Snippet Sunday: August 30, 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.

Still continuing on with my short paranormal story, Rivers of Black. I have decided I am not switching to something new in September but I am going to finish this out, then switch in October.

Picking up right where I left off in last week’s snippet for those that were screaming over the cliffhanger. 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. Now that tree has shown it’s own desolation and deterioration to mother nature and my MC is spiraling into despair. She is just about to go through with the deed and take her own life, but now something is making her wary.

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. (There is really nothing bad to this snippet though, but it’s about to get good.)

(The following has been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit. And I mean very creatively punctuated this time.)

—-

No less than twenty feet away from me the forest had changed: A clear cut circle, probably ten feet in diameter held nothing by darkness. The sun was shining brightly, but not one ray of sunshine touched the circle of trees, the sky over it was as dark as night, and the trees looked gloomy and broken, bent at odd angles — some of them were felled and lay strewn across the forest floor like they were dropped from a great height. The grass and shrubbery were all dead and brown.

Nothing held any sign of life…or light.

Curious, but wary, I stood and walked towards the eerie, dark circle of trees. As I drew near I could feel the coldness that leaked out of the darkness. A weight felt as if it was resting on my chest the closer I got to the circle, goosebumps rose all over my bare skin, and alarm bells went off in my head telling me to stay away.

I reached the edge of the darkness in a matter of seconds, ignoring the warning bells in my head. Hesitantly I reached my hand towards the darkness, afraid that by touching it I might somehow explode or die on contact — my hand passed into the darkness without incident though, but immediately became cold and clammy.

I gasped at the sudden absence of warmth in my hand and quickly pulled my arm away, an eerie sense of Death’s fingers tracing down my spine.

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad

—-

You know, the more and more I share this story for Sunday Snippets, the more I’m finding myself thinking I could make it even better if I ran through another edit of it. It’d only be my third or fourth edit…I think.

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 Sunday Snippets!

Knocked Up Plot Bunnies

So, my three days off was actually really productive.

Of a list of twenty things to do, I crossed off sixteen of them. I am proud of myself for that.

My notes for my camping journal took much longer than I expected, but I got all of them done. (Mostly, minus a few minor things I need that really aren’t important.) I just didn’t get to writing any of those entries.

BUT!

Shockingly, I have three days off in a row next week, too. AND I have this whole weekend off. I feel like I hit the lottery. This never happens. Unless I’m camping, that’s the only time I get that kind of time off. My paycheck will be sad, but my to do lists will be happy.

Anyways, moving on here to my real topic…

The plot bunny factory upstairs has seriously been given speed or fertility drugs or something today. No joke. I’ve just been getting idea, after idea, after idea, after idea, after idea…

*Shakes head*

You get the picture.

Some of them are totally random and I’m sitting here going “what the hell? Where did THAT even COME from?!” And others aren’t even related to what I’m currently working on and/or doing.

They’re just saying “Hey! Look at me!” And I seriously want to give them the finger and tell them to crawl back in the hole until later.

At the current moment, I suddenly have an idea for a new creature that’s slowly brewing in my mind. And actually, that one does pertain to what I’m currently working on. I owe that little bugger to a good friend of mine for sparking that little slimy demon. (No the creature is not a demon, C, because I know you’re reading this. Although it may be slimy…)

Then another just really out there idea popped into my head. One that I don’t even know how to use, or where to use. I mean, I know where I want to use it, but I have no idea how to yet. I guess I better feed that bunny some carrots so it grows bigger and gives me a better picture to work with.

Not like I need anymore plot bunnies though. I have quite enough, thank you very much, brain.

(Yeah, they don’t listen to me. They have no on and off switch. Unfortunately sometimes.)

Well, I was going to go write a bit or do something else, but at this point, I think I’m about to go journal and jot down these plot bunnies before they hop away on me, or start kicking me. Let’s see what madness I can create this time!

I always did say sanity was overrated.

