NaNoWriMo – Day 3

Day 3 of NaNoWriMo is ending in Australia but many others around the world are only just waking up to it. You might be thinking ‘it’s only day 3′ but I’m here to remind you of one very important fact. Time will fly.

I mean, how can we already be in November? Weren’t we doing this exact thing just yesterday? Sadly not. Time has gone that fast. So if you’re like me and you’re doing your darnedest to make the 50k goal, don’t get complacent, ok? Before you know it, it’s going to be 20th November and if you’ve become a little lackadaisical, you’re going to start freaking out.

However, if you’re doing this for a bit of fun but don’t care about the word count, by all means take all the time in the world and enjoy! 🙂

What are your personal goals this year? And how are you going with NaNo so far? Let me know in the comments section.

For me, not only am I determined to meet my 50k goal, I’m also determined to get my first draft FINISHED. It’s not often I actually finish a novel during NaNo so this year I’m going to do my best to make it happen.

As for how I’m going so far, my word count is currently at a healthy 7,884 words. That’s only two days of writing though. I haven’t written today yet, I’m actually about to start once I finish this blog. My goal is to hit 10,000 words tonight if I can. Overall I’m happy with my result, especially considering I’ve been working the last three days.

So, I bet you’re wondering if I managed to stay up past midnight when 1st November rolled around? Or you may not be. Either way, I will answer…

Yes, yes I did.

Okay, so I might have only lasted until 1:15am but in that time I wrote around 1,600 words. Considering how tired I was, I was happy with my efforts. I also managed to fit in some more writing that day, and my total day 1 total word count came to 5,280. Not a bad first day.

Okay, well it’s time for me to put these fingers to good use and write Wedding Wars. It’s not going to write itself.

That’s all for now. Keep writing and most importantly HAVE FUN. ❤

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NaNoWriMo – It’s here again

Hello world.

The last blog from me was when my Mum ended up in hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest and I was asking for assistance through Go Fund Me. Since then, life has been a whirlwind.

Unfortunately my mother passed away on 15th July 2017. But you’ll be happy to hear the Go Fund Me was a success. The funds allowed me to travel to Noumea before Mum died, it allowed my sisters to visit after her death, and it covered so many other expenses. The last few months have been so hard, and extremely emotional but we’ve all turned another leaf and we’re finally moving on.

This blog is not to discuss that though. Maybe one day I will write a separate blog detailing the events of that period but not today.

Today I’m writing about what I always do at this time of year. National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Yes that’s right, it’s that time of year again. Can you believe it? November has snuck up on me and I confess I feel extremely unprepared. However, that doesn’t mean I’m taking this year off. No sirree, I’m embracing it with two hands and I’m running full steam ahead.

The upside is I do have a story I’ll be writing for NaNo, one I’m very excited about. My writing has been a bit sporadic in recent months, as I’m sure you’d understand, but I think this is going to give me the boost I so desperately need.

Do you want to know what it’ll be about?

I suppose I can tell you. 😉

Of course it’ll be romance because that’s what I write. This one will be a little different though. Well, different for me at least. In a world where reality TV is on every single channel, I decided to use that idea to my advantage. This story is called Wedding Wars and the concept is this:

Six couples sign up to appear on a brand spanking new reality TV show called…

Cue title drop.

WEDDING WARS.

You can hear the voice over already, can’t you? Anyway, in a nutshell these six couples will be required to plan each other’s weddings, following strict rules set by the contestants. There will be two rounds.

1. Planning: This will be where the teams plan every aspect of the wedding and this will be judged by the relevant couple getting married along with a professional wedding planner. At the end of this round, three teams will go home.
2. Changes: This will be where the remaining three teams get to choose one aspect of their wedding plans they don’t like and be have it changed. However, the twist is they can’t change it themselves. They have to come up with new rules and the other teams will be allocated to make the change. At the end of this round, the remaining three couples will marry and the winning couple will be chosen based on the changed plans and how successful the wedding is. The prize will be a monetary lump sum and a honeymoon.

In the first round, the three couples who go home will still get to have their weddings but it must be using the original plans. No changes allowed.

Where does the romance come into it, you ask? Well…

Dun dun duuunnnnn!

Two of the six couples will be in rocky relationships. They don’t love their fiance / fiancee but they’ve stayed in their respective relationships out of obligation. The girl from one couple and the man from another will fall in love. Scandalous! Of course their romance will happen in secret; off camera and behind the scenes. Will they run away together and boycott the show? Or will they still marry their betrothed out of obligation?

Well…that would be telling.

So, NaNo is looking very exciting for me this year. I’m so keen to write this story. I’ll be a ‘plantser’, meaning I’ve planned out how the reality show will run but the story itself I’ll be pantsing because I haven’t really planned how they’ll fall in love and get away with their secret romance.

