Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Let the Insanity Commence!


Print

“It’s the most wonderful tiiime of the yeeear!”

No, it’s not Christmas yet (though it’s never too early to start bellowing out the Christmas tunes in my opinion). I’m actually referring to. . .NANOWRIMO.

Yes, it is heeere! And thousands of writers have folded up their lives, put them in boxes, and won’t be pulling them back out until December. Because hello? We’ve got novels to write and life is not part of the equation. Duh.

Per tradition, I go a liiittle insane during NaNo and am currently sitting on 17k words. Oops? I do tend to do a double NaNo though because my novels are MONSTERS, usually ending around 100k words or so, and I like to get them done as quickly as possible. So not oops?

NaNo Wordcounter

But, uh, guys? I LOVE MY NOVEL.
LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!

He only then seemed to take note of the girls, and at the sight of them his exasperated features turned to a mix of shock, relief, and, most surprising of all, joy. Because Eryth knew this boy, and she had never known him to be joyous to see Bryth and her, but she understood. She was already sprinting toward him and throwing her arms around his neck, because he represented Sivral, home, and whatever strife they may have had in the past didn't matter anymore in the grand scheme of things. At that moment seeing his familiar face was the best thing she could have ever asked for.

You see, even though this is technically the 6th book of my Colors of a Dragon Scale series, this is sorta kinda my first official sequel to write. Say what now? I know, confusing. See, each book of the series basically resets to the beginning with new characters. So even though I’ve written a bunch of books in the same series, each book felt like a brand new story. But this 6th book is continuing the characters’ stories from all the last five books. Thus, my first official sequel. Make more sense now? (Who knows? I’m the worst at explaining things coherently. Such a nice trait for a writer. . . *rolls eyes*)

But I think I like writing sequels. It’s so fun bringing things back up from previous books and moving the plot forward and raising the stakes and destroying the characters’ lives even more. Huh? I didn’t say anything.

And the CHARACTERS. My sweet, adorable, rebellious children. <3 I’m revisiting allll meh babies from every single one of my previous NaNos and reminiscing over each NaNo as I write about the main characters from that particular year and GAH! I’ve missed them all so much! *smushes their cheeks*

It also made the beginning sooo much easier. Usually I’m struggling the first day or two during NaNo trying to grasp my characters voices and get a feel for writing them. But this year I haven’t had to worry about it. I already know these people. I’ve written entire books about each of them. Even though it’s been quite a few years since some, it still feel so right, so natural being inside their heads. Instead of difficult like the previous years, my first day of NaNo proved to be easy and far too much fun.

"This is my cousin Ai—"
"Airen, Prince of Sivral, at your service, milady." Airen swooped up in front of Naidren and bowed low.
Naidren cleared his throat and stepped around his cousin. "I hope it's all right I brought him along. His sister is in Velnoroth, too."
"And I think you'll find I have many useful skills," Airen added.
Naidren closed his eyes and tried not to groan.

Never a dull moment.

Of course my favorite bits have been when characters from one book meet up with characters from another. Such delightful character reunions, full of yelling and heated arguments and assassinations and strangling. Wait. That’s not what reunions supposed to look like? Well nobody told me.

"Oh, let her have her thoughts, Eldoren," Riana said. She shot Bryth a smirk.
"We all know she's prone to memory loss. Who forgets their entire childhood and adult years alike? She probably has some kind of brain damage."

Riana was pinned to the floor before Eryth could even stand. Eldoren tried to pull Bryth off his partner but she shoved him away and wrapped both hands around the girl's neck.

Anyways.

Sequels are fun. Lots and lots of fun. And needless to say, this Nano is going fabulously.

In the midst of my NaNoing endeavors, and to avoid going into complete hermit mode, I’ve discovered a new love for TWITTER. I’ve had a Twitter account for a little over a year now, but I sort of forget about it and thus go weeks without touching the poor thing. But when NaNo was approaching I thought it’d might be fun to have a place I could quickly share all my NaNoing experiences without using up a bunch of time. Writing a blog post every day would take up far too much writing time, and you guys would probably get sick of me. So Twitter it was. And, um, I think I finally understand the Twitter obsession. It hardly takes two minutes to use (unless you get distracted by all the new tweets but we won’t get into that) and it’s FUN. I can go on there, see how my other fellow NaNoers are fairing, and share my own crazy experiences. I can be a hermit and socialize. Win-win! It’s perfect for little five minute breaks amidst all the writing. Plus, just watching others NaNoing as well and sharing accomplishments and struggles and really seeing others writing their novels right along with you is a magical feeling. I can’t even describe it. I love the NaNoing community.

