Vivienne's Adventures

  I did it! I hit 50k, and managed to wrap up my story. Ten minutes later, I already miss them. but I got to give them a sweet ending, and realized just how unintentionally terrifying my MC Azzi can be. (lol do not get on her bad side, cause Dang.) But since I finished late on the 27th, technically the 28th, I'm still writing, taking notes for another book I want to write, and generally keeping in the writerly zone. or trying to. I'm starting to let myself relax a bit and read more in the series my sister got me totally hooked on. It's a nice change of pace to read someone else's story for a while.  How about you, anyone doing Nano, have you won yet? How close are you? ^_^

  So many people are running around, getting ready for the December holidays, and I'm over here, wanting nothing other than my tea and time to write. I'm nearly at the end of this story, and I'm realizing that maybe it doesn't want to be a full length novel, maybe just a novella. that's ok. I've learned a lot about my characters, and I've come to realize Azzi is highly amusing to write because she's got a flair for the dramatic and for unintentionally terrifying people that just makes those scenes so much fun.  I'm sad that we're nearly at the end, so I have to figure out just how to wrap up, but however my story ends, I'm pretty sure it wont be in a way I expect. ^_^ (Word count is currently at 47.5k!)

  Even though this year has majorly been on kind of lovely dumpster fire after another, I'm reminded of all the little things. Like being able to watch my nephew (I got lots of baby snuggles last night) ^_^ and being able to chat with one of my closest friends reminded me of when I visited her in February, and she discovered her old writing...And we were both amazed at the interesting quality of the work...I ended up starting a TLDR recap for one of our mutual friends, and it cracked us all up. We all need things that make us laugh, and we need things that show us how far we have come since we created it. It really helps put things into perspective. So, just for this week, I'm going to ignore all the things that are stressing me out, and I'm going to focus on the good.  (But don't worry, I'll still take all the safety precautions I need to) ^_^

  I'm going to give you a little tidbit of my project, to give you a sneak peek! The context for this scene is recently, Azzi found someone who was supposed to be able to help her, but instead, they didn't seem to have any confidence in her plan, and she, well, gave him a piece of her mind and then returned to the tavern. “Another one, Miss Cassidy?” Dori asked, holding up a bottle and smiling at another patron. “Yes, please.” Azzi put her head in her arms on the bar. “You know, too many aren’t good for you.” Dori said in a low voice, sliding something toward her. “I don’t care. It tastes good. And it’s helping me forget how stupid I was this morning.” She lifted her head and saw Dori crack a smile at her. “No-one’s perfect, Miss. Just the way it is.” With that, he bowed a little, and turned to another patron. (Can you guess what she ordered? It's actually not what you think! Keep reading!) Azzi wrapped her hand around the plate and drew it closer. She picked up the...

  This weekend, I got to spend lots of time with my nephew, and one of my favorite things right now is the fact that every so often he'll take a few steps on his own, but he also really likes to grab my fingers and take me for a walk. I keep him upright, and he takes me on a little adventure. Even if we're just doing circles around the tiny apartment, I enjoy it, and he get some energy out.  Little ones are so precious, and with the way this year has gone (it's been really rough on all of us, in a million different ways), I've come to really cherish the little moments I have with the Little One.  Also, you know, November is a good time to reflect on things, and be grateful for the good things in a frustrating, hard year, so I'm trying to do more of that. Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving! 💜

  As a DM, it's the little things I love. I mean, obviously it's fun when your players take over the session and plan a fighting tournament between themselves to "keep from being bored, also it's entertainment!" And then instead of the tanky druid managing to beat everyone, it was the tanky bard! (There were a number of rules set before the tournament began, and some players...managed to break one or two. One of the rules was 'cheating is allowed as long as you don't get caught.' My favorite part about this was that they came up with All the rules and the fight arrangement. All I had to do was monitor the fights and pipe in with the few notes I had that were still relevant.)  But it's also those moments with an 8ft tall cleric bashing in a door, not realizing the halfling ranger has the key until the monk takes the key and opens the door. (The cleric ended up closing the door and bashing it into destroy it just because...showering their two new fri...

