TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Percent progress made on The Language of the Unheard: 0%
Rejections of Finding Innisburg: 0
Days until I go down to see my parents: 2
Awesome new book ideas: 1
Entries I have finished for a Kindle from the library: 4
So I won another book from GoodReads.com! I am super stoked about this one; it's Dennis LeHane's new book (he wrote Shutter Island, one of my all-time favorites, and Mystic River) called Live by Night and it is scheduled to be released October 2nd.
So inspired by this winnage (no, that's not a word), I decided to fill you guys in on the books I'm looking forward to reading; specifically, books that have yet to be released.
1. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. Scheduled release date: July 31, 2012. (historical fiction, something about a lighthouse)
2. The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure by Martin W. Sandler Scheduled release date: September 11, 2012. (Historical fiction about a lost whaling expedition in the Arctic and the attempt to rescue them)
3. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. Scheduled release date: August 21, 2012 (Historical fiction set in the Cascade foothills here in Washington about an orchardist who finds a couple of feral children)
4. The Double Game by Dan Festerman. Scheduled release date: August 21, 2012 (Story of espionage during the Cold War)
5. Miss me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault. Scheduled release date: July 31, 2012 (looks like a women's lit murder mystery.)
So what books are you looking forward to reading?
Showing posts with label Finding Innisburg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finding Innisburg. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Organizing Ideas
TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Total number of words on The Language of the Unheard: 52,251 (yeah, I haven't worked on it at all)
Rejections of Finding Innisburg: 0
Books read in the last week: 9.25
Entries into the library's drawing for a Kindle: 3
Well, first off, for anyone who has been keeping track, I passed my state nursing assistant exam on Thursday, so I'm officially a CNA. Yay!
So today I want to talk about organizing. Yeah. I know. Writers are not really known for their organizational skills, but I have finally won the battle against the random scribblings on pieces of paper and it's all thanks to Microsoft OneNote. Here's what I do; feel free to share your own triumphs or struggles below.
I have a OneNote notebook entitled "Writing Info." Into this notebook I throw everything I think might ever possibly be useful in a book. I have tabs across the top that are labeled: Writing Tips, Novel Ideas, Short Story Ideas, Characters, Tidbits, Settings, Screenplay Ideas, and Contests.
Some of them are pretty self-explanatory, but I think my favorite one is Writing Tips. I love to read writing "how-to" books and articles, and often a sentence or an idea will catch my attention, so I just copy and paste it right into that section. The section is divided into various pages: characters, plotting, outlining, etc. and I just stick it where it belongs. Then, when I'm brainstorming ideas for a new book, I read through all the ideas, incorporating each into my book. I sincerely believe doing this has greatly increased my writing abilities and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
In the tab labeled "Tidbits" I just put interesting things that I run across that aren't going to turn into a stand-alone book or story (probably). Right now in there I have a link to the Wikipedia article on numbers stations (which, even though they've been used in Lost, are really interesting), a quote I once read in a tabloid article about Johnny Depp that I felt would be perfect for a character to say someday, a few ideas for titles that have no stories to go with them, and on and on. Someday I feel sure I'll find a home for them.
The rest of the tabs house pretty much what you'd expect, and I suspect, if I were to combine them all, that I have over a hundred separate ideas and thoughts in there, not counting the several hundred writing tips I have accumulated.
So tell me, how do you organize your ideas and thoughts for future books or stories?
Total number of words on The Language of the Unheard: 52,251 (yeah, I haven't worked on it at all)
Rejections of Finding Innisburg: 0
Books read in the last week: 9.25
Entries into the library's drawing for a Kindle: 3
Well, first off, for anyone who has been keeping track, I passed my state nursing assistant exam on Thursday, so I'm officially a CNA. Yay!
So today I want to talk about organizing. Yeah. I know. Writers are not really known for their organizational skills, but I have finally won the battle against the random scribblings on pieces of paper and it's all thanks to Microsoft OneNote. Here's what I do; feel free to share your own triumphs or struggles below.
I have a OneNote notebook entitled "Writing Info." Into this notebook I throw everything I think might ever possibly be useful in a book. I have tabs across the top that are labeled: Writing Tips, Novel Ideas, Short Story Ideas, Characters, Tidbits, Settings, Screenplay Ideas, and Contests.
Some of them are pretty self-explanatory, but I think my favorite one is Writing Tips. I love to read writing "how-to" books and articles, and often a sentence or an idea will catch my attention, so I just copy and paste it right into that section. The section is divided into various pages: characters, plotting, outlining, etc. and I just stick it where it belongs. Then, when I'm brainstorming ideas for a new book, I read through all the ideas, incorporating each into my book. I sincerely believe doing this has greatly increased my writing abilities and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
In the tab labeled "Tidbits" I just put interesting things that I run across that aren't going to turn into a stand-alone book or story (probably). Right now in there I have a link to the Wikipedia article on numbers stations (which, even though they've been used in Lost, are really interesting), a quote I once read in a tabloid article about Johnny Depp that I felt would be perfect for a character to say someday, a few ideas for titles that have no stories to go with them, and on and on. Someday I feel sure I'll find a home for them.
