Planning for Pantsers - Make a Scene

Scenes are the cornerstones of novels. Contrary to the popular idea that the number of chapters is how readers measure the book, what keeps people reading are the scenes, and how you transition from one scene to the other.

Some people have the ability to write scenes that continue for pages and yet keep the reader on the edge of their seats, waiting eagerly for what comes next. Others prefer short, sharp, edgy scenes that keep readers turning the page to get to the next scene for resolution.

As you keep writing, you’ll find what works for you with regards to voice, characterisation, timing and a standard length of scenes. Until I started Rose House, my average scene length was about 500 words. I simply couldn’t figure out how to get them any longer, no matter how hard I tried.

With Rose House, I woke up one morning and realised that the length of the scene wasn’t important. It was the content. If I wanted to make that 50k word count, I needed to have content that would inspire me to keep writing those scenes, no matter how long they took.

Unfortunately, as a pantser, coming up with ideas for scenes is a lot harder than it sounds. My usual method is to sit down, stare blankly at my screen for half an hour, write one paragraph and call it a scene.

The problem with that method is that nothing much can happen in a few sentences, and every scene needs to carry the plot forward in some way. If nothing happens in your scene, it isn’t necessary to tell the story and will be tedious to write, never mind reading it!

The other problem is, no one enjoys reading lengthy scenes filled with descriptions that are only used to fill space. Unless you’re really, really good at painting pictures with words, you’re going to lose your reader with endless exposition.

So how do you combat all that when you’re planning your novel bearing in mind that you don’t usually plan anything, you just write?

First, let’s look at what a scene is. A scene is the smallest component of a story, something that happens within it to move it forward. There can be any number of scenes in a chapter, but no chapters in a scene.

When writing your novel, your basic plot looks something like this:

Beginning: Bob meets Betty.

Middle: Betty and Bob have a fight.

End: Betty and Bob make up and everything ends happily ever after.

Scenes come into play when you want to describe the following:

How did Bob meet Betty?

What happened to cause the fight?

When did the fight happen?

How did they resolve it and live happily ever after?

There is one essential rule with writing scenes - Something pivotal to the story has to happen. The problem most pantsers, myself included, seem to experience with scenes is that we write scenes like this:

Betty and Bob go on a picnic and spend hours talking about nothing in particular, staring romantically into each other’s eyes and wishing the picnic will never end.

If that’s your typical scene, then the picnic will never end for the reader, because she would have fallen asleep after the first few sentences. As a writer, you don’t want to do that to her.

The question is, how do you come up with scenes in the first place, and then make them interesting enough to keep your readers reading?

This is where Scrivener (or yWriter) comes in handy although you can just as easily do this on index cards, cut up pages of paper, in a handy notebook, or on a pile of serviettes if you’re going for the artistic writer effect. Just make sure that if you use any of the latter methods, you have somewhere safe to keep your scenes in order, otherwise you’ll lose the plot. *insert bad pun gigglesnort*

*Ahem* Sorry about that. Onward!

First off, decide how many words you want your novel to be. If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, this is easy. The target is decided for you at 50000 words. If you’re aiming for more (as an epic fantasy for example), then you’ll adjust the length or number of your scenes accordingly.

Because I used this method for NaNoWriMo, I decided that the average length of my scenes would be between 1000 and 2000 words, and I would need about 50 scenes of at least 1000 words each to get from the beginning of the story to the end.

This number seemed really intimidating to me, so I broke it down even further. Rose House is written in Multiple Points of View, from the perspectives of about five different characters. I decided that the two main characters, Jeremy and Sarah, would each have 10 scenes dedicated to their POVs and that Amy and Luke would get 10 scenes between them. The remaining 20 scenes would be split between journal entries, and the Elementals.

Depending on the format of your novel, this method may or may not work for you, but if you find yourself intimidated by the bigger numbers, take some time to break it up into chunks that feel more manageable. If, for example, you have a single POV narration, use the time line of your story to split the scenes. So that 10 scenes are dedicated to a single time period in your novel, 10 are for the next time period, and so on. How you split the scenes is up to you, but the idea is to keep some sort of manageable order without micro-managing. We are pantsers after all!

Using Scrivener you can create empty text pages in the binder. If you’re working on paper, make sure you have the allotted number of index cards, torn pages or whatever works for you. Depending on how you split your scenes, give each page a heading. In Scrivener, I had 10 pages labelled Jeremy, 10 - Sarah, 10 Amy and Luke, and 20 were left blank.

Once that’s done, start creating titles for your scenes. I generally use a simple sentence that describes what’s going to happen to the POV character in the scene. Do as many as you can, and then leave the rest of the scene cards blank. It’s not important to have them all filled at this point in time. As you start to write the actual scenes, other ideas will come to you and you’ll be able to fill the rest of the cards faster than you think. If you’re unsure what makes a good scene, remember that the Main Character of the scene has to want something - either to get it, or to avoid it - and the scene needs to answer the who, how, what, where and how of his desire. In one of my scenes for Rose House, Jeremy is desperate to get to his siblings’ class after school because Luke is often the victim of bullies. What happens when Jeremy is late leads to the idea for the title of my scene: “Amy and Luke deal with bullies.”

