I know Nothing about Outlining.

It's actually not something I like doing, if I'm going to be oh-so-honest here. However, it is needed, big time. Especially when writing lengthy pieces like novels, although I tend to think outlines are great not matter how long your story is going to be.

Even with outlines it's hard to keep track of characters; who they are, what relationships they have, how they're connected to each other. For example, in George R.R. Martin's fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows), there are so many characters it's hard for the reader to keep track of who is who and what they're doing and to whom they're related. G.R.R.M. is able to keep track of them pretty well, which amazes me to no end, but he had to have had trouble. I can just imagine the notes upon notes upon notes.

If you've started a story and have yet to do an outline, there's a very large chance you will become stuck or stranded or stilled in your writing. Not to say that there aren't people out there who can plow straight through, no outline needed (I'm impressed, it's a talent I wish I hand), but it's rare. So if you're in the beginning or middle of your story and can't seem to move forward, I strongly suggest trying an outline. It just might inspire you and help you along.

I'm someone who has to skip around in my writing a lot, as I've stated before in an earlier post. Outlining helps me do this. It's like taking notes down for that research paper you have to write for school or for a speech you have to dictate. Forgetting thoughts about your story is easy - it's just as easy to write them down, and you'll be glad you did.

My story has already changed so much from the original, I don't recognize it anymore. It's a good thing, and it really goes to show that outlining is always going to help you remember, change and adapt to an even better plot and even better characters.

So try out an outline. It couldn't hurt. :)

I know Nothing about Snow...

Aaaand it's still falling....

And still falling...

And falling some more.

It's a good thing I like the snow. I like snow better than I like rain. Rain just makes you wet instantly. At least with snow you don't know you're wet until you're inside, and by then it doesn't matter! Plus, you can't make rain-balls and have rain-fights.... T.T

Anyway, I was going to hop on here and talk about the benefits of Fanfiction for young writers, but I just finished typing up a heated debate about it elsewhere, and I just can't bring myself to write about it anymore today. I'll put it on my topic list though, and it will be posted up in the future.

It's supposed to snow all day tomorrow, and I'm hoping I'll at least get the morning off so I can do some writing on my novel. I haven't opened up the document in weeks, and it's eating at me. I'm slowly going insane. Plus, work is picking up (lots of privates, birthday parties and babysitting gigs coming my way - I'm super-busy), so I'm just not getting that writing time in that I normally would.

It's okay though, I just have to bide my time.

The end is so close I can taste it. The epic ending is coming so fast, I just can't wait to get it done so I can go though again and build it up into something even more amazing. The hardest part is just finding the time to get to it.

I know Nothing about the First Sentence...

It's true that the first sentence is one of the most important that you'll write in your novel, short story, etc. Without that grab, the reader is (usually) bored right off the bat, which, yes, is bad news.

In a recent post over on Gaiaonline on a topic entitled "The First Line," many people posted up their first sentences to share with others. I loved reading through them, because it really was a good example of both sentences to use and sentences not to use (more so the later, but hey, we're mostly amateurs over here). Head over yourself to check them out and see which ones grab your attention.

There are a billion ways to start your story, a billion different sentences to chose from. "So how do I pick one I know will draw people in" you ask? I have some suggestions, but keep in mind these are of opinion, and you may completely disagree with what I'm about to say.

First of all, I like a story with some good old action in it. Now action doesn't have to be a battle or some kick-ass fight going on. It doesn't have to be someone running for their life, or someone dying in the midst of war. Action can also include things like a heated/interesting argument between friends, enemies or children and parents. It can include someone in the middle of a sports game, or someone stumbling onto something unusual or scary or interesting. It can include something humorous or sad. The worst though, the absolute worst sentence wording to start with is in the middle of absolutely nothing. No action whatsoever. Things like "My name is such-and-such and I live in this-place." Or friends simply having a conversation about what they did last night, and that's it. I also dislike background info-dumps, but that's a whole other discussion topic for me to really get into. My stance is: when it comes to first sentences, SOMETHING has to be going on.

Prologues are just the worst for beginner writers, and I know this because I am a beginner and I have written prologues before. They're usually written with way too much background information, or add no meaning or purpose to the storyline in any way. A lot of beginning writers think they need to have a prologue. My advice is to wait on the prologue until you've finished writing the story. If after that you think it's missing something - add it on. But most of the time you'll find you've written what would have gone into the prologue into your actual story - spread out and consistent - and you'll be much more satisfied.

