Camp Nanowrimo: VICTORY!

This isn't going to be a terribly long post, more just a quick update. I have finally completed April's Camp Nanowrimo and my goal of 50,000 words in one month. Though it's far from perfect I'm super excited about it and know that all of my work paid off! WOO! So while I'm over here binge watching The Flash, just know that things will be going back to reviews here very soon as I'm almost caught up with my shows. I have plenty of books to review so hopefully I'll be posting lots soon!

PS. If you're still working on your Nanowrimo best of luck! Remember, you still have time!

Camp Nanowrimo: When Characters go Rogue...

When your characters suddenly go rogue and take on a life of their own. This of course means a couple of things when you sit back and think about it.

Firstly, congratulate yourself because you made characters real enough that they can surprise even you! Note: keep telling yourself you're perfectly sane, despite the fact there's voices in your head that have taken on a mind of their own... I won't judge you. I would advise you don't go telling people who don't write that this is what you're experiencing...


Secondly, you're probably feeling something like this:

Everything is just back asswards. Depending on the severity of the change, you might be able to write it out, things might shift a bit but overall the integrity of your story should stay intact. This is where I am right now, not derailing but shifting the track a little.

You could also be sitting in front of your screen going 'noooooooo!' because you have to change everything now. Suddenly your character is from another part of the world and has an accent or suddenly they're not a pirate, but a part of the royal navy. So in story world, your character just crated anarchy on a dime.

How I've got through both the easier and the harder situations brought on by rogue characters:

1. If you fall under group one, where your character has only gone a little off there's a couple things you can do. If you've planned your story then you can try and guide your character back into the master plan. If that fails, assess the plan and not the character. Find out if there's another way to reach the end goal you desired. There's a lot more space between the mid-way point and the end of your story than you thought. In many cases, you'll still be able to do this if you still want things to turn out the way your originally planned.

For example:

You planned that your MC (lets call her Sally) would be kidnapped, taken half way around the world and your second MC (we'll call him John) would find her in Italy in the end. The lovers would be reunited and the bad guys turned over to the feds. But SURPRISE! Half-way through your story, you learn that Sally is a fighter. This changes things doesn't it? So we go back and look at the plan. The main goal I'm looking for is that the lovers are reunited and the bad-guys are gone. So I decide that Sally escapes once they arrive in Italy. Meanwhile, John is hot on their trail. With Sally being a fighter, I decide they pair fight off the bad guys and escape with their lives. Lovers reunited? Check! Bad-guys gone? Check!

Of course if you're a pantser, you might just take this type of rogue and run with it. See where they're trying to go. It's always an interesting way to explore, just beware of pointless adventures your characters may want to run you around on. Try and gain some idea of where they should be headed, to avoid this and stay on task.

2. If you've got yourself a wild one you're probably feeling very frustrated about now and you fall in group two. This is obviously the more difficult of the two because no matter how much you try to turn focus on the plan and tweek it, you know that you're more than likely going to have to throw the whole thing away. Some things are easier to fix than others and mostly it's going to come down to editing. Unfortunately there's a lot less you can do in this case. If you are writing for fun and not for something with a deadline you can make your big changes now. If your character has an accent now, go make it so. If your character is actually sailing with the navy, make those character adjustments now. Of course, if you're writing for fun you can also scrap it entirely and start over but that's not very encouraging.

If you are on a timeline your best bet is to make the changes now and keep going. If you're participating in something like Nanowrimo where your word count is everything do not scrap and do not re-haul. I know that going back and editing was one of my tips, but something this big will eat up way to much time and you'll be deleting way too much. If the change is vital and will drastically change your story you may edit. Not like my MC was a pirate and is now a royal navy officer chasing the pirates where you're just switching the perspectives. Heck you can keep most of the characters and change their dress and you're good to go. Though it's annoying, keep writing you've got time to edit later! I'm talking about like my MC decided he's a she and is going to be saved by the pirates. Go back and edit what's necessary because that's going to be completely different as that character is likely going to spend a chunk of the story nowhere near a pirate ship, or a ship of any sort. Scavenge what scenes you can, if you've got a drunken party on deck one night, have your character forced into the middle of it. Use what you can and don't just think 'I can re-write this anyways.'.

If your pirate decides he's a pop star I've got nothing. I don't know why the hell you thought he was a pirate, so you better scrap that and go re-think your choices.

