Updates

Life and Writing Updates | Goals for 2021

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Greetings, readers and writers of the Blogosphere! Remember me? I took another unplanned hiatus from this blog, Twitter, and the internet in general, so now I get to write a giant update post explaining everything that happened in my absence.

Let’s start with life stuff:

I think we can all agree that 2020 was a weird year. If you can’t agree with that statement, you should probably go read something else. Here’s a quick rundown of my 2020 experience:

  • I went into isolation in March due to Covid and haven’t really emerged yet. I’d rather not find out what Covid would do to me when combined with my multiple autoimmune disorders.
  • The previously mentioned multiple autoimmune disorders decided to act up after being mostly controlled for a while. It made me pretty dysfunctional for a good chunk of the year, (which is mostly why I took an unplanned hiatus from the internet), but I was able to stop some medicine that I thought I’d never be able to stop, so it turned out to be a good thing.
  • I learned that taking three English classes simultaneously, (one poetry class and two literary analysis classes), is a terrible idea, but I’m doing it again next semester anyway. It’ll be fine… my fingers probably won’t fall off from typing so much.
  • I have decided that I really, really like online classes. It’s easier from an accessibility standpoint, (I’m blind if you’re new here), and not traveling to and from campus allows for more reading and writing time.
  • I started a job which is another reason for my unplanned hiatus from the internet.

Now, the writing update:

2020 was actually very good for my writing. I wrote a lot of words while I was avoiding society and the internet, and I’m actually pretty proud of those words. Here’s what I accomplished:

  • I finished another round of revisions on “Scarred Flawless”. I’m not totally happy with it yet, but I’ve decided to put it down for a while and work on other things. It still has some serious issues with world building and tone that I’m not sure how to fix.
  • I outlined “Indie Blue”, wrote half of the first draft for NaNoWriMo, and am now in the process of fixing all the plot holes. My plan is to have the second draft done by the end of January. I don’t have a synopsis up on the website yet, but it’s about a killer manatee cult. That’s all you need to know for now.
  • I wrote a short story called “Stars Fade” that I am currently submitting to literary magazines. It’s about a girl named Nova who burns her mother’s Tarot deck as a way of grieving her mother’s death.
  • I started outlining a short story called “Your Name is Evangeline”. I have no idea how to describe it yet, so more on that later.
  • I wrote two poems called, “The Snow Globe Can’t be Fixed Anymore”, and “Bitter Liquid”, that I am quite proud of even though I do not consider myself a particularly good poet. Those are also being submitted to magazines at the moment.

Writing Goals for 2021

I am only giving myself one writing goal for 2021, and that is to finish revisions on “Indie Blue”. I’ve got a couple of other projects that I’d love to finish, but Indie is my priority right now. I’ll be working and taking creative writing classes as well, so I don’t want to create a ton of writing goals that I probably won’t be able to accomplish. I am quite confident in my ability to finish Indie by the end of the year if not earlier.

What are your writerly plans?

Let’s chat in the comments. Tell me about your works in progress, your 2020 writing achievements, and your writerly plans for the new year.

2019 Writing and Reading Recap

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Hello, people of the Blogosphere! I very obviously did not stick to my 2019 goal of blogging regularly or even at all, and i am not making that a goal for 2020 because college and adulting ate my life, and when I’m not doing either of those things, I usually want to be writing books instead of blog posts. however, I have returned to the internet after almost a year of silence for my annual recap of writing goals and favorite books of the year. I do genuinely hope to post more in 2020 because exciting writerly things may be happening in the upcoming year, but no promises!

Let’s start with a recap of my 2019 writing goals…

◦Finish editing Scarred Flawless: I’m calling this one a partial win! I said in my last recap post that Scarred Flawless had a lot of major developmental problems pertaining to world building because the geography of fictional worlds is one of life’s great mysteries, and maps are hard. Well, the developmental edits are DONE as of a few hours ago!!!! I think the whole thing is logical and coherent now, or at least it will be once I finish the line edits and eradicate all the strange sentences I created at 3 AM.

◦Start drafting Fractured Faith: This did not happen. I don’t even have Fractured Faith fully outlined, but it’s fine. Fractured Faith is the sequel to Scarred Flawless, and Scarred Flawless was my priority for 2019, so I am perfectly happy with what I did accomplish in regards to that series.