The rest of the tabs house pretty much what you'd expect, and I suspect, if I were to combine them all, that I have over a hundred separate ideas and thoughts in there, not counting the several hundred writing tips I have accumulated.
So tell me, how do you organize your ideas and thoughts for future books or stories?
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Winning!
TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,251
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0
Number of requests for partials for Finding Innisburg: 1 (yay!)
Number of books read in the last three days: 4 (I'm a fast reader)
Days until my Certified Nursing Assistant exam: 2
So I have gotten hooked on GoodReads.com the last few days. I have found so many new books I want to read and from there I have sorted them, placed a few holds at the library and discussed book favorites with other members. And best of all, they give away free books!!! I know! FREE BOOKS!!! Authors and publishers give them away before they are actually released in hopes of getting favorable reviews and a fan base. There are no strings attached; if you win, you are encouraged to write a review, but it is not required. So I've been entering for everything that I feel like I might be interested in, and today I found out I won a book!
The book I won is Rogue, a thriller by Mark Sullivan. It should come in 4-6 weeks and I'm pretty excited. When it comes, I'll post a review here for you all. It is being released October 2nd by St. Martin's Press.
So I would encourage all my reader readers (lol) to get on GoodReads and start entering drawings. It's fun, and even if you don't win, it's a great way to find out about books you might be interested in reading before they even come out!
So I'm eagerly looking for new reading material, preferably books released in the last 2-3 years. I like mysteries, thrillers, action-adventure, memoirs, literary fiction (if it's not too slow), chick-lit (no, it's not dead) and commercial fiction. I don't like romance, stories with sad endings (with a couple of exceptions), erotica, stories about drug abuse, sex abuse, or prostitution. So what would you recommend to me? I want to know, please comment below!
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,251
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0
Number of requests for partials for Finding Innisburg: 1 (yay!)
Number of books read in the last three days: 4 (I'm a fast reader)
Days until my Certified Nursing Assistant exam: 2
So I have gotten hooked on GoodReads.com the last few days. I have found so many new books I want to read and from there I have sorted them, placed a few holds at the library and discussed book favorites with other members. And best of all, they give away free books!!! I know! FREE BOOKS!!! Authors and publishers give them away before they are actually released in hopes of getting favorable reviews and a fan base. There are no strings attached; if you win, you are encouraged to write a review, but it is not required. So I've been entering for everything that I feel like I might be interested in, and today I found out I won a book!
The book I won is Rogue, a thriller by Mark Sullivan. It should come in 4-6 weeks and I'm pretty excited. When it comes, I'll post a review here for you all. It is being released October 2nd by St. Martin's Press.
So I would encourage all my reader readers (lol) to get on GoodReads and start entering drawings. It's fun, and even if you don't win, it's a great way to find out about books you might be interested in reading before they even come out!
So I'm eagerly looking for new reading material, preferably books released in the last 2-3 years. I like mysteries, thrillers, action-adventure, memoirs, literary fiction (if it's not too slow), chick-lit (no, it's not dead) and commercial fiction. I don't like romance, stories with sad endings (with a couple of exceptions), erotica, stories about drug abuse, sex abuse, or prostitution. So what would you recommend to me? I want to know, please comment below!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Screenwriting for Novelists
TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,008
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0 (not sure if this is good or bad)
Number of books you have to read and review for the Seattle Public Library system to be entered to win a Kindle: 3
Number of free book giveaways entered on GoodReads.com: 15
So now for our main topic. Screenwriting. Last summer I decided to attempt to write a screenplay. Although I'm fairly convinced that I will never be a famous screenwriter (Hollywood has too many politics and rules and cliques. I prefer good old-fashioned publishing), writing a screenplay may have been the best thing I ever did for my writing abilities.
Screenwriting in much, much different than novel writing. I didn't even write an original screenplay, I just adapted one of my favorite novels, Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. Screenplays are the epitome of SHOW don't TELL. In a screenplay you can't even write a phrase like "Tom, Joe's brother, enters the room." Unless Tom is going to be wearing a sign around his neck that says "Joe's brother" you can't put it in the screenplay. You have to find a way to work it into the dialogue. This is tricky, let me tell you.
Descriptions of locations have to be kept short and sweet also. In screenwriting, one page of properly formatted text = one minute of screen time (approximately). So if a scene is going to be shown for three seconds before the characters start talking, you have to sum up the scene in only a line or two. No long-winded pages of purple prose here. The trick is to choose one or two details that "sum up" the scene. Instead of saying "The farmhouse is old and blue. There is a flower bed in front but the flowers are dead and brown. The fence running behind the house is falling down and the barbed wire is rusty. The grass is long, clearly no animals have grazed here in a while," you cut it down to the essentials: "The paint on the farmhouse is peeling and the rusty barbed wire is sagging into the overgrown grass."
In screenwriting, the specific details (the color of the house, or exactly how many plants are in front) are pointless to put in, because the director is not going to follow your directions that closely. What you want is to make a point about WHAT KIND of farmhouse this is, and let the director follow through with the details.
