NaNoWriMo

Snippet Sunday

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Snippet Sunday is a weekly writing post in which you share a snippet of your current writing project. This snippet is from Scarred Flawless

Vivian Devereaux knew better than anyone that The City of Stars and Moonlight was nothing more than a flawless facade, and its crystalline beauty was nothing more than gold plating put in place to hide the scars beneath the surface. In the reality that no one wanted to face, Artimay was nothing more than a masterpiece of flawed perfection around which the world revolved.

Beautiful Books 2017 | How’s the writing going?

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ 3 Comments

Beautiful Books is a writing link-up created by Cait @ Paper Fury. Today’s topic is, “How’s the writing going”?

  1. Overall, how is your mental state, and how is your novel going?
    My mental state is pretty frazzled at the moment. It is day five of NaNoWriMo 2017, and I have 1057 new words to my name. That isn’t even the recommended word count for day one… Because of this pathetic excuse for a day five word count, I have switched my goal around a little bit. Instead of trying to edit Scarred Flawless and draft 50K words of the sequal, I have made my primary goal to finish editing Scarred Flawless. This is WAY more important to me than drafting a new thing right now because I want to have it in the hands of beta readers by January. Therefore, I’ll be counting every thirty minutes of editing as one thousand words for NaNo this year.

  2. What’s your first sentence (or paragraph)?
    The Counsel Hall was no place for the innocent or kind at heart. So much innocent blood had been spilled upon the tiles that it was a wonder the floor was white instead of scarlet. Niko Devereaux had watched every drop of that innocent blood spill a thousand times over, and sometimes the presence of the unseen in the Great Room was so strong that it was difficult to tell what was tangible and what was non-corporeal.

  3. Who’s your current favorite character in your novel?
    The proper answer here is, “Please don’t make me pick a favorite fictional child”, but I’ll be honest… Niko is my favorite.

  4. What do you love about your novel so far?
    I LOVE my characters! The characters actually came to me before the plot, so they were extremely well-developed before I even started writing.

  5. Have you made any hilarious typos or other mistakes?
    I haven’t made any hilarious typos myself, but autocorrect did a number on my first draft! I didn’t realize it was on, and for some reason it insisted that my main characters name should be, “Nero Develop”, instead of Niko Devereaux. Let’s just say I spent some quality time with the find-and-replace feature before I did my first read through… 🙂

  6. What is your favorite to write: beginning, middle, or end — and why?
    Beginnings are my happy place! Nothing has to make a ton of sense in the beginning because the rest of the story is there to explain things, but middles and ends require logic! I don’t like it when writing and logic collide!

  7. What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day do you write best? Feel free to show us a picture of your writing space!
    I don’t eat while I write because food and keyboards should never mix, but I do drink coffee or tea depending on what I’m up for that day. I do listen to music while I write, )you can click here to view my Scarred Flawless playlist on youTube). I write best either late at night or early in the morning when no one else is awake.

  8. 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)?
    No one gets to know about my writing except my closest writerly friends until the first round of edits are over.

  9. What keeps you writing even when it’s hard?
    Other people did it, so I can do it too!

  10. What are your top 3 pieces of writing advice?
    ◦Don’t chase after any shiny new ideas unless you are absolutely sure that your current project isn’t going anywhere. You’ll never get anything published if you don’t stick with something.
    ◦Write about something you are passionate about. If you love something, you’ll probably also enjoy writing about it.
    ◦Writing has no rules; don’t let anybody tell you otherwise!

My NaNoWriMo2017 Bullet Journal

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Happy Halloween/NaNoWriMo Eve! This is kind of last minute, but I thought I would share five of my favorite NaNoWriMo bullet journal spreads.
*If you are unfamiliar with the bullet journal system, click here for a video that will explain it better than I can.

Unfortunately I can’t show you pretty pictures like most of the bullet journalers on Instagram because all of my spreads are in braille, and the vast majority of you couldn’t read them. However, I will do my best to describe the spreads well enough for you to actually understand what I’m talking about… 🙂

  1. The Monthly Spread:
    This is basically a staple of all bullet journals, not just writing ones. I don’t typically use the monthly spread when I’m planning for a normal month, but I do during November. This is so that I can easily see what weeks are going to be insanely busy and what weeks are going to be basically free. If I’m going to have a crazy week, I make sure to cover for it in the week prior.

  2. The Word Count Tracker:
    This is a table consisting of three columns: day, word count, and damage control. Along the left-hand side, I list the 30 days of November. In the word count column, I write the word count I achieved for that particular day. In the damage control column, I write the number of words that I need to write the next day in order to fix any damage I did the day before.
    The recommended word count per day to win NaNoWriMo is 1667. Although it is possible to win NaNoWriMo by not writing on the week days and doing nothing but writing on the weekends, (I have done this), it is MUCH easier if you stick to a daily goal of somewhere around 1667 words per day. Hence the word count tracker!

  3. The daily spread:
    For me, this spread is literally just a todo list. Basically, these pages consist of checklists of everything I have to do before I can write. Without these pages, I would get completely sucked into NaNoWriMo, and important things like homework and algebra tests would be forgotten.

  4. The Inspiration Spread:
    This page consists of a list of things that inspire me to write my novel. The majority of WriMos, (including myself), tend to get sick of whatever they’re working on half way through the month and move onto a shiny new idea. This is bad, because you will never finish anything if you don’t stick with something. Also, if you were excited enough about an idea to decide to do it for NaNo, it’s probably pretty good, and you should probably stick with it! My inspiration pages usually consist of things like…
    ◦I love my characters!
    ◦My plot is super exciting!
    ◦These characters have a story to tell, and it’s my job to put it on paper.
    ◦The world needs my novel!!!!

  5. The playlist Spread:
    Most of you probably know by now that I make a playlist for everything I start. I can’t rite in silence, and if I’m going to listen to music while writing, it should totally be stuff that pertains to my story! Putting the playlist on shuffle and listening to a few songs is usually enough to get me in the writing zone, but sometimes I need a little extra help to get into the mindset to write certain scenes. So… I list all of the super important scenes that may be tough to write and associate each of them with a song so that I can listen to that song in order to get in the mindset to write that scene.

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… 🙂

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!