Epiphany!

I had the biggest epiphany for my novel yesterday! I'm not even sure how the thought came to me. One of those random strings of thought that start with one simple daily bucket list item that sent me on a trek around my imagination and landed in the brilliant idea for a total trilogy! Whew! It was definitely an interesting process of thought. I'm not completely sure of all the details yet, but I definitely have a good premise brewing.

I don't get those often these days. I'm usually inundated with schooling the boys, worrying about bills, trying to figure out dinner, and trying to keep sane. All while failing to attempting to keep up with my domestic goddess duties.

Anyway... I'm excited about this idea! It's going to be quite an undertaking, but I am finally motivated in my writing again!

CampNaNoWriMo

So, CampNaNo has begun! It's actually been underway since July 1st. I just didn't post until now about it. I'm participating yet again, but I'm having major issues trying to decide on a project. I wanted to start something totally new and actually had quite a few plot bunnies running around that I thought I'd try out. I figured if I started a couple of them, one of them would peak my interest more than the others and rise to the top, but alas, no. They're all still evenly un-motivating.

I have tons of unfinished projects that are all demanding my attention as well. But I'm not sure if I'm up for re-reading any of them (some are quite lengthy) to get myself re familiarized with it enough to pick up where I left off.

Then, there's this one that I've been meaning to start over... from complete scratch... because the first draft went totally wonky on me and took off in a really weird direction that I wasn't intending. So, I could re-start that one.... But then there's this other one that I've been trying to write for sometime that keeps nagging at me. It's a writing project that I've promised myself that I would write and finish, but it's got a lot of research that still needs done before I can really write it. And honestly, I'm just not in the mood for that.

*sigh*

So, here I am, writing a blog post and postponing my writing that I'm supposed to be doing right now. Truth be told, I really should be cooking dinner for the family right now too, but I'm not in the mood for that either!

What I really want to do is just sit and play a video game and get lost in it.

That brings me back to my LitRPG story that I started earlier this year. Maybe I'll work on it some more. Since I want to write and I want to play a video game, what better thing to do than write my LitRPG story?!

To be continued..................

I'm a NaNoWriMo 2013 Winner!

Oh my gosh, I haven't made a post in quite a while... Since September!  October was such a hectic, crazy month and is thankfully over now.  Then came November, which, for those who really know me, means NaNoWriMo!  (National Novel Writing Month for those who don't know.)  And I was totally obsessed with my novel.  Well, I "won" NaNoWriMo, which means I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days!  But my novel is in no way complete.  I've got quite a bit more work to do on it before it's finished.  There are a ton of scenes that I still need to write, then there's the editing process to go through.  Eventually, I hope to get it published... either by self publishing or by traditional methods.  Either way, I'm hoping it's something that others will want to read.  We shall see.  In the meantime, I'm excited to say that I did it!  I wrote 50K words in 30 days!  50,272, actually, according to the official NaNoWriMo validator.

It was amazing, hard, insane, and there were quite a few times that I thought I was going to throw in the towel because I was so far behind and it looked impossible, but I did it!  @NaNoWordSprints and #NaNoWordSprints on Twitter were definitely a big help too.  Great source of inspiration!  And it was so fun to tweet with fellow WriMo's!  Anyway, I just wanted to toot my own horn and explain why I haven't been around on the blog here.  I'm hoping to get back to normal now and finish up on some of the projects I was working on previous to Hectober (Get it?  Hectic + October = Hectober) and NaNoWriMo.  The ABC Book that I'm making for the boys, some crocheting, of course, I need to finish up my novel and work on some editing, decorating for the holidays (we've got a tree and a few things up, but still got a lot to do) and there are a few others that have been left undone.

Well, that's all I have at the moment.  Now to go figure out something for dinner.  I have a ton of great recipes for side dishes, but I really need to expand my main meals section of my recipe book.  I'm getting tired of the same old same old, ya know?

Character Collecting for Stories

Character Collecting

People Watching for Stories

I like to "People Watch" looking for my next Main Character.  For example, one day, years ago, I was working at a T-shirt shop, downtown St. Augustine, and saw a little girl run past the fountain outside.  She was smiling and having fun, but it struck me as interesting for some reason (probably because she looked so care free and I was stuck working on a beautiful sunny day) and I quickly got a pen and paper and jotted down some stuff:

Little girl, about 8 or 9, green dress, running... Those thoughts led to:  "She ran past the fountain..." and that instantly got my muse's attention, "...frantically searching..." searching for what?  Her parents? Her brother? Her dog? An escape route?

Oooohh, that's good!  Escape from what?

She then became the goal, the Damsel in Distress, if you will, for a story that is turning into a novel that I'm working on.  I started it during NaNoWriMo in November 2011, the first year in which, I was a winner.  I still have much work to do on it, many hours of writing, (I made it to 50K words, to "win" NaNoWriMo, but the story's not done) editing and tweaking to complete before it's worthy of publishing, but still, a whole novel from one moment in time when I noticed a girl run past a fountain.

