Tag: national novel writing month

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

Evolving Goals – For NaNoWriMo

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

I haven’t quite caught up with the word goal to finish Camp NaNoWriMo in time. I’m not exactly worried either. As I’m writing, my goal of what I want to accomplish this month has gradually changed. While I still want to finish writing Crimson Queen as a complete story, it might not be possible even with 50k words and I’m okay with that.

As it stands right now, I want to get as close as possible to finishing Crimson Queen as I can. The plot has changed from what it was at the beginning, but I think the new direction it’s going will work well.

In other news, Scrivener only works if you download it on an actual computer. My USB idea was a bust but at least I know. I haven’t bought it just yet and I will. For right now though, I have the 30 day free trial. After the trial is done, I’ll buy it.

I haven’t exactly used the program yet simply because I’m still going through the tutorial. For the most part, it has been relatively easy to understand. There’s just so much to know about the program. Some of it has been lost to me but through trial and error, I can figure it out. Plus, I can always go through the tutorial again on the parts that I don’t understand. It’s something I’m willing to invest time to learn.

Lastly, the site is going to go through some changes. The layout might change but I still haven’t decided. Hopefully, by next week, the finish look will be available.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

And . . . Go!

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Camp NaNoWriMo isn’t going as I expected. Due to Easter, I’m behind about a thousand words. I’ve been catching up gradually but I haven’t exactly caught up. I’m not worried about not being on target. I believe I can still catch up and finish on time.

The story is progressing as expected. A few changes have been made some conversations because they simply didn’t make sense. It’s also probably because I didn’t know what I wanted to reveal in those conversations and they didn’t have a point. They didn’t do anything for the world or story. I needed to change that. I tend to only keep conversations that move the story forward in some shape or form.

Another thing I encountered while writing was the lack of characterization of one of my major characters. While he is a warrior and a devoted knight to the Church, I don’t think I was portraying him that way. He seemed bland or maybe it was just me. Either way, I needed change him.

Lastly, there’s one ‘issue’ I’ve been mulling over. While Crimson Queen is third person, I have the opportunity to change POV once in a while. There’s information I want to include that the main character wouldn’t know but I don’t know if it’s needed or not. I don’t want the reader to feel that I’m just dropping information on them all of a sudden. I think I’ll just add the information and see how that works for the story.

Decisions, decisions.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

Ready, Set . . .

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Camp NaNoWriMo starts in a day and I’m not exactly prepared. While I do know what I’m going to be working on next month, I might not be mentally prepared for this task.

Now, while I have participated in NaNoWriMo before, I don’t think I will ever be mentally prepared to write 50k words in one month. It doesn’t get any easier. It’s going to be a challenge.

I’m not nervous or anxious. Not really. It’s more like I’m already thinking of potential lack of motivation and hair pulling down the line. Granted, I’ve always finished NaNoWriMo and gotten through tough spots but even so, I can’t help but think of what’s in store. I guess this just means that I have to manage my time a bit more than I have been. (I might have to cut back on gaming. Yikes!)

As of right now, I haven’t downloaded Scrivener on to my desktop yet. I’m really hoping I can download the program to a flash drive so I can take it anywhere with me. Probably not but a girl can hope. If it doesn’t work, I’ll manage. It’ll work out in the end.

For those participating in Camp NaNoWriMo I wish you the best of luck. May the odds be forever in our favor.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, updates, Writing

The Half Way Point

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

We’re a bit past half through November and let’s not mention the lack of winter in Texas. The important thing to remember is that NaNoWriMo is half way done . . . and that is terrifying.

While I have reached my daily goal since day one, I find my story to be lacking. While I have the overall story planned, all the bits in between aren’t exactly there.

I’ve always been someone who plans some of the story before writing and someone who makes things up along the way. The problem with that is I underestimated the second book in the series. While Clan of Blood is its own book, it’s also part of a larger story. This is why I feel I should have planned out the story a bit more.

Now, there’s no use in regretting what wasn’t done. That’s not going to get me anywhere. It’s definitely a lesson I’ve learned.