Little By Little, Bit By Bit

It’s been a good few days so far. (Now let’s hope I didn’t just jinx myself by saying that.) Doing things little by little, and not just throwing it all in at once is the right way to go about things. At least that’s what I’m finding right now.

I have Monday-Wednesday off this week. (Which is a total miracle that I have three days off in a row and I’m not camping. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth on that one though.)

Somehow, I have finally found my groove, settled in and started steam rolling through things that I needed to get done. I have a list that has nineteen things listed on it that I hoped to get done by the time I go back to work Thursday evening.

(Granted some of those things are really small and easy and take like ten minutes. Example: Change bed sheets. Alright, well, that one took a tad longer than ten minutes since I had to was the mattress pad first. But you see my point. Things might also be added at random points, depends if I remember something else that needs done.)

So far, I’m doing really good on that list.

Of those nineteen things, I have crossed off nine and one thirds of those. I say one third because one of them I’m kind of just using as a continuum thing to do. As in, do some of it each day — considering I’m not going to read a whole book in one day. Granted, I could if I really wanted to, but I have other things to do as well. So, sadly, I can’t.

At the moment, I’m half way through crossing off another thing on my list. I’ve procrastinated far too long this summer on keeping up with my Camping Journal.

(I like to document the campgrounds we visit and the things we liked, disliked, what they offered/had to do, etc. That way, I know which ones are the better ones to go back to and can help our Wagonmaster determine where we want to go next year. FYI, I belong to a large group so you aren’t totally lost by what I mean by that. This probably just stems from the fact that I like to write and journal, I go a bit overboard with this though. Entries end up being six to nine pages long handwritten. I get a stack of brochures for attractions nearby. I have two smaller little handheld notebooks to take the notes in and one to document address, phone number, directions to the place, etc. You see my point.)

As I was saying before I went off on a tangent…

I like to document and write about the campgrounds and I have not written a single entry this year yet. I’ve kept the notes up, I’ve gotten the brochures. But I haven’t written the actual entries yet. I did really good last year, writing them only days after getting home. This year though…

*Shakes head*

It hasn’t happened.

Luckily for me, with certain issues, we’ve only gone to four trips this year so far instead of our normal six or so already. Which means I only have to write four entries at the moment. And there’s only one trip left in the season, which isn’t bad. As long as I get these ones down before I go on the last one. Or even just three of the four, I’ll be in good shape.

With that being said, I am currently buried under a pile of brochures, notebooks, and various pens and pencils strewn around me to finish up the notes of the last trip we went on. (It was only a week and a half ago so I’m not too far behind on this one.)

My iPhone that’s playing music is buried under here somewhere. I’m not quite sure where my pencil disappeared to, and at times I can’t see my keyboard but the technique is working. I’ve also got Google Maps thrown up in my browser to determine estimated time from campground to attraction to see if it’s worth putting in the entry, plus a tab for the campground itself to remind myself of things they offer. I also have pictures I take to help document so I start to flit through them for reminders. (If I can find my iPhone under this organized chaos.)

It’s going good though. I’m crossing things off, I’m getting organized, I’m doing what I need to get done finally. I just got to keep my groove going through another day and a half before I go to work.

Tomorrow is going to be the challenge though. My day will mostly be consumed by cleaning — and attempting to give my whining, paranoid dog a bath. That’ll be fun. (I am taking the fifth on how badly I need to clean to. I’m a writer though, what’d you expect?)

With that being said, I think it’s definitely safe for me to use this little quote:

“If you ever want to know what a creative person’s mind feels like, imagine a browser with 2,857 tabs open. All. The. Time.”

Snippet Sunday: August 23, 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.

Even though Camp is over, I’m continuing on with my short paranormal story, Rivers of Black for the month of August. I might switch to something new in September.

I am skipping ahead about a page 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. Now that tree has shown it’s own desolation and deterioration to mother nature and my MC is spiraling into despair. She is just about to go through with the deed and take her own life.

