Weekly Update: 6-5-16 Research

Research devours

my brain. Fuzzy-headed, I

read without restraint. 

Writing Update: I planned to brainstorm and research for Counterfeit Diamond and The Originals this week--just not quite this much. All Memorial day, I found myself staring at maps and pictures of old Batavia and reading wikipedia articles on Kota Tua Jakarta. All day. And then on Friday, I found a series on Netflicks called Ancient Black Ops, and I used that to get inspiration for battle scenes for The Originals. Plans to do many different things fell by the wayside as research consumed me. At least I was thorough.

Inspiration for the Setting of Counterfeit Diamond

Life Update: Hot weather rolling in has caused my sinuses to drain and ants to invade my newly cleaned counters, much to my great annoyance. I scored a couple of jobs, cashed a couple of checks, did my critiques for the Brea Library Writer's Group, and raked in $9 dollars for my weekly Thursday library volunteering. On Wednesday, I had dinner with my friends Michelle and Debra at Mendocino Farms, a new restaurant serving original sandwiches, and on Saturday, I went to Barnes and Noble with Rita. Today I'm going to have a picnic with the Pendragons. So life is going fine.

Weekly Update: 5-29-16 Potato Salad

Kitchen clean at last.

On sparkling counter, I mix

Potato salad.

Life Update: After letting my house go to pot for a month, I finally had the time to attend to my chores. I spent the week scrubbing, polishing and mopping the kitchen into an acceptable level of shine. Just in time, too; my cousin Mitchell was hosting a barbecue on Saturday. I whipped together my own concoction of warm potatoes, vinegarette, light mayo, fresh parsley, perfectly hard-boiled eggs, and the secret ingredient--raw, chopped apples soaked in cider vinegar and apple juice that gave it that surprise pop. It was the first time I'd been able to experiment with cooking for several months. Having spare time, I feel like I am discovering the simple pleasures of life once again.

Writing Update: Last week, I realized that Camp Nanowrimo, in July, was rapidly approaching, and if I didn't want to end up flustered and frustrated, I needed to start brainstorming now. In April, I wrote the first 50 pages of the second draft of Counterfeit Diamond, a trickster story of a girl with a diamond ring that can change her appearance. For July, I want to write the next 50 pages. As I brainstormed, I was amazed that the story practically plotted itself. I hardly had to do more than nudge it along. Also, for July, I want to type up a third draft of certain chapters of The Originals, the sequel to The Changelings. I'm currently hand-writing these chapters in my notebook. This week, one of my characters get into a battle of wits with the main antagonist. I spent Friday night re-writing said battle of wits 5 times before it looked remotely serviceable. To me, that's the definition of a fun Friday night.

Prepping for NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo to those of us who prefer abbreviations. The concept is simple.  You have one month to complete a novel-sized manuscript of 50,000 words, or roughly 200 pages, typed, double-spaced.  Which, for me is actually a quarter of a novel.  Now, I've heard about NaNoWriMo since college, but this is the first time I've had the guts to commit to it.

(For more information about National Novel Writing Month, go to www.nanowrimo.org)

After I signed up, I got an email from one of the website's hosts about an event called Crunch-tober, where you spend the month of October brainstorming 500 word posts in preparation for November.  As I was scanning this email at 5:50 AM, I ended up missing the part where they provide you with writing prompts.  At any rate, it didn't matter, because I already had something in mind.

I'm currently finishing up an epic fantasy novel tentatively called The Changlings, which I've been slaving away at since college.  Part of the reason it's taken me nearly 10 years to finish is that I really had no idea what I was doing.  Foolishly, I believed I could make it up as I went along.  Also, when in doubt, edit!  I ended up scrapping over half of it.  And when you consider I wrote multiple drafts of 850 pages, that's like sending a thousand pages down the drain.  

So, this time, I'm trying to be more efficient.  And that means no editing until I know the ending.  I'm not going to spend three weeks making sure that every detail in Chapter 3 is perfect, only to throw the whole thing away when I realize it's incompatible with Chapter 4.  Haste may make waste, but it's nothing compared to perfectionism.

All this is a long way of saying that my goal for NaNoWriMo is to write down the ending to the necessary sequel of The Changelings, which I'm currently calling The Originals.  I've been anticipating this event since early summer.  On a whim, I decided to do my own version of Crunch-tober.  For 5 days a week, four weeks straight I'd write 500 words about any point that bothered me on my second novel or any interesting tidbit I happened to pick up from the military channel.  I figured if anything, I'd flush out the bad ideas.  Plus, it was a good way of filling up between 6:15 AM to 7:30 AM, that nerve-wracking time of the morning when I was pretty sure--but not quite--that I wasn't getting called in for a substitute assignment. 

So, now Crunch-tober is finished for me, and how did I do?  Over 15,000 words and 50 pages of notes, including the conclusion to two battles and six character arcs.  In other words, it added up.  And I wasn't even really trying.  But it goes to show what a concentrated effort of even 1 hour a day can do.

Now that I have some idea what I'm writing, it's time to sit down and write it.  I'll try to keep you posted in November.  See you then.