Birth of a Novel 2012 - Objection Completion #4

I fail. Well, depending on your definition of "fail." I didn't complete any of my set goals this week. However, that's not to say that I didn't do anything. In fact, I feel like I did quite a lot.

I put my "shelving" binders together for ROYALLY BURNED; FOREVER, FROG; and AFTER AUSTIN. I even made a whole video about it (seen at the bottom of this post).

I finished labeling all of my posts so my blog is "perfect." Everything is in order and my brain is completely at ease.

School is in order and I feel as if I'm ready for my semester tests. I'll be getting my PSAT results any day now!

Even though I did all of these things and I'm proud to have accomplished them, I still feel kind of guilty about not completing my goals. The whole time I was working on all of these other things, the worry about not doing what I said I would niggled at me. And I didn't like it.

So. I've reached a decision.

I already planned on stopping Birth of a Novel at the beginning of the new year since I have a new goal setting system I want to try. Now though, I think this is a better stopping point.

The rest of December is for friends and family and fun. I have my best friends' birthday party to go to this weekend. Then Christmas. Then laziness because I won't be in school. ;) I don't want to be worrying about specific goals, especially since I have a habit of setting them too high. I want to enjoy the season.

I leave you with this, my last Birth of a Novel wrap-up.

Last week's goals:
1. Reach 37k on OBJECTION before I go to bed on Sunday. Didn't get to at all.
2. Reach 40k on OBJECTION by next week's BoaN post. I did actually make some progress on OBJECTION. Yesterday I managed to get to 32,393 words.
3. I will do jumping jacks for the duration of three minutes every day. I am proud to report that I completed my three minutes on Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Wednesday.

This is the song I do my jumping jacks to.

This is my shelving vlog.

Birth of a Novel 2012 - Objection Completion #3

Most of my goals I work on steadily throughout the week, but some how I never seem to quite reach the end in time. I usually scurry around to finish things up on the last day. It's one of the reasons these posts go up so late.

However, today I did not do that. Today I went to my best friend's choir concert instead. And I do not regret it. Lizzie is always supportive of my writing and it's good of me to return the favor.

It's also good of me to live. The writing can wait. My youth will not.

Last week's goals:
1. Reach 35k on OBJECTION. My total word count for OBJECTION is 31,661. I wrote 1,637 words this week and fell 3,339 words short. I'm disappointed that I didn't meet my goal, but at the same time, 1,637 words in a week is good for any month besides November.
2. Finish CALL OF THE WILD by the time I go to bed on December 1st. I finished reading the novel on the fifth, four days late, but hey, I still finished. It was a pretty good read.
3. Continue planning THE SMILE FIXER. Didn't get to at all.
4. Write first draft summaries for THE TRUE PRINCESS and OBJECTION. I wrote half of one for THE TRUE PRINCESS, and I'm not sure if I like it.
5. Catch up on 34/43 blogs. I've managed to completely catch up on 32/43 blogs. I didn't finish one regular posting blog and have nine posts left on the big blog.
6. Attach labels to posts from January to March of 2011. Check. I also went ahead and did August of this year since it was only three posts. I've now relabeled 113 posts, putting me a little over a third of the way through.

This week I'm paring down. I want to focus on just one or two things. The reason I never get anything completely finished even though I work toward it, is because I'm working toward about a hundred other things. Even though I may still work on those other things, this week my sights are set squarely.

This week's goals:
1. Reach 37k on OBJECTION before I go to bed on Sunday. One of the problems with my non-NaNo writing goals is the whole week I have to fulfill them. This gives me the opportunity to tell myself I have plenty of time, until I don't anymore. I'm hoping this midpoint deadline will push me to write without stressing me out.
2. Reach 40k on OBJECTION by next week's BoaN post. This will put me back on track and make up for this week's indiscretion.
3. I will do jumping jacks for the duration of three minutes every day. As you may remember, one of my New Year's Resolutions was to exercise every week. For the past few months, I've been failing miserably. But I'm trying again. In fact, after I finish up this post, I will be doing my three minutes for the second day in a row!

