Nano update day 8: 16,252

Hello all

I skipped my update yesterday because there is a very stressful happening in my life at the moment. I did write to my daily goal yesterday, however I didn't even think to blog about it because of all that is on my mind.

I'll probably explain later when it all gets worked out, but for now, I'm just trying not to think about it.

cheers until next time

Nano day 6: 12,800 words

I've apparently hit a writing roll, going way over my word count. I could probably write more because I am not tired nor taxed in the least. But I'm suffering from an incorrigible and abrupt bout of laziness and have therefore decided to watch a movie and eat a pomegranate instead. woops...

Nano Day 5: 10,000 words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10,455 to be exact.

And I'm not going to overachieve this time even. Now I am going to relax.

Nano day 4 Update: 8,696 words

I skipped the day three update because I had a terrible headache and after finishing my word count goal went straight to bed at 9pm.

Today writing went smoothly enough but I was so beat from work today that it was less enjoyable than usual.

My biggest accomplishment came in the form of my best (and only non-writer friend) starting Nano late on day three and managing to write over 7,000 words in two days. Considering this bestie of mine hasn't wrote anything more than a couple pages before I am seriously impressed and proud of her. It seems we are all getting in the Nano spirit!

In other news, if all goes well and I meet my daily goal again I will hit 10,000 words tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

I rate this YA novel 5 out of 5

            Within The City there is the Carnival of Souls. It is a place where pleasure, pain, and money, are     bought and sold and the rule of the daimon Marchosias extends over all it's inhabitants. In this order of cast and protocol Kaleb and Aya, two daimons from very different casts, fight for a chance to change their destinies. However their fights and lives are more entangled than they ever could imagine. And then there is Mallory, a girl who has grown up in the human world, taught by her father that witches like him are to be trusted, while daimons from The City are the sworn enemy. It is all she has known in her life filled with training and running from the daimons that seek what her father stole from them long ago. If only she could find what had been stolen and return it, then maybe their lives could settle down. Maybe they could be a normal family. But the mystery of the stolen object is one with the power to change her whole existence and everything she has come to know. 
            Carnival of Souls is dark, bewitching, and utterly entrancing. In the same way Marr developed an entire world and hierarchy for the fey in her Wicked Lovely series, she does it again with the same fantastic results in this newest series beginning. 
            Told from multiple points of view, the reader watches the story unfold from all sides, no part of the story neglected or left half told. It is a rich and refreshing narration that a reader looks forward to in this novel, the action violence and romantic intrigue balanced perfectly.
I highly recommend this new series, and any of Marr's other books to readers. Though working, participating in NaNoWriMo, and keeping up with a decently active social life, I still managed to finish this book in a matter days. 

by Alissa Tsaparikos

Nano day 2: 5,106 Words and the First Plot-Twist of the Month

I know when a writer uses the term plot-twist they refer to what is happening in their stories. However, sometimes I like to apply it to life. And boy did I have a plot-twist happen to me last night, though admittedly it did have to do with story I am now writing

I was sitting back, feeling pretty happy about my word count, skimming a few paragraphs. And then it hit me. My whole first novel, the one this sequels, was written in 1st person. I had written these first 9 pages in 3rd. OH THE CALAMITY. 

But then I thought about it and I decided to roll with things. As I said in my first update, things were going really well, just kind of rolling out. If it was going so smoothly, and felt so right, maybe it wasn't a mistake. Or maybe I'm just lazy and don't want to go back and change it all. However the case may be, I wondered about whether or not my first part of this story, the finished first novel, was flawed by being done in 1st person. It has always vaguely felt like the story was lacking something and merely chalked it up to the story line or my own writing style being at fault. However maybe the POV was somewhat to blame. I did originally narrate this story (whilst orating it to friends in it's very very beginning) as 3rd person. It was what made sense seeing as it was from the different points of view of four main characters. When I did my first draft attempt at the beginning (about 15 or 20 pages) I did the whole account in 1st person. For a bit I floundered. wondering if it was possible to do a four person narration all in 1st. The conclusion I came to was yes, though characterization was that much harder beings as it had to be that much more unique going from one character to the next. And so I wrote. 

So while I made the attempt and eventually finished, I'm starting to wonder which was the right choice. I have decided to leave it up to my readers. 

Below is a snippet from both the 1st and 3rd POV. Please leave comments and opinions. Any little bit helps.

Both are from the character Lucian's point of view.

From A Servant and Her Princess

• I was halfway done packing a case when Will walked into my room. Turning, I stepped in front of the bag, somehow self-conscious.
  His eyes narrowed. “Going somewhere?” He asked it casually, but there was something dangerous in his voice.
  “Yes.”
  “And where might that be? Not after the servant is it?”
  “And if it is?” I asked, not even trying to vale my wariness.
  Something hung between us and I wasn’t sure what he would do. This was a different person from the boy I had grown up with. This man was hard, bitter. This man did not like me at all. He stood motionless, no visible reaction on his face. He turned to leave and facing away from me spoke slowly. “And if I forbid you to leave – forbid you to choose that woman a second time?”
              His implication of power over me, power he had never threatened or used over me before, made me flush red with fury. No one would keep me from doing as I wished and he knew this better than anyone. Was he aiming to make me become an outlaw? “Are you going to make me stay?” I asked just as calmly, not belying the maelstrom of anger and frustration wreaking havoc within.
              Will seemed to sag then, as if the challenge was too great. He turned to leave but stopped at the doorway. “Think carefully about your next actions Lucian. You have always been my closest friend and confident, but my trust can only be spread so thin. Make you decision now. Leave if that is what you feel you must do, but know this, if you leave you will not be welcomed back here. A friend divided, sly, and tricksome as you are is no friend at all. And before you rush off to go save the love you so desperately want, ask yourself if it really is the right thing. By all means I cannot make up your mind for you, but it seems to me you have hurt that girl enough to last her a lifetime. I imagine yours if the last face she wants to see for as long as she lives. In fact, didn’t she say just that the last time you saw her? A reunion with her will only cause a world of hurt for everyone involved and those left behind,” he paused, looking at me imploringly. “Just think for once Lucian, really think. After all the grief you have caused her, if you really care for her you could give her the greatest gift of all now and let it go. Make it so she never has to see your face again, the face that betrayed her,” and then he was gone. 

