Nobodies Perfect

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a truly wonderful week and an even more wonderful weekend. My week was great. I have really gotten into my book this week and I have really gotten to know my characters a lot better. I feel like things are looking good in that area.

The topic for today's post is that nobody is perfect. I definitely am not perfect. I get cranky and mopey. I mess up and make mistakes. I know that you aren't perfect either. But our imperfections are what makes us human. Our flaws make us who we are.

Like us characters should have flaws. If you have a hero who is perfect with dimples and a killer smile and never does anything wrong there most likely is a big problem. If you have a heroine who is perfect in every way and is good at everything they ever attempt to do, you also probably have a problem. They aren't relatable  at all. Now I am no writing expert. I haven't published a book and I am not an English teacher. But I have heard multiple people and teachers say that a character has to be well rounded. A well rounded character has flaws and hopes and disappointments. They become just like you and me. I am also writing this from the side of a reader. I love to read. I love to meet new characters and join them on their adventures. I love to weep with them and laugh along with them. But I need to like the character first or at least relate to them a little. I don't mean we have to be mirror images but I need to at least be able to see where they are coming from. I wont like a character who is perfect. I can't understand them. I wont feel sorry for them if something bad happens to them in fact I may feel a little gleeful depending on the severity of course. The story would become boring to me and I might even stop reading the book. That's not good.

I am not stupid enough to think that I am the only one who feels this way. If I don't like seeing this in books that I read why wouldn't I make sure this wouldn't happen in my own writing. It's not easy. It's hard making sure each character has a story of their own. They also can't all be alike. They can't all talk or think alike. They definitely can't agree on everything and they can't all have the same flaws. Life doesn't work that way and my story can't either. I could just do something quick and give everyone random quirks and imperfections but that doesn't work for me. It may work for some people and I say good for them but I just can't do it that way. When I write the flaw has to match each character's personality. It has to be somewhat logical and it has to make the character more unique and realistic. As I have been writing this story I am in awe of how other authors do it. I don't know how they have the patience and determination but I want to be able to do it to.

Writing is what I am most passionate about. It is hard, believe me it is hard but it is also so worth it. I get to play make believe and step into a story of my own making. This is book is my Inkheart and I plan to enjoy every bit of writing it.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all next week. Have a great week guys!

Sacrifices

Everything requires sacrifices. A sacrifice may be as small as allowing someone to cut in front of you making you be late for something or it can be as big as allowing someone else to receive a promotion that you may deserve but they may need more. Sacrifices can go even beyond that and lead to loss of life. Either way someone has to lose something.

You are probably wondering where I am going with this but it will all make sense I promise. I along with the characters that I have made are required to make sacrifices. In fact they are interconnected and their sacrifices could not exist without mine and vice-versa. When I started this book I started out with a clear picture of what would take place from start to finish as well as who every character was supposed to be. I had their personalities down as well as their unique vocabulary. When I started writing that first version of my book I wrote and wrote for pages and pages I was practically half way done with it. But in all honesty it was all just a bunch of dog doo. It was unoriginal and predictable. My characters did not make one single sacrifice and neither did I. We couldn't have played it safer if we had all decided to spend the rest of our lives in a plastic bubble. Well okay maybe that was an exaggeration but not by very much. Let's just say it was really awful.

Obviously I can't say what sacrifices my characters have to make because I don't want to give anything away but you better believe they have to make some. I shouldn't be the only one to suffer during this process.

With this story I have to let my characters fall down and find their own way back up. I have to cry along with my characters when they get their hearts broken instead of making all their pain magically disappear. Sometimes I have to let the unimaginable happen in order for them to grow. Sometimes a character that I absolutely loved doesn't even make it into the book or maybe they are only in it for a short while. There are times when sacrifices need to be made in order for the book to move on to the next part of the story. That may sound tough but that's the life of a writer. Like us characters are shaped by events that happen to them and the choices that they make. Like us that is what builds character and that is life. Life can not exist without some sacrifice. I have to sacrifice my some of my plans and hopes for this book in order for my characters to be able to sacrifice.

