Character Birthdays

I've found a fun way to keep in touch with characters and their updates is to keep a list of their birthdays readily at hand. Seeing as we are approaching a New Year very shortly, I see fit to start birthday-ing fairly soon.

Anyway, the first step I like to take is completing the character profile thing I posted back in October:

http://silvermist-thefeatherpen.blogspot.com/2011/10/character-profiles.html

Once your characters are fleshed out and you have the dates of their b-days, you can save them in a notepad document (or scribble them on a sticky note or whatever. Don't judge me, I have no sticky notes!!!)

Aaaanyway, once that is done, it should look something like this: (alphabetical order) [random names, I swear I don't use such mundane tags on characters]

Aaron - December 1; Abel- August 7; Betty - November 28; Corey - November 3

Etcetera. Or, it can look like this:

January - [list of characters whose birthdays are in this month]
February - [list]
March - [list]
April - [list]

And so on. January 1st marks the 18th birthday of January, one of my more recent characters. I hope to do something nice for that, and then look readily forward to the rest of the year and all the birthdays that come with it. Shew.

Anyway, so long and thanks for all the fish. Hope you had fun with this post.

~Silvermist

Project: Editing. Stage: Nearly Complete

I just reached chapter 11 this morning of my first NaNo novel during the editing process, and I'm nearly done! All that's left is the remainder of this flashback sequence, the climax, and then the end.

I'm not really looking forward to the climax, but it'll feel good to perfect it. It's one of those sob-sniffle-cry climaxes.

:'O

At any rate, as soon as I'm finished with the final editing (this is the 4th draft), I will format it professionally, and then send it out for - you guessed it - publishing! (Hopefully before then I get my short story 'January' published someplace). I'M SO EXCITED!

It's an adventure worth telling in its own story, isn't it?

Keep you updated,

Silvermist

P.S. I've been reading Bleach's Soul Badge arc. It. Is. Getting. EPIC.

This is Tsukishima. The bad guy that wasn't until he was.

He's awesome.

Ahem.

NaNo's dead, and Christmas is coming

NaNoWriMo has died along with the rest of November, but if you're like me, then your novel is still bursting with life, waiting to be read.

Waiting to be edited.

*dun dun*

Sadly, my epic novel "Jinxed" isn't going to be edited because 82,404 words is hard to edit. Needless to say, I'm going to instead turn to editing last year's 70k novel that will in turn be published if I can get it so. But that aside, I'm focusing on little projects for Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Silvermist and Rozar!

Here at Ebony Castle things are lighting up (literally) because of Razor's epic mage powers and how awesome they are at setting torches on fire. They look like Christmas lights. And yay for William, the literal newest addition to the "Guard", and congrats to Draco, the proud adopted dad of our lil dragon. We hope you have as fun a Christmas as us (because we still need a tree!!!)

At any rate, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Bright Jugor's Day, on Jester's planet. (Jester is a character of mine). Let's just say Happy Holidays!

~Silvermist

Checklist

I saw my friend LE make a writing checklist/schedule on her blog, http://farfetchedandbeyond.blogspot.com/ and I decided that since it looked organizational, I cold try it too. Think about it. Makes sense. So here you are. My checklist:

Finish NaNoWriMo: Uncomplete. (Getting there though!)

Edit last year's NaNo: Incomplete. I must get it done before January, if I want to do the ABNA contest again.

Publish last year's NaNo: Incomplete but GETTING THERE!

Beginning planning for/write/complete plans for a 'Flight' sequel: In progress. (Planning well underway).

Begin my DS series, which stars my epic family of epic warriors in an epic land: Begun and semi-complete. Book one complete and book four almost complete. (I do these out of order... heh).

And then...?

Well that's the beauty of the last one. My schedule is full up until NaNo of next year, but then, it's time for a new novel! FUN!

~Silvermist

The Sounds Generator

A friend introduced this to me. It's a generator that produces different random noises, and it's perfect for writing. I tried it yesterday for two scenes in a row, a nighttime campfire, and a progressive thunderstorm. It was perfect, it aids the brain so much more than you'd think and adds to the level of scene-developing. And it gives you something to describe.

It's a change from music, but it's so soothing... I didn't even want to turn it off.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3YYrOQ/naturesoundsfor.me/Rainy-Day

~Silvermist

Mid-November Rut

It's mid-November in two days (the 15th) and I realized it's about here I always get stuck in a rut. Yep, a rut. My novel is having trouble moving, even though one of the minor characters is about to die... The characters are starting to realize my evil plans for them and are trying to throw me off, I suppose.

I've been wondering what to do to boost my word count without too many word sprints... those tire my fingers and although they can help move the plot along, I find they usually make my work seem mediocre because I don't have time to focus. Which is bad.

Anybody have any inspirational thingie-ma-bob ideas I can use to help me?

Many thanks ahead of time,
Silvermist

Day 5

Five days into NaNo and it's going well. I'm getting loads and loads of writing done, but I now have no time for piano or drawing... heh... now it's just writing and school, writing and school...

BLEH. At least I love the novel! Character developement coming along nicely.

~Silvermist