Category Archives: Writing

Word Count Wednesday 6/8/11

Word Count: 253 words

I hate my life right now.

Is the school year over yet?

I have 6 days left to teach, but am working 15 hour days to get everything done before I leave for grad school.  Will be the happiest person in the whole entire world on June 19.

The End.

Book Purchases

I ordered some books about writing today that were recommended by SCBWI.

Yes!  You Can Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Career by Nancy Saunders

I heard this book is an excellent resource in helping writers learn how to freelance and create a reliable income.  SCBWI recommends it and it has rave reviews on Amazon.

I’m excited to see what this book has to offer.  I don’t consider myself business savvy, and I want to start educating myself.  (Another thing I’d like to know more about is Web Design, if anyone has any great books to recommend, drop me a comment!)

The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction by James Alexander Thom

Historical fiction has always been one of my favorite genres to read, but I could definitely use some tips on writing it.

This book also comes highly recommended by SCBWI.

I’m hoping to find some techniques to help organize research and tips on adding world-building details.

The Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide by Becky Levine

Another book recommended in the latest issue of SCBWI (notice a pattern?)

I’ve registered for TWO creative courses this summer, and know I’ll be doing a lot of critiquing.  I genuinely enjoy giving feedback and editing.  I have some practice, but it’s something I’d like to develop and strengthen.

And maybe if I work well with people in my classes and provide helpful feedback, I’ll gain some more writer buddies/critique partners.

I’ll definitely review the books and share a tip or two after I read them!
Any good writing books you recommend?

Cool Pen

I have a thing for owls.  I don’t really know where it came from, but I’ve been collecting owl stuff for awhile.

I recently bought a pink owl pen that I’m kind of in love with:

It’s pink!

The owl is so cute!

It writes cleanly!

And the company that makes these pens is very environmentally conscious.  They call their pens “Seven Year Pens” because supposedly they can write 1.7 meters a day for 7 years.  While I think I write much more than that in a day and therefore my pen won’t last that long, I am pretty happy that I will have this cute pen around for awhile!

They have other cute designs, too!

I like the feather, ice cream, glasses, and mustache!  The “NEED COFFEE” one is funny, but I’m not a fan of skulls.

If you want to check out these cool pens:

http://seltzergoods.com/The-Seven-Year-Pen-c3/

(Note: I did not pay $7.50 for my pen.  The prices on their website are much higher.)

Word Count Wednesday 6/1/11

I didn’t post last week because I was on VACATION.  It was glorious.  I didn’t take my laptop because taking a laptop through airport security is a pain-in-the-***.  And I always get super scared that my laptop will be damaged in some way when I travel.  I figured I could borrow my mom’s laptop when I needed to check something, and I’d be too busy working on my tan to work on anything else.  đŸ˜›

So my word count for the last 2 weeks is pretty abysmal at 902 words.  I was too busy writing sub plans, packing, waiting at the airport, lying on the beach, eating seafood, and doing all those lovely traveling type tasks.

I’m going to make an effort to get in 3,000-4,000 words in the next three weeks, but it may be tough.  In three weeks I leave for grad school.

Before then I must:

  • Pack up my classroom at school (which is a hot mess)
  • 4th quarter assessments and report card grades
  • Write sub plans for last week of school
  • Plan two activities for our Asian Culture Day at school
  • Read 17 more books for grad school (HA!  Already know this isn’t gonna happen!)
  • Pack for grad school
All these enormous tasks must be completed in addition to all the normal tasks (eat, sleep, work, etc.)
But I have to stay sane and do something for myself each day, so I will find time to write.  It’s IMPORTANT.
I read two books for grad school while at the beach.  Initial book reviews are below.

Stop fighting! You’re supposed to get along!

If you’re not a writer, this blog post may make you think I’m mentally insane.  I’m not.  Trust me.  Just sometimes when you’re writing, your characters have a mind of their own.

Yesterday was Sunday, and ideally that should be a day where I get a huge chunk of writing done.  I didn’t.  Word count grand total was a pathetic 252 words.  I was very frustrated and later mad at myself.

My best writing troubleshooting always occurs while driving (I’d just drive around for no reason when I have writer’s troubles but gas prices being as they are… that’s not a feasible solution).  So today while driving home from school, I realized what my issue was yesterday.

I’d encountered a problem that I hadn’t encountered before.  According to my plot, I needed two characters to work together to help another character in need.  When I put these two alpha females in the same room together for the first time… they soooo did not want to work together.  Instead the scene turned into the equivalent of a cat fight, leaving me shocked and frustrated.  While I’ve had characters act, speak, and behave in a way I hadn’t anticipated, I’ve never been writing and then had two characters not get along like this.  And I couldn’t think of a way to “mediate their situation.”

