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!

Lakeside wedding location

Wouldn't this be a beautiful lakeside ceremony? Maybe I'll steal this idea!

It might be a little too early to decide on a date for the wedding, but what could be better than having a Florida wedding in summer? Isn't every bride's dream to have a June wedding? Just for fun I looked up the first day of summer, June 21st, and I saw that it's on a Sunday! 

Not that I'm picking that date or anything - but it looks nice if we choose it!

If we're talking about what I've always dreamed for my wedding reception, I would say a hundred times I want to have an outdoor wedding. No matter what the heat, bugs, or weather might be like. I can't imagine anything more fun than being outdoors with family and friends, enjoying the sunshine and maybe roasting some marshmallows at sunset!

As luck would have it, a family friend has a beautiful home next to the bayou. It's in a quiet neighborhood, away from tourists and busy streets. She has a large backyard, a pool, barbecue, fire pit and a boating dock. The best part is that she's agreed to host our wedding! I think that's a recipe for triple success :D

Here are a couple snapshots she took of her backyard so that I can share them with you guys. This place is beautiful and I can't imagine anything more romantic than being by the water without the sand <3

Back of the house and screened-in pool area. Wouldn't the brick walkway make a cute aisle? 

The same shot, only from a different angle. She has beautiful trees and plants in her backyard.

Here is the edge of her yard, where it meets the lapping waves of the bay. 

Remember what I say about marshmallows? Here is the almighty firepit, where we could roast or melt things!

Saving the best picture for last, look at this gorgeous boat dock (equipped with boat I might add!) How cute would it be to have the ceremony next to the dock or under the pavilion? Totally cute - although not sure where the people would stand :)

So yes - if these images get me excited now, I can't wait to see the property in person. This space is just brimming with inspiration and little DIY decorations we could put in the yard. Well it's time to let me imagination soar and troll Pinterest for more ideas!

I have a pintrest account, where I've started to collect wedding ideas, colors, and little decoration ideas. Come check it out at:  My Wedding Board!

I'm getting married this summer!

I am an American, my fiance is a Dutchie. We have been together for almost six years now and are ready to make some changes in our life. Last year he proposed to me and I said "YES!"

After months of having stars in our eyes, we took some time to think about our future. Where would we live, how should we raise a family? And we both decided, the best place for us was to move back to the United States. To my old home in Florida!

My fiance and I got our official paperwork on February 28th. That on April 7th 2015, we have our official visa interview at the Amsterdam Consulate. It's the final leg in our journey to move to the United States, tie the knot, and begin on the next chapter of our life together.

At first, I was hesitant to plan anything big for the wedding ceremony and celebration afterwards. Since the only people that would be attending are family, why should we go through all the fuss of decorations, catering, and flowers? Shouldn't we just make it simple as possible and save our money for "future stuff" like buying a car, putting a down-payment on a house, and not to mention, the huge price of my fiance's green card?

But after I think through all the logic, I stay quiet and listen to what my heart is telling me. The moment that my fiance and I get married is special. It's once in a lifetime. It will NEVER happen again - isn't it worth stretching out for hours and enjoying the time where our two international families can come together? I'm starting to think so :)

Breathing new life into this blog

I 've been thinking a lot about this blog lately and what it really represents to me. Initially it had begun as my travel companion, documenting my journey through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It was the first time I ever attempted to write a novel and I put a lot of work into it. I updated my blog almost daily with news of my writing success, motivations, or obstacles. There were even small excerpts from the writing I had done that day. And putting those things into my blog, putting them out into the open, was a real sense of accomplishment for me.

And I don't want to lose that feeling.

Over the last few months, progress on my novel has slowed down, but never stopped. But I put a restriction on myself: I only allowed myself to write a blog post if I had progress to report where my novel was concerned. So I'm sure if you look back in the archives, you'll see what I mean. A week or more goes by without a blog entry. I'm losing my habit of daily writing. And that weakening habit is also affecting my novel.

That long introduction served to remind myself of why I started this blog and the good memories it has with me. But now is the time where I need to remove my own restrictions. This blog is getting a breath of fresh air!

I want to write about all the creative things I'm pursing in my life. I am a freelancer. I've had my own company for almost 6 years now, and it hasn't always been easy. Living from contract to contract is hard, but I learned a lot. I'd like to blog about that too - maybe I can help others that are newbies to the freelance market.

Yes, this is exactly what my burnouts look like.

And being a freelancer, I know you need more things in life than just work. If you spend all your time working just to build up your portfolio and income, you'll burn out. A burn-out is the deadliest virus you could ever have. No matter what type of job you have, I would suggest a side-project or a hobby.

Mine is creating my first novel. Or developing new games for iPad. Or creating a collaboration project between friends to make our first casual RPG. Honestly coloring with markers makes me giddy and I'm proud when I finish a cool design!

All these things are important to me, and I have plenty of research to share about them as I go along. That's the direction I want this blog to take from now on. It won't just be about writing, but neither am I. This blog will be a reflection of the many threads it takes to weave my life.

A new March Monday

Alright, so the new month is here. The month that brings the promise of spring and new elements of life. I will continue that sentiment by breathing new life into my novel! I have set some personal writing goals for this month that are much smaller and I think achievable, but I will NOT share them with anyone or post them publicly on this blog. Therefore, I have already erased any guilt I might experience by not meeting them! Win-win for me!

The one goal that I will be reaching towards is Camp NaNoWriMo. The follow-up event to National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in the month of April and July. The goal is to work on your novel however you want: outlining, editing, or jumping between stories. The word count goals are really low, and the events serve to motivate you to write again. So starting now, I'm going to get myself into the habit of writing every day, whether it's on my story or a personal email to a friend.

It's nice to write about being optimistic. I feel good about starting this month and seeing what it holds for me. So without further babbling, let's get back to novel writing.

Recently my writing buddy and I did a small scene exchange for my novel - she helped me write a skeleton dialogue for my characters, which i then expanded and integrated into my story. It was refreshing to read something that I didn't write! It gave me new ideas about my characters and reawakened my curiosity about them.

The story so far...
Now that the dialog is complete, I can move to the next scene! Our main characters land at a new city, filled with a more shifty atmosphere. There is something going on with the people here and they look disheartened, maybe even a little beaten down. The farmlands are drying up and their source of food is slowly withering away. For the last few months, the people have looked to new trade routes and agreements with traveling merchants. But these agreements are getting shady and desperate - not everything is up to par.

Thus our characters make their way through the city, investigating a strange electronic signal they picked up. It's using the old network, from the last century. Jason our MC thought the network had been down for decades. Whatever that signal is, it could be a big discovery.
Time to write it!