It's been another week, and now here I am to summarize it.
Monday, I went to school, volunteered at the library, and went to dance class.
Tuesday, I did homework, and really, nothing else. It was a kind of boring day.
Wednesday, I went to school, took a test in my Study Skills class, did much better on it than I thought I would, then went to park day.
Thursday, I taught Latin and had lunch with friends, then came home and did homework for the rest of the day.
Friday, I went to school, and then went to a friend's house for the remainder of the day. I also had a ballet class, which, since the normal teacher was unavailable, was taught by one of my best friends, which was fun.
Saturday, we did a Steampunk photoshoot involving all of us who went with the Steampunk theme for our Halloween costumes. I'll post a few pictures on here at some point, if I get them. I also then had a Nutcracker rehearsal that afternoon/evening.
Sunday, I did not do too much, but went shopping for coats in the evening. I spent a lot of time hanging out and talking to friends online.
Reading: I haven't done much non-school reading this week, but for school I read Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe, both of which I'm almost done with. I also started Mort by Terry Pratchett after it was lent to me by a friend.
Writing: We are a third of the way through November now, which means that I should be at 16,666 by the end of today. At the moment, I'm at a little above 12k, and I'm hoping to make it to 14k by the end of the day.
It's a four day weekend (Veteran's Day on Tuesday, and no classes on Monday for faculty conferences), so hopefully I can get in at least 2k today and tomorrow, which would get me at least a bit caught up.
Showing posts with label nanowrimo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nanowrimo. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2014
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Why I'm Doing NaNoWriMo
I was inspired by Ian's post today to write one of my own. He's admittedly got a much harder time this November than I do, but I just hit the slump. I know it typically doesn't hit until week 2, but I usually hit it a little early. It's the point at which I've exhausted all those fresh exciting story ideas (and now I have to actually advance the plot and add character development). It's usually the point where I get behind on my word count for the first time. Because I'm totally ripping Ian off, here are reasons I won't succeed at NaNoWriMo this year:
1. I am really busy. I have college classes, high school classes, dance, and various social events I'm too much of an extrovert to skip.
2. I have so far logged 8,173 words of the 10,000 I should have by the end of today.
3. I'm only going to get busier. As the Nutcracker and finals approach, things can only become more busy.
4. My mom's voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that I should do school before writing, and I keep listening to that voice.
Reasons why I will succeed:
1. I have a good track record. I've finished the last three years in a row, and the last two years I've finished early.
2. In 2011, I got behind on Day 4, and didn't catch up again until the 29th, on which I wrote 5,000 words. In 2012 I was behind from the 7th to the 27th, and in 2013 I was again behind from the 4th through the 29th. I have a pretty good track record with catching up. Speaking of past years, on the sixth I had 7195 words one year. At least I'm doing better than that.
4. I've told a lot of people that I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, and I can't tell them I failed.
5. I simply can't fail this year. Each year is going to be more challenging than the one before it, but I am determined to continue doing NaNoWriMo.
What are your reasons you're going to fail and succeed at NaNoWriMo this year?
1. I am really busy. I have college classes, high school classes, dance, and various social events I'm too much of an extrovert to skip.
2. I have so far logged 8,173 words of the 10,000 I should have by the end of today.
3. I'm only going to get busier. As the Nutcracker and finals approach, things can only become more busy.
4. My mom's voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that I should do school before writing, and I keep listening to that voice.
Reasons why I will succeed:
1. I have a good track record. I've finished the last three years in a row, and the last two years I've finished early.
2. In 2011, I got behind on Day 4, and didn't catch up again until the 29th, on which I wrote 5,000 words. In 2012 I was behind from the 7th to the 27th, and in 2013 I was again behind from the 4th through the 29th. I have a pretty good track record with catching up. Speaking of past years, on the sixth I had 7195 words one year. At least I'm doing better than that.
4. I've told a lot of people that I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, and I can't tell them I failed.
5. I simply can't fail this year. Each year is going to be more challenging than the one before it, but I am determined to continue doing NaNoWriMo.
What are your reasons you're going to fail and succeed at NaNoWriMo this year?
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
In Which Hank Green is Inspiring
So today I've been doing a lot of nothing. I haven't gotten a lot of work done, but I have been doing a lot of things that are a) not very practical, and b) rather thought provoking. First of all, for the last few months, I've been watching all of the Vlogbrother videos, in order. I've seen a lot of them before (at least the newer one, and all of the ones in 2013 and 2014), but there are a lot I haven't seen before, or at least not in a long time. It's been really interesting in a lot of ways, and it's taken me a long time. I started in the middle of July, and I've only gotten to May 2011, which means I'm about half way though.
The videos I find most interesting are the ones that are a reaction to an current news event. These videos often try to predict what the outcome will be, and, living in the future, it's very interesting to see what they thought our world would look like.
But there are also videos that are just funny, or insightful, that are still just as funny and insightful today.
I'm thinking about putting together a playlist of my favorite Vlogbrothers videos, and putting it up here, but I don't have time to do that today. Instead, I just want to share this one video I was watching this afternoon. Just a warning, it does contain some adult language, just fyi. I'm not sure if you can see the title or not, but hopefully that should be warning enough.
It's funny, it rhymes, it's kind of standard advice, but it's said in a way that makes you (or at least me) think about it a little more.
And, in case you need something funny, here's a playlist of Hank Green songs. Two warnings: first, there are 90 videos in this playlist, so it's kind of a timewaster. Second, some of these are a bit NSFW, but most of them are fine. Also, the best songs (in my opinion) are the earliest ones, which also happen to be at the very bottom of the playlist.
I've been spending a good bit of my afternoon watching Hank and John while outlining my 2014 NaNoWriMo novel (yay for NaNo progress). I'm finally getting really excited about it. I kind of got some inspiration today, and I'm not sure how good my idea will be, but I like it.
I hope you're having a good Tuesday. I have more outlining (and actual school work) to do. And mom, if you're reading this, I actually have gotten schoolwork and chores done today, just not as much as I could have considering the time I had available. Don't worry. :)
The videos I find most interesting are the ones that are a reaction to an current news event. These videos often try to predict what the outcome will be, and, living in the future, it's very interesting to see what they thought our world would look like.
But there are also videos that are just funny, or insightful, that are still just as funny and insightful today.
I'm thinking about putting together a playlist of my favorite Vlogbrothers videos, and putting it up here, but I don't have time to do that today. Instead, I just want to share this one video I was watching this afternoon. Just a warning, it does contain some adult language, just fyi. I'm not sure if you can see the title or not, but hopefully that should be warning enough.
It's funny, it rhymes, it's kind of standard advice, but it's said in a way that makes you (or at least me) think about it a little more.
And, in case you need something funny, here's a playlist of Hank Green songs. Two warnings: first, there are 90 videos in this playlist, so it's kind of a timewaster. Second, some of these are a bit NSFW, but most of them are fine. Also, the best songs (in my opinion) are the earliest ones, which also happen to be at the very bottom of the playlist.
I've been spending a good bit of my afternoon watching Hank and John while outlining my 2014 NaNoWriMo novel (yay for NaNo progress). I'm finally getting really excited about it. I kind of got some inspiration today, and I'm not sure how good my idea will be, but I like it.
I hope you're having a good Tuesday. I have more outlining (and actual school work) to do. And mom, if you're reading this, I actually have gotten schoolwork and chores done today, just not as much as I could have considering the time I had available. Don't worry. :)
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Music in My Novels
I didn't get a post up yesterday. I'm sorry about that. I was busy with Current Events class all afternoon, then our final choir performance for the season that night at the Homeschool Christmas Show. Anyway, I'm back on for today.
