When I was younger, I never understood why people would make New Year resolutions. It just didn't make sense to me. But for the past few years I've started to think of it more as a challenge than a life-changing plan. Last year's resolution was to "be as social as I was in 2009 but read as many books as I did in 2008". I accomplished the social part, but failed on the book part. This year I want to give myself a set of challenges instead of just one resolution. What are my challenges? I'll get to that in a sec.
This year's NaNo was my most successful yet: I had a good novel that didn't stall out and wasn't too long (it was around 51k words), and I love my characters and the setting. I could see myself writing another book that takes place in that world. The only downside to this year's NaNo was that I really miss it now. So when I found out about WriYe, a writing challenge where you set your own word goal and work toward it over the year, I got excited. I've discovered I can only work with a deadline (otherwise I have to wait for that very flighty thing called "inspiration"), so this is a great chance to not only write my originally-planned-NaNo about a collective mind, but also finish NaNos 2008 and 2009, AND maybe even work on one of the many failed novels in my folders. So many options! I think my goal will be 200k words, but that's probably my excitement speaking for me. We shall see.
So WriYe (which, by the way, has to be the most awkward name ever. How do you pronounce it? "Rye-Yee"? "Rye-Yeh"?) is challenge number one for 2011. My other challenge is to do another "blog every day" week, to get back into the habit of blogging. I've recently started knitting, so expect more craft-related posts.
Challenge number three: read lots. I haven't read enough in 2010.
I think that's it for now. Since I've posted my challenges here, I'm less likely to ignore them now. So...I'll say bye now. I'll try not to disappear, but if I don't post anything else this month (which, let's admit it, is quite likely), see you in 2011!
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Crazy-fast-novelling wisdom
Things I've learned from previous and current NaNovels:
1. Light is better than dramatic when you want to write fast.
2. Drama is good for word count, but don't depend on it too often.
3. Good Nano novel does not = good real novel. Don't fight your inner editor, but work with him/her.
4. Good real novel does not = good Nano novel. Waiting is the worst thing that can happen in your NaNovel.
5. Condense, don't stretch. This one is very me-specific, as I have a tendency to describe all the wandering around between exciting things happening, instead of writing "three days later". Does that make a nice, short, 50k novel? Nope.
6. Don't be afraid to do something fun even when you're writing a serious novel. Example: this year I'm writing an apocalyptic novel about miner/spelunker/treasure-hunter people, and about how the main character tries to stop a revolution. I switched perspectives to someone on the surface a few days before the craziness starts, and somehow having my character running around her boarding school trying to sneak after some teenagers going on a road trip is just as fun as end-of-the-world stuff. And I still have to use the line "It's the llama apocalypse! I knew it!" That should be fun.
7. If you have a nicely planned-out but light novel that you're losing interest in, and suddenly come up with a good idea to rewrite your Boulderdash fan-fiction from when you were ten but set it on a colony planet and include an apocalypse, go ahead.
Don't worry, story-about-a-forming-collective-mind, I will write you too after November.
That's all I can think of for now. I think the best thing about Nano for me is that it keeps me writing, and I find out a LOT about how I work under pressure. Since I might become an author, this is useful. 2010 will be my third year, and hopefully my most successful! I will finish Tunnel's End around 50k! I WILL!
1. Light is better than dramatic when you want to write fast.
2. Drama is good for word count, but don't depend on it too often.
3. Good Nano novel does not = good real novel. Don't fight your inner editor, but work with him/her.
4. Good real novel does not = good Nano novel. Waiting is the worst thing that can happen in your NaNovel.
5. Condense, don't stretch. This one is very me-specific, as I have a tendency to describe all the wandering around between exciting things happening, instead of writing "three days later". Does that make a nice, short, 50k novel? Nope.
6. Don't be afraid to do something fun even when you're writing a serious novel. Example: this year I'm writing an apocalyptic novel about miner/spelunker/treasure-hunter people, and about how the main character tries to stop a revolution. I switched perspectives to someone on the surface a few days before the craziness starts, and somehow having my character running around her boarding school trying to sneak after some teenagers going on a road trip is just as fun as end-of-the-world stuff. And I still have to use the line "It's the llama apocalypse! I knew it!" That should be fun.
7. If you have a nicely planned-out but light novel that you're losing interest in, and suddenly come up with a good idea to rewrite your Boulderdash fan-fiction from when you were ten but set it on a colony planet and include an apocalypse, go ahead.
Don't worry, story-about-a-forming-collective-mind, I will write you too after November.
That's all I can think of for now. I think the best thing about Nano for me is that it keeps me writing, and I find out a LOT about how I work under pressure. Since I might become an author, this is useful. 2010 will be my third year, and hopefully my most successful! I will finish Tunnel's End around 50k! I WILL!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Different knotting
I got a book on macrame recently, and it's given me the opportunity for one of my favorite things: comparing!
