May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

Ladies and gentlemen, it has begun. There is dramatic, inspiring music in the background, and I am on top of the world.

Camp NaNoWriMo is a go.

Emma, Mariesa, and I had a lovely online (thank God for computers) kick-off party, and I managed to churn out about 1400 words of Fool Me Once edits in a little under two hours.

Here's a sneak peak.

Slowly, we picked out way down the stairs. Halfway to what I assumed was the bottom, if the soft glow coming from what I hoped was a replacement lantern was anything to go by, the desk slid back into place, dropping us into complete darkness—save the aforementioned light.
"That's unfortunate." Edmund muttered.
To keep from tripping, falling, and breaking my neck, I eased my way down, a hand constantly against the wall. A residue I didn't care to think about clung to my hand, seeping up between my fingers. I stepped off the final step into a puddle of something else I didn't' care to think about.

So far, I'm loving this. Since my first draft, I added a new main character (*cuddles Edmund bc reasons*), a new point of view character (*cuddles Harvey bc awesome POV*), and tons of new scenes to flesh out this rather short story.

From here on, I'm going to try and keep up posting updates for Camp NaNo, but I haven't picked a day yet; I might just go with Wednesdays. *shrug*

Well, anyways, I should probably get back to writing. I'm hoping to get a little ahead so that come finals week (*shudder*), I'm not trying to write 1k a day and study.

Anyone else having problems with conflicting schedules? Got any awesome kick-off stories? Let me know in the comments below.

Good luck! See you next week!

Spring Break

11 weeks of 2015 come and gone, and suddenly it's march. 10 (sometimes painfully) long weeks of the school year has also gone by. Last week was my favorite yet.

The past 9 days have been filled with a blissful nothingness and absolutely nothing to do. I wrote quite a bit for DOOM (kind of), and I played countless hours of Destiny and Minecraft.

Last week went by too fast.

I'm ready for Spring Break again.

My professor warned me this would happen. She told my entire totally-paying-attention ENC1101 class that the student body would be cloaked in a choking malaise of laziness for the rest of the semester.


It's Monday and I already don't want to work anymore.

I keep looking at my schedule for the week and groaning. 

It's so bad. I am now the picture of lazy, procrastination-prone college student.

What's ironic is I have a paper on procrastination due in four days and I haven't even started.

Someone send help. I need motivation. Or maybe a cheer team?

How do you guys deal with procrastination?

DOOM and Camp NaNo

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's that time again.

The three month break is over, and it's time to write some stuff. 

I am excited. Like, über excited. I feel like the world is right again now that I am a writing fiend. 

So, DOOM actually started nine days ago, on March 1st, but I didn't find out about it until March 3rd, and I wasted another day deliberating whether or not I wanted to try and catch up with the rest of the bandwagon.

Basically (and thankfully), Doom is NaNoWriMo for busy people (which is now me, because I am a fancy, sophisticated college student). Yes, I will willingly be subjecting myself to the torment/challenge/joy of writing 50,000 words again. BUT, this time, my friends, I will have two months. 

That's right folks, I have a stunning two whole months (minus four days because I am late) to do the insane, the barely plausible…

Why?

Because why not?

NaNo was what helped me finish my novel. Why not give it another go and finish a second?

For DOOM my main focus will be finishing the second draft of Fool Me Once, because let's be honest here, it needs a lot of work. I'm hoping that Camp NaNo will polish off the remaining words in that, and I'll be able to start editing Stardust for the Workshop, cause as I may have forgotten to mention I AM GOING TO THE WORKSHOP.

At the end of April, I'll be tallying my total words written and I'm hoping to be somewhere in the 60 to 65k region. I don't even know what I'll be doing in May besides obsessively packing for the aforementioned workshop.

Is anyone else going to give Camp NaNo a go? I would love a word war or two sometime.

Really, though… This probably isn't going to seem like the greatest idea in a few weeks.

No One Mourns the Wicked

I remember it like it was yesterday, even though it was close to two months ago. It was December 21st
and disappointingly warm somewhere in Florida. It also happened to be my birthday. Most of the presents had been opened and I was coming out of it happier than I'd come in to it.

