Jumping into Lake NanoWriMo

Hey everyone! Well I've been officially married for twelve days now. I've moved and been living in the United States for more than two months. That means I should finally be setting into a new routine, right?

Well, almost.

I have actually been opening my Scrivener and writing my documents for the last few days, so that's a plus in getting my "write" back on. I wrote about 4 pages of hand-written notes yesterday, and haven't typed them up yet - but you better believe I'm gonna count that up and add it to my nano word count.

My goal for this month of July, and for Camp Nanowrimo, is to work on my second draft. That means editing, cutting, adding words, and lots of delicious dialogue. However that makes it really hard to give an accurate word-count. I'm going to take my buddy's advice and count the words that I've edited from my original draft, and count that toward my overall count for July. I'm hoping that works out!

The editing has begun

Well today marks the first day in almost a month that I have gone back into my novel and started the amazing editing process. My goal for the second draft is to rearrange, cut, and fill out sections of the novel so the plot makes sense.
Also - to take out passive voice whenever I come across it.

Shiri's Office - The location of chapter one

So far so good - I read quickly through chapter one and easily identified some of the pieces that needed to be rearranged or taken out.

It introduces one of the female main characters, Shiri, and describes a mysterious "accident" that she might have had something to do with. And since everyone knows about it, they are also whispering behind her back. What's a girl to do in summer, while trying to avoid contact with everyone else?

I think though...since I'm the MOST acquainted with the beginning of my story (I've reread and rewrote and rearranged it too many times)....I think when I stared editing tomorrow I'm gonna skip around a bit. Maybe even try expanding on the ending of the book.
Ya know, the part I rushed through just to call the stupid draft completed :P

Well that's enough for now. I want to keep editing time at a minimum every day, so I can keep my "new eyes" perspective as long as I can. Till next time, write on!

My first draft is completed!

It is official!
And I totally feel comfortable with saying this in "virtual" public:  the first draft of my novel is completed! Woo-hoo! I feel pretty proud of myself right now and I'm sitting pretty at:  81,676 words!

Today also marks the day where I've left my first draft alone for two whole weeks! I have been taking notes in my notebook and re-reading the outline I made of the draft - but I've made myself stay away from writing.

And honestly it's true what people say about giving yourself space. I already have new ideas about the story and am more willing to consider alternate possibilities for how it could flow better. I've read on the NanoWriMo forums that it's best to let three weeks pass between your first draft - so I think by the time week three rolls around, I'm gonna be itching to revisit my story and start some revising. I'm excited to take the next step!

Defining the first draft of a book

After all this time writing my first novel, I'm still trying to figure out what the term "first draft" means to me. Because when I find out, then I can FINALLY brag to all my friends and strangers that I've finished one.

I really wish I could do this. Maybe even flip out dancing and record myself singing k-pop songs to show the world my excitement. 

        

So what is stopping me from having a completed first draft? 

1)  Not enough character dialogue

2)  Too much info dumping

I spent a good deal of time on my November nano making all my scenes as perfect as I could get them. I fleshed out the character interactions and made cute dialogues between them. Most of the writing I put on my blog as excerpts, because it was actually worthy of other people reading them.             

When November ended, I wrote 50k and didn't even reach the halfway point into my story. What on earth did I babble about that whole time? Most of all, I failed to get my first draft.  

        Then camp rolled around in April. 

My main goal was to get to the freaking end of the story. I didn't care any more about people's stupid conversations. I didn't care if they wanted to reveal the most important scene in the book - I just wanted it to be over. 

        So I skipped all the dialogue. I info-dumped my way to glory and just put as little "creative" effort into writing my scenes as possible. So right now, at this moment, do I have a first draft?

        Sigh. 

No. At least, I can't allow myself to think that a scene like this is worthy of the title "first draft:"

REALLY BAD

        The group is thrown into a very strange world - the sky is cloudy and constantly raining. There is no light from sun, moon, or stars.
        At first, the group appears at a very large circular train station, although it is strangely empty. Not a soul. A train approaches the station and almost flies past, until it stops and backs up, opening a door for the group members. The look around suspiciously…but step on the train anyway
       The train is filled with a few people dressed in two different outfits: suits or construction gear. They sit erect, not moving. Either holding their briefcases or construction equipment in their laps.
       At first, they group starts questioning some of the people on the train about the man they saw at the gate. At his description the people don’t say anything and just keep on with their business. Everyone is just blase. 

Like....I would call this a rough draft. I still need to go back and at least put some dialogue or description to upgrade this dump of words into a "first draft."
        Right?
A better example of a scene that I would call a first draft is more like this:

BETTER

       
         Before Jason could process what kind of question that was, the golden warrior poked him in the forehead. She wiggled her finger up and down, stretching the skin between his eyebrows. She hummed to herself and raised her eyebrows, like she was trying to figure out what species Jason was.
        “Hey what are you doing?” Jason asked and slowly moved his head out of the woman’s pointy finger. “Yeah I’m human. I hope we’re all humans. Right guys?” 
         “Totally human over here too,” Isaac offered. 
         Shiri nodded with skeptic enthusiasm. Neither one of them made an attempt to help Jason or walk a little closer to scare the weird woman away. Their amount of courage melted Jason’s heart. 
         The woman stopped poking him in the head. She removed her finger and sniffed it, hopefully satisfied with her personal inspection. Bright golden colors swirled back into her eyes, and her smile revealed a set of white and perfect teeth. 
         “Truly? I knew this day would come, but so many years have passed. I…Forgive me,” she interrupted herself and let her sword sink back into its sheath. She grasped both Jason’s hands in a warrior’s grip. “Welcome, children of men. My name is Sun, guardian of Justice. I have been sent to watch for your arrival.”
 

