Passed 40K for the Month!

Which means I should be able to win JulNoWriMo sometime this week when I hit 50K. Yay! :)

I'm working on the big climax of the book. I'm thinking it's highly likely that I will have to make this Part IV. I'm thinking I'll be done with Part IV in the next 10K-20K words.

I'm not done with the story, though. I skipped some parts, so I'll have to go back and write them or give them more depth. I'm sure there's plenty that will have to be rewritten as well.

I was originally aiming for 100K total, because I heard most publishers are looking for 75-90K for a novel. But now I see that I work best by getting the story done first, and then going back and embellishing it more and adding more description. So I might finish my rough draft way short of 100K, but will probably get closer into the 75-90K range after editing.

Writing is going fairly well. I don't encounter too many writer's blocks. So far, when I come up to a part of the plot that I'm a bit fuzzy on, it just comes out. If I try to plan some parts ahead of time, I can't think of what should happen.

But now, I'm coming up to an important climax. I got most of it figured out, but then there will be a big confrontation at the end. I have no clue how that is going to work. I know what I want the outcome to be, but am not sure how to get to that outcome. I'm hoping it just comes out when I get that far sometime this week. I'm not sure how I'll end the story if I can't get that to work out!

So, total word count is 68,666 and it is 236 pages. I wrote 40,862 of those words in July so far.

Blog is being reconstructed...

Sorry for any frustration that it may cause. I have decided to make my excerpts and posts about plot/characters/etc private. I figured it was silly to risk someone stealing my work if I am considering publishing at some point.

So I have a separate blog that is only open to people close to me and any readers that are chosen for critiques. Let me know if you would like access and I'll consider it. ;)

50K BABY!!

That's TOTAL word count, not just in July for JulNoWriMo. But still! 50K! Woot! :)

The actual total word count is 50,055. 22,251 of that was written in July alone so far. Total page count is 168.

Quick Word Count Post

It's late and I'm tired, so this is pretty much only going to be an update on the word count. I was able to type over 5K today. Impressive considering it was the 4th of July and I went to the fireworks. ;)

Total word count is now 45,223. Almost 50K! 17,420 of that has been done since July 1st, for JulNoWriMo. It's 152 pages. I will probably be starting Part III tomorrow. :)

Up to Chapter 19!

Got some more major writing done today, although not quite as much as yesterday. Of course the day isn't over, so it is possible I might get some more done before midnight. But I still wanted to post an update now.

With the writing I did today, and also sliding in already written scenes into chapters, I am almost done with up to and including Chapter 19. I just need to write the beginning of Chapter 19, and then I'll be on to Chapter 20.

I think there's still a few things missing from many of the chapters, but I think I will just forge on and I can always add those things in later or during editing. The main story is there, and that's what's important.

Total word count is 35,972 and 2,874 of that was written today. Page count is 119. :)

ETA: After some more writing tonight, official word count is now 38,742 and it's 129 pages. Officially 20% of the way done with JulNoWriMo! And about 38% of the way to my ultimate word count goal.

The First Official Day of JulNoWriMo is Over!

And I have netted 5,295 words in that 24 hr period. Wow! The best part, is the flowed right out of me. Easy peasy. ;)

I just finished Chapter 14. I'm not quite sure what Chapter 15 will be. I'm hoping it comes to me tomorrow.

Word count is now 33,098 (whew, right?) and it's 109 pages.

JulNoWriMo has started!

I'm fairly tired, so this will be a quick post.

I typed up 1,917 words of my ending tonight as part of a JulNoWriMo challenge. I'm hoping to get more writing done tomorrow too before midnight. Goal is to write 5K in the 24 hour period. :) I'm hoping to finish Chapter 11 then.

Total word count is 29,720 and it's 97 pages long.

No Writing Tonight...

I'm a bit sad about it, but I think it's best to just go to bed. There's no scene that's bursting out from me, so I think I can wait. ;)

There were some medical things going on with my family today. Thankfully, all is well. But I didn't get time to write and now I'm just too burned out to concentrate.

