Something Inspiring

I saw something really awesome a few days ago.

I should have taken a picture of it.

But of course, I didn't.  I mean, I just don't think of those sorts of things while I'm experiencing it.

I was in the library, and all of a sudden, I stumble across the book Across the Universe by Beth Revis.    Yeah, yeah, I know.  It's a pretty big hit (I ♥ LOVE  ♥  LOVE  ♥  LOVE  ♥  THAT BOOK!), so I shouldn't be surprised to find it in the library.

The cool thing about it was that I follow her blog!  Okay, a lot of us probably do (those of you that don't, I suggest you do it).  But, it's just inspiring, seeing another blogger with their book in a library!  The thought that someone like us has books in local libraries... it's just totally cool.

And to think that all of us could will one day have our books in libraries... that's even cooler.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

--Jess

P.S.
If you haven't read Across the Universe, you should.  I didn't write a review for it, but I have to say it's one of my favorites!

L is for Lost

L is for Lost

The world is in darkness.

You may not see it through the cloudless skies, but the world has become dark. It’s easy to lose yourself here. It’s easy to forget what you were and accept what they’ve done. Because if you don’t, they’ll come back.

We’ve lost hope.

And I can’t remember.

I’ve lost myself.

***

I have to say, after listening to the song I'm about to give you guys, I got a ton of inspiration. A few minutes ago, I just put my playlist on shuffle, and this song that just happened to start with the letter L seemed perfect for today's flash fic.

Anyway, here is Lost by Within Temptation:

I got a huge story idea after listening to this song. (I get tons of inspiration from the music I listen to). So yeah, I'm like, jumping up and down in excitement right now!

Don't you guys just love it when you get a story idea? I think it's just about one of the most exciting things ever. The annoying thing is when you don't write it down, and then you forget it. So I'm going to make the rest of this post really short so that I don't lose it!

Also, WiP update: 94,000 words!!!!!!

I don't know if I mentioned it, but my goal has been to have 100,000 words by April 15th. I actually think I might have a chance!

Okay, so, going over to write my idea down, and hopefully I'll have time to do some bloghopping later.

Have a Lovely day!!

--Jess

Dream Launcher Award

Hey guys! Today I've been awarded by Rena, over at Dr. Faerie Godmother with a new award she came up with. It's called....

The idea of this blog award is to thank people who have helped you become the writer you are today. In other words, you give it to people who have helped 'launch your dreams'. So, here are the lucky five people I'm tagging:

1. Angela Brown @ In Pursuit of Publishness
2. T.Z. Wallace @ One Year Until Book Launch
3. Kris Yankee @ Adventures That Score
4. Kathy McKendry @ Imagine Today
5. Fairbetty @ Fairbetty's World

Thanks so much for inspiring me and helping me out! So, please go check out their blogs and follow them!

Have a great weekend!

--Jess

New Inspiration

So, it turns out the 'secret place' that we went to was West Virginia. We stayed at the Greenbrier Resort in Sulphur Springs and I was impressed. I was afraid that since this vacation was mostly just to 'relax', it would also mean doing a whole bunch of stuff that I didn't want to do, and falling behind in editing and all kinds of stuff. But, that was not the case.


We had so much fun, but I have to say, my favorite activity was playing laser tag. There were other families there, so we had a big group of people with us. We split up into two groups and chose teams. After that, the game began. Since I write Sci-Fi and Action/Adventure/Dystopian sort of things, it was pretty good inspiration. I felt like my main character in the heat of battle. Only, the worst thing that could happen to me in there was losing one of my ten lives, where in my story, the consequences are much worse.


I was actually surprised with how good of a shot I was. Sure, I risked my 'lives' a few times, but overall, the girls team won. Of course, after we had achieved victory, the boys tried making excuses, saying that they let us win. But something tells me that that wasn't the case.


Anyway, Christmas break starts tomorrow for me, and I'm looking forward to lots of time to write and get stuff done!


Have a great day!


--Jess

NaNoWriMo Day 11

First of all, I have to say that it's 11/11/11. November 11, 2011. This kind of day only comes around once every hundred years, so enjoy it!


