Rachel Inch's Blog, page 2

Slacker!

I’m afraid that I have been a serious slacker these last few months. My writing stalled out after an epic April Camp NaNoWriMo and I never quite got my motivation back. I’m not quite sure where it went, but wherever it is, I hope it knows that I’m waiting for it!

With the new year comes another fresh WriYe and I’m using it as my kick in the butt to get back into the writing I love so much. While I may not be jumping in with both feet like I did last year (especially not after spending the week in pain due to poor lifting techniques when picking up my little guy resulting in an angry back), I am still undergoing the challenge. I’ve set myself a goal of 250k words written this year and I’m certain that I’ll achieve it this year!

I’m starting off slow this year, just enough to get myself back into the habit. I figure that a couple hundred words a day is certainly better than nothing, even if they’re complete gibberish! I’ve got lots I want to accomplish this year, as long as I’m not side-tracked by too many new products like last year. There are so many cool challenges on the WriYe website that its hard not getting caught up with them and ending up with a whole new novel on your hands! (Or in my case, two full novels, one of which was classified as a supernatural romance!)  Most of all, I want to get Chaotic Galaxies: Blood published this year. It SHOULD have been out last year, but I allowed myself to be distracted by so many new and shiny projects.

With these few goals in mind, I start another year of writing, writing and writing! (And I should probably throw some editing in there too…) So, if any of you see me slacking again… feel free to give me a virtual kick in the butt!

Camp NaNoWriMo

Hello Chaotic Galaxies Fans!

As most of you probably know, April is Camp NaNoWriMo, an event which I look forward to participating in every year. (technically three times a year if you include the Official NaNoWriMo and July’s Camp NaNoWriMo) This April was no exception and I’ve pretty much been having one of the best Camp experiences I’ve had so far. I have surpassed both my official goal of 50k AND my stretch goal of 75K! In fact, I’m nearing the 100k mark which is absolutely amazing. The last, and only other time I hit 100k I was competing with D.P Balding to see who could write the most. (A fact that resulted in the completion of Chaotic Galaxies: The Plagued first Draft)

As much as I love to share my success with everyone, its not really about bragging (maybe a little), we all compete against what we’re capable of. If writing 10k in a month is what�� you can push yourself to do, than that accomplishment is just as big and awesome as my 100k! It’s not about comparing your numbers with everyone else, its about coming out of the event feeling like you’ve accomplished something awesome! And really, if you attempted Camp at all, you have accomplished something awesome. The world needs those words, so sit down and write as many of them as you can!

I think one of the most important thing is finding what works for you to get those word counts out. Some people sit down and write huge chunks at a time, while others find having music playing helps them write, or a bunch of short stints which apparently works well for me. Once you find that one thing that motivates you, its all magic from there! Motivation is a tricky thing and sometimes you just have to follow where it leads.

This Camp NaNoWriMo I was all set up to continue writing Chaotic Galaxies: Into the Mist but found that my motivation was leading me towards a zombie novel I’d started a couple years ago but never got past the first Chapter. I had been working on the novel, now titled “Anti-Bodies” for the WriYe Genre Stretch for March and kept telling myself that I was just going to write one more day on it, and then I’d switch back to CG: Into the Mist. Apparently my motivation had other plans and I kept on writing “Anti-Bodies” until about halfway through the month I concluded defeat and changed my novel on the Camp Site to that novel! If you can find your motivation to write a specific novel or story, it can make writing that story so much easier than when you’ve got to fight lack of motivation to write what you want to write.

Unfortunately for those of you who are fans of my short story, you also know my updates have been lacking as my motivation has pushed me to continue “Anti-Bodies” and not work on the short stories that I want to fill my website with. Luckily the novel is only two Chapters away from being finished so hopefully I can get ahead on those short stories that you’re all waiting for. Thanks for being patient with me as always.

