2011 Wrap-up: Writing
Posted: 2011/12/29 Filed under: My writing | Tags: adventure, challenge, contest, fantasy, language, modern romance, nanowrimo, novel, regency, science-fiction, short story Leave a comment »Believe it or not, writing is the main reason I started this blog in the first place. Of course I intended to post reviews and ramble about all sorts of things, but even the romance novels I read aren’t exactly those a romance reader would be interested in. Why? Because they’re mostly romance classics, by famous romance authors. Most romance readers will either have already read them, or be set on never reading them.
My purpose in discussing the romance genre was to prepare the ground for my own pieces of writing. I’ve always thought that if I was going to write romance, people who read me must first have some idea of what romance is. Not romance like in Emily Brontë or Jane Austen’s novels, but of modern romance as it is written by contemporary authors. Romance that allows for a strong subplot, supporting characters, sex, a certain liberty with realism, and a happy ending.
2011 was a rather good year in writing, although never as good as one wishes it had been. What is new?
It started with a 7K-word short story I wrote in January and submitted to a little friendly contest dedicated to romance subgenres. My pick was adventure/sci-fi. It got a mixed reception, and has since been lying in wait of editing.
In February I revived my FictionPress account to share my writings and get more opinions. On this occasion, I did a superficial edit of a 6.2K-word short story that had got rather positive reviews in a 2010 friendly contest.
In March I wrote a very short story (5.2K words) in English, inspired by all the high school romantic themes I found on FictionPress. I still don’t know how to interpret the fact that it got more feedback and response than anything else I posted on FP.
All the while I kept writing my vampire novel in English, eventually switching its main genre from romance to supernatural. It reached 15K words before I got stuck in a dialogue that raised more questions than I knew how to answer. It’s a cool project overall, so it would be a shame to leave it at that.
In May I quickly edited a short story (7.2K words) I’d written the previous summer, which I submitted to a romance readers’ yearly contest. It was a regular Regency love story, and it ended up 6th among 12.
Inspired by one of the other competing short stories, I wrote a 5K-word romance with a feminist theme in one afternoon, thanks to the 10,000 Words a Night challenge.
In the meantime I got started on another project: a fantasy novel in French. I wrote slowly but steadily throughout most of the summer, and managed to reach 23K words in the fall. As a consequence of quitting my job, I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo, which helped me write 30K words more to my project.
I think I can safely say that I wrote about 80K words of fiction this year, which is not too bad, but hardly a full novel by my standards. I am left with one romance short story to edit, and most importantly, two novels, one in English and one in French, to finish!
My resolutions for 2012:
- Finish both novels!
- Edit the adventure/sci-fi romance short story.
- Finish and post a romance novella written in 2010.
- Finish (or at least work on the plot of) another novel in French.
- Finish/write one or more short stories for the romance readers’ yearly contest.
- Write at least two more romance short stories for friendly contests or projects.
- Let my creativity flow…
How much have you written this year? Do you have any writing goals or resolutions for the New Year?
My first NaNoWriMo experience: Lessons learned
Posted: 2011/12/05 Filed under: My writing | Tags: nanowrimo, writing tip 2 Comments »Because in the end, the NaNoWriMo isn’t just (maybe “not at all”?) about reaching those 50K or not, but about what it takes to do it, why it worked or didn’t work, and what we would do differently…
The first thing NaNo taught me is to take my writing seriously. While many Wrimos seemed able to adopt a “don’t worry, keep writing” mindset, I realized that for me, not worrying = not writing. I tend to let stories unfinished and projects drag for years because, much as I enjoy writing, there’s always something more important, more urgent or more useful to do. Having a deadline and a clear assignment (50 thousand words in 30 days) suddenly promoted fiction writing to that “important, urgent and useful” level. During the month of November, I treated writing the way I normally treat schoolwork or jobs: I made it one of my top priorities, and I forced myself even when I didn’t feel like doing it.
Unfortunately, taking my writing seriously also meant that I could not just “write on” and not care. I managed to delete a full scene and bring my wordcount lower than it had been the previous day, a dubious strategy when you’re trying to write as much as possible. What the NaNo taught me, though, was that I wasn’t going to change that… It’s just the way I am. Either I care, or I don’t. If I care enough to sacrifice other potential activities, then I’m going to do it well. I don’t even know what “writing fast” means. I wrote exactly at the same pace in November as always, with the same care, with the same attention to detail, with the same perfectionism. I just can’t help it.
I have a very short attention span. After a few days, maybe a week of writing the same story, I get bored and I want to start something new. Or I want to shut down my computer and not turn it on for days. Or I want to go out and see people. I really needed a schedule or a routine to be productive during November, and I didn’t have one. Organisation skills: fail.
