiphany halfway through it. I went to lunch, discussed some things with my writing partner (who also happens to be my husband) and I realised that the scene mentioned in the above paragraph wasn't working because it lacked details. While I still want it to feel like a panic attack, it can do so with some additional information to break away from the immediate action and build suspense. Not in an awkward "Hey, I thought this girl was being hunted... now we're talking about her living situation, wtf?" sort of way, but more so a "Ack! What's going to happen to her. The suspense is killing me!" sort of way. Breaking up the quick action sentences with longer description sentences will help build that tension I need.

[READER QUESTION] Do you struggle with writing details? Are you too detailed? Not detailed enough? How do you overcome these issues?

Site Updates

2010-03-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have been a busy little beaver this weekend! So, the Scribble Me This blog and nrwick.com main website have been been revamped. I decided that I wanted to spend less time worrying about the design and more time writing and doodling instead. I'm thrilled with the look now, though. It's squeaky clean with very little hassle to me. Maybe now I won't want to change it every other month! I'm still trying to get all of the sidebar content and some of the pages back up, but it should be fully functional here in the next week.

In addition to those, I have started a little mini side project to help me work through my book Land of No Angels. It's called The Afterlife of Rebecca Ashford and it's a blog where I will be keeping character writings and doodles as if Rebecca were keeping a journal. It will only be events in the year and a half prior to when the Land of No Angels book starts. I thought it could be fun to make demon and human profiles as well using random things to draw with/on. As if Rebecca had to find random things like crayons or chalk, etc. to draw with. Ya don't have access to things like pencils and pencil sharpeners when demons are taking over the Earth, you know!

Also, if you haven't already seen it yet, I posted a new book review on nrwick.com. It's a review of Kelley Armstrong's YA novel called The Summoning. Great book! I gave it 5/5 stars. Click here to read the review on nrwick.com website.

MFA in Creative Writing

2010-03-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

If you don't already know, I've recently enrolled in a MFA program for Creative Writing. I am so excited about it, but I can't help but feel a nagging in the back of my mind telling me that I might be wasting my money. While I understand that having an MFA is not required for most jobs, I'd like to be able to teach higher education. So, having my MFA is important for that. Also, if I could make a living off of going to school, I totally would. I love school and learning and teaching. But alas, being a Professional Student is not a paying profession.

Let's start from the beginning. Ever since I was a child, I've been writing. I remember staying up all night sometimes writing stories. When I was in high school, I found my love for art and animation. I decided that I wanted to get a degree in illustration. I did, for the most part, but because of issues with my school, the program I was in and my own burn out, I found myself graduating in a hurry with a B.A. in Studio Art. What does that degree even mean? I couldn't begin to tell you because I wasn't in that program until my last semester. After graduation, I ended up in my current job doing web design, marketing, graphic design, etc. All things I like to do, but I've never had formal training for. I've been building websites and coding and working in flash since I was 15, but I apparently lack creativity. Which, I suppose, was part of the problem I had in school too.

Why did I share all of this? I needed to paint a picture of why I'm now struggling with my decision and with my life (financially and living situationally). I have a degree that is pretty much useless, a love for story telling and teaching that wants to explode from me, and a knack for coding/IT. I wonder if I should just nut up and go back for a degree in coding/IT because I'm afraid that even an MFA in creative writing will be as useless as the BA I currently hold. At the same time, having my masters opens up teaching possibilities, but will not likely provide the financial stability that IT would. I'd be poor, but happy. And honestly... I can live with that. And this is why I will be getting my MFA. Sure, the back of my mind is doubting, but my heart is telling me that this is something I should do.

For anyone who reads this and is trying to decide whether or not to get a degree in creative writing: Do what you feel in your heart is right. When I was researching, this was pretty much the most common answer and I know it pissed me off. I wanted a clear, set in stone answer... but now I realise why there isn't one. In the end, you will come out a better writer with more opportunities and hopefully feel fulfilled and happy. That seems like a great reason to me.

What are your thoughts on getting degrees in writing?

Ideas and Inspiration

2010-02-16T23:59:00.001-08:00

[This blog was originally posted on the nrwick.com blog. It has been reposted since that blog no longer exists.]

Tonight I want to talk about ideas and inspiration. I often notice people asking where others get their ideas or where to draw inspiration from and thought it would be fun to write a small blog post about this topic. I have very little trouble coming up with ideas for stories. But this is also my downfall because I have a hard time focusing on just one idea. Coming up with the idea is usually my favorite part too. I tend to develop the thorough idea and then get stuck at the fleshing it out with thousands of details.

So, where do I get ideas from? I get my ideas from everywhere and anywhere, but many times I get them from dreams. It sounds weird, but I have pretty vivid dreams and they provide some excellent story premises. I’ve never used a whole dream for an entire story because, frankly, my dreams often make little sense. But, I will take a piece of the dream and use it as an idea for a story (or illustration). For example, one of the novels I am working on came from a scene in one of my dreams. In the dream, I girl was hiding in a secret passage in the walls of her friend’s home. There were people coming to imprison and kill magic users. The friend who’s home the girl was hiding betrayed her and lead the people to her. That image was so strong to me and it prompted my entire three book novel series.

Another place I most often get ideas from are concepts, phrases, or other random snippets. What does this mean, exactly? Well, it basically means that when something catches my attention, I will think of a way to make a story out of it. For example, there was a music video I saw once (can’t for the life of me remember what it was or who it was by) where the people in the video had timers above their heads counting down to basically show when they were going to die. This idea intrigued me to no end and I thought of an idea about keepers of hourglasses which represented how much time is left in a human’s life. If the hour glass breaks before the sand is gone, the human dies prematurely…. and if one of the guardians happen to grow compassionate for a human and continued to turn the hourglass, then it extends the human’s life indefinitely.

