Week of the Writer: Day 6

Well, I did the Poetry Slam! :D *waits for you to be impressed and forget about the big writing and editing promises I made you...* Ok. I seriously don't know what's wrong with me. I have all this time to do stuff and yet I don't. This is making me sound like a horrible writer, neglecting all my character children... Words will be written. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. Ok, you're right to doubt me but I will cry wolf no more. You know, unless there's an actual wolf.

Anyways, have you visited my facebook yet? Pretty cool, huh? Hopefully it'll grow in number we'll get some more Scribblers over here. What would you like to see me do on there? There's a disscusion area on it so you can talk about different topics. I already set one up for Poetry Slam suggestions. Let me know if there's anything else you would like to see.

Something else I was thinking about was a youtube channel. There are a few authors that are coming close to my area and I was thinking that if I went to go see them it would be fun to do a vlog. And the Night of Writing Dangerously for NaNoWrimo that I intend to go to would be more fun to watch than to read about. So what do you think? Is that a good idea? What else do you think I could put on there? What would you like to see?

Wow, only 3 days left till Monday. Well, I knew I would have to go back at some point. Lol. See you later.

POETRY SLAM! #3

This week the poetry slam suggestion is brought to you by a friend from my Writer's Group. I read my last poem to the group and she said it reminded her of when her kid would call toast with butter on it 'wobbly toast'. I jumped on the challenge. And after some research I found Odes, which generally describe things you love. Perfect.

Now I couldn't pinpoint a specific pattern used to create an Ode. I'd find one pattern then I'd find another and I even heard of one poem that used different kinds in each stanza. But there are ten lines in each stanza and the pattern goes in some variation like this: ABABCDECDE. I used ABABCDEDCE. So without further ado:

Suggestion: Wobbly Toast

Type: Ode

Ode to Wobbly Toast

Oh wobbly toast, so golden brown

I love your flimsy darkened sides

But how you wobble up and down

Butter’s where your secret hides

With hard crust and soggy crunches

Four sides of jelly or cinnamon

I will take in every flavor

Each of your tastes are par to none

You’re good for breakfast, dinner, brunches

Each wobbly bite are those I’ll savor

Well, what do you think? Let me know. Even give it a try yourself! I'll see you next time.

Week of the Writer: Day 5

I made a facebook page for my writing!!! :D http://on.fb.me/f3lV0k 'Like' it and pass it around if you will. I'm really excited about this and I have no idea way. Ha! If there's anything you would like to see on there let me know. Stop by and leave my a comment or something. :)

Anyways, that's really the highlight of my day. I played a good hour of Sonic but that has nothing to do with writing... Still reading The Naming. I guess I don't read as fast or maybe not as often during the day as I thought. It's a pretty thick book. I probably won't finish it this week. We also added painting into the list of things to do before we put my desk up. It's not a big desk so maybe we'll just move it when we're ready to paint but I'm not sure. I also decided that tomorrow I will be strict about getting some writing and editing done. I'll be disappointed if I don't get it done this week.

I'll see you tomorrow with another day and a Poetry Slam too! :)

Week of the Writer: Day 4

Yeah, so you remember all that productivity yesterday? I must need to refuel or something. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to do anything today. I was just really bored. Doing anything in the four walls of my house just sounded horrible, which is ridiculous. I would rather stare at walls and watch youtube videos all day instead of actually getting something done? Am I the only one that does this? I WILL get my editing done and at least one of my shorts... just not today. *sigh*

Anyways, I read some more of The Naming and did edit maybe one page. I also looked at facebook pages today. (Ha. I sound like I'm looking for a car or an apartment.) There are different categories, like business or cause, and under Artist, Band, or Public Figure you can choose Author or Writer. Am I missing the difference? Which am I?

I'll see you guys tomorrow. :)

Week of the Writer: Day 3

You know what? I am really proud of myself. The only thing that I didn't get around to today was my shorts. I did laundry, recruited dad to help move something around in preparation for my desk, edited a chapter, and went to Writer's Group. I even went to the gym and washed my hair. By golly, I've been, what's that word... productive. Wow, I don't see that word too often. Looks funny.

Anyways, I don't have any of my shorts to share with you but I do have a question. Remember back on my list of things to do this week when I mentioned a facebook fanpage? What do you think about that? I've been tossing the idea back and forth in my head. It would be more for me as an author rather than a blogger, though I'll put links to blog posts on there too. Let's put this into a pros and cons list.

Pros



• Access to more people (A lot of people have facebook though I know a few who don't)


• Easier to share (If I'm not wrong there's a button on groups or fanpages that you can 'suggest' it for a friend)



Cons





• Copyright issues? (Would it be easy for someone to take stuff I write off of facebook? I guess that's really anywhere.)



What do you think? The pros out weigh the cons? I think I might go for it. Let me know what you think.

The Week of the Writer: Day 2

Only thing I've really done today was finish Graceling. It was amazing, as I stated in my review. I'm going to start The Naming by Alison Croggon now. Tomorrow will be when the real work starts. I've got a couple shorts that I've been putting off for quite awhile. I really like them so I want to go ahead and get them done. Perhaps I'll share a bit with you tomorrow. Add to that two chapter edits since I didn't get to one today. Also some more cleaning and moving things around for my little desk. Shouldn't be too long before I can get it up. It's weird how excited I am for this. Lol. So how was your weekend? Get some writing done? Read something good? I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow. :)

Graceling - Kristin Cashore

"Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight- she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po's friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away..."

