9 posts tagged “nanowrimo”
Boy, this NaNo stuff is really kicking my ass. I managed to catch up the other day, but now I'm just behind again. I figure I might as well just go with it and catch up over the weekend. I've been seriously slammed on the work front this week and I just have not had much time to even think about NaNo.
I'm not worried about it though. Thanks to Cheryl, a writer friend I met through NaNo last year, I have discovered the phenomenon known as "word wars". Now, I've been doing NaNo for a couple of years now, so I know what word wars are. I've just never done them before because... well... to be honest, they sounded kind of stupid, and not at all like something that would really help me.
Well, I did a few the other morning with Cheryl and a bunch of other NaNo-ites from the forums just to make Cheryl happy, and I have to say that it really did make a difference! I went from being two days behind on NaNo to being just slightly ahead in about an hour and a half. (I guess I don't realize how much time I waste dicking around when I'm just writing on my own.) It was honestly really fun, too.
I'll definitely be word warring again this weekend to get my count back up where it ought to be before I get work-slammed again. If any of my NaNo peeps from here want to word war with me this weekend, you should let me know. We'll work something out!
Anyone want to see my kick-ass cover art for my current NaNoWriMo novel? Those of you who are also participating may have noticed that they have a spot to upload a cover concept this year. You know I couldn't turn down the opportunity to actually show off some original art along with my writing for people who actually click through and check out excerpts now and then. This NaNo stuff is serious business, man.
"The Pocket" Cover Art - © 2008 Shannon Hilson
Of course, it probably would have been smarter of me to actually get that done before NaNo started so the massive traffic jam the NaNo site is now wouldn't get in the way of my uploading it, but whatever. I'm persistent.
The piece used as the background depicts my main character, Lucy Locket. The following is the plot synopsis I have posted on my NaNo profile, for those that haven't somehow caught what the book is about from one of my other posts on the subject.
The Pocket chronicles the lives of two women in Victorian London -- Lucy, a brash, ignorant barmaid and Kitty, a woman of considerable means, but exceedingly scandalous origins.
For Lucy, Kitty symbolizes everything she wishes to be but has never been able to become, and she will stop at nothing to work her own way up to a similar position of luxury and seeming freedom. However, all things come with a price and all actions have their consequences. Lucy's desire to improve her lot in life soon develops into a dangerous obsession that threatens the well-being not only of Kitty herself, but also an innocent gentleman who becomes inextricably linked to both women in ways he never expected and certainly never bargained for.
A study in greed, lust, excess, and obsession, The Pocket explores the dynamics of life and position in a London long faded and turned to dust, even if the issues its citizens struggled with on a day to day basis have not.
I created this piece specifically for the cover of this book, so I'm sorry to say it won't be available as a print. However, if when I ever get around to editing the work when it's finished and putting up for sale in one of my shops, this will indeed be the cover I use.
This is me trying to kind of get back into the swing of things, as far as blogs and such are concerned, now that NaNoWriMo is over and no longer utilizing the majority of my will to write stuff. Bullet points are always a good way to play catch-up. Yes? Yes!
• You probably already caught it from my lame little introduction, but NaNoWriMo is now officially over. I won, by the way, and by "won" I mean that I managed to write the 50,000 words by the end of the month. My novel is not done yet though. I was working with a much more complicated plot this year, and as a result, the thing kept growing like I don't know what. I will definitely be finishing it, because it rocks, but I will be doing it at my own pace from here on out. I can churn out artwork super-fast, but unfortunately I write at a snail's pace unless something like NaNo forces me to do otherwise. I'm working on that, because I want to become more productive as a writer. I don't know how often I really do it justice, but I have the heart of an over-achiever for sure, so being productive makes me happy in my pants.
• I've also been working on building a homepage... finally. I've been meaning to build one for a long time now, so it's long overdue. Ever since I started making it a point to do more with my writing instead of focusing only on art, it's begun to feel like all my stuff is scattered all over the web. I definitely need a central hub where I can consolidate everything, and using My Space just isn't cutting it anymore -- hasn't been for a long time, to be honest. We registered the web address www.shannonhilson.com a long time ago, but if you go there now, there is actually something to see. The site isn't huge yet, but there are already pages for all my artwork, what samples of my writing I've decided I want to share at this point, and a couple of editorials. Links to products I'm currently selling, other sites I use, and so forth are all there as well. They're just organized and consolidated so no one has to go hunting for them now. Please make sure to stop by... and often!
Hrm.... that's lame. Just two bullet points? I suppose I hardly needed them then. I had more to say, but somehow it doesn't fit in with news about a website and my NaNoWriMo project, so I may just post it later.
The weather has been really crazy here lately. It feels like we went straight from summer to winter, skipping right over autumn in the process. It was literally like... one day I practically couldn't stand to wear clothes it was still so hot out, and then a week later, I was needing to bundle up completely because that winter bite was out in full force. I'm sorry I've missed autumn, because I do like it, but I'm thrilled that winter seems to be here for all intents and purposes. This is the time of year when I feel the most alive and the most energized.
