IWSG: The Post-NaNo blues

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the link and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

I just finished NaNoWriMo... wrote 50,000 words in 30 days. You'd think that would make me proud and happy. And it does, on one level. But my insecurity comes from the knowledge that I have SO much revision work to do to even make those 50,000 words legible! I'm standing at the bottom of Revision Mountain and the climb up looks pretty daunting.

I'm going to put it away for a little while and see how I feel about it after that.

Not to mention I don't know what to do with myself now. I love the NaNo community, but it's so fleeting. 30 days fly by when you have a common purpose with so many others. I already miss all my NaNo friends.

Did any of you do NaNo this year? How did you do?

Insecure Writers Support Group: NaNoWriMo post

Hi everyone! It's that time again, time for Insecure Writers Support Group. If you don't know what IWSG is, please pop on over to this link for an explanation, and when you realize it's the one thing you've been missing in your writing life, JOIN US!!

So in case anyone is keeping score, I've started off with a bang for NaNoWriMo this year. Killing it! Woot! Of course, it's only day five. And that's why I'm so eager to crush my word count now...because I'm afraid of the slump...the point at which I lose steam, run out of ideas, and let the whole thing fall to pieces.

I'm a pantster by nature. I can't help it. I tried outlining the Camp NaNo project I worked on this summer and it jumped right off the map and made its own direction...and then it fell to pieces. Again.

All these false starts are starting to give me heartburn! I want to finish something, but I keep losing steam and moving on to the next thing, with only the barest sliver of hope that I'll ever return to revise/add to/complete a project.

This current novel has no point at all so far, other than documenting daily life of the main character. I'm waiting to see if something exciting happens, that I can then doctor up in revisions, and hoping that we make it that far.

Anyone else out there doing NaNo this time around?

IWSG: Camp NaNo edition

Hi everyone! It's time for Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted by Alex Cavanaugh. Anyone can join, so hop on over to the IWSG page for more information and sign up! You won't regret it. Support, encouragement, we all need that, right?

So I don't really have any complaints this week. Which... is huge... usually there's something nagging at me. But I'm letting it all slide off my back right now because it's July, which means it's time for Camp NaNo!

I've been participating in NaNoWriMo for a few years now, and I have to say I always thought those "Camp" kids were kinda crazy. Why in the world would you need/want to do it again in the middle of the year?

Well, I've been bitten by the Camp NaNoWriMo bug, y'all. I had a good idea and a challenge from my podcasting co-host Merianna, and here I am getting ready for Day 2! (Oh, there's an insecurity... have I ever mentioned on here that I podcast weekly about publishing and writing? Check us out: ThinkingOutLoud)

But I'm no newbie, not anymore. I have an outline, a character sheet, and WriteOrDie to get me to my MODEST goal of 30,000 for the month. Not pushing it, just enjoying it... taking the story from start to finish and leaving the rest for revisions.

And we'll leave the insecurities to the revision process.
How is everyone else this month? Did anyone else even consider Camp NaNo this year, or was that just me?

Jump in with both feet

I've been waffling for weeks now. I know NaNoWriMo is coming up November 1st. I know it... and yet, when people started talking about plotting and planning and getting involved this year, I hesitated.

Mostly I think I hesitated because I was scared. NaNo is a big commitment! It's one of those things that you can go to as lightly or as seriously as you want and it'll have the same effect on your life... total madness for 30 days!

Thing is... I have a good story this year. I have a couple of compelling characters and an interesting plot... already... that I've been "meaning to work on" since we moved and I haven't yet. Maybe the madness of NaNo is just what I need to get them out of my head and onto (virtual) paper?

So... here I go!

What about you? Are you NaNoing this year? Look me up on the NaNo site: fairbetty. I'd love to have more writing buddies in all this madness!

A NaNo fiasco... and what I learned from failure

Ok, so... didn't even come close to hitting my word target for NaNo. I mean, yes I know there are still 4 days left and that I could probably write 6,000 words a day and reach the 50,000 word goal for the month... but I think that would be missing something.

I can think of a few REALLY good excuses for not meeting the goal this year (i.e., travel, company for the holidays...) but what it comes down to is, I got bored with my plot. I think I just hit a point around 25,000 words where all I wanted to do was end it, kill somebody off, or wrap it up nice and neatly... and so I stopped writing because I knew that attitude wasn't going to get me to 50,000 words. And even if I could have managed to pound out the word count, I would have been disappointed with the whole thing. That's not what I want!

I really like my plot/idea for this story, and I am taking this moment to acknowledge in front of my amazing writing community/followers that I want more for it than just the chance to say "I won NaNo 2012." So starting tomorrow I am going back to the drawing board and mapping out more and better scenes for my plot.

