Jennifer Melzer's Blog, page 2

NaNoWriMo: Day 3

Today wasn’t a bad day for writing. I surpassed my daily goal even more today, this time managing a full 2018 words total for the day. I’m officially on chapter three now, and while my plotted structure has been helping keep me on task, at times it feels a little too rigid for my tastes. I’m trying my best to stick to the overall outline and not get sidetracked, though. Getting sidetracked seemed to be one of the big issues I was facing as a writer, and I want my plot to be as clear to follow as possible.

Another thing I’m finding myself thinking about quite a bit is whether or not I’m managing to maintain the thirteen year old voice without being too adult or too childish. Being the first time I ever wrote middle-grade fiction, it’s definitely going to be an experiment all the way to the last page, I think.

Overall, I’m happy with my progress so far, and I’m excited to get back to work tomorrow. I could probably write more today, but I don’t want to push myself right now. Being on track and making my goals is good enough for me because I don’t feel too stressed out and still look forward to writing every day.

Hope all my fellow NaNoWriMos are doing great!! Keep on writing!

NaNoWriMo: Day Two

One of the things I both love and hate about the first draft is how wordy it is. For NaNoWriMo, it’s a blessing because you’re likely adding a bunch of world-building, character-building fluff you’ll wind up cutting out in draft two. That stuff also helps you get to know your characters and world a little better, too, but sometimes I wish I already knew them well enough to get down to the nitty gritty and just write. It’s a double-edged sword, and though I don’t mind wielding it, it does ruffle my feathers a little when I start reading back through all the filler my first drafts contain.

On day two, I went a little farther than I managed to go yesterday (though not a whole lot, really,) racking up 1808 words, and got to know my main character a little better. Right now, she feels like a bit of a brat, so we’ll have to see how that progresses. I don’t want her to be too bratty because who wants their protagonist to be Nellie Olson? I may even write a bit more before all is said and done today, but for now I’m going to take a break, maybe work on some art and get some exercise while I think about how I want to wrangle the chapter I’m currently working on into submission.

All in all, Day Two is a success either way, and I’m still on track, but we’ve got 28 days to so I’m not going to start counting success chickens yet.

NaNoWriMo: Day One

I didn’t do well with Camp NaNoWriMo, and I haven’t been writing nearly at all these last few months, but it is my hope that one sure-fire way to get the wheels spinning and turning again is to buckle down and hit the 50,000 words in a month trail. I spent several weeks plotting last month, preparing in hopes that I could dive in and start writing today without much issue, and so far that strategy seems to be sound. We will see if all that prep-work carries me through the whole month. I’m optimistic, and I’m having fun getting to know these characters and their mindsets.

I’m writing something I’ve never really attempted before: middle-grade fiction. A ghost story, actually. And I’m excited about it. My greatest hope right now is keeping it on track and seeing it through, which is something I’ve been struggling with a lot this last couple years. I’ve been able to write short stories without much issue, but anything longer than 10,000 words seems to be pushing whatever weird boundaries I’ve set in my mind.

I’m off to a strong start, though. Day one and I’ve already met and slightly surpassed the goal that’ll keep me on track if I can maintain it. In order to complete the challenge of 50,000 words in a month, you need to write at least 1,667 words a day, every day. I managed 1,775 words this morning. Not a bad haul for day one. The goal I’ve set for myself at this time is 1,700 words a day. Not much more than the recommended, but sometimes those nice, round numbers are easier to manage for the mathematically challenged.

I am going to try to post regular updates, maybe talk about what I’m learning as I step into a new writing mindset for the first time. Today, I learned that writing from a thirteen year old’s perspective isn’t easy. Thirteen year olds are far more intellectual than we give them credit for, and yet they still have so much to learn about life and interacting with the world around them.

Needless to say, I was very excited this morning to officially meet Heloise Price and her cousin, Reed. I’m hoping to get to know them even better over the next few weeks and enjoy this spooky adventure I have cooked up for them.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? If so, I wish you the best of luck, and may the words be ever in your favor! Feel free to comment below and tell me about your NaNoWriMo project. I’m excited to hear about it!

Flashy Friday: Not a Harvest God

Every day the people in the village brought offerings to the small shrine in hopes of appeasing the god they believed took up residence there. Good favor would mean larger crop yields come harvest, they said. It would mean fewer deaths during the long winters.