The same diagnosis can be made where my project was concerned. The reason why I had to delete a scene is that I got confused with the different settings of my story. I have a very bad habit of not writing anything down, which gets especially problematic when I can’t afford to waste time trying to remember what I forgot. I thought I had my whole novel so well outlined and figured out, yet it turns out I could have used more notes, records, tracking, and overall organisation.
Since I’m talking about organisation, I must say I really enjoyed checking my personal stats and that of writing buddies! According to the last widget, Sundays and Fridays are my most productive days, with a general tendency towards slacking as the month of November progressed… Who’s surprised?
If you did NaNoWriMo, what have you learnt about yourself, your writing, your strengths and weaknesses? Even if you didn’t, what are your tricks to write efficiently and persevere? Do you take your writing too seriously, or not enough? What’s the middle ground like, if you’ve found it?
I lost NaNoWriMo 2011. BUT…
Posted: 2011/12/01 Filed under: Bio, My writing | Tags: nanowrimo 4 Comments »I didn’t think I cared. I was happy enough with my 30K. But then, as midnight drew near, as some people in Europe were already moving on to December and everybody began announcing their victories and congratulating each other… Meh. I felt like I needed my own pat on the back.
Of course, I would still like to congratulate all the NaNoWriMo winners: you guys seem to have achieved that much more from the perspective of someone who tried…
But secondly, for all of us who did NOT win the NaNoWriMo this year… We deserve our own list of achievements! Here’s mine:
I lost NaNoWriMo, BUT
- I still wrote more than I ever had in a single month.
- I helped paint a banner and several placards for my labor union.
- I helped block all accesses to my university from 8 am to 2 pm during the students’ strike and almost got run over by a car for it.
- I took part in a national demonstration that gathered from 20,000 to 30,000 people (it was huuuuge!!) even though it rained.
- I was recognized by someone I’d never met thanks to my name being reportedly well-known in some circles (ha ha).
- I went to three one-hour-and-a-half trainings (Ashtanga Yoga or BJJ) per week every week.
- I managed to pass guard, mount and escape an arm bar with a bigger guy who went full-out against me.
- I met with my supervisor and got an A+ grade for my last paper.
- I bought two pairs of shoes even though I abhor shopping.
I went to the Salon du Livre de Montréal and bought three books (and received two more for free).- I washed the dishes 29 times (estimated).
- I read a 300-page paperback.
- I kept my blog updated and even opened a new one!
- I re-discovered tea and herbal tea.
- I re-discovered Whitney Houston’s career and songs.
Did you too write less than 50K in November? If you did, please tell us what else you are proud of, what else you did in those 30 days that made a difference! (You can post directly on your blog and link in the comments).
Are you a hare or a tortoise? (NaNoWriMo)
Posted: 2011/11/20 Filed under: Bio, My writing | Tags: nanowrimo, personality test, the hare and the tortoise, zodiac sign 5 Comments »You probably all know this famous fable by Aesop, The Hare and the Tortoise, perhaps more widely known to the French-speaking audience through La Fontaine’s version. Wikipedia summarizes it thus:
The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through the course. When he awakes, however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him.
What does it mean? That a head start is never a guarantee for finishing, let alone winning? That being steady in one’s endeavours is a better advantage than one’s confidence in achieving success? It’s open to interpretations. But when I started the NaNoWriMo, I couldn’t help thinking of this story and hoping I was a tortoise… A few similarities allowed me to think that way:
1) I don’t boast. In fact, I am even secretive when it comes to plans and projects. I set my own goals, but I’d rather not talk about them until I’ve actually achieved them. I hate the thought of not keeping my word.
2) I am slow. I only get away with it because I put in more time than most people. For instance, as a child I had the reputation of being a fast reader. Yet when it came to reading one-page texts in class, I realized I wasn’t really that fast. I eventually found out that I can finish a novel in two or three days because I like reading for hours on end (as opposed to people who can pace themselves and stop at a chapter per day).
Sounds like a tortoise, what do you think? Except after not writing a single word for four days this week, I’ve come to think that I may not be steady enough to be quite the tortoise. And I do have some very hare-like traits, too:
1) The confidence. Even when I was 12K behind, I still felt like it was within my reach, feasible, no problem. I may not openly boast or show off, but I have this sort of indestructible faith in my own abilities which even I don’t understand. I mean, experience has proven time and time again that I could fail, that I did fail, that I even set myself up to fail… Yet I’m always back in the game, up for a new challenge–bring it on!
