How to NOT be a writer

I'm a sad excuese of a writer. Here's how I've NOT been a writer.
1) Only write when I feel like it. Everyone's heard the advice writers write. Recently I've only been writing when I feel like it this is super not good. Why? Because it's really easy to keep doing the same thing you've always done and when the going gets tough that makes it really easy to quit.
2) Stop reading. I normally enjoy reading... A LOT. But after missing two weeks of school because of weather and being sick I've stopped reading. It normally takes me about a week to get therough a book. The lovely Bones has taken me four weeks. I'll probably have to do some catching up on my Yearly Reading goal on Good Reads during the summer.
3) I've though about getting a real job. I've started my first ever job serch and I'm realizing how much time would be cut from my writing time. It's better if I jump in with two feet. Getting a real job sucks by the way. Pros: Money Cons: actually working Writing job Pros: Set own hours and no boss Cons: no or lesser pay off and if any it's at a later time... Words don't pay rent. Not like I have to pay rent but it seems like something a broke writer would say so when I'm a famous writer and dead they can have a collection of depressing quotes from me. I fill my notebook with things like that:/

Depress and Stress

I'm going to be hiding tomarrow. I didn't reach my goal to enter my partial manusctipt to the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers contest. My mom asked about it today and I completly spun it around to make it sound like her fault for not reading it to edit but I know It was all me... I'm just mad. I've tried writing short stories and other things but they never seem to flow or something. I need to find a good literary magazine or something so I can start small. I'm also signing up for creative writing classes next year and I think a journalism class even though I really hate writing non-fiction. I'm at the point right now where I'm considering quiting but I woln't... for my sake.

Disapointment

Douglas Adams said "I love deadlines. I like the wooshing sound they make as they fly by." I'm feeling my first and only deadline approaching to fast. I'm done for the most part (Only missing a few scenes) but it's not plot that's making me not want to turn in my thing It's after I've read through this thing almost over a hundrad times and I'm realizing this is just bad. I've got a good plot but it's the entire writing that is just weak and un vivid. We've been studying Edgar allen poe and Charles dickens in English and after reading their stuff I feel like I"ll never be able to write that well. I doubt I'll enter the thing. I should start smaller.

New toy!

So I'm pretty sure you've all heard of this thing called Write or Die you set up a goal of time and number of words. My first time I did an hour and 2000 words. Let me just say I though I would never do it but as I got started It was really Easy! I ended up doing 1800 something words in an hour but I'm still stoaked I sat for that long! If you stop writing for a while the screen turns red and eventually I just wanted to see what would happen if I let it go and it started deleating words. Not like huge sections but it was more of a wake up call rather than losing things. I think I'll do this for a while until I get back into the habit of writing:)

Don't give me that look

I know I know I haven't been posting and I'm really sorry! I wish I could say it's because I've been working on my manuscript but I can't. Apparently pulling your grades up in school takes time, about as much time as writing my entry. My deadline is in eleven days and I'm no where near done. I have however been working on a few short stories and poems. all of which you can see at my page at Teenink. My latest one isn't up yet because It's pending approvial but what ever it'll be up soon. I'd love some feed back because I've been experimenting with this first person and hyphens in my writing kinda like Edgar Allen Poe did a lot (We were studying him in English and I really like his style)

Do me a favor and Shoot me every time I make a exceuse

This writing this is hard. I've edited my entry so many times I'm pretty sure I can recite the whole thing from memory and it's still no where near done. I haven't been working on my entry, or any writing in that case, sence editing and I'm worried I've lost my grove or something. People say our biggest cretic is ourselves but I don't think that's the case with me because I'm getting to a point where I just want to get the thing done with. I'd much rather work on my novel as a whole and develop plot and characters and all the spine stuff than actually writing. Conclusion: Planning and talking about writing is the easy part, actually sitting down and writing is a bitch. (Sorry it was needed). I need some motovation so hit me up on twitter @that_cool_girl or e-mail me at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

Brainstorming Breakthrough

I've decided to take a little break from my novel and work with this new idea I had. But I came upon a problem. I had Great characters with awesome backstories nad motives and a dynamic setting that's pregnant with change. The problem was I couldn't think of Plot! I had to use a mind map to think things through but I still couldn't think of anything. Until I remembered something I learned in 7th grade. Conflict is Man vs. Man, Man vs. nature, Man vs. Society, or Man vs. Self. I wrote each of these on a paper and started thinking of things that could happen and BOOM! Brain lock fixed. But I am getting a little light headed from this cherry scented expo marker.

