Superlatives for the Books I Read this Year (2018 Edition)

Well, it appears that another year has come and gone. One of my goals for 2018 was to read at least 22 books. Unfortunately, much to my surprise, I didn’t quite hit my mark. I ended the year with reading 20 books instead. I was feeling a bit disappointed with myself until I discovered it was still more books than I had read in the last two years, so at least that’s something?

(Do all the manuscripts I had to read for my internship count? I mean, it’s technically in pre-book form. No? They don’t count? Darn.)

In any case, my annual “Book Superlatives” post is a fun way for me to glance through and remember the novels I read this year. Overall, I read some pretty good books. Only three of them I thought were, “Blah.” Most of them, though, seem to belong to a series. And speaking of series…



Best Sequel

BURIED HEART by Kate Elliott

Not sure if I can call it a “sequel,” since it’s the last book in a trilogy, but it’s not the launcher, so I’m counting it.

I found Elliott’s desert-fantasy setting rich in its world-building while also tackling issues of colonialism appropriately. I thought the series ended in a nice way, even if not all the characters made it out alive. But overall, it had more of a “happy ending,” which I was not exactly expecting for its genre.

Runner-up: THE DAZZLING HEIGHTS by Katharine McGee 

This was the second book in a trilogy, and I felt like it captured the same essence of the first book without being a carbon-copy. (Even if both books ended with a character dying, which is preluded to in the opening pages of the book.)

The Only Stand-Alone Fiction Book I Read

GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND GLASS by Melissa Bashardoust

This is a fairy tale adaption story of Snow White, written in alternative chapters centering around Princess Lynet (Snow White) and Mina (Stepmother). Half of Mina’s chapters are written in the past, explaining how she wound up at the castle and ultimately marrying Lynet’s father. This novel definitely showcases the sometimes complex relationship between a mother and daughter.







Best New Author To Me

THIS MORTAL COIL by Emily Suvada 

There were only four authors that I read this year who I was reading for the first time, and Suvada was a really nice surprise. THIS MORTAL COIL was her debut, and the sci-fi book made my geneticist heart happy. (Fun fact: Before I decided to pursue writing, I had seriously considered becoming a genetic counselor. Even bought GRE practice books to get myself into grad school for it – which, unfortunately were useless because I never applied to any graduate programs in the end.) I thought the concept was creative, the plot had many twists and turns, and the idea of code and genetics playing such a large portion of the story was refreshing.




Runner-up: CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber 

I don’t read many books centering on a carnival, and this fantasy spin on it was intriguing. The world was written vividly; special attention was placed on the colors.











Most Creative

THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS: MIDNIGHT TALES AND DANGEROUS MAGIC by Leigh Bardugo

This book is a collection of six short stories, all of which are inspired by folklore and fairy tale. (You don’t have to read any of her Grisha books to understand the world, even if she sometimes makes references to Grisha countries.) My favorite story would have to be, “When Water Sang Song.” It’s the longest story of the six, and it’s based off of the Little Mermaid story – but the protagonist is the Ursula character.

This book won the superlative because of its illustrator, Sara Kipin. The stories alternate in either dark blue or rustic red font. But what makes the novel really cool is, as each story progresses, the images along the pages’ border increases until you finish the story, which is when you’re awarded with a two-page spread of a picture. I like to go through them like a flip book, haha.



Longest Book

LIFEBLOOD by Gena Showalter 

Unlike the last two years, Bardugo’s book did not win this category. Instead, Showalter’s novel clocked in at 476 pages. Which is too bad for me, because this was one of the books in the “blah” group I mentioned earlier. 

And in case anyone was curious, I read a total of 7,715 pages during the course of 2018. Therefore, the average is 385.75 pages/book. Surprisingly, despite reading three more novels than last year, I only read 193 more pages.

For next year, I’d like to take another stab at trying to read at least 22 books. (It just won’t be one of my resolutions.) All I know is that I currently have 25 unread books sitting on my dresser, and the pile is getting ridiculously tall.

As always, too many books, so little time.

NaNoWriMo '18 (aka: I Should Stop Doubting Myself So Much)

It’s already been two weeks since NaNoWriMo has ended. Two weeks where I’ve been able to take a breather and not constantly glance at the clock, wondering how much time I have left in my day to fit my daily writing in. Ah, the panic that is NaNoWriMo.

