NANOWRIMO 2017 // About My Novels

So there's only 10 more days until NaNo?!?! How did that happen? Who's excited? :D I am! I can't wait until it starts like COULD IT JUST START NOW? XD

No? Well, in the meantime, I'll just tell you about the novels I'm going to be writing for NaNoWriMo. Look at me, being willing to tell you about novels I know nothing about. :P You may think I'm kidding, but I haven't done as much outlining as I would have liked to by now. But I know enough to get me started. . . I think.

I even made a collage for two of them! Please don't set your expectations too high, because I'm not very artsy. And they're really to help give you a better idea of what the novel is about, anyway. So. . . bare with me here.

Progeny

Genre: Christian/Young Adult

So if you've been following me for awhile now, more than likely, you've heard me talk about my novel Strangers. And if you've read my writings page, then you know that Strangers is the first book of a series.

Progeny, is the second book. And I can't really tell you much about this one because SPOILERS. XD Not necessarily for this one, but more for Strangers. I will say though, that in Progeny, Lacey has amnesia. *gasp* But I'm not telling you anymore than that. *evil laugh*

Storyboard on Pinterest- I just started it recently so there's not much on there except for a few characters. :P     

Lowlife

Genre: Contemporary/Adult Fiction

Derek is all alone. His parents died four years ago, and his only living family was an uncle who can't even support himself, much less him. A man took him in and taught him to fight, and now Derek is forced to participate in illegal fights to pay off his parents' debt.

One day, Derek meets Eliora (nicknamed "Ellie"), a naive girl who just moved into the area, and he can't seem to get rid of her.

That's pretty much all I have right now. Here's the collage I made for it:

Storyboard on Pinterest

Note: I can't take credit for this title because one of my friends actually came up with it for me. Whenever I'm struggling to come up with a title, which feels like it's every novel, I go to them for help. I also bounce title ideas off them, and they're always extremely helpful. You all should have a friend like this. :)

The War Between Us

Genre: Fantasy

Amaia has always been told to stay away from the people in the forest, but never knew why. One day, she comes across one of them and he's hurt. Unable to just let him die, she helps him. To show his gratitude, he offers to show her his world, but only if she promises not to tell anyone. Amaia agrees, and all too soon, she finds herself caught in the middle of a war.

This is going to be my first time trying to write fantasy, so I'm excited and also interested in how it will turn out. :) Here's the collage I made for this novel:

Storyboard on Pinterest



And there you have it. The three novels I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo. :) On a side note, today happens to be the exact day I decided to do NaNo last year. :D

So what about you? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? What are you writing for NaNo? Which one of my novels is your favorite?

The Bookish Tag

Hey, everyone! Yes, I know I didn't post last week, but that's because I've been super busy this month. Also, the reason I'm doing a tag this week. (And no, I haven't changed my posting day to Sunday. It's still Saturday, I just took a little longer than I expected to get this post ready. :P) I would like to thank Faith and Libby May for tagging me! :D
 

The Bookish Tag Rules
 

-You must be honest

-You must answer every question

-You must tag at least 4 people

Questions

1. What book has been on your shelf the longest?

Well, this is a pretty easy question, because what you all don't know, is for the first 18 years of my life, I only had one book. . . Just kidding. Umm, no, this is actually kinda hard. :P I want to say it's one of my Bibles (I'm not a hundred percent sure though).

2. What is your current read, your last read, and the book you'll read next?

Haha, current read? Um, yeah, I've started like 8 books, and most of them have been waiting awhile to be finished. :P I think I may be in a reading slump so I just started reading Dare by Tricia Mingerink again in hopes that it will help pull me out of it.
My last read was Rose of the Night by Hope Ann.
And my next read is. . . I don't really know. I'll either finish one of the books I've already started, or I'll read Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland.

3. What book did everyone like, but you hated?

Maybe the Divergent series? I don't necessarily hate it, but I didn't like it as much as everyone else seemed to. I really liked the first book, but that was about it. The second two were just kinda meh.

4. What book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?

All the books I own that I have not read yet. Just kidding. Hey, I said I was kidding calm down, guys! I actually don't think I have an answer for this. I plan on reading all the books I tell myself I'm going to read.

5. What book are you saving for retirement?

All the ones I don't read before then.  . . . What? I don't have specific books set aside for retirement. Who thinks about that anyway?

"These three I'll read tomorrow. This one I'll save for retirement. Ohh, I'll read these five tomorrow too. But I'm gonna save this stack for retirement. Tomorrow. Retirement. Tomorrow. Retirement."

6. Last page: read it first, or wait 'til the end?

Okay, so I've been known to take a look at the last page if I'm really enjoying the book, but I've kinda stopped because they have a tendency to not be very helpful to me. :P

7. Acknowledgement: waste of paper and ink, or interesting aside?

It can be pretty interesting. I actually don't think it's a waste of paper and ink because I like reading them, especially if it's an author I've never read before.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Oh, wow, this has got to be the hardest question in this tag. I feel I may get some strange looks when I say this, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I would switch places with Renna Faythe from the Blades of Acktar by Tricia Mingerink.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life? (Places, time, person?)

Not really. But I do have books that I bought because one of my friends on Goodreads recommends it. So whenever I see one of the books, it makes me think of the person who recommended it. Is that weird? Because I basically just said that some of my books remind me of bloggers. . .

10. Name a book that you acquired in an interesting way.

Can't. That's classified information. Just kidding. Hm, that's a hard one. I do have books that I saw on one of our shelves and I was like "This is mine now" and then put it on my own shelf. That's about as interesting as it gets. I mean, what counts as interesting?

