Fail Week But I Turned It Around

     so last week and the week before were not as productive as I would have hoped.  They werent very productive at all.  The last few days I feel like I got a handle on things again.  I did some math and that helped.  (Math always makes me feel better.  It puts everything into perspective.)  If I could write 2,000 words a day I would be done in 60 days.  Not so bad.  12 weeks, only writing five days a week.  I still need to finish world building.  I get distracted.  I will be working on something and have a great idea for something else entirely and have to stop and get it out of my system.  I have to write it down.  I now have multiple pieces of scratch paper with very important ideas.  I have a notebook too, but the scratch paper ideas get typed in at the end of the day.  I type them into a spread sheet of topics.  I figure then maybe I will be able to find then later and actually use them.  It is very exciting crossing ideas off.  

My plan for the week

1. Full list of characters.  I am 90%
2. Interviews for mains 3/5, antagonists 0/3, power players 0/7 and extras 0/6
3. Organize notes. Evernote 0.5/3 Note book 15/26
4. Locations Main 1/6, Lesser 0/2
5. If I have time I will work more on the plot.   3/4 parts

World building is lots of work!  I am glad I only have to do it once.  I have quite a few* stories to tell for this world.  There will be more regions to explain but the bones will already be in place.  An encouraging fact.  

What are you up to this week?

*26

I Love World Building

top left:  Notes, notes and notes  top right:  An encouraging sticky  bottom left:  outline of book one  bottom right:  where my books will live one day in a bookstore

     i have fallen in love with world building.  I have been sharing lots of it on instagram.  Sorry instagram friends...  Deciding what the regions are like, who lives there, how they live, and where they came from is so much fun.  I have a whole sheet of paper devoted to slang!  Really nerdy but such a great time.  The world is starting to feel real.  The outline of Book One is also coming along nicely.  I have 3/4 of it broken down to scenes even.  The most fun has been figuring out sizes of cities and how they operate.  What money they use.  Where food come from.  Who is in an alliance.  How long people live.  The size of the planet.  Seasons of the year and how time is counted.  It is truly an amazing experience.  I can do whatever I want.  Anything.  It is a pretty freeing thing.

This a big deal.  I have mostly just done random free writes for things that tickled my fancy.  I have a lot written, but it isnt in any order and some of it wont happen till way way WAY later in the series.  I am glad that I know what will happen later but at some point I do need to start at the beginning and really write something.

My main focuses this week have been

• Finishing the outline for book one

1. Postit notes on a large paper, a vague explanation of what is happening
2. Writing down on paper each scene in one or two sentences.
3. Moving all this over to yWriter5.

• Round out character list
• Define more of the region
• Figure out antagonists
• Name things (I am really bad a this!  Everything sounds so silly to me!)
• Start writing!

I am starting to feel like a real writer.  I can really do this.  I can really have enough ideas in my head to fill a whole book, heck lots of books!  I have wanted many things in life, but nothing like how I want this.  I have never really been motivated to success but I can do this!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Writing in public while slightly intoxicated is fun!

     But please dont come again another day!  I had some drama this week with a leak I have in my ceiling.  The worst drips happen to be over my desk where I write.  I had taped up some paper towels to try to keep myself and my new computer safe but this week the ceiling drips got me.  I was working on editing a video and then three tablespoons of water landed on my keyboard.  I screamed and turned of it off and threw it on my bed.  Such panic!  It had been days since my last back up of my book.  Not smart.  I was so upset I left in a huff and went to the pub down the street.  I spent the rest of the evening drinking hard cider and attempting to write.  It was mostly outlines, helpful but not what I wanted to be doing.  This happened Tuesday and I waited till Friday to turn it back on.  Thank goodness it turned back on with no problems!  To say this week was a fail is true.  I got some of my goals done, but not many.  Well at least maybe when the next round starts I will be in working order...

My Goals for the Week

Goals

• Review my first quarter goals, nope
• Write second quarter goals, nope

Writing

• Continue to work on my outline  still more work to do
• Finish character interviews, nope
• Finish setting layout, nope
• Finish plot outline, nope

Read

• Read 3 stories from Twelve Tomorrows, even if you dont like them...  I read one!
• Read 5 blog posts by other people, I read two!

