WriYe: Goals and Plans

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January and a blog circle topic!

What’s your WriYe Word Count goal for 2021? Why did you chose it?
Technically it’s 75k at the moment. However, I put on my progress thread “starting small, dreaming higher” and that’s precisely what I’m doing. I picked 75k because it’s the length of a full novel draft. At minimum I want one completed drafted full length original novel. So those two goals are compatible BUT I’m going to be writing other things. I’m continuing with the fanfic and my first original project in 2021 is a novella.

Basically I hope very much that I will far exceed 75k. I have secret dreams about smashing past 75k in February if I’m honest. However, given how last year went I thought picking a low goal wouldn’t be intimidating, and then when I smashed it (thinking positively here) I could increase it and then feel good about that.

What are your writing/editing plans for the year?
As I said above I’d like at least one full length novel written. I’m starting with this novella and there’s fanfic. To be honest I haven’t thought further than those goals quite deliberately. I don’t want to scare myself off. I’m focusing on January and what I’m working on now. When I finish my current projects I’ll focus on February, and what I’m going to write then, and not look too far into the future.

I’m feeling like if I take it a month at a time, a project at a time, then that might work like NaNo which went really well last year. I had my project, I worked on it all month, and I wrote ‘The End’ on the 30th and it felt great. So I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I have a lot of different possibilities about what I can work on but I’ll pick when I get there. For now I’m focusing on the novella (Fall of Camelot) and my current fanfic (Choosing Fate).

What are you most looking forward to in 2021?
Smashing my goals? Haha oh I don’t know. I’m trying to be positive here. Seriously, what I want the most from 2021 is to make progress, to move forward, to finally get somewhere. There is nothing I want more than to get to the end of December in 2021 and type up a yearly review, and to list all the things I accomplished.

I want that glow of satisfaction, of being able to feel like yes I did something good. Not that I’m saying the writing will be good (although I’m trying not to make myself panic about being good enough right now!). What I mean by good is, I don’t want to get through another year and feel like I wasted the time again. Like I said I really want to feel like I made progress.

So yes, that is the only answer I can give really. In 2021 I’m most looking forward to (hopefully) feeling accomplished, to being productive and getting words written.

Drawing 0: Christmas 1887

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About this time last year I did a post – Drawing 0: Pirates – because it was my intention to draw every month in 2020. Alas like almost everything that plan went down the drain. To be honest my 2021 goals are basically “same as 2020 but I really, really mean it this time!”

This was an illustration of a christmas flashback scene in my Sanctuary fanfic Our Darkest Hour. John/James/Helen ship obviously. Now there’s quite a few things that I’m not happy with. For a start I still need to work on likeness, and skin shading and facial expression. Lighting sources/appropriate shading for the lighting very much too.

BUT

This is my “art timeline” over the past few years. I know it’s hard to see small but for the most part there has been an improvement. I’ve definitely got better at doing hair! In some of the older drawings I can pick out things that I think I did better. I’m particularly pleased with the belt sash thing Myka’s wearing in the pirates drawing for example, and I think I did the clothing on Jedi!Belle pretty well.

Now likeness is a tricky one because yes the two Bering and Wells drawings look a lot more like Bering and Wells, than the above Sanctuary drawing does of John, James and Helen. BUT that likeness was achieved by finding and copying an exact reference which meant I was limited on pose. The biggest leap forward with this Sanctuary drawing was in developing the pose.

The 2016 and first 2017 drawing were straight tracings over a reference I found on google. The other two 2017 drawings, the 2018 drawings and the first 2019 drawing were straight referenced from 3D modelling poses. I think I used 3 different programs in that time. The two Bering and Wells drawings were just done from photo references. Again very specific, no deviation. I could only do what I managed to find.

With this Sanctuary drawing I had a picture in my head that I wanted to bring to life. I tried to do a 3D model reference and gave up pretty quickly. Instead I found some references that were close (a starting point), and then I found more references and I even took some selfie photos of myself for arm positioning and stuff. It was all very hacked together. I’m pretty pleased with it to be honest.

With the last drawing I did (the Pirates one) my primary criticism was the lack of narrative. It was basically just a portrait, there was no action, which I think added to the lifeless/emotionless feel of the piece. That isn’t a problem with the Sanctuary drawing, it’s a much truer illustration. However, the trade-off with drawing more from my imagination, is I don’t have such specific references – which has hurt capturing the likeness. Same with clothing folds and the like but I very much believe though that it’s a step forward.

I have January’s project in mind already – an illustration of John and James dancing at the club from the fic I’m currently writing. Cross fingers that by this time next year I’ll have at least 12 new drawings for an art timeline, and hopefully showing considerable improvement over the course of the year. That’s the goal!

WriYe: Year in Review

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The blog circle on WriYe has been absent since March but quite frankly it’s been that kind of year. I just went back and read my 2020 January post detailing my plans for the year… oh we had no idea did we?

