Northern Lights

The State of the Writer: 6/12/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 13 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 5/29/22         The State of the Writer: 6/26/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Finishing up and polishing section about Semprians (winged humanoid race)

It’s a blessing and a curse to work on world building, because now I have even more story ideas based around just this particular demographic.  I had to make a new section for it, because I’m not going to risk forgetting about these potential plots.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 5/29/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 5/15/22         The State of the Writer: 6/12/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

There’s been much worldbuilding in TSN land, and I’ve started migrating some of the information back to Scrivener now that it’s organized.  I’ve also decided to reorg some of my Scrivener templates because I love self-abuse.  I really wish I could figure out how to do things from the get-go, but unfortunately I’m more of a trial and error person, so I often don’t know what will work until I figure out what doesn’t, but by the time I do, I have a ton of information I then have to incorporate into the new way.  It’s frustrating but it is what it is.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 5/15/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 5/1/22         The State of the Writer: 5/29/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

I didn’t update the story collage yet as I mentioned in the last update, but I did want to start using different pictures to reflect what I’ve been working on, and oh boy, have I been working on laying the foundation.  The above picture perfectly encapsulates the Sky World, which, along with its inhabitants, I’ve been furiously working on fleshing out.

I usually try to keep this stuff vague because there are so many details involved, but if people want me to make posts about specific details in my WIP I can find a way to do that.  All I need is the go ahead to talk about my writing and I’ll never shut the fuck up lol.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 5/1/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 4/17/22         The State of the Writer: 5/15/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

I decided I wanted to use Scrivener only for fully fleshed out ideas, so I removed a lot of things from there to put on OneNote while I figure them out.  OneNote is more for brainstorming/stream-of-consciousness and the step before I put it on Scrivener.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 4/17/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 4/3/22         The State of the Writer: 5/1/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

I spent the past two weeks organizing my Pinterest board for this story.  I’m trying to get all of my image ideas in one place.  I need to make Scrivener pages for several more characters, but more importantly I need to make a timeline of sorts on the world’s history.  There are bits of this in my first novel The Serpent’s Tale, but I always feel better when I have adequate notes to fall back on.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 4/3/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 3/20/22         The State of the Writer: 4/17/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,211
Word Difference: +71
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing

I’ve never struggled so much with a story before, and it’s due to a variety of factors.  I’m sure if I was writing this a decade or so ago I would not have the issues I’m having now because a decade ago I had more energy.  While I have no shortage of ideas, the application of them takes more concentration than I can usually muster, and it’s frustrating AF.  Thank god I take notes on things, because I literally forgot an explanation/story I wrote about a major religious belief that makes perfect sense for how people would see the world, and it’s like 🤦🏾‍♀️ wtf are you doing??  So I need to stop and reorganize…again.  I need to figure out how OneNote and Scrivener are going to function in this story.  I’ve been using Scrivener for notes and OneNote for checklists, but I think I need to define better parameters.  I just hate feeling so unmoored, and I hate how I have to constantly reorganize.  It’s like my methods prior aren’t good enough and shit just becomes chaotic again.  I suppose I should expect the constant fight against entropy with the expectation that entropy will always win.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 3/20/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 5 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 3/6/22         The State of the Writer: 4/3/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,211
Prior Word Count: 11,215
Word Difference: -4
Status: Editing Chapter 1 and adding in macro edits from notes
Progress: Chapter 2

I did add some words, but it looks like I cut out a few more than I did, which I’m totally okay with.  My note to myself is to just keep editing from where I left off, but I feel like I might need to so some organization sessions.  I just don’t like how my notes are currently on OneNote.  It probably doesn’t help that I have this both there and on Scrivener.  OneNote is mostly for “To Do” lists and reminders whereas Scrivener is for more honed and organized thoughts.  Because I can update OneNote on my phone and it’ll sync to the computer app and I haven’t figured out how to do that with Scrivener yet.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 3/6/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 2/20/22         The State of the Writer: 3/20/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count:  11,215
Prior Word Count: 11,228
Word Difference: -13
Status: Editing Chapter 1 and adding in macro edits from notes
Progress: Chapter 2

The word count went down because of the editing, and I’m already planning on cutting some more extraneous things out.  I know it’s weird to be editing when I just started drafting, but I’ve mentioned before I need to iron some things out prior to continuing.  I just can’t have it sitting “wrong” even though of course I’d fix it eventually.  I’m just like that lol.  If I know it’s wrong and it’s an integral part of the story, I have to fix it.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 2/20/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 2/6/22         The State of the Writer: 3/6/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,228
Prior Word Count: 10,684
Word Difference: +544
Status: Adding line edits from notes
Progress: Chapter 2

It took an embarrassingly long time to add in the parts about the “magic feather” (it makes sense in context).  I kept running into issues with connecting what I already had with what I needed to add.  Of course there’s a lot that will be smoothed out in editing, but I wanted to at least make the effort.

Continue reading →

The State of the Writer: 2/6/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 1/23/22         The State of the Writer: 2/20/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 10,684
Prior Word Count: 10,530
Word Difference: +154
Status: Adding line edits from notes
Progress: Chapter 2

I wasn’t planning on adding more words to the draft, but as I was working on fitting in the line edits it just happened.  I was adding something near the end of where I’d stopped, and since I usually try to stop with a question, dialogue, or in the midst of some kind of action, it’s easy to prime my brain for what comes next.  It also doesn’t help that I love the sassy dialogue between my MC and her BFF.

Continue reading →