Wow, it’s been quite a while since I wrote any kind of an update post. Not since Camp NaNo I think actually. And, as everything’s been rather quiet on the blog for the past couple of weeks, it’s probably time to write a goodly update post to explain everything that’s been happening for me in the past couple of weeks in all important areas.

Blogging: Has been very quiet, obviously. I have plans for posts and ideas for things to do and everything, just very little time to do any of them. I am very behind on post writing, comment answering and blog visiting at the moment *sigh* However! I am attempting to sort my schedule out better so I actually have a chance of keeping up with blogging things. I feel so out of the loop at the moment…

Writing Editing: Is happening. Slowly. I’m back to editing Snow at the moment, which currently means taking about a million years over finishing the initial readthrough and making notes. To be fair, the amount of notes I’m making rivals the length of the actual book. I’m actually feeling really good about the book at the moment. Not that I’m saying it’s great yet by any means. But it’s inching closer and I can feel it and I have so many awesome plans and ideas that I’m getting rather excited.

Also I’m hoping that maybe after this round of edits it might be close to a point where I can bribe some people into beta reading it for me. Which is a terrifying and exciting thought. But we’ll see. Gotta finish this round of edits first. Which is moving a lot slower than I’d like.

As well as that, somehow I appear to be planning a Red Riding Hood retelling. I blame the people on Twitter for that one. Peer pressure! I have no idea what it’s about at the moment, but the Pinterest board looks exciting.

Music: This is kind of ruling my life at the moment. Music everywhere! From concerts to upcoming singing exams, (those things are so sneaky at creeping up on you…) and especially running my Youtube channel, which I adore, but takes a lot of time to make videos for (if you like music, maybe go over and check it out?). I'm loving all my musical things at the moment though. And, light of the fact that this is probably the area I've achieved the most progress in recently, here, have a song.

And that’s about everything that’s been happening recently. I’m being kept very busy at the moment, but in the best possible way, and with all the things that I love to do. I do apologise for being so behind on comments, and generally everything to do with blogging. I’m working on being back on track very soon.

What have you been doing lately? What are you working on? What blog posts should I be reading right now? Do you ever have times where you’ve got too many awesome things to work on all at once and can’t quite keep up?

Vital Stats

Project: The Dragon Thief

Word Count: 42k

Motivation Level: High

Chocolate Supplies: All stocked up

Crazy Writer Status: Moderate

As most people have probably realised by now, the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo has begun. For me, this means that the editing of Snow on the backburner for a bit while I work on my Camp novel. I do plan to finish the edit, hopefully in between all the drafting I’m doing right now. And I did very nearly finish it last month. But alas, too slow, so I’m drafting a new book now because reasons (that is the only possible excuse for this terrible behaviour).

I don’t know about any of you other brave NaNo people, whatever session you like doing, but I always feel super motivated right at the beginning of the month. People everywhere are writing and getting excited about it, Twitter is full of helpful word wars, the book is new and fresh and exciting, and writer’s block, exhaustion, and sheer laziness haven’t set in yet. This is definitely the best end of the month to be writing in.

It also helps that The Dragon Thief is, by this point, quite an easy book to write. I’ve actually drafted it twice in the past, but I could never quite nail the plot. So every time I’ve had to completely scrap what I’ve written and start all again. But the characters and basic plot idea has always intrigued me and kept me coming back to try again. There’s something about a thief with a dragon for a friend trying to earn her redemption that really intrigues me.

Despite not really planning the book much (everything feels a bit slap dash about this month), I think I finally nailed the basic plot, which is super exciting. It makes sense at last. The characters feel right. There is snarky banter and action and a few scenes that are sweet and cuddly, and right now it feels like everything is falling into place. Admittedly, that feeling is most likely going to disappear once I get round to editing the book, but right now it’s nice to be able to feel like this book is finally going somewhere.

And, because I’m feeling rather good about this book right now, I thought I’d share an excerpt with you all:

So that’s where I’m at right now, in the warm fuzzy honeymoon stage with the book, and I’m attempting to get ahead on the word count before life gets busy again, or I lose motivation, or the week 2 blues set in (they’re a real thing, I swear). If you’re participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, how are you getting on? And even if you’re not, where are you up to with your project? Running along nicely? Stuck in a rut? Drafting? Editing?

