Just a quick update on my progress with Cursed Names. I finished the outline on Wednesday instead of Friday so I'm a bit ahead of schedule. (Go me!) And let me tell you I went back and changed stuff about four times before I was finally satisfied with the plot lines flow. But I may change the ending, again, depending on how I decide to tie everything together.
Since I finished the outline early I started typing out the rough draft early. I have the first two chapters finished and I am very happy with them! I'm going to try my hardest to keep up with my writing schedule so I can have the whole thing finished by May 6th. I'm praying that this week will work greatly in my favor so I can accomplish goal number 2.
I must admit that I wasn't able to write yesterday and I probably won't get much done tonight. I'm currently house/babysitting for my cousins while they are on vacation. So I have two kids to take care of all week. I've loaded up on caffeine to get me through the week and while the kidos are at school I'm going to write like there's no tomorrow. Truthfully, I'll probably end up staying up way too late writing and napping during the day.
Please, God, give me the strength and patience to make it through this week and help me manage my time. Amen.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Fanart!
For the last few weeks I was juggling with the idea over whether or not I should continue writing fanfiction. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but my little sisters encouraged me to start writing fanfiction just to see if people would like the way I write. So I started with a story Bekah, Rachel, and I had come up with which is the Bleach: Phantoms of the Past, story I mentioned in a previous post. After the Bleach story I got an idea for a Soul Eater (really awesome anime/manga but not one I would recommend for kids) fanfiction called Soul Eater: New Horizons and began writing it. I felt like the story had come to a dry spot because it wasn't getting many reviews or as many hits as my first story. I started wondering if I should keep going or just stop writing fanfiction altogether because it felt like my stories just weren't interesting and focus my attention on my original works. I decided that I would post one more chapter and if someone reviewed it I would keep going. Well I got way more than what I expected. I got emails letting me know that I had a review, a favorite, and an alert, all for New Horizons. I was a bit shocked when I saw the emails. I sent a 'thank you' message to the person (I like to thank the people who like my stories.) I got a reply from the girl asking if she could make fanart for New Horizons and, of course, I said yes. So we messaged back and forth her with questions and making sure certain things were ok, I'm not picky so I always said yes and made it clear how excited I was to see her drawings.
And if you haven't already guessed I am going to keep writing fanfiction! I'm going to keep writing fanfiction (along with my original works) because inspiring someone with my stories is what I set out to do as a writer. Having someone want to draw fanart with my characters may seem like a small thing to other people but it means the world to me. I owe a huge thank you to that girl for lifting me up and giving me the boost I needed to keep on writing. She knows I'm talking about her and if you're reading this thank you so much!
I got permission from the artist to share the art here. The fanart is below based on my fanfiction story Soul Eater: New Horizons. I just love the pictures!
And if you haven't already guessed I am going to keep writing fanfiction! I'm going to keep writing fanfiction (along with my original works) because inspiring someone with my stories is what I set out to do as a writer. Having someone want to draw fanart with my characters may seem like a small thing to other people but it means the world to me. I owe a huge thank you to that girl for lifting me up and giving me the boost I needed to keep on writing. She knows I'm talking about her and if you're reading this thank you so much!
I got permission from the artist to share the art here. The fanart is below based on my fanfiction story Soul Eater: New Horizons. I just love the pictures!
This one is of my original characters Death Angel, Sid, and Sully.
And this one is of Death Angel.
I do not own Soul Eater. Soul Eater is manga series created by Atsushi Ohkubo.
I do not own Bleach. Bleach is a manga series created by Tite Kubo.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Outlining and Goals
I'm sorry it has been so long since I lost posted anything. To be honest the months of March and April have not been good months for me at all. In March my Granpa passed away, see this post for all the details. Then I caught this really bad virus where I had a fever for a few days, coughing non stop, plugged up nose, and I just felt terrible for about two weeks. At some point during being sick I pulled the muscles in my ribs from coughing so much and they still hurt like crazy if I sneeze, cough, or have the hiccups. All in all it hasn't been very fun to be me. But on a happier note I have gotten a lot of reading done (go me!) and I've been doing a bit of writing work.
For the writing work I've done something I have only ever done with my fanfiction. I have completely brainstormed the direction I want Cursed Names to go in. This may not seem like a big deal to anyone else but I assure you this is huge for me. With my original work I always hated writing out what I'm going to do with my story. I like to just start writing and see where the story takes me and see how I can surprise myself with what I write. But awhile back I wrote a fanfiction story called Phantoms of the Past with the help of my sisters Bekah and Rachel. The three of us sat down tossing out ideas of what we thought would make a good Bleach story (Bleach is an anime show and manga just in case you were wondering) and the character we would love to see in the story. Once we finished brainstorming I went to work on writing out an outline and then we tweaked it until it was perfect. When I sat down to write everything it was so easy and took next to no time at all to finish. Thinking back on how quickly I was able to write the story I decided to give brainstorming and outlining a try with my original work just to see what would happen. I think it goes without saying that now that I've begun to outline Cursed Names I've had a much easier time with with it. I'll be honest, I have gotten stumped a few times trying to work out who's point of view a chapter should be written in and where to place the background elements of the story.
