Woohoo! I'm totally excited to start my latest adventure into the noveling world! I will try and keep you all informed daily of my progress and goals for the day. I'm hoping (this may be a bit far-fetched :6:) to reach 50,000 words by the middle of November instead of November 30th. The rest of the time will be spent adding more to my novel. What is my overall goal for this year? Well, last year I reached a little over 50,000. I reached for every word until I almost died (creative wise). SuNoWriMo (a spin-off of NaNo) was only 30,000 words but I decided to go above and beyond, I reached 60,000 words with more ideas to continue on. This year I am hoping to reach 70,000 words by the end of this month. We'll see if I meet this goal because of how little free time I have (okay, I have lots but it doesn't seem like much).
More later,
Yuki- totally excited for NaNoWriMo!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
3 more days until NaNo!
Woohoo!!!!!!! I can not express my excitement in this post. I am incredibly happy for NaNo to start, I will actually get something done and it will give me something to look forward each day as I sit at school, not liking my class (enough said). Just the very thought lately makes me jump with excitement. As mentioned in my title, NaNo is 3 days away and it's still too far. I want to start NaNo now. :P I look forward to a month of craziness of writing and I'm very much hoping that this novel will come easily and I will not have to do much editing. I conteplated staying up until midnight on the 31st but decided against it since I have to get up at 6:30 the next day. :P
My plot idea is very formed and ready to take shape in my writing! I wrote a very basic outline but that very basic outline will keep me on target. I would post the outline but it will give away my ending... which I can't do. Have I mentioned that NaNo is only 3 more days away? :oops:
More later,
Yuki!
My plot idea is very formed and ready to take shape in my writing! I wrote a very basic outline but that very basic outline will keep me on target. I would post the outline but it will give away my ending... which I can't do. Have I mentioned that NaNo is only 3 more days away? :oops:
More later,
Yuki!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Working On My Plot
I'm working on expanding my plot. I have a pretty good idea of everything but I want to make sure that all my ideas get written down so come time for NaNo to actually start I won't be like: "My goodness, what did I think of that would fit so perfectly here?" I'm sure most people know what I'm talking about, one of those frustrations that can't be avoided and makes you want to rip out your hair because you didn't write down those ideas. So I'm going to expand my plot and write a very loose outline so there's lots of room to expand in the future.
I wish all my fellow NaNo-er's luck with their plots!
More later,
Yuki
I wish all my fellow NaNo-er's luck with their plots!
More later,
Yuki
Monday, October 22, 2007
9 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:P 9 more days until NaNo and I'm going to have competition for the computer. I can't wait to get started, in fact I had a dream about my plot last night. It was kind of strange that I dreamt about it but now my plot has definatly taken form and I know where I want to go with the story. The only thing I don't know is if... wait can't tell you because I might spoil the ending if I decide to go with it. :P Well, that's all for now, NaNo is upon us. Will you reach your goal? I hope so!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Only 16 more days to go...
Time is going by really slow. I am totally ready for NaNo to start but it won't come until November. :( However, I will gratefully wait because I need to time to get my act together and finish my character profiles. I should also come up with some nice plot twists. I have quite a few ideas in my head, it's time to write them down and keep them in a safe spot so I know where to find them come November (heh). More to come later!
Yuki
Yuki
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Character Profile Sheet: Alisha
Character Profile Info Sheet
Basic Statistics
Name: Alisha Reynolds
Age: 17
Birthday: 04/12/1990
Gender: Female
Hometown: Hershey, Pennsylvania
Current Residence: Marysville, Washington
Occupation: Part-Time Courtesy Clerk
Talents/Skills: Writes poetry
Salary: $8.03/per hour
Birth order: Only childFamily
Relationships: She lives with her father, who is an abusive drunk. Her mother killed herself several years ago and tried to kill Alisha as well to save her from her father’s wrath. Alisha bears the deep scars from when her mother slit her wrists.
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 5.5
Weight: 120
Race: Human
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown
Skin color: Pale white
Shape of Face: Oval
Distinguishing features: Scars all over her body, each scar is linked to a specific memory
How does he/she dress? Long sleeves, through all the seasons paired with jeans. Usually, she wears nicer clothes for work but still long sleeves.
Mannerisms: Shy, secluded
Habits: Rocks herself back and forth to comfort herself
Health: Generally good, she often is covered with cuts but manages to keep them from getting infected. The only times she gets sick is in the fall and winter
Hobbies: None, she is too busy working and going to school or staying at home, suffering abuse from her father
Disabilities: None
Greatest flaw: Her heart, she doesn’t want to turn her father in so she just suffers the abuse.
Best quality: Her heart, she’s also very forgiving of others.
