No, not the heading of a graph. This concerns goal-setting in writing.
I can't really say I'm consistent with which kind of goal I'll set (when I do set them). In general, I'll use a time goal because I like to update The Long and Winding Road at least every five days. In actual writing sessions, though, rarely is my goal based on time. On occasions where I just feel uninspired, I may break out my iTunes track of songs of alternating length—one about two minutes, the next longer—and write as much as I can during the shorter songs while resting on the longer ones. I've done something similar with commercial breaks, but I can only manage that when I'm actually interested in the show, which isn't often.
The other goal I'll set is distance, or word count. This is, of course, the way I go about NaNoWriMo, and it's also how I'll use Write or Die (although it is designed to go with either type of goal-setting). In general, I measure my progress by how many words I've churned out, since measuring the time doesn't make that much sense when I'm not being productive for every second of it. I'm necessarily productive for every word I get out (unless everything's ridiculously uninspired or it's too late at night for me to get out anything coherent). It's also easier to know exactly where I'm going on a broader scale, since I like to keep my chapter lengths more or less consistent.
How about you? Time or word count? Or page count? Or something else entirely?
P.S. The Action Girls has for some reason gotten over 100 views this month when the others around it have about 11. I have no idea what's going on with that, but thanks?
Showing posts with label nanowrimo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nanowrimo. Show all posts
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
O Thou Font of Every Blessing
While it seems most published stories need to meet certain font requirements, especially in digital publishing, I can't help but search for exactly the font in which I would like to read and write my stories.
A lot of my writing is done in 12-pt Verdana because that's what the FanFiction.Net Document Editor uses. That, of course, only applies to my fan fictions (although it should be noted that that's how I get to see the first and second drafts of The Long and Winding Road). I also use the plain horizontal lines for section breaks.
Along the Winding Road, however, currently appears in 13-pt Bell MT. I'm not sure exactly what about it seems just right for the story—as is the case for most of my fonts—but I do like the number styling in the chapter number-titles (which appear in centred 25-pt). Section breaks are currently formatted with a centred "~*~".
Mayflies is in 11-pt Georgia. This seems like a rather average font, but maybe I'd just like some tinge of normalcy in a story about ancient Mayan bird men and their sorcerer friend. Chapter headings are currently left-aligned, 12-pt, bolded letters (a "J" if Jonathan narrates, or an "M" if Matthew narrates).
Piracy Cruise Lines requires some pretty huge margins for some reason. Text is in 15-pt Garamond. Section breaks have yet to appear, but chapter number-titles are right-aligned, 18-pt, and formatted "---1---."
Dreadful Valley (my NaNoWriMo novel) was written in 12-pt Andalus, with section breaks formatted as plain horizontal lines. There were no chapter titles. I may have just needed a font that worked whether I was writing with my computer in Mac or Windows mode, although I still wouldn't put up with anything too typical, it seems.
Figments is in 12-pt Constantia with right-aligned chapter number-titles at the top of the page.
Chasers appears in 12-pt Candara. Section breaks (modelled somewhat after the Pac-Man dots) are a centred arrangement of three "◌"s. No chapter titles appear.
This blog (when it behaves) is in 12-px Copse, with the title "Novelling with Journey" in 60-px Consolas.
What kind of fonts do you like to us? Do they influence your writing at all?
A lot of my writing is done in 12-pt Verdana because that's what the FanFiction.Net Document Editor uses. That, of course, only applies to my fan fictions (although it should be noted that that's how I get to see the first and second drafts of The Long and Winding Road). I also use the plain horizontal lines for section breaks.
Along the Winding Road, however, currently appears in 13-pt Bell MT. I'm not sure exactly what about it seems just right for the story—as is the case for most of my fonts—but I do like the number styling in the chapter number-titles (which appear in centred 25-pt). Section breaks are currently formatted with a centred "~*~".
