Yzabel / November 18, 2007

Some Music To Write To…

It occurred to me that this year, I’ve added a new playlist to this blog to celebrate NaNoWriMo, but have also completely forgotten to actually, uhm, mention it. Considering the fact that I hadn’t changed the old playlist in more than one year, I suppose it was high time that I did so. Since I incidentally added a couple more songs between November 1st and now, here are the titles of what you can listen on it.

As a little game (and because I was asked in a comment on my ‘writing excerpts blog’, which has locked entries due to various reasons, and is mostly used during the NaNoing month anyway), I also added alternative titles. These are not to be all viewed as specific scenes in the novel, nor ar they in any particular order, but they’re the kind of titles I would give if I were to compose my own soundtrack–I cannot write without music, and I’m a sucker for soundtracks, really. If you wish, feel free to toy with these and imagine what kind of scenes they could correspond to. It’s a game I like playing as well.Read More

Yzabel / November 4, 2007

NaNoWriMo: The First Days

I doubt that this year, I’ll ever write as fast as I did in 2005, but so far, I must admit that things are going quite well. I’m not late on my word count, I even have a 1k-2k words buffer, and I’m happy about my writing: sure, it’s not the best I’m able of, but I am writing and having fun and interest about it, something I’m always afraid of losing at some point due to too many constraints falling over my head. Maybe the saying is in part right. Maybe if you want something done, you really need to give it to a busy person–provided that this person isn’t feeling too worried and depressed in her mind, that is, because I’ve also realized, in retrospective, that 2006 was bad for a certain amount of personal reasons that had nothing to do with my desire to write.

In any case, I am (re)discovering characters I thought I knew too well, my chapters make sense, my plot is slowly unveiling in front of my bewildered eyes. Even if I were to stop working on this novel right now, it would still remain a victory in my eyes. Indeed, I have absolutely no regrets about attempting NaNoWriMo again. This year, and with my mindset and the fact that I’m now well-organized in terms of schedule, it can only be a positive experience.

Yes, writing is a wonderful experience. And I really need to remind myself that no matter the lack of time, no matter the hardships of life, it is an experience that I cannot let go of. Whether I want it or not, it will always be with me, in one form or in another.

Yzabel / October 18, 2007

I have no title for such a late update

If I have to apologize each time I don’t write in one of my blogs for three months, this is going to become tiresome, because I don’t see things change in the upcoming couple of years. So no apologies. Just know that I always come back to the Y Logs sooner or later, m’kay? 🙂

Somehow, it seemed like a good idea to do a short update now, because we’re slowly nearing November and, this year again, I have finally given in and signed up for NaNoWriMo.

I’m not going to ‘win’–I don’t think so, since I have so much school assignments and personal work to complete. I’m not going to work on a completely new idea. In fact, I’m going to start from scratch again with my one-shot project. I have no intention of letting it rot after NaNo, or of taking that as a pathetic excuse to not edit it thoroughly afterward. However, the fact is that currently, I’m not writing a lot in terms of creative works (assignment and crapping out technical manuals don’t count in that regard). I haven’t been writing much at all since I’ve moved to my new location, in fact, save for a short story aimed at a call for submission (and a second one that I didn’t send: silly me misplaced the date for the deadline). Therefore, I’m placing new hopes, so to say, in the whole NaNo hype to pump me up for a time at least, and allow me to resume a more regular rhythm of writing.

I must add that my imagination pool has not dried, nor am I growing disillusioned or uninterested in writing as a whole. It’s just that when I finally have time to write, I’m usually quite tired, or feeling guilty because I’m not using that time to do more school work or go exercise or whatnot–and then I don’t write. It sucks, and I know I have to choose my priorities, but seriously I can’t make everything a priority at this point in my life. There just aren’t enough hours in a day for that! Unfortunately, what gave was writing. In three months, though, it may be something else. Who knows.

Anyway, I’m not going to post daily NaNoWriMo updates here–I wouldn’t have the time. But I wanted to bring back some life here all the same (expect a new playlist soon, too). And I hope that with NaNo incoming, I will have a couple of things about ‘writing’ in general to say. That would be a nice change, wouldn’t it…

Yzabel / October 31, 2006

A New Playlist Is (Finally) Here!

It took me one year to come up at last with a new lil’ playlist for the radio.blog here… And given the time of the year, what could be more suitable than one that I will use to keep me pumped up for NaNoWriMo! Of course, once again, this is only but a glimpse of what I’ll be listening to in November.

My genre this year is Fantasy, without dragons and all the fluff. It’ll be more focused on the characters, as well as on the magic in that particular world, its rules, and what being a mage really entails. So, don’t be surprised if there isn’t much… epic in that playlist.Read More