N&L

Nanowrimo and Life

Alright, so currently I'm 31k words short of where I'm supposed to be right now for Nanowrimo...yes I let life get in the way of writing-I had exams and work and finishing the internship application process...I have a multitude of excuses as to why I haven't worked on my novel/graphic novel. The main one being I haven't been that inspired to work on it. I love the story. I love the characters. I was outlining and setting up characters in October getting ready to pour my heart out this November. Obviously that didn't happen. I'm not normally the type to outline and prepare for a story. Usually I write whatever is in my head to write and the story/characters develop as needed. Maybe I over-structured myself. Maybe I was just feeling the pressure on top of all my daily stresses. The point being-here I am sitting in front of an empty screen trying to think of how to write this one little scene and I'm coming up blank.
But people don't want to hear that. I sat down November 1st and said "this time I'm gonna reach 50k" and people want to hear about your progress. Well, I can tell you that I have my introduction written out. Its also my excerpt to my novel on my NaNoWriMo profile. I also have the beginning scene written out. In total I have a page and a half of work done for my novel-thing. People may say it's because I'm working on a graphic novel and those don't have that many words. My graphic novel is different. While the graphic part has very little dialogue/narrative (and my wonderful sister is working on the art), the rest of the book is written out in short stories. So while reaching 50k in a multitude of short stories would be difficult, it isn't impossible. I have plenty of ideas for the written portions and seven volumes worth to write (yes we've worked the storyline into a seven volume graphic novel).
So, you may be asking yourself (as I am now) 'why are you writing your blog when you should be writing your story?' Well, if you read the beginning part of this whining post, I am drawing up blank. I figured that maybe if I wrote something else I may get into the swing of things and just transition over to the story.


Well, here's hoping :-)

Good luck other NaNo-ers!

Jacqueline Carey

Breaking from my usual self absorbed posts--here's something for everyone else. Recently, my favorite author Jacqueline Carey gave signed copies of her latest book, Saint's Astray, to bloggers and told them to give the book to lucky winners. No I'm not one of the bloggers--pretty obvious from my lack of blogging and no book mentioning. But I'm here to post links so that others can enter to win!
So here ya go:

Oak Business Services Giveaway
Sera Phyn Giveaway
Fictorian Giveaway
Amilianna Giveaway
Runaway October Giveaway
Oberon's Law Giveaway
Bella Deluna Giveaway
Courtney Conant Giveaway
Little Spartans Giveaway
Fantastique Books Giveaway
Laurie Hansen Giveaway

Some of these end Nov 15th so hurry up :-)

And for those that haven't read Carey's books, Saint's Astray is the sequel to Santa Olivia. From one review on Good Reads: Santa Olivia is a story that spans 18 years in a small dystopian community recovering from a disease outbreak in Texas. The local population has been cut off from the US and imprisoned in their town by physical walls and the military.
Loup Garron, the child of a genetically engineered soldier, tries to blend in with the rest of society. Although she follows her brother’s advice to be careful and hide her talents, she is torn between acting “normal” and embracing her “gifts”.

P&N

Procrastination and NaNoWriMo. I am a chronic procrastinator. If there is even the slightest chance I can put something off until tomorrow, it won't get done. I end up studying for exams the day of, my apartment never gets cleaned, and I have trouble making myself sit down and write 1,667 words a day on my novel to meet the 50k word requirement for NaNo. It's not on purpose. I have every intention today to write over 1000 words. In the course of 10 hours, I have written two sentences. 39 words. I have spent the last two hours staring at my notes trying to motivate myself to write when all I want to do is watch Dr. Who. And get distracted by Sherlock.
Or the cats need attention.
Or I get the munchies and I spend time getting food.
Point being, I suck at this. Last year, I was able to write quite a bit for NaNo. I didn't make 50k but I did pretty well. I haven't written since last november, and I seem to have lost my drive to write. I tried writing a short story every month, even created a Facebook group for it. But, unfortunately, I've let life get in the way. Between work, classes, internship interview process, a social life, and the apartment I've found plenty of excuses.
Well, here's to hoping I get my shit together long enough to write something.

Excerpt:
Here's the first paragraph I've done.
"With the ever-exploited facts of global warming hanging over the heads of humanity, most people thought the world would end in a natural disaster. The ozone layer would be destroyed and living creatures would be wiped out by solar rays. The world would be encased in another ice age. Religious freaks thought that their god’s minions would come down to earth and the devout would be taken under wing as the heathens were destroyed. Government experiments would get loose and kill off the human race in a pandemic. Some surmised that terrorist attacks and weapons of war would destroy us all.
How surprised was everyone when death came in the form of tiny white spiders?"

and after that it's only two sentences.

I can do this...it's only 49,846 more words to go :-)