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

Setting the Mood through Music

   Music. 

   I know we all listen to it when we write. A calming or thrilling thing really, it helps put us in the mood to write. It's a beautiful tool.

  

  But what is it about music that sets the mood, what is it about music that makes us want to write?

  

  I can't tell for everyone, but for me at least my reasoning is that the music travels in to my writing. How boring is it just sitting at a computer typing? Very. Though I love writing, there come a point where I need some motivation and music is my key point.  

  Take for example this song: 

   

  I find this song to be very motivating for me when I'm stuck. The music matches the setting of the book and most everything it stands for. Though I have no idea what they are saying, it makes me feel awesome. When I feel awesome, it translates in to my writing. I write scenes that match up with the song. I would write happy or inspirational scenes when I listen to this.

  Take this song as example as well:

   

   I would listen to this song when writing a sad scene, like the day after their lover broke their heart, or a funeral. It makes me want to cry, and so that also translates in to my writing as well.

  In a literal sense of the saying, your blood sweat and tears go in to your writing when you listen to music while writing. Live emotions bubble inside of you and you sense the urge to write them down. I suggest to anyone wanting to find motivation to listen to music while writing. Do it! It makes it so much more enjoyable.

Strong Characters

  All right guys! Well there's this challenge going around telling everyone to post a teaser to their writing every week, and then somehow relate it to a lesson in writing. So I'm going to take that challenge! So, here's a good topic.

  I hear voices in my head..

  Stop what your thinking right now! I'm not schizophrenic or anything.But yes, it is true, there are people living inside my head, and they speak to me.

  Any writer experiences this, and if you haven't, then the characters in your story probably need some more development. Before you start freaking out about the crap load of work you have to do now because you don't hear voices in your head, don't worry, I was kidding about that. Well... I hope you guys understood that. When you write something the characters come alive and become real to you, if your connected to the story enough.

 At the moment I am in the process of writing the sequel to Manipulated, and also editing Manipulated. It's not healthy to be so in love with a story line when your editing, because you don't want to get rid of stuff, but I can't help it. I love the story and I love writing it! But, how did this happen? Why is it I love this story so much? It's because of the characters.

  In my mind I've grown friendships with these people. I know their quirks, what sets them off, their bonds and ties, how far they would go in a situation, what they consider humorous. I know who they love and how they love, I know their losses, their joys, their heartbreak, what breaks them, what can't break them, because I created it all. My creations have become so real to me, and all these people are my immortal friends who will forever live in my head. Because I created them they way they are, I know how they would react to things, how they would respond, and they tell me what I need to do. If I'm ever stuck in the middle of a situation I think to myself, hmm, what would Kya do, or what would Jet do? And that character comes alive in my head and tells me.

  In the beginning, I felt disconnected with the characters. I didn't exactly know who they were, what their attitude towards life was, how they would react to things. I tried to get inside their heads and find out what they would do, but I couldn't because I couldn't get inside their head because their heads didn't exist. I hadn't created them yet.

  It got to the point that I would go outside in the woods barefoot to try to connect with my inner Kya.

 Trust me... never, and I mean never, walk around the forest barefoot unless you are Kya or Pocahontas, which none of us are. There are pine cones, and thorns, and pointy leaves...

 Once I actually started developing the characters, answers started coming clearly to me.

  
In the story Manipulated, Kya is a water manipulator trapped inside the colonies, villages of manipulators with an island type feel to them, with Chasers, evil soldier type people, guard them and are supposed to bring them food and proper shelter, but don't and abuse them instead. She fends for her brother and mother and day to day living is a struggle. I knew that from the beginning, but I didn't know who she was.

  
So I dug in to her past. Her father was killed by Chasers as punishment for u
sing his manipulating powers. How would that affect a person? Her mother, though willing to work, doesn't know how to use her powers and can't fend for everyone, leaving the family totally dependent on Kya alone. How would that affect a person? She knows that the only way to fend for her family is to use her powers, but in doing so she could be killed just like her father, and where would that leave her family? How would that affect a person?

 I asked myself these questions and as Ignesio from Nacho Libre would say, got down to the nitty-gritty. I developed Kya in a way that would fit her. Headstrong, protective, daring. But what's unique about her? Almost every dystopian or YA novel these days have the same characteristics. That's key, find something that makes your character unique and un-cliched. 
  
Kya has become more and more developed as the story moves along. I've put myself in her shoes, and I found that she's one of my best friends.

  
Just to give you a little insight in to Kya's head and how she thinks, here's an excerpt from the book where I think her character shows up a lot.