How becomming a Writer has Ruind my hope for Humaniy

If you're a writer you know all about the three act structure. Act 1: things start out normal. Then something happens giving your character a story goal(Disaster 1). Act 2: your character grows in skills and builds and burns relationships all the while in pursue of their story goal. Then something else happens. Something bad that completely changes how your character will reach their story goal(Disaster 2). Act 3: your character accepts the changes(or not) and learns grows, builds and destroys relationships, and works toward his story goal ether with a new approach or the same. Then something huge happens. Something that makes your character's story goal seem impossible(Disaster 3). Ending: your character comes up with a new way to reach story goal. He ether reaches it or he doesn't. The end.
Now you may be thinking. "what's so bad about that? Seems like a good story?" Well here's the answer. Every movie, fiction book, TV show, or short story is written with this three act structure in mind. By knowing this cookie cutter outline for stories absolutely kills things. I'll say I don't even watch movies anymore because I'm always thinking of the three disasters. This also kills my confidence in Imagination. Forget new and exciting! Here's something you should know: There are no new Ideas. Only recycled ones.
Here's another thing becoming a writer has killed for me: talking to people. Why? Because I've to to know people's motives for doing EVERYTHING. I watch my friends and some comments or actions just stick with me until I'm able to discover their unintentional motives. And here's what I've accumulated from this mountain of observations. 1) People Love themselves 2)People love other people Loving them and 3) Jealousy is every where.
How bout an example? My friend and I were discussing a Vocabulary quiz I had missed in English. She said "Me and Kyle studied them a little and they were really hard." Now I studied these words and they didn't seem any harder than usual. Then the question dawned on me. "Why would she have to mention Kyle?" Took me days to mull this over. It didn't seem like an important fact until I remembered I had told my friend I liked Kyle earlier that week. BOOM! Motives = power + Jealousy. I'm sure she wasn't sitting there thinking "Oh let's make Hannah-Beth feel jealous and make me look good!" but is shows a little glimpse of my friend's subconscious. I do need to remember to tell my friend I don't like Kyle anymore but that's unimportant. The point is we are selfish people. In my "Writing Fiction for Dummies" book I read that no character thinks they're minor characters. We're selfish people with a hunger for dominance over something- anything really. I guess that's what motivates writers to write. Writers get a chance to play god, decide what happens. Power thirst.
I've also started obsessing over universal truths. Universal truths are things that apply to everyone. From the queen of England to the 9/11 terrorists. There's a ton of them. Some deal with social interactions (ex. People would rather be asked than told) while some deal with peoples wants (ex. No matter what you do people will always ask for more) I was watching the cooking channel when I realized why there were so many shows about cooking and books on cooking and Italian people who love cooking. It's because EVERYBODY eats-or at least needs to. It's why people get so motivated to donate to feed the children. They couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have this thing they share with everybody. Eating. Now using these universal truths can throw a huge curve ball at your readers making them feel unified with people but these can also make your reader feel blurred and unimportant. Universal truths work well as themes for novels, but you should always keep them in mind when you're writing.
So there you have it. Humanity consists of a bunch of Self centered, power hungry, unimaginative, attention whores. But It's the people who are different who stand out from the crowd though.

Deadline

So I'm finally getting how people feel when they have an impossible dead line approaching. I've realized I barely have enough to enter my partial manuscript and my editing busiess is chaging my entire plot! I've been working a bunch on POV character and have considered revamping everything I have to a different POVcharacter. I really want to work with multipul POV characters during different scenes and my book(Writing Fiction for Dummies) doesn't go over that. I think they call that head hopping but I've read a bunch of stuff with what I"m talking about and it worked really well. My problem is the transitions from one scene to another with a differen POV character. Can anyone help?