First glimpse at NaNo 2014

So this year I am doing something different with NaNo and putting it all here for all to see!  This is the first glimpse into the NaNo this year.  This is unedited, straight from my head.  Don't judge too harshly! 

Word count: 2027
Enjoy!!

Start:

William looked around and got excited. Today was the first day of the school year and he knew this was going to be an excellent year. The performing arts school finally accepted him into the ranks and he was going to make it big. Oh to walk the hallowed halls that the greats have walked. The world is my oyster today he thought to himself. Stepping off the train, he slowly made his way uptown. Standing in front of the building that the man himself had studied at filled him with trepidation as well as an overwhelming feeling of completion.

For the last two years he had been trying to make it in this school. His dream of standing on stage, singing his heart out, performing, allowed him to do nothing less. He was going to make it, he had no other option. Broadway was his dream. Cabaret, Phantom of the Opera, Newsies, he didn't care. The goal was to be on that stage and this school was his first step.

With his schedule clutched in his hand, William took his first steps inside of the building as a student. His first class was rather mundane, English. He knew it was important to be well spoken, but he also knew that English was not his major. Classroom 113, west side of the school. Looking down at his map, he figured out where he was and then slowly made his way towards the classroom. Stepping into the classroom, he looked around. There was a vast diversity to the students standing around the room, some new some returning students. At 15, William was one of the older kids who stepped foot into the classroom for the first time. He knew this and became determined to make new friends. He would make friends.

Aisha took a deep breath. The first day of school in a new country. Slowly getting up from bed, she knew today would be the first day of the rest of her life, and she hated it. “Aisha, downstairs, breakfast” her mother barked at her. Slowly moving, Aisha put her bathrobe over her pajamas and made her way downstairs.

“What's for breakfast?” She asked, looking across the table at her family.

“Big breakfast for the first day of school!” Her little brother, Zahid, answered her, obviously full of excitement. He is always way too cheery to go back to school Aisha thought to herself as she sat down to the table.

“Are you excited for the performing school?” Her mother asked her, passing a plate of eggs towards her.

“Yes, mama, I am excited. I guess.”

Aisha hated school, she always had. She knew she was lucky to be educated, so many girls weren't, but school was not something she enjoyed. This year, while she had gotten into the performing arts school, she found herself even less excited. It was hard to move across the world. It was hard to leave all her friends, and now she had to deal with a new country and trying to make new friends.

Stepping off the train, Aisha looked up at the school building before her. She was excited to learn more about the performing arts. Being an actress was her dream, though her father was not too keen on the idea. He always wanted her to go on and become something important, like a doctor or a lawyer, but that was way too much school for Aisha. She had her own dreams. Getting a script from her agent, memorizing her lines, stepping into hair and makeup, finally looking at the camera, knowing she was going to perform and that camera was going to broadcast it across the world. Famous. Famous.

Looking down at her schedule, Aisha saw her first class was English, room 113. She knew where that room was, having walked her schedule just a couple days before with her father and brother. Looking around to get her bearings, she quickly made her way to the classroom. The room 113, with it's number illuminated against the darker hallway, loomed in front of her. Adjusting the scarf on her head, she walked into the room. There weren't many people in the room just yet and Aisha spotted a desk in the back corner. Moving towards the desk, Aisha smiled at the students staring at her. This was going to be a long class.

Grace moved towards the train with the confidence only a 15 year old young woman can possess. She was moving towards her element, her school. Stepping down into the subway, she found the whole place disgusting. I can't believe people enjoy taking the subway she thought to herself. This whole place is so dirty and dingy. And this light does nothing for me. Scanning her metro pass, Grace stepped through the turnstyle, trying to touch as little as possible. She would not let the dirty wheel ruin her outfit.

Putting her bag on the floor in front of her seat, Grace looked down at her book. No, she wasn't going to actually read, but she had heard that people left you alone if you pretended to be busy on the subway. This was important, because the last thing she wanted to do was talk to these people.

Life here sure was different from where she came from, and Grace loved it so much. There weren't people here who thought wrestling a pig was a fun activity. Any time she had mentioned her hometown to people before, she always felt like she was being judged by their country ways. No one took her seriously because they all thought she knew how to rope a cow or ride a horse. Sure, she did know how to do those things, but only because her father had made her learn so she could help on the farm. She hated every minute of it, and she was sure to let people know.

