Yes, it’s true. I’m putting this blog on hiatus for a while. I’ve been getting so many blog post ideas for my main blog, along with struggling over an entry for my library’s March Break short story contest and trying to figure out where to go next with Project Remembrance, that there isn’t much time left over for this blog. I hope to be back in a month or two (at the very most) with some new updates. (Oh, and my history projects for school take up time too.) See you then!
ramblings
For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about Betrayal today. Remember that story idea I posted about a loooong time ago? Well, it’s been on my mind lately, and I’m wondering if I should go back to writing it, after I’m done Project Remembrance (and I don’t just mean the first draft – I mean every draft until it’s as polished as I can possibly make it), because it’s the story + characters that tug the most on my heart, even after all this time. The whole thing is so very personal and special and real to me, maybe because my inspiration came from a long, complicated, intensely emotional dream. (Honestly, I was crying when I woke up.) Themes of loyalty and betrayal have always resonated with me, whether in books or movies or TV shows, and that’s mainly what Betrayal is about, so like I said, it’s special.
And that’s about it. I don’t even really know why I wrote this rather pointless post – I guess I just wanted to talk about some things to my self, and since I don’t have a diary, this is the next best thing. Anyway, my next post (if I stop procrastinating and just GET IT DONE) should be about PR and it’s different characters, settings, etc.
Eva
a writing tag
I snagged this questionnaire off one of my favorite blogs, because I didn’t have a post idea and I hadn’t posted for a while, and this thingy looked like fun. (Yes, I just said ‘thingy’. I’m tired right now.) If you want to sneak away with it too, be my guest. Right now, I’m feeling too meh to really care if you answer these questions or print out the list and eat it or whatever.
1. How many years have you been writing? When did you officially consider yourself a ‘writer’? Well, I’m not sure when exactly I started writing my little, plagiarized stories (I could look it up if I had enough energy to go down to my room and find the writing diary I kept in The Early Days) but it was probably sometime around my thirteenth birthday. Those were the days. I didn’t know anything about characterization or plot or dialogue, so I just scribbled down tales, blissfully happy in my supposed genius. Now writing is much more work (but I still enjoy it). I probably officially considered myself a writer when I won NaNoWriMo for the first time, in 2013. Or when I finished my first novel (which was either in 2012 or 2013). Either way, I definitely consider myself a writer now.
2. How/why did you start writing? Jane Austen. I started writing because I adored Jane Austen’s books and I wanted to replicate them. I’ve branched out now, and I don’t write Regency romances anymore, but Jane Austen’s novels were what got me started on the path in the first place, and I’ll always be immensely grateful to her for that. As for the ‘how’ of the question…I sharpened my pencil, got down a notebook that I’d bought from the dollar store, and wrote until my hand cramped up. I felt very satisfied when I stopped and saw how much I’d already written.
3. What’s your favourite part of writing? Hmmm. This is hard. I like getting ideas. I like the rush of thoughts and bits of inspiration that pour in whenever I get a brand-new idea. I whip out my little black moleskine notebook and write everything down just as fast as it comes to me, and even though I usually end up using less than half of whatever I write, it’s still a great feeling. Very writer-ish. I also enjoy being able to use the writing skills that I’ve honed somewhat for writing fan-fiction. A friend of mine recently said that the writing in a certain fan-fic of mine was ‘a cut above the average fan-fiction’, which made me very happy. (Not to be proud, or anything…)
4. What’s your biggest writing struggle? Dialogue. I recently realized that most dialogue (for original works and fan-fiction both) tends to be more than a little patchy, and it’s very frustrating at times. I want my characters to sound like real people, not book characters.
5. Do you write best at night or day? Most (if not all) of my writing is done in the morning, and I haven’t really tried much writing at night, so I’d have to say I write best during the day. I usually get an hour in the morning to write, and if it’s a good day, I can churn out as much as 2,000 words. (Usually less when I’m writing fan-fiction, because I like the quality to be excellent, even for a first draft. With my original work, I take a more relaxed view of things, mainly because I won’t have an angry fandom on me if I don’t get it perfect right away.)
6. What does your writing space look like? (Feel free to show us pictures!) Eh. I don’t really have a writing space, per se. I just write at the kitchen desk, which is usually very messy and doesn’t have any personal touches from me. If/when I get my own laptop, I’ll probably make my desk into a writing space, and if I do, I’ll share pictures on this blog. I have it all worked out in my head, actually. All that’s needed is a laptop.
7. How long does it typically take you to write a complete draft? Depends. I don’t really have a set writing goal, time-wise. I tend to mosey along, writing bursts of words every day and letting the draft be as long or as short as the story dictates. I’ve been working on Project Remembrance for five months and it’s nowhere near being finished. On the other hand, I wrote three complete first drafts (the Vengeance Is Mine trilogy) in just two or three months, I believe. I’m not pushing to get things done in a set amount of time.