Two of my three NaNoWriMo novels feature a particular song at the very end. This song also lends it's lyrics to the title. While I am quite sure that if I attempted to publish them I could not do that, it is fun now that I am not planning on publishing right now.
The first year I did NaNo, I used the lyric to this song to close out my story:
I love this song. It's a lot more country than most things I like, but Iris DeMent is someone we listened to a lot when I was little, and this one is definitely special to me. I felt like the lyrics really resonated with the story, and it felt like a good ending. I called the book "Nothing Good Ever Lasts."
This year (my third NaNo), I used this song at the end.
This song was so perfect, it was amazing. The song could have been written for my story, that's how well it fit with the characters and the plot. I like this song, and I think it is the perfect mood. I called my book "At the Edge of the Ocean."
While I'm sharing music, here is another song. This one has nothing to do with NaNoWriMo, but it is one of the songs our choir sung this year. This version is a little different than ours (the beat is a little different, and we sing a capella), but it has all the same parts and words.
That's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow.
Two of my three NaNoWriMo novels feature a particular song at the very end. This song also lends it's lyrics to the title. While I am quite sure that if I attempted to publish them I could not do that, it is fun now that I am not planning on publishing right now.
The first year I did NaNo, I used the lyric to this song to close out my story:
This year (my third NaNo), I used this song at the end.
This song was so perfect, it was amazing. The song could have been written for my story, that's how well it fit with the characters and the plot. I like this song, and I think it is the perfect mood. I called my book "At the Edge of the Ocean."
While I'm sharing music, here is another song. This one has nothing to do with NaNoWriMo, but it is one of the songs our choir sung this year. This version is a little different than ours (the beat is a little different, and we sing a capella), but it has all the same parts and words.
That's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
NaNoWriMo 2013 - Resources
This year during NaNoWriMo, I used several writing resources that I had not previously discovered, but that I loved. Both of the ones mentioned here I discovered on the regional forums for the Bellingham area on nanowrimo.com
1. Written Kitten
I LOVE this thing. Seriously, I would guess that about 20 thousand words of my novel were written in this. I have used Write or Die occassionally in the past, but it stressed me out too much. This was way better.
In Written Kitten, every time you hit a word count goal (I had mine set for every 100 words) you get a new cute kitten picture on one side of your screen. It is fantastic. The pictures are pulled from flickr, so some are better than others, and some are a bit weird, but the idea is wonderful. The one thing I didn't like was that I wasn't able to format my text the way I wanted (for example, I wasn't able to indent my paragraphs with the tab key). I worked around that, though, and I might need to credit Written Kitten for the completion of this novel. :)
2. Baby Name Genie
This website allows to you type in a last name, and choose a gender (or not, if you want to be surprised), and then it will give you first and middle name combos for the last name you provided. Names are my favorite part of writing fiction, and I love finding interesting ones for my characters. Baby Name Genie was a website I used a TON this November.
The majority of my characters got their names (or at least part of it) through this website, and I am sure I will continue to use it in the future.
That's all I've got for you today. Come back tomorrow for a long overdue Homeschool Friday post (sorry about that!). What websites and other resources did you discover this NaNo?
1. Written Kitten
I LOVE this thing. Seriously, I would guess that about 20 thousand words of my novel were written in this. I have used Write or Die occassionally in the past, but it stressed me out too much. This was way better.
In Written Kitten, every time you hit a word count goal (I had mine set for every 100 words) you get a new cute kitten picture on one side of your screen. It is fantastic. The pictures are pulled from flickr, so some are better than others, and some are a bit weird, but the idea is wonderful. The one thing I didn't like was that I wasn't able to format my text the way I wanted (for example, I wasn't able to indent my paragraphs with the tab key). I worked around that, though, and I might need to credit Written Kitten for the completion of this novel. :)
2. Baby Name Genie
This website allows to you type in a last name, and choose a gender (or not, if you want to be surprised), and then it will give you first and middle name combos for the last name you provided. Names are my favorite part of writing fiction, and I love finding interesting ones for my characters. Baby Name Genie was a website I used a TON this November.
The majority of my characters got their names (or at least part of it) through this website, and I am sure I will continue to use it in the future.
That's all I've got for you today. Come back tomorrow for a long overdue Homeschool Friday post (sorry about that!). What websites and other resources did you discover this NaNo?
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Life Update {Illness, Dancing, Singing, and Writing}
Hey guys! It is way past time for me to write one of these. The last month was INSANE, and I know that the one coming up won't be much better.
I have been really sick this last week, and in fact had to stay home while my family went to Thanksgiving with relatives. As a result, I did no school, and am quite behind there, and not a lot of writing. In fact, I was pretty sure that this was going to be the year I didn't win NaNoWriMo, but I managed to pull through in the end, which was a bit of a miracle.
Since I know that there are some of you in the Bellingham area who read this (and some family and friends who may be interested in coming), I thought I would post the dates and times of some of my performances for choir and dance over the next week or so.
On Saturday, December 7th, our Scottish Dance group will be performing at the Port Festival at from noon to 1pm. There will also be an Irish Dance or two from those of us who do both types of dance.
On Tuesday, December 10th, our Homeschool Choir will be performing as part of the Whatcom Homeschool Association Annual Christmas program, which begins at 7pm, and includes many performers. This will be at Kulshan Middle School and is open to the public.
There will probably be more choir performances, but they have not been finalized as of right now.
I have a lot of practice for all these, and overall I am swamped. I am really glad that NaNo is over, because if I am this overwhelmed with out writing 2k each day, I would be going crazy trying to fit that in too!
In the past week, I also saw Catching Fire (review coming soon) and Ender's Game (read review here). I also watched 5 episodes of Lost on Thanksgiving, and I am finally up to the beginning of Season Five. It's only taken two years. Oh well. At the current rate, it'll take almost another year to finish.
Also, this might sound a little crazy, but I want to try to put up a blog post every day for the rest of December. I really want to see if I can manage it. It will be a mix of holiday stuff, book and movie reviews (I have a ton stacked up waiting to be finished), some school stuff (I haven't done a HF post in weeks!), some other fun things I don't want to talk about yet, and some general chatty life update posts for the days I don't have anything else.
It should be fun, and crazy, and I might not make it, but I also might. I really just want to see if I can manage to do it. On that note, I have some ideas of ways things may be changing a little around here in the new year, but I'm going to wait a little while to talk more about that.
I hope you are all had a good Thanksgiving, and are enjoying the coming holiday season!
I have been really sick this last week, and in fact had to stay home while my family went to Thanksgiving with relatives. As a result, I did no school, and am quite behind there, and not a lot of writing. In fact, I was pretty sure that this was going to be the year I didn't win NaNoWriMo, but I managed to pull through in the end, which was a bit of a miracle.
Since I know that there are some of you in the Bellingham area who read this (and some family and friends who may be interested in coming), I thought I would post the dates and times of some of my performances for choir and dance over the next week or so.
On Saturday, December 7th, our Scottish Dance group will be performing at the Port Festival at from noon to 1pm. There will also be an Irish Dance or two from those of us who do both types of dance.
On Tuesday, December 10th, our Homeschool Choir will be performing as part of the Whatcom Homeschool Association Annual Christmas program, which begins at 7pm, and includes many performers. This will be at Kulshan Middle School and is open to the public.
There will probably be more choir performances, but they have not been finalized as of right now.
I have a lot of practice for all these, and overall I am swamped. I am really glad that NaNo is over, because if I am this overwhelmed with out writing 2k each day, I would be going crazy trying to fit that in too!