Looking up momentarily from her book, Grace caught site of what she thought was a homeless boy sitting across from her. She felt sad for him for a second, but then he took out an apple from his bag and began eating it. Gross, she thought, who would eat on this train? Loser. Grace had very little tolerance for people like him. It wasn't hard to better yourself and she just couldn't understand why this boy wasn't trying to be better.

Stepping up to the school, Grace felt at home. She was home. Today was the first day of her third year at the performing arts school and this would be her year. She was sure to be voted best in her class, and this was also the year that she would start focusing more on her craft, rather than the pesky school stuff of the last two years. She was bound to become the queen of the choir and ready to take her place in the schools hierarchy that gave students a chance to be on stage in real productions. She was going to be a star this year.

Looking down at her schedule, Grace groaned at her first period. English with Mr. Hasher. She had heard such horrible things about him as a teacher. She didn't understand why she had to continue taking stupid English, she'd been speaking it her whole life. Not only that, she didn't understand why a man like Mr. Haser was still teaching. He hadn't been in a production in ages, and he was a freaking dinosaur in the business. Slowly Grace made her way towards room 113.

Moving in the hallway was exciting. People remembered her, of course, and greeted her. She knew if she kept talking to everyone she would be late, but she also knew that it was more important to make friends of future stars than it was to sit in English class. As the first tones began to ring out in the school house she slid into Mr. Hashers class. He greeted her with a contempt in his eyes, but she had made it, so there was nothing he could do to her anyway. Sitting in the middle row, Grace took out her notebook and began to doodle. This was going to be a long first period.

Gregory rolled out of bed before the sun was up. Blinking at the small alarm clock, he quickly turned to wake his little brother so he could make up the bed. “Jason, come on. First day of school.” Nudging his brother, moving on towards the shower and hoping his brother would be up when he got out.

“Gregory,” his mother called from the other room, “the hot water is out again. I have to go in for a double shift. Can you make sure Lilly and Jason get to school? And that Alan and Daisy get to daycare? I'll take Peter with me.” Leaving no room for him to decent, his mother was out the door before Gregory even processed what she was saying.

Great, another cold shower and I have to get everyone to school? Gregory silently cursed under his breath as he turned the water all way over to hot, praying his mother was wrong. She wasn't. The cold shower left him little time to think about anything but washing up. Today was the first day of school. He couldn't be late.

Moving to the kitchen, Gregory saw that his little sister was already cooking breakfast. “Good morning” he greeted her, hoping his voice was happier than his cold shower mood.

Lilly just threw a hand over her shoulder and continued to scramble some eggs. “Dad didn't send any money this week. The gas was turned off.” Lilly didn't hide her contempt for this fact. Gregory nodded at the back of her head. “Everyone is up, will you get them in here?”

Gregory rounded everyone up into the kitchen as Lilly doled out the eggs. There weren't enough, there never was, so Gregory quickly split his eggs among the younger kids. He tucked a couple apples into his bag, they would just have to do. “Come on everyone, we have to get moving.”

Settling down on the train after dropping off the youngest kids to daycare, Gregory realized how hungry he was. Taking an apple from his bag, he began to think about his day. He was in his third year at the performing arts school, despite being a year younger than most people in his class, and he was excited. Yeah, he knew he wasn't going to get fame this year, but maybe he would get on the chorus line of a musical. That was his goal. Biting into his apple he noticed Grace sitting down the car from him. He knew who she was, but only because she was the biggest diva in the school.

Getting off the train at school meant he was home. This was one place where he wasn't all that different from everyone else, maybe even a little better than them. His mom worked hard to make sure he could go here and he wasn't going to blow it for anything. As he stepped into the building he made his way towards the front office. Caroline, the office attendant, often had some baked goodies on the first day and he was hoping to score a muffin or biscuit.

“Good morning Gregory,” Caroline greeted him. “I saved you a blueberry muffin, your favorite.” Handing him his prize he saw the genuine worry that he knew Caroline felt for him.

