Day 22

I had a bit of a slow morning, writing-wise. I thought I could get the last 5k under my belt but instead I did a little over 2k and now I'm stuck at another 2k or so until I win... so, tomorrow will probably do it.

Other than slowness in general, I think I know why it's taking so long. I'm stalling. Yes, my brain is trying to keep me from finishing the book. It's too afraid, especially since I'm about to dive into the climax, and things are about to start HAPPENING.

*SCREAM*

My subconscious is worried for the characters. I am worried for the characters. I haven't freaked out this much about characters since... well, the last book I wrote, and honestly I freaked out more so for that book than for this one.

But still.

Cross yer fingers!

~Silvermist

Day 19

Well, I was going to stop writing early today so that I could draw, but I ended up writing a half hour overtime and drew a half hour into school time. (oops).

At any rate, the picture is fan art of my Camp 'WriMo August '12 novel, "The Truth" and is quite sad. If I decide to upload it to DeviantART, I'll show you all.

(and by "you all" of course I mean nobody, because nobody ever reads this blog)

[Oh I'm talking to myself, wheee!]

Ahem. The novel goes well. I broke 56k today, as it seems my daily average is about 3,000 words. I'm 8k away from my goal of 65,000 words total... I think I'm about to start going into the climax. *EEEEEEEEEEEE BOOM* But never fear, there is still plenty of story to go around!

For instance there is one more flashback for a main supporting character that needs to be done, and there is the final of three flashbacks for the main character, which reveals the EBIL PLOT TWIST OF DOOM! MAHAHAHAHAHA!

Plus there needs to be the boss fight. Which takes place in a circus tent. Booyah.

Then there's the falling action, the sad almost-end, and the REALLY sad end. *SOB*

Who knows, maybe my characters will do something rash. I'm certainly not in control. They are.

~Silvermist

Days 14, 15, and 16

I've been slacking, I'm sorry! But here's how it went:

Day 14: Struggle struggle struggle struggle, EXHALE die.

Day 15: I CAN DO THIS I CAN DO THIS I can't do this die.

Day 16: I DID IT WOO HOOOOOOOO!

So I  reached 50,000 words this morning, but seeing as my set goal is 65,000, I have quite a bit more work to do.

Off to do it!

Silvermist

Day 10

I missed yesterday, so a quick post about how it went:

Well. I got in 2k, mostly about flashbacks that I was inspired to write at the time, instead of filler I didn't feel like writing. It was awesome. :D

~Silvermist

Day 9

So this morning I woke up early because of a mouse rooting around my floor, so I brought the cat upstairs and she caught it pretty quick. (go Gus!) But then I was tired all morning (still am).

Unfortunately, my computer decided to run like 3 automatic updates, one for Word, so I wasted 20 minutes doing nothing when I should have been writing. All in all, I got barely over 2k this morning. It was sad.

However, I am starting to get into the meatier flashbacks... and they're kinda cute. Well, one of them was friggin' sad and scary, but the other one is kinda cute. Two little British boys being all cute and friendly and brotherly... ahh, the joys of not really doing research and then just writing on a whim.  Gotta love England in the 1870s.

Well, off to catch up on math from the past month of not understanding.

~Silvermist

Day 8

Welcome back after we skipped Sunday! It's day 8 and I speed-wrote about 4,000 words this morning.

That's quite a lot, in case you were wondering.

But I breached 30,000 words! I'm so happy, but so very, very sad at the same time. See, the 30-k mark is my weakest point... it's where I have to carry the story over and get the rising action started without actually plunging into the climax too soon. (The climax comes usually at 45,000 words, but in this case I'm running for a 65,000-word goal, so it shouldn't come until 55k or later). I usually fight the Monster of Dullness throughout this time period.

Off I go to draw!

~Silvermist

Day 6

Tomorrow marks the end of week one for Camp NaNo. Since I can't post tomorrow, I'm recapping the first week now.

So where am I?

Well, the conflict is present now, in the 25,000+ words I have accumulated this first week. The conflict that will set the main character and his posse of friends spiraling into a downward journey of destruction, horror, and DEATH.

I am going to like writing the climax. Or am I going to hate it? Either or, it's going to be climatic. The villain is fairly strong, although it's not really clear why he's a villain yet. (MeheheheheHEHEHEEHEHEHEHE!)

