I've been stuck with the pink arrow at rank 44 for two days now. It really does get tougher to go up in rank once you break 50. I really want to put up another project on inkpop sometime, but I don't think I can handle promoting more than one book. I don't have that much time to spend on the computer.
I'm typing up what I handwrote for Fall of the Falcon very slowly. I reached about the halfway point of my handwritten material, and hope to get it all covered during Christmas break. (I know I have to update the countdown on my sidebar, too.) I'm also editing Autumn of Secrets and it's turning out to be a big pain. While I'm rewriting it so that it's better (I have tougher competition where I am in the 50s!) the plot wants to change so badly and I'm fighting that with all my might and it's really not easy. The goal is to have a better storyline, but one that stays faithful to the book trailer, which you may find at the bottom of the page. Wish me luck, I'm 10 chapters in. I had the whole book up on inkpop until I started editing; now I only have the ones I've edited thus far, and will be updating while I get it done. I hope to finish by January. It's a short book compared to my previous works, and I'm a fast writer, even when typing slowly due to carpal tunnel :P
I'm on day 8 of Pure by Rebecca St. James. It only gets better. Please try this devotional, it will help you so much.
I hope you're all having a good Christmas season! :)
~Mariella♥
Monday, December 20, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Hmmmm.
First of all, I'm really excited. I've got a book trailer now! :D I think it's pretty awesome. Scroll all the way to the bottom to watch it.
I've got to start working on another book review this week, I just need to find the time and choose which book (out of many) aside from my own has hooked me enough to write something fangirlish about it. :) I like promoting other peoples' stories.
Autumn of Secrets is skyrocketing. I want it to break 30 this week. I want it to reach the top 5 so I can start thinking about putting up 10k of The Shadow.
I really need to edit Autumn of Secrets, I might get some friends to help me...there's only so much I can do on my own.
I'm 17 now!!! Believe it or not, I really do feel a year older...it's kind of weird...it feels like I just turned 16 yesterday. O_o That's a little scary.
Pure by Rebecca St. James is meeting my expectations. It's a really good devotional. I'm on day 5, I think I forgot to read it last night so I'm a day behind. Still, it's wonderful so far, really. It's really making me think where nothing else would. It's making me wonder if GOD has any other plans for me aside from writing, since life seems a bit repetitive sometimes. It's prompting me to ask Him what those plans are, that way I can work on them and have something new to add to my daily schedule. :) Another hobby to focus on, perhaps. I hope I get an answer soon! I highly recommend this devotional, go find it.
For my birthday, I got a beautiful Anne Klein watch!!! I'm putting up a picture of it sometime. My awesome mom got it for me, and even when there's nothing going on, I don't take it off. :P Dad got me a book, Light of the World, an interview with Pope Benedict XVI. I'm also reading that, rather slowly as I'm taking notes as I go. It's really good, as well. These are my two favorite birthday presents, among quite a few others. I love them all, but these are just very awesome. :)
And that's about it for now. I'm on 65 pick lists, so thanks to everyone who's supporting my book! I appreciate it a ton. *HUG!*
I've got to start working on another book review this week, I just need to find the time and choose which book (out of many) aside from my own has hooked me enough to write something fangirlish about it. :) I like promoting other peoples' stories.
Autumn of Secrets is skyrocketing. I want it to break 30 this week. I want it to reach the top 5 so I can start thinking about putting up 10k of The Shadow.
I really need to edit Autumn of Secrets, I might get some friends to help me...there's only so much I can do on my own.
I'm 17 now!!! Believe it or not, I really do feel a year older...it's kind of weird...it feels like I just turned 16 yesterday. O_o That's a little scary.
Pure by Rebecca St. James is meeting my expectations. It's a really good devotional. I'm on day 5, I think I forgot to read it last night so I'm a day behind. Still, it's wonderful so far, really. It's really making me think where nothing else would. It's making me wonder if GOD has any other plans for me aside from writing, since life seems a bit repetitive sometimes. It's prompting me to ask Him what those plans are, that way I can work on them and have something new to add to my daily schedule. :) Another hobby to focus on, perhaps. I hope I get an answer soon! I highly recommend this devotional, go find it.
For my birthday, I got a beautiful Anne Klein watch!!! I'm putting up a picture of it sometime. My awesome mom got it for me, and even when there's nothing going on, I don't take it off. :P Dad got me a book, Light of the World, an interview with Pope Benedict XVI. I'm also reading that, rather slowly as I'm taking notes as I go. It's really good, as well. These are my two favorite birthday presents, among quite a few others. I love them all, but these are just very awesome. :)
And that's about it for now. I'm on 65 pick lists, so thanks to everyone who's supporting my book! I appreciate it a ton. *HUG!*
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Autumn of Secrets broke 50!
That's right, I'm exactly at the rank of 50 on inkpop. *SQUEE!* And I'm kinda sorta going nuts about it. THISIS SOOOCOOL! *breeeathes* Okay, moving on. (*SQUEE*)
I'm adding a new section to my left-hand sidebar that tells you what I'm reading, both on inkpop and as published books. Right now for spiritual reading, I'm starting on Pure by Rebecca St. James; I saw it at the bookstore months ago and wanted it, but left it, and I can't remember why. Now I went back hoping it was there and, after digging through the shelves, tadah! There it was. You can imagine how excited I was. I'll probably be making some more meaningful blog posts on here as I learn how good this book is. It certainly sounds good--I've skimmed some of it--I can't wait to start.
On inkpop I'm currently reading two other projects, and a couple more will go up there as I update this blog. Please read these books. If I've chosen to read on, it means there's something seriously good with them. I'm pretty sure they'll wind up on my MUST READ! tab. :)
Just because I'm so happy, I took a screenshot of Autumn of Secrets at number 50. Here it is! :D
*dances around some more*
This means I've definitely got to start editing it. Gah I can't wait for Christmas Break. I'll have more time then. Much more time.
That's it for now! :D
I'm adding a new section to my left-hand sidebar that tells you what I'm reading, both on inkpop and as published books. Right now for spiritual reading, I'm starting on Pure by Rebecca St. James; I saw it at the bookstore months ago and wanted it, but left it, and I can't remember why. Now I went back hoping it was there and, after digging through the shelves, tadah! There it was. You can imagine how excited I was. I'll probably be making some more meaningful blog posts on here as I learn how good this book is. It certainly sounds good--I've skimmed some of it--I can't wait to start.
On inkpop I'm currently reading two other projects, and a couple more will go up there as I update this blog. Please read these books. If I've chosen to read on, it means there's something seriously good with them. I'm pretty sure they'll wind up on my MUST READ! tab. :)
Just because I'm so happy, I took a screenshot of Autumn of Secrets at number 50. Here it is! :D
This means I've definitely got to start editing it. Gah I can't wait for Christmas Break. I'll have more time then. Much more time.
That's it for now! :D
Thursday, December 9, 2010
I'm beginning the countdown till Christmas!
If you'll look at the image on my right-hand sidebar, you'll see there are only 16 days left till Christmas. I started rather late but I'm going to continue the countdown. Since I adore that picture--it's the Madonna of the Streets--I might just keep it up after Christmas is over. :) I'm excited!
I might be putting the first 4 chapters of The Shadow--that's 16k--on inkpop. I'm still thinking about it, but leaning more towards yes. It would help build a fan base for the novel, I'd get critique for it, and I'd see if it's any good. :) But not until Autumn of Secrets gets higher. I'm almost thinking top 5 higher. I can't promote two projects at once.
Speaking of, Autumn of Secrets is at rank 54 now. Getting higher! I'm so close to breaking 50! :D
That would be all for today.
I might be putting the first 4 chapters of The Shadow--that's 16k--on inkpop. I'm still thinking about it, but leaning more towards yes. It would help build a fan base for the novel, I'd get critique for it, and I'd see if it's any good. :) But not until Autumn of Secrets gets higher. I'm almost thinking top 5 higher. I can't promote two projects at once.
Speaking of, Autumn of Secrets is at rank 54 now. Getting higher! I'm so close to breaking 50! :D
That would be all for today.
Review - CARRIAGES IN THE SKY by TheFlowerDagger
Thus begins day one of my determined decision to focus a bit less on my own story and more on those of others. Not only do I frequently run out of things to say about me—only so much happens with my book, and it’d be silly to blog every time I go up one point in ranking—but there are other great stories out there that don’t get the attention they deserve.
So, here’s my first attempt at a professional review on my blog. I sure hope I do well. :)
Carriages in the Sky - http://www.inkpop.com/projects/81271/carriages-in-the-sky-/
By: TheFlowerDagger
Genre: General Fiction, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Romance
Short pitch: The children of Elricka were kidnapped, forced to rule a city in the sky. Unfortunately, teenagers and government do not always spawn successful results.
Long pitch: Six years ago, ten children were stolen from their ordinary lives and taken to Elricka: the kingdom in the sky. There they ruled with generally happiness, oblivious to the suffering of their people as they bond into a family.
But paradise is never permanent. As they prepare to lose one of their own to a fatal illness, and their group begins to fall apart, the citizens they have ignored grow restless. Conflict broils just as they meet the CIcely - the Queen who will join their ranks as a replacement for their dying friend.
**Cover made by the brilliantly talented Tracy Michelle**
Thoughts: The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this story was the cover. The cover is gorgeous, and I’m afraid I do sometimes judge books by their covers, and in this case I judged well. Second, I was awed at the mental picture that the title of this story brought to me; I thought of magic and glitter and a deep sense of the unknown. I knew this was my type of book.
When I first started reading it, I was rather sleepy *grins sheepishly* so I can’t critique very well for the first two chapters. I do know that I was hooked from the first line. There are typos in this story, but it really draws you in, so you hardly notice them. All you really know when reading is that the plot is incredibly original, and you want to know what happens next; the characters are not cardboard, far from it, and you share the same concerns as they do. I won’t give away any spoilers, but the tone in one of the chapters was somber, and I became rather sad as I read it. The author can really set the mood, which can’t be said for every story I’ve read on here.
Then, I began reading more about the presumed main character, Cicely. I love the name, first of all—my middle name is Cecilia. :) This character is very entertaining to read about. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I’m only going to say that she made me chuckle a couple of times, and she’s definitely 3D. She’s the rich character, yet is written differently; it didn’t give me the impulse to roll my eyes. The author, by making the plot more important than the wealth of the character, made it work. I like Cicely a lot, and I rarely like rich characters.
She wrote this one character very well, and did an exceedingly good job with all the others.
