writing

NaNo Prep: Free Write

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NaNo on Facebook gave us a prompt a few minutes ago to free write for 5 minutes. I’m supposed to be writing for thirty minutes a day, but probably won’t get that far before work, so this will likely be very short. I’ve created a new account on the NaNo website, so I can completely divorce myself from the previous appellation I was using after my breakup. It’s a very freeing thing for me, to completely remove all traces of that name from my world. The next step I need to take for that is a burning ritual, but that can be done on the next new moon. I think a new moon is a better time for such a ritual, since it signifies new beginnings to me.

I’ve been thinking about what I want to write this year for NaNoWriMo. I’m considering something in the world I started in last year, but I’ve decided that that world needs a -lot- of building before I can write in it effectively. I need to know more about it in order to expand the stories. It’s possible to make the single novel into a series, and I tried to leave the ending such that it led to a second novel, though I’m not certain I did so terribly well. Perhaps I’ll practice writing series’ of short stories this month, in preparation for a longer series of novels/novellas.

April Intentions

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I’ve already written once about my intentions for writing in April once, but I thought I’d revisit that topic again, since it’s a little closer to April First, and I’ve clarified a few things in my head.

I am going to be attempting participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this year. It will be my first year doing Camp NaNo, but I’m coming off the heels of a NaNoWriMo win in November so I have high hopes. One thing that may help me with it is that the word count goal is flexible for Camp NaNo – I can choose anything from 10k words upwards. I had started thinking I might set 33,333 words (because the title of my collection is ‘Thirty-Three Words’) as my goal, but I may have to drop that back because I may be working a lot more starting next month. (Yay!)

I also want to do NaPoWriMo, which is the poetry version of NaNoWriMo. I haven’t been writing much of anything lately (I’ve been doing much more knitting and spinning than writing), so it may be difficult for me to do both, but poetry is one thing I definitely love, and I don’t want to let that slide just because I’m writing short stories for a while.

Something I did last April was A-Z April which was hosted at Haiku Heights. Sadly, that blog has closed, but I think I might do it on my own. I really like themes, and at least if I’m posting one little poem a day it encourages me to sit down and write. Also, I enjoy haiku. I’ve written a fair bit of it. I even did a small series of fairy tales rewritten as haiku. I could certainly continue that, or do another themed set … or several.

2014 Month-by-Month Writing Plans

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January:

  • Start organizing existing poetry into collections/themes
  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

February:

  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

March:

  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

April:

May:

June:

  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

July:

August:

  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

September:

  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

October:

November:

  • NaNoWriMo
  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

December:

  • Submit poetry to 4-6 journals/magazines (Keep notes!)

Dictation

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I have a wonderful sister. I didn’t know this until I got older, but she really is very wonderful. She just recently had a baby, who is now four months old, and has managed to quit her job so that she can do photography full-time. She asked Jason and I this year what we would like for Christmas; actually she asked me what Jason might like and asked Jason what I might like. I gave her several ideas, and apparently he gave her several ideas as well. I didn’t think much about it until I received a box in the mail a couple of days ago.

My sister, who I tormented for much of her childhood, bought me Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Christmas. She got it for me so that I could dictate my writing instead of having to type it. It is probably one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received. I haven’t worked with it much, although I am typing this post using it at the moment, but already I am enjoying how it works. I’ve gotten a little used to voice recognition software because of the iPhone, so it’s not too hard to learn especially with the punctuation. I think what I’m most going to have to get used to is actually dictating what I’m writing. It feels a little weird to be saying what I mean to be typing. I’m sure that I’ll get used to it however and I’m confident that it will eventually be an excellent tool for my writing.

Twilight Garden Progress

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Now that I’ve finally managed to pay for my Scrivener license, I have been able to keep writing on the novel I started during NaNoWriMo. I’m over 60k words now, with probably 2 chapters to finish. Then, it gets put away while I work on another story that’s been begging to be written for a couple years now. I’ve allowed one person to read the rough draft, though there are a few others I’m ready to give it to as well. I’m very anxious about it, honestly, because I feel like most of what I wrote is a pile of messy garbage, but I’m too close to it, I know that.

Now that I own the program, I’m using it to help me organize my poetry too. I’ve got a lot, and if I’m ever going to publish any of it, I need to be able to put it in collections. So that’s another project I’m going to be beginning in the coming weeks. I have a lot of writing projects planned, in fact, which is what I want to do. That, and knitting. But I talk about that elsewhere.

