Laziness

 Hmmm, well I was going to write some extremely mind provoking post about writing that leaves you tantalized with thoughts about your new work in progress... 

  But then I got lazy. 

  Sooo, this post is about being lazy. 

  I've mentioned the disease author-itise here before, and now I'm going to mention it again. As I have said I have an extreme case. No, I mean like extreme. All I do is sit on my butt all day, write, get writer's block (the kind where you have no motivation for anything), attempt to get up and do something productive, then settle for having an all out Avatar the Last Airbender marathon with some Korra on the side.

  If you did not know this about me, I am an absolute Avaterd. The obsessive geeky kind who makes cosplay costumes.

  But, back on track! 

  This is an unhealthy cycle, (taken frome experience) and because of this, in the time I could have writen 2,000 words, I've only written 1,000. 

  Ugh. 

  That is the perfect word to describe my writing rut. 

  Ugh. 

  Great, now my vocabulary has turned to the inferior means of communication that was once utilized by prehistoric men. 

  Anywhooo....

  Some things that have helped me escape the writing trap are little tricks. 

  First and foremost!!!

  Always, and I mean always have a tab open for your current WIP. That little space at the bottom of your browser will appear in your mind and send you on a guilt trip if you do not have it open. 

 Second!!!

 Turn off your internet, if possible. If you can turn your internet off, do it now! (Well, not right now, because your reading this blog post, but I mean when you need to write.) No internet, no hours wasted! 

  Third!!!

  Get your own motivation. Sometimes the motivation we need won't just come to us, we need to force ourselves to write, and even if we write crap, that's all right (this is what editing is for.) Don't peruse the internet in hopes of finding some random motivation in all those facebook news feeds. If worse comes to worse and you simply cannot write, get up, do stuff! 

  In my world, having an Avatar marathon is considered stuff, so I am safe from this post...... (smiles weakly) 

 I'm joking. But, I have taken this advice seriously before and it does help. As soon as this blog post is done I will be on my book, forcing myself to edit. Just keep at it, the laziness will subside soon enough when your story keeps growing. 

Summer and Portals to Other Worlds

  Summer! My favorite time of the year. Where days can be wasted away spent on writing and books galore await for your amusement. 

  Yesterday was my birthday, and I am happy to say I racked up (is that how you spell it?) when it comes to books! Five new ones!! (And I got an ipod!!!) 

   Anyways, back on track. 

  One of my favorite things to do is go to Barnes and Noble to write. I don't know, Barnes and Noble just gets you in the mood. The library doesn't, but something about that bookstore tickles the inner author in me. Maybe it's the millions of books stuffed through out the store, or when you go to the YA section you pick out a spot for where your book is going to be placed when it gets published (mine was in between The Hunger Games and Divergent) A girl can dream! 

  One of my birthday presents was an all day trip to Barnes and Noble where I wrote... and wrote.... and wrote.............and wrote. And boy, was it a blast!

  There's something motivating about sitting at a Cafe drinking hot chocolate and writing, rather than lying in your bed with a cup of water, writing.

  This is what I like to call the book portal! (Another made up term of mine) The book portal is the part of your mind that shifts you in to another world that the book is setting up, either a book you are writing or reading. The book portal is thicker when things distract you i.e internet, homework, and it's also thicker when your environment isn't very relaxing i.e my room. 

  The book portal, however, is extremely thin at Barnes and Noble. I can get transported instantly to my book. I rarely get there that quickly and then I don't usually stay there very long, but today was a special occasion.

  Ok... well my book portal metaphor is a kind of flawed, but I think you get my point. 

  Environment impacts writing a lot. Anytime I go to somewhere like Barnes and Noble I get sucked in and I want to write. Then there are days when I map out my writing and tell myself I will write, but then I just... don't.

Good areas in the world for me where the portal is thin are:

  -Barnes and Noble (or any good bookstore) 

  -Near water, like a lake or shore. 

  -In Nature 

                                                                                  

                                                                                            

  Where are some places you like to write?

Donut Pirates and Repetive Words

  At this very moment I am procrastinating editing Manipulated. The reason I stopped was this... 

  Repetitive words and actions. 

  How many freaking times do I have to say that Kya gulped, or that her eyes are blue green, or that she shakes her head a lot, or that she sighed.

  Blah, just BLAH!

  These are the very things that get on my nerves in books, and I am a hypocrite because I do the same thing. But seriously, what am I thinking when I type out the words, My blue green eyes peered around the corner. 

  Sheesh! I already know that your eyes are blue green, Kya! Don't tell me again! 

  See! This is what happens when I get frustrated, I yell at the characters in my head, even though it's not their faults I make them think those words, I was the one who wrote them down.

  So, as you can tell this blog post is about refraining from using repetitive descriptions/ words.

  We must face the truth. First drafts are messy, they always will be (unless you edited while crazy when you were writing, which I don't suggest because that is another story for another day.) In those first drafts there will be crap, and then you write the second draft which I dedicate to plot and character structure, (which I just finished by the way) And, maybe by then you can start doing the third draft which I call the magical-turn-crap-writing-into-beautiful-sparkly-like-Edward, draft.

