Busting the Newbie Blues

This year, I've decided to make my blog more of a priority.  I've had this blog since December of 2009 (Yikes!  Two whole years!) and it started out without any kind of direction.  I posted about random things in my life, got up on my soap box for a few things, etc.  Then last year I started reading a lot more and most of my posts were book reviews.  However, I didn't post on any type of schedule, and I only had about 30 posts last year.  


So this year, I've decided to make this blog more about book reviews, mainly YA books, since that's a lot of what I read.  I'll still probably have posts about writing here and there as I try to figure out what I'm going to do with my current story, and I may also have a few off-topic posts.  But mostly I'm going to shoot for book reviews.  I also would like my blog to grow - to find some followers that I don't know in real life (although I still love the fact that my friends follow my blog).  


The first thing I did to start this new phase of my blog was to sign up for some reading challenges (you can see my post on this here).  Then I realized that I myself only followed the blogs of my friends and a few other big-time blogs.  So I set out to find other book bloggers and I started following some cool sites.  I'm going to try to commit to commenting on several posts a week as well - I've been lagging in this department, too.  :(  


Then I came across Small Review, who is hosting a great event throughout January, just for book bloggers, called Busting the Newbie Blues.  New and Old YA book bloggers can sign up, meet other bloggers, and get advice and tips on blogging.  This is perfect for me!  I've been blogging for a while, but still have only a small amount of followers, and I'm pumped to actually become a part of the book blogging community!


So here are my answers to the questionnaire for this event - I have chosen the one for new bloggers since my blog is still so small.

1.  When did you start your blog?

      December, 2009.

2.  Why did you start your blog?

      I just wanted to have a blog.  I didn't know what I would blog about or anything, but I've always been a writer, so I thought blogging would at least be a good kind of writing exercise.  But now I'd like my blog to have more direction, and to focus on book reviews, mostly YA books.

3.  What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

      When I first started out, I had no theme for my blog, so it was hard to come up with topics to write about.  Once I started reading a lot more, book reviews became an obvious topic.  Now I'd say the hardest thing is making sure that I post regularly, and also to find more followers.

4.  What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger?

      No followers!  :(  I love my friends and I'm so glad that they follow my blog - without them I probably would have quit a long time ago.  But I'd like to see my blog grow even more.

5.  What do you find most encouraging?

      On my blog - comments.  It lets me know that at least someone is reading what I've written!  (Note to self - comments go both ways!)  In the blogging community - other book bloggers are really encouraging.  I see all these great sites with wonderful reviews and great humor and it makes me feel like one of these days my blog could grow.

6.  What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?

      Well, I just started following more than a couple book blogs, but as far as my friends' blogs that I've been reading for a while, I just love their humor and their honest reviews.  I always try to put humor into my posts (and in my life), but sometimes that might not always come across.  And I always give honest reviews, and I try to make them positive even if I didn't like the book.  I am a writer myself and someday when I have a book published, I'd like to read kind reviews, even if the reviewer really didn't like my book.

7.  What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?
      Spoilers!  And yes, I really try to avoid this.  I'm crazy about spoilers - I only read the description of a book once, then put it on my to-read list if I want to read it, and then once I have the book I don't read the back or the blurbs again.  I know with reading others' reviews sometimes I'm going to find out more than I wished to know before reading the book, but I'm okay with it as long as it's not a major spoiler.

8.  Any advice for other new bloggers?

     I'm not sure I have any advice, because even though I've had this blog for a while, I still don't know what I'm doing and feel like I might be doing it wrong.  But I guess I can say that if others feel this way, just know that you're not alone!  And we'll get the hang of it eventually!

9.  Any questions you'd like to ask newbie or established bloggers?
     Of course I'd like to know how to get ARCs (I've gotten one through Goodreads before, and I know of some of the ARC tour websites, but I'm curious if there are other ways to get them).  And also I'd just like to know how they keep themselves posting on a regular basis, and just any other tips and tricks of the trade that they can pass along.  And also a good way to find more followers.  I'm starting to sound like I'm desperate here - I don't expect to have a hugely popular blog or anything, but I would like my readership to grow.

10.  Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your blog? Feel free to link a few of your favorite posts or posts you wish had more comments.

     I am a huge Harry Potter nerd, so Harry Potter comes up a lot in my posts.  I also love The Hunger Games, and one of my favorite posts that I've done was where I picked my dream cast for the movie.  Of course, the movie is already in production but if you're a fan of the books and would like to see my picks, you can check out that post here.  I also write fiction, and participate in NaNoWriMo each year, so I talk about that sometimes in my posts.  NaNoWriMo is awesome and if you don't know about it and you write fiction, go check out their website!

So there you have it.  I'm excited to read some new book blogs and to become a part of this awesome community!  Please let me know if you are participating in this event and I'll check out your blog, too!

NaNoWriMo Fail....Maybe

Here it is, the 26th of November and I'm nearing the end of my third National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  I went into this month excited and all ready to re-write my 2010 NaNo novel.  I was pumped.  I wanted to get through NaNo with a fresh draft, maybe edit it one more time soon after, and then send it out to beta readers.  Then, my goal was to edit and edit and edit some more during the next year, and to send it out to agents by the end of 2012.  It was a lovely, wonderful, sweet plan.


