Create. Write. Now.

WHY?! I don't actually cry. I have forced myself to not cry in emotionally charged situations. The last day will be emotionally charged. Don't expect tears, but don't think I feel nothing either. I have not drawn any doodle pictures in a while. You guys get to see a new line titled "Water Falls". Firey Fist O Pain, Watery Edition WEEEEEE Have a nice day.

GUYS! I can't believe the year is finally ending! I wish this class didn't have to end yet, I loved every freaking second in this class. From the 'Sierra Wilson' jokes to re-telling old stories from our childhood, and even during sage testing when we all took a mini field trip to the math labs and ate crepes, peanut butter and fruit roll-ups. I swear the food we eat in this class is equal to a pregnant woman with weird cravings.  We are at that point.  Favorite memory though is when probably when we celebrated Frampton's birthday and played 'Uptown Funk.' That was the same day, right? I don't know, both are good memories. Or that other time that Maddy wanted to listen to Fight Song and she was like- And we went with it.  Guys, this class was awesome and I've enjoyed everything! There was a great sense of community and respect that most times doesn't happen in classrooms. I'm actually very glad this class was so small, so I cou...

So I knew that people would be saying good bye a lot this school year. "Oh, I'll miss having this class. I miss my friends." So I'll be sarcastic and say the exact opposite. "Mwa ha ha, summer rules! I get to write, next year I get to take novel writing for a whole year, Shakespeare, I'll get 12th grade Socratic, woo! Take that!" This was my goodbye, I know it's not serious, but it's not clique and that's worth it to me! Maybe, possibly... Okay never mind, just see ya' next year!

So we're about to set forth on our campaign to tell the world of our totally idiotic lives. And advice we've received is to make them laugh, think or cry. Personally I think people like laughing more than crying. So I decided to make my story have as many funny awkward sayings as possible, like this one.

I have three personal narratives. I have a poll on by blog. The one with the highest votes gets to be read. Only look if you really want to.

FountWorld

Can you believe that we are almost done with school? It just barely sunk in. For my cousin though, hes been freaking out about finals for about a month. I mean I thought he was supposed to be the chill one. He makes a big show of studying and the I get in trouble cuz I don't make such a big deal about it. It's okay though at least I'm not the one always getting blamed for stuff. Just wanted to shout out about being the last days. :)

The City Immortals takes place in.

Some times I feel we all need to just step back and take a breather. Here's some entertainment in the mean time. Feel free to waste your time looking at these. When someone says there's free food Me at the beginning of camp Nanowrimo Me at the end of cam Nanowrimo When school's over My life summed up in a gif Brett Haug at dances First day of scout camp Finals (except finals are 2 hours) Anywho, that's all folks. This actually believe it or not was a stress reliever. Plus I need the blog post for my grade. But party on my most radical peoples. (By party I mean study for finals)

Personal Narrative are... not my strongest area when doing creative writing. Just getting that off my chest. I mean, when I try to find out a nice story from my life... I figure out that my life is kind of boring. But hey that just motivates me to make the most out of my life and do more awesome things! So that's a plus.

Hey guys! :) Even though I'm that quite kid that sits in the back of class and says nothing and hardly participates most of the time but you guys are amazing. I love going to the class! You just make my day ALL OF THE DAYS!! Thank you so much for a fantastic year!

My first personal narrative is up on my blog. Don't judge (consider myself judged) for slightly incorrect info.

Congrats to Amber and Maddy! Your Last Lecture Essays were amazing. I snapped many a time. 

If I were to ever own a massage parlor, I would call it, A Site For Sore Thighs.  This is random, but I can't help but thinking that it'd be the hippest dang place to ever get a spa day. I mean, I don't want to pat myself on the back or anything, but I feel like it would be the place Beyonce would go to relax. I don't know, I just thought the pun was good. Alright, continue scrolling.

So I'm posting for about the third time this week, don't worry I'll do another tomorrow. I just wanted to point out the awesome realization that since friends that the stories are about aren't here to contradict us we can tell them from any perspective we want. Personal narratives could be the best way to brag about ourselves! So I included one of my favorite Star Wars pictures of all time. From the point of view of a lil' stormtrooper whose father is blown up. He had family on that death star...

