Tag Archives: novel

Camp NaNoWriMo Week 4 Recap & Wrap Up

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CNW_Participant

Well, this month was very difficult for me to get into my writing mojo, but I started several projects, wrote more for some over others, so I’m interested to see if I’ll continue with any of them.

Goal

50,000 words total by the end of April 30th.

That’s the equivalent to a 200-225 page book. So my average daily word count goal to reach my main goal is to write 1,667 words per day.

Stats for Week 4

Day 23: 0 words for a total of 18,273 words
Day 24: 0 words for a total of 18,273 words
Day 25: 0 words for a total of 18,273 words
Day 26: 2,617 words for a total of 20,890 words
Day 27: 1,397 words for a total of 22,287 words
Day 28: 0 words for a total of 22,287 words
Day 29: 395 words for a total of 22,682 words
Day 30: 0 words for a total of 22,682 words

This Week’s Advice: Don’t Feel Rushed or Pressured to Write

I think this is an extremely important point to remember when writing: don’t feel rushed or pressured to finish in a certain amount of time (unless you’re on deadline, then good luck to you!). When writing for a competition like this (even though it’s not really a competition), it can get overwhelming to write a certain amount of words in a month if you’ve never done so before.

If you’re like me and a lot of other people, you’ll expect perfection and everything to flow smoothly your first go around, and that’s just not the case. Even seasoned writers and well known authors don’t even have that luck. I think it’s fairly common to get into the mindset that your writing is the best or maybe it’s not good enough, and you end up comparing yourself to another writer.

Stop that. Because there will always be someone better than you, but you have to remember: what you do is your best at this moment. You can, and will, get better with time and practice.

This past month I’ve barely written anything toward my goal. Well, okay, I’m a little over half way to my goal, but if I had actually written the past two weeks instead of derping around then maybe I would have actually reached that goal this month. But the reality is that I struggled a lot with my original idea, I wrote three or four other things before finding one that I really enjoyed writing, and even that changed in front of my eyes as I wrote it and got to know my characters more.

But there’s something important that I realized while I was writing this new idea: I can’t rush it.

I want to take my time to get to know my characters, to learn who they are, what they like and don’t like, what their mannerisms are, their backstories. And I can only learn that by writing them out and letting them lead where the story needs to go. I can only interfere so much before I know that something isn’t working and my characters take the lead again.

Writing isn’t about rushing or having the most perfect piece of work ever, but it’s a slow process of learning your characters, your story, and most importantly, yourself as a writer. Keep your chin up, fellow writers, because even though Camp NaNoWriMo happens twice a year and NaNoWriMo happens once a year doesn’t mean you can’t write throughout the entire year.

Take the time to slow down, reflect on what you’ve written, and keep going because YOU created that new piece of art. YOU created something only YOU can tell. And that’s the most important part.

Wrap Up

So this last month was less than stellar for my writing, but I still made progress on several stories, so that’s really what matters.

My ending total: 22,682 words

My Goal: 50,000 words

If I had stuck to it I definitely could have reached my goal, but life and other things got in the way, unfortunately. I still had fun and will probably participate again.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

How was your writing month? Did the words flow or did you struggle like me? Did you find out anything new about your characters when you were writing that you weren’t expecting? Let me know!

Writing Goals for 2016

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Let’s talk about ALL THE RESOLUTIONS! Woo!

No, but seriously, this is my third post in a week about resolutions or relating to it. I promise it’ll be the last one!

So today I wanted to talk a little bit about my writing goals for this year. I know I set up a vague goal last year to edit my NaNoWriMo novel from 2014, and that flopped, but this year I want that to change.

As a graduate of Professional Writing, I want to be a writer! I love to create and be able to tell stories with my voice. I mean, anyone can be a writer regardless of what they do or don’t graduate with, but for me, it became a goal once I made it through college. And I sort of didn’t do much of it at all last year except for Camp NaNoWriMo, and I want to change that.

So this year I’m going to make three goals that I really want to see to the end. These goals or writing for these goals don’t have to be perfect, but I definitely want to be able to see something come of them.

So here are my three major writing goals for the year and how I plan on actually achieving them:

1 . Finish editing my 2014 NaNoWriMo novel.

