Tag Archives: nanowrimo

Wishing to be a Weather Witch

24 Tuesday Oct 2017

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There is one week left in October. One week left to plan and plot out all the needs you can anticipate for your novel that will be worked on in November for NaNoWriMo. I’m sorry, did I say you? I meant me. Or We, if you’ll be participating as well.

Are you ready? Am I ready?? Are We Ready???

I’m still working on getting there, personally. This weekend, because you know nothing complicated ever happens just before a big event, after serious contemplating and thinking and planning, I decided to shift my novel again. The more I thought about the story in a Story, the more my brain revolted against it (even though you know, it created it). So for this year, I’m looking to focus on the Fantasy side of my idea and really work with everything in that world. I’ve shelved the original main characters, because right now they’ll end up being the stars of a different story that I want to plan out at a later time.

What really started to flush out my fantasy idea was drawing the map for it. I’ve been told this is a little backwards, having a world but no active plot, but creating the map (I’m still working on it but I’ve got the continents created, islands laid out, and lakes set. Tonight I’m working on the rivers, mountains, and forests. Then come the cities, towns, hamlets, ect,) has lead me to really figure out my characters. Where did they come from? Why are they on this journey? How did they all meet.

I’ve nearly finished flushing out the how they met, honestly. All thanks to working out the lay of the land, even though I don’t have it all done yet, and there may need to be some minor tweaks (like right now I have ‘they traveled to the other continent, which will later use the actual name of said continent), but over all it’s helped to be able to visualize their travels.

I just kind of started with one character, and started writing out his backstory and the other two main characters slowly weaved themselves into his story naturally and fluidly. It does mean I need to work out two more backstories, what happened before they met with the other character, but it’s a start. And with knowing how they came together, I feel more sure about where I’m going with this story which will help me to work out the plot of my story just in time for November.

The planning hasn’t exactly been easy at home either, we’ve gotten a lot of rain the last couple weeks. Lots of rain that has flooded the river close to my house, and subsequently flooded my basement as well. We went to bed one Saturday night, basement fine, and woke up to 7 inches of water. Spent the next day and a half pumping. Everything seemed fine until we got rain again yesterday, and it’s still raining today. It’s not been easy. Working a 9-5 job, and wondering how your house is doing while you’re at work, it’s nerve wrecking. To not know what I’ll come home to. Here’s hoping it stops before I get home though, that it stops before it gets bad and my worry will be for naught. A girl can dream, anyway.

I’m trying to not let the rain and water get in the way of my Prepping though, trying to find a balance for keeping the house okay while still getting everything flushed out and ready. Plus, this Thursday I have a writer’s group meeting so I’m super excited for that too. Wish me luck!

How is your October going? Have any fun Halloween plans? What are you thinking of dressing up like next Tuesday? Leave it in the comments below!

Prepping and Prompting

06 Friday Oct 2017

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So while I have been working away at trying to finish my short, and toiling away at trying to plan out my WIP details for the upcoming NaNo, I’ve also been scouring the internet looking for prompts to try and do a little bit of one shot, like 1k shorts to just get into the October spirit.

Because, after all, October isn’t just about being prepared for NaNo. It’s the start of Fall. It’s Halloween. It’s Dia de los Muertos. It’s Samhain. It’s the time of year where the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest. It’s where we get to dress up and be someone else for a night, or all month. And it’s where, even for those of us who don’t normally write it, we writers might want to try to craft something that goes bump in the night.

I don’t know what it is, or why it is, but my scouring the internet came up short. Most of what I found were prompts about sharing your memories of different events or emotions tied to Halloween. And that’s just not what I wanted.

So, I crafted some of my own prompts. Originally I was thinking of a prompt a day kind of list, but when everything falls into place that’s a lot for someone like me who works 9-5 Monday through Friday. So I crafted one prompt every other day instead. If you’re not looking at a calendar to count, that’s sixteen prompts.

If you’re planning to fill any of the prompts, leave a comment down below with which one(s) you’re thinking of doing. As well, if you post it anywhere, I’d love to see it so go ahead and throw a link in the comment, or tweet me @MerisCorner because I’d love to see them all written out!

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October becomes Preptober

04 Wednesday Oct 2017

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So we’ve fallen into October. Or, well, I’ve fallen into October. I’m still working on a short, it’s bad, I know. But while I haven’t actually finished writing it I’ve outlined what I want to happen. I just need to focus a little more on getting it all done. Because it HAS to be done before November. Has to be. Ideally, I’d like it to be done by next week so I can really devote the rest of this month into planning out what I’m doing for November.

What’s November, you might ask? It’s National Novel Writing Month! Where you pledge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Sounds like a lot? It kind of is, and I always succeed better when I have an outline for my novel, so I know where I’m supposed to be going.

