Category Archives: NaNoWriMo

Back to Blog.

So, some of you may have noticed that things have been pretty quiet here at lsengler.com.

Okay, maybe not “pretty quiet.” More like “dead.”

You see, about two months ago, my computer went kaput thanks to an icky virus, and, as a result, I haven’t been able to have very good access to ways to type up posts and keep up with the blogs I like to follow. And, really, the longer you stay off the wagon, the harder it is to get back on. Thankfully, I have a roommate who doesn’t mind me sometimes ganking her laptop when our schedules have us home at different times of the day. Add to this the fact that I’ve just taken a pretty big promotion at work that requires a bit more time on the road and energy into the occupation, my brain hasn’t been as keyed into the strive for my writing platform as it used to be.

But it has gotten to a point where I’m ready to change that. I’m ready to get back to posting and back into the writing community that I’ve missed so much. There’s a lot to catch up on, but hopefully the usual patterns will come back quickly. I definitely won’t be posting as often as I used to, but I’ll be posting a lot more than I have been.

If anyone’s been wondering, I’ve been working on a few projects, too. Serpent in a Cage has taken a slight pause, partially for NaNoWriMo, which started out as a time travel/world jumping novel exploring the lives of Emalia’s parents (from my short story “The Space Between Worlds”) and became instead a rediscovery of my Ace Cooper mystery novels, thanks to a recent viewing of Skyfall (which was incredible). My horror story, tentatively titled Rosewood, is continuing along, as well. I’ve been reading a lot and I’m pretty far behind on reviews, so maybe a few of those will be coming up soon.

Speaking of reviews, I’d like to also send out a very big thank you to Grace over at Books Without Any Pictures for her wonderful review of my short story collection, Bowlful of Bunnies. I adore Grace’s reviews, and it’s a real honor to be among the great things she takes the time to read and appreciate. Definitely the sort of thing to make me want to get back in the game and assure my readers that I’m still in the game and striving to get out my next book.

Happy writing, everyone! See you around.

Oh, Here It Goes Again.

So, I’ve taken a little bit of a break from writing and from the blog to have some well-spent time with a friend, which I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of on the weekends if this new schedule that gives me Sundays off stays consistent. From what I hear, this is typical for the position I’m going to be taking a different store, so I’m pretty stoked about that. While there’s more work and demands and probably a likelihood of having to more on any given week, a certain regularity to when I’ll need to be there will be kind of nice. I’m definitely excited for it…

…but I’m also excited that it’s Monday and I have at least the week to try to get back into the swing of writing and get some work done there, too. It’s definitely going to be an exciting week on that front; I got a letter from Amazon regarding my first royalty check coming through, which should happen any time this week, so I can officially say I’m a published, paid, professional writer. Booyah.

I’m still running my Autumn Anthology contest, though I realized that ‘anthology’ was spelled wrong in the title of that particular post, which probably doesn’t help my street cred too much. That’s okay, though; I’m embracing my laziness about actually fixing it. There’s also been an exciting change! I will be accepting all of your short stories and poetry fit for a thrills and chills Halloween-esque anthology! Honestly, as I told the Writing Poetry Group on Facebook, I’m surprised I didn’t think of poetry. I think I’d love to accept any images, too, especially for a potential cover. So, send me your stories, your poems, your artwork or photography for consideration! You have until September 30th to submit! I can’t wait to see what you come up with, and be sure to share the contest with your friends, too!

Other than that, I’ll be plugging away at Serpent in a Cage, reading a lot (as usual!), and trying to get a grasp on what I want to do for NaNoWriMo. I really want to be proactive and go out to the get-togethers they were holding last year in Naperville that I was too shy or spastic or busy to attend last year. This is definitely going to be the year I finish NaNo! I am determined. Besides, it’ll be good to have a finished draft just in case it looks like neither the anthology or SiaC are coming out by the end of 2012 (since I did that whole ‘going to publish two books this year’ plan and everything). I know there’s another round of RoW80 starting soon, so I’ll have to access my goals there, too.