Also, you may have notices that I’m trialling a slightly different format with this writing update by adding the vital stats at the top of the page so it’s easy to tell what I’m working on, where I’m at, and how much chocolate I’m consuming (answer: never enough). What do you think? Like it? Dislike it? Prefer it at the bottom of the post? Like to know different things about what I’m doing? Don’t want it at all? Let me know your thoughts!

A couple of weeks ago, Katie Grace@A Writer’s Faith wrote about how she goes about writing a blog post. Now, I love seeing other people’s processes, comparing them to my own, and picking up helpful tips, so I was instantly intrigued. And also wanted to write one of my own. So today, for your viewing pleasure and amusement, I present you with my personal process for writing blog posts. It will be highly illuminating, and entirely useless for gaining tips from (unless you want to know the worst way to be a blogger that is, in which case do I have the post for you!)

The Beginning

Open a Word document. Stare at it blankly. Open YouTube. Contemplate giving up and hiding in a cave for the rest of my existence.

Blogging is hard.

The Idea

Right. A post will never be written without a subject. What kind of post? I could use a topic from my super organised phone list. Or I could write about robot chickens.

Robot chickens it is.

The Plan

Whip out that trusty notebook and smudgy pen, because we’ve got a post to plan. And by plan I mean scrawling a couple of dodgy bullet points of course. Alternatively, if we’re not writing an Elements Of or list post, we could just dispense with the whole planning thing and smash some words out onto the page.

Who needs plans anyway?

The Writing

Smash words onto the screen like Hulk. Actually, that’s pretty terrible. Rewrite that beginning. Six times…Meh, I’ll come back and write that later. Smash more words on the screen. Write half a draft. Ooh, what’s that on YouTube? New video, score!

Wait, what was I doing again?

Right. Let’s do this post writing thing. More words on the screen. Hulk has nothing on my smashing abilities. Ooh, that’s actually not bad. I think I’ve got it this time. Oh wait, what was I writing about? This wasn’t in the plan. Plan, what plan? This is way better.

The Re-Writing

This is awful.

What was I thinking? *cringe* Quick, delete. DELETE. Wait, that line there’s ok. First paragraph has got to go though. Rewrite every word twice. Much better. Ok, go through every paragraph one more time. But as you finish each one, paste it in Blogger. Then you can feel accomplished. Nice work!

The Formatting

Picture. Picture. What do I do for a picture? Can I possibly get away with another free photo of paper and pens? Maybe another paper texture of the background? I could take a photo of my own…No. That’s a terrible idea. Stock photo it is then. Fonts. Fonts. Which fonts go together? How does one know which fonts to pair together? Hey, that looks rather good. I should be a graphic designer.

Scratch that, it’s awful.

There. Picture done. Format the list. Bold. Centre. Large font. Bold. Centre. Large Font. NO. Don’t turn the whole post bold. Gah, why is formatting so hard? I’ve done rather a lot of this list posts recently actually. Maybe I should cut back a bit.

Pffft. Nah.

The Proofreading

Preview. Ok, everything looks like it’s in the right post. You got all your fingers and toes there buddy? That’s nice. And PUBLISH.

Wait.

Wait.

WHAT IS THAT NOTE IN BRACKETS STILL DOING IN THERE? Is that half a paragraph missing? And oh my goodness, someone take my writer’s badge back. I wrote ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’ the whole way through. Mayday! Mayday! Writer meltdown. Delete. Delete. BURN IT WITH FIRE.

The Aftermath

That wasn’t too bad actually. I could do more of these in a week I’m sure. Maybe I could be one of those daily bloggers. Or next time I could make picture headings instead of just text. The possibilities are endless.

Wait…what am I going to write tomorrow?

And that’s basically my process. Anyone else relate to this? If you want to see a slightly more organised and helpful post, you should check out Katie Grace’s one HERE (sorry about this post Katie. I did try to be sensible. Or it was in the plan somewhere, I’m sure…). My friend Sunny@A Splash of Ink also did one of these posts. It is amazing, and you should hop over HERE and give that a look too. And tell me, what does your blog post writing process look like?

Occasionally people tag me for a blog tag, and very occasionally I remember that I have been tagged and decide to write a post in which I do said tag (and then contemplate how many times I can get away with saying the word ‘tag’ in one sentence). This is one of those rare occasions. The lovely Liz@Out Of Coffee Out Of Mind nominated me for the Get To Know You tag. And, seeing as I rarely talk about myself outside of what I’m writing, I thought, well, why not? Somebody might be interested in knowing a little about the person behind the blog. So, here I am, in a veritable feast of questions and answers. These are not all the questions mind you. I never play by the rules with tags, and I have taken the liberty of cutting out a few. However, you can see the full list on Liz’s blog.

