NaNoWriMo 2014: From Heaven To Hell/Hydrena

Time for another story about a story idea!

When I was maybe 13, 14, 15 years old, I spent a lot of my time on a website called FictionPress.Net, posting stories and talking to people in the forums. The site users used to start informal writing competitions among themselves, and I took part in two. The second is irrelevant (at least for now), but the first involved starting your story with a short passage which ran thusly:

"Stop, you thief!" Panting frantically, I ran down the escalator from the heavily puffing security guard. I clutched the pack of cigarettes tightly in my hand as I made my jump to freedom – crashing into someone. I looked up to find myself staring into a Goth boy's green eyes.

I'm not sure if this was from something, or if the girl who started the contest just made it up; if I've just infringed some sort of copyright thing, I didn't mean to and I'm sorry.

From this passage, I developed a modern fantasy story about a girl who discovered a new world and a new race (by means of the green-eyed Goth boy, who was a part of this race), and ended up having to confront Death himself, and I called this story From Heaven To Hell. I made it up as I wrote it, so the plotline was a bit dubious, and what kind of character gets transported to another realm by some guy she literally just ran into and doesn't ask where she is or what the hell just happened, I don't know. But it was one of the few stories that I actually finished at that age, and despite the fact that my two main characters didn't have much personality-wise (much like the rest of my characters - guess who couldn't be bothered with character development when they were 14), they stayed with me.

I mentioned in my post about The Dragon Story that I have a habit of merging story ideas together, and so when I realised during the early stages of planning Barnabus' Balloons that I would want some sort of magical race in my story, instead of creating a new magical race, I decided to steal the one from From Heaven To Hell, thus linking the story ideas. I also mentioned that I had created a network of sequels, prequels and companion books. Barnabus' Balloons is to be the first in the main series, which will consist of four books, and From Heaven To Hell, which I am renaming Hydrena while I rewrite it during this month's NaNoWriMo with a better plotline and more developed characters, is to be the last, while The Dragon Story is to be the third. I am also planning a prequel and have numerous over ideas which I may or may not ever write.

So Hydrena - the rewrite of From Heaven To Hell - is what I am writing at the moment. We are ten days into NaNoWriMo now and unsurprisingly I am very behind (both with writing and with my uni work, but that is neither related nor the point). You want proof? Fine.

However, I am not the only one doing NaNoWriMo at my university, and we have got permission to have an overnight write-in at our library soon, so as long as I don't continuously forget to write until then, I should be able to catch up. :)

Language Is Magic

I've been at university for a bit over a week now, and started my Linguistics with German degree course two days ago. At the end of the seminar I had today, our group was asked: "why do you all want to study linguistics? What about it makes it interesting to you?"

When I tell people I'm studying linguistics, many of these people ask me: "what languages?" They assume that they know what I am talking about, but they forget, or maybe don't realise, that there is more to a language than knowing how to use it to communicate. Linguistics is the scientific study of language as a concept, from phonetics (speech sounds and how we make them) to sociolinguistics (how social factors such as class, sex, age and ethnicity affect the way language is used) to syntax (the structure of sentences). But things like that often don't cross people's minds. After all, they have been speaking their language for years; what more is there to know?

That's why I find linguistics interesting. Those of us who, for example, can't programme computers know very well that we can't programme computers. But not many people know just how much they don't know about the sentences they build and the sounds they form into words every day. It's like a hidden science, it's like a secret society. You don't know it's there until you really stop and think about how you don't need to be psychic to place images in other people's heads, you can just put one word after another in a specific way and providing that they speak the same language as you, they can rebuild the image in their heads just as you described it to them.

And the person doing the describing doesn't even have to be anywhere near you for them to communicate that image. You can make little inks marks on paper, and these little ink marks have the power to take strangers on journeys around the world, to inspire them, to entertain them or to break their hearts. You don't need magic to cast a spell on people; you just need words.

If you think about it, all language is is a load of sounds, and all writing is is some funny squiggles, and yet we can understand them. And we take it completely for granted; we don't know how we do it, and we don't even think about how we do it, we just do it. Doesn't that say something amazing about the human brain? Because nobody told you how to put a sentence together, but you still know how to do it. Well, you say, it's just common sense. So does that mean that you were born knowing that the adjective goes before the noun (eg, "the sneaky fox")? Does that mean you were born knowing that it makes sense to say "the fox will hunt the rabbit" but not "the fox will the rabbit hunt"? If we were all born knowing these things, then why does the adjective come after the noun in French, and why would "the fox will the rabbit hunt" be a perfectly grammatical sentence in German?

