New Years

Yes, yes I know it's just a little bit early to make my list of New Years' Resolutions, but I really felt like making the list now, so I can decide which ones I want to make a part of the 'Big, Fun, Scary Year' over at the NaNoWriMo website. The first 6 things on the list (of 11-so far!) had to do with writing. 2 with revisions, 2 with competitions, and 2 with more general writing goals.
1. Get through first full revision of Ascension and send/give copies to a few beta readers
2. Finish first full revision of Destiny’s Keeper, and decide whether to add more
3. Start rough draft of Reformation, the sequel to Ascension
4. Participate in and win my 4th NaNoWriMo
5. Participate in my 2nd Script Frenzy and not give up half way through
6. Write in my journal at least once a week

I think I might add another one just about writing a certain amount...basically my WriYear goal as a resolution.
Anyways, just thought I'd share these with you.
Hope they inspire you to do more of the same!

Going Wireless!

Happy holidays everyone!
I hope you are enjoying your respective breaks as much as I am enjoying mine, although I will admit I have not been the best at catching up on sleep. I keep staying up late visiting with my sister or, you guessed it, PLAYING ON MY NEW LAPTOP!
That was the excuse last night, actually. I found a version of 'Risk' to play online, so I was doing that till about 2 in the morning, because I can never get real people to play me, so I might as well play against a computer.
Anyways, just thought I'd post and let you know about the upgrade. This should make NaNo and writing stuff easier, because I won't have to sit in the dining room to write anymore. I can sit by the fireplace in the living room instead. Like I am doing now.
Enjoy your R&R!
-Sheshat's Child

P.S. I just saw that I never told you my NaNo results. I finished about 8 minutes before midnight. I've since started re-reading the result, and must admit there are alot of things to be fixed. But none quite so massive as some of last year's Ascension issues. And at least it ended at a good breaking point.

NaNo Progress

So it is the 22nd day of NaNoWriMo, and I still don't even have 30,000 words written. I only passed the half-way mark last monday. The part of the novel I'm at is dragging slowly by, and I have no idea what is going to happen next. I wanted to post an update here, but I've been so busy trying and trying to catch up that I haven't had the time.
I can post a widget below so my wordcount can be displayed as I update it thru the rest of the month. I'll post again at the end of the months, and tell you how the last week goes.
Here's the link to a progress sheet:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/ProgressReport/81072.html


Cheer me on!!
-Seshat's Child

Nearly NaNo time!

So today marks one week until Day 1 of my third NaNo year, and, hopefully, my third NaNo win.
In my typical fashion, I still haven't chosen a topic, and honestly don't plan on doing so until the day of.
It makes it all so much more interesting.
Anyways, I'm definitely not doing my Ascension sequel, because A still needs too much work for me to think about the sequel, which, by the way, still hasn't been titled. A few ideas floating around: Dominion, Supremacy, Rectification, and Reformation.
I actually like that last one a good bit...seems to fit with a lot of the events happening in the novel, not to mention continues with the theme of vague christian references.
ANYWAYS, moving on, I have homework to do. I will have to write more another time.
Buona notte!
-Seshat's Child

Two Full Weeks In!

Oh my god! 2 full weeks done already!
Just don't tell me how many more I have to go, or I might start to cry.

So Writing Club did not die over the summer as I had feared, and we now have actual officers, with title. Albeit we're all self-elected, but we didn't really have a club to hold elections with, so it wasn't our fault. I'm co-pres, like last year, and we have a VP and secretary as well. The Extracurricular Fair is this week, and my director has agreed to start rehearsal a half hour later, so that cast can attend/work (I'll of course be doing the latter, for 2 diff. clubs at once). My wonderful fellow officers are going to run the club for me until around early December, when I'll be finishing up with the Fall Play. I love them.

So a little before coming over here to post, I started checking out the Nanowrimo site, which is in the process of archiving all of last year's discussion threads in preparation for the site to open up again October 1st. I had never looked at their blog before, but glanced at it quickly, and found a number of interesting posts; I'll have to look at it more sometime.

I haven't done much work on Ascension since school started (read:I haven't touched it), but now that my schedule is becoming a little more regular, I'm hoping I can fit some work time in. If I can get it up to snuff by November, I'll definitely be starting work on the sequel then. If not, who knows what I'll be writing. I'll try and keep you updated, but for now I've got some wonderful physics/latin/geometry/english homework to do, and some piano to practice.
A presto!
-Seshat's Child

Almost School Time!

Wow, I seem to have a terrible track record of failing things this year. So far every writing challenge I've entered, I've also failed. Not good. But November should change that - I've yet to lose a single NaNoWriMo. I'm thinking if I get far enough into my editing and revising of Ascension, I may be able to pull off the sequel in a month, which would be crazy. It would mean I'd actually be making progress towards trying to get something published.

