A.J. Maguire

Tag: Camp NaNoWriMo

  • Week 4 – Camp Nano 2021

    I shall open with a small confession.

    I have an amazing husband. He not only works full time, but he enjoys spoiling me with expenditures that I would normally not afford myself. For instance, a year’s worth of Master Class where I can listen to Neil Gaiman chat about storytelling is not something I would permit myself to buy unless it was for my birthday or a holiday.

    Granted, I have many other options for authors and creators to learn from with this year’s long subscription that I fully intend to take advantage of but I would be lying if I didn’t mention it was Neil Gaiman’s name that prompted me to ask for it.

    What does this have to do with my Camp Nano progress?

    Everything! And… nothing.

    During my lunch breaks, I have been listening to one lesson at a time and while I do lean heavily on the idea that there is no better teacher than experience (aka – you learn to write by writing and reading) there is something to be said for listening to the experience of others. And what I have been gleaning from Mr. Gaiman’s class has mostly been permission to explore, to trust your instincts and write that first draft because it doesn’t need to see the light of day until I’m ready.

    Basically, permission to fail. In the failing, I can stand back up, dust the prose off, and find those parts of my characters that are truly interesting.

    We authors tend to be terribly critical of ourselves, and it is so difficult to ignore that sniping little (or loud) voice as we’re working on the first draft of a tale. Mr. Gaiman’s class has been a comfort during my lunches to the point that my Nano board shows I get more words on the page in the afternoon than I do in the morning. It has been a pleasure and I highly recommend it and his books.

    Certainly his books. Stardust being my favorite, with Sandman a close second and the Norse Mythology vying for a place as well. If you do the Norse Mythology, go to audible. Let him tell you the tale himself. It’s amazing.

    WIP Word Count:: 51265 (In case anyone really wanted to know. Technically I’ve won, but the novel isn’t finished yet so I refuse to count it.)

    To my author friends out there, go forth and write! Enjoy the writing! Fail and look for the interesting bits!

    To my fellow Nano’ers, we’ve got this!

  • Week 3 – Camp Nano 2021

    The joy of Pinterest, and the pitfalls!

    Whenever I’ve gotten stuck in the past few days regarding the WIP, I have flown to my Pinterest page where I have selected certain faces to help “cast” or represent the characters in the novel. This has been great fun.

    So much fun.

    Probably too much fun.

    I have a ten-minute sandglass timer that I regularly blow through whilst I am Pinteresting. (Is that a word? Let’s make that a word.)

    However, I can say that the garments, the settings, and the faces I have chosen all help me delve just a little bit deeper into the novel, which makes the scenes clearer in my mind as I try to write them. Which, regardless of how many times I’ve blown through that timer, has added productivity to the point that I am now ahead of schedule.

    So my little experiment this year has been a success so far.

    I admit that I have never cast faces for my novels before. I have, in retrospect, seen an actor on the screen and gone — Oh, that’s totally Nelek! (Tom Hiddleston, if anyone’s wondering.)

    But that was long after the novel was finished. And it made me love the movie Thor so terribly much I re-watched it a dozen times. I’ll re-watch it again this summer whilst my son and I do a Marvel Extravaganza too, because we’re nerds like that.

    In any case, having the faces has been remarkably helpful for the rough draft. I will likely refine the character in the next draft, divert from their chosen faces just a little to make them their own people, but having the “place marker” helps me visualize their reactions on the page.

    If you’re interested, you can visit that Pinterest page here.

    If you’re not, it’s no skin off my nose. The page is for creative brainstorming anyway. It’s just one of those weird “peek behind the curtain” things.

    And with that, I’m off to write some more! To those of you Nano-ing this month, happy writing! To those of you just writing your regular schedule, happy writing!

    To everyone else, have a lovely day!

  • Week 2 – Camp Nano 2021

    Well, I did say I normally hit a slump right around week two and I wasn’t wrong. However, my Pinterest/Reading/Netflix plan did work! I took several hours off yesterday doing other things and in the evening I was able to get words on the page.

    This isn’t to say that this process will work for everyone, but it certainly did the trick for me. So if you’re in a slump, don’t beat yourself up!

    Instead, step back, breathe in someone else’s creativity for a little while, and then sit back down to work.

    And because I still want to win Camp Nano this year, I’ll end the post with a super rough snippet of the current work so that I can get back to writing.

    Seizing me by the shoulders, Cade gave a little shake, his mouth grim as he bit out the words; “Think, Nora! You’re one of two outsiders here! Who are they going to blame?”

    Alright, so maybe my senses weren’t totally back in working order yet, but they were making the attempt. Meredith’s voice continued to cry murder, and there was a commotion coming from the direction of the manor. No doubt every wolf on the property would be hunting in seconds, and they weren’t likely to ask many questions when riled.