Then it all went to hell.


There were HUGE plot holes in my story.  Things that I couldn't get past.  Things that were integral to my plot - things that were integral to this story becoming two books, maybe even three.  Things that I MAYBE could have figured out as I wrote, but everything else that I wrote relied on me figuring those things out.  Also, there was absolutely no action in my story.  Well, one car wreck scene, but that was it.  The rest was people explaining things to others.  A lot of telling, instead of showing.  Yes, these are things that can be fixed in future edits, but it just wasn't working.  I was bored of my story (although I still like much of the idea), and I felt like nothing was happening.  Nothing was moving forward.


So I changed it.  I made it much more YA.  I made it more supernatural.  Then I decided to read a couple of published novels that were similar to mine.  I know, I know, people say not do to this.  We should steer clear of novels that might resemble what we are currently writing.  But I wanted to read them to make sure that my novel wasn't too much like them.  So with one, I was okay.  My story was different enough that I wasn't worried.  But then I read the other one, and it was like, yeesh.  That's almost exactly what I'm writing.


So I changed it again.  Now, mind you, I haven't been deleting anything, so my NaNo word count still includes what I wrote for the first two stories.  But with this one, I only wrote about 1,000 words and got bored.  Again.


I haven't written a single word on my NaNo novel (novels?) since the 17th.  I'm currently sitting at 14,540 words.  Which is less than I did my first year, where I got around 15,000 words.  Last year I won.  This year, I have to write over 7,000 words a day to reach the 50,000-word goal.  I'm thinking this isn't going to happen.  


For the past few days I've been really discouraged about my writing.  I pretty much decided that this story, this idea that I've been working on and changing and brainstorming about for the past year needs to be set aside.  Maybe someday I'll figure out what to do with it.  But for now, I figured I'd just start a whole new story, keeping my current word count, of course.  But I was at a loss as to what to write.  I looked on the NaNo forums, where they have this great Adoption Society, where you can "adopt" plots or characters or whatever.  But nothing struck my fancy.  I was out of inspiration.  So I got more discouraged.


But today, I read some posts by Maureen Johnson (she's the Agony Aunt this year of NaNo - kind of like a Dear Abby columnist) where she talks about just jumping into your novel, and where she helps writers who have lost that fun relationship with writing.  Maureen Johnson has helped me all throughout this month.  She seems to know exactly what questions to answer at the right time.  I think she might be psychic.  


I also hopped on my Twitter account (I don't do that very often - I only was compelled to go there today because I got an email that someone new was following me) and browsed some tweets by literary agent Holly Root.  She had one on there about an author she represents who wrote a post about her experience finding an agent.  


It's weird.  Things like this open my eyes and light a fire under me and make me wonder why I ever questioned my writing.  I've been writing ever since I can remember.  Before I could physically write myself, I would tell my mom little stories and she would type them up for me.  I have always been a writer.  And I have always wanted to someday be published.  


So what if that original NaNo idea never becomes anything publishable?  I love to write, and stories are always coming to me.  I just need to remember that I don't have to have the next huge hit idea, and that I don't have to even have to have an outline before I start writing.  Actually, it's better, for me, if I don't do too much planning, because otherwise I think that I have to have everything perfectly planned out before I can even begin.  This does not work.  I just need a little spark of an idea.  A character trait, a world, an image - something that will get me started.  And then I just need to let it go from there.


So I may not finish NaNo this year.  I may not get to put a shiny Winner badge on my next blog post.  But right now, after I finish this post, I'm going to go back to that Adoption Society forum and find something - some little glimmer, some quirk or scene or line or name or setting - SOMETHING to get the ball rolling.  I'm in the writing mood today.  And we'll see how far I can get when I have no plan, no plot, and no direction.  This actually will probably be fun.

Book 12/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

NaNoWriMo is coming up (in one week!), and I wanted to try to get a couple of my books read for the Off the Shelf Challenge before heading into a month full of writing and not much reading. I still had 4 books left to read for this challenge, and the deadline is at the end of the year, so I really needed to get to it!

Photo courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

I finally finished Harry Potter Film Wizardry by Brian Sibley, which I blogged about back in October of last year (you can see that post here - I was trying out a new meme called "I Want" Wednesday - boy, that meme really lasted on my blog, didn't it?).  I've had Film Wizardry on my Goodreads currently-reading list all year long, although I haven't been reading it all year.  It's not a hard book to read; it just isn't like a novel, where you can tear through the pages.  I (obviously) took my sweet time reading it.


Film Wizardry is a gorgeous book full of artists' renderings, photos, and inside information on what went into creating all eight Harry Potter films.  Since I'm a die-hard fan of the Harry Potter books, and a huge fan of the films, I found the book to be really fascinating.  It's crazy how much time and effort goes into everything in the films, from the storyboards and concept art, to the wardrobes and makeup, to the intricate set designs and special effects.

