An excerpt..."As long as I have someone who knows what they’re doing I should be fine right? Wrong. Right before we turn the corner a stream of light illuminates the carpet. A guard must have heard us, and is now shining a flashlight directly in our path. “Hello?” a squeaky voice questions nervously. No doubt a new kid on the job. A new kid guarding the princess? I’m almost offended, but then realize the only person he is guarding me from right now is myself. I’m almost frightened as Asher raises his voice. “Gary calm down. It’s just me.” Gary sighs and walks back to his previous perch at the bottom of the staircase. “Gosh Asher, I just don’t ever know how careful to be.” He sounds so nervous, I wonder why he chose to be a guard. “I just was fixing my boot bud.” Asher reiterates. “Maybe you should get some sleep.” Gary fumbles with his flashlight, trying to get it to turn off but manages it to turn to a flashing mode that would give someone a serious headache if you stared at it for long enough. I almost groan but realize it would give me away, so I hide my pain by grabbing my shorts and squinting my eyes." My progress...This week I hit 40,000 words, leaving me with two weeks to write 15,000 words. I had originally planned to have two weeks at the end of my project to edit what I had written, but it turns out writing a book takes a lot more time then I thought it would. I'm a little frustrated at the entire process, as I'm no longer enjoying writing everyday.
One of the main problems I have had throughout this entire process is that writing feels like a chore. I normally love to write and read; spending my free time coming up with different plots for fictional stories. While writing this book, I have found that the idea of having to hit a word count everyday makes it feel two things; 1.) Like I am not doing a good job. 2.) That I constantly have something that I need to be doing. (RIP mental health) 3.) That I am just putting words on a page, like they don't mean anything. These thoughts I have tried to push out of my mind. It is only my first draft, and it doesn't have to be perfect. I obviously wish I had a lot more time before I needed to hit 55,000 words, but I don't. This means that throughout my whole project I have had to stay extremely motivated writing my book, along with working hard in school and at dance. Overall it has been a challenge, but I'm starting to feel proud of myself.
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An excerpt...“Why how are you miss- are you okay?” he says with a startle. I hadn’t realized how bad I must look, mascara smudged everywhere. My lipstick is probably not much better. “Oh, I’m great.” I end the conversation there, in hopes to avoid all further questions. Yet still he persists. He is a nerdy little dude, with big black framed glasses bordering his bright blue eyes. His voice is a little squeaky, as if he has to pinch off the end of his words. He is wearing a lovely black tux, but walks as if he’s naked. As awkward as he is, I have no sympathy. My Progress...I HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO. Online school has no mercy. Overall I have only accomplished around 5,000 words this week and I am not happy. Today, Saturday the 22nd is set to be one of my "spam days" where I will actually have time to sit down and write. I'll be sure to come back and edit this post as soon as I finish writing for today. I am stressed out, and all I want to do is edit. It feels like the end product isn't really forming, even as I am increasing the word count. As I scroll through my document to get to where I want to work for today, I find myself getting distracted by the issues in previous segments I have written. As a solution, I have started typing on separate documents to prevent myself from scrolling up. Useful Resources...I have found a program called "Write or Die" and it is made to make sure you keep writing consistently in a span of 30 minutes. Grammarly is also a website that has been a lifesaver for my academic papers in the past. I hope to use this site when going back and making my first draft cleaner. Last but certainly not least Hank Green's writing advice and his TikTok page has provided me with lots of useful advice.