I had briefly considered continuing the one from last year to get it done. I want to write that one and get it on paper. But there are still a few things I’m unsure of for it. So I’m going to sit on it for a little while longer to better work out some of it.

Instead I’ll be striving to do a completely new novel, and a completely new style for NaNo. My story is going to have a DnD inspired story within it. Which makes October even more important for prepping because I have double the world building and double the character creation for it. Each character is going to be playing a character within the story. There’ll be two plots, the plot of the game within the story and the plot that follows the main characters in their world. And the fantasy world within the game, and the world that the main characters live in when not gaming.

Have I confused you yet? Hopefully the answer is No.

If yes? Let me see if I can simplify it.

Basically the story will follow six people in a small Midwestern town. They’re in a gaming group together, and there will be a plot focused around them. As well, I am looking to develop their actual game, give life to the story that they’re playing out when they all meet up together on Friday nights, run the two stories within the same novel.

It’s something I’ve never done before, because it’s not like a lot of the gamer fiction where someone gets trapped in a game and becomes part of it and has to find their way to survive and potentially get out.

This will be a lot more to juggle. A Lot more to plan. Especially since fantasy settings involve a lot more as a whole as well.

Wish my luck with this journey down the rabbit hole, because I have no idea if it will end up being a great story or if it will be a cluster of not great. I’m hoping the first one.

If you are doing NaNo this year, are you dedicating October to being Preptober to get yourself set up? Are you pantsing it all the way? Let me know down in the comments!

Prepping and Thinking and Writing and Winning

13 Thursday Oct 2016

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elethwyn Two weeks, give or take a few days. That’s all we have until National Novel Writing Month is upon us. Two weeks to get my notes all in order. And truthfully, my notes are currently ‘kingdom 1’  ‘ruled by king – who has three children’. It’s not a lot to go on yet. I think the biggest help my friend gave me was to not dwell too hard on names of things, places and people just yet. To work out the world, the laws, the governing bodies first. Work out the landscape some, which thanks to a map maker I have a map! so I at least know the layout of the world, the potential resources for each kingdom.

But, you know. Go me for choosing to create an entirely new fantasy world three weeks before NaNo to start with. Ambition, thy name is Meri and she holds a mighty pen. Don’t think about the fact that I have way too much on my plate going on.

What, might you ask, do I have on my plate?

  • Well, for starters there’s work that runs from 8am – 6pm during the week. Now, I work a 9-5 job, but I get into work at 8, and I’m usually working by 8:30. And I don’t usually get dragged away from work until about 5/5:30pm, which puts me at home between 6/7 pending if there’s any last minute shopping that needs to be done before I get home. This takes up a good chunk of my time in general.
  • I have a Non-Profit Newsletter to finish revising, and a couple articles for it that I need to poke some people into giving me, because it’s technically due out the 15th (that’s two days folks).
  • I have a house that is in desperate need for some cleaning, and lets face it we write better in a clean environment too.
  • I took it upon myself to take a business class this semester in the hopes of maybe learning a little about business and the art of learning, though while I am learning nothing so far can help me because it’s mostly focused on globally done business not small business.
  • My health has been up and down with my iron deficiancy and my back being a cronic source of pain. Both have been slowly clearing up as I try to balance though. I take too little iron in a week and I’m exhasuted from the moment I get out of bed, but I take too much and it screws with my heart and causes chest pains. And my back, well, I invested in one of those back massagers that you put on a chair, lean back and just fall asleep while it works the stress and knots away with rollers and heat. And I have to say, that has made a world of difference in how I’m sleeping and waking up all on its own. May not be cheap, but it’s doing a damn fine job.

It’s a lot, to be sure. And I’m trying to work through it some and carve out plotting time. Because that plotting time will slowly turn to November’s writing time. And I want to make sure that I have a little of it throughout each and every day.

Not to mention, my mom and I are considering just bucking off for a week near the end of November, beginning of December to just get away from the world after Thanksgiving. Just take some time for ourselves and relax a little so we can de-stress before the new year starts.

But at the end of the day, yeah. I have six kingdoms to work out for my WIP. I have all six families, as well as how they rule their kingdom, I still haven’t settled on if it’s purely human or if there are other races, magic, ect. There’s still a LOT of planning I need to think about, work out, and get back into everything. Get that creative juice flowing. But I have faith in myself. I’ve come this far, and dedicated my time to it. And I am nothing if not stubborn enough to push through, if only because I said I would and could!

On the plus side, I’ve dedicated an entire notebook to planning out this world, from people to rules to kingdoms. And I have no doubt in my mind that it will be full, if not spilling into a second notebook come completion.

