02.22.09
Updates
I haven’t updated this in forever and it makes me sad. I wanted to keep updating this blog regardless of Nano, even if I created it a year ago solely to document my progress into the world of novel writing. I wanted to try to enter that Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, but I just didn’t have the time to edit my book that I would have liked in time for the deadline. I haven’t touched the thing in months, nor written anything else in that time either. I feel disconnected, but I want to get back to it. It’s a lifeline for me and I felt probably the most…alive…writing it. Nano was an exhilirating experience.
In my spare time, I’ve been reading a lot and playing videogames. I admit, I bought an xbox and have become obsessed in my free time. School is also a big drag on my time. Last semester of college and all. I still want to do the offer from Create Space, so I should definitely get on editing my book at least before I do that. I think I have until June 
I hope everyone has been having a great new year, though I doubt there’s been much traffic on here since I went AWOL.
12.24.08
A long time it’s been…
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I updated this. Things have certainly been hectic and I really did want to keep up with this regularly. Since NaNo ended, everything sort of blew up in flames around me. The end of school came and went and I did great in all of my classes, it was actually one of my best semesters, but everything else seemed to just want to spiral out of my control. I don’t use this much for that type of blogging (complaining), but I figured it was worth the mention.
Anyway, my dog, Molly, decided to get into wrapped presents my mom had in her room and basically ate nearly a pound of chocolate. And they make chocolate with this chemical that is poisonous to dogs. So, there was a trip to the vet, who recommended taking her to a vet hospital…which cost a lot of money. She’s alright now, doing pretty well actually for eating all that chocolate/plastic, but apparently she now has a heart murmur. It could be from the chemical, as she didn’t have it last year when she went for a check up, or it could be the beginning of heart disease. Hopefully, it is not the latter.
On top of all that, my mom had [bunion] surgery last week and is being an uber pain. My grandmother fell a couple of weeks ago and broke her pelvis and back. And I’ve been having chest pains/trouble breathing, but it is most likely related to stress – I have insane anxiety – and I decided to go back on my stupid anxiety medication that I haven’t taken in a year and that makes me A) tired, B) really really effing tired, and C) I can’t focus for the life of me when I take it.
I don’t talk about the anxiety a lot and putting it on here is sort of like broadcasting it to the world, but lots of people have stress and anxiety disorders, so yeah. Plus, writers are always damaged some way or another 
So taking the anxiety meds puts me in a woozy, mellow state. It’s weird, it’s like coasting through life…pretty much probably high, I would say, even though I have never been high before. But, I don’t like it and I definitely don’t like taking them. I like to deal with stress on my own, but when it starts preventing me from sleeping at night, I have to take extraordinary precautions. The downside is, that I am trying to edit my book. I want to get things done by February for that Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. I want to enter, even to try. I’ll regret it if I don’t. But, the meds make me unable to focus, so editing has become a slow, painful process. Right now, I feel clearheaded enough to even type this post and start working on it, but it’s been 24+ hours since I last took anything.
Anyway, that’s my life story for everyone to see. I’ve completely gone in and revamped the Prologue. It’s the same, just better wording and sentences and whatnot. More description. I’m satisfied for the moment with what I have there, though I know that the editing process is long, gruelling, and a pain. I already know that even if I ever got published, I would always find something to add/change/delete.
Today and tomorrow I’m going to try and concentrate on Chapter One. I rewrote the entire first part, where I introduce the main character, Brynn. I hated that beginning with a passion. The more I read the book, the more I skipped over that part, so I knew it had to be changed, it was just a matter of changing it into what. I had to wait for the idea to come and it did and I am definitely happier with it now! 
Now, just for the rest of the chapter…
I wanted to document the editing process for myself, as well as just to have something to update my blog about. I wanted people to know that once NaNo was over, I didn’t set the book aside and go, “Okay, I’m done now. It can collect dust.” I want to keep working on it and make it something that I enjoy reading and that other people will too, whether or not it’s just my friends and family or people who enjoy burning books. This world, my world, is so completely developed in my head that not a day goes by where I don’t think about it, the characters, the history, and the future.
Plus, it keeps me sane
Anyway, to recap, the Prologue is done for the moment. Chapter One is in progress. I need deadlines! haha. Maybe I’ll look at the calendar and make a schedule to have certain chapters done by, so that I can have someone else read over it and give me some feedback as well. We’ll see.
