"Beauty is not real. Beauty only exists in perception." -Unknown

At first this was going to be my status message, but what I needed to say called for something bigger: a note here which I'll copy-paste onto my blog as a blog post.

I am sick and tired of hearing stories from my sister in which her friends degrade themselves and call themselves "fat" when in fact they're skinnier than my sister (who's a normal weight for her age and height). And just now she said a four-year-old girl told her big sister (who's friends with my sister) that she shouldn't eat too much or she would get "fat".

NO. That is UNACCEPTABLE. Adults have got to STOP teaching their kids that weighing more than X means you're fat. And mothers who weigh less than I do (a normal, 16-year-old girl) are setting a VERY bad example for their daughters.

These daughters are, at 13, watching what they eat and talking about how "fat" they are on a daily basis. They turn to boys, try to get their attention, wear make-up and become obsessed with what's fashionable and what isn't all in an effort to rebuild the self-esteem that the adults around them have unintentionally destroyed.

I know too many girls who stopped paying attention to their grades and turned to boys all because they thought they were "ugly", "fat" and "worthless".

I can remember this one girl crying at a party because she thought she was ugly. This girl was and still is very pretty: she's short (which is NOT bad thing), has blue eyes and blonde hair and is petite. How on earth could she have thought she was ugly?

I used to be skinny--as in "people thought I was anorexic/bulimic" skinny. And I hated it. Sure, I got to eat as much as I wanted without gaining weight, but finding clothes that fit was a NIGHTMARE. I wished and wished that I would gain weight so I wouldn't need to wear a bloody belt anymore.

Now I weigh a normal weight and I can honestly say I love my body. Sure, I've got a "flabby" stomach (which my little brother points out whenever he can), but I'm not a supermodel--I'm a teenage girl who loves to write and read and who never exercises. Of COURSE I'm gonna have a little fat in certain areas. And yes, there are days when I wish I had a flat stomach, like some friends of mine, but they don't have flat stomachs because they don't eat, it's because they, can you guess?

Yes, they EXERCISE!

So either accept your body as it is or exercise. Or you know, maybe your perception of your own body has been skewed by the adults around you and in reality you're normal/on the skinny side but just can't see it. In that case, take a good look in the mirror--do you REALLY believe you're fat?

I’m baaack!

Originally posted on the 10th of October 2010 (I was too lazy to copy-paste until now)

School

I knew I was going to be busy this school year, but oddly enough, all I’ve done since going back to school is:

• go to school
• do homework
• eat
• sleep
• go to school
• do homework
• watch TV
• a little bit of reading
• a teeny tiny bit of writing
• do more homework
• go to school some more
• go to ONE party
• sleep
• sleep
• go to school

Notice what pops up a lot on this list?

I guess it’s understandable I’d have a lot of homework–I AM in my before last year of school… But school is so much more tiring this year, and even though I haven’t had THAT much homework, I’m always tired, so my free time goes to waste.

Oh, and as it turned out, there are people in my class I know, namely Naomi (http://greyperception.wordpress.com/), a very good friend of mine. But because of circumstances, we only have normal maths and sport together. Wanna know these circumstances? I’m sure you do. Here they are:

1. We’re not in the same Physics/Science group
2. I take Spanish LV2, she takes Italian LV2
3. I chose Italian LV3, she chose HIDA (history of art)
4. I chose maths as my specialty (different from the other maths), she chose HIDA
5. While I’m in normal French class, she’s in FLE because she doesn’t speak fluent French (for those of you who don’t know/forgot, I’m French and go to an International school in France)
6. For English, History and Geography, we’re in different groups

What else can I tell you about school? Oh, there are 3 guys in my class. That’s two more than last year. Of course that’s only for the, well, “core class”, I guess you could call it, which is 1ereL1, meaning Literary 11th grade 1 (there’s 2 Literary 11th grade classes).

Movies

• 7  days: Boring.
• The Godfather: Enjoyed it.
• Life of Brian: Loved it, especially the end.
• City of God: Now this one… This movie was MIND-BLOWINGLY GOOD. I HIGHLY recommend it. The actors were unknown/had actually lived in such conditions, so the acting is perfect. It could have been a documentary. And despite having many scenes where kids kill other kids, those are not the most shocking. The most shocking, horrible scene is when one character shoots two little kids in the foot. Just writing that sentence is making me feel sad and horrified again. And this is coming from someone who must have seen at least a hundred horror movies. Oh, and if you’re wondering, I watched it in the original Brazilian Portuguese (with French subtitles) which makes the movie much better than if I’d watched in the dubbed French. Dubbing should be illegal–usually the voices sound so fake because they’re not truly acting; all they’re doing is speaking, they’re not also running through the forest like the real actors were, climbing a tree, etc.

Books

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: I started this book in January and finished it in September. I read it on and off for NINE months–does that give you ANY idea of how well written the book is? Nabokov’s prose is beautiful and vivid, but what truly made it difficult for me to read the novel is Humbert Humbert (hereafter referred to as “HH”) who, by the end of the book, is completely insane, unstable, unreliable. And you could think that HH is the one with the power in his relationship with Lolita, but she’s the one who manipulates him. Recommend it.
• Fang by James Patterson: Guilty pleasure, enjoy the story and certain character but not the writing. Dialogue is mostly cheesy or immature for characters of those ages. Entertaining nonetheless.
• Third book I’ve read recently gets its own paragraphy thingy.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Wow.

Summary from Amazon (UK):

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don’t exist – almost.

Characters

• Ty: At first, you hate him, just like Gemma does, then as she learns about his past, the way his father never cared about him, the way his mother abandoned him, the way he ended up living all alone at the age of 11, you feel sorry for him, you understand why he is the way he is. And at the end, when Gemma is confused about her feelings for him, so was I. You know you should hate him, but he never truly hurts Gemma.
• Gemma: I read a one star review of this book on Amazon that calls Gemma boring, and I actually have to agree with them on that one. (They say the whole book is boring–that’s where I disagree.) Based on what we find out about her as kid, I’d say she’s interesting, but maybe as a teen she wanted to blend in, be accepted and liked, so she stopped being herself. But I suppose one thing I can say in her favor is that she tries to escape several times and even when she realizes she cannot escape, she’s alone with him in the Australian Outback with the nearest town VERY far away, she doesn’t give in to Ty. She could have easily given up, completely given up, she could have spent her entire time crying (she does spend some time crying–I mean come on, she’s away from her family, her friends, her home and everything she’s used to), but she doesn’t.

 The word “fuck” in this novel

It was so nice to see the word be used in the book. Most of the time, writers are afraid to use it, but people say “fuck” when they talk, especially people like Ty–he kidnapped a girl, he’s not going to say stuff like “Gosh darn it” or “Frick.”

