Monthly Wrap-Up: Janurary 2018

Sooo, I attempted to do these monthly wrap-ups last year and…completely failed. So let’s try this again!

Writing:

This month my main focus was working on my YA Fantasy, The Forgotten Name. I started by doing a toooon of new worldbuilding and outlining because this novel has gone through so many changes since the first draft and the world had not grown like it needed to with it. That took me like…two weeks to do? I read through my 3rd draft and made notes and I did all kinds of new outlining and figured out what needed to be done in my next draft. And then I started draft 4! I’m only about 6 chapters into the draft but I’m really happy with how it’s coming so far and hope to finish it in February.

Snippets of my writing from this month:

Books read this month:

My favorite read this month had to be This Adventure Ends it’s the perfect, cute, fun contemporary and I love it to pieces.

Least favorite was probably, The Upside Of Unrequited which I found so disappointing. It wasn’t even half as good as Simon Vs. and made me wonder if I’d gotten wrapped up in the hype back when I first read Simon when it came out, which actually lead to me rereading Simon Vs. I’m happy to say, rereading it just made me remember why I loved it and made me even more excited for the movie. Still, would not recommend The Upside of Unrequited, I still love the author but Simon Vs. is a much better book then the authors second novel. Likewise, The Wise Man’s Fear was kind of disappointing to me. I was so in love with The Name of The Wind and I loved the beginning of the sequel but I just felt like NOTHING happened in the entire 1,000 pages of that book. I’m still in awe of Patrick Rothfuss’s writing but it just didn’t live up to Name of The Wind.

Life:

This month was fairly chill. I had some bad anxiety towards the end of the month that wasn’t fun but beyond that, nothing much exciting happened. I saw The Last Jedi for the second time and almost got locked in the theater, so that was fun. And I also saw The Greatest Showman and I am so, so in love with that movie! And I got really into Brooklyn Nine-Nine randomly and binged the entire show with my brother… Oh, and my favorite coffee stand opened a new location so I don’t have to drive forty minutes to it anymore! That’s very exciting for me. XD

What I listened to this month:

I listened to the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman most of this month, so that needs an honorable mention. My favorite tracks are probably… Rewrite The Stars and The Other Side. And also a lot of Sam Smith and Imagine Dragons. A few songs I’ve had on repeat recently include Dangerous Night by Thirty Seconds to Mars and The Middle by Zedd.

I also found out that All Time Low is coming here in April (three days before my birthday) and playing this awesome tiny venue downtown so of course I had to buy tickets to that and I’m already soooo excited!

okay, enough rambling. How was your January? Get any writing done? I hope everyone’s 2018 is off to a good start!

You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram!

End of The Year Post 2017

I was considering skipping the obligatory end of the year post but I just couldn’t so here we are, attempting to do a cliff notes version!

2017 flew by. It was mostly a good year for me. I got a lot of writing done, I feel like I grew as a person and, most importantly, as a writer. I had some fun. I met a lot of my goals which is always nice. So let’s see some of my favorites shall we???

Top 3 Books read:

1. The Name of The Wind — I finally read this and I loved every minute of it.
2. A Gathering of Shadows – My favorite in the trilogy *heart eyes*
3. Strange The Dreamer – I have no words

Top 3 Movies Seen:

1. Star Wars The Last Jedi — I mean…obviously? Poe Dameron is the love of my life and Kylo Ren is a close second.
2. Wonder Woman – because duh. Gal Gadot = Life
3. Thor Ragnorak – I just loved this, okay?

Top 3 Life Events:

1. L.A. trip. – In July, my brothers and mom and I went to L.A. where we went to D23 and honestly, it was one of my favorite trips ever. We had so much fun. We saw so much cool stuff, including the Last Jedi cast and most the MCU actors and it was just amazing.
2. Turned 21 – that’s a big event, right? I didn’t really do much to celebrate but it was a fun milestone nonetheless. I’m tying in seeing Evanescence earlier this month with this one as it was the first concert where I could drink and I only had one drink but that was cool okay? And Amy Lee is the best live.
3. Went to my first writer’s conference – this was a big deal for me because it’s so far outside my comfort zone. It was just a small conference but I feel like I learned a lot and it was a lot of fun.

Writing things:

So obviously my life revolves around writing so I have to have a writing wrap up for the year. Let’s do this showing highlights in bullet points.