Happy Birthday! We all hope you have a blast. 

As many of you know, I am a food addict. I cannot stand an empty stomach. The very thought of having one causes me pain. The sad thing is I usually have an empty stomach. Well, at least it feels like it. I must have a hollow leg that all the food goes down, because I am never able to subdue the constant hunger that lingers within. The bad thing about this is that I get hangry (angry from being hungry) very easily. It's not the most pleasant thing for my friends, and it can often cause me to do things without thinking. For example, the other day I was in science and a certain somebody wouldn't drive me to go get lunch. So I was running on a truly empty stomach. Long story short, I was not having a good day and time and the person next to me had a salad from Kneaders. Not only they wouldn't share, but they were eating in the science room, while getting away with it! So as they got up to retrieve a paper from Mr. Krietzer I did the unthinkable. I took the hand-sanitizer that w...

So I was just looking around, exploring different types of writing, and I came across this page that features a variation of writing forms. Although a lot of us will recognize most of the forms it lists, It's cool because if you're interested in a specific form, you can follow the links and there is a course on how to get better on each of these styles. Some courses cost more than others, but some of them are only a few bucks. It's just something to keep you busy during the summer if you need it. I personally would be very interested in taking the drawing course under the comic strip form. Anyway, here's the link  in case any of you want to check it out.

So.. We were supposed to do 5 blog posts during camp nanowrimo, and to say the least, I only did 1. So now I guess it's time to pick myself up and finish what I started. This last month has probably been one of the most excruciating, drawn out, hardest month of the year. For some of us writing novels comes very easily, and you might say you even enjoy it. Which is awesome, I truly aspire you. For me however, it's like pulling teeth to squeeze the smallest amount of creativity out of me in these dire times of need. The hardest thing for me is finding the motivation. It's not that I'm lazy at all (or at least that's what I like to tell myself). It's just I would much rather write poems and other things of the nature. I feel the purpose of this class is to expose us to all sorts of different types of writing. With an end goal of improving upon our personal writing skills by acquiring different skills from different writing styles. Not all of us are going to enjoy e...

So we were talking in class recently about how authors would start with something perhaps almost completely unrelated and then once they caught your interest draw you into their story. Even on our class blog we've been bringing it up. So I decided to follow that piece of advice for my personal narrative. It could have started like this, had I procrastinated. "The best times I have with my friends is when I'm playing with them." But starting out with either "Joy comes in many forms, like the anguish of those you care about." or a "Sometimes I just don't understand why certain objects have warning labels." These are far more interesting. So I'm determined to write my personal narrative that will make anyone joining into the story late think something's wrong with me. It's going to be a blast.

Not that kind of one liner, sorry. I was thinking about our novels as I was about to sit down to start an old favorite of mine, and I thought about beginnings. I order for an author to be successful, the readers have to be interested in the book. What gets a reader more interested than the very first sentence?  "When we got the letter in the post, my mother was ecstatic." - The Selection by Kiera Cass.  The Selection is a fairly popular novel. I loved it so much even though I hate it. I hate it in a loving way, like when you favorite character keeps doing stupid stuff over and over.  "Try to eat something, Will." - The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan.  "Torrential rain was pouring the after noon Rebecca Brown arrived in New Orleans." - Ruined by Paula Morris.  Great book.  "Who can say for sure what constitutes the perfect birth?" - The gateway to Foo by Obert Skye.  "The following was recorded by my mother in my baby book, under the headin...

I saw this when I was surfing the inter webs. It just reminded me of the conversation we had in class today. I've read most of these, but some... I still have lots more to read.  This isn't the greatest blog post, but I didn't really know what I could have added to everyone else amazing-ness. So i just so something interesting, and wanted to share it with you guys. :)

So I was fooling around and watching Minecraft videos when this appeared... SHE'S COMING FOR ME! EVERYBODY HIDE!

So, I was checking my email account to see if I got any new emails. And low and behold, I got an email address from... Sierra Wilson! When I saw who it was from, I laughed like a crazy person. I just hope that it wasn't Frampton in secret.