I, for one, say “fuck.” But I know not to say it in front of teachers, extended family members (I say extended because in my house, around my parents and my siblings, almost anything goes), strangers, etc. But “fuck” is just a word–kids reading it in a book won’t become juvenile delinquents just because of it. Nor will they become juvenile delinquents if they start swearing, or swearing more often.

If you believe this, well…does that make me a juvenile delinquent? Because I get good grades, never ditch school, have never stolen in my life, never smoked, never done drugs, never had sex or even kissed a boy. So I’d say that if you firmly believe swearing leads to bad behavior, you might need to rethink that belief of yours. Ditto if you believe novels in which characters do bad thing influence people, because I’ve read books such as “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, everything by Ellen Hopkins, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, etc.

Writing

I have written, I kid you not, 667 words since the 1st of September. Pathetic or what? So I’m thinking of using NaNoWriMo to help me finish writing The Way Wars Are Won, just like I did with Kenna’s Choice. It’ll be the kick up the butt I desperately need.

Denial, how I hate thee…

Posted originally on the 2nd of September 2010 (I was too lazy to copy-paste until now)

So tomorrow I go back to school, and I’m freaking out. I don’t what class I’m in, who’s in my class and if I’ll know anyone who’s in my class. I haven’t finished the summer reading, or started writing my report on my two-week work experience. I also haven’t reached 55 000 words in “The Way Wars Are Won”, which I wanted to do by the end of August.

I also STILL haven’t finished editing chapter 3 of “Kenna’s Choice” or finished reading “Lolita”.

AND I start at 8.30, not 10, meaning I have to wake up at 6.30 a.m. That’s in less than 8 hours people. *gulp* Then again, I never get enough sleep during the school year…

Anyway…

Earlier this week, I truly panicked and abandoned my computer for two days, during which I did nothing by waste time in front of the TV, in total denial of my homework. I also stopped writing.

But tomorrow, after school, I will start reading “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (here’s hoping it’s better than “Dubliners” which is, in my opinion, badly written, boring and each short story never goes anywhere) and do some writing.

Word Count from the 1st of August to today:

1st    Sunday    391
2nd    Monday    65
3rd    Tuesday    114
4th    Wednesday    528
5th    Thursday    33
6th    Friday    672
7th    Saturday    0
8th    Sunday    0
9th    Monday    0
10th    Tuesday    0
11th    Wednesday    846
12th    Thursday    808
13th    Friday    0
14th    Saturday    678
15th    Sunday    859
16th    Monday    160
17th    Tuesday    1405
18th    Wednesday    245
19th    Thursday    1426
20th    Friday    277
21st    Saturday    0
22nd    Sunday    15
23rd    Monday    0
24th    Tuesday    0
25th    Wednesday    1080
26th    Thursday    0
27th    Friday    0
28th    Saturday    61
29th    Sunday    0
30th    Monday    0
31st    Tuesday    0
1st    Wednesday    120
2nd    Thursday    0

Hopefully, September will be a better month. “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.” And I will be busy–homework, school, social life (maybe), reading, writing, editing, possibly critiquing for my critique partner as well as blogging and tweeting.

Movies I’ve seen:

• Mad Max
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
• Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome [I LOVE all three movies, especially the second]
• Cocoon (meh)
• The Shining (AMAZING)

And I think that’s it…

Kayleigh fails at writing

I don't know why but lately, well, look at the word count:

18th    Wednesday    245
19th    Thursday    1426
20th    Friday    277
21st    Saturday    0
22nd    Sunday    15
23rd    Monday    0
24th    Tuesday    0
25th    Wednesday   314


As for editing Kenna's Choice... It started out fairly well, but I haven't made any changes since... Sunday? I'm not actually sure. All I know is I've been wasting time on the internet these past few days, feeling tired and doing very little reading. The very little reading=a few pages of Lolita and the 91-page play "Our Country's Good" for school.

Yeah. Maybe it's the heat getting to me, and the lack of sleep. Or lack of leaving the house.
Sometime soon, we're going to see Ondine, which I think will be good for me. Then maybe I should see my friends.

Words behind on goal for TWWAW: 2279


Depressing thing is that some writer write more than that in one day. I guess I could catch up if I had one or two fantastic writing days.

Zombies vs Unicorns giveaway

Jackson Pearce will give away an arc of Zombies vs Unicorns when she reaches 2500 followers on twitter. Even if you don't want the arc, go follow her. She's funny, nice and an amazing writer.

"Yeah, they'll build monuments to you about this high that read 'Rest in Peace'!"

Flatliners: There are some funny lines of dialogue, one of which is the title of this post, but that's not why I'm in awe of the scriptwriter. The premise of the movie is 5 people who kill each other to find out what's beyond death, then bring each other back. How do you transform THAT into an entire movie? But he managed.

For some reason, I can't find anything else to say about this movie.

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Now this I've got plenty to say, but that's because it's from Joss Whedon and I LOVE anything he creates.

So. Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is in 3 acts and in total is only 42, more or less. I wanted more the second it was over. And they might be doing a sequel!

It's a musical/comedy about Dr Horrible, whose real name is Billy. He wants to join the Evil League of Evil who will be watching him to see what crime he commits. If it's horrible enough, he can join the league.

As Billy, he's pathetic and in love with Penny, who, naturally, doesn't realize this. Standing in his way is Captain Hammer who ends up dating Penny.

Dr Horrible is played by Neil Patrick Harris from "How I Met Your Mother".

Penny is played by Felicia Day—she played Vi in BTVS.

Captain Hammer is played by Nathan Fillion—he played Caleb in BTVS.

Favorite line: "The hammer is my penis." —Captain Hammer

Writing: This is a pretty simple "revelation", but I just found my solution to the lack of plot in my novels. To me, it's all about the characters, so why not focus on creating realistic characters before starting my novel? Then I let the character interact and the plot will form itself. Does this make sense to anyone else but me?

Query Tracker: If you're about to start querying—or going to next year like me—then you should definitely use Query Tracker to find agents. Know what else is your friend during the querying process?

Spreadsheets: So here are the different column headers in my "Agents to query" spreadsheet:

• Agency
• Agent's Name
• Who they represent
• Address, e-mail, Twitter, website [this works better as one column for me—I use NeoOffice]
• Genres they represent
• Notes [such as "include first chapter in body of e-mail" or "only send query" or "any requested material is sent by mail" and the agent's response time if they mention it on their website]
• Date of Query
• Date of Partial Request
• Date of Full Request
• Offer of Representation
• Date of Rejection

My long list of goals

• Reach 55 035 words in TWWAW by the 31st of August 2010
• Edit chapters 1 through 9 of Kenna's Choice by the 2nd of September 2010
• Reach 68535 words in TWWAW by the 30th of September 2010
• Reach 75 285 words in TWWAW by the 15th of October 2010
• Edit chapters 10 through 17 + prologue of Kenna's Choice by 31st of December 2010
• Second round of editing Kenna's Choice done by 31st of March 2011 (by then I'll 17!)
• Write query letter for Kenna's Choice by the 30th of April 2011
• Third round of editing Kenna's Choice done by 30th of June 2011
• Start querying Kenna's Choice the 15th of July 2011 (enough time to make sure my query and my manuscript are perfect)

"Spike follows the smell of Willow and we follow the fairly ripe smell of Spike."