I’ve also gotten ideas from song lyrics. I wrote a short fantasy story based on the lyrics of a song by Phil Collins (haha, go ahead and giggle. I know I do). Or I made a character based on a snippet of song lyrics “I keep a gun in the book you gave me, hallelujah lock and load.” The character turned into a man disguising himself as a priest in a zombie book I was previously writing. The idea of someone being desperate enough to not only fake being a priest, but also hide weapons in holy books or chests was so interesting to me. The littlest thing can make me go “Hmm, that would be interesting to explore” and think that is important. I write because I am interested in exploring different things, not because I want other people to love me or what I write. (Though, I would love for people to love what I write!)

Some things to do in order to help jump start inspiration: listen to music, read a book, watch a good movie, look at some beautiful artwork, free write, play the question game with someone, rewrite an old tale in a unique and different way, sit somewhere public and watch people interact with one another, draw something and write a story about it… The list goes on.

What helps you come up with your ideas?

New Books! Yaaaaay!

2010-02-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

Today Angel and I went for a book run. I love shopping for books more than anything else because there are always so many to choose from, look at, and that I haven't read. It was so difficult to choose the ones that we did and we totally went over our budget. Haha, ah well. Who needs to eat when you can read instead!

I was so very disappointed, thought, because at both books stores we went to they did not have the book I really wanted to get. I've been dying to read Jaclyn Dolamore's Magic Under Glass but both stores were out! Haha, while I suppose that's a great thing in the end because that means they were bought and read by others, but I was still sad.

But anyway, on to the new books! Forgive the less than awesome picture. I had to use the built in webcam on my mac laptop. It took some maneuvering, but I got it to work.

Starting top left we have The Way of Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy) by Brent Weeks. My sister and father have both read this book and recommended it to me. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry is next. The cover and title of this book caught my attention first thing because I am a CRAZY zombie fan. I can't get enough zombies. The cover is really what sold me on this one, so I hope the story lives up to it. In the bargain section I came across both Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Carrell and Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell. These two books are completely out of my realm and I normally would not have picked up the latter at all, but I was feeling quite adventurous today. They were inexpensive and I figured 'What the hell.'

In the lower right, we have Incarceron (Incarceron, Book 1) by Catherine Fisher. How cool is that cover? EPICLY cool, right? Heck yes. Angel insisted we get the next book called Dragon Heir by Cinda Williams because he adores dragons and everything about them. And finally Deadtown (A Deadtown Novel) by Nancy Holzner. Angel is already starting this one and isn't sure how to feel about it. One of the several reasons I picked it up in the first place was because of the Welsh. I was born and lived in Wales and it was a nice change to find a book to connect that part of me with. (Coincidentally, the nice old lady working in the kids book section was Welsh. I wanted to bring her home to me so she would read me stories and help me brush up on my Cymraeg.)

I had the hardest time deciding which to read first, but I gave in and decided it would be Incarceron. I have a thing about keys and gorgeous book covers. Now to go sit by my email inbox and excitedly wait for an email I'm dying for.

Contests and Thoughts

2010-01-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

Just a few quick thoughts about some topics I'm going to write articles for. I've noticed lately that I've had to defend my view on romance/love in books and even movies, so I think I may write an article on my thoughts on this subject. I also need to write a review on Ted Dekker's Adam, and I think I may ever write a few movie reviews. I'm a bit behind because i've been so exhausted lately, but I will catch up soon!

By the way, the online writing community is amazing. Everyone is so helpful and supportive to one another and I'm so thrilled to have found it. This may seem a little random, but I was thinking about it today because of a series of tweets over on Twitter. There is a sense of camaraderie and it's just so awesome.

If you haven't heard, head over to WORD for Teens and sign up for the Word for Teens Givaway of the book, Benjamin Manry and the Curse of Blood Bones. I suggest you go and join in! My pirate name is Lunie Seawitch. Hehehe!

On a final note, I've gotten so many new ideas for my current WIP, which is still untitled. I've been asked why I care whether or not the WIP has a name yet because it's really not important. It may be silly, but I can't start actually writing without a title of some sort, even if it isn't the one I will use in the end. And no, "Untitled" and "WIP" do not count for me. It's just one of those weird little quirks I have. But, it's coming along really well.

Sorry for such a short entry today, but I felt like I needed to update! Now off to catch up on article writing!

Bloggiesta

2010-01-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

I decided to join in with Bloggiesta. Bloggiesta is a challenge to organise and further your blogs. It's fun and informative and I thought I'd participate. I'm a bit behind, but it will be great once I get everything done. If you know your blog needs a bit of revamp and you need to get it organised, I suggest you join me and participate as well! Post a link to your blog post if you do decide to join so I can come see.

Bloggiesta - First Day Intro Post
Bloggiesta - Second Day

Personal Goals for this weekend
+Write an Article
+Write a Review
~~+Set up a Calendar/Events page~~
~~+Create a Menu Bar for Blogger Blog~~

I will be updating with the items from the mini-challenges I have completed, and will also apply most of these things to my Articles on nrwick.com since they need very similar attention as my blog does.

[UPDATE]
~~+2010 Resolutions - Finished~~
~~+Comment On Blogs~~
~~+Create a Blog Cheat Sheet~~
~~+Change the Footer Copyright to 2010.~~
~~+Organise and Think Critically about your Labels and Categories~~
~~+Back up Blog~~
~~+Searched for Dead Links and Fixed SEO~~
~~+Decided on 5 Article Topics~~

From First Bloggiesta
~~+ Updated Google Reader~~
~~+Set Up Google Alerts~~
~~+Had my site graded by websitegrader.com~~

An additional helpful url is from Problogger. I'm going through this list as well for Bloggiesta.
31 Days to Building a Better Blog - Problogger

Total Hours Spent: 16 (Not because I'm lazy or started late but more so that I am just that fast with some of this stuff... also my blog is fairly new and easy to clean up.)

2010 Book List and Updates

2010-01-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

Since updates are shorter than the rest of this blog post, I will be starting with them. I worked all weekend to learn how to code a wordpress theme in order to build my website. I know XHTML, CSS and a bit of PHP, but wordpress was different for me. I had been struggling with completely customising a theme, but in the end I figured it all out and I'm quite pleased. I still need to add content though, so don't be alarmed if your browse through and find nothing there yet. It should be 100% finished by the end of the week.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my 2010 goals is to read at least 2 books per month. I hope to do more since I would like to read as much as possible, and I would also like write some reviews as well. I've compiled a list so far; it's small and in no particular order.

