Tag: writing

February in Review

~ EMM

Once again, I haven’t been posting much. Don’t worry. I’m still here. I’ve just been busy. Mostly the usual stuff (swim, work, read, write, repeat). Except, this month, I’ve been watching TV and movies a bit more than I’ve been reading.

Books I read this month (links take you to my reviews on Goodreads):

February2016

I’m not making any big reading promises for March. I have exactly one book that I really want to read/finish (The Story of a New Name). But, this is my full March TBR:

March2016TBR

You can see, I’m off my non-fiction kick and moving towards some serious sci-fi, with a little fantasy and contemporary romance to balance things out.

TV and movies I’ve been enjoying:

  • The 100 is back! Yes! Okay, fine. Maybe you gave up on this show sometime in the middle of the first season. But, something made me stick with it, and I love it. There’s just something about the world-building and the story that keeps me coming back. It scratches an itch in my story-writing brain, and the plot keeps going in different directions. Some people may think that’s a bad thing, but I like that it’s not entirely predictable. Like, I have no idea what they’re doing with this whole City of Light thing, and what the hell, Bellamy? And the languages! Did you know it’s the same guy who does the languages for Game of Thrones? He’s so awesome.
  • The Magicians show is so much better than the book. I almost never say that, but there it is. That said, I’m only a few episodes in. I really need some time to catch up on this show, but I started watching it with my husband and now I feel bad watching it without him.
  • I still love Supergirl. I may only be watching it for the Ally McBeal business woman truth bombs, but Calista Flockhart is amazing in this show, and that’s more than enough for me.
  • I watched the first episode of Fuller House. Nostalgia! That one episode was all I really needed, but I’ll probably watch a few more to see where they go with this.
  • Have you seen the movie Dope? It is everything. I loved it.
  • And the movie Chef almost felt like an ad for Twitter (in an awesome way), but it also made me want to pack up and hit the road following my dreams.

Swimming:

I swam more miles in February than I have in any of the past three years, but I swam fewer days than I’d planned.

I didn’t go to any swim meets this month. I haven’t wanted to sacrifice my weekends when I know I’m tired from training hard and not likely to swim as fast as I’d like. I’m going to do a mid-season meet in March, and based on that meet, I’ll decide if I’m going to travel to North Carolina for Nationals.

Writing:

I’ve been editing and polishing my YA fantasy novel and my NA paranormal romance novel. And, I’m getting ready to dive into something new in April. Originally, I thought I would finish “Augmented” or “Falling” (my 2014 and 2013 NaNoWriMo novels) before I wrote something new. But… I’ve had a story in mind for a while now, and I really want to write it. So, I’m thinking I may use the April Camp NaNoWriMo as a motivator and start work on a new WIP.

And there you have it. That was February. 🙂

January in Review

~ EMM

This will probably be a pretty long post… I’m dividing it up into sections, so you can just skip the bits you aren’t interested in.

I had two main goals for January. One was to finish my NaNoWriMo novel from November. The other was to turn up the heat on my swimming training because January is the start of the short course yards season and Nationals is coming up at the end of April.

I’ll recap on how things are progressing on those fronts, as well as recap what I read in January and talk about what I plan to read in February. I’ll also mention some of the other culture I consumed this month in the way of TV shows and podcasts.

Swimming

Spring Nationals is kind of a big deal for Masters Swimming. I’ve qualified in all three breast stroke events (50, 100, and 200 yards) every year that I’ve been swimming Masters. And, looking at my times from last year vs. this year’s qualifying times, I’ve qualified in all three breaststroke events, and I’m very close to qualifying in the 400 IM and the 200 fly.

My goal for this season is to swim qualifying times in 400 IM and 200 fly, and swim under 2:50 in my 200 breaststroke. These are pretty much the three hardest events in swimming and they all require a ridiculous amount of endurance. I started stepping it up in the fall, and now I have about ten weeks of hard training before the focus turns more to speed, in-season racing, and then taper.