I hope to get back to writing tomorrow, otherwise I will just have to rest up so I can start JulNoWriMo on Friday with a bang. ;) Maybe I can somehow get 10,000 words to just come out and then I'd already be 1/5 the way to winning it. I can dream, right? LOL

So, good night everyone. No new word or page count tonight.

Almost done with Chapter 10!

I finished a huge chunk of it tonight. All that's left is to write a bit of the background leading into the scene and connecting the two related scenes I have in the chapter. The chapter is basically Eliza filling Calista in on a few things, and then she shares a memory of hers, which tells a bit of her story. Then it will be on to Chapter 11, which I think will include Calista meeting Lucas for the first time.

I'm not sure if I can end the story in Part III, or if it will be so long and involved that it will require a Part IV. We'll see when I come to that. ;)
Word count is 27,505 and page count is 89. Getting close to 100 pages! Woohoo!

Losing a bit of steam...

I'm hoping it's just temporary. I didn't write at all yesterday. I was first busy for most of the day, and when the evening rolled around I had a nasty headache. It was just too hard to be creative when feeling like that. :( Today, I was also busy and started to not feel good again. I did get some research done, and did a bit of writing tonight. Not a whole lot, though.

The kids are going camping this weekend with my parents, so I'm hoping, with some alone time, I can get a huge start in JulNoWriMo. I also have plenty to do around the house too, though. We'll see how it all goes.

JulNoWriMo starts Friday. Funny - a few days ago I was worried I would get over 50K before July even started. Now, I'm still hovering around 25K (25,123 to be exact). But if I can write with that speed in July, I should be able to win JulNoWriMo since the majority of that word count was done in under two weeks.

Now, to bed. ;)

ETA: So, as I was lying in bed, I got another idea that I had to write down. Word count is now 25,940 and it's 83 pages. ;)

Chapter 9 hath been conquered!

Chapter 9 - done! All 1,830 words of it. ;) I'm kind of second-guessing it already. In it, Calista confronts her mother and demands answers. I sort of feel like not much is revealed and it sort of goes in circles - but maybe that is what I want to convey? The family secrets wouldn't just all come out in a quick discussion, after all. I won't worry about it now. I just want the story written, and then I can worry about the technicalities in edits.

Word count is now 24,290 with 78 pages typed. I'm hoping to work on Ch. 10 tomorrow sometime. This chapter may prove to be a bit more difficult. It will center more on Eliza, and I'm still struggling on how to write her dialogue. I want her accent and manner of speaking to be apparently Irish. But I'm thinking I will have to work on that in edits with research and possibly the help of a native-speaking Irish person. Again, may just work on getting story written and I can always go back and fix any historical inaccuracies or accents later.

ETA: Had to update word count. A bit of a scene suddenly came to me so I wanted to write it out quick. So, count is now at 24, 739 and the new addition also bumped me up to 80 pages. :)

Chapter 8 - done!

I didn't do a whole lot of writing tonight. Instead I've worked on research and organizing things in the story. I also have a computer that was being most uncooperative for a good portion of the beginning of the night. We had a little discussion, and it has decided to be a better behaved little PC for awhile now. I promised it a new screen saver or something if it will cooperate. ;)

Anyways, yes I have finished chapter 8. It was almost finished already. It just needed a lead in from the preceding chapter. So I wrote a couple of pages for that and voila! chapter done!

As of tonight, word count is 22,471 with total pages of 72.

My Insane Title Post

Okay, going to preface this with a warning - this is me brainstorming. This post might just be a jumble of "what the HECK was that?" ;)

When I'm going through other parts of my day and not writing, I'm often thinking of the title. I'm not sure why it's bothering me so much, but it is. So I'm going to list possible titles here, so I don't forget them. Maybe something good will pop out.

Working title is Destiny Remembered.

Came up today with Discovering Destiny and Forgetting Fate. I'm kinda liking that. Or maybe just Discovering Destiny, Forgetting Fate. Of course I could also write it as Destiny Discovered and Forgotten Fate or something like that. Or Discovering Destiny, Fighting Fate? Hmm...

