Category: Writing

A Letter to My Pre – JuNoWriMo Self

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle14 Comments
In the tradition of “A Letter to my Younger Self”, I decided to writer a letter to my pre-JuNoWriMo self.  
Dear Writer in Training,
Congratulation. You did it.  You completed the first draft of your first novel.  I am so very proud of you.
Now I realize that when this month started you were all worried about if you would even be able to write a single page.  And, your brain was focused on getting 50,000 words no matter what, but I am happy to say you learned so many more lessons this month then you even thought possible.    The most important lesson will be that you are going to fall in love with writing.  So, be ready for it and enjoy the process.   
At the beginning, I don’t think you understood how the process of writing was going to make you feel both mentally and physically. It is not going to be easy and it will not be automatic, but over the course of the month you are going to get an idea of what being a writer is all about.  
You will have goals and deadlines and people depending on you and if you are open to that, you writing life is going to be very fulfilling.  
You will get an education in understanding the difference between the craft of writing and the business of writing.  Pay attention, it will be important someday.   
You will dare to put your writing out there for the world to see and you will get some feedback.  Just take in any and all criticism because you can always learn something.  Even if the criticism sounds harsh, suck it up.  It will only make you better.   
In addition, understand that your writing process is very much like your personality.  You are an organized and focused person, but you like to know the answers before the questions are even asked.  It is the lawyer in you.  But, be open for the surprise twist and turns that your characters are going to take.  It is a blast when your MC does something you didn’t expect them to do.  
And, while you may have thought writing was a lonely pursuit, you will be pleasantly surprised that over the course of the month, you will make some great writer friends who are supportive and want you to succeed.  Don’t take that for granted. 
I am really excited about the month you are going to have.  Although you need to get more rest and exercise, in the end your will achieve your goals and most important you will have finished what you have started.  
Enjoy the journey,
New Writer

If you knew then, what you know now, what would you have done different? 

My deepest and heart felt thanks to:

A.E. Howard, Becca J. Campbell, James Eggebeen, EM Castellan, Morgan Hyde, A.M. Schultz, Amanda Fanger, Charlotte Stevens, Juliana Haygert, Felicia Wetzig,  Wendy Lu, Angi Black,  and the other JuNoWriMo participants.  You are all awesome.

Am I Ruined for Life?

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle39 Comments

It is that time of the month, where I feel safe to reveal some of my insecurities for the world to see.  It is Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day!

My main concern for the month is that my first novel-writing experience has ruined me for the rest of my writing career.

In June, I finished a month-long writing challenge called JuNoWriMo.  With a goal of 50,000 words, I was able to write over 75,000 words.  I did what the challenge asked me to do; Just Write.  I really enjoyed writing this way.  It was my first novel.  But, it was a novel I had been thinking about for over 2 years.  I knew exactly how it was supposed to start and end.  I knew the main character inside and out.  I knew the setting backward and forward.   I knew the lesson my MC was supposed to learn by the end and she got there after going through several conflicts.  The issues in the beginning came to complete and sometimes funny conclusions at the end.  Dare I say it, the process was easy.

Don’t get me wrong, I woke up early to write. I stayed up late to write. I didn’t go out much and a couple of days I didn’t bath (Am I sharing too much?). But, in the grand scheme of things, I felt that the month went very smoothly.

I created a daily journal about my writing experience and there were only a couple of days that I would classify as me having a “moment”. Other than that, it was so much fun.

My concern is what if the next time it is not so easy.  No way it could be. I have another story idea, which I just thought about this month.  It is with two MC, but besides the broad story, I know nothing about them.  It is in familiar settings, but it will still take some research.  And, I have an idea of where it should start, but no idea of where it will end.

I am concerned that the process isn’t going to be so easy and will I be up for it.  I have given myself a month to outline and plan and then jumping right back into the writing fray with Camp Nanowrimo in August.

I would love it if my first experience was my writing process, but, I don’t think that is realistic.

Did my first novel-writing experience ruin me for life? 

JuNoWriMo Particpant Interview Felicia Wetzig

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle2 Comments

I am so excited to feature one of my favorite bloggers on the net and JuNoWriMo Winner, Felicia Wetzig. 

Tell me a little about what you are writing for Junowrimo. 

It’s a paranormal story, loosely based on a dream I had about a tiger with green eyes. A few weeks after the dream, the image was still vivid in my mind and I began to think about a person whose spirit could leave his/her body and become an animal. There are a lot of spirit based entities in my story (not in a religious sense), I’m using various shape-shifter legends and some Faerie legends.

