[Insert title of your choice here]

So the slightly optimistic last post was a complete lie. I pretty much got nothing done this summer, like every single summer before this. It's okay, I guess, because the reason I didn't get anything done was because I was being lazy. As always, it's my fault. It's no big deal.

I have tentatively quit writing again. Honestly, I never really took it up again. It stresses me out so much and I get so anxious and hateful toward myself that it isn't really worth it anymore. It's not escapism; it's just  hell. At the end of the school day, I don't want to be as miserable as I am while I'm there, so that means brain numbing with the internet.

Whoo, procrastination sucks.

Maybe one day I'll be able to write down the stories in my head without turning into a mental case, but that day is not today, nor was it this past summer. I've been reading a lot, though, so hope isn't lost. I'm still addicted to stories, but not the creation of them. Which is also okay.

Summer Update

Hehe, it's July already. Guess who's been absent for over a month! *points to self*

In the time I've been absent, I've gotten a lot of things done. Okay...so maybe I'm lying. I barely got anything done and I'm freaking out because we're about halfway through the summer and I really don't want to go back to school. Why can't I just time travel and skip this hell we call school? Oh yeah, I don't live in a book/tv show/movie/manga/cartoon.

Real life sucks sometimes.

I've gotten pretty much zero writing done, but I've started yet another new project. It really sucks right now, but it feels good to be writing again. I've noticed that I have a lot of issues in my writing. For one, my entire chapters are just filled with dialogue. I suck a describing things and narrative thinking and anything but making my characters talk. Which is extremely sad because I take introversion to the point of reclusion.

Hopefully, by writing a lot, I'll become better at it. It seems unlikely now, but who knows? Anything's possible.

Writing

I've never felt very comfortable writing this blog because most writing blogs dispense advice. Honestly, I don't know enough about writing to give advice on it. I've been writing for only a few years and even though I think I'm serious about writing, I'm not. I'm not a serious writer. I haven't reached that point yet. I'm just a serious dreamer. I dabble into writing and I'm still learning basic grammar.

Instead of using writing as a form of escapism, I read. Writing is just my attempt to make something of myself. I love words. I love characters and adventures and feeling something. A lot of people complain that we shouldn't have to take English all four years of high school, but I disagree. We aren't just learning about old dead stories that no one cares about or nit picky grammar rules that no one knows. English language is more than that. It's about art and feelings and facts and everything in the world put down in words. The books we study aren't pointless (but I'll disagree while reading them because I'm one of those kids who don't like classics) because they show us what it means to be human. Romeo and Juliet? Very stupid in my opinion. But the two star-crossed lovers (I hate that phrase) show us how stupid humans act when they're in love. (or as I like to say, infatuated) Humans make mistakes. We are flawed. Stories reflect that.

The thing is, once you learn how to words, you can do almost anything with them. Lawyers defend and manipulate people with words. Journalists inform people with their words. Author's create whole other worlds with these words, which is also a form of manipulation.

A lot of people complain about having to take English every single year of high school, myself included, because we forget or don't realize how important words are. After spending a week complaining about all the pointless English homework my teacher assigns, it's hard to remember why we learn this stuff. Sometimes you have to remind yourself why words and stories are important.

Introvert vs. Extrovert

The other night, my mom grabbed a TIME magazine and shoved it in my face while I was watching 'Smash' on the computer. My mom was acting like a four-year-old who'd just discovered the magic of pixie sticks. The article she wanted me to read was called something like 'It's okay to be shy'.

Oh, the horror.

I spend a good chunk of time sitting in the car listening to my mom tell me that I have to talk more or else I'll turn into a creepy old man and rot away in a cave. (a cave with internet connection, though. And I've never wanted to be a guy, so I don't see how that'll happen. Sex changes cost a lot, ya know) She goes on and on about this story about how when she was my age, she was as shy as I was. Honestly, I think she's lying when she says that. She makes up all this crazy stories whenever we complain about anything about how her life was so much worse and yada yada yada. But now she can talk to anyone without feeling shy about it. Then she points out that her grammar and pronunciation suck because English is her second language.

But my mom is not an introvert. She goes insane when she has to stay home for longer than a weekend. My mom always needs to be chatting with someone or doing something or else she'll start to feel boxed in and panicky. I happen to be the exact opposite. When given the choice, I'd rather stay home. On Sunday nights, when I realize that I have to go to school the following day and see a bunch of (stupid) people, I freak out.

Okay, boring backstory aside, I'm not really much of an introvert either. I can't concentrate for long.

But my mom handed me this magazine and was like "It's okay. You can still be successful and quiet." when only hours before, she was yelling at me to be louder and get my thoughts out into the world. She was so giddy about it, so that cancels out the article being some kind of an apology.

So, like any bookish nerd, I read the article. And guess what? It told me that I'm not really an introvert.

(My mom didn't even read the article. It's hilarious, actually. I thought she'd start saying weird things like 'Presidents can be introverts. Introverts can be CEO's of big companies.' Because I don't want to do any of those things at all.)

I'll admit it; after reading the article, I laughed. Then I got pissed. What kind of a person would dare tell me that I'm not an introvert? Me, the girl who preferred fictional characters over any real kind of company? (Did I mention that conversations make me panicked? In books, it's all scripted out.)

Okay, okay, so I might have some kind of social phobia rather than normal introversion.

So here's what I think introverts and extroverts are like. This will be explained simply because I have the thought process of a six-year-old and with vampires as examples because I'm a YA paranormal reader.

Say you're a loner vampire (introvert). It doesn't necessarily mean you hate people. It just means lots of people and big events stress you out. Heck, you might even enjoy being with lots of people and participating in huge events, but those things tire you. You 'feed' on small projects you do by yourself.

Now, let's say you're a stereotypical sexy vampire. (extrovert. Don't kill eat me. I know stereotypical vampires are the loner sort.) It doesn't mean you hate being by yourself and working. You just 'feed' off the energy that crowds give you. Human interaction wakes you up and energizes you. You like being around people and doing things that'll throw you in new places.

So, yeah, these two vampire types are kind of on the extreme ends. There's a huge area in between that most people fall under.