In novel writing, the same principle can be applied, not because a director is going to come in and change it, but because leaving some details up to your readers imagination is crucial. Unless this is a classic Martian farmhouse, a reader will be able to fill in the scene without you spelling out every detail. Pick a few things that sum up the feel of the scene and leave the rest out. Over describing can pull a reader out of the scene, while the right choice of details can make them feel like they're right there with you. Of course, if they were to draw what they pictured the farmhouse looking like, it might not be how you pictured it at all, but that's okay. When a book is read, the reader brings his or her own experiences to the table and views the story against the backdrop of his or her life.
So if you've ever been curious about writing a screenplay, even if you have no intention of selling it, I would absolutely recommend it. Screenplays are short and sweet. At 90-120 sparsely-filled pages, they are much faster to write than a novel, and you just might learn a thing or two about writing in the process. I would highly recommend the book How Not to Write a Screenplay by Denny Martin Flinn for anyone thinking of undertaking this project. The book covers formatting, plotting and everything else you need to know. Also, every April the NaNoWriMo people have a screenwriting month called Script Frenzy, in which screenwriters attempt to write 100 pages of a screenplay in a month.
Happy Noveling!
P.S. If any of you noveling folks are on GoodReads.com, you should friend me! My user name is Annakaris
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,008
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0 (not sure if this is good or bad)
Number of books you have to read and review for the Seattle Public Library system to be entered to win a Kindle: 3
Number of free book giveaways entered on GoodReads.com: 15
So now for our main topic. Screenwriting. Last summer I decided to attempt to write a screenplay. Although I'm fairly convinced that I will never be a famous screenwriter (Hollywood has too many politics and rules and cliques. I prefer good old-fashioned publishing), writing a screenplay may have been the best thing I ever did for my writing abilities.
Screenwriting in much, much different than novel writing. I didn't even write an original screenplay, I just adapted one of my favorite novels, Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. Screenplays are the epitome of SHOW don't TELL. In a screenplay you can't even write a phrase like "Tom, Joe's brother, enters the room." Unless Tom is going to be wearing a sign around his neck that says "Joe's brother" you can't put it in the screenplay. You have to find a way to work it into the dialogue. This is tricky, let me tell you.
Descriptions of locations have to be kept short and sweet also. In screenwriting, one page of properly formatted text = one minute of screen time (approximately). So if a scene is going to be shown for three seconds before the characters start talking, you have to sum up the scene in only a line or two. No long-winded pages of purple prose here. The trick is to choose one or two details that "sum up" the scene. Instead of saying "The farmhouse is old and blue. There is a flower bed in front but the flowers are dead and brown. The fence running behind the house is falling down and the barbed wire is rusty. The grass is long, clearly no animals have grazed here in a while," you cut it down to the essentials: "The paint on the farmhouse is peeling and the rusty barbed wire is sagging into the overgrown grass."
In screenwriting, the specific details (the color of the house, or exactly how many plants are in front) are pointless to put in, because the director is not going to follow your directions that closely. What you want is to make a point about WHAT KIND of farmhouse this is, and let the director follow through with the details.
In novel writing, the same principle can be applied, not because a director is going to come in and change it, but because leaving some details up to your readers imagination is crucial. Unless this is a classic Martian farmhouse, a reader will be able to fill in the scene without you spelling out every detail. Pick a few things that sum up the feel of the scene and leave the rest out. Over describing can pull a reader out of the scene, while the right choice of details can make them feel like they're right there with you. Of course, if they were to draw what they pictured the farmhouse looking like, it might not be how you pictured it at all, but that's okay. When a book is read, the reader brings his or her own experiences to the table and views the story against the backdrop of his or her life.
So if you've ever been curious about writing a screenplay, even if you have no intention of selling it, I would absolutely recommend it. Screenplays are short and sweet. At 90-120 sparsely-filled pages, they are much faster to write than a novel, and you just might learn a thing or two about writing in the process. I would highly recommend the book How Not to Write a Screenplay by Denny Martin Flinn for anyone thinking of undertaking this project. The book covers formatting, plotting and everything else you need to know. Also, every April the NaNoWriMo people have a screenwriting month called Script Frenzy, in which screenwriters attempt to write 100 pages of a screenplay in a month.
Happy Noveling!
P.S. If any of you noveling folks are on GoodReads.com, you should friend me! My user name is Annakaris
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
On libraries, planning and psyching myself out
Word count on The Language of the Unheard: 51,012
Form Rejections on Finding Innisburg: 1 (so far. Although it's almost 9 PM in NYC so that's probably it for tonight.
Super nice emails from the Agency Gatekeeper: 1
Volunteer Hours at Harborview Medical Center: 3
Holds placed at the library: 3
So about a year ago, I went on a library borrowing spree, checked out a TON of books, and then couldn't get myself over to the library to return them until they were...pretty late. So I've had about 40 dollars in late fees that I have been putting off paying, and as a result, I have been buying books instead of borrowing them from the library. Finally I realized that didn't make any financial sense, and I really wanted to read some new books (not ones I could find for cheap at the used bookstore next door), so I am going to go into the library tomorrow and pay my fees. And from now on, I'm going to be good and return my books on time. And I placed three holds on books from my GoodReads "to read" list.
