How Do You Find Time? –IWSG Post

Hello friends!

Today I'm participating in Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group, so be sure to check out other posts like it.

Maybe you can tell from the language I'm using to write this post, or maybe not, but I am exhausted. It's 10:30 AM on a Wednesday morning, and I've already taken a psychology class from 8 to 9:15 today. Sure, it's only one college class, but Monday's and Wednesday's are my lazy days.

Tuesday's and Thursday's, that's another story. I'm on campus from 8am to 4pm.

The homework isn't too bad, it's just a ton of reading. I'm enjoying all of my classes, even the math. Though, the math homework is pretty terrifying.

I'm also officially getting hired today!

So while all of these things are great, "how do you find time to write in your busy day?" you ask.

Well…

I've edited four pages over a week.

So…to fully answer your question, I have to say that balancing writing and my new schedule are becoming extremely difficult. Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person to give up something I love just because it's hard. I'm definitely not going to be taking any writing breaks or go on hiatus (though my absences from blogging seem to make it look that way).

One of my biggest weaknesses is time management. Ever since college started, I've been doing a lot better with it, but it's still not good enough. How do I balance class, homework, real work, writing, and still maintain a healthy social life while making sure I eat enough and get enough sleep?

The answer: I don't know.

At least, I haven't figured it out yet.

How do you find time to write in your busy day? (Hopefully you're doing a better job than I am!)

–Jess

Marketing Is Scary

I guess my plan for blogging more over the summer didn't go down so well.

Either way, I'm done with excuses, because there's really no excuse, nothing I have to say in my own defense as to why I didn't write more over the summer.

Anyway, what's done is done.

Okay, so I'm sort of nervous.

See, I love to write.

I mean, obviously.

Then again, you wouldn't say you love to breathe. You only do it because if you didn't, you would die. I live to write, and write to live. My world, and writing are dependent on each other. It's become a fact of my existence, I guess.

The thing is…

With my book out, and everything, I have to worry about marketing now.

And I don't like marketing, I just like writing.

Let's put it this way.

I'm not really a "people" person.

I'm a writer because I'm not a good speaker.

Although I could probably write a good speech for myself, there's no guarantees I'll actually say it well.

No, really, all I want to do is write.

And meet some hot male protagonist, but that's beside the point.

So my mom has kind of taken the role of a marketing advisor, and been helping me get my books into local book stores. Actually only one bookstore so far, and I haven't even given them the copies they requested yet, but hey, it's a start.

I'll admit, it scares me a little.

Like, a lot.

And it makes me wanna go like this "ASL;DKFJAS;DFJKL" all over the keyboard.

Seriously though…not that I'm going to have one any time soon, but…what exactly do you do at a book signing? I mean, besides sign books? Do you have to answer questions? Are there certain questions that people tend to ask?

Ahhh I'm making myself nervous.

Please, though, if you have any suggestions let me know.

–Jess

Eyes of Eden

Okay, I know not everyone's into poetry, but I write it now and then when I've got nothing better to do (which is never, so more like, when I feel like not doing what I should be doing.)

Either way, I wrote this poem and had nothing else in mind to post today, so here it is.

Go easy on me, poems aren't one of my strengths, despite how many I write.

Eyes of Eden

Cross the world,

Face the black,

Run for you,

Then double back.

Watch your face,

See you smile,

Stay with me

for a while.

Reach for you,

But turn away,

Must forget,

Or fall astray.

You are fading,

Fading fast,

Let you go,

Relive the past.

What I was,

Was tied to you,

Shed my skin,

Follow through.

Eyes of Eden,

Look for me,

Take my hand,

Set me free.

I am day,

You are night,

Make your stand,

Hang on tight.

Lead the way,

'til death we fight,

For you are dark,

And I, the light.

So there you have it.

Any ideas on what it's about?

I'll give you a hint. There's no wrong answer.

--Jess

Uploaded.

Dear fellow bloggers,

Please excuse my absence from the blogosphere yesterday, I got pretty much nothing done. As far as school work, and stuff other that writing goes.

