Two weeks of school.

     

 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 should really send ya'll a gift or something.

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

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

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

AntiProductive

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

Writing Websites

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

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.