This is a weird post. I just had to throw my thoughts out there on this classification.

Confusion and Hiatus

This is probably one of the stupidest things I'll ever say, but I think I'm falling out of love with writing. Instead of this fun, amazing, escape from reality that I used to feel, everything feels like work. I'll write 400 words and then feel like it's complete crap. (which, it totally is, of course. but for once, I'd like to just think otherwise) I'm just slogging through word after word while my frustration grows stronger and stronger.

While I write, I think about how much I hate my prose. I think about how inconsistent my characters are and how two dimensional. I think about my mom telling me that I should stop reading trash and that I should read some nonfiction instead. I hate my writing. I hate my story. Heck, I even hate my characters. There's almost no enjoyment anymore.

While I have a bet in the works with my lovely friend Chloe from Cannibal Carrot which means I can't actually quit writing for very long, I'm still going to take a break. I just need some time to think things through.

Don't mistake this for quitting. I've invested too much time into this to give up. I've spent SO much time on the internet learning about the publishing industry and how to hone in on my craft. At the core of things, I know that I still love writing.

I just need a little time to sort out my head. Like my bedroom, it's a complete mess. The REAL part of high school is looming on the horizon, as well as a few other stressing future events, and I have to sort out my goals.

Which will have to be SCHOOL before writing. It'll be super hard, considering the fact that my brain goes like "NONONONONO!" when someone even mentions school.

Wish me luck!

Self Pity and Visual Inspiration (2)

Sorry for just disappearing again. I happen to do that a lot. Despite the silence on the blog, I haven't been getting much writing done. I'm writing slower than I can run a mile (which takes a pretty darn long time) and it's okay. *dusts away cobwebs on the blog and in my brain* While surfing the internet, I came upon a writing forum. Being the curious person I am, I clicked on it and read the comments, stalker style. Except, you know, without any intents on any actual stalking. Apparently, this thirteen-year-old girl was in the midst of publishing her book.

...

Yeah. I'd like to say that I looked at it and treated it as one of those random facts like "The sky is blue". But no, my face kind of looked like I just found out Texas is undergoing desertification in my World Geography class.

I was furious at myself. For years, I've been calling myself a writer and I haven't even finished a story yet. And lookie here, a thirteen-year-old's gonna have her book out, like, for sale and stuff. I couldn't concentrate on my schoolwork. I was just...wallowing in self pity. Of course, that's pretty normal for me, so maybe I should say that I was drowning in self pity.

One day, before the first bell rang, I told my friend. She, being wise and totally smart, basically told me I was an idiot for thinking that way. Except, you know, with nicer words. Actually, because she's a writer too and way better with words than I'll ever be, she compared it to climbing. She said something about how she climbed this hella high thing (Um...yeah. Sorry for not remembering the actual place. Half Point or something? Half Peak?) and said that eight-year-olds have climbed it before as well. But she was proud of herself for climbing it and having kids younger than her doing it didn't bug her. My friend did it and that's what mattered. Age isn't the most important thing. (Oh dear, that sounds a bit...weird. But we're all innocent people here, aren't we?)

So, the moral of her story is that age doesn't matter. Publishing isn't a race. It doesn't matter if you're published at thirteen or thirty or even seventy. Heck, maybe in twenty years or so, I won't even want to be published anymore. Maybe I'll have another dream. (Which would be really sad)

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The following pictures were found on www.weheartit.com

Blogger

A lot of authors will tell stories about the life changing event that caused them to write. Parents, teachers, injuries, depression, ect. Not all events were life changing, and some explanations are as simple as "I've always liked words". But what makes a blogger blog? Many writers blog nowadays just because they're expected to. They're supposed to have one. So they make one. Whatever, right?

Well, no. I'm sure most people don't really care but this bugs me so much. Leave blogging and networking to the people who genuinely like it.

Strangely enough, I discovered blogging before I discovered my love for writing. I'm not nostalgic enough (or drunk) to think that blogging spawned my interest in writing because it didn't. I discovered my love for writing when I outgrew "make believe games". All around me, my friends were getting bored. They were getting sick of pretending things were there that we couldn't see. They were sick of pretending to be people we weren't. And soon enough, I was the idiot receiving blank stares whenever I asked "Wanna pretend that ___?" Even I could tell that was a no.

But I'll get to my writer-ly discovery later. Right now, I want to talk about myself as a blogger. In 6th grade, my brother discovered how to use this free website making thing. (Not blogger or any of the common networking sites. I actually don't remember what the site was called.) It was amazing. My brother made a site that a bunch of our friends shared, and everyone had their own profile space that we could do anything with.

It was amazing. We scoured the interwebs for pictures and fonts to decorate our page with and jockeyed for the daily posts on the home page.

And then, soon enough, we discovered that we could change other people's pages. Sure enough, that led to a lot of fighting, pranks, and hatred between all of us. Finally, my best friend* and I got sick of being the only two girls on the site (The majority of the attacks were against us, funnily enough) and we broke off.**

So we created our own blog. And that lasted the entire year. It was...well...awesome. Way better than the chaos that used to be our first blog. We even created pages that supported environmental causes and had themes to our duo blog posts. My friend and I basically hung out every single day after school, so on some of those days, we'd plant our butts into a chair and update the home page. It'd take a few minutes for us to choose a topic, but once one was chosen, we'd throw our opinions into the void of cyberspace. Being the awesomely techie kids we were, we even created a "Past Posts" page that held all of our previous content. Of course, it was still pretty stupid (we had a lot of Michael Jackson jokes and weird hobo impersonations) but we were in 6th grade.

When summer vacation rolled around, the blog didn't have a chance. I was off for a trip to China and she was freakin' moving to another state.

I continued blogging after that, but I moved to a shiny new place run by the folks at Google. Behold, blogger. For about two or three years, I ran another seeeeeekrit blog that I'd rather die than tell you the name of. It was nice...at first. But I, being a bit worse than the average teenager, wrote some really embarrassing and angst ridden posts. It took me a while to realize that I needed to be more shiny and positive, so I created this lovely blog and moved here.

And now I'm here, sighing like an old lady over my internet journey. Somehow, I feel like being a blogger is a part of me, no matter how many followers I have. It's not a big part of me but it's still a part of me, however small.