After writing most of your titles set yourself a daily writing goal. This is where the WriteChain Challenge comes in handy. Mine was generally to complete one or two scenes a day, since that would get me to the finish line, but it’s important to set yourself goals that don’t overwhelm you or leave you feeling like a failure if you don’t meet them. If you don’t meet your daily goal, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just try to make it for the next one. Guilt trips take all the fun out of the act of writing and are actually counter-productive.

It doesn’t matter if the scenes are coherent or fit neatly into your story’s time line. That will be fixed later. What’s important now is that you’re getting the ideas in your head down in writing in a semi-coherent fashion.

Scrivener allows you to mark your scenes in the binder in a colour. It also allows you to shuffle them around on the cork-board overview. As I finished writing each scene, I would mark it in blue, write the titles for any additional scenes that came to me as a result of that one, and then check the cork-board to see that the layout of the scenes matched the time line of the story.

I found that as the screen filled with highlighted blue titles, it was that much easier to keep going, writing more scenes then I’d thought possible. With each completed scene, I was also able to fill in the details of my plot, fleshing out what had just been a vague idea when I first started.

Then I had to figure out the time line of my story. Which is a topic for the next post; Just in Time.

I welcome your feedback, and look forward to hearing if this post helped you at all or if there are any points that are unclear. Drop me a comment and tell me how you plan your scenes. I can’t wait to hear all about it! 

Check back next Sunday for the second post: Just in Time when we'll look at creating Timelines. 

Planning for Pantsers - Essential Tools

Welcome to Week 1 of Planning for Pantsers. If you’re not sure what this is, have a look at the Intro here.

Throughout my writing process, I use various helpful tools and websites without which I’d be even more lost than I usually am. This post will deal with a few of the ‘tools’ I consider essential to making sense of planning.

Right before NaNoWriMo, I purchased Scrivener*. I am now a Scrivener convert, preaching it as the religion of choice for all writers! For those of you who are familiar with it, great! For those of you who aren’t, I highly recommend downloading the free trial and then begging, pleading or borrowing for the money to purchase the full version. It’s not too expensive and is well worth every cent. If you don’t have Scrivener it is still possible to work the way I describe in the series, but will require more organisation than most pantsers have (or at least; it’s more than I have).

I also suggest investing in Holly Lisle’s clinics available on her website, although if you’re wary of doing so, she has a lot of free workshops available as well which are just as helpful for basic plotting. I first bought her “Create-A-…” clinics in about 2009. To this day, I refer back to them when I get lost. They're full of commonsense, humour and helpful tips and tricks. She’ll be releasing her Create-A-World Clinic soon and I’m waiting anxiously for the day when I can purchase it and make my world complete.

Inspiration. For me this comes in the form of the Twitter community of writers; amazing music; blogs and websites written by writers for writers; quirky quotes; crazy animal pictures; my friends and family. Wherever you get it from, inspiration isn’t the invisible idea that strikes when you least expect it. It’s a tool like any other, that you pull out and use to motivate and inspire you to sit down and write even when you really want to sleep, watch TV or go to the toilet. Okay, so maybe you should go to the toilet when you want to, but for the others, tying yourself to the chair works. A cat sitting on your feet with his claws ready to pierce the sensitive skin on your toes should you move also helps.

These are the essential items in my kit. I’m sure that as I continue to grow in my writing, I will discover more, but for now these work just fine in conjunction with each other.

Please excuse me while I go dig Zeus’ claws out of my foot. 

*yWriter is a free programme that offers features similar to Scrivener. Although I have it, I haven't played around with it yet so I can't say how useful it is for the techniques I use in this series. You can download it for free here. 

Check back on Sunday for the 1st Lesson - Make a Scene

Pet Peeves on the Internet - Part One

I've recently figured out how to use Twitter. This means that I'm now a Twitter addict, and am online a lot more. This also means that I'm exposed to a vast array of my particular pet peeves - the little things that annoy the stuffing out of me. 

Out of curiosity (and an intense need to stop myself slapping the creators of said peeves), I'm posting this to see how many people have the same highly developed annoyances. 

In no particular order, my pet peeves are:

TyPiNg LiKe ThIs - This mix of capital and small letters does not make you seem intelligent or witty. In fact, it's just annoying, interrupts the flow of the words and loses the message behind the compelling desire to tell you to punctuate correctly! Capitals were developed to start sentences, create EMPHASIS (which is now better suited to using the italics or bold buttons), and to showcase the importance of personal nouns. It does not make the quote look "pretty", and by the way, do you have any idea how long it takes to type like that? Don't do it, and I won't need to wonder if you lost your brain somewhere between maths and English classes. 

