NaNo kicked off over twelve hours ago here, and a bunch of my friends are already well underway.

As for me, I’m sitting in the kitchen in my PJs, preparing to watch some TV shows and maybe have breakfast. I participated (and won hardcore) in 2008, and participated (and lost pathetically) in 2009, but this year, I’ve got too many other things to focus on. I have several books in need of dire work – the last thing I need is another rough draft to sit on!

Besides, I wrote 40k in March and over 57k in August, so I already feel pretty well-accomplished this year.

I do have a November project: edit The Hands of Cally Wu. No fixed goal, no deadline, just something I’ll be busying myself with. I’ve fallen in love with the book all over again, flawed as it is right now, and I think it’ll be great to polish it up and see what betas think of it. I’ve got a publisher in mind to send it to, as well. (Assuming the agent I’ll no doubt have by the time I finish this book won’t have other ideas for it. AHEM!)

It feels nice to have a plan of action again.

Good luck to everyone embarking on NaNoWriMo; let me know what you’re working on in the comments! I’d love to hear about all your projects.

May you OWN those 50k words like there’s no tomorrow, guys.

I’ve been neglecting WIP Wednesday terribly as of late. The embarrassing truth is that I simply haven’t been doing much that warrants WIP Wednesday-ing; it’s hard to share snippets when beta reading, and though I truly intended to do some writing of my own, I, uh… didn’t.

That’ll change by next week: though I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo all official-like, I do want to set a personal goal for November so I won’t be sitting on the sidelines while everyone else is busy writing on the wind.

The nature of this goal? Beats me. Right now the most likely candidates:

* Revising The Hands of Cally Wu
* Finishing the rough drafts of Heirs and some short stories

I do have one goal before November: to finish a commission I’m working on. Right now, it looks like this:

I promise it’ll look less terrifying soon.

No updates for a while, I know.

In part, this is because I’ve given up on NaNo (mental health stuff, long story) and haven’t particularly felt like admitting this publicly. You understand, I’m sure – the undying shame is a bit much. I made it to 18.7k, and am undecided on whether to finish it at some point or not. For now, I’m leaning towards yes, and am tentatively brainstorming plot fixes.

In part, it’s because my cat Shady, who’d been with me for nineteen years, recently died, which has been hard on me. I didn’t feel like I could do a blog post without mentioning that, and wasn’t quite sure how to go about it, so, er, I guess this is it. I’d go into it more, but I’m not exactly sure what to say, so, y’know. I won’t.

In part, it’s because I’m terribly, terribly lazy.

In short – I managed to complete enough work to submit to the exposition, and over the course of the next month or so will be doing a bunch of posts where I show off my process. It’s not a particularly exciting process, involving a lot of pastel dust and tea, but I have to have something to fill up this blog with, right?

So let’s get to it. Drawing number one, also known as “Nekkid #1″ and “Boobies!” and a variety of other names, none of which are suitable for the actual exposition.

My set-up. Lots and lots of soft pastels and pastel pencils, a fancy easel, and a computer to have the reference photo on. (I hear it’s a good multi-tasker, too. It might even be able to use Twitter and check your e-mail while you’re drawing. Just sayin’.)

As far as the drawing goes – this is 50x65cm drawing paper, 200 grams per square meter. Initially I sketched the drawing – including the shading outlines – with a brown pencil, which you should be able to see if you full-view, then went over it with a darker pencil. When I was happy with the basic shape and proportions, I started sketching in the darkest parts.

(This photo was taken on Wednesday, November 4th, 8.56 PM.)

Introduced two new colours. (Photo taken: 9.09 PM.)

… and a couple more, eventually layering them. (Photos taken: 9.17 PM, 9.34 PM, 9.59 PM.)

More colours and more layering. It’s starting to take shape, especially when looked at from a distance. (10.37 PM.)

Adding in a background. In this case, because the focus is on the body, there doesn’t need to be much detail. The darkness is essential, though – both because the intense shadows on the body indicate dark surroundings, and to make the light pop more. With the shape basically there, the trick now is to get the colours to look right, and for them to blend well. This includes an awful lot of layering and blending – which I do with my fingers, which is something nearly every professional will tell you not to do. I’m a rebel, I guess.

