NaNoWriMo: The true struggle begins

NaNoWriMo:

Update

When Real Life invades, and I'm sure you know what happens next...

Day Four

This was an important test for me - not only was it a practical exam, but also the first day that I would be taken away from my laptop and I wouldn't be able to write. 

And GUUYS, it was hard af.

Not only did I completely tank my exam, I felt so depressed coming home that I lay in bed for almost three hours. THREE HOURS. Wasted. Because of a crappy exam. 

I didn't want to be around anyone or do anything.

And suffice to say, I looked at my laptop from my position on the bed, and cried some more. 

I'm pretty far in word count considering I started a day late, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I almost purposely missed a day to write.

But all was not lost - after spending three hours being a useless lump in bed and watching series to make myself feel better (and eating because food fixes all the world's problems), I decided that I needed a way to cope.

And arguably, it was the most productive writing day I had, clocking in at 4000words by the time I turned in for bed. 

Throughout the day, before I had gotten down to writing, I couldn't talk to anyone without getting upset, but my characters helped, and writing was a great way to deal with the crappiness I felt.

By the time I saved the document I was feeling all kinds of better, and even apologized to my boyfriend for my crappy mood (apologizing to anyone is the last thing a person experiencing a crappy day wants to do) but by that point, I almost forgot about my bad exam. Almost. But that's besides the point!

Writing has proven to be a comfort and a real method of dealing with life for me. 

This wasn't the first time, but it normally took a lot to get me to write during my "sad" days. 

Thankfully a depleted word-count was enough initiative to get me typing away and fixing myself up for the next day's exam.

Source

Day Five

It was yet another practical that awaited me and yet another day that life would invade resulting in my writing time cut short. 

However, the exam went well in my opinion, I certainly felt better about it then the last exam, and so I spent the day celebrating with series and food - yes, I realize how I celebrate and how I am when I'm sad is about the same, but it works for me. 

Sadly, this did not apply to my writing time.

I clocked up only 1k at the end of the day, long enough that I hit the necessary word count for the day, but hardly enough considering my previous days. Still, I was satisfied with the little I wrote. 

Between writing though, I posted on the NaNoWriMo threads for help with some research and was told of something I just had to check out - the majority of the reason why I didn't write more than yesterday was because I ended up youtubing fight scenes (and a couple of trailers...by the way Big Hero Six, Minions and Penguins of Madagascar? CANNOT WAIT TO WATCH IT).

It was largely thanks to the NaNoWriMo group on Facebook pushing its members to hit the 8, 337 words to get us up to speed, that  I successfully got there and then some before I turned in for the night.

Day Six

Unlike the two days before, I got up early to write a bit before I had to get ready for college to take another exam - theory this time - and then I wrote a bit more while waiting to leave the house.

I hit roughly 500-800words by the time I left, and when I returned, I spent a large majority of the time preparing for the next exam which would be tomorrow. 

However, even with that more or less done, I got down to writing once more and at 10, 005 words, I was more than happy to take a bit of a break and get to studying again.

Because yes, I am doing yet another exam tomorrow - three in succession truly is a gift. 

But I suppose that makes it fair in some respects, I had previously thought my exams in November would hinder my ability to write but in fact, it encourages it.

Unlike other people doing NaNoWriMo who are juggling work, school and kids, my time has been largely free other than the occasions of studying and preparing my practical things.

And to think, I was so reluctant to take the challenge because of exams, and here I am still writing and keeping up. 

I'm glad I took the leap and decided to join NaNoWriMo this year.

At least at the end, whether I win or not, I can say I took a chance and tried my best to get those 50K words because whatever result, that's more words than I would've had without NaNoWriMo and all its participants helping each other along. 

What I've learnt over these three days is that writing is and always will be a form of expression, whether or not what you're writing relates directly to your life, it will be there for you for as long as you want it to be. And that community is everything - you may be a recluse or someone that doesn't need social interaction to function, but having people you can bounce ideas off and to encourage you will never get old.

These lessons aren't new, but I'm thankful for the reminder.

Source

  

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NaNoWriMo: BAM! Brain juice!

NaNoWriMo

Update 

So it's day three and my brain decided it was time to write - who was I to refuse?

Day Three

I gave up sleep today. For the first time in a long time. 

And if you knew me, you would know how important my sleep is.

