I'm Cheating on My Novel

You read that right. I'm cheating on my novel.

I knew this had to happen eventually. I've been getting closer and closer to this day, flirting with other ideas and taking time away from Delaney and More Blessed. By now, I think this could officially be called a full blown literary affair.

The problem with MB is two threefold. A) I've plotted too much of it out in advance so now I don't feel compelled to finish and B) I'm not that excited by or interested in it anymore and C) I hate technology and that idea calls for too, too much modernity with its trains and air conditioning and DNA tests.

This is more my style, technology wise.

This other shiny new [and by new, I mean not worked on] idea took the chance to make its move. It whispered in my ear, "Look, this story happens in 1950ish! None of that pesky technology! But we still have trains! You love trains, don't you!"

Yes. Yes I do.

And with that, I was a goner. Before, it had just been snapshots of tense moments. Then I wrote the opening scene, and kept going, and kept going after that. Tentative title Cells. It's about spies. I love me a good spy caper. It's also got some treason and some conspiracies and some revolutions and some moles and some almost-Russian mobsters. All things that I DO find super exciting.

And fake passports for everyone!

[And when even that seems to modern to me, I can always take a break with my witchy Victorian-ish England-ish novel that I also started recently. No reason to stick to one genre, now is there?]

To top it all off, I'm toying with the idea of doing it in dual-POV except still third person. Just to make things more confusing for everyone :)

There's also a cute little multilingual kid. Just for the cuteness.

On a semi-related note, I've also discovered that hand-writing works better for me. Microsoft Word is not so great at keeping me on task. Even with the Internet turned off. Hence, the amount of time it takes to get a single blog post written. Also, the ridiculous number of games of Hearts...and Spider Solitaire...and Minesweeper...and Freecell...and Spades that I play. Thank goodness for all my scrap paper. So take that, computers!

[Actually, don't take that comment to heart, laptop. I really enjoy you working again.]

Input and Direction

I feel like this may be another exercise in futility, but here goes.

I am notoriously bad at making decisions. Even with trivial things like what to wear, I can never make up my mind without asking my sister her opinion.

In the same vein, I'm also really unsure if blogging is really my thing. I keep being super critical of myself when no one reads or comments on my posts. The ones people have seemed to really enjoy were the ones from my trip to Peru, and I can't just fly to foreign countries to write interesting blog posts [although I would certainly love to, were money not an issue]. And my reaction to Bin Laden's death. That's not going to happen again.

I tell myself this is silly, that I don't want or expect as big a following as some of the blogs I read. I'm not a famous author, I'm not a unique parent, I'm not writing wonderful comics.

If you didn't know before, these are drawn by Kate Beaton at Hark! A Vagrant

I get that, I really do. But it's got me thinking - I really don't have a theme here. It's all in the title, I suppose. I'm rambling. There are a lot of things that interest me and I like talking about them. It's nicer to feel like I'm talking to someone when I write, rather than just talking to myself.

But the difference between writing and having a conversation is that there is all sorts of feedback that gets lost between computer screens. I don't know how anyone reacts unless they tell me, through comments or in real life. It's really weird, especially having taken so many classes where we talk about the importance of communication.

So I haven't been writing a lot lately. I'm feeling kind of tired. Maybe I'm feeling kind of communication deprived. I think this is one of those chicken and egg situations. Do I not write because I'm tired and then end up getting emotionally exhausted because I'm not writing? Or is it the other way around? I don't know.

The point I'm trying to get to is this: what do Y'ALL want me to blog about? Do you want to see more book reviews? I can do that. Do you like when I talk politics or current issues? I can attempt more of those. How about more on figure skating or movies? I like those posts.

Or do you want to hear my opinions on other things? I haven't really touched on feminism, or languages, or adoption, or child development, or history, etc. I have a lot to say on these topics, I just don't know if it would be interesting or not.

SO. Comment on Facebook or comment here. Tell me something: what about my writing interests YOU?

Working on Inspiration

So you know how I finished that short story in February and haven't talked about [or worked on] my book since?

I'm writing again!!!!!!!

This calls for celebratory picture spewage. Don't worry, I'll get to the point in just a minute.

Jokes from my sister. Her birthday was yesterday.

