Monday, June 29, 2015

In Which I Write a Lot of Words Rambling About Writing a Lot of Words


Typewriter

“30 days, 30k words. Yeah, I can do this.”
That was my ever optimistic (if not a bit impractical) self at the beginning of June.

“I can’t do thisssss.”
My much more realistic side kicked in come mid-June.

“Maybe I can do this?”
Nearing the end of June. Hopeful? Wishful thinking? Anyone’s guess.

“Nope, not gonna make— Wait. Did I just hit my word goal?”
Last days of June. Too exhausted to even realize that I HIT 30K WORDS.

Ahem. So yes. June has been a bit of a hectic whirlwind of words and life and other stuff I probably don’t even remember at this point because it all went swhoosh and left me dizzy, and now it’s almost July.

You see, at the very end of May I up and decided I would do a little JuNoWriMo thingamajig and set a goal of 30k words for June. I had been somewhat steadily working on Burning Thorns but it wasn’t coming along as fast as I had hoped. I needed a push, so setting a goal and announcing it and having people keeping me accountable would be that perfect push. I’m a bit (okay, maybe more than a bit) OCD when it comes to goals. Once I make it “official” I HAVE to achieve that goal. Even if I die because of it, it’s worth it. I’m an all or nothing sorta person. Literally. If I don’t think I can make a goal, I just won’t even set it in the first place. But once it’s there it’s set in stone and a stampede of rabid dinosaurs cannot drag me away and make me quit. I’ve yet to decide if this is a good or bad thing.

That being said, this JuNo challenge I set for myself was supposedly not going to be a big deal. I do a double NaNo every November after all. Psh, I can do this. Besides, summer is a hot, lazy time where I just want to hide under the air conditioner with my laptop anyway. It’ll be fun!

Yeeeah, that was my thought process at the beginning of the month.

By halfway I’m pretty sure that dinosaur stampede had run me through half a dozen times over.

Dinosaur attack gif

THIS. MONTH. WAS. CRAZY.

Why was it crazy? That’s the problem. I don’t even knoooow. It just WAS. A huge chunk of the first half was spent cleaning because we had some family we never get to see come over one weekend. Then there was a family reunion the next weekend. And most importantly a whole lot of watching of the ABC show Once Upon a Time had to be done ‘cause we’re all rewatching it right now. What do you mean that’s not important? Of course it is. *cough, cough, cough*

Anyways. Something happened this month because it all turned into a hectic blur and I could hardly keep my head above water. Or above stampeding dinosaurs, whatever the case may be. My inbox exploded, I struggled to keep up with all meh favorite blogging buddies and delightful blog posts, June just collapsed into a pile of STUFF that I couldn’t seem to climb out of.

Oh yeah, and I was also writing, wasn’t I?

The no-big-deal challenge turned into a goal of stress I barely could keep up with. It was a struggle to even write 1k words a day. Let’s just say there were a lot of late nights of writing and catching up on things. Sleep is overrated anyway, right? . . .Right? Honestly, for a bit there I wondered if I would make my 30k goal. But I was calm and collected. I told myself that the point in the challenge was not a certain number of words written, but merely to write. And I was writing every chance I got, so I already won.

HAHAHAHA! Just kidding. Okay, okay. Part of me did know that. After all, the goal was to get myself writing and it was working. But the much bigger voice in my head kept drowning out the reasonable one with its screams of, “IF YOU DON’T MAKE THIS GOAL YOU’RE A FAILURE.” Why must the reasonable voices be so quiet?

Needless to say, despite the frantic rush of whatever busyness that kept happening this month, I kept writing. And writing.

Then, yesterday, as I was consumed in the story and both laughing and scowling over Larke’s antics (because he seems determined to take over the story), I happened to glance down at my wordcount and, what was this? I HAD MADE MY WORD GOAL. 30k words for the month had been written!

*cue the flailing and celebrating and huge ol’ sigh of relief*

Princess and the Frog gif

I MADE IT!!!! Now I can relax and breathe a little and just be lazy for July and—

You know, I’m not too terribly far from the end of this story.

Okay, okay. Back up. So I stressed myself out ALL of June but dealt with it because I knew once July came I could BREATHE. I just had toBreathe Doctor Who gif make it to July. And now I’m considering keeping this up until I get to the end of the book?

Sure! Why not?