Have also thrown around the idea of fighting destiny, but Fighting Destiny isn't ringing for me and I can't think of another phrase that sounds better and expresses the same concept.

As posted earlier, the whole destiny thing could be done different ways too:
Destiny Reinvented
Destiny Discovered
Destiny Rediscovered
Forgotten Destiny
Destined to Heal (not liking this at all, but do like including the gifts in there)
Destined Gifts

Have also thrown around somehow bringing up the lineage/ancestry to the original ones in Ireland. Can't think of good words or prhases for it, though.

Also have thought of talking about the gifts themselves in title. I've thought of centering on the hands since the healing often goes through them, they use holding hands to share memories, experience feelings, etc. The hands titles I come up with just sounds creepy though. Like Hands of Healing...I don't know it just gives off this sketchy vibe. And she does more than heal. Gifted Hands - sounds like a tagline for a prostitute specializing in a certain - ahem - specialty. LOL Hand in Hand is just way too vague for me.

So yeah, still not sure which direction to go with all of this!

ETA: Random words and title ideas:

Impeding Destiny
Impeding Fate
Battling Fate
Taking Over Destiny
Whispering Darkness
Children of Prophecy (Daughters of Prophecy? but isn't only women)
Anxious Shadows

Just an update...

Not a whole lot of exciting stuff to report, but figured I would do my nightly post.

I did a little research into the "norms" of word count of first-time novels sent to publishers. After seeing that most publishers want to see slightly under 100,000 I have made that my new goal. 50,000 seemed too little. I'm almost halfway there already and not halfway through the story. Anything more than than and it's likely publishers won't bother looking at it. So 100,000 shall be my goal. I'll try to get 50,000 of that done during JulNoWriMo. ;)

I did split off chapter 5 like I mentioned earlier. I also did a bit of writing to try to make scenes flow better into each other, and also to flesh some things out more. I am now up to beginning chapter 8. Still thinking it will be around 30, possibly 40 chapters, roughly 1,000 to 3,000 words per chapter. If you do the math and average it out, it's about the 100,000 word ballpark I mentioned. I've read that a 100,000 word novel is probably about 300 pages in paperback form. So that does sound like a good size.

After the bit of writing I did tonight, my word count is now 21,733 and it is exactly 70 pages.

Possible Title

Ugh...can't sleep tonight. I am definitely going to sleep after this post, though. It's WAAAAY too late!

Anyways, thought of a possible title. I'm calling it my working title, though, because it just isn't feeling right. I might end up using a variation of it, or throwing it out entirely and trying again. Title is Destiny Remembered. I've also thought of Destiny Realized and Destiny Revisited. If I stick with the whole destiny theme, then I can make a destiny series and each title could be a play on it, if I even get to writing more books. ;) I already have an idea for the next one in the series and it could be titled Destiny Followed. I don't know...maybe I just need more sleep and the idea will sound silly in the morning. LOL

As I waited for the kids to go back to sleep (another restless night since they're slightly congested), I played around with Photoshop and made this cover:

I can see after posting it that it needs some serious tweaking so the words pop more. Stuff always looks better in the program before I put it elsewhere.

Oh and if I ever do get this done and try to get published, I'm thinking I'll use my maiden name as a "pen name." It looks nicer in print. Nothing against my husband. ;)

Character Name Changes

Remember how I mentioned Alec just seemed "off" to me? Well, my daughter was playing a Toy Story game today when it dawned on me. Andy. Andy feels right. So I'm thinking his name will be changed to Andy, short for Andrew of course. I wanted a name that wasn't too serious since he's a fairly light-hearted character. I think this name will fit better.

I don't remember if I mentioned the housekeeper or had a excerpt with her in it yet. I just gave her the name Flora because she was working in the gardens (get it? Flora and fauna...yeah, corny I know). "Jillian" came to me tonight as I was writing another scene that she's in. I can't say for absolute certainty that it won't change again, but Jillian seems to fit better than Flora did.