This year, I really leaned in with the idea of “block scheduling.” This practice is basically where you “block out” certain hours of your day to commit to an activity before you more onto something else. Each block is supposed to last only 1.5-2 hours. Sounds like micromanaging to some people, but I would rearrange my “writing block” depending on what I had going on for that day.

Anyway, I knew I needed to set aside two hours’ worth of time to work on my NaNo daily, so I usually blocked out those hours in the evening (which is nothing new). I made it very clear to my family that I needed that time to write, so if they wanted me to do something with or for them in the day, it had to happen before I started to write.

This system worked quite well for me. There were 4-5 days in November, though, where I would write an hour after midnight, so I didn’t have to write so much later in the day (and it still counted toward my word count). I was just very busy during those days, and I didn’t want the added stress of trying to cram two straight hours of writing in between everything else.

I wrote every day. Also, I decided early on in the month that I had to write at least 1700 words/day instead of the typical 1667 words/day. Because apparently I still like to be ambitious with my writing. [insert eye roll here]

In the end, I finished NaNoWriMo with a total of 53,061 words. Not only did I win for the fifth year in row (half a decade!), but I beat my record from last year by 843 words.

(Ignore the word count total at the top. When I went to validate my novel on their website, it tacked on extra words to my NaNo. I go by the number that my Word document tells me.)

Here’s a graph that displays my daily word count rather than an accumulation:

As you can see, I really didn’t have to write so much on that last day. Especially since I had already reached 50k the day before. However, after I got my 1700 words in for the day, I noticed how close I was to 53k, and I made it my goal to hit it. I also had a pretty busy day on November 30, so guess whose after-midnight writing helped carry her to the finish line?

My average writing time was 1 hour, 46 mins. Surprisingly, I never wrote beyond two hours. Although, on November 2 + 3, I was one minute shy of writing the full two hours.

I ended writing eight stories during the month. Literally half of them were in the fantasy genre, so I guess I was just in the mood to write fantasy. Ten days was the most I spent writing on one story – which was a manuscript idea I had tinkered with last year but never really sat down and wrote more than 700 words for. Unfortunately, two of the stories I had left unfinished before I moved onto the next one. I just hit a road block with the plot, and I lost interested in taking the time to figure out how to end it properly.

So overall, this year’s NaNoWriMo went very well. I made a new record, I wrote every day, and I didn’t feel like I was scrambling for the majority of the month, trying to come up with something to write. I think I got some sleep, too. And here I was on Halloween, anxious about how I was going to tackle my NaNo this year. How silly of me.

As usual, here’s my annual grainy photo from my webcam with me and my lovely Winner’s Certificate.

P.S. I feel like I should get a bonus point for also writing a poem early in November. Second one this year, so I guess I’m good now until 2019, lol.

P.P.S. I spent the entire month listening to a wide variety of Sufjan Stevens songs every day. I feel like I need to acknowledge him for keeping me so focused and motivated while writing. Thanks, Subaru.

It's That Time of the Year Again

This is not a drill! I repeat: this is not a drill!

In less than twenty-four hours, it will officially be November 1. You know what that means?

NaNoWriMo will be upon us once more.

I have done zero preparation for it so far. I was hoping to sketch out the plot of at least one story, but I never got around to it. The only thing I’ve done is revisited their website and logged into my account, checking things out from when I visited last year.

Like every year, I’m staring at the upcoming NaNoWriMo season with a feeling of trepidation. As in, why do I keep putting myself through this stress once a month every year? Will I have time to win, let alone write for 2-2.5 hours/day?

But then I remind myself how I managed to win two years ago when I was also a full-time student. Not only did I have a writing class, but I also had an internship to deal with on top of NaNoWriMo. Yet somehow, I still won. Of course, I also remember all those times I sat in my university’s library and cranked out words during the free time I had in-between classes.

I also pushed through two months of writing continuously every day for my Spring Writing Project (SWP), so if I can do that, I can do one month again. Except I usually tried to write at least 1400 words/day, whereas with NaNoWriMo, I have to write at least 1667 words/day.

Speaking of my SWP, I haven’t written any sort of fictional story since then. And I finished that project five and a half month ago already! Time certainly flies.

Therefore, my only plan for NaNoWriMo so far is to employ my usual tactic: Write a bunch of short stories and hope that something eventually sticks. It’s been so long since I wrote something creatively, and I definitely feel like I need a warm-up.

No idea what I’m going to write tomorrow, but nothing works your creative muscles more than improvising on the spot! (At least, that’s what I’m saying to myself to make me feel better.)

