It is Time to Get Back to It

This blog has been severely neglected, but I am ready to jump back in. My days have been busy as I decided to enroll in college. I am aiming for a Photography degree and an A.S. in Child Development. My days have been filled with kids, class, and homework.

On the writing front, I attempted and WON NanoWriMo this year! I have not completed the first draft of this novel, but I am very close, I'd say I'm about 80% through the story. This story has me very excited. It has challenged me, but I have enjoyed writing it.

Time to get back to my homework, but I hope you will follow me as I rediscover my love of writing. I hope to start my Teaser Tuesday posts again, those were my favorites.

A Little Progress

I have finished two more chapters of my current work in progress, Serenity. I have an ultimate goal now set for this novel. I am aiming to finish the first draft by October 1. I want to participate in NaNoWriMo and actually stand some kind of a chance. Writing this story and attempting to write another story simultaniously did not work out too well for me at all. My head was too wrapped up in my first story. This year, my first story will be complete. Come October, I will begin looking at the fifty other ideas I have floating around, do some character profiles, some plotting, some outlining, and I should be able to choose one of my new ideas for November.

Cross your fingers for me that I may be able to accomplish this goal. Hopefully, the writing spike will equal a blog post spike.

Let me know what you think of my new blog look. I fought with Blogger for 2 hours last night trying to get it just right. Still not perfect for my tastes, but close enough.

Until I post again, thank you for following :)

Out of my funk?

I believe I may finally be out of my funk. I hope I can start getting a better writing time, but the last couple of months found me feeling a bit... ill. We will be welcoming a new addition to our family. That's right, I was not 100% because we have a beautiful surprise coming to us, due January 1, 2011.

That is all I have to write right now as we have cleaning to do.

Only in This House...

I have decided, what better way to write than to write randoms in my blog; thus incorporating my life and writing into one tidy little box. Although, my life is far from tidy, what with four kids (only two are my own) running around all day. We enjoy ourselves and that is what makes this chaotic life, absolutely beautiful. There are times that it is complete insanity and all the kids are fighting and yelling. Then there are times when everyone is getting along and all that can be seen are smiles and all that can be heard is the sweet sound of giggles and gut-busting laughter. We play our music too loud and dance around with the shades drawn up, not caring if a passerby stops to watch -- or laugh. The TV may be turned on with cartoons showing constantly, but the kids seldom watch for more than a few minutes at a time before imaginations are in full swing. Not one child notices when I switch off the TV, and if one does notice, there is rarely a tantrum and play is continued.

Only in this house, could window washing consist of princess dresses, baby wipes and giggles. Only in this house, could four children have so much fun wiping down windows and woodwork for twenty minutes without so much as a frusterated yelp. Only in this house...

<3 This life is Crazy....

This life is Beautiful...

This life, is Mine.  <3

Thoughtful Thursday

I have decided that I will not set any writing goals for myself. Yeah, do want to write at least 30 minutes everyday, but Serenity comes out better when I'm not setting a time to finish a certain part. Plus, with kids, I prefer to delegate my time for them and when I have something I need to write, I will. Yeah, a story won't write itself, but it won't come out very well if I try to rush it along. So, I will now set my new goal for Serenity. I will write the story when it needs to be written, not when I need it written.

There you have it, my reasonable goal. :D

Let Me Grow Up

Looking through my binder of poetry is a little depressing.  Some of the stuff I had written is not pleasant.  It is not all dark and dreadful, just sad.  Also, I varied between being afraid of any type of punctuation, where there is not much at all, to being in love with punctuation and seeing it splattered all over the piece.  I will type all of my flashback work exactly as it is in the binder.  Most of what is written is the first draft.  I felt that if a piece of my poetry was edited, it would loose something in the process.

This poem is from 2001.

Let Me Grow Up

I am eighteen years old
The decisions I make are my own
The life I am living is mine
I am legally able to be an adult
So why do you still act as if I were a child
I do not choose to hurt you,
To lead you astray
I do not make my choices
So that I may forget you or avoid you
I choose to grow out
Out of the skin that has become so tight
The skin of a child I never was
I choose to grow away
Away from the memories that haunt my childhood
Away from the unfair demands of an older adult
I choose to grow apart
Apart from the lies I've been living through
Apart from a love that I've never been given
I choose to grow down
The truth is,
I've been grown up for so long
I cannot remember growing up
I've been grown up for so long
Because of reasons you would not understand
So, now I choose to grow up
Why won't you let me?

Tuesday Teaser 01/12/10

Yet another Tuesday where my teaser is from an earlier chapter. This snip is from Chapter 5. Seryn, Xander, and Clay are walking to Esterial, attempting to race the darkness to get to Esterial (an old church) before creatures that thrive in the darkness can get to them.

**Snipped** Thank you for all the comments.

Monday Mayhem

Mondays, I hope to blog about my goals for my WIP during the course of the current week and keep everyone updated on my progress from the week before.

My goals for writing this week are:

• Write at least 30 minutes every day at naptime
• Write at least 30 minutes every night after the kids are in bed
• Finish Chapter 10

Currently, I have completed writing chapter nine of Serenity. I am anxious to get chapters ten through thirteen written so I can start with all the reveals. Chapter fourteen is where everything begins to unravel.

Serenity word count 01/11/10: 20,319

I would state a word count goal, but it would not work well for my writing style. I have found that I need to take this story one chapter at a time. Hopefully, I can have my first draft completed by the end of February.

Keep checking in for more updates.

