"How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?"

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead: Started the 22nd of June, finished the next day at 3 am. (Which is really the 24th of June, but to me a day is over when I go to bed, so let's say it was the 23rd when I finished it.)

When do I start? I guess with the thing that really stuck out for me. (Search for the words "END SPOILER" to read the rest of the post.)

*****

**

SPOILER

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*****

When Richelle Mead gave us hope that Dimitri could be saved, could become a dhampir again, she ran the risk of it going really wrong. Rose succeeding to save him could have been cheesy, or we could have complained "Ugh, it was too easy. Just like that she got him back" and so on.

But she pulled it off. Rose saved Dimitri and instead of going "Seriously? That's it?" I went "Yes! She deserved it after all the trouble she went through."

Also, I did NOT expect that twist about Rose being a suspect...

And Adrian! Poor Adrian... It looks like Rose will get back with Dimitri.

*****

**

END SPOILER

**

*****

Overall, Spirit Bound is an amazing book. 5/5

Timeline: Gerard Butler. *sigh* I saw on the Channel 4 website that it was passing on TV and when I saw he was in it, I said "Okay, we're watching this." Also: time travel. Overall: not bad.

One thing that really annoyed me: How hard is it to get French actors to play French characters? Seriously. The one playing Lady Claire sounded terrible when she spoke French. Ugh.

Writing fail--again

As the title in bold suggests, I haven't been writing much lately.

21st Monday 16
22nd Tuesday 79
23rd Wednesday 0
24th Thursday 266
25th Friday 0
26th Saturday 32
27th Sunday 3612
8th Monday 128
29th Tuesday 0
30th Wednesday 0
1st Thursday [Nothing yet]

See? I've got to write 1206 words to catch up.

A Dry White Season: As you know if you've been reading this blog, I had to read the book for school, and I actually liked it. Although the movie leaves out the quirkiness of Professor Bruwer and the relationship between Melanie and Benjamin, it's really good. During one scene near the beginning, when the police is chasing some school kids who were doing a peaceful protest, I almost cried. Usually, during a movie or book, I cry if a character is crying.

But during that scene there was no shot or closeup of a kid crying, yet the emotion in it...

On top of that, it's set in South Africa, where my mom grew up. The film is set in 1976, when my mom was 12. Despite growing up in a place where white people lived better lives than black people, she isn't racist.

Like my dad says, if the parents aren't racist and don't tell their kids that they shouldn't be friends with someone because their skin color is different, than the kids won't be racist either.

Snakes on a Plane: My sister had already seen it, but she watched it with me anyway.

I'd heard about this movie, and it was quite different from what I expected. Gorier.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli: So I heard about this book a couple of months ago, and then a friend of mine was reading it, so I finally asked my mom to order it off Amazon and it arrived weeks ago. Anyway, despite not having finished 4 other books, I decided to read it. It was a very quick read and definitely worth it. I'll be buying the sequel "Love, Stargirl."

Ever After: I saw it last night with my sister and I LOVED it. Andy Tennant's (the director) Cinderella, called Danielle de Barbarac, is funny and very different from the Disney Cinderella, the only other one I've seen. If you like fairy tales, watch this movie NOW. The quote I used for the title of this post comes from "Ever After."

How I write

Hannah Moskowitz does fast-drafting. This means she writes her novels in 5 to 8 days, most of the time. (More about that on her blog: http://hannahmosk.blogspot.com/ which you HAVE to read. I mean she's 19, she loves Fight Club and Rent and her novel BREAK, about a 17-year-old determined to break every bone in his body, came out last year. And did I mention she's awesome?)

How I write

Now I've only finished one novel in my life, so I don't know if how I wrote that one will be how I write the one I'm writing. Man that's a confusing sentence.

How about a list of all the novels I've started and finished? Most of which I didn't finish, but whatever.