Language is a mystery but that doesn't stop us using it every day. Language is powerful and strange, but language works in so many ways we don't understand, and personally I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to find out all it's secrets.

Post "The Secrets The Dead Keep"!

I've been meaning to write this post for ages.

So! I finished the first draft of my novel! At eighty-five thousand, one hundred and thirty four words, it is the longest thing I have ever written. I finished on the 30th of August and by the 31st of August, had it edited and formatted sufficiently to send off for my free proof copy offered by NaNoWriMo and Lulu.com. Unfortunately, the "free" bit didn't cover shipping, and the cheapest option is also the longest to deliver, so it's doubtful it'll arrive before I go to university (cue sad face).

After finishing Camp NaNoWriMo, I abandoned FocusWriter and instead solely used yWriter5, which I HIGHLY recommend. It is very useful for keeping track of scenes and chapters, making it considerably easier to manage long documents such as novels, and it is pretty easy to export to Microsoft Word files all in one piece by messing around with the Export Project/Export Selected Chapters options in the drop-down menu under "Project" in the toolbar on the top left. I only used it at its most basic, not bothering with the Characters, Locations and Items settings or even using the Goals, so it has far more potential than I give it credit.

Unfortunately, I haven't written much since finishing Barnabus' Balloons (I can no longer remember the reason I gave it a code name as opposed to just using the actual title I've given it, so when I get my proof copy with the actual title on the front, I'll post a picture). I have been considering writing a ten-chapter story based on my favourite band Within Temptation's latest album Hydra, with a chapter based on each song on the album. I've also been thinking about the sequel to Barnabus' Balloons, but the ideas for it haven't taken hold of my heart just yet. The story idea that has taken hold of my heart, however, is a prequel, set a few hundred years before Barnabus' Balloons, but in the same fictional country, documenting the life of the first Queen as she struggles to right an unjust and warring world. Alternatively, there are other ideas I've been thinking about writing as well, that are too unformed for me to really be able to talk about them just yet.

So basically, I'm at a complete loss as to what to dedicate my time and effort to next.

Post CampNaNo Update

With a few exceptions, I have managed to write at least a little bit every day since Camp NaNoWriMo ended. Having a daily word count goal to aspire to during Camp has improved my motivation to write; plus, I've reached 50,000 words in my novel, so I feel I might as well finish the damn thing. Right now, writing is going a little slow, but I'm determined to get to the end eventually.

One of the Camp NaNoWriMo prizes is a free hardcover proof copy of your manuscript through Lulu. The deadline for this is the 30th of August so I'm aiming to finish my first draft and do some minor edits (spell checking and things like that) before then. I've also been looking at the template that you use to format the manuscript to send it off for printing, and it's a little complicated, so I'm glad I've started doing that early, before I've actually finished the whole manuscript.

I am SO CLOSE!!!: Camp NaNoWriMo final week update

With one day to go, it is more than possible that I will reach my goal. Needless to say, I am very excited. This week has been a very good week, mostly because of that one day that I managed to write 5,000 words. Without that, I would never have been able to almost catch up. Today I have written a little more than 4,000 words, and I am going to write more. I am nowhere near to finishing the story itself - I keep telling myself that I'll keep this scene short, so I can get to writing the next scene and move the story on a little faster, but I can't seem to stop myself from trying to write well and add details. Nonetheless, I'm nearly there! I can't wait to finally reach that 50,000 words. :)

Camp NaNo Update: Week 3

Target word count: 37,096
Current word count: 27,932
Current chapter: 12/13

I'm still woefully behind - further behind than I was before, in fact - and starting to feel like I'm running out of time, but I'm sure you'd rather hear the good news: I've found my motivation! I'm enjoying writing a bit more now, and what I am writing is flowing a bit better. Despite having gotten past the halfway mark in terms of wordcount, though, I'm nowhere near the halfway point in my story.

Nevertheless, I shall not give up!

