Words/Time: 23 minutes working on prep for my 2015 NaNoNovel. I started a timeline for “Too Many Irons in the Fire.” I was going to do a lot more, but then my kids came home and the next hour was spent getting them ready for bed. And then I worked on a blog post for tomorrow, which took me longer than I expected to write. So now it’s midnight and I never got back to my work. Maybe I’ll do some more before I go to bed…though I’m really tired, which doesn’t usually happen to me this early. It’s been a long last few weeks.
amwriting
Daily Challenge Check-in: October 12, 2015
Words/Time: 20 minutes working on prep for my 2015 NaNoNovel. The weekend is over, so I wanted to make sure to do some writing work today. However, there’s still a lot of craziness as I recover from my work’s busy season. My head isn’t in the right space yet, and probably won’t be until at least Thursday. For now, though, I’m making lists of things that I want to use in my writing next month–observations I made at the last few rendezvous and things I remember from 12 years of attending these shows. And I started writing up a more detailed synopsis for the plot, only to decide it was getting too detailed (I was aiming for no more than 5 paragraphs). I’ll have to work on that some more.
Tools for NaNoWriMo: Coffitivity
When I was in high school, I remember realizing that to be able to concentrate on my homework, I needed complete silence. Though I tried to convince my mom (and myself) that I could study in front of the TV, she never bought it, and really, neither did I.
Fast forward to now, and things have changed a little. What I’d like to do is listen to music while I’m writing, plotting, or revising, but that’s usually a bad idea. The only time it really works is when I’m doing something that doesn’t require as much focus, like transferring edits I made on my hard copy into the computer (which, frankly, barely counts as writing work anyway, but it has to be done now and then).
The lyrics are the main reason music is a problem for me. I start singing along, even in my head, and I lose what I’m doing. Music without lyrics would work–I know people who like to write to sound tracks from epic movies about adventure and magic. I don’t listen to that kind of music normally, so it would really just take too long trying to track down a playlist that I like or fits the mood of my story.
So I stay away from music most of the time, but I don’t like absolute silence either.
That’s why I use Coffitivity. I just found out about this website sometime earlier this year, but I use it almost every time I sit down to do any kind of writing work. It’s basically just the sound of a coffee house or diner. On a loop. There are three options (or more, if you want to pay), though I honestly don’t see how any one is better than the others.
This doesn’t work as well for people who write with the internet turned off to avoid distractions, but for the rest of us, it could be a crucial part of our writing environment. If you’re not sure if you need silence, noise, music, or something else, try it out now, during NaNoPrep season while you plan your novel.
Daily Challenge Check-in: October 10, 2015
Words/Time: 0. I’m physically tired…and sore…and just mentally exhausted. It’s a rendezvous weekend, and I’m technically in the middle of said rendezvous (Mississinewa 1812 in Marion, IN). I was up early this morning to drive out there and join my parents, for whom I work, helping to take money for things we sell, while my dad demonstrates blacksmithing. Normally rendezvous are a full-weekend event for me, meaning that I’m gone all weekend. This one is close enough that I came home tonight. I have to teach children’s church at my church tomorrow, and couldn’t really get out of it (we’re low on teachers), so I’ll go to church tomorrow, then back into my funny clothes and back out to the rendezvous for the rest of the afternoon.
I don’t enjoy rendezvous as much these days because they leave me tired, sore, and often headache-y. And I’ve never enjoyed teaching children’s church because I’m not great with kids and really not much of a teacher, but our church is small and the need for children’s workers has always been great, so I accept the role I was asked to fill. However, doing that on a rendezvous weekend is sort of a conglomeration of stress for me. So I’m taking the weekend off with writing work.
One thing I have realized during all of this (rendezvous season has been non-stop the last 5 weeks) is that writing is somewhat therapeutic for me. I’ll probably make a separate blog post about that soon (in which I may repeat a lot of what I just said, so sorry for anyone who reads this and then that one too). I also have a whole list of tips for the actual month of November that I want to share soon, for NaNo hopefuls (especially newbies).
I’m looking forward to delving further into the plot I’m working on for November, and getting more revision done on “Pithea.” I’m just too tired to do any of it right now.
Daily Challenge Check-in: October 9, 2015
Words/Time: 35 minutes figuring out character names for my 2015 NaNoNovel. There are nine (for now) reenactors that the main character will interact with at some point during the story. That’s more characters than I’ve ever planned for at the outset of a story. I’ll have to work on a way to make sure they’re distinct enough. If I get confused during the writing, there’s no hope that future readers won’t be lost.
Daily Challenge Check-in: October 8, 2015
Words/Time: 58 minutes developing my 2015 NaNoNovel. I’ve reworked the synopsis a bit from my original plan and given it a more official title. I then set to work on naming the main character’s husband, father, and mother, all of whom have prominent roles in the story. And I have a cast of about 8 characters who are all important side characters, and they all need names. I think I’m actually so used to coming up with fantasy names now that picking normal names that I like is…a lot harder than I thought it would be.
