The urge to write

I haven't written on here for a while. I've been so busy with props and costumes for an up-coming con and trying to find a job and writing my novel that I hadn't stopped to take a moment to express my thoughts on this blog. I'll admit I'm stressed and I have had a few moments where I re-think my novel and start wanting to write my other one but I'm proud to say I haven't stopped writing it.

Right now I am currently at 36,884 words and 124 pages. That's really good because months ago I couldn't even write more than 1,000 words a week. So I've changed a lot. I've reminded myself why I want to get published, why these stories I write are important to me. I've reminded myself that I love writing. It doesn't pay the bills right now but I love it. I want this to my career so I can proudly say I love my job. One step at a time right now. I'm taking things slowly. I don't want to rush it. If I'm not feeling it I write a little or do some out lining. Take a break and find myself wanting to write afterwards.

The urge to write has returned. My laziness is going away. I'm thinking about my novel, the characters, the plot all the time now. What can I do next? What twist would work in this scene? Should I kill this character? I'm having lots of fun. It's like playing the Sims. I'm in control, I can cause bad things to happen or good things to happen. It's a lot of fun. I've lost sight of all the fun I had writing when I was in high school.

I may not have much support anymore but I can do it as long as I believe I can. I do find it fun to tell people about my novels, the ideas I have and what I want to write about but I can't let me get down that I no longer have people who are interested in listening about me ramble about my writing. It's okay. I may be nervous and shy and maybe a little scary at times but writing changes that.

It pushes me to do my best, to step out of my shoes and into another's. I think that's what I like best about writing. It gives me a break from the norm. I can become someone else. Live in another world. I'm happy to say that I've fallen in love with writing all over again. And I hope that I can do my very best with what I have and make a damn good novel for you guys to someday read.

Writing journal 1

Date: 6/28/`3

Word count: 31,467.

Time started: 10:40 P.M

Songs for the night:

Fear and Loathing- Marina And The Diamonds

Just So- Agnes Obel

Sally I can see you- Kimbra

Doubt- Delphic

State of Dreaming- Marina And The Diamonds

Breath Of Life- Florence + The Machine

Paddling Out- Miike Snow

Cult Logic- Miike Snow

Major Tom- Shiny Toy Guns

Lies- Marina And The Diamonds

Time stopped: 1:47 AM

Word count: 34,000

Holy crap! What a long night. Been working on my novel for a few hours. I'm finally getting to a major event in which is the opening for many more major events and boy, is it getting exciting. I've turned off all my shows, movies and silly youtube videos, put on music and have found myself finally getting back into this novel. I'm connecting with the characters, getting lost in the world I'm writing about. It's really coming along well. 

I'll be doing these writing journals each time I write (If I have time.) So I can keep track of my word count. Plus it's something I've been wanting to do but haven't' done yet. So that's all for now. I'm tired as hell and have a lot to do tomorrow. Bye for now!

New page

All writer's make mistakes when spelling. Hello, that's why some awesome person invented spell check. I'm not afraid to share my mistakes in fact I think by writing them down and sharing them I'll be able to improve myself. So my new page will list words that I have misspelled. I did this back when I was writing my first novel. I wrote down all the words I misspelled or couldn't remember how to spell so I would remember them later on.

My goal of this is to improve and get myself to use my wonderful Thesaurus.  The list will start out small. I'm sure by the time I am finished with my novel that I am currently working on there will be quite a big list.

So check it out.
http://victorianmess.blogspot.com/p/words-i-comely-mispell.html



Curious about the top 100 misspelled words?

Here is a list I found...

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/spelling-and-word-lists/misspelled.html

New pages

Moving over my novel info and pages I had on my writing bog to this blog for good. I'm deleting the other blog due to low views and because I use this blog more often and updating two blogs with the same thing is rather annoying. There will be a few new pages on the side. Please enjoy those!

I'll also be posting more reviews, more about my favorite books and authors, and a sneak peek about my novel!

So check back soon! Lots will be uploaded in the next few days!


Current word count: 27,757

All nighter

My goal for today was 25,000. And as of 2:20 AM I have finally achieved that goal. I don't normally give myself short term goals like this, mainly because it will take me all day (I write in the morning then at night so I can sew and play games with my fiance when he gets off work.) which it did. I'm dead tired, ready to go crawl into bed. But I'm just so excited that the writing bug has finally bit me again. A few weeks ago I couldn't even write three hundred words without becoming bored or over-thinking. I'm glad I somehow managed to get myself back on track. To stick with one novel and focus on improving myself while I work to get the novel done.

I still have a long way to go. My goal would be about 70/80k words at the end. But knowing me that'll grow much larger when I go back in and edit. I'm going slowly, taking my time, trying new things. If I keep going at this pace I should be done by the middle of July. Which would be great! Of course when I mean done, I don't mean "Time to e-mail a bunch of agents!" No, I mean it's time to edit, let someone else read through it, get some options, edit again, start on the query letter and synopsis then edit one last time before sending out some query letters. During the time I'm working on the query letter and synopsis, I wont read the novel. Then  when I'm done and pleased with those I'll read through it, editing as I go. When I do this I normally can catch mistakes and change things I don't like or things that don't sound just right. Maybe add in that last minute detail that could make or break the novel.

I'll keep updating as I go through all these steps. It's a long road. But as the numbers grow I become more involved with this novel. I haven't even wanted to touch my short stories or side projects. And I haven't even thought about changing novels again. I'm not sure what did it. Perhaps it was the drive to to something with my life. Or the lack of jobs available in my area. Whatever it was I'm happy for it. I can now lose myself in the novel. Forget I'm the author writing and instead become the character.