*My friend is awesome. I miss her a lot even though it's been almost two and a half years. Looking over this blog post, it seems like I have some sort of an issue with moving on, but that's not why I miss her. Really. She's just...awesome.

**By the way, if any of my first blog co-writers are reading this, (probably not) that dog corpse picture was SCARY. And I do not eat poop or love any of you in anything more than a platonic way.

Blocks

Despite the vague, one-worded title, I am not here to talk about building blocks. (Even though they're awesome) I'm also not here to talk about digestive system blocks. (You should probably see your doctor about that or cut off on all of that cheese you're eating)

I'm here to talk about writer's block. Or as I like to call it, That Really Bad Thing That Happens While You're Writing. Obviously, you can see why most people like to call it Writer's Block. TRBTTHWYW is too long of an acronym and it's also very vague with a lot of possible meanings. A lot of bad things can happen while you write. For instance, your (imaginary) cat could have eaten your (also imaginary) hamster. You might have forgotten to set a timer and wind up burning that cake you've been baking. Your monster fighting siblings might have accidentally brought back a man-eating chimera that wasn't quite dead yet. (If you have monster fighting siblings, give me a call. I'd love to meet them.)

Ahem, back to the topic at hand. Writer's block may come from a series of things. It's not a good excuse for you to drop your current project and swear of writing forever. Well, you could do that if you really wanted to, but while doing that you might cross the line from writer to normal person. The normal person world is a scary and rational place. 

Everyone encounters writer's block at least once in their writing life and overcoming it is what separates the dreamers from the achievers. (I sound like a self help book. Aaaah) Writer's block isn't as much of a block as it is a wall. A mental wall that you build for yourself. Here are a few ways to blow that sucker up.

1. Take a break

This break is different from that break you took from playing the piano. I know you haven't touched that keyboard in five years. By take a break, I mean put your writing on hold while you unwind and let your brain recharge. Take a walk, go shopping, go for a jog, read a book, take a bubble bath, sing sea chanties with your dog. Do things that can fill your mind back up with ideas and creativity. The most important part of this is to go back to your story. Don't just up and ditch.

2. Go back to the drawing board

I don't care if you're a panster and it's against your religion to plan. The reason you might be having so much trouble writing is probably because you don't know what you're doing. You don't even have to write an intricate plot outline for your story. Just find out what needs to happen in the scene and write it.

3. Talk about it

Sometimes it's easier to find the problems when you hear things aloud. Humans are verbal creatures. It's best to talk about it with a friend/family member/teacher/acquaintance willing to listen and offer up their two cents on it. A lot of the time, they'll be able to offer solutions or discover problems that you would have never thought of. If you don't want to talk about it with an actual person, tell your lamp/dog/teddy bear about it. Once you start talking, the ideas flow.

4. Write more than one project at a time

This doesn't work for everyone because a lot of people have trouble juggling different stories and different voices at the same time, but if you can do it, it's great! Stuck on one project? Just go work on another. Problem solved! (The downside is that you might never finish a story if you keep adding those shiny new ideas)

5. Don't be afraid to be a bitch

Think of the worst possible thing that could happen to your characters. Then make it happen. You don't have to keep it in your draft, but it'll probably banish that mental block of yours.

6. TNT

I don't really recommend this option. 6/6 of the people who've tried this have blown off their heads. But it destroys that pesky block of yours. (And everything else) BLOW THAT SUCKER UP!* 

What do you do when you have writer's block?

*Don't actually do this. 

Love Triangles

Currently, I'm on a quick break from studying for my semester exams, so of course I decided to blog about a tricky subject in YA literature. Because that's what all the cool kids are doing, right? (Actually, all the cool kids are either studying like maniacs or blowing their tests on for facebook) I'll apologize beforehand, because it seems like the ungodly amount of Spanish I tried to cram into my poor little brain has fried it completely. I'm not even going to start complaining about bio or else this may take up the entire post.

Love triangles are popping up everywhere in modern day YA literature. Twilight seems to have spawned this trend, or so many experts say. Well, the thing is, the whole Bella/Jacob/Edward thing going on? Yeah, that's not actually a love triangle. Most people believe that love triangles are when two (ridiculously hot or otherwise) guys fall in love with a girl. The girl is almost always the main character. Don't get me wrong, guys can have two girls vying for their affection too...it's just not as common. We'll use the whole "love triangle" from Twilight as an examples of why most love triangles aren't love triangles. Most of these so called love triangles are nothing but love angles disguising themselves as triangles. You want to know why? Even if you don't, I'll tell you. Edward and Jacob have no relationship with each other than just being rivals for Bella's love. Therefor, a line is missing. And since triangles are polygons and polygons are enclosed figures, the love angle is nothing more than a poser.

Behold! Bad diagrams and even worse explanations!

Love Angle
    
           Bella
          /       \
Edward     Jacob

Now, while most of the relationships disguised as love triangles are angles, there are some actual love triangles out there. They're rare, but not imaginary. For example, in The Infernal Devices, a series by Cassandra Clare, Jem and Will both love Tessa,  but Jem and Will also have a separate relationship with each other, other than just being rivals. They're parabatai, sworn to protect the other on the cost of their own life. Will, who seemingly hates everyone, loves Jem. He loves Jem more than anything in the world and Jem loves Will as well. (In a platonic way) Once you introduce the whole marriage/courting kind of love, that's where Tessa comes in. BAM! Now you've got a love triangle that works.

Another example of a real love triangle is the relationship between Damon, Elena, and Stephen from The Vampire Diaries. Stephen and Damon both love Elena. Stephen and Damon are also brothers. Instant relationship!

Actual Love Triangles

    Tessa                       Elena
   /         \                     /         \
Will -- Jem          Damon -- Stephen

I hope that cleared some things up for you guys. Or at the very least, offered a few minutes of distraction for you while you read it/debated my sanity. It's back to studying for me!

Yes, we're having ANOTHER live blog.

There's a universal truth/cliche I happen to fulfill that teenagers are lazy. Now I know that not all teenagers are lazy, but it's one of those things that get passed on. Especially in today's obesity worried world. I'm one of those teenagers. Okay, here's my confession.