Maleficent movie is moving forwards. SO EXCITED!

More jokes. Combining two of my favorite things (three if you count the color).

Sand art. I love watching these.

I need to watch these in order.

There's a certain kind of headspace I expect to be in for truly inspired writing to happen. It's like I can't write anything until I get this I-must-write-words-pouring-out-of-my-head feeling.

The problem is, it's hard to get to that particular ... event?

Sometimes, really fantastic books inspire me. Even just really fantastic paragraphs or sentences. Those bits of craft that blow my mind. Watching beautiful sand art with haunting melodies. There's a few movies, ones that I watch over and over and over again, that have moments that just pull at my heartstrings. That's the only way to describe it, really.

But yesterday morning, all I needed was a little procrastination on the 8 page paper I had to finish that afternoon.

Basically, I got so sick of school that writing on More Blessed was bumped up from the bottom of my I-don't-have-the-time-or-energy-to-do-this list. Which is probably not the nicest way to think about this book, but it's pretty honest.

I think another part of it is staying away from the Internet. I've been trying to leave my computer unconnected to be more productive on all of the BIG THINGS that were due this week [also to save money on electricity by turning of the blinking lights of the modem/wireless router dealies]. Today, with no internship to go to and all day to run errands, I've wasted the past 4ish hours bumming around online.

So. I know I won't become a speed-writer overnight. I know that my biggest dream in the world is not to become a writer. It's pretty far down on the list, but it's the one that's most...accomplish-able right now. [I have been making up so many words today.] I hope, really hope, that I can finish this book by June just for my own sense of pride so that I can print it for free on campus.

If I could write a thousand words a day, that wouldn't be a big deal at all.

I Finished!

So basically: deadlines are the most wonderful things ever invented.

I have officially, finally, thankfully finished a short story that I call 12. My first serious, completed bit of writing.

[Wait, you thought I had actually finished my book? Yeah, I'm going to get back to work on that...this weekend. I promise.]

A little smidgen of background: I mentioned 12 when I asked y'all to pick an idea for me to start working on. I don't remember why I put it in the running because I always planned for it to be a short story. But anyways. According to Microsoft Word, I first created the document on September 10, 2009. When I was avoiding More Blessed, I would open it up and write for a little while.

As of Monday, the word count was about 1,250.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the word count was about 3,900. First draft, finished! Now: editing!

As of Tuesday night, the word count was exactly 3,780.

The only reason that I was able to write more words in that one day than I had been able to over the past two years? A midnight deadline. I submitted the story to my school's student literary journal which is super exciting. I've talked before about needing motivation and/or deadlines to inspire me to write. I definitely get just how much I rely on procrastination to get things done. So hopefully this will help me actually finish other stories too :)

I can't post the story itself but I'd like to share more than that old, still mostly relevant summary. So here are some things that I had in mind while writing 12.

I'll be sure to let the world know [in April, I believe] whether or not the story gets published!

Where Ideas Come From

I've realized that not only have I not been writing, I also haven't been talking about writing. I guess those things sort of go together. This post was already half written, so if you were interested in how these weird story ideas end up in my head, hooray for you!

By far the easiest part of writing for me is getting that initial spark of an idea. I have dozens, possibly hundreds [I refuse to count them all up] of summaries, questions, characters, worlds, titles, scenes, etc. that could easily become their own story. Note I said story and not novel. Some of them are short story material, while I have only a few that would encompass a more lengthy series.

These have come from lots of different sources, all of which involve me spending a lot of time thinking and daydreaming and actual dreaming. Off the top of my head, I've been inspired by:

• Clouds (twice)
• Anthropology class
• A circling helicopter
• Other books
• Hypothetical questions
• Bizarre dreams
• Quotes
• Road signs
• The Russian Revolutions

I promise, this is the short list. I could go on and on. As one of my favorite authors, Maria V. Snyder, put it in this interview, life itself is fodder for stories.

Case in point:

[My mother walks into the room after retrieving the mail.]

Me: Is there anything good?

Mumsy: [pause while she sorts through all the junk mail] Manatees?

Me: [considering] How do you know they're good though? What if manatees were secretly trying to take over the world? Wouldn't that be cool?!