The characterization is freaking amazing. I love everyone so much I'm going to run away with them all and hide them in a pit where no one will find them but they might drown if it rains. Oops. Still! They're taking everything in stride, and soon enough they'll each be called on to assist the main character.

Or
will
THEY?

*DUN DUN*

Crazed,
Silvermist

Day 3

Hooooooooooo...... such a long day... I wrote about 3,500 words this morning in a spurt of word wars and creativity... I'm at 16,300-something... I'm so tired...

Woke up at 5:45, dumb alarm wasn't set so I freaked out and woke up 15 minutes early. Then my friend came over for math tutoring this afternoon and there went two more hours.

Dinner had better be good...

Now I'm listening to sad Japanese music and wistfully gazing at Word while instead I search for science resources. Oh well, at least the novel goes well.

I've been thinking a lot about the villain's motive. It's not very well thought-out but it has a lot of validity behind it and if I'm very, very careful I can pull it off. Meanwhile I have to build up the connection between the minor characters with the main one intricately or else my epic climax won't be as epic as I'd hoped.

So some notes to self:

-STOP! Do NOT separate the MC from the minor MCs!
-My second favorite FMC is not in character. Change that!
-Start using flashbacks! It's never too early!
-Find more muse music, the same 9 songs are getting old.

I send my heart out to other 'WriMo's. PERSEVERE!

~Silvermist

Camp NaNoWriMo

Well, most of us are used to seeing the words 'Camp NaNoWriMo' and thinking 'YES! I can do this because there's finally no school in the way!'

Unfortunately, this year it's in April. We still have school, and although I have the month off work, I am a senior this year and have to graduate several weeks early. A tad stressful. Just a tad.

So to make sure I don't die of stress, I'm going to make even less time for myself and be sure to make (or try to make) one blog post a day to keep basic track on... stuff. So yeah. It might be a very, very short post once a day, either tracking my word count or my frustration as a writer put through a 65,000-word count goal in less than 30 days.

(It's always less than 30 days in my house. Nobody's going to just let me write every single day. *sigh*).

SO! If anybody reads this, you get to watch me transform from an insane writer to a super-insane-and-on-the-verge-of-breakdown writer. Have fun watching me lose it!

~Silvermist

Short Stories, CICADA, and Pre-NaNo Craze

So it's September again. Nearing the end, albeit, but still September. The summer is over and everyone has settled back into school, watching the leaves turn (and the wind blow said leaves to afar).

With September's come, for me, at least, there is also a rise in time to be on the computer. (Ah joy to online school). This means I have more time to write during my breaks, since I have an excuse to stay where I am. I've been using this time on the computer to write, edit, and prepare a short story for publishing in Cicada Magazine.

It's really quite interesting, that mini journey that short stories take us on. As if reading (and understanding) one was hard enough, writing (and understanding) one is exceptionally harder. Anyone who has ever been annoyed by having to pick apart a meaningful short story in English class should really try writing one as such. English class is nothing to complain about. (Although to be fair, writing is much more desirable in general).

Cicada, a magazine that publishes work by teens and young adults, has rejected me before. No biggie - it was a terrible story anyway. All action and no plot. Quite silly and frivolous now that I look back on it. The story that I have now is definitely better. I took quite a lot of time editing the first draft, had it proofread by three people (one of whom is my English teacher), and then edited it again. Now I finally have the finished product. I'll look at it once or twice more before I submit, but from there, I hope things go well. And by well, I mean "I hope I get published." One more good thing to list on a query.

That said, let's look to the not-so-far future.

NaNoWriMo!

My NaNo plans are, so far, quite jerky and seem almost as if they are being sabotaged. I've sort-of settled on a plot centered around Hades' kidanpping and falling-in-love-with Persephone, which means I'll finally get a chance to write from the POV of all those ridiculously animated Greek gods. Oh boy!
On the other hand... it almost seems like a fanfiction. I want whatever I write to be original... but does this count? I am very torn.
The other three or so ideas are just as readily available to be written, but they're either "not right" or it's "not time yet"... It's a very tough Muse vs. Writer battle. And it's been ongoing. ...I need cookies...

Anyway, it's an interesting world out there. So much to do just by writing. I'll make my mark on it one way or another!

Hopefully famous one day,
~Silvermist

P.S. Check out some of my recent art! (Now all of this is original).

