Saturday 25 November 2017

November Wrap-Up + Why I Quit NaNoWriMo This Year

Hey guys!

So I'm back, after a break last week. And today I'm going to explain that week. But first, I need to tell you something. I quit NaNoWriMo this year.

I didn't want to, but partway through November, I developed costochondritis. That - in case you don't know - is an inflammation in the chest cavity. In my case, it was generally agreed to have been brought on by too much typing and the doctor told me that I wasn't allowed to type for a few days. If I'd just stopped then gone back to it, I would've had too many words to write in a day and I would have just made the costochondritis worse. Which, since I have another assignment due in the beginning of December, I really don't want.

So I decided to stop doing NaNoWriMo this year. And that inability to type is also why I didn't post anything last week. I didn't have anything written beforehand and I wasn't allowed to type during that weekend. So that's that.

Now that I'm allowed to type a little bit again, I've gone back to my main drafts and left my NaNoWriMo story for a while. I'd like to finish Asteria by the end of the year, so I need to get cracking on that.

Since this is the last Saturday of November - here, have a wrap-up post.

Music

So I was mostly listening to my Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things playlist this month, but I did listen to some new stuff. I listened to AURORA this month and she's amazing. Really chilling, creepy music that's great for story playlists. Very atmospheric. 
I also listened to The Jungle Book 2016 soundtrack. A good soundtrack. And I listened to some stuff from TROLLS because why not?

My song recommendations for this month as follows:

Follow My Feet by The Unlikely Candidates: A song I've loved for a while, but still great. Great for character playlists.
Dreamers by Oh Gravity: A great song, super good for friendship playlists. Very good for space playlists. I love this one so much.
Isle of Flightless Birds by Twenty-One Pilots: A little bit darker than the others I've recommended, but great for sadder character playlists. I still love this one.

And my artist recommendation is: AURORA

I feel like you knew that was coming, since I mentioned her earlier. But she's just amazing and I completely recommend her, particularly her album: All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend. So creepy and atmospheric. I especially recommend Running With The Wolves, Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and Nature Boy (Acoustic)

Films

Once again, no films that I really got into this month, so straight onto the recommendations:

This month's film recommendation is How To Train Your Dragon - Still one of my favourite animated films ever. It has beautiful animation, stunning music and one of the most emotionally moving stories I've seen. I love it. Go watch it. Now. 

Cutie.

TV

This month I started watching The Good Place, a really odd, really funny comedy about a woman who dies and ends up in The Good Place, when she was supposed to end up in The Bad Place. It's really weird, but hilarious. I love it. 

I got back into watching Thunderbirds Are Go, which is a reboot of the old 60s Thunderbirds show. It's great. I also started rewatching The Musketeers, a BBC adaption of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. A brilliant show that I adore. 

My recommendation for this month is: 

Falling Skies: Falling Skies is a TV show about a family in the aftermath of an alien invasion. It's great, has good action, strong acting and enjoyable characters. I also loved the focus on family, it's an original take on the idea. It's also pretty funny as well, at times. It can be a little bit violent, but definitely nothing awful. 

All the father-son feelings. All of them.

Writing
So, obviously, I attempted NaNoWriMo this month. By the time I had to quit, I had over half of the 50,000 word-count, so I'm pretty happy. It's more than I would've written otherwise and I've been trying to force myself to get to work on Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things for so long now, it's nice to just get writing it. 

I've also started writing a timeline of the fictional solar system in Asteria, going back 800 years to when humans first colonised it. I've got the first 100 years down. 

The first part of it. This is going to take a while, but it'll be worth the work.
I also got back to the main draft of Asteria and added a little bit to it, not much since I can't type much, but a bit. I also got further with editing The Gatekeeper Chronicles

I wrote two blogposts this month:

Reading
Sadly, not much got read this month. With writing and also working on my assignment for the first week, I didn't get much time. I'm partway through Hamlet by William Shakespeare for my module, which I've been focusing on getting to grips with since that's what my next assignment is about. I also read a bunch of One Piece volumes and I read And I Darken by Kiersten White. 

My recommendation for this month is: 

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - Another of my favourite books, blending beautiful pictures with words in a really visual way, it's so easy to read and follow. I would definitely recommend it if you struggle with reading. It's also a genuinely beautiful and moving story. 

Blogs
I haven't read many blogposts this month, so this section is empty. Sadness.

This month's recommendation is: Paper Fury: Genuinely hilarious and weirdly helpful. Also, Cait's publishing a book next year, so you should all go and pre-order it. Now.

And that's it for November. How did your month go? Did you do NaNo? If so, how did you do? Tell me down in the comments. 

Saturday 11 November 2017

NaNo Week 2 + Beautiful Books

Hey guys!

So NaNoWriMo's second week - and first full week - draws to a close. And...I didn't do as well as I wish I had.

In my defence, I had an assignment due with my Open University module and so, obviously, that took a lot of my time. But, because I didn't even write for a couple of days this week, I'm not going to break down what I wrote each day. I'm just going to give you my final word-count. A grand total of....18500.

So still just about at the word-count I need to be at, but not as far ahead as I hoped to be by this point. But all things considered, I'm not entirely disappointed with it. And next week is an opportunity for me to get ahead!