Anyways, before I get lost on that train of thought, I thought I might make a few remarks on these awesome books I've been reading lately. I just discovered C.C. Humphreys, and am now partway through his latest, The Fetch, which had me so spooked earlier today that I had to open more shades in the house, to convince myself that no creepy creatures were going to jump out from the shadows at me. If you haven't tried any of his, either this new 'Runestone saga', or his other historical fiction books, you really should. They're like reading action movie scripts, but with far more details. You can really tell he has a background in the theatre, because his dialogue is amazing, and he seems to have perfected what I still struggle with: how to put just enough description of small details, without overwhelming the reader too much. It was one of the big problems I noted in re-reading Ascension's draft at camp, and I hope that I can fix it during this run of revisions.

La-dee-da, I've gone off a-rambling again, but that doesn't really matter. School starts...in about a week and a half, and I still have one more summer reading book, as well as all the reading reports, to complete. Before I start complaining any more about all the things I have to do this week, I think I'll sign off, so I can actually go and do some of them. Like play piano!
Hope to post again soon,
-Seshat's Child

Script Frenzy Results + JulNo Progress

Okay, well, as was somewhat to be expected, I did not win Script Frenzy this year. Everything was just too insane with theater end-of-year stuff, and I was way too worn out and depressed to deal with my ever more depressing play. I just couldn't deal with it. Maybe I'll finish it before the year is out, maybe I won't. We'll just have to see how stuff goes. Either way, I am now working on a piece for JulNoWriMo, entitled A Child's Utopia, and it's going, well...a little slowly. I'll catch up to where I should be eventually. But while in the process of painting your bedroom (& thus being stuck on the couch every night), you don't really dedicate much time to writing. I'm trying to get back on track ASAP, especially because I convinced a good writing buddy to join in late, and force me to keep writing, even if only by the mere pull of my own competitiveness(I think I totally spelled that wrong). Anyways, i'm currently just shy of 10k, when I'm supposed to be closer to double that. We'll see what happens. I might be able to pull one of those insane 5k days somehow, which would greatly help. Part of the trouble is that I'm stuck in a slow exposition that is hard to make interesting. I feel like I don't even want to write it, because I know it's pretty rotten. But I shall persevere!
Somehow.
(Hopefully) Write to you soon!
-Seshat's Child

First Day of Script Frenzy!

Evaluation: Productive and Successful
After getting almost no work done on the script in school or after-school (but before the show i was teching), i managed to pull through write some 500 words of title, dramatis personae, etc., and then another 800 some for the 1st scene. I have to try and make the scenes a little bit longer if i want to reach 20k with 19 scenes, but i think i already knew this was one of the shorter ones. So anyways, i finish today with tomorrow's word goal already completed. Which is made even better by the fact that i'm doing a write-in tomorrow, so I should be able to get even further ahead. It would be amazing if i were actually able to finish this before the school year ended (a.k.a. before the 21st or so). But we shall see, we shall see. I might end adding back in scenes that i had cut. But who knows, i shall see how it goes (that rhyming was way too fun and coincidental). Anyways, good night, i need sleep, and i was only posting to tell you how well the first day of my insanity went. Bona nit! (as the Catalonians say it)
-Seshat's Child

Final Decision on Script Frenzy + My 'mad intense' Dreams

Okay, so after looking around the Script Frenzy site and my calendar for june (and notes on that other play), i decided to try it. I mean, why not? I'll be a part of history, taking part in the first ever Script Frenzy. and besides, I'm already signed up at this point, so there's no chance of me dropping out now. So last week during our extremely disorganized Writing Club meeting, i organized the scene order for the play. I plan on completing a more complete outline this week (around doing tons of schoolwork, recovering from 5 performances in a row, and starting work on assistant directing the short play i wrote).
In other news, I had some 'mad intense' (as i like to call them) dreams this last week. I started a sci-fi story based off of one, and have a complete outline for another that i'll probably hold off on starting until summer, since i have a clear enough idea of it formed. I have so much stuff i want to do this summer, there is no way i am going to get through all of it. But that's another story. For now, i'm just letting you know that i am doing script frenzy, and i have some amazing dream-inspired stories started/planned. Hope to update you soon!
-Seshat's Child

Script Frenzy?

