Camp Nano Day 19

This is the update for Day 19. Nearly 3 weeks in, which means I should have written nearly 16 000 words. What do you think?

Of course I haven't! BUT I have written 8327 words, so it's not that bad.
I've had a good stab at my dreaded first chapter, managing to scramble over some hurdles, though I'm not done yet.
I've also worked on some of the last scenes. I wanted to make some changes for two reasons. The first is that as part of my ongoing attempt at making my story less moralistic, I've cut down on the preachy stuff and therefore had to condense some of it and change the scenes. Now it's all at the end and is fairly short - kind of Dumbledore style.

Love Richard Harris!

The other reason is that I have added an epilogue! Wouhou!

The other day I was in the pub with friends from singing and talking about my prologue. I was saying I might change it because, although some of what happens is hinted at later on, it never gets explained. In fact it only really gets explained in book 2 (have I mentioned this is a trilogy?). Which is a tad problematic. So my friend Chris suggested writing an epilogue from the point of view of the character from the prologue, to tie things together. I thought it was a brilliant idea because it would allow me to reveal some things but only to tease the reader, and tie the whole trilogy together through these tidbits at the beginning and at the end. And it allowed me to keep my prologue, which I like.

So there, that's the rundown so far. Some progress is better than no progress, I always say! On the other hand, I've looked at how much I have achieved so far compared to how much I still need to do, and it's rather depressing...

cover

A couple of weeks ago I had made a cover for the book for my NaNo page (which you might have noticed already). I tweaked it a little, so for your enjoyment and enteraintment, I reveal my book cover:

This reminds me I never really mentioned what my book is called. I think I'll do a post about that some time, so if you have any thoughts... hold onto them!

Feel free to comment on the cover, though, but please note I am limited by my very rudimentary photoshopping skills. The original picture is this:

I love the colours, and it was a shame to lose them, but the greyscale fits better. I might try and make one later keeping the colours but fiddling with the cover somehow.

If you are at all interested, this is the technical bit:

I used the freeware GIMP to set the pixel size (needed for the NaNo website), change the colours and add a title. Thinking about it now, I should have probably made a high res poster and then restricted the pixel size, but nevermind. 

I found the picture through Google Advanced Image search but it is hosted by pixabay. The picture is completely public domain -it has a CC0 license, which means it's free to edit and use, even commercially. It always amazes me that people are willing to put their work up for others to use as they wish, with no restriction and no need for recognition. Still, I feel the guy deserves some credit, so this is his page. The same goes for the acorns. It's some old engraving that is now royalty free and hosted by openclipart.org.

Let me know what you think!

NaNo update day 13

I like the number 13. A good day to report on my NaNo progress.

I have finally started, which is, you know... good. And what's more I've been working on Stus and my first chapter: 3350 words down! It took me a long time to get back into it, so some of those words are background information. It doesn't really matter for the camp, though. Since I'm rewriting it's not about making my book longer but getting those revisions done, and here writing some background was needed. 

Day 13 means I should be at nearly 11k, but considering I've been on holiday and visiting relatives (and only started 5 days ago), I think it's not too bad.

Nano Update week 1

Just a quick one before I fly off to France, since I haven't given an update on my NaNo yet. It’s been going on for a week now, and I am proud to announce that I have written a grand total of 0 words.

Yep, that’s right: I haven’t written anything!

I do have excuses. I’ve had a very busy week and an even busier weekend. ‘What could possibly be more important that the NaNo?’ I hear you ask. Well, a lot of things, it seems. Things that were becoming urgent, like clearing up the room that had been taken over by folders and papers I had taken home from school. Or getting my parents’ car’s MOT done. Then, since I had gotten started, I thought I’d do ALL my chores before writing. That way my mind would be worry-free. Except it’s taken me three days to do the chores, and I’m not even sure I’m finished.

I swear it wasn’t procrastination: I have been itching to write all weekend. I even have ideas for a new prologue (that, on the other hand, might be procrastination).

But now I’m off to France for a short break and I can finally get started. After I proof read my sister’s script. And write a review for a book I loved. After that, I promise, I’ll get started.