Growing Up

What if I don't want to?
Is it so bad that I enjoy being somewhat child-like? I assume that it isn't. Yet there is a time and place for maturity.
Thus, the college experience comes to a close and the "real world" looms on the horizon like an angry bee hive. There're swarms of people everywhere looking for jobs. As I search from day to day, a job that might have been perfect for me flies past at an alarming speed. How am I to apply for jobs when I have the odd hours only as my free time?
It's a hard experience, growing up. When I was a kid all I wanted to do was grow up and be an adult, live like an adult, talk like an adult. And now that I've reached it all I want to do is be a kid, live like a kid, talk like a kid, believe like a kid. As a child, I was able to believe in things more easily. My imagination could run rampant and that was okay - I was a child.
But now that I'm a learned individual (or so I hope after four years of college), my imagination must be tamed and put into a cage. It's only allowed out on the rainy days, when I have time.
Yet even as this is told to me, even as I'm instructed that this is what grown ups do, I rebel. My imagination doesn't stay in its cage. In fact, I removed the cage all together. It now walks beside me and at any moment it pounces on something completely innocent and says, "Look at what I have! Look at what we can do!"
And I follow where my imagination takes me. Why? Because I like where my imagination takes me. I like the places I explore and grow in and can create. I like the fact that when I close my eyes and think, I don't just see blackness. I see a myriad of colors and lives and plants and things and people. I see worlds yet to be explored. I see characters yet to live.
Even as I write this, I want to abandon reason, stay up all night, and write a book.
But I have classes in the later morning where I need to be at the very least, a little focused. Oh how classes take the fun out of being a learner. It's been great for my brain, I suppose, to learn all of this stuff. But it's been horrible for my education. I believe Einstein said that the only thing that hindered his education was school. I may be wrong on that quote, in fact I probably am.
There are a great many things I wish to learn. None of which can be taught in a classroom. At least, not a contemporary one. I want to learn how to write a ground breaking novel. I want to learn how to publish it and create a cover and decide how the wording should be and craft truly unique and good stories. I want to learn about mythology and legends and expound upon them. I want to delve into the deep and then fly into the sky.
Instead, I'll go to my Calculus class that is required for me to graduate to ensure that my brain is worked in a variety of ways. That way we'll know I'm a rounded individual.
And when I'm handed my diploma, I will smile with the knowledge that the easy part is over. The difficult part of the journey has only just begun.
Oh, and P.S. - I finished my third book in under two months. That makes two books in under six. That's 200,000+ words. I feel fairly accomplished.
Currently Editing: End Game: Genesis (Chapter Nine)
Currently Reading: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring & How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy
Currently Listening to: "The Vikings Have Their Tea" from How to Train Your Dragon

Battle Writing

Kids, if anyone ever tells you that writing a book is easy. Smack them.
Especially if the book your writing is part of a series and even more so if you're placing it within a fantasy world of your own making. Also, learn from my mistakes: don't write such a story and then make up your own races and then on top of that create 30+ characters to live within that world that you know you'll be interacting with on more than just a 1 page basis.
What brings this on? I'm into my third book, probably a little over half-way done writing it, and I'm in a battle scene. Normally these are really fun for me. Battle scenes are where most of the images in my head come from. But this one is really difficult, and I kind of always knew it would be, I just never wanted to admit it.
I've got around 25 of the 30+ characters I've created in this battle, and that's what's making it so difficult. See?

That's everything that I have open on my computer as I write a battle scene for this current situation. Most of what's open right now are word documents. I even created a whole word document that analyzes where my characters are and has a table to allow me the ability to strike through everyone that we've seen so far in the battle. You see, the problem with only mentioning two of them throughout the whole ordeal makes it sound like it was only two people involved in the battle. That doesn't make it believable when you've got over 20 characters running around in said fight.
Writing is a task that takes hours of blood, sweat and tears. Anyone who tells you it's an easy process has never actually attempted it or is in denial. Even more so when you take into account the kind of world we live in today.
I could, if I wanted to, self-publish my book right now. I won't, because there's a lot left to edit before I even pursue publishing. But because anyone who ever sits down and decides to open a word document and write a 100 page story can post their book online and sell it for whatever they want. Because of that, we run the risk of people uploading crap that is still on its first draft sitting out on the internet for unknowing buyers to fill their libraries with.
There's a very real risk for lots and lots of bad writing to get out into the world. Now, in theory, only the good stuff will become popular. But that just isn't the case anymore. If enough hype is brought up around a series (or even one book), it can mean little to nothing if the story is well constructed or the writer in question can spell or properly construct a sentence.
Anyway, I'm going to go back to writing for a smigin before I call it a night/morning. I've got my last day of classes tomorrow and I need to be somewhat coherent. I do have a presentation in my Ceramics class first thing in the morning.
Currently Writing: End Game: Trinity (Chapter Eighteen)
Currently Reading: The Time Traveler's Wife
Currently Listening to: "Enigmatic Soul" by Two Steps From Hell

I Really am Bad About These Things...

