Mer.

Hello out there. Just thought I'd pop in and say a few things.

I've been pondering several questions lately, that all refer back to my writing. How do you stay organized with your ideas? How do you keep your ideas from blending with one another, and ending up turning all of that into another idea? How do you sift through all your subconscious mind's babble, and try to keep everything straight?

Doesn't it just drive you crazy?

Well, maybe it doesn't. Maybe I'm just the crazy one here for thinking all of that. :P

- E

The different types of drafts (for me).

At the very beginning, it's what most people would refer to as the "first draft". First drafts for me are drafts where I just write with one primary idea, but nothing that branch out from it. At the end, I can't say it really sucks. I mean in the general scheme of things, heck yes, it sucks. But if I'm concentrating on where that draft took me, it doesn't suck. Well. Maybe that's pushing it a bit. First drafts tend to be the longest drafts of the novel's history.

After that, there are the "plot drafts". The number of plot drafts last as long as they need to, until my plot and characters have fully developed. This is where I write and fix the plot and scenes in my manuscript, and toy with them to find the perfect one(s). Not really revising them, but trying to figure out what I'm supposed to actually put down on paper. They kill. They sap up my energy and patience like...I don't know, leeches. Either way, I hate them. And I'm sure plot drafts also hate me.

Next, there are "revision drafts", which are about two or three. I start at the beginning of these (in Depravity's case, draft 7 was my first revision draft), thinking of all the things I needed to finish. I've already compiled a mental list of things-I-have-to-fix, starting with holes and writing issues and the like. While revising, I always feel accomplished. I always feel and know that I'm one step closer to my goal (as cheesy as that sounds), and that motivates me. That makes me...happy. Ish. I like revision drafts. These revision drafts also include revisions from my critique partners.

Finally, the last draft is called, well, the "last draft". This is where I finalize everything, reread it until I'm satisfied, and maybe tweak little things here and there. And then...it's usually off to My Documents, where I never see them again.

Depravity has the first manuscript I've ever written that I don't plan to keep away. I'm not quite sure what I'd really do with it, but I'm definitely not going to shake it off. Depravity's the longest novel I've ever written (the other novels, or I should say short stories, I've gone through with complete drafting lasted only a few pages long). I'm not leaving it. Nope.

As you can see, I have a really complicated writing process. This might not be the smartest thing to do, but I feel the most organized and I write the best this way. If I try anything else, and I have tried some other ways, I get confused and everything is reduced to a mess. I have to take one thing at a time when I write.

Strangely enough.

- E

One-One-OneOne.

I'm sure you've heard this over and over again, and read this over and over again on Facebook or Twitter or some other source, but bear with me here--it'll only be once.

Happy New Year!

Now one of my friends on Facebook (because I don't have a Twitter, even though I should probably get one) pointed out that no one should really say "happy" anything because we just never know. How do you know the new year will be happy? he pointed out. It's true, but saying that phrase isn't about pre-cognition or anything. Not really.

Well I definitely have no idea what I'm saying anymore. Debating on holiday phrases is not the point of this blog post.

The point of this blog post is to basically say: go for it. Do whatever you've been wanting to do, but you couldn't do in 2010. Do it now in 2011. Because even if the world does end in 2012 (very unlikely in my opinion), you'll at least have done something worthwhile, right?

- E

Winter break ftw.

(Photo from Weheartit.com)

I finally get to sleep in! Well, that's definitely not the only reason why I love winter break (even though the winter break this year is only about a week and a half long), but it's definitely a primary reason. I've been staying up late all night catching up with my favorite TV shows. Oh, and revising Depravity. Of course I was doing that as well.

No, really. I was doing that. I have less than 100 pages left to revise, which is making me seriously happy.

Winter has never been my favorie season. In fact, it's my least favorite season. The only good part of winter is New Year's, the holidays, and the school break. That's about it, really. Summer beats winter by a whole lot of points (summer break's longer, my birthday's in the summer, it has better weather, etc.), but I still have to give winter some credits. I mean, seriously. I've never gotten so much episodes through writing done before. So thank you.

Have a good holiday everyone!

- E

Wherein I finally read, instead of write.

I know this sounds sort of...off for a writer. Arguably, writing should always come before reading, right? I mean, writers write. They read, too, but they primarily write. It's what they do.

Lately though, I've been reading a whole lot and not writing at all. I blame school for this. There's been an abundant amount of homework lately to prepare us for our finals, I suppose, and a bunch of activities to fit in before winter break. Plus, the snow. Oh, snow. I hate it. Sure, it gives me an excuse to drink hot chocolate, but snow comes along with colds (which I've gotten twice, one after the other in the time span of only two weeks), and shivers, and a bunch of coats and what-not that makes me look like a burnt marshmallow, and my hair all crazy with static.

All I've wanted to do was curl up with a book, Iron Chef America playing on the TV, and drink my hot chocolate. I suppose I could curl up with a laptop, too, but still.

Except winter has always been my best writing time. I don't really know how to describe it; sort of like the smell and the air and the whole atmosphere--it helps me concentrate and just...write. Not read well, but write well. I've often made more progress in my WIPs than my books. But, you know, I love reading, and I've been craving a lot of Meg Cabot lately for some reason. Reading always spurs inspiration for writing, anyway.

I guess what I'm trying to do is make up petty excuses. No, there really is no true excuse for me to skip out on writing. I've made little progress with revising Depravity, or writing Incandescent, or planning out Book 3. Which is just really sad.

- E

December comes rolling in...

First and foremost, I'd like to say one thing:

I really didn't enjoy NaNo.

From what I've heard, most of the population of NaNo writers love or loved NaNo. I guess I'm not of the majority. Not sure if that's a good thing, or a bad thing. But the truth is, I suppose I just didn't really get into the writing zone, or my NaNo novel. Everything felt dull and pointless, and I wasn't motivated at all. It didn't help that schoolwork (a whole lot of schoolwork) was in my way. I suppose either Shadowed or Thumbelina didn't work out for me. Or maybe, it was because I was still so caught up in Depravity and Incandescent that all I could think about were demon slayers and not faeries and shadows. And what-not.

Which is why I finished NaNo with a messed up 30,535 words.

Am I going to start back up on Shadowed again? Maybe. I've never gotten such a creative idea before, and I'm still somewhat excited about it. But I'm not known for going back to old, unfinished novels. So maybe not.

As for Depravity, I'm doing fairly well. I'm more than a third in with my revisions, which are really tedious and annoying, but interesting all the same. For Depravity's sequel, Incandescent, I haven't written much, but I've gotten some pretty good ideas. This must mean something, right? I might not have won NaNo, but I at least had gotten somewhere with my Ascendancy Series.

Along with Depravity and Incandescent, I'm starting a third, 8,000-word novel for a Fiction Novel Writing Contest. Winner gets $1000. I'm not doing it for the money though. Not...really. I'm doing it because I'm just curious. I've never entered a contest before. It'd be good experience, wouldn't it? I have some pretty good ideas for my 8,000-word novel, but I don't have at title, and not many character names. Ah well. It'll happen soon enough. The submission deadline is January 15th, so I better get a move on.

Oh. And it's snowing over here...unfortunately.

- E

Being Dormant...

A quick notice before I get to writing for awhile.
This blog will be dormant until, pretty much, nano is over. I'm seriously behind and I can't afford to update anything anymore at all....aggh. Not that my updates would be lengthy anyway. They'd probably just consist of a bunch of word counts and such. Nothing too important or big.

So! If you want to know how I'm doing, just drop by on Nano. My username is, creatively put, "writerella".

Thanks a lot guys and I hope to be posting more in December!

- E