I’m hooked now. I don’t always read to the last chapter of a book on inkpop, but this time I did because I couldn’t stop. I really hope TheFlowerDagger updates soon, and I predict this book will make it big on the site. I picked this story, and it will remain on my picks for quite a bit.
So read it! :D
My two official reviews for it on inkpop:
REVIEW 1-
Carriages in the Sky is a lovely name for a book.
Great first sentence. It makes you want to keep reading.
I love the first chapter. This is really different. Your writing style is brilliant, the plot so far is crazy good. I already know I'll be picking this :)
Cicely is a lovely name.
I love how the story is so easy to read, and it's the perfect pace--not too slow, not too fast. The chapters aren't too long either.
[She wanted a season other than autumn right now.] LOVE!
GREAT description of his eyes.
Picked as soon as I have a spot, and I'll write another better review when I finish reading on. I might even write a blog post about it. :) But I'm definitely hooked at this point!
REVIEW 2-Nooooo! ;-; Total cliffhanger here! I WANT MORE. Let me know when you update.
I'll write up a better review when I find time. :)
But this. is. BRILLIANT.
So, here’s my first attempt at a professional review on my blog. I sure hope I do well. :)
Carriages in the Sky - http://www.inkpop.com/projects/81271/carriages-in-the-sky-/
By: TheFlowerDagger
Genre: General Fiction, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Romance
Short pitch: The children of Elricka were kidnapped, forced to rule a city in the sky. Unfortunately, teenagers and government do not always spawn successful results.
Long pitch: Six years ago, ten children were stolen from their ordinary lives and taken to Elricka: the kingdom in the sky. There they ruled with generally happiness, oblivious to the suffering of their people as they bond into a family.
But paradise is never permanent. As they prepare to lose one of their own to a fatal illness, and their group begins to fall apart, the citizens they have ignored grow restless. Conflict broils just as they meet the CIcely - the Queen who will join their ranks as a replacement for their dying friend.
**Cover made by the brilliantly talented Tracy Michelle**
Thoughts: The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this story was the cover. The cover is gorgeous, and I’m afraid I do sometimes judge books by their covers, and in this case I judged well. Second, I was awed at the mental picture that the title of this story brought to me; I thought of magic and glitter and a deep sense of the unknown. I knew this was my type of book.
When I first started reading it, I was rather sleepy *grins sheepishly* so I can’t critique very well for the first two chapters. I do know that I was hooked from the first line. There are typos in this story, but it really draws you in, so you hardly notice them. All you really know when reading is that the plot is incredibly original, and you want to know what happens next; the characters are not cardboard, far from it, and you share the same concerns as they do. I won’t give away any spoilers, but the tone in one of the chapters was somber, and I became rather sad as I read it. The author can really set the mood, which can’t be said for every story I’ve read on here.
Then, I began reading more about the presumed main character, Cicely. I love the name, first of all—my middle name is Cecilia. :) This character is very entertaining to read about. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I’m only going to say that she made me chuckle a couple of times, and she’s definitely 3D. She’s the rich character, yet is written differently; it didn’t give me the impulse to roll my eyes. The author, by making the plot more important than the wealth of the character, made it work. I like Cicely a lot, and I rarely like rich characters.
She wrote this one character very well, and did an exceedingly good job with all the others.
I’m hooked now. I don’t always read to the last chapter of a book on inkpop, but this time I did because I couldn’t stop. I really hope TheFlowerDagger updates soon, and I predict this book will make it big on the site. I picked this story, and it will remain on my picks for quite a bit.
So read it! :D
My two official reviews for it on inkpop:
REVIEW 1-
Carriages in the Sky is a lovely name for a book.
Great first sentence. It makes you want to keep reading.
I love the first chapter. This is really different. Your writing style is brilliant, the plot so far is crazy good. I already know I'll be picking this :)
Cicely is a lovely name.
I love how the story is so easy to read, and it's the perfect pace--not too slow, not too fast. The chapters aren't too long either.
[She wanted a season other than autumn right now.] LOVE!
GREAT description of his eyes.
Picked as soon as I have a spot, and I'll write another better review when I finish reading on. I might even write a blog post about it. :) But I'm definitely hooked at this point!
REVIEW 2-Nooooo! ;-; Total cliffhanger here! I WANT MORE. Let me know when you update.
I'll write up a better review when I find time. :)
But this. is. BRILLIANT.
Monday, December 6, 2010
I can't, I'm writing.
Nanowrimo song. ^
Since I rarely have anything to say about myself in blog posts, I've decided to use my blog to help promote other peoples' stories as well. I'll be choosing some of my favorite stories I've read on inkpop and write posts about them on here. I kind of can't wait, I'm excited :)
Also, I found a different template, but it still doesn't feel right. If you know anyone who could possibly make me a custom template, please let me know!
A more lengthy blog update will come soon :)
Since I rarely have anything to say about myself in blog posts, I've decided to use my blog to help promote other peoples' stories as well. I'll be choosing some of my favorite stories I've read on inkpop and write posts about them on here. I kind of can't wait, I'm excited :)
Also, I found a different template, but it still doesn't feel right. If you know anyone who could possibly make me a custom template, please let me know!
A more lengthy blog update will come soon :)
Friday, December 3, 2010
12/3/10
I'm planning some changes for Autumn of Secrets that will take place during the editing time. The prologue of the first book, the one up for reading now, seems to fit the second book better; I wrote a new prologue for Autumn of Secrets that fits better, and helps explain the backstory, but I need to get it to some friends for comparison. It might not be as powerful as the one I have right now, so I need some help on it.
I'm currently ranked at 68 and will continue to make my way to the top 5.
I should also start editing The Shadow so that the final bound version will be at its best. I'll give it a skim before ordering the copies. I can't wait to hold a bound copy of it in my hands. :) But I also can't wait for it to be on bookstore shelves. I know I've been saying this over and over for the past year or three, but next year will be the one that I really work on getting published. Because I finally have a version of the book that I'm satisfied with. I'm sticking to it, and therefore will be working on getting it out there.
I'm still writing Fall of the Falcon, but slowly. Battle scenes are hard...
That's about it. :) More updates later!
I'm currently ranked at 68 and will continue to make my way to the top 5.
I should also start editing The Shadow so that the final bound version will be at its best. I'll give it a skim before ordering the copies. I can't wait to hold a bound copy of it in my hands. :) But I also can't wait for it to be on bookstore shelves. I know I've been saying this over and over for the past year or three, but next year will be the one that I really work on getting published. Because I finally have a version of the book that I'm satisfied with. I'm sticking to it, and therefore will be working on getting it out there.
I'm still writing Fall of the Falcon, but slowly. Battle scenes are hard...
That's about it. :) More updates later!
Friday, November 26, 2010
My lovely winner's certificate. :)
Despite difficulties participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I managed to scratch together a little over 50k by both typing and handwriting; it's a significantly smaller amount than I had been hoping for, but at least I won. And I suppose it's for the best; I don't want to ruin the sequel to The Shadow because I was speed-typing through it during all of NaNoWriMo. I'll be taking it slowly now, and making sure each scene gets the attention it deserves. That way I might possibly have less to rewrite in the future, when I finish. Just possibly.
(I'm about to write a battle scene, so I'm really excited. :D)
Here's a picture of the certificate I printed out:
Under Title, it says Fall of the Falcon. For now, that is the title of the sequel to The Shadow. I don't know if that'll change once I'm done writing it; however, seeing as The Shadow kept its title all these years, I'm hoping this novel can do the same.
Now that I've finished NaNo, I'm updating the word progress on my current novel to where it currently stands, at around 70k. This isn't a completely accurate number, because much of it was handwritten and I can't guarantee I did the best job counting the words; I tried to do well. The current word count goal for this book is 100k, but seeing as it's already over halfway there, I might up it to 150k and find a way to divide it up when I'm done. That depends on whether I reach 100k at all...which, knowing me, I probably will. But that's still for sometime in the future. :) I plan to take my time writing it now, not only because NaNo is over, but because for my own good I can't type as fast as I used to.
I have a fan page now, on Facebook. I'll have a link to it on my sidebar. I decided that once my inkpop story broke the rank of 100, I'd be deserving of my fan page. Now I reached 91, so obviously, I have a fan page. :) I got my mom to create it for me, because it would be awkward to create it for myself. She's really awesome and did it, so I'm glad for her. Love you Mom!
Anyway, if you have a Facebook account, please follow my fan page. I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing with it yet, but I'm sure glad to have it.
I'll be updating more now. :)
(I'm about to write a battle scene, so I'm really excited. :D)
Here's a picture of the certificate I printed out:
Under Title, it says Fall of the Falcon. For now, that is the title of the sequel to The Shadow. I don't know if that'll change once I'm done writing it; however, seeing as The Shadow kept its title all these years, I'm hoping this novel can do the same.
Now that I've finished NaNo, I'm updating the word progress on my current novel to where it currently stands, at around 70k. This isn't a completely accurate number, because much of it was handwritten and I can't guarantee I did the best job counting the words; I tried to do well. The current word count goal for this book is 100k, but seeing as it's already over halfway there, I might up it to 150k and find a way to divide it up when I'm done. That depends on whether I reach 100k at all...which, knowing me, I probably will. But that's still for sometime in the future. :) I plan to take my time writing it now, not only because NaNo is over, but because for my own good I can't type as fast as I used to.
I have a fan page now, on Facebook. I'll have a link to it on my sidebar. I decided that once my inkpop story broke the rank of 100, I'd be deserving of my fan page. Now I reached 91, so obviously, I have a fan page. :) I got my mom to create it for me, because it would be awkward to create it for myself. She's really awesome and did it, so I'm glad for her. Love you Mom!
Anyway, if you have a Facebook account, please follow my fan page. I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing with it yet, but I'm sure glad to have it.
I'll be updating more now. :)
Friday, November 19, 2010
Stolen from Cherise. :)
The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets, songwriters and screenwriters included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends (optional), including me, because I'm interested in seeing what authors my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.)