At five, the plotbunnies came a'knocking. I refused. 

At five thirty, they were insistent. Still I refused to budge. 

By six, they were all but pounding my skull in until I got up to make the pain go away (oh Myprodol, you light up my life), but by six thirty the plotbunnies - though weakened, continued to whine. 

And begrudingly I turned on my laptop, opened word and stared.

I had no idea what they wanted me to do: I was finally where they wanted me and they said...nothing? Annoyed, I typed a few things down, just to get me started, at first they were random words and then...

The hopeful wish that someone on the NaNoWriMo group could help me with an idea to move the story along was practically pointless, the plotbunnies hurled through the door like a freight train and the words came: gradually at first until time had passed and suddenly...

5000words grinned at me from the bottom of the Word document.

Could it be?

Roughly two hours had passed. Not the fastest I'd ever typed, but I had edited here and there (shhh, the NaNoWriMo gods need never know...) and there I was, the first checkpoint in the 50K word challenge.

I still had a long way to go, but I had reached a milestone in two days, with one day behind.

At this current state, I'm not sure how much I've repeated and whether everything I wrote made sense as a whole, but the word count had gone up and that was the challenge.

As many have pointed out: NaNoWriMo is not a competition to write the next bestseller in thirty days (though damn, what an accomplishment that would be!), but a challenge to write every day. Why though? Why is that important?

On day three of NaNoWriMo, I found out: Writing is an art form that requires an unending amount of discipline.

You can have talent in spades, be coveted as the next J.K Rowling, G. R. R. Martin, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde or Shakespeare! But that talent is useless without discipline - without practice - without making mistakes and learning.

If those great writers only wrote when they felt like it, they probably wouldn't have created such amazing pieces of work that have stayed with fans for years.

As an author once said, "If a draft takes more than three months to write, trash it and start over."

And you know what would've happened if everyone had to do that? Short answer would be that there would definitely be less books in the world.

The thing is, the writing time for a draft stretches years upon years because we, as writers, get attached to this phrase, this character, this scene, this relationship and editing becomes more painful then it already is.

But we hold on, we procrastinate longer then we should and before we know it, we've wasted so much time and then forgotten why we started. Time passes and then we find ourselves reading an unfinished draft that could've been the next big thing in whatever way you wanted it to be.

Why?

Because we're afraid.

Yet another thing I've learnt from NaNoWriMo is that there's no space and no time for that.

People who've accepted the 50K challenge have dared to reach that goal, as unattainable and difficult as it may be when you're sitting in front of a blank screen with a blinking cursor. They have dared to write, regardless of what it is, to give their ideas words and let other people know what it is that's been picking at their brains.

And I think that's the most amazing thing about NaNoWriMo.

Done by Kat Mallon, taken from the NaNoWriMo Facebook group

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NaNoWriMo: Here is my soul - please don't eat it too fast

NaNoWriMo

It's the time of the year where novels are written in thirty days or less, and where souls are devoured faster then you can say 50K

So yes, I finally took the plunge and signed up for the 50,000 word writing challenge and with a day already wasted in indecision, I spent most of my Saturday trying to get my story up and running. 

For those wondering: I'm writing an original story, one I hope to publish some day, but one I've always put off writing the first draft because seriously: first drafts are beautifully hideous and  loving them is the worst thing you could possibly do which is why I decided my time to write was now - in my nineteenth year of existence, I was going to pen an original story with no previous story background to catch me and characters completely of my own imagination.

I did it before, once, when I was fourteen and let's just say it was a blend of the City of Bones and Twilight which made it horrifying in more ways than one. 

In any case, alongside trying to get to my 50K word count goal, I'll be updating my very neglected blog in order to track my progress: 

Day One 

I saw this somewhere on Facebook and the urge to join in on the challenge niggled.

I had already declined to join in on another Facebook group event called FAGE and I regretted it enormously. 

I didn't want a repeat of that regret, regardless of the fact that I was doing exams (theory and practical, kill me). 

As the day passed by, I came across hundreds of articles on how to get started and how to win NaNoWriMo.

Still, I was hesitant. 

What if I just couldn't do it? 

I posed this question on Facebook and the response was simple: Irrespective of whether you reach 50K, as a writer you'll always win. 1000 words or 50 000words, that's more than you probably would have before.

