Darn Creativity!

I hate my mind sometimes.  It thinks that it has a mind of it's own.  No, I'm not insane-well not doctor proven insane...  For the last few days I've been having this lady come into my head and start rambling on about her life.  Stuck in a tower.  And how she hates singing.  Yeah, weird, I know.  I've never had this happen to me. I mean that I've had moments when I am writing and I know that a character wants to say something, but never a random character come into my mind and force herself on me.

I'm aware that many authors have this issue when they're not writing, apparently it "gives them the need to write, they're not whole without it" stuff.  I've never had that.  I'll let you in on some things from my past about writing, be warned-it's dark;) (okay, not really, it's just a little off).

Here's my story:
I write.  Not well and for sure not known.  None of my family or friends know that I write anything, and I don't want them to.  I don't want to have to explain it to them and deal with that embarrassing ordeal because let's face it my family is not one of the most accepting group of people around.  (My neighbors are from Uganda, I mean they moved here about 10 years ago, my grandmother felt the need to inform my aunt and uncle (who have lived in Chicago and New York) that my neighbors are black, and not just regular black, but black black.  Oh and their dog who is black little Schnauzer barks at them... and they encourage it... yup, my familia!)  They all just think I have an overactive imagination, which I do but it would be more so if I didn't write, but they don't need to know that.

I started writing in 7th grade, where most all people start their writing: FanFiction.  My friend introduced me to it.  She wrote her's and I wrote mine, and we would 'edit' the stories together.  I was a spuratic updater, and now I realized I was writing for her and not for me.  I actually never finished the story.  But I'm a little scared to, to tell you the truth.  I really don't want her to see me four years later still updating that High School Musical story that is awful!  I created another story under another username and that's where I fell in love with writing.  I had always enjoyed reading stories so it was fun writing a story.  But that's pretty much where my writing went to.  There have been a few chapters that I had wrote out or perhaps a very detailed outline, but those have all been lost to history.  In school I never really applied myself to story writing because I hated, etch that- hate, English class.  I'm more of a science person, hence me taking mostly science classes this year and going to the zoo to get extra schooling.  But the teachers had always told me to try a little harder and it would be amazing.  My teacher once took one of my writings and put it in a contest, it got 2nd place, but I was so upset by her that I didn't even recognize what had happened.

I've been trying to get back into writing as of lately.  I'll start writing and then 'Opps, I have to volunteer today' or 'Goodness, I really need to clean up around here'.  I'm aware that everyone has these issues, and that's usually what seperates a never-will-be author and a true author.  I've always imagined myself as the former.

That's where my story ends.  Yup, that was great wasn't it?  No, this was not a bragging party or pity party (also I love the phrase pity party, although I don't know why...)

 I've been trying to ignore the lady because I don't need anymore distraction this year.  I don't think that I am going to get away from her.  Plus she keeps telling me, "I don't sing, I absolutely hate it.  I will hum, but no singing."  Grrr!  I think that I'll give into her a little, let's see where that gets me.  Oh wait, perhaps I will be a 'true' author...

Have any of you people have this happen?  What's your writing back story?

And since I don't have a picture up about this lady or my past, I shall indulge in another betta that I'm in love with...

If anyone wants to get me him, I'd be A-Okay with that!  You've got to admit that he is one attractive betta!

The Scarlet Letter- Opening Act

Hello wonderful people! I am so sorry that I have not updated in so long. I was on vacation and then realized that I had 2 books to read and annotate before August 22, and this realization came four days ago... Yeah... I procrastinate. In honor of my summer readings I would like to address the wonderful book of The Scarlet Letter, and how we can add old writing to make our writing better.

The Scarlet Letter: How to Open Like Hawthorne

Have you opened a book lately? I mean a book wrote within the past 10 or so years.  Let me open up a few of mine and let's look at them.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer : "My mother drove me to the airport with the
            windows rolled down."

Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich : "Just because I know hoe to change a guy's oil doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life on my back, staring up his undercarriage."

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen : "At the stroke of eleven on a cool April night, a woman named Joey Perone went overboard from a luxury deck of the cruiser liner M.V. Sun Duchess."

What do those all have in common?  Well, the first thing that I pick up is that they all start with action.  It is a jump into the story, there is no background and there are very little details about them.  There is some mystery behind all of them, such as why is the mother driving the main character to the airport, how does the main character know that she doesn't want that/what does she want, and why did she go overboard?  They're all great introductions, but let's be honest: I'm not gripping the edge of my seat to know what happened.  I'm a little interested but not I cannot put this down interested.  Perhaps these are just my musings, but these openings are common throughout most literature today. (If you have an example of one not like this, romance novels not included-those are a whole different ballpark in my opinion- please comment on this and show me/inform me.  I'd like to see one!)

