I think I love Franz Liszt.

Actually, there is no think about it. I love Franz Liszt.

He needs to be resurrected from the dead so I can have his babies.

I’m being serious.

Really.

Koi WaterBrush (#6 Medium); Zebra Mildliner Soft Color Highlighters (Cool & Refined); Kuretake 2 Way Flat Head Waterbrush; Zebra Techno Line 0.4mm Ballpoint Pen Refills (Black and Red); Zebra Techno Line 0.4mm Ballpoint Pen (Wine Red)

Zebra Techno Line 0.4mm Ballpoint Pens (Green & Pink) and ink refills (Black) • Uni-ball E-Knock Erasers (White & Pink) and refills • Pentel Ain Supplio Nanotech Scented Mechanical Pencil Lead (Positive & Refresh) • Sura John & Mary Small Pencil Pouches (Black with Blue & Pink with White)

Pentel Ain Supplio Nanotech Scented Mechanical Pencils in Positive (Pink) and Healing (Green) • Akashiya Sai Outline Brush Pen (Black) • Akashiya Sai Watercolor Brush Pens (Summer Colors)

(Yes, scented mechanical pencil lead.)

Word Count: 18,697
Remaining Words: 31,303

Time flies. It’s cliché, but true. We’re already two weeks into NaNoWriMo and I should be roughly halfway through my novel. I’m not. But I’m not fretting (yet). I am, however, (much more than) halfway done with my NaNo board.

I’ve finally found the face of my female MC, Tessa Harding, and that face belongs to Christina Milian. She has the perfect balance of sweet cuteness, and sultry sexiness. 

I also managed to find the faces of two supporting characters, Sydney Averdale and Christian Cooper, portrayed by Meagan Good and Ian Somerhalder.

At one point, when I was adding the additional character photos to the board, I became choked up. It’s the moment I realized that I love my characters, even the flawed (and some might say, downright evil) ones. Granted, I love those characters in a different way; I’m trying to figure out how they became such broken people.

I’ve finally added my mind map, which should help with the journey—no more needing to dig through my notebook to find sequence of events and such.

Just looking at the board gets me fired up, but I still see whitespace and that must be rectified.

And I’m not entirely sure this is NaNoWriMo related, but I’ve been inspired to write more short stories lately. Frankly, I think it’s a stalling tactic my mind conjured up to aid its procrastination efforts, but some of the ideas I’ve had are exciting. But I’m just jotting down the bare minimum of notes so I can write them later and focus on NaNoWriMo now.

Word Count: 8,572
Words Remaining: 41,428

It’s barely day four of NaNoWriMo and I’ve already woken from a disturbing dream.

(NB: Although I considered my dream to be tense and mildly annoying, years of watching, reading, and listening to horror, real and imagined, has desensitized me in a number of ways. Therefore by normal standards my dream was actually a terrifying nightmare.)

First, a bit of background about the novel I’m writing: Imagine Swimfan crossed with Fear.

In my dream I was the female protagonist of my book. I was being violently attacked but no one could see it. They were staring directly at me and my attacker, but to them it was if he were lacing me with kisses and affection. Everyone kept telling me I was being silly and foolish and that I was making a mistake by trying to leave him.

More disturbing was the setting of the dream—intense dank and darkness. Even my attacker looked heinous. But still, no one except me could recognize any danger. And I couldn’t get away.

What’s still more unsettling is that I woke with my novel in mind and an eagerness to write. So with bits of this revolting dream swishing around in my head, I’m off to add to my story’s bottom line.

Cross-posted at Today, I Read…

Going into the second day of NaNoWriMo, I have just shy of 2,000 words complete (and by the end of the day, that total should jump to just shy of 4000—I hope).

The NaNo board still isn’t complete; it’s only halfway done, but I figured I might as well post up a progress report.

In case you’re wondering, yes those are pictures of Paul Walker. I was watching Into the Blue the other day and all of a sudden, I jumped up and screamed, “OMG! It’s Rick! It’s Rick!”

Of course, now my craziness is showing, but to explain, Rick Dawson is one of the main characters in my NaNoWriMo novel and he goes through many, many changes in the story; I needed someone who could visually pull it off. Paul Walker goes from a sweet pretty boy (upper left corner) to a gritty bad boy (bottom right corner) just like my MC.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t found the perfect visual example of my leading lady and I’m afraid I may have to break down and draw her, but I’m keeping hope alive. (If you know of any young biracial models or actresses, please let me know.)

In the center of the NaNo board, I have the calendar that I printed from deviantART and colored in with water colors.

To its left is my Magna Carta I, all the things I like in a novel, and to its right is the Magna Carta II, all the things I dislike in a novel.

