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By Jenny, February 12, 2010 5:12 am

Yeah, I’ve been quiet. I know, I know. I’m terrible about blogging and writing and it is a guilt that hangs over my head. But enough about my short comings as a writer, onto more entry worthy subjects.

It seems I might have an idea for another story. And it might or might take place in my Fireglass universe (I’m learning toward might, but not be directly related to it). It features a magic system utilizing enslaved fairies, which is both easy and extremely hard to accomplish. I won’t give away all my little ideas, but I like what I’ve got so far. While it does feature a male main character (stereotypical me, I know), what I have devised so far features several female characters, more female than male. I’m surprisingly proud of this, since I struggle to create female characters that I can get behind. So far this story features a girl who plays the fiddle and might be a foreigner (the thing that could link this story to Fireglass), a girl who is the granddaughter of the duke who will probably be the villain and who can sense the presence of fairies, and a woman scientist who focuses on the study of fairies. This story is still in it’s very, very early stages, so who knows what else I could add to the mix?

While I like what I’ve come up with so far, there will be loads and loads of work ahead before I could even think of tackling what I have in mind so far. Lots of naming and descriptions and culture creation. It exhausts me just thinking about it right now. But one step at a time, I think.

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By Jenny, November 28, 2009 4:04 am

One of the tips for getting through NaNoWriMo is try to write a beginning and an end (this, if I’m not mistaken, was mentioned in NaNo Founder Chris Baty’s No Plot, No Problem book), so that you will have a complete story by the end of the month. Sometimes, this just isn’t possible. Most novels are more than 50,000 and if you’re like me, you just don’t have the time or the energy to write any more than that. So the solution is to simply find a point in your book where things could be left for later and skip to the end. A lot of writers write this way, writing their story completely out of order. I have never done this before, so the thought of trying it was daunting.

Last year’s NaNo, The Inkwell, was able to be written in it’s entirety by the end of November, totally about 56,000 words.  I’m more of a sparse writer, so when the book goes through a thorough rewrite, it will probably gain words instead of losing them. The point is, I finished a book. And when the end came around, it was like I was rolling down hill and I could barely type fast enough to keep up with the momentum.  And because of that, I finished with flying colors. I think I validated it with at least 3,000 words over the primary goal, then I simply rounded the story off. And the entire experience was truly amazing.

However, Unscented has been a very different beast. It has not been easy to write, leaving me to trip and stumble my way through it with as much grace as an ostrich on roller skates. Worse still, there is no way I was going to be able to reach the end with only 50,000 words. But even so, I still came up with a rough sort of climax. So after much diliberation, I decided to find a point in the story where I could comfortably skip ahead. So I did last night. At first, I was so nervous. I didn’t know where to start or what to do. But once things started flowing, I began to see things on the other side. Things that I would never have thought of otherwise. This was quite a lesson for me, as I had never tried starting at the end and working my way back, to see how to get there. I don’t think it would work for me every time, but for this particular instance, I think it worked rather well and I will certainly keep it in mind for future noveling attempts.

Anyway, long story short, I’m skipping ahead to the end, then going to fill in the holes afterwards. Will it work out or will it be a huge mistake? Only time will tell. I’ll be sure blog about how everything turns out.

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By Jenny, November 25, 2009 11:50 pm

First of all, I think my hosting issues have finally been solved. So a big WHOOHOO there. It’s really been a big distraction lately, having to go back and forth with the tech to figure out what the problem was. But now that a solution as been found, it’s a weight off my shoulders!

Which means I’m still terribly behind. So behind it’s almost daunting to even try to get caught up. But I will. My dear fiance says I have to, otherwise… well… he was will severely disappointed in me. Which is something I do not want! So, according to my calculations, I will need to write about 3,000 words a day. The more I get over that, the faster I’ll reach the 50k goal. My biggest fear is being short on the last day, then something coming up and I not get finished in time. So my goal is to try my hardest to reach 50,000 by Sunday, since instead of Monday. Will it happen? I don’t know, but I will definitely try.

So more timed writing sessions are in order, I think. My goal tonight is 36,000.  These sessions will be 15 minutes each, since I think I ended up being more productive that way.

GOAL STATUS: SURPASSED!

• Untimed session: 65 words
• Session 1: 266 words
• Untimed session 2:  448 words
• Session 3: 383 words
• Session 4: 152 words
• Session 5: 304 words
• Session 6: 252 words
• Session 7: 358 words
• Session 8: 357 words
• Untimed session 3: 668 words
• Total: 3,192 words
• Times distracted: 4

*dances* Whoo-hoo!! Goal reached! Now it’s time for sleep. =)

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By Jenny, November 22, 2009 3:26 am

With only about a week left, I’ve really go to buckle down and get some serious writing done if I want to hit the big 50k by the 30th. According to my “calculations”, I need to get about 2,200 words per day in order to win. I’m hoping to cram in some extra words to knock that number down a bit. If I can get 32,000 today (which may or may not happen), it will knock my daily count to only 2,000, which is easier to reach in my small stretches of free time.

