Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 21

So...yeah. Over 13,000 word deficit currently...not doing so hot. It's not for a lack of trying. Things have been really...stressful. Just been dealing with things that are difficult to handle and priorities have been shifted. I'm going to do my best to finish on time - heck, last year I had tests and presentations on November 30 and I had a 25,000 word deficit and I still finished with 15 minutes to spare. This time, it's summer break...hopefully I can finish. Hopefully. Anyways, I've got plans with a friend tonight so I'll write more later...hopefully after a 5k word sprint. (:

Not giving up yet,

Ashley Smashley

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 12

Yeah...it's been crazy. I got really into writing and plotting and planning and...stuff. xD And then I left for Maine to do some setting creation (and visit my grandparents) and they didn't have good internet (not that I minded) so it's...been a while. But I'm still writing. I'm somewhere around 14.5k, which is, sadly, slightly behind but I'm hoping to make up for it now that my Maine scenes are no longer tabooed. So, back to writing for Ashley.

Love,

Ashley Smashley

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 2

So...I got writer's block after reaching 5.7k words. Not good. I went back to the drawing board/index cards and am severely plotting the heck out of my story so I have scenes to write, even if they're done out of order. The beginning of the book takes place in Maine and the scenes there rely on setting so...I don't want to write them and have them be completely inaccurate. Anyways...I'm nearly done with the index cards - I've come up with SOOOOO many ideas that work so much better for the storyline and I'm INCREDIBLY excited to get back to work. I also have new subplots and character development so I think it's going to be a great month. Hopefully, I'll finish plotting tomorrow/late tonight and be able to get back to the actual writing before my surplus runs dry and I fall into the hole.

Happy writing!

Love,

Ashley Smashley

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day One

Well, I made it to July, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. :D I've started writing while letting the sprinklers water my dying yard. I'm outside because my HOA is really persnickety about people monitoring their sprinklers, and also because I thought it would give me the whole outdoorsy experience...so far, I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Not really the experience I was going for but oh well. I'll retire to my bedroom (with my nice clean desk and food) where I can run the fan as much as I want...and also apply itch-be-gone to the thousands of bites I've got. :D It's all good though. I'm enjoying myself. It's going to be a good summer.

Happy camping!

Ashley Smashley

Struggles Ahoy!

Yeah...it's been interesting. It's only Tuesday and I am quite...drained. I forgot how writing tended to have that effect on me. Probably because I put so much of myself in my work...

Anyways, I thought I'd just make a quick post before going to bed. Hopefully I'll be able to get some sleep. Camp NaNoWriMo is almost upon us and I'm definitely hoping I'll be able to handle it. Not sure if I can or not, but I'm not one to quit before I start. I did get a bunch of ideas for expanding the story so even if this turns into my NaNo novel (no cheating though - I'll only count what I write in July) I'll still clear 50K.

Good night, world.

Love,

Ashley Smashley

Rewrite...Re-rewrite...Re-re-rewrite...

I've been slowly re-writing last year's NaNoWriMo novel over the last week and a half. Slowly. Things have gotten a little crazy around here so it's been 500 words here, 639 words there. Though I'm only ten pages in, there's a lot more depth to my shallow-as-dried-up-rainwater-puddle characters - improvements are everywhere in this version. It's good. Perhaps I'll have it finished in time for my trip to Maine next month, which would be totally awesome (<-----my shout out to Darren Criss) since it's the setting for the majority of the first book. Then I could add in accurate setting details where I need them. Way cool. :D

With love,

Ashley

It is time.

Rewrites for Falling Petals, the first of the Jordan Todd trilogy in my series, Twelve Red Roses, have begun. (:

With love,

Ashley

I'm still alive. I've just been caught up in school and another show. (: I'll be up and writing full time soon - just a few more weeks until school's out. Life is good. It's been so wonderful and I feel really blessed. Anyways, just thought I'd make a quick post.

Love,

Ashley

So...I took a vacation...yeah. Vacation's a good way to put it.