I'm going on holiday tomorrow, and it's really crept up on me, so I'm rather busy and unfortunately probably won't write anything/much today. Maybe I can catch up on the place at 6 tomorrow morning... Also, I'm not taking my laptop, and will be continuing writing on a different laptop. I'm going to miss my own laptop. As for the software, I was about to spend a paragraph explaining the problem I've been having trying to transfer the yWriter5 files, but while writing this post, I've been tinkering with it and I think I've worked it out (in fact, there may be two ways; I emailed the developer an hour or so and just got a response, with a solution that's different to the one I just thought of). I'll talk about that separately, though. As for FocusWriter, attaching the file to an email didn't work (apparently there wasn't an appropriate program on which to open the file or something, even though I downloaded FocusWriter on the other laptop) but simply copying-and-pasting worked. The customised theme I use on FocusWriter for writing Barnabus' Balloons was easy to transfer, by exporting it from the theme menu-thing, emailing it across, and then importing it.

Anyway. Back to last-minute-packing, trying to work yWriter5 and writing, methinks!

Best. Pep Talk. Ever.

One of the reasons that it's better to do NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo than write a novel in any month of the year is the community feeling of I'm not writing alone, if all these other thousands of people can do it then so can I. Another reason is the weekly pep talks.

Yesterday's, I think, was particularly brilliant. The idea was a personalised pep talk: you were given a list of things to think of...

1. An awesome superhero name
2. Adjective describing your main character
3. Your favorite snack
4. The last verb your main character enacted
5. The manufacturer of your favorite snack
6. The first piece of dialogue in your story that starts with 'You...'
7. Your current word count
8. Adjective describing your inner editor
9. Adjective describing your best friend
10. Your favorite supporting character in your Camp project
11. The last piece of dialogue in your story that ended with an exclamation point
12. How much time you last spent writing
13. Your favorite mythological creature
14. Your favorite author
15. Write a sentence beginning with the words "Once upon a time"

And then you inserted them into the pep talk in the appropriate numbered gaps. This is what I ended up with:

Once, there lived a writer, known throughout the lands as (1)The Authoress. This writer was seized by inspiration one July, and struck out to tell the tale of one known only as "The (2)Determined One."
The first two weeks were full of wonder. Fueled by (3)chocolate digestives, the writer generated conflicts like vast thunderstorms, and characters so real they jumped off the page only to (4)write you right in the face. (5)McVities, now aware of the crucial role they played in this writer's story-spinning, swelled with pride and told the writer, "(6)You can't leave me housekeeper-less, Kerla!"
Alas, not all was so rosy. After hitting (7)20,854 words, the writer remembered their last pang of doubt. What if they became blocked once again? What if their story was silly? Maybe… maybe it would be better to stop. They looked into the mirror, and the face they saw seemed almost (8)stupid.
At the writer's darkest moment, a/an (9)awesome voice arose. "Hey, you can do this," it said. "If you don't, how will we ever find out what happens to (10)Felwin? I don't want to live in a world with that kind of empty hole. Don't stop now."
The writer nodded, saying "(11)I can't just leave it! No matter how far away from my word-count goal I am, I promise to write for at least (12)the majority of the day a day."
With that, a rainbow sprang across the sky like a (13)dragon racing toward the newest novel by (14)Kristin Cashore. The world seemed to hold its breath, waiting for the writer's next sentence. The writer smiled, took a deep breath, and wrote "(15)Once upon a time there lived a dragon called Hubert who was a very misunderstood dragon..."

Credit goes to Tim Kim, (Camp) NaNoWriMo's editorial director, for the writing of this pep talk.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week 2 Update

Target Word Count: 25,806
Current Word Count: 18,552
Current Chapter: 9/10

I'm now starting to rely more on my outline instead of feeling that it is holding me back. I have been using YWriter5 more this week which I have found to be very helpful, especially when looking for details; I've been writing using FocusWriter and then copying and pasting each scene into YWriter5, which is very useful for keeping track of what happens in which scene, and also makes tracking that little bit of writing down much easier.

That isn't to say though that writing this novel is getting much easier. It feels like it's all happening rather slowly, and like I still haven't got into it yet. Each scene in my outline is a stepping stone, but they're all very stable stepping stones; there doesn't seem to be much danger or excitement, and although my plot confuses me sometimes, it all seems quite straightforward. I'm just sending my characters from scene to scene at the moment, like a military operation. And it's going to need a lot of cleaning up when I've finished.

