Friday, December 28, 2012

Well...

Okay so it has been a while... okay maybe a bit more than just a while. Not gonna lie, I kind of forgot I even had this blog. Oops.
Anyway, I haven't done much editing. I tried to get a friend to read the first few chapters to get some feedback in September but I never got them back. It's hard to just jump into editing after spending so much time on a story. I feel like it's my baby and even if it's an ugly baby I'll still love it. So that's why I wanted some feedback, so I could get a fresh perspective on it but that doesn't look like it's going to happen so I'm just gonna have to go it alone.
I've done rough edits on the first six chapters but that's it. I've been really busy but I guess I'll just have to make time. We'll see.

Monday, August 27, 2012

FINISHED!!!

Excuse me while I flail in excitement. I know i'm not really finished, now I begin editing, but I've finished the first draft and I am very, very happy! It was hard to stick to the scheduled through the summer when I wanted to go do other things with friends but I think forcing myself was the only way to get it done... the sparkly stickers help too!

If you have thought about writing story but thought you couldn't, just buckle down and do it! there's no other way around it. Don't say I'll start tomorrow either, start now... RIGHT NOW!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Writer's Block

So I finished July and only missed one day of the thousand words! I made it up the next day too! I'm very pleased with myself and I'm still going... I would say strong but in all honesty the last few days have been taken over with writer's block. IT SUCKS! I've still managed to crank out the thousand words in those days but they didn't come easy.
I have a friend who likes to call writer's block, writer's disinterest but i'm not disinterested! I just haven't been able to find the particular words to say what I want to say. I think this might be a product of writing every day and being so worried about being redundant, cliche or pretentious. It was a bit like this when i did NaNoWriMo in 2010. I found around the half way point getting really tiered, not of the story but just of typing it.  But I'm still wanting to finish this story and make it something i can be proud of when it is. So here's to trudging on through the hard parts!

Also I'm changing the word count goal on the side to a higher number... so much for being over 100% done...

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Organization

I'm still kicking away at the stickers. It's pretty awesome to see the word count climb steadily. Unfortunately, however planned out the story is, as I'm writing I'm finding those little things that don't necessarily work. Unlike in my last attempt I'm trying my best to stay organized. Although I'm not fixing them as I go because I want to be finished my first draft so I can have something to edit as soon as possible I'm highlighting the section and writing the problem in a notebook. I think keeping organized will be key to making the story work. What I learned from my first attempt is that I either didn't catch these mistakes at first because I was writing so carelessly or I didn't keep track of them at all, eventually forgetting about them. Let's hope that keeping organized will help. But don't worry I've got enough sticky notes to do that twice over!

Monday, June 11, 2012

1000 Words = 1 Sticker

1000 words isn't really that much so if I can do that everyday things will be SPECTACULAR! (I kind of love that word)
Anyone ever hear of Jerry Seinfeld's "don't break the chain" productivity tip? Charlieissocoollike did a video on it a while back. Anyway, it's when you get one of those year calendars all on one huge page and when you do the something you are supposed to do you get to put an X though that day and then if you do it everyday you make a chain and well the point is not to break the chain. I've decided to do that but with stickers instead... who doesn't LOVE stickers? So yeah, every day that I write at least 1000 words I get to put a sticker on my calendar. So far so good.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Summer Goals

My summer goal is to finish my fist draft of the story I'm currently working on. I was thinking that was a bit far fetched but last night I timed myself writing 1000 words and it only took 45 minutes. If I can keep that up I'm feeling way more hopeful that I'll actually reach that goal. There's still the chance I'll get stuck but based on the crazy outlining I did, I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going with it.
I'm really getting into the story now and in the next 1000 words or so things will really start happening. YAYY!
I realized I'm at the mark where I gave up on my second attempt but I'm excited. I'm not planning on giving up anytime soon and it feels like I'm about to beat my high score on a video game.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Third Attempt?

It has been a while... oops!
Anyway, I gave up on the bomber story. It kills me to do that but it just wasn't working out. I hate to give up on something yet again but I had to. Jackson Pearce's (author) liveshow last Tuesday talked about how there's no point in spending tons of time on a story that just isn't going to work out.
DARE TO SUCK! as Maureen Johnson would say. Just try it and if it doesn't work out it doesn't and if it does it does. So I'm trying something new. This new idea is something I'm really excited about. I know I said that about everything else I never completed so maybe it won't work out... we will see.

I've been doing some planning and today managed to put together a decent idea... YAY... now I have to come up with more names.... AHHHHHHHH

Saturday, April 21, 2012

A New Way To Write

So as you might have realized I’m really bad at writing on a regular bases. And it's not just writing posts but my actually story is moving along at a snail's pace. So I've found a new way to do it. I just got an iPhone (it's pretty awesome) and in the notes part I will write just whenever I’m bored like on commercials or waiting for people. So I don't have to sit down and force myself to write at my computer, which is totally not working. And then I just e-mail myself to note and add it to my story when I get the chance. I know I should really be trying even harder to get some words down but at least it’s something!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Whiteboard Planning

I was planning the third part of my story today and I realized how weird I go about it.
I have this obsession with whiteboards. From study, to to-do lists, to story boarding it goes on the board.
These are just some of my very strange and vague pictures depicting a few scenes:

^ANGRY GUY IS ANGRY!

It's funny how these terribly drawn scribbles mean an entire story for me but are total nonsense to everyone else.
... I kind of feel like a spy with cryptic messages....


