CampNaNoWriMo April 2017 - Week 3 End

Today's Earworm: I Am a Stone by Demon Hunter
Today's Date: April 24, 2017

What to say today?

Actually I don't have an answer to that. I've been writing so hard and fast the last few days that I've kind of lost my own thoughts.

I found myself a new story that is kind of eating my brain, based around the above song and Heart Heart Head by Meg Myers. Both songs have damn near been on repeat since I discovered them and just let the sound and the lyrics work their magic on me.

So I think I found what I wanted to discuss beyond my current word count (just over 20K actually).

Inspiration.

I know I've touched on this on my twitter (@SLStrailo) and sometimes here, but I don't think I've done a full on blog about it.

Inspiration can come from anywhere and right now I'm not looking a gifthorse in the mouth. So to say, I'm not complaining.

Really. I want the inspiration to hit. I want those words to come to me and to work with me instead of giving me issues with trying to get them down and out. Let me tell you, fighting the words is a bitch. I don't think that there is a writer's block, there's just an inability to want to get those words down and issues mentally that stops the connection between word and writer's mind.

Which can suck. But still not writer's block.

So I've been getting words but they have been hard fought for words, which tend to read better than an easy flowing words but hey that shit happens.

Inspiration helps me get the words. And I love it. I love the fact that I can put the music on and get the words out and then...then I can go back with a sickle in hand and cut them down or fix them up. Whatever I need to make them look polished and pretty.

As for words...I'm currently at 2,0633 words and I need to cram so many words in yet.

April 2017 and What Has Been Going On

Today's Earworm: Narcissistic Cannibal (cover) by Earlyrise
Today's Date: April 18, 2017

So I'm pretty sure that you've noticed that I haven't posted a new blog for two weeks in a row right?

Eh, I'm sorry that I didn't but I kind of needed to just stop and get away from things. I needed to relax and focus on my writing and not my blog as I've been doing for most Sunday's since I started a long term Monday Blog Series.

I had to stop and focus on...me.

I've spoken about my mental issues, including ADD and OCD, but I don't think that I've talked about the issues that I have with Depression, Anxiety and panic attacks. At least not in detail.

No, I'm not going to talk about those in detail this post so don't worry.

I am going to talk about what has been going on in my writing life and what I'm shifting around, fixing up and thinking about in regards to it.

After my lovely friend left last Sunday, I kind of crashed. And hard. I didn't write all that much during the first week of Camp and the second week kind of was meh, but this week so far has been good. I haven't actually worked on either Black Veiled Saviour or Bad Dog. At least not in getting words so far.

I've been working on other things that need to be focused on. But I have, surprisingly, gotten over 16 thousand words. I have dropped my word counts down to 30K because of the rocky start to my writing, but shit happens.

I'm also doing a lot of rewriting and going over information with various stories. It's seemed to be working well enough for me, so I'm happy with that.

I just need to finish off a few things. Get them off of my long, long list. Which is driving me up a wall. A big, craggly wall.

But I'm doing it.

So thank you for understanding. Tune in next week for the update on the stories and after that I'll be talking about what I'm thinking of doing for the next few posts.

April Camp Nano 2017 - Part 1

Today's Earworm: Heart Heart Head by Meg Myers
Today's Date: April 3, 2017

I have made a decision. A very serious decision to.

It's about Black Veiled Saviour, which is one of two books that I'm working on.

I have decided to just scrap the original story and start it anew. I have plans on using bits and pieces of the current chapters that I have, but I'm not going to continue the current story line.

I still need to work a few things out but to note I am keeping the characters used so far, and keeping their personalities. It's going to be interesting to rewrite this world.

But that'll wait for a bit of time. I'll survive. Really.

Now, something I wanted to talk about: Genres. I've noticed that there have been threads about Happily Ever After's (HEA) in romance and why it's a part of romance.

If you don't have a HEA it's not a romance damnit! We read romance for that. That is what makes romance romance.

People are trying to get rid of the need for HEA's and a few other things that make the romance genre what it is. Which is kind of stupid actually because then it's not romance.

Now mind you, romance has so many sub-genres that the sub-genres need sub-genres. It's that damn vast of a genre.