Anyway, here's my NaNo Status Check:


GOAL: 50,000
TOTAL WORDS WRITTEN: 20,000
WORDS REMAINING: 30,000
DAYS REMAINING: 20
MOOD: A little stuck, but getting through


I'm pretty excited that I'm already 20,000 words through my sequel, but I'm a little stuck. I'm all caught up with my skeleton (my extremely detailed sketch), and when I was writing more of it, I got completely stuck. I've had the overall story planned out in my head for some time, but I'm not entirely sure how to get to the end!


As I was writing, I started to feel like some of the conversations were pointless. I started to see that I had already written things that I'd need to cut out. And it kind of hit me that I might not be moving the story along fast enough.


Of course, I'll never give up hope with my writing, but I hit that point that point that makes you wonder who is really going to care. Is my story interesting enough? Is it too cliched? What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong?


It's hard to push your doubts aside. It's hard to ignore that inner voice that begs for a reply. But all in all, I wouldn't be able to turn back even if I wanted to. I already wrote a novel. I've passed the point of no return.


The point is a cliched point of course. But it's a cliche that we tend to forget. The point is that we are doing this because we love it. In the end, it's really doesn't matter who loves what you write, or who doesn't love what you write.


So on that note, I better get back to work!


--Jess

Novel Inspiration

STATUS CHECK:


GOAL: 50,000
TOTAL WORDS WRITTEN: 7,532
WORDS REMAINING: 42,468
DAYS REMAINING: 28
MOOD: Partially inspired, and partially tired


Today is day four of NaNoWriMo! I wish I had gotten more work done yesterday but it took me longer than usual to finish my stuff for school.


But, I'm super happy because I got a prize in the campaign! Yep, that's right! I won a nice, big fat 25 page critique from Rachele Alpine over at Freckle Head. The only people I've had look at my story are my best friend and my mom. Other family members have read a little bit, but not all the way through. So, I'm a little nervous!! After my NaNo writing today I'll be attempting to clean up those first 25pgs as fast as possible! (No rush though...)


Anyway, today I thought I'd be like a couple other awesome writers/bloggers I've been inspired by and show you some of the things that inspired me to write my current series/novel. So here I go:

So those are the pictures that inspired me and they might kinda sorta give you a better idea of what it's about (or maybe not...). And finally, for some inspirational music:

This song really just goes for book two, but I've been listening to it over and over in the first part I'm writing. Love this song :)


What random pictures or music got your imagination ticking on your current project?


Have a great weekend everyone! Get lots of writing done!


--Jess


**Sorry guys, apparently the music doesn't work anymore... I think it got removed from youtube.  So yeah. Sorry.

Back In The Blogosphere

Wow, we're finally here and I'm loving the coffee and rain! Hopefully I'm back for good. Well, at least until the month in temporary housing is up, but let's not worry about that right now.


Okay, now to business.


I am exactly halfway done with editing my novel (give or take a chapter)! I can't believe I've already come this far, it's so exciting! I'm struggling to not explode from excitement because we're living in Seattle and because I'm halfway done! (Or maybe thats from the mocha latte I drank earlier...)


Anyway, I'm kind of torn. For the entire way here, we've only had one laptop (I ordered my own yesterday so that shouldn't be a problem anymore). So while my mom was writing on the computer, I really couldn't work on my current story. I was tempted to just watch the TV with my brother and sister, but Food Network doesn't hold my attention for very long. I'm not exactly the 'cooking' type. Besides, I've been feeling in a creative mood all week. The perfect time to write, right?


As of today, I've written down ten to fifteen different story ideas, all of them completely separate from my current novel. Each has about a paragraph of back-story and where I want the story to go. I'm proud of myself for that, but a little overwhelmed. What the heck am I going to do with ten new story ideas?


And that's not all. I've got the first few chapters of my sequel planned out. Like completely planned out. All I've got to do is write it.


So why don't I just go for it?


To be honest, I'm actually afraid for my first book. Am I giving it enough attention? Am I giving it too much attention? Should I start book two or just continue focusing on book one? Or should I take a break from this entire story after finishing my second draft and write something completely different? There are things in book two that would definitely help me edit book one but would I be cheating book one from my undivided attention? Gosh I'm so confused.