So far this month I’ve had some pretty good practices. I’ve repeated a few “test sets” from last year and dropped time. And yesterday I swam The Olympic Club Mile, a 1500 meter race in their competition pool. I’ve never raced a mile in the pool before, so I was fairly conservative with my seed time of just over 24 minutes. But, I ended up blowing away my expectations and holding a strong pace through the entire race to finish just under 23 minutes. Now, if I can just keep this up for another three months…

Writing

The writing hasn’t been going as well as planned this month. I only managed to write about 3k words this month. I love my story and I’ve received some great feedback on the first few chapters. I’m inching closer to the end, but I’ve been struggling with my perfectionist tendencies and worrying about “sticking the landing” (I don’t have enough practice at endings yet).

I like to get things right the first time. I don’t really like “fixing things in revision.” Adding things in revision (description, layers, scenes, etc.) is fine. But I’m having to do a lot of world-building as I’m writing this story. So, sometimes I find I need to stop and figure things out so I don’t write myself into a corner and have to backtrack.

I’ve come to the realization that I need to stop treating this like a “creative outlet” along the lines of “I feel like coloring today.” I need to start treating it a little more like I do swimming. I feel awful if I don’t swim five or six times a week. Even if I don’t want to go, I make myself at least go and swim a warm-up. I tell myself I can get out after warm-up if I still want to bail (I never do). But on the days I skip writing, I let myself off the hook. I feel awful and guilty about it, but I just shrug it off. So, my strategy for February is going to be that I have to at least write three sentences every day. If I want to stop after three sentences, fine. But I have to write at least three.

Reading

If you remember from my TBR post, I was on a non-fiction kick this month. I don’t know where that came from. I read as many non-fiction books in January as I did in all of 2015. And I still have more on my TBR for this month. Here’s what I read this month:

January2016

I just noticed that four out of five books I read this month featured a woman on the cover. Huh. If you want to know what I thought of these, check out my reviews on Goodreads (One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, The Oregon Trail, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, The Art of Asking, and Lean In)

I like to read non-fiction when I’m writing. I feel like it interferes less with my story-telling brain. Or if it does interfere, it interferes in a positive way. But, sometimes, even when I’m writing, I find it helpful to read in the genre I’m writing in because I can see how other authors handled certain sticky plot problems. That’s one reason I threw in a romance novel at the end of this month. I needed a little help getting un-stuck on my current WIP.

I expect that the focus for February will still be on swimming and writing. So, I’m keeping my February TBR on a tight leash. These are the books I really want to read next.

February2016-TBR

I’ve already talked about why I want to read The Boys in the Boat and Deep. So, I’ll just make a few comments about the other three on this list.

I’ve had a feeling that The Magicians is going to be a series I’m going to fall in love with. Based on the blurbs I’ve read, it appears to have just the right mix of magic and grit/darkness that I love. So, I’ve been holding it at an arms length for some time, waiting for the right moment to dive in. Now that the series is complete, and the TV show on the SyFy channel has just started, I must read it immediately.

Similarly, I love the new Star Wars movie and I’m planning on diving into all the new extended universe books, novellas, and comics, starting with Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath.

And, we have a weekend road-trip planned in February. So, I pulled Kingpin (non-fiction) off my ancient TBR list, and checked the audio-book out from the library. Hubby and I just finished a binge watch of Mr. Robot, and I think this is going to be a great companion selection.

Other culture consumed

One of the other things that happens when I’m writing is that I consume more TV shows and movies. Sometimes it’s a mood thing (like I’m trying to portray a mood in my writing and I need to immerse myself in something that evokes that feeling). Other times it’s just a time thing (as in, I don’t have enough time to read a whole book, so I’ll substitute my fictional world craving with a TV show or movie). Whatever it is, I definitely watched more shows than normal this month.

The two shows that I’ve been obsessed with this month are Jessica Jones (Netflix) and Mr. Robot (USA Network, but we purchased from Amazon). I’m still digesting all the reasons I love these two shows, and I’m not quite ready to talk about them yet. But, I will say that I’m anxiously looking forward to the next seasons of both.

I’m also learning to love podcasts. Recently, I am most loving the Dear Bitches, Smart Authors podcast by the folks who do the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog. I could go on and on about my love for this podcast, but this post is already long enough. So, I’ll just say, if you like genre books, especially romance, and if you like author interviews and listening to smart, thoughtful people talk about books, you should check out this podcast. Just click on the podcast link (above) and read through the synopsis of the recent podcasts. It’s basically the only podcast I subscribe to that my husband will listen to when we’re in the car together.

