paper graffiti http://papergraffiti.com the life of a writer Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:59:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 This Heroine’s Journey http://papergraffiti.com/this-heroines-journey/ http://papergraffiti.com/this-heroines-journey/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:50:21 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=899 The Heroine's JourneyIt’s been really interesting so far plotting out my novel. For one thing, I don’t think I’ve ever had an outline plop out of my head so complete before. I still don’t have an ending, but I have the rest of the entire main plot! I keep staring at my outline thinking, “How did that happen?” Granted, this is an idea that has been germinating for a few years and through a few incarnations, but it’s still gratifying to feel like maybe this thing will end up written after all!

I’ve been working with a writing buddy who I’ve known online for quite a long time, and she’s already been immeasurably helpful with some suggestions for resources and approaches based on my outline so far. I just got a book today that she recommended to me, The Heroine’s Journey. She helped me realize something that I didn’t see until I pulled back to the 25,000 foot view of my outline…I’ve got a pretty classic story structure going on. That makes me feel comforted somehow. I think aligning my plot to each part of The Hero/Heroine’s Journey will really help some ideas coagulate. I am reading it now, trying to digest it (there is a lot of uberfeminista type stuff in it, it’s not really a “writing” book per se) so that I can apply some things to my outline and hopefully come to a plot conclusion that makes sense. I just don’t know what I want to do with my characters at the very end of the story right now…but I know it needs to be satisfying and in keeping with the rest of the tale.

I’m coming up on two weeks of vacation for the holidays, and I’m hoping to finish most of my planning and get some writing in during my downtime. The first week will be full of family obligations, but I am going to be toting my Eee PC with me when we go out of town to celebrate Christmas with my in-laws at their house on Lake Palestine. I really want to have a nice start on this novel by the time I go back to work on January 5th.  So, I guess I’m taking my first steps on a journey of my own.  I are serious writer, this are serious novel.

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Word Counts - Today: 0 | December: 0 | 2008: 66,285

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/this-heroines-journey/feed/ Give a book this holiday season - they make great gifts! http://papergraffiti.com/give-a-book-this-holiday-season-they-make-great-gifts/ http://papergraffiti.com/give-a-book-this-holiday-season-they-make-great-gifts/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:50:05 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=890 I was catching up on my favorite writing-related blogs this morning and I saw something posted on Inkygirl that I thought was more than worth a repost:

Publishers and authors have teamed up to create Books Are Great Gifts, which promotes gifting people with books this holiday season. The site features a video produced by Random House that features authors (and Elmo!) telling us why they think books make great gifts.

If you love to read or know someone who does, why not give them a book this year?  The publishing industry is struggling like all other industries, and if there is one thing I feel that should never die, it’s the written word.  Someday you may be paying my bills by purchasing my books!


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Word Counts - Today: 0 | December: 0 | 2008: 66,285

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/give-a-book-this-holiday-season-they-make-great-gifts/feed/ after the adrenaline http://papergraffiti.com/after-the-adrenaline/ http://papergraffiti.com/after-the-adrenaline/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:05:06 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=882 Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I’ve taken a step back from that project to let it percolate a little bit.  It needs some serious revisions (as well as an ending and part of a middle!) but I am, quite honestly, really sick of it at the moment.  It’s good to get some distance from something for awhile before you jump back into it, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.

Instead, I’m jumping feet first into working on an idea that I had a few NaNoWriMos ago…it didn’t get very far, but the premise has always been dear to me even though I didn’t feel like the approach was working.  During NaNo, I had a flash one night of how I wanted it to open up, and that led to a 10 page handwritten outline on December 1.  I blame it on still being high from the adrenaline rush of 20,000 words in two days.  This is the novel I desperately want to write.  Actually doing it scares the crap out of me, but I’m forging ahead by making connections with other writers (my writing buddy H. for instance) and just trying not to think about how much I want it to be awesome.

I’m not going to go back to my old “what if” ways though…I know I can pull out thousands upon thousands of words on an idea I’m not even that crazy about, so there is no excuse why I can’t do the same on an idea that I love.

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Word Counts - Today: 0 | December: 0 | 2008: 66,285

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/after-the-adrenaline/feed/ Across the finish line http://papergraffiti.com/across-the-finish-line/ http://papergraffiti.com/across-the-finish-line/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:39:13 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=867 I broke the tape at about 9:30 this evening, after writing all day on the last 10,000 words of my novel.  It’s hard to believe that I wrote over 20,000 words in one weekend, but I did.  I’ve never written that much, that quickly, and even though I know that at least half of it might be crap, I still managed to write it.  I came from behind despite sickness, Thanksgiving, and the general belief that my novel was crap.  It probably still is, but at least it’s 50,000 words of worth of crap.