Anyway, what are you're opinions on first sentences, and which ones did you enjoy from the gaia post? I'd love to hear your first sentences as well. :)

I know Nothing about Plowing Straight Through...

...from beginning to end.

I simply cannot do it.

I have a best friend who is also writing a novel, and she started at the beginning and is steadily working her way right through it. I'm amazed that she can work in a way that I just don't understand.

I tend to get really excited about certain scenes. Let's face it, some are just more fun to write out than others, and for good reason! Because I get excited about how a specific scene will be, I will type out my favorite scenes first and then string them together. I'll have to leave it up to the second run-through to clean up any mistakes or inconsistencies that happen from scene to scene. Which is okay. :)

I find that writing out the scenes you like best first, or the major scenes, or the most exciting to you as an author helps the writing process to move faster than it normally would. My best friend is still far into the beginning of her story, where I'm somewhat nearing the end (still a bit far off, however T.T). Of course, I also started mine much sooner than she did, but I feel the rate of pages/words being typed when we sit down is large in difference. Not that there's anything wrong with it. It's all up to preference.

How do you write up your story/novel? Are you like me or like my best friend? Can you simply plow straight through your novel from begging to end, or do you skip around like a crazy person? I'd like to know. :)

I know Nothing about Procrastination...

Although I certainly wouldn't call what I'm doing now procrastination in the least. Actually, I would LOVE to sit down and write about my characters and difference scenes and whatnot. Unfortunately, I can't at the moment. It's driving me crazy. CRAZY.

It's not like I haven't tried, either. I've sat down and pulled up the HUGE word document and stared at the screen as the TV is on and everyone is moving around and I just can't. I need to be alone or with someone else who is writing, and I need to have quiet. I need quiet to write, and I just can't get it where I'm at at the moment. T.T

The only thing I can do is jot down the ideas or changes I come up with and wait it out until I can find the time. That and hurry up and find a new place I can call mine again.

I didn't post yesterday because I had a raging headache. A stress headache. I tried, believe me, I sat there with this new post page up and just stared at the screen. I couldn't even think up a title for the post and they've all got the same theme. Maybe next time I'll just try and post that I have a headache and leave it at that?

I spent all day yesterday driving around with my boyfriend and a friend of ours and looking at places my real estate agent sent me. Two of them were awful, but I did like a few. :) I'm hoping to get out there next weekend and check out the insides and maybe by the end of the month I'll have a new place. Here's hoping.

Anyway, it's Monday today, and Monday's are always hectic. I wake up at 5:30, am out of the house by 6:30, drive to the train station and take the train into Philly, then walk a few blocks to school. The next four hours are a flurry of beautiful photoshop skills. After school, I trek it back to Jersey where I rush over to work and spend the entire afternoon/evening kicking and punching and yelling, and then a Private lesson to two bo-staff-wielding young boys. After that I go home and pass out.

Here's to starting my day!

I know Nothing about Dreams...

Waking up is a strange thing. Some people just can't do it. My brother is one of those people. It doesn't matter the occasion, he'll sleep until 3pm then get up and still be tired. I remember Christmas mornings waking up at 6am and being so excited that I'd instantly be awake. :) I'd rush super-fast into my brother's room first, and it would take minutes - minutes - to wake him up. When he was younger, muttering the word 'Christmas' was enough to get him up and out of bed. Closer to when I left the nest for college, I'd really have to work at getting him up (is it strange that at 18 I was still excited to get up and get on with Christmas?).

However, I too went through phases where getting up early is simply impossible. Can't do it, no way no how. And now that I'm on the early schedule again (with home-brewed coffee every morning - Yay!), I look back now thinking how I was so sluggish and sleepy at work, even though I was still getting the same hours of sleep I am now. The time of morning I wake up to changes everything for me. Does anyone else notice this in their sleep pattern?

I tend to have very realistic dreams when I'm on an early schedule as well. There was one pretty recently about the giant Walker machines from Star Wars and the American Military and the stars.... I won't get into it, but it was amazing (in fact, it was so amazing, maybe it will be changed around a bit to be written as a short story?).

Last night I dreamed about my boyfriend entering Medical school where he accidentally did heart surgery too soon and ended up creating a super-human who then tried to kill him.