The Wolfman 2010: Meh. I started watching it a week or two ago and couldn't get into it. I thought it was because I was tired. Now that I finally finished watching it, I know it wasn't. So why couldn't I get into it? It's not a good movie. The make-up/special effects are really well done, but overall it's nothing special. I don't recommend it.


Wrong Turn: I'd already seen it years ago, but I had forgotten a lot about it, the major thing being it's actually a good horror movie. The characters aren't too stupid and eventually they realize what they have to do to survive. I recommend it.

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End: Because it's a sequel, it's obviously worse than the first and way gorier. But it's still not too bad.

Writing

Playing with Darts

Wednesday I wrote a measly 245 words, but that's because I was drained from the previous day's writing. But yesterday I caught up and wrote...

1426 words!

Deadline: 15th of October

In other news, I have found the perfect title for "Playing with Darts". Ready?

The Way Wars Are Won

It's from a line in season 7 of Buffy. Good thing I did that marathon, huh?

Kenna's Choice

I've given myself until June to get Kenna's Choice in shape to start querying. Yes, that means I'm going to try and get it published. It's weird—I had no intention of getting it published. I thought that my first novel-length story wouldn't be good enough, but my critique partner said some very good things about it, and I have a list of things to delete (subplot of Kenna's aunt) and things to expand (Kenna's sister's storyline).

Word count for Draft 2:

Goals

• Have edited chapters 1–9 by the end of August.
• Have 55 035 words for TWWAW

The glorious wordcount of Tuesday the 17th

1405

"I bought the airline. [...] It seemed neater."

*****There WILL be SPOILERS***** (Search "End Spoilers")

Inception: Oh. My. God. Wow. I mean not only is the idea of the movie very original, but you also get the sexy Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has grown up a LOT since I last saw him in "10 things I hate about you".

Now this annoying kid critic, Jackson, said "Inception" was confusing—yes, it has the potential to be confusing, but I found it easy to understand. By potential, I'm referring to the levels of dreams. The main characters are on a plane asleep while dreaming that they're asleep in a van while dreaming that they're asleep in a hotel while dreaming that they're on a mountain and some are asleep there but dreaming of being in Limbo.

Don't get what I'm saying? That's okay—it makes perfect sense when you watch the movie.

Re: Jackson: the adult he was talking to in that video agreed and said even he was confused. Um, I'm 16 and my sister's 13 yet we both understood the movie. And of course my dad understood it.

When I told my dad this, I added that it reminded me of "Pink Floyd: The Wall"—somebody on IMDB said the transition from present to past and back wasn't clear. I thought it was.

One thing about the special effects: they were so good, it seemed normal. As in there really was no gravity, or the city really was folding in half.

And Mal. Oh, Mal. She's such an angry, bitter character—and reminded me so much of Pippa in Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Both are trapped in an other world—dream for Mal, magical, in a way, for Pippa—and both wish their loved ones would join them, and even try to trick them then grow angry when they refuse.

V for Vendetta: Again, wow. V is a character you should hate, I mean he tortures Evey, but you simply don't. And even though I knew it was Hugo Weaving's voice, I couldn't recognise it. He sounded so different.

Amazing movie. And the main theme is something I cannot stand: injustice. So seeing Sutler die and everyone "win" was very satisfying.

And Valerie's story was so sad...so beautiful, especially this part:

But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that, even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you.

That's when I started tearing up.

When you wish you could have written a certain piece of dialogue, or wish you could have created that character, or wish you could have put one of your characters in that situation, then you know it's good.

In my case, I wish I'd written Valerie's autobiography.

*****END SPOILERS*****

Writing

So far, August in word count looks like this:

1st    Sunday    391
2nd    Monday    65
3rd    Tuesday    114
4th    Wednesday    528
5th    Thursday    33
6th    Friday    672
7th    Saturday    0
8th    Sunday    0
9th    Monday    0
10th    Tuesday    0
11th    Wednesday    846
12th    Thursday    808
13th    Friday    0
14th    Saturday    678
15th    Sunday    859
16th    Monday    160
17th    Tuesday    12 (so far)

Total: 5166
Should be: 7515

Foreshadowing: it is awesome

I've blogged about this before, so here's a little reminder so you can understand the rest of this post:

In chapter 18, Fabienne, a French vampire, revealed something about herself. Something I didn't plan or know until the moment she revealed it.

And then I realized that a few things I'd written earlier in the chapter now made perfect sense. At the time, I had no idea why I wrote those thing, and oddly enough, I hadn't questioned it. I hadn't thought to myself "Why is she choosing to describe her that way?"

And a little after that, I realized another description in chapter 6 made sense. /Reminder


And now, today, as I'm plotting, I went back to chapter 4 for some reason and something there also makes sense. Basically, Fabienne has been dropping hints about herself from the moment she appeared on page. So to speak.

Is that not THE most awesome thing EVER?

And if you're wondering why this post is also in the category "Procrastination" it's because that's what I've been doing for the past 5 or 6 hours.

How I write: A guest post by Angela

Angela is an 18-year-old college freshman who lives in Tokyo, Japan. Other than reading and writing, her hobbies include watching zombie movies, looking up random facts about Regency England, and kickboxing. She is currently working on a historical novel about a young debutante whose London debut goes bad. She also hopes to dabble in other genres such as science fiction and fantasy in the future.

You can find her on twitter: http://twitter.com/aekubo

She also blogs about Japan, random things that tickle her fancy, and her writing exploits on livejournal, which you can check out here: http://aekubo.livejournal.com/

To be honest, I never thought about wanting to write my own stories when I was little, unlike a lot of other writers I've met who were writing with Crayola crayons by the time they were five. I tried writing a few stories once in a while over the years, but they never got past the first page. However, I have always been a bookworm, and I used to spend a good amount of time at the public and school library when I was living in the United States.

My writing began in an unlikely way: by roleplaying. When I was twelve, I used to create characters and roleplay on the forums at Neopets before moving on to other communities online. It was there that I learned how to create strong characters, likely situations, and plotlines. If it wasn't for roleplaying, my grammar and spelling would be atrocious, and you would be squinting at the computer screen, wondering what is being said in this post (of course, I wouldn't be here if I hadn't discovered roleplaying).

I started to dabble in novel writing when I was sixteen, but it was only until recently, thanks to friends on livejournal and a lovely blog called Let the Words Flow, that I began to take writing seriously.

