Kissing The Madness Goodbye…Sort Of

Warning: This post is liable to be all over the place and rather chaotic. Read at your own risk ahead.

With that said!

I am currently running on about a total of six hours of sleep for the past two nights now. Meaning I got two hours of sleep two nights ago and last night I only got about four. I’m either an idiot or I’ve just been that busy. Surprisingly, I’m not really that tired either after that small amount of sleep. Not sure why, or how.

And that is the precise — well, mostly precise — reason that this post is liable to make about as much sense as an elephant riding a motorcycle. (Can you see how much the lack of sleep is getting to me?)

Moving onward…

For all those that know what it is… Have a Blessed Lughnasadh for today or tomorrow, or both, whichever day you celebrate it!

Camp NaNoWriMo has officially ended after today. As you already saw from my post on Tuesday, I made goal three days early on the 28th. And the rest of my cabin made goal just in time, too! We’re all winners! *Pulls out a big flashing neon sign with the word ‘WINNERS!’ on it and hangs it up in the cabin.*

I haven’t done much organizing for the next chapters and such for Darkness Becomes Her in the past few days like I wanted to.

For one, the past three days have kind of been hell.

Wednesday I thought I worked 5-10, but when I got to work I was told I actually don’t work. So, naturally, I went back home, thinking I had time off to get more stuff done (and to be happy I didn’t have to work close and then opening the next day which sucks). Half hour after I returned home, I get a call…

There was a scheduling error on the one sheet and I actually was supposed to work. By the time I call back — after getting ready to go back in to work, again — I’m not they got the other manager to work. So, again, I get settled down again and undressed.

Five minutes later, I get another call.

Now that manager doesn’t want to come in and I’m the only one left to call. So for the third time I got ready for work again and finally went. An hour and a half after all this chaotic crap started. Needless to say I really would have liked to say no I’m not coming back, but I couldn’t leave the morning manager there for a thirteen hour shift then, nor was I going to have the other manager drive back to work from an hour away.

It’s just been a bad couple of days, and hectic.

On the plus side, I did get some things organized and put away. My room is dire need of being cleaned (not organized, just dust free once more) but I have not the motivation to do so, or the time off.

Since tomorrow starts the first day of August, it also means I’m back to trying for the 1k-A-Day Challenge. Which should be a piece of cake after doing 50k this month.

I really wish NaNo had some sort of app though that I could use to track my progress. Those little graphs and all the goodies for showing my progress are a real motivator and I’d hate to find myself slack again because I can’t visually see how good I’m doing.

I’ve tried fooling around on Word and Excel, checked out some knockoff apps, but none are the same as NaNo graphs and counts. I’m afraid to download any spreadsheets for it. And I did find one app that might be perfect, but, it’s five bucks. Of course. I don’t know if I’m willing to pay that or not.

I’ll try out a free app I did download and see how it works but I’m not too sure about it just yet.

The madness is over now though, I can kiss it sadly goodbye. Well… One madness at least. There’s still a multitude of other ones remaining. Like work, and playing catch up on things around the house, and the 1k-A-Day, and sleep deprivation, and… You get the point.

I’m sad to see Camp NaNo end. I never want it to end. I wish there was a Camp every month. Or that they at least had a knock off site to use for the months that aren’t dedicated to Camp. I’d be one of the happiest authors if that were true, or if they at least had an app!

Seriously, what is so hard about making a NaNo app for the Apple store?

*Sigh*

I think I’m off to try to do all the blog hops before Sunday rolls around, and to get some chapters sorted out for DBH, and other notes. At least, as long as I don’t fall asleep here I’ll do those things. I need to stay up though to get things done, despite the tiredness starting to settle in.

But first, I need to get my mind out of wandering in Wonderland. It’s literally taken me about three hours to write this because I kept getting sidetracked and just…kind of numb. Or maybe it was because I had not much of an idea what I was writing about.

