Going a Little NaNo Crazy!

Greetings, all! My mad blog pace has slowed down a little, but not for want of blog ideas. I've been a writing demon! Much to the detriment of my house work, especially in the kitchen area.

I was going to get off the internet and start some reading today. I have two library books and maybe a week and a half left to get them read. Normally, this would be no problem, as I devour paperbacks like a panda does bamboo. However, I've got a number of distractions. NaNo being the biggest one. I just had to go check the NaNoWriMo site before I closed down the old web browser, and found a new video. This got me so fired up, I decided to come and get started writing before reading. Heck. The book's gonna be there later. This inspiration might not.

I also have a new writing program, thanks to NaNo. They have a page with freebies and special offers, and the use of Scrivener free during NaNo and a HALF-OFF discount for winners! I am so gonna be a winner.

Anyway, I downloaded the software - very easy instructions. BY THE BYE: THIS IS NOT A PAID ENDORSEMENT - THIS IS MY OWN TRUTHFUL OPINIONS ON MY EXPERIENCE. I tried to watch the 10- minute quickie video but I think with all the WriMos flooding the joint I had trouble and decided to just do the tutorial that comes with the software. The tutorial (which said would take an hour) took me three. I don't know if that's because I was very tired after work, or what, but I did find it well laid out and educational. There was only one WTF? moment, but I have lost what it was in a fog, something about tags and labels, I think... Anyway, you don't have to use what you don't understand. I had already written 17k, so I spent another 45 minutes uploading it and then splitting it into chapters. I fussed about with how I would enter the outline on the little card created to go with each document (you don't have to use the cards - I go back and forth between the cards and the outline feature.) My only complaint is being able to make the outline a seperate document all on it's own. I guess I can just cut and paste, but I like to tinker with my outline in spare moments. I also feel I've lost a little portability by containing all my info in a program that's at home. The export feature is good, but cut and paste is your only option.

Even so, considering I'm going to be able to get this baby for REALS when I WIN for half price (and it's already a very affordable program - $45 for a Mac version and $40 for Windows at full price), and my incredible brokeness, I am so going to get this. It's great. The "compose" feature alone has made writing a much more pleasant experience. You hit the "compose" button and it either blacks out the rest of your screen, or you can use your own background photo - which I have done.

Idn't she purty? Of course, all I see is the sides. It's great.

Ok, that's enough of me. I gotta go write now. Carry on WriMo's! Fearlessly!

NaNo and Inspiration

Greetings, Fearless Readers! I write to you from the depths of the first week of NaNoWriMo! I'm doin' awesome - meeting my goal of 3k a day - I've actually written a little over that and I'm ahead of my goal at 13,547 after only 4 days of writing! (Haven't written yet today.) I've had only one day of sitting and staring at the ceiling, wondering, where the hell am I going?!


I'll tell you what helps me in those situations. Visual cues. Specifically:

Woodchester Mansion, my inspiration for the crumbling setting in my story, called The Wood Hall. This beauty nestles in the valleys of Cotswold, England, and was, in fact, left unfinished. I'm only using the outside, and my mansion is in a very bad state of repair, whereas the real thing is being lovingly restored. 


I'll tell you why I used it. That amazing front, with all those windows! What a statement it makes! And then... you're like... where's the door? And to be honest, I find the actual entrance of the house to be a bit of a let down, and a little... architecturally uneven.

 See that side on the right, with no windows? I thought that was weird, considering the rest of the house. I made up a story for that blank expanse, and the story is where The Wood Hall gets its name. I thought it would make an amazing arrival for my heroine. 


As a condition of guardianship, Lord Colburn is required required to purchase a carriage and horses for Ophelia's use. Being a master of passive-aggression, he purchases a used one. So, my girl arrives in her shabby, secondhand carriage at twilight, rolling down what looks like a new gravel path (he's already making use of the stipend he gets for her guardianship, and of course, he's spending it on himself...) The winding drive brings her to an unlit house of bluff construction, the roof a forest of angles and chimneys. The house blends into a wild tangle of trees towards the back and the lawn is untended and wild. She hopes, she prays, this can't be the house? Then the road curves around and exposes that gorgeous row of double and triple windows, stretching from side to side and ground to attic - what light must stream in on a sunny day! But there's no light now. No welcome. And where is the door? The carriage doesn't stop, but continues on past the silent black squares. A final turn, and here she sees the first glimmer of light. The entrance, of course, she finds a little underwhelming. The door is almost an after thought under a pointed arch, and set on a confusing edifice that staggers in and out with a mismatched array of windows. A single candle burns in one corner of a window. And why are there no windows on the right side of the door?


 So there you have it. A beast of a building, its majesty now crumbling, and stories on every side. Just wait until she gets inside.


Oh, and it doesn't hurt that the real place is haunted as hell!


Woodchester Mansion Most Haunted

Nan-nitty NaNo!

Greetings from the other side of the first day of NaNoWriMo! How did you do? I got 3337! Thank goodness for Outlines! Of course, as I was driving to work this morning, I realized I hadn't spent too much time thinking about what the first scene would actually be. I mean, I knew what was going to happen: sick aunt, hint of suspense re the future guardian, I even managed to put in the bit about the son that's going to be a problem later.

I hope I'm not makin' my girl too sweetsie. I mean it is a Regency Romance type deal, and she's gotta be a well mannered, nice girl. Right? Please tell me I'm right. I mean, she's not perfect. I know she can't be perfect. Ok. I'll obsess about that later. I think it went well. I didn't do too much staring at the wall or mumbling to myself, and I got the 3337 words in about 2-1/2 hours. That's a little longer than I thought it would take. I hope to cut that down. And I didn't do any editing, because I also did about 1300 words on another story with someone else. And I'm running out of words for this here blog....

