Back and Ready to Go!

Well, I am finally through the beginning of my summer. Well, almost. This week is the fair, and I have plenty of work to catch up on otherwise, but for the most part, the summer has surprisingly cleared itself up. Which means, more time to write!

As many of you have already noticed, a new chapter of Promises came out this last Saturday, and I am happy to say that the next chapter is over half finished. We'll be going back to Han and Chewie to see how they got into that sticky situation. At the moment I'm having a bit of writer's block, but just on how I want to accomplish what I'm attempting to accomplish. Like I know I want to make Mila a bit more of a main character, or at least develop her storyline. But I want to do so in a way that it leaves us where we need to be when we get to RotJ.

But no fear, in my writer's block on Promises, I was able to finally finish the chapter of Repairs I've been working on for a while! I just published it about three minutes ago, so it should be up and ready to read very very soon (although when you read this it will most likely already be up). If you haven't read it yet, please go do so! There's a link if you click the cover on the left!

Now, a bit of a spoiler alert for Repairs if you want to read it first and not know what happens. I dedicated this chapter to Will, Kate and their new baby boy! So, if you can't guess what it's about from that, I'm not sure what will make you figure it out. I've had the idea for the chapter for quite some time now, and I wrote part of it and then left it sitting kind of unfinished in my writing folder. A few days ago, when I got back around to writing, I went back and I read it and decided I would finish it and upload it sometime this week. It just so happens that I got it done today, the same day that the Littlest Prince was shown off to the world for the first time! Yes, I watched it on TV.

So, things are looking up for the future. My goal is to have Promises all written within the next month before I go to college. It will be a chapter a week, as originally intended, always on Saturday. Hopefully I can get it done, but, unlike 40 Days with all it's chapters, I can say that we will be approaching the end soon. I'm expecting about 10 more chapters or so, although knowing me and my writing, I'll probably have more. Like, just off the top of my head, there are (including the next chapter) like 6 important chapters, and then there's a few other important things in there, and then the fillers. So it will still be a while before it's finished. And then, just as I did with 40 Days, the title and release date for the next story (both tentative) will be released in the notes at the end of Promises.

Thanks for sticking with me through the past couple of months. Things have been CRAZY. But the summer has been good otherwise. =)

Thinking

Well, this morning I was reading my 40 Questions page and it occured to me how much my life has changed in the last year, and the fact that it's been over a year since I started this blog. Honestly I'm finding that kind of crazy.

Either way, I'm having some writer's block, along with "My mom keeps piling more work on me" problems, but I will have a chapter uploaded this week. It won't be on Saturday since I leave early that day to go on this year's Band Trip. There will hopefully be one the week after, but I know already there won't be one the week after that (the 29th) because I will have been at camp.

Either way, there a few weeks where I am already pretty sure there won't be a new chapter for Promises, but I'm going to continue on. I just thought I would give you an update on how everything is going. I've been really busy with finals and graduation and then work for band the week after (That's right, I'm officially graduated, and I didn't die. I cried, but I didn't die). And I may or may not have been watching every Harrison Ford movie I can get my hands on. What can I say? I have a problem and I know it. Pretty sure there's no cure though.

I mean...

...And moving on. 

The 40 Questions page will be updated soon, so if you have nay questions for me to answer, I'd be more than happy to do so!

New Chapter Coming Soon!

Now that I have a laptop again, I have worked out a way to go through and continue writing, although it's not necessarily the way I've done it in the past. It still works though, and I fully plan on going full steam ahead as much as possible. I'm still working at transferring files from the old computer...I haven't started actually...but hopefully I'll be ok there.

Either way, I am very excited to tell you that there will be a new chapter of Promises this Saturday! I was originally going to post it tonight since I finished final editing, but FanFiction appears to be down...meaning that I'm going to have to wait, and since I'm waiting I might as well get back on schedule. I plan on spending some time this weekend on writing, although I had a myriad of other work to get done as well. Tomorrow night probably is when I'll work.