Yes, I’m crazy and quite possibly will be dead by the time I finish this novel, BUT, I do have good reasons for continuing this mad dash of writing. For one, well, I’m really not too far from the end. Just ten chapters left to go I believe. I think I can manage that. Also, I’m kind of in the habit of writing every day now, it’s become routine, so why not keep it up? And I LOVE writing endings, they’re my favorite, and this ending I’m particularly looking forward to so I don’t think it’ll be grueling work.

But my main push to reach that ending is because I have another writing project in mind. I seem incapable of working on two writing projects at once. I don’t know why, but whenever I try I end up abandoning one to completely focus on the other. Since I’m so close to the end of Burning Thorns it’d be kind of silly to drop it now for something else. Buuuut there’s that tantalizing Rooglewood Press Sleeping Beauty Novella contest (wow, that was a mouthful) going on and it keeps nudging my brain whispering, “Do me, do me, do meee!” So I thought to myself, if I finish up Burning Thorns pretty soon I would totally have time to work on a Sleeping Beauty novella. That’s reasonable, right? I may end up overwhelming myself and decide to just take a break and not worry about joining in on the Rooglewood contest. But as of right now I’m much more leaning toward attempting it.

So, instead of the totally lazy July I probably should give myself, it’ll most likely be another explosion of words. Though I’m expecting (okay, maybe ‘hoping’ would be a better word) that July won’t be the erupting volcano of activity that was June and allow for more writing time. Though writing won’t be the only thing I’ll be doing. I’m still buried under a mound of stuff that sneakily piled up while I was distracted this June and is now crushing me. It is my hope I can spend the next couple of weeks sweeping it all away. I mean, you should see my inbox. Actually, you probably don’t want to. It’s as messy as a toddler given free, unsupervised reign over a whole chocolate cake. Yeah, I should probably do something about that.

One of the things I do hope I can find time for this next month is READ. Do you know I didn’t really even read half a book in all of June? THE HORROR!!! I have like over 50 books just BEGGING me to gobble up, and instead I hardly touched one. I miss reading. I NEED to read.

So many books, so little time

And, ya know, if I ever end this seemingly never ending rambling blog post I might actually have TIME to go do all these things that need doing. If you actually read all that, bless you. Have some cake, because I know you want some now. *passes around cake*

Long story short: I wrote words, dinosaurs tried to crush me but I came out TRIUMPHANT, and July will probably be a month spent playing the catch-up game (which, incidentally, has nothing to do with ketchup).

The real question is: Do I regret doing JuNo? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Due to the insanity of this month I think I would have hardly gotten a single word written normally. But because of that push, I made time for writing anyway. Sure, there were many days I really, really wished I didn’t have to write. But I did, and while before this goal I was still near the beginning of the novel, I’m now approaching the end. I call that a success!

Good gravy, enough of the rambly Christine-ness. I want to hear about YOUR June. What’ve you been up to? Any writing projects going? Anybody already working on their Sleeping Beauty novella? And what are your July plans? Oh, can we also talk about the fact that WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE YEAR???

14 comments:

  1. You made it, you made it, YOU MADE IT! :D :D :D Way to go! I admire that drive.

    Yipes, your June sounds full! (Mine was too. Where the blazes did June run off to?) But it sounds like all the fullness was a result of many great things--family, OUaT, writing, etc. <3 And can I just say all those stampeding dinosaurs running you over keep reminding me of Jurassic World. Which I have not seen. ....Nor have I seen *any* of the Jurassic movies yet. But I digress.

    *le gasp* And you're going to keep GOING? Wow, you're amazing! I'm so cheering you on, girl! You got this! And I really really can't wait to get my hands on the new BT when it's ready. *squee* So I have somewhat selfish reasons for cheering for you...oops. XD But please, if you can help it, stay alive. Here, have an inspiring Captain America quote: "You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed...walk it off." XDDD

    I will not comment on the Magic Spindles contest. I won't. *zips lips*

    (Oh dear, I accidently contributed to the messy inbox, bloggy catch-up, and pile of things to do, didn't I? Do take your time with all that! It's not like every blog post needs a comment this very instant, nor does every email need a response this very instant...You get the picture. Breathe.)

    Well, you already know about writerly projects...and as to the other questions, I've got a June summary post upcoming. I must say, WAY TO GO, YOU DINOSAUR FIGHTER. You're awesome. ;D

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    1. I DID AND I'M SO EXCITED!!! THANK YOU.

      It was. o.o I was not expecting it to be that crazy but it WAS good, so I won't complain! Ya know, much. ;) Where DID June run off to? I think it mistook itself for a week instead of a month and just zipped by.
      I had forgotten Jurassic World had just come out and then I went searching for dinosaur gifs and was flooded with ones from that movie and I was like, "OH YEAH!" XD I haven't seen it either, but I'd like to. I have seen the original Jurassic movies, but only once and it's been a while. They were good though.