So yeah, yesterday was quite busy for me.

Why?

I uploaded From the Ashes to CreateSpace.

Yes.

I did.

But it took quite a long time because I had to fill out a TON of information about my book, which is actually much harder than it sounds. For some reason, when it comes to talking about my own story, I get all tongue tied. Or keyboard tied, since I actually had to type it all out.

Then again, I get to talk on the phone again to the people at CreateSpace about my answers and other stuff… yeah haha I'm not quite sure what to expect. I'm just such an awkward speaker. That's kinda why I'm a writer.

Anyway, I'm really excited to see how things turn out!

How are you guys doing?

--Jess

Insecure Writer's Support Group Day!

Yes people, it's the first Wednesday of the month!  You know what that means... (if not, it's IWSG day, started by the awesome Alex J. Cavanaugh :)

So let's see.  What am I insecure about?

I could talk to you about querying, because I am terrible at writing query letters.  Then again, I've already sorta written two posts about that.

What else?

My sequel.

Yeah, sure I already finished The Inferiors (book 2 of my trilogy), but I just started editing it.  And by the stars*, I've got a ton of work to do.  There's so much I need to add.

And, I have no idea how to go about this.

The Inferiors could go one of two ways.  Either my characters will go rescue   (person you can't know about yet)   or they can go find more about the   (thing you'd only know about if you've read it)  .  Currently, I have them rescuing   (person you can't know about yet)  , but by that time, will the reader be fed up about not knowing about the   (thing you'd only know about if you've read it)  ?

It's good to keep the reader wanting more, but will I have them wanting so much they decide to give up on me?

I'm in a big mess.

Luckily, I get out of school on Friday, so I'll have an entire summer to figure this problem out.

So... what are you're insecurities?  Have you guys had the same issue I've had with my sequel?

Happy Wednesday :)

--Jess

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*That's an expression my characters use... lol.

Interview with Stephanie

Hey guys! Today I'm interviewing, Stephanie, one of the two winners of Knights of MicroFiction! Tobi will be interviewed over at Kathy's blog.

Here we go!

***

Hello, Stephanie! It's so nice having you here! I don't know about you, but I'm really excited for this interview. You ready? Okay, good! My first question is...

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I was about 15 when I wrote my first original story, about a family of witches guarding an ancient artifact. From there my love of writing took off, but it would be a few more years before I was brave enough to take a writing class and share my work with others.

Oh, yeah I know what you mean. It's scary sharing your work with others! And speaking of sharing your work... what's your current WIP about? We'd love a short summary.

Right now I'm working on the sequel to the YA fantasy book, I intend to self publish this year. In the first book, Shadow of the Wolf, the main character Toby finds himself in enemy territory, surrounded by werewolves. Instead of killing him, the werewolves, who Toby was raised to believe are monsters, adopt him into their pack. While he's adjusting to a very different way of life, his sister is back home looking for some way to rescue him and uncovering a lot of secrets in their village.

In the sequel, Wings of the Butterfly, Toby is preparing to take the Trials that will declare him an adult. Unfortunate events and the escalating threat of war, lead to suspicion and the possibility that Toby won't be permitted to become an adult. Ora meanwhile is attending school in a neighboring kingdom and gets caught up in several political assassinations that she attempts to solve.

Wow, that sounds exciting! I'm working on my sequel, too! I know how hard that can be. And I just love that title, Shadow of the Wolf. It sounds so awesome!

Now, what are your goals for this year?

I plan to fully proofread and self-publish Shadow of the Wolf by July. I'll finish the first draft of Wings of the Butterfly by next December, so I can have that revised and proofread by July of next year. And in the meantime I'll be writing and submitting short stories to try and get my name out.

Sounds like you've really got a good game-plan here!

Alright, next question! How long have you been blogging and how has it improved your writing?

I just passed my one year blog anniversary a couple of weeks ago. It's been lots of fun. My writing has definitely improved, especially in learning to sit down and hammer something out. Contest and posting deadlines are a great motivator, and I love having feedback. Reading writing from other bloggers, fiction and nonfiction, has also been a great way to expand my knowledge of writing.

