NaNoWriMo, Shakespeare, and All Else Inbetween

Life seems almost topsy-turvy to me right now.

I'm having such a hard time staying on top of things for school, that I've ended up neglecting a lot of things.

But, I really don't want to do that for long.

My current plan of action:

1. Go as far and as hard as I can on NaNoWriMo.

Work on one of my stories that I have had sitting around.

At least get a small rough draft started, if not the entire thing.

Oh, and self, don't worry too much about the details this time. . .

2. Journal more.

I have to do this anyways for my script writing class, but I've been severely neglecting it.

Journaling can and probably will be, random bits of poetry, funny quotes from kids and people, to even playing around with different scene ideas.

Well, I have to prepare myself for tonight now.

I'm going to see a version of Hamlet in theaters, with Benedict Cumberbatch in it!

I'm super excited, as he is a really good actor, and I've recently developed a love for Shakespeare.

All right, I think that's all for now.

May the dragon's fly high, and the journey short!

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,

SDG

Joy

Shadow Wings: An Update

So I discovered that it has been two whole years since I wrote my first novel.

It has sat on my laptop, stewing, and waiting for me to notice it again.

As you probably noticed, I remembered about it a week or so ago, and pulled it up again.

And.

I.

Cringed.

It didn't feel like a completed story to me.

It bothered me, and now. . .

Now I decided to add on to it.

If you think of stories in three acts, like a play, Shadow Wings felt like it had just reached the beginning of the third act.

So guess what I'm doing with the rest of my summer?

I'm finishing up my story of course.

And I'm changing the point of view. . .

Writing in first person was nice for learning to concentrate on one person, but there was much that I left out because of it.

This is a first draft, after all, so I'm not going to complain too much now. . .

But it will be killer when it comes to editing it later.

Oh well.

I'm at least going somewhere. :)

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,

SDG

Joy

Long time. . . Soon to be returned

So College took over my life for a while. . .

Even though I decided to go easier on the credits I'm taking, the classes I chose are. . .

Hard.

Systematic Theology.

Ethics.

Hermeneutics.

MATH.

Don't get me started on math.

BUT I HAVEN'T BEEN FORGETTING THE BLOG.

Or, eh-heh, not intentionally.

I will be back in May! 

I promise!

May is my 'almost done with Semester' month.

Only one week left one May hits. . .

Which brings me to my Summer blogging/writing:

/~/

I have decided to try my hand at writing a short story/novella.

On the Frog Prince story.

I didn't think much of it, and I have failed to start multiple times over the past few years.

Until I just wrote the way I usually verbally tell stories, and this mid-teen boy with a stupidity streak just went kur-plump right onto my page and I'm having so much fun with him!

So my goal with that story is to finish it over the summer, edit it, and hopefully do something with it.

/~/

For Blogging, I want to start writing articles on world building.

World building is my specialty.

I've spent many years of my life just creating story worlds, not necessarily stories.

In fact, it has come to the point where I'm scarred to start building the world for the story because I tend to end up not writing the story, but with a huge world instead that drowns out the story. . .

Enough with the long-ish sentences.

There's much to do.

Stories to live.

Math to conquer.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless

SDG

Joy

Update: I Do So Dare

So I crashed. . .

And burned.

And I didn't finish. 

BUT.

I wrote 7,471 that I wouldn't otherwise have written.

Written mostly over the first two weekends.

And little spurts here and there.

I wish ever so much that I could have done better, but when you have a 12 page paper to write for an Argumentation class, as well as analysis papers to write on C. S. Lewis' writings, and-

Okay.

I'm not going to complain about the reasons that I didn't write as much as I wanted to.

Either way.

I have over 18,000 words now on my Shadow Wings rewrite!

74 pages, five and a bit chapters out of the twelve chapters so far planned.

I'm super hyped.

Except I lost my outline while packing everything up for Christmas break. . .

So.

Ever heard of a Fifty Page Edit?

Yup.

That's my goal by Christmas. 

:)

Keep on Writing!

God Bless

SDG

Joy

Check this out!

Check this out!!!

https://craftingstoriesinred.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/character-interview-abigail-dimond/

Character Abigail has been interviewed by another blogger!!! 

I'm super excited, as you can see.

