Yuuko's writing blog

I’m hoping I haven’t burnt out early but I’ve missed two full days of writing now because I’ve been feeling a little under the weather, both physically and mentally. >.< I managed to crank out that previous post though, which I am so totally adding to the word count tyvm. I think from here on out I’m going to have to just write, and not try and write a novel. I can do short fics, I can do stories with disjointed stories of hilarity and madness peppered with hilarity and hi-jinx but a full length novel? Clearly not my forte.

As of now I have Riley, her father Tymes and brother Roman (Tymes and Roman, geddit? Pretty sure I stole that from the nano boards last year), and her vampire friends Avery and Aspen (also Abigail but I haven’t written her in yet). Their story starts a long time before the Chaos and is linked to how it all actually begin. Their story would be Case Zero, if you will.

Then I have Earley, who wakes up with amnesia after the Chaos having been looked after by vampires Grayson and Alethea, and hunter Scion. I think these guys are the ones I’ll be focusing on for the month, because I’ve had some limited experience writing for them in the past. My brain has already paired them all up as well, which is annoying as all heck.

Also, my mind is trying to make up more characters for this sudden universe; I swear the two stories I started weren’t meant to be part of the same universe when I wrote, but eh, weird stuff happens.

I’m not sure I’m going to get to the finish line this year, which is a bit sad, but not a surprise since I already knew I’d have a week where I couldn’t write. I think, if nothing else, I take from this year that flying by the seat of my pants doesn’t work for me; I either need a constant source of creative inspiration or an outline. Ah well, it’s been an enjoyable learning curve.

I’ve been sat at this computer for the best part of an hour and so far, my word count for the day is a big, fat zero. I have no idea what’s happened but I have suddenly lost all motivation and it’s only the third day! I think I may have to browse the forums for some challenges because this is infuriating.

Before she even got to the bottom of the staircase she could smell something wonderful, but slightly out of place. Unless the knock on her head was slightly harder than any of them anticipated, that was the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cookies. She followed her nose, so to speak, and managed to make her way through the house until she got to the kitchen, where Alethea was moxing what she assumed was more cookie dough, humming to herself as she did a little dance. There were two batches of cookies already on the sideboard, cooling down, and she had to admit, they looked wonderful.

“Good… uh, morning?”

Alethea glanced over her shoulder, looking somewhat surprised. She had flour all over her face but her clothing was mysteriously immaculate. “Earley! Good morning!” She was going to say something else and seemed to bite her tongue.

“…you can say it.”

“About it being… an Earley morning?” She chuckled a bit, sheepishly, elbowing Earley as if she’d just told the mother of all jokes.

Earley rolled her eyes but smiled anyway; she’d heard all the jokes she could possibly hear, but she never really tired of it to the point where she got annoyed. “You’ve been busy. Do you always bake at-” she glanced at the wall clock, “4 in the morning?”

“No, not always,” she replied, resuming her mixing. “I thought you could do with something more homely. I figured this house and the whole “vampire apocalypse” thing was more than a little daunting, but a bit of home-baked goodness always helps!”

Earley was stumped for words. Eventually she settled for, “thank you.”

Haven’t written anything I’m too pleased about, to be honest. It’s boring character development stuff so I can get to know them a little better. So, let’s have ourselves a roll call, shall we (the cliffnotes version as I’m kind of written-out… does that even make sense?)?

Earley Croft: human, 23 years old. Somewhat quiet and reserved, mostly due to the amnesia making her unsure of anything and everything. Grateful to the others for saving her life, and grows to view them as her family, at least while she tries to find her own biological family in the new chaotic world. Soon realises that her memory loss is not entirely caused by the head injury she sustained, and works towards trying to work out what she’s afraid to remember.

Grayson Braithwaite: vampire, allegedly over 100 years old. Kind, compassionate and understanding and very, very patient. Very little seems to phase him and he never loses his temper, but is terrifying if he ever does get angry. Always seems to dress really sharp and smart. While he has no problems being a vampire, he tends not to like drinking blood for some reason and will try and go for ridiculously long periods without drinking despite there being a blood bank in the area which negates the need for biting.

Alethea Munroe: vampire, allegedly over 100 years old. Loves being a vampire; with eternal hotness, who wouldn’t? Admittedly I know the least about her at the moment, but she seems to be sassy and confident and plays the role of vamp vixen extremely well. While she might act dumb, she’s very smart and knowledgable and can read between the lines like it was a novel.