A real gem here: “It’s going to a brand new decade. I really hope it’s better than the last one.”

2020 is almost over (yay!). In a very unpredictable and unstable year, sum up your year of writing.
Did you meet your goals? Did you survive? Barely hung on?

Right my goals were as follows:
“150k target. I want to be consistent with my writing. 4thewords – I intend to use it everyday next year. My aim is to maintain the 444 word streak on the site to make incremental progress everyday. I want a couple of drafts by the end of the year – I want to feel like I made progress ultimately!

In 2020 I intend to move forward with my writing, with the goal to being in a position to start publishing in 2021, and I also want to leap forward with my drawing if I can and do a drawing a month and complete the ‘How to Draw the Marvel Way’ course that I was given ages ago.”

Did I meet them?

Bwhahahaha yeah no. Not even close, not even a little bit.

My 4thewords streak is technically intact but that’s only down to rampant cheating. I’m not sure how many days I actually wrote for but it’s possibly in the region of about 50, if that and only then if I include planning days probably.

I have zero novel drafts. In fact I have zero progress on any original work whatsoever. You see what happened is (well I’m going to quote myself again). I wrote in that 2020 January post: “I know how rusty I am and that everything I write to begin with is going to be even more shit than normal. However I’m not going to get past that and write anything ever potentially decent if I don’t forge on.” but unfortunately panic doesn’t understand logic.

Even before 2020 took a turn for the crazy I wasn’t doing well. I spent a good chunk of January planning out an original novel and I was all set to start, I sat down and kept having panic attacks. I think I wrote 500 words and hated them all. I couldn’t get over how awful I felt it was and I just felt like I would never be good enough.

I haven’t done a single drawing this year. I’m working on one now (in December) but that will be my only 2020 drawing. I didn’t touch the course. I basically achieved NONE of my goals.

Give us your biggest triumph and what you are most proud of!

Well I survived the year. So there’s that.

I’m going to end WriYe with about 70k and that’s entirely down to November. I did the Sanctuary fanfic and I smashed it. Almost 67k and The End. That is my singular success story this year. I suppose that proves that I can write, just in a limited fashion. It wasn’t original work so I managed to bypass the paralyzing panic/fear that stops me from writing normally.

I’m glad I managed to write something, even if it was fanfic, because something is better than nothing. I mean I said that in my NaNo post, “this might as well happen” because nothing else was happening. It was fun writing that in November. I liked writing again. I liked completing the quests on 4thewords. I want to do more of it but I’m just not sure what right now. I need to have a think.

It’s that time of year

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Ok let’s be real writing has been a disaster for me since November 2016. I tried to keep writing after it but within six months I’d ground to a complete halt. I’ve not successfully completed a single story, and definitely not NaNo, ever since.

2017. 2018. 2019.

All gone, didn’t happen, I don’t think I even attempted it last year at all. I had big plans for this year but well it’s 2020 – the year of the unexpected. I’m trying to not be too hard on myself for it.

Anyway, I’ve been going back and forth over what to do. NaNo used to be the highlight of my year, it used to be magical and I miss that feeling. I had some time to think this morning and I came to some conclusions:
1) not doing NaNo isn’t an option. I need to try. It matters to me.
2) whatever I write has to reach the 50k or I’ll feel like it doesn’t count.
3) I love my ideas I really do but I’m too scared to attempt them and if I try I won’t get very far.
4) I remember Her Happy Ending (yes it is story time).

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Ok I get that Kara is scared that James will get hurt or die by being Guardian but geez that confrontation was hard to watch.

“You are a human, you will never be strong enough” – can we say ouch?

I’m sorry I just find that horrifying. Like Kara thinks that she’s better than the humans a little bit deep down which doesn’t sit well with me. She really needs to respect James can make his own choices because that’s what it comes down to – it’s his life, his choice.

I wish that James had kicked the bad guys ass and hadn’t needed Kara to come save him but the team-up at the end when they all worked together was nice. Win definitely deserved Jonn chewing him out but I liked that Jonn also praised him and said he and James were an impressive team.

Honestly I just can’t even with how sancitimonus Kara is being “as long as you are putting yourselves in danger I can’t support it” like she’s not their mother. I’m glad Jonn showed them respect because damn it seems like he’s the only one that’s going to. I’m disappointed in Kara for this I really am.

Lack of respect was a theme because Mon-El didn’t respect that Kara could take care of herself and had to come save her (thus endangering the civilians). He said that’s because he likes her romantically in that very awkward confession at the end of the episode (seriously Kara could not have looked more uncomfortable) but that is no excuse. Deep friendship, romance, whatever, you can love someone and respect that they know what they are doing. To think you know best because you care is understandable, I mean who doesn’t want to protect the people we care about right? But that doesn’t make it right.

