To My Loyal Readers

World building and Back story

2010-06-16T13:05:00.001-07:00

It’s an amazing thing when you look down at your own ideas and realize you’re creating a world. It makes you feel much more like a ‘real’ writer, even when you’re, like I am, so far from even trying to be published. It’s not something I expected from myself. I always thought my stories would jump around. Worlds weren’t for me. I wasn’t that creative.

I did try to create worlds, fantasy ones, as a child, but the task was always overwhelming. There’s so much TOO a world that you have to think of, and this has plague even great fantasy and sci-fi writers to this day. In fact, while I dislike his writing personally, my biggest admiration and praise for Tolkien is that he managed to create such a large, realistic world. So, a few years ago, I gave up medieval fantasy when writing. It was too hard for me and I couldn’t see the big picture that well. I also gave it up because after 16 years of medieval fantasy I had grown bored with the genre.

So I turned my eye to modern fantasy. (I still love my magic.) I figured, here we go, no need to worry, the world is set up for me. I don’t have to worry at all. Then, to my utter surprise, when the pressure is off, I started to build my world.

This might not work for everyone. I don’t know, I can only give advice for what worked for me. The other day I learned that someone published a novel five years after she started. I always assumed if you were one of those people that said you spend x years working on something, of course it wouldn’t work, you let the project drag out too long. What do you know?

But for me, when world building, it’s nice to start small. Magic Quarter started small. At first, I just had the Themes. One word that your magic gathered around to varying strength depending on the person. Then I decided, how can this magic work with the world at large, so I decided on the magic quarter. When I sat down to actually write Jokers, I worked on it a little bit, enough to understand the setting better. I thought about what would work and how. As my characters evolved, my setting had to evolve to make sure their backstory still made sense.

Then I made a Knight character for an RP with my muse, Astrid. I wanted to use him in a story and I was trying to think, “What could motivate a knight to exist in modern times? Why would one exist, especially with the level of motivation and backstory my character has?”

That’s how my magic users got an enemy, the Knights. Now I have two sides of an ancient war. Best of all, I could switch sides as the stories demanded. Magic users were selfish and cold as a whole. Knights were over driven and close minded. Both could be villains and heroes. I like the idea of that, no clear good and evil.

The point is, I would have never come up with such an enemy for the Magic Quarter without letting the idea comes as it may. If you start small, with a set of characters and a simple setting the setting may grow as your characters grown. I believe a naturally grown world is best, it comes off as more natural.

Try not to push anything in your writing. Pushing forces blocks. While sometimes you’ll have to push yourself, you shouldn’t have to push your writing. You’d be amazed at the gifts your story can give you, so long as you treat it right.

Themes

2010-06-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

So while I was editing today I started thinking a little about a different project I currently have on hold so I can edit. I wrote in Jokers that every Theme has its opposites. Taking Jokers as an example, there's a reason Chaos and Control were born at the same time. The world without both would be unbalanced and it's a risk to have all the power on one side.

In my other story I'm thinking of having Dawn and Shadows. (Which is different from Light and Dark by term of power, Light and Dark are special and I'll explain about the different kinds of Themes in a different entry). I realized that I wanted Shadows to be much older, so I wondered how that would work.

Then I thought, well, it'd be silly for every opposite to be twins. I mean, not that many twins are born. There are a lot of Themes. Then I realized this explains why most Theme users are born to magical families but why sometimes someone born to a human family gets a Theme. (Which I'll have to explore someday)

When someone with a Theme dies, that Theme becomes 'open' for a new baby to get it. If the opposite Theme still lives , that Theme needs to be reborn pronto. Obviously whatever assigns Themes can't just make life, (Unless I wanted to make Gods, which is getting WAY too big), so they have to give it to about to be born baby, as soon as birth as possible. If there isn't any available among the magic folk, which is more natural for a Theme, then it will have to go to a more open human.

For you wondering just what Themes ARE, Themes is a brand of magic where people can do anything relating to a single word Theme. Taking my heroes from my last post:

Clara has a Dream Theme, (rhyming ftw) and can make people live out their greatest fantasies naturally. With control, she can manipulate dreams and make people see whatever she wishes. Stronger Themes can also communicate though dreams, and enter sleeping people's minds.

Korbin has two Themes (VERY rare, three Themes are impossible), Chaos and Emotion. With Chaos he can gather it around his skin, it's like a mix of water and electricity running across his skin except it's a dark purple. This allows for an random affect to happen to both him and whose attacking him. Chaos sometimes favor its host and sometimes it doesn't. When it does, in general it will hurt who ever is attacking (or whoever Korbin is attacking) and help Korbin, but it can make everything worse too. Obviously unstable. It always makes it impossible for Korbin to live too structured a life and he has a high risk for insanity later in life. Emotion is a bit more stable. He can see people's emotions as colors that surround them and manipulate them with his mind. He can grow or suppress a person's feelings but he can't create or destroy.

Phoenix has two Themes two, Manners and Control. Manners is a suck Theme. All it does is force you to be polite, always. He can never be rude, or so he thinks. Phoenix is a bit of a defeatist and has a very self-fulling prophesy personality. I'll explore that more in his book. Control is much more fun, for him. Control allows him to control anyone he choses. Well, it could, depending on how strong it is. Problem is that it's very rude to take control of someone so Phoenix doesn't get to use it much and even then, only with permission. Side affects include a high chance for OCD and he can't get addicted to anything or get that high or drunk (all include loss of control). He's also good at a lot of sports, and surprisingly, video games. Not that he'd ever play them.

Rachael's Theme is Lust, part of the special Seven Sins Team. Her Theme is kind of sucky too, but only because she doesn't want to be a slut. Lust is attractive to everyone the host is attracted too. (I.E, straight people? Just opposite gender. Gay? Just same gender. Bi? Everyone! Whoo!) It works stronger when person does want someone and is semi-activated by puberty. (It gets stronger thanks to hormones). Problem is, that if it's strong it tends to just encourage molestation without proper control and people being aware. Rachael is human born so....yeah. But that's a story for another time.

Alignments

2010-06-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

So this is just for fun. I was discussing with my muse Astrid possible DnD alignments for my characters for Jokers, my novel I'm editing (slowly, damn you laziness!). Ether way; this novel has Clara (main character), Korbin (her love interest), Phoenix (Korbin's twin) and then for the sequel, Rachael (Phoenix's love interest, hence sequel).

Clara is definitely Lawful Good, she Catholic (though lapsed) and kind of a coward, which means she feels better toeing the line. All forms of establishment calms her, and while authority figures tend to scare her, she also is drawn to them.

Korbin is obvious. It's in his Themes. XD He's Chaotic Good, can't stand establishment and authority figures makes him thumb his nose at them. He tends to break rules and patterns for the hell of it but you cant rust him while breaking those rules and patterns that he's doing a good thing on the side. Ironically he'd make a good knight, since they tended to wander around saving girls.

Phoenix must be opposite of Korbin always! So he's Lawful Evil. I think in my edited version this becomes more clear, since I'm not so eager to get him and Clara close, but when I orginally thought these two up, Phoenix was supposed to be the 'evil' twin. (I thought these up for a soap opera mocking RP, hence why they're a little cliche) I wanted him to appear good and Korbin to appear evil while being good. So while he ended up becoming a good guy for me, and hero of his own novel, I still see him as evil.

Then Rachael, which no one knows because the small bit of Phoenix's story I posted before I took everything down had Eve. Rachael is her stronger replacement. Eve was a little too wish washy, and it became uncomfortable to write such an unbalanced relationship. Rachael is Lawful Neutral and with much more of a spine than Eve. She's also not that into 'good' or 'evil', but definitely obeys the law because she feels she owes it to her 'parents'. Her story will be reveled eventually.

So it's been a while since I posted here. Sorry, school hit me hard and I've been quietly working away. I'll try to post things here, like new projects, what's been going one, ect. I'm not quite sure what to use this for, I'll be honest, when I don't have much to update writing wise. A part of me feels I should use it to give lessons on writing like many writers do, and make it less all about me, me, me and perhaps I'd get more readers but that requires work and effort and I'm bad at both. XD

Ether way, I'll try to post more fun stuff like this.

Oh, and editing is going okay. Not as good as it should. I have finished my first edit of chapter '3' of Jokers.

Join me on Facebook for more updates. I love it when my readers friend me and I tend to post more there.

So...its been a while...

2010-03-02T11:53:00.001-08:00

So it’s been a while since I updated my story, and even longer since, I posted here in my blog. I did warn you that school might eat my butt. This is sort of what happened. School is keeping me busy; in fact, since school started (a month ago) this is the first day I don’t have homework to do and I still have to go into school for a group project, but there has been other factors.

Factor one: despite my great excitement over Innocent Sins, it has never been fun to write. The more and more I move forward with this project the less and less I like it. I kept looking forward to new events and found them disappointing. It bored me to write and it bothered me to write. I do normally get inspiration for my story ideas from Astrid, but this is the first time where my female lead was HER character with a name and some tiny details changed. I never liked that and I knew she never liked that. So I’m putting Innocent Sins away until I can figure out what I want to do with that.

Factor Two: I am getting more and more uncomfortable with posting my work to FictionPress. When I started to write, I needed readers, you guys, to make me feel like my writing was worth while and it worked. I’ve had popular work posted there and always felt the love and support you guys gave me, but it’s time I stop using that crutch. Also, I don’t think publishers would publish work that is available, for free, online. So, starting today, I’m taking down all my novels from FictionPress. I’m sorry to any who likes to read it, but I am going to try to publish soon.

Anyway, with these decisions in mind, and with some emotional turmoil starting up again, I have continued to write, and edit. I started a new novel, under the working title of Family Bonds. I described it once. It’s my first non-supernatural story and I imagine it will be shorter than some of my other novels. It has a surprising life considering how little time I can dedicate to it, but I’ve enjoyed writing it. This will be my first novel I write without posting, at all.

I will keep my ‘readers’ updated on my Facebook account. I made a list of friends for people who are my readers and keep updates on my writing, and editing. If you want to add me as a friend, just look for Nica Borders-Chagolla. I think I’m the only one. Ether way, you have a picture here, so you know what I look like.

In other news, I’m editing Pair of Jokers. I’m on page 60 now, of the first edit read through. There are 188 pages. I edit by dividing my story into segments about 30 pgs long, and then use these report folders to keep them together, while I edit. I’m on the third segment out of six, so when I’m done with this, I’ll be half way though with the second step! (This is big news to me people, never gotten this far, I simply chose to rewrite Beasts.) Anyway, once I’m done with this, I’ll make my changes and then send them of to my ‘editors’. Let them fix up my grammar, and hear about what they think needs changing. Then I’ll decide what I’ll listen too, fix the grammar, and, well, we’ll see after that. It’s a while away.

Ether way, I’m planning to keep this blog up. I might start keeping it as a place for me to discuss certain parts of writing and reading, give you people something to read rather than a list of my writing activities. If you guys have any questions, don’t be afraid to leave comments, and for now, happy readings.

Update and some thoughts on Poetry

2010-01-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

I haven’t posted here in a while. Things have been boggy as far as writing goes. I read over the unedited manuscript for Pair of Jokers and something amazing happened, for me at least. I loved the story, I loved the characters and I even liked the writing, but the best part of all of it, was I didn’t love the story from the point of view of a writer reviewing her work, I loved it from the point of view of a reader.

It’s an amazing thing when your writing reaches your reading level. Keep fighting until it gets there, only practice can make you a better writer.

So I’ve been slowly editing Jokers, and even slower writing on Sins. Sins is giving me issues, but mostly I just feel really blocked AND fogged. I have to keep pushing forward on my writing but it’s a little harder than with Jokers, but I am not giving up. Sins will be finished and then I’ll focus heavily on editing Jokers.

In other news, school starts for me on Monday. I have no idea what this will mean for my writing. It will probably make me focus more since I’ll have less time but we’ll see. I’m very excited about heading off to school, and while I don’t have any creative writing classes this year I’m probably going to start working towards my degree next year, which hopefully will mean good things for my work.

But some of you, those of you with Author Alerts, might have noticed I posted something new and rare on my profile; a poem. I do have several poems on my profile, but I’m not a poet. I do like expressing myself though poetry but I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to poetry.

My senior year I took a creative writing class that taught me a lot about poem structure and form. I loved it. I loved how it made me work hard for my poetry to have meaning. I loved trying to fit what I wanted to say into a certain form or rhyme structure, but it was hard and I’m a lazy person. So I turn my nose up to free form poetry but don’t like to write anything other than it. (Except for a sonnet now and then.)

But this poem I found in a notebook while cleaning my room. I wrote it last year I think, on a way from school. I was dealing with the break up that made me start writing seriously all together, a break up that still affects me in some ways today. As you know, I am a Leo, hence the title. The emotion is something I can still relate too as I read over the work and with some minor editing I decided to post it.

I think it’s a fine poem, not great, I still wish it had structure but it works and I like the last line.

Boy I’m glad I’m not there anymore.

Innocent Sins is up!

2010-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it’s a day or two late, but I wrote two chapters to make up for it. That’s right, Innocent Sins is up. It was great to slide back into this story; it almost makes me look forward to editing Jokers. I enjoyed the beginning though it lacks the hook that Jokers had but not every story can have that great hook. I can only hope that everyone enjoys it. I do admit I’m a little nervous about posting my work again. I got used to writing by myself, all closed up. I might just start writing like that all the time soon, I don’t know.

If anything, this story will be up because people deserve the sequel that I actually want to write. I don’t know what’s going to happen once I finish this story. I think I want to spend this year focusing on getting some of my work polished and sent off. I’m going to put in a mental drawer some of my younger aged protagonist stuff, until I know exactly what I want to do with them, and focus more on this.

So I think my next project will be editing Jokers, getting that polished and then sent out. I find it a little ironic what a strong influence the Catholic Church is having on my two female leads. I never planed it that way but somehow religion just seemed to work for both the characters. I’m going to walk on some careful ground with Sins I think, since I have some ideas how that is going to go but I’m sure I can handle it.