:)

On another note, school had been crazy, and I've only just recently gotten back to my writing.

One of the things that I've started is a 'beginnings' story for my Printhia world.

I'm starting it off similar to the Genesis account, because my brain is too dead to think of another way to try and write it.

I'll give more updates sometime soon!

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,

SDG

Joy

I Do So Dare

I don't know how I'll survive, but I'm doing it.

I'm doing National Novel Writing Month.

(If you're doing it too, feel free to friend me)

I also have a lot of projects due by the end of this month, so I'm not sure how I'll survive.

But I'm going to somehow.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,

SDG

Joy

Update from College

The last few weeks have been hectic and full.

Even so, I've been able to write close to five thousand words with following the 100 for 100 challenge hosted by the Go Teen Writers creators, Stephanie Morrill and Jill Williamson.

I'm almost done with chapter two and I'm sitting on 41 pages for my Shadow Wings rewrite.

~/\~

~\/~

I've joined a writers club on my college campus this semester.

I had been using our group Word Wars for the 100 for 100 challenge, but I might start using that time for my Creative Writing classwork.

For my Creative Writing class I've already worked with two others to create a short drama.

Next is a short story.

I'm not sure yet what it'll be about, but I'm leaning on taking a family tradition and putting it into a steampunk/fantasy setting.

I'm getting rather excited about the prospect.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless

SDG

Joy

Seasons

Just like there are four seasons in a year, there are seasons in a writer's life.

I'm currently in the college season, meaning that it's going to be nearly impossible for me to keep up with this blog.
My hope is to post from time to time, whether Wednesday Pinspirations or writing updates.

Either way, I most likely won't be posting much until around mid-December.

On another happier note, I'm working on rewriting Shadow Wings again.
I'm adding a new beginning with Abigail in it, and so far I've reverted to my age old 'telling' writing.
I hate it, but its the only way that I've found where I actually get the words on the page without throwing my laptop across the room in frustration. . .
I must admit though, Abigail sounds way more intelligent than a lot of my past characters, and I'm finding her to be a very interesting character.

Gypsy Gift is sitting for now, but that's only because I've suddenly become really inspired with Shadow Wings.
I have been slowly working on the Baumhation culture, and I think I have a better grasp on how to write from Darina's PoV.

On the note of college, I must admit that I'm excited about this semester!
I'm taking a creative writing class, and I'm currently working on a group project for creating an original drama.
I've never written a drama before, and I'm really excited about it.

That's all for now!

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,
SDG
Joy

Fireworks and Another Update

Happy Fourth of July!

This has been a very interesting Fourth, one that is full of. . . 

Slowness.

These past weeks have been busy.

I finally found a job.

A prologue and first chapter of my current Work In Progress was written and rewritten, critiqued, and another rewrite started.

I traveled down to Kansas and had a wonderful week at a writing workshop.

My sister and her husband came up and are currently visiting for a few days.

But everything seems to have happened slowly.

Maybe it's the long daylight hours of summer.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm getting older.

Who knows.

Anyways.

I do have a reason for writing up another blog post.

I have rewritten Shadow Wings' Synopsis.

I literally wrote it up about five minutes ago, and yes I'm too excited to keep it to myself.

It's not too long, which I'm happy about.

I really like how it sounds.

Then again I'm emotional and tired. 

Either way, here it is:

 Sometimes, in order to save today, you must unbury the past. Abigail Dimond, an ordinary historian, never thought that she'd have to become someone else in order to save today. Well, not literally, but the next closest thing. Through the use of a secret technology only recently revealed to the public, she now must work through the memories and feelings of a woman named Kallie Forbes and work against time to stop needless hatred and evil from spreading any farther.

In a time of micro smart computers and hovercrafts, she must return to the slower pace of the past in order to save many lives, including some that she's only met in someone else's memories.

I haven't really dug into Abigail as a character yet, but I'm in love with her already.

Bah.

I'm an Author.

Of course I'd be in love with her.

Oh well. . . 

Ask any questions, and I'll gladly answer!

Really, I will.

I really need help developing this more.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless

SDG

Joy

Dancing With Ink: Updates on What I'm Writing

Finally, after thinking and pondering, I picked up my pen again last night.

I've added a scene to my first chapter of Gypsy Gift, making it officially seven pages by the time I typed it up.
As of now, it's up to eleven pages.

