The Young Writer's Journey

Dear readers.....

2011-11-14T22:52:00.000-08:00

Dear readers,

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you for the sake of my novel this month. I'm sorry I haven't been keeping in touch, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, nothing. I'm sorry that I give you crummy advise on how to get through NaNoWriMo when I can't even get through it myself. I'm sorry that I'm so behind and I'm sorry that you have to hear me, and probably everyone else doing NaNo, complain about being behind. I'm sorry I haven't been thinking about stories, or plots, or characters. I'm sorry I work nearly 25 hours a week all while going to school, and working out. I'm sorry for the receptiveness of this post. I'm sorry that it's basically a sixteen year old girl complaining about everything and anything she can put her mind to. I truly am sorry....

Signed,

A previously hopeful NaNoWriMo participant.

NaNoWriMo (Day 2)

2011-11-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

Day one for me went well. My parents let me skip school, and I got to catch up on sleep and homework as well as reach my word goal of 1,667. Today I brought my laptop to school, and during Journalism when we got a while for free time my teacher let me bring out my laptop and write. I told her I was doing NaNoWriMo and she seemed impressed. Later she asked me what my story is about, her and everyone else I told said that it sounded really cool. Everyone seemed to tell everyone else in the class, and on my way to the Orch room, where I plan on doing all my writing at lunch, someone shouted "Go write that novel Hannah-Beth" that made me smile.
I found myself telling a lot more people than I expected to. I figured I wouldn't tell many people but when they asked what I was working on I was really excited to tell them.
Between my Journalism class, half Lunch period, and a little after school I was able to reach my goal today of 3,334.
I can tell this is going to take work, and a lot of planning. It's going to be a wonder if I'm able to manage like this for the full month. I plan on writing strait through lunch for the month, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to talk to my few lunch friends for the whole month, but that's ok. All for the Novel.

NaNoWriMo, school, and getting behind....(quick post)

2011-10-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

I looked up on the 30th and was shocked to remember NaNoWriMo was fast approaching. I won't get into what NaNo is or why you should do it, you can do that here. I haven't the slightest idea about how I'm going to do this. I've done zero planning. I'm going to bring my laptop to school on Monday, then sit in the Orchestra room and thresh out my 1,667 words during lunch. I'm really hoping I can make that work because mornings are impossible, and with me working I need all the time I can get for homework.
I'm just dreading tomorrow. I guess I've been lazy recently and have gotten behind in everything and now I'm hurting. Tomorrow a playing test, and a reading quiz in english, and a private lesson, and work after, and work out before work, and math homework I didn't do, plus a math quiz I haven't studied for. All that and I'll be running of less than 6 hours of sleep.
It's a wonder I'm not bent over the toilet with how bad I'm treating myself. There's no sleep, no quality food, and I haven't run in almost a week now.
Things are just bla and I don't want to deal with any of this except my nonexistent book this month...
Follow my first ever WriMo experience at my Twitter or my WriMo account.

Cool People

2011-10-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Role Models. Sure there are the Celebs and people of those sorts, but I'm talking about the guy in your english class who's not scared to say he went to the gay pride parade over the weekend, or the girl who's dad's in the hospital but still shows up to your book club meeting, those people who just inspire you.

Being in school I've gotten a chance to get back around people my own age. People start to take on this sort of norm, a blank face in a crowd kinda thing. They all start to act the same, just people at school. But there are those few people you get to meet in your high school experience that just stand out among the rest, and not in that "Academic Excellence" kind of way. I mean in that wholesome I know who I am kind of way. I have two people in mind, and when I met them I knew I wanted to get to know them because they seemed like the kind of person I want to be.

The first is a girl in my journalism class. She's this tiny thing and she's an amazing drawer, but she's awful shy. She's alway modest about her drawings. Once I asked to see her sketches and they were amazing. Period.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a different person online than I am in the real world. I don't sit around talking about classical books, or understand references to underrated movies, or even drink as much coffee as I make out to. That's what's different about this girl. She seems to know what she likes and lets herself like those things wether she's with her friends or if she's putting things up online. She doesn't tuck away her hobbies when she's around her friends like I know I do. I wish I could be like that.

The second girl is a senior, we're in three clubs together, and she's an english major. She's one of those bubbly girls that you just want to be around, but she's never annoying about it. I will admit my respect for her may be a little more fabricated because I don't really know her as well, but I don't think we should ever know our heros completely, that's what makes them heros. I'm pretty sure she's involved in almost every intellectual club our school's got to offer, has amazing grades, and looks adorable every day. (I don't really know about her grades but I imagine so)

For me I have my spurts of awesomeness. One week I'll be all about my writing, then the next I'm all about my wardrobe, or this club, or some other thing. When I focus on something I do it well, but my problem is I have such a short attention span that I change my goals every three days or so. She's not like that. She seems all the way focused all the time. This girl knows what she wants to do with her life and I see her doing exactly that in a few years. I think I could be like that, joining all the clubs I want and things I want to do along with work and school and looking good, but it would take a painful amount of planning and probably more self control than I have.

I look up to these girls for very different reasons, but I know I want to be like both of them in some way. Seriously whenever I get a chance to be in a group or walk to class or chat with either of them I try and take it.

Talk of role models has been wrung dry, but I think there is one little bit of advice left to give. Our role models shouldn't be these nameless, abstract people like Oprah, or Natalie Portman. They should be people we can meet, talk to, observe, have dinner with, and learn from.

First day of Editing

2011-10-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

So I've been feeling like writing recently, and today I opened up my first manuscript that I had put away until October and oh my goodness this thing is AWFUL! I don't see how I was ever proud of this thing, it's to short, it's choppy, its boring and all around bad. I have no clue how to go about editing this stupid thing. Do I even need to edit this thing? I mean I don't really plan on sending it off for publication any time soon. Besides, the story is so bad plot wise I would practically be rewriting the whole thing if I did decide to get it ready for publication. I wonder if it's been to long enough to start editing my second one. It's been a few months and I'm not really thinking about it anymore.
I'm realizing how much November is going to kill me. I haven't been writing at all. None. NaNoWriMo is going to take some serious planning if I'm going to pull this off...

The Writing Community

2011-10-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

I've decided I want to join the United States Marine Corps after I graduate High school. There are a lot of reasons for me wanting to join but that's a whole other blog post in itself. In my getting ready for bootcamp I've gotten into running and health an fitness. Anyway the point of me tell you all this is because yesterday I was reading a magazine called "competitor" that I get for free from my gym. There was a except from John Bingham's new book An Accidental Athlete about Bingham's firs marathon. Half way through I realized something. People like love to write, and people love to run, and there are people out there like Mr. Bingham who are writing about running! Seriously I stopped reading and wrote that down because I didn't want to forget that. I've got these two budding loves and I can combined them into two things that feed and grow off each other.

I started digging into the running world, and found all these really amazing people who love giving advice, and love sharing tips, and their stories, and their goals. There seems to be this big family sense in the whole running world, we share similar hurdles and have similar goals, and that brings us together. Writing is the same way. I can think what I was like writing bits of stories in purple pen in the back of my science notebook, and I've found tons of people willing to help me get better at writing.

I never imagined these two entirely different things could have the same roots. It makes me wonder about all the other hobbies out there. What if I wanted to get into cooking, or scrap booking, or gardening, or surfing. There's something wonderful at work when you can take tiny parts of your life and line them up into who you are.

My point of this whole post is this. If there's something you want to learn we're at a point in history where we've got the resources, ability, and support to better ourselves and learn everything there is to know about that thing. We've got nothing stopping us from finding out what we like, and learning about it, and getting better at it, and there's enough voices out there to drown out the discouraging words from those who think it's weird. In the words of Babe Ruth "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from coming up to bat."

back in it...

2011-09-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

I think I've figured out how to get myself back into writing. Sense school has started I've been reading a whole freaking lot. I wake up in the morning and all I want to do is read read read. (I was always like that when I was younger) Last summer I woke up and all I wanted to was Write Write Write. Reading is easy, you just sit back and look at one thing at a time and let an author paint a picture in your head. Writing is the same way, except instead of looking at one thing at a time you've got to create your pictures one word at a time. Reading doesn't require a lot of thinking, writing does.
First thing I'll do to get back into writing is every time I think about reading I'll automatically think about writing and how I should be doing it. The idea is to guilt myself into it. I'm also starting up a writing spiral like I had over the summer, it's basically a doodle book about stories in my head, details I like and things like that. I'm really not liking having all my notes about writing on my ever note so I'm going to transfer them to that spiral.
Can I just take a moment to just complain about school? Yeah? Cool.

I hate school so freaking much. It's like it doesn't require enough work to take up all my time but it does take enough work to suck so much of my time I don't have time for anything else. This year is a lot like last where I don't really care about my classes and I'll manage with B and Cs because I can't find motivation to do better and because I'm trying to spend time reading and writing. I already don't have a social life so what in the world is taking up all my time?! Maybe I'm watching to much TV or maybe It's all these evening where I come home from school and don't feel like doing anything because I've been up for the past eight hours on only four hours of sleep.

Now that that's out of my system...

I'm going to rethink my goals for this semester. The first weeks is pretty much over and report cards come out friday. They say the first six weeks is a mirror image of how you'll do all year, so I"ll be fine as far as grades.

I'm vamping my goals along the guidelines of Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project. It's a really awesome book. It doesn't really tell you how to reach goals but it gives you some really good ones to research and put into action.

This week I'm going to be putting to action my goal of going to sleep earlier.

If only I weren't in school...

2011-09-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've had this Brain Crack for awhile now, if you don't know what brain crack is you should watch this quick video by narimon.

