Write or Die

I HATE having only one computer. You do not truly appreciate your computer time until your computer disappears and you have to share with your writer mom. Trust me on this. One week survived, two to three to go. And the worst part is, I still don't have my backup files. Which means I can't turn in that AP Lit essay (which means I'm probably failing right now, but I'm too scared to check my grades to see), I don't have my notes for the book reviews I had planned, and I don't have the first 10k of my nano project.

*sighs* Anyway...a few random notes before I begin.

I finished Bloodhound. Review will come eventually. I've started Sucks to be Me. There will definitely be a review on this one. :D

I hit the halfway point on ARML. YAY! Goal is to hit 35k this weekend. Only 16 days left!

Taylor Swift won Entertainer of the Year at the CMAs the other day, a title that is usually given to Kenny Chesney if I remember correctly. I am so happy for her and ecstatic right now. :D Personally I think every girl has a Taylor Swift song that describes them perfectly. I have two right now that are mine.

By now you might be wondering what the title of this post has to do with anything. Because I can't think of anything else to write about, I'm going to tell you about Write or Die, writers' block's worst nightmare.

WoD is a website where you choose a time limit and a word count goal. The smallest time limit you can choose is ten minutes, which I kind of hate because I think I'd rather write in five minute spurts rather than ten, but whatever. Underneath that you can choose a consequence if you stop writing and a grace period.

The three grace periods are Forgiving, Strict, and Evil. I've been using Forgiving lately because I have serious writers' block.

The consequences you can choose from are Gentle, Normal, and Kamikaze. Gentle is the one I've been using because I can't have sound with my mom listening to music and Kamikaze scares me (more on that in a second). Gentle mode just gives you a pop-up reminding you to keep writing. Of course that doesn't work if you have a computer like mine that either doesn't allow pop-ups or is just screwed up in general (not really sure what the problem is). Normal mode plays an extremely annoying song or sound until you keep writing again. Kamikaze mode is the worst. If you stop writing for over the allotted time, it starts to delete what you wrote before. Crazy, huh? I'd never do that... There's also a fourth mode that says Electric Shock that you can't select. I think I'll stay away from that one...

If you don't write well under pressure and still want to use WoD, I'd suggest starting out with Gentle mode and a Forgiving grace period. Now I'm going to go get rid of this writers' block and see if I can write 4.5k today. Happy writing guys!

Lots of News

Before I begin, I'd like to say sorry for being such a horrible blogger in the past week. I realize that it's been...almost two weeks since I last posted. I'm so very sorry! Life decided to get in the way and make blogging nearly impossible. So I've decided to drop in and let you all know what's up.

School and homework has been taking up the majority of my time. We're nearing the end of the trimester which means teachers are now piling even more work on us in an attempt to get through all their lessons before exams. At this point our trig teacher has already told us that we're not going to have any time for review in class before our exams. Which sucks. Whatever time I don't spend working on homework, is spent writing. NaNo is very time consuming, but I'm quite happy with my project so far.

Yesterday my laptop broke and it's now in the shop. I think I have a vague idea how parents feel when they're children go away to summer camp. Everything was on that laptop including all of my nano project. I did have the sense to backup all my novels, except for that one. I'm getting everything taken off my harddrive, but I'm not getting that until tomorrow. So until then I'm just working off what I remember. The worst part of a broken laptop is I now have to share our lone computer with my mom who also happens to be a writer working on a novel. So now we're fighting over who gets top priority on the computer.

So where does that put this blog? Well, unfortunately at the bottom of my priorities. I will continue to blog as often as I can. Blogging will probably be pretty sparse this week but I'll try to get back into regular posts next week. I had book reviews planned for this week, but my notes for those were also on the laptop.

Note to readers: BACK UP EVERYTHING! As soon as I get my backup copy of my files, I'm going to backup everything that I need. It doesn't have to be complicated, all I do is email an attachment of the document to myself.

Also, today is November 8th. Which is Destiny's first birthday! I had a celebration planned that included interviews with my favorite characters, but that is going to have to wait a few days.

Naming Characters

It's Wednesday again which means YA Highway has another blog carnival! I really liked this week's question, but before I start, I have an exciting announcement. JUMP IS COMPLETE! Final word count: 45,000 words! Which means it's time to put Jump and Hannah away for a month until I can start revisions after NaNo is over.

Okay now for the question: how do you name your characters?

This is a tough one. I don't have any set system for naming them, but I can't write a story without a name. Sometimes I have a name that just comes to me. Like Katie in ARML. Her name didn't require any thought at all. Hannah was the same way.

Then there are times when I can't for the life of me come up with a name that I like. So I turn to my number one source for names: baby name sites. There are whole listings of names for boys and girls. The best ones even show the origins and meanings of names in case you want to choose one based on that too. If you, like me, struggle with coming up with last names, there are sites with those too.

My two favorites are:

First names: http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/

Last names: http://www.last-names.net/

If I can't think of a name right away, I just go on those sites and scroll through them until I find one that pops out at me.

Week in Short Two Days Late

I'm so sorry I'm late! I had one busy weekend. I wasn't home at all between noon Saturday and 9 pm Sunday so WiS pretty much fell to the sidelines. It took me quite awhile last night when I remembered to catch up on all the blog posts. So here is Week in Short, two days late.

There are three Must Reads this week. This first one is from YA Highway on the weight of words and sentences. I know this is really late, but here is Nathan's thoughts on first paragraphs and the winners of his contest! And last but not least, Hannah has her thoughts on word count.

