This Close...

Well hello fellow writer/readers, long time no see. I took a break from blogging after finishing my Writing Tips series. But now I'm back to your regular Wednesday updates.

So what have I been working on lately? I'm still trying to finish Moon Dragons. As of this blog, I am 3 scenes away from completing the first draft. 3 freaking scenes, and I still have a hard time writing. I realized yesterday as I was writing the climax that there is a lot of stuff I missed writing earlier on.

But that's okay. It happens in the first draft. You might get to the end and realize that you have not done a good job of setting up your epic conclusion. And that is what editing and rewriting are for. Make notes as you go and then fix them on your next go around.

I'm pretty sure I'll get this draft finished by the end of the week. And what happens then, you ask? Well, I'm going to let it sit and mellow like a fine wine for a month or so. Got to step away from the project so that I can approach it with fresh eyes.

And in the mean time, I'm going to start real work on my New Crow project. I'm calling it the New Crow, because I had a Crow project a couple years ago and about the only similar thing between these two projects is the main character and a nightclub. I'm pretty excited about this project and I can't wait to jump fully into it.

So the next time we see each other, I will have Moon Dragons draft one complete and I'll be able to tell you what's up with New Crow.

What are you working on right now? Something new, something old? Are you on a first draft or within the rounds of rewrites and editing? Leave a comment!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day and Go Write Something!

I'm a Writing Masochist

I wasn't sure I was going to do it this year, but my friends over at AW convinced me too.

So, yes, I'm going to do NaNoWriMo, again. And I'll probably fail, as always. And I'm not being pessimistic when I say that. I'm just warning you that there is a very high chance that I won't make the goal this year. But I'll try anyway.

My plan is to finish my current novel. Yes, technically, you should start something fresh. But I have about 80,000 words left to write in that thing, so knocking out 50,000 in a month will be good. And then, once I have Moon Dragons out of the way, I can toy with this new White Crow idea that's been whispering seductively in my ear for the past two months.

So who's with me?! If you are, you can find me at the NaNo website as Kricket. And of course, I'll be doing weekly updates here once November starts.

Thanks for reading and have a great Wednesday and Go Write Something!*



*Yeah, that's more for me than you, but you can take that advice too. :)

WUW: Finding The Ending

I didn't post last week on any of my blogs because we had family over and I didn't even touch my computer all week. So not a lot of writing got done either. Thus, I will tell you what I was going to tell you last week.

I FOUND MY ENDING!!!

Ever since I started writing this story I've been searching for an ending, but I could never find one. Even as I was coming up with my climax(es), I still didn't know how everything would end. But it finally hit me last week and it was a joyous occasion. I've got it all wrapped up nice and tidy but with some wiggle room for a second book if need be.

Right now I'm getting these last dozen scenes written out on note cards and then I'm going to start writing my real first draft from scene 1 and on to The End. I'm assuming that this first draft will be close to 120,000 words long. Also, I'm hoping to get this first draft completed by October sometime so that I can do a real NaNoWriMo this year and start working on my new White Crow idea. I'm not going to set a hard and fast deadline on that, because those never work for me, but we'll see how it goes.

So once that first draft gets started I'm going to do updates on here that say how many words I wrote the past week and how many scenes I completed out of the total scene count (which I think is going to be about 80 scenes). I know once I have all of this planned out properly, the writing will become much easier. I won't have to stop and stare at the screen and think, "Now what?".

Thanks for reading! Have a happy Wednesday and I hope you get lots of writing time and good words this week!

WUW: Slow and Steady Wins the Race, Right?

Writing has been slow lately. The words just haven't wanted to come out unless they were just right. It's been very annoying. I just stare at the screen waiting for better words  to come. I know where I want the scene to go and what happens I'm just at a loss for words. But, so far, I think it's going pretty well.

I'm now up to 68,050 words and I can feel the ending in my bones. I'm not totally clear on what that ending is, but it will come to me. I have a few vague idea floating around but nothing is solid yet. It's tough, sometimes I feel like I could end this thing in just a few more chapters but then I worry that won't be enough to wrap things up.

