Snippet Sunday: November 29, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

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.

In honor of me taking a dive off the deep end into more insanity for the month with NaNoWriMo, I am continuing my snippets from the fantasy novel I am working on for NaNo, Darkness Becomes Her. Though I have had a total author crisis and am realizing that title works so much better with a book down the line in the series. So guess what? That title is probably changing soon. To what though, I have not a clue yet. Let’s just say my snippets will be from Book 1 of the Dark Heir Chronicles now. (If I ever figure out that new title, I will change this, but we all know how titles go…)

Previously on Sunday Snippets: Four year old Heather was being dragged, bound and gagged, through the manor home of her kidnapper’s in a magic filled realm towards the fate that is to befall her now at the hands of he woman clad in black. Now she is been taken down to the lowest level of the manor, the dungeons, and into a rather terrifying workroom, where she was thrown in a cell.

Skipping ahead just a tiny bit from last week’s snippet, moving past Heather’s desperate pleading to be let go, and now getting to the revealing parts. Heather speaks first. (Some sentences may have been creatively punctuated to try to fit the ten sentence limit. I’ll admit, way over this week again, but I haven’t been over in a couple weeks and it was too good to cut off.)

—-

“W-What do y-you w-want with m-me?” she asked in a shaking voice.

The woman stopped what she was doing and turned back towards the cell. She swept back over to the bars, her cloak fluttering out behind her as she walked. Heather shrank back against the wall as she stopped at the bars, whimpering like a scared pup in a thunderstorm. The woman reached up and flipped her hood down finally, revealing her features: dark, forest green eyes that flashed wickedly pierced Heather’s hazel gaze, and straight, jet black hair that came past her shoulders fanned around her. Her features were sharp and angled, almost chiseled, and dark red lips were pulled back in a terrifying, satisfied grin as she looked smugly down at the cowering child.

“You wish to know what it is I want of you?” she repeated. Heather nodded tentatively, looking up at the woman in fear as she curled up on herself.

The woman grinned. “It’s quite simple. I want a Heir, and you, dear, fit my requirements. Unlike the rest of those failures I trained, you have what I know they did not.”

Heather’s eyes widened. There…There had been others before her? In this very same position? What…What had happened to them?

“W-What others?” she asked quietly, tentatively.

“Twelve others. All failures when it came down to it. Some of them started out rather well, but then fell to their own vices.” She sounded disgusted by that fact, and not at all pleased. Her tone had taken on a dark edge, an angry one. “Others merely would never have what it would take to be my Heir. They were worthless when it came down to it.”

“B-But if you h-have them, w-why need m-me?”

The woman scowled for a moment down at her, before a gleeful, twisted expression lit up her features. She knelt down so she was level with Heather, her nose wrinkling up at the smell around her yet. Disgusting, pathetic mortal. She would have to do something about that before she began; but the fact that the child, as scared as she was, was asking questions was the sign she wanted. There was a curiosity in the girl, a curiosity that could be manipulated into a liking for something she didn’t want. It would only take one trip, one shove over the edge, and she would have her hooked and molding just how she wished.

“Simple. They failed my requirements, so I had to dispose of them. They are all dead,” she answered with a sweetly sick voice, like she had enjoyed their deaths.

—-

This story is not yet on Wattpad because it is my baby that I hope to publish one day, and if no one will publish me, I am self publishing. But it’s also not on Wattpad because it’s in first draft phases yet. So there will be no “if you wish to read more…” And I do technically have a cover made but since my little crisis in changing the title…that’s going to change now, too.

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to my profile on Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. 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!

Snippet Sunday: November 22, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

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.

In honor of me taking a dive off the deep end into more insanity for the month with NaNoWriMo, I am continuing my snippets from the fantasy novel I am working on for NaNo, Darkness Becomes Her. Though I have had a total author crisis and am realizing that title works so much better with a book down the line in the series. So guess what? That title is probably changing soon. To what though, I have not a clue yet. Let’s just say my snippets will be from Book 1 of the Dark Heir Chronicles now. (If I ever figure out that new title, I will change this, but we all know how titles go…)

Previously on Sunday Snippets: Four year old Heather was being dragged, bound and gagged, through the manor home of her kidnapper’s in a magic filled realm towards the fate that is to befall her now at the hands of he woman clad in black. Now she is been taken down to the lowest level of the manor, the dungeons, and into a rather terrifying workroom, where she was thrown in a cell.