Thursday, April 5, 2012

Three Things

1. SO... I was going to write today but then I was just like... "not gonna happen." No reason for this really, just not in the mood. But I don't have school tomorrow so I'll try to write at least something then.

2. I'm quite liking the way my story is playing out though. It's basically a bunch of short stories all on one event but from different perspectives and I've finished the first one. I think writing a story like this (a bunch of short ones) is good for me right now because I don't want to throw myself into something as long and complicated as my first attempt at a novel.

3. I have a lot of other things I want to write too. I have a zombie story swimming around in my brain and I can't wait to get that out on paper. I don't want to rush this current WIP though... so I'll have to try and hold off on that idea for now.


Saturday, March 31, 2012

Excuses

I really expected that when I'd start this new story that I'd be really into it and stuff but my god... I have not been in the mood for writing. And it's not that I'm not liking the idea, it's just finding the motivation to actually type words is strongly lacking. Which is rather surprising because I've been SO bored these last few days. But my real excuse for not writing the last two days is because my back is killing me! I can't sit at my computer or anywhere for that matter. I lie on my back on the floor for ever reading. Not that that's too bad... the book I'm reading is really good! (Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry) But anyway... even though school is starting again on Monday I'm going to try and write 500 words a day. I know that's like nothing but it's something so whatever.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Music

As you can see, I added a word count meter to this blog. So go head and enjoy being a creepy stalker as you watch the meter crawl towards the end. I'm not really sure how long this story is going to be but I put in 50000 words as an estimate.

I like to listen to music when I write because the quiet is just creepy... *shivers*
Anyway... here's my problem:
I used to listen to classical when I wrote my first attempt at a book but I listened to it so much for that book it reminds me of that story. Yeah, I know it doesn't make much sense but either way I need something else to listen to. It can't have words because then I can't concentrate on what I'm writing. And I already tried Dubstep... that ended terribly. So if you have any recommendations for good instrumental music leave it in the comments.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Names

My go to point of view is definitely first person. I prefer the full train of thought thing better than an outside narrator. Well and maybe I just like avoiding names. Like seriously I am THE WORST at coming up with names. If I could get away with it in this story I'd leave all the characters unnamed but I don't think that would work. So unfortunately I've got to come up with names for like a dozen characters...

Reasons why I'm bad at this
1. I hate naming characters after people I know because I can never distance myself from the person I know.
2. I hate incredibly strange names that nobody can pronounce. And they sound like their parents must have been some famous person to want to name their child something so ridiculous.
3. Too plain and you don't remember the character.

Once in the book I wrote previously but gave up on, there was this one character that I could never come up with a name for. I needed a name just so it would make sense and I'd be able to keep track of him. He was kind of like the bad guy so as a stand in name I picked the name of someone I hated... I picked Justin (as in Justin Bieber) you know, as a joke, I was going to change it later. But after I finished I realized the character had kind of just grown into the name. It's like when you meet someone they might not look like their name but that's how you picture them and it just makes sense. Or like, if you saw someone for the first time with glasses on and years later they get contacts they don't seem like the same person. So needless to say the character became that name even if it didn't really suit him. And I think that's the problem, I can't just give my characters random names because although in the end, it might make sense to me for them to be called that, to the readers it is going to seem absolutely ridiculous.

4. That's another problem I have... I don't want the names to have too much meaning but I don't want them to have no meaning at all. Because, what are the odds the parents of the character would name their child something that meant like warrior and they go on to save the world in some epic battle. It just seems too perfect.

Anyway, that leaves me scrolling through lists of names going... "No, no, nope, no, no, how is that even a name?! no, no, definitely not! no, nope."

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Settings?

Of course one should be familiar with their story's settings but that's the problem with living in Canada. Sure Canada's very similar to the US but I think in the minds of other people it still has that rural country side aspect to it that doesn't speak well with an audience when a story is strongly based in a city. So having a setting in Canada is out. Not that I have a problem with that, I think the US is pretty cool.
It would make the most sense to write a story about a suicide bomber on a bus in like New York, Washington DC or Chicago. But I find looking at all the books I've read or TV shows I've watched having one of those places as a setting comes across incredibly cliched! But at the same time I still need my story to take place in a big city. Sure there are tons of them but I think there's a fine line between having an overused setting and a place nobody has heard of.
I think I've settled on San Francisco. Its still a big city but I don't find it's one of those over used ones. If an author chooses a city in California its usually Los Angeles. Not that nobody ever writes about San Francisco but I've also been there before so I have a slight idea of what its like. If I can't pick the city I live in I think its probably the next best choice in terms of familiarity. I'll still need to do a lot a research sadly. I think that's my least favorite part of writing.
And its not just the San Francisco bus routes that I'll need to look up but how one goes about making a bomb... I sure hope there are no police officers monitoring my search history...

Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Second Attempt

This blog is to document my writing journey and the failures and triumphs that come with it. I've always wanted to write a book but my first attempt was an utter flop! It was way too long and rather hastily written. Although I put hours upon hours into it, and took a year to write it, no amount of editing could save it. Maybe someday I'll take a crack at it again but for now, I want a fresh start.
I have tons of ideas swirling around in my head about other things I want to write, but my worst challenge is motivation. I want to use this blog as a way to keep me going and push me in the direction of writing something worth reading.

I'll be doing some planning in the next little bit on a story about suicide bombers so stick around if you want to listen to my rambles on that.

And if you want to hear even more of me... (not that I can see why anyone would) Check me out on twitter @EricaManconi