And, to anyone reading this, Happy Holidays! Mine already started, I celebrate the fun Chanukah, but I know tonight is Christmas Eve, so I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. Enjoy yourselves!
Fun Fact: Brynn’s name was originally Bella. I came up with it in my junior year of high school, so about 2004, early 2005, and then after I recently read the Twilight Series, I had to go back and change her name.
12.02.08
The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home
Well, since NaNo is at an end, I find myself a little bored. I read a lot, and I do mean a lot, and I one of my favorite series happens to be The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. Now, I was never a big King fan before I picked up the first book in the long saga, The Gunslinger, and I was very skeptical, but it turned out to be an amazing rollercoaster ride of ups and downs that I had fun riding. The series was imaginative and exciting and I was really glad I picked it up.
As a result, it’s hard for me to find good books I enjoy enough to want to find others like it. It sort of happened by chance with Twilight, I got into some vampire kick and started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series (True Blood on HBO is based off of this series) and after I read all of those, started into The House of Night series by PC Cast. None of them really hold as much sway with me as series like The Dark Tower, Harry Potter, and The Belgariad. Great books!
Anyway, it’s always sad when a series comes to an end. For The Dark Tower, that end was extended into the realm of graphic novels. The first set, The Gunslinger Born, basically told the love story of the main character in the series, Roland. When he was a boy, he fell in love as all boys do, and when love was lost he was lost. Most of the fourth book in the book series is about this story and his first official quest as a Gunslinger, so it’s interesting to see that play out in pictures.
So, in the second one, The Long Road Home, after the love is lost, Roland and his ka-tet (Yes, Ka, my title, comes from this series of work. Ka is destiny) are trying to escape the crazy clutches of the men that work for the antagonist, John Farson, and trying to get home to Gilead. But, Roland is taken over by Maerlyn’s grapefruit, and his friends try and help him escape it.
I don’t know how much input Stephen King has on the graphic novels, but I have to say that they are amazing and whoever hasn’t read the books are getting great tastes of foreshadowing. Robin Furth, I know, is the woman with all the knowledge of this world; she’s written the compendiums of everything concerning the Dark Tower, and she probably lives and breathes it as much as Stephen King does. Jae Lee does amazing, creepy, scary artwork that my mind would never have been able to see when reading the story. It’s just a great concept and I urge people to check into this awesome series.
That was my peace, and my first semi-sort of book review. More like me screaming: READ THE DARK TOWER! haha Even if it is the graphic novels.
11.29.08
Rereading Old Stuff
Man, rereading my old stuff versus my new stuff is very weird. It’s like…there was this big dramatic change in my writing in 4 years that makes me a little dumbfounded. In high school, I wrote the first “book” in this world, a novella I refer to as the prequel to the series I hope to continue. I’m trying to edit and reread the book I wrote for NaNo, but I have so many ideas that it’s hard to contain them while I try not to start writing the next one. It’s an amazing feeling, to be able to want to write as much as I do. It makes me feel almost complete.
In any case, I was rereading some of the stories on the side, because other people were, and I realized how much I’ve grown as a writer in the short time that’s passed between them. In high school I didn’t know what it took to write a novel. A real novel, with a deep story and plot. I haven’t gone back and read that prequel in a long time, but I know that the world I created in high school is still firmly etched into my mind. I’m so glad I went back to this book and decided to rewrite it. I don’t know what made me to do it, but I am grateful nonetheless.
I like to think that text-based roleplaying has made me a better writer, but I’m not sure how much it has contirbuted. Largely, I praise Hogwarts IRT for my writing jumping up the scale. There, I wrote with people that are amazing at what they do. Reading their posts is like reading poetry; something that is hardly the norm for roleplaying boards. I joined them in late 2005, after I had already begun college. College didn’t help me one bit outside of a creative, non-fiction class I took. My writing improved through writing with others and honing my own creative output.
The bad thing about RPG’s is the mindset you have to write in. You are constantly writing from the perspective of a certain character. The way you write is different than how you would write a story. My novel is largely told from the main character’s perspective, though it is in third person, I think I found a way to make it work. Anyway, it’s funny, because I always would have to switch from “writing mode” to “RPG mode” to get my head straight. With my lack of current RPG’s, I don’t really have to do that anymore. (I stick around at IRT, but I don’t have much time to post).
In any case, it’s still very interesting to see how you grow over time. In a few years, I will probably look back on my writing now and say the very same thing. Which is a good thing, because I am not completely satisfied by myself I am my own worst critic.
