Wow, it’s the last week of April. It’s not looking like I’m going to reach my Camp NaNoWriMo goal. You might think, “What?! But Loni, you only set out to do 5K in MaTisha and LaTonya’s POVs for book 2. You should’ve been able to do that!”
I know, I know. But… I’m a squirrel. *shrug*
Okay, so if I haven’t been working on my Camp NaNo goal, what have I been working on? Glad you asked!
As soon as April 1st hit, my brain dashed off to figure out why a particular character from Book 4 (call him B) would leave home and hide from his twin sister for over a century. It had to be bad enough that she wouldn’t relent in her hunt and their older brother could blackmail B with threats of telling the sister where he was. But at the same time, it couldn’t be so bad that they couldn’t reconcile after a century long chase. I worked on a plan, showed it to my husband who immediately got hung up on a totally unrelated detail in which he told me this other character was a horrible person who needed to die (*clears throat*), and spent the night wallowing in self-pity. Then the next day, I revised my plan and bounced it off of my husband and sis-in-law, tweaked it a bit more, and called it good. *thumbs up*
And then taxes… Good grief! If it were up to my husband, we would’ve gotten them done some time ago. But we were waiting on my K-1 and it wasn’t until a week before they were due that I realized I was doing the business taxes, which led to panic-stricken tears, much freaking out, and wine. Lots of wine. I got them done three whole days before they were due (Yay!) and when the shaking finally subsided, I kind of just sat there in a state of stupor for a while.
B’s story returned after that and, with a plan at my back and inspiration in my head, I busted out 6500 words and finished his pre-book 3.5/4 story. Woot! I’ve since revised it down to under 6K, and I’m happy with it. For now.
With that out of my head and more than half of my month gone, I returned to my original goal of writing 5K in MaTisha’s or LaTonya’s POV. I stared at my screen for a while, chomped on a few nuts, and realized what I had already written just wasn’t going to work. So, I threw it out (or at least cut it and pasted it in a document titled “Removed from Book 2”). With that gone, I returned to a previous version where this one guy wasn’t a total jerk right off the bat, and therefore MaTisha could return to the palace without much delay to discuss what to do about the monsters. But in order to defend against the monsters, I needed to know how the different powers affected each other.
My squirrely side refused to sit still. It wanted to figure out how everything within my world fit together. Thus I dove back into my world’s mythology.
I knew there were two sides. They needed each other in order to exist, yet they were always destroying each other. Like life and death. You can’t really have the existence of life without death, or death without life. Yet death is the ending of life and life is the ending of death. After a long walk with my sis-in-law where we discussed all the different nuances I wanted in my world, she provided the balance I was looking for.
I have two primary powers, opposite to each other, but not defined as one particular side. They are both creation and chaos. When the two powers collide, bits of energy break off, forming two groups of beings, each group dominant in their originating power but possessing a fraction of the other. This helped me explain the existence and relationships of the seven or eight groups of people I’ve defined for my world. I documented it on my secret organization website (other people have those, right?) and returned to my story.
Now I’m down to the wire. I’ve got 4 days, if I include today, to get down another 3800 words. I’m hoping to write a large chunk after I take my daughter to the dentist tomorrow. We shall see.
Oh, but I do have good news. We’re doing a Goodreads Giveaway for a paper copy of The Ancient by The Seven! The giveaway opens today, so if you want a chance to win, be sure to enter!
What has your April been like? Have you developed a mythology for your world before? Do you get easily distracted from your projects or do you have the self-discipline to stick with only one thing until it’s done?
The dreaded ‘T’ word. Horrible time of year.
You’ll get those words down I’m sure. To be honest, I don’t know how you fit everything in. You have so much stamina.
Hope your daughter’s dentist appointment goes well.
Enjoy the rest of your week and thanks for a great post.
Yikes for taxes! Luckily my hubby does them and he’s very good about it. You did do a bunch of writing even if it wasn’t what you set out to do. 🙂 I love creating mythologies for worlds. Can’t wait to read it eventually. April was busy for me. Hubby’s and son’s birthdays and my mother visited for week. Fun stuff but I’m so behind on everything else now! My son went to the dentist last week, and they showed me on his x-rays he’s about to lose the two front bottom teeth. I can’t believe he’s old enough to start losing teeth!
You’ll still have over five thousand words either way.
Last-minute taxes. That doesn’t sound like fun.
April is always jammed for some reason. Taxes spring to mind. So I can see why you might not reach the goal, but you tried. Kudos for that!
I do have a mythology. I know it could be waaaaaay more involved, but there’s something, at least, to work off from. It’s great you have people off of which to bounce ideas. That’s immensely helpful!
