You are in luck, my little narwhal friends. Not because I'm talking about Camp NaNoWriMo again, but rather because Camp is over - has been for just about two weeks, so I'm talking about writing a little less. (You know, until July when all of this starts over again.) ALSO you're lucky (or not, depending on your point of view) because I'm BACK!  So, today's agenda looks something like this: Sorry I've been away! Why Camp is awesome Not editing is the worst and the best Finally diving back into the draft! My new project...

I'm home!

My BFF was here for a visit and she kept me away from most electronic devices so I've been absent on here, on twitter, on.. well. everything. (Notice how neatly I'm blaming it on someone else though?) We had a lovely time (and we saw my sister's baby bump!) and now I'm going to get back to a relatively normal blogging schedule! Prepare yourself for a week's worth of Annika-spam on your blog... :)

So yes, I'm sorry I was away! I'll make it up to you lovelies.

Now onto the Camp NaNo stuff:

Camp is kind of actually like camp.

I was so lucky to be in an awesome cabin for the duration of April. It really made the experience worth it. Everyone was so supportive and wonderful and actively participating. It's such an amazing thing to find like-minded people! It's why this actually happened:

So thank you, all my Headless Chicken/Dragon friends, and everyone who's been so lovely here on the blog and on twitter ❤

#NotEditing

The only reason I actually made it to 50k in April was that I stopped editing. If I knew I had some changes to make to an earlier chapter I'd write a small paragraph about it, and start it with something along the lines of "Yo, IDIOT. You forgot to introduce this character three chapters ago. EDIT nowwww." And then I'd forget all about it and keep going on with the story. It is such a freeing feeling! Even if you're not planning on doing NaNo, you should try it.

Getting to the actual work

Editing is so hard. I put my draft away for two weeks, and I've tried not to even think about it. (I started drafting a new story instead which is going nicely!) but now that I've forgotten about 90% of what I wrote during NaNo. I'm ready to jump back in. I think.

Send help! Or coffee.

I started a new thing. Again....

My new project doesn't have a title yet (gasp!) but let me pitch it to you in case you're interested. So far I've got a young burglar trying to find a way to get her family out of a plague-ridden city, a spy on a mission to find his sister who disappeared years before, and a gateway between two different worlds. So I'm back on YA fantasy territory which is where I basically want to live. So yay!

Are you writing? Tell me about your WIP, or if you're planning to do Camp NaNo in July!
Also, have you seen TrishaJenn's Wednesday Writing Prompts? Because they're pretty awesome, and if you're up for it we should take part! The prompt posted last Wednesday was "Never underestimate the lives of old men sitting on park benches."

We're halfway through Camp NaNoWriMo!

Also, and this is pretty much as important: ARE YOU BINGE-WATCHING KIMMY SCHMIDT TODAY? YES/YES?

I wrote about my story last week - if you're curious, you can read about it here. You don't need the background to understand this post though :)

Okay, but really. I wasn't going to write about writing this week, but then I felt that the 15th day of Camp should be celebrated. (I'm at 40k now! yay!) So here. Have a look at my characters who admittedly inherit their craziness from me. They have no father to blame. *shrugs*

I really recognise myself in my characters sometimes. Snippets = proof.

So the plan was to write a nice, emotional (possibly romantic) reunion. This happened instead - maybe because I wasn't drinking:

   "You’ve been drinking!" I pushed at his chest, appalled. "I thought you were worried about me!" Here I was, almost crying at letting him down, and he’d been drinking all night?

    "I was! You disappeared! What was I supposed to do?"

   

"Not get drunk!"

Watch it, Annika. Your alcoholism is showing...

Some time before that I'd been trying to write a seduction - this one... Yes, okay. I was sipping some wine.

    Theod really wasn't too bad, I'd decided. He could be kind and helpful. The way he disapproved of everything I did was surprisingly adorable. I shifted in my seat, took a sip of tea, and stared at Theod, considering him. His cheekbones were marvellous.

    He stared back at me over his own cup, his face turning serious. He set his tea down on the table next to his chair, and clasped his hand like he was preparing for a lecture. "Nenna. You remember when I asked you not to seduce my apprentice? I'm now asking you not to seduce your teacher."

