Writing

December 2: Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?

TV. The one thing I noticed most when I started writing every day for NaNoWriMo was how much less TV I watched. At the end of October I finished watching the series to date of Eureka, and, in keeping with my tradition of having a series to watch at all times, should have started something new. But I didn’t, because I knew I’d spend 1-2 hours or more every day writing, and it was hard enough to keep up with the shows that I was already watching. I haven’t missed it.

I can’t eliminate TV entirely. That would just be silly. Clearly I need a mindless escape. But I like that I’ve cut it down significantly.

On that note, it IS nearly Christmas and I AM looking for another series to watch in December. Preferably one with less than 5 outstanding seasons. Don’t want to waste too much time.

One word

Based on my recent success with writing stimulus packages (NaNoWriMo), I’ve been looking at a few similar sites like 750words.com and, recently, reverb10.com.

Reverb10 is designed for bloggers, to give them a prompt for each day in December. I thought I’d give it a try, though my entries will be sporadic at best next week when I’m in England for graduation, I’d like to try to get into blogging again. So, here goes!

December 1 One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

Adventure.

2010 was an adventure in all possible senses of the word. It was exciting, new and occasionally terrifying. It was quite often about putting one foot in front of the other, following the bread crumb trail only to be derailed by a siren. But the most important part of any adventure worth having is the journey, not the destination. And that was my 2010. It took me many, many places and really, it’s not about where I ended up. I hope.

Beginning.

I would like 2011 to be about beginnings. New projects, a new career, a new life path, a new home. Maybe even a new city. Maybe even a new person. I would like to begin as many things as possible in 2011 so that I can spend 2012 and onwards completing them.

Excerpt #1

From near the beginning of the book…

It wasn’t Eileen, but a man, at least six feet tall, who stood in the doorway. Lexi yelped and tried to cover herself, splashing water out of the tub and onto the stone floor.

“Excuse me! I’m in here!” Lexi snapped, her face turning red. The tall man looked unperturbed as he walked over. He stared down at her. A chill ran down Lexi’s spine. The man was not only tall but also incredibly muscular. There wasn’t any likelihood of her successfully defending herself against this intruder.

“I know,” his voice was deep and his accent beautifully lilting, “That is why I have come here to meet with you. As per the message I sent you earlier this morning.”

As he watched her struggle to cover herself, his green eyes showed slight amusement. The rest of his face, however, showed no emotion. He wore a costume, too, a belted tunic and a cloak with seven stripes of colour.

“I had, however, hoped to find you dressed,” he said.
“Then maybe you should have knocked!” Lexi said angrily, “It’s completely inappropriate…”
“For a husband to see his wife naked?” the man asked. Lexi stared at him.
“You’re sorely mistaken, mister. I’m nobody’s wife,” she said. For proof, she held up her left hand and noticed a Claddagh ring on her ring finger for the first time. She blanched.
The man chuckled. He finally turned away from her and opened the door.

“Eileen, please dress Lady Alexandra and then show her the way to the sitting room outside my study downstairs,” he said, his voice oozing authority. Lady Alexandra? Lexi wondered. No one had called her Alexandra since her grandparents died.

NaNoWriMo take two

Being unemployed and generally unmotivated, I decided to use my first exam and essay free November in years to do NaNoWriMo.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, National Novel Writing Month is a challenge to write an entire book (50,000 words) in a month. Which is about 1,667 words a day.

For the most part, I kept with the 1,667 words a day rule. There was, however, at least one day in each week that I didn’t have enough time to write. I then had to write double the next day. Of course, I didn’t want to ruin my beautiful chart, so usually I put in that I hit the word count each day so it would look pretty:

Of course, last Friday I stupidly did not do that and now my chart is ruined. Seriously, though, I loved this chart. It really helped me keep on track to update it every day, to watch my progress and to be constantly reminded how how much I had left to reach my daily word count:

I want one of these for every book I write. I’ll have to look into that.