How is your NaNo prep going? Are you still in serious planning mode? Are you outlined and set and ready to go for everything come Nov. 1st already?

Life – Forever Tired & NaNo Prep

03 Monday Oct 2016

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jax with yarn

Hello wide world of readers, I hope that your day, your week, is going well so far. Though, it is only Monday.

I wish I had exciting news about why I’ve been so missing, but in reality it’s fairly boring. With everything going on, coupled with a re-emerging issue with low iron, I’ve pretty much had no energy to do much of anything but sleep after I get home from work. Which, means that there’s also very little time for writing, editing, and plotting out new books. I keep hoping things will change, who knows, as I try to take iron to supplement the problem, maybe I’ll find it a little easier to try and get more work done. I can, as ever, hope.

And I’m sure you’re asking, well what about weekends? That would be a good question. Weekends have been fairly busy doing stuff for a non-for-profit organization that I’m part of. This last weekend, as we transitioned into October was the first free weekend I’ve had in a long while, and I spent Saturday DnD’ing with a group of friends to blow off some steam and have fun – we ended the night watching Deadpool, and Sunday ended up being a mass cleaning day. The always sleeping or out of the house hasn’t just affected my writing but also the cleanliness of my house, so I’m now trying to fix that some and create a better writing environment for myself.

Which does kind of bring me to my, hopefully, exciting news, which is that I’m going to dedicate my November to writing and participate in a new year of NaNoWriMo!

I’m thinking of doing a set of shorts, possible. Though I have a friend that’s been wanting to co-author a book with me, so if we can get that planned out and it works we may try to write that together for NaNo instead. I really need to dig into the edits for my two previous novels, but that will hopefully come in December, when I’ve gotten back into the writing habit and working habit, and with more iron in my system hopefully giving me more energy over all.

Wish me luck!

Are you participating in NaNo? Leave a note and let me know in the comments!

Days After NaNoWriMo

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

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writing

So, we’ve had a whole week since NaNoWrimo finished. Usually it’s a time of celebration for finishing word counts – which I totally did! – and getting into the groove of editing.

But, I always am amazed sometimes at my family. During the month of November, because I’m participating in NaNoWrimo and I’m pretty vocal about it to anyone that will listen, I’m given slack on things like house chores, or the want to wander off after household duties are taken care of because ‘she’s writing’. But any month other than November, and it’s always the ‘oh no, you need to help with this or that, or oh no, we need to be shopping or socializing’.

My biggest problem is, I’m not just a once a month writer. Yes, I put a little more heavy handed emphasis on my writing in November because I’m trying to get 50,000 words in 30 days, but that’s not where my writing lives and dies either. I’m an aspiring writing. I still have a novel to finish because the conclusion didn’t wrap up during November. I also have a short I’m looking to publish once I finish it as well – because my brain had to come up with an entirely different story set in the last week of November but I think it’ll do well as a couple shorts.

Not to mention, I have to edit the novel I finished last year, the one that’s been re-plotted twice, rewritten three times, and took two NaNoWriMo’s to finish. That novel. It’s only in first draft form. Still needs a LOT of work, and if I’m going to get to it anytime soon, I need to be able to sit down and finish this novel – and short.

I will blame my brain occasionally for things, because as soon as I start to wrap something up, it rolls into a sandbox and starts to design new characters and plots. Which, I’m not exactly complaining about, I swear. My cup runith over when it comes to plots and characters. It’s just the timing. I’m about four chapters from finishing my current WIP novel, and now I have this new plot to run with in short stories that’s wanting to distract me. And it’s not just sitting down and jotting the plots out to look at later. No, if I don’t run with the plot right this second, write down where it leads me – through usually a minimum of four pages typed – then I can’t have the brain power to work on said older project. Because my brain prioritizes like that.

If I’m being honest with myself, and you my lovely readers, I actually have five WIPs that are currently in various stages of Draft 1, and one WIP that’s drafted and on the editing board. My High Fantasy novel needs edits. My Cozy Mystery novel needs me to wrap it up now that I’ve run through the mystery climax. My Horror Short Anthology needs a LOT more attention, as that has five to six stories in it. My Modern Mythos short needs me to hammer out the plot so it’s more coherent, and will run for a few books at least. My Space story is patiently waiting for me to just focus and continue. (All of those were in the works before NaNo – though it’s the Cozy Mystery that got written during NaNo) And now I have this I’m not even sure what to name it short that I’m guessing will run for three to five books if I’m careful and don’t run myself into corners.

Six projects I find myself wading through after NaNoWriMo. And not a lick of give from family now that the month is over. I get that I don’t make as much noise during the year about my writing to them, because at the end of the day it’s still just me toiling around with my words and my worlds. But, it’s not any less important for me to do either.