1. SAME DIFFERENCES: Crap. I think I had an outline, but I never finished it. 9540 words before I gave up.
2. SURRENDERING: I had an outline, more or less, and I haven't the faintest idea how long it took me to write. That's how long ago it was. Also: it sucked. It was almost 12 000 words. COMPLETE
3. LIVING: Sequel to SURRENDERING. Crap. Utter crap. 2276 words.
4. SELENE YOUNGBLOOD: Not crap, apart from the first chapter. I'm hoping to rewrite it someday and finish it. Approx 10 000 words.
5. UNWANTED VAMPIRISM: *shudders* Worse than crap: shit. 4282 words.
6. A BLANKET UNWOVEN: Crap, but I know learned something. 31 333 words. COMPLETE
7. CATCHING RODRIGO: Not crap. 3971 words.
8. NOTHING'S CHANGED: Kinda crap. 7023 words.
9. THE VEILED MOON: Not really crap. 4795 words.
10. THE HEALING PROCESS: Had potential. 596 words.
11. ZOE: Don't even remember it. 792 words.
12. HAYLEY: Loved the main character. 663 words.
13. ALICE WHITLEY: Why on earth did I even write that? 510 words.
14. EMMELINE: Ugh. 185 words before I gave up.
15. HER SMILE: Had potential, liked the idea, lacked plot. 8365 words.
16. KENNA'S CHOICE: No outline. And according to my critique partner, not so crappy. 50 956 when I finished it. COMPLETE
17. PLAYING WITH DARTS: No outline, at first. 31 345 words.

IDEAS: I get a sentence--not an image, or a character, or a plot or a "what if..." type of question--and start writing immediately. No outlining beforehand, or figuring out who the main character is. I just write.

The best three examples for this are Selene Youngblood, Kenna's Choice and Playing with Darts:

1. "I dared look out from behind the tree that hid me." Will change when I have time to edit Selene Youngblood. (Title will have to change too.)
2. "I'd be lying if I said I felt safe in his presence." The new and improved first sentence is "Aura's voice in my head tells me to calm down."
3. "Morana had spent hours hunting down a vampire belonging to a particular tribe or pack or whatever they called it, so she wasn’t about to let this vampire escape."

For those 3 novels, it's those sentences that popped into my head.

I started writing A Blanket Unwoven sometime in 2008, probably in June. I have no idea when I finished it, probably before May 2009, because that's when I started writing Kenna's Choice.

Summary

• I take months to write short to very short novels
• I don't write every day when I'm writing a novel, even though I try to
• I listen to music when I write
• I close the door when I write
• I do not write more than one novel at a time
• The first chapter of a novel is the easiest part for me
• I write in chronological order -- I don't write chapter 1 then chapter 4 then chapter 2 then 3, but sometimes I'll write a couple hundred words of a scene that takes place later in the book
• I use Scrivener to write -- I switch to TextEdit or DarkRoom or plain old paper if I'm having trouble writing
• My novels are dialogue-heavy
• My novels are family-themed (but not suitable for the whole family--too many bad things happen and there is way too much swearing, violence and death)
• I tend to write urban fantasy (i.e. vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches, etc)
• And yet my first novel was a YA with no supernatural elements

I hope this huge, messy post makes sense and amused you. Leave a comment or go write a blog post about how YOU write. Next Thursday, Maria will guest post about how she writes.

And here's a video about how another write writes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyl9Zt9XxU8&feature=youtu.be

"I'm sick of sleeping with these insipid Manhattan debutantes. Nothing shocks them anymore."

How on earth did I forget to mention that I saw Cruel Intentions for the first time in my life on Sunday?

Maybe it's because I'm frustrated with the fight scene I'm trying to write. Maybe it's because I haven't left the house since last Thursday. (Although that's nothing for me. I once spent 3 weeks locked up inside. Yup. 21 days. BUT it was a holiday house, with a pool.) Maybe it's because I can't stop admiring my pretty red nails. *admires nails some more* Uh, what's that? Right. The movie.

Ah, what can I say apart from I LOVED IT?

Well Ryan Philippe is in it. And Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's funny, it's got great dialogue, and an ending I did NOT expect. So go watch it now if you haven't already seen it, because within mere minutes of watching the movie, I was in love with it. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and harasss my mom to buy me the DVD.

In which I fail

Now remember, my goal is to write 250 words every single day. Minimum.

Sunday I wrote 102 words.
Monday I wrote 16 words.
So far today I've written 16 words. (But it's only twenty to 4 in the afternoon.)

My goal for today is to write 632 words. *dreams of writing 1k a day* That'd be heaven...

Total for the moment: 31 345/75 000

I have weird dreams

Seriously. I don't even know where to begin. Okay, actually I do know where to begin, but how on earth do I explain it?

I was in this... balloon. A donut-shaped balloon, where you had to walk to make it turn to reach the different shops in it. That probably makes no sense, but I don't know how to explain it better. Then there was a naked vampire woman and a bunch of people riding on bikes at night andsome other weird things... Very strange.

The One where I ramble about writerly things

WARNING: This is just me thinking how the hell I'm going to achieve all my goals by the end of 2010.

If I want draft #1 to be complete by the 4th of September, I need to write 500 words minimum everyday. But it'd be better if I wrote 600 everyday. (600 words everyday day for 88 days=52 800 words; that plus what I already have equals 83 670 words, which equals, hopefully, a complete novel.)