I'm officially adding a prologue as well.

That decision was made after pondering the pros and cons for hours.

But really, it was the only way that I could figure out the foreshadowing for a necessary piece of the story.

So a prologue there shall be.

I've almost brought the story up to seven thousand words, which is a big step forward for me.

Reaching the first ten thousand has always been a problem in the past. 

I'm hoping to add a few more characters as well.
The keep in the beginning seems too empty, and there should be some more conflict in the beginning.
Oh, it would also help demonstrate why some characters are the way they are.

I'm also working on planning a huge revision, as mentioned in a post already, to Shadow Wings.
I'm enlarging the original story is it will no longer include a sequel, and hopefully come out over all better.

Well, that's all for now.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless
SDG
Joy

Shadow Wings Revamp?

So, after leaving my first novel, Shadow Wings, alone for a *coughcough* while, I have finally looked at it again.

Let's just say that it is missing something.

As in, REALLY missing something.

The other day, while reading Jeff Gerke's book, The First Fifty Pages, I had an idea.

Why not change it a bit?

Well, that bit changed to 'a bit more', to 'okay, lets add even more'.

Now, I am not 100% solid on what I am going to be doing with it.

But in short, the original story that took me a whole summer to write up, is not nearly as big a part as I originally had it be.

Instead of having the original story the main part, I am adding a second story:

Remember Kallie Forbes, the main character for the original Shadow Wings? 

Her memories are now being explored in the future.

They will be used for. . . 

Something.

I am currently deciding on whether I want to make this into a courtroom story, or a government agency/spy story, or some other kind.

The courtroom story is not necessarily my style, but over half the book will be in Kallie's memories.

Government/spy stories, well, I have not ventured into that arena yet, so that one seems more intriguing to me right now.

Oh, and I am still deciding on whether or not Kallie lives.

Typical writer problems.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,

SDG

Joy

Hello Again!

After a long absence, I'm back!

I'm not sure how often I will be, sadly.

School has started again, and my schedule is pretty full.

On top of my usual classes, I'm starting Piano, and possibly a new job.

But, I have found time to write.

As in, write write.

Fiction write.

Edit write.

Outline write.

WRITE!

Between the last 8-9 days, I've written about a thousand words.

I haven't done that much writing while at college before.

I don't think I'll be able to keep it up all semester long, but it has been very enjoyable.

Edit Update:

I have changed the beginning chapter of Shadow Wings from one page of character introduction, to about three and a half to four pages.

I'm very ecstatic about this, as I was very hesitant about how to go about changing it, and over all I'm liking the edits.

Of course they are not perfect, but they are much better.

Outline Update:

Confession: I haven't gotten much farther with Gypsy Gift than when I'd left it about two-three weeks ago.

Another Confession: I have completely, since last working on the outline, changed how I want the two MC's to end up.

Originally, they were love interests, etc.

Now. . . 

Let's just say that I've really made their relationship complicated. 

But I have done a decent amount of world building and minor character building over the last few weeks.

I might even share some of the maps that I've drawn for them, though I need to redraw the first one.

In fact, I'm quite liking some of the latest ones that I've drawn.

So that's what's been happening in my absence.

Hopefully I'll be able to start picking up on some of my old post series' again, or make some new ones.

Keep on Writing!

God Bless,

SDG

Joy

College, the Sweet Sweet Sorrow (and narrowing my genre)

Yes, I'm officially in college. I have been for the past week, in fact. I've been horribly busy, and haven't been able to work on blogging, book reviewing, or even writing in a sense. 

Where am I, you ask? 

I'm at Northland International Institute. I absolutely love it; it's a small college with a very relaxed atmosphere that I feel that I can actually learn in. 

What am I majoring in? 

That's a different kind of question. . . I'm so far undecided. I have about three different ideas pulling me here and there when ever I think about that, which I could get very deeply into if I wanted. I would rather get this posted before supper, so I think I'll leave it at that until later. 

Northland is up in northern Wisconsin, surrounded by trees (lovely inspiration for my next book! More on that book later, hee hee. ) 

It might be small, but the work load isn't. . . 

Which leads me on to the reason I remembered to write a post. 

I have a huge workload. 