Now, here in Australia it’s 12:25pm on 31st October. My plan is to stay up until midnight and start off NaNo with an hour of writing. Unfortunately I have to work tomorrow so I’m not sure how wise this idea is. Still, the temptation is strong. Can I really go to work on only four hours sleep?

I’ll write another blog in a day or two and let you know.

Until then, ciao!

Go Fund Me – Can you help?

Hello world.

Well, what can I say? It’s been a while…that’s my usual spiel, isn’t it? Nothing like stating the obvious. Life is a bitch sometimes, that’s all I can say. Quite often I think about things I can blog about and go ‘I’ll do that when I get home’ then I get home and a hundred other things come up.

Yes in the day and age of technology I should just write it on my iPhone but I don’t always think of it. Or the idea comes to me when I’m only five minutes from home.

We all know that feeling, hey?

But right now I’m here and I wish to ask a favour. I know it sounds rich coming from someone who has been absent for so long but I hope this story will tug at your heartstrings and you might be willing to help. Or at least share my plight so that others can help. 🙂

I would like you to ‘meet’ my parents, Rodney and Christine Adams.

On 24th June this year, it was their 45th wedding anniversary. What a milestone! To celebrate, they decided to go on a 10 day cruise of the pacific islands. For years it’s been a dream of my Mum’s to go on a cruise so even though they’re pensioners, they spent the last few years saving for it.

Finally the day arrived and Mum was so excited. Unfortunately on the evening of the 4th July, Mum suffered a heart attack and was medically disembarked at Isle of Pines and rushed to Gaston Bourret Hospital in Noumea, New Caledonia. She is still there and in a coma. She’s stable but has a lung infection, which means she can’t breathe on her own.

My Dad is also there and obviously extremely emotional. He doesn’t know the language, he’s not a big communicator anyway, and he’s struggling on his own. There are so many people to talk to, doctors, consulates, you name it. My sister, Tracey, is over there with him at the moment but she has to return to her family next week so I need to get over there to support him. My other sister, Amanda, is needing to be there too and she’ll try and visit after me.

The truth is we don’t know if Mum will survive. She may, she may not. What we do know is Dad needs our support so we need to take in turns spending time with him. Unfortunately Amanda and I don’t have the funds to go over so we’ve set up a go fund me campaign. The funds will help us get over, cover relevant expenses and also help Dad out because he’s running out of money.

This is where you guys come in. If you’re able to help, we would appreciate it so much. Of course I understand not everyone is in the position to help but if you are, and if you’re willing, any support would be greatly appreciated. If you can or if you can’t, what I would love is if you could please share this to your family and friends.

I need to get over there ASAP. My goal is to be there by the 16th if I can. We have a decent amount of donations already thanks to some amazing people but it’s still not quite enough to get me there and cover expenses. So, please, if you’re able to help, we would honestly appreciate it so much.

I know we’ll never be able to repay financially but if I / we can ever pay it forward in other go fund me campaigns, or anything else, we will.

Here is the link to the campaign:

https://www.gofundme.com/wtfd8-adams-medical-fund

Thank you in advance.

Lisa

Radish

No, not the vegetable.

Who here has heard of the reading app called Radish? When it was first released a year ago, it was only available on mobile devices and this is still the case.  They’re still making it suitable for all devices and there’s it will soon be accessible on the web but I’m not sure when.

Why am I talking about Radish?

They sought me out on Wattpad and asked me to write to them. You might be thinking Radish is yet another method of reading books for free but let me tell you, that’s not all there is to it. Yes you can read works for free, but authors can also make money from Radish.

How?

It’s quite simple. Authors can choose to ‘publish’ their works using three different methods:

Free – this is as it sounds. Similar to Wattpad, you post your story and people read it for free. Simple.

Freemium – the first three chapters are free to read. After that, chapters are locked for 7 days after publication, requiring coins to unlock, before automatically unlocking after that one week period. Then they stay free. If readers use coins to unlock chapters before they become free, the author gets a commission from this.

Premium – the first three chapters are free to read. After that, all chapters require coins to unlock. They do not become free after a certain period, unlike the Freemium method. Once again, the author gets commission from coins earned.

Radish is becoming increasingly popular. There is one author already making $70,000+ a year! Unfortunately it isn’t me. 😉

However, the point is, Radish is becoming a thing. If people enjoy a story and want to keep reading, they’ll spend money to read more. And this is where I’m asking for your help.

I have three stories on Radish. One under each method. If you would like to read, and if you would like to support me financially as an author, I would really, really appreciate it. The commission is small, which is pretty normal even in the publishing world, so the more readers I get, the more commission I’ll get. One day I would love to earn money from my writing and this is a starting point. I would really love it if you could help.