Then I was brought the 'big' present. In my family, we usually have our normal presents, like candy or socks, and then we have our 'big' present--the most expensive, and often most exciting, present.

For a 'big' present, it was kind of small. I opened it and was faced with a bookmark… But not any old bookmark. A Wicked bookmark. At first glance, it looked like a ticket to the show I'd been begging my parents to take me to (something which they'd already told me we couldn't afford). I remember looking at it and trying to keep the disappointment off my face. I was thinking 'well, I guess was thoughtful for them to make a me a bookmark… but seriously? This is kind of mean…' I was so focused on reigning in my emotions, I didn't even hear my until she touched my hand.

"Read it." She was saying, a silly smile on her face. So I took a second look at it. My brain wasn't connecting very well with my eyes. "It's real!" She said after a moment, and I just kind of looked at her.

I still didn't really believe it until Emma and I were standing outside Fox Theatre in Atlanta waiting for the doors to open.

It was cold. And I was in a dress. But it was the most fantastic thing I've experienced in a while, and I wish I could go again.

I love the music, but I already knew I liked that, and now that I know the context of the music, I love it even more. The costumes were great, and I've never wanted to be in a play more than at that moment. The singing and acting were phenomenal, and I had a blast. The second half of the play I spent curled up in my seat, tissues pressed against my nose. At the end, when all the cast came back out I jumped up and started screaming and clapping with everyone else.

It was wonderful. Basically, I couldn't be happier.

Thank you Emma and parents for taking me. I don't think I've ever had that much fun.

The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet by Stephanie Morrill

Don’t just get even. Write a novel. Ellie Sweet is a lot of things—good girl, novelist, silent adorer of the new boy at school, Palmer. But when “outcast” gets added to the list, she decides it’s time to take reality into her own hands … and tweak it as needed. In the pages of her book, she’s Lady Gabrielle, favorite of the medieval Italian court. Her once-friends are reduced to catty ladies-in-waiting, and the too-charming Palmer—who in real life never spares her a second word—gets to be nothing more than a rake wracked by unrequited love for her. She even has a perfect real-life villain in the brooding Chase, who hails from the wrong side of town. But just when she’s getting along great in her fictional world, the real one throws her a few curves. With Chase pursuing her, Palmer wanting to date her—but in secret—and the details of her manuscript going public, Ellie suddenly receives more attention than she ever really wanted. And when her former-friends discover what she’s been writing, they’re determined to teach Ellie a lesson about the severe consequences of using her pen as her sword.

So. First off. I don't usually read books like these. I'm not really big on slice-of-life romances. However, I won this book along with a few others from Stephanie Morrill at Go Teen Writers and figured I ought to read it at some point. Last summer, I'd finished all the other books I wanted to read when I remembered this one.

At first I was hesitant, because like I said just a minute ago, I didn't like these books. I almost didn't read it, after all, I was a science fiction/fantasy girl. I thought that I would most definitely not enjoy it. I was so wrong.

As a female teenage writer, I found this book ridiculously inspiring. Ellie is a wonderful character and one of those rare characters that I would love to sit down and have coffee (or in my case tea) with. Despite the fact that it's not my usual genre, there's no shortage of action or emotion that I get from other books.

I finished this book in one sitting. That is the highest form of praise I can offer. I didn't even finish most of my favorite books (and this is one of them, mind you) in one sitting.

As soon as I could, I got my hands on the second Ellie book. I remember when it came in from Amazon, I ripped open the box, grabbed the book, and ran back to my room to read.

Just like the first one, I finished it in one sitting.

Emma had finished it a few days before I had so all through the night I was sending her live updates.

I loved this one just about as much as the first one. It didn't end quite how I wanted (my poor ship ;_;), but it was still a great wrap up to a good series. 

Secretly, or I guess not-so-secretly, I'm hoping for more books about Ellie.

To wrap this whole thing up, if you are a writer, you need to read this. If you are not a writer, you still need to read this.

Thank you so much Stephanie for giving me the privilege of reading your book. I loved it!

4 Things That Made Me a Better Writer

There have been many times in my life (in the past few weeks, actually) where I've found myself in front of my laptop, staring at a document full of words and phrases that I don't like.

