Just an update...

I've been slacking a bit on the weekends. Sigh. But how can I concentrate when I have discovered the wonderful world of StarKid Productions? I chugged through A Very Potter Musical two weekends ago, and then this weekend, I finished A Very Potter Sequel. My second tab on my browser right now is screaming A Very Potter Senior Year - Act 1 Part 1, and it's taking all my willpower not to click over there. You know, just take a little break. But no! I have other, more important things to do! Like watch The Client List, which is on my TV right now. I know, I have no dedication.

But I've managed 45,544 words. Sometimes I get in NaNo mode, and I'm like, yay! Only five thousands words left! And then I realize I'm not striving for a word goal. And then I see I still have about thirteen chapters left. And then I think, oh, god, I'm going to have a million word novel! Yes, I'm one of those people: I jump from little stone to huge boulder.

This weekend should yield something differently, though. The boyfriend is off to Vegas for four days. Between renting Les Mis and trying to get through my Netflix queue (which has grown to astronomical proportions, and I don't know how!), I'm going to buckle down and hopefully get through more than half of those thirteen chapters. If I get kind of crazy, I might finish it all! Wishful thinking, but isn't that the best type of thinking? So, here's hoping that my next entry will be covered in happiness and butterflies and a finished (or semi-finished) story.

It Dawned On Me...

...That whoever reads this (if anyone at all) has no idea what I'm talking about when I talk about AYLB. First off, that stands for All You've Left Behind, but that might change. Mostly likely will change. I don't know. (As you can also tell, I'm a bit indecisive.) So, I suck at pitch writing. Have you ever tried to write a pitch? Most people say that a successful pitch is about 75 words. And then they want you to cut it down to 50 words. I'm a talker, if you haven't guessed at this point. Trying to sum up my story in 50 to 75 words is extremely difficult for me. My first pitch attempt, for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, was 223 words (because they said up to 250!). I would totally post it up here, because it's pathetic, but it has nothing to do with the new version of AYLB. So, 50 words, huh?

"Amory Ambrose, Heaven's top Guardian angel, is sent down to Bexington, a small coastal town, to bring back Richard Piedmont, the one angel who can stop the war ravaging Earth. But with demons and renegade humans blocking her way, will Amory be able to complete her mission...or has she discovered something bigger, something that could possibly take down Heaven?"

Ha! That was 59 words. Dang. Anyway, there's the basic idea of it all. There's way more to it, and when I finally figure out the logistics of it all, I hope to really dive into it all. Rereading that pitch, I don't think I would read it. But it tells nothing of what goes on, I swear! Sigh. This is why I hate pitches. But, on a happier note, 40,000 words are written down, and I still have a looooong way to go. I'm shooting for a summer release (god, that sounds so lame), so here's hoping for a more detailed post in about...Mayish? I keep telling myself, oh, I'll totally have this done by the end of March. Did anyone bother to tell me that it's March 17? No. Thanks a lot, computer.

New Inventions

Okay, so this isn't a new invention. But it's new to me...even though I knew about it before. Whatever. It's new!

While I was stuck at one particularly annoying part in my story, my brain kept whirring. It was making plans for future scenes, bringing together characters that hadn't even met yet. When this happened before, I would jot down some notes and hope that my brain was in the mood for a certain scene at a later date. But, one night, I couldn't do that. The images in my head were too vivid, too real. I had to write it down now. But...what about the rest of the story?? What about the parts that were stuck in that hazy fog? What was I to do? So, of course, I did what any rational writer would do: I Googled my idea. I wanted to know if there were others out there who wrote out of sequence and what they thought about it.

Lucky me! I found thousands of posts about people who wrote out of sequence and they all loved it. Of course, the overwhelming advice was to make sure that you blend everything in, but that was kind of a "duh". But I started writing out of sequence and...I love it. No, love is not strong enough...Adore. I'm enthralled with this idea. Whenever an idea pops in my head, I don't bother to write down a quick note or sketch a scene. No way! I take a few minutes to think about, visualize it, and then I start writing. I'm all over the place right now, and it's probably going to be a pain to make sure everything blends and makes sense, but this is wonderful. I don't feel stuck anymore.

So, yeah, sorry if anyone was expecting some awesome, amazingly new writing instrument, like a program that scans your brain and writes down the picture it sees there (oh my gosh...). It's not even really a new idea to me, since, for about five years now, I've had the ending to this story written out in my head. But I never got it down because, well, that was the end! Now, however...the whole world has opened up!

Gusher, Part 1

Before you ask, yes, I've been writing steadily. If not every day, then every other day, at least. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about what I've been doing all those other minutes of the day that I'm not writing, working, or sleeping: reading.

Sometimes I get a little crazy and go to the library, grabbing all the books I can and reading them within a week. That's what's happened since the last time I posted. Let's see here...

The Mortal Instruments series - I read the first three and plan on reading the last three, not because they were anything spectacular, but because now I'm invested. I know Cassandra Clare wrote fanfic for Harry Potter, and reading these books make me even less surprised. Now that I've said that, the story was good, so don't get me wrong. The only thing that I had a huge problem with was the love angle. If you haven't read them yet, cover your eyes!......(That was me waiting) Okay, so, Clary and Jace are supposedly brother and sister, yet they make out and kiss ALL. THE. TIME. No one seems to find this gross, especially not Jace or Clary. But then when her actual brother kisses her, Clary is horrified and thinks it's the most disgusting thing in the world. Um, well, yeah! But you've been doing it for three books here, sweetheart. I don't know.

Delirium and Pandemonium - I had to get ready for Reqiuem! I read Delirium last year after reading Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (one of my favorite books) and then reread it before I got Pandemonium last month. Reqiuem is actually open right now on my desk, so...hurry up! I really have nothing more to say about this series other than read it. Right now. Seriously, what are you doing? Go! (Sidenote: if Lena doesn't end up with Alex, I'm coming back and redoing this whole section, and you may not have to go and read them.)

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Okay, this one surprised me. I had it down as a challenge book on Goodreads, and I didn't really expect much out of it, but, boy, did it prove me wrong. Libba Bray is an awesome writer, and she creates worlds that come alive while reading. Before I was even halfway done with this one, I marked the second in the series as a want-to-read. It's craziness in the second half of the book, but I finished it in about two days, so that tells me I liked it.

The Truth About Forever - Okay, this was probably my favorite of the books I've read this month (past two weeks?). Just a simple story about a girl coming unraveled and how she deals with the entire world, but there was a certain element in there that just made me...wow. I can't even put my finger on it. I sent my boyfriend out with his friend so I could read it! It's sweet and funny and realistic and just plain awesome. This was another challenge book for me, and now I'm practically salivating while finding more books by Sarah Dessen. I had her confused with another author, not because they're writing is similar, but because I'm an idiot and thought all YA books were the same.

Those have really been it. Right now, I'm reading Reqiuem, Cinder, and London: The Autobiography. On the back burner is Ready Player One, a book I've been dying to read for a thousand years. So I'm sure another post like this will pop up. Not before an update of the story, though, which will come soon. I've discovered something new about writing, and I'm excited to share it, even though I know it's nothing new, but it's new for me! I just have to make sure it works...