  It wasn’t until I heard a voice from behind me that my eyes shot away from the sun. “Mind if I join you?”

  I jerked up to find Nalin standing above me, his arms dangling down beside his body, his face contorted. I bit my lip and settled myself back in to sand, keeping my eyes away from his.

  “What do you want, Nalin?” My voice was quiet and the annoyance inside was unmistakable.

  There was silence. “Nothing,” he finally said. His voice was gruff, hard to reach. He seated himself down in the sand and I could feel his eyes on me. I rolled to the side to turn away from his burning stare.

  “I walk two miles to be alone! Can’t I just be alone?!”

  “You don’t need to be alone,” he said. “You need a friend.”

  I let out a groan and then rolled on to my back so I was staring at Nalin’s face, glaring. “How do you know what I need?”

  “I know what you need because you are your father’s daughter.” I harrumphed and then rolled to my side again.

  “My father’s daughter…” I muttered under my breath. “I haven’t seen my father in years…” Nalin sighed in response and rested his hand on my unscarred shoulder.

  “He still has had an influence on you, even when he isn’t around. You remind me a lot of him. Strong headed, caring, able to take a punch…” Nalin then punched me in the stomach in a joking manner. Though it didn’t hurt I groaned.

  “I can think of a couple things my father is that I’m not…”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Protective…” I said silently mustering the pain that word brought. “I can’t protect anyone, two people have already died on my account, and a third is about to. My father, he was different than me. He could have protected Rio and my mother; they could have still been alive. If he had been in my position he would have fought beside Jet, and not let him get injured. I am not a protective person; if I was then I wouldn’t be in this situation!”

  Nalin shook his head and let out a long breath. “You’re wrong about not being like your father.”

  “Wrong?”

  He nodded. “He was always putting unnecessary pressure on himself. He thought anything that went wrong was somehow his fault.” Nalin had walked around so that he was now facing me. “Kya, it isn’t your fault. Things happen and sometimes we can’t control what those things are.”

  “I could have…” Nalin cut me off before I could finish what I was going to say.

  “No you couldn’t have. None of this is your fault. ”

Getting rid of Distractions

  Hello there world!!

  Ok, well today I took a step that I usually take when writing some big project that I want to get done.

  Getting rid of facebook in my life.

  It had to be done. Facebook is a great way to connect with people, but it can easily become a distraction and and addiction... as it has become for me.

  When I wrote the first book in the series I'm writing right now, I deleted facebook out of my life all through winter break. I never realized how much good that did for me. I had been going at an extremely slow pace. Maybe a paragraph here and there, a few lines tossed there when I found the time. I had good intentions, setting up a time for myself to write, but I found that I never met those time limits... well... I did, but the internet was just a click away. What harm could checking up on facebook do? Very much harm indeed. It killed me. I never realized how it did though. I came to realize that while I could have been writing a whole page, I had only written a line, and in time spent on facebook I could have written a whole chapter, I had only written a page. Facebook was my biggest weakness.

  I had told my sister to reset my password and the not tell me what it was for the full winter break, no matter how much I begged her (I ended up not begging her, pretty proud of myself for that...)

  When I started this little faze I was about 150 pages in to it.

  I set up a goal for myself that winter break. I would write at least 2,000 words a day, instead of setting up a time for myself where I would just basically stare at the computer screen for an hour, and if I didn't write that amount I gave permission to either of my sisters to spank me thoroughly  (I asked them to check the word count each day so I wouldn't be tempted to lie.) 

  I finished the dern book three weeks later with 234 pages and a word count of 96,690. That's a LOT of work accomplished. No, that's like Nano writing mode, despite it not being November. I was so proud of myself.

  But alas, my sister gave me the password once winter break had passes, and I succumbed again. Writing wasn't a priority in my life anymore, the computer was, not only facebook, but other things like youtube parody surfing, and Wikipedia article skimming (highly interesting way to pass time by the way.) And so I decided something.

  I would no longer be clutched in to the deep pit of evil that is facebook (at times.) 

  And so of now, I have once again restricted myself from facebook and set up the same word limit for whatever I decide to write each day, no matter how late I stayed out because of play practice or youth, or how much homework I had. Those words would be and will be written whether I liked it or not. Well, there are the exceptions to things like midnight premieres to the Hunger Games.... but that is a special case!!! Back on topic...