So right now, I'm stuck on a conundrum. I finally finished my story - every scene is labeled, outlined, in order, and has a minimum of 200 words describing what should happen in it. 

        However. 

Only half my story is composed of fleshed out scenes like the "better" example I posted above. The rest of them are info-dumped and oh boy, are they in need of some serious help. And it's gonna take a lot of motivation to go and finish a "first draft" of all those scenes, just so I can be officially done with the first draft of the entire book. 

        Let's not even talk about editing yet, shall we?

        If you can, please let me know. Am I crazy?

        

Do other people put this much thought into what constitutes a first draft? Is it always different depending on what type of story you are writing? When can I finally celebrate that the first wave of difficulty is over....?

Just let me know in the comments and that would be super helpful :D

Happy Thursday and write on!

Who are the characters in my novel?

        What a good question, you might ask! Or might not, but I'm gonna tell you anyway.
        Let's just say I have a group of three main characters who move the story along in my book, and for the longest time, I was fighting against myself on who was the number one main character. The girl? The guy? That other side-kick, comedy guy?
         Honestly I had no idea.
        But luckily for me, I'm writing a third-person POV in the past tense. I have total, absolute freedom to write from any viewpoint I want. Since I've never written anything before, I guess it's understandable that I didn't even know I could do that for the longest time. I was so caught up on all the "beginner" writing advice that I read on the internet: that you should try to write from one character's point of view in your first story. It's easy to get into and could practice learning how to write.
        Pshhh. Of course when I ignored that and just wrote a scene from whichever character I wanted, the story flowed much better and my characters could talk together in new ways.
        I'm babbling.

        The point of all this is to introduce my three main characters to you! In my novel called "Recreated" (check this last blog post if you want to read the summary), my characters start on a journey to discover a friend's lost family. That's how they get themselves trapped in a new world.

Here they are: 

Jason
Mostly main character. At least he
was for about 6 years :P

Shirina
Our beautiful female lead

Isaac
Loyal friend and has a hard crush
<-- on our lovely lady here

Jason

Like the picture says, Jason was the main character I've always had in my head since this story began way back when. Basically he's a mechanic for futuristic machines and he has a knack for just being plain curious. He goes out to inspect the ruins of the last civilization, which suddenly disappeared without a trace. No one in the present age knows what happened to their ancestors or why they were left behind...

Shirina

The story actually starts off when Jason decides to help her find her birth parents. She was found alone in the woods as a child. Completely alone. She can't remember how she got there and to this day, wants more than anything to know where she came from and who her parents really are. 

Isaac

Best friend of Jason, and has a huge crush on Shiri. The three of them hang out a lot and have a lot of fun. Isaac is the oldest and has a sense of loyalty to protect his friends. He considers himself "the strong guy" and wants people to depend on him...where really he's just afraid of being alone. 

Technical art rights shennanigins

Aren't they just lovely? 

But for technical purposes I gotta say this: Jason was a character design I paid for and is copyrighted to my company Arc Interactive. If you use him, I'll hunt you down :/

The other two images of Shirina and Isaac I found on deviantart and claim no rights to them - however I didn't save the links, so I can't link you to the artist pages. Sorree.

I hope you like this rambling of my characters and the next blog post will describe more of the world they come from - a neo-futuristic version of our Earth about 200 years from now. Oooo, mysterious!

Happy Friday and write-on!

Why am I writing a novel anyway?

~ Prologue~

If you've taken a dive into the past of this blog, you'll see that it got started right before November 2014. You guessed it - I started blogging right before National Novel Writing Month hit last year. I was super excited and a little bit nervous to attempt writing a book for the first time in my life.

And since I'm such an organizer and planner, I thought I should "take notes" on my writing experience. What better way to do that than start a blog? Then if I actually learn something useful, perhaps I can pass it on to other first-time wrimos (<-- that's the cool term for people that write during NaNoWriMo. Ching!)

Now some time has passed and I've just finished up a smaller event that took place in April (which I totally won - booyah). Camp NaNoWriMo is just to get reconnected to writing, maybe plot out a new story buzzing in your head, or take the time to edit your November draft.

So. It's taken about six months-ish for me to realize that I never really...explained...what my novel is about, my characters, or what the heck is supposed to happen. I guess that's because I didn't really know myself. Until now that is!

