ROW80 – Check In #7

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NaNoWriMo: Well, I’m behind, but not by much. I’m probably going to fall further behind though, since I need to make some baby hats for my new cousin before I see her this weekend. But I am determined to keep up as well as I can!

Holly Lisle lessons: Trying to keep up. I think I accidentally skipped a lesson. I’ll have to go back and do that.

Other: Fellow ROW80 participants and campaigners, I plan on going around and reading your blog posts and leaving comments and stuff. I just…yeah, you know I’m busy. I’ll get to it, I promise!

Now let’s keep writing!

ROW80 – Check In #6

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I finished my outline a few hours before NaNoWriMo started. Isn’t it pretty? (The colors don’t mean anything, except that Giant was out of white 3×5′s.)

Then my friend and I had our annual launch party. We started writing at midnight on the dot – although neither of us lasted for longer than half an hour. We’ve gotten so old!

I didn’t make the daily goal the first night (thanks class and commute), but I should be able to make up for it tonight.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you probably already saw my love note to Scrivener:

“Finished first scene of NaNo last night. It’s honest to goodness awful. Not at all what I had in my head. But thanks to Scrivener, I can put how I want to fix it in the “document notes” section of each scene. Scrivener, I love you, and I might just want to have your babies”

Before Scrivener, I would have had to open up my Word doc reserved for the novel’s notes and describe the scene so I could (hopefully) find it again. Now it’s all in one place, and I know exactly what my notes refer to! Thank you Scrivener!

ROW80 – Check In #5

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Apologies everyone. I’ve been sick for the past week and a half. Didn’t help that I had a final and a midterm, but what are you going to do?

I’m almost done my outline – and just in time too! So glad to be getting the muddle of the middle out of the way now. I’d much rather have a game plan – even if it does end up changing.

I think I’ll start NaNo tonight, though I don’t expect to finish the first day’s goal before I go to sleep. I just want to start writing!

Speaking of NaNo, I’ve added the badge and a progress bar on the left sidebar. If you click the badge, it’ll take you to my author page, and you can add me as a writing buddy. I expect it to be lots of fun. If I can’t word war with one of you, I can word war with another one of you!

My other goals have stalled a little. I caught myself thinking of Narrator yesterday (bad Jenn!) and I’m behind on my Holly Lisle lessons as I try to finish up the outline lesson. But since that’s almost done, I can move on to the others!

Okay, I think that’s it. Happy Halloween everyone!

ROW80 – Check In #4

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I’m going to have to change my goals, especially since I’ve been cheating at 750 Words. I write as much as I can, then give up and copy-paste to get to 750. Oops. Definitely not how that’s supposed to work.

New Goals:

  • Plan for NaNo using Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways lessons – the quantitative part being doing every lesson, delivered weekly.
  • Participate in NaNo, with 1,667 words a day. I want to win again, mostly so I can get 50% off Scrivener!
  • Let Narrator alone for the rest of October and November. I’m forbidden to work on it. Writing ideas down if I get them? Sure. Actively thinking? No. It needs to simmer properly.

Based on these new goals, I’m actually proceeding quite nicely. Narrator is currently shelved. And I’ve started on my flexible outline for Sight (from Lesson 7).

In other news, I downloaded the free trial for Scrivener. I’m excited to try it out, especially now that I’ve started to jump around when writing scenes. Hopefully it will keep all my notes and scenes for my stories more organized than their current, messy-scattered-folder state on my Mac.

ROW80 – Check In #3

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Sadly, I have nothing to report. My Muse has been extremely uncooperative for the past week. I couldn’t even plan anything for my stories, let alone write them. Hopefully I’ll be able to turn this around soon.

But while I’ve got your attention, a question:

How do you know you’re tapping into the full potential of your novel’s premise?

I’m asking because I’m about to start my…fourth?…rewrite of Narrator, and I still get the feeling that I’m missing something. Something that will really crack this novel and make it explode.

But what is that something?

ROW80 – Check In #2

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Whoops! Forgot the check in is on Sunday! Well, here it is now, plus some extra stuff.

Writing: Not good, I’m afraid. I’ve been writing 750 words a day, but it’s not so much narrative as planning. Or essay writing. Or free writing. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that last week I became bummed over everything I was writing. I need to figure out how to snap out of it – some of you suggested taking a break. Hopefully I won’t have to, or I can find a way to take a break from what’s giving me trouble but still keep writing.

Work: Today is my one year anniversary at my job! I’m so excited! You can tell by all the exclamation points! ;)

School: So busy! But my copyright class is almost over, thank goodness! Not my favorite, to tell the truth, even though it is super useful.

Fun: What’s that? Kidding (mostly). My brother is up for the weekend, which rocks. And we celebrated his upcoming birthday (20 holy crap). And my friends and I had a Disney marathon. Don’t scoff, Disney movies are fantastic, especially if you haven’t seen them in a while. Or make up relationships between characters. Or “recognize” Chien Po from Mulan hundreds of years later in Lilo and Stitch.

So that’s what’s new with me. How about you?

ROW80 – Check In #1

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Well, it’s only been two days, but I have written 750 words for each of them! Shadows, Echoes, and Reflections is 1,500 words longer than it was this weekend.

Now, whether I like what I’ve written is a whole ‘nother story…

I realized this morning that several of my stories like to play around with the theme of fate vs. free will. Narrator, Sight, and now a new idea percolating in the back of my head. The others might not have fate, but they certainly have the free will portion. Maybe it’s a theme instilled in me from Harry Potter and Dumbledore’s [paraphrased] “It is our choices, Harry, not our abilities, that define us.” Just something I’m thinking about.

Also, I am taking suggestions for the next post. What would you like to see on Friday? Book review? Writing advice? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

My ROW80 Round 4 Goals

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And here we go, the start of Round of Words in 80 Days! Sorry I’m posting late, it’s been a long day.

My goal is to write 750 words a day (thanks to that reward site!), primarily on Shadows, Echoes, and Reflections.

I’ll be checking in every Wednesday and Sunday to tell you about how it’s going!

  • Welcome

    new haircut

    Hi, I'm Jenn, new grad student and old YA fantasy writer. I've long dreamed of being a novelist, and I bet you have too. I hope you find my blog helpful, inspiring, and maybe just a little bit fun. (But not too much fun. Writing is serious business, you know.)

    You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or email me at:
    jennifer.a.johnson7 at gmail dot com

  • Official Progress


    4/21 segments

    A narrator hijacks a cliche fantasy story, much to the chagrin of its characters.

    Status: Second revision



    1,639/70,000 words
    A young noblewoman with strange powers must choose: her king or her soul.

    Status: First draft



    1,087/70,000 words
    When a girl's heart is stolen, she's plunged into a world of magic and shadows - but can she get her heart back before she loses it completely?

    Status: First draft





  • All writing, unless otherwise specified, is the property of
    Jennifer Johnson © 2010