Mayflies is in 11-pt Georgia. This seems like a rather average font, but maybe I'd just like some tinge of normalcy in a story about ancient Mayan bird men and their sorcerer friend. Chapter headings are currently left-aligned, 12-pt, bolded letters (a "J" if Jonathan narrates, or an "M" if Matthew narrates).
Piracy Cruise Lines requires some pretty huge margins for some reason. Text is in 15-pt Garamond. Section breaks have yet to appear, but chapter number-titles are right-aligned, 18-pt, and formatted "---1---."
Dreadful Valley (my NaNoWriMo novel) was written in 12-pt Andalus, with section breaks formatted as plain horizontal lines. There were no chapter titles. I may have just needed a font that worked whether I was writing with my computer in Mac or Windows mode, although I still wouldn't put up with anything too typical, it seems.
Figments is in 12-pt Constantia with right-aligned chapter number-titles at the top of the page.
Chasers appears in 12-pt Candara. Section breaks (modelled somewhat after the Pac-Man dots) are a centred arrangement of three "◌"s. No chapter titles appear.
This blog (when it behaves) is in 12-px Copse, with the title "Novelling with Journey" in 60-px Consolas.
What kind of fonts do you like to us? Do they influence your writing at all?
Sunday, July 21, 2013
"That First Moment of Blinding Clarity"
The title is a quote from a recent pep talk for those in Camp NaNoWriMo this month. The writer asked us to recall the first time we clearly saw the characters of our novel, and, my current work being based on a fan fiction, I couldn't really join in.
I do remember some other moments where I met a character, or a story.
I was riding in the backseat of a car, just about to go over the highway, when a semi-truck crossed in front of us at a stop sign. On the grill were two jaws' worth of vampire teeth decals. I remember thinking that truck must have been its driver's baby. A few articles on steampunk later, the core of Macbay Transportation Services was born.
When I volunteered at the hospital, I ended up doing all of the filing they had ready for me in the main office and was transferred to the wound care centre. There I met my supervisor of sorts, whose name was Marisa. Not the English muh-RIH-sa, mind you, but muh-R-R-REE-suh. As on that morning I was on the lookout for characters for Contestant Zero, I suddenly saw a young woman named Marisa who was very particular about the pronunciation of her name. From that alone, she turned out to be the show's sassy Latina with a heart of gold.
The world of Crumbling hit me at about the second line of "Jesus is Coming Soon" while I was singing with others of my class at a devotional. It was incredibly awkward trying to shove the idea down for the rest of the song.
Later on the day I studied the nomadic section of world-building for my 2YN class, "Gypsy" came on the radio in the car, reminding me of that aspect of the week's lesson. Then "The Boxer" came on, and the plot of Roughhouse was born.
I was contemplating doing some humanisation of Pac-Man on my way to a sporting event. The ghosts were some sort of secret police force (thus their code names "Ink," "Blink," and "Pink") after the Pac-Man, who was attempting to evade them in order to not be caught for drug smuggling. I had just left the car and was walking through the parking garage towards the lift when I saw Pink in the lightless city, landing from a jump with one palm splayed over the ground for balance, her left leg bent, and her right leg straight out, the edge of her heel touching the asphalt. Such a look of determined fury was in her eyes I knew I couldn't change her, even if the story went through quite a few phases before becoming Chasers.
Chemists was born from a dream. Jacob and Scarlet were fleeing from unknown enemies and ended up in a shed, its wooden shelves filled with paint cans labelled "CELESTIAL MATTER" under a blue stripe. Jacob woke up on an aircraft driven by Martin and looked behind the cockpit to see someone controlling water and someone else directing a black, gel-like substance pulsing with jolts of blue electricity into a floating sphere.
Most of the time, I can't remember where I really got an idea, or how I came to elaborate upon it to a point I wanted to work with it. How about you? Have any of your characters stepped forward in blinding glory in the middle of a car ride? Anywhere else?
I do remember some other moments where I met a character, or a story.