Actually, this post didn’t go so chaotic as I thought it would…

*Shakes head*

Okay, get out of La La Land now and get to work.

Wait…

When did I change lands?

For The Win!

I did it!

That’s right! This girl made goal three days early!

28 days, 50,409 words (50,387 words according to NaNo after validating), 103 pages, and 7 chapters later, I have hit my dream goal of 50k.

And you know what?

I am damn proud of myself. I should be, too. I hadn’t thought I was going to make this dream goal of 50k, but I did. And I did it three days early instead of a few hours early like last Camp in April. I don’t even want to think on that low goal from that session either.

This…

I blew myself away, literally blew myself away.

With Camp, I have literally gotten so far into my novel and I’m realizing this might end up being much longer than I anticipated. For the whole novel of Darkness Becomes Her, I am sitting at 146 pages and just under 70k words now. Camp NaNo this month had added an IMMENSE amount to it. I doubled my original word and page count from when I started at the beginning of the month.

This mad streak of writing has given me a lot of motivation and I really hope to continue on with it through the coming months and keep up with the 1k-A-Day Challenge. I mean, c’mon, if I just did 50k, I can do 30 or 31k for a month. If I was just doing 31k for the month of July, I hit that goal on the 12th.

The 12th, people. A little over two weeks ago.

I’m so ecstatic right now that I’m grinning from ear to ear. I feel like a kid in a candy store!

This whole month has been a lot of ups and only some downs, surprisingly. I had gotten a little discouraged at one point, feeling like I had been slowing down and couldn’t get myself motivated again, but I got back up there and kept steamrolling. I’ve started to learn my characters more and I’ve gotten so many ideas on for this book.

Although, I think I might be permanently stuck in my character’s heads for awhile now. *Shrugs* Oh well. It’s not like they ever leave me alone anyways.

While I have had a few curveballs, they seemed to have worked out and made things even better, creating a basis for things in the books down the line. (Yes, I do know I’m getting ahead of myself now. I need to finish Book 1 first.) At one point I did get the brain spark of the idea for how to start Book 2 already. (Yes, I did learn to jot that down so I wouldn’t forget it.) I also threw myself off course a few times and then found a way to get myself back on track with the rough outline I have written up. That provided a few interesting things.

You know what’s funny though?

At the start of this, I think I had planned out four and a half chapters or so. That four and a half chapters turned into six. Coincidentally, the same number of chapters I planned out, was the exact number I needed to make it to 50k. And I thought I’d have to plan out a few more, guess not since I just finished the final chapter I had planned out.

Hooray for perfect planning! It’ll never happen again probably.

I also realized I have a minor plot hole that I didn’t explain at one point, but it will be worked out in the edit. I’ve started leaving myself notes in the story to remind myself for the edits of certain things. (Something a friend does that must have rubbed off on me, since it does work.)

I even managed to starve off a new plot bunny that my dad dropped into my head! I did write it down and it’s still kicking up a storm up in my head because I think it’s a rather brilliant idea, but I haven’t started writing it yet. There’s just tooooo many plot bunnies running loose up there.

Way too many. Too many plot bunnies, not enough time to give them all the attention they’re screaming for.

Go figure. It’s every author’s dreaded realization.

Now I have three days to plan out more chapters on where this is going and do a once over through the story — hopefully while keeping myself from editing it (it’s not as easy as it sounds for a writer to not edit while just reading through, trust me) — while I draw up the rest of the notes that I need to and get them sorted into the binder I have. Three days to do it that way I can be ready to roll again for the 1k-A-Day in August.

I really wish NaNo never ended. The cabins and progress charts really helped me to keep on track. Though I’m checking out some apps that will hopefully keep me motivated as well. I’d really hate to lose this motivation streak now that I’ve hit goal and Camp is about to end.

Somehow, I swear I will keep myself going for 1k-A-Day and already, I’m planning ahead and excited for November NaNo. I am definitely doing it this year. Morgana is not chickening out this year!

