Did this last Sunday, for no reason other than that I wanted to draw Lei looking like the nerd he is. Came out better than I expected, though I still need a lot of practice coloring.
Anyway, the point of this entry is that I’m going on a writing hiatus for the next month. As great as it was that I wrote 50,000 words in November, I’m not even halfway done with the story. NaNoWriMo worked really well in getting me to buckle down and get it started, so I’m going to try it again with a higher goal and bit more time in hopes of getting to the end of the draft.
From 1 February to 7 March, I’m going to aim to write 2,000 words a day for a total of 70,000 more words. My best estimate is that this draft will end up at around 120,000 words, and I’d like to just buckle down and finish it so I can start on the long editing process.
Of course, I’ll still drop in now and then with a new doodle I’ve done or just to give an update, but other than that, I’m hoping to have a writing-filled February. Wish me luck!
posted 31 January 2010 in site updates, art, writing. 2 comments.
Hello, my neglected blog, and happy new year to you. I’ve been remiss in updating here lately, but hopefully the huge update in the gallery has remedied this. I have eight new artworks from the past two months, all doodles that turned into “hey why don’t I try to ink this? hey this looks okay, why don’t I try to color this?”
Joking aside, I can definitely see improvement in my artwork. I still have a long way to go before I can consider myself anything close to good, but I have a better grasp of anatomy and shading than I did before. I can already look at artwork from 3-4 months ago and think it looks awful, so with more time I’ll probably improve more. Until then, though, I have to practice!
posted 24 January 2010 in site updates, art. Leave a comment?
50698 / 50000 words. 101% done!
I won NaNoWriMo! I won on the 29th, actually, with 50,423 words, and wrote a bit more the next day. I’m not even halfway through the story and what I have is pretty terrible, but it’s a draft I can actually edit, unlike the previous drafts, and for that I’m thankful. I honestly didn’t think I’d make it when I decided to do it the day before it started, but I pushed myself to write even when I had no idea how to fill the plot holes or get my characters going.
The one thing I didn’t expect to get from NaNo was the drive to keep writing. I have a good long ways to go before this draft is finished, but I figured once November was over it’d sit around and collect dust. On the contrary, I’ve been keeping at it, writing at least a couple hundred words every day to keep it going. More than anything else, I don’t want to stop writing now that I’ve found how much I love it again. I think there’s actually hope that I’ll finish this draft and be able to start polishing it.
I have been taking the time to doodle, though. This is the first artwork I’ve actually liked after inking in quite a while, so I decided to color it and it came out better than I expected. Partway through the story, my characters undergo a mysterious hair- and eye-color change, and she goes from normal blond to funky purple. I prefer the latter, myself.
Back to writing I go, then!
posted 2 December 2009 in site updates, art, writing, orenji pan. Leave a comment?
31391 / 50000 words. 63% done!
As you can see from my word count, NaNo is going quite well. I’m about halfway (probably two-thirds) through Part Three, and I think I’ll probably be starting Part Five when I hit the 50,000-word mark. I’m still pretty amazed at myself for making it this far! I’ve had a few days that the writing’s been tough or just not happened, but it’s flowing, all the same, day by day.
However, I’ve gotten to the point that my characters know more about what’s going on in the story than I do. I wrote a scene tonight that had no basis in the first draft or even in my outline, but it single-handedly figured out some of my biggest plot problems and gave me something to fill the gaps left by character changes. What’s more, it’s not the first time this has happened — the other day I was writing a tragic backstory that ended with the girl in question getting her revenge by sniping the men who killed her parents. Nowhere had I planned for her to be a killer, but it found its way in and stuck somehow.
I never would have gotten this far without Write or Die. I have a tendency to write a line, pause, and reread it and the past few paragraphs before continuing on. With Write or Die, I can’t even stop for a few seconds to do anything unless I want the page to turn red and Rick Astley to start blaring. It’s the best writing motivator I’ve ever had, and I couldn’t be more thankful for it. I’ve also really liked the new writing program I got, Liquid Story Binder XE, which is about everything I’ve ever wanted but never got with Microsoft Word. I’m definitely going to take them up on their November deal when I get paid.
Aside from writing, my life’s been consumed lately by VDex, which is an online, battle-less Pokémon game. It’s absolutely addicting and perfect for a Pokémon fanatic like myself who wants to catch ‘em all. (My trainer card is here — I’ve been a bit busy catching Pokémon!)
I’ve also found time to do a bit of art, mostly when I’m procrastinating on writing. Lately I’ve felt that I need to work less on improving my coloring and more on just sketches and drawing in general. I drew and inked this last week, but went back the other day and inked it by hand instead of using the line tool, just to get the feel of it. I colored it anyway, mostly to play with the brush tool, but I didn’t even bother coloring properly in the lines.
Lately I’ve felt like all of my sketches have been mediocre, and I keep scrapping them instead of trying to do anything with them. I think what I need most is practice, though, so I’ll probably work on sketches and simple coloring instead of full artworks. They’ll probably be posted here in the blog instead of in the gallery, hopefully so I can see myself improve over time. (Maybe I’ll even try my hand at requests for practice after NaNo finishes? You never know!) In any case, grumpy ol’ Lei was fun, although I’m not sure I got my own color scheme right. Lei looks good in dark blue, though.
I’ve had more than enough typing for one day, so I think that’s enough from me. Until next time!
posted 19 November 2009 in art, writing, orenji pan, websites. 3 comments.
5001 / 50000 words. 10% done!
Like many others this month, I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. Every November, writers challenge themselves to write a 50,000-word novel in one month, which results in a lot of writing! The key is to not edit it and instead to just write, write, write and see what comes out in the end, for better or for worse.
I’ve attempted to participate several times after the past few years, all with terrible results (last year’s total was 6,284), but this time I’m going to do my best to see it through to the end. I’m rewriting Orenji Pan from the ground up, which it’s desperately needed since about the time I finished the first draft in 2003. So far, I’m on track with the word count goals, and though I can see a lot of points that will require serious editing, even getting this much done is a win for me. I’ve figured out more things about the story I want and need to change in the past three days than I have in the past six years, and I finally feel like I have something worth editing. I won’t be finished by the time I hit 50,000 words, but I’m hoping that the accomplishment will get me to finish rewriting it so that I can properly edit it.
That is, if I make it that far. I’ve been able to force myself to get this far, but it’s not been entirely easy. The first day I managed to just let myself write and not fret too much about what I was writing, but the second was a struggle, and today I kept procrastinating even though I knew exactly what I’d be writing. I already know there will be days I won’t have as much time to write, like days I’ll be stuck at work all day, and I hope I’ll be able to make up for it when I have to. My carpal tunnel isn’t helping matters, either…
Anyway, I doubt I’ll be doing much art this month, since I’m focusing on writing above all other hobbies, but I’ll update when I can. Wish me luck!
posted 4 November 2009 in writing, orenji pan. 1 comment.
