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?
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