• Revised and queried Ren & Farrah
• Went to a writer’s conference and pitched my book/got to talk to a real agent
• Wrote the first draft of my MG fantasy, Land of Stars
• Finished the first draft of my MG horror, Carnival of Death
• Revised my MG fantasy, Inventions, Dragons, and Hot Air Balloons
• Did multiple drafts of my YA fantasy The Forgotten Name, including completely rewriting the original draft, changing the premise and main character.
• Did NaNoWriMo and finish the month with 99k!
• Wrote the first draft of what I consider to be my biggest project ever, Pocket Magician

It’s sometimes hard to look back and pinpoint how you changed and grew as a writer throughout the year, you often — at least for me — don’t see how you’ve changed when you’re looking for it, if that makes sense? I just one day notice how much I’ve grown and learned and changed and evolved.  Having said that, I’m super proud of myself for going to a writing conference, that was scary for me and something I honestly thought I’d probably never do and I’m really looking forward to attempting to go to an even bigger one this coming year. I think I learned even more how to plot a good novel and how to create a giant world. I feel like most of what I learned this year came when I completely rewrote Forgotten Name from the ground up and allowed it to be something I never imagined it could be when I first got the idea and then just jumping in head first to my high fantasy Pocket Magician. Both those things taught me a lot and just revamped my love and excitement for writing.

I have a whole list of goals for 2018. It’s not a large list really but it all boils down to just continuing to write and challenge myself. To continue to work on Forgotten Name until it’s ready to be queried and outline its sequels. To eventually do a second draft of Pocket Magician and outline another fantasy I have planned and eventually get back to my MG. But my most basic goals are always to just write. Edit. Share my work. And do my best to continue to grow as a writer.

So yeah. How was your 2017? Favorite book? Movie? Did you meet your goals? Do you have any goals for 2018? 

NaNoWriMo 2017 Wrap Up + Snippets!

NaNoWriMo 2017 is officially over! Ah! Last month was honestly such a blur, I can’t even. I went into the month planning on taking things slowly and being happy to just hit 50k. I ended the month finishing my novel…at 99k. Oops. Not really sure how that happened!

I had a really fun NaNo altogether, though. I had more people than ever cheering me on and the best community around me which was just so nice and lovely. I fell progressively more in love with my project and I still have so much love for it now that the first draft is complete. Yes, it needs work, a lot of it, but I already have a decent idea of what I want to do with it and I’m still so excited about the possibilities for this project.

I actually feel like for the first time I balanced writing and life very well this NaNoWriMo, despite getting so much writing done there were days I didn’t write at all in order to do real life things, so that was nice.

I just can’t stress enough how much I love my project, which is a nice feeling. It just has everything I love, angsty boys in love, dangerous girls who don’t give a fuck, and dangerous girls with giant hearts, magic, a murder mystery, more magic, a giant world and I’m just so thrilled with how it came out and I can already see how amazing it could be three or four drafts from now.

I could ramble forever but instead, I’ll just share a few snippets of my NaNo project, Pocket Magician.

And thus, NaNoWriMo ends. =(

I plan on spending this month working on developing and outlining the next draft of my main project, The Forgotten Name, to write the third draft in the new year, so I’m excited for that! And yeah. I’ll try to be good and post again soon. 😉

How was your NaNo? What do you love most about your current project?

Early NaNoWriMo Prep and Writing Updates!

After struggling for most of the first half of the year I’ve hit a stride and refilled my writing wells and that’s the best feelings ever, first of all. Having said that though, I HAVE been terrible at posting here, like all year, which was a total accident, I’m going to try to be better from now on.

 

Please enjoy some snippets from my YA WIP “The Forgotten Name”

 

So recently, I was revising my NaNo novel from last November, Inventions, Dragons, and Hot Air Balloons, uh, that went…okay. I technically now have a second draft but it’s still a mess and halfway through I thought of what feels like a million other things that need to change and that was frustrating. I decided after struggling through that, I needed a change. So I revised my YA WIP, The Forgotten Name.

I revamped the whole thing. I deleted my main character and replaced him with a completely new character. I made the world and the plot better and more action-packed. And then the day before starting revisions, when I was all ready to start getting to work, I decided to change a huge core part of my story which was a slight nightmare BUT in 12 days (which is just one day longer than it took me to write the first draft and I think that’s cool) I wrote my second draft and it is so much better than the first and I am so in love with it and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you it’s the best feeling in the world to still be completely in love with a book after going through a major edit.