This book has changed so much from what I have expected it to be and I have learned to stop fighting against it. I am excited to see what the finished story looks like as well as if I will even recognize the characters. I will continue to sacrifice and hope that my story will get even better.

I hope you have all had a great week and will have another great one. See you all next week. Oh and don't be afraid to leave a comment.

Status Update Number Two

Here is my day late post. I am doing a status update on my story because I know I haven't done that in a while and I know that some of you may be curious as to how far I have gotten with my story. I am not even to the half way point yet however I am planning to work on it some more tonight. I am feeling a lot more motivated and have found inspiration from the smallest things every day.

So as of today June 2, 2014 I have written 17,681 words. I know I know slow progress but I will have a little more time to write this during the summer. This is equal to 70 pages in book length, which isn't too shabby but not anywhere near long enough for a novel. But if my story will be between 350-400 pages I have between 280-330 pages left to write but with the way I am feeling now I will knock out quite a bit of that tonight.

I do not have a clear picture of how many chapters I have written because as you may remember from an earlier post you don't always have to write from the first page to the last. In fact I already have the last and first pages so now I just have to fill in the rest of the middle. The hard part about writing a trilogy is that sometimes I have an idea for all three of the books. I am not working on the other two at the moment but if I have a great idea that I know I will forget I have to write it down.

Thank you all for tuning in to a pretty short and mundane post  but I thought that this week I would tell you where I am in my book. Next week I will write on a different and longer topic.

A Writer's Worst Enemy

Today I am going to talk about a writer's worst enemy or at least the most common one. I mean writer's block. The thing that can steal a person's creativity and cause hours of frustration and anger. As of right now I really know of no cure. It's just one of those things that goes away eventually but is hard to get through when you are experiencing it.

As you probably guessed I am experiencing it right now. Its not because I haven't planned things because I have. I have my whole novel outlined from the first page to the last. I have numerous character biographies made as well what I want to happen throughout the whole trilogy. You would think I would have my first book finished already with the amount of planning I have done. But it sadly is not the case.

While I do not have a way to demolish writer's block completely, I do have a few things I do to lessen it's affect. The first thing I do is try to write a scene that matches my mood for that day. If I am excited I will write a scene that deals with excitement or even fear because sometimes those emotions can walk hand in hand. If I am happy I might write a scene that is more joyful or at least not depressing. If I were in a great mood while writing a funeral scene I don't think I would come even close to getting the mood right.

Another thing that can help fight the enemy is being your character for a short time. Does she love to draw. Then draw the way she would. Does he skate? Then go to a skate park and if it is too far out of your comfort zone to jump on a skateboard then watch the people that do. This might tell you a lot more about the character than you ever would have discovered on your own.

I think I mentioned last week about how I interviewed my character. This a great way to not only meet and learn more about your character but to also move your story along. No matter how ridiculous you feel doing it don't let that stop you from asking serious questions. Ask them about there background? Ask them what they think about politics, religion, morality, death, anything. Let them answer in a from true to who they are. Don't make them say what you want to hear if you know that is not who they are. You might also be surprised how they answer. You might plan to write them one way but have them become their own person with their own thoughts and ideas on life. In our world they do not exist except for words on a page. However, in their world they are just as real as you and me.

The ideas above are all things that help me fight writer's block. They let me see my story from a whole new side but they also add something new to my writing. They work to motivate me and help me remember why I am writing this book. I am not writing this because I want to be famous. Instead I write because I love it. I love to make new things and make new characters. I love to tell stories. Like I have said before. This is not the first story I have tried to write but it will be the one I will finish. I experience joy when I put words to the page and I want you to experience joy when you read them.

Have a great memorial weekend everyone. Thank you to all the people that have served and protected all the people on earth and that never made it home. Thank you for your bravery and your courage.

WOW

Sorry guys I really did not mean for this much time to pass since my last blog post. School this semester was extremely difficult and I really didn't have time to do anything but study. So I for the last few months I have done nothing but memorize parts of the body and solve algebraic equations. I did take one amazing class however which was a creative writing class. It challenged me so much as a writer and I would like to acknowledge my teacher in my book if it ever actually gets published. I had not time to work on my story or my book but that doesn't mean I didn't grow as a writer or get inspired.