Side note: If you’re Catholic, hit me up. I’d like to know more about how the church works, though I don’t think it will come into much play, but I do know I want to know more about the teachings, which I know little about. That was okay for Clara, who left the church out of disinterest a while ago once the story started but Eve is still an active Catholic.

I didn’t realize that until I started writing that Eve would be even more devoted right now than ever. So, I wouldn’t mind some help with that, though I’m not going to worry about it too much. I have a Catholic friend I can discuss things with to fix it up in later drafts. For now, I want to get the story out.

Ether way, I hope you like Sins and we’ll see what the future brings, right?

EDIT: First post of 2010. Also, first time writing 2010!

Update!

2009-12-31T15:47:00.000-08:00

So…I think it’s time for an update. It’s been a little while and things are changing over here. New Years is coming up, meaning I just have one more month off (whoo!) before I go back to school and have to deal with homework and a much longer drive. So I’ll be loosing a lot of time, so what I really wanted to do with my time off was rewrite Beasts and then write a whole another novel but there’s a slight problem with that first one. I like Beasts, I like it a lot, and in someway it’s great to see where it’s going but…

I’m starting to hate it. I resent working on it, and as much as I want to move forward with a piece I think it’s time it goes back into a drawer. I’m sorry I keep being so silly about my work but sometimes things need to go in drawers, Timeless (and it’s sequel) is currently in the same drawer.

I’ve decided what I want to work on next is Joker’s sequel. I had so much fun writing Jokers and I miss it. I want to return to those characters, they have always been jumping around in my mind. So I’m going to give in and write Phoenix’s story, I took time off, I distanced myself from Eve’s source material and found some changes for her that I think will help. I have this story pretty well outlined out, so I’m hoping to start today or tomorrow. I went though all my pre writing questions.

I don’t know what I’ll do after I write Innocent Sins (the sequel’s current title), but I do know that I got ideas on how to rewrite Mantle and Written, two novels that I really wanted to rewrite. I have some problems with Beasts is that while I like that it’s a high school novel I’m so enjoying writing stories where the characters are older, and able to control their own lives. That’s what I loved about Jokers; I didn’t have to worry about realistic parents or homework.

I am a little worried about Mantle, it’s one of my most cliché ideas, and I have a hard time starting projects when I can see their clichés. I feel like it’s still a good story and I can deal with the clichés well enough but…well, the ideas came from a parody RP and I can not write parody, so you can see the problem.

Ether way, Written interests me, it will be right in between my old style and new. While I like writing the older characters, I liked Kit’s relationship with her father far too much. So I plan to cut out Caldur’s parents, and have Kit be 18, and a senior in high school. I also am debating including a subplot with a nurse for her father, which may or may not work out romantically. I just see a great scene that would show a lot about Kit’s personality.

Like I said, I don’t know when I’ll write these ideas, but Innocent Sins is currently next. Expect the first chapter soon; I plan to try to match my NaNo pace. Maybe cut out weekends though, for my mom. We’ll see.

Open Letter

2009-12-14T20:56:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter to the edited story and characters of Becoming Beasts

Dear Asher:
What. The. Fuck? Can you EVER stay consant? Really. First I imagine you as a laid back jokester with a hero complex who helps Kaylee learn to relax and enjoy life. Then you become a mildly controlling, very possessive, and aggressive guy with a tendency to whine and a HUGE chip on your shoulder. That’s fine, I rolled with it, hell I enjoyed it. But you have to admit, despite that GIANT warning you gave me in your first scene the first several chapters were oddly light hearted for how you became. So I went back and I started to write you a new.

And then you decide to lighten up!? Seriously? Really, what the hell is up with you? Just because you’re reacting to my fears that Becoming Beasts has too many of the unfortunate implications as Twilight you’re lightening up and encouraging Kaylee to…Oh….

…Clever. Real clever, becoming a nicer more accepting guy just because I decided I dislike the parallels between you and Edward. But that’s enough you got it? This book can’t move forward unless editing edits! I know I’m rewriting it but still! No more changing, got it? I’m fine with the new you and your scenes between Kaylee and yourself are still quite adorable but that’s enough.

Also, this attitude better not get in the way of the drama. I liked the drama. I’m watching you.

Dear Wyatt:
Uhhhh, yeah, sorry about kind of putting you in the ‘Take that’ side of the whole ‘fearing unfortunate implications’. I think I managed to redeem you a bit, I mean you are nicer around girls than guys and I always planed that for you. So…I’ll try to keep things rolling so people see you’re a nice guy and maybe teach you a lesson along the way.

Or write a sequel about you where you learn the lesson…or maybe not. I got too many sequels on my plate. Anyway, I’ll try to be nice, okay?

Dear Tony:
First off, thank you for your subplot coming into the story rather than being vaguely, but continually, hinted at without being addressed. Yeah, you act a lot different than I thought and nothing quite like the crippling fear that I’m writing a ten year old wrong just because I haven’t been around one since I was ten, and I can’t see my age appropriate cousins enough to be sure but hey, now you’re a character.

Also thank you for promising drama down the line. I may need it if SOMEONE (I’m watching you Asher) won’t provide.

But did you have to be so different too? Geez, why do none of my characters act like I think I will? How can I not know you? I made you! Gah!

Dear Kaylee:
I have no problems with you. Thanks for sticking true to yourself and sorry for making you cry so much, but hey, it’s worth it right?

Dear Story as a Whole:
Are we moving at the right speed? I mean we’re 28k in and the main romantic lead JUST kiss. I am trying to make this shorter right? Well, we’ll see. At least I like the chapter numbers, making the chapter 3k instead of 6k is doing great and if this does end up being around 100k I should have around 32 chapters. That seems like a good number.

I still might write rough drafts with longer chapters to give me something to pad and so my readers have more to read. 3k can go by fast.

Also, thanks for helping me get over my fears of writing in the dark. I feel much better as a writer knowing I can write without consent feed back and still feel good about myself. Yay learning!

Sincerely,
Your God, Creator, Lord, Master and Humble Servant
The Author.

(Do you guys like this? Would you like me to post more 'open letters' as I work? Comment.)

Update in Plans

2009-12-08T22:41:00.000-08:00

Alright, I thought a little updating would be nice. So editing is hard guys. Really, really hard. Mostly because of my own fears in writing without consent encouragement. (There’s a reason why I post my work.) I need to get over this since if I ever really want to fulfill my dream I’ll have to write without posting but for now I’m trying to figure out ways around it. I’m still keeping Beasts as my main project, with rewriting it being top on my lists.

Yes, rewriting. I’ve decided to completely rewrite the book partly in due to my sudden shift in villains but also to keep characters more in tune with how they turned out. I have to admit I’m seeing some uncomfortable parallelisms between this and Twilight, mostly in how the characters act. I think that will change further down the line though.

Anyway, to keep my spirits up I’m going to write what I feel will be a shorter novel, perhaps a novella. If you go back in my posts you’ll read an idea about the farm boys. This is a story I’ve decided to write after I’m done rewriting two Beasts chapters (trying per day). I’m trying to make my chapters shorter, but more numerous. I notice I’m writing rather long novels with a rather small amount of chapters.

So expect some updates soon with my new novel, current title Family Bonds. The Timeless sequel is currently on hold, though I’ll try to make it my next project. I can’t help but feel the Joker sequel calling me though. I loved writing Jokers so much and I think that showed. Timeless may have been more popular but…Well, we’ll see what happens, right?

I’m going to try to get the first chapter up tomorrow and if I’m lucky it will also be updated daily, but like I said, we’ll see.

To Write or To Edit? That is the question

2009-12-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Alright, so my last post left some confusion to what I’m doing next. I planed to scrap editing so I could get started on the Timeless Sequel, but when I started writing that I realized two things.

1)I felt guilty leaving my first good novel on the side lines for so long. If I ever want to DO something with this work, I need to start editing and that means I need to start editing the first work I want to do something with. So I opened up all my Beast documents and realized I need to start editing this, start actually moving forward again.

2)I am terrified of writing the Timeless Sequel.

Okay, so that last one might be a little weird, but here’s the truth. Timeless was very hard to write. It was labored at many points, wasn’t fun and I felt that Jenny had some borderline Mary Sue moments. This may have something to do with it being a rare historical, and so I never felt quite comfortable in Ancient Egypt, despite my research. Plus the romance was slow moving, and I like much faster moving romances, but all that is fine, that was Timeless and in the end, I think it’s a good teen novel.

Thing is that I don’t know if Timeless’s sequel (working title: ‘Ancient Perspectives’) has enough to be a full novel. I plan on the majority of the drama to rely on emotional issues between the main couple, they need to define themselves in modern times and find out who they want to be, together and apart. The only problem with this is many of my emotional problems tend to solve themselves before I realize it. Mostly because my characters tend to do what I would do in such a scenario, talk about it. So I don’t know what I’d do if this turned into even a 50k novel (which is still a novel but compared to Timeless’s size…)

I will write it. There is more to Jenny and Nebi’s story and over all I feel that my fears mostly come from fear of failure at writing my first sequel, but fear or not I know what the right choice is.

I said I’d work on editing Beasts and it’s time I started. So I’m going to try to rewrite Beasts this month, just like I did with Jokers, a chapter every free day I have. Since school ends next week for me, I’ll see if I can increase that. At the end of Jokers, I got up several chapters a day. I’m debating posting the rewrite but I don’t think I should. A lot of things are going to change and I want to entice people to buy when I get this published.

Because I am going to get it published people. Believe it.

NaNo Day 29(Technically): Win!!! In every sense of the word!

2009-11-29T00:38:00.000-08:00

So it’s over. I wrote a 100k novel in a month, I did what I wanted to do and pushed myself. I topped all my previous efforts, not just in NaNo, but previously. I found I enjoyed writing a novel this fast, putting so much effort into it and I enjoyed getting so much done so fast. Writing novels fast really is the way to do them. Now I just have to resist temptations.

I don’t like editing and whenever I finish one project, I want to jump straight into the next but I need to work on editing Beasts. I have written four novels but I won’t get to DO anything with these novels unless I start fixing them but there’s another event on the horizon that I need to discuss.

In late January/early February I’m going to transfer to my dream college, Pacific University to go after a creative writing major. This means I’ll have a lot less time on my hands, especially since I need a job so I can pay for gas to get there. I plan on taking a break persay from novel writing until I can get into the grove. I want to concentrate when I get there on my work. I plan on taking creative writing classes so I assume I’ll still be writing and I might post that work on FictionPress (probably will) and it will be better since this stuff will get edited and hopefully my writing will improve. I plan to start up writing my novels again as time permits, but I’m going to try to take at least the first month off for school.

At the same time, I don’t wish to stop writing so if I don’t get any creative writing classes right away I will focus on editing so I can get some work done.

That’s the bad new. The good news is this is seriously tempting me to start the Timeless sequel, since I’ll be editing once school starts and my editing will probably get better once I start getting real classes under my belt.

And let’s not even get me started on how much I want to skip both project to go straight to Phoenix’s story and the sequel to Jokers. Gah! I will admit, I’ll probably go ether for Timeless or Jokers, most likely Timeless because as much as I love these ideas I want to give time for Astrid’s character, the original love interest for Phoenix, to die in my mind a bit so my love interest for him isn’t just a blatant rip off. They’re already going to have to be pretty similar but I’d like to make my own. Even if Astrid isn’t going to use her character anywhere I prefer my own.

So Timeless Sequel…it needs a name, any suggestions?

NaNo Day 24: Ugh

2009-11-24T16:55:00.000-08:00

Ugh, sorry guys about the wait. I had a bit of a problem after last chapter. I spent a lot of time planning on how to get to that chapter. It was one of the first ideas I got after I plotted out the beginning and I spent so much time wondering how to get to the bedroom scene that I forgot to plot AFTER it. So I had a large batch of writer’s block and then that mixed with some issues real life was throwing at me, depression and a mix of a womanhood thrown in, just to make it fun.

Needless to say, the words weren’t flowing for me. I hate that. I hate it more when I let that stop me. The scene with Phoenix never became easy, was painful from the first word to the last and that will probably show. I think it took me three days to write that one scene. The ending scene was better, and the first scene was kind of fun, but the middle one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it anyway. I got positive reviews about my bedroom scene and that was pretty awkward to write.

Ether way, Jokers is wrapping up, and if I can get back into my old schedule I should be able to finish it before the end of November rolls around. That would make me very happy. Then I really would have written a novel in a month. ^_^ But we’ll see what happens, right?

I hope the next few chapters will be easier, and I plan to possibly finish writing another one today to make up for all the lost days, we’ll see how it goes, okay? So enjoy Chapter 16 and I hope to get up chapter 17 soon.

Oh I almost forgot, I have been RPing with Astrid again and got another idea I like, which almost makes me sad for reasons I’ll explain in a later post. The idea makes me happy because it will finally be an idea where my guy isn’t the supernatural wonder introducing a normal girl into his world, but instead a human and a female magical character but not exactly anyone introducing anyone.

The Witch Friendly Witch Hunter
So in the RP the setting is medieval but I think this could tweak into a modern easily. (I prefer modern because I hate to make up entire worlds, it’s a lot of work and I’m not good at them). In this story a witch hunter, or a knight, would be betrayed by his order. The knights would ‘protect the world from witches’ or so they’re told. A witch finds this knight, betrayed and robbed of his armor and sword, so rescues him. It isn’t long before it’s reveled he is a knight but she continues to help him, so in his anger and desire for revenge he pledges himself to his enemies and promises to help teach them how to take down the knights, for good. This is a story with a few twists and a cute romance I think. The knight amuses me since he switches to someone a bit more like Korbin, rude, gruff and lazy to someone formal and overly polite like Phoenix while remaining in character. The witch will be more of a pacifist and a little too wound up, not to mention is the ruler of her little witch community and it’s her job to keep the entire place protected while several members think she’s a bad leader for hiding rather than fighting. So lots of drama, lots of issues, and lots of fun. I dunno when I’ll write it, but at least with it here I won’t forget about it.