◦Start outlining Scarred Flawless Book 3: This sort of happened? I have a few index cards for it at least. Again, this is fine though because at least I mostly met my goal for the first book in the series.

◦Finish outlining Unmarked: That didn’t happen either because I started working on a new book, (Indie Blue), instead of Unmarked. I am quite happy with this arrangement though because i feel like I could sit down and draft Indie Blue right now whereas Unmarked still needs a lot of outlining and research before it’s ready to be drafted.

2020 Writing Goals:

I am only giving myself two major writing goals for 2020 because I am taking Creative Writing I in school this semester, and I’m not sure how much or what kind of writing that is going to require. My two goals are:

◦Finish line edits for Scarred Flawless and get it in the hands of beta readers

◦Finish the zero draft of Indie Blue

2019 Reading Recap:

I read 60 new books in 2019 and failed to review all of them because book review formatting is hard and adulting/school/Scarred Flawless took priority over that. So… here is a list of my top ten favorite books of 2019 with links to Goodreads instead of my own reviews!

1. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. The people weren’t kidding when they said this one was graphic and intense, but man was it good! Yet another work of literary genius from Leigh bardugo!

2. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie stiefvater. This one was my 20th birthday present to myself. It was well worth the audible credit. I don’t have anything more to say about it other than Maggie Stiefvater created another literary masterpiece, and I want to reread it now.

  1. The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang. This is an absolutely fantastic sequel to The Poppy War.

  2. Sadie by Courtney Summers. This is not my usual genre, but I absolutely loved this book! It is dark, and suspenseful, and it has a very unique writing style.

  3. Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan. This one has people who can talk to gods, and creepy mages, and it is amazing.

  4. How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow. This is the only book that made me cry in 2019. Kathleen Glasgow is really good at making me cry, but her writing is fabulous, and I will read everything she writes.

  5. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. To be quite honest, I really don’t remember much about this book because I read it whilst curled up in bed with a sinus infection trying to drown out my roommates with the audio book, but I gave it 5 stars, so it must have been fabulous!

  6. Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus. I will read everything Karen McManus writes because her first two books have both been 5 star reads for me.

  7. The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. This was a stunning conclusion to Holly Black’s “Folk of the Air” trilogy.

  8. King of Fools by Amanda Foody. This was an excellent sequel to Ace of Shades. Amanda Foody did not disappoint.

2020 Reading Goals

My only reading goal for 2020 is to finish 75 new books. I’m not starting any other kind of reading challenges because I definitely will not stick to them. Feel free to leave some of your 2019 favorites or 2020 books you’re anticipating in the comments though, and I’ll add them to my terrifyingly long TBR! Also, if you’re a writer, let me know what you accomplished this year and what you hope to accomplish in 2020.

2018 Writing Recap | 2019 Writing Goals

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Hello, people of the Blogosphere! I disappeared from the internet for a very long while! To those of you who messaged me to ask if I was still alive: thank you! Y’all rock! To those of you who didn’t notice my absence: it’s fine! I’m not bitter at all…

Why did I disappear, you ask? Well, to cut a very long story very short, life happened. I started college in August, and let’s just say that being blind as a bat and having a variety of other strange medical disorders made transitioning to college… interesting… for lack of a nicer word. Because of that, I didn’t have the time or energy to dedicate to blogging or really anything other than classes and just enough writing to maintain what was left of my sanity. Next semester should be a lot smoother though, so to kick off 2019, I am going to attempt to return to the Blogosphere and the Twitterverse because I miss writing for an audience rather than just filling pages upon pages of composition books with words that will probably never see the light of day. I seriously doubt that I will be able to maintain a regular posting schedule like I used to, but I’d like to try to post at least twice a month. We’ll just see what happens…

Anyway, (life updates aside), it's New Years Eve, which means it's time for me to tell the world whether or not I accomplished my 2018 writing goals and outline some writerly goals for the coming year! Spoiler alert: I sort of achieved my 2018 goals, and my 2019 goals are probably a bit too ambitious, but I'm a Slytherclaw, so it's fine!

