Blog (3)

Busy week

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Tags: #newnowrimo
It has been a busy work and school week. I did get a chance to write some today, and I'm now at 4400 words. I need to step back and gather up the cast of characters I've made up on the spot while writing and give them some backstory. I also need to create a short summary of each "chapter" I have read so I can track what I have done, and where I need to go. I had a list of 18 scenes to start the monthly challenge with, and I've written 3 of them, and created one out of whole cloth. I am inventing a lot and it's hard to juggle that plus homework, plus work work, plus everything else. I made progress tonight, that's the key piece. Read more

Day 2, no 3, no 2...

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Tags: #newnowrimo
Alright, I made it to day 2 of this challenge. Day 2 of me writing, Day 3 of the event. The "on target" number for words is 5,007 (1667 * 3). I'm sitting at 3,669. Ahead of where I should be for day 2, behind where I should be for day 3. It was a long day at work, then school. I don't think I'll get a chance to write tomorrow, with work, school, and volunteering. That's it from me for now. Read more

The beginning

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Tags: #newnowrimo
Writing books has always been something that other people did. After some pretty major life changes for the better, I began to think that perhaps I could write a book. It started with me contemplating writing a memoir to leave behind for my children. That quickly morphed into this harebrained idea of writing a fictional novel. Having raised a daughter who has been world building since high school, I leaned on her expertise on the subject and she pointed me to a series of lectures by Brandon Sanderson on creative writing given at my alma mater, BYU. I devoured the series and was endlessly amused that I had sat in that same lecture hall on more than one occasion. I began to plan and brainstorm. I read about the snowflake method. I started going to a local Shut up and Write! group. In the lecture series, Sanderson suggests we give ourselves permission to write a bad book. Story telling and writing is just like any other human pursuit, it requires practice. So, taking his advice, I have given myself permission to write a bad book. I am still unconvinced I can actually do this. I wanted to have so much more prepared before 11/1. So, I will be pantsing this thing far more than I wanted to. I have always wondered what would happen if I woke up tomorrow and computers no longer worked. As a software engineer, this is the stuff of my nightmares. That is the question I'm trying to explore here. Early as I started to brainstorm, I started to think of how many fantasy novels are set in a world in which there existed an ancient, advanced, and long since dead, civilization. As I began to brainstorm, I connected these dots, and from it came the idea for the book which I have given myself permission to write poorly. How can the world in which we live, become that ancient, advanced civilization of a fantasy setting? I spent all of 11/1 arguing with myself whether I should actually begin. Here I am on 11/2, still unsure, but a day behind. I do not know if I will blog more, or if I will complete this challenge. I do know that I will start. So here I am, about to embark on a journey into the unknown and uncertain. Read more