I was riding in the backseat of a car, just about to go over the highway, when a semi-truck crossed in front of us at a stop sign. On the grill were two jaws' worth of vampire teeth decals. I remember thinking that truck must have been its driver's baby. A few articles on steampunk later, the core of Macbay Transportation Services was born.
When I volunteered at the hospital, I ended up doing all of the filing they had ready for me in the main office and was transferred to the wound care centre. There I met my supervisor of sorts, whose name was Marisa. Not the English muh-RIH-sa, mind you, but muh-R-R-REE-suh. As on that morning I was on the lookout for characters for Contestant Zero, I suddenly saw a young woman named Marisa who was very particular about the pronunciation of her name. From that alone, she turned out to be the show's sassy Latina with a heart of gold.
The world of Crumbling hit me at about the second line of "Jesus is Coming Soon" while I was singing with others of my class at a devotional. It was incredibly awkward trying to shove the idea down for the rest of the song.
Later on the day I studied the nomadic section of world-building for my 2YN class, "Gypsy" came on the radio in the car, reminding me of that aspect of the week's lesson. Then "The Boxer" came on, and the plot of Roughhouse was born.
I was contemplating doing some humanisation of Pac-Man on my way to a sporting event. The ghosts were some sort of secret police force (thus their code names "Ink," "Blink," and "Pink") after the Pac-Man, who was attempting to evade them in order to not be caught for drug smuggling. I had just left the car and was walking through the parking garage towards the lift when I saw Pink in the lightless city, landing from a jump with one palm splayed over the ground for balance, her left leg bent, and her right leg straight out, the edge of her heel touching the asphalt. Such a look of determined fury was in her eyes I knew I couldn't change her, even if the story went through quite a few phases before becoming Chasers.
Chemists was born from a dream. Jacob and Scarlet were fleeing from unknown enemies and ended up in a shed, its wooden shelves filled with paint cans labelled "CELESTIAL MATTER" under a blue stripe. Jacob woke up on an aircraft driven by Martin and looked behind the cockpit to see someone controlling water and someone else directing a black, gel-like substance pulsing with jolts of blue electricity into a floating sphere.
Most of the time, I can't remember where I really got an idea, or how I came to elaborate upon it to a point I wanted to work with it. How about you? Have any of your characters stepped forward in blinding glory in the middle of a car ride? Anywhere else?
Saturday, April 6, 2013
A Pearl Worth Writing For
Recently I've finally come to realize that (shocker) if I don't enjoy writing a story, it's really not worth the loads of time and effort I put into it.
This is an unfortunate realization for the readers of Break Out. I've really only been writing it for the readers. I had my fun in The Rules, but Break Out was the more seriously-taken sequel to explain why I was able to have my fun in The Rules. Negligible amounts of my own interest went into deciding to write the sequel. The chapter with France finding Canada wanted to be written, as did the chapter with Italy taking an unexpected turn (which was originally going to be in The Rules, anyway). That's it. I haven't plotted enough to know what happens at the point I've reached, and I've realized I don't really care anymore. I've only been writing my 2,500 words every four days for the readers' sake, and so few showed much interest the last chapter posted (until recently) that I just gave up on it.
I'm not promising I'll never go back to it. If it becomes of interest to me, or if I have a lot of extra time and pushy readers, I'm sure I'd be fine with writing some more. I already have the "normal" amount of reviews for the last chapter, so I'm not feeling quite so abandoned. It's difficult trying to balance what I want to do with what I should do for readers, but I've chatted with a good handful of friends (and my mother), and they've agreed that I just shouldn't write it if I don't want to—it's my hobby, for veal's sake. (If I do give on forever on Break Out, I'll at least post a summary of what was supposed to happen next, so no need to panic too much.)
At the same time, I hope I don't end up doing this with all of my original fictions. The Long and Winding Road is getting few enough reviews that I can be sure I'm not just writing it for the readers, and I'm not seriously thinking that I might lose interest in it. As for my other (future) fictions, at this point I don't know. I'm worried that I'll find myself losing interest in things and losing my discipline in the process. Hopefully that's just another unfounded accusation I'm making at myself, but I guess only time will tell. If nothing else, I've powered through all 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo with a fiction I was at no point proud to call my own.
