I had a fantastic evening tonight. I wasn't going to write up a blog post about it tonight because I want to write, but I'm still thinking about it and it's kind of right in the moment so I figured I should write a blog post tonight or else I fear I won't have the words to say tomorrow.
Anyway, I got baptized tonight. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I had been looking forward to this since summer camp ended in July, and today finally came and it was fantastic. My family was there (my three brothers, two sister in laws and my nephews and my dad) and some great friends were there as well.
I'll admit, I was nervous and kind of freaking out so badly my hands were shaking, but it might've been because I had cried a bit on the way there, thinking about my mom. But that's okay, that's normal. I was actually surprised that I wasn't crying when I got in the pool they set up in the church courtyard, but that's okay too.
After the service, I hung around for quite a while with friends and family and there were lots of hugs and congratulations and cookies...okay, I only had two cookies and they were delicious, as always. But after everyone had gone, I heard some wonderful words that I needed to hear. It's amazing how God knows your heart and knows what you need and when you need it, and tonight, I needed to hear those things that had been said.
God is amazing and wonderful and I'm so glad I had such a wonderful opportunity to profess my faith in Christ Jesus surrounded by so many wonderful people. God has been good to me and He was there waiting for me when I came back to Him earlier this year. He caught me with His loving embrace when past events crushed my heart and I fell, and I don't know where I'd be without Him. The baptism service may be over, but I put my faith in God every day.
So, I guess I'm just going to leave it at this. I've been baptized, declaring my faith and obedience to the church, but it doesn't stop there. I hope to continue serving God in my life, and I pray that He shows me how I can continue to serve Him, whether it's in big or small ways. He sent His only son to die for my sins, and I want to show the world what He's done for me, whether the world means somewhere far away or simply around the church. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually, with God's help.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Summer Vanished and September Crept It's Way In
Where did summer go? It doesn't seem long ago that it was summer and I was having a pretty lame one but then summer camp came along and then August Sunday nights at church and a few Wednesday nights hanging out with church friends. But then it was over as quickly as it had begun and now it's September. How did this happen? It seems like I didn't do half the things I wanted to do, but that doesn't matter to me anymore. The surprises were far better than my hopes. I mean, seriously, I went to summer camp and came home with more friends than I had had when I left. I wrote (another) book. I became more involved with church. Those are much better things than the ones I had planned.
But September is here, tomorrow's Labor Day and Tuesday I not only start school, but I have my very first piano lesson too. Hopefully it'll go well. I remember writing a blog post on my other blog about how I had eight days until school starts, but now I only have two. I had twenty days until baptism, but now I only have fifteen. Truth be told, I'm more excited about that than school. There's a lot left to do in only one year of high school and I thought it would be nice to wake up early, be more structured and finish school earlier than I do now, but it's still nice to stay up reasonably late without having to wake up early. Which is why I plan on staying up late tonight because I'll be able to sleep in tomorrow.
Senior year starts on Tuesday. When I started high school, a fourteen year old ninth grader that had no clue of what she was doing with herself, I thought I had time. But then January hit me like running into a wall straight on and I realized I had wasted all of the time I never really had in the first place. I wasted it. Now there's no getting it back. So it's senior year and I plan to make the most of it, but in a totally good way. Getting more involved with church, working my butt of to graduate in 2014, getting more involved in youth group, hopefully maybe even write another novel, and learning piano and guitar. I honestly don't know what's in store for me, but we're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?
Oops, that was a Doctor Who quote, but it works. But maybe it's a better thing to use for senior year than quoting Loki saying "I do what I want."
But September is here, tomorrow's Labor Day and Tuesday I not only start school, but I have my very first piano lesson too. Hopefully it'll go well. I remember writing a blog post on my other blog about how I had eight days until school starts, but now I only have two. I had twenty days until baptism, but now I only have fifteen. Truth be told, I'm more excited about that than school. There's a lot left to do in only one year of high school and I thought it would be nice to wake up early, be more structured and finish school earlier than I do now, but it's still nice to stay up reasonably late without having to wake up early. Which is why I plan on staying up late tonight because I'll be able to sleep in tomorrow.
Senior year starts on Tuesday. When I started high school, a fourteen year old ninth grader that had no clue of what she was doing with herself, I thought I had time. But then January hit me like running into a wall straight on and I realized I had wasted all of the time I never really had in the first place. I wasted it. Now there's no getting it back. So it's senior year and I plan to make the most of it, but in a totally good way. Getting more involved with church, working my butt of to graduate in 2014, getting more involved in youth group, hopefully maybe even write another novel, and learning piano and guitar. I honestly don't know what's in store for me, but we're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?
Oops, that was a Doctor Who quote, but it works. But maybe it's a better thing to use for senior year than quoting Loki saying "I do what I want."
Saturday, August 31, 2013
"Broken Hallelujah"
You know the things that have brought me here
You know the story of every tear
'cause You've been here from the very start
and even though i don't know what Your plan is
i know You make beauty from these ashes
i've seen joy and i've seen pain
and on my knees i call Your name
here's my broken hallelujah
with nothing left to hold on to
i raise these empty hands to You
here's my broken hallelujah
--broken hallelujah, the afters
Sometimes when I'm going through something, I try to find some Christian music to listen to because that always cheers me up. I wanted to share it, but I had trouble deciding between a few songs. But when things get tough and I remember this song, I always fall back on Broken Hallelujah by The Afters. But that's not why I'm writing this up.
Our days on this earth are numbered and only God knows exactly how much time we have to spend here. We don't know how long we have, or how long someone we love has. We'll never know how much time we'll have to tell someone we love them, but sometimes we think we have all the time in the world, and then, one day, they're gone. Just like that, they're gone. It's unexpected. We never saw it coming, and everything was normal, until suddenly, they're gone.
And then other times, someone we love has an illness, something that can't be treated. And we know there's a day coming when they won't be here any more. Time is running out and there's nothing that can be done to stop it, no way to go back and change it. You just have to keep going forward, not trying to think about it.
But it doesn't have to be like that. There's no reason to pretend to be happy even in these trials, because there is hope, and that hope is God. He sent His son to die on the cross for our sins, so if we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can see our loved ones again in heaven, and that's the greatest hope we have. My mom's parents passed away some time before I was born, and she always told me that she was at peace with it, because she said there's no sadness in heaven, so her parents don't miss her. Saying it like that might make it sound even worse, but they're not sad that they were separated. They're in heaven, worshiping God and being happy. They don't have to put up with the sorrows and pains of this world.
It's a hard concept to grasp, not missing someone because they're in heaven not missing you. I still miss my mom. I think about her and cry because I miss her. She isn't here, she's in heaven where she isn't in pain anymore. She's overjoyed and ecstatic. She doesn't have to put up with the things she put up with here. She doesn't have the limitations that she had here. She's happy.
And the most wonderful thing about heaven is, that, if we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we'll go to heaven and have eternal life, and the loved ones we lost here and had to try to find a way to live without--well, we'll see them again. That hope is the best hope that there is. The people we lose here will be waiting for us in heaven.
God truly is the greatest hope, because He sent His son to die on the cross for our sins, and without Jesus Christ in our hearts, we wouldn't be able to have the hope of seeing our loved ones in heaven again. And for me, that's the greatest thing, seeing them again.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
The Little Things
It's the little things that matter. Like when someone smiles at you with one of those big smiles that makes you feel like you're old friends or they're excited to see you, even if you haven't talked in a while. It's moments like that, that can cheer you up when you're having a tough time with whatever you're going through, and those little moments can cheer you up and put a smile on your face when you otherwise wouldn't be smiling, those are really special things that are easily overlooked. I actually had one of those moments this morning.