TweetI can’t for the life of me get the fancy embedded tweet feature to work and had to resort to screenshots. Boo.

SO if you have a Twitter account and I’m not following you, leave a link should you wish and I shall remedy this situation! Because, like I said, I’m only just now starting to get into the Twitter bandwagon and am still working on following all my peoples. I needs to follow all my lovely friends. So linketh me to your profiles, m’dears! And if you’re doing NaNo and I haven’t friended you over there, feel free to leave me a link to your NaNo profiles as well. You can find me thisaway. Right now there and Twitter are about the only places you can catch me. So far I’ve had texts from sweet friends I keep forgetting to respond to, am shamefully ignoring my ever growing inbox, and have already gotten way behind on reading new blog posts. Though occasionally I say hi to my family on my way to the coffeepot before burrowing back in my room.

Yep. NaNo season has indeed begun.

So tell me, adventurers, are you doing NaNo? Are you EXCITED?! How’s your story going? Are your characters strangling each other like mine? Share with me all your NaNoing endeavors!

20 comments:

  1. EEEE SNIPPETS!!!! :D *snatches them and devours* Okay, I OFFICIALLY cannot wait to read this book. THEY'RE MAKING ME NOSTALGIC AND I HAVEN'T EVEN READ THEIR BOOKS YET. <3 *flails* I wuveth Airen so muuuch and Bryth and Rianna are a positive MESS together! XD I bet it's hilarious... *huggles Naidren*

    Oh my goodness. You're at 17k. I... I... YOU'RE FANTASTIC HOW EVEN!!!! *flailing* I love it. XD KEEP GETTING THOSE WORDS.

    Also this post is brilliant and perfect and hilarious. I particularly love the part about folding up our lives and putting them in boxes. HOW YOU SO BRILLIANT.

    Twitter! I tend to go back and forth between forgetting it and obsessively being on, so... yeah. ;) But it's very useful for NaNo, I agree, because it doesn't take long. ^_^

    ...It wasn't until you said your characters were trying to assassinate each other etc. that I realized all of my characters are being NICE! :O *horrified gasp* I don't even know what's wrong with them... >.>

    HAPPY NANOING!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AAAHHHH! THANK YOU! Nostalgic? Oh my goodness, you are so sweet! WRITING this book makes me feel nostalgic, just getting to return to everyone and such. Eeee! I love it!
      Airen. XD He is such a mess. And Bryth and Riana, yes! Years ago it occurred to me that if those two ever ended up together for a long amount of time, they'd probably try to kill each other. I wasn't wrong. o.o I didn't even PLAN for their fight to get so violent it just...happened. Those two... *shakes head*

      I HAVE OBSESSIVE PROBLEMS. HALP. Except I'm actually not getting in as many words in as I did the other years. Life is getting in the way of NaNo! D:

      LOL. The strangest things pop in my head during NaNo. I make the craziest posts while NaNoing. My brain just...I don't even know.

      Yeah, I kept trying to get into it but it didn't click until NaNo. Now I love it! Although the love may fade after NaNo. Who knows with me? XD

      Nice?? What is this nonsense? NICE characters during NaNo? WIZARDRY.

      YOU TOOOO! :D :D :D

      Delete
  2. I love reading all your awesome snippets. They make me want to read your books so badly!

    And how you can write 17k words in three days will never cease to amaze me.

    Keep writing, and keep sharing! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aaaahhh! That just makes my day!

      Lol. I just..get really obsessive. If I'm not writing every single second during November I think I'm committing a crime or something. It's a problem...

      Thank you so much!!! <333

      Delete
  3. You are so incredibly amazing.
    I like to write, but I don't know if I'd be able to sit down and kick out 17 thousand words in three days!! Wow.
    The idea of all your characters coming together and interacting with each other is a lovely one. I wish I could be in the book, witnessing it.

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post more snippets!!

    Someday, you should have a page on your blog where you keep your books, so we can read them. That would be awesome. :)

    Keep calm and write on!

    ~Lizzy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh goodness, I'm not! I just get crazy obsessive. XD
      I probably SHOULDN'T write that much at one time. Lol.
      It is so fun! I'm having a blast with this story.

      *collapses from all the niceness* I can't wrap my mind around the fact that people actually want to read something *I* wrote. I'm so glad you enjoyed them! I'll try to squeeze some more in throughout the month. <3

      Lol. Well, I'd looove to try and get them published one day. But right now they all need some SERIOUS editing. Most of my novels are first drafts and disasters. o.o

      You are so precious. Thank you!

