Done!

Hello all!

I am happy to announce that I have finished my short story. It is fifty pages long and I am very proud of the story. This time last week I had eleven pages of good material, and I have written so much in the past week, I'm surprised anything else got done. They defeated the bad guys, saved the world, and characters got together in the end. Yay!

Time to reflect. I did struggle a bit and shifted my goal around at the beginning, I spent more time then I meant to on character development and research, but I think it all paid off. I was going to write a satire on the education system in America, and then I was going to write a book about Genesis and her life, and it ended up being a short story focused on Alvin. There were times I didn't want to write at all and wished that I had picked something else for this project. I probably could have written a whole book is I had written as much as I did this past week for the whole semester. I learned that just because I was able to write something of book-length within a semester in in middle school, when I had nothing better to do, doesn't mean that I can do it during senior year while worrying about college, family, and four AP classes. However, I actually accomplished a story with a decent plot, a beginning, a middle, and an end, so that's a success. While the finished product is not what I originally expected, it is something that I'm proud of.

Now I need to spend the next few days working on my final presentation of the project and determining how much and which parts of my story I'm going to share during said presentation. I love my characters, and I'm proud of what they have accomplished.

“The story never ends where it stops being written,” William had told me after reading what I wrote for him. And our story does not end here. In fact, it’s only just begun.

Midweek-ish Report!

Hello all!

I wanted to have some sort of midweek report this week because I am getting a lot done right now and I wanted to share. This one will be shorter than usual and I will be posting again on Sunday.

On Monday I wrote eight pages, Tuesday I wrote two, Wednesday, three, and so far today I have written seven. I have written twenty pages in four days. Given this fact I have affirmed my theory that I write more and better when I am not okay. All of my previous major writing projects were during 7th-9th grade, which was not a fun time for me. There were a lot of emotions and I stayed in my room and wrote all day. This is a mixed blessing because I now know I will be able to get a lot done this month in general because I also like to keep busy when I'm not okay, however, I am not okay. My sibling is going to have to go away for a while as soon as possible and will be gone for at least 30 days, but we do not yet know where or when they are leaving (they need residential care for depression and prayers are welcome).

On a different note, I now know where the plot is going! I have introduced everything and a problem has presented itself for the characters to solve. We have character development going on with William and Mark's sister who has made many poor life choices has appeared asking for help. She saw something she shouldn't have... Something that wasn't human and that makes Genesis scared. That alone is terrifying. Basically they have to save the world from these creatures, the Unnamed, and from perfect order. After all, “Entropy is life. Chaos is life. Perfect order is stagnation, is death. Only in disorder is there a possibility of change.” James A. Owen in The Dragons of Winter.

I am at thirty-one pages with an average rate of five pages per day this week. I hope to reach forty-five or fifty by Sunday, and then it will be something I am willing to share with the public (aka you).

The Past Two Weeks (again)

Hello all!

I know I didn't post last week, and I'm sorry about that. The week before Thanksgiving break I wrote every day and found some great sources for the French Revolution story Genesis will tell. I want to make sure I get the history bits right before I create a story that differs from history. The two sources I found are online versions of two books that you can actually flip through and read like a book, which I like. One is a memoir of the family of royal executioners of France that has a chapter on the person I'm focusing on, Charlotte Corday. The other is a biography of Corday, and I really enjoy going through the books.

During Thanksgiving break, I did nothing. Well, I got all of my homework done for the break by Monday and then was in Orlando, Florida Tuesday through Saturday. Did I have time to write at all? Yes. In fact I could have been writing all afternoon on Saturday or Sunday last week, or even today. The truth is there's a lot going on in the house right now, and it's hard to focus on anything when someone you love has to go away for a while but you don't know how soon they're leaving, but they have to be at the recovery center for at least 30 days and thus won't be home for Christmas or New Years. Everyone here is struggling. I'm struggling, so forgive me if I don't meet expectations.

This week...It'd be nice to get something done this week. I'll try, but I don't know if I'll work on this more than the one day in class. I want to spend as much time as I can with them before they go while also making sure my grades don't fall apart in these last few weeks of the semester. If anyone is keeping up with these posts...thank you.