In the past week, I also saw Catching Fire (review coming soon) and Ender's Game (read review here). I also watched 5 episodes of Lost on Thanksgiving, and I am finally up to the beginning of Season Five. It's only taken two years. Oh well. At the current rate, it'll take almost another year to finish.
Also, this might sound a little crazy, but I want to try to put up a blog post every day for the rest of December. I really want to see if I can manage it. It will be a mix of holiday stuff, book and movie reviews (I have a ton stacked up waiting to be finished), some school stuff (I haven't done a HF post in weeks!), some other fun things I don't want to talk about yet, and some general chatty life update posts for the days I don't have anything else.
It should be fun, and crazy, and I might not make it, but I also might. I really just want to see if I can manage to do it. On that note, I have some ideas of ways things may be changing a little around here in the new year, but I'm going to wait a little while to talk more about that.
I hope you are all had a good Thanksgiving, and are enjoying the coming holiday season!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Three for Three!
Yes! I did it! I won NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row.
In 2011, I wrote "Nothing Good Ever Lasts," and finished on Nov. 30 with 50,002 words.
In 2012, I wrote "To Be A Slave," and finished on Nov. 29 with 50,069 words.
In 2013, I wrote "At the Edge of the Ocean," and finished on Nov. 29 with 50,0067 words.
This year and last year are looking quite similar! I'm really sorry I have not posted any thing in so long. I have had a lot going on, and I will try to get caught up very soon. Now that I am no longer writing my novel (so exciting), I have more time, and so I will try to get a few posts written soon. Either later today or tomorrow (probably tomorrow), I will post a life update about why I have written so little on here lately. I will also be doing a sponsored book review that is going up tonight or tomorrow morning.
In 2011, I wrote "Nothing Good Ever Lasts," and finished on Nov. 30 with 50,002 words.
In 2012, I wrote "To Be A Slave," and finished on Nov. 29 with 50,069 words.
In 2013, I wrote "At the Edge of the Ocean," and finished on Nov. 29 with 50,0067 words.
This year and last year are looking quite similar! I'm really sorry I have not posted any thing in so long. I have had a lot going on, and I will try to get caught up very soon. Now that I am no longer writing my novel (so exciting), I have more time, and so I will try to get a few posts written soon. Either later today or tomorrow (probably tomorrow), I will post a life update about why I have written so little on here lately. I will also be doing a sponsored book review that is going up tonight or tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
NaNoWriMo Update: Two-Thirds Done! + Mini Life Update
Let's try to pretend I'm not almost a whole week late on this one... I'm just going to combine Homeschool Friday posts again, since I did not get the one for last week done.
According to the calender, November is 2/3 of the way over, though my word count does not reflect that at the moment. You can always see my current word count in the side bar, and right now that is 26,332 words. This is a lot less than I would like, but I'm not yet TOO worried about it. In 2011, I had 26,928 words on the 20th, and in 2012 I had 31,479. The 2011 numbers are very close, and I still managed to come back and win that year.
This NaNoWriMo has been the hardest one yet. My story is coming together, sort of, but my other life keeps getting in the way. School has been demanding a lot of time and attention, and it remains my first priority most of the time. I have also been sick nearly the entire month, which has resulted in having several days with no writing.
I had a cold in late October which never quite went away (there was a nasty lingering cough), and last week it seemed to come back in full force again. I don't know if this is something totally different, or if I have relapsed, but I have been feeling pretty terrible for the last week or so, which has negatively effected my writing.
I have also had a lot of other stuff going on that I have been doing. I agreed to go to three Scottish Country Dancing classes so that I could perform with them in three weeks at the port festival (I have never done any Scottish before in my life, though it is similar to Irish, which I have been doing for over a year now). I also have several choir performances coming up. I know I have some local readers, so as the time gets closer, I'll post some dates and places that you can come see me sing or dance if you so desire.
NaNo itself has been going okay. My novel is still very strange, and I sometimes hate it, but I am feeling a little bit better about it. Last Thursday, I went to a Write In at a local coffee shop (my first in three years of NaNo), which was fun. I was nervous because I knew I would be the youngest person there (I was, the rest of the people were college students), but it was still fun. One of the people asked where I went to college when I first got there, which boosted my confidence level a bit.
I was going to go to another one last night, but this cough I have has gotten so bad that I didn't think it was a good idea. Even though I didn't feel too bad, I would certainly have disturbed everyone else with my literal non-stop coughing fits. If I feel up for it, I'll go to the Thursday one again this week.
I think I'll go and try to get some school done. I think I am going to block three thirty to five as my dedicated writing time today, so I have until then to do as much school as possible.
How are you all doing on your novels? Are you feeling confidant, or are you getting nervous?
According to the calender, November is 2/3 of the way over, though my word count does not reflect that at the moment. You can always see my current word count in the side bar, and right now that is 26,332 words. This is a lot less than I would like, but I'm not yet TOO worried about it. In 2011, I had 26,928 words on the 20th, and in 2012 I had 31,479. The 2011 numbers are very close, and I still managed to come back and win that year.
This NaNoWriMo has been the hardest one yet. My story is coming together, sort of, but my other life keeps getting in the way. School has been demanding a lot of time and attention, and it remains my first priority most of the time. I have also been sick nearly the entire month, which has resulted in having several days with no writing.
I had a cold in late October which never quite went away (there was a nasty lingering cough), and last week it seemed to come back in full force again. I don't know if this is something totally different, or if I have relapsed, but I have been feeling pretty terrible for the last week or so, which has negatively effected my writing.
I have also had a lot of other stuff going on that I have been doing. I agreed to go to three Scottish Country Dancing classes so that I could perform with them in three weeks at the port festival (I have never done any Scottish before in my life, though it is similar to Irish, which I have been doing for over a year now). I also have several choir performances coming up. I know I have some local readers, so as the time gets closer, I'll post some dates and places that you can come see me sing or dance if you so desire.
NaNo itself has been going okay. My novel is still very strange, and I sometimes hate it, but I am feeling a little bit better about it. Last Thursday, I went to a Write In at a local coffee shop (my first in three years of NaNo), which was fun. I was nervous because I knew I would be the youngest person there (I was, the rest of the people were college students), but it was still fun. One of the people asked where I went to college when I first got there, which boosted my confidence level a bit.
I was going to go to another one last night, but this cough I have has gotten so bad that I didn't think it was a good idea. Even though I didn't feel too bad, I would certainly have disturbed everyone else with my literal non-stop coughing fits. If I feel up for it, I'll go to the Thursday one again this week.
I think I'll go and try to get some school done. I think I am going to block three thirty to five as my dedicated writing time today, so I have until then to do as much school as possible.
How are you all doing on your novels? Are you feeling confidant, or are you getting nervous?
Sunday, November 10, 2013
NaNoWriMo - Week 1
Whew, ten days done, and twenty to go. That means that I should be about 1/3 of the way through my novel, which I am not. I am currently about 3k behind, which is not too bad. I've been much farther behind at this point in the month and still won.
My story is going okay, though I've sort of hit a wall. My story so far as been dark realistic fiction, veering sharply into literary fiction. Literary fiction can be great, but it is a PAIN to write. You have to know your characters really well, and sometimes it can just get to be too much work, especially for NaNoWriMo.
I don't know exactly where I am going to go from here, but my main plan is to change things up a bunch. I am considering jumping forward in time (maybe as much as ten or twenty years), and even switching up the genre (heading for more of a fantasy vibe). I would never do this if I expected anyone to read it, but since that is not really why I do NaNo, it should be fine. I'll update you next week on what I actually decided to do.