So, I just found Quotes that just seems to fit our class: THE MOST                                     I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT A WASTED OF ALL DAYS              BIG LAUGH IS ONE WITHOUT                        IS A REALLY LOUD NOISE FROM LAUGHTER.                                  THE SOUL SAYING, "AIN'T THAT THE                                                        TRUTH." e.e. Cummings                                 Quiney Jones In a way, the days I most remember, are ones filled with laughter....

As some of you might know, next Friday is my birthday. 15 years of wisdom under my proverbial belt. So having no idea what I wanted as a gift, my mother gave a suggestion. Her suggestion was this:  Ain't he the cutest? I JUST GOT HIM TODAY! SO HAPPY I COULD DIE! Way better than getting to 50k. I had a kitten once before, but my parents believe that I have matured enough to be a responsible pet owner.  OH MY GOSH. I AM GOING TO SQUEAL TOMORROW. To heck with tomorrow, I'm going to squeal now. EEEEEEEEEEEEK!

So as I'm sure many, or at least some of you know, I made a post last month entitled "Juicy Juices" in which I recommended creating a playlist of specific songs to help get the creative juices flowing, and now I'm back with more musical advice. If you are getting stuck when it comes to trying to find something to write try listening to the music that you grew up on, it'll help you to remember some stories that you could tell. For me that means listening to a heck of a lot of Country music. Not that that's a problem, country's awesome and it brings me back to my down-home backwoods redneck roots, something I happen to love. Music is a powerful thing, so use it to your advantage.

   What am I ever going to write? We're support to write a blogpost every week, but I don't know what to write each week. I'm stuck on this ever-continuos cycle of trying to come up with something. Weeks pass, and I come up with a few half baked blogposts. Nothing good.    So, with this new unit of Personal narrative, I'm super excited! I can't wait to show you or tell you all the... Ah... Interesting things in my life.

LET IT END, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, LET ME SLEEP Soon school will be over, and I can finally have some peace of mind. (And some time to write.) Just a last few weeks of the run. It is the most painful part, to be sure, but the most worth it.  Although the rest of school is going to prove a hurdle, I'm sure that we can make it. It's really so close. I finished with 15842 words. About 16,000. From the beginning, I thought it was totally possible to hit 50,000, especially since writing 1,500 words every day should be "Easy." However, it did not prove to be so! Finding an extra hour out of your time every day to get your thoughts into cohesive work on the same project was difficult. And my writing process is strange. I find that planning helps me out a lot, but drawing and visualizing scenes helps as well. I find that if I can see it in my mind, then it will find it's way onto paper. Sometimes I can just vomit out the words, and then I will try to craft th...

And so It Ends Adrien knew what he had to do. He had thought it all through thoroughly beforehand so he wouldn’t be distracted now. He had to die. He would never know freedom again. He couldn’t. Like the other champions he was no longer real. He had once been but now, he knew, it wasn’t him but her. He hated the thing that trapped him here but it had complete control over him, or so it thought. He wanted to fight with his whole being but the only thing, he knew, that he could do, was defy it like this. It wanted to enjoy watching them fight to the death but he refused to let that be the ending. He’d make sure, that the real person got out alive. He drove his sword forward, knowing she could easily dodge. Her sword ended staff came in for a counter and he could have easily stopped it but instead he looked to where her eyes would be. The blade sunk in. He didn’t feel the pain, only release. He’d be free in a moment, then he might wake up in that dark room with no memories,...

I don't know if I missed a blog post or not, but this is going to make up for my unforgivable lack of doodle people. Not Me! I've got a novel to write! I may have been they only one in the class to get to 50,000 this month (and the only one to feel like they were in the center of a satanic ritual, only not really) but that does not mean anything. From what I have hear today, your guy's work was of a higher quality than mine. I might as well have written "Once upon a time there was a potato, who got eaten" only with more character development and plot twists. Ya'll's work is amazing, not to the point of never needing to revise or edit, but pretty good. One thing I can say that I'm good at is pushing myself to complete my goals. It's a gift *insert hair toss.* I'm not the only one to make it to my goal. Many of you met yours. Many of you shot of that goal and came just within striking distance. Time and other things like homework were th...

