lord of the rings

Harry Potter 5

Harry Potter

Is It July 13th YET????

a tribute to Lord of the Rings

This is really awesome. Lord of the Rings and Evanesence! Wow!

Day drawing to a close

Ok, I'm tired, my brain is tired, my neck hurts. BUT, I did make and pass the daily goal.
Go me! I am up to 3,525 words over two days. Yippee!
I just hope I can keep this going.

NaNo has begun, WooHoo!

Yesterday, NaNoWriMo started. I was so excited, I couldn't wait for November 1st. I had my muse (my main character) chattering away daily in my head about how the story should go. And what happens yesterday morning when it's finally time to start?? She decides to shut up. I think she got mad at me because I kept telling her we had to wait till the 1st.

Well, I think she forgave me because I actually passed the daily word goal. I ended up with 1784 words written. I am already half way to today's count, but wanted to pop in on a short break and update the blog here.

Hopefully, I can add to this daily to journal my progress through NaNo. If not every couple days.

Ok, breaks over. Time to get back to NaNo.

Birthday Owl

Birthday Owl

Doesn't this just totally rock?!?

This is a banner created by "Feigning Invincible" aka Jessica just for my book. The girl is wickedly talented.

I don't know her personally, she just put an offer out to us NaNo-ites that she'd help make some banners. So I took her up on it, just gave a few details, and this is what she comes up with. I didn't even describe my character all that well, yet there's Tiana almost exactly as I see her some times.

Thanks Jessica, You Rock!!

Six days till NaNo starts.

I think I am ready. I have been planning, jotting down scenes, looking up "elvish" words to use. I hope I am ready. I finally decided I'll will do my WIP, but I am going to start it over from scratch.

The six chapters I already have are going to be scrapped and reworked. I already have some new scene ideas that should be vital to the opening of story. Decided to expand more on the dream scene that sets my story in motion. It isn't just enough to say she had a dream which made her do yada, yada, yada. I need to show more of the dream, it will explain/show more of why things are.

Will I make it to 50,000 words? I honestly don't know. But whatever word count I end up with is more than I have now. If I can just stay focused and on track, I should make it. I can't stand the wait for November 1st though. It's like waiting for christmas. I just want to get started already.

One more thing on Passive Writing

Ok, this is my last (maybe) comment on what most consider a problem.

Passive voice is not a bad thing. If done properly, can be very pleasant to read. If not, well you may as make it a picture book.

I am learning that passive voice is usually connected to writing past tense. Which I think is where my problem began. My story starts off with things that have already happened and are being retold leading up to current events and moving forward. So eventually there will be a shift in past to present tense. I don't know yet if that is allowed in the same story. But we'll see.

As long as you are descriptive in your writing, a passive voice shouldn't be a problem. Describe the emotions of your characters where needed, describe the settings if it's important to the scene. If it's a battle, describe the sounds and actions going on.

Passive voice doesn't have to be boring. It can be just as vivid and exciting as active voice if it's done right.

Happy Writing!

What I learned about Passive Writing

Well for the most part I learned that it is supposed to be tabboo to write in the passive voice. Oh, dear, that could be a problem considering I have 5300+ words written in passive voice.

But I also learned that it is not necessarily a bad thing either. There are authours who wrote novels in the passive voice and they sold. Someone told me Kipling is one such authour.

So what did I come away with? Here's my attempt at an example:

Passive: "The walls were painted green with a large tree in the corner."

Active: "The artist painted her version of a large old tree that encompassed the whole corner, while the surrounding walls bore a bright shade of green."

Now, my story isn't reading like a "Dick and Jane" story. I do use descriptions and dialogue as it comes to mind. I usually end up adding to the scenes as I read through for spelling and grammar. I just happen to use a lot of "was" and "were".

Can't help how the words flow out of my head. I have two choices, well maybe three. A) Edit what I have and change to an active voice; B) Leave it alone and keep it passive, or C) Leave what I have to edit later and try to continue in the active.

What will I do? Probably option B. But hey, it's my story right.