I'd give you a sneak peek, but I feel like that would be hard to do...I'd give too much away! This isn't exactly a chapter where a lot happens...since it's like a filler chapter, but we'll be getting into action soon enough. The two storylines will intersect again soon, and that means we have chapters for both Luke and Leia and Lando and Chewie (and Mila now!) coming up soon. Where I'm really going with this I have no idea, but I figure that I'll get there eventually. I might need to watch Star Wars to get in the mood...but I'm not complaining about that.

Check Fanfiction on Saturday for the new chapter of Promises!

New Laptop!!!

I am very excited to tell you that my new laptop is finally here, and that I am writing this very blog post from it! You have no idea how excited I am to be able to be on a computer whenever I need to again! It's been over a month since my other one basically died...but I have a lot of time of transferring files left. Let's just hope the entire thing doesn't crash trying to get the files off the other computer!

I'm still kind of getting used to this whole new laptop. It has Windows 8, which honestly doesn't really bother me since I don't know how to use everything yet anyway. I understand how to use most of it and while there are a couple of things that are kind of annoying, I'll get used to them with time.

So, I initially wanted the newest chapter of Promises to go up this last weekend, but that didn't work out because of our power outage, so I'm still waiting on that one. My new laptop doesn't have any Microsoft Office on it yet...which is what I use to write, so that's making things a little difficult yet too, but I assure you that the new chapter will be up soon. It's pretty much finished...I just have final editing and then I have to upload.

That's what's been going on around here! I hope everyone is well and excited for the new chapter!!!

Writing, Writing & more Writing

First, an update or two:

1. You can see that I changed the blog design a little again. You can now find all my stories along the left sidebar. Each picture has a link, so just click it and it will take you to the fanfiction page with the story. I think they look rather nice, don't you?

2. I'm working on Promises ASAP (or in other words...as soon as I finish this blog post), so hopefully a new chapter will be up sometime this week.

3. I've also been working on a new chapter to Repairs...although that's just in the writing stage at the moment...which I'll describe later in this post.

4. My laptop is still dead and I have yet to get a new one...but I've been replying and updating things as often as possible through a school computer, my phone and my desktop at home, when I have time to get on it.

5. I was wondering if you guys would be interested in reading one of my non-fanfiction short stories...so you can comment on that here or send me a message or whatever you like. I'll mention it on the next chapter of Promises as well.

6. I think that's it...but I just felt like putting another number.

The real point of today's post is for you guys to get a glimpse into what I generally go through when writing a chapter, story or update to any of my works. It's quite the interesting process, and I figured that while I'm without a computer and have been doing everything by hand, it'd be a good time to show you guys what I do.

If you remember correctly, I do all of my own editing, meaning I don't have a beta-reader. While generally I spend quite a bit of time on my laptop, I don't always read it over before I post it, so there are often errors...but when I write in my notebook it doesn't work that way. I read each bit of writing several times before it ever makes it's appearance on the internet...and then I often have to go back and re-read it later again to make sure everything connects together properly. So here's what I generally have been doing. Everything here will relate to the process I go through for my large arc stories that started with 40 Days, so in other words...Promises.

Step -1: Ideas

Yes, -1 because it doesn't really have to do with the chapter. Before I did anything with Promises, I made a list of ideas that I'd been saving up for what I wanted to include in the entire story. I often go back later and add to the list (so for instance the other day I added an idea that was sparked by a book I read). I didn't include a picture here though because I don't want to give anything away, obviously. But I suggest carrying around a little notebook and writing ideas down when you get them...or even a document on your phone or something works well. Just something so you don't forget the idea.

Step 0: Reread Previous Chapter(s)

It's always a good idea to reread the previous chapter, at least, before continuing onward. I find that I can't really come up with a solid plan for the chapter if I don't reread, and as you'll see later, I have notes for each chapter that I can refer back to that tell me the main points and any plotline that I want to expand continuing onward.

Step 1: Start Writing with a loose idea of where it's going

Now I can include pictures, and yes, you'll be getting a bit of a sneak preview of the next chapter of Promises. I basically just start writing, and since my laptop is MIA, right now I am writing everything in my notebook. It takes a lot more time, but it works. I do write out a lot of pens though.