Another thing that I really love about this book is that there are several items included within the pages that you can actually remove from envelopes and hold in your hands:  a replica of Harry's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, catalogs for Borgin and Burkes and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (those don't actually come out - they're attached to the book), a program for the 422nd Quidditch World Cup (also attached), and my personal favorite - a fold-out copy of The Maruader's Map, among others.


This book is a great read for any fan of the Harry Potter films, and I'm glad to have it my collection.

Pottermore, Glow, Writing, and More...

Wow, how long has it been since I've written a post?  The beginning of June?  Jeez.  Well, we've been pretty busy over at reviewsin5.com, so writing on my own blog which really has no major theme has fallen by the wayside...


So, what has been happening?  Well, if you've been under a rock you've missed the whole awesomeness that is Pottermore!  Basically it's an interactive website that allows Harry Potter fans (like me!) to explore the books and material in a new way.  Highlights:  you get to be sorted into a Hogwarts house and get a wand, both of which J.K. Rowling created the processes herself!  Now I'll finally get to officially see if I'm a Hufflepuff like I think I am...


So Pottermore opens to all in October, but recently there was this thing called The Magical Quill challenge, where fans could solve clues to gain early access to the site.  I was one of the lucky few to gain this early access (as were several of my friends)!  Now we just have to wait until we get our Welcome email that will let us know that we can go ahead and get onto the site.  Man, I try to be a very patient person, but it's proving to be quite hard waiting for that email!


I've also been doing A LOT of reading.  So far this year I've read 45 books!  Granted, 17 of those were Sweet Valley High books, which are only around 150 pages each.  But some of the other books have been pretty hefty!  My original goal was to read 35 books this year, and I reached that number in May!  Woohoo!  Unfortunately, my other reading goal was to complete the 2011 Off the Shelf Challenge by reading 15 books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while, waiting to be read.  So far I've only read 8 for that challenge.  But I still have 4 1/2 months to reach that goal!

Photo copyright St. Martin's Press

I'm super excited about one of the books I read recently.  It's called Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  I received an ARC through a giveaway on Goodreads, and the book will be released in late September.  Glow is a young adult novel set in the future, where two spaceships are on course to "New Earth," where they hope to preserve the human race.  The story revolves around two teenagers, Waverly and Kieran, who are poised to be the next leaders of their ship, the Empyrean.  But when the inhabitants of their sister ship, the New Horizon, invade the Empyrean and kidnap some of the children, the ships' course changes and an impending battle thrusts Waverly and Kieran into those leadership roles earlier than they expected.


Here's my review from Goodreads:  

WOW! I LOVED this book! There is so much action and suspense throughout the whole novel that it was really hard for me to put it down, so I only stopped reading when I absolutely had to!  

The characters are very complex; just when you think you have a character figured out, Amy Kathleen Ryan throws a wrench in your theory. I really found myself liking a lot of the characters, and even having sympathy for the antagonists.  

There are a lot of themes going on in this book, the obvious ones being one's duty to their community, and morality vs. faith or lack thereof. The religion aspect gets a bit heavy near the end of the book, but I think Ryan did a good job with showing the advantages and disadvantages of both organized religion and atheism/agnosticism.  

The only problem I really had with the book is that it's not even published yet, and the ending is left wide open for sequels, which means fans will most likely have a LONG time to wait for the second book in the series.  

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA books, especially those who also love Science Fiction!


Also, I just (finally!) started editing my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel.  I'm really excited about this book and I hope to have this 2nd draft ready for beta readers within the next few months.  But I really have no idea how long it will take me to get this draft done...


Other than that I've been taking care of my nearly two-year-old son and working hard on Reviews in 5.  The site has been live for about 4 1/2 months now, and so far it's going great!  Please visit the site and be sure to "like" us on Facebook!  


That's all for now.  Hopefully my next post won't be two months from now!

Reviews in 5

Happy April Fool's Day!


It's been a long time.  I shouldn't have left you...without a dope beat to step to... (Sorry, Timbaland's part at the beginning of that Aaliyah song always gets in my mind when I hear the phrase "It's been a long time.")


So I haven't posted in forever.  Surprise, surprise.  But I've been busy.  So busy, in fact, that I'm not going to even attempt Script Frenzy this year, and that kind of makes me sad.  But I've been reading up a storm.  I recently finished reading my friend's manuscript and I really really liked it!  And she didn't think my comments and suggestions were a load of crud so now I can officially say that I am a Beta Reader extraordinaire!  Or maybe just a Beta Reader.  But reading her book makes me realize that I need to get to work on the second draft of my NaNoWriMo 2010 novel.  I guess I'll just add it to the to-do list.