It's funny: friendship bracelets are basically a branch of macrame (a rebellious branch, but still), but the focus is pretty different. For one thing, in macrame the spaces between the knots are as important as the knots themselves (negative and positive space, you might call it). Also, each individual knot is key, while in FBs you almost want the knots to fade into the background. In FBs, pattern and color are key. You rarely see bright color in macrame. Maybe that's why I like FBs better.
One thing I noticed, though: in my aforementioned book, the author doesn't really give you any patterns. There are diagrams for the knots and suggestions on what to do with them, but the actual design is up to you. Now, I don't know enough about macrame to guess whether this is the general outlook, but I kind of like the idea of not being scared to experiment. I noticed a lot of knew FB knotters on forums and such are very nervous to try things: "I can't read patterns...I don't know what to do first", "How do you arrange the strings?", "How is this made?" ...and I can say this because I still am pretty hesitant to experiment. I think I've gotten more willing lately, though, and the macrame book helped. And this sounds really cheesy, but you could apply that to life in general. See? I made this post relevant to the rest of the world.
It's funny: friendship bracelets are basically a branch of macrame (a rebellious branch, but still), but the focus is pretty different. For one thing, in macrame the spaces between the knots are as important as the knots themselves (negative and positive space, you might call it). Also, each individual knot is key, while in FBs you almost want the knots to fade into the background. In FBs, pattern and color are key. You rarely see bright color in macrame. Maybe that's why I like FBs better.
One thing I noticed, though: in my aforementioned book, the author doesn't really give you any patterns. There are diagrams for the knots and suggestions on what to do with them, but the actual design is up to you. Now, I don't know enough about macrame to guess whether this is the general outlook, but I kind of like the idea of not being scared to experiment. I noticed a lot of knew FB knotters on forums and such are very nervous to try things: "I can't read patterns...I don't know what to do first", "How do you arrange the strings?", "How is this made?" ...and I can say this because I still am pretty hesitant to experiment. I think I've gotten more willing lately, though, and the macrame book helped. And this sounds really cheesy, but you could apply that to life in general. See? I made this post relevant to the rest of the world.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Nano 2009: there is hope!
Two years ago, after NaNoWriMo (we're talking about 2008 here), I had reached the word count goal in my novel "Two", but I hadn't actually finished the darn thing. I promised myself that I would soon, as well as edit it. "December," I told myself. "Well, maybe January...or February..." It's two years later, and I still haven't finished it.
So last Nano I told myself that I would _definitely_ finish "Jigsaw Cloud", and I would not procrastinate.
Then my Nano took a turn for the worst.
Long story short, while I did reach the word count goal (according to my laptop. My desk top's word count says differently), I was not happy with my novel at all and declared it, to use the scientific term, "epic fail".
Fast forward a couple of months. I was starting to think about Jigsaw again. And I was starting to realize something: I wanted to edit it. While "Two" was a fun Nano novel, it didn't have much potential as a "real" novel. However, with Jigsaw I had had a great idea, and I could think of a lot of interesting ways it could go when I actually put time into it. Sooo...I started editing it a couple of days ago! I started by removing the really bad parts, and now I've rewritten some scenes. Hopefully when I'm done I'll move onto actually continuing the story, and eventually finishing it.
I wanted to post excerpts with comparisons, but this post has turned out longer than I planned. So instead I'll just leave you with "It's not an epic fail! WOOHOO!" and do the comparisons later.
Wish me luck!
So last Nano I told myself that I would _definitely_ finish "Jigsaw Cloud", and I would not procrastinate.
Then my Nano took a turn for the worst.
Long story short, while I did reach the word count goal (according to my laptop. My desk top's word count says differently), I was not happy with my novel at all and declared it, to use the scientific term, "epic fail".
Fast forward a couple of months. I was starting to think about Jigsaw again. And I was starting to realize something: I wanted to edit it. While "Two" was a fun Nano novel, it didn't have much potential as a "real" novel. However, with Jigsaw I had had a great idea, and I could think of a lot of interesting ways it could go when I actually put time into it. Sooo...I started editing it a couple of days ago! I started by removing the really bad parts, and now I've rewritten some scenes. Hopefully when I'm done I'll move onto actually continuing the story, and eventually finishing it.
I wanted to post excerpts with comparisons, but this post has turned out longer than I planned. So instead I'll just leave you with "It's not an epic fail! WOOHOO!" and do the comparisons later.
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
2010 updates
Hey everyone! I'm really sorry there haven't been updates in a long time - I was planning on writing a post summarizing my latest NaNoWriMo experience, but I had to force myself and ended up not posting anything at all. Whoops.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm not going to vanish like I did in 2006, and I'll continue making posts soon. For now, have some bracelet photos:
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm not going to vanish like I did in 2006, and I'll continue making posts soon. For now, have some bracelet photos:
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