I am, once more, sequestered in the corner of the library, head capped with massive Sony headphones, library books and textbooks spread across the table to my right, and a shiny, stainless steel lamp to my left. There are big windows on my left, too, and through them I can see quickly-moving, Thursday afternoon traffic and faint rays of sunshine.
The library is quiet. There are people on computers, and rows and rows of shelves crammed full of awesome books dominate the center of the entire building. I can hear the air conditioning going in spite of my headphones. The carpet is gray with patterns of circles in a darker shade of gray.
The lady sitting across from me at a table is about twenty-something. She has on a white baseball cap that looks like it was originally intended for a guy. Her arms are crossed, and she has on headphones. Her gaze is riveted on the computer screen of her slightly beaten up, white Mac computer. Her expression is slightly grim, which makes me wonder if she’s even enjoying what she’s doing.
Have I bored you to death yet? I’m practicing. Not to bore people to death, of course. I’m practicing recording the things I see in order to make my descriptions better in my writing. Obviously I wouldn’t put all that info in if my MC happened to be sitting at a library, supposedly to do her homework, but writing a blog post instead ^_^
Lack of description is way high up there in my list of writing faults, and I have decided it’s high time I attempt to fix it. So, for the past week or so, I’ve been trying to be more alert to my surroundings. You know what I’ve learned? I am sadly oblivious. I breeze through a room without even noticing there are people sitting there. I can stare at my sister all day but not remember what color t-shirt she was wearing. Sad, I know.
But practice makes perfect (perfect practice makes perfect, as my Dad says) so I can fix this, even if I have to walk around recording everything I see with notebook and pen until I can teach myself to see everything but just pick out the important things.
For instance: a non-important thing, at least at the moment, is the fact that my nails are bright green with peach-colored polka dots. My youngest sister, Jasmine, painted them for me last night. But I’ve been oddly obsessed with staring at the color for this entire day.
So, that is what I’m working on – descriptions and setting. I have everything in my head, I just need to learn to get it on paper!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Stream of Consciousness Writing
Stream of consciousness writing is absolutely fascinating. You put pencil to paper and just write every word that comes to mind, paying no attention to grammar, spelling, or even coherence. It's a near seamless transition from brain to paper; true mind to hand writing.
I've done this a couple of times, although I find it a fight to not think about grammar and such. The editing book I'm currently reading, Revision and Self-Editing from the Write Great Fiction series, suggests a similar technique to get into your characters' heads; it's sort of like the Write or Die tactic that I first learned of during NaNoWriMo (I learned a LOT during NaNo; it was like a crash course in the butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard technique and everything even remotely related).
While I was waiting for my sister to get out of class today, I sat in my car and started brainstorming. I've currently sworn off writing fiction until school lets out, but I'm allowed to brainstorm. The reason my brain was suddenly overflowing with ideas? In history, whilst discussing the 50s, my teacher mentioned an author. I can't remember his name now, or the name of his book, but he wrote a book entirely using the stream of consciousness method. Wow.
My teacher had us listen to an audio of the author reading it, and I was mesmerized. It was an endless stream of babble, and I was scrabbling to try to find meaning in it as the guy threw out phrases like "God is Pooh Bear" and "the utter darkness that is death."
But, for some reason I can't fathom, it got my mind working. All through the rest of history class my brain was frozen on a phrase I'd heard. But in my mind, it had stopped being a phrase by the author and had become the title of a nameless project I'd been working on for months. Sitting there, the project took off in a dozen different directions at once, all under the heading of this new title.
This is one more thing to add to my to-do list for summer - practice stream of consciousness writing!
I've done this a couple of times, although I find it a fight to not think about grammar and such. The editing book I'm currently reading, Revision and Self-Editing from the Write Great Fiction series, suggests a similar technique to get into your characters' heads; it's sort of like the Write or Die tactic that I first learned of during NaNoWriMo (I learned a LOT during NaNo; it was like a crash course in the butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard technique and everything even remotely related).