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 13

I HAVEN'T WORKED ON ANY OF IT SINCE FRIDAY!!! 

So... that's a thing. I was ahead and doing so well and now I've hit a wall where nothing wants to happen. The characters I wanted relationships with have been standoffish and the characters I didn't really care about have come running in guns blazing f$%*&@# shit up. The second problem I'm facing? I found out that I was writing towards a scene. It's one of those moments where I thought I had things figured out, only to find out that I in fact only had enough planned to get me to one of my bigger scenes. Now I have nothing, no idea of where to go and we're on a tight schedule here. So today is an exercise in crawling. 

Today will be a little bit different as I won't be posting random goals, it's more of a plan really to what I'm going to do today. Today is all about word count, we're going to write with the knowledge that yes, most of this may be deleted later, but for now I'll act like it's good! 

Day 13 Goals/ Plans

• Crawl! First Crawl for the day will be The Pirate Adventure Crawl Part One to begin.
• Break Time! Read a chapter of a book.
• Crawl! Second Crawl for the day will be The Hunger Games Crawl
• Break Time! Read a chapter of a book & eat dinner.
• Crawl! Third Crawl of the day Complete Part Two of first crawl.
• Break Time! Done for the day.

Feelings on this day 13:

I'll update later with my word count at the end of all of this. Hope you're all doing better on your novels than me! haha!

Update!

1. My first crawl listed left me with a solid 1,476 words written. Though that's not as good as it could have been it's a hell of a lot better than the 77 words I wrote over the weekend. That's nearly a full day's worth of writing done in a short, quick crawl. If anyone's curious and is also doing the crawl I'm with captain Tack, though it was because I was kidnapped. I have a dagger and I got three shots of rum at the end. Yee haw! Break time :)
2. I am currently done stage one and moving onto stage two adding almost another 1000 words onto my count. Another thousand and change and I should be caught back up. The wonders of crawls! Part way through stage two, I find myself passing the elusive 20K mark. One day's worth of writing left and I'll be completely caught up! (Isn't that crazy!) In other news, I feel like the wall I had hit is now completely gone. I'm heading into the final stage now, but at this rate, I'm not sure if I'll finish the other crawl today. 

I am calling an end to this day clocking in a solid 4108 words.

**Just got some family news and will not be completing another crawl tonight.

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 07

Day seven is here, marking the end to week one of this crazy writing thing. Already beginning to experience the ups and downs of the month's work I'm ready for it to be done with. I was worried that yesterday was going to mark a descent into another failure, yet another Nano I didn't complete, but I woke today and sat at the computer ready to write. 

My character's weren't putting up a fight, they just needed a beak and they sure as hell weren't having it when I thought about starting to read another book. They were ready and raring to go.

(What my character's must have been thinking this morning as I contemplated the fact that I'm still ahead and reading wouldn't hurt.)

  

I admit I spent most of the day editing, trying to think through where the story was going to go. But with a little bit of writing, maybe 600 words or so, the other 1000 I've wrote so far today being all editing (see, like I said, go back and edit, flush the scenes out more you know your characters now, they're opening up to you). I'm feeling pretty good.

I feel like now is a good time to go back and touch on some tips I wrote before the beginning of Nanowrimo. So we can see if I'm following my own advice and where it's got me, what's working and what's not.

1. The first goal I had mentioned in my Tips to Slay 50K post was planning. I fell a little lax on this, this round. I knew my basics and just went in feet first and hoped to come out running. I did some mild planning, I knew who everyone was and how they connected together, I knew the basics of what I would have liked to happen and I knew what real life people, places and things I wanted to reference in my story. However, what was actually going to happen was nothing more than a shell, I didn't know which guy would end up being the love interest or who would fall for who. There were no chapters or actual rise and falls planned out, I just went in and so far I guess I'm running. 

2. I had also said I like to edit as I go and most people don't. A point proven today with more than 1000 words coming from going back and flushing scenes out more. I haven't even got to the point that I'm currently writing. If you are at a point where you're stuck, the end of the week is always a good place to go back to the top. The week is a good marker, you could do it sooner, but things are still going to be really fresh in your mind. I find that by this point I've forgotten a lot of the smaller details I wrote seven days earlier, it's now new all over again as I read through.  I do like to comb through the chapters frequently editing them over and over a bit every time I find myself stuck, generally by the end of three reads I'll leave a chapter be.