I need to mention manatees more often so I can justify posting adorable pictures.

Sometimes Most of the time inspiration strikes at the most random moments.

However, this little speck of an idea does not translate to immediate best-selling author status. First you have to wade through all of these bits and pieces to find the ones that will really work. [My dreams are especially iffy in this aspect. Some of them are just too weird to be useable.] And then you have to have the patience to sit down and piece them all together. I'm having trouble being that patient.

Hopefully, one day I'll get an idea that's so good that I need to sit down and write 60,000 words in a month. Fingers crossed.

EDIT: I would have been happy to finish a book in a month. This fabulous author gets it done in a matter of days. You should read all her books. [And her blog, she's rather hilarious.]

Laptop, Reemerging

I've created a monster.

Not a literal monster of course. A literary monster, in the form of my previously mentioned little sister.

[This monster talk reminds me of the soundtrack our director put together when we performed The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds in high school. (By the way, this is the most heartbreaking, beautiful play I have ever been a part of. If it's ever playing near you, go see it. And then think of me playing Janice Vickery.) This was my song:

Sorry there's no visual to go along with it. The live version was harder to hear.]

It seems I sparked something in her little brain last month when I showed her all the research and notes that have gone into More Blessed - namely, a map and some ancestry trees. Now she's gone and started her own book (and at a slightly younger age than I started, too!) with it's own cut-and-paste Europe map and some strange families/characters.

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, this kid has been buttering me up for the past couple of years. She started theater in middle school (just like me), absolutely love architecture and houses (me too!), plays handbells (this one really goes to my mom), is a picky eater (although worse than I am), etc.

Although considering how many times she bit/hit/yelled at me not-so-long-ago, maybe I deserve some flattery now :)

More Blessed Word Count: 17,029

You know how excited I was to write a ton over winter break? Yeah, that hasn't happened. My only excuse is that I haven't turned my laptop on for days (allowing me time to hang out with family and read a bunch of books). Making a resolution to waste less time on the Internet has the unexpected consequence of also spending less time writing. I'll be working on re-motivating myself in my last week and a half of freedom from school.

Also, Happy New Year! I just realized this is January's first post.

A Monkey Could Write a Book, Except...

I'll be back to book reviewing tomorrow - I'll actually be writing the rest of my reviews and hopefully set it up so they can post automatically over Christmas. But I've had a busy weekend and my laptop (which contains my super helpful master list) has been sitting blissfully unused today, so you get this rambling instead.

I've heard or read a few times that joke/saying that if a monkey sits down with a computer, eventually it'll hit the right combination of letters and spaces to write an entire book.

He's writing the Complete Works of Shakespeare, according to the Infinite Monkey Theorem.

I knew when I started writing that it wasn't going to be that easy.

(Actually, when I first decided "Hey, writing a book would be really cool!" I thought I would be writing masterpieces in a matter of months and become the next Christopher Paolini. So much for that idea.)

But anyway, by the time I finally started working on More Blessed, I had read enough author/aspiring author blogs that I had a pretty good idea of how difficult it is to get published. I've never had any false hopes about publishing this book, if and when it gets finished, and I wouldn't dream of querying until I had several more practice novels under my belt. The whole business aspect of writing, I have no illusions about.

The part that, strangely enough, I didn't consider being difficult was the actual sitting-down-and-writing-sixty-something-thousand-words part. I should have. In 7ish years of "writing," I managed to get a couple chapters written on a couple of ideas. Clearly, I have issues with focusing and motivating myself. I am proud of the 15,000 words I have written in the past few months, but I wish I was further along.

I seem to keep hitting all these blocks. Not writer's block, really, but a lack of interest in the current section. This is partially due to some issues in the beginning section, which I'm hoping to fix by adding in a character (which also makes some tweaking necessary, further distracting me from the part I'm not liking right now). The rest of it may be due to the fact that I have the middle chunk all plotted out. I've already visualized how it plays out so the actual putting scenes on paper seems so long and laborious. The end is still up for grabs, depending on how long the rest of the book is.