While I was waiting for my sister to get out of class today, I sat in my car and started brainstorming. I've currently sworn off writing fiction until school lets out, but I'm allowed to brainstorm. The reason my brain was suddenly overflowing with ideas? In history, whilst discussing the 50s, my teacher mentioned an author. I can't remember his name now, or the name of his book, but he wrote a book entirely using the stream of consciousness method. Wow.
My teacher had us listen to an audio of the author reading it, and I was mesmerized. It was an endless stream of babble, and I was scrabbling to try to find meaning in it as the guy threw out phrases like "God is Pooh Bear" and "the utter darkness that is death."
But, for some reason I can't fathom, it got my mind working. All through the rest of history class my brain was frozen on a phrase I'd heard. But in my mind, it had stopped being a phrase by the author and had become the title of a nameless project I'd been working on for months. Sitting there, the project took off in a dozen different directions at once, all under the heading of this new title.
This is one more thing to add to my to-do list for summer - practice stream of consciousness writing!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
I Am a Writer at Heart
And when I'm not writing or talking about writing, I like to talk to other writers about their writing! It never ceases to fascinate me when I learn about all the different types of writing, writing rituals, and ways of procrastinating that we writerly people engage in.
Although my opinion is clearly biased, I think teenaged writers are doubly interesting. We are a curious lot. There're thousands of different wonderful things that we could be doing in life, yet we choose to labor over a keyboard (or with writing utensil and paper).
What makes teen writers, or any writers for that matter, choose writing over other things? Where do their ideas come from? How do they force themselves to keep at it when they get frustrated? What are they working on now? How'd they get started writing? What are their plans for the future? Do they want to be published? Have they finished your project? When do they think you'll finish? Do they belong to any writers groups? All of this stuff is so much fun to discover.
As a writer myself, I know there are all sorts of different opinions on teenage writers. Some people think we all suck just because we're young. Some people think we're geniuses. It runs to all ends of the spectrum. The truth? We're all writers, regardless of age, and there are good ones and bad ones.
My plan: I want to interview writers! Young, old, beginner, old hand, whatever - I'm curious to know your stories and share them with others. At the moment, I'm working on compiling a list of prospective interviewees, and a list of questions that I'll be asking. If you have any suggestions for questions, people to interview, or even if you want to be interviewed yourself, let me know!
Although my opinion is clearly biased, I think teenaged writers are doubly interesting. We are a curious lot. There're thousands of different wonderful things that we could be doing in life, yet we choose to labor over a keyboard (or with writing utensil and paper).
What makes teen writers, or any writers for that matter, choose writing over other things? Where do their ideas come from? How do they force themselves to keep at it when they get frustrated? What are they working on now? How'd they get started writing? What are their plans for the future? Do they want to be published? Have they finished your project? When do they think you'll finish? Do they belong to any writers groups? All of this stuff is so much fun to discover.
As a writer myself, I know there are all sorts of different opinions on teenage writers. Some people think we all suck just because we're young. Some people think we're geniuses. It runs to all ends of the spectrum. The truth? We're all writers, regardless of age, and there are good ones and bad ones.
My plan: I want to interview writers! Young, old, beginner, old hand, whatever - I'm curious to know your stories and share them with others. At the moment, I'm working on compiling a list of prospective interviewees, and a list of questions that I'll be asking. If you have any suggestions for questions, people to interview, or even if you want to be interviewed yourself, let me know!
Friday, April 15, 2011
I'm Back
It's been about seven months since I announced I was leaving Blogger, and only keeping this blog for sentimental purposes. Well, I'm back now. I came back to this blog on a whim this morning, and I had a bout of nostalgia. Originally, I left this blog because I thought Wordpress would be easier to deal with, and I wasn't that into blogging.
A lot has changed since then. I like to think I've become a much more serious blogger and a writer of momentously better proportions. Not just my writing skills have changed since September 2009, either.
I'm in my second semester of college, of course! I managed to maintain a 3.5 GPA for my entire first semester, which I am more than ecstatic about. I've finished two (three?) more novels and started work on a nonfiction book. My nephew has grown more adorable than before. I earned some fun blog awards on my Wordpress blog!