"Princess of Tragedy"
Click image to find author on deviantart

Super Cool Novel Stats:

Title:          "Recreated"

Genre:         Sci-fi / Fantasy  

Audience:    Young Adult (YA)

Wordcount:   59,227
Nanowrimo profile:   theoneawaited

<---- Cover image I used for NaNoWriMo 2014

Summary:
Originally starting their quest to discover a friend's lost family, a close group of heroes soon discover a whole new realm which has existed alongside the human world for centuries. This parallel realm gives substance to things unseen, an unstable breeding ground for both darkness and power. Our group learns how to gain the help of good spirits, and battle the evil that is spreading through the world. Time is counting down as the planet breathes its last. Can our group of heroes find a way to save their world?

~ How did this story come to be? ~

So basically, I grew up wanting to develop video games, namely role-playing games. I loved getting wrapped up in the characters and virtual story-telling that I could experience through the gaming media. That led me to take some "Game Design" classes as a minor during my college years and I LOVED developing game ideas, along with the story and characters to support the game worlds. 

So while I spent all my college years learning how to design and develop video games, I never really thought I was any good at "writing" the stories. My brainstorming capabilities ARE legendary, mind you, but actually plotting and finishing a story so it made sense? I didn't think I could do that. 

Of course all things seen are subject to change :)

During my last year at Full Sail University, we needed to make a game project as our "thesis", so to speak. I worked in a team to make a game, but it also got me thinking about the ultimate RPG I wanted to make for myself. With characters I liked, a little romance on the side-lines, tons of boss fights, and an epic battle against fate itself. 

I held onto that story since 2007. 

In my own mind, I wanted to turn it into a game and that's all it was good for. I developed the story as much as I needed to in terms of gameplay. But...life takes over, you know?

Developing a game on your own takes a lot of time, effort, and cash. 

And my story just sat there. 

It was only during October 2014 that I even heard of NaNoWriMo. And the challenge of writing 50,000 words - a FIRST DRAFT OF A NOVEL - was something I instantly wanted to do. No questions were asked. I signed up for that contest and I was determined to write what used to be my dream role-playing game into a novel. 

~ Six months later and I've learned a lot ~

...and unfortunately I haven't finished my first draft yet. But I'm helluva lot closer than I used to be.

Let me tell you - changing a game document into a book is hard work. I wrote three chapters of what I thought to be cool events until I realized...I just wrote a game tutorial. Like...it made no sense to the book. It just "happened" because that's how it happens in games.

Seriously, normal people just don't pick up a sword and decide to battle monsters they've never seen before. Then afterwards they totally know three sword techniques, how to side-step and roll to the left to avoid enemy attacks.
>_>

But participating in Camp this April has really helped me to cut all the gameplay scenes in my novel and replace them with actual storytelling. I feel more in touch with my characters than I ever have before. The coolest part is that writing my story as a book has revealed more plot twists and conflict than I ever could have planned out myself. I'm so happy where the story is going.

That's about all I can ramble on today about my novel writing. The next blog I'll get into some world-building and more story-specific information.

Until then, happy Monday and write on!

An amazing end to Camp NanoWrimo

Well here are the final results for Camp NanoWriMo! It was a roller-coaster of a writing month and my entire cabin did an excellent job racing toward the finish line. I had so much fun sprinting with my cabin buddies on the weekends and sending little messages on our cabin page. Wouldn't it be cool if you could organize groups like that for November too? 

Now the month is over and a new May is upon us. Looking back at how far I've come with my novel just motivates me to keep on writing until it's done. I've learned a lot of things during this Camp:

1. Even with an outline and planning out each chapter, actually writing the scene still surprises me. And I've had good surprises - more conflict appears as my characters talk to each other, unexpected events make them learn how to survive in my world. It's becoming a real story and not a series of plot points. 
2. Info dumping in a first draft is okay. I have learned to give myself the freedom to write the scene as I see it, skip dialogue if I need to, and just do my best to move the scene forward. It gives me a great sense of progress. 
3. Writing every day is more important than the number of words that come out. This month I've kept a steady momentum of either taking hand-written notes, fleshing out my character profiles, or just simply writing a next scene. By doing so, I keep moving forward. 
4. Scrivener is awesome :D  It keeps all my scribbles organized
5. Cabin buddies are awesome!  Writing with a group also keeps me motivated to continue!

Let's do a little recap of how my novel is actually doing:

My entire manuscript to date:   55,794  words

Total scenes (instead of chapters):  85

Estimated number of words to finish the novel:  ....still around 20k

So where am I with my actual writing? 

THE MIDDLE

If I look chronologically at my novel, counting all the scenes that have been fully written, I'm right in the mid-point of my story. The point of no return, where the characters encounter a problem they can't ignore and make the decision to dedicate themselves to finding a solution.

Overall, I've planned all my scenes out, and each one that hasn't been written yet has at least 200 words of a basic outline. So I know how the rest of it goes, I have plot twists planned, an epic battle with the bad guy, and even introducing a new character towards the end (<-- which totally means I'm planning on a sequel, because this new character will be another MC).

Looking at how much I've written and the story is only "half" complete....I won't even entertain the thoughts of doubt or wondering how many words I'll have to cut. Because you know what? I've learned that THOSE things will come anyway.

I can always fix my story and edit it later - but I can't do anything with a blank page. 