Other than that, I’ve begun editing. It’s more of a read through than an edit though. I am always the kind of person that needs another pair of eyes to give me an honest critique. So, after I do this read through I’ll find some and see what happens.
Good luck to those of you that still have to finish NaNo and those that have finished and are stuck editing like me, or finishing their books entirely!
11.24.08
I finished…
Wow, I really didn’t think I would so soon. I wrote about 7,000 words today, much more than I thought I would. I actually thought I would have a hard time finishing and while I am pretty bad with endings and I think it might be a little cheesy, I at least got it done! I can always rework it, but it ended, and it yeah, I’m doooneeeeeeee! haha, wow. It’s sad, but I have sequel ideas. I guess I should write them down.
In any case, I’m excited to be done. The final word count for the entire thing is around 98,000 words. I know that’s a lot and some stuff will have to be cut out in rewrite, but for now, I’m happy about it. I wrote it how I wanted it to go and flow and it flowed quite nicely. I think. We’ll see while I edit, and I plan to keep updating my blog to see how the editing process goes. It’s been fun posting through the writing process. I know I began writing before Nano started (about mid-October), but seeing as I finshed a little early, it only took me little over a month to write it. I think it’s kind of sad, but I’m happy I have that kind of motivation.
Done done done. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself now. Edit, I guess, if I can stand it.
Good luck to everyone still doing NaNo! <3
I just want to thank everyone that helped me out and pushed me to keep going. There was a time in the middle there I thought I was going to give up. But, I kept going and my friends helped me to do it. My music too… Good friends and good music get you a long way.
My favorite quote so far:
“Can you explain to him more clearly that if you touch him he will die?” Cyrus asked impatiently. “Or do we have to demonstrate?”
© Alexis Leno 2008
11.23.08
The Fray & Finishing NaNo!
Well, I’m always finding new music. The Fray has a new song out, for their new album. I’m excited, they’re one of my favorite groups. I love the sound of this guy’s voice. Anyway, you should check it out:
No more embedding on the vid, sorry! You can check it out here thought: You Found Me Video
Yay, I finished NaNoWriMo! 
Now, just to finish the book… It was a long process, but I’m glad I finished it this year and early too!
11.18.08
Chapters Eight & Nine & 10,000 To Go!
Well, I hit 40,000! So, just 10,000 more to write by the end of November and I’ll have “won” NaNoWriMo. Fun stuff, huh?
I also finished chapters eight and nine, I’m on ten now. I think my chapters might be too long. I was always afraid of them being too short, but some are like…insanely long. Anyways, it’s ok. I like the story, it’s been a fun month.
And Twilight comes out on FRIDAY. YAY. I’m excited to see how it does.
11.16.08
Things Are Better
Things are better writing-wise. I have been writing pretty steadily, though I do seem to take a couple of days off here and there. I am taking the GRE on Friday, so I have been trying to focus on that as well as a lot of other school work at the moment. I like to write on the weekends, though. It’s soothing.
Anyway, I have passed the point that I stopped at last year. I’m proud of myself. I’m at 37,288 right now, and 76,288 total. I can’t believe I’m almost done, I guess you could say. Even though the climax of the story has yet to come, I feel it is, and I think it’s definitely coming soon.
But, alas, I’m cold and very tired. Just wanted to give an update!
11.11.08
Halfway Point
So, I’m at the halfway Nano point. But, I have been slacking horribly. I need to get back into the stride of things, but it’s hard sometimes. I think I just need good music. I don’t know. Everything in my iTunes I keep just skipping through.
I really think I know what my real problem is, unfortunately, and it’s not a good one.
Anyway, a friend of mine claims that I should set aside time to write at least a thousand words a day. This used to be a difficult concept, until I got really excited about this book. I think it’s become difficult again and I’m not giving up, I’m just…having a hard time staying motivated and continuing. I know I can finish this. I see it all play out in my head. Well, most of it. I don’t know, it’s so hard to explain and I’m babbling, I guess, to make myself feel better. I usually babble less on here. If that’s possible.
I’m also afraid I started rewriting this book for the wrong reasons. Too much pressure.
Anyway, I’ll trudge through. I know that if I sit down and do it, it’ll come quite easily. I just don’t want to force it. I’m terrible when it comes to writer’s block. I don’t think I’m there quite yet, because I know what I need to write about next, it’s just making myself do it that is so wrong. I can’t force it. Yet, it’s driving me nuts. Sigh.