Graceling was nothing short of fantastic. I enjoyed it all the way. It was really easy to lose myself the story and start caring for the characters. Cashore was really good with throwing surprise stuff at you too. You might think you have an idea of what's going to happen but more often then not I found myself pleasantly surprised. There were some times when Cashore would break quotes up in a different way then maybe I would, but it's nothing I took too much notice of. Everyone has a different style of writing after all. Gracling is a thriller. It's definitely a book that I suggest you pick up. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it's companion, Fire. You can find out more about Kristin Cashore and her work at her blog.

Week of the Writer: Day 1

Actually, I did the first thing that anyone does when they have a week of doing nothing ahead of them. I got lazy.

Yeah, I didn't do much today and didn't even leave the house except to get the paper and the mail. I've been reading. Still working on Graceling. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. It's getting into some really exciting stuff.

I'm also taking a break on editing my 'Nano 09' novel. I wanted to see if I could finish it this week and it turns out that I have the same number of chapters left as number of days off. I figure I'll try to do atleast one chapter a day and that will get done. Whoo!

So lets see, things left on the agenda for today:
Read more
Finish editing a chapter
Wash and put away laundry

Turns out if you want to put a desk in your room you have to have somewhere to put it. Gees. The fine print of life. Well, back to work. I'm realizing that this wasn't exactly a thrilling day... The posts will get more exciting! Lol. If you really want to know what my day was like than go play QWOP. (Caution: It's very frustrating and addicting.) Ha! I'll see you tomorrow. :)

The Week of the Writer!!!

It's Spring Break. FINALLY! So with out classes to worry about I have a bunch of extra time to do whatever my little heart desires. It wants to do writerly things. That is why I declare this week THE WEEK OF THE WRITER! (I found that I like themed days even more after starting this blog.)

Events of The Week of the Writer will include but not be limited to:

Really wants
Putting up a desk in my room
Finish the 2nd edit of Nano 09
Finish at least one short
Read
Blog

Maybes
Facebook fanpage
Youtube channel
Print business cards

We'll talk more about these in detail later. I'll keep you posted over the next 9 days. For now I'm off to finish Graceling by Kristin Cashore. It's awesome so far by the way. See you tomorrow. :)

The First No of Many

I don’t know if I mentioned this before but about a month ago I sent in an application for an internship. Now I’ve recently found out that I didn’t get it. I’m disappointed obviously, quite so, but being the Captain of Optimism that I am I like to look on the bright side. I’m trying not to take it personally, only thinking about what reasons they could have to say no and how I could’ve done things differently if it won’t help me get better for next time, because as a writer I should be use to this.

One of the first things you may here when a writer talks about querying is that they’re expecting a ‘no’. This may sound really pessimistic but it’s just reality. Querying is hard, so I hear. Agents probably get a bunch every day and they have to say no sometimes. I’m looking at this as practice for that.

They may have said no but there’s always next year. I’ll just make myself better, dust myself off, get back on the horse, walk it off, insert other ‘try again’ catch phrase here, and that’s how I’ll go into my future as a writer. There will always be another year, another internship, another query, another agent, another review, till you get just that one YES.

No more feeling bad about no’s. From now on they will only be fuel to my fire and I won’t leave the kitchen because of the heat because my glass will stay half full and I’ll drink it if I get hot and fill it back up again!

Ok, I’m getting carried away with the clichés.... I’ll end with this: No’s will not make me stop!!

Books have spoiled me.

And I'm pretty sure it's mostly Harry Potter's fault.

Seriously, how awesome would it be to just Accio something you lost or something that you want but are too lazy to get up and get. (A hint: Accio might work if you say Accio someone with something. Example: Accio Mom with a cookie. Person may have to be present and you have to say please.) Or if you locked your keys in the car. Alohamora that thing and you're on your way. Can't find something in your bag? Lumos. Problem solved.

Can you imagine flying around on a broom? That would be awesome for the enviroment. No more carbon foot print. I'm looking at you Scientists. Get busy. Even just some Floo Powder. I know I don't feel like driving everywhere so just pop some Floo Powder in and get there.

I'm pretty sure that I won't be satisfied till I can fly and throw stuff around with my mind. Excuse me while I go work on that. What books have you wishing it were real life?


(By the way, still looking for suggestions for this month's Poetry Slam. Throw some challenges out there... Or I'll have to read your mind for them. :) )

Night Star - Alyson Noel

Night Star is the fifth book in the Immortal Series by Alyson Noel. I mentioned the fourth book of this series in one of my past posts about new books I wanted.

Ever and Damen are in a really tough spot with keeping thier friends under wraps about their special abilities and keeping them safe from a jealous rival. Meanwhile, Ever learns more about her past and thinks she may have found what she needs to help her and Damen truely be together like they want to be.

If I had to say one thing about this book I'd say that it was a major teaser. Each chapter was like someone dangling something just out of your reach, something that you want REALLY bad! Lol. While trying to avoid any spoilers I'll say that while she dangles a lot of stuff in our face but not much gets resolved and a whole other twist was added. This builds a nice frame for the final book Everlasting.

If you haven't read this series yet then go get caught up! Especially if you're really into paranormal type things.