Word count Marathon

I signed up for this to encourage me to get off my butt and work a bit more on 'Poison'. I don't think that I am going to be able to get much further with 'Pirates of Hcallaec' if I don't hurry up and finish this. Besides that will give me something to practice editing on as well. ^.^

I'm aiming for 10k with this Marathon, which should get me through a good two chapters.

Edit ::

Aim -- 10k
Progress -- 5,018
Words left -- 4,982

Unknown Snippet

I was going through one of my folders earlier, and I found a single paragraph, something I wrote so long ago that I can't remember what it was for. Curiosity has begun to plague me, there is so many possibilities for it.

Anstice stared into the depths of his eyes. He seemed so pure with every word that he spoke. She felt herself drawn to his silken words. She knew that it was wrong to trust him, he was, after all, a government official charged with hunting her down to kill her.

TBR 2009

I was going through my bookshelves yesterday, after I added, yet another addition to my already full collection of books, and I decided I have to get off my butt and begin reading again. I mean over the year I've read things, but only small parts, and have been jumping from book to book. I haven't really finished any of the books in there.

So this morning I went through my selves and made note of all the books with bookmarks in them. So that I can finish a little bit of reading over the next year. I have 11 that I started on, and never actually finished. It's rather sad actually, seeing as they are all books that I have been enjoying reading, I just find another one and begin to read it instead. Jumping between them depending on what mood I'm in. Next year I'm going to get out of that bad habit I got myself into. Now I have a bit more time on my hands (Though I am applying for a new job. Hopefully I will be able to get the 5am to 10am shift everyday, which will free up my day for sure).

My New Years Resolution (So it's a bit early, but I want to get started now, :P) To finish my TBR

TBR

- A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans
- My Sister's keeper by Jodi Picoult
- Harshini by Jennifer Fallon
- Curse of the Mistwraithe by Janny Wurts
- Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
- First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks
- Tower of Ravens by Kate Forsyth
- Odaisque by Fiona McIntosh
- Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
- Shapechangers Song by Jennifer Roberson
- The ring of the slave Prince by Bjarne Reuter

Selected by the Gods -- Story of Adela and Luken

I finished this story some time ago now, and I have tried twice now to edit it with no huge success. Tonight, I begin again. This time will be different. This time I will sit down, and attack this story.

I've never been real good with edits. Never actually been able to sit down and seriously begin on changes. I can see where they are now. Since doing 2yn my whole view on writing has changed. I am going to have to edit 'Pirates of Hcallaec' in fact I already now can see bits and pieces that I really need to change and rework in the next section.

Working on 'Selected by the Gods' should give me a little experience with the labors of second draft and editing. I am going to really work at it this time. Not go half arsed at it as I usually do!

Uni

Last month I got a letter telling me I had been accepted into UNE, through early entry.

Today I got a letter telling me I have been given an offer through UAC for UNE, and a form to send back for my acceptance.

Now I am eagerly awaiting my enrollment forms which will come in soon. I'm so excited. I got into the exact course that I wanted through early entry, and my HSC results aren't even out yet. It is such a relief to know that I will be going to Uni, and the one that I really wanted to go to as well!

I'm absolutely esstatic!

WriYe

Just found this, WriYe it looks interesting. It is a year long NaNo, only you chose your word count and it isn't just for one novel, it's for as many as you like during the year. Sounds like a whole lot of fun, will really keep one motivated.

Though it is a lot like the one on forward motion, so I'm not sure if I will actually join this year, think I'll sus it out first ^^

Edit :: What the heck, I signed up anyways, ^.^ I aim for 500,000 words over 2009. This is the same length for the one on FM, so I guess it would still count. Anyways, with all the novels I have planned to do next year, I'll definitely get enough. After all I only have to write 1370 per day, 9590 per week and 41667 per month. Easy! (Well at least it's looking easy at the moment.) At least it will keep me going!

Australia

Last time I went to the movies was to see The dark knight. I didn't think I would ever see another movie that rivaled it, nor 10,000 BC. Tonight I went to see Australia, and my breath was taken away!

Hugh Jackman was the perfect pick for the real Auzzie man! *drools* and Nicole Kidman was a very good choice as well! But my favorite character was the little boy who played Nullah, the very soul of the movie.

Seeing that movie just made my night. It was so good, and is definitely up there in my top fave movies!

2yn

I was looking at what assignment we are up to in 2yn, and I realised that we are almost finished the course, only 4 lessons left for this year. It makes me really excited. The year just went soo fast!

Seeing the link for sign ups for next year, and all the people that are joining gives me a lot of nostalgia and really brings me back. I can still remember waiting for weeks until the course started. >.< Reminds me of just how far we've come. :P

Progress

Wrote a whole chapter on Pirates of Hcallaec today. Also reached 100,310 words. Which means the hard yard is done. Not much longer to go only 69,690 words to be exact, which really doesn't seem to be that much, Not hard to reach at all!

Also finished Chapter 18 of Pirates of Hcallaec. That means, provided I don't add anymore chapters which is bound to happen at least once, I only have 18 more chapters to go!

What NaNo has taught me

I stole this idea from Soleil. After reading her blog post on what she learnt, it made me think about what i'd learnt, and I discovered it was a lot more than I actually thought.

