January Goals

So my overall goal for 2015 is to write 75k in words! I'll post about projects in a bit, but here is my monthly goals. (I hope to do this on the first of the month in the future and not the middle!)

1. Write 6,355 words. (2,249/6,355)
2. Write at 750words every day. (3/31)
3. Read the Bible daily. (3/31)
4. Daily Devotional. (3/31)
5. WriYe Blog Circle. (here)
6. January 5k Weekend Goodies and new Banner. DONE

I also plan to participate in the following challenges:

1. Full Moon Madness (213/1,000) FAIL
2. 5k Weekend
3. 150 word consistency (3/7)

So everything that has either happened or is ongoing has something behind it. I've pretty much already failed at the 750words thing, but I'm curious as to how many days I can get now. Anyway, that's about it for this post!

Goal

**blows dust off blog**

Hello, old friend, how I have missed you. I so need to go through and update this thing! Along with the blogroll! Why? Well, it's a new year and that means a new Blog Circle! So I must do that. And I must update my books and TV shows.

Okay, so now that those have been stated, let me answer this month's question:

What is your one main goal for this year?

This isn't as easy as you would suspect for me. Writing wise, I have several goals. I would love to actually win NaNoWriMo again. I would love to maybe have something finished. Well, that's probably my main goal: finish stuff! I'm only really focusing on like 4 or 5 pieces this year. I'm really hoping I don't get bit by a bunch of plot bunnies either! I usually don't, but every so often...

Anyway, I'll be listing the 4 or 5 stories I plan on working on in another entry later. But as for right now, my whole goal this year is to FINISH! I know. I know. That's my goal EVERY YEAR. But I mean it this year! I WILL FINISH!

Hey, that would be a good mantra! And here I was thinking I wouldn't have one! I WILL FINISH!

And the Last WriYe'er Standing Was.....

Not me!

But I made it farther than I EVER have before!

Last year I didn't do it.

In 2012, I made it through 2 rounds.

In 2011, I made i through 3 rounds.

Here are this years results that I actually placed in the top 3:

Week 2

Week 4

Week 5

Week 7

And the finals, Week 8

This year, I took 3rd!!!!! As in, I made it through all 7 rounds and into the finals!!!!! I cannot believe this! Yes, there were weeks I hovered around the bottom. There were weeks I really thought I was going home. But there were even a couple weeks where I won! It was kind of amazing! And I'm even looking at expanding one of my short stories into a novel. It will probably be for November, but I need to plan it out more. I'm very surprised I made it as far as I did. There were a couple of pieces that I wrote that I REALLY liked. A few that I wrote in the middle of the night the night before they were due and some pieces I really didn't care for. So I feel pretty good about this year. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad I got as far as I did. Now I just have to get back into the habit of writing EVERY week and not just every other! Honestly, I looked forward to the prompts because they gave me a focus. Right now I feel like I'm floundering around looking for something to write!

You Use What?

Image stolen from The Farthest Star by Jono.

Okay, so I totally forgot to do May's blog entry. I really loved it and I just didn't have time to do it. So here goes!

What do you use to write? 

I used to used Word a whole lot. Like that was the ONLY thing I used. Then this year I switched to Google Drive. Why? Well, I found that I have to write on my tablet a whole lot more than my computer sometimes. (Joys of having kids. They kind of zap your creativity and you have to squeeze in times to write, like lying in bed.) Since I have an Android based tablet, I had Drive on it. Not to mention Drive is cloud-based so I don't have to worry about memory sticks or where I was in something. I can just open it and go!

What do you use to supplement your writing? Music? TV in the background? YouTube channels? 

Typically my noise is either the kids or silence. I find that silence is sometimes the best option because after listening to the kids all day, I need a little quiet time.

Do you shift between different software for different parts of writing: planning, writing, editing, etc.?

Sometimes I have planning docs in Drive that I shift between. I used to use OneNote. I guess I should see if they have it for my tablet. I really liked it for planning.

Bonus: Give us a screenshot of you mid-writing.

I know this is difficult to see but on the left hand side is my AOOA at the top and beneath that is the story. On the right hand side is two different chats. The top one is the WriYe Skype room and the bottom one is a sprint room I follow.

Of Genres and Things

I totally forgot to blog in April. I don't know why. I think I was just dealing with stuff. So here's April blog about genre.

What is your main genre? How has it evolved for you in the past few years and how do you think it will evolve further - both in your own writing style and in the publishing field overall? Is there any genre you think blends easily with your niche? Or maybe you write in one that hasn't really emerged yet.