Okay… that was a LOT for one blog post. Maybe I shouldn’t wait so long between blog posts, huh?

2015 recap: Goals

~ EMM

Every year I end up making some crazy personal goals for myself. Looking back on 2015’s goals, I’m a little surprised at how well I did. Taken all together, this is some pretty challenging stuff I signed myself up for this year, and I accomplished almost all of it.

  • Swimming
    • swim 20 days per month –> partial credit… averaged 17 days per month, but swam more days (and yards) in 2015 than I have since I joined USMS in Dec 2012
    • get SCY times on the books for 400 IM and 1650 free –> done
    • qualify for SCY Nationals in the 3 breaststroke events plus 2 more (200 fly and 400 IM) –> partial credit… qualified in the 3 breaststroke events and dropped time in my 200 fly and 400 IM, but I am still a few seconds off qualifying times in those two events
  • Writing
    • Finish at least one novel (“Empire”) and be ready to query by end of 2015 –> partial credit… finished first draft, but not ready to query… 
    • Participate in NaNoWriMo as Marin County Municipal Liaison –> done
    • Plot NaNoWriMo novel in October and write complete first draft by end of 2015, at least 50k in November with goal to finish complete plot arc, but must continue and finish in December if not done yet. –> still working on this one… 
    • Pick the next incomplete novel to finish first draft of (“Falling” or “Augmented”) and prep outline / notes in December so I’m ready to write in January –> done
  • Reading
    • 50 books total (~1 per week) –> done
    • Read at least 12 “diverse” books in 2015 (~1 per month) –> almost… I finished 10
    • Write blurb book reviews for books read on Goodreads –> done
    • Continue weekly inbox/outbox post on the blog –> done
    • Participate in Book Riot’s “Read Harder” challenge –> done

In a way, I want to go a bit easier on myself next year. This year was pretty intense and I pushed myself pretty hard trying to get all this done. But, on the other hand, I’m pretty proud of my accomplishments.

#NaNoWriMo Wrap-up (TGIO!)

~ EMM ~ 3 Comments

NaNoWriMo 2015 is over. Phew. This one was a doozy. But I did it. I’m a “winner.”

NaNo-2015-Winner-Banner

I finished the challenge. I “won” by the skin of my teeth in nearly the final hour, and only by including all my notes on backstory and future chapters, all of which I wrote in November, but aren’t actually part of the book. So, yeah… I resorted to a tiny bit of “cheating.”

The problem this year was that I fell behind almost immediately after I posted that mid-point check-in update where I was so excited because for once I wasn’t behind. Life got in the way and I was stuck at almost 31k for almost a week.

I did a frantic amount of writing over the Thanksgiving weekend, but we made a last minute decision to travel and visit family. So, I was distracted and stressed out. But I wrote anyway. I am too stubborn to fail.

The problem is that, just like the past two years, NaNoWriMo is over and my novel isn’t finished. The difference this year is that I’m not stopping until I write “the end” at the end of the last chapter. I’m all in and I’m going to finish it. I actually REALLY like my story this year, even though I think it’s going to need some serious tinkering to get it exactly right.

I’m on track for this story to be about 61k words, total. So, my current plan is to take some of the writing pressure off and commit to about 1k words per day until I finish it. At that rate I should be done by mid-December. Then I’ll be looking for some beta readers. So, if you’re interested, let me know.

#NaNoWriMo: midpoint check-in

~ EMM

Well, we’re just over half-way through this year’s NaNoWriMo. So, I thought I might check in and let you know how things are going. This year, unlike last year, I am staying just at or slightly behind daily “par” word count (1667 words per day).

I “won” the past two years (“win” = wrote 50k words in 30 days). But, both years I fell behind early and then had to pull some major writing days over Thanksgiving weekend just to get caught up. To compare: at this point last year I had 21.8k words, and the year before that I had 24.3k words. Right now I have 29.1k, and I need to be at 30k to be at “par” for the 18th of the month.