In order to write, I need silence. I usually write at night or early in the morning in bed when there are no blaring sirens or screaming kids (I live next to a school) to annoy me.  However, I have written in the school library, at Starbucks, and even on a crowded train in order to finish something in time for a deadline. Although I have a playlist for each of my WIPs, I rarely listen to music when I write. Instead, I like to take walks and listen to the playlists on my I-pod while I try to think of how a certain scene will unfold or how a character will react to a tough situation.

My frequent walks are important for my writing. They're how I come up with story ideas, characters, and plot twists. Whenever I'm having one of those days when I can't think of anything to write, I always put in my earphones and pace around my room. Sometimes, it's a bit embarrassing because my grandmother or younger sister will walk in on me and wonder why I'm walking in circles with my music at high volume.

Of course, there are times when I can't write a certain scene no matter how much I pace. I usually go ahead and type up a future scene that I have less trouble writing and go back to the troublesome scene later. One thing I learned is that you should never force yourself to write something that you don't want to write, because it will end up being crappy. I have numerous story excerpts and school essays proving just that. If all else fails, I curl up in bed with a good book, because reading other people's work always makes me want to write.

There are also other cases where I cannot write at all. One is when I'm being overwhelmed with schoolwork and the other is when I don't have any names for my characters. Characters without names feel incomplete, which makes it impossible to write. I've spent hours going through baby-naming sites coming up with the perfect name for just one character.

Lately, I've been more open to other writing methods. For example, I've never written an outline for any of my stories, but now I'm considering creating an outline for my historical novel and rewriting everything I've written so far. I'm also planning to write my future WIP—a supernatural YA about zombies—on paper instead of on Microsoft Word, because I heard some writers say that pen and paper are better than the keyboard.

Last week, I also set myself a daily goal of 500 words to encourage me to write more. So far, it's been going well, and writing has gotten a whole lot easier. I haven't encountered any problems with fulfilling my goal yet, but I like to use chocolate as an incentive to get myself to do something. I'm excited to say that I might be able to finish my first novel by the end of this year.

I'm also on the lookout for other ways to write. As I stated earlier, I'm always open to different methods of writing, because I can find out a lot just by experimenting. To me, writing is not only a journey where you follow the characters around on their exploits, but also a journey where you find out what fits you. I always try to go out of my comfort zone by writing in a new genre or taking risks. For example, before I started on my historical novel, The Debutante, I was a bit shy about writing about a period different about my own. In fact, the thought of romance used to put me off since I was still in the stage (and still sort of am) where I thought that most boys are yucky. However, as I wrote my historical novel, I was surprised to discover that I loved what I was doing.

I believe that not being able to write constantly has nothing to do with creativity or your writing ability, but the methods that you use or the environment that you write in. For example, you would never write a romantic comedy in a dark, stuffy room. Sometimes you might have less trouble writing if you set yourself a daily word count or pick out a specific time of day that you spend writing. Maybe the problem lies in the lack of inspirational music to listen to while you write.

I challenge you, readers, to do a little experimenting of your own. Never been a plotter? Well, take out a piece of paper and try a little brainstorming. Never write anywhere but your bedroom? Go outside with your laptop and see if the grass and trees give you inspiration. You might be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Tomorrow, 10.30 a.m.: Buffy Season 7 Marathon

Buffy Marathon: Oh yeah! My sister and I want to see in how little time we can watch the entire season 7. The only breaks will be: toilet and food. There are 22 episodes and each episode is about 42 minutes: 22*42=924. 924/60=15.4

That's 15.4 hours of Buffy. Broken up by lunch, dinner and toilet breaks, we should be able to finish our marathon Saturday, at 4 a.m. The latest. Wish us luck!


"How I write" series: Angela's guest post about how she writes will be posted at 11 p.m. French time.

"Jeepers Creepers": It was not what I expected at ALL. And the ending is not what you usually see in horror movies. I kinda recommend it--but don't bother buying it. At least not the full price--get it second hand if you really want the DVD.

Writing: My goal for today was to reach 45 000. I still need 458 words to make that happen and it's 1.30 a.m. *bites lip* Maybe I can still do it? Oh, and the chapter I'm working on is chapter 21. I've been waiting a week or two to write it and it is so sad. I'm even considering saving the characters, and if I did, it would be credible. It wouldn't be a "deus ex machina."

I'll see how it goes. Total word count: 44 542.

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

—Walter Bagehot

Why you should persevere in your writing

And once again, I'm awake and blogging after 4 in the morning. My excuse? I wrote 846 words but am still 3926 words behind. I think that's reason enough to stay up late.

But my main reason for this post is that my time line issues are over! It took me a week, lots of comfort food, music, tables and spreadsheets and multiple windows open side by side, but today I did it. With a bowl of my favorite biscuits (ginger nut), the door closed, a Textedit document and a NeoOffice document open, I finished untangling that knot.

This, in turn, helped me to keep writing chapter 21. Had I not persevered, I would not be writing chapter 21 today.

Conclusion? Persevere and ye shall be rewarded with a higher word count. And happiness.

Total word count: 43734

Percentage: 58.31

Chapter 21 stands at: 640 w0rds

-Kayleigh

PS: It would appear I'm not the only one who, in the month of August, has given herself a certain amount of words to write per day. Nikki-Lee and Angela have both giving themselves goals. Go to their blogs and congratulate and encourage them. Why? Ye shall be rewarded with a teaser on Nikki's blog and interesting facts about Japan on Angela's.

"Why?" you ask again.

Oh just go do it.

...

Because I say so!

“Leave it to me to fall for a *dead guy*!”

It’s half-past four in the morning and here I am, starting a blog post about the emotions TV shows can make me feel. But I really want to write this post now.

See, I’ve been watching TV shows and movies since I was a kid, and it became a ritual to rent a DVD, buy a tub of salted popcorn and a packet of Maltesers and watch that DVD in the “green room” with my sister. The green room was small with a TV, bed that we used as a couch, bookshelf for DVDs and a cupboard full of games.

In that room, I fell in love with Buffy, cried when she lost Angel time and time again, gasped at the drama in Desperate Housewives and stayed up late watching horror movies on Friday nights.

Buffy is a TV show that means a lot to me and I’ve already mentioned on this blog that it is the reason I’m writing Playing with Darts: I want to make readers feel what I felt while watching Buffy. I want readers to fall in love with my characters, laugh at the horrible things that happen because, like my mother once said (I think), sometimes you just have to laugh at the situation you’re in.

I want readers to root for the characters and want them to kill the Big Bad. I want readers to cry when characters die and rejoice when people are reunited.

Oddly enough, what inspired this post is Charmed. Charmed has also made me feel the same things as Buffy. Don’t even get me started on the whole Piper/Leo drama.

BUT I want to talk about Piper and Mark, the ghost from season 1.