~~+The Mist by Stephen King~~
+Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary by Brandon Mull
~~+Adam by Ted Dekker^~~
+Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore*
+Under the Dome by Stephen King^
+The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor*
+The Phoenix Enchained by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory*
+Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
+People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
+Deadtown by Nancy Holzner*
+Incarceron by Catherine Fisher*
+The Hunger Game by Suzanne Collins
+Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld*
+Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox*
+Found: The Missing Book by Margaret Peterson Haddix
+The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
+Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl*
+Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austin and Seth Grahme-Smith*
+The House of Lost Souls by F.G Cottam*
+Once a Witch by Carolyn McCullough*
+The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan*
+Impact by Douglas Preston*
+Cold Black Hearts by Jeff Mariotte*
+Ruined: A Novel by Paula Morris*
+The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan*
+House of Reckoning - by John Saul*
+Hush, Hush - Becca Fizpatrick*
+Midnighters, book 1 - Scott Westerfeld*
+Shutter Island - Dennis Lahane*
+The 39 Clues, book 1 - Rick Riordon*
~~+The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold~~
+Ash - Malinda Lo
+Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev*
+I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
+Seeing Red - Frank Beddor*
+The Circle book 1 - Ted Dekker^

If you have any additional suggestions, or if you are a writer who would like me to do a book review of your book, please drop some titles and authors in a comment for me or message me. I will be adding to this list as I go along, and will strike off those I have finished reading.

^Means that I am unsure whether or not I will write a review.
*Means I will for sure write a review.

The New Year and Cha- Cha- Changes

2010-01-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

Well, it is finally 2010 and I really hope it's going to be as great as everyone seems to think it is. 2009 wasn't as great of a year as I had hoped, but I made do with what I was given. This year, I have decided to set a few goals, not resolutions. I've learned not to set resolutions for the year because they never end up getting a second thought, but if I make them goals and look at them in a business sort of way, then I feel like I could actually follow them. It helps that I've decided I need some change in my life.

So, I wrote down my goals for 2010 and included reasons why I wanted to accomplish them. I felt that if I reminded myself why I wanted to reach these goals, then I would be more like to actually get to them. I started off with a few main goals, then added sub-goals that I would need to do in order to finish the main goal. I really hope I can stick with it because I know it's just so easy to drown everything out and be lazy.

Without further ado, GOALS FOR 2010!

+Read at least 2 books a month.
+Exercise every day and cut out all the junk.
+Finish writing a novel and make it agent ready.
+Get more involved with other writers.
+Figure out how to make a living from working at home.
+Blog or write an article at least once a week.

These are only some of my goals/sub goals, but they are the most important to me. The goal where I read two books a month was sort of a last minute addition. I've recently started following a large number or writers, editors and publishers on twitter and doing so has inspired me so much. I'm would like at least 1 of the two books a month to be books by people I know or follow on twitter, or by first time published authors. It's a great way to support them.

I'd also like to write an article, book review or a blog post at least once a week. Since I am integrating Scribble Me This into my website as my blog and using Wordpress as a CMS to build my website which allows me to post articles, I think it would be best to update often. I figured that I could write book reviews not only to support authors but also because I'm sure that reading so much will inspire and excite me so much that I will need to share with everyone. I know I could read more than 2 a month, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. I also have to figure out whether or not I should get a library card or if I can afford buying 2 books a month.

Speaking of the new website design, I finished creating the header last night. I love it so much and I learned some new techniques that are fun. So shiny!

So, revamping nrwick.com is what I will be working on the whole weekend along with reading the first book of the year: The Mist by Stephen King. Also, I'm going to be posting again this weekend because I would like to start a book list and mention some authors and books I'm interested in right now among other things like contests and such. I'm off to read for a bit, then get cracking on the website!

Put the LURE in Failure and the New Year

2009-12-12T20:33:00.000-08:00

To anyone who followed me for NaNoWriMo, I wish I could bring good news. Let's just say that I failed horribly even if I wrote more than I have in ages. In the end I got distracted and discouraged and then miserable. This seems to happen a lot to me.

What I think happens is that once something starts getting too big or complex or becomes an overwhelming amount of work, I seem to just shut down and freeze up. This is a serious issue for me because I want to accomplish certain things in life so desperately. I have many goals and I am sure they are possible to achieve, but getting myself to actually finish them or even finish a small piece of them is like pulling teeth.

A couple of days ago, I came across two highly inspirational websites brimming with invaluable information. Not only have the articles from these two sites helped me understand a lot of my own issues, they have also made it clear to me that my goals are not unattainable if I just fight for them.

The first site is WAHM Biz Builder and it is a coaching site for Work At Home Mums. You might wonder how a website geared towards mothers who work from home could help me or anyone else for that matter, but the great thing is that the tips and articles found at wahmBizBuilder.com are fundamentally substantial which makes them universal. While I may not be a mother yet, and I do stress yet, I do want to learn how to make a living by working at home and eventually become a work at home mum. Some of the concepts found within the articles don't even have to target businesses women, or men.

For example, I have a friend who has trouble following through with things and can't seem to reach or keep her own personal life goals. I gave her a few links to wahmBizBuilder.com and a couple from Men With Pens and she was still able to use the information to help her with her non business goals.

This brings me to the second website I found helpful: Men With Pens. This site has a vast number of informative articles ranging from business to web design to writing. How to Make Scary-Big Stuff Happen is probably one of my favourite articles because it helps break down large, daunting goals into small, manageable goals.

With that said, I am working on sorting out my goals and thought I would share a few.

My top two goals:

Work completely from home and make enough money to survive in doing so.
Finish one of my novels.

Secondary goals that I'd like but can happen later:

Go to grad school and earn my masters (without getting further in debt).
Get rid of my school debt.

