Heading into Week 2

Alright, so I’m finally heading into week 2 of NaNoWriMo. I did fall a little behind schedule over the weekend, but I think I can still work it out by November 30th. I’m currently sitting at just over 20,000 words and I still only have one dead body. However, I have begun severely torturing my next victim. Wow…never thought I would say that. I’m getting a little TOO into the psychotic killer aspect of this book!

This really has been a fun book to write so far, and it’s only going to get better from here. I have some serious work to do on the book for the 2nd draft, but I’m not worrying about it right now. I’m slowly trying to build the tension in the novel, so there’s not a whole lot right now. There’s just enough right now to keep the reader on edge a bit. I’ve really loved cutting in scenes with the killer torturing his victims because of the fact that it gives us the story of how he builds up to the kill.

It’s been a great month so far and it’s only going to get better from here!

The Game So Far

It’s hard to believe it, but I’ve got nearly 14,000 words under my belt! The Killing Game is off to an incredible start and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down soon. The characters have really gotten to me, and they have such incredible interactions with one another. I never imagined this concept would be so wonderful.

The story just keeps rolling on, and I’m really looking forward to the next kill I get to write, which is going to take place within the next few chapters. I know, I sound a bit psychotic, but I’m really getting into this killer’s mind and it’s a dark, dark place in there. There are definitely some unresolved childhood issues, that much I’ve figured out. Oh, that and I know the character who is ultimately the killer, but I’m revealing nothing.

Overall, it’s going really well! I’m not going to brag about my wordcount too much, though, because then the novelling gods will take it out on me in some seriously bad karma. It’s going to be a good month!

One Day Down

Well, the first day of NaNoWriMo is drawing to a close and it’s time to make a report on my status. I wrote 2,712 words today! Yeah, I really took off with rocket fuel. It just seemed to come to me without much of a struggle, and it just wouldn’t stop! And the best part is that I LOVE these characters! They’re just so easy to write, I just seem to instantly get them. DeMarco has a vastly different backstory than he did when I tried him out in City of Stone, but this backstory works so much better, not just for the novel, but in general as well.

Now, I think I should tell you something: I’m going for a goal of 80K this November, as opposed to the traditional 50K. And that may not even be the end of the book. Yeah, I’m insane, but I’m on my way to reaching my goal!

A New Game

Not even a week before NaNo begins and I’m changing novels. Can you believe it? My new book is going to be a Thriller/Mystery novel called “The Killing Game”.This is the synopsis I have posted on my NaNo page.

When two missing people are found dead with strange messages left in their surroundings, GBI Agent Eli DeMarco is called in to investigate. As he becomes tangled in the frightening, twisted web of mystery that surrounds the murders, more people are killed, all with similar messages and as he and his partner Sasha Kane continue to investigate, they realize one truth: each hidden message leads to the next victim. Now it’s a race against time to figure out where the next victim will be killed and, most of all, who is the mysterious killer who’s playing games with their heads?

This is going to be a fun novel to write, and I don’t have any planning done. Some of you may remember the name Eli DeMarco from a novel I attempted earlier this year called “City of Stone”. Of course, that novel never panned out, but I loved the character of DeMarco so much that I had to find some way to use him in a novel, so here it is!

The Last 7

This is it! We’re into the final week before NaNoWriMo begins! My main characters and supporting characters are pretty well developed and I’m so psyched about starting Shadow’s Secret next Sunday! On top of all this, I turned 15 yesterday!!! It’s been a great week so far, and I think it’s only going to get better.

I’m really looking forward to doing this year’s NaNo because I haven’t worked on a novel since I finished Sorcerer’s Apprentice, so it’s going to be nice to be back in my element. Not looking forward to trying to balance school and NaNo, especially with a full load of classes this year, but I’ll make it work. It’s gonna be a great month!

Gearing Up

Alright, so it’s that time of the year again: time to start getting ready for NaNoWriMo! I’m so excited, I’ve been looking forward to this all year long! I’ve decided, as of right now, that I won’t be working on the next PARADISE LOST book. I think one of those a year is quite enough for me right now. Besides, I don’t want to move too far ahead without finishing Guardians. Speaking of which, I kind of let that fall by the wayside while real life got in the way. I’ve just been mind bogglingly busy lately and have hardly had time to write.

Anyway, onto what I AM going to write for this years’ NaNo. I’m going to be working on a fantasy novel called “Shadow’s Crossing” that takes place in the fictional town of Oakwood, Virginia. It’s going to follow the story of seventeen year old Josie Bryant, who has been tossed from house to house as a foster child. At the beginning of the novel, she lands in Oakwood under the impression that she’ll only there for six months before she was handed off to another house somewhere else. As she begins making friends at the local high school, she begins to hear stories about the house at the end of her street, which appears to be abandoned. One night she and her friends go into the house, searching for one of the other foster kids that is at Josie’s house, and they find things beyond what they expected. The house is the place where reality and dreams cross paths, and they’re caught in the middle of it all.