8. How many projects do you work on at once? Again, it depends. Right now, I’m working on PR, a piece of Combat! fan-fiction, mulling through ideas for a potential To Kill A Mockingbird fan-fiction, and thinking about writing a bit of a story centered around this picture. Usually, I write one thing, while ideas for several others are going around in my head. Things are never dull up in my brain, that’s for sure.
9. Do you prefer writing happy endings, sad ones, or somewhere in between? Bittersweet, so I guess that’s somewhere in between.
10. List a few authors who’ve influenced your writing journey. Well, as I mentioned above, Jane Austen got me ‘into’ writing, but Jack Cavanaugh’s books sort of continued my writing. I was absolutely blown away by how he wove plot and characters and dialogue together into a (usually) historical tapestry, and I think that’s why my first book was set in medieval times (sort of). My favorite book of his is set in Medieval England, anyway. There’ve been a bunch of other authors who’ve wowed me, but listing them would take forever. Suzanne Collins, Markus Zusak, Charles Dickens, Shannon Hale, Laura Hillenbrand, Ted Bell…
11. Do you let people read your writing? Why or why not? I let people read my writing sometimes, mainly if it’s a short story or fan-fiction (and most of the people who end up reading my work are beta-readers), but my full length novels are languishing in a dusty file because they need huge revisions and I’d be embarrassed to show them to anyone. I’m quite proud of PR, though, and I generally let Jane and Ashley read whatever they want of my stuff.
12. What’s your ultimate writing goal or dream? Um…I haven’t really thought too much about it, actually. All of the usual things seem so cliched – getting a book published, becoming a best-selling author, making a living out of writing books, etc, etc. I guess my dream would be to publish Project Remembrance someday. And be able to send fan-fiction off to beta-readers without cringing and hoping they won’t find it too horrible.
13. If you didn’t write, what would you want to do? Read. That’s about the only thing I do these days, besides writing. (Oh, and eating. Can’t forget that.)
14. Do you have a book you’d like to write one day but don’t feel you’re ready to attempt it yet? Um…I’m not sure. I don’t thiiiink so.
15. Which story has your heart and won’t let go? I’m very partial to all my Combat! fan-fiction, of course, and as for ‘original’ stories, it would have to be Betrayal, which I haven’t visited in a long time, but is still very much in my thoughts. It’s very personal to me, for several reasons, and I AM going to return to it one of these days. Pinkie-promise.
Eva
thoughts on editing
Or, How I Lost My Irrational Fear Of Editing.
For the longest time, I hated, loathed, and dreading editing even though I’d hardly done a stitch of that very necessary part of the writerly craft. I’d write a novel (or two, or three, or…) and let it wallow in all its unedited glory because I was too apprehensive and/or too lazy to tackle the project and get it whipped into shape. I think one of the biggest reasons for this phobia was that I really had no idea where to start. Do I line edit first or do I chop up the plot? If I take out dialogue and plot and end up needing them later, what am I going to do? And how on earth do I improve characterization? (it seemed such an intangible thing to me) That’s how it went on for, oh, I’d say about two years.
Then, I discovered Combat! and everything changed.
Usually when I get really obsessed with a book or movie or TV show, I end up writing fan-fiction centered around said book/movie/TV show. I wrote the most horrid bits of Enjonine fan-fiction back in 2012, gave up all fan-fic writing in 2013, and then gave the thing another try with The Hunger Games and Rat Patrol in the middle of 2014. I think the fan-fiction I wrote for those two fandoms were relatively good (if you want to check them out, my fanfiction.net profile is right here) but I didn’t edit them a bit before posting them on-line, something that I very much regret now. Anyway, when I started getting the inevitable ideas for Combat! fan-fiction, I wanted to do things differently. My first story was about Doc and because he’s amazing and awesome and practically perfect in every way, I wanted the story to be the same. And the only way I knew of doing that was *gulp* Ye Dreaded Editing.
Thankfully, I had a friend who’d loved the show for years (and thus could help me with the dialogue and plot and characterization much better than an ordinary beta reader) and she willingly agreed to read over the fan-fic and give me her thoughts. So I finished writing it up and sent it off to her with no little trepidation. I had actually edited a couple of short stories, and the part I hated most about the process usually turned out to be the actual critique, because my stupid writer’s pride couldn’t bear to have its ‘genius’ critiqued. So White Queen (that’s her pen-name in the Combat! fandom – you can check out her blog here) read the story and sent it back to me with a lot of comments that Microsoft Word handily accommodates. Overall, she’d enjoyed the story, but there were definitely several things to work out.
