I'm Moving....

Hello,

I have a website called www.indieauthortiffany.com .  I have decided to stop posting here in order to drive more traffic to www.indieauthortiffany.com.  Thank you.

Drawing A Map Really Helped

  I am decent at drawing people but I am not good at drawing scenery, let alone maps.  The exercise for 30 Days of Worldbuilding required me to draw a map.   The map helped me think of where the resources for my fantasy world was set.  Where the humans can cut down trees, run into merpeople, or even find "lost" treasure.  

   Even though I have no intention of putting a map with my Ebook, the exercise does allow me to think figure out the locations of my fantasy world's races, buildings, and land/oceans capes. 

Keeping In Contact With Beta Reader

A long time ago, I decided to tell people offline about my upcoming eBooks.  Too bad I told these people about my possible eBooks in 2013 and now the year is 2015.  I now have one of my future beta readers as a friend offline and on Facebook.  I visit her often for socializing and having fun.  Aside from ending any possible chances of feeling alone, she also reminds me about my eBooks.

       A few days ago, I decided to tell her about the summary of my first eBook.  There is always the possibility that my eBook's summary and plot will change.  I want to hear what she thinks because I need seconds opinions on my work.  This lets me know what other people might think when it comes to future reviews.  I will post the summary I gave her and her (abridged) responds.  

Changing Names Around

      Thanks to this page, I was started changing the names around for my current ebook named Golden Sharks.  The world building page guide gives detail on mood and culture.  I originally gave my characters all Greek names, then I only gave the mermaids Greek names.  When the setting was no longer in modern day Earth, I felt I needed to change the names again.

    The humans were given, hopefully easy to pronounce, fantasy names and the merpeople were given ancient real life names that I feel were uncommon in our present day society.  

  

 For example...

1. "John" (human) became "Joht" and then became "Raziel".

2. Apollo (merman) became "Parazifel", then "Halvor".

3. (Some fantasy names for some humans) "Tizmer" and "Cancor"

    

 These are just examples from Golden Sharks.

30 Days of World Building by Stephanie Bryant

  I like how building my fantasy world can help me figure out the politics, economy, etc of my fantasy world.  What stopped my writing process with some drafts was whenever I pondered about name of the god my protagonist was worshiping and why was the god so important to his world.  

     30 Days of Worldbuilding by Stephanie Bryant is helping me world build at a faster speed than Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions.   The writing exercises (after the brilliant explanations), most of them, are only supposed to be done in fifteen minutes a day.  This is the guide that has been getting me through March.  The short exercises were ideally written as guide for those participating in November's National Novel Writing Month.  

    I am going to use 30 Days of Worldbuilding with a few of my stories, then both 30 Days of Worldbuilding and Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions together with one story and see how much I like either guide.  I assume the former is better suited for short stories and the latter is for long stories.  

  I will keep this blog updated.  

www.indieauthortiffany.com

I'm Not Sure About Joining Another Challenge. This Month...

     I think I have way too many rough drafts to work on this year and to the next year.  I need to publish a few electronic books before I go on and make a new first draft.  I hope I can finish one or two before next November.

       I did like Nanowrimo but the challenge did get me hooked on counting words and not making quality drafts. Apparently, this March's challenge is this.

       For March and maybe even a few more months ahead.  I am working on world building for my electronic books.  This is a task that I need to do in order to get more comfortable with my fantasy worlds.  I can not simply write without knowing more about my own fantasy world. I previously wrote about world building in this post.

     More on this later.

Indie Author Tiffany 

Cleaning Up the Spam

I spent a good amount of time a few days ago cleaning up the spam on my website.  This is just a reminder to anyone that wants to post a link to some e commerce or scam website, there comment will not be seen unless I improve the comment.  If someone who actually wants to contribute on this blog posts, I want you to know that I have seen your comment in my emails.  I may not be able to post a response right away but you are not being ignored.  

I might also mistake your comment for spam, I do not intentionally ignore comments.

I value opinions on this blog and I appreciate it when someone (who is not trying to post spam) takes their time to comment.  

Making Time for Writing

I wanted to discuss some of the difficulties that I am having right now.

1. I have ADD when it comes to writing my stories:
I have a tendency to get bored of my work after writing the same story for some time.  The solution to this, is for me to write another story at the same time.  This leads to me either ending my writer's block for my main story or me making similar characters for both works.  I am starting to get the hang of making a variety of different personalities for characters but the issue is still there.

2. My job does not allow me to write, easily.
I am currently getting out of training for my current job.  The company stresses that I can not be a second late for work or any of my breaks.  The lunch room takes more than five minutes for me to walk to and thus, I need to handle my time wisely.  People often sit with me and talk to me during breaks.  Writing in front of them is just awkward.

SOLUTION FOR ME
I have began writing my secondary story in the mornings when I have ample amounts of free time before leaving for work.  This beats me laying down in bed for an hour or so. I find myself going to work happier this way.  When I get home, I write my main story for an hour.  On my off days, I write both stories for as long as I want.

This solution has made things easier for me.

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