Picking up right where I left off from last week’s snippet. (Some sentences may have been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit.)

—-

She screamed against the gag again, blubbering and sobbing uncontrollably in her terror, so terrified now that she could feel a warm liquid seep down her leg, indicating that she had soiled herself.

The woman didn’t even pause as she shoved the door open further and hauled Heather inside, dumping her in front of the chains hanging from the wall. She sneered in disgust when she smelt the putrid scent of the urine and pulled out a small knife from inside her cloak, bending down to her and making Heather scream at the sight of it again. Instead of using it on her, she roughly turned her around and cut through the rope binding her hands together before she yanked each arm to the chains and clasped them around her wrists. The cold metal bit into her stinging wrists from the rope burn of too tight binds, and they clattered loudly against the stone, the sound piercing through her.

Once she was chained up, the woman stood back up and swept out of the cell, banging the door closed behind her and locking it — not that she really needed to lock it, the child wasn’t going anywhere. Heather continued to weep as she watched the woman walk away around the table and towards the cupboards. Her shaking was making the chains rattle and since they gave her enough movement to move her arms a little bit, she pulled her knees up tight to her chest and wrapped her little arms around them, pulling the nightgown over them to try to keep warm in the damp, cold cell.

When she finally realized she could move her arms around, she reached up and pulled the gag off her mouth with shaking hands, letting it fall around her neck, the wet material cold against her skin. She looked up to the woman as she watched her open one of the glass paned cupboards and take out a vial with something black swirling within it.

—-

This story is not yet on Wattpad because it is my baby that I hope to publish one day, and if no one will publish me, I am self publishing. But it’s also not on Wattpad because it’s in first draft phases yet. So there will be no “if you wish to read more…” And I do technically have a cover made but since my little crisis in changing the title…that’s going to change now, too.

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to my profile on Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. 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!

Snippet Sunday: November 15, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

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.

In honor of me taking a dive off the deep end into more insanity for the month with NaNoWriMo, I am continuing my snippets from the fantasy novel I am working on for NaNo, Darkness Becomes Her. Though I have had a total author crisis and am realizing that title works so much better with a book down the line in the series. So guess what? That title is probably changing soon. To what though, I have not a clue yet. Let’s just say my snippets will be from Book 1 of the Dark Heir Chronicles now. (If I ever figure out that new title, I will change this, but we all know how titles go…)

Previously on Sunday Snippets: Four year old Heather was being dragged, bound and gagged, through the manor home of her kidnapper’s in a magic filled realm towards the fate that is to befall her now at the hands of he woman clad in black. Now she is been taken down to the lowest level of the manor, the dungeons.

Skipping ahead a couple paragraphs from last week’s snippet, they have now reached the door at the end of the hall and gone inside. (Some sentences may have been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit.)

—-

Once inside, the woman lit another fireball in her hand from what seemed like thin air to Heather and she tossed it around the edges of the room, lighting fire torches spread sporadically around on the walls. With the room now lit up enough to see, Heather’s eyes widened in terror at the scene before her.

In the middle of the room was a table with restraints attached to it, the wood dark and even darker in some places like blood had stained and soaked into it. Lining the walls to her right were a series of cupboards and drawers like one might find in a kitchen — some of them had open doors on them and she could see a wide variety of things inside that she couldn’t even place: jars, pouches, sharp instruments, and much more filled them.

Hanging to the side of one cupboard was a collection of small knives and daggers, along with various other odd looking tools, all of which were wicked looking. To one wall was what looked like a desk, journals and papers stacked neatly upon it.

If those things weren’t enough to make her heart pound and her body tremble, what was on the left side of the room was. The whole side of the room was a cell, like a holding cell — the iron bars were black and foreboding, stretching across the width of the room completely. On the wall inside it was a set of chains attached to the stone and hanging down. The barred door to the cell was left open, and that was where the woman was dragging Heather to.

—-

This story is not yet on Wattpad because it is my baby that I hope to publish one day, and if no one will publish me, I am self publishing. But it’s also not on Wattpad because it’s in first draft phases yet. So there will be no “if you wish to read more…” And I do technically have a cover made but since my little crisis in changing the title…that’s going to change now, too.

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to my profile on Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. 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!

Snippet Sunday: November 8, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

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.