I'll switch to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  After flipping past a good 50 pages of someone's opinion on the novel (which I don't read that... Sorry, too much other stuff to do) this is what you would come across: "A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and other bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice*, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes."
* I had to look this up: a building, usually one that is large.


I may be one of the few that aren't English teachers that get chills from the writing, but you have got to admit that it takes some... uh how do I say this in a politically correct way, oh screw it... balls to put out your first sentence with so many commas and descriptions.  That's one reason I love this beginning, he takes a risk and it pays off because it is executed so well.  There are details about the people, the setting is partially established, and not too much is given away.  It takes a grand three chapters before we know exactly what Hester had done.  Nothing is given directly, it takes time and steam to build up to this.  There are questions about this too considering how little Hawthorne gives away while addressing so much.

My favorite part about Hawthorne's opening is that he doesn't come out and say what is happening.  I don't know why, but, in my opinion, opening with too much information messes up your entire book.  You can have a great rest of the book, but people aren't going to stick around and read it if you give it up within the first paragraph or two.  Here's an example (this is from some random story off of FanFiction- I refuse to give away any information about the author and such, and yes I went on FanFiction I'll get to that in another post)
"I was just talking to Ron about what happened that day at lunch when Draco had me sit with him at the Slytherin table. Apparently Ginny, his sister, told him about it"
See, too much given away.  You can guess the entire rest of the story because of the beginning, which is why I put the opening as the hardest part of writing.

Here are some tips that I've created, and taken a few times, about opening a story in a Hawthorne-ian style:

1. Give some details.  Put out there a general feel of the setting, the characters and a small glimpse of the plot.

2. Give the point of view, and DO NOT CHANGE IT!

3. Create some questions in your beginning.  Make the reader think about what they are reading, you put all that time and effort in the novel, start them off with something strong.

4. It's okay to not start with action, sometimes details are better.

5. Give out small bits of information on your plot.  I know I put this up there in 1, but I feel that this needs to be addressed more.  Don't give in to the urge to put everything in the beginning, space it out, give them a reason to keep reading.  Remember that tiny hooks catch more readers that one giant hook;)  

6.  If you begin with dialogue, which is a great way to start, keep it down a bit.  You do not need to fill the entire page with a conversation between Jack and Jill, one this will confuse people with characters and two you'll be likely to give too much of the plot away.

7. Don't give the plot away, space it out!  Oh, wait.  I've already addressed this, but this is IMPORANTE!

8. It's okay to try around with different beginnings.  Maybe dialogue will work with one story and a detail beginning will work with another.  It's okay to change, it's the only way we can get better.

Great link for more opening tips: http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/10-ways-to-start-your-story-better

I think that addresses everything.  If you have another tip or two you want me to add, just leave a comment and I'll add it!  These are ones that I think are important.  Hawthorne does a great job opening up his story, learn from him and other great writers, and if you haven't read The Scarlet Letter shame on you!  Go get it now and read it, you won't regret it.  Reading is the best way to learn to write!

Farewell! <- Anyone get it?

MM i: Counselor/Letter Monday

From Here

It's Monday.  Whip out the caffeine, I can't say coffee because I don't drink it.  I'll let you all in on a little secret of mine: counselor-ing an orchestra camp for beginners=death.  I'm dead on the inside.  The children had just learned how to play their instrument with a bow and are moving on to more difficult things, which makes for a lot of complaining and whining and headaches.  On the bright side there is great food, and a really cute counselor ;)

For the first ever Motivation Monday, I will be sharing one of my methods of getting motivated/back on track.

Stop reading this blog.  Shut the laptop top down, get out of the chair, lock your phone, whatever you need to do to stop reading this post for a minute, do so.

Actually, wait!  Read all of this before you do that!  When you leave the computer go get a piece of notebook paper and a pen/pencil.  Take those beautiful writing skills that you own  and write a letter to yourself.

Write about what you want to gain from writing.  Write about where you see yourself at the end of the writing.  Put little details that you want to remember to include.  Add a little joke.  Write a quote that makes you happy or feel good.  Tell yourself about what you'll do once your done.  Write whatever you want to write, just make it fun and upbeat.