Anyway, my brain crack has a lot to do with school, and how I don't have enough time to do the things I really want to do. The thing to do is have a class period where we let kids pursuit a goal of their choice, and it would be the teacher's job to provide things and time they need to do these things. (So basically I want an entire class period devoted to writing my books). But the thing that would work is that every student would get to pick the thing they want to work on and they'd have to work on that all year until it's done or summer comes. Then the teacher would help direct the student's and provide things like books, and websites, and things to help us reach our "Big Idea" goals.
Now I know why school's have never done this. They're thinking curriculum and standards and things of that nature. They're probably also thinking kids don't want to do anything but watch TV and surf the Internet outside of school and I'm saying that's a complete lie. I've talked to tons of people saying the only reason they don't learn that instrument they've always wanted to, started that charity program they thought about, or edit videos for a major film contests is because they don't have enough time.
So many of us have these "Big Ideas", these goals of where we want our lives to go, and what interests us, and how we can make our world better, and how we can do things faster, and how we can make ourselves smarter. Most teen's think about a lot more than you realize. I've had many conversations where people my age are worried about the state of the economy, death, and so many other topics people might think as "to adult" to be discussed in high schools.

I bet the only reason some kids who don't have a "Big Idea" or huge goal is because no one has ever sat down and asked them what they want to do with their lives and how they're going to make it happen. The class could get people interested in things they would have never tried before, help generate new and functional ideas and inventions, and help people now and in generations to come.
I think people underestimate my generation, we've got good ideas, and motivations, and resources to really make a difference in this world. But we're all to busy with sports, work, school, homework and millions of other obligations to put our big scale dreams into action. If we had this time designated to things we want to do I think we'd have a lot better ideas in the world.

Two weeks of school.

2011-09-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

There seems to be an endless supply of crap that I SHOULD be doing. I'm trying really hard to keep on top of my school goals and things but I won't say it's easy. With all the homework and working 20 hours a week I'm not having ANY time to write except for my nightly journal entries. That's really not sitting well with me because I'm getting all these awesome ideas and bits from school that I'm not able to make in a story.
The first five days of September have gone by so fast and the streak of 100 plus temperatures has finally broken. Today was actually around 85 with wind and it felt AMAZING. I'm really liking all my classes right now. My Journalism is kinda a blow off class which really sucks because I know we could get so much more done if we didn't spend half the class talking about what everyone did over the weekend. I feel like that's how all the cool elective classes are going to be. Wouldn't that be why everyone likes them so much? What ever happened to wanting to take a class so you can learn things? I'll never be able to understand how people can take a class for the sole reason of it being a blow off class.
So far on my weekends I sleep as long and as hard as I can. I'm only getting around 25 hours of sleep per night during the week, so weekends are my time for sleep.
I'm also having to do this crazy thing called studying now. Before I could just read the materiel and things like that and be good. Especially in my AP world history class I need to study. I think world history is the dumbest thing ever. Let's put everything that has happened EVER and spend two semesters going over it all. What sucks the most is studying for math for one reason. The only way to study it is to do tons and tons of problems. In English you can do flash cards, or read over things, or look at notes, or a number of different options. In Math all you've got are the odd questions with the answers in the back of the book and the mid-chapter quiz from the book. It's also making me mad that the math book we use for Algebra 2 doesn't have a companion website. You don't know how helpful it would be to have someone explain a concept out on a video or something.
Sorry I guess I'm ranting about high school, but that seems to be the only thing going on in my life right now.
I don't know how I'll manage doing NaNoWriMo come November. That GTD book sounds helpful but I haven't really put anything into pratice yet. We'll see how it goes and I'll be sure to keep ya'll updated on writing and other things in my life. Till next time :D

I have nothing to write I have nothing to write...

2011-08-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've been in this state of bliss all day. Maybe it's because today is the first day in a while I've had a little smidgen of time to write, or maybe today was just a good day. School always seems to be unrealistically long but I always somehow manage by the end of the day, then run home where homework seems to take forever. It's like keeping up with my grades is the only thing I'll have time for later in the school year when things start getting harder. Actually this week has been good. I've spent a lot of time getting homework out of the way then reading and doing other things but just not writing.
My deadline is today and I'm about 5,000 words short. I think I'm starting to see a pattern developing for my deadlines. I'm almost positive I'll be 5K short just before the last day of NaNoWriMo. It's really hard writing this little snippet because I'm basically finished my story by now, and I'm just going for word count.
I've been doing this exercise recently where I write "I have nothing to write" over and over again until I really do have something to write. I've pumped out a few really good scenes doing this, but most of is talk about how my day went and how I'll never be able to finish this. I'm going to be totally screwed if none of my random ranting doesn't count for my word count...
I'm actually really excited to start some editing. Editing seems like this whole new field of the craft that I haven't gotten a chance to explore yet. I've read a few things in my dummies book and the other ton of craft books I've managed to accumulate but I've never actually sat down and worked with it enough to feel comfortable. I guess feeling comfortable is the death of productivity but it would be nice to have a little knowledge on the whole process.
Originally I was going to spend September working on short stories but I don't know if that's going to be very realistic. I mean I'll defiantly try some writing things and work on writing in general, but I just don't know if I can focus on something like learning an entire new way of writing while I'm getting use to school and everything else.
Things seem totally hectic right now. I got this book called "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and I'm hoping it'll help me have more time to write. It's like this national best seller or something and once I've finished it and put some of the strategies to work I'll do a little review of it.
I feel like it's going to be a good school year, a Long one, but good. :D

How School kills Kids

2011-08-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

First week of school is done! Thank goodness. Things have already started to settle into a nice rhythm of things. Homework sucks but I'm managing to stay on top of things. Between school, and work, and homework, and working out 5 hours a week I'm seriously not having any time to write and It's starting to get to me.

I've noticed I'm much more short tempered. My sister and I fight a lot about things that didn't seem to matter, I get really annoyed with people easily, and I'm having trouble keeping up the happy face I have at work. That sounds really dumb but you know what I mean, like my costumer service is basically crap now.

I don't think I'm stressed, it's just the entire idea of having things to do is beating on me. I'm surprised I"m not having trouble sleeping with everything I've got to keep up with, but it's just that I'm so exhausted by the end of the day I just crash. It was like that when I was traveling a lot last year. I would run all day and be so exhausted by the end of it I'd just be done until morning where I run again.

I'm also noticing I'm becoming a complete jerk. In English we had this project to color this guy and have quotes about him from our book. The people in my group wanted to worry about coloring and how we'll do the feet while I was worried about the quotes and things we would be graded on. Let's just say I don't think they'll want to be in my group ever again. It's like I'm this super productive monster that's always thinking about what needs to be done and how fast I can do it, and that's awesome! But I'm not finding time to read or write like I'd like to.

It's a wonder to me that I'm being so productive and doing well but I just can't seem to find time for writing. :(

A Sad thing

2011-08-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

I managed to get through my goal of 50K before school started. I finished around 12 and was at school by seven the next morning. Right after I finished I made this video of my reaction.... SO I'm realizing how embarrassing this is but I figure this is one of those moments I'll want to remember or something like that.
Earlier that day I made another video about how I thought I could never do it so I was pretty excited.
I had to drop my creative writing class I was enrolled in because I need to do Journalism this year to do news paper and Lit Mag next year. I was really bummed but I guess I can always take it later on.
Other than that I can't say to many bad things about school. I'm remembering how big my school is though. My class alone is over 900 and the whole school is around 5 thousand. I don't like the fact that I'm so busy now with work and homework and such that I haven't found enough time to write. I'm sure when my schedule settles down and when I get into the swing of things I'll manage to get more done but I don't see me getting much done in the next week or so.

School tomorrow

2011-08-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

I tried going to bed last night around 4am when I realized I'd be going to school the next day. Last night I had 44K and bumped out another thousand quickly before bed. Today I'm doing 5K to reach 50K and make my goal of finishing my novel before school. I'm not actually finishing it though, I'm just reaching a wonderful milestone. The week after that, The first week of school, I need to get out 15K to finish this awful word war.
I'm going to be so tired trying to go to school tomorrow after having worked until 11 tonight and staying up to write more if I haven't reached 5K by then.
Sorry for the short post, but I want to get writing...

Holy stinking Crap!!!!!

2011-08-18T06:09:00.000-07:00

So I just realized I've got three days until School starts! OMG!!! I feel like this has crept up on me because I've been so busy with working. I AM going to make my goal of finishing my manuscript before school starts. I'm currently at 43K and I want to be at 50K before Monday. I'm probably going to keep going to 65K because of the Word War I'm in until the end of August. I've also got to finish my summer assignment, and change my schedule, and to make things worse my tummy hurts :(
I'm sure if I had just one solid day off before School starts I could get most of it done but I don't so that's not going to happen. I think I can manage all of this with Microgoals!
Basically I'm going to set myself up goals, per hour tomorrow and the rest of the week and weekend for writing. It'll be like write 500 words this hour and such. I won't be able to work that out until I wake up in the morning because I don't know what time I'll wake up.
This whole having a job thing is pretty much awful. Sure I like having money for a computer, and other things, but I'm having no time for writing between work and school. I guess there've been hundreds of people who had school, and work, and Writing to deal with and they still got their manuscripts done. I guess I'll use that to motivate me. I need like pep pills or something right now, I'm zonked :/

Should I be a Good Writer or a Popular Writer?