Photo courtesy of www.sweetvalleytenyearslater.com

Also, I guess some of you will think this is crazy, but my friend Courtney and I have gotten a bit nostalgic lately because of the recent release of Sweet Valley Confidential:  Ten Years Later.  Yes, I was an avid reader of Sweet Valley Twins when I was a child.  I didn't read Sweet Valley High - I was a bit young, so I started with "Twins" and by the time I was old enough for "High" I wasn't really reading anymore.  So Courtney and I went on a mission:  to find Sweet Valley High (and Sweet Valley Twins, for me) books to read before we read "Confidential."  I looked at our local library - nada.  Just a few of the "Jr. High" spinoff.  So we both ventured online, and I stumbled upon eBay.  Now, I had an eBay account but I had never bought or sold anything before.  So I was amazed when I found tons of people selling Sweet Valley stuff!  So I found a lot of 32 Sweet Valley High books and bid on them, and ended up winning!  My first eBay experience and it was a success!  (Courtney warned me not to get hooked, so I'm staying away from the site for now.)  So I got 32 books for only $39 (shipping included), and out of the first 15 books, the collection is only missing #1 and #5!  Talk about a score!  So we'll have to find #1 and #5 soon.  I hope to post some blogs about it once we've started.  Yeah, we're dorks, but we're not ashamed!  Sweet Valley, here we come!  ;)


But the big, huge, wonderful, exciting thing that I really want to tell you guys about is my new project.  I was a bit vague about it in a previous post, but now that the site has gone live, I can tell you about it!  


I had an idea recently to start a blog about movies - but rather than just being the normal movie review, I wanted to focus on one actor or actress at a time, and to look at several of their movies.  I also wanted it to be a collaborative blog, where there were a few people posting, so that there would be more than one opinion featured on the blog.  So I mentioned it to my husband, Jeremy, and he loved the idea, and came up with the idea to limit it to 5 movies per actor/actress.  Then we mentioned it to our friend, Courtney (aka my Sweet Valley co-dork) and the three of us came up with the name Reviews in 5.  


So here's how the site works.  We take suggestions from our viewers as to which actor or actress we should review.  Then, once we've decided on an actor/actress for the upcoming month, we will post a poll where viewers can vote on which of the five movies they want us to review by that actor/actress.  Then, starting on the 1st of the month, we will post one movie review every five days, and then finally we will have an overview of that actor/actress.  We will also have individual pieces every Monday where, say, I blog about my Top 5 Childhood Movie Obsessions (this actually will be my first individual piece, which is slated for Monday, April 18th).  We also plan on doing a few different features, where we have guest posters or focus on one movie series for a month.


For this month, since we're just starting and have no suggestions as of yet, we decided to start with some of the winners at this year's Academy Awards.  So we started with Natalie Portman, who won Best Actress for her role in Black Swan, and will be reviewing The Professional, Beautiful Girls, Garden State, The Other Woman, and, of course, Black Swan.  Our site went live today and our first post for The Professional is up!  Next month we will focus on Colin Firth, winner of Best Actor for his role in The King's Speech.


Please go to our site, "like" it, add it to your RSS feed, send in suggestions for actors/actresses, and comment on our posts!  And share the heck out of it!  We plan on making a facebook page for it soon, and also, if anyone links to our site on their blog/site/whatever, let us know and we will link to your page as well!  We're very excited about it and have lots and lots of posts coming in the future!  Here's the address:  www.reviewsin5.com, or you can just click on the picture below!  Hope to see you guys there!

Where's Hermione When You Need Her?

I feel a bit overwhelmed.  I think I might need a schedule, one akin to the studying schedules that Hermione makes for Harry and Ron in the Harry Potter books.


Here's what I've got going.  I've challenged myself to read 35 books this year (I read 30 last year), but this goal is totally doable.  It's how I do it that's the problem.  I've also challenged myself to the "Off The Shelf" Challenge, where I will read 15 books that have been on my bookshelf for a while but I haven't read yet.  I've already read 3 books for this challenge.  But here's where the problems start.  I have book club books to read as well (only one a month, so not too big of a problem), and I have other books that I bought a few weeks ago that I also want to read.  Then I relieved one of my friends of about 9 books that she was getting rid of - also books that I want to read, but since they just joined my overflowing book shelf, they won't count towards the "Off The Shelf" challenge.  Then, yesterday, I went to a closing sale at the Borders near me that is closing and came back with 6 more books, and most of these are of the "oh-man-I-must-read-them-now" caliber.  Yes, all of these books can count towards my year goal of 35 books.  But the question is, how do I read them and still read the books for my "Off The Shelf" challenge?  I mean, those books have been sitting there for a while, and yes, I want to read them, but these new books are so nice and shiny and are calling to me...


And that's just the problem with the books.  I also was hoping to participate in NaNoEdMo in March, where I challenge myself to complete 50 hours of edits on my recent NaNoWriMo novel.  I really want to edit that novel, and I feel like the deadline given in NaNoEdMo will help to make that a reality.  I will edit it, but I'm afraid if I don't participate in NaNoEdMo I'll just keep putting it off.  Then there's Script Frenzy in April, and I'm not sure I'm up for another 100-page script in 30 days, but I really enjoyed it last year.  Then one of my friends has deigned me worthy of being a beta reader for one of her novels.  This is one thing that I will definitely do, no matter what my schedule's like.  I'm so excited to do it, and nothing can stop me!


And then there's this other thing that I'm going to be completely vague about and make it frustrating for all of my readers.  ;)  I'll just say that it's a new project, a new blog project that I'm really excited about and it's just now at the starting gates.  The first post won't go up for a while, but it is somewhat time-consuming because a lot of work goes into each post.


