50K in 30 Days

It is definitely that time of year again.

And amazingly I can almost hear the “Whaa?”

No idea what I’m talking about? No guesses? Come on!

Hhhmm…..

That’s right! It’s NaNo time again!!!

Now for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, and have apparently been living under a rock for the past 12 years…

NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month = November

What does that mean?

Simple.  From November 1^st – November 30^th you write your heart out.  Your goal is 50,000 words in 30 days, or 1667 words per day.  Now, those 50,000 words should make up a pretty good start for a novel.  Realistically 50k words, all by themselves only makes up a novella length story, but really – is that something to complain about?  Can you really hear yourself saying on December 1^st “But it’s only 50k… That’s only a novella.”  BIG NO!

If you finish your 50k by midnight on November 30^th you pass into the glorious annals of history (of NaNo) as a winner, and you’ve got a 50,000 word manuscript sitting on your hard drive that can be added to, edited, revised and polished into a full length novel and you got there in 30 days!

That’s not chump change, my friends.

So the big question on everyone’s mind (well everyone who knew what I was talking about in the first place) is whether or not they are going to NaNo this year…

Last year I started with big plans.  Yes, I actually planned last year, thank you very much.  I had the idea for The Gifted percolating in my head and it wanted out.  Take a look at the side of this page, see the progress meters for the stories?  See the one for The Gifted?  See how it’s just over 5000 words? 

That’s me and my spectacular NaNoWriMo 2010 writing fail.

So will I be doing it again?

Hhhmmm….

Probably.  Okay, yes I’m going to do it… but ssshhhh – keep reading.

I’m not really sure that this year’s progress, or accomplishment, will be much better than last year.  Honestly, I’m just as busy, if not more so than I was last year and this year I’m also working part time too. (I’ll tell you all a bit about that next time maybe. It’s something new.  Sort of.)  But this year I’m also going to cheat.  A bit.  Slightly.  Sort of.

I actually got the idea to cheat from another writer who, like me, has a lot on the go right now and doesn’t want to ‘lose momentum’ on the projects that their already working on.  For me, it’s not so much about losing momentum as it is about actually getting something done.  I’ll be shifting back to The Gifted again for NaNo this year.  And the just more than 5000 words that I’ve already written?  I’m not tossing them.  When the story is “completely finished and ready to be published” those words and the beginning that I managed to write last year, will be there.  BUT I have the story to a point right now where it’s almost time for a ‘time jump.’

No, not time-travel, but that beautifully crafted jump in our stories where months pass in the blink of an eye.  Or with the turn of a page, as the case may be.  So November 1^st I’ll be starting immediately after the time jump.  Hello word count = 0! 

Will November 30^th find me at 50,000 words?  I really hope so. Mostly because I’d like to be able to come back and say “Yes, I finished!” but also because then I’d be 50,000 words closer to finishing that story. And remember how I said that while the idea had been percolating, that the story really wanted to be told.  Uh huh, now the characters are nearly as loud and obnoxious as my kids with their demands that their stories be told.  Really, NaNo this year may be my only hope for sanity.

And okay… LOL.  I think I’d better stop now, while you don’t think I’m completely off my rocker, and maybe, I don’t know… Go write something.  But not The Gifted, I’m saving that for NaNo. 

I think I’ll go to Greece.

The "Where's" of My Writing

When I’m writing I tend to get lost in my head sometimes.  I become absorbed, and even obsessed, with the worlds that I’m creating there, describing on the page, and in the landscapes of the story itself.  While the plot and the characters of any story are what the whole thing revolves around, something else that can be just as important are the settings: where those characters are, and where the story takes place. 

For today’s update I decided to take you some of the places where my stories take place.  Enjoy.

The Immortals - though the story begins in the USA and has several other parts there as well, the bulk of the story is set in Greece.... 

The Chosen - this story takes place in northeast USA, primarily the New England areas around Yale University and New Haven, CT; in Westford, MA and Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA...

The Gifted - taking place in the environs and the sights that I can see anytime with just a short drive, this story is set mostly in Southern Alberta...

I take no credit for the photo's used in these collages... They were collected over the course of months, and even years, from public archives, blogs, and other sites found online by using Google searches. I tried to make sure that I wasn't using anyone's copyrighted photos but if I missed one, or if you were the photographer of one of the photos used and would like credit for your work, please just let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you.  No infringement of photo rights is meant by the use of these photos. - Lacey

So This is What I'm Doing

I once described how I came up with the stories that I write.  (To see that post go here.)  It’s what works for me as a creative process.  Of course there are the inevitable ‘dry’ periods where for whatever reason I’m just not coming up with anything new.  During those times I do whatever I can to keep writing – and being a busy mom, sometimes student, and occasionally gainfully employed person, the time I have to write can sometimes be pretty scarce… Case in point: January through August of this last year.  In the last two posts I’ve mentioned the three stories that I have in the works (as LD Ferris) and I told you little bit about where each of them stood.  Now I want to tell you a little bit more about each.