This was my second NaNo and I can safely say that both years I have learnt alot. First year I discovered that I need an outline, and various other bits and pieces to help the story flow.

1. This year I discovered I need to pace myself, before I get into the writing part. I have always been the same. I am plot driven when it comes to stories, rather than character driven. Still am, I like that way. But I found that my characters were no where near as strong in this story, as they are in Pirates of Hcallaec. Although there are characters in Pirates of Hcallaec that have just randomly been created, they all seem to have more depth. Even though the characters in Poison had more depth than characters from previous stories I have written, they still don't seem as 'real' as the characters from my 2yn. So I need more character building.

2. Instead of sitting down for a writting session with a goal to get to a particular word count, I should sit down with a goal of getting at least one scene done. My writing has changed a lot. I can no longer sit down with my little outline and write exactly whats on it, things happen. I find myself splitting one scene planned in my outline, into about five or six in the actual writing. So I no longer limit myself to the scenes I have in my outline because I create scenes as I go, which helps with pace. Some of them are really long, others are really short (And I'm talking like 400 words short.)

3. I like small chapters. NaNo really opened my eyes to this, even though I had started to see it with pirates. I also don't like to write with many POV to one chapter. The reason I say small chapters is, I find them easier to write. For most of my books I plan for Chapters to be about 5000 words long, which is a good length, one that I can reach with three or four scenes in the one chapter. Only problem is, those three of four scenes begin to split and can almost be counted as one chapter all on their own. I also love reading books with really small chapters, such as Jennifer Fallon's books. I'm totally for a book of 200,000 words that ends up with 300+ chapters. I find it easier to read. Maybe that's why I find it easier to write.

4. Trust in my muse. My little muse gets excited about 30,000 words into the book. The first 30,000 words are often boring to me, and don't sit right, and I begin to get the whole negative thoughts. Once past this 30,000 my muse begins to have fun, and I realise it has already set up things to make other events possible. Characters start to appear and ignore me and do what they want. Such as Gerard, the chimney sweep of Opaix castle, a minor character, I have to stress the word minor, teaming up with Chrisander and bringing up a whole scandal about hunters and Ganix. Let me tell you, it is not an easy storyline to work out, and was never part of my original outline. But I have to trust my muse, he's led me alright so far during the story. Things are more interesting.

5. Just like Soleil, I will say the same thing. Never attempt two stories at the same time. Guaranteed I will do it next NaNo, but still. It's not advisable. I'm just lucky my characters in Pirates of Hcallaec have such a great sense of humor, and I left at such a dangerous time in the book. They need me to get them out! lol.

6. And last but by no means least, again the same as Soleil (Which actually a lot of what I learnt is the same, but hey.) Trust in yourself. It's always the first 30k that are the worst for me. In every book I have written it has been the same. (Which is by no means alot. Most of them didn't even reach 30k for this very reason. Only 2 actually got complete. Both incomprehensible, but both teaching me a lot. And last years NaNo, which is still not complete. but has 50k and a lot of learning.) I have to just learn to get over it, even if it's bad, tell myself I can fix it in second draft and edits and move on with the rest of the story (which I have been getting very good a doing!). I need to trust myself more.

Back in business

I sat down and wrote the rest of a scene I'd last been working on with Pirate today. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't pick up on Elicia's voice, seeing as it is so much different from those in Poison, but the words came easily. I really enjoyed writing the little bit that I did, and am happy to say that my word count should begin to get progressively higher very soon. Of course I still have to finish Poison. First things first, I will finish the outline for that! >.<

At least I can get back to writing Pirate. I really have missed the characters. They make me laugh. (Which can be quite disturbing for my family when I start to just randomly start laughing.)

Can't help but to share my favorite quote from that scene.

"He's just grumpy because he's had no sleep and no alcohol." Adrian grinned, thumping him on the back. "It's a bad combination."

"You bet it is!" Shina growled, his eyes narrowing in disgust. "I really hate the Sen'am!"

Too big

I was going to get the whole entire novel for NaNo written. Unfortunately for me, it is getting far larger then I actually anticipated and so I am going to give myself more time to write it.

Though for the good news, I almost have 50,000 words. Only need 200 more. So off to writing for me!

:: Edit ::

Finished 50,000 words, and am now officially a winner of NaNo, yay! Lol. Though this book is soo much bigger then I originally planned for!

Count down is on

Okay, I only have 5000 more words to write, but still 4 chapters to complete. This story is going way over what I originally planned. But I have a plan. Today I will not go by word count, but rather I will work with Chapter count. Which could be bad because I still haven't finished my outline. (oopie)

Anyway, Today I will Finish up to at least Chapter 10, and then tomorrow I will finish the book and then I will post my word count and then I will be happy, because it will be finished!

Which then means I can concentrate more on my 2yn novel and get it up and running again. Gotta love NaNo, and the way the last few days just seem to make you push it all out. Though I have a bit motivation now as well. I got accepted into Uni through early entry, and I was accepted for the three courses that I wanted, which means I get to chose any one of them. Which is really good because I kinda changed my mind. I wanna do a bachelor of communication studies now instead of a bachelor of arts. Lol.

Okay, 6 hours of work, and then on to writing, I'm ready!

NaNo push

I have reached 44123, which means I don't have much to go before I reach 50,000 words. Only back thing is, I still have many chapters left to go, and I want to reach 60,000 words before the end of November. I also wanted to have this entire story finished by the end of November, so then I could focus on Pirate again.