It still needs work, I’m planning another draft to streamline my plot and my world, and some characters need some work – I’m hoping to do that in October and then send to a few trusted betas to get some feedback. But I’m happy with how it’s coming and taking a break from MG for a bit has proved a great idea for me. I needed a change of scenery for a bit.

 

Now, I’m currently prepping early for NaNo. I usually start NaNo prep halfway through October? Maybe even later? I decided to start early this year for two reasons: 1. being that I want to have my outline done early so I can have some time away from it before writing to hopefully maybe catch plot holes and places where things aren’t quite right. 2. Because I want to revise Forgotten Name before NaNo but I needed a break from it first. And also, I guess 3. That this is the biggest project I’ve attempted and it’s kind of scary, especially doing it for NaNo, so I want plenty of time for outlining and developing.

I talked a tad about this novel in the last Beautiful People I did, since then I’ve successfully named my main character and given him a 5k outline/background! (It took a long time to name him, okay? I need to brag)

I got this idea kind of randomly when my brother came home late one night. So it was super late, I was sleep deprived, and he comes in all freaked out because he had a demon encounter (sounds fairly legit but I’m sadly a skeptic in general?) and this novel, surprisingly isn’t about demons though there isn’t a demon in it, but this idea just popped in my head as I’m talking to him and I didn’t sleep most that night as it insisted on keeping me wide awake. So it started with two words: pocket magician. Everyone seems to hear that and think he’s a pocket-sized magician so yeah I might have to work on that title but my mc, Ry, is a magician with pocket-sized magic — think a street magician — and I’m so stoked to work on this idea!

Think Six of Crows meets Demon King by Cinda WIlliams Chima? Two of my fave series ever. I hope I can somewhat live up to the comparison I just made!

So yeah. I just finished my outlines and backstories of my main cast of characters. Next, I’m world building and then I can finally finish piecing my plot together and get it in some sort of shape. I’ve been developing this story in my mind for over two months now and even though it’s a little overwhelming to outline because there’s so much to do, I’m loving it.

It’s a good feeling to be excited about what you’re working on, you should be excited. If you aren’t maybe you need a little change too!

Enough rambling. I’ll share more details of this NaNo novel soon enough, I’m even planning a post explaining how I went about tackling outlining my biggest project yet if you’re interested!

Are YOU doing NaNoWriMo in November? Have you started planning? Do you know what you’re going to write? Also, what are you currently working on? Have you seen the new IT??? I saw it right after it came out and I LOVED it.

Deathly Snippets!

I have FINALLY finished the first draft of my MG Horror, The Carnival Of Death!!! You may remember, I talked about this book last October when I first started writing it. Then I put it aside to focus on NaNoWriMo then I…never finished it. UNTIL NOW!

So yes. I finally finished the first draft, I’m actually calling it draft 1.5 because a lot changed from the first draft which was about half complete. I rewrote all that and then finally wrote the second half. And I’m pretty happy with it? I mean, it needs work of course, but it’s pretty good. Like the plot and characters are good and there, it just needs some fine tuning and then beta input of course.  But I’m happy with how it turned out!

If you don’t remember, this is my description of Carnival of Death:

When 12-year-old cousins, Leo and Adrian move to a new city, the last thing they expect is to find themselves outside the middle school on Halloween night, preparing to enter a ghostly carnival. But Leo’s never been one to turn down a challenge and she’s determined to stay the whole night in the carnival that only appears for one night a year. A feat that’s never been done before. Dragging Adrian with her is a must, not to mention Felix, the strange boy who’s obsessed with death. Together, Leo’s sure they can outsmart and outrun the carnies and make it until morning. The demon, however, they weren’t expecting.

And have some snippets:

Kinda proud of that first one… XD

I think I’ve posted this last one before back in October though it changed slightly. I just love this scene, okay? The Crypt Keeper carny, also known as The Dancing Girl, is my fave character!

Do let me know what you think of the snippets in the comments and I hope you’re having a lovely day! ❤

Writing My Worst First Draft Yet

First things first: First drafts? Suck. Always. They’re terrible. They’re meant to be terrible and always are.

BUT I feel like, you know, the more you write, the longer you spend doing this and figuring out things — like how to write an actual plot and character arc and all these things. You assume, your first drafts are progressively getting better. They still suck and will need lots of work but they’re decent. Right?

