The Hunter's Journal

This is more for me than anyone else. Feel free to skip or ignore at will.

( Writing Project outlines )

So, those are the writing projects. There might be more waiting in the wings, but... for right now, that's it.

( Creative projects )

I want to find another knitting project, and I'll definitely be adding smaller cross stitching projects throughout the year.

That's my outlines. Any questions? Feel free to ask!

So, I was looking around, trying to find some sort of inspiration to write today. It's football and normally, I just knit, but maybe I should put words down, or do something? Maybe I should edit or... Well, the brain went into so many things that I should be doing that I'm losing sight of what needs to be done.

And trolling around the internet during a commercial break, I found a blog post, via several other blog posts that makes sense:

Just Make the Bed.

Sarah Ockler makes the point that making resolutions and having huge goals can be a good thing, but it can also be overwhelming and paralyzing. Don't stop making them, but if you do get overwhelmed, step back and just make the damned bed. A single, simple, little thing like sketching out a scene, writing a single sentence, editing a single paragraph can start taking out the overwhelmingness of the task before you.

I usually use this theory in other things in my life, but applying it to writing/creativity? For some reason it never occurred to me.

When I clean, I say "I'm going to fold this basket" and that inspires me to fold the next basket, to do the one side of the sink full of dishes, to sweep one thing. However, when I write or I work any of my hand crafts, I tend to only take the project as a whole rather than one small step at a time.

Meaning, I look at my shawl, I see everything not knitting a single row. I don't look at the Geisha and see stitching a single color, but the whole pattern. Which makes them very overwhelming. I do the same thing with writing. I look at the whole story, not the single plot point, or the single scene or the single character voice.

I need to work on that. I need to just write that single plot point, that single scene. Eventually, the whole will come, but doing the single one is the way to start.

This post, actually, started out in my head as a 'Why I do NaNoWriMo' post. However, I was talking with a friend over IMs, and realized I don't, really, need to get into why I do NaNoWriMo. Mostly, because it boiled down to just a few words:

Because I want to.

Perhaps not the most adult answer, but the most honest one.

However, I thought that I'd answer a question that my friend asked me:

"Why do challenges all year long? Isn't NaNo enough?"

Well, I'm going to answer the latter question first: No, NaNo isn't enough. See; although the franticness of November includes NaNo and Thanksgiving, it isn't enough to keep me going all year long.

So, this past year, I experimented with giving myself guidelines and a schedule to keep. Some of that schedule got skewed along the way (this past summer I didn't have nearly as much writing time as I thought) but all in all, I worked a lot better with the schedule, than I did without.

It's also why my personal journal ends up being more of a 'what needs to be done today' list than an actual journal. Although today I tl;dr-ed all over the place.

Yes, I make lists. If I don't, nothing gets done. No, seriously, nothing gets done. I look down and it's 10am. I look up and it's 3.30 and all I've managed to get done is lose horribly at spider solitaire a lot.

Frankly, that's not a skill that I should flaunt.

The lists keep me on track. But, here's the thing: Even lists aren't enough to keep me motivated. So, I look around for things to keep my brain moving and keep me from getting bored with what I have to do to improve my writing.

That is where my competitive streak comes in. See, I cannot let other people 'beat' me. I cannot roll over and let them 'win' at anything, even if it's something so silly as creating something that I neither have the skill nor the patience to create.

I join challenges to keep me going. I join challenges so that I can point to something and say "I beat that!" I'm sure this points to something psychological or something, but I just use it as a motivational tool.

There are some other pretty hefty reasons, but those are personal and this is a writing blog. Back to the writing:

Challenges keep me from stagnating and playing so much spider solitaire that I explode my computer out of sheer frustration. That means that at the end of the week/month/day/whatever, I have something to point to and say... "I did that."

Now, to give updates on my various challenges: ( Challenges )

So, this entry has become very long and pretty much a big ego stroke for me. However, I believe creators - be it in writing, cooking, fabric crafts or anything else - have the need to stroke their own egos every once in a while.

I know several writers who do it. They do it unashamedly. I'm trying to follow their good examples. Now, if I could just get something published? Then, you'd really see some ego stroking!

So, to add to yesterday's post about contrived plots....

Secret Societies. Can they still be done well? Or are they played out. Especially if it's more about the love story, and the secret societies are just what the two main characters belong to? What do you guys think? I might have something percolating in my brain.

Maybe. >>;

So, since I finished the rewrite o' d00m, yet again, I've been at a loss.

However, lately, I've been doing some world building and scene notes and outlining for NaNo. I was turned on to a beautiful program called Storybook.