A Day Late

Hello all!

I know, I know, I'm a day late in posting for this past week. Last week was rough and I'm surprised I got as much done as I did. I have a very strong emotional response to stress which includes crying so much that nothing gets done and then I'm more stressed and don't sleep. I went through that last week up until Thursday, and then I spent from then to now trying to catch up some since I kept nodding off in various classes. I feel like this week is going to be a lot better though, and next week I am off to Universal Studios for Thanksgiving break!

In the midst of all that, I did write every day. However, I have only written three more pages. I am glad that even though I was stressed out I was able to find time to write. I hope to get a lot done this week. I got through the vigilante story of the twins (told by Shelly), and next is going to be a story from Genesis about the French Revolution (which is my favorite part of history and I know a lot about), and then how Genesis and Shelly met (I'm thinking during the Civil War, but I'm not sure yet). Then we'll get William's emotional back story and everyone will go home. After that, I'm not sure what will happen. They have a mind of their own these days.

So, this week is going to be lots of writing. I've already taken the only test planned for this week and I probably won't get much homework assigned.

This week's bit of writing:

“Someone should tell the vigilante story, and I don’t care much who but I have a feelin' Mark has not heard that one,” Shelly grinned. I sighed. It was an embarrassing story from when Jessie and I were in college, and while I was the only one embarrassed by it anymore, it had been told so many times in that circle I didn't really care anymore.

“Mark, if this story is told you must promise that it will not leave this room. There is a reason you haven’t heard it yet, and I don’t want anyone at work hearing about it,” Jessie said. She was always worried about looking professional, but I doubted that Mark would tell.

“I promised when I first came here with you that everything shared in this room would not be shared with the outside world, and Genesis promised to rip my still beating heart from my chest with her fangs and eat it if I broke that promise,” Mark started. William chuckled, and Mark shot him a look. “So, whatever it is, I won’t tell,” he finished. Genesis nodded as if to reassure Jessie of her promise.

Writing Writing Writing

Hello all!

It took me a couple days, but I am writing again! I kind of started over a bit, but important information that the reader learns in the other stuff I've written thus far isn't mentioned in this, so I'll need to work it in somewhere. It is in first-person now, from Alvin's point of view, instead of third-person and centered around Genesis. The group of friends (Genesis, Shelly, William, the twins, and now Mark) get together every week for dinner and conversation in the apartment Genesis lives in above her tattoo parlor. This part of the story (which might just be chapter two, I'm not sure) starts on the one night each month where all they talk about and share is stories from their past. "Story Night" is the favorite of most/all? of them, and it's Mark's first since he's joined the group, which is fun for the rest of them because they get to retell ones everyone else has heard. Sometimes a story has been told so many times that someone besides the person it involves tells the story, such as if William were to tell the story of the twins as vigilantes in college when they had not even met yet and he was not involved (however, he's heard it enough to tell it accurately). It's good fun without much plot development, but you learn more about the characters and I'm not sure what the plot is quite yet, so right now it's a bit Canterbury Tales.

 I've written seven pages this week, and it's a little over 2,000 words, which isn't bad but I know I can do better because the only days I worked on it this week were Thursday and today. If I can get that much done in two days, think of how much I could be getting done this week. I've gotten introductions out of the way and the first story of story night, the characters are discussing who should tell the second, and then I'm going to have to come up with a couple more before William tells his since he keeps everything locked up tight inside of him and never lets it see the light of day.

So, this week I hope to-- no, I'm going to write every day and get as much done as possible. Hopefully I'll have some sort of plot. I have an idea for one of Mark's sister's to show up having gotten into trouble with some very bad nonhumans that Genesis and possibly others of the group will have to fix.

This week's bit of writing is from the end of Mark's story that he shares about how he met Jessie and Alvin. I'll leave you to wonder how it all went down.
“So, I got my current job, Mama got a job, my family became financially stable, we got a new house, and all of my siblings have graduated high school being the first generation to do so, all because I hit Alvin with a car while he was on his bike,” Mark finished. 