Now I guess it’s a bittersweet goodbye to July’s Camp. A wave farewell, until next time do we meet again for the madness.

*Sigh*

I always hate the end of Camp. I’m excited to finish, and also feel lost now that I don’t have to worry about goals or word count or staying on par. Well, except for the 1k-A-Day.

Now if I could just find some app to track my progress for that, I’d be set!

Snippet Sunday: July 26, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday!

Where writers come together to share a few sentences (8-10) of their current project — whether it’s a recently released novel, a WIP (work in progress), or an older manuscript that’s being revived. Intended to hook readers, gather feedback and build an author’s fan base, Snippet Sunday is the FB group that does all three.

Keeping things consistent again while I am working on Darkness Becomes Her for Camp NaNoWriMo this month (only five more days left!), I am posting some excerpts from a story I already have finished and posted to Wattpad, titled Rivers of Black, a short paranormal story.

Picking up right where I left off from last week’s snippet. My main character had been thinking about wanting to take her own life, but her fear of being found had stopped her. Now, she is out wandering the woods, looking for no place in particular that would be her place to sit in peace at last, coming across an old, scarred, and battered oak tree.

A bit of background on this story as well: This story is rather dark and depressing. It deals with a topic some people would be hesitant to read; which is self harm and suicide. I don’t sugarcoat this either, I write it raw on how someone in my character’s state feels. Just be forewarned with that. I hope it doesn’t deter you from reading, but I know others cannot deal reading these kinds of things. (This snippet has nothing bad or dark to it though.)

—

Sunlight filtered through the remaining branches, dancing on my face as I stared up at the old oak. For a split second with the sun on my face I thought that maybe I could too, that maybe I wasn’t completely broken either. It felt like one of those interventions that people always say changed their outlook on their problems. Only this time it wasn’t a group of people giving a long ass speech about how they actually care about you; it was a tree, swaying in the breeze.

I must really be out of my mind if I’m thinking a tree can give me an intervention. Still, a part of me wistfully wished that a tree could do just that.

A passing cloud abruptly snuffed the sun out, sending up a powerful breeze. The old oak swayed mournfully in the gust, but held its own against it. I thought that if this broken tree could withstand the hardships nature threw at it, then I could withstand the hardships life threw at me. I was changing my mind, I wasn’t sure I was going to go through with it anymore, and it was all because of a tree.

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad

—

If you want to read the whole story, it is available to read on Wattpad! I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,

hop on over to Facebook and check out Snippet Sunday!

Cuckoo Crazy With Camp! (And Life)

So, I’ve totally lost track of days and time this whole week.

Monday night, I remembered I needed to make a blog post for Tuesday at midnight. I remember ending up not making the post before I went to bed just because I was tired and wasn’t too sure what to write at the moment. I told myself I’d do it before work on Tuesday.

Didn’t happen.

Then by the time I got home from work at 10:30 at night, I had completely forgotten about needing to make one until it was probably about 2am on Wednesday.

Which, by then of course, was too late.

I’ve been getting my days mixed up like mad. I thought Tuesday was Thursday. Then I thought Wednesday was Thursday. I even thought Thursday was Wednesday for a time. I’m just all screwy and cuckoo this week.

Cuckoo?

Like cuckoo for cocoa puffs!

My lack of sleep seems to be getting to me because I have been dragging all this week, too. Have not been able to get myself to wake up even though I’m quite sure I’m sleeping decent. Between five and six hours a night, which is about normal for me. I know it’s bad when I need a Monster to wake me up and keep me going.

Which, speaking of Monster… I think it’s totally gone to my head today. (Read four lines up if you want proof of that.)

Now in Camp news, I’ve been playing leap frog with a cabin member on who has the most words written. Right now, she’s in the lead again by a little over a thousand. We’ve been going back and forth with me having the lead, then her, then me again, then her again, then me once more, then her…. You get the picture. Chances are, she’s going to stay ahead of me because I will probably not be getting any writing done over the weekend seeing as I’m going on a three day vacation.