I'm mulling over ideas for my next book(s). For NaNoWriMo, I think I'm going to attempt my first fantasy novel but between now and then, I'm going to try to outline another book to write after the fantasy novel is finished. The problem is, I have about four ideas and I can't decide which one I want to do. So that's where you come in. Here are the four choices, so leave me a comment and tell me which one you think you'd most like to read.
A. A paranormal thriller about a little boy sucked into a creepy wormhole by an evil child, and his sister's quest to get him back.
B. A historical fiction novel about a female pirate. NOT a romance novel, more action-adventure. Set in the golden age of piracy (1700's-ish)
C. A mystery novel about a woman who was given a necklace many years earlier by Elvis, and discovers that it holds the secret to a series of murders.
D. A journalist goes undercover as a prostitute and gets mixed up with the mob/a gang and has to fight for her life and the life of her young child.
So anyway, tell me what you think!
I've been reading a lot of blogs and writing sites lately and I have to keep remembering not to get too caught up in trends. It's not so much that I want to write books that are trendy, that's never really been desire of mine, but when I have an idea for a book, and then I read something that says that books like that are "out" I get freaked out. For example, my fantasy novel that I'm planning for NaNoWriMo, is technically a "portal fantasy" and apparently portal fantasy is not cool anymore. But I am reminding myself to write what I love and not worry about it.
Form Rejections on Finding Innisburg: 1 (so far. Although it's almost 9 PM in NYC so that's probably it for tonight.
Super nice emails from the Agency Gatekeeper: 1
Volunteer Hours at Harborview Medical Center: 3
Holds placed at the library: 3
So about a year ago, I went on a library borrowing spree, checked out a TON of books, and then couldn't get myself over to the library to return them until they were...pretty late. So I've had about 40 dollars in late fees that I have been putting off paying, and as a result, I have been buying books instead of borrowing them from the library. Finally I realized that didn't make any financial sense, and I really wanted to read some new books (not ones I could find for cheap at the used bookstore next door), so I am going to go into the library tomorrow and pay my fees. And from now on, I'm going to be good and return my books on time. And I placed three holds on books from my GoodReads "to read" list.
I'm mulling over ideas for my next book(s). For NaNoWriMo, I think I'm going to attempt my first fantasy novel but between now and then, I'm going to try to outline another book to write after the fantasy novel is finished. The problem is, I have about four ideas and I can't decide which one I want to do. So that's where you come in. Here are the four choices, so leave me a comment and tell me which one you think you'd most like to read.
A. A paranormal thriller about a little boy sucked into a creepy wormhole by an evil child, and his sister's quest to get him back.
B. A historical fiction novel about a female pirate. NOT a romance novel, more action-adventure. Set in the golden age of piracy (1700's-ish)
C. A mystery novel about a woman who was given a necklace many years earlier by Elvis, and discovers that it holds the secret to a series of murders.
D. A journalist goes undercover as a prostitute and gets mixed up with the mob/a gang and has to fight for her life and the life of her young child.
So anyway, tell me what you think!
I've been reading a lot of blogs and writing sites lately and I have to keep remembering not to get too caught up in trends. It's not so much that I want to write books that are trendy, that's never really been desire of mine, but when I have an idea for a book, and then I read something that says that books like that are "out" I get freaked out. For example, my fantasy novel that I'm planning for NaNoWriMo, is technically a "portal fantasy" and apparently portal fantasy is not cool anymore. But I am reminding myself to write what I love and not worry about it.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Just some random stuff...
My book is coming along ok. I'm at about 13,000 words I think but I'm slowly plugging along. My main worry is that I'm going to finish the story way too soon. I need to hit at least 50,000 words.
I sent out a bunch more queries for Finding Innisburg yesterday and today and promptly got a bunch more rejection letters. Still haven't heard back from the agent that has my patial yet so I guess that's good. There is hope yet.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Back to square one...
Just a quick update. I heard back from the agent that requested my full manuscript and she said "thanks but no thanks" basically. She said she read about a quarter of it and thought my voice was not masculine enough for a male character. Its a little disappointing but I'm sending out some more queries and keeping my fingers crossed for another chance.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Breakthrough!
I just got an email from an agent that I queried a couple of days ago requesting my full manuscript! I'm so excited and I'm just hoping and praying that she likes it. Just wanted to let you all know and I'll keep you posted with any new updates.Also a question. Now that I have sent my full manuscript to an agent, do I have to let the other agents that I've queried know? Can I still query other agents as well? I don't know what the etiquette is in this situation.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Screenplay update and looking for an agent!
So I finished the screenplay! Yes, it officially took me 7 days to write and is 121 pages long. I already know that I have some serious editing (rewriting in the screenwriting world) to do but its good to have the gist of it all on paper...or on computer as the case may be.
So now I'm on to project number two which is to try to find an agent for Finding Innisburg, my NaNo novel for last year. So I have written up a query letter for it and so far today I have found four agents which take email submissions (I'm waiting on the snail mail ones until I have a printer!) and sent them my query letter plus a couple of them requested sample pages of the manuscript. I'm planning on querying a bunch of agents over the next couple of weeks and then starting in on outlining my new book.