Because of the way the light changes between photos – day, night, lamps, flash or no flash, etc. – the colours look very different between shots. In this case, the photo on the right is closest to reality. (Photos taken: Tuesday, November 4th, 11.05 PM; Wednesday, November 5th, 1.40 PM. I’m a late sleeper.)

It seems a bit ridiculous to update photos with so little changes between them, but I decided to go ahead anyway, because… that’s kind of the point. As the times I keep mentioning indicate, I draw fast. The basic set-up is usually done in a matter of hours. Actually finishing it is a matter of days of continuous work. You might not be able to see it, but it’s there, and it’s an equally important part of the process. (2.00 PM.)

And on the topic of silly details… Here’s some other parts of the process. Smudging by hand has its side effects, and working with pastels this intensively causes huge amount of pastel dust build-up. You should be able to see a bunch inbetween the pastel sticks, as well as gravity-defying lines on the paper.

It is generally a good idea to draw/colour all parts of the body at the same time – that way you don’t have to look around to see what colours you used, you don’t suddenly realise you forgot about [x], et cetera.

As a rule, I don’t have good ideas, and will save the face for last. (Thursday, November 5th, 11.57PM; Friday, November 6th, 12.10 AM & 12.22 AM.)

More ridiculous detail work. Spot the differences! (Friday, November 6th, 2.29 PM & 3.11 PM.)

… and then we come to something resembling an end. I’m sure I made more changes after this – among other things, I extended the background on the right – but you get the point. (Photo taken: Saturday, November 7, 11.22 PM. As you can imagine, I skipped a ton of shots inbetween.)

A note on all the times listed: I am an awful procrastinator, and there’s a good chance I did things like check my e-mail, chat online, Twitter, watch TV, eat lunch, pet my cat, and stare off into nothingness in-between shots. This makes those times totally unreliable, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

Also, none of these photos were edited in any way. They’re straight from the camera.

I hope this was somewhat interesting/informative to those of you interested in art – or at least my art, because lord knows this is hardly a how-to guide. If you’ve got any questions, holler, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

And check back in on some day that’s not Wednesday for progress shot on another drawing. Next up: charcoal. My favourite

14972 / 50000 words. 30% done!

Note to self: getting work done on both writing and art, but not as much as you would have had you just been focusing on one or the other, actually feels amazingly unsatisfying.

But progress is progress, and I’m fairly happy with how the first of the drawings is going. It’s kind of funny how every time I start working with soft pastels, I panic because I don’t know how to use them – and every time it turns out just fine.

And no, telling myself that doesn’t help one bit with the initial panic.

This time, I took photos of how it looks in the early stages, so there’s probably another WIP Thursday in the future where I’ll lay them all out and describe the process, and you can share my early moments of “WTF am I making!?”

It’ll be fun. Promise.

On the writing front, I got one chapter done, as well as a bit of plotting. Having an ending is great, but inevitably followed up by realising all the problems that come with said ending.

But now I’ve got a list of issues to iron out, so I’ll have something to think about when drawing. (Something other than “boobies!” or “this is NEVER going to work” or “I wonder what I’ll have for dinner today”, anyway.)

On the Face Your Manga front:

On the left: Lillian, my main character from Always Read the Fae Print. Don’t be fooled by that innocent facade. She’s cray-zee – but hopefully in a most enjoyable way. Oh, I’m already aching to start editing this book…

She’s actually got a highly visible scar on her neck, but oddly enough, that wasn’t an option in the program.

On the right, my perky goth character Merel, the previously mentioned female version of Leonard. She doesn’t actually have that tattoo on her face, but it suits her perfectly.

This one cracks me up. It’s so much like her. She’s another character from Always Read the Fae Print. Disturbingly, she’s probably the sanest of the lot.

… that should tell you a lot about this book.