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. (There is really nothing bad to this snippet though.)

(The following has been creatively punctuated to try fit the ten sentence limit. I’m a bit over, I gave up trying to make it ten and get my desired effect of the scene.)

—-

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and an ice cold wind whipped past me. I stopped dead in my tracks, pulling the blade back from my arm thinking that I’d been caught. My gut told me that someone was near, watching; but that wasn’t possible, I was deep in the forest where no one would go for a hike. I looked around hastily in every direction, trying to figure out if it was just my mind playing tricks on me or if someone was actually near; I saw nor heard anyone close by though. The only sound was that of the leaves rustling in the trees overhead and the sounds of animals.

I shivered, trying to shake the feeling off and put the blade back to my wrist. Once again I pressed down, ready to pull it across my skin, and once more an ice old wind buffeted past me. This time the hairs on my neck and arms stood on end and I glanced up, paranoid now that someone was near. The wind was too cold for the warm summer day and the feeling in my gut to dark for the brightness of the sun. I whipped my head back and forth, looking for any signs of people.

To my left and in front of me I saw nothing, but to my right everything had changed.

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 Sunday Snippets!

Drowning

It’s been another horrible start to the week. I seem to be having a lot of them lately.

Sunday wasn’t all that bad, though it did have some raised tempers and short fuses. Yesterday…

Well, yesterday started off alright I guess. Still short fuses, but it had died down. At least until late last night when all hell pretty much broke loose.

I’m to the point where I want to just shut myself away, lock the door, keep a stash of food, and waste my time away alone with music blasting and attempting to get something done. Considering yesterday’s fiasco, I didn’t get anything at all done.

And now I’m back to work for four days, so there goes the rest of my time. To top that off even, I’m not feeling well, and I can’t call off because there is no one to cover my shift tonight.

*Sigh*

I had so many plans to get things done and all of them have just gone down the drain anymore. I’ve lost my motivation, and too much of everything else has bogged me down.

In my defense (or maybe I’m just making excuses now) I was gone for five days which really screwed me, but even coming back yesterday I didn’t get anything done. I’m so far behind on things that I feel like I’m drowning.

No room for air.

No surface in sight.

No calm seas ahead.

Just. Drowning.

I can swim, don’t get my wrong. But right now, I’m treading water and there’s a sea monster grabbing my ankle and yanking me down under the surface. None too gently either.

I need a new plan of action or just straight days of alone time with nothing else to worry about, because this certainly isn’t working this way.

Snippet Sunday: August 16, 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.

Even though Camp is over, I’m continuing on with my short paranormal story, Rivers of Black for the month of August. I might switch to something new in September.

I am skipping ahead a few paragraphs 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. Now that tree has shown it’s own desolation and deterioration to mother nature and my MC is spiraling into despair.

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. (WARNING: This snippet DOES get a little graphic along the nature of self harm. I hope it does not deter you but in order to avoid any negativity towards sharing it, I wanted to give a head’s up.)

(The following has been creatively punctuated to try fit the ten sentence limit. I’m a bit over, I gave up trying to make it ten and get my desired effect of the scene.)

—-

Maybe this time will be different, maybe this time I’ll feel something; maybe this time I won’t have to cry over not being able to feel.

As always I didn’t stop to think beyond that point. Holding the blade between my teeth I rolled up my sleeve and held up my wrist, from my elbow to my wrist was covered in scars — some new, some old, and some not even healed yet. Each one was deeper and longer than the last as I fell further and further into depression, but still not one of them set me free.

But maybe this time will be different.

I grabbed the blade from between my teeth and didn’t hesitate as I slashed it across my wrist. I was beyond caring how deep I went, after all it was the whole reason I came out to this forest today. The pain was real, but only for a second; hot blood welled to the surface of the cut quickly, flowing down my arm in two streaks before dropping off my hand to the forest floor. A small pool of blood quickly started to gather on the ground at my feet but I paid it no mind. The only thing I could focus on was the fact that I still didn’t feel anything; I had felt the pain and the release for all but a second before I felt nothing at all again.

