NaNoWriMo Survival Guide

Hey all, as Camp NaNo time is rolling around again (in about 9 hours, to be precise), I thought I might share some of my tips and tricks for surviving the craziness that is Camp NaNo.
What is Camp NaNo, you ask? Well, Camp NaNo is a smaller, more casual and free-form version of the full NaNoWriMo of November. Camp NaNo happens in both April and July, and writers are allowed to set any word goal they want, and any type of project (from novels to short stories to poems).
I sticking with the good ol' novel this year, and I'm really excited (albeit somewhat nervous) to participate. I did take part in the July camp last year, and well, let's just say it didn't work out. (I got 8k words in before I gave up).
I don't quite know what it is, but something about Camp NaNo just doesn't feel like the November version - a lot less intense, I suppose.
All that aside, here's my tips for surviving NaNo, whether that's the traditional November one or the Camp versions.

Tip Numero Uno: PLAN PLAN PLAN
Okay, I get that some of you out there are pantsers. You thrive on taking NaNo by the seat of your pants, and maybe that works for you. On the other hand, there are also the planners, who plot out every scene before hand. Or there's me: the plantser. I'm a little bit of both. I plan up to a certain point, but after that, I wing it and plan as I go.
But this one thing is important: whether or not you're a panster or a planner, you NEED to have some idea of what you're going to write. Don't ever say, "hey, I'll just come up with an idea November 1st and it'll be fine."
BECAUSE IT WON'T.
Honestly, just come up with a very simple plot at least, maybe a Pinterest board with the feels you want. (I love me some Pinterest, guys)
JUST DO SOMETHING.

Tip #2: Sustenance of body and mind
Okay, it's pretty obvious that you need food to survive NaNo. I mean, you need food to survive every other month out of the year, writing contest or not. BUT, what you may not think of, is that you need food for the mind as well. But I'll get to that later. First, let me tell you about some of my favorite foods for NaNo.
FROZEN FRENCH FRIES: Easy, not (too) unhealthy, and you can pop them in the oven for a few minutes and write while they're cooking. Last November, my awesome brother brought a couple bags home for me and I feasted for a week.
Now, for drinks:
LA CROIX: My favorite drink for NaNo, and, honestly, the rest of the year. Healthy, with a hint of fruit, and they come in a million flavors. In my house, we can easily go through a couple cases a week.
A bonus of the November NaNo is leftover Halloween candy. Unfortunately, there's no Halloween during Camp NaNo, BUT there IS Easter! I'm seriously looking forward to some Creme Eggs and Peanut Butter Cups...mmm.
Sustenance for the mind:
Just as important, but easily overlooked. Stock up a collection of favorite books (or books you've been meaning to read) and settle down in between writing periods to keep your creative mind going. I got a few writing books for Christmas, and they're going to be my right-hand men this April as I work on my novel.
Wonderbook: Okay, this book is freaking WeIrD, but it's also insanely helpful. With selected essays and interviews with published authors, and surreal but somehow inspiring artwork, it'll answer a lot of your plot questions and issues.
The Emotion Thesaurus: This book is amazing. I have a weakness for Thesauruses, and this one takes the cake. It describes in detail physical and internal reactions to different emotions. It's especially helpful for getting around cliches that might come with certain emotions.
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy: A masterpiece by a master, Orson Scott Card. It helps you create worlds, cultures, and other things you might need in your speculative novel.
The Elements of Eloquence: A great book for the prose writer in all of us. This book has a huge amount of literary devices to help create the perfect turn of phrase.

Tip Number Three: Escape when you need to
I'm sure that most of you out there have at least one roommate. I, personally, have to share a home with two brothers, my mom, and two obnoxious cats. So, if you live in a crazy hub of activity like me, I give you permission to ESCAPE in order to get writing done. Whether that's to your room where you can put in headphones, write in peace, and *hopefully* not be interrupted, or to the nearest coffee shop, you should always have a fallback spot for when everything gets too crazy and you need some peace and quiet.

Well, that's it for today. I'll do my best to keep you updated on my progress through April (probably won't happen though lol).
Thanks for reading!
~Trinity

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year, everyone!
I hope that this year is filled with joy, and love, and kindness. That's what makes the world go 'round, you know.
Anyways, I'm here to tell you all of my new resolutions for this year. But first, let's go back and check up on last year's resolutions and see what did and didn't get done.