Well, I just wrote my what 14th book? Something like that. And it is by far the WORST first draft I’ve ever written. Which is saying something because of that book OF WHICH WE DO NOT SPEAK that I wrote my first time doing NaNoWriMo. So yeah. Impressively bad. I know this is my worst first draft without even reading through it. It’s one reason I had a hard time really getting into this novel despite how in love with it I am. Nevertheless, I persisted and finished. Because first drafts are supposed to SUCK even if this is the worst first draft on the face of the planet, I will never write a good draft of this book which I love if I don’t finish this TERRIBLE MISERABLE PIECE OF GARBAGE first draft.

What did I learn writing the worst first draft in the world?

THAT IT’S OKAY THAT IT IS THE WORST FIRST DRAFT IN THE WORLD. To stop overthinking and just WRITE.

It was freeing, honestly, knowing it sucked a ton. Now, tt took a lot to get to the part where it was freeing. I struggled a lot with this novel this despite loving it so much.

For one, I ended up scrapping most of the first 20k of my first draft the second week of Camp last month. I realized I needed to move a big plot point up which literally changed EVERYTHING but for the better. And then it just, the beginning was not flowing at all and my plot is all over the place. I couldn’t get into this book and slip into my characters minds as easily. And that really bugged me and made it hard to write more than a little every day. So like, on top of it being the worst first draft ever, I wouldn’t say it’s the hardest first draft I’ve ever written… But actually, I think it is.

There’s this quote I read once, I don’t remember who said it or where I saw it but I really take it to heart and it’s that the first draft if the writer telling herself the story. A first draft is similar to an outline in that it’s supposed to help you get to know the story you’re telling. By writing this crappy first draft I better realized what this book needs and I’ll put all that into a second draft.

So I agonized over this for a while. Because the words weren’t flowing. I was writing really slow compared to my normal pace. And it was starting to get to me, to be honest. But then, Camp ended and I was still working on this and I suddenly realized I just NEED TO WRITE. It’s gonna suck either way but the only way to move on was to JUST WRITE.

Leigh Bardugo has this blog post where she talks about writing a “zero draft” which I had saved from forever ago and I kind of took inspiration from that and just wrote. It didn’t matter if it was good (because it’s not) or if it’s all going to be changed in the next draft (it probably will) all that mattered was finishing it.

Which I FINALLY did Tuesday night after marathon writing the whole final third. And honestly, that last third? It’s probably the best part of the book, the only part written decently though it’s missing a lot that will be added in the next draft. So, by writing through to that, I figured out what needs to be changed and reworked and fixed in the next draft and I wrote all that in my little “revisions” folder and stuffed it away for future me. And, while this draft was a terror to write, I think it’s good that it was done this way, I think it will make for an even stronger second draft. And, yeah, mostly I’m just relieved that it’s DONE.

In conclusion, I wrote my worst first draft ever and I think it was good for me. I’m actually going to start by writing an entire “zero draft” for my next book. Even with all my experience I still get caught up in first drafts sometimes but it’s really important to remember that it’s okay if they suck, the point is to get them written not for them to be pretty or perfect. It was when I stopped thinking and worrying that I finally was able to finish this draft and start loving this book again.

I’m gonna stop rambling now.

What are you working on? How much do you love/hate first drafts???

Updates, Updates everywhere

This probably should’ve been this month’s “On Repeat” but let’s be honest, I’m failing at posting at the moment. Things are HECTIC and I’m failing at balancing everything but hey, I’m not letting it stress me out so that’s a plus! I just thought I’d do my April updates real fast and then hopefully find time this month to actually post!

So what happened in April?

 

So MUCH.

 

Personal:

• I turned 21!!! That was fun. I didn’t do anything crazy just hung out with my family, went and had my first drink and played some poker with my mom. Tried slot machines. Did okay, then lost my money. Decided I don’t like gambling because it’s fun while you’re winning but then you lose ALL YOUR MONEY. I could’ve spent that $20 on books!
• Then I cut off most my hair and got a piercing. Exciting! Despite having three tattoos I’ve never had any kind of piercing so obviously I went and had three holes put in my right ear.

