AIM Day 10

Word Count: 4009
Song of the Day: It's My Life, Bon Jovi

I rather like today's quote over on Critique Circle:

A blank page is God's way of showing you how hard it is to be God.

Author is anonymous, but it had me rather amused.

AIM Day 9

Word Count: 3,781
Song of the Day: Hallelujah by Paramore

Today's inspiration: switch up your point of view. I was rather not fond of a scene I wrote today. I felt like my character was acting...well...out of character. But how was I going to fix it? Write the scene from another point of view, of course!

Oh, sure. Of course. Duh.

Actually, it took quite a bit of time to figure it out, plus a number of conversations with writing buddies. But it is pretty brilliant, right? Only one of the scenes will actually go into the finished manuscript, but whichever one it is will be better, because by writing it from two different points of view, I get a more accurate characterization.

Brilliant!

AIM Day 8

Word Count: 2,966
Song of the Day: Imperial March by John Williams

Today's inspiration: sleepless nights.

Ever spend a night staring at the ceiling because the voices in your head won't shut up and want you to tell their story RIGHTFRAKIN'NOWTHANKYOUVERYMUCH!!!?? Yeah, me, too. However, that is not the cause of my sleeplessness. (No, that would be the doctors, who are 99% certain I have Celiac, but want to do the definitive test, and therefore want me to eat all the foods I'm likely allergic to, which causes my iron levels to plummet. In case you were curious.) It is, however, making me an absolute mad scientist over my current WIP. Today, I got in a LOT of brainstorming and a good scene, plus started a scene I've been procrastinating on. And they're good! (Or, I think they're good, because I'm too tired to think otherwise. Either way works for me right about now.) (I like parentheses. Can you tell?)

While I would not suggest keeping yourself up at night just to get in a solid word count, should you find yourself sleepless, use it to your advantage. Who knows what you'll come up with?

AIM Day 7, and Liebster Award

CherylAnne awarded this to me. She is a fellow reviewer over at Good Book Alert. Thanks, CherylAnne!!

Liebster means friend in German so this is pretty much the best award ever! There’s no tell-us-seven-things rule to go along with this award. It’s sole purpose is to connect bloggers, specifically those with less than 200 followers. Rules of acceptance and new recipients are the bottom of this post.

On to today's inspiration!!

Word Count: 2, 147 (Yes, I know...I'm stuck at the moment.)

Song of the Day: Unbeautiful by Lesley Roy

Today's inspiration: deadlines. I now have one, and I'm rather excited. My deadline is September 23, just in time for the Hampton Roads Writers Conference. My dad surprised me this weekend by telling me he'd signed us both up for it. The only agent available for a pitch only does non-fiction, so I won't be doing that, but I am entered for a critique of my first ten lines, and I'd love to have a complete manuscript to take with me. I'd better get crackin'!

So! Onto the rules for the Liebster Award

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the internet—other writers.
5. And best of all – have fun and spread the karma.

And my winners are:

Gemma

Lindsey
Ava Jae
Seren
Emily

AIM Day 6

Word Count: 2,147
Song of the Day: F***ing Perfect, by P!nk

Today's inspiration is brought to you by: the villain.

I know, right? "WTF, Trace? You batsh*t crazy?" Well, frankly, I likely am. However, this is too true!!

There were holes in my plot. I knew that. The bad guy...well, I knew I was supposed to be afraid of him, but I really wasn't, but I couldn't figure out why. Before I'd even mentioned it, a writing buddy asked about my plot, wanted me to lay it out for him. I did, and he pointed out that all my holes had to do with the villain.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Darius. Okay, so that's not his real name, but this is what my bad guy looks like. I've put a lot more thought into him lately, and I feel a lot more confident in my story now. Yay! He's actually a pretty scary creature now, all masochistic and whatnot. And he's in love with Vesper, far as I can tell. Sticky situation, this is. My villain was extremely not scary until I understood him, knew his motivations. Now that I get it? He's terrifying.

What makes your villain scary?

AIM Day 5

Word Count: 2147
Song of the Day: Call Me, by Shinedown (hmm, I'm seeing a pattern...lol)

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Everyone's heard it. It's a common phrase. I never expected to hear it in reference to writing, though. However, I now have. It's a good thing to keep in mind. When it gets tough to translate the pictures in your head into words, what do you do? Gemma  gives herself a stern talking to.

