Writing Again, YAY

It’s that time of year again! ❤

I signed up to write some short stories exploring genres I don’t get to write often–sci-fi and dystopian–and brainstormed up some ideas.

I have four possible projects to work on…

1. A young girl who lives on a space station is waiting for the mail to come at Christmastime.
2. Rework of an old story where people are being arrested under mysterious circumstances and lied to about why they are being held. I love some of what I had going, but the ending was unsatisfactory.
3. Four+ characters receive mysterious, personalized invitations to the old-fashioned carousel at the park. (I have this one planned and partially written from an old writing class. The teacher did not like my execution of it…)
4. Dystopian girl who has some unique challenges in life takes a robotics internship to up her grade.

I finally got in the groove for writing yesterday (a little late, right?! XD 😛 ) and churned out the first chapter of Idea #4. Keyword: chapter. O.o. I planned for these to be short stories, and I’m not sure what I’m getting myself into. XD

This character, Blaise, is promising to be more interesting than I’d originally thought. I better find the rest of the plot soon. XD

While I hope to get to each of these ideas at least a little bit this month and make my 20k wordcount goal, I’m really excited just to be writing again. 😉

Plate Update: Frosting, Reviews, and Passion Week

If April showers bring May flowers, then what do May flowers bring?

Pilgrims.

(My favorite cheesy joke from preteenhood^^. 😉 )

April flew by, and I can barely believe it’s May already. Last month’s full plate was filled with cake. 😀

Anyway, here’s a quick update on my full plate last month…

Pleasure read:

Love Needs No Words (four stars)

Nyssa Glass and the House of Mirrors (two stars)

Dear Sister (four stars)

Atlantia (three stars)

The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden (family read-aloud, four stars)

Eventown (three stars)

Answered:

Emails and texts

Beta-reader comments 😀 ❤

Googled:

TCK

The name Judy

The “watches of the night” (story research)

Hunting stats (more story research)

Avengers: Endgame everything

Frosting recipes

Kelpie dogs (someone mentioned a kelpie and I thought it was a fantasy sea creature…)

How to tell lightning distance in miles

Wrote:

New story ideas

10,743 words on a new novella for Camp NaNoWriMo 😉

End matter for “The Night Archers” (we’re getting closer!!)

Reviews, tons of reviews

Blog posts (the top five being Introductions (Real and Fictional), Half and Half, Back on the Horse!, A Scary Camp[NaNoWriMo]fire Story, and Letters and Accents.)

Edited:

“The Night Archers” (tons and tons more)

Miscellaneoused:

Called various customer service agencies…

Finished quilting (squee!)

Designed a cover for a short story

Did some spring cleaning

Had a head cold

Loved The Lego Movie: The Second Part with my family ❤

I also celebrated Christian Passover and Passion week with my family (watched The Passion for the first time O.o. ❤ ), did many writing sprints with my youngest sister, revealed the cover for “The Night Archers”, and made cake and cupcakes for various celebrations.

This month, I’m looking forward to releasing “The Night Archers”, enjoying a new series that is coming out, and finishing writing this novella. Also, I want to experiment with some more cakes. 😉

How was your April? What are you looking forward to this month?

Things This Month Taught Me

1. Taking a social media break is good for life in general and writing especially. (Bonuses: I’ve been using my scrolly time to actually read blogs and been able to think through my social media priorities.) It’s been especially helpful for Camp NaNoWriMo. 😀
2. Getting sick for several days and losing a couple for Avengers: Endgame (#noregrets #ThankYouAvengers) is not helpful for winning Camp.
3. Even if I failed to reach my goal, I have 10k+ words of brand new story and that’s a WIN. 😀
4. And I got to work with beta-readers, finalize my synopsis, and reveal the cover for “The Night Archers”. ❤ With Passion Week and a few extra projects in there somewhere…
5. But this is not a Plate Update, actually. 😉
6. I’m glad I attempted Camp NaNo (it was quite motivating and fun!) and here’s to more writing next month. 😉

How did your Camp experience go? Do you have writing plans for next month, or do you usually take a break after a big writing time?

The Story Within the Story

Today’s writing session was particularly fun, since my character got to put her storytelling skills to work. It was basically a story within a letter within a story. Which is almost as confusing as it sounds. XD

As things ramp up in my story, I’m at that funny stage where I have to hold back a bit on the character arc because I don’t want things to resolve too quickly but also I have to keep moving the story along. 😀 Funny conundrum.