Thus my novel writing will continue into the month of May. I'll reset my awesome progress bar here on my blog, making a new goal of 20,000 words this month. It was totally easy to smash through that in April, so that will be my new default writing goal. After I finish writing this blog post, I'm gonna copy/paste all the notes I took with my ipad into my manuscript. 

Yay for new word count!

I think....the next blog post I do will be about my characters. Maybe I'll post their headshot images and some character profiles. Honestly I don't know if I've really talked about what my novel is on my blog, just because I've wanted to figure that out for myself first. But now....yeah.....I think I can start showing off some novel-ly type things. We'll see what the next post will bring. 

Anyways, happy May and keep on writing!

Camp Nano - Deleting chapters makes progress!

Do not fear the title, fellow readers.
A couple days ago my inner-organizer tapped me on the shoulder and successfully pulled off a distraction. It pointed out that my chapters were all weird lengths and didn't end at appropriate cut-off points. It annoyed me by saying it didn't match my outline anymore. That voice was just...making me crazy.

I shut that little voice up by deleting my chapter folders in my Scrivener project. (<---- Example image woot )

Victory was mine! I no longer have to wonder if a scene should be in chapter 12 or 14 because guess what? I don't have chapters anymore! All I have now are a list of scenes labeled with the character POV.

Organization can still be found, as I categorized my scenes by the Three Act Structure, with sub-folders dictating the beginning, middle, and end of each act.

But this puts an end to an experiment I had tried for the past three months - can I successfully plan out how many chapters I need and thus, sort the appropriate scenes into those chapters before I write them?

And the answer is no. No way.

Once I get into the motion of writing again, brand new scenes and conversations pop up that I couldn't plan for. And honestly the story comes out better that way! Camp has really taught me that allowing myself freedom while writing makes it easier to continue my story and it is actually fun!
I can experiment with my scenes because I'm not trying so hard to make them fit my perfect little outline
....which obviously wasn't so perfect if I needed more chapters anyway.
Live and learn, right?

Later today I'll be helping my cabin mates bunker down and finish the rest of their word counts with sprints, prompts, and other writing shenanigans. For two whole hours! I'm spent the morning figuring out the scenes I want to work on myself and I'm feeling pretty prepared.

So seriously, if I play my cards right I could complete ACT TWO TODAY!!!!

Craziness! That's two-thirds of my first draft done! And all those words are ones I like and the story fits the plot. 

After climbing the mountain of words I've already written, at this point, I can actually see the ending of my novel in the far distance. It's an actual place, it's real! Not some Narnia fantasy world that I've dreamed up and then been tricked as it disappears back into the wardrobe.
Oh no. Not this time.

I can reach if I just keep going, so it's time refill my coffee cup, blare some k-pop and continue to write until this manuscript is finished!

!!! ~ Winning Camp NaNoWriMo 2015 ~ !!!

Sha-bam 'o rama, people. 

Let's have a look at the beautiful winner's dashboard. Bring it up!

(I'm totally wearing the same shirt right now).

It's been six months since I started my novel back in November, with the original National Novel Writing Month. The story has been re-plotted and outline at least five times. But I have to say, I haven't had as much fun writing my story than during camp. There is just something about the freedom and flexible goals during this month that has just set my imagination on fire. 

I really blew myself away on how productive and diligent I've been to write on my novel. I love the new twists and turns the story has taken. Most of all, I'm so grateful for the prep-work I did in March with the help of my Mieky, my sister-in-law. Our girl vacation in the woods helped me develop my characters and let me learn more about them, thus helping my story overall. 

And the month is not over, ladies and gentlemen. Camp NaNo is still happening. That means no matter if I met surpassed my own writing goals, my book isn't done and my imagination isn't finished with me yet. The urge to keep writing is still in my blood!

I'm sticking around for the entirety of camp, willing to support my cabin mates to meet their word count goals too! 

Now that I've tasted the sweet success of victory, I'm GREEDY. I want to see the end of my first draft. I NEED to finish my book! There is still plenty of writing to be done and word sprints to participate in!!

So for some cool and fun stats:

My entire manuscript to date:   46,749 words 

Words deleted this month:  8,540 words

Chapters added:    5 

Estimated words left for completion:   20k

I think my novel is gonna be in the ballpark of 60k when I'm done with it, which is pretty good for a YA fantasy / sci-fi genre. So yeah - I talk of finishing my first draft, but I'm not close to that yet. 

BUT.

I'm 20k  closer to it because of participating in camp. And that makes me so freaking happy!!!!!

CARTWHEELS!!!

Camp NaNo - Stretching toward the 20k goal

I just updated my word count on the camp nanowrimo website, only 300 words away from 15k.
I could totally be a winner, like, right now if I wanted to. But again I'm confronted by the victory being too soon - it's only the middle of April. I have half a month left to write stuff!

My heart is starting to flutter again with anticipation - my dream of getting closer to FINISHING my first draft. It's getting closer, within my grasp! Should I dare to hope that I could achieve that in the next 15 days?

Honestly I'm gonna go for it. To heck with it all, I'm going for it!
Here's to a new finish line of 20,000 words!