Summary of the episode: Tony Wong, a criminal, kills Mark, on his birthday no less, and uses his body to fake his own death. Mark is overjoyed when he finds out that Piper and Phoebe, two witches, can see him. He needs his body to be buried or else Yama will take his soul to hell, even though he’s good. Piper, once she’s convinced he’s a ghost, decides to help him.

I’d only seen that episode once, and rewatching it today was like watching it for the first time. And I was amazed at how the writers and actors and actresses got us caring so much for Piper and Mark in just 40 minutes.

Even just thinking about it now is making me tear up.

I hate and love the creators of those TV shows because they’re so cruel when it comes to our feelings, but I aspire to do the same thing to my readers one day.

Because if a story doesn’t make you feel something–whether that something is anger, fear, happiness, sorrow or love–then what good is it?

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.
-Elizabeth Drew

"Mentally Fragile Teen Arrested in Stolen Car; Says She Was Looking for a Demon."

The post title is a quote from "My Soul To Save" by Rachel Vincent.

I'm back! And I've got lots of things to blog about: movies, books, writing, spending 6+ hours in a car stuck between my siblings.

First, though, an explanation for the lack of blogging and tweeting: internet stopped working on my laptop. My dad and I fiddled with the settings to fix one problem and ended up causing another without even solving the other problem. Typical. My dad fixed internet problem last night, or rather this morning, because it was 2 a.m.

Moving on.

Movies

Do NOT judge me for watching Disney movies. When you're lazy like I am and you sit down on the couch, you end up watching whatever's on. Anyway, the ones I watched weren't too bad.

• Dadnapped: Melissa's father is a writer, he gets kidnapped and she decides to save him. It was okay. Cliche: police ignores a kid's call because a kid can't possibly be telling the truth. Oh, your dad's been kidnapped? You saw it on a camera, you have proof? Call in a missing person's report in 48 hours. Ridiculous.
• Princess Protection Program: Demi Lovato plays a princess who moves in with a normal American family to protect her country and mother from some evil dictator guy. Meh.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: The movie: It was missing that something the TV show has, but overall I liked it.
• The Nanny Diaries: IMDB summary: A college graduate (Annie) goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family. Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge.
  I loved it! Brilliant and I loved what Annie did at the end.
• The Bounty Hunter: Funny, but if wasn't for Gerard Butler, I don't think I would have wanted to see it. Unexpected ending.
• Friday the 13th: Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan: When a series of movies go on and on, the movies tend to get worse, but I actually liked this one. Of course, it's ridiculous that people running for their lives trip and stumble so much, but that happens in all horror movies. In real life, it's not like that. My dad would know: he once had an ostrich running after him. Once he was safe, my mom told him she'd never seen him run that fast when he played rugby. And did my dad trip/stumble/fall? No. When a person runs for their life, the adrenaline rush and fear means they don't trip. And the "Jason Takes Manhattan" part took ages to appear.

Books (there will be spoilers)

My Soul To Save: I finally finished reading it, but I'm still working my way through 4 books. Damn it! I shall start no more books, except the 3 books I have to read for school.

Anyway, what did I think of this book? I loved it as I love all of Rachel Vincent's books. Kaylee Cavanaugh is a banshee (written bean sidhe in the book) and in this book, the second in the Soul Screamer series, she wants to save a singer's soul: Addison Page sold her soul to become famous and rish, thus saving her family from poverty.

BIG SPOILER: Addison's sister ends up also selling her soul, making it even more difficult for Kaylee to save their souls before Addison dies. They know in advance that Addison will die on a Thursday, only days away. I was really hoping Addison wouldn't die, but she does. And Kaylee can't save Addison's soul. Sure, she saves Regan's, the little sister, but Addison's soul will be tortured for all eternity.

I wonder how Kaylee will deal with the guilt she feels. Also: for a YA series, it's pretty dark. Which I LOVE, because I'm weird that way.

Writing

My goal for August is to write 610 words every day. This will bring me to almost 60 000 words by the 31st. (Exactly: 59 995 words.) See how bad it's going? I'm 3552 words behind.

My goal for September is 500 words a day.

Other problems: I've got another time line problem. Here's what I emailed my critique partner:

It is so hard writing when you go from one POV to another, and have 8 POVs in total, and character X dies in chapter 14, on a Thursday but because chapter 20 takes place on a Wednesday, X is still alive. Not to mention character Y does/says stuff in chapter 14 that doesn't make sense anymore because of a secret revealed in chapter 20. All while making sure I alternate POVs often enough and keeping track of my huge cast of characters that keeps growing.

Let's say that the time line is a long piece of rope. That piece of rope is one giant knot that I've been trying to undo for the past few days. I have made very little progress.

Word count: 42 888.

Ghost Stories

So the first of August, I went to see Ghost Stories. Maybe you saw my two tweets?

Ghost stories starts in 20 minutes. Apparently it's really scary.

and then

Lights are dim. Cold air. Loud, scary noises. Wondering if this will scare me.

Having seen a LOT of horror movies, and only two of them scaring me to the point where I didn't finish them, I wasn't sure this could scare me. Did it?

Answer: Yes. It freaked me out, I jumped, I gasped, my heart raced and I was on edge for the next time something would make me jump.

The advantage a theater has over horror movies shown in cinemas or at home is they can involve more of our senses. We not only see and hear things: we can also smell and feel things. Such as the cold and the smell of [deleted].

At the end, they ask the audience not to reveal the twist, so I won't tell you anything. But if you like horror movies and you're looking for a good scare, and you live near London, then I urge you to go see it.

"Ghost Stories", I think, has reinstilled a fear of horror movies in me. Example? Please, I beg you, don't laugh, but in an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, a ghost does this scary face where his head becomes huge and it made my heart race. But I think it's more that I was still jumpy from "Ghost Stories." But I was terrified of the dark for the following two nights.

Now I'm fine.

Mostly.

How I write: A guest post by Ashley

Note: This was supposed to be posted Friday the 6th of August, and it wasn't because the damn internet stopped working on my laptop. Sorry for the delay. I hope you enjoy reading Ashley's guest post. -Kayleigh

How do I write? When Kayleigh first asked me to do a guest post on this topic, my initial instinct was “Yes! Of course! How awesome, what a great idea!” Now that I sit here figuring out to put it into words, I’m feeling somewhat stumped. So to start off, let me show, not tell (ahhhh. Do you see what I did there? Show, don’t tell… Classic writing rule #1. I’ve been pushing that with my writing lately.. Anyways…).