....

Ready?

...Are you sure?

I haven't written a word in two weeks. 

Yes, you read it right. (Well, actually, I have written quite a lot more than a word, but those are notes and stuff for school and that kind of stuff drives me bonkers) The stakes are the same, looser has to wear a dress to school. Most girls my age are like, "Psh, a dress? I wear that anyways. It's a pathetic punishment." Well SCREW YOU, GIRL MY AGE. No, actually, that's not what I wanted to say. Congrats for braving the cold and freezing your butt off in those cute dresses of yours. I happen to like keeping my body a warm temperature. And I think my man thighs look kind of grotesque under a flouncy dress.  My friend and I were pretty hardcore with our last live blog bet, with the 6k a day competition but next week it's finals week and we have some studying to do. (Plus, I have to do my math homework from this entire week. This week was kind of hectic. I had to prioritize my homework. Surprise, surprise, math got bumped down to last place)

Here in the US of A we have a three day weekend in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. My friend and I are aiming to write 10k over the three day weekend. She was a good girl and set up her blog post as soon as she got home whereas I just took out a book and read. Yeah, I'm that girl. The one who can read a book in about two hours and who's always carrying something written with her. The girl who sucks at real life.

We'll probably keep the lovely tradition of attempting to distract each other via text or twitter. Sadly, you guys cannot read our text messages. But you can tune in to our twitter feeds. We'd be thrilled if you tweeted us during our endeavor. Since you're here, we'll also track our progress on our respective blogs.

Chloe's blog (The one known in this post as "my friend"): http://www.cannibalcarrot.blogspot.com/

My twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/lBroken_Angel

Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/CannibalCarrot

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FRIDAY (the 13th)

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm : Ate this amazing cotton candy ice cream my mom bought. Read Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.

5:40 pm: Surfed the internet like the brain dead zombie I happen to be. Read a few blogs. Looked at pictures on weheartit.com and watched some pointless youtube videos. Oh yeah, this is productivity at its greatest.

6:00 pm - 6:40 pm: Ate dinner with the family. For like five minutes. Then my siblings ditched and left me to spend some good ol' quality time with the parents. Oh goody!

7:00 pm - 10:00 pm: Saw an awesome school play. It was hilarious and the actors were amazing.

10: 21 pm: Killed time on twitter and blogger. Fell in love with Maggie Stiefvater again after rereading a few posts on her blog. She should totally marry me.

11:43 pm: Goodnight, world.

Word count: 0/10000
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SATURDAY


8:30 am: Woke up. My first coherent thought was something about mice and headaches. I have no clue why the heck I was thinking about mice, but I was. Tried to go back to sleep but my stupid brain won't shut up. So here I am, editing this blog post.

9:38 am: Between now and 8:30, I've had breakfast and started writing. I made some eggs but accidentally cracked them badly so I was picking out eggshells like an idiot for fifteen minutes. Writing wise, I'm terrible at pacing so the action/tense scene is way too descriptive to be okay. But it's alright right now because it inflates word count. Did I mention that I'm jumping from scene to scene? Yeah, NOT OKAY, Julie.

10:11 am: Sent a few panicked and desperate tweets to Chloe. The paranoia's settling in. Her blog is quiet. Too quiet. I hope she's asleep but I have this nagging feeling that she's turned off her internet and is doing that crazy Chloe world making machine thing. Wrote in between panic attacks.

10:43 am: Listened to some Taylor Swift music on youtube because someone from inkpop suggested a few of her songs. Then listened to Yiruma because he's awesome. Wrote some more. I didn't really realize my character was that suicidal.

WC: 1458/10000 
Progress is still progress.


12:24 pm: Wrote a bit. Texted Chloe. Went on twitter. I'm off to Chevy's because my dad has a gift card.

WC: 2341/10000
I didn't get much done. I like the internet to much to be productive.


12:47 pm: Okay, I kind of lied about going to Chevy's. My parents got mad at each other and my mom wound up taking my sister to a local restaurant instead. Whatever. More time to write. (Or procrastinate) Remember how last time we did this live blog thing I hated myself a lot? Well yeah, I've reverted to hating myself. What is this junk I'm writing? ARE THESE EVEN WORDS!?

1:48 pm: Wrote a weird-ish dialogue thing between three of my characters. They all swapped personalities (It was by accident!) and I have my work in editing cut out for me. Ugh. The kind of pervy character suddenly got all calm and serious, the goofy one acted like a mute, and the main character had a mental breakdown. Oh what fun it is to write stuff that makes no sense!

WC: 3005/10000
I'm a slow writer. Deal with it.


2:13 pm: Haha, writing? What's that? I'm having a whole lot of fun reading manga instead. Magical girl transformation! *cute sounds and fluffy pink hearts appear* Just kidding. I don't like magical girl stories very much. I'm reading a murder mystery one. It's kind of lame but the pictures are good!

3:53 pm: Chatted with Chloe on facebook for a while. Sorry, you can't see that chat either. But yeah, Chloe's hilarious. And awesome. And a genius. I have a new plan for my characters and this one involves a lot of kissing. And my emo character just turned into the fallback kisser.

4:11 pm: For someone who wasn't planning on writing, I got some decent work done. I usually have to struggle to get this much.

WC: 3475/10000


5:36 pm: I did some photo editing and tried to make my blog all swag. But technology hates my guts so the pretty swag failed and we still have this boring blog for all that grueling work.

6:00 pm: Ate dinner. My parents went grocery shopping so they bought me a cherry slushie. Had pizza for dinner. Junk food, yay! Who needs to be healthy? Psh, not me! Hello future health problems!

6:48 pm: Watching last week's episode of Vampire Diaries with my little sister. Yay, Damon!

WC: No change

7:43 pm - 9:08 pm: Wrote like the a tornado. Never mind the fact that tornadoes are chaotic and destructive and in general, don't write. Right now, my brain is completely fried and I'm not sure what my last two paragraphs in my Word document are about. Tornadoes write. Because I am a tornado. Rawr.