That means, my goal today is to hit 50,000. Which shouldn't be too hard, seeing as it's not much. Then over the last 4 days I will push to try and get the last of the story written. It's going to be a struggle.

NaNo

Today I am planning on writing a lot for my NaNo, don't know if it will turn out like that, but I can always stay up late tonight if I need to, lol. Anyway, thought I'd just share a snippet of what I have currently.

Gerard was ready when Chrisander brought Scarlett out, but not quite ready to see her naked. He froze, eyes widening in shock. "What are you doing?"

"Her clothes were too sorched to bring out. She needs attention and fast!"

Gerard hesitated, but the wounds on her legs were already spurting blood, and by the colour of her face and lips, she'd lost a lot. Kneeling down beside her, Gerard placed his hands on her thigh, above and below her worst wound. "I don't know much of healing magic, but I can stop the bleeding enough for the wounds to heal themselves."

Chrisander nodded, gut twisting with a mixture of envy and jelousy that Gerard should be touching Scarlett. A woman they both lusted over. Pulling his shirt over his shoulders, he threw it to Gerard, getting to his feet.

"She can have that when you are finished, she will not appreciate being naked when she wakes up." Why, he didn't know. She was beautiful. "I will stand watch."

Progress

I am ahead in both my word counts for NaNo and 2YN. I am actually enjoying 2Yn so much that I just keep writing on it. I'm not going to write anything more on it today or tomorrow and only focus on NaNo, because although I'm ahead I still want to try and get something more written on it so that I don't lose the flow of things.

Though I am very happy with how Pirate is going, I am now just a bit over halfway, having reached 90,000 words. It's a good feeling. :P

Hit like a Ton of bricks

Okay, I have a lot of ideas for writing, but whilst I was waiting for my sister to get out of school, I was hit with a story that makes me bubble with excitement. I haven't loved an idea this much since my 2YN story.

My 2YN novels were originally going to be seven books, each portraying one of the seven deadly sins. It didn't work out that way. This new story I have is the story of Arianetta, and will encompass that idea.

I am, however, slightly hesitant about this idea. But that is probably because the story once again revolves around pirates. Though it is very different from the War of Meadiet Trilogy, I still wonder if it's such a good idea. I'm still going to write it down and think on it a bit though, because it has just left me too excited, it would be silly to shrug that off!

Writing Journal

I use Liquid story binder XE to write, and I must say it's a fabulous program, one which I would be completely lost without.

One of the updates to Liquid Story binder, made journals available for the books that you are writing. Since then I have been contemplating if I want to use one or not. It was actually Soleil who triggered the thought in my mind that it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Seeing her posts everyday for NaNo, which say her goal, and her current word count as well as giving a small snippet, gave me the idea that keeping such things in a journal for each book, plus writing down what I liked, didn't like, time it took, what frustrated me, if the words came easy etc, would be a really good idea for each book, it could keep the motivation happening and make me more eager to write. I think I may just have to try it :P

NaNo Snippet

Thought I'd share a bit of what I've written. This is probably my Favorite scene in the book and was the one I used for my excerpt in my NaNo profile.

The brig smelt like fresh spring flowers. Scarlett screwed up her nose. This was obviously the work of one of the women Acolytes, charged with cleaning the brig out. Obviously no one had told her that the place was supposed to instill fear into any prisoners on the ship, and so a rotten smell would have been more appropriate. Now the prisoners would probably think they were going to heaven instead of a place of punishment.

Her stomach growled with hunger once again. She was going to have to eat the smoked meat, no matter that she really didn't feel like it anymore. Reaching up to her shoulder, she remembered she'd taken it off to get into the barrel. In her rush to get away without her Father finding out, she'd left it in the bottom of the barrel. Her stomach growled in anguish, cursing her for her stupidity.

There was now only one thing left for her to do. Get one of the Acolytes to bring her something down. Sending out her awareness once again, getting rather sick of using so much magic in the one night, she found the woman who was acting as chef that night. She put a small seed of thought into her head, and was glad when the Acolyte accepted it and began to prepare her a meal. She wouldn't even need to get out of the brig to get it.

Sitting back she waited for her food to come to her. It was easier then she thought, and her Father would never even know.

Footsteps echoed outside of the brig door, Scarlett sat up in anticipation, waiting for the girl to walk through the door, so that she could convince her that she wasn't really there, and it was her own imagination.

The door swung open with force, but to her dismay it was not the cook who stood in the doorway. Scarlett swallowed heavily. She was in so much trouble.

Pirate Vs Poison

This morning I wrote some more on my 2Yn novel, pirate. It amazes me that it is on a whole different level then my NaNo novel. I guess because I really didn't put much preparation into NaNo, well not as much as my 2YN. I find the words come a lot easier for Pirate. The characters also seem more believable to me personally which probably makes it a lot easier to write.

However, I still will push through with NaNo. I seem to recall that I hated everyword of Pirate when I first began. I always find the beginning the hardest.

It's official!

I have now officially finished my Higher school certificate (HSC), which means I have finished school! (Well at least until I go to Uni.) And to think I wasn't going to go on to year 12 three years ago...

Inspiration has hit!

Finally I have a title for my 2YN project. What's even better is I not only have a title for the first book, but I now have a title for all three books in the War of Meadeit trilogy.

