I haven’t slept in 33 and a half hours. I’ve had enough caffeine equivalent to three large cups of coffee and pulled an all-nighter. I’m no more insane than I usually am, though. ?
I was also able to schedule two posts, finish the last 10k of research organization, give names and descriptions to all my nameless characters, and solve 3/4 of historically inaccurate problems.
Sakai Tadakiyo (a historically real person)
- man
- Advisor 1
- The advisor who was the first to suggest whoever should rule the throne next instead of Tsunayoshi but was dismissed shortly after.
- fully Japanese, thick black hair and mustache
Erik Konran
- man
- Advisor 2; an advisor of our own invention. ?
- EVIL
- betrayer
- 35
- fully Japanese
- shoulder-length black hair, black eyes, and facial hair, but not large beard.
—Keiti Erenoa
- woman
- loyal female horsemen guard
- 20
- fully Japanese, short / bobbed hair worn in half-up half-down style
Kaden Zenki
- man
- 2nd bodyguard; loyal
- 23
- half-Japanese, half-Portuguese
- Tauren Wells is face claim but younger
A historically real person ?
I just have to solve one more problem, update all 50 scenes with my new research information, buy a bag or two of Dove chocolates, stalk iTunes and AudioBlocks for new noveling music, and I’ll be ready to begin writing Warfare Book I: One of Them on January 1st!
And, of course, like the title says, I made a new page specifically for Warfare! Feel free to check it out right here.
I drowsily finished the page around 9 this morning. XD I made mock covers for One of Them (book I) and Reason Enough (book III).
I’ve only made about four or five mock covers before, but these were super fun to create. What do you guys think? Any tips for me?
The Warfare page contains status updates, beta reading dates, and little premise-sentence mini-synopses-ish things for the first three books. I know the very basics of Reason Enough, but not the plot line for a good premise sentence, so it kind of… turned out… wacky… and is subject to change. XD
DO YOU HAVE ANY BIG WRITING GOALS FOR 2017? DO YOU LIKE MAKING MOCK COVERS? DO YOU HAVE ANY MOCK-COVER-MAKING TIPS FOR ME?
I’ve got around 200 pages left to note, and 10 days to it. My friends think I’m crazy doing this. 🙂 I told them that writers write, but authors plan and re-plan and write and rewrite. They got a blank look on their faces after that little remark. BTWs, that little quote came from a comment from this blog.
Woah, you can do it! I’m cheering you on! Yesss, exactly! ?
Thanks! And how can you live without sleep? I need at least 5 and half to function properly through out the day.
Arg, it’s a struggle haha. Green tea helps a lot — I have a special blend that has as much caffeine as a cup of coffee per cup of tea, so that helps. I need at least 8 hours of sleep to survive, so most days I just… don’t survive. XD
I have never made any mock-covers, but I definitely want to! The ones you have made are great!
They’re super fun and easy to make. And for graphic designer wanna-bes like me they’re super addicting! XD Thanks so much, Kendra!
AWESOME!!!! WOW. I WISH MY PARENTS WOULD LET ME PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER XD but I would probably end up watching TV and not writing… XDDDDD BUT HOW DID YOU MAKE THOSE MOCK COVERS I THINK I JUST DIED. And my writing goal is to finish Trial By Fire.
I HAD TO DO A LOT OF CONVINCING AND IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE OF SPECIAL NEW TIME STUFF. XDD
HEHE AWW THANK YOU SO MUCH. Ooh, you can do it!!
GO TO BED MADI
GAH *goes to check out the page*
And gasp, the girl on the first cover looks exactly like one of my characters XD
1.5 MORE HOURS THEN I GO TO BED.
Oops, sorry for any similarities! I promise I didn’t get the image off of your blog or anything, I’ve had that one saved for a while XD
NO GO NOW
That’s not a problem at all! I found the picture on Pinterest XD
BUT BUT
I think that’s where Josie found it, too! She’s the one who sent it to me. XD
Haha XD
I know you’re asleep (hopefully) by now, but… OH WELL. I GOT HOME AND AM READY TO COMMENT. >:)
Is the girl on the cover Ari’s face claim? Hehe she preeettty. You’ve done so much I need to have like 24 hours dedicated to noveling only WANNA DO THAT WITH ME? Also you need to tell me how to convince my parents to let me stay up late. >:(
Heh book III is that gonna have Kira and Ranata (btw you’d better do Ranata or I’ll kill you. Well, not really. Then who could I do epic dramatic RPs with?) and Itsu and Hora and babies there’d better be babies!