WC: 5468/10000
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SUNDAY

9:30 am: Tried to write according to THE PLAN Chloe and I (but mostly Chloe) came up with via facebook yesterday. My characters decided to fight. I don't think they can kiss anymore. My inability to control the characters inside of my head leads me to think that I have some kind of inferiority complex. Because seriously, what kind of characters don't listen to their writer?

9:58 am: Sent a panicked facebook message to Chloe about previous log. WHY WON'T THEY LISTEN!? THE PLAN IS RUINED. Still haven't had breakfast.

WC: Not worth telling. I've only written about a hundred words.


10:00 am - 6:50 pm: Stuff happened. Cool beans, right?

6:57 pm: Watching the Golden Globes with my parents. I wrote a little bit today but it wasn't very much. About three of my characters decided to rebel against me. I have no idea how parents of teenagers have the energy to keep fighting back. I mean, I'm waging an imaginary war against my characters, so who knows how much worse it must be against a real person. Because, you know, real people can throw things.

WC: 7844/10000
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Monday


3:12 pm: Reached 10k!

WC: 10095

Visual Inspiration (1)

In between homework assignments and goofing off on the internet, I collect pictures off tumblr and other sites (ok, so this counts as goofing off on the internet) that remind me of my stories. It's kind of something I do to guilt trip myself into opening up my word doc and writing. Because hey, I'm in a very serious relationship with Procrastination. I think I might propose soon but I found out he was cheating on me with ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND HALF THE POPULATION. So yeah...I'm not really into polygamy or anything, but I can't rid myself of this relationship no matter how hard I try. (Which honestly, isn't very hard)

Oops, rambling again. Here are a few pictures that remind me of themes/ideas/events/characters in my yet to be officially named project. It's about genies. :) And yes, I do have a legit file just for these pictures.

New Year

Well, I don't have a lot of time to write a super long post right now because we have a bunch of people over while we celebrate the new year. I'm currently being antisocial and hiding out in my room but I'm obligated to haul my ass out of bed and entertain the guests. Which I will...in a few minutes. Actually, I don't even think I'm antisocial. To be antisocial, you have to dislike people. I like people (sometimes). The reason I don't talk or hide out by myself is because I'm scared of people. So yes, dear reader, chances are if we met in real life, I'd scream bloody murder and back away from you like you have the black plague. I'll apologize beforehand.

As 2011 comes to a close, I've realized that not only am I going to be scribbling out /11 on all of my papers for the next few months, but I've done nothing notable or important this past year. (Unless you count the surgery my parents forced onto me, and even then, it's a rather unremarkable feat)

2012 will be different! This is the last year we'll ever have, according to the Mayans. I better do something interesting, hm? After I finish this post and make nice with the guests for a few hours, I'll compile my New Year's Resolutions. Except, instead of a list of vague things I want to do, it'll be a checklist of things I will have to do. To force myself to uphold these "resolutions", I'll probably be codependent and make someone I know hold me accountable for one (if not more) resolution.

Happy New Year! Say your goodbyes to 2011, whether it was a good or bad year, and welcome the new year! (I accidentally typed yar because when I blank out, I tend to think I'm a pirate) Maybe some other time I'll post my goals and make you in charge of one of them.

2011, good or bad year. Why?


What are your resolutions?

Live Blog with Cannibal Carrot Numero Dos

My writing has been stilted and almost nonexistent these past few days so yesterday I proposed another Word Goal Competition Thingy with my friend, Cannibal Carrot. If you weren't here for the past one (which lasted a weekend) and you're too lazy to go back and check my past posts, it's just a competition where we had to write 10k in two days. If you're worse than math than I am, it's 5k a day. This time, we're raising the bar. It'll be a one day deal, but instead of 5k, it'll be 6k. The bet's the same (although I was unaware we even had a bet until I checked her blog) If you don't write 6k today, you have to wear a dress to school on Mon--Tuesday.

9:40 am: Woke up. Looked at clock and then promptly went back to sleep. I stayed up until 12 something last night (this morning) because our dinner guests got drunk and couldn't tell time.

10:28 am: Checked Chloe's blog. No, no, no...opened up my word document and started to feel like shit. I'm aware this feeling will last all day.

11:16 am: Wrote for the past hour or so. The bad feeling didn't go away and now I hate my characters AND my writing. I earned breakfast, though.
WC: 1005/6000 Still way behind Chloe. She got a head start today. I wonder how much she has now...


11:43 am: Ate a breakfast of cookies, which will totally screw over my blood sugar level. Hello type two diabetes, I think I see you in my future! I found a piece of chocolate that will be my prize for reaching 2k.

12:27 pm: Wrote like hell, even though I'm a slow writer. Just wrote. Nothing else. The selfhatred is growing stronger.

WC: 2062/6000


12:53 pm: Finished the scene I was working on all morning. I've resorted to skipping around the story. Now I know it's never going to be finished and never going to be complete. *sigh*

WC: 2589/6000


12:54 pm: Going on an internet detour to cleanse my brain. Screw self control, I'll go crazy with my word doc all day.

1:00-1:59 pm: Alternated between surfing the internet and writing. I couldn't write without a little help, so I brought sexy Thomas back with all of his perverted glory. Blushed a lot while writing sexy scenes. Also paranoidly watched my bedroom door in case my parents wanted to come in and read over my shoulder.

WC: 3429/6000 I think I've earned my lunch.


2:40 pm: Pretty, pretty books. I think I'll be stupid and read you!

4:02 pm: Legend by Marie Lu is a FREAKIN' AMAZING book. The shitty feeling just increased tenfold. I think I'll keep the break going until it gets dark outside. For some reason it's easier to write during the night. And maybe the time will separate the shitty feelings and adoration from my writing.

5:33 pm: The sun is down. After a mind numbing hour of internet crap, it's time to return to THE WORK. Ugh, ugh, ugh...but ooh! Kissy scene. Oh wait...already wrote that.

5:46 pm: Procrastinated and made popcorn. Add said popcorn with sister while looking a her latest celebrity gossip magazine and dissing celebs.

6:11 pm: Wrote like the wiiind. (Even though the wind doesn't write) Mind numb. I can't feel my brain...