Constant obscenities interspersed with sentences that you feel wouldn't be complete without a "fuck" thrown in the middle - Because, don't you fucking know how to fucking use the fucking dictionary to find better words than fuck? The latest stats say that people who swear a lot lose up to 40% of their vocabulary because they replace the words with obscenity. I'm not saying that it doesn't have it's place. It's hard to find a better phrase to replace "Ah fuck! That hurt!" when your table decides to find your toe a suitable resting place. But social media sites aren't one of them. Constant vulgar language makes you appear slightly more dim-witted than the average African Grey Parrot* whose trailer-trash owners spend the majority of their lives swearing at each other. Don't do it, and I won't need to hit the fucking delete button. (By the way for the differences between profanity, swearing, cursing and obscenities, click here.)

Txt spch on sites whre i knw u're typng on a kybrd - Seriously, people, vowels are the cornerstone of the English language. They tie the consonants together and allow your reader to create sounds that would otherwise get lost in translation. You try saying kybrd without sounding out the vowels. It's almost impossible and sounds completely different to your intended meaning. Also, it's not English! It takes approximately half a second longer to type out the full word than it does to type it in text speech. Even if you're not on a computer, if you have a phone that connects to the internet, I can practically guarantee you have predictive text on it. Save us all the torture of having to translate your gibberish, and learn to use it! Don't do it, and I won't think you're an ape who learnt to type with no idea of the meaning behind the letters. 

Their, there, they're, your, you're using the wrong spelling! I get it. The English language is a bitch, seldom follows her own rules, and confuses the hell out of even the most accomplished writer of it. Once or twice, every now and then, it's okay to confuse these words. It's understandable and we've all done it at some stage. But by the time you're old enough to use the internet without parental supervision, you should have figured it out. If you haven't, you need to make a list on a post-it note, and keep it near your computer for reference. The difference between of and off, is fundamentally illustrated in the title of Anne McCaffrey's collection of short stories: Get Off the Unicorn. Google it and hopefully you'll begin to realise why the difference between your and you're is so important. 

This brings to a close part one of my pet peeves on the internet. I'm not sure how many posts there will be, but as I continue to explore the online community, I'm sure I'll find more to write about. 

What are your personal pet peeves? 

*African Greys, like most parrot species, are among the most intelligent bird species out there. However, some also have the temperament of obnoxious toddlers; much like people whose ability to form a coherent sentence without swearing was lost along with their manners. 

Planning for Pantsers - Intro

Welcome to the Intro of my Planning for Pantsers blog series!

Cartoon from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

I’ve decided to jump onto the bandwagon of creating serials for blogs, mostly because I love the ones people like Skye, Taylor and Cristina over at Think Ink and The Sprint Shack have created. They’re inspiring, and we all know how much I love inspiration.

First off, a definition:

Pantser: Someone who writes without planning, from the “seat of their pants.” Every word written is normally a surprise, with no real idea of how to get from A to B, if you even know what B is. Or A for that matter.

I can hear you laughing all the way over here now. Shush. Allow me to explain why I think planning for pantsers is a good idea. You comfortable? Good.

Simply put, I’m a pantser. I generally start stories with no clue where they’re going, how to get there or even what I’m trying to convey. It works, for a while. Then my stories usually fizzle out.

In November, I took part in NaNoWriMo. I started without a complete idea and in about two weeks of real time, I managed to finish. Part of it was sheer luck and desperation. The other part was taking some time to plan just enough so that I would reach the 50,000 word goal.

In doing so, the inspiration (oh look, there’s that word again), to create this series struck.

So what exactly is this series going to do? Well, hopefully one of two things:

1. Inspire you to plan just a little so that you can finish that amazing story you have to tell, or

2. Teach you something about writing that maybe you didn’t know, and introduce you to a few techniques that will keep you from the dreaded writer’s block.

How is it going to do that? 

We’ll be exploring different elements of writing a story over a 6 week period, each week featuring a new aspect, how I applied it to my own novel and how you can apply it to yours. I’ll also feature some helpful links to writing websites or blogs, along with some guest posts from other pantsers  and how they get around to planning, and finishing, their novels.

I do hope you’ll join me? 

Look out for the first week's post: Make a Scene on the 29th of December. 

The Little Drummer

The baby lay in a cradle, not a manger. He was swaddled in warm blankets and his mother lay in the bed next to him. There were no animals, but a soft vibrant hum filled the air.

 

Jordan listened to him with wonder. His gurgling and giggling as his mother reached into the crib to stroke the soft thatch of hair on his head. His mother was a virgin. She had never slept with a man, never lain with one in an effort to procreate. And yet, here was the child. A new born baby boy who was as naked and perfect as all new born babies could be.

Jordan clutched the drum. It was December 25th, and the child had been birthed in the cold hours of the early morning. The traditions were known, as were the old customs, and they wanted to honour them as best they could.