And I have all of this to do while also taking care of my 1 1/2-year-old son.  He's a lot of work. But I do get to read and do other things while he naps and after his bed time.


So here's what I think.  My husband suggested that I make sure I read one "Off The Shelf" book every month, and that I can't read any other books (besides book club books) until I've read that specific book.  Right now I'm reading the March book club pick, and I should be done within a couple of days.  So I think after that I'll start my ritual of reading the "Off The Shelf" book first, and the others after.  Then, of course, when I receive my friend's novel, I'll be reading that ASAP.  And I'll be working at least a few hours a week on my new blog project.  But I feel like I may have to forgo NaNoEdMo and Script Frenzy this year.  But if I don't do NaNoEdMo, I feel like I still need to pencil in some editing time.


So, readers, what do you think?  Any tips?

Thoughts on Publishing

Yes, it's been a while.  No, I haven't been writing every day - get OFF my butt! ;)  Actually, I've been taking a bit of a break after NaNoWriMo.  And since the new year is quickly approaching, I've decided to stop my Write (Almost) Every Day Challenge and begin afresh in the new year.  I plan on jumping right back into my NaNo novel at that point, editing and writing and working on getting it publishable.  


Which is what I wanted to talk about today - publishing.  My friend, Tracy, wrote a blog post a few days ago about self-publishing.  Here is a link to that lovely post:  Building A Bridge.  Go there, read it, come back.  I'll wait.








Wait!  You're supposed to come back!
Yes, I know she has a lot more posts than me.  
Yes, I know she posts WAY more regularly than I do.
Yes, I know she has a lot of witty commentary and sage insight.
Yes, I know that she shares recipes!  And, believe me, I've had her yummy food, the recipes are worth it!
But you're supposed to come back after you read that one post!  You can peruse the rest of her posts later!
Dang!


Well, for those of you that did come back, I'll continue.


Tracy talks about how she feels that experts (literary agents and professional publishers) help to make her story the strongest it can be, and she feels that self-publishing doesn't include these last few strength-boosters in your story.  I totally agree with her, and I had some other thoughts on the subject.  I thought about writing a comment to her post, but my thoughts kept getting bigger and longer and I didn't want to write a novel of a comment, so I decided to write my own blog post on the subject.


The funny thing is, the night before Tracy wrote this post, I had a dream that my husband's brother, Josh, wrote a book and had it published.  He was not self-publishing, but I was quite irked in my dream that he was having a book published.  I was jealous, of course, but I also had other thoughts on the fact that Josh was publishing a book.  Did I mention it was a BIG book?  That didn't help my jealousy.  


But seriously, I was mostly upset because Josh is not a writer.  He is an aspiring actor living in L.A.  Now, I don't mean to say that non-writers shouldn't write and have their books published.  I actually don't mind that.  The thing I mind is that non-writers who are celebrities (Nicole Richie, Hilary Duff, Sarah Palin, etc.) have an easy time publishing.  I understand why - publishing companies know that they will be able to sell a book written by Sarah Palin - they have no idea if they'll be able to sell a book by little old me.  But my point is that, in the past, publishing has been HARD.  There is a format, a process, a LONG wait, and an emotional tailspin created by thousands of reject letters.  Authors go through all of this and then when they finally get a yes they rejoice, run around in their living rooms, shouting and rushing towards the closest bottle of champagne.  Somehow I can't see celebrities doing this.  I actually imagine them kind of shrugging, like, "Yeah, I wrote a book."  (Not all celebrities - I actually can't imagine the agony that Portia de Rossi went through while writing her personal experiences with bulimia in her recent work, Unbearable Lightness.)  


But this is how I feel about self-publishing, too.  It takes away a lot of the process, the hardship, the struggle of becoming a "published author."  I also feel that it kind of takes away a bit of the power and prestige of the title of "published author."  It's like, hey, anyone can do it, so what does it matter that you're a "published author?"  Who cares?


That said, I have a friend who is in the process of self-publishing.  I do not mean to belittle him in any way. I will be buying his book and giggling like a giddy school girl, most likely telling everyone around me that "I know this author!"  The only problem is - so far, the only places to buy his book will be on Amazon, Ebay, and the Barnes and Noble website.  Which, I will admit, is awesome.  But all I know is that, if I ever get a book published, I want to be able to walk into any book store and see it on the shelf.  It's a lot of hard work to write a novel, and I'm willing to work even harder to get it published.  One of these days...

NaNoWriMo Accomplished!; Write (Almost) Every Day Challenge, Day #56

Oh, Hello, Blogger.  And Hello, December.  


Whew.  NaNoWriMo is over, and I am a winner!!!  I wrote over 9,000 words one day and crossed that 50,000-word finish line with a few days to spare!


And boy am I glad that I finished when I did.  Because only a couple days later I caught a bug that my son had caught over Thanksgiving and I was down for the count.  I was in a lot of pain, and, well, you don't want to hear about that.  Let's just say it wasn't pretty.  And to top it off, my husband caught it, too!  The whole house, laying around on couches, moaning and sipping water all day....  We were all pretty pathetic.


