Tag: Writing

Write With Me: The Joy of Writing

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Week 2

Day 8 (9/9/18)

So, it’s the beginning of a new week and I’m trying something different. I decided to write before watching TV. I’ve noticed that on days that I don’t work, I stay glued to my computer, watching television shows, youtube videos, or movies. So when I woke up this morning, I decided to write first and then binge-watch later so that even if I waste my whole day on Netflix, I’ve made sure to get my words done first. It sucked because it took me forever to get into the groove of things, but I got the job done.

Total Word Count: 4,258

Day 9 (9/10/18)

I took today to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, career-wise. Also, my hands need a break because apparently, my carpal tunnel wasn’t feeling the fact that I tried to play word count catch up on top of my workout routine. I had a very productive day, though, just not when it comes to writing.

Total Word Count: 4,258

Day 10 (9/11/18)

Can’t complain about the writing day. I finally made it to chapter 3 and was able to introduce the last central character of the story. This means I now have all three major parts of my world written. I introduced the gritty underground life in the first chapter, the law and order situation in the second chapter, and the higher magic situation in the third chapter. The world building is set-up but I still have about one or two chapters before the story’s catalyst happens and I still have a little more of the plot to set-up before that can happen.

All in all, it was a good writing day and I finished the first season of Daredevil on Netflix and started the first season of Jessica Jones. I’m watching all the shows (the Marvel Netflix Series) in that series in the order in which they were released because I know they all connect and you need to watch them in the order of the release dates in order to understand the overlaps and not spoil yourself.

Total Word Count: 5,387

Day 11 (9/12/18)

Didn’t write today. Good news is I was approved for unemployment and I figured out what my career path will be. Finally! It almost feels like I’m an adult now. I have an event to go to today. Super excited.

Total Word Count: 5,387

Day 12 (9/13/18)

I wrote a little. I couldn’t focus. I thought having such a detailed outline (chapter by chapter) would help me write faster but I’m starting to think my issue was never coming up with ideas, but maybe it was not allowing my emotional state or events that are happening around me to distract me from my writing. 

Total Word Count: 5,557

Day 13 (9/14/18)

Didn’t write at all but I did finish the first season of Jessica Jones. I disliked so many of the characters on that show, which made me sad because I was really looking forward to it. Well, it’s on to season 2 of Daredevil.

Total Word Count: 5,557

Day 14 (9/15/18)

Today was a word catch up day. I woke up and didn’t watch anything until I had at least a thousand words written. After every thousand, I took a break so I could make sure I didn’t burn myself out because I knew I had to catch up. If I didn’t, I’d end up with a daily word count too big for me and I’d eventually miss my deadline. Also, today was a fun day. I remembered why I wanted to write this story. I remembered why the idea for this story stayed in my mind for over a year. I’ve been letting all the stuff around me distract me from the joys of writing but that ends right here and right now. Plus, I really like the second season of Daredevil. 

Total Word Count: 9,276

Write With Me: That Didn’t Go As Planned

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Week 1

Day 1 (9/2/18)

Today is the first day of the three month period I gave myself to write this novel and I didn’t write anything. I’m still recovering from a cold and the medication had me sleepy all day but that’s still not a good enough reason for a no-words-written day. I have a well-planned outline but the prologue was the only chapter of the book that had a one-sentence description. I didn’t do a very detailed description because I already knew the most important things: where it took place, who was there, and what happened but I guess I didn’t think I’d get white page fever. Well, we’ll always have tomorrow. 

Total Word Count: 0

Day 2 (9/3/18)

I wrote a little. I finally decided how I wanted to write the prologue. I wanted to introduce the readers to the magical side of the story but I hadn’t decided how the magic would work in the story. I knew the rules and limitations already; I’d created them when I was world building and for the more complex magic, I’d already created a detailed explanation for it. But the simpler magic, the magic a lot of the character would have, I hadn’t done that so I had to do a little research for that. Since the bulk of the magic is based on the elements (earth, air, fire, and water) I had to define what that meant and what that looks like.

