Wednesday, November 12, 2008

10,000 Mark Passed!

*doing a happy dance* 

Just thought I would share with everyone that I have passed the 10,000 word mark and I'm really excitied even though I am 9,000 words behind...I hope that I will get a bunch done tonight at the write in in Burlington. I hope that I will have 13,000 byt hte end of tonight....we'll see how that goes. 


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Monday, November 10, 2008

Writer's Block

It's been 3 days and a lot less than the supposed 1,667 words that I 'm supposed to type each day for NaNoWriMo. I'm really far behind and I'm stuck. My problem is that I can't seem to find how to transition between a couple of my key scenes. It's really got me stuck since how I do this will affect the characters and the following scenes.  Right now I'm typing just to try and get through this and what little I have re-read, it is odd and clunky. It's aggrivating to say the least...so in like all times of writing trouble I'm going reach for my great muse: cheesecake. 

I hope to be insipred.

Friday, November 7, 2008

NEW!! (layout that is...)

So after a lot of monkying around last night (until abotu 4am this morning) and this afternoon I have been able to decipher the wonders (somewhat) of HTML! *big grin*

I was getting bored with my other templates for both this blog and my other one here. You'll also see that I have the same post in both places but I'm trying to stop procrastinating as I am way far behind on my NaNoWriMo-ing. So I hope you like it and while I'm fairly certain almost everything works there may be some glitches that I still need to iron out so bear with me! Thanks!

PS- you like?

RUN! The plot bunnies are attacking!

So I had a fabulous time at the write-in in Burlington Wednesday night and actually got far more accomplished than I thought I would (though I am still behind...grrr). There were about 8 or so of us there and we all did the intorductions and what our novels about etc. The real fun came during the writing part. We did "word sprints"...who could be the first person to add 500 words to their writing or who could type the most in twenty minutes. Racing against other people is really motivating if you havent'tried it yet. 

Moving on to my entry title today...
So I am at the point of my novel where I've pretty much introduced or at least mentioned all of the main characters yadda, yadda, yadda. So of course now I actually ahve to start dealing with all of the plot bunnies...what are they you ask? Well imagine a story and all of the main action points or pivotal moments are each bunnies. Now, what do bunnies do? The answer to that is my problem. Each new bunny that I come to and try to coerce into my story line produces more plot bunnies. The end result is of course that I can't possibly hope to include all of these bunnies into the rather fixed size of my bunny cage (aka story) so I have to weed through them which eats up time and slows down my typing. Anyways, that's where I'm at...I'm going to try to type a bit more but I'm most likely going to bed soon to dream of murderous amounts of plot bunnies....

Word Count Update:

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

New Hope

Yay! Obama is going to the White House!!!! *does a happy dance on the coffee table*
In celebration of this monumental event I have decided to post an excerpt of my story for NaNoWriMo below....remember it's still a work in progress as I'm not editing this as I go...that will porbably be done after November!

The Vardo Road
by Caroline Rousseau

"Better get moving, I'm not getting any closer to bed by sitting here,"she muttered to herself. Pushing herself upright she took inventory of the cab. She put on her rain slicker, took the walkie talkie and tucked that into an inside pocket and added the truck keys to it. Her cell phone and wallet were in her fleece vest pockets and so safe under the coat, "Here goes nothing," she sighed and opened the door to the rain. She locked the door before jumping down into the mud, thankful that she had worn her rubber muck boots. She ran down the length of the truck and reached for the small door on the trailer that faced the truck's bumper and tried to wrench the thing open. It didn't budge.
"Damn!" She was tired and already soaked though below her rain slicker. She hunkered down, trying to avoid kneeling in the mud, to get a better angle on the door. This time it came open. Thankful, Aya grabbed the loops of hose and cable and slinging them onto her right arm, she found the ends with her left and began walking to the outlet box. She let loops fall to the ground every few paces or so, not being very tidy with the lay of the cables until she reached the box. She hurriedly plugged the electric cable into the hooded box and screwed the hose on faucet and turning the water on. At least she could have a quick hot shower before bed, she thought. Making sure everything was right and tight she then ran around the truck to the trailer door on the passenger side. Light was shining though the window so she know that Tony was awake and he knew that they had arrived. She opened the door and took the high step into the trailer and closed the door quickly.
"Good God! What did you do? Roll around in the mud, Aya?" Tony asked her incredulously from around the refrigerator door, cloudy gray eyes wide in surprise.
"Well I had to plug us in," she began to argue as she looked down at herself. She was covered in mud. Her boots, jeans, and slicker were coated in mud. She swore, "Oh well, they have to be cleaned anyways,"she sighed resignedly as she pulled off her rain slicker and placing it carefully on the floor.
"If they hadn't before they certainly do now, girly," Tony quipped as he pulled out milk and the cocoa powder from the narrow pantry between the refridgrator and the wall of the tack room as Aya leaned against the wall to pull off her boots being careful to keep her mess contained to the rubber mat in front of the door.



And my Meter:

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Sunday, November 2, 2008

A Stroke of Genius!

So NaNoWriMo started yesterday and to date I'm at 1,400-something words...which means that to stay on track (1,667 words per day) I have quite a bit to write tonight. That being said this entry is going to be short....maybe.

