Fly Away, Little Birdies!

Well, it's done- this afternoon, I sent the edited draft of Remembrance to my two NaNo editors. I am really nervous about what they'll say, but it's out of my hands now... just like the audition I'm waiting to hear back from.

A Hello From the Theatre Festival!

I'm sitting in the library at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania while waiting to leave for a theatre talkback. This festival has been quite the experience, but on the most basic level, this college is HUGE. It's known to be quite large, but my school, despite the castle on campus, is extremely tiny, a fact I appreciate if I'm late for class.

I brought some of the most troublesome excerpts here with me, thinking I could work on them. Unfortunately, I have found it quite hard to work from just those snippets. I feel terrible because I told the NaNoers who are editing my novel that I'd have it to them, like, two weeks ago, and I still have a whole bunch of editing to do. However, I get back to school in about two days, so hopefully I'll be able to finish quickly once I'm back with my computer.

I Can See the Light... Waaaay Down There

A few days ago, I finished the preliminary edits on Remembrance. By preliminary, however, I mean "just the beginning and there is still so much freaking work to do." These edits corrected typos, grammar, and small things here and there that were easily fixable. Now comes the much harder part- tending to plot holes, character development, bigger fact checking (though much of that was done in the prelims), stuff like that. There are some things that just need a good rewording, or slowing down. But there are other major, major things that I'm having trouble with.

For example, my MC, Ruthie, goes into this crazy old couple's house to rescue her friend. The whole point of her going in is so she can know to look for communication efforts from the people she knows outside the house. So here's the problem: I only have, like, two messages pass between Ruthie and her helpers. Over about two weeks. Not. Good. So more notes need to be scattered around almost the entire novel.

Also noticed: Annie, Ruthie's other best friend, seems to disappear from the story as soon as Ruthie enters the house. In a way, this makes sense because Annie is on the outside of the house, which Ruthie doesn't leave until the very, very end of the book. But Annie is also one of the people Ruthie is communicating with, so her presence is still there, even if we never physically see her. And besides her not being there during that part, Ruthie gets out of the house (finally) and goes home with her parents. No mention of her helpers who ultimately save her. Not even a quick glane around for her BEST FRIEND. Hello, Problems. I can see we will be spending some quality time together.


So tonight I leave for a theatre festival and while I would love to have my computer with me, I am not bringing it along. I've printed out the parts that need the most work so I can work on them while I'm there. Then on the 17th, it's back to school and the real novel work will begin.

Writing Meme

I've been seeing this meme on other writers' blogs and wanted to try it out myself. It was actually quite hard because while I think about my writing all the time, I guess I never looked at it from these angles.


1.) What's the last thing you wrote?

A few pages of a story idea I got from the Adopt a Plot section on the NaNo boards. While I really like the idea, another girl saw that I had remarked that I liked it and was worried that I'd write the story, as she had "claimed" it first, so I was forced to abandon it. I might return to it here and there, though, just because it's been fun to write.


2)What's the first thing you wrote that you still have?

I have a "story" from first grade about how much I "lyke ladebugs". You can't deny my writing talent from the start :p


3) Write poetry?

No, never. I've never really enjoyed poetry- writing or reading it.


4)Angsty poetry?

Nope.


5)Favorite genre of writing?

Young adult, historical, mystery... or all three combined!


6)Most annoying character you've ever created?

Ooh, wow... probably Angelina from an untitled story about summer camp. She was based on someone I had actually gone to camp with previously, and it didn't take much embellishment to up her annoying factor.


7) Best plot you've ever created?

Probably Remembrance. It still needs some work, but I really do love it.


8) Coolest plot twist you've ever created?

Hm... I quite like Gloria's double-crossing in Remembrance.


9) How often do you get writer's block?

Quite, but I try to work through it, especially since I think it's caused by lack of confidence as opposed to lack of ideas.


10) Write fan fiction?

I guess I have, in a sense. I used to do written role-playing online, which I suppose is a form of fan fiction. However, I've never sat down with the goal to write about characters already in existence; even my RPs involved characters that rarely met the people from the original story.


11) Do you type or write by hand?

Both. Ultimately I type, but when I'm without a computer, which is about 50% of my writing time, I get it all down by hand, and then transfer it onto the computer.



12) Do you save everything you write?

Yes, including different drafts. I like to see the evolution.