Project number three is a novel currently entitled "St. Dorothy's School for Girls" which will be about a private school that is actually a sort of cult/club to train girls to become suitable princess candidates. The goal of the "school" is to marry their girls off to the eligible princes and other royalty of the world. Right now I'm kind of thinking about it like you know those "pageant mothers" who just go nuts and are super hardcore about their daughters participating in beauty pageants? Well this is the same kind of thing except that the parents want their daughters to marry a prince. The parents and the school are really hardcore and as our heroine gets older she realizes that this is not what she wants but she's so ingrained in this brainwashing/cult that she can't get out. Sort of a dark novel about what happens when parents try to control their kids.
So now I'm on to project number two which is to try to find an agent for Finding Innisburg, my NaNo novel for last year. So I have written up a query letter for it and so far today I have found four agents which take email submissions (I'm waiting on the snail mail ones until I have a printer!) and sent them my query letter plus a couple of them requested sample pages of the manuscript. I'm planning on querying a bunch of agents over the next couple of weeks and then starting in on outlining my new book.Project number three is a novel currently entitled "St. Dorothy's School for Girls" which will be about a private school that is actually a sort of cult/club to train girls to become suitable princess candidates. The goal of the "school" is to marry their girls off to the eligible princes and other royalty of the world. Right now I'm kind of thinking about it like you know those "pageant mothers" who just go nuts and are super hardcore about their daughters participating in beauty pageants? Well this is the same kind of thing except that the parents want their daughters to marry a prince. The parents and the school are really hardcore and as our heroine gets older she realizes that this is not what she wants but she's so ingrained in this brainwashing/cult that she can't get out. Sort of a dark novel about what happens when parents try to control their kids.So wish me luck in getting an agent! I've never gone this far in the process before with a book so its kind of exciting! Also, I've decided that I can probably watch the whole royal wedding online tomorrow morning at a more reasonable hour so there is no need to stay up all night!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Many apologies
So I owe everyone my sincerest apologies for the huge space of time between posts. And now, an update. I finished editing Finding Innisburg and sent it off to a few friends and family for critique. Mostly the feedback has been positive. I was planning for a while to do Script Frenzy (which, for those of you who don't know, is NaNoWriMo's sister program in April for screenwriters) but then a lot of stuff went down at the beginning of the month and I didn't think I'd have time to do it, so I dropped out. But then on the 16th I got laid off from my job so I have loads of free time now. So I decided to join up at the last minute and I just hit 100 pages (the goal for Script Frenzy) yesterday! It took me five days. I pretty much worked on it about eight hours a day. But it's still not done so I need to wrap that up, hopefully by the end of the month. I'm adapting the L.M. Montgomery novel, Rilla of Ingleside and I think its coming along pretty good, although it will almost undoubtadly be over my maximum page count of 120 pages so I'll need to go back and cut some stuff at the end. But thats pretty what I've been up to! I hope to keep you all posted on a much more regular basis from now on!Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The End
Well, Finding Innisburg is finished. All the loose ends are wrapped up, all the appropriate people have gone to jail and the two main characters are getting married. I typed "The End" very happily about five minutes ago and now am feeling very accomplished.
Am I happy with it? Yes. I think the story came together well considering I started at the beginning 31 days ago. It didn't go exactly like my outline, but it works pretty good. I probably won't read over it or try to edit it for at least a month to put some distance between me and it but I'm satisfied. With some editing and padding it won't be half bad. It ended up at 51,079 words which isn't as long as I had hoped but my stories usually gain some words in the editing process, so I'll probably be fine.
Whats up next? Well, since I haven't been able to come up with a brilliant Christmas story idea, I think I'll write up a short story about a selkie who falls in love with a man. We'll see how that turns out. But for right now I'm going to go toast up an English muffin and pour myself a glass of celebratory milk. :P
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Down to the wire...
There are exactly 3 days and 2 hours left in NaNoWriMo, and my current word count is 43,625 which leaves me with 6,375 words left to write in that time. Last time I did NaNo, in 2008, I hit 75,000 words and finished my story by the end of the month and this time I'm pushing the limit of just completeing it. But last time I also didn't have a boyfriend and now I live with mine so that takes up some of my novel writing time. But also I've just been lazy. No real excuse. But I'm planning to hit 46,000 by the end of the night tonight so then I'll just have that last four thousand to do over the next three days. Shouldn't be too hard. Then the hard part will be forcing myself to finish the story, since it won't be over by 50,000 words, especially since my main female character just went and got herself bit by a poisonous snake in the middle of the Mexican jungle. Which was totally NOT scripted, I'd like to point out. A bit of improv on her part.
Alright, I'm off to put some apple turnovers in the oven and then crank out another thousand or so words before they are done, hopefully!
Happy noveling!
Alright, I'm off to put some apple turnovers in the oven and then crank out another thousand or so words before they are done, hopefully!
Happy noveling!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Some thoughts...
First off, an apology for the lack of creativity in the title. No excuse.
So the novel has been sitting on my hard drive for almost two days without any love from me, its beloved author. Generally my only problem in writing comes from not knowing what to write next, but these days I know what to write, I know how to write it, I just don't want to. Someone smack me upside the head, please.
As a slight excuse to the writing gods, I offer up the fact that I have worked 17 of the last 24 hours with three hours of sleep in there somewhere. It's been pretty hectic.