Meryth lay on the bed, smiling.

 

"Shall I play for him?" The drum lifted at the question and she nodded. Grinning, cheeks flushed with excitement, the strap of the drum was settled, sticks were raised and unseen, Meryth pushed a button next to her.

Pa rum.

Pa rum.

Pa rum pum pum pum.

The sound of the drum built slowly finding the rhythm, months spent practising the tune. The baby in the cradle stilled, as Jordan's eyes closed, getting lost in the beat.

 

Pa rum pum pum pum.

Rum pum pum pum.

 

The sound of the drum filtered through speakers and all through the ship, women raised their heads from their tasks, stopping to listen to the sound. Some recognised it, and slow smiles spread across their faces. They listened to the song, the old carol of Christmas and the song of the birth of the saviour.

They listened and they wept.

They listened and they laughed.

They listened and then they made their way to the H-Deck where the med-bay was, and where the mother and her baby lay listening to the Little Drummer Boy played, not for a poor boy, but for the only boy.

As Christmas Day dawned in space, the ship full of women rejoiced in the successful birth of the artificially inseminated first male child in a hundred years.

He would be their race's saviour.

Why do I write?

I write for a variety of reasons. Mostly because I enjoy it. I'm an opinionated person, and writing gives me the chance to air those opinions without actually shoving them down people's throats.

I write because I like to spin stories. I've had an active imagination since I was born - I probably spent my time in the womb spinning tales to occupy my time until birth!

I write because I want to inspire people. I've been inspired so many times by reading words that ordinary, everyday people have written - without fanfare or recognition. They write simply because they love to write, to share their tales, and their honesty and openness is more inspiring than words that have been edited a million times so that it's polished, perfect and lacking in the emotion that originally created the story. I hope that with some of my writing I can inspire people in the same way.

I write because I like to explore people. In creating characters that live and breathe, I learn how people act and react, how they think and feel. I get to place myself in the lives of people I would never otherwise come to understand and accept.

I write because in the end, writing allows me to explore my whole self: the light that seeks to inspire others with real, heroic characters, and the dark that allows me to imagine a character who can commit horrendous acts and still sleep at night.

I write because it allows me to accept who I am, without fears or reservations of being weird, crazy or psychotic. The words don't judge me. The story doesn't mock me for writing it. In the end, I'm writing a story about who I am, the experiences that lead me to tell a tale and although it's wrapped up in labels of young adult, fantasy, fiction, romance - those labels cover what is essentially my life - told from the perspective of characters who may or may not be all of me.

I am because I write.

I write, because I am.

You're too kind...

Once again, I've been nominated for an award. The Sunshine Award to be exact, and although I'm really honoured and appreciative of the nomination by Skye Fairwin, I personally think she's just being kind to my poor, neglected blog.

Nevertheless, I shall perform my duties honourably. So without further ado, allow me to present the

As per the rules, I now have to tell you 10 things you may not know about me. I hope you're prepared for crazy? Awesome! Let's go.


1. At 26, I've just finished my first year of my BCompt degree in Management Accounting. I actually don't enjoy Accounting, but I love learning and studying (and my company is paying for it), so I'm making the most of it with the idea that the money I'll earn as a qualified accountant will help me pay for stuff I DO want to do.

2. I have a Saturday job at an esoteric shop. I also do Tarot and Oracle card readings, and have started to experiment with Crystal readings as well.

3. As a teen, I watched John Edward (the psychic medium) with my mom and wished that I could do what he does but without the publicity. All I'm going to say about that is, be careful what you wish for.

4. I don't believe in god, or some other form of supernatural being who determines good and bad and decides what happens in your life. I do believe in Spirit, and the idea of a higher power, but I also believe that each individual controls their own destiny, creates everything that happens in their lives, and has the power to change their world if they would only accept it.

5. I don't like alcohol. The taste is vile, and I don't quite see the appeal. I've been blind drunk maybe twice in my life, and it wasn't all that fun. I slept through most of it. I will seldom drink more than a glass of watered-down rose wine.

6. My best friend thinks I suck the fun out of life by being too honest which also makes me appear slightly (or more) bitchy. She's still my best friend though, so I can't be all that bad. 

7. I talk to animals. No, seriously. Along with all my other fun (translate: crazy) stuff, I've also taken a course in animal communication. It's rather amusing when a cat tells you that their person snores. True story.

8.  I believe that what people think is impossible, is simply their own fear of it being possible but that they're not good enough to do it.

9. I love drawing and being creative outside of writing. My new favourite thing is Crazy Clay. I don't know how to draw very well, but I keep trying.