So, when you're not learning about writing or writing, what do you like to do?

I read a lot, of course :-)  I do yoga and pilates, and I do a lot of different crafts depending on my mood. Sometimes I make candles, sometimes I cross-stitch or sew and I also cook. I also have an unhealthy obsession with iTouch games like Tiny Tower, and Paradise Cove. Those things are really addictive :-)

Lol, yeah, once you start playing those games it's hard to stop.

Is there anything else we should know about you, Stephanie?

I'm very scatterbrained, and fairly disorganized in relation to anything that's not my writing. But I love to keep busy, because otherwise, I tend to fall asleep.

Haha, I'm with you on the 'keeping busy' and the 'disorganized' part...

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today! Thank you so much for joining us, Stephanie!

Thank you for having me!

No problem, it was a pleasure! Let's have a round of applause for Stephanie at Word by Word!

***

Thanks guys, hope you enjoyed! Go check out Stephanie's blog and congratulate her!

Have a great weekend!

--Jess

The Hunger Games + Announcements

I saw it!

Yes, I finally did! I saw it on Monday with my best friend, and oh my gosh, I loved it. It was amazing. Now, I'm not going to go into much detail, because I'm sure you guys already know. But it was almost exactly like the book, and was pretty much how I imagined it while I was reading it.

Definitely a new favorite!

Okay, and for my Micro-Fiction buddies, I have an announcement. Since next month is April and is the epic A to Z Challenge, I'm afraid it will be difficult writing a flash fic on the last Monday of the month.

So!

Kathy and I decided that we'll hold our Micro-Fiction bloghop for the first three months of every year. That way, people don't have to commit to it all year long, lol.

The Micro-Fiction winner of this week is Stephanie, over at Word by Word! Great job, Stephanie! Kathy is choosing the other winner sometime today, so keep an eye out if you participated.

Now, being the last Monday of March, that means this is the last Micro-Fiction of this year. If you want to sign up for next year, the linky-list is still up on the Micro-Fiction page, and we'd love to have you join us!

And, I'd like to thank Fairbetty, over at Fairbetty's World for being the first person to sign up and for participating in every event! Thanks so much for all of your support!

Alrighty, I think that's all for today! So, have a great Wednesday!

--Jess

The Secret Ingredient...

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I am a violinist. No wait, that sounds too professional. Okay, I play the violin. Anyway, I had my violin lesson yesterday and my teacher and I started working on this song:

First of all, it does not sound that good when I play it. Not even close. But I just love this song.


So me and my teacher were going through the music, deciding the fingerings and when I should shift into a higher position. All that fun stuff. But as I was watching/listening to Sarah Chang (the girl in the video) play it, I realized my fingering was different than hers.


Instead of playing a certain note on a certain string, I was playing the same note on a different string. Confusing, right? On the violin, there's more than one way to play the same melody and make it sound just as good or better.


Hmm. Sound familiar?


Playing the violin is a lot like writing. Writing (specifically fiction writing), is all about saying something someone's already said before and making it yours. Without the inspiration of other stories, I'm not sure we'd have as many ideas. And without previous stories, our WiP's probably wouldn't be what they are today.


We're all playing the same song but we're all playing it differently, in our own creative way. So maybe I really do play this song better than Sarah Chang... (I wish :/ ) LOL.


Like the fingering or bow direction I decide for myself while playing the violin, the special ingredient you add to your writing is what makes it yours. That's what makes it special in the first place!


Have a great weekend, everyone!


--Jess

Favorite Fonts

There aren't very many times that I take a moment and look back at everything I've done. It feels like only yesterday that I couldn't focus on writing at all. I was probably only nine years old. I would write parts of a story, then get distracted by the formatting of the page.


I didn't like writing in only black letters. Every five minutes, I'd change the color of the words. When I got really bored, I'd change the colors of the individual letters. Okay, big waste of time, I know, but whatever.