Step 2: Write until you have a word count you're satisfied with

I personally try to make every chapter I write around 3,000 words. This isn't always the same though, as there are a few in 40 Days that are as short as 2,000 something, and as long as 4,000 something...but it's my general rule of thumb, and after a while, I've come to find that I write until I get to about that length and automatically stop. It works pretty well. It is not, on the other hand, nice to have to hand count all my words...

Step 3: Type it up

After deciding on a fair wording for the chapter, currently I then type it up. If I have my laptop or I start the writing on the computer, I can obviously skip this step, but at the moment I can't. I use the same formatting for all of my chapters and documents (although this will likely change when I get a new laptop and format my files differently). I may also put a passcode on pretty much all my documents...at least those that aren't on my laptop, which I only have access to.

Step 4: Print & Edit

I have been doing all of my editing by hand recently. I'll change things when I type it up, but then I go back, print it and edit it all by hand, making little notes for myself. Here's a teaser for the next chapter that I'm sure you'll enjoy...

Step 5: Make the changes and Do a final reading

By this point it's pretty obvious how to finish. I do one final read, add in the last formatting (I've been doing all of Chewie's talking, for instance, like [this], so I put in all of that bold and formatting ahead of time. It saves time later once I upload.

Step 6: Upload, add notes and publish

I upload, add in the notes and publish. Honestly I felt this one was pretty self-explanatory.

Step 7: Add notes to the journal

When I'm all finished with a chapter and it's published, I then go back and reread and write up the important notes for the chapter for later reference. Also included here, I sometimes have to go and do outside research on a topic...for instance, as seen below, high command. It's important to me to get as many things correct in the galaxy of Star Wars as possible...although there are certainly times I go off track. For instance, although it is said that Han is 10 years older than Leia, I prefer to go by Harrison and Carrie's real ages...so I mention in 40 Days that they are 15 years apart.

I also sometimes leave myself little notes:

So there you have it, a glimpse into what I do for all of my writing, at least on the longer stories like Promises. If I am creating a new story there's an extra step in there just before uploading though, to create a cover for it...but that's a topic for another post.

Han Solo

I figured you guys would like an update on everything.

My computer is still broken and I still haven't been able to access anything, but I've somewhat rewritten the next chapter from memory in my notebook. Thankfully I wasn't finished with editing that chapter anyway, and it was still in its rough stages, so missing a thing here or there won't matter too much. But it still means that the next chapter won't be up for a day or two, although if I'm lucky I can snag some time on my home computer this evening, in which I would be able to complete editing and typing and upload it then. We'll hope for that.

Otherwise, I've spent my recent time working on a variety of things. My Disney blog continues, as does my creative writing class (I'm currently writing a short story that I'll share here eventually). In the last few days I've managed to watch four movies starting Harrison Ford, Empire and Jedi of course along with "The Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger." Each of those was entertaining in its own way, as I liked the first one (PG) more, but the HF moments in C&PD are just priceless. Watching empire and Jedi have put me in an awkward position of continuously alternating between thinking about Han Solo and HF and writing, which has been, as I said, mostly Promises work. I feel a new chapter for Repairs coming on though. Very, very soon.

And so, if you don't follow me on any of my social networks, here's the myriad of Star Wars things I've posted in the last couple of days...

Yavin

Guess what? I have a special surprise that I wasn't going to publish until Saturday, but I couldn't wait any longer.

Yesterday my brother started reading the book "Scoundrels" by Timothy Zahn, and since we now had the book for Kindle, I had my mom send it to my phone as well. I started reading, but was barely three pages into Han's first chapter when I came across something interesting. The story takes place very soon after A New Hope, but Han has left the Alliance after helping them with the destruction of the death star, AND he lost the credits given to him for transporting Luke and Leia. He says a few things about Leia saying goodbye, and I realized it would make a cute short story.