I lost someone I was really close to earlier this year. She was my best friend and we did everything together. She was really cool and encouraged me in whatever I was struggling with and she was interested in and enjoyed all of the stuff I was interested in. I'm talking about my mom. I miss her, a lot. But I think about her a lot, and I think about all of those little moments we shared. I think about all of our inside jokes and the nicknames we had for characters in our favorite TV shows (that I think she came up with most of them, which makes the nicknames even better).
I think about all of the things we did together and how we would travel to the homeschool conventions with the art curriculum company she worked for and how I didn't enjoy them as much as I should have. She enjoyed them because she had a passion for art, but also because they were the only "vacation" we could get at the time and it was however many days of an adventure that we were able to have together.
I think often about how, if I was discouraged over something, my mom would go and find Bible verses for me to encourage me. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but now one of my favorite verses is one of the ones she found and gave to me to encourage me, and it's my favorite because she read it and thought of me. But now no one does that, and I miss that. And I love that about her.
And it's these little moments that we don't really think about much when they happen, these little moments that we don't cherish, but then something bad happens, something like this, and we look back and regret that we didn't appreciate them more. I know I do. Those homeschool conventions I mentioned? I had a bad attitude about them. But she loved them. And I was stupid, not realizing that it was the only vacation I would've gotten. And I went to so many places that I wouldn't have gone to otherwise. I did that all with my mom, and that's all that really matters.
Sometimes, of course, the little things aren't as happy of thoughts as thinking about how much fun we had with our favorite TV show characters or how much fun time we spent together. It's been hitting me a lot lately that she...she isn't here. You're probably thinking duh but she isn't here, she isn't going to see me get baptized in September, she isn't going to see me graduate high school, she isn't going to help me move in for my first day of college, she isn't going to read the books I've written. And the worst thing I ever did with my writing was keeping it to myself and not sharing it with her.
Now, as things are hard and getting harder, continuously getting harder and never easier, the greatest comfort I have is knowing that she's in heaven, and by the blood of Jesus Christ I'll be able to see her again. And that's truly the most beautiful thought I can have. She may be gone, but this pain and this loss is only temporary, because someday I'll be with her again.
Honestly it wasn't supposed to end up being such a sad post, and I could go on and on and on and probably keep going until it's time for me to leave for church, but this was hard to write and I almost want to delete it. I pretty much poured my heart out and that can be either good or bad, but I spent this much time writing this, I might as well let someone read it.
I lost someone I was really close to earlier this year. She was my best friend and we did everything together. She was really cool and encouraged me in whatever I was struggling with and she was interested in and enjoyed all of the stuff I was interested in. I'm talking about my mom. I miss her, a lot. But I think about her a lot, and I think about all of those little moments we shared. I think about all of our inside jokes and the nicknames we had for characters in our favorite TV shows (that I think she came up with most of them, which makes the nicknames even better).
I think about all of the things we did together and how we would travel to the homeschool conventions with the art curriculum company she worked for and how I didn't enjoy them as much as I should have. She enjoyed them because she had a passion for art, but also because they were the only "vacation" we could get at the time and it was however many days of an adventure that we were able to have together.
I think often about how, if I was discouraged over something, my mom would go and find Bible verses for me to encourage me. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but now one of my favorite verses is one of the ones she found and gave to me to encourage me, and it's my favorite because she read it and thought of me. But now no one does that, and I miss that. And I love that about her.
And it's these little moments that we don't really think about much when they happen, these little moments that we don't cherish, but then something bad happens, something like this, and we look back and regret that we didn't appreciate them more. I know I do. Those homeschool conventions I mentioned? I had a bad attitude about them. But she loved them. And I was stupid, not realizing that it was the only vacation I would've gotten. And I went to so many places that I wouldn't have gone to otherwise. I did that all with my mom, and that's all that really matters.
Sometimes, of course, the little things aren't as happy of thoughts as thinking about how much fun we had with our favorite TV show characters or how much fun time we spent together. It's been hitting me a lot lately that she...she isn't here. You're probably thinking duh but she isn't here, she isn't going to see me get baptized in September, she isn't going to see me graduate high school, she isn't going to help me move in for my first day of college, she isn't going to read the books I've written. And the worst thing I ever did with my writing was keeping it to myself and not sharing it with her.
Now, as things are hard and getting harder, continuously getting harder and never easier, the greatest comfort I have is knowing that she's in heaven, and by the blood of Jesus Christ I'll be able to see her again. And that's truly the most beautiful thought I can have. She may be gone, but this pain and this loss is only temporary, because someday I'll be with her again.
Honestly it wasn't supposed to end up being such a sad post, and I could go on and on and on and probably keep going until it's time for me to leave for church, but this was hard to write and I almost want to delete it. I pretty much poured my heart out and that can be either good or bad, but I spent this much time writing this, I might as well let someone read it.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
New Projects
Wow, I'm actually writing up another blog post. Usually there's a gap between blog posts that can go anywhere from a few months to a few weeks, but here I am with a new blog post a day after posting the last one.
Woohoo!
Anyway, besides taking on another novel in the near future, I have two other creative projects that I'm going to work on. The first is called The Sketchbook Project. That's a link to the website to find information in better words, but to put it simply, you get a sketchbook from them, fill it up, and send it back and not only will it be a permanent edition to The Brooklyn Art Library, but it will also go on a three city tour of the United States. I'm not a very artistic person when it comes to drawing (unless stick people and Christmas trees count) but I'm going to try my hand at it. It'll be interesting.
The next project is something I thought about on my way to homeschool classes this morning. This week was "technically" the first day of school (even though I'm not starting "officially" until September 3rd because that's when my mom always had me start), so I had this brilliant idea of keeping a log of every school day. But it'll be in the form of mywritingbuddiesecnouragedthisandthoughtitwasbrilliantAprisonloGmydadgavemepermissionandsaiditwasn'tabadidea. Not that school is like that. I actually really do enjoy school. Except for algebra. Geometry isn't too bad, but probably because I'm doing it wrong. Science isn't so bad. Go marine biology! It's just that the thought seemed kind of funny. So it's really not that brilliant. BUT it'll be a fun way of keeping track of everything that happens between now and May 2014. After all, it is Senior Year, so I might as well have fun and have something to do that doesn't involve stressing out about graduating and SATs and ACTs and blah blah blah.
So, I'll be starting a new blog for that project and you can expect it to be rather...interesting in a boring kind of way. I'm sure there aren't very many people who actually want to read about my boring school days, but I'm going to do it anyway because it'll be fun. For me. It'll probably end up being very sarcastic with a lot of references to my favorite TV shows and movies and books, or maybe it'll just end up being a few paragraphs about how my school subjects went and what I had for lunch. You never know.
Woohoo!
Anyway, besides taking on another novel in the near future, I have two other creative projects that I'm going to work on. The first is called The Sketchbook Project. That's a link to the website to find information in better words, but to put it simply, you get a sketchbook from them, fill it up, and send it back and not only will it be a permanent edition to The Brooklyn Art Library, but it will also go on a three city tour of the United States. I'm not a very artistic person when it comes to drawing (unless stick people and Christmas trees count) but I'm going to try my hand at it. It'll be interesting.