Don't get me wrong, I erase some things when I go back days later NEVER when I'm writing the scene. You may find that you read it now and go, 'oh I didn't explain that very well' or, 'hmm, this might be better with this extra bit of dialogue in here.' I always feel like you don't know your characters well when you start, after a week of spending every day with them, I feel like I can go back and make their personalities a little deeper. It's also a great way to get you back into your story if you're stuck. Reading over all of that and adjusting gives you a rest from just driving forward at full force in hopes of reaching that 50K. 

3. I have explored this a little bit this year and found that the best way I write is by starting early in the morning and working until around 3. I also find that I'm better if I just browse the internet between breaks (or write here). Also, it's the first time I've allowed myself to just go with what pours out and I think I now have fallen in love with a head hopping style I hope makes sense when I come back to edit in a month or so.

4. This tip has saved me! Writing more than I have to has kept me a cozy two days ahead of schedule sometimes more, which means the days that I'm in a slump are covered and I'm not way behind and trying to force words out for the day's count. Also I find myself feeling so refreshed and wanting to write after I'm able to take a break every few days and maybe write a couple hundred words instead of a couple thousand. If you are able to do this, I highly suggest it.

5. This hasn't really come into play yet as I headed the advice of tip 4.

6. I still work day by day, I just push myself to reach a day extra to keep myself ahead. As of now, tip 4 has put me in the place that I haven't had to utilize this yet.

8. (This is a fail because I forgot 7!)

7. (8) Forums and cabins are the perfect break from writing to me. Check out what everyone else is up to, gather some motivation from some other people. I have utilized this to my advantage when I started to wonder if my head hopping style was a little too much. There is support for everyone, for everything in the forums!

8.(9) I haven't done any word sprints yet. I'm not trying to force out words this time around (yet) so I haven't found the need to. You never know though, it's still really early in the game.

9.(10) I am certainly having fun. I'm making sure I'm taking a day or two here and there and I'm not beating myself up about it. This is an awesome round of Nanowrimo.

I'm not going to break down the goals too far today but here's where I stand:

Day Seven Goals

• Word count of 16666 by the end of the day. [might yet happen as I am very close to 16,000 now]
• Reach a word count of 15,000 by the end of the morning. [done]
• Ideally break the 17,000 mark before sleep happens [not likely to happen today, got busier than expected.]

How I'm feeling as I near the end of day seven:

Evergreen Review!

If you read my last review then you know that I recently finished the first in this series - Everblue. Unlike the first one, this one was not free but it was fairly cheap from the Google Play store so I couldn't resist. I'm glad I didn't hesitate over it now and I'll likely be purchasing book three very soon.

Synopsis:
Ashlyn and Fin have been apart for only a short time but it feels like forever and just as they had thought Fin's house has been re-taken by his uncle and his annoying cousin. As the danger surrounding Ash's family increases, Fin gets more and more irritable about being away his family refusing return. With the biggest choice of their lives on the line, the decision of a Human or Mer life hangs over their heads. Time is running out.

Review:

4.5/5

  What the hell happened here?! There is a drastic change between the writing in book one and the writing in book two. With the first book hanging on Middle Grade I wasn't sure what kind of action was going to happen in this one, I just hoped it would be good. I was not disappointed! This one definitely pings Young Adult right on the head. This book was drastically better than the first.

 First, the actual writing itself, the first one seemed to be geared towards a younger audience which had taken me by surprise with it's YA tag on it. The characters were quite shallow and well... fluffy and just seemed childish. There really wasn't much to the book, it had been a nice quick read and left a nice little hanger at the end that suggested things would happen in the next book. So I read on. Pandos seems to have evolved tremendously between book one and book two, the level of writing increased dramatically. The characters got a bit more substance, the story flushed out more, the details of the world became more real and I felt a lot more connected to the characters in this one than in the last one. I don't know what she did between books but whatever it was she needs to share.

Let me talk about the suspense in this book. I read this on my phone, and I have to say that I'm surprised how many times I found myself squeezing my phone as hard as I could while reading. It's a good thing it wasn't an iPhone... Unlike the first book, this one was packed with action. Rather than the moping on one side and action on the other, there was action in Fin's world and in Ashlyn's world which kept me excited to keep reading. The twists, oh lordy the twist that was in there! I wondered a little but didn't expect it to actually happen. I won't say more 'cause spoilers but let's just say I was guessing what was going to happen all the way through the book. I enjoyed that even the fall from the climax of this book involved more action.

