NaNoWriMo: Week 1 in Review

My original plan was to pop in on Wednesdays in November and regale you with how many words I've written since you heard from me last. But then I realized that I'm kind of behind (not by A LOT, but still) and even though it's only been a week I'm already feel the Week 2 blues, so let's talk about something else. (If you're feeling cheated, you can always check my progress here! Just need to remind me to update it! :)

One of the best pieces of advice I heard going into NaNoWriMo was: Have fun! Don't kill yourself over it! Make sure to do non-writing activities! 

And I have followed this advice SPECTACULARLY! In the past week, here are the non-writing fun things I've done:

I watched some fantastic TV (a HUGE cut from the number of shows I usually watch! See? I'm being good!) 

 

Ok, since it's just us friends here, I'll be honest: I also watched some re-runs of these! (But they're SO GOOD! And for those of you about to have a seizure: No I am not putting Felicity on the same level of awesome as Doctor Who, I just happened to watch them both this week...)

 

I went out with the hubby and ate some YUMMY food:

We also went to the movies and saw (which was hilarious and full of Neil Patrick Harris-y goodness!):

I have been to the grocery store three times, the gas station twice, and a lovely, local Christmas bazaar once. The bazaar was my favorite because I got THESE!

How was your week? Are you surviving enjoying NaNoWriMo? Any other writing news to share? Any non-writing adventures to tell us about? Have you seen A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas? How badly do you want a WAFFLE-BOT now!?

To Share or Not?

Everywhere you turn there are sites popping up online to share your writing. For many they build a sense of community and provide support for those who may not otherwise have someone to give feedback on their work. You can share bits and pieces of your story, or even enter your entire story into contests. In fact, some writing communities like InkPop.com have systems that allow members to vote on each others work. The stories that get the most votes may even have the opportunity to be reviewed by an editor at HarperTeen. Several YA authors have been found that way, and I think it's great. 

But when it comes to sharing my own writing online, even little snippets as short as 2-3 sentences makes me want to crawl into a hole and my palms start sweating. I've participated very lightly with our own teaser posts, but it makes me nervous beyond belief.

I don't know if it's because I'm a very nervous person, or if I'm just not wanting to jinx myself when it comes to sharing things online. Maybe I'm overly private or maybe I just don't believe my story is "there" yet, but for whatever reason, I just feel extremely uncomfortable when it comes to sharing my own writing online. 

I recently read a post on another YA author's blog. She was celebrating that she now has an agent and was telling her story of how that came to pass. She'd been very private about the whole querying process and didn't talk much about her writing at all either on twitter or elsewhere online. I find that I share a lot of her viewpoints. 

But then there are also authors who are completely comfortable sharing their work. They have many followers and readers, and that is definitely a bonus. When the time comes to seek an agent, they already have a decent number of people who know who they are and are looking forward to when their book will be available. 

For me though, something about sharing my writing in such a public way just doesn't sit right with me. So I know that going forward, I'll be one of those writers you hear very little about until the magical day I get to announce that I have an agent and/or a publishing contract. And I'm okay with that. I'm much more comfortable holding onto my idea and my characters until then. 

What about you? Do you participate in any online writing groups? Do you feel comfortable sharing your writing online?

Monday Check-In

Welcome to another installment of the Monday Check-In! Every Monday we'll post small updates on what we've accomplished in the past week with writing. If we've gotten a lot done, or accomplished some of our goals, we cheer each other on. If we've not gotten enough done, or are in  writing slump, we still cheer each other on. Sometimes you just need someone to remind you that you really can do it, right? 

So without further adieu, here is our check-in for this week:

Danielle's Check-In: NaNoWriMo is going well! I've written 10K in 5 days. I'm very excited with how everything is moving. I did discover a problem with my timeline in the story, but I'm plotting it out on the wall with post-its and hoping to figure that out so I can move forward without issues. But I'm loving writing so far this month. I missed being in that place where it's all you can think about and the consumption is a great feeling!!

Christina's Check-In: I finished one chapter this week. I was hoping to get two done, but this was a pretty long chapter, so I'm okay with it. I'm not doing NaNoWriMo, but I'm hoping to get lots written this month. This week I plan on fixing my plot outline and writing another chapter or two.

Cindy's Check-In: I'm also not doing NaNoWriMo because I'm trying to finish up revisions to my rewrite. I lost power for a few days due to the crazy October snowstorm that took a million people out of electricity last week. It kind of sucked not having internet or really having a good place to write when our generator could only power up so many things at one time, but it was also kind of nice to have some space from it. I had lots of time to think about where this story really needs to go and have been unable to stop thinking about the things that need fixing. Over the days that I did have power, I got a good amount of revisions done and I'm actually thinking (HOPING!) I'll be done with this round of revisions by Sunday night. 