13) Do you ever go back to an idea after you've abandoned it?

I don't think I ever really abandon ideas, but I do return to writings I've left for a long time. I enjoy the changes I'm able to make as I change as a person and a writer.


14)What's your favorite thing you've ever written?

Ooh, tough. Probably the comedy screenplay I've been co-writing with my friend Katie since the tenth grade.



15) What's everyone else's favorite story you've written?

Well, I don't write strictly stories, and I don't show my stories to anyone... But out of the rest of my writing, people seem to really enjoy the aforementioned screenplay, Crosse's Time.


16)Ever written romance or angsty teen drama?

I'm not very good at writing romance, but I've tried to integrate it here and there. I hope to God I've never written angsty teen drama, as I don't enjoy reading it.


17) What's your favorite setting for your characters?

I seem to write them outside a lot. There's a lot of freedom outside.

18) How many writing projects are you working on right now?

About 5. I'm editing Remembrance and Crosse's Time, still writing Caroline's Story and Q/Quarantined, and a screenplay of mine (Requited) is being produced by my friends and I, so I'm sure I'll have tweaks for that too.


19)Have you ever won an award for your writing?

Yeah, I got an award in eleventh grade for a screenplay I wrote... the work is embarassingly bad, though. I can't even look at it now.


20) What are your five favorite words?

Quintessential, deplorable, serious, melodious, deign.



21) What character have you created that is most like yourself?

Lexa Harris from my NaNo attempt last year, For the Stage. Basically the Victorian me.



22) Where do you get your ideas for your characters?

People I know, other characters I like, names, songs... everywhere, I suppose.


23)Do you ever write based on your dreams?

Yeah! There is one in particular, an untitled comtemporary YA that was my first and only venture into the supernatural, that I had dreamed the ending to. However, because those were my days of writing linearly, I never got the the end.


24) Do you favor happy endings?

No, not exactly. If it fits, I won't fight it, but both as a reader and a writer, I like endings that make you think, which usually aren't the happy ones.



25) Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?

Yes, definitely. I don't know how you can't be.



26) Does music help you write?

Yes, most definitely. I do need it to be the proper mood/time period, though, and preferably just intrumental or I tend to write the lyrics.

27) Quote something you've written. Whatever pops in your head.

To choose something randomly from Q/uarantined:

Eliza stopped and looked behind her. She couldn’t see the headlights yet, but she was certain a car was coming. Sure enough, a few seconds later, twin lights crested the hill. When the car got nearer, Eliza waved her arms, hoping to catch the driver’s attention. It worked, and the car slowed.
“You need help, honey?” The bearded man behind the steering wheel leaned over to talk to her through the passenger seat window.
“Could you give me a ride to St. Claire’s Hospital?” Eliza asked, widening her eyes and hoping she looked innocent.
“Of course. Are you sick? Should I call an ambulance?”
“No, it’s not me,” Eliza lied. “My mom was just rushed there and my aunt and uncle are out of town. There’s no one to take me to see her. I’ll pay you for gas, if that’s what you want.”
“No, no, don’t worry about it. Hop in. I’ll get you there as fast as I can,” the man said, reaching across to unlatch the door.
“Thank you so much.” The gratitude in Eliza’s voice was real as she climbed into the car. She closed the door and put on her seatbelt. As she secured the buckle with a snap, she heard a second click behind her. She turned her head and froze at the sight of a gun aimed straight at her head.
“Don’t move,” Abigail commanded, placing her finger on the trigger.



And now I must go figure out how my brown hair dye turned my hair black...

Out of Order Writing and Teenage Romance

Oh, my, Reader... my novel needs some serious editing!

I will note that I did, in fact, technically finish "editing" my novel; that is, I went through and marked things that needed to be changed. As I mentioned in my last entry, there are a good number of conventional errors, especially typos. But the biggest edits are yet to happen. Besides going through every page and making the small changes that need to be applied (which takes FOREVER), I also need to write some more to make my story a little more well-rounded.