“Thanks!” he exclaimed, trying not to scarf down the muffin in front of her. “You make the best muffins.” Waving as he made his way out of the office and towards first period, English with Mr. Hasher. A tough teacher, so he had heard, but it was English and that was one class, outside of performing, that Gregory loved. Stopping at the door of class 113, Gregory wiped his mouth one last time, crumb checking of course. He stepped into the room, excited for the beginning of the school year, and hopefully the best year of his life.

End

Until Next Time!

The cast of characters

So as NaNo is coming closer, I have decided on my characters.

There will be four and they will be diverse.  Why?  Because that gives me a better chance to expand my writing chops and learn about new things.  You have to push your knowledge to grow!

The Characters:

William Riley -
William is a 15 year old male from a big city.  He hasn't lived an overly privileged life, so to speak, but his life hasn't been difficult with regards to money. He is African American, has brown eyes, brown hair.  He stands 5'9", has a slender build, and lives in jeans and teeshirts.

Aisha Lian -
Aisha is a 15 year old female who just moved to the big city from another country.  She is taking in all the amazing aspects of her new city, including going to school and meeting new friends.  She is Egyptian but did not grow up in Egypt.  She stands 5'2", has a small frame and build, and wears mostly skirts.  She is also a hijabi. 

Gregory Townsed -
Gregory is 14 and hates living in the city.  His family is poor, the city is dirty, and he spends hours on subway every day trying to get to and from his school.  He's made a few friends in the city from school and likes that, but other than that, he cannot wait to get old enough to move to the beach.  He is downright skinny, gangly even.  He is 5'6" and owns nothing but jeans and teeshirts.

Grace Alora -
Grace is your typical "mean girl" type.  She is 15, popular, and completely sure she is going to make it in this world.  Her family moved her to the city so she could attend the popular fine arts school.  She has a few friends there, but she tries to keep that part separate from her "real" life of hanging out with rich people.  She appears shallow on the surface, but deep down inside she truly would rather spend all her time with her fellow thespians.  She is 5'4", rather "normally" built. 


Tomorrow we start our NaNo adventures with these four friends! 

Until Next Time!

World Building

As I sit here avoid my novel, I wonder if I were writing what would I be writing about.  That is easy, however, as right now is all about world building!  For my current novel I have to crate a whole new world, unseen before to human eyes.  However, this world has to be close enough to our current world that it is believable.  There is only so much a reader can suspend reality in order to enjoy a book.  Or at least I find there is only so much I can suspend reality.

Right now I am building a planet, not unlike our own, that will support humanity.  It is amazing how easy this can be with the internet.  It is also amazing how difficult this can be because everyone can now search for the information in your book to see if it's real.  (Oh yes, I've done a quick search to see if it's plausible!)

So right now I am finding myself consumed with my new world.  How do my characters see the colors?  How do they move around the hills and the mountains?  What does that butterfly like creature look like?  Are there fish in the seas?  So many questions, which require a lot of floral thinking.  This takes so much time, and 90% of it will never make the final edit.  However, it is important.

Why?

Because it is!

I know, that's a crappy answer.  It is important because how people react to their environment is important.  Think about how you describe things.  When you give people directions do you say "You will turn left at Laren Avenue, the house is 1111" or do you say "You'll turn left at Laren Avenue, it's the 4th street on the right after you get off the highway.  The house is 1111, it's got blue siding and a basketball goal on the front.  It's at the end of the court, on the right!"

The second one is probably closer to how you give directions to your house because you want to explain at much as you can, especially to someone coming for the first time.  The more you know about the area, the easier it is to find the place.  I am finding that it is basically the same thing when it comes to writing.

So there you have it!  Building a new world takes time.  

Writing Space

Next to my notebook of awesomeness, I have to have a clean and nice writing space.  This one is pretty self explanatory, but I'll show you mine and give you a brief explanation. 

Here is an overview of the entire space.

If you click to enlarge, you will see a few notes I put on there about different things on my desk. 

What's that you say?  I write at a desktop?!  Why, yes, most of the time I do write at that desk with my desktop.  I am so out of style, it's okay.  Not only is that a desktop, it's a 10 year old desktop!  Yes, I would love a new desktop, but unfortunately I am not rolling in the money, so I keep my 10 year old desktop.  I also do some writing on my laptop, when I want to go out and about.  My laptop is also nothing fancy.  It is a 2 year old laptop that I got for 150 bucks at a big box store. 