  I suggest this method to anyone who is struggling to get things done. Whether it be writing, getting homework, doing chores. Trust me it'll do you a lot of good. We may think a harmless check of the facebook or click on the internet browser will be ok, but not really, a second turns in to minutes, and minutes turn in to hours, and hours turn in to days, and days turn in to weeks, and weeks turn in to months, and months turn in to years, and all of these years you could have been writing galore! But no, you waste your time on facebook!

  Trust me, getting rid of distractions will benefit you greatly. It has for me. 

The Temple

  I love to see the temple

  I'm going there someday 

  To feel the holy spirit

  To listen and to pray

  For the temple is a house of God

  A place of love and beauty

  I'll prepare myself while I am young

  This is my sacred duty 

  I love that song. Very much I do. Recently our youth group went on a temple trip. We rarely get to go because the temple is an hour and a half drive away from us. But when we do go... it's the best.

  This is the Raleigh temple, or the temple we went to.

  

  For those who don't know what the temple is, it is a vital part of my religion. It is a place where sacred ordinances are performed. In the temple you can be sealed to the people you love for eternity, in the temple you covenant with our Heavenly Father, in the temple you can do work for others who don't have the means to do what they need to do. Or in other words, baptisms for the dead.

  As youth, that's mostly what we do.

  And please don't think we dig up people out of their graves and then dunk their bones in holy water.

  That would be just plain disgusting.

  What we do is baptize those who have passed on, since they don't have a body to do the work themselves. These are the people who died without knowing the gospel, the people who died and didn't get a chance.

  It's amazing work, I love every time we go. If you see some of the names they use they tell when they were born and when they died. There are people who had been waiting since the 1600's and up. That's centuries and centuries of waiting, and your doing something for them that they had been waiting for.  

  That's one of the reasons why I love going. It's a service, a service to them and to our Heavenly Father.

  Here's a picture of what a baptismal font looks like.

  I love to see the temple. I truly do.

Babies and Books

  Well hey there!

  So, this post is going to be kind of odd, but you'll catch on soon enough.

  Recently my mother gave birth to the sixth edition of our family (excluding parents). His name is Ryker and he is four months old.

  Isn't he adorable?!!! I love him to death! He is the smiliest baby I have ever met!! But sadly, he cries, Ryker cries a lot. All babies do, and my brother is no exception. So, at times my Mom is doing things around the house, and needs our help. We are happy to give it up. Though Ryker can be the sweetest thing on earth, he is still a baby and has needs, and when we have him he can cry.

  Rephrase, he will cry.

  Recently I discovered a trick that helps calm him down when he is crying. For some reason, walking down the stairs with him in your arms shushes him. Not walking around, not cradling him. Walking down the stairs. Emphasis on DOWN. To go down the stairs you need to go up the stairs, but Ryker does not enjoy up, he only enjoys down. So, this puts me in a predicament. While I am walking up the stairs he cries, while I am walking down, he is calm. And in the process I am burning in sheer pain due to my case of authortitise which is a disease that occurs when you spend hours upon hours of sitting on you butt typing.

  I came to a realization when I walked up and down and up and down the stairs with maybe ten pounds slung in my arms.

  Writing is a lot like that process.

  Ryker is your book, you love him with your whole heart, you adore him, he makes you smile and laugh, and you would do anything for it/him.

  Going up the stairs are the bad parts of your book. The parts where you feel like shooting something in the face because your book needs something and won't stop crying. Character development, slower pace, better descriptions, less descriptions, and sometimes over all just better writing. You get overwhelmed at all you need to do, at all the flaws you see. And all the while your legs are burning for going up hill.

  However, going down the stairs are the happy days. The parts that just flow easily, your book is at peace and cooperating. It's the days where you pop out four chapters in just twenty four hours! You felt so excited you couldn't stop your hands from swallowing the keyboard.

  It's an on going process, if you stop your book will continue to cry, cry for need of more writing, cry for need of editing, cry for need fixing errors. And do you want your books crying? Crying out for their parents but no response and they end up dying from exhaustion of screeching so hard, and you have to suffer the pain an guilt of knowing you killed your own child for the rest of your life? I thought not...

  The process only ends when you've been published, or when you feel that your book is as good as can be. Your children will have grown and would be able to fend for themselves, and you'll look at them and think all those years filled with crying were worth it.

  And then you pop out more babies! And the process keep on going.

  I guess what I'm trying to say is that, you can't just give up on your writing, just like you can't just give up on a crying baby. You have to keep climbing those stairs to get the sweet climbing down the stairs days, and you have to suffer through the tired feeling your getting. Suffer through detachment. Because in the end, your book will be off to college and married, and all grown up. Savor climbing the stairs.

  Besides, were writers, climbing the stairs is what we live for.