Removed Sex Scene - Pair of Jokers

2009-11-19T23:29:00.000-08:00

His eyes flashed once and he moved down to kiss her again. Her arms wrapped around him, holding him just as tight. Whatever the reasons, whatever the mistake; right now he knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

But it wasn’t enough. Korbin was greedy for the emotion, for the need. He let his magic open and connect them. He wanted to feel every drop of her pleasure, not just watch. He wanted to feel her whimper and break, and he wanted to feel what she felt like moments before the ultimate release.

This may be a mistake but it’d be a mistake she’d remember.
His lips crushed against hers, stealing her breath as his hands moved straight to her body. She felt like he wanted to kill her. Her heart beat so fast she feared it would burst, and he wouldn’t give her time to breath. He’d pull away for a quick breath then return his lips to hers.

This was nothing like the slow, sweet, innocent ride she imagined her first time would be. She didn’t wear the ring she always, though quietly, believed she would when she took this trip. And Korbin wasn’t the man she imagined would finally be on top of her.
But when his hand undid her pants, he found her wet and one finger coaxed out her loudest moan yet.

She never knew the joy of fire, the way it urged a body on. Her body felt hot. She wanted him to strip her of her clothes. Her mind fuzzed, so there were no thoughts, no memories, just the feelings she craved. She could barely remember she had to keep up her side. She reached for his shirt, tugging it off with a little help from him. He returned the favor leaving but stopped her hands when she reached for his pants.

“I’m not done with you yet.” He whispered into her ear sending new sensations though her body. Her stomach twisted with something akin to nerves, but she didn’t feel nervous. She felt hot, she felt wild, and she felt excited.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” she asked in a husky voice she couldn’t fully recognize as her own.

Korbin laughed, it sounded almost evil.

“Feel Clara, I want you to feel.” He kissed her again, his tongue slipping into her mouth to explore. His hands didn’t stay still. They slid down her body, slow enough to tease, pausing only to remove her remaining clothes. He pulled back when she was fully naked. Clara blushed as his eyes looked over her slowly. She began to cover up naturally but he grabbed her wrist.

“No,” he whispered. “This is mine now.” His hand slid down her body but he moved closer, staring into her eyes. It was easier to forget her current state when he did that. “You’re mine now,” he whispered, and gave her half a dozen soft kisses, on her lips, her cheeks, her eyes, he rained them on her face, and she felt cherished.

“Oh Korbin,” she moaned, and wrapped her arms around him. “I was always yours.” She confessed.

He chuckled again, without the evil hint, and kissed her neck, moving to her ear where he nipped just as he slid his fingers inside her. She gasped, surprised by both actions. She bit her lip as she felt his finger move in and out of her, slowly, almost lazily.
“Ah, Korbin,” she moaned.

“Yes, do that again.”

“What?”

“My name, moan my name again.” He ordered kissed her neck.

“Korbin,” she moaned, “Korbin.”

“Christ Clara,” he groaned, moving back to her lips. His fingers moved faster, easier to move now inside her. Her moans grew higher as he carefully drove her to the top.

“Korbin,” she groaned, unable to think anything else. Just his name, just his face, that’s all she could see.

“Clara,” he breathed; his breath heavy on her neck as he drove her over the peak. She screamed out, her hands clutching the blankets as her entire body shuddered. She panted as she felt Korbin move from her. Her body felt like liquid and she could only watch as Korbin pulled his wallet from his pants and slowly disrobed completely. Her eyes widened as she got her first good look at him and she had just enough energy to blush.
He was just as attractive as ever, but he hid his body in loose clothes and thick jeans. She missed the light but firm muscles under his skin, she never noticed how thick his thighs really were, or now easily he moved, despite his lack of dress. He lacked all fear. Her eyes moved up, unable to resist, especially when he carefully put on a condom. Her cheeks darkened and she glanced up to his eyes.

He looked amused.

“Interested?” He asked and sat down near here.

“A little,” she whispered.

A moment passed, then two and both felt the awkward feeling try to claim the moment.
“I’ve never done it with a virgin.” Korbin said, in desperate desire to keep the moment.
Clara looked up at him, surprised and somehow relieved. She was special in someway. He was everything, her first, her only, and if her heart would get it’s only wish, her only. She wanted to be special too.

“Really?”

“They’re not that common in the Magic Quarter.” He admitted, and reached over to stroke her cheek. “But nothing about you is common in the Magic Quarter.”
“Korbin…” I love you. “I’m scared.” She confessed, finding it the easier of the two confessions.

“Yeah, me too.” He admitted and for a moment, looked away embarrassed. Her eyes went wide; unaware that he could be embarrassed.

“You?”

“I don’t want to ruin this for you,” he said and turned back to her. “Sex is great. I mean with your upbringing and everything, well I want you to know how good it can feel.”
“You already showed me that.”

“That’s not all of it.” He said; his voice lower as he moved closer. “It can be so much more.”

“More?” Her voice trembled with the word. She couldn’t imagine more than she already felt. His hand moved to her chest, and stroked one full breast. His fingers flicked her nipple and made her shudder.

“Much more,” he whispered, and pushed her back, “And I want to show you properly. I want to show you everything.” His other hand grabbed her other breast but he moved his lips to the nipple. “I want you to feel everything.” He breathed and took it into his mouth. Clara moaned and arched back into his touch. He tasted one breast as his hand played with the other, making her shudder and melt on the bed.

“Are you ready?” he asked in a whisper, his hands abandoning her chest and moving south.

“Ready?” she breathed and then felt his hands push her legs apart. She couldn’t fight his gentle touch, but she didn’t want too.

“Yes,” he moved up and kissed her tightly. “I want you Clara.”

“I want you too Korbin.” She moved her arms around his neck. He pulled back so he could look in her eyes as he lined up. Her stomach twisted again. She recognized why now. It twisted in anticipation.

“Good,” He whispered, and entered her with one hard thrust. Clara winced and her grip tightened around him, but she didn’t scream. She didn’t want to ruin this with a scream. Korbin kissed her again, softer this time as he remained still inside her. She felt how tense his entire body was, hard and warm against her own. She pulled back after a few minutes, panting for air, and to whisper,

“It’s okay, I’m okay.”

He started to move. The slow steady rhythm eased the pain into discomfort, the discomfort into an odd sensation and the odd sensation into pleasure. Her arms never let go around his neck as he kissed whatever he could reach without breaking her grip. His arms came around her, just holding her tight as their bodies joined in one perfect rhythm.

“Korbin,” she moaned,

“God Clara,” he groaned back. His body grew more tense on top of her and the rhythm changed, it picked up, grew more wild, more like the Korbin she knew, more like the Korbin who first kissed her today. Clara moaned, arching up into his body, eager for her hips to meet his. His tightening grip, his pants, and most of all his body all urged her up, higher, higher.

Then he slammed into her once and moaned. She arched back and tasted heaven.

NaNo Day 13: Broke the Fog!

2009-11-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

So I missed two days, and I apologized for that in an author’s note, but I decided to write a little more about it here. I got stuck by the Week Two slump, where a lot of people get stuck and can’t write anymore. It’s a terrible place, even more terrible when you realize how easy it could be but your mind and fingers won’t work with you. (I misspelled Navi three times when IMing a friend, all while knowing the correct spelling.)

Most of the past three days were spent knowing where I wanted to go but not how to get there. When I wrote, I felt foggy and disconnected to my work, like I couldn’t really feel it. I’ve felt this before, it’s a sister of writer’s block, maybe should be called writer’s fog. It’s where you have the ideas, but not the will to execute them and feel if you do, it sucks. You can’t really feel your story and your words are worse in your mind then they may be in real life.

I knew the cure for writer’s fog is the same as writer’s block, you have to keep writing until it all goes away and I did. I got stuck at least three times for ideas while writing this, but with a little thinking and talking I was able to get ideas for this chapter and I finally feel back on track. I know where I’m going and how I’m getting there, and it’s great. I’m also pretty excited to finally get into the meat of the story.

This is where Korbin’s issues come into play. He has a lot of them folks, don’t expect this to be an easy ride but I’m rather excited.

I don’t know if I’ll get a chapter up tomorrow. I have a party to go to and I need to get a present before hand, so I’ll see how much time I have. I plan to leave a little early (since it’s a sleep over and I don’t feel much like spending the night) so I may get some writing done before bed, I just don’t know if it will be a chapter. We’ll see how it plays out.

Sunday I have homework but I’ll try to get something else out and remember Mondays are my busy days. So yea, things are a little chaotic, but Tuesday everything will start up as normal again.

NaNo Day 9: On track and only 10k from wining NaNo!

2009-11-09T20:36:00.001-08:00

Okay, it’s been a few days, and several chapters and I think it’s time I actually wrote something here. I actually planed to write something here yesterday but my buzz from writing distracted me.

So first: My future writing plans. I’ve been loving writing on Jokers, just loving it but I need to start really editing. So when I’m done with Jokers I’m taking a break from writing and updating to work on editing Becoming Beasts. I’ll see how it works out with my schedule but since I’m going to basically re-write Beasts (fix up the major change I made to it and some other stuff like plot points that went no where and characters who were introduced and disappeared) I plan to try to keep up this schedule meaning it should take me about…well, 20ish days, depending on how it goes. Once I have that rewritten, I’ll cart it off to at least three people for them to review and then it’s not my problem until they’re done editing it. After that I’ll start working on the Timeless sequel. I think I’ll keep up this pattern. I can’t start a new project until I finish editing my oldest unedited work. Which will be Timeless next, hmmm.

Anyway, that is my plan.

Jokers has been a lot of fun. This writing has left me absolutely jazzed. I didn’t get that way about Timeless, and it’s really nice to feel it. I think some of it is this schedule, I love writing a chapter a day, getting so much work done and moving so fast though the book. It keeps me so excited and I don’t have those depressed days where I don’t do anything. It keeps me happier and I love the instant feedback on my work.

I also wanted to comment a little, especially now that I feel it’s clear who Clara’s intended love interest is. We’re kinda at a break in the book. I’d say at the end of act one, and act two starts in the next chapter.

But in the past few chapters I’ve been getting some interesting feed back. I was surprised, and a little worried, about the Phoenix support. I love Phoenix, I really do, but he and Clara don’t work. Don’t worry Phoenix fans, he’ll get his love interest (in the sequel) and it will NOT be Clara’s child. Sorry, couldn’t resist. XD

Anyway; I thought everyone would be interested in where the idea for Korbin and Phoenix originally came from. My friend, Astrid, and I were a little low on RP ideas so we decided we’d do total soap opera. So we both made twin characters and decided to have ‘evil’ twins.

My idea was to have my evil twin not really noticeable first off. So I made Korbin much more ‘evil’ acting (though really he hasn’t changed much from his conception) and Phoenix much nicer acting, but I always planed for Phoenix to have this evil mastermind thing to him.

Then I gave him manners which turned him into a good guy. XD It’s very rude to be evil, but the thing is that Phoenix hasn’t changed that much ether, he’s devolped, fleshed out, but he’s still…well, evil at his core and I like having an evil good guy. He’ll still do good things and he does care for a select few people, currently just Clara, but there’s still something evil in him.

This will all be explored in great detail in his book and I look forward to it.

For right now I have many delicious plans for Jokers and hope to keep everyone guessing about what comes next. People do seem surprised and that makes me happy, this is my first time really trying to infuse mystery into a story, unless you count Najib in Timeless, which I don’t because I reveled him to the readers right away, just the characters didn’t know.

Everything that’s been going on does link to an over all plan, so…that’s fun.

NaNo Day 6: On track?

2009-11-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

So I’m clearly not going to update this blog with every chapter update like I used too. I don’t have as much to say about each chapter since I’m writing them so quickly. I’m updating on this one because this chapter was hard to write, which is why technically I didn’t get it done ‘today’ (as it is officially Saturday now), so I’m going to upload the chapter when I get up. I’ll get more new readers that way I think. Though, in penance, I’ll upload two chapters tomorrow. I don’t want to actually miss a day, especially since I find I really enjoy this schedule.

I like writing this much. Yeah, it’s basically my life currently but if I got a bit more organized and made myself take time I think I could get it done much faster, but that’s the next novel’s goal.

As for this chapter I really enjoyed it. I have definitely been ramping up the romance in the past two chapters, I liked how chapter 4 ended, but I have to admit I like chapter 5 more. Maybe because I’m currently biased towards Korbin and it’s a Korbin-riffic chapter but he amuses me as a romantic hero.

There is part of the last scene that worries me a little. I made Korbin go a little too far for a reason, but we’ll see reader reaction. I did give him a good reason at least, but you’ll have to let me know your opinions.

I’m looking forward to the first scene of the next chapter, mostly because Bunny also amuses me. She’s one of my little jokes in this world. Whenever I explain my magic idea to my friends I always do it the same way.

“Magic is controlled by Themes, and these Themes can be a strong as Power, or as useless as Dust mites.”

Well, Bunny is one of those Dust mite themes. XD Which I will explain in detail in the next chapter though I know it will catch no one by surprise.

Also, please the excuse the pun.

NaNo Day 4: Ontrack!

2009-11-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

Well I enjoyed this chapter a little more than I enjoyed my last one, mostly because I got that great interaction between Clara and Korbin. I really do like writing them together. I’m sure I’ll like this story more once the romance picks up. I’m always so impatient for characters to just be together and in love. So if they kinda rush to one another I apologize but I promise they’ll work on their issues there.

I find myself trying to be more professional has some bad side affects. Inner editors are always a problem, but mine has been especially bad lately. I have problems with all my characters and worry over them being too Mary Sueish and/or that I’m not showing enough.

