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That's right, it's nearly D-Day. Seven hours and 13 minutes to go. Am I ready? Who knows. I've planned and plotted and thought and hoped, but is it enough? Who knows. I know I don't. I'm anxious to see how it all turns out. About 1,700 words a day doesn't sound too bad, but I guess that's because I didn't try a practice run to see how long that actually takes.
How is everyone else doing? Have you hit midnight? If not, are you staying up until midnight? I probably won't. I'll be dead at work tomorrow if I do.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
A discovery
I've discovered something. All four Backstreet Boys cd's are all that are needed as inspiration to write a romance novel. Now I know you're rolling your eyes, but hear me out. The songs cover almost any possible topic that could arise while writing such a novel - love, a crush, intimacy, adultery, drama and more. I stumbled upon this discover while I had my IPOD on shuffle. For some reason 1 of every 2 songs was the Backstreet Boys and I was spewing novel outline information.
A very useful tool - if you like, or can stand, their music. For me it's a childhood thing that I haven't gotten past. And probably never will. At least I still don't sleep with Care Bears, eh?
Oh yeah, character profiles suck arse. They're hard and I don't like them. But I know they'll pay off beginning November 1 when the NaNo gauntlet drops.
Uh oh, "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit just came on my IPOD. For some reason that song makes me crazy - the world's best workout song. "I hope you know I pack a chainsaw. I'll skin your ass raw. And if my day keeps going this way I just might break something tonight."
Signing off as I headbang and write a romance novel...somehow those don't seem to go together
A very useful tool - if you like, or can stand, their music. For me it's a childhood thing that I haven't gotten past. And probably never will. At least I still don't sleep with Care Bears, eh?
Oh yeah, character profiles suck arse. They're hard and I don't like them. But I know they'll pay off beginning November 1 when the NaNo gauntlet drops.
Uh oh, "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit just came on my IPOD. For some reason that song makes me crazy - the world's best workout song. "I hope you know I pack a chainsaw. I'll skin your ass raw. And if my day keeps going this way I just might break something tonight."
Signing off as I headbang and write a romance novel...somehow those don't seem to go together
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Plotting like crazy
So far so good...er...well...decent. Planning for a novel is a rather exciting experience, much like a roller coaster. One day I'm extatic about my plot and the next I'm frustrated that it's not interesting enough.
I had a bit of inspiration. I went to my first Romance Writers of America meeting (by the way, I finally told someone, outloud, at work, that I read/write and enjoy romance novels - a big step for me) the other night. The group was extremely friendly and I felt like it will be a great group for critiquing and such. The other nice thing is that published author's still go to meetings and provide lots of advice.
An author gave a presentation on outlining a plot at the meeting. She is someone who outlines books like crazy, which was good to hear because I'm doing that too. It seems most people I come across fly by the seat of their pants. Well, she recommended a few books (that I ordered and am looking forward to getting):
I had a bit of inspiration. I went to my first Romance Writers of America meeting (by the way, I finally told someone, outloud, at work, that I read/write and enjoy romance novels - a big step for me) the other night. The group was extremely friendly and I felt like it will be a great group for critiquing and such. The other nice thing is that published author's still go to meetings and provide lots of advice.
An author gave a presentation on outlining a plot at the meeting. She is someone who outlines books like crazy, which was good to hear because I'm doing that too. It seems most people I come across fly by the seat of their pants. Well, she recommended a few books (that I ordered and am looking forward to getting):
- Techniques of a selling writer
- The Plot Doctor Workbook
- The Writer's Journey
- Goal, Motivation and Conflict
She gave some great, realistic suggestions for a manuscript to be interesting and potentially publishable. However, she writes inspirational romance so we didn't get much advice in the love-making plot department :-)
And I found a great book that I LOVED - How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks. It was fantastic. Not what I expected by reading the back of the book, it was much better than it sounded.
Now I started reading Kiss of the Vampire in the 3-short story set Highland Vampire. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's difficult to read an entire story in Scottish dialect. How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire had it, but it was only a couple of the characters. Anyway, I'm not sure how much I like the story so far. We'll see, I'm about half way through it.I think I'll read a couple of contemporary romances next, I haven't yet veered from paranormals.
Best of luck for the rest of you NaNoers getting ready for the 1st!