"O thy misty shadows What tangleth thee? Why dost thou spread over us In our time of need? "Chaos, misery, death is ringing Soil and life slowly weeping Anarchy is sweeping Humans doth bringing" - Unknown

You know that feeling that you get when you do something amazing, like completing a goal for instance? Not only did I meet my first goal of 25,000, but I also met my goal of 50,000.  It is not impossible to write it in a month, it is just completely overwhelming and crazy. Not impossible, just something insane people do.  Keep working on your stories guys. 51,000 words does not have my book at the climax. That's a good thing, I think.  WRITE ON

Can you believe that school is almost done?! Holy Crap! Again crazy long week but so ready for the next one. Ready for monday. Not ready to read my part from my book… I can't pick what to read. It is all terrible. You have to read your favorite part and I don't like it! hahah! Problem for tomorrow.  PS: Over this magical weekend I have found my life anthem.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVxon65u3tA  Listen to the words and it will change your life. I think Lauren and I have listened to it over 50 times… Best song ever!! I hope that you enjoy it. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. PPS: Book writing is going well. I have over passed my word count by 3,000 words. Go self. Hope that everyone else's is going fabulously. Love you all. Stay classy,

I've decided to post a post that was due, what, three weeks ago? The exact time is not important. But forgetting the actual reason I came to post I found I actually have something to say. I have many things to say, but most don't actually benefit others. What I had to say was this. May had officially started. Our Camp NaNoWriMo is over, but that doesn't mean the story is over. I only wrote about six chapters from my book, not an amazing amount. But the most enjoyable experience I had was one night I sat down at my computer, it was about eight at night, and said "I should write." This was an awful idea, luckily I thought of another. Make a voice recording of my entire story plot. This turned out to be me blathering to myself, slurring words together, mumbling and being sarcastic for two hours. (Why isn't it posted? I can't figure out how.) It was amazing despite how I'm making it sound. It showed not only how much I'd thought about my story but ho...

Although it's already the end of April ( what!?) I am renewing my resolve for Camp Nanowrimo. Why? Because I believe that IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS. Sometimes we (or at least I) get into a mindset where I compare myself to others too much. So when April 30th rolls around, I might think, "darn! I only have XX words written, while YY has ZZ words written!" I might give up and just settle for what I have. But everyone is living their own character arc, even while creating fictional characters arcs, Inception style. Mrs. Frampton reminded me of this a few days ago when we talked about Living A Better Story, or LABS. Cheers to one last weekend for the final push of Camp Nanowrimo. I may be a slow starter, but it's coming. It's coming like that last drop of honey in the jar.

Doesn't he have character? I find that the most interesting and compelling scenes involve that moment. I mean, that moment when you run out of toilet paper and there's no one home. Or when you see someone from school at the grocery store and man, you forgot their name. Or in this case, you spend hundreds of dollars on an extravagant lunch and neither you nor your new fancy friend brought any money. And your fancy friend has been behaving totally racist towards the waiter and you're too surprised and shy to say anything about it. These are the moments which readers can relate to. I think the key in writing these kind of genericky, stock scenes is the way the characters react, original descriptions, and furious internal dialogues. Charles Dickens was great at this. I just finished Great Expectations, and one of my favorite scenes is still the dinner scene where all the adults are just picking on him. Everyone can relate to being the only kid at the grown up's tab...

I got nothing. Well, not exactly... It's not exactly like I don't have the best teacher in the world. And class. That's not the point though. I'm out of ideas for my story. Daily creative writing class was becoming daily torture. Then, about a week ago, I rewatched a movie called The Quest For Camelot. After the movie, I thought how cool it was to have King Arthur's sword to bring a waring world together. Then, I remembered a certain plot I had thought of when I was 9 years old. So now, I am working on that plot. My Goals are: Reach over 1,000 words Write 1 chapter of good words Have plot line for story

I missed ALL of the blog posts!!!! So... I'm redeeming myself by saying typical teenage stuff, like I hate high school and my life sucks and boys/girls are confusing... well this isn't really working out. How about we talk about how freaking cool Mrs. Frampton is! I'm pretty sure that if she had the chance to help us up from falling off of a cliff she might help but at the end of the year we should bring all of the foods to her and thank her for her awesome class! READY BREAK!!!!