I would love to go to some Write Ins this year (write ins are usually held at coffee shops or other public places, and are where a bunch of local NaNoers come to hang out and write together), though I don't know whether or not that will work out. I have never gone to any local events in the past two years I have done NaNo, but I would love to meet some of the people I see so much online. I try to keep pretty active on the Bellingham forums on nanowrimo.org, and I do think that the personal connection can be really motivating.
If you are doing NaNoWriMo, and you want to be friends with me on the site, my name is Daisy512. Feel free to nanomail me, or send to a buddy request.
My story is going okay, though I've sort of hit a wall. My story so far as been dark realistic fiction, veering sharply into literary fiction. Literary fiction can be great, but it is a PAIN to write. You have to know your characters really well, and sometimes it can just get to be too much work, especially for NaNoWriMo.
I don't know exactly where I am going to go from here, but my main plan is to change things up a bunch. I am considering jumping forward in time (maybe as much as ten or twenty years), and even switching up the genre (heading for more of a fantasy vibe). I would never do this if I expected anyone to read it, but since that is not really why I do NaNo, it should be fine. I'll update you next week on what I actually decided to do.
I would love to go to some Write Ins this year (write ins are usually held at coffee shops or other public places, and are where a bunch of local NaNoers come to hang out and write together), though I don't know whether or not that will work out. I have never gone to any local events in the past two years I have done NaNo, but I would love to meet some of the people I see so much online. I try to keep pretty active on the Bellingham forums on nanowrimo.org, and I do think that the personal connection can be really motivating.
If you are doing NaNoWriMo, and you want to be friends with me on the site, my name is Daisy512. Feel free to nanomail me, or send to a buddy request.
Homeschool Friday: Weeks 9 & 10
I've been a little behind on blogging lately, but I am going to blame it on NaNoWriMo and leave it at that.
First of all, here is a short summary about last week (Oct. 28-Nov. 1). I did not get a lot done. Halloween was kind of a big deal this year, and with all the stuff going on, school did not end up being my top priority. I did no history, a little Spanish, some math, some science, and half of a Rhetoric chapter. Latin was my best subject of the week. Also, I hosted (and sort of led) a discussion for The Joy Luck Club for our teen book club (our theme this year is World Lit). I hope to write a review of the Joy Luck Club soon, but you know, it is November.
This week went much, much better.
History
For history this week, I did a short writing assignment where I did some research on the Abbasid Dynasty, and wrote several paragraphs about their rise, fall, and the various things that happened in between. I then read and summarized a long chapter out of my textbook about the early middle ages in Europe, ending with the Vikings.
Math and Science
I did not do quite as well here. I did two science lessons on earthquakes, and I did four out of the five math lessons. One of them I did terribly one, one was a test (which I did better on then I had expected), and the other two went pretty well.
Latin and Spanish
In Latin, I finished the chapter I was working, which is really good. It was pretty short, but mostly translation, which is a little more time consuming. I actaully did this book two years ago, but this year I felt like I was not ready to move on to the next book in the series, so I started over, meaning that I have done this all before. I think the repetition is helping me, and I actually know what is coming up. Right now, the translation passages are all ones written by the authors of the textbook, which means they are pretty generic, but I know that pretty soon I will move into older passages (modified for an intermediate student) that were actaully written in Latin hundreds or thousands of years ago.
In Spanish, I finally am almost done with the intro chapter, which is really good. It will be nice to move in to some real grammar and useful information.
Rhetoric
In Rhetoric, I worked through the chapter about statistics, which was fun. They gave me statistics (some straight numbers, others summaries) which I had to analyze, and decide whether or not you can draw conclusions from it, and, if you can, what kind of conclusions. Definetly the most fun I have had in Rhetoric all year!
English, ect.
I am not doing any official English until the new year, which is really nice. I am, of course, writing a novel, but there will be another post about that later today. I am also rereading Things Fall Apart for the World Lit group.
So, that is pretty much it. I have finished several books in the last few weeks, all of which I really want to review if I have time. I am thinking about taking today off of NaNo (even though I am behind) and get a bunch of blog posts written up. We'll see.
First of all, here is a short summary about last week (Oct. 28-Nov. 1). I did not get a lot done. Halloween was kind of a big deal this year, and with all the stuff going on, school did not end up being my top priority. I did no history, a little Spanish, some math, some science, and half of a Rhetoric chapter. Latin was my best subject of the week. Also, I hosted (and sort of led) a discussion for The Joy Luck Club for our teen book club (our theme this year is World Lit). I hope to write a review of the Joy Luck Club soon, but you know, it is November.
This week went much, much better.
History
For history this week, I did a short writing assignment where I did some research on the Abbasid Dynasty, and wrote several paragraphs about their rise, fall, and the various things that happened in between. I then read and summarized a long chapter out of my textbook about the early middle ages in Europe, ending with the Vikings.
Math and Science
I did not do quite as well here. I did two science lessons on earthquakes, and I did four out of the five math lessons. One of them I did terribly one, one was a test (which I did better on then I had expected), and the other two went pretty well.
Latin and Spanish
In Latin, I finished the chapter I was working, which is really good. It was pretty short, but mostly translation, which is a little more time consuming. I actaully did this book two years ago, but this year I felt like I was not ready to move on to the next book in the series, so I started over, meaning that I have done this all before. I think the repetition is helping me, and I actually know what is coming up. Right now, the translation passages are all ones written by the authors of the textbook, which means they are pretty generic, but I know that pretty soon I will move into older passages (modified for an intermediate student) that were actaully written in Latin hundreds or thousands of years ago.
In Spanish, I finally am almost done with the intro chapter, which is really good. It will be nice to move in to some real grammar and useful information.
Rhetoric
In Rhetoric, I worked through the chapter about statistics, which was fun. They gave me statistics (some straight numbers, others summaries) which I had to analyze, and decide whether or not you can draw conclusions from it, and, if you can, what kind of conclusions. Definetly the most fun I have had in Rhetoric all year!
English, ect.
I am not doing any official English until the new year, which is really nice. I am, of course, writing a novel, but there will be another post about that later today. I am also rereading Things Fall Apart for the World Lit group.
So, that is pretty much it. I have finished several books in the last few weeks, all of which I really want to review if I have time. I am thinking about taking today off of NaNo (even though I am behind) and get a bunch of blog posts written up. We'll see.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Twenty Five Things About Me!
I thought it would be fun to share some facts about me with the world. Hopefully it will help you enjoy this blog a little more, understanding the perspective from which it comes.
1. I've only ever been in the United States (because that's where I live), and Canada (because it's less then an hour away).
2. Despite having lived this close to Canada my whole life, the first time I went, I was 12.
3. I went to Waldorf Preschool for two years, and was origionally going to go to the local Waldorf school for Kindergarten, but my parents decided it was too expencive.
4. Instead, they enrolled me in the local public school next door to the Waldorf school, and I went there for Kindergarten, and 1st grade.
5. I dislike writing fiction. While I love writing, I never really feel like I have stories to tell, like many people say they do. There are no stories in my head waiting to be written. I love the written word, and I especially love blogging. It is the perfect mixture of the narrative style you can use with fiction, but without the plot and characters, and the factual content of nonfiction, but without all the research.
6. Google owns me. Seriously, I use so many google products, its a little sad. Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs (or Drive, whichever it is now), Google+ (sort of, sometimes), Google News, Google Analytics, YouTube, and once upon a time, Google Reader, though I had to switch away from that this summer. Oh, and of course, the good old fashioned search engine.Yeah, it is more then a little sad.