Birth of a Novel 2012 - Objection Completion #2

I was too ambitious. I worried about this before I posted my goals on Monday, but I told myself that I would be able to handle it. None of them were that big. Turns out my concerns were founded.

Last week's goals:
1. Reach 30k on OBJECTION. I'm at 30,024 words. I'm starting to feel a bit better about this story. The next few scenes that I need to move my plot forward have started to formulate in my mind and, even though I know I'm going to have to rewrite this novel next year, that gives me a bit more confidence in it.
2. Plan out THE SMILE FIXER. I now know basically how my most important plot points are going to be carried out. This was my major concern and my biggest decision. I've also started narrowing in on a particular setting. However, I still have quite a few things I want to know and kinks to iron out.
3. Read through The Chrysalis Experiment stories and pick one to rewrite for the PERFECT FLAW anthology or come up with a new idea. Didn't get to at all. Don't think I'm ever going to either. While I do want to reread my stories, I don't think the anthology entry is a good idea right now. I'd rather focus my smaller project time on the projects I have started and enjoy already. There's always literary magazines and e-zines that take submissions for any kind of fiction all or most of the time. Forcing myself to come up with an idea that falls into a very specific category is not worth it.
4. Write a summary for THE TRUE PRINCESS. Didn't get to at all.
5. Read CALL OF THE WILD. I've read the first two chapters and am four pages into the third. I have 43 pages left.
6. Catch up on 30/43 blogs. I've managed to catch up on 27/43 blogs. Obviously this means I didn't complete three of my intended blogs, two of which were, again, the high maintenance blogs. However, I'm still making steady progress so I'm not too worried or upset and I only have nine posts left on one of the big blogs so I should be able to knock that one off later tonight or tomorrow.
7. Attach labels to 2010 posts. Again, it didn't take that long. While it's a bit of a monotonous task, it was also nice to see how my blogging style has evolved since then.

I didn't do completely horrible. I worked steadily on most of my goals throughout the four days. I just bit off more than I could chew. This week, I'm making sure that doesn't happen again.

This week's goals:
1. Reach 35k on OBJECTION. If I'm aiming for 50k with this story, which is how it's set up since it was supposed to be finished during Camp NaNo, and I want to finish before New Year's, I have to write 625 words a day. This keeps right on track with that.
2. Finish CALL OF THE WILD by the time I go to bed on December 1st. I can do this, especially since those couple days are during the weekend. I would have added the next story in this anthology, but I'm reading another book I would also like to finish this week.
3. Continue planning THE SMILE FIXER. I don't want to rush planning. Things always turn out badly for me when I do. As long as I'm working on it, I'm happy.
4. Write first draft summaries for THE TRUE PRINCESS and OBJECTION. I added OBJECTION to the goal because I have an idea for the beginning of its summary. However, I just want to finish the rough drafts of these summaries. Perfecting them is usually what takes me so long.
5. Catch up on 34/43 blogs. The only reason it's 34/43 instead of 32/43 is because the last two blogs haven't posted in the time I've been absent from the blogosphere. So technically, it's like I already finished them. ;) This leaves me with a count of two high post blogs to finish, two regular posters, and one semi-regular.
6. Attach labels to posts from January to March of 2011. This isn't too much, 43 posts to be exact, and stops before the mass of posts published in April.

Birth of a Novel 2012 - NaNo #3 & Objection Completion #1

Today is not a Thursday, the day I usually post for Birth of a Novel. However, I didn't post last Thursday due to Thanksgiving and my being out of town. I'm back now though and ready to update you.

I didn't do as well with my goals as I did last time, but I still got a lot accomplished and am quite proud of these victories.

