Challenges

2016 Wrap Up/2017 Goals

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 6 Comments

To continue with the theme of scatter-brained posts, I had goals for 2016 to wrap up, but I don’t have them anymore. They were on my MacBook which had to be wiped because of a malware invasion, and apparently the file wasn’t in Dropbox… The fact that I don’t remember most of them is probably a good indication that I failed at most of them, but here’s what I do remember!

  1. I did NOT win my Goodreads challenge, and Goodreads feels the need to remind me of that fact every time I open the app…
  2. I won NaNoWriMo for the second year running!
  3. I finished the first draft of my first novel! insert terrified emoji here It’s a total complete mess, but I finished the thing!
  4. I learned lots of programming stuff that I am not going to get into here because you most likely don’t care, and I don’t wanna explain it… Ok so really that wasn’t an official goal for 2016 until two weeks ago, but I made it my goal over Christmas break, and I accomplished it, so I’m counting it!
  5. Added together, all the writing projects I’ve completed in 2016 total up to 111911 words! I’m pretty sure my goal was 100000, so I’m proud of that!

Goals for 2017:

  1. By June 1st, I hope to have my novel ready for beta readers. If it could be by March 1st, that would be fantastic, but school is probably going to crush that dream.
  2. I’m setting my Goodreads challenge for 30 books because I’m 90% sure I can meet that!
  3. I am going to attempt the A to Z reading challenge, which means I have to read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet. If you know of books starting with R, Q, X, Y, or Z, please leave them in the comments! Those are the only ones I haven’t found yet…
  4. For NaNoWriMo this year, I’m planning to write the second book in this series I have started. We’ll see if that actually happens because I may still be trying to sort out this mess of a thing I’m calling a novel if the unthinkable happens and I epically fail at my first goal.
  5. This is the thing that I really need to do, but don’t wanna do. I’m in the middle of learning Swift and Python, (which are both programming languages), and I have a ton of notes for both all over my phone, iPad, laptop, and two notebooks, and they’re gonna have to be combined and organized before I get much further into this. I was planning to do this over Christmas break, but I just added to the mess instead because I’m a nerd like that!

I feel like I should list my upcoming posts here, but I still have all those that got caught in drafts, and honestly the next couple posts are gonna be embarrassingly late stories for Short Story Society. How did you do on your 2016 goals, (writing or otherwise?) Got anything cool planned for this year? Are you planning to join The HP Writing Cup? Let’s chat in comments!

The Harry Potter Writing Cup — Rules & Announcements

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 7 Comments

So I’m gonna be a rebel and announce a writing contest instead of screaming happy New Year like everybody else in the Blogosphere! Remember this post that I wrote forever ago? This is the follow up for that with the somewhat more finalized rules. Just keep reading if you wanna have some fun and start 2017 off with some good writing…

  1. Every word written during the month of January counts as a point for your Harry Potter house. You can write literally anything you want as long as it’s creative. Even blog posts can count if you wanna get a jump on scheduling posts! And if you’re like me, and you have a giant mess of a thing you’re calling a novel to edit, you can go by NaNoWriMo rules and count each hour of editing as 1000 words!
  2. You need to be following me, Trisha, Megan, and Tanya on our blogs to see important updates.
  3. Make sure you follow the challenge account on Twitter @HPWritingCup so you can join the chats and share your progress.
  4. We’ll host weekly tweet chats about writing and give opportunities for bonus points. Right now the chats will be held on January 7, 14, 21, and 28, (those are all Saturdays), at 9 AM CST. You can join us with #HPWritingCup to share your progress and talk about writerly things.
  5. You must be nice to each other! I don’t think I have to say this since we writers are mostly peaceful creatures, but I’ll put it out there anyway… This challenge is open to anyone and everyone who wants to have fun writing. If you are caught criticizing someone, I will Avada Kedavra you, (aka find the block button and use it!)

The main goal here is to have fun and kickoff 2017 with lots of writing. There really aren’t many rules. We’re not the word police, so this is a stress free writing zone! Let’s ring in the new year by writing all the words!!!

The Harry Potter Writing Cup

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 9 Comments

Hey, writerly people! If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen some discussions about the “HP Writing Cup.” Some blogger friends and I have been chatting about a little writing contest idea, and this is the official announcement that it will be happening, but the unofficial plan! So to simplify that a bit… It’s gonna happen, but we’re still working out the specifics!
I have teamed up with Trisha, Tanya, and Megan to host this fun challenge. Like I said above, I don’t have the plan/schedule set in stone yet, but here are the basics:

•We’ll pick a month, (probably January), and the challenge will run for the length of that month.
•Every word written in that month counts as a point for your Harry Potter house. (I’ll have a form up soon for you to tell us your house and some other info.)
•Any creative writing counts, (including blog posts!)
•We’ll host Twitter chats about bookish and writerly things! (Ya gotta have a Twitter account if you wanna do the really fun stuff.)
•Someone will head each house, (as of now, Trisha is heading Slytherin, Megan is heading Hufflepuff, Tanya is heading Gryffindor, and I am heading Ravenclaw.) The head of each house will host word sprints for their group, and maybe have some fun extra prompts/challenges.
•We’ll come up with ways to earn extra points so it isn’t all writing. (Suggestions welcome!)
•You need to be following all of us to see important updates if you wanna participate!
•Your input is needed! Do you have a suggestion about how to improve this? Drop me a line in the comments, or let Trisha, tanya, or Megan know on their blogs! You can also message me on Twitter @Cheyenne_writes!

A Bookish Blind Date

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 8 Comments

A Blind Date with A Book
Hey Bookworms! Lara has created a fun reading challenge that basically dares you to take a chance on a random read. She has created a quiz, (consisting of five very random questions), that will determine which book you get. All of the books are free in eBook format until this Sunday, (that’s October 30th), and you just need an Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or iBooks account to get your copy. If you decide to participate, be sure to click here to see the rest of the rules and take your quiz!

My Results:

I got The Killing Game by Toni Anderson. Looking at the synopsis, this book is pretty far from the kind of thing I normally read, but it also sounds like it’s got potential to be really good! It’s contemporary, and I’m usually a hardcore fantasy lover, but I’ll go into this with an open mind. I have been branching out to contemporary more and more lately, so maybe I’ll be surprised! Plus, it has leopards!!! I love leopards!!!