So now we're going to use the Beautiful Books questionnaire - you know the one, I've used it before a lot, it's run by Paper Fury and Further Up and Further In This one is a continuation of the last one, looking at how you've progressed since.

Overall, how is your mental state, and how is your novel going?

My mental state is...a thing. It's not been amazing, with how little I've written this week, I've been feeling kind of down about it. But I've been doing okay with writing so far today and hopefully I'm going to write more after this is posted. An update on if I manage much more will be posted next week. 
My novel is going pretty good. There is a space of a couple of chapters where I was struggling a lot with writing, so the chapters aren't the best, but I got through it and I'm back to where I'm comfortable with the story. So that's good!

What’s your first sentence (or paragraph)?

Honestly, Reinette is the most relatable character in this story.

Who’s your current favourite character in your novel?

This question is completely unwarranted and, honestly, rude.

I genuinely can't decide, I love all three of my nerds too much to choose. They are all smol and precious. So, I don't have one. Definitely one of my three MCs though.

What do you love about your novel so far?

The dialogue. I haven't written a story based in modern times before, so having the ability to write my characters talking the way that I talk is so much fun. 
The story's also based around where I live, in places that I've been to, so that's been a very new and exciting experience.

Have you made any hilarious typos or other mistakes?

Not that I can immediately find. I normally find and edit any major typos that I can see and any others are hard to find unless I actively take the time to edit.

What is your favourite to write: beginning, middle, or end — and why?

My favourite is definitely the beginning, with the middle coming a close second. I always find wrapping a story up the hardest.

What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day do you write best? Feel free to show us a picture of your writing space!


My current writing space is this - me sat on a chair with my feet up and a blanket. The most ergonomic, of course. I have no specific snack I eat, but I do snack on a few different things. I do listen to music, I have my story playlist ready to go on Spotify. 
I probably write the best in the evening, there's less distraction and also the imminent deadline of midnight approaching rapidly. 

How private are you about your novel while you’re writing? Do you need a cheer squad or do you work alone (like, ahem, Batman)?

I show my sister a bit of it and I share snippets every so often, but I'm relatively private. I don't let most people read all of the rough draft.

What keeps you writing even when it’s hard?

The deadline? Crying? 
I guess it's just the desire to reach my goals, really. Because I really want to do it, it means that even when it's hard I still push through it.

What are your top 3 pieces of writing advice?
  1. Just write. Seriously. It doesn't matter how bad it is, you can always fix it later. Just push through it and write.
  2. Fluffy blankets are surprisingly helpful.
  3. Listen to those darn characters. Most of the time, if a scene is going badly and the characters aren't going where you want them to go, they're actually right about it. You write it differently and it's better than it would've been. Listen to them. They're normally right.
And that's the end of the questions. Overall, not my best week, but okay all things considered. I'm hoping to write a bit more tonight. Now before I go, have a snippet.


In which my MCs meet the personification of the River Dee. 

Yeah, I don't know where that came from either.

And that is it! Next week, I'll be back with another update. See you then.

How's your NaNoWriMo going? Written many words? Or are you at least happy with what you have written? Tell me down in the comments.

Saturday 4 November 2017

NaNo Week 1

Hey guys!

NaNoWriMo has hit and I've been doing...not horrifically? It's not going awfully and I'm pretty happy with where I am at the moment.

In case you've forgotten, I'm writing Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things for NaNoWriMo. Click on the link if you need more information.

There's not too much to recap right now, since we've only had a few days of November so far. Now, without further ado, my word counts.

Recap


Day 1

On day one, I hit 2252 words by the end of the day. I kind of wish I had more, but I was doing a lot that day, including visiting friends and such and we didn't make it home until about nine in the evening. And that's when I started writing. 
So 2252 words for this day.

Day 2

On day two, I hit a more respectable 4750 words. I had a bit more time to write this day, so I could focus better. And it actually came quite quickly, I knew where I was going with the story so I didn't slow down too much. 
A good day.

Day 3

On day three, I hit 4183 words. Again, more respectable, although I didn't write much in the evening and I probably could've done more. But eh, I'm happy with it. 

And all of these days added up to 11185 words over the three days. Which is more than I needed, technically, so I'm pretty happy with it. My aim for this month is to finish the novel I started -  which I've never done before, with NaNo. Normally I just hit the 50000 words then collapse into a pile of goo. But not this year! 

So I need more words each day in order to hit my goal. 

Why did I decide to do this, I hear you ask? Clearly, I felt that NaNoWriMo wasn't challenging enough, so I had to make it harder.

I have no regrets*.

*I lie, I have all the regrets.

Snippets!


So because I apparently have no shame and no sense of hiding my terrible first draft from public eyes...here, have some snippets!

Reinette Doesn't Have Normal Reactions



Reinette, please. Also, Reinette is so much fun to write from the point-of-view of. So much fun.

Barnabas Is A Nerd



Barnabas is also too much fun to write.

A Snippet I've Already Shared, So Here



Have I mentioned that I love writing these characters? Because I do. 

And that's my first few days of NaNoWriMo. I'd say it's going pretty well. Let's see how next week goes!

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Where are you with your word count? Any interesting snippets? Put them down in the comments below.

Know The Novel - Within Spooky Wild West

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