And that's just what happened. I sat down at my laptop, which I often do, and I just wrote. I wrote until it had been several hours. 6,500 words on 17 pages and I was finished. And then tonight I edited it and it just went up on Fanfiction a few minutes ago, complete with it's own cover. =)

I think it's a cute little story, and I used it for two reasons. One, to write something from Han's point of view, since I don't exactly get to write too much Han in "Promises," and two, to practice descriptions. For some reason I find it very easy to write dialogue, but I need to work on the descriptions that go along with it, and this was a great opportunity. Plus, who doesn't love more Han and Leia? 

New Chapter: Sullust

I just thought I'd put it out on here that I've got a new chapter up for "Promises" finally. I had some technical difficulties that prevented me from publishing it over the weekend, but today I had some time to figure out what was wrong. We had a snow day, so yeah. I plan on spending much of the rest of the evening working on writing the next chapter. =)

Anyway, this new chapter is the first time we get an idea of what's going on for Chewie and Lando. I have to say that while I'm comfortable with Chewie's character, probably because I've been writing him for almost a year now, I have no idea what to do with Lando. He's such an undeveloped character in the movies that it's kind of hard to figure out what's really going on with him. I don't know. I feel like this new chapter is awkward because of it, but you guys are really the judges of that!

I'm hoping for the next chapter to be up next week Saturday, but I can't make any guarantees. I'm very busy this weekend,  as well as the rest of this week. Next week it should lighten up though, so we can hope, and like I said, I'm spending much of tonight working too.

My biggest question right now is, where do I want to go with everyone at the Alliance? I can only go over so much of the storyline involving Leia before it gets redundant! Either way, I can tell you right now that this story won't be anywhere near as long as 40 Days, at least I'm not planning on it. Of course, that could change any time...and the future is always in motion!

So yes, there's a new chapter up on Fanfiction, so go check that out, and leave comments here if you feel like it, and review the story for the same reasons!

And have a good day!! =)

Commenting & New Design

As I said in the last post, I wanted to work on changing the design of my blog...and here's the redesign. I'm not really completely happy with it though, so it will probably change again. You can see the new icons that link to my personal pages throughout the internet though! I revised them all and for the first time, included a link to my Instagram.

If you're looking to follow me, I post most on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr, but my other accounts are there as well. =)

And here's the great news for all of you! First, I'm posting a new chapter THIS weekend. Second, I have now made it so on this blog anyone can comment. After HanandLeiaFanFicWriters discovered the option to change comments so anyone can comment, I realized that must be the way to fix it. So now anyone can comment. You don't need an account for anything!

Like I said, this version of the blog probably won't stay forever, but what do you think? Should I keep it?

It's been a while!

It certainly has been busy...but musical is over, and aside from my work for Solo and Ensemble, I've got a lot more time now than I have in the past few weeks...thankfully.

I'm hoping to do some editing on the appearance of the site, because I feel like it needs an update, but other than that I'm going to work on writing. The next chapter of "Promises" is pretty much 2/3 done, I just have to finish it off and do editing...so I'm hoping that sometime this next weekend it will be up.

This last week I did a new chapter for "Repairs," and I'll probably do one more chapter to that story before I determine it as complete. Two chapters just seems weird, but three is a good number generally...so that's probably where I'll end. Plus, it will be hard for me to continue the theme because it's strange for "Promises" then. I have to be in two different mindsets...one, that Han is there and everything is happy, and two, that Han is in carbonate. It's not terrible, but it just messes with my mind a little when writing.

But that's what's going on, if anyone happens to still check out this blog!

Mental Breakdowns

I think as writers we tend to have this sense of assuming.

For instance, we ASSUME we know how Han and Leia feel about each other. We ASSUME we know how Han feels about his past. We ASSUME we know how Leia feels when she cries, or attempts suicide, or hides. And we ASSUME that everyone won't like their relationship.

But today I don't assume. I completely understand Leia. Ok...maybe not completely, but pretty close.