The next day. I signed up and it began.

Day Two

I was so torn between doing NaNoWriMo, stressing over exams and just generally trying to keep up with life that I had forgotten one of the most important things about writing a story. 

The story.

For hours since I joined up, I wrote and rewrote line after line going absolutely nowhere. On the Facebook group for NaNoWriMo, I posted: All I'm coming up with is brain fart. My first NaNoWriMo is brain fart *dies*

OMFG why did I do this to myself. 

What have I done? 

Noo...I'm not ready...

Hours later while searching through old stories that were ambiguously titled(I have more than fifty "THIS ONE" and "COMPLETE THIS DAMNNIT" documents) and while rereading them, one story caught my eye.

It was a disjointed mess of "fight scene", "chase scene","interrogation scene" and "opening scene 1/2/3", but there was a summary I had wisely written down and it was the story I decided I would finish. 

Once I get far enough I'll let you in on it, but at 2K so far, the story's under wraps. 

Until tomorrow. 

Anyone taking part in NaNoWriMo? Want to buddy up for the writing? How's your experience with the challenge? Is this your first time?

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Author Envy

"Instead of writing about turmoil and conflict, Austen’s books are known for their serenity and peacefulness. “Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on”, she wrote to her neice Anna. Someone once told me she was half-way through Emma and nothing had happened yet. That’s the point! Austen’s novels are about people, not events. Thus, her work retains a timeless quality. People are the same no matter what century you are in."

- Source  

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Author rant: I know you love him coz you're jealous.

Author rant:

I know you love him coz you're jealous.

I try to respond to reviews as often as I can. Not only because I'm genuinely thankful someone took the time to review, but also to further ask their opinion on matters relating to the story.

I've gotten some amazing responses and a lot of food for thought when I go in to write more chapters, and its invaluable to have that kind of feedback from people, especially readers.

Very recently, I got a response back which, I'll paraphrase: 

"Maybe bring in a male character to make the other character jealous in order for them to realise their true feelings" - Uhm. How about no. 

One thing I absolutely hate is the use of jealousy for a couple to realise they have feelings for each other. No. Absolutely not. 

Love isn't about jealousy. 

Insecure people are jealous. 

People that think love and relationships are about being better than other couples, or being better than their significant other, get jealous. 

People that are comfortable and happy in a relationship do not get jealous, and they certainly don't need jealousy to make them realise they're in love with someone. 

Using a third party to insinuate deeper feelings between two other people is superficial at best. 

Yes, you may feel jealous at the lucky women who sees the Hemsworth brothers, Orlando Bloom and the like first thing in the morning in all their shirtless, sent-from-Heaven glory, but that's completely different! 

In fanfiction whenever there's a love triangle or an indication of a love triangle, there's always one poor person in between whose an innocent bystander in the ship's path. 

A good love triangle puts the reader in the position of the male/female character that is in the middle of the triangle, letting them into why the character is so torn between Person A and Person B. The reader has to feel just as torn up about having to choose only one of them (not because it's a competition, but because it isn't fair on either of them that you - general - can't make up your mind on who you have stronger feelings towards). 

If anything, a love triangle is the most used and the most pitifully implemented plot device the world over. 

In fanfiction its supposed to indicate why the pairing can only be together, and to portray how unhappy one half of the relationship is when they're with someone else. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS DAMN IT.  

Love means wanting someone to be happy, even if it isn't with you.

PLUS. Just because you're unhappy with a relationship doesn't mean it'll be better with someone else. 

RELATIONSHIPS TAKE WORK, IF YOU AREN'T WILLING TO DO IT, SOMEONE ELSE WILL. 

One of the many reasons I'm so against love triangles (or any "love" shape) is because it pits two individuals against each other for the affection of a single person whose screwed up in the head, whose indecisive AF and will probably run off with a third party anyway. 

Do you want to see how to do love triangles well? Observe the relationships in Scandal! between Mellie, Fitz and Liv, and Fitz, Liv and Jake; no one does love tangles better than Shonda Rhimes.

The only way I can respect a love triangle is if the author isn't scared to show all sides of the characters - the sides that aren't pretty, that have a pension for pain, that don't always win the battle at the end of the day. The characters in a love triangle go through HELL. And sometimes you're left wondering if anyone could possibly love another human being. I'd go so far as to say it's the ugly side of love. 