Blood Red Pencil talked about ghostwriters last week. Back before Destiny was even started, I thought the only one of my ideas was going to be finished was if I hired a ghostwriter.

BookEnds agent Jessica answers some random questions.

GLA has the essentials of a novel synopsis.

Querytracker discussed the value of text to voice in editing. It really is a great editing tool. And unlike with reading your manuscript out loud, you can use headphones to listen to it if you don't want anyone listening in.

Rachelle Gardner has a guest blog on a writers' climb and talked about exclamation points and other annoying devices.

Quick warning: Week in Short this week will either be on Saturday or Monday depending on what I'm doing on Saturday and whether or not I keep up with blog posts during the week instead of trying to read them all at one time. I'm going to be away from my computer all day on Sunday (which, sadly, is also the first official day of NaNo).

Jump is almost complete! It currently stands at 41,000 words. My goal is to write two bullet points on the outline (which equals roughly two scenes) a day. If I can do that, Jump will be complete by Friday, just in time for the start of NaNo. Right now I'm procrastinating writing a particularly painful scene. But I will do it...

My NaNo project has an official title now: Aliens Ruined My Life. Much better than whatever I was brainstorming before. Can't wait to start! Though since I'm going to be gone all day on the first, I'm debating if I should start a day early or if I should just accept that I'll have one less day.

Destiny and Shipwrecked will be officially trunked today. Destiny will come back out in December and as for Shipwrecked...I haven't decided yet.

Writing, with School

Ahhh the school year. The time when teenagers spent eight hours a day trapped in the hall of "learning", work hard to keep up with the homework, and enjoy extracurricular activities. But doing all that and keeping up with writing can be difficult. So here are some tips on how to balance writing and school while you count down the days to summer break.

1. Remember, as much as we wish it was otherwise, school should always come first. Do your homework as soon as you get home instead of *ahem* putting it off until a few minutes before it's due. This way you can relax and just write, rather than worrying about that history project or math worksheet.

2. Set aside a period for writing/editing. Maybe you write best after dinner or right before bed. Set aside an hour or two to unplug and just write.

3. If you're like me and you have trouble setting aside a specific amount of time for working, then at least try to write each day. As soon as your homework's done, open up your WIP instead of the internet. Resist the urge to "just check your email" or check Facebook. Write first, play later.

4. Use your weekends and breaks! Days off are a great time to get writing done, but don't feel pressured to get a lot done just because it's your day off. Take some time to relax too. Make sure you're not taking all the fun out of writing.

5. Give up extra things if you have to. No, I don't mean extracurricular activities or homework. But if you have to cut back on your blogging, or internet time, or beta reading, do it. Your writing is more important. I've already decided to write all my blog posts on Sunday and set them to auto-post so I don't have to worry about that during the week and I'm severely restricting the amount of beta projects I'm allowed to take on.

6. Work in school! Carry extra notebook paper around with you during school for brainstorming during downtime. This is also a great idea just in case you -- like me -- sometimes get random ideas that pop into your head that you just have to write down so you don't forget. If you're working on editing, print out a few manuscript pages and take them with you.

7. Becky at TWFT suggests using assignments to your advantage. For example, if you have an assignment to write a short story, try to find a way to incorporate that short story in your own writing. Maybe write a short from a minor character's point of view to better get to know them.

New Releases: Prophecy of the Sisters, Leigh Ann's Civil War, Liar

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

Book 1 of Prophecy of the Sisters Trilogy

An ancient prophecy divides two sisters-

One good...

One evil...

Who will prevail?

Twin sisters Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents' deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.

Lia and Alice don't know whom they can trust.

They just know they can't trust each other.

Leigh Ann's Civil War by Ann Rinaldi

Leigh Ann Conners is spunky and determined. Although she often finds herself in trouble, she loves her two older brothers dearly and would do anything to make them proud. When the Yankees arrive in Roswell, Georgia, Leigh Ann places a French flag upon the family’s mill. She hopes the Yankees will then spare the mill from destruction, but her actions have disastrous results. Sent north with the women and children who worked in the mill—all branded traitors for making fabric for Confederate uniforms—Leigh Ann embarks on a journey that requires her to find her own inner strength. Only then will she be able to rise above the war raging around her.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them—and herself—that she’s finally come clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers see-sawing between truths and lies right up to the end. Honestly.

NaNoWriMo

Ahhh NaNoWriMo. If you have no idea what that is, you're missing out. NaNo is National Novel Writing Month, when writers sacrifice their sanity and personal life for one month in an attempt to write an entire 50,000 word novel. NaNo takes place during November, which means it is 14 days away. :D

If you'd like more information about NaNo visit http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node.

My name on there is (unsurprisingly) Horserider.

I have never officially done NaNo. Whether or not I actually did or not last year is debatable. I did start Destiny in November and I did finish it at 100k in December, but I didn't actually know about NaNo at the time. So this will be my first official year of participation!

Some things you can do to prepare:

1. Use a '100 questions for your character sheet.' (I've got one for Katie, my MC for my NaNo project.)

2. Outline.

3. Character bios.

4. Character pictures.

5. Anything you want, as long as you don't start the novel until November 1st! And the good news for this year is, October 31st is on a Saturday. So everyone that has to get up for work/school on Monday gets to stay up until midnight for the start too! Well, at least I plan to. :D