I just finished my finals. They almost blew my brains out, not really because of the work they took me, but because my sister needed the computer with Internet for two whole days, leaving me so little time to do anything online.
I'm doing okay, though. Thanks for asking. I don't get a lot of "just because" comments, so thank you.
Sure. I don't see anything wrong with making a few friends.
Oh, I noticed you were having trouble looking for clubs on SA. You might find a few if you use Yahoo or Google to search. I think you put "url:sheezyart.com" or "site:sheezyart.com" in the search and then add your terms after and it limits results to just the site.
It's been more than a year since I first sat down and started penning a draft for The Blind and The Strange. That draft ended after "Act One", so to speak, and wasn't picked up due to a loss of momentum. And that loss was entirely my fault because I switched gears to NaNoWriMo for absolutely no good reason.
This year, I made up for that mistake. Against the recommendations of several people, I completely restarted The Blind and The Strange. And made it this year’s NaNoWriMo story, to boot. No switching gears this year. This is the ONLY gear.
I'm running on automatic and on all cylinders on this one. And I am achieving output that I never thought possible, especially considering my lack of writing in the months prior to November. The last serious thing I wrote was a certain crackfic that I still have to laugh at that I wrote (and wrote well).
This year, The Blind and The Strange is going to a new level. It has changed immensely, with a lot of changes to the start of the story, as well as a few things dropped. I know that someone will be disappointed with something that changed, but I honestly believe whole-heartedly that I made the right decisions.
I am not going to doubt myself about how things were handled anymore. Because my results speak for themselves.
At the end of November 9 - that is, midnight Day 9 of NaNoWriMo - I had broken 25,000 words.
The target goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000. I have written half that number in just nine days. My output started at surprisingly decent and only shot up from there. Day 9 was a new all-time record for writing, netting me over 4,500 words.
And it's all because I finally escaped my noise and let myself write. So many changes were made to the story for me to really trust myself again, but they worked.
I have learned a lot about myself through this, as well. At first, I thought my speed was due to my rewriting some material from the previous draft. This turned out to not be true, however, when I started referencing the old draft and realized it was slowing me down!
The parts where I wrote faster were places I had never been before! Places filled with brand new ideas. That gives me so much confidence that when I finally break past the original draft - which, ironically, at 25,000 words, I have not passed yet - I will be able to move even faster.
I fear that I may have so much to write that I will still have much more of the story to write past the end of the month. Hopefully the magic will carry on afterwards if such is the case.
I have to repeat myself to truly believe that I accomplished this... I wrote 4,500 words in around 4-5 hours today and, only nine days in, already wrote half of the main target word count.
I have to create a new word count goal to more accurately reflect the length of my story. I'm thinking double the target and going for 100,000 words, but that may be too high. We'll have to see.
All I know is that I'm back and better than ever.
The monkeys are off my back, the noise is muted, and the brake lines have been cut. I am not stopping for anything anymore. Nothing is allowed to get between me and this story. Not even the story itself.
I cut the ideas I liked but couldn't make work. I cut old scenes that didn't fit and wasn't afraid to write new things. Having to rewrite seems to scare so many people and everyone kept telling me that rewriting was bad.
I can officially say that if you think rewriting is bad, you need to shut up. You can hold onto your old work and say "it's good the way it is" all you want. If there is anything I learned from how I taught myself web design, it's that you will never be perfect and starting from scratch merely means you're going to top yourself.
I don't care if someone is working on the fifth draft of their story. If they enjoy what they're doing and it's getting better with each rewrite, leave them the hell alone. They're doing what they're supposed to do. Some of the best authors in the world go through twenty rewrites to get things the way they want them. And they never complain. Because that process is the best process in the world.
I feel like spoofing that quote I used a while ago...
Repeat the good and the bad. Do it all, and pile on the drafts.
This story is back off life support and breathing on its own. The characters are taking over and surprising me at every turn. Starting over breaks every chain I had to my old ideas and lets me and all my characters do whatever they want.
I cannot overstate how important breaking away and doing something new is. Not to mention that, with anything you create, when you make another draft...
You can always go back.
Who's to say you have to stick to draft 6 when you liked 5 better? Hell, who's to even know?
It's like people treat writing like life. They hate doing things over and feel like they can't go back.
Newsflash: Creativity has no rules. It has tropes, and that's it. If you want to write, then do it. Don't follow any rules you think there are about how and when and where and what you should write.
Sometimes I have more respect for a writer who writes Mary Sues and lets themselves have fun and just write than a person who worries and works too hard at perfecting their ideas so much that they don't create. Even if it's crap, if you aren't creating, you're not improving. You're not moving.
Every amateur gets better.
But any expert can easily burn out.
I'm sick of putting everything through the ringer and checking it first. That's not what a draft is. A draft is an experiment. A rough sketch. A base drawing. Everything that comes after it are the changes that mold it and perfect it.
To be afraid to write a new draft is to be afraid to write at all.
And I am not afraid anymore.
So, for the 4,536 words I wrote on Day 9...
And the 25,548 words I wrote over all nine days...
Let's get ready to TOP IT.
I'm going to try to break 5,000 in one day. And then 6,000. I'm going to break 50,000 long before day 30. I'm going to try to break that 100,000. And I'm going to try to finish this draft in 30 days.
And if I don't, I'm going to keep writing and I'm going to finish this thing.
I don't care what people think anymore. This story is for no one else but me and I will be happy with it.
If you think you can't write at all, or can't write 50,000 in a month, or can't write 4,500 in a day then shut your mouth, turn your brain off, get to a keyboard, and actually try.
Try to leave behind your old ideas and bring something new to the table. Try to be different from even your own expectations. Try to be fearless.
I did and I'm on the top of my own little world right now. And I'm going to top the top.
You can always go further up.
And if you're not down with that, then I've got two words for ya...
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