Planning for Victory

It's the last Sunday before NaNoWriMo 2018. For the past couple weeks, I've been making notes about Senator Space, my project for this year's feat. Today, I'd like to share some strategies for preparation.

• Use a Timeline: A lot can happen to your characters in one year. Senator Space is going to take place over a five-year period, during which my main character goes through many personal changes, including career changes, new children, and physical improvements. 
• Relate Your Characters: Besides my main character, other characters include his wife, his son, and his father-in-law. The president, vice president, and senate majority leader will also play major roles in this novel.
• Re-imagine Your Surroundings: A casino recently opened in my hometown. Part of the construction involved moving a landmark church out of the casino's footprint. I figured that I can make the casino even bigger in my novel, or even move all of the churches. I also made a short list of other places I want to re-imagine.
• Use Templates: My character is joining a military branch after his political career sours. Soldiers have uniforms, weapons, bases, and rules. Make sure to take time to discuss what makes a group of characters special.
• Anything Goes: Ultimately my NaNoWriMo project will be a rough draft. If I have a silly idea, I'll put it in as long as it gets me to my word count goals. You could be lucky enough to hit a word count gold mine!

I hope you find these tips helpful. If you have any useful advice, leave it in the comments below.

Happy Reading!

Recognize!

It's tax season. All of those various forms are coming in the mail. I finished college last year. I worked three different jobs (One of those jobs hasn't sent me a form yet, and it's actually holding me back from filing). However, I did get one form that felt good to see.

It was a form of miscellaneous income from last year. I made $12.66 from my books in 2012, and though it isn't much (the domain name costs about as much for the year), it gives me something I've been looking for: validation. Anybody can write a book, but it's something special when you earn a royalty doing it.

I've been slacking in the writing department recently. I'm still going through unsorted material from NaNoWriMo. A big chunk of it is a Karaoke contest that may either be shortened or removed completely. I'll have to figure out some more back or side stories to link events together. This is just the fun of being a writer.

There's also fun to being a reader. Reading is something I want to do more of in 2013. In fact, I recently received a countdown timer bookmark, and I've been using it to read at least 15 minutes a day. It really gets the creative juices flowing.

I'll try to be on a more consistent schedule with the blog, but my current job is a tricky thing. I'll shoot for once a week for now.

Happy Reading!

An Excellent November

It's been a while since I posted here, so I just wanted to give a quick update on the past month.

All in all, this November was a good month to me. I got a job (although not my science job). I also won NaNoWriMo for The Book of Water, on the last day no less. Perhaps the most surprising to me is the fact that I finally made my first royalty as an author!

My goal for next month is to edit The Book of Water so that 1) it has a preface, 2) all unsorted text is put into place, and 3) any storyline gaps are filled. I can't pin an exact release date yet, but it will probably be a similar release date to The Book of Earth. There will most likely be a post about pre-orders when the time comes.

My goal for NaNo 2013 is to win before it's cool. By this, I mean winning before November 25. I may also do Camp NaNo in 2013, but it won't be a Realms Quintessential book. I have an idea for a super-natural crime fighting book that I need to write down before it blinks out of my mind.

Finally, I am going to renew my domain for another year. There will be plenty of celebratory tweets from my (face-lifted) profile!

Until Next Time, Happy Editing!

The Power and The Powerless

It's almost here! Day one of NaNoWriMo! What's that? A hurricane is heading for me? Damn.

That's right. Almost one year to the day after Snowtober, Hurricane Sandy is barreling down on the East Coast. It threatens to knock out power for 7 to 10 days, putting us right into the first week of the writing challenge. Without electricity, my laptop would last less than half a day. Troubling times in Viribia indeed.

On the bright side, this may be an opportunity to use up my stock pile of lined paper. Each year, for as long as I can remember, I disassembled my notebooks at the end of the school year, so I've developed quite the stack. Who knows, if the power goes out, maybe I can give away hand written pages with pre-orders of The Book of Water.

But once again, who knows? One day at a time. If I have power, I'll post on Tuesday. Otherwise, I'll post when power comes back.

Happy Reading! 

The Bridge to Oceana

There's about two-and-a-half weeks until the start of November, so I wanted to start laying out some ideas for The Book of Water.

First off, I want to lay out the military and government. Each Realm has it's own service, and the Water Realm is unique in that it has a Navy. Likewise, it has a Fleet Admiral as its top officer instead of a General. I'm leaning towards a monarchy that has a role as the executive branch. In that case, there will be some sort of congress or parliament to bring laws to the monarch. These details will be smoothed out in November.

Another thing that will be smoothed out in November is the relationship between Janie and Jimmy, more so how the Merlins deal with it. I have a scene in mind where Janie's father and Jimmy go fishing so the father can get more details on the boyfriend. I do have a couple battle scenes in mind for the twins, but I don't want to divulge too much information yet.

I am very excited for this year's NaNoWriMo as I already have a list of plot lines and details written down. This should be a successful year, and I look forward to sharing it with you!

Happy Reading!

NaNo Countdown!

Today I want to look at three things: what will happen, what I want to happen, and what needs to happen.

First, NaNoWriMo will happen. I plan to write Volume 3: The Book of Water this year. I've been writing down ideas for characters and story twists for this November. Fun fact: should Water win NaNoWriMo, it will be the second Realms Quintessential book to win (Earth was not entered). Another fun fact: it will be my third consecutive win as an author (I lost my first NaNo in 2009, but I have been 2 for 2 since).

Next, I will talk about what I want to happen. I'm still looking for that 10th paperback sale. Once that happens, I'll get my first royalty payment EVER. I'd also like to see kindle sales start up. In both cases, the books need to be polished into the gems I know they can be.

Of course, if there are things I want to happen, there are things that need to happen. My job search has been at somewhat of a stand-still. I applied for five jobs this week, and next week I go into harassment mode. Imagine, instead of a phone on an employer's desk, I'm perched like an owl poking them repeatedly in the cheek. "Hey... Hey... Hey..." instead of hooting.

All in all, I am confident something will work in my favor. After all, I do have that red poster over my desk.

Happy Reading!