The concept itself needs to be fleshed out some more, but I think I’ve got a good, solid foundation for the novel. Ultimately, this is going to turn into a series called “The Secrets of Oakwood”. I have no idea how many books there will be, but I’m planning on no less than five. I’ve got a lot of story to tell here, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Back to the Beginning

Alright, so it’s now September 21st and I have really gotten into editing/rewriting The Guardians. I’m participating in NaNoPubYe’s annual Fall Warm-up, a writing challenge where you write 25K in 2 weeks, and I’ve chosen Guardians as my project for that this year.

So far, I’ve completely overhauled the prologue, and tomorrow I’m going to begin work on revising Chapter 1. I’m currently planning on having this new draft finished by October 20th, ending up with a 100K wordcount, then I’m going to try and pick back up with editing again in December. My current goal is to start submitting to agents next May.

Anyway, just wanted to update the blog! I’ll try and post more regularly now that I’m back to work on writing!

Moving into September

Alright, so August is over and I finished PARADISE LOST: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice! It ended up being about 110K long, and is now printed out and in a binder. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to finally have the second book in the series finished!

I’ve also begun editing Guardians! I’m currently rereading the manuscript and making notes about things I see that need to be changed or improved, including character names, locations, and details. I’ve also discovered that I tended to summarize a lot of the action in the first novel, so I’m going to be going in and filling that out along the way.

Now, it’s time to turn my attention to the imminently close NaNoWriMo. My current plan is to work on the third book in the PARADISE LOST Saga, but I’m also looking at doing another fantasy book which is currently titled Violet. Nothing is solid yet, I’m just looking at my options.

Anyway, just wanted to check in and keep the blog updated!

The End is Near (Kind Of)

Alright, so I just passed the 25K point in my 50K AugNo goal. Overall, I have more than 83K written for Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I’m finding it hard to believe that the book I’ve been working on for 10 months is this close to having a complete first draft. It’s been a long and gruelling process, but I’ve loved every step of the way. In fact, I’ve learned things through the writing of this book that I now can use for Guardians. My writing style has really started to take shape, and I think once I polish this book off, it’s going to be simply incredible.

Of course, I won’t be able to polish Sorcerer’s Apprentice off until I do some major work on The Guardians. That’s going to be a whole other monster for me to tackle. Guardians was the first book I’d ever been able to finish, and so it’s only natural that I should be scared to death about editing it.

However, I can’t really think about that right now, I have to worry about the last 25K of SA. I’ve really had a great time writing this novel, it’s been a lot of fun to build this world of magic and monsters right on top of the world we already know and love.  In the first book, I didn’t spend a lot of time in one place, but in Sorcerer’s Apprentice I’ve spent a good deal of time in Russia and this last 25K will be taking place in Italy. It’s been nice to be able to keep the characters in one place for a little while, but I know that they will eventually have to travel again.

It’s been fun so far, and I look forward to getting back and editing Guardians in a couple of weeks!

The Story Continues

I have been meaning to post for a long time now, but my life has been beyond insane over the past couple of days. Anyways, AugNo is coming along pretty well, I’ve written over 16K over the past 11 days, including the whopping 3K I wrote today! Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an incredible novel so far, and it has a lot more action thanthe first draft of Guardians did. I’ve killed a few characters in this one, but I’m going to try and lay off the character murdering for a few books once this one is done. Although, I do know of two more characters who will be dead by the end of the novel.

Currently, the characters have left Russia behind and have just left London.  The London sequence was very difficult for me to write today. I had no problem with getting the words down on paper the way I wanted them, but I actually began to cry during one of the scenes because of the emotional intensity during the scene. Of course, to counterpoint the sadness, I turned around and wrote a battle sequence.

I’m really looking forward to the end of SA because of one thing in particular: the climactic battle in the….okay, I’m not going to ruin by telling you. I’m preserving as much as possible so that when I publish the books (which will happen eventually!!!!) the readers won’t be able to get on here and find out spoilers.

In addition to all this, I also have a full list of working titles for all nine PARADISE LOST novels and I’ve also named the trilogies. I really wish I could reveal the titles, but, as I pointed out in the last paragraph, I’m trying to preserve as much as possible.

In other news, I’m probably not going to be working on the third PL book for NaNo this year. I’m seriously looking into another idea of mine, which would be the first novel in a sci-fi series. I’m also going to go back rewrite Guardians soon, as well.

So, overall AugNo is coming along well, even though I’m a bit behind. I’m going to be writing 2.5K every day until th 16th, and that should put me right back on track! This book is seriously INCREDIBLE! I am loving this world I’ve created, and I can’t wait to publish the books!