And yes, there are many a day when I am easily distracted from my writing. Like today, for example, I was attempting to finish up a scene when I suddenly decided it was very important for me to do some online shopping for double-bladed battle axes.
My taxes were finished at the last minute, too.
World-building always takes more time to think up and more time to write than you expect. You’ve gotten more done in your April than I have – and taxes are crucial, so kudos to you for getting them done! Good luck with the writing – if not April, there’s always May! (That’s what I tell myself. lol)
April has been hectic, and a little draining in some sectors, but I’m managing. I actually manage to avoid the dreaded “T” over here, because it all seems so damn confusing the way you do it. I mean, it’s been a while for me, but the last time the tax department was involved with my money, it was being taken out before I saw a paycheck… But I digress…
Sometimes, it feels like I’m still finding bits of mythology kicking around for The Rogue King. And don’t get me started on all the new stuff I’ve got to cook up for the Spellster Series… And no, I most certainly do not stick to one project. Why, just the other day, I was tinkering with the final book in TRK Saga, when I still haven’t finished the second, and there are covers to be done for a future re-release. Meanwhile, IPaB sings its siren’s song… *sigh* There are times I wonder how I manage to go forwards at all.
But hey, even if you didn’t get 5k down on one story, your got it sorted for another. That’s a win in my book!
Sometimes you have to stop and figure out those things before you can move forward. It’s frustrating when you just want to write, but doing so will make writing easier.
I hope you hit your target word count.
I made my CampNaNo goal 20K, and I’m a bit over 17K. It’s been a struggle to make myself write this week, as I’m just not feeling it…I’ll prolly be furiously burning up the keyboard on Sat. =) I think it’s so neat that you talk out your story ideas w/your hubby- wish mine would do that!
I’m ready for April to be over, looking forward to May. I need to get on track! 🙂
April has been more of a reading month = reading other people’s A to Z Challenge blogs. [Wrote mine in March]. Have a NaNoWriMo crisis of my own: after November’s frenetic pace I ground to a halt in Decembe, so draft never finished. Now need to resurrect that…or finish something else.
Life is full of interruptions even when one is retired.
Wait, we’re not still in the beginning of April? Where did the month go?
Anyway, I’m positive that you can make it. I’ve been revising book 2, working on a couple of shorter project, ignoring both and writing silly things, and gone back to actually trying to write the rest of book 2. Deadlines to critique groups is about the only thing that has kept me on track.
I don’t have a website with my stuff, but I made a Wiki in OneNote with all of the information for my world. Okay, not all – I’ve been pretty lazy about keeping it updated.
You had a very busy (and productive) month! And yay for taxes being done 🙂
I hate when things don’t come together the first time. But it’s like a challenge. I think on it until I have the answer and sometimes, the joy of that, it’s almost beats out those “oh crap” moments when I know something isn’t working.
And you’re right! How are we in the last week of April?
6500 words! Whew, go you! And it’s awesome to have such a great group of people to tap into for writing critiques…what a great hubby and SIL. Stupid taxes. And stupid K-1s. I don’t see why they don’t extend the deadlines for people who don’t receive their stuff until later in the season. I guess that would make too much sense, huh?
Working out plot problems and such has to count as productive writing time. That’s a crucial part of the whole thing. Words are easier to put on paper when we you know what you want to say.
Taxes. Ugh.
Taxes…ick! At least you got some words written, even if it wasn’t for your current book. I am easily distracted, I think I have undiagnosed A.D.D. or maybe it’s just too much coffee…I am fairly certain that I have never had the self-discipline to complete an entire project without starting 10 other ones in the process!
Sounds like you did end up getting quite a lot done, and that’s awesome. ^_^ And I love doing world creation stuff; putting all that together is one of my favorite parts of plotting. I have more than a few worlds in search of stories – plot documents where I’ve taken down a ton of world details but have nothing really resembling a story or characters. Not that I really mind, but it is a little frustrating.
As for my April, it was pretty damn good – I got started on a new book and I’ve been hammering away at it like crazy. It’s going really well, shaping up to be longer than I anticipated but I’m good with that. No breaks on this one for me – working on it every day ’till it’s done.
I know…this is long post. But I read it all. It’s fun and interesting. 🙂 It reads like a squirrel wrote it. Dentists and taxes and writing…oh my! Hope you made your word count. If not, you still have quite a few words. And I’m glad you figured out what it is you want to do. I won’t pretend to understand world-building. I am in awe of people who can do that. Speaking of squirrels…did I already comment? If not, I did in my head when I read it last week. O_o
Sometimes you just gotta change gears. Yup, I’ve developed mythos. I tend to get really involved in them even if they are never going to come up in the story.