Reader Rayna

Month: March 2019

  • Camp NaNoWriMo 2019

    It’s that time of year again friends when I say I’m going to do the thing and then fail horribly!

    BUT NO MORE!

    I’m determined this year to write the hell out of my novel for Camp and I’m going to DO IT, DAMMIT. No more excuses. No more games. I’m going to write this novel if it’s the last thing I do!

    Okay, now that I got that out of the way, let’s talk writing and such!

    First of all, what is Camp NaNoWriMo? Camp NaNoWriMo takes place every April and July and is a more relaxed (or stressful) version of NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) takes place every November where the goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, but Camp NaNo allows you to set your own word count goal on their website, so if you just want to write a short 5,000 word story, go for it! If you want to be ambitious and hit 100,000 words, go for it! It’s a fun, community type of event that focuses on writing and creativity.

    What am I writing this year?

    The same thing I began working on last year but didn’t get farther than just over 1,600 words. Its working title is called “Dark & Burning” and I really like my concept of elemental magic, mental illness, love, friendship, family, and the balances between light and dark.

    Here’s the synopsis:

    Mahlia is unknown. She blends in with the crowd as much as possible and tries to just go through her day to day life without bothering anyone. But she has a secret that she can’t make known unless she wants to forfeit not only this life that she’s made, but also her freedom. If she keeps this secret any longer, though, it may just consume her – body and soul.


    Vex is the third prince in line for the throne, and as such he gets away with pretty much whatever he can. As he was forced to choose between priesthood and the military, he decides to join the royal army alongside his second eldest brother. Fire courses through his veins just as it does through his second brother and his mother, but his magic is stronger, different, and one that could ignite a change he hadn’t expected.


    In a world where elemental magic is abundant, the threat of war is upon the country of Arkin from their neighbors across the sea – Nyrrin, who craves their lands and their very prosperous resources. But these once comrades of Arkin come with weapons unlike that which Arkin has ever seen, and it could change the outcome of the war for the worse for Arkin.

    The synopsis will probably change as time goes on and I write more of the story, but for now that’s what I’ve got.

    As of the time of writing this post, I’ve actually written a decent amount since my first attempt at this storyline. I’ve been slowly working on bits and pieces, scenes and chapters as they’ve come to me, so right now I have 15,423 words written. That’s, uh, way more than I thought??? When did I write this much???

    Of course I’m going to use this number towards my 50,000 word goal for Camp. Why should I knock my own progress just because I started before the event itself? I’m not going to do that, but I’m also not going to stop myself just because I might reach that goal, you know?

    The Stats

    There’s a bit of stats that go into Camp and NaNo every year, so let’s break it down:

    • To reach my 50k goal I’ll need to write 1,667 words per day during the month.
    • Since I’ve written 15,423 words, to reach the 50k goal I only need 34,577 words.
    • BUT because I’m allowing my novel to flow for however long it needs to be to be told until I’m satisfied, I’m still aiming to reach 50k NEW words written for the month. So that means that if I write anything more between now and next week, then I’m still aiming to write 50k new words, even if my word count total is above 20k… you get it?

    Let’s break it down more into goals because why not? I’m just using this as a guideline than an obligation to stick to:

    • By the end of week one, Sunday April 7th, I want to have 12,000 new words total.
    • By the end of week two, Sunday April 14th, I want to have 24,000 new words total.
    • By the end of week three, Sunday April 21st, I want to have 36,000 new words total.
    • By the end of week four, Sunday April 28th, I want to have 48,000 new words total.
    • By the end of the month I want to have 50,000 new words total.

    And to incentivize myself, I’m going to award myself small prizes for achieving said goals each week! Whether that be a treat-yo-self day, watching an episode or two of Critical Role campaign one, watching a movie, whatever, I want to give myself rewards for reaching my milestones.

    The Survival Kit

    Alright, well, since I’ve turned much into a “mood” reader and writer the last couple of years, I’m making a conscious decision to push that aside in order to pursue my dreams, SO, with that, let’s talk about some of the essential things I’ll want to use during Camp:

    1. Music – I’m under the firm belief that every writer needs music, whether it be pop ballads, sensual R&B, lo-fi, grunge, classical, nature sounds, whatever, I think music really helps to get into the right headspace and focus. So me, personally, I’ll listen to a lot of lo-fi playlists or fantasy music playlists that I can easily tune out to just have as background noise while I write.
    2. My very vague synopsis, character listings, and major plot points documents – I seriously wouldn’t get very far without these because, yes, I forget my own characters’ names. Whoops. I also have these as a way to remind myself of the general direction I want things to go in, but they are by no means an obligation to the story at hand. I’m a writer that likes to have the characters and world lead, even with some guidelines.
    3. Food – Okay, you know this one’s a given. I can’t write if I don’t have the energy or brain power. Food is good, and not junk food! I mean like means and veggies and stuff.
    4. The support of fellow writers, my husband, and friends and family – Now, I’m not usually a person super big on community. I prefer to be alone in many things and in many ways, but this year I’m trying to change it up and involve people in my creative process and my creative endeavors. For example, I had an in depth discussion with my husband when we went out to dinner one night about my story and what I want to write for it, and he’s practically demanding that I write it! He’s seriously excited to read it, and not just because I’m his wife lol
    5. The USB drive to hold all of my work – ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP. NO exceptions. If you’re going to write and work on something important, you better have a backup somewhere in case your computer decides to not turn on again one day. You never know, and then you’ll be out that hard work.
      • An alternative option to this is to write in Google Drive’s documents option where it autosaves your work. You’ll just have to remember your Google password and such if you’re bouncing from computer to computer.
    6. Forest app – This app is very cute and cool because you can grow a tree as much as you want for as long as you’re productive. It’ll yell at you to stop looking at it, but will also give you little bits of motivation. You can set your time for how long you want to be productive and not look at your phone and stuff, which is cool.