So as you can see, my writing space is not all that fancy.  Neither are my writing gadgets or even my process for writing.  I would write on a typewriter if I owned one! 

Another big part of my writing space is the walls you see all around.  They are purposefully blank.  Why?  Because 9 times out of 10 you will see sheets from the sticky pad up on the wall holding information for characters or outlines.  Like so:

characters on my wall!

I use this method for writing because it lays everything out for me.  I love to have everything at a glance, and this is the best way I have found to do this.  This way if I'm brainstorming a new idea for a new novel I can just use my color coded sticky pads and just outline it and stick it to the wall.  Eventually this will be transferred to my notebook of awesomeness, but at this point it's just hanging out on my wall. 

I try to keep my writing space clean and clutter free, but that doesn't always work.  I don't live in a bubble, and with another person in the house sometimes my desk is the best place to put things.  I do find that when I take the time to keep the desk clear, I write more.  Isn't it funny how that works.

So there is the writing space and my outdated technology!

Until Next Time

Notebook of Awesomeness

Have you ever kept a notebook next to you to write down everything you think of a specific novel or short story?  Then you, my friend, have kept a notebook of awesomeness.

Years ago I bought a composition notebook for 50 cents at the dollar store.  Inside that notebook I composed my first novel.  It was poorly written and had the spelling errors and lack of depth you would expect of a 9 year old, but boy was I so proud!  And thus the idea of the notebook of awesomeness was born.

So what all do you put in the notebook?  Anything and everything related to your story.  And each story gets it's own notebook, so you don't confused ideas. 
 
 Inside my current novel notebook I have pages dedicated for each of the 3 main characters, then a page for scenery, a page that explains small things about the new planet they are on, a page that outlines the entire story, a page that I just write scrap ideas, and a page that gives the moral of the story.  Everything has a page so that I can easily find scrap ideas and expand on them as well as make minor changes to my characters while still keeping everything centrally located.

Random page in my notebook

It also gives me a chance to write down an idea and then scrap it later.  In the above picture you'll see a but of NO written around the page.  Those were ideas that I threw around in my head and wanted to write out, but once I got them down on paper I didn't like the ideas all that much, so I abandoned them.  I never scratch them out, however, so I can always remember that those ideas didn't really work.  Alternatively, it gives me a chance to revisit these ideas later if I need to spice things up a little. 

Character sketch from the notebook

I love having everything centrally located.  It saves me from having to pull up my file on the my computer in order to remember how old one of my character is or where they were born.  It makes the quick writing I do that much quicker.  It also allows me to write down any information I want to explore about that character. 

I love my notebook of awesomeness!

Until Next Time

Character Thumbnail

So reading through the writing for dummies books, one big thing they talk about a lot of is getting to know your main characters.  So I figured I would sketch out a bit about my different characters in hopes of helping you sketch out yours. 

The Main Character Thumbnail seems very interesting to me.  You basically answer 5 questions about your main character and as you progress through the chapter you turn that thumbnail in to a full character bio.  I figured I'd do a couple of them for my characters and as I progress through the chapter I will post new posts which will hopefully, hopefully, end with a full character bio! 

Character Thumbnails:

Name and age: Kent and he is roughly 15 for the majority of the story.
Need/want: Kent wants to understand the new planet, and needs validation from his parents
Consequences of Failure: Not carrying forward humanity, failing his parents, death
Key flaw: Kent has a short temper and is very insecure about things
Core strength: Kent is loyal.

Name and age: Naomi, she is roughly 13 throughout the story
Need/want: She wants to fit in while being a strong, independent woman
Consequences of Failure: death of humanity and herself
Key flaw: Naomi is very secretive, untrusting of everyone and everything she meets.
Core strength: Naomi is tough.

Name and age: Nash, 7
Need/want: To live life to the fullest, wants to grow up to be awesome
Consequences of Failure: sadness
Key flaw: He is 7, his biggest flaw is forgetting what his mom says.
Core strength: Nash is a small boy with a big heart.

So there are three character thumbnails I've put together so far.  Kent and Naomi come from the same book, my Sci-fi young adult novel.  Nash comes from my children's book series idea.  Hopefully writing around these characters and fleshing them out in ways I haven't done before will lead me to a publishing contract... hopefully.

Until Next Time.