Vital Stats

Name: Imogen Elvis

Nicknames: Nothing much of note. I go by Immy occasionally, usually called that by family, but I’m not really a person who gets nicknamed much.

Birthday: November. I shan’t disclose what day. You can all guess that in the comments. But, being born in this particular month, it should be no surprise that I love NaNoWriMo so much. You could almost say that I was born to it.

Occupation: Full time writer, blogger, and musician. So far unpaid at all. And so far completely undaunted by this fact.

Appearance

For a writer, I am terrible as describing myself, so here, have a handy picture to guide you through my somewhat lacklustre answers to these very basic questions.

Hair color: Golden brown. I sometimes wanted red hair, or black hair, or even blond hair, because all the book heroines seem to have any colour but brown. However, for brown, it’s not a bad shade.

Hair length: Long. You can’t see that from my handy dandy picture, so you’ll have to take my word for it. It currently comes down to the middle of my back, and appears to want to keep creeping down. Maybe there’s a Rapunzel shaped role in my future?

Eye color: Blue. Don’t ask me what shade. They’re…blue? I got nothing.

Best feature: I have a best feature? Ok, how about the dimple in my left cheek? They’re supposed to be nice, right? (Someone help me out here)

Braces: Once. Also plates, because I had a tiny mouth. The result was worth it but the process was vastly less than comfortable.

Righty or lefty: Right handed.

Firsts

Award: First official award that I can remember was an award from a first aid group I used to belong to. I got it when I was 10-11, for being the best all-round first aider in the junior division of the group. I was so proud of it, because it actually looked like a trophy and I always wanted to have one of those. And the best bit was I got to keep it forever instead of handing it back the next year. It’s still lurking in my cupboard somewhere, gathering a mountain of dust I suppose.

Sport: That would be swimming. One has to learn the fine art of drowning properly, avoiding sharks, and rescuing damsels in distress from an early age. M sporting history isn’t a very long or varied one I’m afraid.

Concert: I can remember going to a student piano concert when I was small, does that count? My piano teacher always used to hold an end of year concert and all her students would play something and then we’d have a Christmas party after that. I thought I was fabulous. Then again, I was only around six, so I very definitely wasn’t.

Favorites

Film: No contest. Beauty and the Beast. I can watch that movie for a week straight and still love it to bits. My family has literally taken to banning me from watching it when they get sick of seeing it. Alas, I can no longer take it on family holidays. But Belle loves books. And the Beast is cute and childish. And the songs. I love everything about this movie. (Except the last five minutes. I refuse to believe they ever happened. One does not simply turn a magnificent beast into a wimpy little man with a big nose.)

TV show: Probably Dr Who. I’m not really one for picking favourite TV shows. I usually end up watching older ones that have already finished. I think Dr Who is pretty much the only one I actually keep up with currently.

Color: Blue.

Song: Don’t ask me that. I like all the songs. I just like music in general. You can’t make me choose that. I refuse!

Shop: Officeworks. It’s a show full of stationary and office supplies. It has pens and notebooks and Post-It Notes. What’s not to love? I could die happy in a shop like that.

Book: Again, difficult choice. However, I shall only cheat mildly, and will restrain myself to a list of three. The criteria being the books I remember first that always make me feel good while reading them, and that I’ve practically warn out. First come, first listed. This is very scientific folks:

Persuasion by Jane Austen

The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Currently…

Feeling: Tired mostly. But also contented. It’s been a good week so far, if much too busy. I caught up on my editing goal, released a new music video on my channel, shared an excerpt of my book on the blog, and consumed rather a lot of tea. I count this as a success.

Eating: Nothing. I don’t eat and blog at the same time. One cannot fully appreciate the deliciousness of food while trying to be clever.

Listening to: Random music on YouTube. At this very second it’s Jackie Evancho’s cover of Safe and Sound from The Hunger Games.

Thinking about: Lots of things. How to fit 3k of editing into an hour and a half of evening. Is that even possible with my brain going SQUIRREL every thirty seconds. Can I possibly come up with something clever to post on Twitter. How soon will I be fed again.  All the important questions of life.

Watching: Working my way through the TV show Life On Mars. Totally not getting the 70’s but having an excellent time laughing at the fashions.