10. I'm a perfectionist which has a tendency to come across as laziness. What this means is: I want to do things. I think about doing things. I try to do things. But then not everything is in place to do said things perfectly so I don't do them. For example: baking a cake. I love baking. I love decorating cakes. I love the idea of making cupcakes and turning them into art. But! My kitchen is ugly, and doesn't have enough counter space. I don't have all the equipment I need to ice a cake properly, and I don't own a muffin tin to bake cupcakes in. So I dream about making perfectly beautiful cupcakes, but until I can get the perfect kitchen and equipment, I will be lazy and not make the cupcakes which would probably turn out just as well as if I had all the stuff I thought I needed. This is a character flaw I am working on. Especially in my writing.


There you have it folks. 10 things you never knew about me and probably wish you still didn't. I would nominate others, but due to the sadly neglected state of my blog, I still don't have anyone to nominate without linking back to people who have already been nominated. So if you read this, and want a nomination, drop me a comment and I'll link back to you.
(That's a lot of nominations right there.)

My NanoWrimo Journey

November was a crazy month. Well, okay, most months are crazy in my life, going by way too fast and just generally busy busy busy. November, though, was NaNoCrazy.

For those of you, who aren't writers, allow me to explain the concept of NanoWrimo. (For those of you, who are, please forgive the diversion.)

National Novel Writing Month (NanoWrimo) is for lack of a better description, the complete insanity of thousands of people around the world, each attempting to write 50,000 words in a single month - the equivalent of a novel. Better yet, they attempt to string those 50,000 words into coherent sentences, thereby creating a novel.

There are prizes (of course), but the main aim is to get people inspired to write regularly for an entire month. The main prize is the satisfaction of knowing you made it. Of knowing that you strung together 50,000 words and wrote something that's probably not all that meaningful but heck, it got you that NanoWrimo Winner's Certificate.

Back on topic: *ahem*

November ended on a high for me - namely one fuelled by insanity, sleep deprivation, and too much time in the loo. Too much info? My stomach agreed.

I spent the last few hours of NaNovember typing frantically through half-closed eyes, ignoring the rumblings of my bacteria infested belly (not the good kind), obsessed with the idea of finally, FINALLY, being able to say - I FINISHED!

Why was it so important to finish, you ask?

Well, I'm a starter. I'm a middler. I start things... I enjoy them... I get to the middle of them... my enthusiasm wanes... I think about starting something else... I forget what- I start things. And so the cycle continues. You get the point, I'm sure.

It's a sore point in my life, something I am aware of and have been working on. I've become a lot better this year, actually following through and finishing, even when I get bored and start planning a new beginning.

It's an especially raw spot in my writing - as evidenced by the dozens of incomplete stories I have lying around in My Documents. I tend to have amazing (I think they're amazing, okay?!) ideas, write a few scenes, and then drop them in favour of the next brilliant brainwave.

Last year, I signed up for NanoWrimo. Signed up, but never actually got around to participating, i.e. writing anything. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. It was just another thing to add to my already long list of things I never finished.
 
This year, Nano came around as always, and I hemmed and hawed and generally made myself feel bad thinking about NOT FINISHING. I wasn’t going to do it.

And then, on the 4^th of November, a little voice inside me said, “Do it.” So I did. I registered (had to get a new password because I couldn’t remember mine), named my novel, and started writing. 300 words in, I realised I didn’t know what story I wanted to tell, so I stopped writing.

Three days later, I hadn’t written anymore and the threat of NOT FINISHING was looming over my head. Then I had THE DREAM. (Can you hear the trumpets? I can.)

I woke early, grabbed my laptop and before I knew it, I had over 1000 words, just for one scene! That’s a record for me. Normally my scenes are about 500 words, probably less.

Two weeks into NanoWrimo, I had about 2000 words. I needed another 48000 words in order to finish. I managed to get to just below 10000 words by the start of the 4^th week and then I needed a miracle.

Inspired by Skye Fairwin’s amazing 10k Wednesday, I decided to attempt my own, and on day 24 I brought my word count up to 25000. Where it stayed. Until day 28. With three days left to go, and just under 25k left to write, I didn’t know if I would finish.

I was ready to give up. Call it quits. My stomach decided that catching a bug would be a good idea, and I was laid flat for 5 days. It was mean, and I have a simultaneously grateful-hateful relationship with toilet paper now. (For those of you offended by toilet humour – tough shit. [Yes, I went there.])

I worked a full day Saturday, and got home after four with 7.5hours left to write just over 18k. By the time I reached 38000 words, I was exhausted. I was about ready to give up, in spite of the enthusiasm and encouragement on Twitter.

I was following the tweets periodically, in between insane bursts of typing, trying desperately to ignore the ever increasing red lines under my words. At 43000 words, I found my second wind, inspired by @LupusAmator, who was also racing to the finish line.

As the night wore on, and my wrists began to protest, I struggled not to panic, not to give up. It was tempting, but the support of the writing community on Twitter, gave me the determination and encouragement I needed to keep going.

The last few words I wrote that took me over the 50k mark felt like they were wrenched, kicking and screaming from my fingertips and into the computer. Perhaps they were, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many spelling errors in any of my writing before.

