Free Write #12

    It's been a busy week. Sorry that I'm a few days late with this post! But better late than never, right?  Didn't have time for a lot, but I did write this short story, so I figured I'd share!

    The king held up his arms and silenced the cheering crowd. “We have our victor! Please, step forward and reveal your identity, noble knight.”
    The princess yawned.
    Her lady in waiting nudged her. “Perhaps he’s handsome and rich!”
    “Yes, because that would be a refreshing change from all the others who have come to win my hand,” she grumbled.
    The knight stepped forward and removed his…no, her helmet. Long brunette curls erupted from the helmet and settled around the victor’s waist. Finally, she looked up and smiled. “My princess.”
    “Mother?” The princess jumped out of her seat.

Free Write #11: Hope

    I've had this idea sitting in the back of my mind for a while, so I finally decided to write it down as a free write to share here. As always, once I start writing, the story takes over and it always ends up different than what I imagined originally, but I really like this and I hope you guys do too.
    **Edit- Apparently I need to add an emotional warning to this story. Have the tissues ready.**

    He held the baby tighter in his arms. “Can’t I hold her for just a little longer?”

    Karen laughed. “I thought you had homework to do.”

    “I’ll do it later. Go back to sleep.” He looked down at the sweet bundle again and kissed her forehead.

    “Alright, Ben. Let me know when Noah gets here.” She closed her eyes.

    He bit his lip and waited for her breathing to deepen. Delivery had been hard enough. She didn’t need to know yet that her child was fatherless. He cooed at the child until she too closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. “Don’t worry, little one. I’ll take care of you.”

Free Write #10

    I know I was non-existent last week, but it's been a few crazy days. I'm still trying to find a job, and it's only difficult because we don't know when we'll be moving again and where we'll end up so I don't know where to apply for jobs! Life is complicated and I miss being a kid where I could write whenever and wherever I wanted. I always had inspiration and I never had blocks, mental or physical, getting in the way of my writing.
    Now, I have to fight to get any writing done. So, I'm taking today to write something a little different. Here's my prompt-

Free Write #9

    I forgot to blog yesterday because I was busy doing a million and a half other things like eating cereal with sour milk and forgetting to turn on the washing machine when I put in laundry. Yeah. That about sums it up.
    So today I'm going to do a quick free write thanks to my wonderful Writing Prompts Pinterest board! Yay! I love Pinterest!
    I'm once again using bits and pieces of my next project "A Fairy's Tale" to try and spark some ideas as I try to plot out the end of the story. Deamonne is a temporary term, but the more I use it, the more it grows on me. 
    Here's the prompt-

    "You want me to kill him?" He raised an eyebrow.

Free Write #8: A Fairy's Tale

    It's been a while since I've done some free writing, and today I'm battling major Hypergraphia. So it was fairly easy for me to pick a blog post topic today. Originally I wasn't going to pick a prompt, but I had a really hard time channeling my Hypergraphia into something productive. I'll explain at the end. Here's the prompt-

    Iris left the castle's infirmary only to collect herbs for her mother's supplies once a week, so it was no surprise she got lost in the twisting maze of hallways. She passed by dozens of bustling servants, but each time she tried to ask one for directions, they brushed her off and hurried on their way. 
    After another minute, she spotted a boy staring out the window. He wouldn't ignore her. "Excuse me, King Jameson passed away overnight, and I need to find Queen Isadore's chambers to tell her."
    The boy turned to face her.
    Iris recognized him immediately. He had spent every evening in the infirmary at his father's side. "Crown Prince Callister," she gasped and quickly dropped into the lowest curtsy her trousers would allow.

Free Write #7

    Recently, I've been wrapped up in major edits for Powerful. I printed out my first draft of the manuscript and I'm going through it on paper with my pink highlighter (for things that that need to be changed) and my yellow highlighter (for things I like and want to keep) while I'm penning comments and questions on sticky notes. While I'm doing that, I've been critiquing my friend's third draft of her novel on Scribophile.
    Basically, I've been in crazy editing mode for weeks. While it's nice to finally let my inner editor loose on my writing so I can tear it apart and make serious improvements, I do miss just being able to write without worrying about perfection.
    So today I'm shutting off my internal editor and doing a free write. This is a prompt I found a long time ago, and I've been saving it for a time I need to get out of my MC's head and take a look at my story from a different perspective. I get to write from a completely new voice. This will be a lot of fun for me. 
    Here's the prompt:

