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I’ve spent the last few nights trying to fall asleep and the last few days trying to stay awake. This isn’t anything new for me, insomnia is something I’ve dealt with most of my life. Every three or four months there’s a week where I just can’t seem to sleep. It’s never bothered me as much as it has this particular week.

If you have ever experienced insomnia — not for a single night or even two, but real, seemingly unending insomnia — then you’ll know what my life has been for this past week. Focus is out the window, creativity is dead in the water. My only thoughts are Oh God, please let me sleep tonight. Naps are a ticket straight to an even longer problem, I’m stuck in a half-wakefulness until it resolves itself.

Insomnia is a waiting game for me, it’s putting my life on hold and I can’t do a damn thing about it. Believe me, I’ve tried.

I honestly can’t say if I can finish NaNoWriMo at this point. I would be doing the last half in the final week, and it’s not out of line to say that’s simply too much.

It’s possible, sure. There’s a faint glimmer of hope for the possibility of my winning this but I would have to put other projects aside. Plus of course, that’s all assuming that I’ll be able to sleep tonight or the next night.

Alongside NaNo I’ve been working on a contest entry for deviantART. The theme is “Dreams”, and I’ve only got a few hours in on the painting so far. It’s due December eighth.

I don’t have time to do both. If I finish NaNoWriMo and reach 50K in time I’ll probably be too creatively exhausted to paint all hours of the day the week before the contest closes like I would need to to finish this in time.

I’m going to be running a week long sprint either way — that’s assuming I can run at all.

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Well, I’m halfway there. It was a struggle to catch up and it took almost all of my day, but I made it. Half the war is fought, and I’m still winning.

This is around the point in the story where I am fuzziest about what happens next. It’s dawning on me slowly with every word I put down, but I couldn’t sit down and tell myself what I’ll be writing next. I don’t really know. I’ll find out the next time I sit down to write.

For now I’m just going to rest my brain and fingers and eat some ice cream.

Until tomorrow(ish), cheers.

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Chapter Ten is done out of a planned fifty or so. That’s a chapter behind where I’d like to be for today, but everything’s pretty crazy in my house at the moment. I think I’ll let it go for tonight, write a little bit on and off during the evening but without stressing about actually finishing the chapter. I still wrote a lot today.

This is why I wrote ahead of the NaNoWriMo expectations. Only need to be at 18333 for today. I’m still comfortably ahead.

Banshee’s plot has taken a twist that surprised me a fair bit, but I suppose that’s just what good fiction does. I’m quite happy with what my characters are brewing up behind my back. It’s all coming out nicely.

I think what I’ll need to work on most of all in the first edit is making the protagonist’s voice more concrete and decided. Her tone changes a fair bit thus far, sometimes she sounds like the original 14 year old protag I had planned, sometimes she sounds an awful lot like me, sometimes like an older intellectual.

I’ll hope that goes well, too.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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Not a great couple of days for writing, considering I did little-to-none of it yesterday, and just a tiny bit today. But I’m still ahead for the day, so I suppose it’s alright. Still always making progress, still thinking about the story.

Been painting more than writing today, which is nice. Might be a good plan to stop starting new pieces, though. Need to finish one or two first, eh? Oh well.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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Nope, didn’t write yesterday. Whoops. I think today mostly makes up for it, though.

I actually didn’t want to stop at that point today. I was getting so excited for the story, at a really interesting point in the plot, but my hands started to cramp up real bad from all the typing. There’s one reason to keep this short.

The other is that…well, ain’t a whole lot to say. It’s going really, really well. I love the story, I love (mostly) what I’ve written so far, and I love the ideas that keep popping into my head. Everything’s going wonderful, but that’s boring to read about.

So, that’s it for now.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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Eep, yes, sorry. Late to post. It’s actually the seventh. Wasn’t late on writing, just late on getting to writing up the day’s post ’cause I thought I’d get just a little bit more done in the evening. Didn’t have time.

Not actually a whole lot to say about today… Writing went well, a little uneventful. Nothing was spectacularly easy to get down or horribly difficult. Just a good day.

Tomorrow on the other hand I’m not particularly looking forward to. It’s my third shift at a new job and I’ve been stuck with far more responsibilities than I feel qualified for. I think I may be an emotional wreck by the end of the night.

Oh well, only time will tell.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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I was very nervous that it was going to be an issue that I hadn’t outlined Banshee. Instead, I think I’m already pretty confident to say that I don’t ever want to outline a novel again. Writing Summeryear was grueling compared to this.

This is fun. I don’t have to stick to an outline, I get to discover the story as I write it down. I hadn’t realized how un-fun writing Summeryear was at times because I already knew everything that was going to happen — until the last quarter or so, where I deviated entirely from my outline. And guess what? That was my favourite part of the book. The writing was the most fun, and I loved that part of the story best by far.

This is the career I want. I had believed that since last year when it finally dawned on me that I was capable of writing books after years of telling myself that was only possible for the lucky and the exceptionally brilliant. Now I really, really, REALLY know that this is what I want.

Thank you NaNoWriMo for not letting me use excuses. Thank you life stressors for not giving me enough time to outline this book. Thank you Summeryear for being my practice round.

I can do this. This is the life I want.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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Today’s writing went by a lot quicker than the first three days. I think it’ll do me good to write first thing in the morning instead of starting a little later after breakfast.

I’m starting to get much more excited about the story with every paragraph, and that can only be a good sign. Having a lot of fun with these characters and the universe.

The universe Banshee is set in is one that kind of existed in limbo for a few months. I had started planning a graphic novel with a friend, and the working title of that was The Dreywood Project. Banshee is sort of the lovechild of a few different short stories I had in my head and TDP meshed together. If it turns out well, I might make it a series.

So, there’s my updated word count for the day. Time to paint.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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Writing has been relatively slow for these past few days. I suppose that’s just what I get for not actually having done nearly enough of it since I finished Summeryear’s rough draft.

Slow or not, I’m very happy with what I’ve been getting done in these early NaNo days. November is all about the word count, but it doesn’t hurt to write something you kind of like, right?

Tomorrow I might write a little less, just catch up to where I should be for the fourth day and then spend the rest of the time painting. I really, really, REALLY want to finish Suntamer soon — not to mention the not-exactly-cover-art-but-sort-of for Banshee that I started the other day.

But for now I just need to get some sleep.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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That’s more like it.

If I can help it I’ll be doing a chapter (min. 2000 words) a day throughout most of November, maybe taking a day or two to do just half a chapter here and there when I think I need/deserve it. I’m very happy with how this is going so far.

I have a confession to make, however…

Banshee isn’t outlined.

I know, I know. When people asked me what I was up to most of the time to save the trouble and embarrassment of explaining that I was dancing around in my room to the Glee soundtrack or watching the Tyra Banks Show on Youtube I just said I was outlining. It was easier that way.

And frankly? I do not regret not outlining. I outlined Summeryear in so much detail that I had used up most of my creative energy on that part of the story. Then I didn’t even stick to the damn outline anyway. So this time? Screw it.

I had the first ten or so chapters outlined for Banshee and I’ve already deviated from the outline. And you know what? I like this story a lot better than the one I had planned.

I wouldn’t have guessed it when I started writing, but maybe I’m more of an organic writer.

I have bird’s eye view of Banshee, I know what I want to end up with and I know what’s going to happen in the end and certain parts of the middle. This process should make getting there all the more interesting for me — and hopefully for anyone who reads it.

Until tomorrow, cheers.

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