What I probably should do is force myself to make deadlines. As a recovering IB student and current college student, I have a love-hate relationship with procrastination. I hate doing it, but I love how quickly things get done at the last minute. I don't know exactly how I should go about doing this with book writing, but it seems to work well for other authors. I should probably set an end date, but even that would be too far away to be helpful. I have a feeling I'll be tying word count minimums to things like:

Going to see Sherlock Holmes. Multiple times.

For some reason I couldn't get these to not be blurry.

Finding a theater near me that's playing In the Land of Blood and Honey. And then seeing it several times.

I'm not even sure if it's being released in the indie theaters nearby.

Reading lots and lots of celebrity gossip. Especially about babies.

Especially when it concerns Angelina Jolie's babies.

What other bribes/motivations could I use?

More Blessed Word Count: whatever I said on the last post

The Devil of Dialogue

You may think I'm being slightly melodramatic with that title. However, you would be incorrect. I've always felt like the worst part of my writing is the dialogue. I don't know if that's necessarily true - I think after really writing for a while, everything in that document looks like crap at some point or other. But dialogue is the part I worry about the most.

Part of this is my fear over my character's words sounding too contrived, too bookish. Sometimes when I'm talking to myself, I use all sorts of fancy, old-fashioned words that no one uses anymore. Like that scene in National Treasure (haven't seen that in ages, geez) where Diane Kruger tells Nicolas Cage he talks weird - that's how I wish people would talk all the time. And so half of me wants my characters to sound like that, even though I know it makes no sense whatsoever.

The other half of me wants everyone to talk "normal." But what on earth is normal? I'd really like to someday record every conversation I have during the day to figure out what people really spend all their time saying. Has anyone else every thought about that? I mean, we have so many words in our languages, but which ones do we really use? I refrain because I don't have a recording device and that would probably come across as really creepy.

The rest of my reluctance to write dialogue can be blamed on action movies. (I'm not really blaming you, action movies! I love you! I just love you a bit too much for you to be helpful in my becoming a better writer.)
There aren't monologues or even long conversations in action movies. Truth be told, there aren't that many in real life either. I LOVE THAT. Too much talking in a book or movie makes me bored. As a result, I spend more time sighing over explosions than I do witty conversations. And therefore would rather be writing about said explosions, even when they don't fit into the story either.

It's getting easier though. I think I wrote a big chunk of pretty organic conversation today - no action, no explosions, just small chat. It also helps that I was using Write or Die, a handy little application that gets angry at you when you stop writing. I got 1,373 words done in two 20 minute segments, which was a nice little boost to my word count :)

Official More Blessed Word Count: 12,391

P.S. Does this post still look nice without pictures? I wanted to add some action movie examples and a screenshot of that scene in National Treasure, but then I couldn't find one and I figured it'd be strange to have a random montage of action movies.

Wanted: Properly Functioning Brain

So it's taken me this long to realize I hadn't updated my word count on that last post! Agh. It shot up this weekend and then has stagnated during the week. Majorly. I am so looking forward to some relaxing writing time over Thanksgiving. I only have to get through two tests first :)

Make that three. I have to take the English CLEP exam tomorrow so that I don't have to sit through a painfully repetitive college English class. Given my college physics lab experience, there is no way I'm putting my poor head through that nonsense.

I took the time to make this. Evidence of my brain's inability to function? I think yes.

School has been turning my brain to mush, even when I skip physics. This semester has just been rough - a lack of focus combined with increased time spent online (reading other people's blogs) and trying to write has made me very sleepy and not thinking cohesively all the time. I'm capable of reading fun books, but my attention span goes down the drain when I start homework or writing. I've already given up on any hopes I had for finishing NaNoWriMo (which I'm totally fine with). I don't think the write a lot of words every day method is going to work for me just yet.

On a much more positive note, I did just finish my new favorite scene in my book! I've finally gotten past introducing the characters and mysteries and got to have a bit of Delaney running for her life. My favorite part of books, or movies or plays or anything with a plot: ACTION! That's probably why I got so much done this past weekend, now that I think about it.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 11,008

Dilemmas and Perspectives

Would I be a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad person if I added my pre-November writing to my NaNo word count? I can't decide if that's being a cheat or just being honest about how long my book is. It would definitely be an ego boost to have 9,000 words already up there - especially because I am pretty sure I won't make it to 50,000 this month (without some serious help, say, stopping time or creating clones of myself).

