Category: updates

Posted in Methods, NaNoWriMo, Resources, updates, Writing

Scrapping for Ideas

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Over the weekend, I decided that I will be participating n July’s Camp NaNoWriMo. My reason for this is due to the fact that I haven’t been writing as much as I should. Using July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, I want to trick myself into writing more that I have been. This month, however, I won’t be aiming towards 50k words. Instead, I’ll be aiming towards 30k words this month. If, for whatever reason, I write more than 30k words than my goal was successful. With everything that is going on right now. I don’t have that much free time.

Saying this, I don’t really have anything planned for this month. I do have a few story ideas floating around and prepared but I’m not sure if those are novel ready. So, this poses the question: how am I going to reach 30k words or more without having a lot prepared.

First off, I’m going to wing it. I don’t normally do this because I typically have a sense of where the story is going to go. For this story in general, I have the basic idea for it but I don’t know where to go from the beginning. There’s a vague idea floating in my head but nothing is concrete.

Secondly, I’m going to write random scenes. I’m going to have my characters is conversations with others that could pertain to the plot. Maybe as I write these conversations, inspiration will strike and Camp NaNoWriMo will go smoothly. Fingers crossed. And, I never know. Inspiration might strike at random.

Next, I might actually do some plotting when I have the time. This won’t be too elaborate or too in depth but it might help. I don’t want to get stressed over writing 30k this month. So, while I will put effort into completing my goal, I don’t want to force myself to do it. When it’s forced, it’s not fun anymore and I always try to have fun when I write. I want to enjoy it.

Lastly, I might even go back to the original draft and steal ideas from that. The story I’m writing for this Camp NaNoWriMo, I worked on it a few years back. It never went anywhere because I didn’t like the direction it was going so, I basically stopped writing. This time around, I’m trying to revamp the story. I really liked the characters and the magic system I created for this world so I want to keep using. If worst come to worst, I might even think about combining ideas together. I’ve done that before and it has worked. It might work this time too.

Now, while I usually post world-building posts on Mondays, for this month, it might change or it might not. Depends on the day and what I have to do. I’ll try sticking to the schedule I set up because I think it was working really well with a few exceptions. If anything changes, I’ll announce it.

Thanks for reading and, for those participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, good luck. Don’t forget to share some tips. I’m going to need all the help I can get.

 

Posted in NaNoWriMo, updates, Writing

Changes, Articles, and July

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

June has come to an end (sort of) and July is right around the corner. The week has been productive. Starting next month, I’ll be writing articles about Dungeons & Dragond for GamerNationNews and I’ll provide the links for that. It’s also for tabletop games so that’s going to be interesting.

As you’ll know, the website has changed. I’ve made some visual changes. There’s more changes coming but it’s going to subtle and I’ll mention it as well.

The certification program is going well. There’s a lot of reading but nothing I can’t handle. With managing everything, I’m getting posts published on a set schedule. Plus, I have also manged to get in some writing time.

Now, as July comes closer, there’s one thing that I’m unsure about. July brings Camp NaNoWriMo. Unlike the other times, this time, I don’t know if I want to participate. There’s a lot on my plate and there’s only so much I can time manage.

If I wasn’t attending the program, I could do it but now, I’m not so sure. I think what I might end up doing is to start Camp NaNoWriMo in July and continue with it as much as I can. There’s a way to change the word goal for the month.

Instead of 50k words, I might set the goal at 25k or maybe even 30k. To me, every goal for any NaNoWriMo is write more than my usual daily word count. Finishing a novel in 30 days won’t be my goal this July. I just want to write.

Hopefully, my time management will work out. In any case, if I can’t get to my set goal, at least I tries. However, for now, I won’t think negative thoughts. I’ll focus on Camp NaNoWriMo.

Posted in updates, Writing

Red Flags

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

After a busy week, Friday has finally come. Something interesting happened this week. As many of you know (or don’t know), I have a couple of stories up on wattpad. These stories were written for fun and I might even edit them enough to self-publish them. Crimson Queen is actually one of those stories that I wrote on Wattpad first. FYI a lot has changed from the original manuscript.

Anyways, so a couple of days ago (like two days ago), I received a private message from an editor from FicFun. I handle that situation already on wattpad. The message was basically a solicitation to have one of my stories on their website exclusively. There was a payment included and the message talked about a contract, etc.

Red Flags immediately went off in my head. Not only do I not like the story this editor wanted to display on the website (and it is against wattpad policies), but I had no interest in removing the story from wattpad. I like my fan base too much for that. I actually had never heard about FicFun before so I had to do some research on the website.

I looked through forums and even wattpad had nice threads for me to read through. All in all, I decided to report the message and just ignore it. While at this point, it would be nice to be paid for my writing, I didn’t like the terms that I read through. Plus, I’m not that desperate. I’m going to take this one step at a time. Perhaps if another offer comes my way and everything checks out, I might jump at the opportunity, but for now, I’m content with working on my craft and improving.

Posted in updates, Writing

At Long Last

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

This is a bit late but better late than never. Recently, life got in the way with moving furniture and getting the new place situated. However, today I like to say that everything has been moved with only the exception of a box spring for the bed. Other than that, we’re officially moved in.

This past week, I’ve been working on character development in Crimson Queen. I haven’t mentioned that story in a while but I have been working on it bit by bit. My focus, I’m ashamed to admit, has been all over the place since getting a new place. However, now that that is over and done with, I can focus more on what I like to do. For my female lead, Lucinda, specifically, I needed to change her personality a bit.

Previously, it was more geared toward rejecting ‘female’ tasks like sewing and all that but I realized that that outlook on life wasn’t working out. Instead, I changed her dreams, so to speak. Lucinda wants a family but she also wants to follow in her father’s footsteps of mastering the way of a sword. In this way, Lucinda became a more 3-D character as oppose to being a ‘cliche’.

I will still continue to tweak her a bit to stay true to her character but I think I’m on the right path. At least, I hope I am. Plus, since ending Camp NaNoWriMo earlier this year, I have the majority of the store already in the third arc. After some more revision, Crimson Queen should be finished soon. Fingers crossed.

Posted in updates, Writing

Finding the Middle

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Another week comes to an end. Progress has been slow but there has been progress. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a post Monday. I got caught up with errands and school work. I promised myself I’ll do better.

I did go back and take a look at Crimson Queen, the story I worked on for Camp NaNoWriMo. Reading through, I realized that the beginning worked. The middle on the other hand didn’t. There was no direction. So, I went back through it and wrote down the main plot points that I found. There was a couple of them but they were just buried under unnecessary scenes/ words.

Moving forward, I need to fill in the blanks to get from one point to another. That “filling” has to be relevant to the story and has to contribute. Otherwise, the words become unnecessary and I don’t want that. Plus, I have the information, the filling if you will, I just have to find a way to add everything together.

With school going on now, I have to steal time to write until I get a schedule down. It’s going slower than I would like to. For sure this upcoming week, there’s going to be a post Monday. Wednesday is still writing prompt day. I’m having really fun with those prompts. They’re different but I need a way to get out of my comfort zone. I need to write something I wouldn’t normally write. Is there a website for random writing prompts? I definitely have to look for that.

If anyone has any suggest, send a message/ comment and I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for reading.