The Chosen

from http://www.myspace.com/etherealflyer

The idea behind this one is something of a universal good vs. evil plot.  There are a few twists, a couple turns, an (almost) love triangle, shades of grey, and that question that seems always to be asked – how much are you willing to sacrifice to achieve the end you seek? 

Lynora Montgomery is the oldest of three sisters who grew up in Massachusetts.  She’s an honor student at Yale, a kind, caring, and generous individual, who is popular, serious, and most importantly, a witch; a really powerful, really ‘good’ witch.  There are a lot of extenuating circumstances, a few complete surprises (even to me) and some really good friends.  When the darkness of evil starts to thicken, she and all those around her know that they must do what they can to snuff it out. 

But what do you do, when the only way to save the ones you love is to give up everything that you are, and everything that you have within you?

Immortals

In many ways my fascination with the paranormal, the fantastical, the mythological and (lol) the beauty of Greece combined in to a dream, an idea that then became Immortals.  The immortals, or the Athanatos (thanatos=death in Greek, a-thanatos=undying) as they call themselves in this story, were created, bred and born by the ancient gods and goddesses.  Though the primary mythological backgrounds in this story are based in Greek mythology, there are also aspects of Celtic, Viking, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Sumerian mythology as well.  

Identifying Mark of the Athanatos

This story is centered on Alexis Vasilios, a young woman born in Greece and raised in the USA, who discovers that she has strange abilities, powers that exceed the imagination, when she is in a car accident with her best friends.  Through her extraordinary efforts she is able to save her friend, thus making her realize that somehow, someway, she’s different from every one she’s ever known, although she doesn’t, indeed can’t recognize how truly different and superb she really is.  It is Xander NIkitas, the Athanatos seeker who manages to track her down and explain her remarkable heritage to her.  Yet as they learn more about her history, they are both shocked by the depths of truths that they find.   

Alexis’s story is about her self discovery, not only of her abilities but of a place and a people who she feels she can belong with.  Through her incredible journey she also manages to uncover a secret power play within the Athanatos community, she forges friendships that will last forever, and finds the one man who she can see herself loving through time immortal.

The Gifted

This story is set close to home… literally.  With settings near Magrath, Pincher Creek, Lethbridge, Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria, as well as some locations throughout Europe, this story is told, more or less, about right here at home.  Interestingly enough, though not really surprising when you think about it, when imagining and describing some of the characters personalities, I’ve found bits and pieces of myself and the people actually in my life appearing on the page in front of me.  (You may have noticed in the introduction of Dawn McKenna that I said she took a job teaching dance at a studio in Lethbridge… And everyone who knows me knows that I danced for years, and still consider teaching.)  It’s been an interesting process, so far, telling a story about places that I actually visit all the time – some more than others. 

Photo from www.dumbweek.wordpress.com

As for what the story is actually about, well, to put it simply: the gifted.  Individuals, and whole groups of people, that are gifted with supernatural and extraordinary abilities or talents.  It’s not about witches in the way that The Chosen is, or beings created for a specific purpose as those in Immortals, but it’s about a world, our world, that exists along side a whole host of other similar worlds, all connected together.  From those other worlds, beings of supernatural origin have come across into our world and over the millennia have congregated in groups for survival.  There are vampires, fae, were-creatures (including lions, cougars, panthers, bears, wolves, etc.), sprites, brownies, leprechauns, berserkers, and other species.  

The Gifted tells a story about six people (the three Tallant siblings, Dawn McKenna, her cousin Shayla O’Conner and her best friend Bradford Lawrence) and how their lives come together and change, until they aren’t just six people, and they aren’t just siblings, or cousins, or friends.  Through their experiences, through the challenges of responsibility and even fate, they become three couples, and they become a family. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that is what I’m working on, most of the time anyways.  It’s so much fun creating these stories – the ‘worlds’ that they exist in, the characters and people who inhabit them, the things both real and amazing and those that are fantastical and imagined.  It can be aggravating, frustrating, annoying, complicated, mind numbing and hard, difficult work, but it is so worth the effort and the time it takes.  To read, even an unfinished work-in-progress, is so rewarding and enjoyable, and really, really, just fun.  I honestly love it.  Every single part of it.  And now, I’m going to get back to it! 

See you again soon!

Meet: Dawn McKenna

Here I am again, later than I’d intended this morning, but back again with another update.  I’ve been busy writing – for The Gifted, as well as blog writing, and the short stories I’ve got on the go over at Becoming Dawn.  So I don’t have a lot of time to take with this update but I do have an introduction to make.  I’m very excited to introduce you all to another character (my leading lady) from The Gifted: Dawn McKenna.