Social

• 3 writers meetings  I think we ended with four
• 5 comments on others blogs, two
• instagram daily, and then some!  I started #100happydays  quite entertaining.  

How was your week?

Beautiful Days on the Way

      The sunshine we have had lately has been inspiring and distracting.  It makes me want to do more, work and play.  I keep looking out the window to see if it is still blue sky.  My cat is also enjoying sitting in the window more.  Cute but distracting.  A friend asked if I like to write outside when it was nice, I said NO!  I am easily distracted as it is.  I get many good ideas daydreaming out in the sun, but actual writing is out of the question.  My thought process becomes; I like working outside, look at the clouds, pretty, oh a bug, hello little bug, the grass is so green here and not so much there, oh SQUIRREL!  Not productive.  Maybe someday I will be able to focus outside...  I doubt it.  

I am way behind for the A Round the Words in 80 Days or very early.  I have been lurking around the linky parties for months.  It made me start this blog but I lack the courage to post much or ekkk comment.  The sunshine has convinced me to change this.

My Goals for the Week

Goals

• Review my first quarter goals 
• Write second quarter goals

Writing

• Continue to work on my outline
• Finish character interviews
• Finish setting layout
• Finish plot outline

Read

• Read 3 stories from Twelve Tomorrows, even if you dont like them...
• Read 5 blog posts by other people

Social

• 3 writers meetings
• 5 comments on others blogs
• instagram daily

Better late than never.  Maybe we will just call it a head start!  

A Kiss

It had been many moons since they last saw each other.  So long in fact that many images had faded.  The last touch a distant memory.  A memory that was held fast.  How her hand felt soft, how his was rough with work.  Her eyes were glossy with the idea of tears, but how she fought them.  How if she had cried he would have wiped her eyes.  He held her face and wanted to soak up every piece of her.  He wanted to breath her in and keep her essence with him on his long trip.  The idea that their paths would never cross again was crushing.  She was paralyzed in the moment.  That this could be the last.  He kissed her forehead and cheeks and chin and finally her mouth.  Not in a lustful way, in an almost melancholy way.  This broke her heart more.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.  Like it wasnt the last, but needed to be savored.  He pulled her arms from him and kissed her hands multiple times, looked her in the eye and asked for a smile.  She did her best to give him her best smile, but it was crooked with the fight of tears.  This made leaving her much harder for him.  He kissed her mouth again and left through the door and into the darkness.  She lost the fight with the tears.  They flowed out of her in rivers, but she did not sob.  She stood there quietly in the almost dark and let them fall.  She would allow herself to be lost in these feelings for only a few moments and then there was work to do.  He had to lean on the door once he was on the other side of it.  Take a moment to gather himself.  He clenched his fists and leaned his forehead on the door.  They had to win.

How I write

      I love lists.  I love making plans.  Plotting.  Scheming.  When it comes to writing my books I have a hard time doing these things.  I just recently wrote out a real outline for all the books!  I have been working on these for years...  Like since 2006...  Granted lots has changed since then.  It wasnt until recently that I put any real work into the stories.  I was petty good at writing one scene every month, but that isnt very helpful in finishing.  About 8 months ago I started writing down any ideas I had.  Even if had nothing to do with any character or place.  I knew at some point I might need it.  I now have hundreds of ideas!  I use them to do free writes.  Does it have much to do with the story on a whole, no but it gets me thinking.  That is enough.  I have had my best ideas during a free write.  Most of the time it has nothing to do with what I am even working on!  As you might of guessed I am not working in order.  At this point it is more important for me to get to know this world and these characters.  Character development has been very important.  Three of the five main characters jumped out at me pretty quickly and the last two are pretty shy, but we are getting there.

This week:  1,228 of 5,000
Words:  18,742 of 2,812,500

First

There are many strange beings in the Land of Fayd.  Some seem quite ordinary and others seem quite extraordinary.  Someone whom seems simple might surprise you.  There is also good and evil in each.  A creature may seem evil but in all fairness is quite good.