Still writing!

Posted on by
4

Coming up on halfway through NaNo and I’m doing my best to keep the pace going!  I went to bed early a couple nights and my early lead slid back to the daily word count goal. I’m at 15.5K words and still going.

Aside from the fun premise and my excitement for the idea, I have Scrivener to thank for the way it has fundamentally changed the way I write. I’ve had to abandon so many ideas and stories because I thought I had to write things in a linear way, and if I wrote just the “good bits” without knowing how they would eventually connect, then I was a hack who couldn’t put a story together to save her life.

Then last year, just before NaNo, one of the folks in my local chapter told me that Scrivener was a free download during November and there was a discount on it after NaNo was over. I’d heard good things about it back when I was in Philly, but I was still thinking that writing had to be linear and didn’t see anything good about arranging scenes. They should already be arranged, right? When you write the story.

Things had changed. My life had changed. The way I accessed my creativity had changed. Why not give it a shot this year?

EVERYTHING CHANGED.

I was setting up scene “cards” on my virtual corkboard and would choose whichever one I wanted to write during word sprints, writing all over my timeline as the inspiration struck me. If I made a mistake in continuity? I could fix it later. This was just a first draft anyway.

JUST A FIRST DRAFT.

I know that a lot of this is because my life changed so much in a few short years, and all of the things that were going so turbulently wrong (and thus my creative things I did for fun had to be RIGHT) were gone or made right again. But Scrivener and NaNo certainly helped frame my new outlook with exactly the right things that I needed.

That’s why I hope to do NaNo every year from now on. And I’m definitely aiming to win it again for the second year in a row.

Alex O'Loughlin - crazyface

Wish me words!

The day before the day before NaNoWriMo

Posted on by
1

After careful consideration and consultation with some other creative people who improved on my original idea, I decided on Steve the Dog for NaNo this year.

Premise: Steve McGarrett stayed with the SEALs after his father’s death instead of leading the Governor’s task force but remained on Oahu at the Naval Base. He volunteered for an experimental infiltration/espionage program, working with scientists with the goal of projecting his consciousness into the body of a dog. The first lab-based experiments go well, but on his first ‘outside’ test run, something goes wrong and he wakes up, injured and trapped in the dog’s body with seemingly no way out.

The working title is “MWD” (for Military Working Dog) unless I think of something better – feel free to offer suggestions in the comments!

You can follow my progress here at my NaNo page 🙂

Tomorrow night I’ll be attending a Midnight Write-In with my local NaNo group, and when the clock strikes twelve, the typing begins – WISH ME WORDS!

writing

NaNoWriMo – Decision Time!

Posted on by
2

Okay, folks – I need your help.  It’s just mid-October and I need to commit to an idea for NaNo from which I can squeeze 50,000 words.  I have two ideas in mind – both fanfic, both challenging, and both exciting.

NUMBER ONE – Sherlock/Torchwood Crossover

Yes, this is the same idea from last year, inspired by this amazing fanart (if anyone knows who did this one, please let me know!) – John Watson worked for Torchwood before he met Sherlock, but quit after a huge falling out with Jack (his leaving left Jack on a search for doctor, and that’s when he found Owen). He might have been Retconned, but he still remembered enough to find another purpose chasing danger behind a man in a long coat and a gorgeous ass.

NUMBER TWO – Hawaii Five-0 – Steve the Dog

Yes, Steve the dog. Based on this AU posted on Tumblr: “i got cursed and turned into an animal and taken to the shelter and ended up getting adopted by someone who is really hot OH NO” AU.

Steve McGarrett is cursed into the form of a dog (with his human intelligence, though influenced heavily by canine instincts), is caught by Animal Control and adopted by Danny and Grace. Hijinks ensue.

Steve the dog will look like this, because I can’t get enough of this furry face:

So. I can’t decide.

I have notes for both ideas. Steve the Dog has some unanswered questions that I need answers to before I begin, but I have brainstorming e-mails sent to friends who love the show and know canon enough to help. Torchwood John is outlined in bits and bobs with most questions answered.

Torchwood John has been percolating for years. Steve the Dog grabbed me the second the AU prompts were posted and the canon is fresh and shiny in my brain. Both stories have military elements that I’m prepared to be wrong about but would like to get sort of right (John in the British military, Steve the SEAL).

So please help! Ask me questions, tell me which idea you like better, anything to bring a fresh perspective to both ideas and help me decide.

Manifestation of stress and me.

Posted on by
1

This week/weekend I learned the different ways my body stores stress and tension.

When I’m in a situation where I’ve been stressed due to outside situations and I feel powerless to change them, my body responds to that stress with gastric reflux. Dry heaves, every day, that disappear immediately when the stressful situation is resolved. Examples:

  • Abusive boss – dry heaves stopped the day she announced her resignation.
  • Dealing with mine and Dad’s and Mom’s emotions during the decline of Dad’s health – dry heaves stopped the day that Dad stopped all medications except for palliative care.

Apparently, in situations where I’m abusing myself by holding back what is likely a cathartic emotional response, my body responds to that stress with jaw pain (not referred pain – no sign of heart attack). I had it for a solid week, and actually needed ibuprofen and was considering seeing a doctor for the issue.

Then a friend of mine told me that sometimes her stress “collects” in her jaw, and asked if I’d been dealing with any stress lately…and I had. More than I expected, and the resulting examination of said stress led to a spate of tears and pillow hugging until I felt I’d purged the majority of it. Now my jaw pain is all but gone. A little stiffness in the morning, but gone within minutes.

Huh. Well, at least I know some of my warning signs? The jaw pain is new, but so is the idea that releasing those pent-up emotions will at least make me feel better, even if they don’t change anything.