Monday, October 10, 2005
Progress so far
I've been outlining my novel like a fiend. I once had a class in college that was spending the 10-week term writing a 100 page paper or so. My professor told us to do such a heavy outine that all you have to do is add the adverbs and you have your paper.
In a way, I'm taking that approach. I want to write the 50k so badly, but I worry that with work, school, a husband, freelancing and the obstacles life spews at us on a daily basis will hurt my progress. So if I outline and add some adverbs, I'll have several thousand words I can pump out quickly.
I'm also feeling torn about how they count words. Part of me is happy that they will strictly go off word count like the Microsoft Word word count feature. Because once I reach 50k, that will probably be more like 60 or 70k in publisher's word count. Once I do the proper spacing, marging, font, etc. then multiply the number of pages by 250. So by the end of this I may just actually have a full novel.
I saw a posting on a message board about some cool software called yWriter2. It's novel writing software that lets you write by chapter or scene. I kind of like that. It's less intimidating than a ginormous Word document. This way I can pull up chapter 3, write a bit then close it and pull up chapter 7 or whatever. It also lets you do outlines, timing, etc.
Right now I'm anxiously awaiting November 1 so I can get started. My husband just got a new job that has him working horrendous hours, I'll definitely miss him, but that will give me time to work on my novel without him feeling like I'm ignoring him.
I also just wrote the first short story I've done in years. I wanted to practice writing fast and furiously without self-editing. It's crap, but I feel good about it. Very dialogue heavy which is weird for me, I'm definitely a narrative writer.
Ok, I'm done rambling. And by the way, I'm still not used to this live journal thing. It's weird not knowing who or how many people are reading this. And it's weird to write about things and have it float away in cyberspace. Sort of creeps me out but I got to keep up with the times. Time to go to kickboxing class and cry over how much I hate the instructor... ;-)
In a way, I'm taking that approach. I want to write the 50k so badly, but I worry that with work, school, a husband, freelancing and the obstacles life spews at us on a daily basis will hurt my progress. So if I outline and add some adverbs, I'll have several thousand words I can pump out quickly.
I'm also feeling torn about how they count words. Part of me is happy that they will strictly go off word count like the Microsoft Word word count feature. Because once I reach 50k, that will probably be more like 60 or 70k in publisher's word count. Once I do the proper spacing, marging, font, etc. then multiply the number of pages by 250. So by the end of this I may just actually have a full novel.
I saw a posting on a message board about some cool software called yWriter2. It's novel writing software that lets you write by chapter or scene. I kind of like that. It's less intimidating than a ginormous Word document. This way I can pull up chapter 3, write a bit then close it and pull up chapter 7 or whatever. It also lets you do outlines, timing, etc.
Right now I'm anxiously awaiting November 1 so I can get started. My husband just got a new job that has him working horrendous hours, I'll definitely miss him, but that will give me time to work on my novel without him feeling like I'm ignoring him.
I also just wrote the first short story I've done in years. I wanted to practice writing fast and furiously without self-editing. It's crap, but I feel good about it. Very dialogue heavy which is weird for me, I'm definitely a narrative writer.
Ok, I'm done rambling. And by the way, I'm still not used to this live journal thing. It's weird not knowing who or how many people are reading this. And it's weird to write about things and have it float away in cyberspace. Sort of creeps me out but I got to keep up with the times. Time to go to kickboxing class and cry over how much I hate the instructor... ;-)
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Not what I expected
I am blown away by the NaNoWriMo site, as well as its users. I knew a lot of people participated, but I never anticipated so many of them to be on the message boards, especially this early. I'm very impressed and pleasantly surprised.
Lately I've been trying to make contact with others writing novels, particularly romance, even more particularly paranormal romance. I didn't know how to go about finding people to talk to, then NaNoWriMo fell in my lap. It's amazing that I can post a question about anything and within 8 hours I'll have responses, and helpful ones at that.
Kudos to all you Wrimos who participate in the message boards. As a newbie, I'm finding it incredibly useful. I'm hoping that the meet-ups are just as great and hopefully I'll meet some people working on paranormal romances too.
I do find the server slowness frustrating however. It takes forever to bounce from thread to thread. And I wish some of the individual areas were more broken down because there are hundreds of threads on some boards.
Oh well, such is life. I'm definitely more grateful for the program than frustrated by the technology.
