Farewell to June
June’s Writing
I wrote a total of 45,229 this month. Some of that was on The Shadow Raven, some was on The Heart of the Baenor, some was on blogging and some was on a short story that I started writing as a possibility to enter into the Story Embers writing contest at the last minute and decided against.
The Shadow Raven is up to 75,915 words now, which means it’s longer than The Last Assassin, but there’s still a month and a half of story time before it’ll catch up with The Last Assassin sufficiently that I can move on to The King’s Paladin and get that caught up. And then I have to be super careful and strategic about which scenes I write in which books and from who’s POV and things start to get really complicated. But it’ll be fun! Once I get there. The Shadow Raven apparently has longer chapters than The Last Assassin, considering it’s almost 76k with 23 chapters and The Last Assassin is approximately 74k with 30 chapters.
Also, EDITING! I’ve been buckling down on The Heart of the Baenor this month, getting the second draft done. I still have three chapters to write to end it (I took a long hiatus from it when I wrote it and thus edited it before finishing it because my writing style had so drastically improved in that time), but I plan on getting those done today and moving on to printing it so I can edit it again. I’ve actually really enjoyed editing this book, which is kind of rare, and I’m excited to get it as polished as I can. :)
June’s Reading
I only finished two books this month: No Dragons, Please! by Annie Twitchell and Azalei’s Riders by Miranda Marie (links to reviews). I also started reading Azalei’s Strategy by Miranda Marie and Infraction by J.E. Purrazzi, and I’m also reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (amazing book), The Odyssey (for school. Being homeschooled is great… until you fall behind. XP), The Sorcerer’s Daughter by Terry Brooks, The Secret of the Desert Stone by Frank Peretti (book 5 of the Cooper Kids series), and Quest for Seven Castles and The Great War by Ed Dunlop (books 2 and 8 of the Terrestria Chronicles), all of which I aim to be finished reading this month. Will I succeed in that goal? Well… I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?
Other Stuff
Nothing super exciting happened in June – my sister’s been gone in North Carolina for two weeks, but she’s coming home tomorrow – but I’m super happy for July. For one thing, CAMP IS COMING UP! I can’t tell you how excited I am for camp later this month. I made a couple of great friends last year who I’m super excited to see again, I’m looking forward to growing in my faith again, and my best friend and I are performing (hopefully. If we can practice.) The Other Side from The Greatest Showman at the talent show. (Yes, we got permission to perform a bar scene at a Christian camp. We’re converting it into a coffee shop.)
And also Camp NaNoWriMo. I’m aiming for about 48,700 words (preferably on The Shadow Raven) and having The Heart of the Baenor’s third draft completed. There aren’t going to be any blog updates, but I post my daily word count for the Go Teen Writers 100-for-100 on my Twitter account and I plan on continuing that after the challenge runs out as well, so if you want to keep up-to-date on how much I write, that’s the place to go.
So yeah, that’s what my month has looked like. :) How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July? What’s your goal for Camp NaNoWriMo, if you’re participating?
Wow! That is an incredible word count for June! Congrats!! How do you write so consistantly? I love this little end-of-the-month-wrap-up as a blog post. I may think about starting something like that.
It sounds insane to START that many books and be continuously reading so many at once! I think I’d lose my mind! How do you do it? Oh, by the way, Do Hard Things is amazing. Love that book. I read it many years ago. And, *tilts head to the side* why are you reading both books two and eight in the same series at the same time?
Camp Nano is so exciting! Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have the time to spare this month. I’m moving (actually IN NC XD so that’s cool, but leaving soon), looking for a new job, and looking for a new place to live. So, I’m busy with life this month. But, maybe I’ll be ready for Nano when it comes around.
I totally get it when you say your writing style has changed drastically. I’m actually encountering that now with my first novel. I wrote the middle before the beginning, and while editing chronologically have discovered the middle needs a massive rewrite!
Goals and challenges help a lot. The Go Teen Writers 100-for-100 has me writing at least 100 words per day on The Shadow Raven (generally more, since usually that leads me right into more writing), I write at least 444 words on something every day because I’m on 4thewords and that’s how many words it requires to keep up a daily streak, I’m participating in a challenge on 4thewords that has me battling a lot more of the monsters (which are slain with words) than I usually would… Challenges are where most of my word count come from. XD
Well… I don’t read any of them consistently. I wouldn’t recommend it. XD The Hobbit took me almost a year and a half to read because I kept interrupting myself with other books. It really doesn’t work well, lol. But I keep doing it, for some reason. Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to only read one book at a time, lol.
The books in the series mostly stand alone once you’ve read the first one and you know the main character, and I’ve already read books 1-7 before, so I’m rereading 2 (which is my favorite of the series) and reading 8 for the first time even though I got it for Christmas probably three years ago. (So many books, so little time…)
I hope your job-/house-hunting goes well! That sounds both exciting and stressful.
It’s cool because you can see that you’re growing, but it can also be really frustrating when you have to keep rewriting because you keep getting better, lol. Good luck with your novel!
Ooh, I haven’t heard of some of those challenges. I’ll have to check into them! It’s incredible how much progress you’ve made!
I think I’m going to buddy read the Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy with a friend of mine here soon! I’m excited! Haha, yeah, one at a time works best for me. XD
Ahh, that makes much more sense!
Thanks! It is!! I’ve got another interview on Monday, so we’ll see how that goes!
So true! Thanks! You too!
Ooh, buddy-reading them sounds like fun! I hope you enjoy them!
I’m glad you had a good month, best wishes on camp nano!! :D