    Cade took my hand, gentler this time. Glancing around the forest, he listened intently for the space of two heartbeats before launching us down a different direction. I struggled to keep up, my little boots barely protecting me from spraining an ankle on many gnarled roots and rocks scattered across the forest floor. My lungs strained and my already shaky legs began to flag, but Cade wasn’t stopping.

    Howls pierced the night, so close I could swear they were on our heels.

    They probably were.

  • Camp Nano 2021

    Entering the world of Bright, where supernatural creatures live amongst us and steam engines rule! I hit my daily word goal before lunchtime, so I am feeling great. Though I do admit that whenever I do a National Novel Writing Month, the first week or so is always awesome.

    Midway through the second week, my energy flags and I struggle to reach that last word for the day and I have come to understand that this is a problem of focus.

    If I keep my focus on the word count, it crawls along.

    Also, my writing sucks.

    I mean, just plain sucks.

    I’m not the greatest writer to have ever lived, mind you, but I’m decent enough to know when it’s terrible.

    So, this year, when I hit that inevitable slog-fest, I’m giving myself Pinterest time. Or music/reading/anything else time. I’ll still put words to the page, but I will not count them. I won’t even try to look. Hopefully this will flick my brain back into motion and I’ll find that energy again.

    We’ll see.

    Think of it like an experiment. And one you’re welcome to conduct with me if you’re participating in Camp Nano for July.

    For now, however, I’ll leave you with my favorite snippet of this morning’s writing, because I should probably get back to work.

    —

    “He’s quite enamored with you,” Lord Malcolm said.

    I flushed and was glad of the dark. “I wouldn’t say enamored was the right word.”

    “What word would you use, then?”

    Indebted, I thought, but I could see how Malcolm might use that against Derrick somehow. I certainly wasn’t willing to arm the man with any more jibes and insults he might throw Derrick’s way.

    “Lord Malcolm, I am sure there are any number of your acquaintances here that would enjoy your company. I should hate to be the one depriving them of it.”

    He chuckled, and the sound held no small amount of menace. “I think I’ve made it quite clear which acquaintance I have the most interest in, my dear. But I applaud your efforts.”

    Alright, if courtesy was to be ignored, I decided to try being blunt. “If Derrick wishes to speak to you, I am quite certain he knows where to find you.”

  • 2018 Camp Nano Wrap-Up

    Hurray! We’ve reached the end of the month! For those who participated in Camp Nano, I hope you had fun. Even if you didn’t reach your goals, writing is one of those perpetually rewarding efforts and, I daresay, an adventure all on its own.

    Whether you fought ogres or flew through space (or fought space ogres), you explored the limits of your imagination, if not sleep deprivation. The great secret of any Nano project isn’t that you reach 50,000 words, but that you wrote at all. If you’ve got one paragraph or three hundred pages, you already crossed the finish line.

    For me, I managed to reach the end of my editing project – The Soul Between Us – and got 3/4’s of my fantasy novel completed. It was great fun posting snippets up here, even if I did taper off toward the end of the month.

    I should be finished with Castle of Three Kings in the next week or so, and then I’ll be taking a few days off to research/market/all the things other writers somehow find the time to do while still drafting their novels. You know… query letters. And synopsis writing.

    Ugh, synopsis writing.

    If you’re still working on your Camp Nano stuff (it’s the 31st, after all) then I am cheering you on! Have imaginary confetti! Better yet, write an inexplicable explosion of fireworks in the middle of your scene. You can edit it out later and it’ll give you a few dozen words to add to that word count.

    And don’t forget to have fun!

  • Week 3 Camp Nano – July 2018

    As I mentioned earlier, I’m doing two projects this year for Camp Nano. The editing project – The Soul Between Us – is nearly finished. I will likely have the completed third draft by Sunday afternoon.

    The first draft of Castle of Three Kings has taken a turn I did not expect. The outline has to be completely reworked (or tossed out the window) and while I believe this is a good thing, it also means I will likely not get the draft done by the end of the month.

    I’m still going to try.

    I mean, after Sunday I will only have the one project to work on. If I bust my butt, I should be able to do it.

    As always, if you’re participating this year, then I wish you the best of luck. Keep writing! Keep drowning in caffeine. Keep snacking on unhealthy things because you don’t have time to cook.

    Your family will forgive you next month.

    ** Snippet – The Soul Between Us **

    He swept the back of the room twice with his light, finding nothing but old chairs and a cabinet. Tessa went still beside him, her light trained on the corner by the door. Cordon directed his light there too, stiffening as he took in the familiar shape of the soldier standing there.

