So, the alphabet project is over (and I still haven’t written a post for Z, I do apologise) and something else comes looming around the corner. Before I start, I am completely aware that it’s only the 2nd of October, but sometimes you can’t be too well prepared.

Yep, I’m talking about Nanowrimo.

“Already?!” I hear you cry. Yes, already.

Last year (which doesn’t feel all that long ago!) I went in with a basic premise, a skeleton of an idea and did manage to get finished in time. This year, I’m trying to be a bit more organised, so I am trying to come up with some ideas ahead of time. I had come up with a title and a really brief synopsis, which actually sounded a lot like some other plots I’ve come up with so I’ve pretty much scrapped that and have tried to come up with something new.

My idea at the moment is written on a few scraps of paper, scribbled at work in spare moments throughout the day. Whether any of it will stay the same is questionable but it’s an idea for the moment.

I’ve also set myself some October goals regarding the novel I’m writing (or rewriting, should I say). These are:

• Book must be finished by November 1st.
• Must be ready by November 1st for my final read through/Mum’s read through
• Needs to be ready to be sent out by January

Hopefully I can stick to these goals and I can start sending my book out in January. Maybe my blogs in 2013 will be about rejection letters, agents and book deals! We’ll see!

That’s all for now,

Lil

 

Z is for Zzz

Even though a few people are probably rolling their eyes right now, there’s a lot more to “Zzz” than merely being the onomatopoeia associated with someone sleeping. Well, not much more. According to the Scrabble dictionary, it’s a word that can be used. Lots of points? No, traditional Scrabble sets only have one letter Z tile so you’d have to use two blanks, resulting in a mere 10-point word. Alas, some things are not meant to be.

Here’s a quicklink guide to the entire Alphabet Project:

A is for: Auberon, Addiction, Angel, Ask.

B is for: Brideshead, Ballpoints and Biros, Breaks, Brain.

C is for: Characters, Cartridges and Converters, Cathedral, Craig.

D is for: Detectives and Denouements, Dilution and Dependency, Dos and Don’ts, Distractions.

E is for: Endurance, Erasable Pens, (the) End, Elimination.

F is for: Fens, Fountain Pen Fascination, Fatal Femmes’, Frustration.

G is for: Genre, Gel Pens and Gratitude, Guilt, Geek Love.

H is for: Harry, Handwriting, Heedian, Hinting.

I is for: Isherwood, Inkjoys, Internet, Iteration.

J is for: Jubilee, Journals, Jon, Juggernaut.

K is for: Keep Calm and Carry On, Keep ‘em Coming, Keep Going, Keep ‘em Keen.

L is for: Laurie, Lamys, Letters and Luckiness, Learning, Library.

M is for: Movies, Mechanical Pencils, Magic, Meme.

N is for: Nothing, Notebooks, Never Say Never Again, Nightmares.

O is for: Overachiever, Online, Overdone, Organic.

P is for: Play, Plethora, Political Identity, Placeholder.

Q is for: Questions, Quirk, Quotes, QWERTY.

R is for: Reading, Rest, Relaxation…Ranting!, Return.

S is for: Sassoon, Suckage, Silver Cathedral, Spoilers.

T is for: Time, Travelling, Tame, Temporal Traversing.

U is for: Unfinished, Understanding, Underdog, Ultimatum.

V is for: Voice of Reason, V Pens, Voice(s), Vulnerability.

W is for: Without You, Wait, What?, White’s Writing, White Whine.

X is for: X…?, X-rated, X-Men, Xykon.

Y is for: “You’re left handed?”, YYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?! (Or, Whhhhhhyyyyyy?!?!), You, Yellow.

Z is for: Zest, Zombies, Zzz.

Z is for Zombies

I have to put a WARNING on here about the graphic images and news it will depict. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.

I think zombies are bad. Bad, as in the worst horror invention to exist that I know of. Worst — as in they are FUCKING scary. I have the occasional dream about them, and they never end well.

Zombies are just about surviving. So it’s only a matter of time till you die. It’s just when: That’s the question. There are very few happy endings with zombies. In fact, I can’t recall one good ending of the top of my head.

Yes, the horror genre scares, but are some of these inventions actually possible? And is the zombie apocalypse already begun?

People here certainly believe so.

People are also trying to cover it up here.

I’ll leave it up to you. But a friend came up with an idea. She then decided it would work even better with two people writing it. So I am that person. Not going to get too deep in to it, but it is planned to be written like a diary from a woman’s and man’s point of view about the zombie apocalypse beginning. Go figure. It fits perfectly with the last post of the alphabet project.