Word count is 20, 611! Woot! Up to 41 pages, single-spaced now. That's 67 pages, double-spaced. I have now made it all double-spaced and will report page count as double-spaced from now on.

Finished most of chapter 5 except the very end, but it's so terribly long that I think I may be splitting it into three chapters, where the splits feel most natural I may be splitting a few other chapters too. My guess is I might get up to chapter 9 or 10 and will then be into part II. Part I is mainly the discovery of all that is going on with her. Part II - I'm not totally sure what parts of the story it will all entail. But I'm pretty sure she will meet Lucas and start school in part II. Part III, she will finally found out what happened to her dad. She will either meet Andy (Alec, now named Andy) at the end of part II or beginning of part III. Andy will help her with her dad. If it becomes longer than expected, there may be a part IV, which would be her big decision.

How's that for a ramble? I'm not even sure if it all makes sense. LOL I'm typing it as my kids keep bothering me, because the storms are keeping them awake. If I'm up anyways, I might get even more writing done tonight. We'll see. ;)

Did you say chapter FIVE?

Yup, I have very large chunks done of each chapter up to and including chapter 5! I don't know if I will end up with the around 30 chapters I first planned on (might be less, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's more!), but if I do I am getting close to being 20% done already! I probably am 20% done if you take into account that I have written plenty of scenes for other chapters that I haven't gotten to placing yet.

The kids finally did go to sleep and I was able to get some writing done tonight. I would like to continue to just type and type, but it's already past 1 am. I'll have to wait to write more tomorrow.

Just wanted to update quick as to how much I have done. Word count is 19,002, 38 pages. The goal for JulNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words during the month of July. If I'm not mostly done before then (which I highly doubt) and I do meet the goal, then it looks like I'll be adding another 50K to my word count next month. Thinking word count will top 100,000 when all is said and done. ;)

Setting

I may have the setting finally figured out. After doing more research, I think the story will take place near Chicago. Calista is living in their ancestral home, basically. So this is where her ancestors immigrated to from Ireland in the early 1840's. I was thinking Chicago might be a good place, but when I discovered that the Irish history there is abundant, I knew it was the right place. I also wanted a place that would have a very large home built in the mid 1800's, since the family is wealthy (I'll explain that later in the book as well).

It feels good to finally have a general idea where in the country this book is taking place. And I'm glad it's close to my home, so I should know about the general weather and culture. It feels even better that I wrote 2000 words today when I got a few moments. Yes, 2000! I was shocked I was able to write that many words in such a short time. So, word count is now 14, 479. Page count is 29, single-spaced. I'd say I'm almost done with the first chapter. I'm still second-guessing parts of it, so in the next draft it might be totally different than this draft. I'm also thinking of splitting off part of the 1st chapter and merging it with chapter two. If I do this, I'm mostly done with chapter two as well.

Holy Smokes!

I got hit by a creative energy tonight, and caught myself typing away late into the night. I finally started to slow down and feel the tiredness set in as the creative energy flowed away. I glanced at the clock to see it was past 1 am. Sigh. Then I glanced at the bottom of the page and saw 12, 728 words! As the title says, holy smokes! I didn't look at the word count at all until now and was rather surprised to see that I'm already 20% of the way to the required word count for a NaNoWriMo novel! And the really scary part? I still feel like I'm barely starting and there's a LOT of story to be told yet. Yikes.

In case you were wondering, 12,728 words is roughly 26 pages typed (single-spaced right now). Double-spaced it becomes 42. So, that's almost half the size of the thesis I wrote for graduate school, which I spent months on. While it's been months that I've been writing this, I haven't been putting as much time into it. It's just weird to see the writing fly so easily out of me. Maybe I am a writer, after all! I wanted to be a writer when I was younger, but nothing ever came out of it.