On the other hand I got a review asking for less description which I suppose is a good sign. I dunno, I’m trying not to judge my work too much or be too miffed over the lack of readers Jokers has had so far. I think that rating things Teen gets more readers since I’m pretty sure Birds had this problem too. I’m not 100%, well I’ll just have to carve out new readers in the Mature section since I plan to stay here for a little while. I might go back to Teen for the Timeless sequel, but I really want to try to make my writing a bit more adult, leave high school.

But then again I’ll probably be missing my teenagers once I’m done with this story. I tend to miss things during novels. But I’m trying to churn this out quickly. I want everyone to know that I’m planning on this to be my new pace. I used to do about 2k a day for a while, well now I want that to always be 4-6k, so this novel and all my others should be at this speed. I need to keep pushing myself on this.

Well that’s all I have to say, don’t forget to review people! Jokers doesn’t have nearly enough.

NaNo: Day 3; Ontarget!

2009-11-03T22:14:00.000-08:00

Alright, so we’re three days into NaNo, it’s 10% over! Yeah, I got almost 11,000 words. I finished my second chapter today, just like I wanted, though I’m not too pleased with it. Clara is coming out different than I expected, and enjoyed, but we’ll see how she turns out. I hated the first few chapters of Beasts, I wanted to quit so badly. I think the problem is that the first few chapters have to have very little romance in them. We have to get the world and the whole situation set up first.

This is almost instantly off from my outline too. I planed to start during their first meeting but I enjoyed the idea of starting right off at the hook, meaning the first chapter moved a little fast, while the second one has to play exposition for the first.

Ether way, it’s going well. It was a little hard getting the story out, and I didn’t like it as much as the first, but I’m going to keep writing. I think once the romance gets involved I’ll start liking this story more. I really like Clara in love.

I also find how this story is coming out interesting. This feels a lot more…I dunno how to explain it. I feel like this is closer to first person than other work I’ve done and I don’t enjoy that as much. So if this suddenly changes tone later I apologize, but rough drafts and all.

In other news, I officially have 5 followers! That means at least 5 people are going to read this. *dances* Thank you all! I wonder if I’d get more followers if I offered some bribes. I really do enjoy getting proof that I’m being read. How about this? If I get 10 followers, five more, I’ll give you guys an extra chapter, (I’ll ether write two one day or write one on a Monday, which ever happens quickest.) at least if it happens before the end of this story.

So get your friends to follow! It will get me to write more too. After all, we need to get to the good part of this story. Dramatic love, ah, how I have missed ye. This will be very dramatic, which is just what I need right now I think. My life is being a bit difficult and I think throwing myself into this story, forcing myself to ignore it, will improve my output, if not necessarily the quality.

Anyway, happy third day of NaNo and expect another chapter tomorrow!

NaNoWriMo Update

2009-10-29T12:25:00.001-07:00

I wanted to give you guys an update. I don’t have much to write about since I’m not writing. Sunday is November 1st, thank god and I can start writing a Pair of Jokers. In an ideal world, I’ll get chapter 1 up that day. For this November I have two goals, write a chapter each day I have long hours alone (which is most of them really, save for Monday) and to try to finish the novel within the month. I don’t care for word counts, I can write 50k in a month and a 100k doesn’t mean anything to me unless it’s my finished novel. (Which it most likely will be over considering I finished both my other novels in over 100k). So I don’t really care about making a high word count, what I want is to finish a Pair of Jokers by November 30th, or at very least, before 2010.

So, wish me luck in that. I also think, after Pair of Jokers, I’ll be working on sequels for a while. Timeless will get it’s sequel after Jokers, give me a break and a tone change, then after Timeless I’m going to do a brand new sequel plan, the sequel to Jokers. Jokers, if you remember from Birds of a Feather, has the twins, well I always felt bad that I never had a romantic partner planed for Phoenix, he deserves his happiness.

Well, I got one planed. Right now, I’m thinking Aisling from the original, but with a different history. I’m RPing it right now and getting many cool ideas, plus exploring other ideas proposed in some scenes I planed out for Jokers.

So basically, I’m very eager to get back to writing. Wish me luck.

An End, a Continuation and a Begining

2009-10-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

This is it folks. I actually finished it. I actually got a few reviews of people saying that Nebi couldn’t go to Jenny’s time, which made me feel a little worried because I always planed for him to go to her time. Now I think half the reason people said that was because the problems wouldn’t be all wrapped up at the end of the story, and this is true. This is also why I planed for this.

I always thought Timeless should have a sequel. Showing them how they interact in her time. I wasn’t sure if there would be enough problems to carry though another novel but now I think there is, so no I haven’t wrapped everything up. Nebi is still a stranger in a strange land. Jenny is very insecure about how he feels, not to mention her confidence got a serious blow from her capture.

Also, she fell out of love with Egypt, meaning she no longer has a career goal like she used too. The eagle eye among you might notice that nether said I love you, which will also come up later. Not to mention Nebi is a pretty physical guy, so the next one might be a little more adult.

Anyway, I don’t really know WHEN I’ll do the sequel, and if you’ve been a long time reader you might remember Mantle of the Moon never got it’s promised two sequels, well I had a reason for that. Mantle was terrible, and before I could build on that story, I needed to fix the base. The base is still broken.

I don’t feel like Timeless is broken. So my tentative plan is after Pair of Jokers I’ll get started on the currently unnamed sequel. I don’t want to make people wait too long but I definitely want to write Pair of Jokers next, I’ve been dying for this novel and the change would be good.

Well, that’s all for my rant. I’ll edit Beasts and work on Jokers until November when NaNoWriMo will let me start on it. Besides that, let me know what you think about Timeless’s end. I can’t wait to hear from you.

New Chapter(s) and NaNo

2009-10-15T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well we got another chapter with five scenes. This one didn’t seem to be so short, I think because so much happened but because a lot of it was dialogue, it didn’t take up a lot of space. I am really jazzed about this chapter, so much happened and I liked most of it. This was written when I was tired and on a rush, so there will be lots of mistakes, sorry about that folks.

Anyway, I think this is the second to last chapter besides the epilogue. I’m a little sad I won’t hit 20 chapters but I think that’s okay. It may stretched into three now that I think about it. Since we need to also show the after math of…everything. So like I said, a lot happened here. I actually didn’t write this completely in order. I wrote the second scene first, because I planed to start there but I realized I needed the scene before.

Also the second scene meanders a bit in the middle because I needed Najib to give an excuse for Nebi to be suspicious and damn I couldn’t think of anything. When I finally thought of a reason, the one I used, I was so happy.

The rest I wrote today, mostly in a rush. I’m pretty happy with how it all came out. What happens to Jenny is important since that won’t be cleared up right away. I am planning a sequel for this, but not next.

Speaking of next, I want to let you fine folks know about a little thing called NaNoWriMo, now I’m going to assume most of you know it but just in case. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a month dedicated to doing basically what I do already but with a great community to go with it. You write everyday to get 50k out in under a month. It focuses on making you write, not edit. This is what I do with all my novels but I enjoy doing this for the community. I haven’t found another writing website that I like quite as much.

For this NaNo, I’m restarting Birds of a Feather, or, it’s new name, Pair of Jokers. I’m replacing the main girl but the handsome twins are staying. As you only had a few chapters to get attached to Aisling I think you’ll survive. I don’t know if I’ll ever reuse Aisling herself but I know I’ll reuse her name. I LOVE her name. It’s so different.

Anyway, I’ll be doing Pair of Jokers starting Nov 1st, no mater what but I plan to finish Timeless soon (I’d prefer within a week but ideally before Monday, we’ll see how it goes) so I can concentrate on planning out Jokers and getting that ready for you fine folks. I sure am excited. I hope you are too.

Btw; in case any of you guys NaNo, (which I assume a lot of you would), my NaNo name is, of course, Flamefire123, so feel free to contact me there. Cross your fingers for chapter 18!

EDIT: I finished the next chapter, in one day and I'm already itching for the next one. Maybe I will write chapter 19 and the epilogue tomorrow. I should read for my class but...

Endings and Beginings

2009-10-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Well this is slightly annoying. I spent all day writing up my chapter, I finally get it done and to all appearances, FictionPress is down. Well I know I’ll be messing with that for the rest of the night, but good news is that I got it done. So I’m going to upload that the moment FictionPress is back up but this chapter was a hard one. After the kidnapping, I had a real idea of what I wanted to have…in several scenes. I had no idea what I wanted to happen between chapter 15 and 17, which might be why this chapter is so scene filled. I kept on starting and ending scenes with under a 1000 words, I just went back to count and there are 5 scenes in this chapter. That’s a lot considering I normally can’t top three.

It’s funny because you can even tell when I started to get back in the groove; the last two scenes are MUCH longer than the first three. The third scene I did everything came back together. I finally knew what would make Akori and eventually Nebi suspect Najib. Both of them rarely think of Najib, to them he’s just their father’s assistant, it’s a little like suspecting your father’s secretary. It doesn’t even enter your mind because they’re so removed from your world; they’re your dad’s friend, not yours.

I have the rest of this story planed out, now I just need to write it. NaNoWriMo is coming up and I want to start working on planning out my rewriting of Birds, but I need to get this done first, otherwise I might have an overlap between them and that would be a bitch to work with. I don’t know how to write two stories at the same time, I’ve never tried it. I don’t want to leave you guys in the lurch with the ending

So yeah, I’ll probably work on getting the rest of this up soon. I don’t know how many chapters we have left; it depends a lot on how hammy Najib wants to be and how fast Nebi will figure everything out. He’s feeling very self centered right now as you’ll see eventually. At least he started turning it into a positive, we’ll see if he keeps that up. Of course ideally I’d love to have four chapters (I’d love to end with 20 chapters, I love fives and zeros) but I dunno if there’s that much story left, but we’ll see, we’ll see.

Back to NaNoWriMo, I’m very excited to restart Birds; I feel like this time its right, like I’ll be able to write it. I am in a better place and I have much more of a support system right now. I’d still like to change the title though, but I can’t think of it too much right now, and I do know I want to outline before NaNoWriMo starts. I will admit I feel a bit guilty for ignoring Beasts so much, but maybe I’ll be able to edit it with Birds, since they have similar feels I shouldn’t get jealous like I did with Timeless.

Well, hope to update soon, both with this chapter and with the rest. We’re almost done people!

EDIT: Whoo! FictionPress started working right after I posted this. Remember kids, complaining works.

Milestones and Cliffhangers

2009-10-04T00:52:00.000-07:00

So I tried my hardest to get this chapter out today. I ended up technically making it tomorrow since it’s after midnight and everyone is going to get it tomorrow instead of today, but whatever. (Btw: today = Saturday and tomorrow = Sunday). I wrote an author’s note to celebrate my recent milestone but I’m mentioning it here too. I got a 100 reviews on Timeless, this is my first time every breaking the three digits. I have to admit, I’m quite happy with it all. Beasts was my personal best with around 60 and I was thrilled since that was six times what I got in Moonlight Gifts (6). While I don’t expect Timeless to get six times more than Beasts I do admit I’d like to get twice as much, so if you will, review until I get 126? That’d be great folks.

Well October has hit us, and that means one thing, NaNoWriMo is only a month away. That means I have a month to finish up Timeless and start prep on Birds. I do have Birds somewhat figured out, I even outlined a bit of it. I’ll need to work a little more on it but it’s definitely my next project and just what I’m in the mood for.

I mentioned I needed to be happier before I could write it, and I am. I have my best friend who calls me each night and that will give me enough of a boost to keep writing it, not to mention I feel like I fixed the over all problem in the pairing. I definitely think Clara is a better fit for Korbin and that will help.

The only problem with NaNoWriMo is it makes me ache for cover art. I’d love cover art anyway, but I really want it when I can link it and show it off. I dunno what to do about it, guess I’ll live with it. Last year I asked one of my friends to do it for me but she never got around it. I don’t really know anyone that artistic anymore. At least someone who I’d expect to do it for me.

Oh well, guess I’ll just suck it up and deal with it.

Oh and my chapter. Yeah, that was one hell of a cliffhanger huh? Yeah, I’m rather excited about what happens next, I hope to get a chapter up in the next few days, I’m sure you guys won’t complain. I almost wrote the entire chapter today, I’m still trying to get to one chapter a day. I’d be happiest like that, but we’ll see what happens no?

Thanks again you guys. I write for you.

They keep getting shorter and shorter

2009-10-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

So I put up a new chapter today and I know it’s my shortest yet. I don’t really enjoy giving you guys such short chapters, especially when I know I could write more in the same amount of time. I wrote a little over 3000 words today in about two hours, I could write my average 6000 in four then, but I didn’t stop today due to lack of ideas or bitterness to writing as I have lately, but instead because the ending was just too perfect. I have the next several scenes mapped out but they don’t need to be part of this chapter, so I’m letting it end here.

That aside I think you’ll all be very happy with this chapter. I had a lot happen plot wise. I hope you guys all like where I went and with how Jenny is. Almost everyone who reviewed commented on Jenny’s hesitance to stay and I stand by her. No, she isn’t very happy where she’s from, but she also knows she’s supposed to want to go home. Besides, it’s a lot to say she’ll stay in such an ancient time period without some reassurances.

Once Nebi did more than vaguely hint he wanted her to stay, she was willing. I think it fits her character and story. Now it’s time for the big wrap up. I’m not saying the story will end in the next chapter or anything but we’re definitely getting close. I’m moving everything to the climax. My own love of even numbers hopes I can finish this in six chapters, not more or less, because then that’d be 20 chapters with a nice zero to make me happy but we’ll see how the story goes. I hope you all like it.

Life, less problems please.

2009-09-29T10:08:00.001-07:00

We have a short chapter here folks. This chapter was annoyingly dull. All the stuff I’m looking forward too, the real beginning of the end, is going to start next chapter and I’m hoping it will jump start my enthusiasm. I’m getting ideas all the time but I can’t write them out yet since the story isn’t there yet. I’m getting so sick of this chapter so I decided to ignore my normal word count requirements and just finished it. I wanted to end on this cliff hanger but I ran out of things to write. This entire chapter feels rather useless. I may just cut it out in editing, I’ll try to update quickly with real stuff.