Also, I'm being distracted by ideas and random little scenes for my other project. It keeps quietly jumping up and down in the back of my brain like a kid who really needs to go to the bathroom but is too afraid to interrupt the teacher to ask. I am getting to the point where I really want to just finish Moon Dragons and put it down for it's waiting period so can tinker with yet another version of White Crow.

I pray that the Writing Gods will bestow on me more focus on a single project and more time to write. Amen! :)

And now, here is a bit of something I wrote this week.

He didn’t see the hand flying at him or realize what had happened until he was laying on his back looking through the stars in his eyes to see the blank ceiling. He tasted blood in his mouth and had to turn his head to spit out two teeth. Blinking hard to clear the spots from his vision, he tried not to moan as the throbbing in his face set in.

The Eyon came around beside him and lifted the chair upright with one hand. He came around in front of Alvin, placed his hands on the arm rests and leaned his face close to Alvin’s. “This will only get worse little Human, if you don’t cooperate. Now tell me what I want to know.”

Alvin shook his head. “I don’t know the answers. I don’t know anything. I just do what I’m told.”

“Lies,” the Eyon said as he stood up straight. “We might not have been able to understand what you were saying during the battle, but I recognize a commanding voice when I hear one. You were the one giving the orders.”

Alvin shrugged. Every movement made his head pound. “That doesn’t mean my superiors told me what was really going on. I just do what I’m told.”

The Eyon shook his head. “I don’t believe you. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll get the information I need one way or another. In the meantime,” he said as he began to walk out the door. “I’ll leave these two here with you to teach you about being polite to your host.” He nodded to the two broad guards that had dragged Alvin from his cell to this room.

Alvin raised his head and glared at all three of them.

The Eyon chuckled. “Human’s got spirit. Remove it from him.”

The guards nodded with wide grins on their faces and stepped into the room. The door closed behind their leader.

And now for some writing things I'd like to share. :)

1. This is a great article I discovered about challenging the roles of women in stories. It's a truth versus what we are being told is the truth sort of thing. Give it a read. 
2. Felicia Day has created a new channel on YouTube called Geek & Sundry Vlogs. And on there is a vlogger who talks about writing. She gives weekly writing challenges and the like. So if you're looking for more ways to be creative, check it out here. And check out the other vloggers as well, it's all very geeky. 
3. I'm a girl and most of my main characters are girls, but I do have boy characters and this article has helped me figure out better ways to write men and make them more realistic. 

That's it for now, friends! So tell me, how's your writing week been going?

Writer's A.D.D.

I'm sure many writers have this problem. Jumping from one project to another. Or at least, saying you're working on one thing but then you change your mind within a month and work on something else. I normally would say that I'm not this jumpy, but it seems that way lately doesn't it?

So I know I said a couple post back that I was going to start working on a more traditional fantasy White Crow story. Well I lied, I'm not going to work on that. I think my mind is burnt out on White Crow right now. Because even when I tried to think about it, my mind would just drift back to the piece I started last November for NaNoWriMo, Dragons in Space (terrible working title).

I love dragons, always have, always will.

So, now that I've moved (see my regular blog for pics soon) I'm ready to get back to writing. I spent most of yesterday looking over what I wrote back in November. And after kicking my self and wanting to cry for how terrible the writing was, I realized I had a good start and I could still work with this.

Starting today I'm going to start from the beginning and rewrite what I have so far and then go from there. I'm hoping I can get this first draft done by November so that I'll be free to do NaNoWriMo this year. But if that doesn't happen, that's okay. I will definitely have this first draft done by the end of the year.

Hm... There goes the whole, submit to agents this year goal I had. *shrug* Oh well, I'll be ready next year. :)

Thanks for reading!

Jumping Tracks

I came to a slow realization the other day. It's an idea I've been toying with in the back of my mind for a couple weeks. It started out as a really random thought but the more I think about it, I wonder why I didn't think of it before. Now I have to give credit where credit is due, one of my sisters helped me realize this (you know who you are).