Winner Winner

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2013-Winner-Facebook-Cover
As of today at around 2:30pm, I have written over 50,000 words. My novel is not complete, and I will keep writing until it is (that’s part of the deal I made with myself when I started this adventure) but I have officially won my first NaNoWriMo. After trying (not-so) seriously for 4 years. I’m so extremely proud of myself.

Several people have asked me where they can read the full text of the novel. I haven’t posted that anywhere yet. For one thing, 50k is a lot of text, and I don’t know how WordPress will handle that. Second, it’s not done, and I’m not sure I’m ready to post it. It needs editing. Really. This is the first time I’ve written anything that I didn’t edit as I went. It’s the first I’m I’ve written anything that I wouldn’t immediately submit. I wouldn’t offer this as a finished anything. It’s done, but certainly not finished – and it’s not even really done.

So I will post it to be read at some point, but for the moment I haven’t done that yet. As I edit sections probably, I’ll post them to be read. I won’t even worry about final editing before I do that, because I want other people’s opinions, not my own. I know this story is somewhat indulgent and likely droll, but it was my first attempt at writing anything substantial in -forever- so I really just wanted to get it written.

I’m going to go do something else for a bit. Knit. Cuddle my cat. Watch television. I might watch the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special again. And again. I’ll write more tomorrow I’m sure. I’m in the habit of it, and I still have more to say. But right now, I’m basking in the glory of such an immense accomplishment. I might even have a drink, before 5pm. Yeah, I just might.

That’s Fan-ficky.

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So, as I’m sitting here prepping for NaNoWriMo I came across some folks wrting about some woman named Diana Gabaldon, and who she raised a stink about fanfic. I don’t write fanfic, but I sometimes enjoy reading it. It’s fluff, admittedly, and a little bit cheating if you want to be a writer, but if your only goal is to explore the ‘what-ifs’ of a particular genre then why not?

What got me is reading some of Ms Gabaldon’s responses to the usual arguments for fan-fic writing. In particular, this little gem: “I mean, who _didn’t_ take a moment to contemplate what it would have been like if Elizabeth Swann had kissed Jack Sparrow instead of staying with Orlando Bloom?”

Really, Ms Gabaldon? Did you really just suggest that the -character- Elizabeth Swann kissed the -actor- Orlando Bloom? Uh huh. Do you truly expect people to take you seriously when you make a gaff like that?

Sorry, that sounds a little fan-fic-y to me.

Fallow Field

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I have not been writing.
I feel as though all of my words will say one thing
that they will continue to gaze back longingly
at days that have already happened.
All of my life I have focused on
what-would-have-beens
instead of seeking
what-might-bes.
And so I have not been writing.
I will not give myself permission to look back.
Instead I pass my days as they come
living in them
each as a treasured piece of who I am
and of who I have become.

getting through a dry spell

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it appears that writing every day for a month wore me out. i am dry as a desert. wordless.

that’s not entirely true, of course. but it’s been hard for me lately, with my rapidly fluctuating work schedule and other things going on in my personal life to sit down and shut everything else out and just write. for a month and a half, while it’s felt odd to me that i haven’t written, i haven’t felt it important enough to shut out the world and do it. this is coupled by a problem with my laptop’s keyboard … that problem being that my left shift, tab, and caps lock keys don’t work. it’s the shift key that gets me, because it’s how i capitalize. if you’ll notice, nothing in this post is capitalized, because it’s too outside my typing method to properly capitalize things using the right shift key.

with all this said, i miss writing. i’ve recently begun using 750-words again, and am using it to work on a story i started some time back. i’m reworking it, because it’s hard for me to get back into that moment once it’s passed, and i don’t feel i made the right choices for the story anyway. i need to write from a place that i know and understand for now, not something well outside my realm.

with things sort-of settled down here – work is behaving a bit better, and nerd wars well on its way and i don’t need to babysit it quite so much, though i do need to spend some time knitting and spinning – i will have more time for the other things that occupy my mind. those things are writing, and my obod studies, and i hope to be back in the habit of both by july. perhaps not as prolific as i was in april, but i want to write. i need to write. i will write.

“Why I Write”

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putting pen to paper
fingers to keys
bares (bears) my heart and soul
to any who care to read
it purges the mental and emotional
garbage I’ve fed on
relieving that nauseated feeling in my brain
I write to find my path
through the maze of my own tangles
to illuminate reality
I write to pull myself out of pits
and ravines I’ve trod in my own psyche
building ladders and stairways
to a more balanced place