What about you? We'd love to hear how your last week in writing went. Please leave us a comment to let us know.

Oh Friday.....you tease.

One thing we like to do on Tangled is share pieces of what we're writing. Teasers are fun! Here are some pieces from us.

Patricia (from current WIP, working title: PLETHORA)

“I’ll get that, you shouldn’t have to clean up my mess,” I reached down, hastily grabbing for a piece of the wreckage but finding myself with a handful of dirt. The boy had already cleared away the pot and was walking toward the back of the greenhouse. 

“It’s my job,” he said simply, turning back to look at me briefly before walking away. My feet followed the boy toward the back of the greenhouse of their own accord.

“What is?” Racking my brain trying to figure out what this boy’s job was. The only things I was coming up with at the moment were fireman or prince, what was wrong with my brain? 

“Cleaning up the greenhouse, I’m Christopher’s assistant gardener. I live in the guest house out back.” He glanced at me with a barely-there smile playing about his lips, “I guess that means I’m allowed to break stuff too.” 

“Of course,” I could feel the brain fog thickening as I started at the boy, “Well I don’t want bother you anymore so here you go.” I deposited the handful of dirt I forgot I was holding on top of his pile of broken pottery, then turned and walked quickly out of the greenhouse before I could properly process that I had just handed an extremely attractive guy (who lived in my house) a bunch of dirt. The realization that I was obviously suffering from some sort of brain aliment hit me just as I reached the door into the residence hall. I headed to Cordilia’s room. Maybe she knew of some magical, natural remedy for sudden idiocy. 

Christina (from current WIP, working title: VERITAS)

My knees buckle and I fall to the ground, right next to Elder Gale. A hollow feeling creeps into my chest. The sound of Declan calling my name and Supervisor Dresden shouting in the doorway reaches my ears like an echo, distorted and distant. Declan tugs on my hand. His warm skin stings against the cold that has taken over my body, and I rip my hand out of his. My fingers tremble as I reach out to Elder Gale. They hang in the air above him, not touching but so close.

His blood crawls across the floor to me, still warm as it leeches into my clothes and covers my skin. A scream sounds in the room, long and piercing. It isn’t until the pain sears my throat that I realize it’s me. I’m screaming and I can’t stop. It pours out of me like the blood that pours out of Elder Gale. The same thought fills my head over and over again: Next to me is the body of a man I killed.  

Danielle (from current WIP, working title: FOLLOW ME THROUGH DARKNESS)

I move from the table and bump into a woman. An apple rolls from her bag and I hand it to her from the ground. She doesn’t take it. 

“I’m sure it’s fine. It doesn’t look bruised,” I say. 

She stares back at me. I’m the serpent and she’s the innocent girl in the garden. I’m tempting her, dooming her to lose everything just by taking it from my hand. I think that’s something like how the story went. She looks as it, at me, her hand moves forward before she freezes. Then, she shakes her head and pushes past me. She doesn’t take the apple. I’m standing here in the doorway holding it out to the air. Even the air doesn't take it. 

Maybe this is what it is to be invisible. Around and alive, on the cusp of everything but no one can see you. They look at you and don’t know what they’re looking at or why. 

Cindy (from current WIP, working title: THE BECKONER)

The French fry in my mouth suddenly tasted like dirt and the heat from his touch became a whole new type of warmth under my skin. I opened my mouth to point out that he was lying and that I could see the outline of his cell phone in his jean pocket but what good would it do? He’d obviously done what he came to do. He must have known I hadn’t told Gabby he’d stayed the night. 

Crap. Forget killing Gabby. I was going to kill Eli.

 

Do you want to share a teaser? If so leave a comment or email Christina at christinaferko(at)gmail(dot)com and we'll feature you on a Friday!

We'd love to see and share what you guys have too!

Overload: Day 3

This post is going to be a random assortment of random things. Why? Well, I'm having one of those days. And these are fun for me. This post is called "Overload" for a reason: It's how your brain feels on day 3 of NaNoWriMo. Why? Because you're looking at ALL THE THINGS you have to do and you're slightly freaking out at word counts, at plots, at the number of days that remain and OMG what happens now? Anyone else...?


Let the randomness ensue...

1) This song. I like it and it's stuck in my head and wanted to share it. It really inspires me to write a post about world building. I'll probably do that soon. Stay tuned. (Note: I love/hate world-building.)



