My writing – Page 10

Categories: #ROW80, Blogging, Me, My writing, NaNoWriMo

ROW80 Check-in Sun 11/06

My first check-in since NaNoWriMo started. (Note: I’m writing this check-in on Friday afternoon, scheduling it go live on Sunday morning).

The problem was I had a cold during the first part of the week. My head hurt so much, I couldn’t stare at the screen. So, no writing for me then.

Oh, and about my leg. After I write this (Friday afternoon), I’m going to the hospital for a MRI of my knee … so next Friday I’ll see the knee specialist. I’m taking some medicine to increase the electrical current on my nerves, so it doesn’t hurt that much anymore. And that’s it for now. I’ll keep you all updated.

On with the topic of this post:

My goals (I cut the part already accomplished):

Participate on NaNoWriMo
Revise my NaNo novel (Energy)
Read 1 book per week
Blog at least once per week (besides the #ROW80 check-ins)
Comment on #ROW80 friends’ blogs

Blogging

I’m good on that.

And commenting and tweeting too ;)

Reading

I’ve read The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong and Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Now, I’m reading Storm Born by Richelle Mead.

I try to read cross genre and even other genres. I think it enriches the writer in me ;)

Writing

At the beginning of the week, it was hard to get any word count done, since I was out with a cold.

But then I caught up.

Total first week of NaNo: a little over 16k words. Not bad, but not what I wanted …

And how is everyone?

Who is on NaNoWriMo and is not on my writing buddies list? You can find me here.

Have a good one, guys!

Cheers,

Categories: Me, My writing, NaNoWriMo

The fun (aka craziness) starts!

It’s November 1st.

The day National Novel Writing Month starts.

Are you ready?

I am.

This is my first year doing NaNo. Here is my profile, if you want to be my writing buddy or check out what I am writing.

Why I am doing NaNo, you may ask.

Well, like my friend Jani Grey posted on her blog, I work much better under pressure and knowing I have to finish the month with 50k words or I’ll be a loser is a challenge, especially with so many writers I know participating in it.

I’m very excited.

My writing buddies feature is filling up nicely and I joined a “local” group of Brazilian writers, so I feel good about this, about writing with my friends and having fun and supporting each other. I’m in love with the writing community.

I know many people, and famous authors and uber agents, look down upon NaNoWriMo. Some authors says every month should be treated as November is and some agents says their query inbox fills up with crap during December. And I believe them. There are a lot of people out there who has no sense or no notion about how to write and what to write … they think it’s only putting words on paper and it’s done. But not every writer is like that. They shouldn’t judge all based on a few. More important, they shouldn’t express this kind of opinion publicly.

However, I think NaNoWriMo is a nice way of rushing through your first draft. First draft needs to be rushed. It’s when all your ideas and inspiration are at. If you don’t rush through it, you’ll loose interest and objectivity.

What is better than knowing Anna and the French Kiss and Water for Elephants were first drafted during NaNo? It gives us hope.

I know my first drafts aren’t crap. They may need some revision, but they are never crap. Yes, of course, that’s because I have learned a lot about craft during the years. I bet that if I took NaNo when I first started writing, my novel then would be crap … but it isn’t now.

NaNoToons … more can be found here. Too funny!

More important, I’m doing it for fun.

So … let the fun begin!

Cheers,

Categories: Contests, My Books, My writing

Finalist

Back in the first week of September, I came to know the Show Me The Spark contest promoted by the Heartland Romance Authors.

The deadline to enter the contest was that day. I hurried up and sent my finished MS, Destiny Gift, to them.

I had no hopes of making the cut. I was entered because it was easy to send an email over …

But I did make the cut.

I’m one of the 5 finalists in the YA category.

I shouldn’t be too excited though. First, because I don’t think I’ll win. Second, because, as super Literary Agent Laura Bradford said on twitter a few days ago, contests don’t matter much “Unless it is a contest with a huge field like the Golden Heart” (full question and answer here). Note: Ms. Bradford is one of the judges of the Show Me The Spark contest.

Anyway, I am excited!

