Thursday, December 25, 2014

8 Ways to Put Off Writing Your Novel

1. One word: Tumblr




2. Actually, make that another word: Pinterest





3. Consider new ways of complimenting someone

The Surrealist Compliment Generator, man. It says the strangest, loveliest things. Go on, try it. Here are some of my favourites: 

If you were a camel your humps would be esoterically bald from overuse. 

Your soul contains all that is found in insects, pigs and vermin.

Your nasal linings will last as long as the skin of rocks, thrust enigmatically upon a distant shorline of mating beetles. 

I find your eye sockets to be a wondrous amusement park of neo-plastic pleasures and oncogenic delights.

Seven donkeys and a concubine cannot compare with the tarnished sheen left in your path of combustion. 


 photo JT thanks i guess_zpsfbgrgfkc.gif

Can you tell I've refreshed it many times. Ha!



4. Fangirl over other people's writing

from Stay, by Deb Caletti

from The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern



5. Clean your room

Because I'm a neat freak that way. Not because I'm trying to procrastinate. Definitely not.


6. Look for new music on Spotify and 8tracks

What? I'm making a playlist. FOR THE NOVEL, OF COURSE.


7. Read terrifying reviews on Goodreads

I go in there to look for book recommendations, only to end up reading snarky reviews that are equal parts mean (imagine if you were the writer!) and hilarious.



It's enough to make you swear off putting your work out there ever again.


8. Write a blog post on how to procrastinate


9. And um, Boxing Day sales, y'all!

 photo mean girls shopping_zpssqcmzolq.gif

 Really, who can resist? At the very least, it helps to take my mind off the fact that another year has come and gone and I still haven't achieved shit.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

when not writing, I am planning an itinerary


It's mid-December already?! How did THAT happen? Where did 2014 go??

 photo donghae amazed 3_zpsks55xobh.gif
Donghae is as amazed as I am. Except consternation looks better on his pretty face.

It's always as the year wears on that you get more disillusioned. Not only did I not accomplish any of my goals, I'm falling behind on my word count. Why, Joyce, WHY. Procrastination is a terrible colour on you. All those time you were waiting for the muse to strike - keeping unnecessarily busy with creating playlists for your stories, decorating your room, looking for new music, and reading (mean and scary) reviews on Goodreads - you could have plowed through your sucky writing and found a way through your manuscript.

It was around this time last year that I started on Neverland, and I'm STILL writing it, STILL haven't written its ending even for the first draft.

 photo siwonwhuuut_zps61e7d8aa.gif
Don't judge me, Siwon!

It's one thing to write at your own pace, and another to put off writing it because you're afraid you'll fail again like you had the first two times (Neverland is at Draft 3 now).

Good thing for good books in the meantime.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15818357-dreams-and-shadows

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14061955-siege-and-storm?from_search=true

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9361589-the-night-circus?from_search=true

*

Also, I'm planning for a trip back to Korea next spring!!

Truth is, I'm a travel noob. I've never travelled free-and-easy before. It's just easier to have travel agencies plan everything nicely for you. But I really want to learn how to plan a trip from scratch, get around on my own, and explore places I wouldn't get to see on a package tour. Everyone I know travel on their own in their twenties. I mean, what better time to do that, right?

And where better to visit than the land of K-pop? Yes, I have become a legit fangirl and I'm not going to be ashamed about it. So I like K-pop, I enjoyed Korea the last time I was there, and now I'm going to make this spring 2015 trip happen.

 photo donghae dorky yeah_zpszbsxuxqa.gif
Donghae approves, obviously

But there are so many sites for flight and accommodation deals and so many places I want to visit and things to take note of (public holidays, for instance - you do not want to jump into the fray at train stations or the airport), transport preparations (e.g. buying train tickets beforehand) that quite frankly I'm getting inundated by it all.

So if you have any tips on flights, accommodation, places of interest, and getting around (we're planning to travel around Seoul, Busan and Jeju), do share! All help will be greatly appreciated by this travel noob :0)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Clocked 30K for NaNo - and that's okay

So we're done with NaNoWriMo! One crazy month of uncensored writing, manic word churning, and getting lost in the labyrinth of the world you created.