Free Write #6

    I've been procrastinating this post all day long. I literally crocheted until I ran out of yarn. And I justified my tv watching because crocheting is productive, right? While it is somewhat productive, it's not on my schedule for today and four days in I'm already finding excuses to not get work done. I had a migraine this morning, so I'm not feeling super well, but that doesn't mean I can't write a simple blog post. Bad Allie, bad!
    Luckily, my schedule today (yesterday, by the time this is posted) included a dog walk, so Puppy of Mine and I went out and I was able to clear my head for a bit and feel less like a shut-in. Even though I very much enjoy not leaving the house, it's bad for my productivity. Since I finished my last chapter on Monday, I've been trying to work on mythology for the Four Kingdoms. I had planned out some basics, but was trying to come up with some actual myths. Unfortunately, I discovered some inconsistencies in my planning and I had to make some major changes before I write my next chapter tomorrow (which will be today by the time this is posted). So I got everything sorted out and everything makes sense now, but I still need one more myth for my chapter. But I'm struggling with a block (thanks, migraine) and I don't have it written yet, so I'm going to do a free write to clear my mind.
    Here's my prompt. Remember that story, Misunderstood, that I've been writing off and on for 7 years (can be found here and here)? I'm using that again. Sylan is the mute brother of Moxi (my favorite character who I use for everything), and Lord Drazen is the evil warlock. Moxi is a sorceress, Sylan has the power to see people's memories by touching them, and Helen is a healer. Taynen is Moxi's boyfriend. Every scene is a different POV, but chances are I'll never finish this and it'll never make it farther than being published here on my blog, so I don't really care.

My Actual Plans

    I'm still making some last minute changes to my weekly schedule, but I'm not planning on starting it until Sunday. I'll go through one week of my new schedule while making notes about how every day goes, then come next weekend I'll make any changes I need to.
    Here's the visual I made so I can more easily track my writing progress-

My Plans

    It's been a little while since I posted, and I did warn you that I would disappear for a while during the move, but I was delayed for a bit longer than I thought because it took us a few extra days to get our wifi set up. But now that's fixed and we've unpacked (almost) everything, and I'm ready to resume a normal life. Well, normal for me.
    Husband of Mine starts school on Monday, so we're still trying to cram in as much relaxing in pajamas and Castle marathons as we can. Once school starts, though, I'm going to try really hard to work out a weekly schedule for myself so I can hopefully become more productive with both writing and organize the rest of my life. 
    I've been searching for different ways to creating a writing calendar so I can have a more visual way of seeing my goals and progress. Apparently it's not a common thing, though since I only found one I really liked. 

Writer's Sketchbook 14

    I know, a writer's sketchbook post! Something that actually has to do with my writing! Yay! 
    So this week I got 2 chapters done. That's right, 2. In 1 day. I'm so proud of myself. Too bad the rest of the month will be ridiculously crazy and I will be super busy. I set a goal for myself to write 3 more chapters this month so I'll have written 5 total. 
    Anyway, as I was working on chapter 9, I realized that I forgot one minor detail on my blog. I missed one character. He doesn't show up until chapter 9, but I stopped posting chapters on my blog so I didn't get to do a big intro for him. So here's my big intro for him.

Burk Lon

Free Write #5

    I've been making slow progress with the next chapter of Powerful. I found a new show to watch on Netflix, which was cool because it's a historical fiction based in the 1500s about politics in France, England, Scotland, etc. It's been really helpful to get me thinking about politics in Powerful, but it also meant I was getting distracted when I should be writing.
    So now that I made it through the whole thing (yes, I binge watched the whole show), I'm forcing myself to do a blog post and a free write. Hopefully after this is done, I can dig into chapter 6 again and get it written. I'm super excited for chapter 7. *laughs evilly*
    Back to the free write. Here is the prompt I picked. 

    Growing up in Southern California, winter was no different from any other season (Seasons? What are those?), so it meant nothing to me as a child. It's actually a problem I've noticed in some of my older writing. There are no seasons. I even struggled a little in Rose, though I did write in some snow in winter. It was easier The weather is a beautiful and clear 70ish degrees throughout the entire story. Time stands still.

The Resplendent Shooting Star

    I'm doing another free write. Remember the superhero short story contest I judged not too long ago? Yeah. I finally caved. I'm writing my own superhero short story based on the superhero I created. Meet The Resplendent Shooting Star.

Writer's Sketchbook 13

    In anticipation of the next chapter that I am hoping to write soon, I figured I'd post the next character we get to meet. Now that Kyla has outed her air powers, she has been given a tutor to teach her how to use her air powers. 

    I'm hoping to start the chapter tomorrow or Monday. Since I'm in the middle of a personal project to rip all of my DVDs onto a hard drive, I'm overwhelmed with tv episodes (I have a lot of DVDs) that I'm trying to order and name. Once I'm done with that, I can focus on writing again. Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow. I've been doing this for over a week. It's starting to get tedious.

    Anyway, here's Ayala.

Ayala Varnet

 

The Princess in the Tower

    It's been a really long time since I've done random prompt writing. It's been a while since I've done real creative writing. I spent a lot of time writing a short summary of the idea I had for my Cinderella retelling that doesn't at all fit in with any part of Rose. It sucks because it's a really good idea, but to be fair, my other idea wasn't that bad. It's Sleeping Beauty and Snow White that I'm having trouble coming up with story ideas for.