I’m also looking forward to catching up with everyone and their blogs, but if I’ve missed something good and interesting over the weekend, let me know! How’s everyone getting on? I can’t wait to get to work this week.

RoW80 Check-In: What Happened to the Weekend?

“     ‘We’re paying you to care about rescuing the girl,’ Estialog stated simply. ‘What happens afterwards is categorically none of your business.’
     ‘And if we have a moral concern?’
     Tayahyla snorted again, but held back comment. ‘An odd bunch of brigands,’ Estialog murmured, ‘to be concerned with morality.’
     ‘We never claimed to be typical.’”

As I was writing the title of this Wednesday’s Round of Words in 80 Days check-in, I’m thinking to myself, “But, L, it’s Wednesday. You’re halfway to the next weekend already.” And that just really highlights how busy last weekend has felt, in the fact that my brain is still back there on Sunday or something, while time rushes on through to the next weekend.

I’m used to the weekends being busy and a little crazy; it’s par for the course when you work in retail, and it’s usually the weekdays that mean relaxation, especially the earlier, mid-week days that aren’t so hot for shopping. There’s a lot of crazy, exciting things going on where I work, so everything’s in a whirlwind, things are really crazy, and I was really looking forward to spend today getting back in touch with my writing, and then a coworker asks if I can cover for her tonight. Sigh. This means working six days this week, including one day for 9 hours in an 11 hour span (I got a 2 hour break in between, half of which was driving between locations). I want to shake my fists and just yell “ARRRGGGH,” but I know that this is just the start. There’s a good chance things will get crazier, so I’m bracing myself.

And using all the wonderful writing and reading to keep myself centered and Zen. Everyone’s been noting how I really seem in control of my shit lately, and I intend to keep in control and ride through the chaos like an unfappable breeze of serenity. And I think it’s my writing and the fact that, no matter what happens with my Day Job, things are happening with my Dream Job, too, and that’s just incredible.

The print proof for Bowlful of Bunnies arrived the other day, which is such a trip. I took it to work and showed it off to everyone, too, but I think I want a much smaller size, so today I’m reformatting and resubmitting it for review. Part of my brain wanted to just go with what I have now, but then I had to remind myself that patience is a virtue. While it would be exciting to start shilling this print version now, it’s much better to make sure it’s exactly what I want it to be before I let it out in the world. CreateSpace was incredibly fast…much quicker than they had projected…so I doubt I’d have to wait too long again. Plus, the excitement gets me in a fabulous mood, and, whenever I start to get irritated, all I have to do is think about how, in a few days, I’ll have a print proof of my potential book that people without Kindles can actually buy, whaaaaaat?

I’ve been plugging along with Serpent in a Cage, too, finally getting to the point where I think the dragging middle expositionary section gets back into the action again, which should pick things up. I played around with the idea of bringing in Tayahyla as a narrator again, but I think three is enough for now. Her story can be told better in the next book. I’m also poking at Soulless, the haunted house, and the western with dragons a little bit, too, and wondering if I should skip NaNoWriMo this year or go for it. There’s still time, I must remind myself. People are already talking about it, though, which gets me flailing slightly. I have trouble refusing a challenge when it’s presented, yet maybe I should force myself to show some restraint. We shall have to see.

I’ve still got those book reviews to do (I’ve realized that I’ve been putting them off because I don’t particularly like doing negative reviews, and these ones are not glowing, no), but, other than that, all my attention has been mostly on BoB and SiaC and this craziness that is my life lately. Next week, I might be taking what I’m going to call a brief “writer’s retreat” for a few days, and that should definitely help me anchor my center through the chaos…and allow me some uninterrupted, undistracted chunks of time for writing!

How everyone else doing? Did you get a chance to check out any other RoWers today? (If not, you can find them here!) I’m off to do more formatting and reading and scribbling.

Happy writing!

RoW80 Check-In: December 14th!