7. I played a lot of computer games in middle school. I worshiped Jayisgames.com. I mainly played interactive art style indie adventure games, and point and clicks with a good plot. Some favortite develoers of mine were always Mateusz Skutik, Bart Bonte, Last Day of Work, and Flipline Studios. The last two are really more sims, which I also have a weakness for. I don't play a whole lot now, since I have a lot less time then I did a few years ago, but I still do occasionally.
8. When I was 12 years old and went to the doctor, I was 5' 3 3/4", and in about the 75% percentile for height. Last month, and age 15, I went to the doctor again. This time I'm 5' 4" and in the 53% percentile. I am also a half pound heavier then I was at 12. I grew early, and then not at all. :)
9. I published a newsletter for my friends and family for four years (ages 7 to 11), and charged $10 a year. When I was finished, I had made about $400, before I paid my parents for things like stamps, paper, ink, and envelopes.
10. I have a copy of every edition of the Classical Academy News (my little newsletter). :)
11. I have done Irish Dance for a year now, and love it. I would really like to try other dances, particularly tap, if it becomes a possibility.
12. Only one person has ever read any of the fiction I have written. We both did NaNoWriMo in 2011 (the first year for both of us), and decided to do a December 1st swap. As hard as that was for me to let go of, I'm glad I let him read it, and reading his novel helped me gain a little perspective. That said, nobody else has ever read any of my work, and they are not likely to.
13. I can't wait until I can start taking classes at the community college next year.
14. I've never had an official boyfriend, though there was one boy who came close. We were good friends for a long time, and did a lot of talking and hanging out for a few years. Unfortunately, that whole thing ended rather badly, and we've exchanged a minimal amount of words over the past year and half since then.
15. On the Meyers-Brigs scale, I'm an extrovert, which means I get my energy from social interactions.
16. I have had three library cards over the past ten years, and I still have the fourteen digit number on the back of the first one memorized, even though I've had two others in the four years since that original one cracked. Literally, it had a crack through the barcode.
17. In the nine years we have been homeschooling, I have used four (or maybe five, depending on how you think about it) math programs. It's kind of a lot.
18. Unlike the stereotypical homeschooler, we are a secular homeschooling family. What does this mean? Religion doesn't really have a place in most of our school subjects.
19. Summer is my favorite season, and July is my favorite month.
20. Winter is my least favorite season, because I don't like all the rain we get then. It's also rarely sunny, and usually cold. We don't always get snow, but I don't like it when we do. I am NOT a snow person. Depending on a lot of factors, my least favorite month is either December or January.
21. My bedroom is my sanctuary. Very few people other then me ever enter it, and it is as clean or messy as I like, depending on my mood. It is the place I can always go to try to get away from life, though that doesn't always work too well.
22. I am a total perfectionist. If you've read this post, you probably already know that. It can make life hard sometimes, and its the main reason I dislike a lot of art, particularly drawing and painting.
23. I do enjoy more of the 3D art forms, like clay, print making, and stained glass.
24. For much of my childhood, reading was my way of escaping reality. When I was unhappy with my life, or worried and anxious, I would read a book to get away from it all. The world would all still be there when I came back, but for the several hours it took me to finish the book, my problems didn't matter.
25. I tend to be a person who sticks to reality, and constantly shoots down thought and ideas that are too frivilous or crazy. Despite that, I have for years allowed myself one crazy dream: to be a librarian. Will that be where my life goes? I don't yet know. Maybe time will go one, and I'll realize that I really wouldn't like to be a librarian, but for now, it's my one sort of crazy, ridiculously long term goal from when I was a little kid: I would love to be a librarian someday.
Well, there you go. Thinking of 25 thing was actually pretty hard, and this list did take a while to compile. A lot of these things are things you probably already know about me if you read this blog regularly, and especially if you know me IRL, but either way, maybe you gained a little insight into my life.
This post is one that I wrote back in October. Right now, I'm hopefully working on my novel. There will be more prewritten posts every Monday and Wednesday this month, along with a school update every Friday, and a NaNo update every Saturday.
1. I've only ever been in the United States (because that's where I live), and Canada (because it's less then an hour away).
2. Despite having lived this close to Canada my whole life, the first time I went, I was 12.
3. I went to Waldorf Preschool for two years, and was origionally going to go to the local Waldorf school for Kindergarten, but my parents decided it was too expencive.
4. Instead, they enrolled me in the local public school next door to the Waldorf school, and I went there for Kindergarten, and 1st grade.
5. I dislike writing fiction. While I love writing, I never really feel like I have stories to tell, like many people say they do. There are no stories in my head waiting to be written. I love the written word, and I especially love blogging. It is the perfect mixture of the narrative style you can use with fiction, but without the plot and characters, and the factual content of nonfiction, but without all the research.
6. Google owns me. Seriously, I use so many google products, its a little sad. Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs (or Drive, whichever it is now), Google+ (sort of, sometimes), Google News, Google Analytics, YouTube, and once upon a time, Google Reader, though I had to switch away from that this summer. Oh, and of course, the good old fashioned search engine.Yeah, it is more then a little sad.
7. I played a lot of computer games in middle school. I worshiped Jayisgames.com. I mainly played interactive art style indie adventure games, and point and clicks with a good plot. Some favortite develoers of mine were always Mateusz Skutik, Bart Bonte, Last Day of Work, and Flipline Studios. The last two are really more sims, which I also have a weakness for. I don't play a whole lot now, since I have a lot less time then I did a few years ago, but I still do occasionally.
8. When I was 12 years old and went to the doctor, I was 5' 3 3/4", and in about the 75% percentile for height. Last month, and age 15, I went to the doctor again. This time I'm 5' 4" and in the 53% percentile. I am also a half pound heavier then I was at 12. I grew early, and then not at all. :)
9. I published a newsletter for my friends and family for four years (ages 7 to 11), and charged $10 a year. When I was finished, I had made about $400, before I paid my parents for things like stamps, paper, ink, and envelopes.
10. I have a copy of every edition of the Classical Academy News (my little newsletter). :)
11. I have done Irish Dance for a year now, and love it. I would really like to try other dances, particularly tap, if it becomes a possibility.
12. Only one person has ever read any of the fiction I have written. We both did NaNoWriMo in 2011 (the first year for both of us), and decided to do a December 1st swap. As hard as that was for me to let go of, I'm glad I let him read it, and reading his novel helped me gain a little perspective. That said, nobody else has ever read any of my work, and they are not likely to.
13. I can't wait until I can start taking classes at the community college next year.
14. I've never had an official boyfriend, though there was one boy who came close. We were good friends for a long time, and did a lot of talking and hanging out for a few years. Unfortunately, that whole thing ended rather badly, and we've exchanged a minimal amount of words over the past year and half since then.
15. On the Meyers-Brigs scale, I'm an extrovert, which means I get my energy from social interactions.
16. I have had three library cards over the past ten years, and I still have the fourteen digit number on the back of the first one memorized, even though I've had two others in the four years since that original one cracked. Literally, it had a crack through the barcode.
17. In the nine years we have been homeschooling, I have used four (or maybe five, depending on how you think about it) math programs. It's kind of a lot.
18. Unlike the stereotypical homeschooler, we are a secular homeschooling family. What does this mean? Religion doesn't really have a place in most of our school subjects.
19. Summer is my favorite season, and July is my favorite month.
20. Winter is my least favorite season, because I don't like all the rain we get then. It's also rarely sunny, and usually cold. We don't always get snow, but I don't like it when we do. I am NOT a snow person. Depending on a lot of factors, my least favorite month is either December or January.
