Happy 4th of July

- Aaron and Ella

JuNoWriMo Day 15: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: No, writing was yet again called on account of my math test. I spent most of the day wanting to write, but I just couldn't do it. The test was too important.
How it went: Ugghh... not sure (I mean about the test not about the writing. The writing was nonexistent.)
My biggest obstacle of the day: My math test.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: N/A



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 14: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Note: This post has been called on a count of a massive math test. Regularly scheduled updates will return on Thursday.



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 13: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yeah, 1,142 words.
How it went: It went pretty well. I'm still working on a different chapter, which is still helping, but I switched back to the computer. Only now I'm using a library computer instead of my laptop which has taken away a lot of the temptation.
My biggest obstacle of the day: Balancing school and writing. If I do one I don't really have time for the other and visa versa. I'll be glad when classes are over for the summer.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: "As the air rushed over my tongue my picture of the world around me sharpened."



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 12: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yep, 3,428 words either written or edited.
How it went: Apparently switching things up was something I needed because as soon as I changed mediums and skipped ahead a couple chapters I didn't have any problems.
My biggest obstacle of the day: For today at least there wasn't one. Once I got out of my sh*t I'm so far behind my word count mindset it was pretty much clear sailing.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: N/A. That's the down side. At the moment I can't actually remember a word I wrote. It's like jet-lag only with writing.



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 11: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Nope, 217 words.
How it went: Yet again I spent most of the day writing... homework. However, since I'm refusing to count homework only the half hour I got in before bed counted. What can I say? My goal is 1,000 words a day on Entwined not 1,000 words a day on anything at all. At least I'm sticking to my guns, so that's something.
My biggest obstacle of the day: My computer. At first I thought it was just the internet that was causing the problem, but now I'm pretty sure it's the computer in general. Well, not really the computer itself, but writing on the computer. Tonight, writing on a tablet in on top of my key board got me better results in thirty minutes than three hours of uninterrupted typing yesterday afternoon. So I think I may trying pen and paper for a couple days and see what kind of results I get.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: "Where had this been an hour ago when she'd killed my mother?"



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 9: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yep, 1,003 words, just barely over the line.
How it went: Pretty good, but I'm just not that into it. At the moment I just doing it because I said I would.
My biggest obstacle of the day: Yeah, just being kinda ugggg. I'm not writing a very fun scene at the moment, so it's fight just to make myself sit down and start typing.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: N/A



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 8: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yep, about 4,000 words.
How it went: It went really well. I banged out my homework and got right down to writing.
My biggest obstacle of the day: My downstairs neighbors. Our apartment is the product of shoddy construction, so everybody can hear everything from the upper and lower apartments really well. As a result if we don't literally tiptoe around our downstairs neighbors start banging on the walls and yelling expletives at the ceiling, which really don't loose that much volume on their trip through the floor. Every time my roommate walked down the hall one of the guys downstares would start screaming. It was very distracting and really messed up my flow. However, I have come up with a solution. I'm going to write them into my story and then kill them off. That'll teach them.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: "Full of joy Gregor beamed at Michael. Silently swearing he wouldn't waist his powers the way Gregor had Michael smiled back through gritted teeth."



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 7: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Just barely, 1,140 words.
How it went: I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm still out of my grove.
My biggest obstacle of the day: It's the whole time thing again.
My favorite sentence: "That was all that we needed to tip our finally honed control over the edge."

~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 6: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: No, 391 words, but I've consistently gone over my word count on every other day so I'm just going to chalk it up to an off day and start with a clean slate tomorrow.
How it went: Like I said it was an off day. I'm taking a five week math class this summer, and I had a test today. I don't know what happened. I'm normally pretty good at math, but I couldn't understand any of the questions and I only had time to do three of the four questions. Best case scenario I got a 75%, and worst case scenario I did a heck of a lot worse than that. Still I have a 68% average so far and one test and a final left to go. I can still pull it up, but either way tanking my writing is definitely not the way to deal with blanking on a test.
My biggest obstacle of the day: Spending the whole day moping about my math test. I had issues, big deal. It's over. It happened. All I can do is study harder for the next test. Letting it get inside my head isn't going to help anything. If anything forcing myself to write for a couple hours probably would have helped me. WOW, I wish I'd thought of that ten hours ago.
My favorite sentence: Skin pressed against skin and the combined heat of a hundred bodies pushed back at the cold.

~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 5: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yep, 1134 words.
How it went: Pretty good, I'm back on track in terms of actually working on my WIP as opposed to my homework, but I lost part of my word count since counting the homework for my Creative Writing class felt like cheating. If it were a paper for any other class I wouldn't count it, so this shouldn't be any different.
My biggest obstacle of the day: There was this one crucial scene that I just couldn't seem to get right. I have tons of ideas on how to write it, but I'm pretty sure that a reader wouldn't be able to follow any of them. So I'm trying to reach a compromise between what the reader need and what I want.
My favorite sentence: "It made sense that the man who opened the door would own a shop called the Mad Hatter." Unfortunately I may have to cut it as part of the whole compromise thing I mentioned.