Hi, I’m Ashley (otherwise known as @AshleyTenille on twitter). I have a goofy, sometimes strange (and, okay, a lot of the time perverted) sense of humor, think friends are incredibly important, like shiny things, and putting smiles on peoples’ faces. If you can’t tell already, my ‘showing’ you is how easily distracted I get. I’m also showing you that I can jump from one thing to another in an instant without missing a beat. I think how I write is a lot like how I am in real life. But before I get into the nitty-gritty, I’ll tell you a few (promise) things about myself. I’m 23, recently unemployed (laid off, long story), struggling through the fantastic swirls of life and I’ll be going back to school in the fall for Graphic Design. I have a blog if you care to dabble in a mixture of complete random nonsense (including random writing things)–thingsshesays.blogspot.com

Okay, how do I write? I can be a jumper. I have multiple WIPs going at once and usually start a new one before I can finish another one. But I always hang onto them because if I get stuck in one, sometimes I’ll suddenly get inspired to continue with one I haven’t dabbled in for a year. If I’m stuck in a spot, I’ll write an ‘insert’ (as I call them), which is a future scene that I’ve been inspired to write. Even if I don’t end up using it, it helps me get some words down and also gives me somewhat of a direction I know I need to go in.

One of THE most important tools for me with writing is MUSIC—so many of my scenes have been inspired by songs. If I’m stuck for what to write, I’ll sometimes just lay in bed with my iPod on, listening away until a song *sparks* something. Whenever I’m writing, I usually have music playing in the background and I jot down the songs that inspire future scenes with point form notes. When it comes to write that scene, I re-listen to specific songs and POOF! Magic is formed.

Writing on the computer is easier, and most of my stuff always ends up there, but a lot of the time I prefer writing long hand. Just having SO many notebooks filled with writing… it shows just how much you put into it. If that makes sense? And it shows (literally) more personality and effort than a computer screen.

I am definitely a pantser in the fact that I normally just DIVE right into writing, have multiple notebooks/random sheets of paper/random word files/random pictures for each WIP (work-in-progress). In my newest WIP, which is an urban fantasy novel about shifters, I’m trying to do things a little differently in that I’m researching/plotting beforehand and (trying) to be more organized with my writing and plotting.

I love toying with my characters and pushing them to near-breaking limits (or even past that!). I love to create drama for them and give them emotions and hardships to work through. Nothing in life comes easy and I like to mirror that in my novels. I try to keep it realistic while seeing how far I can push them (and myself). Cliffhangers are wonderful; even though my own cliffhangers even irk ME sometimes (I want to keep writing!).

I usually write in spurts; I’ll plow out huge amounts of words in a short amount of time (I call this ‘being in the zone’) and then I’ll go through times where I write NOTHING (usually when life gets in the way). During this time where I’m stuck for writing, I’ll go through my reading frenzy and go through four books in four days (or something crazy like that).

I have to say my newest favorite item for helping with plotting or keeping details organized is index cards; even if it’s just for a quick jot down on character descriptions. Another new favorite is graph paper notebooks (or blank page moleskins) because you can doodle and draw next to your notes.

One thing I’ve learned from doing NaNoWriMo last year (National Novel Writing Month – writing 50k in 30 days), is that even if your mind is drawing a blank, just go with it. Keep writing, or even skip to the next scene if you’re stuck. Completing NaNoWriMo last year was a HUGE eye-opener for me in the sense that the time crunch (I actually finished in 24 days because I was leaving for Dominican before the end of the month) forced out some of my best work because I couldn’t sit and dwell on it: I just WENT with it. I learned that sometimes with writing, even if it’s not your best work, just get it out to keep the flow going. You can always go back to it afterwards.

So in the end, I think I could consider myself an ‘all over the place’ kind of writer, who’s slowly learning how to be more organized. As a writer, I’m always learning new tricks and trades, always trying new things (while still hanging on to habits of the old).

How I write: A guest post by Megan

Megan is a 19-year-old writer who posts her stories and poems on fiction press. You can find them here: http://www.fictionpress.com/u/526555/VELVETxKISSES

When I start a novel or short story, I’m not usually around a computer. So I start writing out the scene on paper, but as soon as I can, I type it up in a Word Document for several reasons: One, if I just keep the paper copy, I will lose it. No doubt about it. Two, I can type faster (and more legibly) than I can write. My brain is going at such speeds trying to write down all the thoughts that are flying through and when I’m writing, my handwriting gets so illegible that it doesn’t matter that I’d wrote it down. Even when I type it up, my brain thinks sentences faster than I can type them, so I’ll have some sentences running together and sometimes I forget words.

I can write most anywhere, but a quiet place is preferred. If it’s not quiet, I make it quiet by putting on my noise-canceling headphones with no music bleeding out of them. I’ve been known to jot ideas down everywhere. Once I wrote it on the back of my hand at work, and I was called to the principal’s office (I worked at a daycare/preschool) and asked to wash it off. Another time, this was much more recently, while I was working at a gas station, I wrote a couple ideas for names that had been floating around up there on the back of a receipt that a customer didn’t want. So I can write ideas anywhere. When I had a laptop I could cart around upstairs and into the kitchen, I definitely did so. Nowadays I’m restricted to working on a desktop computer, which is (obviously) stationed at a desk.

Another quirky thing about me is that music is a huge inspiration in my writings. I’m currently working on a novel where all the chapters are different titles of songs that have to do with what goes on in the chapter. So, obviously, music is a big part of the writing process for me. However, I can’t listen to it while I’m writing. I start dazing out and focusing on the song more than what’s happening in the story. When I start the editing process though, I do like to listen to some music. When I wrote “Your Call”, I listened to the namesake, “Your Call” by Secondhand Serenade, as I edited. It helped to keep me in the mood and the feel of what was happening, and I actually cried; hearing the song and reading the words together.

So now that you know some of my preferences, I’ll tell you a bit about what actually goes into my writings. When I write a story, it’s often about a friend of mine and me. For instance, “Your Call” was written after my best friend told me he was going to sign up for the army. I twisted and exaggerated and morphed the goodbye scene with my best friend to a story that was related to the situation, but was so different that only my best friend and I could tell who it was about. (The second half of “Your Call” is completely fictional. He didn’t really die.) So story ideas come to me as I live my life, which is quite frustrating when I’m busy at work or out with friends.

Sometimes, however, I do get those “Oh man! What if…?” moments. I’m currently writing a short story that started with me looking at a cute pillow a friend had made for me. On it was a picture of Tinker Bell and in the top corner it said PETER PAN inside of a heart and arrow. One thing lead to another and now, five months later I’m starting on the last few chapters of “Peter Pan is Not my Home Boy”. So while most of my stories are started with real life scenarios or roll-play of real life scenarios, I do have those moments when an idea just smacks me across the face.