    Unease roiled in his gut. The man looked more solid this time, the shades of his uniform clearer. Desert shades, if Cordon wasn’t mistaken. He’d seen enough news reports to recognize it. There was blood on his chest that looked fresh and Cordon took a protective step in front of Tessa.

    Reaching for the first words he could think of Cordon said; “We don’t want any trouble.”

    “You mean you see him too?” Tessa whispered.

    “Yeah, I see him,” Cordon said. “Last time he ran before I could ask him anything.”

    That wasn’t quite right. The soldier hadn’t run anywhere, he’d just disappeared.

    “But Cordon…”

    Not liking the way the soldier continued to stare at them, unmoving in his bloody uniform, Cordon ignored Tessa and spoke again. “Are you hurt or something?”

    Tessa tugged on his jacket sleeve but he wouldn’t turn away from the threat.

    “Cordon, that’s Cabby.”

    The name struck him in the chest and Cordon gripped his flashlight harder. “That’s not possible, Tessa. Cabby has nothing to do with this place. There’s no reason he would be here, ghost or not.”

    Good God, they needed to get out of this place.

    The soldier took a step forward, his movements just as unsteady as before, only now Cordon could see why. It was a limp; a staggering, uneven limp as the soldier was forced to drag his left foot forward. He reached out a burnt and gnarled hand and the wind began to pick up.

    Only it was a wind coming from the doorway, from the soldier and not from the window. It howled at them, creating little dervishes in the corners and whipping up dirt to fling into their faces. Cursing, Cordon ducked his head, trying to shield his eyes from the worst of it. He could feel Tessa gripping his arm but through the haze of watery eyes and dust he couldn’t see her face. She seemed to be ducking her head as well because he thought he could make out her ear.

    An ache settled in his chest and for a second he feared he was having a heart attack.

    But he was only thirty. Thirty-year-old men did not have heart attacks.

    There were no such things as ghosts either but when he lifted his head, intent on checking the soldier’s position, he found the man a foot away and looking far more apparition-like than before. His skin was translucent gray, like all the color had been leached out of him, and as Cordon continued to stare he could see the wall behind him. It was as if he’d been transposed in a photograph – there but not quite there – and Cordon’s chest ached all the more.

    The eyes were the worst; two horrible shadowed holes with no color to speak of.

    “Oh, Cabby,” Tessa’s voice managed to reach him over the wind and Cordon tensed.

    There’s no such thing as ghosts. And then, because he needed to say it out loud; “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

    In response, the soldier took a jerky step forward, crowding into Cordon, arms wrapping around him as though in a grab or a hug. But instead of a solid grip, Cordon felt icy tendrils sink into his skin, burrowing down and coiling around his bones. The ache in his chest intensified and a sensation like having his veins frost over began slithering its way up his arms and over his shoulders. He heard Tessa’s voice but couldn’t make out what she was saying.

     

  • Camp Nano Week 2 Progress Report – July 2018

    My combined word count is sitting at 38,299 words, which is awesome. I’m nearing the end of the editing project and should have it completed by the end of next week. Which is exactly where I wanted to be.

    For the YA fantasy novel, I’m a chapter behind. Sort of.

    Which means that I deviated from the outline and am making up for it.

    The second week of Nano is “make or break” time for me. The energy from the first week tapers off and it’s pure work instead of inspiration. If I don’t kick myself in the pants and get moving, the projects get left behind and I don’t get my cookie at the end of the month.

    I hope anyone else participating this year managed to push forward. You got this!

    As promised, below is a snippet of one of the projects. This one is from The Soul Between Us. A romance ghost story thing.

    **

    Cordon stiffened beside her, bending down to peer at the camcorder image. “What was that?”

    “What?” She asked, blinking at the image too. “What was what?”

    “Can you rewind it?” He asked, but his attention had switched to the doorway.

    Tessa flipped through functions until she could play back the last two minutes. They both watched the screen, which had a view of the open doorway and several cots. At one minute and ten seconds, a form crossed in front of the doorway and every little hair Tessa had stood on end. Roughly 5’8” and with the general form of a person, it stepped from left to right, barely illuminated by the camcorder’s light.

    She lowered the camera and glanced at Cordon, who released her waist and straightened.

    “Who’s there?” He asked, shining his light at the door. “Marisol?”

    “That was too tall to be Marisol, don’t you think?”

    “Tyler?” Cordon tried again.

    When there was no answer Tessa eyed the doorway, willing whoever it was to come back and present themselves. “It’s probably one of the others trying to freak us out,” she said.

    “Yeah, or a transient.”

    “You think a homeless person would want to come here?”

    “Homeless is homeless, Tess. And there’s a storm coming on.”