I’ll admit that it was hard. The comments weren’t harsh, or anything like that, and there were positive ones sprinkled among the negative ones, but any kind of critique is hard for me to take. I wish I was thicker skinned, but I’m not – at least not yet. There may have been a few tears shed in frustration and some semi-sleepless nights, but I persevered, took almost all her suggestions…and you know what? The story turned out great. Really great, if I do say so myself. It took some ranting to my sister and deep breaths and gritted teeth and swallowing of pride, but I edited the thing and it’s infinitely better for the critique. (actually, there were two rounds of critiques, but that’s beside the point) Now, I wish I could say it was easier when I sent in my next bit of Combat! fan-fiction to WQ, but it wasn’t. Not really. I was still apprehensive. There was still the ranting and frustration and deep breaths. I’m still not thick skinned. But, again, I pushed through my stupid writer’s pride and got the job done. And that’s really all you can do.
How does all this talk of trials and tribulations while editing fan-fiction relate to my ‘real’ writing?
Well, I’ve been editing Project Remembrance for several days now (what I’ve got written of it, that is, so I can move on to more of the plot) and it’s actually been easy, if not fun. Fun. Imagine that. (I’m sure part of the fun is the fact that I’m doing it under my own critique, and not someone else’s, but still…) The story is improving before my eyes, and that’s always an amazing feeling. As I’ve said before, I really, REALLY think that PR could be The Novel That Gets Published. I’m still a long way away from that day, but it’s the goal. And it’s been made possible by the boost of confidence that editing [what are essentially] short stories gave me. If you don’t feel too sure about tackling the process of revisions, I’d recommend two things. (And they’re really the only two things I can think of as tips for editing)
- Find a good critique partner. Not just someone who knows a whole lot about writing – dialogue, plot, characterization, etc. – but someone who knows how to mix praise with pointers on what’s wrong. Let me tell you…it’s a huge morale booster when you’re wading through a bunch of comments to find a little gem saying something like “I love this bit of dialogue!” or “Great characterization here.” And, of course, your critique partner should be attuned to what you writer. Don’t saddle a lover of western romances with 100,000 words of grim, sci-fi dystopia. They’ll thank you.
- Practice on short stories. Fan-fiction is actually a good place to start if you want to practice editing techniques because the characters are ready-made, which means you just have to fiddle with thought/dialogue a little to get some really stellar characterization. Also, you tend to care enough about the topic to see revisions through to bitter (happy?) end. Although original short stories can work just as well.
So, there you have it. My (somewhat limited) editing tips – feel free to share some of yours in the comment section!
Eva
everything is awesome! (for now)
Project Remembrance is going swimmingly (I just love that word) right now and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve made some changes with the point of view (switching it to first person, Skye – but past tense, as first person, present is so overdone these days), general style, characters, etc., and it’s coming along well. You really can’t imagine how good it feels to write a thousand or so words every morning and have it actually feel like I’m accomplishing something. Fan-fiction is great and I love it dearly (and I have an entire list of fic I want to write eventually), but nothing beats working with your own stories and characters. These past few days have seen me the most content and satisfied I’ve been for a while (as a writer, that is).
At present, there are 3,877 words in PR’s document, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but I’m happy with it. I’ve made it a goal to write at least a thousand words every day (something I can do in an hour, and sometimes even less) and, so far, it’s going well. Although I think I’m going to have to work on pacing, since I’m not even out of the first scene. *cough* I will admit that I’ve been indulging my love of courtroom scenes/dramas, but I’ll be moving on when my next writing session rolls around. There’s still a lot of plot and characterization to work though and the story will most likely change again and again and again, but I’m having fun now and the whole thing’s going very well. So well, in fact, that I thought I’d share a snippet. (it’s been a while since I’ve done that, actually)
Rita Vern, the director of the Department, walked past without so much as a glance toward my table. Her jaw was set, her eyes directed straight ahead, and she looked like she was ready to do battle. As was I.
I didn’t recognize her lawyer, which was unusual given that I rubbed shoulders with those in the law business every single day of my life. The fact that I didn’t recognize the male lawyer meant that he was most likely near the top of the competitive chain, something that was only achieved by being one of the best of the best.
My mom might have been too hasty with setting me up in such an important case.
“When do we start?” Pette said in a whisper.
I turned away from my scrutiny of Rita Vern and her lawyer and back to Pette. “Soon,” I said. I removed my datapod from the table and started it up. Having all the details of the case in front of me wasn’t necessary, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Though nothing was ever really, truly simple in our legal system, this case was relatively straightforward, at least on the screen. Pette Ricks was bringing a case against the Department of Records, with the charge that they slandered her daughter’s name while compiling her dead file. She wanted the dead file reclaimed, destroyed, a new one made, and – if I could manage it – certain limitations imposed against the Department to prevent that kind of thing ever happening again.