Sorry this entry is also short but I’m technically in class, hope to be writing soon.

Idea

2009-09-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

As I laid in bed this morning I dreamed. It was one of those dreams that give you drama and excitement, if not all of it making sense. A little, like a cheap action movie. Anyway, the important thing is that it gave me an idea, a really good idea I think. I might try to make it into a short story or a novel, I haven’t decided yet but it’s really stuck in my mind and I wanted to get a little bit out.

There’s three people, a guy, a girl and the connecting force between them; the girl’s best friend and the guy’s crush. The girl and the best friend are growing apart though they don’t acknowledge it. One day the best friend ends up on a run away bus, and to safe her the guy and the girl both step in front of it’s path, hurting them both. The guy less so. Later, when wounds are healed and the best friend has drifted away as is nature, the guy and girl meet again, as sparks fly.

This feels more like a short story since after they meet I don’t know how to add drama, but that’s okay, a romantic short story would be great to write. I just keep thinking of the phrase. “Six months ago ‘Name here’ stepped in front of a bus.”

Seems powerful to me.

Anyway, I have to go to class, but I wanted to update. I plan to work on Timeless today, don’t you worry.

Status: Block broken! Take that!

2009-09-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time. There’s a reason for this. I like to update at least weekly, I spoke last time like I’d start doing it literately weekly with an update date and everything. I still plan to do that, but I have to confess something to you Readers. Timeless died on me lately. It’s been getting harder and harder to write, what’s worse, it’s gotten boring. My work has been hard but not literately boring before. I lost touch with Jenny; and interest with her and Nebi’s relationship. It was distressing and I had to think about ditching it to work on something else, anything else. I got lots of new ideas not to mention an urge to ‘return to form’ with my innocent girls and scorpio guys. The light hearted air that drew me to Timeless was now the reason why I wanted to ditch it.

But I did that to you guys twice already. This is my third, third novel and I’m sick of it. I want to finish this book, I want it done, I want to work on something new and I want it to be something different but most of all I want to finish. I think I need to write faster. I’d like to get up to two chapters a week, with school, so I won’t get sick of my work.

Yes school starts for me tomorrow, but I have a feeling that’s only going to help. I’ve felt very restless of late and school will help focus me a bit but ignoring that for now. I was seriously debating dropping this novel. I wasn’t writing and that was depressing me. I fell back into old bad habits and was generally unhappy with myself.

Then it hit me. I knew this, somewhere in my mind I knew this, but it really hit me. All the things I’ve been craving, romance, drama, angst, is coming up in Timeless. Timeless is wrapping up, we’re in the seventh inning folks, and while anything can happen I can promise you this.

It will be dramatic. Major decisions are going to be made, lives are going to be threatened and people are going to die. I won’t say who, but there will be death, and it will be great. Remembering this revitalized me. Scenes started pouring in my head and suddenly I wanted to write. So here it is folks, chapter 12, soon to be followed by chapter 13.

I still want this novel to be over, but I’m damn well waiting until it is.

Status: Writing again; And, got into my dream college! squee

2009-09-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

First news of this long blog post; I am moving my blog from livejournal to blogspot. I feel like blog spot is more open to people than livejournal which requires people to have livejouranls. Besides, blogspot was more what I was looking for when I started the blog, but being the so out of the loop person that I am, I didn’t know about it. I already set up the blog, and archived it, so it’s no different really from my livejournal but different template and I think more accessible, so I hope you folks like it.

Boy I’ve been dragging my feet like mad lately haven’t I? I love how in my last post I went on and on about how I wanted to do a chapter a day, and then I go and make everyone wait a week, or was it two? I really don’t keep track of the days very well. I had some issues over here the past few weeks. A friend went though family issues and crashed at my place, which I might have mentioned. Company made it harder to write and Timeless is a ‘use it or loose it’ story. When I just sit down and write it, it comes out great. Now and then I’ll have a problem, but over all it will flow and a little hard work can work out any kinks.

But the moment I stop, even for a little while, it will just stop on me. Jenny and I aren’t that much alike, making it harder to get into her head. Nebi and I are very alike, but try as I might, Nebi isn’t this story’s main main character. Every romance story has one main main character. The one that the couple focuses on more, sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot. This one is Jenny, not Nebi, next story I want to do with this pair may be more Nebi focused, I dunno, we’ll see. Point is, that I have to keep writing this story or I won’t write this story.

So I had writer’s block like you wouldn’t believe. The best part of my writer’s block is it often comes with special little temptations. Stuff to throw in my way to tempt me away from my third, third novel, and damnit I don’t want to do that to you guys, not again. I want to finish this book, and the more I thought that I lost the story the more I wanted to just finish it. I like my new ideas a lot, and I have some interesting ideas, (which I will discuss in a few minutes), but I want to finish this story.

This is the first of the three novels I started after Beasts that I feel I can finish. So I forced my self though this chapter and boy am I happy. It was rocky in the beginning and with the huge break between chapters I apologize if things aren’t as smooth as you’re used too. I forgot details and wrote the majority of this chapter, and this blog entry, after midnight when normally I go to bed so I’m more than a little tired. But it’s done and finally we got a little action. I didn’t leave this chapter on a cliff hanger persay, but I bet more than a few of you will feel like you’re hanging. I promise I’ll try to get my next chapter out quicker.

Even with the flow going I really want to finish this novel. I think because I feel like the end is getting closer.

On other business, I have halted editing Beasts for the time being. I think it added to my writer’s block with Timeless. The opposite way the couples handle their relationship makes it hard to swing back and forth between the two. Also, I like the quick get together, lots of shit trying to break them up, more than the long teasing get together. So I grew jealous and resentful of Timeless when I worked on Beasts. So Beast will be delayed. Not that it really affects you good people but, but it does affect me, so here it is. XD

Now, I want to discuss updates. I mentioned over the summer I want to do a chapter a day, and well the summer is coming to a close and I dunno if I’ll do that anyway, but I was thinking of how to get more people to read my work. I thought of a way that might get more people’s attention is update days, or like how webcomics update. That is, one chapter a week, always posting on say Tuesday. (I don’t know if I’d do Tuesdays, but you get what I mean.) What do you people think? If interested post in my comments? I can do a chapter a week and think I already do, but this way I could perhaps build my writing muscles to even two chapters a week. Would you guys like knowing when a chapter was coming? Please let me know.

And finally, New Idea Time! I mentioned earlier I’ve been getting new ideas and I’ve wanted to let you folks know about them. First;

Musician Magic
This is an RP idea that failed but made me want to write it anyway. My male lead came to me in a flash of inspiration and I like him already. The female lead was built a bit on my suggestions and since she was never fleshed out, it will be easy to mold into what I want from her. The basic idea is that an ex-child prodigy turned rocker approaches a girl whose recent car accident turned her from a second rate violinist into a prodigy of herself. He tells her of a level of skill only few can obtain that unlocks a magic in and of itself. He offers to teach her in payment to his old mentor, but soon the pair is dragged between the battle between the two schools of thoughts in this musical magic, and their own desire for each other. Will have cute band mates, and be a bit more adult than others, though still young.

Lover’s Lies
This is another RP idea that I mostly came up with and might want to turn into a novel. I’m not a hundred percent like with the Musician Magic one. In this one a mysterious but popular boy at school starts dating a driven, and slightly unpopular girl at high school. Their relationship is off the beaten track for both of them, but going well, if superficial. All this is changed when the boy’s magical past (I like fantasy), catches up to them, forcing them to chase a magical macguffin over this world and the next to stop a man the boy once served like a son. Along the way, the boy will learn of love and redemption and the girl will learn how to let old wounds heal and how sometimes the best treasures are the ones you already have.

Finally, Non Magic Farm Boys!
This one I might have brought up before, I don’t remember. Gist of the story is simple. A girl fights with her parents over her future, and runs away to her estrange grandfather’s farm. There she finds two brothers who have been working for her grandfather for a few years now, and view her with suspicion over her intentions with the old man she never met and his profitable farm. Eventually the suspicion may bloom into warmer, kinder emotions.
Anyway, those are my new ideas. I wanted to put them down here, so I wouldn’t forget. Well, I’m going to bed and will post this, and my new chapter in the morning. Good night Readers, I hope new changes are upon us.

Status: Finally working again

2009-08-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

My god this chapter took me much longer than I wanted it too. The summer classes have ended, giving me a few weeks of relaxation before I have to start worrying about fall classes. I decided, in my way, that I should start to do at least a chapter a day, ether writing or editing, since I have more than enough time now. If I want to be a stay at home writer I need to be able to produce that much. It’s really too bad that Timeless temporarily died in my eyes. I kept on returning to this chapter, which should have been fun and easy to write, to only distract myself endlessly with the nothing that the internet provides.

Even when I started to write, as I did yesterday, I grew distracted a million times leading me to finish this chapter today instead of yesterday as I wanted. I’d still like to do a chapter a day, I did last summer, so I know I can. Now those chapters are shorter and poorly written, but it was done. I realized that as a stay at home writer, if you write like you should, you should be able to write three chapters a day, meaning you could finish a thirty page story in 10 days. I want to be able to do that, someday. Three chapters is still a little to much for my writing muscles. I want to do at least a chapter though, I won’t promise I’ll get it done and even if I do, I can’t promise Timeless.

I’m working on editing Beasts too. I finished editing Chapter two, and I think I just completely rewrote most of the scenes. I changed a lot of stuff too. Stuff I’ll need to work back in. I realized I’ll be basically doing that for all the chapters most likely. Asher changed a lot during the course of the story, and while he grew it was mostly changes to his base, while Kaylee evolved with the story, Asher went from my original idea of a casual, happy go lucky kid to the bitter, depressed, angry, clingy man he is now. That’s a pretty big change for the beginning chapters. Since I need to make so many changes I realized I have to go back and outline Beasts as it is, so I can rewrite it but keep it basically on the same track. I enjoy the track it’s on, and realized I actually liked the almost rushed pairing of Asher and Kaylee, it suits them and the story. So right now I’m working on outlining Beasts by reading over the chapter and writing down summaries of the scenes.

It is kind of funny to work on Beasts and Timeless at the same time. Beasts is about a couple who get together too fast and have to fight themselves and the outside world to find the love between them. I mean I read over chapter 5 and Asher is complaining about his lack of sex, mentally of course. We’re at Chapter 10 in Timeless and still the characters are struggling with their own feelings enough to get together but the contrast is nice, and it’s also nice to realize that I can slow the relationship down, if it suits the characters.

Ether way, I should finish outlining today, I hope. (It takes time since I basically have to read over Beasts, but enjoy chapter 10, and I’m going to try to get Chapter 11 up faster, perhaps actually reach my goals of a chapter a day.

Status: Chapter 9 finish; Chapter 10 not started

2009-08-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

Well Chapter 9 is real short. I’m aware that it’s almost 2000 words less than my average but I had a hard time writing it. I kept hitting road blocks and getting distracted. So I kinda just wanted it over with. I feel pretty happy with the end, though Jenny and Nebi’s relationship is giving me trouble. Though, to be fair, this is how I imagined them from the beginning, both wanting the same thing but unable to get it for reasons nether completely understands.

At least someone got to confess during the chapter. Akori isn’t as innocent as Nebi in the realms of emotional desires. Nebi is hard because he understands physical desires, and mental desires, both he gets without needing to ever try, but Jenny is the first person to make him want something emotionally and he doesn’t know how to get it.

Ether way, I have lots of stuff that needs to be done in the next chapter. I just need to decide what I want to do first, I think I have an idea of how I’d like to start. Sorry this entry is short too. I mostly wanted to commented on how I’m aware of how short the chapter is and I feel bad since it didn’t come out quickly or anything, but I’ll get working on Chapter 10 right away

Status: Chapter 8 Finished; Chapter 9 not started

2009-08-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I didn’t post after my last chapter. I thought about it when I put it up, but I had nothing to say. I’ve been talking about this chapter, the one I just uploaded, for a long time. I thought it was going to come two chapters ago though. XD Ether way, I finally got to it and I dragged my feet a bit when it came to writing it. I had some problems getting a flow going, and I will admit. Once I get a lot of people in the scene at the same time I start to have problem. Especially with the two brothers where I felt I needed to say their names every other word just so people know who I was talking about. Well, it’s something I’ll work on as I write more, after all I can’t always have only two characters in a scene.

Ether way, I liked the end of the chapter. I love Najib’s little mental monologue. If Najib would make a very good Bond villain, I think he’d love to monologue, and he might do it later. He does love to celebrate before he realizes things. Ether way I was glad for it because this was something I wanted to explain for a while but had no idea when a good time too would be.

Not that anyone is commenting on Najib. Poor Najib, always pushed to the side to Nebi. Yeah, Nebi and Jenny are engaged, and they haven’t even kissed. XD I love doing things like this to my characters. Oh, I’d like to mention that Nebi and Jenny’s dancing around each other is annoying to me too. Last night I was writing and getting very frustrated that it wasn’t in character for ether of them to just kiss the other.

Still, Akori’s crush on Jenny is making Nebi jealous and that will propel him forward. Like it’s why they even danced. Poor Akori, he’s my butt monkey but I love him dearly. He’ll get his happy ending, we all do.

So anyway, I’ve been thinking about the ending more and I admit, I believe we have hit the halfway point. Things are getting clearer for me, I can see the end better and more how I’m going to reach it. I don’t know how much more I have to write (in Beasts I hit chapter 7, got worried I was half way done and it went one for 13 more chapters) but it’s really starting to solidify, and that’s always exciting.

I also have an idea for a non-magical story. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while since I’ve been doing a lot of magical emphases stories. I don’t know much about the characters yet, it’s another RP based one, but I don’t know if I want different characters or what yet. I also don’t know when I’m going to write it. Birds obviously has its start date and I don’t know when this story will end but I like the idea and want to save it.