And this time I mean it, dammit. I loved my first novel that I completed for NaNo. I grew attached to my two main characters and their stories, backstories, the world and how they grew up in it. And every time I’d write about them, or start to edit and find out more about them, things changed and grew and expanded into something more.

So I want to make it a point this year to read through my 100 pages manuscript and at least complete editing that story. It’s written to completion, it just needs to be edited (and then rewritten to add/take away edits, but one step at a time).

How I’ll Be Doing This: I’m going to do my best during some downtimes each weekend to see this through. I know I can do it; it’s just a matter of actually doing it that’s the challenge.

2. Finish writing my 2015 Camp NaNoWriMo novel.

I love this novel, too! My characters keep growing and developing and I’m learning so much more about them as I go, which then makes me want to go back and just start rewriting into the characters that I know they can be. But I really need to actually finish writing this one first.

I’ve actually written more for this story than the previous one and I’m not even close to be done with it yet. I’m hoping to get in at least another 20,000 to 30,000 words before it’s done, but who knows?

How I’ll Be Doing This: So the way I’ll be going about this is working on it for a half hour two to three times a week. I can push out 1,000 words in a half hour, so it’ll go at a decent pace if I actually stick to that goal. And of course I won’t limit myself if I’m on a roll and I want to write more in a given day.

3. Start writing a new novel, whether for Camp/NaNo or not.

I had an idea that came to me last night as I was trying to sleep, as all great ideas do. And I actually really, really like this story idea so I’m going to start writing it this year.

Now this doesn’t mean I have to finish it this year, but I do want to at least start writing it and get what I can down before I forget anything.

How I’ll Be Doing This: a) To do this I’ll do the same as above: a half hour two to three times a week. Of course, if I choose to wait until Camp or NaNo, then I’ll have plenty of time to bust out some words, so that’ll be fine.

b) And I’ll also do accomplish this goal by doing something I hate doing: outlining. I seriously hate outlining because I just like to go right into the story and get as much as I can out on paper. But I think this will help with how I want the story to flow.

So there you have it, my 2016 writing goals! They’re pretty straight forward, and may seem daunting, but I’m going to do my best to succeed at all of them.

Accompanying video: Writing Goals for 2016

Do you have any writing goals for the year? How challenging are they? Do you think you’ll be able to complete them or do you think you’ll need an accountability buddy to help you push through it? Let me know!

Giving Honest Reviews

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I think this is probably the most important thing when it comes to reviewing books, movies, or whatever else you review: be honest.

There are some people out there who try to bribe the reviewer into giving a positive review for some sort of benefit in return. But really, it’s not worth it because you’re not giving your full, 100% honest review of said product.

I’ve never had this happen to me, but it does happen.

Whenever I review a book or movie I’m always giving my 100% honest review. I think it’s important to share your innermost thoughts and feelings because then it allows other readers/viewers to get a sense for what the book or movie is like and they may or may not want to take a chance with it.

Now does this mean that your opinion will coincide with someone else’s? No. Don’t worry if your review is different from someone else’s. If you liked a book and rated it 5/5 stars and thought it was fantastic, while someone else rated it 1/5 stars and absolutely hated it, that’s okay. Everyone has differing views and tastes.

It can get a bit more stressful when a book or movie is super hyped up, though. You almost feel like you have to give it a positive review or rating. I’ve had this happen to me on several occasions with books that were super hyped up and felt bad for not giving it a decent rating. But in all honesty, if you didn’t like it or it didn’t meet your expectations, then rate it and review it as such.

But let’s not forget that when it comes to reviewing there’s a difference between giving an honest or critical review, and just being plain mean. Examples of each:

  • Honest/critical: This book, though written well with lovely prose and a great character arc, seemed to be lacking in world building. The author presented the characters in a fashion that helped me to get to know them better, but I didn’t feel like they belonged in the world that was being described.
  • Mean: This book had no depth or vision to it at all. I could’ve written it better and put in more detail here and there so the reader wouldn’t be totally lost like I was. Frankly, this author sucks at what they do.

Okay, I’m not good at giving mean examples, but you get the picture. One talks about the positive aspects of the novel while giving an analysis about why the characters were good, but the world building wasn’t as much and this can potentially lead to an explanation as to why that was for the reviewer. The other boasts the self and doesn’t really give a reason (or potentially lead to a reason) as to why they thought what they did, shooting down the author as being less than the person he/she is.