2011-08-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

I've resorted to some plotting in the standstill of my first draft. I've heard you're really not suppose to plot to much while you're still barfing up the first draft. (I've always liked that comparison to a first draft...Barfing:P) anyway, in this plotting I'm realizing two things. One, my story is getting WAY to big. Seriously I wrote out all my plot threads and let's just say I have around twenty stories going on in this book. Second is I'm realizing I've got these massive plot holes...
It's like I need to decide wether to have a magnifying glass on my POV character or if I want to pan out over all my characters. Honestly my POV character isn't feeling like a POV character and I'm thinking about switching to an Omniesant style of writing so I can make these extra plot threads cleaner and in a better braid.
I think I've said this before, but I like thinking of my story as a braid. I've got all these plot threads that need to be woven together to make an amazing story. Right now my braid is looking like a frayed rope though. I'll be relieved when I'm done with this huge project. I've been thinking a lot about my first writing project and have kinda been wanting to get back into that one, which is good because come October it'll be six months sence I've finished it and I can offocially start editing.
Editing is a whole other ball game that I haven't even stepped into yet. I'm wondering if having my first writing project being connected to the one I'm working on now is good or not. I feel like I've got a better understanding of how I want things to connect between the two books, but I'm wondering if I'm looking at this way to huge. Know what I mean? Like I don't want to make it where you HAVE to read the first to enjoy the second and the other way around. I want to finish the story for my first, then have a new story with the second that is still connected and interesting.
Cassandra clare wrote an amazing series called the Mortal Instrument series. I loved it so much! But then she introduced her prequel, and I realized even though the setting has changed completely it's still basically the same story. Even the ending is pretty similar. I don't want to ruin the books because they are good reads, but looking at them from a writing perspective I'm finding some to Don'ts.
It's like she has a cookie cutter plot for all her books. The lady who taught that free creative writing class told us about an author who always published books where someone's terminally ill, and they are in love and they find strength in their love and end up living. Seriously and the chick's published around ten books exactly like that.
There comes a point where we need to decide to be good writers or popular writers. Popular writers seem to make the most money. Look at Twilight, I can a I don't think we should ever write for the sole purpose of getting an emotional response from our readers... In other words I don't want the dog to die in the end of all my books.

This sucks........

2011-08-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm not up to this whole writing thing. For a while there I loved it, and keeping track of my word count and everything, but recently I've been avoiding it. I'm not going to say I don't like writing anymore, It's just starting to lose the fun like it did for my first Manuscript. I think I've spent too much time in this story I'm on and I'm starting to get exhausted.
Stephen King says first drafts of manuscripts should only take three months. That's why I've set a goal for myself to be done with this one by the 22 of August (The first day of school) That'll be around three months.
I think it's kinda sad I've got this all planned out...but I'm finishing this manuscript this month, then I'm going to spend September getting use to my new schedule and working on some short stories, then come November it's time for NaNoWriMo. Where I'll hopefully blast through a third manuscript. I've got some running to do lists of things I want to do before NaNoWriMo or things to prepare myself. The list has things like Make an awesome Writing Playlist, and stock my mini-fridge with junk food. I'm really hoping I'll be able to get most of my writing done during the week or so off from school I have for Thanksgiving.
I'm just really feeling like I'm at a stand still. I know I've been this way before, Hell you could run back through my old blog posts and see when this whole writing thing got hard for me and I was really close to calling it quits. This time around I know I can manage through this and I'll get it done so It's not really worrying me so much.
I think my solution to this whole "Writing is boring" thing is to change up my routine. Right now I chill on my bed and time myself. Maybe I need a new location or new music. I guess I'll spend this week trying new things out and seeing what works. Until next time :)

New Schedule = Headache

2011-08-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

So I literally just got my Schedule for Sophomore year.

A Day: AP World History

Orchestra Philharmonic

Pap Algebra 2

Creative Writing(semester 1)

Humanities(semester 2)

B Day: German 2

Orchestra Philharmonic

Pap English 2

Pap Chemistry

I'm thinking about single blocking Orchestra so I can take a journalism class so I can be on Newspaper next year, and Dropping my Humanities class for Psychology so I can do AP psychology next year too. There's also a sociology class that sounds fun.

I like literature and things that study human nature because I feel it helps me with my writing. I don't know yet, every time I try thinking of my schedule or something like this I get a big headache. I kinda wish the school would just tell me what classes I should take for an English Major in College or something like that. What do ya'll think? Would Journalism and Psychology really help me as a writer? What about Humanities?

I still have no clue how I'm going to manage everything this fall. I'm thinking about starting Piano Lessons just for some more extracurriculars, because apparently sitting in your room with a computer doesn't count as a legitimate extracurricular. I really don't want to think about college. Honestly I plan on going into the Marines after High School, then getting a GI bill and getting my college paid for.

It's annoying because I'm seeing all these paths that I can go down and I'm having to choose one that will affect me for the rest of my life. Ok sure a humanities class isn't going to affect my future all that much, but what if I'm able to get scholarship or something for something I did in Journalism. But if I do Journalism I'd have to single block Orchestra which I've been doing as my main elective sense sixth grade. It's all just a big jumble in my head.

Liebster Blog

2011-08-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

So one of my good Friends Fishy nominated me for this award called the Liebster Blog Award. With me being a straight a German Student who always does her homework I know that Liebe mean Love! The goal of this award is to spread the blogging love and help promote bloggers who have less than 200 followers.
Thanks so Much to Fishy! As part of the nomination I've got to choose five blogs with less that 200 followers so here they are...

1) Velda Brotherton at On Being A Writer
2) Annie From The Epic, The Awesome, and the Random
3) Ashley from Ramblings Of a Writer
4) Kelly over at Ink & Green Tea
5) Kalculator from a Ninja's Cake

So as part of the award you've got a few rules.

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!

You guy's rock and I'll see ya around

Back to School

2011-08-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Going back to school is starting to really suck. I'm remembering that I actually have a life other than work and Writing. I pick up my schedule Wed. and I'm really excited because I'm taking a creative writing class for a semester, plus I'm in Orchestra with a lot of my friends.
I know I say this every new school year, but I'm going to do better than I did last year. My grades weren't that great, and I know I can do better. As far as my goals, I'm getting through my summer reading assignments, I've journaled every day for the past month, and My sleep schedule is getting there. It feels like I've got so much more to do now with school coming back up. I don't want to spend all my time watching tv or stupid things when I'm scraping for time to write.
I feel like this year is going to be so much better than Freshman year. I've realized people don't hate Freshman, fish as we call em, we just all hate our freshman year. Next spring break I'm going to Disney World with Orchestra too which is going to be so fun. I'm also going to try and get on the Newspaper or Yearbook staff. My friend is doing this thing called Lit Crit. Meaning Literary Critique, he said it would be something I would like.
I really don't mind school, I like coming home and feeling like I've done something with my day, I like the responsibility, and I like getting rewarded for grades and stuff. What's really sucking though is that I'm realizing I'm not a full time writer during the school year. Summer It's chill and I can write all I want, Fall is a whole different ball game.
I think I've got carpal tunnel from writing and dipping ice cream for twenty hours a week. I've got these compression gloves things and they kinda help, but I can't really wear them while writing because They keep me from typing. That was random but anyway.
I've never tried writing while in school. This is my first year of actually being a writer (Not even a year actually, I started in November) and I've never had to balance work, school, and writing. It's going to be tough getting my 2,00 words out per day. This year is going to be interesting.

The deal with Muses and How to Find Yours

2011-07-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've done a lot of research about Writing Muses. I've found a lot of weird advice, from surrounding myself with people in sync with the universe, to always using your lucky pen.
Basically from what I can gather, muse comes from the nine chicks who inspired Greeks to write and sculpt, and sing. Really I think the Greeks came up with that so they didn't have to share where they got their ideas from, but whatever. There are about four muses that kinda deal with Writing. Calliope, owns Epic Poetry (What makes some poetry Epic and other not I don't know) Erato, rules love poetry, Melpomene, who has dibs on Tragedy, and Thalia, who's all about comedy.
Now and days people think of Muses more as actions and things than these nine very average looking women. It's also like their crack. Not that they have to get their supply from some sleazy street dealer, in that they rely on it. It's like superstition for writing.

Honestly I think it's all a head game. Like "If I don't wear my hat a certain way or do this or this or this, It's impossible for me to write" Now I've found a problem with that. You start messing yourself up in the head when you think like that. You'll have a herd time writing if you absolutely can not write if you don't have a hot glass of tea beside you, because one day you'll run out of tea or break your favorite mug or something like that and psyche yourself out of writing which breaks habits and streaks.

Muses seem to be an excuse for your own awesomeness or your own crappiness. "Oh I only was able to do this awesome thing with the thanks of my muse." or more likely "I only did this piece of crap work because my muse left me." It's all excuses. Now it's OK to have a little thing you do to get you into "the zone" when you're writing. Look at people who play sports, I'll give you a hint someone not like me, they'll do little things like rubbing last year's winning trophy or something like that before a game. The difference between touching a trophy and your writing muse is that your muse is a fickle thing. A trophy will always be a trophy, but your muse can alter, change and evolve little by little.