  This week, my nephew and my sister watched me get my hair done (cut and color so that I was more purple and not so shaggy), and the Little One was fascinated at how my hairdresser (my amazing aunt!) washed my hair in the kitchen sink with all the plastic things to keep the rest of me from getting wet. Watching the Little One's face was amusing, as was being able to chat with my sister.  One of the things that made this visit so fun was that we're all in various places in this one book series. I'm far behind my sister and my aunt, but now we got my mom hooked on the series, and it's just amazing how excited we get, talking about favorite scenes and characters, and asking how far along someone is. I hope someday my books will bring about that reaction. ^_^ 

  I love writing with friends at a coffee shop! I love being able to share silence with friends while we hammer out words, or get sucked into a scene and follow our characters and let them run the show. I miss being able to do this, what with the pandemic and the government shutting things down. It's depressing, but in the end, I'm sure it'll be worth it. (But it still sucks in the meantime.) However, there's still the availability of having a virtual writing party, with either one person or several. It's not quite the same, but it's still nice to have someone else's voice in the room, and to see someone's face. Because of these writing parties, I'm now at 32k!  I wish I could join more virtual writing parties, but there are only so many hours in the day. How about you, have you employed virtual means of seeing people?

  After far too long without a car of my own, I finally have my own wheels! It's such a relief to be able to make my own schedule and not have to work around other people's in order to use their cars to get around. But now, I can go visit the Little One or go to a cafe, or visit the grandparents without having to check when people are home and their cars are available. Sadly, this means I have less reason to visit my favorite Redmond coffee shop, but it does mean I have more access to the archery range, so yay! Isn't it funny how just one thing changes how you think about your day? Writing is sometimes like that, especially when a story is begging to be written and you literally can't ignore it. I love that about stories.

  Hey, Look! The last few days have been a bit more productive lately, partly because I got one of my writing buddies back for a couple hours! Also I've been enjoying writing in cafe's. There's something about the atmosphere of a coffee shop, especially being able to sit beside a cozy fireplace that makes words flow like a actual water, rather than molasses. It's been fun to explore the story, adding a subplot when things seem too quiet (or my plot too short), and realizing that when my MC gets surprise attacked in her own home, she cares more about how blood is now getting on her blankets, and they're going to get ruined that the fact she was just stabbed...Welp. I love it when characters come to life and start running the show!

  This week, I was able to go to church and help out. The last several years, our church has been fundraising in order to build an addition to the church. (It's been a long several years.) But the building project is nearly finished! We have all but the finishing touches now, like furnishing the rooms, and getting the nursery/preschool set up the way we want.  It was so nice to go over and help move things, and put some chaos in order. It's been far too long since I got the chance to do that. I love chaos, and I love putting it into order. (It's my superpower.)  Originally, I went to the church to meet with my pastor, and we did get to chat for a bit, but overall, visiting church during the week reminded me what church is really about: loving people and helping where we can.

Me: Hey, Little One! What'cha doing? LO: Stops and looks at me, shaking his head no. Me: lol What are you doing? LO: Keeps shaking his head while I laugh, and then starts crawling somewhere he thinks he can get up to mischief. Me: No, don't eat the plants.  *sigh* Watching the Little One has been so entertaining lately. I don't think he knows about the time change, so he's been sleepier earlier. (Which is great, because he's getting two new teeth in and he needs sleep.)  But he's also been much more into things, trying to eat things he really shouldn't, and keeping me busy in trying to keep said things out of his reach while he starts trying to climb into and over Everything. But hey, at least he loves listening to music! And he's easy to bounce ideas off of...mostly because he just looks at me and smiles.

  As you can see in the picture above, I've actually hit my personal daily goal of 2k per day for the last couple days! Ignore the fact that the 8th looks sad...actually, I take that back. Don't ignore that. The 8th was an off day, but we all have those, as writers. It's one of the things that makes the rest of the time feel better.  The only thing I can do is to make sure I keep writing, keep remembering Why I write. There are plenty of days where it's hard and I can't focus, and nothing seems to get done, but every time I write in spite of that feeds me in a way I can't really describe. If nothing else, I was made to write, which is probably why I love Nanowrimo... :D If you're struggling with wanting to do the things you love doing, just remember Why you love it. And push through those feelings and get the thing done because it will make you feel better.

  Writing has been hard! And not the usual nano-must-keep-writing kind of hard. I love this story, and I adore the characters, but losing a family friend last week tanked my motivation to write. I swear, something happens every year now that makes it three times harder to write.  This year, it's made me rethink about writing this book itself. The topic of the story, while not spot-on, is hitting too close to home, and I couldn't help feeling like it was the wrong story to write right now.  But I can't not write! It's Nano! So what am I supposed to do? I could start a different story...but this is technically the second time I've started this book. If I don't write it now, when will I? No, I have to write this story. The topic and some of the backstory may be painful to write about, but I'm choosing to look at it like an opportunity. It may be hard, but in the end, I will finish it, or write into December until I have a full draft.  Besides, it's Nano. Th...

