Tag Archives: Inspiration

Today Is The Day!

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No writing was done yesterday, however, that changes today because I am going to be writing again!  I do feel inspired and ready to start writing! 

Since I didn’t write yesterday, my word count is a little behind, but I’m sure I can catch up today.  If I don’t, I’ll do it…sometime this month. 

I feel a little relieved, like I’ve gotten everything down to a manageable level.  Don’t get me wrong, I love writing 2 novels in a month, but this year, it’s just not going to happen.  Just because I have 2 novels doesn’t mean I have to stick with it for the month. 

Today is going to be a good day, and it’ll be great to get some writing done!

Yesterday Was A Day

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Yesterday, I took the day off from writing.  I decided I needed the break from it, especially since I’m switching gears, and need to work on my shiny new idea.  My end goal is 50,000 words (for everything), and I’ll have the beginnings of 3 different stories.  I don’t know if I’ll go back to any of them- maybe the mermaid one, but that’s not likely.  Maybe the roller derby one but I can’t say for sure since I haven’t even started it. 

My plan for today is to write in a really quick (and very random) ending- a metapohrical blowing up of those 2 worlds and to do a little more planning and then on Tuesday, I’ll start up with the new novel.  I’m hoping I can stay interested enough to write close to 25,000 words, but if not, then I guess I’ll switch to something else.  I suppose I should come up with a few more back-up plans too, just in case.

That’s all I can think of for now, so I’ll be back tomorrow, and hopefully with a real update.

Yay For Write-Ins!

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I had a productive day yesterday, and feel very glad I went to a write-in yesterday. 

I managed to write a lot more than I have been (at least since the weekend), and I’m definitely at the same point for both of them now, so that’s always good.  I’m roughly 3 days behind for both novels, so catching up completely and ending up with a combined 100,000 is not out of the question.  I just need to write a little more everyday and hope that I can have a couple days where I write an insane number of words. 

  • The Mermaid One: 11,689 words!  I’ve been focusing a lot on the other mermaids in the world, and the different clans they have, which has been a big help.  I think I’m going to be writing more about the magical sanctuaries too, so that’ll be fun, and I get to write about fairies and stuff!
  • The Mistaken Identity one: I’m at 11,670.  I think my problem with this one is that I didn’t do enough planning for it.  I didn’t have a clear idea of it before I started, and I’m really starting to feel that.  I’ll give it another week, and if it’s something I’m still struggling with, I’ll drop it.

I’m at 23,359 right now, and I’m aiming to be 2 days behind by the end of the weekend.  There isn’t that much to report, but I think I’ll be posting some of my funny typos this weekend.   

 

 

 

 

This Year’s Music, Part 2

Posted in Music, NaNo by

Since I mentioned most of the other things I’ll be listening to this year, I’m going to focus more on the music I have set for my 2nd novel. 

I did want to mention Spotify since I forgot to talk about it when I did my last music post.  It’s fairly similar to Pandora, and while I haven’t used it very much, I think I’ll definitely try to use it next month.

I had a lot of trouble coming up with a playlist for it, because most of what I have doesn’t seem to fit.  I ended up putting a lot of random songs on my playlist, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to add to it as I figure out what’s going on. 

So here’s a sample of what I’ll be listening to next month:

1- The Big Lie by Sara Haze

2- Ordinary Day by Vanessa Carlton

5- Snape To Malfoy Manor from the HP And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 Sountrack

10- Summer Overture from the Requiem For A Dream soundtrack

16- Criminal by Fiona Apple

17- Flight Of The Order Of The Phoenix from the Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix soundtrack

21- How We Operate by Gomez

22- Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai

33- I Believe In Nargles by The Whomping Willows

34- Caught In The Lie by Michelle Chamuel (From the Little White Lie soundtrack)

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about food!

NaNo Music, Part One

Posted in Music, NaNo by

I have a playlist for The Mermaid Pact!  I don’t know how much I’ll listen to it, since I have an assortment of things to listen to.  I’ll be listening to my podcasts, of course, and I’m sure I’ll be listening to Pandora too, especially since I added a few new stations yesterday.   

I went with a variety of songs this year- there isn’t any particular reasoning behind most of the songs.  I just went with things that seem to fit the characters and the novel itself.

I started making playlists for my novels back in 2008, and while it’s not the only thing I listen to when writing, I have found it useful to occasionally add in music that the characters might listen to.  Basically, I listen to whatever I feel like listening to: whatever may help me keep writing and is providing some inspiration is what I’ll listen to.

And here, we have a selection of songs from a 61 song playlist:

1- Lily’s Theme from HP And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 soundtrack

3- Lovely by Sara Haze

4- Wave Bye Bye by the Gin Blossoms

6- ’til Death by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls

8- If I Die Young by The Band Perry

10- Heart of my Own by Basia Bulat

21- Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones

27- The Big Lie by Sara Haze

37- Miss Invisible by Marie Digby

41- Sing by My Chemical Romance

48- Boys and Girls by Pixie Lot

53- Painting Pictures of Egypt by Sara Groves

59- My Sweet Song by Toby Lightman

60- Shine by Sara Haze

61- Dumbledore’s Army from the HP And The Order Of The Phoenix soundtrack

That’s it for this installment of music, and I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about my second novel for the month.