What’s all that mean? Another round of timed writing sessions! This will run throughout the day (before I go to bed, after I get up through before I go to work). These session are 15 minutes each!

Minimum Goal: 30,000 / Maximum Goal: 32,000 FAILED

• ROUND ONE
• Session 1: 730 words*
• Session 2: 292 words
• Session 3: 290 words
• Session 4: 284 words
• Session 5: 232 words
• Session 6: 238 words
• Total: 1,336 words
• Times Distracted: 3

• ROUND TWO
• Session 1: 247 words
• Session 2: 421 words **
• Session 3: 301 words **
• Total: 969 words
• Times distracted/Interrupted: Too many times to count.

• Complete total: 31,101 words

* As usual, this session wasn’t timed. It probably lasted about 45 minutes. I’m including it only because I haven’t compiled those words with my total amount as of yet.

** Forgot to set the timer on this one. It was probably about 20 minutes.

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By Jenny, November 21, 2009 6:18 am

Why oh why I bought otakugirl.info, I don’t freaking know. I realized pretty quick that I didn’t like it and didn’t want to use it AT ALL. So tonight, I bought myself another domain name and one I very much like. It’s colorful, creative (in a sense), and since it’s such a general name, I feel I can do anything with it and not feel as though I should be restricted to only anime related stuff. I know I wasn’t restricted in any way at all, but whatever. I didn’t like it, so I got something else.

Everything should be just as it was before, but if it isn’t, drop me a comment and let me know. I’ll see what I can do. =)

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By Jenny, November 15, 2009 12:25 am

I will hit 20,000 words before I go to bed tonight! I mean it! Which is going to result is a lovely night full of timed writing sessions.

• Session 1: 622 words*
• Session 2: 294 words
• Session 3: 194 words
• Session 4: 323 words
• Session 5: 366 words
• Session 6: 363 words
• Session 7: BLAH words
• Total: 3,401 words
• Distracted how many times? 8** (at least)

* This session was not timed, but it was probably between 30 to 45 minutes.
** WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DISTRACTION EVER? Getting a random email from the creator of your favorite manga. OMG?! *spaz*

YAY! Goal reached! Now it’s time for bed!

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By Jenny, November 13, 2009 1:18 am

Names are important. In a story, your first impression of a character will more than likely be their name. So it’s a good idea to give the character a name that will give off the impression you want, no matter what it is.

And for whatever reason, I chose to call Unscented’s main character Frank. Why? Simply because it was such an inappropriate name for a vampire. And while it worked for a while, the more I grew to know this character, the more I realized this name wasn’t working. It just didn’t sound right. I ignored the inclination to change it for as long as I could, until it hit me that I simply couldn’t go on with his name being what it was. My dilemma was that I still liked the name. So what to do? And if I changed it, what would I change it to?

And the answer and solution to my problem just appeared, like a lightbulb flicking on over my head. I would leave his first name the same, change his last name, and have him go entirely by his last name. And that name ended up being Finn. Why? I wish I knew. It just randomly popped into my head and while I tried to ignore it, I just couldn’t. And now I can only think of the character as Finn, as if that had been his name all along.

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By Jenny, November 8, 2009 1:08 am

I’m the first one to admit it, I’m about the most lazy damn person in the world. No matter how bad I think I want something, I can still be too lazy to acheive it. And dammit I want to change that. This is my humiliation post. I’m timing myself (using Q10) to see how much I get accomplished in 30 minutes time. I will post what I get done even if it’s nothing and I will continue to do so all of tonight.

• First 2 hours in room, at computer: about 300 words
• 30 minutes (round 1): 625 words
• 30 minutes (round 2): 462 words
• 30 minutes (round 3): I forgot to set the timer. 400 maybe?
• 30 minutes (round 4): I stopped timing at this point. Another 400?

In the end, I wrote 3,724 words tonight. So even with all my procrastinating, I still did rather well. =)

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By Jenny, October 16, 2009 8:25 am

Hello Tweetpeeps! First of all, I want to thank you for taking an interest in helping me out. It’s very much appreciated. Both of these stories hold a really strong interest for me and I am absolutely stumped as to which I should write, which is where you guys come in. If you have the time, please read through the descriptions below and then vote which you think I should write for NaNoWriMo 2009. The poll can be found at the bottom of the entry. You may also leave comments if you wish and/or send me a tweet if you have something further to say.

Please note! These summaries are thrown together a little haphazardly, so please excuse any crummy grammar. Also, I’m a fantasy writer by heart, so if you don’t like fantasy, you probably won’t care for my stories. You have been warned~ =)

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