Scion: human, 28 years old. He’s a bit of a smartass, arrogant and sometimes crass, but as an ex-mercenary turned Hunter (of the afflicted, if you please) his skill – with both firearms and melee weapon – is second to none. He rarely talks about his past and seems to refuse to get to know the others, avoiding people whenever possible by going on frequent ‘patrols’ to make sure there are no afflicted in the area. He does eventually show that he has a heart by saving the gang on various occasions.

I still have a long way to go to get to know these guys, I think. Still, they’re turning into real people in my mind, and it’s super exciting.

Basically the premise is as follows; vampires used to be hidden, much like in any other vampire novel and were pretty fine with things as they were. Then mutated vampires started to appear in various cities across the world – I’ve stolen a Guild Wars name for them; the afflicted – and started to attack people without prejudice, causing chaos and panic. Nobody (and that includes me, which is slightly worrying) knows where or how it started but there’s rumours of evil government science experiments being carried out on vampires. OH EM GEE!

Other things I’ve been told thus far ,because we all know how our characters tell us stuff that helps or hinders our efforts, amirite?;
- Grayson and Alethea knew each other before the “chaos” started
- Alethea and Scion end up together despite them bickering ENDLESSLY
- Munroe is not Alethea’s real surname
- Scion is not Scion’s real name, but he doesn’t even want to think about it let alone share it
- Earley is terrified of needles
- Earley can ride motorbikes
- My brain is actively shipping Earley / Grayson, only because the ship could be called “Earl-Gray”… *headdesk*

A/N: So halfway through writing the story from the previous excerpt my brain decided it wanted to write something else. XD So I started something new, though obviously I’m keeping the old one for word count goodness.

She woke up with no memory of who she was, where she was, or how she got there – which happened to be a large, comfortable bed in a large, opulent looking bedroom. As she sat up her head began aching badly, causing a sudden bought of nausea that she tried to stave off by squeezing her eyes tightly shut and rubbing her forehead, and upon reaching up she realised she was wearing a bandage which held a piece of gauze on the back of her head. Unsurprisingly she couldn’t remember how she got it, but presumed that it had something to do with her current amnesia.

After swinging her legs out from under the covers she stood up and checked out her surroundings, starting with the small table beside her bed, on which were apparently her clothes and belongings. Made sense, she can’t have arrived wearing this oversized nightgown. She picked up her wallet, opening it up to find some form of photo id, eventually finding a driver’s license. She glanced up at the mirror, then back at the card. It was hers alright, and it said that her name was Earley Croft, age 23, 5ft 8inches, and she was permitted to drive motorbikes. Sweet.

Under the wallet was a note;

“Sorry about your clothes, feel free to raid the wardrobe for a replacement outfit,
-G”

She looked down at the pile of neatly folded clothes and held each garment up to ionspect; they were bloodstained and torn and utterly ruined – which explained the note, at least to a certain degree anyway. So she did as the note suggested and looked inside the wardrobe and picked out a random dress to wear. She wasn’t really sure of her own taste at the moment but it was cute enough with it’s strawberry print.

The room didn’t hold anything else of interest – apart from the wall of books which she didn’t feel like reading with her head in such a state – so she got dressed and tentatively opened the door, peering into the long, empty hallway, gulping a little as she considered just staying where she was, where it was far cozier and potentially less terrifying. Unfortunately, her plan would be scuppered by her growing curiosity about who G was, and whether he or she could explain just what had happened to her.

Steeling her nerves, she left the room and padded along the marble floor, enjoying the coldness beneath her feet. It wasn’t a particularly long hallway so she soon found herself on a balcony area with a large grand staircase that led down to what seemed to be an entrance hall. From where she was stood she could see two sets of doors – other than the huge front door, of course – and she could see light spilling from the gap at the bottom of the door.

“Well, it’s now or never,” she said to herself, before making her way down the stairs and towards the light. She paused, hand hovering, suddenly unsure as to whether she even wanted to knock; would she want to see who was on the other side? Before she could turn tail and run a voice from inside called; “You can come in, you know.” There was another voice, low enough that she couldn’t hear the words being said, but the tone made it sound like someone was being scolded.

The rain halted altogether during the short walk back to the house. She slowed down as she got closer, the familiar feeling of dread creeping up on her as she rounded the last corner. She didn’t want to be in that house. The blood had long since been cleaned away with the help of some very kind local people, but she could sometimes still see it she was sometimes convinced that she could see the dark shadows under the fresh paint and new carpet. It drove her mad.