The judge of YA category is Leah Hultenschmidt, editor of Sourcebooks. She is also on twitter.

The winners will be announced on December 21st. *fingers crossed*

About my manuscript:

Title: DESTINY GIFT

Series: Everlast

Genre: paranormal romance

Word Count: 80,000

Status: complete and polished

In a world of chaos, Nadine has visions she doesn’t understand—she believes she might be hallucinating. Then she meets with the guy who haunts her visions and everything starts to change … even the world.

Cheers,

Categories: #ROW80, Blogging, Contests, Me, My writing

ROW80 Check-in Wed 10/26

I have news …

My manuscript, Destiny Gift, the one which has 2 fulls out, was selected as one of the 5 finalists in the Show Me The Spark contest organized by the Heartland Romance Authors! Woot!

A feature of the contest is that they send you the MS back after they’ve chosen the finalists with many comments done by the judges … they give you a week to go through it and revise your work. At the end of the week (this upcoming Sunday) I have to send my MS back to them or they will use the un-revised version for the finals. And, on December 23rd, they will announce the winner ;)

So, this week, I’ll pause my writing schedule to work on my Destiny Gift manuscript until I feel it’s good enough to send it back.

Recap of goals:

Write at least 2k words from Mon to Fri, when I’m not editing (Sat and Sun are reserved for family!)
Finish the MS I’m writing (for now, I call it Attitude) (*)
Edit Attitude (*)
Outline a novel for NaNoWriMo (called Energy)
Participate on NaNoWriMo
Read 2 books every 3 weeks
Blog at least once per week (besides the #ROW80 check-ins)
Comment on #ROW80 friends’ blogs

The ones marked with a (*) are completed.

About my leg/foot/knee thing. I did the Electroneumyography test last Friday and the cyst behind my knee is the one compressing my nerves. So the foot specialist said he wants to try solving this without surgery, just by taking some specific vitamins, but he would talk with his colleague, a knee specialist and he would call me and let me know what the other doctor said.

On Monday, the foot specialist called saying that, accordingly to the knee specialist, most of cyst cases need to be dealt with surgery. So, he asked a MRI of my knee to see what exactly is going on around the cyst … then I’ll have to see the knee specialist and determine what we’ll do …

Now, I’m trying to schedule a MRI, but it seems it won’t happen before the end of next week … oh, the joys of waiting …

Anyway, I’ll let you all informed about this, but let’s move on to what really matters: my goals.

Networking

All done … this is hard NOT to meet …

Reading

Since last Wednesday, I finished Dark Lover by JR Ward and Angel’s Desire by Rosalie Lario. I also finished How To Write Page Turning Scenes by Holly Lisle and No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo. Note: the last 3 books are short, more like novella length.

Last night I began The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong.

Writing

Monday: Worked on the plot of Energy (needed time to process all the judges’ comments on Destiny Gift) and read craft books.

Tuesday: read on craft and worked on revising Destiny Gift (not as easy I would like it to be—the judges had very different opinions and Idk what to do with myself lol).

Wednesday: doing both … working on plot for Energy and revising Destiny Gift.

As check-in goes, I’m thinking about two possibilities: 1) I’ll skip Sunday check-ins unless I have worked during the weekend, which doesn’t happen often … so my week for ROW80 would run from Thu to Wed … or 2) I’ll do like Raelyn said she does on a previous post: I’ll skip Wednesday check-ins and schedule my Sunday check-in on Friday nights. So my week would run from Sat to Fri. Let’s see … I’ll keep you all informed.

How are my ROW80 friends doing? Wishing you all luck and accomplishments!

Here you can check the other participants. Go cheer for them too!

Have a great rest of week!

Cheers,

Categories: #ROW80, Blogging, Me, My writing

No ROW80 check-in today!

Exactly what the tittle says.

I don’t have much to report, cause Thursday was my only “writing” day after the Wed check-in.

Friday I went out and about (exams and doctor) and weekend is for family.