In other news, I gave my MC a NASA t-shirt (woohoo!) and worked on the official synopsis for “The Night Archers”. Expect that (and a cover reveal!!!) soon. 😀

What is one of the coolest props you’ve ever given a character?

Halfway and Chapter Titles

I wrote more on my story today, and I just got to begin the midpoint. 😀 It’s been a ton of fun developing the friendship between the penpals, but I also have something of a plot to move along. (Remember the plot, Kate? This is proof you shouldn’t take writing breaks.)

This means I get to jump out of letters temporarily and write a super fun character-arc-proving scene. 😉 And it happens to be a Christmas party, so descriptions, snacks, and snack descriptions are in my character’s future. 😀 It’s going to be fun. 😉 (Especially since my MC’s penpal just “dared” her to do something.)

My story is long enough I was starting to get lost in the chapters, so I just named them. 😀 Want a sneak peek of the table of contents? (And remember, nothing is final. 😉 )

Aren’t chapter titles so much fun? I love coming up with them, especially when I don’t have any rules about how they have to be. (One word chapter titles are the hardest!)

How was your day?

Time to Catch Up!

I hope you all had a blessed celebratory weekend! I certainly did. 😉

I wrote on my Camp NaNoWriMo story again today for the first time in nearly a week. My head cold has been quite discouraging/debilitating in the area, but I seem to be on the mend. 😀 Let’s see if I can catch up!

How far are you on your goal?

Letters and Accents

Getting in a good wordcount is dangerously easy right now. XD My characters are being hilarious and discussing really interesting things, so their letters tend to be long. *hopes it doesn’t get too long*

One of their favorite discussions seem to be about accents. Which got me thinking, if you could learn any accent, what would it be? And what would you use it for?

How did your writing go today?

A Li’l Excerpt

I wrote not a word today, but I did check in with my beta-readers, read the rest of a very interesting book, hung out with siblings, and cleaned the house some. 😉

More words tomorrow, right? 😀

Here’s an excerpt of last week’s writing, just for fun. 😉

Glancing around the room like an introverted spy, she tiptoed past Dad and Mr. Donovan toward the coat rack. She fished around in her coat pocket and pulled out the notebook. The receipt she’d found in there before fluttered to the ground and she stooped to pick it up. The words were faded to read, but at least it would make a nice bookmark.

She slid it between the pages and returned to her inspection of the tree. The space between it and the wall practically invited her to enter it, and she sank down on the carpet.

Her black shoes she’d changed into just peeked out from under the edge of her skirt, and she reached out to rub a scuffed spot on one toe. She had done well being a normal socializing person for the first three hours of the party, but conversationally tiptoeing around small talk and trying not to eat too many cheesecakes around strangers got tiring quickly.

I’m Ahead!!!

I missed updating y’all on yesterday’s writing time, but it was mostly uneventful, and I got in a good number of words. I got to sit around and write with my siblings which was extra fun. 😉 Although, have you ever tried to eat popcorn and type at the same time? It’s awkward holding it in your fist and only typing with one finger…

Today, on the other hand… I wrote so much, I’m ahead on my goal!!! After some slow days last week, I wasn’t sure I would ever get ahead, but now I am and I’m super grateful. I just hit the part of my story that is mostly told through letters (a new technique for this writer), and it’s a really fun style to write in. 😀

And more word sprints are definitely helpful. 😉 (Thanks, sisters!)

Do you like to write letters? What are you looking forward to about the weekend?

Sister Motivation :)

I absolutely forgot to post last night, so you’re gonna get a double today. 😀

Yesterday was an AMAZING writing day. I knocked out 2,293 words and got myself well into chapter four. 😀 (I’m almost to my goal where I get to do some cosplay!)

Part of the reason writing went so well was because I finally got to the part of the story I was excited about :P, but the other main reason was that my youngest sister and I did a lot of writing sprints. We used this site called My Write Club where you write directly in the text editor and it tracks your wordcount and your opponent’s as you write. It’s suuuuper motivating and really fun to watch the competition real time. 😉

We had a lot of fun. 😉 I also got to debut the nicknames you all helped me pick out–Jesster and Jem. I couldn’t choose just one. 😉

How has your writing been going? What fictional character should I cosplay?