Can I do it? I have no idea.

Sure, lately I've been writing a lot, but it's tiring and it hurts my back and my right wrist. A lot. If I keep this up, I'm going to end up in the hospital.

Sunday 445
Monday 388
Tuesday 812
Wednesday 1177
Thursday 680
Friday 962

Maybe I should give myself until the 31st of December this year. That way I'll have the Christmas holidays to write. And I just realized something: NaNoWriMo.

If I want to complete this novel, and draft 2 of Kenna's Choice AND outline my NaNo novel and write it in November, I need to become superwoman. Hmm. Even if I finish draft 1 of PwD and draft 2 of K'sC and manage to outline the NaNo novel all before the 1st of November, I will be dead by the time I start writing the NaNo novel.

Hmm, what if I give myself until the 1st of October to do everything and during October I don't write anything, I just keep preparing for NaNoWriMo? BUT next school year will be hell, how can I write 1666 words a day during November on top of school and homework?

I've said it many times before and I'll say it again: school gets in the way of my writing.

"Why don't you rip her lungs out? It might make an impression."

From "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" [2.16]

• Angelus: Dear Buffy. I'm still trying to decide the best way to send my regards.
• Spike: Why don't you rip her lungs out? It might make an impression.
• Angelus: Lacks... poetry.
• Spike: It doesn't have to. What rhymes with lungs?
• Drusilla: Don't worry, Spike. Angel always knows...what speaks to a girl's heart.

[source= http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer]

And on with the post.

I underestimated my novel

See, when I started "Playing with Darts" I had only a vague idea. I knew it'd be about a vampire hunter who uses silver darts (so far she's only used them once), a bunch of vampires who were actually evil, Anne, a young teen who gets kidnapped by said evil vampires along with a hundred or so other teens, Maeve, a newborn vampire, and Fabienne, an old vampires who wants to be her mentor.

I knew I wanted it to be 75 000 words long, because my longest piece of work is 50 900 words.

Now 75k seems laughable. I'm probably going to end up with 90k at the rate I'm going. I'm not complaining, oh no, on the contrary. I'd love to have a 90k novel. The problem? How the hell am I going to do it?

In December I outlined the novel from start to finish. 50 chapters. 75k. That was my plan, my goal. Now I have to re-outline it because despite some writers thinking that an outline takes away the surprises, I've had plenty and my outline is no longer correct.

I also underestimated myself. I never thought I could write such a complex novel and pull it off.

Okay, fine, I admit: so far it's going very well and nobody else has read it, so I don't know if other people can follow it without being confused.

And now a teaser:

William put his hand under her chin and lifted her head. “You can save lives. There are about ninety teens stuck in a dungeon in Vladislav’s mansion. They need to be saved and all the hunters in this mansion may be great hunters, but they are still human. Just think how much having two vampires on their side can help?”

Links I think you might find interesting:

http://learningtobreatheanovel.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/how-i-started-writing/

http://critiquethiswip.blogspot.com/2010/06/author-interview-kayleigh-m.html

Welcome to Kayleigh's Kaleidoscope

So my laziness wasn't enough to prevent me from making a blog on this site. I already have a blog on Wordpress and before that I blogged on Livejournal.

My decision for finally creating a Blogger blog is to reach more people. (10 minutes ago I read that more people use Blogger and now I have a blog here.)

I'm trying to import my blog posts from Wordpress, but it isn't working...

Right, who am I?

My name is Kayleigh and I'm a 16 year old writer who lives in the south of France. Christmas 2010 will mark the 3-year anniversary of when I started writing seriously. Apart from reading and writing, I love watching movies and have seen, I kid you not, 761 movies.

In 7500 words, I will be halfway through my current novel, "Playing with Darts." When I say "halfway through" I mean that my goal 75 000 words and in 7500 I will have reached half of that. Why am I elaborating? Because I now know that half of my goal of 75 000 words will NOT be half of my novel. It's turning into a monster of a novel: 50 character, a dozen plot lines, half a dozen points of view. I honestly don't know how I'm managing to write it.

I am also currently writing the second draft of my first every completed novel, "Kenna's Choice." I'm working on chapter 2 with the help of Angela, my critique partner who blogs here.

As for the title of this blog, let me explain: a kaleidoscope shows you different colors and shapes, right? Well my blog is about different things, not just writing. (My mother came up with it for me.)

If you're reading this, how did you get here? My twitter? One of my blogs? A friend told you about it? Google? And are you a new reader, who'd never heard of me before? And, final question, I promise, are you a writer?