My Own WriMo

        July is my Wri Mo! Last blog post I talked about how I would wait until my birthday but I sorta jumped the gun and started ten days before that. Today is day four and I need to get my word count from 5,001 to 6,668. I love the momentum that's coming along with this.
      My story seriously has no plot so far but I can see it going pretty far. I want to keep this post short so I can get to writing. I just wanted to give ya'll an update on how this is going. Hard times ahead. See ya later

My day Off

    I don't work today, so I thought it would be a wonderful idea to stay up late last night. I "Went to Bed" around nine, I didn't turn off the light til three. I stayed up reading these two books my dad bought me from half price books (which is be best store ever) One is Note To Self by Samara O'shea. It's about journaling and "other dangerous pursuits". It's a cute little book and I finished it last night.

     The second book I got was "No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty, and oh my freaking goodness is this book good. It doesn't talk about qualiaty, it's all about quantity. You're only goal of your self inflicted NaNoWriMo is the thresh out 50,000 words. I Love this book because It's not like some stuck up writer talking down to us, it's this real guy telling us how to write our book. But this isn't all about writing, it's more about HOW to write: finding your space, snacks to have on hand, how to tell your family to leave you alone, and so much more. But it also gives you tips and motivation during your month of writing. As you've probably guessed I am totally doing NaNoWriMo in November but I'm going to give this a whirl in July after my birthday to see if I can set up some writing habits.
    Unlike NaNoWriMo My July WriMo is going to start off from that 5000 word manuscript I haven't finished. My two main goals of my WriMo is to get down 50,000 words and set up a writing habit. I'm waiting til after my birthday so I'll have my computer and don't have to be bothered.
     I think NaNoWriMo isn't going to be that hard. Two words; Thanksgiving Break. But we'll see how that goes when we get there.

I really want to

     I really want to write, I've been reading a bunch of crap and all it does is make me want to write something better. There's a problem though. I can't, I think I've said this before but there's only one working computer in my house at the moment and I maybe get an hour or two on at a time. Now I know what you're saying, "But wait, Hannah-Beth you could always write with a pen and paper!" I say shut up because I've tried that and I've only gotten through about ten pages in the last month.

    But guess who's birthday is in two weeks?! And guess what she's getting! That's right my very own computer, a Macbook Pro 13inch i5. My parents agreed to pay for half of it, about 600 dollars. Then I HAVE to write everyday. Or Else

Old people are weird

      My grandmother is in town, she's like the cutest lady you'd ever meet. After dinner tonight she and my parents are sitting around their empty pie plates quizzing each other over US presidents. I swear the only time I've ever heard of some one quizzing each other is in books around the eighteenth century. I don't really know what that has to do with writing or reading, maybe it has to do with being young.

The standstill

I feel like noting of importance has happened in the past week or so. It's one of those things where I know I'll forget this week completely. I like to think of things like that, knowing I'll never remember them. Like my biology class last year, me saying I'll forget it made me remember it. I don't know if I will remember anything about anything this summer because this is the summer I worked and wrote (OK fine now it's working and writing but you know what I mean) I haven't written as much as I would have liked, but I think the stuff I'm writing is better than most other stuff I write, Quality not quantity, yeah let's go with that.
    I read that article "10 things teenagers should know about writing." and a LOT of young writers are pissed because the guy says our writing sucks. I don' care, let my writing suck. I'm in a learning phase right now. I'm learning how to make a story, how to create characters, and how to make myself do something I care about. As young writers we don't like telling people we aren't good, or that we haven't written in four days, or that we decided to completely give up on a story we've been working on for the past three months. It's all a pride thing. Until I'm able to admit my work needs editing and time I won't be a writer.
    I've always kinda wished there was a sort of daily checklist of becoming a writer. I think when I'm old and all my readers want to know how to be a writer I'll write a book with a kind of daily devotional. I'm a checklist kind of person, I like knowing what I need to do in what time and how I'll do it. I thought I was getting that with a book called "Novel in a Year" by Louiese Doughty but it's more of a week by week thing. Don't get me wrong it's a good book, it's just not as In-Depth as I would have liked. If you know a good book like that please let me know.
  Anyway, have a good one and if you have any tips or tricks or just wanna chat hit me up a follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

Where am I going?

      So with my new story idea I've started the same old problem as my last one. Where do I go from here? I'd hate to plot things out like I did in my first manuscript because that destroyed the whole thing for me. At the same time though I don't exactly know what I'm doing here. I've got characters, and motives and little things that happen along the way, I just don't know the big idea, the central conflict.       It seems like I'm getting lost again and I'm to scared to go forward or backward or any way at all. I'm still sure that's what killed my last project and I'm worried that fear is about to kill this one too. Is it OK if I keep going with a story when I don't know what it's going to be about? Or should I sit down and brainstorm and plan conflict?
     There are a lot of differences with this project and my last one. My last one I did on the computer. This one I'm writing it all out in pencil on the back of my old manuscript and it's in first person instead of third. I've seen a lot of successful books written in first and I've just never tried it. I'm not really sure how I'm doing with it but I guess we'll see. I'm wondering if I should switch POV characters like Kathryn Sockett did in "The Help" but I'm just not sure how to go about doing it.
    On a side note can I just say "The Help" is an amazing freaking book. I really hate bandwagon books but I read this and oh my freaking goodness. I judge good books on if I could see myself writing them and I could never see myself writing something this dense and awesome. You should read this, like right now.