~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 4: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yes.
How it went: It went pretty well, but typing in the morning is definitely not my thing. In general I'm a morning person, but apparently when it comes to writing I'm a night owl. I guess all those years of writing by flashlight under the covers after my parents had gone to sleep left its mark.
My biggest obstacle of the day: I have a horrible case of SNI syndrome, and I blame it on my Creative Writing class. I'm a one project girl. Once I start a project it's all I work on. I flat out refuse to put any other ideas down on paper until I get at least a first draft written on my current project. However, now I'm having to multitask and it is destroying my self control.
My favorite sentence: “Hello… Hello? Are you there or did you hang up on me?” Bram asked incredulously.

~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 3: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal:
How it went:
My biggest obstacle of the day:
My favorite sentence(s) of the day:

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: In a fashion.
How it went: I spent all day typing and got over 5,000 words written, but it wasn't on my WIP. It was on two short stories that I had to write for a Creative Writing class that I'm taking this summer. However, they're all stories that I'll use as prologues in future stories, so I'm counting them.
My biggest obstacle of the day: The fact that even though I was able to write I wasn't able to work on my story.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: "The bullet plows into him. He falls to the ground without a sound. He convulses fighting to breath, but you march on leaving him behind."

~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 2: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal: I'm ashamed to say...No. :(

How it went: I had the best intentions, I swear! I got all the essentials ready (Pandora radio, ear phones, chocolate covered espresso beans, mmmm!), sat down to write and...notta. I just wasn't feeling it. I wanted to write, I did, I just felt totally uninspired and blah (of course, this all probably had something to do with the fact that I slept in until after 11:00 in the morning which messed up my whole day and on top of that, I have a cold). One bright spot to the day though was when I decided not to force myself to sit there and try to write any longer and instead called it a day and went to read the book Story Engineering by Larry Brooks (thanks a ton for the recommendation, Shallee!)- I don't know, I think he may be on to something! I encourage you to check it out! :)

My biggest obstacle of the day: Definitely a lack of motivation and inspiration.

My favorite sentence(s) of the day: N/A

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yes, but just barely.
How it went: Again the writing flowed really well, but finding time is still a struggle. Tomorrow I'm going to try getting up a little earlier and do some writing before my day starts, see how that goes. If it works I'll try that for a while, and if it doesn't no harm no foul.
My biggest obstacle of the day: I actually had some time to write this afternoon, but I had to work on a short story for my creative writing class instead of working on my WIP. I'm going to be writing up a foreword for my WIP anyway, so may try writing it as a short story so that way I can kill two birds with one stone.
My favorite sentence(s) of the day: "Going back to the cupboard I tried again. This time I came up with the kit after resorting to sticking my head under the sink."



~ Ella and Aaron

JuNoWriMo Day 1: Update

Ella

Did I meet my daily goal: Even better...I surpassed it! My daily goal is to write 200 words a day and I managed to get 611! :)
How it went: At the beginning, it was like torture because I had no idea what to even write about (still don't, really). Plus, I was just really scared and unsure of myself and my writing abilities, I wasn't sure if I had it in me anymore and I actually started to sweat and my hands got all clammy and I wanted to cry...Oh, it was awful, but, after a bit, I got into a good groove and actually started to enjoy myself! Ha, imagine that! So, crisis averted...for now. :P
My biggest obstacle of the day: My biggest obstacles of the day were a lack of confidence/good ideas/a good plot. I'll have to work on these, any suggestions?
My favorite sentence(s): TBA

Aaron

Did I meet my daily goal: Yes.
How it went: It went pretty well. I haven't had time to write at all lately, so it felt really good to have writing as a priority again.
My biggest obstacle of the day: Finding time was definitely my biggest obstacle. All day I kept wanting to write, but I had to hold off until all my homework was done, which wasn't until late so I ended up with only an hour of writing time. I guess I'll just have to get better at time management
My favorite sentence(s): "Of course I knew I was a freak. Everyone knew it. They could tell it just by looking at me."

~ Ella and Aaron

Happy Easter

- Aaron and Ella

Spring Block Party

Ink Slingers are inviting all of our friends and that means you! YES YOU! To our first annual Spring Block Party!

Bring your friends, your family, your fellow writers! It's fun for all!

The best part is we've lined up some fantastical guest bloggers. Check some them out!

SUNDAY: Lisa (aka The Blonde Blogette) - http://the-blonde-blogette.blogspot.com/. She's a pop-culture/reality TV kinda guru. ~B. Robison

MONDAY: YA writer Ghenet, of www.GhenetWrites.blogspot.com. Her blog is a must-read for me, and I'm so glad she'll be regaling us with her insights about time management in writing. As someone who continued to write during a period where she was working full-time, planning her wedding AND receiving an MFA, she's an inspiration to us all! ~Emery

TUESDAY: Surprise guest blogger!

WEDNESDAY: YA and MG writer Holly of www.hollyschindler.blogspot.com. In addition to being the author of the fantastic books A Blue So Dark andPlaying Hurt Holly was the first author whose blog tour Ella and I participated in. Her insights about using blogs to promote newly published books were a real eye opener for me. ~Aaron

THURSDAY: YA and MG author K.M. Walton of http://skateorbate.blogspot.com/.

FRIDAY: Surprise guest blogger!

So, what about it? Are you going to be at the cyber world's largest BLOCK PARTY!?

- Aaron and Ella

Happy St. Patrick's Day

-Aaron and Ella

Happy New Year

- Aaron and Ella

Merry Christmas

- Aaron and Ella