Still trying to figure out how to fit in a large chunk of writing every day into my schedule. In years past, I tend to write in the evenings. That worked well for me, except for the fact that I sometimes felt like I was racing against the clock to get those words in before midnight. So now a part of me is thinking about getting up early and write at least 834 words in the morning. Except I’m not much of a morning person, so I’m not sure how exactly I can force myself to wake up earlier.

The other option, though, is to write those 834 words after midnight. After all, it still counts for that day, even if it means I go to bed late. I actually did this strategy during my very first year of NaNoWriMo. (Ah, sophomore year of college. It seems so long ago.)

I guess we’ll all see how everything works out when it ends on December 1.

Also! Speaking of December, just like in past years, I plan to be absent from this blog for the entire month of November. All of my free time will be dedicated to marathon writing.

Therefore, see you next month with whatever’s left of my sanity! (And hopefully I’m not too sleep deprived.)



P.S. Happy Halloween!

^I carved this on a pumpkin yesterday. I didn’t mean for the cheetah to look kinda old and grumpy, lol. Spots are tedious to whittle, by the way.

A Long Road of Writing

Sometime last week, I found myself browsing the “stories” folder on my laptop. I originally clicked on this folder because I was recently thinking about an old story of mine, and I wanted to re-read it for fun. I couldn’t remember when I last read this short story, but I wrote it back in 2012, so I wanted to see how it has held up since its creation.

But after reading that story, I began locating other older short stories that I had written. Stories that were at least four years old. And as I was reading them, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cringe.

For the most part, the plots for these stories were still pretty solid. My issue was with the writing itself – mainly, the grammar. I was cringing so hard at all the dialogue punctuation errors. And even though I had moments where I wrote specific details about the characters' surroundings, I could definitely do a better job at creating a more vivid scene. Also, some of the stories felt too rushed and could use some slowing down in order to let the story breathe.

Of course, once I finished my trip down memory lane, I had to read a short story that I wrote last fall. Sort of like a palate cleanser. What a difference my writing has become.

Sometimes it’s difficult to see improvements in my writing (or anything in general) when I compare them to more recent works, but seeing how they stack up to a piece from multiple years ago made me feel strangely proud of myself. Like I actually have come a long way, despite feeling like I still have a long road ahead of me.

I still haven’t re-read my Spring Writing Project, though. I wanted to wait a couple of months to let the story rest, so I could read it with fresh eyes. But now I’m starting to realize how seldom I revisit old manuscripts. I think it’s mainly because I’m afraid of how terrible it might actually be written, and I don’t want to believe that I spent all those hours writing it as wasted time. (Even though I’m aware that no time is actually wasted when I’m writing – practicing a skill eventually leads to masterpieces.)

And to think, in two weeks, I’ll be participating in my eighth year of NaNoWriMo. I refuse to look back at any of my NaNo projects from 2011-2014. Just thinking about them and how awful the writing might be makes me cringe.

But despite all of the wincing, I will never remove these documents from my computer files. I remember how hard I worked on them at that time. I never delete a story, just in case I might mine its plot for a completely new (and better written) story for a later time.

More often than not, though, these stories simply make me smile. No matter how old I was, I was still making time to write.

Autumn = New Things

I used to think spring was the season that represented newness, change. After all, it’s when the plants begin to bloom after the cold of winter. Lately, however, I’ve pretty much embraced the idea that early autumn is considered a time of change in my life. (Maybe it has secretly been that way all along – I mean, the start of a new school year always begins in autumn.)

Quite a bit has been happening in my life in the last two weeks, but I didn’t realize the extent of it until I sat down and brainstormed possible topics to write about for this blog post. I was surprised to discover that there have been ten different occasions where some new change had transpired. Ten! With everything going on, no wonder I feel like the days have blurred together.

To give you an idea of what kind of new changes I’ve been experiencing, I’ve compiled a brief list below. (You don’t get all ten, though. Gotta keep some things private on a public blog, you know.)

1.) The “summer” part of my internship officially ended on Sept 21. (I submitted my last assignment on the 19th.) However, I signed on to be a continuing intern, so I’m still with the press. The “fall” session begins tomorrow. Therefore, I basically had a break for a week and a half. It was nice to use that time I used to proofread and just read a book for fun.

2.) Speaking of which, I started Book #19 on Sept 20. I’m roughly 54% complete with THE KNOWING by Sharon Cameron. I’m really enjoying it so far.