Last week's goals:
1. Write 3k for today. I wrote 3,019 words for a total of 53,448 words.
2. Write 1k on Friday. I wrote 1,023 words for a total of 54,471 words.
3. Write 6k on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I wrote 4,420 words, falling 1,580 words below my goal. However, on Sunday I wrote 6,112 words so I still partially met my goal. This gave me a total of 65,003 words.
4. Write 2k on Monday. I wrote 2,149 words for a total of 67,152 words.
5. Write at least 4k on Tuesday, continuing if close to the end. I wrote 6,014 words for a total of 73,166 words and completed the first draft of THE TRUE PRINCESS! The NaNoWriMo site's word count validator differs slightly with a count of 73,151 words. This disagreement has never happened to me before, but I still finished my story and still beat 50k so I'm not too worried about it. Word counters aren't all the same.
6. Make at least one vlog. Go here.
7. Catch up on 26/43 blogs. I managed to finish 24/43, only catching up on two of the four blogs I was aiming for. Neither of the two I finished were the "post everyday" blogs I talked about. However, I have made good progress with both of the remaining two.
8. Attach labels to posts from the past two months. This did not take as long as I expected. I finished up through September in probably twenty minutes. Just two years worth of blog posts to go. Also, I changed the widget appearance from a list to a cloud as well as retitled the widget to fit in with my sidebar's "mountain" theme.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, it's time for me to move on to other things. My biggest concern right now is finishing my first draft of OBJECTION before New Year's. I also have a few other, smaller projects I want to work on.

This week's goals:
1. Reach 30k on OBJECTION. Right now, I'm at 27,334 words. This means I have to write 2,666 words in four days. I can do that. Hell, I could do that in one day. My only concern is that OBJECTION hasn't been as easy to write as most of my other projects and I might not have planned out this middle part as well as I should have, but I will not let that stop me!
2. Plan out THE SMILE FIXER. Essentially this is a rewrite of last year's The Chrysalis Experiment Prompt #2 story. At first I was playing around with this concept for the PERFECT FLAW anthology but ended up deciding it wasn't the one. I liked my ideas though so I'm still going to write it. I usually don't plan for short stories. However, this one is going to be a little longer and more detailed than my short stories generally are.
3. Read through The Chrysalis Experiment stories and pick one to rewrite for the PERFECT FLAW anthology or come up with a new idea. As I mentioned above, I scrapped my original idea for my submission to this anthology. So I need a new one and soon. The deadline is January 8th.
4. Write a summary for THE TRUE PRINCESS. These are always good to have and, even if it isn't perfect, it will help me with my pitch later. Summaries also usually drive home what my novels' main focuses are. Plus, it'll add to my Projects page. I already have a first line.
5. Read CALL OF THE WILD. If you're friends with me on Goodreads, you may know that I've been reading a book called MORE STORIES TO REMEMBER since February. It's an anthology that was published in 1958. I'm about halfway through it and I would like to finish reading it by New Year's. Right now I'm on THE CALL OF THE WILD. It has a total of 59 pages.
6. Catch up on 30/43 blogs. This means I will have a total of six blogs to read in four days. Three of them are pretty low key and, as I already said, I have made progress on the two higher maintenance blogs. I'm pretty sure I can do it.
7. Attach labels to 2010 posts. I published 46 posts in 2010. It shouldn't be so bad. I'm going to get started on them as soon as I get this post up.

Birth of a Novel 2012 - NaNo #2

Today marks the beginning of my second week of Birth of a Novel in its new format. I'm happy to report that posting my goals here in a clear fashion definitely helped me achieve them. All of them!

Also, before we dive into the official progress report, I would like to thank Lizzie for letting me spend the night at her house, even if I wrote the whole time, and for making sure I did write the whole time.