But Henrietta knew in her soul there was no god at that shrine. It was no benevolent deity who would reward them for their devotions, but a demon glutting itself on their fears of starvation, sickness, and suffering,

She built the device from her fathers tools and set out to capture the evidence so she could show them their folly, and as she stepped into the woods she felt the dark minions of the demon whirling around her, urging her forward as if they expected to feed on the remains of whatever offering she brought to feed their master.

Inktober Day 31: Ripe

I made it all the way through my very first Inktober and didn’t miss a single day. Even on the challenging days when I had no idea what I was going to draw when I sat down with my pens and my pad, I still managed to dive in and create something. It feels really good to be posting this, though sad, as well because I’ve really enjoyed the motivation of daily prompts to get my creativity churning. I’d say the end of this month is as bittersweet as these nebulimes I drew for today’s RIPE prompt.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 and 05 drawing pens, Tombow dualbrush pens

A mighty thank you to everyone who has been following my journey here, on Facebook, or on Instagram.

Inktober Day 30: Catch

Man, I am starting to feel a little sad that Inktober is almost over. October has always been my favorite month of the year, and adding art to my daily October routine this month has been such an amazing experience. I feel like I’ve learned so much, and I can’t wait to keep creating art every single day and learning even more with every single thing I create.

Today’s prompt was catch, so this sad little guy found himself in a jar. Poor thing. I will have to release him soon because no one deserves to live in a jar with tiny holes poked in the top for air.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 drawing pen, Tombow dualbrush pens and Sakura Gelly Roll pens.

Inktober Day 29: Injured

I had no idea what I was going to do for today’s prompt, but I wanted to do something spacey because space is my jam. As I started thinking about injuries while driving early this morning, I realized Garrus Vakarian was a good candidate, especially after he got rocket-launched in the face in Mass Effect 2.

While working on this, it occurred to me that I still have so much to learn, but that is one of the things I love most about this whole experience. I’m always learning, growing, changing, evolving, and I can see that in this piece. I know it’s not perfect, but the fact that I can look at it and see who it is, that I can show someone else who is also a fan and they can call it right away without me telling them, feels good.

I love the wound. Of everything about this, I think that is my favorite. It looks woundy to me, he looks injured, and I’m happy with that.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 and 05 drawing pens, Tombow dualbrush pens and Sakura Gelly Roll pens.

Inktober Day 28: Ride

One of the things I love about art is also one of the things I don’t love about it. Sometimes, no matter how you see something in your mind, it doesn’t always come out that way on the canvas. Occasionally it’s impossible to create what you see, and other times it’s even more amazing than you imagined.

Today’s Inktober offering for the “Ride” prompt falls between those two parameters. I don’t hate it, and I think it’s a pretty cool concept, but it came out nothing like I imagined at all when I conceptualized it in the car at 6:30 this morning.

Originally, I wanted it to be like looking out again from the inside of a ship, but the thing about ink is that once you make a ‘mistake’, you have to fudge and work around it if you want to salvage what you’re working on. Sometimes this means abandoning the original concept and going for something else. Now, this looks more like some kind of reward patch someone would get for being the best hitchhiker in the galaxy, and I’m okay with that.

Inktober Day 27: Coat

Jevahn believes the reason I started making so much art in the first place was so I could capture his eminence and glory *insert half-hearted eye roll here*, and though he’s not entirely false in these assumptions, I have a lot of other things on my plate. I’m sure he’d like me to make lots of paintings of him being evil and murderous, as assassins are allegedly supposed to do, but if I’m going to make art I’d like to capture people at their absolute best.

So… I give you my favorite drow, Jevahn Mal’tyrr, playing in the snow. He’s still smirking, as he is wont to do, but don’t let him fool you. He’s having fun and he’s happy, and he would never kill anyone in the snow because blood ruins its fresh-fallen purity… and also leaves evidence.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 and 05 drawing pens and Tombow dualbrush pens.

Inktober Day 26: Dark

I think when the Ancient prompt ended, the old gods had already infiltrated my soul because when I started on the “Dark” prompt for today, Cthulhu demanded to be front and center within the darkness.

I used a Tombow Mono 05 drawing pen and Tombow dualbrush pens.