Megan Trennett's Blog, page 14

Tuesday Tunes – SafetySuit

In the spirit of getting back into the blogging habit, I'm posting Tuesday Tunes once again. Today's awesome artist that I adore (and think you should too): SafetySuit. Yes, one word.

I first heard these guys when I was working in my Copy and Printing job back in 2009 (which seems forever ago now). It was their song "Stay" which turned me into a fan, and at that point I hadn't even bought the album. They did not let me down. They're a Rock with a hint of pop and a flavoring of dance (or that's how I would sum them up), which makes them perfect for my writing habits. One song, "Find a Way", is even what I call a playlist song for my next book.

Today, they're second album comes out (I love when this happens) and I'm really excited for it. I have heard a couple of songs from the album already, many thanks because they had a free download of one of them (maybe both, I can't remember).

So, below, I feature, the two songs I mentioned above from their first album, "Life Left to Go", as well as the two I had already heard from "These Times."

Stay
Find A Way
Let Go
Get Around This

 

Fun Fact: These guys performed "Let Go" Acoustically on a plane while in flight. How awesome is that?

It's time for self improvement! Happy New Year!

Ahh, the New Year. It's time for everyone to start making promises to themselves: a promise to lose weight, quit smoking, volunteer, etc. Personally, up until last year I hadn't had any true success with a resolution. I think it's because I did those big, grand ones that you get all excited about but find you fizzle by end of January (fyi-it was always a weight thing). Last year, however, I made the simple resolution that I was going to give up Soda. Why? Not sure, just thought it would be better for me. Healthier. And I succeeded. So, smaller is better, and as long as I know specifically what I'm looking to achieve, I can feel more focused on it.

This year, I plan to have two resolutions: a personal, and a professional. And I use the word 'professional' very loosely, because honestly I still don't quite feel like I earned the right to use that word.

Which, of course, is my goal. I want to try and have a greater presence, a thing that I let slip majorly during NaNoWriMo, and it continued through December. So, my goal for this year is to increase my blogging, twitter using, and to try and figure out ways to promote myself.

Not too bad, or improbable, I think. I could be proven wrong, though I sure hope not.

I'm planning on doing some research, re-reading a couple of books I'd bought on the subject to see if there's anything that I forgot or missed the first time, as well as following blogs I'd kinda lacked on reading since about, oh, I don't know, October. (I'm bad, I know)

So I'm up for hearing any recommendations on how to get out there more. Any. Please? This also includes book recommendations on the topic, popular blogs, etc.

I thank anyone in advance for their wisdom, and wish everyone a Happy New Year, and the best of luck with whatever personal or professional goals you've set for yourself.

 

The discovery writer finds the ending!

When it comes to writing, I'm about 82% discovery writer, 18% planning writer. I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants, but every once in a while I like to have a map so I know where I'm flying to.

How it feels to have an idea come together. Minus the glare from Lucy

In other words, I'll have this story idea in which I know the beginning, I'll know the characters, and I know where I want them to end up in about a hundred thousand words. And, of course, the ending is usually one of those things that, in my head, I'm not always sure I understand how they end up there. For instance, I might go in knowing that, about half way through the story they're going to break up, and by the end they're together, I just have no idea how it's going to happen.

This morning as I was making my second cup of tea, excited to share with my Best Friend that I figured out how something happens in my current WIP, I realized how dangerous this can be, and how lucky I was it worked out.

It was my prequel I was working on, and I'm winding down, which means I was getting closer to setting the relationship on fire and burning it to the ground. I'd been building up the tension between my characters, but I had no idea what was going to be the thing that tore it down.

And then it hit me! Without going into plotting details, I realized the answer was kind of there the whole time. As there was this one character who was always opposed to what was taking place, and was always looking for a way to make it go away. He would be the one to make it fall apart, I just realize he was going to be his manipulative, cunning self to get it to happen.

I love it when a plan (or story) comes together.

Yet I know how dangerous this venture could have been. With any other story, I can change the ending, make it fit when, for whatever reason, the one I'd envisioned before no longer did. This one, no matter how badly I would like to, has to keep the one it was destined to have. This story has been more like 28% seat of my pants, 72% planned. And that 28% still had restrictions. Up until this morning, with only *approximately* 5 chapters left to go, I still didn't know how it fell apart exactly, and what makes it stay damaged for six years.

I feel like I'm going to come out of writing this one with a little more war wounds to my psyche than I normally do, but I'll have learned from them, and I'm satisfied with how it's going to come together.

Have you ever done that? Gone into a story with no idea how it's going to come together, but know that you can't change the ending to make it fit how you'd like?

Tuesday Tunes – My NaNoWriMo Playlist

NaNoWrimo has one day left. Because of this, I thought I would share my NaNo Playlist. It's small, and the selection has to be the most varied of any WIP playlist I've ever had, but it's hard to find good music reflecting the anger one may have towards a she-devil future mother in law.

