I'm going to be on vacation, visiting my family, until the second week of July. I'm not telling you this because I'm going to be gone. Quite the opposite, I hope to have a lot to report to you in the coming weeks.
This trip means lots of free time. My parents work during the day and sleep at night, meaning I only get to spend time with them from five to ten. I figured that I should probably use the rest of my day (errr, night) to get some much needed writing done.
So I've set myself three tasks:
Make significant progress on THINKING OF YOU revisions.
Add a big chunk of words to OBJECTION during the first week of July/Camp NaNoWriMo.
Read through and edit the NaPoWriMo 2014 poems.
As you can see, I've decided to use Camp NaNoWriMo's July session to finish OBJECTION. I want to fulfill my original April 18k goal, meaning I'm aiming for 11,193 words for July. If I pass that, and I'm not finished with the draft, I plan to continue with OBJECTION. If I finish the draft, I plan to move on to the untitled lucky genes story draft.
I'll have more up about my plans for THINKING OF YOU soon. Keep your eyes open for something big. ;)
The grand adventure of April is over. And we have some things to catch up on.
Let's be rebels and start with the good news. :P I won NaPoWriMo! Choir trips and the like kept me from posting some of my poems on time, but I did manage to write one every, single day. With as often as I've fallen short on my writing goals lately, this makes me really happy.
This NaPoWriMo differed from previous years'. Ideas were hard to come by and, for about the first week, so were the words. The latter became less of a problem when I abandoned the bitty notebook I employed last year in favor of the computer. I'm a mood writer when it comes to the utensils I use and I was not feeling pencil and paper.
On top of that, most of my poems were written at night when I just wanted to crawl into bed. Therefore, some of my ideas weren't as expanded or explored as they should have been. However, I like what I did write. Plus, I can always rewrite those poems later.
Camp NaNoWriMo wasn't quite as much of a success. I wrote 6,807 words toward my goal of 18,000, meaning I didn't finish the draft like I wanted. :/ However, I did pass 50k on OBJECTION! I feel like that's an achievement all in itself. I've finally reached OBJECTION's first Camp NaNoWriMo goal. It took me almost two years, but I did it. And that's something.
Of course, this sort of puts a kink in my plans and I'm going to have to rethink some things. The next Camp NaNoWriMo session is in July and I originally intended to finish last November's NaNoWriMo project during that time. Now, I might aim to finish OBJECTION instead and work something else out for my untitled lucky genes story. I'll let you know as soon as I've decided.
I also heard back from the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute last month. It wasn't entirely bad news. I'm an alternate. This means I only get to go if someone else can't or doesn't want to. They can contact me up to June 13th. My hopes aren't high, but at least I didn't completely fail. My writing was good. There were just a few too many people whose was better.
Aaaand, to end on a positive note, I am caught up on reading blog posts! I've been behind for so long, it feels incredible to have that weight lifted off my shoulders. This means I can follow new blogs again and start looking for other writer bloggers close to my age.
Overall, April turned out good. I hope you enjoyed my poems along with my general-writing-related posts. (I'll be posting more of the latter soon. See sidebar for details.)
Every year for the past three years, I've posted my New Year's Resolutions on this blog. This January, I didn't. And not because I'm too lazy. I simply didn't make any. I saw no reason to.
I know what my goals are. The arrival of 2014 didn't change them. New Year's Resolutions also suggest a December 31st deadline. My aspirations reach beyond what I can accomplish in a year and, for me, strict time frames often lead to stress.
Despite the lack of resolutions, I'm thinking 2014's going to be a productive year. Since NaNoWriMo, I've only worked on my portfolio for my Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute audition. However, I've been making plans. It's time to crack down and start getting things done.
At the moment, I have three main priorities:
THINKING OF YOU revisions
OBJECTION/untitled lucky gene story rough drafts
short works
I want to finish something. I want something to query. I want something to show people, to let people read. I want something to prove to myself that I CAN DO THIS. And, out of all of my projects, THINKING OF YOU is nearest to completion. So it's what I'm going to focus on. Writing time now means THINKING OF YOU time.
Yet, incomplete rough drafts bother me. I can't not work on them. And I have two. This creates a problem. I'll never finish anything if my attention is divided three ways. My solution? Camp NaNoWriMo.
Camp NaNoWriMo hosts two sessions every year, one in April and one in July. They also allow you to choose your word count goal. Since OBJECTION's closer to its end, it will be my April novel. I'm aiming for 18,000 words. That's only 600 a day. I'll finish my untitled lucky gene story in July, when I'll have more time for writing.
While I'm giving up April and July, they're a small sacrifice. My brain can now zero in on THINKING OF YOU without the other two stories clamoring for their turn. But I have another issue.