On a different creative front, however, I have finished reading two books on screenwriting, and am slowly coming up with a plot to let me try my hand at screenwriting. I think it will be a challenge for me in the sense that I write from a very emotional place, and screenwriting is a much more visual art form. I am looking forward to how this new medium will challenge me and improve or change my novel-writing skills. One of the books I have is entitled How Not to Write a Screenplay and the author points out some obvious mistakes that apparently novice screenwriters make. Several of them are eye-opening to me regarding writing in general, particularly those dealing with overwriting and not leaving things to the readers imagination. In a screenplay, obviously, this is derived from the fact that the director and actors will be interpreting the descriptions in their own way, but I think it has some correlations in standard prose writing as well. It has been a fascinating and eye-opening journey through that book.
Often times I have wondered or pondered the difference between a thriller and a mystery. Obviously some works fall distinctly on one side or the other of this line but often I've noticed some middle ground that seems a bit ambiguous. The author of How Not to Write a Screenplay (forgive me, I'm too lazy right now to get up and grab the book to find out his name) defines the difference as follows. He says that in a thriller, the audience (or reader) knows what the hero or heroine is trying to find out. Thus, they know who the bad guy is, where the bomb is, or who has the child before the protagonist finds out for him or herself. In a mystery, the main character solves the problem or mystery before the reader does, and then reveals it to the reader or audience in some way. I don't know how much this difference is accepted in literary circles, but it made a lot of sense to me and drew an interesting line between the way an audience or reader connects with the main character. Given this definition, the audience would be protective or worried for the main character in a thriller, but in a mystery, they would identify with him or her more along the journey, and come out with more respect perhaps. Just an interesting thought for me.
Other than that, I am discovering reading over this entry that I am highly contemplative on no sleep and too much caffeine. And so, adieu. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
So the novel has been sitting on my hard drive for almost two days without any love from me, its beloved author. Generally my only problem in writing comes from not knowing what to write next, but these days I know what to write, I know how to write it, I just don't want to. Someone smack me upside the head, please.
As a slight excuse to the writing gods, I offer up the fact that I have worked 17 of the last 24 hours with three hours of sleep in there somewhere. It's been pretty hectic.
On a different creative front, however, I have finished reading two books on screenwriting, and am slowly coming up with a plot to let me try my hand at screenwriting. I think it will be a challenge for me in the sense that I write from a very emotional place, and screenwriting is a much more visual art form. I am looking forward to how this new medium will challenge me and improve or change my novel-writing skills. One of the books I have is entitled How Not to Write a Screenplay and the author points out some obvious mistakes that apparently novice screenwriters make. Several of them are eye-opening to me regarding writing in general, particularly those dealing with overwriting and not leaving things to the readers imagination. In a screenplay, obviously, this is derived from the fact that the director and actors will be interpreting the descriptions in their own way, but I think it has some correlations in standard prose writing as well. It has been a fascinating and eye-opening journey through that book.
Often times I have wondered or pondered the difference between a thriller and a mystery. Obviously some works fall distinctly on one side or the other of this line but often I've noticed some middle ground that seems a bit ambiguous. The author of How Not to Write a Screenplay (forgive me, I'm too lazy right now to get up and grab the book to find out his name) defines the difference as follows. He says that in a thriller, the audience (or reader) knows what the hero or heroine is trying to find out. Thus, they know who the bad guy is, where the bomb is, or who has the child before the protagonist finds out for him or herself. In a mystery, the main character solves the problem or mystery before the reader does, and then reveals it to the reader or audience in some way. I don't know how much this difference is accepted in literary circles, but it made a lot of sense to me and drew an interesting line between the way an audience or reader connects with the main character. Given this definition, the audience would be protective or worried for the main character in a thriller, but in a mystery, they would identify with him or her more along the journey, and come out with more respect perhaps. Just an interesting thought for me.
Other than that, I am discovering reading over this entry that I am highly contemplative on no sleep and too much caffeine. And so, adieu. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Excerpt from Finding Innisburg
So I'm going to do something I have never done before: share a portion of my writing before the entire story is complete. The following except is the first couple of pages of Finding Innisburg, my NaNo novel this year. I'm working on leading into my books with something exciting, so tell me if this gets you hooked for more, or if you are bored before you get halfway through. The first thought in my mind as I floated slowly to earth, was, “Why are there manicured lawns in the middle of the Guatemalan rain forest?” The second, was “How on earth am I going to get back out?” I looked up at the parachute above me, floating serenely on air and carrying me down to the ground. As the patch of fenced land I had seen several times from the helicopter and then from the airplane that brought me here today approached, I saw that I was right about the manicured lawns. It was not a government test site as some had suggested, and I was not being shot down. I saw buildings below and soon I could make out cars on the street and what appeared to be a park. If I had not known better, I would have thought that I was jumping into a classic American town. I aimed my parachute for a large parking lot, and as the ground rapidly drew nearer, I suddenly realized that many people were standing around on the sidewalks, looking up.