I also have a few life goals, but I think I will refrain from sharing those right now. One of my sub-goals is going to be to rework my website and blog(s) completely. I think Scribble Me This will be a part of my main site as well.

At any rate, if you have any inspirational goal setting and achieving websites, please share them.

Progress.. or lack there of.

2009-11-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

So, the first week of NaNoWriMo is over and I am thousands behind on my word count. (I had a bad week filled with little time to write.) I'm not sure how or if I will catch up, but that is besides the point, I suppose. I have been writing every day, even if it's only a little but a day.

I find that I'm proud of myself even if I haven't been reaching my goals or even if I don't make 50k because I finally got out of this trap where I would write a little and then go back to edit it... or worse, I would sit there and contemplating my words and actions for hours until I found the perfect and exact way to write it. If all I have gotten from NaNoWriMo is this ability to just write until finished for a shitty first draft, then I would be extremely grateful.

Something I have discovered during my adventure is that I am thrilled to follow my gut instinct when it came to developing the characters in Inoculation. Characters are very important to me and I take a lot of time thinking about them, even if I don't spend a lot of time before I write to develop them. I've actually surprised myself on several occasions where I knew my characters. I didn't write out pages of information on them... actually I didn't write out anything. No "character interviews" no exercises on "what would this character do or say" and no forms. It's liberating, to be honest. I don't know whether this means I am doing well with my character's development, but I FEEL like I am. Wishful thinking? Maybe. But I feel like I understand them.

When my husband helps me work out a scene, we discuss possible actions characters would take within the scene. I find myself saying, "I don't really think that such and such character would do that." or "I could totally see this character doing that!" It's great to know who my characters without a tedious, boring process. I wonder if this will work for everything I write? Is this my 'process' or am I just lazy? My characters are in control of themselves, I think. XD

Speaking of my husband, I have to gush for a moment about how awesome he is. Not only is he just awesome in general, but he's the best writing buddy ever. I always get the best input and the best help from him. Whenever I am stuck he always has a helpful thought or an idea that sparks my own ideas. It might be because we both are interested in the subject of my book, Inoculation, but he's also been great help with other stories as well.

Something I have found very difficult throughout this first week is not only keeping up with the word count, but catching up once I fall behind. Even though I write every day, sometimes I was only about to write 200-500 words. When you need 1667 minimum, that's not all that good. And it's not like I can just write 5k words in a few hours like I have seen others do. I've never written that much in a day and I'm not sure that I could unless I locked myself up in a dark room with no human contact for 8 hours. But that will never happen. Haha. I'd go crazy.

Win or lose, it's still great. I can't wait until the end though because I am sort of interested in reading other people's work. But anyway, hopefully I can get back on track and maybe I will still make it! Gotta get back to work!

So it begins....

2009-11-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, today was the first day of NaNoWriMo and I am proud to say I was able to make the 1667 minimum word count. I ended up having 1880 words for the day, but had to stop in order not to burn out. This is my first time really doing Nano, so even though I had very high goals originally, I know that I need to pace myself and test the waters so to speak. I'm also pleased to find that I am following most of my rules and chugging along fine. My inner editor is screaming in agony and throwing a temper tantrum because I have locked her in a cage for the rest of the month, but that's okay. It's actually quite liberating.

Chapter one is finished and I started a bit of chapter two because I had the perfect opening line:

"Ingrid wanted to punch that prissy reporter straight in her mouth."

So, I wrote the first paragraph for chapter two but started feeling burnt out and thought it was time to stop. It's possible that I'm just worried about that chapter because I'm not sure what I'm going to do for it other than my plot point note. I like this, even though it makes things a little tougher. I have my plot points to tell me what needs to happen in each chapter and then I can just write what comes out. While this way does make it a little more difficult in the sense that I get stuck more often, but it's worth not feeling like I want to quit because I am bored with the story.

Nothing has really happened in my story but I dig it anyway. I actually surprised myself at how not-so-bad my writing was too. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't great by any means, but it was okay enough to not be extremely embarrassed by it. I think tomorrow, if I can't seem to work out chapter two, then I will just skip it and move to chapter three. It might be better than piddling around with chapter two hoping to get 1667 words to come out before bed time. Also, I'm not going to lie. I see all of these high word counts after only one day of Nano and it's very intimidating. Could I achieve this if I wanted to? Maybe... But I lack the focus and desire to sit in a quiet room with nothing but me and Scrivener. I like my husband and friends waaaaaaaaaay too much for that. Also, I like to multitask. But these things distract me sometimes. I'm not going to feel too bad about not writing 5k or even 3k in a day, though. No point when I am reaching the goals I want.

And if anyone is interested in my very badly written opening sentence, here it is:

"Hidden between Coffee Cafe and Tony’s Chocolate Confections on Main Street in the quaint mountain town of Stoney Orchard resided a little flower shop called Rosies & Posies."

So, I think this wraps it up for tonight. I'm going to go relax and see about nursing an oncoming migraine. Hopefully I can keep it up tomorrow and reach my goal!

Good luck Nanoers! I hope your goals are met! Have fun!

Inoculation current word count: 1880

This blog's word count: 550

What the heck is a Playlist?

2009-10-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Clearly a playlist is a list of music one listens to. But I keep hearing about writer's or books having a playlist. I'm not entirely certain I understand this concept. The only time I have heard of a playlist for a book is in an abhorrent YA series about sparkling vampires and an insolent main character. Is this a YA concept? I'm not sure. When someone shares their playlist, whether it be published in the book or shared with a community, are they trying to say, ' This is the soundtrack to the book'? Or are they just saying, 'This is the music I listened to while writing this book'? I could never imagine thinking of, let alone sharing, a "soundtrack" to go along with my book.

I sometimes listen to music while I write. (Actually, I usually listen to movies playing in the background.) I don't recall ever listening to something specifically to go with what I am writing, but I do feed on the inspiration. I usually just listen to the same music I listen to when I am not writing. I understand that some people have a hard time listening to music with lyrics while they write (sometimes I have a hard time too) but I have a fondness for the sound of singing.

