Fearing your own words

I'm about to say something that may sound a little crazy, but if you're a writer reading this I'm sure you'll be able to relate to every word.

When I'm writing my head is usually filled by many voices pushing me in different directions, arguing with themselves on where I should take my WIP (Work- In- Progress). Even when I'm not writing I'm usually arguing with the voices or thinking about a million little things at once. Sounds crazy right? Stay with me I have a point to what I'm saying I promise.

Last month all the voices stopped.

I'd stare at my computer for hours trying to force the voices to make an appearance, but they were just--gone. It's like they packed up and left overnight. I couldn't write anything. No matter what I did the ideas weren't flowing.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to take a Query Workshop with YA author Mindy McGinnis. Even though I'm not ready for the Query process it was a rare chance that I couldn't pass up and I'm so glad I went. It was great to be surrounded by other people who take their writing as seriously as I do and to meet others who are in various stages of their stories.

After the presentation I was able to speak to Mindy about her own writing fears and after that conversation as I was walking back to my car something just clicked. The voices didn't stop speaking to me, I let fear smother them. The moment I admitted to myself why I couldn't write, I allowed the voices to break through the fear.

I'm getting back to my original concept and I can say the voices in my head are helping me along the way :)

So the moral of this long story is it's okay to be afraid, but don't let it smother your creativity.

Also if you haven't read it yet, you should read Not a Drop to Drink. It's a great book and I love Mindy's world building and character development.

Have you ever let fear control you in any way?

Until next time, I hope you find joy in your writing!

Lindsey Stirling and a great message on dreams

Last night I saw Lindsey Stirling in concert for the first time and I need to say wow, that girl knows how to entertain  her audience. She's an amazing violinist and dancer. Before she played her very popular song "Shatter Me" she gave a great motivational speech about it being okay to be different and accepting yourself for who you are. She said not to listen to all the voices that tell you that you can't do something.

Her words really resonated with me and I think many of you in the art field could relate to what she said as well. Lindsey talking about how powerful and emotional this song is for her made me appreciate it all that more. I highly recommend if you ever get a chance to check out one of her shows, do it.

I wish I recorded her speech to post on here, but my phone died so to anyone reading this, follow your dreams and remember that it's okay to be different.

Until next time I hope you find joy in your writing!

Honoring our Heroes

Today many of the pools open, grills are stacked with sizzling meat, drinks are consumed, and families spend the day together. While most enjoy their memorial day off work, please remember what today is truly about; honoring those who have served and gave their lives or are still fighting for the freedoms we take advantage of every day.

We are blessed to have such brave men and women fighting for us!

I just want to say thank you past, present, and future heroes,

Happy Memorial Day!

Writing and editing crap

Since my last post I have edited 117 pages and taken out more than 24,000 words. I'm taking my time with this second draft, wanting to make it better. I told a family member the other day that writing is all about crap. Here's the exact words I used:

Writing is all a bunch of crap because you write a first draft, which turns out to be crap. Then you edit that crap into new crap, when you reread that crap you edit more new crap until it's less crappy... on and on it goes until you no longer feel the urge to hit that delete button.

If you're a Pantser like me, then you probably fight the urge to delete everything during the first read-through. My finger gets trigger happy, but I find it helps to keep all my deleted words in another document that way if I delete something important or end up cutting out the heart I still have it and can access it with ease.

What are some of your editing tricks or advice?

Until next time, I hope you find joy in your writing!

Lucky Agent Contest

Hey everyone just wanted to let you know about an awesome contest going on right now over at Writer's Digest. It's their Dear Lucky Agents Contest and the best part is it's FREE! Check it out if you're a Young Adult writer.

Lucky Agent Contest

Until next time, I hope you find joy in your writing!

During my free time I've...

Hello world,

I am coming out of my cave to tell you what I've been doing while taking a break from my novel I just finished.

My life is still eat, breathe, sleep writing. I've been honing my craft by reading some writing books and then practicing the techniques I'm reading about. The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley has been an enjoyable read so far. It's brought ideas to my own writing that I've been playing around with. I never realized how much fun it can be to play with the point of view.

I'm also reading Conflict & Suspense by James Scott Bell, which has also been an eye-opener so far. While writing my novel I read a little bit, but now that I have even more free time I love learning new techniques that can only make my writing stronger. I can't wait to go back to my novel and include these ideas into my story's world.

While writing my novel, my Writer's Digest magazines piled up, so I'm also catching up on all their great advice. I've written a couple short stories that I plan on perfecting and maybe enter into writing contests.

When I'm not writing or reading about writing, I'm entering other people's worlds and characters. It's a great escape from my own mind.

What do you do during your writing free time? Any other books that I should read about writing?

Until next time, I hope you find joy in your writing!

First Draft Complete

Dear world,

Today I finished the first draft of my novel. I am now going to take a six-week break from it before I begin the long editing process.

I'm free! I think I'll read some books, maybe write something else, find a new show to watch, and find my sanity again. For the past month I've been breathing, eating, and sleeping this book. It feels so great to finally finish it.

That is all!

