Sunday, April 28, 2013

What not do

 I get e-mails from Writer's Digest (Although most of them are just "BUY BUY BUY" sort of things)   I did find one labeled 5 things you shouldn't do while writing a novel. I of course am having issues so I clicked it opened and read this great article  Written by Dana Sitar.  I found some great advice about the issue I've been having....


"5. Take the Fun Out of Writing

Too often writing a book turns into a chore. That can happen for many reasons — stressed over a self-imposed deadline, trouble defining a character, dealing with writer’s block, afraid that the book just isn’t good enough so far, etc. I once got stuck on one sentence — one sentence – because I didn’t think it was “funny enough” and used it as an excuse to stop writing for days. That’s a true story. And now, looking back, I see how absurd that is.
The important thing to do is forget all of that — all the worries and stresses and self-induced headaches. Just focus on the reason you wanted to write a book in the first place: Because you’re a storyteller and you have a story to tell. Remind yourself of that every day and you’ll have fewer roadblocks to finishing your book."

This has been one of my issues. And I really felt inspired reading that I'm not the only writer to go through it. So I'm really going to work towards fixing this issue so I can go forward with my dream of getting published. I have to say Writer's Digest emails can be really helpful but if you do decide to get their emails do be warned they will spam your inbox. I get at least two-three emails per DAY. It's annoying but there are some good links inside some. 

I have to say there are a few I disagree with.

Number 4,

"Only Save Your Book in One Place"


I strongly disagree with this. A few years ago my computer began having issues then shut down, unable to be restarted. I thought I had lost it (Thank goodness for my fiance and his awesome computer skills, brought back my computer) I lost EVERYTHING. He did manage to get my novels, short stories and stuff but they were not recent versions. 

I saved my finished novel as well as the one I was working on my flash drive. If I wouldn't have done this I would have lost it all. Why? My netbook died too.  It's super easy these days to hack. Plus when my computer goes down I have no way of getting my novels off the internet so that is pretty much useless to me.  

I'd suggest saving your novel on your computer, a flash drive and one other place (I have the file on my Kindle) This way no matter what happens you have a back up. If my computer dies (We call it Franken computer for a reason mind you.) I have my flash drive to use if I want to upload my files onto my fiance's computer (He normally has a copy on his anyway.) or if I can't find that I can pull the file off my Kindle or from my email history.  There is never anything wrong with how many times or how many places you save your novel. The more the merrier. This is my thought of course since I seem to be a killer of computers.


Two and Three I agree with all the way. It's very important for myself to keep myself form being overly attached to the novel. With my first novel, Promise Me, I became too attached to it. I still am. So with the new novel I'm trying to find a good space between being too attached and not enough. 

For number one I am on the edge. I know who will give bad advice (I'm not about to sit down with my heavily religious grandmother about the magic and Pagan themes in my high fantasy novel) but there are those who give great advice. My fiance is my go to guy. He's great at giving me advice and is truly interested in the stories I am trying to tell. He offers me ideas and play video games with me when I need a break. I think it's all about knowing who you trust, who would be interested and who isn't. I write young adult novels. My uncle isn't going to care about the plot in less it's about fishing or hunting. 

I have great parents who are interested as well as future parent in laws and a great fiance. So I have a lot of people who give me great advice. It may differ for every person of course. But like I said if you know so and so isn't interested in your plot, don't bother telling them. If you know someone who is, go ahead and tell them. What will you lose? Nothing. Maybe you'll get some good advice. Although remember if your explaining to someone who doesn't like to write or isn't interested in reading, perhaps you should find someone else to talk about it to. If your like me you love talking about the plot, the characters and where you want to go with the novel, just make sure you are talking to someone you trust and love. 

Bad advice is easy to ignore. It is your novel after all. If someone doesn't like the plot, a character or maybe even the style of writing, too bad. Maybe someone else will. Not everyone is going to like your novel. But those who do will miss out greatly by you setting it down and giving up because of one bad comment. So stay true to yourself because in the end you are the only one who can make your dream come true. 