Future

Careers in mind: That implies that I would want to change my current career of writer/blogger/musician. Which I certainly do not. A career where I get to stay home and explore fictional worlds, share my random writerly musings with other strange people like myself, and create music sounds pretty much perfect to me.

Where do you want to live: Somewhere around where I live now. I’d like to stay near my family if at all possible. 1. Because they’re my support group and cheerleaders, 2. Who else am I going to share random lame puns and odd jokes with, and 3. I introvert enough as it is. I’d miss them greatly and the world would never see me again. I need them to help make me appear sociable.

And now for a quick fire round.

Do you believe in…

God: Yes

Miracles: Yes

Love at first sight: Not really.

Ghosts: Only in books

Aliens: I like the conspiracy theories they create.

Yourself: I do. Some days more than others. But I always work my hardest to hold onto my belief in myself and what I am doing. Because if I don’t believe, how can I hope to succeed?

And that’s probably more than you ever hoped to know about me. I’d love for you to answer one or two of these questions in the comments so I can get to know you better. Tell me an interesting fact about yourself. Or, if you feel daring, do this tag yourself and leave me a link to your post so I can come and learn more about you! 

Photo credit: HarisAwang / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

It's Day 11 of NaNoWriMo, which puts us smack bang in the middle of Week Two. Ah Week Two, that lovely time where the initial rush of excitement is wearing off and the hard work is setting in. Maybe the plot has wandered from the outline, the characters have developed minds of their own and are wrecking your best laid plans, or maybe you’re just exhausted after well over a week of writing every day. I know I’m a bit tired by now. Which makes this the perfect time to stop and look back at my progress so far. If you remember, at the beginning of the month I stated three goals I wanted to achieve over the course of this November. So, how am I going?

Goal 1. Write In Ten Different Locations

Only one location to add to my list this week. Being able to write while travelling is somewhat of a luxury for me, as usually I’m the one driving, so it’s a huge bonus to be able to make use of that extra time spent on the road to pound out a couple of hundred words or so. It all adds up. I’m definitely going to have to try harder over the next couple of weeks if I’m going to achieve this goal though.

Goal 2. Achieve Three 10k Days (Achieved Nov. 3^rd)

I finish this goal in the first three days, something I wasn’t expecting. Something else I wasn’t expecting to happen was this:

Yep, that’s right. I hit 50k! How my hands and brain ever managed that I will never know. However, progress slacked off almost immediately, as you can see by my handy dandy little graphic here. What happened on those two 2k days? I may have been a little bit sick there and totally not motivated to write at all? I’m definitely not hitting 10k days at the moment, but, with a history of RSI, plus wanting to actually graduate from uni at some point soon, I’ve had to scale back on the speed for a bit. Later in the month though…

Also Katie Grace, as I haven’t had a chance to answer your comment yet, you can totally use graphs. Everyone can use graphs! Everyone should. We could take over the world with graphs…

Goal 3. Write Two Books

I’m well up on this goal. I hit 80k today, and we’re reaching the final climax of book number one. At the very latest, I hope to have it finished by the end of Friday, all being well. Though why this story is taking so many words to tell is beyond me. I dread to think of what the edits are going to be like. Phhhft. What am I say? Every NaNoWriMo is a challenge to fix later.

And now, seeing as it’s been a whole week, it must be time for a few more excerpts from my novel. So here, have some more (hopefully without any embarrassing typos this time. I blame it all on NaNo Brain. It’s totally a thing.)

Now, you tell me, how is your NaNo going? Have the week two blues struck, or are you powering on through? What’s your word count at? Ahead, behind, on target, finished already? Got an excerpt to share? If you’re not doing NaNo, how’s your month going? Are you writing at the moment?

I think by now, everyone is aware that NaNoWriMo has started. Writers scurry away into their little caves, armed with tea, clubs, and caffeine patches, sweating out their daily word counts. I myself am no different. In the Dragon Cave, it’s anchors away on the first draft of Blood Debt. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50k words of a novel in 30 days, but I’m a bit of a challenge addict and have decided it’s time to up the ante and give myself a couple more goals. So, in the interested of fun (stress?) here are three extra goals I’ve come up with for myself.

1) Write in ten different locations. As a writer, I tend to get stuck in a rut in terms of my routine. Some days, when the words aren’t coming, it’s best to shake things up, try a new spot, get out of the house even. So this NaNoWriMo, I aim to find ten different places to do my novelling in.

2) Achieve three 10k days. 10k days are like magic. The words pouring onto the page in a mesmerising pattern that eventually makes sense is almost hypnotising. Or that could be the copious amounts of coffee you consume to get you through. Either way, if one 10k day is good, then three is three times better, right?