#1: Write a novel (outside of NaNoWriMo)
Yeah, this didn't happen. As I've outlined before, I have trouble finishing writing projects when they land outside of deadlines or structures. But hey, I sure started plenty of novels.

#2: NaNoWriMo-Vol. 2
HEY I did this !!
And, I did win! (Just realized I totally meant to do a post telling y'all that and never got around to it - oops.)
But hey, I'm 1 for 1!

#3: Enter the WriteOutofThisWorld contest
My last resolution, which brings my tally up to: 2 for 1!
If you remember, I did a whole post about disappointment in a writer's life. That disappointment came from my initial entry into this contest. But at least I did it, right?

That brings me to this year's resolutions.

#1: Write a novel outside of NaNo
Yep. It's the same as last year. And considering I didn't get it done in 2016...why not try again?
Actually, I'm already well on my way. I've started a novel that's been in my brain for a while now, (go to In The Works and check out "A Season of Discord") and I'm really happy with the whole idea. Now, if I could just stay motivated...
But let's hope that even if this novel doesn't make it, I'm able to write another one.

#2: NaNoWriMo - Vol. 3
Yep, yep. I know. Another repeat. But this one is pretty much a given, so is it really even a resolution?

#3: Enter the WriteOutofThisWorld contest
Why, yes, this IS another repeat. But I'm actually pretty proud of myself for this one. Even after the huge disappointment of last year, I'm willing to go back and try again. And hey, nothing says "writer" like being rejected, am I right?

#4: Write short stories
Finally, a fresh resolution that hasn't been recycled from last year.
This is something that's been on my mind for a while. After working on my short stories for the contest, I've realized that I actually really enjoy writing them. I love the fact that it doesn't take up too much time (ergo, my brain is able to stay focused on them) and that I can take little concepts that aren't enough for a whole novel but I still love and put them into something short but fun. Plus, I'm hoping to post my stories on here, so you all can get a taste of my writing!

#5: Push myself
This kind of applies to everything in my life, not just writing. But for your sake, I'll outline what I mean when it comes to being a writer.
I want to write more and stay focused on the big projects (like novels!)
I want to write out of my comfort zone - write things I wouldn't normally write, like genres besides sci-fi or fantasy.
I want to allow more people to read my writing. I tend to get hung-up on people's opinions of me when it comes to my writing, but if I ever want to be published, I need to get past that fear. There will always be haters in this world.
I want to find a community - other writers who I can chat with and can be my peers when it comes to writing. People who are safe to read what I write and can constructively criticize my writing - something, like I said before, I'm almost afraid of.


Well, that's it for now. Thank you all for reading!
-Trinity

Hot Tips for Writers

Okay, yeah, I've kind of given up doing a daily log this year. Why? Because it's already the 19th and I've only posted 1 log so far.
So I'm just going to stop trying at this point.
But, anyways, I felt like giving all you writers out there some *hot tips* about writing.
Cause I'm such an expert

#1: always, ALWAYS upload your writing to the Cloud.
I *might* have some experience with this. Might.
I'll tell you the story:
I had a laptop a while ago, a really nice one that had a touch screen and everything. I had it for a pretty long time, so I did a lot of writing on it, including last year's NaNo. Also, it's name was Data (yes, after Star Trek).
But then, one day I dropped it. Not very far, at all, but it managed to hit the ground at *just* the right angle, and the screen cracked. Not usually a big deal, right? Typically, you can still use a laptop that has a cracked screen.
Unless, of course, it's a touchscreen.
So, just my luck, the screen now constantly thinks its being touched. Which means I can't do a single thing on it. It was a sad situation, yes, but I was like "oh well, I'll just use my old clunky laptop again. It has OneDrive, I can get everything back from that."
Unless you're an idiot and decided to not upload all your writing to OneDrive.
I got some of it back, yes, but all the stuff that was really important to me in still in that little useless computer.
(Thankfully, my dad is a tech whiz and is going to help me get all of that stuff off the hard drive so I can not lose it all into the black abyss of nothingness.)
Anyways, a good lesson to y'all: always upload everything to the Cloud. You'll thank yourself for it later.