I love how I throw all grammar away when I’m typing comments on here. I’m sure my Grammarly is going crazy right now. Well, since I’m determined to have the longest comment on here… >:D
Some people who make covers actually take real life face claims and take pictures of them to use on the cover. It’s pretty lit. You should make a character who looks like me so we can do that and I’ll be famous.
My main writing goal next year is to draft Legacy Unending. If I finish that by summer and do revisions by fall, then I can do the beta and on break I can outline the book I don’t have a good title for yet BUT I’M SUPER EXCITED FOR because I’ve seen all the mistakes I’ve made in outlining LU and how to fix them to save myself time. The main one being to use highlighters and make my handwriting legible.
266 words. I’ll stop. (By the way, now it’s like 277.)
Well, I was in bed at the time you commented, but I wasn’t tired (because I fell asleep for ten minutes on you and that was enough to keep me rolling) so I didn’t fall asleep until like 10:30. XD
Yep, the closest face claim I can find and one of 2! You actually sent it to me, so thank you. 😉
ASJAJSJS THAT’S THE BEST IDEA EVER. I WANNA DO IT. Well, my mom only let me pull the all-nighter bc of the 8:30 devices off thing the next day, so I’d just say to take advantage of the circumstances and do bargaining wherever you can. >:)
YES. BOOK III IS GONNA HAVE KIRA WHOM ARI HAS TO TRY TO KILL BUT CAN’T oops spoiler. I don’t know about Ranata though… Anata’s no longer finding her way in any of the books but Rasako really needs a lady friend. Book III will also have a teeny tiny mention of my precious Norin baby.
The babies don’t come ’til book IV, but oh yes, Hitsu begins official dating in book III (they have their first and “last” kiss in prison before Hora’s “execution”). And even then the kiddos all die and only one survives in book VI. D:
YOU SUCCEEDED IN LONGEST COMMENT. >:)
OOH. I have people at my church who look like Kira, Hora, and one guy who has Itsu’s hair length but not his looks or muscles, and two people who look like Ari (my pastor who looks a lot like her is Ukrainian so that’s where I got Ari’s ethnicity from; the other pastor who looks exactly like her is Texan which wasn’t historically realistic). I don’t currently have any characters who look like you, but all my characters borrow your sass. Does that count?
I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL FALL TO BETA? *pouty emojis Chris and Grace used when wanting attention that I don’t have on my computer* We need to have a serious talk. With my fists.
THE BOOK YOU’RE DOING NEXT IS THE SEQUEL TO LU OR NO?
Heh heh, I outdid you with 330+ words. >:)
Haha I’m gonna attempt to reply on my phone because my stomach hurts too much to use my laptop so here goes!
?? Wow, ten minutes usually doesn’t energize me. I like taking time in bed to think, though, which is what a lot of my naps usually are instead of sleeping.
I sent you a lot of stuff I apparently forget?? I feel like this happens a lot. Was that back during camp or the tlk.io age?
YES YES YES. Hm. Whenever I’ve asked before, my mom says it throws my schedule off whack but maybe Christmas Eve because I can never sleep then. I’m not even anxious, I just can’t. But I do have to services that day. I don’t know then. I’m just trying to make this long.
AWW WHY IS SHE GONNA KILL HER. And yes Anata is now my baby. HEHE NORIN YAY. Well obviously you won’t put everything in the book but that’s what RP is for to share it with mature frens.
THE KIDDOS DIE?! THE KIDDOS DIE?! Gasp who’s kiddos? Do Hitsu have kiddos? I wanna see Itsu as a daddy. He’s never had a kid with Hora that I remember.
HEH HEH YAY.
There’s a girl in my gymnastics class that looks like 18 year old Kamri, a girl at my church who could be tiny Araey minus the curls, and actually that’s it. I have a funny story about muscles I should tell you but I won’t say it on here because it’s a little whack-a-do. Ooh yay sass! I love it when people compliment my sass!
Yup. You do. ☹️? Nahh. The next book is another standalone. I have an idea for a series, but I’m not sure yet. Besides, Katie says to go months without even thinking about your WIP while betas destroy it.
I have no word-counter but hopefully this is longer. >:)
Wow, this was all on your phone? Impressive.
SAME. I love just lying awake and thinking in bed. It almost always ends up being Warfare daydreams. It was during Camp! You also sent one for Hinoki.