3) Write two novels. Crazy goal I know. But when the plot bunnies bite, you can but follow their lead. I have two fleshed out novel ideas, and both beg to be written this month. So, time allowing, I will at least try to start the second idea also. (Count yourselves lucky. A third idea went hopping by the other day. I closed the door, shut my eyes and waited for it to leave.)

And there you have it. Imogen’s recipe for a high stress, panic inducing month of sleeplessness, word overload, and absolute awesome. How many of these goals will I actually hit? I have no idea, but, as they say, aim high and you might hit the top of the tree. I’m throwing myself into this NaNo good and proper this year. And, to keep myself on track with my goals, and to share a bit of the process with you guys, I’ll be posting a NaNo update every Wednesday this month, sharing word count progress, goal progress, and maybe even a few quotes (does that sound enticing?). I hope you’ll drop by with a few encouraging words!

What are you writing at the moment? Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo? What are your goals for this month? Do you think I’m just a wee bit crazy for trying to do this many extra things? How badly do we predict I’m going to fail? (hint: I’d vote for catastrophic failure myself!)

My good friend Heather@Sometimes I’m A Story tagged me for the ‘A Writer’s Life’ Blog Tag. Many thanks to you Heather. And, since I am indeed a writer and this is indeed a writing blog and occasionally I like to share things about myself, I decided it might be fun to do the tag and let you all know more about me personally as a writer. So, without further ado, let’s get right into the questions and answers.

What Kind of Writer Are You?

An introverted crazy one! I’m the sort of person who is addicted to challenges like NaNoWriMo (also making them infinitely harder for myself, because that’s how I roll). And I would much rather stay home and wrestle with fictional characters than socialise. Characters are people too! I’m also a writer who likes writing sci-fi, fantasy, and thrillers (though don’t ask to read the thrillers. I like writing them. It doesn’t mean to say I’m any good at them). All round, your average weird writer.

When Did You Start Writing? What Made You Want To Give It A Go?

It’s a bit cliché, but I can’t remember how long I’ve been writing and making up stories, it’s been that long. I also frequently maxed out my library card, and tried to turn our bookshelves at home into a family lending library with plastic covers library cards and everything. But I started writing novels when I was 13/14, when I started inventing a character whose bio turned into a full blown novel. Which was terrible, and shall never see the light of day, but taught me how much I adored writing.

What Inspires Your Stories?

Lots of things. Random conversations. Other books. Going to the movies. Random facts. My own brain being weird late at night. Long walks with the dog. Staring at a blank wall for five hours. My stories gather inspiration from some odd places.

What Themes Do You Like To Explore In Your Stories?

I like exploring themes about families and sibling relationships. Even when there aren’t actually any families in the book. Also I like exploring the idea that the hero doesn’t have to be a specially chosen little snowflake, but that anyone can be the hero if they have the courage.

Are You A Panster, A Plotter, Or a Bit Of Both?

In my heart I am a full blown pantser extreme. As my family can attest, I frequently start writing with no idea what’s going on, and end up with something that resembles a book. This could also be why my editing process takes. So. Long. I am currently attempting to be a more organised writer and plan some things before I start writing, but jury’s still out on how well that is going.

Where Are You In Your Journey? Querying, Agented, Published?

Editing. Forever…

Have You Ever Entered Any Writing Contests? Finaled? Won?

No, I’ve never tried any contests. Mostly because I’m never happy enough with my writing to even think about entering anything. Also I can’t write short stories to save myself, so between awful short stories and never finished novels, I don’t have anything to submit.

Who Are Your Writer Heroes?

For published writers, I am in awe of writers such as Marissa Meyer, Maggie Stiefvater, Derek Landy, and Rick Riordan. I am also huge fans of the amazing bloggers and writers Cait@Paper Fury and Heather@Sometimes I’mA Story, who are just all roundly awesome.

Have You Ever Been To A Writers’ Conference? Share Your Best/Worse Conference Experience

Alas, no conference experiences over here. Instead I stalk other people’s experiences, hide out in my writer’s cave, and plan to take over the bestsellers list. One day though, I’ll be a real writer and attend one…

Top 3 Tips You’d Give To Newbie Writers

Ooh, tips. I can do these.

1)Your first book is going to be bad. So are all your first drafts, forever and always. Everyone’s are. Don’t expect things to come out right the first time. Most of writing is rewriting, over and over and over, anyway. It’s the same for everyone. You’re not alone.