I hope you'll all hold me to finishing this project even though it'll be outside NaNo... especially BECAUSE it will be outside NaNo. I can use all the encouragement I can get!

Also, I'm jonesing for a developmental editing project. Anybody got anything they need worked on? I'll give you a deal you can't refuse! E-mail me at ekauffman (AT) writingrefinery (DOT) com.

A website and a lull in writing

First of all, I'm very excited to announce that my website is up and running! Please pop over to Writing Refinery and have a look. If anyone you know needs an editor, whether they're self-publishing or going the traditional route, I'm here to help. If you have any questions, please send me a message at ekauffman (AT) writingrefinery (DOT) com.

Next, I'd just like to put it out there that I'm stuck in the NaNo doldrums. I was doing so well writing while I was on vacation... I made sure to carve out time every day to chip away at my word count and stayed ahead of the game for the most part.

And then I came home... home is so much more distracting than vacation! It wouldn't seem that way. But it is. I have so many projects waiting to be completed, so many books to read, and cats and a dog that clamor for attention. Sigh... I really have got to get back on the bandwagon!

How is everyone else doing?

California dreams

I've been in Nor Cal for over a week now and it's wonderful. I miss it here so very much! I miss the sun and the birds and hanging out at the horse barn with my friends... it's enough to make a girl very homesick... which is a funny feeling when my husband and my beloved pets are all the way across the country. Sigh. One day I hope we get to move back here.

Things are just more... random and amazing out here. Like this for example:

I promise, window washing is random and amazing...

The other morning I was doing my NaNo writing at my father-in-law's house in San Francisco and I could hear opera... like... a really good baritone voice singing an Italian opera. I thought perhaps it was one of the neighbors. It's a classy neighborhood, after all. But no... no... it was this window washer!!! Seriously. Incredible.

Watson eating breakfast

I also have had three rides on Watson since I came to visit... and I kept myself together, no panicking or anxiety... just enjoyed the riding and relaxed. It's been a long time since I've done that. It felt nice to be back in the saddle until the next morning, of course. Wow was I sore! I really need to work on strength and flexibility more!! Sheesh!

Mallowmar the chatty kitty

Eva the beautiful

These are the two sweet kitties who sleep with me at night while I'm here and chat with me while I'm powering through my NaNo writing each day. I honestly thought I'd be so far behind on writing due to the trip. But thanks to some pre-planning and Write or Die, I am right on track! I even wrote extra on a couple of days so that I could take a day or two off in the middle. It's incredible and I'm actually excited about this NaNo lark of a novel. Things that I didn't expect have cropped up (like Clones!) and I'm just enjoying making it an outlandish story. 

I think one of my problems with writing is that I try to take myself too seriously. And I'm not really a serious person. Now that I'm just having fun with my novel, it's really become something I enjoy and I look forward to each day. I suppose it will be that way until it isn't one day... but I'm taking advantage of the good energy for now.

Aye me....

Checking in

Remember, remember, the 5th of November

The Gunpowder Treason and plot;

I see of no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

The power is back on at home after 4 days... which was not a long time, relatively speaking... but was also an eternity. Thank gods for a public library with power for charging communication devices. And thank gods for heat and running water, two things that the power unexpectedly steals away when it goes, and that I'm very happy to have back. I finish two books and read two others while the power was out. I'm nowhere near caught up on my reading list, but I feel like I made a significant contribution.

I'm sitting in a Peets Coffee in Davis, California, today. I have missed California so very much since we moved to the East Coast two years ago. I'm so happy to be back! 

I'm so happy to be writing while I'm here, too. NaNo is going pretty well for me while I'm travelling which is... unexpected. I figured I'd be floundering and way behind, but my friends here are very supportive and I've been able (with Write or Die to help me manage my time) to keep my word count rising pretty consistently. Woot!

The plot is coming along mostly as expected, as well. I haven't had too many surprises yet, but I'm prepared for them because I'm coming to the end of what I'd planned to... minus the ending. I'm still not entirely sure what genre I'm writing in... I mean, fantasy fiction with shape shifters... but I don't know if it's an adventure or a romance or YA or what! It's sort of a mystery to me. But definitely NOT a mystery.

I love NaNo! So frenetic and muddled and adventurous.

How is everyone else doing so far? If you're not doing NaNo, what other projects are you working on?

Do you know what day it is???

That's right folks! It's time for NaNoWriMo! Write write write!!!

We're still without power at our house... I am currently set up at the library (thank god for public services)... it's go time, yo!

Preparing for the on-coming storm

First! Audible books and Neil Gaiman have partnered together to produce a free scary audio book. You should go download it for two reasons. #1) it's Neil Gaiman! He's amazing. #2) For every download of this FREE audio book, Audible will donate $1 to educational charities at Donorschoose.org. This whole event is in honor of All Hallow's Read... a new tradition NG started of giving scary (but not too scary) books to kids for Halloween. (Didn't I say he's amazing?)