Status: Chapter 6 finish; Chapter 7 not started

2009-07-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

Oh geez, my last scene. As one review said; finally! So most of my stories have characters getting attracted right away and being all in love before halfway though the story. That’s cool, in fact I love writing that because I love attacking relationships more than I love stopping them from getting together. I guess because I love watching people gather together during hard times. It’s also because half the problems that will stop people from getting together could be solved if people just fucking talked about it and/or trust each other. Grrr, that bothers me because that’s how I solve my problems. Anyway, rant over.

Yeah, Timeless is moving slowly though. That’s mostly because Nebi has a very childish view on relationship and Jenny wouldn’t act on her feelings to save her life. She’s far too used to rejection to ‘seek it out’. Anyway I went on and on about how I was looking forward to a scene in chapter 6 and then I don’t even write it! I know. XD I wanted to write about the Heb Sed party but a lot is going to happen there so I wanted to put off starting it for a chapter at least. I planed to start chapter 7 with it but now I feel like I should show some of Jenny preparing for the speech, not to mention someone telling her to wear different clothes. Also there’s a scene I need to do that involves Najib moving on his plot.

Ether way this chapter was a blast to write, though it shows I rushed though it since I made a lot of little mistakes for it. Apparently more than normal because people are really mentioning it. Tomorrow, if I have time I’ll go over it and make edits, or maybe tonight.

Still, this weekend is my birthday weekend so I won’t be starting chapter seven for a few days most likely. I will jump right on it on Monday thought. I have so many plans for the party, which will kick off some more conflicts I have started not to mention push the relationship along. I also want to show Jenny and Nebi after their almost kiss. It will be deliciously awkward.

In a complete heal turn in topic, (I wonder where Nebi got that habit from?), I’m plowing forward in editing Beasts. I’m not much of a theme person but as I go over and think about Beasts I realize this is a romance novel with a message, one I think young girls need and maybe even young men. There’s the basic, don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-message and the be-true-to-yourself messages but also about standing up against pure pressure and following your heart. Trite messages maybe but ones that don’t loose power. I also realize while my story Timeless is about two people fighting against their own flaws and inability to deal with people to be together Beasts is almost the exact opposite.

Beasts is a story about two people who, on the surface, don’t belong together, who do get together and their fight to find what’s beyond the surface both prefer to live. Kaylee is a social climbing whimp at the beginning and Asher clings to his Beast status to stop people from getting close to him. Nether wants to be different from that but both are forced too when they’re together. So I know in this story I need them to get together as soon as I can without rushing it, which makes me happy. I love how Asher and Kaylee are as they struggle in their relationship.

I’m also cutting a lot in the story. I almost eliminated the first chapter. I think I kept maybe one scene? Then I took half a scene from the second chapter, which dropped down almost a full 3000 words. I think I’ll do fine with my ‘Reduce pg number’ plan I have with the story. I like Beasts and I’d like to be a long novel, but I think 400+ 8 by 10 pages is a little much. I don’t even know how many pages that’d be in a regular book.

Ether way I’m trying really hard to keep editing despite my large dislike for the task. If I want to continue to write I’m going to have to edit it so I need to dig in and just do it. I can’t sell my novels if I don’t edit them and I want to sell my stories badly. I think I can.Oh, on a random note, you know what has gotten a surprising amount of reivews and mentions this week? Mantle of the Moon, I've gotten three readers contacting me about it. One IMed me, (the first person to IM me), and the other two reivewed them. Stuff like that makes me want to do that project but I have so many other on my plate. Birds in November, and Timeless and it's possible sequal. Well, we'll see when I get done with Timeless what should be next. I think Timeless will be a quickish project. It's moving a long well. Beasts was 20 chapter + epilouge and little info about plot change and it's long. So Timeless might not be that long. I don't know yet. I know I don't feel like we hit the halfway point, but it's getting close. *muses*

Status: Chapter 5 finish; Chapter 6 not started

2009-07-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a busy night last night. It’s my birthday at the end of the week, so I’m having a party/sleep over which means my house needs cleaning. I’ve been working on that this week, plus I want to keep the writing up and I even managed to get somewhere with Beasts. Chapter 1 is officially done with Edit 1. Just 20 more chapters to go! Really, this is great. I’m so glad I made myself stick with it. There have been a lot of changes but sadly folks I can’t show you. This edit is for the publishers. I want to offer them something new, so everyone who loves Beasts can get something new when they pick it up. But that’s a long way away. I still need to edit 20 chapters and it’s only taken me what? 8 months to do one? Yeah, don’t need to shoot myself in the foot.

So, Timeless, well I have to say Chapter 5 is easily my most popular, seven review in two days. Damn you guys, you make me feel loved. Only the last two chapters of Beasts got same amount of reviews and I cheated on the second last chapter since I asked if people wanted an epilogue or not. Then of course, more people comment on the last chapter and well, anyway, thanks you guys. The fact that it may get even more and beat Beasts make me happy.

I can’t say for sure when Chapter six will come out. I’d like it to be soon. I’ve been looking forward to this chapter since I first got the idea, about a month before I started to write. I think this is a great place for it too. Anyway, I want to get it out soon but with the party and clean up I can’t promise it will be this week. I want it to be though. I wish it wasn’t so hot, writing is much more annoying when your laptop is making your arms sweat, but so worth it no?

That’s all from me now. Thanks to you all.

Status: Chapter 4 Finished; Chapter 5 Not Started

2009-07-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

I haven’t updated here in a while; a week according to my livejournal bug me to post button. Anyway, that’s actually a good sign. I updated all the time with Birds, explaining problems and why I haven’t updated but I haven’t felt that for here. This is all coming out real easy, not super easy. This is definitely a write-or-die story. Every time I walk away, even for a little while, the story likes to play dead but a few good jolts and it comes back nice and easy.

I’m glad I made this choice. I’m having fun with Timeless like I haven’t had since Written. I really like, and miss, Written. I don’t know when I’ll fix it but I will. Truth is with re-writes and planed sequels, I’m not entirely sure when I’ll write anything. I definitely have a sequel planed for Timeless but I won’t go into that until we’re getting close to finishing that story.

As for Birds, I told you guys I figured out the main flaw and I’ve decided a good time to attempt to write that story is with Nanowrimo. I’m hoping that the community will help me stay positive. Plus it helped with Beasts, which was also a darker story. (Kaylee and Asher never had one moment where one of them wasn’t angsting.)

Also on the Beasts front, I don’t know if I let you guys in on this but while I feel that the story Becoming Beasts is done with, that there’s nothing I can add to their story without feeling cruel to the characters I don’t think I’m done with that universe. Those of you who have read it saw that I started with a mad scientist villain than swapped near the end because it fit the story better, but in my mind that scientist exists in that world. Technically he could even be used for a sequel. (Hmm, children, tng stuff) But currently I’m no where near the writing stage. I just want you guys to be on the look out for that as a possibility. (Way into the future though.)

That’s all the updates on my writing but I have a rant that’s kind of been tugging at my mind. I’m editing Beasts and that always makes you think of publishing. While you write you muse over it but then put it aside to focus on the writing but when you edit that’s all you can really think about it. Trust me if I didn’t want to sell Beasts I’d never edit. It’s boring, but that makes me think of how sellable it is.

I honestly think I’ll get published someday. It’s not a hope or a dream but an honest belief, like how I believe I’ll move out of my mom’s house and graduate college. It’s going to happen, the question is when. I think this way because of what I write and how I write it.

You wouldn’t be reading my work if it wasn’t good, and let’s face it, I tell nice stories but they’re also safe ones. My stories aren’t really pushing the envelope when it comes to young adult/high school/romance stories.

Except in a few choice spots; namely the POV. I read a lot. Kind of expect it right? Anyway, growing up I read more. Middle school I read two or three books at a time, and in high school I slowed down but still consumed them rapidly. So I read a lot of young adult/romance books, and looking back I see a trend.

To understand this trend all you really have to do is look at any Meg Cabot book, but most writers are like this. I’d like to state I don’t dislike Meg Cabot as a writer, and to be honest I don’t think I’m any better, just different style but there’s a certain type of young adult romance female lead. She’s whiny, most of the story is told from her complaining about how much her life sucks, how much she’s a looser, how much the popular crowd doesn’t like her. A popular crowd, I’d like to add, that while she says she doesn’t want to be a part of you can’t help but feel that yes, yes she does. She’s normally unpopular (but to be honest popular characters are hard because then you have to write up friends) and normally has some body issues. Well, most girls do have body issues, and teenagerdom isn’t a really non-whiney time for anyone.

But that doesn’t mean I necessarily want to read it.

Another thing I dislike is the males. I hear this complaint a lot in the current literary debate, Twilight, that Edward has no personality or any real outstanding qualities except maybe stalker, well minius the stalker aspect that’s a lot of teenage romance stories. Because the story is told in first person, and most of the girls are shy and are lusting after men who don’t talk to them you never really get to know them beyond the main character’s opinion which is always “He’s so great, look at what he did, he’s so great.” Because that’s how you are during a crush.

But this is boring. Where’s the three dimensional guys? How can we learn more than he’s hot, and sweet and hot? Even when I look over Fictionpress it seems like to get a good story with a strong, flawed male lead you normally need to go to a slash fic. Which isn’t for me.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, in a romance story you have two goals when it comes to characters. Make the girl relatable and the guys someone the reader can fall in love with. You can’t love cardboard. I try so hard to get flawed males, they’re more fun. Isn’t it more fun to watch a guy sweat because he really likes his girl but one of his issues is in the way? Or do you just want him to show up at the end with a rose and a happy ending?

For my stories I want the sweat, but that’s just me.

Status: Writing Chapter 2; 1500 words in

2009-07-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

So my first little nibbles on Timeless Bonds are positive. That makes me happy. Nebi didn’t get much of an introduction but this novel is going to start pretty Jenny heavy, I kind of expected that since it needs to be about Jenny getting used to this new strange world. My first scene is also Jenny heavy. Nebi will slowly revel himself. I just love him a lot. He amuses me, and I like to see that Jenny is staying strong against him. My secret fear is that a girl will fail once put next to my male.

But I haven’t gotten THAT far in Timeless Chapter 2 because of homework and the 4th. I had plans last night and without a license bus makes it take up most of the day. It was fun though and I have to say, 4 hours of sleep did something good I guess because I think I had a break though on Birds.

Yeah, yeah, I know; too little too late right? But not really. I felt really bad about Birds. I felt all this creativity on it, I tried hard to work out the issues and then I sit down to write and it dies on my fingers. Like I said, it’s a darker work and that did have a big effect on me. You notice I talked about it a lot when I wrote it but also there was more than it just being a dark and hard work. I might have been able to go though that if it wasn’t this nagging that bothered me every time I sat down to write.

A little nagging voice spoke up every time I sat down. To be honest, writers are used to this voice. It could be our inner editor or just simple self doubt that tells you everything you write is crap but it wasn’t that negative, or that absolute. It was this little voice that whispered, “It doesn’t make sense. WHY are the characters doing this? Are those reasons really IN character?” I had reasons for them doing it but I can’t help but feel those were MY reasons not theirs. It never felt completely right.

And I think I realized why. Jenny made me realize I like her strength and her weakness. Aisling had many weaknesses and not a lot of strength. While it works with Korbin to have a weaker spirited woman, just because of his own weaknesses but I also realize that even though I could see Korbin and Aisling fall in love I couldn’t see them sticking around each other long enough to do it.

So I started thinking this morning, while I zoned on my friend’s couch, staring at a light. I made a new female character for an RP, and she has this interesting mix of strength and weakness. When I thought of her with Korbin I realized it, just how I wrote Caldur with Tai originally, Korbin needs to be with Clara (my new character) not Aisling. I already have a lot of little changes in my head and I’m planning on outlining it to make sure it I don’t end in the same corner I did before.

Now don’t think this means I’m doing another quit. I want to stick with Timeless, partially because I did all this research and I want to use it. More I like Timeless, Nebi and Jenny. I want to write their snarky romance, I want a happy story again. I really enjoyed Written in the Sand, it just got all tangled up in itself. I will do that again, once I fix it. I’m kind of sad I will most likely have to start over but it will be okay

But because of how early Birds of a Feather ended it won’t be as hard to restart as Written is. When I restart Written it’s a lot of chapters to possibly re-do, not to mention no fix has magically hit me. Birds has mostly fixed. I may work on it now. Not writing most likely, but the pre-writing stuff, or it may wait, but I want you to know that it will live again.

But first I have to get back to Timeless. I’ll definitely update this week but no promises when.

Status: Chapter 1, 4,184 words Writen

2009-07-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

That’s right patient readers, I’m finally writing again. So yesterday I powered out (by which I mean ignored and skimmed) the last hundred or so pages of my story. I still have more stuff to research, but I’m now doing that on a need bases. So my story of love in Ancient Egypt has started. A little warning, one I’ll post with the rest of my story. This won’t be very historically accurate. I’ll twist around what was to suit my story first. Hopefully the characters and stories are enough.

I forgot how many doubts hit you with writing. I get them all the time. This is my first historical story I’ve written if you don’t count the generic medieval stories I wrote as a child. Those don’t really count because they were my own world and I didn’t really research. Also, they were crap. XD Ah youth.

Anyway, it’s a good start. I had some worries with my main female being a bit passive, which won’t work with my main male but she isn’t. That makes me happy. I also, as I mentioned before, outline a good portion of the story. So I can’t get tripped up and have no where to go. I’m going to try to keep the romance a slower pace in this one since that tripped me up with Written.

Well, that’s all I really have to say. I may have images of Nebi and Jenny up soon, but I should have my story up sometime today. I may even start on chapter 2. I hope you all like it and thank you for sticking with me.

Status: 300 out of 500 pgs read

2009-06-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

know I haven’t been around much, and I’ve never taken this long to start a story before but bear with me. I got a big book (as my title states, 500 pgs) basically everything I need to know about Ancient Egypt, only you know, glossed over. I am officially 300 pgs in and I have to admit, despite all the time it takes to do this I’m really glad I am. I’m getting a LOT of ideas, which I’m mapping out. Despite my love of by fly writing I’m trying to outline some of this story to stop me from ditching it again. I can see how it all plays out and so I’m not that worried.

