Let’s start this one off by being truthful, shall we? I’m sick. And the worse part is, I was fine until my mom decided she wasn’t going to leave my vitamins out for me anymore. (Yes, like you would for a five year old). Anyway, I keep forgetting to take them on my own – I’m actually only putting this in my post so I’ll remember come dinner time – and the result is a cold that makes me want to consider clawing my sinuses out a valid option. I am spending my time on the couch, forcing out my story. I started over from scratch so I could get a different tone to the book, and right now it’s at about 1119 words. I feel too crappy to write anymore, so bye.
Update
I guess the title says it all. I’ve been writing more frequently for a while now, and I figured the next step is blogging more often on top of that, even it seems like I’m talking about nothing. Which, right now, I basically am.
I thought I’d start by telling you what happened after I received that bad news from my dad about how vampires are, for all intents and purposes, dead. (Excuse the pun). When this happened, and I cooled down, I picked up a story that had been shelved for maybe six months at this point. It was actually the original story I started on when I went to my writing class as a ten year old. (Wow, four years). So basically, it needed a lot of work. None of it was plausible, and it was a story without any plot. Basically, it was this:
- Get to point ‘A’ and get recruited for a sting op. that will save the whole of humanity.
- Leave and get to point ‘B’. Decide that won’t work. Leave.
- Go on a wild goose chase for a seemingly invisible villain with a plan that is never fully explained. (Crash a party Casino Royale style along the way). At this point you’ve covered points ‘C’-'Y’.
- Finally, you figure out that the base for all this unnamed evil has been under your noses the whole time, and that there was really no need for that goose chase in the first place. Have an “epic” battle that lasts about a page (keep in mind that this manuscript is double-spaced), and then wrap up the story in another five pages.
- The End
So, as you can see, I had a lot to fix. Most of it was solved in a car ride from home, to Best Buy, Taco Bueno, and back, though. For that I am thankful, and I swear to you, dear father, that you earn the first spot on my acknowledgments page when I am a fantastically amazing published author with interviews lined up to the wazoo.
Now my book is completely different than what it was, which is why I am comfortable giving you the barest form of my original outline. Seriously, I go back and read all my old stuff, and I’m all like, “Ugh! Gag me with a spoon, this is AWFUL! HOW did I come up with this crap?” And then I laugh and talk about it out here with you guys: my fifteen-some readers who probably don’t give a crap, and then the people who Google Maddie and end up with emotional scarring instead. Don’t worry, I do that to a lot of people.
Anyway, when I’ve made any significant progress on my book, you’ll be the first to know. And when I get published, I will stress this: there will be a post in ALL CAPS. Come prepared.
See you later!
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Naming your Character
Hello, my name is…
This is probably the hardest thing for us as writers to do. And, I know, most of the time it’s not the thing you really want to do. So, the first thing I have to say is this: pick your generic girl and boy name and put them to use. As you bond with your character, you will want to give them another level of individuality.
When you reach this point, there are several things you need to consider.
If your character reigns from an ethnic melting pot of a family, then you might decide to give them a larger or unusual name. This can be great, but put into account your potential readers. Would they be grateful for having to pronounce a monster of a name? Probably not. Which is why nicknames are an option. You can also do a lot of things with them.
For example, if your character is from an Indian family, perhaps they’ve been teased all their life for their name and have gone by something different ever since. Imagine a scene where their new employer is going over their transcripts and begins to snicker. Out of this, you get a sore spot for the character and an interesting back-story.
Next, you don’t want to just pick a name. I don’t care if you love a name – if it doesn’t fit the time period or the character, don’t use it! Name choosing is all about fine tuning and puzzle work. If the piece isn’t right, it’s not right, and you need to put it aside for something else.
My final tip for now is fairly simple. Watch what you read. If stories continue to crop up about a protagonist named Amanda, for example, you probably shouldn’t go off and name every character you write about “Amanda”.
That’s all for now. I don’t want to sound like a live-TV announcer, but tune in tomorrow for an explanation on how I deal with writer’s block.
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An all time low…
Recently, today, really, I discovered something. I did a double take when I heard. It goes a little like this:
“If you are on facebook, and you type in :putnam:, you get something that looks like this”:
Facebook is dead to me.
I bet you can guess who that is. This is just proof that Facebook has been infiltrated by the Justin-Beiber-loving, duck face making girls of the twenty-first century. I’m happy to be the minority. So do yourselves a favor and don’t use :putnam: on Facebook…
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Big Design Conference Day 2
Day two is ago! I am excited. Today I’ve already received a hat that says HAT! from one of the trade show booths. I’m not wearing it-I’m not one to wear ball-caps inside. Well, I guess I am, but I’m not wearing the hat.
I’m sitting in the Trinity Ballroom, waiting for today’s keynote to start. It is by Josh Clark, and is on designing apps and stuff like that for touch-screen products. I actually think I’ll find this interesting. I mean, most people my age live off products that don’t have keyboards. Me, I live for keyboards. I mean, I’m a writer. I tend to write lengthy things. And it’s kind of annoying when I’m texting my friend with my thumbs, trying to explain what happened at school while she wasn’t there. So yeah. I prefer to type. But most of the people now are fine with a little touch screen keypad. That’s it for now! I’ll tell you how the keynote goes!
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The keynote was actually very informative, and Josh Clark was very funny to listen to. He had a video about a cat in a tank (I told him that was a very bold move. The cats are always watching to see where there cover is blown and by whom. Right now, I am posing as time keeper in the Career Development track room, so I have time to blog while I am waiting for the fifteen minute mark. The presentation just started, so it’s a while away. I guess that’s all for now.