As for “Anti-Bodies”, I have no idea if it’ll ever see the light of day again, but it’s certainly been fun to write. Who knows, maybe one day in the future I’ll pull it off the shelf, dust it off and make it shine!

Motivation

“Moby Station”

The conclusion to “Moby Station” is now live on www.chaoticgalaxies.com! This nine part short story depicts Ollie and Curt’s investigation after their home, Moby Station, has a sudden ‘drive-by’ by an Order ship. Everyone on the station is frightened, unsure if there is a reason the Order came so close to their station, or if it was just a coincidence. Curt, one of the few in charge of the station, decides that he can’t leave it to chance, and must investigate. In “Poison” we finally discover the answer to this question, but will it ease their fears, or only grow them?

To those of you who enjoyed Moby Station and the characters the live there, I say, don’t worry, they shall return. This is certainly not the last time that we’ll see Curt, Ollie and Zoey. I wholly intend to continue to write short stories about Moby Station as there are lots of unanswered questions, especially surrounding Curt and his past.

I was a day late updating this blog but those of you who are following the website as well will see that I did actually update on Monday! I’m still working on my consistency and will continue to do so. (But feel free to drop a comment if you see that I haven’t posted my Monday update. Every little push will help me conqueror this deadline thing!)

Another thing that I was less than on-time with finishing was the WriYe Blogging Circle for February! As I don’t want to fall too behind (and there is a March topic already up on the forums), here is my Blogging Circle answers.

What is the main motivation behind your characters? Where do you come up with that motivation? Do you tend to use the same sort of motivation in every novel, or do you tend to mix it up more? What is your favorite example of character motivation?

Each character I create has their own unique motivation, many of which are strong driving forces within the novel. For the most part I design the world/universe that my characters are going to be inhabiting first with my rough idea of the story I wish to tell. When I design my characters I find that each of them represent both a part of me and an emotion. I have certain characters I like to write for when I’m in different moods, and this helps shapes the character.

For example, when I’m in a bad mood I find myself turning towards characters like Ash from my Chaotic Galaxies Series. Ash is an angry character who’s motivations are to find his lost siblings and get revenge for his family. When he gets in conflict he basically sees red and channels his inner rage, especially when slavers are considered. When I’m in a playful mood I’ll turn to characters like Cody and Bek who are simpler, carefree characters. When I think of each character and their motivations I think of the emotion behind them. Hannah is a driven, highly determined character and when I think of her I think of her as a driving force to get what she wants, no matter what. Its this basic emotion of the character that influences her motivation in the Chaotic Galaxies Series of becoming a star. She’ll do almost anything to achieve this goal and no matter what trouble she finds herself in, this is always in the back of her mind, pushing her forward.

I like to think that my motivations for each novel is different as I try to come up with the most unique characters I can for each novel world/universe.�� There may be similar emotions behind some of the characters (Like Ash and Raysell from two different universes), but their motivations are always a little different. I like to make their motivations different enough that even if you can’t remember the characters name, you always remember who they are. (For example, Ash is the one who’s trying to find his siblings or Rox is the scorpion chick who’s been exiled from her world)

One of my favorite examples of character motivation is probably from a character that had a very strong revenge motivation. She’s one of my very first characters and her name is Mist. (Also known as BloodMist when she wants to scare others) Mist is a vampire from a unique origin and when her youngest, and weakest, sister is murdered by her family she goes into a fit of rage. With her new found vampire strength she charges after her brother to prove to him that she isn’t as weak as he thought and to have her revenge.

Her brother was a character I intended to keep throughout her short story series as the main villain but her motivation was so strong that when she first confronted her brother over her sisters death she destroyed him.�� I found myself writing the first thing that ‘popped into her head’ and when I was done the scene I was surprised that my main villain was already�� dead. Of course there was no rewriting the scene, as that would change the character too much. The only way to proceed was to change the entire series itself and put another character into that main villain category. (there were lots to pick from after all)

This is my favorite example of character motivation because it was so strong that it pretty much overwrote my entire plan for the series. Then again, that’s what I’ve always liked best about the Mist character, she’s unpredictable! I find that the first crazy idea that pops into my head for her is often the one I go with, without taking into consideration the consequences to the main story.