What do you think? Any advice for me? Have you ever been in this sort of situation? What do you think makes writing worth it?
(Also, if the title sounds somehow familiar but you can't quite place it, here's your hint. I also mean "pearl" in the metaphorical sense, though hopefully that's not difficult to figure out.)
This is an unfortunate realization for the readers of Break Out. I've really only been writing it for the readers. I had my fun in The Rules, but Break Out was the more seriously-taken sequel to explain why I was able to have my fun in The Rules. Negligible amounts of my own interest went into deciding to write the sequel. The chapter with France finding Canada wanted to be written, as did the chapter with Italy taking an unexpected turn (which was originally going to be in The Rules, anyway). That's it. I haven't plotted enough to know what happens at the point I've reached, and I've realized I don't really care anymore. I've only been writing my 2,500 words every four days for the readers' sake, and so few showed much interest the last chapter posted (until recently) that I just gave up on it.
I'm not promising I'll never go back to it. If it becomes of interest to me, or if I have a lot of extra time and pushy readers, I'm sure I'd be fine with writing some more. I already have the "normal" amount of reviews for the last chapter, so I'm not feeling quite so abandoned. It's difficult trying to balance what I want to do with what I should do for readers, but I've chatted with a good handful of friends (and my mother), and they've agreed that I just shouldn't write it if I don't want to—it's my hobby, for veal's sake. (If I do give on forever on Break Out, I'll at least post a summary of what was supposed to happen next, so no need to panic too much.)
At the same time, I hope I don't end up doing this with all of my original fictions. The Long and Winding Road is getting few enough reviews that I can be sure I'm not just writing it for the readers, and I'm not seriously thinking that I might lose interest in it. As for my other (future) fictions, at this point I don't know. I'm worried that I'll find myself losing interest in things and losing my discipline in the process. Hopefully that's just another unfounded accusation I'm making at myself, but I guess only time will tell. If nothing else, I've powered through all 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo with a fiction I was at no point proud to call my own.
What do you think? Any advice for me? Have you ever been in this sort of situation? What do you think makes writing worth it?
(Also, if the title sounds somehow familiar but you can't quite place it, here's your hint. I also mean "pearl" in the metaphorical sense, though hopefully that's not difficult to figure out.)
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Pitchapalooza 3
Pitchapalooza startled and awed audiences with its possibilities.
Pitchapalooza 2 pushed audiences further, with Journey-acclaimed critics calling it awesome and exciting.
And now the release of Pitchapalooza 3 is ready to stun the viewers further...
...until it completely bombs at the box office and turns out to be worthless to pretty much everyone involved.
And so it seems that my novel pitch is not among those the Book Doctors selected. Ah, well. It wasn't as if I thought winning it—let alone being chosen randomly—was that realistic.
That was still the best odds I could possibly have of getting an agent, but oh, well. Self-publishing digitally it is!
Once I actually finish the story. And maybe after redoing the cover, although I need practice drawing people holding hands for my current idea...
Pitchapalooza 2 pushed audiences further, with Journey-acclaimed critics calling it awesome and exciting.
And now the release of Pitchapalooza 3 is ready to stun the viewers further...
...until it completely bombs at the box office and turns out to be worthless to pretty much everyone involved.
And so it seems that my novel pitch is not among those the Book Doctors selected. Ah, well. It wasn't as if I thought winning it—let alone being chosen randomly—was that realistic.
That was still the best odds I could possibly have of getting an agent, but oh, well. Self-publishing digitally it is!
Once I actually finish the story. And maybe after redoing the cover, although I need practice drawing people holding hands for my current idea...
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Writing Spaces
Where do you like to write?