Do you guys have any advice? How far along are you in writing/editing a novel when you feel comfortable starting something new? Do you write the sequel right after book one or do you take a break and write something different?


I love hearing what you've got to say!


--Jess


P.S.
I'm trying to come up with a better blogging schedule. I think I'll be posting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but we'll see. Thanks for stopping by!

Be Prepared!

First of all, thanks to all my new followers from the campaign and for all the wonderful comments on my flash fiction post!

Alrighty, with that statement out of the way, I can tell you some exciting news! I have a skating competition tomorrow! (In case you didn't know, yes I'm a figure skater.) I usually don't get nervous until I'm actually at the ice rink, awaiting my turn to be called in front of the judges, but I'm not exactly sure how prepared I am for this one. I've got two jumps in there that I can't land consistently and a spin that doesn't exactly spin very well. So, with that being said, yes, maybe I am a little nervous right now.

Me and Alyss after one of our many competitions!

I'm not really someone that preforms well under pressure either. My knees get a little shaky and I constantly feel like I need to take a trip to the bathroom. Not to mention, the past few weeks I've been much more interested in my writing than in my skating (which I guess isn't a terrible thing because writing is my first favorite thing ever), but it isn't so good if I want to have a winning chance.


So, I'm sure you've made this conclusion already, but no, I'm not exactly prepared for this competition. I've got a little bit of an idea of the people I'll be competing against, but to be honest, I could lose miserably, or take first place. I've got no clue how this is going to play out.


And here comes the catch. Maybe I'm not the most physically prepared person there. But from a mental perspective, I very well could be. Not because I can land my jumps or do my spins, but because I'm prepared to lose. I'm prepared to skate hard then walk away with nothing but a green ribbon saying "Honorable Participant". And I can be happy with that.


How can we take this into writing perspective? Well, we need to be prepared. We don't exactly know what we're up against. We could luck out with our manuscripts, and just happen to send it to the right place, reaching the right person at the right time! And that's awesome! But more often than not, we get a nice rejection letter (if we're lucky).


Writing can be rough and sometimes even ruthless. But we can be tougher than that! We've got to look beyond rejection and see that it's all part of the journey. People will knock us down and honestly not like what we write. But what matters, is that we'll get back up and try again! And sometimes, getting that rejection can make getting published in the future all worth while!


Have a great weekend!


--Jess


P.S.

I updated my 'Poetry' page so it's got all of my recent poems. I also got a few new story ideas, so I'm excited!

Happy Tuesday!

Hey everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I got back from Michigan yesterday, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on most of your blogs today. I also got some really cool new story ideas to keep me even more busy than usual! I even found the time for some long needed reading. It's so cool how refreshing a few days of break can be!


Anyway, it's back to editing for me! And I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. At first I think I was a little too overwhelmed with the fact that my book was done to actually try to fix it. Now I'm on a roll, highlighting pretty much everything I see (well, not everything but that's what it feels like)! I look back at the pages of my MS and want to laugh at the papers streaked with yellow and pencil marks. It's really funny because sometimes I feel like saying "how did I think that was good when I wrote it?" But that is what first drafts are for, right?


Well, I should probably get to work now, but before I leave you, here are a couple pics from our trip!

(Me and Mom trying to stay warm outside!)

(Cousins, Grandma, Sister, Me and Gramps!)

(The Lake! Photo Credit goes to my Grandpa)

Happy Tuesday everyone!

What did you do this weekend?

--Jess

P.S.

Thank you new followers (old followers too, don't worry!) and campaigners for stopping bye!

Last Day of Sparfest and Going Back To School

First of all, it's the last day of Sparkfest! I'd like to thank Christine Tyler for hosting such a wonderful Blofest! If you missed the sign up days, you can still post for the Sparkfest on Saturday and make sure to read other people's entries!


For my last Sparkfest post, I would like to say that my biggest inspiration hasn't come from a movie, or a book, or even a song. My biggest inspiration is all of you! I can't believe how supportive and friendly everyone is! So thank all of you, who thought this blog was cool enough to join or comment on, or even glance at! Because you guys are awesome inspirations!


