Posts Tagged With: Novel

When plans unfurl and then you’re a pantser

Posted on November 23, 2023 by A.L. Katherine

I’m about 40,000 words into NaNoWriMo now, and the project I thought I’d be working on didn’t pan out. I started it. Book 3. I wrote the first 6 chapters, and then I wrote a few random future chapters, and bits and pieces of a scene, and I was like, “This do be some heavy shit.” And then I froze. My emotional capacity for what I could handle tipped to overload, and I lost under the mounting pressure of 1,667 words a day.

So, I switched. I realized book 3 is going to take a while to write. It’s not something that will easily write itself at this point, and even the parts that do write themselves, well… I need to take breaks. I need to practice self care. I need to monitor my emotional well-being. See, the thing about being autistic, and an empath is I feel a lot. Like, a lot-a lot. And there are scenes in book 2, whole chapters even, that I cry in every single time. I’ve read them through so many times, and I still cry. And there are some parts of book 3 that have felt even more emotionally taxing to me.

And I love that about myself. It means I can really fuel that emotion onto the page, and hopefully create an emotionally compelling story that my readers can fully engage in. But it also means that I feel every.single.emotion I write. The really happy ones, and the really thrilling ones, and the ones that crush your soul. So all my lovely outline and plans from October sort of got thrown out the window. And I went from planner to pantser within one week.

The story I switched to is one that has been really dear to my heart. My husband calls it my “feel good” story, because even though it deals with really heavy topics, the kind that require trigger warnings, my two main characters are so adorably cute together that they create this really beautiful, cutesy, fluffy romance on the page. And so, even when my characters are struggling through their trauma, the healing that blooms between them is enough to make you all warm and fuzzy inside.

I don’t know if it’s a story that would ever get published. It’s lit fic, and I don’t write lit fic. I rarely read lit fic. And I definitely have no experience in the genre of romance. So, it’s very unknown territory to me. The pacing feels slow, and some scenes I write so delicately due to the subject matter, I feel like it’s great realistic writing, but maybe not the best fiction. So I’ve just been posting the parts on my wattpad. And while the releases have been sporadic as of late, I am posting things as I’ve been able to. (I’m an endless editor, so the chapters take forever to feel truly complete to me).

I’m not sure if I’ll finish the story in the next 10,000 words, but I do hope I can give this story a fitting end. A very happy end. Because people deserve to heal from their trauma. They deserve all the love and support in the world. And in real life that isn’t always there. But in fiction at least, I can write all of the could haves, would haves, and what might have beens. I can write all the happy endings to help make the real world a little easier to cope with (or, fuel your escapism.).

~Kat

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NaNoWriMo??

Posted on October 19, 2023 by A.L. Katherine

The only consistent thing in my life as an AuDHD-er is how inconsistent I am… And the irony isn’t lost on me. I’ve thought about writing a blog post for a while now, but every time I sat down I couldn’t think of anything to write… so I didn’t. There hasn’t really been much going on (I say that, but tons is going on). I’m still on pause waiting to hear back from my editor about the first book in my trilogy. All five of my WIP’s are still WIP’s. And I’m struggling with, what I believe is, the last scene (or two) of the novella I’ve been posting to Wattpad (11 parts posted thus far, though, so go me!).

Book 2 is on pause for at least 3-4 months, which seems to be the unwritten consensus on how long to wait before looking at a draft again with “fresh eyes.” So the only thing left to do is move on, I guess? I’ve been tossing around the idea of joining NaNoWriMo this year for a while (Since Spring, when I finally wrote the last scenes of book 2). I haven’t participated since 2018, and haven’t won since 2015. So I figured, what the heck, why not use NaNo as an excuse to get me started on book 3, the final book in my trilogy, and literally 10 years in the making, haha.

Since I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, I’ve had a lot of time to prepare, both mentally and writerly. I haven’t decided if I want to try and win, although it always feels like a nice accomplishment. What I’m really hoping is that it will motivate me to consistently write for the entire month, even if it’s just 100 words a day. I did that in 2018, and managed to write 33,000 words that month. Impressive to me at the time, considering I was in the middle of my creative burnout.