And it's still not completely gone.  I have the most horrible headache of all headaches ever to be known as horrible (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it is one horrible headache that's lasted for two days now), but everything else is pretty much gone.


Although my dizziness is still around.  For those of you who didn't know, for over a month now I have been suffering from spells of dizziness, or rather, spells where I feel almost drunk.  I have been to the doctor about it, been to the chiropractor (which seemed to help), but it's still not going away.  For a while it was constant - I'd feel the symptoms almost all day long.  That lasted about two weeks.  Now it comes and goes - mostly it just shows up once a day, and not for very long.  But since I've been sick I've felt pretty bad, although I guess being sick might make me feel dizzy itself.


But somehow I was still able to participate in (and win!) NaNoWriMo.  I guess it's because I was relatively still, sitting with my laptop and typing away.  But I am really, really excited about my story this year.  There are so many scenes I have yet to write, and so much editing to do, but I actually want to edit it.  We'll see how that goes.


Well, I can't write much more today because of that damn headache.  But hopefully I'll be back soon.  Oh, and notice how I've changed the name of my challenge to "Write (Almost) Every Day Challenge."  I just gave in - I'll still continue to try to write every day, but I now accept the times that I cannot write as vacations, not failures.  ;)

Write Every Day Challenge, Day #36

It's been over a week since my last blog post, but that does NOT mean that I haven't been writing!  NaNoWriMo is in full swing, and I've been writing every day for that.  But my friend, Courtney, has expressed how much she enjoys reading my blogs on a regular basis, so I thought I'd go ahead and blog today.  Too bad this blog doesn't count towards my NaNo word count!  (Hmm, that gives me an idea...) ;)


The main problem I have with this blog is that I have so little to write about.  I come up with some topic ideas, but I quickly throw them out because they just don't seem interesting.  Some random topic ideas I've had recently:

• How track #6 on a compact disc is often the best song.  (Track #7 and #2 are often quite good as well.)
• My take on a completely ridiculous video I saw today.  (I won't get into this one because it's so completely asinine, and the horrible fact is that some people in the world actually BELIEVE it.)
• Comments on children's television.  (This is actually not too bad of an idea - I could review television shows aimed at children, rate them and rank them based on entertainment and educational value.)  I think I might actually do this!  But not today - I'll have to figure out my rating system, and then start watching some shows!

Anyway, aside from the fact that I just came up with a pretty good blog topic, it is actually pretty hard for me to come up with new topics all the time.  So maybe this review of children's shows will give my blog the kick in the pants it needs!

So, sorry for the lame excuse for a blog post today, but I want to get back to my NaNo novel!

"I Want" Wednesday; Write Every Day Challenge, Day #28

Okay, this is getting ridiculous.  I am horribly failing at this personal challenge to write every day.  I think I'll stick with it, though, because with NaNoWriMo quickly approaching, I will be writing A LOT.


And that's what I wanted to talk about today:  NaNoWriMo.  For the past couple of days I have been plotting my story.  I am now currently on idea #3, and I am super, super excited about this one!  Unfortunately, I have to throw out my previous characters - or adapt them into these new characters, and I have to get to worldbuilding!  My new story is Science Fiction, and I'm still not sure if I'm going to set it in a future America, or build my own land.  No space travel, so I don't have to worry about creating planets, galaxies, universes!  Or do I?  Who knows which direction my novel will take me next month!  But even if I set my story simply in America in the year 2060 (for example), I need to figure out what the world is like then - the government, the environment, society, jobs, technology, transportation, hobbies, schools, etc.  I have a lot of work to do!  I've decided that my plotting exploits count towards my Write Every Day Challenge, so Monday was Day #26 and Tuesday was Day #27.  Maybe I'll actually write every day this week!  (I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but not daring to hold my breath!)


I realized that my story is like The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter.  Which is SO me!  I think that I'm so excited about it because it's the type of story that I love to read, and so it should be a lot of fun to write!  I think I've finally found my niche, and I have no idea why it was so hard to find!  I think the adage should be not "Write what you know," but "Write what you like!"  


Oh, and it's "I Want" Wednesday again.  This time, I want something immaterial.  I simply want to continue to be this excited about my novel throughout the month of November.  Sure, there will be ups and downs, but I haven't been this excited about writing in a long time, and it's wonderful!


Back to plotting!

Write Every Day Challenge, Day #15

I missed three whole days of my Write Every Day Challenge!  Boy, I stink at this!  So I'm going to do what I've done before when I missed a day.  Today will be Day #15, even though I should be much farther than that by now, and I will write something for every day that I've missed.  So I have a lot of writing to do!


I thought that I might get a bit of that writing behind me since I went to the first meeting for this year's NaNoWriMo.  But I should have known better.  We never get any writing done in those meetings, especially the ones not in November!  We always have so much to talk about.  But we had fun and we've got some ideas for upcoming NaNo meetings.  This year should be a blast!