So what's the realization you ask? I've been writing my White Crow story in the wrong genre. Currently, it's an Urban Fantasy (UF). Wikipedia describes UF as such: "Urban fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy defined by place; the fantastic narrative has an urban setting. Many urban fantasies are set in contemporary times and contain supernatural elements. However, the stories can take place in historical, modern, or futuristic periods. The prerequisite is that they must be primarily set in a city.[1]"

I'll be honest, I don't really read UF. I've read a few things but nothing that's really caught my attention and made me go "Oh wow!". The genres that I really love is High Fantasy (HF) or Historical Fantasy (HisF). Only difference between those two is that HF generally takes place in a whole new world (think Lord of the Rings) while HisF takes place in our world but in the past (like King Arthur).

(and if you throw some dragons in either genre, I'm golden :) )

Anyway, since I don't read a lot of UF it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be writing a story in that genre does it? As I said, this idea came to me a couple weeks ago in a "Yeah, I could write this as a more traditional fantasy if I wanted to" kind of way. Then I was talking to my sister and she asked me why I was writing in a genre I don't even read. It was like a slap upside the head, "Well DUH!"

So after some careful thought and lots of notes I've decided to completely jump tracks and change this story from a UF to a good old HisF. I truly believe this will be better for the story. I won't be forcing my self to write about topics I'm not really interested in. I'd so rather be researching medieval swords than drug cartels, let me tell you.

Of course, this does mean throwing out about 44000 words and a year and half worth of work, but a lot of the fundamental work I did will still be the same, it's just the words that are going to change. I'm going to give my self a month or so before I really start working on this, just to let the ideas marinate for a while.

In the mean time I'm working on the SFF Challenge I talked about before and hope to have the first installment up and ready by this weekend. So look forward to that. :)

Thanks for reading friends! Have a Happy Hump Day!

Getting Back on the Horse

This past week I have begun working on edits for White Crow. It took me awhile to figure out a new system on how to get any writing done when I spend most of my time holding a baby and a bottle. And along the way I learned that I can hand write faster than I can type with one hand. I'm hopeful that if I keep up my current pace I can finish round one of edits and maybe finish a second round by the end of the month. I'd be thrilled if I could have this manuscript ready for beta readers by July.

I've decided to keep Dragons in Space on hold until I get White Crow as edited as possible. I'll jump back into it while I'm waiting for others feedback. It's killing me to wait, I really want to work on this project, but I have to get White Crow done first or I'll never finish it.

In other news, over at Absolute Write there is a new Sci-fi/Fantasy challenge starting for this summer. I'm super excited about it and I plan on participating. As I do I'll share my work here as well. So look forward to that over the next few week.

And that's all I got for now. Thanks for reading! Have a good weekend!

Editing Update

Howdy readers!

I have finished the first read through of White Crow and have now started the rewriting process.

Editing is hard.  First I went through and found everything that was wrong (which was a lot, of course)and now I'm going through and fixing it (which is hard). I'm also retyping it all into a new document. Seems crazy, but with all the changes and moving around I'm doing, it seemed the easiest route.

And I'm hopeful, I'm sure this new draft will be much much better than the first and I won't be so ashamed to let other people see it. :)

In other news, if you haven't already checked it out, the Husband and I are doing a blog together. He builds ships in bottles and I help him write the blog. Go check it out! Siemens Bottling Co

Micro Update

Yes, I and this blog are still alive, you know, barely. ;)

I'm a little more than half way through my first read over of White Crow.  It's been really slow because life has been very busy the past couple months.  Of course it's only going to get crazier, but I'll keep trying.

Thanks for reading and Happy Monday!

It is Coming.... Duh duh duh!

NANOWRIMO!!!!!

Yep, it'll be here, in like 16 days. And this year I shall participate. I didn't last year because, well, I wasn't doing much writing this time last year. But this year I have a bright shinny new idea that I've been saving for NaNoWriMo.

As for the Crow novel, I haven't been doing so well in editing it. If you read my other blog you know that I've been sick the past month and it's only been the last couple weeks that I've felt well enough to think beyond whether or not I could keep my food down. So the editing will wait until December. (I can totally edit two books at the same time.... )

So expect some more activity in this blog as I will try to make weekly updates on my progress. For now I'm going to focus on doing more research and some basic outlining so I know what to write for the next month.