Anyhow, it’s off to bed with me. Gotta be up nice and early to take care of this mess of a house and then get it filthy with pastel dust again. Mmm, art.

13197 / 50000 words. 26% done!

The world is giving me conflicting messages.

First, Changelings You Should Know About blows up in my face, prompting me to work on Stranger instead; I figure I’ll give it a few days to see if it works out, and if not, I’ll go focus on editing Always Read the Fae Print. To my surprise, Stranger chugs along nicely, ending every day with a word count well ahead of schedule. There’s minor panic, because I have no ending, and no outline–until it gives me an ending and an outline.

Huzzah.

I’m optimistic. Happy to be writing a rough draft again, happy to be making progress, happy to have a freakin’ ending.

And then the world decides to be a jerk and sends me an invitation to a fancy art exposition–which would be fabulous, except I have to submit my art by November 20th.

SIGH.

So NaNo’s getting put on halt while I try to dash out four exposition-worthy pieces of art in record time. After that, I’ll have another ten days to try to finish the book in.

I can do that, right? I wrote a whole 70k in ten days last year. How hard can this be?

Gulp.

To spare you my OVERWHELMING PANIC, here’s your daily Face Your Manga dose.

Here’s two characters from Wielders, a book that’s technically shelved–but its characters won’t get out of my head. You know how it goes. On the left, Emily, who actually sports a dashing ‘fro, but the avatar maker didn’t sport that option. Not cool. Anyway, she’s an living breathing emo train, but the cutest one you ever did see.

On the right, Nicholas, the self-centered jerk every book truly needs.

… I have no cutesy anecdotes. He’s just a jerk. Sorry, Nicholas.

Anyway, I need to get back to drawing nekkid people, lest I get behind. (Did I mention this exposition has a theme? ‘Cause it does: nekkid people. How many people have a job that forces them to study nekkid people all day long? Seriously.)

So it’s 1.30PM and I haven’t written a thing yet.

I did, however, choose an excerpt to share with y’all for WIP Wednesday. (I’m kind of loving having another rough draft to work on. It’s been so long, short stories notwithstanding.)

Scene: MC walks into the diner where she works and is confronted by Dan, her sort-of-adoptive younger brother who she hasn’t seen in years.

Leonard, a colleague, tries to help her get rid of him.

      “She hadn’t told you a thing, has she?” Dan’s still looking at Leonard. “You think she’s just a regular fucking girl.”
      My heart skips a beat. Feels like something is wrapping around my throat, suffocating me. “No,” I say. “Dan — no. You can’t —”
      “Here.” He takes something from his pocket, thrusts it at Leonard. I make a grab for it — too late. Leonard’s already seen.
      He only shrugs. “Yeah. It’s a photo. Good for you. Do I need to call my boss over or are you going to leave on your own?”
      “This photo? Taken five years ago. Look at her. Just fucking look at her!”
      He does — just a glance. It’s enough to know he’s starting to doubt.
      None of that is in his voice when he goes on. “I don’t care. Please keep your voice down and leave.”
      “She hasn’t changed. At all. Five years.”
      “Xui Li, you don’t have to stay here. Just head into the back room, I’ll make sure this gets dealt with.”
      I don’t move.
      If Dan took after Lang in more ways than the physical — this could get ugly. I can’t leave Leonard. Or those kids. Not even their parents, who gave up on trying to keep the party going and are just standing there now, and staring, like it’s some kind of damned movie.
      “You ever seen her eat?” Dan shouts. “Drink? Ever see her go to the bathroom, or — or cut herself, or bleed or burn? Did you see her hair grow? She ever cuts her nails? She’s not — fucking — human!”
      “That’s ridiculous.” My voice sounds steady. Normal. I look at Dan as I say it and I don’t flinch.
      Doesn’t matter.

Yeah, that’s first person present tense. It’s a first for me, as far as novels go. I’m still not entirely sure if I’m pulling it off well or if the story truly needs it, but that’s the way it came to me and I’m finding it awfully hard to shake.

If nothing else, I figure it’s good practice, right?

11164 / 50000 words. 22% done!