Now... It seems to be a new tradition for this area of the country to get pounded by a huge storm on or around Halloween. When you add the frenzy of preparing for NaNo to the frenzy of preparing for an actual (possible) storm... life can feel a little more than hectic.

Last year, a crazy freak snowstorm hit on Halloween.

All the heavy wet snow on the trees last year

Our power was out for a week. I started my NaNo novel that year by hand in notebooks... and then I resolved to complete it that way, but I lost my resolve somewhere close to the end... I was already spending time re-writing/typing the handwritten stuff into the computer to help me visualize my word count... it was too much!

This year it looks like I may have to start out by hand again! I'm going to hope not. Good ol' hurricane Sandy is threatening, though... and it looks like whatever comes our way it's gonna be a whopper! **scrambles around for candles and that hand-crank radio**

I haven't prepared a whole lot in recent days for NaNo. I did some initial prep-work in August, mapping out scenes and briefly sketching characters. I'm afraid if I do too much I'll mess with the magic. Part of the fun for me is the not knowing. But, that said, I need to have a clear idea of where I'm going with it this year. The first half of November and a trip to California are threatening to provide some serious distraction.

How do you psych yourself up for NaNo?

NaNo 2012 is coming!

That count-down clock to the right is starting to make me nervous! And I'm the one that put it there :) NaNoWriMo is at hand! I am, I'd like to think, prepared this year. A first for me. I have a notebook of character sketches and scene summaries that I've been accumulating over the past month or so.

In the past I have just had a vague idea to carry me... even the first year when I was finishing a novel I had started in high school... You'd think I would have had enough time to sculpt that idea, but nope. I'd been hiding it under my bed for 15 years. Sigh.

Part of me is a little bit nervous that all this planning is going to steal the magic out of my experience... and part of me wonders if I'll stick to the plan at all. That's what I love about NaNo, though. Anything can happen, and does happen!

I don't know if you need motivational tools to keep you on track with your word count, but Write or Die is my very favorite one to keep me from procrastinating. I highly recommend!

What about you? Pantsing or Plotting? What are your secret weapons for pulling off your word count daily? Any special tips?

Good Morning, October! When did YOU get here?

It's OCTOBER! That means Halloween is coming! And so is NaNo! *scrambles around for that one notebook with all her novel notes for this year....*

To be perfectly honest, I'm a "pantser" when it comes to NaNo (that's National Novel Writing Month, in case you didn't know. The whole month of November is a creative party! 50,000 words in 30 days! Check it out!). By "panster" I mean I just hop in with no plan, just a vague idea and the motivation to create something. It's actually how I approach MOST of life, come to think of it. Ha... well, there you go... that explains a lot.

Anyhow! This year, I'm going to be visiting my super awesome friends in CA (and staying with amazing awesome Leslie) during the first 14 days of NaNo! Eeek! There's no way I can pants it this year if I want to make the goal. I'm going to have to be a PLANNER! *shudders in fear and chagrin at the thought*

Luckily, I have an idea already! Woot! Having an idea is half the battle right there. What's better is that I've already started note taking... dare I say it... outlining (!!) even. My goal is to have the whole story mapped out by October 31, to not forget my laptop when I get on the plane on November 2, and to get up and write every morning at Leslie's, just like I would if I'm at home... only with more dedication to knocking out words quickly because I wanna hang out with her, too, and not spend all day staring at the computer screen. Write or Die should help with that.

It's ambitious and I'm not sure if it will work out at all, but that's the plan so far... here's hoping! I can't NOT do it this year, though. I like the idea too much :)

Anyone else out there taking the NaNo challenge this year? To be honest, I can use all the support I can get, but I give support equally! Lemme know and sign up, sign up, sign up! Then make me your NaNo buddy! My handle is (of course) fairbetty!

Ok, now here's some random art that I've done in the past couple of weeks... just for fun :)

A new raven :)

Dream Girl with stars in her eyes

Doctor Who fan art

7x7 award

Thanks to Nick Wilford over at Scattergun Scribblings for bestowing on me the 7x7 award!

I don't really participate in these kinda things anymore (because there are way too many to keep up with!) but this one had some interesting aspects that I wanted to follow through with anyhow. Kind of a blogging retrospective, introspectively... the following links are all to posts from my own blog that I think fit these categories.

Most Beautiful: I'm biased, but Big Island Dolphin Swimming, while not perhaps the most articulately written post, and not even the most well produced video, was the most beautiful experience for me...

Most Helpful & Most Popular: This post was incredibly helpful to me in terms of feedback I got toward my main character Lilith... and it comes in second for number of views on my blog.