In honor of me taking a dive off the deep end into more insanity for the next month with NaNoWriMo, I am continuing my snippets from the fantasy novel I am working on for NaNo, Darkness Becomes Her. Though I have had a total author crisis and am realizing that title works so much better with a book down the line in the series. So guess what? That title is probably changing soon. To what though, I have not a clue yet. Let’s just say my snippets will be from Book 1 of the Dark Heir Chronicles now. (If I ever figure out that new title, I will change this, but we all know how titles go…)

Previously on Sunday Snippets: Four year old Heather was being dragged, bound and gagged, through the manor home of her kidnapper’s in a magic filled realm towards the fate that is to befall her now at the hands of he woman clad in black.

Picking up right where I left off from last week’s snippet. (Some sentences may have been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit.)

—-

The woman reached down and grabbed Heather roughly by her arms once more and she cried out in panic again, scared to death what was to come. The woman held her palm out in front of her like she was offering something to someone and suddenly, a glowing orange fireball lit in her hand. Heather’s eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of the flame in her hand. It didn’t even touch her skin, it just hovered in her palm, crackling and flickering like a real flame.

With a toss of her hand, the fireball launched from the woman’s palm to a crevice cut out along the stone wall leading down the stairwell. As soon as it hit, the crevice caught fire and a tail of flames traveled all the way down the staircase, remaining lit the whole way as if someone had lit a match to a trail of gasoline.

The firelight flickered along the walls, creating eerie shadows as the woman dragged Heather down the stone stairs — the farther down they went, the colder the air got, and the more damp and musty it became as well. Finally, they reached the bottom of the stairs and she saw another long, dark hallway. The second they touched the hallway floor, torches at precise intervals along the way lit one by one with a pop and crackle. Each torch was next to a doorway, all of which were closed, heavy wooden doors. There had to be at least a dozen doors lining the hall, along with one door at the very end of the hallway facing them directly.

—-

This story is not yet on Wattpad because it is my baby that I hope to publish one day, and if no one will publish me, I am self publishing. But it’s also not on Wattpad because it’s in first draft phases yet. So there will be no “if you wish to read more…” And I do technically have a cover made but since my little crisis in changing the title…that’s going to change now, too.

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to my profile on Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. 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!

Snippet Sunday: November 1, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

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.

Welcome to November, everyone! My favorite day of the year — and month — has sadly come and gone. Now it’s on to complete madness through…January I’d say. The holiday season in retail, the holidays itself, plus inventory at the start of 2016 is not going to be kind to me. And I’m the doo-doo bird that just signed up for NaNoWriMo on top of that! I’m crazy, right?

Well, in honor of me taking a dive off the deep end into more insanity for the next month, I am switching my snippets back to the fantasy novel I am continuing to work on for NaNo, Darkness Becomes Her. Though I have just had a total author crisis and am realizing that title works so much better with a book down the line in the series. So guess what? That title is probably changing soon. To what though, I have not a clue yet. Let’s just say my snippets will be from Book 1 of the Dark Heir Chronicles now.

The last time I left a snippet from this baby of mine was back in June, the 28th to be precise. (Yes, I looked, mainly because I want to know where I should pick up from.) I left off ending with Chapter 1 months ago, now I am going to start with a few pages in on Chapter 2.

Previously on these snippets: My protagonist, Heather, a young four year old child was kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night by a woman clad in black. Whisked away from her home into another realm full of magic, she is now bound and being dragged through the dark halls of this woman’s manor towards the fate that is about to befall her.

If you wish to remember any of these snippets, I started the sharing of this story on this date here. And now, starting up with Chapter 2. (Some sentences may have been creatively punctuated to try to fit the ten sentence limit. I’m way over this week, I’ll admit that. I’ll try to be better next week.)

—-

The woman didn’t even pause for a second as she started to drag Heather down the hall the led further back into the manor. The hall steadily got darker, with more rooms branching off to the side, all with closed doors now. They rounded a corner before coming upon another stairwell that led down; this one was ominous, completely stone and somewhat damp smelling, walls on either side of it making it claustrophobic, torches lit the entrance of it on either side of the wall, and the air in front of stairs seemed to shimmer and flicker.

She stopped in front of it, dropping Heather to the ground in a heap where she continued to cry, too scared now to even think of running. The woman waved her hand in front of the stairwell and the with a soft crackle, the shimmering air suddenly dropped away like a waterfall and a cold rush of air greeted them from the stairs below.