So, yes, while it is important to give honest reviews that people can look to and say, “Oh, this book sounds interesting, I’ll check it out,” or “Well, this helped me to see why I don’t want to read this,” the way you go about executing it is important as well.

Plus, I think people will call you out if you’re being mean in a review. At least I’d hope they would. I’d want someone to do that with me if I ever did that.

Always give your 100% honest review in any situation. Don’t let anyone try to persuade you otherwise. It’s important for readership and it’s important for having that trust that you build over time with your own viewers as well as authors, publishing companies, and other bloggers.

Do you ever feel like you have to botch a review just to make someone else happy? Do you feel pressured to give good ratings and reviews just because of the hype surrounding a book? Reflecting back on your past reviews, were you ever mean in any of them? Let me know.

Do You Ever…

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Want to just say “screw it” to your TBR for the month and read whatever you want?

Want to read every single book on your shelf at the same time?

Rearrange your shelves like there’s no tomorrow?

These are some of the things that have been plaguing me the last several days. I just haven’t wanted to read the books I had planned for my TBR this month, even though there’s only three of them, and I’ve already read three books not on my TBR, so it’s not like I lost out or anything.

I just have this strong urge to rebel against myself and say, “HA! I’m going to read what I want!” And, well, that’s kind of the idea, right?

My only problem is: every time I go to pick up a book, I can’t make myself read it. Maybe it’s a nagging feeling about not reading the books I said I’d read for the month. Or maybe it’s just that I’m in the mood for something else. I’m not sure, but it’s driving me crazy.

AND THEN. I literally want to read every single book I haven’t read that are on my shelves right now. I want to explore these new worlds and learn these new characters and fall in love and hate and cry. Like, seriously, these emotions are strong.

But in reality, I know I can’t read every single book at the same time because then 1) I’d be overwhelmed, 2) I’d most likely mix up characters/worlds/plots/etc, and 3) ain’t nobody got time for that.

And the rearranging the shelves thing… I just want to make them look prettier. That’s really the least of my worries right now.

Have you ever felt like this? What do you do to satisfy yourself? What works for you? Do you just jump right into another book or try to really stick to a set schedule? Sometimes I just need to take a break and watch Netflix or play a video game or just do something else so my brain can reset. Do you ever find yourself needing to do that, too? Let me know!

NaNaWriMo 2014 Revision Plans

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I never posted this here initially, or really kept up with updates, but I did win NaNoWriMo this year with over 50k words (50,281 to be exact)! I’m very proud of myself as I won on day 29, and I wrote my butt off to catch up when I fell behind.

If you want to read a synopsis and excerpt from my novel, you can go check out my page.

So let me talk about my revision plans. I’ve got a lot of them planned, I’m just not going to get them started until the new year because my brain needs time to recuperate after all that writing and other busy things going on, plus my husband and I are going on a honeymoon to Disney World over Christmas, so… I have no time to think about my story.

Anyway, now that I’ve rambled, let me get on with my revision plans:

  • I’m going to rewrite the entire novel in first person point of view present tense from the perspective of my main female character, Dahlia, whom I connected with much more than my main guy character, Jake.
  • After that second draft (since my first NaNo draft is… my first draft) I’m going to polish it up and have several people who were interested in reading it read it.
  • Upon feedback from them, I will revise more and start looking for/querying potential literary agents who might be able to help me get my book published.
  • Yes, my ultimate goal is to get my work published, and I do love the story very much and I believe it would be a great debut novel (at least I hope). That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to grow in my writing from doing multiple drafts or anything of the like. As many people say, it’s not about getting published, it’s about the writing process.
    • What I’ve learned from it is that I missed writing. I missed being creative and spewing out as much as possible to create a feasible, entertaining story.

So my revision plans are pretty standard, I think, for any aspiring writer. I love my story and want to share it with the world. I have many other story ideas and writing plans, I just need to implement them and begin writing. No one’s going to tell those stories but me, so I may as well get on it, right?

Did you participate in NaNo this year? How did you do? What are your revision plans, if any? Let me know in the comments below!