NaNoWriMo Fail....Maybe

Here it is, the 26th of November and I'm nearing the end of my third National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  I went into this month excited and all ready to re-write my 2010 NaNo novel.  I was pumped.  I wanted to get through NaNo with a fresh draft, maybe edit it one more time soon after, and then send it out to beta readers.  Then, my goal was to edit and edit and edit some more during the next year, and to send it out to agents by the end of 2012.  It was a lovely, wonderful, sweet plan.


Then it all went to hell.


There were HUGE plot holes in my story.  Things that I couldn't get past.  Things that were integral to my plot - things that were integral to this story becoming two books, maybe even three.  Things that I MAYBE could have figured out as I wrote, but everything else that I wrote relied on me figuring those things out.  Also, there was absolutely no action in my story.  Well, one car wreck scene, but that was it.  The rest was people explaining things to others.  A lot of telling, instead of showing.  Yes, these are things that can be fixed in future edits, but it just wasn't working.  I was bored of my story (although I still like much of the idea), and I felt like nothing was happening.  Nothing was moving forward.


So I changed it.  I made it much more YA.  I made it more supernatural.  Then I decided to read a couple of published novels that were similar to mine.  I know, I know, people say not do to this.  We should steer clear of novels that might resemble what we are currently writing.  But I wanted to read them to make sure that my novel wasn't too much like them.  So with one, I was okay.  My story was different enough that I wasn't worried.  But then I read the other one, and it was like, yeesh.  That's almost exactly what I'm writing.


So I changed it again.  Now, mind you, I haven't been deleting anything, so my NaNo word count still includes what I wrote for the first two stories.  But with this one, I only wrote about 1,000 words and got bored.  Again.


I haven't written a single word on my NaNo novel (novels?) since the 17th.  I'm currently sitting at 14,540 words.  Which is less than I did my first year, where I got around 15,000 words.  Last year I won.  This year, I have to write over 7,000 words a day to reach the 50,000-word goal.  I'm thinking this isn't going to happen.  


For the past few days I've been really discouraged about my writing.  I pretty much decided that this story, this idea that I've been working on and changing and brainstorming about for the past year needs to be set aside.  Maybe someday I'll figure out what to do with it.  But for now, I figured I'd just start a whole new story, keeping my current word count, of course.  But I was at a loss as to what to write.  I looked on the NaNo forums, where they have this great Adoption Society, where you can "adopt" plots or characters or whatever.  But nothing struck my fancy.  I was out of inspiration.  So I got more discouraged.


But today, I read some posts by Maureen Johnson (she's the Agony Aunt this year of NaNo - kind of like a Dear Abby columnist) where she talks about just jumping into your novel, and where she helps writers who have lost that fun relationship with writing.  Maureen Johnson has helped me all throughout this month.  She seems to know exactly what questions to answer at the right time.  I think she might be psychic.  


I also hopped on my Twitter account (I don't do that very often - I only was compelled to go there today because I got an email that someone new was following me) and browsed some tweets by literary agent Holly Root.  She had one on there about an author she represents who wrote a post about her experience finding an agent.  


It's weird.  Things like this open my eyes and light a fire under me and make me wonder why I ever questioned my writing.  I've been writing ever since I can remember.  Before I could physically write myself, I would tell my mom little stories and she would type them up for me.  I have always been a writer.  And I have always wanted to someday be published.  


So what if that original NaNo idea never becomes anything publishable?  I love to write, and stories are always coming to me.  I just need to remember that I don't have to have the next huge hit idea, and that I don't have to even have to have an outline before I start writing.  Actually, it's better, for me, if I don't do too much planning, because otherwise I think that I have to have everything perfectly planned out before I can even begin.  This does not work.  I just need a little spark of an idea.  A character trait, a world, an image - something that will get me started.  And then I just need to let it go from there.


So I may not finish NaNo this year.  I may not get to put a shiny Winner badge on my next blog post.  But right now, after I finish this post, I'm going to go back to that Adoption Society forum and find something - some little glimmer, some quirk or scene or line or name or setting - SOMETHING to get the ball rolling.  I'm in the writing mood today.  And we'll see how far I can get when I have no plan, no plot, and no direction.  This actually will probably be fun.

"Off the Shelf" Reading Challenge Complete!

This was the first reading challenge I've participated in, and thankfully, with a month to spare, I've completed it!


I took the Off the Shelf Challenge by Bookish Ardour, who is hosting several challenges next year as well, including the 2012 Off the Shelf Challenge.  Go here to check out those challenges!


So for this challenge, I chose to read 15 books that I owned that had just been sitting there, waiting to be read for months or even years.  I took the challenge quite seriously, and all of the books that I read for this challenge were purchased before 2011.  Which was hard, because I was given LOTS of books this year by a couple of friends who were cleaning up their shelves, and I bought quite a few as well - more than I normally would have because of Borders closing.  But I've read lots of other books this year, not just the 15 for this challenge.


