This week, I’ve been working on writing my new novel idea. I haven’t forgotten about editing my first one, but I am still taking a break from it. I think this is a good thing to do since I have spent over a year on that novel and deserve a bit of a break before I dive into editing. While writing this week, I learned that I am very good at getting into my characters’ minds and writing exactly what they feel. I know them really well, so I am good at writing them into existence. I have been struggling with getting to the main plot. I’m in the exposition part of my book, which means I have to introduce characters and their situations, then find a way for them to take action. I know where I want to go with this book, but I do not know when or how I should leap into the main action. I think I am just going to write and figure it out along the way. This week, I discovered that I really like to write characters with siblings. I love the sibling dynamic and it’s really fun to write it. I can write playful bickering along with protective sibling moments. In my opinion, most good characters have attachments. Those attachments can be to a friend, a sibling, a parent, or someone else, but they have to have an attachment for their motives and characterization to make more sense. I am very excited to continue this story and further develop my characters as it goes along. I’m very proud of this idea, and I think it will become a very interesting novel.
Evidence: Novel Progress:
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I am currently working on a new novel idea because I finished my first draft of my other novel. I do have to go back and edit that, but I am taking a small break from that novel and working on a different idea that I had. This week, I learned that starting a new book idea is very difficult. It’s hard to figure out where I am going to start and how exactly I want things to go. I have characters developed and I have a general idea of what I want to happen. I am really proud of the characters and look forward to writing their story. I have been struggling with writing this week because I had to take three AP exams, so I missed three classes and only got to attend one class. That explains why I did not get much writing done this week. I have discovered that I do not like editing very much. I feel like I am avoiding the editing process because I do not want to do it, but it is necessary. I think I got a decent amount of work done considering that I missed three classes, and I am excited to continue with my new novel idea next week.
Novel Progress: The first thing I would like to say on this blog post is this: I did it. After two years of hard work, 105,208 words later, I finally finished the first draft of my novel. This is a huge accomplishment for me, and I am majorly excited about it. Soon, I will enter the editing stage, but I may also mix editing with working on some other pieces of writing I’ve been thinking about. As I’ve said in my other blog posts, I am currently working on my novel. This week, I managed to finish it. This week, I learned what it feels like for an author to finish the first draft of their novel. It feels truly amazing and I am so excited to get this book out into the world when I find the opportunity. I’ve been struggling with inspiration and trying to slow things down as I reach the end of the book. Almost every book has the “wind down” section where the author ties everything together and presents it to the reader. I found this part really difficult, but as I wrote this week, I finally figured out how I would write the ending. I discovered that I really can write a whole novel. I never really doubted it, but there were times when I thought of leaving this novel behind. Because I never gave up on it, I was able to write a full-length book and I am so proud of myself for it. My goals for this week were to just work on my novel and I certainly accomplished them. I was hoping to finish the book soon, and I did it. This is probably the biggest accomplishment of my time in this class. All of my work finally paid off. Some next steps for me are putting together my slideshow for the presentations in class, editing my first draft, and working on my newer novel ideas.
Evidence: Novel Progress (WARNING: LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS): I am currently working on my novel. I am reaching the end, so I am just writing as much as I can during class to get this done. This week, I learned that writing friendships is really fun. Most people focus on romantic relationships in books, which this book is mostly about, but I really enjoy writing dialogue between Naomi and Nova, who are best friends. I think they are really close and comfortable together and I love writing about their interactions and teasing. I have been struggling with how to write the prom scene. I know what I want to happen, but I do not know how much the readers need to know about the dance. I decided that I will include important interactions, but not every moment of the night. It would be too much if I described every moment, so I will skip around. I have discovered that I am good at writing dialogue between characters, including their banter. I did not have any goals for this week, because the class is no longer required to write them. I just focused on writing as much as I could during class. I did not do any writing prompts because I am shifting my focus completely towards my novel. I got a good amount of writing done this week, and I did that by working hard and pushing through tough parts of the writing process.