PS. This is also a short post because its basically midnight and I'm totally drained. Peace out and keep writing :P

Camp NaNo - Oh my gosh 10k

It's DAY 12 of Camp NaNoWriMo. And this morning, I actually broke the  10,000 word  barrier.

Check out them stats!

Yeah, those are my stats. I am so proud. And happy. And highly caffeinated. And constantly staring outside at the beautiful sunshine and weather, only to continue sitting the same chair for 3 hours writing on my laptop. 

Life is good! 

Today I totally appreciate my decision to increase my camp word count goal to 15k - at first I thought that I would lose interest in writing, or that playing video games would have a higher priority over writing. Or yah know, MOVING to a different country? But hahah, self! I tricked you! I tricked you into writing a novel and totally falling in love with the writing process all over again. 

So far this weekend has been ginormously productive. Last night I was doing word sprints with my sister-in-law (and cabin buddies, I know you were there in spirit!). In an hour and a half, I wrote over 1600 words. These words are still in my first draft mind you, so they weren't that horrible either.  That's a lot of words! That's like, doing REAL nanowrimo and reaching the REAL word count for the day. 

Here's a high-five to Mieky as well! She's broken the 2000 word mark while only participating in Camp NaNo for like 3 days so far. This is day 4, for her. WOW. You are awesome girl!

In addition to smashing through some awesome word counts, I've made great progress on other parts of my novel. Three new documents are added to the "Research" folder on my Scrivener project: Magic System, Overall Plot and a special document titled "Hellgates."

Mysterious...

Now I actually know how my characters can use magic, how they can develop it, and even some of the problems they can solve by using it. My world is starting to make sense too - I'm adding notes to my world building documents and matching it up with my magic system. I went through all the "important terms" I've developed through my story, matched that to my magic system and world, and created SIX IMPORTANT PLOT POINTS that define the purpose of my story. 

I know the purpose of the story!

I know the ENDING of my story as well!

I couldn't have asked for a better experience at camp this April, but it's not even halfway over yet. I am really excited to see what I can accomplish before this month is over. Like, the next decisions I could make might be:  

1. Should I raise my word count to 20k??
2. Should I keep stretching myself to complete Act 2??

Maybe I'll stretch myself even farther and imagine what it would be like to finish my first draft??

The possibilities are endless, almost like this blog post. Which I should probably finish now and get off the computer for a while - to stretch and make sure my legs are still attached. 

I also want to give a shout-out to all my writing buddies and cabin mates, for keeping the word count high and for WRITING! You can do this! 

Camp NaNo - I can't count

Like, at all.

Last night I went over to my sister-in-law's house to do some hang'n out girl time and write on my novel. In the middle of eating a cupcake and drinking hot chocolate, I asked her:

          "Why didn't you join Camp NaNoWriMo? You can totally reach 10k by the end of April," I smiled and wiggled my eyebrows. "you know that world building and plot notes totally count for your total word count, right?"
          She stares at me with an apple wedge lodged in one side of her mouth. Her fingers started clicking on the laptop in front of her and I can barely make out the words, "Yeah, so how do you sign up?"

I was totally excited to have another member join our cabin and I was babbling about all the things you can do for the month of April. But then her next question struck me:
          "I know you are continuing your novel from November, so how are you keeping track of the new words you're typing?"
          Me, being totally ingenious and saying the first smart thing that comes to my mind, "Oh well I just copy/paste all the new words to a separate word document to keep track of the numbers. I still do my real writing in Scrivener."

Total lies!
What I've really been doing is just keeping a text document of my new numbers for each chapter and adding them up each day. Word count!

And thus, today, I decided to take my own advice: I copied all my new writing into a word document to better keep track of my word count numbers. Because, yah let's face it: sometimes I'm smart.

Totally not, because I can't count!
When I looked at my word doc, with all the copied words into it (even deleting bullet points and such), I had a new word count of OVER 6300 words!

Yes, even a muppet can count better than I can. 

I stare at my screen in disbelief. I must have copied over something I shouldn't have, I logically reason to myself. So instead I recount my numbers in my text doc.
Holy crap, they MATCH my word document.
I counted wrong this whole time.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wait, I mean YAAAAAAH!

Lucky me, for surprising myself with more words than I thought. Go me, yeah! 

So let this be a lesson to you guys, who might be bad with math: Don't try to add up a new word count with an old document!

Camp NaNo - The eighth day decision!!

I want to share my beautiful NaNo target icon with you! Do you see, the arrow is almost pointing to the fifty percent mark? I've almost written 5,000 words on my novel in a week!
WOO HOO!

You know, as cool as that makes me feel and even though I'm super proud of myself to be reaching my word count goals, so far this victory seems...too easy.

The Camp Nano website is pretty cool because it gives you a lot of statistics on how you write every day: what is your daily average needed to meet your goals, and what you actually write on average every day. My average daily word count is around  530 words. 

That seems like a nice amount of words to write every day, and it takes me about 2 hours...maybe less... to accomplish that. Now, what if I continue writing 530 words a day?

That means I could reach 15,000 words at the end of April.

Hmm. That calculation made me stop and think for a while. As I drank another cup of morning coffee, I thought about why I joined Camp Nanowrimo in the first place:  so I could re-focus my writing efforts and put some nice work into my novel. 