The next project is something I thought about on my way to homeschool classes this morning. This week was "technically" the first day of school (even though I'm not starting "officially" until September 3rd because that's when my mom always had me start), so I had this brilliant idea of keeping a log of every school day. But it'll be in the form of mywritingbuddiesecnouragedthisandthoughtitwasbrilliantAprisonloGmydadgavemepermissionandsaiditwasn'tabadidea. Not that school is like that. I actually really do enjoy school. Except for algebra. Geometry isn't too bad, but probably because I'm doing it wrong. Science isn't so bad. Go marine biology! It's just that the thought seemed kind of funny. So it's really not that brilliant. BUT it'll be a fun way of keeping track of everything that happens between now and May 2014. After all, it is Senior Year, so I might as well have fun and have something to do that doesn't involve stressing out about graduating and SATs and ACTs and blah blah blah.
So, I'll be starting a new blog for that project and you can expect it to be rather...interesting in a boring kind of way. I'm sure there aren't very many people who actually want to read about my boring school days, but I'm going to do it anyway because it'll be fun. For me. It'll probably end up being very sarcastic with a lot of references to my favorite TV shows and movies and books, or maybe it'll just end up being a few paragraphs about how my school subjects went and what I had for lunch. You never know.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
The "What Next?" Of Writing
I finally finished The Prince and The Lionheart, the second novel in my trilogy. This novel was very problematic and it's going to take a lot of work when I finally get around to editing, but writing a book isn't supposed to be easy. The book was finished at 210 pages with 132,262 words and seventeen chapters, which isn't anywhere near the length of the first one when I finished it, but that's okay. It gives me more room to fix everything and not have to worry about it being too long, because the first book in the trilogy, The Daughter of Robin Hood, is turning into a monster with all of the editing that needs to be done.
Before I go on, let me tell you what these two books are about. It starts with the first one, The Daughter of Robin Hood. The title may say it all, but it's about Lenora Hood, but she's known as Lee by her close friends and family. She ran away from her father when she was sixteen. She formed her own band of thieves and three years later, she's nineteen and tired of running, but before she goes into a permanent hiding, she tells her band of thieves that she wants to pull off one last heist. She wants to steal the prince's fortune. But not just any prince, Prince Nikola of Hoods Windsor.
When Robin Hood and his Merry Men succeeded in overthrowing the Sheriff of Nottingham, Richard the Lionhearted returned and to prevent the crimes of the Sheriff ever happening again, they formed twelve new kingdoms to ease taxes and make it fairer for the people. Hoods Windsor was named after Robin Hood himself, and Locksley rests at it's borders. Lee thinks that if she can steal Prince Nikola's fortune, it will prove to everyone that she's greater than her father, because she not only stole from the place she had come from, but because she had done something he never would have done.
However, things don't go according to plan. Not only is her father there, but she ends up falling in love with the prince, something she promised she wouldn't do. She needs to decide whether she wants to continue being the wanted thief or if she wants to be the good guy from now on and do the right thing for once.
By explaining the next book, I'm probably going to give away the ending of The Daughter of Robin Hood. Oops.
The Prince and The Lionheart follows Lee and her band of thieves, but she's made amends with her father and he's brought his Merry Men into the mix too. Besides that, Nikola denounced his crown and ran off with them. They're outlaws now, and they need to figure out how to stop King Matthew, Nikola's father, from being a tyrant. They discover that the kingdoms are splitting and people are taking sides, but they're not sure why. They also discover that Nikola's eight year old brother is being abused so Lee sends him, one of her thieves and Nikola's best friend off to Hoods Windsor to save them. Getting his little brother out of the castle isn't as easy as he thought it would be, because of this guy named Crevan Delaney. He's the Sheriff of Nottingham's son and he has it it out for Lee because he's seeking revenge for his late father.
As for Lee, Robin, her band of thieves and the Merry Men, King Leon, Richard the Lionhearted's son, invites them to join a council that's trying to figure out just the same things as Lee: how to stop the tyranny and save the people. It's a council of kings and thieves. Lee quickly realizes that no one trusts her and her thieves because of their bad reputations, so she decides to take action against this and vanish so they can operate quietly and earn everyone's trust.
After typing that out, I can't tell whether that paragraph is shorter because the book is shorter or if there just isn't as much to say about this novel. Huh.
Just like the first one, I reached the last line and saved the document and felt like it wasn't quite finished yet, but there was nothing left to write. The ending wasn't emotional enough and the timeline needs fixed, among other things that need fixed, but that was left for another day because I was so excited. And then I was wondering, "what now?" There was nothing left to write in The Prince and The Lionheart. No more scenes, no more chapters, no more information that the reader needs to know. There's just one unrelated scene that I want to write for my own pleasure, and it has no place in the novel. But after I write that little scene? I could go back to editing the first book, but I'm a little stuck and I'm making it longer than it needs to be and I don't have very much confidence in that book. I could edit book two, but after I just finished that pain in the neck of a book, I want to take a break from Lee's world.
My plan is to hopefully write a modern day novel called The Faultless Stars. I almost wrote this novel for Camp NaNoWriMo in July (50,000 words in 31 days), but I had already started The Prince and The Lionheart and didn't want to stop. The Faultless Stars (or code name, Space: The Final Frontier) was something that happened when I was hanging out with my friend and just randomly said "it would be cool to write a novel like Doctor Who about the wonder of the universe except it would be hard to keep it from being too much like Doctor Who." So it resulted in a Pinterest board called Space: The Final Frontier (the pinterest board), and it was just a collection of pictures concerning space.
Was. It was.
It became an idea with a real title. The main character is Corrie Parvin. She had a crappy high school experience. Her parents are millionaires with a million dollar business, so Corrie was Miss Popular in high school and was more concerned about popularity and friends and appearances. It didn't help that her parents were more concerned about their business and crumbling relationship than their daughter. Corrie thought she needed the attention, but her parents started fighting and Corrie was losing friends and fast. When she graduated, her parents split up and gave her the choice between staying in Chicago or going to L.A., but Corrie ran off to NYC instead. She met some good friends there and become a Christian. It was a completely fresh start for her.
A few years later, and she's lost her best friend because he made a mistake. it's Christmastime and she's alone once again, but then she meets this guy. To everyone else he's a crazed man that belongs in a mental hospital, but to Corrie, he's the escape she needs. Everyone he's met in New York City calls him The Star Man, and he doesn't know what else to call himself so he takes up the nickname, but Corrie decides he looks more like a Finn. He tells her all of these stories of how he traveled space and went farther than anyone ever should have, and also how he left who he used to be out there. Corrie wants to get away so she doesn't have to be alone, so they go to outer space to find what Finn left behind in the stars.
But it is't even about them. I thought their story was about the stars, but in the end, it isn't really that either. I'm drawn to this novel because it's finally something that heavily involves Christianity and God. Corrie relies heavily on her faith in God and she knows she would be a train wreck without Him. It makes me really happy to finally bring that into my writing. I'm excited to start writing this. It's waited long enough.
p.s. in case you're wondering, the third book in the trilogy is going to be called The Sins of Their Fathers and I plan on writing it in November for Nation Novel Writing Month (50,000 words in 30 days) so my goal is to hopefully start and finish The Faultless Stars by then.
---
Before I go on, let me tell you what these two books are about. It starts with the first one, The Daughter of Robin Hood. The title may say it all, but it's about Lenora Hood, but she's known as Lee by her close friends and family. She ran away from her father when she was sixteen. She formed her own band of thieves and three years later, she's nineteen and tired of running, but before she goes into a permanent hiding, she tells her band of thieves that she wants to pull off one last heist. She wants to steal the prince's fortune. But not just any prince, Prince Nikola of Hoods Windsor.