But I've come to realize something important through this whole thing, outlining saves me a lot more time than if I were just to dive and start writing something. I'm finding that I'm not deleting entire chapters because I'm unhappy with them. I'm saving so much time by having a clear picture of where my story needs to go so my plot has a steady pace instead if going off on rabbit trails and losing focus of the main goal. I was a little unsure if I would be able to surprise myself with the story but I was wrong. The things I've come up with to push my characters to their limits have surprised in ways I don't think they would have if I didn't have an outline. And most importantly I can always go back and change something if I later decide I don't like it.
Now that I have had this wonderful revelation about brainstorming and outlines I have set a few goals for myself. My first goal is have the Cursed Names outline completed by Friday April 27th. My second goal is have a completed first draft of Cursed Names by May 6th, it'll be tricky but I think I can do it. I'm going to give myself a few days away from the book so I can let my mind rest, celebrate my mom's birthday on the 7th, and there is always the chance that I may not finish the draft. My third goal is to start editing out the errors I spot on May 10th and have a printed copy ready for someone to read by May 13th.
Four days to outline, eight days to write, three day break, and three days to edit. All for a total of 18 days to write a book from an idea I've had since January.
I'm not fooling myself into thinking this is going to a breeze because it won't be, completing a book in that amount of time is going to be one of the biggest challenges I've ever made for myself. Am I scared I'll fail miserably? Yes. Am I going to chicken out? No. I'm determined to accomplish all of my goals in the time I've given myself.
I've told you all of this so that I'll be held accountable for completing the goals I've set for myself. I'll post updates as I complete each goal so that you know how my progress is going, and I'll probably rant about what a hard time I'm having of it just so you know. Once all is said and done I will tell you more about Cursed Names and set new goals for self-publishing the book through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Shall we begin?
For the writing work I've done something I have only ever done with my fanfiction. I have completely brainstormed the direction I want Cursed Names to go in. This may not seem like a big deal to anyone else but I assure you this is huge for me. With my original work I always hated writing out what I'm going to do with my story. I like to just start writing and see where the story takes me and see how I can surprise myself with what I write. But awhile back I wrote a fanfiction story called Phantoms of the Past with the help of my sisters Bekah and Rachel. The three of us sat down tossing out ideas of what we thought would make a good Bleach story (Bleach is an anime show and manga just in case you were wondering) and the character we would love to see in the story. Once we finished brainstorming I went to work on writing out an outline and then we tweaked it until it was perfect. When I sat down to write everything it was so easy and took next to no time at all to finish. Thinking back on how quickly I was able to write the story I decided to give brainstorming and outlining a try with my original work just to see what would happen. I think it goes without saying that now that I've begun to outline Cursed Names I've had a much easier time with with it. I'll be honest, I have gotten stumped a few times trying to work out who's point of view a chapter should be written in and where to place the background elements of the story.
But I've come to realize something important through this whole thing, outlining saves me a lot more time than if I were just to dive and start writing something. I'm finding that I'm not deleting entire chapters because I'm unhappy with them. I'm saving so much time by having a clear picture of where my story needs to go so my plot has a steady pace instead if going off on rabbit trails and losing focus of the main goal. I was a little unsure if I would be able to surprise myself with the story but I was wrong. The things I've come up with to push my characters to their limits have surprised in ways I don't think they would have if I didn't have an outline. And most importantly I can always go back and change something if I later decide I don't like it.
Now that I have had this wonderful revelation about brainstorming and outlines I have set a few goals for myself. My first goal is have the Cursed Names outline completed by Friday April 27th. My second goal is have a completed first draft of Cursed Names by May 6th, it'll be tricky but I think I can do it. I'm going to give myself a few days away from the book so I can let my mind rest, celebrate my mom's birthday on the 7th, and there is always the chance that I may not finish the draft. My third goal is to start editing out the errors I spot on May 10th and have a printed copy ready for someone to read by May 13th.
Four days to outline, eight days to write, three day break, and three days to edit. All for a total of 18 days to write a book from an idea I've had since January.
I'm not fooling myself into thinking this is going to a breeze because it won't be, completing a book in that amount of time is going to be one of the biggest challenges I've ever made for myself. Am I scared I'll fail miserably? Yes. Am I going to chicken out? No. I'm determined to accomplish all of my goals in the time I've given myself.
I've told you all of this so that I'll be held accountable for completing the goals I've set for myself. I'll post updates as I complete each goal so that you know how my progress is going, and I'll probably rant about what a hard time I'm having of it just so you know. Once all is said and done I will tell you more about Cursed Names and set new goals for self-publishing the book through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Shall we begin?
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