Below is a list of my stories and their blurbs, currently available on Radish. You can even access the story by clicking on the picture under the title. Remember, though, you can only read if you have the app on your phone. Thank you in advance for your support.

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Oceans Apart – Premium

Exclusive to Radish! A sweet, contemporary romance. Updated twice a week. Click on the picture above to read the story.

Blurb:

A family holiday. A cruise ship. Two sisters who don’t get on.

Nikki Eckhart has never had the desire to travel. She’s always been content sitting at home, running her home-based business and looking for Mr Right. But when she breaks up with her sixth boyfriend of the year, she realises something has to change. She’s wasting her life when she could be out there having fun. So when her her brother-in-law suggests a family holiday—a cruise—for her parents’ 30th wedding anniversary, Nikki can’t really say no.

As much as she knows this is a chance to finally enjoy life without a man on her arm, she dreads it. All because her sister, Katie, will be there. The one who makes Nikki’s life a living hell. Nikki goes along though, hoping she can figure out why her sister hates her so much and rekindle the relationship they once had many years ago.

What she doesn’t expect is to meet someone…a man named Gavin. And maybe, just maybe, he’s the Mr Right she’s spent years looking for.

Now, along with trying to fix the tattered relationship with her sister, she’s trying to pin down Mr Right too.

The holiday suddenly looks very interesting.

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History Repeats – Freemium

A young adult story. Available on Wattpad and Radish, however updates are twice a week on Radish but only once a month on Wattpad. Click on the picture above to read the story.

Blurb:

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Sally Mumfry thinks she’s invincible. Sleeping with her high school teacher is supposed to be harmless fun. No strings attached. Then all hell breaks loose. Her invincibility is lost and she has a huge decision to make.

A year later she finally has her life under control and it’s time to start University. Her lifelong dream is to become a veterinarian. Determined not to lose sight of this dream, she makes a firm resolution not to make the same mistake she did in high school. The university lecturers are OFF LIMITS.

That is, until she meets her veterinarian lecturer John Simpson…suddenly it’s looking like history is going to repeat itself and Sally doesn’t think she can stop it.

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Always the Bride – Free

This story is on Wattpad AND Radish in an attempt to get readers. Updates on Radish are twice a week. Click on the picture above to read the story.

Blurb:

I was just an ordinary girl—independent, a lover of life, easy-going, a girl who took everything in her stride—then I got my heart broken. Then I met Gregory. Then I got married. Then…my entire life became one big, complicated mess. I didn’t intend for it to get this out of control. But heartbreak and an emotional breakdown will make any girl do crazy things. It makes me do crazy things. My name is Teresa and I have an addiction. This is MY story.

Join Teresa in the first book of the ‘Always’ series. Also available on Wattpad with over 1 million reads!

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If you decide to read, thank you. Please forward to people you know, help me get my name out there.

Thank you and enjoy!

Lisa ❤

I’m back…again

I’m still not sure why I find it so hard to blog regularly. I think this is my longest absence yet. It’s appalling really.

Well you gotta keep at something, right? And I think now is a good time for a change. Why? Because I am currently out of work. I left my job in December of last year and now I can focus a lot more on my writing. I’m looking for ways of making money and am hoping to find ways online.

Perhaps blogging can be an option. I’m also looking into ways of making money from my writing. I’m still not yet published but I have other means. That’s for another blog.

In the meantime, please accept my humblest apologies and I intend to do better.

If there are any specific topics you wish to see blogged about, list them in the comments below and I shall do my best to cover them.

For now that’s all from me.

NaNoWriMo – It Begins

Okay, I’m a terrible person. I’ve totally neglected my blog. I have no excuse except…LIFE. Huge apologies but with NaNoWriMo upon us, I will be blogging this month about my progress. I will do my best to update my blog more regularly once it’s over.

I also have a month off work so I can dedicate the entire month to writing.

So today is the first day of NaNo. How has everyone gone? I’m quite impressed with my progress. My total word count is exactly 10,501 words. I had a goal of 2,500 and I’m excited to have exceeded it.

It’s strange, this is the first year I haven’t planned my NaNo novel thoroughly, yet when I started writing, it flowed. I know during NaNo we all reach that peak where we feel like we can’t go on. We’ve dried up and all ideas are gone. But I’m hoping if I keep writing while the ideas are fresh, I may be able to get the draft of this story written before I dry up.

I already have so much more I want to write today but I feel like I’m reaching exhaustion so I’m going to stop. I don’t want to burn myself out too early. I can write again tomorrow and I’m sure my ideas will return.