As you can see, I'm still very behind with my word count, but I don't think I'm much further behind than I was last week. However, I am starting to feel the amount of work I need to do to finish this novel. I do not think it will be complete within 50,000 words, and I think I will be continuing to work on this draft after the end of July. It is starting to feel a little hopeless. I have a long way to go.

Camp NaNoWriMo Update: Week One

Target word count by the end of week one: 11290
My current word count: 6089
Currently writing Chapter 5 (started writing from halfway through chapter 4)

I like to think I have good excuses for being behind: I spent most of my weekend working and on Friday had to have a pet put down. Also, I'm trying to learn driving theory, and occasionally do some actual driving.

It has taken me a while to feel like I'm writing a novel; previous NaNoWriMos have felt full of excitement, and I have basically spent my month thinking of nothing but my novel. This time around, writing feels pretty slow (except for at almost-midnight - because it seems that I'm finding writing easiest when I'd really like to go to bed) and I'm not really feeling the NaNoWriMo atmosphere.

I think a possible explanation for this is that I'm following my plan; in the NaNoWriMo that I completed in 2010, I didn't outline my novel and instead went by the vague idea of what was going to happen that I had in my head, and in the Camp NaNoWriMo that I completed in 2011, I threw the vague idea that I formulated on the day I started writing completely out of the window. The inspiration for this novel came to me while I was planning, and jotting down random bits and pieces, but that same inspiration and motivation isn't here now that I'm actually writing. I feel a little like I'm just going through the motions to get from A to B and from chapter to chapter.

However, I have only properly planned up to partway through Chapter 7, which includes an important plot point, but it's a plot point that I can't work out how to go through with - I have my start point, I know vaguely what the situation is, and I know what the outcome needs to be for the story to move forward, but I'm not sure how to make the situation cause the outcome - so it is at this point that I will be able to start just writing to see where it takes me. The further we go along my storyline, the sketchier and more vague the plot becomes, so in theory, writing should get easier as I go.

Anyway, not counting the 164 words I wrote after midnight before I went to bed, I haven't written anything yet today. Therefore: onwards we go!

Let the writing begin!

Today is the 1st of July, which to me means only one thing - Camp NaNoWriMo is beginning!

This month I will finally finish a draft of Barnabus' Balloons and I can't wait. Because I've already started writing, I'll only start aiming for my goal of 50,000 words partway through chapter 4; originally I planned to write up to the end of chapter 3 and begin Camp NaNoWriMo at the beginning of chapter 4, but last night I found a beginning for chapter 4 that I'd already written, and that I plan to type up and use.

Linking back to the post I wrote rather a while ago about the technicalities of writing, I'll be using FocusWriter to write my novel in, and I'll also try to use Storybook and another piece of novel planning software called YWriter5, so that I can compare them. However, in the meantime, I've blu-tacked some paper on the wall next to my desk so that I can stick post-it notes on it detailing my novel's outline. So far, I like the idea that when the entire outline is up there, I'll be able to see it all at once - I just wish the post-it notes stuck to the paper a bit better.

Additionally, I lied when I said I had no more exams. Apparently what I thought was a holiday in which to devote all my time to writing is actually just time in which I do not have school to, in part, do a few more hours working (which is fine), but mostly learn driving theory, and a lot of it. I'm not a happy bunny about it.

No more exams for me!

With my exams over, I've taken my revision posters down. I'm rather fond of this replacement already:

The Dragon Story

I have been reminded quite a lot about my love of dragons recently; I found a rather addictive game on my

phone the point of which is to raise dragons, I found a video on making origami dragons, and I have been promised to be lent Eragon once exams are over, because it came to light that I still haven't read it.

I fell in love with dragons when I read Cornelia Funke's Dragon Rider in year 5 or 6; I got it from the school library, and tried to read it fast so that I'd have finished it by the time I had to give it back (it was a big book), and cried after I did give it back. I believe it is the one book, or one of the very few books, I class as one of my favourites that I have not reread (that's another addition to my post-exams reading list, methinks).

So, I thought I'd talk a little about my one novel idea that actually has a dragon in it, albeit not very much. You'd think that a writer who likes dragons would have a dragon in like every single story, but apparently not. My lack of dragons makes me sad. I need to write about more dragons.