The characters - a little fluffy and shallow in the last book I was impressed by the character development that happened in this one. We learn about Fin's mysterious family, we learn about Ashlyn and her family. I'm happy things focused down for her, I wouldn't continue if she carried on with her fluff and whining she did in the first one. Plus there's a good handful of characters that are introduced in this one, the world is getting bigger!

The first book proved to me that everything wasn't like The Little Mermaid in Mer people stories. It also proved that Mermaid stories are fluffy in general. This one though proved me wrong, Mermaid stories can have substance. I would recommend this to someone that likes a suspenseful book with a touch of fantasy. I applaud Brenda Pandos and I will be reading the next in the series. Also, I would like to note that I would love this series to join my physical collection soon, e-books are great but I can't stare at the covers all day.

The next book has me a little anxious as I read the excerpt at the end of this one and found it in Tatchi's point of view. Though I'm interested in what's happening there, I'm afraid it might take a step back and we'll have to bear through another character developing. I will probably start that one tomorrow so be on the lookout for the review!

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 06

Well... I fail. I forgot to make some goals for today in yesterday's post. I guess I should probably get those out before I start my writing for the day.

Today is going to be a little more lax, I'm starting late, but I wrote a lot yesterday so I'm still sitting ahead. I'd love to get further ahead though before I hit that inevitable wall I know I'll meet in the near future. With that said, here's my goals for today:

Day Six Goals

• Hit the 15,000 word mark, effectively putting me three days ahead.
• Begin the main character's journey to resolve her conflict.
• Get the final player introduced to the story. (I'm really hoping this happens today)
• Have Draper conquer his own inner conflicts

 And here's how day six is going...

I'm so uninspired it's killing me. All I want to do is read at this point, but if I don't write the day's worth of words I know I'll be disappointed in myself, but this one's going to be like pulling teeth. I knew it was coming, I just had hoped it wouldn't be this soon into the race. Though I admit, I'm finding it hard to get into writing, once I've got the flow down I can hardly stop.

15,000 will be stretch today, I think it's more likely a 14,000 day which is a little upsetting, but we'll see what happens. Being as it's already almost one in the afternoon and I literally feel no motivation whatsoever... well, that sentences finishes itself.

I haven't touched the main character's conflict in the less than 800 words I've wrote so far today today... what a surprise. (Heavy sarcasm intended).

The last person I'm dying to get introduced for the last two/three days is no closer to being introduced than they were yesterday. I'm going to go nuts if I see it as a goal for much longer.

Finally, Draper is beginning his journey to resolve his conflicts so we'll see where that goes. At least something is on track today.

Day six feelings:

Not going over and above for day seven, I plan to just focus on word count for the day

Day Seven Goals

• Word count of 16666 by the end of the day.
• Reach a word count of 15,000 by the end of the morning.
• Ideally break the 17,000 mark before sleep happens

PS. I finished a book yesterday so be on the look out for a new review!

Everblue Review!

I recently picked this one up for free from the Google Play store, I believe it still is if you're interested. I downloaded this simply because I'm dedicating this year to absorbing all different genres and styles and authors and trying new books. When I saw mermaids I realized that I hadn't read anything ever, that had mermaids. My mermaid knowledge began and ended with The Little Mermaid. So obviously I had to give it a try.

Synopsis:

Ash finds herself feeling lost as her best friend and her twin brother disappear for a 'family emergency'. Months pass without a word and Ash begins to wonder if there's more than just a 'family emergency' they're not telling her about. Feeling lost without them she's willing to go to drastic measures to get them back, but at what cost?

Review:

3/5

This was a read that really interested me, and I'll admit, it was mostly because of the mermaid aspect. I did enjoy the story, it was fun, it was cute, and at the right times you were wondering what was going to happen next. However, though it doesn't have as much to do with the author as the publisher this seemed a little bit younger than the 'Young Adult' label it has on both Goodreads and the Google Play store. The immediate comparison I make with the style of Pandos' writing is with the Heroes of Olympus Series by Rick Riordan which has both labels of Young Adult and Middle Grade. 

However, this is a book of it's own and should be treated as such. So putting that all aside I have to say I was pleased with this. I went in without expectations and came out wanting to read the next one. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the Mer world of Natatoria and didn't find myself even once comparing it to Little Mermaid (no jokes, that's the kind of thing I picture when I think mermaids).