It would take tons and tons of time and space to list off all the music I listen to while I write. Instead, I will just give a general of what inspires me. I primarily listen to music of the rock variety from the late sixties to the late 80s. Some of my favourite bands are Tears for Fears, Queen, Styx, etc. I also like folk music and musicals. Primarily, I like music that tells a story and sounds interesting.

And finally, I figured I would update on where I am with plotting. I was able to get some more plotting done last night. It was awesome, but I was also shocked because I found myself completely morphing one of my characters. This is a great thing because it fixes a few issues I was having and finally brings this character some more dimension, but I must admit that I was quite confused at first.

Thoughts on Development

2009-10-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling a real struggle lately, but I think I am coming out of it. Plotting for my NaNoWriMo submission has been a nightmare and the clock is ticking. But I'm having a breakthrough. Also, it's good to get these issues out of the way now so when NaNoWriMo comes around (OMG ONLY 1 WEEK) I won't have to spend all this time dinkin' around with it. Which is good. But through all of this, I've been having fun based on the fact that my characters are growing themselves.

For example, I think two of my characters are falling for each other. When did that happen? There is no place for love in my story. They are journeying and fighting for their lives! It just doesn't make sense. But I can feel it when I work out the plot. Whether it actually comes up in the writing, I don't know. But I do know for sure that on my end as the author they fell for each other. Something similar happened with one of my characters. Last night, while I was working on plot point #9, I had this random idea that my story needed two sweet old ladies who are sisters and have been living together since they were younger. They are now the aunts of one of my characters and raised this person after his/her mother died.

Isn't it funny how things sort of just fall into place when you are writing?

I think I have been approaching my novel in a way that is similar to a movie. Is this good or bad? I'm not entirely certain. I see the story develop in my mind as though it were a movie and try to relay that information in the form of words. Sometimes it's helpful because I can see everything in my mind as if it were real and write what I see. But at the same time, I wonder if this bogs me down sometimes. Or maybe that I'm not focusing on the right descriptions. I don't know. Haha, I DO know, however, that this will be good for NaNoWriMo. Why? Because I have 30 days to write 50,000 words. And since I have not written this many words for one story in about... 10 years, I think it would be helpful.

Yesterday, I was reading an article about reasons your manuscript could get rejected by agents and one reason mentioned gimmicks. This lead me to wonder if my approach to Inoculation is gimmicky. The way I have it set up right now, each character leads to another character and the story is told from their point of view (3rd person) until they meet up. I imagine this would be considered gimmicky. It has a very movie-style feel to it as well. However, I feel that this is how it needs to be told. It flows, it's fun, it's interesting. I don't think I even have a single protagonist. If I had to guess, I would say that Nea and Logan are the two main protagonists... but what about Bridget and David? Or Ingrid? Or the Weyland boys? Secondary.

I think I have done enough musing, though, for now. My next entry may be about inspiration and music. I know a lot of people make playlists and I think I'd like to muse on this.

Personal Rules for NaNoWriMo

2009-10-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

I wanted to create my own list of NaNoWriMo rules based on Bad Leader's blog post of Personal Rules (Check them out!). I really loved the idea and thought I would share my own. It is in no way an excuse to procrastinate working on plot points. XD Nope... not one bit. On to my rules!

Rule 1: Write every day (bare minimum of 1600 words).

Rule 2: Do NOT allow myself to bring me down. (Also known as: Don't let my brain tell me I suck. PUSH PUSH PUSH!)

Rule 3: Make time for my Husband. I can't let NaNo get in the way of my family (or sleep, or work for that matter).

Rule 4: Do NOT make excuses to not write. (Hmm... this maybe could have been #1 but since these are in no particular order, it's okay.)

Rule 5: Push for 100k but at least make 50k. Prove I can still actually finish something this big.

Rule 6: Interact with others about NaNo, but don't allow it to keep me from getting my word count done. I get distracted very easily and I love finding inspiration with others along with helping others. I can already tell Twitter and the NaNo forums are going to be a huge distraction. LOL

Rule 7: Try to get ahead on word count so if I need a day or two of break, it won't hurt my word count or progress. I know I have write every day on my rules, but I have a few days (including my 1 year anniversary of marriage in November, so I would like to spend that not worrying about making my 1600 bare min. word count) where I am going to be very busy and may only get to write for a very short period of time.

Rule 8: Don't allow video games, movies or tv get in the way of writing. Move to a quiet room if needed.

Rule 9: Don't be too biased with my story. I have a strong opinion about the topic of my story and while I want to bring out the satire and the point, I don't want it to seem preachy.

Rule 10: Feel free to change anything at any time including planning. Remember, they are guidelines to help me through. This is for fun! Keep this in mind when debating changes.

No, go on and make your own!

A Writing Exercise

2009-10-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

So, I've been in a sort of rut the last few days. I think I'm getting over it because I'm so annoyed that I've been neglecting NaNoWriMo related things that I will shortly be starting my Outline. In the meantime, I am writing this entry about one of my most favorite writing exercises. I have no idea why it's my favorite or why I love it so much, but the first time I ever used it was amazing. Basically, what I will do is give and explanation of the exercise (in green, if you would like to try it) and then write my own (in block quotes). I could just show my old one since it was my favorite, but it doesn't pertain to my current novel and I think I would benefit from a little free write, so to speak.

Set a timer for 5-10 minutes. Write an email (or a note, letter, or something of the sort) as one of your characters to another one of your character with a list of 5 - 8 items that one either needs or will bring. A successful exercise will include implied plot and character personality. It's an exercise to help you understand your characters and is a fun way to brainstorm.

Here's mine:

Nea,

Bridget ran off after Kitcha went mental last night. She's probably alright, but we really don't have the time to track her down. I say we cut our losses. I'm sure she will turn up and Kitcha is capable of taking care of the both of them. If we are going to get to Julian by tomorrow morning we will need a few supplies.

-Peroxide
-Mountain Dew
-Baking Soda
-Canned Peaches
-9mm Ammo
-Bandages
-New Bike Chain

I'm taking care of everything but the ammo and bike chain. It only seems fair you find those since the 9mm and bike belong to you. Just saying.