      I'm going to try! Who knows, it may all fall apart. But I shall try! *raises pen and charges* Thank you sooo much for the encouragement! And that is most certainly NOT selfish reasons. The fact that people WANT to read my stories is the very thing that drives me to write them. Your enthusiasm for it motivates me so, so, SO much!
      THE CAPTAIN AMERICA QUOTE. THANK YOU. It's like the besssst! XD I have felt like the walking dead these past few days...

      Tehehehe. I'm not making any promises, but let's just say a Sleeping Beauty story will probably happen... *cough, cough*

      No, no, no, no, no, no! Your emails and comments make. my. day. Like you just have no idea how much you make me smile!! It's so FUN talking to you! I WANT to correspond with you all the time. It's just silly life getting in the way. Psh. Life. >.> BUT I LOVE YOUR EMAILS AND COMMENTS.

      Oh yay, I can't wait to read your summary! :D Thank YOU for being awesome, you sweet thing! <333

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  2. CONGRATS, dearie!! You've made it to the last day of June!! WOOHOO!!! I'm so happy for you, and my admiration only grows! You have persevered and I know you'll be rewarded for your efforts. *thumbs up HOO-AH!*

    Hahahaha! Yes, your dino references led me to think of Jurassic World and I have to say it was AWESOME. So darn scary (I jumped countless times), but really good--I'm pretty sure you'll love it.

    "Do, or do not. There is no try." Heheh, sorry, had to throw in the Yoda quote. . . You got this, girl! Just keep writing, just keep writing xD Wow. You're AMAZING. This makes me wanna pick up pen and. . . well, write. I've neglected my stories for far too long. *cue huge sigh* -_- Hey, if you ever need an extra beta reader, LET ME KNOW!!! Please? I love your style and your stories are definitely to my taste. Well done, thus far, warrior maiden. Press on!

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    1. THANK YOOUUU!!! I have made it! I feared I wasn't going to survive this long but I'm here and still alive. We're calling that success. ;D

      It totally looks awesome. I need to see it!!! And if you loved it then I'm sure I will, too!

      Oh my goodness! That quote is PERFECT. That's literally my mentality on things. Which...may not always be good because trying one's best is still a success. (Whoa, I rhymed. XD)
      Hey, not writing isn't always a bad thing. I probably spend TOO much time doing it when I most likely should allow for more time for life and family and things. Do not bash yourself for setting aside your writing for a while! You're busy and have a lot going on. It'll still be there whenever you're ready. ^_^

      I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO BE A BETA READER, GIRL!!! I am sooo honored! Once I finish the first draft I'm gonna take quite a while off of it and do other things. But whenever I delve back into editing it I'll probably send out each edited chapter to my beta group, so if you want me to add you to that list I'd absolutely love to!

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    2. Thanks, dearie! I needed that little bit of encouragement. It seems my problem right now, though, is actually making and taking time to sit and write. . . But this, I SHALL CHANGE. :]

      Marvelous!! Yes, yes, yes! I so wanna be one of your beta readers! Add me to da group, pleez!! xD

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    3. You go! *waves pompoms and cheers*

      Oh yay, it's gonna be so fun! ^_^ Um... It'll actually be a while before I start sending the chapters out though. After I finish the first draft I'm going to take a break and work on other writerly things and stuff annnnd I don't suspect I'll actually get to editing it until January. :-/ So I suspect I won't REALLY start sending out chapters until somewhere around February. A long way away, I knoooow. But I have a strict "no mortal eyes dare look at my first drafts lest they melt" rule. Eheh. My first drafts are terrifying. So I want to edit it at least a little before others look upon the thing. So I'll probably be sending out each chapter as I edit it. Which will be...a good bit from now. So yes. But I WILL edit it and make it readable. I WILLLL!!! It just might be a bit...

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  3. YOU DID SO AWESOME AAAAAAAAAAHHHH! *cheering and throwing confetti everywhere*

    Also I love this post so much and it had me laughing all over the place. XD Seriously, you and your awesome posts about mad writing escapades are hilarious. HOW YOU SO FUUUNNY. <3

    Dinosaur stampedes. I love it. XD ALSO DON'T DIE. D:

    It's criminal how the year is half over. Just. Wut.