Oh Blog posts, why do I forget about you? Possibly because I don't have any regular followers.

Anyway, 23 days after I embarked on the 50,000 word goal in the month of November and I flew right past it. However with the first of three direct holidays hitting me, I wound up not touching my book for 5 days (AAAAAHHHHH). I kind of think I'm going a little crazy for not having written. I left my characters high and dry in a not-so-great time, so it keeps coming to mind and I really want to get them out of there. Once I get back to school I'll hopefully have some more time.

So yes, I am a 2011 NaNoWriMo winner! Yeehaa! I knew that there was the potential to achieve the goal, but I wasn't 100% sure I would have the time necessary to get to where I wanted to be. And in reality, I wanted to be at a completed book by the end of November. Now, if I don't sleep, it's still a possibility. Will it actually happen? Probably not. Finals will be on top of me before I know it and I'd rather not die in the homestretch.

For now, I'm getting myself ready for bed. I won't get there till sometime in the early morning just because I need to pack up my things before I head up to my brother and sister's house for a second Thanksgiving and some tree hunting. It promises to be a good day tomorrow, just long with my 5 hours of driving to get back to school. Thankfully Jon & Mallory live in the direction of Houghton.

Good night, dear bloggers.

Currently Listening to: "The Time Has Come"
Currently Writing: End Game: Trinity (Chapter 17)
Currently Reading: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

NaNoWriMo

So I've done it. I've signed up to be part of National Novel Writing Month. The goal: to write my third book in the next month. Who thinks I can do it?

Well, considering the fact that I wrote the second book in under two months, I think it's entirely possible to achieve. At least, that's what I'm hoping for. I've already finished the first chapter & prologue, so I'm off to a good start. Hopefully I can keep it up. I know for the weekends it'll be rough, because I tend to have next to no work ethic on weekends. Maybe this will get my butt in gear.

Thankfully my second short story for class is already done and turned in, I just need to edit it. The editing shouldn't take too long. I got a lot of good feedback from my fellow classmates, so I think the rewrite will go fairly smoothly. That means that my nightly routine might be entirely achievable. The girls in my flat tend to go to bed around 11 or 12, and if I can write between the hours of 12 and 3 on most nights (or 12 and 1 on others), I can get a solid 6 hours of sleep and still be functioning for classes.

That's doable, right?

In other news, I'm looking for a job in the publishing industry. I've found lots of openings that I think I could easily fill, but the problem I have is that I won't be available to work until mid August. I know I could start working in May, but then I probably wouldn't be able to attend the four weddings I want to go to this summer. Drat on all my friends deciding to get married this summer!

But I guess that's what happens when people are in love. We're just waiting on one more ring, and then officially four of them are engaged. It's that time of life, I guess, when lots of good things are happening to everyone.

Oh, to all out there! Keep my very good friend Alaina Bargar in your prayers. She's embarking on finding a House to publish her book. It's uber exciting, but also slightly intimidating. We're praying that God takes her in the direction she needs to go and that everything works to His will.

Okay, I'm gonna go to bed. I need to be up at 9 so I can be ready to go to class. And then I'm running my car to the autobody shop so he can have his passenger front door looked at. Hopefully it's just the insulation getting knocked out of whack. I'm crossing my fingers.

Currently Listening to: "Breathe" by Superchic[k]
Currently Writing: End Game: Trinity; chapter two
Currently Reading: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Halfway There

I'm so not good with this blog. But I suppose that's okay, seeing as no one, at the present moment, reads this.

In the past two and a half months a lot has happened. I've discovered that I had writer's block with book three of my series (shocker!), I have four weddings to go to this summer and only two of them are in the same month, the car I currently drive might not remain my car, my brother trusts me with his son for a whole day, my sister is spending her semester in Philly and I am definitely not a city person, and I can work really well with clay if I give myself time. There's plenty more I'm sure, but that's all that's coming to mind at the moment.

Really I just felt that it was about time to update this. So here I am, updating.

Writing a series is hard. Y'know, I always thought that it would just fly from me. Images would become words and those words would suddenly become a book. Just like magic. And then I started to try to write and that didn't happen. I had these idealistic thoughts that somehow this would be easy.

Boy was I wrong.

I haven't had writer's block since the first book. Not that it was that long ago. Well...maybe it was. Let me think. I wrote my first book back when I was a freshman in college, back at BCCC. I think it was my sophomore year when I was actually done with the draft - that Christmas. So it's been three years since I wrote a novel. And I've spent three years thinking through everything. And that was evident in book two. Things just flowed perfectly from my brain to the computer. I don't know how that happened.

Anyway, so I'm kind of stumped. National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), is coming up in November. In a perfect world - at least if it's God's will - I'll write the skeleton draft of my third book in that month. That would require me to stick to the 'write a chapter a night' routine. Is that possible? I guess I have some praying to do.

For now, I'll just keep plugging away and listening for what God has to say. His plans are first and foremost. Whatever I think is irrelevant if He's got something bigger and better planned. That's one of the nice things about a Heavenly Father who desires to do good for me. I'm such a lucky Daughter.