I think having more of an outline going in this year is helping. I also have a little more practice now at sitting down and getting the writing done. It’s great that I’m on track to finish 50k by the end of the month. But, according to my outline, I think this book is going to be more like 60-65k when it’s done. I promised myself I wouldn’t stop writing until I got to “the end.” So, I’m either going to have to keep writing for the first ten days of December, or I’m going to have to pick up the pace a bit.

Right now I’m bridging a gap between two events that set up my ending. This gap appears to involve a bunch of kissing. It’s sort of the calm before the storm. I have a feeling that once I get past the middle bits and start writing the “crisis” and “climax” sections of my outline, the writing will go faster. Unfortunately, I sort of stopped outlining when I got to the “crisis” point in the book. By my calculations, that should start somewhere after 38k words (~2/3 thru the book). So, I have about 10k more words to write before I am going to be switching to full on “panster” mode for the last ~22k of the book. I know, more or less, how I want it to end. So, it just depends on whether I think I need a map to get there, or not.

Overall, the writing has been going pretty smoothly so far. There have definitely been a few days were I just did not want to write. And, for the most part, I didn’t push it. To recharge, I’ve been taking some time to watch TV shows (mostly Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the new Supergirl show, and Last Week Tonight). I haven’t had time to get into any new books. Last month, when I had time to read whatever I wanted to, I was in a bit of a reading slump, but now, when all my spare time is writing, I miss books like crazy. I’m dying to get lost in a good book, or even a trashy book. Any book. But the books will still be there in December. November is for writing.

I’m mostly happy with how things are going so far with the story. I already know I’m going to have to go back and add more description and maybe flesh out a few scenes more. And I’m not entirely sure if my romance is believable enough, yet. But, I’m definitely making a story that I would want to read, and that makes me happy. Right now it feels like the rough sketch you might make before creating a painting. It feels like I’m only hinting at the color and the atmosphere. But all that can be dealt with in revisions. The point of NaNo is to just get the story out on the page.

I should quit procrastinating with the blog and get back to novel writing. If you’re curious, you can check out my “author page” on the NaNoWriMo website for a little blurb about my book and the first few paragraphs of the story.

Something fun to celebrate the first day of NaNoWriMo

~ EMM

In honor of the first day of NaNoWriMo, I decided to post the first chapter of the novel I finished in August to Wattpad. I’ve had an account there since they launched, but I haven’t really posted anything (just a little writing exercise I did for a class).

The current working title for this novel is Stormcat. But, it’s not about cats. Or storms. So, that may be a bit misleading…

Here’s what it is about:

Isla is the youngest daughter of the leader of one of three tribes tucked away in an isolated kingdom protected by mysterious creatures called Injini. When Elan, the young and newly appointed leader of this kingdom, visits Isla’s tribe in the hope he might gain their favor through marriage, he throws off everyone’s plans when he chooses Isla instead of her older sister. Once exposed to the world outside her tribe, Isla realizes that the magic that has kept their kingdom isolated and safe for generations is disappearing, and the only ones who can repair it are the Injini. Isla must help Elan find the Injini before their kingdom is invaded. But someone she thought she could trust is plotting against Elan, and he appears to be one step ahead of Isla and her allies.

Anyway, I originally started playing around with this idea back in 2009. Then I tried to write it for NaNoWriMo in 2011. I didn’t “win” that year (only wrote about 30k). And I didn’t think I’d ever go back and finish this novel. But I did. So, if you want to check it out, head over here and let me know what you think. If folks are into it, then I may keep posting chapters to keep you entertained while I write this other thing… (2500 words today! Yay!)

NaNoWriMo is almost here!

~ EMM

Hello friendly and faithful blog readers!

In case you missed it in previous posts… This year, in addition to participating in NaNoWriMo, I’m volunteering as a Municipal Liaison for my home region.

NaNo-2015-ML-Badge

If you’re also participating, you can add me as a writing buddy by clicking through to my author profile on the website.

And, if you’re not participating, you can support the efforts of this not-for-profit organization via my donation page (which also includes a short video of me talking about why I love NaNoWriMo and why you should donate).

For those of you that have donated already, THANK YOU! 🙂

If you are not participating and have not yet donated, please consider making a small donation to support this program. You can find out more about where the money goes here. And, as an added incentive, I’ve promised to provide those who’ve donated (and provided contact info), an opportunity to be a beta reader of my finished novel.