I personally write horror, comedy-horror, mystery, and sometimes Sci-fi, but I still work within the rules that sell those genres. Why?

Because that's what sells. It's been changed and perfected and honed over the years. A genre is set up a certain way because it works and yes, I'm playing with some cliches and some not so cliches and changing up my characters and introducing some new ideas...but...

I am still playing by the damn rules.

I write according to the beats that were set by authors that were around long before I was. I write my villains and I write my heros and I write my victims according to what sells.

And I do the same for my romances, rare as they are.

Stop trying to be edgy. Even the author of Twilight played by the rules set in her genre, as distasteful as I find the book. I grew up on Dracula, and Anne Rice okay.  Vampires do not sparkle and those wolves aren't werewolves. They're shifters.

But still, genre 'rules' are there for a reason. And that is because...

They fucking well sell! Learn what the guidelines are and figure out how to put your own damn spin on them. That's the idea behind writing. I swear.

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 4

Today's Earworm:
Today's date: March 27, 2014

So...I was going to focus on Bad Dog, Mean Bunny, Follow Me Down, and my Untitled Prompt Story...

I don't think I'm really going to be able to do that juggling act this round. Not because I don't want to, but because I want to focus this round. That means that I'm going to actually probably focus on Black Veiled Saviour and Bad Dog at the most. I'm not going to do a lot of plotting for the stories either.

Now, hold on, don't go complaining and pouting at me for focusing on two of my stories instead of bouncing around between stories. I decided to focus on the two stories instead of just bouncing around because that's how my mind is working this round.

It just means that I want to work on a certain amount of stories instead of having a wide variety of stories to play with.

This does not mean that I'm going to not work on other stories. I'm just more likely to not work on them actually work on them.

But since I'm less than a week away from April starting (4 days and counting actually), I will be setting up the two stories because I do have ideas for them and getting ready for things to come.

So, what's the stats on the stories as it is right now?

Black Veiled Saviour
Words Currently Written: 11,047
Chapters Currently Written: 8

Mean Bunny
Words Currently Written: 14,876
Chapters Currently Written: 7

I will try to keep you updated on word count and how much I've added to eat story as April goes along.

Right now, I'm going to get ready for today's writing marathon. Here's hoping to fun.

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 3

Today's Earworm: Snuff by Slipknot
Today's Date: March 20, 2017

Okay, so this was supposed to go up yesterday but due to a long day going with my friend to a pain treatment and then a pill review (which isn't happening next month hopefully!).

So this is a day late but hey! I have gotten it out and up which is nice.

To tell you what I've been up to...not much actually. Why? Because I've been working up to a cold and damn it, it hit and hit hard yesterday. So I crashed out yesterday about 9:30PM and didn't crawl out of bed until about 1:30PM today. So yeah.

I'm catching up on things though and I really don't think that this blog is going to be very long since I don't have much to talk about this round since I was sleeping or dealing with the cold building up.

But! I do have a new book that I'm currently called my "Househunting turned into a murder mystery" kind of thing. Not sure as to what I'm going to do but it's probably going to be a rather interesting and long story. I'm already having fun with it so far and I might let it be a stand alone because I have no idea if I do want to use it as a second book to a main story line or not.

We'll have to see.

For now I'm going to go write and read and drink tea so I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week.

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 2

Today's Earworm: RESIDENT EVIL 7 Biohazard Full HD 1080p/60fps Longplay Walkthrough Gameplay No Commentary
Today's Date: March 13, 2017


Bad Dog

Total Chapters Planned: 1
Total Chapters Written: Prologue plus 6

Mean Bunny (2015 NaNo Novel)

Total Chapters Planned: 2
Total Chapters Written: Prologue plus 7

Follow Me Down

Total Chapters Planned: 1
Total Chapters Written: 2

Untitled Prompt Horror Story

Total Chapters Planned: 25
Total Chapters Written: 2

So as you can see, didn't do much this week. Life has been a tad on the busy side of things. So I haven't had much of a chance to really plan anything. But I have been doing things, including catching up on things that my friend has been posting over on AO3.