The genre I find myself writing is in fanfiction. Actually, I haven't written that much fanfiction this year. I've got two main fanfictions in the works: a Fringe one and a Backstreet Boys one. Otherwise, I've been focusing mainly on Last WriYe'er Standing. (I'll save that for another post.) So as for fanfiction, it has evolved in the fact that what I'm writing has changed based on my life. I haven't written a lot of NEW BSB fanfiction mainly because there has been so much change in that fandom as in the way they present themselves. They're all married now. So gone are the days of writing that the main character would get involved with them. They've also started doing things like cruises and "reunion" tours. They've never really broken up, but they are getting together with other acts, like NKOTB and touring again. So as for me writing BSB fanfiction, it's kind of gone to finishing up stories that I thought were long dead. (That's the one I'm working on now.)

And writing in the Fringe universe, well, that's a new one. Sometimes I like to dabble in new fandoms. This is definitely a new fandom to dabble in. It was primarmily because of an idea I found on the NaNoWriMo boards and that's how I wound up writing in that fandom.

As for other genres I write, I primarily write realistic fiction. I've found I've gone more literary or even that New Adult genre when I write it. But I think that's just because I've found it easy. I really need to challenge myself more and write some sci-fi or something.

As for publishing, well, my fanfiction I definitely don't see being published. I'm okay with that. As for genre's that blend with my niche, well, I would say that for my BSB fanfiction, if I were to fictionalize them and not write about real people they would fall into the New Adult genre. The Fringe fanfic would fall into sci-fi. I've got a couple of other sci-fi stories in the works, but they haven't gone anywhere yet.

I don't know how much this post makes sense as my allergies are killing me today, even with medication!

Strike, Color, Correct, Repeat

March is commonly known as NaNoEdMo, or National Novel Editing Month, at least in my circles. It's that time of the year that after NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month in December) that enough time has elapsed that you can go back and look at the crap novel that you wrote in November for NaNoWriMo and edit it into something that people might actually read. So does it surprise me that this month we are talking about editing? No!

What is your favorite method of editing? Do you print it all out and paint it red? Do you use a computer program like Scrivener or Liquid Story Binder to arrange things? Or maybe you just trash the first draft and try it all over again?

I would print it out, but I would have NO paper and NO ink left over and that would be bad! I don't use computer programs. But I do tend to, on occasion, trash the whole thing and start over. But that doesn't happen that often. Instead, I tend to strike stuff that is being deleted. Why? Because unless it is the beginning of the year, I can't afford to lose those words for WriYe! Then, I start using colors. Ever verification period for WriYe is a different color. This way, if I'm in a document I've worked on before, the new stuff for each verification I write will be a different color. So it may end up looking like this:

Then at the beginning of the next year, I go in and actually delete the stricken words and change all the colors to black if I need to keep working on it. Sometimes even the colored words get struck. It just depends on how often I edit, or feel the need to edit.

What do you find the most in your editing? Are you a repeated-word-abuser? A comma-phile? Or maybe your grammar just ain't no good?

I tend to use the same word over and over and over and over and over again. And typically my dialogue sucks! But mostly I feel like this:

So that's the way I edit.

Last WriYe'er Standing

This challenge is like Survivor for WriYe! Every other week, there is a prompt posted. They can be pictures, words, or just about anything really. You have a week to write a short story (< 3,000 words) and submit it. Then the fun starts! Voting! Anyone can vote. So the more votes the stiffer the competition, I imagine. There's a week for voting. By the end of the week, those who have voted have picked their top 3 and last place story. Feedback is a MUST! Then, points are given for how many top 3 stories you got picked. Story with the most votes wins the week. Story with the least number of votes gets axed.

Well, this week, I couldn't get on to view the prompt until Monday as I was out of town and tablet + hotel Wi-Fi does not equal good Internet. Then life ate me until about, oh, Friday. I'd had a little time here and there to get started. Well, on the due date, I realized that there was NO WAY IN THE WORLD I was going to finish the story I had started. Not to mention, the story I had started was trying to be a novel in my mind and wasn't going to be under 3k. I never really reached 1k on it, but what I had set up was going to be L O N G! So I set it aside and wrote something else. This was kind of like an 11th hour story. It by far wasn't my best work, but I'm hoping I don't get kicked out the first week. I haven't read any of the other stories, as the thread was just posted a few hours ago, so I couldn't really say one way or the other. And no, I'm NOT telling you which one was mine! For me, I'm just glad I got it in. I was thinking I sent it to the wrong email or I got the email address slightly wrong. I kept checking my inbox for a "bounce" message that never came. And when I checked the thread my story was there!

So now I have to remember how in the world I did voting the last time I did this. I know I had a rating system and a way to do it that made it easier on me. I don't know. I'll have to see what I come up with when I sit down to vote. Anyway, I'm off to go take the kiddo to her dad, so maybe this afternoon I'll get some time to either write or vote. Writing would be good, as I still need about 1500 words for the 5k Weekend.