See? Weird, vivid dreams.

However, I've only been inspired to write through my dreams once or twice, and even then only one amounted to anything, and that was a very successful Inuyasha fanfiction (which you can view here). You hear about authors like Stephanie Meyers who had a dream and - BAM - millionaire. Gee, wouldn't that be nice?

The novel I'm working on did not come to me while sleeping. Nor did I simply think up an idea and - hello! - plot. I had two completely separate story ideas before I was able to mesh them together and create something much better. And it was much later after that I was able to create an expansion of characters and plot lines for the novel.

It amazes me how some authors can come up with amazing story lines and instantly go into them, and then come out with something beautiful. Now, believe me, I know the process of true writing, but I just can't believe how authors such as Orson Scott Card do it so fast.

Hey, OSC - send some tips my way, would you?

I know Nothing about Blogging....

And yet, I'm going to go ahead and blog for the next 365 days. Well, I'm going to try anyway. Maybe by then it will just be habit, and this blog will just keep going forever.

Work is overloading me know, which financially is what I need, so I'm going to say it's a good thing and leave it at that. Although I will add that I've also discovered 5 Hour Energy shots to work fantastically for me (expensive, though! $18 for a six pack?!!), so I chug one every Monday after I get back from school and head into work. Then I'm ready for an evening of crazy karate kids and private lessons.

Getting in an extra flow of cash is always good. However, as I stated in my last post, I just don't have the time to write. Really, I go home, eat and then lay down. I can rarely find time to read now, I'm so tired and busy.

I'm going to talk a little about the book The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, which I'm in the middle of reading right now. The book is science fiction and deals with time travel. A Historian is sent back to the 1300's (middle ages) and something goes wrong, but we're not sure what. In fact, I'm 200+ pages in, and I still don't know what went wrong when she was sent back.

The historian gets sick as soon as she gets there, but I still don't know exactly why or how. They never fully explain it (yet), and I'm beginning to get frustrated.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a clean, good read, and I'm dying to figure out what happened and how the heck she's going to get back. The only problem is I'm finding only minutes at a time to pick up the book and read, so it's slow going. This is killing me, because I'm a fast reader.

I'm inspired to start working on my novel again, now if I could just find the time to do it...

Okay, so I know SOME things....

...about exciting karate demonstration teams. I know stuff about them because I run a karate demo team. I also know something about chopping up and mashing together a song to make it fit a routine. I love it. All of it.

My demo team won at the Amerikick Internationals Philadelphia last November ('09), and since then I've lost some long-standing members to my schools black belt team (run by the head instructor, not me. T.T), and I've had to replace them.

Oh how I forgot over the year how horrible and messy it all starts out before they begin to shape into something. It's a good challenge, I just wish more of them were serious about it. Sorry, kiddos, but having a friend sleep over or a cousin visit is NOT a valid excuse to miss practice.

Anyway, what does this all have to do with writing? Nothing, but it's what I'm doing instead of writing, as I haven't been able to write anything in a while. Damn, life always gets in the way.

Have to pay the bills though, and unfortunately, my debut novel has not been seen by any eyes yet. ...Not anyone who could make my writing dreams come true, anyway....

Back to what I know about the demo team.

I know how to chop up and put together the music, and I love doing it. Almost as much as I love Photoshop, and almost as much as I love writing. ....Almost. :)

....Photoshop ftw!

I know Nothing.

It's true. But I'm learning. And 125 pages in and a few years (YEARS) later, I think I've learned at least a little.

....I think.

Writing Science Fiction is fun, but I'm going to clear this statement up a bit by adding that the fiction part of writing Science Fiction is fun. The Science part would be more fun if I knew what the hell I was talking about.

I'm no science whiz. I generally make it up as I go along.

But before you jump on my back and bitch and moan about me having no right to write science fiction when I have no science background whatsoever, know that I run all my ideas past my biology-degree boyfriend, who at least knows more science than I do. I leave the heavy thinking up to him, and run with my flimsy idea when he okays it as being possible.

See? Flaw-proof.

Anyway, I struggle on, writing teen science fiction and hoping against hope that I can accumulate a ravaging fan-base much like that of J.K. Rowling. What more can I ask for?

Oh, a plane ticket to Japan, please. ...I'll look for it in the mail.