2) Don’t compare your writing to anyone else’s, especially to the books of published authors. Everyone’s at a different point in their journey. Everyone writes differently. Comparison does nothing but get you down. Concentrate on making your writing the best you can rather than working out all the ways other people’s is better. It’s a lot more productive.

3) Write what you love. There’s no pointing in writing if you don’t love what you’re doing. Writing a book is a long enough, hard enough process without forcing yourself to work on something you don’t enjoy. If you love what you’re doing, no amount of time you spend on it will be time wasted.

Bonus) (because I’m sneaky like that) Surround yourself with people who will cheer you on, celebrate your achievements, commiserate your misery, and who believe in what you do. These people are the most valuable addition to your writing process. Trust me.

And there you have it, a bit more than you ever wanted to know about me as a writer. Now it's your turn! Share your answer to one of these questions in the comments!

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen me procrastinating by tweeting about my editing woes. Yep, I’m still editing that same stubborn fantasy book. It’s a long, heart breaking process filled with many tears, red pens, and oceans of tea. And, if you’re me, it takes FOREVER. So, while I’m still wallowing in the misery of edits, I thought I’d share what my editing process actually looks like. It is, of course, the most amazing thing you have ever seen.

Me: This first chapter stinks. But we knew that coming it. The main plot’s solid now, so I can concentrate on the start this time. No stressing—Oh my biscuits, this bit’s AWFUL. Calm. Calm. Don’t look at those ten pages…Where is YouTube when I need it? Positive thoughts Imogen. It gets way better than this.

Me: …When does it get good? I’ve been waiting 73 pages. I swear I’ve got more notes on what’s wrong than there are words in this whole book. The middle’s so much better though. Chin up.

Me: LIES. It’s all LIES. I did not write this book. Some third grader took my perfectly good book and rewrote it.

Me: …First graders write better than me. This calls for tea and chocolate. And thirteen hours on YouTube. This book is going to look so much better when I’m done with it. Later.

Me: *head desk* How many more pages are there to go?

Me: Wait, is that the last ten pages? Pfft, I got this. Stand back.

Me: Thank cake that’s over. See, it wasn’t nearly as bad Ok, so this won’t take too long to fix, right? We’ll be on to the next book in no time.

Me: *head desk* I’m never going to get this book right. There are 3,908,873 pages of things I need to fix. Kill me now…

Me: If I can’t read the notes, I totally don’t have to fix them. Engage medical handwriting. Ha, I’ve got you now edits!

Me: Wait, what are you even doing in this book Minor Character? I thought you left three drafts ago?

Secondary Character: But I’m so adorable! Remember that one gorgeous line I have on page 37? I’m totally worth keeping.

Me: Well…

Me: THIS PLOT HOLE IS SO BIG I COULD DRIVE A TRUCK CONVOY THROUGH IT. AND THAT ONE. ANOTHER? THEY’RE MULIPLYING!

Me: …Kill me…

Me: Right, where’s that list of editing issues? Let’s do the thing! Charge!

Me: Uh, was the list always that long?

Me: I totally need to rewrite all these illegible notes and organise them by type, alphanumeric order, and ascending spiral of importance. It’ll only take 39 months. Totally worth it.

Me: More tea! And a Dragon. I have me a pile of rubbish to burn. It’s not like it’s going anywhere anyway. Don’t look at me like that book. It’s your own fault you’re terrible.

Me: I don’t wanna dooooooooooo this. You can’t make me!

Twitter: You can do it! We believe in you!

Me: …

Me: *edits*

Book: Ha! Oh that feels good. I feel pounds lighter. Don’t stop. This is the best thing that happened since you lost that subplot about goats. Not one of your brightest ideas, mind.

Me: …

MC: Wait, what did you call me? You called me Kat? How dare y—Actually, that’s not bad. It kinda suits me. I’m still mad at you though.

Me: *concentrating face*

Family: Uh, we haven’t see you in about three weeks. Do you think you should come out and see the sun occasionally? One can’t live on tea and chocolate forever.

Me: Says you. *consumes tea and chocolate*

Me: *blank stare*

Me: …I’m….done. I’m done? I’M DONE! BOOYAH! TAKE THAT BOOK! Wait, what day is it again?

Me: *celebratory victory dance*

Me: *celebratory dance into faceplant*

Me: Bring out all the cake! I am the king of editing!

