Job Searching, Writing, and Sometimes Revision

Page two of my own ELEVEN revision notes.
(Picture intentionally blurry!)

Hello everybody!

As you may or may not know, I recently moved to California. I came out here to follow my dreams and to become a big name! (Just kidding. I moved here because I needed to get out of Illinois and my sister lives here with my brother-in-law.)

I thought I was ready for the real world when I was still in school, but now that I'm in it, I'm pretty much falling apart. Okay, well, I wouldn't say that, but I am stressed! I've applied to so many jobs, I've lost count! Because of all the time I've been working on applying to jobs, my writing has taken a back seat. Now, that doesn't meant I've stopped writing! I am definitely still writing! It's just not as much as I'd like to be.

I recently beta-ed my second Nano book to a friend. When I got it back, I had SEVEN single-spaced pages of revision notes. That's not including all the comments actually made ON the manuscript. After reading through them, I agreed with almost all of the notes/suggests/please-change-this-now's. So that's what I've been working on. It's not going to be done as fast as I had originally hoped, but it's coming along.

What's nice, and interesting, about another person looking at your work is, it bring a whole new light to your story. I realized things about my characters I wasn't even aware of. I fixed melodramatic story elements, that originally, I thought were perfect.

For instance, the ending of my manuscript ended in a HUGE way. In fact, it was the original thing I thought up in my mind that my story was based around. (Let's say it involves a crash and public transportation.) It was melodramatic and over the top, but it was the first thing I had ever thought up for this story.

When my friend read it, the only note she put was "Are you serious?" and I knew, deep down, that it was no longer right for the story I was trying to tell. Yes, my entire story grew around this incident, but there was something I hadn't noticed. My story had outgrown it. My story was so much more than that incident now.

So I cut it.

And my story has never looked better.

Hey, look! It's Kevin!

Two books I received as gifts!!

Hey everybody!

I know, I know, you're probably thinking "This kid's alive!?" Well, yes, I am!

It's been a wild ride, this semester. I know I have been in hiatus, but this hiatus is officially over! I plan on writing this blog like never before! (Which means, I'll be posting regularly, and I'll be doing Road Trip Wednesdays, as well as book reviews and what not!)

I do want to apologize for being gone for so long. I went through a lot of personal things in the past six or seven months.

But on the bright side, here are some good highlights!

1. I graduated from SIUC! College is done!
2. I am moving to California in four days!
3. I attended my first writer's retreat! (Four friends eating brunch while writing counts, right?)
4. I started a tumblr! (click if you want to check it out)
5. I was Senior Co-Editor of the lit magazine at my school!
6. I got a short story and a poem published!
7. I won the CURCA award at my school for my short story!
8. Did I mention I graduated?
9. And I'm sure something else I can't remember as of right now.

Those are some highlights of what I haven't been writing about, but no more! My adventures in California and trying to get published will be documented here for you all to read.

I will stop rambling now!

Happy to be back everybody!

Inspiration: Las Vegas

picture owned by smemon

Hello all!

I hope all of your holiday's out there were great. This year I spent my Christmas Eve and Christmas in the great Las Vegas. If you have never been there, you should definitely go some day. It's a beautiful town and the atmosphere is amazing.

What's really awesome about Vegas is the inspiration that just oozes out of the town. That's what I want to talk about. Inspiration. Shiny new ideas as the people on AbsoluteWrite call them! While walking down the Strip I saw a man in a mask on top of a bridge and in the flash of the neon lights, the man disappeared. And with that, a shiny new idea came to my mind!

It's funny really how this stuff just comes up in the middle of no where. I want to hear about when weird ideas come up to you. Let me know, because I find it interesting. One of my creative writing teachers once told my class that writers see the world in a different way. The kid part of us never goes away and we never stop day dreaming. So tell me some times when you thought of story ideas!

Also, I start editing my novel from nano last year. Well, started again. For a while I was tired of it, I didn't want to look at it anymore. But my love is back and I'm getting it done!

P.S. In case you were wondering, I did stay in the Paris hotel, but that is not my picture.

Finish Nano: Check

owned by Nano

Hello all of you out there.

As you can see from the banner above, I have won Nano! I ended up finishing the novel too, clocking in at almost 51 thousand. I'm very excited about this. I've now finished two novels! I will say, however, they are both far from being done and ready to be sent out.

It's exciting to have finished though. I now have two novels under my belt! It still baffles my mind to think about. I struggled a lot this month with school work and what not, and it's nice to have been able to finish this along with so many other tasks.

This leads into my next topic point. I've been neglecting this blog a lot this month. Last year I posted multiple times almost every week. I think this year I have one other post. However, that will change. I am done with all of my hard school work for this semester, minus one ten page paper. I will have much more time to write and reach out to others. I also plan on starting up on Road Trip Wednesdays again (run by YA Highway). 