I will admit: I don’t like that I quit my last two stories. I don’t like that I left you guys, my readers, my reason for writing, hanging. I don’t write for myself. I could do this without so much work, and it’d be great, but it’d never have to leave my head. Every idea you ever had is amazing in your head, because there’s no one to point out flaws. When I write, I write for you, people who read my words and enjoy them. With out you I would have never finished any of my stories. So…I guess I’m just trying to say thanks and I hope you stick with me.

Back to the reading, I allotted myself 20 pgs a day which according to my calculations would take me 25 days. But when the 14 day mark hit I said “Fuck it.” bumped the number up to 40 and said “Whoo, 7 days.” Then the last section of the first half was about how Egypt accepted Christianity, the Jews and their religion and of course the now dominate religion; which, while interesting, wouldn’t be needed for my story. So I skipped it happily. (I’ve been doing a lot of reading) I decided I’d do my extra twenty of the new section and I’m not entirely sure how I did it but I got from 220 to 300 today. So whoo! So I have about 5 but I’m going to try to bump it down to 4 so I can start writing on Friday. (Maybe I’ll be lucky and finish the first chapter, but no promises!)

Oh and I titled my work. It’s now called Timeless Bonds. I like it. You may notice I like kind of short titles. Moonlight Gifts, Becoming Beasts and Timeless Bonds all being two words. Mantle of the Moon, Written in the Sand and Birds of a Feather being my longer titles. I like phrases and kind of sentences more than single words, but still rather short and punchy. I dunno, I just like titles.

Anyway, speaking of Beasts, I have to admit I’ve been failing on that front and haven’t done ANY editing in a while. I can’t help it. I just dislike how slow it is. I have come up with a new system of editing a chapter on paper then going to the computer to make the changes. I think that will let me stay more interested and it’s more of a nibble. When it takes forever to edit on page and you have over 400 it’s really disheartening.

Anyway, that’s all the updates I have. I hope everyone is having a nice summer vacation and I hope to be updating soon.

Status: Updates

2009-06-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

So, according to the Livejournal homepage, it’s been a week since I last posted and I feel like you guys deserve an update. I spent the majority of the week taking a break from writing. I met some friends, had a little fun and just separated myself from it. With the space I looked back on my writing and realized that Birds was dead. I want to apologize, but at the same time I feel like I shouldn’t. The truth is that Birds just died. Some of it was fate comatizing my laptop and some of it was my own laziness (it was hard to write, I’ll admit that made me less willing) but in the end I think the main reason is that Birds is a darker story. Beasts, for all its depressing nature, had this strain of hope. Birds won’t have that, and with my life as it is there’s no way I can keep up with it. So for now Birds is going into my mental drawer with Written and Mantle. Someday I’ll take it out and fix it, some happier day.

But I’m not stopping writing. I’m currently studying ancient Egypt for my time travel story. (See my older posts to see what I’m talking about.) I went book shopping and found this really great Egypt book on a great sale, 10 bucks, so I had to buy it. I decided I’m going to read it cover to cover and then after that start writing. It won’t be very ‘accurate’ but then again who really cares? This is for fun, your and mine enjoyment. The story will be more upbeat and more of a snarky head butting romance. Which I think is what I need. There’s lots of drama, both internal and external, to stop it from ending up like Written and should be more upbeat than Birds. So here’s hopping right?

Status: Oh fuck

2009-06-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I haven't done anything in weeks. Has it been a month? I would believe it. *rubs her forehead* Alright, so this is finals week but really I'm not that stressed. The real problem is last monday my laptop fell into a coma. By which I mean I pulled out the power cord plug to bring my laptop to the printer and aparently snapped something vital so my power cord no longer connects to the laptop but instead is merely a decortive strand of black. So I took my laptop to Best buy where it's still under the one year warentee. That's the good news. The bad news is that it will take 2-5 weeks for repair.Fun.So they took my laptop, and they took birds with it. I forgot to back it up (I know, brilliant) so now the chapter I was working on is gone and there is a very large chance they'll wipe my drive because...why not? I don't trust them to leave my stuff alone. Of course, just for fun, there's an equally large chance (guess it's 50/50 then huh?) that they WON'T wipe my harddrive which means I'll get Birds back. *rubs forehead* Anyway, all this is just making me think, there's something wrong with Birds. My readers from Beasts and Written know I don't take this long to write. I even got an e-mail once asking me how I updated so often. *sigh* It matches the e-mail i got a few weeks ago asking why I don't update anymore.So I think I need to change something and maybe that means writing projects. I have made it clear this is a hard time in my personal life but to be honest it always has been, since I started posting to Fiction Press, but Birds is very dark, very serious which isn't bad on it's own. The thing is that I'm editing Beasts (God I HATE editting), which is also dark and serious. It's making me wonder if I should try a lighter writing project. That makes me want to return to Written (rewriting it and working out the kinks that made me stop) but at the same time I don't really want to drop Birds. I don't know, right now I'm trying to 'fix' what's wrong or at least find why this is so hard so I have a good enough reason to drop it. Right now I just feel whiny dropping it.On other writing fronts, those who read my entire blog might remember Eygptian Time Travel Fun Time! from the list of my writing ideas. You may also remember the fatal flaw of that which is I need to study to write it properly. Well I got two books on Ancient Eygpt, one fictional and one non-fiction, that will help. I think once I finnish those I can get the rest from my school website's database. I hope. The hard part is what I want to know, not about wars or what the culture did at certian points but how they lived, day to day, so I can write it. But that's why I got the fiction book, if I can see how the other writes it it could help.Also, slightly writing related, my mom bought us an external harddrive to share. So now I'm going to keep all my writing projects there, so I won't ever loose them again like this. Anyway, I'll try to work on my writing. God I miss it, that's the worst part.
Location:On my mother's brand new laptopYeah, so I haven't done anything in weeks. Has it been a month? I would believe it. *rubs her forehead* Alright, so this is finals week but really I'm not that stressed. The real problem is last monday my laptop fell into a coma. By which I mean I pulled out the power cord plug to bring my laptop to the printer and aparently snapped something vital so my power cord no longer connects to the laptop but instead is merely a decortive strand of black. So I took my laptop to Best buy where it's still under the one year warentee. That's the good news. The bad news is that it will take 2-5 weeks for repair.

Fun.

So they took my laptop, and they took birds with it. I forgot to back it up (I know, brilliant) so now the chapter I was working on is gone and there is a very large chance they'll wipe my drive because...why not? I don't trust them to leave my stuff alone. Of course, just for fun, there's an equally large chance (guess it's 50/50 then huh?) that they WON'T wipe my harddrive which means I'll get Birds back. *rubs forehead* Anyway, all this is just making me think, there's something wrong with Birds. My readers from Beasts and Written know I don't take this long to write. I even got an e-mail once asking me how I updated so often. *sigh* It matches the e-mail i got a few weeks ago asking why I don't update anymore.

So I think I need to change something and maybe that means writing projects. I have made it clear this is a hard time in my personal life but to be honest it always has been, since I started posting to Fiction Press, but Birds is very dark, very serious which isn't bad on it's own. The thing is that I'm editing Beasts (God I HATE editting), which is also dark and serious. It's making me wonder if I should try a lighter writing project. That makes me want to return to Written (rewriting it and working out the kinks that made me stop) but at the same time I don't really want to drop Birds. I don't know, right now I'm trying to 'fix' what's wrong or at least find why this is so hard so I have a good enough reason to drop it. Right now I just feel whiny dropping it.

On other writing fronts, those who read my entire blog might remember Eygptian Time Travel Fun Time! from the list of my writing ideas. You may also remember the fatal flaw of that which is I need to study to write it properly. Well I got two books on Ancient Eygpt, one fictional and one non-fiction, that will help. I think once I finnish those I can get the rest from my school website's database. I hope. The hard part is what I want to know, not about wars or what the culture did at certian points but how they lived, day to day, so I can write it. But that's why I got the fiction book, if I can see how the other writes it it could help.

Also, slightly writing related, my mom bought us an external harddrive to share. So now I'm going to keep all my writing projects there, so I won't ever loose them again like this. Anyway, I'll try to work on my writing. God I miss it, that's the worst part.

Status: Chapter 3 Finish; Chapter 4 Not Started

2009-05-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

always forget how good a writing rush feels. Writer’s block sucks, it clings to you, nibbles at your self-confidence and makes every word a pain to write. You never know what starts writer’s block but you never know what will crumble it. Today I couldn’t say when the awkward interaction between Aisling and Korbin smoothed. I couldn’t say when I suddenly started connecting to my heroine better. I couldn’t say when it just started to flow again.

But god it felt great.

I hate the wait between chapters as much as you do, and this story has been a pain because of its slow space. Part of that is my fault, I’ve let laziness and depression steal me away from the rush for too long. I can’t even promise it won’t happen again. I’m still lazy and still depressed, but right now I’m on a writing high and I can’t wait for another hit. I can promise you that I won’t give up on this story. No matter how much I want too at times, as long as I feel this story is actually moving down a path to the end I will continue.

I quit on Writing, and that isn’t like me, but I didn’t do that just because this idea felt all great and amazing (stupid story changing its feel as soon as I start writing). I did it because Kit and Caldur lacked enough drama. I was doing great to the middle but really the story needed a pause and I didn’t have enough to keep it going. I think I rushed the relationship too much. Like I stated before, I have that kind of problem.

With Asher and Kaylee it worked, because they had so much drama when they were together. I also think that with Aisling and Korbin it will work. I certainly know more about them as they push back and forth. Asher and Kaylee were like a therapy session with sex, Kit and Caldur are two lonely souls meeting their destiny, and Aisling and Korbin are a game of tug of war. I think it’s pretty clear in this chapter and will become more clear down the road.

I already have a few scenes planned in my mind. Poor Phoenix needs to hear about Aisling’s problems and Korbin needs to explain his weird behavior. Plus I’m dying to introduce another side character, actually two but I don’t know if the second will come in the scene I have planed. *giggles evilly* But I bet I got you excited.

Anyway, I hope Chapter 4 comes out sooner than chapter 3 and hope this story just gets easier to write. I’m happier when I’m writing.

Oh, and I also started editing Beasts again. (I paused for a few days) I read three chapters today and am officially over half way done with reading it over. Then I have to edit it, then I have to write the changes out. XD God the road just seems longer with every milestone, but I shall celebrate the milestones anyway. I haven’t been in contact with the girl who agreed to help me edit, which is slightly sad. Also I have another friend who wanted to edit who I haven’t seen in a while. I also haven’t talked to my high school friend/editor since a few weeks ago. Technically we’re supposed to go out. I was going to see how she felt about editing. I need editors for Beasts, so if you’re interested please let me know, ether here in the comments or though one of the contact options on my profile. If you do want to edit, please be good at grammar (my weak point) and have experience with romance novels/stories.

Also, if you want to just talk, feel free to friend me on Facebook, but if you do, add a little note. I’m hesitant about adding people I don’t know, so just let me know where you’re from and I’d be glad to add you.

Okay, that’s really all I have to say, and now I’m very tired, so I’m heading to bed. I hope you enjoy chapter 3 and this post.

Status: Chapter 2 Finished; Chapter 3 Not Started

2009-05-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

About. Damn. Time. No? Alright, well it has been a long time since I waited that long between updates and I didn't like. I really hated it because I had lots of time to write but ether no the drive or was dealing with writer's block. I wish the chapter was super long to make up for it but it was actually a tiny bit shorter than the one before it. Oh well, I can only hope to get Chapter 3 up faster (won't be that hard). I'm actually kind of happy with the chapter, as happy as I can be. I like the ending of it. Then again I find Korbin and Aisling amusing together. Though Phoenix and Aisling is fun too. I like all my main characters. I'm not entirely sure what's happening next but I'll brain storm tonight when I'm going to sleep and tomorrow in class.

On a different front, I started editing Becoming Beasts. That's my second novel, and my current best (but really that's not that hard) in my mind. Ether way. I already knocked out a few pages, and will continue to work on it in my spare time. I love using my big red pen. I'm already happy with my new editing system. I focus on style so it's not so negative. I also started talking with my old friend who edited my work in high school. So maybe I can get her to edit Beasts. She's great at the stuff I'm bad at and she likes my work. I'll probably offer to edit some of her work in return.

I've never really edited a novel before (someone else’s I mean), but if anyone wants me too feel free to contact me. I might not and I could very well be slow, but I could try. Mind you, I'm not good at grammar, and technicals of writing. I did edit my first novel and found that was a distressing event, but I'm already working on fixing that. I've had discussions with undeadbovine/ravenclawH7/Morianna/Astrid (I'm just going to call her Astrid from now on), who I discuss most of my writing’s with. We worked on some of Ara's problems, in the fact that she lacks them. I always wanted her to be this strong person with a broken base, but in the end I just made her completely whole. That does not make for exciting writing. Plus some stuff about her life just didn't resonate well with me. I wanted her mom to be busy but she was too attentive so it struck wrong that Ara could be as free as she was. So I think I'm going to greatly change her mother. I never really liked her anyway. I also changed Maverick's mother. Most minor characters will change greatly, or be nixed all together. Maverick and Luke will stay the same.

I also got a book on writing romance novels, which I think I mentioned before. Yeah, I did, well I still recommend you get it. I’m almost done with it (starting on reading the editing chapter hence my beginning edits) and I will definitely comb over it again as I edit. With this book, I’m going to look over Written and reboot that. Don’t worry, Kit and Caldur will stay the same but their relationship moved just too fast and part of that was my fault. I wanted them together so I just made them go. Ether way, when I’m done with Birds I’ll redo Written and then I’ll redo Mantle. Lots of rewrites no. XD I don’t know when I’ll do my Ancient Egypt idea, but I know I want too someday. Anyway, no point looking so far in the future.