An Excerpt...I turn on the alarm, code 1229. The day my grandma died. I’m not totally sure why we made the code so depressing. I mean at least we won’t forget it. My grandma was always the happiest person. She loved pancakes, llamas, and the color purple. She was smart too. When she was my mom’s age, she studied biology in college. She was amazing, publishing many research papers and getting lots of attention from other major scientists. That’s of course how she met my grandfather, Patrick, but sadly he passed away before I was even born. Then due to budget cuts, and my grandma’s lack of motivation after Patrick died, she began to stop her research. My Progress...I've officially abandoned NaNoWriMo, as it is so challenging to write every single day. I've found the best way for me to write is to sit down for hours at a time. Of course this is also a challenge because I have to find the time to write. As were nearing the end of the project, I'm a little panicked. I have around 32,000 words, but I still feel so far away from my goal. The books is taking shape, and I am starting to see more potential in this rushed first draft. I have found several resources where I can read about other author's experiences (when I have the time to read). They have been very useful in determining how to reach my goal in a timely manner. This something I plan to experiment with next week. My issues with NaNoWriMo...Specifying on what I said in the paragraph above, I am abandoning NaNoWriMo. Throughout this whole process of writing my first draft, I have found myself longing to spend more time writing fewer words. I've also wished I had a stronger plan to begin with, as it is very challenging to keep track of the plot and all the little details. I felt like the word count was honestly slowing me down. The more I checked the word count, the less motivated I was to write. And I have definitely not been writing everyday. I have been working a lot on weekends, writing around 3,000-5,000 words a day. During the week with online school, zoom meetings, dance, writing a book has been EXTREMELY HARD.
Progress...This week was my first week of NaNoWriMo and it was INSANE. Writing 1,667 words a day is no easy task, and I didn't do very well. I found myself uninspired to write. I would sit at the computer and stare at the writing I had already accomplished, but no new thoughts were coming to mind. I successfully did two full days writing over 3,500 words for both of those days. For the other days I didn't keep track of my word count as I didn't write much at all. Problems and Solutions...I have run into the problem of word count putting a whole other layer of stress on my project. I would check my word count every five minutes, just for it to stay the same. I have developed a system of writing on a blank document until I hit 1,000 words, and then copy and pasting it into my final product. For some reason it feels like I am getting my work done a lot faster, along with the numbers seeming much less intimidating. A segment...“Tell me what is going on. Now. You promised.” I say, tears welling up in my eyes.
“I’m afraid I am not allowed to. Madam Stage will inform you on our next steps, but for now I have to leave.” I grab him by the shirt before he can turn. “Wait, at least tell me where I am. Where’s Quinn and Monica?” As Asher cups his hand into mine a worried expression flashes across his face. “Monica and Quinn are in jail. They’re about to post bail.” I gasp. “Why did they get arrested? It wasn’t even our fault!” “The drivers of both cars are being held for an incident that happened after the accident. Monica got in a pretty nasty fight. Quinn, being Quinn, tried to defend her. He almost killed somebody.” Monica ruins everything, she always brings her own personal issues into things. Now one of the only people I still trust in my life is in jail. Asher turns to leave again, I start to sob. A segment..."I scan out through the bug stained windshield and gasp, we were never meant to see this. Ever since we were young we were taught not to go beyond the borders of Meliora, as what lies beyond them is unthinkable. Criminals, crooks, abusers, rapists, and of course the homeless were shipped out of the city and into the barren land that lies outside of the main population. We have always been told to fear this place and all of its contents. To combat this fear the government decided to build a wall. The wall spans all the way around Meliora and the outer reefs which reach five miles off of the coast. The wall was nicknamed “ad captandum vulgus”, which is Latin for “to captivate the mob”. " My overdue return...Over the past few weeks I have not been posting on my Blog. I have run into an issue. It feels like I have NOTHING to write about. Everything has been going smoothly with the writing process, and I have luckily found myself running into zero issues. Today I find myself at 25,000 words, and it is officially the start of NaNoWriMo. If I successfully complete NaNoWriMo I will have 75,000 words before the start of December which is astounding to me. I thought this was something I would never accomplish. NaNoWriMo: Planning, Goals, Process, and more...NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place during the month of November. Novelists of all ages are encouraged to take on the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month. This means writing a total of 1,667 words per day. I previously calculated just how fast I write and on a good day I can shell out 1,000 words in an hour. I will have to designate around two hours to write each and everyday on top of everything else I have to do in a day.
I have taken the last few days to plan out my goals. I really want to push myself to write every single day in November, as I can then spend the last few weeks editing. I am also pushing myself to add some more of a backstory into my writing, as it has been kind of bland in the last few chapters. Another goal of mine is to research formatting and exactly how I am supposed to separate my dialogue from my descriptions. Every week I want to make a collage of daily word count goals. I hope that it will look something like this: |
AuthorMy progress, thoughts, and questions. Archives |