#2: music makes the world go 'round.
I used to have a lot of troubling focusing when I wrote. I tried different background noises; I even lied to myself that having a TV show like the Office on in the background was helpful. (I honestly thought it was, until I started pausing it when I sat there and found that I got a lot more writing done in the pauses.)
But at the same time, I did need something to help me focus. I love music, of course; it's kind of a big thing for my family. But listening to just my normal music doesn't work.
You see, when the music has lyrics, it tends to throw me off. I get caught up paying too much attention to the song and not enough attention to the writing I was trying to do.
My solution?
I went on Spotify and picked out a few of their pre-made playlists. They have a whole section of them devoted to "focus" and that was probably the best decision I made in my life as a writer.
My personal favorite is "Deep Focus." It has a beautiful sound, it's all instrumental, and it's all peaceful enough to kind of tune out while you're writing.
Try it. You'll love it.

#3: coming up with a daily quota is probably the best decision you can make.
That is, if you're like me.
I find I write the best during the NaNo season. Yes, some of it is the thrill of "competition" (though it's not, really), but honestly, I find that having the set daily amount INCREDIBLY helpful.
I can write a small but still good amount every day, and feel accomplished when I stop and still have time to relax and watch some TV or hang out with friends.
I do have some friends who tend to write in a "frenzy" and can knock out 10k words a day. But I, personally, like having a reasonable daily goal. It's kind of comforting to be able to see the end.
Though writing will be harder when NaNo ends, (again, there's just something about November...), I'm going to try to come up with a daily quota that is attainable. And maybe, just maybe, I'll actually be able to finish a novel outside of NaNoWriMo. (I find that that's when my best ideas erupt, the other 11 months of the year, when I find it quite difficult to actually finish anything.)

#4: find a quiet space or change up your location.
It's kind of funny how just being in a different place can stimulate your brain. It seems like having a new environment would be more distracting, but not so. (That is, if you put in earbuds.) For me, as an introvert, it almost creates some new energy being out and about, especially if you aren't interacting with people. And the same goes for being in a quiet space.
Got siblings? Keep away from them. They can be big distractions, especially if they're the type of siblings you actually enjoy hanging out with.
Pets can be distracting, too. I know having my soft kitty sleeping at the end of my bed while I write is a recipe for disaster. (i.e, not getting writing done.) So lock them out of your writing space, if possible.
And definitely remove all of your devices, except for your laptop, of course. Social media is one of the main distractions of this era.

#5: free up your time.
I can't stand doing anything fun when I know I have to do not-fun stuff afterwards. Even if it's something like watching TV, when my mom asks me to do a chore, I do it right away so I can get back to my free-time. It's just not a good feeling having that looming over you when you're trying to enjoy yourself.
The same goes for writing. I tend to get in my writing for the day in the afternoon/night, because that's after I've done all my chores and homework. That way, I can completely focus on writing and not feel that pressure to get other stuff done.
Do you work? Then get that done first. Homework? The same goes for that. Chores? especially that.
You want to be able to relax when you write. It's supposed to be a fun experience, isn't it? So don't leave the hard stuff for after you write. It never feels good.

Well, that's all I have for now! I hope you enjoyed my little tips, and I hope you can establish them in your own life as a writer!
Adios amoebas!

The Start Line: NaNo Log days 1 & 2

It's here.
National Novel Writing Month is here.
The goal: write 50k words in a month, in an attempt to write a novel.
Yes, it's pretty dang hard. But also incredibly worthwhile. Last year I signed up with the Young Writer's Program (where you can set your own goal) and managed to finish my novel of 35k. I was even able to print a legit, paperback copy of my story. I remember taking it out of the box and thinking, "it's a book. With my name on in. I wrote it." I was so proud of myself. Sure, maybe I didn't do any sort of editing, leaving it instead as a very, very rough draft. But nonetheless, it's a novel, and it's mine.

This NaNo so far:
Starting out, I had issues. Right away I felt like I had writer's block; the words didn't seem to come. But just a few minutes ago that changed.
I started out writing in 3rd person, something I've never really done before. And that, as it turns out, was the issue.
I was just writing a scene that started flowing really well, and I was really enjoying myself. But as I took a break a looked back at what I had written, I realized: I had inadvertently switched to 1st person.
I love writing in 1st person. It flows well, sounds more put-together. There are some worries, especially in this novel's case, but I think I'm going to switch fully to 1st person.
Yes, at some point I'll have to go back and change the POV from the beginning, but I think overall it will be much better for me and the novel.
For today (and yesterday) I'm not going to do a true log, like last year, but I'll give you a little info about what I've accomplished.

Today's wordcount: 1,945
Total words: 3,681

That's it for now. I have some problems with the story (not that I don't like it, just stuff I need to work through) but so far I'm really enjoying myself.
See ya on the flip side!