It was the last part that worried me. Since the Department was almost solely responsible for keeping the peace in our country, because of the dead files, they had the near full backing from what government we had. Taking measures against them was always tricky.
A headache was coming on, I could feel it, but I pushed it away. Not now. I couldn’t deal with it right now.
Eva
yet another update
*sigh*
It seems like all my blog posts on here seem to be updates about my writing and nothing actually to show for all the writing I’m supposedly doing. Or, in this case, not doing. I’ve really been meaning to continue editing Project Remembrance – honest! – but there have been a bunch of different distractions over the past few days and, well, I haven’t really gotten anything accomplished. First, I was scrambling to finish up a wee bit of Combat! Christmas fan-fiction, and then my grandpa took the whole family out to brunch a couple days ago which meant that my schedule was interrupted (I write in the morning, or not at all…probably something I should work on), and I’ve also been re-reading a bunch of Jack Cavanaugh books. Which are so good that I spend more time reading than writing.
Excuses, excuses…
But my New Year’s resolution for 2015 is write more. Finish Project Remembrance – final draft, if I can. And I’ll chronicle it all on this blog.
Eva
random stuff (mainly about ‘project remembrance’)
Hallo, fellow writers!
How are the holidays coming along for you? Have you slacked off on your writing to spend time with friends and family? (if so, I applaud you – time spent with family/friends is never wasted, in my opinion) Have you incorporated a few sneaky pieces of Christmas-y goodness into your writing? (or written an entire piece of Christmas fan-fiction, like me?) Even if you haven’t stopped writing yet, I want you to pause for a second, sit back, and let all that holiday atmosphere soak right through you. (in case you’re interested, I wrote an entire post about that atmosphere over on my main blog) You’ll feel twice the energy and invigoration once you do so. I promise.
So, about that random stuff I promised you…
Project Remembrance is going well, for the most part, but I basically wrote 35,000 words of junk during NaNo, so I’ve decided that before I write anything more, I’m going to back away and edit what I’ve got so far. It mainly involves plot stuff and deleting scenes – whenever I got bored, I’d write a new scene from another character’s POV, and it got spoilery really quickly, so I’m dumping all those scenes in another file for later reference/use. At the moment, I’m planning to write PR from three different POVs (alá Lynn Austin) and once I actually figure out their characters, I’ll do a post about them. All I know about them right now is that it’s two girls and a guy and that could change too. But I don’t really mind all that much, for two reasons.
Firstly, I’ve had a little practice with editing lately. You know all those times I moaned about how much I hated editing? Well, the funny thing is that I hadn’t actually, really, truly (ugh, someone should edit out all those adverbs) edited anything. Oh, I had tweaked a word here and changed a sentence there, but I hadn’t done anything like re-write whole chunks and change plot points and improve characterization. I think it was partly ‘fear of the unknown’ that had me kicking and screaming about the whole editing/revising process. Enter Combat! fan-fiction. And this awesome beta-reader. See, I’d written a piece of C! fic about my favorite character and I knew it wasn’t perfect (by any stretch of the imagination) but I didn’t really know how to go about editing it. So I sent it off to Hamlette (or ‘White Queen’, as she’s known by fellow Combat! fans) and she gave me a really great critique. Of course, my writer’s ego took a little bruising here and there (as I’m sure every writer’s ego has during a thorough beta) but I rebounded and my story is all the better for it. AND it should me that editing was not A Beast To Be Feared, but an essential and not-so-scary part of writing.
The second reason is that I honestly think Project Remembrance could be The. Book. The one that *gasp* actually gets published. At first, I thought it would be the Vengeance Is Mine trilogy, but that’s going to need the biggest overhaul in the history of ever, so I really don’t think I’ll be getting to it any time soon. Betrayal could also potentially be The One, but for now, I’m focusing on PR. I have a really good feeling about where it could take me.
Eva
nanowrimo winner – two years in a row! (and counting)
Sooooo….I won! Yay! This isn’t going to really be much of a post, just a short re-cap, but I figured I’d put it up anyway. Between bribes and just plain writing like mad on the 30th, I won NaNoWriMo. That’s basically all it is. Writing. A lot. Last year was a breeze compared to this year’s NaNo, but I still had a lot of fun this year. Project Remembrance is going to be a lot more complicated than I’d first thought, but that’s okay. I like complicated stories. There’s going to be a lot of editing when I’m done (and I’m not really close to that right now), but I’ve been editing fan-fiction these past couple of days and I’ve discovered that editing and revising isn’t as bad as I thought. Tedious, yes, and the critiques are hard to take at times, but it’s doable. And it’s going to be something I’m going to HAVE to do, if I ever want to get published.