Their not good. Like, at all.

It's bad. But I have absolutely no idea how to fix it. 

One of the most frustrating feelings, right?

I did what many of you might have. I went to a trusted source.

I went… to Google.

I started searching terms like 'how to write better descriptions,' or 'how to write better dialogue,' succeeding in one thing: making myself even more frustrated. Yeah, what they said made sense, but none of it was translating into my own writing.

If any of you are like me, this situation might sound familiar. I go through a lot of ups and downs with my writing. Sometimes, I think I might be able to do this writing thing. It's conceivable that I could get published and be the next J. K. Rowling. Then, next day I look at it, it's complete and total crap.

Does that also sound familiar?

Let me give you some assurance, dear writer, even if you can't see it, I'm sure there's improvement.

*cue self-example*

This is something I wrote about six or seven years ago with one of my friends. I am the Irish accent person (*headdesk*), and he wrote for Delta. The parenthesis are my added comments.

My face right now.

A few minutes later Delta finally answered me.
"I don't know," Delta said quietly, "But I know that I'm not going to clean this place for you. I swear the dust is at least an inch thick."He crossed his arms while I smirked and switched over to my Irish accent (what the even heck), while grabbing a broom 
"Fine! OUT WITH YE! OUT! OUT I SAY! OUT!" (I think this is causing me physical pain) I said while poking Delta with the end of my broom. After a few seconds I burst out laughing. Delta laughed slightly at my sudden 'outburst'.

For comparison, here's something I wrote yesterday (which also happens to be two of the opening paragraphs for Stardust).

The hallway around me was enveloped in the blurriness that often accompanies reading far too long into the night, and the plush carpet underneath me appeared to be no more than a gray blob. Dated oil pantings of my parents, faded by time, were almost indistinguishable against the plain white wallpaper and wainscoting, swirling in and out of focus in a haze of unimpressive hues. (Descriptions are fun. <3 )

I squinted at the silver-plated analogue clock mounted above the antique ebony accent table. The numbers danced around the face of the clock like a dozen gerridae bugs skating across a murky pond. (I spent probably five or six minutes on this one sentence and I think I'm in love.)

That's a big difference, and I'll bet that if you go dig up some of your old writing, and compare it to how you write now, there's bound to be improvement.

How did I get from Irish accent outbursts to decent writing? Here are four things I did that you can do too.

1. { Reading }

It's more important than you might think.

One of the biggest reasons I know what I know about good writing is because I've read thousands and thousands of pages of it.

I may not know how to technically construct a complete sentence, but I know how a complete sentence should look because I've seen them over and over again.

I know what good dialogue sounds like, and I know what good prose looks like because I've been exposed to it for years.

2. { One Year Adventure Novel }

One Year Adventure Novel is a program created by Daniel Schwabauer that teaches high school students how to write a novel in a year.

This is the single, most quantifiable thing that made me a better writer. 

OYAN taught me how to write a novel from start to finish. It took me through the entire process, from character creation to the story skeleton. It taught me about how to make my writing stronger, and it taught me how to construct a good story, something that people would want to read.

3. { Workshops }

The next, semi-logical step for me was workshops. OYAN has a Summer Workshop they put on every year for OYAN students that I decided I should probably go to. It was a week long, wonder-filled learning experience that I won't ever forget.

There was probably a couple hundred of us there, all interested in bettering our craft, with amazing speakers like Jeff Gerke, Jill Williamson, Stephanie Morrill, Mark Wilson, and Mr. S himself. I was amazed by how much I learned in just the span of a week.

4. { Critique Groups }

I'm pretty sure this was the most difficult one for me. It was terrifying (like butterflies-in-the-stomach-about-to-throw-up terrifying) to even think about letting other people read my writing. It was embarrassing, and it hurt my pride, when they pointed out something I needed to fix. It was difficult for me not to get defensive and cross my arms and refuse to listen to a thing they said.

Critique groups are rough, especially for those of us who have issues with injured pride, but they will teach you a lot, especially if you let them. If you can make yourself realize that whatever they say isn't a personal attack against you, it will be that much easier. 