21. My bedroom is my sanctuary. Very few people other then me ever enter it, and it is as clean or messy as I like, depending on my mood. It is the place I can always go to try to get away from life, though that doesn't always work too well.
22. I am a total perfectionist. If you've read this post, you probably already know that. It can make life hard sometimes, and its the main reason I dislike a lot of art, particularly drawing and painting.
23. I do enjoy more of the 3D art forms, like clay, print making, and stained glass.
24. For much of my childhood, reading was my way of escaping reality. When I was unhappy with my life, or worried and anxious, I would read a book to get away from it all. The world would all still be there when I came back, but for the several hours it took me to finish the book, my problems didn't matter.
25. I tend to be a person who sticks to reality, and constantly shoots down thought and ideas that are too frivilous or crazy. Despite that, I have for years allowed myself one crazy dream: to be a librarian. Will that be where my life goes? I don't yet know. Maybe time will go one, and I'll realize that I really wouldn't like to be a librarian, but for now, it's my one sort of crazy, ridiculously long term goal from when I was a little kid: I would love to be a librarian someday.
Well, there you go. Thinking of 25 thing was actually pretty hard, and this list did take a while to compile. A lot of these things are things you probably already know about me if you read this blog regularly, and especially if you know me IRL, but either way, maybe you gained a little insight into my life.
This post is one that I wrote back in October. Right now, I'm hopefully working on my novel. There will be more prewritten posts every Monday and Wednesday this month, along with a school update every Friday, and a NaNo update every Saturday.
Monday, November 4, 2013
NaNo Update: Four Days In {Plus - Vote for Me!}
Yeah, I know I said I would do this update on Saturday, and I really did mean to, but then I forgot, and yesterday was pretty busy, so I did not get around to it until now. So far, my word count is 6683, which I am quite happy about since I have done no writing so far today, and I know I will have quite a bit of time to write later on.
So far, my story is going well. My plot is developing better then I had hoped, which is exciting. I still do not know where exactly things are going to go, but I have an ending, and some of the steps to get there, which is good!
I do not have a lot to talk about this week, so I think I'll sign off now, and try to get some school done before I write.
Also, I was nominated for the HSBA Post 2013 Homeschool Blog Awards! You can vote for me once a day if you like. The voting is open now, and will stay open until Nov. 18. You can click here to vote for me. If you then go all the way down the page (it's a long one) to the categories, you can vote for me in category number 10, Best Teen Blog.
I won't mention it again, since I don't want to be annoying, but if you like my blog, it would be great if you would come back and vote again each day, or even tell your friends about it.
Sorry for the short post, but expect me back for a scheduled post on Wednesday, and then a school update on Friday!
So far, my story is going well. My plot is developing better then I had hoped, which is exciting. I still do not know where exactly things are going to go, but I have an ending, and some of the steps to get there, which is good!
I do not have a lot to talk about this week, so I think I'll sign off now, and try to get some school done before I write.
Also, I was nominated for the HSBA Post 2013 Homeschool Blog Awards! You can vote for me once a day if you like. The voting is open now, and will stay open until Nov. 18. You can click here to vote for me. If you then go all the way down the page (it's a long one) to the categories, you can vote for me in category number 10, Best Teen Blog.
I won't mention it again, since I don't want to be annoying, but if you like my blog, it would be great if you would come back and vote again each day, or even tell your friends about it.
Sorry for the short post, but expect me back for a scheduled post on Wednesday, and then a school update on Friday!
Friday, November 1, 2013
NaNoWriMo: Where it all begins
It's November 1st, and I actually finished 1700 words before noon. I'm pretty happy with that. The afternoon is going to be devoted to school, but before I start on that, here is a quick NaNo post. I'm not going to do a homeschool post today (as mentioned in yesterday's post), but I'll cover this week in next week's post.
As I mentioned a while ago, I have this game called The Storymatic
. It's a lot of fun, and I've even used it with my writing sometimes. This year, since I didn't have any story ideas, I decided it would be fun to pull some cards, and create a story around them. As needed though out the month (whenever I get stuck and run out of ideas), I'll pull a new card or two.
Here are my starting cards. Character cards:
1. booworm
2. person who doesn't feel attractive enough.
3. teenager
4. person with a grudge
5. person who can't go back
6. daydreamer
1 and 2 are the same character, 3 and 4 are a single character, and so are 5 and 6.
Plot cards:
1. one way plane ticket
2. letter to the editor
3. scrapbook
That's what I've got to go on at the moment. I'm using most of these pretty loosely, and I give up on some if I don't like them as the story goes on.
What story would you make with these prompts?
*This post contains affiliate links.
As I mentioned a while ago, I have this game called The Storymatic
. It's a lot of fun, and I've even used it with my writing sometimes. This year, since I didn't have any story ideas, I decided it would be fun to pull some cards, and create a story around them. As needed though out the month (whenever I get stuck and run out of ideas), I'll pull a new card or two.Here are my starting cards. Character cards:
1. booworm
2. person who doesn't feel attractive enough.
3. teenager
4. person with a grudge
5. person who can't go back
6. daydreamer
1 and 2 are the same character, 3 and 4 are a single character, and so are 5 and 6.
Plot cards:
1. one way plane ticket
2. letter to the editor
3. scrapbook
That's what I've got to go on at the moment. I'm using most of these pretty loosely, and I give up on some if I don't like them as the story goes on.
What story would you make with these prompts?
*This post contains affiliate links.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Almost there...
Tomorrow, NaNoWriMo begins. That means a variety of things. For my real life friends, it means that they are likely to be updated on my word count far more often then they would like to be. Sorry, guys. For me, it means a lot less free time (which is already some thing I'm low on), and that means less blogging time.
A couple of weeks ago, I said that I was going to get 8-10 posts written over the course of October, to be published through out November. Great idea, right? Well, I got one post written. I think it's a good one, but it's just one. That means that the blog is going to be pretty quiet for the next thirty days.
There will be a school update every Friday (though they might be a little shorter then usual), and a NaNo update every Saturday. I'm toying with the idea of doing a live blogging week later in the month, to give people an idea of what it's like to be a homeschooled teen trying to write a novel in a month, but that may or may not happen.
School this week hasn't really happened, though I got some done yesterday, and some today. I still have a few hours before Halloween events begin, so I hope to do a bit more. No matter how much I do, it will be no where near what my goals were, but that's just the reality of it.
Okay, this is the last official post until Saturday. Normally, I'd do a post about school tomorrow, but I'm going to skip that this week, and include this week and next week both in the next post.
Are you ready to write a novel?
A couple of weeks ago, I said that I was going to get 8-10 posts written over the course of October, to be published through out November. Great idea, right? Well, I got one post written. I think it's a good one, but it's just one. That means that the blog is going to be pretty quiet for the next thirty days.
There will be a school update every Friday (though they might be a little shorter then usual), and a NaNo update every Saturday. I'm toying with the idea of doing a live blogging week later in the month, to give people an idea of what it's like to be a homeschooled teen trying to write a novel in a month, but that may or may not happen.
School this week hasn't really happened, though I got some done yesterday, and some today. I still have a few hours before Halloween events begin, so I hope to do a bit more. No matter how much I do, it will be no where near what my goals were, but that's just the reality of it.
Okay, this is the last official post until Saturday. Normally, I'd do a post about school tomorrow, but I'm going to skip that this week, and include this week and next week both in the next post.
Are you ready to write a novel?