    "I'm not! I didn't even say anything." I had been planning to, yes, but if he was going to be this way... "You’re too old for me. And believe me – if I was seducing you, you wouldn't be saying no."

    "Too old?" He frowned, crossing his arms.

   "Are you now complaining that I'm not trying to seduce you? You should really consider what you say quite carefully. You do not want to make me cross before I've actually had the chance to seduce you."

    He shook his head. "No seductions, Nenna. That's a new house rule. And since it's my house, just, stop wearing clothing like that." He gestured toward me rather haphazardly, while getting out of his seat and leaving the room rather suddenly.

    I tugged at the hem of my night dress. It was on the shorter side, but I hadn't really thought of that. "I was about to go to bed," I called after him innocently. At least now I knew he found my clothes distracting.

So, to sum up. What do I write? Characters who are borderline alcoholics, and also are fated to fail at seductions. Does that also sound a lot like me?

Wednesday Writing Prompt

This is a new feature on Trisha Jenn's blog! You should head over and free all that creative energy that's locked up inside your head!

She'll post a prompt every two weeks. You can read her first response here.

This week's writing prompt was:

I didn’t know what was happening at the time.

We’d left the camp site just before they found us. Karella had told me what she could in the few short minutes we had. She had seen someone coming our way and she didn’t even speak to her daughter - a tiny thing, nine years old - before pushing her into my arms, walking us out of the clearing that had become home. 

As we passed by the others I heard whispers, whispers of harbouring fugitives, how it was a danger to us all. Karella sank down on her knees as we reached the cover of the trees. Pulling the girl in her arms, she said “Be careful.” 

Over the girl’s shoulder she spoke to me, her voice quiet, pretending there was no threat for the sake of her daughter. “Head west, you’ll reach the nearest village. I’ll find you tomorrow. Look for Theod if…” The words ‘I don’t’ were heavy in the air.
“She won’t come to any harm,” I said, but I was thinking that I should stay. They might need my help. But I’d been tasked with someone’s life. 

Nodding, Karella pushed at the girls shoulders, and smiled at her, touching her cheek. “My brave girl.” She rose to her feet, and I took the girl’s hand and started leading her away. She didn’t say a word, just kept glancing back at her mother, who waved back every time. 

We walked carefully through the roots and the prickly vegetation for hours, only stopping long enough to drink when we came across water, or for me to make sure we were headed in the right direction. I knew she was getting tired. She tugged at my hand as we continued our way. “When can we go back?” 

Hesitating, I turned to look back in the direction we’d come from. 

I saw a pillar of smoke.

Other ridiculous things this past week or two:

• I've started talking to myself. Yes, sometimes out loud. Yesterday, the running dialogue in my brain sounded something like this:
  "Seriously? Annika, shut up."
  "You shut up, Annika! Your ideas suck."
  We agreed to disagree.
• I think of a brilliant idea, then write it down in one word. e.g. "INTRIGUE." Then I come back and wonder what the hell I meant by that. This happened three times in the past week. The ideas are still brilliant, but unfortunately... they're stuck somewhere in the ether.
• I haven't done any pilates in the past two weeks. My yoga mat still exists for one purpose, and one purpose only. Writing and wine-drinking. Sorry not sorry.
• I started killing characters this week. I looked through my tweets and they're all about killing people. I should be banned. Someone take twitter away from me.
• Words I had trouble with this week: eight. indecicive indesicive indecisive. should. forty.
• Also I talk to my laptop, but that's fairly normal, right? Tell me you do this too!
• I was just about to write the line "He's my son," when I thought of this:

And basically couldn't include it because I only heard it in Regina's voice in my head.

• ALSO I had a ridiculous dream! I was in a haunted house, and I could hear voices, and like, a ghostly apparition showed up on the telly and it was watching me. And there I was, trying to pack all my books into a too-small bag. I couldn't leave the house without all the books. They were actual books I own and haven't read yet! It was horrible.

Are you writing? Tell me about it! I'd love to hear about your weird quirks too ;) Or share your NaNo experience so I can celebrate with you!