Now my next goal is to educate myself on Edinburgh, Scotland so my setting is realistic when I begin writing.
Lately I've been trying to make contact with others writing novels, particularly romance, even more particularly paranormal romance. I didn't know how to go about finding people to talk to, then NaNoWriMo fell in my lap. It's amazing that I can post a question about anything and within 8 hours I'll have responses, and helpful ones at that.
Kudos to all you Wrimos who participate in the message boards. As a newbie, I'm finding it incredibly useful. I'm hoping that the meet-ups are just as great and hopefully I'll meet some people working on paranormal romances too.
I do find the server slowness frustrating however. It takes forever to bounce from thread to thread. And I wish some of the individual areas were more broken down because there are hundreds of threads on some boards.
Oh well, such is life. I'm definitely more grateful for the program than frustrated by the technology.
Now my next goal is to educate myself on Edinburgh, Scotland so my setting is realistic when I begin writing.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
I registered for NaNoWriMo yesterday. I'm looking forward to it, but not sure how I'm going to find the time with working full time, taking six graduate credits and freelancing. But it will be an interesting month.
I'm going to write a paranormal romance, yup, romance. I NEVER in a million years thought I'd read, let alone write a romance. I'd finished all of Anne Rice's vampire novels and was looking for something else. I stumbled upon a list of vampire books on Amazon that someone put together, basically a guide to vampire books. I bought Katie Macalister's vampire romance trio. I didn't realize they were romance when I bought them, but when I began reading I just couldn't put the books down. They were funny, romantic, great sex scenes and had a happy ending.
I then had a epiphony - I should write vampire romances. I've always wanted to write vampire novels, but I wasn't sure if I could make my characters as deep and dark as the author's I've read such as Anne Rice. I'd never read vampire characters like Katy Macalister or Lynsay Sands. It was so relieving to think I could write the love story with a vampire I always wanted, while keeping it light-hearted and fun instead of dark and dreary.
Here's my plot so far:My novel, titled "To Dream of a Vampire," is a parnormal romance about vampires, and is the first in a potential series. This is the plot so far, but I seem to make little changes all of the time.
Bianca has had the same dream her whole life (she's in her mid-20s during the time of the novel). It shows her waking up on a bench in the middle of a garden maze. She begins wandering through the maze (it's at night) and comes to a castle. She sees a man in the window staring at her, then the dream stops.
The backstory to the dream is that her mother was a part of a vampire worshipping cult. She was impregnated by a man in the cult, who injected blood from the vampire leader into his veins. Thus Bianca was born with vampire blood. That makes her a half/quasi vampire. She doesn't need to eat/drink blood, but she does have a great immune system and has heightened senses.
Back to present day, she is on a trip to Scotland with her best friend Jules. She is traveling the country taking pictures and studying castles for a book. Her first stop is a castle owned by Flavius, who happens to be a vampire. Throughout the book he strongly courts Bianca, but she can't get herself to be interested because she's fixated on the man she dreams about.
The man in her dream, Dorian, also lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are a couple of plot points that have Dorian and Bianca meeting for the first (and second time) before going on a date. She finds herself drawn to him for some unknown reason and the romance develops throughout the book.
The climax occurs when Flavius learns of Dorian and Bianca and he tries to hold her hostage and turn her to a vampire. If a vampire joins with a human born with vampire blood, they become incredibly powerful. But if the human joins with the vampire of the blood she has in her system, they are unstoppable. Dorian fights Flavius and rescues Bianca.
At the end, Dorian takes Bianca to his castle. She wakes up, on a bench, in a garden maze, goes through the dream sequence - but it's actually happening. So Dorian is the man of her dreams, literally. She goes upstairs, they talk, make love, the end.
So, we'll see how it goes beginning November 1, the start of NaNoWriMo.
I'm going to write a paranormal romance, yup, romance. I NEVER in a million years thought I'd read, let alone write a romance. I'd finished all of Anne Rice's vampire novels and was looking for something else. I stumbled upon a list of vampire books on Amazon that someone put together, basically a guide to vampire books. I bought Katie Macalister's vampire romance trio. I didn't realize they were romance when I bought them, but when I began reading I just couldn't put the books down. They were funny, romantic, great sex scenes and had a happy ending.
I then had a epiphony - I should write vampire romances. I've always wanted to write vampire novels, but I wasn't sure if I could make my characters as deep and dark as the author's I've read such as Anne Rice. I'd never read vampire characters like Katy Macalister or Lynsay Sands. It was so relieving to think I could write the love story with a vampire I always wanted, while keeping it light-hearted and fun instead of dark and dreary.
Here's my plot so far:My novel, titled "To Dream of a Vampire," is a parnormal romance about vampires, and is the first in a potential series. This is the plot so far, but I seem to make little changes all of the time.
Bianca has had the same dream her whole life (she's in her mid-20s during the time of the novel). It shows her waking up on a bench in the middle of a garden maze. She begins wandering through the maze (it's at night) and comes to a castle. She sees a man in the window staring at her, then the dream stops.
The backstory to the dream is that her mother was a part of a vampire worshipping cult. She was impregnated by a man in the cult, who injected blood from the vampire leader into his veins. Thus Bianca was born with vampire blood. That makes her a half/quasi vampire. She doesn't need to eat/drink blood, but she does have a great immune system and has heightened senses.
Back to present day, she is on a trip to Scotland with her best friend Jules. She is traveling the country taking pictures and studying castles for a book. Her first stop is a castle owned by Flavius, who happens to be a vampire. Throughout the book he strongly courts Bianca, but she can't get herself to be interested because she's fixated on the man she dreams about.
The man in her dream, Dorian, also lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are a couple of plot points that have Dorian and Bianca meeting for the first (and second time) before going on a date. She finds herself drawn to him for some unknown reason and the romance develops throughout the book.
The climax occurs when Flavius learns of Dorian and Bianca and he tries to hold her hostage and turn her to a vampire. If a vampire joins with a human born with vampire blood, they become incredibly powerful. But if the human joins with the vampire of the blood she has in her system, they are unstoppable. Dorian fights Flavius and rescues Bianca.
At the end, Dorian takes Bianca to his castle. She wakes up, on a bench, in a garden maze, goes through the dream sequence - but it's actually happening. So Dorian is the man of her dreams, literally. She goes upstairs, they talk, make love, the end.
So, we'll see how it goes beginning November 1, the start of NaNoWriMo.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The concert...
Let me begin by saying that Franz Ferdinand performs a kick-ass live show. Really, really great show. The opening acts were ok. I understand how this is their shot to gain a fanbase and recognition, but two opening acts took two hours last night, including set-ups between bands. Such is life.
I decided to wait in line for a few hours before the show to make sure I got to the front row of general admission. Why not? Life is short and I don't mind sweat if I'm having a good time. So I'm about the 10th person in line when I arrive, not bad.
Waiting, and reading Tall, Dark and Hungry by Lynsay Sands (I recommend the series). They open the doors and the people I'm meeting haven't arrived so I have to try and leave their tickets at will call. I get through security, and hide my camera down the back of my pants (you have to do what you have to do). I book it to will call so I can still get upstairs and be in the front. They can't find my name on the list. So I wait a few minutes, then a guy comes out with another list, which I'm not on again. So he goes to find another list and comes back to say "here's your two tickets." But I ordered, and payed, for four tickets! After about 10 minutes he finds them.
I'm angry and get upstairs then get even more pissed. By then there were about 75-100 people already crowding the front. The shenanigans downstairs cost me the front row. So I had to sit in the balcony. But all was not lost, since most of the attendees were under 21 and the balcony was over 21, I got to sit at the far side, which happened to be above the backstage part so I could watch people backstage. As I said, it was a great show.
So I have these two VIP passes burning a hole in my purse. Then my friend doesn't want to stay out too late because she had to work early the next day. And I didn't want to be by myself for the VIP party, so my lovely and adorable husband came to the rescue. He hopped right in his car to meet me and go to the party with me. What a nice guy!
At the party, we're hanging out upstairs. The band shows up a while later and as I expected, I got to giggle for a few minutes and while some groupie bimbos shoved their boobs in the guys faces (I'm usually not this cynical, I'm just tired). Someone forgot to bring the CDs for us to have signed so one of the radio ladies ripped a poster off the wall for me to have signed. The guys were nice and I clammed up and didn't say much. I know they're people, but they're on TV and it's hard to get over that.
Then we watched them sign CDs for the rest of the people in the bar and went home. All in all fun. Great concert. And I got about 3 hours of sleep, ooooh yeaaaah.