I think a lot of people find their muses subconsciously, then when they figure out they should get one, they don't realize they already have one and they freak. Let's look at how I write. I wake up first thing in the morning, before I even get out of bed and I push out 500 words at the least. This makes me feel like I've started something and I need to finish it. So by the end of the day I come home still thinking about my story and how much of it I want to write for my daily goal. That's a muse! Another thing, I love graphs, so I'll write down my word count every day, and at the end of the month I'll write those up into a spread sheet and see visually how I've done. It's also cool to compare days in my writing log with days in my Journal to see what mood I write best in. (I've actually found out I write more when I feel like sleeping)

Take a sec to look at yourself and see what gets you working. Maybe it's rewards (Definitely not me,) did you write 2000 words today? yes. BOOM! you get to wear a Toy Story 3 bandage on that Misquote bite that kinda hurts but doesn't really need a band aid. Or are you like me and you work best under pressure? If so Try using Write or Die, I work better with punishments than rewards (and believe me Write or die has some pretty harsh punishments,) Nothing to be to scared of though. Another thing you can do as a pressure person is wait until the last minute to do your writing. Now this won't work unless you've got a fixed deadline and some consequences. This is mainly for school work for me, I can churn out a really good paper in one night if it's do the next day but not if I do it a week before. Anyway, figure out what is working for you and stop worrying about finding your "muse" because it's all a head game. Spend your time Writing, not finding your muse.

An odd Thing

2011-07-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in day three of a second self inflicted WriMo. My last WriMo in July failed horribly, because of lack of motivation, and lack of consistency. I feel like this month will be different.
Not only do I want to have my novel finished the 22nd of August, because of school, it would also be really nice to finish this so I can start working on some short stories.
I've gotten myself into a massive Word War with an author I meet off Twitter. A word war is normally what WriMo contestants do to boost their word count. Normally two or three people set a time of say twenty minutes and see who can write the most words in that time. Me and James Tallett, author of the Four Part lands series, have erupted into a WriMo challenge of 50k words by August 31. I will say it's been giving me some super motivation to keep writing.
While I'm writing I can already tell all my scenes are out of order, and I have these huge plot holes, and I can just tell editing is going to be a mess. It's really killing me not having things better organized. I've been trying to stop myself from going back and editing things because right now I know there's just to much for me to fix to not have the whole story written. If I start editing, I'll never finish, leaving me halfway with a story. I was up late reading all the pep talks on the WriMo site from the past years. I'm a total Nerdfighter, so I really loved John Green's pep talk. He talks about how we have follies, and writers will give up on a story half way through because they get bored, or the suckiness of their book tells them to stop writing. While I'm not at the halfway point just yet, i feel like that's what went wrong on my first WriMo challenge.
I'm totally gonna finish this time, and It's going to be amazing, and after I write my 50k I'm going out to celebrate with bowling or something. If I don't finish I'll probably just sit in my room and hide for a few days while James soaks up the glory of winning, But I'm not gonna let that happen!

Writers are Like Whores

2011-07-25T06:19:00.000-07:00

This is something from my Journal I wrote on the 21st.

"I've realized something about this writing thing, it's that I want to do this for the rest of my life. That's a very scary thing when you think about it. I feel like writing is what's really important to me, and I love it.

It's like I know I'll publish a book one day. It may be a long while from now, but I know It's going to happen. That gives me motivation to keep writing, making a blog post, and skipping hanging out with friends to write."

One Part of realizing I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life, is that it gives me a sort of easiness about everything else. Like I don't have to worry about what I'm going to do when I grow up, or any of that. I mean sure I'll get some job to pay bills later down the line, but It's a comfort knowing I've got writing.

Writing is like a tool I have, It relaxes me, makes me get excited about something. It's the best anti-depressant. It's a bigger gush of power, and freedom than what comes with having my own computer, and my own license and my own car. Honestly I don't see how people are getting through their days without writing something that they put themselves into.

Isn't that what writing is? Putting bits of our self into these stories so other people can experience us. It's like writers are soul whores.

A lot of times I feel that I write for a future me, especially in my diary. I write so people will know about me, my family, the people I love, and the times I live in. I've always had this idea that we're suppose to leave this world better than we found it, and writing is my way of doing that. I'm always at my best when I'm writing.

On a lighter note, one of my good friends asked me if I like this one girl. Apparently every girl I sorta kinda know thinks I hate them because I'm such a loaner. Literally I've had someone ask me if I didn't like someone because I'm apparently not friendly or something like that.

Half Way Point

2011-07-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

My 2010 Writer Resolutions and Goals:

1)Write Every Day

2) Finish and Submit a Manuscript

3)Read one book I don't think I'll like per month

~~4) Get a 90 in English~~

5)Journal Every Day

6) Read Everything I can get my hands on and stop complaining about how boring it is

7) Find something everyday to inspire me

8) stop drinking soda

This is literally my goals from my first ever blog post. Seeing as it's July, the halfway point of our year, I think It's a good time for some self evaluation.

Hmm, very interesting. Seeing as school is over I'll cross off four. Recently I've been writing everyday. Probably not as much as I should be but it's a start. I have finished a Manuscript, but have yet to submit it. (I think I'll scratch the last part of that goal because no where in there does it have editing.) I haven't been reading books I don't like at all so that one's out the window. Read everything hasn't happened either. Find something to inspire me every day. Yeah no. and stop drinking soda. I have done that one.

Ok so thus far this year I've done nothing but stop drinking soda, finish a sad excuse for a manuscript. Written a but load of blog posts, Journaled Everyday (Most days) and complain about how I'm not a writer yet. It's time to adjust these goals baby!!

My 2010 half way point Writer Resolutions and Goals:

1) Write at LEAST 1,000 words a day, preferably 2,000

2)Finish and start editing a manuscript for Submission

3) Read one NonFiction book about something that interests me.

4) Do my Summer reading assignments before school starts on the 22 of August

5) Continue journaling every day, add length to my entries, and start holding on to keepsakes for my journal

6) Categorize my time into Writing, Personal, work, and free time. Then spend two thirds of free time reading.

7) Find something Everyday to Inspire me, and post it online to a Tumblr or second blog or something.

8) Set up a normal sleep schedule again and stop eating fried foods.

9) Grow my personal Library by spending a set amount of money on Books per paycheck.

Now the question is how am I going to make these goals unlike I did the others? Well I've already taped these goals on my mirror so I don't forget them. I know it's a dumb trick but I've seen it work. I'm also starting a separate notebook dedicated entirely to my goals.

If anyone has any other tips, or they want to share their goals hit me up:) Ya'll rock.

The Thing with Short Stories

2011-07-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

I hear tons of Authors talk about how when they were young the made themselves sit down and write one short story per week for...forever. I've tried writing short stories, I really have. I just can't for the love of my Characters have so little happen to them. See, here's the thing with my characters, I spend a lot of time modeling them, and talking with them, and thinking about them. Maybe you don't do that with short stories but I'll just say it feels wrong, It's like a one Night Stand.
We spend all this time with our Manuscripts to a point where if feels like we're dating them. Right now I feel like I'm married to mine, and I'd feel bad moving around so much. (OMG I totally date like that too, ha who said you need a life for Life Lessons).I suppose if we're going to compare this dating thing to writing we may as well go all in.
When you're young, you shouldn't be in these deep relationships where you spend all this time. You're still growing, and finding out what you like and don't like in people The same goes with books. When we're young we need to write stories, and write a lot of em to know what we like to write, how we like to write it, and all that junk. Eventually We'll get "Married" to a full length book, but for now It shouldn't be my main goal.
Wow when I wrote this I didn't think I would be making this huge discovery *FacePalm*. I think I'm going to try harder with writing short stories. First I should probably start reading some short stories (Anybody got any haha) then writing them. I think I'll probably keep going with my manuscript for now, but I think after this one I'll tuck it in the vault for six months. September I'm going to devote all my writing to short stories, this is a time between when I should be done with my second Manuscript, and before my first comes out of the vault.
Anyone got any tips when It comes to short story writing and how it's different from writing novels? I love the support you guys, and I'll see ya next time :) DFTBA

Plotting

2011-07-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

As far as plotting for my second Novel, I want to make sure I'm keeping a record of how I'm doing it so I don't forget next time around. I'm using Note cards cut in half so save on cost. I started out buy writing the major things that I know I want to happen then spread those all out in order. Then I started filling the spaces with new note cards with new scenes or ideas.

   Secondly I've started a chart very much like JK Rowlings for the Order of Phoenix. A chapter column, a month column, then across the top I listed all my plot lines. Then I just filled things in. Coming up with my plot lines wasn't that hard. After having thought about my story for so long I pretty much know where I want this to end up.
   Another thing I did was lay all my note cards out on a huge wipe board in order, then use a marker to draw my plot line, labeling my catalyst, climax, and other things. For that thought I mostly worked out the months of things.
   I'm really motivated to get this first draft over with before August 22, the first day of school. Stephen King says in his book "On Writing" that First Drafts of Books shouldn't take more than three months. I feel like that's what went wrong with my first manuscript. I spent so long on the first half, that by the time I got halfway I was just tired of my story and just wanted it to be over with. Besides that I like starting fresh with the new school year, I think I'd want to get back into my study habits before I really get into writing my third manuscript, just so I don't completely fail tenth grade.
   It's getting to a point where all I'm thinking about is my novel, or getting it published. I'm a little embarrassed to say all I've done this morning is wake up, put my contacts in, and write this blog post. Next I'm going for breakfast and a shower, then I'll be writing until I have to go to work tonight. Is this obsession normal?