After I get an idea going, I work out how it’s going to end.  Before, when I was younger and less serious about my writings, I sort of just sat down and wrote whatever came to mind. Those turned out to be horrible, unfinished messes. I think Kayleigh was even “privileged” enough to beta one or two of those for me. So now, I tend to over-work the idea, in a way. After the initial thought is jotted down, I take the main characters and create character charts for them. It’s long, but it’s fun and so worth it. That way, when I start a story and lose inspiration for it, I can reread the character chart and what’s already been written and I can pick it back up. Another thing that helps me pick up a story after I’ve lost inspiration for a couple weeks is to create a chapter outline. I’ve only done that with one novel, one I’ve been working on for quite some time now. But it has helped a lot. There are times when I just want to sit down and immerse myself into my make-believe worlds and to get me back into my make-believe world, my chapter outline really helps. In the one I’m referring to, I took a chapter, wrote a basic summary of what I wanted to happen in that chapter, found a title and moved on to the next one. In “Peter Pan is Not my Home Boy” (from now on referred to as PPNHB) I didn’t do such a strict outline, which I think has helped me immensely. To keep my mind on track I simply jotted down “Early March-Shad’s bday party” under the story itself. It helps me to remember what I want to happen while also leaving room for imagination and a little leeway for interpretation. I think I like that way better because I’m not worn out on PPNHB like I am with the other story.

Once the chapter outline and character charts are finished, I start to work on the story. So far, I’ve never finished a novel. I only started organizing my thoughts just recently though, and that’s helped so much more than I can say. When I started the first draft for PPNHB in February 2010, I didn’t think it would progress farther than a one-shot. Now that it has, I’ve projected my finishing the first draft October of this year. Usually, I write poetry or one-shots. When writing a one-shot, I tend to be a little more lax with the organizational process, because it’s never longer than ten pages. “Your Call” is a one-shot and the first draft for that took me just a few hours.  Also, I tend to not edit my things. I think that the first draft, all that’s raw, stripped and bare, is always the best. And if I do see edits that need to be made, I copy the whole segment into a separate document so I can edit and compare. Simple things like spelling errors or missing punctuation I fix in the first draft, but words that are used inappropriately or are poorly placed, I fix in the second draft.

As I’m writing I’ve learned that, for me, it’s best to write in order. It’s a really odd phenomenon that probably isn’t the best thing, but as I’m writing, my characters seem to grow and develop themselves. With the one novel I’m working on, “Flown Away”, the main female character, Aliss, progressed from a vicious-insult-spitter, to a softened-thoughtful-debater and finally to the loving-doting-girl-friend. It was part of the plot for her to fall for E.J, but when I had started the writing process I hadn’t meant for Aliss to change so drastically. Seeing this change, I’ve learned that if I were to start the novel, skip forward ten chapters and continue writing, then go back and add in those ten chapters later, my character would seem really flaky and unstable. Whereas when I write in order, the progression is smooth and makes sense with the plot line.

You might not be able to tell that I love to write in the fantasy/supernatural/paranormal genre if you read the short stories, one-shots or novels I’ve written. PPNHB is probably the only fantasy story I will ever finish. All my short stories and one-shots are usually romantic-tragedy, or friendship-tragedy. Because I have a tragic mind and it just seems that all my stories have sad endings. Sometimes the main character learns through the hardships, but the endings are usually sad. Even in the novel I’m working on now, the first installment of the series ends on a sad note. So tragedy is usually my forte, I’m sort of embarrassed to say.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical

On Wednesday, I got a haircut (hadn't gotten one in 8 months--maybe more) and at 7.30 PM, I saw "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical."

Having seen the movie 3 times, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it as much. BUT the actors and actresses were so full of energy and so fantastic that I now love it even more.

One thing you have to know to understand my favorite line is that Bernadette and Felicia--wait a minute, do you even know what it's about? IMDB gives this sentence to summarize it: Two drag queens and a transsexual get a cabaret gig in the middle of the desert.

Anyway, Bernadette and Felicia argue. A lot. In a very funny and catty way.

My favorite line: Bernadette to Felicia in a woman's voice: If you feel like joining us later on, FIGHT IT.

The last two words are said in a man's voice, making it that much funnier.

They added jokes that weren't in the movie and we see more of Shirley, but the drinking contest between Bernadette and Shirley isn't there.

If you're in or near London, go see it at the Palace Theater.

Clash of the Titans--1981 and 2010 versions

To be honest, I didn't even finish watching the 1981 version--that's how bad the special effects are.

The 2010 one was much better, but if you never watch either one, you're not missing anything fantastic.

Right at your Door

A thriller in which a "dirty bomb" explode in downtown LA. Unfortunately for Brad, his wife Lexi was there and got infected. He seals himself in his house with Alvaro, a guy who can't get a bus to his own house. Then Lexi appears! She didn't die, but she's infected. Brad can't let her in the house if he wants to stay alive.

There's a twist that redeems the movie a little, but overall it wasn't that great.

Writing

Let's not talk about it. Monday to right now: 351 words.

Plotting

I finally fixed a few problems with the timeline. I know from whose POV each chapter is from chapter 20 to 51. It's all good. Now if I only I can motivate myself to write. I'm having way too much fun plotting.

How I write: A guest post by Nikki-Lee

I’m an 18 year old who goes by the name ‘Jessica’ in real life, but by the pen name Nikki-Lee Mars (mainly because people I known in real life aren’t supportive of my writing) on the internet. I’m in my first year of uni, studying Psychology. Sure, I love picking at people’s brains, but what I love most is reading and writing.

I recently finished my first novel, Ruby Red, and am in the midst of trying to edit it within an inch of its life, whilst working on my second novel. I specialise in fantasy, with a huge interest in faeries.

You can follow me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/nlmars

And you can follow my blog, where I’ll talk about life, books and writing: http://nl-mars.livejournal.com/

How do I write? I’ve never actually thought about that before Kayleigh asked me to guest post on her blog. After a lot of thinking and going through my notebooks and my blog, I wasn’t any closer to finding out how I write. But then I realised that it was because I didn’t have any set rules for how I wrote each novel/story/whatever. How I wrote my first attempt at a novel is so different to how I’m writing my current novel.

Before NaNoWriMo of last year, I was the kind of person who pantsed through every piece. I never made any plans. I didn’t know any of the characters, I never knew the plot, except for the most basic plot (example: boy is turned into puppet by witch. Witch’s apprentice, girl, ends up helping him, turns him back. That was honestly the extent of my planning). This method worked for me, until I tried my hand at writing a novel. A serious attempt at a novel. Then I realised that pantsing just wasn’t a good idea with pieces larger than 8,000 words. I got stuck halfway through my novel, and then I decided to take the plunge and draw up some maps.

I never realised I could learn so much just by drawing up a map. That single map helped me to figure out the basic outline of the novel: what would happen, where they would go, who they would meet, and any side quests. So now, before I start a novel, I spend a bit of time trying to get to know the characters, the storyline etc. I don’t make the outlines too detailed, otherwise, I just feel like I have no freedom to be creative. I basically write a sentence or two summary for each chapter, something to let me know the basic direction I should go in. But I still have space to surprise myself with something I never realised would fit in the novel. For my first completed novel, RUBY RED, I added three characters that I thought were simple background characters, but they turned out to be quite vital to the progression of the story. Thing is, I hadn’t actually planned them out at all.
I’m still trying to figure out if I’m a pantser or a plotter, or an in-betweener.