3.) I also met my new bible study group on Sept 19. Most of the people (like myself) were in this group for the past year, but now there are five new girls, and three of our former members had to jump into another group due to scheduling conflicts (except one - she left because she’s now officially a leader of her own group). Additionally, I met my brother and sister group three days prior to that. Surprising for an introvert, I like meeting new people; I’m just terrible at the small talk that comes with getting to know someone. But I’m looking forward to hearing about their lives in the next coming months.

4.) and 5.) My sister’s birthday was last week, so we’re now officially the same age. Quarter of a century. She also picked up her brand new car that day. (It was time to retire her sixteen-year-old car. It was falling apart.) It’s odd to see such a different car sitting behind mine on the driveway.

6.) I had my annual eye doctor appointment yesterday, and even though I’m an avid contact-wearer, I picked out a new pair of glasses. (This was the last time I’d be under my dad’s insurance, so I took advantage of my eligibility.) I still really like my light chestnut brown glasses that I chose four years ago already, but now I’ll have a black/dark tortoiseshell pair. Thank goodness my prescription hasn’t changed in years (my eyesight is bad enough), and now I can alternate glasses at home. It reminds me of my high school days where I used to rotate between three different glasses depending on what day of the week it was, haha.



So yeah. Autumn may have just started, but I’m beginning to feel its effect on my life. The trees around here haven’t quite changed colors yet, but if you look closely, some of the very tops of tall trees have leaves that are beginning to look rustic. I find myself wearing a light jacket now. (I forgot how much I dislike the cold. But I like fall fashion the most, so I don’t mind wearing layers and jeans instead of shorts.)

Also, my sister’s birthday kicks off “birthday season” around here, so I’m back to doing All The Birthday Celebrations. And before I know it, NaNoWriMo will show up, shortly followed by the holidays.

With all the new changes happening lately, I began to internally categorize everything as if it were a book. You know, like how each story starts with the inciting event, which triggers everything else in the story? I tried to pick the “inciting event” within my own life from the last couple of weeks, but instead I only narrowed it down to three changes. Basically I have multiple “story lines” going, depending on which chapter direction you want to follow.

But hey! Life itself is quite complex, so my comparison can only go so far.

I’m trying to embrace all the changes, though. I’ve had periods in my life where I felt like everything was moving at a standstill so at least all the new occurrences tell me that my life is actually moving forward. Even if it’s typically at such a slow pace. Like how it takes a few weeks for a tree to transform into brilliant colors before shedding its foliage. Until all that’s left is its sturdy structure.

Kerrytown Bookfest 2018

Last Sunday (September 9), I took a trip out to enemy territory Ann Arbor to attend the 16th Annual Kerrytown Bookfest. It’s basically an all-day celebration of independent presses and bookstores (plus book-related arts and crafts were sold). I had never attended before, but since my current and former internships at a publishing house were going to have a booth there, I decided to check things out. After all, I figured it would at least be nice to physically meet the editors.

When I left my house that morning, the sky was overcast and threatened rain. I was worried it might downpour by the time I arrived in Ann Arbor. All the booths at the Bookfest were underneath tents, but it was still outside – and I hate being outside in the rain. It only sprinkled briefly during my drive, so I saw it as a good sign. The drive itself took me longer than my GPS had predicted, but then again, I had taken the wrong exit at one point and had to turn back around. Needless to say, I’m still terrible at directions and prone to getting lost. But I eventually got there! (This could easily be said as a metaphor for my life.)

The Bookfest was really neat, though. I made 3-4 rounds to really take in all that the booths had to offer. I think I spent more time gazing at all the craft items being sold than at actual books, haha. In the end, I only bought a bookmark for $2. There was even one booth that was not only selling homemade notebooks filled with homemade paper, but the vendor was periodically making the paper at the table. I wish I got to witness it; watching her make paper would have been intriguing.

As for the publishing presses that I personally know, I went over and stopped by my former internship place first. Unfortunately for me, the publisher was not there. She decided to stay in Colorado so that was disappointing, but I understand why she didn’t fly all the way over to Michigan for this. Instead, I spoke with the three girls manning the booth as representatives. (Well, one of them didn’t talk to me. She just listened.) One was an intern for them three years ago, and the other girl was a current intern. It almost felt like a gathering of interns, past and present.

Conveniently, three booths away was where my current internship’s location was. The editor was busy talking to someone else when I arrived, so I actually talked with her husband first. Opened up one of their upcoming fall books that they were promoting, because my name is credited on the inside as one of the proofreaders. Once the editor was free, she invited me behind the booth and we chatted for a good 15-20 mins. One of the things we talked about was what my tasks would be as I transition into a continuing intern. We expressed how relieved we were that it hadn’t actually rained.