Vlogging, Classes, and other things

2011-07-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

   I've thought about starting up a youtube channel where I vlog about writing and share tips and things. I actually tried one video and let me just say vloging is very different from blogging. Much like blogging and writing, Vlogging takes a lot of time and planning, not to mention editing. I tried, but I just don't think I want to spend my time making videos when I could be writing. Maybe later down the line I'll start some videos but I'm just not sure I want to invest into that while I still need to spend so much time practicing my craft.
   I went to my first creative writing class tonight, held by my public Library. It was originally suppose to be for teens, but there were so few people that they let the two adults who came stay. It was literally me, my friend I forced to come with me, this old Asian lady who ended up only wanting to know how to write a how to book on dealing with your adult children, and this other lady who didn't talk much but took notes the whole time. There was also this little girl, maybe ten, who I think came with the teacher so she doesn't count.
   We started with an exercise where they had "After dinner our host told us the house was said to be..." and we had to finish the sentence. We all got sharpies and wrote our answers on the butcher paper. I said built on an Indian burial ground. Most of the answers had to do with ghosts and hunting's and things. After we did a character exercise where they showed us an old lady smiling with her dog. We all decided she was a Psychology professor who went crazy after the loss of her son in 9/11 and is soon diagnosed as cancer. After that we did a flash fiction about our character we created and all shared ours. People went very different ways.
   My friend had the lady in a assisted living center for crazy people and the dog was brought in to help with therapy for the patients. The Asian lady had the woman start her own business selling dog accessories, and the little girl had her have no friends, her dog die, her house burn down, and her be diagnosed with cancer all in the first few paragraphs.
   We didn't really write much, but we all got a general idea of how our story would play out. After we talked about plot: the three act structure and climaxes and that sort of thing, we spent forever talking about the best form of dictionary and the troubles of using a Thesaurus and other obvious questions.
   I don't really feel like I learned anything I couldn't have from my "Writing Fiction for Dummies" book or on the Internet, but it was free so I suppose I can't complain.
   After everyone else left, my friend and I stayed so I could ask them some questions about the publishing company who talked to me. They said if they ask me for money I should walk away, they also said before I send them a Manuscript I should send one to myself so I can have it post marked and unopened if any question does arise. They also advised I read over anything they have me sign very carefully, and maybe even have a lawyer look over it. Apparently the lady who wrote the Vampire Diaries signed away the rights to her entire series because she didn't look things over well enough.
   Some time next year, either first semester or second, I'm taking a creative writing class. I'm hoping it's not going to be like this one. I'm also kinda hoping my teacher will let me use his room during lunch so I can bring my laptop and write during lunch. Honestly I'd much rather do that than sit and talk with my friends for an hour and a half. I just realized how much of a loaner I'm becoming haha.

Suck long and Hard!

2011-07-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

This is like a huge mash up of all the advice I've ever gotten. Don't waste your time researching all this "How to write" crap because eventually it'll all start sounding the same. Save the hassle and just watch a few videos like this one and start writing, and keep writing.

Here's another from the same youtube channel, if you can't tell I really like these guys :P

and eventually we'll all become crazy playing out guitars and rambling about something while naked on our bed.

A whole New World

2011-07-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

   So It's completly diferent having my own computer and license. I've got this weird thing called freedom and can I just say it's awesome. I feel like I've been more productive in my writing the last two days I've had my computer than the last month.
   I'm trying to get into this thing called Evernote. It's like my writing notebook, on the computer,and cell phone, and ipod and stuff. I'm not sure if I like being dependant on my internet access, or the battery life of my phone (Something no one would have a right mind to rely on) But so far I'm really liking it for organizing my writing notes.
   I've been sick the last few days so I can't wait to have things back to normal so I can actually start planning some more writing time. Till next time :)

I've been awful

2011-07-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was so pumped about my computer, and the publishing thing I forgot to tell you I've been feeling like complete and utter shit the last few days. Yesterday I left work early nearly crying because I felt like I was about to feint. I've been getting strep throat lately, and it seems like every time I get a cold or flu or something it pops back up. My Dr. is closed til Monday so I guess I'll be chilling for the weekend, I just hope I don't miss to much work.

So this how it feels...

2011-07-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

   So I've finally got my computer and can I just take a second to say this this is freaking amazing! But back to more important things. I got an e-mail from someone interested in publishing my manuscript. They haven't asked for money, or anything else that sounds specious so me and my parents are thinking this is the real thing. They found my manuscript on Inkpop I think, because it's the only place I have it up at, and they're looking at publishing it.
   I'm just in a state of complete and utter amazement at the moment. They haven't said they will so I don't want to set myself up for a letdown but they said they'll review my manuscript and decide if they want to publish it. I've found only one problem...
   I've got to finish the darn thing.

How's it feel to be 16?

2011-07-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

To be honest it feels like shit. No, not being 16 in general, just being up is shit. I know I know, I'm young and I shouldn't be loathing my birthday until I'm at least late 20's but I'm just thinking I'm 16 now, and I should be so much better at writing than I really am.

    My self moto Wri Mo was a complete bust. I have no clue how I'll manage this come November. I still haven't gotten my computer because my mom and sister decided to start selling Mary Kay which requires $800 dollars of merchandise to start. So I don't get my computer until next payday.
   I am proud to say I finished my first Mokeskine Journal. I plan on putting up a video of me flipping through it once I get my computer. Before I got mine I was always interested what a Writer's Moleskine would look like and I could never find videos or pictures of one so I'm hoping a lot of people will feel more comfortable about writing in them before buying one. I'm on of those researchers. I love looking up reviews and stuff of things I'm going to buy. I'm making mom take me to get a new Mokeskine (Plain large hardback) with $20 dollars I got from my grandma. I can't wait to start journaling again.
     Until I get my computer I'm calling that my excuse to not write. Somebody please knock some since into me for not writing. I've read all the craft books I can afford and they are all starting to sound the same. I just don't know how much longer I can call myself a writer if I'm not writing.

My Own WriMo

2011-06-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-06-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

      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

2011-06-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

30 Hour Workweek. =(

What's This?

2011-06-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-09T05:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-06-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-06-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Ugh.

2011-05-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-05-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-05-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-03T16:22:00.001-07:00

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

2011-05-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Will summer ever Come?

2011-04-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

I know I've probably said this a bunch already but I can not freaking wait til summer. This entire week I've wanted to work on my manuscript but then I remember I've got an English project, or math homework that I absoultly can not blow off. My parents aren't really mad at me for my grades but we both know I could do better. I've had this entire conversation with my mom about how I choose not to make stright A's. My grades right now are like all B's and one C. And let me tell you I could make stright A's if I wanted to easily but that would require more of my time that I'm currently inventing into writing.

I will be so relieved when I don't have to worry about homework, or scheduealing, or any of that crap. My mom laughed at me because I once told her "If I thought making good grades was important I would" obviously I think having a BA manuscript is more important than a 100 in Speech or some other dumb class. A lot of times I tell her I'm investing into my future by writing more than I could with getting three extra points on a project.

Who knows, It's probably just the lazy in me but something you want to do isn't considered work.

Writing Websites

2011-04-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ok so I just want to put down a list of really good websites I use piratically every day.
1) Advanced Fiction Writing is an awesome site. While you have to pay for some things I'm finding you can get enough information just reading the small stuff

2) Dictionary.com is my homepage. I like this because it keeps me off what so and so was wearing last night and other useless things can keep me from focusing. Plus it's a great tool.

3)Almost all colleges have a writing website with guides and links. If you search "College Name Here writing resources" you'll find just what your looking for. My favorite one to use is Colorado State University's which has tons of guides on lots of different things.

4)I'm really lucky that my Library system pays for a Program called Mango Languages. While it's not a writing website I find this very helpful, I plan on learning Spanish, French and Russian a little this summer and it could help if you're doing a cultural thing.

5) I've just gotten onto Inkpop which is a wonderful website for young writers like myself. The HarperCollins publishers run the site and the top five manuscripts every month are sent off to a board of people from HarperCollins and they look at your work. I'm really loving the community on there because everyone just seems to be there because they love writing, not because they want to be the next big thing.

I hope these have helped and if you want she share anymore websites with good advice I would be so grateful. Pleas add me on inkpop, goodreads, or e-mail me, I'd love to share writing tips.

You're Gonna Laugh

2011-04-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

So I've figured out a way to keep me writing when I don't feel like it. Me being a teenager I love the game The Sims 3. Recently I've been getting really bored with it so I haven't been playing much. So today decided to play, and one of my characters is a writer (Big shock there huh?) anyway. I made all his needs static so I don't have to worry about him leaving and sat him down at the computer to "work on Novel". So make that in a window, pull up Pandora, and start writing. Now every time I don't feel like writing I think Hey I'll just play Sims. Then I seen my sim is writing and I should be too. I know I know it's super lame but I'm willing to do what ever it takes to motivate myself.

The Set Up

2011-04-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

This is the current 'Stack' as I call it. It's everything I need-except for the computer and a cup of coffee- to sit down and write. This one does have a few extra things like my kindle and planner which I don't Really need to write but it's nice to have them close at hand.

First up is a Fiction book I'm reading on the Right. Called Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Let me just say I did NOT pick this up because it was on Oprah's book club. I didn't even know it was on there until I looked it up on Amazon literally three seconds ago. I'm not very far but it seems good so far. Second is a Non-fiction book I'm reading called Outliers by Malcom Gladwell which has some pretty interesting stuff. This was recommended to me by a good friend who said it was really interesting. I'm not really a non-fiction reader but this has a lot about work ethic, goal setting, and over all being good at things that could easily be applied to writing.

Third we have a few books on Writing. In the middle is Living Write by Kelly L. Stone. I'm only through the first chapter because I'd like to get into a serious writing habit before I move onto my "Writer's self-image" This came with a CD which I instantly played and completely laughed at. It's like deep breathing and self mantras and weird stuff so I don't think I'll be using that. On the left is Reader's Digest of Short StoryWriting Volume II. I'm mad at this book because I got it at Half-Price Books for about five dollars, and I was thinking Wow what a deal but then I go look it up on Amazon for a whooping $1.75 so I haven't even opened it yet. So far from skimming it I'm noticing its more about story writing in general rather short story writing. The third is Louise Doughty's Novel in a Year. This is more of weekly pep talks rather than"it's the 52 week where's your freaking Manuscript" it's more of finding yourself and finding time to write. Which is good in some degree but I was really looking for

a check list kinda thing.