School has been going fabulously, if exhaustingly. I did an interview with my dad on the First Gulf War, and there's a chance it'll be published on my school website as a reference for other students! That would be amazing.
I've met tons of other amazing bloggers, and I even got added to a fun blog registry. I got a new phone, I only have three more months before I get my braces off, my sisters moved into a gorgeous new apartment, and my second-to-youngest sister started an awesome website all about natural hair care. I even got a picture of my mohawk on there. Fun!
The main reason I've come back to this blog is because I'm still in love with the Blogger community, the homey feeling this blog has, and HTML versus XHTML! I'm not sure why, but I just felt a nudge to get back on the Blogger bandwagon, so I'm going with it. I'm glad to be back.
Gabs xoxoxo
A lot has changed since then. I like to think I've become a much more serious blogger and a writer of momentously better proportions. Not just my writing skills have changed since September 2009, either.
I'm in my second semester of college, of course! I managed to maintain a 3.5 GPA for my entire first semester, which I am more than ecstatic about. I've finished two (three?) more novels and started work on a nonfiction book. My nephew has grown more adorable than before. I earned some fun blog awards on my Wordpress blog!
School has been going fabulously, if exhaustingly. I did an interview with my dad on the First Gulf War, and there's a chance it'll be published on my school website as a reference for other students! That would be amazing.
I've met tons of other amazing bloggers, and I even got added to a fun blog registry. I got a new phone, I only have three more months before I get my braces off, my sisters moved into a gorgeous new apartment, and my second-to-youngest sister started an awesome website all about natural hair care. I even got a picture of my mohawk on there. Fun!
The main reason I've come back to this blog is because I'm still in love with the Blogger community, the homey feeling this blog has, and HTML versus XHTML! I'm not sure why, but I just felt a nudge to get back on the Blogger bandwagon, so I'm going with it. I'm glad to be back.
Gabs xoxoxo
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Why oh why oh why?
Why did I decide to be a Loyalist? While I have to admit there are valid arguments on the sides of both Rebel and Loyalists, it would be so much easier to be a Rebel. Granted, I’d probably end up fighting the smarter half of the class, which would make it so much harder to have “good points,” but at least I wouldn’t be melting my brain out right now.
I just have to keep that big, shiny A grade in mind, that’s all. No matter what, I’m going to get that good grade. If that means my brain melts out, fine then. I should have worked on this yesterday instead of watching the movie Honey, as great as it was (Jessica Alba is my favorite actress).
School can be so pesky sometimes. I’d much rather be writing!
And for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about: tomorrow my class is debating the Declaration of Independence. I decided to take the Loyalist's side and now I'm supposed to be coming up with an argument for why England did everything that they did to North America.
I just have to keep that big, shiny A grade in mind, that’s all. No matter what, I’m going to get that good grade. If that means my brain melts out, fine then. I should have worked on this yesterday instead of watching the movie Honey, as great as it was (Jessica Alba is my favorite actress).
School can be so pesky sometimes. I’d much rather be writing!
And for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about: tomorrow my class is debating the Declaration of Independence. I decided to take the Loyalist's side and now I'm supposed to be coming up with an argument for why England did everything that they did to North America.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Random lovely, sparkly, wonderfully good things
Today has been a day of lovely, sparkly, wonderfully good things. I love good things, as I’m sure everybody does. Although today started out with over-sleeping and almost being late for school, plus rain and dreariness and freezing half to death in my classroom, it ended awesomely.
Reason number one: I got an A on my history paper! YES! I was worried sick about the grade I was going to get but it worked out well. That’s mostly due to my awesome teacher, Mr. Flagel. I was only around halfway through with the essay when I ran out of time, so he assigned points to my line of reasoning and where I’d been headed with it, instead of taking points off for incompletion.
Reason number two: I got to stay for a couple of hours at my sister’s apartment, which was lovely and peaceful and very quiet. I love my siblings like crazy but they can be loud. When I have a lot of homework, that can be a bother. Instead of noise, I got to sit in blissful quiet, watching a movie with Liz.
Reason number three: I got good reviews on California Girl! Enough said.