On my list:

Marry Me – Train
Lucky – Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat
I do – Colbie Caillat
Marry you – Bruno Mars
Giving you back – Robyn
Unwanted – Avril Lavigne
Get thru this – Art of Dying
You don't know me – Art of Dying

What did you listen to over November? I'd love to know, I'm always looking for new music.

5 Things I learned from NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is almost over. As of today, the people who crossed the 50 000 word finish line can be declared winners, and the rest of the Wrimo's start sprinting for the end (or lightly jog, maybe power walk, depending on how close you are).

NaNo did hold some challenges for me when it came to the manuscript. I manage to write roughly a thousand words an hour, so getting it done wasn't the issue. I'm one of those people who only has a husband to distract me (I live two provinces away from all my family and a good chunk of my friends.) I went out almost every night, Monday through Friday, with Caro where we occupied a café table or two for three hours and devoted our time (or most of it) to our NaNoing.

The challenge I had from doing NaNo was trying to keep up with EVERYTHING ELSE that I had to do. So, as an explanation, I give you the 5 things I learned from doing NaNoWriMo:

1)      I'm a multitasker, but only when it comes to none writing things: I had this big, amazing dream that I was going to write two novels during the month of November simultaneously. I was going to spend a few hours during the day delving into one story, pounding away on my keyboard with enthusiasm, stop, eat, hop the subway, and switch trains of thought from one plot to another on my forty minute venture. Then, I would spend three hours, making sure I get my *at least* 3000 words in a night (which was my goal). It didn't happen. What did happen was I would sit in front of my computer, stared at a blank word processing screen, maybe draw out the plot on my whiteboard, maybe write something, and then realize I need to start getting ready to head out. My poor Plot 1 (aka, none NaNo book) sat sadly untouched until I crossed the 50 000 word line for NaNo.

2)      I have no sense of regularity during the challenge: I don't mean bathroom regularity, I mean scheduling. The five days a week venturing out threw off my groove for my at home writing schedule, and I'm still trying to figure out how to regulate my time while factoring in the travelling and normal, daily tasks that need to be done for when Caro and I go back to two days a week. I also started losing track of what day of the week it was. I'd know it was the weekend when I woke up, because those are the only days in which my husband is still around after 7:30am. My blog suffered, not like it was really flying anyway, but I was starting to get a rhythm for posting regularly before November. I screwed that up. Let's try this again in December.

3)      I can't get so excited about a plot in October that I jump the gun and start writing: Don't have a cow, I had a back-up plot. I had two ideas for my NaNo novel, and I was pretty certain I knew which one I wanted to do. Then, about mid-October, I felt like I was going to burst with the crazy awesomeness that was my idea and I started writing. "No worries," I thought, "I'll just use idea number two for the Wrimo challenge." But the mid-point of  week two I was kicking myself, because I had been soaring through Plot 1, and had made it about half of the way through that plot line with a nice, fat word count to go with it. Plot 2 (aka Nano Book) struggled and starved. I had a hard time beefing it up, with (as it seemed) not a enough plot to serve all fifty thousand words without a bunch of additives.

4)      Listening to two separate WIP playlists can cause issues with your characters: Plot 1 is about the journey two of my previously used characters had where they met, fell in love, and crashed and burned. Plot 2 was where two more of my previously used characters planned their wedding and dealt with the most evil woman in the world: the groom's mother. The two playlists don't exactly contain complimenting songs, and because I tend to listen to my playlists when I go for walks, I had a hard time focusing on one book. And if I managed to concentrate on one story line, the songs would tend to make the story go in a direction it simply couldn't. That, or I would be skipping a lot. So, it ties back in with the first thing I learned: don't write two stories at once. But should I try it again, I'm going to be writing to books with similar plot, or at least characters with similar music tastes.

5)      Don't count on writing a short book, because short can be a hindrance: My thought with Plot 2 was that, 'on the bright side', it was intended to just be a Novella, or a really small novel at best. Just that nice little extra thing that would finish up a somewhat on-going tale. But that was a mindset I shouldn't have had going in, because I couldn't think of anything outside of what I already envisioned for the plot, and it was everything I could to make the characters think a little more on things to get the word count. Even if it was on things like cake flavors or invitations, I'm not a fan of weddings, wedding planning, or anything related, and neither was my character. It was torture for both of us.

In the end, NaNo helped me grow as a writer. Getting the word count: piece of pie. Remembering to do everything else required of me, balancing my work load, and basically functioning in all other aspects of writing life: like making my husband's birthday cake from scratch.

Tuesday Tunes – Jason Reeves

I discovered Jason Reeves on the Colbie Caillat Album Coco as the underlying male voice on "Realize", and again on Breakthrough in the full on duet "Droplets". I love his voice though I can't articulate quite why.

His albums, The Lovesick and The Magnificient Adventures of Heart Ache (And Other Frightening Tales), are great writing companions for the atmosphere they create. If you like listening to some really mellow tunes with a romantic side, he could be for you.

Today is the release of his EP Caged Birds Set Free, something that, as an avid music lover, I got very excited about.  So go, preview some of Jason's amazing music!