Evidence (WARNING: LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS): I am currently working on my novel. I believe I am nearing the end of the book, and everything is starting to fall into place. I’m writing about the school dance right now, and it is a really fun part to write. I love my characters and getting to write them going to prom together is very enjoyable. This week, I learned that I am not as bad at writing down time as I thought. By down time I mean time in which the characters are not facing any problems. As I near the resolution, there is a lot more down time, and I think that I have gotten better at it. I used to struggle with it a lot and felt like I could only write well when there were problems for the characters to face. A story usually does need a few conflicts, but I now know that I do not need to have conflicts to be a good writer. I am just a good writer and I am proud of my work. I’ve been struggling with getting work done since I was gone for a lot of this week and last week. Last week was a short week for me because I went on the band trip and this week was short because I came back on Tuesday. I only had class two times this week, so I could not get as much work done as I would normally want to. I set my goals low for this week because of that. I have discovered that I get really attached to my characters. I created them and I am proud of that, and I have a connection to my characters that I think most authors have. It’s like when I read a book and I get attached to a character, but this time, I actually created them. I love all of my characters so much and I hope that my readers will as well. My goals for this week were to just get as much writing done as I could. I mainly wanted to focus on my novel, but if I found myself unable to find inspiration, I planned on doing research. I did manage to get some writing done, which I am very happy about. It isn’t a ton of writing, but it is good for the amount of class time I had. I also had to work on my weekly goals and research some things to make sure I represented a character correctly. When I try to get this published, I will have a sensitivity reader double check my research just in case I messed up. I accomplished my goals for this week, and I did so by working hard and not giving up. This week, it was easier because I was writing a part that I was excited about, so I could really speed through it and the ideas just kept flowing. Next week, I hope to get more work done since I believe I will have more class time.
Evidence: Novel Progress (WARNING: LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS): I am currently working on writing my novel. I am over 100,000 words in and I am really excited about that. 100,000 words was my word count target, and I have surpassed it. This week, I learned that writing big events in books is easier than writing smaller ones. I am currently working on the school dance section of my novel, so it is a big event that will have a lot of joy from the characters. I am looking forward to writing it and I am excited to write about how happy Naomi and Ophelia are at the dance. I have been struggling with finding an ending for my novel. I know that I want a happy ending, but I’m not sure how to get there. When has enough been written? I know that it really depends on what I want to say in my novel, but I am still unsure of how to end it when I am ready to, and I hope that it will become more clear to me as I near the end of my novel. This week, I have discovered that writing isn’t the hard part of being an author. The hardest part is getting started each time I open up my document to write. It is hard to pick up from where I left off and to find a direction to go. I tend to just figure things out as I go, meaning I do not have much of an outline. I prefer writing that way, but sometimes it can be really hard because I do not have everything planned out and have to figure it out on the way. My goals for this week were to get as much writing done as I could. I will not be here for the rest of the week, which is why I have written my blog post early. Completing this early means that I have had less time to work on my novel, so that is the explanation for why there is so little progress on my novel this week. I hope to have more when I update next. I accomplished my goals for this week, and I did so by working hard in class and staying focused. I did not really struggle with inspiration this week, which was a nice change. I got to work on just my novel and did a decent amount of writing for the time I had.
Novel Progress: I am currently working on writing my novel and learning more about the writing process. This week, I have learned that authors often have their own website with ways to contact them listed. I did try to contact a few authors, but I have been struggling to get a response. Authors are so busy and probably have a lot of fans trying to reach them, so it is tough to get one to actually respond. I am trying to set up a meeting with an author to ask them questions about their publishing process. I plan on using this as my required contact for this class, so hopefully it will work out. If I cannot get one of the authors I reached out to to meet with me, my mom knows someone who self-published a book that I can probably talk to. Either way, I will be able to get some questions answered. This week, I learned that I am much less afraid of reaching out to people than I used to be. If I were doing this project a few years ago, I would have hated that I had to reach out to someone related to my inquiry and meet with them. Now, I really don’t mind it. Over the past year or so, I’ve become a lot more outgoing and less afraid of interacting with others. It is really exciting to notice the improvements I’ve made over time, and I am quite proud of myself for this one. My goals for this week were to work on my novel and do at least one writing sprint. Another part of my goal was that if I was low on inspiration, I would work on something else related to my inquiry. I accomplished these goals. I did not get did not get a ton of writing done, but that is because I did not only focus on writing. When I was low on inspiration, I focused on researching authors that I could contact for my required meeting. I accomplished these goals by staying focused in class and working hard. I realized that music is sometimes distracting for me, so I have actually started writing without my earbuds. So far, it has been working. This week was pretty productive, looking back on it. I may not have gotten a lot of words written down, but I reached out to an author, looked into who else I can contact, etc.