How could that help? Just "talk" yourself into making it work? Apparently, it works.

My plan for tonight? Pep talk, and then another thousand words.

AIM Day 4

Aug Word Count: 1,759
Song of the Day: Roses by Seether

I got a lot done last night. Well, maybe not a lot for some people, but I felt like I was on a roll for a while there. Had I been able to keep going (and not, say, commute home, care for a friend's pets, check their house, etc), I could have gotten a LOT done. Alas, once again, life gets in the way of writing. ;)

I keep talking about inspirtation, I know, but yesterday, I found INSPIRATION!!!

I've heard a lot of people say "Write in order! Don't just write will-nilly whatever scene you want."

So, lately, I've been doing just that. Writing in order. Problem was...I wasn't sure what came next. I knew what happened in the middle, or three-quarters of the way through, but not "next". Thank goodness I had a writing budy who just smirked at all those "strict dilligence" kind of people and said, "Just write your candy scenes already."

What? Candy scenes? You mean like Troli Brite Crawlers, one of my favorite snacks?

Well...sorta.

Candy scenes are the fun ones, the scenes that are more vivid in your head--battles, dramatic moments, evil scenes where you make your characters squirm. You know, the fun stuff, the ones that will be a treat to write, even if it's just a rough, ugly version.

Turns out, I really like candy scenes. (No kiddin', right?) My main character, Vesper, is an assassin, and she likes to pretend she's all cold, heartless, stone woman. It just ain't true. Many of my candy scenes involve another character, Shock, calling her out on it. Shock is a very laid-back kind of guy, and he enjoys nothing more than pushing Vesper's buttons and making her squirm. This suits me just fine, let me tell you.

So, that's my inspirational thought for the day. What are your candy scenes?

AIM Day 3

Word Count: 542
Song of the Day: Diamond Eyes, Shinedown

Today's inspiration is brought to you by shiny objects. (Actually, I just wanted to find an excuse to post one of my favorite pictures of something shiny. :) Image from Krikawa.)

Last night, I was actually able to give out helpful advice. Shocking, I know!! (I actually can't take too much credit; it was advice given to me a number of years ago. I'm just borrowing it.) I was in eighth grade and doing a project on the career I wanted when I grew up. I decided my project would be on becoming a ficton writer. I had to do an interview, and since John Grisham was unlikely to return my call, I asked one of my dad's writer friends. She answered my questions far more thoroughly than I had expected, so it took me a while to process all of it. I ended up with a nice project (which my teacher later admitted she hadn't thought I'd be able to pull off), and years later, some of the things she said in that interview stuck with me. Since this advice has been so helpful to me, and was helpful to someone else last night, I'm passing it on.

At the top of your paper/word document, write/type these words:
I AM FREE TO WRITE COMPLETE AND UTTER CRAP.

Gag the internal editor, hold him/her hostage, and just write. You can't edit a blank page. Better to have something, even if it's terrible, than to have nothing.

So, there's my shiny bit of inspiration for the day.

AIM Day 2

Word count (as of 12AM): 0. I had a lovely outline set up, though.
Song of the Day: If I Die Young, The Band Perry

It's August 2nd, and therefore Day 2 of the Awesome Inspiration Month. Much fun to be had, yeah? Today's inspiration: Fans!!!

I haven't met my own personal quota in quite some time. I keep telling myself I want to write so many words in a month, or even so many in a day. No matter how much time I spend sitting at the computer, staring at the blank screen, I just don't get my word count in. But today, I found a smidge of inspiration in a fan!

Today, this fan mentioned that she couldn't wait for my next scene, or to read about some things I'd mentioned would happen in the story. She is actually excited to read the latest chapters of my work in progress! I didn't have to pay her to say that or anything!

So, that's my advise for today; find a fan, someone not related to you, someone you don't have to pay, who is genuinely interested in reading your story.

Welcome to August!! AIM Day 1

So, I didn't meet either of my goals for the month of July. *sad sigh* I got about a quarter of the way to the 20k goal. Therefore, I'm extra determined to meet a goal (any goal!!) this month. I'm going to to with 20k again, because November is coming up, and we all know what that means!!!

Therefore, I am dubbing August as Awesome Inspiration Month. Every day, I will post something inspirational, be it a quote or an article, or a song that has me writing fast; anything goes. So here we are, day 1.

Here goes nothin'!

Putting pen to paper lights more fire than matches ever will.
~Malcolm Forbes