This, like the introduction I gave you to Dylan many months ago, is just a sneak peak at her.  As I go along I’ll keep introducing you to more of the characters, but also I’ll give you more information about each of them, in bits and pieces… Something like a puzzle, all of the info you get will eventually go together to make them understandable.

So here she is…

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She’s used to being in control. 

Since her own parent’s death several years ago, Dawn McKenna has been in charge of running ‘McKenna’s End,’ the ranch that her father and his own brother started together when they were young.  She has lots of help, advice and input, from her uncle and her cousins, as well as from the others who live on and work the ranch, but in many ways McKenna’s End became like her very own fiefdom.  But more than that, it became a safety net and a place to hide from the rest of the world.

When her cousin, Shayla O’Connor convinces her that they need to get away for a couple of months and explore ‘the world’ beyond southern Alberta, everyone at McKenna’s End pushes her to go.  And since she wanted to visit some of their extended family who lived in Europe anyways, Dawn finally agreed. 

Part way through Dawn finds out about the death of the Tallant’s parents and rushes home to attend the funeral.  And that’s when everything begins to change and she starts to realize that you can only ever control things to a certain point.  After that, you have let fate have its way.

To remain close to Tallants’ in the months after their loss, Dawn takes a position as a dance teacher at a Lethbridge studio.  Using the travel distance as an excuse, she moves from McKenna’s End (which is located at the base of the Rockies) to Dylan, Aidan and Winter’s house in Lethbridge.  But that’s exactly what it is, an excuse.  There is really a much better, much more important reason for her desire to move, especially her desire to move in with them.

Through it all she struggles with maintaining a balance between having control and not, with sharing herself but not sharing too much, and finding a way for everyone to be happy.

(Ah there’s that control issue again…)

[All characters and information is from The Gifted.  The Gifted is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblence to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.]  
copyright 2010 Lacey Ferris

Getting Back In To Things

Surprise! Amazing I know, but yes… I’m back again with an update.  It’s probably going to be short but it’s an update. 

I’m trying to put all my blog updates onto a schedule this fall so that I don’t end up with one blog having updates all the time, while my other blogs stand lonely and, more or less, dead. If, and I really stress that if, things go according to what I’ve worked out for myself, then you should see at least one update a week here on Inside My Mind.  Actually you should see about an update a week on my reviews blog and my other writing blog too. 

[Me? I’m keeping my fingers crossed…]

About that other writing blog I mentioned… Becoming Dawn is a new blog that I’ve started that is going to showcase the contemporary writing that I plan to do – it may be romance, mystery, suspense or just plain old fiction (which, let’s be honest, includes all of the aforementioned aspects).  Because that writing will contrast somewhat sharply with what I generally write I’ve decided to write it (and publish) using a penname.  To see more on this, or to find out what I’ve got going in that direction please feel free to visit Becoming Dawn anytime.

For the writing that I talk about here and whatever I may showcase or spotlight here on Inside My Mind, I will continue to use Lacey Ferris, or LD Ferris.  It’s just easier for me to separate that which I write as fantastical from that which I write as reality if I ‘separate’ the authors’ identity.  Even if I and everyone else know that they are actually the same person.

So what did Lacey write this week?  Hhmm… She wrote this blog.  Which granted isn’t much but I’ve had kids going back to school, extra-curricular’s to organize and schedule, and started on a cleaning sweep through the house.  Exciting, huh?  LOL – I was sort of a boring but busy woman this last week, and everything that I was doing seemed to revolve around someone else.  This next week is mine though… right?

I am diving back in to The Gifted soon though.  So, realistically I should have another one or two character profiles that I could put up soon. (Click here to see the first of the character profiles for The Gifted.)  And I’ve been thinking of trying to scour through celeb pictures online to try and find faces that come close to what I’m seeing in my mind.  I haven’t decided whether I want to do that yet though because I’m always scared that I’ll slack at describing them because I’m thinking to myself ‘it’s the girl/guy in the picture.’

I’m still working on the edits for The Chosen too.  That story is by far the most done and closest to being complete.  It still has a ways to go but with a good 60,000 words I have it at that point where it’s comfortably uncomfortably waiting for me.  I’m going to have to turn my focus back to it soon though, I think, because I actually had another dream about my characters there and what they’re telling me now is something slightly different from how we began.  I’ll manage to straighten it out though, I always do.

And Immortals is merely waiting for me.  Once I get some more out of Gifted and Chosen though it’ll be full bore ahead on this one, especially since it was only meant to be novella length in the first place.  And yes, my immortals are growing as impatient with me as my witches and shape-shifters are. 

Can’t you hear them yelling?

“Hurry up and tell the bloody story Lacey!”

I guess I better listen.

Talk to you again soon… (next week if all goes according to my plan!)  

Tootles! Lacey :-)