Ugh.

I know it's just starting to sound like I'm whining, but school jut needs to be over! My schedule is worked out and It's actually pretty realistic. I really really am just waiting til I get my own computer and I start driving because that is going to be amazing. I won't waste your time with my complaints so I'll keep it short.

I should really send ya'll a gift or something.

I know I know I know I've been a terrible blog host. This was the next to last week of school and all I'm thinking about honestly is finals, next year's schedule, and how in the world I'm going to finish everything I have to do by the time it needs to be done. I'm seriously burned out on everything. This Monday will be my first actual day off where I didn't have to go to work or school or something like that that and that's when I plan to plan (goodness I sound like my mom) how my schedule will go for summer. I'd like to be up early because I've been told the best things are written in the morning, and honestly I'm a morning person when I get enough sleep.

Today I wen to to library and pulled four really good looking books, I need to finish the two I'm on now before I start those but my dad offered to take me and I've learned to never turn down a trip to the library. I got this flier thing and my central library is hosting two creative writing classes for teens this summer and I DEFIANTLY plan on going to those, which happen to be during a German immersion camp I'll be doing. Luckily all this is after my birthday so I'll be able to drive myself. I'm kinda liking this independence idea, not having to sit around or ask if I can go somewhere or anything like that. I also like having my own money because I always felt bad asking my parents because sometimes they wouldn't seen the need in my asking. I can already tell this is going to be an amazing summer, I just need to make sure I don't ignore my friends to much and come back next year with all my friends hating me.

Tangent: I broke my phone today. I dropped it on the tile while I was trying to flip an egg without a spatula like they do on iron chef. The screen is shattered and little pieces of glass came off when I pulled the protective screen from it. Looks like that's $50 I'll have to pay. I really don't like spending money.

AntiProductive

Last week or so I was doing 2000 words a day like clock work. This week I've barely written 1000. Someone told me I'm probably burned out but honestly I'm just feeling lazy. It's not that I don't feel like writing it's just I'll do a review or read or something else instead of working on my word count. I think one major thing that's deterring me from writing is how I'm writing.
In my first manuscript I plotted like a freaking wedding planner or something. I knew how every little thing was going to go down and when I turned to write it I did it too short or something and I ended up with a manuscript with 25,000. This time I started plotting but got stuck so I just started writing, then my story and the characters seem to take a whole new life I hadn't planned. People don't like not knowing and I'm almost positive that's what's keeping me from my word goal. I'm scared to know what happens next. I know exactly how I want my ending to go I'm just not sure how I'm going to get there and that makes me worried if I'll end up in the right spot.

That's Karma for you...

My dad has a lot of holiday leave he's stocked up on that if he doesn't use he'll lose. So ever two weeks or so my dad has a "Dr. Crappie" day because he skips work and spends the whole day writing. This morning my dad asked me if I wanted to go see Dr. Crappie. Sure, I was up late on Inkpop and I'm behind on my writing, and I didn't do my math homework. Soon as my dad leaves to take my little sister to school my stomach starts to hurt. Great. It looks like I'll be staying here for the day.

Daily writing goal: from 15,000 to 20,000

I will make this happen and if I don't I have to do my math homework as soon as I get home from school everyday this week.

I hate YA

I think I'm getting to where I hate reading YA books. The stories are always kinda predictable, and the language doesn't give me that OMG kind of ideal. I judge a book on it's goodness on whether or not I could see myself writing it. Things like The book Thief, and Middlesex I could never see myself writing. But now I'm reading this book called wither by Lauren Destefano and I'm really not seeing much difference from this and the stories I read on Inkpop. I was recommended this book a lot of times by friends but halfway through I'm really not liking the plot, characters or how it's written.
This is kinda a problem because my first book is a super YA book. I read that you should write the kind of book you'd like to read, and when I started this I liked to read these frilly books that I can now finish in an afternoon. Now I'm liking these deeper, more complex books so I suppose my writing style is changed. This might be interesting when it comes to editing my manuscript in October. I have a feeling my manuscirpt will end up being a really complex YA book like the Book thief Was suppose to be. We'll just have to see.