WC: 4570/6000 Only about 1.5k to go! Whoo! Chloe has yet to update. I'm frightened...


6:42 pm: Went on facebook while I was busy being embarrassed about writing a kissing scene. Checked Chloe's blog. No update. It's quite. Too quiet...

7:19 pm: Went and did the deed. Kissing scene is done.


WC: 5478/6000 I've earned my dinner. About 500 words left! Fight!


7:21-7:39 pm: Dinner. Spagetti and meatballs, yum yum!

7:58 pm: OHMYGOD! I reached 6k. I am done with this challenge. BS-ed a bunch with girly conversations, perverted guy antics, and kissing. Lots of kissing.

Final WC: 6004/6000 I might write more today, but I doubt it. I'm feeling kind of worded out right now.

Christmas Eve

I tried to include the other fun holidays in my previous post (I know, it's bad form to ditch a blog for months and then blog two days in a row. What can I say? I like to keep you guys on your toes) and I kind of failed, but this post will be a quick post. It's Christmas Eve, so I'm supposed to be spending time with the family instead of hiding away in my room like a hermit.

So my AMAZING WRITER/CLIMBER/A BUNCH OF OTHER COOL THINGS FRIEND decided to be more awesome than usual and drew an Infernal Devices cartoon that pertains to my twitter name (@llbroken_angell) So I just had to post it here to show you all how awesome she is. She's the same friend who sent me the hilarious list telling me why I should lend her Clockwork Prince. Yeah, we be book junkies.

Isn't awesome!? She has a blog too. It's pretty cool n' stuff so you should totally check it out here. 

Twas the night before Christmas...oh wait, I lied, that's tomorrow

It's one day before Christmas Eve. Or the eve of Christmas Eve. Or the day after four days before Christmas. Or the fifth day of Hanukkah. Or four days before Kwanza. Yeah, pick which ever name you want, but it's still the same day. My family and I are finally home after a grueling ten hour car ride. Family trips are fun...in theory. Because in real life, ten hours in a tiny (well, big) car, crammed up against my pointy brother and younger sister while the cow stink from the hoard of farting cows outside wafts into the car is a Bad Thing. And Bad Things are not fun. Part way through, my dad and my mom got into a very loud argument over directions while we were following a GPS. Confused? Yeah, I was too. For the entirety of the argument, I pretended to sleep so my parents wouldn't turn around and scream at me. My bitter personality and snark are not appreciated and I sound like a lame pep talker when I try to be nice. I have this terrible habit of making a bad situation worse. But honestly, I don't do it deliberately. For someone who calls herself a writer, I'm not very good with words.

Moving on, it's great to be home for the holidays. The tree is lit, the lights outside are winking, and all that's missing is a cozy fire. But our Christmas tree kind of blocks the fireplace, so we can't light it. Well, we could but then the tree would catch on fire and eat all of our presents and the entire house. (Random thought, but I saw a "crackling hearth" DVD for sale at Barnes and Noble. It was seriously just a video of a fire in a fireplace. Who'd waste eight dollars on that? More importantly, who'd spend, like eight hours recording a controlled fire?)

I think the holiday cheer's finally catching up to me. My little sister started turning on the Christmas songs and baking cookies in the beginning of December. She insisted we get our tree as soon as the month changed and we had to DECORATE IT RIGHT THEN AND THERE. When I was younger, (I know I'm still young. I just feel like an old lady) I'd always be the one who insisted we HAD to decorate our tree. This year, I hung about four ornaments before getting bored and leaving. I find that every year, it takes longer and longer for me to get hyped up about the holidays. It's almost like I don't care anymore. I didn't write a Christmas list until a week ago, and by then everyone had already bought their gifts. And the kicker is that I still don't care. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast buying gifts for my family and friend(s) but I don't expect very much from other people. Mommy, am I depressed? Or am I just some strange, pathetic creature with no feelings?

Oh jeez, and this soul finding rambling stuff comes out right after I declare a happy thing. Remind me to blog earlier in the day when I'm not as tired, okay? I don't know why, but after ten I get really depressing. As in, just by reading this post, I've already sucked away part of your soul. Sorry about that. Really. I'll give it back in a few days. I promise I'll wash it before I give it back to you. It'll be all sparkly and pretty and shiny and new. I swear.

When do you guys usually start feeling the holiday buzz? (And I'm NOT talking about the alcohol *glare*)

What did you ask for this year?

Movies

There's this fairly old belief that movies totally screw over a book. But...but what about movies that just suck? There's no book to compare to, just a really bad movie. The same goes for books, but I'm currently trapped at one of my mother's friend's house and there's this really weird movie on about a dog who used to be human who's a total asshole. (I'm a run on sentence fiend when I'm sleep deprived)

In any story, things have to make sense. I mean, it's nice to leave some things to be explained later or let the reader/viewer figure it out themselves, but there's a point where a reader/viewer will go "WTF" and leave. I reached that point when two dogs began to speak to each other telepathically. Sadly, it was a choice between gossiping fifty-year-olds and a really crappy movie. I stuck with the really crappy movie.

Generally, you're supposed to root for, or at least support the main character. It doesn't always happen, but the author's supposed to make the main character likable. Sure, they'll have flaws, but still, LIKABLE. The main character of this movie is a really adorable lab that used to be human. I mean come on, he's a DOG! Everyone loves dogs. But the movie makers still managed to make the dog a total dick. They managed to make you hate an adorable, fluffy doggy. Now that takes some hard work. The dog bit his wife's new husband while the man was driving and looking for his sick son in a snowstorm. Say it with me, "What a douche!"

And then the dog who can speak with the main character dog telepathically just died. At the end of the movie he came back as a telepathic squirrel. Um...what? *blinks* I know that I'm good at predicting endings and that most people hate it, but don't feel too accomplished by stumping me with a crackpot ending.

Rambly rant over. The bottom line is that plot twists are good, encouraged even, but don't write a story that makes so little sense that your readers wonder if you take drugs before you hit the keyboard.

Sorry for my crude language. When I get really tired, I tend to resort to dirty jokes and cussing. It's not good. Not good at all. I'm sorry. Oh pooh, this means I'm a bad person, doesn't it?