For the first time I shared my writing with others that were not my close friends or family members. I was able to get feedback and change my writing to make it better and more descriptive. I learned to describe what my characters see without stating it outright and also found a way to make my characters even more real. I have to ask myself what do they want and why do they want it? I have held mock interviews with my character. Now you may think this is crazy but it works. You get to see how this character would respond to certain things as well as being able to understand them better.
This class challenged to right from different point of views and to see things differently and I believe  that I am a better writer because of it.

I love to write. There is no doubt about that. But sometimes life gets in the way and I don't have as much time as I want. But I have not forgotten about this blog or my book. I plan to work on both. I can't wait until my book is published and my story is told the best way that it can be. It may take time but I hope that you can have patience with me.

Because I am not so afraid about sharing my writing with you I have included a short story that I turned in for my creative writing class. I am not including any of the book I am writing because even though I trust you guys someone could stumble upon my blog and try to steal my story and I have worked too hard on it to let that happen. The name for my short story is Blurred Lines.

She gazed up at the sky face relaxed and a small smile playing at her lips. Her chocolate hued hair covered part of her face but she made no move to wave it away. The eagles, the focus of her attention, where circling each other slowly, powerful and unafraid. She wanted to be with them. Lines of longing were etched across her face and one small shining tear slipped across her face before she had a chance to stop it. She brushed it away, furious with the momentary betrayal. Why couldn't she be free? These small moments by herself were the only piece of freedom she ever got to glimpse and they were becoming fewer and fewer until she knew they would eventually stop altogether.

She soon returned her gaze to the thick art pad that rested gently across her knees, her brow furrowed in concentration. Although she had only drawn one line it was not from lack of trying. There were just too many things around her begging for her attention. She did not know where to start so the only thing to mark her page was the single line. That was how she felt right now. I single line on one a big canvas. A sharp buzzing sound caused her head to smack against the tree that had supported her weight since she were a small child. A small red light blinked in time with the buzzing and she let out a muffled groan. She had ten minutes to get home and her older sister Katya could only cover for her for so long. Besides Katya really was a terrible liar and they could not rely on their father's absent mindedness forever. She smiled fondly at the thought of her sister. She used to be jealous of her and the way everyone always thought Katya was an angel and must have lost her way from heaven. After many years of jealousy and bitterness Karu had finally accepted herself for who she was and had stopped trying to be her sister years ago. When her brother Khan was alive he said she had a wild streak ten miles long and would only grow longer as she got older. But he wasn't here and she needed to get home. So she ran.

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How It All Began

Hey everyone, it has been forever since I last posted and I am soooo sorry about that. School has been really crazy and I have been working as well. I have not had much time to work on my story or write a blog post until now. I appreciate your patience and I truly hope you will continue to read my blog. This blog helps me to stay focused. I enjoy sharing this writing experience with all of you and you all are making the writing process even more fun than it already is.

I wanted to take a break from talking about my story to tell you all how it all began. I wanted to tell you why I started to write and I why I started this book.

For me it all began the moment I learned to read. By the time I was old enough to read and understand, as much as I could, about the story I was obsessed. Reading was my escape. Whenever I was sad or scared I could escape into the pages of a book. I would meet new characters or visit new friends and revisit old ones. I could go on adventures and be someone I could never be in real life. It was sometime after that I thought of writing my own book.

The first book I wrote was about a young girl whose grandmother tells her she is a long lost princess. Sound familiar? I had never even heard of Princess Diaries and even though the plot sounds similar that was about all that was the same. For one thing the princess diaries series was much better. My story began when my character was eight, because that's how old I was, and lead all the way to when she was an adult (fourteen was adult to me at the time). It jumped all over the place and had way too many characters to keep track of. I wrote more than one-hundred pages before eventually giving up. I have always been fond of that story.

My next attempt at writing was a story about the Oregon trail. It started out with a girl whose mom died from a bite by a venomous snake. She and her dad and little brother traveled before they came to modern day civilization with McDonald's  included. Apparently my store was unintentionally about time travel. That book did not last long either.

