2020 Writing Goals \m/

What’s your WriYe Word Count goal for 2020?

-          My goal is 120K. 

Why did you chose it?

-          The reason I chose this amount (and not 175K which was what I was originally going for) is because the word goal of the day is 329, and for me that’s manageable. I’ve not been writing the past couple of years much (maybe here and there) so jumping back into it, I know for myself I need to take it slow and so far I’ve been doing the bare minimum or maybe a couple of hundred more a day and the quality of the words? Well, I’m proud of it so far.

What are your plans for the year?

-          My plans for the year besides hitting my daily word goal is being more healthy! Exercising at least 3 times a week for an hour at the gym, less carbs and more water. My little dog, Shelly, makes it also impossible to not go out for walks when I’m home. She gets so excited she’ll even whine for one in the mornings if it’s very apparent that I have a day off (how she can sense this, beat’s me, she just seems to know what’s up). I’m also going to try to re-learn playing the ukulele! I used to be able to do it in high school, just memorizing the songs I liked and playing those religiously. Hopefully I learn it enough to make some songs with my husband, who’s a pro at the keyboard and guitar.

What do you want to accomplish with your writing?

-          I want to complete at least one of my WIP this year. I have four incomplete novels and I started with Hold On because I have more of a structured understanding on the story now than I did a couple of years ago. With the change of adding Jean as an alternate POV to Bernard, re-outlining the story and starting completely from scratch, moving around character roles and adding a few new faces to the mix has already happened in this particular novel so far. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up doing this method with my other WIP’s (as in, completely restart everything). 

What are you most looking forward to in 2020?

-          I’m looking forward to being more productive, not just with writing but with life in general. The last couple of years haven’t been so great for me. Since I graduated college in May 2015, I kind of been a squid about life (just floating around and doing what I need to do to survive). Moving into my first home with my husband is what snapped me back into my creative side again. He’s been working on the basement to create a studio for his music and I finally got the upstairs room converted into my office/study. It’s real nice to be in a home with someone who’s lifestyle can coincide with my own. J I’m very fortunate and I definitely need to do more than watch TV and chill. I’ve also been going through some hard times with my job last year (depression and actually getting physically sick, if you can imagine) but my job role has changed (hopefully for good but I’m part of a pilot group for new form of communication with customers so things are always subject to change).

Let’s see what 2020 actually has in store for me. \m/

First World Problems

Sometimes when you're little, you don't realize when you start growing up. When a job with health insurance seems a lot more of a better deal (it always was) than a couple of jobs to make ends meet. When you always figured you'd be "forever alone" and some guy comes around and gives you the time of day.

When you go seven and a half months without household internet and are on the verge of pulling your hair out.

That's what my life's been like. Fortunately, that changed as of yesterday.

See, I've always been an internet baby. And when my boyfriend warned me that there was no high speed services in his childhood home when I packed up my stuff from Florida and moved with him to Ohio, I figured I would be okay. I mean, they're not like total barbarians, they have cable. But the internet was my thing, my social outlet and I am always running out of data with AT&T (as soon as I pay off my and my mom's iPhones, I'm done). Lately, my need for internet revolves around advertisement free movies and YouTube videos.

Truthfully, I did want those past seven and a half months without internet to be a gateway for me to write again. It's true, I haven't been writing lately. Here and there I'll splash a paragraph or so, but sitting down to do the nitty-gritty hasn't been on my agenda. I'd like to not think of myself as a failure but more as a person in need of a creative break (but hey, I did read a lot!)

But, if I like it so much, why would I need a break?

When I graduated college in May of 2015, I had no idea where I wanted to go from there. Financial stability was my main concern and now that I'm stable, healthcare is next. But I'm not here to talk about my job concerns (because its boring and it actually does worry me—but thank God I have my health at the moment).

I always dreamily envisioned myself to be a best selling author, that's what most writers hope for anyway. Though it may be a glimmering possibility, my lovely boyfriend revealed to me what I should really be aspiring for.