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A lot has happened between now and the last time that I updated. First of all, I had lunch. Secondly, I followed my dad around until he got sick of me, and forced me into the game room. That kind of backfired on him, because I plan to bug the crap out of him until he gets me the Harry Potter lego game. Now, I am back in the speaker’s room.
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Right now I am waiting for the closing keynote by Jared Spool to begin. I’m not exactly sure what it’s about, and I didn’t catch the closing keynote yesterday, so this should be interesting. This is actually just the fourth presentation I’ve sat in on today-I’ve been really busy. Don’t get me wrong; I didn’t have a problem with it at all. I like being busy. I’m sort of a high energy person. Like I said yesterday: I go stir crazy without doing things. The only time I’ve been tired lately is when I’ve done a few things. But let me sit down for a few minutes and I’m good to go. That’s it for the moment, I guess!
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Okay, so I didn’t have enough time last night to finish up the post. But here it is! Hope you liked it!
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Big Design Conference Day 1
Okay, so just like I did at OpenCamp, I am going to write a post over the course of the day, detailing everything that I have done. This time, however, I am a volunteer, so what all I say will be a little different. Not to mention that there are different presentations. So, here it goes.
Right now, I am sitting in the Trinity Ballroom, listening to the keynote presentation by Gwen Harmon. She is speaking on the design and history of the National Civil Rights Museum. It is really interesting; really shines a bigger light on history, and emotion, considering that I’ve seen the museum. I will have to go again now-they have done renovations since I was there.
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Here are some pictures from the trade show at the Big Design Conference:
It's a metal phone-literally!
Yes-it's a cake.
The first is a phone this amazing artist guy-sorry, I’m not good with names-welded out of metal. I know you can see well, but there are things pressed into the metal to represent apps. So cool!
The other picture is of a boot cake, crafted to represent the geeky Texans that surround me as I write this portion of my post. Well, that’s about it for now. More pictures to come, hopefully!
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Now I am in one of the speaker’s lounges, typing this. At four, I am helping my dad moderate a panel on how to behave, or what to expect at job interviews. We made a few questions to seed in, in case no one else has questions. I highly doubt that will be the case, but if so, we took care of it! My ankle is hurting again, so I am banished to sitting down and using crutches to hobble around. Hopefully when the Ibuprofen kicks in, I’ll be good to go. I really shouldn’t be walking anyway, but I go stir crazy when I can’t move that often. That’s my update!
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I am now sitting in in the Hiring Squad panel. It is actually a bit interesting, even though I can not have any sort of job for at least three years. Next, my dad and I are going to go test drive the Lincoln cars. That sounds cool. My mom went earlier, and she gave me the pen she got. It’s a really cool fountain pen, but if you pull off the end, there’s a flash drive. If I get another one, that would be awesome. I’ll give it to my mom if she wants, but-not meaning to be rude to her-I’m not sure she would have much use for a thumb drive pen. Oh well. Well, that’s all for now. I’ll tell you how the test drive goes.
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The test drive went well, and I got another flash drive pen. I then ate dinner in the Crowne Plaza’s restaurant. I had pasta. It was good. And this concludes my day one post. Hope you liked the finished project!
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Preparing for Vacation
So, in a little less than a month-and a week after Big Design-I am going on vacation to Florida, or, more importantly, Harry Potter Wizarding World. I am really excited! On the plane there I plan to write my butt off, and as I won’t be able to connect to the internet, I won’t be distracted. I’ll post my progress with you later. For now, that’s all I have to say. See yas!
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It’s May, via Texas, and my dogs seem almost perfectly happy to be outside. Let’s keep this up!
If you haven’t yet guessed, that title, while long, was sarcastic. From the picture shown below:
My Dogs
They are obviously either looking longingly at the door, which is their only way into the nice, air conditioned house, or, they are looking at my reflection-which you can see clearly-because it is too hard to turn their heads. I sincerely want to know what they thought about my favorite red aeropostale t-shirt now…
By the way, the dogs won.
They won.
I hope they’re happy.
See yas!
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Well…This is Awkward…
I decided to blog again. That stupid screenplay sort of drained me to the point of extreme, super, laziness. But, here are some updates:
My book writing is back. And I have a new idea. I can’t tell you, of course, but I will say this:
DYSTOPIA FUTURE.
Yes. I have dumped the vampires. Aren’t you excited?
No?
I am.
Because this idea is better than the last one.
But I still can’t tell you about that idea.
Because I might use it someday.
Well, that’s all for that, I guess. I have made it a mission of mine to blog and tweet more often. I need to gain more supporters!!!
So, from now on…
One post a day? Even if it’s crappy.
Sorry.
Well, that’s all folks.
See yas!
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GRR.
Hello! Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. Actually…really, I’m not…
Well, anyway, here’s why I’m posting.
My dad went to the DFW Writer’s Conference last weekend. He came back, and he had some news I didn’t want to hear: all the agents at the conference were done with vampires, which, coincidentally, plays a small part in my book.
Yes, the part is small, mostly heritage and stuff like that. But, it’s “tainted”, which means if the word “vampire” shows up even once, they don’t give you a second thought.
So, I have to start over with a new book. This makes me angry. Very angry. Nearly two years spent on a book, and I have to trash it and start again. GRRRR.
Which is why I haven’t posted….
See yas!
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