Take that great letter, fold it up, and put it in an envelope.  Put a picture of your dog/cat/husband/wife/anyone doing something silly in the envelope for extra fun!  Grab a silly sticker or boring piece of tape and shut it closed.  I like to write a statement on the front like, 'Only Open When In Dire Need of Motivation' or 'Intruders Will Be Feed To The Wolves of *insert the name of the writing*'.

Now put that envelope of motivation in  a place that you won't forget it.  Take it out when you need something to get you moving.  I love looking at the reason I started something.  It makes it seem like the whole thing isn't so bad if I accomplish what I wanted.  This may not be your way of motivating yourself, but I like it.

What's your way of motivating?  Do you write a sticky note?  Have a certain song?  Tell me:)

P.S. I have a Special Coupon Code for all you people for my Etsy Shop!  It is:
COUNSELORMONDAY

Housekeeping

I hope that you all had a wonderful 4th of July!  I know mine was hot and tiring... Heat+Zoo+People+No Lunch= Emotionally and Physically Drained Elizabeth.  Nonetheless it was still fun.

From Here

Today's not much in the substance side of things with the blog, I just want to put down some kind of schedule and hammer out some things.  Housekeeping, I guess we can call this.

From here out I am enacting a brand new schedule!  I shall be posting 3 times a week.  The days shall be Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.  Tuesdays will be 'Teaching Tuesdays' when I go through bits and pieces of the writing process that are sometimes sketchy or need to be looked at.  It will be a very informing day:)  Fridays will be a day for writing motivation, such as writing prompts, general motivations, and other things that are lurking in the back of my mind for these.  I eventually want to have this become a kind of editing day, so that your WIP can be edited.  I would love give some of my assistance to others with the editing process, and there may be some tips there.  But I am going to wait a little while to see if this would work out and to stimulate any attraction from you all to it.  And finally Sundays will be a hodgepodge of different things, for example I may read an awesome article that I will share, perhaps there will be a book review, recipes, and random junk!  That will be the fun day of the week!

From Here
This is the fish I'll be getting and once
I breed some other fishies:)

Another random bit that I'd like to point out is that I have set up an 'About the Author' page so you all can go stalk me.  And yes, I actually put up a picture of myself.  No laughs!  That picture is from a year and a half ago...

Also I'd just like to add this for my own happiness: I'm back to aquarium keeping!  Like full out again.  I'm working on breeding some of the fish:)  They're so cute my little fishies!

JulNoWriMo

It's July and that means that it is time for JulNoWriMo!  Let me just say that this will be my first time attempting to write 50K words in 1 month, and let me tell you that it seems daunting.

For those who don't know about JulNoWriMo it is a competition to see if you can write 50K novel in one month.  The JulNoWriMo stands for July Novel Writing Month.  The webpage is http://julnowrimo.com/.  

The home page says:

     Welcome to the July Novel Writing Month web site! Your goal, should you choose to accept it, is to write 50,000+ words during the month of July. Do you have the courage and the drive to attempt such a feat?

     If you love to write and NaNoWriMo just isn't enough insanity for one year, please consider joining us in July! To sign-up, just head over to the forums and register a username.

      We also have our own Twitter account and a user-runchannel on YouTube - feel free to follow both to keep up with any announcements and tips from other participants as they attempt to win!

     Confused? If you have no idea what in the world I was just rambling on about, please visit this dandy page right here. It should help answer most of your questions. Good luck!

      Happy writing,
            Robert Watson

Sounds inviting doesn't it, so go on there and sign up, try writing a novel.  It isn't too hard, just start typing today.  You have 30 days (including today) to write your heart out. I will be doing it, so find me on there!  I'm PurplePenguin.

I will be writing about different ways to stay on track this month with writing, and I'll be giving little writing tips that are sure to help with any kind of writing.

Sorry that this is short.  It's Monday and I've been unpacking all day, give me a little break.

Tell me what you're planning on writing.  Do you have any ideas?  If you need any help at all feel free to email me at eliza.a.gallagher@gmail.com and I'll try to help you to the best of my ability. 

An Endangered Species

When you hear the phrase 'endangered species' you probably jump to the conclusion that I'm talking about fluffy panda bears, curious chimpanzees, and gigantic whales.  Ha, psych! I'm talking about words.  You know the things that we use everyday to communicate with, unless your deaf which then you don't.  Yes my friends words are endangered.  Every year words get dropped from the dictionary, and what are put in their place? Sad things like unfriend, sexting, retweet and so many words that I would be embarrassed to use.  Be shocked, I don't use those words I like saying that 'they stopped being my friend' instead of 'they unfriended me' and 'they sent obscene pictures of themselves to each other' instead of 'they were sexting'.  I know that I'm weird and the former is much longer than the latter statement, but wouldn't you feel smarter saying the former?