Bonus:

Share with us an excerpt from your current or completed novel(s) that demonstrates your favorite example of character motivation.

Since I mentioned Mist above, I thought an except from her short story series would be a good idea for this bonus ‘question’.

���������������������� ���I will NEVER be yours,��� I spoke coldly. ���You are diluted!���

���������������������� He came at me then, took my wrists in his hands and slammed me against the wall, nearly knocking the wind from my lungs.

���������������������� ���You ARE mine! I made you, I gave you this life, and I can take it away just as easily,��� he shouted into my face, a smug look on his face.

���������������������� I think he expected me to back down, to be the feeble girl that I had always been, but I didn���t. My supernatural blood surged in my veins and ignited the rage barely contained below the surface.

���������������������� ���You are a fool to think I would submit to you. If my life is what you want, then take it!��� I challenged.

���������������������� He raised his hand to strike me. His smug smile turned to shock him as I pushed back against him with all my might, sending him to the ground. In seconds he was on his back on the floor and I had my fangs deep in his neck. I drank with such speed that I was afraid I would choke myself. He gasped but I did not stop. I drew out his life blood so swiftly that he could not even fight back, all he could do was stare blankly at the ceiling, his mouth moving in words he couldn’t quite find. When his body went limp under me, I tore my fangs from his soft white flesh and pushed myself to my feet.

���������������������� Victor looked up at me with wide, frightened eyes. He looked like a shrunken shell of his former self. His skin was whiter than I thought possible and the colour had drained even from his ruby lips. Blood dripped from the wound at his throat as I studied them. I watched in fascination as each drop squeezed out of the wound and slid down his neck, leaving a small stain in their wake. Each drop made such a delicate little noise as it hit the floor that I was captivated by each one. These droplets finally stopped and I stood looking down at him again.

���������������������� ���I will never be yours Victor,��� I told him calmly, coldly.

���������������������� I crouched down next to him, watching his eyes as he blinked in shock, as if unable to grasp what had just happened to him. He tried to raise his hand towards me, but it fell uselessly back to the floor. No matter how hard he tried, he could not even get a sound to pass through his lips, not even to curse me.

���������������������� ���You are not worthy of me, none of you are. That���s okay though, because that will soon be remedied.���

This except is actually from a university project for a creative writing course I took years ago. It was written in a style that I would never have used if it had not been a school project (it was written in a diary style which you can’t really see from this except, thankfully), but I’m actually quite happy with how the story turned out, even if it did not follow what I’d planned for it! I hope you’ve enjoyed it, as horror and fantasy are also genre’s that I love to write.

Moby Station Part Eight now live

It’s Family Day for all my fellow Canadians and I’m spending my Family Day watching cartoons with my little one and writing. For once the holiday has not distracted me from the fact that its Monday once again and I’ve got a new update live on http://www.chaoticgalaxies.com for you!

“Return”, the eighth installment in the short story “Moby Station,” is now ready to be read! This is the second to last short in this series! In “Return”, Curt and Ollie head for home but with the order given to move the station itself, will it be there? Find out what they find when they finally reach ‘home’.

Once I’m done this series of shorts I hope to revisit “Fated Visit” so all my loyal fans out there can finally see Chloi meet her betrothed for the first time. I may or may not post a couple ‘easter eggs’ for those fans of both my series and the one by D.P Balding. Even though the two series take place in what is essentially different realities of the same basic galaxy, they’re very, very different. But just because these realities aren’t the same doesn’t mean that the characters can’t bump into each other, right? ;)

Check out “Return” on http://www.chaoticgalaxies.com!

On time to Moby!