So I never wrote what my goal was... it was to at least get to the 2000, but if I could to get higher. I am somewhat proud to say that I have past my goal! Here is my so far favorite part in my book.  I opened my eyes to see a dazzling flurry of fearie lights. No! no…no… this can’t be happening! He’s going to purpose. “Noah… It’s beautiful! Why did you do this?” I asked as I turned to take it all in, but as I turned back to him he was already down on one knee. “Rowan Ryde Hood, I love you so much in fact that I wish to marry you. I have struggled in vain and I can't take it anymore. I haven't gotten any  sleep because I i  can't stop think of you, you fill my every thought, every fiber of my being.    My judgment, my family and your inferiority have all told me not to marry you but I will put all of that away if you only end my suffering . Please my darling Ro marry me?” wow I never knew I meant so much to him, he even read the wrong proposa...

Ahh was this week just as crazy for everyone else as it was for me. It was non stop all week. This week I had my film festival in Salt Lake City it was so much fun and we had a lot of people attend. I went to prom and boogied like there was no tomorrow but my feet sure did feel it the next day and I had breakfast with my two friends… Yeah new stories can out of that breakfast. This weekend I didn't get as much writing as I wanted to but I did get inspiration. Prom was at this crazy location with interesting things down each hallway. It defiantly got out of my writers block. It was just what I needed. So my advice to everyone try something new. Go on a walk, visit a new place in your neighborhood, eat a new food, talk to different people. You never know where inspiration is coming next. See you all tomorrow!!

Honestly, writing this book is fun and all because it's my story but... I'm losing it. I guess I just have more "busy" matters to attend to but that's no excuse most of the time. My main reason why I'm not trying super hard to get this done is because I am honestly losing motivation and every time I start writing my novel it seems like a cliché teenager novel.  This is why when you see me in class I am doing one of three things. The first being playing Clash of clans on my phone. The second, eating food and putting all focus towards that. Lastly, staring off into space wondering where I should go for lunch. Yes I understand that this is a typical problem for a fellow creative writing classmate. The only resources I have for my motivation are 9GAG, vine, and maybe some actual motivation from my soul. The weird thing is that I'm not actually looking for help but I'm just telling you guys. VENTING SESSION COMPLETE.

These aren't actually my words of advice, there Brandon Sanderson's but I'll put them here anyway. Because I noticed that when I was writing in class, on the uncomfortable paper that has no Ctrl Z, that I didn't enjoy myself as much as when I felt like I was joking around with myself while I wrote. I felt like sometimes when I wrote I would be cracking jokes with myself over characters who still had never been added to the book. That's what writing should be like. It should be because you enjoy the story so much that milk shoots out of your nose, you know like it does when you are for some reason drinking milk and writing. So after all of that here's Brandon Sanderson's writing advice. "Maybe that fire has been sparked for you, and you don’t know it. But even if it hasn’t been, you should write as if it has. Because this thing you’re doing isn’t about publication, bestseller lists, or reviews. It’s about you, your story, and the victory inherent in co...

I honestly have no idea what I am doing. I'm just chugging along doing whatever. I have met my first goal of 25,000, but I want to shoot for the better goal. I have selected one paragraph that I personally think is my best. --- Night fall came like a slap to the face. The sun had left home for work, and the sky revealed all of the secrets she had kept from him in the form of the stars. Sky was an adulterous woman, cheating on her husband with the moon. She had a temper, and allowed the darker thing to roam the earth. Lucy wondered how long it would take Sun to discover this ritual. Would he leave Sky forever, or would he burst into flames of fury? Lucy had often wondered if she was anything like Sky. Did she glow a brilliant blue in the presence of the one she thought she loved? Did she secretly wish to have some thing with the darker, dangerous side that glowed softly with a pale beauty? --- Lucy's my main character. She over thinks too much. I wrote that a while ago....

