Very earlier on from yesterday I watched a YouTube video reviewing the YA novel series The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare which gives me more thought to my story. It lead me to search and read all sorts of things regarding story writing. I'm writing a novel that currently has about 17,000 words. I just realized that I have no idea how to progress through the middle to reach the end. I have a well established idea of the end but only a very vague idea of the middle. Now I'm thinking that I need to change the beginning. I have a book on Plot & Structure which is by James Scott Bell. I'm thinking of continuing to read that and I'm also researching how to "Avoid Sagging Middle Syndrome" written by Glen C. Strathy on https://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com. Which is leading me to try and figure out the "complication" in the story. Which right now, there isn't a strong one at the moment. I have an idea on what will happen in result of something established near the beginning but no way to make it different or interesting. I'm thinking of writing a couple of scenes separate from my direct story to give myself more ideas within my novel. It's only a first draft so I'm not particularly upset of how it's going right now. In fact in a sense, it's exciting on how the story will end up by the time I gone through all the drafts and leading to the publication of my novel. I'm also making a whole world for many stories I'm hoping to write which I'm starting to understand how to manage the sheer amount of details it requires to make one. I have some ideas, but like the middle of my story, it's extremely vague. I have two books on world building, and a pinterest board for world building and I'm following along a podcast on world building by the person who wrote the books. Overall, I need a whole lot of work doing my novel. I'm thinking of so many things I need to incorporate in my novel, but it's not exactly overwhelming me all the time. It's getting more exciting the more I learn about the process.
I would always tell myself, "I'll start writing everyday!" then I won't do it. NOW I do! I didn't want to post a blog entry of my recent plans to write everyday because I always do something like that but NOT do it! I decided to wait until I actually did it and low and behold, here. I. Am. For a whole week, I've been getting up at 5:30 (sometimes around 6 because I might have had trouble sleeping, a coffee shop that I liked wasn't open etc.), and drive to a coffee shop or something of the sort and do everything to do with writing. I've been doing writing sprints AND writing my novel. I would open my document for my novel and (would) do 5 min sprints to start of so, not only am I writing everyday, but I'm ALSO writing my novel. I read my writing book today because I felt like doing a whole week of writing, I could give myself a little break and relax. I still am going to do it, but I'm not going to right when I open my laptop and write. I don't want to risk burning myself out, but I also don't want to stop in risk of slacking off. Cross your fingers for me guys! I also have been writing my blog which I haven't been updating since two days ago, but I will. I have been writing a WHOLE lot lately, so I'm not too hard on myself about it. I'm fixing to update it soon though since I finished a whole week of writing everyday. I saw a post about someone saying authors don't really "write everyday" because of burn outs or what have you, but I feel like I need to since I haven't written at all. When I get to the point where I have written for three weeks I'll have a free day-maybe. I'm trying networking too! I joined linkedIn and tried reaching out to people (two people if we're being technical) and so far I have one connection. It's because I read a book and the author said to feel free and connect with him. I recently asked him for some book recommendations which is pretty neat (I feel like a silly person since I'm terrible with networking right now, but I shall progress!!!). Now, all I have to do is try critiquing on this website and be a part of the community more, but with all the writing I have been doing I haven't really been doing that. I'm also a Beta reader, so I have less time to spend on writing forums. I hope by doing this though, that I will help more Authors in this community. So, yeah. I'm finally doing something with my passion for writing. Look for my name on a novel in a few years! (My name's Jessica Lowery btw lol) If anyone is reading this by any chance, have a spendid day, and happy holidays!!!