Of course, now you’re probably asking what my book is about. As usual, let me back into this answer with a little preamble about how and why I chose my subject.

Everything I’ve written in the last two years or so has been quasi-autobiographical, pseudo-memoir creative non-fiction. But my true background, my passion for writing, comes from character based fantasy novels.

I haven’t been reading what I would call “good” books in the last little while. It started in January with a new addiction to a romance-fiction series by Karen Marie Moning that Alaina sent me for Christmas. Then, with so much school work and traveling for the next two semesters, I ended up needing books that were entertaining. That were an escape. I couldn’t concentrate on the literary type of books I normally read.

When I got home from England, I didn’t want to think about life much. So I kept reading about other people’s melodramatic lives in new romance serieses.

When I decided to endeavor to write 50,000 words in one month, I knew I needed to break away from my usual type of writing. I knew I needed something that was exciting and interesting to keep my attention for a whole month. I knew I wasn’t going to write the next great Canadian novel in one month.

So I decided to write a romance novel. A time travel romance set in Ireland. Ireland is the perfect place for it, because it’s already so magical and romantic in my mind. And I know it well enough to describe it in fair detail.

This was my plot description:

Lexi Kelly is a Canadian visiting some relatives in small town in the Connemara region of Ireland. Her cousins take her to a Beltane festival, where she gets a wee bit drunk. Costumed people start to blur as they dance about, and the next thing she remembers is waking up in the morning. Only she’s not where she thought she was, she’s in 1275 and servant girl is calling her “Lady Alexandra.” She quickly discovers that she’s recently married, to a bullheaded Irish lord, Aedh Muimhnech Ó Conchobair. Strangely, everyone thinks she’s always been there. Her and her husband, however, are not on good terms. He could care less about her and had to marry her as part of an alliance. Miscommunication and frustrations ensue.

To further complicate things: just as she’s starting to resign herself to her new timeline, she gets thrown back into modern Ireland. She’s returned to her Aunt’s house, where she’s apparently been off studying Gaelic for two weeks. Confused, she decides to extend her stay in Ireland and meets the beautiful Irish man she was always hoping for, a charmer named Dechlan Gallagher. Things progress and she starts to think that 1275 and Aedh were all just a really strange, whiskey induced dream.

At which point she gets thrown BACK to 1275.

Basically she keeps jumping between the two timelines at unpredictable (and hilarious) times. There’s a mysterious force at work and eventually she has to make a choice between the two timelines.

Fun, right? I thought so. And guess what? It worked! I won!

Apparently I can actually write every day and get somewhere. Considering I’m still unemployed and without a career path, maybe I really should be a writer! I’m pretty damn proud of myself, I have to say. Which is hard to come by when you do almost nothing with your life on a regular basis!

Check back soon and I’ll post an excerpt!

Such pretty words

In January of this year, I wrote four essays in two weeks, along with some journalism assignments, totaling some 10,000 words. I posted about how I never wanted to write another word again. Later that day, I posted the first bit about how Fae and I were starting to work on The Book.

The truth is that I can’t live without writing. I have been doing it as long as I remember. I even enjoy writing essays and journalism assignments (except when I procrastinate too much). I love words. I love communicating. I love creating an image with words.

In 2009, I started to take my writing seriously. Fae and I wrote over 50,000 words of The Book. We even attempted NaNoWriMo (we failed though… we got maybe 5,000 words in November). I started blogging regularly, something I greatly enjoy. This time last year, the only person who read my blog was Fae. Over the summer I managed to post nearly every weekday. I started to feel my way through this blogosphere, and where I wanted to be in it. I still have a lot to think about, and big plans for this blog. But the point is that I was writing. All the time. And in writing, as in all things, practice makes perfect, right? I’m learning how to write the stories that make up my own life.

I also started to write some other things. Things I never thought I’d write. Like right now I’m working on a series of monologues.

I’m learning how to think like a writer. How to be serious about this, as a possible future. How to grow as a writer. I have a long way to go, but I am really loving it so far.