Uncomfortable Conversation – Risa and Zane

For today’s story update (whatever the calendar says, I’m still going to consider it Saturday until I go to sleep), I thought I’d do a little exercise to build my excitement for these characters again. They’re the main couple from my webserial and also two of the main characters in the novel that I’m going to be editing during July’s Camp NaNoWriMo. I actually really like them, but I think I’ve spent too much time with them the past few years so I’m less interested in writing them than I want to be.

This scene takes place before the start of the webserial, but some weeks after the start of the novel. I don’t think it’s necessary to have read the webserial or any outside information about these two and their story before reading this. Certain things will make more sense if you have, sure, but I think it can stand on its own well enough.

Length: 1,072 words
Characters: Risa, Zane
Prompt: Write a scene in which a character has to have an uncomfortable conversation. (Source: http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/post/53280081730/753-uncomfortable-conversations)

Planning for July Camp NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo seriously needs to stop sneaking up on me. How is it already July? It feels like it was just yesterday that I was freaking out about not being prepared for the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo. Getting that reminder email about July was like a surprise bucket of water being dumped on me. Or a surprise dip in the lake courtesy of fellow campers, to keep with the theme.

I’m determined not to skip this session of camp like I did with the April one. So far I’ve participated in at least one session of Camp NaNo since it first started. I’ve always enjoyed the motivation to write that NaNoWriMo provides and having that more than once a year is such a treat. I’ll be disappointed in myself if I don’t take advantage of it.

That said, I don’t think I’ll be writing a new novel this time. I’ve been kind of slacking with my webserial and I feel as though the quality of the last few chapters reflects that. So one of the things I want to do during July is to really focus on that and build up a buffer of chapters so that I can dedicate time to polishing them before posting instead of rushing to finish an update the day it’s supposed to be out. Having a buffer would also give me a better sense of where the serial’s heading and how much story I have left to tell.

Story: 365 Shorts #20

This is from my “365 Days of Shorts” project. It’s shorter than I thought it was (probably due to my being bad at estimating word count while writing by hand). I don’t have any plans for these characters or their world at the moment; I’m pretty happy with it as a short, one-shot kind of thing.

Length: 451 words
Prompt: Pick a novel and take the first line off of every page to use as a prompt.
Novel used: The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono.
#19. “Say that you accept.”

Character Room Description – Cyn

Weekly updates on a set day have been working fine for my webserial, so I’ve set a goal for myself to keep a regular update schedule here. The plan is to post a story or writing exercise every Saturday and a more general/thoughtful piece on writing or things I notice about my own work every other Thursday. I made myself a nice printed calendar and everything.

Anyway, for today’s writing update, I adapted a writing exercise one of my Short Narratives professors back in college had us do. That exercise was to describe a character’s bedroom. Instead of a bedroom, I’ll be using this exercise to describe a character’s office space. More specifically, I’ll be using the character from the last two stories I posted, Cyn. She makes me smile every time I think about her and I imagine that she has a cubicle at the mystery place she works which is full of fun things.

Musing: My problem with endings

I have a problem ending things.

It’s something I’ve been aware of for a long time. I, like many people I know, went through a fanfiction writing phase during my younger years. I had several finished stories, but I definitely dragged my feet while writing them. The last one I was writing, I got it up to the last chapter (if I recall correctly) and then never finished it. I occasionally added to that last word doc during the years since, but never made actual progress. And don’t even get me started on my first fanfiction which I decided needed to be revised and then started posting the revised chapters as I wrote them. I abandoned it halfway through so there’s an abrupt and awkward story change from the last updated chapter to the next chapter, which is still the original.

I can’t argue that it’s simply because I lost interest in writing fanfiction since I have a similar pattern of leaving things unfinished in my NaNoWriMo projects. I have two NaNo novels that actually have their endings written.  Those two took me two rounds of NaNoWriMo each to finally finish. Besides those, I have two NaNo novels which are finished up to the last chapters and have been that way for months (almost a year in the older one’s case). 

Story: 365 Shorts #22

Another story from my “365 Days of Shorts” project (currently on hold) and the start of my attempt to keep a regular update schedule here. This is the follow-up to Story #21, posted earlier.

Length: 1,319 words
Prompt: Pick a novel and take the first line off of every page to use as a prompt.
Novel used: The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono.
#23. Oddly, she could feel no pain.