So, seeing 12,728 words come out of me in so little of actual work time makes me think I could possibly have a total rough draft done by summer's end. Or by the end of the year at the latest, I think. As long as I can keep myself working at it. I'm hoping this blog will help me stay committed and not let life get in the way of this. ;)

Early Cast of Characters

So, here's who I have in the book and who I'm thinking of adding at this moment. I'll update the list as it goes on. Updated on 6/21/11

Calista (main character) - the book is mainly from her perspective. She's 18 and an only child. She's sort of a loner, because she doesn't seem to "fit in" with her peers. She has an affinity for nature, so she spends a lot of her time outside or gardening. She has a temper (she's a redhead, so it's expected! LOL) and is experiencing a lot of upheaval with her parents' relationship deteriorating. She experiences some really weird things that she can't explain. She's about 5'7" - 5'8", light "coppery" red hair that goes to her mid-back in loose curls, and dark blue eyes. She has a heart-shaped face and dimples in both cheeks.

Mother (Calista's mother, thinking name is Meredith) - she tends to be a bit more on the cold side. Calista will eventually find out that this is because she knows so much and sees what's going on that she feels she needs to protect herself. She also is a perfectionist, and uses this form of control as a way of protecting herself as well. Calista has a rocky relationship with her and tries to avoid confrontations with her. She has blonde hair (I call it honey-colored at one point) and also has dark blue eyes.


Dad (Calista's father, named him Derrick so far but I'm not loving it) - her father won't have a lot of active participation at the beginning of the book. The book will start with him disappearing, so he'll only show up in memories/flashbacks. He's gentler than her mother, and she has a much closer relationship with him. He shares her affinity for nature. He's a doctor and encourages Calista to major in a health-related field in college. He has darker brownish-red hair and bright spring green eyes.

Lucas - Calista's love interest. He's tall with hair so dark that it's almost black and "mesmerizing" blue eyes. While gentle and kind, he's also a fierce protector.

Andy - this man will help Calista and have a romantic interest in her. Chestnut colored hair (brown with a slight tinge of red to it) and light green eyes. Very friendly and light-hearted.

Extended Family Members - will eventually be introduced to some of Calista's extended family, that she wasn't even told existed (for a reason, of course!)

The Council - will be explained later as I write this part

Characters in 1800's
There will be a story going on from the 1800's Ireland (and then coming to the US). As of right now, I don't think there will be time-travel going on, per say. Yet, Calista will be interacting with Eliza, who I would call like a secondary main character (she's the main character of her time). The best way I can explain it right now is, Calista and Eliza have a certain connection (besides Eliza being her ancestor) and their stories sort of unfold parallel to each other in ways. I'm even throwing around the idea that Eliza's sections might even be told in 1st person from her perspective.

Eliza - she sort of grows along side Calista, even though they are separated in time by almost 200 years. So, for much of the story, she will be in her late teens/early 20's. She's been sort of ostracized from her family and has grown to be fairly independent because of that. She's strong-willed, stubborn, and has a temper worse than Calista's. Yet, she's also compassionate and courageous. She has red hair a few shades darker than Calista's and green eyes that are near the shade of Calista's dad's eyes.

Mum (Eliza's mother, name TBD) - she tries to be Eliza's champion, but there's only so much that she can do. Circumstances hold her captive and she greatly resents that. She loves her children deeply, though.

Da (Eliza's dad, name TBD) - this is actually Eliza's step-dad, although that is a secret and is only discovered later in Eliza's childhood. He's always been a bit more of a gruff man, and when the secret is let out he turns on Eliza and their relationship (rocky at the start) disintegrates.

Michael (Eliza's brother) - he is only shy of 2 years younger than Eliza. They are very close, and he is the one person in her family that she feels she can confide in.

William (Will) - Eliza's love interest

The Council (in Eliza's time) - will explain later

That's all I have as of right now, but like I said I will update this as I add more characters or figure out a bit more what the characters are like.

I'm hoping to get some more writing done and share an excerpt soon. I was trying to write a bit of scene between Eliza and Will, but it's hard without having the historical background I need. I'm thinking I will have to delve into Gaelic too. So, I won't share that for some time yet. I'll probably go back and write some more from the beginning and post that. In case you haven't noticed, I write like I paint/do other arts. I write a bit piece by piece here and there. When I get bored with something or stuck, I just go to another part of the story. I've been told everything can be pieced together as I go. I held back on writing a novel because I figured this wasn't the "correct" way to write. But I've heard from authors that many do do this. :) So we shall see!