Songs to preview:

Always Want More
Reaching
No Lies (Featuring Colbie Caillat)
Pretty Eyes
No one ever taught us (Featuring Kara Dioguardi)
Infinity to One

 

NaNoWriMo Day 9 – Schedule shuffling & plot pains (hand pains too!)

So we're sitting on Wednesday of week two. How are you doing? I've hit a few bumps in the road. 

NaNoWriMo - Powered by Java

 

For one, my schedule ended up being thrown off, so I'm wrote with Caro on Saturday which was supposed to be an off day. By no means a bad way to spend a few hours on a Saturday morning, it just means my official attempt at a Monday to Friday only schedule is now gone. At least there are eggnog lattes, though sadly they aren't as good as they are back in Nova Scotia. Still addictive, though. Enough to, say, go out earlier on the weekdays to leave the distractions of working from home to enjoy those of the coffee shops.

The other problem I had hit was being at the mid-way point of my "list of scenes I want" and only being 29% through my word count. I've had some great advice from @meganwrites1 and my dear friend Claire as to how to beef it up, which both are working wonderfully (Going back, I realized that I was so focused on keeping everything short, I didn't have a character make a single internal monologue). I also managed to come up with a couple of other scenes that simply slipped my mind or came about because of the lovely ladies' suggestions.

Unfortunately, by the end of the writing session Saturday I was in pain. Problems with my left hand flared up and decided that, if I wasn't going to take a break from writing, it would make me. It benched me from my day project, and prevented me from getting a good word count in on Monday night. All is well now, though, so hopefully I can get back on track.

Until later fellow NaNo-ers.

NaNoWriMo Day Three

Day three of NaNoWriMo, and so far so good… sort of. I'm not meeting the goal I ultimately set for a daily word count, but I'm not that far off target either. And I cheated a little, writing a little bit after I got home from my NaNo session with Caro.  But just a little, I wanted to finish the chapter I was working on so I could start fresh tonight.

My day project has suffered too. In fact, I didn't get hardly anything done on it over the last two days. Admittedly, I spent day one crafting my snazzy NaNoWriMo blog header, and yesterday I more poked at my day project then hardcore worked on it.

Today, I vow to do better. I will get a chapter (at least) done in my day project, and then continue conquering the NaNo mountain that I'm climbing!

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NaNoWriMo Day One

Cue up "Eye of the Tiger", it's NaNoWriMo day one. The epic journey for hundreds of thousands of writer's begins today! Where we all pour our blood, sweat, tears, into a challenge that aims to isolate us from most of humanity, make us go a little crazy, and dance excitedly in our chairs as we cross the 50 000 word mark.

I am a Word Ninja! I fear nothing (Except running out of Java)

Can you smell that? That's the scent of gallons of coffee, burning brain cells, and anti-pain rubs. Don't worry, after about day 3, you probably won't notice it anymore. Well, maybe the coffee, because it's that awesome.

This is my first NaNo, and I'm pumped. PUMPED! Even with my own, specially designed restrictions, I'm excited (I'm only writing on my NaNo project during specified hours, 5 days a week).

So far, the idea of working on two stories at the same time doesn't faze me as much as I think it should. My game plan is to switch trains of thought on the subway trip to meet up with Caro to do our Nano-ing, reading the story that my Nano tale is a sequel to and listening to my playlist as I do.

I'm hoping I can score a sweet 5000 words tonight. Let's see if I can do it.

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NaNoWriMo aka The Nightmare Before Christmas

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) runs all of November. Thirty days of writing, a goal of 50,000 words, very doable for me. Even after agreeing to only work on it 5 days a week, during the roughly three hours in which my and my writer/NaNo pal Caro get together, and realizing it would be over lapping another project, I still had perfect faith that I could do it.

Jack Skellington and Zero by artsmellslikeart on Devian Art

The only thing I didn't think of when I signed on was that November is my holiday prep month.

Yep, holiday, as in Christmas. Yes, I said it: Christmas.

You see, since I've left home, I've lived away. Some years I've had to have my Christmas shopping done, wrapped, and ready to go by the beginning of December because that's the only time during the month when my parents could come up to see me, or I had to go down and visit them. Plus, I like to have my Christmas cards out in the mail by the beginning of December, so they can make their way where they need to and people can enjoy them. Of course, I hand make my cards, because it's fun and I'm insane.

Did I mention I also like to make a lot of my gifts?

None of this was taken into consideration when I saw the challenge, I just thought "Hey, I can do this. No sweat, where do I sign?"

So now, NaNoWriMo is also paired with WeFiWiXmasPrep (Weekends filled with Christmas Prep). My wonderful, caring, and hopefully patient husband will have to keep the Egg Nog Lattes (those are out in mid-November, right?) coming along at a steady rate. And he may have to spike them.

I'll be posting updates to the challenge as it goes.

Oh yeah, and with all this talk of Christmas I almost forgot:

Happy Halloween