Standardized Tests Suck

Let me tell you a story…

Nine days ago, a stressed young writer sat down in her local high school, surrounded by other not-nearly-as-nervous-seeming-test-takers, no. 2 soft lead pencil and scientific calculator in hand, and dared to take the PSAT/NMSQT.

This stressed young writer hates standardized tests that have a pesky habit of determining the academic future of a person, and as such, had a near panic attack on the way to said local high school. Once the building, a squat, wide complex stinking of opportunity, came into view, all bets were off. Her heart sped up, thudding dully inside her chest, and her palms began to sweat. She walked inside, chewing her bottom lip as if it were her only hope.

While her mother reported the reluctant arrival of her daughter, all our stressed young writer could hear and comprehend was the pounding of her heart. The next ten minutes passed slow (her family was notorious for arriving early) and all she wanted to do was crawl under the nearest blue cushioned chair and hide.

Finally, after an eternity, it was time. Our young writer was lost, with no idea where to go, seeing as she's a homeschooler who only sets foot on high school grounds to take said standardized tests. One, brave, front office worker offered to take the writer, and another home schooled boy, to the testing room. The walk was long, and quite painful in the writer's mind.

Upon arriving to the dreaded testing room, the writer was ushered inside, pushed to a seat in the front row, and given her testing materials. A very long time elapsed, filled with the furious filling in of personal information that will not be disclosed in such a public place at the world wide web--she was grateful though, as it gave her hands time to stop shaking.

Over all, the young writer feels good about how she did. Her overwhelming sense of panic and foreboding was replaced with a strange, fragile calm once the test booklet was opened and she read the first question. Unfortunately, she/we/I won't know just how well (or poorly) she did until December.

Now, with all that backstory out of the way (no, I won't be offended if you skipped all of that (okayiwillbutjustalittlebuthey)), I can get to what I actually wanted to tell you about.

This morning, after my very long, very warm shower, my Mom registered me for the ACT in December… And she's also looking at signing me up for the SAT. In December.

'Yay' does not even cover what I'm feeling right now.

Like I said, I just got finished with the PSAT. NaNoWriMo is going to basically take over my November, and now I might have not one, but two, tests in December.

somebodyhelpme
._.

NaNoWriMo 2014

At this time, in a just little under two weeks, I'll be in the middle of my second day of NaNoWriMo. What is NaNoWriMo? I'm glad you asked (and if you didn't, I'm just going to pretend you did). NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNo is exactly what it sounds like; starting November 1st, writers around the world attempt to write 50,000 words in one month.

Now, just for context, Fool Me Once..., my first ever semi-completed novel, took me a little under a year to complete, and it's only about 25,000 words. This pretty much goes without saying, but this is a very big undertaking for me. It's weird, I feel totally prepared, and at the same time completely unprepared.

I've got my characters all created and named (one of my absolute favorite parts), I'm happy with them, and I think (key word there is think) that my story world is pretty solid too. Only problem is that I have pretty much zero plot--but I think (there's that pesky think again) that's okay. I'm more of a pantser when I write.

To be quite honest, I'm terrified. I'm one of those annoying perfectionists and I'm worried I won't be able to reach my word count every day. Luckily, I've got a friend to help me. Emma (cue shameless plug-in) is one of the big reasons I'm even attempting NaNo in the first place. I'd heard about it but always figured, due to the lack of a completed novel,  it would be too hard.

So, in conclusion, this is probably going to be me in a couple of weeks (please direct your attention to the gif on your right).

I do wish you guys the best of luck if any of you are trying NaNo this year. I'm going to link my profile page here and if any of you want to brain storm, word war, or just cry about how many words we have to catch up on, shoot me a message.

Signing off,

Samantha