When Robin Hood and his Merry Men succeeded in overthrowing the Sheriff of Nottingham, Richard the Lionhearted returned and to prevent the crimes of the Sheriff ever happening again, they formed twelve new kingdoms to ease taxes and make it fairer for the people. Hoods Windsor was named after Robin Hood himself, and Locksley rests at it's borders. Lee thinks that if she can steal Prince Nikola's fortune, it will prove to everyone that she's greater than her father, because she not only stole from the place she had come from, but because she had done something he never would have done.
However, things don't go according to plan. Not only is her father there, but she ends up falling in love with the prince, something she promised she wouldn't do. She needs to decide whether she wants to continue being the wanted thief or if she wants to be the good guy from now on and do the right thing for once.
By explaining the next book, I'm probably going to give away the ending of The Daughter of Robin Hood. Oops.
The Prince and The Lionheart follows Lee and her band of thieves, but she's made amends with her father and he's brought his Merry Men into the mix too. Besides that, Nikola denounced his crown and ran off with them. They're outlaws now, and they need to figure out how to stop King Matthew, Nikola's father, from being a tyrant. They discover that the kingdoms are splitting and people are taking sides, but they're not sure why. They also discover that Nikola's eight year old brother is being abused so Lee sends him, one of her thieves and Nikola's best friend off to Hoods Windsor to save them. Getting his little brother out of the castle isn't as easy as he thought it would be, because of this guy named Crevan Delaney. He's the Sheriff of Nottingham's son and he has it it out for Lee because he's seeking revenge for his late father.
As for Lee, Robin, her band of thieves and the Merry Men, King Leon, Richard the Lionhearted's son, invites them to join a council that's trying to figure out just the same things as Lee: how to stop the tyranny and save the people. It's a council of kings and thieves. Lee quickly realizes that no one trusts her and her thieves because of their bad reputations, so she decides to take action against this and vanish so they can operate quietly and earn everyone's trust.
After typing that out, I can't tell whether that paragraph is shorter because the book is shorter or if there just isn't as much to say about this novel. Huh.
---
Just like the first one, I reached the last line and saved the document and felt like it wasn't quite finished yet, but there was nothing left to write. The ending wasn't emotional enough and the timeline needs fixed, among other things that need fixed, but that was left for another day because I was so excited. And then I was wondering, "what now?" There was nothing left to write in The Prince and The Lionheart. No more scenes, no more chapters, no more information that the reader needs to know. There's just one unrelated scene that I want to write for my own pleasure, and it has no place in the novel. But after I write that little scene? I could go back to editing the first book, but I'm a little stuck and I'm making it longer than it needs to be and I don't have very much confidence in that book. I could edit book two, but after I just finished that pain in the neck of a book, I want to take a break from Lee's world.
My plan is to hopefully write a modern day novel called The Faultless Stars. I almost wrote this novel for Camp NaNoWriMo in July (50,000 words in 31 days), but I had already started The Prince and The Lionheart and didn't want to stop. The Faultless Stars (or code name, Space: The Final Frontier) was something that happened when I was hanging out with my friend and just randomly said "it would be cool to write a novel like Doctor Who about the wonder of the universe except it would be hard to keep it from being too much like Doctor Who." So it resulted in a Pinterest board called Space: The Final Frontier (the pinterest board), and it was just a collection of pictures concerning space.
Was. It was.
It became an idea with a real title. The main character is Corrie Parvin. She had a crappy high school experience. Her parents are millionaires with a million dollar business, so Corrie was Miss Popular in high school and was more concerned about popularity and friends and appearances. It didn't help that her parents were more concerned about their business and crumbling relationship than their daughter. Corrie thought she needed the attention, but her parents started fighting and Corrie was losing friends and fast. When she graduated, her parents split up and gave her the choice between staying in Chicago or going to L.A., but Corrie ran off to NYC instead. She met some good friends there and become a Christian. It was a completely fresh start for her.
A few years later, and she's lost her best friend because he made a mistake. it's Christmastime and she's alone once again, but then she meets this guy. To everyone else he's a crazed man that belongs in a mental hospital, but to Corrie, he's the escape she needs. Everyone he's met in New York City calls him The Star Man, and he doesn't know what else to call himself so he takes up the nickname, but Corrie decides he looks more like a Finn. He tells her all of these stories of how he traveled space and went farther than anyone ever should have, and also how he left who he used to be out there. Corrie wants to get away so she doesn't have to be alone, so they go to outer space to find what Finn left behind in the stars.
But it is't even about them. I thought their story was about the stars, but in the end, it isn't really that either. I'm drawn to this novel because it's finally something that heavily involves Christianity and God. Corrie relies heavily on her faith in God and she knows she would be a train wreck without Him. It makes me really happy to finally bring that into my writing. I'm excited to start writing this. It's waited long enough.
p.s. in case you're wondering, the third book in the trilogy is going to be called The Sins of Their Fathers and I plan on writing it in November for Nation Novel Writing Month (50,000 words in 30 days) so my goal is to hopefully start and finish The Faultless Stars by then.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Being a Christian
Recently I was asked "what does being a Christian mean to you?" and I replied with something along the lines of "it means being different and having something to stand up for." But it's so much more than that. Now that I've had more time to think about the question, I've had more time to think about all of the things that I wish I had said.
Like I said, being a Christian is more than just being different and having something to stand up for. It's being saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and being washed clean of your sins by His blood. It's never being alone because God is always with you. That in itself is a real comfort to me because I've known what it feels like to be alone, but God is always with me, so I never have to feel alone.
It's also having someone to go to that knows more than we could possibly imagine. Because we're just humans. We don't know everything, no matter how much we'd like to believe so. But God knows everything. He created the heavens and the earth and the depths of the sea and the stars in the sky and the far off galaxies that we can't even see from where we stand, but He breathed us to life. He knew us before we were even in the womb. Without God, we're nothing. Our days on earth are numbered and after we're gone, we'll be forgotten, but if we have Jesus in our hearts and we've accepted Him as Savior, admitting that we've sinned and asking for forgiveness from those sins, we can have something so much better after death than being forgotten by the people of earth that will just move on. We get to go to heaven, to see God face to face.
But there's still so much more than that. God is great. He's amazing and awesome and powerful enough to have created the heavens and the earth in the beginning (Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"). All of the beauty that we see in this world was all created by His hands. All of these complicated science things with atoms and microscopic particles that we can't see but the biology books tell us exist and they're always active--all of those tiny little things that make up this world, they were all created by God. Everything is far too complex to have simply happened. Everything from the tiny caterpillar that turns into the beautiful butterfly to the galaxies ten million light years away that we'll never get to was all created by God. And then He created us, all of us. We were created by God. We didn't just happen. We weren't thrown out into the world to be just the next person to make the population clock go up a number. We were created for something so much more than this.
God loved us enough to create us. He even loved us enough to send His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to save us from our sins. God loves us and it's the greatest love in the world. Another thing that I wish I had said was that being a Christian means to me that I get to have a close and personal relationship with God, and that's irreplaceable. No matter what stupid crap I do, God won't ever leave me. But I can't say that about people. Everyone makes mistakes and messes up, and people don't stay and some relationships don't last forever and it doesn't take much to end them, but no matter how far I go astray, God will always be faithful and will always be loyal. If I go too far out, God will always be waiting for me to come back. And you can't say that about everyone.