Be Back in an hour,
David

I totally remember why I love this exercise so much. It's fun and easy and you can actually say a lot about a character in such a short bit of writing. If you choose to do this exercise, I would LOVE for you to link or post the result.

Also, anyone try Write or Die? I find it quite fun! I was really excited to hear that a desktop version may be in the works. Hopefully I can use that. If not, I may just try using the online version. Who knows! But check it out anyway, because it's pretty neat!

Planning is a bust? Maybe I need a 5 Step Program

2009-10-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

So, I'm having an extremely difficult time with my planning. Research is going well, characters are just dandy.... but getting to the next part of any of the methods I have been working with is proving to be difficult. I'm not entirely certain why. Maybe I am distracted because I do other things at the same time. My answer to this, though, is that I like doing other things. I know that most often it is suggested to sit somewhere quiet and write, but I find that I can write just fine in a loud, busy area. Last year, I wrote two short stories for a writing workshop class. They both came out to be about 3,000 words each and I wrote them in a matter of a few hours a day over 3 days (this was including going to school full time, working 2 part time jobs, planning a wedding and a cross country move AND doing homework) and never once sat anywhere quiet without distraction. I'm a multi-tasker and I just can't do only one thing at a time.

With that said, I don't think this is my problem. If this is the case, then what IS my problem? I think my problem is that my brain finds these processes too tedious. When I was younger (and even when I was writing short stories last year) I was more writing with little planning. I would take copious notes on my idea, storyline and characters, maybe make a few plot points and then just write. While this worked for me, I did find that with this way I would get stuck for a while and not know what to write next, but it worked for me in the long run. I also found it difficult to add foreshadowing and some little details the first time around.

I don't think this method will work fully for NaNoWriMo though. Especially with my idea for this year. But, I just don't think I can stomach writing a 10,000 word outline either. I'm sure this would make me feel like I've already said what I needed to say and I think it would take away a lot of the thrill of writing the story for me. Instead, what I think I may do is a more refined version of what I mentioned earlier. Let me explain.

1. Come up with an Idea and write a short paragraph explaining the premise to the novel. (2-4 sentences, max.)

2. Decide on a few major characters. Write a paragraph and/or a series of notes about important things you need to know about each character.

3. Research your topic or anything related to your novel that you feel the need to research.

4. Write a list of plot points (or scenes, if you would rather) to make up a beginning, middle and end. (Three Act system should be present, I feel, and there should hopefully be around 30 or so plot points.)

5. Write a paragraph (or two max) outlining each plot point and add any notes desired.

Yes indeed. I think it will be my 5 step program. LOL. This way I have an idea of where I'm going but with out taking the thrill and fun away from forming new ideas as I create. The first two steps can be interchangeable as you desire and step three can be continued throughout the entire process if you like. Also, notice I only write a paragraph or two about my characters and then make notes about them. I find that I personally prefer to just FEEL them than write down every single detail of their entire being. It's sort of like learning about them as you write. Some writers are not into that, but I find it to be the best way for me.

Last thing I want to talk about is characters. I came up with a few new characters and thought I'd share. I love coming up with names for my characters. It's one of my favourite parts of creating characters and I spend a lot of time deciding the right names for them. My two newest characters are James and Adam Weyland. They own a beach-side restaurant together and in their free time ride dirt-bikes in the desert. How I came up with these two: The other day when driving home from work, I saw two guys on motorcycles at a stop light. It appeared as though one of them was scolding the other for riding erratically (whether this was the case, I will never know) and I made up this back story for them. Thus, Adam and James Weyland were created. I'm also added an third character who is a nurse.... but I do not have anything further for her as of yet.

And that is all for now, I think. I feel much better (blogging and writing is so soothing!) and expect to start making plot points tonight or tomorrow.

Research

2009-10-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

So, I have been doing a lot of research for my NaNoWriMo story, Inoculation. I've been paying a lot of attention to how the media is treating this so-called "pandemic" and find it quite strange... and disturbing. Tomorrow I should be posting about two new characters I have been thinking of including... actually 3 if I consider it further. Though 1 of them may be a minor-ish character. Haha, not sure.

(Caution: I'm highly opinionated and this topic rubs me the wrong way. This is the whole reason I am choosing to write this story. If you disagree, I don't mind one bit but understand that there is a reason I feel this way.)

Notes: Vaccine contains mercury, formaldehyde, ether. All poisonous. Sure they have low doses, but if you get a shot every single year and then a cocktail for when you are born, going to school, etc. that ads up a lot. Swine Flu has been around since at least the 70s. WHO, CDC, FDA all in on it... Also, nasal spray. How is this a good idea? Nasal has active virus.

Natural News

From Natural News

[Mercury poisoning is one of the concerns about any vaccination, but in recent years the additive, thimerosal, which contains mercury, has been removed from most vaccines. However, the H1N1 flu shot still contains a high level of mercury and this alone is a concern for children, pregnant women, and the elderly -- the very populations who are being encouraged to take the swine flu shot.

Squalene is another additive used in vaccines that is a concern. Squalene was an additive in the vaccine given to Gulf War soldiers and is now known to be one of the causes of Gulf War Syndrome. Even the government, who approved the use of squalene in the vaccines, has admitted that it was one of the causes of the vets' illness.]

Mandating vaccine for med workers (CNN) - The controversy behind this is epic. Not only is it fascinating that there is no liability, it's also very disturbing how pressured vaccination is right now. Especially there is no guarantee for it to work, and also weakens the immune system when you get it, making you more vulnerable. Wait, did I hear that right? CDC seems pretty cozy about the idea of forced vaccination... Again, not surprised.

H1N1 FAQ (CNN)- what a joke... at least it's not as bad as the foxnews one. Wow.

Scare Tactics from "Experts" (CNN) - someone who had it doesn't think it's call to panic. interesting that the so-called expert fails to mention that h1n1 has been around since the 70s. Oh god... PROPAGANDA: elmo used to target kids. Wonder if this woman got the vaccine? Ha, question answered. I'm not surprised.