I Miss my Manuscript

I finished my first manuscript on the thirtieth of April. In Steven King's "On Writing" he says you should wait a minimum of six months before even thinking about starting the editing process. I've started my second and I'm realizing something. I'm Missing my Manuscript! I spent so much time with it that it almost feel part of me, I don't like not thinking of this character or what happens next or how I'll word this. It's like I've broken up with a boyfriend.
I was lazy yesterday and didn't write my 2000. But I came home and fell asleep at 6:30 so I suppose I was actually really tired. It's been hard getting 2000 out today but I know if I don't I won't for the rest of the week because I've got some busy things happening tomorrow and Friday. I don't have to work until 1 on Saturday so I'm hoping I'll be able to thresh out a few thousand over my quota. Wish me luck!

2,000

Every day for the past five days I've MADE myself write 2000 words toward my second manuscript, and to be honest it's really not that hard. I've found If I can make myself close out inkpop and not get up a thousand times I can pull it off all in about two hours. Normally it takes me three with a blog post, nap, and a few snacks between. Steven King says he writes 2000 but it's OK to start out a 1000 with a day of break. I say hecks naw! I'm jetting toward my ending with a get er' done attitude. This summer I plan of bumping my word count up but I'm not sure by how much. I think the first week of summer I'll try sitting down to write for as long as I can possibly take and just write then see how far I get, then average all those word counts together to make up my daily goal.

Six Hours

Today I've been writing for 6 hours straight! most of what I worked on was a review but I did meet my writing goal for the day. I'm a little proud of myself. For the last three days I've MADE myself sit and write 2000 toward my new manuscript. I've also written two reviews for stories on inkpop which are both about 5000. I really like helping other writers, especially when they don't expect it. I've decided I'll only do review for people who really care about their books and want the advice. If you're on Inkpop and you want some honest and hard feedback please message me. You can find my page as a link in the side bar.
Also it's the 7th of May and I'm already at 50% of my Pandora time. I might break down and get Pandora one if it's a good deal but I don't really know yet.

Dire Vampire

So while in the plotting stage of my second manuscript I came across a quote in a how to write fiction for Young Adults that basically said "where are the vampires" the tip after that one was "No seriously where are the vampires?" so you'll never guess what I did. I threw vampires into my story! Now I refuse to make my vampires who sparkle. If vampires are going into my story they're going to be ligit Bram Stoker scary as hell vampires. A lot of the research I've found says most vampires were women who preyed on little boys like in Dracula but that seems to conflict with more than half of my characters. My first manuscript had a few Vampire side parts so I didn't really have to worry to much about folklore and ligitness.

It's like Giving Birth

I've heard writers compare their writing of their first draft to giving birth. I'm scared to say I think I'm done with my first draft and while I haven't given birth I will say it was a LOT of work. It didn't seem like I was writing because I loved to write in the last few days before I finished my first draft, it was like I was writing just to get the stupid thing over with. What I'm really worried about is my manuscript is only about 24,000 words long even though I've "written" ever scene have. I read some where that to beef up your novel it's best to add story threads which is something I defiantly plan on doing after my six month dead period where I'm not even allowed to think about that book. I have started working on my second book and I can tell this one is way better plot wise than my first.
I've got a bunch of questions about Point of View character (POV Character) I've read from a lot of different places you should only have one POV character but it seems like if I want to add more threads to beef up my novel I would have to switch characters or something. What's the difference between changing POV Characters smoothly and Head Hopping which from what I can understand is bad, and how do I make a smooth transition from one POV Character to another without throwing off my readers.
I'd love some answers and opinions so please leave a comment with your advice or shoot me an e-mail at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

Big Mistake

So I've made the mistake of getting a 6 flags season pass. Sounded like a good idea at the time then I started to realize how much of a time suck this thing is going to be. Yeah it'll be fun but I'd rather be writing. I'm also working this summer and I'm really wanting around 40 hours to writinging per week. We'll see how it goes.
I'm also on this new website called inkpop created for teens by HarperCollins publishing. I'm really liking it so far and intend to have a full review of the site after I get use to things and stuff.