I helped stage-manage a show for my church and between rehearsals, school and theatre I ended up not spending a lot of time on...anything book related. This is me being honest. :D So there really wasn't anything to post about. And that's me trying to justify not blogging. But I'm going to do better now, between writing research papers and restoring a trunk I bought at a yard sale. So...this may be the last you hear from me in a bit...well, I'll try and not put off the inevitable as much this time. Let's say...once a week I'll write...and post. :D

Cheers!

Ashley

Sketching

Just sketching some scenes, getting a few more ideas, but now the dirty work starts to come into play. As in, rewriting. Yay. :D


Ashley :)

New Ideas!

Well...I wasn't thinking about plot or stuff writerly related, except for my monologue and it was during Acting that a new idea popped into my head. It's worth exploring but it ties me to the storyline (the last book, mainly) in a much more personal way and I'm scared. There will be a...much deeper level, I think and it's a side of me that only three people have ever seen and I didn't even mean to let them in on how deeply affected I am by what I'm about to write about. Just thought I'd share that...because I thought it would be worth sharing. And on that note, I read a quote somewhere and I can never, for the life of me, remember who said it but it's "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader" so just know that when I write this last book, I will be majorly investing in Kleenex. It will take all the strength I have to get through it but I think it's worth telling the world. So in the coming years, just know that what I'm doing will hopefully be making a difference, not just in the lives of readers but also in the lives of people who are desperately searching for a cure. You'll find out more later.

With love,

Ashley

OH. Hi!

Well, I'm getting better at this. Yes! *little happy dance*

I'm slowly acclimating myself to school again - taking two months off probably isn't the best thing to do after working hard my first semester...not that I could help it. I blame the school. XD In acting we had to do an interview with someone and write a monologue on an experience of theirs, so that's what I've been focusing on for the past few days. It's definitely more challenging than I thought because you really have to get inside this person's head. Honestly, I'd much rather find monologues than write them...

In other news...I really haven't been doing many writerly things (aside from the monologue). Mainly just school, cross-stitching (hopefully more of that will happen), school and reading. That's where it's at. :D In completely unrelated, completely random news, creme-based caramel macchiatos are REALLY good and the perfect solution to staying up WAY later than I should have (cleaning my room) and it being FREEZING outside. Just a thought. :)

Love,

Ashley

One of Those Days

You know those days where you really don't want to go to work or school because it's a really nice day and you want to ride your bike or take a nice walk, or it's one of those dreary, rainy days where you want to curl up with a good book by the fire in your comfy chair? I love those days. Both of them, equally. :)

As a writer, it's hard to keep focused on your story for long periods of time - you need a break very now and then or else you'll just get really burned out and want to give up completely on your project. I've been in that boat for the last few months - NaNoWriMo, winter break, free time at school (LOTS of free time at school) and all I thought about was editing, plotting, character sketches, the book I'm dissecting etc. and I started getting bored with it all, like it just wasn't fun anymore.

I almost started panicking a bit because that's what I do when I get stressed or anxious but I decided that I was going to take a REAL break (not the fake one that I took where I still focused on plot devices and other "non-book" related stuff that I convinced myself was okay to think about - I do a lot of thinking...) and I picked up a couple books to read just for fun. It was actually really nice, I'm not going to lie. I also decided to start cross-stitching again because I really want to make things with my hands - I also really love art stuff. :)

My day today was fantastic - I spent the morning with my family and the afternoon reading a book in my favorite chair, the window open with a nice breeze coming in (that's Texas winter for you...) and I didn't once think about grammar, spelling, plot or the word 'was.' And I decided that I need more days like this. :)

With love,
Ashley

Finally.