Book One - Pirate
Book Two - Isles of the dead
Book Three - Immortal Return

Simple titles I know, but I'm happy because I finally figured them out!

helping Zette

I was reading on Holly Lisle's site that Lazett Gifford, the owner of forward motion is having a bit of trouble, so I thought I would post the button Holly had, to promote a little bit of help for Zette, seeing the wonderful job she does with forward motion.
By clicking the button it will link you to Holly's page that she has set up for it. ^_^

The First hurdle of 2YN novel

Writing has been going smoothly. This morning I finished chapter nine, which means I have officially passed the first hurdle. I have a complete beginning to my story. The next hurdle is getting to the middle of the book. I think enjoying writing this novel so much, probably more then anything I've ever written before. But since I have finished the middle, It's time for me to spend some money on myself and buy something that will help out with my writing. I just don't know what yet, maybe some software or something.

NaNo. I have planned a novel to sit down and write in NaNo. It has an interesting concept, and is definitely not what I thought I would be writing. But I've begun to put together a folder for it. So everything is beginning to come around. I'm hoping to write my NaNo novel and my 2YN novel at the same time.

As far as titles are concerned, I've never been very good at coming up with them, though I do like my title for my NaNo novel. Which leads to the point that I need to hurry up and come up with a title for my 2YN, but nothing I come up with seems to fit. I have called it the Deadly Sins trilogy, but that doesn't entirely fit anymore either. So that is my next task, to figure out a title that suits my novel (even if it does get changed at a later date.)

Anway, here's a little synopsis type thing for the NaNo novel I plan on writing;

* * *
When Scarlett Milligan hears her brother has been taken prisoner in Ava'Knale, she swears that she will use every part of her in born mage talent to free him, no matter the cost, but upon arriving she finds that the situation is worse then she could have expected. When Ganix Abel, and exiled sorcerer from her Father's fellowship, creates a poison with the power to rot the body inside out, Scarlett finds she has a choice to make. The life of her brother, or the lives of an entire race?

* * *

Sunday Write In

Today I sat down for 5 hours, just like I promised myself I would, and I'm proud to say that I reached just a bit over 10,000 words on my current 2YN project. Which means that I'm catching up to the word count that I should be at.

I've decided that I really like the whole 10,000 words in a day, so I'm going to set aside time every sunday to write 10,000 words for my WIPs, as this is a day where I usually don't have much to do anyway. That will help me to balance out my 2Yn and the novel that I'll be writing for NaNo during November.

What style of Lover are you?

Your result for The Lover Style Profile Test...

The Devoted Lover

68% partner focus, 10% aggressiveness, 15% adventurousness

Based on the results of this test, it is highly likely that:



You prefer your romance and love to be traditional rather than daring or out-of-the-ordinary, you would rather be pursued than do the pursuing and, when it comes to physical love, your satisfaction comes more from providing a wonderful time to your partner than simply seeking your own.



This places you in the Lover Style of: The Devoted Lover.



The Devoted Lover is a wonderful Lover Style, and is perhaps the best Lover Style when it comes to developing a long-term, caring and rewarding relationship. The Devoted Lover is a treasure to find, though it is sometimes difficult to time establishing a relationship with one just right; usually, this is the last romantic relationship you'll need to find, so sow any wild oats first.



In terms of physical love, the Devoted Lover can be shy at first but gradually warms and eventually can be a thrilling partner who knows every need of his/her partner. Given a strong and loving relationship, and the right lover, the Devoted Lover can be a delight in bed.



Best Compatibility can probably be found with: The Suave Lover (most of all) or the Classic Lover, or the Carnal Lover.



Congratulations!



If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in the following:



Nerds, Geeks & Dorks



Professional Wrestling




Buffy the Vampire Slayer




America/Politics





Thanks Again! -- THE LOVER STYLE PROFILE TEST

Take The Lover Style Profile Test at HelloQuizzy

Which card are you?

I saw this on Soleil's blog, and it looked fun so I thought I would put my own here. ^_^

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Editing -- Stage one

I knew that I was going to have to throw quite a few words away before I started the editing process, but it is getting worse and worse as I go on. Currently I have tossed the first three whole chapters, which were more world building then anything. I have also deciding to change the main POV character which means half the scenes in the entire book will be wiped out because of this. I have soo much to do... Though I am only doing it after I have finished my word count for 2Yn which I have a feeling will be going through the same process as this book I am writing now.

At least I finally have a direction for the book to take. :P

Beneath Ice Edits

I finished 'Beneath Ice' a couple of weeks ago and have only ever thought of it as a practice. However, this is the first time that I have actually started the editing stage, so I'm excited. This will give me practice and a feel for full on editing. I mean I have edited small works, but nothing like this. It will be interesting. . . ^_^

Reading list from Soleil

5 MUST Read Books:

1. Beautiful Death by Joely Sue Burkhart
   
2. Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward
3. Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes
4. Evermore by Lynn Viehl
5. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
   

5 Books on the Nightstand:

1. Crazy in Love by Lani Diane Rich
2. Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey
3. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
   
4. Omega Games by S.L. Viehl
5. Harshini by Jennifer Fallon
   

5 Look For These Soon:

1. Evernight by Claudia Gray
   
2. The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward
3. Midnight: A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
4. Desire Unchained by Larissa Ione
5. The Immortal Prince by Jennifer Fallon

* Just as Soleil did on her blog, I have bolded the books that I added in :)

National literary day

Happy National literary day to all my fellow writers! I was so stoked when I realised that it was today, especially since it's my 18th today, yes, I feel old, lol, but now I can legally drink alcohol and I have to vote this weekend! The joys of getting older! :D

My 2Yn is going lovely! I finally got the outline done and so everything else is moving smoothly!