    “Awesome,” Tessa said. “Remind me to punch Marisol in the face.”

    “Whoever it was seems to have moved off,” he said. “And I’m tired of being here already. Let’s head back.”

    “God, yes,” she said, more relieved than she wanted to let on. She didn’t have to believe in ghosts to admit that seeing the video had been creepy, and now it felt like they were being watched or something. The spot between her shoulder blades tingled and gooseflesh kept racing up her arms and neck.

    Shoving the camcorder into her jacket pocket, she walked behind Cordon, who led the way out of the room. He checked both ends of the hallway with his light, but as far as they could see no one was there. Which was good because Tessa might have hit whoever it was on sight, transient or not. Trying to relax, she fell into step with Cordon as they made their way out of the critical wing and back to the stairs.

  • Camp NaNo – July 2018

    Camp NaNo started yesterday and I’m already ahead of the game. To those of you who may be participating this year, I wish you luck!

    Put your headphones on, drown out the world, and create as only you can create.

    For those of you who may not know what Camp Nano is, let me go ahead and tell you. This is an offshoot of National Novel Writing Month, but the concept is the same, you try to write 50,000 words in the month of July.

    Or, if you’re like me, you take the month to challenge yourself into finishing multiple projects.

    This year I am finishing up my young adult fantasy novel, Castle of Three Kings, and I intend to wrap up the 3rd edit of my romance thriller/ghost story, The Soul Between Us.

    I’ll be posting end of the day snippets on Facebook, just for fun and to keep the energy/momentum going. Because it’s fun, I’ll be posting weekly progress reports every Saturday/Sunday that may or may not include longer snippets.

    In any case, I’m off to work again. Happy writing, everyone!

     

  • Camp NaNoWriMo – July 2017

    Camp-2017-Winner-Profile-PhotoThis year for Camp NaNoWriMo I chose to focus on revising/rewriting the ending of Dead Weight, the sequel to Tapped. I gave myself a modest goal of 30,000 words, which I surpassed.

    However, sitting 3 days away from the end of the July I can say that the first week of August will have to deal with the last chapter or so of the book. Even if I could ignore the fact that I’m a parent and let my child live off Ramen noodles and chocolate donuts, I’m not sure I can write 4 chapters in three days.

    Well … maybe I could, but they would be 4 really awful chapters and that would defeat the purpose of revision/rewriting.

    So while the word count goal was met, the overall goal of revising the entire novel was not. I still verified my word count and earned my little banner and whatnot from Camp NaNoWriMo because I did participate and … rewards are important.

    To anyone else who may have participated this month … Congratulations! Whether you met your goal or not, you got words on paper and that’s what’s important.

    To anyone who is flirting with the idea of participating in one of these … I hope you do. I can encourage you to check out NaNoWriMo in November because that’s the big one everyone participates in. And yes, I’ll be there again in November, tackling a completely different project.

    For now, however, I have 4 chapters to complete on Dead Weight, new words to write on Song of Swans, and Trenna fans will be pleased to know that the editor got back to me on Usurper so I am knee deep in revisions there as well.

    Usurper is scheduled for release in February 2018 and will be available in all digital forms as well as paperback. It is the third installment of the Sedition series featuring Trenna and her husband Nelek as they battle through politics, magic, war, and perhaps the most frightening of all; family.

    Since Usurper is put out by Wings ePress, it’s all on the publisher’s schedule and more information will be relayed as it comes to me.

     

  • Camp NaNoWriMo

     

    IMG_0494
    Nuisance will likely keep me from working too much this April.

    April 1st signals the start of another Camp NaNoWriMo, which is one of those events I look forward to. If you’ve never heard of it, you can visit their page here. In short, they’re kind of an offshoot of National Novel Writing Month, they just take certain months throughout the year to have another little get-together for writers.

     

    You can work on a brand new novel or you can do what I’m going to be doing this year … Editing/rewriting a novel. I hope to have all of the original work edited by April 30th so that all of May can be spent on new chapters.

    Currently, I am wrapping up the last 3 chapters of Usurper and will have that manuscript completed on March 28th.

    Why March 28th?

    Well, because I’m going on vacation that day. I could get some work done on the plane if I

    IMG_0498
    Pest will likely crawl in my lap and force me to work. 

    wanted, and likely will, but I’d rather have the bulk finished before the first boarding call. That way I can enjoy said vacation and return home relaxed and ready to tackle Camp NaNoWriMo.

     

    If you’ve never tried any of the writing months and you’ve been toying around with the idea, I highly recommend one of the camps. They are a bit more relaxed than the big event in November and, at least for me, I tend to celebrate any work that gets on paper that month.