Chloe’s a normal country girl who’s spent most of her life in the forest, but when a strange energy in the forest draws dangerous creatures to the area, her safe haven begins to fall apart. The only person who seems to be able to help her, a new student at her college named Keegan, shares the exact appearance of the ‘man’ who brutally attacked her. 

Is this your first time doing this type of challenge? 

Yep. 

How has it meet your expectations so far? 

It has been quite a ride. I was hesitant about getting involved. I wasn’t sure how it would really help or hinder the writing process, but in the end I’m glad I did. I would have never written 50,000 words in one month. My first project ended at about 100,000 and that took me more than 6 months. It’s been great having other people to push me along; the camaraderie was the best part.  It has also been a lesson in not thinking so much about every little thing and, instead, letting the words flow unedited. 

What was your writing schedule like this past week; time of day, # of words per day.

Oh boy…  I had a lot of catching up to do this week. The first week of the challenge I was ahead, but things (work mostly) got in the way. As of last Sunday, I was 16549 away from the finish line.  I wish I could say I have a consistent writing schedule but…

Sunday 4013

Monday 1600

Tuesday 854

Wednesday 715

Thursday 0

Friday 3190

Saturday 6349 (my biggest day for the month)

I crossed the finish line about 15 minutes before midnight. 

Did you do any planning for Junowrimo?  If so what type of planning and how are your plans working out so far? 

Not really. I’m not a big planner. I knew my two main characters, and I had a basic understanding of the paranormal rules I’d be following. Beyond that I don’t plot or create formal outlines. I just let the scenes happen and then I fill in missing points later. 

What is your word count as of June 30th?

At midnight I had 50,172 words, and still more work to do before it’s finished. 

For more information and to connect with Felicia visit her on her website,The Peasants Revolt, Twitter and Facebook.
Website: The Peasant Revolt – http://scotzig.com   Twitter: @Scotzig      Facebook:  Felicia Wetzig

Camp NaNoWriMo Participant Interview Morgan Hyde

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle4 Comments
Tell me a little about what you are writing for Junowrimo.
Err… is this a bad time to admit I’m actually writing this for Camp NaNoWriMo? Which just happens to also be in June (and August!)? I hope not. I think both Camp NaNo and JuNoWriMo are awesome. Anything that gets people writing is!
Anyways, for my unspecified June novel writing challenge, I’m doing a rewrite of a YA fantasy story that began life during NaNoWriMo 2010. It’s called We Who Are About To Die (WWAATD), and I’m on my fourth full draft. This June, I’m making some of the biggest changes so far, re-focusing the story on my protagonist, and her personal growth. WWAATD is set in a world similar to ancient Rome, in a land with an insane king who has established blood sacrifice as the state religion. The story follows Renata, a wealthy farmer’s daughter, who tries to rescue her cousin from the High Priest, and ends up convicted of treason and sentenced as a gladiator. She must then learn to fight and face the loss of friends in the arena, eventually gaining the strength and skill to figure out how to save her cousin.
Is this your first time doing this type of challenge?
Nope. I’ve done NaNoWriMo three times in November, and this is my third Camp NaNoWriMo. Plus I’ve done Script Frenzy three times (once doing a movie version of WWAATD), and FAWM (February Album Writing Month) for the past three years as well. As a procrastinator, and someone who works well in high pressure situations, these challenges are an amazing resource to give me the motivation and community support that helps me finish projects. I’ve kind of become addicted!
What did you learn from the last challenge that is helping you with Junowrimo?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned from all my ‘creativity with a deadline’ challenges is that the quality of my writing & storytelling drops as I speed up. But I’ve also learned that I can mitigate this loss of quality by having a rough plan in mind. For example, despite huge plot changes since draft #3 of WWAATD, I knew what a lot of the key story points would be ahead of time for this draft. I’m filling the time between the key points very differently, but (spoiler alert) I’m still killing off her boyfriend, and she’s still going to successfully rescue her cousin.
As well, albeit indirectly, participating in NaNoWriMo 2011 helped me figure out what needed to happen for this draft. In December, I posted in the forums, opening up WWAATD for critique, and to my surprise and delight, plenty of people were interested in reading it. The feedback I received from them was invaluable in shaping the changes I decided to make for this draft. Truly, one of the best things about NaNoWriMo-style events is the community. 
What was your writing schedule like this past week; time of day, # of words per day?
My last exam (I’m a graduating senior in high school) was last Friday, so I’ve been writing 2000 to 3000 words per day since then in an effort to catch up. But I was extremely far behind before that, and I’ve been lazier than I should have (sleeping in, relaxing, enjoying NOT studying), so I’m still WAY behind. I’ve generally been writing in two separate sessions: one immediately after breakfast (around 11am) and one in the evening, sometime after 10pm.
Did you do any planning for Junowrimo? If so what type of planning and how are your plans working out so far?
I didn’t do any planning specifically for this challenge, but I had accumulated plenty of notes and ideas for this draft, since I originally planned on finishing it this spring, not starting it in June! I basically had the existing drafts, a few specific major changes I knew needed to happen, and a general idea that the story needed to centre more on my protagonist. In writing this draft, as I make all sorts of changes (including a POV change to first person), I can feel the story becoming so much better than before, and that’s incredibly rewarding.
Although I didn’t have a detailed plan before June started, I’ve ended up with one since then, mostly by accident. Because this is June, and I was in school for most of the month, I wrote a lot during my spare, and so I decided to keep my novel in an Evernote note, accessible from my computer and online at school. This is a big change from my past habits of handwriting and later writing in Scrivener. As it turned out, having my entire novel in one document really helped me plan. When I wrote something that I wanted to reference later, I just added a line about it further down the page. When I got an idea for more plot, same thing. In this way, a novel plan now nearly 500 words long grew organically just below the text of my novel. It’s easy to change, easy to reference, and really helping me stay on track.
What is your word count as of June 28th?
32 000 words. I’ve never been this far behind so close to the end; I’m generally one of those annoying people who writes roughly 1667 words a day without fail and wins a day or two early. This month, I will be lucky to reach 50k. I’m still aiming to finish, but whether I win or not, I’ll be proud of what I’ve accomplished and happy to have a lot more novel than I did on June 1st.
We will forgive Morgan for not being a part of JuNoWriMo.  Any of us who take on the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month are all on the same side of crazy.  
Good luck with the rest of the challenge, Morgan!
For more information about Morgan, please visit her blog and follower her on twitter.  
Blog: onelifeglory.blogspot.ca
Twitter: @Amethystars