Cheyenne’s 2018 Writing Recap

I had three writerly goals for 2018. They were:
◦Finish the beta reader process for Scarred Flawless
◦Outline Fractured Faith, (Scarred Flawless Book 2)
◦Outline Nevermore Forever

Yeah… okay… obviously the first goal didn’t happen! The fact that I thought that was doable is beyond laughable! Scarred Flawless really needs an update post of its own, but I’ll try to condense it for now. Basically, fictional geography is one of life’s great mysteries, and fixing the disaster that was my first attempt at creating a fictional world is proving to be WAY more difficult than anticipated. I had to resort to making maps, and maps made by the blind girl are more entertaining than useful! I have world building woes, okay! I don’t know when Scarred Flawless is going to be ready for the eyes of other humans, but thank you to all the people on Twitter who have inquired about it! It makes me very happy to know that other people want to read my book based on a couple of quotes from it. In all seriousness, I do hope to have Scarred Flawless ready for betas by the end of 2019. I am currently in the process of finishing what I hope is my final read-through before I start making the final revisions.

My second goal was a bit more of a success. I don’t quite have a scene by scene outline for Fractured Faith, but it is detailed enough that I could start drafting if I so desired, so I’m calling that one a success!

My third goal is a bit more complicated. I did not outline Nevermore Forever, but I did start outlining Unmarked instead! The original idea for Nevermore Forever is still sitting in a Scrivener file somewhere because I do want to come back to it some day, but I care about Unmarked more right now. Unmarked is a young adult thriller, which is not something I ever expected to write, but I kind of love it! The fast-paced vibe is very refreshing after the deep darkness of Scarred Flawless. The outline for Unmarked is nowhere near done, but I have the big picture and a few drafted scenes, so I’m calling this goal a partial success.

Onward to Writerly Plans for 2019!

I only have four writerly goals for 2019. They are:
◦Finish editing Scarred Flawless
◦Start drafting Fractured Faith
◦Start outlining Scarred Flawless Book 3
◦Finish outlining Unmarked
Honestly, I will be more than happy is I only achieve the first goal. Scarred Flawless is my priority right now, and I am ready to be able to hand it over to other people. Outlining and drafting will be my reward for the many hours spent resolving my world building woes.

Share Your Plans

Did you accomplish your goals for 2018? Do you have any writerly plans for the coming year? I want to know in the comments! Also, please let me know if you want to see any specific kinds of posts from me in the near future. I need quick and easy stuff that I can write and schedule, because school is starting again soon.

October Updates & NaNoWriMo Time!

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 2 Comments

Hey writerly people!

You may or may not have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in like… three months or so. That is because school happened! It’s my senior year, and I haven’t had time for much of anything other than classes, college stuff, and the occasional stolen moment of editing Scarred Flawless. However, I am going to do NaNoWriMo again this year, and, (because I am a crazy person), I have two projects:

  1. I am editing Scarred Flawless. I have about 25 more scenes to put into place. After that, I will do the final read-through, and it should be ready for beta readers in December or January!
  2. I am planning to write 50 thousand words of the first draft of Fractured Faith, which is the sequel to Scarred Flawless.

Will I win NaNoWriMo? Probably not! But at least I can say I tried!
I will still probably be pretty inactive on here until January when my course load lightens up a little, but I will be posting NaNoWriMo updates on Twitter! At least I think I can manage to write a 140 character update every day… Maybe… Probably NOT!
If you are also participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to add me as a writing buddy! Also, let me know what you’ll be working on in the comments! I promise I will check the comments! And respond to the comments! Over Thanksgiving break… 🙂

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!

Giveaway Winners Revealed!

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 1 Comment

Apologies for the extreme lateness of this post… The reason for its lateness is very lengthy, so just know that it involves a hacked wifi router, algebra, a new phone, and multiple security scans on a MacBook that are still going on as I am writing this. Just take my advice and don’t EVER download Mac Keeper! Also I a typing this on my phone with a demented bluetooth keyboard, so I am sorry in advance for any nonsense! Anyway, this post is to announce the winners of this giveaway! So without further rambling from me…
Tanya is the Winner of Scrivener, and Abby is the winner of Storyist! I don’t really wanna post the discount code here because… obvious reasons, so I’m just going to message both of you guys on twitter! 😄

November 2016 Wrap-up

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 4 Comments

Hey y’all! This is the usual thing where I list all my posts from the month and then give you the list of upcoming stuff for December, but before I get into that, I WON NaNoWriMo!!!!!!!!!!! Actually I technically won it on the 28th and scheduled this, so I should get bonus points! But 50K wasn’t enough to tell my story so I’m gonna keep writing through December…