Chapter 3 of Birds is today. I’ll try my best to get that up faster. I’m eager to get this story going. I really hate beginnings, middles are so much nicer.

Status: Not far enough

2009-05-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

I hate to do this. I don't like to go a long time between posting. When I do it becomes harder to write. The character's move away and I get used to not having writing in my life. I wanted to rewrite the first chapter of Birds, as you guys probably read in the last post but that failed. I figured out that I really hate chase scenes. I hated it in Written, I hated it in Mantle and I hate it in Birds. I don't know if I do them well enough and over all there's so much emotion that I feel like I'm just not including enough. So it's silly to want to rewrite a chase scene when I'm already not feeling good about them in general.

So that delayed me. In the middle of this I have fallen into a pretty bad depression. Now I've been depressed for a while, and this is actually pretty good for my writing. (When I'm depressed I need to create something.) But right now it seems to be making me sick. I swear I haven't felt well in over two weeks. Ether I have my allergies acting up, or womanhood will attack me, or now I'm DEAD TIRED for no reason. I have a pounding headache and it makes it damn hard to write. Not to mention everytime I sit down I just feel so lost that I want to do anything that turns off my mind.

Anyway, that's a personal rant I don't want in this blog. I also have family coming over this weekend (and god I need to clean). I wanted to finnish up the second chapter today and then be done until they leave but now I don't know what is happening. I apologize for the pause and wish I could just do what I want to do.

Status: Pre-Writing Prep

2009-04-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

So some of you may be confused by my status. I did post a chapter one for my new story Birds of the Feather but I don't like it. I've been reading 'On Writting Romance' by Leigh Michaels, so far I really like it and it made me aware I need to go back and plan. I actually think this was my problem in Written, I lacked good enough conflict to keep me going and then Birds came around. So I'm going to edit Chapter 1 of Birds and then post the new verson with Chapter 2. Right now I need to go though my new list of 'Pre-Writting Questions'. These are questions from my book that I'm going to go though and answer before I start a novel. I think it will help me work out tangles like I've been running into.

Ether way, I have a long week end so I'll try to get chapter 2 up. I'll also post a little ad for this blog in the new story so my new readers can get it. Birds will be darker than Written, but don't think it will be any less romantic. I think I finally figured out a sechdule for my writting. I do want to finish Birds, but then I'll go though my questions, do a little fiddling around then rewrite/finish Written. When I'm done with that I'm going to Question Mantle and fix that lack of conflicted mess. Sometime between that I'll also edit Beasts but I won't post that anywhere. XD (If you want to edit with the editing process just let me know.)

Anyway, I got some fun stuff for you. On the sountrack front Korbin makes me think of All I Was Looking for Was You by Fastball. It's from their new album which is great btw way. I definately see Fastball as the soundtrack to Birds, sad sounding but not actually negative. While Mamma Mia was Written, dramatic but in the end fun. I also recently uploaded The Sims2 back onto my computer, sadly all I could fit was the orginal game and none of my exapnsion packs. The game seems almost dull. Oh well. Still, I made my characters because I can't draw so this as close as I get.I always imagine Caldur in a trench coat, which I think I actually failed to give him. Just nothing says 'brood' quite like a good trench coat, plus I feel the drama suits him. The one in the Sims is a little matrix-y. He wouldn't be wearing that black outfit underneth but the coat is definatly him.

Kit also provided some problems. Mostly because the Sims don't have her right clothes. That's as close as I can get but really she'd be wearing more of a hiking outfit. The hair is great though, red and out of the way in that tight, sleek pony tail. I imagined that haircut when I first got her idea.

In Birds I have my twins Korbin and Phoenix which I don't entirely like how they look. I dunno, maybe becuase it's too easy to tell them apart, but of course they have lots of different grooming habits so it would be, on a superficial level. Also their clothes. *shakes head* Well not a lot I can do.

Then last, but not least, my female lead in Birds, Aisling. Okay, I do like this picture. I had such trouble with her hair. Even now I still debate brunette or blonde. What do you guys think? I dunno, I kind of like her blonde. Blondes are cliche innocents but it still works. Plus her hair looks soft and I imagine her with really soft hair. This outfit is perfect because it's both stylish, a bit formal, but also kind of cute. Aisling is a lot more wounded than Kit, or at least outwardly. Kit was brave, Aisling is still brave but differently. I think I'm really going to like her. She just won't be as uplifting to write with. Kit just made me grin when I was done, she was so happy.

Well that's all on my front. I'll try to post soon.

Links to Images: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/InnocentAngel333/caldur.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/InnocentAngel333/kit-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/InnocentAngel333/korbin.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/InnocentAngel333/phoenix.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/InnocentAngel333/aisling.jpg

Status: At a crossroads

2009-04-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is bad. This will be a short post because I have a driving lesson in an hour and I have things I need to do but I need to post this. Since I started writing I tend to start one project, finish it (or abandon it), and then move on to the next. This is the first time that an idea has demanded to be written before I’m done with an old one but it’s happened. If you see my previous post, you’ll see the idea for the twin story. I like the idea a lot but I always planed on finishing Written first. I love Kit and Caldur, and I even really enjoy their story.

Or I did. Right now, it’s really annoying to just deal with it at all. I sit down wishing I was already done, and the chapters are getting shorter and shorter. That also annoys me. I prefer to have an average of 6,000 words per chapter but now I have to struggle for 5000. I have to say these must be signs. I think I may have to put Written on hiatus. I’m sorry to all the fans. I really am, but you won’t get a good story if I don’t enjoy the writing anymore. Don’t think this hiatus will never end, it isn’t on hiatus because I don’t want to finish it, or because my fans don’t want it, but because I just need a break from it. Maybe when I start on my next idea I’ll jump ship again, I don’t know. I don’t like this. I want to finish this story before I start a new one but I just don’t like it.

So I’m going to start on my twin story (which needs a title), and I hope you like it just as much. I promise I’ll finish Kit and Caldur’s story one day, hopefully soon, but for now I need to give its break.

Status: Writting Chapter 9; 3111 words written

2009-04-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

So it’s been a little while, both for updates and for an entry. My last two chapters went up so fast and now number nine is being a bitch. Mostly I feel a little stuck story wise and my imagination, instead of helping me with the story I’m working on now is like ‘I have more ideas! You should write them.’ I have debated just starting up a new story, since I have so many, but I think I should just relax and focus on the story I have. I’m pretty sure if I stop Written now I won’t start back up, plus it seems unfair to court a new fan base and make both groups of people wait longer as I decide which story I’m in the mood for today. No, it’s better for me to just focus on Written and be done with it.

But what about my ideas? I don’t want to loose them, so I’m going to write them down here, in no particular order.

Mantle of the Moon
What? This has already been written, a fan might say, well true but I need to rewrite it. Ara and Maverick together have no problems, so I need to give them issues! I’m probably going to really change Ara around, she bores me now. I meant for her to be like Kit but with this great need to be the best, but nether of those traits really came though when I wrote her, so I need to alter her around.

Ancient Egypt Time Travel Fun Time!
Okay, so you can tell this hasn’t really been named but it’s an idea I got from an RP. (Most of my ideas come from RP with my friend undeadbovine/ravenclawH7/Morianna/Astrid) In this idea, an ancient Egyptian prince meets a time traveler from our time. I loved my prince character, Nebi, who was so flawed and yet, so great. I have so much fun when I write him and he’s just to die for. Also, he’s my first black character. As a Hispanic raised by whites most of my characters are white with some girls being Hispanic (I love the shade of skin dark Hispanics have). Still, Nebi = awesome. Main problem is that Nebi also = lots of research. I know very little about ancient Egypt and would need to study up on it since the majority of the story takes place there. Good news was that it’d most likely spawn a sequel. Mostly I just need to research before this story. I’d love to take just an ancient Egypt history class, since that would force me to actually study. (I suck at self study)

Attack of the Magic Twins
This will most likely be my next novel, as it’s strongest in my head and requires no retooling or research. This is also currently not named and based off an RP with my aforementioned friend. This will change a lot from our RP though. In this modern fantasy novel, magic is hidden from day to day life. People with magic tend to live in the ‘Magic Quarter’ of cities and join together in almost mafia like gangs. These gangs fight for power with Fights. (All my names may get better when I sit down to write the real novel.) The Fights are like street fighting meets cage wrestling match. It’s less regulated and death is possible/acceptable but most people don’t die. The best Fighter in currently unnamed city is Korbin Trudu (last name will change). Magic in this world is based on Themes. People have all sorts of different abilities as long as it goes along with a theme, which can be as useful as Destruction and as harmless as Bunnies. Some are really broad, others really specific. Korbin is partially the best Fighter because he has two Themes, chaos and emotion; the only other person to have two themes is his estranged identical twin brother Phoenix. (Roll with it.) Thing is that Phoenix doesn’t really have good powers, his themes are control and civility. So while control is pretty kick ass his need to be polite stops him from being too powerful. The twins are brought together again by a girl on the run with the theme of Dream named Aisling (ASH-ling). As I write this I realize it’s really similar to Mantle but bleh, when it’s written out it will be way different, way darker. This will most likely be rated M, also these people will be older than my so far average 16/18 characters. Ether way, I think it will be a lot of fun to explore the darker sides.

Those are my only really set down ideas. My twin idea has been pushing really hard to get written but I know I need to put it to the side. Thankfully, because I want to write it so bad it makes me eager to continue working on Written. I finally got an idea for where to go next so I’ll work on that, and hopefully will have Chapter 9 up soon.

Status: Chapter 7 Finnish; Chapter 8 Not begun

2009-04-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, my last chapter came in a whirlwind. I do admit, cliff hangers get me as eager to keep writing as they get my readers to keep reading (or at least I hope so). I tend to end in them to keep my excitement going though a chapter but this came by fast. I didn't really plan to write the chapter in an afternoon but I'm kind of glad I did. It would have been hard to break up the big scene and the short scene was pretty easy, plus the whole thing was dramarific. ^_^

I'm just loving Kit and Caldur right now. They are so cute together and I can't help but love them as a couple. It's always great when you set down to write a romance and find real chemistry there. I know a lot of people complain about couples that don't make sense and I hope mine always do but it's always a pleasure to find that the hard thing is that their romance doesn't go to FAST so the reader has something to read. I also enjoy the different dynamics between characters.

Kit and Caldur have this almost soul mate thing going. Since I started writing them together they just click. Like, they were always destined to be together. Which is nice because the last story I tried to get Caldur into his love interest was a bit forced. Now I know why, he's meant for Kit. XD

My last couple definitely didn't have the soul mate thing going on, they instead had this intense sexual connection that caught me off guard. I never really done much experiment in the sexual hot tub of the romance pool, though I've glanced over a few times, even tried to dip my toe in now and then but it always got too uncomfortable, so it was weird to get this huge sexual connection between two characters when I never written like that before. Even with them I chickened out, I couldn't finish the sex scene so I just faded to black and mentioned them going at it a lot. It was kind of cool though. That couple was always surprising me though. I loved them for it.

Something I wanted to bring up, that's been on my mind a bit lately, is soundtracks. It seems I keep on reading about authors with different soundtracks for different characters or works, and I, always wanting to be included, thought over it too. It hasn't been a new idea, I often loved to look for 'soul songs' for my character, songs that represented their soul, but they're hard to find. For Beasts, the closest I found was the song 'Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon' by Neil Diamond. While it didn't exactly explain the soul of ether of my main characters it certainly explained their relationship and the ending of the story was even inspired by it. (I even included a line very similar to the lyrics in one of the final chapters, try to find it!)

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Mamma Mia! Soundtrack, from the movie, I can't find the plays. So it would make sense some of their songs effect my work. The song 'Lay all Your Love on Me' first made me think of Caldur and Kit but while there are some similarities it's really just my love of the song that makes me want to say that. What does make me think of them, but especially Kit is 'The Name of the Game'. While in the movie it wasn't a love song (or even in the official movie) it really suits the awkward couple. Both in the way that they're both so attracted so quickly. What it really makes me think of with Kit is her attraction to Caldur gets her really off balance but she still faces him. Kit is no coward.

Okay, well check out my latest chapters, if you haven't already. I'll probably start writing chapter 8 this weekend. I already got ideas. ^_^ This story is really starting to flow!

Status: Writing Chapter 6, 555 words written

2009-04-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

To My Loyal Readers,

Who I know, as I write this, is none, but I hope some will follow me from fictionpress. I started this because for a long time I wished to write what I felt about chapters, and explain if things are going well, or not, before the actual chapters came out. Over all, I was tired of adding all these author notes to my chapter's in Beast, but I knew that the readers deserve to know things. So I decided to start this. Here I will post anything I feel needs to be said about my writing. I may ask my readers questions, or explain why a chapter is coming out slow. I will post warnings if life is kicking my ass, or if it's been unusally kind.

I will also be able to explain all my feelings on my writting, keep you updated over ideas and maybe even say when I get things published. If I want to discuss other things about writting, I'll post it here. This isn't a place to discuss my life, unless it spills over into my writing, but instead be dedicated to my art. I can only hope you'll like it too.

Currently; I'm working on Written in the Sand. It's a young adult, supernatural, romantic drama (boy that's a lot of words). It's about two characters that I have loved since word one. Caldur Beckett, a hydrokinetic, who hates the small town he lives in because they shun him for his 'bad luck'. Cecil 'Kit' Forester, who moves to the small town. Kit has no magic except the inability to take no for an answer. She refuses to leave things be and starts to stir up more trouble than she expects; in the form of a mythical dragon tied to the town and to Caldur. As you can see from the title, I'm on Chapter six, with 555 words written (not over all, just in the chapter).

The story is stumbly at time. I'm not always sure where I'm going but every time I sit down and really think scenes come to mind. That's all I really need. I don't know when to expect to finnish chapter six. I have homework that will take up most of Sunday. I may have time on Monday and Wednesday. I do know that the romantic scenes will make me want to hurry.

I want to see where they go next.