Most Controversial: I don't know that I've posted anything "Controversial" yet... but this post with a flash fiction piece I wrote stirred up a lot of speculation...

Most Surprisingly Successful: Possessing the Secret of Joy. Without a doubt, this is the most surprising post. Not because of content, either, I expect. It's an emotional reaction to the novel by Alice Walker. But it has the most views on my blog of all of my posts... even still today.

Most Underrated: This post about my internship with the literary agency was a LOT of fun to write and full of information, but it didn't receive quite the response I was expecting/hoping.

Most Pride Worthy: My Name is Elisabeth and I am a Vegetarian There are some things that just need to be said, and this post says it.

You can feel free to visit or not visit them :) You may already have, if you've been following me for any amount of time.

If you want this award and haven't received it yet, I'm awarding it to you now!

Have a lovely week, all.

YATT: A character sketch... ultra-long post...

So, today for Young Adult and Teen Tuesday (a meme hosted by SA Larsen over at Writers' Ally) I am posting a bio sheet on my Main Character from my novel... I asked followers on my blog and the cool peeps over at Fairfield County Writers Group for input on 50 questions to ask her and promised to post them here.

I got 150 questions, actually. One of the cool peep writers over at FCWG posted a 100 question bio-sheet for developing your character. It's AMAZING. I'm only posting the first 15 questions from that sheet (the Basics) and then the 50 questions you guys contributed because... I feel like 150 is overkill. (am I right?) If you want a copy of the full bio-sheet for use with your own character, shoot me an e-mail and I'll gladly oblige. Also, I tried to link back to everyone who offered questions unless I didn't have a website for you. Let me know if I missed anyone.

I really enjoyed this exercise, because it made me THINK about what my character thinks. She came alive more to me than she has yet, and now I'm ready to take her back to the page and make the re-write happen for her.

I wrote her answers in first person, but the novel is not drafted in first person. It just felt more natural to do it this way. It's pretty long, so if you make it all the way through to comment, bravo you! And thank you.

I'm a little nervous about doing this to be honest. Reasons: 1. You might hate her. 2. You might not hate her, but tell me she's dumb anyhow. 3. You might hate her but tell me you love her. 4. Someone might love her so much that they steal her from me! Ugh. Honesty here... but... if I don't show her to anyone, how will I know if she's any good, right? So I'm attempting to be brave here and take a step. Please give me your honest opinions about her! And... I hope you like her... Um... and lastly, don't steal her, ok?


-BASICS-

1. My full name is ____. Lilith Evangeline Scott
2. I was born in ____. I was born on Sanday, part of the Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK…
3. My birthday is ____, making me ____ years old at the start of the story, and ____ at the end. My birthday is December 1, 1996, making me 15…
4. My parents are ____, who is a ___, and ____, who is a ___. My ma’s name is Lenore. She handcrafts baskets from seaweed and driftwood to sell in town and to tourists. My da was a sailor. He drowned at sea before I was born.
5. I have ____ siblings. Their names are ____ and they are ____ older/younger than me. I’m an only child.
6. Right now I live ____. Right now I live in the ocean… in a cove a few miles up the coast from my ma’s house. It’s a long story…
7. My occupation is ____. (n/a)
8. I am ____ tall and have a ____ build. I have ___ skin, ____ eyes and ____ hair. My facial features are ______. I like to wear _____. I’m five feet tall when I’m in human form… I have a pixie build Molly says. My skin is mostly white… freckled a lot… or it was before I became a mermaid. Now it’s kind of a freaky bluish white. My eyes are green; my hair is dark auburn and long, past my shoulders. My facial features are delicate, adding to the pixie look, I think.
9. When it comes to money, I have ____. (n/a)
10. When it comes to allergies, diseases and other physical weaknesses, I have _____. I don’t have any allergies and I’m pretty healthy… 
11. I am ___ handed. I’m right handed.
12. My voice is _____. My voice is… I used to have a great singing voice. It’s a little scratchy since I live in the freezing cold ocean now. I wonder if Millicent stole my singing voice, too?
13. A phrase I use frequently is ____. “you know”
14. In my pockets right now, I have _____. Ha! I don’t have any pockets! Mermaid, remember???
15. My most annoying habit is ____. I bite my nails???? How should I know? You’ll have to ask Molly. But she hardly ever gets annoyed with me. Maybe ask my ma.