Total Word count: 563

Day 3 (9/4/18)

I wrote a little bit today as well. It’s so weird. I’m used to writing about 1,300-2,500 words per writing session but I haven’t been able to do that because of my job. I’m used to working and writing but I’m currently working a physically demanding job, so when I get home I’m exhausted. I normally find myself falling asleep just from sitting and when I’m not napping, I’m trying to relax my body and mind. My writing windows, times in which I’m energized and have time to write, are disappearing. I need to figure out something or else I’m going to fall really behind in my word count and it’s going to be too hard to actually write the book in the amount of time I’ve given myself. I can’t wake up earlier because I’m already waking up around 6 am for work and I’m not a morning person. That’s just going to lead to me losing my job because I wouldn’t even be able to fake cheerfulness. Plus, it’ll make me despise writing and I never want to do that. I did finish the prologue and I like it. I know when I do the second draft, I’ll probably change it a bit but I really like my opening paragraph. The opening lines are always the hardest to write.

Total Word Count: 1,017

Day 4 (9/5/18)

I didn’t write today because something really important happened today. I was fired from a job for the first time. Now, before you jump to conclusions no, I’m not sad and no, I didn’t do anything wrong. I just recently moved to a new state and I took the first job I could get because the job I had in St. Louis ended up not transferring down to Houston. Anyway, I took the first job I could get and it was something I’d never done before. That, plus the bad management at the job, made me really hate it but I couldn’t quit because everyone around me told me I couldn’t. Everyone around me told me I needed that job even if the pay was low, the hours were short, and the management was bad. Everyone believed some money was better than no money and I was still looking for jobs.

But today my manager made my decision pretty easy. He refused to clock me in today (so basically he wanted me to work a seven-hour shift for free because that what would have happened if I’d worked without being on the clock). Why was I even there? I wasn’t supposed to work today, but he asked me to take on a shift and I agreed. He was angry when I walked in because the people who closed didn’t do what they were supposed to do so he took it out on me. This was nothing new. For the past week, I’ve been dealing with bad treatment and verbal abuse because I refused to work the night shift (a shift he told me after my interview I wouldn’t have to work). After I refused, that’s when the bad treatment started. 

But any, the way the computer system is set up, if you’re not scheduled to work that day or if it’s not your scheduled time to work, the computer won’t let you clock in or out. The manager will need to do a manual override to clock you in. At first, he lied and said I was clocked in and then when I realized I wasn’t, after close to 30 minutes of working, I asked him to clock me in. He refused and told me to get back to work. So I walked out. I don’t work for free and I wasn’t being treated like a human at that job. I value myself too much to let someone degrade me and so when I walked out, I walked with my head held high and a smile on my face to my manager’s dismay. He told me walking out was an automatic termination. And I smiled and waved goodbye.

I recently had a cancer scare. I have a mass in my left breast but the doctors don’t believe it’s cancerous. The doctors want to monitor it for the next two years because of my family’s history with cancer. My father died from it and my mother is currently in remission. During that period of not knowing whether or not I had breast cancer, I vowed to myself that I would cherish my life more and if I didn’t have cancer I would try to live my life as if I could die any day because it’s true. Life is short and it’s not guaranteed. I vowed to never do something I didn’t want to do. And I really didn’t want to work there with him. So I walked out, knowing he’d fire me but I didn’t care.

I spent most of my day at a workforce facility looking for work and I applied for unemployment. When I got home, I ate and finished the Korean drama I’ve been watching (it was the final three episodes) and then I showered and pulled out my computer, ready to write, only to realize 12:00 am had passed. It was a new day and I hadn’t written any words. But since I don’t have anything to do tomorrow except applying for jobs, I guess I’ll write.

Total Word Count: 1,017

Day 5 (9/6/18)

I wrote a little but I spent most of my day applying for jobs. I found out I have a preliminary interview with a staffing agency tomorrow so that’s great. I also found out what the difference between a staffing agency and a temp agency is. Temp agencies usually place you in very temporary jobs and they take a percentage of your paycheck as payment for their services. A staffing agency will place you in a more stable position although they are not permanent. It’s usually up to the company they place you with if you’ll get hired on to a permanent position. And if a staffing agency places you at a company, the company pays them a fee for placing you, so you don’t pay them. These are just a few things I’ve learned while in search of a job.

Total Word Count: 1,310

Day 6 (9/7/18)

Today was such a good writing day. I’m finally getting back to my average word count and I had a good personal day as well. But anyway, back to the writing. I finished the first chapter and I love it. I love the way the characters seemed to spring to life with their distinctive voices and the way that the first chapter brings the reader into this illicit world of blood and magic. I’m so amped right now.