You know how we write about how when Han isn't there, much like what I'm writing now in Promises? About how the world is closing in on her, or at least that's how it feels, and no one is there to comfort her or back her up. How it's almost, to her, like she's fighting a one person war against the entire galaxy. And then we write about how she struggles to sleep, and instead pushes herself to work until she can work no more, just because it helps her, and any moment without work is a break too long. And we think that she would believe that's not what Han wants...and yet the tears and the frustration and stress continue to flow.

Well, I experienced that today. Upon different circumstances, as in her case it might be about how those around her feel about her relationship with Han, and how for the first time, she has to deal with everything all by herself. The memory of Alderaan, with Luke, with her relationship with the missing Han, and with the Alliance struggling to repel the Empire. For me it's actually about work. Finals are this week, and some smart person decided that this week would be the best time ever for tech to start musical...great idea. NOT. I have so much work to do over the next week that it clouds my brain to the point I can no longer think. To the point where I don't want to think.

But you know, the entire time I've been upset, and this is the third time I've written about this now, all I could think about was "Is this how Leia would feel?" Because really, it is a good question. Is that how she feels? Like the world is closing in on her and there is no escape...and no one there to rescue her (although at times she has Han, or Chewie occasionally, and how I have my best friend)? It makes a lot of sense that she would feel that way...so when I was really upset a while ago, I wrote. That's what I did. I sat at my laptop just like I'm doing now and I wrote how I felt...because later when i get to a mental breakdown in the storyline, I can go back and read it and remember just how I felt...and then apply that same feeling to how I believe Leia would be feeling at that moment.

Because I think that's something a lot of readers don't always understand. They pass off things like a breakdown from a character as something that's happening just because of what is going on in the story...or it seems out of character. But I think it's completely in character for Leia. I'm a strong person too. I can generally deal with a lot on my plate all at once and still hold a smile through the entire thing...but sometimes there just gets to be too much for me to hold and I break. It doesn't happen often, but it does...every once and a while. It seems out of my character, and to those who see little of me, they won't even notice a difference other than maybe I'm a bit snappy or I won't use a lot of excuses. They won't know I'm not sleeping, or eating, or stressed...it will just seem like I'm normal.

So I think THAT'S why we always see Leia's sudden outbursts as out of character...because they happen in a way that doesn't seem normal to us. We only break down in front of those we trust the most...for me it's a couple of my friends, and I have to say that during my last breakdown the one thing I remember helped me feel better was a hug from one of them. For Leia it's Han...and that's why she breaks down in front of him. But in Leia's reality...it would be normal. It would be in character, because she no longer needs to hold back. She doesn't need to hold the tears. Because in reality...we wouldn't be reading about it anyway.

I'm not really sure if any of this made any sense at all, but I'm going to pretend it did...and let you know that I will hopefully have a new chapter up soon...probably late next week (as you just figured out that I'm on a pretty tight schedule at the moment). But soon I promise you...soon!

Alliance High Command

I'm currently working on the next chapter and outline for Promises...but I have to do a bit of research first. I'm not the greatest at understanding politics or war strategies, and I certainly don't understand much about High Command...something that will become a very important part of the story in Promises...but I'm working on it.

Honestly, High Command is a pretty complicated thing, and since we don't know everyone who was on it, it's even worse. It's good for me kind of, because I can create characters that I will use to follow what my storyline will be, but at the same time it's frustrating because those that we do know of I want to keep as close to their characteristics as possible. I'm really putting a lot of time into getting characteristics right this time, because I personally feel I fell a bit short in "40 Days." Granted, this is largely because I had 40 days of things to write and it gets a little worn by the end, but this time I have a whole new set of characters, and I really want to get their backgrounds and characteristics correct so I can match things up.

Of course, I'm not going to be following the storyline of what really happened in between Bespin and the rescue of Han...since then it wouldn't really be fanfiction anymore...but the characters are important to me. Plus, I know some of you would really like to see things like battle and sabacc and technical things I generally left out in the previous story. It will take longer, but in the end it will create for a better storyline.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm suppose to alternate between Leia and Lando/Chewie...and what Lando and Chewie are going to be getting into!