So, I spent all day trying to get on here to post but stupid gmail (no offense) wouldn't let me. It only showed my other email address (yes, I do have two) and it wouldn't let me change it. But it's done. Finally. :)

So, I have some very big, awesome news - I'm going to Maine this summmer! This is very big and awesome because the town my book takes place in (the first part, at least) is five minutes away from where I'm staying. I'M SO EXCITED! I'm definitely taking loads of pictures so I can map everything out properly (or as properly as I can, at least) and it's just going to be so much fun. :) My trip isn't for six months and I'm already way too excited for my own good. :D

In other news, school is pretty much like last semester, oozing with free time which is fabulous. There's a project that is suggested for all novelists - choose a book with high literary merit (not necessarily your favorite) and mark it up, saying why you like certain things, how the author uses their words most effectively etc.

At the moment, I am dissecting Cassandra Clare's City of Bones book, marking the exposition I am fond of, the action sentences that stand out the most and the dialogue I love. And also, I'm keeping track of the adverbs used (not many) and passive verbage (few and far between) just to see how she tastefully breaks literary rules. I started that last weekend because I was so incredibly too darn bored for my own good - I'm about a third of the way done, which probably says something about me and my priorities, but to be honest, three of my classes have been canceled and I have about eight hours of down time a day. Just saying. :D

I'm off to go destroy my book, as my sister would say - she firmly believes books aren't meant to be written in...

With love,

Ashley

I love the rain

I'm getting better...kind of. :D So, today is the perfect day, in my opinion, to do writerly things. It's cold, rainy and gloomy outside, my favorite type of weather, and it also happens to be a recurring weather in the books I'm working on, aka the only two of twelve that I've written. It reminds me a bit of the atmosphere in the story, the dark, forboding, upsetting undertone of the plot. And it's also the perfect weather for sitting in my favorite chair by my window with a cup of hot chocolate, watching the rain fall while wondering what my character, Jordan, is thinking about.

Also, just a side note. I'm in an Acting class and we were asked to look up monologues over the break because this semester is dedicated mostly to the audition process. I found a few that I like from some obscure, off the wall playwright, which is good because my teacher told me to do something I wouldn't ordinarily do. Hence, I chose a goddess who is getting hit on by some creepy human being for my comedic one, and a girl who (ironically enough) is auditioning for a musical her school is performing as the dramatic monologue. It's...special. But the really cool thing is that while I was reading through each of them, I could hear the character's voice forming in my head, imagining what they sound like and how they would act on stage. It was pretty wicked. I didn't even bother searching for any others because I just felt like these were the pieces for me. Pretty cool.

So, I've been working on character charts, well...just one - Jordan's, and I've put together a notebook full of questions that she answered, quotes and pictures that inspired her character and pictures and sketches of what I imagine her to look like, as well as quotes and phrases that she says in the books so I can keep up with her voice (how she talks in the story, that is). It's pretty cool watching it fill up, the more I spend time on it. It's been taking me...a couple weeks now but it's totally worth it because I'm getting to know her and understand who she is and how she thinks, acts, speaks etc. And just think, there's seven more charts for the books I've thoroughly mapped out, plus another...I don't even know off the top of my head...for the other nine books I've roughly sketched out. :D It's no wonder it took JK Rowling a few YEARS before Harry Potter started getting published - imagine all the planning that went into those SEVEN books. And I want to do twelve...but it's going to be totally awesome when I finish. :) I'm way excited at what all is coming together.

Ashley the Thrilled

...I should feel ashamed...

Well, it's been less than a month since my last post. Progress. That's what I shall tell myself this time. I went to Disney World for Christmas and even though I went in 2009, it was still just as fantastic as ever. :) I met so many characters and hilarious people (Oh, Luke...lol) and it was just absolutely wonderful. I also went to Harry Potter World (so not the name but I don't care) which was equally awesome. Fun stuff. I didn't do many writerly things except for writing down phrases and quotes that I want to include in my books. I suppose now that I'm back and only have a couple weeks before school starts, I'll actually get some work done. My room is clean, the printer is hooked up, I got new writerly supplies for Christmas and took a decent break, so there's really no excuse now to write/edit/research. So that is what I shall go do. Right now. :)

Writers write. Rest assured that's what I'll be up to.

Ashley the Fantastic