Still in the month of madness here, and I'm actually doing really well. I just don't have enough brain power to come up with blog posts yet. So...
I'm finishing up some work on Kiss of Life right now, and wrapping myself up in the awesome of Remy. For those who don't know, Adam Lambert is my character model for Remy, and this song always makes me think of the character in all his fantabulous glory...
Talk to you next week... or maybe just share more music next week. We'll see :)
Showing posts with label Kiss of Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kiss of Life. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
NaNo NaNo NaNo NaNo... Batman! Er...
It's NaNoWriMo day 6! That means by the end of the day today, I should have at least 10,000 words written on Kiss of Life.
My plan had been to have more like 25,000-30,000 done by today, but that's not happening. You see, life and frantic plotting have gotten a bit in the way. (AKA--I was sick, we had company, and I didn't get the book totally plotted in advance.)
Why was my plan so... vast in scope? Because I thought I could do it. I really want to get this book done and sent to my editor and I'm all excited about it. Plus, I've done that kind of word count recently, so I figured magic could just strike again.
I'm here to tell you that life doesn't always work that way. Hell, even if I'd had everything lined up perfectly for the ideal amount of writing time and no interruptions and a magical teapot that provided me spicy rooibos at sipping temperature... it still likely wouldn't have happened. My brain wasn't ready for that level of commitment with this book because I still had far too much discovery to do about the story.
Some books are easy to write fast. The story is nice and compact. Minimal number of characters. "Simple" plot. Etc, etc. Others are formed so fully in an author's mind that they just spill onto the page (I had that happen once, it was awesome.)
With Blood Kissed though, I've got a big cast of characters and a plot that requires some twisting and turning. (The people who read this series won't be too happy with me if I make it all nice and predictable. And Remy would kill me in my sleep.) So, I had to let it simmer. Then I had to let it stew. Then I had to let it age in a damn barrel as epiphany after epiphany hit.
I think I have it all now. The pieces are laid out in front of me, and I can more or less see the picture they make. So... 10,000 words by today, but it's the last day of taking it easy. Now, it's time to bust ass and write.
My plan had been to have more like 25,000-30,000 done by today, but that's not happening. You see, life and frantic plotting have gotten a bit in the way. (AKA--I was sick, we had company, and I didn't get the book totally plotted in advance.)
Why was my plan so... vast in scope? Because I thought I could do it. I really want to get this book done and sent to my editor and I'm all excited about it. Plus, I've done that kind of word count recently, so I figured magic could just strike again.
I'm here to tell you that life doesn't always work that way. Hell, even if I'd had everything lined up perfectly for the ideal amount of writing time and no interruptions and a magical teapot that provided me spicy rooibos at sipping temperature... it still likely wouldn't have happened. My brain wasn't ready for that level of commitment with this book because I still had far too much discovery to do about the story.
Some books are easy to write fast. The story is nice and compact. Minimal number of characters. "Simple" plot. Etc, etc. Others are formed so fully in an author's mind that they just spill onto the page (I had that happen once, it was awesome.)
With Blood Kissed though, I've got a big cast of characters and a plot that requires some twisting and turning. (The people who read this series won't be too happy with me if I make it all nice and predictable. And Remy would kill me in my sleep.) So, I had to let it simmer. Then I had to let it stew. Then I had to let it age in a damn barrel as epiphany after epiphany hit.
I think I have it all now. The pieces are laid out in front of me, and I can more or less see the picture they make. So... 10,000 words by today, but it's the last day of taking it easy. Now, it's time to bust ass and write.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
NaNoWriMo: T-minus 48 Hours and Counting
If you weren't aware, I'm a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) addict. I did it for the first time in 2007, and I've done and won every year including and since. The funny part is, I don't need to do it anymore. I write 50,000 words in a month on a fairly regular basis. (If you recall my crazy output last year, I wrote ~350,000 new words in 2011, not including revisions and edits.) But I'm still doing it this year.
You see, I love the energy of NaNo. Literally hundreds of thousands of people doing the same thing I am in the month of November. They're sitting their butts in their chairs and putting their hands on their keyboards and making magic. Some will be or become publishable magic--most of mine have (after much, much revision--never skip that step)--but that isn't even the point of NaNo. It's all about the words, and that has power in itself.
Writing is a solitary gig. We chat on twitter and some people have live writing groups they meet with every so often, but most of us do this shit mainly solo. But in November, that feeling of aloneness disappears and we become part of something bigger.
It's an awesome feeling.
Now, I know, NaNo is not for everyone. Some people can't turn off their internal editor (or if they leave her on, can't make the word count anyway), others hate the pressure and the deadline, still others have issues with the 50,000 word thing (because outside of small YA books and those for a younger audience, that isn't a whole novel, you know?). And all of that is fine. NaNo doesn't do anything for some people.
But if you're a writer or a wanna-be-writer, it's worth giving it a try at least once. See how much you can accomplish on that next bit of magic in thirty days. And if you hate it... it's only thirty days. Most workout plans expect you to try longer than that. At the very least, the month will get you in the habit of BICHOK (butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard) on a daily basis, which is a good thing for a writer.
As for me, the first words of Kiss of Life will hit my laptop in 48 hours. On the plus side, it's a world I already know, so I don't have to stress too much about prep-work. On the downside, I've been crazy-busy tying up other projects the past few weeks in preparation for NaNo, so I have nothing done on actual book prep-work. It should be a trip.
Either way, I get to see Remy again, and that just makes me happy.
You see, I love the energy of NaNo. Literally hundreds of thousands of people doing the same thing I am in the month of November. They're sitting their butts in their chairs and putting their hands on their keyboards and making magic. Some will be or become publishable magic--most of mine have (after much, much revision--never skip that step)--but that isn't even the point of NaNo. It's all about the words, and that has power in itself.
Writing is a solitary gig. We chat on twitter and some people have live writing groups they meet with every so often, but most of us do this shit mainly solo. But in November, that feeling of aloneness disappears and we become part of something bigger.
It's an awesome feeling.
Now, I know, NaNo is not for everyone. Some people can't turn off their internal editor (or if they leave her on, can't make the word count anyway), others hate the pressure and the deadline, still others have issues with the 50,000 word thing (because outside of small YA books and those for a younger audience, that isn't a whole novel, you know?). And all of that is fine. NaNo doesn't do anything for some people.
But if you're a writer or a wanna-be-writer, it's worth giving it a try at least once. See how much you can accomplish on that next bit of magic in thirty days. And if you hate it... it's only thirty days. Most workout plans expect you to try longer than that. At the very least, the month will get you in the habit of BICHOK (butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard) on a daily basis, which is a good thing for a writer.
As for me, the first words of Kiss of Life will hit my laptop in 48 hours. On the plus side, it's a world I already know, so I don't have to stress too much about prep-work. On the downside, I've been crazy-busy tying up other projects the past few weeks in preparation for NaNo, so I have nothing done on actual book prep-work. It should be a trip.
Either way, I get to see Remy again, and that just makes me happy.
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