NaNoWriMo Site is Back!

This morning at around 1 am PST the NaNoWriMo site reset! It's got all sorts of neat widgets now and the new images to spread around the internet and now you can upload the profile for this year's novel, and I'm pretty darn excited! :D I've been waiting almost two weeks for this now, dangit. (Well technically I've been waiting all year, but I think it's pretty well agreed I'm obsessed with NaNoWriMo *cough*

So I've posted my novel and uploaded the description (which has changed a little bit and will probably change again before the 30C30D contest is up and running). And I've also requested some art that should hopefully come within the next day! (they promised they would, anywho)

And speaking of art, I've done some! Haven't posted much art lately so you've probably forgotten I can do that stuff, but here! It's of my MC, Alivia!

What? Oh shoot. That's Quorra, my little terror of a fuzzbucket. She has a slight obsession with standing/sitting/lying on paper. We're not entirely sure why. Waited one second for her to move (at which point she jumped to the chair in front of the desk...)

...and that's Alivia. Not quite finished, still need to pencil in the rest of the background and actually color the darn thing, but I'm pretty pleased so far. Have to decide whether or not she needs a shirt (she's not actually exposing anything...)

But yeah! I'll post an actual picture once it's finished, and once I've decided it's safe to scan a watercolor/ink painting! :3 See you soon, when I have more news to share! :D

FIRST POST OF OCTOBER! (first post in a while, too)

Yeah, sorry about that.  *cough* Forgive meh?

ANYWHO. Nanowrimo begins in just a little under a month! 8D Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh! I'm so excited! "Twenty thousand words and I'm feeling awesome!~"*

So what is Nano? I feel like maybe I've already covered this in a blog already. Hrmm. *checks* It seems I have, but it was in a blog post at the beginning of August. Two months ago. And it wasn't very much.

NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month. For a long time I thought 'Novel' was replaced with 'November' because that's the month it's based in and I was in high school and didn't even know there was a whole non-profit/program/website/LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE surrounding the whole thing. Yeah, I was pretty oblivious. The goal is to write at least 50k words in one entire month.

I've been trying it since November, and last year I finally won! I was incredibly determined to get the discounts winners receive for completing the month (these discounts are donated by various writing groups/companies) and I got Scrivener for half off! Usually it's $40, but I got it for $20. :D I was also determined to finally win for once, and I wasn't going to let any of my usual hangups get in the way.

Writing that 50k not only helped me realize how utterly achievable writing a novel was, but that I might actually achieve my dream of publishing a real book. I want to have a modest apartment in a big city like Chicago, Boston, or even New York, and NaNoWriMo helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then I realized that most novels were longer. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is 76,944 words long. The word count for The Hunger Games (first book) tends to vary depending on which blog you research. But they all agree that it's at least 76k.

So because I'm overconfident thanks to my success this last year, I decided to up the ante for this year.

I'm going to write 100k words during November.

WRITING EPICNESS WILL BE HAD.

SO... what am I writing? It has to do with people with special powers, a dystopian government, death, evil regimes, rebellion, LOVE...

It's called...

UNDESIRABLES

**

Alivia Chu was only sixteen when an Undesirable the DSR were chasing blew up the city block her parents were walking in. She never thought to question anything.

Four years later and she was in her second year at University. Her brother was a popular news anchor for the Regime, and she was doing well in her studies. She had dreams of becoming a DSR agent herself to stop the Undesirables and prevent what happened to her parents from happening to other people.

However, one sleepless night she discovers she can control fire. Now an Undesirable herself, she finds herself on the run, aided by a mysterious man and the people she's been raised her whole life to hate and fear. As she moves forward she's forced to question everything she has ever known, including her seemingly perfect brother, her beloved country, and the fate of their parents. And she will discover that she might have always been wrong on who were the good people and who were the bad...

* Nanowrimo Song by Kristina Horner
** Chinese style stock by michelle-long

Wealthy

A beautiful apartment
High up in the sky
Peering out over the city
It's wealthy to the eye

A juicy piece of chicken
Roasting in the Oven
Slathered with barbecue
It smells just like heaven

A concert in the background
Singing in your ears
Surrounding you as you relax
Silencing all your fears

A touch of lemon to your lips
Steam rising from a cup
Three spoons of delicate sugar
Tea lifting your spirits up

Laughter, a sigh, a joke among friends
Filling up your home sweet home
Company, kisses, the hugging of your frame
Never quite solitary, never all alone.

Road Trip Wednesday!

Alright, I know, it's late.  ^^;  I have an excuse, though.  I came down with a cold this weekend! My throat is sore! Yay!  And yeah.

This week's topic: What is the funniest book you've ever read?
The funniest book recently? Probably Hold Me Closer, Necromancer and it's sequel, Necromancing the Stone.  It's quirky, fun, it's chapters are titled with lyrics from (somewhat) older songs.  Everything from 'Brown paper packages tied up with strings' to 'C'mon baby, don't fear the reaper'.  The characters have a very sarcastic sense of humor, and it's set in Seattle, Washington.  I've never been there personally, but I used to live near Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest has a special place in my heart.