Love triangles are a guess game - the end result will always be on the horizon, but the scary thing is what ship will still have their flags raised when its over.

That's right: for those of you who only read fanfiction when you see character A x character B x character C love-triangle, you as the reader aren't supposed to know which ship will actually sail another day. If the summary immediately indicated "character A x character B" then there's no actual point in it being called a "triangle".  

The common thing in fanfiction is to use a third party to incite the "true" feelings of the pairing which is what this reviewer wanted me to do. 

All suggestions are open to be considered, accepted or declined.  I choose the last. 

Because: 

• There's no space for jealousy of that kind in a happy relationship. 
• It isn't fair on that third character.
• To actively manipulate any character to feel anything is just that - manipulation, and that's not how a healthy relationship works
• Two people should admit or have their feelings known because they've decided to, not because they've been "pushed" to it in fear of losing their significant other 
• Using a "love triangle" as a way to make feelings known is plain stupid - the laziest form of writing in my opinion. Just because the characters are unsure of their feelings for each other doesn't mean that they need something dramatic or require some event to occur to right that. 
• Its a "character" problem - my stories are character driven, there needs to be internal conflict to move the story along. The reason character A and character B don't know how the other feels is because THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO. 

Characters realising their feelings on their own and how they make it known is part of the story, I'm not throwing that away to give anyone instant gratification, and if I were, I'd be throwing the potential the story has and my own work down the drain. 

Sigh. Okay. I'm done.

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Anatomy of a popular one-shot

Yes I'm aware I'm tooting my own horn. 

No. I don't care.

Anatomy of a popular one-shot

I've written many one-shots. Not exceeding a hundred yet mind you, but I've had my fair share of them - thirty plus if you count the stories from my inactive account, and ten to fifteen on my current. 

For those of you who don't know what a one-shot is: It's basically a short story, the shortest short story ever. It can really only count as a one-shot if it's a single chapter so word count is relative. 

Some people find it easy. Others not so much.

I write one-shots as experiments and mainly to scratch the writing bug that pops up. I don't have the best track record with long running stories, so one-shots and collections of one-shots are my safest bet which would explain the number of them that I have.

I'm no expert at it, but I've come to recognize a few things once the story has been posted. An example being the two one-shots that spurned the creation of this post.

Before I give away any misleading secrets, it's important to note a few things: 

A story's popularity depends on a number of factors, these include, but are not limited to:

• The fandom you're writing for
• The pairing or main characters involved
• The genre you categorize it under
• The rating of the story

As you may have noticed, the actual writing isn't mentioned because those are internal factors and what makes a story attractive to potential readers is the bare minimum they see which in fanfiction is limited to a 455character summary, a title, and the above already mentioned. 

Note: Readers will notice any spelling and grammatical errors in your summary and it could be held against you. A good first impression is important.

Now, as I said, I recently posted two one-shots three days apart (they're practically twins), here they are, their first picture outside of my brain -

Despite the fact that the stories were three days apart they had nothing else in common: Not their fandom, not their rating, not their word count, nothing. 

But what's interesting is that I felt exactly the same when I wrote both. I was suffering from writer's block about another story and I wrote those two to make them better. They were written practically the same day but released seperately because I felt like it (no joke, I didn't think either of them were particularly good so I was reluctant to release them onto the internet).

As you can see from the reviews though, the stories garnered different responses. 

The first, my shot in the dark - first Fairy Tail one-shot was me writing away my obsession with a pairing that isn't particularly popular. I thought it was the better of the two so that's why I posted it first. I didn't expect a miracle, if anything I'm surprised I got any reviews at all. 

The second was posted under the excitement that my Fairy Tail one-shot survived without a flame or troll in sight, and I hoped I'd get the same response. 

If you're on the Facebook Group Fanfiction Writers Unite you'd know how it was received: I got eight reviews within two hours of posting, and the numbers kept going...

I still think it's a joke, and I honestly laugh about it because it's so unbelievable. 

Looking back, the stories are pretty different. 

Fandom and pairing:

Fairy Tail, though popular as a fandom, didn't have a big community of Laxana shippers.

Pride and Prejudice on the other hand, is quite active, and its  DarcyxLizzy/Dizzy ship definitely takes up the entire harbor.