The Truth

The Truth

Check out the three new updates for my post-by-post novel, The Truth.
All part of building my online fanbase! (If it exists).

~Silvermist

A New Beginning (kinda)

Readers,

If you are still alive, or view this blog on any one out of fifty occasions, then thank you. For those of you who don't, please start. I'll try to make it more interesting, if that's the problem.

So, here's the deal.

I'm beginning to look into some serious publishing (so serious that I have my first rejection slip under my belt), and I'm starting to do various things around the internet that would help me to boost my "reputation" among writers. Here they are, if you're interested:

My DeviantArt account, which sports pictures of my OC's, as well as occasional blog posts of my activity, etc.: http://azedarach.deviantart.com

My Teen Ink account, which I'm sure you'll find interesting once I begin putting up more stuff. I have part of a novel, a fanfiction, some poems, and some pictures up. Please take note of this one especially, it means a lot to me: http://teenink.com/users/HauntMystic

My Twitter account, which has been largely inactive for a long time, but will hereforth be used to further my motive to tweet story-related stuff: https://twitter.com/Hauntmystic

My Pinterest account, which is waaaaaay much more fun than it sounds: http://pinterest.com/captainterch/

My alternate FaceBook account for Merry Johnson, who is the main character of my novel, The Truth, this month: http://www.facebook.com/ryka.novenden

Thank you all for reading this, if indeed you did. I look forward to updating all of these soon! (When I get back from work on Saturday... I'm gone all week. *Sob*)

~Silvermist/Azedarach/HauntMystic/CaptainTerch/Merry

...but mostly Silvermist

Art

I don't have much art for this post.

I'm just posting under the title 'art' merely to inform you that as a writer (and artist), I understandably want to draw my characters, scenes, and stories. It's an urge I can't squash (like a lot of urges I get when it comes to stories) and every so often I'll crack out my sketchbook, sharpen my pencils, and set out the ink pens.

It's time to draw manga style!

I have Mark Crilley to thank for my skills in drawing manga-style so far, and you can check him out on YouTube under the highly creative username 'markcrilley' (I LINKED THAT THERE). Ahem. He's awesome, funny, and most importantly of all, informative (somebody remind me to purchase the 3rd Brody's Ghost!!!)

Second of all, I'd like to point out that I didn't start out like I am now. It took me about two years, loads of practice, and I'm still nowhere NEAR as good as Kubo Tite (y'know, the artist for Bleach?) To any aspiring but discouraged artists out there - You're not supposed to st

art out perfect! Nobody does! It takes practice!

Anyhoo. That said, here's a little comparison:

February 2011

April 2012

As you can see, there's definitely a certain amount of difference between the two pictures The first is unfinished, sketchy, the people are skinny, it's- I could go on. The second one... well, speaks for itself. (and yes, that IS Rozar Altair kissing a mystery girl.... who I didn't draw wings for DRAT. Anyhoo).

It takes practice, practice, practice! And after that, much more practice!

Of course, I didn't just rely on my skills. To have a beautifully crafted, clear, fine, easy-to-see picture, you have to invest in good materials. I got my sketchbook(s) as gifts, but I am satsified with the quality of the paper because it's thick enough not to see through, but thin enough to be flexible. You'll want to make sure the grain is smooth, for pencil drawings, and rougher for paintings or pastels (fine grain for chalk pastels).

Also, although I don't generally use expensive pencils, I do tend to stick with the mechanical pencils because they don't need to be sharpened. Since I almost always go back over my sketches with an ink pen, I like having thin, light lines that are easy to erase once the ink dries.

The pens themselves I did splurge a little on. I have a pack of Sakura Pigma pens, which have nearly run out now (*sad* those are the best pens ever for manga drawing because they're thick and felt-y), a pack of Micron pens which were surprisingly cheap but leave thick lines that tend to blot (but I love anyway) and a pack of scarily expensive PrismaColor black ink pens, which are the haven of this world and I can't replace for a while. I think I have a nice array to last me a while.

Also, I happen to have the fortune of a loving grandma (who is a professional artist), who bought me an awesome pack of PrismaColor colored pencils (like whoa), and I'm being very careful with how much I use and how I keep them. They make for very nice coloring tools, although I could probably do better with them, and I keep them in the same place every day so I don't lose them.