My third book attempt was when I was sixteen. This book was one that I would definitely try to write that story again. It was about four girls that found out they were quadruplets. They were each adopted into four different families and had no idea about each other. There was so much I could do with this story now but before it was far beyond my writing capabilities. There were mysterious surrounding their mother's death and it would have been a truly different story. I moved and things happened and I stopped writing but I would write that story again. It was around this time that I really enjoyed writing. I had one really close friend that loved to write too and I knew I could rely on her for ideas and help in my writing. I loved making characters and making their lives be whatever I wanted them to be. It was hard work but oh was it fun.

A year or two passed and for a time I forgot about the joy I had found. I forgot about the characters I had made and I forgot about the worlds that I had designed. Several things awoke my love of writing. The first was the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie that came out. The mermaids were eerie, haunting and beautiful; a very dangerous mix. I had always found mermaids fascinating but that was when the first drop of inspiration hit. The second was when the Mermaids: The Body Found came out. After that I was obsessed. Why had there been so many mermaid sightings and legends that has existed through history? What would they look like? Why would they exist? What would they think of us? So many questions were going through my mind. And then a story was born. I thought why stop at mermaids. Why not think about other sea creatures of legend? Why not create some of my own. I wrote over one-hundred pages of this book. It was almost forty-thousand words but it was really not the best writing. I did not like the direction my story was going so I started over from the very first word.

A girl was made and a story was formed around her. This book will not be forgotten. This book will be finished. And this book will hopefully be published so you can come along on the journey and meet my characters. That is how it all started and I wouldn't change it for the world. I don't know who I would be without my writing.

The Villain We Love to Hate

Oh where do I begin? The villain is definitely a VIC (Very Important Character) in the fiction world. I mean they may be even more important than the protagonist. They can make or break a character. I mean take Heath Ledgers Joker if he had been subpar and cartoonish the movie would not have been the same. Or even take Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. The good ones seriously mean business guys.

Depending on the genre of fiction villains, or the antagonists can be as genius as Professor Moriarty or as misunderstood as Bane. They can be whatever you want them to be but they have to flow in some way with the rest of the story. I love when you learn to hate the bad guy with all their diabolical deeds and painful plots. It is so hard when the character then does a complete 180 and reaches inside our chests to squeeze out our sympathy with a truly sad and touching back story. A good villain can make us sob uncontrollably, or become so angry we could punch a hole in the wall. With a boring or flat antagonist I could honestly care less. I might even stop reading the story and I might hate the villain without loving to hate them, if that makes sense.

What am I going to do about my story? Well I already have a plan but that doesn't mean that its easy. My villain or villains will not be in black and white. There may be a considerable amount of gray area involved. But isn't that the case in most situations. Like two face in the The Dark Knight. Harvey Dent was a pretty standup guy. He was handsome, confident, honest and totally in love with Rachel. But then he lost her and went crazy. Sure I hated him for threatening Jim Gordon's family and children but I could understand how he got there. He had been pushed past what he could bear and suffered because of it. I am not saying it was okay by any means but my heart broke for him all the same.

I am so excited for you all to meet my villain. It will take some time because my book is going to be part of a trilogy but you will understand a lot in the first book. I expect my villain to be complex and more than three dimensional if that is at all possible. I want you to love to hate them not hate them because they are bland and horribly thought out and written. I have so much planned for this villain and I will do my best not to disappoint you guys. It may take quite a few books and years later but I promise the wait and the story will be worth it. My villain will out villain the rest. They will have a story that will hopefully tug at your hearts and maybe cause you see things differently. My book is not a happy fairytale and my villain may be darker than some of you are used to but I hope you will give them a chance.


I plan to work on my book soon I promise. I am really excited to let you guys read it. I have a lot of work to do but I think my story will be unique and is not like a lot of the young adult books that are already out there. Let me know who the favorite villain you love to hate is in the comments below. I promise I wont judge. I will see you all next week. Have a good week guys!

It's a Hard Knock Life

Well I'm writing this more on time this week. And I must say it is quite an accomplishment with how busy I have been with school and everything else. I haven't had anytime to work on my story because school has really been whipping my butt. It's been killing me not being able to work on my book but I know I will find time eventually.

