Sunday, October 16, 2011

Vacation and NaNoWriMo


Hello, everyone! I’m back again, finally. I hope to post a bit more often this week than I have in past weeks, especially since I’ve finally (almost) decided on what writings I’m going to post. But, more on that later. Anyway, an update on my life.

·        This past week, we took a trip to the Pennsylvania mountains, the same area we went to back in early June. I enjoyed the trip, despite the fact that it rained on Wednesday and was rather chilly most of the time. The trails we did weren’t too long or steep, I managed to avoid eating too much the entire time and the fall colors were very pretty. Even the rain didn’t really do much to make our vacation not-fun. The only thing I really disliked was loosing one of my arrows after accidentally shooting it into the woods. To make matters worse, it was one of my best arrows and I never found it, despite the fact that my family kindly agreed to help me search. Still, I have six arrows left, so I’m not too bad off.
·        Another good thing about this past week? I got an incredible amount of work done on Hero. In fact, I got so much work done on it that I plan to finish it sometime this week! It helped that most of the mornings, I had nothing to do except write and listen to my iPod until everyone else got up and that I spent a lot of time in the van with nothing to do but write some more. On that subject, unless you get carsick easily or you’re going down a bumpy road (or you’re the driver), a vehicle on a long trip can be an excellent place to write.
·        Of course, since I’m almost done with my current novel, I’m already thinking of what I’m going to write next. In this case, “next” means for NaNoWriMo next month. In case you haven’t read my blog recently, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. It takes place in November, and is actually a lot easier than it sounds. At the moment, I have four ideas, and I’m not sure which one to do. So, I’m going to post my ideas, along with the pros and cons of each, and I’ll make a poll here on my blog, so that you can vote and tell me what you think I should write. The story ideas, by the way, will also be viewable in a list under the poll. If I have a title idea for the story or it’s the sequel to another story, that information will be in parentheses after the story number.
o       Story One: Rachelle has always thought that the forest world she’s lived in for as long as she can remember is the only world there is, but when she accidentally falls through a portal, she learns that she’s very wrong. The discovery of a dragon egg and a meeting with two twin dragon riders on a search for their sister lead into an adventure like nothing Rachelle’s ever imagined, one that will change her life forever. Pros: I have a lot of inspiration for this story at the moment, it’s about a subject I love but haven’t written much about (dragons and dragon riders), and I really like the main characters for this story. Cons: The characters would be older than what I usually write novels about, though I’m not sure how much of a problem that would be. Also, certain aspects of the plot might end up being cliché or predictable if I don’t handle them right.
o       Story Two: (Sequel to Gone [Camp NaNoWriMo 2011 novel]) Audrey may be safe and sound, but Kelia’s work is anything but over. Trapped in an unfamiliar world on a mission to free the rest of the captives and defeat the evil Lord Faldrin, she knows that she needs help but has no idea how to get it. Then, when she’s captured by people she didn’t know existed, she learns something about her family that she would never have imagined. Pros: I’m excited about this story, I have most of the plot planned out, and I get to write a “startling revelation” scene. Cons: I wrote about these characters very recently, so some might say that I should write about a set of characters that I haven’t written about in a while. Also, there are multiple spots where I haven’t figured major plot points out yet, which would likely give Writer’s Block a foothold.
o       Story Three: (Sequel to The Call [Written in March-July of this year]) It’s been several months since Wildflower, Sasha, and Taryn had their first adventure, and though Wildflower is glad for the peace and quiet of training and normal life, Sasha is bored and Taryn is wondering if this whole prophecy really was nothing more than a coincidence. Then, Mr. Widman receives word of a new mission for the trio. Suddenly, the three are whisked off to another world to rescue someone whom none of them knows. Then, soon after they arrive, Taryn is captured by the Black Tear! Will they be able to complete their mission? Pros: I’m very excited about this story, I get to write a lot of dramatic scenes, and I’m crazy about Taryn Anduin. Cons: I might want to spend a longer time working on this and not have a set word count for it. Also, like Story Two, I worked on this fairly recently so I might want to work on something with a different set of characters.
o       Story Four: (Elden Revenge/Elden Dawn, third in the Elden Tales series) Leilani is back in Dawnsdell, and though she enjoys training well enough, she and her friends are bored out of their minds for lack of adventure. Then, when reports reach the Council of Quan Shadowheart having resurfaced, Leilani and her friends are thrown headfirst into an adventure, after which nothing will be the same. Pros: I haven’t worked on my Elden Tales series since sometime in February, I have a few good ideas for this story, and I do need to get back to this series. Cons: I’m not as excited about this story as I am about other stories at the moment and my plot plans aren’t as well-developed as I’d like.
·        In addition to all this, I’m thinking of converting one of my Tales of the Great King stories, The Fall, into a lay. What is a lay, you ask? Well, it’s basically a story in poem form. The first I heard of lays is when I read The Lays of Beleriand by J.R.R. Tolkien. I have tried to write one once or twice before, and one of the poems I’ve posted on here, Dream, is similar to a lay, if not technically a lay. If my story conversion works well enough, I shall post my lay starting on Tuesday or Thursday, depending on when I get it finished.

Well, that’s about it. Thank you for reading this incredibly long blog post. Please comment and vote in my poll! Thanks again for stopping by!
-Sarah

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