Anyway, my word count clocked in at the grand total of 50,370. (actually 50,012 – the NaNo word count thingies tend to add words) Now I’m working on adding to that and finishing up PR. It’ll take awhile, but I know I’m going to finish it. And then edit it. Something’s telling me that this story could be The One, which is reeeeeally exciting to think about. And scary. But mostly exciting. I’ll probably churn out some fan-fiction as well, but main focus is going to be on PR. (as it should be)
Eva
nanowrimo – week 4
Today’s post will be very short in comparison to the other three I’ve done for NaNoWriMo, because I’m doing a really big push today and tomorrow to get the words down and actually win the challenge. I’ve written 2,000 words today, I’ve got 3,700 left to write to win, so once I’m finished writing this post to give you a quick update, I’ll be right back with my writing. I think I could probably win today if I spend all my computer time writing – not sure if I’m going to be doing that, though, because breaks are great, but I should definitely get at least another thousand words in before the end of today.
I’ve been pretty good about keeping away from Pinterest, Youtube, and other distractions, and I think my word count shows that. In fact, on Thursday I wrote for nearly two hours straight on a computer that had no Internet access and I got a LOT accomplished. Turning off the Internet really does help, no matter how cliched the advice has gotten to be. Another thing that really helped (and something I wish I’d thought of at the beginning of this month) is to play a movie soundtrack in its entirety (movie soundtracks are usually about an hour long apiece) and do nothing but write until the music is over. I’ve been really enjoying the music for Kung Fu Panda, even if it doesn’t much match the theme of my book. Check it out!
Okay, I’ll quickly share a snippet, and then it’s off to the grindstone again. (*wink*) And I promise that when NaNo’s over, I’ll share more about the actual plot and characters in Project Remembrance.
Jonas Breen.
Skye gazed at the name on the mysterious file.
Jonas Breen.
Related to Liz Breen perhaps? Possibly. She wasn’t sure, she couldn’t be sure of anything at this point. From what she’d seen of her mom and Liz’s encounter, it had been awkward and not without some trepidation on Liz’s part. Maybe Liz’s coming had had something to do with this file. Skye somehow didn’t want that, because an agent – intern, really – coming from the Department of Records would probably want the file back, she would get mixed up in a big, tangled mess, and she hated that kind of thing.
All she wanted was to keep the file and figure out the story behind it.
And she couldn’t do that if those stuffy people from the Department of Records took it away.
Skye looked around her, almost furtively. It was the dead of night, her mom was certainly asleep – just to be sure, she’d checked about twenty minutes ago – and now it was time to open up the file and see just what exactly was in it. But there was still a part of her that wanted to wait, to savour it. There would certainly be some interesting things, and she was craving to read whatever was inside, but she also wanted to save it. Anyway, hadn’t she promised herself that she’d do things in alphabetical order? She still wasn’t done Ruth Akins or Connie Breen.
Well, maybe she’d just finish memorizing Ruth, and then jump ahead a little to Jonas Breen.
Maybe.
Probably not, though, since doing things out of order was something that made her uncomfortable.
After all, she hadn’t been up to the attic in quite some time and there was still that old computer sitting there, just begging to be worked on and fixed. She still wanted to fix it…didn’t she? Or had these dead files really taken over her life, the way so many people had said happened to them? They’d always said it had been in a good way, but she didn’t want anything to take over her life. She’d had everything – law school, repairing, social life – in neat little slots. Before the dead files. And now everything was messed up. ~Chapter 5
Eva
nanowrimo – week 3
This week has been a study in procrastination, and yet I actually got a lot accomplished. I have about 18,000 words left to write in eight days, which I’m not looking forward to, to say the least, but I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. I’m up to 31,874 words right now which is whole lot more than I expected I would have at the beginning of this week. Anyway, about the procrastination…I’ve watched animated movies (Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon), watched Combat!, taken a gazillion Combat! screencaps, watched Combat! fanvideos, pinned a ton of stuff, and just overall did a bunch of things that are Not Writing. And yet I have 10,000 words to show for my week of procrastination.
Don’t ask me how that happened, because I don’t know.