I choose the title "It's a Hard Knock Life" because I wanted to write about how hard it is for me the author to make a character and everything pertaining to that character's life. My main character Atlanta is very real to me. After all I have known her for over a year now and her life is literally in my hands. She is as solid to me as if she were standing right behind me as I am typing this right now. It is recommended on many how to novel books that I should write an interview for my character and answer the questions as she would. This helps me think about her and her personality and how she would react to things in ways that are wholly unique to her.

What I mean by all of this is because I care about Atlanta. I want to make everything go great for her. I want her to always be happy and it would be great if she would win the lottery and get the car she always wanted. But you and I both know that is not how real life works. I mean how boring would it be if that was the book I was writing? There would be no conflict, no story-line or anything. I wouldn't even read that book. Because of this I have to let Atlanta go through some really hard times. I have to let her get rejected and let her get back up again. I have to let her go through loss and pain because I know she will come out of it a much better and stronger person. She will change and mature but if I don't let her go through life she wont  grow at all.

I can't go into much detail because I don't want to ruin it for you but I will say that her life has been really hard  since very early on in her life. In this story her whole life will change and it may or may not be for the better. She will be forced to make difficult choices and will have to deal with those consequences. All these things will make it all the more better when all the good things can happen to and for her. When she finds her soul mate  and when she discovers who she truly is. It's things in life that make all the hard parts worthwhile and that is what I have to do with Atlanta. I hope that when you guys finally meet her you will love her just as much as I do. I hope you cry with her when she is in pain and laugh with her when she embarrasses herself. I hope you fall in love with her love interest along with her and I hope you feel victorious whenever she overcomes the odds.

I think about my characters a lot, even when I am working on my schoolwork, or watching a movie or reading a book. The minute I wrote the first word of my story I knew this book was something I would see to the end. I can't wait to show you all my finished work. I can't wait for you to read my book and experience all the feelings I am. I'll see you guys next week!

The Side Kick

When I think of side kick I remember the movie Sky High where the heroes went to one class and the side kicks went to another. The side kicks were treated like second class citizens. That is not how the side kicks are in my book though. For my story they are more like Watson was to Sherlock or Grover was to Percy Jackson, or something along those lines. My side kicks are not just the supporting characters to make my protagonist look good, most of them would do you bodily harm if you even hinted that. I want them to have their own side stories and motivators. I want them to seem like real people. although they may not have their life story being written it does not mean that they do not exist. I want them to be real, so real you can imagine they were your best friend, or family member.

My story has one main protagonist but her younger brothers story is equally important. He becomes the catalyst for many scenes in the story. He may be considered to be a side kick but in most senses he is not. I want the reader to be able to understand his hurts and fears as well as his victories.

My book centers around four main characters. The protagonist is the first and most important one. Following her are her brother and their two cousins. They may be considered sidekicks to many but they each have their own motivators and stories to tell to a point. Other people will come and go in my books and some of them will only be used to support the protagonist and the story. The hard part will be making them realistic. We come into contact with so many people ever day. Even though we may only see them for a matter of minutes we still notice little quirks and differences that make them unique. That is what I have to do with every single character in my book. They may speak one line but the ways they say it is unique to them. I have mentioned how before how difficult and important character development can be and bad development can break a book.

This is just one more element in my book that I will have to overcome and perfect to the best of my ability. I am so excited to share my book with all of you but it maybe take a while for that to happen. I just want to say you for your patience.

My timeliness was no better this week. I will I am getting over a cold and I have school work piling up but that is no excuse. I need to stay on track. See you all next week.

The Love Interest

I am so sorry. I swear I meant to have this up last night but some other things came up so I am posting this, this morning with the hopes that you will all forgive me. I need to start planning better.

Is anyone else starting to get tired of the way protagonists in YA books seem to fall in love with their soul mate instantaneously? I mean I always thought love took time and effort and depth, but I could be wrong. I mean you can be attracted to some one right away but love is a different thing entirely. Hopefully I'll be able to capture it correctly in my own story but when I begin my focus group I will be able to get feedback on what can and should be changed. I'm not going to say how my protagonist meets her soul mate because that would ruin the story for you guys and I would never intentionally do that.

