My Muse Apparently Has Purple Hair

I'm not sure if I should be proud or disappointed in my efforts....

On the one hand, I only managed two writing sessions this past week: one I wrote only 626 words, then the second was a last-ditch effort to make up my word count, but even that ended with only 1592 words. Within the middle third of the Writers’ Huddle Summer Challenge, I was aiming for five writing sessions at 700 words each, at least. That means I should be writing about 3500 words per week. I managed 2218. This far into the challenge I should have written 12,000 words overall. I have managed 9035 - excluding what I write for this blog - over the course of four weeks. That means I'm 2965 words behind where I feel I should be.

Yesterday started the final third of the challenge; the point where I wanted to be able to write 1000 words per session; five times a week. Anyone want to guess how many words have been written thus far? Give yourself a gold star if you picked zero!

NuaNia Facebook Sticker
by PRANEAT

Yeah, no... don't give anyone any gold stars! This is getting pretty bad!

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc

I did manage to write SOMETHING though. So.... yay? Gold stars after all? Having nearly 10,000 words by the end of a month is still exciting, right? I mean, that was my whole goal for July's Camp NaNo. Plus, it's still 9000 words more than I had before. It got me something to post here last week. It allowed me to finish up my Camp NaNo project. It made sure I didn't completely slack off after a writing fury. Also, writing 2200 words this past week can be mildly impressive when taking into consideration that I was focused on organizing with my mom all last week.

So, yeah, I didn't get as much writing as I would have liked, but I did accomplish this:

I mean, I accomplished a LOT this past week. It just wasn't really in the writing department.

Still, as I keep saying, considering the limited time I had this week, I'm still increasingly impressed at the amount of writing I did do. Especially since I also had a party to attend right after work on Saturday, and Friday, when I meant to catch up on writing, I ended up passing out on the couch instead.

Ya know what? Give me that gold star after all! I could have dropped writing completely this week, and instead I put in the effort of writing at least SOMETHING.

OK, that may have been a bit much, but... eh.... encourage good behavior, I guess.

My short-blip of a writing session I managed on Friday before I passed out isn't really much to read, but it's writing practice. It's not supposed to be my magnum opus. It's mostly stream-of-consciousness and inspired by the agonizingly boring Thursday evening I had, followed by an equally mind-numbing Friday; probably why I passed out in the first place.

So, if you want a quick read about my thoughts on days seeming unbearably long, you can check it out below.

"Time Must Be A Toddler"

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As for my last-ditch writing session? Well, it was Sunday, I needed to check in with Writers' Huddle, and I didn't even have 700 words under my belt. I needed to try to get something else down on paper.

I had finished the Devon/Trish story aside from editing. Granted, once I get the fight scene figured out I'll probably add words there, but at the stage I currently am I know I'd be subtracting words; not adding them. Plus, Mouse is in a writing flow and didn't want to disrupt it by stopping to edit her July project. I can't fault her that. So we pushed back our writing exchange. Helps me too, because I can now focus the last two weeks on prepping for Quarthix's wedding as well as going full-throttle on this writing challenge. This does mean, though, that I'll have to back down from my original promise to have the edited Devon/Trish story up by the end of the month. Unrealistic thoughts, that.

However, I'm not doing another writing challenge next month. So, by the end of SEPTEMBER I will have it up. Poke me relentlessly if I delay again.

Anyway, my point is that I didn't have any more writing to add to the Devon/Trish story right now. I'm still largely inspired to work on my fan-novelization of Varekai, but I want to save it for my NaNo this year, and I already "cheated" a bit by writing one of the chapters. I have to resist writing more before November. I need to spend my time writing notes on what I want the narrative to be. THAT is what I can do before November, but no more chapter attempts. No "cheating."

So that's two projects I'm interested in, but I'm trying to avoid right now. The next big project I want to try to work on is the "Hey, Arnold!" fan-script for "The Jungle Movie" before the actual one premiers on Nickelodeon in November. The problem there is that I don't really remember what ChibiSunnie and I have thus far, which means I have to take the time to read through it first. I didn't have time to do that and still get my writing in. What other writing project could I work on?

With the excitement of TJM, I've actually been feeling What Is Truly Meant To Be again. The problem there is that it's been so long since I've touched that story that I would desperately need my notes to remember where I was headed next, and they're buried somewhere under all the other notes I've made for more recent stories.