Me: *collapses* I am never writing again.

Me: Oh look. Shiny new idea!

New Idea: Hi there, I’m a super complicated book with nineteen points of view, a love pentagon, an adventure across six dimensions, a mutant fire breathing chicken, and ninjas from Pluto. It’s going to need eleventy two years to write and five lifetimes to edit. Come on, doesn’t that sound awesome?

Me: GIVE ME ALL THE IDEAS! I LOVE WRITING!

Me: ...

Me: WHY…?!

That’s my editing process. What does yours look like? Where are you in the writing process at the moment? Tell me about your latest project! 

I didn’t realise magician’s disappearing tricks were so effective. Two weeks I’ve been missing from the blogosphere. Two weeks! My poor blog is looking a little neglected at the moment. Sorry guys! (Did anyone miss me?) I didn’t intend on taking so much time off, but it was sadly unavoidable. And I come with excuses (I always have lots of excuses). Seeing as I left you in the lurch with no warning, I thought I’d better explain my conduct. So, what exactly was I up to while I was vanished?

Well, first there was a bit of this:

My brother got married, which was amazing. Also exhausting, as anyone who’s ever helped organise a wedding can attest. I was lucky enough to be able to help not just with the preparation, but also with the music during the actual wedding, which was an awesome experience. All round, the wedding was beautiful, and also the main reason for my disappearance. Plus my sister flew back from literally the other side of the country to be there, so that was exciting, and my other brother graduated from uni four days later. So there was that too. All important exciting family stuff.

Then there’s also been a little of this:

Editing. I’ve been trying to get some editing done on my fantasy novel, The Crystal Tree, before it gets to be time to prep for NaNo. So far the list of things to fix seems even bigger than last time, if that’s even possible. You turn your back on a manuscript for a couple of months and it thinks it can do whatever it likes. It’s a little discouraging at the moment. This will be the seventh draft of the book, and there’s still so much wrong with it. Frankly, it’s killing my motivation a little. But at the same time, there are some new ideas I’m looking forward to incorporating into the book in this next draft, so that’s a plus, right?

And there’s also been a little of this:

The plot bunnies are back in full force. I’ve been bitten with an awesome book idea that might work out as my NaNoWriMo project for this year, if I can ever get the complicated worldbuilding sorted out in time that is. I can’t really give many details just yet, seeing as it’s very, very new, but I can share the basic concept. Apologies, but even the concept’s a bit rough right now.

In a world where blood is currency, one girl must find another way to pay back her father’s blood debt before it claims her life.

I’m really looking forward to plotting this story more. Just working out the logistics of the world is fascinating. Bring on NaNoWriMo 2015!

And that’s pretty much everything I've been up to in the past two weeks. Between weddings and writing, I’m feeling a little bloggily deprived at the moment. So tell me, what have you guys been up to while I’ve been away? What awesome blog posts have I missed? Tell me all!

I have a pretty good system in place for backing up my novels if I do say so myself. Each one is stored in multiple locations on my computer, in case of file corruption. Many few reside in Google Drive, some live in my emails, and a few live on a USB drive. The files themselves are labelled with a title, draft number, and year completed, and are all very easy to find. All the books most important to me are perfectly safe. Well, so I thought. But, as I’ve had occasion to be reminded, no matter how good the system, it can still fail, and you can still end up searching frantically for a book that has simply disappeared.

My writing is all done in Scrivener mainly, with brief forays into Word. I love Scrivener, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for good writing. But in order to save Word Documents and the like to your computer, you have to export them into a new file format first, creating another step. Which is usually fine. I normally wait until the end of the draft to do so, and then back everything up neatly. I admit, I don’t have a great system in place for backing things up in the middle of a draft yet, but I haven’t lost anything then either, so I’m sure that’s a lesson for a later date. But what happens when, at the end of the draft, you’re so busy prepping for Camp NaNo that you forget to export the document properly and back it up to all those multiple locations you’re so proud of?

You lose an entire draft.

This was me today. On attempting to open Draft 6 of The Crystal Tree for a read-through prior to editing, I found I couldn’t locate the file at all. Cue a desperate search for the missing document. What had happened to my amazing system? Well, I completed the novel in March, barely three weeks before Camp NaNo, and in all the rush to prepare for that, I forgot to back everything up properly. Scrivener is a lovely reliable program. It saves everything every two seconds. I had no worried about losing that. Until I searched for the Scrivener project in the hopes of downloading another copy of the draft, and found that almost all my Scrivener projects were missing too.