The funny thing is, to this very day, boredom of formatting tends to distract me. Not as much as it used to, (thank goodness) but if I'm not writing in a font I like, I can't write. Well, I can, but the writing doesn't tend to be as good.


I love the font Calibri. I wrote my novel in Calibri.


I like Trebuchet and Helvetica. I also like Arial. Only if it's small, though.


Those are fonts that are pretty easy for me to write in. Of course, there's the other side of the story.


I can't write in Times Roman. Or Times New Roman. Or Times. Those three are almost exactly the same, so I can't write in any of them. Unless I'm writing non-fiction. For some reason, if I'm writing non-fiction, like a report or something, I can use those.


I really don't like Verdana or Courier. They both remind me of what kids my age call 'the olden days' where people only had typewriters.


The funny thing is, my mom (over at Imagine Today) cannot use Calibri. She only writes in Times New Roman, which I totally don't get. It turns off my creative process. Like a brick wall or something. So far, my favorite is Calibri.


(This sentence is in the font Calibri. The next one is too.)


I think Calibri is my favorite font, mostly because it got me through an entire novel and helped me through my second one.


It seems silly, I know, but somehow it makes a difference.


Do you guys ever get distracted with formatting? Do you have a favorite font?


--Jess

Now What?

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who volunteered for beta reading for me over the weekend!! I really appreciate it!!


Okay, now to business. First of all, I finished my book on Friday!! The one problem was, after I finished it, I had no idea what to do. Now, I'm not saying I didn't have a lot to do. In fact, I had an entire book to finish reading and all of book 2 to write. But, it felt wrong not having to work on my first book ever.


I found myself wandering around, pretending to re-read everything I'd written, but couldn't bring myself to focus. I think I was kind of in shock. How on earth do you recover after working your butt off for an entire year on a single novel? Of course, I've still got book 2 to write, but still...


What do you guys do after writing a novel? Do you take a break or just jump into the next project?


--Jess

Christmas Eve Eve

Well, I have exciting news! I sent the first 25 pages of my novel to be critiqued by Rachele Alpine. This is the first time anyone other than the people in my family will be looking at it, and I'm nervous. Of course, I was so nervous after an hour of sending her my pages that I had to re-read them. And do you know what I found? 65 errors.


There were minor inconsistencies, like, my MC was missing from school for three days, but in a lot of dialogue she says she was gone for five. I found that I had spelled the word 'once' as 'oce'. In one sentence I wrote two of the same word in the same line, "His dark green eyes eyes...".


I freaked out. Immediately, I got to work fixing all of the errors, but I knew it wouldn't change anything. I had already sent off my 25 pages. I know I really shouldn't have looked over it. I know that no matter how many times I look over it, I'm going to find things to change and that it won't be perfect. But I hate wasting people's time with things I know I could have fixed myself.


Perfection is our enemy. No matter how hard we try, or how close we get to catching it, it's always a step ahead of us. I've heard people say that a lot. Of course, just because we can't ever reach it, doesn't mean we should give up. But I didn't imagine myself sending off my first 25 pages for critiquing with that many errors. Could my entire story be that bad? I really hope not.


Anyway, I'm doing a final read through, and then, to prevent myself from falling into the black hole of editing that could keep me reviewing forever, I'll officially declare that I'm done!! So after that, I'll finally be asking for beta readers.


Have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you're celebrating this December :)


--Jess


P.S.
Today is Christmas Eve Eve because it's the Eve of Christmas Eve. Just in case you were confused with the post title.

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

Sacrifices

No, don't worry. I'm not talking about food or animal sacrifices or anything. (Unless you're trying to impress the writing gods or something...)

We all have to make sacrifices to get our writing done. But it can really be hard sometimes. For this entire week, I've been trying so hard to meet my goal of finishing my entire book on the 10th of December, but as tomorrow swiftly approaches, I just don't see how I can possibly edit thirteen more chapters tonight.