I’m still staying ahead of par though. My cushion that used to be like a 10k cushion has dropped to a few thousand, but I’m still ahead. Even if I don’t get any writing done this weekend, I’ll still be ahead of par come Monday.

Currently, I’m sitting at just over 45k words. Remember my new goal was 50k, too. I’ve got one week to write 5k words. On a day off, I can do that easily all in the same day if I’m focused. So I’m not at all worried about validating for the win in time. I might be early this time around instead of with minutes or mere hours to spare on the final day.

Who knows?

Maybe if I get really lucky, or go on another spurt of madness, I’ll hit at least 55k. That’d be awesome. I could probably almost do 60k if I really tried. I’m not changing my goal anymore though, I’m leaving it at 50k and if I get higher, then great. If not, I still hit my dream goal.

I’ve also realized I planned just about the right amount of chapters out at the beginning of the month. I need less than 5k to win and I’m on the last chapter I have planned out. (Although, two chapters ended up being broken in half to create two extra chapters I hadn’t planned.) I’m thinking to finish Chapter 10 it may or may not get me my little under 5k. It’ll be close if it doesn’t get me all the way.

Actually… The more I think about it, the more I think it might not get me to the end of NaNo. So I think this weekend I might be sitting down — while on vacation — and planning out the next few chapters. Maybe if I get to it I’ll start drawing out some notes of important scenes and other necessities for the book I need. My binder for this book is rather scarce yet. I’ve been too focused on writing to jot down all the important details I need to remember.

In other news, I realized I threw myself a total curveball that I had to figure out a few days ago. Looking over my timeline for the book, I realized I totally threw myself off track and I had to find a way to get myself back on track. Thankfully, I had an epiphany moment that has actually built on my character a little more that sorted out the problem. So, I created the problem, and solved it, rather easily.

For once.

I need to remember to consult the outline and summaries a little more while writing so I don’t do that again. Even though that little gem is a blessing for the book, and the series really. It’s a standout scene that’s going to be a impacting memory that doesn’t leave my protagonist.

As of right now, I’ve hit another mad writing rush on the scene I’m on. I’m either right smack dab in my protagonist’s head or in my villain’s. Or maybe it’s both. Probably both. It’s really working though. Except for this little dozy of a sentence I wrote that totally threw me for a second when I wrote it:

“Her heart wasn’t pounding in fear, she wasn’t wide eyed and ready to flee. She just…was.”

I couldn’t determine if that actually made sense to the reader when I knew what it meant or not. It was the last part, “she just…was” that threw me. I meant it as she was just there in the moment, numb almost. For some reason it threw me though. Oh well, as I was told, that’s a fix for editing if I still don’t like it.

(Does it make sense to the reader, though? Or have I really gone cuckoo?)

Now before I totally start rambling and boring all of you who are reading this — if I haven’t already — I better shut up. Had I remembered to do a post on Tuesday, this may not have been so long. But… *Shrugs* You got the picture above there.

Alright, back to writing. I want to get some words in — and some other things done, while trying to be quiet to the sleeping person in the room with me — before I leave tomorrow.

Better hop to it.

No… Wait… I did not mean you, plot bunny!

Snippet Sunday: July 19, 2015

Keeping things consistent again while I am working on Darkness Becomes Her for Camp NaNoWriMo this month, I am posting some excerpts from a story I already have finished and posted to Wattpad, titled Rivers of Black, a short paranormal story.

I’m skipping ahead one paragraph from last week’s snippet. My main character had been thinking about wanting to take her own life, but her fear of being found had stopped her. Now, she is out wandering the woods, looking for no place in particular that would be her place to sit in peace at last.