I’ve officially signed up, and I have a rough timeline of events. I just need to figure out the first scene to write, and whose POV it’ll be from. I’ve got a little under 2 weeks to figure it out. And at the very least, if there’s one thing NaNoWriMo is good at, it’s giving myself permission to write poorly. And what I mean by that is, not get caught up in having the first rendition be a more polished rendition. Instead of freezing at how to perfectly phrase everything from the get go, and never getting the scene out, I can categorically choose to just write poorly for the word count, and then at least my scene is on the page. And once a scene is on the page, it can be edited.

To quote Shannon Hale, “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”

~ Kat

P.S. If you are also doing NaNoWriMo and want to add me, my handle is Amara262.

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Book Update

Posted on July 20, 2014 by A.L. Katherine

I feel like this has been long coming. Recently things have been crazy. I’ve been posting tons of Life posts, but  my writing posts have been sorely lacking. I wish I had really exciting news like “my book is finally done” but, hahaha that’s hilarious, as if my book would actually be finished… Because I’m a perfectionist, and I also want to add two more scenes in the section I’m working on. The good news is I’ve ACTUALLY had time to work on it, and I’ve been making good progress. I know some author’s have talked about how it took them four years to write their first book. I feel like that’s really easy to do. It’s hard, because as a newbie, unpublished author I’m in school full time for 8 months of the year, and the other four months I’m trying to work and save money for the 8 months that I won’t be working. I get to write, but it’s mostly for school. My favourite time is when I can write full time on my book. It’s when I’m happiest. But now look, I’m back to talking about life stuff, and not book stuff!!

So, book is fantastic! My writing improves every day that I write (practice makes perfect and all that jazz). The main reason why my book has been taking so long this summer is because I’ve been busy working on another project at the same time. I said I wanted to spend all summer writing. Be careful what you wish for, because this is happening, but not on what I expected. I have, in fact, started a new book with a friend. Yes that’s right, I’m 20 chapters deep in the first draft of a new novel. It doesn’t have a name yet, but we’ve been calling the story Winter’s Grasp. Definitely multi-book. There is A LOT of story. A lot of plotting. A lot of gushing, swooning, heartbreak, action, you name it. It’s Fantasy/Romance. There’s faeries. A winter prince. Magical humans. My best category would be NA. It’s too racy for YA, but not quite old enough for Adult. So yeah, that’s what took up most of my June, and half of my July.

Writing with someone is different, but I’ve found I LOVE it!! We feed off each other’s energy, and it keeps propelling us forward to write more. I’ll share an excerpt with you from chapter 1. You can let me know what you think. Again, it’s the FIRST draft! So be nice, hahaha. But I’m so in love with the characters ❤ ❤ ❤ I will try and keep you all updated with news!

~Kat

Funhouse Excerpt:

She turned down one of the rows to her left. A sparkling light flickered in her peripheral vision, and she turned, the Funhouse entrance staring back at her. The steps creaked under her feet as she followed the flickering lights refracting off the mirrors just inside the doorway, beckoning her in.
Strange shadows danced just out of sight, sending chills down her spine. After several lefts, and a few more rights, Alena realized the lights weren’t getting any closer. She turned around to go back and walked into a mirror.
“Great. How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?” she muttered.
Wasn’t there a saying if you follow the inside wall of a maze it will lead you out? Alena pawed the mirrors along one side, and found herself at another dead end. “I could have sworn I went left here before.”
Ogden had definitely sensed some unwelcome magic in the funhouse, and was busy hunting it down when he came across a girl with black hair guiding herself with her hands. Clever trick, he thought. Still, watching her from where she wouldn’t see, he felt certain she was about to fall into some sort of trap.
Alena looked around at her many reflections. Was there… more of them? She tapped against one of the mirrors, retracting her finger when it shocked her. What the…? Was there some kind of electrical wiring back there moving the mirrors?
“This isn’t funny,” she huffed.
Very clever. Ogden could sense the hidden shadows cursing her for what appeared to have been the use of magic. He was sure that was what he’d seen – felt – but she was only human, wasn’t she? He stepped toward her, looking her over with suspicious eyes.
He looked past her at the mirror she’d tapped. Whatever magical trickery had been there was long gone. Her touch had done it, somehow, and by extension probably saved her life.
A tingle went down Alena’s spine. She spun around, squinting into the dark. “Is someone there?” There couldn’t be. She shook her head. “I’m just freaking myself out now.”
Ogden’s voice was low as he stepped into the circle of mirrors she’d wandered into, though he was speaking beyond her to those who were hiding unseen, waiting on their prey. “I see I’m not the only one enjoying this game.”
Alena stepped back, and let out a startled cry. “I thought you were a demon.”
“Oh? And now what do you think I am?” Ogden wondered.

