The Write Life

Today's Task was set by TracyMichelle210:

The Task:

Her task was inspired by the following Pep talk given in June for Camp Nanowrimo:

"I like to imagine that I am reading this particular pep talk aloud to you in a camp-like closing-ceremonies setting. Maybe in a barn, with all assembled campers sitting on some hay bales or on the flatbed of an old truck. Or in a massive field, with a bonfire burning nearby. Yeah... let's pretend that's what's going on here.
Camps have funny end-of-session traditions. At my camp, we packed as many 10 to 12-year-olds as would fit into a makeshift sweat hut, until we couldn't take it anymore and had to jump in the river. (The older I get, the weirder this seems to me. I guess it's no secret that my parents were hippies.)
Many camps, at least in the US, follow the (far more traditional and less sweaty) ritual of passing out paper plate awards. These paper plates bear in writing an accomplishment or trait specific to each camper. I have this fantasy that one day I will be able to distribute actual paper plate awards to each and every NaNoWriMo camper. But until then I have come up with a few virtual awards, sans plate, to share with you here:
Most willing to lock their inner editor in a duffel bag and write freely and unencumbered for one whole month.
Best use of insane plot twists, outrageous character traits, and extensive setting detail in a 50,000-word novel.
Most receptive to guilt monkeys.
Least likely to allow excuses, self-doubt, exhaustion, or lack of inspiration to stop them from going for the win.
Most successful at realizing they have a book in them, and honoring that creative potential.
Most likely to have their underwear run up the flagpole. (There's always one, isn't there?)
Most adamant refusal to let anything—rabid chipmunks, wet socks, poison ivy, rancid Sunday casserole—stand in the way of glory, the rough draft of their novel, and the title of author.
Which award would be yours?"

Create a paper plate award showing what award you would give yourself.

My Response:

I had a hard time thinking of an award to give my self so I chose one from the list in the pep talk.  The award I gave my self was "Least likely to allow excuses, self-doubt, exhaustion, or lack of inspiration to stop them from going for the win"
A lot of times I feel like I just want to give up because I feel like I can't do it or I'm too tire or I don't have enough inspiration but I have learned to overcome that and to just write and I was able to accomplish so much!
Thanks Tracy for this task it was a lot of fun!!


Since today's task was a bit of a crafty one I though I'd share the following video with you.  It is how to make a Camp Nanowrimo related craft and is lots of fun!


Only today and tomorrow left of camp! I can't believe that time has gone by so quickly!  Good luck to every one!!

<3 Andrea

Current Word Count: 50, 034!

Yay! I reached 50,000 words today!! My novel still isn't finished but I am taking a much needed break from writing right now! I'm really happy that I was able to make it this month! And I'm excited about having another chance at Nanowrimo in November!!


So even though I've reached 50k I will still be doing the tasks set by TracyMichelle210 and OneMoreSouthernBelle!

Task set by OneMoreSoutherBelle: 

This task is all about endings!  For this task I am just going to share a couple last lines from past Nanowrimo Novels.  I do not have a last line from this novel yet because I haven't gotten to the end.

Nanowrimo 2007: Finding the Magic: 

I knew right then that my life had changed in so many ways. I was thankful that I would have the chance to live on, but heart broken for all those who were not as lucky as my family and I.

I realized that you can’t let one day pass you by without loving someone, without helping someone, without learning as much as you can.

I laid my head back down on the cool green grass and slid my hand into Anthony’s.

Nanowrimo 2010: Losing Henry: 

Henry smiled and wrapped his arms around her. “If there is a place that we can finally be together then I do want that to be my reality.” He kissed her lips and said,” Be my wife and we can unite our two families.”

Emily smiled. It had been so long since she had felt truly happy. Henry was the one man that she truly loved. She had loved Hemingway very very much but it had always been Henry that she truly desired to be with. It would always be Henry. She had been losing him for so long but now they could finally be together. “I would love that more then anything in the entire world,” she said, in tears, but this time they were happy tears.

Emily closed her eyes and pressed her lips against Henry’s and when she opened her eyes again she was sitting alone in a dark forest.

Task Set by TracyMichelle210:

1. What was your easiest scene to write and what was your hardest scene to write? 

Current Word Count: 40,358

Well I ended up not being able to write any thing yesterday but I did spend a lot of time today getting caught up even though I was wanting to be ahead today.  It has been storming most of the day so it was a perfect day for staying inside and writing and I still hope to write more today.  So in one of my scenes today I had my characters get caught in a thunderstorm and they got soaked. ;)


Task 1: Set by TracyMichelle210

The task: Give a list of 5-10 facts about your novel that you have not already said.