A bit of background on this story as well: This story is rather dark and depressing. It deals with a topic some people would be hesitant to read; which is self harm and suicide. I don’t sugarcoat this either, I write it raw on how someone in my character’s state feels. Just be forewarned with that. I hope it doesn’t deter you from reading, but I know others cannot deal reading these kinds of things. (This snippet has nothing bad or dark to it though.)

(Some sentences may have been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit.)

—

I must have walked for over an hour before I finally found the right spot, where for the first time in a long time I felt at peace. It was next to an old gnarly oak tree that looked half dead already. It looked lost and forlorn all by itself surrounded by a group of maples; lonely, like it needed a friend — just like me. I knew the second I came upon it that it was the place I would lay myself down to wait for the end.

I circled the once mighty oak, gazing at the number of gouges in its bark and the limbs that had broken and crashed to the forest floor around it. Pieces of bark had been torn from the tree and lay scattered, deep claw marks raked down the tree like scars from a battle lost, but fought well; about half way up the trunk the tree separated into a “Y”, one of giant limbs still remained, but the other looked like it had been struck by lightning and severed in half. It lay shattered and scorched on the ground a few feet away. A deep black gash split the remaining of the limb, creaking in the gentle breeze.

Vaguely my mind wondered what animal had made the deep claw marks but it mattered not to me. All I cared about was the feeling that the tree gave off. It was as scarred and shattered as I was, yet somehow it still lived on.

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad

—

If you want to read the whole story, it is available to read on Wattpad! I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,

hop on over to Facebook and check out Snippet Sunday!

A Dying Fire Within

I was doing so good, for so long!

Then the brakes started being applied, gently at first.

Then a little harder…

And now someone has flat out stomped on them, leaving skid marks.

I’ve come grinding to a halt in writing.

I don’t know if it’s just the past three works days literally kicking my ass, or if I’ve lost my inspiration, or if I’ve just said “eh, I made my original goal, I can stop now.” I honestly have not a clue. (If it’s that last one, I’m going to start yelling at myself.) Though working long hours the past three days (which, coincidentally, are the three days I haven’t gotten any writing done) has got me beat. All three shifts I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, barely stopping for a breather. Yesterday was the worst of them.

I was supposed to work 4:30-10. However, another manager had to call off due to injury, and since I was the only one that could pick up the slack, I ended up working 1-10. Nine hours of never stopping for a break. I could have taken a break, but, I worked right through it because I had too much to do. Nine straight hours of running around like a chicken with no head.

So I really don’t know if this working like mad is what’s got me slowed down in writing right now, or what it is. I still have yet to make up some more notes. I did start some the other day on my break at work.

However… That presented me with a problem.

You see, at the beginning of this month, I had made up a tentative timeline for this character’s ride in the story. Needless to say, my character has already run with it and changed things on me some. Now I’m trying to figure out how to get back on track, or how to rework the timeline. I’m going to blame my villain for this sudden turn, and she’s probably laughing at me for it.

Go figure.

Hopefully I’m not needed to come in a few hours early again tomorrow for work so that I have some time to:

1) Relax, because I’m sore as all hell right now.

2) Get some things in DBH figured out.

and

3) Get some writing done again.

My fingers are crossed. (Not that it ever does me much good.)

I think I need to add gasoline or some sort of an accelerant onto the dying fire inside me to get going again. Or someone needs to stoke it for me, which means nagging me or giving me an epiphany. Actually, one of those would be nice right about now so I can figure out the mess I just made in the timeline.

Creative Crazy Cabins and Chapter Curveballs

(No, I did not make that title all C’s on purpose, what are you talking about? LOL)

So my writing for Camp seems to have slowed down a little. I was at 28k on Friday, now I’m at 34k. I was even off on Saturday and Monday, and I didn’t do nearly as much writing as I wanted.

It’s okay though because I’m still going to make goal.

You know what makes that even better?

I passed my original goal of 31k! I can now say I’ve officially made the 1k-A-Day challenge (for July at least) and that I’ve surpassed any goals I had set before for Camp. I’ve now upped that goal to 50k and if my madness induced writing comes back and I somehow reach 50k before the cut off date for changing the goal, I might up it to 60k, or maybe 55k. Either one would make me thrilled.