Rejection

I just got another rejection for one of my short stories that I sent away. But this time I got feedback, so that was helpful... Looks as though I have to try again, though I think I will wait a while, I already have a whole heap on my plate with my 2YN project, which is taking me forever to finish!

Triumph

I have now officially finished my biggest WIP ever. It came in at 100,098 words and it is finished! Two weeks ahead of schedule. I am so happy right now!

Tomorrow I will begin on my short story!

At it again

Still two weeks left of outlining, I am finally getting some things done in my 2YN WIP but there is still so much left to do! I've almost finished 'Beneath Ice' I have 2 scenes left, so I'm quite excited, which of course got me to thinking.

I like to get up of a morning and write a least one scene, my day is not complete otherwise. So in about two days I will be finished Beneath Ice. That will leave me with two weeks without anything to write! So I went on the internet and got a story prompt for a short story. I just finished the outline for it today. It will be 10, 000 words long, and I really love it. The only bad thing is, I write 10, 000 words in a week, so that means I will have to try and find something else to occupy myself with when I've finished with it -- Oh the drama!

Also, whilst I was doing a little bit of worldbuilding for this story, I went searching for a program that would help me make a map. I found Autorealm. Its a real neat piece of free software that allows you to design maps. It has heaps of symbols and stuff. I really like it. It will help so much when I make the maps for the rest of my worlds.

No all as I have to do is create the map for my 2yn

Brother

I'm so close to finishing 'Beneath Ice'. It is going to need so much revision it's seriously not funny. But I now have a direction I want the 'Element Trilogy' to go in. I have started on the outline for the second book, and thought of a good working title this morning. I called it 'Brother'. I'm heaps excited about writing it, but of course my 2YN will come first. I was thinking I could do this story for NaNo this year. I really want to do NaNo again, last year was my first time, and it was so good. Such a learning curve! It opened my eyes to how much I really love writing, it was also the largest writing goal I had ever reached, and I discovered how much I enjoyed writing everyday. ^_^

Brother

After a long year, Baden Vireze has finally been located in a small village located in Reh'viva. Krindel Vireze, his twin sister, jumps at the chance to finally be reunited with her brother and see a country she only vaugely knew existed. However, when she gets there and meets Yuri, Lakin's older brother, she discovers Lakin's exile was harsher then he ever let on. She vows that she will destroy the antagonism between the two Brothers and gain the aliance of Reh'viva. A strong tie that will help her when she and Baden regain their throne.

'The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing' By Evan Marshall -- Review

So as I said I would, here is a review for the latest reference book that I've read. Before I got this book, I of course read all the reviews on it that I could find, and although I read a lot that were very positive, I also read a lot that said this structure was very rigid and stifling, so I was a bit worried after I ordered it in. However, I feel that it really was worth the money that I spent on it.

The book is broken down into sixteen very easy steps. It starts out determining genre and then idea, moves into the lead character, romantic involvement and the lead character's confident. After fleshing out characters, the book moves onto the steps involving plotting. Marshall uses 'Sections' to make up his novel. The amount of sections used for each the beginning, middle and end are calculated through a table. How to plan and write these action and reaction sections come next, including how to connect them into one.

The book also gives valuable information on how to create a professional looking manuscript, a title page, synopsis and query letter as well as information about agents and how to find one. I loved the overall structure of this novel and the way it gave information in a clear and easy to understand way.

I have definitely seen a change in my writing since reading this book. I have been able to look at my writing and see some of the things that have been making it drag a little. Though it may not be for everyone, I recommend it to anyone who is interesting, there is a lot that can be learned from this book (such as editing, etc), even if you don't follow the structure that Marshall sets up. I found it very helpful and it will definitely be one of the top reference books on my shelf (right beside Techniques for the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain and Self editing for writers by Renni Browne and Dave King)

Surprise Scene . . .

I couldn't sleep last night, and so I found myself on my Mother's computer... For some reason I opened up a new document and just started typing. Now I have the first scene of a book. I have no idea who the characters in it are, no Idea what its about. I just know that one of them is on a mission and the other is not human. But it has intrigued me so I printed it off and stored it away, ready to use when I have the time to write something.

I now have 79, 000 words in Beneath Ice. Won't be long and I'll be finished my biggest project. I see this piece more of a practice then anything else, but maybe one day I will try to get it into print.

I was looking for PDAs this morning. I found the one I want. It's the AT&T Tilt. It looks very good and I'm getting quite excited for it.

Also I'm almost finished reading 'The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing' by Even Marshall. I'm up to the second last step. So far so good, I'm really getting a lot out of it for my writing, I've noted the significant improvement in my current WIP. Once I'm through with it I might put up a review, but I definitely recommend it for writers. You don't have to follow the way he does things, but there is a ton of really great information in it. Such as whilst in the editing stage, scene structure, connecters for scenes, chapter breaks and the things that I find the most handy; a synopsis, query letter, professional manuscript layout including the title page, etc... It really is very good, and I used the formats to help me create a manuscript for the two Short Stories I sent away, I can honestly say that they are looking far more professional now!