The Trap of Cliches

NaNo is just about here.
Yes, already. I can't believe it's already been a year since I wrote my dear sci-fi novel.
And this year, I'm just as excited.
After mulling over a few ideas, I've finally settled on my fantastically dark fantasy novel idea, Darkest. It has faeries and darkness and evil queens who like ravens.
Yes. I'm very excited.
However, fantasy is VERY different from sci-fi. And what I really have to worry about this year are cliches.
They're everywhere. They're difficult to avoid. And they can easily bring down your entire novel.

So here I'll list what I believe are some common cliches, and how I have avoided them or how I need to figure out how to get around them.

Medieval-esque European setting
Heh. You can count this as one cliche already for me.
Unfortunately, this one can be hard to get around. Fantasy has very much so been grounded in this idea of faux-Medieval setting that it's hard to come up with creative ideas for other types of setting. I would LOVE to find some way around this, but I'm afraid I might not be able to. So far, my story is definitely faux-Medieval, with maybe a few more modern twists in it, but not many. As for European...well, my basis is on faeries who have a certain type of "charge," e.g. a plant or bird or insect that they are somehow connected to. Therefore, the region they live in is determined by where their charge would live in. For example, my main characters are Cherry Blossom and Laurel faeries. That means they'll both live in a mountainous region. However, the main villain(s) (raven fae), live in an open, sage-brush plain area. So European doesn't really go along with the theme, since there would also be places such as a jungle rainforest or African desert.
But again, I'm a little worried about the whole "faux-Medieval ages" thing. My fae will live in little rural, farm-y villages in their regions, doing simple things like working the land and such. Which sounds pretty Medieval-peasant to me. The Raven Queen is the main villain and, of course, lives in a big castle in the Plain region. However, her minion/soldiers wear something more like a modern (and by modern, I mean like WWII) military uniform. And besides that, I want to add some more elements to everything with the Raven Queen to get it even farther away from the Medieval ages.
If you have any ideas for me on my little dilemma, feel free to leave them below in the comments!

Older male mentor
Now I'm 1 for 1. Although I do have an older mentor in this story, she is a more of a matronly, protective figure who also kicks some serious @$$ while searching for her kidnapped son. She's kind of my favorite character and may end up being more central than my MC. And she's a red-head. So Niana for the win.

The orphan
Dangit. Another big cliche for me.
I'm really not sure how to get around this. For some reason it feels so natural to have my main character be an orphan. And I really don't know why. I'd love to get around this somehow, but I have no idea how I could. Especially she's 19 and would still be living at home. Any suggestions are welcome.

The young hero
I already mentioned this in the last section, and though 19 is young, I do have some other plans for her. So this could go either way.
Alaures, my MC, is young, yes, but I also want her to be a bit more of an adult than a kid. Think of her as more of a twenty-something than barely an adult. But at the same time, I need her to be relatively naive. What do you think?

The absent/evil mother
Though Alaures is probably an orphan, I want to focus on Niana here. It's really important to me to have a strong, female mother character in my story, so enter Niana. In fact, her husband is the one who is absent (he abandoned the family) so she's gone through life taking care of her four children alone and doing a pretty epic job at it. And she's definitely not evil. In fact, she's really less evil than her co-MC. (OOH SPOILER ALERT) (jk not really)

The white hero
Okay, I am very much white, so this is funny to write about. But for some reason, the idea popped into my head to make Alaures of a different ethnicity (though ethnicity isn't truly present in my story.) She has darker, nut-brown skin and curly dark-brown hair. Her skin color doesn't really matter in my story's context, but I like the idea of her not being white.

The competent young hero
For the record, Alaures is not competent. At all. In fact, she's kind of the reason Niana's son went missing in the first place. (You'll see later) Plus, I want her to have a lot of inner struggles with her own "darkness" inside and the internal fight of good vs. evil. Hopefully this will prove to be pretty anti-cliche.

The quest
Okay, yes, this story is based around a "quest" (of sorts). But honestly, that isn't so much a cliche as it is a basis of the fantasy genre. Ask any English major (hi, Mom!) and they'll probably agree. Probably. I haven't really asked any myself, yet.

The magic/evil weapon
Let the record show that: YESSS I DON'T HAVE A MAGIC WEAPON
Guys, I'm so proud of myself. I thought I wouldn't be able to resist. But it was way easier than I thought. Just normal deadly weapons for this girl.