Reader questions for Lilith:

1. Regardless of what’s happening in your life right now, you do realize things will only get harder as you grow up, right? (Hildred) Really? Harder than accidentally switching places with a murderously evil mermaid who has a grudge against my mother (which, by the way, I still don’t quite get…) and being exiled by the rest of the child-stealing/child-eating clan because I won’t become a cannibal? The ocean is no place to survive alone when you only just got here. Plus… it’s effing freezing here! I’ll take a little misogyny any day… but thanks for the encouragement.
2. Which subject do you hate in school? (Gina C) Ha! Well… when I went to school, I’d have to say it was math that I hated most. Too logical.
3. What do you like to spend your money on most? Money? We never have anything extra after food and fuel and supplies for ma’s craft. We’re lucky to get what we have and no thanks to any of our neighbors, you know?
4. Who do you want to dress like? Ah… I wear what I own… but I love Molly’s clothes. She’s my best friend and she always wears the softest clothes.
5. What song do you listen to on repeat?  “Swim until you can’t see land” by Frightened Rabbit is all I can hear in my head right now… over and over… Ironic, you know? Most of the stuff I used to listen to back on land you probably would’ve never heard of anyhow. I’m from a tiny island off the northern coast of Scotland. Everything about my life is obscure.
6. Who was the biggest bully in your life? It’s not the bullies I mind so much. They’re easy enough to avoid and not very bright either, you know? It’s their gossiping harpy mothers that really get to me. They make life hard on my ma… make her cry when she thinks I’m not looking. I hate them. Strange, but Molly’s ma is one of the worst. She hates it that Molly and I are friends. Too bad for her. She’ll never keep us apart.
7. Who have you bullied? You’re kidding, right? I’ve never really spent any time with anyone except Molly… and ma. The other kids don’t like me or are too scared of what their mothers would do if they found out they’d been talking to me at all, even if it was to be mean to me. I’m not sure why that is… probably has something to do with the reasons they make ma cry… but when I ask her she always looks sad and won’t answer me.
8. If you had a round-trip plane ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go? Somewhere warm. I don’t care where… although it’d be nice if it had an ocean… It’s just so damn cold here… I feel like I’ll never be warm again. I might never come back, either…
9. What is your favorite movie? (Charles M) Everything I get to see is a million years old by the time it gets here… but there was this one movie when I was a kid… Howl’s Moving Castle… I dunno… I guess I liked how nothing was what it seemed to be… and you could open the door and find yourself in different places any time you wanted.
10. What is your favorite book? I’d rather hear ma tell a story. She’s so amazingly good at it. The magical people she talks about almost seem real… come to think of it… maybe they ARE real. She always talked about mermaids, but I never would have believed they actually existed… except now I am one. What if selkies and Teran and the Sea Mither are really real, too?
11. Who is your favorite boy? Boys are dumb and a waste of time. You can’t even make them into mermaids.
12. Who is your favorite teacher? Miss McCormack… English Lit. I think she felt sorry for me. Whatever. I don’t need her sympathy, you know? But it sure beats the shit way the rest of the teachers treat me. More detentions than the biggest bullies in school… for what? I dunno… being alive? But Miss McCormack always let me do my own thing. I think I even paid attention in her class.
13. What do you like to do in your spare time? Mostly I like to hang around at the shore. No really, even on land I did. I love tide pools more than anything and the crash of sea waves, the smell of salt on the wind… Molly and I can always find someplace where no one will bother us. Most times I just sit and listen to the waves while she collects shells. Since THIS happened… we still meet at the shore, and she brings me news about my ma and Millicent… and we work on our plan…
14. What is your favorite animal? (CM)  Dolphins. Why? (Julie M) They’re brilliant, beautiful, and handy if I run into trouble with sharks. Happens a lot more than you’d think.
15. What kind of car do you want next year? (CM) You’re joking, right? But we don’t need a car. Everything is so close. Car is just money wasted, ma says.
16. Who do you think is cute? (Catherine K) Like I said… boys are a waste of space and energy… and Molly is beautiful.
17. Who supports you? Molly. And Ma, even though she can’t see me now. She tried to once, but it must be part of the curse. So anyway, Moll takes her my messages and tells me how she is… and helps keep a watch out for Millicent. She’s ridiculously brave, that Molly.
18. Who is your mortal enemy? Millicent. She’s evil incarnate. She stole my life from me and left me here for her lackeys to tear to pieces. But I’m going to ruin her little scheme with one of my own… and when she gets back here she’ll learn what pain really means.
19. What did you do last weekend? (Gabi C) Last weekend I spent convincing a couple of fringe mermaids (that’s the clan outsiders) that they want to help me get rid of Agra, Millicent’s number own. She’s been causing havoc in the clan ever since Millicent “disappeared”. No one will believe that Millicent traded places with me, but whatever. She basically made a power grab when it looked like Millicent wasn’t coming back… nobody is happy about it. Even I know that and I’ve been banished. But Agra really wants me dead… so I have to figure out how to take her down a few notches… Yeah… not your average weekend in the life of a teenager.
20. Where would you like to go on vacation? Like I said, somewhere warm with ma and Molly. And maybe we’d never come back…
21. Who is your favorite relative? My only family is ma. Da is gone… ma never talks about him or anyone else…
22. What scares you? Used to be the dark scared me. Now it’s the open, exposed ocean… I don’t wanna ever be caught with my guard down… Getting ripped apart by sharks or mermaids… not how I want to go. Also, never seeing ma or Molly again… that scares me.