I realized when I was putting together my OSAI portfolio that I did not write many short works in 2013. I love my short works. They're fun to write and I'm fairly decent at them. They're also something I can share with others quickly. Their shortage shows how I've let my writing slip, take a backseat.
That's not what I want. I want to get back to enjoying writing. To surprising and thrilling myself. Revising is hard and, while it does bring a feeling of success, it's not always pleasant. So I'm going to sprinkle in some short works to remind myself why I write in the first place.
For instance, NaPoWriMo starts on April 1st. I will be participating by writing at least one poem every day in April This will be my fourth year taking part and I always love the outcome.
Yes, 2014 is going to be AWESOME.
Topics For Next Post: 1) how querying will change in a year and 2) something big.
As Michael put it to me, "Hey, it's 2014. Stop being lazy and post something."
So here I am!
I guess I should start with NaNoWriMo: I didn't win. My final word count was 30,155. However, as I state on my newly updated NaNoWriMo profile, there are no regrets involved. Of course, I would have loved to have reached 50k and completed a first draft, but my reason for falling short of my goal was, I believe, a good one. Either way, I now have a pretty substantial beginning to a new story.
Nothing major has happened since then, but I have a lot of big events coming up.
This Saturday, I will be attending the third annual YAK Fest. For those who don't know, YAK Fest is short for Young Adult Keller Book Festival. I attended the festival the year before last and had a great time (read about it here, here, here, and here). I'm hoping to obtain a couple extra signed books to giveaway for my birthday on February 4th.
On February 15th, I'm going to Tulsa to audition for the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute (read about my prior experiences with the Institute here). Between now and then, I have to work on the needed portfolio. I don't have many written-in-the-past-year short works to draw from besides my NaPoWriMo poems. Hence, the next few weeks will be dedicated to writing short stories. As I choose to add and write new pieces, I may post them on Figment as I did last year (here and here).
In between those two things, there's my Solo and Ensemble competition for choir. Since I decided to enter a solo, I have to practice that as well as my ensemble. I'm also a part of ANNIE, the musical we're doing at school. I have rehearsal almost every day until the end of February.
On top of all that, the AP life is about to hit me hard. Between Chemistry and English Language and Composition (side note: in this class, we are going to write haikus about whales for a contest soon), the Saturday sessions, mock tests, and homework might kill me. I'm also taking AP U.S. History, but, said nicely, my teacher isn't really up to par.
Soooo, in conclusion, I'm going to be busy.
Topics For Next Post: 1) my lack of New Year's Resolutions and 2) projects I'll be working on
I love coming up with character names. I love the creativity, the thought, that goes into it, finding new names that, even if they aren't the one, speak to you, and, most of all, that feeling you get when you finally find the perfect fit. Like putting the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle.
Yesterday, I made my final decisions on the character names for my NaNo novel. I'm super excited about them and thought I'd share.
Before I get into the names, however, I should probably tell you the main idea behind my novel. It is based off the concept that luck can be a gene. Naturally, this gives people varying advantages and disadvantages in life. Due to the nature of these advantages/disadvantages, certain activities, such as gambling, have been outlawed. This has prompted a sort-of second Prohibition. Traveling gambling houses, with names like MARCO'S HOUSE OF OCCASIONALLY PROSPEROUS GAMING, abound throughout the country. When my main character, who has an acute curiosity and a draw to card games, stumbles upon this very house, she runs away with it. This is a retake on the phrase "running away with the circus."
And now...
February St. Claude - protagonist, sixteen, lives in a compound away from society's "unluck" gene discrimination
Erie St. Claude - February's sister, fourteen, feels like she's in her sister's shadow, lives in compound
Rhys Baker - the boy everyone, including February, expects February to end up with, February's close friend, lives in compound
'Van Jacques ["Jacques" of Spades] - travels with the gambling house, helps February satisfy her curiosity about the world, love interest
Kapri Jacques [Kap] - 'Van's sister, travels with the gambling house, becomes February's first close female friend
Christian Hart [Ian/Kit] - frequent visitor of the gambling house, from prosperous family, good friends with 'Van, takes a small romantic interest in February
Dillyn Elliott - Ian's girlfriend, disapproves of his gambling, slowly forms a friendship with February
Marco - the gambling house master
Mum [Ambrose Jacques] - 'Van and Kapri's grandmother, has large influence in the gambling house, becomes a sort of mentor to February
What do you think? Feel free to ask questions. I would love to talk NaNoWriMo with you. ^^
Now that I have the characters and their names settled, I'm going to focus more on my plot. I've begun to create this fantastic world in my mind and I want the plot to do it justice. So far, I've only done broad brainstorming. It's time to make decisions and add more details.
Also, would you be interested in reading excerpts about each character throughout November? I was thinking I might post them on my Tumblr, but would you rather read them here? Let me know!