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Even Greater Things

Posted on January 1, 2014 by A.L. Katherine

As everyone sits down to write their “year in review” posts I thought I should do one too just to reiterate to myself everything I have accomplished this year. I don’t know if I did anything extravagant on the grand scale of the world, but to me I took some awfully big leaps of faith. So let me count them down by month.

January – Started writing my first novel.
February – Persisted through 3-5hrs sleep a day to write while working a full time job.
March – Finished my first novel.
April – Took a break
May – Began apartment hunting
June – Moved my husband to a new city, handed in notice to work
July-August – Spent two very difficult months away from my husband.
September-October – Moved away from everything I’ve ever known and started University
November – Participated in NaNoWriMo and WON! Completed my second novel, saw Nine Inch Nails for the first time in Concert
December – Finished my first semester with 3 A- and a C+. Started the long awaited task of finishing my first book (only 6 more chapters left!)

Alright, that’s everything really big that I can remember off the top of my head. It was a really big year for me and 2014 I feel is going to be even bigger. 2014 is going to be huge and full of unexpected twists I’m sure. But more than anything I still remain hopeful. Last New Years I was filled excitement having been accepted to University and wondering what my future would entail. Now I’m living that future and it’s hard and stressful at times, but it’s wonderful and great and I wouldn’t change any of it. The stress I feel now is nothing compared to the stress I felt when I was working at the hospital.

Everything has been in an upward trend this year, except my finances (although I haven’t accumulated much MORE debt, just holding steady at around the same), but I’m happy. Even on the days I complain or stress out about bills I’m happy because it’s a sacrifice I pay to achieve what I love and the fact that I have a husband who is willing to help me achieve that is the biggest blessing of my life. I wouldn’t be here without him or any of my family who has been supporting me since this journey began. I am blessed and highly favoured and 2014 is going to take me even further than 2013.

~Kat

happy-new-year-2013-2-hd-with

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Entering the Second Week

Posted on November 10, 2013 by A.L. Katherine

So the first week of NaNoWriMo is past and it is now getting into the second week. I would say that I have stalled, but somehow I’m managing to push myself through the stalled mentality and keep up on my daily word counts. Because of this, I broke 32,000 words yesterday! And if I were to really apply myself I could probably get to 50,000 words by the end of the week. However I don’t think that will be the end of this book. I still have so much more story to write and I feel like it will probably end up more around 60-70k words. Will I be able to write that by the end of November? I’m sure I could, we’ll see, but either way I will have a partial draft to upload to NaNoWriMo so I can get my free stuff and then I can purchase Scrivener to fine tune my draft since I only have the 30 day trial right now.

I have had a really hard time writing other things since starting this. Even this blog post was supposed to be written on Friday night and I was like “I don’t wanna do it!!!!!” And so today I said if I didn’t write it I could no longer talk about entering the second week because it would be half over! I remember when I was writing book 1 I took days off where I didn’t write a single word, or only wrote one paragraph and that’s all I could get out, but NaNoWriMo has pushed my limits. Even when I REALLY REALLY don’t want to write I tell myself I HAVE to get at least 1,100 words out. And even if I dick around ALL day, by midnight I usually have like 1,300 words and then I’m proud of myself and I proved to myself that I can do it.