Now, when I read, I don't read like a writer, I read like a reader. I don't let my knowledge of the writing process color my reactions and enjoyment of a story. I don't go into a story expecting to have it cater to my exact tastes.

But I go into a story with an open mind. And sometimes that knowledge of the writing process, tenses, and POV's, and all the other little goodies come in handy.

Now, my friend got a comment. The short and dirty of it, this person was trying to say it was a "This character can do no wrong so this character left all that they loved". I can tell you that no, this story was not that. For that matter, it was more of a "Character leaves behind what is tearing them apart to find a little happiness in their life" story.

Just because the character compares themselves to another character is just the character focus coloring the POV.

I'm sure you did come here to listen to me babble about POV's and character's and how they tend to dictate what you say in a story, but I think this is kind of important and something that I have to remind myself about occasionally.

When you write in First Person, you are getting all of their observations and all of their thoughts. From the characters Point of View. You don't get a full range of details but you get more insight into the person themselves.

When you write in Third Person, you are seeing the full picture. You are seeing the details that the characters miss. You are seeing all of the reactions of the characters, the setting, all the little things that help build things up.

I used to write in First person and let me tell you that was hard to do because if the character didn't observe it, it didn't exist. I now write in Third person with a past tense.

Anyways, when writing in Third person, as my friend was doing and I tend to do, if you're writing with a focus on a single character, their personality and opinions are going to color the words that you write. Their personality dictates how the words talk about other characters, and their opinions tell the tale.

For example: If one character hates another, a focused chapter or scene in Third person will talk very little about that person unless it's a needed chapter/scene. Then the scene will show how character A hates character B.

When it comes to writing, reminding yourself that you're not writing yourself, you are writing a character with a mind, a personality, and opinions. And when writing a focused chapter, all of that will bleed onto the page in a wider range. Third person is just First person through the reader's eyes and mind after all.

Anyways, I'm going to go back to watching today's earworm nnd writing. I have much to do and little time to do it. 

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 1

Today's Earworm: Treat Me Like a Lady by Anneke van Giersberben
Today's Date: March 6, 2017

So, wow! Has it been a year since the last April Camp NaNo? Why, yes, yes it has been!

And what a year it has been. It's been up and down, left and right, and twisting all over the place.

But I'm here to start plotting for what I'm going to do with Camp this round. I am doing a mix of fanfiction and originals, but here, for this purpose, I'm going to talk about the originals I'll be touching on during this month. I'm hoping to get at least 12 or more original chapters/scenes done.

So, I'm going to break down what I'm going to focus on this round.

Bad Dog

- As of right now? I'm still rewriting chapter 1 and turning it into 2 chapters to smooth out the lovely info dumping that I did. I need to finish that off, go through the other 6 chapters to make sure that I didn't do that to much more, and then start planning on what I'm going to do next. I have a general idea and it's going to be interesting to say the least.

I still blame Ashe for this. I swear.

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017: Prologue plus 6
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 1

Mean Bunny (2015 NaNo Novel)

- I haven't really touched this one outside of rewriting the original chapters. I know where I want to go with this story and I know that I will write on it this month, so I'm hoping that I have a rather good sized list of stories to write come April will help in this fact.

I'm hoping. Cross your fingers with me?

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017: Prologue plus 7
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 2

Follow Me Down

- Ahh, this story holds a special place in my heart. I love my little insane Oniel and his fascinating world. I'm actually going to have a friend work on some things for this world with me because she knows this world and loves it just as much as I do. And she helped create one of the more crazy characters.

I am getting back into this world this April. One way or the other.

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017:  2
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 1

Untitled Prompt Horror Story

- This story was one that I started because I was bored. So I went and hunted down 25 one word prompts. And proceeded to build an outline out from around them.

I have about 25 prompts total and I'm rather fascinated by this world since it's a mix of history and present, and is focused, mostly, on the detective who is trying to figure out just what happened to our victim. It's a mix of ghostly horror and mystery so, all around, a lot of fun to work ont.

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017: 2
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 25

So I hope this gives you an idea of what I'm working on planning next, and hope that those who are joining us at Camp Nano reach their goals!

Once more, I'm hoping to hit about 35K, if not 50K in April. Cross my fingers and pray!