Vaccines go out (CNN).... Notice the words they focus on... "good" is the first.

Say Whaaaat? (FOX News) - Glenn Beck? Is that you? Bizarre. Interetsing: FDA doesn't do anything about it.

"What you need to know" (FOX News) - Talk about scare tactics. “People do not have immunity to H1N1 because it is a new strain of virus,” Welch said. This is why, in general, we expect a large number of cases of H1N1 because the population doesn’t have any immunity to it.” Wow... really? What's wrong with building them up naturally?

Plot and Characters

2009-10-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

So, I'm having a hard time coming up with a flaw for my main character. I've decided that she is a florist, and that her mother was a Junior College professor while her father was a fire fighter. I know that her parents did not have an easy time when they first met because her mother was from a traditional Greek family and her father was from a middle class American family. I also know that her parents encouraged her greatly while growing up and this lead her to become a florist of her own flower shop. Nea is relatively peaceful and quite motherly. The Leader, the one who takes care of the rest of the group.... I know there is a flaw in there, but I just can't find the right one. Her motivation is that she feels the need to protect the people around her... especially since some of the people with her are a bit on the dumb side and would likely die without her.

Huh... while writing this out, I was discussing with one of my writing buddies what flaw she could have. I believe I have decided that Nea's flaw is that she can't let go. She can't leave anyone behind and she lets her screw ups haunt her. I believe this will provide a legitimate flaw and also make a decent plot device.

Switching gears to plot now, I think. The other day I was working on a synopsis or a book blurb sort of thing. Not because I think I need to have one, but more so because it helped me focus what I wanted my novel to be about. When someone asked me what I was writing about, I had the hardest time coming up with an easy to understand answer. So a couple nights ago I sat down and decided that I would write even if it wasn't coming out the way I wanted it to. I find that I have this issue a lot and it keeps me from getting anything done. As a practice for November, I just wrote what I wanted to say, even if I worded it badly and the following is what I came up with:

After an influenza vaccine is rushed to the public without proper trial, cases of cannibalism begin to pop up across the country that appears to a growing side effect. The media makes matters worse when they announce that people are coming back from the dead and attacking people. Nea Thatcher and a group of peculiar comrades must help each other stay alive and discover what really happened to the country.

Didn't like that version at all. Can you blame me? I sucks. But the next one, I am satisfied with and will be using it as a start point for much of my planning.

After an influenza vaccine with unforeseen side effects is thrust upon the public, the media induces mass panic by announcing that people are returning from the dead and attacking people. When a florist from a small mountain town in California saves a little-known daytime television actor, they decide to join with a small group of peculiar comrades to help each other stay alive and discover what really happened to the country.

While not perfect, it's much better, in my opinion. For anyone using the Snowflake Method, this is sort of an in between Step 1 and Step 2 for me.

As a final note, I'd like to say a little about motivation and not allowing things to deter you from your goal. I've had a lack of motivation over the last couple days due to illness and due to some internet issues. At first I was concerned that I was already running down on motivation. It's not even a full week into October! It was luckily a false alarm, though since I find myself feeling refreshed and motivated full speed ahead again! So, my advice is to not be afraid to take a day off for a break and rejuvenate your motivation.

In addition to this, don't let things needlessly deter you from reaching your goal. Sometimes I find that things make me worry about if I am doing the right story. It's not been as bad as normal this time around since I am so stubborn, but often I let stupid things like people with similar stories (or that my topic has been done to death) get me down. For example, I am working with Zombies. Or... "zombies" would be a better way to put it. Zombies are a big deal nowadays and it's not likely my novel would get picked up. This usually would make my motivation leak away, but I find this time around that I just don't care. I have a story to tell and I'm not letting anything stop me.

That's it for tonight, though. I am very tired!

Character Development and Helpful Sites

2009-10-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

Heck yes! I came up with characters today! I was worried there for a while because I was drawing a complete blank with my protagonist. I had a sidekick and a potential second sidekick, but no idea for a main protagonist. Sadly, my characters are quite lacking in the dimension department. I'll give a short introduction to my characters.

Nea Thatcher

She is the protagonist who is stuck fending off crazed 'zombies' with her eccentric fellow resisters. She is the motherly one and unwittingly the brains and leader of the group.

Logan Shepherd

I've mentioned him before, but will do so again. He is the somewhat dense day-time television actor who sometimes attempts to take on the personification of the character he plays.

David Harper

The self proclaimed zombie expert with a firey temper. Unfortunately, his knowledge will not be as useful as he believes.

Bridget Perry

The quirky teenaged girl with a strange sense of fashion and an optimistic attitude.

Kitcha

The animalistic stalker with a traumatic past who may or may not be an escaped mental patient. She doesn't speak much and no one knows why her name is Kitcha. Real name: Camilla Brodsky

So, over the next few days, I will be writing in depth about these characters to make them more dimensional. I think I have a good group, but I hope that they aren't too bizarre for the mood of my story. I believe I will be using a bit of the "Snowflake Method"to help me develop my characters. My number one pet peeve is working on a character by using character questionnaires and having 95% of the questions prove useless to me. I just don't have the patience or the care to decide what my characters favorite food is. If it's not essential to the plot, then why do I care?

Now, I do understand that people like to know all of this stuff ahead of time. It helps them understand their character. This is great! However, I can't work like that. I am an avid planner and outliner, but I am also a firm believer that my characters will tell me what I need to know if the time ever arises. Yes, I am aware that they are not real. However, I am not going to force information on them. I think this is a fast way to make dull, rigid characters. Let me give an example. This afternoon, I was telling my husband my new character ideas. I explained Kitcha and that she 'may or may not be an escaped mental patient.' He laughed and asked me, "Well, which is it?" I answered that I did not know, and that it's possible no one will ever know. He laughed again and said, "But, you are the one writing the story and making the character!" I simply explained to him that while this may be true, I don't know the answer and frankly don't really care. The point is that her character and personality brings into question her sanity. Does it matter one way or the other? No. Either way she is primal, slightly deranged, and has sociopathic tendencies. Just my two cents on that.