On an ending note, my 2YN is going along fabulously. I have so many scenes, right now I'm at 56, but I have planned for 136. These will of course be combined to become a lot less scenes. Though every time I think that I don't have a clue what to do next, I come up with something. This story really has me very excited!

Submission Crazy!

I sent out another short story for submission today. This time it was to Wet Ink and under the same pseudonym. This is the second story I have sent to them, the first was rejected, though this time my manuscript looks a lot more professional, and far easier to read!

Now I have two stories out!

Back in the heat of things...

I just sent another story off for submission... This time I sent it to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, it was sent in under the Pseudonym Lyra Callaghan. It is one of the short stories that I wrote for the May story a day competition on Forward Motion, and the second story that I have submitted.

So fingers crossed!

New Book! New Blog!

I just got off the phone to Angus and Robertson... They have my book in!! So now all I have to do is go down and get it out so that I can read it, I am so seriously excited!!!

Also, I have been fiddling around with Wordpress for a while now, and I am trying to figure out if I really want to change blogs or not. I really like the way Wordpress is set up, but I'm really not sure. I guess I'll have to mull it around in my head for a while.

Dares 1-7

For the first week, I think I've done alright

Worldbuilding = 831 words for my new fantasy, and 1501 for Beneath Ice which is a total of 2332.
I never ended up actually doing any worldbuilding save an outline for Beneath Ice, and so I've had to do a lot of worldbuilding to make up for that whilst I've been writing the actual novel. Though its not too bad that way.

Short stories = I haven't written any yet, but I plan to have one up soon

30, 000 word edit = Haven't actually started on this either, but I have goals of 15, 000 words a month, so that will balance it all out. ^_^

Also I've been pretty busy with my current word count on Beneath Ice. It's coming along very nicely, and I can't believe that I only have 35, 000 words to go on it! That seems so much more achievable now then when I first started and it was 100, 000 to go! I know that I will have this one finished in no time!

Halfway through, and Dares

In the space of four weeks, I have come to the middle of my novel, and I have no inclination to stop writing until the very end! I am so happy right now, because I have figured out that all my projects are in trouble of me giving up on them in the first 10, 000 - 20 000 words, after that I get into the swing of writing the novel and just breeze through! And next week is the start of school holidays, so I will be able to write heaps more! My goal is to get 50 000 words done in the two weeks so that I can have this finished!

And once again it is July! That means that the July/August Dare on forward motion has started. I've already signed up for;
- 4 short stories in the two months
- 8000 words worldbuilding
- 30 000 word rewrite

This will allow me to finally get Selected by the Gods edited, and also opens up a whole new WIP for me to work on once I am finished beneath ice. Though I really think that I will do the sequel to Beneath ice next (second book in the element Trilogy) get that started and then I will be able to edit Beneath Ice and hopefully send it in for submission. That would be good, though I don't think it has a very strong story line at this point in time. Once I finish Beneath Ice, and start on another WIP, this can count towards the 90 000, word count dare for the two months, but first I have to finish writing Beneath Ice, so no jumping ahead for me!

Submission Rejected!

I got my first submission rejection today. Though I'm not real cut up about it, the stuff I have been working on lately has been far better. I am just glad that I had a try at submitting something instead of just saying that I will. Now I can maybe send some more of my work off ^_^

New Book!

I was surfing the net yesterday cuz I was bored, and I found a new how - to book that looks really interesting. And in my opinion you can't have too many how to books.

Its called; The Marshall plan for novel writing. What I've read about it leads me to believe that he uses many of the same techniques as Dwight Swain, who's book "Techniques for the selling Writer" Is like my bible!

Just wondering if anyone has read it. If you have, I would love to hear some of the details on it, see what you think.

Edits

Finally the time has come for me to edit "Selected by the Gods" It suddenly popped into my head when I was in the shower the other night, and I got this huge brain blast and got all excited. Since this is the second largest complete manuscript that I have written, it may take a while for me to hone my editing skills Lol.

Anyway I have the plan of adding in quite a few subplots and turning it into a full length novel, this made me real excited because I thought of all the content I can add. Currently it is told through Adela's POV in third person, and there is quite a few more character POVs I can add in if I want to make it longer. All in all I don't think it will take away from my current WIP as I am going to edit in scenes, not wordcount, and seeing as I do most of my writing in the morning, that leaves a little bit of time during the afternoon in which I can edit this story. ^_^

This is actually the first large edit (I haven't edited any of my other work, other then short stories) I have ever done, and so I decided to use the hints on "Using an outline to edit" Which was the first workshop that was completed on forward motion in the learning centre, it was taught by MarFisk. I started it when it was running, but unfortunately got too busy and couldn't continue. I really like what it teaches and thought this would be the best time to have a go and see if it can help me with this story ^_^

In other news, its less then 3 months away from my Eighteenth birthday! Which I am so excited for, I mean you only turn eighteen once right? Then I can legally drink (Well in Australia anyway) It also means I will be that much closer to going for my green Ps, and University is ever looming in the distance! So much going on! My Mum was talking to me the other day as well, and her and Dad both offered to buy me a PDA for my birthday, so that I can use it for both my writing and Uni. Mum only just found out what one was, and she did so by watching NCIS, which I have been watching with her when I have the time, its such a great show, and gives me heaps of quality time with my Mum, not that we don't do heaps together anyway.