2) Like I said, I’m not steady or single-minded. I don’t just get off staging my own comebacks… It is genuinely difficult for me to work hard, which the NaNo would have me do; I need my rest, I need my distractions. I don’t think I can work on the same novel for a whole month without interruption. Hell, I can’t even work on the same novel for twenty days without interruption!
No matter how much I’d like to be a tortoise (since it’s the one who wins in the end!), I am a hare (apparently inaccurately translated into “rabbit”) in the Chinese zodiac anyway. Or a cat in the Vietnamese version.
Both the Rabbit and the Cat are assumed to symbolize cleverness (they always fall on their feet!), mental acuteness, an aristocratic air.
(1987: Fire Rabbits. Fire adds spark to the Rabbit’s personality and all that Fire Rabbits do. Fire compels Rabbits to seek new adventures. Prone to tantrums, Fire Rabbits prefer to avoid conflict.)
So, is there hope for me yet? I really don’t believe in that stuff normally, but it’s put me in a mood for more astrology:
by Saint-Exupéry
“Adventurous and energetic
Pioneering and courageous
Enthusiastic and confident
Dynamic and quick-witted
Selfish and quick-tempered
Impulsive and impatient
Foolhardy and daredevil”
Really?! No, heck. (I’m an Aries in case you hadn’t noticed.)
Now what about you? Are you more hare, tortoise, or a mix of both? Did the NaNoWriMo teach you anything useful about yourself? Are you into astrology or zodiac signs?
NaNoWriMo Franco Word War: Live Blog
Posted: 2011/11/13 Filed under: En français, My writing | Tags: live blog, nanowrimo, word war 18 Comments »Le principe de la word war est expliqué là.
Ici, ce sera mon fameux live blog, où je vais donc blogger en live, comme l’on dit en bon français. 
12:24 am – Wordcount resetté à zéro. J’ai soif. Je vais me faire une tisane.
1:40 am – 510 mots. (J’ai de l’espoir car il y a plus de dix heures dans une journée. LOL)
2:13 am – Mon homme est rentré plus tôt que prévu de sa fièvre du samedi soir, alors je vais me coucher…
10:26 am – Je me lève péniblement… mes yeux sont tout collants. Le programme de la journée est encore flou, donc je vais essayer d’entrer quelques lignes supplémentaires d’emblée.
10:43 am – 746 mots. On avance à pas d’escargot. Je m’interromps car j’ai atteint la fin d’un chapitre et que je vais prendre une douche.
11:34 am – Mon conjoint est très sexy et très distrayant… Hum, donc, petit déjeûner: café et bagels bio tartinés de fromage à la crème. (À Montréal, les meilleurs bagels du monde.)
1:01 pm – Tiens, on est passé à l’après-midi… 1349 mots. Je m’autorise une pause Twitter.
2:49 pm – 40% de mon objectif du jour. Lentement mais sûrement, les mots s’alignent…
3:47 pm – Ouf! Je viens de passer le cap de la moitié de ce que je veux écrire aujourd’hui. Heureusement, la scène que j’écris est plutôt inspirante; j’ai vraiment l’impression de faire avancer l’intrigue (en tous cas l’un de ses méandres).
4:49 pm – Plus de 3000 mots! Je crois que j’écris effectivement au rythme d’environ 500 mots par heure. Chéri a commandé une pizza Deluxe. J’écris, il joue aux jeux vidéos. Deux activités bien trop importantes pour les interrompre le temps de cuisiner!
Hmm, le gras...
5:11 pm – Je reviens de ma pause pizza et coke diète. C’était très court puisque nous n’avions rien à écouter (ie aucun nouvel épisode des diverses séries que nous suivons ensemble: Modern Family, Hung, The Walking Dead, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory).
6:08 pm – Je vais de 10% en 10%… À 21 heures je devrais avoir atteint mon objectif!
Je me suis rendue compte que le dernier bout de ma scène précédente ne devrait pas être là… J’ai résisté à la tentation de l’arranger, l’effacer ou le réécrire, car c’est un dialogue qui a sa place dans une future scène. J’espère donc réussir une opération de copier-coller. (C’est l’inconvénient quand on garde son plan dans sa tête: parfois des détails se mélangent.)
8:01 pm – Oups. J’ai pris un peu de retard pour un ensemble de raisons… (Mon père qui débarque à l’improviste chez moi alors que je suis en pyjama en train de manger de la pizza, et qui me demande l’ordi pour consulter ses courriels?) Du coup, je tente un sprint sur la dernière ligne droite!
9:03 pm – Je suis désespérément prévisible… Il faut dire que je suis arrivée à la scène du copier-coller: pas facile de sprinter dans ces conditions-là. On rempile pour une dernière petite heure?