As of now, the middle is slowing me down. I’m not bored, not at all, but I don’t know how to continue the main story. The subplots are there but I don’t want to derail the story and focus only on the subplots. Even though I know that subplots should feed into the main story, and I know how the subplots in Clan of Blood connect to everything else, for some reason, I’m having trouble putting it all in words. It’s like I forgot how to use words or something.

While my idea map has helped put everything into a diagram of sorts, I haven’t quite been able to plan ahead. I’m probably making this into a big deal because the editing part of my brain isn’t quite shut off. However, in the long run, it’ll be good for me to be aware that a lot of the story has to change in the edit. Clan of Ash, the first book, went through tons of edits too but unlike that time, there wasn’t a lot of pressure. Now, I feel like there is.

But it’s not like I can quit. I don’t want all that work and effort to go to waste. Plus, I need to write the second book. I love the story and the characters. I’m just afraid that I won’t do them justice. It’s just one of the many fears I have when it comes to writing in general. The idea seems so cool but the execution isn’t all there.

There’s so much doubt but I know I can get through this. I’ve struggled before and pulled through. For the moment, I’ll focus more on the scenes than the story as a whole. I won’t be abandoning the story. I’ll concentrate on the smaller parts that make up the story and try to connect them. Writing this, the ending is becoming a bit clearer. However, I don’t think that I’ll be able to fully finish the story in just 50k words.

As I type this post, the idea of just skipping everything and focusing on the main points seems better and better. If it comes down to it, I might just take that route. Or, I might not. It depends on how far I can go with what I have planned out.

*takes a deep breath* Don’t worry about being perfect. Just write.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, updates, Writing

NaNoWriMo – the Story so Far

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

We’re day two of NaNoWriMo and so far, I’m on schedule. A couple of times yesterday I found myself wondering if I was describing a library ‘the correct way’. Now, I have no clue what ‘the correct way’ is but that’s what I thought. I had to perfectly describe my main character’s workplace. It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to stop overthinking those sentences. The point of NaNoWriMo is to write. I haven’t found anywhere that says those 50k words have to be the best words in existence.

When I realized this, I left a comment on the document; ‘take a look at this later’ and kept writing. It was as simple as that even though it felt like the hardest thing I had to do. I have put this into practice before – leaving a comment to myself – in other works and, for some reason, it bugged me that I had to for this one. Maybe I’m overthinking this because I want my novel for NaNoWriMo to be perfect, but I know that deep down, these 50k words aren’t going to be perfect. I know that and it’s still hard to keep that in mind.

The one thing that has been working for me is the notecards that I wrote up to help me figure out my plot and where I want the story to go. I haven’t planned everything out yet and I’ll do that gradually. However, I don’t want to be solely focused on one way of writing this novel. I want to allow the story to take unexpected turns because if everything is predictable and ‘on one path’, it’s not fun to write anymore. I like to discover new things in my story that I didn’t know before. Plus, sometimes, it’s good to make things up as you go along. You never know what might work.

One thing to keep in mind is to let the characters lead the way. It follows along the lines of ‘what would this character do in this situation?’. In the first drafts, my characters aren’t always developed enough but that’s okay for me. I often tend to develop my character during the very first draft. There are instances when, even though a character isn’t developed, I can tell when a character isn’t acting quite right. In my first draft of Clan of Ash (book 1 of the Half-Blood series), I went through this with my main character.

When I rewrote that draft, I had to take out an entire scene because I knew that this wasn’t how my character would act. Did I know that from the start? No. However, I knew that this wasn’t how I wanted my character to be. Once I figured that out, developing her further was easier. I had an idea of what the character isn’t like and from there, I started to figure out her personality.

Nothing is going to be perfect at the start. At least, it won’t for me. I have a process and it works for me because of all the trials and errors I’ve had along the way. Especially for NaNoWriMo. It is trial and error. It’s a way to discover what works and doesn’t work. In the end, I’m doing what I love and I’m having fun. That’s all that matters. Having fun writing.