Plot Number One, 2011 Style

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This post officially kicks off my NaNo posting extravaganza!

For all the work I’ve done, I still feel a little behind with my planning.  My idea is as formed as it’ll ever be. 

What is plot 1, you ask? 

It’s about a girl, Poppy, who discovers she’s a mermaid, and it goes terribly wrong.  Originally, I was going to have her die, but now I’m not so sure.  My novel is based on the whole idea that she dies, and I don’t really feel like changing it.  But for now, she dies.   

I had a list of potential creatures, and mermaids were the one group that really jumped out at me.  Plus, I loved the stories!  My favorite one is from One Thousand And One Arabian Nights, where mermaids are anatomically identical to humans, and their children are able to breathe and live underwater.  I found that was the one I could work with the most, and while I don’t have my own mythology for mermaids, and Poppy’s own origin story, I have an idea of what I want to do.

I like the idea of her dad being stationed in the Middle East and meeting her mom.  I have no idea how he’ll end up with her, but he’ll end up with her somehow- her mysteriously showing up at his doorstep seems cliché but I’m working on an inkling.   

As for my own mermaid mythology, mermaids definitely have their own underwater world, with underwater cities all over the world.  I don’t have anything further than that, or how she knows she’s a mermaid.  Or how the child of a human and a mermaid would look.  I mean, what happens when she takes a bath, or otherwise goes into water?  Besides the fact that she’d be a good swimmer- which would be a cliché thing to include- it might be hilarious for her to be afraid of the ocean, and either can’t swim or is really bad at it. 

Actually, that could be a sign that something is wrong with her mermaid side. 

I think for now, her tail could be something that starts to appear when she reaches 16, and only appears when she goes into the ocean, or some other body of water, but not when she’s in a pool or taking a bath. 

One of the big questions is how being a mermaid could kill her.  There are a couple things I settled on.  One- being half-mermaid, she’s really connected to nature.  Pollution is really bad, but for someone so connected to nature, it’s even more toxic, and the more she breathes in polluted air and all that, the more of an effect it has on her.  Being in an underwater city would definitely help her, and while the merfolk in these cities feel some effects, it’s not as bad as it would be if they were living on land like Poppy is.  And with all the processed food, and food recalls, it would not be a good thing for a mermaid.  Two- Something about the human side doesn’t react well with the mermaid side of her, and when combined with pollution and processed foods and everything…it’s disastrous and potentially lethal. 

I did get an interesting idea from Fablehaven that I really want to include.  Oh, and an idea I got from someone in my writer’s group, since they go pretty well together.  First, the Fablehaven inspiration.  There are magical sanctuaries all over the world, where all kinds of magical creatures and being go when their natural environment disappears.  And the idea from my writing group is this: a magical council, who decides on things like a common language for all magical creatures and who can be let in on all the secrets.  I might include some sort of registration system.  I do like someone who knows her- a teacher or neighbor- being on the magical council and suspecting that she’s a mermaid, and keeps asking her questions.  On a related note to how being a mermaid could kill her- if she had known about this magical council, they might have been able to save her.     

Character-wise, I have Poppy and Jordan.  And Poppy’s mom and dad, but I don’t know anything about them yet.  I’ll probably through in a couple friends, a couple neighbors, and maybe a teacher and a few others.  At this point, it’s too late to do complete profiles on everyone, but I only need profiles for her parents, the 2 friends, and the person who suspects she’s a mermaid.  Everyone else, I just need names for. 

Tomorrow’s post will be the novel’s soundtrack plus some other things that I’ll be listening to while I’m writing.

I Like Everything!

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Seriously, there’s some good tv on right now.  Pan Am is growing me, and so is Person of Interest and Revenge.  House is going to be interesting, America’s Next Top Model is full of drama and I’m not sure about Terra Nova, since it’s really starting to remind me of Lost. 

I love Lost, but as Terra Nova goes on, it’s really starting to remind me of Lost.  I think it’s a combination of the Sixers (hello, the Others!), the mysterious runes on the rocks near the waterfalls and the fact that there is some mysterious purpose to Terra Nova.  You know, something besides the fact that they’re trying to save humanity by going back in time.

I’m getting to used to watching tv online, and it’s really not as bad as I thought.  There are ads, of course, but either way there’s going to be commercials.  I don’t really mind commercials since they’re good for bathroom and snack breaks. 

Going back to Person of Interest for a moment, it did give me some ideas for NaNo this year, so even t.v. can be provide inspiration. 

There’s not much else to talk about t.v. wise, so I’m off, and have a great day!

Outlines

Posted in General, Other Projects by

Outlines.

I try really hard to avoid them.  I am more of a panster, and by all appearances, outlines and winging it don’t seem to go together.  But is it possible to find a balance between winging it, and having an outline?

I think so.  My problem is that I would want to outline EVERYTHING.  I just need to find the right balance between outlining and giving myself enough freedom to keep things interesting.