All time, though?  The first one to pop into my head was pretty much any Patrick McManus book.  He's the kind of person who can't help writing humor (even when he's not aware of it/doesn't want to).  I heard that when he was in a college writing class he got an 'F' because he was supposed to write a serious memory. It wasn't serious.

So it'd definitely be a great idea to write different styles of storytelling. If it pans out, great! If it doesn't, well, at least you've tried.  :)

DESK!

So I got my new desk!  Yeah, I know I was talking about it excitedly for a little bit (at least, I think so) but then I just didn't mention it for a while.  That was partly because I was finishing up the school term, partly because it's still not quite right--the chair needs to be shorter, and partly because I just got distracted by life, the universe, and other things.

I got it for ten dollars at the local DI (Deseret Industries thrift store.  It's the LDS version of Salvation Army :) ) and it's a drafting table.  I think part of the reason it was left there was because it's a little difficult to adjust the tabletop for drawing, but I wanted it mainly as a regular desk anyway so it's good enough for me.  :)  I've got lots of stuff piled on it and I need to clean up some of the junk that's piled up on the floor again--not as bad as it was, but I don't want it to get out of control again.

There's a silk cat I got from San Francisco China Town, Divergent (the book), my glasses, alarm clock, and pretty much everything except my computer because I'm typing on my bed.  I'm excited through, because I think I'll only need a little bit more time before I can restart on my superhero novel.  I'm also working on the synopsis for my nanowrimo project, and I've got several things planned for it already that's making me very excited.  I've already told you a little bit about it, and I'll definitely post more and more things as November gets closer.  Like a cover for it.  And the title.  Which I have yet to decide for sure.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeee! :)

So right now life is good.  College is going great, and I just got the books I need to catch up on the reading (mostly about Formalist and New Criticism)

I hope life is going well for you guys, too!  If you already have an idea for Nano this fall, tell me!  Tell me also if you haven't!  And most of all, good luck on your endeavors.  :)

Road Trip Wednesday!

Ah!  I totally forgot it was Wednesday!  Eheh!  *looks at clock*  Sorry for it being so late! 

So, um.  Yeah!

This week's topic: What's the best writing advice you've ever received?

I'd have to say that the best writing advice I've ever gotten was don't edit during the first draft.  If I don't do that, I've never gotten past the first chapter of a story.  I keep editing it and revising it until I start getting sick of it or feeling stuck.  I fully believe that's what's happened with Nobody's Hero. 

Sure, it's one thing when you suddenly realize that you sent your character off to the wrong part of the country, but when it comes to the sentences the paragraphs, if you accidentally typed in the wrong color of your hero's jacket... leave that alone until the later drafts.  That's what line editing is once you've got the meat of the story down for. 

So I'm going to go off and finish the reading for my Creative Writing class (it's a beginner one, since the switch to an English major was a recent decision).  Then... more plotting for Nanowrimo.  B)

Writiiiing!

Since I have to get up really early in the morning to test run the bus schedule (to see if I can get to my really early math class on time), I'm posting this blog a little bit early so that it's not forgotten.  :)

The first real thing that I have to say, is... that first story?  The superhero story?  I had to put it aside.  It's not trunked.  I haven't thrown it away never to pick it up again, but I've been working on it since about this time last year, haven't really let myself think much about another story, and like any soup that's been put on a stove to cook for too long, it's become a little burnt.

I've still got a clear idea of where I want it to go, but lately it's been seeming like some giant, unclimbable mountain, and I've also been trying to avoid writing on it even when I've gotten to scenes that I'd previously looked toward with relish. 

So I put it back in the fridge to chill.  And I'm going to allow myself to fully delve into another project.  With werewolves, and magic and storms, odd stores, and of course I'm going to add a little romance.  I'm not going to write a story without romance.  Nope!

Nanowrimo's only two months away.  Last year I started prepping for it about three months before it started.  I got through it *whoo!* and I'm wearing a WINNER! shirt right now!  I've also got that desk I was hoping for (pictures will come soon) and I'm taking a creative writing class this fall as part of my major.  I'm wondering if maybe she'll encourage us all to participate or if she'll even need to, since there's a large contingent of Wrimos in this part of Utah.

I'm excited.  Several of these ideas have been jumbling all incomplete in my mind for years now.  It was going through Erin Morgenstern's website and blog that got me inspired.  While I was reading the raving reviews it got me remembering all the vivid and beautiful scenery the words inspired in my imagination and I wanted to create something that had that flavor.

So I'm going to write a book about werewolves and magic, and throw everything that I love in a tale in it under the sun.  That includes trains.  Circuses may not make the cut, but those are pretty awesome too.

If it doesn't work, that's okay.  It's Nanowrimo.  But I'm going to make my characters walk through hell and have them see many wondrous and terrible things along the way.  What are your plans?  Are you doing Nanowrimo?  Do you have any questions about it?