Research, Research, Research

I put most of the major writing on hold as I do some research. I figured I have the summer to do it. My goal, is if I don't have the novel done by fall, it WILL be done by the end of the year.

The one difficult thing I'm encountering with research is the chosen time period isn't overly popular, so I might have to dig harder. I'm finding a LOT out about the potato famine, but I was hoping to go into the years proceeding it in this book. I'm becoming so interested in what I find, that I want to delver deeper into Eliza's story (she's Calista's ancestor from Ireland in the early 1800's). But I know I can't overload this novel. So I'm already throwing around the idea of there being a sequel from Eliza's perspective. Yeah, I'm still in the beginning stages of my novel and I'm already planning another! Crazy! LOL

So, for now, I'll try to concentrate on getting enough info to give the glimpses into Eliza's life like I originally planned. Her whole story will have to wait and we'll see if I even finish this book before planning another. ;)

Getting close to posting a bit of the story ;)

I worked on it a bit last night, and am almost to the point of being comfortable posting it. My page count only went up to 6 and a half pages, so I didn't get much done. I can't wait to feel better so I can get all my ideas typed out. The excerpt is about a page out of that 6 1/2, and I'm thinking it may very well be part of the first chapter. I'm hoping to finish it up later today or tonight and post it.

It may very possibly change, but I think the general idea I'm setting forth will stay the same. Her father has left in this excerpt, and it's her reaction to it the morning after his abrupt departure. There's some tension between the main character and her mother, and that will be explained more later on.

I'm writing this in first person, which presents its own set of challenges. And I'm working on adding more description of the surroundings and the characters, so if that feels a bit "empty" yet, that is why.

Anyways, we're still sick here and the kids are getting stir crazy (husband just pulled a stuffed monkey out of the washer...yes, one of THOSE days LOL). So I better take care of things here before coming back.

The Beginning

All stories have a beginning, obviously. This is mine.

I started seriously writing my first novel a few days ago. It was a Friday night, and I suddenly decided I should stop waiting for the right time and just do it. Friday the 21st of January, 2011 to be exact. A story started coming to me and I started writing bits and pieces. I wouldn't say I started at the actual beginning of the novel, but it is close to it. I only got a whopping three pages typed, but I started! Woohoo!

I decided that the story was going to have a part that was set in the past, along with the part I was writing in present-day. I narrowed it down to Ireland in the early 1800's. The story will follow an Irish couple immigrating to the US right before the big potato famine in Ireland. Of course this means I have just opened up a HUGE can of worms. I'm the kind of person that will only do something right. If I do it, it will be done well. So, now I have a ton of research to do. I've been poring over old travel books from the 1800's to get a feel of what Ireland was like then. I'm also writing bits and pieces of the story in present-day while researching. Today, I'm up to six pages. Hey, I doubled what I had! And It's fairly impressive if you note that both my husband and I are quite sick and somehow still taking care of our three young children.

So, you're probably wondering what the novel is about. So am I. ;) All joking aside, I have a great many ideas floating through my head right now and I'm not quite sure which ones will win out. I also don't want to give everything away. I won't be posting the whole novel here, nor will I be posting key plot twists and how they resolved. I may eventually publish this, so I don't want to give it all away. But as of right now, I can tell you probability is very high that there will be a bit of a supernatural twist (basically energy healing and psychic abilities). There also will be the parts set in the past in Ireland/America like I mentioned. I don't foresee time travel right now, but am not totally ruling it out. My guess is it will be more like flashbacks or "visions." You can't have a story in Ireland without folklore and legends, so there will be a bit of that as well. There will be some romance, but I haven't even touched that yet. There is also a whole lot of mystery. The whole book will be about a young woman discovering who - and what - she is.

That's my ideas for now. We'll see what develops!

I *may* post a short excerpt of what I have written so far. I'm still debating. It's still SO new that I'm quite nervous about it and don't know if I can take bad criticism yet. We'll see. ;)