Writing:

• The big thing last month was that I went to my first writing conference! It was small, just here in Reno, but so awesome! I’m so proud of myself for going because I am not good in any social situation but it was fun. I learned some and I definetely want to check out a bigger conference when I have the chance. All around a good experience. I have a post written about it and sharing some tips I learned which I PROMISE I will post soon.
• Going along with that. I was supposed to have a ten-minute pitch session at the conference but the agent got stuck in California BUT she was super nice and offered everyone she was supposed to meet with a ten-minute phone call. That was nerve wracking but she was sooo nice. I learned some things. I got to actually pitch my book for the first time. And yeah, so that was awesome. Also helped me to really see how agents aren’t actually mythical beasts, they’re people too!
• And then we have Camp NaNoWriMo. So, I won. Technically. I met my word count goal. Buuut. There were some…obstacles. First, the golden rule, you don’t edit as you go. BUT about 20k in I realized I had to completely reorganize my plot and some big things had to happen in the beginning that I couldn’t do without restarting. So I restarted. AND THEN, I decided to line edit my main project (Ren & Farrah), one last time before sending queries so I paused NaNo to do that. Meaning, I am still working on my NaNo novel. I won because of rewriting my beginning and therefore meeting my goal but I have like half the book to go still! I have a post I’m making about this so look at for that.

So yeah. I think that’s pretty much it. This month I’m going to be focusing on finishing my NaNo draft and then, at some point, I’m going to settle in for rewriting my November NaNo novel – fun! And yeah, I will try to be better at posting this month!

Btw, as you can tell, I’ve been trying to use Instagram more recently, if you want to follow me it’s @TheStoryGoes_ which is my username on most sites. Links to my socials: Insta / Twitter / Pinterest / Tumblr (writing one)

SO. How was your April? Did you do Camp? How’d it go??? Do anything exciting? Go anywhere exciting? Do share below. XD

On Repeat March 2017/Monthly Wrap Up

Oops. I was supposed to start doing this every month but I missed February’s. XD

Sooo this month I’ve mostly been working on putting the finishing touches on Ren & Farrah and then outlining for Camp NaNo where I’ll be writing an MG fantasy called The Land of Stars. I’ve been listening to a lot of Ed Sheeran and Chainsmokers along with my normal Ren & Farrah playlist.

Let’s see, what else happened this month? I dyed my hair bright pink. I saw Beauty and The Beast ❤ And yeah. Lots of writing. I was sick for bit. I feel like I’m forgetting something but I don’t know what! OH I’ve been reading Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I read books 1 and 2 and am currently procrastinating finishing 3 because I DON’T WANT IT TO END! I’m OBSESSED.

Here are some of the songs I listened to most:

How is it April already!?!?!? Where has this year gone???

April is one of my favorite months. I’ll be turning 21 on the 23rd. I have plans with my brother to go drinking and do karaoke which I’m excited for. I’ll be doing Camp NaNo and focusing on a new novel! Annnd, oh on the 8th, I’m going to my first writer’s conference which I’m excited/nervous for!

How was your March? Any new obsessions? Any plans for April? Are you doing Camp? What will you be working on?

On Repeat: Janurary 2017

This will be my monthly wrap up from now on! I did this on my old blog and I thought why not do it here, now? Basically, I make a playlist of 10 or so songs I had on repeat all month and share them plus some highlights! Music is very important in my life, at least half my ideas have come from listening to music, and I’m always listening to something while writing and it just forms this connection in my mind. So yeah. Hope you like this!

I spent most of the month revising my novel Ren & Farrah again, so a lot of the songs I listened to were ones I have on my Ren & Farrah playlist a lot of songs from soundtracks and fantasy things and a ton of Lindsey Stirling and Owl City.

I also went through a rock phase inspired by a fic I was working on, a lot of Adalitas Way and Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin and Halestorm. I realized I missed Young Guns newest album coming out and listened to that a TON.

At the beginning of the month I was lost as to what to work on a listened to a lot of more depressing songs (am I the only one that does that when I’m like having writer’s block???).

So yeah, that’s my month in music. I finished another round of Ren & Farrah revisions and I’m super pumped and happy with where that’s at! I’m taking a short break from that and plan on reading through a few of my other projects to kind of see where I’m at. I’m going to try to be better at blogging this month, I want to do more advice posts, more Coffee and A Chat things and general updates. I’m trying to come up with a cool feature where I spill a bit about what I’m working on but I haven’t decided on that yet and I don’t know, I might add the occasional book review or something? If there’s anything you’d be interested in me posting about please let me know in the comments!

I know this month has been kind of crappy when it comes to a lot of things but I hope you had a lovely month regardless and have an even better February! ❤