The majority of critique groups are there to help you, not to make you feel stupid for missing that adverb. Critique groups can help you see things that you wouldn't have ever noticed on your own.

I hope this has helped, and if not, that you at least got a laugh out of my before and after. What have you guys done to improve your writing?

The Secret to Using Pinterest

Pinterest has recently exploded into one of the most popular social media networks on the internet with 70 million users worldwide.

Okay, so I love Pinterest. Emma introduced me to it about a year or so ago, and I've been hooked ever since.

I've got around 45 different boards and a little over 2000 pins. I'm a very visual person, and a terrible neat freak (organization makes me feel warm and fuzzy), so Pinterest is a perfect way for me to sort out my thoughts into set spaces.

A lot of times, I forget that most people don't use Pinterest like I do. I don't know where I got the idea, but I started using Pinterest as a way to make writing that much easier for me. How is this possible? I'm about to show you.

Step 1: Create a "Novel Inspiration" Board

I split up my "novel inspiration" board into three sub-boards (because organization): Prompts, Plot Bunnies, and Pretty Pictures, Setting the Scene, and Charries.

My Prompts, Plotbunnies, and Pretty Pictures (PPP for short?) is exactly what it sounds like. If I come across an interesting picture like this one (--->) that sparks an idea, I pin it there. If I find a line of dialogue that I love but don't have a storyboard that fits it, I pin it there.

In my Setting the Scene board, I pin landscapes, buildings, cityscapes, or anything else that I could set future novels (or scenes of future novels) in. If you scroll through that board, you'll find everything from steampunk bars to old dilapidated churches.

Lastly, on my Charries board, I pin pictures of people who I think could eventually become characters in future projects. I like to try and find pins where the subjects seem like they have depth (if you look through my board, you'll see what I mean).

Step 2: Create a Storyboard

Next, create what I like to call a Storyboard. Storyboards are boards that are dedicated to a specific ideas. Go take another look at your Novel Inspiration board(s). Do any of those pins fit the story of the Storyboard that you just created?

If so, move them. If you hover over the pin you want to move, there will be a pencil icon in the top right-hand side. Click on that and it will take you into an editing menu where you can change the board that that pin is pinned to.

(BONUS) Tip 1: Brackets Are Your Friend

If you'd like to take your organization a step further, try this cool little trick I found.

If you put [Storyboard], or [Writing] before the name of your board, it will clump all your bracketed boards together like so.

As you can see, I've put [Storyboard] before all my storyboards and when I open the drop down menu for a pen, my writing boards are the first I see.

This is because when Pinterest shows you the boards you can pin to, it shows you them in alphabetical order. According to Pinterest's sorting system, brackets are alphabetically first. This isn't true of the mobile version, though I don't know why. If you use the [Storyboard] trick, bracket boards will end up at the bottom on the mobile version. Either way, all your boards will be easy to find.

Step 3: Get pinning!

At first it might be kind of hard finding writing pins. Searching terms like 'novel inspiration', 'character inspiration', or 'writing inspiration' will get you some good results. Alternatively, you can follow some of my writing boards such as [Writing] Charries, [Writing] Prompts, Plot Bunnies, and Pretty Pictures, or [Storyboard] Stardust.

I hoped this post has helped you get started, or continuing, on using Pinterest as writers. I want to know, how do you guys use Pinterest? Leave me a quick comment below.

Happy pinning!

The Writer's Nook - New and Improved

Wait… What?

What is this strange new blog with bright colors and fancy headers? Are you confused? Disoriented? Terrified? Never fear, dear readers, I promise you that this is still the blog of the ever-lazy blogger (though I don't seem so lazy now, do I?).

Just to cover the bases, I didn't do a whole lot. Mostly, I just changed some of the aesthetics. I can assure you that the content will be the same, as well as the infrequency of said content.

I did add a lovely Book Reviews page where you can listen to me fangirl/cry/scream over various books I'll be reading through out the year. I also updated my Works in Progress page where I made about a thousand book covers and wrote another thousand synopses's (synapse?).

Anyways. Go check it out.

You know you want to...