The Gambler's Secret is progressing as well as I could expect right now. I'm a few days behind in NaNo, but I'm about 7,000 words in and that's more than I've written in a long time. Maybe I can get caught up a little bit this week. I was never good at disciplining myself over the weekends. Time to be lazy? Thank you.
The main issue I've run into is that Duncan (my main character) is just going with whatever he's told. He's being passive and while, yes, it will get him to his adventure, it doesn't really fit his character. It makes him flat.
On the other hand, Day Light Savings time ended and totally threw my internal clock for a day.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Book in a Month (For Reals this time)
NaNoWriMo is upon us! This year, I've made myself a schedule to get my writing done. That, and to just get back into the habit of writing again.
1900 words down, 48,100 to go.
1900 words down, 48,100 to go.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Cthulhu is your God.
This totally exists, and I totally saw it on a car yesterday on campus. Did that make my day? Yes.
On another note...Straight line construction drawing for Drawing I? No thanks, but it's due for crit on Wednesday. So bored with drawing.
Monday, September 27, 2010
All That Crap Life is Made of
It's that time of year again. The time when I realize I've neglected things to which I mean to pay more attention. By which I mean, oh right, I started a blog awhile back and then never posted anything in it.
So here I am, updating. I'm not going to pretend like I'm going to "try harder"--the truth is: I probably won't.
I've been back at school for about a month now, and I don't know if I can say I've gotten the swing of things. It almost feels like freshman year all over again except this time I actually know my way around campus. It's just, the dynamic of all of my classes is different. I'm not taking any class that requires me to sit and take notes and then regurgitate that knowledge back out on a test. All of my homework consists of reading, writing and art projects. It sounds amazing doesn't it? Except it confuses the hell out of me. I've found that I don't entirely know how to organize my time properly in order to get things done. I feel like everything is left until the last minute, so here is something I need to improve upon.
It would seem that I neglect to do things I love in much of my life, but especially make excuses not to during the school year. I have free time, however, it is poorly organized free time. I've been trying to remind myself of the philosophy with which I decided to enter college: grades are not the most important things, and, in the long run, aren't as important as what I actually take away from the experiences I have. I need to get out and meet people, but still make time for school work. After all, it was Mark Twain that said "never let your schooling interfere with your education."
On another note, ARTPRIZE! ArtPrize, the worlds largest art competition has once again graced the streets of my wonderful hometown. I went downtown yesterday afternoon with a friend and saw so many wonderful works. I need to finish registering to vote so I can participate. I love it so much; it brings so many people to town and displays the thriving art community that the area supports.
Anyways, this is one of those moments I need to remember. I had my fun at the Poetry Slam tonight and decided to take the time to update, but I should really make sure all of my homework is done.
Hopefully, more updates should follow.
Hannah
So here I am, updating. I'm not going to pretend like I'm going to "try harder"--the truth is: I probably won't.
I've been back at school for about a month now, and I don't know if I can say I've gotten the swing of things. It almost feels like freshman year all over again except this time I actually know my way around campus. It's just, the dynamic of all of my classes is different. I'm not taking any class that requires me to sit and take notes and then regurgitate that knowledge back out on a test. All of my homework consists of reading, writing and art projects. It sounds amazing doesn't it? Except it confuses the hell out of me. I've found that I don't entirely know how to organize my time properly in order to get things done. I feel like everything is left until the last minute, so here is something I need to improve upon.
It would seem that I neglect to do things I love in much of my life, but especially make excuses not to during the school year. I have free time, however, it is poorly organized free time. I've been trying to remind myself of the philosophy with which I decided to enter college: grades are not the most important things, and, in the long run, aren't as important as what I actually take away from the experiences I have. I need to get out and meet people, but still make time for school work. After all, it was Mark Twain that said "never let your schooling interfere with your education."
On another note, ARTPRIZE! ArtPrize, the worlds largest art competition has once again graced the streets of my wonderful hometown. I went downtown yesterday afternoon with a friend and saw so many wonderful works. I need to finish registering to vote so I can participate. I love it so much; it brings so many people to town and displays the thriving art community that the area supports.
Anyways, this is one of those moments I need to remember. I had my fun at the Poetry Slam tonight and decided to take the time to update, but I should really make sure all of my homework is done.