4k a day keeps the crazy stress away.

Er, sort of.

Hitting my goal of the day meant I allowed myself to go a leetle bit crazy with that Face Your Manga thing from yesterday. (Blame Cate for reminding me.)

Means I’ve got, er, twelve new avatars to show now, so I’m thinking I’ll spread them out over a couple of posts. Gives me something to post during NaNo aside from crazy stressing over my lack of an outline.

(Oh holy crap how am I going to end this. And how am I only at 11k? Do I have enough story left for 60k? PANIC!)

Ahem.

On the left: Leonard, who will probably be renamed at some point. He’s a main character in Stranger, and he’s loud, unfamiliar with the concept of privacy, me time, and incapable of grasping subtlety. He’s totally desperate for human contact, too. He sort of reminds me of Merel, a side character in Always Read the Fae Print, except she’s better at picking up social cues and she’s somewhat more laid-back.

Which, er, says a lot, if you know her.

On the right: Valentijn, a secondary character in Always Read the Fae Print and would-be main character of Changelings You Should Know About, which was my NaNo project for, oh, about sixty minutes.

… this picture of him makes me so happy. It’s very him. He’s cute, and he’s a nerd, and I wub him, and I’d wub him a hell of a lot more if he actually let me write his book.

Some other day!

7175 / 50000 words. 14% done!

Can someone pretty please tell me what on earth is going to happen in chapters five and six?

Or any chapter after that?

I’m terrified.

And procrastinating. From Face Your Manga, an avatar of Yunupaya–

How cute is that? I’m going to need to collect these things.

But first, er, I should finish this book. I’m aiming for 60-70k; oh, the joys of YA.

Does it still count as YA if your MC is technically twenty-two, but has been physically stuck at age seventeen for the past five years?

Should I be worrying about that at this point?

Have I completely lost the ability to write using proper paragraphs?

Well.

That was unexpected.

Despite all my werewolf love, at one AM last night – yes, that’s a whopping hour after the start of NaNo, thank you very much – I felt pretty much like giving up.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t feel right. This? Did not feel right.

I contemplated my options: keep pushing to see if I could get past this block, as I was only at 1500 words, or give up and start on the next draft of Always Read the Fae Print.

I went for option C, which involves writing another book entirely. For a plotter like me, it’s pretty terrifying to start on something I haven’t spent the six months brainstorming.

On the other hand? I guess this is what NaNo feels like. Who knows – something good might come out of it. So far, so good:

3047 / 50000 words. 6% done!

Anyway, the new book is a YA science-fiction, featuring the chick below as its main character.

Meet Yunupaya. She’s a trans-dimensional refugee and she’s very pleased to meet you.

The book has the positively awful working title of Stranger, which will certainly be changed once I kick my brain into high gear. For now, it’s still too busy focusing on what on earth is happening in chapter four…

NaNoWriMo: T minus 101 minutes.

Yeah, I’m doing it again this year, and despite last year’s success, I’m a nervous wreck. Instead of feeling comforted by knowing I can do this, I’m fretting over whether I can do it again. Sigh.

On the bright side, I got my first acceptance in over a year last week: Sniplits will be publishing my short story “Rule of Threes”. Yeah – that’s the one with the man-eating salamanders. I’m mad excited, and really curious to hear it in audio form. That should keep me motivated for a few weeks, right?

Besides, this should be a fun project: werewolves, fae, Germanic gods, half-changelings, assassination plots… good times, good times.

From that description, you might gather that this is a sequel to last year’s NaNo book, Always Read the Fae Print, with a working title of Changelings You Should Know About. Being a sequel, it’s low-pressure – I’m not writing it with the goal of eventual publication (that’d be a bit presumptuous, considering I haven’t even started querying book one), but a) as practise and b) to get the voices in my head to shut up.

As a side project, I’ve made it my personal goal to convince as many people as possible to incorporate werewolves into their NaNo plot. Current count: 3.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

Hour and a half left before I start writing. I guess I’d better go stare at my outline some more. Wish me luck!