Total Word Count: 2,586

Day 7 (9/8/18)

I didn’t write anything today. I opened my Scrivener document but never typed a thing. I started watching Netflix and nearly finished a whole season of a show in one day. Also, I finally bought a tripod so I started tinkering with that and my camera. I promise next week will be a better writing week than this one. I hoped I would reach 5,000 words this week but that didn’t happen but I did write a killer opening for the story. Let’s focus on the positives. Tomorrow, when I wake up I’m going to write before I do anything else so that I can make sure to get my minimum word count in for the day. I refuse to not meet my deadline. 

Total Word Count: 2,586

Write With Me: Intro

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Last year I tried to write a book…and I failed. I had the idea for the book while I was in college but I waited until after I graduated because I spent most of college writing films and I just couldn’t fit another story into all of that. So, at the end of May 2017, I started developing that story idea. Everything was going great: I loved my characters, I was having fun developing the world, and I’d completed an outline for the story. I started wiring and even started doing blog posts about the writing process but around the 30,000-word mark, I hit a wall. I realized that my story was too big for one book and even if I were to write multiple books (such as a trilogy) the story would still be too big and have too much backstory. So I took a break from writing and during that break, I tried to come up with ways to fix this problem. During this break, a good friend of mine died and I became very depressed. During my time of mourning, I couldn’t bring myself to write or even brainstorm. This period lasted for about 5 months.

By the time 2018 came around, I was feeling a bit better…maybe even a bit inspired because I’d been reminded yet again that life is very short and I want to do everything I desire before it’s my time to go. So, I started thinking of ways to fix the problems I had last time I tried to write. The story was too big. How do you fix that? Most people start their stories too early, so they end up with first acts that tend to drag because the story doesn’t start to halfway through the second act. My problem was that the story started too late. Like, I kind of started the story during the final act of the story and that’s why it had too much backstory. I needed to explain too much in order for everyone (readers) to catch up with what has been playing out in my head for the past four years. The easiest way I could fix this problem was to start the story earlier. 

I took a look at my characters and asked myself, where would my characters have been two years before this happened? What would they have been up to and what would their world look like? So, that’s how I fixed that. The other issue I had, although at the time, I hadn’t considered it to be an issue, was my world building. The world I had created was really cool but my story was conflicting with it. There would be times where something could have been made easier had I not set the story in the world it was set in and I was always worried about world building holes that would distract readers. So I decided to create a simpler world, closer to real life and that also helped me figure out what genre I was writing in. Plus, I simplified my magic system. So basically, if you’re having trouble with your writing, take a step back and then simplify everything.

I also figured out how to outline my book in a way that works for me. That’s the stage I’m in right now. I’m outlining. I’ve been writing for a long time but it wasn’t until I went to college that I was forced to outline. Since then, I’ve developed a fondness for outlining but I had never outlined a book until that first try last year. This year my outlining process has changed so much and I think that has also helped with “fixing” my story. I’ll probably do a tutorial for how I outline now because it’s so effective for me.

Regular writing posts will start as soon as I get further into the book.

Until next time, peace…

Back At It Again

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I know that some of you started following me because this started off as a blog about writing, and then it started talking about traveling with a little bit of lifestyle content thrown into the mix. And then all of the sudden, the writing content stopped. There was a little travel content here and there, but it mostly became a lifestyle blog.

Let me tell you what happened…

My friend died.

Some of you who started following me because of my writing content may have noticed I haven’t done a full blog post about writing since around August or September of 2017. At that time, I was growing frustrated with my “current” work in progress because I was overwriting. My original word count was supposed to be around 85,000 words but I was starting to believe the story would really end up being around 110,000 words.  Yeah, that was a big baby. I know. But the real issue with the story was that there was just too much content. All the stuff that was there was needed information told in a way that wasn’t direct exposition. I was introducing too many of my plots at once. So I decided to take a month off from writing. I was supposed to use that time to figure out how to trim down my bloated first act or simplify the entire story.

By October, a very close friend of mine had died. His death was life altering for me because I always felt he was the one that got away. I live in North America and he lived in South America. We met during his high school study abroad experience. We became friends the moment he sat down next to me in French class. We started walking to and from school together because of how close we lived to each other. We became inseparable that year, with all of our inside jokes and shared curiosity.