  But alas, the third draft is usually working on things like the above, repetitive words and descriptions. In some parts of the book my MC is tired, or sad, or happy. But, I don't have to write about the physical reactions she has every single moment because she's feeling those emotions. 

  "I gulped and let out a sigh, seating myself on the bed. My blue green eyes traced the side of of Jet's hands, cold and unmoving." - Excerpt from first draft. 

   I hope you can all see that this line is not going to make the cut. Do I care that she sighed, do I care that she gulped, do I give a crap that her eyes are blue green (I cannot stress that enough, I don't care!) 

  One of the things that is extremely important it to make sure the reader will care about what the sentence has to say. As an example I am going to post a Julian Smith video (and if you don't know who Julian Smith is, shame on you!) It's mostly just an excuse to post a hilarious video, but it does help. A lot of the video doesn't really have anything to do with writing, but feel free to laugh anyways, I'll explain the significance when your done watching.  
 

  Oh so hilarious! Anyways...

  Near the end of the video the little boy screams out "I do-nut care!" (yes he said donut.) Readers will feel like this, when we write repetitive words and phrases down. Nobody cares that your MC has raven hair if you've already made it clear, nobody cares that she sighs every single time they sit down, nobody cares how hot the summer sun was if you've already mentioned it fifty-bagillion times. And just like Jeffrey, you will be dumped in to the sea and eaten by the sarks (yes sarks) if you don't learn to stop it!

  How do we resist these types of words/ phrases, though?

  In the first draft... we don't. At least I don't. Usually in my first draft I just let myself write what I write, whatever comes out. It's the editing that this comes in to play. 

  Take a look at your writing. Make sure everything you've written the reader will care about, or needs to know. Take the example from above. I can edit that to say "I seated myself on the bed while my eyes traced the side of Jet's hands, cold and unmoving. " In that sentence, we only know what we need to know. That Kya is eyeing Jet's hand and that she's sitting on the bed. 

  That doesn't mean though that you can't mention if your character did something that may seem useless. If your character is sad, it's all right to mention that she/he sighed, or if their aggravated they rolled their eyes. Just don't mention it repeatedly, once you've already set up something there's no need to say it over and over again. Use things like that in moderation. Like desserts!

  So, even if you feel the need to mention how your character ran his/her fingers through their hair ten million times in a single chapter, resist the urge! Because then your readers will not care, and for lack of anything better to do, they will gorge on donuts made by pirates on a house boat, and the pirates will then turn on them and throw them in to the sea to be eaten by sharks. And it's all your fault that all of your readers died a horrible and tragic death!

Show, Don't Tell, like icarly and Harry Potter!

  Showing and not telling. 

 This, is something extremely vital that most first time writers don't get until their halfway done through a novel thinking to themselves, this is so good, I'm amazing at writing. Not that I'm... you know... guilty of this or anything *laughs shakily*

  But, what exactly is showing and not telling? 

  Well, we can learn what it is from the show icarly. "It's like T.V in your head!"-Sam Pucket. 

  In that one episode Sam was reading a book, and if you don't watch the show, she is not the type to read. She comments on how new reading is to her and how it's like a T.V in your head.

  You know what made her say that? Showing and not telling. 

  Here's a good explanation to what I'm trying to say. I assume we all have seen all of the Harry Potter movies. If you haven't... then you've been missing out on pure life for the past like, 13 year is it? Something like that. Anyways... In the Chamber of Secrets, there's a part where Voldemort's younger version of himself, Tom Riddle, writes to Harry through his magical journal. He decides that instead of just telling Harry about the Chamber of Secrets, he can show him through dragging him in to memory, and reliving it with Harry watching. Wouldn't it have been boring if in the end Tom Riddle decided to write this lengthy paragraph just telling us about how moaning myrtle had been killed and blah blah blah, *flips pages* talking to Dumbledore... something about Hagrid and a spider... Snore! You would lose readers.

  As writers, our goal is to make the reader feel like their there with you. That their in the moment of the scene. You want them to have a movie playing in their head. When you read a book, you don't want to have to exert any effort. Reading should be effortless, just like watching T.V, and you make it effortless by capturing their attention and making them feel like their actually there. 

  The basic concept of showing is describing how something feels, or how something happened, without really saying exactly what happened. 

  Ex: Telling;I was sad, so I cried.

        Showing: My hands shook and I could feel my eyes brimming with tears.

  Which sounds more appealing?

   Here's a great example of the terrors of telling instead of showing. In our English class we had to read a book that I will not name here, because I don't want to seem offensive, but let's just say this book was extremely guilty of showing and not telling. I'm not joking when I say one of the lines was, "I fell, it hurt real bad." 

  Um... no. That's just not how it works. When you fall, yeah it hurts, but the things running through your mind aren't I hurt. You feel the pain. A scrape in your shoulder that stings. A pounding in your head. A shout of pain ringing from your throat.

