Week in Review (#2)

WEEK IN REVIEW

It's been a week since I blogged and the last time was my most recent "Week in Review" post. This week I'll report on how things went last week concerning my word count goal on my novella WIP and other tidbits. 

Past Writing

I set a goal for myself last week to write 3,600 words every week in my YA fantasy novella, Pink Knight. Well, this week proved to be more troublesome and distracting in my real life than I expected, so I didn't quite make my word count. I hate to make excuses, but last week was a seriously BAD week, worse than usual. Still, I did write 3,000 words, making the length now at 10,100 words, so not too far below my goal. I'm happy enough with that, all things considered. Hopefully, I'll have a quieter week, adversity-wise, and be able to make my weekly word count goal.

  Past Reading

I read Camille Picott's Sulan and a children's book suggested by her called The Paper Bag Princess. Sulan is a cool cyberpunk dystopian novel that actually reads like something other than The Hunger Games! And, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch was funny and cute. I wonder I never knew about the book when I was a kid, since it was published way back in 1980 (when I was 4). I bought it on my Kindle for $1.89, so go get it if you want to read it. Super cheap! 

I also bought Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi and Partials by Dan Wells. Both are YA dystopia and were on sale in the Kindle store for only $2.99 each. Partials still is. Check them out if you want to save on these titles. They are also the same price for now at Barnes & Noble's website. Also, I finally got my UK edition of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, a YA fantasy title, which I'm super excited to read. Took weeks for it to get here because the post office is really slow right now. Same for my Bleach manga volume. At least they're safe with me now.

This Week

I plan to write at least 3,600 this week of Pink Knight, but I'd really like to exceed that. I'm not going to be reading any novels this week because I need a break, so I hope to have more time and energy for writing, as a result. My novella is coming along and I'm super happy with how the story is unfolding. It's turning into a story I'd definitely read if it were written by somebody else, that's for sure.

That's what my week was all about. How was yours? What are you planning for the upcoming week with your writing, or reading? 

   

Week in Review (#1)

WEEK IN REVIEW

Since I have expressed how hard it is for me to finish any writing project I start, I figured I might have need of a little thing called 'accountability.' Maybe proclaiming what I'm doing as I write a work of fiction, in this case my current YA fantasy novella, will hold my feet to the fire and get me to feel obligated to write it. As much as I hate obligatory anything, this might just work to get me to finish a WiP for once!

So, if I become transparent about what I'm doing every week, and what I plan on doing for each upcoming week, this could get me motivated to write. I need to try and see if this will work.

I'm writing a novella with a projected final word count of around 25,000 words and I have set myself a due date for it. That, too, is something I wasn't doing before and may have contributed to my problem. The self-imposed due date for the completed 1st draft is October 20th. So, I'll just report on how well I'm doing each week on nibbling away at this goal, if you don't mind.

 Past Writing

During the week last week, I managed to write up to 7,240 words of my novella, titled Pink Knight, clearing the 1st Act and starting Act 2. I even wrote 1,400 words on Thursday night. And, writing at night is really helping me a lot. I can actually get some done!  I'm going to keep doing that. Maybe I found my perfect writing time. No surprise it's late at night as I am an incurable night owl.

Past Reading 

I read a few novellas during the week, as well, namely The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass, #0.4) by Sara J. Maas, Weighted by Ciara Knight, and Two Ravens and One Crow (Iron Druid Chronicles, #4.5) by Kevin Hearne. All stories were great and that's a feat in and of itself.

I'm loving the Throne of Glass prequel novellas and can't wait to read the first novel. Weighted was a review request by fellow blogger, Ciara Knight, and I love the Iron Druid Chroncles series. I hated the fourth installment, but I still intend to read future books. This novella was good and very funny. Atticus, the main character, didn't annoy me like he did in Book 4 and Oberon was his usual silly self.   

This Week

I plan to write every night for the rest of this week, with hopefully around 3,600 words completed. It's not a huge word count, but I never set myself up for big word counts since I have the tendency to not make them. So, I intend to write less so I can actually accomplish this. I'm also going to be reading Sulan by Camille Picott, a review copy I received from her for her Sulan book tour, which I'll be hosting for two days later this month on my book review blog. 

That's it for me. I'm kind of liking this feature and I might just keep it up on a weekly basis. It makes me feel organized, if anything.