And I prevailed!  Here is a complete list of the 15 books that I read for this challenge, with links to my reviews:

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
7. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
8. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
9. Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
10. Night by Elie Wiesel
11. Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set by J.K. Rowling
12. Harry Potter:  Film Wizardry by Brian Sibley
13. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
14. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
15. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book One) by Rick Riordan

Now, a few of those books might seem like really easy reads.  And some of them really were.  But regardless of how long or short, easy or hard, these were all books that have been on my bookshelf for a while, and I've wanted to read them, but never did for one reason or another.  And now, I'm glad to say that I've read them!  Thanks, Bookish Ardour, for hosting a challenge that I really needed and enjoyed!

Next year I won't be participating in this challenge again, but I'll be doing a completely new challenge by my good friend Courtney from Abducted by Books!  She'll be hosting the 15,000 Page Challenge.  The goal is to read 15,000 pages in 2012, and she'll be giving away prizes for the person who reaches the goal by reading the least amount of books (like if someone reads 15 1,000-page books) and also to the person who reaches the goal by reading the most amount of books (like if someone reads 100 150-page books).  I'm going for the latter option, and I've already got tons of books picked out!  That prize is mine!  (Maybe.)

Book 15/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Photo courtesy of bookwormsreadmorebooks.com

For my 15th and final book to read for this year's Off the Shelf Challenge, I read Book One of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series:  The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan.


I had been wanting to read this series for a while, but never got around to it, although I had seen the movie adaptation of this novel.  I kind of wished I hadn't seen the movie first, because I knew some of the ending, and I am one of those people who does NOT like to be spoiled.  But I still enjoyed reading the book and I hope to read the rest soon - I'll definitely read the rest of the books before seeing the movies.


There were quite a few differences between the book and the movie (that I can remember), but I knew this going in, because a friend of mine, Tracy, as well as my husband, had read the book and told me about a few of the differences.  I liked the movie, but I enjoyed the book a lot more.  I think that's normally how it goes, though.


There were also a lot of similarities between this book and the Harry Potter series, and I am a total HP nerd.  But I wasn't irritated by the similarities.  I think it's just the nature of the stories.  Both involve quests, both involve boys who realize that they are part of a different world, and both boys are the keys to saving that new world, as well as the rest of the world, from destruction by a power-hungry bad guy.  So yes, there are quite a few similarities.  But these are two different, interesting, adventuresome series in their own right.  I LOVE the Harry Potter series with a passion, and I really enjoyed the first installment of Percy Jackson.  But, who knows?  I may grow to love this series, too, once I've read the other books.  However, I don't know that any book or series will ever surpass my love for Harry Potter.

Book 14/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Yea!  I'm almost done with my Off the Shelf Challenge!  Just one more to go!

Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

So for my second-to-last book for this challenge, I decided to go ahead and wrap up the Hitchhiker's Guide series by reading Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams.


I didn't like this book as much as some of the others in the series, but I still enjoyed it.  I really liked the bit that dealt with Elvis, and I liked the end, although I would assume that many fans might not like it so much.  I don't want to go into too much detail for those who haven't yet read the book, but I will say that this installment lacked the pep and humor that is abundant throughout the rest of the series.  Yes, there was humor, along with the seemingly random tangents that Mr. Adams loves to take, but I just didn't feel like there was as much humor in this one as the others.


I really enjoyed this series as a whole, although the first two books, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, were my favorites of the five.


On a side note, I finished reading Mostly Harmless mere minutes before a 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook my whole house.  Now, mind you, I live in Oklahoma.  We don't get earthquakes very often here.  Well, at least not the kind you feel.  We got one about a year ago, but it was much smaller.  And apparently I missed one while I was asleep this morning, but it was also smaller.  No damage as far as I can tell, but it was still very unnerving!  And, if you've read Mostly Harmless, you'll understand that reading the last few pages and then being in an earthquake can really creep you out!

Book 13/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Photo courtesy of wikifirsteditions.com

In an attempt to get another book out of the way for the Off the Shelf Challenge before the start of NaNoWriMo, I chose a small, quick read:  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.

I have always loved the story of Oz, and really enjoyed the classic film from 1939, The Wizard of Oz.  But the 1985 sequel, Return to Oz, was my favorite movie as a child, and remains one of my favorite movies to this day.  I also really love The Wicked Years series by Gregory Maguire:  Wicked:  The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West; Son of a Witch; A Lion Among Men; and Out of Oz.  I knew that Out of Oz was going to be released soon, but I thought it was sometime next year.  Just now, while looking it up for this post, I found out that the release date is November 1st!  Um, I know what I want for Christmas!!!  And how funny is it that I read this book and wrote this post right before the release of that book!  I've never seen the musical Wicked, which is based off of the first book from Maguire's series, but hopefully I can see it someday!

Anyway, I don't think I ever read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a kid, even though I was such a big fan of Return to Oz.  And, reading it now, I was surprised to find that it is so different from the 1939 movie adaptation!  I mean, I know that something is always lost when a book is adapted into a movie, but for some reason, I didn't think it would be that way with this book.  But there were plenty of differences.  First of all, there is much more to the story than in the movie (and of course that is to be expected).  Also, there is no mention of it all being Dorothy's dream.  At least, it wasn't in this book.  L. Frank Baum went on to write several more Oz stories, so some of the things in the movie could have been from those books.  Also, the shoes Dorothy gets from the Wicked Witch of the East were "silver shoes," not "ruby slippers."  I'm assuming that for the film, since they were using the new technology of Technicolor, they wanted the shoes to stand out, so they made them bright red instead of silver.