That’s all from me.

Jon here. Hope you all have a good week.

Word count: 36,497 Been doing not so great on this due to becoming ill, and not being able to focus well. However, I did leave it on my week off at three broken ends. I’ve tied one up still. Two more to go. It’s starting to form the way I wanted now But there’s a harder, yet shorter journey ahead with the editing in a few weeks!

Sorry about the short word count on Silver Cathedral this week. Every time I look at the screen I feel dizzy and get an even worse headache. I wrote this blog quite a while ago on MS Word.

Y is for Yellow

‘Okay Craig, really? The others come up with exciting words and phrases that begin with the letter for this week and you go for a colour? What does that have to do with writing?’

Everything.

The main difference between written fiction and visual fiction is obvious: the former requires imagination. The human imagination is an amazing thing that works both ways in fiction: both from the author who creates the work, and the reader, the latter being the most vivid. People interpret written work in different ways, and no two people will read the same story the same way.

So why yellow?

Yellow, when used in visual media, often represents positive emotions or key points in a scene (see “Jaws“). By adding the colour yellow to a scene in a novel, people will (often) keep the image in their mind and it’ll help put the scene’s ideas forward.

Y is for You

Let’s make this short. I have lots of other writing to do.

Okay, so I have mentioned in a post earlier on that YOU need to start acting a bit selfish to get somewhere in life.

I lived for a long time doing what everybody else wanted. And probably will for the rest of my life in ways.

Jobs for money and survival are all about reaching other peoples goals in the business usually. But we all have to start somewhere.

I have noticed a great many things about jobs and hobbies. You usually find a menial, mundane job is forced upon you. And after a while, if it didn’t feel that way, it will — eventually.

However, it is your hobbies that keep you going. Imagine taking away what you love and just working at the jobs nobody wanted to ever stay in. How would that make you feel?

I’m not going to go in to this too much, but I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for writing. I made a promise to myself.

Tribal Guard word count: 35,734 I’ve actually allowed myself a (seven day) break from this as the final scenes are still merging in my head, and I need time to think them through properly.

Silver Cathedral part 6

Have a good week all

Jon

Y is for… YYYYYYYYYYYYY ?!?! (Or, Whhhhhhyyyyyy?!?!)

Hey folks!

So, I’m not too bad today. This week’s letter was a bit of a struggle. Much more of a struggle than any other week. Even last week. Which, is kinda odd really… Though, as of right this second, I’m still a little unsure about what to write about next week. Either way…

Today I’m going to talk about “why.” Why what? I hear you ask. Why writing? Why a writer? (Something like that anyway.)

I think I was in year… 5 maybe (so I was maybe about… Eight years old.) We were given a homework assignment; we were given a starting paragraph of a story and we had to complete the story. All I remember about the details is that the story involved ice cream, and even then, I’m not 100% sure that I’m right about that. It was a very long time ago but I’m pretty sure that it sounds right. I don’t remember the grade I got for it either, but I think it was a good one, because I feel.. Glowy, when I think about it. So I must’ve been proud of it.

Anyway. I think from that homework task onwards, I think I found that writing stories was… Fun. In addition to all that, my best friend, Emma and I used to make up stories together, based on our favourite shows, all the time. That was much more enjoyable than homework!

I don’t remember much after that until a few years later. I’d moved house, switched favourite shows and started secondary school. Emma and I would still make up stories when we saw each other in the holidays, but at this point, we started writing them down too. And, I started writing my own stories too. Hey, I even put them on the internet! (I think there’s still some there somewhere.) Boom. Those stories, the ones I put online, got me hooked on creating scenarios and writing them. I say “creating scenarios” because like a lot of 11 or 12 year old girls, I was writing fan fiction. I still do actually, and I enjoy it very much.

Fast forward through secondary school to college. I meet a great group of people, and, in that group is a girl called Jazz. I’m pretty sure it was her who introduced me to the college’s Creative Writing Group, and to NaNoWriMo. She was also the one who showed me the “Writing Contemporary Fiction” degree in Southampton Solent University’s prospectus. I was in my second year and I think she was in her third. She went on to do the course at Solent, and I followed a year or so later. Unfortunately the Uni course wasn’t quite all I thought it was going to be. But I met some amazing, truly amazing people, three of whom co-write this blog with me, and I graduated (something I thought I wouldn’t do) so I don’t regret it. Oh, and we can’t forget the fact that I met my other half there <3 And I love him very much, but that's another post. Of course, there were bad times and some not so great people, but hey, that's life. Live, learn, move on. I have. In regards to most of it. Some things are much harder to get over than others.

