After doing some research I decided on using the site Inked Voices https://www.inkedvoices.com/. So far the site seems user-friendly. I have joined the introductory group, formed my own group, and done my first critique, and posted my first piece for review.
To use the site there $75 a year subscription fee. However, if you won NaNoWriMo you get 30% off, or you can do a monthly subscription which is $10 a month. With my NaNo Code I did the year subscription for $52.50, not bad for the whole year, less than one triple grande latte at Starbucks a month.
With this site you have to earn points to post your own writing for review. My first impression of this system is a love hate quandary from me; I love that it makes people do critiques, but with how busy my life is I wonder if it will be a distraction from my own writing. However, after doing my first review and reading other people's review of the same writing, I think that this is beneficial for more than forcing people to do reviews. First, by having to examine another person's writing you can see mistakes you commonly make more clearly. Second, it highlights issues and questions that readers have in general by reading the other reviews and applying that information to your own writing you are doubling down on the usefulness of the review process. Third, it allows you to see what other people are writing and what people think, like and dislike about that writing. You can then use this information to evaluate your own writing.
The Next,step was to submit my own writing for a critique. This was easy to do, you created a new project, then added a document, which you could up load or cut and paste. I chose to submit my forward to the Red Book Expose, it is short, a complete work by itself and the start of the two projects I think I will be focusing on in my group. Now I just have to wait and see if people give me feed back.
Finally, I can only hope that I can get a group of 5 to 8 people to join me on my voyage this year, hopefully Inked Voice will be part of that voyage I will keep you posted.
Now for my progress on writing the last five days. I have actually written every day, and made my word count or a little more, so I am slowly chipping a way at the back log of words, I am hoping this weekend I will be all caught up and back on track to just having to write the 1666 words a day.
Excerpt The Veil:
Amelia sat on her
cot, leaning into the white wall, every bone in her body hurts, her skin still
burns like a bad sunburn. Staring at the door, she knows Xea will be coming for
her soon. As she sits here waiting for
her treatment to begin, she thinks about her family. Most of her childhood, she was raised by
nannies, and caretakers, there was always someone around, but she has little
recollection of her mother. She only
really remembers her violet eyes, and
melodic voice. Xea walks in, She had a voice like yours.
Who had a voice like mine?
My mother had a voice like yours. Her voice is one of the few things I remember
about her. When I was very little and scared she would come to me and sing, not
lullabies just regular songs, I can
remember the tone of her voice but not the words of those song. But even her
voice seem to be getting less clear, day by day. So what kind of treatment do I have today?
Well, Dr. White has not informed me of the specific of
today’s treatment. I do know that he
still wants you to try and manifest a real object in your hallucination. You have gotten very close on each of your
last attempts.
I know, but I don’t
think it is possible. I feel like I am
failing him, and everyone. I am failing
my mother.
I thought you did not remember your mother. How can you be
failing her now?
Oh, that is my biological mother. I am talking about my
adoptive mother, I was adopted at a very young age. They wanted the perfect
daughter, but instead they got an insane one.
I have been reminded of that my whole life. So the goal of the treatments is to prove to
my mother that I can be her perfect daughter, but see look at me. I cannot even follow orders, a fight
treatment every day and I don’t know why.
Maybe, the reason your treatments are not going well, is
because you are not here for yourself.
You want to get better but only because it will please other
people. What would make you happy
Amelia?
Looking down at her hands, I have never really given that
much thought. I don’t know what would
make me happy. I was happy in London,
working in the coffee shop, living in my apartment.
Maybe you should focus on that feeling, and see where it takes you.
Amelia stands, using
the wall as support, as she wobbles on weak achy legs. Do I have to do this
today? I can barely stand.
Yes, you have to do this today. But I will talk to Dr. White after and see if
we can get you some recreation time.
Xea and Amelia walk down the hall towards the treatment
room, Amelia pulls away. Please not today, Xea. Looking back at her room, which seems no more
safe than the treatment room Amelia see nowhere to run, no way to escape.
Entering the treatment room Dr. White is by her chair, his
false smile glued to his faces, there is anger behind his eyes, Amy. How are you feeling today.
I am very tired, I don’t think I can do this, not
today. Please just let me sleep. I will
try again tomorrow. I think I, I do this today, I will die, be burnt to ashes,
I still feel like am burning from the last treatment.