So remember when I said that someone said that they would draw one of my characters for me? Well I have an update! It's now an actual work in progress and you can see part of the work here: http://pennomenal.deviantart.com/art/W-I-P-for-Cre8tiveMoon-102351734
The reason it has not ben completed is also very cool. The artist is using my character as part of her digital imaging class final. With the description I gave her she said it would be perfect. The drawing in the end will include food, landscape, and a reflection. I'm so excited!

Also very exciting is that I am on a roll where my story is concerned for NaNoWriMo! Nick is not participating like he said he would. I called him lazy. I also have a title for it that I think kicks a lot of butt. "The Vardo Road"is the working title and hopefully I'll stil lbe happy with it at the end of November! Anyways. Like I said short entry!


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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Common Cold

As the title of today's entry indicates, I am sick as a dog. I am currently nursing a sore, scratchy throat and stuffed sinuses. I have not ben doing much writing as a result in the past few days. Also I've been diverting attention from my current story to prepare myself for NaNoWriMo. 

NaNoWriMo starts on the 1st of November at Midnight and I'm trying to figure out what kind of book I want to write. The biggest thing it that I'm stuck on the genre. It's definately a fiction piece but should I do fiction, a dark urban fantasy.... I'm so indecisive it sucks. Well I have to run, a short entry but I had to write between seezes and tea-making.

What do you think I should write?

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Happy Dance! (Part II)

I really love it when cool things happen. So I was on my account at DeviantArt and was looking through the forum posts for fun. I happened to see this one post for an artist that was looking to take on  5 free requests with the stipulation that it would not be first come, first served but rather whatever intrests her the most. I sent her a quick run down of one of my characters and she has agreed to take it on as one of her 5 requests! YAY! (Here's a sample of her work: http://pennomenal.deviantart.com/art/2007-priscilla-98636997) So I'm wicked excited...so I have 3 characters being drawn now...I only have5 more....lol. I keep adding one or two each time I have one that gets drawn....lol, oh well. Hopefully I'll have all of them drawn eventually! 

In the mean time I'm still working on the character and plot outline and knocking it out of the park. I'm really excited because I keep comming up with great questions and kick @$$ answers. (I'm using this as a base if you're interested: http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/questioning_your_novel_article.html) Anyhow I'm getting back to work!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Happy Dance!

WOO! I'm so excited! An awesome artist has agreed to do a sketch for two of my characters! This make me really happy since one I read wha tI worte I ended up finding an unusual amount of inconsistencies. She is a fantastic artist and you can check out her worker here: http://kitsunia.deviantart.com/ I have to wait a few days but I will get to see them soon!! I've put my writing on hold for this right now and also because I set up my tablet and I have been coloring like a fiend.

It's really kind of strange but it seems that I've gotten better notworking on my skill with my tablet than when I was...I don't really care how I did it all that matters is that I'm kickin' ass right now! WOO! 

Sunday, October 12, 2008

A Step Towards Literary Enligthenment

Muse [myooz] –noun
1. Any of a number of sister goddesses presiding over a particular art that inspires a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.

Right? WRONG!
*does a little happy dance around the living room, nearly steps on Elvis and sends Gwen running for the office*

So now that I've almost kill both of my cats...allow me to share my magnificient revelation: a muse doesn't have to be a person!! HA! This is something that hit me like a ton of brick this moring whe I was still in the process of waking up. We (people in general) tend to think of muses as being a person. Wether or not this is due to the fact that we know that they resembeled humans in Greek mythology or what but I, for one, am happy to rid myself of that perception!
My great revelation, as I said before, came to me this morning from way out in left field. One moment I was asleep the next WHAM, I was awake and thought "Isn't it funny how so many people are inspired by depravity and situations in general as opposed to actual people." Like I said, totally left field. The more I thought about that today the more I started to say, "Well duh!" I write from visual cues so couldn't a statue, painting, garden or stuffed animal be a muse. I'm sure it's not new news to tons of people but it is to me so *pbbt* to the rest of you. 

Aside from that, I didn't get any farther today in my writing of an actual scene. I decided that I wanted to do some character work and wrote about six pages per charcter. In it's way it was very useful as I got lots of ideas for future scenes and conflicts but as for getting more scene writing done today it was no help whatsoever. Hopefully I can make it up tomorrow...

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Stumped...like a 100 year old tree that's been cut down for paper.

Being a visual writer definatley has it's perks. Anything and everything you see can be turned into a story. A painting, a photograph, the random guy you see in Harvard Square that stops every five or six paces and looks around bug-eyed like a cartoon character while leaning on his wooden cane that everyone is fairly certain he doesn't need. Other times it can just be a pain in the arse. Right now I'm working on this story, for lack of a better title I call it Nighttime Reading (or NTR), and while I have the major and minor plot points down, I can't seem to pin down my characters. I know who they are and a general feeling for what they look like and what they do but as for specifics I can't seem to pin it down. 

This is unusual for me. Usually I get an idea for a character (the look, the personality, quirtks, you name it) at the same time I get my ideas for a story. I guess you could say I was blindsided by this one. The story plot, settings, and even the end came fairly easily (which is not usually the case) and I was left instead to wander the halls of my imagination for the characters. Very strange...at least for me. 

My Solution: I'm reaching out to artists (friends and strangers) on a local sharing site asking for someone to draw me a couple of visuals. On that note...can you help me?

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