“‘That’s fair enough,’ Taluin allowed with a smile, wrought with a fondness that made Locke shift in his saddle. ‘Your bloodline has deep, deep roots in that land, Locke. It’s no wonder you’re out of place here.’”

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Wednesday means another RoW80 update, though there is not much to report. I have been spending most of my time focusing on my goal to get to at least 78 out of 100 books for my 100 Books project, so I’ve been reading lots and lots and hope to have another book finished today. Interspersed with the reading has been a great deal of picking at Serpent in a Cage, and I should easily surpass page 150 by the end of the day as well. It’s making pretty good progress, and I love the current chapter. I’m worried that it’s a little to exposition, but it’s filling the necessity of travel with a dialogue between Locke and Taluin that reveals a great deal of information about the Battaracks and their past. I love it, but I may be a little biased.

I have not worked much on my other projects, though American Horror Story continues to make me want to revamp my own horror story. I thought of some really good first lines of a new short story in the shower this morning (got to love shower brainstorming!), and I’m trying to get back into posting more regularly on the blog. Work is intense; you’ve got to love retail in the holiday season, so I’m just taking it easy for the rest of this Round, and I’m looking forward to being able to adjust my focus back to writing after the holidays.

How’s everyone else doing? Are the holidays crunching on your writing time, too? Do you make sure to still find some time to work on your writing during these busy times, or do you feel the holiday gives you a free pass to not even worry about it and enjoy what little time you are able to find?

Don’t forget to check in on my fellow RoW-ers here! Happy Writing!

Belated RoW80 Check-In: December 11th/12th!

“He knew they would be flowery words to win Taluin over, but, glancing toward Hederrick looking back at them with surly impatience, Locke realized that what he said was mostly true. If this thing was going to work, if they wanted to cut the others to the chase, things would have to smooth out between everyone. Besides, he knew he was unlikely to even survive another attack in his current state. Best attempt to make friends rather that perpetuate an enemy.

If one could not tell by the lateness of this RoW80 update, I’ve had a pretty busy weekend. Between work and having a social life, I haven’t had a lot of time to keep up with my blog, which is a shame, but, at the same time, I determined to not let my goals rule my life and feel guilty about what I do not accomplish. Weekends will be what they are for me for a while now, so I’ll just accept that I can’t get jack crap done once Thursday hits, and relish in the fact that I do have time to get things done Monday through Wednesday.

A whole whopping three days. But that just makes me feel even better about what I do manage to pull off.

So how are the goals going right now? Pretty well, despite being busy. Not perfect, by a long shot. I like the new system, but there are days where I can only check off a few things. But that’s okay. I’m focusing mostly on my reading goals right now, having finished another book and spending most of today churning out another one. I would love to hit 78 by the end of the year, and so I’m plugging along at that, first and foremost, and, when the challenge resets itself on January 1st, I can focus on my writing goals again.

I’m still plugging away at Serpent in a Cage, too, and making excellent progress. I’m rewriting one of my favorite scenes right now, one of the most tender ones in the entire book, so I’m having a lot of fun. Rewriting it from Locke’s perspective is really making me really love him again, and that’s always a fantastic feeling.

Not a lot to report on the other goals; it’s mostly been reading and SiaC! Wednesday’s bound to be more exciting….and on time!

Thanks for reading! And my apologies for dropping off the face of the earth a little there; I’ll be posting something about the Flash Fiction for Fun I posted a couple of Fridays ago tomorrow….if you want to throw in a little blurb before then, that’d be great! The more, the merrier!

Happy writing!

RoW80 Check-In: December 4th!

“‘Temperamental?’ asked Jaxson, who didn’t know any better, his voice dripping with his sarcasm. ‘I know our young Gilferen here has a penchant for putting fire in women’s hearts, but this easily exceeds any prior scorned lovers thus far. What’d he do, love? Nasty disease, was it?’”

