Camp Day 4: Where are the words?

After a really busy start of June, I haven't been able to start CampNaNo yet, which means I'm (potentially if I get my butt in gear and write today) 3 days behind. I'm really hoping I can get the inspiration, motivation and concentration that I need to be able to write 4 days worth of words today. Here's to hoping.

Still no idea, but at least I'm being productive.

So, as the title suggests, I'm still completely unsure about what I'm going to be writing from Friday, but I guess that can be the fun of it. The weather is good and warm, and that always puts me in the mood for being productive.

Today has been a pretty productive day too. I worked out a way of showing my photography project final photos in an installation way, which I'm excited about, because I love installation so much. I have some photos I need to post-process and I only have one day of my photoshop trial left, so I'm thinking I best get on and do those, and actually buy photoshop (cheaply, cause I'm a student!).
I'm also over halfway done on my essay, which is great, as I can't wait for it to be over. It's one of those things that seems to take a lot of work, yet you look and feel like you've done absolutely nothing at all...

And it begins again.

All this sunny weather that we're having in the UK at the moment has really put me in the mood for CampNaNo (although thankfully without any real camping - tents are cold, and it always seems to rain when I go...).

I am pretty much not decided whatsoever about what I'm going to attempt to write for Camp. I have one idea, but I need to work out a plan and I only have two characters - both of whom are nameless and just appeared and wanted a story writing about them.
But unfortunately, I have a university project and an essay to finish and hand in on the 31st May - so unless I finish both before Thursday, planning isn't happening until that evening! Planning could be very much needed procrastination from all that work though...

I attempted to at least.

I opened two of my novel documents today. Can't say I actually wrote a lot, but at least I looked at them.

One of them is my novel rewrite. I wrote a paragraph or two of that - no where near enough - but I am working on it, just slowly. I feel like I should be working on it quicker, seeing as I've already written it once, and am just writing it again in a different time period/setting, but it's harder than I thought. I need to just sit down and get on with it, rather than procrastinating.

The other one I wrote a tiny bit of was a novel which I started planning in October last year, and started this year. I've written the prologue and am working on chapter 1. I want to spend a lot of time on this and not rush it - I really like it, but there are quite a few plot holes I need to fill before I can actually write it properly. I have been reading through my notes for this - feeling pleased with how it's going to go actually :D Just need to sit down and write - always the hard part!

I have an idea!

So, while I was lying in bed last night, waiting to fall asleep, a light bulb switched on. Now, I'm not talking about a real lightbulb - I'm talking about one in my brain. A metaphorical lightbulb, if you like. And now that lightbulb has turned itself on, it won't go off again. This idea will not leave my mind, so, I'm thinking that maybe I should go with it.

Here's the idea. In November last year, I wrote a novel. I personally think it's kind of boring, but maybe that's just cause it's my writing. I leant my copy of this novel to my friend, who kindly read it, and had a few comments to make.
Number 1 comment was that she loved it. She said she really enjoyed it. I guess that's the best thing anyone could say. She also said my descriptions are beautifully written.
Now for the creative criticism. She said she didn't think it was long enough (I only aimed for 50,000 words, only wrote about 1000 more than that) which is a very fair point. She also said that I didn't get into all of my character's heads enough.
And when she said that, I completely agreed.

It's one of the things I find difficult with writing. I know my character's so well, because I came up with them - they live in my head. But I need to push harder to get my character's across to other people. I know them well, but the people reading about them obviously don't!

So we had a chat about the novel, and I couldn't stop trying to work out what I could do to improve. And then in bed last night, it hit me.
A word that I was dreading was going to force itself upon me.

Rewrite.

And not even just rewriting a certain chapter, or just adding a bit in. I mean a whole rewrite. All of it. Every single part.

And not even just a rewrite to improve it. No, my brain - thinking it's clever - had an even better idea than that.

A rewrite where I use the same characters, same plot - but different settings and a different time period.
Thank you so much brain!

But now, the more I think about rewriting the novel differently, the more I think that it's a good idea. The more I fall in love with the idea even. It'd be a much better way to get into my character's heads, strengthen my plot... Everything.

No idea when to actually start, but I'm considering doing it for CampNaNo. Who knows?

Day I'm not 100% sure what: WriYe is harder than I thought.

Yes, no blog since March - I'm very very bad at keeping this!

I don't know what day this is meant to be, and I don't dare to open my spreadsheet and look. I'm scared of the amount of red days that'll be on there, and how far I'm actually behind on my writing.
So, here's the deal.
I've decided that instead of counting the number of words - something which really stresses me out, cause I always seem to keep one eye on the word count and one eye on what I'm writing (a habit I seem to have now dropped, thank goodness!) I'm going to work by finishing novels instead.

So, by the end of this year (there's 6 months left of it!) I am aiming to have finished 3 or possibly 4 novels.
I am currently writing one which is closer to being finished than anything else at the moment. (Because I have to look) it's just over the 40,000 word mark, and will be finished after another... 5 chapters maybe? Each chapter will be around 4,000 words, so this novel is aiming for around 60,000 words.
Heather did a critique for me, so I need to print that off and go through and edit what I have so far. Apparently I use the word "and" way too much, and both of us decided it's because I'm trying to up my wordcount with it.
Oops?

I have another novel which is sitting at roughly 6 or 7k, and that's just the prologue and half of chapter 1. I'm really taking my time writing this novel as I want it to be perfect :P I feel that my writing is a lot better in that one, than the other one :P

The third and fourth (possible) novels are ones which I will write for Camp NaNoWriMo (whenever that takes place... Either that, or I can do a JulNoWriMo and just set myself a target for the month) and also for NaNoWriMo in November.

It's a lot of writing, and I have no idea what to do with these novels once I've finished. People keep telling me I should send them off to get published, but photography is what I want to pursue, and also what I'm going to university for.

Well... we'll see really.
I should probably get back to writing...

Day 74: Blog keeping is not my strong point.

Yeah - I suck at keeping a blog. I keep forgetting to update everyone on what I'm doing, not that it's very interesting, so maybe everyone else is just better off not actually knowing, because it won't benefit them in anyway whatsoever.

So, recently, I've been doing loads of photography (it's important and I do like taking photos :P ) and have been updating my flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/revolutionofperception/
It can be found at that link, just in case you wondered. And yes, another shameless plug.

This month, I had 9 consecutive days of not writing after 4 or 5 days of days where I wrote over 1,000 each day. I don't know how I can vary so much in a month, but yesterday I wrote 3,263 words and so far today, I have written 1,065 words. I'm feeling a lot more positive about my writing this week. When I got my proof copy, I read it and thought "This is utter crap" which really knocked my confidence. I'm not sure if I'm going to rewrite it or not, or just leave it as a project that I completed and it was practice for greater things to come. Possibly.

Right now, I've started a short story/exercise where I put iTunes on shuffle, and write scenes for this story depending on the song. The scenes are inspired by the mood of the song and the lyrics. It's pretty fun, and I like music so it does help with writing. Right now though, I'm having a bit of a chill by listening to Basshunter - I love Basshunter xD His music is my guilty pleasure... like James Blunt's music too.

So that's what I've been doing. Take a Bite has reached 39,276 words so far, and it's a way off from being finished, so perhaps I'll be able to get up to 60k or so with it - not sure how much more I'm going to be writing. I think another 20k definitely, although I'd like it to be a little longer than that.

Happy writing.