What I posted:
🔲The Playlist Shuffle Tag
🔲The Harry Potter Writing Cup
🔲Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow (spoiler free)
🔲The Fall Activities Book Tag
🔲Beautiful Books 2016: Novel Update
🔲Happy NaNoWriMo!!! (tips, tricks, panicking, and what to expect from me)

Upcoming for December:
🔲I’m gonna attempt to do Blogmas, which means I post each day for the first 25 days of December, but I’ll probably epically fail in my attempt…
🔲The Harry Potter Writing Cup is officially happening in January, and I’ll post the schedule of chats and such as soon as it’s finalized.
🔲I’m participating in Short Story Society, (go here if you want more info), so I’ll probably be posting some of my writing on here!
🔲I have Christmas break in the middle of the month, which means I CAN READ AND Write TO MY HEART’S DESIRE!!!!! Sorry to scream at you, but you just have no idea what school has been like for me this year… But reading means you get book reviews!!!
🔲I have some writing posts planned, but there are a lot of them, and I’m not gonna list them all out because I’m typing on my iPad and I’m kinda sick of it…

Did any of you whin NaNoWriMo? Are you going to be writing or editing this month? Do you have suggestions for stuff you want me to post this month? Let’s chat in comments!

Beautiful Books 2016: Novel Update!

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 8 Comments

Hey… I have a NaNoWriMo update for all you lovely followers of mine… And it’s not going to be a good one… 

This is the second stage of Beautiful Books 2016, and it is hosted by the amazing Cait @ Paper Fury! You guys should just click that link and go read all the other posts in the beautiful Books 2016 link-up because I’m sure the majority of the NaNoWriMo community will have better news to report than I do… But here goes nothing! I shall answer these ten questions since I already did stage 1, and then I shall go curl up in bed and try to sleep because I have to get up insanely early tomorrow so I can get school work done since I have an insanely busy week that requires me to get up insanely early every morning, and I will most likely end up dreaming about how I could be writing instead of doing psychology and algebra and history and medical terminology and chemistry. That was possibly the worst run on sentence I have EVER written, so I’m just gonna answer those questions now! 

 

  1. Overall, how is your mental state, and how is your novel going? 

Ummm… Insert screaming and crying emoji here! Basically, this post still applies… I am drowning in school work, I have tech training Tuesday, and I’ll be in the car/hospital waiting rooms for most of Wednesday and Thursday and won’t be home until reeeeeeeally late Thursday night. And for my novel? I have ONE day’s worth of writing! I told you this wasn’t gonna be good! But the good news is that all that time in the car will give me at least fourteen hours of writing time! It might not be legible, but I WILL catch up! Maybe… I don’t care if I lose Nano, but I am NOT going to lose it this badly… 

 

  1. What’s your first sentence (or paragraph)? 

Oh good! I can answer this! Here’s my first paragraph: 

Looking up from the pages of his sketchbook, Nico Deverow let his icy blue gaze slide over Adam and Pennryn Rachadon with a practiced indifference. He was pretty sure he’d just been asked to serve as Adam’s “guide and mentor as he got to know the wonderful school,” but he couldn’t really be sure because of the fuzziness in his head. Adam’s colors were strange, shimmering around him like a silvery mist and then fading into the air like a chameleon would fade into it’s environment. It wasn’t normal, and Nico didn’t like it. He saw enough abnormal things that nobody should ever have to see on an hourly basis; he didn’t need abnormal people on top of it. And his Aunt and Uncle would have a fit if they found out he was “guiding and mentoring” a Rachadon. It might taint their precious reputation, and the idea of that made Nico sick and ecstatic at the same time. 

 

  1. Who’s your current favorite character in your novel? 

I LOVE Nico’s character! His POV is really dark, but it’s SO fun to write! 

 

  1. What do you love about your novel so far? 

You mean what do i love about the 1670 words of my novel? Everything! Ok, so, the words themselves aren’t that great, but I love the world, and the people, and the tone, and the theme, and just every aspect of the story! what’s not to love about a messed up society of royal mist born and a couple of kids rebelling against that society to become shamans?! 

 

  1. Have you made any hilarious typos or other mistakes? 

Not that I know of, but I haven’t actually read it that closely… I do know that my screenreader can’t say any of my character names correctly, and it’s about to drive me up the wall. Also it keeps insisting that all the names are misspelled, and that is slightly concerning because autocorrect tends to step in without my knowledge and turn things into other things that just really do not belong in my story! 