When I'm at school, I usually do my writing on my plugged-in laptop on my desk. I've heard some people like to turn out the lights so nothing else in the room distracts them, but that's a big no for me. A glowing screen in the dark makes my eyes hurt (and may be part of the reason movies give me headaches). Just above the shelf I have my radio/iHome/alarm clock, whose writing use I have explained earlier. My phone is nearby in its weird little stand, though that's not a big deal because I rarely text people, and they rarely call me. I sit sort of slumped back in my vaguely-cushy rocking chair with a foot on the weird low shelf inside my desk.
Given my schedule and my need to do homework during gaps in the day, I do most of my writing in the evenings. Say, 16:00–16:50 (when I leave for supper) and then off and on until 21:40 (when I do my Bible study). Of course, I do things in the evenings on occasion, mostly Scribes meetings and dorm events, but most of it is writing or reading or poking about Neopets and some of the rest of the Internet.
I have done some writing after 22:00 or during the school day, but that's only on special occasions, usually when the end of a chapter is close enough. I can fuss with typing after my Bible study, but my brain doesn't function that well once it gets that late, and I'll turn in soon afterwards, so I usually won't bother starting something I can't finish. I think the only time I've stayed up significantly late writing was when I was doing chapter 48 of The Rules. My roommate was quite surprised to find me up.
At home, I do most of my writing with the laptop unplugged in my little corner of the couch. It's my attempt to be sort of sociable around my parents (and I don't get good Wi-Fi reception in my room). Given the lack of classes, I'll type anytime then.
I did have to stretch myself for NaNo. I brought a lined journal and jotted down things before classes, waiting for an omelette to cook (at someone else's hands! I'd burn the place down), and on one occasion during a basketball game on my phone (this is not recommended under any normal conditions). When it's that urgent, I can block out all of the people a bit better, but for the most part it's just distracting. If I'm in the throes of writer's block, I might try to type with other people chatting around me. I actually did that for the last chapter of Unsurvivable, and a joke somehow led to a friend (the same boy who elaborated on the zombie restaurant idea, incidentally) typing enough of the chapter for me to get back with it.
I am guilty of distracting myself with the Internet while I type. I'll drag some of my (Neopets) Habitarium P3's into their homes to rest, or check my email, or look at some recent reviews. I feel like I do these things so often it hurts my productivity, but it's difficult to stop. I can't even up and switch the Internet off, or I'll lose what I'm typing on (fanfiction.net's) Doc Editor, and I'm too OCD to type up my fan fictions elsewhere.
(And, yes, I've decided to start putting more links in my posts. Why not?)
When I'm at school, I usually do my writing on my plugged-in laptop on my desk. I've heard some people like to turn out the lights so nothing else in the room distracts them, but that's a big no for me. A glowing screen in the dark makes my eyes hurt (and may be part of the reason movies give me headaches). Just above the shelf I have my radio/iHome/alarm clock, whose writing use I have explained earlier. My phone is nearby in its weird little stand, though that's not a big deal because I rarely text people, and they rarely call me. I sit sort of slumped back in my vaguely-cushy rocking chair with a foot on the weird low shelf inside my desk.
Given my schedule and my need to do homework during gaps in the day, I do most of my writing in the evenings. Say, 16:00–16:50 (when I leave for supper) and then off and on until 21:40 (when I do my Bible study). Of course, I do things in the evenings on occasion, mostly Scribes meetings and dorm events, but most of it is writing or reading or poking about Neopets and some of the rest of the Internet.
I have done some writing after 22:00 or during the school day, but that's only on special occasions, usually when the end of a chapter is close enough. I can fuss with typing after my Bible study, but my brain doesn't function that well once it gets that late, and I'll turn in soon afterwards, so I usually won't bother starting something I can't finish. I think the only time I've stayed up significantly late writing was when I was doing chapter 48 of The Rules. My roommate was quite surprised to find me up.
At home, I do most of my writing with the laptop unplugged in my little corner of the couch. It's my attempt to be sort of sociable around my parents (and I don't get good Wi-Fi reception in my room). Given the lack of classes, I'll type anytime then.
