Script Success! (and the return of Nano 2010)

I would just like to say that Screnzy 2011 was a success!
I reached 102 pages on the 26th (or maybe the 27th. I can't remember), right at the end of the climax. Then I wrote the last scene (AKA the epilogue), and my final total was 111 pages. Crazy! When I started this I was afraid I wouldn't have enough pages (how long can you make a script about a beach trip?), and later I was afraid I wouldn't finish the story itself in April, but fortunately the story wrapped up at just the write time. I think I'm getting better at estimating length.
So...hooray for Bright Lights! Next challenge? Writing some one-acts. I've tried long plays, but I have yet to see if I can do short ones.

Also? I finally did a preliminary edit on my NaNo from 2010 (Tunnel's End): I removed all the random notes-to-self, changed the name "Carlie" to "Sharli" (I changed her name halfway through the novel), and filled in things like [sun] and [planet]. It's just the first part of editing, of course...but I'm glad I finally got around to it, because I'd forgotten that I'm actually pretty pleased with this one. Next challenge? Do a full edit, and write a sequel to Tunnel's End (knowing me, those two should go in the opposite order).

Anyway, that's my writing news! Do you have any?

New year plans!

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!

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!

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!

Week three fixes everything

Last week I was stuck in my Nano novel. I felt like it wasn't going anywhere: I still had to wait through a few days (in my book) before my main character started actually doing stuff, I didn't know what do in the meantime, and in the long run I wasn't sure how the story was going to continue. I got my character stuck in an attic and had no clue what to do with that afterward. I resorted to writing complaints in my document to keep up the word count*.
But then...I got my character out of the attic (non-too-smoothly, but it's Nano so what do you expect?), went to a write-in, got through a few dream sequences, and finally revealed The Big Revelation (which is only a revelation to the readers, not the characters). I switched perspectives, and when I came back to Davis I was no longer annoyed with him. He has a lot to go through, poor guy. I like torturing him.
So now...it's going much better. I think it's going to turn out longer than 50,000 words, but that's okay...I'll work on it after November. It was supposed to be slightly post-apocalyptic, and I'm thinking of making it a post-apocalyptic-apocalypse. We'll see how that goes, but I just wanted to post this to say that I'm doing way better, and I'm more determined than ever to reach 50k! What's Nano without a little drama? It makes it more fun (I think 2009 is more fun than 2008 just because of the drama).
So...thanks for reading. Wish me luck!


*Although I would like to add that I was never actually behind in the word goal...I just like complaining.

I'm a fortune teller (Nanowrimo from a week 2 perspective)

My novel this year is totally different from last year's in structure. Last year's novel ("Two"...yes, that's its name) was basically a series of events that were related to each other, that eventually formed a cohesive whole (sort of. I haven't actually finished it yet). It was fun because I liked my characters and if it was getting boring, hey, I could just add another event.
This year's novel ("Jigsaw Cloud") is completely different. One of my characters (Mira) goes on an adventure, but I'm actually writing about her younger brother (Davis), who stays behind but ends up going on an adventure of his own. It sounds kind of cheesy, and the Mira-going-on-adventure thing is supposed to be a little that way, but after she leaves for her adventure Davis is supposed to realize something important and the adventure is supposed to really begin.
I say "supposed" because I'm totally stuck leading up to that.
See, Davis is going to have several strange dreams, the last of which will bring on the "realization". I can't find a way to fill in the rest of the time. I got him arrested (sort of), and then trapped in an attic (which is related to the former), which was fun at the time, but now it's gotten me even more stuck.
Basically, I really need to rethink my options.
Instead of working on the story, I have one "letters between the main character and the author" segment, and one essay that basically explains what I've talked about here. It's pretty funny, actually.
But I want to work on the story. And the structure I've invented is not a Nano-speed structure, it's a work-on-it-for-half-a-year structure.
So, basically: waaahhh, Nano is too hard this year.
Aren't I just the amazing fortune-teller?

P.S. I might post my "letters" segment later on my blog, because it's kind of funny and sad at the same time.

November approaches...

It's almost November, and you know what that means! No? It means NaNoWriMo is coming up very soon! And as you can tell I'm super excited about it.

For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a challenge to aspiring writers (and experienced ones too, of course) to throw caution (and perfection) to the wind and write a novel of 50,000 words or more by the end of November. That sounds hard, but it's actually a good amount: it's doable even if you're busy, but it's not so easy you end up procrastinating because "Oh, I can work on it at any time" (Like I did with Script Frenzy). Plus it's a lot of fun. I think I might try for 60k words this year.

This is my second year doing Nano. Last year I wrote a light SF-ish story about a girl and some...strange occurrences in her family. It turned out really well...I had a lot of fun with it (mostly because of the characters, I think), and I reached the word goal. I have a cool idea for this year's novel, and I hope it'll be as fun as last year's (Well, I guess if it isn't I can just make a big plot twist and change the story completely. Heh heh).

So good luck and have fun to all the participants! It's gonna be fun.





(I can just imagine my next post being "Waaaahhh, I hate Nano...it's so hard this year..." ;) )

100 posts and a first sentence

Two things today.
One, I've reached 100 posts! Thanks so much to everyone for reading, and for sticking with me while I try to figure out this whole blogging thing. Here's hoping I reach 100 more! :)

Two, as you know I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year. I have no ideas what my novel (or "NaNovel"...just made that up) will be about. And while some people have outlines, or character ideas, or just vague plots, I have a first sentence: "It happened the day I got sick. Figures." It just popped into my head today. Now...I just have to figure out who's talking, what happened, and how I can turn that into a novel. By November. Wish me luck!

100 words

I was looking at this list of "150 things to do when you're bored" and one of the things was, "write a story in 100 words". Sooo...I tried it. This micro-story is based on a plotline that was floating around in my head. This is the most minimalistic version of what I was imagining, and I might expand it (maybe for NaNoWriMo?), but I thought I'd post it here first.

If you could dream about anything you want, every night, what would you pick? My mom said we didn’t always have this choice, and that we shouldn’t really have that choice. I wonder why?

Last night I decided to have a dream about being a goldfish. I couldn’t see past my bowl: just these weird blurs moving around. I wonder if that’s how my goldfish sees.

Books you read in your dreams are the most amazing books ever. Shame you can’t remember them.

I think I know what Mom meant last year. With perfect dreams, we forget to live real life.

...And that's it. Feel free to interpret, or whatever. Leave a comment! Maybe I'll post more about this story if I get feedback.