Today while driving, I realized I could have solved this problem or at least still added to my word count (instead of just giving up and doing grad school reading).

I could have :
     A. Brainstormed areas of common ground between the characters to give them a solid reason to work together.
     B. Brainstormed a character that could act as mediator.
     C. At least chosen a different scene to work on that day to get SOMETHING done.

So while I did get a lot of grad school reading done and while that was a productive use of time, I still regret not getting more writing done yesterday.  But at least I’ve learned from my frustration.  In the future, brainstorming about character relationships might be just as necessary as creating a character bio.  Lesson learned.

Now let’s see if I can knock out 1,000 words tonight to make up for it…

UPDATE… Later that night…

Switched projects.  Was insanely inspired.  Brainstormed a great deal, and wrote 765 words.  Wanted to keep writing… but the clock read 11pm, and I really can’t afford to get sick AGAIN this school year.

Word Count Wednesday

As part of my resolution to make time for writing, I said I would be posting my word count once a week so that you could wag your finger at me if I wasn’t living up to my promises.

Since I set my goals this Monday, and I wanted to write 1,000 words per day five times a week… a reasonable number of words to have achieved in 2 days would be somewhere around the 2,000 word mark.

And drumroll…

I wrote: 1848 words

Not too shabby.  It’s tougher than I thought to get in 1,000 words a day.  It takes me a good chunk of time to get rolling, but hopefully getting into a rhythm will help.

And a little writerly tip I learned from author, Scott Westerfeld:

You can use the website http://www.wordle.net to check your writing for repetitive/overused words.
Wordle generates “word clouds” or a graphic based on word frequency.  Copy and paste your text, click create, and voila!  Here’s a sample one that I created using the text in the ball and balcony scenes of Romeo and Juliet:

Any word that is big was used A LOT.  Small words were not used often.  So character names will probably be big, but other less critical words shouldn’t be.

So if I pasted my first chapter into Wordle… A word like say… “dimpled” should not be very big.  It would mean I overused the word dimpled when describing my character… Which I totally didn’t overuse…  *cough cough*  And my critique partner totally didn’t catch me using “dimpled smile” over and over…

Sorry Bonnie… I’ll try to remember to Wordle my draft before sending it to you next time.

I wonder what words would show up in a Wordle of Twilight?
Tousled Hair?
Golden Eyes?
Murmured?

I have a feeling Stephenie Meyer doesn’t know this little Wordle trick…

Wordles are totally fun to play with even if you aren’t writing!  Check it out!

Scheduling Writing Time

I am terribly guilty of not holding myself accountable to any sort of writing schedule.

Let’s get the excuses out of the way:

  • Lesson planning
  • Grading papers
  • Laundry
  • Cleaning
  • Quick run to Target (1 hour later…)
  • Naptime (3 hours later…)
  • Must read *amazing* book
  • Must read grad school book
  • Check Facebook (1 hour later…)
  • Check Goodreads (1 hour later…)
  • Read fabulous author blogs about being fabulous author (1 hour later…)
  • Watch bizarre/pointless/hysterical YouTube video(s)….
  • Watch stupid TV shows I don’t even care about

Now, that’s done.  If I really want to BE a writer.  If writing is IMPORTANT to me.  I need to make time for it.

So, I’m a teacher.  And what do teachers do to help students be accountable for their work?  We report on their progress, set goals, and offer incentives.

I’m going to do the same.

Report Progress:

  • Daily: I will record my daily word count on a calendar on my desk.
  • Weekly: (Inspired by Bonnie at http://abackwardsstory.blogspot.com/) I am going to post my weekly word count on Wednesdays.  You may wag your finger at me if I disappoint you.

Set Goals:

  • Short Term Goal: To write 1,000 words 5 days a week
  • Long Term Goal: To have a finished 1st draft of a novel by August 15th.

Incentives:

  • Daily: I get a sticker on my calendar!
  • Weekly: If I achieve my short term goal (1g x 5 days) then I get to buy a bouquet of fresh flowers to go in the vase on my writing desk.
  • BIG Incentive: ??? I have to think on this.
Yippee!  Stickers!
I love fresh flowers!  So pretty!
That’s my plan.  I’m also trying to get in writer mode for grad school.  I’m taking two creative classes and really want to push myself this summer and do well.
Do you think my plan will work?

Last Class

Today I had my last Craft of Writing class, and tomorrow I have my last History and Crit class. Today was the more sad of the two days because I looooove my Craft of Writing class and I looooove my professor. I wish I could take this same exact group of people and just continue the class next summer. We took our teacher out to lunch after class, and I also bought a card for everyone to sign. We all want to keep in touch with her.