I'll be reading two books of the Bible twice, in two weeks, each semester. That's not counting papers, other scripture readings, memory work, and other projects that I'll be working on. 

The good thing that I can see is that there isn't as many textbooks as I've seen others have to buy when they go to college. Around half of my classes only use the Bible, of which I already have (duh moment for me there, sorry.). 

Where will I find time to work on my writing? 

Yeah. . . About that. . . I'm not sure if I'll write much while in college. Well, at least not on my fictional stuff. If I do, it'll be after my homework is done. 

Which might be a long time. . . 

BUT. I'm not giving up hope.

Since time is so short for a college student, I won't really be working on literally writing, or even editing right now. 

Instead, I'm going to work on the exciting planning stuff (eh, sorta sorta not.). 

Since my last post, I have decided to take a break from the broad genre of Science Fiction and enter a more well known genre of mine, Fantasy. 

I'm going to be working on a story idea that I'm currently call The Gypsy Gift. 

Before I left for college, I'd created a map for the land (I'm currently calling the country Baumhaus. . .) and started to color it in. 

I hope to eventually finish it, and I might even share it on here. I love sharing. . . (Yeah. Right.) 

When I come up with a hook for it, or a synopsis, or any other little descriptive bit, I'll post it. :) 

The dreaded synopsis. . . Well, kinda sorta. Oh man, I could write a whole post on synopsis'. Heh. I am not giving up, though, on Shadow Wings. In fact, I've found since finishing it and setting it aside, a few things about it. 

Shadow Wings now has a sequel in the planning, and I've given it the title. . . *drum roll*

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Shadow Sky

I love the title. 

It makes complete sense to me (and hopefully, eventually, to you), it goes with Shadow Wings, and it gives me something to bounce off of if I'm ever stuck (which you can be assured, I will be at some point). 

But even better than that, something has finally clicked in my head about Shadow Wings. 

Shadow Wings is very similar to a Utopian type of novel (I'm saying that because of what I've heard that kind of novel is like, not that I've read any.). 

It's futuristic, the government is supposed to be almost perfect, and the main problem is centered around the problems of the government not really caring about the citizens. 

I'm off now!

SDG

Joy

It is Finished, but it Doesn't End Here.

I do not own this picture. I found it online and used it for inspiration

My novel is complete. 

I stayed up till midnight last night working on it so I can send it in. I did it. What I sent in isn't my best work, though, because I decided to do it so late and I only edited the first two chapters before the deadline. But I did it.

Shadow Wings First Draft Word Count: 27,037

Now I'm working on the basic plot/outline for the sequel (which is sadly unnamed). I'll be writing the sequel using the 100 for 100 Challenge that Go Teen Writers hosts. If you want to join the Challenge as well, the sign up closes next Thursday. Now, on with the writing, for if I do not continue, it will stay where it is, in need of a voice.

Writing update: Chapter Six

So, I've decided to enter a writing contest. The reason is because this is the last year that I'll ever be able to enter this certain contest. The deadline is August 15. I'm writing this post in between 'Self Word Wars'. To say the least, I'm burning out on writing, which is a first for me. Then again, writing five chapters in general is a first for me. Yes, I have written five chapters. Number six is in progress.

Chapter Four: This one is still kind of partial, I haven't quite finished a few scenes. . . AKA I've left time holes that I need to finish before I can officially call it all the way written.

Chapter Five: This chapter is the first chapter where I pretty much sat down and wrote all twelve pages of it in one night. Within about four hours with stops for supper and helping my mom when she asked for me too, I'd finished writing it. I'm not sure how I did it, but I did.

Chapter Six: I'm in big burnout mode right now. I've written bits of scenes here and there. I've written close to a thousand words in total of those bits and pieces. I'm currently feeling rather lost as to some of the scenes, mainly because they have to do with a lot of pain, hardship, sorrow, all-of-those-things-that-I-detest-but-will-make-my-story-better-if-I-add-them stuff. I can write it. I can write it. I can write it.

Over all, I've added a character I didn't know I needed, possibly will be throwing some out, have found out a few surprises that I hope will work in my story, and I've almost reached the halfway point.

Chapter Four Word Count: 2,330

Chapter Five Word Count: 2,264

Chapter Six (unofficial) Word count: 1,123

Total so far: 11,966