The up would go to the Pride and Prejudice story.

Plot wise: 

The Fairy Tail one-shot was my version of a Laxana trope: the pairing being drinking buddies. 

The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was a complete out of the box: the pairing in the same economic situation (a trope that is rarely ever explored though I've yet to figure out why). 

It would be a toss up, but since the trope was more uncommon in one then the other, the up would go to the Pride and Prejudice story

Rating:
The Fairy Tail one-shot was rated T for safety (Cana's a big drinker, plus the trope was drinking buddies so there was that).
The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was rated K because it was still regency, no one swore and no one did anything mildly inappropriate (for our time period besides a kiss)
Both ratings show up without having to fiddle with the filters, but the more G rated it could be the better chances the story has of being read (safety first). The up would go to Pride and Prejudice story.

Word count:
The Fairy Tail one-shot was 3k
The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was 1k
One-shots are usually read because they're always complete and because generally, they're short so the up went to the Pride and Prejudice story.

Genre:

Both were categorized under romance, with Fairy Tail having the added Friendship thrown in because the actual romance was more implied. 

In that, there are no differences. In fact, having another genre can attract more readers, so the up might have gone to Fairy Tail if I wasn't so unsure of how obvious my preference for Laxana as more than a friendship pair.

Summary: 

I've changed the summary twice for the Pride and Prejudice story while the Fairy Tail one has remained the same. For the most part, both stories seem relatively simple in the trope they present - 

The Fairy Tail one-shot was clearly going to be about drinking (Cana and alcohol always go hand in hand) and I had it easier putting into words what exactly it was about while the Pride and Prejudice one-shot was a little more vague, but implies the pair are in the same situation, though it was difficult to word it in a way I was happy with (I'm still not by the way, but what can you do). 

Content: 

I liked the story more in Fairy Tail because it had a clear beginning, middle and end. I got to play around a bit with headcanons. It also read more like a one-shot despite it being 3k in length. I struggled with the tenses though, and people did notice, but overall, the response was the best I could've hoped for.

The story for Pride and Prejudice was a bit more muddled, the only thing really clear about it was the fact that it was happening in the moment - the beginning and end weren't particularly clear, but that seemed to have an appeal to people as they reviewed to say they wish there was more to read.

The thing I was most worried about was how completely out-of-character I thought everyone was, but the readers disagreed.

Also when I reread it a few hours after I posted just to make sure the readers and I were reading the same thing, I found a multitude of errors and missing words, none of which was present in the Fairy Tail story. No one seemed to mind.

So here's what I got from the responses of the two one-shots:

Write what the plotbunnies tell you to. You don't have to put it in a box and organise it. Get what you want to say out and then rework it to make sure it meshes. You'll miss the story if you're too worried about how it'll look.

Content is king. Don't worry too much about the spelling and grammar as you write (though don't post it if you haven't corrected the mistakes), the plotbunnies don't have time for proper English. Let them do what they do and then clean up the mess.

Be bold. Like this font. People want to read something new, just because it's been tried and tested doesn't mean it'll be popular. 

Also, just because a fandom or it's pairing isn't in demand, doesn't mean you shouldn't write that story your plotbunnies have been nagging you about. You could be the start of that ship's popularity. I know, because I've been one too ;-)

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Author says...

Author says...

I've been MIA for about two weeks now, I think...

The last few months of the year are the months I'm the most inactive in everything to be perfectly honest which really sucks considering I have exams in November, plus NanoWriMo which I've been meaning to join and do for years now...

Hopefully by the time my year starts again in October, I'll have my energy and motivation back.

For now though, I've been spending my time watching Fairy Tail and editing Sibling Intervention. 

Why Fairy Tail? Frankly I've only written non-fiction and my end game for publishing is to write things with magic and supernatural aspects and I can't do that if I don't have any basis for it so yeah, Fairy Tail is one of the many sources I'm looking to for inspiration.

Sibling Intervention is being edited yet again in an attempt to combine the first part and its sequel as one whole story so I'm thinking about discontinuing Brotherly Advice and Sisterly Persuasion. So far I've edited, cut and combined roughly seven chapters to four and I'll keep at it until I've covered everything. I haven't a plan yet for what I want to do with the fully completed story,  but bare with me, I'll think of something xD

 

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