Hell, I’m thrilled to make it this far!

The last chapter I did just rolled right out of me, and I think it’s actually pretty great for a first draft. (We’ll see what I think during the editing stages though.)

Except then I hit a bump in the road.

I had reached the part of the scene that was a small time skip (only a couple of hours) but the way I broke that part off, could have easily been the end of the chapter. Originally, both scenes before and after the time skip were to be in one single chapter, not broken up. However, the first part to it ended up being rather long and because of how I broke it off, I decided to try to do the second part to it as a new chapter, though similar to the last one. Kind of a like a part 2.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this chapter or how I broke things off. I mean, it could work based on where the second part of it is heading, and I realized it’s something I can’t cut from the scene now. Although, I get the feeling the second part is going to end up being rather short. Which makes me think I should have somehow kept it with the previous chapter instead of splitting them.

I know that’s a problem for editing down the line but it’s bugging me at the moment.

Then there’s the fact I still need to be drawing up some more chapter notes considering I’m one chapter away from running out of notes drawn up. That chapter is also quickly approaching as well. I did at the beginning of the month draw up a tentative timeline for what’s supposed to happen. I just need to work in the scenes so making the notes shouldn’t be too hard. Maybe I’ll take the binder and notebook to work with me tomorrow and do it on my break while I’m eating lunch. My manager is interested in the novel I’m writing anyways, she can peek at the blurb.

In other Camp news, I have an awesome Cabin.

We were randomly talking one day and it seems we were debating on coming up with a name for our cabin. Now, keep in mind we are all a bit crazy (in a good way!) and a lot of us are — or are becoming — Camp NaNo addicts. Someone ended up bringing a wolf into our cabin and we all happen to love wolves, so it was first suggested we should be the Wolf Howlers. That was vetoed and another name came up, something to do with us being Camp addicts or crazy.

Also vetoed.

Until a certain cabin mate came up with this gem by putting parts of our names all together:

Harriet’s Specialty Solo Darkness Warriors, Pre-owned and Used!

We cracked up laughing, and the name has now stuck. Good thing cabins can’t communicate with other cabins and display their names or our cabin would be the one labeled “they’re all crazy, just back away slowly…”

From that name, Harriet, Solo, Warriors, and Used are all part of their usernames. However, I must be the special one because mine, Darkness, comes from the title of my book for Camp.

But, hey, we’re having fun with our mates and our creatures. (I can’t find my villain’s raven that got loose in the cabin. Maybe Beowulf — our wolf mascot — ate it, though I highly doubt it.) We’re all rolling along with our books and we’re all wishing this would never end. After all, we only get Camp cabins two months out of the year, we got to live up while we can.

Snippet Sunday: July 12, 2015

Keeping things consistent again while I am working on Darkness Becomes Her for Camp NaNoWriMo this month, I am posting some excerpts from a story I already have finished and posted to Wattpad, titled Rivers of Black, a short paranormal story.

Picking up right where I left off from last week’s snippet. My main character is thinking to herself about her despair. Her final thoughts from the last snippet were she wanted to be free.

A bit of background on this story as well: This story is rather dark and depressing. It deals with a topic some people would be hesitant to read; which is self harm and suicide. I don’t sugarcoat this either, I write it raw on how someone in my character’s state feels. Just be forewarned with that. I hope it doesn’t deter you from reading, but I know others cannot deal reading these kinds of things. (I don’t think this snippet is that bad, but of course I’m the author so my opinion on that may vary.)

(Some sentences may have been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit.)

—

I was sick of living a life that gave me no more happiness.

For weeks I’d been thinking about ending it, where I wouldn’t be sad anymore, wouldn’t be alone. I’d finally be free and not weighed down; it was all I longed for. I had pressed the scissors deeper and deeper into my skin, but they were only so sharp. The first time I tore apart my razor and used that blade was the deepest I had ever gone yet. I thought it would be deep enough and I’d finally be free but the knock on the bathroom door had stopped me cold.

