Unexpected

Posted by Marilyn Muñiz on Aug 14th, 2012 in Goals | 0 comments

In the last few weeks I experienced changes more than ever before. Some good and some bad and others just bizarre. I’m still in a haze over the changes in my life but it is slowly lifting. The positive always overcomes the negative in the end.

More than ever my lack of urgency in life has turned to panic in chasing my dream. Instead of running I’m walking to it and miles are adding on every day. The only way to take away the miles is to catch up. My goal over the next few weeks will involve major reworking of my activities. I will focus on my goal of finishing a draft by the end of the year.

I will limit playing WoW until my daily writing goal is complete. I will post to my blog once a week unless it is a holiday week and keep up with my group blogs. I will do anything else needed to complete my goal.

Three simple steps to tackle my dream head on. Look forward to progress!

Fatigue and Shame

Posted by Marilyn Muñiz on Jul 10th, 2012 in Draft, Goals, Ranting, Weekly Goals, Writing | 0 comments

The fog before my eyes the last couple of weeks started to lift this week. I’m exhausted and ready to take long vacation to recover. But time stops for no one. What irks me the most is I could have avoided this extreme fatigue if I stick to my to-do list. Without that list, nothing is completed unless it relates to my father’s care or work.

I swim around without heading to the end of the pool. I don’t touch my draft or anything related to writing. I want to finish but it never gets done. I keep beating the rug outside but it never gets fully cleaned out. I believe my only enemy is myself. It isn’t the doubters who don’t think I will never finish my novel or others who believe there is no future with writing. The person I see in the mirror is the person holding me back.

My personal goals are always pushed back for anything that doesn’t need me to think about writing. I focus on all the wrong things instead of finishing what’s before me. The picture is how I feel on most days. I fake being awake to do any unproductive tasks such as playing World of Warcraft. I can do fun things but I also need to write for carry out my dreams. I wonder if my lack of urgency with it is to blame. That is another soul-searching post in itself.

Knowing is half the battle but doing something about it is the other half. I need to start doing instead of ranting about it anymore.

Lessons Learned By Winning NaNoWriMo

Posted by Marilyn Muñiz on Dec 1st, 2011 in Characters, Goals, WIP Memories Updates, Writing | 0 comments

November was a long month. I didn’t make my original goal of 100k or my revised goal of 75k. After winning last year, I didn’t think there was anything else to learn but I did.

1st Lesson Learned: Life during NaNo cannot be on hold. While I was able to put off most things last year, this year I couldn’t. Thus, the drop in my word count but I somehow made it work out to reach 50k.

2nd Lesson Learned: Only the desire to move forward and finish the novel will keep you writing when you are not feeling well. For a few days, I suffered pain in my wrists. I wrote lightly for those days in hopes the pain will go away. That did not happen. Since I couldn’t continue writing with my wrists like they were, I went to the store purchased two braces to help me. Now I cannot write without them and my wrists don’t hurt any more.

3rd Lesson Learned: Without focus, you will only get so far. In order to be focus enough to write, you need to sleep enough, eat right, maybe take vitamins, and anything that helps you keep your mind on the prize. Once I did all those things together, I sat down and wrote my butt off during the last three days of NaNo.

4th Lesson Learned: When you need to bump up your word count, insert sex scenes into your novel. While that statement was true last year for me, this year’s insert was internal monologue. Writing sex scenes didn’t help me to understand my characters anymore than before. The internal monologue helped me pin down my characters’ past and how it affects them in their current situation. Most of it will be cut during editing but it is a great piece to keep for my character sheets.

Final Lesson Learned: Enjoy everything that happens to you during NaNo. The experience is one of kind for most of us and changes every time.

Next NaNoWriMo, I hope to be writing on the second book of my fantasy series. I will take what I learned from the past two NaNo to write again with pressure looming over my head and learn new things about myself as a writer.

NaNoWriMo Day 1 Review

Posted by Marilyn Muñiz on Nov 2nd, 2011 in Characters, Conflict, Goals, Writing | 0 comments

November has arrived and thus National Novel Writing Month.

The last few months have been tough personally with little time to devote to writing. But now the season of NaNoWriMo is here and time has returned for writing. Since I need to make up so much time, I decided to aim for 100k this month. A total of 3,334 for each day this month. Since I completed 72k last year, I should be able to make my goal for this year.

After many hours yesterday, I made my daily goal late last night. At one point, I believed my goal was too much for me since I haven’t written daily in such a long time. But I pushed myself to keep going and with help from my fellow writers, I completed my goal.

Since I didn’t finish on time last night, I missed my local region Kick-Off Party. I wanted to attend. But I need I would never finish my count for the day if I did. Priority is getting words written before any social gathering. Because I chat and forget to write during them.

Off to finish my Day 2 goal!

A New Week, Another New Idea

Posted by Marilyn Muñiz on Jun 6th, 2011 in Edits, Goals, Weekly Goals, WIP Memories Updates, Writing | 0 comments

I’m making more changes to the first chapter of my novel. I always believe the last change will be the final one, but when I start to write more scenes, another idea forms inside my head. Somehow I can’t stop myself from making notes and deciding this is better than the last one. I can’t seem to stop constructing the first chapter and in two weeks I need to turn in the chapter to my instructor for edits.

It bothers me to a point and then I’m fine with the changes. My novel will be complex enough to fulfill my personal taste in books. This novel is more for me than anyone else. If I don’t plan on writing a book I want to read, then why am I writing in the first place? I am a reader before I am a writer.

Somehow the lack of satisfaction is driving me to seek better ideas to create something I really want to read. I want layers upon layers in my work. The first layer is the enjoyment of reading the book. The second is finding the hints to future scenes. The third is researching the symbolism used and so forth. The number of layers depends on how far I push myself to add them in. I want the readers to choose how far they go in understanding my work, so I need to give them plenty of them.

To do this, these new ideas need to keep coming. Otherwise, I won’t have layer after layer of material for anyone to go through. When I love a book, I research online to find as much information as possible. From theories to character description to future prediction, I soak this information up. My series should be no different because that is the type of novel I want to read.

With that being said, my goals for this week are:

1. Finish editing my first chapter.

2. Continue writing scenes.

3. Complete my workshops assignments.

4. Research names to be used.

While this does not cover everything, these are my priorities for this week. Until the next post!