I did have to stretch myself for NaNo. I brought a lined journal and jotted down things before classes, waiting for an omelette to cook (at someone else's hands! I'd burn the place down), and on one occasion during a basketball game on my phone (this is not recommended under any normal conditions). When it's that urgent, I can block out all of the people a bit better, but for the most part it's just distracting. If I'm in the throes of writer's block, I might try to type with other people chatting around me. I actually did that for the last chapter of Unsurvivable, and a joke somehow led to a friend (the same boy who elaborated on the zombie restaurant idea, incidentally) typing enough of the chapter for me to get back with it.
I am guilty of distracting myself with the Internet while I type. I'll drag some of my (Neopets) Habitarium P3's into their homes to rest, or check my email, or look at some recent reviews. I feel like I do these things so often it hurts my productivity, but it's difficult to stop. I can't even up and switch the Internet off, or I'll lose what I'm typing on (fanfiction.net's) Doc Editor, and I'm too OCD to type up my fan fictions elsewhere.
(And, yes, I've decided to start putting more links in my posts. Why not?)
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Pitchapalooza
I'm interested in the NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza. There's an incredibly slim chance my pitch would be picked at random, and an even lower chance it would win, given that I've never written a pitch before.
It seems like a great opportunity, though, and I feel like I could use the practice even if mine personally won't come to anything. Despite the odds, the reward of an "introduction to an agent or publisher" seems like something from which I shouldn't just up and shy away.
I'm a bit torn as to whether I should try a pitch for The Winding Road or for Mayflies. At this point, The Winding Road has a lot more to it, and I'm slowing down Mayflies to keep my progress in sync with my online course. On the other hand, I just watched Warm Bodies, and it has a shocking number of elements exactly like The Winding Road. Certainly it's not the same, but the major points of my idea weren't nearly as original as I had thought.
There are some writing tips on the site, but, as someone who's never written more than however many characters fanfiction.net allows in a summary, I'm still not sure how to actually do this 250-word thing. If anyone has experience with this, please share.
I seem to have the rest of the month to finish this, but this week is going to be terribly busy. I'll put all of my writing into Break Out, I think, and leave this for another time. Maybe I'll have figured out something about it by then.
It seems like a great opportunity, though, and I feel like I could use the practice even if mine personally won't come to anything. Despite the odds, the reward of an "introduction to an agent or publisher" seems like something from which I shouldn't just up and shy away.
I'm a bit torn as to whether I should try a pitch for The Winding Road or for Mayflies. At this point, The Winding Road has a lot more to it, and I'm slowing down Mayflies to keep my progress in sync with my online course. On the other hand, I just watched Warm Bodies, and it has a shocking number of elements exactly like The Winding Road. Certainly it's not the same, but the major points of my idea weren't nearly as original as I had thought.
There are some writing tips on the site, but, as someone who's never written more than however many characters fanfiction.net allows in a summary, I'm still not sure how to actually do this 250-word thing. If anyone has experience with this, please share.
I seem to have the rest of the month to finish this, but this week is going to be terribly busy. I'll put all of my writing into Break Out, I think, and leave this for another time. Maybe I'll have figured out something about it by then.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
NaNoWriMo and Other Extreme Sports
I'm wondering whether or not I should do NaNoWriMo again this year.
The 2YN program I'm doing allots writing time during November, so it's compatible there.
I have no idea what my workload will be as far as education goes.
I'm not sure if writing 1,667 words a day for a month straight will be particularly useful. There are certainly other reasons I didn't like how last year's NaNo came out, but I already have a rather negative opinion of my normal writing, and I'd like to actually feel able to reread and edit what I write for Mayflies. I'm not sure what kind of writing schedule the 2YN recommends, but if it's under 1,667, I'm not sure I'll do NaNo.
It was certainly an experience; however, I more or less only undertook it to finally finish an original novel. Now that I have done that, I don't feel very motivated to participate this November.
I'm still not sure, but I do have time to decide.
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