I've known that you shouldn't "tell" but show the readers what's happening in the book. I knew, but apparently I still "told" the readers. I guess I don't really know how to show all that much. I try, I've been practicing. I try to use the five senses and everything to help with the show thingy. I try not to info dump. There's this recent super short story I've written a long time ago that I re-did. In the end, I made it completely different. Although, it did have the same idea to it with similar characters but, they were switched. Some personalities were switched and changed as well. The thing is, I realized it made the story a whole lot better than it was before. I know by me practicing these skills, I'm getting better at writing. By this fact, I'm feeling better as a writer. I'm planning on researching a lot more. I want to make my stories more interesting. Before, I just started writing with nothing but a few searches and reads here and there. I realized, by how my brother was doing a sort of comic type story (Which I'm helping with, but not lately x-x) he wanted to do more research then what I usually do. Low and behold, we gained some awesome ideas from it. Look at that! haha. I've been feeling the writing wasn't really a thing for me. I draw more than I write. The thing was though, while I've been drawing and seeing different pieces of art, all I've been thinking about was writing. It was like a friend that I haven't spoken to in a while. It was waiting for me to talk to it again. I started to continue writing my story on Wattpad. The thing was, I didn't know what direction I was heading for it. I felt like it was progressing fast and so I felt really discouraged. I write anyways. I'm planning on just writing it, even if it may not make sense. When I'm done with my chapter, (Which I'm working on my fourth) I'm going to edit the crap out of it and see if I could fix the story somehow so I won't just put the story on the backburner. I want to at least finish this one story. It's not really a novel, but a short story. When I finish the short story, I'm going to try and rewrite the whole story to take away all the mistakes I've made within it. I'm going to finish this one, and then I'm going to plan the heck out of the next story so I'll know what to write so I won't get writer's block. I’m working on my actual novel too. I moved on to where I was stuck. I believe I'm getting much better at just writing, not worrying about it making sense or how I have no idea to how I would write it. Bulldozing through. I'm going to critique more stories on this website for the reason there is critique stuff on this website: To get a better eye for my own works, and to try to give back to this community. You know, be a part of it more. I think my drawing helps me write. It’s hard for me to imagine things vividly because I feel I need to see it visually. When I draw, I realize that I get more ideas since it’s my imaginings manifest. For this reason, I thought I could try animation and comics. Just telling stories, in general, will be good.
I want to be an author. I want to see my name on a published book. I want to be able to read it again and again as if I'm just another reader. I don't remember a time when I started writing exclusively. I have written a lot during the years. I have two notebooks filled with short stories, a string of shorts throughout my computer, and I started stories but never finished them. I looked up writing tips on websites, joined free classes and followed blogs on writing. I joined this forum and received feedback on one of the chapters in my story. I write stories on Wattpad, and before that Quotev, and received feedback and advice. My brother would read some of the stories I write and give me feedback. I've rewritten my stories on Wattpad. I deleted stories from Wattpad and Quotev. I always thought of writing like free falling, but I could grab on to a ledge for a little bit. Structured writing, but I could start a story with anything and depend on how the words are arranged could make a big difference in a story. This thought always brings me to a halt in my writing. It feels like I could never find the right words. I tend to get discouraged when I think like this. I know I should keep writing and keep moving forward with it. I'm worried in the end I'll never be able to publish a book or what have you. I sometimes feel like giving up and do something new. I thought about doing something that still has storytelling but it has to do with animation. Every time I think about it, I feel like I'm quitting which is something I don't want to do. I want something solid I could hold onto. Not digitally. When I grow older, and when I could pay things on my own, I want to hire a mentor that I could see on a daily basis. I also want to start a writing group. I'm forming one currently at my school which hasn't started yet, but I'm working on it. I'm hoping I could be in a writing club in college when I'm done with school (Since this group is being formed on my second semester and I'm a senior). I want to know more people with similar aspirations like me. I believe I'm getting better at writing constantly (although I do go days without writing but there was a time when I would go months so). I'm also getting better at keeping track with my progress online so I feel more inclined to write. I'm worried if I'll never be able to publish anything, but at the same time, I'm remaining hopeful. Only because of so many people on here and other websites (like Wattpad) keeps me inspired on writing.