Over the years, throughout high school and college, we stayed in touch. His death destroyed me because he was my biggest regret. I regretted the fact that I wasn’t brave enough to let him know how I felt when we were younger. By the time we were in college, we’d talked about things and even tried to visit each other once or twice. But he was in med school in Brazil and I was studying film in the U.S.

He was only 21 and cancer had stolen him.

Unbeknownst to him, he had leukemia.

My mother is currently in remission from the same type of cancer that killed him.

He was almost done with medical school.

He’d just delivered his first baby in May 2017. I can still see the photo of him smugly grinning as he carefully cradled a newborn baby; he and his instructor dressed in matching light blue scrubs and hair caps. That image will forever be burned into my mind because it’s the last smiling image I saw of him before the waves of “condolences” and “gone too soons” crashed against my computer screen, sending me into a black hole of depression that made me abandon social media for two weeks and writing for five months.

I failed NaNoWriMo not because I was busy, but because I couldn’t write. I had no creativity left in me. The story was dead. All I could think about was what this world had lost. We’d lost someone who was trying to do something good for the world. We’d lost someone who knew what he wanted to do and how to do it. I’d lost someone I’d loved and I knew I’d loved him because, outside of my father’s death, I’d never felt so hollowed by the news of death.

And so, after five months, I finally seemed to have recharged. For the first time in five months, story ideas are organically germinating in my mind. For the first time in five months, I feel like I have agency in my life and I’m not faking it.

 

Winter Update: Writing, Pinterest, ​and YouTube

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What I’ve Been Up To

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t posted much this December, it’s because I’ve been very busy. I’ve been working on myself. Improving my mind. Expanding my knowledge. I’ve been working on building steady traffic for this blog, which means I had to learn more about marketing. So I’ve done that and have seen a steady rise in organic traffic for the blog. Although my numbers are nothing to brag about, I’m excited anyway. This proves that what I’ve been doing is working and that I should keep at it.

I’m a very visual person so I created a Pinterest account. If you have free time or already use Pinterest please check mine out. The link can also be found at the bottom of the screen next to the other social media icon(s). I have boards on things I’m interested in such as writing, world building, traveling, beauty, etc. I’m just getting started and once I really get the hang of it, I’m going to go crazy on there. I even used it a few days ago to get ideas for a work Christmas party that I’m going to.

YouTube

I’ve also been very busy because I decided to start a Youtube channel. I don’t have that all planned out yet, but I do have a few videos up. This all came about when I was sitting at my computer, avoiding my writing and I started looking through all the documents on my computer. I recently did a big software update so a lot of my apps on my computer still had the blue dots hovering just above the icon because they hadn’t been opened yet. Since I was already killing time, I decided to open all the apps and see what was new. One of the apps was iMovie, where I have all the footage from my study abroad trip. I started watching some of the footage and found myself reminiscing. I decided it was finally time to edit the footage and finish what I started. After I had two videos edited, I decided I should post them. That’s when the idea for a Youtube channel started.

Right now I have a few Vlogs up and they’re all about various trips I took why I was in Europe but as I create more content, the Youtube channel will look much like this blog. The content will be split between writing, travel, and lifestyle. I might start posting videos on the blog as well, but they will always be accompanied by text. Most cases, there will be a companion article post with the video. The video and text will be similar but they will not be word-for-word because no one wants to read a transcript for leisure. Sometimes, particularly for my Traveling Thursdays posts, I might post a video with a paragraph or two explaining the video and summarizing what is happening in the video but it will not be text heavy.

Writing

I haven’t done any posts about writing in a while and that’s because I stopped writing for a bit. My personal life became really complicated, my professional life became really complicated, and I just couldn’t get my story together. So I stopped. I was planning on forcing myself to do NaNoWriMo but I was hired to do some technical writing so November did not go as planned. After that happened I decided to take a step back and just start a brand new idea. I kept my three central characters because they were completely developed and I didn’t want to waste them. But I’ve been spending December coming up with ideas for stories. This means I’ll be back to writing in January and the writing posts will return.

What have you been up to, lately?

Failing at NaNoWriMo and Other Adventures!