Though this Sunday seems distinctly lacking in sun for us thus far in Chicagoland, it is still time of my weekend ROW80 update! As typical for a Sunday, after the blur that is usually my weekends (and this weekend was exceptionally blurry as a social life seemed to blossom like a wildflower in springtime), I don’t have a great deal to report, though I have steadily been adding to the revision piece, I’ve done some brainstorming for BDS, and this morning’s shower inspired a whole new project. My cat has knocked over my coffee in an effort to get me to cuddle with him, and all I can do is wistfully sigh, wish I didn’t have to go into work in a little bit, and desire to just sit and write.

Tomorrow’s Monday, though, usually my day off, so unless that’s changed, I will always have tomorrow. Time to break it down now!

Serpent in a Cage: Despite my busy weekend, I made some pretty steady stabs at SiaC these past few days; I’m nearly finished with the current chapter, and then they’re finally out into the desert, we learn more about Locke’s parents, and we’ll get to the cave where Jaxson takes over what was previously Awngel’s part and Megg will join our ranks. I’m excited about that, because I always love Megg, even if she makes me nervous about introducing a character half-way through the story. It sometimes feels just tacked on, but I love her too much, and she’s actually incredibly important to the plot. So half-way it is, and so it shall be. Page count: 135.

Novel in 6 Months: Busy as I’ve been, I still had Friday mostly off except for in the evening, and most of that time was gloriously spent reconnecting with my horror story. I’m still behind on my word count thus far (yeah, thanks a lot, NaNo!), but I managed to get out two really amazing scenes that I’m very excited about and are helping to make this story much, much better. I’m exciting to get the chance to start working on it again, buff up that word count, and polish up the scenes so that the book seems less like a hodge-podge of ideas and more like a phenomenal story. Word count: 30,520.

NaNoWriMo: …which will be continued to be called such until I can think of a title for the thing. It’s a big fat mess right now, but now that the actual event is over, I plan on writing more on it in the upcoming month, as well as going back every now and then and cleaning up, a sort of pre-edit editing to just make the thing more solid before it’s completely finished. All inspired by an incredible guest post by Gary Gauthier over on Hawleyville about pacing and productivity. It inspired a new approach to this piece that really charged me and inspired me and regained my hope that it could be good and that I didn’t just waste my November. I haven’t touched it in a few days, though, trying to focus more on the Ni6M (also in need of a title, yeesh). Word count: 44,313.

Black Dome Society: I managed to get a start with Black Dome Society, albeit a small one, and I’m really excited of the way it’s starting out. Even better, I had dinner with my co-creator in this project last night, and when I nervously, tentatively, terrified, told him what I had written and planned for it so far, he got charged up for it and we had a great brainstorming session, so it’s finally off to a great start. I think it’s going to be a really interesting journey, and I’ve never really written something with someone before, so that’s kind of new and exciting, too. Like I said, there’s not much yet, but I have a feeling I’ll have a lot more on this WIP soon. Word count: 485.

L.S. Engler’s Essential Guidebook of Courtship Etiquette for Young Gentlemen: To be known as simply Etiquette for Young Gentleman from here on in to save my fingers a little, this is a new book I thought of in the shower this morning, I jotted down a little bit of it and a few notes, and I’m really excited to see if it’s something that sticks. Partially fictional and partially autobiographical, I thought it would be kind in interesting to write a book in the style of Victorian guidebooks to etiquette, but for modern dating. I’ll admit, this was specifically inspired by dinner with the above BDS creator when he asked to try a piece of my tuna….after he had completely devoured his chicken, so I didn’t exactly get to try any of his at that point. It could be quirky and fun, and very interesting as I’m trying to explore the idea of dating again and, heck, it might even inspire me to take some chances and go on more dates! So there’s another project on the roster to keep an eye out for, and, of course, I’d love feedback on what you all might think of the concept!

Short Stories: Still nothing new to report on my short stories, but I’m hoping to get a chance to pull “Just Right” out of the coffers soon and return to brushing that up again.