Its Monday! Hello Monday! Hello my fans on this fine Monday!

The latest update on the Moby Station short story is live on www.chaoticgalaxies.com. I tried something new in order to make my update on time, I put it up last night! I figured that maybe if I put it up on the site on ‘my’ Monday, that maybe I’d have a better chance of being on time. I have no idea if that’s going to work, but anything to help train me in consistency is welcomed.

In “Soil” we get our first real clues as to what the Order is doing on the poisonous planet of Gluss! Our two boys find themselves on the surface of Gluss doing their best to get some answers and survive the trip! Head over to my website to learn more!

I’d also like to report that my WriYe challenge is going great. The challenges are still wildly motivating and the girls in the WriYe Skype channel are just wonderful. (I say the girls, but it isn’t ALL girls, *waves* Hi Andrew) I’m slowly getting to know a bunch of the other writers and they’re all awesome in their own ways. Even considering that some of us write such different genres and take such different approaches to our writing, we all get along great. Everyone is encouraging and I can almost always get a Word War if I ask for one. (Not usually in the morning, mind you, when I’m up at seven am, but then again, who wants to war before you really wake up?!)

In case I haven’t already explained, a Word War is a challenge between two or more writers. You choose a set amount of time and start time. Then all participants write like crazy during that time frame and when times up everyone posts their word counts. Even though its actually not as competitive as you might think, its a great way to get the word counts out. I find that most Word War participants are competing less with the other writers and more with themselves and their previous word counts. Regardless of who writes the most, everyone is a winner in the end! (And thank you Orange for the morning Word Wars!)

Questions for Writers Part Two

Hello again!

In my last post I answered a number of questions posed by fellow WriYers on the One A Day Youtube channel. As the week progressed, more WriYers had their chance to make their videos to answer the questions and ask their own questions. In order to be part of the group I will also answer these questions for your enjoyment! I would also like to apologize in advance if I missed a question or quoted the wrong person. So here we go, the next WriYe writer’s questions!

Tiffany asked, “Do you need to have music while you write?”

When I write, I don’t have music. Between my son watching cartoons and my husband playing video games or watching Netflix, I’m not even sure I could listen to music. When I actually do listen to music I usually search for an online radio station and listen to upbeat dance or techno. I think the only time I actually listened to something specific was while I wrote a short story called “Rayshel” where I listened to a little more ‘harder’ music while I wrote the more violent scenes. (Of which that short story had many).

Kerri asked, “What are your forms of Productive Procrastination?”

I won’t lie, I love that term, ‘productive procrastination’ and I know it well! Usually when I’m trying to avoid writing but still want to feel like I’m accomplishing something I either work on�� my website or my reference guide. I’ll add a new page to my website, upload a biography or perhaps attempt to design cover for one of my novels. For my Chaotic Galaxies novel series I have a reference guide which holds all my notes, character biographies, species information, minor characters and planet details. Sometimes I’ll sit down and better flesh out some of my information, add some more biographies for characters I’ve been meaning to make one for, or adding new planets and species that I hope to use in the future.

Another thing I do to avoid writing but still feel like I’m doing something is write in my journal. I try to write in my journal every day even if its just to complain that my writing isn’t going well. I record dreams, talk about my day or jot down random scenes that I have in my head. One of the things I do is to ‘talk out’ my writing. If something’s not quite right but I’m not quite sure what to do about it, I’ll start scribbling my problems or thoughts on the issue and I find that eventually, in all my scribbles, I’ll find the answer.

This week’s WriYe One A Day topic;

This week the WriYer’s are talking about their writing playlists, but as previously stated, I really don’t have any. I don’t really own any music and everything I do listen to comes from Youtube or an online radio station. (Of which I’m still trying to find a decent on to bookmark and use regularly so comment if you know one I should check out!) So when I ninja my next video, this probably won’t be a topic I have much to say on!

