Getting Back Into Writing

Thanks to National Novel Writing Month, I have gotten back into writing.  I believe a loss of motivation happens to everyone but this loss of motivation has been an issue for me for years.  National Novel Writing Month does help me to come up with a schedule for writing activities and a deadline.  Without a deadline, I tend to write very slowly or not at all.  The latter part is far more worse than the former part.

After winning National Novel Writing Month twice, I realize that all I need to do is just write something or anything.  To do so, gets my mind going.  As I continue writing a story, the plot, characters, and other things come together.  This is good as I tend to have a bunch of what ifs stuck in my head if I do not bother to continue typing my story for a few days to a few weeks.  Such feelings are annoying and easily gotten rid of through writing.

My only negative effect from winning National Novel Writing Month is that I tend to think about the numbers of words in my story vs the quality of my story.  Since I am editing my drafts, I am cutting out a ton of words that I have spent minutes to hours thinking of typing.  From now on, I will only think of numbers when it comes to National Novel Writing Month.  Any other month of the year, I will be thinking of the quality of my story instead.

Posting Bi-Weekly

I will be posting on this blog every two weeks now.  National Novel Writing Month was a weekly thing.  I can not think of something interesting to write about every week hence the biweekly updates.  I hope everyone understands.  There will be posts about my stories soon.

National Novel Writing Month 2014 Rewards

 

Hello everyone,

As with winning a lot of competitions, there are a lot of benefits.  One of the many reasons I love winning National Novel Writing Month is that I get to a lot of discounts and chances to try new things.  One of those new things in Scrivener.  The picture above is Scrivener on my screen and I am currently looking at the tutorial.

I am liking the idea of Scrivener being a tool for writing first drafts.  This software might put an end to me buying a ton of notebooks to put my research into.  I have already made a huge switch to spending a majority of my time writing in Pages.  I won't be writing in my notebooks as much as I used to.

I also brought Aeon Timeline but I have not done anything with it yet.  All I know is that it is compatible with Scrivener.

The other rewards that I am interested in are what I used for getting a hardcover of my book last year.  I will go with Lulu again and try out  CreateSpace for getting hard copies of my stories.

For those who also participated in Nanowrimo, please be aware of the expiration dates  for each offer.

I Won Nanowrimo 2014

Hello.  It has been a while since I posted anything on this website.  Just like last year, I participated in National Novel Writing Month.  This year was a little different as I wrote a script for a visual novel that I plan to make in a few years.  For anyone who does not know what a visual novel is, a visual novel is a visual representation of a novel.  The reader or player can click through the story and sometimes select choices in order to advance or alternate the story.

I will reveal more of this visual novel as soon as I get to rewriting the drafts.  For right now, I will be focusing on the story that I wrote for last year's National Novel Writing Month. 

I used the voice recognition option on my iPhone known as Siri and the Pages app on the same device.  I do not believe that I would be able to write 50,000 words in a month through just typing the story alone.  I would like to thank everyone who followed my tweets on my twitter account and were awesome enough to ask me about my story.  

Last year's National Novel Writing Month winner needs to be published sometime next year. 

Textbroker

Hello guys.  There are ways to make money online.  I work a lot of temp jobs and being able to support myself, while I job search, is really cool.

This website had me writing a variety of articles for websites and individuals.  The assignments are categorized such as Technology, Education, and Health.  I never thought I would be writing about electronic cigarettes, athletes, or hotels, but Textbroker got me to expand my horizon.

Texbroker.com is just a hobby for me, but some people have managed to a make three digit weekly checks a week.  That would take a lot of dedication, and earning enough for gas money is good enough for me.  The owners do rate your work and tell you what classifications you can write for.

I am at 4 classification but I write for 3 classification assignments.  I feel you really have to have a complete hold on the english grammar in order to write for 4 classification.  Sadly, some assignments are hard to understand and the poster may ask for a revision the next day.

Take a look at this website if you like writing.

Writing About Vampires

What is more tiresome than zombies in video games?  Vampires in fiction!  Unfortunately, I still happen to love vampires.  I am not attempting to change the vampire genre or anything.  Neither am I trying to earn a quick buck from people who would read anything vampire related.  I have always liked the blood sucking creatures.

This electronic book will be set in Virginia, which is a state in the United States.  There will be a lot of Virginian history involved, especially from the Civil War.  I have been writing this story since August and I want the rough draft to be finished my 10/31/2014.

www.indieauthortiffany.com

Bi-Weekly Posting 

Hello guys.  I just received a temporary job a few weeks ago.  The job will end sometime in November.  I haven't been posting much on this blog but I feel like I am getting back into the swing of things.  In order to make things less complicated, I have decided to continue posting every two weeks.  

Thank you guys for understanding.

www.indieauthortiffany.com

Ignoring Spam Comments

I know I do not post to this website as much as I should.  My other websites get a lot more attention than this website.  Whenever I get a comment, I do get email updates.  I am always checking my email around every waking hour of the day.  If I see a comment that does not relate to the blog post, then I will not approve that comment.

What is comment approval?

Comment approval is when the wordpress owner can decided rather or not a comment can become visible on their website or not.  Most of the time, since I get a lot of spam, I do not end up approving comments.  So if your comment does not show on this website, then you should know why.

I am also going to find better spam filters for this website.  

www.indieauthortiffany.com

Rewriting the Story?

I remember writing my electronic book, Golden Sharks, during November.  I managed to get 50,000 words and then some that month.  As wonderful as that is, I could barely keep adding more and more words to this story. Somewhere along the lines, I added more than two points of views, an alternate dimension that I could not worldbuild for the life of me. 