Well, that’s all for now. Remember, no matter which point you’re at for NaNo, you’re all doing great. This is all a bit of fun. A means to challenge yourself. Do what you can do and regardless of the outcome, you’ll still be a winner at the end of it.

Have fun and happy writing! ❤

NaNoWriMo – The End!

Yes, yes I know, my blog posting for this year’s NaNo was dismal. I had intended to blog before 30th November but I was in Perth for my sister’s wedding and by the time I got home I was exhausted and forgot to blog.

Then by the time I thought of it, the last thing I wanted to do was write. How appalling! But I was in a word induced coma from lots and lots of writing and I was also in a state of shock from having to deal with my family for a whole week. Long story. So I hope you will forgive me for my lacklustre blog contribution for NaNo this year.

Okay so now I’m here, I’m itching to ask the million dollar question… how have you all travelled? Did you ‘win’? Or did you not? Remember, it doesn’t matter either way. I guess the most important question is: did you have fun? Because at the end of the day, having fun is what NaNo is all about. There should be no stress, no comparing yourself to others…just write because you love it and you feel like a challenge.

Whether you won or not, I’m sure you all did brilliantly. The fact that anyone can take the challenge is great in itself.

So my final word count for Nano is…. *drumroll* 76,553!

That word count involves finishing a novel, starting another and getting about half way through it, and continuing existing novels. I have to confess I’m chuffed with my results. Especially since I reached this by the end of week 3 of NaNo. Because I was going away, I had to register my word count before I left. Which is why I said I was in a word coma and didn’t feel like writing. I had tired myself out. Still, it was a lot of fun and I’m only just getting back into writing now. I had taken a few weeks off to recover.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Let me know in the comments below how you travelled.

Have a great day wherever you are and I’ll blog more soon… as soon as I have something worth blogging about!

NaNoWriMo – how are you travelling?

So it’s a little over half way through NaNo…how are you all going?

As I’m sure you can tell by my lack of blogs, it’s actually going very well for me. At 1am this morning (Australia time), my word count was 48,442 words, Yep that’s right, I’ve nearly met the 50k goal. Feeling good!

In fact I probably have met it already. I’ve been writing most of today and have probably done nearly 10k.

I don’t want to brag as I know not everyone can do it but I did want to report on my progress.

Just remember, please don’t be ashamed or annoyed if you’re not doing as well as you had hoped. The fact you’re even participating and you’re enjoying it is great. Enjoy NaNo, it’s all for a bit of fun. 🙂

NaNoWriMo – Day 1 results

So everywhere in the world has by now finished day 1 of NaNoWriMo. How did everyone go?

I know I promised an update at the end of day 1 but after a busy day, I just didn’t get time. But it’s still day 2 so I’m not THAT late. 😉

So my results for day 1: I wrote 4,116 words even though I had an insanely busy day. I got nearly all those words down in the last 4 hours of last night. I was tired by the end of it but am glad I got a decent head start.

It’s still day 2, but so far it’s not going well. I’ve only written around 600 words so far but I’m certain I’ll pick up as the night continues. I had a few things to do that was writing related but didn’t count towards my word count then we had to go out. I’ve been able to write this afternoon but have had a few blocks. As long as I get around 2,000 words today I’ll be happy. Tomorrow WILL be a better day, I’ll make sure of it.

I don’t have much to report right now so I’ll update again in a week.

Let me know your progress in the comments below.

NaNoWriMo – it’s nearly time!

There are only 2 days to go until NaNoWriMo begins. Who’s psyched up for it? I know I am! I’m so keen. Along with NaNo, is my month off work so I’m super keen. Finally I have the whole month to focus on my writing.

As usual, throughout the month of November I will blog about my progress. As I produce a new blog, please let me know in the comments how you’re going too. I love hearing how everyone is doing. Even if you’re not doing well, it doesn’t matter. It’s giving it a go that counts, if you only get 5,000 words written then that’s still great!!

Here’s  recap of my plans for NaNo.

This year I’m writing a brand new story (last year was a rewrite), which is partially planned out. I had hoped to have it fully planned by the 1st but I’ve been so busy at work it just hasn’t happened. I’m not too fazed though. I’ve got about half of the story planned so that’s a start and I can continue planning during November.

My goal, as is everyone’s, is reaching 50,000 words but I’m also planning to go one step further and complete the novel. I’ve been so excited to write this since I had the idea so I’m hoping it’ll flow out of me when I begin. With no work interruptions, I should be able to do a lot better this year with having a lot more writing time.

Okay, so this will be my last NaNo blog until the 1st. I will blog at the end of that day to advise you of my day 1 progress.

For now I must get some work done work as I’ve got lots to do before I finish for a month.

Have a great day or night, wherever you are.