I submitted my word count, validated my novel (thanking the writing gods that the validation doesn’t check spelling), and then had to fight back tears as I watched the NanoWrimo Winner’s video. I finished.

For the first time in a long time, I completed something that I was passionate and excited about. I pushed myself beyond what I thought my limits were, refused to give up and I finished!

I can only describe the feeling as being similar to the hike I did in Sabie, completely unprepared and unfit, 3 days walking and climbing through forests and up mountains that left us above the clouds, sure that the next step you took would be the last one you could possibly manage. Yet still, we pushed on, because there was no undoing the steps we’d already taken, no going back, so you could only go forward, taking yet another step until finally, we staggered out of the forest; hot, sweaty and beyond exhausted but exhilarated as we remembered gazing at the world from heights only birds normally reached.

I was inspired, awed and overwhelmed by the support, encouragement and sheer magnitude of what everyone had achieved together. Many say that the magic in story-telling comes from the heart, a secret ingredient that few writers manage to translate into written words. While this may be true, NanoWrimo managed to take that magic, secret ingredient and plant it into the hearts of all its participants, whether or not they managed to reach their own word count goals.

For me, personally, I found my magic, the inspiration that writers claim to need before they can create something brilliant. I will be participating in NanoWrimo again next year (though with a bit more planning this time around) and I will hold this memory for the rest of my life.

I found my finish.

How did your NanoWrimo journey go?

I'd just like to thank...

...Skye Fairwin over at Think Ink for nominating me for the Liebster award.

It's been a while since she nominated me, and my blog is sadly lacking in posts, but nevertheless, here are the answers to her questions:

1.When did you first start to see yourself as a writer?
 
I don't think I've ever really seen myself as a writer. I've always written, always wanted to write, but writers are people who spend their lives in cosy cafes, observing people and scribbling in notebooks. I scribble on post-its and type up half-finished stories on my laptop in my bedroom at home, surrounded by dogs, cats, birds and the odd park-town prawn. Does that make me a writer? I suppose so.

2.What was the first story you remember writing about?

I think I was in grade one when we got the usual start-of-year homework to write a few sentences about ourselves in our workbook. My sentences turned into an entire page about my dogs, flying over the swimming pool, and my brother who refused to talk. It was part fantasy, part autobiographical, and my teacher was not impressed. She was also the teacher who wrote "when did you grow a beard?" next to my self-portrait. I was six.

3.What do you blog about and why?

 This question would be better suited to someone who actually blogged on a regular basis. When I do get to my blog, I tend to write about things that matter to me, things that inspire me, and hopefully, things that make people chuckle. As to why I blog about that, have you got a few hours? No? I'll try to keep it short then. My blog was created when I walked out of my job of five years, with no idea of what I'd do after that. I just knew that life wasn't supposed to be a daily struggle to wake up and go to work. I wanted to share the experiences that life has to offer, the truth that even though things don't always go as planned, the level of 'bad' is determined by your choice of perspective. I wanted to share the realisation that you create your reality.

4.Who is your idol?

Honestly? No one. Idolising someone implies wanting to be like them and I don't want to be like anyone except myself. Although there are a lot of people I admire and who motivate me to become a better person in my own right. Skye Fairwin - whose constant encouragement and intense dedication to her wordcraft leaves me in awe and inspires me to make the time to write and keep on writing is one of them.

5.Besides writing, do you engage in any other creative/artistic pursuits? (E.g. painting, composing, etc.)

Does building houses in the Sims count? I scribble a bit, but I'm not an artist by nature, it's something I really have to work at, and being a perfectionist, it bothers me when I don't get it right first time. I enjoy working with GIMP and Photoshop though, so I suppose that could count as artistic tendencies.

6.If you were sucked into your story world, how long would you survive?

Depends on which story... If it was the Olarunae series, not very long at all.

7.If you could live during any historical period, when would it be and why?

Am I allowed to change who I am in order to promote my survival in said period? In that case, I'd like to go back to the Jurassic period. Or maybe even the period of time the Croods lived in! Just because.

8.Where do you hope to be in ten years' time?

In a cottage in the mountains, surrounded by forests with a single road in and out of the area. Self-sustained by my vegetable garden and solar power. That'd be nice.

9.Which of your characters is your favourite and why?

 Jarred from the Olarunae series. He's the only character who popped up one morning and told me I couldn't wear pants because it wasn't very ladylike. We had a ten minute argument about it, and I wore the pants. He didn't speak to me for a week.

10.If you were given one wish, what would it be?

I would wish for everyone to gain respect for themselves, self-esteem and self-love, along with the realisation that they alone are responsible for how their lives turn out. I think the world in general would just be a much happier place if we took responsibility for ourselves and the way we live, instead of trying to blame money, society, religion or a million other silly things for our self-created misery.