My final word count according to Open Office was 50,205.  The National Novel Writing Month validator put me in at 49,999.  I wrote a few final words at the end and called it a day, validating at 50,002 words.  My story is nowhere near done, needs some reorganization and some TLC, but I have over 50,000 words on an idea that I didn’t have at the beginning of November.  That’s some exhilarating stuff.

Congrats to everyone who participated in National Novel Writing Month, whether you made it or not.  Just attempting is a reward unto itself.  I still have ideas from failed NaNoWriMos that I am planning on revamping and making into something amazing.  You never know when you’ll have your best idea–it might be the one year that you don’t make it to the finish line.  Just never give up!

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Word Counts - Today: 0 | December: 0 | 2008: 66,285

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/across-the-finish-line/feed/ The final push to the finish line http://papergraffiti.com/the-final-push-to-the-finish-line/ http://papergraffiti.com/the-final-push-to-the-finish-line/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:59:20 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=858 So, I’ve almost given up on NaNoWriMo a couple of times this month already.  I’ve gotten sick.  I’ve gotten apathetic.  I’ve become convinced that what I’m writing is an unsalvageable big pile of crap (as opposed to the salvageable big pile of crap I’m trying to write).  I am, at this point, only about halfway through, which means I’m pretty behind.  But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  A LIGHT!

Sunday marks the finish line for NaNoWriMo and I am bound and determined to win.  I got my second or fifth wind sometime yesterday and decided that no, I’m going to finish even if it kills me just a little bit.  I’ve gotten SO far on this story, there is no reason to cash in my chips just yet.

I calculated that in order to meet the 50,000 word mark, I need to write about 4,200 words (a nice rounded up number for safety’s sake) per day.  I’m a fast writer, but that seemed a little hefty to me until I just sat down and DID it yesterday.  I got about 1,000 words during the day, then I did 10-minute sprints until I got my word count.  My sprints net me between 500 and 600 words most of the time, so they’re super helpful.

I keep having to give myself permission over and over again to write something–a sentence, a phrase, a scene–that I’m not 100% happy with just to keep things going.  I keep having to remind myself that it’s OK if my Great American Novel (or great whatever the hell this is, maybe practice for my Great American Novel) does not emit from my brain as a work of utter perfection, ready to be bound and placed on Borders bookshelves.  I am going to have to tote my tiny laptop (Asus EeePC <3) to Thanksgiving with me both Thursday AND Friday just to make sure I get everything done, though I’m going to attempt to get my word counts for those days done early or ahead of time.

I’m going to do it.  I’m pacing myself.  I’m going to write 50,000 words.  I’m almost there.

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Word Counts - Today: 4,326 | November: 30,032 | 2008: 46,078

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/the-final-push-to-the-finish-line/feed/ i am spartacus http://papergraffiti.com/i-am-spartacus/ http://papergraffiti.com/i-am-spartacus/#comments Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:34:11 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=836 I did something naughty tonight and edited my first two NaNo chapters before I sat down to really write.  I changed the POV because I hated how detatched I felt from my main character.  It was ABSOLUTELY the right thing to do, because I am so much more connected to her voice and the flow of my story now.  I gained almost 400 words doing that, too, so that was pretty awesome.

I have written on and off all night while chatting and watching “That Thing You Do,” doing 10 minute sprints to up my word count (and averaging about 500 words every time) and introducing some new characters and plot points.  I made up for the slacking this week due to the election and general tiredness and wrote almost 5,000 words!

Now I am so, so very tired.  Going to bed.  But I feel like I kick total ASS right now.  I love that contact high from writing.

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Word Counts - Today: 4,645 | November: 12,075 | 2008: 28,121

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/i-am-spartacus/feed/ NaNo Update: Post-Election http://papergraffiti.com/nano-update-post-election/ http://papergraffiti.com/nano-update-post-election/#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:00:44 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=826 I’m a little behind on my NaNoWriMo novel because I was too busy last night watching history unfold…and drinking champagne to celebrate it! Some things take precedence over everything else, and watching Barack Obama be elected the 44th President of the United States was one of those things.

I know I’ll make up for it this weekend, so I’m not worried.  YES WE DID!

(See more great designs for Obama at http://www.designforobama.org!)

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Word Counts - Today: 1,091 | November: 7,430 | 2008: 23,476

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/nano-update-post-election/feed/ That crazy month… http://papergraffiti.com/that-crazy-month/ http://papergraffiti.com/that-crazy-month/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:20:52 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=817 Well, it’s that time of year again…the air is starting to get crisp, the days are getting shorter, and I’m attempting to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  November is National Novel Writing Month, and this year I intend to win.

I’ve been attempting NaNoWriMo since 2003, but never have made it to the mystical finish line.  In various Novembers, I have looked for a new job, gotten engaged, planned a wedding and readied myself to move, and been eaten alive by work.  Anything could happen this month (especially the eaten alive by work thing, since my projects are bound to start picking up any day now), but I’m feeling really good about this project.  I’ve actually PLANNED at least the first two chapters of the novel, which is an important first step for me towards actual completion of 50K (if not actually completing the book in those 50K words).