    For serious realz though I'M SO SO PROUD OF YOU FOR ALL THE WRITING YOU DID! YOU'RE SO AMAZING! CONGRAAAATS ON ALL THOSE AWESOME WORDS OF BURNING THORNS. IT EXCITES ME SO MUUUUCH!!!! ^______^

    Good luck on your continued writing!!! KEEP BEING AWESOME.

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    1. *BEAMS* THANK YOU!!!

      *rolls around the floor in glee* THANK YOU AGAIN. That totally makes my day because I was scared these types of posts just bore people to death. Do people even CARE what all I've been doing? I don't knooow. I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it!

      I SHALL TRY NOT TO DIE. Try... *shifty eyes*

      I think Time should be put under arrest for this atrocity! Totally criminal. >.>

      OH MY GOODNESS CELTI THANK YOU. You encouraged me through this WHOLE endeavor and always gave me the push I needed to keep going. I COULDN'T DO THIS WRITING THING WITHOUT YOU. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. <3333

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    2. ...WHAAAA--??? O_O OF COURSE WE CARE WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING. alksdjlkdj. You ridiculous person you how could you think otherwise. *splutters* YOU ARE A FASCINATING HUMAN BEAN (er... I mean elf. *cough*). I looove these kinds of posts and hearing all about what's up with you -- and hilariously, to boot! XD

      YES. DO NOT DIE. BECAUSE IF YOU DIE I WILL KILL YOU. (I totally stole that from a Redwall book... *more coughing*)

      *writes in for an arrest warrant for Time* Also, did I tell you -- my sis and I just figured out that Time must be height-challenged. He's probably secretly wearing tall heels under his robe, because isn't one of the most often said things "Time is short!"??? XDDDDD *diiiies of laughter* Sorry, I just HAD to tell you that one... :P

      Awwgsh you adorable thing YOU'RE the one who's always encouraging ME so I'm just alkdjlfk that I can return the favor. ^_^ I'M SO GLAD I AM HELPFUL AND I'M STILL SO SO SO EXCITED HOW AWESOME YOU DID! <3

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    3. YOU ARE SO NICE AND MAKE MY DAY I CAN'T EVEN WORD ANY MORE. *collapses in all the fuzzy-ful feels*

      That's a Redwall line? :O Because...because I say that all the time! And I haven't even read those books yet. o.o

      OH
      MY
      WORD
      TIME IS SHORT
      I CAN'T BREATHE.
      He totally seems like the type who would secretly wear heels or stuff something in his shoes to make him taller. He's so vain. SHOULD THERE BE ANOTHER STORY THIS IS GOING IN IT. IT SO IS. I AM DYING.

      Yep. Words are gone. Just... *HUUUUUGS* <3333

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    4. BUT BUT
      YOU DO THAT ALL THE TIME TO MEEEE <3

      (Yes, it is. It's the first time I heard it, anyway. XD Maybe it's just a common saying...)

      THERE TOTALLY MUST BE ASLKDJKDJ XD

      *HUGGLES BACK* ^___________^

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    5. *wanders into conversation*
      *keels over with giggles*
      TIME IS SHORT. OH MY GOODNESS. THAT. XDDD
      Are you two also referencing a Christine story that I haven't read...? I feel like I've glimpsed something in archived posts about a time-related story. Like way back when.

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    6. *welcomes you with open arms into conversation*

      Yes, this is something I've written. I've never talked about it on my blog though (that I can remember at least). You've probably seen me talk about a book called The Avriot that was a time travel, steampunk thing (and needs a looot of work, but I loved it and WILL rewrite it one day). But what we're talking about is some short stories I wrote for Celti. We're always talking about how time is going away so fast and everything, so a few years back for her birthday I wrote a short story about her and me meeting "Time" which is a guy who is the Timekeeper and literally keeps time. And he's ridiculous and the story is ridiculous but I had so much fun with it. XD So much that I wrote another one for Christmas, and then yet another for her next birthday. So there's three (so far). I love writing them! And if Celti doesn't mind, I certainly don't mind if you're interested in reading them! Only if you WANT TO THOUGH. I know you have a ton on your plate and you might not even be interested which is FINE. Annnd that was probably way more information than you wanted. XD

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    7. Ohhh, then I was probably thinking of The Avriot. (Which has a brilliantly steampunkish name, I must say.) That's so neat that you wrote her those short stories! :D They sound adorable and hilarious and YES, I would definitely be interested! It reminds me a little bit of a really short story I once scribbled down called "The Significant Adventures of a Time-Conscious Elf." It was ridiculous. XD So yes, if Celti doesn't mind, definitely send them my way!

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