10:51 pm – 5069 mots! Wouhou! Mission accomplie. Finalement, tout cela a pris plus de temps que prévu car mon fameux “copier-coller” (j’aurais d’ailleurs dû dire “couper-coller”) a aussi inclus une partie de “couper” tout court. Évidemment.
Mon total pour le NaNoWriMo s’élève donc à 18 623 mots après aujourd’hui!
Un grand merci à Mitsu (et aux Twitteuses) pour les encouragements! Bravo à elle pour avoir réussi à rattraper tout son retard, qui représentait près de 7000 mots! Et en plus elle a l’air toute fraîche et jolie après ça… Je vous épargne la photo de moi pas peignée en pyjama (je me suis changée dès que mon père est reparti).
Une guerre de mots? (NaNoWriMo)
Posted: 2011/11/13 Filed under: En français, My writing | Tags: nanowrimo, word war 1 Comment »Une semaine après ma Word War avec les Wrimos anglos de LTWF, j’ai bien besoin d’une nouvelle piqûre de folie NaNo… À l’initiative de Mistu [Sophie Fulcen], on repart donc ce dimanche dans une word war entre francos de tous les horizons!
Vous pouvez vous fixer un objectif particulier à atteindre pendant les vingt-quatre heures de la journée du 13 novembre; le mien sera de 5000 mots. Oui, j’ai bien dit 5000… moi aussi, j’ai peur. 
Commentez ici ou bien chez Mitsu si vous voulez participer, ainsi nous pourrons nous encourager mutuellement tout au long de nos progressions respectives. Nous vous conseillons à cette fin de poster un “live blog“, c’est-à-dire une entrée spéciale que vous mettrez à jour régulièrement en indiquant votre wordcount, votre état moral, vos pauses, vos distractions, etc.
Si vous êtes sur Twitter, le hashtag pour cette journée d’écriture et de déraison est #LBWW.
Participant-e-s:
- Mitsu – http://sophiefulcen.wordpress.com – NYC Baby! (GMT-5)
- Asia – http://asiamorela.wordpress.com – objectif: 5000 mots – Montréal (GMT-5)
NaNoWriMo Live Blog – LTWF Word War!!
Posted: 2011/11/04 Filed under: My writing | Tags: live blog, nanowrimo, word war 20 Comments »Did I mention I was a last-minute person?
Savannah and Kat from Let the Words Flow have been advertising their word war and inviting everyone to join since yesterday, but I wouldn’t do it, because I’m suppose to visit my grandma today and all kinds of other stuff (like blogging here). Yet when I woke up this morning, I thought: I must do it. I was going to write a little in the morning anyway, and tonight I’m going to a write-in meeting (my first) scheduled by a fellow Montrealer.
So, you know, I’m never gonna hit anything extraordinary like 6 or 8K, but I can strive towards 3K (no less, because I’m slightly behind so far). Also, this is going to be a live blog, which means I’m going to come back and edit it all throughout the day with updates about my wordcount and my crazy life in general. For Twitter updates, the hashtag is #ltwfwordwar
Let’s go everyone!! And good luck to all!
10:07 am – I start writing.
11:13 am – 233 words. I bailed on my grandma. (But my uncle is with her, and I promised to have dinner with her and my dad tomorrow, so I’m not such a bad granddaughter. 3K suddenly seems much more possible.) Plus taking a break to post pictures up on Facebook (also posted on my Tumblr). I’ve opened a new carton of fruit juice; it’s time to get writing again.
12:49 am – 881 words. Lunch/snack/anything that can be eaten break.
1:52 pm – After browsing the web (some blogs and a message board), it’s time to go back to writing! My 3K still seems far away…
3:10 pm – I realize I may not be updating often enough, so you guys don’t get to see the extent of my procrastination skills. Then again, visiting the other LTWF Word War participants’ blogs isn’t procrastination… it’s like a well-needed kick in the butt! Am at 1219 words right now, which looks kind of cool. I consider 1K to be the limit between pitiful and acceptable. But it’s still only a third of my goal, and in less than two hours I’m due to a NaNo write-in in my city!
3:43 pm – Aaaaah! There’s a plot inconsistency in my last paragraphs that I just have to correct before I can go on writing… And I also stopped to wash dishes. Because they’ve been sitting there since Wednesday night, and no, I just couldn’t any longer. Will attempt to reach 1,500 words before I go out and start NaNo-ing with other Montrealers.
5:31 pm – 1806 words! Time to get packed and go to the Magical Blend, where the lady owner will graciously provide us with tea and a room… 
There was no WiFi there, so I’ll update from my notes.
