From Blogger to Wordpress - and beyond.

I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I've finally decided to do it. Over the next few days, I'll be cleaning up and transferring the pages and general content from this blog over to my official author website at www.hjstephens.com. I'll leave my past posts here as a look into the past, but I won't be posting here anymore. 

This will allow me to keep that website more current, and keep all my blogging and writing at one site. I know that I haven't been posting here much as of late, but I intend to rectify that with this new move. I'll be setting up a special posting calender, with a new post at least once a fortnight, hopefully once a week. I'll also be extending into my craft hobbies, with tutorials and looks into my projects.

I hope that you can join me over there. Knowing that there are people in the world that appreciate my work gives my writing a special purpose. Every comment, no matter how little, brings joy to my heart. As an independent writer, I know that it is very unlikely that I'll ever make it big in such a saturated market.

But that's not why I write. I write for you, for my audience and I am highly privileged to have you all as an audience. This blog began as a very small thing, a place to simply post my poems I wrote in school. Now, it is a big part of my life. I have met many great people here, and have been extended many opportunities.

I can only hope that the future is as blessed.

I hope to see you on the other side. Until then, 

Nano Update - Week 4

As of midnight tonight, Nanowrimo will be over for another year. And that is unbearably sad news. I love Nano, and count down the weeks until it every year. 50,000 words in one hectic month... it sounds crazy, but it really is an amazing experience.

So, I mournfully present the final Nano update for this year:

 

WORDS: 50,632... I won!! 

CHAPTERS: 20
PLOT: Slowly leaving the train tracks... but that's what December editing is for.
CHARACTERS: I.... I just don't know anymore. Half of them are in the slow process of dying, the other half have committed mutiny and disappeared from the story. And yet more and more villains are flooding in wanting a part of the plot.

Here are the top 3 of my favourite sentences from this months writing:

1. We sit in quiet once again and I listen to the wind as it howls around us, mourning the loss of the world. 
2. Some of them recognise my body, I can see it in their eyes; but they don't recognise my mind, the being that sits and controls this flesh and blood.   
3. I want to be able to one day look my grand-children in the eyes, and say, I’m proud of the world I helped create for you to live in.

Nano Update - Week 3

Week three:

WORDS: 32822 
CHAPTERS: 10
PLOT: Took a few twists I didn't plan for. I'm not sure about them either, but there is plenty of time for revisions in December.
CHARACTERS: Still hanging around, despite my best attempts to kill them off.  Which is really starting to be frustrating. We need to get the novel moving again characters, so please...

Until next time,

Nano Update - Week 2

So, I'm two days into the third week on Nanowrimo. We passed the mid-way point yesterday. So, how did I go for week 2? 

WORDS: 21063
CHAPTERS: I was halfway through Chapter 7 as of the end of week 2.
PLOT: Though at the end of last week I wasn't sure how my plot was progressing, and about halfway through week 2 I was frustrated with my story, I'm really happy with how is has developed from that point. Now, I love my novel. Although... more than a few plot-bunnies died to get to this point. I just didn't want the story to go down that way!

CHARACTERS: I love my characters, more than I should. I'll be sad to see them go. Unfortunately, I have a death scheduled soon and I don't want it to happen! But it needs to, so with regret, I will have to succumb to the power of the writing sword sooner rather than later. I'm already drawing it out as it is. So, I'm so sorry beloved character that I shall not name for fear of spoilers!! Your sacrifice will be remembered.

On that point, I have an idea to make a 'Red-shirt Remembrance Day' annual post here. Each year I will dedicate a post to a character that had to die for the story. I'm thinking the 30th of November, or on the 1st of December as a tribute to all of the writing that happens in November.   

For those of you don't recognise that reference, it's a Star Trek one. If you see a random, nameless red shirt in Star Trek... he will die. It's inevitable, it nearly always happens. So in dedication of all the red-shirts in our stories,

Keep writing.

Nano Update - Week 1.

So, today is Day 7 of the National Novel Writing Month. A week has already passed me by, I can't believe it. So, how am I going?

WORDS: 11008.
CHAPTER: 3 and a half.
PLOT: I threw the outline I drafted up in October out of the window somewhere in Day 4. Since then, I've just been letting the story go where it wants to go. So far this has worked quite well, though there have been times where I have had to backtrack and start a new direction due to writing myself into a corner. Unfortunately, that means that I have to delete the words I had written in the process.
CHARACTERS: I really don't know anymore. They are doing there own thing, living their own lives. Minor characters from WTNT are popping back up in this sequel, even though I had no prior plans for them doing so.

So, my novel is kinda writing itself at the moment. I don't know what's going to happen the next time I sit down. But this is Nano, and not knowing what happens next is half of the fun.

Until next time.