I watched the new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:  Part 1 the other day online.  It was awesome!  It included quite a few scenes that weren't in the previous trailers.  I'm so excited for the movie!  It's less than two months away now!  Yea!!!  Head over to Mugglenet to watch the new trailer (and for all things Harry Potter, for that matter).


Anyway, I'd better get to that writing.  I think I'm going to try some more of the prompts from www.creativewritingprompts.com.

Still Recovering From Book Club: Write Every Day Challenge, Day #12

So yesterday I forgot to write again!  Gasp!  So I'll do what I did last time:  write this blog and then write in some other way to make up for my lost day, and today will be Day #12 (it would have been Day #13 if I had written yesterday).


Book club on Saturday was fun.  We all had a LOT to say about Mockingjay and then we played The Twilight Saga:  Eclipse Movie Board Game.  A couple of the girls in my book club are total die-hard Twilight Saga fans and they kicked our butts.  I came in fourth, but only because two girls left before the game was over.  We all brought our "last meals" (what we would want to eat as a last meal), and we had quite a spread!  I brought sushi, and the others brought ribs, chicken parmesan, salad, ice cream, and cake.  We all ate too much and drank waaay too much wine and had lots of fun!  I heart my book club!  ;)


My husband and I have been reading the blog Mark Reads Harry Potter ever since I found out about it a couple days ago.  It's hilarious!  I'm still on the posts about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but my husband is ahead of me and I keep hearing him giggle and I want to get to what he's reading!  We both think that Mark's next project should be The Hunger Games trilogy.  


I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo, and I think I may be onto a plot.  I think we're supposed to have our first meeting this coming Sunday.  I'm excited!


I'm not sure what else to write about today, so I'll go ahead and work on my other writing task.  I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) with Day #13 of my Write Every Day Challenge!

A Few Random Things: Write Every Day Challenge, Day #11

A few random things today...


On my last post I decided that, since I had missed a day of my Write Every Day Challenge, I would write more than just a blog post on Day #9.  I looked online and found a website called Creative Writing Prompts.  I perused the different prompts and found one that caught my eye:  #4 challenges you to rewrite the ending of Cinderella so that the glass slipper actually fit on one of her ugly stepsisters.  This is right up my alley, because in high school I wrote poem that was a different take on Cinderella, and I love the books of Gregory Maguire (Wicked:  The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West; Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister; and Mirror, Mirror).  So off to write I went.  I wrote a bit that day, and a bit more yesterday (to fulfill my quota for Day #10), and let me tell you, I had so much fun doing it!  It reminded me just how much fun I can have while writing, while making up characters and describing their actions.  If NaNoWriMo is anything like that for me this year, I'm sure to reach the goal of 50,000 words!  I also found No Plot? No Problem! at the library yesterday!  Score!


I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World last night with my friend, Courtney.  It was great!  I'd like to write a review of it someday, but I think I'll watch it again first.


I was on Mugglenet the other day and they had a post about this really cool looking blog:  Mark Reads Harry Potter.  It's this guy who is reading the Harry Potter books for the first time, and posts about each chapter after he reads them.  He only knew a few things about Harry Potter before he began his quest, and he asks his readers to not reveal any spoilers within their comments (he is currently on The Half-Blood Prince).  I've only read one of his posts, but this seems like a great blog!  He uses a lot of adult language, so this blog isn't really for kids, but adult lovers of Harry Potter will get a kick out of it!  Oh, and there's supposed to be a new trailer for The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 online on Wednesday!  Sooo excited!


So tonight I have book club!  We're (finally) discussing Mockingjay.  We all love this series, so we are all going to have a lot to say!  We are also doing a kind of potluck thing this time:  only we're each bringing a dish that we'd want to have as our last meal.  We were inspired by the meals that Katniss and Peeta eat on the train on their way to their first Games.  I'm bringing some sushi.  I wanted to bring escargot (my absolute favorite!) but I wasn't sure that others would like it as much as I do.  I'm so ready for the meeting;  it should be a blast!

A New Writer: Write Every Day Challenge, Day #9

So I completely forgot to write yesterday!  Shame on me!  But instead of starting all over again, today will be Day #9 (yesterday was supposed to be Day #9), and I will write two different ways today:  this blog and another type (free write, work on my old Script Frenzy script or NaNoWriMo novel, etc.).  I know this kind of negates the "Write Every Day" idea, but I can't keep starting over every time I miss one day.  I really will try not to miss any more days, though.


So since I've been doing this Write Every Day Challenge (or actually, since I participated in NaNoWriMo last year), I've been feeling like my old self again.  I can actually say I'm a writer again.  I've always considered myself a writer, but for a long time I hadn't written much of anything, so I felt like a poser when I would call myself a writer.  But now I feel like I'm telling the truth.  So I started doing this challenge and I even bought myself an issue of Writer's Digest (I know, fancy, right?).  [Note:  I wanted to make a link to their webpage but every time I try to go to the page, it says "Server Error."  I'm not sure if this is an error on my end or their's - my husband would know, but alas, he is not home right now (he's at work - he's the one who makes the money in this family until I find my big story and become a famous novelist ;) )]


Anyway I read the magazine and have been looking at things online and suddenly I feel like I'm a new writer.  Like I don't have years of experience writing and a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing.  I do have these things, but all this advice on character and plot, tips on getting a literary agent, and terms like "blurb" and "beta reader" have me baffled.  I feel so green.