Well, I’d better head off to write. I’ve got this Keeping Warm in February Romance challenge to work on and I am NOT a Romance writer by any means.

Questions for Writers

Hello all,

As many of you know, I’m involved with an awesome group of writers in a challenge called WriYe. WriYe has a daily blog channel called One A Day WriYe where one member will post a vlog about writing each day. Link here.

This week’s topic is advice/questions. I’ve been watching the first few of these videos to post and I was interested in the questions being posed. As a writer myself I instantly thought of how I would answer each of the questions and thought that I may as well do so here. So here goes, the WriYe writer’s questions so far:

Question One was posed by Elizabeth who asked, “What advice do you have for new writers?”

My advice for new writers is just to do it. Sit down and write. Don’t think of anyone else, don’t try to compare your skills to anyone else, just write. Write what YOU want to write! Don’t write for your friends, or your family, or because a certain genre is popular, write what you feel passionate about writing! Write because you have a story inside you that won’t leave you alone and the only way to get it out of your head is to write it down. Don’t care if it sucks, get it on paper! (or on the computer)

Question Two was also posed by Elizabeth, who asked, “What editing advice do you have?”

My best editing advice is to read your work our loud. I find that with reading your work out loud you read what’s actually on the paper and not what you think it says. When you read out loud its easier to find those little grammar problems because you’ll have trouble getting your mouth around the sentence. You may not know exactly what’s wrong with it, but at least you know that it needs to be changed! Reading out loud has been my very best editing tool!

Question Three was posed by Keri who asked, “Where is your best place to get ideas?”

I have two places that I get my best ideas from and they depend on if I’m looking for a new project or trying to figure out where to go with my current project. All my best ideas for new projects have come from dreams. I remember probably eighty percent of my dreams and I have a journal where I write them all down. Sometimes I wake up with a new idea and can’t wait to get to my journal to write it down before I forget it!

When working on a current project I find my best ideas come from my journal itself. I like to try to write at least a page in my journal a day, even if its just gibberish or pretty much just myself talking to… myself. When I’m stuck in my plot I find it helpful to sit down and whine to my journal. I point out my problems, what loose ends I have to tie up and eventually end up writing down a bunch of ‘what if’s’. Usually within these random, and usually crazy scenarios, I find the gem I’m looking for!

Question Four was posed by Lizzy and its a two part question. She asked, “Do you have any reoccurring dreams or nightmares and Have you ever turned one of these into a writing project?”

I haven’t had any reoccurring dreams or nite-mares since I was a kid (and it is certainly not one worthy of its own story) but I do record my dreams. The current project I’m editing right now is called “Lightning” and was actually originally a dream. It was a dream I had probably ten years ago now that I wrote in my journal and when my first NaNoWriMo came up I dug it out and started turning it into a novel! Dreams are a great source of inspiration!

And now I have a question, though its not likely to be answered on the WriYe channel. But for any of you writers out there following my blog, I pose to you. “When do you consider yourself an author and not just a writer?”

I’d love to hear your comments or links to the answer to that question, or perhaps an answer to the previous four!

Challenges, Challenges and More Challenges!

Greetings fans.

It was a busy week of challenges for WriYe and I’ve gotta admit, I was a little burnt out at the end of it. Its because of this that I completely forgot that Monday and come and gone and I had a short story segment all cued up to upload to http://www.chaoticgalaxies.com. (I know, I know, I’m the queen of excuses!)

First there was the 5k challenge on the weekend of the 17-18. Due to some coaxing by a wonderfully motivating author named Keri, I decided to take on the challenge of writing 10k that weekend instead of just the 5k. In the end, I was successful at completing my 10k but there was no time to celebrate. Oh no! Quite the opposite as the “I had a Dream” challenge (or should I say challenges) was the very next day.

