On Quotes

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. It's June, and I can relax, so here I am! Yay.

To be a good writer, you have to look at other people's writing. You have to read. You have to learn how to put together a good sentence, a good metaphor, a poetic line. Or, you can read them for inspiration, for truth, for the pure poetry of the words. So, I'm sharing some of my favorite quotes from other writers (and others).

"Spiteful words can hurt your feelings, but silence breaks your heart."
~C. S. Lewis

"In learning the art of storytelling by animation, I have discovered that language has an anatomy."
~Walt Disney

"If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?"
~George Carlin

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."
~Maya Angelou

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
~Albert Einstein

I love these quotes. They're so true, and they're stated in a simple way. It's just... staggering how true they can be.

So, how about you? What are your favorite quotes?

Keep Pushing Through

I'm on Spring Break with nothing to do, so I'm posting on a random writing topic.

How To Keep Pushing Through:

I know, it's hard to keep writing. You've passed the happy, new-idea phase and you're into the oh-my-goodness-where-am-I-taking-this? phase. If you're anything like me, you've got the very basic plot down, but you're unsure of the actual details and problems that fit in between. I've hit this problem in my own writing, so I figured I'd improvise this and then follow my own advice.

To start off, DON'T LEAVE YOUR WRITING BECAUSE YOU'RE FRUSTRATED. Even after just a few days, you'll look at what you wrote and think, "what the freak was I thinking? This is rubbish." Then you'll put it in the recycle bin and start over. You'll get to the same point, do the same thing, and you'll think all over again that your writing isn't worth the brain cells you put into it. This is a very nasty circle-spiral of useless writing time. Stay true to your writing and improvise a temporary scene to get you through the rough patch, and change it to suit your needs during editing. Of course, your temporary scene has to be similar to what you want there, because your story is delicate. If you put that Mary Sue wants to fight an evil king, and you've hit a rough patch when she's meeting him the 1st time, you cannot make this meeting end with King Evil giving her a bunny and her promising a rainbow. Don't forget your action-reaction idea.

Another point is DON'T GO BACK AND EDIT. If you go back and edit what you've already written, then you'll end up finding so many mistakes, you'll be tempted to trash it. And you know where that'll end up. So just push through that stubborn scene and resist the temptation to edit. You have plenty of time for editing when it's all said and done.

Third point: SEEK INSPIRATION. Grab it by its bunny-rabbit ears and don't let go. Listen to new music, convince your parents to take you to the park (or drive there, if you have your license. I don't happen to have mine yet, so I have to find other transportation). Do some research on topics you enjoy: look up religion on Google, go to your library and find books on ancient civilizations. Just pick something and read up on it. Or watch documentaries, which I personally love to do. I once watched a very informative show on the history of playing cards. Just... do something worth doing.

Try a RANDOM GENERATOR. Like http://nine.frenchboys.net/housing.php or tp://seventhsanctum.com/. These are fun and can spark an idea. You won't use all of the suggestions they give you - some are so blatantly against your story that you'll have to find something else. But they're pretty reliable.

Ummm... ADD SOMETHING NEW. If you don't consider this part of inspiration. Write a dragon into your scene! Have your MC join a pirate gang! Let your MC's sister get kidnapped! Just add something worthwhile or odd into your scene and change your plot to accomadate it. If you hate it, you can come back to it in editing.

That's all I've got. I'm sorry, I feel this kind of advice has been parroted out to writers by pretty much everyone. "Don't give up!" "Find inspiration!" It is good advice, though. And all the labrynth of my mind can come up with at the moment. 

Have a blessed day and keep writing! <3

Well, It's been Forever.

It's been a long, long time since anyone posted, so I've taken it upon myself. And since I haven't planned anything, I'll give you a few resources for when you're stuck.

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

A bunch of random generators, for naming, setting, magical needs. :D

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Because dictionaries are useful. I'm pretty sure you don't need this one, though.

http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/

This person has an entire collection of entries on emotions, settings, weather, color, etc. Very useful.

http://thestairwaytojannah.blogspot.com/

Almost Out of Ink - an awesome artist. You can get inspiration for your writing from sharpie drawings.

I used to this other, awesome website (I think it was on blogspot, but I really don't know) on burns and other injuries. Another place you can try is

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/reference-desk/threads/214

but I can't tell you which of those links are helpful, because I haven't checked some of them out yet. The obvious ones (i.e. google, wikipedia) are good, of course, but a few I've never heard of.

So, I hope you find this useful. I don't really have anything else to say, so I'll just leave you with a random quote:
"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!"
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Valentine's Day ♥

So...today's February 14, huh?

If you have plans with someone(s), have a great time. I really mean that. Or if you don't have plans, but really want to do something, go ask! You never know who will say yes. Or stay home and do whatever you'd like, maybe something that relaxes you. :-) The choice is yours.

Just for fun, here are some things I want to do:

1. Read: I am up to my neck in Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (not literally...but emotionally?). I'm almost done with this advance copy and it is so good. That's all I will say, even though some of you may have read it. 

2. Catch something on TV: I have a couple shows scheduled on the family DVR, but I may not feel like watching those. So I might browse for a movie or two. I'm sure there are a ton showing today.

3. Write: I'm in a slump. Again! My biggest problem, I've realized, is that I can't decide what world to set the story in. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there are so many settings to choose from. So...it's basically like I can't move forward with the plot if I'm iffy on where they're at and so on. I'm thinking that tonight I'll set aside some time to get writing again.

4. Enter giveaways: This is actually one of my favorite things to do. Blogs and various websites often do contests to win books and other stuff. If you're looking for some links, let me know in the comments!

*I was actually planning to post a short Q&A with a good friend of mine. She's a publishing intern and blogger, so I thought it'd be cool to have her "visit" the blog. But I didn't quite get around to it; hopefully it will appear on the blog soon.*

What are YOU doing today??

❤ ❤ ❤