I'm very excited for what's coming up! I hope you'll tune in too! And tell me, how was your Nano? Did you finish the 50k? Did you love what you wrote? Did you hate it? Talk to me!

also owned by nano

And in the spirit of finishing Nano, here is an excerpt from mine! This year's was a YA Contemporary.

___________________________________________________

               I watch him close his eyes and hum, tilting his head towards the sky a little bit. With the sun shining on his hair it looks almost white. “Thatch,” I say, my voice barely audible over the music. He looks at me and smiles. “I do like you.” He slowly walks over to me and stands a couple of feet in front of me. “I just... I need time.”

               He smiles again and puts his arms around me, pulling me close to him. “Dance with me.”

               “Right here?” I ask, looking into his eyes.

               “Why not?” he says, smiling again.

               He pulls me closer into him and I wrap my arms around his neck, wresting my head on his chest. I feel the heat radiating off of him and for the first time in months, I feel whole.

Falling Behind During Nano

So I write this for reasons that are obvious in the title. I'm falling behind in my WIP. When I first started I took off. I was ahead, and I mean really ahead, of the game! I thought I was going to cruise through this nano (click here to figure out what you're missing) like no other!

It only took a day or two of being busy with other things (like one of my two jobs, my internship, or my classwork) to fall behind. At the end of today, which is technically Sunday, I need to be at 16,666. As of right now I'm at 12,688. So yeah, this is happening.

I know that doesn't sound like a lot, and some of you reading this might even say I could catch up tomorrow, but the thing is there are other things in life that take up our time. Tomorrow night I'm working, and I have other work to do on my floor (RA PROBLEMS!) andddd I have to work on my final projects for class, seeing as finals are coming up.

I'm not feeling overwhelmed yet, but we'll see how this month pans out. I haven't given up hope yet. Last year I was behind for a majority of the time and then over the course of a day or two I just lost my mind and finished that dang word count!

But as of right now, I'm feeling like Michael Scott.

How are you doing on your word count? Are you nervous? Happy? Brag or vent in a comment!

Pantser or Planner?

My ideas notebook!

As I'm sure a lot of you know, Nano is coming up (CLICK HERE TO LEARN) and for a while my story idea was struggling. I actually completely changed what my idea was going to be from the last time I posted a blog post. Speaking of which, my blog posting will get better this next month. It's something I do to distract myself from nano, so expect a lot more updates!

Anyway, I was completely freaking out because I finally got my two main characters in my head, and even some side characters, but I had not yet decided when my conflict was going to be. Last year I had been planning my novel in my head for months, so I was definitely a planner. I knew almost every scene that was going to happen, or some variation of it. I knew what I wanted to happen. This year, it looks like I'm going to be a pantser. 

Now there is an in between the two which is a percolator, I believe that's what they called it, and I guess I could be considered that. The notebook in the picture above has some brief outlines of events I want to happen or could potentially happen. Nothing is definite.

Either way, not being a planner is an extremely scary idea to someone like me! I like to have things planned out! I like to know when something is going to happen and how it's going to happen and I even plan out every ending in my head just so I have some vague idea of all the possibilities. 

But I guess trying out something new will be a good exercise for me. Pushing my boundaries might actually help me grow as a writer, so that's a plus. I'm just worried that by pantsing it, most of it will be crap because it'll be stuff I spewed out just to get word count. I want something to work with by the end of the month.

This fear is struck deep inside me. What do all of you out there do when you write? Do you plan every detail? And if not how do you calm that organization monster inside you?

Nano Creeping Up

owned by Nanowrimo!

This year has been extremely busy for me. As soon as school started I felt like I got sucked into a whirlpool! I honestly feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but hey, that happens to everyone every now and then, right?

The past couple of months I've seen up's and down's in my life that I never in a million years could have imagined. With those up's and down's came extreme sacrifices and decisions that I never thought I would have to face.

But, we're trucking through!

As many of you know, or should know!, Nanowrimo is just around the corner! People will come together, and freak out together, as they try to push a novel out of them in just one short month. It can be a hard and daunting task, but when you finally finish it, it's exhilarating!

For a while I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it. I thought that my life was crazy and hectic and adding one more thing would just make my entire life fall apart. However, recently I've relieved some of that stress that's been holding me back and I think I'm going to jump back into Nano this year. Last year was my first year participating, and winning!, and the feeling of actually doing it made me want to cry and jump around with joy!

I can't give that up. Especially when life is so stressful! I know that when I finally do complete Nano this year, I'll be happy! It's something to look forward to!

Did anyone else have second thoughts about Nano this year?