Well, Amy, we have discussed your reluctance to seek
treatment. I believe you are at the
precipice and if we can just get over this last hurdle you will see vast improvement
very quickly. Also, today, we are going
to try something new. Since you seem so
drawn to your memories of London, we are going to focus there today. So the goal is not to manifest an object into
your hallucination, just to control one of your own memories.
Taking her seat Amelia looks around the room, is that even
possible. How can one control their memories or dreams?
Amy, it is very simple really, it is called lucid
dreaming. There is a moment when most
people are dreaming that they realize that it is a dream and then have control
over the environment. What I want you to
do is think of recent memories, say your
London Apartment.
Laying back in the chair, Xea straps her down, attaches
electrodes, sensors, blood pressure monitor, and IV. Over the last couple session, Xea has not let
the other doctors help her in this process, which Amelia is ecstatic about. Now
the cuffs never dig into her skin, the IV never bleeds, and Xea’s touch and voice soothes Amelia’s soul. Looking into Xea’s brown eyes, she smiles up at her, as she attaches the
skull cap. It is a new part of Amelia’s
treatment, bilateral elector shock treatment.
But Dr. White, I thought the goal was for me to realize when I am
hallucinating, how will controlling my memory help with that? Shouldn’t we just
try another of my worlds.
Why must you argue about every aspect of your treatment?
Young lady, the point of this exercise is to see how much control you have over
your mind. Memory, dreams, and your
delusions originate in the same sections of the brain, but today we want to
focus on the middle section of the brain, specifically the Amygdala. Now if you do not have any more questions
let’s get to work.
No, Doctor, I do not have any more questions. Closing her eyes, her head spins as the fluid
from the IV hits her blood stream, then the first painful jolt hits her like a
bat to the skull. Wincing in pain, she focuses on Dr. Whites voice, the room
buzzes like electricity, and the veil falls over her like a blanket of fire.
As soon as she steps into the veil, Rebecca is there. Amelia you are back so soon. You really should not transverse the drift
this often, it will take a toll on your mind and memory.
I think you are right,
but it is not really up to me is it,
Dr. White is insistent that I continue my treatments.
Where does he want you to go today?
It’s strange,
normally he wants me to avoid my dreams, and memories, any place that can confuse me, but today he want me to go to London and my
apartment there.
As she steps through the veil into her apartments she steps
through the fire, and hears the echo of
Rebecca’s voice, Why don’t you just stay
there.
As she enters her apartment, the light from the stain glass
window causes a riot of color to dance on the walls. Everything is just how she left it, well maybe it seems cleaner than normal. There is a vase of sunflowers on the kitchen
table, she walks over and the smell
feels her with memories of her child hood.
The room wavers like a mirage seen in a heat delusion and she is
standing in her mother’s office. She had
only been here once, but like that day
there were sunflowers on the table, it
was the one thing the shared. Sunflowers
are between life and death, and always looking toward the sun, they are the most
beautiful and saddest things she knows.
Dr. White’s voice scratches at the back of
her mind, pulling pieces of her memory out before her, Amy tell me where you are right now.
I am in my mother’s office, she has sunflowers here, like I
had back in London. I want to see her
just a glimpse, maybe she has forgive me.
No, Amy we are not here to go into the memories of you and
your mother. You need to go back to your
apartment. Now.
Amy feels Dr. White’s anger radiating towards her,
smoldering beneath the surface of his words. Why doesn’t he want her to see her
mother? Pain, fills the void left by his voice and she is back in her
apartment, hands dig into the back of her couch supporting her as her knees
attempt to buckle.
Now, Amy where are you?
I am in my apartment, in London exactly where you wanted
me. His voice fills the space left by
the pain, good. Now look down at your
hand. Do you see the walkie talkie?
Amy
looks down at her hand, her whole body grows
warmer, intently she focuses on her hand, until all the heat pours into that
single extremity. She is sure if she
touched anything it would instantly ignite and burn her apartment to the ground
around her. Breaking her focus she looks
up, flames leap up her arm. And for an
instant she wonders if her apartment is the real world, it is not the same as she left it. It is cleaner, and there is fruit on the
kitchen counter, and a computer at her desk. These are not her things| 30-Nov | Writen | Total | |
| Red Book Expose | 52454 | 4835 | 57289 |
| The Veil | 16071 | 17051 | 33122 |
| Close Corp (edit) | 22143 | 0 | 22143 |
| Cave City (edit) | 3372 | 0 | 3372 |
| Ex Nilhio | 13015 | 0 | 13015 |
| Gutter Punk | 6373 | 0 | 6373 |
| Total | 21886 | 135314 |
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