Hopefully, more updates should follow.
Hannah
Saturday, April 17, 2010
He has risen--The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Staff Writing Retreats
Staff writing retreat at the Writing Center today, and it was surprisingly productive. From 9am until 5pm I sat at my computer (in the Writing Center of course) surrounded by 13 of my fantastic colleagues and we all wrote. Each one of us had our different projects which ranged from lesson plans to American Lit papers. Besides being full of fantastic people, it was also full of fantastic food--in the form of berry mango ice cream concocted and manifested by the amazing S. Duffie. Also, I ate too many cookies, but whatevs.
Much of my time was spent writing a paper on the Christian symbolism found in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which I have now realized I haven't read since my mother read them to me when I was 8. Anyways, I had finally narrowed down what to talk about enough to not go insane trying to write this thing. Which I had been believe me. Never try to write a 3 page paper about all of the Christian mythology found the entire Chronicles. I'm pretty sure people have written whole BOOKS on the subject. If working the desk in the WC has taught me anything at all, it's that you need to have a narrow subject or you just might mange to have nothing and everything to talk about at the same time. Take that WRT 150. You taught me nothing about papers. But seriously, a three page paper shouldn't be that hard to write. I think I've lost the context for writing short papers since I took American Lit last semester. It's almost like I can only think about it as a 8-10 page paper now especially since I was analyzing something. I keep thinking to myself--"Does she want quotes? I should have quotes..." Really though, it's just a 3 page paper, so I won't get too worked up about it.
I also managed to finally get the scene from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie when Aslan is resurrected into the presentation that is to accompany my paper. It was one of those "Oh, look how easy that was. Why did it take me three days to figure that out?" sort of things.
However, I have now effectively knocked out pretty much all of the homework I had for the last week of classes.
On the other hand, I'm not really getting anywhere with my novel...It just hasn't really 'hit' me. While forcing myself to write is a fine habit, and one I should practice more often, I will not be reaching a book in a month...In fact, I'm still sitting hard on 6 pages. Here's the part where I make excuses and say it's the end of the semester and I've got projects, papers and finals to worry about. I'm definitely going to keep myself writing something! Mostly, the whole point of the book in a month was that I would get myself going again. Who knows, maybe I'll start something else or go back to something old. I guess we'll see, but for now, I'm out of here.
Much of my time was spent writing a paper on the Christian symbolism found in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which I have now realized I haven't read since my mother read them to me when I was 8. Anyways, I had finally narrowed down what to talk about enough to not go insane trying to write this thing. Which I had been believe me. Never try to write a 3 page paper about all of the Christian mythology found the entire Chronicles. I'm pretty sure people have written whole BOOKS on the subject. If working the desk in the WC has taught me anything at all, it's that you need to have a narrow subject or you just might mange to have nothing and everything to talk about at the same time. Take that WRT 150. You taught me nothing about papers. But seriously, a three page paper shouldn't be that hard to write. I think I've lost the context for writing short papers since I took American Lit last semester. It's almost like I can only think about it as a 8-10 page paper now especially since I was analyzing something. I keep thinking to myself--"Does she want quotes? I should have quotes..." Really though, it's just a 3 page paper, so I won't get too worked up about it.
I also managed to finally get the scene from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie when Aslan is resurrected into the presentation that is to accompany my paper. It was one of those "Oh, look how easy that was. Why did it take me three days to figure that out?" sort of things.
However, I have now effectively knocked out pretty much all of the homework I had for the last week of classes.
On the other hand, I'm not really getting anywhere with my novel...It just hasn't really 'hit' me. While forcing myself to write is a fine habit, and one I should practice more often, I will not be reaching a book in a month...In fact, I'm still sitting hard on 6 pages. Here's the part where I make excuses and say it's the end of the semester and I've got projects, papers and finals to worry about. I'm definitely going to keep myself writing something! Mostly, the whole point of the book in a month was that I would get myself going again. Who knows, maybe I'll start something else or go back to something old. I guess we'll see, but for now, I'm out of here.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Week 1...er...2. Nevermind, I lied.