Heather shivered and whimpered, glancing up fearfully at the entrance to the stairwell, it reminded her of all the bad guys in Disney movies that had a dungeon where they locked up the heroes.

But a sound soon caught her attention instead.

From behind them came a low, menacing growl and sharp nails clicked against the stone floor, coming closer. A moment later, two blood-red eyes appeared out of the darkened hallway as a beast rounded the corner and stepped into the torchlight.

Heather screamed against the gag as the huge wolf-like creature came into sight, her eyes as wide as saucers. The wolfhound snapped its jaws near Heather’s face, saliva dripping off its sharp teeth, and hackles raised. She screamed again, shaking violently and the woman merely chuckled.

“Cruor, stand down.”

The wolfhound obediently sat back on its haunches, its vicious eyes still locked on the terrified child though. It was bigger than her, much bigger than her, probably about the size of a young foal. A low snarl was emanating from its throat yet, a sound that made her cringe and want to scramble away.

Tears streaked down her face, soaking into the cloth over her mouth; her eyes were red and puffy, her face pale, and her entire body shaking in terror.

—-

This story is not yet on Wattpad because it is my baby that I hope to publish one day, and if no one will publish me, I am self publishing. But it’s also not on Wattpad because it’s in first draft phases yet. So there will be no “if you wish to read more…” And I do technically have a cover made but since my little crisis in changing the title…that’s going to change now, too.

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. 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!

Plotting, Editing, and A…Seductress?

I am not sure what happened to me the past three days.

I had three days off again, surprisingly. Unlike last week when I had this time off, I haven’t really gotten anything done.

Granted, I did catch up on Sunday Snippets so I’m all set there. And I did get organized once more. And…

Crap, I think that is all I’ve done.

Well, I did do a bit of writing. Part of it was me just plotting and playing out scenes in my head that may or may not end up being parts to Darkness Becomes Her. If they are used, it won’t be till some of the very last books which is wayyyy down the line here.

Let’s just say I’ve got multiple directions that I want to take to get there. At least three awesome plots that I want to use but kind of…clash with each other in a small way. I need to find a way to work them out together.

That’s for later though.

In other news, I’ve started to plan out my editing for Rivers of Black.

I’ve got the story printed and I’ve got a rough idea of how I want to go about this, but I need a little more organization before I tackle it. I had meant to write a journal entry to myself two days ago or so to sort out my thoughts on this, but didn’t get around to it.

Instead, I ended up writing said entry on plotting out wannabe scenes for Darkness Becomes Her. When I say wannabe scenes, they are more like flashes of the scene, the important things.

To put even more on my plate, someone (*Cough cough* P.T. *Cough*) shared a picture to Facebook that spawned an unwanted plot bunny last night. Well, said picture that looked like some sort of elaborate torture room, plus me listening to the song Dance With The Devil by Breaking Benjamin, is what really spawned the plot bunny out of control.

(For those that don’t know the song…)

And, actually, spawned is a rather appropriate word for what happened. That picture put the image of a rather shapely woman in a red dress in the room. Which then turned into her being a seductress once the song came on, which then spiraled into that room being near non-existent and now I’m currently watching said woman dancing around with the Devil in Hell at some ball.

I have absolutely no idea where any of this came from, but boy did my brain run with it.

It’s not even what I should be working on. I should be writing Darkness Becomes Her, not this Seductress thing. Which, really, it’s not even something I normally write. I mean, sure, it’s got the fantasy element and the dark nature to it seeing as it’s set in Hell.

But a seductress?

No idea what dug that up in my mind.

It’s proving to be interesting though so I’m going to keep running away with it and see where it leads me. I get the feeling I might have another novel in the works on my hands now. That makes…four. (I’m counting the DH series as one novel, even though it’s going to be at least five I’m thinking.) Plus whatever else is still brewing upstairs that has yet to reveal itself to me.

Good grief.

I work the next five days in a row, too. Most of them being long hours so my days are about to be shot in getting anything done. Then I get one day off, then I’ll be gone for three days again.

For the next…week and a half about I’m going to be scrambling on time. I’m attempting to keep up with the 1k-A-Day Challenge once more, and so far I’m only a little over 1k behind. Which, depending what I do the rest of the day today, I might be able to get ahead a bit.

The next week and a half (maybe more depending what my work schedule is after I come back) is going to be a test of how determined I can be.

Guess I better head back to the plotting, organizing, writing, and editing board then, shouldn’t I?

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.

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!

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!