    Anyway, I finished reading for the contest I'm judging, and it did give me a bit of creative energy. Unfortunately, I need to get the words flowing again before I can go back to working on Powerful. So I picked out a prompt. 

    Just your ordinary fantasy story, right? Well, hopefully not. I need to get into the princess-y fantasy mood, but I'm hoping that I can write something entertaining and unique enough so it's worthy to post here.  Here goes nothing.

Plotting

    Once again, I apologize for my lack of blog posts. At least this time I have an excuse. I have been plotting. Cue the evil laugh. No, I'm kidding. It's been the good kind of plotting. Mostly. 
    So for this post I'm going to talk about different ways to plot, and how I plot. As I learned from LTUE, there's no one right way to do something. Some people don't even like to plot. They're called Pantsers because they fly by the seat of their pants. The way I plot may not be a good way for someone else to plot, hence the variety of ways to plot I will share in this post.
    The first thing you'll need is a plot idea. I know, shocking. If you don't have a plot idea, then you can't plot. I like to have a really well thought out idea, main characters, beginning, climax, and ending before I even think about following through on a plot. I like to know where I'm going, so I will do character sketches and a brief summary of the novel (like the blurb on the back of a book) before really digging into the details of the plot. 
    How do you get a plot? Get your character, and find out what they want. Them getting (or not getting) what they want is basically your plot. Not always, but it's a good way to start. Go Teen Writers has a whole big thing about figuring out about your character and the plot here. I found it very helpful if you're trying to figure out the basics of your plot.
    I think the next step can be easily summarized in a picture.

Writer's Sketchbook 12

    I've been waiting and waiting to finish writing Chapter 3 of Powerful just so I could post this character sketch.  As someone who doesn't consider myself a romantic, Husband of Mine always gets a good laugh at how I insist that my stories have a love interest.  For Jen, there was Prince Alan.  For Moxi, there was Taynen.  For Rose, Dahlia, and Ella, there were Phillippe, Florian, and Henrie.
    For Crown Princess Kylanore of Tykra, there was Crown Prince Luzigo of Laeto.  What can I say?  Romance is the best subplot to include in any YA novel.
    (Bonus points to anyone who can name the character in the picture that gave me the inspiration!)

Crown Prince Luzigo (Luzi) Laetore

Writer's Sketchbook 11

    Today I'm going to work more on the outline for Powerful, and I'm going to start the new first chapter this week too.  Yay!  This is exciting. I really need to get this whole thing outlined soon.
    As I've been working on these character sketches, especially the one I'm posting today, I've clarified quite a bit of the plot.  I've figured out how to tie up about 97% of the story.  Now I just have to finish my last character sketch (maybe 2, depending on how important the other character becomes) and figure out the last 3% of the story line.
    Anyway, here's another character sketch of someone who became fairly important to the story as I wrote this sketch.

Brinlea Tykranne

Writer's Sketchbook 10

    I've got another character to introduce!  This one was a lot more difficult to map out than Kylanore was, and will probably change a lot as the story is fleshed out.  This character is one that plays a very important role in the story, yet his role can't be singled down into one description.  And the story revolves around him as much as it revolves around Kyla.  It's complicated.  Anyway, here he is!

Prince Elion (Eli) Tykranne

Writer's Sketchbook 9

    As I said in my last post, I'm taking a break from my work on Rose.  Trying to balance all the different characters and all their different plots became overwhelming and upsetting.  I'm definitely going to keep working on the Magique Trilogy, but I needed a break so badly.  I was dying for some traditional fantasy writing.  I tried reading some of my old favorite books, but it wasn't enough.
    So I switched focus for a brief period of time to Powerful.  I posted the first chapter here, but it's clearly not going to be the first chapter of the novel.  As I sat down to write the next chapter (which will most likely become the actual first chapter), I realized I hadn't done character sketches, and this book has a lot of characters.  I will be working on developing all the characters over the next little while, and posting them here for you to see.  Here is the first of those sketches.

Crown Princess Kylanore (Kyla) Tykranne

Writer's Sketchbook 7 & 8

    That's right, I've got two more character sketches for you.  I should have done all these months ago (because they've all appeared in Rose multiple times), but I'm lame and lazy and my writing suffered because of my laziness.
    I'm back to rewriting.  I got like 3 chapters farther this time.  Yay.  But at least the changes are minor and shouldn't take too long to get through.
    But I'm not here to talk about rewrites.  I'm here to introduce Dahlia and Florian.  Who my readers have already met.  But not formally, because I'm lazy and tried to skip my way through my writing.  But not anymore.  
    And in case you're wondering, that flower is a Dahlia.  The snow white Dahlia.  The flower Dahlia was named after.  You're welcome.