Crawling

I have come to realize that a week of Word Crawls SUCKS! Especially for someone who has kids.

So this week for the "I Have a Dream" Challenge, the mods are posting a bunch of Word Crawls. Essentially a Word Crawl is a bunch of tasks that you do in order. Usually there is a theme to the writing of the Crawl itself. I thought I would be able to do some of these Crawls. Boy was I WRONG! Here it is 3 days into it and I'm just about a THIRD done with the FIRST one!

Here are the tasks:

Complete 3 consecutive 5 minute sprints.
Sprint to 100 words.
Double your current word count.
Sprint to the end of your current song (or a 3 minute sprint if no music).
Sprint to the nearest 1000.
Do the 3-Digit Challenge.
Complete a 15 minute sprint.
Sprint to 1000 words.
Finish your scene.

The next ones get even HARDER! We're talking like 60 minute and even a 90 minute sprint! Yeah, I may not finish these this week. As a result, I changed my Dream Challenge goal to finish ONE CRAWL! Yeah, these may work to increase your word count (I have no doubt on that!), but they certainly aren't something to do if you have a life that is more than just work and you don't have a few hours of free time to kill. I seriously feel like I am CRAWLING through this first one. I'm working on doubling my word count now. It's taking some time. Sprinting to the nearest 1000 is going to be another one that kills me! But the 3-Digit Challenge sounds like fun. I hope to do more of those as time goes on. At least I am up over 1,000 words now! Off to go feed the baby and get everyone dressed. Oh and probably start some laundry as I need clothes!

To Plan or Not to Plan

What's your favorite planning method?

Probably outlining, but I do some timelines and just general "word vomits" too. Sometimes there's research involved. Sometimes there's just random notes thrown in the text in RED BOLD CAPS to say LOOK AT ME! YOU MESSED UP HERE! But otherwise, I try to take it chapter by chapter. But sometimes that doesn't happen. Most of my stories don't have chapters to begin with. Well, actually a lot of them now do. Which is weird. I don't remember that happening. But I digress. Anyway, I try to go chapter by chapter. Sometimes I really like dialogue. Other times I hate it. It just depends really on the story.

Do you prefer to plot by hand or use the computer?

I prefer to use the computer, mainly because my brain sometimes moves faster than I can hand write. But on occasion, I do like a good notebook to jot stuff down in. Then it isn't as easy for my mom to come and read over my shoulder!

What part of planning do you hate the absolute most? Or do you hate all of planning and you'd rather pants your novels? Why?

Um....doing it? No, probably actually just thinking about it. I can't really plan my novels ahead of time. Well, I really should. The ONLY time I won NaNoWriMo was when I planned myself into the ground and could practically write the story in my sleep! But yeah, I usually just pants my novels to start and then go back at some point and fix stuff. That's where the "word vomitting" comes in.

Bonus: I'd draw you a picture, but I think you get the idea when I say "Word Vomit." LOL! So no bonus point for me!

Writing Notebooks

Okay, so Keri posted this on the WriYe Tumblr thing. I liked the idea, so I figured I'd answer her question of: 

what’s in your notebook?

Well, my notebook is a series of documents in my Google Drive. I just went through and reorganized it too!

I now have folders for

Stories -- Anything that is actually written out is put here.
AugNo -- Anything from AugNo is put in here. (Mainly because I always label it "AugNo.")
Planning -- Which is actually things like character sheets or other planning like documents. They are NOT filled in.
Notes -- This is where all those things that I have in the planning folder get filled out.

So in my Notes folder I have things like character sheets, plot sheets, and even timelines. I even have single lines that I like to start stories. There's lists and just idea dumping in there as well.

I have also used Microsoft's "One Note." I really like it when I'm starting with an idea because it lets me just put stuff WHEREVER on the note page versus everything being so linear.

But seeing Keri's pretty notebooks, I'd maybe like to do an idea book again. That of course would mean buying yet ANOTHER notebook! (This is one of my favorite things in the whole world!) But alas, I don't usually go anywhere to need to carry a notebook any more. And if I ever get around to calling my wireless carrier, I might actually be able to use my tablet somewhere OTHER than at my house! Then I wouldn't need to buy a notebook.

So that's what's in my writer's notebook!

Okay, I know this wasn't posted on Wednesday, but I'm going to tag it as such, because I was going to write it out last night but life happened.

January 2014 Goals UPDATE!

Overall 2014 Goal: 50,000 Words

0,028 / 5,000 Words

Challenges

1. Complete 7 days of Consistency at 140 Words a Day. (0/7 days)
2. Complete New Moon, New Year Challenge. (28/900 words)
3. Complete Full Moon Madness Challenge. (0/1,000 words)
4. Complete 5k Weekend Challenge. (0/2,500 words)

Other

1. Make January 5k Weekend Icons.

2. Make ALL 5k Weekend Icons.

3. Post January 5k Weekend Challenge.
4. Post January 5k Weekend Winner Goodies.
5. Add at least 14 items to 101 Things in 1001 Days List
6. Finish reading Divergent.

WriYe Reading Challenge 2014

Okay, I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to be able to complete this, but I'll fill in what I can on this list now. 

Horror/Thriller: "Under the Dome" by Stephen King
Mystery:
Mainstream/Literary:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
Romance:
Steampunk:
Young Adult (any additional genre accepted): "Teen Idol" by Meg Cabot
Banned Book: "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
LGBT:
Non-Fiction (subject is your choice): 

Okay, this list is WAY incomplete! I'm going to work on it.

And as for the Author Alphabet Soup, I think I'll make that page. I think I'll just update that page as I read books.