  This week was unexpectedly stressful, but not in the ways you might think. To cope with the unexpected grief of losing a family friend, I visited the archery range. It helps to have a physical activity that forces you to think about something else. I wasn't so concerned with hitting the yellow circle, but I needed the repetition of drawing and nocking an arrow, pulling back, aiming, and trying not to release too quickly. And yet, I still counted every arrow that landed in the yellow circle. I don't remember what the final count was, but what felt best was when I could put another arrow right where I wanted, right after the first one to hit where I wanted. Writing isn't too different. I keep putting words down, not sure if I'll keep many words, but knowing that at least some, for this draft, hit the mark, mean what I want them to, and sound right. Life is so complicated, but archery tends to simplify things in the best way possible.  If at first you don't succeed, ...

  It's raining, it's pouring, and Washington state is quite wet, at least, it has been this week. What does that have to do with anything? Only that I like rainy days. They're perfect for getting some writing done (and if you need a nap, grey days are even better), and I hope to get somewhere with my story.  My MC, Azzi, has been really fun so far. She's makes the book interesting to write, because she can only see on shades of black and white and grey, like old silent movies. However, before you get too sad that her world is colorless, she actually has an ability that gives her insight into people's emotions. She sees their eye color change with how they feel. (So good luck trying to lie to her :D)  But it keeps me on my toes, because every time I want to paint a picture, I have to stop and remember what colors she can see. (There's a lot of variations of pale and dark and it's been quite fun.) I've also realized this book I'm writing will be a spin...

  A new adventure begins! In the midst of writing my own Friday campaign and working on a book for Nano, I have a new project! I get to start writing for my Wednesday group! Up till now we've been going through a module, which I originally got as a way to learn how to DM. But obviously, I've been writing my own campaign alongside this. So now that the module is done, I'm sending my players on my own adventure hook, continuing where they left off, (I have plans, muahaha!) and I can't wait to see where they go from here! For Nano, I've written about 6800 words, as of yesterday! Not much progress since the day before, but that's ok :)

  The Little One has officially taken his first steps! We got so excited I think we startled him, haha! But he's so cute! And his parents were both watching (otherwise I think my sister would be rather miffed), as my 9 and a half month nephew turned from the shelf of games to reach out to me. I stepped back a bit and held my arms out, and he took two steps to get to me! ^_^ (Happy Auntie) Such a precious little gem, this boy. I love him so much! I honestly think it's kind of funny how much the little things mean so much that they overshadow everything else that's going on in the world. Keep the little sweet things in mind as you write, because that's one of the many things readers come back to a story for.  Oh, also! My word count is about 6.4k as of yesterday! Happy writing to all of you doing Nano!

  I enjoy getting lots of words written, but yesterday, I got to about 5.2k. Again, off to a good start, I'm at least a day ahead of the projected schedule, and I'm starting to really get into the good stuff of the story. Oh, wait! I haven't even told you what I'm writing! Let me fix that. My story this year is about Aziliz, a young lady who has died 7 times, and now has a working relationship with the angel of death, Azrael (Rae), taking down people who have wrongfully extended their life and who need to be stopped from hurting people. I love the insanity of Nanowrimo. So much so, that I'm actually teaching a class online on how to get through the 30 days of writing. If you've got a story you want to tell, but are intimidated by the 50k word count goal of Nano, this class for you! Each day you get a new video from me, helping you through, encouraging you, and generally being your cheerleader. ^_^ Check out the link here , and sign up today!

  I love Halloween, for two reasons: First, I love being able to dress up and temporarily become somebody else. Second, the end of Halloween means it's November, and I can finally write! Nanowrimo has officially commenced! I must admit, this year was a strange one, not just overall, but this Halloween, I found myself growing more and more anxious as midnight approached. I had the story figured out, the world built (to a point), and I was ready to meet my main characters (MC's). But...Something about all that was scary, similar to the first time I tried to do Nano. For some reason, I was scared to open the blank document and see what words would form when I let my imagination go wild, nervous about how my MC's would appear on the page.  It didn't stop me, though. I opened the blank document and just started going. I managed to end Day 1 with just over 3k words. Pretty good start to the month. ^_^  To any of my wonderful readers doing Nano, Good Luck and happy writing!