Artistic tip of the day: TAKE CARE OF YOUR SUPPLIES

Anyway, that's probably enough from me. I have to go write a bunch more today if I want to finish this novel by the end of April. So, with all this done, you can probably expect more artwork in the near future, because I'm now in the artistic mood! Hope you all benefited from this post. (Anybody up for a drawing tutorial?)

~Silvermist

Halfway Done!

I am now officially halfway through my April novel.... 25,000+ words and still going strong. The main characters have totally taken the plot away from me by now... gar, my big plans are getting warped... but I'm sure they can take it away on their own well. Either way IT IS EXCITING.

Anyway, that was just a note.

~Silvermist

20,000 words, and 75 pages.

Here is a link to my Screnzy page

http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/user/610428

You can see that I am collaborating this time around, and more importantly, we've got 75 pages (probably more by the time you read this post) [if you read this post], and we're not planning to stop until we're done done!

In regards to the novel, I just hit 20,000 words and feel like a turtle. I dunno if it's because I've spent most of the days on the play or because the characters are too spread out, but it's going a little slow. I miss the team-ness of the original Flight. *sad* Still, I get two characters out of the mix- the siblings Sky and Demeter - and they're epic.

Anyway - MY JUNE NOVEL WILL ROCK THE SOCKS OFF... WHOEVER IS IN RANGE! I am SO excited...

~Silvermist

Quickest Blog Post of All Time

13,000+ words of my novel!

~'Mist

Thanks for readin'.

Tomorrow is NOT a joke

I am going to start writing my 8th novel (9th if you count my 60k fanfiction) tomorrow morning, and it's GOING TO BE EPIC!

I have been planning this for months!

I am so psyched out I think I'm psycho!

WAAAHHHHAAAARRRAAABLLLEEEAAARRAAAAAEEEWAAAEEEEEWEEEE!

Sincerely just a liiitle excited,

Silvermist

"Don't you ever interrupt me when I'm writin' a book!"

Another picture

This one is from my NaNo '11 novel, "Jinxed". The climax happened in this dungeon, and it was very intense. This picture took me over 2 hours in all, and although it's only my first try at a dungeon, I think it's pretty good.

This is Blackmist (my nemesis) and Rozar, my best friend (who you may have met).

~Silvermist

Google Chrome, Noodle Updates, and ABNA Apprehension

I just downloaded Google Chrome - it's insanely fast, and it's making me very happy. Bye-bye Internet Explorer! You may have nostalgia attached to you, but you still suck!

That said, I've been noodling!

...that's code for 'editing'. And yes, it is true. I have been noodling last April's novel, "Flight" for a while now, and I'm up to the 80s pages. It's only 115 pages long, but I plan to change that after my first grammar-and-syntax check. I plan to add scenes and everything. >8) It's making me hyper.

I am also still planning the sequel for this April's Screnzy challenge (knowing me, I'm doing a double challenge - a screenplay and novel in the same month!) It's a very exciting sequel idea, and what with the same lovable characters as the last book, and the new faces, new powers, and new plot, I'm really really excited.

It's dangerous, with all this excitement!

I'm also waiting for tomorrow's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award first round results. I NEED TO SCREAM AAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Thank you. Now, you have probably realized my novel is entered. It is. I'm scared. It's thrilling. I will die either way tomorrow, if I make it or lose it, so prepare for a funeral.

That said, I'm off before I get too crazy.

More noodling!

~Silvermist

April Approaches

Author at work. Viewer discretion is advised.

---

As April draws nearer, my excitement grows, for April marks the beginning of an adventure only I can undertake. One of plots! Settings! Characters! NEW characters! NEW BEGINNINGS!
And only I will survive, dragging a team of tired characters through the end of an epic climax, struggling through the opposition, pushing against the wind! Sword drawn! Guns loaded! COMING OUT ON TOP! *insane cackling*

Not only that, but it all is enclosed in thirty days! Thirty precious, breakable, fragile days that only I can control, warping the bonds of time and pumping out thousand and thousands of words per day! I will prevail! I will throw my heart into this, and not only will it win, it will get stronger!

ZOMG HOW LONG IS IT NOW?!

*explodes
---

You have just witnessed an author at full whacko. If medical assistance is required, call an ambulance. I claim no responsibility.

~Silvermist