100 Books Project: Not a whole lot of time to read lately, much less put up a review for the book that’s been sitting there waiting to be reviewed. It will get there, though, and until then, I just try to read, read, read some more. 23 books in one month is a pretty tall order if I want to make it to 78, so reading will probably be taking a precedent over writing for December. Which could be a nice departure after NaNoWriMo! Books read: 55/100.

I believe that’s all (har har) for this check-in! Tune in Wednesday where I hope to have lots, lots more to say from at least one day off (finally!). Until then, be sure to check out other RoWers and share your support! And I’ve also got a wee little flash fiction prompt up! The winner gets nothing more than bragging rights, but it could be fun, so check it out.

Happy writing!

#NaNoWriMo and some Thoughts.

It’s December 1st, and I did not win NaNoWriMo this year, just as I have not won it in the past three years that I’ve made the effort. I have to admit, though, I made a hell of a good showing and got much more dedicated, focused, and further along than I have in any previous attempts at NaNo. I finished the month with a word count of 44,213; I had hopes of getting home after work and pounding out the last 6k, but work was long and trying and I just wanted to go to bed and the weight of my sanity was far greater than the weight of an arbitrary number. So I didn’t quite get there, and that’s okay.

Because I still wrote 44k in 30 days, and I have an outline (albeit a messy and confuzzled one) of a potential novel, which is something I didn’t have at the start of November.

This was the first time I made a really honest effort to make it to the 50k, and it was a pretty interesting experience. It definitely became harder than I expected to balance both my personal life, my work life, and my writing life, though there was catch-up days were I astounded myself with how much I was able to put out. I feel that some of the writing is just terrible purple prose and filler, but now I have the luxury to take my time brushing up the piece and seeing what else I can do with it.

I’m glad I did NaNo this year; I like the drive and the goal and the fire under your feet and the dedication to just spending a day pounding out as much as you can. But I’m glad it’s over. I was joking on my RoW80 check-ins how I’ll feel bored now that NaNo is over and, in a few days, I can see that, but I’ll have plenty to keep me busy. I have three potential WIPs to work on, a fourth that I’m editing, and a plethora of short stories to keep me busy. NaNo helped me get bit by a productivity bug and I hope to maintain it through December and beyond.

After 1667 words on one piece and 300 on another in a day, 500 words a day on each of the three WIPs shouldn’t be too difficult at all. A page on the editing. A short story a day. Plus all my reading. I’m really excited for the potential that December has for me, and I don’t think I’d have the drive and ambition I have for it if I hadn’t put myself through NaNo this year. Sometimes it felt a little frustrating that I had to abandon other projects in lieu of keeping up with NaNo, but now it’s over, so I have all the time in the world.

Happy writing, everyone! NaNo is over! Let’s break out some wine and celebrate!

Though I have to spare at least one interesting thought: I just spent a month trying to puke up as much of a novel as I could, and I still haven’t thought of a good title for it.

RoW80 Check-in: November 30th!

“‘Are you crazy?’ he demanded back, throwing up his arms in frustration. ‘Why would I be following you? Me and my five friends, no less, because we’ve nothing better to do than stalk around, following mad women through the streets. Hadesari’s Mask! What did I do to piss off the Ana’aea’aek now?’”

Happy Wednesday, everyone, and welcome to yet another exciting installment of “Damn, L.S. has a lot of projects,” or, as it’s more commonly known, a RoW80 check-in! It hasn’t been an exciting week for me; it’s mostly been all about NaNo, NaNo, NaNo, and it’s going to continue to be about NaNo until I finally reach the mark today. I do know that, recently, I’ve been feeling a great deal of disenchantment with my job, which always makes me want to step up my writing game, so I’ve very excited for tomorrow when NaNo is done and I can turn my attention to something more productive.