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes & Attitudes
Educational Background: She’s gone to school since Kindergarten and continuing on with her education, now she’s a junior in High School
Intelligence Level: 104, she’s a little above average
Life Learning Experiences: Anger doesn’t do you any good, it will only prolong your suffering
Short-term goals in life: To graduate and move
Long-term goals in life: Get married, though she doesn’t think of herself as beautiful
How does Character see himself/herself? Not beautiful, standoff-ish
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others? Ugly, weird
How self-confident is the character? She shines in the areas that she is most comfortable with but retracts when thrown into an awkward situation. She isn’t self-confident in herself outside of her comfort zone.
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or a combination of both? She is often ruled by logic and very rarely emotion. Through the “tough” times, she found that acting in retaliation is only makes things worse.What would most embarrass this character? For people to find out about her dad, she loves him but not the things that he does to her.
Emotional Characteristics
Strengths: She relies on God to get her through.
Weaknesses: She keeps her problems to herself, leaving her with only one friend
Introvert or Extrovert? Very Introvert, she keeps quiet in fear that something might slip.
Because of this and the way she dresses, people think that she is weird and standoffish
How does the character deal with anger? Pretty well, considering she is abused constantly. She learned to accept it, now she must learn not to accept it and stand up for herself
With sadness/conflict/change/loss? She keeps a lot to herself, her closest friend doesn’t even know the extent of the damage
What does the character want out of life? Not much, she wants to get out and get married but thinks that it will be impossible at times.
What would the character like to change in his/her life? Everything but isn’t making much effort to change it.
What motivates this character? A change from her lifestyle
What frightens this character? That she will be the same forever
What makes this character happy? Not much, knowing that someone loves her is enough.
Is the character judgmental of others? Yes and no, she judges people who try to get to know her better as “pushy” but unless they talk to her directly she doesn’t really care about them.
Is the character generous or stingy? Just about every penny she earns is to pay rent for the apartment, to buy food, and to pay for her father’s alcohol.
Is the character generally polite or rude? Rude at first, if people took time to break down the barriers then she wouldn’t care.
Spiritual Characteristics
Does the character believe in God? Yes, her faith gets her through the days.
What does the Character believe? She believes that God is the Creator of the universe, that through the blood of Christ people are saved, and that life will get better
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life? Yes
If so, what role does it play? It plays a huge part in her life, through her faith she saves others but her gentle spirit. People are often drawn to her because of her spirit but she pushes them away.
How the Character is Involved in the Story Character's role in the novel (main character? hero? heroine? Romantic interest? etc.): Alisha is the primary main character in the novel, she eventually falls in love with Jake
Scene where character first appears: The very first chapter, the scene opens with her father beating her.
Relationships with other characters:
Jake- At first she doesn’t like him because he asks too many personal questions (about her family) but she eventually becomes friends with him and falls in love with him
Mark- Her father, she doesn’t hate him but she doesn’t approve of his actions. She wants him to change but fears this will never happen
Tabitha- Her mom, she committed suicide when Alisha was only 9 years old in effort to be rid of her father’s abusiveness. Tabitha also tried to kill Alisha so that her father doesn’t abuse her.
Lori- Alisha’s only friend at school (until Jake comes along), she is often kept in the dark about much of Alisha’s life but she is always there for her. Eventually, Alisha tells about her dark past.
How is the character different at the end of the novel from when the novel began?: (This is one of the most important things to nail down. A story that invokes change in a character will be more interesting and appealing to your reader.) She is more open and uses her experiences to help others. Also, she realizes that she is not alone in the world. She views her suffering as God's way of telling her that she's doing something wrong and that she's the only one going through this. When in fact, Satan is the one who is trying to ruin families and pull them apart
Additional Notes on this Character: She is a very kind person at heart but doesn’t really know what she wants to do and that is her downfall right there.
Basic Statistics
Name: Alisha Reynolds
Age: 17
Birthday: 04/12/1990
Gender: Female
Hometown: Hershey, Pennsylvania
Current Residence: Marysville, Washington
Occupation: Part-Time Courtesy Clerk
Talents/Skills: Writes poetry
Salary: $8.03/per hour
Birth order: Only childFamily
Relationships: She lives with her father, who is an abusive drunk. Her mother killed herself several years ago and tried to kill Alisha as well to save her from her father’s wrath. Alisha bears the deep scars from when her mother slit her wrists.
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 5.5
Weight: 120
Race: Human
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown
Skin color: Pale white
Shape of Face: Oval
Distinguishing features: Scars all over her body, each scar is linked to a specific memory
How does he/she dress? Long sleeves, through all the seasons paired with jeans. Usually, she wears nicer clothes for work but still long sleeves.