My word count stands at 30,300. But oh, who cares. I'm having too much fun right now to obsess over word count! With a structure I've never dared to try before but am experimenting with now because what the hell it's NaNoWriMo and there's no better time to write without fear or judgement.

Here is an excerpt from No Room in Neverland (it's a flashback from one of Gemma and Cole's imaginary adventures to Neverland when they were kids):


*


Captain Storm was one of those people who guarded their ship so zealously they barely ever made port. He believed that the sea was his one true home, and to be on land was as unnatural as the hooked metal arm of his nemesis, Captain Hook.

When he first caught sight of the two children, it was on the southern island of Almeta, where he had just gathered enough supplies for another voyage to the Silver Cape. He never stayed overnight on land, even in terrible storms that tore ships apart. But as his men loaded the ship with bags and bags of flour and potatoes, seasoned meat and produce, Captain Storm stepped off his ship.

His crew stared. But the captain’s attention was fixed on the pair of children. They shouldn’t look so out of place in Neverland, where Lost Children made their home. But the two weren’t inhabitants. No, they were just visitors. Port Almeta host vagrants and visitors alike, and these drifters were from the Otherworld.

They were hardy little things, the captain could tell right away even from afar, no more than a day older than eight years of age. Hand in hand, they approached Storm with a steely determination that was absent in the Lost Children around here.

“We would like to cross the Silver Sea with you,” were the girl’s first words to him. Storm could tell she was a lot more nervous than she sounded, mostly because she was plucking at a loose thread in her jeans. The boy nudged her, and she added, “Sir.”

“Captain,” the boy corrected, and the girl nodded.

The captain was being very un-captainlike so far. He cleared his throat and growled, “You want to cross the Silver Sea?”

The pair nodded, their dark eyes too grave for Almeta in daytime.

“Why?”

“We want to know what’s on the other shore.” Tourists, the captain thought irritably. There was no other way to the gilded Hinterlands but sea passage – flight was impossible because of the air sprites out for flesh. Many stubborn visitors have plunged into the watery depths of the tumultuous Silver Sea because of those greedy little bastards.

These children have no idea what they were in for.

“So hitch a ferry. I don’t take passengers,” Captain Storm said.

“You don’t understand. We’re on a mission,” the girl said with enough passion to make the captain’s brows slide up past the shadow cast by his hat. “To save Neverland.”

Storm narrowed his eyes. “Save it how?”

The children shared a brief look before the boy offered, “We know our way around. We’ve studied the maps and everything.”

“We’re not just visitors,” the girl added with an eye roll.

A procession of sailors traipsed by with more bags of ration, staring at their captain and the two children he was entertaining. In the time it took for his men to pass, Storm understood.

“You’re hunting the fool’s treasure, aren’t you? It’s a myth, kids. There is no treasure. Just an old cave and a treacherous jungle.”

“We won’t know for sure until we see it for ourselves.”

Yes, Otherworld children all right. Only they could be this stubborn.

“Neverland is not yours to save,” said Storm. There had been others who tried. Eventually, they gave up after failing too many times, moved on and left Neverland for good. The others ended up as Lost Children, drifting through the days for eternity.

“We don’t know until we try.” The girl possessed a sense of purposefulness and solemnity uncharacteristic of children her age. Not that Captain Storm would know, seeing how few children he came into actual contact with.

How then was he going to have two of them on his ship?

Yet, he looked at the pair of them standing before him now, and heard himself say, “Get on board, then. And try not to fall over. I won’t bother doubling back for either of you.”



*


There is so much to explore for Neverland! So many possibilities, and it reminds me of how fun writing can be if you don't second-guess yourself or let yourself stop writing. It's so easy to make excuses and get overly critical of your writing (and wonder if this is all worth the effort and heartache in the end), but this is exactly how stories end up discarded when all they need is a little more thought and an extra push.


And who cares if I'm having more fun writing the Neverland Chronicles than present day scenes. I'm just happy to go where the story takes me. Because like Chuck Wendig said, "a finished thing is imperfect - but fixable."

NaNo-ers, any retrospective thoughts about the experience? Hope NaNoWriMo 2014 was just as fulfilling for you! :0)