I did the all-nighter so I could ease right in to the (probably non-permanent 😉 ) early-to-bed schedule. Would you pull an all-nighter on Christmas Eve and be tired throughout Christmas Day or on Christmas Adam and be tired on Christmas Eve?
Here’s the long explanation. Basically, while Ari was on the hunt for Hinoki in book II, and this is all off-stage, Maruko was trying to romance Kira again so he could use her students for missions for free. That didn’t fly so well with Kira, ’cause he divorced her, so she agreed to help him only to backstab him for revenge so the mission would destroy all hope of him becoming a daimyo. That didn’t fly so well with Maruko, so he burned her academy to the ground and she and like two other of her students escaped. Then he turned all the daimyo she and her students had worked for against her, causing the government to have no reason not to put this assassin to rest. In book III, Ari becomes a samurai and one of her missions is to find Kira and kill her.
*pants*
NO. WHY IS ANATA YOUR BABY. I DON’T EVEN LIKE HER. Hehe yes Norin my sweet wittle hopeless eljkbvnjkfdbv Yeah, obviously. Anything having to do with Korin’s past is all explained subtly and euphemistically (I love historical fiction’s mild and indirect wording people never use now-a-days).
OF COURSE THE KIDDOS DIE! Ari’s first two babies. I haven’t quite decided on Hitsu. Like Ari, Hora has to learn children aren’t her worth before a miracle can happen (daz just how God works). And she’s stubborn. So who knows?
Whack-a-do ?? Awww, tiny little Araey. XD Heh heh, sass.
I’m preparing my fists then. ? [‘IOWHVF[QOREUBG WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT? THE MURDER MYSTERY?
Oops. She does? Is it okay to outline another book while betas destroy a previous one?
Heh, I bet it’s not. >:)
I know. >:D
Ohh, yeah! I was just like “SEND HER ALL THE FACE CLAIMS.” I was supposed to send some to Heidi too, but I forgot because I had to edit hers. XD
Christmas Adam? Ohh. XD Actually, being tired on Christmas Eve wouldn’t be so bad. DECEMBER 23 IT IS.
Aww poor Kira baby! Heh heh. Evil.
I LIKE ANATA I DON’T KNOW WHY I JUST DO.
Stubborn Ari. Stubborn me. I don’t feel like trying to make this one long. I like Hitsu better than Hinari. xD
Yeah. Remind me to tell you over iMessage. ??
NO THIS IS ABOUT A HIEST AND A SASSY GIRL AND A THEIF AND NEW YORK AND ROMANCE.
She explains it all here (https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/how-i-self-edit-my-novels-15-steps-from/). I think it would be okay to outline a different book, but outlining the next book in the series would be a risk. \_(‘. ‘)_/
>:D
XDD Face claims for Heidi’s story including Terrax and Ava?
Heh heh, do you get it? Adam comes before Eve, Christmas Adam is the day before Christmas Eve. XD HEHE DAZ SO EXCITING.
I KNOW all my charries are poor wittle babies!
HMPH. SHE MIGHT NOT EVEN MAKE IT INTO THE CANON SERIES.
XD I go through phases where I like one of them better than the other.
CAN WE ROLEPLAY WITH THE SASSY GIRL AND THE THEIF.
Ooh, thanks for the link! Darn, I knew I couldn’t get away with outlining book II any earlier. ?
XDD Yup! Wait… yup! Their descriptions are still in my hangouts… somewhere.
Oooh! We just go with “Christmas Eve Eve” et cetera.
HMPH. >:(
HEHE YES AS SOON AS I DEVELOP THEM.
Oh well. Maybe you’ll get more epic ideas on your break!
XD HEHE OOH.
Do you call December 1st Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve?
>:(
HEHE YAY!
Hey, true! 😉
Why, yes we do.
?
SHORTEST COMMENT AT 0 WORDS.
GOOD FOR ME HEHE.
:O
😮
-0
??
Why is Ari going to be a samurai? Isn’t she supposed to be a ninja? I’m confused. ?
And why are you going to kill Ari’s babies??? YOU MONSTER.
~a very disgruntled Olive
SPOILER ALERT In book III, the antagonist Daku Maruko burns Kira Academy to the ground. Kira is imprisoned. Hinoki’s samurai academy takes her up and trains her as a samurai, so she has the skills of both an excellent swordswoman and a kick-butt ninja.