23. What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s funny. I always wanted to be a ship’s captain. But they don’t take girls on as deckhands or mates or anything… so I’ve been teaching myself to sail, sneaking off with Molly in her da’s skiff whenever he’s not looking…. Learning to read the water…
24. Where’s your dad? (me) Ma says he’s dead. Lost to the sea. Molly’s heard all the rumors and she says that other people say he went off and drowned himself because ma broke his heart and had another lover… I never met him, so I wouldn’t know… but if he’s the type to go off and leave his family like that, I don’t know if I’m missing much.
25. What’s your favorite food? Ma’s homemade bread is the best… warm, with butter… I hate eating everything raw and cold now…
26. Do you believe in magic? I would have said no… all those tales ma told me… I thought they were just stories to scare us into behaving and going to bed on time… but now… the only explanation is magic. Nothing else makes sense.
27. What’s your favorite color? The deep brilliant blue of the ocean.
28. Who’s your best friend? You haven’t been paying attention. I said it was Molly. I’d die for her… and she’d die for me… but I’d never let that happen. She understands me better than anyone… she’s brilliant.
29. Do you have any pets? Ma always leaves a bowl of milk out… for the fairies, she says…. But I know the village cats find their way out to our place and drink it up most days. They keep the mice away and let me scratch behind their ears sometimes.
30. Have you ever travelled anywhere? We don’t have money for travelling. Furthest I’ve ever been is the next island over in Molly’s da’s boat. It’s uninhabited, so we beached the boat and spent the day exploring. Found a colony of puffins… they’re amazing. We left the eggs untouched. Molly got in so much trouble when we got back… we haven’t taken the boat out since. It started to get harder for her to sneak away and see me after that. Now, though… they think I’m dead and they’re a lot more free and lenient with her. It’s just harder for me… can’t be seen by other islanders. They wouldn’t like it.
31. What’s your favorite time of year? I like summer. It’s light longer… lots longer way up here in the northern latitudes. And the air is warm then.
32. Does your mom make you do chores? Yeah, but I’m happy to help, you know? We only have each other… and I have Molly… so I try to pay attention and do what she needs.
33. Do you like your mom? I love her. She tells the most amazing stories… and she’s so strong… and so good….
34. What do you think of love? You mean mushy romance? I don’t get it. The only person I ever loved besides ma is Molly. I don’t need anyone else.
35. Do you like where you live? Ma’s house… my house… is well enough. We don’t need all the plush fanciness other people have. We have color and light and a warm fire… and we’re right by the shore… I love the shore. Only think I hate are the people in town. Not a decent person besides Molly. Bunch of homogenized clones, if you ask me. They all have to dress alike and listen to the same music and make the same jokes.
36. What TV shows do you watch? (Dave D) We don’t have a TV. Big waste of time, in my book. We used to have one, but I made ma give it to the charity thrift shop. We never watched it anyhow.
37. What magazines do you read? Ma gets a subscription to National Geographic. It’s the only luxury we afford ourselves. I like to look at the pictures and dream about what it would be like to go to those places.
38. Have you ever written a novel? Nah. I make up stories in my head… but that’s it… they’re all just stories. I wish I could make them come alive the way ma’s stories have. Who’d have thought that homicidal mermaids existed? ‘Course they don’t HAVE to kill children… but I can’t talk about that here… it isn’t safe.
39. What do you think is gross but secretly want to try? (Catherine K) Kissing.
40. What do you say you want to be when you grow up? What do you really want to be? Ma always gets sad when I say I want to captain a ship. She doesn’t want me to leave her. I told her I’d take her with me, but she says no… She gets sea sick, she says. I think she’d want me to stay here… raise sheep for wool… you can make a good living selling yarn from our island. But I need to get away.
41. What did you do for fun as a little kid? I’d go down to the tide pools and look for the biggest prettiest shell I could find. Usually it was in the most hard to get places. Ma didn’t like it when I went down without telling her. I guess I see why now…
42. What’s your favorite thing about yourself? (me) I can sing. Pretty well, too. Only ones that ever heard me are ma and Molly. I make up songs… sometimes the seals come close to shore when I’m singing… like the selkies in ma’s stories… I wonder…
43. What would you change if you could? I always wanted uncontrollably curly hair… you know… all wild and sticking out everywhere… mine is straight as a plank of wood. Still wild and tangled, though.
44. What have you done that you are proud of? Well for starters I’m not dead yet. I could’ve been… but I’m a survivor.
45. What was your biggest embarrassing moment? I don’t get embarrassed. No really…
46. When things get overwhelming, where would you most like to hide? (Julie M) Under the covers in ma’s room… but I can’t. I’m stuck here. In the cold… alone… I have this safe cave, out beyond that point over there. I always try to be sprinting distance from that cave… in case of danger, like sharks and stuff, you know?
47. What interests you about your hometown? I try to steer clear of town, you know? People aren’t very nice. But I often wonder how people came to be away out here on this island… what brought them here… Ma has a story about that too.
48. What are the things that make you most excited to be alive? Mostly the ocean and all the things in it… and so many more than I ever imagined… and seeing Molly every day. It’s always something new with that girl.
49. Do you advertise your affections or would you rather keep them secret? Moll and ma know how to read me. I doubt anyone else will ever figure me out. But if you asked me, I’d tell you what I think. I’m not scared.
50. What’s your favorite thing to wear? (me) When I can wear clothes (like not now that I’m a mermaid) I always wear a great worn out pair of blue jeans and any of the sweaters ma’s made me.