I still need to include the mind map cloud thing because it would be much easier to look up at the board for reference rather than dig through my notebook. Goodness willing I’ll get that finished and glued on there this afternoon.

Already I’m sort of behind on Amanda B’s Journal. I didn’t write my 300 words on Tuesday and I just finished today’s 300 words—394 to be precise.

Oddly enough, I’m enjoying this low pressure way of writing. In fact, since I have such a limited amount of space to progress the story forward, I’m enjoying the new directions that it’s taking.

I think the most surprising thing, though, is how Amanda answers me. Yes, it’s true. Before I wrote each of my 300 word journal entries, I asked Amanda what happened next? Then I listened and wrote what she told me. So far I’m connecting with her and I really do like her, despite her faults. She’s quirky.

In other news, I had finished a short story (2000 words more or less) and it had a sort of open-ended question as an ending. Almost a cliffhanger, but not quite.

As I was discussing something along the same lines of the story’s subject matter, I had a spark of an idea—why not continue the story? Normally, short stories are just that, but this particular story could easily be expanded because of the question posed—the novel will answer it.

The short story needs one more round of edits before I start submitting it, but I’m getting excited about the prospect. When I recently re-read the story after letting it sit for weeks, it sparked a feeling that lingered with me. I didn’t want that feeling to end.

So, I’ve decided to push forward with the novel idea and get the rough hammered out during the month of August. Yes, NaNoWriMo-style. I already have a general outline, it’s just a matter of getting it all out on paper…in a month.

I’ve had the idea for a while (and by a while, I mean years). There’s nothing new about blogging a book. Others have done it before me and others will do it after me.

But with this particular book, in my humble opinion, blogging it is the perfect medium. My one worry is having my material ripped off or plagiarized. That said, it’s a chance I’m willing to take.

With that, here’s my goal: blog one page (300 words) from the book each day. (Not on this blog, mind you. I already have the book blog set up.)

Since it’s a first person journal-style book, I must plan out how to display the content—basically, make it easy for someone just jumping in to read from the beginning.

Something else that just popped into my head is whether to allow commentary on the individual pages. On one hand, it can help me build a following and offer great feedback/direction, but on the other, it can adversely hamper my own creativity (and negative comments could just plain make me feel bad).

Then there’s the question of how to get it from blog format into edited manuscript format.

And, of course, I’ll eventually have to explain that it’s a work of fiction.

*sigh*

Enough yammering, it’s time for me to start doing. I’ll work out all those little details later.

I was re-reading the first chapters my WIP and realized that a few secondary characters, though they were important to the story, lacked depth.

I hadn’t taken the time to get to know them as I did with my main characters. I hadn’t done full bios or backgrounds on any of them. I knew nothing about who they were as people or what motivated their actions. That made me feel a little sad. I had neglected some of my characters.

Rather than sulk, I opened up my sketchbook and did a bit of drawing. The result? I came up with a couple character sketches, but it didn’t end there. I was struck by some inspiration which lead to writing excerpts from their diary entries.

A revealing process indeed. It lead to another key point in the story which I had never thought about and it deepened the relationship (and the rift) between the secondary and the main characters. Happy days.

Character Sketch #1:

Name: Rachel
Age: 16
Hair: Jet Black
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 5’8”
Career: Social Climber

An excerpt from Rachel’s diary:

I want to feel guilty, but I can’t. Emily has changed. She’s forgotten where she comes from, she’s forgotten all the rules. That’s why I can’t feel guilty and why I don’t intend to apologize for what I’ve done. Eleanor always told us that if we want something in this world, we have to convince those who have it to give it to us. That’s exactly what I did. Emily could have had it all, but she threw it away. Now Tristan is mine and I don’t intend to let go.

Character sketch #2:

Name: Jill
Age: 16
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Pale Blue 
Height: 5’3”
Career: Tortured Social Climber

An excerpt from Jill’s diary:

Sometimes I think they only reason that Rachel and Emily even hangs out with me is because Victoria’s my sister, but I try not to let it get to me. Rachel can be a real bitch sometimes, but I’d rather not cross her—she has her claws sunk too deep into the CC Elite. I like Emily though and I feel kinda bad for her. I’m torn. Tell Emily and have Rachel turn my life into a living nightmare or stay quiet and watch my friend’s life get turned upside down? I wish Em would just beat Rachel at her own game.

Yesterday I went shopping with my sister. She needed to pick up something from a department store, I really didn’t need anything. But somehow, I ended up leaving with more than she did. (Funny how that happens, isn’t it?)

Well, before you start rolling your eyes and wondering what any of that has to do with writing, let me just move it along.

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