New Years Resolution

I'm making resolutions this year.  I think I always do, but I don't always write them down and plan them out appropriately.  So I'm making a bigger effort on that front this year. 

I am excited about having y-writer now.  I used it to write in Nano2012.  But not to its full extent.  This year I would really like to use it as it's meant to be used and draft out my Nano2013 story in advance of the crazy month of November.  I have a story brewing in my mind that I had planned to write in 2012.  I went a different direction last year, so the story still needs telling.  I have a few notes scattered here and there.  Maybe more than a few.  There might be enough for a very basic outline.  Basic, but an outline for the entire story.  It needs rounding out.  It needs better characters.  It needs a lot, but it's a start. 

So, I plan to make time each month to do a step in story telling.  I'm adding it to my calendar/planner.

For Christmas, my father gave me a 24 lecture CD course on writing.  I'm both dreading and excited to start that course.  And it has become a resolution to finish it by my birthday. 

My calendar is filling up with all the plans I'm making....

New Song

 

This is my new can't get enough of it song.  I may have finally got enough of Fun. Some Nights.

 

 

 

I don't quite understand why the singer can shave her eyebrows and draw in new ones, but can't be bothered shaving her armpits at all.  But who am I to judge?

Learning lessons

November is over. Well, a few days are still coming, but the hard part is over. Nanowrimo. I finished this year. I am not sure if I should feel shocked that I made it or not. I'm not sure if I really believed I'd do it (I tend to avoid things that will be hard). I went in knowing it was going to be painful. And it was. And I could probably still write more to the story. But I won't. Can't.

I'm not sure if I learned what I was meant to but I did learn. I found out I am both stronger than I thought I was and not nearly strong enough. And I'm a fool.

Maybe now comes the healing and growing.

The story is uploaded. I've won Nano and now the story can be wiped out. No one need read it again.

I did learn to appreciate the outlining program I found. I didn't use it to it's full potential. This story didn't call for it. But now I might break up the Piper story from 2 years ago and put it into the program. I think it could help me edit it. And it still needs editing. I wonder if it works backwards like that...

Maybe even the sucky story from last year could be reworked if I break it up a bit and get it organized.

There is always Nano 2013.

Amazingly I found the time. I should have done that a long time ago... I'm learning the importance. To bad it's a lesson learned late.

It Will Leave a Scar

I’m doing Nano again this year. And I’m not excited about it. I’m going it alone this year I think. No word war challengers, no cheerleaders writing/suffering with me. I haven’t ever succeeded in Nano this way, but to be fair, I’ve failed with supporters as well.

I had a basic outline that was a fictionalized story of the past few years in my life. Kind of a write what you know thing. But I’ve been encouraged to really write what I know. So I’m not going to fictionalize it. I don’t know how far back to even go, but it will be further back than I was planning originally. It’s a long story, but I don’t know all the words. And believe it or not I’ll have to research it. Research my own life and my own feelings. That seems a little weird, but I’ve already looked back and found that there are feelings I’d forgotten and recent things that I’m not comfortable remembering. I’m not excited to bring up the bad emotions that I’ve tried to erase already. In fact I’m not sure I’m excited to bring up the good ones right now either.

I guess it’s like picking a scab. Sometimes it really hurts, but you have to do it to get the bad stuff out. It’s meant to be healing but it will leave a scar.

Maybe I’ll be a better person by the end of this. Maybe I’ll at least know me a little better again. I hope I like me in the end.

yWriter

I found a book about outlining. It was on Amazon and I bought it, along with a couple other noveling made easy books. Ha! I won’t get to read them before Nano this year, and I shouldn’t because the story I’m writing is different. But I did browse through the first one. And I thought there were some good tips in it. One recommendation is to use yWriter.  It’s free software from SpaceJock. http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html. It helps you sort your book into scenes and chapters that can be moved around and dropped where you need them later.

I did download it and I’ve started to build my outline on there. I think it will be a very useful tool. I’ve already had to move things around because I remembered them in the wrong order or I wanted a chapter in between when A and B happened.

I guess the one thing I am excited about Nano this year is the actual outline. By November 1, I should have at LEAST 30 bullet points to spew on about. I can write 1667 words if I have an idea about what to write about. And I have a feeling it will take more than 30 if I’m being true to myself and not glossing over points.