Have you ever read a book that makes no sense or a movie without a plot?

I think my friends are using me...

Okay, sorry for being a sucky blogger and not blogging anything lately. I'm just lazy. Are those shoes new? Love what you've done with your hair by the way. I think you've lost weight! :D


Well, right this second, I'm typing without the help of my right ring finger. Somehow, being the complete idiot I am, I screwed it up. But that's not what this post is about. 


I'm a boring person. I don't like taking risks and I lack a working sense of humor. So why do my friends keep me around? Am I some kind of charity case? Do they lack the guts to kick me out? Do they have extremely bad judgement? Do they enjoy mocking me behind my back?


Nope. I have books.


And I've buddied up with a circle of book crazed teenage girls. It's like be a drug dealer. They just keep coming back for more and they CAN'T leave me because doing so cuts off their steady supply of new books. Because I'm the freakin' supplier.* Seriously. One of my friends had a withdrawal via facebook at one in the morning. **

• I finished Clockwork Angel 35 minutes ago. I still can't sleep. So, I'm going to message you the reasons why you should try EXTRA ESPECIALLY HARD to get that book to me.
• 1. [removed friend's name] is a TROLL. Trolls are illiterate. They can't read! She's simply stealing the book! Probably to eat it.
• 2. I am not a troll. I would not eat it.
• I just realized that I didn't say what book you need to get to me! Well, if it wasn't obvious,
• GIVE ME CLOCKWORK PRINCE.
• please?
• 3. I will not squish its cover! You'll see tomorrow…that is to say, later today, that Clockwork Angel is still all rounded and pretty!
• 4. After reading it, I would be a good girl and read The Lost Hero.
• 5. Plus, after reading it, I would move on to Iron King. Although I may read that tonight (22 hours from now or so) and Mia wouldn't be pissed because I wouldn't take forever to return her book!
• 6. You're hella cool! And sucking up to people totally works when you want stuff from them! Stuff like, for instance, books. All hypothetical of course.
• 7. I will spam the HELL out of your twitter with requests for the book it you do not do this, and if you reply JARROD PERKINS WILL SEE YOUR TWEETS AND JUDGE YOU.
  
  

  
  

  • 8. I will stop threatening you if you give me the book.
  • 9. NOTHING happens between Jem and Tessa in Clockwork Angel. And there are rumors that STUFF happens in Clockwork Prince. Uh, hello? Dying here?
  • 10. Jem needs to punch Will in the face.
  • 11. The tenth and eleventh points may not be supporting my cause, but they're true. Soooo true! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL OF THE UNDERWATER AUTOMATONS! Did they go, "pffft zap!" and die? Or did they magically have gills all along?
  • 12. I TOTALLY HEARD THAT THE DOCTOR COMES AND TAKES JACE AND SIMON BACK IN TIME TO MEET JEM AND WILL AND JEM AND WILL ARE ALL LIKE, "LAAAAAAAAAME."
  • 13. I'm actually starting to become tired, so my reasons are getting hilarious. Hilarity = Persuasion, right?
  • 14. I AM A WONDERFUL HUMAN BEING. With love and goodness in my heart. I deserve this book.
  • 15. I will get you a FABULOUS Christmas present if you bring me the book. FAB. U. LOUS. We're talking Amazon / Barnes and Noble gift cards here.
    
    

    
    

    • 16. Or another present, if you want. As long as it's in my wimpy budget.
    • 17. YES, SIXTEEN IS A LEGITIMATE REASON.
    • 18. So is seventeen.
    • 19. I'm getting waaaaaaay too tired.
    • 20. You gave me Clockwork Angel! You did this to me! WWWWHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
    • 21. Do it for Jem! Bring me Clockwork Prince for JEM! The poor guy has terminal cancer, for Angel's sake
    • 22. I just made an EPIC reference to The Infernal Devices back there.
    • 23. The world is spinning. I'm reallly tired, aren't I?
    • 24. You're welcome. I am a fanTABULOUS friend, sending you an incredibly long message at 1:20 in the morning
    • 25. I Facebook-messaged you this instead of texting you, which you should be thankful for. This so would have woken you up.
    • 26. 

      Unattractive photos of me have been posted on Facebook!
      The book would be comfort.
      Kind of like ice cream sundaes.
      Or bunnies. Or rainbows.
    • 27. I only just learned how old Church is! Cassandra Clare can't leave me with such a cliffhanger! WHAT HAPPENS TO CHURCH IN THE TIME BETWEEN TID and TMI? haaahahah!
    • 28. The Mortal Instruments is TMI. lolololololololol
    • 29. CLOCKWORK PRINCE IS NOOOOOOT TMI!
    • 30. Please. I'm sleeping now. Consider my 

      offers/threats/thoughts while being delirious.
      
      
      Have you ever felt like you were being used? Have you ever been used? Have you ever thrown away your dignity on facebook?
      
      
      *I can't believe I just compared myself to a drug dealer.
      
      
      **I'm not being a heinus bitch by posting this. My friend who sent this message to me actually suggested I turn it into a blog post.
      
      
      
      
      
      

Last Day of Live Bloggin' Fun

It's the last day of our first crazy live bloggin' experience and I've started really late. Yesterday (previous post) I took a quick trip to the library to grab some sexy little books. Hehehehe! That was such a bad idea! I read one yesterday and then another this morning. I'm actually considering to give up and power through my books instead of words. Eeek! The good thing is that Chloe's chilling around the Bay Area today.

Chloe's Blog I don't think she'll be doing a lot of live blogging today. >:D

9:02 am: Woke up. Stayed in bed because it was warm. After I got bored of being warm, I ran downstairs to grab a book from the huge stack I got from the library. Sat on the couch. My dog joined me. He's warm. <3

10:02 am: Finished Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. Sat back and processed the story for a minute before I got bored.

Daily Word Goal: 0/5000

Day 2 of Live Bloggin'

I'm in a crappy mood. Writing this much is kind of hard.

Saturday 8:40 am: Woke up reluctantly. Started writing even more reluctantly.

Saturday 9:04 am: Ate breakfast. Stopped my reluctant writing.

Saturday 10:26 am: Chloe's twitter and blog are quiet. Too quiet. Still haven't started writing yet.