I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong. I've sacrificed so much time this week for my writing! Okay, maybe I didn't wake up as early as I planned to every day, but I did a lot of other stuff. I stayed up late to get my work done. I didn't go to the movie theater last Sunday with my mom, sister and dad! I even skipped watching two episodes of the TV show Glee to get my writing done! (I couldn't resist watching the most current episode of Star Wars the Clone Wars with my brother, though...)


So, maybe I set too big of a goal for myself. Or maybe I just didn't execute my 'plan' correctly. Or maybe it was just a bad writing week. It sounds silly, but some days when I'm practicing my violin it's just randomly worse than other days. Same thing with skating. Some days I'm really focused, and other days, I completely lose my balance doing simple things.


It's easy to get discouraged when no matter what you do, you feel like you won't finish soon enough, or won't get good things written down. But, I've found that going around and feeling sorry for yourself isn't the way to get what you want done, done. Trust me, I've tried it.


Luckily, I happen to be in a very good writing mood today, so even if I don't finish on the tenth exactly, maybe I could extend my deadline to the end of the weekend or maybe even Monday. Either way, I've still got a lot of work to get done, so I should get back to it.


What are you guys planning for the weekend?


--Jess

Get Out Of My Novel!

I've been editing like crazy, but it's starting to pay off. I'm really excited because I've only got around fifteen more chapters to edit. And even though that sounds like a lot, my chapters are pretty short.


I've noticed that I've got a ton of scene's that are there just for the sake of being there. Sadly, a lot of times they are scenes that I really like. Scenes that have tons of awesome descriptive language but don't move the story along at all.


Before I start editing a scene, I'll read through it as it is. After reading it, I'll ask myself, 'what's the point I'm trying to get across here?' And If I get that point across someplace else already, or there really isn't a point, I just delete it. I've found parts where my MC is walking through a hallway getting to her room from someplace else. And when the point of my scenes are just to show that my MC is going somewhere... well that's not so great.


So what do I do? Tell those scenes to "get the heck out of my novel!"


I guess I've kind of come to enjoy being able to delete things out of my story, because I've got enough words to edit already. So when the entire scene can be taken out, I'm just thankful I don't have to go through it! My favorite part about writing a story is the actual writing part of it. The editing is fun, but I think it takes waay too long.


So the lesson I've learned? Don't keep scenes that are there just for the sake of being there. It seems obvious, but sometimes it's hard to pick them out.


Anyway, I've got to start on my school work now so I can be done with it sooner so I can edit more.


Do you guys have any great editing tips?


--Jess

Khan Academy

Life has gone back to the 'fairly normal' zone after all of our family members left yesterday. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I got to spend time with my cousins that I hardly ever get to see, so that was fun.


Yesterday, I got a pretty good amount of editing done for me to be pretty happy with myself. Unfortunately, I'm over 9,000 words behind on NaNoWriMo, so I'm plotting my way to catch up. At my current rate of writing, I should hit 50,000 on December 11 :(


Anyway, I thought that I would show you something sorta random today. I get Writer's Block quite often, and I'm always looking for ways to get myself 'unstuck'. So, a while ago, we found this really cool website called Khan Academy, and its got all these lectures and math practices that you can watch or do! Now, I know that it doesn't sound all that great. Who wants to practice math or watch lectures when you could just be writing?


Well, the videos are very interesting, and a lot of times, I'll go through a couple of the math practices when I'm stuck in editing. It works like magic because when I come back to editing, I'm not stuck anymore! They've got stuff from Astronomy and Biology to Finance and Banking. There's practice for basic addition all the way up to calculus, and the best part is, it's completely free! The videos make everything easy to understand (yep, even the calculus). Here's their About page if you want to check it out: http://www.khanacademy.org/about


I just thought it was something really cool and worth noting!


What do you guys to do get unstuck?


--Jess

Thanksgiving Week

Hey everyone! I'm really sorry I haven't posted in a while... as I've mentioned too many times already, I've just been so busy with NaNoWriMo and editing that I've hardly had time for anything else! I promise that once November is over I'll try to post more regularly and I'll definitely be blog-hopping more often.