Until next time I hope you find joy in your writing :)

New Year and New Me

I hope every one had a great Christmas and New Years. Now that the holidays are over it's time to get into new year mode. I've written about my New Years Resolutions in the past. This year I didn't post anything and here's why:

I've decided I'm not going to have a New Years Resolution. This year I'm going to have goals, but the biggest change is going to be my attitude. I spent a lot of time in 2013 being depressed and I can't do it anymore. I need to take more control of my life and change the things I can. That mostly means thinking more positively about what I have and knowing what I want.

Failure is a possibility, but I need to stop being afraid of it. Because if I fail, it means I at least tried.

What do you hope to see happen in your life this year?

Balance in life and writing

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and a great NaNo. I did not participate this year, but I have been writing. I'm in the middle of an internship where I write, so it's been difficult finding time to write for myself. I finally feel like I've found a balance.

Balance in life is very important. Those with family know how hard it is to find time to write between taking care of kids and working. Most of us have to arrange writing around our schedule. At times I felt like I had split-personality disorder between writing journalism and then creatively writing for myself. Sometimes I still get that feeling, but it's getting better.

My dream is to become a published author. In order for that to happen I have to finish my own work, which is why even if I don't feel like writing anymore I force myself to write at least one sentence for my own work. Usually that turns into more than one sentence, but every little bit counts, right?

How do you find the balance in your busy life?

Banned Book Week!

Hey everyone in case you didn't already know it's Banned Book Week. Here's a post on real reasons people wanted these books banned. You won't believe some of them because they're so ridiculous. So in honor of Banned Book Week I'm asking you to go out and read a banned book.

Some of my favorites include Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. What's your favorite banned book?

Here's another site for your viewing pleasure on what authors have to say about censorship.

Until next time I hope you find joy reading your banned book!

9/11: Twelve years later and a moment of silence

It’s hard to believe it has been twelve years since the day I sat in class fearing for the fate of my country and its people. That day is still fresh in my mind. I was sitting in study hall when someone came running in the room, talking about our nation being under attack.

Turning on the news, it was like watching a movie. Only the fear and grief were all too real. Thousands of men and women lost their lives that day. Many families forever changed. Twelve years later many Americans go about their day as if nothing happened. I would like to take a minute of silence for all the police officers and firefighters who lost their lives that day to protect ours and for all of the troops who continue to fight for our freedom. We must let them know that they are not forgotten.

And since this is a writing blog, remember to treat every day as a gift. It can all be taken away in an instant. Look deep down into yourself and remember why you want to be a writer or why you love to write.

Until next time I hope you find joy in your writing!

Who will your characters turn out to be?

When I begin writing, I have an idea of who my character is going to be. But you can't predict how a child is going to grow up and sometimes my characters surprise me who they become. I started writing one of my characters thinking she'd be nice and help my main character. It appears she's taken on a life of her own and has other plans. As I continue to write this character in the story, the more she hinders my main character.

So far it's not a bad change, just not what I was expecting. I could go back and try to make her be the person I want her to be, but I think it's better if I let my characters grow into their own. Have you ever had this happen to you?

What's your writing environment?

I haven't posted anything in a while because I was in the process of moving across the country. I'm now back home with my family where I belong. Now that the move is over it's time to get back to working on my novel again...I hope I can find everything.

Moving is like Christmas morning. If you don't label your boxes, like me, then every box you open is a surprise. It's kind of the same if you are a "panster." Every sentence you write can be a surprise. But this post is more about the writing environment. At this moment I'm having problems writing this post due to a tv, screaming baby, and people talking around me. Not the best environment for concentrating on your writing.

How many of you have an ideal writing place? A lot of people I know go to coffee shops and write there, but I am one of those people who need a door to close to tune everything out. When that door closes, my mind automatically knows it's time to get down to business.

Well I have an almost-one-year-old fighting for my attention, so until next time I hope you find joy in your writing!

New Orleans and other misadventures

I haven't written a blog post in a couple of weeks because I took a vacation to New Orleans to see one of my friends graduate from Tulane. I have never been to New Orleans or Louisiana, so everything was new and exciting for me. I tried crawfish for the first time and ate more seafood in a week than I have my entire life. I walked the French Quarter, ate at Cafe du Monde.

Her graduation took place inside the Superdome where the Dalai Lama spoke about hope and global oneness. I can't tell you what I'm writing about yet, but let's just say it felt like he was speaking directly to me at times.

I didn't write the week I was away. I wanted to be present in the moments with my friends. While there we went on a Swamp tour, which was a lot of fun. Below is a picture of the swamp in all its beauty.

The flight back was a little scary. My three-hour layover became a four-hour layover. They finally put us on the plane and because of the storms out east all the planes were flying west. We sat on the plane on the tarmac for two hours and during that time two storms rolled through. I took a picture during one of the storms. It looks like we're sitting in the middle of a river.


But I made it back safely just in time to catch a bad cold. My writing is progressing. I wrote over 2,000 words yesterday. I am now on page 80. I have a little over a month before I make a big move, so we'll see how much writing I get completed before then. If I don't lose my mind in all the craziness. How much writing have you accomplished lately? Or have you taken any summer trips yet?