There is something that you can do to stop the madness!  It's called adopting a word.  You can click yourself over to this lovely little link which connects to the savetheword website.  Sign up and adopt a few words. Impress your friends and use unknown words.  Put them in your writing.  Become a superhero and have them be your catch phrases!  Yes, put on the cape and say 'resarciate fiends!'

So far I've adopted ecstasiate (to go into ecstasy; to cause to become ecstatic), cloakatively (superficially) and tauroboly (pagan bull sacrifice).  Those are amazing words aren't they!  Alluding to my previous post the definitions of the words could put together a plot;)  Perhaps I may be one of the few that finds this extremely cool and you all think that it is a waste of breath using the words but you have to admit it is fun to dumbfound people!

From Here

It's Monday, and I'm packing so this is all that we get today.  This week is going to be lighter post seeing that I'm going on vacation to Chicago.  Stay cool and have fun!

Creating Plots

Plots are the steel frame to the roller coaster of the novel that we build.  Our characters, theme, settings, prose, word choice, ad style are everything else.  What is a roller coaster with out the frame?  Nothing besides a bunch of mismatch objects.  One problem that people who want to write, whether they be novices or professionals, come across at one time or another in their writing career is the lack of plot ideas.

How do you make plots you ask, well, in very simple and somewhat obvious places.  Let's go through your normal day and see what we can find for plot ideas, I'll leave an * by each place with ideas!

6:00 a.m. you wake up and head towards the shower.  Once done with showering you brush your teeth, do your hair, etc.  You head to the living room where you have the paper (don't ask how it got there, I don't know it was magic) sitting on the kitchen counter.  You get some breakfast and coffee/tea and read the paper***.  It's off to work.  On your way to work there is a car crash that makes you take the detour route*, which makes you late.  Your boss comes and yells at you, which is more than what they usually do which is sitting at their desk watching YouTube videos, something must be wrong in their life*.  You go to your desk after the scolding and check your email.  You have a few new messages, one from your sister vacationing in Peru that has lots of pictures attached, so many that you can't even download them all*.  You get to work.  During lunch hour you and your friends go out to the town, where you come across an old man sitting on the sidewalk that says 'Fortunes for $'*, you hand him the change in your pocket but don't stay for the fortune.  During lunch you overhear the people behind you arguing about their relationship, apparently one of them slept with the other's sister, who's married and has 2.5 kids in a house with a white picket fence and a golden retriever named Fido*.  After lunch you head back to work.  During your break time you head on over to Time.com and read through some articles and head on to mynicheoftheuniverse.blogger.com where you read fabulous post***.  After work you go pick up the dry cleaning from the little old Asian lady who always has a smile on her face, today the glass windows are shattered, someone tried to rob the place*.  You get your clothing and leave.  Once home you change out of your clothes and listen to your spouse babble about their day* while flipping between the evening news and E! News.  During dinner your children overload your ears by telling you every grueling detail about their school day*.  You all watch a movie*, then send the children up to bed.  Before going to sleep yourself you finish that novel that you picked up last weekend from Barnes & Nobel*.

From Here

Did you see how many times in a day that you can find?  A ton!  And that's not even looking for any.  Go to the park and people watch, go to the grocery store and pick up the latest copy of People or Enquirer, those are chalked full of ideas.  Listen to the radio.  I was driving home from the grocery store yesterday listening to the radio and the announcer dude was taking calls for things that people had done that no one knew about and that they didn't want people to know.  Some lady called in and was talking about how her mother was dating a man 12 or 13 years younger than she was, the lady didn't know that.  The day before her mother got engaged to the man, the lady that called and the man somehow got drunk and had sex.  He proposed to her mother the next day, and the neither one has told the mother that they did the deed.  If that isn't a good plot then I don't know what is!  Want to make it fantasy?  Put them in a different world, add some mystical creatures or something and call it a day! (No offense to fantasy writers out there, I'm just making a point and I love fantasy, no offense intended!)  With the media out there bringing loads of stories in each day it's fairly easy to grab onto one and twist it into your own plot line.

Another good idea is find headlines from a newspaper or magazine, write down the ones you like, put them in a bag and pull out a few.  There's your skeleton of a plot line.