Anyway, I have a feeling that this coming week, the very last week of NaNoWriMo (goodness, time goes by SO fast these days), will be a ‘buckle down and get to work for real’ week. Oh, I’ll still watch Combat!, but only in the evenings. I’ll still pin stuff, but much less than I’ve been doing. And every day, I’ll write until my fingers are sore. Or something like that. Because I really, really don’t want to lose NaNo this year, or any year. I think it’s mainly a matter of pride – bragging rights and all that – but I also think it’s awesome to win just because I’ll have 50,000 words of story. How cool is that? (or, in my case, 40K words of Project Remembrance and 10K words of Combat! fanfiction) Now, at this point in the week re-cap post, I usually put a Combat! fandom picture in here, and this week, it’s going to be from The Clone Wars. (I’ll explain in the next paragraph)
I’m describing the world of Project Remembrance as ‘Clone Wars meets Matched’, and I think that pretty much sums it up. The whole ‘record of dead people’ (and, as it later turns out, people who are still alive) is similar to the Matched trilogy (although I hope not too similar) and whenever I’m writing descriptions of places around the city where Skye lives, all I can picture in my head is the Clone Wars universe, particularly downtown Coruscant. Plus, one of the weapons that Skye uses – a kind of stun stick – is styled after a lightsaber. I definitely don’t agree with everything about the Star Wars universe, but there are some pretty neat things in it.
Snippet time! (and I’m thinking that after NaNo, I’ll write a blog post properly introducing all the characters and more about the plot – sounds good?)
The smell of burning bread and rice sifted up through creaking, crooked floorboards of Nia’s bedroom. For a moment, she just sat there on her bed numbly as she had been doing for nearly an hour as she pieced together memories and dredged up recollections that were a hundred times better hidden. But then she realized just what exactly she was smelling.
“Oh, no…” she whispered. Springing up from the bed, she clattered down the stairs, so differently from the usual slow and steady pace she exhibited; something drilled into her by both her mother and more recently – if you could five years ago – her aunt. Now her mother was gone and her aunt was dead and her uncle was the only one left.
And he was burning their food.
Nia stood in the doorway of the small kitchen, little more than a closet in actuality, and watched the smoke billowing up from the oven’s inside and the stove top. She grabbed a cloth from the laundry rack and gingerly moved the pot of rice to one side and took the bread from the oven. Both foods were irretrievably burnt and even she and her uncle, in their perpetually hungry state, could not stomach this degree of charred food.
What had gone wrong? Uncle Proust, despite his many faults, was usually a careful, good cook with what little food they had.
“Uncle Proust?” she called, even though the scrappy living room was only two or three steps away. Her voice held more anger than usual. Her meal at the cafeteria, something included along with scholarship, had held her over as always, but she was still hungry, always hungry and Uncle Proust had ruined whatever small meal they could have hoped to eat. So, yes, she was angry.
She left the kitchen for the living room.
“Uncle?”
There he sat, in the only chair they owned, the one he called ‘his favorite’, head set to one side, sleeping. That he had fallen asleep while the food was heating was something she had never known him to do before. And why would he, when each meal was their last until something new was found? She would receive no credits until she won a case or graduated. They relied on whatever the government cared to give to those living in the slums each month.
“Uncle Proust, wake up. The food has burned.”
She shook his shoulder and his hand fell away, a lifeless quality about the way it dropped.
“Uncle Proust?”
No response. Nia took a step back, hands pressed over her mouth, eyes wide. He was dead. He had died in this house, in this chair, while the food burned and she had known nothing of it. How could everything have continued just as normal while a man died? Nia backed up until she was pressed against the wall, her eyes never having left the still, and now very obviously dead body of Uncle Proust.
What would she do now?
Aunt was gone. Father and Mother were gone. And now Uncle. ~Chapter 4
Eva
nanowrimo – week 2
(sorry this is a day late – I completely forgot about doing a weekly NaNo update until late last night when I was in bed)
How goes the battle, fellow NaNoers? For me, it’s going pretty well. I’m still about 5,000 words behind schedule (give or take a couple thousand), but I’m writing hard and having fun, and I think that’s a big part of what NaNoWriMo is all about. I’m not exactly happy with my low word count (21,193 words), especially since a quick check of my writing journal from this time last year shows that by this point, I only had 10,000 more words to write before hitting 50K…but I can live with it. I’m sure the last few days will be a mad scramble to win, but I can handle it. I’m ready.
Now, I have a confession to make. I’ve become a NaNo Rebel. A NaNo Rebel is someone who works on a collection of short stories, poetry, graphic novels, etc.; someone who draws pictures or edits during the challenge; or someone who works on two projects at once. I’ve fallen into the third category. See, my writing was going really slowly with Project Remembrance, and since I was so far behind, I needed/wanted a project to quickly and easily boost my word count. And just what might that kind of project be? Fan-fiction. Simple, easy brain candy that’s a breeze to write, partly because I don’t have to think much about characters and plot and partly because I write fan-fiction about fandoms I love/obsess over, and it’s easy to write lots about what I love. I finished up my first ‘Combat!’ fic yesterday at just a little under 10K and I’m pretty happy with it, even if it still needs a lot some work. I’ll be going back to Project Remembrance now, but if the whole thing slows down again, I’ve got a lot of other fic ideas I can explore.
