I have to admit that I utterly failed at National Novel Writing Month! When I say utterly, I really really mean it. I only wrote a few thousand words during the entire month. Before this I had thought that I was making pretty good progress on my story but I hadn't been keeping track of how many words I was writing. This past month though really woke me up to the fact that I have not been making very good progress at all. So I have come up with a document to track my progress every month. It really isn’t much, but I am an analytical person, so I need to give myself concrete goals every day and month. Otherwise I tend to sit at the computer and just bump around online, reading blogs and watching shows. Not very productive for any of my life goals. I have recently started reading Productive Flourishing, which has really inspired me. I first found them when I was looking for different planners. He posts several different planner layouts every month for free. It is only recently though that I started reading his blog and it has been very thought provoking! I have found that a great way to get motivated is to read Productive Flourishing and several other blogs. Their positive energy makes me feel like I can do anything. The only down side to this is that I sometimes feel so motivated that I can’t stop reading, so I have had to put limits on how much I read those a day to make sure that I don’t waste my whole morning getting motivated without actually doing anything!
I have never been good at managing stress. This just isn't one of the things I have learned to do very well, and it is really hard to let go of the stress in situations when I can't do anything about it, such as on the bus or in the shower. However these moments do happen and I am slowly learning how to let go. Writing I have found can be a great way to get away from the stress because my mind is completely occupied by the characters and the setting. Who knew it could be so comforting?
Of course you do have to make sure that the inner critic is off on a break because otherwise the writing itself can become insanely stressful. But I have also learned that sometimes you just need to write and worry about making it perfect later! It will all work out in the end, one way or another! I have been doing a lot of research over the past few days on how people organize to write a book. I have read through papges and pages of author interviews on Romance Writers on the Journey, and it seems like everyone does it differently, which is not helpful at all! There seem to be dozens of accepted ways of going about it.
I have finally decieded to make a really detailed outline of events so that I know exactly where the story is going and I can write to that. I believe that this is going to be very helpful for created a really well rounded story. I have also set a task for myself. I am going to write one scene completely, edit and reedit and then have it critiqued. I will also post it on here so that you can see it. I think that this will be a good way to get my writing into a more descriptive style. Wish me luck! There never seems to be enough time in the day for everything. Have you noticed this? For me between classes, homework, work, eating and sleeping, I am having a hard time finding time to write on a regular basis. I have a lot of ideas though for the plot and who my characters are going to be, I just have to write them down now. If you write, when do you find time for it? My life is hopefully going to get a lot calmer in a month or so when I get done with college. This however depends on if I get a new job or keep my current one. Too many unknowns. I believe that is why that I like writing, because there is no uncertainty about where my characters are going to end up and I have complete control over how they get there. I know real life is not always like this but it is reassuring that it is out there somewhere.
I miss calculated, and I didn't realize it until I checked how many words were in my word document. 1,075. This is way more than the 833 per chapter that I had computed before! But only equals a page and a half. Something was not right. So I did it again and realized that I left off a zero in 10,000. Surprising how a number that means nothing can have such a huge effect. The chapters are suddenly looking much longer! Next time I will have my sister, who is an aspiring accountant, check my math for me....
There are times when I wish some of the manners of historical England transferred over to today. Then maybe people would be nicer to you in retail situations. I helped a guy today you said, "Whats up dog." as greeting to me, and he looked like he was on something. Ugh. Also they seemed to have such spirited witty conversations.
Today I realized why I am really glad that I don't live in that time period, and it isn't even anything obvious such as running water, electricity, or this computer. It is because it was sooo complicated to know what to call people and who was more powerful than who. It was a minefield of social customs. At least today it doesn't matter, I can say Mr. or Mrs. to anyone and not have to worry about how much money they have or how powerful they are. Granted I haven't had the chance to really test it but I'm sure it hold true. If you want to check out all the strangeness that is the precedence table go to: http://laura.chinet.com/html/titles07.html I have been reading a lot about the romance genre because I know that as I start telling my friends and family what type of book I am writing, I am going to have some interesting reactions! I found one article gives a really great argument about why romance novels are not trash, which is something that I may have to argue in the coming weeks. Sarah Wendell says that romance isn't just about the sex, it is about putting another person ahead of you, and showing that person everyday that you love them. I completely agree with this and I can see this in every great romance book that I read. Check out the article at
http://www.yourtango.com/201054929/why-romance-novels-are-smarter-than-you-think/page/1 Also check out the website Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, that Sarah is the co founder of. I started the word document that is going to hold my novel. It is going to be a historical romance set in regency England because that is what I love to read and I heard some advice somewhere that you should write what you would want to read! My word document doesn't contain very much at this point. I have been thinking about my plot today while I should have been concentrating on other things and I caught myself staring into space while I was at Starbucks! Luckily no one noticed or else this is just normal for that particular Starbucks. It's hard to tell.
After drinking my vanilla latte, I went apartment hunting and realized a few important things: I have no idea how a manor house was set-up, what the streets looked like or what all the carriages they used where called. For all my historical romance reading and Jane Austen obsessing, I have not learned very much about the time period. I guess I will just have to read one of Jane Austen's novels again. Sigh..... I wonder which one would be best!? To conquer 90,000-10,000 words of romantic historical fiction.
This is the length required by Avon Books and since I love reading books published by then. Therefore I will strive to meet their requirements. It is a daunting task. I have written 8-10 page papers in college, but those have all been double spaced and usually in the largest font I could possibly do. Unfortunately there is no way to double space 10,000 words! To do this I am going to write a chapter a month for the next year, with May being the beginning month. This means I only have to write 833 words per month! I'm not sure if that makes me happy or not. Here is the website to Avon Books if you are interested. It is a really nicely put together website and the submission requirements are at the bottom of the home page. http://www.avonromance.com/ | Kendra Ray
I am currently living in Seattle with my fiance. I love reading, writing and exploring. ArchivesDecember 2010 Categories |
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