I'm Almost Free!

Life has been so crazy lately. I'm so tired and burned out from the whole school year, the only thing keeping me going is the fact that it's almost over! I only have about two weeks left of school, and god, am I relieved.

Not really looking forward to finals, though, and I'm taking a few classes over the summer.

Anyway, I got this really good (or, at least I hope it's really good) story idea recently, and I've been having a lot of fun adding to it and making character sketches, but I feel like I really should be working on The Inferiors, the sequel to From the Ashes.

It's such a hard choice, because now, I've got people waiting for me to finish it. At the absolute earliest, even if I worked really hard at it, I don't think it'd be done until the end of the year, which I might add, is approaching much more swiftly than I expected. It always does, I guess.

Is it so bad to want to take a break from my main story now and then?

Maybe.

Guess we'll find out.

What do you think?

Have a nice day!

–Jess

P.S.

IF YOU HAVEN'T MADE IT TO THE LAST EPISODE OF SEASON 4 OF DOCTOR WHO or ever plan on watching Doctor Who (which you MUST), DON'T HIGHLIGHT THE FOLLOWING WORDS HIGHLIGHTED IN BLACK.

I just made it to the 5th season of Doctor Who on Netflix, and I'M SO SAD. Okay, at least Matt Smith does a good job, but I was so heartbroken seeing the Doctor die as David Tennant! And DONNA. I don't ever cry, not really about anything, but I got tears in my eyes watching the episode where she forgets. Breaks. My. Heart.

The thing is, most people have made it that far, because I'm so awfully behind in the series. So I probably don't need that spoiler alert. Gotta be safe, anyhow.

BYE! :)

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

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.

Three Day Countdown...

Wow, I knew NaNoWriMo was coming fast, but I just checked my little countdown meter on my sidebar and I didn't realize it was in three days. Okay, I've really got to start working hard.

I'm really not a big fan of writing without an outline. In fact, every single story I’ve written without an outline has remained unfinished. Honestly, if I don’t know where the story is going, I get really bored. You have no idea how much I wish I could just start a story without much of a plan then turn it into something that people love. I think it’s good to be spontaneous. But I guess that’s just not how I work.

So, I’ve got five days to write half of what I like to call, a skeleton. Now I’m sure there’s an official name for it, but I kinda like calling it a skeleton because I write everything down that helps maintain the structure of the story. The fancy and thoughtful language (what I like to call the muscle or meat of the story) can come in later. So until NaNoWriMo begins, I’ve got to be working on my skeleton.

All in all, writing the skeleton is really the part where I get the whole story down and out of my head. I usually break it up in bullet points and don’t write in complete sentences. At the same time, I try to be as detailed as I can be without actually and officially writing the story. And when I say detailed, I mean detailed. It kind of gets to the point of being ridiculous.

Speaking of skeletons, what are everyone’s plans for Halloween? I’m participating in Elizabeth Muller’s Spookfesta and if it weren’t for a reminder email I got, I would have totally forgotten. As far as trick-or-treating goes, I’d much rather buy a bag of Reeces Peanut Butter Cups and write all night long.

--Jess

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!

My Awesome Sister

Ryan, Alyssa, and Me!

Okay so I've been nagging my sister about starting a novel for quite a while now, mostly because I figure skate with her (which is her favorite thing in the world), but she hasn't really shown an interest in the thing that I love most, which is of course writing. Finally, I got her to do it. Yep, she's started her very own first novel and you won't believe how proud of her I am! She's already writing Chapter 7! She even started a blog about her journey through life and writing called Life Is Good. Anyway, I just thought it would be nice if you went over there and gave her a little support to keep up the great work!


(Sorry for the short post)


--Jess


P.S.
Does anyone know how to make a blogfest button thingy? I got a few good ideas yesterday and have been considering starting one... if you have any suggestions please tell me!