October!

Hello, lovely people. I sort of forgot about this blog, what with moving into college and working full time over the summer and all. But I've decided to give you all an October recap....and life update too, I guess. Also, NaNo post coming soon but I have yet to start planning for that, SO. This year will be a crazy novel writing season.

October has been a month of study, soccer, and experimentation. I've done everything from die over a calculus assignment to wearing black nail polish for the first time. Pumpkin painting with my dorm unit and Bible study with dear friends. And also learning just how terrible I am at paddling a canoe, even if it was made out of cardboard.

October has been a month of lessons, and it's gone by so fast. As some of you know, I made the last minute switch into engineering back in August. While I never would have imagined this is what I'd be doing last year amidst all the pressure to find a major, God has shown me so much of His goodness. From classes that make me feel alive to sweet new friendships, this whole journey two months into my new life has been nothing less than amazing. Sure, there've been the stresses and fears and anxieties, but in finally submitting to God, I've received more blessing than I could have dreamed.

October has been a month of summer. I'd really like to say I've been enjoying fall and pumpkins and hot chocolate and golden leaves and apple cider, but fall has yet to arrive here. It's been warm for pretty much all of this month, only truly dropping into the 60s sometime last week. On the bright side, it looks like the weather will stay cooler in the near future and I'll start seeing the hallmark colors of fall. Also, can I just mention how, while I hate how confusing time changes are, I'm so looking forward to that extra hour next weekend. Hopefully to be used for sleep. Hopefully.

October has been a month of relationships. To be honest, friends were something I didn't want to think about going into college. If you'd asked me over the summer what my social life in college would be like, I probably would have said something along the lines of nothing. Heck, it took me three whole years at the same small school to truly make friendships, and even those were rarely deep ones. So that's why, every morning when I wake up, I wonder how I already have lovely friends. I thank God for them every single day. Friends who will just come into my room without really knocking as long as the door is open a crack and who let me do the same. Friends who I've sprawled out on a hair-filled dorm room floor and played card games and told stories and just shared life with. I couldn't have asked for more incredible humans to do life with this first year of college.

So anyways, I guess this has been a pretty great month, even with all of the ups and downs. It's been a crazy ride, from my staying in the dorm alone over fall break to having three major assessments in a single week. It's also been a time of learning so many new things from so many new people. I'm so grateful to God and to everyone who's entered my life this month, and I'm looking forward to the adventures to come!

But let me hear about you guys now! How have all of your Octobers been?

Camp NaNoWriMo 4-17

Hello! I apologize for the long wait, but I've been busy with school and procrastination. I'm here to introduce my NaNo novel for April (a few days late, I know). I've set my word count goal at 30k for the month. I was going to go for the full 50k but didn't know if that would stress me out too much during this pretty-much-last-month of high school. So setting the bar a little lower, but not too low.

I am very excited, as I haven't written a long part of a novel in quite a while - years, actually. Now here goes with a short summary (partly due to the fact that there really isn't a summary yet) and some character intros.

Brief synopsis:
Several years ago, many children aged two or younger disappeared, kidnapped without a trace. The cases were closed with no results, but then older children, the age that these babies would have been, appeared. Except they are no longer human. And they want blood. To combat this, an organization arose with the sole purpose of exploring this new breed and keeping them from harming the public. Cade Lawson works for said agency. He knows these children are simply monsters bearing only a shadow of humanity, but an encounter with three young teens throws all he's learned and accepted into disarray.

Characters (I don't have images because I can't access Pinterest at school, so yeah):

Cade - My brown haired, brown-eyed MC, not notably tall, but not short either. He works with guns and other projectile weapons (If that's what they're called??). He's basically an agent, and although he's one of the popular kids at school, he has plenty to hide.

Caleb - A young primary character with brown hair and green eyes. He's the oldest of his three-person group and works to help out the agency from the shadows.

Mari - Asian, the youngest and only girl in her trio. She's smart and does a lot of the technical work behind the scenes.

Noah - The detective in the group, he likes figuring things out and exploring just for the point of knowing what happens.

Elise - Works in the administration department and attends the same high school as Cade. She doesn't usually get involved in the action and rather organizes schedules and such.

And that's the main points of my NaNo novel for this month. Thanks for reading!

Diversity...not?

Hello! Today we have something a little more controversial, so you have been warned. I'm not here to debate; I'm just presenting my own opinions. After all, this is my blog, for my ideas. I didn't make a blog to please everyone who might happen to read it.

Also, before I get into the body, let me mention that I'm a minority ethnic group female. It's not like I'm a white guy complaining about diversity and all that.

The diversity I'm talking is the gender and ethnic type. Or any other kind of diversity if it so happens to exist just for the point of being diverse. I've noticed an increase in the call for diversity in stories around the writing community. I know all these writers have the intention of representing a variety of different groups, but it just irritates me sometimes.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not adverse to diversity. It's great. But when it happens just for the story to claim diversity, it may not have been the best choice. Writers should create characters to be the best for the story. Diversity should be second consideration. If it's just thrown in, it can feel contrived and unnatural.

I'm going to honestly say that in all the years I've been reading, I've been more interested in the characters' personalities than their race and gender. It hasn't affected my enjoyment of the book if the main character is a white guy or Asian girl. As long as they are relatable to me, the character works. I've never liked or disliked a character just because of race or gender. I haven't even noticed diversity until just recently. It just wasn't something on my mind at all when I was younger.

Honestly, when reading books, I'll have a faint idea of what the character looks like. And I'm going to admit they're rarely diverse. There have been a number of instances where I haven't realized a character is diverse until the end of the story, even with visual hints. And once my mental image of the character is in place, it's hard to change.

So don't think I'm against diversity. I'm really not. I'd just like to encourage you to not place diversity at the forefront of the story. It just probably shouldn't be a primary thing. It's more important that we're all humans than that we're diverse. Because if we weren't all human first, human diversity wouldn't really be a thing. If that makes any sense...

That's all I've got for now, so feel free to leave comments. I'm always happy to talk with you.

Birthdays

Today is a special occasion. It's my Birthday. Let's just take a minute to dump confetti on me. Because yep, I'm awesome and deserve all the attention. Just kidding.

Yeah...that's all. Just wanted to say today's my birthday. The day that I happened. I don't really have anything interesting to say about it, so I'll just give you some birthday memes I found on Google and thought were funny and leave it at that. Presenting Grumpy Cat, and random thing, and a bad pun. See you next week!

On Writer Burn Out

When it comes to being an writer, it can be easy to burn out. I mean, come on. It's not easy being a demonic overlord 24/7, especially with all those other people who don't know our secret occupation. Or maybe you're a nicer author, but I'd guess you still don't have constant inspiration. Anyways, I think it's safe to say that we, as authors, sometimes get tired of writing and give up.

I've had experience with this. After the 2014 NaNoWriMo, the second one I'd done, I really did get sick of writing. While it exited me to get words on a page, I just couldn't bring myself to actually sit down and work on my story. It was....a frustrating experience to say the least. I wanted to write because writing brings me joy, but I couldn't. The words wouldn't flow, and I think it was actually just a case of burn out. I've just recently started writing again, and though it's going slow, it's really fun again, and I realize how much I missed this creative outlet.

This is different than writer's block, because it's not so much a lack of ideas. It's more a matter of not finding the joy in this activity that once brought so much light to my life. In my opinion, it's personally harder and more damaging to my writing than anything besides perfectionism (which I may talk about some other time...).

I don't know what to do once it happens, but I think there are ways to forestall this terrible event of burnout. For one, we should know ourselves and when we're getting close to burning out versus when we've just hit a roadblock in our writing. If it's the latter, it might not be a bad idea to keep on plugging, because that's the only way to get over the block for now. Trust the editing process that happens in later drafts and push on.

However, in the former instance, I think a break may be in order, whether it be for a short or long while. At that point, it's important to step back for a little while to regain energy, or we're going to keep plunging down that road to burn out. I've personally found Pinterest and YouTube to be helpful for breaks, because more often than not they will ignite in me new inspiration and a boatload of ideas I'm excited about.

This period of a little over two years wasn't all bad. I took this time to develop further in art and music. Where I had spent all of my free time writing, I now drew often, played violin, and dabbled with my guitar. I also grew in friendships, learning to socialize more (while never becoming "normal").

So the main impractical point and what I think I'm trying to say is there are going to be ups and downs during the writing process. Our job as writers is to know when we need to step away and when to keep pushing through. This may, in my opinion, be the difference between completion of a WIP and abandonment, because I've found that oftentimes, a long break at the wrong time stops any momentum I have. These are just a few things for consideration, and just because I experienced them one way doesn't mean it's going to be the same for you!

I'd like to hear from all of you now. Have you experienced burnout? How have you handled it? And any other thoughts!

Valentine's Day!

Good morning, and Happy Valentine's Day! I'm single today and plan to be tomorrow and the next day, but who's to say I can't celebrate Valentine's Day in a relationship with chocolate and red? Also, one of my friends' birthdays is today, so I still have reason to call it a special day. I will be participating in this day, though as a friend instead of a lover.

In light of that I'll be bringing in Prince Terence and Ryou, a young magician. Rough start aside, the two have become fast friends, though not in any romantic sense. I thought I'd use them to reflect some of the things Valentine's Day means to me. Because I'm a lazy individual, I stole a questionnaire from Cait at PaperFury and Sky at Further up and Further In for their Beautiful People series.

And now, for the questions...
How and why did they meet?

Terence's older brother was worried about his apparent lack of friends, so he put out a job offer for one of the nation's magical academy's first year representatives. Ryou happened to be the previous year's junior champion, so he was first in line eligibility-wise. He had no other interesting options, so he accepted, thinking it would be a practical job like service or protection. Instead, he found that the job was for friendship. In short, Ryou was hired to be Terence's friend.

What were their first impressions of each other?
Ahm...I'll just say it wasn't great. Ryou hasn't ever had a great opinion of royals, and Terence was still pretty angry at the fact that his brother hired someone for friendship purposes. It was mostly a chilly meeting, with both boys rather disliking the new acquaintances.

How would they prove their love for each other?
They just try to be around for each other all the time. They'd stand with each other through anything, even while pointing out where the other is going wrong. Also, forgiveness is key in any relationship, and theirs is no exception.

What would be an ideal date?
They're not dating, but they do enjoy hanging out together. Any location away from the palace is preferred, and they don't mind simply passing the time in each other's company.

Is there something they emphatically disagree on?
They tend to disagree on the uselessness of royalty... Ryou insists that nobles hardly do anything for themselves and make things worse when they try. Terence argues they fight in their own way. Although it can turn into a lengthy discussion at times, ever since they've become friends, the topic has not threatened to come between them.

List 5 “food quirks” they know about each other. (Ex: how they take their coffee, if they’re allergic to something, etc….and feel free to mention other non-food quirks!)

1. Terence knows Ryou doesn't like sweet things.
2. Ryou understands that the rich food in the palace doesn't always sit well with his prince.
3. Terence could tell you Ryou doesn't like sitting down for meals - on-the-go wastes less time.
4. Ryou has to drag Terence from the sweets table at any sort of party.
5. They both know the other one prefers to eat in the company of friends.

What’s one thing they know about each other that no one else does?
Terence knows about the conditions of Ryou's past. He's Ryou's only confidant in such matters and honors this highly.

Ryou knows that Terence has gone to the dark arts one time. He's never told a soul to protect the prince's honor, even though the circumstances surrounding that even made the secret hard to keep.

What’s one thing that they keep a secret from each other?
Ryou never told anyone the secret hidden behind using his true powers. That's his burden to bear, and he's determined to do it alone.

Terence hasn't told Ryou the secrets of his family's line, and Ryou hasn't cared enough to find out.

How would their lives be different without each other?
In brief terms, Terence would still be a bratty prince, and Ryou would be a friendless prodigy. Ryou has given Terence an excuse to be gentle sometimes, and Terence revived the light in his friend's eyes. Their personalities aren't particularly similar, and they compliment each other well.

Where do they each see this relationship going?
Now that's a hard question in dealing with Ryou...They see this friendship continuing until his death in the near future.

Hello and Welcome!

Hello, everyone!

This is exciting. I haven't blogged in quite a while and thought I'd try again. I figured I should restart from scratch because my old blog isn't really me anymore, so here we are.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have for blogging and maintaining this site, but I hope this one will survive at least for a couple of years. I'd like to set low goals for now, probably about once a month, so we'll see how that goes. Eventually, I see this blog at weekly posts, but at the moment, I really don't have time.

Anyways, over the next couple days I'll be getting the formatting all squared away. I hope you enjoy what is to come in the near future!

Signing off for now.