It's taken on a life of its own and is nothing like I had originally envisioned.  I know I should outline my story, but that just seems too rigid for me.  They characters in my stories rarely follow the outline, anyway, making their own paths.  I just let the scenes play out in my head and I write what happens.  I'm called what is termed a "Pantser" -- an author who writes by seat of their pants, rather than using an outline to guide the story.

If you need the structure of an outline, by all means, sketch one out after the initial Character Collection or Inspirational Epiphany.

Just be sure to collect those characters.  There are so many out there who are unique, you can't miss them.  They're in the line at the bank, walking on the side of the road, sunning themselves at the beach, wherever people are, you'll find a character for your next novel.  I saw a very strange couple walking on the sidewalk one day, they looked so out of place, I had to pull over to write down the details.  I've got them saved on my hard drive and they might possibly become the main characters come this November's NaNoWriMo or maybe this summer's Camp NaNoWriMo.

Just be observant and open to anything.  You never know, a "character" that you find may not work for anything you're writing now, but down the road, you may find that you need the special flavor that only they can bring to a story.

Project & Photo of the Day

Project of the Day:

Worked on my novel again.... just basically doing some research, but it sometimes takes a while.  And I always seem to wait until the last minute.  This time, I'm going to be ahead of the game for NaNoWriMo and do my outline and research (or at least, most of it) before November when it's time to do the actual writing.

Photo of the Day:

Guess we weren't the only ones to want Chick-Fil-A for lunch!

Ten To-Dos in June

Blog prompt from Mama Kat

For this week's prompt, I chose:

Ten To-Dos in June:

1. Clean out the back room & put everything in it's proper place (omg, you have no idea how important this one is... and yet we haven't even started.  In fact, recently, we piled more crap in there!  This has got to be done, no if's, and's or but's about it)
2. Clean out and organize my father's book case (he built this really nice book case with sliding glass doors and now that I've inherited it, I need to organize it with my stuff, rather than his and mom's things)
3. Put up shelves for books & crafts (honestly, I just have too much stuff and this house has no storage for anything.  And it's ridiculous how little cabinet, cupboard & shelving space this house has.)
4. Keep up with dusting (whole house... we just did a massive clean for in our house, so I need to start keeping up with this so that it doesn't get out of hand again!)
5. Organize master bedroom closet and all the clothes in the bedroom (mine, hubby's and Buggaboo's... with the new baby coming, we really need to organize the baby clothes too and see what we have & what we need)
6. Re-season my cast iron skillet (it was my mother's, so I have no idea how long it's been since it was originally done and after watching this video, I've been caring for my skillet all wrong.  We don't use it a whole lot, so hopefully not too much damage has been done to it)
7. Work on novels (I've got one done, but needs massive editing and I've started another via Camp NaNoWriMo... but I'm severely behind on my word count, so I really need to push myself to get caught up.)
8. Post to blog every day (so far so good...although my posts have been pretty lame, at least I'm doing keeping up with something!  And I've been having fun with the weird holiday posts.)
9. Work on photography (so far, not so good on this one... spreading myself a bit thin again)
10. Work on internet portfolio (Done!  This has been updated... of course, there's still plenty of work to be done, but I've at least finished one more page on the site.  Since I have so many projects going at once, my goal is to work on it and finish at least one page per month.  That way, it's not so overwhelming.)

Trust me, that's just the tip of the iceberg!  LOL  There's a TON o'stuff that needs to be done and lots more that I want to get done.  But those are priority... at the moment, anyway.

What's on your to-do list for this month?

NaNoWriMo

Slowly but surely...

Creativity Blooms and Flourishes!

Wow, what a day!  My Muse has returned in full force and she is nothing less than Brilliant!

As I said in a previous post, I'm working on a very cute little craft that also goes along with gardening... I've now begun the first stages (last minute epiphany as I was working on a different project) so that really is coming as I had said.

In the meantime, I've also begun a project for a Gatefold Scrapbook.  The first little section turned out decent, so I'll take some pics as I create the second one.

I've also begun to make "plarn" or plastic yarn.  We've got waaaayyy too many plastice bags and although we use some for garbage and whatnot, we've got an overabundance.  I try to remember to take the cloth bags to the grocery stores, but I usually remember them when I've already made it all the way to the front doors of the store.  :-P  Now, if we have a few extra bucks (which is rare these days) I'll buy one or two of the cloth ones, but the rest of the groceries go in the plastic bags.  Ugh!  I've just become so self conscious about all that land fill stuff and the eco-nuts are starting to really brainwash... er... get their message through to me, so I've decided that I want to do something more than my family and I are already doing.  I can't wait to crochet a tote bag using the plarn!  (pics and links to come.)

Hence, "plarn" has been discovered... well, I think it's been around for a bit, but I just recently discovered it during one of my many many many distracted internet surfing sessions.  So, I've got a small ball of plarn going and will be taking pics and sharing that project as it goes along too.

I also did a smidge of writing (which I need to get back to after this post) and during that, I was inspired to do some sketching for the book, which turned out kind of cool... at least in my mind's eye from the book's perspective.  Of course, not reading the book or knowing what it's about, it looks like a bunch of chicken scratches, I'm sure.

So, I've been a busy bee today.  I'm going to post a sketch here, but the pics will have to wait.  Be sure to check back for them.