The rules of the Liebster award say that I have to nominate ten other people and give them ten questions to answer... Er... That's a lotta people. I don't know that many folks in blogland so I'm just going to nominate who I DO know. Surprisingly, that's increased by a few since the last game of tag.

The nominees have to answer the questions, then select 10 others with less than 200 readers, and ask them 10 questions in turn.

  1. amimental
  2. All the awesome folks at the Sprint Shack. (technically this counts as three people, so haha!)

My Questions:

1. How did you decide on the title for your blog and what alternatives did you consider first?
2. What is it about blogging that keeps you coming back for more?
3. If you could live anywhere, anywhen, where and when would it be and why?
4. Do you ever try to write outside your chosen genre?
5. Some people have received book deals based on their blogs. If someone offered you one for your blogs, would you accept and why?
6. Do you like vegetables or fruit more?
7. What is your favourite nursery rhyme and why?
8. Technophobe, technogeek or somewhere inbetween?
9. Do you believe in ghosts?
10. How much wood can a woodchuck chuck?

All yours!  

Too Many Butterflies...

...Not enough time!

I was shocked to see that I haven't posted anything since February! Time has just flown by and I never seem to have enough of it to do everything I want to do.

A friend of mine told me that I'm constantly distracted by all the pretty butterflies, and I need to take a step back and focus on one at a time. So I've been trying that. "What are my butterflies?" I hear you ask.

Let's make a list:

• Studies - I'm in my first year of BCOM Management Accounting. The company I work for is very generously paying my tuition and it's an opportunity I'm not prepared to pass up. I've almost finished my second semester exams (one more to go) and then I can take a break until January/February.
• Reiki I, II and Advanced - Week 7 is on Tuesday night (it's a 12 week course), and then I have my certificate to practice Usui Shiki Ryoho or Western Reiki from the Soul Healing Academy. For those who don't know what Reiki is, it's touch-energy healing. It can be used for anything from a common cold, to helping cancer patients. Does it work? My own experience says yes, but there's no way to scientifically validate it. The only proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Nevertheless, I'm loving every second of the course.
• Level 1 Animal Communication - This is a biggie. A real BIG butterfly in my entire collection of butterflies. I registered for the home study course via the Animal Healing Centre and although it's taking me a while to work through it, I have started to practice it with my animals and with some friends' animals. All I'm going to say is WOW! As soon as this level is done, I'm going to move on to Level 2 and then Masters, which will allow me to teach Animal Communication. Technically, I suppose I could teach it now since it's not really a formal 'degree' as such, and I've had some really amazing results with it already; but a lot of work and love went into creating these courses, by people who are really passionate about what they do, and why they do it. They have a lot more experience than I do at this point in time, and it wouldn't be fair to them, myself and others if I passed on my learning without experiencing everything they have to offer. Once again, there's no scientific proof that can validate Animal Communication, but then again, there's no scientific proof that we're not all figments of someone's imagination.
• Dog Training - This is something I've wanted to do for years. We have just added a new canine companion to our pack, bringing us up to a total of 3. Ali is a fox-terrier, and still quite young. She's a rescue dog of sorts - a friend of mine realised her previous owners were a bit...uncaring of her well-being and when she gave birth to puppies after wandering the streets freely, the SPCA was called in. A long story short, Ali ended up with us (skinny and recovering from biliary and a uterine infection), and is now sterilized and due to be vaccinated when her stitches come out. In the meantime, Lady and I have been to training classes (Lady is 6 years old and has never been to training before), and she was just amazing. I suddenly realised how a mother feels when their child learns to walk for the first time. I'm going to be taking Lady, Tobi and Ali to training every Sunday and we're all really looking forward to it. It's fun, social and gets us all some much-needed exercise as well as some discipline and agility classes for the girls. I'm hoping that with time, I'll be able to offer dog training in conjunction with Animal Communication.
• Teaching - Once more, another big butterfly. I love teaching. I started out studying teaching, but left for a variety of reasons. Now, I want to get back into it. Montessori is a method of early childhood teaching that really strikes a chord with me. Best part of it, is that I can study it part time for a year, complete my practical in three months and get international accreditation in the Montessori method. This also allows me to open my own school if I choose to do so. I'm not sure about the latter option; but the main reason I want to do this is because I miss working with kids. I worked with them for just over a year, and it's something I love and am passionate about. Enough said.
• Spirituality - You've probably already guessed by now that I have some unconventional views. If you haven't, you haven't been paying attention. I believe very strongly in the ability of humans to create their own reality - their lives. We can choose what happens; or doesn't, in our everyday existence. Is this an easy thing to do? No. But it's far from impossible. I've done a lot of self-therapy with shamans, (the friend I mentioned who told me I have too many butterflies), and I'm not even half-way done yet. But, I am getting there, and am working on it continuously. Part of this process is in helping others to do the same with their lives. To create positive, healthy and well-balanced people who actually LIVE. Energy work definitely forms a major part of this, and although a lot of people will scoff and shrug it off, I've seen and experienced too many wonderful things to ever be afraid of being thought a nut again. My opinion and the way I live my life is all that's important to me now, and I'm choosing to make the most of it - bumps, lumps, nuts and all.