I barely had time to register that they were not dressed like indigenous Guatemalans before I had to pull my feet up and I scraped across the bumpy gravel in my jump suit before coming to a halt. I stood up, looked around me like a spaceman on a distant planet, and began to unzip my flight suit to reveal my street clothes. Just then I saw someone approaching cautiously from across the street. He was probably in his 60’s wearing a thin tie and a sport coat. Pinned on his jacket was a silver star and he was carrying a baton. A couple of other men were behind him.
“Estoy un amigo!” I called to him, although he didn’t look like he was a native Guatemalan.
“Sir! Put your hands up and turn around,” he yelled to me, and I could hear fear in his voice. Surprised that he could speak English, I slowly stepped both feet out of the full body flight suit, leaving the empty shell on the ground. Then I put my hands on my head and slowly turned around. As I did so, I realized that I was in the parking lot of a drive up movie theater and the screen was now in front of me. Posters announced the newest movies showing which were “From Here to Eternity” and “Shane.” I had seen Shane once. With my grandfather, when I was a kid. My grandfather loved old westerns.
“Wow,” I thought, “This place must not be used much.” Although the posters looked like they hadn’t been up very long.
Just then I felt the cold weight of the handcuffs as they latched onto my wrists. I didn’t resist, not knowing what these people were doing here or who they thought I was. When I was turned around, I could see that the star pinned to the mans shirt was engraved, “Chief, Innisburg Municipal Police Force.”
“Who do you think you’re fooling, parachuting in like this?” He sounded mad, and was clearly more confident now that I was in handcuffs, although his companions still hung back nervously. “Just because we’re a small town doesn’t mean were an easy target for you Communist invasion!”
“Communist!?” I exclaimed, almost laughing to think what my dad would think of me being mistaken for a communist. “I’m not a Communist! I’m just a photo journalist and I wanted to know what you guys were doing down here!”
“A likely story,” huffed the chief in disbelief, “Come on, boys!” he called to the men behind him, “let’s get him down to the jail!”
He grabbed the chain connecting my wrists and led me towards the street. I twisted around, trying to get my bearings.
“Hey, don’t try any fancy stuff,” he said, giving me a small tug. “I may be a small town chief but that just means I’ll have nothing better to do than to hunt you down should you try to skip town.”
“You’re awfully touchy about this being a small town,” I said with a small grin.
“Now don’t you be impudent with me, son,” he growled, shoving me roughly toward the sidewalk. When we got there, there were three or four men, a couple of them carrying sticks or other crude clubs. They nervously took in my leather jacket, jeans and Converse shoes.
“He doesn’t look like a Commie, Al,” said one of them, addressing the police chief.
“Why else would he come falling out of the sky? He’s got a fancy looking camera and this weird communication device,” said Al, holding up my iPhone, which must have fallen out my pocket.
“No, look, that’s…” I began.
“Shut it, boy,” said, Al. “Come on, let’s get him down to the jail and I’ll phone the authorities. They’ll want to hear about this.”
“Look, my name is Jonathan Carrington,” I said, not really wanting to spend the night in jail. There were too many questions that I needed answers to about this place.
“Yeah, sure it is,” said one of the men behind me, sarcastically.
I said nothing. I didn’t know why on earth they would assume I was Communist, but I decided to figure out a way to convince them otherwise before I said something that would get me into trouble. Besides, there was too much about this town that was strange, and I wanted the chance to look around. We headed down the sidewalk and turned at the next street. The streets of the town were quiet but as we passed the park, a car turned the corner and drove slowly past us. I immediately recognized it as a 1950 Pontiac Chieftain, a car I had often admired in classic car magazines but had never seen in real life.
“Wow! Sweet ride!” I exclaimed in spite of myself. One of the men behind me, who was a bit younger than the rest, said,
“Yeah Doug just got that last year.” He seemed about to say more but his voice trailed off and there was an awkward silence. Down the street I saw a couple of girls and as they approached, they quickly crossed the street at the sight of me being lead down the sidewalk with a posse of men surrounding me. The girls were very cute but they looked like they were going to a costume party or something, with skirts that hung just below their knees and knitted button up sweaters on. As they got closer I noticed that they both carried books under their arms and I figured that it must be fifties day at school or something. They stared and gigged as they passed, and I threw a wink their direction, which only incited more laughs.
Within minutes we had arrived at our destination and the chief opened the door of the police station. There was a desk with a few papers on it, but it was the phone that caught my attention. It was tall and black with a separate piece hooked on the side for listening.
“What’s with all the antiques around here?” I asked, finally putting my finger on the strangeness that had surrounded me, “Did I go through a time warp and end up in Mayberry?”
“Come on,” was all the chief said. He pushed me towards the back where I could see two cells with one wall made of bars and a large door which he unlocked. He unlocked my handcuffs and I rubbed my wrists.
“Give me your backpack,” he said.
“Oh come on,” I said, not wanting to give up the only possessions I had with me. “This is ridiculous. My name is Jonathan Carrington and I’m from Arizona. In the US,” I added after a pause, nearly forgetting that I was still in the jungles of Guatemala.”
“Give me the backpack. If you’re telling the truth, then you have nothing to fear,” he said, in a way that told me he was sure I was lying.