JuNoWriMo Participant Interview A.M. Schultz

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle3 Comments

Here is the next installment of my JuNoWriMo Participant Inteviews.  Please welcome A.M. Schultz.

Tell me a little about what you are writing for Junowrimo.

I had been toggling ideas for three different WIPs prior to JuNoWriMo. The one I choice to focus primarily on for JuNoWriMo has been a fantasy piece. Choosing Fantasy over the other two has had some advantages, but there is so much world building required that much of my “word count”  has been used to outline characters, nations, etc. I’m not sure I’d have made nearly as much progress without the challenge aspect, though.

Is this your first time doing this type of challenge?

Something this formal, yes. I used to write fiction pieces on weekly deadlines here-and-there, but this is my first time taking a multi-writer challenge of this magnitude.

How has it meet your expectations so far?

It’s been “different,” in the sense that I won’t have 50,000 pages of a manuscript completed at the end, but I will have a much more developed world at my disposal by the time the month is done. I started 7 days into the challenge, and intentionally took on a project that I knew would need tons of polishing either way.

What was your writing schedule like this past week; time of day, # of words per day.

My schedule has been pretty bonkers. I am a full-time student through the year and actually took the Summer off, so I assumed I’d have tons of time to just write. I still hold a full-time job, too, and between setting up a better platform for my website, redoing the graphic work, etc, and then working on book cover graphics, blog posts,  I’ve just had to squeeze writing in when I can.

I carry a pocket Moleskine notebook about with me everywhere, though, and sketch an idea down, expand it in one of my larger notebooks, then type out the ideas later. For the fantasy world, I actually used the PC game “Civilization IV” by Sid Meier to create the map (which crashed on me after about six hours of plotting the world the first time), and it has been incredibly helpful.

All-in-all, JuNoWriMo work and miscellaneous stuff, I’m logging a good 60-70 hours a week, so hopefully this all pans out eventually.

Did you do any planning for Junowrimo?  If so what type of planning and how are your plans working out so far?

I actually found out about JuNoWriMo on the 7th of the month after seeing a few friends on my Twitter feed using the #JuNoWriMo hashtag, so no planning. I was aware of NaNoWriMo, and had told myself I would consider taking that challenge later in the year. If anything, I think I realized that this isn’t the type of challenge you can complete successfully without some type of gameplan.

What is your word count as of June 22th?

I’ve got about 8,500 words, which is WAAAAAY off the mark. But, I have a better idea of where I want the story to go than had I just started writing aimlessly, so I’ll take it. I’m hoping to be sitting around the 15,000 mark by the end of the challenge.

To learn more about AM Schultz, please be sure to visit his site and following him on Twitter.

Website: amschultz.com and Twitter:  @am_sch