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!"