Now with that being said, let's get to the second title in this post. School starts on Monday. I'm not exactly thrilled about that, though I don't actually have to go anywhere because I'm homeschooled, which is awesome! Unfortunately, I'm going to have much less time to write than I usually do, which will be pretty sad since I've hardly done anything else this summer. (Writing forty four chapters in a summer is quite a challenge! Not to mention time consuming...)

Speaking of, this was probably my most productive summer ever! I used to think of summer as a time to rest, do nothing, and play video games all day long. Thank goodness I re-discovered my love for writing or I think this summer would have gone to waste! I'll still try to post every morning, but I might miss some days.

Have a great weekend!

--Jess

Sparkfest Day 4: World Views

Today is the second to last day of Sparkfest! Thanks so much, Christine Tyler! I have been having so much fun with this!
The third question is:


Is there a book or author that changed your world view?


There are so many amazing books I've read, it would be hard not to give credit to only one. But of course, that isn't the question. And if I had to choose one book, only one, I would have to say it goes to The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. (Click on the link to read the summary of the story).


I read this book when I was eight years old. It was the book that helped me transition from little chapter books to the ones I read today. I'm not exactly sure if I understood everything I was reading at the time, but it changed me.


It may not have had such a big effect as Star Wars or The Hunger Games had on me, (I couldn't have written another post about those two!) but it is a story that will stay with me forever.


And then there's my story. It's strange to think that something I write could affect people all over the country (if it actually turns out to be good, that is). Could someone possibly stumble across my writing one day, then be changed for the rest of their lives?


Was there a book or author that changed your world view?


--Jess

Sparkfest

Well what an awesome time for Blogfests! Yesterday there was Ellie Garrett's super awesome Star Trek Blogfest, there's the upcoming Worst Movie Ever on September 19th hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and from today to the 26th, there's the Spark Blogfest!
So the first question in the Sparkfest is:


What book made you realize you were doomed to become a writer?


I don't think there was a specific book that made me become a writer. My very first bit of inspiration was probably a Dr. Seuss book. What little kid doesn't love the sound of the rhythm and rhyme of the stories? I remember, before I could even write, I would tell my mom a few rhyming lines and she would write them down for me.


When I was seven years old, I read a series of books called the Great Illustrated Classics series. I remember reading War of the Worlds and Journey to the Center of the Earth for the first time and being captivated by story.


And then of course there was George Lucas. How can I not give credit to him? Star Wars was the deciding factor for me. Maybe I would be a writer, but I'm not sure I would be the writer I am today.


Anyway, check back tomorrow to see what inspired my current W.I.P.!


--Jess

Inspiration

Being my first novel, I'm not very experienced at the art of creating one. I've really been writing poetry since who knows how long ago? I tried to write a novel two years ago but when it didn't really work, I just told myself that I'm not a novel writer. Even now, I'll readily admit that I'm not a novel writer. But back then I wasn't even willing to try again, which is silly since I've got so many story ideas swirling around in my head.
As of today, I've got some ridiculously large number of words (something around 130 thousand I think? It's on my Novel Word Count bar) which is a huge accomplishment for me! A lot of my friends and family ask me, "Jessica where do you get your inspiration?" as I continuously spill pages out of my head and onto the computer screen. My usual answer is something boringly simple like "I really don't know," or something along those lines. But a few days ago, I asked myself that question and during an intense writer's block, was finally able to answer it. Well, mostly.
Of course, I do get inspiration from my favorite books and movies, but what I found out was quite unexpected.
It turns out that while I'm writing I like to listen to music. In fact, it is sometimes hard for me to write without it. (Probably because I have such a hard time focusing on things). But the music I listen to is not soft and pretty classical music. I plug in my headphones and blast my favorite bands into my head as I write. Well, when I asked myself 'where do I get my inspiration?', I realized that it's partly from my music. As I listened to the lyrics of my favorite songs, I discovered how well the words fit with my story! Whether I subconsciously processed the words and turned the songs into a crazy conglomeration of a story or picked the songs because I thought they fit with the story, I guess I'll never know.


Anyway, enough about me. Where do you get your inspiration? Please share your thoughts!


--Jess