I was still numb…

And I hated it.

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 Sunday Snippets!

Why Am I Writing This?

Honestly, I’m not even sure why I’m bothering to make a blog post today. I hadn’t done it before I went to bed at 4am, mostly because I forgot. Then work screwed up the rest of my day. And now… Well, I don’t know.

It almost just doesn’t seem worth it when I’ll be rambling on anyways and probably bore or confuse the lot of you half to death.

I don’t even have a topic for this post, I’ve gotten pretty much absolutely nothing done since last Friday.

No words written. No journal entries done. No more notes done for said journal entries. No cleaning done. Laundry still needs folded…

The only thing I have managed to do is catch up on the Sunday Snippet blog hop. Which is a good thing, because I won’t be around the internet much for the next five days. And I did not want to have three weeks worth of blog hopping to catch up on by then.

I’m caught up at least, so that’s one plus out of, well, not many others.

Oh, and I did plan out the next five or so chapters of Darkness Becomes Her.

I’m getting antsy and mad at myself that I haven’t been doing any writing for that story. I’m now 10k behind on the 1k-A-Day Challenge and with being gone for the next five days… I’m doubting I’m going to get anything written. So unless I have a random mad dash writing streak in the next two weeks, I’m not going to make it this month. Again.

Which, I’m sad to say, is typical for me. I always seem to die out once NaNoWriMo months are over. I wish I didn’t, but I just…do.

(See why I need cabins and progress charts to be a constant? Dear NaNoWriMo, make an app for that already for iPhone! Now!)

I was really excited where the story was going right now, too. So why am I not just getting into it? Did I burn myself out over Camp? Or…

I don’t know.

I do know work has burned me out right now, though. Not to mention, it’s been getting stranger and stranger lately.

For instance, this was my night tonight:

1) When the phone rings four times in a row and each time you answer it, all you hear is an odd beeping noise.

This is the fifth time this has happened to me in a matter of two days.

My conclusion: Alien invasion.

2) *Phone rings*
Me: Thank you for calling [insert work place here]. This is [insert name]. How may I help you?
Customer: *Starts busting out singing, laughing in background*
Me: *Frowns, looks down at phone, click*

This is why I prefer animals over people. This is why I am an introvert. I do not understand people. People annoy me.

Enough said.

Snippet Sunday: August 9, 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.

Even though Camp is over, I’m continuing on with my short paranormal story, Rivers of Black for the month of August. I might switch to something new in September.

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. (There is nothing dark or bad to this snippet though.)

—-

I turned away from the shattered branch and walked back to other side of the oak. I glanced up once at the angry sky to see the last of the black clouds moving away. Once more the sun shone through the forest, bathing it and every living thing in its warmth. The warmth was lost on me however, my body still remembered the darkness and cold of the passing black clouds.

Anger coursed through me at the thought that not even the sun could warm me. The hottest thing in the universe and even it couldn’t help me now.

“Screw you!” I yelled at the sun, giving it the middle finger.

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 Sunday Snippets!

Arguing With The Characters In My Head

It’s finally Friday.

I feel like Tuesday should have been Friday for some reason.

It’s been a long week, let’s just leave it at that.

Wednesday didn’t go too much better. I got nothing done on my first day off and ended up with a splitting headache for most of the day that just wouldn’t go away.

Yesterday went a little bit better. I managed to get seven more chapters planned ahead in Darkness Becomes Her. Though I spent a right good hour or so arguing with myself, my timeline for the story, and my characters in order to plan those chapters out. I need to start leaving myself some better notes, or something that way I don’t run into that problem again. I think I’ve got things sorted though.

Does anyone else have that problem where you can’t remember what you were thinking when you jotted the notes down? Or you can’t seem to tie them back together as you had once thought of them? Or is it just me that spends my alone time yelling at timelines and characters to make things work out again and making myself go crazy?