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November has been the month I failed at everything and I’m okay with that.

I’ve been looking forward to participating in NaNoWriMo since last year when I started watching vlogs about it. There is something so inspiring about watching someone complete a book in thirty days. As the year went on, however, NaNoWriMo slipped to the back of my mind and by the time October of this year rolled around, I started thinking about it again. For the first two weeks of October, I debated with myself on whether or not I should actually participate in it. A week before NaNoWriMo started, I told myself I was going to do it. I had it all planned out. I was going to write two thousand words a day and it was going to be so easy. I was going to have everything on a schedule. I was going to be ahead of the game and although the book would not be finished when I hit fifty thousand words, I was still going to feel like I’d accomplished something.

And then two days before NaNoWriMo started, I decided to start a new, lighter story–something just for NaNoWriMo. Needless to say, this idea blew up in my face big time. I didn’t start actually writing until the fifth day of November. That day, I wrote close to four thousand words and then I gave up. Not because I didn’t think I could catch up, but because there were other things going on.

So, I’ve been expanding this website and trying to plan out my future, or at least figure out what I’m going to be doing for the next few years. I have a degree in Scriptwriting but I live in Missouri. I can’t really use my degree until I move closer to one of the coasts; I’m just being honest with myself. During this economical draught, all of us in St. Louis are experiencing, I’ve been trying to figure out ways to either get a second job or start marketing myself as a freelance writer for a little side income. You see, although the main focus of my degree was film and television I had to take the same core curriculum as journalism, mass communication, and public relations students. So, I’m actually well versed in commercial writing and I’ve been trying to market my services.

Around the time I started NaNoWriMo I actually got a client that wanted me to do some technical/legal writing for them and build them a website. I was super excited about this opportunity but I was really nervous because I’d never done legal writing before. If you can understand something and mimic it, then you can learn any type of writing style but the thing about legal documents that will catch you up a bit is the fact that there is rarely an example or template you can work from. So, while I was coming up with a story for NaNoWriMo and trying to get caught back up, and expanding the website and promoting my other services, I was also working really hard on something I’d never done before. I wanted to do well on this, not just because someone was paying me to do it, but because it was a legal document that was going to help them start a business. I was very upfront with them about not having done any legal/technical writing prior to their assignment but they had faith in me and they were patient with me. The final version of the legal document turned out very well and after it gets notarized by an attorney, I’ll get started on building my client’s website.

As far as NaNoWriMo goes, I’ve failed and I’ve come to accept that but I’ll be ready for it next year.

Growing Frustrations With My WIP

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If you’ve been following my “Writing Logs” you may have wondered why I haven’t posted the latest one yet. Here’s a bit of an explanation.

So, I haven’t been writing because I’ve become frustrated with my story. I don’t hate my story. I love it. I haven’t jumped ship or anything like that, I’ve just grown frustrated because I realized that I started the story too early. I’m an over writer—that has always been my problem which is why I didn’t freak out at the idea of writing an 85,000 word novel in 3 months. I thought it would be a fun challenge but now I’m just sitting here frustrated because I’ve come to the conclusion that my first act is dragging on. It’s not boring but I’m also aware that a lot of this information can be cut down and told in a more engaging way to make sure my pacing stays in a good range. If I shorten the first act, everything moves faster. The only problem is, that would mean a rewrite is coming.

I should wait until the second draft to fix it all but the fact is, I have to get through the first act in my current outline; I still have two more chapters to get through. That’s about 8k more words/2 more weeks of writing something I know I’m going to cut and rewrite. I’m frustrated. I love this story so much because it’s helping me work through a lot of internal emotional turmoil I’m dealing with right now and I don’t want to give up on it. Sigh.

Writing Log 5: Trying to Balance Writing & Working

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Day Twenty-nine—Sept 17, 2017

Today was a pretty good writing day. I hit 1k before sunset and I created a character and subplot that was unplanned. The only reason it’s staying in the story is because it helps me fill in my main character’s back-story without a whole bunch of exposition and the character will help me wrap up one of the larger storylines. It’s great when that happens. I killed two birds with one stone and the character is a fun character to write because she can be used to show what the world looks like from the perspective of someone who is not part of the main plot.