As far as characters go, at times I was rather annoyed by Ashlyn, the main character who seemed to fall for every guy that showed interest in her. Though she tames out a bit by the end of the novel, I have to say I was rather irked by that at the beginning. Though it's because of this I questioned some things that were going happen, and whether my predictions I made at the start were going to be true or not. It did cross my mind that it might have been an intentional move by the author to stir things up a bit. I do hope we see a little more character development in the next installment as there seemed to be a lot of surface stuff going on and not a lot of depth.

You know when mermaids are involved that the book is going to be different from your average 'Young Adult' (though I still argue it's a little closer to Middle Grade...) book. The book itself is no exception, I have a feeling that the next one is only going to get better. Unusual, as I must admit sequels are generally what slaughters a good book. This one ends off in quite a hanger, a lot of questions left open. I feel like the next one is going to pick up the pace a bit, making things a lot more interesting.

Overall I would say that this book is a great quick, light read. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for something that isn't going to take too much out of them to read. I would not recommend this book if you are looking for some substance, this cutesy romance with mermaids probably isn't going to work for you. 

I have already purchased the next in this series 'Evergreen' and it will likely be my next read.

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 05

Well, I got lunch, that's all I can say so far. So if you happened upon my last post, you'll know that I've completed one goal so far. Thank god because I was getting really hungry.

Just some random reflection on Camp Nanowrimo so far:
I'm beginning to wonder if my narration is a little odd for my story. I'm writing it how it comes to me, which means that I'm writing in third person, but when it suits me I'm focusing on different characters but collectively if that makes any sense. So I'll be talking about Lacey and her reactions and her feelings and then when I feel I've wrote out what she had going on I switch to another character in the scene. Could be a paragraph, could be three and then I'm on to another, circling through my characters in no particular order. Is that weird?

Yes Damon, exactly I don't really know what to make of that either! What the hell is this Nanowrimo and what is it doing with my characters?! I also am finding that it seems to be almost easier to put the words down for this story than almost any other. I'm not sure if that means I'm babbling or that it's a story that needs to be told. I suppose I'll know in the end.

Enough blabbering, moving on to today's writing experience!

If you remember, my first goal was to reach the day seven goal word goal of 11,666 words or I wasn't going to let myself eat lunch. This was because I did almost no work yesterday and I felt very disappointed in myself. I am determined to stay ahead of the game this time around! No more cutting it close for this kid!

Second goal was to semi-resolve the conflict happening between two particular characters in my story. They fought it out- literally- and both of them have made their own very legitimate conclusions, which I hope to throw under the bus and run it over with a completely new player in the game, but more on that later.

My main character who I mentioned in the beginning (Lacey) is about to face her own conflict thanks to the two mentioned in the paragraph above. Soon she'll be facing a lot of life changing situations that should carry through until nearly the end of the story. Her situation is really only just starting to come to light. Not only will my main character learn something about herself, but so will everyone else. Yeehaw! Things are about to get real fun!

The last person to be introduced to the story should arrive probably within the next 2-3 thousand words, I'm not quite sure yet, but I'm aiming for the start of that scene still. I have not reached it as of yet, but I will edit when I do get there.

UPDATE: I have wrote as much as I can take today, feeling barely sane after pushing out a couple thousand words.

Lastly, with just over one thousand words left to reach my final goal of at least 13,000 words I need to get writing!

UPDATE: I succeeded, just passing the 13,000 mark. I was done that by 3pm and I definitely needed a break for the rest of the day, so there will be a review up shortly!

Currently my day Five mood is:

Yeah, annoyed as &*%$.

PS.
I'm having the overwhelming urge to start reading again so I've been doing that in my breaks. Hopefully I'll have a review to post soon, as it seems like it's been forever, and I doubt anyone actually wants to hear about my Nanowrimo experience anyways.

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 04

So, about yesterday....

A whopping 547 words later I accomplished none of my goals. Today will be an exercise in mass word production. I had hoped to get in more words than that, but obviously I failed. This is not the end all however, I'm back at the desk, with coffee and ready to annihilate today's word count. Because of this I am upping the stake considerably.

Day Four Goals (aka what I didn't do)

• break the day seven word goal of 11,666 (holy crap, that's more than 10,000 already!)
• semi-resolve the conflict between the two currently main male characters
• begin inner conflict with main character
• reach the start of the scene where the last 'big player' is introduced

Day Five Goals

• break the day seven word goal of 11,666 or no lunch!
• semi-resolve the conflict between two of the characters
• begin inner conflict with main character
• FINISH the scene where our last big player is introduced
• Break 13,000 by the end of the day

Day Five will accept no survivors, all goals must be slaughtered before sleep!