Inspiration comes easily to me, it can be a sudden idea that randomly pop into my head, or it could be from me analysing old fairy tales and asking myself ‘what if?’. For Ruby Red, I was inspired by the 2006 version of Jane Eyre, where she is forced into a red room. At the same time, I had been reading Holly Black’s Tithe, so my brain just mashed the two together. So, I basically get inspiration from a lot of things. I always write them down in my special ‘idea’ notebook, which is in tatters because of how much I’ve used it.

When it comes to naming characters or places, I’m very deliberate and specific in the meanings. In RUBY RED, I had named one of my characters ‘Renfrew’, which was Celtic, meaning ‘from the still river’. Now, Renfrew is a kelpie, so you can probably see why that name is significant.

I’m also somewhat OCD with names. If they don’t feel perfect, and if they don’t seem to have that spark, then I won’t use it. It has to be THE ONE. I won’t progress through my story if I don’t know what my characters are called.

I try to be as organised as possible with my writing, which means separate books for vague ideas, full on plots and outlines, and where I write snippets of story in when I’m away from my laptop. I colour-codes my notes, and use so many post-its that you could say that I have an obsession. This is really odd, considering that I’m usually not a very organised person outside of my writing. In my last year of high school, all my notes were written in one book, if that gives any indication as to my organisation fail.

With the actual writing process, it’s complicated. I go through phases where I’ll write 1,000+ words a day for a week, then abruptly stop. This hiatus could go on for a few days to a few weeks, then I’ll randomly start writing again. I’ll sometimes try to write during those breaks, to get myself into the habit of writing, but the writing is poor, and the word count low. Because of this, my work can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to complete.

I have a few quirky habits, or rules, that I have during writing. I must always have something to drink, whether it be my favourite, chai tea, or even just water or Coke.
I find that I write best in the morning, between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. Watching the sunrise is one of the most inspiring things I can think of. It never fails me.

I write on my laptop at my desk almost all the time. During the day, I’ll change places; I might move to the sunroom or onto the deck in our backyard if the weather is nice. But I’ll never write in bed. If I’m at school or on a bus or train, I’ll pull out my Smiggle (www.smiggle.com.au, I always use Smiggle. Their notebooks are just so pretty and inspiring) notebooks that I always carry around and write, but I’m more comfortable with typing. It’s less of a strain on my wrists, I think.

When I type, it’s always in Arial Narrow size 10. I always have music playing. In fact, I have playlists made for each story, each important scene and each character. They help motivate me, and I end up finding myself typing away to the beat of the song. As a result, the songs I choose are almost always fast-paced.

I’m still essentially learning how I write. Who knows, maybe I’ll never fully learn. Maybe I’ll just keep evolving my technique. That’s why I love being a writer, because every day is a journey, every day, you learn something new about yourself.

England: A trip into London

a.k.a HELL!

Well, okay, London itself isn't really hell, it's more the fact that I spent about 7 hours there with my family.

We took the train at twenty to two in the afternoon and the first shop we went into was a South African one. We bought biltong there. Delicious, wonderful biltong. Last time we had any was in The Netherlands, 3 years ago!

Our first official stop was at the Natural History Museum. We had to queue for fifteen minutes just to get INTO the damn museum. Then we had a look at some of the things on display in the hall before finding out we had to queue to see the dinosaur exhibition, the big one.

Oh, and we hadn't eaten lunch. So by the end of THAT, we were hungry and our feet were hurting.

After lunch in a Chinese place, where I found out I had the ability to use chopsticks properly, we went to Hamleys, the biggest toy shop in Europe. It was HELL for me.

Trafalgar Square: we climbed on one of the lions and our dad took a picture. I have a slight fear of heights, so that was only slightly scary.

And, the highlight of my day, Foyles. The bestest ever bookshop I've EVER been to. Yes, I am aware that is a bad sentence, but who cares. Not me.

Okay, so by the time we got to Foyles (it took us quite some time--got lost, arguing, sore feet), I was too exhausted to look at the books. I sat down half a minute then thought "Fuck it" and began looking at all the wonderful books!

One thing you should know about Foyles: it's a maze. Seriously. I kinda got lost in that place. But somehow, by just wandering around, I ended up in the Fantasy section, then Paranormal Romance, then Teen Noir, so all was good.

The books I got?

1. Thinner by Stephen King
2. Christine by Stephen King
3. Liar by Justine Larbalestier
4. The Dust of 100 dogs by A.S. King
5. The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance (which has a short story by Rachel Vincent=reason I bought it)
6. Beauty and The Beast by Robin McKinley
7. The Carbon Diaries: 2017 by Saci Lloyd.

Oh, we also bought tickets for "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", the musical. We're going to see it tomorrow night. And tomorrow around 1 pm, I'm getting a haircut.

That's why today, Tuesday, is a relaxing day indoors.

Writing

Sunday: 261

Monday: 7

So far today: 0

Grrr...

Plotting

So I'm writing chapter 20 and I have no idea where the characters will take me.

However, I know, more or less, what chapters 21 and 22 will be about:

• A trial,
• sadness, and
  
• the last time we ever see characters L and J.

But who knows, things could change. Character M was SUPPOSED to be evil, and she turned out to be really kind.

I've also got a bit of problem with the timeline. And an idea just hit me. It's perfect.

England: Day 9

Day 7: Friday: I think we stayed in. I wrote 413 words.

Day 8: Saturday: I wrote 0 words. :( And we stayed in. Again. I don't mind, and it's actually partially my fault (I go to bed too late), but my mom's getting annoyed. Why? Because...

Day 9: Sunday: Today we were supposed to go out. I don't think that's gonna happen any more. It's 1pm.

Movies

• Harriet the Spy: Blogs Wars: Meh.
• I rewatched The Virgin Suicides.
• And that's it. I need to convince my family to watch Clash of the Titans (1981 version) with me.

Books

• I am reading "My Soul to Save" by Rachel Vincent, even though I should finish reading "Lolita", "The Sweet Far Thing" and "A Forest of Hands and Teeth" *is an idiot sometimes*.

I have weird dreams

As per usual, I don't even know where to start. Something about a guy and a girl, then he can't find the girl and it turns out he imagined her. And he shoots her in the forehead. Then she reappears, has a scar on her forehead from the bullet. She's now real, I think.

Then there was something with slides and tunnels and water and snakes. Oddly enough, I think I've had that dream before.

Then I was in some shopping center and then someone was chasing a friend and me. And the friend decided to carry me on her shoulders. Eventually we lost the guy chasing us and we sat down on a couch to watch TV. In the middle of the shopping center. And we hid under a sheet when he got close to finding us.

See what I mean by weird dreams?

Word count as it is now: 40271

Word count as I want it by tonight: 40 771.