So, for all of you lazy people out there that don't like reading here's a list of everything:

• News Paper Articles
• Magazine Articles
• Radio
• Television
• Books
• Emails
• Everyday Activities
• Blogs
• People Watching
• Fairy Tales
• Movies
• And the list could keep going!

Plots are about relationships, conquests, missions, adventures, and so much more!  They're everywhere, now go find one!

My Findings

Goodness me, I forgot to post yesterday!  How silly of me!  I'm sorry, I was sick and I was unable to make it to the library yesterday and the charger to my laptop still hadn't arrived.  One good thing happened: I finished two of the three books that I had gotten from the library on Monday!  I'd have to say that they were very well written.  There were a few parts here or there that I would have re-worded or rewritten, but it was very little that I wanted to change.  The book The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen was FABULOUS! I'd recommend that to you all, I'll type up a review tomorrow.

I returned to the library today and was rummaging through the YA section of the library.  I had posted on the absolutewrite forum about YA that we'd like to see more of.  I searched through the rows of books at the library only to come up with very very VERY few books that were historical.

I am one who loves history.  I mean drags her family to historical sights and reads those "dreadfully dull" history books.  I like it:)  What is wrong with all the YA authors out there?  I remember as a middle schooler picking up  Pride and Prejudice at my aunt's house and being absorbed into the colorful world of Miss. Elizabeth Bennet (yes, I LOVE that our names match).  I then ventured to the public library and asked around for some great historical novels that were a little easier to comprehend than Jane Austen's.  There weren't many.

So, here I am years later still finding the same predicament: no historical novels besides prince and princesses!  I have now made it my quest to write a YA historical novel.  This isn't my first big writing task and now I have this blog to keep me going, I mean I can tell all of you readers about my writing adventures!

Just before I leave you all I just want to add one thing, this dog photo.  It's my old loyal "dog" that I have defending my weed garden!  I really need to tidy that place up a bit, but it is so darn hot here.  I have realized how much fun it is to take pictures of lawn ornaments.  There is a house not too far from mine that has... gargoyles!  I'm trying to figure out when I can go sneak over there and capture a picture or two without the owners noticing.

Well, ta-ta for now! (Tigger reference)

Stick Shift

The "stick" in my Father's Jeep

One of the new adventures in life that I'm taking is learning to drive a manual transmission. Laugh if you want, but it's hard! I grew up with my father always having a manual transmission in it; I had thought that driving his Jeep would be easy. It wasn't. When I got my first car (which I still have!), it was an automatic. I love driving that car, especially when I put the cruise on and the car just drives itself, I get tingles! Ok, enough of me talking about cars. While learning about the driving of the manual transmission I have realized how similar it is to writing.

When I first started to drive the manual I couldn't believe how many things there were to getting the car to go! Not only did I have to watch the road, watch the speedometer, look at the mirrors and steer the car, I also had to feather the clutch, press on the gas-but not too much!, shift into second, don't get stuck in neutral, press the clutch again and shift into third! It's tiring just thinking about all that.

Now let's get to how this analogy is going to connect.

When I first started to write about three to four years ago I had thought only about the plot and characters. Pshh, what else was there in a novel? Theme? What's that? Motives? Huh? Character depth? Who? I could go on and on, but I won't. I learned a lot about writing quickly after I had allowed my friend to read it who is amazing at writing and grammar, but she won't actually do any of that (it's to frivolous or something...).

I learned that writing is like learning the manual- it takes time, practice and a whole lot of patience. There's more than just the break and gas pedals. There are mirrors, and engines, and gears, and window washer things, and so much more. In writing there's more too. It's not just putting the characters in a situation, it's having them react to events the way that you or I would, it's giving them a back ground, giving them a future and hopes and dreams, it's giving them life. The plot is the same way. It needs turns and twists and bumps and bruises, everyone is not going to be happy in life, so neither should they in a plot. In writing there is also this lovely thing called 'setting'. Ever heard of it? It needs some attention as well. People need to see what the characters see, feel the grass, taste the salty air, hear the waves, smell the fishy aroma of the ocean! Ahh, the beach:)

I think that you all get where I'm going with this. Writing is hard, and so is driving a manual transmission. I'll leave you with this:

DRIVE SAFE and WRITE WELL, oh and DON'T DIE!


So, before I leave completely I have a question to ask you! What things in life have you seen a connection with writing? Anything else in you're life? I'd love to hear/read from you!!!