Category: NaNoWriMo

It’s that Time of Year Again!

Posted on by in NaNoWriMo, Sisters

It’s that time of year again, folks! NaNoWriMo is back!

Last year I jumped in with vague impressions of a story and sank, but this year, I’ve got myself an outline, a plot, and an ending.

Sisters: Behind the Iron Eagle, take two!

I don’t know if the political climate is right for the original Sisters. I started it before a certain election. And despite the fact that I have disclaimers plastered everywhere, I am still wary about publishing it. I don’t want to give up entirely because I put a lot of research into it, and let me tell you, researching Evil in WWII will make your gut churn.

I understand why Philip K. Dick couldn’t bring himself to dive deep into the horrors and atrocities of the Third Reich for his unfinished sequel to The Man in the High Castle. From Wikipedia, The Man in the High Castle [book]:

Dick said that he had “started several times to write a sequel”, but progressed little, because he was too disturbed by his original research for The Man in the High Castle and could not mentally bear “to go back and read about Nazis again.”

Moving on from the dark and depressing…

Since there is a world of characters and places that already exist in my head that I’m not ready to toss into the Great Void yet, I started looking at other alternate endings to WWII, and Behind the Iron Eagle (BTIE) was born.

In BTIE, the allies dispersed after a grave disagreement over the handling of a defeated Germany. Only the Red Army remained as an occupying force in the end. Japan and the United States was at a stalemate, signing a non-aggression pact where Japan got Hawaii, and the US was awarded a lucrative manufacturing contract. Everything seemed to be going well after 1945 for the US and Japan. Their newly minted friendship created an economic boom.

But the great bear grew hungry. In 1955, the Soviet Union invaded the United States and defeated her.

The characters from Sisters return in BTIE. The People’s Republic of the United States is their way of life. They know nothing else, but is it a better life than the one we enjoy today?

Only time will tell as I trek through NaNoWriMo to write their journey!

If you are doing NaNoWriMo this year and would like to add me as a writing buddy, feel free!

Add Me! RlyehDreams

Win & Win

Posted on by in NaNoWriMo, Sisters

Just look at that little word count! NaNo who?

I’m going back to the original writing strategy I had for Sisters. There’s no way I can reach NaNo’s goal of 50K at this point. The initial plan was to write three chapters, pause and revise, visit the outline and note any changes in plot, and write three more chapters.

Rinse and repeat!

Anyone who has ever had to edit can tell you what a tedious, short-attention-span producing task it is. Imagine saving ALL of it for later and going back to several hundred pages of it. No thanks!

This is something I’ve never done before. I’ll still have to go back after I finish writing and reread it all, but the goal is to make the dreaded revision task a little easier.

Because nobody asked, here’s my two cents on current events…

Has it made working on Sisters harder? Yes. Did I vote for him? No. Am I going to move on and keep living my life? Yes.

I just want to say one thing, and then I’ll shut up because the last thing I want to turn this blog into is a political stomping ground.

I’m going to talk about Internet rants because, good Lord…There are right ways to express your anger and there are obnoxious ways.

Throwing tantrums online, labeling every single person who voted a certain way a [insert buzzword here], and declaring that you’re unfriending every last person who voted differently than you does one thing, and one thing only.

It alienates people, even those who share your views.

“Your crazy Internet rant really opened my eyes!” said no one ever.

Want to win people over to your side? 

Hilarious memes & rationality

It’s that simple.

Post Apocalyptic Election Writing Freeze

Posted on by in NaNoWriMo, Sisters

Watch my NaNoWriMo count stall out!

Last week was a wild one, wasn’t it? I’ll be frank: I didn’t even consider the possibility that our current president-elect would be the president-elect. It didn’t even cross my mind for a second that he even had a remote chance of winning.

I was in the “I hate them both” crowd, but fully expected Clinton to win and to be irritated yet secretly relieved over it because putting a bland, run of the mill politician in the White House would have made everything go back to normal, and that’s all anyone wants, right?

So what does this have anything to do with writing and NaNoWriMo? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Sisters started out as a what if scenario. This year’s crazy election fueled my Sisters frenzy. What if someone similar to Trump really did win?

Needless to say, I was shocked to the core when I woke up, checked my phone, and saw the words “Donald Trump won the presidential election.”

I didn’t know what to think. I certainly didn’t know what to write. I was in a state of bewildered shock for several days (just look at my NaNoWriMo stats!).

Worry not, friends! I managed to gather the confused pieces and am already at it. I probably have a shot in hell at making 50K by the end of the month, but that’s not going to stop me from finishing it. I’m actually a few words shy of 20K, but since I started it before NaNo, I didn’t count anything before November 1st.

And so, I’ll leave you with a few Sisters themed images.

National Novel Writing Month

Posted on by in NaNoWriMo, Sisters

I feel like the timing of this is all too convenient!


Sisters is officially a GO! 

I’ve written the first three chapters to get the setting down and a feel for the characters. Once I did that, I paused to create an outline for the rest of the novel.

It just so happens that we’re a few days shy of November (well, at the time I’m writing this, anyway). I couldn’t ask for better timing!

Hello, NaNoWriMo! It’s been a long time. I’ve got a novel brewing for you that I’m all too excited to start. It’s going to be made of feels. Such feels.

For those who aren’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, they challenge writers to write 50K words in one month (the month of November).

If you love to write, take the NaNo challenge! See if you can hit 50K. You can sign up at nanowrimo.org/

I’ll be posting about my progress. Just look out for #Sisters422.

I know NaNoWriMo suggests that you just write, write, write, and ignore grammar, but I’m not going to do that this year. Going back to edit something like that is:


WHERE R TEH GRAMMARZ POLICE?

Lord XYZ of Revision St.

Posted on by in NaNoWriMo

I survived the retail madness of Thanksgiving and Black Friday for another year! Now that those days won’t come around for another 300+ days, I can move on. I caught up on sleep and have my NaNoWriMo project on my mind.

With the first draft completed, I sat down and wrote several back stories and renamed many characters. I don’t think X, Lord XYZ, ABC Kingdom, and Dude would pass for final draft material. 😉 When I am in the throes of writing, I don’t always stop to name my characters, hence the lovely “names” listed above!

I’ll jump into the wild waters of revision after I get my post Black Friday madness rest. I need a few days to recuperate!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can officially break out the holiday lights, ugly sweaters, and cheesy music!

Speaking of holiday cheer, The Year is Now is still on sale on Lulu! I have to work tomorrow morning, so I’m not ending the sale until Monday night.

I can’t think of anything profound to say. Every awesome idea I had in the shower lay forgotten in the drain. I’ll end this post with a fitting video!