I get to have a relationship with God, who created everything I know and love, and placed me here for a reason only He knows. But besides that, I have someone I can always go to. I can go to Him for comfort and healing and just help, because I've needed a lot of it in the past year. But because I've needed help that only God can give, I've become so much closer to Him. Before the year started, I took everything for granted and just kind of ignored everything. But something happened that brought me closer to God, and now I wonder why I even tried to get along by myself. There's a greater comfort knowing that I always have God to run to when something's wrong, and when it's late at night and no one's awake and I need someone, God is there. Now I thank God for everything, because without Him, I would have nothing. Through thick and thin, He has provided all of my needs and He's kept a roof over my head and clothes on my back when we could barely afford it.
So being a Christian. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and now I can call myself a Christian. To me, it means having a relationship with God and knowing He'll take care of me and comfort me and always be there for me, because He loves me, and His love is something more than I could even ask for. The last thought I have is on baptism. I never understood it, but I went to summer camp and they were the best five days that made my summer go from kinda boring to super amazing. I learned so much at camp, and it was amazing to have five days of nothing but worshiping God, learning more about Him, spending time with other high school seniors and making new friends from church. But one thing I learned about was baptism, and one of things we do through baptism is declare our faith in Jesus Christ, so I'm going to do just that on 9/15/13.
I think it's about time too.
Like I said, being a Christian is more than just being different and having something to stand up for. It's being saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and being washed clean of your sins by His blood. It's never being alone because God is always with you. That in itself is a real comfort to me because I've known what it feels like to be alone, but God is always with me, so I never have to feel alone.
It's also having someone to go to that knows more than we could possibly imagine. Because we're just humans. We don't know everything, no matter how much we'd like to believe so. But God knows everything. He created the heavens and the earth and the depths of the sea and the stars in the sky and the far off galaxies that we can't even see from where we stand, but He breathed us to life. He knew us before we were even in the womb. Without God, we're nothing. Our days on earth are numbered and after we're gone, we'll be forgotten, but if we have Jesus in our hearts and we've accepted Him as Savior, admitting that we've sinned and asking for forgiveness from those sins, we can have something so much better after death than being forgotten by the people of earth that will just move on. We get to go to heaven, to see God face to face.
But there's still so much more than that. God is great. He's amazing and awesome and powerful enough to have created the heavens and the earth in the beginning (Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"). All of the beauty that we see in this world was all created by His hands. All of these complicated science things with atoms and microscopic particles that we can't see but the biology books tell us exist and they're always active--all of those tiny little things that make up this world, they were all created by God. Everything is far too complex to have simply happened. Everything from the tiny caterpillar that turns into the beautiful butterfly to the galaxies ten million light years away that we'll never get to was all created by God. And then He created us, all of us. We were created by God. We didn't just happen. We weren't thrown out into the world to be just the next person to make the population clock go up a number. We were created for something so much more than this.
God loved us enough to create us. He even loved us enough to send His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to save us from our sins. God loves us and it's the greatest love in the world. Another thing that I wish I had said was that being a Christian means to me that I get to have a close and personal relationship with God, and that's irreplaceable. No matter what stupid crap I do, God won't ever leave me. But I can't say that about people. Everyone makes mistakes and messes up, and people don't stay and some relationships don't last forever and it doesn't take much to end them, but no matter how far I go astray, God will always be faithful and will always be loyal. If I go too far out, God will always be waiting for me to come back. And you can't say that about everyone.
I get to have a relationship with God, who created everything I know and love, and placed me here for a reason only He knows. But besides that, I have someone I can always go to. I can go to Him for comfort and healing and just help, because I've needed a lot of it in the past year. But because I've needed help that only God can give, I've become so much closer to Him. Before the year started, I took everything for granted and just kind of ignored everything. But something happened that brought me closer to God, and now I wonder why I even tried to get along by myself. There's a greater comfort knowing that I always have God to run to when something's wrong, and when it's late at night and no one's awake and I need someone, God is there. Now I thank God for everything, because without Him, I would have nothing. Through thick and thin, He has provided all of my needs and He's kept a roof over my head and clothes on my back when we could barely afford it.
So being a Christian. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and now I can call myself a Christian. To me, it means having a relationship with God and knowing He'll take care of me and comfort me and always be there for me, because He loves me, and His love is something more than I could even ask for. The last thought I have is on baptism. I never understood it, but I went to summer camp and they were the best five days that made my summer go from kinda boring to super amazing. I learned so much at camp, and it was amazing to have five days of nothing but worshiping God, learning more about Him, spending time with other high school seniors and making new friends from church. But one thing I learned about was baptism, and one of things we do through baptism is declare our faith in Jesus Christ, so I'm going to do just that on 9/15/13.
I think it's about time too.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Beautiful Words
Words are beautiful. You can do so many things with them and you can mold them into these sentences to put down a certain thought. You can use them like poetry even if you're not writing poetry. You can craft them to portray a certain thought or feeling or put words to an artist who was trying to show you his creative genius.
Sometimes, the word itself looks beautiful. Like farewell. I used that Sunday while I was editing my book. According to Merriam-Webster Online, it means "get along well--used interjectionally with to or by one departing."
It's not goodbye. It's more like wishing someone good health on their journey or adventure. And that's kind of beautiful, because it's not goodbye. There's so much finality in the word goodbye and goodbye is always thought of as a sad word, and goodbyes are an entirely different thing. But with farewell, it's like you're wishing them well (which is kind of literal) on whatever they're setting off to do and that you have hopes to see them again.
Words are funny things. They don't look like much, but when used properly, they have the power to build someone up or tear them down. They can be used to tell an entire story in one sentence or less than six words. This is one of the many things that makes being a writer fun. Writers have an entire English language at their disposal, but they have to choose just the right words in just the right order simply to portray meaning and feeling in one line.
It's not goodbye. It's more like wishing someone good health on their journey or adventure. And that's kind of beautiful, because it's not goodbye. There's so much finality in the word goodbye and goodbye is always thought of as a sad word, and goodbyes are an entirely different thing. But with farewell, it's like you're wishing them well (which is kind of literal) on whatever they're setting off to do and that you have hopes to see them again.
Words are funny things. They don't look like much, but when used properly, they have the power to build someone up or tear them down. They can be used to tell an entire story in one sentence or less than six words. This is one of the many things that makes being a writer fun. Writers have an entire English language at their disposal, but they have to choose just the right words in just the right order simply to portray meaning and feeling in one line.
Monday, May 13, 2013
My Awesome Weekend
I know this is a little delayed, but my weekend was too awesome to go without a blog post for it. My weekend really started on Thursday (yeah, I know that's a weekday ha). It was the last day of classes for me, even though I still have to go through the summer with school (not sacrificing a social life, of course), but this means I can sleep in Monday through Saturday now! And then Friday came and I went back to my writing group that I'm in on Facebook with some friends. I took a quick break, but I'm back now and I missed them so much.
And then Saturday came along. I had been waiting for Saturday to come for some time. I went shopping with one of my best friends and her mom, and I had a spectacular time. We went to Barnes and Noble and I bought this spectacular leather bound journal. I'm probably going to use it for random story related things, but I think I'm mainly going to use it for poetry. I'm not a very good poet, so I need to practice because one of my new characters is a poet, meaning I'm going to have to incorporate his poetry into the story, meaning I'm going to have to practice my poetry. The things authors do for their characters.
After spending some time in Barnes and Noble, we went to Panera for lunch and had a fun time and then we went to Target. We looked at clothes and stuff and I tried on this cute little dress that almost had a Parisian style to it. Unfortunately they didn't have my size, so I ordered it offline. I'm excited. It's perfect for tea parties (I've never been to a tea party, and I never thought I'd want to go to one, but now I'm going to have the perfect dress for it!). At Target I bought a package of three more notebooks. I didn't necessarily need them, but I liked the designs on the cover and I figured it was my birthday, I do what I want (Thor).