Anyway, this story started out life in a small black and red notebook with squared paper at my grandma's house when I was about twelve or thirteen. I believe it was the first project I ever took seriously (though of course, between the ages of six and ten I took my badly illustrated, badly handwritten, badly stapled together books very seriously - until I got bored of them a couple of hours after starting them).

What will from here on in be referred to as The Dragon Story was a fantasy story (naturally), though it didn't have a name and still doesn't now. I remember reading an extract out at my school's creative writing club (which I had only just joined), thinking it was brilliant - and looking back, I completely understand why the older students struggled to compliment me. It began completely unplanned - even as I wrote the first lines at my grandma's house I'd hardly even thought about it - and when I did start planning it partway through, the plot was over-the-top, carried by weak characters with few motives, who lived in a world that had no history (although it did have a map that I slaved over for hours and hours and have since lost the original of, so I only have bad photocopies).

The map shrank in the wash.

I recall one particularly melodramatic scene inspired by my favourite song (I Was Only Dreamin' by Bryan Adams - no longer my favourite song, but still close to my heart), in which my character fell asleep on the beach and woke up to find his lover gone - and he comes to the conclusion that she was merely part of his dream, and falls into despair until she reappears a few minutes later, much to his delight. Does that portray the levels of bad we're talking about here?

Naturally, my protagonists were going to win against the bad guys (who had a stupid, and stupidly long, name made up of a load of French words stuck together), and the two characters mentioned previously were going to get married and live happily ever after.

Good start.

So where does the dragon come into this? And why am I writing about this story that I abandoned when I was thirteen?

To answer the first question, I shall have to tell you a little about the plot. The first part of the story involved my characters fleeing literally to the other side of the world from the bad guys, until they found help in the form of an elf friend of one of theirs, who advised them to go to Wise Dragon (creative name, I know), who lived in a cave under a mountain which he never left (nice to know that my one dragon is an awesome, fearsome dragon). I'm not even sure my characters ever got as far as Wise Dragon except for in my plan, but Wise Dragon was going to reveal a few secrets about my characters' identities and send them off on their noble quest - he was rather an important plot point.

To answer the second question - I have a bit of a habit of merging numerous story ideas; so, this story has become embroiled in a rather large network of sequels and companion novels to Barnabus' Balloons which incorporates a great number of previously-thought-of, sometimes abandoned ideas, and a few new ones. Therefore, this story now takes place in the same world - and in some parts, the same queendom - as Barnabus' Balloons, but some years after the end of it, and also involves the same enemies as it, which no longer have a ridiculous group name. Basically, this particular link to the companion novel network (which may perhaps one day be something akin to Terry Pratchett's many, many Discworld novels) stemmed from my desire to replace these evil-for-the-sake-of-being-evil antagonists, and "hey look, I already have some more realistic villains with more plausible motives, why not just borrow those?" 

As I am mostly focussing on Barnabus' Balloons at the moment (apparently my concentration levels have increased from my days of badly illustrated, badly handwritten "books"), The Dragon Story is currently little more than a couple of initial chapters and a vague plan, but I do know that it will still involve Wise Dragon (who, unlike the antagonists, will keep his name, I imagine) and the plot will still revolve around a journey however the ending will not be as happy as my thirteen-year-old self intended. :)

Writing Gets You Cats

I have just read a blog post by Kristin Cashore in which she recommends a basic online word processor called Written? Kitten! which will reward you for every 100/200/500/1000 words you write (depending on which you pick) with a picture of a kitten. I have a feeling I will be using this more often. :)

LOOK AT THIS LITTLE FELLOW WHO CONGRATULATED ME FOR WRITING 100 WORDS OF NONSENSE!

Revision Procrastination

A little light bedtime reading, methinks...

It's difficult to write a writing blog when you're not writing anything.

