Tag: updates

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

Camp NaNoWriMo -April

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

As March beings, I came to realize that Camp NaNoWriMo in April is only now 29 days away. After giving it some thought, I decided to participate. However, I’m going to be doing something different this time around. Instead of starting a new novel, I’m going to continue a novel.

The novel I’m specifically talking about is Crimson Queen. I mentioned before that finishing that novel was a goal I have for this year. With NaNoWriMo in April, I think it’s the perfect opportunity to work on one of my goals.

Luckily for me, continuing to work on the novel is going to be a bit easier than starting from scratch. This is due to the fact that I already know what’s going to happen. The outline has already been set. While I might change up some things here and there, for the most part, everything is set in stone. I know I mentioned about letting creativity and the characters move the story, but for this one, the story is already set. All that matters is writing is now. I’ve taken everything that I needed to from the original story of Crimson Queen and implemented it into the revision. I’ve got all my notes and all that’s left is to write.

While April is still some time away, I’m not going to stop working on Crimson Queen. I’m going to keep writing. When April comes around, I’ll be, basically, adding 50k more words to what I already have. Now, I don’t think doing this will be difficult. For one, Crimson Queen is a fantasy novel.

In the original story, I had only written about 30k words for the novel. At the moment, I have around 13k words and I’m just in the beginning. In the months since I finished the original story for Crimson Queen, I have added so much content that wasn’t there originally and there is still so much more to add. While 50k words are a lot, I doubt I will complete the full revision in April. This is the reason why I’m still going to work on the story in March. I want to get a lot of work done so, when April comes around, I can focus on the last 50k words.

In truth, even I can’t exactly gauge how many words it’s going to take me to complete finish the revision before going back in there and proofreading and all that good stuff. However, it’s a start and I think it’s going to go well. But, with all things, only time can tell.

Posted in Writing

Working towards the Goal

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

This week has been full of headaches and too much drama. Valentine’s Day was nice. I stayed home and played WoW (World of Warcraft) with my fiancé. Granted, running D&D campaigns has been a good hobby and a stress reliever. Playing Savage Worlds (ETU) has also been great too. Come to think of it, I have a lot of things to be thankful for. I just need to remember that there’s more good than bad.

Speaking of good, I learned something very useful. While it is a little embarrassing to say this, I will say it anyways. I finally learned how to make an em dash in Word while only using my keyboard (CTRL+ALT+ -). Somehow, I feel like I should have known this shortcut but didn’t. At least, now I know.

I have also been going through Sarah’s edits of the 8k words I sent her, and it’s been very helpful. One of my goals this year is to send Clan of Ash agents by the summer. While I have more agents to research, I’m looking forward to it.

The rewrite of Crimson Queen is going well. There’s a scene that can go in two different directions and I think I made my decision. I’m going with the easier approach as to why my main character is alive and nobody knows about this. Plus, this approach also adds to the conflict later on and the risk factor goes up. There’s always a present danger of my main character being found out.

While I still have a lot to do, I’m steadily working towards my goal even if it’s a little bit at a time.

 

Posted in updates, Writing

Progression

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

After a very long month, I was finally able to sent out my 8k words to Sarah from Lopt & Cropt. At the end of last year, I entered a contest on the blog, A Writer’s Path. I was the winner of said contest and having 8k words edited by a professional was one of the prizes.

Sarah provided a free sample edit before I sent over the 8k words. Thanks to her wonderful feedback, I got a broader feel and sense to my story (Clan of Ash). While I planned to send my 8k words to her immediately after her initial edit of 15-20 pages of my manuscript, I didn’t. Instead, I focused on NaNoWriMo which is where I wrote Clan of Blood, the sequel to Clan of Ash. Let me tell you, that broadened my view of the story even more.

In essence, this caused me to look back at the 8k words I was going to send Sarah. I ended up rewriting almost the entirety of those 8k words with a few exception. I did copy pasted a couple of sentences here and there the plot for those scenes stayed the same. They were just rewritten in a better way. I even discovered a minor plot hole that I fixed right up. That being said, I have to make a couple of more changes down the line but I already have a few ideas on how to remedy that.

Even as I wait for Sarah’s response, my work doesn’t stop. While I didn’t make any new year’s resolution, I did make goals for myself. One of those goals is to completely finish rewriting Crimson Queen. Slowly but surely, I will.