Total Word Count: 13,586

Day Thirty—Sept 18, 2017

Today was my first day back at work. I work evenings and nights so I decided to write in the morning. I feel that it’s important to note that I’m not a morning person so actually getting words on the screen was hard but once I got going, everything seemed to flow.

Total Word Count: 14,859

Day Thirty-one—Sept 19, 2017

My brain and my hands needed a rest day.

Total Word Count: 14,859

Day Thirty-two—Sept 20, 2017

So, after I wrote the sentence above, I shut down my computer and tried to fall asleep but I couldn’t. So I turned my computer back on and started making changes to one of my central characters. For the past few days, I’ve been trying to decide on whether to use a Western name or an Eastern name for an Asian character I’ve been developing. It took two hours for me to decide to switch the name from a Western name to a more ethnic name. Because I’d stayed up to like 4 a.m. doing this, when I finally fell asleep, I slept hard. I actually overslept and ended up waking up really close to the time I had to leave for work. I rushed out of the house, trying to make sure I wouldn’t be late, only to realize I was actually an hour early. So, I went back home and wrote for about 20 minutes and then went to work. I couldn’t work on my story during my break because I am training a new employee.

Total Word Count: 15,044

Day Thirty-three—Sept 21, 2017

Work is killing my writing time.

Total Word Count: 15,209

Day Thirty-four—Sept 22, 2017

I wrote for one hour and 15 minutes before going to work. On my break, I couldn’t focus enough to work on my novel but I did start working on a blog post that I will publish probably four days after this writing log is published.

Total Word Count: 15,908

Day Thirty-five—Sept 23, 2017

Today was a productive day. I learned all about wood burning stoves because I wrote a scene that took place in a kitchen where someone had recently cooked. I used some advice from a video about World Building. I have a multicultural cast of characters existing in one location (much like the USA but on a smaller scale) so there is bound to be some differences between the ethnic groups and sub-cultures. But my world exists in a future in which the past has been largely (and forcefully) forgotten or ignored and the countries that used to exist are long gone. I’ve been struggling to describe people ethnically or racially without using terms that people in the story wouldn’t use because they are irrelevant to them and without using harmful stereotypes. So, thanks to the video I came up with the idea to use small bits and pieces of a culture to try to reinforce what I might be alluding to and it works great with the idea that these things were at some point, part of the culture but has been watered down over the decades as people were forced to assimilate as history was covered up.

So although my story is set in the future it is still a dark fantasy set in a medieval-ish pre-industrialized world because it is easier to control people in a world where the spread of information is slow and technology has regressed. I can honestly say that a lot of the ideas I’ve put into my world are the things that are happening around me. The idea of having the erasure of history become a running theme as well as part of my world building came from what is happening in the U.S. There are states, mostly southern, that are erasing important parts of U.S. history such as the reasons why the U.S. civil war started and the U.S. involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Angry parents have been posting their children’s syllabi and textbooks, highlighting areas of the text stating that the enslaved Africans were immigrants who immigrated to the colonies. And there have even been passages from textbooks that talk about the U.S. civil war as being a war over property versus a war over the right to keep enslaved human beings as property.

Everyday things happening in the U.S. have influenced how I’ve built my fantastical world. The rise in conservative influences in government helped shape my religious and political systems and the tension between the two institutes. Race relations both present and historical helped me write the history of the world and explain why there is tension between the Enhanced and the humans and even the level of classism displayed within the Enhanced species.

So, the big take away from this is everything you encounter in life can help you build a believable world. People say write what you know and that’s what I did. Even though my major plots are very fantastical, the blood and bones of this world are heavily grounded in the world we live in and I hope that whoever reads my book takes the time to reflect on some of the real world issues presented in it.

Total Word Count: 17,781

Writing Log 3&4: Procrastination and Finally Hitting 10k

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Day Fifteen—Sept 3, 2017

I finally finished that scene I’ve been working on for the past week. Lucky for me, it reads pretty fast but it took forever to write.

Total Word Count: 9,311

Day Sixteen—Sept 4, 2017

I didn’t even open my document.

Total Word Count: 9,311

Day Seventeen—Sept 5, 2017

I realized that I wrote a scene that isn’t in chronological order and it wasn’t a flashback. I should probably fix that.