Curious about what I’m planning on writing this year?

This year I’m plotting a “new adult” fantasy romance. The story takes place in the English countryside during the winter holiday season and starts off with a contemporary “gothic romance” feel. There will be mysterious fairies and magic and creatures from the underworld. There will be kissing. There might be sexy times (if I’m feeling brave).

I’m pretty excited about this one, readers. And I can’t wait to get started.

Now, maybe go watch my video and consider a small donation while I get back to plotting…

NaNoWriMo 2015

~ EMM

Well, folks, it’s almost that time of year again. Less than thirty days until one of my favorite months of the year: November!

Yep. That’s right. November is National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as “NaNoWriMo”). And this year it is even more special for me because this year I’ve been selected to be a co-Municipal Liaison for my home region! This means that, in addition to writing my own novel, I have volunteered to help organize events and provide encouragement to others participating in these thirty days and thirty nights of writing with literary abandon.

If you happen to be haunted by your own plot bunny and dream of someday turning that cute little bunny into a full grown novel, I *highly* encourage you to consider participating this November.

Why? I’ll tell you why I do it:

  • I’m busy. I have a relatively demanding full time job doing basically the opposite of writing. November is the one time each year where I allow my creative brain to take over. The rest of the year I tinker with stories I’ve already started. But November is for new things. November is for creating something out of nothing. For making magic happen.
  • Writing is a pretty solitary endeavor. But, the writing community is kind of amazing. I don’t know many writers “in real life.” I belong to a writing group. I chat with other writers on Twitter and read the blogs of fellow writers (and readers). But only other writers can relate to that weird process of creation that happens when you sit down to write a novel. And in November the writing community comes together and rallies around that creation process. Need inspiration? You got it. Need a buddy for word sprints? @NaNoWordSprints has you covered. Can’t think of just the right name for your character? There’s a forum for that!
  • World-building is tricky business. I write mostly fantasy and sci-fi novels and I’ve found that world building is so much easier when you can immerse yourself in the world you are building for a short period of time. When I drag out the first draft process over months and months I forget details. I forget the rules I made up for how the world works. I forget what the place looks like. And every time I go back to write I have to remember all over again. Notes are fine. I love notes and lists. But it’s so much easier if you never really leave…
  • I believe in the cause. Each year the organizers bring together almost 400k participants of all ages, from diverse backgrounds, located in about 600 regions, across six continents. They give these participants the resources, inspiration, encouragement, and structure they need to achieve their creative potential. They send creative writing kits to classrooms. They build local creative writing communities. They help people realize their dreams. It’s so easy to get so wrapped up in “being an adult” or “getting good grades” that you lose track of your writing dreams. Or maybe you just don’t think it’s possible because you don’t think anyone “like you” could ever publish a book. NaNoWriMo gives people an excuse. A chance. An opportunity. And they show kids that there are people “like them” out there making a career out of writing books, getting paid for doing what they love to do. Is NaNoWriMo going to end world hunger or war or poverty? No. But books are a way of getting inside someone else’s world for a little while and seeing what that’s like. Reading teaches empathy. And we could all use more of that. So, more books please!

And it’s that last reason that made me want to sign up to be a Municipal Liaison this year. The same reason I’m going to do something I’ve never done before on this blog, or anywhere, really. I’m going to ask you to donate.

Please go check out my donation page and consider donating even a tiny amount of money to this worthy cause. I know there are no end of worthy causes out there to support. I get it. But if this crazy idea of supporting people of all ages achieve their dream of “someday” writing a novel speaks to you in any way, I hope you might spare a few dollars (or more) for yet another good cause.

And, if you have a novel in you, I encourage you to get it out this November.

Are you ready?

Sign up.

Then, dust off your word processor, or find your favorite notebook and pen.

And throw out the rules! Bring on the plot bunnies! Lock up your inner editor! Let’s get the words out on the page!

I’ll be posting some more blog posts and maybe even some videos in October and November offering advice and encouragement. So stay tuned for that.

Let’s do this!

Oh, the books I would buy…

~ EMM

I’ve decided. There’s not going to be a weekly inbox/outbox post this week. I just didn’t get any reading done. I’ve switched into writing mode again, and I’m hoping I might be here for a while.

