Writing Space!

So Nanowrimo begins in just about an hour! Exciting! Though I do freely admit I will be in bed before Nanowrimo begins at midnight and will begin writing after work tomorrow. I already imagine it will be the longest workday possible because I will want nothing more than to be home writing.

I believe I have figured the great war that is happening in my world and that makes me very happy (ideas in the shower are the best!) and eager to begin writing. I have my little writing corner all set up and ready to go and am including a picture! How exciting!

Notice the awesome hot pink chair and pile of papers of notes. as well as a cup of juice (yum!) and a small change jar of Grad School funds! My little memo board is full of things that inspire me and I have a picture of my friends to the side to encourage me! All in all, a very nice little writing hole.

I have also worked out my reward system. You can't really see them in the picture but I have shiny star stickers that I will out on my calendar for every day I meet the writing goal of 1667 words. I also will allow myself to have one Heritage Dr. Pepper for every 5,000 words I make. I love heritage Dr. Pepper (made with real sugar and in awesome cans too!) not to mention that they are very hard to find so that is big motivation for me.

Anyways, I am going to get ready for bed, do some reading and get ready for work. Happy November's eve and let Nanowrimo begin!

The Sleepies

So I have been struck by a horrible case of the sleepies and have dozed off at my laptop a couple times already tonight. So I'm going to call in a short blog post and then off to bed. I went to my region's Nanowrimo kick off party last night and it was so encouraging to see such a large, and excited group of writers there. I'm really excited that Nanowrimo kicks off in less than 24 hours!!

Anyways, I'm going to send you here for a blog post by The Graceful Doe that is amazing! She's listed an extensive series of helpful links to help with Nanowrimo and with writing in general. I'm really looking forward to using this list during November!

Anyways, I'm off to bed to battle the sleepies! Goodnight world!

What tone?

Yawn! Goodness I have been struck by the tired bug for sure this week! I am finally adjusting to this working full time thing. I work as a secretary (whoo, saucy secretary!) at a local college so it's a very neat environment and, thus far, not incredibly stressful so that is nice.

I am getting very excited about NaNoWriMo and cannot wait to get going! My story is not fully plotted out and my characters are still only sketches but I'm a pantser when it comes to NaNo. (flying by the seat of my pants as opposed to plotted out ). I know when/where my story begins. I know most of the major elements I want to happen. I know the characters and their general shape. The thing I am actually struggling most with is the tone I want to tell the novel in. I'm going back and forth between a Young Adult novel or a Horror-style novel. I'm fairly certain at this point I am going to go with Young Adult. That's something I don't have as much experience with but that I really want to learn more about! So, what better way to learn than by doing (or attempting?) Anyways, I'm going to sign off early, get my writing in and then watch Project Runway!

I live such an exciting life, huh? :)

GA Literary Fair Rundown!

So here is finally a rundown of the awesome people I met at the Ga Literary Fair this year. This is a list of mainly just the people I was able to talk to and get to know, not the only people there.

Nick Valentino, author of Thomas Riley:

Blog: http://nickvalentino.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/SirThomasRiley

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000806797682

So, oddly enough I follow him on facebook and had no idea he was going to the Ga Literary Fair until the night before when I saw a facbeook post saying he would be there. Needless to say I flipped. I'm a big fan, and supporter (bought both books, they come with really neat stamp signatures) and he really is just a super nice, super friendly guy. He was a blast to talk to and he had the coolest table set-up of anyone there. All kinds of steampunk gear all over.

Anyways, his novel is fantastic and his short story in this collection of Steam Punk work is also amazing! All in all, go buy and support. End of story.

Wright Gres, author of Macedonia Passage

Website: http://www.wrightgres.com/

Next was an author that I hadn't met before this festival but after he offered me candy we became new friends. His passion for what is writing about is so inspiring, and he has a fascinating life story. His thriller, Macedonia Passage is inspired off of real trips he's taken across the ocean. He had a series of amazing pictures that played while he talked and it's incredible where he has been. He's also incredibly humble and really a nice guy. I highly suggest his novel!

Raven Hart, author of the Savannah Vampires Series

Website: http://www.ravenhartbooks.com/

Probably the most entertaining author that spoke. She was full of funny stories about her adventures with publishing, not to mention a red neck vampire just cracks me up. She's down to earth and incredibly open to helping. She spent almost half of her hour long session answering questions about how she was published and giving advice. She's a passionate vampire fan and her novels are just as entertaining as she is! If you're looking for something to sink your teeth into (hahah I'm so punny, aren't I? Man I need sleep), then I highly recommend Raven Hart's series.

Mason Dixon Publishing

Website: http://www.masondixonpublishing.com/

Last is a wonderfully friendly, newly started publishing house. I love the name because the VP of the company lives in Ga and the President lives in Ohio, hence Mason-Dixon. I thought it was clever. They currently have just published a short novella and a collection of poetry but are excited about getting more material. Check their website out and learn more about them. They are both very passionate about writing and I look forward to seeing much more for Mason-Dixon!

And that's all for tonight! I'm hoping to get some Nanowrimo outlining done and even get some reading knocked out.

Monday!

Working on revising my fairytale short story and it has totally shifted major plot points which I'm very happy about. The transformation of the characters from person to animal makes more sense now and is more fluid with the rest of the context. I'm hoping to have a draft of it ready for review by my small writing group tomorrow. I really want to have it done soon, hopefully by Friday.

I also have now worked out a full character sketch and basic plot skeleton of my NaNoWriMo novel and am very pleased with the direction it's heading. It's going to be an awesome ride!