For your viewing pleasure I've included one more picture of the French Quarter.




         Until next time I hope you find joy in your writing!

 

Random trips to the desert and writing progress

In case you haven't heard the Lyrid Meteor shower went on this weekend. As a person who has never seen one of these events, I felt it necessary to experience this phenomenon. So what started out as a quiet evening in bed, ended up being a random half hour drive to the middle of nowhere at midnight.

If you've ever found yourself on a dark, deserted road in the middle of the night, then you know how quickly your mind wanders to monsters and murderers hiding out just waiting to get you. You jump at every little sound. When a car drives by that late at night you think they're up to no good. My friend and I blame it on watching too much Walking Dead.

But in-between those moments of fear are moments of peace. Staring up at the night sky and realizing how small we truly are to everything. I only saw four meteors, but I jumped with glee like a little kid every time.

Even as I stood in the desert full of fear and wonder my writing brain refused to shut off. I thought the whole time I wonder how I can use this in my story? Every experience can be turned into a great story, which is why it's so important to take time to experience the little things in life. Whether it's sitting in the desert waiting for someone to come hack you up into little pieces or just taking a random road trip to see something different.

The night ended when it became too cold, but that only encouraged us to come back the next night. Where we experienced a whole new fear: wild animals.

As far as my writing progress, I'm on page 40 and going strong.

Until next time, I hope you find joy in your writing!

Back in business.

Hello everyone, it's been a long hiatus and I'm coming out to say I'm finally writing again. I fell away from myself for a little bit. Writing is what makes me happy and it's time I get back to that. I've started a new novel. It's an idea I've had running through my head for awhile now. I'm finally putting it down on paper. I'm on page 27. I started writing again two days ago, so that's a huge feat for me. Especially, after not writing anything for months.

A shoutout goes to Stephen King for writing a great memoir on the craft of writing. It's given me the inspiration to get back to doing what I love.

I probably won't be blogging as often as last time. I want to focus on my novel completely, but I will still stop by every so often to say I'm still around : )

Until next time I hope you find joy in your writing!

2012: Review of last year's resolutions

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I flew home before the holidays to spend some time with my family. Sadly, I didn't write while I was there, but I gained some great memories of my family. Most of my time was spent with my four month-old nephew. I won't be seeing him again for another 6-8 months, so it was nice babysitting him.

As the new year arrives I began to think about last year's resolutions, which can be read here: 2012 New Year's Resolutions

I planned on finishing my novel and I did.

I planned on quarrying agents and I did.

I also said I would write every day. Okay that one didn't happen.

Even though my book still isn't being published and I don't have an agent. I have to consider 2012 a writing success because I finished my book and put myself out there. Even this blog has been alive for a year now.

Did you accomplish your writing resolutions? What do you hope to achieve in 2013?

Happy Birthday Bram Stoker

Just wanted to take the time to say it's Bram Stoker's 165th Birthday today. If you haven't heard of him then surely you've heard of Dracula. So Happy Birthday Bram Stoker, the original writer of vampires!

My status on Nanowrimo

I feel as a writing blog I need to address the fact that November is Novel Write Month. To all of you who are participating this year I wish you good writing and good luck. Last year I wrote 75,000 words in a month, which was a record for me. It was also my first year ever participating in Nano.

This year I have decided not to participate in Nano for personal reasons. I am still writing and you can find my newest travel articles on Hubpages. I also started a new novel a little bit ago, but I'm using November as my personal goal to continuously write it. I don't have the time or energy to try and get 50,000 words this month on top of my other writing, so I'm settling for writing every day. If I do make it to 50,000 words then that's great!

I support everyone who is participating in Nano and would like to give you some links of resources that I have found.

Writer's Digest is offering a free download for everyone every day that has something to do with writing.

Nathan Bransford blogged some old Nano resources that can be used any time. I found his information about characters very helpful.

Veronica Roth, author of "Divergent" reposted one of her Nano advice blogs too.

Again, I wish everyone good luck and if you have any other Nano resources that you feel will help people out please feel free to leave your advice in the comments below.

Celebrating Banned Book Week

It's that time of year again: where authors, publishers, agents, librarians, teachers, students, journalists, and anyone who enjoys the freedom of censorship come together and celebrate. That's right, you guessed it. It's Banned Book Week.

From Sept. 30- Oct. 6, all readers unite to honor the books that have been banned or attempted to be banned from libraries, school's, etc. At least once in your lifetime, you've probably read a banned book. For example, the famous Harry Potter Series. Can you imagine a world without Hogwarts? I know I can't.

As writers and/or readers it's very important that we have the freedom to express ourselves. A lot of Young Adult books are frowned upon by parents because they paint a harsh reality that they don't think their kids can handle. Some explicit material incl., drugs and sex. Please someone find me a teenager who doesn't get asked to use drugs or the chance to have sex because I'm hard pressed to believe that most teens don't experience this. Books don't put these ideas in teenagers' minds, they're already there in their every day lives. Books do, however, give teenagers an escape. A way to let them know they aren't alone.

If you would like to join the celebration, go read a banned book. More information on Banned Book Week can be found here.