I'll try to write up the day five summary today, but I make no promises. I have words to slay.

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 03

It's day 3 of Camp Nanowrimo.

Yeah, that's what I feel like my brain is saying today. I was so focused yesterday it was ridiculous and the roll I was on seems to have died in a brutal murder. Burn, burn, burn. Now the ideas are just like 'meh, no $@#%! to give, #sorrynotsorry'. Maybe it was the coffee yesterday and my groggy brain isn't having any of this thing called 'focus' without it today. As I start this post I wonder if I should just give in and go across the Timmies and get some caffeine into this bloodstream.

15 minutes later...

I understand now. Focus comes with coffee... I have never experienced this before. WHAT IS LIFE?! maybe I should start drinking this magic elixir more often... or, you know go to sleep at a regular time.

moving on...

Day Three Goals

• Get to 6666 words before the morning is through
• Finish the day with more than 8500 words
• Address the brewing conflict head on
• Introduce another character
• Add a party... cause everyone likes parties.

With my focus setting in, I think I'm back on track to complete the goals I set for today, some of them I already have so here's how my third day is going:

I successfully completed my goal of 6666 words by the end of the morning completing the goal around quarter to nine. Which puts me more than a day ahead of schedule! This makes me very happy.

My second goal is in the works, with lunchtime a mere minutes away I'm 791 words from my goal of 8500 or more, this should be easy, but if I haven't posted this by the time I reach that point I'll write in an update.

UPDATE: I broke 8500 by one o'clock. I wonder if I can push to the 10,000 mark today? Is that too big of an ambition? My focus is back and in full swing. More than two days ahead of schedule now!

The third goal was to address the brewing conflict in my story, my main character is currently being made aware that something is up as I type here instead of there... Sorry Lacey McLean, I needed a break from your story! In doing this I inevitably brought in another character, a few more to go an I'll have all of my players in the field. My main character's best friend has finally made an appearance. The lies are flowing and the craziness should soon ensue, the ideas are really rolling now.

The party that was my last goal is in the works with invites out and supplies being collected. Hopefully by the end of the day I'll have reached at least the beginning of the bonfire party. It's going to be a big scene so I probably won't be able to finish it today, but such is life, there's always tomorrow.

UPDATE: I have successfully reached the bonfire scene. I feel the urge to jump into it but with the thought that I might not be able to finish it today I'm a little weary of doing so. 

Slowly but surely I'm noticing my story starting to gain some more bones. These characters are revealing a little bit more of their history with every passing chapter and as I only have vague ideas of where I wanted it to go I'm very happy with this.

Day four goals:

• break the day seven word goal of 11,666 (holy crap, that's more than 10,000 already!)
• semi-resolve the conflict between the two currently main male characters
• begin inner conflict with main character
• reach the start of the scene where the last 'big player' is introduced

I have set the bar lower for tomorrow as it's my day off and I know I'm probably not going to write much until the next day. I'm going to try and squeeze all of these goals in but it might not happen.

This day is nowhere near done, and I have extra writing time today, so here's to ending day three feeling like a champ and wishing it would last forever!

 I hope if you're participating you're doing good, you can do it!

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 02

I'm taking a break here part way through day two of this crazy month of writing. I'm not sure if I'll write more today, but I've found that I accomplished all of the things I set out to do in day two of Nanowrimo so I figured I might as well post.

Day Two Goals:

Goals for Day Two:

• Get to 1666 before the morning is over

• Get to 3333 by the afternoon

• Introduce at least one new character to the story

• Get a more solid idea of what is going to happen

Today I felt a lot more focused, the coffee that I never drink probably helped for the most part, not to mention the delicious lunch I ate. I may need to set the bar higher for tomorrow's goals though.

My first goal was to reach 1666 words by the end of the morning, because if you read my day one post, you would know that hey, I didn't complete my word count for yesterday (BOO!). Thankfully, it was a slow day today and I had plenty of down time at work to get some writing in. I had reached the goal of 1666 words before 9am. I was on a roll!

My second goal was to reach 3333 words, the day two goal for the month and I annihilated it with a smashing 6154 words, nearly doubling my word goal for the day. WOOHOO!!!