6:47 pm – I’m settled with a cherry and rose green tea, and begin writing again.
8:52 pm – Time to pack! 2,554 words… I’m realizing that real people around me tend to distract me a lot more than the Internet, where I can close my Twitter tab at will. I also miss the immediate possibility to look up words in a dictionary or thesaurus. Maybe I am not made for real life meet-ups after all. The place, however, was lovely and smelled good, so I snapped a few pictures…
9:50 pm – I’m home again after a vigorous walk throughout downtown Montreal. I’m going to have dinner and then get to reach these 3K! (Thank God my boyfriend isn’t home; he took my advice and went out on his own.)
10:58 pm – Checked my wordcount and I’ve just gone over 3K!! Woohoo! Currently 3051, but I might finish the scene… Though noticing I’ve written my 3,000 in the same chapter, it struck me I should actually stop it somewhere, maybe even before the last words I wrote.
Thanks again to Sav and Kat at LTWF, to Beth and Stephanie who inspired the idea, and to all who stopped by and gave words of encouragement! My total NaNoWriMo wordcount is now at 5698, which makes me only very slightly behind average. I’m quite proud of myself, the only downside is that it took me all freakin’ day to write this 3K… And likely I won’t be able to do that every other day in November. I’ll let you know if I find tricks to make days longer and writing faster!
How many words did you write today for the NaNo? Did you ever take part in a word war? What are your optimal conditions to write efficiently?
Mon projet pour NaNoWriMo
Posted: 2011/10/28 Filed under: En français, My writing | Tags: challenge, fantasy, la reine, nanowrimo 8 Comments »Cela fait plusieurs semaines que les blogs foisonnent au sujet du NaNoWriMo: qui y participe, pour écrire quoi, avec quelle préparation. Aujourd’hui, c’est mon tour! Et c’est en français, puisque c’est décidé, c’est dans cette langue que je vais tenter d’écrire mes 50 000 mots en 30 jours. Il y a seulement deux mois, la simple idée de me lancer dans ce défi d’écriture me paraissait ridicule; pourtant, de nombreuses choses ont changé depuis et je me retrouve dans une situation que je n’anticipais pas, et qui me laisse beaucoup plus de temps pour l’écriture que je n’en ai eu en un an.
Mon projet pour ce premier NaNo? C’est simple, il s’agira de la suite de mon Challenge “premier jet” 2011, pour lequel j’ai déjà écrit plus de 20 000 mots, mais qui en nécessitera bien 50 000 de plus avant d’atteindre son dénouement. A priori, pas de grosse préparation à faire, puisque je travaille mon idée depuis le mois de mars. Cependant, c’est l’occasion de faire le point sut ce roman qui, 23 594 mots plus tard, se révèle assez différent de ce que j’en avais annoncé au départ.
Son père était mort, elle était reine. Ce n’était pas qu’un fait, mais un événement symbolique majeur. C’était la fin d’un monde, d’un ordre donné, le commencement d’une nouvelle ère. La puissance de cette réalisation la fit presque tituber, comme si le sol même sur lequel reposait ses pieds avait basculé.
Au royaume du Lacomon, la durée des saisons varie selon la position de l’étoile froide. Le statut social se transmet de père en fille. Le climat est plus doux et chaud vers le nord, plus sévère au sud. Le noir est craint et haï comme la couleur du malheur. Les décisions sont prises par un Conseil de valeureux guerriers, les padéïs.
Or toute cette civilisation est menacée par l’invasion d’un peuple limitrophe, les Zérègues. Lorsque le roi est mortellement blessé au cours d’une bataille, sa fille Téber hérite d’une responsabilité aussi lourde à porter qu’impossible à céder. Contre ses propres padéïs, la jeune reine se battra pour garder ses prérogatives intactes, non sans commettre au passage des erreurs qui pourraient lui coûter son royaume…
Les sept premier chapitres sont disponibles sur FictionPress. Je ne compte pas mettre les prochains chapitres en ligne au fur et à mesure du NaNo, pour une simple question de simplicité et d’efficacité. Cependant, je ferai part de mon expérience et de mon progrès sur ce blog, environ une fois par semaine. J’espère qu’il y aura beaucoup à dire, ne serait-ce que parce que les réjouissances commencent dès ce soir avec la Start Party des Montréalais du NaNo dans un restaurant downtown!
Vous pouvez retrouver mon profil sur le site du NaNoWriMo en suivant ce lien.
Et vous, vous tentez le NaNo? Ça vous fait peur, ou bien vous y croyez? Si vous êtes un-e ancien-ne, y a-t-il des trucs à savoir pour mettre toutes les chances de son côté?
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