My Next Big Thing

My friend Imogen from Dancing With Dragonflies tagged me for the "Next Big Thing" blog hop, wherein I get to talk about my current WIP. I was forced to choose between my two current projects (one of them being a collaboration), and I chose the solo project, as in my head that's my next big thing, whereas the collaborative effort is an our next big thing. Anyways, here are the questions and my answers:

1. What is the working title of your book?
Artifact of Paradox (This will most likely change to something else in time.)

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
A good while back, when I was an active member of a short story writing website, one of the monthly challenges was to "write a story about some sort of paradox." I started formulating stuff in my head for a short story, and over time it turned into a full-out novel idea.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
So I know I said that I'd be writing Steampunk the last time I talked about genres, but to be honest, I don't think I'll be able to stick to one genre in particular. This one would fall, most likely, into the Modern Fantasy category.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Blog Post

I will make this known; I didn't plan to post anything like this until my grandfather (who is known to be both crazy and awesome at the same time) gave me the idea. Yesterday was the release of Peter Jackson's first in The Hobbit trilogy of movies being made: An Unexpected Journey.

I went and saw the Hobbit last night; or, rather, this morning. The 11:00 showing of a three hour movie was probably not my greatest idea, but I'm full of ideas like that. It was entertaining, to say the least. I enjoyed it for what it was, despite the nitpicks I have.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows a young Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman) among a large party of dwarves (who's names, for the most part, escape me) and the wizard Gandalf. The dwarf prince, Thorin, has taken up the quest to take back his home land from the dragon Smaug, and Bilbo has been recruited to help him. Among other things, they are troubled by goblins, orcs, a necromancer, and a curiously familiar fellow with a Precious as they make their way to The Lonely Mountain to face the dragon.

2013 Reading/Writing Challenge

I have set forth a challenge for myself for the next year. Almost every writer could tell you that writing every day is a big deal, and for me, so is reading. So I've devised a system for next year. There will be no days off, and no slacking off. As follows:

I will write at least 500 words of fiction every day for the entire year, excluding November and December. That means that by next November I should have a first draft for a novel. Come November, I will do NaNoWriMo again, the goal being to write a whole novel in the month. December will be the one month of the year that I will break from writing, assuming that I completed my November goal. If I have not, I will finish the novel from the previous month in December.

Also, I will read at least one chapter in any of the genres I am writing each day. This gives me mobility as to what I read, but also forces me to set time aside to read each day. I am free from this challenge during the month of November, as NaNoWriMo will consume my normal reading time. However, I am not exempt from the challenge in December, and I must continue to read through the month of December even though I am not writing.

Hopefully this keeps me well underway to finishing what I start and my goal of one day becoming a published author. I'll end up with at least two first drafts by the end of the year and will have read at least 335 chapters by the end of the year.