Last week's goals:
1. Reach 26k before I go to bed on Friday. I finished Friday off with 26,036 words.
2. Write 7k on both Saturday and Sunday. I wrote 7,044 words on Saturday and 7,110 words on Sunday for a total of 40,190 words.
3. Write 5k on Monday. I wrote 5,027 words for a total of 45,217 words.
4. Write 2.5k on both Tuesday and Wednesday. I wrote 2,665 on Tuesday and 2,547 words on Wednesday for a total of 50,429 words!
5. Make at least one vlog. I actually made two! Well, more like one and a half. Go here and here.
6. Catch up on 20/43 blogs. I managed to completely catch up on 22/43 blogs, putting me halfway there.
7. Decide on new labels for blog. I wrote a whole post about the process of doing this yesterday.

I reached 50,000 words! However, THE TRUE PRINCESS is far from finished. As I mentioned last week, this means this week's goals will also be mostly made up of word counts. I'm thinking I probably have 20k left to write and I want to finish before I leave for my grandparents' on the 21st to celebrate Thanksgiving. As such, my goals are aimed toward that.

This week's goals:
1. Write 3k for today. I already have a little over 1k with four hours left until midnight. It should only take me about an hour and a half to get the rest.
2. Write 1k on Friday. My parents are going out of town for the night and I will probably not be anywhere near my computer after I leave for school in the morning. 1k isn't much, but I'll probably be lucky to reach even that.
3. Write 6k on both Saturday and Sunday. These are going to be the days that really decide whether or not I finish in time. This is the really essential goal.
4. Write 2k on Monday. This is a school night. However, it's also the first day of a two day week so I might not get a lot of homework. If that's the case, I may be able to write more.
5. Write at least 4k on Tuesday, continuing if close to the end. This is the last day before we leave, but I can stay up later because I don't have to get up as early as usual the next day.
6. Make at least one vlog. This continues my goal to make a vlog once a week during NaNoWriMo.
7. Catch up on 26/43 blogs. I know four blogs doesn't seem like a lot, but two of those blogs are "post every day" blogs which means I have about sixty posts to read for each. Plus, I have words to write!
8. Attach labels to posts from the past two months. After this, I'll start from the beginning of my blog posts, but this week I don't have a lot of time for labeling and these posts are freshest in my memory thus deeming them easiest to label.

I'm not going to be posting a Birth of the Novel post next Thursday since it's Thanksgiving. However, when I return home, I will write one for the days remaining in that week and update you on my (hopeful!) success with this week's goals.

Birth of a Novel 2012 - NaNo #1

Last year during NaNoWriMo, I participated in the Birth of a Novel Blog Chain hosted by Charity Bradford (here, here, here, here, and here). This year I'm doing it again, but in a slightly different format.

Birth of a Novel isn't just solely focused on NaNo anymore. It has widened its spectrum to include any kind of writerly project. Due to this, not only will I be updating you on my weekly hopes and goals for THE TRUE PRINCESS, but on all of my ambitions for that week.

I feel like this will be extremely beneficial to me as I have quite a few things I would like to accomplish by the end of the year and this system will keep me on track to complete them in time.

Last year, I told you what my goals were in narrative form, but as I said already, I'm mixing it up a bit. I'm laying everything out in a list as I've seen others do.

1. Reach 26k before I go to bed on Friday. That's a little under four thousand words from where I am now which is entirely plausible. I'm also hoping to catch the end of a virtual write-in which may help boost my word count.
2. Write 7k on both Saturday and Sunday. I can do it as long as I stay focused. This will leave me with 40k.
3. Write 5k on Monday. No school that day so again entirely plausible if I stay focused. This will put me at 45k.
4. Write 2.5k on both Tuesday and Wednesday. If I make this goal, I will win NaNo on Wednesday!
5. Make at least one vlog. One vlog a week is my goal for NaNo. So far I haven't failed. In fact, I've overachieved with two vlogs last week.
6. Catch up on 20/43 blogs. As you may have noticed, I haven't been visiting blogs a lot lately. I just haven't been motivated to. However, I'm working to get back on track now, one blog at a time. I have to read posts for the end of August, the end of September, and then all of October, as well as any new posts for November. So far I'm at 11/43.
7. Decide on new labels for blog. In an earlier post, I talked about the things I needed to do to clean up my blog. I've completed all of those things except for one award post and reorganizing my labels. I don't necessarily have to implement the labels, I just want to have them ready for when I can sit down and fix them.