If you made it this far you are my hero. No seriously. Thanks for sticking with it! Luv and puppies and stuff.

Why YA?

It's Tuesday again... time to talk about Young Adult and Teen lit!

Why am I writing a YA novel? That's a question people ask me frequently... after "Oh, you're a writer" comes "What kind of book are you writing?" and then... "why Young Adult?"

And my answer is because there's so much more room for imagination!

I think my WIP is teetering between middle grade and YA... although mostly that's because the age of the protagonist keeps changing. I can't decide how old she should be, really... originally she was 7 or 8 and now she is 16. I felt like some of the situations she found herself in were a little too overwhelming for an 8 year-old.

Now, I know that YA can be serious and can deal with some serious issues, too. And I love, love, love that about the demographic. Teens deal with some heavy stuff. They also need YA to open their eyes to people living lives that are distinctly different from their own. I remember reading "Dicey's Song" by Cynthia Voigt when I was a kid... and loving Dicey so much... and feeling like the life she lived was so completely foreign to me.

But the ability to put my characters into a world of magic and folklore come to life is largely restricted to the MG/YA demographic. Yes there's sci-fi/fantasy for adults... but it's all so ... ADULT... and I don't know... I just feel like YA has more fun. Am I wrong?

Every author dreams of writing the next great American novel... of winning the Pulitzer or some other prestigious award... those are good things to dream of, for sure. But realistically... I just want to have fun with my characters, to enjoy their growth and progression through the story. So I guess I'll have to put off the Pulitzer Prize winning work for the NEXT NaNoWriMo. Ha!

What about YOU? Why do you write for YA/Teens/Middle Grade? Why do you choose fantasy for your WIP? I'm curious!!!

Stuck

Well, stuck can be a good thing, too, I guess. I finished my NaNo goals and then took a good long break... but now I'm afraid to get back to working on the project. I know I need to, I know I can do it...

but I had found something else to distract me. A quilt. I am in the process of making my first quilt! It's really cool... I'm using a pattern and have been sewing madly for days now. It's been fun and I'm coming up with ideas for new quilt patterns... and I'm hoping that my mom will help me finish this quilt off when she comes to visit next week for Christmas.

But then my sewing machine stopped working today. It's stuck. I've taken off the cover and oiled as many parts as I can reach, and it's still stuck... I'm 4 strips away from being finished with the quilt! Sigh. Hopefully Noah can help me when he gets home, but I was really hoping to wrap that up today!

The thing is, having a stuck sewing machine may force me to get down to editing. I need that push back towards my novel, so that I can refine it... make it into something worth showing to someone else.

50,000 words does not a novel make

So, it's December 5th... I haven't posted in over a week. To be honest, I think I just needed a break from forcing words out of my fingertips and into being. And so I took it. I wish I could tell you that during the last week I read more books and began creative projects... but really I spent most of my time staring out into cyberspace, trying to make sense of the whole last month by reading what others are saying about their experience of NaNoWriMo.

And so now I'm here, a few days into December... and what do I have to show for it? I have more than 200 pages of text and a strong idea... but it's not a manuscript yet. I know what needs to come next. I know I need to sit down with Scrivener and put these scenes into some kind of logical order... and then I know I need to go through the draft with a discerning eye, re-writing portions, cutting portions, adding transitions and/or filler...

I think I'm just still in shock that I actually got this far with it. Ha. That the baby idea I had... years... ago now has become something much bigger than I expected.