I had a Dream consisted on a ‘pup crawl’ style challenge which was actually a list of eleven separate challenges ranging from a 10 minute word war to a behemoth 90 minute word war! These challenge took most of the day and by the time I got down to the final three big challenges I knew I was in trouble. Luckily Miss Keri and the wonderful Miss Erin were there by my side on the WriYe Skype channel. We did these challenges together which keep me from hiding under my table or sneaking off to my room to hide under the covers! Finally, at 10:30pm I could throw my hands up and exclaim that I’d completed the challenge. We tallied up our word counts for the day and mine was just over 12k! TWELVE THOUSAND WORDS in one day! It was a huge undertaking and I was quite proud of my outcome. (Though the other two girls dwarfed my word count achievement by both writing around 18k. They’re my heroes!)

So now it was time to take a break? Right? Maybe do my update?

Nope. Now it was the New Moon Challenge. Now for this challenge I aimed a lot lower than I usually would have as my wrists were still recovering from the last three days. I shot for a goal of 1,800 words with a dream goal in the back of my mind of 3,600 words. (The different word goal tiers are preset on the forums, you just pick the one that you feel most comfortable with, or in some case, the goal that makes you feel just uncomfortable enough to be a challenge) I manage to get through those words and reached for my dream goal but by the time I hit 2,400 words I threw in the towel.

The moral of our story, challenges are AWESOME! (And do your website update first before starting one.)

But don’t get too discouraged by my list of challenges, because I do in fact have an update for you! Live now is Part Six of the Moby Station Short Story series, titled “Decisions”. Our two unlikely investigators are now sitting in orbit around Gluss with a choice to make. Discover what the Order are up to, or get the hell out of Dodge… err… Gluss.

Blogging in a Circle, and other updates

Happy Monday!

Here we are on this second Monday of this year. I’d like to announce that I did in fact update www.chaoticgalaxies.com on time! The fifth installment of Moby Station, “First Signs,” is now live. Our tired heroes are hot on the trail of the Order ship and we get our first glimpse of their target. Tensions are high.

As many of you know, I’ve joined a site called WriYe (if you want more information about it, look back a couple posts, I explain what it is in detail), and one of the things they do is called the “Blogging Circle”. The Blogging circle is a monthly prompt for the WriYe members to answer on their Blogs. I have decided to join the Blogging Circle, so here goes:

What is your one main goal for this year? Call it your writing resolution. Not two. Not five. Your main and only one. And why is it your goal?

My one main goal this year is consistency. I want to consistently update my website on time, I want to consistently write every day and I want to consistently work on editing my novels.

Its easily to lay down a list of projects to work on, its another thing entirely to get into the habit of working on them a little every day. So far WriYe has been a great motivator for consistency and I hope to continue to write EVERY DAY!

Make a mantra to tell yourself all year when you feel as if you can���t reach this goal. Share it with us!

Hmm… this one is a little harder. I guess my mantra would be, “Just a little writing each day will add up to great things!”

My yearly goal may seem big and scary but my daily goal of only 1k (and five days a week at that) is not very big and scary! So just think of how many words all those little daily word counts will add up to!

Getting into the Swing

As many of you know, one of my New Years Writing Resolutions was to update my website’s Short Story section on Mondays without fail. I really want to work on my consistency this year as well as get better with working with deadlines, even it they’re only self-imposed. Well its now Monday, and guess what?! I’ve added another section to my Short Story Page!!

Introducing “Uncomfortable Silence,” the forth part to the Short Story, “Moby Station,”

�������� “Uncomfortable Silence “picks up where I left off in October and follows Curt and Ollie as they head out in pursuit of the Order. Its no surprising that the two friends and co-workers find themselves in an uncomfortable silence in the confines of Curt’s small craft but at least they get their first insights as to what the Order was doing near Moby. Come discover the first hints of the secrets hidden on Gluss. As always, constructive comments are welcome!

�������� I can only hope that this update will be the first of many that are made on time! There are just so many secrets hidden within the known galaxies and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you this year!