But I’m doing well with my goals … I blogged, I twitteted, I commented on other blogs, I read, I worked on the plot for my new MS …

Also, as I don’t work on writing during weekends, I’m debating about skipping Sundays check-ins … perhaps only do Sunday check-in when, for some odd reason, I end up writing during the weekend (which happened about 2 weeks ago).

Well, let’s see.

Have a good one guys =)

Categories: #ROW80, Blogging, Me, My writing

ROW80 Check-in Wed 10/19

So, I’ve changed my goals for round 4 of ROW80 a little.

My goals (updated 10/18):

Write at least 2k words from Mon to Fri, when I’m not editing/revising (Sat and Sun are reserved for family!)
Finish the MS I’m writing (for now, I call it Attitude)
Edit Attitude
Outline a novel for NaNoWriMo
Participate on NaNoWriMo
Read 2 books every 3 weeks
Blog at least once per week (besides the #ROW80 check-ins)
Comment on #ROW80 friends’ blogs

Not necessarily in that order =P

As you guys may have noticed, I took exercising out of the list.

Well, since I may have to go through surgery soon, and then I’ll need to recover from it (which means no walking for a couple of weeks), I doubt I’ll be able to go back to the gym this year yet.

But I promise to keep you all updated about that situation.

For example: on Fri I’ll do an exam specific for nerves and then I’ll go see my doctor. He will confirm if my pain is generated by the cyst behind my knee and if I have to take it out or not. I’ll post my next check-in Sunday night, and I’ll let you guys know what happened on Fri.

On with the rest …

Blogging:

This is going well. By the end of the week, I’ll have 4 posts up.

Commenting on other blogs is going well too. I commented on many, many blogs today.

And let’s not talk about twitter … I’m online almost 24-7 lol

Reading:

I finished Touch by Jus Accardo on Sunday. It was really good. Bad e-book formatting, but the story was pretty good.

I’ve began reading Dark Lover by JR Ward on Monday. I like it so far.

Writing:

As you guys know, I finished the first draft of ATTITUDE last week.

So now I’ve printed it and I’m revising it, so not much writing here, other than making notes of possible twists and ideas to enrich the plot and outline of my next MS. I’m not sure it ends up being 2k words per day (I like to outline/plan on paper, then I type it on a file so I won’t lose it), but on my updated goals’ list I mentioned no writing when editing/revising.

Monday: I wasn’t home, though I took my printed ATTITUDE and worked on it a little.

Tuesday: worked on ATTITUDE and daydreamed with my other MSs’ plots lol

Wednesday: finished revising ATTITUDE. I’m thinking about sending it off to my freelance editor for a professional critique this week yet. And, at night, if I don’t watch a movie with my hubby, I’ll work on outlines ;)

Anyway, now I’ll dive in my new MS. The next step is getting its plot outline in shape so I can start writing soon (maybe I’ll wait for NaNo to write it, then I’ll work on more plots and outlines for other MSs to keep me busy).

So far, so good.

And you guys? All is well? I do hope so!

To check my fellow ROWers’ progress, you can click here.

Cheers,

Categories: Blogging, Me, My writing, RTW

RTW: What’s your numero-uno reason for writing?

This is the first time I’m participating on the YA Highway‘s Road Trip Wednesday.

From their blog:

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

Today’s prompt is:

What’s your numero-uno reason for writing?

Well, I could give many, many answers to this question.

I could use quotes …

“I write to empty my mind and to fill my heart” ― Paulo Coelho

“That’s why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can’t control life, at least you can control your version.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” ― Flannery O’Connor

“I write only because
There is a voice within me
That will not be still” ― Sylvia Plath

“Why am I compelled to write?… Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger… To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit… Finally I write because I’m scared of writing, but I’m more scared of not writing.” ― Gloria E. Anzaldúa

All these quotes could explain why I write, but the last one is the truer of them all.

I love, love writing for the sake of writing. I also love the aspect of living a different life, of experience new things I would never be able to experience in my real-life, much like an actor does when shooting a movie.

I can be who I want, go to where I want, do what I want … it’s freeing.

The same applies to reading, I guess. I become someone else for a short period of time, and I like that.

How about you? What is your number one reason for writing? Or reading?

Cheers,

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