I also successfully introduced a new character to my story, his name is Draper Ryan, not that anyone really cares because you don't actually know what my story is about... but the introduction of this character added some clarity to my otherwise loosely planned story. I finally have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen which makes pantsing the actual details a little bit easier. 

I did say I was on a roll right? At 6:30pm, I have plenty of time to continue writing, but I think I might leave it for today and hopefully start tomorrow on a good note like today was. If I can keep this up I'll be stoked. But the wrimo in me laughs and says I'll hit a wall around 20,000 -30,000 again. This is why I get ahead when I can!

Goals for Day Three:

• Get to 6666 words before the morning is through
• Finish the day with more than 8500 words
• Address the brewing conflict head on
• Introduce another character
• Add a party... cause everyone likes parties.

Mood after day two of Nanowrimo:

If this is how every day is for the rest of the month, I can deal with it.

Camp Nanowrimo: Day 01

Well it's April second and if you like to write you probably already know that it's day two of April Camp Nanowrimo. I think I'm going to do periodic updates this month could be fun to come back and see what my attitude was and how it changes throughout the month.

So with day one behind us here's what I accomplished:


Well, actually I have mixed feelings about yesterday. I broke 1000 words but I didn't break the 1666 words to stay on track for the month. I just came back from a trip where I didn't have a computer for days so my focus went out the window. I got way too distracted by the internet in all of it's glory. Excuses. I could have probably pumped out another 500 words and I chose not to.

Not off to a good start.

I didn't get too far into my story, but already I know this month will be interesting if I can just keep with it. My characters have already decided to meet in a manner different than how I had originally planned. Which means that although my idea this camp was to do a mix of planning and pantsing it's looking like a lot more pantsing and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I'm not worried yet, but I think this month is going to be a lot more difficult than November where I had decided to get back into writing with a fanfiction. I hope I don't regret my decision to write an original piece.

Goals for Day Two:

• Get to 1666 before the morning is over
• Get to 3333 by the afternoon
• Introduce at least one new character to the story
• Get a more solid idea of what is going to happen

Mood after day one:

... well this could be problematic.

Bookstore Adventures! - Mini Haul 01

I finally got out of this boring place and visited beautiful British Columbia! Besides taking like a million pictures, it being my first time seeing the mountains and all, there were a few things on my list that weren't really trip related. Well, one thing: visit Chapters. You see, the city I currently call home only has a Coles and if you're from Canada you'll know the difference immediately, for anyone who doesn't let me explain. Coles, Chapters, Indigo are all the same company but Chapters and Indigo are their big stores, in some cities multiple floors of books in one place. Coles is like the sparks notes of Chapters, small, always found in malls and carry only really newer books but you can find a bit of everything there. They get picked over quick and the selection is limited of course if they don't have it though, they can order it for you. 

Chapters, Chapters has all kinds of books which means lots of books go on sale so naturally, I went straight to those. Coming away with five books, four of which were hard covers for a whopping $23.00 I felt pretty accomplished. 

Here's what I got:

 Top to Bottom:

The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes

Which takes place during the war. A girl gets news that her brother has gone missing in the field believed to be dead. She lies about her age and gets herself sent over as a nurse all while secretly searching for the truth about her brother.

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Taking place in the 1920's our main character has the power to read the future. Desperate to keep it a secret from her mother a fake illusionist who would cash out on her powers she finds herself between a rock and a hard place when her visions show her mother in peril. 

Sounds similar to Libba Bray's Diviner's world.

The Red Queen Dies by Frankie Y. Bailey

Taking place in the near future of 2019 soldiers are administered a drug called lullabye to help them cope with post traumatic stress in fact it takes the memories away. So when a murder occurs and the star witness has taken one how do they solve the case? Apparently with clues from the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

A widowed empty nester lives in a beach house on the outskirts of town growing older everyday she doesn't question when a woman shows up on her doorstep claiming to be a care worker. Later she realizes this may not be the case but she's already let the woman in and now she searches for answers. *I got this because it has a gorgeous cover. 

The Host by Stephenie Meyer 

I have always enjoyed this book, so when I saw it for a nice $6.99 I couldn't leave it. 

Aliens come to Earth and take humans as their hosts, but not expecting the emotions and the whirlwind of humanity it's only a matter of time before complications occur. 

Have you guys got any good deals on books lately? The non-sale price of my books here would have been well over $100.00 which is crazy to think about. Where do you guys find good book deals?