Having said that, though, if I'm going to be completely honest, saying that I haven't been writing anything is a lie, it's just that what I've been writing is only really bits and pieces. However, what I have been doing that is actually helping towards a bigger project is making a scrapbook in a notebook my friend bought me for my birthday, comprising random bits of writing (or, at the moment, one random bit) and sketches of characters (which is a great way to spend the few days running up to an exam...). I later plan to include a sort of mood board of places for my setting, as well as sketches of my imagined setting itself, other random notes concerning the plot and the fantasy world Barnabus' Balloons is set in (you know, law, medicine, fashion etc - general world-building). I'm very excited for when I have enough time to put more effort into this. :)

Also, an email I just got reminded me that April's Camp NaNoWriMo finished a few days ago, and apparently the winners can get free proof copies of their book. When I took part in Camp NaNoWriMo, this opportunity was not available, and when I was a winner of November NaNoWriMo in 2010, I didn't finish revising my first draft before the deadline for the offer. Hopefully, though, free proof copies will still be a prize for Camp NaNoWriMo winners in July, when I will finally have time to write. :)

My Inspirations

When I say my inspiration, I am not talking about the ink monsters (not this time), I am talking about the fact that a few minutes ago I was reading a blog post and listening to music at the same time.

Do not fear. All shall become clear.
 
The first of my two inspirations is Kristin Cashore, my favourite writer, whose blog post I was reading just now. Ms Cashore is an American author of three YA fantasy books: Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue, all three of which are amazing. As an aspiring writer, it feels only natural to be greatly inspired by someone whose writing style is sensational, whose characters are very close to my heart, and whose fictional worlds come to life in my mind so easily. I mentioned (or may have mentioned?) in my previous blog post that Bitterblue is one of the things that inspired me to start writing one particular project.


I have been reading Kristin Cashore's blog for almost two years (according to the emails I signed up to receive every time a new post is published, and which I do not seem to delete). There are a good few posts concerning writing and the writing process which I find very helpful and encouraging (her comments about the complexity of writing multiple projects simultaneously in her most recent blog post and also repeated reminders that all first drafts are always terrible are very reassuring). Furthermore, I find her books, and her blog posts, funny. My sense of humour appears to have found a match. :)

My second inspiration is Sharon den Adel, the lead singer of Dutch symphonic metal group Within Temptation, who just happen to be my favourite band, and it was Within Temptation's music which I was listening to as I read Ms Cashore's blog post earlier. Ms den Adel is a fantastic singer and she also writes a good deal of the songs, along with the other band members. I love the songs she sings to pieces, but the music is not the main reason that Ms den Adel specifically (as opposed to the band as a whole) is my second inspiration. We already know she is very talented, but she's also a mother of three, and before her career in Within Temptation she worked in the fashion industry, and now designs both the dresses she wears and the band merchandise (when I found this out, I suddenly felt honoured to own a Within Temptation t-shirt).

I'm going to have to be careful not to start going off on one about the music industry here, but I have a lot of respect for female lead singers in metal* because they all just seem so genuine. They're all fantastically talented and very hard-working, and they all make music simply because they love music. They're all lovely people and none of them have lost their dignity to fame. And before I say anything else about singers/bands generally, I shall make a hasty return to Sharon den Adel. As I mentioned before, she comes across in interviews etc as a very genuine person, with a sense of humour and also humility (which again, is a common trait in metal bands, I have just realised). She just seems to me to be a wonderful human being who sings beautiful and inspiring songs.

On top of the reasons for both of these women being inspirations to me, I'd like to add that me being a humongous fangirl is probably also a factor. :)

*I'm only talking about the women in metal here because with regards to metal bands, the bands I listen to are generally female-fronted, so I can't really comment on the male-fronted bands as I don't know very much about them.

Barnabus' Balloons

There are two people who have contributed to the code-name I have given my novel-in-progress, and one of them will know exactly who he is, while the other may have forgotten her contribution. But still.

I started this project in summer 2012, for Camp NaNoWriMo, having thought of my first ideas possibly a few months or possibly a few weeks before starting writing on the first of August. There were two novels that inspired me, and they were Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore - my idea of how the city this book is set in would look was different to the way it was actually portrayed in the book - and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - I fell so in love with the setting Morgenstern created that I felt compelled to at least attempt to create a setting so wonderful myself. I was also slightly inspired by the song Must Get Out by Maroon 5 (ah, how music tastes can change in as little as two years).

The idea behind (Camp) NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. In August 2012, I managed 41,000 words, and I was not even halfway through my plot - I plan for the book to span an entire fictional year, and I believe I managed to get to June. I think.