And you know what I loved about November NaNo? The pressure. 

No I'm serious!

The whole month felt big and scary, with a huge overwhelming goal ahead of me that I've never faced before. And writing every day became massively important to me. I needed to reach that goal, for myself. Once I won, I felt such an amazing accomplishment and I NEVER want to lose that feeling. 

Now I'm haunted with thoughts like, could reaching my word count so soon be...demotivating? Would I actually stop writing on my novel once I won with 10k? Even if camp wasn't over yet?

Something twisted in my stomach as I thought about these things. I don't wanna stop writing. I want to take myself as far as I can, in the time I have. Everyone has busy lives, and mine is no excuse. My cabin mates and writing buddies are all trying their best...maybe I should push myself harder too?

So I made the decision!

*** Today I increased my Camp NaNo wordcount to 15,000 words ***

As proof, here is my new little bulls eye. He looks smaller, but honestly this image makes me feel amazing! Already I feel more motivation to keep writing, to reach farther for myself. 

Already I've done a lot of extra work to Chapters 1-9 of my book. This is considered to be "Act 1", where characters discover the plot situation and are pushed into the new world. I've overcome so many obstacles already: figuring out which points of view to use, how many chapters to write, and even what parts to RIP OUT of the book. 

And because of everything I've done and of how far I've come, I'm happier with my novel than ever before. I seriously feel amazing right now! Bring on the coffee and let's write!!!!

Camp NaNoWriMo - Fast and Furious Four!!

I'm so happy that day four of camp is on a SATURDAY, 

because this means I have time to catch up with my word count and 

actually have FIVE whole glorious hours of silence to myself and my computer. 

With no distractions, phone calls, or itching reminders to get my work done.

~

Because it's flipping weekend! 

~

The day is only half over and I've already updated my word count to....2,570 words 

Read that number and throw confetti into the air with me!

Honestly yeah, I can get excited about this number because my writing goal for this month is only 10k, while other people are tackling the normal novel sizes of 50k and beyond! 

But feeling good about my story is really important to me. And I want to encourage my other cabin mates and writing buddies to keep on writing! Read the little "care packages" of advice in your camp inbox, especially the one today about comparing your story to gardening:

Create some writing compost!

 The beginning stages of your first draft will be messy, dirty, and a little stinky. But it's full of things that will make the core of your story better. Sooner or later, you'll see something beautiful bloom from all the compost you laid down!

Time to join the campfire circle

The first day of April is now upon me, along with the beginning of a new month-long writing journey. Since the writing camp is more lenient than November, we are allowed to make smaller word count goals and extend the things we want to write for. This month is about being creative and getting your imagination flowing on any story that floats your boat. 

So that's what I want to do: be creative and continue to love my story. Thus when I add up word count this month, it will be words from my novel + world building + whatever the heck I feel like adding to my Scrivner project :P

In order to track my progress correctly, here are my Scrivener project starting numbers:

Novel:          29, 607

Research:       1,560

Characters:    2,813

And for the month of April, I just need to add 10k. No problem, bring it ON!!!!

Camp NaNo will begin!

Yep I'm totally plastering this image all over the internet wherever I have an account. That's because I'm totally getting pumped to start "officially" adding some words to my November novel. The last couple months I've been slowly making good habits when it comes to writing: I've done 30 minutes of research here and an hour of character profiles on the side. Yesterday I spent a good two hours on world-building and defining important terms I need to remember. 

But April is the time where I change from tracking my "writing time" to word count! 

I have to admit that's a little scary.

It means I have to take a deep breath and stare the "first draft" monster in the face once again. It will be like my writing workout routine:  

1. Write the scene as it comes in my head and don't analyze how witty the dialogue is or if the descriptions make sense. 
2. I will repeat out loud to myself:  "I am a drafter. If it sounds bad now, I'll fix it later."
3. Remind myself to feel good about meeting my words for the day no matter what they sound like. 

I also get to end this blog post on a positive note: I spent a lot more time writing this month then I have in a long time! Check out my writing time in the cool purple progress bar ------>

Now that I've made some good writing habits, I believe Camp NaNo will be a good experience!

Writing in the woods: Last Days

Thursday and Friday were the last days of my super awesome girlie vacation. I posted most of the pictures to facebook, as they were dominated yet again by my niece (the cutest four year old ever, I might add). Needless to say, we were relaxed and enjoyed our stay to the last minute.

I got a deluxe manicure, including hand massage and wax peel. My nail polish only lasted for two hours though, because immediately after I was done my niece wanted to go bowling - she beat me again by the way. That did a wonder on my nails! But I can't say no to her :)

The night before we left, my sister-in-law and I shared some beer and pretzels, writing the bad guy for our novels! We came up with some great ideas and added at least two more hours to our writing time. I think on the whole vacation, I added around  5.5 hours  to my March writing time.

Her plot is getting really interesting too, as all the characters are coming to life and interweaving themselves together. I'm excited to see how the story develops!

And of course, no vacation is complete without souvenirs. I got a matching keychain for me and my sister-in-law. A cute little mushroom with a ladybug!

