Hmmm.

Is it just me, or are there a lot of YA trilogies lately?

...That's all.

Lost five hours today on a reading binge

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White, you guys. I didn't think it would be that good.

And it was incredible.

I thought it was going to be another typical YA supernatural romance with vampires and drama and angst and blablabla but no. It's actually charming and funny and exciting.

I was not prepared.

No, it's not without its flaws (explaining jokes, some typos, the awkwardly used word/phrase here and there) (pot and kettle, I know) but the pros largely outweigh the cons. And that character arc! Let me just be a fourteen-year-old so I can do this real quick: <3 <3 <3 And there's no love triangle! I mean, there's a psycho ex-boyfriend, but the main makes it very clear she wants nothing to do with him, so... <3 And the main love interest guy has flaws, too! And there are very real stakes! And you actually kind of feel for the main villain! And - and - and -

*Cries* I'm just so happy, you guys. This book is so awesome.

Friday Fragments

(Geez, when was the last time I did this. I'll try not to spam you guys with videos again.)

1) I'm a bit behind in Camp NaNo, but hoping to catch up this weekend. I've pretty much accepted that this has turned into a collection of short stories instead of something super exciting. Oh well. I'll save the super exciting stuff for the main event.

2) Something amazing happened the other day! I thought I lost the main files for my NaNo '10 story because the computer screen broke and it was all glitchy and terrible, but miracles happened and the files were saved! Don't you love it when that happens? :)

3) I'm feeling a reading binge coming on in September. So many books:
-Memoirs of a Geisha
-Trickster's Choice
-The Light Fantastic
-The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
-And Then There Were None
-The Scoop & Behind The Screen (two stories in one book)

Considering adding Divergent to that list.

4) OK, this one's for The Hunger Games fans. Spoilers ahoy. What did you think of the epilogue in Mockingjay? I thought it worked pretty well. It showed that the world changed, the survivors were trying to move on, and all that jazz. The only part I was kind of unhappy about was that Gale and Katniss were never really friends again, and that was pretty lame.
My friends Kirstin and Courtney weren't really happy with the epilogue in general (but Courtney's never been happy with an epilogue :P). They both thought Katniss sounded really depressed (PTSD anyone?), and there wasn't enough explanation about Panem and their new government and such.
So yeah, what do you think?

Have a good weekend, everybody! :)

It's been a while since I've spammed y'all with pictures and videos, hasn't it?

Let's fix that. :D

Haha, hipsters are hilarious.

Saw this the other day and got the feeling that in time, I'm going to have to make a similar ridiculous promise.



(Pfft. "Once you jump into a tub of marshmallows, you really have to savor the moment.")

And lastly... guys. Did you realize that the main NaNoWriMo event is less than three months away? (While I try to figure out what the heck even happened to my plot. Where'd it gooooooo...)

Let's talk about cursive

There was this post over at Daily Writing Tips talking about how people don't really write in cursive or by hand anymore because of computers and tech and all that jazz. (It's like a sillier version of the hard copy v. ebook debates, except hard copies are definitely better than ebooks. :P)

I don't mind writing by hand at all, but I really hate cursive. It's always seemed to be a really ridiculous way to write, not to mention it gets harder and harder to read the more often you use it. It's like print writing's horrible inverse. Plus, thanks to some school-hopping between second and third grade, I had to learn it three times. Kinda loses its charm after the second time.

*Looks at blog banner*

...

Week One in a nutshell

So I started off the week feeling pretty good about this story. Loved my characters, thought the plot line worked pretty well, all that jazz. The first chapter basically wrote itself, which was nice. Also had a lot of fun writing some future parts with the nightmare sequences. Those are pretty fun, too.

Then somewhere around Thursday, I got to the part where the antagonists were introduced and just wasn't feeling it. So I wrote more nightmare sequences! And then realized how action-light this story really is when I was imagining something really exciting.

And now it's turned into a completely different story (different genre and everything), but with the same characters. It'll be fun. :D

There is no way I will regret redoing the entire story at the end of the month.

Did you see the new Writer's Digest site?

It's beautiful~. So yeah, link's right over to the side. Unless you're reading this in something like Google Reader, in which case, here ya go.

So Day Two! It's going slowly. Probably cuz I'm still stuck in chapter one and because I just started writing a little while ago. Trying to work through the first few plot-related songs on the playlist. Word count-wise, I'm on track. Somewhere around 1800 right now.