Loving the Feedback and the Struggles of Writing

Hello, all!

First of all, I'd like to thank those who took the time to read through my posts and comment. I know Mrs. Finco required us to pick 10 blogs to read and comment on, but y'all didn't have to pick mine, and I'm glad that you're interested! It is such a help to know that other people want to know how it's going, and honestly I could use the motivation because nothing got done this week. I spent this week making up work from the 24th (absent because of a college visit), the 29th (field trip), and working ahead so I wouldn't have much to do this weekend while on pain meds from getting my wisdom teeth out on Friday (original plan was to take all 4 out, but one of them they couldn't get to, so I get to go back later for that one, yay!).

I'm starting to think that this is going to be a short story, or a novella if I can write that much, instead of a full-on book. This semester has been rough, I missed four days of school last month, and while I do want to spend my free time writing, lately I've been more concerned with getting enough sleep. Mostly what I've learned during this process is that just because I wrote a story that became novel-length after lots of editing and adding things in less than a semester in seventh grade does not mean I can do that again. In seventh grade I had nothing better to do with my time than sit around and write stories; now I do. I have responsibilities and commitments and other things to do than hide in my room with a binder full of notebook paper and a pen. Plus, some of my best writing occurred between 7th and 9th grade, during which I had extremely low self-esteem and too many emotions about trivial things. I wrote to express what I felt, and these days, besides stress and not getting enough sleep, things are pretty good in my life.

Basically, it's not as easy for me to write as it once was, but I shall persevere and have some sort of product to share at the end of the semester. Now, I know at least one person asked for me to post some of my writing, and I will once I have something I feel good about.

However, I will post the first few sentences of one of my book-ish things for your entertainment. It's dark. It's about a boy deciding to do what he's told or create his own destiny, and it's all internal conflict. Also, assassins.

The most important thing for you to know is that I am not a hero. Heroes don’t do as they’re told to achieve their goals; they find their own way and change the world for the better. Heroes don’t kill the ones they love. Heroes don’t enjoy seeing a pool of blood created by their own hands. I did what I was told because I liked it. Because it’s how I was raised. Because it was fun.

Character Development

Hello all!

I have worked on this every day this week! I am excited about this accomplishment because now I feel that I can get a lot more done from here forward. There's not much left to the semester, but I believe I can get a good chunk written by the time this project is presented. At this point I doubt I will finish the book in less than a semester, showing the past performance does not guarantee certain results (although the story I wrote in about a semester required a lot of editing afterwards and still does).

What did I write this week? A picture came across my social media which showed 45 questions to answer about a character, and if you could answer all of them, then it was a well developed character, While I didn't have the same amount of time to write every day, I did work on these for the characters I've met so far. I've finished the questions (or very nearly have) for Jessie, Alvin, and William. My plans for this week are to work on this every day (at least up through Friday, when my wisdom teeth come out), and finish with character development.

Catching Up: The Last 2 Weeks

Hello all!

The last two weeks have been pretty busy for me, which is why I'm behind on the blog posts. The SAT and one college visit, as well as homecoming, are behind me now with another college visit and my wisdom teeth coming out during the rest of this month.

I got into a bit of a slump in the midst of the past two weeks. That is, writer's block. So, I did some character development and ended up writing an in-depth back story for the twins. I'm not sure how helpful the back story will be to the book, if at all, but it's better to be writing something than staring at a blank page. Besides, you should just get everything down on paper first. It doesn't have to be good; that's why there's editing.

I'm working my way up to writing something every day. I'm beginning to favor Alvin, and I've been writing a lot about him lately. His back story is great and a little cliche, but I really enjoy it. His dad grew up as a mixed kid in 70's-80's New York and his mom grew up traditionally Chinese and a fire elemental in San Francisco. They met in college and decided to have a farm together after they got married where they lived off everything the grew. So, Alvin and Jessie grew up on a farm and loved the animals and being with nature, etc., but they wanted to go to the city for college, so they did. They got in some trouble in college, though, because even though they loved the city it still had problems and they wanted to fix them so, being college students in an unfamiliar city, they did something stupid and tried to fight crime with their nonhuman abilities. Well, turns out nonhumans have gangs too. That's how they met Genesis, and she got them out of trouble and helped them to find better ways of helping the city. Alvin runs a food bank that grows the food they give out to people so that everyone has access to healthy food, and on the weekends he volunteers at animal shelters.