Today, our last assignment, was to create a final product that we would call our “Masterpiece.” It was essentially supposed to be a final copy of the first chapter of the book we’ve been working on for the last 6 weeks. We were also supposed to include the working title, book cover (which I drew myself!), book jacket blurb, a pretend “About the Author” and pretend praise for the book. Here is my cover (though it is a mirror image and I can’t figure out how to flip it. And then below is my pretend jacket blurb etc. Enjoy this glimpse of what I’ve been working on!
Being smart isn’t a good thing.

Getting the right answers on a test can get you killed.

The world doesn’t need smart people. We have computers now.
When her parents are killed for being too intelligent, Idalis knows it’s only a matter of time before she and her younger brother, Liam, meet the same fate. Idalis’ world is full of secrecy, violence, and deception. Can she survive? Is there anyone out there to trust?
About the Author
________ Hughes grew up in *********, just outside of our nation’s capital. She is very close with her two brothers, ______ and ______.  She received her Masters in Children’s Literature at ******* University. She was also a middle school teacher for ten years. Her favorite authors are Lois Lowry and J.K. Rowling, and she loves reading all genres of fiction. She also enjoys playing volleyball and being outside. Outwit is her first novel.
Praise for Outwit
“Hughes’ first novel deserves an A+ for taking its readers through a life and death question of what – and who – is really important. Sensitivity and science fiction walk hand in hand throughout her pages.” – Author, Nancy Ruth Patterson
“Outwit has a setting that is both eerie and familiar despite being set far in the future. The allusions to the Underground Railroad and prejudices in our past blend seamlessly with the story and give this science fiction novel a grounding realism. The thought-provoking and serious issues raised in this book will stay with you long after you turn the last page. Great things can be expected from this first-time novelist.” –Booklist (note: This is PRETEND praise. Not Real!)

Critique Day

Sooooo… Today we had a critique day, where we brought in 3 copies of our first chapter in it’s most final form. We got into groups of 4 and took turns reading people’s work and giving feedback.

I just got finished reading through what my peers wrote(which wasn’t much), and… how do I put this? My friend, “S” gave me the best feedback. She posed questions I hadn’t considered, and pointed out exact places to elaborate. The other two people’s feedback wasn’t quite as useful. One kept suggesting I cut out words that would have turned a lot of my sentences into fragments, but then again my criticism for her was that she overused sentence fragments. And she recommended I change the order of some parts, but I don’t understand the reasoning behind some of the moves. Then the other guy is adorable, but didn’t write much. Though he made a couple of good formatting suggestions.
And now I feel kind of bad because I pretty much bled ink on their paper. I didn’t leave a space unmarked. And I don’t know if their self-esteem is ready to see that on their work…
Especially as a teacher and having lots of practice grading, this is something I’m used to doing. And I don’t think the others in my group were. But in addition to that, this class has made me really analytical of writing, and I read differently now than I used to. So I really saw today, for the first time, that I have the potential to be a book editor. My teacher even told me individually that she thought I’d make an excellent book editor. Pretty cool. It’s like another career path has opened up before me that doesn’t look too shabby.
My teacher was absolutely adorable and bought ALL of us a copy of one of her books and autographed them for us. Then she also wrote a pretend review blurb for our books.
I don’t have my blurb with me at the moment, but it was really sweet and she said something about my book “blending sentimentality and science fiction seamlessly.” I may not have the wording right but it was something like that.
I’m exhausted because I’ve been staying up until the wee hours of the night and then not sleeping terribly well. But I’ll be home in 4 days, where I will surely catch up on sleep in my own beautiful bed. Until then, I’ll be proofreading and revising papers…

Tight Writing

I’ve been really happy with this sci-fi book I’ve been writing. As you can probably tell from past posts. After speaking with my teacher on Wednesday, I worked out possible solutions to issues I was having.

One issue I was having was whether or not to have a villain. The book is primarily about survival in a hostile environment. But my teacher proposed the question of how did the world get this way, and I decided that I did in fact need a villain.
So I spent all of Wednesday night creating two villains. And I’m extremely happy with the results. There will be lots of deception/twists. Things won’t be as they appear. And my villains will juxtapose nicely with my main character.
So today, I spent a good four hours in the library doing something I’ve NEVER done before. I took every scene I’d written so far, and completely mixed them around and re-ordered them. I created a new outline, moved things around, cut things, and wrote new stuff to fill in the seams. The result is even better than I imagined. It almost feels like I didn’t write it because I couldn’t possibly have made things fit together that way.
I’m just thinking back to how I wrote before this summer… Not that it was bad, just not as deep. Not as complex. I couldn’t have written this story. This story is so tight, and everything I’ve written before seems loose by comparison.
I wish I could post more details about the story, but I can’t if I want it to be published. But if anyone wants to be a test reader later on in the process, let me know 😉