Mannerisms: Shy, secluded
Habits: Rocks herself back and forth to comfort herself
Health: Generally good, she often is covered with cuts but manages to keep them from getting infected. The only times she gets sick is in the fall and winter
Hobbies: None, she is too busy working and going to school or staying at home, suffering abuse from her father
Disabilities: None
Greatest flaw: Her heart, she doesn’t want to turn her father in so she just suffers the abuse.
Best quality: Her heart, she’s also very forgiving of others.
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes & Attitudes
Educational Background: She’s gone to school since Kindergarten and continuing on with her education, now she’s a junior in High School
Intelligence Level: 104, she’s a little above average
Life Learning Experiences: Anger doesn’t do you any good, it will only prolong your suffering
Short-term goals in life: To graduate and move
Long-term goals in life: Get married, though she doesn’t think of herself as beautiful
How does Character see himself/herself? Not beautiful, standoff-ish
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others? Ugly, weird
How self-confident is the character? She shines in the areas that she is most comfortable with but retracts when thrown into an awkward situation. She isn’t self-confident in herself outside of her comfort zone.
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or a combination of both? She is often ruled by logic and very rarely emotion. Through the “tough” times, she found that acting in retaliation is only makes things worse.What would most embarrass this character? For people to find out about her dad, she loves him but not the things that he does to her.
Emotional Characteristics
Strengths: She relies on God to get her through.
Weaknesses: She keeps her problems to herself, leaving her with only one friend
Introvert or Extrovert? Very Introvert, she keeps quiet in fear that something might slip.
Because of this and the way she dresses, people think that she is weird and standoffish
How does the character deal with anger? Pretty well, considering she is abused constantly. She learned to accept it, now she must learn not to accept it and stand up for herself
With sadness/conflict/change/loss? She keeps a lot to herself, her closest friend doesn’t even know the extent of the damage
What does the character want out of life? Not much, she wants to get out and get married but thinks that it will be impossible at times.
What would the character like to change in his/her life? Everything but isn’t making much effort to change it.
What motivates this character? A change from her lifestyle
What frightens this character? That she will be the same forever
What makes this character happy? Not much, knowing that someone loves her is enough.
Is the character judgmental of others? Yes and no, she judges people who try to get to know her better as “pushy” but unless they talk to her directly she doesn’t really care about them.
Is the character generous or stingy? Just about every penny she earns is to pay rent for the apartment, to buy food, and to pay for her father’s alcohol.
Is the character generally polite or rude? Rude at first, if people took time to break down the barriers then she wouldn’t care.
Spiritual Characteristics
Does the character believe in God? Yes, her faith gets her through the days.
What does the Character believe? She believes that God is the Creator of the universe, that through the blood of Christ people are saved, and that life will get better
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life? Yes
If so, what role does it play? It plays a huge part in her life, through her faith she saves others but her gentle spirit. People are often drawn to her because of her spirit but she pushes them away.
How the Character is Involved in the Story Character's role in the novel (main character? hero? heroine? Romantic interest? etc.): Alisha is the primary main character in the novel, she eventually falls in love with Jake
Scene where character first appears: The very first chapter, the scene opens with her father beating her.
Relationships with other characters:
Jake- At first she doesn’t like him because he asks too many personal questions (about her family) but she eventually becomes friends with him and falls in love with him
Mark- Her father, she doesn’t hate him but she doesn’t approve of his actions. She wants him to change but fears this will never happen
Tabitha- Her mom, she committed suicide when Alisha was only 9 years old in effort to be rid of her father’s abusiveness. Tabitha also tried to kill Alisha so that her father doesn’t abuse her.
Lori- Alisha’s only friend at school (until Jake comes along), she is often kept in the dark about much of Alisha’s life but she is always there for her. Eventually, Alisha tells about her dark past.
How is the character different at the end of the novel from when the novel began?: (This is one of the most important things to nail down. A story that invokes change in a character will be more interesting and appealing to your reader.) She is more open and uses her experiences to help others. Also, she realizes that she is not alone in the world. She views her suffering as God's way of telling her that she's doing something wrong and that she's the only one going through this. When in fact, Satan is the one who is trying to ruin families and pull them apart
Additional Notes on this Character: She is a very kind person at heart but doesn’t really know what she wants to do and that is her downfall right there.
Friday, October 05, 2007
My Plot for NaNo
This is my idea for NaNo, if you notice, I made the setting a town in WA because I've always heard: "When you don't know what to write about, write what you know." So I did, I know a bit about the town so I decided that that would be the best location. I'm going to expand on this in the future. Also, look for character profiles in the coming days. Please do not steal this plot and let me know what you think.
Title: Second Chances
Characters: Alisha, Jake, Mark (Alisha’s father), Cherri (Alisha’s co-worker), Olvia (Jake’s mom), Henri (Jake’s dad), Tabitha (Alisha’s mother), Lori (Alisha’s school friend)
Setting: Present day, Marysville, WA.
