The day started well for me. I woke up and got out of bed straight away with some real weird dreams, and weird images in my head. I had woken up inspired and I felt good. I immediately wrote the ideas down in one of my many notebooks (I have an obsession, it’s kind of sad) and I was left with a new twist to my fantasy novel, Fighting for Peace and two brand new story ideas, or they could be weaved into current ones, I’m not quite sure yet.

This is very rare for me. I’ve suffered from bouts of insomnia for a while now, and dreaming has come rarely to me and I usually forget them. It was getting up straight away, writing these ideas down, and more specifically, the strong images associated with them that inspired me. I spent the morning in a kind of inspired dream state, listening to Silverchair’s Diorama and some artsy rock tunes by A Perfect Circle. I haven’t as yet, written anything though. The plan now is to, after I publish this blog post, to relinquish the computer to my sister and get words down in one of my notebooks. No distractions and just pure writing. Now, if my sister’s would be nice, quiet and not fight whilst I do this that would be a bonus. Of course, this is just wishful thinking

writing, inspiration, dreams, dreaming, insomnia, fantasy, fiction, notebooks

I’m feeling good at the moment. I’ve been trying to write regularly for a while. And tonight, it’s looking good. I’ve written for eight days straight. Most of those days, I’ve passed the 500-word quota I’ve been looking for. Only on two of those days did I go lower. Not since NaNoWriMo last year, have I written so consistently. The good thing is it doesn’t seem to be coming at such a major cost because I’m not trying to pump out 2,000 words a day.

My writing has consisted mostly of the outline for my short story and some prompts, but yesterday I opened up the document for ‘Fighting for peace,’ my political fantasy novel. The civil war scene had blocked me for a while. I finally got an inkling of what was going to happen immediately to lead me into these scenes, and I’ve gone from there. I’m not actually up to the civil war scene because I’ve taken a little diversion.

I’ve finally introduced one of the dark themes in the novel. Obviously the darker the writing is, the more comfortable I am and that’s part of the reason why I’m feeling good about writing at the moment. For the first time in a while, I feel connected to one of my major projects.

writing, routine, consistent, nanowrimo, fantasy, political, fiction

My mind has been returning to ‘Fighting for Peace’ lately, and a difficult scene where the nobles clash with the peasants and poorer city dwellers. I did some reading a while back about peasant revolts, with a little inspiration, but nothing to move me forward. I had the inkling that I had to rewrite chapter fourteen, which was at about 1,400 words.

My muse was in a good mood tonight, so I got the guts to delete the chapter and start afresh. A whole 129 words in, and I discovered that I really need to go back and rewrite some scenes involving the gates in order to make the scene work, and some scenes after that. I can’t just write this new scene and go back later, because the rewrite requires an almost redesign of the outer area of the city and writing the previous scenes will add to the new context for the rewrite for chapter fourteen.

So, with me dying to write this scene, I’m stuck going back.

rewrite, muse, editing, research, peasant revolt, deleting

The ‘Fighting for Peace’ scene still eludes me. I actually know what I have to do, but as quickly as the fantasy writing inspiration came, it went. I have to delete the last 700 or so words from my latest chapter and rewrite a couple of scenes that involve the town gate. Well originally, there was an opening with a guard, but this scene requires it to be a gate, so amendments are needed.

I’m back to editing my short story, it seems a hell of a lot clearer than last time, and I’m getting far more comfortable with rewriting large chunks that sound a bit too wordy for a short story. Though, I’m racking my head for a title that doesn’t give the hook away.

writing, fantasy, rewrite, short story, editing, titles

I think I’m on the verge of a big writing spurt. The ideas and words have been building up in my head for a few days, but without enough of one clear thing to actually get to the business of writing. I have been stuck on a scene in ‘Fighting for peace’ for a week or two, and forcing myself to think about the problem didn’t seem to do much good. The scene came unexpectedly as the whole novel is outlined to just about the end. My main characters are coming back to the town with evidence that the King and nobility has been deceiving the population, but when he returns, the peasants and nobility are already fighting. Now, I’ve been bursting to write this scene, but there is part of me that doesn’t want to stuff it up. As the scene is being set up, I found that I wrote myself into a wall. This is where I’ve been stuck.

Now, usually reading or watching a movie would get me some ideas moving around my head, but since the story is vastly different from anything I’m reading, or watched lately (maybe The Village sparked a little bit), there hasn’t been much stimulation. Then I picked up a slave hard drive for my computer and opened up a decent amount of space. So, I reinstalled Age of Empires II, and within two hours, I had my solution. Magic! And I guess I really have the choice between writing or gaming at the moment, as staying on the net for long periods today has been frustrating. The connection and browser is lagging severely today.

Also, there is a blogger’s anthology being produced where bloggers can submit their best posts to be included with a blog blurb and a link. It’s a great idea and I’m dying to submit, but I can’t for the life of me figure out which of my posts is my number one. If you guys could mention one significant post that you’ve read here, please tell me in the comments.

writing, gaming, ideas, fantasy, medieval, peasants, Age of Empires II

It has come time to make a decision. I have worked hard with my novel, trying to catch up after a couple of unproductive days, and I feel if I continue it could do damage to my writing, now, and in the future. I feel if I continue I will, as Karen so aptly posted on a while ago, burnout.

So, it is time for me to give up on my Nanowrimo deadline, but not to give up on the novel. For I feel, it will be better without forcing myself to write around three thousand words a day to catch up. For some, National Novel Writing Month gives them to kick in the butt they need to get going. It’s gotten me going, but now it is holding me back. For me, I can’t just concentrate on one project, and just focusing on this novel has been a struggle, as I’ve starved my muse of other opportunities. Throughout November, I’ve been hit with other ideas for my other novel, and there are a few anthologies I want to write for. Only focusing on ‘Fighting for Peace’ could cause me to miss out on other opportunities to get published.

Also, other stuff has happened that has hampered my progress, job hunting has suddenly become extremely stressful again, Uni and life in general has become stressful and forcing myself to write amongst this is not doing me any good.

I will drop back to writing around a thousand words per day, no matter what project it seems to be, and see where I go from there. Good luck to my fellow NaNoers.

NaNoWriMo, burnout, writer goals

Ha! Take that writer’s block!

I stopped at midnight to take a rest, before writing some more before bed. After hours of stressing, thinking, reading, thinking, eating dinner, and more thinking I managed to come up with something to move on. It wasn’t exactly what I had thought of last night, but it was on a similar idea – or at least I think so, because I had forgotten what the first idea was

I got down 3,000 words, and the spreadsheet that I found that I use to calculate all things NaNo-ey has hinted that if I keep it up, I might make it! But, I better make sure I don’t burn myself out.

Good luck to my fellow NaNoers, keep it up and you will make it!

Writer’s block, NaNoWriMo

This is the most frustrating day yet. I want to write. The document is open. I’m in the middle of scene, and yet I can’t write.

Last night I managed to get down over 2000 words, and I felt I was catching up. I stopped midway through a scene because it was 2am and I figured I’d wake up and continue on without a hassle at all. Then, this morning, I looked at the last sentence with dread, not knowing what was meant to be next. I knew it was good and yet, I hadn’t a clue what it was. And it is the most frustrating thing.

I turned to the end of my outline. Yes, I haven’t finished it yet. And I worked on that for a bit, getting down a couple more points. I’m ready to dive into the main climax of the story, but I’m feeling it’s a little too quickly, so I need to think of something to complicate things I bit more, before diving into it.

I’m now thinking I should have written that great thing that was to come next on a piece of paper, or at the end of the document.

Writer’s block, nanowrimo