How is your NaNoWriMo planning going? P.S. I did a similar post to this back in October 2010 for THINKING OF YOU.
My NaNo is beginning to come together. A cast of characters has manifested and just thinking about their relationships makes excitement flutter in my chest. Prominent settings have been established. I also have the thinnest thread of a plot. And when I say thin, I mean nearly invisible. But at least there's something.
Planning isn't the only thing I've made progress on this week either. I have also added about another 1500 words to OBJECTION, putting it at a little over 45k. While this is great progress and makes me very happy, I think I'm going to have to alter my pre-NaNo goal. With everything I am trying to accomplish before November gets here, finishing the first draft of OBJECTION seems too ambitious. I am now aiming for at least 50k by October 31st. If I get farther than that, great. If not, I will have still made substantial progress.
That's not even the end to the good news. Recently, I've begun working with a new critique partner. This exchange has prompted me to take another step in my revisions of THINKING OF YOU. I completed the transfer to Scrivener and reordered the scenes to fit my new plot line. This is a big step because I can now see what I need to work on in an organized layout and tackle each task one at a time.
Overall, I am quite pleased with what I have managed to accomplish in my writing so far this week. I've gotten more done than I have in quite a while. This aura of productivity is the perfect lead in to NaNo.
What achievements, big or small, have you reached this week?
It's October, my official NaNoWriMo planning month.
With me, planning isn't a very extensive process. I like to have a list of characters (including their names), a title, and a general plotline. Perhaps a touch of worldbuilding. I need a direction to head in and a few provisions for the way, but not a map of every twist in the road. As these things occur to me, I write them down in a notebook that I carry throughout October.
Planning notebooks are another aspect of my writing that is affected by my color coding system. The color paired with this year's NaNo, my untitled lucky genes story, is yellow. Hence, my notebook must be yellow.
Notebook without Strap
I had the perfect notebook picked out for this October. During the back-to-school sale at Wal-Mart, I discovered notebooks similar to the one I used for this year's NaPoWriMo but in bright colors. They were even in the clearance section by the time I went to purchase one. However, I had failed to notice the notebook did not come in yellow. I was devastated. To make up for it, I bought the notebook in every other color. Then, to top it off, once I got home, the strap on the green notebook snapped.
That was it. I took that broken notebook and made it yellow myself with the help of this video.
Here are a few pictures of the process that go along with the steps in the video:
Step 3
Step 5
Finished
My Planning Notebook
After my notebook was satisfyingly yellow, I decided to snazz it up a bit with some stickers. I also replaced the strap with a yellow rubberband.
For the past five days this notebook has traveled with me. I have yet to put much in it, but it's still only the beginning of the month. Soon it will be filled with all sorts of planning goodness.
Are you participating in NaNo this year? How do you prepare?
I forget what I was doing and why it suddenly occurred to me, but, the other day, it struck me that NaNoWriMo starts in just a little over two months. Two months! Sixty-five days! I don't know whether I'm excited or terrified!
Really, I don't know why this is all so mind-blowing or why I'm flipping out.
I chose my main concept already. I think I've been planning on writing my untitled lucky genes story for NaNo 2013 for over a year. (I'm actually kind of worrying about not having an idea for next year yet.) My brain has even been contemplating and analyzing plot ideas for the past couple of weeks. I guess it realized and forgot to fill me in. -grumbles at brain-
Of course, with NaNoWriMo eminent, the next question is: What do I want to get done before then? My mind instantly starts throwing things at me. THINKING OF YOU revisions. THE TRUE PRINCESS read over. Short stories to write. Old poems to edit. Blogs and other social networks that require attention. Plan, too! Good thing I don't bruise easily.
However, though I dodged most of those goals, letting them fly past for a later time, I managed to catch one. OBJECTION. If I sat my ass in my chair and buckled down, I know I could finish that draft. It's far from impossible and it needs to be done. I mean, I was supposed to have this done before last NaNo!
Nothing has been finalized yet. I'm still thinking, still considering. But it's looking very likely that finishing the first draft of OBJECTION is going to be my pre-NaNo goal this year.
Now, that I've gotten my little freak out out of the way (ha!), I have some other things I'd like to share with you.
Firstly, I should be posting about my revised goal plan very soon. I'm almost finished finalizing the changes. After that, writing the post shouldn't be so hard. I know I've been promising this particular post for a while now, but my life has gotten busy again. In a good way. :)
I'm also proud to announce that I've begun to catch up on blogs. Like really catch up. Like months' worth of catching up. So far, I've finished four out of twenty-four. And I'm extremely happy about it! I'm not letting myself get stressed out over the workload. I'm pushing through. Better yet, I want to do it. I have the motivation to do it. And beyond that, I have the motivation to search out more blogs when I'm done (I know twenty-four is low and I want to remedy that).