It's hard as a writer to pick the stories worth telling. Alvin's is a great one, but I'm not sure if his should be the main one for this book. But you also have to remember that everyone is the main character of their own story. They don't know that they're side characters in the story being told; they have their own motives and reasons for doing things that aren't just to advance the plot. You have to think about the kind of person they are and what they would do in a situation. That's why character development is important: you have to get inside their heads and understand why they do the things they do.

This week I'm going to try to write every day. I feel very behind and very stressed out in general, not just this project but school is nuts right now. There's something about October and November that makes me feel rushed and behind. So, I will try my best to get as much as I can done this week.

Hectic Week= Not Much Done

The pageant is over and I am still working on catching up on sleep. I got about two pages written on Friday in class of the book and that is about all I have accomplished this week for the project. I really need to step my game up because if I only write during class I will not finish by the end of the semester. I'm still not sure where this story is going; everyone has left Genesis's apartment except for Mark the human and they're talking about life and what it means to be human. Something will have to happen soon or the reader will get bored. Hell, I'll get bored.

So this week I plan on coming up with some sort of "This is how much I need to write this week/each day so that I can be done in time" thing. I saw something on Facebook or tumblr (some social media website) that was "how to push past the bs and write that novel" as well as one for editing, something that I need for this project and the stories I've already written. I would add a link, but there's plenty of cursing so this is basically it:

1. Write 5 days a week
2. Write 350 words per day
3. Embrace today
4. Write through fear and doubt
5. Give yourself permission to suck

And for editing,

1. Edit 5 days a week
2. Edit 5 pages a day
3. Rewrite at a rate of 350 words/day
4. Diagnose and repair
5. Slow and steady wins the race

I'm not sure if I want to start out writing this much per day with my schedule, but I think I'll try my best to work up to this because these are good habits for me to have since I have so many stories going on.

Fall Semester Is Busy: An Autobiography

Hello all!

I can honestly say I have achieved very little this week due being in the middle of a good book. I had less homework than usual this week, and no tests or quizzes, but I am really enjoying Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I'm sorry. Even while I was working on writing in class on Friday, I got an idea for one of my other stories that I had to write down. You can't miss an opportunity like that. It was for my trilogy that I've been writing, re-writing, and editing for almost 5 years now, and I've had a bit of a writer's block for a while. I had to. I did get a page written on Friday though, and I've emailed Mr. Murphy about being my mentor as of 10 minutes ago.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do this week with rehearsals for the pageant every night. I am about to be busy every weekend until November 8th between the pageant, college visits, homecoming, SAT, the annual apple-picking trip we take, and getting my wisdom teeth out on Halloween. There are roughly three or four things I want to spend my free-time doing, and writing always seems to be the short straw. I will try to write some more this week, though. Any amount of progress is still progress.  

Characters and Why I Don't Want a Mentor

Hello, all!

I have written 4.5 pages of the book so far, and it's going pretty well. I'm not sure where some of these characters came from, or what their intentions are, but I like them so far. There's a half-human named Sam, who popped up at the coffee shop but not at Genesis's house for the gathering of friends. There's William, who is half Thunderhead (whatever that is) on his mother's side, and the twins, Jessie and Alvin, who are fire elementals, and Shelby, an ancient, very Southern shape-shifter. There is also the only human character thus far, Mark, who is friends with Jessie. I think they're about to order take-out, but who knows. The characters have a mind of their own, and words just flow onto the paper.