To be honest, I still don’t know where they went. I didn’t delete them, and I still have the ones from the two latest Camp NaNos, but most of them are gone. For most of them, it’s not a huge drama. I have the drafts safely backed up. Except for The Crystal Tree Draft 6. It slipped through the cracks and was lost.

I searched for ages, dredging through the bowels of two different computers in an attempt to recover even a partially written draft. Anything that might save me from having to do all that work over again. And finally, I did locate something, hidden in a mislabelled file in the wrong part of the computer, away from my beautiful system of back-ups. A single copy of the sixth draft, one hundred percent complete, one hundred percent beautiful, and one hundred precent backed up now, hopefully never to go missing again.

Even though my system of backing stuff up is pretty good, and most of my novels are perfectly safe, things fall through the cracks. When life gets busy, or Camp NaNo sneaks up on you, it’s very easy to forget that you haven’t made sure your latest draft is safe. And it’s scarily easy to lose all that work. I’ve learnt this lesson before, and I’m sure I’ll learn it again the future. But today, I’d like to give you a gentle reminder. When was the last time you backed up your novels? If your hard drive fried, would your writing be safe? If you’re not sure, maybe spent a few minutes uploading everything to Google Drive, your online email account, or anywhere else on the internet where they will be safe. Our job as writers is hard enough at the best of times without losing months of work in a hardware malfunction.

How many places do you back your novel up in? Have you ever permanently lost a novel? What is your system for backing up a novel during the process of writing/editing, or afterwards?

In my post on Monday 4Reasons Why Everyone Needs a Writing Buddy, I mentioned that I and some on my writing friends had started a collaborative blog together. It’s called Young Writers’ Treehouse, and it’s run by young writers, for young writers. We’re very excited about it, and today I thought I’d share a little bit more about it.

Young Writers’Treehouse is run by me (obviously), and eight of my writing friends, which is a lot of people to have writing a blog, but it’s actually a great thing. Because we’ve got so many bloggers, there’s a wide variety of content too. The blog’s only been going for a couple of weeks so far, but we’ve already got posts on reading, analysing stories, plotting, and resources for writing. Hopefully there’s something there for everyone.

But the best thing is, this blog is for writers to feel safe and form a community (we hope!), and we really want other people to get involved, and not just by reading and commenting. We’re eager to have other young writers guest post, and we’d love to have people share their writing on our blog too. What we want is for this blog to become a place for writers to hang out, find inspiration, resources, help, and a place to share their own work.

Young Writers’Treehouse is very, very new, but we’ve got high hopes and big plans for it. If it sounds at all interesting, I’d love for you to hop over and have a look around. Maybe you’d even consider guest posting for us if you like what you see. We’re super excited about this new project, and I hope other people will be too!

Being the book-loving person that I am, I occasionally visit this lovely little place called the library. It’s a wondrous building full of hundreds of books that you’re allowed to take home for free. That sounds pretty much like heaven. Of course, being a rather strange book-loving person, there are a few rules that accompany such library trips. Today I’d like to share my top four rules for library trips, in no particular order.

Rule one: Always bring another book-lover. In my case, my sister Charlotte. No library visit is complete without cracking a few hundred book related jokes with my crazy sister. One simply must have a fellow reader to cringe at cliché romances, giggle at overdramatic book titles, and obsess over favourite books with.

Rule two: Play the title game. Have you ever noticed that titles seem to follow a trend? Like they’ll all be about swooning, or blood, or have the word ‘keeper’ somewhere. The title game involves counting up all the titles that contain a particular word or phrase. My favourite word to look out for is ‘Alaska’. Apparently either John Green’s ‘Looking for Alaska’ has influenced the current crop of titles, or it’s a very popular place to set a book.

Rule three: Choose books based on random plot elements. Who to know what a book is about anyway? As long as I know that someone has amnesia, or that there are fairies in the book, what else do I need to know about the plot? Admittedly, this method doesn’t always guarantee a perfect selection of books, but it is highly amusing and makes for a varied stack at the end.

Rule four: No book is too young. Don’t believe the judgemental looks the other library patrons might give you. There is nothing wrong with browsing the kids’ books when you’re in your twenties. Good writing knows no age limits. Go thou and read all the MG books you like. Be a book-loving, library visiting rebel.

So there you have it, my top four rules for visiting libraries. What rules do you live by when you visit this wondrous place? Have you ever played the title game? And what was the last book you borrowed from the library?