Since NaNoWriMo, I’ve worked on the Cozy Mystery a little, but not as much as I’d like. That and the random short that butted in are my two priorities to wrap up so I can hand them over for edits while I work on other things. At least once they’re done and off to my trusted editors, I can rest easier knowing I only have four WIPs running then.

How many WIPs do you have on your plate? Leave the answer down in the comments.

NaNoWriMo – Check Ins – Day 29 & 30

30 Monday Nov 2015

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It’s the end of NaNo. November is at a close, the writing madness is – theoretically – over, and the world will return to normal in the lives of all that participated in this year’s NaNo. Though, December, for a lot of people, tends to be the month of edits and re-writes while we go through our novels to make them the best that they can be.

For me, once this draft is done, it will be printed and given to my trusted editor so it can be combed through and then potentially in January I will start the edits for it. I have more projects to continue while it’s being edited, and one novel that still needs me to go through and work on the edits for.

Writing isn’t just a November thing for me, it’s a 365 day a year thing. November just really helps me to put the pen to paper – or in my case fingers to keyboard – a little harder than during the rest of the year.

How did your NaNo go this year? Did you get where you wanted to go? Did you finish in a blaze of fireworks and awesome word counts? Did you fall just a little short and are more determined than ever to win next year? Let me know in the comments.

Words Written Today: 1,725

Total for novel:  36,040 (Total for NaNo with all word counts: 50,830)

First Sentence: 

Brow furrowing, Kael blinked at his daughter.

Last Sentence:

Her dad is super pissed.

 

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NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 28

28 Saturday Nov 2015

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kittensleep

Today’s words came easier than yesterday’s. What’s weird is that I had more time to write yesterday than I did today. The story is coming along, and I’m getting close to the end. I don’t think I’ll finish the story within NaNo, but it shouldn’t take me too much longer before it’s done. And I’m planning to work on it after NaNo like NaNo is still going on – meaning that I really work at making sure to get at least a couple hundred words a day on it, if not much, much more.

Words Written Today: 1,417

Total: 34,315

First Sentence: 

I think, while he hasn’t admitted it yet, that he’s actually kind of starting to fall for her.

Last Sentence:

I need help stopping him.

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Days 25 – 27

27 Friday Nov 2015

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Walking Thanksgiving Turkey. Isolated on a white background.

So, the turkey holiday did me in some.

I worked a half day on Wednesday, but I didn’t get much writing done because while work things didn’t eat up my time but life things did. Including getting ready for Turkey day – shopping and cooking so by the time my day came to a close for me time it was 8pm.

Thursday, of course, was Turkey day with family. A 1pm dinner time still meant that we got home about 6pm. After all the food, there wasn’t much in the need to eat for dinner after all the food that was at the family gathering at my aunt’s house. We always have more than enough food between the turkey, mushroom pie, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Plus birthday cake because my Uncle was born around this time of year so we always celebrate his birthday on the Thanksgiving gathering with the family since we’re already all together.

Today, should have, theoretically been a great day for me to get all my words caught up. And I might have some. I’m not entirely sure. See, my current NaNo word count (and subsequently what I’ve been counting on this blog) is only following a novel that I’ve been working on for a majority of November, one I plan to have done and up on Kindle by July of next year (meaning it’s finished, edited and polished in the next eight months – a reasonable plan considering it’s going to be less than 75k) and I’m getting to the ta-da of the climax already.

The catch of my word count is, I’m planning to count the Sims story blog I’ve been writing, because it’s still fiction. And a new story idea hit me this morning, so most of my words today have been on this new idea. Which means my NaNo will have a large jump at the end of the month (in three days, eep!) because I’ll be adding some side projects to my word count. But! because the current count is so small, it’s still got me breathing into a paper bag on whether or not I’m going to reach the finish line, because I’m telling my brain that it’s not allowed to total everything up. I kind of want to be surprised, for better or worse, where I actually fall once the 30th gets here and i put all the words into validating my word count on the site.

Words Written Today:  728

Total: 32,898

First Sentence: 

Come on, Kat, you gotta lighten up.

Last Sentence: 

“It’s definitely something new to see,” Katherine offered as they walked.

NaNoWriMo – Check In – Day 24

24 Tuesday Nov 2015

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creative-writing1

I seem to be able to do my best writing while I’m at home, and predominately at night. If I had more energy, I’d write a little more tonight, but I am falling asleep and mixing my senses as I write so this is it for tonight.

It’s better than yesterday, which I’m glad for.

Words Written Today: 1,401

Total: 32,170

First Sentence: 

Because I do agree, I don’t want anything to happen to him again, and things do appear to be escalating.

Last Sentence:

Stephan didn’t answer, just made a shooing motion at the girls until they slipped back toward their tents to get ready for the concert.