I don’t think anyone will be very interested in an excerpt from some fan-fiction for an obscure old show, so I’ll share some more of Project Remembrance. (although I don’t know if anyone’s interested in that either) Oh, but before I forget, I found the perfect soundtrack for PR. I always end up finding a movie soundtrack that fits perfectly (or nearly) with my current novel’s theme and mood, and at the moment, it’s The Fault In Our Stars. (the score, not the ‘songs inspired by’ thingy) Check it out – you’ll love it!
Alone in her room, Skye opened her briefcase.
Fifteen files, fifteen people, fifteen lives.
She wasn’t going to be all sappy and sentimental about the whole thing, but she had to admit there was something poignant about this system. In her hands, she literally held the lives of fifteen different people. All ages, nationalities, every one of them unique.
And she was tasked with remembering each and every one of them, making sure that for as long as she lived, they’d never be forgotten. In a way, it was comforting to think that the same thing would happen to her when she died. As long as she cooperated, that is. She could see how people would get attached the whole concept.
But enough of this.
She checked the tabs on the files where the names were written in clear, careful script. All the writing was the same and she wondered who exactly sat down and wrote it all out, hour after hour. It must have been tedious. It looked to be about half men and half women – or girls or boys depending on when they died – and she arranged the files in alphabetical order. That was how she’d tackle them. ~Chapter 4
Eva
nanowrimo – week 1
NaNoWriMo has been going well, considering that I’m afflicted with whooping cough, my entire family is afflicted with whooping cough, and when you’re sick, production levels go only one place. Down. I’m about 3,000 words behind, which is where I’ve been almost all week, and it’s not the greatest feeling in the world. Especially since last year I took the NaNo world by storm (after only a day of preparation, no less) and reached 50K in about twenty days. Maybe part of the reason I’m having so much trouble is that I had a lot of time to prepare, to plot everything out, to get used to the story – while everything was spontaneous last year. (and in case you’re interested, I’m at 9,942 words)
Anyway, I’ve had to resort to something I almost never do – bribery. I bribe myself. How weird is that? (at least I think it’s weird) What, you might ask, am I bribing myself with? ‘Combat!’ A delightful television show all about the trials and tribulations of a squad of men fighting in France in WWII. (delightful my foot…the thing is depressing as Les Miserables) For an hour or so every day (if I’ve done my writing), my sister and I forget all about terrible word count and incessant coughing and all that stuff and watch other people go through much worse situations than we ever will – it’s oddly encouraging. (shameless plug: WATCH COMBAT! It’s amazing. Especially Doc 2. Who I will include a picture of because it’s my blog and I love him dearly.)
A typical day of NaNo-ing goes something like this…
- Wake up. (obviously)
- Have breakfast.
- Write for about half an hour.
- Break. Play Uno with my siblings/read a book.
- Write for an hour.
- Lunch.
- Watch Combat! with Elisabeth.
- Break until after supper.
- Write for half an hour.
- Go on Pinterest, send emails, catch up on Facebook.
- Bed.
So, I’m taking a gentler approach to the challenge this year, with plenty of breaks, but at least I’m still getting words down. Although I don’t even want to talk about the quality of those words. I’ve decided that I’ll share a snippet at the end of every NaNo post this week, but honestly, I’m not proud of it at all. I’m definitely placing quantity over quality. The plot’s there, and that’s about it. My characterization and dialogue skills have seen better days. But here’s the snippet anyway 🙂
“Skye Amsden, here to take my memory test.”
The desk receptionist in front of Skye hardly glanced up. “You’ll have to wait.”
So Skye sat on one of the soft chairs that instantly molded around her to create the best possible experience. The technology was a luxury, even for her, but she couldn’t enjoy it.
Arriving on time was something she prided herself on, and she’d walked through the thick glass doors at exactly nine in the morning. It was now two minutes past nine, she could see no one from where she sat in the spacious waiting room, and the receptionist moved with all the ambition of a half-dead slug. All in all, not an auspicious beginning.
Nevertheless, it was a beginning.
She sat in the most professional, elegant manner she could think of for the benefit of both the receptionist and anyone who might come in. She was a prime candidate for the selection – even if she didn’t want to be – and being a lawyer was all about public image. She’d be poised, polite, and placid. After all, it wasn’t all that big of a deal. The whole dead files thing just took weeks, if not months, out of her life and leave her less time to study for things that were actually important. But no big deal, right?
Inwardly, she rolled her eyes.
The door she’d entered from opened again.