Reason number four: I had math tutoring, which was fun and invaluable, as I have a math test this Friday. I need all the help I can get; I’m still not one hundred percent sure how to use my borrowed graphing calculator.
Reason number five: I got to hang out with Kyra and Elizabeth and I got to see Chenise and my sweet, sweet baby. I love you EJ! I am your number one fan! I love that baby so much. He’s such a sweetie.
Tomorrow will be non-stop history and math studying so I’ll be prepared for both the math test and the history debate on Wednesday. That makes up twenty points of my final grade. Mr. Flagel said we get five points for each good answer we give, so I just need four good answers. Naturally I’ll be going for more than that, since extra points are always good, but four is the minimum.
Anyway, I decided to cut myself a break for good behavior tonight. I’ll just lounge around and read or write; I’ll do the bulk of my studying and homework tomorrow.
Reason number one: I got an A on my history paper! YES! I was worried sick about the grade I was going to get but it worked out well. That’s mostly due to my awesome teacher, Mr. Flagel. I was only around halfway through with the essay when I ran out of time, so he assigned points to my line of reasoning and where I’d been headed with it, instead of taking points off for incompletion.
Reason number two: I got to stay for a couple of hours at my sister’s apartment, which was lovely and peaceful and very quiet. I love my siblings like crazy but they can be loud. When I have a lot of homework, that can be a bother. Instead of noise, I got to sit in blissful quiet, watching a movie with Liz.
Reason number three: I got good reviews on California Girl! Enough said.
Reason number four: I had math tutoring, which was fun and invaluable, as I have a math test this Friday. I need all the help I can get; I’m still not one hundred percent sure how to use my borrowed graphing calculator.
Reason number five: I got to hang out with Kyra and Elizabeth and I got to see Chenise and my sweet, sweet baby. I love you EJ! I am your number one fan! I love that baby so much. He’s such a sweetie.
Tomorrow will be non-stop history and math studying so I’ll be prepared for both the math test and the history debate on Wednesday. That makes up twenty points of my final grade. Mr. Flagel said we get five points for each good answer we give, so I just need four good answers. Naturally I’ll be going for more than that, since extra points are always good, but four is the minimum.
Anyway, I decided to cut myself a break for good behavior tonight. I’ll just lounge around and read or write; I’ll do the bulk of my studying and homework tomorrow.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
3 Things I Hate, 6 Things I Love
Things I Hate
1) Really bad critiques like “oh, I loved this!” or “this sucked!” Details, people! I need details if I’m going to make it better! *clears throat* Sorry. Pet peeve of mine.
2) People hating on Justin Bieber. He’s sixteen years old, for crying out loud. If you hate him, don’t listen to his music and avoid looking at posters/advertisements/etc. There are lots of music artists and actors who I’m not partial to but I don’t rag on them, especially not kids.
3) When I walk out of the house and look down and realize my clothes don’t match. It happens a lot.
Things I Love
1) The song “Pick Me” by Justin Bieber
2) My orange and purple horse poster that hangs over my desk
3) My best friend and cousin, Micah
4) My book, Journey of Turning Back
5) The belt I borrowed from my sister, cause it’s black with silver stars
6) The music group ZOEgirl, although I think they disbanded
1) Really bad critiques like “oh, I loved this!” or “this sucked!” Details, people! I need details if I’m going to make it better! *clears throat* Sorry. Pet peeve of mine.
2) People hating on Justin Bieber. He’s sixteen years old, for crying out loud. If you hate him, don’t listen to his music and avoid looking at posters/advertisements/etc. There are lots of music artists and actors who I’m not partial to but I don’t rag on them, especially not kids.
3) When I walk out of the house and look down and realize my clothes don’t match. It happens a lot.
Things I Love
1) The song “Pick Me” by Justin Bieber
2) My orange and purple horse poster that hangs over my desk
3) My best friend and cousin, Micah
4) My book, Journey of Turning Back
5) The belt I borrowed from my sister, cause it’s black with silver stars
6) The music group ZOEgirl, although I think they disbanded
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)