1. J.K. Rowling.
2. Tamora Pierce.
3. Nancy Farmer (The Sea of Trolls!!)
4. Libba Bray.
5. Bram Stoker.
6. Taylor Swift. (Yes. She's an amazing songwriter.)
7. A Fine Frenzy (songwriter...I believe her name is Alison Sudol?)
8. Meredith Ann Pierce. (The Darkangel trilogy!!!)
9. Michael Grant. Michael Grant. Michael Grant. (Gone books--AMAZING!)
10. Gregory Maguire. (Especially Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.)
11. Nicholas Sparks.
12. Charles Dickens.
13. St. Josemaria Escriva.
14. Anne Frank.
15. Emily Bronte.
1. J.K. Rowling.
2. Tamora Pierce.
3. Nancy Farmer (The Sea of Trolls!!)
4. Libba Bray.
5. Bram Stoker.
6. Taylor Swift. (Yes. She's an amazing songwriter.)
7. A Fine Frenzy (songwriter...I believe her name is Alison Sudol?)
8. Meredith Ann Pierce. (The Darkangel trilogy!!!)
9. Michael Grant. Michael Grant. Michael Grant. (Gone books--AMAZING!)
10. Gregory Maguire. (Especially Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.)
11. Nicholas Sparks.
12. Charles Dickens.
13. St. Josemaria Escriva.
14. Anne Frank.
15. Emily Bronte.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Books! Books! Books!
Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez – en español
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez – en español
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez – en español
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez – en español
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
Monday, November 8, 2010
Day 8
Due to a strange pain in my hands which I don't know if is Carpal Tunnel or not, I will be completing most of my NaNo by hand. A new challenge. One page in my journal is at least 100 words every time--sometimes over 200. Apart from the effort it will take to count the WC one by one, I daresay this will be a very enjoyable NaNoWriMo.
However, due to this I am not sure if I can reach 100k or not...but I'll at least reach 50 to 75k. But you know, I'd rather lose some words off my NaNo goal than lose my hands. So I'm okay with it. (I'm at 40k right now.)
Good luck to the other NaNoers!
However, due to this I am not sure if I can reach 100k or not...but I'll at least reach 50 to 75k. But you know, I'd rather lose some words off my NaNo goal than lose my hands. So I'm okay with it. (I'm at 40k right now.)
Good luck to the other NaNoers!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Day 2
Okay, so, it's the beginning of day 2.
My WC in NaNo has reached 14,023. I updated my progress bar but don't see much...progress on it. :P Tomorrow it ought to get better. I should reach 20k tomorrow, if things go well.
I finally got to write one of the scenes that has been in my head for months now! And it's not driving me nuts anymore! It feels like, when I finish writing something, it's done. Finished. Gone. Which is rather depressing, but it's also a relief. Maybe after NaNo there'll be room in my head for other stories. *grins*
Now I'm going to bed.
♥
My WC in NaNo has reached 14,023. I updated my progress bar but don't see much...progress on it. :P Tomorrow it ought to get better. I should reach 20k tomorrow, if things go well.
I finally got to write one of the scenes that has been in my head for months now! And it's not driving me nuts anymore! It feels like, when I finish writing something, it's done. Finished. Gone. Which is rather depressing, but it's also a relief. Maybe after NaNo there'll be room in my head for other stories. *grins*
Now I'm going to bed.
♥
Monday, November 1, 2010
Day 1
...of NaNoWriMo.
Technically it's the beginning of Day 1, since I started writing at midnight, and will keep writing tomorrow. I'll update this post tomorrow, then.
I've got 2866 words. Out of 100,000. The progress bar on my sidebar shows how...little progress that is. But things are going to get interesting, so I'm counting on that to give me a serious boost. Bwahaha.
Autumn of Secrets is ranked 186 on inkpop! I'm going to get it higher. I'm going to get it to number one. So I'll be dividing my days into chores, school, inkpop, and writing. Writing will most likely be saved for the end of the day.
Bwahaha. This is going to be fun.
Technically it's the beginning of Day 1, since I started writing at midnight, and will keep writing tomorrow. I'll update this post tomorrow, then.
I've got 2866 words. Out of 100,000. The progress bar on my sidebar shows how...little progress that is. But things are going to get interesting, so I'm counting on that to give me a serious boost. Bwahaha.
Autumn of Secrets is ranked 186 on inkpop! I'm going to get it higher. I'm going to get it to number one. So I'll be dividing my days into chores, school, inkpop, and writing. Writing will most likely be saved for the end of the day.
Bwahaha. This is going to be fun.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
NaNo madness!
It's only days away, and I start having doubts as to what I want to write for NaNo! I keep jumping from idea to idea. But right now it sounds like I'll be writing The Shadow, book 2, which is for now titled The Swan. I have my own reasons for suddenly pushing it to the front. I won't be writing Winter of Wishes for NaNo, after all. I've decided to wait until Autumn of Secrets gets somewhere on inkpop before I write the second installment. Somewhere such as, perhaps, the top 5. I uploaded the third person version, which is more edited and polished. I don't really know what's happening in Winter of Wishes, either. And if you know me well, you know I can't write without planning.
The Swan wants to be written. I just know. You know the story won't wait anymore when it's sending scene after scene to your head, distracting you, willing you to type it into the word document...it won't leave me alone! And I've learned from experience that the only way to get a story to leave me alone is by writing it. It's time to write it. I'll be drawing up a rough outline in the next two days, and will be ready to go for NaNo, because now I know for sure what I'm doing.
I admit that I already wrote 20k of it before sort of trailing off. *hangs head in shame* So I'm somewhat cheating. But I'm pretty sure The Swan would reach an additional 100k, or even 150k. I just sense that it's going to be so long. So much is going on in it. If it reaches 150k I'll probably have to divide it. But yeah, I can think of about 4 major plots that are going on in that novel. I divided The Shadow into five parts, each one focusing a little on one major idea I was writing, and sorting things out--POV changes, other bits that might be confusing. I also like it divided up. It just seems more poetic that way, writing the PART I and PART II, etc., at the beginning of each new one. (The parts are the reason I don't believe I'm completely cheating. It's like a series of different stories coming together to build a novel, the way the books are constructed. I'd be starting Part III for NaNo, and writing on from there.) The Swan could be 8-10 parts. It's going to be epic!
But if it doesn't reach 100k, I'll start work on...something random. I've realized I simply can't write well if things aren't planned and flashing before my very eyes, like for The Swan.
I came up with an idea for another historical fiction novel called The Garden of Black Roses. It's not THE BIG PROJECT. It might be a part of THE BIG PROJECT, but since there might be fantasy elements in it, I can't decide if it really counts. It's also set in WWII. I simply can't write historical fiction without planning, period.
Thank goodness The Swan is going to be really long. It has to get me far. Or else, I'll be tempted to write The Garden of Black Roses to fill in the rest of the 100k. :/ Not good.
*runs away screaming*
The Swan wants to be written. I just know. You know the story won't wait anymore when it's sending scene after scene to your head, distracting you, willing you to type it into the word document...it won't leave me alone! And I've learned from experience that the only way to get a story to leave me alone is by writing it. It's time to write it. I'll be drawing up a rough outline in the next two days, and will be ready to go for NaNo, because now I know for sure what I'm doing.
I admit that I already wrote 20k of it before sort of trailing off. *hangs head in shame* So I'm somewhat cheating. But I'm pretty sure The Swan would reach an additional 100k, or even 150k. I just sense that it's going to be so long. So much is going on in it. If it reaches 150k I'll probably have to divide it. But yeah, I can think of about 4 major plots that are going on in that novel. I divided The Shadow into five parts, each one focusing a little on one major idea I was writing, and sorting things out--POV changes, other bits that might be confusing. I also like it divided up. It just seems more poetic that way, writing the PART I and PART II, etc., at the beginning of each new one. (The parts are the reason I don't believe I'm completely cheating. It's like a series of different stories coming together to build a novel, the way the books are constructed. I'd be starting Part III for NaNo, and writing on from there.) The Swan could be 8-10 parts. It's going to be epic!
But if it doesn't reach 100k, I'll start work on...something random. I've realized I simply can't write well if things aren't planned and flashing before my very eyes, like for The Swan.
I came up with an idea for another historical fiction novel called The Garden of Black Roses. It's not THE BIG PROJECT. It might be a part of THE BIG PROJECT, but since there might be fantasy elements in it, I can't decide if it really counts. It's also set in WWII. I simply can't write historical fiction without planning, period.
Thank goodness The Swan is going to be really long. It has to get me far. Or else, I'll be tempted to write The Garden of Black Roses to fill in the rest of the 100k. :/ Not good.
*runs away screaming*
Monday, October 25, 2010
Mariella's New NaNo Plan.
(As I type, I'm listening to Taylor Swift's new album and in awe at how awesome it is.)
I originally said I would do 150k for NaNo. But...I realized as I lay sleepless in bed one day...if I focus on getting 150k, two things will go down the drain:
1. School.
2. My inkpop novel.
And neither of the two above things I can afford to go down the drain for NaNo. I mean, it's known to ruin any book you try to write for it. But you can't willingly let it get to the point where it ruins everything else (though it just might anyway.) So I'm going to aim low...er. Lower. 100k is still a challenge...and I'm still pretty sure I'll reach it quickly, so if that happens, then I'll add the extra 50k to it.
With the two novels I'm planning, I'm sure I'll get to 150k anyway. If things go right. But I'm not going to plan to fail the rest of life. Haha.
THE BIG PROJECT is still materializing out of thin air. I'm finding sources where I'll get personal stories and other things I can base my story off of. Research...fun. :/ But in this case, I'm sure it will be, once I actually find the right things to read. Right now what I'm disliking is finding the things to read. Raaawr. Anyway. Once NaNo ends, I'll start reading more seriously. If you find any websites or books that might be helpful to me, let me know!
December I'll have a lot going on:
-Editing The Shadow. Perfecting it. Getting it bound and giving copies to friends. Letting friends I trust read it.
-Editing Winter of Wishes so that it'll be in a semi-decent state before it goes on inkpop, probably on January.
-Reading up for my historical fiction novel.
-Researching for publication. I still intend to use my Writer's Market book for something.
I'm thinking of starting another blog so I can update as I make progress on my research. That way I can try and make educational blog posts. It'll be a fun project to work on while I'm researching for a project. :) I'm still considering it, though, seeing as I don't do well when posting under pressure. I'll see how well I do with research. XD
Oh! Something else I could try and do for my historical novel...write HF short stories. I'm excited about that idea, too. Poems, as well. But it all comes back down to the research. So I have to really get started on that soon.
That's about all I can think of now. Oh, also---I'm trying really hard to get Autumn of Secrets into the 100's. Before NaNo. Let's see if I have any luck!
~Mariella
I originally said I would do 150k for NaNo. But...I realized as I lay sleepless in bed one day...if I focus on getting 150k, two things will go down the drain:
1. School.
2. My inkpop novel.
And neither of the two above things I can afford to go down the drain for NaNo. I mean, it's known to ruin any book you try to write for it. But you can't willingly let it get to the point where it ruins everything else (though it just might anyway.) So I'm going to aim low...er. Lower. 100k is still a challenge...and I'm still pretty sure I'll reach it quickly, so if that happens, then I'll add the extra 50k to it.