Unfinished Manuscripts: Insecure Writers' Support Group (#2)

"Insecure Writer's Support Group" is a monthly meme host by Alex J. Cavanaugh for writers held on the first Wednesday of every month.

A big problem I now realize I have is that I can't seem to finish any manuscripts I start. I never thought I'd become one of those writers who can't finish any writing projects, but, apparently, I am just that.

I really don't know how this happened because when I start something I always have every intention of finishing it. Somewhere along the line, I come up with a new idea and decide to start writing it so as to have two projects going at the same time. No big deal, since having two or more manuscripts going at once is pretty normal for authors. But, when I have more than one going on at the same time, I end up favoring the newer one and seem to never get the older one finished.

This year, there are varying reasons behind why I have a couple of manuscripts now hanging out on the back burner. My YA urban fantasy, Ironworks, is on the back burner because I got to a point where I realized I couldn't fix the story without completely changing the entire premise. It was one of those MS's that was doomed to be a big problem from the start because it didn't have a firm foundation to be built upon. I wrote 20,000 words and stopped.

The second one I just shelved for now is my adult sci-fi/horror novel, Black Bird, which I had to suspend writing for now because I became too afraid to write it. I honestly cannot write it anymore because I feel like I'm going to mess up and it will be the end of the world. It really is ridiculous, but try telling that to my irrational mind that refuses to be convinced otherwise. I wrote around 16,000 words and put it aside.

Now, I'm writing a YA fantasy novella that's really fun to write, so I'm not afraid to spend time with it. So far I'm nearly 1/4 of the way finished with it, but having trouble not getting distracted away from it by real life problems at home. I'm hoping if I can get rested enough and write when the distractions are at a minimum (here's looking at you, midnight hour), then I might be able to actually finish this one! I only need around 20,000 words to complete it, and surely I can do that, right?

I hope so. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and saving my energy for the night time when my family members will be asleep and unable to distract me. I'm finding my life is really great when everyone at home is in bed. Sounds so mean, but it's the truth. Good thing I'm a natural night owl. 

That's my writing insecurity for this month. I hope by next month I'll have a lot more of my novella finished so it will not end up following the same fate as all my other unfinished manuscripts.  

Have you ever found it difficult to finish the manuscripts you start?

"Lucindarella" - What If? Blogfest

WHAT IF?
Fairytale Madness BlogFest!
AUGUST 13th – 17th 

Hosted by Cassie Mae @ Reading, Writing & Loving It

I'm participating in the "What If?" Fairytale Madness Blogfest and have a 300-word flash fiction "what if?" scenario for the classic fairytale, Cinderella. What you do is you take a popular fairytale and change one little detail and the entire direction of the story is completely different. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

I decided to do a plot twist with Cinderella, so that means I'm joining "Team Plot Twist."

Here's my entry:

Lucindarella

Lucinda carefully slid her dainty foot into the glass slipper, holding her breath.

"A perfect fit?” said the Royal Cobbler, his eyes wide with astonishment.

"Is it, man?” said the Royal Adviser. “You are the expert on this, not me.” They were on a mission to scout out the mystery girl who had danced with the Prince the past two nights at his Ball because she had suddenly disappeared at midnight without a trace. The Prince was frantically searching for her with the only thing she left behind—a glass slipper.

"I believe it is a perfect fit,” said the Royal Cobbler. “By Jove—we have found our mystery lass.”

"Good sirs, I was with the Prince the past two nights,” said Lucinda, batting her eyelashes. “I was afraid to tell him who I am because I'm a servant in this household.”

"The Prince has instructed me to try out all maidens' feet in the Kingdom, be they maids or mesdemoiselles,” said the Adviser. “Do not fear. He will make her his bride, regardless.”

Lucinda smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. But, she knew she was lying to these old men through her teeth. The glass slipper belonged to Cinderella, the aristocratic 'servant' girl next door, a friend she'd been giving her old shoes to for years now. Luckily, their feet were exactly the same size or the ruse would have failed. And, luckily these codgers got to her house before Cinderella's.

She stepped into the carriage outside the house and spotted Cinderella watching her get inside from her window. She smirked at her. Cinderella shot her the glare of death.

"What can I say? Being a servant sucks and you're too trusting,” she muttered under her breath, chuckling. “This 'happily ever after' is mine now.”