Scenes may include: An apartment, a school, a hospital, a restaurant, and a house
Themes: Love, faith, hope, peace
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Christian
Basic Plot:
Alisha lives alone with her father in a cramped apartment on the shady side of Marysville. Her father is a drunk, who doesn’t work and beats her constantly. Mark (her father), often times brings over his drinking buddies and then she isn’t just subjected to Mark’s wrath. Sometimes her father’s beatings go to the extreme and she ends up missing school and work due to injuries. When she attends school, she is teased and picked on there because of her shyness and the way she dresses. A guy by the name of Jake, takes interest in her and wants to know more about her. Alisha pushes Jake away because she is slightly afraid of guys and he asks too many questions. He persists and eventually she opens up her life to him, including what happens when she isn’t working. He becomes furious and demands that she goes to the state with the matter, she refuses. She wants to do her best to influence her father for the good before she leaves the house.
Amazed, Jake asks her where she gets her peace from. She says from God and after a couple of months of studying together, Jake accepts Christ and falls in love with Alisha. Because of missing work, Alisha works overtime and Jake waits for her shift to end to walk her home. Mark sees her walking home with Jake one evening and chases Jake off the property. Alisha ends up staying home from school for two days. Jake leaves her flowers on her doorstep to give her encouragement. When she comes back, Jake confesses his feelings for her. She admits to having the same attraction to him and they decide to become “boyfriend” and “girlfriend”. Mark finds out about their secret relationship and Alisha suffers greatly at his hand, the next day when Alisha doesn’t show up at school, Jake decides to investigate. He finds Alisha one the floor, nearly dead. To save her life, he calls Henri (his father who is a physician) and they get her to the hospital. Her life now hangs in the balance and love may be the only thing that can save her….
Title: Second Chances
Characters: Alisha, Jake, Mark (Alisha’s father), Cherri (Alisha’s co-worker), Olvia (Jake’s mom), Henri (Jake’s dad), Tabitha (Alisha’s mother), Lori (Alisha’s school friend)
Setting: Present day, Marysville, WA.
Scenes may include: An apartment, a school, a hospital, a restaurant, and a house
Themes: Love, faith, hope, peace
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Christian
Basic Plot:
Alisha lives alone with her father in a cramped apartment on the shady side of Marysville. Her father is a drunk, who doesn’t work and beats her constantly. Mark (her father), often times brings over his drinking buddies and then she isn’t just subjected to Mark’s wrath. Sometimes her father’s beatings go to the extreme and she ends up missing school and work due to injuries. When she attends school, she is teased and picked on there because of her shyness and the way she dresses. A guy by the name of Jake, takes interest in her and wants to know more about her. Alisha pushes Jake away because she is slightly afraid of guys and he asks too many questions. He persists and eventually she opens up her life to him, including what happens when she isn’t working. He becomes furious and demands that she goes to the state with the matter, she refuses. She wants to do her best to influence her father for the good before she leaves the house.
Amazed, Jake asks her where she gets her peace from. She says from God and after a couple of months of studying together, Jake accepts Christ and falls in love with Alisha. Because of missing work, Alisha works overtime and Jake waits for her shift to end to walk her home. Mark sees her walking home with Jake one evening and chases Jake off the property. Alisha ends up staying home from school for two days. Jake leaves her flowers on her doorstep to give her encouragement. When she comes back, Jake confesses his feelings for her. She admits to having the same attraction to him and they decide to become “boyfriend” and “girlfriend”. Mark finds out about their secret relationship and Alisha suffers greatly at his hand, the next day when Alisha doesn’t show up at school, Jake decides to investigate. He finds Alisha one the floor, nearly dead. To save her life, he calls Henri (his father who is a physician) and they get her to the hospital. Her life now hangs in the balance and love may be the only thing that can save her….
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Updating My Blog
Right now, I am updating my blog. As you may notice, I am adding my fellow CPeeps' blogs and I even figured out how to put a word count at the top. I will use that to keep you all informed as to my word count. :) More later...
Yuki
Yuki
NaNo 2007?
Hey all, it's time to start thinking about NaNo again. I'm really looking forward to doing this again. :) This year I've spent a lot of time plotting and as a result I've got one plot really developed in my head. I finally wrote it out on paper the other day. The nice thing about this plot is that it's really developed and I know where I want to go with the story. Plus, it's got a Christian theme running throughout the book. It's been a while since I've written a Christian novel and I'm looking forward to it. :) Anyways, I'm hoping to finish my novel again but if school demands my attention then I will give my attention to school. Last year, I had a lot of free time but this year I'm a little bit more tight schedule-wise. I look forward to the challenge of balancing school and NaNo.
I hope to see some more CPeeps this year.
I hope to see some more CPeeps this year.
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