Feeling Down

My story still progresses, but I`ve been reading up on some things about publishing and self publishing today. The more I read the more hopeless it seems. I`m not too far off from finishing my manuscript, in the basic outline I had. In fact I just solved, with the help of a writing buddy to bounce ideas off of, the one major hole in my story. This particular section has just been started as far as the writing of it goes, but from the very beginning I had only the general idea of what would happen before and after that point. When it came time to write it I panicked a little. Then I spent several hours in Mister Donuts with coffee and my writing buddy and came away with a good idea and an education in the workings of golems that had noting to do with a story either of us is writing.

Still my lack of potential audience bothers me. Mine is not a romance story, but neither is it suited to the younger children that tend to like the adventure stories without the dopey, angsty romances that it seems the entirety of YA has become. Again it is not really dark or real enough to be passed off as an adult fantasy either. Those combined don`t mean it will be a bad story, but it means if I ever get to the point that I can start looking for an agnet or submit my story to someone for editing, I have a very small chance of actually finding someone who will take me on.

Maps & NaNo 2013

So I'm almost caught up on my WC, but haven't even begun writing for today. As of right now I have 17,891 words. So by the end of the day I expect to have reached the projected count of 20,000. Lol, we'll see about that one right?

Anyway, because I was getting confused as to where I was sending my characters off to (Was the watu border to the east or west of that mountain?) I started sketching out a map. A very nice person on the NaNo forums has offered to take that map and make it look like a real one. I'm very grateful and give her artistic freedom in the project, because (as you can see) this map may be useful to me, but it's not very good for a finished book. I know, I know, I'm not finished yet, but I'm feeling quite accomplished thanks to what I have done already.

So this is the rough sketch of my map and the labels I use are in a combination of Japanese kanji (yes it is different than Chinese) and Roman lettering. So for your convenience here's a key:
山　= mountain
森　= forest
川　= river
小川　= name Kokawa River
高山　=  name Taka Mountain (Mt. Taka)
今　= at this time

And here's the confused middle part of the map with the city name corrected to Saigo

On the Subject of Titles

So, my current NaNo story is 29 pages in and still no title. I've posted on the suggestions thread and gotten some various and sundry mainstream sounding titles, with an interesting suggestion of Five over Three thrown in. While that one does sound quite interesting, it doesn't quite fit the bill for my story as it is currently.

Have I told you yet that a title is the hardest part about the story? How do you find a small sequence of words that sum up and project the emotion of this whole entity  that we call a book, that is infact a piece of the life of the author? It is made of her time and energy and emotion, she has given birth to this work through hard work and pain and occasional moments of pure happiness and inspiration that make the whole thing seem more worthwhile. How to name that?

That said, my story still needs a name, and I'm procrastinating on my word count by blogging about it...
*sigh*
Back to work then.

About Content

Please Note!

While I understand there is a certain danger of theft in posting anything online, please be aware of standard copyright laws. I own the stories and all rights to the original content I place on my blog.

Also, I do use a modicum of cursing in my writing so if you don't like it, don't complain, because I did warn you. Also most of my stories are written for young adult to adult audiences so expect them to contain violence and/or bloody deaths. Rest assured though, that while I may write romance I do not do erotica.  So no one has to worry about stumbling across erotic scenes at random intervals.

NaNoWriMo Anyone?

Well, since I have no readers I suppose this is strange, but I keep posting in hopes of. So if anyone is interested I'm hoping to participate in the NaNoWriMo this year. I tried the year before last and got the first 10 days or so, then gave up, but, try, try again, you know. 

My attempt this year will be my Tengarra story (as yet unnamed) that I have already written the preface for as well as two character profiles. I plan to do at least Seok and Shula's profiles before November, so look forward to that (or at least I do because there are no readers. I'm really feeling the absence of interest right now.)

Anyway, if anyone is wondering what the NaNoWriMo is there's a handy link for you. National Novel Writers Month has been delegated to November (and you can read all about its history on the site) where you have exactly 30 days to flesh out 50,000 words (the average length of an English novel). The beginning is usually the easiest part, like I said, I got almost halfway through the month on my last attempt. After that it gets more challenging, and the daunting part of that 50,000 really sets in. I will probably fail, but try anyway, on top of studying my Japanese. 

Inspiration?

Just in case anyone who reads this blog later (I have absolutely nobody reading it now) is wondering how I come up with the stories I plan to post here, I'll say it right out front... every one of these is a fan fiction. Now before you go and boycott my blog because of that little tidbit, listen to this; I hate reading fan-fics myself, as they are usually horribly written as well as unoriginal, but even though each and every one of my stories start out fan-fic, I assure you, they are thoroughly my own before I post them. In fact if anyone can come up with the story(ies) that I base them off of I give you kudos, because you are very perceptive and probably read a whole hell of a lot (like I do). So please feel free to comment on it if my story seems too similar to something else you've read, because I'll want to know!