That's a little picture to commemorate our first snowfall of the year. At least this is the first snowfall where enough of it came down to actually be able to look outside and say "oh look it snowed". The trees are thoroughly confused and haven't seemed to know what to do. That one in the picture only just turned orange earlier in the week, and the one next to it that didn't make the shot still hasn't had a chance to turn at all. It's still as green as if it's still summer out. Usually all the leaves are long gone by the time snow comes.
As for the rest of life, I suppose it's moving along as usual. I never really feel like I have that much of interest to report on any given day. Most of my spare energy has been taken up by NaNoWriMo, especially lately. I'm just now coming off of that point in the process where I was thoroughly sick of writing my novel and wondering if it was even any good, but everyone goes through that phase around week three. I've been keeping on schedule and dutifully churning out my 1667 words every day so that I don't fall behind though, regardless of whether or not I actually felt like it, so I'm proud of that. I remembered the malaise phase from last year, and knew that it would pass. Thankfully I feel myself beginning to coast into that final phase that kicks in a little more every day as the 40,000 word mark approaches, so I've been blessed with the familiar sparks of excitement when I sit down to write that I always do when I'm in the process of creating something.
Overall, I'm really proud of what I'm writing. I really always am when I create something new. It will need considerable polishing and such after it's done, but all first drafts do. If I'm to make one New Year's resolution for 2008, I think it will be to take both of my first drafts and get them both through the editing process. Normally I'm all about the final stages of creating something -- the stages where the tough part is over, and now you get to add the finishing touches -- polish it and make it pretty. I'm not really sure why I haven't been able to keep my butt in gear when it comes to doing that with my novel. Oh well... baby steps, I guess. I'm personally still in shock that I've actually finally managed to sit down and write either of them at all.
I know I say this at the end of every month, but I do not know where the time went. It seems like just yesterday that I was getting angry at the NaNoWriMo site for being too bogged down by heavy traffic to let me sign up on the very first day possible, which was the first of this month. Now it will be time to actually start writing my novel the day after tomorrow, or I suppose I can start tomorrow, if I decide to stay up late on Halloween so that I can get a head start on my writing at midnight. I'm considering that for sure. It would be nice to wake up in the morning on November 1st with something other than a blank Word document staring me in the face.
By some miracle, I'm actually armed and ready to do some serious writing this year. Last year was the year I just wanted to see if I could do it. This year is the year I'm getting serious about it and really seeing how far I can go if I push myself. I actually have my entire plot and all the major twists mapped out in advance for once, so I don't have to worry about figuring out "what happens next" the whole time. I have extensive sketches of all my main characters to refer to. I can just focus on getting it written now. I'm so proud of myself! I also actually got my art calendar finished, posted, and up for sale as well, so I don't have to worry about finding time to do that next month either. People are right. This whole "planning ahead" thing isn't a waste of time... and it only took me 32 years to figure that out.
For those of you who have been hemming and hawing about whether or not to participate yourselves, it's not too late! Go on over to nanowrimo.org and sign up... if you can get the site to load, anyway. I guess it's slow again because of all the people signing up at the last minute.
Well, it looks like I finally managed to get the NaNoWriMo site to stop spazzing out on me and let me log into my author's page so I could update my information and get everything all set for next month. (This is a very good thing, since anyone who knows me very well also knows that patience is so not one of my virtues. When I want to do something, I want to do it now, don't you know.)
For those of you who haven't a clue what I'm talking about when I talk about NaNoWriMo, which is probably everyone who doesn't care that much about "writing writing" or who doesn't have a writing enthusiast on their friends list who talks about it non-stop, here's the low-down. NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, which is the month of November. The idea behind the event is to get all those people who are always saying "I'll write a novel someday" to actually just sit down in front of their computer and write one instead of waiting around for that perfect "someday" to materialize. Anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel before knows that "someday" never actually happens on its own, right?
Anyway... the object behind NaNo is to write a 50,000 word novel during November... or at least the first 50,000 words of a novel, if yours turns out to be longer than that. That's it. If you can do that, you win. Plus, you have this nice, long piece of writing you can point to with pride and say "I did that", which doesn't exactly suck either.
Sign-ups have already started at the NaNo site, even though the actual writing doesn't start until next month, and my page is, as I mentioned, up and ready. (Click on the little participant's thingy up there if you want to see it or add me as a writing buddy, which I really hope anyone on my friends list will do if they decide to participate.) The month before is the time to meet writing buddies, visit the NaNo forums, outline your plot (if you do that kind of thing), and get psyched about next month. It's so much fun.
Is anyone else here planning on participating? If so, do you have any ideas about what you want to write yet?