Then again, that 9000+ word count is being buffered by about 2000 words of those 3rd person flashbacks I got really excited about and then decided to cut. And just...haven't actually cut yet. Can I make it a tradeoff - if I cut all that stuff out, can I boost my word count without feeling guilty?

I realize it's not that big of a deal, especially if I don't get to 50,000 in the first place, but I keep going back and forth on whether or not I should do it. Do other people have miniature moral dilemmas like this?

Sometimes I'd like to be able to see the world from other people's perspectives. Actually, a lot of times. I've thought this almost every day this week while walking across campus (and I'm mildly surprised I can make an analogy out of it).

You see, for me, walking is not just getting from point A to point B. Due to a (mild) case of OCD, I have to pay attention to the bricked sections and other patterns in the concrete. I need to remember which sets of steps have even numbers and which are odd. (And I have a bunch of other self-imposed rules that I won't bore you with.) My point is - I wonder, as I do all this to myself, how do other people view walking down steps or across patterned floors? Or, you know, other, more important stuff like human rights and adoption and world hunger.

Right now, I'm thinking of adding the extra words in bit by bit. Especially since it's my first attempt at finish a book and NaNo (and November is kind of a crazy month school-wise), I think I deserve this bit of a break. Hopefully, I'll be more motivated to write when I see those nicer word count numbers :)

Official More Blessed Word Count: 9,721

Sad Days and Fangirl Moments

We're already four days into November. How is my first NaNoWriMo going, you ask?

Ha. Hahaha. Sob.

I've written 200ish words on a short story. Nothing so far on More Blessed. Hopefully that will be fixed shortly.

I've just felt completely exhausted all week and don't want to do anything other than lie in bed all day and read pointless stuff online. (I did get two books read, at least). I put equal blame on the mean wintery weather and the past couple of weeks of school. I'm cold, tired, grumpy and craving junk food. Not a good combination for writerly inspiration.

I realize this is not a very uplifting post. Sorry. To make it up to y'all - now for something completely different!

If you know me at all, you know that my role model/favoritest actress ever is the brilliant Angelina Jolie. I love seeing pictures of Angelina with her freaking adorable kids or looking hot on red carpets or being an amazing humanitarian, but I miss seeing her in movies. I happened to be reading through her IMDB page today (ever heard of In the Land of Blood and Honey? It has a December U.S. release!!) and something fabulous caught my eye.

OMGOMGOMGOMG.

THEY'RE MAKING A SALT 2!!!

ONLY 2 MORE YEARS UNTIL I CAN SEE MALEFICENT!!!

(And Cleopatra's pretty awesome too. And FDR. Or Teddy, if that's the Roosevelt they mean. But it's probably FDR - nobody liked Churchill when TR was in office, right?)

This woman is my hero. She gets to act in powerful movies and raise a beautiful multicultural family AND save a bunch of people's lives. I think I would faint if I ever got to meet her. I had a dream that she came to the orphanage school I ran for a tour and we became best friends. Also, the twins were born on my 17th birthday. So yes, I am not ashamed to admit that I am probably her biggest fan.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 9,289

World Building

When I was setting up my NaNoWriMo account yesterday, I had to write a synopsis of my book. I guess I'm kind of cheating at this since I already started, but I'm still trying for 50,000 words. Which is a lot considering I haven't even gotten to 10,000 in the last 2 months.

But anyways, I tweaked the summary I posted before I started writing and plotting and it hit me - whenever I talk about this book, I always have long-ago background info in mind. The book starts right before Delaney's 16th birthday, but I always mention the major things that happen when she's six months old: her Registration and her mother's discovery of her shapeshifting. That got me thinking about my 2nd favorite part of writing (second only to names): world building.

You, as a reader, aren't supposed to notice all the individual little details the author puts in to make the story seem more real. And let me tell you, there are a lot, especially when you're always creating your own worlds because you don't like the actual geography/history of Earth and you're a control freak. Ahem. I've read a lot of advice on this, but I think you have to pick and choose what's most important to you or you'll end up with a report instead of a book.