Okay this post just offically became a blurt of totally random stuff, so I'm going to go do something useful before someone's brain explodes, lol. o_O

Estatic!

I am so happy! I have just started plotting another story because it keeps bugging me, and it has for a while. I didn't want to plot it because I thought I would stuff it up, but this time I have approached it a bit differently. Turns out my mind likes outlining first by chapters and then by smaller scenes. It makes alot of sense to me this way, and the scenes seem to flow a lot more naturally. I am very happy with the way that this WIP is sounding. It is one of my most in depth and exciting pieces that I have worked on. Of course my 2YN novel is by far my most planned, and my favourite, but I am keeping to the classes with that one! I need some stuff to work on while I am still planning that other one!

Current Status

Haven't done much writing lately, been at a school camp for the past three days, so I didn't want to start anything too soon. Finally finished the planning for Conforming to the Enemy. Don't really like it, but I am going to write it anyway, just so that I have something to do. Besides as soon as I start writing it is going to change anyway. Also I'm testing out yWriter4. I quite like the way the program is set up. So tonight I get stuck into that. I've given myself until the 7th of July, so hopefully I will be able to finish it by then. I plan to have 90,000 words but the outline was a lot shorter then I wanted it to be. I'm thinking that once I finally have it finished, I will be able to see what the missing scenes are. So I'm jumping in headlong, because I have been chomping at the bit for ages to get something written in one of my projects, and I want to finish a big WIP.

Finished the latest assignment for 2YN this morning and posted it. It was a bit shorter then the last, but I was able to write a scene from a different viewpoint so I am happy about that. But the whole thing just seems to be getting bigger and bigger with every assignment. It's kind of doing my head in, lol. I really can't wait to get writing in it!

WIP Update

I brought out my copy of Holly Lisle's Plot Clinic on the weekend, and have been slowly working through it for a new story that I am writing. So Far, so good!

I also found out how strange I really am this weekend, the reason being that I have a strange love for stationary. Yes people look at me strange when I say that I want to work in a stationary shop. I'd probably scare the customers away, lol. But seriously, I love buying a new note book. I bought one on the weekend, and I have been jotting notes down here and there for my current WIP. I also bought a new pen to write with.

I started 2YN with a notebook, but it is too small, so I scraped it, I really should have bought a slightly larger one so that I could keep a hard copy of random things, then I would probably work on it a lot more as well, seeing as I always take notebooks everywhere, and my bag is always stocked with pens.

Actually, the next thing that I have to add to my growing list of writing supplies and technologies is a PDA, so if anyone knows any nice models, ones that I can most hopefully afford lol, I would be grateful for any suggestions. Somehow I just think that walking around with a PDA will be far more easier then walking around with a stack of notebooks, much easier to store in my bag.

A small bit of praise.

Oh my gosh! I bought Holly Lisle's new e-book 'How to write page-turning scenes' and I have to say that it is wonderful and offers very good information. I am only half way through, but I am loving it, and my writing has changed a bit, for the better of course. I seriously recommend this book for anyone wanting to know a bit more about scenes. It has really opened me eyes!

Weekly summary.

This week was a good week, I got 15,000 words in writing done, which is very good considering that I have school as well at the moment. I started the may story a day challenge, that is awesome, though not as easy as I thought it would be. In other news I finished my story! Now I have to find something else to write about, but Holly Lisle's page turning scenes comes out this week so I can't wait to buy it! I even have the money saved up to get it.

Oh, and I also have the money saved up to buy SuperNoteCard, by Mindola. This is an absolutely awesome outline program that really works for me. I have the trial version, but have been meaning to buy it for so long, I just had to save up the money first. But I was supposed to be buying this website software that I thought would be great for my school project. Turns out I read the wrong information and got the prices wrong, it is way more than I want to pay seeing as I own dreamweaver MX and can do the same thing in it. The only problem is I fiddle when I use dreamweaver. But hey, it means that I can finally get a riggle on and buy that software that I have been meaning to buy for months now. Since last year to be correct, lol.

My 2YN project is coming along swell. I really love the course and I am learning so much about my world, and my writing styles. I have learnt a few things about the story that I thought would be a lot different, and I can see how bad the story would have ended up had I just jumped in as per usual. This course is definitely a plus, everything is falling into place. I just hope I can come up with enough conflict to get me through seven books like I have planned. But I'm sure I will ^_^

Anyway, that's all from me this week, I've rambled enough. Have to go and get this third story out of the way, and begin some planning for other work. I have a full week of school ahead of me, so that seems like its going to be fun.... But hey what can you do? I'll end this post with a quote I picked up somewhere, which I think sums up so much in life!

-- When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters- one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.


That quote to me sums up a lot about writing, don't know if that is the same for Y'all. Anyway until next week!

