#Nanowrimo 2013 Plans

I've decided to join the madness that's Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month! Instead of the 50K goal that's usual for Nano's I'm going to write a children's book. Since a children's book isn't supposed to be that long my goal will be between 15 and 20K, basically just until the story is finished. I don't want to add word fat just to reach a 50K goal, I want to get out of this month with a complete manuscript.

I decided not to write Dragonslayer during November, but am instead writing one of the ideas I've been toying around with for a few weeks. I'm giving myself one month to make that idea work, and then I'm returning to finish what I started with Dragonslayer.

Since I'm not going for the 50K words, I'm also going to do a first edit of this new manuscript in November (if the writing gods are nice to me at least). You can follow my process on my Nano profile, or check my process in the sidebar. I don't want to reveal the title of my Nano novel yet because it's PURE AWESOMENESS, so it will have the code name Nano GGU for now.

Happy writing!

Writing the Old-Fashioned Way

The biggest chunk (almost all of it actually) of the first draft of Dragonslayer was written in Scrivener. I love the program - it makes it so easy to make your manuscript look professional, and it's very organised. However, since I started university I've barely been writing. Sitting in front of the computer doesn't inspire me, it only distracts me or reminds me of school assignments. I've barely written any fiction for over a year, which is terrible because the stories are still so fresh in my mind.

So I decided to try if writing the old-fashioned way would help. It's slower, but it's more portable and won't force me to spend even more time on a computer than I already do on a daily basis. So, I'm now writing in a note book with fountain pen.

I actually really hate pink. But this Monologue notebook was on sale for only $3, which is a deal I couldn't resist. If writing like this works for me on the long term, I'll make sure to buy a notebook in a slightly more "me" colour like purple.

So far it's been great. I managed to write almost 700 words today, after not having written anything in over a month. I call that progress!

Dragonslayer
The first draft of Dragonslayer was awesome, but it really needed tightening. Instead of trying to patch together little pieces of story, I'm rewriting huge parts of it. Therefore I'm resetting the counter on the sidebar. Bye bye, 20.000 words! I hope to see you again soon.

So Many Ideas, So Little Time

As you can see, I'm stuck on Dragonslayer. And I've been stuck for a while now. It's not that I have a writer's block - it's nothing like that. It's just that real life is getting in the way. In between starting a new job, moving, going on vacation, there just hasn't been enough regularity in my daily routine that I felt I had the peace and quiet to write. I hope this will change when I start university again in two weeks.

But, there is also good news! While at work I got a sudden flash of inspiration for a horror short. I haven't written a horror short in years (I wrote two under the pen name Finn Herloce, which you can find here if interested), but I loved the twist in this one. When I came home I immediately wrote down the outline in Scrivener so I can't forget it.

So I'm adding the short story progress bar here, so you can all see when I find the time to write it (: It still has the temporary name of "Horror House" but I think that sounds awful, so I'll change it after I'm done writing it. I'm aiming for it to be 8,000 words, but it could be a great deal shorter, that's something I'll have to work out while writing it.

The Writer in You Blog Hop #2

This weekly meme is hosted by Katie @ The Fiction Diaries. Basically it's a blog hop for aspiring writers with a weekly question.

Q: When and where do you do most of your writing?

I have the freedom to write whenever I want right now - university doesn't start until a few months, and I don't have a job. I try to write in the morning/noon, as that seems to be the time that works best for me. It's very low-pressure to write so early in the day, so if I don't get my daily quota I can just do it later. I write on my laptop, on the couch in the living room. I'm feeling pretty bad right now that I haven't written today yet, but my Scrivener isn't working for some reason ):

When and where do you write? Leave a comment (:

Reached the Magical 10K

I reached ten-thousand words today! I'm so proud that I've been pushing through with this writing thing. It gives me a lot more confidence that one day I'll actually be able to finish a story.

There will probably soon be a little adjustment to my goal; at the moment it's on 20,000 words, but I'm noticing that my story won't be finished by then. I might up it to about 30,000 soon. I still have the silent hope that this story will grow into a whole novel length book (about 50,000-60,000 words) but that's still a faraway dream.

I've been looking into printing my book, and so far CreateSpace seems to be the best choice. It will cost about $80 dollars to print & ship 20 books, which seems like a very good price in my opinion. The companies here in the Netherlands that print books for you often ask for about $20 for every book.

Let's hope I can continue writing as much as I do now, then the first draft of the Dragonslayer manuscript will be done in just a few months!

The Writer in You Blog Hop

This weekly meme is hosted by Katie @ The Fiction Diaries. Basically it's a blog hop for aspiring writers with a weekly question. Sounds like a great idea!

Q: Which author(s) has been your greatest inspiration?

A lot of authors inspire my writing, but in my current work Dragonslayer I'm mostly inspired by the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I just absolutely love his vivid descriptions and awesome characters. It's epic fantasy but it reads so fast somehow. Other authors that I absolutely love are Diana Peterfreund, Mira Grant, Veronica Roth, Darren Shan and Kim Harrison.

What authors are your inspiration? Leave a comment (:

Camp NaNoWriMo

To continue my writing throughout the month of June, I'm going to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo. (For those of you not familiar with the abbreviation: National Novel Writing Month). In about 20 days thousands of people will try to reach one goal: to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of June.

I'm probably not going to make those 50,000 words (I write 500 every day now - I would have to up that to 1,724). The main reason I'm participating is because I would love to meet some more fellow aspiring writers!

I'll probably be working on Dragonslayer during NaNoWriMo, unless I manage to finish it before then. Wishful thinking!