Because writing 50k words in one month isn’t productive. Ahem. Moving along, let’s break this thing down:

Serpent in a Cage: Is coming along nicely, still, usually about a page a day with perhaps a few blips in that plan. We’re following along with the draft now, so it’s easier to write, but I’m in another chapter where I’m changing the narrative. It’s almost a little fun to look at a scene I’ve written earlier and figuring out how to write it from the perspective of a different character entirely. There’s going to be a lot of that coming up soon, and while I felt worried that SiaC might actually be too short, I feel right now that it’s a pretty good length. We’ll see for sure when I finish the rewrite and go to type it up! Page count: 133.

Novel in 6 Months: Though my buffer has now run out and I’m behind about 1000 words on my Novel in 6 Months, I’m okay with that because I know I can make up 1000 words easily in a day, and all my energy has been going into finishing up that damn NaNo project. Once I hit 50k (or 11:59 pm, whichever comes first!), it’s time for this story to get some loving again. I’ve been missing it and I’ve got a lot of great ideas for it, so it’ll be interesting to see how things fall into place. I’m eager to get to dive back into it tomorrow, but, until then, it’s just going to have to wait. Word count: 28,591/80,000.

NaNoWriMo: Today is the last day to finish my NaNoWriMo word count. As people around me have been finishing up early, I almost feel like that fact that it’s taken until the last day to get the fire under my feet is a bit of a failure in itself, but, really, that’s just silly. I’ve gotten further this year than I have any other year I’ve tried, and there’s a good chance that I’ll still be able to finish it today. Will I be finishing first place? Not even a little bit, much closer to last place. But it’s still finishing and, even if I don’t, I have more than 40k words of a new piece written and waiting for me. Sure, the story is a mess, lacks a good structure or a decent pace, but it’s the start of something that can be polished and honed into something much better. I’ll be glad that the dedication that NaNo requires can dissipate a little, though I still plan to work on it every day and improve it and get it ready for a second draft rewrite. But it’ll be at my pace, and the other projects I have can have a little more room, too. This is the last day! I’ve planned my day around just churning out my last 9k. Wish me luck! Word count: 41,410/50,000.

Short Stories: Nothing new to report on this front, unfortunately. This will hopefully change gloriously for next Sunday’s check-in!

100 Books Project: Moving along nicely! I’m a little concerned about being able to read more than 20 books in one month, but you can bet I’m going to try. Once NaNo is finished, I can focus more on my reading goals for the last month and just pump it out. And I hope to finish another book tonight, so there will be another for the list. Stay tuned on this one; it’s going to get intense! Books read: 54/100.

Black Dome Society: See Short Stories. Same thing.

I can’t wait for Sunday’s check-in, where I can put something a little more exciting than “No work; NaNoing” on some of these goals. And to possibly find a new goal to add to it, mwa ha ha! Either way, please, please, please remember to check in on my lovely fellow RoWers here. I know I’ll be trying to, too, between word sprints and the like! And now I’m off to go pound out some words.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!

RoW80 Check-in: November 27th!

“And so they continued up the gradual slope toward the stables, while Gilferen contended with the knot of dread in his stomach. It wasn’t exactly the gobbits that caused it, or even the dangers and discomfort of the desert ahead of them. It was just a good, old-fashioned bad feeling and he glanced toward the others to see any signs of it in them as well.”

I hope all of my fellow Americans had a good Thanksgiving! I know I did, but the holiday craziness (especially working in retail) has caused me to take a little bit of a breather from my goals and take a moment to do the RoW80 thing and reassess some things. So there hasn’t been a great deal of work being done, but a lot of rearranging and rethinking for this check-in of A Round of Words in 80 Days. Here’s the break-down:

Serpent in a Cage: Though I haven’t had much time to work on SiaC since the last update, I went to see Immortals last night, and, holy crap. The movie itself was really not very good at all, but visually and creatively, it was absolutely delicious! A lot of the theme in the movie are reflected in both SiaC and the sequel that’s being written for NaNo, so I have a lot of food for thought on how to revamp and rework it to take all the things I liked about Immortals and apply it, and hopefully avoid the great big fat list of things I didn’t like about it. Also, I realized that, if only Frida Pinto’s skin tone was a little darker and if I found out she could be kick-ass, she’d make a pretty good Auferrix…. Anyway, page count: 130.