So I was loking around the fancy Script Frenzy website this morning (stupid, stupid, me!), and I started to think 'well, it's only 20k, you can probably do that. it's a lot short than NaNo, and in script format, 20k of dialogue will be a breeze!' So i haven't actually signed up yet (thank the goddess..Seshat of course!) but I have allowed myself to start thinking about it. It would be interesting to try and pull off, because I do have finals and everything then, along with Blink Festival at school and such, but I think it might be good for me to push myself and see if I can really write a full-length play. It would be fun to try. Terrifying probably, but fun. I think I'll acquire a few people's advice, and then maybe sign up. I have only about 2 and half weeks to plan stuff out for it, but I do have an old idea for a play that I started working outlining with an exboyfriend last summer, so maybe I should pull that out again and see what I think of it. I'l try and keep you updated. Happy May everyone! I hope your May Days were wonderfully spring-like!
-Seshat's Child

Playwrighting Contest and April Fools Results

Okay, so first things first, neither Ms. Crewdson nor I won the playwrighting contest. Very good overall I think, as that avoided all awkward confrontations very well. But moving on(i'd already resigned myself to the results, so i wasn't too upset), yesterday was the last day of April Fools. I made a total count of just over 7,000 words for the month, which is better than i'd been afraid it would turn out, but still not quite at my goal for the month. But at least i tried, and I'm on a good roll with two stories so far (well, one short story, one introduction/background story for something longer), and so those should keep me writing for, well, probably through May at least. I don't think i'm going to do Script Frenzy in june, just because i have plenty of other stuff to do, and i don't want to complicate my schedule more than it already is.
That's really it for my update, so i'll leave you all alone now and go back to memorizing the Shakespeare prologue i have to know for English class on Thursday. Hope your spring is going as crazy fun as mine,
-Seshat's Child

April Fools!

Okay, so I officially decided to participate in the April Fools writing challenge/thingy this year. I set myself a goal of 10,000 words, so that it's do-able, but I still have the chance of boosting it if I'm running a good ways ahead. So far (as of tonight) I have 1,016 on a short story titled 'Morpheus Rising'. It's in a bit of a funky style- very stream-of-consciousness, in fact it sort of reminds me of Langston Hughes' 'Not Without Laughter', mixed with the Penelope chapter of James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. Ah well, that's what I get from paying too much attention in English class. Anyways, we shall see how it turns out. I also outlined my re-write of the play "Boo!" today, but did not have a chance to actually start typing the literal dialogue out. Because of the way I outlined it, however, it should be fairly easy to write once I get the time. Anyways, I really should be getting to sleep now.
TOODLES!
-Mimi

First Read-Through Completed

Okay, well, as of last night I have officially completed my first read-through of my first actual novel. Okay, it doesn't feel as amazing as I thought it would, but it's still fun. Now I have to go through, add chapters, fix continuity problems (including certain character's hair colors...), rephrase sentences that made no sense. And then once I think it's somewhat presentable, I'll probably let some more friends read it. And maybe my sister. And then after I fix some of their notes, then maybe I'll pass it on to people like Mr. Montague (my guidance counselor), or my mum's friend Cindy (who offered to help me in the editing process). But first I need to make all of the initial changes and corrections.

In other news, I signed up for April Fools today, and gave myself the fairly easy goal of 10,000, which will definitely include any essays I do for English class, along with probably some Ascension editing counts, and maybe the start of Ascension's sequel, or the Romeo & Juliet take-off I've been planning. We shall see, my dears, we shall see. And hopefully, now that I'm writing again (to some extent), I will be updating this more frequently.
Hopefully.
Toodles! -Mimi

Newsflash!

Okay, so JanNoWriMo didn't quite work out how i planned....but namely because about halfway through the month, I FINISHED MY WRIMO NOVEL!!! So yes, that means i have officially finished a complete novel now. Of course, it requires lots of editing, and i'm only partway through reading it for the first changes. I already know i'm adding at least two chapters and majorly changing some parts. But it's finished! Finito! Finisce!! Yeah, you can tell i'm excited. Still. A month later practically. Anyways. Other writing news....I reworked my play to make it a bit longer and in the proper format, and sent that in to a contest held by the BPS. Funny thing is, when they sent out the email being like "thank you for your submissions, results will be posted April1st" i (being the competitive creep that i am), decided to count the email addresses to estimate the number of entrees (because people could submit more than one play). So i'm counting, and counting (there were 40, btw), and guess whose email i should come across? CREWDSON'S! So apparently we both submitted plays to the same contest. Now i just have to hope that either neither or both of us win. Because if just she wins, i'll feel pissy, and if just i win, she'll probably hate me. So really, i should try to be optimistic, and hope that we both win. Ideally. Because then i could get a nice Sony Vaio Laptop for myself. *sigh* Ah well, like i said, i shall remain hopeful and idealistic until the results are posted. But i think they'll hate mine.