*Happy Dances*

I only have one chapter left of book 2 to write! I’m currently on just under 75,000 words, and hopefully the next, and last, chapter, will take me up to just under 80,000. I’m feeling much better today (seems like it’s finally on it’s way out, but it still hurts like hell!) so I’ve been able to get some writing done, and I’m quite happy with it! So, one chapter left, then I might take a break (but probably won’t!) and then start on Book 3, which is the last in the trilogy. Then, the epic editing session can begin whenever I can be bothered to do it 😉

By the way, if you’re in Britain, Ireland, America or Japan, over the next few weeks there is a documentary airing called “Titanic with Len Goodman” (BBC1 in the UK, RTE something in Ireland, PBS in American and apparently it’s in Japan too), and I am (hopefully!) on one of the shows – I spent a day filming in August so not sure if I am on it, or what episode it’ll be, but it sounds like it will be an interesting and informative programme anyway, so check it out!

 

Writing Update!

Just finished chapter sixteen, and the word count so far is 70,841 words which, as you can probably imagine, I’m very happy with! I’m not sure how much longer this one is going to be – I know how it ends, but I think I probably have two or three chapters left to go, which hopefully will be around 3,500 words each, so I’m looking at a total wordcount of nearly 80,000 words, which isn’t bad compared to the first one, which ended up at nearly 60,000 (still need to get around to editing that to bump it up a bit and make sure that people connect with the characters a bit more).

Not sure how long it’ll take me to get there, but I only have this week left at college, and then I have two weeks off, so by the end of the Easter holidays, book two should be finished! Yay! 🙂

The power of music!

Music is a truly amazing thing. It can move people to tears, melt the hardest of hearts and bring a smile to your face when you’re feeling at your worst. It also has benefits that can be more personal to you – for instance, I find it very hard to write if I don’t have music on. However, it has to be instrumentals, or classical/acoustic. I can’t write to many songs with words – pop songs, rock songs etc are all out of the question. The only two songs with lyrics that I have on my writing playlist right now are an acoustic version of “Cancer” by My Chemical Romance, and “Who Wants To Live Forever”, the Katherine Jenkins version of the Queen classic.

I’m not sure what it is about the lyrics – perhaps that I find myself wanting to sing along, and that distracts me from actually doing any productive writing – but I really struggle to write if the music I listen to has any fast-paced lyrics. I mainly use “soundtrack” music – I believe the correct term is “epic score” or something similar. I find the best two groups for this are Two Steps From Hell and Immediate Music – both of these groups have such a variety of pieces available (I say “pieces” rather than “songs” because they are – they are beautifully orchestrated and incredibly emotional. You can get pieces that range from mind-blowingly epic to heartbreakingly emotional and tear-jerking, and my Writing playlist is full of their pieces.

Personally, I find it easier to write with the emotional music – when it’s epic, I often find myself having to sit back and actually losing myself in the music, and I picture epic battle scenes that usually don’t actually fit with where I am in the story at the moment – because it seems to enhance my writing somehow. If I’m writing a particularly sad scene, I will find one piece, which I feel best represents the emotions I’m trying to show in the scene, and I will listen to it on repeat constantly until I’ve finished the chapter. There are some chapters, like the epic long one in this book, where I actually have a smaller playlist playing on loop to write it, because the characters are experiencing such a plethora of emotions, and I want all the different pieces on hand to help me to write it. It seems to work pretty well – I’m so proud of that chapter I wrote, and I’m convinced the music I chose played a definite part in it.

There are some people who can’t write to music, but they find that music helps them to picture scenes in their heads, and even helps them to come up with new scenes – one of the Immediate Music pieces, “Boy Wonder”, basically gave me the whole scene in my head of the first chapter of what will be the sequel to the trilogy I’m currently writing, and that all came from around two minutes of music – just two minutes of noise, but it’s some of the most beautiful and most inspiring “noise” I have ever heard.

So, if you’re ever struggling for a plot, or the words just don’t want to flow, slip on your headphones (or better yet, play it out loud if you don’t have to be considerate of neighbours!), go to YouTube and find some of this epic score music – search for Two Steps From Hell or Immediate Music, listen to a few of their pieces and then see what the Recommendations bar down the side of the video suggests to you – you might just find a new piece of music that gets your story back on track!

Second time’s a charm!

So, here is another writing update! *fanfare* The second book is going much better than the first – it’s flowing better, bar a few pauses, and the word count is a bit more impressive – only thirteen chapters in, it’s the same as what I achieved during nineteen chapters in the first book (don’t worry – I’m going to iron it out during editing!). I think I’m enjoying this one more because there’s finally some interaction between some characters with others who they haven’t encountered before – the good guys are finally meeting the bad guys for the first time, whereas before it’s always been that at the start, they didn’t even know who or what they were fighting and then, they knew what they were fighting but hadn’t actually met them yet.

The chapter word counts are much higher, and yet I’m not really doing much different to what I did the first time around. The addition of a few new chapters in chapter one, which I’ll probably (maybe) get round to writing once I’ve finished the whole trilogy, should bring the first one into line with the second and the third, which I’m hoping will be the longest of all. I’m currently on around 58,000 with book two, which I think is slightly more than I achieved with book one.

This week might be a slow writing week for me – I’m doing a radio interview tomorrow afternoon, I’m at college all Thursday afternoon and evening rehearsing for my Drama practical exam and on Friday, I’m going to see Avenue Q the musical! Saving the best until the end of the week 🙂 So I probably won’t do much writing until Sunday (hopefully spending Saturday with my boyfriend, but he’s busy on Sunday so that can be my homework/writing day!). Normally I’d wish I had more time to write, but this way I can actually plan the next few chapters – I’ve been winging it since the start of the first book, so I really do think I ought to plan the last few chapters so that I actually have some kind of idea where I want it to go!