On an aside from the blog and NaNo-ness, did you see the rash of posts and tweets about the WFC2011 creeper? PAX Valkyrie (<--that is a link) has an "Omnibus Post Of Posts" on her Tumblr linking to other bloggers experiences. It seems some Warlock Gone Wrong was inflicting himself on the unsuspecting women of World Fantasy Con and kept at it... and at it... and at it, despite being removed from parties, asked to leave, and asked, politely and repeatedly by the women he was inflicting himself on TO FUCK OFF. I guess it took a couple of large dudes escorting him to the door to get him to leave the women the hell alone. There's very little that is good about this, except that it has brought up the question of safety and sexual harassment policies at cons. Apparently, a committee has been put into place to look into it. Also, people are sharing their stories. That's the sort of thing women need to do in situations like these. There may have been one or two who thought... oh, he didn't mean to grab my breast. Or, he was just drunk! I was imagining it. It was a misunderstanding. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Etc. Etc. I think it's clear from the responses to the blogs and the tweets that these were not isolated instances. It wasn't their imagination. And I don't care how fucking drunk he was. A real warlock would know better.

NaNoWriMo Eve & Halloween

I luv me sum Halloween. And I luv me sum NaNoWriMo.

*Throws hands in the air, just don't care*

No. Really. I don't. Not about much else. Writing is about all I have right now, and I am so glad to have something to funnel my energy into. Things are sucking a bit at the moment. Trying to scrape up enough money to pay rent and eat at the same time just seems to get harder and harder each month. It's seven months before I can seriously think of getting out of here and into a place with waaaaay less rent. It's also a drain on me emotionally to know if I were somewhere else, things wouldn't be so fucking hard.

Don't mean to be a ungrateful or a whiner. But it's good to have something to focus on. It's also putting my nervous and somewhat obsessive energy into something positive. NaNoWriMo is wrapped up in a warm blanket of good feeling. There's the NaNoWriMo website, the peptalks, the AW Write 1 Sub 1, of which many folks are participating in NaNo, the NaNo forums on AW... just all kinds of places to throw yourself down on the floor and roll in the warm effluvia of writing and creating love. I've also found photos of my heroine and the places she'll be inhabiting as inspiration. I've got them set as screen savers and background art on my computer.

But there is still tonight to go. One more scene to write in Dreadight before I go back to editing. One more LIVE ghost hunt on SyFy to go! GHOSTHUNTERS! Ah. My delights. They are small and insignificant, but they are mine.

The Blog! She are different!

I felt it was time for a change! As I couldn't find a template I liked (or, let's be honest, figure out how to put up a new one!) I figgled about with the settings, found a damask pattern I liked and away she went! All new and pretty! Since it looks like I won't be changing my physical location any time soon... I changed the one thing I could.

I've given up the idea of finishing edits on Dreadlight before November 1st. And I am bound and determined to challenge myself and write 3k a day on The Vampire Baron (opes... did I just let the title of my NaNoWriMo project slip? I think I did) so, looks like I'll be editing... and writing 3k a day. I don't know when I'm going to blog or feed the cat. Not to mention have my house look decent when my sister comes to get me on Thanksgibbing.

So it's Halloween eve... sort of All Hallows Eve...eve.... :) I'm going to go watch The Ring and eat Snickers. Then tomorrow, same thing.

Write 1 Sub 1 Novel Style!

Are you familiar with a little website called "Absolute Write"? Are you also familiar with a little project called Write 1 Sub 1, wherein participants write a short and sub a short, within a specified time period? (I'm not too familiar with it, I don't write short stories, they are the bane of my existence.) Well, now there is one for novels!!!


Write One Sub One Novel Challenge


The challenge differs by person, so do not think that you are required to "Write 1 and Sub 1" within someone else's time period - you choose how long you will take to write and sub a novel and/or novels. Izz, your Rejectioneer and AW Moderator is watching over us like little chicks. There will be check in threads, advice I'm sure, and since it's AW, lots of encouragement and support.


But don't take my word for it. Click that link above and go check it out. Looks like the official "start" date is November 1st. But remember, you set your own time frame. And after all, it is NaNo. It's not like a bunch of writers don't want to start something on November 1st. Are you telling me you're taking the silly NaNo approach "Ahm jus' writin' a dummas novel that ain't gonna go no whar!" *said with flailing arms and a little drool for emphasis*. Come on! Write that novel! Polish that novel! Sub that novel! Hmm... cheers like that are probably why writers don't have cheerleaders....

It hasn't quite been a week....

Good evening! I am writing to you from Friday night, after a day of mostly editing. I say mostly editing because I had to write a new scene. Something was missing, I needed some oomph. A little worldbuilding, a little sexy time for the characters and little injection of sinister foreboding. All good things. I really want to finish this first round of edits. I'm not sure if I should send it off to betas when I'm done, or if I should let it simmer and do another pass before sending it off to betas. Decisions, decisions.


It is also Halloween weekend! Very exciting! I have to remember to pick up something for our potluck at work on Monday. I may even have to buy some candy... you know... for the kids. Or for myself. To eat when no kids come by. Who am I kidding? I'm going to buy candy and put a sign on my door that says, "Sorry, no candy", then I'm gonna sit and eat the candy and watch The Ghost Hunters Live, just like I do every year. Bwah hahahahaha!

And it's also just before NaNo! The clock, it are a tickin'. I'm getting very excited. I keep tinkering with my summary, which I feel really, really stinks. I'm terrible at narrowing things down. And then I feel bad, because if I'm a writer, I should be able to summarize my story, or give you the beat down, the logline, the query, the remix, the fashizzle, all in one go. And I've never been able to. I can write you a story, but don't ask me to tell it to you.


I really need to work on my fashizzle.