Anyone want to join me on this great adventure? If you click on the link at the top that will take you to the NaNoWriMo homepage where you can learn more about it and sign up.

Revisions Have Begun!

So I have officially started revising the White Crow novel. I am hoping/planning on finishing the revisions by the end of the month, but we shall see. I want it finished so that I can work on my new piece for NaNoWriMo.

Either way, I'm really lucky because I have a sister who is a grammar genius who helps me edit my stuff. I have issues with commas (they are evil). And so far the revision process is going well and I'm liking the results. Hopefully it will go quickly now.

And that is all, except for some pimpage. If you're a writer you should be following this blog, Writer Beware. They keep a watch on the publishing world and let you know about scams and other sketchy things that people do to us poor desperate writers.

Thanks for reading!

Revising & New Project

So, as promised, I finished my first rough draft of my manuscript A white Crow Novel (bad working title) last weekend. It was a glorious day and I spent it running around the internet and proclaiming my joy. Those of you who know me in real life, on Facebook, Twitter, AW and the like, were witnesses to that. :P So yeah, starting tonight I will begin revisions (gotta by ink for the printer before I can start).

And I've come up with my next project. White Crow is Urban Fantasy (UF) but my new project is Science Fiction (Sci-Fi). And not just Sci-Fi, but epic Sci-Fi. As in, has no bases in Earth, more like Star Wars ("A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...") That's a pretty big shift in genres.

While I'm excited about this new project (from here on it shall be known as the WIP) this shift in topics is a little crazy and is requiring me to do a lot of ground work before I can begin writing. World/galaxy building takes a lot of time and research and Sci-Fi is always research heavy. Got to have a lot of basic science/space facts right before you just start making stuff up.

Anyway, so my new writing schedule will look like this. In the mornings when Will is napping I'll work on the WIP. And then in the evening, once Daniel is home, I will work on editing/revising White Crow. I'm planning on finishing a scene a day, so... *checks calendar* if I do that I should have a 2nd draft done by Oct. 6 (this is not counting weekends, I hardly get any writing done on the weekend)

As for the new WIP, I'm not going to set any solid dates on that yet since it's still in the planning stages. But I'll shoot for being ready to write by the end of August.

So, to summarize, I will have the 2nd draft of White Crow finished by October 6th. And I will be ready to write the 1st draft of the Sci-Fi WIP by the end of August.

Alrighty then, that should do it. Writing down goals is super helpful, trust me on that.

Thanks for reading!

WIP Going Strong

So I thought I'd pop in here and say that my White Crow WIP is going good. I've got 10k+ words so far and the entire story line pretty much figured out. Now the challenge is finding the time to write. I can usually get a solid hour in while my son is taking his mid morning nap, but that's about it.

And I can do about 1200 words/hour. My word count goal for this project is 70,000 words. So, if you do the math, I have 60,000+ words to go, and if I can do at least 1200 words/day then that means I should have this finished in about 50 days or so. And 50 days from now is *goes off to count little boxes on her calender* May 26. ...Wow, I have never put an actual date on when I will finish a book like this. It's kind of intimidating and exciting all at the same time.

Well, I guess I'll say it, I will have the first draft of this book finished by May 26! It's in writing now, I guess I have to do it.

My Muse Rocks!

So now that I'm a stay-at-home-mom I have lots more time to write. Yay! But, my first week home, I didn't do any writing. Mostly because I was being super lazy, but also because I had no idea what to write about. It's been seriously long.

So yesterday I asked my husband, Daniel, what I should write about. And he quickly responded, "I want a short story about White Crow". Now, White Crow is a character that I've had since I was 13 and I've been struggling with her since then. There was a major plot hole in her back story. It was like a black hole in my mind, so that when ever my mind went in that direction it got sucked away into oblivion. But Daniel managed to come up with an ingenious idea that made all those problems go away.

Thus, Daniel is my new muse, sorry Pip. :(