Writing Goals 2019

Once again, I last updated in November....

So last year's writing goals. Let's look at those first.

1. Complete at least 15 of the Writing Excuses homework assignments.
I didn't do 15 of them, but I think I did at least 7. They did help and I think I just need to commit to them better. (And remember that this was a goal of mine earlier than late August)

2. Finish Twin Tales.
I failed here. Book 2 is not done yet. But I did start posting.

3. Revise Restoring Faith
Absolute success. I decided to rewrite this story as my nano 18 and although I still have more to write, it is a way better story than it was before.

4. Write something non-fandom
I did this as well! I specifically enrolled in a creative writing class and wrote a totally original short story that used no previous characters, no previous settings, just completely new stuff.

Goals for this year.

1. Complete at least 15 of the Writing Excuses homework assignments.
I'm gonna try this again.

2. Finish Twin Tales book 2.
I'll set a more reasonable goal this time since I'm working on editing, writing, and planning in different parts of this story.

3. Finish Restoring Faith.
This goal specifically should be done by about March when I trade it with another friend who also rewrote an old nano.

4. Remember this blog exists.
I don't know entirely how I want to use it, but I think it helps me to reflect on what I'm learning while I write and writing it down is important.

Best Nano Yet

I hit 50k for Nanowrimo on November 27th and while that felt great, I don't feel like I won yet. That's because I am using nano this year to rewrite Restoring Faith. (I'm calling it Rewriting Faith.) It's strange having the whole story planned out from the start, but it does make writing every day easier.

And the story is definitely better this time around! I have grown a lot as a writer since two years ago and I'm much better at adding failure points into my story. Some of them have been purposeful, others came about because I forgot to mention a thing earlier on and I realise if I continue to ignore it then it adds another layer of complexity for my chracters. Laziness and better writing!

It also helps that I had a couple friends look over it before I started rewriting so I have a better idea of what set up stuff was unneeded and where I need to elaborate. My villain has at least two new scenes! I'm also forcing myself to keep track of POVs as I go so that they are more consistant and I can make sure to feature everyone.

So on this last day of November, I have written the 50k, but I estimate I have another 1/3 of the story left to write. I set myself a deadline of Feburary. We'll see how that goes. I guess I should get back to writing.

Quick preview of a spot I changed in the second revision:

Hannah heard a voice and looked up to see a human hand holding out the other stone. However, the rest of his body was not entirely human shaped. Gills in his neck were the first clue, but it was the long grey tail that gave it away. His scales glinted dimly in the light filtered through the water as he tail slowly moved back and forth to keep him in place.
“Thank you,” Hannah said as she gently took the stone.
Nadir asked something, but not in any language Hannah understood. So many people spoke Common, she forgot that she was limited by language in the future. On Earth too, but that was less relevant right now. More importantly, the merman seemed to understand Nadir. They carried on a brief conversation before Nadir turned to Hannah.
“You couldn’t understand that?” he asked in Common.
“Nope. Sounded a little like Italian, but I only know how to say ‘your butt is made of cheese’ so that’s not actually useful.”
Nadir threw his head back and laughed before translating for the elderly merman.

Summer Writing Lessons

This summer feels like it has lasted way longer than three months. An entire month was spent studying and preparing for my qualifying exam, but it paid off and I passed!! I cannot express how much of a relief that is. But that's not what you are here for; this blog is about writing. I've done a lot of that too.

July was all about writing short stories. Sometimes it felt like I wasn't even reading what I wrote. I've looked back and I hardly remember writing some of the things from the beginning of the month. It was a race to put out as many short stories as possible to get points. Amidst the madness of earning points, I ending up refining my writing in ways I hadn't anticipated.

Short stories are hard for me. I love my soaring epic fantasy plots and so challenging me to write things under 500 words is a challenge indeed. It forced me to focus on one, maybe two, instants in time. It is a snapshot of a story, yet it must also tell a story by itself. This is a little bit easier in fanfiction when you can use established characters that readers will know, but when you start going into more bizarre AUs, they might as well be original characters. It forces me to think carefully about indirect characterization. Can I hint at their personality in the way they speak? Not just their word choice, but what they notice. What about body language while they speak, or even describing the surroundings they find themselves in.

Possibly the story I did that best in was The Warlock's Creation. In these few lines I hoped to tell you about the protagonist's feeling of being an outsider, not belonging. His longing to find a world where he could be appreciated for what he had rather than mocked for what he lacked. I think I did alright.

For all his cleverness, he had forgotten his umbrella. He was quite sure his grandmother would scold him and send him for a hot shower when he got home. ... Someday he would step through a painting. Vanish into a world where magic was but a legend. He kicked his feet as he walked, splashing water everywhere.

As part of our friendly competition during July, we had prompt tables. I've done this previous summers and I barely managed to finish one 9 prompt square. But I am competitive and those earn me bonus points so I stretched myself. It was still hard, but I found this easier to create the short stories. The crazy prompts weren't inspiring any plot for a grand story, but I could come up with ideas about what characters were like, what they valued, and how they acted. And for a short story, sometimes that was all I needed.

While this ability to write to a prompt might not be useful when I am working on novel length stories, I do have side characters. Previously I would just throw out a name for a person who worked in the kitchens and maybe one small defining detail, but this doesn't do them justice. As an author, I should know more about that character than the reader knows. In the future, I aim to pause when I need a new side character and write 300 words about them. No strict fields to fill in, just anything that comes to mind to give them a bit more life, even though they may only appear for one page in a story and then potentially get edited out in a later draft. If I have learned anything while writing Twin Tales it's that small characters keep wanting to return.

My month of short stories is over, but I hope I can use these lessons to improve my longer stories. After all, what is a novel but a collection of short scenes.