 In other words, the story got too big for me.

Thankfully, I'm not dumping the story, completely.  I remember never giving a summary for this story.  The truth is, I find this story too strange for me to give a summary at the moment.

Attempt at Summary Part 1:

Zansa owes the elves who help keep the elves and merpeople hidden from the eyes of humans.  With merpeople and elves safe from human eyes, the supernatural creatures are free to carry their rituals necessary to keeping their civilizations thriving.  When Zansa neglects paying the debt, he finds himself in trouble with one of the main leaders of the elves.

There will be more on this summary.   I just need to think about this more.

www.indieauthortiffany.com

If you have followed my tumblr, then you realize that I have made a schedule.  So far that schedule has been working for me.  I go to work, Monday through Friday: 12pm to 8pm.  Work can be slow at times at this call center, thus giving me a lot of time to write before another call happens.  

Got a Long Way to Go:

In the above picture, I have about half of that notebook to type into my Microsoft Word document.  Then....

I'm almost done with this notebook.   Thankfully, with this job, I have gotten more of my second draft done then I ever have before while I procrastinate when I was jobless.  Learning how to make more time for myself is one of my goals while I continue to work at this temp job.  This means spending this weekend to type everything in the previous and current journals that I have pictured.  

www.indieauthortiffany.com 

Update: Paper and Inspiration

Hello guys.  It's been a while since I have updated this website.  I am sorry for that.  I'm still writing this book.  The more that I write my book, the more I figure out the plot.  On Saturday's I will be writing what I have in my notebook, into Word Document.  

About two weeks ago, I met someone who has been writing their book for thirteen years.  I often wonder how long it would take me to write my book.   That is a good sign of dedication and his dedication does inspire me to continue writing my book.  I actually met the guy, in person, a few years ago at an anime convention.  I read his first draft.  He has come a long way.

Now since I finally got a job.  I think about this man when I need some inspiration to write and continue working.  He works at a very popular shopping store which I have worked at before.  I hated every moment of working at that store and would go home and sleep or complain soon afterwards.  Knowing how hellish that store is and how much dedication this guy has, is really inspiring.  

I want to finish the second draft of my book before August.  

Indie Author Tiffany 

Plans for The Future

Hello guys.  I have not updated in a while.  I am sorry for that.  Yes, this blog is still alive.  Unfortunately, real life stuff gets in the way and a lack of motivation does take over.  Thankfully, I am on the second draft of this ebook.  I have about 28 pages so far.  Who knows what will be cut out or kept in once the second draft is made and the editing really kicks in.

In the meantime, in order to keep my blog updated and not forgotten.  I plan on doing some book reviews on books that I am reading in order to help me with my writing.  One such book is Writing Dialogue  by Tom Chiarella.  I admit that my dialogue is pretty weak and I have no idea how to make my dialogue interesting or natural.  There will be a book review once I am done with the various exercises in this book.

Aside from book reviews, I am going to start posting weekly updates.  This will help keep my recent followers updated.  

Indie Author Tiffany

World Building and Researching Part 1

Researching 

In addition to finishing my first rough draft for my story, I have started world building.  One of my first posts on this website discussed that the setting of my story will be in Virginia Beach, Virginia in the United States.  Although I have lived near that area since 1993, there is still a lot to learn about the city's beach, events, and even its history.

Through writing my first draft, I ended up adding a fantasy realm for my merpeople to in habit.  The setting in my fantasy realm takes place at a village near a beach.  Due to taking Marine Biology in 2006, I forgot a lot of information I learned about the ocean.

These are what I am using to regain that knowledge of the ocean.  

This book is not just filled with pretty pictures but also a ton of information about the ocean.  I plan on reading this book fully; front and back.  My story has a ton of sea travel and I better know the ocean like the back of my hand.

 

Videos on Youtube and Animal Planet

There are a ton of playlists and channels dedicated to oceanography on youtube.  One of the most interesting sources was Mermaids: The Body Found.   This creative documentary has some people believing that merpeople exist with various stories of mermaid bodies found or encounters with mermaids.  I never knew about the Aquatic Ape Theory until I saw this documentary.  

This post was originally on Indie Author Tiffany.

Moving Beyond National Novel Writing Month (November)

Today is January the first, 2014 and I hope that everyone has had a Happy New Year.  I am still writing my novel beyond the 50,000 word goal.  Part of my writing process has me writing some parts of my story in my notebook, some parts in a writing app on my iPhone, and then putting everything together on my computer.

Writing Tips

What I use to write with depends on whatever I have lying around, if I'm waiting for an appointment, or who is with me.  For some reason, typing in my Iphone is more acceptable than writing in my notebook when I am with friends.   Everyone thinks I am writing a long text message to a friend rather than trying to add more words to a long story.  

I have joined National Writing Month's forum which is open all year long.  You can click here to view my profile.  Also feel free to add me as a friend on the forum.  It's always nice to see what others are writing.  There are a few very helpful threads that have helped me continue writing my novel.

One thing that helped me out last month was knowing that I was writing a rough draft.  There was and still is no need to feel like every word on paper or screen has to be perfect.  Editing will become important on the second draft and whenever I let another pair of eyes view my work.   What slowed me down on the first week was constantly stopping and editing my work as if I was on the final draft.  

The last tip was generally knowing what direction my story was going, what my character's personalities were like, and how my characters respond to certain situations.  For me, knowing such things helped prevent writers block and kept me writing.

This post was originally from Indie Author Tiffany