It was awesome to get out of the house and enjoy a new environment, to get refreshed and recharged with creativity! To be with the ladies I love most <3 It will be a vacation I'll always remember and keep dear to my heart.

Writing in the woods: Busy third day

The third day of our awesome girl vacation was filled with activities! I got to sleep in until 8:30am which was an amazing achievement from my little niece. I got a nice cup of coffee and let the morning slowly unwind. We did arts and crafts in our little cabin until the afternoon where we then went swimming and I did more character notes on my novel!

My little niece then went to an activity class where she painted a mirror for her dad, who didn't come on the trip with us. It was painted in red, blue, and purple, completely COVERED in glitter and glued jewels. 

Totally manly. 

Of course as she was painting, my sister-in-law snuck out to the little cafe and had some nice adult time. Fresh mint tea with honey and a big slice of apple pie with whipped cream! SUGAR!

Afterwards we did a little grocery shopping...well...we got a 10 pound bag of food, courtesy of the camp store! They filled us up with all kinds of different meat, veggies, salad, sauces and bread, complete with a table grill!

But it wasn't time for dinner yet. Because today, we promised my niece she could try bowling for the first time. She did great! Every time she took her turn, the bumpers on the side of the bowling lane went up AND EVENTUALLY....her ball made it to the other side. I think she ended the first game with like 85 points? 

Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky....

But honestly that was okay, since my sister-in-law bought all of us pink and fruity drinks as a reward!

Remember all that meat and veggies I was talking about? Yeah after bowling it was time to eat, like big time! We all had the appetities of a horse and were definitely exhausted. What better way to spend dinner than NOT cooking it yourself? So I thus present to you the table of awesomeness!

*******

And so, we come to the part of this post about NOVEL WRITING!!! WOO-HOO!!!

Yesterday I made some really nice progress, finishing three of my character profiles. Each of them are around 700 words each. So I really dug deep into their past, family life, and past experiences. For example, I wrote that one of my characters had a passion for drawing. As I wrote that sentence, I continued writing as to WHY he liked it and how that passion started. Then I saw his passion of artwork was connected to another character that he grew up with. All of a sudden there was a connection between these two characters I didn't know about before. A new life I now wanted to explore. 

So I updated my little writing widget on the side of blog -------------->

I might not have spent a lot of time writing this month (yet! I guess technically I have 5 days left :P )

but my novel is becoming interesting again and new connections between my characters are appearing. i'm having fun exploring this world I've created and I look forward to writing more!

Writing in the woods: Second day with blue skies!

The second day of the vacation was the most BLUE SKIES I've ever seen in Holland! Or maybe that's just because I'm really happy at the moment. But hey, it was sunshine and blue skies all day today. It was amazing and the mood was high in our cabin :D

Today I was so relaxed. I took my time with breakfast, taking two cups of coffee, sitting on the couch and just staring into the sunshine pouring onto my shoulders. We just took it easy and slowly made our way to the indoor playground for my niece. She participated in an activity where she made a "candy house", which was some construction made of 6 slices of pepperkoek and a heck-ton of different candies. And she ate half of it in 15 minutes :S
Sugar rush!

After that she played in the in-door playground for a while my sister-in-law and I did some handicrafts! I finally worked on my cross-stitch project that had been set aside for a couple months, while she worked on a super-cute felting project: making little flower dolls!

And of course, we also went BACK to the swimming pool for my niece. This time she jumped right in and had no fear. My sister-in-law was teaching her how to swim and she actually swam on her own for like 15 seconds! I posted a video of that on my Facebook page, but it's friends-only just so yah know.

*******

But this time I didn't jump into the pool. Instead I sat on the sidelines and opened up my notebook. I re-read all the notes I wrote about my novel. I went through the character profiles I originally setup, the plots, the bad-guy and his motivations. It was nice to refresh myself with the "world" I had built for my story, instead of only seeing the plot that was right in front of me. 

I spent the two hours at the pool actually writing my character's profiles - and their families! Do you know I had never written about my main character Jason's parents? I didn't even know how he grew up. And it was refreshing to go into his life and childhood.

Then at the end of the night, when my sister-in-law and I both had our laptops open (in our pajamas with fruitsalads and tea :D ), I completely typed out Jason's profile in Scrivener. I identified as his parents as being hippies and returning to "original" way of life: growing their own vegatbales, their own water filtration system, and even making their own paper. In my world where everything is digital, paper is a rare and special item! Even thought it might not be in demand...

So his parents are viewed as a little strange in the town. And he grew up being the "son of the strange couple." This affected his personality as he was growing up, to change his own image and separate himself from his family by learning more about technology. So he's kinda a rebel :P

I made a lot of progress yesterday on my "feeling" of the novel, characters, and world building - even though I haven't written a word on the actual story yet. I want to "fall in love" with my novel again and I think that is already happening. I'm super excited about what will happen on vacation day number three!

Writing in the woods: First day of travel

After finally getting the wi-fi in our "luxury four-person cabin with sauna" to work, I can finally post some blog posts AND PICTURES of the vacation I'm having right now.