I am also loving twitter more and more . Today I participated in a #litchat about horror and got some wonderful opinions about what horror is and why people read it. Horror is a genre that I love reading and writing so it was very informative and I highly suggest you check it out, search for the hashtag #litchat and you can pull up the whole thing. It will happen again on Friday at 4pm EST and lasts about an hour. It's really fun!

Anyways, I'm off to get some last minute edits to the story then bed. I think I'm going to get up early to do some morning editing too.

Festival!

The GA Literary Festival was absolutely the most amazing weekend I've had in a long time. I left feeling totally inspired and ready to write. The 2-hour drive to and from also provided plenty of NaNoWriMo planning and I am going to plan on writing a Steampunk adventure novel instead of my planned Paranormal Romance piece. I'm really excited about this change and am very confident about it.

On a happy writer note, I've made up for my missed time that past two nights. I worked for about an hour and a half tonight and finished a short story I've been working on for a week or so. It now needs heavy revision but I'm pleased with the direction it took. I've found that to get writing down I really have to lock myself in my room and sit at my desk, however, my desk chair is horribly old, rickety and uncomfortable so I think I'm going to take a part of my paycheck and get a new chair tomorrow. I feel certain there will be pictures posted too.

Well, I'm going to head to bed early and plan to get up early to get some NaNoWriMo planning done tomorrow morning.

Vampires!

So I'm at the Literary Festival and having a grand time! I went to fascinating panel about vampires and their history and future. It was really interesting to hear about the origins and evolution of vampires both through literature which was really inspiring.

Anyways, writing is going slowly. I've been struggling with getting anything written that I'm happy with but I'm working through that and looking forward to NaNoWriMo. I am planning on writing a Paranormal Romance which is (maybe) the beginning of a series. I'm also trying to finish a short story for a Fairytale Anthology. I'm hoping to finish it before November so I can edit it during November, that way my desire to edit can be taken out on it, and not on my NaNoWriMo piece. Genius right?

Anyways, I'm off to (hopefully) get some serious writing knocked out tonight and then get to bed before going back to the Festival tomorrow for some author discussions.

Missing The Quota

Ugh! I'm bummed because I didn't get in my writing time today. I had to run errands in town and from there time just disappeared. It's amazing how one little thing can make such a difference. it doesn't help that I am a Project Runway addict and it came on tonight and distracted me even further.

I did get some character sketching done earlier today. I've been working on my NaNoWriMo characters and now I have my main character and the beginning of his rival drafted out and forming. Creating characters is probably one of my favorite things to do when creating a new story. I love the variety of people that I get to 'become' when I'm writing.

As a base profile I've been using the Gotham's Writer's Workshop's Character Profile sheet provided online here. I think it's a great beginning for a character though you need to also consider a lot more traits, like religion, history, Likes, Dislikes, etc. One great thing to do is to pretend to interview your character. Invite a conversation (you might feel a little crazy, but all writers are to some degree, right?) with your character, ask questions and wait for the answer. Don't try to force your character into a mold give them a chance to speak for themselves.

Well, I'm off to pack and get ready for work and then the Georgia Literary Festival! I'm super excited and hoping to make all kinds of new writers and friends!

Writing away!

Met my goal for writing today, just barely. Man am I sleepy! Working a full time job and trying to write as much as possible is draining me. Anyways, I'm really excited about upcoming NaNoWriMo, I think I've finally settled on my basic plot so now I just need to work on characters and a more detailed outline. I like to at least have a set idea of major events that I want to happen so that gives me something to aim towards when I get stuck.

Another idea to keep writing is to not always worry about sticking to chronological order. When you are done with your novel (or short story or poem or whatever) no one is going to know that last paragraph was the first thing you wrote. Writing the ending first gives you something to lead up to, and can be great fun.

On another note, first drafts really feel like glorified outlines to me sometimes, so disjointed and awkward. Sometimes I totally doubt I can write and then I'll read some polished work and think 'oh yeah, that's right. I can write, but nothing's ever perfect the first time around.'

I'm really excited because this coming weekend I am going to the GA Literary Festival. This will be my first Literary festival and I'm really looking forward to getting to meet other writers and book enthusiasts.

Well that's all for tonight, I need to get my things together for work tomorrow, whoosh and away!

Writing!

So I've managed three days in a row of at least thirty minute writing blocks, woot! I always struggle with it because I start to doubt what I'm writing and just want to stop and rewrite right then. It's a matter of gagging my inner editor long enough to let me write. Today is the first day that I've actually been pleased with what I've written.

Anyways, today i wanted to share my favorite site to find places to submit, Duotrope. It also makes it super simple to keep track of what you submitted to where and when (that's a mouthful, editing nightmare of a sentence, good thing my editor's still gagged. But you basically can search for genres, or styles and based on what kind of submissions you are looking for. It's really helpful and simplifies the entire search process. So, check it out!

And if you haven't signed up for NaNoWriMo yet you absolutely should!

Change of Pace

So after a long pause, I am returning to blogging. I am looking to begin dedicating more of my time to writing and attempting to get published. I recently had a poem accepted into The Battered Suitcase and the excitement has made me start thinking more and more that writing is what I want to go into. So what better way to get into writing than by... gasp! writing!

I am currently looking into MFA programs but I'm not really sure if that is what I want to do. I like writing in several genres (poetry, short fiction, long fiction, non-fiction, etc) and I also have a tendency towards more 'horror' style writing which many programs frown upon.

So far I've found Seton Hill's MFA in Writing Popular Fiction which is a low residency program (awesome for someone like me, with a job) so that's an exciting option. But for now I am going to try to stick to a routine of writing for thirty minutes a day, eventually working it up to an hour a day.

I'm going to try to update this blog at least twice a week, maybe more than that! What are your writing goals?