Total Word Count: 9,311

Day Eighteen—Sept 6, 2017

I actually wrote today. So, first, let me explain the last few days. I’ve been binge-watching a television show. I covered 28 hours worth of footage over the span of three days. But anyway, I finished the show so I’m back to writing. You know how you create all of these really cool things and then you have to figure out what they look like. That’s where I’m at right now. I created a world that isn’t set in a particular historical setting so now I’m constantly trying to mix and match my ideas with things that actually exist because I’m such a visual person. I wrote for about an hour and spent two hours learning about the different parts of the uniforms clergy wear and learning about medieval and ancient armor. I’m starting to lean towards leather armor because it fits in with my world visually, it looks cool and it’s pretty functional although it’s not the safest compared to metal. So, I’m thinking about placing metal armor only on certain characters to show their rank.

“I love doing all of this research on things that I’ll never use in real life,” I say sarcastically. One day, I learned about ancient sewer systems, toilets, and how to generate power in an age without electricity. Another day I spent five hours learning about medieval and ancient kitchens—how they worked, how they looked, and what was in them. Being a writer is the reason I know so many random facts, I swear.

Total Word Count: 9,980

Day Nineteen—Sept 7, 2017

I’m sick because my brother got my mom sick and she got me sick, although she’s blaming him for getting me sick. Anyway, I didn’t write anything today, but I did do some world building. Now that I’m actually writing, some of the ideas I had for the world have either changed a little to better fit the story or they have become fleshed out. I worked on my mythology a bit and worked on descriptions of clothing worn by soldiers and members of the Cloth (religious figures).

Total Word Count: 9,980

Day Twenty—Sept 8, 2017

I watched TV all day.

Total Word Count: 9,980

Day Twenty-one—Sept 9, 2017

I watched Korean television again because apparently, I don’t care about my deadline.

Total Word Count: 9,980

Day Twenty-two—Sept 10, 2017

I can’t write in my room right now so I’ve been trying to write in the living room. When I sat down to write, everyone decided they wanted to have long conversations with me. I kept trying to write but by the end of it, I was no longer in the mood.

Total Word Count: 10,114

Day Twenty-three—Sept 11, 2017

Television and the chores that come with adulthood took up my writing time today. But let’s be honest, I’m also procrastinating for some reason.

Total Word Count: 10,114

Day Twenty-four—Sept 12, 2017

For the past week, I’ve been binge-watching Korean dramas for some reason. They’re entertaining and distracting and whenever I go through internal struggles, I always search for distractions. Usually, I just throw myself into my writing but this time I chose TV. I’ve finished four dramas with running times of 1 hour and 5 minutes per episode with anywhere between 16—24 episodes per drama. I’ve been watching a lot of TV.

I went back and read my story from the beginning so I could keep the same tone throughout the work. Plus, I needed to jog my memory on what has already happened.

Total Word Count: 10,468

Day Twenty-five—Sept 13, 2017

Didn’t even open the document.

Total Word Count: 10,468

Day Twenty-six—Sept 14, 2017

I wanted to write today but I ended up spending most of the day doing some online training for my job. I also had the sniffles so I took some cold medicine and went to sleep early.

Total Word Count: 10,468

Day Twenty-seven—Sept 15, 2017

I actually wrote words. Yay. These past two weeks have been weird. I haven’t been able to write. Like even when I sat down, the words just wouldn’t flow. And it wasn’t like I had writer’s block. I knew what I was supposed to write I just couldn’t. It was weird but I’m so glad whatever that was, has passed. I only had about 30 minutes to write today but tomorrow I’m pretty sure my word count will jump back up to its normal 1k.

I’m a month into this project—nowhere near where I should be word count wise—but I finally feel like I’m writing a book. It wasn’t until today that I slipped back into my standard literary style of writing. Yes, that means this whole time I’ve been writing the book the same way I would write a screenplay. Not format wise but style wise. It wasn’t until I looked over what I wrote today that I realized the reason my other stuff felt so dry (not boring just dry) was because it wasn’t as full as literary works can be. It was bare in the same fashion that screenplays have to be due to the limited amount of pages available. So later on, when I’m bored, I’ll go back and fix the first three and a half chapters but for now, I’m just glad to be writing again.

Total Word Count: 11,080

Day Twenty-eight—Sept 16, 2017

I wrote words two days in a row. I guess it is just like walking. You have to put one foot in front of the other in order to get anywhere.