I haven’t written much since August because I’ve been planning out what I wanted to do for NaNo as well as trying out new writing software and tools.  I settled on something a little too close to November 1 for my comfort, but it’s working out very well so far.  My Eee PC is still my awesome little writing machine, and it’s been pimped out for maximum NaNo usage.  I got it upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10, which is quite snappy and responsive.  It feels a good deal faster than 8.04, and I love some of the new features like auto-login.

I am using Writer’s Cafe for planning and organization, and Open Office for the actual writing.  Writer’s Cafe is a great piece of software, with the most responsive and helpful tech support and troubleshooting straight from the developer himself, Julian Smart.  I had some issues with the software earlier in the week, and I got a response from Julian less than 30 minutes after I sent him an SOS email.  That makes me feel really good about using his software.  I love the Storylines tool, which lets you enter and arrange virtual notecards, save notes and characters, and really just get into the nuts and bolts of planning a story.  Plus, Julian and his team have designed Writer’s Cafe with mobility in mind–it is netbook-friendly, which makes it perfect for use on my Eee PC, and you can even run Writer’s Cafe from a USB drive on any platform (Mac, Windows and Linux).  I don’t know why more developers haven’t realized that the netbook is becoming an increasingly popular writing tool.  Writer’s Cafe definitely gets my vote for that feature alone!

The one thing I don’t like about Writer’s Cafe is one of the things I love about Liquid Story Binder.  In Liquid Story Binder, an entire project has one large file that acts as a container for all the smaller individual files–your notes, your plans, your chapters, etc.  Everything is easily accessible and organized.  The chapters are also individual files that the program organizes for you.  Alas, Liquid Story Binder is a Windows-only program that doesn’t work too well under WINE in Linux.  To get similar functionality with my manuscript, I am using Open Office’s Master Document to aggregate my chapter files into one document.  This helps with word count and lets me see my overall progress.  Now if I could only figure out some way to mimic the line note feature of Liquid Story Binder–any line started with two periods is automatically formatted as a line note, which is excluded from word count and lets you make notes and to-dos for your writing as you go in the manuscript.  This is excellent for seeing something in context!

Right now, I’m making some notes about the overall story so that I can jump back in to writing tonight.  I’ve already met my daily goal (1,667 words per day!) but I want to get as much written this weekend so I can let the momentum carry me into my week.  It’s also good to have a buffer in case life happens…and you know it will!  However, this year I’m not letting life bring me down before the finish line.

I’m adding my NaNo novel to the sidebar so you can all follow along with my wordcount.  Happy writing, WriMos!

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Word Counts - Today: 1,695 | November: 1,695 | 2008: 17,741

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/that-crazy-month/feed/ keeping the momentum http://papergraffiti.com/keeping-the-momentum/ http://papergraffiti.com/keeping-the-momentum/#comments Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:40:50 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=748 I wasn’t able to meet my goal yesterday, which actually would have made up for what I missed on Friday and Saturday as WELL as Sunday’s goal.  I had lots of plans for yesterday, including cleaning part of the apartment, going to the grocery store, writing, and hanging out with friends.  I got as far as a shower and some writing, thanks to being felled by a mid-afternoon migraine.  Thankfully I felt better by about 7, but I am so tired post-migraine that it’s hard for me to do much else.  I have under 2,000 more words to write to catch up, which I feel confident that I can do tonight.

The important thing to me was that I had written something.  I feel a lot better having only written a little rather than not writing at all.  I really want to buckle down and get a bunch done this week, because I know that this weekend I’m going to be in happy new iPhone owner land, going out on a date with my husband, hanging out with friends and generally relaxing.  I have to keep the momentum going through the week to make my August goal.

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Word Counts - Today: 0 | August: 3,232 | 2008: 16,046

]]> http://papergraffiti.com/keeping-the-momentum/feed/ working through my weekend goals http://papergraffiti.com/working-through-my-weekend-goals/ http://papergraffiti.com/working-through-my-weekend-goals/#comments Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:29:03 +0000 jess http://papergraffiti.com/?p=745 I only managed 265 words last night before my Friday night plans intruded on my writing, but I plan on making up the rest of the goal today in addition to my Saturday goal.  It’s really not that much more.  I just feel good about writing even a little yesterday, so that I don’t break my stride.  I really like seeing my writing counts progress in the sidebar of this blog, and it goes away if I miss a day!

I’ve got some actual blogging planned for this weekend as well…I set up a great day planner system that I want to share (it has a writing bent, I swear!), I’ve got some new writing software I’m trying out, and I’m starting to get excited for NaNoWriMo 2008!  Stay tuned.

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Word Counts - Today: 92 | August: 2,528 | 2008: 15,342

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