The love interest is one of the most important characters in the book. Not only do they have to be a fully developed character but they have to seem vivid and real. They don't only have to earn their way into the protagonist's heart but the readers hearts as well and that is not an easy thing to do. I will say that I don't plan on including a love triangle. I know its fun for readers to form teams and debate who is more deserving of the protagonist but love triangles usually make me cringe. Someone always ends up broken hearted and I just can't stand that it's just too painful to read.

I want to say right now that my book's main focus is not a love story, nor do I intend for it to be the next big love story. If that did happen however I would be lying if I didn't think it was awesome. My story is so much more than that. It's a story of family and loyalty. It's also a story of strength and it is also a story of forgiveness. Even though my protagonist's relationship is not the most important part of the plot , it is however important  to my main character. It strengthens her, but it also forces her to look at things differently. It changes who she is maybe for the better or for the worse.

So what characteristics would make you fall in love with the love interest? Is it their solid strength, or the way they treat the protagonist? Are they dark and mysterious or are they the nice guy? Let me know what you think below and I will see you all next week and more on time!

The Perfect Balance

If you can, imagine your favorite book or movie. What was the particular genre? Was it a fantasy or a dystopian science fiction novel? Was it a romance  or a mystery thriller? The reason I ask this is because each of these particular stories, whether in print or on film, had their own world. It could be a world that is practically a perfect version of our own or a world like middle earth in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. Regardless of the world, land, or universe (no matter how crazy) there was a bit of realism mixed in. In that world there were laws, a governing body of some sort, and at least one race of sentient beings. These beings were probably driven by some of our own motivators, such as love, money, and power.

These places may be "out of this world," but they share similarities with the world you in I share because they need to be relatable. We enjoy the ability of imagining ourselves in the story. We sometimes like to feel as if the story could really happen or that it is taking place on some distant planet in a galaxy far far away. That is what makes a well rounded setting for your favorite story to take place, because that world also shapes the characters within.

This is where I am having a more difficult time in my own story. It takes place in modern times which is okay but the mermaids and other creatures of the sea have their own cultures that I have to create. They have their customs and traditions and legends that get passed down to their descendants. I want this story to be a success. Not because it is a best seller or the new Hunger Games but because it is well written, the characters are so real they could step out from the story at an moment and the world is so vivid you can see it just by closing your eyes. I want the storyline to be amazing and full of adventure and the full scope of human emotions.

Recently I got the idea that to make my story more full and realistic my sea races would speak their own language. This is something that is extremely difficult and needs to be done correctly or it just seems forced. It would push back my story being finished quit a bit but would it be worth it? what do you guys think. Should I include a language for my sea creatures? I will post a poll for you to vote on the main page of my blog which will be opened until the end of the month so let me know what you think. I respect your opinions and you are who I am writing this book for so give me some input!

It's little things like this that I have to get right. I need a balance of fantasy, since that is my genre, and realism. Hopefully I will find that balance because I really hope to publish this book and I don't want to do it half heartedly but I want to go all in. Balance, as in most things, is key.

Be sure to leave your comments and opinions on the language or any questions you might have. See you next week!

Status Update

Here is the promised status update which is a week late. I am sorry about that I really need to stay on and write every week like I planned to when I started this blog. And I will try harder

So as of today I have exactly 14,718 words. That is an increase of three thousand words since I started this blog. I know I can do better than that though. By telling you how far I am or how close I am to being finished it motivates me to write better and more often.

If the average novel page can hold about 250 words that would mean that my book now would take up  almost 59 pages. This means I have 341 pages left to write. I can't wait until I reach the one hundred page mark! I am currently in the middle of chapter six and I honestly don't know how many chapters I want but we'll see when I actually finish. And I will finish.

I don't know if I already wrote this but I am splitting this book into three parts and hopefully by the end of this month I will be done with the first part. Then I'll be 1/3 of the way done! If I constantly push myself and take the time I could reach this point by next Saturday.

I am sorry this is probably one of my more boring posts but next week (and yes I mean the week after this one I promise) I will be back with more interesting tidbits. I hope you are all having an amazing new year! Talk to you next week.