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
NaNoWriMo: Week 0 {Everybody Panic!!!}
I had about five posts I've been meaning to write and post this week, but this is the first time I've even opened up Blogger since Sunday. Sorry! Life has been CRAZY, and it's not looking like it's going to slow down any time soon. I only have about ten minutes to write right now before my grandmother comes to take us to lunch for my sister's birthday. As soon as we get back from that, I will have less then an hour to get all costumed up before heading to a local park to do a Lord of the Rings photo shoot, since we might not have a chance to get any good pictures on Thursday.
Some of the other LOTR people will be coming back to our house after that to participate in a discussion of the Joy Luck Club, which I am hosting, and apparently leading as well, though I have not even looked at any discussion questions yet.
That's just this afternoon. Anyway, I doubt you want to hear about how busy my life is, but at least you have some idea of why the blog has been a little quite, and will probably stay that way.
So, this is going to be be NaNoUpdate number 1. Normally, they will go up on Saturdays, but I forgot to write a post last Saturday. I don't have a lot to say this time, other then that I have hit the panic stage. If you have done NaNo multiple times, you might know what I mean.
Every December I swear that I will never put myself through the torture of NaNo again. In mid September of the following year, I begin to remember how much fun NaNo was, and start getting excited to do it again. On about Oct. 28 or 29, I suddenly remember just how hard and stressful NaNo can be. At this point, I've already told tons of people I'm doing it, and I often have even done a little planning, so I can't back out.
I just hit that panic stage. I've done very little planning this year, less then ever before. I do have two wins (out of two tries) under my belt, so that helps, but such rational thoughts don't do much good against that late October panic.
I have only TWO days left until NaNoWriMo, and they will be completely filled with an insane ammount of STUFF. In fact, the first time I will realiztically have to sit down and relax will be Friday morning. Friday, November 1st. Maybe I should just give up on the idea of relaxation until December. :)
How is your NaNo planning going? Do you get that late October panic too? Do you feel ready to tackle this novel (what a ridiculous question)? Also, if you are a NaNoer, feel free to add me as a buddy! My username is Daisy512 on the site.
Some of the other LOTR people will be coming back to our house after that to participate in a discussion of the Joy Luck Club, which I am hosting, and apparently leading as well, though I have not even looked at any discussion questions yet.
That's just this afternoon. Anyway, I doubt you want to hear about how busy my life is, but at least you have some idea of why the blog has been a little quite, and will probably stay that way.
So, this is going to be be NaNoUpdate number 1. Normally, they will go up on Saturdays, but I forgot to write a post last Saturday. I don't have a lot to say this time, other then that I have hit the panic stage. If you have done NaNo multiple times, you might know what I mean.
Every December I swear that I will never put myself through the torture of NaNo again. In mid September of the following year, I begin to remember how much fun NaNo was, and start getting excited to do it again. On about Oct. 28 or 29, I suddenly remember just how hard and stressful NaNo can be. At this point, I've already told tons of people I'm doing it, and I often have even done a little planning, so I can't back out.
I just hit that panic stage. I've done very little planning this year, less then ever before. I do have two wins (out of two tries) under my belt, so that helps, but such rational thoughts don't do much good against that late October panic.
I have only TWO days left until NaNoWriMo, and they will be completely filled with an insane ammount of STUFF. In fact, the first time I will realiztically have to sit down and relax will be Friday morning. Friday, November 1st. Maybe I should just give up on the idea of relaxation until December. :)
How is your NaNo planning going? Do you get that late October panic too? Do you feel ready to tackle this novel (what a ridiculous question)? Also, if you are a NaNoer, feel free to add me as a buddy! My username is Daisy512 on the site.
Monday, October 21, 2013
NaNo Gear!
No time for a real post today, since I have tons of work to do (and I'm still not feeling great), but look what came in the mail this afternoon!
So excited! Now I'm ready to write!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
NaNoWriMo - It's Coming!
For the last two years, I have participated in National Novel Writing Month each November. Basically, the idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. So far, I've successfully done it twice, and I'm excited to go at it again this year.
Last year, I worried a lot about the story, and ended up totally switching gears 20k words in because I didn't really like what I had done. This year, I'm going to try to forget the story, and focus on writing. While the story is obviously important, I'm not going to do any planning AT ALL (pantsers FTW!), and I won't even have any idea what I'm doing until the day before. How am I going to do that? A few years ago, I received the Storymatic
as a gift, but have never really used it. It's a box with two types of cards: character cards, and plot cards. Character cards are things like: wrestler, servant, animal psychic, or mascot for a professional sports team. The plot cards are things like: shouldn't have touched it, nobody is watching, flat tire, or fear of getting old. I like them because they give you lots of freedom, but still get your creativity going.
My plan (at least so far, things could still change), is to pull a two or three character cards, and one or two plot cards on Oct. 31. That will give me some time to think about how I'll incorporate them all into my story. Then, whenever I need something new, I'll pull a new card. The story I end up with will be totally ridiculous, and the plot will probably be full of holes, but that's okay. I'm not writing this story because I want to publish it. If I did, things would be different. I'm writing to write. I want practice writing, and practice with being flexible with my story.
During November, I'm going to be pretty busy trying to keep up with school and NaNoWriMo, so I might not have a lot of time to blog. I will try to blog twice a week (on Fridays and Saturdays), once to do my weekly school wrap up, and once to do a NaNo update. I might have time to write some posts ahead of time and publish them through out the month, but if not, I'll be back to regular posting in December.
I know November is still a ways away, and I'll probably post a few more NaNo planning posts before then. In the meantime, I do have some posts planned. I will be reviewing a short story anthology tomorrow, along with my usual school update. Doing those updates has helped me do more, I think, because I don't want to say that I didn't get anything done. I want to tell you about all the amazing work I did. :)
I also have two more posts in the My Favorite Things series coming up in the next few weeks, and another book review coming up sometime next week. I also thought it would be fun to do another homeschooling QA post, so if you have questions about homeschooling (or other things, it doesn't have to be just homeschooling), please let me know so I can get that post started! I'll be asking for questions on Google+ today as well.
Also, this blog now has a twitter account! If you use twitter, follow me @RWGHBlog to be updated when new posts are published, and to hear about books I love, and other fun literary stuff!
Last year, I worried a lot about the story, and ended up totally switching gears 20k words in because I didn't really like what I had done. This year, I'm going to try to forget the story, and focus on writing. While the story is obviously important, I'm not going to do any planning AT ALL (pantsers FTW!), and I won't even have any idea what I'm doing until the day before. How am I going to do that? A few years ago, I received the Storymatic
as a gift, but have never really used it. It's a box with two types of cards: character cards, and plot cards. Character cards are things like: wrestler, servant, animal psychic, or mascot for a professional sports team. The plot cards are things like: shouldn't have touched it, nobody is watching, flat tire, or fear of getting old. I like them because they give you lots of freedom, but still get your creativity going.My plan (at least so far, things could still change), is to pull a two or three character cards, and one or two plot cards on Oct. 31. That will give me some time to think about how I'll incorporate them all into my story. Then, whenever I need something new, I'll pull a new card. The story I end up with will be totally ridiculous, and the plot will probably be full of holes, but that's okay. I'm not writing this story because I want to publish it. If I did, things would be different. I'm writing to write. I want practice writing, and practice with being flexible with my story.
During November, I'm going to be pretty busy trying to keep up with school and NaNoWriMo, so I might not have a lot of time to blog. I will try to blog twice a week (on Fridays and Saturdays), once to do my weekly school wrap up, and once to do a NaNo update. I might have time to write some posts ahead of time and publish them through out the month, but if not, I'll be back to regular posting in December.