With the two novels I'm planning, I'm sure I'll get to 150k anyway. If things go right. But I'm not going to plan to fail the rest of life. Haha.
THE BIG PROJECT is still materializing out of thin air. I'm finding sources where I'll get personal stories and other things I can base my story off of. Research...fun. :/ But in this case, I'm sure it will be, once I actually find the right things to read. Right now what I'm disliking is finding the things to read. Raaawr. Anyway. Once NaNo ends, I'll start reading more seriously. If you find any websites or books that might be helpful to me, let me know!
December I'll have a lot going on:
-Editing The Shadow. Perfecting it. Getting it bound and giving copies to friends. Letting friends I trust read it.
-Editing Winter of Wishes so that it'll be in a semi-decent state before it goes on inkpop, probably on January.
-Reading up for my historical fiction novel.
-Researching for publication. I still intend to use my Writer's Market book for something.
I'm thinking of starting another blog so I can update as I make progress on my research. That way I can try and make educational blog posts. It'll be a fun project to work on while I'm researching for a project. :) I'm still considering it, though, seeing as I don't do well when posting under pressure. I'll see how well I do with research. XD
Oh! Something else I could try and do for my historical novel...write HF short stories. I'm excited about that idea, too. Poems, as well. But it all comes back down to the research. So I have to really get started on that soon.
That's about all I can think of now. Oh, also---I'm trying really hard to get Autumn of Secrets into the 100's. Before NaNo. Let's see if I have any luck!
~Mariella
Sunday, October 24, 2010
On naming characters. A rant.
This is off of a comment I did on Facebook...and I thought it was rather informative and since I hadn't updated in a while, I decided I may as well put it up as a blog post. :D
I really hate naming characters. I usually go through a name change at least once for each char (and I'm lucky if it's only once.) In The Shadow, the only char who's ever kept his name from the first draft till now is Garret, and in the first draft it was Garrett, with two T's. I dunno if that counts as a name change, it doesn't sound like one. But the other MC, Evelyn, went through literally about 14 names that I tried on and decided didn't suit her.
Most of the chars which kept their names all the way until now are ones that I haven't really put much thought into (e.g. chars in books I wrote over the summer for fun, so I'm sure when I edit there'll be a lot of name changes.)
I seem to mold a char's personality around their name. Which is sometimes a problem.
Olivia kept her name so far, but what's funny is when I first did the 5 attempts to write that book (all of which failed to pass ten pages, until finally I reached this version that worked,) she didn't have a set name. Nothing seemed to fit. So for now she's Olivia...for all I know, next year she'll be something else.
I don't have general rules for picking a name, really. In the end, it's whatever fits. :-/ I know I found a name that works when...hmm, I guess it's when I can visualize a solid 3D character, with every feature perfectly worked out, behind the name I chose. Like with Evelyn I could finally see that she was medium height, long brown hair that's wavy, and worried-looking green eyes. Before that, it was as if I saw something close to that, but through static. I could see the hair color change from red to blond to black and it never seemed to settle. Same goes for Garrett. When he had two T's in his name, he looked really blurry in my mind. Until I got rid of one T. Strange, right?
I really hate naming characters. I usually go through a name change at least once for each char (and I'm lucky if it's only once.) In The Shadow, the only char who's ever kept his name from the first draft till now is Garret, and in the first draft it was Garrett, with two T's. I dunno if that counts as a name change, it doesn't sound like one. But the other MC, Evelyn, went through literally about 14 names that I tried on and decided didn't suit her.
Most of the chars which kept their names all the way until now are ones that I haven't really put much thought into (e.g. chars in books I wrote over the summer for fun, so I'm sure when I edit there'll be a lot of name changes.)
I seem to mold a char's personality around their name. Which is sometimes a problem.
Olivia kept her name so far, but what's funny is when I first did the 5 attempts to write that book (all of which failed to pass ten pages, until finally I reached this version that worked,) she didn't have a set name. Nothing seemed to fit. So for now she's Olivia...for all I know, next year she'll be something else.
I don't have general rules for picking a name, really. In the end, it's whatever fits. :-/ I know I found a name that works when...hmm, I guess it's when I can visualize a solid 3D character, with every feature perfectly worked out, behind the name I chose. Like with Evelyn I could finally see that she was medium height, long brown hair that's wavy, and worried-looking green eyes. Before that, it was as if I saw something close to that, but through static. I could see the hair color change from red to blond to black and it never seemed to settle. Same goes for Garrett. When he had two T's in his name, he looked really blurry in my mind. Until I got rid of one T. Strange, right?
Sunday, October 10, 2010
NaNo and THE BIG PROJECT.
Okay so, NaNoWriMo. I'm still doing 150k. The great debate right now is whether I'll necessarily do three books to make it that far. If the first one I start writing wants to get longer, I'm going to let it. Once it's finished, if I haven't made 150k, I'll start the other one. But if I happen to be on a roll, I'm not going to stop mid-novel because that would be a waste. So I have three projects being plotted right now, two for backup, and I don't know if the last one will be written on November at all. It depends on the length of the first two. But still, 150k is a really big number. I have to keep reminding myself of that.
These are the projects I have in mind:
Winter of Wishes - Part two for Autumn of Secrets. Olivia's in the artist's prison now, and if she doesn't get out soon to solve the mystery of the wishing well back home, her friends will all starve to death. It's not easy, though, to find a weak spot in the armor that keeps them trapped in that fort. She meets another musician named Caden who's been there for two hundred years, and he knows a little bit about writing magic into music. Can the two of them figure out an escape in time?
Captured by Light - Prequel to The Shadow and pretty much every other book I've ever written in my life, since they all take place in this world.
They met aboard a ship to America--four young witches from the greatest countries of that time. But only one of them was in control of everything, and her name was Maeve. She saw these other girls as sources, from which she would get the power necessary to achieve her goal...and return to the world she created so many years ago.
"I don't want to go to America," she decided that afternoon, gazing out over the waters. "Meet me tonight."
How to Fool a Vampire - in which Desi loses two friends, a third turns out to be a lying traitor, and she winds up alone on the streets of Romania (again.) It would be difficult to explain this one without explaining the other two, so I'll just leave it at that. My closest friends know what I'm talking about. :)
Those are my NaNoWriMo projects, in that order. I don't know if the last one will get written, but---once again---150k is a lot of words.
Now, as for THE BIG PROJECT.
I'm still going to write a historical fiction. I want so badly to immerse myself in the past, and let my mind float around in places that really have existed. This would be set in the WWII days. That's all I know about it. I know the MC's name is going to be Arlette. Her little sister's name is going to be Annie, and they'll live in America. I don't know anything else about what will happen there, which leaves me with only one option---research!
For once, research is something I'm excited about. I got out another notebook I'd been saving for a long time. It's just a regular fivestar notebook, with a light blue cover. I'm going to write stuff down in there, and there's a pocket for anything I might print out to go along with it. The plan is to immerse myself completely in life and how it was back then. That way when I start writing, I can be as accurate as possible.
And after all that research, I'm obviously not going to only write one book. Maybe a series of stand-alones set in that time period. But I'm really excited about this. I'm going to spend the winter and springtime researching, and it's most likely I'll start writing on the summer. This is definitely not something I'm doing for NaNo, though.
This is my big project, and I'm so excited about it. So we'll see what happens. :)
(If you guys get any ideas for a plot, or find websites that might help me with my research, please comment!)
That's about it for today. I hope all's well for you. ♥
These are the projects I have in mind:
Winter of Wishes - Part two for Autumn of Secrets. Olivia's in the artist's prison now, and if she doesn't get out soon to solve the mystery of the wishing well back home, her friends will all starve to death. It's not easy, though, to find a weak spot in the armor that keeps them trapped in that fort. She meets another musician named Caden who's been there for two hundred years, and he knows a little bit about writing magic into music. Can the two of them figure out an escape in time?
Captured by Light - Prequel to The Shadow and pretty much every other book I've ever written in my life, since they all take place in this world.
They met aboard a ship to America--four young witches from the greatest countries of that time. But only one of them was in control of everything, and her name was Maeve. She saw these other girls as sources, from which she would get the power necessary to achieve her goal...and return to the world she created so many years ago.
"I don't want to go to America," she decided that afternoon, gazing out over the waters. "Meet me tonight."
How to Fool a Vampire - in which Desi loses two friends, a third turns out to be a lying traitor, and she winds up alone on the streets of Romania (again.) It would be difficult to explain this one without explaining the other two, so I'll just leave it at that. My closest friends know what I'm talking about. :)
Those are my NaNoWriMo projects, in that order. I don't know if the last one will get written, but---once again---150k is a lot of words.
Now, as for THE BIG PROJECT.
I'm still going to write a historical fiction. I want so badly to immerse myself in the past, and let my mind float around in places that really have existed. This would be set in the WWII days. That's all I know about it. I know the MC's name is going to be Arlette. Her little sister's name is going to be Annie, and they'll live in America. I don't know anything else about what will happen there, which leaves me with only one option---research!
For once, research is something I'm excited about. I got out another notebook I'd been saving for a long time. It's just a regular fivestar notebook, with a light blue cover. I'm going to write stuff down in there, and there's a pocket for anything I might print out to go along with it. The plan is to immerse myself completely in life and how it was back then. That way when I start writing, I can be as accurate as possible.
And after all that research, I'm obviously not going to only write one book. Maybe a series of stand-alones set in that time period. But I'm really excited about this. I'm going to spend the winter and springtime researching, and it's most likely I'll start writing on the summer. This is definitely not something I'm doing for NaNo, though.
This is my big project, and I'm so excited about it. So we'll see what happens. :)
(If you guys get any ideas for a plot, or find websites that might help me with my research, please comment!)
That's about it for today. I hope all's well for you. ♥
Friday, October 1, 2010
Foolish, how was I so careless? Pawning off my treasure, the envy of an heiress...
Gotta love A Fine Frenzy. (Swan Song. Listen to it.)
I haven't updated here in a while, now, have I? Jenn's been prodding me to do it, and I find that I have quite a bit to blog about now that I'm actually here. So here we go.