See, I used to write in a very linear fashion, e.g. I would write the first scene first and then write in order. I have a weird "thing" about doing things the same way every time. But a few years ago, I sat writing (probably in math class... I do a crapload of writing during math class) and thinking, "I just want to write [scene] so badly!" and then I thought, "Why can't I?" And from that point on, if I wanted to write something, I wrote it. Sometimes it complicates things, as I develop my characters as I go along and things crop up here and there along the way. But it is much easier to go back and change a thought of two than it is to think, "What was that scene I wanted to write three months ago?"
There is one other complication that mars this otherwise agreeable method of writing: I sometimes forget to return to things I decide to skip. So as I waas reading through my novel on day one, I noticed that the dialogue jumped, quite abruptly. One minute, Ruthie and Annie were hearing these voices come out of nowhere and when I turned the page, they were on a first-name basis with the speaker.
After a moment of confusion, I realised that this was one part of the novel that I had been stuck on and decided to come back to. So this is one huge chunk that I need to write anew. I'm just thankful I found it before I got the inevitable "Is something missing here?" note from my outside editors.



Another huge problem I ran into was the relationship between Ruthie and another character, Walker. When I started the story, I never set out to put any romance in it, especially since it's pretty much a YA novel and it's not necessary to the storyline. But pretty close to the start of my novel, it became clear to me that Ruthie was going to develop a crush on Walker; I wrote their first kiss and it was just so cute that I had to put it in. And while I do hint at some forming of an attachment throughout the story (one spiteful character even says it straight out), I realised as soon as I reached the kiss moment that though it was still super cute, there wasn't enough to merit it. It shouldn't be too hard to add some little crush-y hints here and there; as I said, there are already a few, and there are some strong reasons why the two would form such a strong bond so quickly: Ruthie wakes up in an unfamiliar room and panics, only to be comforted by Walker. When she is tortured, she is taken care of by him, as well as her friend Nora, and he feels that her capture was his fault. They make an escape attempt together, which leads to another perilous situation from which they save each other. But unfortunately, I recognise the need to some other small moments that hint at a teenager-y romantic attachment on both sides.


This editing business is tough going... Anyone else going through this?

Talk of Nooks and Editing

Hello, everyone. I hope you had a wonderful Chrismahannukwanzika! I know my Christmas was lovely. Though I love all of my presents, my favorite is the one I have not yet recieved- a Nook! My mom and I had been discussing the possibility of my getting a Sony Reader/Kindle, and it was between those two for many, many months until I was shopping at B&N one day and saw that they had something, as well. My mom was still pretty gung-ho about the Sony Reader until she began to read reviews about the Nook, and by that point, they had already been sold out for awhile. So I will have it before I go back to school but not before I leave for the theatre festival (it arrives the day after I leave!) I am so excited to (eventually) have this because it will eliminate an entire suitcase when I study in England next year! Seriously, I was despairing over which books I would have to leave behind, because I am the type of person who brings fifteen books with me on a weekend trip to the beach in case I feel the overwhelming urge to read page 47 of this or that book.


But I digress. I am very excited about this and that is all. Because I had a point in writing this blog, and that point is this: I began editing my NaNo novel today.


It hasn't been quite a month since I locked my novel away in the bottom drawer of my desk at school, but I had time today and it's close enough. Additionally, I have people waiting to edit it that I am sure will do a far more thorough job than I am doing.


Editing is an interesting process, and actually, almost a brand-new experience for me. Though I have been writing forever, I rarely ever finish my stories, which is odd because I am a person who does not like loose ends. But, as a friend and fellow writer and I were discussing just today, sometimes reaching the end is what we are afraid of. A work in progress is safe because it's still in progress. But if you type that final word of your novel and think, "I'm done,"... well, that's a little frightening.


If course, as I am learning in this editing process, a novel is not nearly "done" once you finish the first draft. There is SO much work to be done on this story... so, so much. I am not a person who generally makes a ton of grammatical and/or conventional errors, but believe me, they are present in my first draft. I have marked so many things I want to change. For it being my biggest writing pet peeve, I repeat words an awful lot. And I discovered about an hour ago a huge chunk of a scene that I just never wrote. I kept flipping pages, looking for the missing part, and then realised that that was a section of the scene I had meant to get back to and just never did. I would have been so embarrassed if I had sent my novel off with that chunk missing.


As odd as it sounds, as I read, I am realising that plot is one of my weaknesses. I am very insecure in my writing and tend to have ideas given to me that I then work my characters around that story, and I feel safe because it's not MY story, it's just my words put together to form that story. But this novel is completely of my own imagining and I am scared that I have no plot. As I mentioned in my very first entry, I failed at NaNo last year because I didn't really had a plot. I had a few good scene ideas, but beyond that, nothing. And somehow, I feel that even though I have over 50,000 words of a plot of my own creation... I feel like I am in the same situation. Am I the only one that suffers from this insecurity?