I sighed, slipping out of the backpack. I had not known what to expect when I jumped out of the airplane only a few short minutes earlier, but this was not it. The police chief closed the cell door behind me and walked back into the station, closing another door so I could no longer see or hear him.
NaNo and other writing projects update!
So right now I am at 35,195 words, with plans to add a few thousand more before the day is over. My characters escaped from jail and are now trying to figure out the next step in their plans. I still have almost half the month left, so at the rate I'm going, I'll be done in time to spend the rest of the month outlining my next book, which I think will be a sequal to Runaway Train, which I need to finish editing and begin submitting to agents.
So my current projects or soon-to-be projects are:
1. Runaway Train. Possibly young adult survival adventure romance which stands at 40,277 words and needs some more editing and adding before it is ready to submit to agents.
2. Finding Innisburg. Currently at 35,195 words, needs to be finished, edited and submitted to agents.
3. As yet unnamed short story. Probably will be an Old West rendition of Much Ado about Nothing, with no comic spoofiness to it and delving deeply into the characters of the original Shakespeare.
4. As yet unnamed sequals to Runaway Train. Before I started, I planned a whole trilogy so I have rough outlines for two more books.
5. Unnamed screenplay. Probably about a girl who embezzles a bunch of money from her work with no forethought and runs away to Guatemala just because she felt impulsive. Will be writing that for Script Frenzy in April.
So that's what I'll be working on for probably another year or so. Hows your life?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Maps, Trees and other projects
So a good chunk of the novel I will be writing in November takes place in the small, isolated town of Innisburg, so naturally I felt that I should make a map of the town to ensure that I won't confuse myself come November. And of course, being a NaNoer, I was not content to simply sketch one up on a piece of notebook paper. So I got a big piece of foam poster board stuff and some Sharpies and drew up a map of the whole town.
And t
hen, of course, there were two sides to the board so I had to come up with something to decorate the other side. So since my town of fifty has been living in isolation for three generations, they have a complicated family tree, and I was determined that no one should be married to siblings or first cousins, so that made it a little bit more complicated. But with some colorful Sharpies to keep it from being too confusing, I managed to get the whole family tree mapped out on the other side.
hen, of course, there were two sides to the board so I had to come up with something to decorate the other side. So since my town of fifty has been living in isolation for three generations, they have a complicated family tree, and I was determined that no one should be married to siblings or first cousins, so that made it a little bit more complicated. But with some colorful Sharpies to keep it from being too confusing, I managed to get the whole family tree mapped out on the other side.It was fun and challenging but it's done now, so I'm all ready for November to start!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Biding my time til November...
So I was re-checking out the book that Chris Baty (founder of NaNoWriMo and God to all insane novelists) wrote called "No Plot, No Problem, and I remembered all the pitfalls that over planning can cause in the noveling process. I began to get worried that I had already overplanned for my NaNo novel (I am a very paranoid novelist) and there is still a lot of time left before November. I knew that if I didn't find another project for myself to work on until then, that I would very likely over plan.
So I decided to go back and begin the editing process on the book I wrote in June/July of this year. It's called Runaway Train and it's a sort of post-apocalyptic romance story. I hadn't looked at it at all since I wrote it and so I was a bit nervous to open it up and see if there was anything salvagable among it. The first three pages or so were total BS and I cut them immediatly, and even after that the beginning is going to need a bit of work to keep it from dragging, but over all it was suprisingly well written. I found myself getting pulled into the story almost as if I hadn't written it, and laughing at a few funny things that I had forgotten I had written. It is refreshing to work on a new project, and I'm excited both for Runaway Train and the NaNo novel which is currently called Finding Innisburg. It seems I do have some writing talent after all and I'm stoked to edit Runaway Train and make the whole thing as great as some of it is already.
So that is my project between now and November.
Also, I officially got Halloween night off of work so that I can begin noveling right at midnight. Although there is a good chance I'll have to work in the morning at like 9 or some other unholy hour. Somewhere behind my eyes my brain is contemplating pulling an all-nighter to novel, attempting to pull ahead of the pack by a few thousand right off the bat, but at 22 I'm not as young as I once was, so we'll see.
So I decided to go back and begin the editing process on the book I wrote in June/July of this year. It's called Runaway Train and it's a sort of post-apocalyptic romance story. I hadn't looked at it at all since I wrote it and so I was a bit nervous to open it up and see if there was anything salvagable among it. The first three pages or so were total BS and I cut them immediatly, and even after that the beginning is going to need a bit of work to keep it from dragging, but over all it was suprisingly well written. I found myself getting pulled into the story almost as if I hadn't written it, and laughing at a few funny things that I had forgotten I had written. It is refreshing to work on a new project, and I'm excited both for Runaway Train and the NaNo novel which is currently called Finding Innisburg. It seems I do have some writing talent after all and I'm stoked to edit Runaway Train and make the whole thing as great as some of it is already.
So that is my project between now and November.
Also, I officially got Halloween night off of work so that I can begin noveling right at midnight. Although there is a good chance I'll have to work in the morning at like 9 or some other unholy hour. Somewhere behind my eyes my brain is contemplating pulling an all-nighter to novel, attempting to pull ahead of the pack by a few thousand right off the bat, but at 22 I'm not as young as I once was, so we'll see.
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