Perhaps I could finally get to my Miraculous fanfic. Problem with THAT, though, is that it's been a few weeks since I last saw the show, which means not having the characters predominantly in my head anymore. It also means that all of the "reveal moments" I thought up while watching the show are overpowered by all the "reveal moments" I've seen in fancomics or read in fanfiction. A lot of them are really good, and I kind of want to incorporate a lot of elements from each of them. However, there's a lot of elements that I also wasn't the biggest fan of; giving me the challenge of "I can do better."

Being so determined to get it "juuuuust right" means planning. Planning means time. I didn't have that. I spent an hour trying to get it mapped out in my head, and it ended up with me wasting my writing time doing anything but writing.

No. It was about 10pm on Sunday, I only had 600-some words for the week, and I didn't have time to search for notes or reread anything or rewatch any shows or plot anything out. I needed to write. Now!

I went back to "A Writer's Book of Days." I'd write three writing prompts if I needed to! Except I wasn't inspired. I already struggled for a day to work on "The Longest Day" which is why I missed writing anything after work on Thursday. I saw the next prompt was "Write about a shade tree" and nothing came to me. Nothing. No inspiration in the slightest. I didn't have time for this! I needed to write!

I racked my brain. I needed my Muse to talk to me, and quickly. There must be SOME story I wanted to tell that didn't need prep-work. There must be SOME tale that I didn't need to wait on. There must be SOME inspiration waiting for me to find it.

And there was.

Jolene! Glorious, beautiful, broken Jolene! I haven't touched her story since, what, January? Mostly because I couldn't handle the heartache of writing more of her story. But now was the time. I needed her. I had her story planned out. I knew what needed to be written for the next chapter. I had her in my head a lot lately due to some of the music I've been listening to the past few weeks. I missed her. Now was the time.

And I wrote.

I wrote nearly 1600 words before Hubby knocked on our bedroom door. It was midnight, and we should be going to bed. Mildly defeated that I only wrote about a third of the words I wanted to this past week, I submitted and put the laptop away.

Still, I'm back on track with Jolene. The next time I need to write and inspiration alludes me I will again turn to her. In fact, until I can think of something worth writing about a "shade tree," Jolene will probably be my focus for the last two weeks of this challenge.

Slowly but surely, I will have all my WIPs completed.

There We Are!

I have some smiley faces on my pocket calendar. They're pretty much every other day, so I still don't have a week with no more than 3 zero days. However, I'm off to a good start this week. I wrote SOMETHING the past three days. I think I'm finally getting my footing; getting my rhythm.

I even have something to share with you folks, but I'll get to that at the end of the post.

I started to really hold myself accountable this week. Not only did I finally start marking my calendar with the days I did and didn't write, but in the individual dates sections I even noted what I wrote, when, for how long, where I was, and in some cases how many words. I started to do the same with reading as well.

The :-/ faces are days where I did research or outlining.
Technically still counts, but I didn't write a narrative.

Ah, my glorious handwriting.... >_>

When I know that I have to record it, I'm less likely to let my mind wander, and I'm less likely to let a day go by without SOMETHING being done. I mean, look at Thursday, that silly blank day. No writing. No reading. Pathetic. 

It also occurred to me last night that I have two instructional books that I'm working through, but if I haven't completed the exercises in the chapter I'm hard pressed to want to keep reading. So, I'll need a fictional book to read this month too!

ALL THE READING!!!!

"X all the Y" meme
Originally created by Allie Brosh

Yeah, I actually have THREE books going at once! Geez! At least only one of them is a narrative. One of the other two I'm going to slowly read throughout the entire year. I think it's manageable....

Anyway, the narrative is going to knock out another one of the book challenge components: Finish a series I started. Granted, this could be a cheeky way of getting multiple books read, depending how far into the series one is compared to how many are left in the series. I could go with the Enderverse and have something like one story left in the "Speaker Trilogy," or two more stories to finish Ender's storyline, or seven if I were to finish up Ender and then go into the Shadow Saga, or eleven if I'm also including the four books about the Formic Wars. That's not even including the six books Orson Scott Card has planned. You can see how this challenge point can give me a year's worth of reading just by itself....

Me? I went the easy route. I've been very slowly chugging away at the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. It's basically "read one book, read other things, read the next book about two years later" for the three-book series. Not the best way to do it, since I have a hard time remembering what happened in the previous book. Riordan does have his narrators give a broad overview of the key points from previous books that the readers need to know. Still, I feel a bit lost the first couple of chapters until I get my footing again. Especially when there's a returning character that is supposed to be impactful and I go "Wait.... who is this again?"

I still say that, for some reason that Hubby and I can't put our fingers on, the Kane Chronicle books just aren't as engaging to us as just about every other book Riordan has written. Still, I started this series, and by gum, this challenge is going to have me finish it!