Novel in 6 Months: I have finally reached the point where my padding is all used up and it’s time to get started on my Novel in 6 Months again. I plan to churn out probably 1000 words of it tonight, barring any distraction by my roommate, who has discovered another season of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Netflix. So help us, we have a problem with reality competition shows, but those doll are feeeeeiiiiirrce. ANyway, I still continue to drool over American Horror Story and so I’m going ot try to revamp the story to sort of fit in with all the things I love about it, but while still keeping it unique to my own vision and story. Should be interesting. We’re going to be getting a lot more of this one soon, though! Word count: 58,591.

750 Words: Although I’ve signed up for the December challenge, after some careful consideration and several days of just skipping it and being happier over all, I think I’m going to take a break from 750 words. It’s starting to feel more like an annoying chore than anything else, and the writing that I’ve been producing in the last few times have been fairly useless. I have other projects demanding my attention, and, really, it seems silly to worry about 750 random words when you’re netting over 2000 words on other projects that are actually amounting to something.

NaNoWriMo: So I’m definitely over 10k behind on NaNo…Work scheduling has been crazy, so I don’t know if I have my usual Monday/Tuesday days off, but, if I do, I know what I’ll be spending them on. I’m still so much closer to winning than I have ever been in any of my previous attempts, so if it means staying up until Midnight on Wednesday, then so be it! I will get there! I might even drag my roommate to the theater and suffer through Immortals again, because I know that film, bad as it was, was incredibly inspiring for this piece and with that fire under my feet, I think I can really do it! Just goes to show you how something doesn’t need to be brilliant to inspire you (although, really, the visuals in that film were brilliant; the script and the pacing was just terrible, though). I’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’ve taken my break, I’ve had my recharge, and I’m ready to do it! Word count: 35,005.

Short Stories: All quiet on the short story front. Hoping this changes a little once NaNo is not so much of a concern and that WIP is relegated to an easier pace.

100 Books Project: I’ve got another finished book waiting to be reviewed in the wings, making good progress on some others, so things are going well there. It seems I always find time to read, and I’m excited to see how close to 100 I can get this year. Books read: 54/100.

Black Dome Society: I haven’t had much time for brainstorming or writing up a few mock first chapters like I should be, but I’m hoping some outlining happens in the next few days and I can get going on that soon. Right now, though, it’s just sitting there waiting patiently for this weekend to end, because this weekend was terrible.

But it’s Sunday, which means the weekend is almost over and I’ve excited to have a much more thrilling update on Wednesday. How’s your progress going? Have you had to do much readjusting in your goals? How about your NaNo progress? Are you looking forward to a week of trying to get things back on track like I am, too? As always, thanks for checking in on me, and don’t forget to check up on my fellow RoWers here!

One more day of work and the weekend is over! I can’t hardly wait for 5:00 to roll around!

RoW80 Check-In: November 23rd!

“Naturally, it was with those final words that the gobbit released a massive sneeze, narrowly missing Taluin’s outstretched hand with a trajectory of thick, milky mucus. Placidly, it licked what remained dripping from his nose.
‘Oh, yes,’ Gilferen murmured, almost losing his straight face thanks to Locke’s snickering. ‘They’re just lovely.’”

Hello, everyone! Today is Wednesday, so that means it’s time for another great Round of Words in 80 Days check-in post! I’ve had two days off that I was babbling about all last week…did I manage to milk the most out of them and come back with a spectacular surge in productivity? ….Not really. I spent most of yesterday feeling a little ill, and my evenings were filled with dates (DATES! Whoooo!), but I did get some work done and covered a lot of the gap in NaNoWriMo that I’m planning to completely massacre once the insanity of Black Friday is over. Let’s have a closer look, shall we?