What's important in More Blessed, you ask? (Didn't ask? Too bad. I like talking.) Supernatural stuff, history/politics/government, language, technology, religion, a bit of food, geography, physical characteristics...each in very small ways. You wouldn't believe how much time I've spent thinking about all these things. Some of it I make up as I go. Some of it I'm ignoring until later. Some of it just fits together with what I've known from the beginning.

For example, a rule that every baby has to be checked by the government for supernatural abilities and is taken away if they are blessed with powers? That doesn't fit with a freedom emphasizing, hands off government, so my world has powerful Councils at the city, state, and country levels. I had to make all sorts of aspects of life very structured, from the school system to the calendar. (I think I became officially insane when I sat down and created a precise new calendar system for a book I'm never going to publish.)

Right now, I'm having some issues with technology. It's my own fault, really. I don't like the overabundance of long horseback journeys in fantasy books, but I also know I can't write anything really modernized. This leaves me stuck in the middle having to decide which elements I want to include. High speed trains? Check. Cars? Absolutely not. Air conditioning? Sometimes. Computers? Hmmm...

Sometimes I wonder if all this work is really helping. Do normal people (the ones who don't have a bajillion characters running around talking to them in their heads) even pay attention to this stuff when they read? I've already decided to cut out all my flashback scenes because I think I'm the only one who cares about them. I'm leaving them in for now because I don't want to destroy my word count. Decisions, decisions.

Also, I went a little link crazy today. I don't know what that's about.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 9,216

More Motivation

Oh dear goodness, it's almost NaNoWriMo.

(I feel like a lot of the things I start with don't make sense if you haven't read 532809324 writer's blogs.)

So National Novel Writing Month (according to their website, thirty days and nights of literary abandon!) is where a bunch of crazy people try to write a whole novel. Just a 50,000 word novel, which is on the short side for the books I read but still a whole lot more than I have right now.

It's a good thing it's almost November because I've written approximately zero words in the past week or two. I've felt like I got transported back to high school with all the writing and studying I've been doing. But that's mostly over now, so back to writing I go! I might actually be talking more about writing and doing less rambling this month. If I have any brilliant insights to share. And if my brain doesn't explode from trying to write more than a thousand words a day.

In other news, I've decided to give my blog a makeover. The text background color is driving me insane.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 8,640

Don't Kill That Character!

So today I'm talking about a love triangle that ended up in character assassination that really drove me crazy when I read this book. And I'm not going to tell you what book it is because I can't figure out how to talk about it without spoilers :)

Here's the story. Girl has a Best Friend Boy and a Shoved-Together-in-Plot Boy and she ends up loving both of them but not knowing which one she's really in love with. For a long time. Including lots of kissing and banter with both guys.

BUT THEN, to help Girl make her final decision, Author X commits a heinous literary crime. Character assassination. (That is, his personality got assassinated, not the actual character. That would have made the choice really easy.) Best Friend Boy suddenly becomes I-Hate-The-Bad-People-They-Should-All-Die Boy. So obviously Girl chooses dependable, calm Shoved-Together-in-Plot Boy over him.

WHICH WAS THE WRONG CHOICE!

Okay, I admit I had a bias for Best Friend Boy from the beginning. I thought he was cooler and smarter than his rival, plus he had a long history with Girl. Despite all that, I am completely fine with Girl's being in love with Shoved-Together Boy. I am NOT fine with the unnecessary destruction of Best Friend Boy. Yeah, a little character development should happen at the end of a book or series because people change. However, people don't become destructive maniacs overnight. (Actually, Shoved-Together boy did, but that wasn't his fault. He got better!)

Rant over.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 8,200

On Humor

I have been laughing a ton today. I'm hanging out at home and so I've spent a good portion of my time making fun of my littlest sister. Most of our conversations today probably wouldn't make sense to anyone else. Even our parents have given us strange looks (and we've got a pretty crazy family).

Sample Conversation
Nats: You're just a hobbit.
Me: Right, like you've ever met a hobbit.
Nats: Umm, I have. You're a hobbit.
Me: You haven't even read The Hobbit, Munchkin butt.
Nats: So my butt's small?
Me: No, it means you're small minded.
Nats: Well you're small brained.

Like I said, we don't make sense. But it sure amuses us. Earlier, I laughed so hard I cried. That was when my mom told my sis to get duct tape (implying but not saying that she would duct tape my mouth shut) and proceeded to steal the computer my sis was using.

Apparently Nats and I never stand next to each other in photos. At least, not ones we want to show people.

The reason I'm telling you all this is to talk about humor in books. (Aha! You knew there was a point to all that, didn't you?!) In Children's or Middle Grade or Young Adult books, humor can be a big deal. Sometimes, it's so the author can talk about touchy subjects without making the whole book dark and depressing. Sometimes, the humor is dark. Then there's all sorts of cute kid's books with fart jokes galore.

You might think that writing these books would be easy - because they're for kids or they're "light" reads. For me especially, writing comedy would be really hard. I like humor alright in books - witty, ironic humor - but I'm not really a big fan of comedy anywhere else. I watch mostly cop/crime TV shows, dramatic musicals and (smart) action movies. And that's how I write.

I may try to be amusing on the blog (although I'm not so sure that works...) but if I tried to make my books light and funny, they would just sound fake. Especially considering my MC's a socially awkward only child who has one (deaf) friend and has to keep her supernatural identity suppressed. That doesn't leave room for witty banter or practical jokes.

Speaking of which: Official More Blessed Word Count: 6,000!!

On Diversity

This article just popped up on Facebook (sorry, I've already forgotten who posted it) which reminded me of a topic that's been roaming around in my head for a couple of weeks.

Read the article here

I don't want to start an argument about affirmative action or institutional racism, but I do want to point out something people have been talking about in YA recently. I can point you to plenty of blog posts and stats if you need them, but basically, there isn't a lot of diversity in YA.

There's not a lot of diversity in most media, if you think about it. True, there's a lot of supporting characters who are minorities in race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, whatever else you can be a minority in. There are even some main characters like this, just not the ones that get talked about. Twilight? A bunch of white kids (as far as I can tell from two chapters and the movie trailers). Harry Potter? The main characters are all white.

I'm not criticizing these or any authors for writing "normal" white characters. I just think it's something we ignore that we need to think about. I read a fabulous book recently, Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves, and didn't realize until halfway through the book that the MC is half-Finnish...and half-black. It took a while for my visual image of characters in Tamora Pierce's Trickster series to match their actual skin colors. I'm just as guilty as assuming whiteness as anyone else.

However, I don't think the biggest thing YA lacks is racial/ethnic diversity. What you really don't see often are gay main characters or characters with any sort of disability. (The one thing YA is amazingly good at is family diversity. It seems like almost no one in teen or children's books has a nice, traditional nuclear family.)

So, partially inspired by this, I added a deaf character to More Blessed and decided to make the MC's hometown resemble...several countries in Asia. I want to point out that I wouldn't have done this just to make it more diverse. Delaney needed a friend she couldn't talk to, so she signs instead. The city she lives in didn't have any culture, so I'm giving it one.

I also realized just a minute ago that I haven't been making updates on my book like I was supposed to. I got a bunch of work in this weekend, including a lot of words, some plotting and backstory, and changing the genders of one of my characters. There are currently 14 pages of story and who knows how many of other stuff :)

Official More Blessed Word Count: 5,451

Delaney Changes my Mind (Again)

I'm writing More Blessed in present tense now.

I've been going back and forth on whether I really wanted to do that for a while now. I started in past tense because that's what feels natural for books in general. But then I'd keep writing bits of it in present without really realizing it. So last night, writing more of the first chapter, I did half in past and half in present.

And I figured out that the parts I like best are the parts I've written in present. Delaney just did not like talking about stuff in past. The whole thing is getting switched over today, except the flashbacks, because those would obviously be weird and confusing if they weren't in the past. I'm finally glad I haven't written much because then it would have been absolutely horrible to change all those verbs.

Hopefully this also means that I can go back into my stream-of-consciousness thing that I used when I first went over to first person. I was using present tense for that part (the original first chapter) but then somehow I managed to switch over to past without realizing how awkward that was. So I should be able to flesh out the intro this weekend and then set some more plot down. As of right now, I have no idea how this thing is going to end.

The Official More Blessed Word Count? 4,200 words, with more coming after I actually do my homework.

Because I forgot to say something yesterday (and I just like pictures).

I Hate Distractions

I started thinking about something today (it's a shocker, I know, especially considering how vacant my brain is at the moment). Distractions. Specifically distractions from writing, which are really hurting my word count right now. While I've got 3,900 pretty solid words, I haven't been able to regain the focus I had once I started my first person, stream of consciousness thing.

But I digress. (What a fun thing to say, if only people actually talked like that.) Thanks to a rare moment of clarity, and an anonymous distractor, I bring you... Two Types of Major Distractions When Writing.

Type One: I sit in the lobby, trying to put words on paper.
OHMYGOODNESS ANNOYINGLY LOUD VOICE BLABBING NEAR ME
So I realize it's not this guy's fault his voice is naturally so loud, but could you please do everyone the favor and take your phone call outside? Other people talking always distracts me, whether I'm reading a book or doing homework or writing (or at least trying to).

Side note: this is also why I have such a hard time falling asleep during movies. While this is usually not preferred, it still would be nice to have the knack when stuck in front of boring/awful/stupid movies or in IT'S 3 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING WHY ARE WE STILL AWAKE situations. Too many voices distracting from sleep.

Type Two: Working working working, writing writing writing.
OH LOOK WHAT IS THAT SHINY NEW THING?
I acknowledge that this is my own fault. I also accept that I will continue to distract myself. Other things can be way more exciting than writing. This blog post, for example. By the time DISTRACTING ME AND EVERYONE ELSE FROM HOMEWORK guy had left, I was too focused on this musing to go back to the boring stuff.

In summary: Blog distracts from TV which distracts from dishes which distract from book writing which distracts from homework. It's a vicious cycle. Well, not the way I wrote it. But eventually you get all the way around and around and around...

So there you have it. Two ways I got distracted today. You might think that I would give you a nice little post, say tomorrow or the next day, about how to rid your life from distractions. But you would be incorrect. I have too many distractions this week (especially lesson planning and test taking) to get something that useful done.

An Overabundance of Also

My brain is about to conk out on me (also, I'm really surprised that the Firefox dictionary recognizes the word 'conk') so this won't be very long.

I had a very productive Friday and today, writing and planning wise. I am up to 2709 words (not my goal, but still awesome considering I didn't touch a computer for the 48 hours that are Saturday and Sunday). Also, I now have a very pretty ancestry tree for the MC. Also, a year-by-year calendar of events. Also, names!

My shapeshifting MC is Delanna, called Delaney by her friends (mostly imaginary) and her mother is Magdalena, Magda for short. I've also been using my list of random names that happened to fit my broad theme. Delaney has a father, grandparents, and a whole cast of new friends with very suspicious motives. I have a better sense of the plot and roles of all these characters and I think this is going to turn out halfway decent :)

I think I had thought of some other vaguely interesting thing to talk about, but as I mentioned before, brain = not quite functioning. I hope it wasn't too witty or exciting. I would hate to be disappointing.

Also, Google looks awesome today. You have twenty minutes to see what I'm talking about.

Revitalizing an Old Idea

I've gotten 450 more words written in the past few days and I finally have plans for a lot more. The writing/imagining block I was dealing with has been shattered by two revelations that are breathing life into an idea I first came up with...hmm, I guess earlier this year.

Revelation One: I need to be writing this story in first person. I haven't thought of this or most of my other ideas with a first person perspective. One or two things, yes, but those were pretty bad ideas. For this one, at least so far, it's working. There's kind of a stream of consciousness thing going on and it's flowing smoothly right now.

Revelation Two: I need to throw in third person scenes from the past to complement my first person narrative. This way, I can use my original starting point, a third person account of MC's registration and also throw in a bunch of other info without having to have long, long, long conversations about the past all the time. I'm thinking this will explain other characters' motivations since non-omniscient MC will be telling most of the story.

I'm hoping, especially with this long weekend, that I'll get up to (oh, let's aim high) 3000 words. It shouldn't be that hard, since I already have the stream of consciousness going and a few ideas for my flashback chapters too. Cross your fingers!

Official More Blessed Word Count: 704 and counting