Word Count

I've hit 15,000 words!!!

Yayy, Me!

Plodding Along...

Slowly but surely, I'm getting there... but I'm falling farther and farther behind.  I've had a couple of depressing days and it's just been too hard to concentrate on anything during my grieving period. 

So, anyway, I thought I'd at least post my new word count total. 

The road to NaNo is paved with good intentions...

Well, I have to resign myself to only doing one challenge at a time.  NaBloPoMo is a big ol' bust... NaNoWriMo, however, is coming along better than last year.  I'm about 3 days behind, though... due to a few really busy days and one really depressing and upsetting day (yesterday) but so far, I'm proud of my word count as of today...

And, also,
Happy 11/11/11

NaNoWriMo

Today's count as of 7pm...

Practice Makes Perfect?

Ahhh, a fresh design.  Sorry for any inconvenience, but I needed a new look.  Not that I didn't like the old one, but it was... well... old.  And I needed to look at something fresh.  This might be just a temporary look, however.  I found a nice template over at Smitten Blog Designs and I hope to add it soon, but it's 6am and I've been up for hours... I'm going to try to get a little sleep, but the baby will probably wake up soon, so I'm pretty much SOL today for sleep.  Oh well, I'm just practicing for the lack of sleep I'll be getting during November with the NaNoWriMo event.  (as if I don't lack sleep enough already with a 14 month old! ugh!)

Here we go again...

It's coming up on November again... and again, I'm trying to take on more than... well, I don't want to be negative, but I'm certainly taking on a lot.  NaNoWriMo which is a 50,000 word novel written in 30 days (just the rough draft, of course) then there's NaBloPoMo which is posting on your blog every day for 30 days... a goal which I've tried many times, and have failed at miserably each time.  And as I was surfing around, researching and whatnot, I came across a very interesting site that gave me personal inspiration.  The site is: The Sketchbook Project 2012 World Tour and it led me to a desire to add to my 30-day goals... a Sketch-A-Day in my own sketch book.  I don't think I could get one done in time for the world tour and I don't like the thoughts of not getting my sketchbook back... (but what an opportunity it would be for people all over to see one's sketches!)  So, I'm tossing that idea onto the pile o'thirty and see what comes out on top. 

Now, to go out and buy a new sketchbook! 

FYI...

Well, I always start out with good intentions... But then crap out early in the game.  Missed yesterday for posting and I really wanted to get in a post every day for a whole month.  Missed the 3rd day!  Geez.  I really wish I had good time management.  Oh well, there's always next month...

Speaking of November, it's NaNoWriMo month next month!!!  I've been looking forward to this all year!  Last year I fell very short, but I got farther in writing a book than I ever had before!  This year I'm bound and determined to finish with full force!  So, stay tuned for more on that during the month of November.

Also, just an FYI, I'm planning a craft day and have a great idea that will combine my new features of Arts& Crafts with Gardening... and since I'll be posting pics, it'll have the photography feature with it too.  I'm very excited about the craft and hope to be uploading that this sometime over the next week.  I just have to get some supplies first.

Stuffed full of Leftovers...

Well, Thanksgiving got quite hectic around our house this year.  I hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday.  We're all amazingly stuffed and we just finished off the last of the leftovers this evening.  Dinner went well, everything turned out delicious!  The stuffing wasn't quite up to my mom's, but it was still good.  The pumkin pie turned out perfect (now that is one thing I got just like mom's!) so perfect, in fact, that I made two more this afternoon. 

I'm terribly behind on the novel... I haven't written anything in days because of all the chaos.  I'm a bit upset that I won't have the 50,000 words done by the end of the month, but I'm happy that I've gotten so much done... more than I've ever had done on a story before... so I'm still excited about finishing it.  I'm also looking forward to next year and plan to try again for NaNoWriMo 2011!  I'm also interested in the Script Frenzy coming in April.

So, in the meantime, I'm working on my 1000 other hobbies that I have.  LOL  Along with the baby, Cub Scouts, the house, laundry, etc.  But I'm always up for a new challenge... I've got December through March to fill up with something until the Script Frenzy.  If you know of anything, let me know. 

Thanks for stopping by.

~Oddyssey

50,000?!?! Are you kidding me?!

Well, I took the leap... huge leap... head first.... and I signed up for National Novel Writing Month for the month of November, those who sign up are dedicating themselves to writing 50,000 words (or more) by midnight of November 30th, 2010.  I didn't come across this site and the challenge until late last night, which puts me behind.  Waaayyy behind.  How far behind?  Well lets do the math.... 50,000 ÷ 30 days = 1666.66.... but 50,000 ÷ 25 days = 2000.... And if you include today, which was my first day on the task and is already O.V.E.R... that's 25 days to write, so I need to write 2000 words a day.  UGH!  And so far I'm at 384, not including this blog entry, since it's not part of my novel, I'm not adding it into the total.  Not the best of starts... which means that in order to catch up, I would need to write 3616 words on Saturday!!!!!!

I suppose I should be writing more on the novel, but I wanted to post on my blog while I was thinking about the horrendous step I've taken.  LOL

Ah well... here goes nothing.......