When do you guys write? No, seriously. Like, a time. Lately I've been slacking on my novel because my creative muscles seem to take so much time to warm up, so to speak. There never seems to be enough time to sit down and churn out a good 1000 words. Waking up early is hard. During school is no good because I end up sitting there, warming up, for 40 minutes and then writing for about 5. After school is awkward, due to more "pressing" and "important" homework assignments, like studying for AP tests. After the homework is "done" (lol, is there such a thing?) all energy seems to have been sapped by the universe, and crashing into bed seems like the best option, because anything I write in that state couldn't possibly be good anyway. Of course, these are just a multitude of excuses I tell myself when I am afraid that my novel will turn out poorly. Ironically enough, another fear I have is that the novel won't get finished at all. How's t...

Are you ready to go back into the field? No, not yet. Slapping sound! How 'bout now?! No, not yet. Slapping sound! How 'bout now?! I'm ready. Keep typing.

My current word count is 8851. This entire weekend had killed me, along with spring break. Reaching my goal to at least 15,000 to 20,000 now seems further than ever. In a nutshell, writing is really hard. And I want to cry all the time. Halp.

I sit next to Lauren in biology. She asked me what a good last name for a character would be. I could not come up with a good last name for her. So, I came home and looked in the magical baby name book. Oddly enough, there is a section of names inspired by people and it just so happens to have their names right next to it! I honestly have no idea what their names mean, so I'll just make a short list of them. If you happen to have names already for all your characters, you can just skip this. Warhol, Monet, Degas, Kahlo, Matisse, Klimt, Keene, Lessing, Atwood, Piercy, Verne, Whitman, Finch, Trask, Schmidt, Etticoat, and so on. Another great thing to do is to look into old family trees. Even a brief internet search of names of a certain origin would help. Honestly, the older the name, the better. Good Luck with your writing guys!

Some people might be thinking that they won't be able to do this novel writing month. Some people might even think that their work is not worth it. They might think that it's just bad and they couldn't possibly make it to their goal. Some people think they can get away with robbing the world of the precious creativity that it needs to thrive. Those people are victims of the writing devil. Don't listen to him, he doesn't want your creativity to be fed to the world. Oh, so that's why there's no life on the moon. The earth eats it all! Even if you don't have those thoughts yet, you will soon. It's just how it works, life, I mean. If you listen to the writing devil, you will get a case of writers block so bad this will happen: Not even a single cloud of thought. It's depressing. By the way, downloading google docs to my phone is one of the best decisions (writing wise) I have ever made. I can write on the way to and from school. I'M MO...

So we've been writing and during this time I've had a couple different story ideas. What do you do? Well you stick them off to the side, because who wants to stop writing them both? There's nothing wrong with working on multiple things at the same time. Just, just never get them this mixed up... (If you need this photo explained I don't know you anymore, -_-)

So my mom sent me a picture a couple of days ago, and it is simply entitled "The Many Styles of Writing" . My mom writes and, obviously, both me and Rowena write, so she saw this meme thought of us and immediately E-mailed me the picture. When I saw it I died laughing. But then I was brought back to life because Heaven didn't want me and Hell was to busy to take new inmates. Credit goes to Grant Snider for making this true comic.

When I first that I heard we were moving on to writing a novel I was really excited!... then reality set in and My first thought was a novel? Me writing a novel? This must be a joke. I was excited and also very nervous because we have some very talented writers who create amazing things and if we had a battle in would be like their battleship to my row boat. But I thought to myself that it doesn't matter about them and their novel. I was focusing on me this time. It's my moment to shine... and honestly, writing the novel in class everyday really relaxes me and makes me more happy! Oh the joys of writing.

Bet I made you look twice at that one. Anyways by "Juicy Juices" I mean the sweet life giving godly nectar that is creativity. It's legitimate and you know it, I mean how often do we say the phrase "Creativity Flow" or any variations there of? The word flow denotes a liquid, so of course juice it what comes to mind, because creativity is sweet and, in most cases, good for you. I digress. I'm sure that all of us are either in want of these sweet creativity juice (trademarked, patented, copyrighted, IT'S MINE), or have been in want of them before. So one thing that I would recommend doing is making a playlist. When I say playlist I am referring to music of course. Find specific songs, not genres, not bands(unless everything they do inspires you), but singular songs that get these magical nectar juices that may or may not resemble blue coke. It helps if the songs remind you of your novel, or if they are fast paced and you wind up typing to the tempo of the ...