Got to register for NaNoWriMo tomorrow (http://www.nanowrimo.org).
I decided to wait in line for a few hours before the show to make sure I got to the front row of general admission. Why not? Life is short and I don't mind sweat if I'm having a good time. So I'm about the 10th person in line when I arrive, not bad.
Waiting, and reading Tall, Dark and Hungry by Lynsay Sands (I recommend the series). They open the doors and the people I'm meeting haven't arrived so I have to try and leave their tickets at will call. I get through security, and hide my camera down the back of my pants (you have to do what you have to do). I book it to will call so I can still get upstairs and be in the front. They can't find my name on the list. So I wait a few minutes, then a guy comes out with another list, which I'm not on again. So he goes to find another list and comes back to say "here's your two tickets." But I ordered, and payed, for four tickets! After about 10 minutes he finds them.
I'm angry and get upstairs then get even more pissed. By then there were about 75-100 people already crowding the front. The shenanigans downstairs cost me the front row. So I had to sit in the balcony. But all was not lost, since most of the attendees were under 21 and the balcony was over 21, I got to sit at the far side, which happened to be above the backstage part so I could watch people backstage. As I said, it was a great show.
So I have these two VIP passes burning a hole in my purse. Then my friend doesn't want to stay out too late because she had to work early the next day. And I didn't want to be by myself for the VIP party, so my lovely and adorable husband came to the rescue. He hopped right in his car to meet me and go to the party with me. What a nice guy!
At the party, we're hanging out upstairs. The band shows up a while later and as I expected, I got to giggle for a few minutes and while some groupie bimbos shoved their boobs in the guys faces (I'm usually not this cynical, I'm just tired). Someone forgot to bring the CDs for us to have signed so one of the radio ladies ripped a poster off the wall for me to have signed. The guys were nice and I clammed up and didn't say much. I know they're people, but they're on TV and it's hard to get over that.
Then we watched them sign CDs for the rest of the people in the bar and went home. All in all fun. Great concert. And I got about 3 hours of sleep, ooooh yeaaaah.
Got to register for NaNoWriMo tomorrow (http://www.nanowrimo.org).
Monday, October 03, 2005
Franz Ferdinand
So my favorite band is playing in town tonight, Franz Ferdinand. They are an incredible band live and if you like alternative rock or U.K. bands - check them out at http://www.franzferdinand.co.uk/. When it comes to this band, I seem to get lucky.
Last year they played in town and they were playing a private studio show for some lucky radio fans who won some contests. I decided to take a chance and I e-mailed the radio station (http://947.fm/) asking if there was any way I could go to the session. Low and behold - they said yes! So I got to watch the band play a few songs for about 15-20 people. We chatted a bit, super nice guys, great afternoon. Then went to the show that night - great show - and went to the karaoke (sp?) after and they were there drinking and singing - fun to watch.
Fast forward to this year. Last week the radio station held a daily contest to win passes to the VIP party for Franz Ferdinand. Lucky me - I won one of the days! Yeah, that's write, two lucky wins. I know what you're thinking - no one you know ever wins one of those, well, I guess sometimes they do.
So, after the concert tonight I get to chill in the VIP area of a bar, watching the groupie girls throw their half naked bodies on the band and giggle and drink my booze. It will be a good time. I've never been on "the list" before...how very interesting this will be...
Last year they played in town and they were playing a private studio show for some lucky radio fans who won some contests. I decided to take a chance and I e-mailed the radio station (http://947.fm/) asking if there was any way I could go to the session. Low and behold - they said yes! So I got to watch the band play a few songs for about 15-20 people. We chatted a bit, super nice guys, great afternoon. Then went to the show that night - great show - and went to the karaoke (sp?) after and they were there drinking and singing - fun to watch.
Fast forward to this year. Last week the radio station held a daily contest to win passes to the VIP party for Franz Ferdinand. Lucky me - I won one of the days! Yeah, that's write, two lucky wins. I know what you're thinking - no one you know ever wins one of those, well, I guess sometimes they do.
So, after the concert tonight I get to chill in the VIP area of a bar, watching the groupie girls throw their half naked bodies on the band and giggle and drink my booze. It will be a good time. I've never been on "the list" before...how very interesting this will be...
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