It's been really handy for helping me flesh out characters and thinking of just how many scenes I'm going to need for this particular story.

Which is great and all, but I want to write the damned thing. Why isn't it November yet?

So, I've been distracting myself lately. Mainly with the fleshing out. I know how old people are, and their relationships, I even have a huge subplot idea for the romance between two characters.

It may end up being two characters that I hadn't even thought of.

Anyway, this is what I've been doing. Except, today, I'm going to try to put it down and do something completely different. Why? Because if I keep going too much, I'm going to burn out.

I do have some maps to make yet, but the maps I have made made me realize that the other two maps are actually complex and have multi layers that are not so easy to take care of. (As in they need actual layouts and graphing and... yeah. I might print out graph paper and see what shakes loose that way.)

Anyway, this is my prep for NaNo at the end of September. November really needs to hurry up and get here.

(See, if any of my other projects would sit up and go "HI" at me, I'd work on one of them. But do they? Nope.)

Also, it's really freaking cold in here!

Lately, I've been very bad about editing. Not only have I barley been home - seriously, last weekend was a wash, as was Monday, Tuesday and yesterday - but when I've been home, I've been exhausted and wanting nothing more than sleep and relaxation.

However, with a small rearrangement of my bedroom - hence giving me an actual computer desk - I managed to sit down and do some editing today. Not a lot, but it did finish off one scene, and that's progress. Which is the important thing.

So, right now, I'm on page 69 of 153. That - for those playing along at home - means 84 pages left. I'm hoping to get a bit more done today as well.

Also, I've begun reading again. I gave up on a book because sometimes you just can't get into it. I'm sure it's a lovely book, but it's just not what I want to read right now.

I'm going back to editing. Maybe, I'll get a few more pages done. I'm hoping anyway.



... I need a new graph where I can substitute "words" for "pages".

Edit: I did end up going back to the editing. Real life, of course, intruded in the middle, but I did get it done. And now I'm going to play Dragon Age: Origins, because I deserve it!

I've been thinking lately, about returning to my old routines. I need to write, in ways I cannot explain.

But, I need a routine to do it in.

That may sound strange, but there you have it. I need a set time every day, set aside for nothing but writing.

These last few weeks have had me caught up in so much other stuff that I couldn't write.

There was too much external stuff going on.

There still is a lot of external things going on. Kids are back in school though, and that should give me time to actually work on my writing.

Frankly, I hate to be mean, but my new room mate is going to have to respect the headphones, as well as all the kids. My kids are trained to respect the headphones and know what they mean. They mean Mom Is Working.

I know my new room mate will though. She understands how important the writing is to me. And I won't totally cut myself off. We have the lounge to clean tomorrow, and then we'll see what happens. I plan on putting on my headphones on my head, with my MP3 player and seeing if that helps.

I haven't decided just who I'm going to be writing yet. But it's definitely between Ari and Mira/Hyst. I might look through tonight to see what jumps out at me.

I want to finish up a couple old ideas, before I start worrying about new ones.

See, I have some world building to do. A lot of world building. I'm going to be putting some of it up here, but a lot will be going up on my IJ, under the writing tag/group.

I'll be putting up links here, to whatever it is I use that's an online resource.

I do however want to give a good resource. See, writing doesn't mean that you have lots of money. I've been using AbeBooks to search online used book stores! C'mon used books! That's awesome.

Tomorrow, I'm returning to routine and starting to write again.

Just need to figure out who.

Everyone comes up with characters in different ways. Everyone plucks those little bits of psyche out of the ether in ways that probably only make sense to them.

Sometimes, they get a physical description first. Blonde hair, green eyes, a bit pudgy, with long thin fingers/limp brown hair, dark tan, brown eyes... And on and on and on.

Other times, it's the way they dress. Jimmy Choos, and Vera Wang, or maybe flannel and jeans.

Maybe it's something they say or do. Maybe it's their job, or their accent. Maybe it's something they see. Or something they smell.

Anyway, the point is, there's many ways that authors come up with characters. It doesn't really matter how it comes up. There are a few things, however, that are, really, universal. It doesn't matter how the characters first appear, they all have the same things. Height, weight, appearances, etc etc.

Now, I'm not a chart or sheet kind of person, but they do have their uses. I even collect character sheets. I like looking at them at times to just give me an idea of what to do with the characters when they're being cranky about growing.

I have several, but this latest one is... interesting. I haven't seen one quite as comprehensive. So, I'm posting it here, just for shits and giggles.

( Character Sheet )

I haven't filled it out for anyone, yet. But it does look interesting. I might attempt it later, however.