On becoming a literary murderer.

I feel like a killer.

Not in real life – don’t worry! I haven’t just been overcome by the urge to go out and kill somebody, I’m not evil. Or maybe I am – but only as a writer. This is the first time I’ve properly killed a character who I’ve built up and up, given them such a detailed back story, they’ve been quite a pivotal character – and they’ve just died. This chapter has been really hard to write in terms of how to get the right wording, and yet, at the same time, it’s flowed so much better than most chapters tend to. I’m not sure what it is – perhaps the fact that I’ve been building up to this chapter so much, but I’m quite proud of how it’s gone. There may be edits in the future, if I decide I’m not happy with it, but for now, I think it’s a fitting end for the character.

So, I’ve just written my first big death scene. How do I feel? Well, like I said – how I imagine a murderer must feel, but with more remorse. I’ve just been responsible for the events that are going to tear my characters apart, one is going to have a complete breakdown and lots of bad stuff is going to happen, basically. And yet, at the same time, I feel proud of myself. I really do get too involved in my stories.

Huzzah!

I actually wrote some more on Chapter Ten last night! It’s been a few days since I’ve written ANYTHING that wasn’t homework (psychology essays will be the death of me, I’m sure of it!). It’s flowing quite well again and I’m hoping that will continue. I rather like Chapter Ten. I delve a teensy bit further into the backstory of one of the side characters who does play a rather important part in the book overall, and I’ve already introduced another interesting character in the chapter, who didn’t even exist until halfway through writing his name! He’s a bad guy who doesn’t want to be a bad guy any more, and may end up becoming something of a close friend/potential love interest for this side character.

So, all in all, yesterday was a progressive day on the writing front. It was quite a productive day overall, to be fair – got quite a lot done in Drama class, and then script reading last night was fun – we started on a script I really really like! Going to be really busy the next couple of weeks though – this week is alright, but next week, I have a radio interview on the 7th, exam results on the 8th and going to see Avenue Q with my mum on the 9th (Can’t wait!!!), then that weekend it’s youth theatre and singing auditions for a musical (not sure if I’m going to go for the singing parts to be honest), and the week after it’s acting auditions which I would like to go for. Whether I’ll get a part is another matter entirely, but fingers crossed!

And then that should take me nicely up to the last couple of weeks before Easter. And hopefully hearing back from the university soon – I’m terrible at waiting!

Writing update! (mine, this time)

Chapters Written – 7

Chapters Edited – 0

Words – 32,671

Pages (A4) – 30

 

Finally finished Chapter Seven! It’s taken so long, but discovering a beautiful acoustic cover of “Cancer” by My Chemical Romance has helped me to get it finished.

Chapter Seven; feel my wrath!

Y’know I said I was looking forwards to Chapter Seven?

I really don’t know what I was looking forwards to. It’s turning out to be the hardest chapter to write – even harder than chapter one, where I just couldn’t be bothered to do it because progress was going so well on the other chapters. I don’t know what I’m finding so hard – I don’t particularly like either of the characters I’m writing about (I mean, I’m proud of their characters because they’re quite interesting, but I find them both to be disgusting excuses for human beings so I’m trying not to let that show too much in my writing, which is difficult), but I know that the chapter is vital for the progression of the story.

So I’m looking forwards to getting this one over and done with, hopefully by tomorrow morning because then college starts again. 6/7 weeks until Easter holidays and I can’t wait already!

Ooh, by the way – there will be some exciting news in the next couple of days (or possibly today) regarding – not my writing – but someone else’s 🙂 watch this space – it’s very exciting stuff!

Another chapter done and dusted!

So, that’s Chapter Five done and dusted, and let me tell you – I’m relieved to have this one over with. It’s been a really hard chapter to write, and I think I know why. I’m so proud of Chapter Four – it’s emotional and dramatic and a lot happens in it but I actually feel like it’s one of the first things that I’ve written well – and it’s certainly my favourite thing I’ve ever written, because I’m so proud of it. I think that made writing this chapter harder because it’s like… “Right. How do I keep that pride going, how do I make it so that ALL my chapters are ones that I can be proud of?”. And the answer is, I don’t think I can.

Chapter Five is… alright. Definitely doesn’t even come close to Chapter Four, and although I hope editing will polish it up a bit, I don’t think I’ll ever be thrilled with this chapter. Ho hum, at least I’ve finished the chapter! And I can move on.

 

So, after 5 chapters, the stats are –

 

Chapters written – 5

Chapters edited – 0

Word count – 23,517

Paragraphs – 232

 

aaaand I have been bitten by the writing bug once more.

I have written over 13,000 words today.

13,000 words!

And, they are 13,000 words which I’m immensely proud of and hopefully won’t require much editing. One chapter is 7,900 words, but it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever wrote, and I really am rather proud of it. Of course, it can probably qualify as a short story in its own right, but oh well – it might mean that once I’ve written this series, there’ll be a companion short story/novelet that goes along with the series about this character.

It’s been quite interesting to delve into the past – characters whom I hadn’t even planned or thought about before have popped up, although none will appear again apart from the character narrating it, and in the end it really explains why the character is the way she is – it’s been a very good process for me as a writer to do it, because it’s definitely going to help me with writing her in the rest of the series, and her life took some pretty interesting turns that, until I found myself writing them, I wasn’t even aware they’d taken!

So, my writing tip for the day is,  write your character’s backstory in short-story format. You never know – it could end up forming an important part of your novel, like mine did, or it could just turn out to be a helpful exercize in how to write your character in the future. Either way, I’m sure it’ll help you just as much as it’s helped me!