Luckily I have some friends who know way more about this than I do, and NaNo is coming up fast, so I'll have other writers to talk to.  I also hope to go to a writer's conference next year.


But until then, I'll just keep on writing, just keep up with my Write Every Day Challenge, and my writing can only get better!

Finding the Plot: Write Every Day Challenge Day #5

So with NaNoWriMo coming up in a month and a half, I've been trying to think of a plot for my novel.  As I said on a previous post ("Writing Away," on September 3rd, 2010), I came up with a plot but I think I've finally decided to save that for Script Frenzy next year.  It seems very visual to me, and I can definitely see it as a movie.  I also realized that it might be hard to put into a novel format.  


So now I'm officially on the search for a new NaNo plot.  I'm really leaning toward Science Fiction, because I really enjoy reading books (and watching movies and TV shows) in that genre.  The post-apocalyptic idea is really sticking in my head.  But I keep thinking these what-ifs (like, "What if this crazy thing happened to the earth?") and each one is immediately followed by "been done."  I mean, I know there are supposedly only so many plots, and each one has been done a million times, but that doesn't keep me from wanting to come up with something completely original.  I know, I know.  If I keep thinking like that I'll never come up with an idea.  I just hate the idea of coming up with a brilliant plot, only to discover that it's so close to something already out there.


I think I might order No Plot?  No Problem!, written by Chris Baty, director of NaNo.  It is written specifically to help you write a book in a short period of time without the luxury of a preconceived plot, characters, etc.  I am also keeping a journal of plot and character ideas.  Other than that, I really have no idea how to come up with this plot.  It's always been a creative problem of mine.  Even with my drawing, it's hard for me to come up with something in my head.  It's much easier to do still-life.  But I guess I need to quit shying away from the challenge.  There is an awesome novel inside me, somewhere, just waiting to come out.  I know that much.

Writing Away

So yesterday I challenged myself: Write Every Day. This is me doing it. ;)

I came up with a plot for a new book a month or so ago. I was really inspired by the movie, Inception. It's really amazing. My plot really has nothing to do with the plot of Inception, but more to do with using the actress Ellen Page as a muse. My main character is based on her and some of the characters she has played. I actually can see this story in my head, which makes me think that, instead of using it as my NaNoWriMo plot in November, I may stick it on the shelf until Script Frenzy in April, and turn it into a screenplay.

This, unfortunately, means that I need to come up with a new plot for NaNo. This is the hardest part of writing for me. I remember, back in high school and in my early college years, I would just write. I would sit down and put a pen to paper and write and write. I hardly ever crossed anything out, I was quite against revision for a while, and I never worried about coming up with a plot or metaphor or form for my poetry or stories. Even before then, I wrote tons of stories as a child, and I never seemed to have a problem coming up with a plot line, or characters, or anything. Then I took all these Creative Writing classes in college where you actually have to write in certain forms and read your work to the class and give and receive constructive criticism. My writing got better, but it slowed down. I no longer wrote several poems a day. I was lucky if I even wrote at all on any given day. I would want to write, but I'd sit down with paper and a pen or at my computer and look at a blank page. I felt the need to come up with some type of form, plot, metaphor, whatever before I could even begin to write the thing. I could no longer simply write.

It's still this way to this day. This is why this challenge will be so great for me. I've always considered myself a writer but when I have nothing to show for it, when I do no work for such a long time, I feel like I'm lying to myself and to the world. Now that I'm challenging myself to write every day, hopefully I will be able to return to that sense of freedom in writing. I need to realize that, as long as I'm writing every day, doing what I love to do, it doesn't matter if it's perfect. In fact, it's not going to be perfect. It's going to be horrible, lovely, confusing, amateurish, witty, repugnant, awesome and crazy. But it won't be perfect. But it will be me, and I'll feel more like me than I've felt in years.

Oh, and I started Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood. So far, so good!

My First Blog Post Ever

So here I am, writing my first blog post ever. I'm really not sure what the heck I'm doing, and I really have no idea what direction my blog will take. But I have tons of things I can talk about at length, so here goes nothing!

First things first, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes out on DVD tomorrow! I am so excited! There are supposed to be tons of bonus features, including a look at scenes from The Deathly Hallows! I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about all of that once I watch it, so I'll post my reactions and thoughts either tomorrow or the next day.

NaNoWriMo is over, and it makes me sad. It's just so hard to keep writing when you don't have this looming deadline, or feel the need to update your wordcount every five minutes. I want to keep writing my story, but the editor in me is taking up so much space in my brain and makes me so discouraged that I don't even attempt to write anymore. So that's where this blog comes in. It will be a new venture in the world of writing, one that I will try to update every day, and it will keep me doing what I love to do. Hopefully it will spark some ideas for my NaNo story, but if not, there's always next year. And before that, Script Frenzy!

Okay, so that's all for now. I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow, if not later today!