BECAUSE OF BIRTH COMPLICATIONS AND HER CHARACTER ARC ABOUT TRUSTING GOD. >:)
Sweeeeet! ? it makes sense now! ?
NOOOOOOOOO YOU EVIL MONSTER MURDERER YOU WON’T EVEN GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO GROW UP???!!!!!
AAHHHHRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG
~Olive
P.s. I just really really really really like babies and I get so upset when they die. ☹️
P.p.s. especially when THE AUTHOR CAN SAVE THEM HINT HINT
P.p.p.s. But ninja samurai are just so epic I can’t even ?
OF COURSE NOT. I’M EVIL. >:)
P.S. Aww… 🙁
P.P.S. WUT NO. THEY HELP HER CHARACTER ARC AND TRUSTING GOD.
P.P.P.S. QEOINBQEOIGN IKR ?
?
P.p.s. *blows a loud raspberry*
WHAT IS A RASPBERRY.
Ah! I’m so excited!!
Your mock covers are fantastic! I literally almost cried (why?? O.o).
GO. TO. SLEEP!
Awww, yay!! Hehe, I’m so glad you liked them. XD
HEHE NEVER.
COVERS. *points* I LOVE THEM. THEY ARE. SO. COOL. I’ll have to check out your new page pronto~
COVERS. HEHE. Thank you so much!!
COVERS. MORE COVERS. You’re welcome!
HEHE. I LOVE COVERS.
I love YOUR covers. SO AETHSETIC.
HEHE AWWW THANK YOU SO MUCH.
YOU’RE WELCOME.
I love the covers you made! So amazing. 🙂 ALSO, I HOPE YOU ARE SLEEPING NOW. XD
Aww, thank you so much, Olivia! HEH HEH. >:D XD
Wow those books look A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, girl!!! So excited for you to publish them! 😉
Aww, THANK YOU so much Zielle!! Me, too!! 😉
You’re welcome!! 😀
M A D I. GOOD GRIEF. YOUR BOOK SOUNDS EPIC BUT HAVE YOU HEARD OF THIS THING CALLED SLEEP???
-Clara <3
AWW, THANK YOU!
Wait… sleep? What’s that? Sounds like something people do instead of working! >:D
Well, I NEED to have big writing goals for 2018… but I don’t.
THOSE COVERS ARE AMAZING! I NEED your talent…. even though I don’t have anything to design a cover for YET lol.
-Christina
XDD Have you written a novel before? That might be a worthy goal!
Aww, thank you SOO much!! They’re super fun to make. LOL! XD
I am in the middle of several, but they don’t have a structure or anything, so they are trash haha.
You’re welcome!
-Christina
Haha, at least you’re somewhere! 😉
Good job! The covers look great!
Thanks so much, Julia!
OH MY GOSH CHILD GO TO BED I WILL KNOCK YOU OUT IF I HAVE TO.
so you talk so much about “quality writing” AND THEN PROCEED NOT TO SLEEP YOU HYPOCRITE. everybody knows that sleep helps you think clearer, not get frustrated with your work, and notice things you didn’t before. conclusion: GET SOME SLEEP DANG IT.
that was a lot of yelling. XD
Most crazily, ~Olive
p.s. I go to beds at 10:00pm and wake up and 6:00am, it works great for me, do something logical like that!
p.p.s. I’l probably start your ninja drawing in January, because its less than two weeks until christams and I’m not even close to finishing my siblings presents waaaaa *sobs*
p.p.p.s. I’m making them ninjago characters. 😀 😛
HEY HEY HEY NO HYPOCRISY HEEERE. My best “quality writing” hours ARE THE MIDNIGHT ONES. SO HEHE.
P.S. My mom usually wants me to turn off all electronics at 8:30, so I have to be insane and get up at like 3:40 or 4 if I wanna get things done, which makes me more insane ’cause I get sleep deprived and stressed and decide to pull more crazy stunts… you get the idea. NO LOGICAL REASONING HERE.
P.P.S. No problem! I’m excited to see it and UGH SAME. *cries*
P.P.P.S. HAHA, they will LOVE that. XD
So weird. ?
im so proud of you ur doing the things i always wanted to do
like planning out novels.
guilty.
Your covers look amazing! How…? *puppy eyes*
XDD IT IS DOABLE. I PROMISE.
Thank you so much, Tess!!