So good luck on your quest. I will be focus and trying my hardest to start writing more, inspiring myself and trying to get a novel published. I have a lot more in store for this blog later on. So please check back often!

Ta-Ta for now!













Wednesday, April 24, 2013

So very stressful

I don't want to get all emotional or go on and on. Not a lot of people would understand or even care anyway. So I'll keep this short. It's been very stressful these last few months. My writing has taken a beating. I can't sit down and write without over thinking. I keep flip flopping from novel to novel. I'm so tired of it. I want nothing more to be one of those amazing people who can reach out and grab their dream by the reins. I don't want to be one of those people who let everything gather up on top of their dream and become a normal person who works for the very minimum and is always stressed. My parents are like that. I may not be able to do a lot of things like go to collage but I can chose which path I take in life. And I don't want to end up working my whole life at a fast food place.

I want to see my name on bookshelves. I want to be able to prove to myself and those who thought and have said I was useless. It's so hard trying to find work. All these places, like my mom's work hire people who don't respect their jobs and screw up, getting fired while people like me, who want nothing more to work hard  and who enjoy working can't find jobs. It's annoying. It's frustrating  It's making me want to tear my hair out.

My anxiety gets the better of me. I get scared, frozen solid about even thinking about having to call the hiring manger just to ask about the open position. It bothers me that there are all these walls still standing in my way. And here I am, when I told myself, go write why not you'll be up till two anyway and I wind up not writing.

I'm going to go over the two novels, maybe three novels I'm battling over to figure out what's most likely going to be finished VS what should be held off and re-plotted. It's all I can really do at this point. Anyway this is too long as it is so I'm going to get off now and start going through those files. Maybe my mind will finally chose one to settle on.

Wish me luck my dear ghost readers.

Friday, April 5, 2013

My writing goals for 2013

I try to write up a list (or mentally write it) about what I would like to improve. While I've been trying to find the right story to right I've been finding myself saying "I should improve so and so" so I'm going to go ahead and write a list about a few things that I want to improve in my writing.

1. Emotion

Although emotion seems easy enough, strong emotions can be hard to catch. I'm pretty good with emotion in dialog  but keeping a feeling going throughout the whole novel is one thing I'm working on.

2. Not giving up on a novel half way through

I've seriously done this about three times now. I start worrying about "Will this sell?" and such. I need to focus on enjoying the plot and getting the novel done before worrying about that sort of stuff.

3. Improving my vocab

New words are a great way to spice up anyone's writing. I would like to use my thesaurus more often.

I may add more later but for now those are what I'm trying (hoping) to focus on.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Update and Camp NaNoWriMo

Hello all, long time no write. Been super busy with Sakura-con. Which I just got back from yesterday. Conventions really take it out of you, especially if your cosplaying and making your own costumes which I did this time. I had fun, although I didn't win the costume contest, I made many great new memories I'll have forever.

But anyway...

While at the con when I was sitting in the window at our hotel, I realized how much I've pushed away writing. That I've let go of my will to learn and improve and replaced it with just plain laziness. And that the novel I'm working on must be finished. I can't keep dragging it out, being afraid of this and that. I have so many other ideas waiting in line and I'm ready to get deeper into this story.

So I'm going to take the next two months to finish it. No if and or buts. I'm really going to focus on it. Hopefully its good enough. I need to focus on improving my writing style and learning how to push myself. So I thought "What is a good way to push myself hard and keep myself organized."

Then this morning I was roaming FaceBook when I saw something about camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and thought "YES! This is it!" A light bulb ticked on. Not only will I keep myself writing a certain amount each day but I love their site set up. Its fun and interesting. The only downfall was it stopped working after I got all my info updated. So I have to try again later.

Tonight I'm going to try (I'm REALLY tired) and write a short synopsis for Camp NaNo. I have about 10,000 right now and my word goal is about 70-80k. I want to be finished by next month. So wish me luck! It'll be a ton of work and lots of stress but the best thing is I'll  have learned a very important lesson....


Don't let go of your dream.