A Fantasy Writer's Asylum

Day 1

2010-04-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

Previous Days Accomplishments: Na-da. Nothing. Zip.

I spent yesterday in Winnipeg and drove home in the evening. It was a very un-productive weekend, but was well worth the lack of progress because I got to see my best friend and my Grandma. : )

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T11:26:00.002-05:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Thus far, I am not off to a good start. Lol. I was so excited to have the weekend off to write ALL DAY for TWO whole days! BUt then I got invited to Easter dinner with my family. So I drove to WInnipeg yesterday, and got to spend the night with my best friend, and now I am getting ready to go out to lunch with her and her parents. Then Easter dinner later on and a drive back home. Yay!

Friday, April 2, 2010

2010-04-02T10:04:00.006-05:00

Previous Days Accomplishments: I spent some time yesterday organizing the previous information that I had collected for Story 'A'. I had already completed my character summaries, but there were minor changes that needed to be made. I had previously spent quite some time on getting research material together, that I went over again as a refresher. And I had a scene swirling around in my brain all day that I jotted down in my notebook, so I dare not forget.

So while I did not meet my 1000 word/day goal, I (re)set the foundation to begin writing the story and am looking so forward to beginning today.

Many of you might remember that I struggled greatly with the task of coming up with a title, or at least a temporary one, for Story 'A'. For the sake of my sanity, I am going to refer to Story 'A' as Dreamscape for the time being. As much as I wish I could be more creative with it, I am just going to have to deal. : D

Thursday, April 1, 2010

2010-04-01T15:12:00.005-05:00

For those of you who have been following me since I started A Fantasy Writer's Asylum, you have probably noticed that I have been MIA for the last month. For this reason, I have deleted all of my old posts and am starting fresh.

I am re-committing my time to my writing and am going to strive to write a minimum of 1000 words a day. I am going to keep track of my daily word count so you all can follow along with my progress.

At this time, my focus is to complete Story 'A', a young adult novel with a tinge of a fantasy element to it. My goal is to meet a word count of 70,000 or more.

Wish me luck!

Happy 101 Award

2010-01-29T18:15:00.002-06:00

cbrett60 from A Pirates Bounty was kind enough to give me the Happy 101 Award!

Here are the rules: List 10 things that make you happy. Try to do at least one of them today. Tag ten bloggers that brighten your day. Link back to the person that tagged you.

10 Things That Make Me Happy: (In no particular order)

1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Singing
4. Playing the piano
5. Eating
6. Sleeping
7. Blogging
8. Cross-country skiing
9. Travelling
10. Playing with my animals

I have done all of those things today except for 8 and 9. : )

The 10 blogs that brigthen my day are:

365 Days of Novel Writing
Parajunkee's View
Reading with Tequila
Steph Su Reads
Mindful Musings
Teens Read and Write
The Story Siren
Tynga's Reviews
The Sordid's Domain of Random Inspiration
the Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object

Welcome to the Asylum!

2010-01-09T01:33:00.005-06:00

Well, what do you think of the new look? I hope you all like it, but I know that I LOVE it.

Once again, Rachel from Parajunkee Design is responsible for the beautiful layout that you see before you. Don't you just love the black padded walls? ~snickers~

I haven't had an opportunity to really focus on getting organized as of yet, but I am happy to report that I have the weekend off! Both Saturday AND Sunday! Holy canoli!

My plans for tomorrow are to finish reading Fired Up and post the review on Book Bound and then get to work on collecting all of my notebooks and scraps and computer files, THEN attempting to make sense of them all so that I can finally begin the writing process.

I also joined a local writing group last night and am required to write a one page short to read for next Thursday, so that is also on my to do list this weekend.

At the moment, I am feeling very inspired and motivated...I only hope that it will last throughout the weekend!

Introduction

2010-01-07T13:44:00.001-06:00

I started reading at an early age and learned to love all of the classics, like Charles Dickens ...he was one of my favourite writers as a kid. Once I got to high school, something changed and reading and I fell out of love. Besides the occasional Jodi Picoult book and re-reading Memoirs of a Geisha every other month after its release, I rarely picked up a book for years.

About a year and a half ago, I read my very first romance novel by pure coincidence (I’ll save the story for another time) and that flame, that love, that burning desire was reignited inside of me. I became more fascinated with books that I ever had been, immersing myself into the world of fantasy and the paranormal. Every story sprung to life in my mind and I began to live vicariously through the characters that I both loved and hated.

But then, a new fire sparked to life one day, one that had never once been there before. I began to dream about a girl, searching for something, something important, until one day while I was reading...it was like there was a knock at the periphery of my consciousness. I had the sudden urge to write, so I grabbed a pen and paper and began jotting down random details about a girl named Adalee, the same girl from my dreams.

More and more characters came to me, and within no time I had the foundation laid for Adalee’s story to be told. When I realized that I apparently had an imagination all my own and wanted to WRITE, a flurry of emotions overcame me.
I was excited, doubtful, terrified, apprehensive, eager...a spectacular combination of emotions that churned in my belly to the point of making me nauseous. But nonetheless, I spent days fleshing out the details of the story line and finally began to write the prologue.

After writing the first draft, I sent it to an online friend to read it over and critique it. She loved the premise, but felt that the writing thus far had taken on a more YA voice. I didn’t like that. Not at all. So I rewrote the prologue several times over, trying to find a new voice and became more and more dejected each time that I failed.

So...I shelved it.

That was a year ago. Since then, I have come up with two other story ideas...or should I say they came to me...and have written out the details of each story. The plot, the character summaries, the chapter outlines...the flesh and bone of the story. But it’s all missing one key component...the life blood required to bring the story to life. The actual WRITING!

So, I started this writing blog so that I had place in which I could track my progress, good and bad, and be held accountable to myself and anyone who is kind enough join me on my journey. I plan to update every day on the development of my writing and strive to reach the goals in which I have set for myself this year.
Overall, my ultimate target is to write every day. Not to aim for word count, or page numbers...simply to write SOMETHING every single day.

It’s time to relieve myself of my own reservations and believe in my ability.

And I do believe.

Work in Progress

2010-01-01T23:51:00.004-06:00

Story 'A'

Title: unknown
Genre: Young Adult

General info: Stand alone.

Character Summaries:
Word Count:

114 / 70000 words. 0% done!

**********************

Story 'B'

Title: Unknown
Genre: Paranormal Romance

General info: Series.

Character Summaries:
Word Count:

Awards

2010-01-01T18:45:00.000-06:00

Below is a list of all of the awards that A Fantasy Writer's Asylum has been fortunate enough to receive. The link will bring you to the original award post.

Happy 101 Award