Well, there you go. My list of fantasy cliches and how I have (or haven't) avoided them. Please leave any thoughts about my list in the comments, and if you have any questions on the cliches I listed or wondered about one of your own, feel free to ask me!
Sayonara. I'm going to go watch Phineas and Fern now.

Trials in the Life of a Writer

(I'm just going to ignore that fact that it's been forever since I've posted.)

Look above. At the pictures. You see that? That is my first rejection as a writer.
Yeah, it kinda sucks. The funny thing is, I see it as a milestone. A crappy one, but a milestone nonetheless.
Sure, it's a rejection. But it's a rejection as an author. Every author goes through a rejection. Even the absolute best ones.
Like Abby told me when I was moping and broken up about this, "J.K. Rowling was rejected 5 times when trying to publish Harry Potter." (That's not an exact quote, but you get the point.)
It's true. And J.K. Rowling, as we all know, is considered one of the greatest children's authors of her time.
So I'm trying my best to see the positive in this whole ordeal. Even if I still get teary when I see those pictures or look at the list of winners in the contest.

*

But on a different note, the hardest part of this is being motivated. I mean, who wants to go on writing when their first piece ever to be seen by another's eyes is rejected?

I'm trying so hard  to get myself writing again. Besides all the obvious factors that hinder me (school and life), I just can't sit down and write. It's painful. All I can imagine is being rejected again.

My short story for the contest was inspired by the band Metric. One of their songs (Speed the Collapse) has a line that says "Auctioned off their memories." My main way of inspiration is finding little phrases or ideas like that and building off of it. I was thinking, if I did well in the contest, I wanted to find some way to send my story to the band. But now...I still kind of want to, but I'm afraid. I have that awful little critic in my head that tells me no.

But in those cases, you have to be brave. I know that I want to write. But if I never take chances, how can I be a writer?

I think it was about a year ago I told myself I wanted to write. Not for me, not for the community, but for God. I realized how incredible His gift of language was, and I wanted to be able to use that for His glory. But then again, you know, a rejection. All I could think was that He didn't want me to write. But I have a feeling it was the enemy telling me that.

And so, I will write again. And this time, I will be brave. I will write for the glory of God. And I won't be afraid of rejection.

 

<3

A Writer's Resolutions

Wow. 2016.
Well, now it sounds terrible to say that I haven't posted since last year. Sorry. Life and stuff.
I've never been big on resolutions; it's more of a subconscious thing for me to make these plans but not really follow through.
However, for this year, I've been changing it up a little.
I've been going and making little resolutions for different aspects of my life: school, art, and of course, writing.
So I wanted to share my writing resolutions with you here; your support and constant reminders of my goals would be great!

#1: Write a Novel
Yes, I know, kind of obvious. But this does exclude NaNoWriMo, so it would be a totally independent thing for me. And, therefore, probably a lot harder to follow through with.
My main difficulty with not finishing one novel is that my brain is always working and unconsciously creating new ideas. I'll be super excited about one story, start writing, but the next thing I know, my mind is telling me about this great new idea. So after all these years of writing, a lot of cool story ideas have been left, half-finished, in the dust.
So, really, this resolution is a lot deeper than it sounds. It also requires focus, patience, and dealing with my life-wrecking ADD. (Yes, ADD. I can't even READ anymore. It sucks.)

#2: NaNoWriMo-Vol. 2
This should be a given for me now. Normally, it would be no big deal, especially since I managed it during my insane month of November this year, AND with no former experience under my belt. But I'm pretty sure this year is going to be even worse.
I have a lot of things I'm working on/towards. I'll be a Junior, and I've heard from many people that that is the most difficult year of high school. Not exactly looking forward to that.
And in addition, I'll be hopefully beginning Running Start, teaching an Ancient History class at my co-op, and applying for the Washington Aerospace Scholars. It's a lot of work.
But I'm a big dreamer, and I aspire to be a lot of things. That makes life even more overwhelming.

#3: Enter the Write Out of This World short story contest.
So this isn't totally a resolution; more just a plan and project I'm working on. And another reminder, considering the contest ends on the 31st of this month. Heh. Yeah. I really need to get going on it...


Well, that's it. For now.
I think people try to get themselves off the hook by saying that resolutions are only made at New Years. But they shouldn't be. If we want to change something in our life, start NOW. Life won't wait for ya.

Anywho, happy 2016. Maybe it'll rock, maybe it'll suck.
Adios, amoebas.