My newest book to be added to my favorite books list is Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I haven't read any of her other books yet, but the cover drew me in. I mean, there's a cool-looking guy on it with a suit and a hat. And the title is super cool. So I bought it and read it and totally fell in love with it. I didn't want it to end. Will is one of the coolest characters I've read about in a long time. He's just awesome. And I love how she managed to suck me into the past for this book, so I could feel myself in the time period as I read. Kind of like the Gemma Doyle books, which I also thought amazing for that specific reason. This novel is right up there with them. (You guys can tell I'm a Victorian era girl by now, right?) This is one of the few books that, once finished, I was tempted to open and start reading again. But that'll have to wait a while, so when I read it again it'll feel more new yet. I don't think it'll ever get old. 10/10 for this book. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I think it's just amazing. So there.
And I'll be looking out for this author's other books, so I can read them the first chance I get.
I'm editing Autumn of Secrets so it's in third person. I don't like first person at all. I tried it mainly to give myself a challenge this summer. I guess I passed the challenge by writing decently in that POV, but I don't like it. It doesn't sound like me. I'm a third person kind of girl. I find I can describe things better, and more thoroughly set scenes, when it's in third person. And since Autumn of Secrets isn't exactly that long--only 50k--it won't be much of a problem. This is a really quick read, guys, so if any of you are on inkpop and need something to kill time with, you'll find the link up there. *points* On the awesome menu sidebar thingy. Not sidebar, of course, 'cause it's up there---GAH I forgot the proper name for it. But if you can read it and pick it, therefore pushing me closer to the top five, do. People who read the entire story get mentioned on my list of awesome people, on my inkpop profile. And maybe I'll send out presents, if a lot of people start doing it. I dunno, presents could be a random card in the mail. But it's so hard to get someone on inkpop to read an entire novel, I feel it deserves something.
I'm going to shoot for 150k this NaNo. Don't think I can? Ooh, think again. I reached 100k last year, and even though much of what I wrote then sounded like garbage, I've done a lot of practicing over the summer. I've learned that I get more words by counting pages instead of words. A lot of people don't have the patience or speed-typing skills to do that, but I think I can manage. I'm not bragging, I promise, just stating a fact. I'm a really crazy person.
Also, reaching 50k for me is a piece of cake. It wouldn't be really fair to you guys who aren't insane like me. So I thought I should find a different goal that would drive me half mad as well. I kinda miss that feeling. *grins*
This means I can write three novels. Three. If the first one doesn't get really interesting, that is, demanding more attention and therefore more words. But I think it's unlikely that it will happen, so for now, I'll be plotting three novels. Yay for me! That means I get to write the sequel to Autumn of Secrets, which will be titled Winter of Wishes. Also, I've been thinking of FINALLY concluding my vampire series, which means writing book three of that. I need to read up those first two books, to get reacquainted with those characters. I also need to plot what happens IN book three. It might wind up being a bit longer. Finally, I want to write a standalone that's vaguely related to The Shadow. It's set in the same different world, and it'll help me learn more about the place itself. I'll have new characters and a whole new tragic ending. Who doesn't love that? Okay, maybe I'm the only one who does.
I have a long thread of free reads on inkpop that I'll have to get done on October, while planning these three NaNo stories. After that, I'll be closing up that free read thread during November. I probably won't be able to get on inkpop a whole lot during that month, 'cause balancing school with NaNo, there are more important things. I don't know if Autumn of Secrets will fare very well during that month, but I can pick it back up.
Jenn gave me some random words to use in my blog post, but I don't know if I did, so they'll have to wait till next time.
For now, I need to create a battle plan!
Good luck, fellow writers.
♥
I haven't updated here in a while, now, have I? Jenn's been prodding me to do it, and I find that I have quite a bit to blog about now that I'm actually here. So here we go.
My newest book to be added to my favorite books list is Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I haven't read any of her other books yet, but the cover drew me in. I mean, there's a cool-looking guy on it with a suit and a hat. And the title is super cool. So I bought it and read it and totally fell in love with it. I didn't want it to end. Will is one of the coolest characters I've read about in a long time. He's just awesome. And I love how she managed to suck me into the past for this book, so I could feel myself in the time period as I read. Kind of like the Gemma Doyle books, which I also thought amazing for that specific reason. This novel is right up there with them. (You guys can tell I'm a Victorian era girl by now, right?) This is one of the few books that, once finished, I was tempted to open and start reading again. But that'll have to wait a while, so when I read it again it'll feel more new yet. I don't think it'll ever get old. 10/10 for this book. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I think it's just amazing. So there.
And I'll be looking out for this author's other books, so I can read them the first chance I get.
I'm editing Autumn of Secrets so it's in third person. I don't like first person at all. I tried it mainly to give myself a challenge this summer. I guess I passed the challenge by writing decently in that POV, but I don't like it. It doesn't sound like me. I'm a third person kind of girl. I find I can describe things better, and more thoroughly set scenes, when it's in third person. And since Autumn of Secrets isn't exactly that long--only 50k--it won't be much of a problem. This is a really quick read, guys, so if any of you are on inkpop and need something to kill time with, you'll find the link up there. *points* On the awesome menu sidebar thingy. Not sidebar, of course, 'cause it's up there---GAH I forgot the proper name for it. But if you can read it and pick it, therefore pushing me closer to the top five, do. People who read the entire story get mentioned on my list of awesome people, on my inkpop profile. And maybe I'll send out presents, if a lot of people start doing it. I dunno, presents could be a random card in the mail. But it's so hard to get someone on inkpop to read an entire novel, I feel it deserves something.
I'm going to shoot for 150k this NaNo. Don't think I can? Ooh, think again. I reached 100k last year, and even though much of what I wrote then sounded like garbage, I've done a lot of practicing over the summer. I've learned that I get more words by counting pages instead of words. A lot of people don't have the patience or speed-typing skills to do that, but I think I can manage. I'm not bragging, I promise, just stating a fact. I'm a really crazy person.
Also, reaching 50k for me is a piece of cake. It wouldn't be really fair to you guys who aren't insane like me. So I thought I should find a different goal that would drive me half mad as well. I kinda miss that feeling. *grins*
This means I can write three novels. Three. If the first one doesn't get really interesting, that is, demanding more attention and therefore more words. But I think it's unlikely that it will happen, so for now, I'll be plotting three novels. Yay for me! That means I get to write the sequel to Autumn of Secrets, which will be titled Winter of Wishes. Also, I've been thinking of FINALLY concluding my vampire series, which means writing book three of that. I need to read up those first two books, to get reacquainted with those characters. I also need to plot what happens IN book three. It might wind up being a bit longer. Finally, I want to write a standalone that's vaguely related to The Shadow. It's set in the same different world, and it'll help me learn more about the place itself. I'll have new characters and a whole new tragic ending. Who doesn't love that? Okay, maybe I'm the only one who does.
I have a long thread of free reads on inkpop that I'll have to get done on October, while planning these three NaNo stories. After that, I'll be closing up that free read thread during November. I probably won't be able to get on inkpop a whole lot during that month, 'cause balancing school with NaNo, there are more important things. I don't know if Autumn of Secrets will fare very well during that month, but I can pick it back up.
Jenn gave me some random words to use in my blog post, but I don't know if I did, so they'll have to wait till next time.
For now, I need to create a battle plan!
Good luck, fellow writers.
♥
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
I just need you noooooow.
(I've taken to using random song lyrics as the titles of my blog posts.)
I've got a lot to write about right now. So let's start with my inkpop reappearance.
I decided that it's not healthy for me to have a completely unedited draft up. What if it becomes popular? What if people actually do read it, and they find all the flaws? What do I do then? It would be so embarrassing. So I've gotten rid of the Author's Note warning about its uneditedness, and read through it a few times. I kicked out quite a few unnecessary scenes, giving it a rough sweep, so it'll be at least bearable. Until I can get to the really rough editing, I mean.
I even added a prologue, and made the title longer. So if anybody happens to stumble upon this blog post, I'd like to know what you think of my prologue I wrote. Just click the link on my toolbar thingy above that says Read My Summer Project. I think I'm going to have to make it so it can be a stand-alone, and then write book two separately for NANOWRIMO (which is such an important thing, it deserves an entire blog post on its own, which is coming.)
Autumn itself is, at this moment, only 51k long. I think that's a decent length for my only book that I would dare put up on the internet. I managed to read through the whole thing in one night last night, and though there are still some things in it I ought to work out, I think it's readable. I mean, I'm not published yet or anything.
I've gotten a few good reviews on it, so thanks to everybody who took their time to read it. And once again, if you have a few seconds to look at the prologue, please do.
Now, onto the issue of publication.
I have a copy of The Writer's Market 2010 that I want to put some use to before it's outdated. I'm satisfied with The Shadow as it is---the first part, in any case. And it turns out, I think I might be able to wrap it up at the midpoint, making it 50k or so long as well. Now don't get me wrong, I really don't want to do this. It took me so much effort to get to the 100-beloved-k that I reached during this rewrite. But I think that's kind of long for a debut novel, isn't it? And if I divided it up, it would mean I have two books written for the same series. I still don't want to cut it up. Without many people to read it and give me opinions on this dilemma, I'm stuck.
But I want to use my Writer's Market. So I'm going to get opinions somewhere, and get this issue resolved. Maybe I'll find an adult who's willing to read it. Isn't it funny that not a single adult has read any of my novels yet? And I've been writing all my life? I imagine I'd get some valuable feedback then, and it'd also be a good balance. It's a YA novel, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't get adults to read it.
I'm going to send out at least two query letters for an agent before the year ends, just to see what happens, and so that my favorite Christmas present last year wasn't just collecting dust on my bookshelf all year. So I'll see how I work this out. As you guys have probably figured out, I'm dead serious about publication. It's not a maybe in the distant future I'll think about publishing---no.
I'm going to start pursuing my career NOW, I'm tired of waiting, and so is Garret. I've reached the point where I can't rewrite The Shadow anymore. I just can't. I can chop it a little, sure, if it comes to that. Maybe I can add or rewrite a few scenes. But this is the version I'm keeping.
And no, I'm not doing this too soon. Better now than never. We never know what might happen tomorrow. I feel I'm being called to get started now. And with supportive friends and family, I see no reason why I can't try. Especially once I have enough feedback to make this novel the masterpiece I know it will be.
I'm going to write a short story in verse. That's where all my poetry inspiration was coming from. I have a few rough drafts in a notebook, I have absolutely no idea where they came from, but I'll put them up soon so you can read them. In perfect order. *daydreams* And no---I'm still not pretending to be a poet.