I’m going to make a full post later once I’ve fleshed out the synopsis from 2 sentences into a few paragraphs, but for now, here is what I have:
“Too Many Irons in the Fire”
When a loud, obnoxious blade smith disappears during a historical reenactment, the daughter of a neighboring blacksmith attempts to track him down. Her search is hindered by the rendezvous crowd, her own obligations to the event, and the odd behavior of the other blacksmiths.
Daily Challenge Check-in: October 7, 2015
Words/Time: 613 words of writing practice I did. After a full day of work and a rough evening, I didn’t get to my writing time until 11:30. My brain wasn’t in the best space for quickly figuring out what to work on, so I pulled up a prompt and wrote for 15 minutes.
Daily Challenge Check-in: October 6, 2015
Words/Time: 2121 words, most of which was revising “Pithea” with two of my sisters over Skype. Also known as the 57th meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. We got through 5 pages of double-spaced text. There was less off-topic discussion tonight than we’ve had for a while now. But we came across more areas than usual that hung us up because we couldn’t come to agreements on how to fix them. More than one of them ended in the, “I’m the author so I’m just going to pull rank,” line. I don’t like doing that, because I’m sure it makes them feel like I’m dismissing their concerns. But when the concern isn’t a mistake but more of a difference of opinion, sometimes “pulling rank” is the only way to move on.
The rest of the words were from some writing practice I did. I’ve been trying to do a prompt every few days, partly because I’m still generating ideas to fill out the plot for my NaNoNovel, and partly to be in the groove of actual writing (instead of revising) before November comes. The prompt I pulled wasn’t one that I connected with, but I refused to let myself pass on it. I’ve been trying to stretch topics and themes that I can or will write about, so I’ve done some writing practice that was awkward or fell flat lately. This one, though, turned out rather interesting to me. So I’m going to do something I rarely do, and share what I wrote.
Keep in mind that this is raw (unedited) and I wrote it quickly without any forethought or pausing to think through where I wanted to go. The prompt came from 1000 Awesome Writing Prompts.
Prompt: Staging a fake kidnapping to get money out of your rich parents
Tools for NaNoWriMo: Aeon Timeline
Years ago, when I was writing fanfiction, I struggled to create a timeline for my large group of stories that stretched across many years and contained a lot of the same characters. I started on paper, and eventually tried to make something with Excel. I did end up with a format that I have since used for other writing, but it was still a pain to use and especially to make edits.
It gets really messy when the events of the story pick up.
A few years ago, at the end of NaNoWriMo, I noticed amongst the winner goodies a discount for a program called Aeon Timeline. I downloaded the free trial and spent a few days putting several stories worth of information into it. I discovered very quickly that it was exactly what I needed.
There are many settings you can play with, including having the timeline stretch out over thousands of years, or one single day. If you choose the latter, the timeline will show much more detail than with the former. I’ve read that a user can create their own calendar system in the program too, which would be useful for fantasy writers, though I haven’t used the feature myself.
You can have individual sections for different stories, different story arcs, or whatever else you may need. You can also toggle those individual arcs on or off to your liking.
“Arcs” are shown along the left.
And one of my favorite things about the program is that you can add in all of your characters and attach them to the entries. If you set up a birth date, it will even tell you how old the character is at the time of that entry. The feature is called “Entities,” because it pertains to more than just characters too. I used it to remind myself of when a particular device (listed in the picture below as “com-disc”) was introduced into my story world, because I was having a hard time remembering when it was available to be used by characters.
The lines go up to entries. The dots indicate that the character was a participant in that event (the one that’s not colored in indicates “observer” rather than “participant”).
Not every story needs a timeline. Sometimes events only happen over the course of a few days. The story I’m planning for NaNo this year will cover 9 days. I still plan to make a timeline for it as I plan this month. Even if in the end it turns out to be unnecessary, I know I’d rather have it anyway.
Though I’ve been mocked (all in fun, I assure you) for how meticulous I am with my timeline, it is crucial for keeping track of things for my group of stories that include “Pithea,” “Pursuit of Power,” “Outcast,” and other plans that will take place before, after, and during the others. There is so much to keep straight–character’s ages, how long ago a certain event happened, how long a certain event lasted, etc. So whether your writing is as complicated as mine or not, if you’ve ever felt the need for a timeline for your stories, Aeon Timeline is worth checking out.
How about you? Have you ever used Aeon Timeline before? Do you have a program you use for keeping track of a timeline?
Daily Challenge Check-in: October 5, 2015
Words/Time: 155 words and 30 minutes, the latter of which was spent adding revisions for “Pithea” that were made on paper into the computer.
The words were a short introduction I wrote for the main character of my NaNoNovel. Just a few minutes ago, when I went to put my novel into the newly relaunched NaNo site, I decided to title it “Too Many Irons in the Fire.” I’m not sure I’ll keep it, because it’s a little long, but for now, I like it. Maybe just “Too Many Irons” would be better? It implies the same expression but is more succinct. Any thoughts?
A Journey of Words 