 

  1. What is your favorite to write-beginning, middle, or end-and why? 

I think that’s a tie between beginning and end! I can write an awesome start and an epic ending, but the middle sometimes makes me want to crawl in a hole and read somebody else’s already published book.

 

  1. What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day to you write best? Feel free to show us a picture of your writing space! 

I don’t typically eat anything whilst i’m writing. I can’t stand crumbs on my notebooks, and refreshable braille displays plus food equals BAD day! Basically, a braille display consists of a bunch of tiny pinholes for the dots to pop up and show me what’s on my computer screen, and when stuff gets in those holes, I get some weird words! And then I end up sending the thing back to the company to be cleaned and explaining how chocolate got in there… And that’s not fun! Snacks are distracting anyway, so I save those for writing breaks, or procrastination time! I do listen to music while i write though! I make a playlist of songs that go along with the theme of my story, and also an instrumental playlist that fits the tone of the writing for when I really need to focus. Nature sounds are awesome too! I write best either late at night or WAY early in the morning when my family is reasonably quiet. I’m the only one crazy enough to get up at 5 AM, so that works out grate! And I don’t have a pic of my writing space, but I write at my big corner desk so I can spread all my index cards and notebooks out without worrying about my dog laying on them like he does when they’re on the floor. 

 

  1. How private are you about your novel while you’re writing? Do you need a cheer squad, or do you work alone, (like, ahem, batman)? 

I do NOT show anybody the first draft of my work. I don’t mind sharing the synopsis, or little snippets of my writing, but nobody is going to see the whole thing before i edit it! 

 

  1. What keeps you writing even when it’s hard? 

J. K. Rolling did it; I can do it too! Maggie stiefvater did it; I can do it too! Kami Garcia did it; I can do it too! People are expecting me to finish this thing, and I AM GOING to finish it!!! I may lose NaNo this year, but I AM NOT going to lose without a fight!!! 

 

  1. What are your top three pieces of writing advice? 

Just write; don’t think. Your first draft is going to consist mostly of characters slogging through mud and getting nowhere, but sooner or later one of them might find a diamond. 

If you don’t know what to write next, think about the last scene you wrote. Can your character react to it in some way? Does it require further action from one of your characters? What was the purpose of it? Where is it leading you in the future? Don’t think about whether it’s necessary or not, just figure out where it is leading you to go next, then go there. 

If you don’t wanna write, suck it up buttercup and write anyway!!! It’s never going to get written if you don’t write it, so you might as well write it now rather than later. If you need an incentive, tell an obnoxious friend or family member that you are going to write insert word goal here in a designated amount of time, and ask them to bug you incessantly until you reach that goal. Trust me… You WILL hit that goal if you pick an obnoxious enough person because you’ll desperately be trying to avoid a text/tweet/phone call from THEM! 

 

 

That’s it for now! Be sure to go check out all the other Beautiful Books posts, and let me know how your writing is going in the comments! Hopefully it’s going much better than mine! 

Happy NaNoWriMo!!! (Tips, Tricks, Panicking, and What to Expect From Me)

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 5 Comments

Hey readers, writers, and Wrimos! It’s November 1st, aka the first day of the month long insanity known as National Novel Writing Month! Fun fact: NaNoWriMo began in 1999, which is the year I was born, and my birthday is November 18th, which means NaNoWriMo is just 18 days older than me! Look at me do math! I really hope that was right… 😂
So… Since it’s NaNoWriMo, and school has me going slightly insane already, I’m gonna have to rearrange my blogging schedule, (or lack there of), until all this calms down a bit. I’m also helping out with some assistive tech training this month, and I’m going to be traveling for doctor appointments in the near future, so here’s how this is gonna go down.

