Improvement

I feel somewhat better after venting; I actually managed to get some planning done. I wrote the blurb for Ice Quest (although it has spoilers for the end of Legends of Light):

It has been over a thousand years since Torvara has seen the light of day, and she finds that troubles in the capital city of Handelan have deeply festered during her slumber. Jormunt, the tyrant who hatched a failed plan to bring down the city’s defenses, has taken the throne, and it is up to Torvara and her brother Etimard from the past to stop him. Meanwhile, Etimard faces troubles of his own as rumors of a mysterious and highly dangerous northern leader spread. While Torvara traverses the perilous path of time travel to find her brother and Etimard works to unravel the northern regime of death, their dangerous paths collide. Soon, they discover that they have only one choice: to gain powers that will end Jormunt’s reign forever, they must embark on the treacherous and legendary Ice Quest.

 I've also written the one-page summary, and I'm actually starting to feel slightly excited again. My plan for NaNo is to write as much of the story as I got up to with the detailed scene-by-scene chart (without it I get completely lost) and fill the rest of 50k with fanfiction, blog posts, random short stories, etc.

~ Sophia-Rose

Confusion

It's October 16th. At this same time of the month in March, I was cruising along in my outline, plotting, worldbuilding, and making lots and lots of blog posts. I was excited for NaNo.

Now? How am I doing on my agenda? Planning is going abysmally. I've drawn out half of the rough pencil outline for Map #1. I've gotten stuck on my outlining on the one-page summary, which is much less than halfway through the snowflake method. I'm not sure I can finish. I still hate my lead characters. As for blogging? Well, I was going to make a post about how NaNo is the most wonderful time of the year, based off the lyrics of the popular Christmas song. I was also planning a post on the intrinsic reward of writing.

The problem is that the intrinsic reward is gone. I feel stressed, sad, and confused. Why am I having so much trouble this time around? I had to drag myself into Blogger to write this post. Even though I've done barely any planning, I feel as if I have a case of severe burnout. I used to be so excited for NaNo. I loved planning, and I couldn't wait for November 1st. Now I dread it.

I don't think I can finish all of this. That means my novel will go unplanned, which practically means it will go unwritten. I have no idea what to do.

I need help.

~ Sophia-Rose

The More Specific October Agenda (no rants involved)

Here's hoping you read the post on the Artsy Theurgist first.

Anyway, it's October, the NaNo website is down for the count, and creative excitement is running high. It's almost time for NaNoWriMo 2013, and I'm so excited about finally planning Ice Quest. Elizabeth is going to try NaNo this time around - her username is StoryConjurer.

This is my more specific agenda:
~ Plan Ice Quest
     ~ Make pencil-and-paper maps for real
          ~ Updated world map
          ~ City map (this one will be hard)
          ~ Abstract map I'm not going to tell you about
     ~ Plot out the novel
          ~ Do the snowflake method
          ~ Make complete scene and plot chart
     ~ Fix up characters
          ~ Make my new male lead less like Rayand
          ~ Make my new female lead much more likable
~ Work out scheduling scrapes
      ~ Figure out how to fit IQ's complex plot into one month
      ~ See if I can get some more of my IRL friends to do it
      ~ Decide how I'm going to juggle this with school
~ Blog at least a few times a week here
      ~ Try a post series about how writing relates to art
      ~ Rewrite the lyrics of a couple of Christmas songs
      ~ Upload pictures of my new maps
~ Stay up until midnight on Halloween
     ~ Write at least a couple of hundred words

Whew! That's a big list! I think I can get most of these done. I have a friend who brought up NaNo on her own, not knowing that I'm planning to do it, and another who doesn't think it's humanly possible to write a whole novel in a month. (What's funny is that the latter is actually very studious - he's exactly the type of person whom I think could handle it!) Let's see if Elizabeth and I can get more people at school involved, and maybe get him to try it, too.

~ Sophia-Rose