As you can see, if everything goes according to plan, I should finish NaNo on Wednesday. If that happens, my goals for next week's Birth of a Novel will be of a much different nature. However, I have a feeling that THE TRUE PRINCESS might have more story in her than 50k. If that's the case, you'll be seeing more word count goals next week. We'll just have to wait and see!

Close Enough to Taste [Birth of a Novel Blog Chain]

It's so close I can taste it. I'm almost there. Only one more day. Then I can stop and take a break. I can go to bed before twelve. I can read again. It will be glorious! And made all the better by the two new first drafts that will be sitting beside me.

Current word count? 97,053. That leaves 3,138 words until I'm finished (the count is a little off because SHADOWMAN was completed at 50,191 words). Completely manageable compared to other days.

I'm afraid my story might exceed 50k. Though it would be awesome to actually write a longish novel, I would really rather be finished with everything NaNo related before December. However, a few of my plot points have fallen off the wagon so perhaps I won't be that far over.

Tomorrow might be a tough day for writing. My cousin is coming home after quite a few months away and we're celebrating with a family dinner. I'm even going to get out of school a little early to go pick him up at the airport. Well, I guess that's what notebooks are for because, no matter what, I am going to finish this thing tomorrow.

The Rest of the Blog Chain

Charity Bradford Angela Brown Brooke Busse Tessa C Elizabeth Davis Miranda Hardy Mia Hayson	Lena Hoppe Huntress Fida Islaih Jen McConnel Anna M. Nyxie Moon Elizabeth Pool
Zoe

30k in 5 Days [Birth of a Novel Blog Chain]

Word Count: 69,804
GHOST SISTER Word Count: 19,613

I'm behind. By the end of today to be exactly on track, I should have been at 23,331 words. And I'm not. However, I have a plan.

There are eight days left of NaNoWriMo. 30,387 (how many words I have left to write) divided by eight is 3,798. That's how many words, at a minimum, that I have to write everyday for the rest of November. There is another part of the plan. And this, if I accomplish it, will definitely make my goal feasible.

For the next five days I have no school, no serious obligations (besides Thanksgiving and that's why God gave me two hands, one to eat with and the other to write with). It's like a (business) week long weekend. Just what I needed. 30,387 divided by five equals 6,077. Totally doable for a day I don't have school.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to try to write roughly 30k words in five days. Good Lord, I must be crazy.

The Rest of the Blog Chain

Charity Bradford Angela Brown Brooke Busse Tessa C Elizabeth Davis Miranda Hardy Mia Hayson	Lena Hoppe Huntress Fida Islaih Jen McConnel Anna M. Nyxie Moon Elizabeth Pool
Zoe

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving. :)

One Down, One to Go [Birth of a Novel Blog Chain]

SHADOWMAN, my first NaNo novel, was completed at 50,191 words on November 13. As of yet, no one has read a word (well, except a few short paragraphs I posted on Angela Scott's blog) because Alisha hasn't been at school the past two days for me to give it to her. -.- She's normally one of the first people to read my novels (you know, besides my mom).

I plan to start GHOST SISTER tomorrow so I'm laying my plot out in order. I was working on this last night and a whole bunch of new ideas came to me. I'm so excited! And it's all because of  a few characters that popped up in SHADOWMAN. I'll be building their personae as well.

I don't really have anything special for you today (summary for GHOST SISTER is pending, plus run out of WriMo songs) but I do have a question. Anyone have any good last names to go with Derik?

