If only I weren't in school...

    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.
   

School tomorrow

        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...

I Miss my Manuscript

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

2,000

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

GOAL!!

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

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:)

How to NOT be a writer

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

Depress and Stress

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