There were too many distractions and worries that kept me from going to that point of no return. The fear that someone would find me in my room, lying in my blood and rush me to the hospital before I could pass on kept me from going to that point. I couldn’t risk being saved when all I wanted was something better than this life. It was then that I knew if I wanted that freedom I had to go somewhere else, somewhere no one would find me before I was too far gone.

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad

—

If you want to read the whole story, it is available to read on Wattpad!  I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,

hop on over to Facebook and check out Snippet Sunday!

So Close To Goal? Already?

Alright, more Camp NaNo ramblings here.

On Tuesday’s post, I had said I was at 18.7k words all together (roughly).

Three days later, I’m now at 28k.

My goal is 31k.

I have a feeling I’m going to hit that tomorrow. Only ten days into the month…

As soon as I hit 30k, I am upping my goal to 50k for the month. If by some miracle, I get close to hitting that before the goal change cut off dates, I’m upping my goal to 60k. I was going to be ecstatic if I hit 50k, now I’m going to be ecstatic if I hit 60k or higher for this month.

Over the past two days, I have felt like I’m burning myself out a bit though. It was hard to get myself started. Once I hit the keyboard though, it just started flowing like every other time I write. So maybe it’s just that initial “get going” sort of phase. I was distracted for most of the day before I actually started writing or I could have hit that 31k today I’m sure. (YouTube, Facebook, and Wattpad are major time sucks and determinates to writing.)

Although, I did have laundry to do today as well. I was also supposed to plan out some upcoming chapters for this novel, but I ended up not doing that. Maybe I’ll plan a little on my break at work tomorrow.

The farther I get into this novel, the more I’m realizing it might end up being a little longer than I anticipated. I think. I’m not very good at estimates. As of today though, Darkness Becomes Her has officially broken over 100 pages long in Word. It’s just under 50k at the moment, too.

This is thee farthest I’ve gotten with a story. Well, a novel I should say. I’ve finished short stories a few times. Novel attempt wise this is my best so far. Breaking Point hasn’t even come close to this. That novel is about 40 pages long or so? I can’t remember exactly, but with Camp this month, I have BLOWN that record away. I’ve written 59 pages so far in this story in ten days.

The more I write, the more excited I’m getting. This story/series/book has been the baby I’ve been nursing in my head for years. This is the series I want to get published. Not self publish, but actually get published by an agency. (Of course, if that doesn’t happen, I will self publish it. I’m hoping the former will happen though. I’ve got high hopes for this series.) I’m starting to wonder if I’m rushing things a bit, but that’s what the editing process is for, right?

I mean, I have some notes planned out, I have more I need to make and such. I’m following what I wanted — minus when my characters are starting to throw me curveballs! Like the last couple chapters they threw me a few. Though this last curveball in the current chapter is actually perfect, it’s going to really set up a thought process for later in the book. It’s a stand out moment.

Anyways, with me being so close to my original goal, I can’t help but sit here and ask myself, “What the hell took you so long to light a fire under your ass like this?”

Honestly, I tried for months to really get going. Now I feel like some switch has been flicked in me. I’m getting into a habit of writing, and the more I do each day this month (I haven’t missed a day yet!), the more I’m finding it easier to stick too. I’m not losing ideas so quickly or forget where I was going.

I have learned my lesson on the note taking bit. I’ve been making hand written notes, and leaving myself notes in the Word doc as well. I’ve finally caught on to that little bit.

Funny story on that one:

Yesterday, with the one curveball my character threw me, she was supposed to go outside and play in the snow with her parents. Well, she ended up wanting to play a board game (Candy Land). A board game I have not played in I don’t know how long.

A board game that I ended up pulling out of my closet (no idea why I still have it) and took to my parents to play as a refresher course. As research.