/Cut scene/

Skipped to some depressing future parts. Killed a main character. Twice.

Going for three.

Day One so far

Started out a little shaky this morning, but I think that was because I was super tired and getting distracted by the internet. I was worried that the story would move pretty slowly, but after a page and a half of putting up with Mitchell and Tasia being themselves, everything's moving really quickly.

It's weird because I thought that Ace would be the main character because... well, he has all the makings. But Mitchell is actually proving to be a pretty good MC, even (especially?) if the point of his character arc is for him to stop being so passive. :D And besides, rolling with third person omniscient over here, so it's not like the other three won't get plenty of attention.

I think this thing finally has a title, too. Going with Soul Shout. Came from this song by Your Heart, specifically this set of lyrics: "If it's heartache that you want
Well we're f-f-fresh out
You can have a kiss from God
That will make your soul shout..."

So yeah! Everything's going pretty well so far. :)

Google Earth is dead useful. / Carissa loses her mind

And probably dangerous in the wrong hands.

I've been trying to find a good hometown for these kids. It's just in my head that they're from a kind of big town in the mountains. I've got it narrowed down to somewhere in Idaho. But now I feel bad because I feel like I'm creeping on all these towns and I just want to get everything right.

It's late and I should sleep.

/Cut scene/


Wow this town is like the Bible Belt, except with Mormons.

And it's PERFECT.

wait if I use this town then I can make a bunch of Pokemon shout-outs


/Cut scene/

Holy tomato it's perfecter


Ernest Hemingway and his grandkid are buried here, you guys


I found a street called Lane Avenue. ...No further comment.

/One more search/

Hey guys

Guys

I found my neighborhood and


It is ridiculous how many people have ridiculously large swimming pools, like ten people. :( Why aren't we friends, swimming pool people?


Why do I keep typing in italics?


Right. So tired.


Yeah OK I'm going to sleep now.

/LIES/

5t's

wa5t what 5s... s60eth5ng 5s screw5ng w5th the 2eyb6ard. TH5S W6N'T EVEN 0A2E SENSE T606RR6W.

oh. Finally found out what num lock does. BUT GUYS IT'S THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY!

sleep

Getting ready for camp

Camp NaNoWriMo, that is.

Most of my plotting has been music-based, and by that I mean I've been going through every single song in Windows Media Player to try to establish the general mood of the story, what the characters are like, what they're like with each other, and, y'know, all the plot points. It helps, I think.

I'm not going to share the entire playlist with you guys (28 items/ 108 minutes), but right now I'll show you the first part of songs that establish the story and the characters.

Story's Theme: Best of Me (acoustic) by The Starting Line
Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone
The worst is over and you can have the best of me
We got older, but we're still young
We never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up

Ace Flynn: Everything You Ever Wanted by Hawk Nelson
I tried to be perfect, tried to be honest
Tried to be everything that you ever wanted
Tried to be stronger, tried to be smarter
Tried to be everything but you

Shea Henley: Ordinary Day by Zoegirl
Every minute feels like an hour slowly creeping by
All of this stress but I do my best to take it all in stride
I need to decide, need to unwind
All these things are on my mind
It's an ordinary day...

Tasia Henley: It's On by Superchick
It all comes down to this
You take your best shot, might miss
You take it anyway
You're gonna make your move today

Mitchell Schubert: Procrastinating by Stellar Kart
So here I am, it's 3 AM, I don't know where to begin
Time's running out and there's no doubt that I feel like throwing in
The towel with no way I can get this start finished

Ace and Mitchell: Last Train Home by FM Static
We've fallen apart somewhere back at the start
When we thought that we could fix each other by ourselves
Let's get back to the part when things weren't like they are
And we were laughing on the last train home

Shea and Tasia: Vole by Celine Dion
Vole, vole petite aile (fly, fly little wing)
Ma douce, mon hirondelle (my dear, my dove)
Va t'en loin, va t'en sereine (go far away, go serene)
Qu'ici rien ne te retienne (let nothing here hold you back)

Mitchell and Tasia: Finding Something to Do by hellogoodbye
As long as there's something to see, I'll see it with you
As long as the days can seem, we'll find something to do
If ever your love should leave, just swear you'll follow it through
And I swear I'll always follow you

Shea and Ace: Some Story by Raven Zoe
But your eyes are the saddest that I've ever seen
And whatever you're hiding shines right through the screen
And those other girls might not agree
But some story isn't worth it to me