The facty that “he” may return wasn’t such a problem; she was looking for him anyway.

She grudgingly made her way up the path, key in hand, and stopped when she saw the open door. Her blood ran cold but her heart began beating faster; had he come back to finish the job? Would she get the answers she wanted, albeit way sooner than she anticipated? She took a few deep breaths to settle her nerves before slowly pushing the door and peering in a little before pushing it far enough for her to get into the house. She could hear hushed voices and froze; there was more than one person in the house.

The way Riley saw it, she had two choices, run out the door and down the street without looking back and risk losing the one chance to get answers, or go on and risk death.

When the living room door opened, the choice was taken out of her hand. She stared at the familiar man standing in front of her and instantly felt a wave of anger wash over her, drowning out the fear and nerves she had felt only moments earlier. “Dad?”

“Riley, honey, I’m-” He moved towards her as if to embrace her.

She said nothing and instead closed the gap between the two of them before punching him, sending him stumbling backwards over a table and umbrella stand. He looked up at her with surprise as he sat on the floor rubbing his now aching jaw, while two surprised looking faces appeared at the doorway, not entirely sure what to make of the scene. He quickly scrambled to his feet, wincing as he spoke. “Riley, listen.”

“Where the hell have you been for seven years?! And who the hell are they?” She pointed and they took a step back. Then shook her head. “Forget them, answer the first damn question.”

Writing with no prep is a bit daunting… and it’s making me churn out quite a bit of shite, if I’m honest. Still, it’s actually really fun to just write and see what happens. So far I have 2280 words done! It’s terrible though so I don’t really want to post much of it yet… I think I’ll be posting some here if I write stuff I’m actually proud to show off. Basically I’ve decided the stuff I’m writing now is to get myself familiar with the various characters and the story sort of like a backstory. Regular programming will resume soon. XD

I’ll post a bit though. Oh, and by the by, any excerpts I do post will most probably be littered with mistakes. Please to forgive!

So ignore what I said about knowing how I’m going to start. I really can’t make up my mind now, so I might end up taking one of the cop out routes and starting with a flashback / nightmare.

The problem with what I’d already though of was that nothing happened and it was really rather boring. So I changed some things and wrote a short, somewhat flawed synopsis which explains that part in a couple of sentences. But then that left me with starting after all of the exciting stuff. I guess I could start the novel in the middle of the action anyway and rewrite the synopsis? I just can’t seem to write one that says what the novel is going to actually be about.

Hmmmmm. *ponder*

ETA: Problem hopefully sorted for now. Maybe.

Alright, I think I have the start of the story worked out. Basically I have a main character whose life I’m throwing in the shitter immediately. XD I’m so sorry Riley bb, it’ll get better I promise!

Tomorrow I’m going to try and get a blurb written and then at midnight I’ll start.

Gosh, I hope Ingrid’s around for me to bounce ideas off…

So remember how I said that I was going to be all super prepared for nanowrimo so that it doesn’t jump out at me when I least expect it? And how I was going to do these awesome writing challenges in order to help me get into the habit of writing on a daily basis?

I failed so hard at that, you guys.

In my defence I wasn’t entirely sure I could even participate. Towards the end of September my internet crapped out on a regular basis (my ISP was as helpful as ever when we rang up to see what the deal was – “we see no problem at this end, it MUST be your router!”), and then I got the news that my family and I were going to Scotland on the 20th of November for a week or so, mostly for house hunting stuff. I got so incredibly annoyed at that, since Dad knows that nano is pretty important to me. Before you ask, no, I won’t be able to do any writing during that time, trust me.

So I just lost interest in nano and decided then and there that I probably wouldn’t bother taking part, since there was no way I could possibly win anyway, especially with 7 days out of the picture. About a week ago I suddenly decided that I might take part, but not necessarily to win, but as a glorified writing exercise. Take two characters and a loose plot, then see where it takes me. No planning (or a very minimal amount), no slaving over an outline for days, trying to figure out various plot connections and resolutions, and no stressing.

Just writing.

It flies in the face of everything I’ve said about nano thus far, really. Well, for this year anyway, I’ve put my idea on ice for the time being because it means too much to me to simply abandon or half-arse my way through November with it. Depending on when we’re moving (Middlesbrough to Scotland, would you believe!) I may do the same thing next year but I’m hoping not.

Incidentally, I’m going to try my hand at a generic vampire romance novel. Huzzah!

And no, there will be no sparkling. Or spider monkies. Or baseball. Or, in fact, werewolves.