It's Tuesday Teaser Time! (On Wednesday)

This is from Serenity. Seryn is running after Clay and Xander is close behind. This is a first draft and very rough.

*SNIP*

Tuesday, but no teaser... yet

Hey all! I think I may finally be in the writing groove today. Nap may prove to be an inspirational time for me today ;) Well, I hope to get something written while the munchkins are down for nap. If I am able to get something written, I will share a snip with you.

Meanwhile, if you haven't seen the blog: The Bookshelf Muse: Massive Followers Contest!, I recommend checking it out. It is a great resource for writers. They have put together an Emotion Thesaurus, a Setting Description Thesaurus, and a Colors, Textures, and Shapes Thesaurus. Plus, for reaching 100,000 hits to the blog, they are running a contest. Check it out!

NaNo = Not This Year

I starteed NaNo before finishing the first draft of Serenity. Not a very smart move considering how different Serenity and Undo are. I could not invest in Undo with Serenity reeling through my mind. So, to be fair to Undo and its characters, I have decided to drop from NaNo this year. It was not a fun decision, but word count was severely suffering and the story was going nowhere fast. There is always next year. Of course, once Serenity is complete, I could challenge myself to completing the first draft of Undo in 30 days. Hmmm.

Final word count: 3,405/50,000

Goal for Today

I have decided, I will start writing down my daily or weekly writing goals to hopefully stay on top of my writing.

Today's goal: Think about Chapter 6 and what needs to be told. Write down important points and begin writing it out. I need to figure out what is on Clay's mind at this point in the story and if he needs to get to his fated destination just yet. Ahhh! My mind need sto figure this out so my fingers can write it out.

Goal for the week: Complete Chapter 6 by Monday the latest.

Just a Tiny Teaser

This is just a teeny blurb from chapter two:

* Removed, thank you to all who read and commented :) *

WooHoo!

Just a very brief update.

I have finished Chapter 4! I'm so excited, things are really falling into place and Seryn's story is only going to get better. She still has a lot to be told. I have around 10,500 words in my first 4 chapters. I'm so excited to have finally hit the 10,000 word mark!

Chapter five is off to a rough start, but I have been doing some editing on the first four chapters and hopefully chapter five will start itself once my revisions are complete.

Well, off to finish my edits, maybe I'll get gutsy enough to share another passage sometime this week.

Do You Want a Teaser?

Here is a chunk from my first chapter, although, I'm thinking I need to add some more. Please remember, this is only my 1st draft and the story isn't even complete yet. I intend to write more details and possibly add some extras to the beginning. This is the first page:

* Removed, thank you to all who read and commented :) *

Plugging Away

I'm almost finished with Chapter two, just a few more things to plug into the story/dialogue and it is complete. The first two chapters are a bit of introduction to the two main characters. Chapter three is when the fun begins. Don't worry, though, the first two chapters are far from slow.

What I find amusing about my writing process, is that, even though I know all the major events, even though I know how it is going to end; the unfolding of this world, these characters, their story excites me. I can't wait to find out how all these things that I know are going to happen come around. I love seeing the characters grow as their simple world gets stretched and molded, as things happen to the characters.

I know the final words of chapter two, but I don't know how much more still needs to be let out before those words are written down and the pre-first draft gets sent to Missy.

By the way, if you are a writer and you don't have a Missy, I suggest getting yourself one ;). Missy is my best friend and she is helping this story take the exact shape I want/need it to take. I finished my pre-first draft of chapter one and sent it to her. She read it and then sent me an e-mail with all the questions that went through her head while she read. I can't tell you how immensely helpful that was. Most of the questions she asked will be answered before the end of the book, but there were some I hadn't thought out and from that, I was able to add in the details my tale was missing. She is truly going to be one of the main nails in keeping this story put together, with her, the reader won't need my brain to understand all the little details.

Well, I need to finish up and get dinner started. I hope to be done with Chapter two tonight and have chapter three close to completed by tomorrow (I already have the last half completed, just need to iron out the details to lead up to the end).

...And We Have a Name

So, I was sitting on the couch this afternoon, going through the list of names Missy, Jason, and I had compiled, when something popped into my head that I needed to write down. Once that section had been written out, my character was finally able to recieve his name! I'm not at a stand-still at the moment! Hooray!

I bought some index cards yesterday, and sat down at the table this evening to fill out my "storyboard". I was having some troubles filling in the gaps from one point toward the end of my story and the actual end. The index cards helped a lot! I highly recommend using index cards to map out a plot if you find yourself getting stuck here and there. You write a sentence or two describing a scene on each card, what ever pops into your head. Once all your scenes have been put onto paper, you lay out your cards and find the most logical sequence for the events. Once they are layed out in the order that makes the most sense to you and then you are able to actually see where you need to fill in any gaps in your plotline. I think I used about half the deck for my story, but, it would have been more had I not already had sections of my story 'completed'.

Well, I am off to write a bit before I call it a night! I hope my stalls are out of the way for now. :)

Names

I hate that one of my characters does not have a name that fits him, yet. My story has stalled for the moment, just because I don't have his name and he is crucial to the story. I tried just throwing a name in there so I could get my story out of my head and onto the computer screen, but his scenes don't feel right because his name is not.

Ah, the frusterations of writing, one miniscual detail can totally throw off your entire groove. I am currently working with my best friend and my husband to namethis character and it is getting closer, but there is still not much I can do with the storyline at this point because he is involved in most of it and writing the wrong name makes his character feel a bit flat there. HMPH!