Tasia and Ace: Hot Air Balloon by Owl City
I'll be out of my mind, and you'll be out of ideas pretty soon
So let's spend an afternoon in a cold hot air balloon
Leave your jacket behind, lean out and touch the treetops over town
I can't wait to kiss the ground wherever we touch back down

Shea and Mitchell: Fine by Lemon Demon
Light is on the way, we'll be having a fun time
It's such a lovely day, we should pocket the sunshine
And never give it back, even if there's a heatwave
We're stalling on the track, it'll just be a close shave

Normally I don't pick out songs for every single relationship, but that's kind of a big focus in this story, so that's what happened.

High school writing. Oh joy.

So in eleventh grade, my teacher advised us that we should keep everything we've written, whether it's good or bad, because when we look back on it, we'll see how far we've come as writers.

And I did keep everything. Well, a lot of it. The Harry Potter fan fiction is all gone. :P So is a lot of my emo poetry, but that's more because I didn't back it up. (Seriously, sixteen-year-old me, what was wrong with you?)

So the other day I was looking through some old notebooks from high school, and I found this.

"Have at thee, knave," growled the monstrous knight right behind Bobert. Bobert paled at the unbelievable size of his challenger, and then remembered his squirrel army and smirked.

"SQUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAK!" shouted Bobert, pointing at his foe, which translated as "FOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" The ravenous squirrels let out their battle cry and enveloped the poor, unsuspecting enemy.

Bobert blinked in surprise. "I thought I said "charge". Oh well, that works too."

Self. What was wrong with you. Don't you know how to structure a sentence.

...

Don't you know what question marks are, either?

It's so hot

Have you seen the heat index for the US lately?

See, I'm in that lower part of Michigan that's in the orange zone. Please keep in mind that this is the current-current heat index, which means how hot it feels at 9:30 at night. Let me just track back a few hours to, say, 4:30.

And suddenly we're in the reds.

Why am I posting this?

To remember how miserable summer can be when January hits. (Haha, most of you readers do not know how crabby I can be when it's cold out. And I've lived in Michigan my whole life.)

--

After-post edit: Did not realize those pictures would actually change. This is basically like knowing the weather all the time. Plus what it was four hours ago.

The people who just don't get it.

Can I quote myself for a second? I don't mean to sound pretentious, but it'll inform this post.

I know what I want to do with my life. I think people think I'm joking when I say, "I'm gonna work dead-end jobs and write novels my whole life," but I'm being perfectly serious. I could not care less what my day job is; I just want to write.

So after graduating, people expect me to do something with my degree. I am. I'm trying to finish a story and get it published. That's the primary directive here. But they don't ask anything about that. They specifically ask, "What kind of jobs are you applying for?"

Honest answer: The kind that are hiring and that don't take up extra hours so I can write.

And I swear, almost every time, they look at me like, Ohhh. You still haven't grown out of that. Uh, nope. Not about to "grow out of" the one thing I'm sure I'm supposed to do.

A day job is just there to be convenient and get me out of this house. And that's all there is to say on the matter.

Awesome thing of the day: "The Difference Between A Writer And Someone Who Writes"

This is a really long essay, so I'll just copy and paste the first couple paragraphs, then I strongly suggest you follow the link at the end to read the rest. :)

A writer is not just someone who writes. In her head, it’s words all day. She sees the world not as a place made up of things but of words about those things. She knows more meaning is contained in a phrase like “poison friends” than a paragraph-long attempt at comparing emotional pain to a stab wound. A writer will divine a metaphor from a pattern on a dress, or a gesture, because sunsets have been done before. A writer understands the capacity for words to embolden, to eviscerate, to cut a man in half. A writer’s words have texture and an aesthetic – they mean one thing on paper and another in your mouth. A writer knows the word “perfume” has a scent, and “savory,” a flavor. She also knows that the technical term for making you taste her words is synesthesia, but she’d rather show you than tell you.

A writer’s mind is sticky, cavernous. It is a locus of constant invention and generation, but also of deconstruction and warfare. Its very synapses fire bullets between semicolons and periods. In the infancy of the day, or as it’s expelling its final breath, an errant phrase will show up there unannounced and become lodged in some furrow. It will keep the writer up at night, until she’s built a temple, or at the very least, a sand castle, around it.

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