I doubt John Green will ever see the message I sent him about being my mentor considering he gets thousands of emails, tweets, and messages on tumblr a day. I'll probably ask Mr. Murphy this week. Part of me doesn't want a mentor; I probably need one though, someone with experience to read over what I'm doing. When I started writing these stories in seventh grade, (I called them books then, though they were 40 pages at longest), I had a mentor. Her name was Ann, and she was in her late 60's, early 70's or so. She wrote books about youth Sunday school, and helped out with the youth group at the church since my mom grew up there. For the last month or so of school, I'd go over to her house on Tuesday afternoons and we'd read through what I'd written and make edits. She'd had scoliosis her whole life and was about to have surgery. It went well, but afterwards she died of a brain clot. I was on a mission trip when it happened. I haven't let anyone help me out with my writing since. Part of me doesn't want to, but Mr. Murphy is fantastic and has published the types of books I write, so his input would be very helpful to me.

This next week I hope to finish the first chapter, get a good way through another, and ask Mr. Murphy to be my mentor.

Genesis

I know that my last posts have been vague about who Genesis is and what this story is even about, and I'm sorry about that. Genesis is a female humanoid being from the beginning of time. There are others like her, and collectively they are called many things: the Eternals, the Watchers, the Immortal Guides. I wrote in my intro that "they call themselves 'beginning' in a million tongues" because each of them have a name that means "beginning" in all the languages of the universe (thus Genesis). They are meant to guide creatures towards civilization. They did not start with Earth, nor will they stop until all civilization ceases to exist. When they were done with Earth, they all left and Genesis stayed behind because she was curious about us. The story is not going to be about her being worshiped by Aztecs, riding with Genghis Khan, or helping to start the French Revolution, though she has done all those things (she has been here since the first cities in the fertile crescent after all). It's going to be her in a modern-day American city owning a tattoo parlor on the bad side of town and the main point will be if she's not human, then what makes us us?

I only figured out the "what makes us human" part yesterday while I was researching quirky cities to base where she lives off of. I started to ask "why am I focusing so much on the location when it's not the main point of the story? What is the main point of the story?" and this is what I ended up with. Genesis was originally a side character in a book I tried to write that was abandoned, but I really liked her and a couple other characters that will show up as her friends (well, people she hangs out with. Her kind have no sense of loyalty).

So finding the main point and researching ideas for a location have been done. As far as finding a mentor goes, I have messaged John Green, author of many good books and all around cool person, about possibly being my mentor, though I'm not sure how much I'll need one at all since this will be the 5th story of novel length I've written. If he hasn't gotten back to me by Tuesday or Wednesday I'm going to ask Mr. Murphy at school about it since he's written and published two young adult fantasy books, which tends to be what I write. This next week I'm going to start actually writing and hopefully start working on this outside of class because I'm bad about that.

Well, maybe it's fantasy

Hello all!

This past week I have succeeded in writing out a general background for my protagonist, Jenny/Genesis (the spelling of Jenny may change). While I'm not quite sure if this is going to be a "fantasy" or not, it's definitely fiction with humans and nonhuman intelligent people. I don't really want to use the word "magic" for abilities that are different than that of humans, but if I say science I'll have to explain it all. I've also figured out the general layout for the book so that if I don't finish it it'll still make enough sense when read.

This next week I need to find my mentor. I have someone in mind, I just need to ask. I also need to decide where to start and perhaps do a little research. Each chapter is it's own story with something to be accomplished by the end. I don't know if I'll get a chapter done in the next week, but that would be great.  

Let It Begin!

Hello all!

For my 20% time I will be writing a fantasy novel, not a satire on education like I had originally planned to, sorry. I decided to change during second period today and I'm really excited about it. I've decided to do this because I love writing and I've been writing various stories of novel length for years, all of them fantasy. The past year, though, I haven't been able to come up with anything new to write long-term that got me excited. Today during second period, it hit me and now I feel like I have to write it right now.

Since I only decided to change in the past few hours, I haven't accomplished anything yet save for scribbles on the side of my math notes. In the next week I plan on creating a more specific idea about the character in my head, her magical/mythological species, and the world that I shall put her in, which is ours plus magical species hiding among us.