What does this mean? It means that I could probably pound out book 2 and 3 like nobodies business if I could write full time, but I can’t. What I am excited for is finishing book 1 over my Christmas holidays because I will have 3-4 whole weeks to finish editing my last 10 chapters and having proven to myself that I can force myself to work through the stalled periods, I should have NO EXCUSE as to why I can’t finish 10 chapters in 3-4 weeks!! So I’m going to do it and if I don’t do it I’m going to have to come on here and tell everyone why and I’m going to be embarrassed and can feel like a loser.

Anyways, my advice for those of you who ALSO feel like they are stalling in the second week, I encourage you to keep pressing through your stalled moments!! Even if you have to bribe yourself with an hour of TV (I had to do that one day) or with food (Also did that), bribery works!! Tell yourself if you write 300 words you get something for it!! But keep writing my fellow writers, KEEP WRITING!! You can do it, I can do it, and we will do it together!!

~Kat

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The First Weekend

Posted on November 4, 2013 by A.L. Katherine

It is Monday. I am curious to know where everyone stands in their novel writing frenzy! As of midnight last night my friend and I had passed 21,000 words. Yes, that’s correct. Three days, twenty-one THOUSAND words! I would like to point out, this is over and above our other story we are writing, because yes folks, we are STILL writing our other story. Its a bit more slow going, but I’d add several hundred words on top of our daily NaNo word count still.

My goal is to get my daily word count to 1,000 words a day because I am so busy this month with classes, tests, final projects and my friend is coming with her daughter. I am excited, but stressing out like crazy! So the more I can get finished this week, the better I can feel about the rest of the month. I am almost at my goal. I’m sitting at 1,062 words/day to finish on time. Considering I just came from a weekend where I was writing over 6,000 words a day, 1, 000 should be easy!!

So as we are all getting back into our regular routines and trying to keep our word counts up, I say keep on!! Write those words! Get ahead while you can! Then you can pretend like you wrote 50, 000 words while slacking off 🙂

~Kat

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The Time is Almost Upon Us

Posted on October 31, 2013 by A.L. Katherine

Yes, in just 8 short hours it will be midnight of November 1st. This means all us die hard crazy writers who don’t have to be up in the morning will be sitting at our computers at 11:59 waiting for that exact moment it switches to 12:00 to start writing. Since my husband also decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo this is what we will be doing tonight. He took the day off work tomorrow. That’s right, die hard…. or just plain crazy. We plan on writing as much as possible all weekend since come next week we’ll actually have things like work and assignments.

But once this post is done I’ll be on my way to Walmart to purchase a lot of food that can be made super quick since we won’t be making time consuming meals. I also spent the last two hours cleaning. That’s right, my floors are vacuumed, my counters and stove are clean, the dishes are done. Since I can tell you right now none of that is probably going to get done over the next 30 days. Doesn’t that sound terrible? I know! But with any luck I’ll have a whole novel out of it.

At least I don’t have to feel bad about ignoring my husband, since we’ll be mutually ignoring each other in favour of writing. Now I have to go get ready for my Halloween party. For those of you who start NaNo tomorrow, good luck and happy writing!! We can do this!!

~Kat

P.S. I’ll try and keep blogging throughout, but if I fall behind you can keep up via Twitter and Facebook!

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NaNoWriMo

Posted on October 29, 2013 by A.L. Katherine

It’s official! I’ve signed up to my first NaNoWriMo! You might be saying to yourself, “But Kat, aren’t you already writing two stories and trying to attend university full-time?” To which I would say, “Yes, as a matter of fact I am.” I’m just crazy like that. In reality some of my other projects will probably get put on the back burner for the month of November. I’ll probably try and focus my energy on NaNoWriMo and school only, since I’ll need to average 1670 words a day to finish in time.

Last day of classes is Dec 2, and I have a couple big final projects, so November just got A LOT busier!! But I’m excited! When I first started writing in January I tossed around the idea of entering this, but didn’t know if I could actually do it. My best friend signed up at my encouraging though, so I thought if she could do it then maybe I could do it to! I decided to write the prequel book I’ve been tossing around in my head. I was originally going to write it after I finished my series, but it will work as a standalone book and even if it sits on my shelf for 3 years as a first draft, at least I have the first draft for when I finally do get to it.

