WINNER

For the third year in a row I won NANOWRIMO! After finals I will spend every waking moment editing, so I can send it out.

Reign Terror of the Faithful

Things are cooking up this season on Reign! The drama is addicting!

NaNoWriMo Check In

This year I tried something different. Instead of what I normally do writing as I go along I ended up outlining my whole book before I wrote it. I outlined chapters, wrote the synopsis, and pitch. I found myself writing faster than I normally do. I do write fast enough as it is, but this time I ended up trying something different and I am amazed with the results I am getting so far.

Hope everyone else is doing well. I plan on posting my playlist for the story soon.

Reign The Prince of the Blood

New Reign tonight! I wonder how long it's going to take for Francis to admit that he killed Henry.

Liebster Award: 10 Questions Blog Hop

So my friend Nikki Roberti Miller tagged me for the Liebster Award. I have two WIP and another if you count my NaNoWriMo story. I have to answer her ten questions about my work-in-progress, and then tag a few people to answer mine. I'm going to tell you about my NaNoWriMo story Under the Lone Star.


1) How did you come up with your WIP’s title?
The way I came up with my title is kind of funny. I was outlining my book, and I had just put for the title TBA. As I was outlining I was singing a well know tune that is taught in the schools, and BAM I got the title.

2) What motivates you to write?
Music! I must have my music when I am writing. It blocks out the background sound, and the lyrics inspire certain scenes.

3) Do you find yourself putting past experiences in your book? Give an example!
Yes. One of my past experiences writing the scenes underneath where I have the bullet point in my outline. It makes it so easy to write the scene because all I have to do is read the sentence on top.


4) What is your main character’s biggest obstacle?
Learning that you have to do what you think is right for you.


5) What is your crutch word that you always have to go back and delete because you use it too many times?
Walking. Seriously, do they have to walk all the time? Why can't they sit together at a nice little coffee shop.


6) Who is your author role model and why?
J.K. Rowling. I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was seven years old. I never liked reading when I was six, but I saw Harry Potter and the book showed me the magic a book can bring to someone, literally. Everytime I reread her books it gives me the inspiration to be a better writer.


7) What happens in your favorite scene from your WIP?
Sneaking around along with the secrets, and desires. Seriously I don't want to reveal, but let me tell you it's a jaw dropper.


8) Please share a favorite line from your manuscript!
She turned to face him leaving their faces less than an inch. "I never meant to mislead you," she said.


9) Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?
Yes, I have done NaNoWriMo the past three years, and don't plan on skipping a year. It's one of my favorite times of the year.


10) What advice do you have for other authors
When you're writing that first draft DON'T LOOK BACK. Seriously if you constantly go back to edit you will never finish your story. You will spend so much time editing and the story won't get written.



Next I will tag

JC Davis
KT Hanna
Brianna Shrum
Shana Silver
Hayley Stone
AC Billedeaux
Diana Gallagher
Jami Gold

My list of 10 questions

1. Where does your story take place?
2. What genre is your story?
3. What POV is your story told? First person, or third?
4. What 5 songs would best describe your WIP?
5. Are you a plotter or panster? Why?
6. What's your favorite scene in your WIP?
7. Do you find a newly discovered technique helps you with your WIP?
8. Who is your favorite writer?
9. Which actors would you pick if your book was optioned for film?
10. What advice to you have for writers?

Reign Three Queens

A new episode tonight! Best of all it's going to have some cozy moments between Catherine and Mary.

NaNoWriMo Check In

Day Three of NaNoWriMo, and I wrote 10,000 words!

I'm really excited for this story, it's nothing like I ever have written before. Normally I draft faster than this but this semester is piling up on me.

HAPPY NANOWRIMO

NaNoWriMo Pep Talk from Chuck Wendig

Imagine being allowed to do something you’re not supposed to do.

Imagine you’re given the keys to a mud-bogging Bronco, or a dune buggy, or a Lamborghini. And then, you’re pointed toward a field. A soccer field outside a high school, or maybe just a wide open grassland. Nobody there. No kids playing. No animals frolicking. In fact, right now, nobody is here to see you at all.

You have total freedom to rev the engine, slam the pedal to the floor, and gun it through that field. You can do donuts, spinning the car wildly about, flinging up mud, leaving tracks that look like the calligraphy of an old, mad god.

You can slop mud on the car. You can get out and dance in the grass.

You can do whatever you want.

This is not something we’re particularly used to, as adults. My toddler gets it. He isn’t fenced in by the boundaries of adulthood—which, okay, yes, that means he doesn’t necessarily know not to shove a ham sandwich into a whirring fan (instant ham salad!) or not to climb the tallest thing and leap off it like a puma.

But it also means he doesn’t know why he can’t just pick up a pen and start drawing. It means he has no problem grabbing a blob of Play-Doh and creating whatever his fumbling little hands can manage. It means that he’ll grab a Transformers toy and half-transform it into some lumbering robot-car monstrosity—and when an adult might say, “No, no, it’s like this or it’s like that; it’s a robot or it’s a car,” he’s like, “Uh, yeah, no. Go back to your tax forms and your HGTV, stupid adult, I’ve just created a Frankencarbot and you can go hide your head in the sand-swept banality of grown-up life, sucker.”

His entire creative life is the “Everything Is Awesome” song from The LEGO Movie. Because he doesn’t know what he can or can’t do. He doesn’t know about art or form or criticism or any of that. He can do whatever he wants. (Ham sandwiches and fan blades aside.)

And you can do whatever you want, too.

The blank page is yours. Cast aside worries over art and criticism. Imagine a land without rules. Imagine that nobody has ever told you that you cannot or should not do this thing. Those people were wrong. Forget those voices. Because, for real?

It’s an empty field and you’ve got the keys to a freaking Ferrari.

It’s a white tablecloth and you’ve got ketchup, mustard, and relish.

It’s a blank page and you’ve got all the letters and words you need.

Rev the engine and take the ride. Paint with all the colors the condiments at your table allow. Create whatever robot-human monstrosities your mind cares to conjure. Crack open your chest and plop your heart onto the page.

Right now: just write. Donuts in an empty field.

Leave your mark.

Chuck Wendig is the author of the Heartland Trilogy, the Miriam Black series, and The Kick-Ass Writer.