After Target, we came back for a birthday party. I never knew birthday parties could be so much fun! I had such an amazing time! My friend made this spectacular cake based off of my book. It was so amazing I cried when I saw it. I just had a blast, and then afterward my three of my close friends slash writing buddies and I got some time to hang out and talk and have fun. We went for a walk and then we took pictures and it was just a blast. That night was the most fun I've had in a while and that birthday was the most amazing birthday I've had in a while. Oh, and I can't forget the amazing graphics that
And then after that, Sunday came and it was the perfect way to end such a good weekend. Church in the morning was really great, on the way home we passed by this awesome motorcycle dude pulling out of his driveway and he was only awesome because he was dressed in like this European style with white gloves, a trench coat and it was just cool, and then a relaxing afternoon in which I watched Saturday night's episode of Doctor Who (which was amazing, by the way!) and then the season finale to Once Upon a Time, which was the most amazing season finale I have ever seen. Of course I freaked out most of the time, but now I can finally like Captain Hook again, which is awesome. Season Three looks like it's going to be spectacular.
I just wanted to say again, thank you to everyone who helped make Saturday so amazing and came out Saturday night! I'm really blessed to have so many amazing friends!
Hugs,
Christina
Sunday, May 5, 2013
What a Great Morning
I had such a great morning I thought I'd write a blog post about it. Church was absolutely amazing. I love going to church and coming back and just thinking, "wow, that was a great way to spend my Sunday morning." That's basically every Sunday for me, but even more so when I actually drag myself out of bed to go to the high school service. I should do that more often. I never regret it. Anyway, another reason why I had such a great morning was because I heard some things I needed to hear.
It's been tough ever since January blew in on a harsh gust of a winter wind. It wasn't a "happy New Year." But you know what? It's okay. There are times when, hands down, it is NOT okay, and especially over the past two weeks, and if you saw yesterday's blog post, there's that too. But it's okay. I may have my things to deal with right now, but God is here for me, and He's always there when I need someone to go. This is His plan for my life and He is in control, and that's pretty amazing.
I may not get it right now, but someday I will, but that doesn't matter. Out of these things I'm going through, I've realized that there's more to life than just winging it. I'm not going to get anywhere without God's help. There's a great deal of comfort that comes from just letting go of all of my worries and stepping back and saying, "God, you can deal with this. I don't know what the right decision is."
Another thing is that I worry. I worry a lot. About everything. Especially the future. That's really unnecessary. I don't need to worry about anything. If I just leave all of my worries for God, He takes care of them for me. Sometimes I forget this, but other times I remember just letting Him deal with the things I would otherwise be worried about. God does take care of these things, and I even stop worrying about them and thinking about them and then afterward look back and realize that they were taken care of for me, and then I have the ability to thank God for doing that for me.
I think it's a beautiful thing to look back and thank God for all He's done for me.
It's been tough ever since January blew in on a harsh gust of a winter wind. It wasn't a "happy New Year." But you know what? It's okay. There are times when, hands down, it is NOT okay, and especially over the past two weeks, and if you saw yesterday's blog post, there's that too. But it's okay. I may have my things to deal with right now, but God is here for me, and He's always there when I need someone to go. This is His plan for my life and He is in control, and that's pretty amazing.
I may not get it right now, but someday I will, but that doesn't matter. Out of these things I'm going through, I've realized that there's more to life than just winging it. I'm not going to get anywhere without God's help. There's a great deal of comfort that comes from just letting go of all of my worries and stepping back and saying, "God, you can deal with this. I don't know what the right decision is."
Matthew 6:34 says "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own."
Another thing is that I worry. I worry a lot. About everything. Especially the future. That's really unnecessary. I don't need to worry about anything. If I just leave all of my worries for God, He takes care of them for me. Sometimes I forget this, but other times I remember just letting Him deal with the things I would otherwise be worried about. God does take care of these things, and I even stop worrying about them and thinking about them and then afterward look back and realize that they were taken care of for me, and then I have the ability to thank God for doing that for me.
I think it's a beautiful thing to look back and thank God for all He's done for me.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
On Loneliness
During the week, I'm home alone while my dad and brother are at work. I do school, I write, I procrastinate writing on Facebook and Pinterest, I look forward to when they come home so I have someone to talk to. And I never enjoyed busy days when I wasn't at home and couldn't even think about writing, but I started enjoying Thursdays, even though it involved being out of the house from 9 to 6 for homeschool classes at church. Of course, I'm also looking forward to the last day so I can get a break from these busy days, but a tiny part of me enjoys them because I'm around people all day instead of being home alone.
I look forward to Saturdays now. They used to be just another day, but now it's a day when my dad and my brother are home and I have people to talk to. Of course, when they're busy on Saturdays doing whatever they need to do, it gets a little disappointing. But, I think, out of this loneliness came two new characters for my new book that I just started writing. Their names are Cas Marinus and Rosemary Neaveh (ni-VAY-a). They're both orphans and they're both lonely. Neither of them have any good friends (luckily I'm not like them and I have some really awesome friends.) Cas has a few friends but no one that's available to talk to when he needs it. Rosemary has her adopted family, and she loves them, but she's looking for something more.
It's kind of funny, though. I started writing this book, Archi Pelago, last Sunday, and now whenever I open up the document and work on it, I don't feel lonely anymore. It's therapy, I suppose. The thing is, these characters both believe in God. They're both born again Christians. They can't get it in their stupid heads that they're never truly alone. I have the same problem. I always have someone to talk to: God. So I guess I really shouldn't feel lonely.
Oh, and I think I just called myself a stupid head. Oh well.
I look forward to Saturdays now. They used to be just another day, but now it's a day when my dad and my brother are home and I have people to talk to. Of course, when they're busy on Saturdays doing whatever they need to do, it gets a little disappointing. But, I think, out of this loneliness came two new characters for my new book that I just started writing. Their names are Cas Marinus and Rosemary Neaveh (ni-VAY-a). They're both orphans and they're both lonely. Neither of them have any good friends (luckily I'm not like them and I have some really awesome friends.) Cas has a few friends but no one that's available to talk to when he needs it. Rosemary has her adopted family, and she loves them, but she's looking for something more.
It's kind of funny, though. I started writing this book, Archi Pelago, last Sunday, and now whenever I open up the document and work on it, I don't feel lonely anymore. It's therapy, I suppose. The thing is, these characters both believe in God. They're both born again Christians. They can't get it in their stupid heads that they're never truly alone. I have the same problem. I always have someone to talk to: God. So I guess I really shouldn't feel lonely.
Oh, and I think I just called myself a stupid head. Oh well.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Bane to my Existence
The bane to my existence is currently editing. It's that thing that happens after you've written a book. Admittedly, The Daughter of Robin Hood is the first thing I've ever had to edit, so I kind of put it off for a while thinking the book was so big and intimidating that it would be too hard, but then I actually started late March/early April and it wasn't so bad. I had chapter one edited, and then I printed it out and stuck it in a binder so it can be easier reading for family when I get to sharing it, and then two days later chapter two was finished. Another two days and chapter three was completed, and then came none other than chapter four. That's when it started getting hard. Chapters 1-3 only took two days each, so I figured it would go quick and easy for the entire book and I would have it finished before June and go to the next step, but boy, was I wrong.