Here is a combo of my flash drive with all my writing things and a stack of note card with scenes for my novel on them. Of course my kindle, my planner, my journal, and the blue is part of an exercise I'm doing for Living Write from chapter one where I write down all these negative thoughts about my writing and I turn them into good thoughts. It's super Dr.Phil and dumb but I just really wanted another excuse to but another Moleskine.

Well that's about it. If you have any questions or suggestions or if you'd like to share tips leave a comment or shoot me and e-mail. Thanks!

The Three jobs the Come with Writing

2011-04-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

I think There's about three separate jobs when it comes to writing. One, is in two pats a) coming up with ideas. Now you can do this anywhere and it can happen anytime...like a boner. As long as you're there to write them down you don't have to worry about it much before you have a nice little list you can refer to and modify to suite your needs. b) is plotting those Ideas. Turning this little idea into a story line, then into a three act structure, then throwing in characters and motivation into it. This is when things can change very quickly. In the blink of an eye you can decide your Mary sue heroine would be better as a evil tempest. I Think this is my favorite part about writing. It's like playing god.
The second job when it comes to being a writer is actually sitting your butt down and writing it. This takes the most time because this is when you start questioning your timing, and your characters, and this scene, and bla bla bla. I enjoy this part but I will say it's not the best.
The third job to being a writer is Editing. I like this part because I get these random ideas of "oh what would happen if I did this instead" kinda thing. It gives a great sense of power. This job can be pretty long but it doesn't seem so bad. A lot of changes can happen her and often times it's a big pain in the butt changing things. The best tool for editing on Microsoft Word is Find and Replace. For example, in my book I decided to change Evan's name to Ethan to better suit his character and actions. Get to this by hitting 'Ctrl' and 'F'. This is also helpful in school but that's a different post.
An important thing about being a Writer is separating these three jobs and doing them in order. While you don't always have to have a Plot before you start writing it makes it a whole lot easier. One of my big problems I'm realizing is I'm mixing up my Writing and Editing Jobs. I'll go back to what I wrote yesterday and start editing the crap out of it then I have strong parts of my Manuscript with weak parts and that just makes for a crappy novel. I've taken a vow not to edit anything I write for the next month until it becomes a habit. I'm hoping this will keep a steady flow of words and I'll get the writing Job over with and I can get to the Editing part. Oh how I love writing.
Any tips, questions, advice or anything shoot me an e-mail at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

15 down 45 to Go

2011-04-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm officially at 15,000 words. That's 1/4 of my 60,000 words. I feel like my timing on things is off but I suppose I'll worry about that when I'm editing.
I'm reading this book called "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. There's a chapter in there entitled 'The 10,000 Hour Rule' It basically says once you invest 10,000 hours into something, sports, instruments, or writing, you become super awesome at it and are basically a professional. Guess what my new goal is!!
I really can't wait til I get my own computer and I can stop having to worry about where my flash drive is. There've been many days when I really really really want to write but just can't because my entire manuscript is on my MIA flashdrive. I'm getting really pumped for my 16th birthday coming up this July. I know I know you're not suppose to tell people how old you are on the Internet and junk but I'm just to excited about this to not write about it.
Awesome things Happening on my Birthday:
1) I get my license- assuming I can pass the stupid test
2) I get an official key to my car
3) I get my kick butt Mac Book pro that I've been saving up for
So that's basically all the super cool things but there's more like awesome birthday dinner and that one Vara bradley purse thing my mom said she's going to get me. I've always wanted to be one of those people who set up an entire writing station in a Starbucks or something. I think that's really every writer's dream. Showing off how cool and anti-social we are by sitting in coffee shops all day talking with other writers about our projects and such. I'm interested, What made you want to become a writer? Coffee Shop camp? Being able to tell other's the Heroine in your book is based off them and they fall in love with you? or what ever else? Shoot me a comment or E-mail and let me know. Also if you have ANY advice for a new writer I'd love it! Thanks!

GOAL!!

2011-04-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

I'm really tired of not getting a steady stream of output as far as my writing, so I've developed my goals for the month of April: 1) Read Great Expectations 2) Write 4 Short Stories (1 per week) 3)Read to week 17 of "Novel in a Year" by Louise Doughty 4)Get to 23,000 words on my novel 5) Read three shorter books -She walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell -Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swift -Little Duke by Charlotte Mary Young You wouldn't believe how much I cut each of these down to size, I literally have spaced out how much of each of these I need to do per day into bite sized daily to do lists. For example today I'm plotting a Short story, doing a blog post, reading 20% of She walks in Beauty, and read 5% of Great expectations. Now these big goals aren't looking so tough. I am going to have to pull some don't be lazy pep talks because I've just been so tired working on the weekends but I'll be so happy when I finally get my own computer. If you want exactly how set up my goals then please e-mail me at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

Writing Goal

2011-03-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

It seems like all the advice I can get for finishing my first draft is to just sit down and do it. Writing is Rewriting. I know my first draft doesn't have to be perfect but that's one of my major challenges. I'll write a scene or something, then edit it and edit it and edit it and getting no where. I'm currently at 11,000 and probably have 6,000 more words of scenes I haven't gotten into my manuscript yet. Then I start to think about my 60,000 word goal I cry a little inside because it seems like I've put so much work into just this and the thought of all that work makes me want to roll over and go back to sleep. I need some small goals. I'm thinking I'll shoot for 1,000 words perhour and work for at least one hour every day but idealy three.f I love when I'm writing I get into that "zone" where I'm so enthrawled in my writing that I have no sence of time and I end up working for five hours before I need to pee or something.
I'm also needing a major Half-price Book run. I've got a huge list of books on writing. I'm loving my kindle right now because of all the free books:)

Back in it

2011-03-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

After not writing for almost two weeks it's really refreshing to spend a solid four hours of my afternoon working. It really reminds me why I love writing. I get to create things and characters. I get to play god and step out of my shoes while I read and write. My dad's step mom says people always want what they don't have, and people read so they can experience what it's like to have something they want. A book store is like an experience kit store. You can buy a book and slip into the skin of a character and their world and try out these different experiences, and thoughts, and situations, and trials, and problems, and disasters all without leaving the oh so sweet comfort of your living room or what ever.

Thanks bud

2011-03-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

So I spent the night last night at my friends house. This is a really rare occurence. I had fun but we were talking and she was amazed with how I never need to talk about personal things with people. Things like my first kiss, and boys, and my family problems. I told her I just keep a journal because Journals don't go blabbing to people. She said I should keep doing it becaus it's good. I suggested she start one then she said she thinks it's totally lame and it's very shallow. Then she compared my journal to her third grade journal with a lock and key. I'm ok with saying I love my journal...I just doubt I'll be going to many more sleep overs for a while.

Drain

2011-03-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

Working sucks. Sure I have fun but goodness gracious what a time drain. I think it'll all be worth it when I get my paycheck. Almost all my money is going to my new mac book pro.

Good book Blues

2011-03-14T22:29:00.001-07:00

Every time I finish a book, especially a really good one, I always get a little discouraged because I think I'll never be able to write something as good as that. I just finished The Book Thief for the fifth time and I still cried. I'm pretty sure you guys are going to get tired of me talking about this book but I think I'll sacrifice a few readers for my love of this book. I don't really know where I was going with this post but I figure I'd mention my current state of "I never want to write another word in my life" mood but have no fear, I'm pretty sure this'll fade off after I finish a terrable book. At that point I'll get my "I could write a better book that that" additude and get right to writing with the same vigor as before.

Books that have made me a Better Writer

2011-03-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Writers Read. Here are a few fiction books that I've read for pleasure that've made me try new things with my writing.
1) The book Thief. I love this book. Markus Zusak uses the rare Omniscient POV with his narriator, death. On thing that really caught me is that nearly to the end there's a chapter called "The End of the World (Part 1)" Markus Zusak tells what happens in the end and I still cried when I finally got there. I love the point of view, the simple plot, the characters, and the childhood love between Liesle and Rudy.
2) Dracula by Bram Stoker. Ok I've only just recently read this one. Again though, I like the diary format. I get that a lot of people wrote like that a long time ago but when I read something like this It challenges me to try it out. I've started a small series on Quizilla just for the fun of it. I'm treating it as if my main character is real and is simply keeping an online journal. I'm sure it would ruin the whole story I've got planned for my readers but It's part of the fun of being a writer, Getting to step out of your own shoes for a moment or two and pretend to be someone else.
3) ok This one may sound dumb but it's The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. It's big around on websites like ThinkGeek as a joke gift but it really has some valuable information to it. It's presented like a real guide book giving how to's, tips and other advice. I'm looking at character actions in this one. So zombies don't have to be attacking your characters for you to benefit from this book. Let's say your character is running away from the government for being a spy. This book gives a list of all the supplise and weapons someone would need to survive in the wilderness or something. It also gives good hiding and fighting advice that your character could use in an action packed situation. Plus it's just a fun read.
4) Eli the good by Silas House. This book has such rich characters. Mabey I only liked it because Eli is so close to myself but the book is incredable all the same. My dad, who only likes war books about acts of glory, loved the story of this small town boy. I remember when my dad got to one of the best parts he stoped reading for a minut and sighed like i've never seen him do before and say "This is a Powerful Book"
There you have it. Any more you think should be added to this list shoot me an e-mail at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