Truth is I love the editing process. I just need to gather my wits about me and dive in! And so that's what this next month will be about. I have many fun things to do on the weekends and my mother is coming up for the holiday at the end of the month, but in between then I promise you that I'm going to knuckle down and make something out of this jumbled heap of ideas. As Erin Morgenstern, NaNo participant and author of The Night Circus put it "There's a spinning-straw-into-gold analogy here, in which NaNoWriMo is about filling the room with straw. The spinning would be revising. Had I more time to compose this, I would work that analogy in better, but the I think clumsiness illustrates my point." (from The Marvels and Messes of a Month of Writing).

I'm off to yoga now for some wit gathering... and then I'll be here... spinning my straw into gold.

NaNo day 25... I DID IT!

As you can see by the badge posted to the right and by the certificate in this post, I successfully completed the 50,000 word challenge for NaNo today! Yay me! Now comes the hard part, though... I need to finish this thing up and get it edited. Eek! I'm pretty excited :). It's something to be proud of, and a creative story line. I hope to be able to share it with you soon!

Now I'm going to go relax for a bit and decorate my house for the holidays.

Yay!

NaNo Day #24... Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

It's Thanksgiving Day, 24 November. I'm sitting pretty at 46,726 words on my novel. Yep folks. Today's benchmark is 40,000 and I'm well ahead. I have 3,274 words left to write to reach the 50,000 word mark and "win" NaNo. That doesn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things... and yet, it DOES because I have a novel written! Or I will have in just a couple more days... I mean, even 50,000 words does not make a novel... I will likely write more and cut more and edit plenty before it's in any sort of drafty stage to send to a publishing agency... but that's the goal... after reaching 50,000... dress it up and send it out to party :)

I'm pretty excited. At one point I wasn't even sure I could stretch it this far. Yay!

I've really enjoyed this process. I think I have found my stride, which is a good thing to feel. I discovered "Write or Die" which will help me with writing daily in the future (manageable bites are key). I've also learned the need for balance. I've spent the last month jamming on the creativity frequency. I need to have input, too, though... as well as output. I'm looking forward to getting back to reading more regularly and not feeling this crazed pressure for a while. At least until I come up with another grand idea... or until next year's NaNo :)

So... in other news, I volunteer at Blackbird Yoga now, down the street from my house. It's a nice way to get out a couple times a week and I get free yoga for helping out over there. Pretty cool! I try to walk there at least once a week (and drive the other day I go)... mostly for the getting outside. Our street is not the safest to walk down. People like to go careening down the hill and slam into the speed bump in front of our house (that includes snow plows in the middle of the night... right outside my bedroom window... good times...). I don't let Tag in our yard without his 30 foot lead on for that reason. I can't bear the thought of him getting hit. That said, I don't see to many animals (other than squirrels and chipmunks) that get hit on our road. And we have plenty of critters... heron, beaver, muskrat, deer, raccoon, and then I found this guy on the side of the road, a clear hit and run... who knew we had bobcats too? Sad that I had to discover it this way...

NaNo day 21 - Moving along

It's day 21. I made excellent headway at the end of last week and wrote the usual quota of words on Saturday, too, so only writing 600 yesterday didn't really hurt me. I didn't get ahead that much, though, by only writing 600 words. So today's goal is to write to 40,000 words (a little over a 2,500 word count for the day). It's completely do-able since I wrote 5,000 the other day... in 2 and a half hours... This new app is fantastic for making my writing time manageable and productive. I love it.

This image is taken from

 http://a-faerietale-of-inspiration.blogspot.com/

In other news, the recent events at UC Davis have shocked and saddened me more than I can say. Especially when you expect that the police should be there to protect people and uphold their rights... which I do. Maybe everyone does not expect that. I know there is a lot of contention surrounding the purpose of the protesting going on across the country at this time... nevertheless, people have the right to make their thoughts and concerns known through peaceful assembly... and this kind of display of force in direct opposition to those rights chills me.

I never really considered my position of non-violence until now. I think I always assumed that I knew my own mind. And I have a hard time wrapping my brain around exactly how my ideals, my beliefs would work in an ideal world, especially given that this world is less than ideal... but I'm going to put it out there... to wish... to imagine what my world would be like... so bear with me, and converse with me. I hope you will...

In my perfect world, the police would use force only when absolutely necessary... because their lives or the lives of others are in imminent danger.

In my perfect world, people would have safe, open forums to talk about their wants and needs, their hopes and dreams, and to find support and fulfillment from others who have and are willing to share.

In my perfect world, disagreeing with someone would not be a cause for hate or war or violence, but a time for learning, if nothing else, how to respect a different viewpoint and allow that person to be and believe differently from you.

In my perfect world...

There are so many other ways to end that thought that I think I'm going to have to start a series, just to tease this idea out, to dream

I hope that you will play along with me. What do things look like in YOUR perfect world?
I reserve the right to delete any comments that are combative or out of sync with the spirit of this "perfect world".