Evidence: Writing Sprints: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eEa9le0sAnh547_GOx0bFaju02xArwr3AES92Gvav0o/edit Contacting Authors: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lak_aUNRo_ENfKXPrd3vxXFWTBXLeJJYgtkcfvM7axg/edit I unfortunately do not have any pictures of what I sent to the author I contacted (Nina Varela) but I did contact her, and I tried to contact Casey McQuiston as well but it did not work. The link above will take you to my backup plan for if I cannot meet with any authors in person/over zoom: I will use the Q&A from Samatha Shanon which answers the questions I would have asked her about her profession. https://blackholly.com/about/contact-holly/ This link above is one of the authors I plan on contacting. I looked up how to do it and I will hopefully be able to do so soon. Novel Progress (WARNING: LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS): I am currently working on writing my novel. I wrote as much as I could for the novel and also did one writing prompt on Thursday. This week, I learned that time skips are very useful in writing. I do not have to write every small event in between the larger ones. I knew that I could do time skips but this week, I realized that I did not have to do so much writing between the time I left off and the date of my characters’ school dance. That made the idea of closing up my novel a lot less intimidating. I now don’t have to write events that are not necessary, which is really relieving. Something I have been struggling with is ending the novel. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, I believe, but it is still a struggle for me. I have never finished a novel before, so this is really new to me. I know that I should be approaching the end (since debut novels cannot be ridiculously long), but I don’t know how many time skips should be included, how many events need to be written, etc. It’s very difficult to figure this out, but this week, I learned that I get to decide. It’s all up to me because I am the author. I don’t necessarily have to worry so much about what the typical way to do something is. It is up to me and my creative choice, and I think that will help me a lot as I write. My goals for this week were to work on my novel and to do at least one writing prompt. I accomplished these goals, and I am happy with what I learned this week. I believe I learned some valuable lessons that can help me as I continue to write. I accomplished my goals by staying focused in class and working hard. I pushed past times when I felt like I couldn’t write and just kept going. That is what authors have to do, and I think I did well with that.
Evidence: Writing Sprints: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eEa9le0sAnh547_GOx0bFaju02xArwr3AES92Gvav0o/edit Novel Progress (WARNING: LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS): This week, I have been working on my novel. Currently, I am writing an Ophelia chapter that focuses on how she writes, and it’s like telling a story within a story. Something I learned this week is that writing poetry is fun. For my writing sprint, I used a poetry prompt to switch things up and I really enjoyed it. Sometimes it’s nice to not come up with a whole plot for each writing sprint and just write a poem. Poems are definitely not easy to write, but they don’t require as much structure as a novel would (if you write a freestyle poem, which I did). Each week of class comes with its struggles, and this week is not an exception. I am still struggling with tying everything together in a good ending. I feel like I am prolonging the story because I do not know what would end it or when to end it. I know that the end is approaching, so I have to start winding everything down, but it feels like there is still a lot that has to happen: Naomi and Ophelia still have to go to prom Nova and Isadora have to spend time together, etc. This week, I discovered that I tend to write better when there is action or tension involved. When it is just characters spending time together, it is much harder for me to move things forward. My goals for this week were to get as much work done on my novel as I could and to do at least one writing sprint. I accomplished these goals by staying on task and working hard during class. I didn’t let my struggles hold me back and I just kept writing.
Evidence: Writing Sprints: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eEa9le0sAnh547_GOx0bFaju02xArwr3AES92Gvav0o/edit Novel Progress (WARNING: LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS): This week, I have been working on writing my novel and doing some writing prompts. I am getting closer and closer to the end of this novel, and it is a big accomplishment for me. I have never finished one of my writing projects before, so I am very proud of myself for making it this far without dropping it. I know that I can finish this novel. Naomi and Ophelia deserve a full story, and I am going to give it to them. Hopefully, I will be able to share that story with the world some day. This week, I learned that when I don’t know what to write for my characters, I can always have them work on their own writing and almost leap into a new version of writing for a little while. In the novel, Ophelia has a writing project about Naomi. She’s a pirate trying to rob the royals, but she falls in love with the princess in the process. Naomi’s story is about Ophelia being a star and learning about the ways of the world. She falls in love with a girl named Phoebe and they discover the world together. Switching over to these stories within the novel usually works and gives me more inspiration. I have been struggling with how to end this book. I know how I want it to end, but I don’t know what I should do to get there. I always wonder how many more events I should include. This week, I have discovered that I am pretty good at writing Ophelia and Naomi’s relationship. I think I added just the right amount of uncertainty, but also a lot of hope and sweet gestures. I go based on what I know from other contemporary novels and also what I would want in a relationship. Through this, I discovered that one does not have to have been in a relationship to write a good one. My goals for this week were to get as much writing done as I can. Mainly, I wanted to work on my novel, but I also wanted to do at least one writing sprint. I accomplished these goals by staying focused in class and doing some work at home. I missed class on Wednesday this week, so I made up some of that class time at home. I got a lot of writing done, and I am happy with what I did.
Evidence: Writing sprints: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eEa9le0sAnh547_GOx0bFaju02xArwr3AES92Gvav0o/edit Novel Progress (WARNING: LANGUAGE AND INNUENDOS): |
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May 2022
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