Daily Word Count: 459/5000 I'm feeling screwed already.

Somewhere between 10:26 am and 11:35am: Wrote a lot. Checked twitter a lot. Checked Chloe's blog obsessively.

Saturday 11:35 am: Made 2k. I've earned my lunch. Crunchy noodles, ftw!

Daily Word Count: 2165/5000 Almost halfway there! All's quiet in Chloe land. *fearful whisper*

Saturday 12:07 pm: Finished eating lunch. Surfed the internet. Look at pretty pictures on deviantart. Tried to ignore Chloe's pestering about a total word count. (It didn't work) I made green tea an hour ago and forgot about it. Now it's cold and way too strong. My Edward tea tastes bad. :(

Daily Word Count: Same... Total: 8916/15000


Saturday 12:12 pm: Watched an episode of the Vampire Diaries. My nose is running. I think I'm coming down with a cold.

Saturday 12:48 pm: Wrote a little bit. Mostly surfed deviantart. I also snuggled with my dog but he doesn't seem to like it.


Daily Word Count: 2527/5000 Halfway done! Total: Who the hell cares? :D Chloe's been busy...God dammit!


Saturday 1:07 pm: Decided to start writing after staring at twitter for ten minutes. No, people aren't going to tweet just because I want them to. I checked Chloe's blog. Ha! She's doing bio! And she has a group meet up! Started writing at a snail's pace. Stopped and ate leftover crunchy noodles. Debated whether or not to return to my writings. Started writing.

Saturday 1:36 pm: Still writing. Managed to reach 3k. I'm starting to feel burned out. *sighs* I decided to distract myself by texting my friend even though I should be using this time to get farther ahead of Chloe. Thing's are starting to slow down...


Daily Word Count: 3172/5000 Total: 9923/15000 Chloe's blog is quiet again...I can only hope she's doing biology instead of writing.


Saturday 1:40 pm-3:37 pm: Writing really slowly. Burned out. Grumpy. Paranoid. Sent a bunch of texts to Chloe and tweeted her a bunch. No reply. Maybe she's writing like a crazy person and she's passed me. Still paranoid and beginning to resemble a rabid animal.

Saturday 3:37 pm: A cyrptic tweet from Chloe. "It's still going". What can this mean? Is she still doing biology work?

Saturday 4:05 pm: Wrote around one hundred words. Texted a friend. Got distracted by TV. Heading off to the library even though I should write until I reach 5k.


Daily Word Count: 4283/5000 Total: Too lazy to tell you


Saturday 4:52 pm: Back from the library. All of those books made me kind of giddy. And sick. My stomach's killing me again. (No, I didn't eat the books) 700 words left before 5k. But I wanna reeeeeeeeaaaaad. My stomach and my headaches are trying to overthrow my mind. Bad body. Bad. I still want to read. I picked up Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr and The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. See my dilemma? Chloe's started writing again.

Saturday 5:40 pm: I finished my daily word goal! Whoooooooo! Watching Psych and eating chocolate!

Daily Word Count: 5751/5000 Total: 11808/15000 Chloe's on a roll! I'm worried...

Live bloggin' love

So a while back Stephenie Perkins, author of Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, made a bet against Beth Revis, the author of Across the Universe. Naturally, because I have no independent thoughts, I decided it'd be a great idea to make a crazy bet with my friend. We mused over it for a while but finally decided on the looser's punishment. Oh, and we made a word goal. But the punishment's kind of the interesting part. The goal is to write 10k words this weekend and as a last minute thing, we allowed Friday evening to count too.

The looser has to wear a dress to school on Monday. My friend, Chloe, and I are not the prissy types. Hell, I only own one dress and I'm fairly certain it'll get me dress cut. So yeah, I CAN'T LOOSE!

Chloe's Blog
www.cannibalcarrot.blogspot.com

Check out our twitter distractions. (Us trying to distract the other person) It's rather amusing.
https://twitter.com/#!/lBroken_angel Mine

https://twitter.com/#!/CannibalCarrot Her's

Friday 3:40 pm: Home from school. Eat asian ice pops. Omnomnomnom... Discuss Divergent by Veronica Roth with brother.

Friday 4:00 pm: Heeeeeey there, internet. <3 I love you. Please marry me.

Friday: 4:28 pm: Set up blog. Watch the Vampire Diaries with sister because she thinks if she watches it without me, the monsters will jump out of the screen and eat her.

WC: 4887/1500
Daily Word Goal: 0/3000

Friday 4:58 pm: Still watching the Vampire Diaries. I loooove you, Damon. Also surfing deviant art and holding a one-sided conversation with my dog. I checked Chloe's blog and I'm feeling a bit panicky. But I don't want to write...

Friday 5:05 pm: Holy shit, I think my stomach's trying to kill me! It huuuuuuurts...*whimpers*

Daily Word Goal: 0/3000

Friday 5:30 pm: Stomach's better. Chattin' with parents.

Friday 5:47 pm: Finished eating dinner. Going shopping. Screw writing.

Daily Word Goal: 3/3000

Friday 6:00 pm-8:25 pm: Shopping. I made Chloe come with me. >:3 The fluffy, the shiny, the squishy...

Daily Word Goal: Do you really have to ask?

Friday 9:08 pm: I wrote a little, tried to distract Chloe a lot. She's trying to use Damon against me. Pssshhh....I'm using him against her as well.

Daily Word Goal: 536/3000 It's improvement...

Friday 9:28 pm: Got to the 1k marker. Decided to reward myself with a short break.

Friday: 9:30-10:29 pm: Watchin' Psych. Realized that the break was too long. Stopped. I'm feeling kind of tired now.

Friday: 10:30 pm: CANDY! YOU WILL MAKE ME HYPER, NO?

Daily Word Count: Too lazy to check.

Friday 11:12 pm: I'm too tired to think. Or write. Or just move my fingers in ways that make words. I think I'm going to call it a night. (Grr, Chloe's probably rejoicing at this news)

Daily Word Count: 1864/3000 SCREW YOU!
WC: 6751/15000






PS: Noni!? Ohmygod, is that you? *tackles*