Anyway, going back to college…

That year, NaNoWriMo 2006, I only wrote 7,000 words, but it was 7,000 words more than I'd written all that college year and that's when the writing really bit me. I don't think I've really properly stopped since. Well, except for a couple of brief moments during Uni when I was at my most unhappy or stressed. I think that was natural though. However, I think the writing really suffered during second year, it was fine during first, and really blossomed during third – when I was happier, much happier.

So. Why writing? Because I suck at crafts? Because I cannot draw? Because music in all its forms eludes me? Because anything else is not my forte. Writing is my thing because… Because that's the way it is. That's the talent, if I can call it that, that I was given. And I'm glad, because of all the people it allowed me to meet, because of all the good times it's given me, and because I really enjoy it.

And hey, it can be really cheap – you can write on almost anything and, at the most basic of levels, pencils cost pennies. (Although I won't deny that I love the more expensive tools…)

There we go then…

Until next week…

Danni x

Blog post word count: 760 words.

X is for Xykon

In another continuous attempt to make something out of really awkward letters, I’m going to thread in an example of today’s theme and go off on a tangent.

Xykon is a villain in Rich Burlew’s award-winning Order of the Stick, a fantasy webcomic based on tabletop roleplaying and genre conventions. It’s also really good if you’re into any of those things or interesting storytelling. So why am I writing a post about a specific character from a webcomic and why this particular one? Is it because of the limited topics you can write with X? Maybe. However, the character raises some interesting points.

He’s not just another stereotypical villain: he’s an extremely stereotypical villain. Xykon is a lich – an undead skeletal spellcaster brought back to life through a twisted ritual and who keeps his soul stored in a phylactery (the original term for a Horcrux). He can’t do a deep booming maniacal laugh because he has no lungs. Instead of setting up his most dangerous traps and minions at the entrance to his lair, he puts the weakest ones first and makes them more powerful. Why? Boredom.

As the story progresses (no plot spoilers, by the way) he fits the role of a villain in darker ways. Xykon is a villain who suffers from a weakness that a lot of successful fictional villains benefit from – faith. I don’t mean faith in something in a religious context, his faith in magic is without hesitation. A villain, nay a person that focuses on one aspect of their power and sticks to it is an effective part of any story simply because it builds character. If they have a pet that they lose, it represents the remnants of their humanity disappearing. Complete faith in fire magic? A weakness to make the situations they present the protagonists with possible to conquer.

Next week, Y. That’ll be fun.

 

X is for… X Rated.

Hi guys!

So. X Rated. You know, the hard stuff. Not the rubbish ’50 Shades of Grey’ bollocks (because I’ve read better erotica written by virgins) but more… Hardcore.

Nah. I’m just kidding.

We all have that one thing (maybe more than one) that gets us way more excited then it should, it makes your heart beat that little bit faster. For some, it’s video games, comic books, new books by a particular author, new music by a particular artist or band, new films… You get the point.

I get over excited about new stationery items. New BRIGHT stationery items in particular. For example, as of late, I’ve been totally in love with orange and lime green stationery items, so when Leuchtterm 1917 announced last month that they were going to be adding a nice, bright, juicy orange to their notebook colour choices, I squee’d. And possibly salivated a little bit. Now I just have to wait for a ‘release date’ for lack of a better term.

Another thing that excites me more than a dog outside a butcher’s shop is the news of… Well anything. Any news from my favourite bands / music artists (which isn’t happening very much at the moment) Or a new, decent, Sims expansion pack, like Supernatural that was released last Friday, and Seasons that is coming out in… November I believe.

Those things are really exciting for me. We all need things that make us tick – something that makes us a little bit giddy. For ‘addicts’ it’s often whatever they’re ‘addicted’ to – stationery for example, y’know? It’s even better when your friends totally get it too – they understand it and help you indulge in it.

I don’t see how being that passionate anything is bad. I know some people who are borderline obsessive about things.. I’m just very passionate. Stationery is essentially my porn. Well, that’s what my boyfriend says – at least it’s slightly healthier!

Hm. This is not quite the post I imagined it was going to be. No matter!

Until next week!

