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.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
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.
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.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
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:
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:
- Write 5 days a week
- Write 350 words per day
- Embrace today
- Write through fear and doubt
- Give yourself permission to suck
- Edit 5 days a week
- Edit 5 pages a day
- Rewrite at a rate of 350 words/day
- Diagnose and repair
- Slow and steady wins the race
Saturday, September 27, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
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.
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.
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