"Now this book, I got stabbed in the foot trying to get this one. And this one here, was thrown at me."

11. Have you ever given a book away for a special reason to a special person?

I don't think so? Is that bad? I mean, I've thought about it, I just. . . haven't. . . done it. . . yet.

12. Which book has been with you most places?

My Bible, for sure. :D

13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad later?

Well, I graduated high school two years ago, so if I hated it then, I have yet to give it another try. There are some books that I was required to read that I'll probably never read again. :P

14. Used or brand new?

I prefer brand new, but I usually get used books in really good condition.

15. Have you ever read a Dan Brown book?

I've actually started one. It's one of the books that's still waiting to be finished. :P

16. Have you ever seen a movie you liked more than the book?

Um, I would probably have to say Tuck Everlasting. I liked the book, but I wasn't a huge fan. This is really the only one because I like always like the book more than the movie.

17. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks included?

Well, of course, cookbooks make me hungry, I mean, it's food! But I don't exactly read those for fun? Mostly because I find them kind of repetitive. :P So I'd probably have to say Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer.

18. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?

Well, I'm not going to include my family. Besides, their book advice can sometimes be. . . questionable. :P

I'd say the person whose book advice I'll always take is Jonathan. :)

19. Is there a book out of your comfort zone (e.g. outside your usual reading genre) that you ended up loving?

Oh, that would definitely be the Blades of Acktar series. All my friends on Goodreads were really excited for the last book, Deliver, to come out. I read their reviews for the other books in the series and decided to give it a try. Now, they are some of my all time favorite books! :D

I tag

Jonathan @ Fishing for Ideas

Ivie @ Ivie Writes

Lisa @ Inkwell

Lilly @ Live Beautifully With Lilly

As always, please don't feel like you have to do this. If I tagged you, and you don't want to do it, that's fine. And if I didn't tag you and you would love to do this tag, consider yourself tagged! :D


What about you? Which book character would you want to switch places with? Do you have a book that you acquired in an interesting way?

ONE MONTH LEFT! // 5 Things To Do

Guys guys guys! There is only ONE MORE MONTH UNTIL NANOWRIMO!! XD Like, how are we so close I'm not ready!

But I will be. . . hopefully. :P Although I still have a lot to do, I think I've got myself pretty organized for this month. Just yesterday, I bought a dry erase board (because apparently, these things are helping other writers?). I drew up the month of October and figured out what I'm going to do, in the writing department, each day. I already feel better about this month. :)

So I, myself, have five things to do before November, and I figured I'd share them with you all. :)


1. Outline

Yes, I still have to outline. I'm going to be writing three novels, possible four, for NaNo. Right now, I only have a few notes for each of them, and I've started making Pinterest boards for them too. I don't even have characters yet, except for one, and that's only because it's a sequel. :P But I'm not going to do what I did last year, and not even start outlining until two week before NaNo. There was a good reason though, and that was because it wasn't until two weeks before NaNo that I decided that I was going to do it. :P

You may be wondering why I'm writing three novels for NaNo, so I'll tell you. Last year, I didn't think I would make the 50k, especially since it was my first year/time doing something like that. But I finished the novel I had outlined by the 14th, and then had to find other novels to write. My final word count total was 105,501. This year my goal is 150,000 so I'm trying to make sure that I have enough novels outlined. It's also helpful because if one is giving me a hard time, I can switch to another one and keep my word count going up.


2. Playlists

You probably already know that I'm one of those writers who listens to music while I write. So I need to make playlists. Trust me, you don't want to in the middle of NaNo trying to make a playlist or figuring out what you're going to listen to. It takes time, time you could be using to write. So if you're a writer who maybe needs music to write, I highly suggest making playlists before November. I have an idea of how I'm going to create playlists, I just need to do it now. :P

Also, I'm now on Spotify! :D


3. Caffeine

In case you didn't know, I loove coffee. ;P And I need to make sure that I am all stocked up for November. Creamer too. Why? Because I don't plan on sleeping. Sleep is for the weak. Just kidding, I'll be sleeping. :P But anyway, if you have something that you drink or eat while writing, I suggest stocking up so that you don't have to make a run to the store in the middle of the month. Because if you are behind on your word count, then having to go to the store is just going to waste the time you could spend writing your novel.


4. Word Sprints/Wars

Between now and November, I am going to be doing word sprints, and hopefully word wars too. I want to practice writing large amounts at a time, and limber up my fingers for NaNo. It wouldn't be a bad thing to do if you want to practice too. Or you could be like me and practice writing a whole novel in a month. :P Yup, that's right. I have to write 41,500 words of Strangers this month before I can give it to my alpha readers in November. (Don't worry, my alpha readers aren't doing NaNoWriMo so it's not going to cause any problems.)

So I encourage all of you to do word sprints every now and then. I'm actually looking for someone, or multiple people, who would like to do word wars with me this month (and possibly in November too), so if you're interested let me know! :)


5. Panic

Hahaha! Yeah, I added this one partly because five is a nice number. :P But to be honest, it's not necessarily a bad thing to add to this. May as well get it out of my system. Besides, I plan on having this one done by the 15th. After that, I am not allowed to panic. The two weeks before NaNo starts I want to spend getting myself hyped and excited for November, not panicking.


So those are the five things I'm doing this month. At some point, I'm thinking I'll do a post on the novels I'll be writing for NaNoWriMo this month. You guys don't know anything about them yet, and I'm kind of excited to share them with you. :)


So what about you? What do you have to do this month to get ready for NaNoWriMo?