I really wish Kara had that revelation. That she was treating James how Mon-El treated her. Think how frustrating and annoying it is for someone not to trust you, to think they know best and to protect you whether you want them to or not. I hope she does realise that and apologise to James soon.

Avenger’s Game

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This game has been on my wishlist since I learned of its existence. I was disappointed when the release date was pushed back from May as I was planning on getting it for myself as a birthday present. This past weekend there was an open beta and so I tried the game out and I’m so glad I did.

It’s bad.

Like I’m the target audience for this game probably. I’m not very critical because I’m pretty useless at games and I love Marvel. Getting to play as my favourite characters = instant success, right? Well normally but with this game? Yeah not so much.

Ok so why do I think it’s bad?

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I just watched 2×01 – The Adventures of Supergirl.

OMG.

Like I swear it just oozed fun. Introducing Superman on screen was a stroke of genius. I loved watching them save the day together, I loved watching them be Clark and Kara, I loved Kara teasing him about changing his diapers. Then there was Clark and Cat Grant (I remember from Lois and Clark that Cat had a crush on him).

But but Lena Luthor.

Can I just say that it bodes well that Kara figured out what she wanted to do – her calling – because of Lena? Like I know this ship isn’t canon, I know I’m in for pain, but I’m a massive Bering and Wells shipper guys I don’t need no stinking canon. I need little moments that I can twist to mean things.

Oh and I absolutely loved Alex badass fight with Corbyn.

Also weirdly I liked that Superman and J’onn are at odds even though they are on the same side. It shows that not everything is black and white. I mean J’onn is right there were hostile Kryptonions – a bunch just tried to destroy the world with myriad – so holding onto a weapon which could combat their abilities makes sense. I can see Clark’s POV too though, probably reinforced by Cadmus and General Lane’s attitude, which is that he’s only ever one incident away from being declared an enemy. He doesn’t even have to do anything, the mood changes one day, or somebody new comes to power, and boom. I don’t think he’d mind so much if J’onn had it stashed somewhere secret because J’onn is a guy of integrity who would only use it against him if he did go rogue – it’s the government basically and can’t blame Clark for that!

If I remember rightly Supergirl switched networks so this shakeup in season 2 makes sense. The DEO office has changed, the Kara/James ship has been dropped etc. Plus I know Cat Grant is leaving. I am quite sad about the last one but overall if this premiere is any indication then I’d say the show is looking good.

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So I picked up Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey in the Steam Summer sale. I’ve been interested for a while ever since I saw a trailer on the TV. Seemed like just my kind of game being third person (first person makes me motion sick) and with the strong story. But they were so expensive that I wasn’t willing to chance it. Well 80% off persuaded me to have a go.

I’m utterly terrible at gaming.

I actually finished Jedi Fallen Order and got about 93% complete, (I keep meaning to go back and finish it off to actually 100% a game), but I did it on Story Mode and I still had trouble on occasion. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t grow up with controller games but I struggle to remember the buttons. I am the textbook definition of button masher. It’s a bit weird as I manage Warcraft ok but that’s a keyboard/mouse I guess.

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Batwoman Episode 2 aka Not How I Expected This To Go aka All The Unsaid Things.

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You know I actually wound up watching last weeks episode (aka the Pilot) twice because I couldn’t make it an entire week. Actually I made it two days as I watched it on Monday and Wednesday last week. I think the writing for Alice is very clever, I can’t remember if I said that in the ramble I did.

I also don’t think I said that I reckoned that Bruce Wayne isn’t as gone as everyone says. Somebody moved the pearls which led Kate to discover the BatCave – was it Bruce pointing her in that direction?

Anyway I’m going to ramble about this weeks – a lot!

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Revision vs. Editing

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Anyone that knows me knows I have a thing about the terms revision and editing getting mixed up. It’s petty and ridiculous but we all have things we’re stupid about. To me revision is about story, it’s what happens first to turn a first draft into a draft for others. Editing comes afterwards and is more about polishing it up, getting the commas in the right place, checking for typos and perhaps adjusting word choices.

They are different things in my head and I just want that distinction to be clear.

What is your main struggle with editing?  Is it getting started? Rereading your own work? How do you handle it?
This is the question asked for March’s WriYe blog topic. Now if I took the question at it’s word then I would be talking about ‘editing’ aka the polishing of grammar and punctuation. The answer for that is different than the answer would be for revision. My main struggle with editing is lack of knowledge/ability. I tend to punctuate by feel and I make errors in my writing grammatically – I need an editor. I have got a course to try and learn how to be a proof-reader but I’m really struggling to apply the concepts it’s trying to teach. Editing is hard.

Revision on the other hand is something I quite like. It’s analytical and there’s a process to it because it’s dealing with something of substance. I find the actual writing hard because I’m making something from nothing. With revision I’m dealing with something that already exists and that’s a massive help. Years ago I took Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel course and most of my process is drawn from that.

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