Love the entheuisam

2011-03-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

My parents have some one over EVERY Sunday. It's not that I don't like the people, it's just when they're over here I'm not allowed to sneak off to my room and write because It's considered rude.
Any way, I listen to Pandora while I write, and for the last four months in a row I've used up my allotted 40 hours of listening time per month. I'm actually thinking of switching to Pandora one just so I don't have to get that dumb message telling me I'm at 38 hours I always get around the 20th of every month.
My friend invited me to go to Oklahoma with her and her family on Tuesday and Wednesday but my parents won't let me go because my work could call me and ask me to come in. While OK would be fun I think I'd rather keep saving up for my computer. I need to think of some sort of budget. I'm thinking 10% tithe then 50% stright to computer fund. I think I'm going to get a mac Book Pro, the 11 inch one. I've read apple's word processor is way better than word but I've never used it before.
If you've got any advice for me, feed back, or just wanna chat shoot me an e-mail at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

Palm to Face

2011-03-12T21:15:00.000-08:00

The amount of unprouctivity that's been happening this month has been astonishing to me. Two bummers. One, I didn't make the Alliance for young artist and writer deadline, and two, coming back to my plots I realize how much I want to change them. Thank god for a spring break to force myself back into the habit. I've gotten a job(first job baby!) and I'm saving up for a new computer of my own. If anyone has some good suggestions I'd love em at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com I'm obviously going to be using it for writing and school work but mainly to keep my files on.
Honestly after a bunch of weekends NOT writing I've gotten kinda lonely. Sure I've got a few friends but I never do things with them. This may sound strange but when I'm writing It's like I'm having a conversation with myself. That's why I love keeping a Diary. A quote out there says "If you keep a diary one day it will keep you" and I think that's so true. I'm writing my diary for my kids, for historians if they care, and for myself.
I've been reading a little. Right now I'm on Stoker's Dracula and It's amazing how much I'm enjoying a classic. In school we're studying A Tale of two Cities and everyone in my grade is complaining about it but I'm almost positive if I didn't have to read it and answer packets worth of questions on it I Would LOVE the book. Things you have to do are work. Things you want to do are not. (By the way I'm getting a lot better at selling. Spell checker says I only had one word wrong on this one. High Five for Progress)

How to NOT be a writer

2011-02-27T15:24:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-21T17:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-02-20T14:08:00.001-08:00

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

2011-02-14T19:36:00.001-08:00

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

2011-02-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-03T18:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-02T21:34:00.001-08:00

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?

Forms

2011-01-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

So I got my forms for The Alliance for young Artists and Writers contest today. I did a little happy dance when she asked with her bug eyes if I had said novel writing contest. I like english, seems like everytime we anotate something in there I kick butt- if you can even do that with anotation. There's this one girl in there who I always work with and seems like she always steals my work which is really freaking annoying but I'm learning how to avoid that in the future. I'd rather her steal my answers to questions than my novel ideas.

Point A to Point B

2011-01-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

So as you probably know I'm entering the first five chapters of my novel into the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers contest. The due date for my 50 pages and one page outline is due the 25th of Febuary. I've gotten most of my stuff done and I know the entire plot for my novel. The hard part is condencing my currently 27 page outline into a one page document. Also my entry seems uneven. Like some places are really good but not inportant to the plot while the major plot aspects are lacking. I've GOT to mail this by the 15th of Febuary to good ole NY.

So I'm petty sure This Sucks

2011-01-26T07:43:00.001-08:00

I know I know I've missed a few schedule posts. I'm super sorry and Have this theory if I post like three right now I'll make up for it. I have a valid reason for missing my posts though. I'm deathly sick right now. Dr. Says if I got a sore throat one more time this six months I'd probably have to have my tonsils taken out- and I that makes me miss UIL solo It's about to go down. But don't feel bad I haven't been paying attention to much of anything during my sick days. If you follow me on twitter you can see I've gone AWOL on that and even the editing process of my first five chapters has been at an almost standstill. This is the first day I've taken off school so I plan on threshing out some blog posts- especially on a few drafts I've been holding onto for forever- and spending a solid chunk of my afternoon on my manuscript.

2011-01-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

I think with writing you can choose two of three things; A social life, A kick ass manuscript, or sleep. OK so I adapted that from an IB student joke but it still works. What sucks about being in High School is I've got to calculate GPA into that. It seems like there's just not enough time in the day to pull everything that needs to be done. One weekend I'm devoted to my writing and editing and another I'm hanging out with people I haven't talked to in weeks because I've been to busy writing. I've got to find some better ways to get bits of number one and three(Social life and Sleep) while holding onto a solid two (Manuscript).

On a side note: I've realized my blog posts have been about how to write and less about my journey as a Writer. I think I'll start refocusing my posts toward my journey more- although I will throw in some posts of things I've learned around the Blogsphere every now and then.

Writers Block and why it Sucks

2011-01-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

Once you've got your usual routiene in order and you sit down to write almost religiously every day, the problem can be you don't know what to write. I hate it when you want to write but can't. Seems like you have tons of ideas when you have writers block it's just a bunch of bad ones. At one poing during one of my short stories about a girl working with the United States government on a top secrete mission I though it would be a good idea to make everybody Italian. Kid you not I completley finished my story before I realized this wouldn't work. After that when I tried going back and fixing it I still couldn't think of anything. I eventually scraped the whole project but it was a good learning experience. While you have writers block there are two important things to seeing through the hard times. One is keep writing. Oh it's going to be bad. I promise. But at least you will be able to go back later and learn from your mistakes and mabey even laugh about it later. Second is to keep Reading. Look for new styles, settings, and other aspects to short stories and books. When you can't figure how or what to write in your own style it's a good time to experiment with different styles. In the words of my favorite Science teacher. "Take chances, Make mistakes, and Get messy!"

Journaling: why you MUST do it

2011-01-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

My mom kinda laughs at me when she sees me writing in my Journal. Then I tell her Mart Twain, Benjamen Franklin, Lewis and Clark, and the Queen of England herself all keep/kept Journals. As a writer you absolutely MUST have a journal. Writing in a Journal is not writing like you would for your blog or novel. It's writing when you're not worried about sentence structure or verb variation It's you on the page. Don't get me wrong you can certainly use your Journal for working through scenes and character write ups but don't worry about editing what you put in your Journal. Getting into the habit of Journaling is like any other habit. You just have to do it everyday. I use journaling as a sort of warm up to my writing. It lets me keep my everyday emotions separate from my writing emotions. That may not make sense but what ever. Journals are a great place to plant ideas and let them grow as you work with and/or around them. I have a good five pages in my journal full of "Story Ideas" every time I get an Idea it gets scribbled down fast as I can manage so I don't lose it and it's tucked away until I choose to work with it later. Recently I had a journal entry that I developed into a Short story and It worked wonderfully. There's just so much your journal offers for you to pass one up. You're going to make mistakes and that's OK. It's your Journal. Use it everyday no matter if all you did was wake up and troll YouTube videos. You can draw, mind map, create, scribble, doodle, jot, plan, play with styles, work with emotions, and think all in the papers you hold as your journal. Get a Journal. I mean NOW. Make sure you'll write in it. (you all know my obsession with moleskines) Use a pack of stapled together copy paper and a pastel for all I care just get something you can write your thoughts in so you can refer back to it later. You don't want a file of half done word documents brushed into a corner of your computer. Get a pen and a notebook and get Journaling!

How to make Catchy Titles

2011-01-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

The title of your article, blog post, or novel is often times the first thing people see. Good titles spark interest and make you want to read what it's about. Bad titles are skimmed over. I've got four good suggestions when creating your titles.
First, create a How To or guide to something. People like being able to see step by step how to do something. They also like guides and manuals because they get this image that they'll get everything they need to do what ever it is your article is about(weather they do or not isn't the point of this post. It's to make them click on your post in the first place.)
Second, people don't know it but they love alliterations. An alliteration is the repetition of the same sound or letter(come on you know this 7th grade English) Like Peter Piper Picked A Pack of Pickled Peppers. At lunch me and my friends came up with an alliteration for every day of the week. Why? Because It's fun and easy. If you need practice write try coming up with an alliteration for every letter of the alphabet and you'll be an alliteration activist. ha ha see?
Third, Everybody knows three is the magic number. Keep your titles as short as three words. Make the most important words stand out. Ex. The Turtle Times. T T T all caps. now if you title is longer like 'How to make Catchy Titles' notice I didn't Cap 'make'. It draws your eye to the more important things of the title like How Catchy Title. Go look on quizilla story section for examples of bad titles. They're long and give away the entire plot of the story. For fiction and short stories your title should provoke wonder and make people question what your story is about. For non-fiction people are looking for information quick and easy. If you tell them your article is 'the Clarification of the usage between 'Affect' and 'Effect'' your possible readers are going to jump to the next link in their blog list. Of all the suggestions I think this is the least used. If you can't come up with an alliteration or How to guide try this one.
Fourth, Try making titles subjective. Example 'Why your blog isn't a hit' There are a bunch of people out there that think their blog isn't a hit and plenty who do. The thing is the term HIT can mean different things for different people but everyone thinks their blog being a hit is a good thing. Another example 'Make Your stories Sparkle' (OH I'm good!) Subjective and an alliteration. It might take some practice and some work on thesaurus.com but coming up with titles is the easy part and you shouldn't stress to much about it. If your Content is good Readers will come.
Feed back, questions, anything really e-mail me at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com

My Writing Playlist

2011-01-16T07:11:00.000-08:00

Hey guys Here's a quick off Schedueal Post about my Writing Playlist.