I know November is still a ways away, and I'll probably post a few more NaNo planning posts before then. In the meantime, I do have some posts planned. I will be reviewing a short story anthology tomorrow, along with my usual school update. Doing those updates has helped me do more, I think, because I don't want to say that I didn't get anything done. I want to tell you about all the amazing work I did. :)
I also have two more posts in the My Favorite Things series coming up in the next few weeks, and another book review coming up sometime next week. I also thought it would be fun to do another homeschooling QA post, so if you have questions about homeschooling (or other things, it doesn't have to be just homeschooling), please let me know so I can get that post started! I'll be asking for questions on Google+ today as well.
Also, this blog now has a twitter account! If you use twitter, follow me @RWGHBlog to be updated when new posts are published, and to hear about books I love, and other fun literary stuff!
Thursday, August 22, 2013
100 for 100
This year, I am participating in Go Teen Writer's 3rd Annual 100 for 100 challenge. My goal is going to be to write at least 100 words a day of something, either fiction or nonfiction, that gets published, a day. That means any posts for this blog will count toward that total. Also, any short fiction I write (I hope to write quite a bit), that gets published within two days, will count.
This is where my brand new blog comes in. I didn't want this blog to become to cluttered, so that is where all random pieces of writing, including poetry and flash fiction, will go. Things will continue as normal on this blog.
Head over there to see my introductory post, where I will be listing out the rules for the 100x100 challenge, and what my game plan is.
This is where my brand new blog comes in. I didn't want this blog to become to cluttered, so that is where all random pieces of writing, including poetry and flash fiction, will go. Things will continue as normal on this blog.
Head over there to see my introductory post, where I will be listing out the rules for the 100x100 challenge, and what my game plan is.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Random Thoughts on Writing
I have struggled for a long time (literally years) to write fiction that I like. It is not the actual writing that's hard, it's liking what I write. I have won NaNoWriMo twice now, but I have never been happy with what I've written.
Today, as I sat down to try to plan out a new novel, I am deciding to take a new approach. In the past, I have always tried to write the type of book I like to read (scifi, dystoian, fantasy, general teen fiction) and it hasn't worked out too well. I'm realizing that maybe I need to take a note from John Steinbeck, who is one of my favorite authors of all time.
A long time ago, I remember reading that his first novels (which I have not yet read), were fantasy, King Arthur type stuff, because he had been told that was what was popular. Those books did terribly, and he realized he had to take a new approach. He decided to scrap everything he had been told and he wrote what he knew. He wrote about the people and places he loved the most, and his readers loved. Books like The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men made him famous.
I'm thinking that maybe I need to try the same thing. I've spent two, almost three, years trying to write about things I know very little about. When I think about it, the pieces of my own writing I feel the bast about are my opinion essays and articles about things that matter to me. My two best pieces of writing (in my opinion), are an essay about Great Expectations I wrote last year, and a responsive essay I wrote on Ben Johnson's "On Education and Style." Maybe, someday, I'll share those here.
Both of those are essays on things that I care about and believe in. Maybe I need to take the same approach with my fiction. With all this in mind, I have a new plan, which I am sharing here for accountability.
I am going to try to have a finished novel by the end of 2013 with it's basis in my own experiences. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do yet, but I am going to try to "write what I know." That doesn't mean that it'll be a memoir (I only have 15 years to write about, and it wouldn't be that interesting), but there are many themes in my life that I can pull from. I'm sure homeschooling, which is hugely important in my life, will be one of them. My family has gone through a very tumultuous last few years, and I am sure those experiences, and their effect on me, will be prominent in my story as well.
I am a planner at heart, and I hope to spend the next few months brainstorming for, and eventually outlining, my novel. Maybe it won't go anywhere, or maybe it'll be the best thing I've done so far. We'll have to wait and see. Whatever happens, I'll try to post here about it regularly. At least once a month, I will try to post about how this new project is going, even if it's going nowhere.
Today, as I sat down to try to plan out a new novel, I am deciding to take a new approach. In the past, I have always tried to write the type of book I like to read (scifi, dystoian, fantasy, general teen fiction) and it hasn't worked out too well. I'm realizing that maybe I need to take a note from John Steinbeck, who is one of my favorite authors of all time.
A long time ago, I remember reading that his first novels (which I have not yet read), were fantasy, King Arthur type stuff, because he had been told that was what was popular. Those books did terribly, and he realized he had to take a new approach. He decided to scrap everything he had been told and he wrote what he knew. He wrote about the people and places he loved the most, and his readers loved. Books like The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men made him famous.
I'm thinking that maybe I need to try the same thing. I've spent two, almost three, years trying to write about things I know very little about. When I think about it, the pieces of my own writing I feel the bast about are my opinion essays and articles about things that matter to me. My two best pieces of writing (in my opinion), are an essay about Great Expectations I wrote last year, and a responsive essay I wrote on Ben Johnson's "On Education and Style." Maybe, someday, I'll share those here.
Both of those are essays on things that I care about and believe in. Maybe I need to take the same approach with my fiction. With all this in mind, I have a new plan, which I am sharing here for accountability.
I am going to try to have a finished novel by the end of 2013 with it's basis in my own experiences. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do yet, but I am going to try to "write what I know." That doesn't mean that it'll be a memoir (I only have 15 years to write about, and it wouldn't be that interesting), but there are many themes in my life that I can pull from. I'm sure homeschooling, which is hugely important in my life, will be one of them. My family has gone through a very tumultuous last few years, and I am sure those experiences, and their effect on me, will be prominent in my story as well.
I am a planner at heart, and I hope to spend the next few months brainstorming for, and eventually outlining, my novel. Maybe it won't go anywhere, or maybe it'll be the best thing I've done so far. We'll have to wait and see. Whatever happens, I'll try to post here about it regularly. At least once a month, I will try to post about how this new project is going, even if it's going nowhere.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Camp NaNoWriMo April 2013: Week 0 Update
It is Tuesday, April 2nd, which means that it is time for my Camp NaNoWriMo update for the week. Really, I do not have a whole lot to say. My goal for the month is 30,000 words, and I am currently on track to meet that goal. I have not yet written anything today, and my word count is 1,042 words.
I did no planning at all before yesterday morning, and so far the story is going fine. I have a few ideas, and a few characters, and we will have to see what happens from there. Maybe it will go off in some crazy direction and end up being nearly plotless. That would be fine. I am not doing this to have a great story at the end. I am doing it to have some story and the end, and some more writing experience under my belt.
I am not sure what my posts will look like for the rest of the month, but I can promise that there will be a Camp NaNoWriMo update every Tuesday. I will try to keep up with Homeschool Fridays, but with writing and school, I can not promise that they will happen for the next few weeks. I will try to review books and movies as I watch or read them, but those reviews will probably be pretty short.
I do have some posts already written, mostly the Banned Books series that I am transferring from my other blog, so that is mostly what will be going up this month.
So, expect one or two posts a week, and come back in May for a real blog again. :)
I did no planning at all before yesterday morning, and so far the story is going fine. I have a few ideas, and a few characters, and we will have to see what happens from there. Maybe it will go off in some crazy direction and end up being nearly plotless. That would be fine. I am not doing this to have a great story at the end. I am doing it to have some story and the end, and some more writing experience under my belt.
I am not sure what my posts will look like for the rest of the month, but I can promise that there will be a Camp NaNoWriMo update every Tuesday. I will try to keep up with Homeschool Fridays, but with writing and school, I can not promise that they will happen for the next few weeks. I will try to review books and movies as I watch or read them, but those reviews will probably be pretty short.
I do have some posts already written, mostly the Banned Books series that I am transferring from my other blog, so that is mostly what will be going up this month.
So, expect one or two posts a week, and come back in May for a real blog again. :)
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