May alternate challenge (Edited 2/5/08)

I have to say, I really do love Forward motion. It is one of the most awesome sites around and really motivates me. This month I have decided to do the alternate challenge, because I am nearly finished my story of Adela and Luken, so I need something to work on while I am worldbuilding. Anyway, I started preparing for the first short story, getting down my prompt and fleshing out a couple of characters, because that always takes the longest. This is what I got, and a sneak peak of what I plan to write when the time comes:

Prompt :
The theme of this story: noir romance. The main characters: crippled marine and conceited hermit. The major event of the story: treason.

Short summary of what I plan to write:
Trying to rid himself of his latest annonomous visit to his home village, Vito is forced to tend to a near dead woman, her eyes cut out and her spirit lost. But can he save Jannie when she refuses to live unless he reveals to her the reason for his hate and a dark past that he keeps locked in his heart?

Hopefully it will come out at 6000 words, could be a bit more, maybe a bit less it all depends. But this story is set in the world that I am building for 2YN, though the characters to the different stories never actually meet. Or at least I don't think they do. I have a feeling this is set before Elicia was even born, I'm taking hundreds of years before when the drama between pirates and Officers has only just begun. I have a feeling that later I will be able to write a novel on these people, and they will somehow contribute to the world, but for now it is just a short little romance.

[Edit] -- I was going to do the alternate challenge this month, but I think that I jumped in too quickly. This month is the story a day, so I think that I will aim for that one instead. It sounds like a really cool bit of gear, and I think that I will be able to do it too. There is always another month that I can do the alternate challenge, but the short story above will be written so that I can get a little background for my 2YN, just not as soon as I originally thought.

Weekly word count

Very happy with my progress this week! I have reached 16,806 words of Adela and Luken's story. That is by far more then I had originally planned, but I have to go back to school tomorrow so this week is most likely going to be a whole lot smaller. But I am over 50% in the story, so that is awesome! According to my outline I have 9 scenes left to write (though maybe more or less, depending how well I stick to it ^_^)

As for my 2YN, I am loving this course, I have so much to think on with it, and the world that I have created is really good! But I think one of the things that makes this piece of work so different from anything else, is the other people doing the course. Reading thier assignments and hearing feedback on your own work really helps and motivates! Also any questions that they ask or issues they bring up makes you look deeper into your world and understand it a whole lot better. Another thing I love about it is that it goes at a good pace, I am able to still concentrate on my school work and to have other projects running. (^_^)

In trouble!

I was reading an old Vision magazine today and I was glancing over an article on Outlining, well this caused me to bring out an old outline and now I can not stop thinking about it, but the thing is, I need to finish this other story before I even think about starting something else! Otherwise it will just end up as another story pushed aside. I really need to finish this one, so I am locking away all other outlines until then!

Why I love writing!

This week I have been able to remember why I love writing so much! I have completed nearly 15,000 words since Monday, that is a huge achievement for me in a single week so I am happy. I think my muse is happy too. Before I began on this story, and completed the short story before it, I was having trouble getting myself to sit down and write, I was procrastinating alot! I think my muse was angry cause I wasn't completing any of my work. But after changing my outlining style and making some changes to my writing process, I have been able to bring back my love of writing. I think it also may be because I have told myself that I will finish this story that it is going to work! Also I have made weekly goals instead of daily goals.

When I am at school, I can't write every single day, and so goals don't go far, but with weekly goals, I don't have to stress. I don't know why I didn't think of weekly word goals before, I always just thought that seeing a huge number would make me less inclined to write, I was wrong!

I'm back happy again, and ready to work on my current project, though my 2YN novel often comes into mind while I am daydreaming. I have come up with a few cool extra characters and once I have come up with character sheets with them, it will be all cool! Cause they certainly put a twist onto the story, especially when I have figured out who my two shapechanger archetypes are!

Outlines...

My story is not following my outline all that well ::sigh:: and I really want to keep writing for the day but I am going to work very soon, so unfortunately I cannot! But I have made progress today, and have gone way over my weekly goal, so I am quite happy. Two scenes a day is probably the best that I can do on the days that I have to work. Word count is now 6491/30000, this story will be complete, no matter what!

Story update

I've done heaps of writing today! I am very satisfied with my progress, I reached a total of 3142 words, which means I am half way to completing my weekly goal, looks as though I will go passed it this week, but I am on holidays so I have a lot more time on my hands.

Also I think that I got my outline right this time! Usually I just leave it on index cards which get filed away and never looked at again, but after I got the story together, this time I typed it up onto a template. This is a lot of work, but it means that it is a double check for my plot and it seems to make me less inclined to throw the story into the cupboard and never look at it again, strange I know, but it works! I also changed a few of my writing techniques. I just purchased and read the way of the Cheetah by Lynn Viehl and I have really been finding the writing progress easy! And a whole lot of fun!

Enough rambling from me, I have to go backup now, cause my computer is being a pain in the rear and deciding to stuff up a bit, so I refuse to risk all the hard work that I've done today.

A Story of Adela and Luken

Recently I have been working out the foundations for a new set of novels and have been doing a lot of world building. And because I just can't help myself, I wrote first a short story on the Shucha (Passing test of an Ilunti warrior) of one of the characters, and now I am doing a 30,000 word story of the Romance between Queen Adela and King Luken. Should keep me busy for a while, I just finished the outline, so I'm ready to begin!

Thought I better stop being Lazy

Thought I better finally do a little work on my blog... Just so everyone knows, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but not to worry, I will figure it out in due time. Now back to figuring how to work this. LOl.