I was reading something written by my cousin when I noticed something: He uses a LOT of odd words. Okay, not that many, but every here and there he would use a word that would take me aback a little bit. For example: "...To avoid my helicopter mom..." (That's a part of a sentence) Helicopter!? I stood back and had to re-investigate this word. He managed to make it fit in perfectly with the context of the scene, which was an amazing feat in my opinion. So maybe we ought to occasionally put forth an unconventional word or two.

Is it creepy that my favorite passage from my story is kinda morbid? I have no idea why it is my favorite, but it is so enjoy it's wonderful creepiness. Here it is... ___________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ A coppery smell invaded my nose, dispelling the scent of spring lilac. Looking down, I gasped in shock. “No no no no NO!” I whimpered, what had happened? What had gone wrong? Blood was everywhere, on the walls, seeping into the carpet and wood floor. My mother lay in the middle of the catastrophe, twisted and broken. My father, staring at her, a crazed gleam in his eyes. One of his hunting knives dripping blood slowly into the floor. What was wrong with my dad? Why was he on top of mom, dripping with blood? My nine year old brain just couldn’t comprehend what was laid out before me. _________________________________________________________________________________

Today I sat down with incredible intent to write The Next Great American Novel (ha!) and sort of chose a favorite scene at random to begin. I've been plugging away for a couple hours now, and it's not at all as painful as I thought it might be before. This thoroughly reinforces my belief in Newton's First Law of Motion, which states, "an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." I would have remained at rest and never written a single word had I not been forced to. The key is just to start. And this concept doesn't apply just to the very beginning of a big project, but each and every day. Most days I'm at rest on Pinterest or on Youtube, and the unbalanced force that gets me into motion is the external motivation of my grade. Not always, but most days. Here's my favorite passage written so far. Enjoy! ----------------------- ...

So the whole Spring break, well most of it was spent in Hawaii and that being the case I had no time to write. I was spending more of my time worrying about the water and not falling off cliffs. But I did go to TABC (Teen Author Boot Camp), and that at least was productive. I was able to learn different things about writing and  I got some of my books signed and my t-shirt signed. It was wonderful.... Anyways while at that I got a totally different idea for my book, so the whole thing has changed and I got nothing.. Yea.... So I'll just wing it, seems easier than planing the whole thing out. Probably even if I did that, by the time I could write it it would already be bored by the idea.

c Quite frankly, this has been me the entire time during the writing process. Okay, so a year ago I found this website called www.futureme.org and the basic idea behind it is you select a date in which you want to receive this letter and after writing the letter, you send it and the address will give it to your email account on that day in the future. So saying that, for the past couple months I've just been sending myself letters that I will get at some point in my adult hood. For example, I've sent one to myself on my eighteenth birthday, the day I graduate high school, the basic time I'll be getting my mission calls, and another on my twenty fourth birthday. I find it's a super cool way to unwind when I'm struggling with something and look at my life 'in a bigger picture sense.' When I'm writing these letters to myself, I find I'm extremely blunt and honest with myself. For example, in my twenty-fourth birthday one, I wrote- "Today was s...

I think my writing style might be slightly flawed. There was once a terrible writer who could not write with his digits. There! I said it. I don't like the restrictiveness of paper, and I believe more in the use of the modern computer where I can never run out of paper, and I can slide my fingers across my mechanical keyboard. Aww yiss. Mostly, what's helped me the most is the fact that I've been able to take Mrs. Frampton's advice, and I layered out my basic story ideas on 3x5 cards. I figured out about 80% of my story now, so hopefully I can start writing like a normal human being now. What I should do is be more like Lara Croft. Man, is she cool. The lady had more manliness in her little finger than I do in my whole body. I played for hours, absorbing the world and adventure. One thing that struck me was how much everything was trying to kill her. That, and one saying that she had that made her go from small, defenseless, and alone, to kick butt, kil...