It Only Took 20,000 Words

NaNoWriMo started on the first. If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, you should check it out. So, of course, in my stubborn determination, I shot for 20,000 words on day one. (And yay for me, I hit my goal!)

It was a good practice run.

See, a lot of people say to "test drive your characters" by throwing them into scenarios and learning how they act and react. That way when you get to your actual story, you'll have a full grasp of your characters within the plotline that you've created.

You see, I didn't have a real story yet when I started my 20k word run. And I hadn't test driven my characters yet. So I guess there's nothing like a 20,000 word test drive in a story you think is the one they should be in to learn what story your characters want to be in. That's right. This is the story of how my dramatic, dark, epic fantasy novel became a sassy, ridiculously over-the-top, urban fantasy novel.

Just Call Me "Cookie Master"

On a good day, I'm able to get a good post up here. I can discuss life's many problems, or review something that I've been reading or playing (or whatever). But today? Nope. Not today. Why not?

Because I've wasted my entire weekend clicking cookies.

That's right. There's a game in which all you do (many of you probably already know of it, and I apologize in advance for this) is click cookies. Clicking cookies gives you more cookies, which allows you to buy things that will auto-click cookies for you, which allows you to buy upgrades to generate cookies faster, which only gets put back into buying more things to click cookies for you.

Fresh and Distant

I'll try and be brief. I thought I'd come a long way with my current work in progress. Twenty thousand words in, I thought I was making pretty decent headway. Except I stopped a while back. Which, especially now, becomes a problem. Not even just a little problem, but a big, work-halting problem. 

It's not just a traditional case of writer's block. It's more of a reflective disappointment on my work since I'm no longer particularly close to it. Common advice dolled out is something like, "After you finish your first draft, put it away for a month or so and work on something else." This allows a fresh, distant perspective on the writing. Then you can cut, edit, and rewrite to your heart's content. 
 

There's another facet of that, come to find out. Just so happens that if, for some reason, you take a lengthy break from writing said project (as you would were it a complete first draft), you will experience that same "fresh" and "distant" perspective on your writing. Which is okay if you want to edit and rewrite it. 
 

Not if you want to finish it.

The Inevitable

It was inevitable that something like this would come. And, hey, here it is. I'm going to lay some things out about the blog (hopefully in a clear, concise manner), and by the end of this post you, my dear readers, will have a better grip of where I want to go and what I want to do with it. This is immensely important to me; this blog, what I have to say, and my readers as a whole. So, here goes.

A while back I started to try to blog on every odd day, which (besides a few month-change bumps) meant I was blogging every other day. It seemed easier than it turned out to be. You see these incredible people posting every single day and still having time to write books and stories (like Chuck Wendig, for example) and you figure, "Hey! I can totally manage to do, what, half of that? Seems easy enough." Turns out, it's a ton of work. Almost too much, in fact. I often find myself slacking on my writing, because, hey. I wrote a blog post. I'm good.

These are huge lies. Blogging is extremely tough. Now if blogging was all I was doing, blogging every other day might not be so difficult. But if blogging was all I was doing, well, I wouldn't exactly have many exciting things to blog about in the first place. And I don't want that to happen. Not for me. Not for you. Just, not really for anybody.

Valkyrja Album Review

Faroese metal band Tyr has long since claimed its seat among Viking metal legends, particularly as the Viking or folk metal band to listen to if that isn't what you're into. Well, the legend is still alive and kicking; Tyr released today their new album Valkyrja with Metal Blade Records today. The cover looks like this: 

Final Verdict: 5/5

Standout Tracks: The Lay Of Our Love, Valkyrja, Cemetery Gates
 

Being Tyr's seventh album release, Valkyrja does not disappoint. The recent signing  to Metal Blade Records changed little to nothing about Tyr's signature style and energy; a pleasant surprise to all. The band has provided on this album thirteen tracks which are sure to please, utilizing many different styles to achieve their desired theme and sound.