My Response:

1. Chandler (Amelia's love interest in the beginning of the story) is not a wizard.  He and his father are actually warlocks and have been spies in Amelia's kingdom.
2. Rosalyn (Amelia's sister) is in love with the man that Amelia is betrothed to
3. In a lot of my novels, including this one, I have a large portion set in the woods.  That is because of my love of being in the woods and is inspired by the woods that surround my families cabin.
4. I usually write fantasy novels or novels set  before there was a lot of technology because I do not like including technology (such as cell phones, the internet, computers) into my novels (even though I love using those things)
5. Amelia's brother who was supposedly killed in war is actually alive and being held captive by the enemy.

Word Count: 36,766

Yesterday I wrote about 5,000 words and was able to get caught back up!  I'm hoping to be able to get ahead this weekend and hopefully reach 50,000 words early.

Onto the task set by OneMoreSouthernBelle:

The Task: Talk about why you decided to do Camp Nanowrimo and how you like it over the other events put on by The Office of Letters and Light.

My Response:

I did camp nanowrimo in June as well as this month and I chose to do it because I am a big fan of participating in Nanowrimo and I always look forward to it.  In fact it is something I am thinking about all year long.  I mentioned before a reason why I chose to do camp nanowrimo this month (and last month too) and that is because I have had a hard time with finishing things I start and I do not like that.  I wanted to use Nanowrimo as an opportunity to start a project and finish it.  I also love doing Nanowrimo because it is an opportunity to meet other people who enjoy doing the same thing that I do and to be able to learn from them and grow as a writer.
Last year towards the end of July (Camp sessions were july and august last year) I came across some information about "camp nanowrimo" and I got very very very excited!  I have been doing Nanowrimo for a long time and I was thrilled about the opportunity to do it during the summer!  For one reason I hate having to wait a whole year in between Nanowrimo sessions and another reason is that things have been so busy for me during November that it was getting hard for me to even work on writing during that month.  I have a small business where I sew stuffed animals out of socks and November is my busiest time because people are ordering things for christmas.  Plus I have school and other things that keep me busy during November.  Still I do not think I would say I like Camp Nanowrimo over Nanowrimo in November.  I just really love them both!
I did try Script Frenzy this year and I didn't really enjoy doing it all that much.  I guess because I am just so used to writing a novel.  I have never written a script before and I wasn't really prepared but maybe I will try again next year.
Well I hope that answers your task correctly ^^ If you have any questions please feel free to ask!


So I hope every one is still doing well on their novels!  Only 8 days left!  Oh and if you have not read the latest pep talk I strongly recommend you do! I thought it was such a good one!  If you are a Camp Nanowrimo participant then it should be in your inbox.

Thanks for reading and remember there is still plenty of time! Don't give up! You can do it!

<3 Andrea

PS: Check out my video made yesterday in response to yesterdays task:

Word Count: 30,911

Update:

So I didn't get much writing done yesterday and I haven't written yet today.  I haven't been feeling too well today so I'm going to do some resting and hopefully feel up to writing later on since I've gotten a bit behind.  I have tomorrow off of work so I'm hoping to use that time to get caught up as well.  I'd really like to start getting ahead on my writing since the end of Camp Nanowrimo is fast approaching.

So last night instead of writing I started thinking about what I want to write in November for Nanowrimo (I know terrible isn't it..I haven't even finished this one yet).  Well I decided what story I was going to write.  There was a story I started writing during my senior year in high school that was inspired by some stories my grandmother had told me about her teenage years and how she met my grandfather.  I really love the story a lot and I've been meaning to actually get a draft written and then get it published so I want to use this November as an excuse to do that.  I will spend September and October working on planning it.  November is usually really busy for me so if there is going to be any chance of me reaching 50,000 I'll need to have the story planned out.  So I'll give you guys more information on that story, near the end of October.  So after this Camp Session is over make sure you meet me back here in October for more Nanowrimo goodness!

Now onto the tasks I'll be doing that were set by TracyMichelle210 and OneMoreSouthernBelle:

I did these tasks in a video response which you can watch below:

So thanks so much everyone for reading and watching! I hope your novels are going well! I'd love to hear how you are doing so please feel free to comment below or on my YouTube video.

