Tag: progress

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

The Night Before

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I can’t believe June is already ending. Where did the time go? There’s a few things to know for the following month:

I won’t be creating a seperate blog for Camp NaNoWriMo. I’ll be updating the progress of the story here on the main one. I’m not sure if I’ll post everyday but that’s up in the air.

Secondly, I’ll also be collaborating on a story with my sister. We’ll be splitting the writing but I might write another story on the side so I can actually wriite 50,000 words in a month. For this month, it’s going to be, what I call, “the spirit of participation” because mostly I like to write an actual story for NaNoWriMo. 

It should be a good experiment. The most important goal for this month is to write. Sure I’ve been writing and editing here and there but I haven’t written as I should be. There’s really no excuse and it’s time for me to really get back on band wagon. This upcoming month should be good. 

On a side note: today I created a science fiction story about vampires. They’re more like genetically engineered creatures than the mythological ones. I made the entire back story of the world and it felt good. Sure, I don’t know every detail but at least it’s something. However, I won’t be writing this story just yet. 

For my side story, I’ll be working on my fantasy story that’s been begging for attention.

I see productivity for my future. 

Posted in Game Reviews, NaNoWriMo, Writing

Conflict: the bread and butter of a story

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

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Image Source

As July approaches, my sister and I are hard at work planning out her story. By this point, I should say our story but that still feels weird. I don’t believe I will ever consider this story as mine because I had no say in the idea development. Saying that, if collaborating helps my sister finally write her story then I’m more than happy to do that.

Recently, we discussed the source of conflict of the novel. While we don’t have the most of the middle and the ending planned, we still wanted to plan out what would drive the story forward and what kind of obstacles the main character, Nina, would face. I like to term this discussion as: “how do I make the life of a character more difficult?”

First, we started with the external conflict. This conflict derives from external forces. Meaning, the conflict comes from outside forces like a flat tire on a way to a job interview. Or a jealous co-worker secretly sabotaging the main character’s report. It can also be two people arguing.

Now, Internal conflict comes from within the main character. I like to think of these as feelings or simple terms: the inner struggle. e.g. stopping to help someone who fell or hurry to an important appointment. Or pay your bills early or buy that book you have no room on yourself for. It’s also choosing right from wrong. Depending on the character and/or situation, right and wrong can be different.

Not only did my sister and myself identify where the conflict was coming from, we were also able to expand on those ideas. Furthermore, Nina, the MC, will be overwhelm with her new position and current one and she believes there’s been a mistake and waits for the moment where someone else replaces her. This leads to her work being sloppy and incompetent and it further leads to confrontation with the boss and others in the managerial positions.

I’m happy to say that Nina’s life will be very, very difficult.

On a different side note: two of my reviews are up. One of them is called Tubocity. The game is an endless runner as you try to see how far can you get as you jump and swipe your way past obstacles.

The other game is called Picture Perfect Crossword. It is exactly what is sounds like. Players are given a picture to name. They select letters at the bottom of the screen to fill out the crossword puzzle.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

Negative Nancy

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

There’s around two weeks before Camp NaNoWriMo and things aren’t really progrrssing as I hoped. Doing a collaboration with my sister will be good, don’t get me wrong but I’m not sure how this is going to work out. 
The story we’re planning on writing is her idea. Sure, I’ve helped developed it but there’s no connection between me and the story. It’s not like I’m not interested in the story, it’s just so distant. It was my sister who thought of the story so its her baby. Mostly, it feels like I’m intruding. Plus, I don’t really know how to contribute to the plot or how we’re going to split up the work.

We’ve talked just not in depth. I’m not too worried. Not really. We have time to figure it out. Maybe I should still write my own and at the same time help her out with her story. That . . . could work. Maybe. 

On a more optimistic side, I have made a lot of progress working on my “TV show idea”. I’ve done four character sheets, and started working on the beat sheet. It’s basically a summary of what’s going to happen and major plot points. 

It has helped me figure out where I want to put certain information pertaining to the characters and story. Despite me awful drawing skills, I have also done a sketch of my characters. They’re very rough sketches. At least I can say that I’m making progress. 

Posted in Writing

A Slow Burn

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

It’s been a hectic week and a half with finals going on . . I guess it doesn’t also help that I work at a testing center. Even so, I managed to finish reading a book. While any writer should always read, I haven’t always followed that ‘rule.’ I still read but not as much as before. Hence, I actually feel really accomplished about this.

The book is called Montmorency by Eleanor Updale.  While I’m not going to go into a review on it and while it is a children’s novel, which I didn’t find out until recently, I enjoyed. Even though I feel like it could been so much more, what I did take from the story was the pacing. Events were mentioned and there was only a few – like two of them – that had more details but even so, the story was engaging. Despite the lack of said details, I wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

Like I mentioned, not much details and yet it was still engaging. If I really think about it, it has to be with the situation the lead character is in. Will he succeed? Will he be found out? How will he pull this off? This novel specifically, at least to me, is very character driven and it succeeds in that aspect.

On a different note,

Another of my game reviews has been posted. Since I don’t have the access to the blog, I don’t post it myself. My boss does. So the review on Dark Arcana: the Carnival is available to read here. So far, this was my favorite game because it’s a mystery game that doesn’t let the player forget the story and everything is connected in some shape or form.

 

 

 

Posted in Game Reviews, Writing

To Review

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Although it’s been a while, beforehand I mentioned that I was going to attend a convention. It had nothing to do with writing but it was something that was on my bucket list. I can gladly say that it’s been crossed of. This particular event was Anime Matsuri 2017. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures to share mostly because I’m still rather shy about asking people (strangers) for pictures. It’s something that I have to work on.

However, due to amazing luck, I was able to attend to panels about writing at the convention. Although it is no excuse, I finally received a power point presentation from one of the spokesperson. It was a panel for self-publishing. Sarah Rothman was the spokesperson for the panel Self-publishing 101.

I won’t go into details now but I will be posting the information (a summary, you will) of the power point and general knowledge that I have about self-publishing. I’m going to ask for permission in regards to maybe uploading her power point to the blog so that everyone here can read it. Keep your fingers crossed.

On another note, two of my reviews for ANDi have been posted. You can them here and here. Later this month, I’m told that there’s going to be a newsletter going out and I’m going to get a copy. As soon as I do, I’m posting it up here.

Thanks for the patience,

Kassandra