Is it November yet?

I've neglected the blog this week. I've been spending my free time setting up all the research, outlines, and characters on WriteWay Pro. I downloaded the extended demo they offered for NaNo participants and fell in love. The half off code offered through NaNo made the purchase a no brainer. Now that I have everything set up I'm getting really antsy to start writing. Hopefully I can make it two more weeks without rebelling.
In the mean time, I'll probably just hang out in the forums and get involved in the community.

Until next time,
-V

Cover

While taking a break from filling out character outlines today I decided to browse through some stock photo sites. I have seen a lot of people offering to make covers on the Nano forums, and I thought it would be a neat way to make the book feel more real even though i'm not allowed to start writing it until November. So using my very elementary knowledge of Gimp and an inexpensive stock photo I created this:

It's really gotten me excited and I think it fits the mood of the story really well. It's not perfect, but I definitely feel accomplished.

Until next time,
-V

Synopsis

The NaNoWriMo site has relaunched for the year, and I've been having a blast on the forums getting to know people and hearing about their ideas.

I've been busy plotting out my chapters and trying to nail down subplots, but I don't want to get too detailed. I have a feeling the ideas that come while writing will be very interesting and help the flow.

I did finally write a synopsis which I posted on my account:

Seventeen year old Caroline Butler had her world turned upside-down in one night. Her brother Matthew was killed in a car accident caused by her best friend Sarah's recklessness.
Unable to cope with her brother's death and the belief that her best friend got off easy, Caroline sets out to punish Sarah by taking away the things she loves most. But when her hate and bullying drive Sarah to attempt suicide Caroline must decide if her vengeance has gone too far and finally come to terms with her grief.

I'm still sorting out the character prompts and will post them soon. In the meantime, fellow NaNo participants can find me on the site as griffinvw.

Until next time, keep calm and write on :)
-V

Outlining and experiments

I've been progressing well through the outlining stages of my book and will be taking the next few weeks to really get to know the characters. I'm thinking of doing some writing prompts from their different points of view, which I might post here. I'm getting excited for November and NaNoWriMo. I think it will be the push I need to keep my butt in the chair and just write.

In the meantime I've been researching free writing software and decided to experiment with ywriter. Adding characters and scenes is pretty easy and its nice to have everything in one place but I think I'll end up using word for the actual writing.

I'm off to write some character prompts and figure out twitter (yes I know I'm a few years late).

Until next time, keep calm and write on :)
-V

The no good, goal failing week.

As per my last post, I set out to reach 5000 words on my WIP by the time my husband returned from the field today. It became clear to me Thursday that it wasn't going to happen. I reached a point where I realized I wasn't ready to write this book. That is not to say I'm giving up, I'm just going to try a different method because I'm having trouble piecing together the paranormal details of the WIP (which I realized was why I was writing so slowly). I'm going to try my hand at something more contemporary first. I've been hashing out some broad ideas and characters and I'm going to make sure I take the time to research as thoroughly as I can with the goal to start writing November first, just in time for Nanowrimo. I'm itching to start hashing out the first chapter already, but I don't want to get in the pickle I got in before- I want to be able to follow through and learn from this writing experience. So until November, I will be updating on my outlining progress but will not write a word.  I'm hoping this can help me plant my feat on more solid ground,.

Disappointed but hopeful,
-V

Word count and goals for the week.

With my experience writing papers and articles throughout high school and college, I expected to fly through the first draft of my book easily. I had what I felt was a successful brainstorming, summary, outline, and detailed character summaries all ready to go. But when I sat down in front of the blank word document my brain seemed to wonder off into another world. I had NO idea how to begin. It quickly became obvious that writing nonfiction, and even outlining fiction, was nothing like putting your story down on paper. Three days into my first draft I have approximately 2500 words. While this is certainly nothing to scoff at, my expectations set me up for a sense of failure.

But instead of succumbing to it, I'm going to challenge myself to keep writing everyday- even if I only get a few hundred words down each session. My husband is in the field this week (he's military) so I have lots of time to myself and there is no reason not to take advantage of it. My personal challenge to myself is to have another 2500 words completed by the time he gets home Friday (which will bring me up to 5000 total). I'm going to try to evenly break it up to about 800 words a day, but as long as I complete the challenge I'm not that concerned about the daily totals.

Hopefully I can stick to my plan, and I will post the results (hopefully successful ones) on Friday or Saturday.

Until then, keep calm and write on :)
 -V

New Adult- the little genre that can.

It has taken me years to progress from the "Wow, that would be a cool idea for a book but I have no idea how to translate it" mindset to actually giving writing a shot. I went out a bought myself a brand new notebook, dubbing is THE notebook. Everything from beginning ramblings and questions to character descriptions and about five different outlines all in the same place. Feeling accomplished, I started thinking way ahead of myself- how I would publish it, what the "blurb" would say, what genre it was. Then it hit me- my main character was 20 years old, far too old to be in a young adult book (especially since she is the youngest character in the book). At the same time, her experiences and growth aren't quite on par with adult fiction either. I immediately jumped online to do research, hoping my book wasn't doomed before the first sentence was even written.
That's when I stumbled on the idea of "New Adult" fiction, sometimes called Upper-YA. The term was thought up by St. Martin's Press in 2009 for that in-between genre. New adult books generally have a college-aged or post-college aged main character. They are typically coming-of-age stories much like YA, but a bit more mature with more consequences for your actions- just like real life.
I'm surprised that the genre isn't bigger than it is. After all, it might be nice to read about a first kiss or first loves riding into the sunset to college, but those experiences end quickly and have less drastic repercussions on your life than the ones you make in college.
Your early twenties are about defining yourself outside of your friends and family and learning that your actions have permanent consequences. Yes, the content will be more mature than YA because your life in college is far more mature than your life in high school. But I think this genre is a great way to appeal to people of all ages, from the high-school students who haven't gone through it yet to the 30-somethings reminiscing.

If you are interesting in finding NA books, I found a blog called NA Alley that has a ton of reviews and good information. Fingers crossed, maybe one day in the future you'll see my book featured there.



Until next time, keep calm and write on :)
-V