<3 Andrea

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of blog posts the last few days! I went out of town for two days and then after that I had just been really busy.
So today I decided to do a video blog! Hope you enjoy it!

<3 Andrea

Current total word count: 25,163 *Does a happy dance* Yay! I made it to the half way point!
Words written today so far: 3,583


Update:

So when I woke up this morning I was thinking about my novel and how it was going and I began to think back over my other Nanowrimo experiences and I thought back to the first year I participated (which was in 2007).  That first year was my best year.  I had been reminded of Nanowrimo the night before the event was going to start and decided I was going to participate.  The next day I started writing without a clue as to what I was going to write.  I wrote every day until the 24th of November when I reached 50,000 words and finished my story and I had written from the beginning of my story to the end. Ever since then writing in Nanowrimo has been a struggle for me.  I think I've put too much pressure on myself to have a year just like that one.  A lot of times during Nanowrimo I've given up.
I was thinking about the story I've been writing and when I first started my story I rushed through the beginning way too fast and left out so much that I was wanting to include plus my story has been acting like it wants to be in first person but I've been writing it in third person.  So I decided to start from the beginning again and write in first person and add in all of those things I left out.  I'm not completely rewriting though and my word count I've written so far still counts but I'm trying to add in more and explain my characters better.  Plus I've added some new characters that weren't there before.  I'm pretty excited about the decision and hopefully it will make writing my story a lot easier.

Figment:
So something I wanted to mention for those of you who may be interested...Is that I have had a figment account since the end of November last year and I've never used it so I decided to use it to upload my rough draft as I'm writing.  Click to go to my story.  I'm so nervous about putting up my story because I don't think any one will like it.  I really really enjoy writing but I have a hard time seeing myself as any good but hopefully you all will enjoy it?  I am thinking about putting my very first Nanowrimo novel up there too (which is still a rough draft > < )
Oh and as a side note for TracyMichelle210, I came across your novel that you wrote in June and started reading it and I LOVE it! It's such a great idea for a story and I'm excited to continue reading it to find out what is going to happen.

Camp Nanowrimo Achievement Badges:
So I keep forgetting to mention this but some other Wrimos put together a list of achievement badges that you can earn while participating in Camp Nanowrimo.  And they put the list and descriptions of how to earn the badges into a blog.  I worked to earn some badges in June and I'm doing it again (and some you can earn for doing both camps).  It's a lot of fun for more motivation to write and also makes it more of a "camp" experience.  So you guys should definitely check it out! :)


Today's Task:
Set by: OneMoreSouthernBelle

The Task: This task is all about Chapters.  How do you decide to break up your chapters in your novel and how do you know when to end your chapters?  How long do you think a Chapter should be?  Do you think Chapter titles matter and how do you choose them?

My response:  For this novel I'm writing I've been jumping around so much that I haven't been able to think about breaking things into chapters so as of right now it doesn't have any chapters.

When OneMoreSouthernBelle asked the question "how do you know when to end your chapters?" I thought of something I read in a book by William Noble called "Conflict, Action & Suspense"
In one of the chapters he is talking about leaving your reader hanging and I think his advice answers the question "How do I end my chapters?" but I thought it was also a good way to know when to end them too?
Here is what he says, "...when we leave readers hanging, we are really leaving them in the midst of a conflict in the story, and that's exciting and entertaining.  But readers expect this...so our job is to feed this expectation, and we do it by moving the story forward to an exciting point...and stopping.  Think conflict, think dilemma, think surprise:
...he watched the little fiat's taillights blend with the Gross Platz traffic, and he turned away, knowing the plan was working.  But, then, suddenly, there was a screech, the crash of crumpling metal, and the lights of Gross Platz seemed to jump like a thousand cray eyes.
End of chapter, end of scene...we've left 'em hanging by not showing what or who was in the crash and by not pursuing the story line further.  The readers wonder, the readers are surprised, the readers may even guess what happens.  But the readers don't know!  And that's why they won't forget, and that's why they will stay interested and read on.  Curiosity, something unresolved, it's human to pursue it."

So as far as when to end your chapters...You should end them at a point that is exciting and that leaves the reader hanging so they will want to immediately go to the next chapter because they just have to know what is going to happen and then you do it again at the end of the next chapter, and the end of the next, and so on.  That way your book can be come a book that the reader can't put down.