So those are my major butterflies. There are a ton of other smaller ones, equally pretty, fluttering around and trying to distract me from the big ones. There's Rhapsody's Readings, which has by necessity become a smaller butterfly; my writing (I'm busy living the fantasy instead of writing about it); the millions of other ideas I have on a daily basis, all of which involve some form of teaching/spirituality/people/animals; and of course, work - which includes the part-time Saturday job at the esoteric shop.

And each day I tell myself I have plenty of time, and the other butterflies will come to land in my hands if I just wait patiently and focus on one at a time... So that's what I'm doing. My life is definitely happening.

Happy Birthday to my Bestest Friend

Today's post is dedicated to a very special person.

We met fourteen years ago, at our grade 8 orientation day. We were both extraordinarily shy, and somehow ended up standing next to each other in the assembly. I greeted her, she greeted me, and the next thing we were chatting like old friends.

She emigrated to Australia in 2004, and although we haven't seen each other since then, we still email, message and occasionally Skype.

When she was here, we used to go to the mall to eat waffles and watch a movie. I would always smother mine in every kind of syrup, she would have hers plain. She would watch me drenching the waffle and ice cream in syrup, pull a face and tell me; "that's disgusting." When she left, if I had a waffle, half was plain for her, the rest was covered in syrup for me. (She wanted me to eat two - one plain, one covered in syrup - but I just couldn't manage it.)

Although I was an anti-social freak and never remembered her birthday, and she was a much better friend to me than I ever was to her; she's always called me her friend and I consider myself extremely lucky to have a friend like her. I am proud that today, she is the friend that I've had the longest, and that I can still call her my Bestest Friend.

Today is her birthday, and I just want to send her the biggest, syrupiest, sweetest, most disgustingly yummy waffle I can. Unfortunately, Google doesn't have one like what I used to have, so here's the next best thing:

Happy Birthday Chips!

I've been tagged...

...by Skye over at ThinkInk. Skye is an old friend from Booksie, where she's known as UnderxYourxSpell . If you're ever looking for some brilliantly written, all-consuming fantasy stories, have a look at hers. I'm looking forward to reading Her Clockwork Heart *hint-hint*, which is her current work in progress. Pop over to her blog for an in-depth review of this Steampunk Fantasy.

Oops... got distracted. As I was saying, I've been tagged in The Next Best Thing Blog Hop. I'm not quite sure how this tagging business works, but I'm assuming I have to answer the questions about my writing, and then tag others to do the same. Since I don't follow any writing blogs, except Skye's and she was the one who tagged me, I'm afraid to say I won't be tagging anyone, but if anyone who reads this and does write, would like to take part, you're welcome to consider yourself tagged by me. Drop me a comment, and I'll link to your blog in an edit.

So without further ado, here are my answers for The Next Best Thing Blog Hop:

What is the working title of your book?

At the moment, it's just called Pandora's Box because that's the name of the main character and I haven't really thought about the title yet.

Where did the idea come from for your book?

I've always been fascinated by the concept of Time as a living thing. A friend of a friend died, and then a friend's beloved dog of 19 years passed away and I started thinking about how many of us waste our time wishing for days to go faster, or for the weekend to come, etc. I watched the movie In Time (which I totally recommend by the way), and it all seemed to come together to create the character of Pandora.

What genre does your book fall under?

Fantasy, with a dash of romance.  

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Time-Keepers never waste time on distractions, but Pandora has just opened her mythical box with the biggest distraction of all: Love.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Hahaha. Oh. That was a serious question? Sorry. If When, I manage to finish this story, I'll have a look at my options.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It's still in progress.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

It would be great if I could compare it to some really big names, but so far I have a vague plotline and a few chapters, so I can't really say where it's heading or which books it compares to.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I'm not sure. I don't watch a lot of TV or movies. Katherine Moennig who stars as Shane in the L Word appeals as Pandora, but I suppose it depends on how the characters develop as I go along.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

A lot of different things. A new take on relationships and what a person would be prepared to give up for one, as well as how time or lack of it, can affect a relationship, and also what would happen if some things that aren't possible in our reality, were possible in the characters'. I'm also determined to finish a full length novel that's worth publishing, instead of some half-finished nonsense, which is normally what happens. The inspiration of that goal is from my girlfriend (who keeps 'Pfft'-ing me when I start telling her I can't seem to finish), as well as other brilliant writers who do finish; the major one being Skye.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

If you're interested in fantasies that make you think, deal with real-life issues in supernatural ways, and take you on a fast-paced journey to save, not only her Forever love, but also time as we know it and the fate of the universe, then delve into Pandora's Box and see if you can find Hope.