Editing old work

DSCF0598

So while I have not been writing much lately I’ve worked my way through my Nano 2009 first draft! Yes, the one from 2009!!!

I guess I took the whole ‘distance yourself from your writing after you finished Nanowrimo’ to the max. Well I am back working on it and I’m exited, I honestly had forgotten what I wrote about and judging by the corrections and sticky notes I am putting in it I am far from finished with the story but it is working out well. I also found out that once again I made the same mistake. I always start to write a fic including a case, the case somehow creates the base for an emotional break point for a character which leads to finally confessing their love for another character.

I want to write about the love story so have way through the story I completely give up on the case and just write about love and the development of the relationship. I did it again, so I am going to have to add a lot of new scenes to the story. It was 50 000 words long when I wrote it but I think that I am easily going to double that.

DSCF0598 300x216 Editing old work

Editing my stories ...

I am at page 109 of 155 but that is just the first draft, there’s going to be a lot of time spend on the rewrites as well because right now the sticky notes only say in a few words what I want to change. But I’m getting there, and as you can see in the picture once I’m done with that project there is also my 2010 Nano first draft of ‘Forces of Nature’. So there is enough work for me left on those stories. Both of them will be epic in length and hopefully once I’m done also in plot.

I have used this website ‘Editing Recipe‘ as a guide in the process, it works really well. And this website has been really helpful as well, ‘Here to create‘.

A month after Nano

It has been almost a month since NanoWriMo ended and since that month I haven’t been writing much but there is a reason for that. I well first off all had to work on my Secret Santa fic for NFA because I had received my assignment in September or October but still hadn’t done anything about it first because of my challenge fic ‘The Butterfly Effect and secondly because of my nano project.

Well the first fic ended half October and then it was on to the preparations for NaNo. Which buy the way I suck at.  I was so eager to start writing and normally I just do that but now I had to wait till a set time which was rather difficult. And then I had to write … Write so much each day that from week one I was consistently 10 000 words behind. Truth be told my first week of NaNo sucked because I had too much real life things which where asking, begging for my attention. I wanted to write so badly but I just really lacked the time to do so. And when IO finally had time to write I was so tired that I was blocked and wasn’t able to write as much as I wanted to write. The seconds week was better but I was still not hitting the target., No for me the switch came in the week when apparently most people struggle. Week 2 was a good week that was the week when I slowly started to catch up but week four and especially the last weekend was when I got the most writing in. It was finny because I was checking my stats and on one website it said a couple of days before the end that I would end around 20 days later at the speed I was going.  So I changed the pace and I made it. Better then I could have expected, truth be told.  However I was only in my second week when I told my mother about my progress on NaNo and I told her that that no matter if I made it or not in my mind I was already a winner because of all the things which where thrown my way during the first two weeks of NaNo.

I have not been writing in the past month, well okay I did write about 700 words, and of course my SeSa fic which is about 4000 words but that is it.

I ordered a printout from my novels first draft and from the moment I received it I have been reading through it and correcting, editing and adjusting things in it. It is a little past 50 000 words but I know that the story will be much longer once it ends. A lot longer, maybe even more then double what it is right now.

I am adding changes to it and I have a post it (different colours) system for changes that I want to make like adding scenes or moving scenes, character development things like that.

My first draft the one I am using right now is a total mess but having it in front of me and being able to read through it while making adjustments does help a lot. It made me see that there is a lot to change but it also made me see that there is a lot of good stuff in it. So far I have only completely strike through two small scenes both not more then 5 to 10 sentences. So that is a pretty good outcome. But there is a lot that I still want to add. I think that once this story is done I might even surpass the 100 000 words easily.

WINNER!!!! Yes, I did it!

Youwon

Youwon WINNER!!!! Yes, I did it!

I can’t hardly believe it myself but I made it!!!

It is fucking amazing, this is a great achievement and I am so glad that I tried it. I have been so busy this past month but I also managed to write 50 000 words! And that is a lot of words, my last fic was 42 000 words and I worked on that piece three months at least! Now I did 50 000 in one month. And what is even better I didn’t use any cheats! Not one!!!

Of course I will make changes and adjustments but all in all I will be using everything that I have written in my fic once it is finished. I have written 50 000 words but I am nowhere near the end. I have a lot that I still want to write and there are still quite some scenes and chapters which I have to connect to each other. Cause right now some parts are more like scenes then a real story.

Nanolysed!

I got myself Nanolysed!

Funny distraction between word wars!

If you need your mind taken off a heavy emotional scene that you have just written and you happen to be writing NCIS/Criminal Minds then you are in luck! This will effectively crack you up and get you ready to dive right back in!


25 000 words!!!

As I said this past weekend was about catching up and surely I did. Not all the way, not by a long shot but I have done a lot of writing this weekend. And I am still on a good run so I am trying to make it. No promises but I am still trying!

And loving it by the way! icon smile 25 000 words!!!

Catching up!

