Stolen

Out of rocks? Try boulders.

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I’m feeling so bad for Shaleigh right now. You know that rock metaphor they always tell you when you’re writing? When you’ve chased your protagonist into a tree, start throwing rocks next. It’s the idea that you shouldn’t let up, that you need to keep your protagonist on his/her toes so that it forces their true character to the surface.

I kind of feel like I’m tossing boulders at this poor girl.

She’s tough though, so I know she can take it. Here’s hoping my audience will be able to deal with it too. I’m not going to say she’s downright tortured, but she’s dealing with a whole slew of socially difficult situations, the kind that I don’t think anyone who’s been in High School would want to experience. Except she’s having to deal with it all at once. It’s going to be interesting as I reach the first mini-climax of this book where the story really begins.

Got quite a bit in today! Plus I was a bit over from yesterday too. Overall I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far. Not too shabby for week 1.

This weekend I’m participating in a 5k run. It’ll be on a trail, so it’ll likely be muddy and cold, but it should be lots of fun. It’s around a zoo, and apparently the wolves run with you during the race. Really looking forward to it! Not sure how much NaNo writing I’ll get done on Saturday though because of it. I may just crash instead.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 8,428

New Words Written Today: 2,296

Progress: Friends aren’t always reliable, and Shaleigh finds this out the hard way. While she’s reeling from that revelation she gets mocked in the locker room. All of this drama and confusion is making her head spin, and when that happens, someone is likely to get hurt. I just feel bad for whoever that poor sap will be.

Total Words for 2013: 11,605

Running, Peacocks, and NaNo

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Say you find yourself trapped in another world that looks very similar to our own, meaning it’s not obviously another planet or another dimension for example. What’s the first thing you would do? I say you would pull out your phone and check your Maps app to see if you could figure out where you are.

Am I the only one that would do this? Surely this isn’t just the silly ramblings of an IT gal, right? 😉

That’s the only little tidbit I’m going to reveal in Shaleigh’s story at the moment, but it’s definitely an important piece. I’ve been playing catch up on Camp NaNo today after falling behind this past weekend. I tell you what, I’ve never been so happy to have a general outline before during a NaNo. Hopefully I can keep this steady pace up though as I move forward. I really don’t want to fall behind again this month!

Because mud makes everything more interesting.

Because mud makes everything more interesting.

On Saturday I ran in a 5k, the second I’ve participated in. It was through a wet, muddy trail through the woods, and we had absolutely gorgeous weather for it. I’ve discovered the hard way that running on uneven terrain like mud, through hay (for the mud puddles), and with muddy feet (I slipped into a puddle) is definitely way more difficult that running on a treadmill. The sides of my calves are still hurting and it’s two days later.  I really enjoyed it though, and I wish I had a place where I could do off-road running more often.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 13,421

New Words Written Today: 4,993 (Total from my weekend of trying to catch up!)

Progress: The first major climax hit, and Shaleigh isn’t making the best decisions in the world. In the wise worlds of Tolkien, she’s out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

Total Words for 2013: 16,598

Final Thought: Did you guys know peacocks could fly? I feel so silly that I didn’t know this! They’re also good at obstructing vehicles…

I thought it was Spanish moss at first glance.

I thought it was Spanish moss at first glance.

Debates and YA

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It’s been over a week since I started Camp NaNo and I’m already a little bit behind. I can’t entirely blame myself though (doesn’t every NaNo-er say that?). Yesterday it took a solid two hours to try to get server patching done for work. I had an hour to detox my brain before heading to bed for the night. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do what we want.

I added an interesting piece into my novel over lunch: a moral debate between Shaleigh and another creature. I’m no good at riddles, so I knew better than to make one of those up. I thought a morale debate would shine a bit more light on the values of this world and on Shaleigh’s own faulty logic. When I was explaining it to a fellow writer earlier, I equated it to the ferries debate in The Dark Knight. Being a Batman fan, I find everything is easier to explain when I put it in Dark Knight terms.

So I don’t want to go into too many details, but suffice it to say Shaleigh isn’t very good at it, even though she thinks she is. She gets it wrong and has to deal with the consequences for not “thinking outside of the box”. This is a YA book, and as such I feel compelled to put a few pieces in here that require a deeper reading. What I would like to coin as a “mind worm”. Something for the reader to walk away with that nags at them as they too try to figure out how they would answer such a question. I would love to put more of these worms into this novel, but it all depends on if the inspiration strikes and it fits the plot. Still it was fun to put together, even if it will need some tweaking & streamlining later.

In other news, I needed some inspiration for this world, so I’ve started a Pinterest board. In retrospect I probably could have gotten a lot more written if I hadn’t been browsing for inspiration, but hey, that’s research right? 🙂

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 15,674

New Words Written Today: 2,253

Progress: Shaleigh loses a moral debate and takes a creepy ride.

Total Words for 2013: 18,851

Minotaurs and Enemies

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My goodness but I’ve gotten a lot of writing in today! I was several days behind on Camp NaNo and was trying to catch up. I don’t think I’ve *ever* written so much in one day, and I can’t tell if I’m just getting better at pacing myself or if I’m enjoying this world so much.

The reason I’m so behind? That’s mostly work-related stuff. For various reasons I had to update my resume and put together a portfolio, and as always, work stuff is a higher priority than writing. Friday and Saturday I spent almost the entire day hanging out with family and friends, which was nice since the weather was so lovely. Our two little tree sprouts are actually starting to get leaves too, which makes me happy. I was worried they weren’t going to survive the multiple frosts we had since we first planted them back in February.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 24,393

New Words Written Today: 8,719 (6,388 of this was written today alone! *Flexes the fingers*)

Progress: Shaleigh reaches the castle and meets her fellow protagonist for this piece. She also runs into Madam Cloom herself and let me tell you, that was one tense scene. I had to get away from the keyboard after writing that section just to get a breath of air! After a bit of back-history on why she’s here to begin with, Shaleigh is off to a party! (sort of…) Did I mention that she has a minotaur leading the way?

Total Words for 2013: 27,570

Time to Make a Stand

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My girl has finally met the true antagonist of this piece, and she has started the ball rolling that will be heading downhill from here. This was a very complicated part to write, simply because of all the stuff going on in the background that Shaleigh is not privy to. I love the girl, but she can be a little self-centered at times, and a little too trusting as well.

It’s Day 21 of Camp NaNoWriMo, and I’m pleased to say I’m ahead of schedule. I’m really pleased that I could finally hit the tip of the iceberg that will be explored for the rest of this piece, and that this story is coming along so well. I don’t know if I’ll be done with the novel by the time Camp NaNo is over, but hopefully I’ll be able to finish it shortly afterward.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 35,853

New Words Written Today: 3,692

Progress: Shaleigh proves her grit and then makes a fateful decision.

Total Words for 2013: 39,030