As for chapter titles, when I read a book I really like it when the book has chapter titles just like when I am watching a tv series on dvd I love that each episode has a title because I like to read the titles to see what I have to look forward to and it gets me really excited to read the book or to watch the show.  So for how to choose what to name them, I would make the title kind of a little teaser for what is going to happen in that chapter, some thing that would make the reader say, wow I can't wait to read this chapter and find out what is going to happen.


I hope that this advice can help you out :)

If you're reading my blog and participating in Camp Nanowrimo I'd love to hear from you down in the comments and to hear how you are doing on your novel.

<3 Andrea

Current Word Count: 21,580

I still have some more writing to do today though I am feeling quite tired.  I had a bit of an exhausting time at work.

~~~~

So I really enjoyed TracyMichelle210 and OneMoreSouthernBelle's videos that they did yesterday when they gave their three things to do when the suck embraces you.
Lately I have been feeling a lack of motivation to write and I've also been feeling a bit unconfident about my story and their videos have been pretty helpful in motivating me to keep going.  So for today's blog entry I wanted to talk a little bit about how their advice has helped me.


OneMoreSouthernBelle's advice was to follow the "Three B's"

• Be Unique
• Be Confident
• Believe in yourself

No current word count because I haven't written yet for today so as of right now it is the same as yesterday.


Onto todays task.  I really like this task and it was very helpful for me to here OneMoreSouthernBelle's advice on this.

The task: Give us your top 3 tips on what to do when the suck embraces.

My response:
Well when I was writing in June the suck embraced me A LOT and yet some how I managed to still make it to 50,000 words which still baffles me.  But when thinking about this task I tried to think back to some of the things I did to keep on writing even though I really felt like my writing was terrible.
These tips are in no particular order.

1. Use some dares/prompts/adoptables that people post in the nanowrimo forums.  I always enjoy looking through these and I take the ones I like or spark an idea and I put them in a document to use at later times when I need them or I may just use them right then in my novel.  These have helped me out quite a bit in keeping with my word count.  Some of them have even sparked an idea where I was able to write thousands and thousands of words ^^

Here's some examples (these are taken from the book "Ready, Set, Novel!" by Chris Baty, Lindsey, and Tavia):

• Write your opening scene from the point of view of your supporting character
• Write a scene of dialogue between your main character and a younger version of himself
• Flash forward twenty years into the future and write a scene that involves at least three of your characters
• Have characters share tales of their first kisses
• Lock a few of your characters in a broken elevator
• Add a scene in which your character loses something very valuable

2. I used an activity from the book "Ready, Set, Novel!" by Chris, Lindsey, and Tavia.  It goes like this:  "One of the strange things that thousands of National Novel Writing Month participants discover each year is that the richest book material often pops into your head while you're doing routine things like working out, showering, driving, washing dishes, or going for a walk.  It's not clear why it works but for some reason having your body engaged in a simple activity gives you access to the fertile parts of your imagination.  List the top three activities that help your mind wander, then do each of them while you ponder your novel" Then it says to come back to these every time you get "lost in novel-land"
This really helped me out a lot because the majority of the time that I come up with novel ideas is when I'm supposed to be doing something else.  I usually come up with tons of ideas when I'm at work or am suppose to be paying attention in class.

3. In june my story was getting really boring..writing it was putting me to sleep that is how boring it was.  My characters weren't going any where and I was just dragging the story out.  Then I introduced another more interesting character and took the story in a different direction.  So I guess if your characters are feeling a bit dull then introduce some new more exciting characters and see where they take you or how they will influence the characters that are already in your novel.


So I hope these tips can help you out and remember just keep writing!  I know you can do it!

<3 Andrea

Current Word Count: 19,380
Though I may write more today.  I have been trying to keep my word count on track with the 30 day writing schedule.  Usually when I write for Nanowrimo I will try and keep my word count on track with where it should be if I were writing 1,667 words a day until I get near the last week then I start doing a lot of writing so I can finish early and not have to worry about validating my novel on time.


Now onto the tasks.  I will be doing two tasks today.

The first one was set by OneMoreSouthernBelle

The task: Pick a gold, silver, and bronze moment from your novel.  These can come from dialogue, your favorite line, your favorite character decision, your favorite moment of inspiration

My Response:

Gold Moment:  My gold moment was when I got about the war that is going on in my book.  The war started because the warlocks believe that wizards are not "pure magic" beings because they have to use a wand in order to perform magic and they have to be taught how to use magic where as the warlocks just come by it naturally.  They do not need a wand and they do not need to be taught.
Well my gold moment comes in when I got this idea: It turns out that centuries ago there was a group of wizards were performing experiments on other wizards because they wanted to try and rid wizards of being dependent on wands to do their magic but something went wrong with the expirements and what they called "warlocks" were created.  The experiments were shut down and generations past and their knowledge of their creation was lost and future generations began to believe that they were superior to wizards.

Silver Moment: A plot twist I decided on.  Originally it was going to be Amelia's sister who tried to kill her but I thought that was too obvious because her sister had several motivations to do it so I wanted to change it to someone that may have seemed to be the less likely to do it.  So the reader will think that it is her sister when in reality it is Chandler, her childhood love interest, who she thought was killed at the beginning of the story.

A modern take on Romeo and Juliet. A hitman falls in love with his target, and can't bring himself to kill her. His superiors warn him that he must follow orders or be terminated himself... literally. He devises a plan to fake her death to save both of them from his agency, but it somehow goes horribly wrong and they both end up dead. 

 And this was my initial idea after reading this: Could use this in a fantasy story...The warlock is sent to kidnap the princess of the wizards (warlocks and wizards are enemies) and take her back to the warlock world where she will be kept for ransom however on their journey  to that world he falls in love with her.  Things change with his orders and is told that he needs to kill her right away..he tries to talk them out of it but they tell him if he doesn’t then he will be killed as well.  So he tells her the truth about what is going on and they make a plan to fake her death.  Things end up going wrong eventually and at the end of the story they both end up dead.

So there are a couple things that are the same with this as in the wizards and warlocks are at war and the warlock is sent to capture the princess and he does change his mind about wanting to turn her end but I had other ideas for the story as well and things have really evolved into so much more than what I was thinking at the beginning.  Oh and the story is no longer a take on Romeo and Juliet and they won't both die in the end.

So I hope that answered what you guys were looking for :) If you have any questions just let me know!

<3 Andrea

Current Word Count: 18,573


Task (set by TracyMichelle210): Pick a theme song for your novel and talk about why you picked this theme song.

My response: 

Song I chose: Battlefield by Jordin Sparks: Music Video and Lyrics

Reason I chose this: I chose this song because it kind of has two meanings for my novel.  The song is comparing a love relationship to being on a battlefield at war with someone.
A big part of my novel is that there is a war going on.  My FMC's (Amelia) people are at war with my MMC's (Rowan) people.  Also there relationship is not that good of a one because Rowan lies to Amelia about who he is.  During their time together they end up falling in love with each other but things kind of explode when Amelia finds out who he really is.

Hope this makes sense :)  If you have any questions about it just let me know