Yes, you heard me right. I played Candy Land to remember the game so I could write it for my character. The odd looks I got from my parents were awkward and priceless all at once. Needless to say, I won too. Lol.

Anyways, I think that about sums my ramblings up for Camp in the past couple of days.

Minus what is going on in the chapter I’m on now. Not a pretty scene. I forget how evil and dark my villain can be at times… Then it makes me wonder, what dark hole did you crawl out of in my mind? I’m not sure I want to know, honestly.

Bumps And Races

So it’s officially been a whole week of Camp, and I can definitely say I have not slowed down, at all. I may have hit a few minor bumps, but I’m still racing along here.

I’m now currently sitting at 18,756 words, which is doubled what I had last Friday. I had today off from work (finally) and I just steamrolled through a lot of words. 6,554 words today to be exact if I want to get technical. Can you tell I’m proud and ecstatic over these numbers?

I also have off tomorrow as well, so the same thing I’ve been doing all day today, is going to be my tomorrow. Which is going through a pattern to get things done.

Basically, what I’ve been doing today is this:

Write 500 words, blog hop 4 blogs, write 500 words, blog hop 4 blogs, organize/write a few notes, write 500 words, blog hop 4 blogs, write 500 words…

You get the picture.

It’s been working for me too. I was behind by a whole week of Sunday Snippet blog hopping and I got all caught up today with it. (Someone in my cabin can’t keep taunting me with it anymore now either. *Cough cough* P.T. *Cough*) I also started on this week Sunday’s snippets. Didn’t get through many of them yet, but I have started which is a good thing and I will finish them up tomorrow as well.

All together, I think I went through that pattern about six or seven times today. Which is good, it means I got stuff done. My 6.5k proves that, not to mention going through probably about 30 blog hops. Plus doing some notes and getting a bit organized.

This maddened streak hasn’t been without its slight bumps though. The beginning of today’s writing started off finishing up Chapter 5. Let me say now, Chapter 5 was almost like a filler chapter, one of those info packed ones that build upon what’s going to come and what’s laid out before the MC. I am not good at these kind of chapters, I end up repeating myself it seems or missing pieces.

First off, I know I got my villain’s rule order mixed up. I realized rule number four should of been rule number two. Which meant rule number two should of been three, and three should of been four… Then I realized that screwed up how that bit in the scene played out. Of course my lack of sleep writing the beginning of this chapter the other night made it kind of crappy to begin with.

Basically, I pretty much know this whole chapter needs to be rewritten and reworked. Not to mention I feel like I’m forgetting a very important rule of my villains that I just can’t quite put my finger on right now. (Watch, it’ll come to me five chapters done the line and I’ll have an epiphany before hurriedly jotting it down somewhere. This chapter in my notes currently has about four sticky notes plastered over it for the changes.)

Oh well, those changes are going to wait till the editing rounds and I know I’m going to need some fresh eyes on those when I go through a rewrite. I think I need to plan this chapter out in a little more detailed other than a rough summary, too, before tackling it again. Once more though, that is waiting till the editing rounds come about. Or at least until Camp is over.

Other than that bump in my road though, I have steamrolled along. The end of Chapter 5 came easier than the start and my little mishap on rules. Now Chapter 6 has just been flowing like someone turned the faucet on all the way.

I had made a mini goal at the start of Monday to have hit 20k by the time I went back to work on Wednesday. Yeah… I think I might hit that little goal before I even go to bed tonight, considering it’s just over 1k to write, and that’s normally what I do once midnight comes around.

Go me though! I’ll definitely be upping my goal from 31k to 50k within the next week I think. Pretty soon I’m going to have to plan out some new chapters, I only planned up to Chapter 8 at the beginning of Camp.

For now, it’s back to the races of writing (and trying to make sure my characters don’t throw me any more surprises, like my villain did in Chapter 5 — which might have been what screwed me up. It didn’t go according to plan).