    That’s it! I’m excited to start Camp next month (next week!), but I’m also excited to just have this passion back for writing again. I seriously missed it.

    Let’s Chat!

    Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo? What’s genre are you writing? Care to share a synopsis or general idea of what your story’s about? Let me know!

  • A Book for Different Times of Day

    Well hello! I hope you’re doing well and happy spring!

    So, I had a realization at the time I began writing this that I currently have books for different times of the day/scenario I’m in:

    • A book for daytime reading
    • A book for before bed reading
    • An audiobook for driving

    This makes me feel like I’ve reached a new level of nerd lol

    Anyway, I find it interesting because my reading habits aren’t what they were a few years ago when I first started blogging and really getting into the reading scene. Now I read mostly webtoons, like Your Letter and Lore Olympus, but I’ve been trying very hard to get back into novels again.

    I know part of the reason I’ve been struggling is because I’ve been overwhelming myself very easily with wanting to do all the things, but not having enough time or energy to do them, so I just… don’t. So, I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort recently to just pick something up that sucks me in and go with it.

    The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson has been one of those books for me for months now. Yes, months. I don’t know if you know this, but the audiobook is over 45 hours long, and I really only listen to it on my 25-30 minute drives to and from work. And then sometimes I don’t even listen to it at all for a few weeks so I can listen to some music instead.

    The story didn’t hook me right away because I had tried to start it a couple of years ago, but failed, so when I started anew? Oh yeah, I was hooked, and now I’m at the beginning climax of this installment of the series and I AM HERE FOR IT. The characters and world building are fantastic, and the voice actors who read the books do a phenomenal job acting out all the parts and such.

    So since I’ve been having such great luck with the audiobook, especially lately, I then realized I am in one HELLUVA mood for romance. And I’m not talking that cheesy stuff (but, I mean, I also won’t say no to it if it grabs my attention lol), I’m talking about a slow burn or steamy or just passionate type of romance read. And that’s where Graceling comes in.

    I recently watched a video by Hannah of A Clockwork Reader on YouTube about five underrated series she thinks others should definitely get more hyped about, and in it she mentioned the Graceling Realm trilogy by Kristin Cashore and talked about how the first book in particular has a much heavier focus on the relationship and romance aspect than the others.

    And I happened to remember my husband owned a copy.

    So of course I made him dig it out of boxes for me and I started it and it’s already got me hooked. I wanted to start really winding down more when it’s time for bed and not be on the computer or have my phone in my face, so I decided to make it my before bedtime read.

    Besides, studies have shown that reading before bed can be very beneficial to your health, such as reducing stress, higher creativity levels, and more brain power. So if you’re not on the read before bed train, hop on! You might find yourself in a much better mood the next day as a result of it.

    And then I have my daytime reading. I’ve discovered a way to read at work without having a physical book behind the counter because sometimes it’s so incredibly slow that I don’t have a customer for a half hour or more at a time, so instead of just sitting there and browsing news articles I don’t care about, I open a book through Amazon on the Kindle Cloud Reader app on their website.

    To access it, simply go to your latest digital purchases, click on the book you want to read, and then click the green “Read Now” button. If you’re on a computer, it’ll take you to the Cloud Reader for easy reading. Just be careful using your left and right arrow buttons because I’ve noticed that that messes with the page formats, so you’ll have to actually click the next button on the screen to go to the next page.

    I decided the day before publishing this, in fact, that I was going to sample A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness because I had continued to keep seeing it pop up all over the place, and so I decided to give it a try. Well, as of the time I’m writing this, I’m only one chapter two and hooked. Of course I’m going to continue to read it once I’m home after work, but still, I have options to read when I’m at my job.

    So though my reading habits have changed a lot over the last few years, I’m doing my best to not give up and to keep going back to the stories I love, the stories I want to read and live, and the stories that my heart desires. And what better way to do that than to find different ways to incorporate those stories into different facets of my life?

    Let’s Chat!

    What books do you like to read before bedtime? Are you a nighttime reader? If not, do you read when you wake up during breakfast? Do you listen to audibooks on your commute to work? Or do you just read whenever you want and not have designated books for certain times and scenarios during the day? Tell me all the things!