In other words, I need to have enough wiggle room to pants it.  A general structure, you know?  Outlines were always this mysterious thing that happens in the distant future after I’ve written a first draft.  How could I be expected to write an outline when I don’t know what I want to happen?  It would be easier to outline after the first draft, when I have a better idea of what I want to keep and discard.

But maybe a very vague outline wouldn’t be such a bad idea.  A general idea of things that should happen.

Like that’s actually going to happen.  I can barely get myself to settle on plots and work on my characters.  How the hell am I supposed to motivate myself to do even a vague outline?

But this year, I think I’ll have an outline of some sort.  For both novels!

The one I’m doing about the family who only sees each other at funerals?  I have quite a few narrators. I think I might have more narrators than funerals…or maybe it’s more funerals than narrators…either way, one has more than the other.  I definitely need to figure out who goes in what order or who will be narrating which funeral.  I’m leaning towards the second one.  It’ll be a lot easier to go through it if I have groups.  There doesn’t need to be a specific order for each group, but as long as I know who’s narrating which funeral, I think I’ll be good.

As for the fairie mermaid girl who dies, I was thinking about shifting between letters/journal entries and the present time.  So it doesn’t need an outline or anything, not really.  But I should probably give it some thought.  You know, the progression of letters and journal entries, and what’s going on with her while seeing what’s going on after she dies.  I just got an idea!  Her journal could be a parallel story!  We see what happens to her while she’s alive and we also see what’s going on in the wake of her death.  I’ll have to get working on that.

I’ll have everything ready to go by the 24th, because that’s when my 8 day NaNo posting extravaganza starts.  I’m off to bed so I can be all rested up for a day of planning.

Draco And The Malfoys

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I’ve been listening to Wrock a lot lately, and I have no clue why.  But I’m just going to go with it.  I have Draco And The Malfoys (a self-titled album) and Party Like You’re Evil.  I like both pretty equally, but how you can not like songs titles like Tom Felton’s Kinda Hot, Disembodied Head, and Why Won’t You Shake My Hand?  Seriously, song titles are one reason why I love wizard rock so much.

I think they have a few more albums and some songs that can be found on a multitude of compilation and charity albums, but I’m not completely sure about that.

As for favorite songs, I like Potions Yesterday and 99 Death Eaters from their self-titled album and Party Like You’re Evil! from the album of the same name.  Other good songs from Party Like You’re Evil are Slytherin Pride and We’re Freakin’ Awesome.  I think the thing I like the most about Draco And The Malfoys is the fact that all of their songs are told from the perspective of Draco And The Malfoys.  Actually, that can apply to wizard rock in general, but since this post is (allegedly) about Draco And The Malfoys, maybe I should try to stay on topic.

I honestly don’t listen to them as much as I’d like, which is pretty representative of my music collection in general.  But they’re still one of my favorite bands to listen to, and their songs are always entertaining and fun to listen to.

Research

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As November approaches, I’ve actually been working on my plots.  I’ve only been working on one, the one about the 2 friends who make a pact.  I’ve narrowed things down to either fairies or mermaids, but even more questions have popped up.  There are definitely a lot of things I need to work out between now and November.  Like, how is it going to kill her?  Is it something she’s allergic to?  Why can’t her body handle the fairy or the mermaid part of her?  Are there other people who are having the same problems as Poppy?  Does the fairy blood/mermaid whatever show up as something foreign or does everything appear normal because people think fairies and mermaids don’t exist?  Or is it a combination of both where there’s something weird but no one realizes it’s because she’s a fairie and so they think it’s some new disease or something?  How did she become part-fairie or part-mermaid?  Is one of her parents a fairie or a mermaid or is it some totally bizarre genetic mutation that turns people into mythological creatures?  Or maybe everyone has the ability to be a fairie or mermaid but only a certain segment of the population becomes a fairie because of a random mutation?

So, you can see my problem in actually working out some of the details, but I’m determined to make it work.  I think it’ll be easier to work out some of these questions once I actually pick something.  This is why I prefer to (mostly) wing it.  It’s just easier to make stuff up as I go along, but unfortunately, this isn’t something I can really make up as I go along.  I can, but I think I’m going to have to put in a lot of work ahead of time.  I’m thinking about shifting between her journal entries and the present but I’m not sure yet.  If I can think up of some more characters, and *maybe* plan some of the journal entries, then I’ll do that.  Otherwise, I’m not sure how I’m going to do this.  I definitely need to go back and forth between past and present…somehow.

I generally avoid research, but I have it to, I try to do just enough to get me through NaNo.  It’s interesting that after several years, I’m shifting more towards things that require me to do research.  I usually avoid research because I’ll focus too much on research and not enough on everything else.  I still have trouble finding the right balance, but maybe I’ll get better at it as I keep coming up with ideas where I actually need to research stuff before writing it.  I suppose I could always just ignore any research and write things that are potentially inaccurate, but where’s the fun in that?  I think I’m going to let the novel dictate how much I research because different things require different amounts of planning.  You wouldn’t plan historical fiction and fanfiction the same way, and you wouldn’t approach fantasy and romance the same way, so I really should try to let the novel dictate the amount of effort I put into planning and researching it.

Hopefully the research I do turns out okay, and it’s definitely going to be fun!