  1. I’m going to post weekly NaNo tips, (and updates on my progress assuming I get 5 minutes free.) Your NaNo tip for today is… Get WAY ahead on your word count while you’re still super excited about your idea! Trust me… You WILL be sick of your characters and story by the beginning of the third week in, and you will decide that the perfect fix to your plot problem is to drop a giant bolder on all your characters, watch them die in agony, and give them a beautiful funeral as a perfect happy ending to your story. Okay… Maybe that was a BIG exageration, but you get the picture, right??? Yes? Good!
  2. I’ve got some scheduled posts, but they’re kinda scattered randomly throughout the month because… Why would I bauther to put them in a set pattern? So expect some book reviews for books that I read like… six months ago or so.
  3. I’ll probably be doing lots of frantic word sprints, so come join me on Twitter please! I’ll either do my own or join @NaNoWordSprints, but come say hey either way @Cheyenne_writes!
  4. What posts I do write will most likely be written in the car, on my iPad, going through mountains for those doctor appointments I mentioned, so I’m sorry in advance for my typos and horrible grammar. It’ll drive me crazy when I reread things, and then I’ll end up updating everything.
  5. Wait for it… Wait for it… I HIT FIFTY FOLLOWERS!!!!!!! If you follow me on Twitter, you know I was hoping to make that by my birthday, and it actually happened! You guys are amazing, and thank you for reading all my rambling! I know you’re actually reading it because a lot of you like and comment. I like likes and comments! A lot! If you’re a Twitter friend, you also know that I had a writerly surprise planned, and that’s still gonna happen… Just not this month… It’ll probably be December because there is NO way I can keep it up this month, but school will let up a lot in December, so that should work out. Hint, hint: It’s Harry Potter related, and it involves people writing together. I would like to collaborate with a couple of bloggers for this, so drop me a line if you’re interested. Either DM me on Twitter or email me from my contact page. My only requirement is that you write and you blog!

Ok so that post was extremely rambling, but hopefully it was sort of coherent, and I will now sign off and return next week with a NaNo tip! Let me know in the comments how your first day of NaNo went! I’ve hit 1500, and I’m planning to make it to 1670 as soon as I publish this! Message me if you’d like more info on my project, and… I don’t actually know how to end this. Please don’t unfollow me because of this post, and remember to be bookish and stay writerly!
From Cheyenne 🙂

Starting NaNoWriMo2016!

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 7 Comments

Hey y’all! I have officially created my profile for NaNoWriMo2016! I did decide to go with Wishes for my project because a big chunk of the outline fell into place, and now I just really wanna write these awesome characters! Like it fell into place enough for me to write an official synopsis to post to the NaNoWriMo site, and that usually doesn’t happen till long after I’ve started writing! I think it’s a pretty darn good synopsis myself, but it could just be because I wrote it when I had a horrible sinus infection, was running fever, and couldn’t stop coughing… I don’t know… Y’all can read it and tell me if it’s completely horrible! Actually, come to think of it, this post is being written really late because said sinus infection is preventing me from sleeping, so it may be insane too… No more fever, but this cough is miserable, and I have become a mouth breather… Antibiotics are magical stuff though because earlier today I wasn’t quite convinced I didn’t have the Flu! Anyway, with my rant about being sick aside, here is the synopsis I’ll be working with for NaNoWriMo2016! Feel free to check out my profile too, and add me as a writing buddy! Also, if you’re a NanoNewbie, I’d love to mentor you along this crazy journey!

The Synopsis For Wishes:

This world is not made for them, or perhaps they are not made for this world. They have never been anything but “abnormal,” because they are the only ones with their eyes open enough to see the truth. They cannot blend in with all the royals, because their natures will not allow them to play their twisted games of power. They are shamans, mist born, able to see through all the lies. Their just children, really, each born with a gift, (or a curse), as some might call it. But they are strong, and they are wise, and they will fight for truth!
Nico Deverow can see the unseen, and yet he cannot see the one thing that might make it all worth it: his parents who died when he was only three. There is darkness inside him, and he can no longer numb it enough to keep from shattering. Adam has a light inside him, a star in stark contrast to his sisters cruel beauty. He only wants to heal, but perhaps he cannot heal one who does not wish to be healed. Ela is fire and ice together, constantly fighting a battle within her own heart. Diana just wants to be the golden girl-the perfect princess, the Bishop heir, at council gatherings and the innocently pure shaman at Adam’s side. Each of them has a purpose, because nothing is ever done without purpose, even in the Royal Court.

Are You Doing NaNo?

Tell me about your Projects for NaNoWriMo2016 in the comments! I’d love to know what you’re working on! And also, I could really use some plotting and outlining advice because i have awesome characters but am really struggling with the ending of this plot… And I’m signing off now because I reeeeeeeally need to sleep at least a little bit tonight since I have to correct my Algebra test tomorrow…