Danni x

Blog post word count: 339 words.

W is for White Whine

(Disclaimer – this post has nothing to do with yesterday’s.)

It’s only natural for people to complain. Of course, the validity of your complaint is something else entirely. I’m sure a few people are looking at the title of this post with a raised brow: go take a look at White Whine and you’ll begin to see where I’m going with this. Note that just because the site is called “white whine”, that doesn’t mean that only white people complain. No racism here folks, just trying to keep the alphabet theme going.

The whole White Whine/#firstworldproblems phenomenon does have some merit to it – if you take a look at the suffering that people endure in third world countries, having the cashier at McDonalds forget to put ketchup on your burger seems a little less complainworthy in comparison. How does this relate to writing fiction though?

If your character does nothing but complain, people will get irritated. If they actually have a reason to complain, then people will grow more attached to them. Did they lose their arm in the war? People will feel sympathetic, even if most of your readership won’t have lost an arm in the war. Did they drop their ice cream? You might have dropped an ice cream or enjoy it yourself, to an extent you might feel sympathy. Did a relative of theirs buy store brand sugar instead of the real stuff? Lost interest.

I’m not saying that a character can’t be a whiner at the start of the story and evolve over time – in fact, that’s the best way to do it. Just make sure that if they’re opening their mouth to complain, it’s about an actual trial in their life and that complaining suits their character.

 

W is for White’s Writing

I know what you are thinking. White; Jon White: How common can you get, right?

There is a story behind why I am called Jon, but I will keep that for another post.

Okay, this is going to be fairly long. I’m going to show you my timetable for writing in a normal week at the time being. It always changes every couple of months. But here is how it has been for a while:

Monday: 420 words minimum for Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story (Novella).

Tuesday: 420 words minimum for Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story. 500 words minimum for Silver Cathedral (Novelette).

Wednesday: 420 words minimum for Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story. Write Four Words, Four Worlds blog post. Look over Silver Cathedral extract and sort out blog post for Writing: Don’ts, Dos and Done. Set publishing date for the following day on both blog posts.

Thursday: 420 words minimum for Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story. 500 words minimum for fanfic  story: Diamond Force: The England Front. The fanfic is an actual practice run for my original superhero idea, which I will start in 2014. Because I love the superhero genre so much, I’m betting it is going to be a little before then. I’ll have to see though.

Friday: 420 words minimum for Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story. 500 words minimum for fanfic  story: Diamond Force: The England Front.

Saturday: 420 words minimum for Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story. 500 words minimum for fanfic  story: Diamond Force: The England Front. Edit and post fanfic chapter on Wattpad.

Sunday: 420 words minimum for Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story. 500 words minimum for fanfic  story: Diamond Force: The England Front. Edit and post fanfic on Wattpad. I’m also planning on working on a secret project at this time with a good friend. It looks as if it is going to be blogged in about six months time. So stay tuned for more news.

Word count for Thee Tribal Guard: 31,002. First draft will be finished by the end of the month. I will make sure of that. It only needs about another 10,000 words to round it off nicely. Probably my best work yet. Most definitely my smartest, from a creative perspective anyway. If anyone does read it, they will have to read the Dreamers to know what I am fully getting at. But at the same time, it is a stand alone story too. It just crosses over with things from my first.

To get it’s full potential, read Thee Tribal Guard: The Nexus Chamber Story, and also the Dreamers story. It doesn’t make a difference which you read first. Not that much anyway. Though Dreamers, then Thee Tribal Guard is the more linear route.

Then I’ve decided to take a breather from fiction and edit, add (working my way through a list of journals and books right now) for my Stand Up — Motivation non fiction piece. Which is only approximately 10,000 words. So will not take long to read, revise and edit. Then after that, I’m going to be working on my colossal fantasy story — again. But the second part this time.

I do get overwhelmed thinking about all the projects and writing I do sometimes. But then I think — NO. Because writing is not a job for me. It is a pleasure; I feel this especially when I am writing. And I can’t imagine my life without it. I’ve only mentioned what I’ve been writing mainly in the timetable above in the post.

I do editing in some things when I have time too. As well as my proofreading and editing course. I’ve got to edit a really bad first ten pages of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. They couldn’t have picked a story that I hated any more.  Also, editing that kind of old language and style is a F£%&^£$ nightmare at times. Hope I make it through this course. But if not, all experience is knowledge. So it’s never a total loss

Jon here. Until next time folks. Have a good week.

Silver Cathedral link part 5