I'm just in a really good place in my life right now.
I get to stay in my town with my friends, at least until Christmas. (We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.) I'm enjoying my classes a lot. They provide a broad, well-balanced spectrum of learning. By the end of the day I feel almost saturated with knowledge. I'm currently learning the French numbers and conquering my All Region choir music (which entails singing in both Latin and German). I have three AP classes and I'm steadily immersing myself in Trigonometry. Friday, there's a meeting to discuss this year's musical. Saturday, I'll be hanging out at a friend's house for half the day. Even the movies I've seen lately have seemed to add to the wholesome happiness I've been feeling. (I really recommend YOU'RE NEXT, if that's your sort of thing.) It's all just amazing!
Every year I make New Year's resolutions and post them on my blog. Every year so far I've gone about keeping up with them in a different way. In 2011, I posted "report cards" a couple of times. In 2012, I posted updates on the first day of each month for most of the year (last update at the bottom of this post).
In 2013, starting tomorrow, I have an entirely different plan.
I have eight goals to accomplish by December 31, 2013.
Finish THINKING OF YOU revisions.
Draft all CITY IN THE SKY stories.
Finish THE TRUE PRINCESS revisions and edits.
Finish drafting and rewrite OBJECTION.
Replan and start rewriting THE LULLABY.
Draft untitled lucky genes story.
Finish 26 short works.
Reduce percentage of unread books to 10%.
To make sure I actually work toward all of these goals throughout the year, I have developed a plan with the help of Microsoft Excel: The One Year Goal Plan - 2013 Edition.
When I look at those big goals and think about trying to finish them, my heart sinks a little bit. They're not goals that can be completed quickly or easily. Hence, they're hard to keep my sights on. These feelings are what my whole plan revolves around.
Each "Year Goal" will be broken done into twelve "Month Goals." Looking at that smaller goal is better, but a month still leaves plenty of time to get distracted. So each month is split in half and each half is given its own goal. Both "Half-Month Goals" are then split into various amounts of "Mini-Goals" that are easy and far less stressful to reach.
I feel this method will keep me focused on and excited about accomplishing my goals. I've completed January's breakdowns, but will be waiting to do the other months until they roll around. This way I will be most up-to-date on each goal's progress and know for certain what might decrease or increase my writing time each month.
And, in case you were wondering how Excel helped me:
January Goals for THINKING OF YOU (drag to URL bar to embiggen)
I will be updating all of you on my progress in the style of my usual posts and with occasional snapshots of my spreadsheet.
2013 is going to be a great year!
2012 NYR Last Update - 1 Year
I will havecomplete THINKING OF YOU'sready for queryfirst round of revisions. I finished small revisions on the first six chapters and conquered my fear of revising.
I will have two new first drafts. I finished one first draft of THE TRUE PRINCESS and got to 32,393 words on OBJECTION.
I will win National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo).
I will submit at least two short stories to two anthologies, journals, ezines, and/or contests.
I will read at least one hundred books. I read 57 books and made it over half-way with two others.
I will post at least one vlog a month. I posted one vlog in January, March, April, July, September, October, and December. I posted five in November.
I will exercise in some way once a week. Since the beginning of September, according to the My Fitness Pal app on my phone, I did a round of jumping jacks on six different days.
February 1st. Already one month into the year. A twelfth of the time I have to fulfill my New Year's Resolutions gone, just like that. And because it was just like that, I realized I have to focus on my goals. I can't get distracted or 2012 will be over before I know it.
So, I decided that at the beginning of each month I will write up a report on how I did the previous month. I will not be grading my progress, only stating what I've been doing toward each respective goal. My hope is that this will keep me working by both serving as a reminder of what I want and making me accountable for my actions.
I will have THINKING OF YOU ready for query. I imported the document to Scrivener and formatted it (mostly) to my liking. I went over my first chapter critiques and revised my first chapter. I noted some changes I need to make later in the novel.
I will have two new first drafts. NA
I will win National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). NA
I will submit at least two short stories to anthologies and/or contests. I made a small list of contests and places to submit. I came up with a basic idea for a story that I will be entering in one such contest.
I will post at least one vlog a month. I posted my vlog for January. I decided on the vlog idea for February.
I will exercise. I ran twice, once for thirty minutes and once for twenty. I am also making a slight revision to this resolution to make it more specific. I have found this makes it easier to stay on course. I will exercise in some way once a week.
I tried another method to keep myself on track, as well. I made myself a list of goals for each day. It sort of worked, and I liked it. While it reminded me of what I had to do, I thought of it as a flexible outline, keeping away the stress. I still want to play with it, however. Perhaps I'll try a list per week, or a list per three days.
Tell me about your progress, whether it be on your WIP, your New Year's Resolutions, or other goals and projects you might have. What do you do to keep yourself focused?