I’m really lost on all of this 😀 Sorry, I’m new to the whole how to write a thing. So, you write down scenes in advance? then dialogue and stuff? Instead of just going with the flow writing? Does that question even make sense? 😀
Oh, that’s called outlining. I plan out my novel and what’s going to happen before I write it. That way, the plot isn’t flailing all over the place, I don’t have to worry that I don’t know what’ll happen, and writer’s block is nearly impossible. Plus, outlining makes me more and more excited about my story instead of “pantsing” it quickly and watching my motivation drizzle down to nothing from a poorly-planned story.
In the scene outline, I outline each individual scene so I can identify each one’s purpose in the plot; none of them are random or unnecessary, but rather, they’re like tiny building blocks, each one moving the plot forward. I write some dialog ideas that I have, but I don’t actually begin writing the story until all the planning is done.
I didn’t get any of this stuff until I read the blog Helping Writers Become Authors; you should totally check out the books Outlinig Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel. Changed my life!!
Oh, WOW!! This is a very good concept. It does sound hard and long though 😀 But you’ll probably end up with a very well-planned/ everything fits together book!
When will you’re planning be done? And what is your novel about?
Ooh! I’m going to have check out that link! Thank you so much, Madi!
It is long, but SO worth it! What goes in is what comes out — I’m super excited to see the quality of my novel work after it all!
My planning is almost entirely done! I start writing the book on January 1st. My novel, basically, is about a female ninja (kunoichi warrior) who falls in love with a samurai warrior. The main themes are a person’s worth not being found in what they can do but in what Christ did, and redemption. There’s a full synopsis here, and a TON of quotes from my scene outline right here.
You’re so welcome!! <3
I bet!
Yay! When did you start outlining? Oh, that’s cool! I guess you like ninjas?? Thank you so much! I’ll read them as soon as I can!
?
I started outline this particular book in late August! It was also my first time to ever outline, heh heh. XD Hehe, yes, I do indeed like ninjas. 😉 You are so welcome!! <3
Seriously Madi, I don’t get how you do all this crazy stuff. Hats off to you, my dear.
Though I failed Nanowrimo, I started this new novel two weeks ago and it’s going quite well, I believe. I’m at 18K so far. If you can sprint between 3-5:30 any day but weekends before Christmas, I SHOULD be on. So then we can snippet each other. ?
Honestly? Me neither. It’s kind of insane.
Woah, that’s awesome! I kind of don’t have any sprinting material yet, darn. Nothing to write until January. D:
Oh, and if you ever wanted to late-night sprint, if it’s after 10:30 I will have extinguished the menorah and I’ll be free to go. ?
WAAA I WISH I COULD BUT MY MOM RUINED ALL MY LATE NIGHTS BECAUSE SHE NOW TAKES AWAY MY PHONE AT 8:30 EVERY NIGHT. ?
DANGIT
Wow, Madi; you’re on a roll! Congrats!!
As for any big writing plans for 2018 (sheesh, what a crazy thought!), I’m going to attempt writing a novel! I actually did some research on it, have some characters in mind, and have a mostly intact plot.
Thank you for showing me the joys of novel planning! I never thought planning could be so fun! ;P ^^
Thank you sooo much, Skipper! I’m super excited.
Eeek, oh my goodness, that is so exciting! I’m cheering for you all the way! You can do this! What’s your novel about?
Awww, you’re so welcome! That means so much! Wishing you all the best with your novel! ?
P.S. I loved your newest post! I tried to comment, but I didn’t see an option, so I just “like”d it. XD
You’re welcome! My story is supposed to be about Santa’s reindeer if they were superheros. (I have a big thing with reindeer and superheros… ‘;) The story is on hold, however, because there are plenty of things that need fixing before I can continue. Things such as trying to figure out how to have succesful superhero reindeer…
Thank you! I’m glad that you liked my post. =) It’s really weird that the comment section wasn’t showing up… I thought I made it to where everyone could leave a comment, but I guess not. I’m really sorry about that! I’ll try to get that fixed.
Oooh, that is so cool! Actual reindeer or just the names of them all? That’s so neat!
You’re so welcome! And no problem. Comment sections do kinda like to hide. XD
[…] Yay! […]
Thank you! I’m glad that you think superhero reindeer are cool, too. ;3 Yes, they are supposed to be real reindeer, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how they can be heores without having opposable thumbs and such. For now, my solution is to make them anthro reindeer, like Mickey Mouse, if that makes sense…
And thank you for being so understanding about the whole hiding comments thing. =) I’m glad I’m not the only one who has that problem! xP