Chapter four took me about four-five days. While I marked it on my calender, I only marked what day I finished the chapter on, not what day I started. Anyway, once chapter four was finally finished, I started chapter five, which was even worse. It took me an entire week to edit that chapter. Now I'm stuck at chapter six. I'm absolutely STUCK. It didn't take long for me to get stuck.
See, the thing is, currently with my editing process, the current dialogue is the outer halves of an Oreo cookie. I have those chocolately bits of goodness, but I don't have the creme in the middle. I'm editing and adding that creme in between to have a delicious thing of goodness. I need to edit, and I didn't realize how badly I needed to edit (not that I thought it wouldn't need it, there are some things that don't work anymore), but this is a hard process, adding that creme in between the cookie halves. I suppose if novels started out with that creme in between, everyone would write books.
It doesn't help that I've been inspired for a new story. I've been planning this story called Archi Pelago (which means ancient sea in Greek, and yes it's usually spelled archipelago but for creative reasons my title is going to be Archi Pelago), and I'm dying to start writing it, but I'm absolutely torn. I want to edit TDRH so I can move on to the next step of trying to get it published, but I also want to start this new story. It's been tugging at my sleeve for about two and a half weeks. I have the character names, a few backgrounds, I know quite a bit about the characters, but I just don't know if I should start writing a new story. I'm afraid if I start writing something new, I'll get so wrapped up in it that I'll forget all about my precious TDRH. The Daughter of Robin Hood doesn't deserve to be left in the corner to collect dust.
Oh, the problems of being a writer. Aren't they lovely? I almost started Archi Pelago yesterday, too, but I need a good opening line. So I think I'll procrastinate on everything and read a good book instead.
--Christina
Chapter four took me about four-five days. While I marked it on my calender, I only marked what day I finished the chapter on, not what day I started. Anyway, once chapter four was finally finished, I started chapter five, which was even worse. It took me an entire week to edit that chapter. Now I'm stuck at chapter six. I'm absolutely STUCK. It didn't take long for me to get stuck.
See, the thing is, currently with my editing process, the current dialogue is the outer halves of an Oreo cookie. I have those chocolately bits of goodness, but I don't have the creme in the middle. I'm editing and adding that creme in between to have a delicious thing of goodness. I need to edit, and I didn't realize how badly I needed to edit (not that I thought it wouldn't need it, there are some things that don't work anymore), but this is a hard process, adding that creme in between the cookie halves. I suppose if novels started out with that creme in between, everyone would write books.
It doesn't help that I've been inspired for a new story. I've been planning this story called Archi Pelago (which means ancient sea in Greek, and yes it's usually spelled archipelago but for creative reasons my title is going to be Archi Pelago), and I'm dying to start writing it, but I'm absolutely torn. I want to edit TDRH so I can move on to the next step of trying to get it published, but I also want to start this new story. It's been tugging at my sleeve for about two and a half weeks. I have the character names, a few backgrounds, I know quite a bit about the characters, but I just don't know if I should start writing a new story. I'm afraid if I start writing something new, I'll get so wrapped up in it that I'll forget all about my precious TDRH. The Daughter of Robin Hood doesn't deserve to be left in the corner to collect dust.
Oh, the problems of being a writer. Aren't they lovely? I almost started Archi Pelago yesterday, too, but I need a good opening line. So I think I'll procrastinate on everything and read a good book instead.
--Christina
Saturday, March 30, 2013
A Song & A Self-Given "Get A Move On Already" Speech
I have this gremlin following me around and it's name is Writer's Block. Ever since I finished TDRH, I haven't been able to get rid of it. I thought I'd take a break from my characters and work on something I started before November, but put aside for TDRH, but I just can't let go of my beloved characters. I've tried starting the second book, but I'm not very confident with it. I love it so far, but I don't want to start it unless I'm absolutely positive. I should edit, I really should, but for some reason Writer's Block won't let me even try to begin editing.
Maybe it's not Writer's Block that's the problem. Maybe it's fear. I've never edited anything before because I've never loved anything I've written as much as I love TDRH. Maybe I just have a certain mindset that says "it's already good enough, you don't have to edit it," but I know of some things that need to be edited and taken out and just...fixed. It's three-hundred and eighty-eight pages long, too. I can't even begin to think of everything that happened between page one and page three-eighty-eight. Because of my furry little gremlin (I'm just going to say he looks like my cat because my cat is a creep that sits in dark rooms for no apparent reason), I've been thinking that I need to read a book on editing before I start editing. I think that's called procrastinating.
While I was taking a break from writing an alternate universe short story that I'm writing for my writing group (possibly they might get a post at some point, but I can't make promises :)), I took a walk and I was listening to Silhouette by Owl City. It's a super depressing song and I almost feel like I shouldn't post it because it's so depressing and it fits right now for more reason than one, but I can't help but think of how much it fits where I'm at with my writing right now. Or write now. Or edit right now. Ha.
Anyway, the whole song is absolutely sad and beautiful and Owl City is spectacular, but the whole song doesn't particular fit for me or my writing, so I'll just break it down.
"The fire I began is burning me alive, but I know better than to leave and let it die." - I have so many ideas for other story ideas that I'd love to start working on, but I don't want to put TDRH in a corner to let it collect dust. I love those characters more than any characters I've ever created, so I can't just let them go. Not yet, anyway. Someday I want to try to get TDRH published, too, so I can't spend my time working on other things instead of editing.
"I'm a silhouette chasing rainbows on my own, but the more I try to move on, the more I feel alone." - I've tried moving on and working on the sequel which is tentatively being called "The Prince and The Lionheart." I have no plot for it yet, which I think my subconscious is just hiding it from me in the crowded depths of my mind, but I love all of the things I've written on it so far. I also feel like I'm the only one with a completed novel that hasn't started editing yet. I'm not going to start making excuses as to why I haven't started editing yet because I honestly have none. And I hate making excuses to justify what I know I should or shouldn't be doing. Like procrastinating. It's not going to make it any better, it's just going to make you feel better that you're procrastinating.
"I'm sick of the past I can't erase, a jumble of footprints and hasty steps I can't retrace." - I can't erase the time I've spent working on other things, not writing and not editing. TDRH is a jumble of events from point A to point B and back to point A that I can't retrace. So much happened from the starting point to the finishing point that I can't remember all of those events. That's why I need to read through and edit and whatnot.
So, there you have it. It's kind of a sad song with more to it than what I'm getting from it, but to each his (or her) own, right? :) Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I should probably look at this little motivational speech I just gave myself and start doing something productive. Like editing. It all comes back to editing, doesn't it?
Friday, February 22, 2013
I Guess I Should Say Hello
Hello, my name's Christina. I'm a writer. I've had a love for writing ever since I was little, but I wasn't serious about it until 2012. Prior to 2012, I would never have considered myself a "real writer," but in 2012 I started writing more and more and actually started falling in love with my work.
Over the past few years, I had heard about this writing competition called NaNoWriMo, but I had never been serious enough about writing to participate. In 2012, I decided to participate--for the first time ever. It was probably my best friend that led me to finally do it. We had actually met in a creative writing class in middle school and we were instant friends. A week before NaNoWriMo started in November 2012, I told her about the story I had originally planned on writing during the month of November, but I also mentioned to her that I was thinking about restarting my story, The Daughter of Robin Hood (or TDRH). It's about Lenora "Lee" Hood. She had run away from her father and started her own band of thieves. Three years later, she's ready to scatter and go into permanent hiding, after she steals the prince's fortune.