~~~~

My Main Characters:

Another task that was set earlier on in the month was to introduce your characters and I think I want to go ahead and do that because I think it is a bit important that you understand who they are.

Princess Amelia Winifred Derlo

<------ This is a picture I chose to represent what I was thinking Amelia looks like.

Age: 16
Height: 5'5"
Species: Wizard
Where she lives: She lives in the castle in the kingdom of Ullshire.  Ullshire is a kingdom of wizards.  There is a large and forest that surrounds three sides of the castle not too far away from the castle in the valley of the Mountains of Mengerath 
Her family: Father: King Kuzimu Lethias Derlo III: Lives his life for his kingdom and family, does what ever he can to protect them and to do what is best for the kingdom, quick tempered, if he says to do something then you better do it, no arguing, no debating, no questioning, very powerful wizard

Rowan West

Age: 20

Family: His sister was captured by a group of rogue warlocks and are threatening to kill her if Rowan does not go and capture the wizard princess of Ullshire and bring her back to them.  

So it is Day 10 and the reason I am starting this blog so late in the event is that up until last night I was extremely behind in my word count.  So I figured I should focus on getting caught up instead of worry about doing a blog but now that I have gotten caught up I will begin my blog.
I was originally going to do a vlog over on YouTube but my camera has not been working so I will just have to do a plain old blog :)

Two YouTube users have been doing a video each day for Camp Nanowrimo this month and have been setting task for each other and their viewers to do.

Here are links to their Channels: OneMoreSouthernBelle  and TracyMichelle210

Current word count (I haven't written yet for today): 16, 468 words


I am not going to try and do all of the tasks I missed so I'm just going to start with today's task.

Today's Task:


What are some tips you have for upping word count? And can you share a section in your novel where this has helped to up your word count? (task set by: OneMoreSouthernBelle)


My Answer: