Ok, normally I wouldn't post twice in one day, but I had to.
My friend introduced me to this site- NaNoWriMo. I'd never heard of it, and asked her to tell me more!!
It is National Novel Writing Month. People sign up, and from November 1st to November 30th, put out a 50,000 word novel. Sounds rather daunting, no? I think so. But at the same time, I am so excited by this opportunity!!
In the "About" section of the NaNoWriMo website, they say that having to write so much in such a limited amount of time makes writers take risks. They can't afford to pore over the little details. They have to just shove out as much as they can. Which is a great idea!! I know for myself, that's where I get stuck. The little details that I can't seem to let go of, but know I really need to.
I am using this as an opportunity to try and work past that perfectionist quality so that I can actually finish a whole 50,000 words. It's going to be hard, I know that going in. But I believe in myself- I can make it happen!!
"Go for the moon. If you don't get it, you'll still be heading for a star."
~Willis Reed
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
So, this has turned out to be a bit of a failed project. But since I never like to leave things undone, I figured I would at least try to give it another go. I have written a few things here and there, but a large catastrophe rather threw a wrench in the works. The story I worked on for years ground to a halt. Not because of the story... but because of this (rather smart) piece of advice. My friend was reading it and told me- "This is a good story, but no matter how much you revise it, since you wrote it when you were 13, it sounds like you wrote it when you were 13." Which obviously it did. I just didn't want to admit it, since that meant starting over.
I finally gave in and tried to start over, but only made it about six pages in before fizzling out. Then I got my tonsils out, then I moved into my first apartment, then I started my second year of college. None of which are good excuses for not writing... but maybe make it at least a little easier to understand why writing got pushed to the back burner.
Even now I don't find myself with very much free time. However this is important to me, so I am, once again, breathing life into my books.
Wish me luck on my journey!
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream."
~C. S. Lewis
I finally gave in and tried to start over, but only made it about six pages in before fizzling out. Then I got my tonsils out, then I moved into my first apartment, then I started my second year of college. None of which are good excuses for not writing... but maybe make it at least a little easier to understand why writing got pushed to the back burner.
Even now I don't find myself with very much free time. However this is important to me, so I am, once again, breathing life into my books.
Wish me luck on my journey!
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream."
~C. S. Lewis
Monday, May 3, 2010
On The Topic Of Research-
Oh how I wish I could begin writing fantasy again. I've never had this problem until now- wanting things to be accurate!! Accurate! Whether something is accurate and the details legitimate has never been an issue until I began writing two realistic fiction stories. Now, though, I find myself wondering as I write, "Would this really happen? Is this the way it would play out? What if someone reads this and says it is obviously made up?" It was quite unsettling. So what did I do? I typed up lists of questions to ask professionals.
Unfortunately, I wrote that list on Saturday. Which of course, meant no one "professional" was going to be at a desk or office. So sadly, both my stories have been postponed until I can get my hands on more factual information. I now understand why there are so many "thank-you's" at the beginning of books. Authors have to pull on many resources to make their stories believable. Of course, I may be more of a perfectionist in this regard than I need to be. I mean, is anyone really going to care if my police officers pull their guns out before they enter a slightly open door? Do regular people really know protocol for answering 911 calls about houses that look broken into? I don't... but I feel like it might be just the tiniest bit silly to call the non-emergency police line to ask about it. Maybe it isn't- I will just have to decide that for myself.
On a different note, I watched a movie last night: Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I don't know the general public's response to that movie, but to me? To me it was absolutely wonderful. Having immersed myself in writing whenever possible lately, this movie about an author had a strong effect on me. I laughed at some parts, and cried like a baby in others. But after it was over, I had a new conviction. I need to feel about my characters like Karen Eiffel felt about hers. Whether they are real or not. She inspired me (though being fictional herself) to make my characters as real as possible. I want to cry when they cry, laugh when they laugh, feel pain when they are hurting, and feel joy when things look up for them.
Back to the original point, researching is proving far harder than I anticipated. I thought I could just look it up on the internet, like I do most everything else, but a dedication to having truly correct information (and several internet sites proving either fruitless or contradictory) has sent me on a journey thus far unsuccessful. I hope I will get the information I need soon, or instead be able to convince myself to continue writing without it.
"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."
-Werner von Braun
"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."
-Zora Neale Hurston
Unfortunately, I wrote that list on Saturday. Which of course, meant no one "professional" was going to be at a desk or office. So sadly, both my stories have been postponed until I can get my hands on more factual information. I now understand why there are so many "thank-you's" at the beginning of books. Authors have to pull on many resources to make their stories believable. Of course, I may be more of a perfectionist in this regard than I need to be. I mean, is anyone really going to care if my police officers pull their guns out before they enter a slightly open door? Do regular people really know protocol for answering 911 calls about houses that look broken into? I don't... but I feel like it might be just the tiniest bit silly to call the non-emergency police line to ask about it. Maybe it isn't- I will just have to decide that for myself.
On a different note, I watched a movie last night: Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I don't know the general public's response to that movie, but to me? To me it was absolutely wonderful. Having immersed myself in writing whenever possible lately, this movie about an author had a strong effect on me. I laughed at some parts, and cried like a baby in others. But after it was over, I had a new conviction. I need to feel about my characters like Karen Eiffel felt about hers. Whether they are real or not. She inspired me (though being fictional herself) to make my characters as real as possible. I want to cry when they cry, laugh when they laugh, feel pain when they are hurting, and feel joy when things look up for them.
Back to the original point, researching is proving far harder than I anticipated. I thought I could just look it up on the internet, like I do most everything else, but a dedication to having truly correct information (and several internet sites proving either fruitless or contradictory) has sent me on a journey thus far unsuccessful. I hope I will get the information I need soon, or instead be able to convince myself to continue writing without it.
"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."
-Werner von Braun
"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."
-Zora Neale Hurston
Saturday, May 1, 2010
When To Write???
Well it's been a very busy week for me. I didn't think I had that much going on, but this week has just flown by, so I must have found something to do!! I started a new story on top of the two I was already writing, which may or may not have been a mistake since now when I sit down to write, I don't know what to start with. But I had some good ideas the other day, and I've found the best place for me to write and be inspired is not my room, like I thought, but the SURC, or Student Union and Recreation Center. It is always busy and full of people and when I am stuck, I can just watch the people walking around doing whatever it is they are doing, and some scene or line of dialogue will pop into my head and I connect it to the story and I am no longer stuck.
This technique has worked fairly well so far. Now I just need to find more time to write. I only have two classes a day, with lunch between them, and I only work 3-4 days out of the week, and I never do homework. With a schedule like that, you'd think I would have tons of time to write. Unfortunately though, I haven't found a single minute to write this week yet. I'm thinking I need to plan at least an hour a day, at the same time every day, to write. And give it the same importance as a class, so I don't just brush it aside and do something else instead. If only I worked the same time every day- that would be a lot easier.
Either way though, as someone once told me, you aren't a writer if you don't actually write. So this is going to be my goal for the week: write down everything I do during the day, and find a time when I can write without pushing other things aside, and schedule that as my writing time every day. I have a huge calendar, so when I find this hour or two, I will write it in so it has to happen. Weekends have relatively more freedom, so I should plan more than an hour on those days (though not necessarily consecutive).
That being said, and this being a Saturday.... I am going to go devote some time to writing!!
"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Hellen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein."
- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
This technique has worked fairly well so far. Now I just need to find more time to write. I only have two classes a day, with lunch between them, and I only work 3-4 days out of the week, and I never do homework. With a schedule like that, you'd think I would have tons of time to write. Unfortunately though, I haven't found a single minute to write this week yet. I'm thinking I need to plan at least an hour a day, at the same time every day, to write. And give it the same importance as a class, so I don't just brush it aside and do something else instead. If only I worked the same time every day- that would be a lot easier.
Either way though, as someone once told me, you aren't a writer if you don't actually write. So this is going to be my goal for the week: write down everything I do during the day, and find a time when I can write without pushing other things aside, and schedule that as my writing time every day. I have a huge calendar, so when I find this hour or two, I will write it in so it has to happen. Weekends have relatively more freedom, so I should plan more than an hour on those days (though not necessarily consecutive).
That being said, and this being a Saturday.... I am going to go devote some time to writing!!
"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Hellen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein."
- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Aspirations, Like Journeys, Begin With A Single Step
So this is my first post of my first blog. And I'm so excited! I love to write, and one day hope to publish many books. But for now, I want to have somewhere to write when a story just won't come. And I will probably post parts of stories looking for feedback, when I have something I think is good enough to show people! For now, though, I am just getting the feel of this.
This is the first step in my Aspirations to Greatness. I'm taking the advice of my very good friend and amazing author in making this blog. Hopefully it will cure writer's block. I have this problem where I get a flash of inspiration and start writing what I think will be an amazing story, until I get about 4 pages in... (if that much) and it just kind of fizzles. Ends. Pfflt. And that is as far as I can take it. Then I got asked to write the next section of someone else's story, and lo and behold! It was so much easier! Of course I was only supposed to write one page, so who knows if the ease of writing would have continued, but for the brief half an hour I wrote it in, I felt invincible! No writer's block was going to get me!!
I now hope to draw on that feeling and perhaps continue some of the hundreds of 2-4 page starts I have. Perhaps one will blossom into something worthy of being called a book. Books that someday might be read by people all over the U.S.! I've always felt there was nothing quite so discouraging as a page of words left unread. It always helped having my friends so willing, even eager, to read what I'd attempted to write. They always gave positive yet helpful criticism, and if not for that, I might not still be writing. I have a lot to thank them for.
Author's note: While this is mostly to help with my fledgling career as an author, I will time to time put in things from my life. And if it seems I am going off on a tangent... well I apologize to all the English teachers I have ever had, but I am allowed to here!!!
Anyways. I do have to say I revel in the freedom of writing things for myself, not because they were assigned, or ordered, or required for this or that. I like taking artistic prerogative and using, dare I say it, punctuation and grammar however I feel like using them! It makes it so much easier to express one's voice with this type of freedom. I do take quite a bit of freedom in my stories as well, but not so much as to make them unreadable. I want them to flow well, as if I were telling a story aloud.
With that said, I'm off to write more. As the title says, things begin with a single step. What it doesn't say is how hard the steps become after that first one! But as long as I never quit taking those steps, if only a few now and then, it will all pay off in the end.
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
-Ursula K. LeGuin
This is the first step in my Aspirations to Greatness. I'm taking the advice of my very good friend and amazing author in making this blog. Hopefully it will cure writer's block. I have this problem where I get a flash of inspiration and start writing what I think will be an amazing story, until I get about 4 pages in... (if that much) and it just kind of fizzles. Ends. Pfflt. And that is as far as I can take it. Then I got asked to write the next section of someone else's story, and lo and behold! It was so much easier! Of course I was only supposed to write one page, so who knows if the ease of writing would have continued, but for the brief half an hour I wrote it in, I felt invincible! No writer's block was going to get me!!
I now hope to draw on that feeling and perhaps continue some of the hundreds of 2-4 page starts I have. Perhaps one will blossom into something worthy of being called a book. Books that someday might be read by people all over the U.S.! I've always felt there was nothing quite so discouraging as a page of words left unread. It always helped having my friends so willing, even eager, to read what I'd attempted to write. They always gave positive yet helpful criticism, and if not for that, I might not still be writing. I have a lot to thank them for.
Author's note: While this is mostly to help with my fledgling career as an author, I will time to time put in things from my life. And if it seems I am going off on a tangent... well I apologize to all the English teachers I have ever had, but I am allowed to here!!!
Anyways. I do have to say I revel in the freedom of writing things for myself, not because they were assigned, or ordered, or required for this or that. I like taking artistic prerogative and using, dare I say it, punctuation and grammar however I feel like using them! It makes it so much easier to express one's voice with this type of freedom. I do take quite a bit of freedom in my stories as well, but not so much as to make them unreadable. I want them to flow well, as if I were telling a story aloud.
With that said, I'm off to write more. As the title says, things begin with a single step. What it doesn't say is how hard the steps become after that first one! But as long as I never quit taking those steps, if only a few now and then, it will all pay off in the end.
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
-Ursula K. LeGuin
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