Read til you Bleed

2011-01-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Every one should have the common sense to know writers read. But what do writers read? I've read a good many books that say as a writer you should read anything and everything you can get your hands on. I stand against this with quite a passion. While reading is obviously a good thing I think WHAT you read is more important than the amount you read. Quality not Quantity. Think of it this way. You'll never be able to put together that your fancy new desk of yours if you spend your time reading picture books instead of the instructions. The books you read (as far a fiction) should challenge you either by length or vocabulary. I like to keep a book list of 'Hard' books. Mine is filled with mostly classics while my 'Easy' list is filled with vampire romance books and coming of age tales. When it comes to non-fiction about writing I'm sure reading everything you can get your hands on is a good tactic although most of what you read will be repeated countless times in what ever you pick up. Think of the books you've read in the past few months. Have they moved you to look at life differently, showed you what not to do, or given you a new inspiration as a writer?

How to get the most of your Writing time

2011-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

So you've set up your four hour writing habit. Great! Now the problem is staying on task. Between Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Pandora, stumble upon, and youtube there's a mountian of things that can easily pull your attention from your work. With a few techniques you can maxamize your writing time and cut the distractions.

1) Log off Facebook. Facebook will be the death of productivity and Twitter goes right along with it. The best way to cut yourself off facebook during your writing time is to delete your facebook entirely but if don't have the will power for that it's ok to delete the bookmarks and short cuts to facebook and log out of it completley. It makes getting on your socoial networking sights seem like more work instead of just a click of a button

2) Don't even touch the internet! You can't get distracted from things if theres nothing there to distract you. Think of your computer used primaraley for writing and only get on the internet to look things up or if you have to. Consider using one computer for writing and another (mabey a public library one) for reading blogs and looking up things unrelated to your writing.

3) Set up a writing place. Everyone has a place they like to write. Mine is in my bedroom and I'll admit I'm kinda anal when it comes to my suroundings. My door must be closed. All the lights except a small lamp must be off. My bed has to bee made, and my Moleskin, G2 7pt. Black pen, notecards, and books must be close at hand. My family has gotten to where they don't even come in my room when the doors closed because they know I'll wine at them for disturbing my train of thought. Mean? Mabey but I get a bunch of work done.

4) Music Last time I had a whole post about Writing music. Set yourself up a playlist or pandora station that motivates you to write and kick starts your creative process. Pick a song to be your sort of Theme song. It'll tell your brain it's time to sit down and and write.

Hope I've helped you be more productive and focused. I love feed back, suggestions, thoughts or whatever so e-mail me at follow.the.journeynow@gmail.com.

Music for Writing

2011-01-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

I've read that Stephen King listens to classic rock when writing. I tried and I swear all I could think about was living on a prayre! While I can't listen to old rock songs I've found listening to modern music like Katy Perry is just as worthless. "Not another teenage dream" and trust me there's enought of em on sites like Quizilla.I've a high criteria for my writing music; It must be emotoniall moving, it must be slightly dark, it must be mellow enough to become white noise, and I've got to learn the words. My playlist has been growing but I think I've found the PERFECT! writing album (for me at least) This is war by 30 Seconds to mars. The songs seem to tell the hero's journey in an this-affects-the-whole-community kinda way. The This is War album is awesom but one song imparticular, Hurricane. I love to darkness and mystery that goes with this song. It makes me think "Hey what would happen if I did this to my characters?" or "Wouldn't it suck if this happened?" I'll be posting my entire writing playlist soon. I'd love to know what you music you write to so leave a comment or email me at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com. Keep writing and see ya soon:)

Useless thins I've started doing sence becomming a writer

2011-01-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Over the last month of 2010 I've noticed I've gained some rather intresting skills and habitsSence becomming a writer. Dare I say I've started a wild thing called Pen Spinning. It's really as easy as it sounds but I've taught myself some pretty impressive tricks while sitting there with a pen in my hand. It's kinda odd seeing hundreds of youtube videos of people spinning but they all are way better than me. Along with that I've noticed I can pretty much do anything with a pen in my hand.( I spent half of an Orchestra class doodeling in my music between playing)I've also taught myself to type with one hand. It's not easy on a qwerty keyboard but I refuse to go get one of those stupid onehanded keyboards. I don't nessicarlly use this when I'm writing so much as looking things up and IMing. Oddly I've noticed I've become much more organized sence becomming a writer. I'm not losing things as much although I did lose my flashdrive with all my writing on it onece and I seriousley cried. I've got to get my own computer to eliminate the threat of losing my work on a thing smaller than my ipod. Love to hear about your was of keeping up with your writings and I'd also love to read some example works but I can't say I'll be able to give much feedback. Shoot me an e-mail at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com Till next time:)

Tools Every Writer Needs

2011-01-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Every writer has a tool box of things they use. Here are a few every writer should at least try out.
First is a moleskine. These notebooks are prefect for collecting ideas on the fly and just beg to be written in. There seems to be an entire community of artists and writers dedicated to the little things. They come in many sizes and even colors. I personally like a Large Plain Hard cover. It's big enough for me to actually keep up with but small enough to bring around with me. I'm also starting to like the Hard covered graphing paper kind but I haven't used it much yet.
The second tool is a Stumbleupon. It's a downloadable toolbar that feeds you new websites on subjects you pick with a click of a button. There's everything from teen life to Buddhism in the subjects but I keep my topics simple. Writing, Books, Clothing, and Health. This gizmo can be a little time sucking though. Just like Twitter you can easily lose a good hour or two of work time flipping through the almost endless pages of new things.
Third is a smart phone. I recently got mine and I've been able to link my face book with my Kindle and blogger. Things just seem to work better when they're all in sync. I have one app called Diaro. It's basically a Password protected diary. I keep little snippets of ideas and thoughts and pictures here and refer back to them when I'm at my computer. I like the password too so nosy friends don't have to see that I called their backpack a cat turd with straps.
Fourth is a Library card. If you don't have one of these you can never call yourself a writer. Free books on almost every subject for borrow. Oh did I mention they're FREE! Sure you've got to keep up with due dates but whats another date on a calender. If a book isn't in your local library they'll send it over from a different one or even buy if so you can borrow it.
The fifth tool is those 5X3 index cards. They're perfect for writing down your scene list. My current scene list is posted on about 70 5X3s cut in half (I guess that makes them 1.5X2.5 but what ever. You can change the order of things easily and without losing to much precious writing. (Imagine writing an entire scene just to throw it out in the second draft. Heart Breaking.) I keep my cards together with those silly Bandz all the little kids love. It keeps em together and in order.
The Sixth tool is a book. Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy. My mom literally laughed at me when I made her buy this but I swear it's like my writer's bible. Everybody has something to learn from going over the basics again even if you're the best writer in the world. This covers everything from character development to plot structure a definite must read for writers of all Genres.
I hope this list has been helpful and that you've picked up a few new tools and things to try out with your writing. Shoot me an E-mail at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com with tips, ideas, feedback or what ever. Till Next time:)

eReader Tango

2011-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

I've been reading a bunch about those eReaders and I was pretty interested. So Last Christmas I decided to ask for the new Kindle 3 and Thank you Santa! I'm really liking it so far and have a hard time not gabbing to all my friends about it's AMAZINGNESS. The screen looks just like a real book and I really love how fast the page turn and everything is. Not to mention how easy it is to buy new books. Amazon has a ton of books (not to mention a bunch of good reference books on writing) and it's really cool that I can have ALL my books plus a dictionary in my backpack. If you're in the market for an eReader and kinda iffy about getting one do it. I was like meah I kinda won't use it and I was so wrong. It's super helpful and awesome. I'm not sure which is the best eReader or whatever because I haven't played with them all but I'm really suggesting the Kindle 3. It's light weight, convent and really fast. As far as lag between page turns I've noticed the lag happens only in certin books so I'm guessing it's the books fault for lag not the Kindle. I'm really happy to say I've become a Kindle Nerd!! I'm in the market for a case or something so if you know any good ones I'd love to see em. Hit me an E-mail at follow.the.journey.now@gmail.com Till next time:)

Alliance for Young Artists and Writers Contest!

2011-01-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

So there's this huge thing called the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers and every year they have a bunch of different categories for kids. Well whodda thunk they've got a Novel Writing category?!?! I have to turn in between 13 and 50 pages and a one page novel outline to some place in New York by FEB 25. I've got my outline but It's about 12 pages and I'm at 27 pages (11,000 words) so if I slim down my outline I could technically submit my 27 pages but why not throw in the other 23 pages. First place gets to talk with a professional editor about publishing and a butt load of scholarship money. Do I hear a challenge?

And So it Begins

2011-01-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

2011 Here I come. Armed and Ready with my trusty Moleskine and a flash drive of Ideas. Welcome to Zero experience. Zero support. and Zero Muse. (Not to mention the 62 in English I have right now) It's pretty obvious why high schoolers are never writers. Electives, grades, reports, drivers license, mandatory family get togethers. It's going to be a train wreck. I've picked up a "Writing Fiction for Dummies" book and Stephen King's "On Writing" other than the info and advice in these books (along with any other information I've scraped up from google) I am at the lowest ladder rung in the writing world. I've never been an avid reader. In Fact I can pretty much tell you the first chapter book I ever read all by myself. (Leven Thumps and the Adventures of Foo if you're really int rested) but after that I've been an average reader. I know I know this is going to have to change and trust me when I say I've got a lofty books list to attend to for this year. Other info? I'm a girl. Freshman Family dynamics are well. Nothing really special. I've always been sorta good at everything I do but not good enough to make varsity or top group. I never wanted to be a writer before this past year and I have no Idea what organinally motivated me to want to want to be a writer so there's no use asking.