The Rest of the Blog Chain

Charity Bradford Angela Brown Brooke Busse Tessa C Elizabeth Davis Miranda Hardy Mia Hayson	Lena Hoppe Huntress Fida Islaih Jen McConnel Anna M. Nyxie Moon Elizabeth Pool
Zoe

Sittin' Pretty at 25k [Birth of a Novel Blog Chain]

One week down, three more to go, and if I write 25k for all of them, I'll be sittin' pretty. At the end of yesterday, I had a total of 25,517 words. Roughly 500 more words than I had on that date last year. Something else I surpassed this year? I wrote 7,036 words on Saturday, the most words I've written in a single day to date (I was going to post a picture of it, but we've been having earthquakes and big storms down here and the Internet was down).

By Monday night, I hope to be finished drafting SHADOWMAN and the NaNo website tells me I'm right on track for that. Then I'll take a day or two to catch up on Chrysalis stories, edit the first chapter of THINKING OF YOU (I won a critique over at Unicorn Bell), and make sure I have all the last minute details for GHOST SISTER.

But for right now, there's still work to be done and I better get on it. This time, instead of a video, I'll leave you with my summary of SHADOWMAN.

Kierra's family controls her life. She has to tiptoe around her sister, Erinn, not even able to speak freely around her. Her mom stifles any chance she has at a normal social life with her outrageous safety precautions that range from not eating peanut butter to not plopping in chairs. Her dad is almost never available and even when he is, he always takes Erinn's, who reminds him of his dead first love, side.

When Logan Hartley, the homeschooled boy-next-door, transfers to her high school, Kierra starts learning what it's like to be her own person, whether that means dying her hair red or rapping in front of a full auditorium. Then, Erinn goes into one of her rages and breaks Kierra's arm, casting the Croc family into a downward spiral that continues when her Dad is identified as the serial rapist who recently moved to town.

Kierra reaches for Logan to keep her from falling into the undertow. He promises he'll take care of everything, like her own personal guardian angel, a comparison that turns out to hit a little too close to the truth. Promises don't do much good when her mom ODs, landing in the hospital, and her Dad is sentenced to death.

Amongst the tragedy and sudden changes, Kierra is only certain of one thing: Logan Hartley sucks at being a guardian angel.

The Rest of the Blog Chain

Charity Bradford Angela Brown Brooke Busse Tessa C Elizabeth Davis  Miranda Hardy

Mia Hayson Lena Hoppe Huntress Fida Islaih Nyxie Moon Elizabeth Pool

To 5k and Beyond! [Birth of a Novel Blog Chain]

November. National Novel Writing Month. Love it. Live it. Eat it. Drink it. Sleep it. Breathe it. This is the one month of the year that you don't need oxygen to survive. Just caffeine and your writing utensil of choice.

What do I plan to do this November? Not write just one novel in 30 days, but two. That's right. Due to last year's great success with THINKING OF YOU, I have decided to plan and write two novels this year, SHADOWMAN and GHOST SISTER (go here and here to learn a bit more). I will post summaries when I have them.

As of right now, I have written 3,454 words toward SHADOWMAN. By the time I go to bed I want to have 5k. Just about another hour and a half of writing which shouldn't be that bad as I'm finally getting excited!

Last night I went to bed as soon as I got home and took a shower. I woke back up at 11:45 and prepared for the countdown. I then proceeded to write 1,101 words before climbing gratefully back into my bed.

I started writing again as soon as I was ready for school in the morning. I didn't feel like it, but I did it anyway. I was not going to let the fear of this year's previous failures stop me. As the day progressed it got better. I wrote about 500 words simply in Biology (my teacher was just lecturing, no big deal). I came home after staying with my grandmother for a few hours and hurried to type up my words.

Now I'm off for that last hour and a half. In the meantime, listen to this song (because I certainly will be) and visit the others in the chain.

Charity Bradford Angela Brown Brooke Busse Tessa C Elizabeth Davis  Miranda Hardy

Mia Hayson Lena Hoppe Huntress Fida Islaih Nyxie Moon Elizabeth Pool