(Meh, sanity for an author is overrated anyways.)

I’ve become really excited for what’s going to be coming up in the novel, it’s going to get so good and I just can’t wait to get to those scenes. I’ve got a few chapters to go before I get to those juicy parts though.

I also managed to get caught up on one week of blog hopping for Sunday Snippets. However, I still have last Sunday’s to get through before this Sunday rolls around.

Thankfully, I have Saturday off again to hopefully get something done. Because after that… I’ll have absolutely no time.

I’ll be working three days straight. (Though two of those days the shifts aren’t that bad.) Then I’ll be gone for five days in which I will probably get absolutely nothing done. Once I come back too, I’ll be working my butt off since stupid me agreed to pick up a few shifts at a different store that needed an extra hand and was short staffed in managers in two weeks.

(Ironically enough, the store is the one my old boss now runs, before GM’s got switched around in the company a bit and changed stores. That’s not weird at all considering when she was my boss, I was a cashier/freight crew leader, and now I’m a keyholder/manager. This will be interesting.)

Anyways, back to writing…

Because of my mad plotting streak and yelling at myself here yesterday, I didn’t actually get any words written. I’m all set up to keep writing, but I didn’t get anything done. Which means I’m not 6k behind on word count for the month of August. And with next week going to be pretty shot for me in getting anything done, I’m unsure how this month is going to pan out in writing.

I’m hoping to get some in and make a mad dash for 30k goal by the end of August but we shall see.

I still have these journal entries I need to write (three) and some notes to draw up from the last one I need to do, and that’s only to be added on at the end of next week. I really need to get myself on track here.

Maybe I just need more time in the day, or more days off.

Or you know what would be really helpful?

Someone needs to invent a magic potion that allows you to stay up and never sleep and get a million things done and never actually be tired.

(Yes, I am a fantasy author, in my mind, that is totally possible.)

Alas though, until some magical person creates such a thing and presents it to me, I am stuck trying to work of little sleep and hopefully not have any more incidents as I did earlier this week. (I am not going into details of that nightmare and a half.)

Speaking of nightmares… I’ve been having really odd dreams lately. I wonder what they mean, and I wonder if any of them are going to spring a new plot bunny on me when I don’t need one, and…

Crap…

Why is it every time I mention the words ‘plot bunny’ I end up with a new one?

*Sigh*

Better go jot that little sucker down before it escapes me or gets lost in the maze up there…

Nightmare Week

It’s been a rough week. And it’s only Tuesday.

Ugh.

Sunday presented problems to me and yesterday…

Yesterday was just a nightmare. I’m ready to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of the week it was that bad.

I’m stressed beyond belief right now.

Already I’ve fallen behind on the 1k-A-Day Challenge. I only managed to write on the 1st and just barely did 1k. The past two have been so bad that I haven’t had the focus or the want to get anything done. I still don’t have much motivation since what happened yesterday is still bothering me.

I’m hoping like hell today goes easier or I don’t want to think about how my emotions are going to dictate my actions by the end of the day.

However, I’m trying to just get myself in a rather…numb mindset that I can get things done like I’d be on autopilot. Seems like the only way I’m going to get myself out of this. I work a long shift today though so I won’t be able to start anything until after I get home tonight.

My plan is to work on notes after I get home from work, not caring how late I end up being up. Then I’m off for two days to be able to get some other stuff done.

There’s a lot… Like a lot, a lot I need to get done in those two measly days off.

Two weeks worth of blog hopping for Sunday Snippets (though I did start on Sunday night), catching up to par on the 1k-A-Day, getting the notes drawn up and planning ahead in Darkness Becomes Her, finishing notes for a journal entry, writing about three journal entries…

You see what I mean?

Why is almost everything I have to do evolve around writing??

Oh…

Right…

Because I’m a writer.

Although that doesn’t exclude the cleaning I’ve neglected to do over Camp NaNo.

Whoops.