So I suppose it's time for an actual update. I don't do those nearly enough anymore. Now that NaNoWriMo is over with, I'm getting caught up on lots of things, including updating all my blogs, finishing up commissions I'm working on for the holidays, and hopefully after that, getting back into my personal art. It's amazing how much I've missed it.
♠ As I mentioned, NaNoWriMo is over now, with it being December and all. It was tough for me to stick to it, especially having never written anything longer than a short story before, but I did it, and I actually came out a winner!
Now granted, all I had to do to win was complete the 50,000 word challenge in one month's time, and the only "prize" is the novel itself and the satisfaction of having written it, but was that ever a major accomplishment for me all by itself. The novel actually came out really good, too. It's a fantasy novel, kind of allegorical in nature like a lot of my work, that is very similar in set-up to Alice in Wonderland. It contains a lot of themes I've been kicking around in my head for a while now, some of which people will recognize and others that I've just kept to myself. A couple of characters from my paintings even made cameo appearances. It was a blast to write, and overall it's something I'm really proud of. As far as what I'm going to do with it next, after editing and clean-up of course, I've been kicking around a couple of ideas, including self-publishing. Nothing's set in stone yet though, so I guess we'll see.
♠ I can't believe it's already December, of all things. Where the time goes, I will never know. I'm kind of miffed because we haven't gotten any snow yet. It seems like a ton of people have been getting it since Halloween, so I want to know what's holding mine up! I can't accept that it's really December until I see snow outside, and yes... that is my lame attempt to blame putting off getting into hardcore Christmas planning on the weather. Thank you for asking.
One
of the trees directly in front of our balcony turned very suddenly from
a dirty, transitional green to a warm, delicious gold after all the
wonderful stormy weather we had this past weekend. Really... one day I
was looking at our trees wondering when they were going to turn and
then I woke up this morning and really noticed how gorgeous this one's
gotten over the past couple of days. That's when I decided it might be
nice to share it with my friends by including it in the portrait of the
day. So, with that, I am off to enjoy a hot mug of Madagascar Vanilla Red and begin writing my NaNo novel. Happy November, everyone!
You know, maybe there really is a little something to that old adage about whether or not you accomplish what you want to when it comes to your personal goals being "all about your attitude". I used to roll my eyes each and every time someone would say something like that to me in regards to whatever, but I've been seeing the frame of mind in a whole new light recently. There are other factors to consider, of course, but attitude really does seem to be key.
For instance, take that whole little dream I've had forever about actually sitting down and writing a novel. Not necessarily the next War and Peace, but a short novel at least. That's been probably number two or three on my "really want to do" list since I was really young, yet there always seemed to be some excuse. If it wasn't that I didn't have time, it was that my relationship wasn't going well, so I needed to focus my energy on that. If it wasn't that my depression was acting up, it was that I just didn't have any good ideas that I could stretch into something that long. The list goes on and on, and the novel kept getting put off, even after I ran out of "legitimate excuses".
Lately I've been thinking about it more seriously, and then I went and signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. Even though NaNo is really something that is "just for fun", it still did the trick as far as jump starting that creative process. It's amazing what giving yourself a start date and an end date for a specific project can do for motivation. When you can't put it off, you find that you buckle down instead. Where I couldn't think of anything as far as ideas for novels before, I find that now that I've put my mind to it, I can't stop thinking of them. They're everywhere! In news articles that I read, movies I watch, and even my dreams. I can hardly wait for NaNo to start so I can start writing. I'm really excited about it, and I think that what I'm cooking up could turn out to be something really special.
I think I am starting to finally understand what everyone's obsession with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is. I've always been a sucker for really unique-smelling, good quality perfume oils, as they are so good for my moods, and Black Phoenix is pretty much the coolest source I've found so far for things like that. I used to have tons of different scented oils back when I lived in California that I used to get at a number of little new age shops and street fairs. Unfortunately though, my original collection is still back in California, and alas.... there are no such awesome little shops that I've found yet here in Connecticut, so I'm glad to have discovered Black Phoenix. I can start building my collection again. I just billed two clients for their down payments on commissioned artwork they requested for the holidays, so as soon as I get those in my hot little hand, I will probably treat myself to some full-sized bottles of some of the scents I sampled last time, and maybe try a couple of new ones.
With Halloween on the way, I've been getting back into watching a lot of different spooky movies and such. Last night I watched the most wonderful old black-and-white horror flick on TV. It was called Carnival of Souls. Normally anything that old really doesn't spook me out much, but this one certainly did. I also really loved the story and the way it was treated by the director. It was creepy and spooky and cheesy in that wonderful way that only campy old horror movies can be. What? You want to see it, you say? Well, you're in luck! When I was reading all about Carnival of Souls at Wikipedia this morning, I stumbled across a link to where you can watch the whole thing on-line right on your 'puter. So... who likes cheesy old black-and-white horror movies? I do! I do! Enjoy!