However, I have been told on more than one occasion that character development is one of my strengths, and I am proud of that. I feel like my MC is a strong character. There are a number, however- Gloria, Mrs. Grady, Suzanne, Billy, Ethan, and Annie, just to name a few- that I feel can be developed further. Only about two and a half of them are main characters, but I come from the theatre world where there are no small parts!


Tomorrow, I shall finish my editing, including my chapter breakdown, and then I will apply those edits to my novel as best I can. I could rush this and do it in a day, but I am making myself draw it out for a few days. I have promised the novel to my editors after the new year, so I am thinking by the third or so, I will send it out. I am very nervous about their opinions, but I know they will be helpful- and I much prefer pages of notes to a passive "I liked it."


And now I must to bed, for it is late and I am tired. Bonne nuit!


P.S. Another one of my presents was a NaNoWriMo t-shirt! I love it!

Returning to Past Projects

Hello, everyone! I am back!



First of all, I wanted to apologise to those who left comments and didn't get any responses. I'm not quite sure how to make this blog notify me when someone comments, and I was quite surprised to see that I had a few comments for a couple of the days. So apologies and thank yous to those who commented! It's nice to know that people are reading.


I've decided to keep this blog going, however irregularly it might be updated. I began to look over the two projects I mentioned in my last entry and I was both pleased and disappointed by what I found.


The first thing was the period screenplay, which I tend to refer to in my mind as "the Caroline Project". I began to write this my senior year of high school and stopped around early 2008. I have a good memory, so this was a good amount of time to help me forget what I had written and return to it with fresh eyes.
One of my writing strengths is character development, and I think I've done a fair job in this one, as well. I really like all of the characters and enjoy hearing what they have to say.
I've edited a bunch of the lines because they sounded unnatural- repeated words, etc. I like to read things I write out loud, whether it be a screenplay or a story, to hear how it sounds when spoken. With this screenplay, lines will obviously sound a little different because it takes place in the early 1900s, but they still need to sound like they could be spoken.


Something that is irking me about this screenplay is the way I begin it. I started it originally by having a college student, a journalism major named Audrey, visiting the title character in a nursing home and asking her some questions about her childhood and what it was like to grow up in that time period. There are a few problems with my beginning that can only have come from my not ever having been in a college at that point: Audrey is nineteen and working on her thesis. Um... no. I'm nineteen right now and nowhere near that stage! Also, it would probably be more accurate if she were a sociology/psychology major; if I want to keep her as a journalism major, I need to figure out what on earth she's writing about that would constitute these interviews.
I'm also not so sure I want to begin it in more modern times (the '80s, in this case, because that was the most recent I could begin it without having Caroline be, like, 105 years old). While I like the dialogue I have between Audrey and Caroline, I just don't think Audrey has enough significance in the story. The only way I can think of making her part worthy enough to keep in the story is to draw some sort of parallel between her and Caroline's story. Caroline's story is all about lost love quiet young, so perhaps Audrey could be choosing some sort of relationship frivolously or carelessly? I don't know... I can write the story without Audrey, but I'm not sure how to begin it without her.


As for Q/Quarantined, I've only gotten a few chapters into my re-read; hopefully I can finish tonight or tomorrow. So far, though, I'm still very excited to continue the story. It's a really cool idea (which I got from the NaNo boards' "Adopt a Plot" section) and I am ready to work on it again. I would be working on it right now, while I'm backstage at my Dance Recital Night #1, but I want to hav completely read the first draft before I add anything on to it.



Storyboarding is definitely not for me. I went through my NaNo prep stuff while I was cleaning up my dorm last night and found my storyboard from both Q and Remembrance... sure, it's great to have it, but I never added anything to it because I knew what I wanted... and then it allchanged so rapidly that I didn't want to stop in the middle of an exciting scene to write what was happening on a Post-It. I wish I could storyboard, but I don't think it will ever happen.


I suppose I should stop writing and focus on what I need to do right now- tap dance to Kelly Clarkson and Michael Jackson mixes... I hate tap dancing, and I'm not sure why I continue to force myself to do it. But whether I hate it or not, I'm here, and the show must go on!