Okay, so in NaNoWriMo, I'm at 33,062 words meaning I'm 3,062 words behind... and I'm not really sure what to do. I've still got a ton of editing to finish and I know I could get to 50,000 words if I worked through Thanksgiving. But, we're having family over, so I can't be working then.


Secondly, I know where the story is going, but I'm not entirely sure how to get there. Already, I'm seeing things that I've written wrong and that I have to change. I think the romantic tension is moving much too fast, and I have no idea how to slow it down! And at this pace, there might be a train wreck soon.


Anyway, have a great Thanksgiving everyone (and a great end-of-November, just in CASE I don't post until then)!


--Jess

Wonderful Weekend + Thanksgiving Approaches

Hey everyone! Sorry I'm posting so late today, I had a lot of homework to do today and I'm trying desperately to stay up to date with editing and NaNoing! But, oh my gosh, I got so much done over the weekend, I'm so excited! Well, maybe I didn't get a ton of stuff done, but I still feel pretty satisfied.

GOAL: 50,000
TOTAL WORDS WRITTEN: 25,643
WORDS REMAINING: 24,357
DAYS REMAINING: 17
MOOD: Feeling Awesome :)

So, maybe I only got 5,643 words written, but I finally did some editing. And, dearest followers (and new people), I just want to say that I'm really sorry for not checking anyone's blog for almost this entire month. I'll really try to get back into everything after November, but with NaNoWriMo and Thanksgiving coming up, I have no idea how I can get any writing done!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Let me tell you about a little (big) family tradition we have. Every year my whole family comes to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving. I guess not my whole family because that would just be waaay too many people. But in total, we've got about 19 family members at our house and it's just as crazy as it is awesome. So hopefully I can get ahead in writing because I don't think I'll be doing much of it in two weeks!

Have a great Monday, everyone :)

--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

Uninspiring Weekend

*WARNING: This post was written while the author was feeling a little sorry for herself.


First of all, let me just say, I've been really bad. I've hardly checked anyone else's blog this week or last week and when I have I've had to just skim through everything! I'm finally almost all caught up in school work (after the move and everything it was kind of hard to keep up,), I've got to keep editing, and I'm writing my NaNo novel. So, I apologize for not keeping up with you guys!


Anyway, the weekend was crazy for me. I think everyone else enjoyed it, pretty much because all we did was have fun all of Saturday. And having fun is fine with me as long as it includes writing, but really. It's November. And I've got a ton of work to do. I'm just happy my 'work' is writing, so it's fun. But still, there's a lot of it to do.


We were out and about all Saturday. I had skating all morning, then got home at about noon. I got a few minutes to write and I was getting all kinds of ideas! I was on a roll! Of course, a few minutes into my session, my dad wants to go to the zoo.


Now, I'm not really sure what to think about zoos. I really don't like seeing animals all locked up like that, pacing back and forth and bored out of their minds. But, I also think it's important for kids (and people in general) to be able to see animals that they probably wouldn't ever see out in the wild. I think it gives people a certain respect for nature. So, my theory is, as long as I'm not contributing directly to caging up those poor animals (as in paying the zoo for tickets and such) then I shouldn't have too much to worry about.


So we drove forty five minutes to the zoo, bought the tickets and went in. We stayed there until about four o'clock and by then my feet were hurting and I was in a pretty bad mood. I had two entire novels waiting for me, begging for my attention and there was nothing in the entire universe (at that moment anyway) that I could do about it.


And just as I thought the hopeless 'no writing' hours of the day would be over, just as I thought we were going to go home and I'd finally be able to sit at my computer and write for the rest of the hours of the night, my dad reminded us that we still had to go to the outlet mall.


Wonderful. Just wonderful.


You can pretty much guess how the rest of the night went. By the time we got home, I was so tired and uninspired that we just watched the movie The Black Swan then a few episodes of Gilligan's Island then went to bed.


My family kept asking me why I didn't want to have any fun for the whole day. But the problem wasn't not having fun for me! WRITING is fun for me! It's work too, but completely awesome work!


Anyway, how was your weekend?


--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.