Well, I suppose that is it for the day. I need to head back to Scrivener and start working on developing the characters more.

Here are some helpful links for planning that I have been using over the last few days.

Behind the Name Genorator

NaNo for the New and Insane

Day 2 of October Planning

2009-10-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

I suppose now would be a good time to talk about the premise to my novel along with idea discussion and thought process, etc. since that is what I worked on today. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to write out the premise of my story without giving the 'big twist' away.

This year's NaNo stemmed from my outrage of the "swine flu" vaccine, the forcing of this vaccine on people, the allowance of authority figures/the media to use scare tactics in favour of vaccinations, and also from the deliberate ignorance of the general population. My novel is called Inoculation and is a dark, semi-political satire about a vaccination craze gone wrong when the vaccine begins to turn people into flesh eating zombies. These are not your ordinary zombies, though, and the twist will shock you!

As you can see, a plot or story idea/premise can come from anywhere. I have a difficult time helping people with discovering a plot because I can come up with them so easily. I had five ideas for this nano alone, but none of them made me so excited that I wouldn't want to stop working on it except for Inoculation. This story is one I came up with on a whim and have not done much of any planning for prior to Oct. 1st. So, the tiniest thing can spark an idea. A great source are news articles. Find the ones with a good story and use a piece of the premise as the start to your idea. Or, you can think of a scenario that sparks your interest. For example, I had a thought that it would be interesting to explore the concept of a young woman who escaped from the compound of a crazed religious cult and was fighting to rescue other girls and boys from said cult.

There are ideas everywhere, but you just have to keep your eyes and mind open for them. A great thing to do is to play the 'What if...' game. "What if you were stuck on an island that was completely silent and still... no insects, no animals, no ocean sounds, no breeze" and you can continue the what if's from there.

Now to switch gears, I'm going to talk about my first character. He is not the main Protagonist in my novel this year, but he is one of the side kicks, I believe. His name is Logan Shepherd and he is a day time television actor (soap specifically) who is somewhat dimwitted and often believes he is the personification of the character he plays on television. His hair is also of most importance because it is feathery and perfect. This is his most noticeable attribute and the thing he flaunts the most. (Anyone know if there is a difference between cinnamon sticks that are more red in colour and ones that are more brown? Maybe I will need to research further...)

A Logan Quote:

"Oh, I'm a doctor! ...Well, I play one on Television."

I think I have figured out a second character as well, but I worry that I may have two sort of goofy characters and this bothers me. Why the feel to my story should be funny in a dark, somewhat disturbing sort of way, I don't want to have two overly funny characters. It might make the story more lighthearted than I would like. If they are humourous in different ways and not over the top, it's possible that they could make a nice pair and play off one another. This is something I must consider further before deciding to introduce this potential character. His name is Dave, by the way, and he is the 'Zombie Expert' so to speak. That is.... if I decide to keep him.

At any rate, I have blathered on enough for now. I must return to some research!

Also, I saw on Twitter today that Literature and Latter is offering the amazing program Scrivener at a reduced rate if you "win" NaNoWriMo this year! It's a great deal! Head over to this link and check out the details. So if you have a mac and you want an awesome program to work on all your NaNo and Writing projects, I suggest taking this offer up!

Ready... Set.. OUTLINE!

2009-10-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

So, it has begun! This is my first official NaNoWriMo post! Hopefully the Nano website will be finished by the time I am done with this entry! Is everyone as excited as I am? Heck ya! Tonight I will be starting with what processes I am working with, what programs I'm using, what my general plan is and what my goals are.

Goals

Have my Nano idea ready and outlined by Nov. 1st
Hit 80k words for Nano
Blog at least twice a week about Nano (I'd prefer to do it daily, but I don't know if I will have the time, energy or topics. We shall see.)
Write around 2k per weekday and 5k per weekend day (or at the very least 1.5k on week days and 3k on weekends)

Some pretty crazy goals for me there... especially since I also work. But, I'm pretty good at BSing, so I've got to be able to at the very least BS some of it, right? Hahaha, maybe not.

Next thing I want to talk about is software and processes. I know many people may not be interested in the software I am using for Outlining and Note taking and even for Writing, but there may be some people who do. Personally, I use and swear by a program called Scrivener for everything writing related. Why? Because it's amazing. While it is not free, it's very reasonably priced and it's an indispensable asset to my planning and writing process. It has note cards, cork board, research capabilities, full screen and tons of other things that I can't remember but make it even more awesome. Also, it is a Mac only program so sorry to PC users if you are/were interested. Some other great programs that I have tried are Open Office, Neo Office, Voodoo Pad, and Writers Cafe.

As for my planning and outlining process, I am using a mix of things. Yes, I am a planner. No, I don't really "wing it" so to speak. I do, however, keep in mind that nothing I plan is set in stone. Just because I plan and outline, doesn't mean I have to follow what I planned or outlined. I usually spend a lot of time sorting out my characters and writing a series of plot points. This year, I am also using some Outlining lessons from Kelley Armstrong on her forum. I'm using those lessons as a rough guide to where I should be over the next month. I know a lot of people swear by the snowflake method, but that just seems too.... what's the word... neurotic to me. If you can stand it, more power to you! And I know some people swear by the Phase method. I'm not sure I really "get" the phase method, to be honest. If anyone can explain this method in a way that I could understand, I'd be thrilled.

So, after tons and tons of debate on what I would do NaNoWriMo on, I finally came to the conclusion that I would work with an idea I randomly came up with today. The idea inspired me so fully that I HAD to do it. I want to work on the idea a bit more before writing out a premise (Homework 1 in Kelley's lessons) and I'd like to come up with some characters, but I can leave you with this: My novel is called Inoculation and it is a dark satire. The target audience, I believe, are readers from ages 16 to 25 or so. Maybe. Haha, I'm not sure. Maybe older. I don't know.

I think that's it for tonight! I hope the site is finished soon!

I totally got bored waiting for the site to come up and made this banner for my story. ^_^