  Remember, you want your readers to see themselves falling, hitting the ground, sucking in a breath of pain , thumping their head against a rock, or catching their foot on a tree branch and tumbling to the ground. Instead of saying, "I fell," saying something along the lines of "The air was rushed past me and I could suddenly feel the dirt smearing on to my skin and the sharp pains etching their way on to my body," would sound better.

 

   Don't just feed your readers words. It makes them look bad, like their not smart enough to figure out that someone just fell and it hurt when they can clearly see that dirt smeared them, and pain was involved. 

  Show don't tell. 

 Be like Tom Riddle, dragging Harry in to his past and showing him instead of just telling him about the Chamber of Secrets. That's where things that start getting interesting.

Cinnamon Rolls and Discourage

  I haven't blogged in forever... 

  But that changes today! 

  So, as you may see from the title above, this update is about Cinnamon Rolls!... and discourage *sigh* Cinnamon rolls bring me a lot of joy, actually there are some in the oven right now, but there is a reason why I am making cinnamon rolls. 

  I was discouraged. 

  As a writer, it is healthy to be discouraged from time to time. We are human, it's just in our nature. There are days I'm left staring at the screen with a blank look on my face thinking, I am such a terrible writer, why am I even doing this? Who'll read this junk anyway? It's these days that I get discouraged. When I can pin point everything that's flawed in my writing, and then get overwhelmed by the immense amount of work there's really left to do.

  In order to not obsess over the work, the only healthy thing to do is take a break. 

  Walk around, go running, drink some water, don't just sit there and start developing author-itise (a disease I made up in which authors spend too much time on their work, or too little and say their working but really going on facebook)

  And so that is why cinnamon rolls are in my oven. I took a break, something we all need to do if things get overwhelming. 

  Breath in and out, close your laptop, and take a break, because I can assure you, in a few minutes, hours, or days, you'll be itching to get back to work, and as a plus, you can reward yourself with some delicious cinnamon rolls!

Motivation through Water

  So hey there world!!! 

  You know what I love doing more than anything on this earth besides writing, and acting and avatar the last airbender, and my family, and... well a lot of things, but I still love doing?

  Getting wet. 

  I love very much to get wet, I love the feeling. Having water glisten on you skin, feel it run down you back, your hair soaked in it, staining your back in water as well (I have super-de-duper long hair) I just love it. 

  Surprisingly, this is one of the ways I find motivation. 

  It's not like listening to music or anything which is also an outlet for motivation, it's just a weird quirk of mine.

  It's an odd way to find motivation, and not traditional. I don't know what it is about it but every time I get wet, like when I go swimming or go outside in the sprinklers, I feel empowered to write, because there's just this sense of motivation and power when you hold the hose to you sister's face, shouting, FOR NARNIA!!

  Besides, doesn't this just look refreshing? 

 

    What are some odd things you guys do to get motivated?

LDS Writer's Blog Fest: Our Savior

  Today I'm going to deviate away from the subject of writing and talk about my faith for a little bit.

  
  I know I'm a bit late when it comes to saying happy easter, but... HAPPY EASTER anyways!!!

  
  But, what is Easter about really? We mostly all think about candy and eggs  and bunnies, but, the true essence of Easter isn't about sweets, it's about our Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ.

  
  This past Sunday I had the treat of going to my cousin's ward and be with my family for a little while. Their sacrament meeting consisted of many musical numbers. My family participated in these numbers, but there was one song that my aunt sang that stuck with me. The song was basically talking about how Jesus was like our shepherd, and how we were sheep, and how he guided us and helped us.

  
  To tell you the truth I can't remember the name of it, or much if the tune because it was a fairly new arrangement, but I felt the spirit so strongly when listening to it and this one line hit me, setting tears in my eyes.

   Come under his arm...

   
  Many people don't know about the great sacrifice that he did for all of us. He suffered, he suffered through all of the consequences or our sins, for our wrongdoings. Why would he do this? Why would the most perfect person who ever walked the earth choose to suffer for a world practically flooded with sinners.

  
  Because he loves us.

  
  He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane because he loves us, he died on the cross because he loves us, he did all of this because he loves us, he wants us to return to live with him and our Heavenly Father.

  
  Think about that for a moment.

  
  And so the lyrics, come under his arm, come as no surprise. He wants to comfort us, even if he isn't physically there with you, through his atonement. Through Christ, you can do all things.

  For more info go to this link http://www.lds.org/?lang=eng, or visit the about my faith up there.  

  
  Here's the list of blogs participating in the LDS Writer's Blog Fest, where you can find posts similar to my own:

    
Amanda Sowards 
 Angie Lofthouse  
Ben Spendlove 
 Brittany Larsen  
Cami Checketts  
Charity Bradford 
Danyelle Ferguson  
Giselle Abreu  
Julia Keanini 
 Julie Coulter Bellon  
Kasey Tross 
 Kayeleen Hamblin  
Kelly Bryson 
 Krista Van Dolzer 
 Laura Johnston  
Melanie Standford  
Rachelle Christensen  
Rebecca Belliston 
 Sierra Gardner 
 Stephanie Worlton