Tag Archives: possible wip

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!

Words Flowith

13 Friday Oct 2017

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First and foremost, Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! Aren’t we lucky that it falls in the Spooktabulous month known all year. I hope yours is as creepy, spooky, and amazing as can be.

After more days than I want to admit staring at my WIP, watching it plot-block me while I tried to write for NaNo because I wanted it done and in the rear view mirror to be able to concentrate on my 50K words in November, I am finally seeing an end. A light at the end of the tunnel.

I had originally been stuck in a certain part, unsure of how to get from Point A to Point B without just droning on. Finally, I decided to just skip ahead and work out that transition later. Skipping ahead was the best thing I could have done, because I’ve gone from half way to nearly finished in the last three days of writing. My goal to finish the WIP by this weekend is officially looking like it will happen. I am over the moon about being able to finish this short.

Also, I’m over the moon about being able to really dig into my NaNo Planning and I’ll have half of October to do it. It’s cutting it a little tight, but since I have the main characters already fairly flushed out I should be able to hop to and be ready for N-Day.

How is your October going? Are you getting your planning down as you’d hoped? Are you finishing up WIPs on schedule? Let me know down in the comments!

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?

New November, New Challenge

03 Tuesday Nov 2015

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tea It’s that time of year again. Where the world narrows down to one mug of caffeine of choice (coffee, tea, coke, all three mixed together?) and the words on a page, and how fast you can get them down for the next 30 days. Or, while I type this three days into the event, 27 days now.

That’s right. It’s NaNoWriMo. Or, for those that don’t know the lingo yet, National Novel Writing Month. 30 Days, 50,000 Words.

A challenge I have accepted for the last nine years.

And for the first seven of those years, I was a complete and total Pantser. Which, for me and my writing style, may be why those first seven years I really failed at finishing my 50,000 words.

What’s a Pantser you might ask? It’s someone that starts NaNo with little to no plan and just writes by the seat of their pants. Usually they have characters, maybe a semblance of an outline, but they let the characters drive the word count and just run with everything that happens. It’s a well used way of writing for some people out there.

I have found, through trial and serious error, that it’s really not my cup of tea for writing. If I don’t have a general outline to keep me on task, my characters will usually run themselves right into a brick wall, and I’ll spend the rest of my November trying to find a way to write them out of it. Which doesn’t do much for the actual word count itself because I find myself having to back track and edit in order to fix everything.

While I don’t like everything planned out to a T, I do need a serious outline in order to make sure I don’t end up at a dead end in the story. Something I can periodically check and look at in order to go yes, I am on the right track this morning. Or, no, I need to curve my kids to head toward where I need them now, because this section is taking far too long.

The last two years I was able not only complete NaNoWriMo with my 50,000 word count, but it also meant that I was able to finish a novel I had been working on for quite a long time. The novel went through two serious outline and plot revisions before it came out into a rough draft that’s currently on my editing desk.

This year I’m starting a new novel, and I’m really hoping that I can achieve both finishing NaNoWriMo and my novel at the same time.

So how about you, dear readers? Are you a Pantser, flying where the words take you? Or are you a Planner, keeping your kids on a loose leash to make sure you get where you need to go? Leave a comment and let me know!

Feeling very…

24 Monday Jun 2013

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I’m not completely sure why, but I’ve been feeling very… wanting to write a dystopian set book. My small but currently growing library of novels and anthologies where this is the setting may be having a bad influence on my brain. I picked up Shards & Ashes from my shelf to start reading it the other day, which is a large contrast from Casting Spells that I’m currently reading.

And i should probably warn you now that this post might ramble. It’s Monday, and I should be running errands but the office I need to visit doesn’t open for another fifteen minutes.

Anywho, so I am in the mood to write/read dystopian settings and I’m not completely sure where the want to do either came from. It also leaves me wanting to crack the whip at a friend of mine that’s got a dystopian story in the works and I’m eager to read it as soon as possible.

My conflict with writing one is that I currently have a WIP and I really, really have goals to get it done and I don’t want to deviate from that to plot a new story, short or novel length. If I were in a slightly better place with my time, I might try to balance them but I don’t really have much time to bounce between two.

Brains. Why do they do this to us? Because seriously. I don’t need any more distractions or I’m gonna see the painful side of a whip as it’s cracked at me to keep working on my WIP.

I do know I’ll be jotting down the thoughts on this idea, so hopefully I can go back to it when either I have more time or after Christmas.