I’m excited for this story though! It centers around Lainey, Cassius and Dawson, how they met, how they became siblings, and the whole dynamics of the Elemental realm, their societal structure, etc. I’m so stoked to really start exploring the lore behind my books, and I think it will help me in my writings of the book series since it will give me a better understanding of where my characters come from. Stay tuned! I’m sure you’ll be hearing from me and my NaNoWriMo adventures soon!

~Kat

P.S. Add me: Amara262

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Draft #3 & Book 2

Posted on March 18, 2013 by A.L. Katherine

It’s out in the world! Because I can’t be printing tons of copies I had to give my brother my copy so I no longer have a manuscript to obsessively edit anymore. This is good and bad. I’ve been editing to improve book 1, but also to avoid book 2. The thing about book 2 is it has to be better than book 1, or just as good and that feels like a lot of pressure. I’m also switching it up a bit and I’ll be writing from different POV’s and different characters in book 2 because of how book 1 ended. This is great for my readers because they will get to understand a bit about a certain character, but it also is really difficult for me because I’m no longer switching between two people. I found it hard enough to switch between me and Alice, but now I have to switch between me and 3 other characters. I need to get inside their heads. And no matter how much I’ve planned the story, that still doesn’t help me get into the head space of a specific character.

I have started chapter 2 because it’s Alice, and Alice is easier to write after book 1, I know her. I’m familiar with her reactions and her sentiments and her language, but Chapter 1 doesn’t start with Alice it starts with Dawson and even though I always had glimpses of Dawson’s mind in book 1, I never had a true understanding of him. His language is different, his whole demeanor and the way he feels vs the way he presents himself is different from Alice and nothing like how she interprets his actions. I know I can’t avoid it forever, but I feel like it’s going to take time to get into Dawson’s head and I honestly haven’t had time to sit down and really get into his character. I need to soul search Dawson and it’s going to take more than an hour after work to do it. Hell, sometimes it would take me half a day just to get inside Alice’s head.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this post. I ACTUALLY have a day off tomorrow so I’m hoping I can spend the day trying to get into Dawson’s head so I can really start book 2. I’m SO excited with where I have the story going. I just wrote out a whole bunch more plot concerning The Council that I’m super stoked about! I’ve got around 3 pages of outline and quickly jotted down scenes for book 2, I just need to sort it all and start writing!!

~Kat

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To Publish or Not to Publish…

Posted on February 20, 2013 by A.L. Katherine

So, I’ve been getting some good feedback on my book from friends and family and I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I plan on trying to publish. Most of the time I just tried to avoid the question, I don’t know much about the publishing industry so it was easier to ignore it. What I do know is to expect lots of rejection, and sometimes meaningless drivel like 50 shades of grey somehow make the cut. I’m really insecure about my writing, and this is my first book, and I’ve never written anything like a story before, mostly I write about books, or a poem, maybe a song. So this whole extended story business is new to me. The thought of publishing my book gives me warm fuzzy feelings, but I just don’t know if its good enough.

So being the super insecure person I am, I decided it would be smart to look up some publishing stuff. *Cough*sarcasm*cough. This was a bad idea on so many levels. I ended up having a huge freak out session with my husband about how I was never going to get published because I couldn’t afford to go to writing conferences and no agent would ever take me on with my list of non-existent credentials. After he finally calmed me down I felt really hopeless. When I started writing this book, I really didn’t expect it to go anywhere, but somewhere along the way I started thinking “Hey, maybe writing really IS my destiny.” I started hoping that school in September would be the start of my true calling and the end of my current miserable existence stuck in a job that I loathe.

But it doesn’t seem to matter how many people say “Oh my god, I couldn’t put the book down.” or even my brother who said he read the first 17 chapters in one sitting because and is now bugging me for the rest of the book, I still don’t feel confident. And then I read an article that’s like “You need to really ask yourself, is your book good enough, is it worth someone putting all that effort and money into getting it published for you.” and I doubt myself. I got so lost in this story that I fell in love with these characters I had created. This book feels like my child and when you bring your child out into society you don’t want people to point and laugh, or say “Hey, your baby is really ugly.” I’m still saying “I don’t think its good enough”  but is that because I really think that, or am I just scared of rejection? 

~Kat

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