(ALSO have you had bookish nightmares?!)

Hello lovelies!

As you might know, I spent three days without wifi (an entire weekend) recently. It was awful.
But now that I have internet access around the clock again, I feel like I can't get enough of being able to talk to all of you all the time.

Anyway, I'm generally really bad at being spontaneous (or trying new things, or doing things I'm bad at), so I thought I'd venture out of my comfort zone and do a sort of random, chatty blog post about Camp NaNo, because...why not? I'm practising being spontaneous and unleashing my weirdness, letting it attack you lovely people. Win-win.

Camp NaNoWriMo

I'm trying to brave here, so let me introduce my story to you...

(working) title:
the Dreamweaver

synopsis:
Nenna starts seeing the past in her dreams. She lives in a world where it is forbidden and dangerous to even mention the possibility of magic, but there is one exception to this rule. Working for the king means your magic is 'forgiven' - as long as you use it in his service. This is how Nenna and a few other unfortunate souls end up being sent to a mythical lost city in the mountains. Their mission is to find out what magic was used in its destruction, and most importantly to the king: how could that magic be harnessed now? The information they find will be used against the king's opponents, which could well include their own group. How important are their lives at the hands of the king as opposed to the lives of thousands in other lands that will surely be in danger if the king gets what he wants?

opening line:
She was twelve when she met the dead boy.

snippet: (this is from the prologue and I haven't edited it at all, so sorry if it's really messy!)

Later when she would think of it, she would be careful to note that she must have blacked out. But in that moment, she saw a boy. Reddish hair, grown out and messy, and green eyes that seemed empty and hollow, like they were missing something – like a spark should’ve been visible in them. There was a glow, however, around him. It was slight, but she could see it. She reached out again, her hand reaching for his shoulder. “Who are you?”

He frowned. “Ruderick. I’m Ruderick. Nenna, I tried to escape, and I hid – but he found me.” The words flowed out, no stopping them. “They always find us, Nenna. You should run. You must. You can’t trust them, you can’t trust anyone.” The boy was shaking his head, his red hair falling into his eyes. “I can’t stay, and neither can you. Go. Go! Don’t let them get you too.”

“I don’t understand, I don’t know what you’re saying – ”

He leaned closer, too close, his face almost against hers. “You need to go.” His hand groped for her wrist, and frightened, Nenna wrenched herself away, falling onto her back, her head suddenly swimming, her limbs heavy and weak, her vision blurred and dark at the edges. Dazed, she blinked, shook her head, gasped in a breath, then slowly another, and another, until her head could hold more thoughts than ‘I think I’m dying.’ She turned her head towards the side, where she knew the boy would be waiting her out – but saw nothing. The glow was gone, the boy was gone, but the bundle of cloth remained. Everything seemed dark all of a sudden.

Wanna know how ridiculous I am when writing?

• I found this in my draft: "NOPE > don't get rid of characters yet. Kill them later."
• I drunk typed a thousand words the other night. I remember there was a failed attempt at seduction but I honestly don't want to know how bad it is. I'll reread it next month. And then edit heavily.
• I added a character called Theod in for a chapter because I needed his help to get Nenna from place A to place B... She went and fell in love with him, and now I CAN'T GET RID OF HIM. I don't know how this happened.
• It took me two days to realise I had named a mythical, long-lost city after my cat. Oops.

Progress so far

I'm just over 20,000 words in which seems kind of insane to me. I'm maybe a third into the story. Day 6 has been a bit slow for me, I'm focusing on reading and catching up on people's blogs which is a fun change of pace since the last five days have mostly just centred around writing.

A few things coming up on the blog

I'm currently reading SHTUM and the Sign of One - both are debut novels, and both are also set for publication tomorrow (7th April!), so I will try to let you know my thoughts on them fairly soon!

Geraldine @ Corralling Books and Joan @ Fiddler Blue's new Conversations meme goes live this Saturday! Check out the details over at Corralling Books and join by writing your own post!

 

Are you writing this month - whether you're taking part in NaNo or not? Let me know what your story is about! And... I'm kind of already cringing in fear but - if you have a sec I would love to know what you think of my story idea :)