On Monday I got picked up by my sister-in-law's father, who kindly offered to drive us to our vacation spot! That was really sweet of him considering it would have taken almost three hours by train. After taking a break for lunch, we arrived at the Landal Aelderholt vacation park around 12:30.

(Where I had an awesome sandwich with cream cheese and smoked salmon.)

We explored for a bit and got settled into our little cabin. It's snuggled in the woods with a little playground in the back yard, perfect for my niece to folic in and "collect firewood"....because, I dunno, that's what little girls do? And like a tourist, I totally took pics of our cabin. Here ya go!

After we got settled into the cabin, we took a quick inspection of what we had and what we needed to get at the camp store. The cabin was surprisingly bare - you actually needed to "purchase" towels, soap, or even salt and pepper yourself. Maybe that's how they keep the prices of the cabin so low, since you have to buy the bare necessities yourself :P

I think since the vacation started we went to the camp shop like five times - to get food for breakfast, lunch of dinner. Which the latter consisted of pasta cabonara with pieces of bacon and mushrooms, plus a nice green salad and cucumber! Cooking out of a can was actually awesomely-delicious!

Oh and I bought cookies. 

Because that's totally what you do on vacation :D

And after hearing my niece say "NOW can we go to the swimming pool?" for two hours, we finally went! We put on her little floaties (I believe the Dutch term is "wings") onto her arms and she walked confidently into the pool. 

Only to stop dead in her tracks, staring at the blue monster stretched out before her. Hmmmmm....

Yeah. At first she didn't want to go in at all, especially not in the deep water. But as soon as we kinda...forced her...into the shallow end and she could touch the bottom of the pool with her toes - wow, talk about a swell of confidence! She started dancing around and playing mermaid. 

********

Okay so enough about kids and cabins and totally eating pasta. The real question you might be asking is: did I actually write something? Did I work on my novel yet?

Errmm....

Well okay. It was the first night, right??  I maybe wrote a couple sentences, but in my defense, I DID do a nice brainstorm session with my sister-in-law about her characters. They are really starting to develop and she's already getting a nice story going just from writing their backgrounds. 

That is also a nice exercise for me, since my story is ALL centered around plot and what I want to happen. The characters are in the story to fulfill their roles....and I didn't spend a lot of time developing their backgrounds, how they grew up, or where they came from. Which in reality is what shapes a person and gives them a personality. 

Something my characters kinda lacked up to this point. 

That will lead me into writing for Day TWO of this adventure. See the next blog post!

Writing in the woods: The Adventure begins!

Check out this beautiful picture harmlessly taken from The Landal Aelderholt recreation park website! This little cottage in the woods is where I'll be staying for next week, with my sister-in-law and little four year old niece. A perfect retreat to jump-start my creativity and simply relax with my Dutch family members :)

You might be asking yourself: wait, if a little child is coming along on this trip how can you possibility focus on being creative? Well my dear friends, this little recreation spot is also fully equipped with petting zoo, mini-golf, indoor playgrounds, pools, and other activities to keep the young ones occupied. It's the perfect plan!!!!

 Some of my personal goals on this trip is to be fully, 100% focused on my novel. I want to hash out as many chapters as I can. I have a new sense of freedom with creating my first draft, which I explained in a previous blog post over here. I'm not going to focus on creating witty dialogue and inserting foreshadowing into every scene - I'm just gonna focus on writing as much as I can and GET THINGS DOWN ON PAPER. You can't edit what isn't written yet, right?

That will be a wonderful start to Camp Nano, starting in under two weeks! Hopefully I can use that event to finish the rest of my novel! Gasp!

But I won't get too ahead of myself now. 

In two days, I'll be relaxing and enjoying the great springtime weather with two of the finest ladies I know. Hooray for new adventures!

The secret to writing is RE-writing!

Lately I keep asking myself about the first draft of a novel. What does it look like? How do other people write their first drafts?

I can get stuck within a chapter for weeks. In fact, I have been stuck writing chapter four of my novel for an entire month! That's basically no progress at all...and that was even during a "Writing Challenge" contest that my writing buddy Valerie and I were participating in!
(^ Click the link to see the blog post all about it).

Needless to say we put so much pressure on ourselves to write a pretty story that we ended up not writing at all. So I travelled to youtube to see what other writers do in their first drafts. That's where I found the video above.

One of the first things the speaker says is this: 

"The secret to writing, is rewriting."

For some reason, that struck me deep. That no one is meant to have a first draft finished with all characters in the right places, every dialog completed (this always gets me stuck!), and have the character's voice flow evenly throughout the chapter. NO! 

That is done in the rewrites, in the later drafts. Watching this video gave me "permission" to write smaller chapters, with incomplete passages, and STILL FEEL COMFORTABLE calling that chapter "finished."

There is a flutter of freedom in my heart. And with it, a renewed excitement. As silly as it might seem, I have more hope now of "finishing" my first draft, and that means, closer to finishing my novel. Now I'm gonna take this excitement and start writing again!

__________________________
****UPDATE - 10:15pm  ****

Using this video as inspiration, I totally just finished my Chapter Four. The evil stumbling block of doom that gave me writers block for 5 weeks is finally defeated! Woo-haa freaking yes!