Now, with this happy update, I'm off to continue work. (Writing...) And school and stuff. Oh, how's school going, you ask? Well, I'm getting good grades right now. So I'm not paying too little attention to my studies. No worries. :)
I've got a lot to write about right now. So let's start with my inkpop reappearance.
I decided that it's not healthy for me to have a completely unedited draft up. What if it becomes popular? What if people actually do read it, and they find all the flaws? What do I do then? It would be so embarrassing. So I've gotten rid of the Author's Note warning about its uneditedness, and read through it a few times. I kicked out quite a few unnecessary scenes, giving it a rough sweep, so it'll be at least bearable. Until I can get to the really rough editing, I mean.
I even added a prologue, and made the title longer. So if anybody happens to stumble upon this blog post, I'd like to know what you think of my prologue I wrote. Just click the link on my toolbar thingy above that says Read My Summer Project. I think I'm going to have to make it so it can be a stand-alone, and then write book two separately for NANOWRIMO (which is such an important thing, it deserves an entire blog post on its own, which is coming.)
Autumn itself is, at this moment, only 51k long. I think that's a decent length for my only book that I would dare put up on the internet. I managed to read through the whole thing in one night last night, and though there are still some things in it I ought to work out, I think it's readable. I mean, I'm not published yet or anything.
I've gotten a few good reviews on it, so thanks to everybody who took their time to read it. And once again, if you have a few seconds to look at the prologue, please do.
Now, onto the issue of publication.
I have a copy of The Writer's Market 2010 that I want to put some use to before it's outdated. I'm satisfied with The Shadow as it is---the first part, in any case. And it turns out, I think I might be able to wrap it up at the midpoint, making it 50k or so long as well. Now don't get me wrong, I really don't want to do this. It took me so much effort to get to the 100-beloved-k that I reached during this rewrite. But I think that's kind of long for a debut novel, isn't it? And if I divided it up, it would mean I have two books written for the same series. I still don't want to cut it up. Without many people to read it and give me opinions on this dilemma, I'm stuck.
But I want to use my Writer's Market. So I'm going to get opinions somewhere, and get this issue resolved. Maybe I'll find an adult who's willing to read it. Isn't it funny that not a single adult has read any of my novels yet? And I've been writing all my life? I imagine I'd get some valuable feedback then, and it'd also be a good balance. It's a YA novel, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't get adults to read it.
I'm going to send out at least two query letters for an agent before the year ends, just to see what happens, and so that my favorite Christmas present last year wasn't just collecting dust on my bookshelf all year. So I'll see how I work this out. As you guys have probably figured out, I'm dead serious about publication. It's not a maybe in the distant future I'll think about publishing---no.
I'm going to start pursuing my career NOW, I'm tired of waiting, and so is Garret. I've reached the point where I can't rewrite The Shadow anymore. I just can't. I can chop it a little, sure, if it comes to that. Maybe I can add or rewrite a few scenes. But this is the version I'm keeping.
And no, I'm not doing this too soon. Better now than never. We never know what might happen tomorrow. I feel I'm being called to get started now. And with supportive friends and family, I see no reason why I can't try. Especially once I have enough feedback to make this novel the masterpiece I know it will be.
I'm going to write a short story in verse. That's where all my poetry inspiration was coming from. I have a few rough drafts in a notebook, I have absolutely no idea where they came from, but I'll put them up soon so you can read them. In perfect order. *daydreams* And no---I'm still not pretending to be a poet.
Now, with this happy update, I'm off to continue work. (Writing...) And school and stuff. Oh, how's school going, you ask? Well, I'm getting good grades right now. So I'm not paying too little attention to my studies. No worries. :)
Friday, September 17, 2010
It's the time it takes to blo-ow o-ow o-ow o-ow away.
I'm back in Inkpop!! Soon I'll have a link to my stuff on, like, the sidebar or something. I put up the book thing I wrote over the summer, since there isn't much else I can do with it. I think I'll be writing book two of that series for NaNoWriMo. It's gonna be better than book one, plot-wise, and I don't have to worry about the speed typing messing it up---the summer project, Autumn, was a product of speed-typing anyway. So there won't really be a difference. They'll both be too fast paced and have awful grammar and I don't know why I really put it up except to give you guys something to read. I guess it was to prove I really am a writer. :) So if you want to read it, have fun!! And don't bother with con-crit, really. I know most of it will be really badly written.
I'm finding Inkpop to be more addictive than Facebook. Which is a big surprise, isn't it? Facebook is really addictive to begin with. Oh well, what can one do about it. *shrugs*
My brother helped me draw a picture based on The Shadow! You won't be able to see it very well since the pic is too blurry. Maybe I'll scan it later so you can see better. But you can tell it's really foggy, and you can especially see the little gazelle he drew, hiding in a shadowy forest. I like it a lot, and will be framing it sometime soon. My bro's awesome.
Also, I want to try to do something similar with oil pastels. I like how he helped me envision the black fog that destroyed everything. It's like...smoke after an eruption, or explosion. Hard to explain. But you'll see after I scan it. Haha.
My favorite subject in school so far remains being History. The others I haven't quite grasped yet, especially the science ones. Oceanography is okay, though. It's pretty fun, but still, it will never be my favorite subject.
That's about all I can think of blogging about at the moment. :)
I'm finding Inkpop to be more addictive than Facebook. Which is a big surprise, isn't it? Facebook is really addictive to begin with. Oh well, what can one do about it. *shrugs*
Also, I want to try to do something similar with oil pastels. I like how he helped me envision the black fog that destroyed everything. It's like...smoke after an eruption, or explosion. Hard to explain. But you'll see after I scan it. Haha.
My favorite subject in school so far remains being History. The others I haven't quite grasped yet, especially the science ones. Oceanography is okay, though. It's pretty fun, but still, it will never be my favorite subject.
That's about all I can think of blogging about at the moment. :)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Poem #1.
Yep, that's what I titled it. See, the other day I got this weird urge to write a poem. I got out a big huge journal which I loved so much, I wanted to save it until I could use it for something special. I guess that something special was meant to be poetry, because for the past three days, I've been drafting what seems to be some kind of epic. But the result of part one was very different from what I started out with. I'm thinking this is either going to be a novel written entirely in Mariella Hunt's bad poetry, or it'll be a NaNoWriMo novel where each chapter is started off with a poem describing what happened in the chapter. Either way is awesome to me. :) Here's the poem:
The sun pooled in somewhere behind.
The memory played out in his mind.
He saw her come right through that door.
He knew he'd heard of her before.
He knew the dream was more than just
a vision that would soon be dust.
He knew those words had not been light;
he knew that girl was pale with fright.
He also knew it was his job
to save her from the hungry mob.
Oh, how he wished he could get close
enough to meet this tattered rose.
Oh, how he wished he could get close
enough to meet his tattered rose.
 |
| My gigantic poetry notebook. Notice the butterfly at the top of each page. I looove butterflies. |
The memory played out in his mind.
He saw her come right through that door.
He knew he'd heard of her before.
He knew the dream was more than just
a vision that would soon be dust.
He knew those words had not been light;
he knew that girl was pale with fright.
He also knew it was his job
to save her from the hungry mob.
Oh, how he wished he could get close
enough to meet this tattered rose.
Oh, how he wished he could get close
enough to meet his tattered rose.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Remember 9/11. We lost too many people that day.
I remember 9/11.
I remember seeing those images on the television. And I was too young then to understand the magnitude of everything. But now I see the images of the towers burning and think...there were people in there. While the planes crashed into them. While they collapsed. People that, hours before, still saw entire lives ahead of them. Hours before, they were at home, preparing for just another day at work.
I think of the people in the airplanes and am overwhelmed with sorrow at how they met such an end. They boarded the planes never suspecting it would be the last thing they would ever do. I think of them trapped in there, knowing they will not make it back out alive. Thinking that they never got to say good-bye.
I think of the families who lost people they loved, families who were shattered, families that will never be the same again. They lost mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, friends. And I think of them watching those towers collapse. Seeing the people they love perish on a television screen, wishing they could have reached in and pulled them out.
I think of the courageous firefighters and other people who came to try and help. The ones who also fell.
Then I think of us. We who lived to see such a thing. We are left with a feeling of awe and sadness. Awe because these people are heroes. Sadness because they never should have met such an end in the first place.
That day should not be taken lightly. That day should not be forgotten. Not here, not anywhere in the world. We lost three thousand souls. Pause a moment, to let that number sink in.
Three thousand people who left home, expecting just another day of work. Expecting to come home to their families. But they never did.
Now, when I see those images on the television, I cry.
Remember 9/11.
I remember seeing those images on the television. And I was too young then to understand the magnitude of everything. But now I see the images of the towers burning and think...there were people in there. While the planes crashed into them. While they collapsed. People that, hours before, still saw entire lives ahead of them. Hours before, they were at home, preparing for just another day at work.
I think of the people in the airplanes and am overwhelmed with sorrow at how they met such an end. They boarded the planes never suspecting it would be the last thing they would ever do. I think of them trapped in there, knowing they will not make it back out alive. Thinking that they never got to say good-bye.
I think of the families who lost people they loved, families who were shattered, families that will never be the same again. They lost mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, friends. And I think of them watching those towers collapse. Seeing the people they love perish on a television screen, wishing they could have reached in and pulled them out.
I think of the courageous firefighters and other people who came to try and help. The ones who also fell.
Then I think of us. We who lived to see such a thing. We are left with a feeling of awe and sadness. Awe because these people are heroes. Sadness because they never should have met such an end in the first place.
That day should not be taken lightly. That day should not be forgotten. Not here, not anywhere in the world. We lost three thousand souls. Pause a moment, to let that number sink in.
Three thousand people who left home, expecting just another day of work. Expecting to come home to their families. But they never did.
Now, when I see those images on the television, I cry.
Remember 9/11.
Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer at Ground Zero:
"God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all."
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Adopt a word. You know you want to.
The word I adopted is 'hymnicide.'
It means to kill a hymn through alteration.
You adopt a word, too.
It's important.
http://savethewords.org/
It means to kill a hymn through alteration.
You adopt a word, too.
It's important.
http://savethewords.org/
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Yay for bookcases!
Thanks to this little bookcase, my desk looks a lot tidier. (To me.)
 |
| The desk. Maybe you would see the difference better if you knew all the shuffling around with books I did... :) |
 |
| The bookcase. There's two rows on each shelf. |
Friday, September 3, 2010
School's started. And writing becomes a bigger challenge than ever.
Because I don't have as much time for it, of course. Which means I have to divide time. After I get two subjects done, I can write a bit. Two more subjects, write a bit more. And if I get the urge for writing in between, I have to do it in this teeny notebook I bought for the exact purpose of not writing too much between subjects.