“Don’t touch the glass,” the receptionist said, without looking up, in a sepulchral voice that had the potential to raise the dead from their files, just because they’d think one of their own was in the building.
Nia walked in, data pod in hand just like Skye, and rolled her eyes, in reference to the receptionist. Then she grinned, and sat down a couple seats away from Skye. She placed her data pod on her lap in front of her and appeared to be reading something off it. Skye looked away. None of her business.
Several minutes passed. The room was so silent, Skye could hear her own heartbeat, everyone’s breathing, extremely faint sounds from somewhere outside the room, and a single sheet of paper falling from the reception desk.
Nia tapped at her data pod a couple times, and then put it in her jacket pocket, right side.
“How long have you been here?” she asked in a hushed voice.
Skye shrugged. “Maybe ten minutes.”
“They said nine o’clock.”
“I know,” Skye said. For a moment they had something in common and commiserated silently. But Nia was a rival lawyer, even if she didn’t seem to be resentful or outwardly hostile to the fact that Skye’d won and she’d lost, and Skye didn’t feel right in trusting her. Better to keep rivals and potential enemies at arms’ length. Far enough away to not fall into any traps but close enough to observe them. ~Chapter 2
How’s your NaNoWriMo going?
Eva
“now it begins all over again.”
It’s NaNoWriMo time again. I’m afraid I can’t feel all that enthusiastic, because about a week ago, most of my family (including me), came down with an awful cough which we’ve yet to shake. And it has a way of draining all the fun and excitement and enthusiasm out of anything. Does this mean I won’t be participating? No. I’ll be participating, but I might not win. I love the Project Remembrance story, I really do, but I’m just not sure how the whole thing’s going to go down. (on a total side note, don’t you love the graphics for this year’s NaNo? Much better than last year, in my opinion.)
So, yeah, I’m sitting in the kitchen, early in the morning, being kept company by my sister since we both hate sleeping right now because we cough more when we lie down. Bleary eyed because I stayed up till midnight watching a dumb animated film, eating pizza and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, etc, etc. Bored out of my mind, kind of depressed, and so on. (if this whole thing sounds like a pity party…it kind of is.)
BUT. I’m going to rally and give NaNo my best shot this year – after all, what else can I do?
Eva
P.S. Don’t ask where the post title came from. Just…don’t ask. Like I mentioned above, I’m depressed right now.
my nanowrimo novel
“I did some research on this a couple years ago,” Augustus continued. “I was wondering if everybody could be remembered. Like, if we got organized, and assigned a certain number of corpses to each living person, would there be enough living people to remember all the dead people?”
“And are there?”
“Sure, anyone can name fourteen dead people. But we’re disorganized mourners, so a lot of people end up remembering Shakespeare and no one ends up remembering the person he wrote Sonnet Fifty-five about” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
:::::
The idea for my NaNoWriMo novel was sparked by the above quote. I was sitting in a WWII museum, my mind full of airplanes and soldiers and POW camps, when I decided to pull out my writing notebook and flip through it. I find that doing so is mildly entertaining, since I have so many weird things written down, conjured up from who knows where. Anyway, I found a note on one page that basically said ‘write a story about Augustus’ fourteen dead people quote’ and while I probably hadn’t thought of doing anything like that for awhile when I scribbled that down, right there, in the museum, I decided it would be perfect for NaNo. Up until that point, I didn’t have much of an idea for what I was going to write – I wasn’t really enthusiastic about any of my options. Now I’m excited and rejuvenated and really, really eager to start writing something other than fan-fiction. (I have a lot of love for fan-fiction, believe me, but I need a break from it)
So what’s Project Remembrance (working title) about? It’s futuristic, a little sci-fi, that kind of thing. Not originally supposed to be dystopian, but after a great brainstorming session with another teen writer (shout-out to Vanessa Weaver!), I saw that there it fit in with the plot. Steampunk influences (or would it be cyberpunk?), inspiration from Frankenstein, MD…and a bunch of other things. A world where being remembered is everything. I wrote a little back cover blurby thing for the NaNo novel page, and I guess I’ll just paste it here, so you get a quick plot overview. (be warned: I suck at writing plot summaries)
Skye Amsden is too busy with law school and repairing old machines to memorize facts about a bunch of dead people. But the government is insistent, so she accepts the task reluctantly…until she stumbles across a file that has farther reaching implications than she could have imagined. Rebellion against the government, a broken family member, and people who are out for blood. Skye must go through a gauntlet of political, diplomatic, and physical maneuvering to find the truth, while falling for a dead rebel, and helping a best friend go through personal battles of her own.
Ugh. That summary is awful. So cliched. But at least you get the general picture.
What are you working on for NaNo?
Eva
scribblingsofajaneite 