Castle in the Clouds

Okay, so I didn't hit 50K on the NaNo project this year. I have no excuses. At least, no good ones because I'm pretty sure watching TV and reading are considered, at best, distractions. So, I failed. I didn't win. But I'm not worried about it. While NaNo is fun and a great way to bring writers together, what's more important to me is the fact that it gets me writing again. I have a story I'm working on. Sure, it's slow and painful progress right now, but it's words on a page and that's more than I had a month ago. My story is what most would likely consider epic fantasy. It involves gods, god-kin (human and god offspring), Elementals, and miniature dragons. My main character, Moswen El-Brideah, is the recognized keeper of the god-kin bloodline. Her biggest fear in the beginning of the book is that her secret will be revealed before the god who birthed her ancestors. Unlike most of her peers, she posesses more than god-kin magic. She...

Blah. Not doing so hot. I've written 14,670 words (a little less than 69 double-spaced pages). I've made it to Chapter Four and am finally introducing the antagonist. Too late? Too bad! Whether I keep the preceding chapters as they are or not, I needed to write them in this order. I needed things laid out and ordered in such a way that the unfolding story would make sense not only to the reader, but to me. I just wish the words were coming a bit easier, but they're not. Each scene feels like its being coerced into existence. And, yes, I know I'm supposed to allow myself to write crap. I'm supposed to let whatever unfolds onto the page simply unfold. No deleting. No revising. No reworking things. Yeah. I don't write that way. Not even when I want to. I've got a few hours before bedtime. I'm not going to set a word limit goal tonight, but I'm going to try to keep myself planted in front of the keyboard for at least an hour before allowing...

I've written 8,271 words so far on my NaNo project. I'm still falling short of the daily word count goals, but I'm not freaking out about it too much. I'm writing every day. That's huge. What's funny, though, is how my writing is getting interrupted while I'm at home. My laptop has been taken over by minors! For those of you who don't know, I signed both of my boys up for the Youth Program . I thought they might enjoy writing a story that wouldn't be graded or dissected in the quest to identify mistakes in spelling, grammar, or punctuation. I was right! They are enjoying it. My youngest has written over 500 (yes, five hundred!) words already on his story, The Dark Pokemon . My oldest, who started late, has kicked out a little over 800 words in just a few days on The Last Battle . (As you might have guessed, both stories are Pokemon fan fiction.) Picture taken with Hubby's iPhone Watching them cruise right along makes me realize just ho...

4885 / 50000 words. 10% done! Still a long way to go..but I've made some progress today.

Nano has not started off well for me. Sarah just posted her numbers for the first five days of Nano and while I'm insanely happy for her, I'm feeling pretty sucky about myself. Yes, this is a woe-is-me post. Deal with it. I don't have day-by-day word counts to list, but I know I barely managed to make the minimal word count on Day 1 and have failed ever since. Oh, I'm still writing, but it's painfully slow. I'm starting today at 3,192 words. Now, let's do the math.. Today is Day 6. Each day I should write a minimum of 1,667 words. This means I should have 8335 words done already. Today's writing should put me at 10,002 words before midnight. This means I need to write 6810 words today if I want to get back on track. Oiy. Problem #1: Day job. No time to write except at lunch. Problem #2: Going to cousin's house to discuss planning for family Christmas party. Yeah. It's probably not going to happen tonight. The only silver lining here is...

I'm writing, but it's going slower than I'd like. The first day I met the minimal word count limit, but barely. Monday I was about 1000 words short and yesterday I barely got anything at all. I have good excuses, but excuses don't help the word count! Let's just say I have a lot to make up for tonight. Instead of boring you with my excuses, though, I thought I'd post a portion of the opening chapter. Please be kind. This is rough (extremely rough) draft and I suck at beginnings. They usually take at least a half-dozen or more tries before I get them "right". ~~~~~~ Chapter One Precious water, a rare and sacred commodity in the depths of the desert, filled the Acolyte pool. The scent of untainted purity, of life, filled the small room beneath the hot sands and limestone bedrock, beckoning those who aspired to be recognized as god-kin to replenish their bodies and spirits before beginning the first of their trials. Oil lamps, artfully arrang...

Normally I crawl into bed and fall right to sleep. Not last night, though. Nope. My mind was racing. I couldn't stop thinking about the amazing group of people I had just met at Barnes & Noble. More exciting, I couldn't stop brainstorming story ideas for my NaNo project. I almost got out of bed to write them down, they were that good! Of course, being the lazy good-for-nothing I am, I willed myself to remember the ideas after I got up in the morning. And it worked! I remember the ideas, which is awesome because one of those passing thoughts provided me with my opening scene. I'm not going to question it or dissect it. I'm not going to wonder if it's the right or wrong move starting there. I'm going to trust my instincts for once and just let myself follow where they may lead. Of course, this makes waiting for NaNo to begin all that much more difficult. I not only have my premise, my characters, and a good portion of the worldbuilding done, I have...