If I get my homework done each day, and do it well, I reward myself with something. It can be candy or writing. Because writing can be a reward, even if I do it all day. :P Last night, my prize was a bonbon.
It was good.
This morning, I got another dream for a story. I won't give much detail about it, but I will say that it's the exact same thing that happened with Autumn, my summer project. I got a dream about a new, interesting plot to write...and, just like with Autumn, a voice whispered a character name into my ear as I woke up.
For Autumn, the character name was Olivia.
For this story, the character name was Tyson.
Part of me goes YAY! THIS STORY IS GOING TO BE SOOO AMAZING I CAN'T WAIT TO WRITE IT.
Part of me goes Uh-oh. More characters to go after me. One of them is named Tyson and (according to the dream) he's a tricky liar. So how will I defend myself?
For NaNoWriMo, I'm making a plan. It's going to be a time to share attention with stories. So, this year, I am doing 100k again.
50k is for a new novel dedicated to NaNoWriMo alone.
50k is to continue/complete other novels I've begun in the past year, so they're not just hanging around anymore.
This is going to take a lot of chocolate and hot tea. And Q10, and really good music to listen to.
Bring it!
I'll spend October making my plan. Then it's time for battle. >.>
Hope all is well with you and school. :)
 |
| My teeny notebook, whose purpose is to let me write between schedule, but not take too much time doing it. Also---smaller notebook, to me, means better quality words. I've done it before. It works. :) |
But at night I still get a lot of stuff done. I've been using Q10 since school started, and I finished chapter thirty on it. I didn't think I got as much done on the actual Q10 screen, but when I pasted it on the document, that was fifteen pages, double-spaced. And since I took more than a day to write those fifty pages, having to save time and write carefully, perhaps this chapter will be better than the first twenty-nine. Here's hoping. I'm about 3/4 through, and can smell the end coming up.
Let's see how quickly I can get this written, with school and all.
 |
| Bonbon. <3 |
This morning, I got another dream for a story. I won't give much detail about it, but I will say that it's the exact same thing that happened with Autumn, my summer project. I got a dream about a new, interesting plot to write...and, just like with Autumn, a voice whispered a character name into my ear as I woke up.
For Autumn, the character name was Olivia.
For this story, the character name was Tyson.
Part of me goes YAY! THIS STORY IS GOING TO BE SOOO AMAZING I CAN'T WAIT TO WRITE IT.
Part of me goes Uh-oh. More characters to go after me. One of them is named Tyson and (according to the dream) he's a tricky liar. So how will I defend myself?
For NaNoWriMo, I'm making a plan. It's going to be a time to share attention with stories. So, this year, I am doing 100k again.
50k is for a new novel dedicated to NaNoWriMo alone.
50k is to continue/complete other novels I've begun in the past year, so they're not just hanging around anymore.
This is going to take a lot of chocolate and hot tea. And Q10, and really good music to listen to.
Bring it!
I'll spend October making my plan. Then it's time for battle. >.>
Hope all is well with you and school. :)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
I decided to go for a rather long blog title this time.
Remember how I really didn’t want to leave LiveJournal? Well, I guess I changed my mind. I mean, LJ won’t even let me have a hit counter. And nobody was really using it anymore. So at first I was being kind of stubborn, avoiding Blogger solely because everyone else was using it. I guess now I give up. So I’ve transferred the past three blog entries on my LJ, and this is my blog now. I kind of really hope it’ll be the last time I have to switch blogs.
And I have a very long blog title now. A long and awesome one. Now, who can help me get a new blog template that’s actually cool? :P
Another question I have stolen from Cherise who stole it from…oh, I give up. (This writing meme is so cool!)
How do you come up with names for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
I hate naming characters.
Hate hate hate.
With a passion.
Can’t they just name themselves?
I mean…it’s so troublesome. I come up with the first name, which I like, but after about twenty pages of writing it, I need to find a new one that better suits my char’s personality.
The only character of mine who has ever kept their name from the first page I ever wrote them was Garret. And when I first wrote him, his name was Garrett. With two T’s. Everyone else has been through at least six different names, and I just can’t stand it. I don’t like random name generators, and I really hate coming up with weird fantasy names that nobody in existence would get away with on this earth.
But as for how I come up with them. I sort of play with names on name websites until I find one I like, or on a lucky day, I can get a good one off the top of my head. I never get attached to them, though. Naming characters, for me, isn’t something you just do and forget about. For me, it lasts throughout the entirety of the writing process, then editing, and I guess names will only be sealed when I eventually get published. So Garret might turn into something else, until then.
For places, it’s considerably easier. When I was twelve-ish I had fun gathering street names and sounds and things I could combine to become place names. So that’s not really a problem for me right now. I just recycle names from old stories that I really liked. Eventually I’m going to run out of them, and I will worry about that when the time comes. Right now I’m happy with reusing old names.
8/28/2010
Why, yes. I am stealing these questions from Cherise, who stole them from Onna, and I can't remember if Onna stole them from someone else. But anyway. Here goes. (Hopefully this'll make a nice, long blog post.)
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.
Ehh....favorite. I don't like that word, since I don't really have a writing project that I prefer from all the others. It's more like I try several ideas, finish the novels, and they just sit around until the times comes to edit them. I have like 3 novels waiting in line right now to get my full attention, and a fourth that isn't even done being written. But right now The Shadow requires all my attention, and until I've at least written the final version of the story (which I feel I am doing now, but don't take these words too seriously) i can't move on to another one.
But this doesn't answer the question.
My 'favorite' project must be the novel I spent the late summer speed-writing. It's going to be an epic novel in three parts, and so thick it isn't likely to ever get published at all. Part One, Autumn, is two hundred pages long. The other two parts are going to be about that length, and I hope to make some progress on Part Two for NaNo. (I have several projects fighting for my attention during NaNo, since it's one of the few times a year I can share my attention. :P)
Why? Well, because I didn't plot much at all before I started writing. It was based on two dreams I had, around mid-July. In one of the dreams, there was a boy and a girl who could for some reason read each others' minds. I knew it was some sort of curse, and they were struggling to put up with it. They were in the back of a car being driven by one of their parents, probably his, and it was very awkward between them. While they spoke with the parents, between them they were having a different conversation completely, a silent one. This was obviously something they had not asked for.
In the other dream, this same couple was walking around Wal-Mart. The girl, Olivia, grabbed a thick box of colored pencils. I haven't really done anything with this dream yet, perhaps it'll be written in parts two or three. I know it was the same two people, because they were communicating by thought, and it looked like them, too.
I started writing, based solely off those two dreams. I thought at first it might only be a short story, or if anything, a short novel that would not go past 150 pages. (Which is a novella, I believe.) But that wasn't the case. Having planned practically nothing, I found subplots coming to life as I wrote, and plot details I never dreamed of before. *grins* Because most of what I did know came in a dream.
It was more fun writing this than any other project I spent weeks plotting to death. Which is saying a lot.
So my favorite project is the one I never planned. :)
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
I don't know how many characters I have, and I never made lists of them. One thing is for sure, I have enough characters that they could gang up on and defeat me with hardly a problem. >.> Considering I'm not very nice to most of them.
This is really hard to answer. I think my preference depends on the personality of the character.
So here's the thing. Female chars are easier for me to write. But male chars are more fun to write.
I love writing my girl MCs, too. I know I would get along with them great, before they found out who I was, at least. But sometimes I feel like, since i'm a girl, it isn't always a challenge to write about a character that is a girl. It's a breeze for me, and that tends to make scenes bland, or drag on---since it's so easy to write, I found myself not working as hard.
Writing about my male MCs is different. I concentrate more, because I don't want them to sound like girls. i don't want them to be weak. I don't want them to lack personality. They're different, and they have to be written differently.
But with them, i have the problem that sometimes I fear my guys are too courageous. Too polite. Unrealistically so. That slows down the scene, as well.
The result is, I have no preference. It all depends on the character's personality.
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.
Ehh....favorite. I don't like that word, since I don't really have a writing project that I prefer from all the others. It's more like I try several ideas, finish the novels, and they just sit around until the times comes to edit them. I have like 3 novels waiting in line right now to get my full attention, and a fourth that isn't even done being written. But right now The Shadow requires all my attention, and until I've at least written the final version of the story (which I feel I am doing now, but don't take these words too seriously) i can't move on to another one.
But this doesn't answer the question.
My 'favorite' project must be the novel I spent the late summer speed-writing. It's going to be an epic novel in three parts, and so thick it isn't likely to ever get published at all. Part One, Autumn, is two hundred pages long. The other two parts are going to be about that length, and I hope to make some progress on Part Two for NaNo. (I have several projects fighting for my attention during NaNo, since it's one of the few times a year I can share my attention. :P)
Why? Well, because I didn't plot much at all before I started writing. It was based on two dreams I had, around mid-July. In one of the dreams, there was a boy and a girl who could for some reason read each others' minds. I knew it was some sort of curse, and they were struggling to put up with it. They were in the back of a car being driven by one of their parents, probably his, and it was very awkward between them. While they spoke with the parents, between them they were having a different conversation completely, a silent one. This was obviously something they had not asked for.
In the other dream, this same couple was walking around Wal-Mart. The girl, Olivia, grabbed a thick box of colored pencils. I haven't really done anything with this dream yet, perhaps it'll be written in parts two or three. I know it was the same two people, because they were communicating by thought, and it looked like them, too.
I started writing, based solely off those two dreams. I thought at first it might only be a short story, or if anything, a short novel that would not go past 150 pages. (Which is a novella, I believe.) But that wasn't the case. Having planned practically nothing, I found subplots coming to life as I wrote, and plot details I never dreamed of before. *grins* Because most of what I did know came in a dream.
It was more fun writing this than any other project I spent weeks plotting to death. Which is saying a lot.
So my favorite project is the one I never planned. :)
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
I don't know how many characters I have, and I never made lists of them. One thing is for sure, I have enough characters that they could gang up on and defeat me with hardly a problem. >.> Considering I'm not very nice to most of them.
This is really hard to answer. I think my preference depends on the personality of the character.
So here's the thing. Female chars are easier for me to write. But male chars are more fun to write.
I love writing my girl MCs, too. I know I would get along with them great, before they found out who I was, at least. But sometimes I feel like, since i'm a girl, it isn't always a challenge to write about a character that is a girl. It's a breeze for me, and that tends to make scenes bland, or drag on---since it's so easy to write, I found myself not working as hard.