So, I now have my "A Writer's Book of Days" writing book filled with prompts for the year, and I have "Ready. Set. Novel!" as my "book with red on the cover" as well as a workbook for me to figure out an actual manuscript to write and complete. Finally, I have "The Serpent's Shadow" as my narrative to read. I got this....

I have to say, "Ready. Set. Novel!" was such a great gift! Well, all of my writing books were, but right now I'm focusing on this one. It is written so humorously, and the exercises are fun and exciting. I actually look forward to opening the book and going over the next exercise. I never had that before. Not with all the other "improvement" books nor with the MasterClasses. Those exercises felt like actual homework. These, though, are definitely an enjoyable part of my day to work towards.

I mean, check out this opening passage:

YOU ARE HERE!
   Hi and welcome! We're so glad you made it. We were just hanging out and chatting with your new novel. Have you met your book yet? Really interesting! Great storyteller! And good-looking too!
   You've clearly got a winner on your hands, and we're excited to spend the next month helping you two get to know each other a little better. As part of that process, we'll take field trips, block out opening scenes, stalk some characters, brainstorm intriguing twists, draw maps, and forge a majestic plot cannon that will launch you headlong into novel-land. By the time you've filled this journal, you and your novel will have a complete blueprint for your new life together.
   You'll also have a very nicely colored picture of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

And yes, there is indeed an actual coloring page of Dostoyevsky in the back of the book.

Author of "Crime and Punishment"

Yes, they do also have coloring pages of "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley, the renowned Jane Austen, and Gustave Flaubert, who is probably best known for penning "Madame Bovary."

Also in the back of the workbook is a page to give yourself high fives when you need encouragement:

"Come back and high five this page to
celebrate all your noveling triumphs!"

Be wary, though, because on the very next page is a boot to kick yourself in the pants if you start slacking.

"Turn to this page anytime you're in need
of a good old-fashioned pants kicking."

How can I NOT have fun with this book!? Heck, part of me wants to call it quits on this post right now so I can get back to working though it.

I do have more to say, though, so I won't jump ship on this post. However, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm giving "Ready. Set. Novel!" rave reviews already. If you need writing help, I highly suggest you pick this book up. Even if you find it at your local library and do what I do: write in a separate journal instead of in the workbook itself.

This way I can reuse "Ready. Set. Novel!" however much I want
without having to buy a new copy every time I want to write a new novel.
Not that I would mind giving NaNoWriMo more money....

I've also decided to follow the advice from "A Writer's Book of Days" and try writing long-hand again, instead of doing all of my daily writing practices on the computer. I'm still not much of a fan since I then have to take the time to transfer all of my long-hand writing onto the computer if I want to post it anywhere. Plus my carpal tunnel acts up when I write by hand too long; my fingers lock, my wrist throbs, and the tips of my fingers get stupid cold from the reduced circulation. In other words, it's probably not the healthiest option for me, considering how tightly I grip pens, no matter how hard I concentrate on loosening my grip.

Still, Judy Reeves claims there's something textual about writing in a journal that people just don't get when tapping at a keyboard. There's a slowing of the mind since most can't write as fast as they type. However, I attempt to keep that hurried pace, hence the terrible handwriting, and probably the tight grip of my pen to make sure it doesn't go flinging across the table.

Another reason why I'm caving in and trying to write long-hand for this workbook: I kind of like the idea of these 365 prompts as journal entries that I can go back and look upon. I mean, I can do the same with the computer, but there's something organic about flipping through actual pages; seeing the horrendous handwriting; not relying on technology; having something even more portable than my laptops.

I already have about 30 untouched journals, so, naturally,
I had to make a Walmart run to pick these up. The purple
one on the bottom is my "Ready. Set. Novel!" journal.

Granted, I've only done the January 13th prompt thus far, so I haven't really written anything in the actual journals yet. I'm going to backtrack and start at January 1st, and then work my way through the journals one date at a time, like a true diary. However, since I am so far behind, if I write from a prompt I didn't reach yet in the diaries, I'm going to go back to my computer.

It's what I did already with the one prompt I did do thus far. I actually even cleaned it up a bit, and that's the new story I have to share today, both with you and with my writing group tonight.

"Survive the Night"

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OK, I REALLY have an itch to get back to writing, so I'll hope to have something, or a few somethings, new for next week. My focus really needs to be a flash-fiction to fit Ronoxym's challenge, since I still haven't written a narrative less than 1000 words....