So truth be told I have been behind since I started this. It is as if everything is alligned to make me fail. I have so many things that I have to do for other people all of the sudden that I hardly have time to get to some real writing. And I will be so proud if I make it. But truth be told chances are pretty slim that I will.

No matter what happens I will not give up. I am not prepared to give up before the clock strikes midnight on the 30th of this month. So this weekend besides all the other things I have to do is about catching up. I need to make some decent numbers if I want to have any chance at making it. I want to hit 25 000 at least by the end of the weekend. Which should be a doable goal … it is not that much I am 19 000 at the moment.

Besides that I am at the moment working on three different chapters which have huge conversations between two of my characters at a time. They all have at least 5 000 words, which if you look at my word count gives you so far a pretty good view on what I have written. Three conversations and a couple of loose scenes to connect chapters in one way or another … As I have said before I have a very messy writing style nothing is where it is supposed to be and at this point hardly anything is connected. But it will be in the end I am sure of it, though I am not so sure that it will be at the end of this month. I will probably have a shit load of chapters and scenes which still have to be connected in one way or another.

It will take me longer then this month to finish the story but I want to hit at least 50 000 words by the end of the month.

I reached 10 000 words on the fifteenth, and I am close to 20 000 on the 21st which shows that I made an improvement already. I am getting there!

10 000 word shoutout!!!

I probably shouldn’t be this happy since I should have had 10 000 words at least a week ago. But I am, I have been so busy and even though I don’t want to say it out loud yet but with half of the month gone changes of me finishing in time are nihil…  zero… or well very small.

But I am still doing it and even with my freelance project of a complete logo and corporate design for papers, cards and what not. And of course the three websites for my job and my regular job to top it off. I am still here and I am still doing it.

And that is actually what kept me back last year and the year before.  I thought that I would be too busy. I am. I can’t put it any other way but the story is developing and I am getting there maybe not in the next two weeks but it will reach 50 000 words some day.

Oh yeah did I tell you about the fact that I had to rewrite two complete scenes because of significant changes in Criminal Minds. I had set a timeline in which I choose a particular moment in NCIS and in Criminal Minds as the same moment in time. So that I had a base from where I could work out my story. And then they decide to let Hotch step down and Morgan take his place a too big of a change to let it go.Because my storyline starts at the beginning of the new year.

Of past rejection and future loyalty

cl icon bacchanal 22 Of past rejection and future loyalty

‘Of past rejection and future loyalty’ that is the title that I have chosen for my story.

I have no idea were it came from but it was a sentence that came to mind all of the sudden. And it wouldn’t let me go, so I settled on the idea of making this my title. Usually I start out with a working tittle but this one is too perfect to let it go.

The story is getting clearer, I am seeing more and more scenes. I just need to find the time to write them down. And even though this week has turned out to be far more busy then I expected only a week ago and it is far more difficult to get the writing done then I expected but then again it could also be typically me. At the start my writing goes slow the farther I get into a project the better it goes. I just go with the flow and the motions until my story has been told.

Anyway for all you curious people here is the first scene, or well at least the scene that at this point is my first scene. Though it might change overtime;

Ziva David had no idea what happened when she stared down the barrel of the gun that was pointed at her. But what she saw next shocked her to the core of her being, the face behind the gun was so familiar. The familiarity of the face behind the gun rendered her motionless, she seemed unable to think and had forgotten every bit of training that usually came natural to her. But this was different, she never imagined that she would ever look into those dark brown eyes again. That was when she dropped her arm which had been holding her gun pointed at the person in front of her. Her Sig now pointed at the dusty grey floor tiles in a moment of lost concentration. For Ziva, who was usually on top of her game and always in a state of alertness this was un-called for. Ziva knew that hardly any time had passed between Tony kicking the door open and herself advancing inside pointing her gun at the first moving target but at the same time it seemed as if time stood still. And then she heard her own name fall from the lips of the other person; “Ziva.” She spoke hardly above a whisper certainly not something anyone else in the room could have picked up on. But she knew that her reaction was obvious, everyone in the room knew that Ziva and the other woman knew each other.

The start of a novel…

iheart70 The start of a novel...

Yes, I have started! The first full day has passed and I have failed to reach my word count miserably. But I have a good reason, my sister is moving and since this was a Sunday I had to do my part and help out in the mayor paint job which was basically painting the whole apartment.

My weekend was literally crazy, on Saturday I went to Utrecht to the NaNoWriMo kick off party! Which was great, I loved it. It is very inspiring to talk to other people about writing. It is really interesting to hear what other people like to do while writing, how they work. If they listen to music or enjoy the silence. If they research while writing or do all their research ahead of time.

I really enjoyed listening to everyone hearing their ideas and especially all of the differences between everyone. I have heard that there where about 60 people at the gathering. I really liked meeting everyone and it really put me into the right mood to write. Only problem at this moment is that my life is so filled with obligations that I can hardly find the time to do anything about my writing. But this year I am going to try and make it.