Writing about my male MCs is different. I concentrate more, because I don't want them to sound like girls. i don't want them to be weak. I don't want them to lack personality. They're different, and they have to be written differently.
But with them, i have the problem that sometimes I fear my guys are too courageous. Too polite. Unrealistically so. That slows down the scene, as well.
The result is, I have no preference. It all depends on the character's personality.
8/22/2010
Mom's coming home!! She'll be back on Monday. Tomorrow. It's been sooooo terribly long, I really can't wait to see her again. I'm just praying for time to fly and we can be driving off to the airport to see her. :) Yayyyyy I am sooo excited.
I currently have a notebook half-full with notes and diagrams for editing/rewriting. It's in front of me on the desk. I made an outling of the last 10-or-so chapters I have to write. They're going to be completely new chapters, so I can't just cut and paste them. The first half of the book remained pretty much the same as it was, but once more, it's getting a new ending. I guess the new ending is more action-packed? More interesting? You see more from Garret's POV in this version. I'm happy because I know this rewrite will be worthwhile, and I'm trying not to rush through these chapters, so that they'll be the best they can be. I've got 160 pages of cut-and-paste-and-shuffle-around. It should be around 300 pages when I'm done, and I hope I'll finally get 90k. ;-;
I think I over-read fiction books this summer, so I've moved onto spiritual reading. I'm currently reading The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux, or rereading it; the first time I tried, I was too little and lost interest. Now, her story is so inspiring to me. It's a great book for spiritual reading. Also, it's a quick read, and easy to understand. :)
It's really late. I just felt like updating my blog before I forgot again.
Take care! :)
I currently have a notebook half-full with notes and diagrams for editing/rewriting. It's in front of me on the desk. I made an outling of the last 10-or-so chapters I have to write. They're going to be completely new chapters, so I can't just cut and paste them. The first half of the book remained pretty much the same as it was, but once more, it's getting a new ending. I guess the new ending is more action-packed? More interesting? You see more from Garret's POV in this version. I'm happy because I know this rewrite will be worthwhile, and I'm trying not to rush through these chapters, so that they'll be the best they can be. I've got 160 pages of cut-and-paste-and-shuffle-around. It should be around 300 pages when I'm done, and I hope I'll finally get 90k. ;-;
I think I over-read fiction books this summer, so I've moved onto spiritual reading. I'm currently reading The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux, or rereading it; the first time I tried, I was too little and lost interest. Now, her story is so inspiring to me. It's a great book for spiritual reading. Also, it's a quick read, and easy to understand. :)
It's really late. I just felt like updating my blog before I forgot again.
Take care! :)
8/15/2010
Hey look! Two blog posts, and not even a week between them! Hooray!
I've reached 80k now, which is the goal I had been hoping to get all summer. The 5k a day helped. Now I can slow down writing it---I'm not going to stop, but I won't be pounding out 5k a day again on purpose until NaNo or something. If I accidentally hit 5k sometime, great. But I won't stop everything and sit at the computer for hours at a time, just to get 5k.
Now I get to write more slowly, because I have to get ready for school and *gulp* editing. More editing TS. I have timelines to make and notes to take and plotting to do and planning to be done. I'm not going to just dive into editing without a plan this time. I have to know what I'm doing, so it won't be such a mess when I'm finished. Also, this time, instead of editing the whole document at a time, I'm going to do chapter-by-chapter. I won't move on to the next chapter until I can name the one I'm currently working as perfect. This is because I believe that if each chapter can be polished individually to be the best it can be, the rest of the novel as a whole will be a lot better. Like a house built of bricks instead of mud. Golden bricks. The bricks of a masterpiece. Because I will make it a masterpiece!
In my summer novel that I'm currently writing, one of my characters is a writer. And since this land they're stuck in is crazy where anything can happen, his characters that he wrote about have come to distract him from his quest...and they're succeeding. Bwahaha. I do wonder how this will end, because if his characters are anything like mine, they wouldn't think twice about hurting him really bad. :/ If you met your characters on an important quest, what would they do? Would they distract you, or just get straight to the point and shove you off a cliff? Or something else?
I've reached 80k now, which is the goal I had been hoping to get all summer. The 5k a day helped. Now I can slow down writing it---I'm not going to stop, but I won't be pounding out 5k a day again on purpose until NaNo or something. If I accidentally hit 5k sometime, great. But I won't stop everything and sit at the computer for hours at a time, just to get 5k.
Now I get to write more slowly, because I have to get ready for school and *gulp* editing. More editing TS. I have timelines to make and notes to take and plotting to do and planning to be done. I'm not going to just dive into editing without a plan this time. I have to know what I'm doing, so it won't be such a mess when I'm finished. Also, this time, instead of editing the whole document at a time, I'm going to do chapter-by-chapter. I won't move on to the next chapter until I can name the one I'm currently working as perfect. This is because I believe that if each chapter can be polished individually to be the best it can be, the rest of the novel as a whole will be a lot better. Like a house built of bricks instead of mud. Golden bricks. The bricks of a masterpiece. Because I will make it a masterpiece!
In my summer novel that I'm currently writing, one of my characters is a writer. And since this land they're stuck in is crazy where anything can happen, his characters that he wrote about have come to distract him from his quest...and they're succeeding. Bwahaha. I do wonder how this will end, because if his characters are anything like mine, they wouldn't think twice about hurting him really bad. :/ If you met your characters on an important quest, what would they do? Would they distract you, or just get straight to the point and shove you off a cliff? Or something else?
Friday, March 5, 2010
3/5/2010
This is a copy/paste from an entry on my personal blog. I just felt I ought to update both of these---
I know I should update this more but, given how busy I have been lately, don’t expect very lengthy posts. :)
For now, this post is mostly to let you all know that I am still alive, still editing (almost 30,000 words edited/rewritten!) and still planning on sending my book out this summer. But, editing is taking its time, and I will let it: I know the outcome will be worth it.
I have read 2/20 books this year, so far. I’m halfway through one that seems to take forever, so I might put it away until later. I will probably put up a list of books I will read this year on a sidebar---to welcome comments, reviews before I read them, etc. I’m just picking titles I already have on my shelf.
I hope to be a lot more active in this blog in the future, just please excuse short updates like this one. Tonight, I will attempt a blog post that will record the progress I have made so far in editing. Do not be surprised if I fail to come through.
The weather is getting better, which has me in a good mood. So even Writer’s Block for blog posts can’t upset me. :) I will be back, and hope to get some comments! (Although I don’t expect many completely loyal followers, at the pace I’m going. XD)
Take care,
~Mariella
I know I should update this more but, given how busy I have been lately, don’t expect very lengthy posts. :)
For now, this post is mostly to let you all know that I am still alive, still editing (almost 30,000 words edited/rewritten!) and still planning on sending my book out this summer. But, editing is taking its time, and I will let it: I know the outcome will be worth it.
I have read 2/20 books this year, so far. I’m halfway through one that seems to take forever, so I might put it away until later. I will probably put up a list of books I will read this year on a sidebar---to welcome comments, reviews before I read them, etc. I’m just picking titles I already have on my shelf.
I hope to be a lot more active in this blog in the future, just please excuse short updates like this one. Tonight, I will attempt a blog post that will record the progress I have made so far in editing. Do not be surprised if I fail to come through.
The weather is getting better, which has me in a good mood. So even Writer’s Block for blog posts can’t upset me. :) I will be back, and hope to get some comments! (Although I don’t expect many completely loyal followers, at the pace I’m going. XD)
Take care,
~Mariella
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
2/2/10
I keep getting distracted by my writing, reading, homework, etc., and forgetting to update my blogs.
Two weeks ago I finished my rewrite of The Shadow. Now I'm taking a two-week break from writing altogether. I won't even look at any of my writing files at all. I'm reading books instead. If I don't start my reading now, I know that writing-related activities will overshadow it later. There's a lot to get done.
So due to that break, I do not really have much to say here. o.o I hope you all are doing well (does anyone read this blog at all? :P) and happy writing!
Question: Do you think you do well when you write or edit when you're sleepy? As for myself, the ideas come easier when I'm drowsy, but they aren't very good quality-wise. It always needs editing later...
Answer the question! XD
Take care,
~Mariella
Two weeks ago I finished my rewrite of The Shadow. Now I'm taking a two-week break from writing altogether. I won't even look at any of my writing files at all. I'm reading books instead. If I don't start my reading now, I know that writing-related activities will overshadow it later. There's a lot to get done.
So due to that break, I do not really have much to say here. o.o I hope you all are doing well (does anyone read this blog at all? :P) and happy writing!
Question: Do you think you do well when you write or edit when you're sleepy? As for myself, the ideas come easier when I'm drowsy, but they aren't very good quality-wise. It always needs editing later...
Answer the question! XD
Take care,
~Mariella
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Musings...
So I have been considering doing this, to update the professional blog more often: When I update my LiveJournal with something particularly interesting, I will post it on here as well. That way this blog will get more usage, and it will be more interesting to read. :) Any thoughts?
And thanks to my dear friends who commented on my last blog post---and answered the question! I feel remembered! Here's another question:
Do you listen to music while writing? If so, name three bands or songs that you stray to most when writing, and why (if you even have a reason at all :])
And my exams start today. I feel like I haven't studied for any of the subjects well enough. So pray for me please. :/
Thanks!
~Mariella
And thanks to my dear friends who commented on my last blog post---and answered the question! I feel remembered! Here's another question:
Do you listen to music while writing? If so, name three bands or songs that you stray to most when writing, and why (if you even have a reason at all :])
And my exams start today. I feel like I haven't studied for any of the subjects well enough. So pray for me please. :/
Thanks!
~Mariella
Monday, January 18, 2010
picnik is too addictive :)
So this was my author pic for 2009, as voted by friends. And I found out about Picnik and edited it a bit. Now I like it a lot. :D I can't wait for spring...then I can take a 2010 author pic outdoors. :)So. Some quick writing updates.
-I am still working on that novel for InkPop. I just want to have several chapters done before I put it up. :)
-As for my editing of The Shadow, I have edited (rewritten!!) 30k words in about a week, and 60 pages. I am about to reach the climax tonight. Whoo!
-I haven't been giving much critique on many stories due to being busy...studying for exams. Yay. *sarcasm*
All right, I guess I'll post a question for you to answer, if you read this blog post.
What are your favorite qualities in a character, and why?
Okay. Let's see if anyone reads this.
Until next time,
~Mariella
P.S. Please pray for Haiti.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)