Stressful day: Complete.

What I was expecting at the conference (Notice. Authors, books, happy, all around awesomeness.)

Reality:

But seriously. It was awkward. I am always pumped up to go to a conference, and I usually have someone that I know better than nothing, and this conference was completely new and different. And strange.

Hey, maybe it was because 90% of the writers there didn't know the difference between "The end." And "The end".

Yikes.

But in all goodness, it was a good writers conference. All of the sessions (well, at least most of them) were very good in presenting the information that I wanted. I went to one about building the world, and all I got was confirmations that yes, I am indeed doing it right. Then I went to a very awkward one where the author just wanted to get praise for what she's done from her assistant, and only taught me what I already knew. Now that I think about it, it was just going over the basics.

Again.

Then I had to run down to BYU to go to a band festival that I was required to go to. That went smoothly, and we got really good scores, apparently. Yay us.

Then I ran back, and made it just in time for Elana Johnson's session on how not to outline, yet outline at the same time :) It was great. I actually learned a lot more than I thought I would. I thought, since the title was "Beating out your novel" it would be about writing a book in thirty days. And in a way, it was. Elana wrote all of her books within three weeks, which is great. But it wasn't. It was all kinds of ways to outline without actually calling it outlining :) I smile there because she detests outlining at the top of her lungs, yet it is quite necessary to be a writer. Hehehe.

And then I went to a dialogue group, where I already knew everything, again.

So my problem is that I've been to enough writers conferences that I think everyone is annoying and immature and they don't know anything. Sigh. Which, because of the last session, I know to be true since all they did was talk over the lady presenting. Annoying.

And all of the people were awkward. I tried to go and make acquaintances, and even with someone that I at least knew the name of from school. But not. I know for a fact that she thought I was a freak, which disheartens me, but whatever. I am a freak. And maybe I had something in my teeth and I smile too much. Who knows.

An okay writers conference overall.

I'm getting too old for the basics.

On to revising!

MeNoWriMo

Hello!

Happy leap day!

I've taken today to think about what I want to do with my writing, mainly, what in the world to do with this freaking second book. I recently lost my chapter outlines, which basically told me step-by-step what to write and how to write it. Which made my job a whole lot easier, and I kind of refuse to write any of this series unless I have a chapter outline.

But then I gave up on trying to find them. They became this lost symbol of trying to find everything that I had ever lost ever. And you wouldn't believe how many places there are to look in ones home until you've completely lost your insanity.

So I basically gave those outlines the kick in the pants, and I rewrote all of the outlines. Much better too, I think. The flow has more flow to it, and it made more sense to me. I didn't follow any pattern, only the pattern that I thought would be best to tell the story, not necessarily would keep readers reading, which was what the other outlines did.

But with a second book, very few can get it to be just as successful as the first, if not better.

Anyway,

What I'm going to do for the month of march is do a kind of NaNoWriMo, but only for me. Join if you want to. More the merrier. If you wish you can call it MeNoWriMo, either for Me Novel Writing Month, or March Novel Writing Month. Because it's obviously not national, so it's not Na anymore.

My goal is to get a draft coughed out by 12:00 am March 17th. Which is in 17 days. I can do this.
Big sigh. Little sigh.

But then there's school. Good thing I did the essay really quick last night!

So!

I'll take "Leap Day" to get caught up on all homework that I have so that tomorrow and whenever I have homework, it will be easy to take care of, and I won't get swamped in my goal.

Wish me luck! Ciao!

I hope you had a nice week :)

And I hope your week isn't as stressful as mine!

Writing Conference Season

Or baseball season, we like to call it in my house.

Welcome to Writing Conference Season! This is the time of year when I notice that A LOT of writers conferences are popping up all over the place, mostly for teens.

Ones that I am attending this year are

Teen Author Boot Camp, or TABC, is hosted by Writers Cubed. The keynote speaker this year is Brandon Mull, author of Fablehaven, and it has authors like Elana Johnson, J. Scott Savage, Tyler Whitesides, and others. My goal is to have a real conversation with Elana J. She's awesome, and I just want to actually speak to an author without sinking into the background to let someone else do it. March 10th

Then there's the Teen Writers Conference, one that I've attended for the past three years. Posts are throughout. I LOVE THIS CONFERENCE! Somewhere in June.

And I'm sure there will be others, but these are the two that I am planning for sure on attending.

I mention these because I just sent in my entry for the TABC, and I am super SUPER NERVOUS about it. It's the first chapter of your book, and I really REAAALLLY want it to do well. Like it's making me sweat, and it's still so far away.

Anywho, I have it posted up in the pages *Contest Entry* if you would like to read it. I've gone over it like thirty times, and I really want it to be good. So comment in this post how you thought it was, or if you liked it, just so that you can calm my nerves a little. Or be honest, or whatever.

NERVOUS CIAO!

Why I Started Writing

I heard about the Origins of Writing blog hop from Elana Johnson, and I couldn't resist. You know how much I love talking about writing.

I started writing when I was eleven, on December 30th, 2007. Around seven at night. Something like that. It was dark, at least.

And I admit, I didn't start to write a novel that wasn't already out there. I didn't start for some unselfish reason, and I wish that it wasn't this, but I started because I wanted to be exactly like Stephenie Meyer. I wanted to be an unknown person and suddenly be launched into fame. Yes, I was a rabid fan-girl who "devoured" the Twilight series and fell in blind love with Edward. It was disgusting, honestly. But hey, every girl has to have a chance to know what love is and what it isn't on her own. And I realized almost three years later what love was not; lust. Blech.

Anywho,

I pulled out one of my notebooks from my closet, ripped out the used pages of failed attempts at script-writing (about dinosaurs and their tragic yet epic journeys across the backyard) and just started. I didn't care about story, I didn't care about whether or not it had a reason. I wrote down what I was feeling, and whatever came to mind.

In the middle at the top, was Chapter 1, and then a little bit of a song I came up with out of the blue at the top. I can still recite it.

It started as a hopeless tale, of her parents hating her, or at least her father since her mother was gone in a far off town named Adagio, since the entire world she lived in was based around music. Her name was Claire, and she was a percussionist. She had an intense love of it, and one day she meets someone named after one of my previous crushes. They promptly fell in love, as all teenagers do when meeting the opposite sex, and went on a journey across their world and were attacked by demons, who stalked her and wanted her killed because of her mother.

That went on for about four months. I wrote everything in my notebook, since writing on the computer wasn't possible (I was SO CLUELESS) and my horrible story with no ending was born. At one point, I just skipped to the end where she realized who she was and just figuring that out defeated the demon and "left only the smell of rain."

So, in conclusion, I started writing to be published. That has always been the goal. It may have taken an on-again-off-again relationship in the middle, but I've always wanted to see my words on a smooth cream page and see the cover that I at first abhorred, but grew to love just because it was mine. At least, that's the dream. Shallow reason, I think, but why can't it be my dream too?

But here's why I kept writing.
I grew to love my characters, and realized that anything that I was struggling through, they were going through. We were each other's supporting crutch, and we both led each other through the difficult times to the very end where we both felt peace. My characters and writing help me through whatever I need, and in return, they get to have their voice in our world. Even if I'm the only one that hears it. (It's the only reason why I'm kept out of the asylum for hearing voices ;) At least, an excuse)

Ciao!