Total Word Count: 12,264

Writing Log 2: What Type of Writing Hell Is This?

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Day Eight—Aug 27,2017

I didn’t even open my document today. But can we all appreciate that Game of Thrones season finale? It was great.

Total Word Count: 6,747.

Day Nine—Aug 28, 2017

I wrote a little. I’m not un-inspired, I’m just sleepy for some reason. I worked on a smaller scene today and enjoyed how eerie it was. I’m starting to develop the dark undertones of what the Dream World (the barrier between different planes) is like. It’s definitely not the kind of place you want to wander around in by yourself.

Total Word Count: 7,504

Day Ten—Aug 29, 2017

I didn’t do any actual writing but I did do some plotting. I have a seven-page outline for this book but I’m super detail oriented. To explain better, I’ll tell you how I outline my screenplays. My screenplays run around 90 to 120 pages. My outlines for my screenplays are super detailed (because the beats for the scenes are included) and they usually run around 7 pages. My novel is probably going to be around 80-85k words. I’ve never tried to outline a book because all the ones I’ve written before have been pantsed. This one is planned and I’m still developing a way to outline this project. I tried for a few months to outline the book the same way I outline films and it didn’t work. I kept getting hung up on what to write next because of how big the project is. So I decided to use the same format I do my screenplays in, just not as detailed. That’s how I ended up with my current outline.

It tells me the beginning, middle, and end of my story. This outline also has the key plot points, subplots and character arks integrated into the overall story. I have three central characters so I had to figure out how to outline their journeys in order to make sure all three characters progressed. Today, I took some time to basically plan out the beats per chapter. I think doing the outline this way made it manageable and by the end of the first draft, my outline for this book will look like my outlines for my screenplays.

I’m realizing I may be too organized.

Total Word Count: 7,504

Day Eleven—Aug 30, 2017

I actually wrote words in the document today. Woohoo! After yesterday I was inspired to do something very stupid. I’m rewriting my prologue and first chapter. You know that sinking feeling you get as you write something that you know you’re going to have to rewrite later on down the road but you’re trying to push through and finish a project. That has been me this whole time. I have one scene that I feel is great. The rest of it is word vomit that barely explained what I was trying to express. So today, I took it upon myself to give in to my inner editor and re-write the problem areas. I completely rewrote the prologue and now it is so kick ass. And I’m currently working on the first chapter again to make it awesome as well.

I know, I should have left the inner editor in the dark hole it was in but it was really bothering me that my writing was so bad. And what made it worse was the fact that the events that happen in the prologue are super important and would be retold over and over again in the book from different character perspectives. So every time I was going back to fact check the prologue I was seeing how horrible it was. Today I wrote 2,025 words. Before this is done, I’ll probably write an additional 4 thousand words and then I’ll delete the older versions of the scenes. So when my word count suddenly plunges, you’ll know why. As of right now, I have my chapters broken down into scenes and I label each scene using numbers: Scene 1, Scene 2, etc. but now I have scenes named Scene 1.2. Also, I’m so close to the 10k mark. Too bad I’m going to lose so many words once I cut the older scenes. What type of writing hell is this?

Total Word Count: 9,529

Day Twelve—Aug 31, 2017

Sad day. I started cutting scenes. I would like to say that before I started cutting I’d made it to 11,283 words. My new word count is listed below. I’m sad now but it had to be done. I’ll probably reach 10k on day 14—two weeks after I started writing.

Total Word Count: 7,699

Day Thirteen—Sept 1, 2017

I decided to give myself a rest day, plus, I’m still bummed out about losing so many words.

Total Word Count: 7,699

Day Fourteen—Sept 2, 2017

I only wrote a little bit and I realized why my writing has slowed. This is the first “summer” I’ve had in four years. And when I say “summer” I mean duty-free summer—childhood-like summer. I’ve been enjoying this little two-week vacation from adult life but I know after Labor Day, adulthood is going to come crashing in and it’ll be back to schedules and work. The sad part is my word count will probably go up once I start working because I’ll have a set time for when I can write. Until then, I’ll be enjoying life. I am sad that I missed my goal for this week. I was hoping to hit 10k this week but it’ll probably happen on Monday or Tuesday.

Total Word Count: 8,204