      Delete
    2. Thank YOU! :D

      ~Lizzy

      Delete
  4. Omigoodness 17k that is amazing. What are your secrets, I must know.
    those snippets are wonderful, I always enjoy your writing. Strangling and fighting :D
    Sounds a lot like some of my characters they are a murderous bunch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my, thank you! My secrets? Lol. Well...mainly I just get OCD during NaNo and write every second I get. Even right now I'm scolding myself for not writing. Such a problem. A big thing is I force myself to get in 2k words written before even touching the internet. Then after that I allow little breaks between every 1k words. That forces me to keep writing, so I can reach the words and get a break. I have to trick my mind to keep going. XD

      D'awww! Thank you!! Yes, all the strangling and fighting. These charries... *shakes head* Yours too? What shall we do with them?

      Delete
  5. WHAT KIND OF A WIZARD ARE YOU??? You are amazing to be able to write 17k in three days. I swear I would never be able to do that. (Much to the relief of my charries, who probably find me annoying enough as it is.)

    I just want to take all your books and hug them. They look seriously AMAZING!!! I demand that you post more snippets. Erm, I mean, I politely request more snippets. Of course that's what I meant. *cough, cough*

    Glad to hear that NaNo is going well! (Even if some charries are strangling each other...) Keep writing :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha! Not a wizard, just totally insane! XD My problem is my charries demand I write them, and then I DO and they complain that they don't like what I'm writing. It's an endless cycle of pain. >.>

      Gah, girl! THANK YOU!!! It's just so encouraging to know people actually WANT to read my silly writings. I'll try to post some more this month. ^_^

      Thank you, girly! <333

      Delete
  6. NaNo has not been going as easy as i expected... :P my writing skills are soooo rusty. And my world isn't really fleshed out. But at least i have a plot so yaaaaaay. Yeah, this is going to be a very rough draft. Trying to stay positive and world-build and keep writing at the same time.
    I don't know if I'll be able to finish...But I'm going to try!!! :D So glad to hear NaNo is going well for you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww, I'm sorry to hear that. But that's the beauty of NaNo, it forces us to keep writing no matter what. AND I've discovered what we think wasn't good turns out to be much better than we expected. So yes, just keep trying! That's the attitude! :D Keep writing, it's gonna be great! And don't forget, rewrites can fix everything, but we can't rewrite something that isn't there. *preaching to herself* Besides, the plot is the most important thing, so you're right on track.

      Happy NaNoing, sweet girl! You got this!

      Delete
  7. I'm so glad NaNo is going so well for you! NaNo is going amazing for me this year! I'm almost at 15K! This is the fastest I've written in my life!

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you!!! And aaaaahhh, that's so fantastic! You're doing so well!!! Go, go, go! :D

      Delete
  8. 17k IN THREE DAYS??? Thou art magical. AND ALL THE SNIPPETS! ALKSDJFALJD I loveth them so much! You must be having an absolute blast reuniting them in your "first" sequel. (I hadn't thought about that, but it really makes sense. Eeee, so exciting!!!) I can't stop using exclamation points and capital letters here, because really. THIS STORY IS AMAZING, AND YOU ARE AMAZING, AND AAAHHHH!!!! KEEP WRITING, DEARIE! And try not to let your charries strangle each other too often. ;D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (Reuniting the characters, that is. Not reuniting snippets. XD)

      Delete
    2. Magical? No. Crazy? Definitely! XD

      *beams* Thank yoouu! And yes, I'm having a BLAST. It's just way too much fun. All my bby charries. *huggles them* Although I can't promise they'll behave. Such unruly children.

      Eeee, girl! You're making me even more excited! *flails* THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! <333

      (Hahaha! Hey, snippets could have feelings too. *nods seriously*)

      Delete
  9. Sadly, I wasn't able to do NaNoWriMo this year :(. But hey, I can wait until next year. And cheer people on this year!
    Loved your snippets, Christine! And I CANNOT BELIEVE how much you've written already! Do you have some kind of writing superpower I don't know about yet :D? ~Savannah Perran

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww, that's sad! Really, *I* probably shouldn't be doing NaNo this year. Life is kind of crazy right now. Buuut I'm not known for making responsible decisions. ;D

      Thank you so much! Lol. If I have a superpower it'd be getting waaay, over-the-top obsessive with things. XD

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...