So, remember two weeks ago when I said I was about a week into it? Well, the truth of the matter is that I'm still a week into it. Frankly though, I told myself I would write five days a week so really I'm only 8 days right? Either way I'm slightly behind. Still, I'll keep giving myself Thursdays and Fridays off. Why Thursday and Friday might you ask? Well, those are my so-called busy days. So called only because those are the days when I have Writers' Club and play Dungeons and Dragons at late hours of the night. It's fantastically fun even if it does put a damper in the time I have to write.
I'm finding the Book in a Month (BIAM) system wonderful and frustrating at the same time. For whatever reason, brainstorming has never been my strong suit. Oh, I could sit and write about characters and other various things, create a "guide" per-say, but this is organized and involves plotting. How I hate to plot.
Also, maybe the last month of school wasn't the best time to start a BIAM. I'm planing on doing this again (probably with the same novel) over the summer. Maybe I'll get more done then. On the bright side, I've been super productive when it comes to homework! I'll be attending a writing retreat at my work on Saturday and I'm hoping to finish some of my final papers and get somewhere with my novel.
I'm trying to update more often---I swear!
Wish me luck!
I'm finding the Book in a Month (BIAM) system wonderful and frustrating at the same time. For whatever reason, brainstorming has never been my strong suit. Oh, I could sit and write about characters and other various things, create a "guide" per-say, but this is organized and involves plotting. How I hate to plot.
Also, maybe the last month of school wasn't the best time to start a BIAM. I'm planing on doing this again (probably with the same novel) over the summer. Maybe I'll get more done then. On the bright side, I've been super productive when it comes to homework! I'll be attending a writing retreat at my work on Saturday and I'm hoping to finish some of my final papers and get somewhere with my novel.
I'm trying to update more often---I swear!
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Book in a Month
Alright, alright, I haven't posted anything here since I started in November. That's utterly horrible of me, and I feel super bad about it, but some how I feel like I can sit here and pretend to justify it by saying that I'm a busy college student trying to figure things out. That's generally my justification for procrastination, right? That I have so many projects and papers and whatever else, that I just can't maintain much else unless I completely forgo the social life I pretend I have.
The truth is I spend most of my time sitting on the internet doing nothing.
Frankly, it's starting to bug me. So here I go back into this project and along side it, I am going to be writing a Book in a Month. Yeah, I know--I should have done this back in November right? That was NaNoWrMo, but this is totally different, so bear with me.
I recently purchased a book titled Book in a Month by Victoria Schmidt which tells me, wait for it....That I can write a first draft of a book in one month! I'm about a week into it (in reality I'm giving my self 5 weeks, or until the end of the school year.) I am enjoying it so far. It's nice to be in the process of thinking about a project pretty much everyday. I'm still getting back into the swing of things. It feels as if I haven't really written anything in such a very long time. I've been working on plot and characterization--a few things I seem to have trouble with often. Plot especially. I've also written 4 pages, which doesn't sound totally exciting, but it totally is.
So here's what I'm going to do-for real this time. I'm going to use this blog to reflect on my life, and on my writing. For the next month especially, I'll try and chronicle my adventure through a Book in a Month. Here's to trying to get into a new groove!
The truth is I spend most of my time sitting on the internet doing nothing.
Frankly, it's starting to bug me. So here I go back into this project and along side it, I am going to be writing a Book in a Month. Yeah, I know--I should have done this back in November right? That was NaNoWrMo, but this is totally different, so bear with me.
I recently purchased a book titled Book in a Month by Victoria Schmidt which tells me, wait for it....That I can write a first draft of a book in one month! I'm about a week into it (in reality I'm giving my self 5 weeks, or until the end of the school year.) I am enjoying it so far. It's nice to be in the process of thinking about a project pretty much everyday. I'm still getting back into the swing of things. It feels as if I haven't really written anything in such a very long time. I've been working on plot and characterization--a few things I seem to have trouble with often. Plot especially. I've also written 4 pages, which doesn't sound totally exciting, but it totally is.
So here's what I'm going to do-for real this time. I'm going to use this blog to reflect on my life, and on my writing. For the next month especially, I'll try and chronicle my adventure through a Book in a Month. Here's to trying to get into a new groove!
"The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep." - Paul Strand
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