Hopefully things keep going so well. I'll update again once I hit the 30,000 mark.

What I'm reading now

You can get it here!

I've read all three of Brenna Yovanoff's novels and I've enjoyed each one. The Replacement is by far my favorite but Paper Valentine is getting really good and might take that place of favorite. The Space Between was a bit too religious for me as I like to keep my reads neutral but I love this author. The way she writes is as if she's painting a portrait. I can see the characters in my head, feel their emotions, see what they see. And that means one thing...She's a good writer.


I picked up the Paper Valentine a few weeks ago but haven't gotten around to reading it until last night. I started reading around one and kept going until three. I sort of lost track of time. The emotion in this novel is strong. I was surprised that I was tearing up at parts. Books normally do not do that to me. But this one has and it's very inspiring.

Brenna Yovanoff is for sure up there with my top favorite authors now. I'm only on page 58 but it just keeps getting better. This book is addicting. I have to have it near me to read. It's really hard to put down.


Books are another great way to inspire yourself to improve yourself and keep writing. For a while I was so against myself and my writing I was too afraid to pick up a novel, knowing I would just compare my writing to what was inside a book. And that's very bad for not only your mind set but published books have been edited, cleaned and looked over many times. Of course your first draft isn't going to look like a published book. I was being too hard on myself and it ruined my mood for reading. But now I'm back on track and am happy with how my novel is going.

I'm going to use books as a tool. Using them to inspire me, keep me motivated. I could easily read a 300 page book in one day but I think I'll take my time with it as I'm enjoying the novel so much. I hear she's writing another novel right now. I can't wait to see what that one is call and what it will be about. I will 100% keep supporting this author as she's someone to watch.


I'll be doing these new "What I'm reading" every time I start a new book. I read fast so it could be days depending on how long I allow myself to read the book. I have one or two other new novels I haven't picked up yet so I'll post a little something about those later on too.

The book I'm most looking forward to is Holly Black's new novel, The coldest girl in Coldtown. I loved the short story version of this novel and I really cannot wait to read the full length story. It comes out in September.

Some great advice

I rarely ever open my Writer Digest e-mails, mainly because I get so many of them and most of them are about classes and crap. But I opened one today listed "How to push your characters to their limit." I found a few (great!) articles full of useful advice and tips.


http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/how-to-write-a-novel-7-tips-everyone-can-use?et_mid=619701&rid=233569065


The writer goes over a lot and I'll admit I've felt or am feeling a lot of what she's explaining. Plus if you notice on the side of the screen there is a ton of listed blogs and journals from literary agents. Those are very helpful for when your about to start looking into sending queries.

Anyway back to the that link.

I've many helpful things in it that will help me stay on track and keep inspired to write.

• Write the story you’d most want to read
• Begin with character
• Give that character a compelling problem
• Make things happen!
• Make it believable.
• Stick with it the project.
• And lastly: Ignore the rules. 

I've taken each of these to mind and realized I can help myself by putting them to use. For example (I'll use my main character of the novel I'm writing now.) The writer mentions....

"      In my books, I make sure something important to the plot is happening in each scene. And if there’s a scene in there that isn’t helping to move the story along in some vital way, I cut it, no matter how great it is. When I’m editing, I’ll go scene by scene and write a single word sentence describing the action on an index card. Then I lay the cards out and I’ve got the bare bones of my story. I can see if things are moving forward, if I’m throwing in enough twists and turns, and if there are scenes that just aren’t pulling their weight.   "

This is such a great idea! I think I may use this idea for my first novel when I rewrite that later on as well as the novel I'm writing now (When it's done being written and in the editing stage of course) I'm a very visually person so seeing the scene as it is on a note card by itself will really help me picture the plot better. This is a keeper! 

I'm definitely going to have to pick up some of Jennifer Mcmahon's books next time I go to Powells. I'm really inspired by her. And her books sound pretty interesting too. I love finding new authors to read and be inspired by. It just makes my day. 

I'm currently really close to finish editing the last little chunk of my novel. For those just tuning in, I decided to stay (Firmly) writing my novel, The Glass Butterfly and decided to re-read what I had. Once I had a renewed interest I started to edit what I had. I saw a few mistakes and some places I left out words (I do that a lot when I type fast or am tired.) and some scenes I wanted to change. I took out the second character view and replaced that with a new third person, patient transcript view. So I'm trying out some new things and getting rid of some that just didn't sit well with me anymore. 

Right now I am at 21,534 words and 73 pages. Not bad. But I'd like to be close to 30k. My goal is to get half way done or more than half way done by August so when I leave for my next convention at the very end of August I'll be sitting pretty well with my novel. 

I'm taking things slowly, step by step. And I'm finding myself really wanting to improve and try new things. A good sign that I'm interested in keeping with this novel. When I write now I don't think about "will this sell?" or "Will this impress so and so?" I'm thinking about the characters. In visioning the town, the forest, the characters. Thinking about how it would smell or how Zanna's favorite coffee would taste. What would she be wearing? Or how when will it rain next?

Lots of questions are flouting through my head and I'm really becoming excited about writing again. Good bye runt! I've found my will to write again! 

I'm going to leave by closing with something Jennifer wrote...

"It took me four books, two agents and seven years to get my first novel published. It was a long tough road, but so, so worth it in the end!"

Remember. This road is long. It's a journey that can be challenging and frustrating at times. Go pick up your favorite novel. Hold it in your hand and look down at the cover. See the author's name? That person went through the same journey. And you know what? They made it. They're book is sitting somewhere on someone's shelf. You can do it. I can do it. Just believe in yourself. Take your time. Plan things out. Most importantly, have fun.

-Jessica.