Also, I was pleased to see that some of the characters and things that Gregory Maguire used in his retellings were actually in this story, like the character of Boq, the Winkies, and the Quadlings.  I don't think these were mentioned in the film, and I always assumed that Maguire had made them up himself.  So it was really nice to see that Maguire had obviously done a lot of research before writing his novels.  I always assumed that he had done a huge amount of research, but I think he probably did a lot more than most people realize.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I'm glad I finally read it, although I really think that I like Gregory Maguire's stories better, and I'm looking forward to reading Out of Oz!

Book 12/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

NaNoWriMo is coming up (in one week!), and I wanted to try to get a couple of my books read for the Off the Shelf Challenge before heading into a month full of writing and not much reading. I still had 4 books left to read for this challenge, and the deadline is at the end of the year, so I really needed to get to it!

Photo courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

I finally finished Harry Potter Film Wizardry by Brian Sibley, which I blogged about back in October of last year (you can see that post here - I was trying out a new meme called "I Want" Wednesday - boy, that meme really lasted on my blog, didn't it?).  I've had Film Wizardry on my Goodreads currently-reading list all year long, although I haven't been reading it all year.  It's not a hard book to read; it just isn't like a novel, where you can tear through the pages.  I (obviously) took my sweet time reading it.


Film Wizardry is a gorgeous book full of artists' renderings, photos, and inside information on what went into creating all eight Harry Potter films.  Since I'm a die-hard fan of the Harry Potter books, and a huge fan of the films, I found the book to be really fascinating.  It's crazy how much time and effort goes into everything in the films, from the storyboards and concept art, to the wardrobes and makeup, to the intricate set designs and special effects.

Another thing that I really love about this book is that there are several items included within the pages that you can actually remove from envelopes and hold in your hands:  a replica of Harry's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, catalogs for Borgin and Burkes and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (those don't actually come out - they're attached to the book), a program for the 422nd Quidditch World Cup (also attached), and my personal favorite - a fold-out copy of The Maruader's Map, among others.


This book is a great read for any fan of the Harry Potter films, and I'm glad to have it my collection.

Book 11/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

There are a couple of books that have been on my Goodreads "currently reading" shelf all year long.  I haven't actually been reading them all year; I simply set them aside while I read tons of other books.  I got both books late last year, and even though they haven't been on my physical book shelf for that long, they still count for the "Off the Shelf" Challenge, since they were on my shelf before I started said challenge.


The two books in question were the Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set (which actually has two books, but I counted them as one), and Harry Potter:  Film Wizardry.  I'm still reading Film Wizardry, so I'll leave that one for a later post.

Photo courtesy of judyoz.com

Last year, my book club had a Christmas party where, instead of reading a specific book that month, we had a potluck dinner and played board games and had a gift exchange.  We all bought a book under a certain amount, and the idea was to play Dirty Santa, where you can steal one another's gifts.  Apparently we're bad at that game, because not much stealing went on (I don't know if anyone stole anything, actually), and I loved the gift I brought so much, that when it was my turn to choose a gift to open, I opened my own!  And that gift was the Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set.  



The Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set includes two books that are featured in the Harry Potter novels:  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Quidditch Through the Ages.  J.K. Rowling wrote both and proceeds from the sale of the box set went to a fund for needy children through the charity Comic Relief.  


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a book written by Newt Scamander that Harry and all the other first years were required to purchase in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  It reads like a textbook, which is maybe why I didn't like it as much as Quidditch Through the Ages.  Several magical beasts are listed and described, complete with a Ministry of Magic rating as to how dangerous each specific beast is.  The cool thing about the copy of Fantastic Beasts in this box set is that it is supposed to be the one owned by Harry Potter himself, and has been written in by Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  There are also a few doodles of some of the beasts, but I wish there had been more, because it was hard for me to picture some of these strange animals.


Quidditch Through the Ages, by Kennilworthy Whisp, is a library book that Hermione has checked out in Sorcerer's Stone, which Harry then borrows from her.  So the book in the box set is made to look like a library book, complete with a list of students who have checked the book out and the date that it was due back.  The book tells the history of the sport of Quidditch, from its early rough stages in Queerditch Marsh in the eleventh century, right up to the late twentieth century.  It lists the rules, national teams, and famous moves.  This book was a lot easier for me to read than Fantastic Beasts, and I'm not even particularly a big fan of Quidditch.  I mean, if I was at Hogwarts, I'd go to the matches, but I'm with Hermione - it's just a game.  But I liked the book and it was really neat to see J.K. Rowling's extensive imagination at work in the way that the game was formed.


Overall, I gave this box set 4/5 stars on Goodreads.  I am a huge Harry Potter nerd and I think that others like me would love to have this in their collection.  And I'm glad I finally got around to finishing these books!