2) This morning at work all the things were broken! (and they keep breaking. They're overloaded) ALL THE THINGS. The phone, the internet (someone typed google into google!!*), the scheduling system--and one of the PTs called out sick. It was mass chaos for about ten minutes. And then, it was quiet.

It was quiet and I had nothing I could do. No internet to distract me. No twitter. Only Patricia--who was at work, working. She let me toss out some plot ideas with her. And for two hours, I got to think about plot and about my character and about what is supposed to happen in the next scene. Sometimes those next scenes are killer.

So I started plotting.

I made a list of all the things that need to happen still in the book. The big things. And then I thought about where my characters are and where they are going. How will they get there? I picked two things that could happen first--whether they have an importance now or later--and now there's a scene awaiting when I get home. I'm pretty pumped about. Everything's about hit the fan in my WIP.

3) Here's a line from my WIP.

I’m going to die today.

Everything inside me wants tell Xenith I changed my mind. Wants me to run and hide. But I know I can’t hide from death. Not when I’m putting myself right in its path.

4) Go read this interview with debut author Jennifer Rush (Altered, 2012). It's a character interview--and her boys are HOT. And funny. Everything mine strive to be.


5) I'm very excited to write tonight. I love when I'm excited because it's GREAT motivation to write scenes well. Which is different than just writing scenes, even for Nano. (Be my buddy!! @DanielleEWrites)

I need to go now. I've had a lot of Skittles today and my brain is overloaded by the work I'm not doing and should be.

What about you? What are you doing this week? Are you overloaded by anything? Do you want a Skittle?

*This reference is because of the show The IT Crowd. You should watch it. I love it--and love to quote it more. It's on Netflix and is (seriously) a 24 episode commitment--and they're only 30 minutes each.

NaNoWriMo: Day 2

Hey guys! Welcome to the craziness that is National Novel Writing Month! (If you love to write, but have no idea what I'm talking about, you can learn all about it here.)

If you missed yesterday's post by Danielle, I highly recommend you take a minute to check it out, it had some fantastic (and hilarious) NaNoWriMo resources!

Photo Credit: http://bit.ly/sWGjOD

For the next 29 days, things are going to be pretty much insane for all of us attempting this crazy-fun-exhilarating feat! (emphasis on the crazy...) My posts are pretty much going to consist of a quick update of how I'm doing or whatever else I can figure out in the 30 minutes I have scheduled for a break in the evening. I apologize in advance for their scatter-brain-dead-ness. All available writing brain power has been diverted to my WIP for the month of November.

This year I am going to be attempting to finish a first draft of my current WIP, PLETHORA. Technically, since I've already started it I'm a "rebel". Or not, since it's looking more and more likely that I'll be starting from scratch. Either way, I'm really hoping to get the majority of a first draft out of this month and hope you will all be here to cheer me on. I'm going to need it! 

And if you are going to be NaNo-ing add me on the site (my profile is here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/patriciaeriley) and we'll cheer each other on! 

So without further ado, here is my Day 2 AM Update:

Photo Credit: Pinterest.com

Last night I wrote 1884 words. And they were terrible and wonderful at the same time. I'm still feeling pretty excited about the whole process and the breakthroughs I've made on the plot of my WIP recently. At the same time, I'm already looking forward to editing this mess. The not-editing part is my biggest challenge so far! Also, I found this picture which is almost exactly like the tattoo I envision my character having. So far I've still managed to shower, eat, take care of my family, and do my day job. But then again... it's the morning of Day 2...

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Any tips or tricks you can share with me? If not, what are your November plans? Do you have any extra coffee/tea/soda/candy/cookies/cake I can borrow? Or some hours for sleep?... I could really use with some of those...

It's November!!!

Our lovely Cindy had today's post....but she's been without power and the things in life (like internet) since Saturday. So, I decided I'd jump in and say hello.

HOLY CRAP FRIENDS---It's NOVEMBER. It means a few things.

We're getting closer to this.... 

 And THIS (One of my favorites)....

 And this.....

And these things, which may not be as fun as the others....

And for some people, November also means NaNoWriMo. Which may be fun or not fun, depending on your view. But something that is fun about NaNo? This silly song.




There's also this great video from John Green. AND this post from Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall) in which she congratulates writers for participating---or not participating---in NaNo. 

The whole point of this random post is to say Welcome to November.   It's a new month. A new time to find something to focus on, to achieve and to look forward to the things that are coming up. The Tangled Girls are excited to spend another month with you talking about writing, goals and all the things in between.

Let us know what you're up to for November!!