Since then, I have not really left Barnabus' Balloons; I have temporarily left it in for other projects, but I have never fully abandoned it. And yet I have never reached an end either. I am currently writing what I am calling a third draft, despite having never finished either the first or second drafts. So technically, if I finish this third draft - which I am planning on doing, eventually - it will then become the first complete draft.

I have much hope for this draft.

Barnabus' Balloons is to be a fantasy novel, set in a world of my own imagining (hence the maps). I don't want to give too much away but it concerns family mysteries, searching for a new life and for what is lost, and secret organisations plotting revolutions - and, naturally, a bit of magic. The story focuses on Saffie, who is seventeen and lives with her older cousin in a remote mountain village, and who moves to The City (which I finally named today while messing with Storybook - how exciting!) for various reasons, and there discovers a great many things.

My reasoning behind discussing this is that I have a number of ongoing writing projects, and I'd quite like to mention them from time to time, seeing that this is a blog I am to dedicate to my attempts at writing, therefore I thought a little overview of each of my projects would be in order.

So, readers, I introduce you to code-name: Barnabus' Balloons.

I'd also like to point out that I sort of stole the idea of code-names from Kristin Cashore's blog and the wonderful code-name she has given to her sister, Apocalyptica The Flimflammer. I have no idea if there is any sanity to that name at all, but it is brilliant.

The Technicalities of Writing

When I write, I usually use Microsoft Word but quite often I think that it is merely functional; very good at being functional, yes, but not very inspiring or geared towards things like novels. So today I downloaded two free pieces of writing software which I thought I'd try out, after a little bit of research.

I chose Storybook, a novel planning tool, and FocusWriter, a word processor designed with authors in mind.

Obviously I haven't had much chance to use either that much yet, but so far I'm ranking FocusWriter higher than Storybook. FocusWriter does what it says on the tin - lets you focus on writing. It's got a very simple layout, with the toolbar only appearing when you hover your mouse over it, so that literally all you can see when you have the programme full screen is the writing you're doing. You can set themes to make the screen a little more interesting - have a background picture that may inspire you to write, for example. I have not yet made use of the timer facilities it offers, but from what I've read, it sounds as if they will come in very handy. This programme makes writing feel new and exciting - probably something akin to the feeling I got when I discovered that I could type up the stories I wrote by hand on Microsoft Word 2003 when I was about eight. Having something written on the computer made it feel special, but these days - especially since I've had my own laptop - I write most of what I write on the computer, so Microsoft Word - even with a far more recent version - doesn't feel special anymore. FocusWriter, however, does.

As for Storybook, I'm a little disappointed. It doesn't inspire me; it hasn't come to life and shown its many uses yet. Mostly, it confused me, but then again, confusion does come with unfamiliarity. The idea behind Storybook seems to be that you enter in your characters and the locations, and you link them together in scenes which you can sort into chapters and parts, and also into strands of your plot, in the end giving you an outline to follow, which you can change as your story changes. This, as I both read online and discovered myself in entering in information for my prologue and first three chapters, is pretty time consuming. But according to my online source, it gets more useful after you've sorted all this out. So I hope I shall warm to it. We shall have to see.

I was hoping today to talk about at least one of the projects I'm working on, but alas that has not occurred; I got distracted by working out new writing software. Hopefully, though, my next post shall be on novel-in-progress code-name: Barnabus' Balloons.

Maps of Imaginary Places

Many things happen in my head, and I write some of them down.

Sometimes, I draw maps for the stuff that happens in my head.

"Eastern Continent"

I like drawing maps.



"Mountains an' stuff yay"

"No, no mountains here"

So sometimes, I draw maps that don't have any relevance even to the things in my head. I colour them in and everything.

Keeping The Ink Monsters Happy

The teacher who runs my school's creative writing club gave me a picture of a moomin because I won't be able to go to the creative writing club when I'm at uni. It was the last writing club we'd all be likely to attend together due to study leave, exams, etc (and even then, we still weren't all there).

 

 

She made me promise to carry on writing, and I will because the ink monsters won't go away that easily (but ssh, you mustn't tell anyone about the ink monsters, they're secret).

 

I'd like to say that I created this blog in order to fulfil this promise, but I created this blog yesterday and made the promise earlier today, and apparently time just doesn't work like that.