My friend greatly encouraged me to restart TDRH. I'm so glad she did! In the week before November 1st, I created all of these little posters on giant pieces of paper so I could have at a glance information when I needed it. They're still on my wall nearly four months later and I don't think I'm going to take them down. There were a few times in the two to three days before November 1st where I almost felt like chickening out of writing TDRH. I kept seeing that people had had the idea before me and "the daughter of Robin Hood" kind of story had already been thought of. I was discouraged. I thought that my idea was one of a kind unique, but then these things appeared in my bank of knowledge and I realized I wasn't the only one with the idea. My mom told me to stick with TDRH, and I'm glad I did.
Before November started, my friend added me to a writing group that's now called The Tea Spitters. I think having them to spend my first NaNoWriMo with made the month so much more enjoyable. Throughout that month, I actually started sharing excerpts with them and getting so much wonderful, sweet feedback from them. Sharing was a new concept to me, but now that I've gotten comfortable with a few people reading my work, I want everyone to read my work. Sharing it became addicting, but the good kind of addicting.
Throughout the NaNoWriMo adventure, I kept falling back in love with TDRH. It was the best feeling in the world, about a week or more into the event, realizing I was falling back in love with a story I had given up on. I had previously given up on TDRH because it was so boring, so that's why I needed all of the encouragement to get back into it, but I'm glad that this second time I stuck with it. I fell in love with these characters that I had previously created. They weren't just these drama-centered selfish thieves. For me, they were people with heart-breaking back stories that breathed to life off of the page. They had grown up from being stiff characters to characters with reasons behind their actions and actual personalities. All of them have their secrets and all of them have their quirks. Some of them are hot tempered while one of them in particular likes messing with everyone for the fun of it. Some of them are brokenhearted and ready for a change while some of them are happy with who they are and content in their life situation. I'm happy with how these characters developed as I started writing because they all have their motives and everything has a reason behind it.
The first part of Lee's story came to a close quite recently, but it isn't the end. I'm looking forward to two more books, quite possibly more, with her and my other beloved characters, quite possibly more. I've begun to feel like TDRH is the first step in my writing journey. I turned the first page in November when I started rewriting, and retelling, this story. It turned out quite different than the first attempt at it, but I'm happy that these changes were made. They were major improvements compared to the first attempt that has been collecting dust since I stopped working on it. In fact, only a few certain lines were kept, partly because I didn't have time to reread the whole 99 page document before NaNoWriMo started, but also because there weren't any lines that fit in with the new course of events.
That's just a little bit about my writing. TDRH is the first thing that I've actually finished, so for more reasons than one, it's very dear to me. I'm even more attached to the characters. I fell in love with all of their personalities and flaws. The realest characters, to me at least, are the ones that have flaws, and mine do. None of them are perfect. I think that's why I'm so proud of TDRH, because none of the characters are perfect. They lie, and steal, and cheat, and they keep their secrets from each other whether it's for the right reasons or not. Those things are all wrong and shouldn't be done, but they're thieves and that's what they do. Even the prince who is supposed to have a perfect image stoops down to their level because, let's face it, nobody's perfect. Perfection is virtually unattainable unless you're God. He is Perfection.
Before I go any further, this is only the second blog post I've ever written. I don't know what this blog is going to be about, but I'm certain that it's going to be about my writing journey. There's definitely going to be some Christian messages in there at times because that's just who I am, but other than that this blog will probably be a jumbled collection of random thoughts in the convenient form of an organized blog.
Until next time,
Christina
Over the past few years, I had heard about this writing competition called NaNoWriMo, but I had never been serious enough about writing to participate. In 2012, I decided to participate--for the first time ever. It was probably my best friend that led me to finally do it. We had actually met in a creative writing class in middle school and we were instant friends. A week before NaNoWriMo started in November 2012, I told her about the story I had originally planned on writing during the month of November, but I also mentioned to her that I was thinking about restarting my story, The Daughter of Robin Hood (or TDRH). It's about Lenora "Lee" Hood. She had run away from her father and started her own band of thieves. Three years later, she's ready to scatter and go into permanent hiding, after she steals the prince's fortune.
My friend greatly encouraged me to restart TDRH. I'm so glad she did! In the week before November 1st, I created all of these little posters on giant pieces of paper so I could have at a glance information when I needed it. They're still on my wall nearly four months later and I don't think I'm going to take them down. There were a few times in the two to three days before November 1st where I almost felt like chickening out of writing TDRH. I kept seeing that people had had the idea before me and "the daughter of Robin Hood" kind of story had already been thought of. I was discouraged. I thought that my idea was one of a kind unique, but then these things appeared in my bank of knowledge and I realized I wasn't the only one with the idea. My mom told me to stick with TDRH, and I'm glad I did.
Before November started, my friend added me to a writing group that's now called The Tea Spitters. I think having them to spend my first NaNoWriMo with made the month so much more enjoyable. Throughout that month, I actually started sharing excerpts with them and getting so much wonderful, sweet feedback from them. Sharing was a new concept to me, but now that I've gotten comfortable with a few people reading my work, I want everyone to read my work. Sharing it became addicting, but the good kind of addicting.
Throughout the NaNoWriMo adventure, I kept falling back in love with TDRH. It was the best feeling in the world, about a week or more into the event, realizing I was falling back in love with a story I had given up on. I had previously given up on TDRH because it was so boring, so that's why I needed all of the encouragement to get back into it, but I'm glad that this second time I stuck with it. I fell in love with these characters that I had previously created. They weren't just these drama-centered selfish thieves. For me, they were people with heart-breaking back stories that breathed to life off of the page. They had grown up from being stiff characters to characters with reasons behind their actions and actual personalities. All of them have their secrets and all of them have their quirks. Some of them are hot tempered while one of them in particular likes messing with everyone for the fun of it. Some of them are brokenhearted and ready for a change while some of them are happy with who they are and content in their life situation. I'm happy with how these characters developed as I started writing because they all have their motives and everything has a reason behind it.
The first part of Lee's story came to a close quite recently, but it isn't the end. I'm looking forward to two more books, quite possibly more, with her and my other beloved characters, quite possibly more. I've begun to feel like TDRH is the first step in my writing journey. I turned the first page in November when I started rewriting, and retelling, this story. It turned out quite different than the first attempt at it, but I'm happy that these changes were made. They were major improvements compared to the first attempt that has been collecting dust since I stopped working on it. In fact, only a few certain lines were kept, partly because I didn't have time to reread the whole 99 page document before NaNoWriMo started, but also because there weren't any lines that fit in with the new course of events.
That's just a little bit about my writing. TDRH is the first thing that I've actually finished, so for more reasons than one, it's very dear to me. I'm even more attached to the characters. I fell in love with all of their personalities and flaws. The realest characters, to me at least, are the ones that have flaws, and mine do. None of them are perfect. I think that's why I'm so proud of TDRH, because none of the characters are perfect. They lie, and steal, and cheat, and they keep their secrets from each other whether it's for the right reasons or not. Those things are all wrong and shouldn't be done, but they're thieves and that's what they do. Even the prince who is supposed to have a perfect image stoops down to their level because, let's face it, nobody's perfect. Perfection is virtually unattainable unless you're God. He is Perfection.
Before I go any further, this is only the second blog post I've ever written. I don't know what this blog is going to be about, but I'm certain that it's going to be about my writing journey. There's definitely going to be some Christian messages in there at times because that's just who I am, but other than that this blog will probably be a jumbled collection of random thoughts in the convenient form of an organized blog.
Until next time,
Christina
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