Serpent in a Cage: The big number one WIP is going along nicely; that tends to happen when you’re back to following along with original draft, though it’s been interesting since I’ve decided to cut a character completely out and I have to work the previously written stuff around her absence. I have a few people expressing interest in reading what I’ve got so far, especially since I’ve filled up one notebook and moved onto another, so it isn’t as if them reading it deprives me of my work. Still, I’m in that place where I don’t want it looked at until I have this version typed up. It’s so incomplete and even just the fact that the character I cut is still in earlier chapters of this new work. Yeah….definitely needs more work before I let any eyes other than my own see it. When do you usually let people read your WIPs? I’m curious if others are a little wary of letting anything unfinished being seen, too. Chapter: Ten. Page count: 128.

Novel in 6 Months: Due to slipping behind in NaNo, I haven’t been working on this story lately and, unfortunately, the last episode of American Horror Story, rather than inspired me, made me grit my teeth and think, “I WILL NEVER CREATE SOMETHING THIS AWESOME. HOW CAN I EVEN TRY?” Yeah, I’m a little obsessed, which is bad, because it makes my own American horror story seem pale and uninspired by comparison. Also, not working on it consistantly has disconnected me from it pretty badly, too. I’m glad I wrote extra, though, and gave myself a buffer of words. This way, when NaNo is finished, I’ll be about where I need to be on the 500 words per day, and can pick it up once the NaNo pressure is off. Word count: 28,591. I’ve stopped keeping track of chapters, because a lot of it is just random snippets at this point.

750 Words: I’m out of the November challenge; wah-waaaah. I was focused on NaNo for most of the day yesterday, figuring I would finish up my 750 words in a before-bed sprint as I have for many of the dys lately. But then my friend showed up and we went wine-tasting, and I was pretty much out for the count. Considering that my biggest failing when it comes to 750 words is that I’ll go out without having done my word count, I’m okay with this. I think it’s much more important to go out, live life, and have fun that chain yourself to some arbitrary goal. There’s always December, after all! I might take a break on it today, and try to get my focus back into it after Turkey Day.

NaNoWriMo: Oh, NaNo. How you have ruled my life for the last few days and I’m still behind! I think I made good lee-way, though. If you include the words I’ll need to write today, I’m only about 7000 behind, which is definitely doable for that last homestretch. I really want to finally be able to say I won NaNo, so even though the story is a complete wreck, I’ll still have those 50,000 words and then it’s just a matter of figuring out a good method to clean it up, rewrite a good portion of it, and develop it into something stronger. I will get there, though! Even if it means chaining myself to my computer on November 30th! Page count: 47. Word count: 31,211.

Short Stories: Short stories? What short stories? LOL.

100 Books Project: I’ve been blowing through books lately, which is really exciting. I keep telling myself to pay more attention to NaNo, since that’s got the sooner deadline, but I’ve just been enjoying reading a lot lately, and I’m hoping to have another book ready to add to the count either tomorrow or Friday. Books read: 53/100.

Black Dome Society: …wait, what’s this? Did L.S. Engler just add another goal to her list? Yes. Yes, she did. The Black Dome Society was something I was kind of working on in conjunction with my friend Ryan; it was his idea, but I’m the one with the writing prowess. Things have been a little rough between the two of us, but we’re getting back in stride and the wine-tasting last night definitely fueled a great brain-storming session where a lot of different ideas were tossed back and forth and I made a perhaps crazy commitment to seeing what I can do in finally getting this project on the ground and running in a direction where we want to take it. I haven’t started on it yet, but in the next few days after the holiday, I’ll be taking up the endevor of trying to get it started, so why not make it a RoW goal to keep myself focused on it? Should be interesting, either way!

How’s everyone else doing? Any Thanksgiving plans to interfere with your writing? I know I still plan to get a lot of writing done in the morning before all the festivities, and I know my roommate is planning to use my having to work on Black Friday as an excuse to get us home earlier. We’re terrible. =D

Be sure to check out other RoWers here and check out all the other great things they’re working on! Have a happy and safe turkey day, fellow Americans, and for those of you who aren’t, have a fantastic day, as well!