It’s okay. I’ve already met my reading goal for this year (52+ books read! woah!) and it’s not even September.

But, while procrastinating today (I said I’d switched to writing mode, not saint mode… of course I’m still procrastinating…), I discovered a feature on Scalzi’s blog that I hadn’t really paid much attention to before…It’s the Big Idea and it’s a series of posts that writer-me LOVES, but also something that is threatening to topple my TBR.

So far today I’ve added 4 books to my wish list (none of which are available at my library, but 3 are priced at $3.99 or less…):

  • The Paradox by Charlie Fletcher — I really like the premise for this fantasy novel about old world magic colliding with advancing technology that is creating a new world where the old world is struggling to survive. It reminds me somewhat of what I’m trying to do in my own fantasy novel…
  • Graynelore by Stephen Moore — This one has several elements that I am drawn to right now: a MC who thinks they don’t have magic and then finds out they do, Scotland, faire, some sort of home-grown militia thing…
  • Superheros Anonymous and Supervillans Anonymous by Lexie Dunne — This reminds me a bit of the premise behind Vicious, telling the story of a mid-grade superhero. She’s not strong enough to whoop on the supervillans by herself, and she’s not indestructible, but she still has a role to play… interesting…

And that’s after reading just a few of these posts… I still have a more I’ve bookmarked to read later…

I’ve also been discovering a bunch of new YA authors while following #PitchWars, and added several of their new releases for 2016 to my wish list. Two I’m especially excited about:

  • Alterations by Stephanie Scott — oh wow! A YA re-telling of Sabrina (the movie, not the witch)? I am so there for this book. Sabrina is seriously my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie. I even like the refresh with Harrison Ford. Seriously need this book.
  • The Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves — Victorian England, magic, “nobles, revolutionaries, and gypsies,” and an underdog hero? Okay! This sounds great! Now if only they listed a release date.

I should probably get back to writing now. I don’t want to lose my momentum… I’ll catch up on everything inbox/outbox related at the end of the month. Until then… happy reading!

NaNoWriMo update: I am the Champion!

~ EMM

I did it! I slayed the word dragon!

Winner-2014-Twitter-Profile

This victory is a little bittersweet, though. While I achieved the goal, and wrote 50k words in 30 days, I am still nowhere close to having finished this novel. I’d estimate that I have at least another 25k to write.

I could keep writing, but I thought I’d take a little pause to reflect first. And, while I’m paused, I did a little word count analysis, because I’m a geek.

Here’s what I discovered…

You will likely be unsurprised to hear that I am an inconsistent writer, but when I do write, I WRITE.

  • Of the 30 days in November, I wrote on only 21 of them (70%)
  • Of those 21 writing days, I only achieved the minimum word count goal of 1667 words or better on 15 of those 21 days

So that means that on those 15 days I didn’t just write the minimum daily word count goal. No. Because I wasn’t meeting the minimum word count goal *every day*, in order to finish on time, I had to write closer to 3000 words on those 15 days. The max I did in one day was over 6.3k! (That was on that one day of 1k sprints I did last weekend.)

What can we learn from this? For starters, trying to get me to write a consistent number of words every day is probably a non-starter. I actually like having days in between to just sort of stew on my story. I also like to procrastinate. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. I should revise my writing goals to take this into account…

I also thought it might be interesting to figure out how much writing I managed to squeeze in on “workdays”… It turns out that (again, unsurprisingly…) I did most of my writing on weekends and holidays.

  • There were 18 “workdays” (non-holiday weekdays) in November.
  • I managed to write on 10 of those 18 days (56%)
  • And, out of those 10 days, I only achieved the minimum daily word count goal on 5 days (50%)

So, I’d say that writing on weekdays is not really something that works well for me… Definitely something to keep in mind for future projects.

I’ve already started reflecting on my 2014 goals and I’ve come to realize that I was totally over-ambitious when I created my 2014 writing goals. So, I’m trying to be more realistic about what I should be able to accomplish next year. More on this in a future post… but just something I’m starting to think about as we wrap up 2014.

For now, I’m just going to celebrate that I actually managed to pull this off in a ridiculously busy November!

Hooray! Time for more chocolate! And maybe a walk… if I can remember how to use my legs…