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Posted in Writing

On the Plate

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

We’re in the second week of December and I’m still working hard. Despite the stress of my day job, I have been able to write every day. I’m still keeping to the same time as in November for NaNoWriMo. I haven’t even taken a look at Phantom Blade since then. I do have some of the script written for it e.g. graphic novel but I haven’t made much progress with that. 

Honestly, I don’t think I’m mentally prepared for rewriting, editing, revising, and all that good stuff, yet. It’s a huge project just because I have to cut so much and rewrite entire scenes and chapters. Sure, it’s good to distance one’s self from a story for 4- 6 weeks but sometimes I get an itch to look over the story  and I really try not to. 

The good thing is that I have many things to do. Just the other day, I wrote more in the chapter for The Vampire Princes goes to High school. I’ve been woeking on a game review and reading stories for my beta readers as well as editing a friend’s story. I’ve got plenty to do. 

Now that I think about it, it seems like I might have way too much stuff on my plate and I’m not working hard enough. At least, it feels that way. Maybe I should include some rest days. Hmm, something to think about. 

Posted in Writing

A Little bit of Everything 

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Today was more about typing what I had hand written for the second book in a series I’m working on – Clan of Blood – than actually ‘writing’ per say. As I’m still receiving feedback from my beta readers, I didn’t want to write too much in Clan of Blood in case I changed something huge in the first book. It’s a bit unfair to the story but, as of right now, I don’t want to go back and rework the plot of the second book. 

I’m not saying that Clan of Blood is set in stone or anything. I just thinm that it would be easier to write the second book once I know that the details of the first book are set. Plus, I don’t know how Clan of Blood is going to end so I’m a bit scared of continuing. I really don’t want to get writer’s block. Hence, it’s the reason why I have been avoiding this story. I’m horrible.

On a side note, I have also been beta reading through two more stories. I sent a chapter back last night and worked on at least two more but not as much. 

I should also mention that I’m going to write a review for a mobile game. More updates on that coming soon. I’ll be adding a link too. 

As of right now, I don’t think that I have a lot on my plate. That’s probably going to change but it will be a good change. I’m excited and hope it will all work out. 

Posted in Methods, Resources, Writing

Beta Reading and a Thesaurus 

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

I didn’t spend a lot of time writing today. In fact, I didn’t do much writing. What I did end up doing was beta reading through serveral pages of acquaintances’ stories. This was mostly due to the fact that I was avoiding my computer because I used it a lot during November and I, sort of, neglected my reading responsibilities. Either way, I got through a lot of pages today.

I could have read through more but these certain pages needed many comments and suggestions on setting, sentence structure, and missing words. It’s not like I mind the extra work. I’ve told them to let me know if they don’t want me to stop picking out bad grammar. So far, they haven’t said to stop. This also helps me in a way because reading other people’s work not only gives you an opportunity to come in contact with a different writing style, you can avoid some mistakes that you may see in someone’s work and vice versa. I believe that one can always learn something from reading other’s works. 

There was one story that I read today that appeared to be vomitted on by a thesaurus. This is possibly the harshest thing that I have said. I mean it in the nicestest of ways too. It wasn’t as bad as I make it sound but there were a few words that didn’t belong there. I couldn’t even figure out what the original word was meant to be. This isn’t a warning about uaing a thesaurus but more like something to keep mind. 

Usually, I used a thesaurus so that my writing and certain words become repetitive. For example:

It’s not like this person had every word changed. It just so happened to be in one paragraphed and I had trouble figuring out what they were  to describe. You can say that this was my lesson for today.

Posted in Uncategorized

Life as an Experience – Take 2

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

I’ve talked about using life experiences as a reference for writing before. This piece of advice is still relevant to myself. Yesterday, I had an engagement that took all my afternoon, evening, and part of my night. To tell the truth, I had only seen bridal showers in movies and on television. Let me tell you it was everything that I expected it to be. I won’t go into more details because, well, there’s no need really.

At least I can use this experience in my writing. I think I have a character in me who is getting married. If not then it’ll make a really interesting short story or flash fiction piece. Honestly, I think most if not all of what happens in life can be used in writing. 

Posted in Methods, Writing

Struck by Inspiration 

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

 

I’ve mentioned this before, I think, that I have multiple projects going on at one time. It’s really hard for me to focus on just one story. Plus, it doesn’t help that my brain vomits new ideas almost every week. I would be lost without my idea notebook.

Today just happened to be the day that I got struck by inspiration  to write the next chapter of The Vampire Prince goes to High School on wattpad. Yes, I know how it spounds. Don’t judge me. However, I will say that I’m working with themes such as discrimination, issues over species, being a bystander, among other subjects. I’m not sure how effectively I’ve executed those themes but the intent is there.

It’s taken me a long time to write this story but it’s a story that I want to write and I want to finish no matter how long it takes. Although, I didn’t get to write much on Spirit Guardians or work on all the stories I have to beta read, I don’t feel bad. I’m trying to avoid putting too much on my plate right now. While I can multi- task, I don’t want to drown myself. There is no pressure to finish beta reading those super fast. So I got time.

For now, I’m just going to go with the flow. I’m still going to work on Spirit Guardians but if inspiration hits for another, I won’t turn my back.