From An Adviser and His King

• Anger started to mingle with his initial shock and Lucian pushed up off the ground and placed himself directly in front of his friend’s path, giving him no choice but to look Lucian in the eye. “And what of my defending the honor of you and your wife.”
              Will sighed heavily and looked away from him. “The honor of your King and Queen doesn’t seem to have been the first priority in your life up to this point.”
              Lucian tensed at the jab, felt his fists ball reflexively. But it had been years since they were children who could settle an argument with a playful brawl and if Lucian was honest with himself he wasn’t quite sure that he and Will were even a shadow of their former selves. What had happened to those children he wondered.
              Forcing himself to relax his pose Lucian backed away a step or two and tried for a soft expression. “True my mind mighten always have been on Kings and Queens, or Princess and Princesses. But you know I could never stand by and listen to someone abuse my friend.”
              He wasn’t sure if there was any hope of his friend forgiving him, but if anything could remind Will of their closeness it would be through a memory of every time Lucian had come home bloodied and bruised but with a smirk on his face. Will would always ask who had done it, but Lucian would never tell. Sly and vindictive he could be, but he wouldn’t boast about beating ruffians to a pulp who spoke unkindly about the, at the time, young and bumbling Prince. Lucian always thought Will might have known, but until that moment he hadn’t acknowledged it before.
              Will did not smile or joke but his posture softened and he let out a breath that sounded quite a lot like defeat. Lucian bit back a smile. Will had remembered. There was still hope for their friendship left. Honesty seemed to be the key to at the moment so Lucian decided to take a chance.
              “I’ve missed my friend,” Lucian said, his voice low.

It's November First

And just about every writer knows what that means....NaNoWriMo!!

I am participating this year for the first time :). I spent just about every November since I found out what NaNoWriMo was making up excuses about why I didn't have time and other yadda yadda , but no more! I have joined the fast foray of scurrying fingers on keyboards for the next month to produce a first draft of my next novel.

My first NaNoWriMo will be spent constructing the sequel to my first finished novel A Servant and Her Princess. I've spent a lot of my time wondering whether that novel was a waste of four years writing. I have only had two dedicated readers. One of these was a professor at my Uni who helped me work through and do the biggest editing job of my life. I used that novel as a Senior Writer At Work project, the final creative writing class credit I needed for my major. However after that, no readers I asked were really biting, so I wondered if I should give up on it. The novel itself needed a sequel to end properly, a sequel I had not written. I went back and forth on whether the endeavor was futile and if I shouldn't even bother finishing it. Why finish something if it was going no where to begin with? As the first approached I decided to use a more recent project as the one to be written this month. I had made my decision, even posting the title, summery and snippet of the story to come on my NaNoWriMo page. And then 15 minutes before November 1st I knew I wasn't choosing the right path. I logged back onto the page I had created 40 minutes ago and edited my new novel info. The story to be written would be the sequel to my first novel. And then I went to bed.

Now why would I write a finish for an already possibly dead end novel? Well, the easy answer is that I'm not going to give up, not ever. I do a fair amount of down talking on my own writing, but I have to admit, no matter all the flaws of my first novel, I love it. I love the characters with their juvenile behavior and the plot with all it's holes, I love it all. It is a flawed thing, but I worked very hard on it and it is the first finished novel generated by me and only me. I learned a whole heck of a lot and both me and it came a long way from the seventeen-year-old who started to write a story she had told her friends for fun.

Yes I want to get published some day. Yes I want my stories to be read and shared by more than me and my friends. But I don't think it is the most important thing anymore. Sure it is a very big life goal, but it isn't everything. The story, my creativity, THAT  is everything to me. As long as I have those things I will always be fine and always carry on. Being published would be great but as I've iterated many times before, there are many authors I have read that are unpublished and absolutely amazing and their writing brilliant. Not being published doesn't mean a damn in the face of the greatness that is their story. So sure, maybe this story and it's sequel won't be published, maybe it will be written and finished just for me, and that is absolutely fine by me. Because I learned so much writing the first, and I think I will learn even more finishing the second.

I have no regrets about my decision. I wrote my first 1751 words (84 over my daily goal!) in less than two hours. Everything just flowed out. I hadn't even really made a concrete plan on where I wanted to go with things, but like the first time, the story just began to happen. I am absolutely sure it is going to get harder every day and I will have many points where I want to give up, but I am still happy with this choice because I feel like this story wants to be written.

I would go on even more on the subject, but it is November 1st and it's time to write!