Three words

30 Hour Workweek. =(

What's This?

       I feel like Jack when he's discovering Christmas land in "The Nightmare before Christmas" I just started writing on what ever paper I could find when this Idea came into my head, then I continued writing for the next three hours. I'm not going to plan plot anymore than I have to make this like a discovery, I'll try and see where the characters take me. I think that was the I'm pumped. I think this is my outside force. We'll just have to see how far I can keep this up.

      I had plans to go to six flags today with some friends but the call of my new project is keeping me from the heat.

Something about This isn't Working

There's only one computer in my house. Well, actually five but only one works at the moment. So the only time I'm able to pry the computer from my bored little sister is Early in the mornings when she's not up. OK OK I know it's an excuse for why I haven't been meeting my word goal, but I don't know what else to do. Options 1) Stop whining and actually write or 2) keep whining.

The Other day I had a dream that would've made an amazing story. There was setting and amazing plot and well developed characters and emotion. Straight up awesome. Here's the problem, I woke up and tried to write everything down from it but I found I couldn't remember much. I felt really dumb because last night I tried reenacting how I went to bed the night before. I played the same music, I went to bed at the same time, heck I even wore the same clothes. I wanted to relive that dream, get a chance to remember it. That dream was motivation.

So you're going to laugh at me but I think I found a muse for me. My dad, uncle, grandfather, and brother were/are all Marines. When I'm older I plan on joining myself, so I've started running to Marine Cadences. It's really easy to write to these because they're rhythmic and they talk about Motivation, Dedication and Determination, all the the kind of drone of running footsteps. Try listening to a cadence, then imagine hearing that for thirty minuets straight...It's Awesome.

Instead of writing I've started these little projects to avoid actually doing what I need to. For example Today I plan to paint our kitchen cabinets with my mom, tomorrow I'm going to 6 flags, then the day after that I'm cleaning out my closet. I've also started caring about my health more. I've started running in the mornings with my dad. Mainly it's so I wake up in the mornings and don't sleep all day but I'll count that as one of my excuses.

I'm going to start this thinking I read to help increase production. You're suppose to write down every excuse you can think of the instant it pop into your head, then write down all the reasons why I need, want and have to write. The idea is to trump the excuse with reasoning. We'll see how it goes.

Blogging is Easy

I really like blogging, it's like keeping a journal. I don't really have to think much and I can do it in the few minuets between coffee brakes. I really wish my writing could be like this, having fun with it. In December I was writing for fun. I didn't have a schedule, or a checklist, or anything to make me do it. I just did it because it was fun. I'm starting to question where that fun went. It's like I've been worrying about when and how and where I'm going to write but I haven't been doing much of it. It kinda seems like the only way I'll actually do it is if I make a check list, and make sure I do it, like a habit I have to develop. I'm just hoping the fun will come back before long.

An object at rest stays at rest unless an outside force acts upon it. I need an outside force.

First day Horray!

I woke up around 6:30 this morning, ran with dad, had some coffee and took my dog (Chloe) on a walk. I won't say I'm excited or anxious to get writing after having not done it in so long, but I might feel differently after I start. Tomorrow I'm going to six flags and a baseball game with some friends and Wednesday I've got work noon to four.

It's going to be hard staying on track, I've looked things up called muses and I'm still really confused as to what they are. I know about the nine muses from Greek mythology (Thank you 9th grade English) but I'm not sure exactly what they are and how to pick one for me. Could someone please explain or recommend a book or something?

Schedule as Follows...

So here is my summer schedule! Obviously if I work things will be shifted around by importance but on the days I don't work I'll be golden. I'm really resolving to sticking to this.

6:00 am wake up, with no alarm because I'll actually go to bed early. Brush teeth, shower, get dressed (including shoes). I don't know what it is but having shoes on makes me think it's time to work.
7:00 breakfast with my normal multivitamin and junk. (real breakfast, not just granola bar or something)
8:00 Make a daily To Do list, daily goal list and keep it on hand so I stay on task.
8:30 Start writing toward Novel, that's with no getting up for more coffee, no I'll just take a ten minute break or anything, this must be solid writing.
11:00 Quick little snack while I write, something healthy nuts that I'll probably keep close to my desk or bed or where ever I decide to write.
11:30 Take a walk with the dog (I say three hours of writing because that's what I can normally do without becoming totally brain dead before a break)
12:00 Read over what I've written and NO EDITING
12:30 Lunch, Maybe something healthy
1:00 Head to the gym for a 30 min workout on the good old elliptical machine
2:00 run any errands, if none back home for some reading.
3:30 snack it up
4:00 work on some reviews for inkpop or blog posts or some kind of writing not related to my novel
6:00ish dinner with the fam, little TV, texting, calling, reading what ever to chill
9:00 shower clean up a bit and get ready for bed.
10:00 I had better be asleep.

cool.