That is, write for myself. I used to do it quite naturally (Criminal Offence :X), however, college has sort of killed the positive writing vibes. It certainly has made me a better writer, but its made me want to stay away from it because it has drained my energy. I don't regret going to college for my English degree (I try not too I still have monthly loans to pay back) but I think I overworked myself and killed the fun spirit of writing, making it work.

I want it to be fun again. I want to write stories that will make me happy and, hopefully, some others as well.

So here it goes, round...whatever.

On "Criminal Offence :X"

It's been about a solid four years since I finished, thought I might come forward and talk about it. By that, I mean the writing process and general idea behind it.

PLEASE ONLY READ THIS IF YOU FINISHED IT BECAUSE SPOILERS AHEAD. OKAY, THANKS!! (:

I began writing this in my sophomore year of high school, after my parents presented me with my very first laptop in the summer! For without the laptop, I don't believe I would been able to dedicate such time in having to hog the family computer for my writing endeavors. (the said laptop is now currently being used by my mother, a bit slow now though, but it's sturdy).


Here are five facts I did on twitter (because I do daily tweet cleanse, it's deleted) before I get into major detail, I covered the basics:

 

yeah, this is how i normally convey myself through twitter.

I guess I was always the creative-writer type; did some diary entries through elementary and middle school, got aboard the ff.net bus with my take on terrible Bleach fan-fiction, then even wanted to start my own paranormal-esque series when the Twilight epidemic began to spread.

But I don't believe I was cut out for creating anything other than realistic fiction. I like real-life too much, mainly high school life (my own high school life inane and boring, sad really). And I enjoyed writing about people just hanging out. Explaining it any further would be weird.

So, I'm a hopeless romantic and I love the whole cliche of "two people falling in love when they really shouldn't" ordeal. That, and the drawing interest of Stockholm syndrome (I'm still fascinated by it). Thus, my Dorothy and Eric were born!

Developing them wasn't too hard, I had influences of other writings to work off of. Dorothy was my first protagonist so everything just kind of flowed, and her reactions were mine, basically. And Eric was just every guy I've ever had a crush on come true (ha).

Another thing I worked to develop was the side characters. I wanted to write a story that wasn't all about Dorothy and Eric, I wanted other characters in the play. I've read so many stories, too much in fact, that was so focused on the romantic interests and simply used side characters to build up the romance. I didn't want Janaki, Shannon, Travis or Aaron tossed aside like they didn't matter, they were important. They're their own people too and I wanted to make that very clear. (I'm not saying I did this well, I didn't. But I tried and am trying further with future novels.)

 I guess what I'm saying is I wanted to also write a story about friendship. Because to me, personally, stories about friendship are foreshadowed by stories about romance. I love romance, but as I'm growing older, I realize friendships are so much more significant!

-THE BIG SPOILER- 

Okay, so, before or at least the first couple of chapters into writing, I knew Eric would die. I barely gave it a second thought too, so I still don't understand my motives behind it other than the fact of him living would cause a whole mess of the police getting heavily involved and the two lovebirds never being able to see each other ever again, probably (of course, they can't with this ending either, sorry). I also believed (in the very back of my mind) Eric was too much of a mess and him and Dorothy would be damaged in the long-run. It just wouldn't work out. It would never work out.

 When I finished writing the story, I was in disbelief. It took about a year to edit it out, then put it up on Smashwords (bad idea, still needed editing). Then it took this summer to put some time aside and really go forth in editing now that I've actually, hopefully improved in my writing (but it still needs editing).

So, I got a kick out of writing this story! I was passionate about it, as I'm sure every writer is passionate about their first story. 

However, this story is not noteworthy. 

It's just another story in the millions of independent teen realistic romances out there. But I'm so glad that anyone would take a chance on reading it and even giving it feedback (good or bad, I don't care). To have people reading it, it's the best feeling! So thanks. Thanks so much! I appreciate the heck outta you all! 

Please, pass it along if you enjoyed it, and here's the playlist if you want to listen to the music behind the writing.

Thanks to all who read it. I mean it. THANK YOU. (: