Thing 1 & Thing 2

"A quiet mind cureth all." - Robert Burton

Novel 1: 80,015 words 

Novel 2: 80,035 words

Now that second number is definitely going to change (in the upward direction) during revisions, but...dang. 20-word difference.


Although this is interesting:

Novel 1: 430,506 chars 

Novel 2: 445,399 chars

Apparently I used bigger words.


And according to Random Online Writing Analyzer I used yesterday...


Novel 1, which is the thing of which I am most proud and the piece of my writing I love best: Reads like Cory Doctorow (YES!)
Novel 2: Despite being epic fantasy, apparently reads like a James Bond novel


I have never read a James Bond novel, so I do not know what this means. Although their algorithm probably thinks very little happens in it other than conversations about the weather, given that most of the main characters are conscious embodiments of seven aspects of a hurricane.

Family Vacations..EAW-Style

You know, any novel that requires the watching of Pirates of the Caribbean in order to figure out how to write epic sea battles is a novel I am in favor of writing. That said, at least in PotC both sides have cannons (rather than just the bad guys). And, you know, Will Turner.


It's been raining a lot this week, so we haven't gotten much actual beach time in. However, this means we have a lot of time in which to play Uno. 


And trust me, we take our Uno seriously here-- to the point where instead of saying "Skip," we shout "SPITE!" 


There's also Apples to Apples, in which it's even more important to cater to the GM  judge than in D&D. In which "Cuss Words" wins for "Angelic" because we are fans of irony, and the debate for "Convenient" creates more tension than a game of Risk.


And then, of course, is the part when my sister comes upstairs and finds me dramatically explaining mitosis and meiosis to my dad with lots of hand gestures-- both of us with sandwiches in hand. And in typical me-fashion, the sandwiches immediately became a metaphor.


Welcome to vacation with my family, ladies and gentlemen. In which we imbue the very walls with wit, sarcasm, and lame puns (we're very humble- can't you tell? We're the humblest people in the whole world), it takes 6 hours to bake a potato, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off  and Better Off Dead are watched...more than once.

I Love to Procrastinate

“Everything you do is a combination of success and failure. There is no absolute success and failure. There is no moment in which you complete the mission and say, “Ah! I am done! Thank you,” because the mission is never complete because the mission is your life and it only completes when you die.” - Hank Green


“True love will triumph in the end. Which may or may not be true, but if it’s a lie, it’s the most beautiful lie we have.” -John Green


Well, my NaNo morale is heading downhill fast. This book sucks. I'm inadvertently skipping over all of the interesting parts people actually want to hear about and I actually want to write about in favor of moving the plot along, since I've got a good bit of story left and don't want it to end up too long.
This is one thing I am not looking forward to editing.


So once again, I am writing a blog post instead of writing or working on homework.


Example: Yesterday, I would write about a hundred words, enter the new number into my spreadsheet, play a round of a word game on Facebook, and then repeat the cycle. Needless to say, it took a very long time to get the 1667 done for the day.


17 days, 18,000 words left.

The Quad N: My Deeply Fascinating History

The comments on my query are slowly trickling in.


Here's the latest installment in the Epic Saga of the Quad N:





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At9iJ-6QFoo&feature=player_embedded


Sorry for talking a bit fast. The first take was almost 10 minutes long, so I had to cut out a lot of stuff that was even less interesting than what I ended up including. Enjoy or ignore at your discretion.


The complete synopsis of Ishaera can now be found on my NaNoWriMo profile. Add me as a buddy if you haven't already, and leave your username in a comment so I can add you (it's not reciprocal like Facebook, for some reason). http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/502334


Book updates: I read Cloaked In Red, which was brilliant in multiple senses. I especially liked "Deems the Woodgatherer" and "Little Red Riding Hood's Little Red Riding Hood" (the one with the smart cloak).
We're reading Siddhartha in English, which has provoked some interesting thoughts that deserve a post of their own.
Finally, my dad's birthday present for me came, which is a book entitled The God Debates by someone he went to high school with. It's a collection of all of the already-discussed reasons why a higher power may or may not exist, intended to stop ignorant people from repeating stuff that's already been presented. I've only read the preface so far, but I like that it aims to encompass more than the Judeo-Christian God, using "God" when referring to that and "god" when referring to the generic concept of a higher power(s).

Ishaera Wordle

Here we are, my friends.

Alexandra Sokoloff recommends that writers make a list of the "themes" of both themselves and their novels. I took mine, wrote a bit more into the Wordle window, and hit "Create." This is what it gabe me, and it'll hopefully give you a better idea of where I'm headed this November. (Yes, I know, I'm procrastinating from my outline. Just because it's fun doesn't mean it's not funner to play with all of the digital toys at my disposal.) If this appeals to you, and if you're doing NaNoWriMo, and if you have some sort of idea as to where you're headed, send me the link to yours!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2549572/Ishaera

Sorry- the embed code wasn't working.

Outlining

I'm trying out a new form of posting (emailing stuff to the blog), so hopefully that'll work. Also: Emily (Harper), have you received this? I have it set so that it emails all new posts to you as I post them.

Last October, when I was outlining The Clockwork Experiment, my outline grew to be 23 pages long, the details of which were mostly edited out. It was all layers of bullets using Microsoft Word's Outline mode.

This year, I intended to go in with nothing but the submission packet (query, premise sentence, and synopsis) that I wrote up for it for my Creative Writing exam last spring.

Then I found this, and I've been using that outlining spreadsheet. Each of the different steps comes with its own sheet within the book (term for the overall spreadsheet), as well as its own deadline! I'm on step three now, which is basic character names, motivations, goals, and obstacles, which isn't due until the 14th. (Side note: That "premise sentence" turned out to be the length of a paragraph. I'm good at informative dependent clauses, which maybe isn't the greatest talent in clear and coherent writing).

The thing is, since this is a re-write of something I did in 6th grade, I already have half a cast of characters ready-made. Since I have to change most of their names for various reasons (such as copying off of other books I've read), and that I had already done some name changing in 6th and 7th grade, some characters have gone through 3 or 4 names since their creation, which leaves me hopelessly confused (as well as grateful for the character page in the outline book).

I've had to pull out the folder with the original pages in it just to find the names (and existence) of certain people.

I feel like a scholar going through ancient documents or something, and trying to write a book about her findings. Except I wrote the "ancient documents."

Something I've learned about my 6th grade self: I sucked at originality. Practically everything was a poorly-concealed rip-off of a book or movie I loved at the time (most of which I still love). Maybe now I've just consumed enough media that my rip-offs blend together enough that they seem original.

I really wasn't going to outline, but it's turning out to be incredibly helpful.

Besides, I'm having fun! :D

Views on "The Quad N: New Beginnings" = 7. One of which I know is Audrey's. Who else saw it, and what did you think?

Writing Vs. Life Part 2

Last night I was sitting on the 2nd floor porch of the beach house we were renting in the rain. (I'm home now.)

I sat there for about an hour and thought.

I came to a conclusion: People are what tether us to the world.

Up there, on the deck, alone and slightly damp, I felt like a ghost. My parents and my friends' parents were playing cards. My sisters and my friends were watching Doctor Who. (Bear in mind, I was up there by choice.) No one driving past in their cars could see me. I don't think anyone downstairs even noticed I was missing. It was this, more than anything else, that made me feel virtually nonexistent. 

Lightning flashed over the ocean, and the waves crested farther out than they had all week. The sky darkened. I pulled my chair closer to the railing so I could see the waves without leaning forward. As I stood, I felt as if I could walk into the air, and I wouldn't fall (of course, I knew this was incorrect, but I'm just telling you like it was.) I felt more like part of the storm than part of humanity. I felt insubstantial. It was amazing and melancholy simultaneously. 

I suppose it's that feeling that gave me the inspiration for Ishaera.

Why did I stay out there, if I was feeling all of these things that are usually considered negative? I enjoyed it.

If I had gone down to the living room, I would be focused around what was happening. I would be tethered down to current events. but alone, my relations to others became less important. It was just me as I truly am, free to think about whatever I wanted without concern to the time or others. It was incredibly liberating.

Without other people either directly or indirectly interacting with/affecting us, we become detached from "reality" and retreat into our own minds. We make the transition from physical do-ers to metaphysical observers. The people on whom we are eavesdropping don't notice our presence, and until they do, we are naught but a ghost looking in.

It's the observation/interaction of other people that make us "materialize" here. (vague less-than-quasi quantum theory, anyone? Haha)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that without other people, regardless of how distant the interaction, we don't have much. Also, if we keep stuff solely in our heads, it's not worth much either. And I don't mean writing our thoughts out on blogs or disguising them in stories. If something you've been thinking about exhibits itself in your actions, it still counts. Therefore for those of us who are writers, our writing is incredibly important.

I guess this week I'm inclined to believe in souls. My opinion on that matter changes often.

A side-effect of my hour on the porch is that I have some ideas for poems and more parts of Ascension.

Watched Up earlier this week- a lot sadder than I'd expected. Very good.

We're currently watching The Hobbit, which I only ever watch with my friend Matthew or when I'm sick. Matthew and family are staying an extra day with us after the beach before going back to Indiana, so that time has come. And my dad is making the most hilarious comments.

Writing vs. Life

“I love Munich, and I love being in cities with lots of other people because I’m reminded that there are billions of people like me and we are each stuck inside of our minds feverishly trying to crawl out to make connections with other people.” - John Green


My creative writing teacher from last semester recently posted on his blog that he "let life get in the way of writing."


Well, okay.


My thoughts on that are this: How is that possible?


In my mind, writing and life are inexorably intertwined. Even if I'm not actively writing or planning a story or poem or whatever, everything that happens to me has an effect on my writing. 


Here's what YA author Maureen Johnson had to say about it in her post on MFAs:


"The best material and the best method comes from life, life outside of the routine of college. Sure, stuff can happen to you in college—really weird and crazy stuff. But you’d be amazed just how SIMILAR a lot of that weird and crazy stuff is, how a lot of people will have the same stories.


Here’s a little story about ME . . .
“Great!” you may say. “That’s means people will LIKE my story because it will remind them of their own experiences!”
It doesn’t work that way. The key is PERSPECTIVE. You need experience and time to figure out how to frame those events, to realize what they mean in the long run. Plus, you just need MORE STUFF to happen to you outside of the confines of a campus. You need to struggle and have heartache and have to search for a job and a place to live and make important decisions.
The people I saw who really excelled in the MFA program were people who had been out of school at least for a few years. Pretty much all of these people had had jobs. And some people had come from very different fields of study. The difference in the writing was incredible. I mean, even if you are writing about vampires or werewombats . . . you still need to instill your story with an underlying BIG TRUTH about love or loss. Maybe you want to write about a girl who moves to New York to make it big! Awesome! What do you know about that? Have you tried to move to a place and make it big? Have you ever moved anywhere on your own? It’s experience and perspective that give stories depth.
Frankly, I don’t push MFAs on people at all. I did one, and I’m glad, but I don’t think it is what made me. And when I look around at all of my writer friends, I’m the ONLY one (that I can think of) with an MFA. They all had various kinds of experiences. John Green was a hospital chaplain. Ally Carter was an agricultural economist. David Leviathan still is an editor/publisher. Justine Larbalestier has a PhD in semiotics. Scott Westerfeld designed software. Robin Wasserman did her graduate work in scientific history. Cassie Clare worked for the National Enquirer. Meg Cabot ran a dormitory. The list goes on and on.
I had loads of jobs. I was a waitress in a theme restaurant, I traveled around the country with a media company, I worked in theater, I worked with tigers and weirdos and directors who made everyone take off their pants for rehearsal, for management consultants who used incomprehensible jargon . . . and I wrote. I used a lot of what I saw. I used crazy customers. I used the worry of not being able to make the rent. I used the psychology I learned from waiting tables. I used the struggle and loss and uncertainty and excitement and wisdom . . . all from things that happened to me after I left the security of a campus and moved to a city and made it on my own.


See?

You're supposed to "write what you know." If all you know is what you've read, and what you've written, all of your stuff will end up sounding like other people's books, and very similar to your own. So I don't think you should spend all of your time reading and writing. Both are great, and both are necessary, but there needs to be more.

This, I believe, is part of the reason the first version of Ishaera was so terrible. All I knew was other media I'd consumed. Now I'm older, and I've had more experiences, and I've read considerably more, so even when stuff combines, you can't tell because so much other stuff has been mixed in.

So this is why I don't feel bad that I haven't written anything in...a month? (I've written a song. That's about it.) I mean, I do feel a little bad (what with the "write every day" maxim that's repeated so much), but it doesn't bother me too much. I am living, and living is what is important. Both to my writing and to me.

The End. (See? I'm way out of practice. lol)

Quotes & Series

Here are some quotes my grandma sent me this morning. I emailed her a poem I wrote a year or two ago, and she asked me to read it at her and my grandpa's 50th anniversary picnic.


"Imagination is the highest Kite you can Fly."--Lauren Bacall
 "Everything you can imagine is real."--Pablo Picasso


Danny wrote a post about series (specifically, plotting them), and I figured I'd put in my two cents on the topic.


I've never wanted to write a series. Or, should I say, all three novels I've started writing (Ishaera, When the Sun  Was In Your Hair, and The Clockwork Experiment) started out as loners. Now, Ishaera has a possible prequel and the latter two both have potential sequels (ooh, I haven't told any of you that before, have I?), but all of them can still stand alone (although the end of Clockwork sort of begs for a sequel, and I already have a twist in mind).


But plotting a series? I shudder at the thought. I've noticed that the books in a series tend to get worse and worse the farther the series progresses. Whether this is true in Harry Potter is debatable, since the first and the seventh books are so radically different from each other, it might be that they shouldn't be compared.


The most notable exception (within my experience) to this trend would be the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. All 8 of the ones I have read (9 doesn't come out in the U.S. until October, and there will eventually be at least twelve) are just as awesome and enjoyable as the first. This is because John Flanagan, as he said when I met him in May, refuses to write another book unless there's a legitimate story left to tell. He doesn't force it. He doesn't write more just to make money (although that's a nice bonus).
Another exception, in my opinion, would be The Icemark Chronicles by Stuart Hill. Things got slightly repetitive after the first book, but the additions of so many new characters and the growth of the old ones makes books two and three equally enjoyable.


There are other exceptions, both general and specific, but I'm generally opposed to series. I usually love the first book, and then sometimes start disliking, and then hating the rest. That is to say, there are many, many, many series that I've read all of and thoroughly enjoyed, but I expect not to. I'm often pleasantly surprised, but I'm predisposed to pessimism. 


So I love reading series (assuming ALL of them are well-written), but I highly doubt I'll ever sit down and decide to write one. If a sequel or two spring up, I'll write them, but never will something of mine start out that way.
At least, for now.