At 2:00 p.m., I attended a seminar about YA books. I feel like I’m pretty well-versed in this genre, but I wanted to hear what these authors had to say. There were three authors who were on this panel. One of them actually grew up in the Ann Arbor area. As for another one, I actually own (and obviously read) a trilogy of her books! So I was pretty thrilled about that – even if I felt a little guilty about not reading Joelle Charbonneau’s newest three books.

(The guy sitting to Charbonneau’s left is Caleb Roehrig. He sounds like he would be a cool guy to have as a friend.)

At 2:30, it started to downpour. The joke was that now no one was going to leave the seminar now, thanks to the safety of our large tent. The session only lasted forty-five minutes, so I think that’s my only complaint about it; I wish it lasted a bit longer. Afterward, all three authors were available to sign things. I half-contemplated about standing in line, but I didn’t want to risk spending money for their signatures. Especially since I have never read books from the other two authors.

At that point I was hungry, and I had to think about heading out soon. I feel like I walked through half of downtown Ann Arbor in the rain, trying to find some sort of café to eat dinner at. I finally found an opened sandwich place that I’ve never been in before, and I was quite pleased with the food. It was also nice to rest my feet for a little bit, for my shoes had ripped up my heels from the day before, and I had to keep reapplying a Band-Aid on my worst scab.

But I couldn’t dawdle too long, because I had to be somewhere at 6:00 p.m. Luckily, it stopped raining at this point, so the drive wasn’t too terrible. I was just tired of driving when I pulled into the church parking lot at 5:25.

Overall, I’m glad I went to the Bookfest. It was nice to meet at least one of the editors of the publishing presses that I’ve interned for. I just wish the drive to get there was shorter. And maybe for the weather to be a little bit nicer.

A Reflection of a Disappointing Summer

Well. Here we are, already the last day of August. In Michigan, we usually don’t view the conclusion of summer until after Labor Day, which is in three more days. However, September is just a few hours away, and I don’t care what you say: September is an autumn month. (After all, as I’m writing this blog post, I’m also watching the first MSU game of the season. Doesn’t get any more autumn-like than watching football.)

I think back what I managed to accomplish during the past 3-4 months, and honestly, I feel a bit disappointed at how much I didn’t get around doing what I was hoping to do. (It probably didn’t help that I spent half of my summer evenings watching my sister’s puppy whenever she was out. Puppies are like newborn babies; they have a lot of energy and are quite needy.)

In a fit of panic, I probably did more summer-y activities during the month of August than what I did in the other months. Once again, I did not go on any vacations or out-of-town day trips. (That’s what happens when you’re strapped for money.) The kayak trip from two weeks ago was my attempt at trying to enjoy the summer sun, to pretend that I was someplace not ten minutes away from my house.

I’m currently on Book #17 of the year (ONE DARK THRONE by Kendare Blake). Technically, I’m still on schedule to reach twenty-two books by the end of the year, but I didn’t read as many books this summer that I wanted. (To be fair, though, I’ve also been doing a lot of manuscript reading for my internship.)

I’m also disappointed that I didn’t work on any writing projects this summer. I haven’t written anything that’s considered fiction writing since my Spring Project was completed in the middle of May. I’m itching to write something, but I don’t have any short story ideas to work on. Of course, all I really need to do is just sit down and force myself to write, but that act is easier said than done. I’m hoping it's not going to be November when I finally write something creatively. (The poem from earlier this month doesn't count.)

Then again, I’ve been feeling very frustrated with almost everything the last two weeks. Nothing seems to be working in my favor. Last Friday, my phone even died. Upon waking up that day, I was greeted with a completely black screen, unwilling to turn on. Anything linked through google was saved (i.e. all of my pictures), but I lost all text messages older than 90 days and four years’ worth of Memo notes. (I guess this is just the summer of me losing data. Remember my Word document I mentioned back in May?) As you can guess, I had a fun weekend dealing with this. Luckily, I got a free replacement phone because when my phone started acting up last year, insurance was placed on it.

So even though summer may be drawing to an end, and I didn’t accomplish nearly as much as I was hoping, perhaps fall will serve me better. The last four months of the year always fly by for me. Not that I want it to slip away in a blink of an eye – after all, I have my work cut out for me for the next month and a half before my birthday. I’m not ready to turn 26.

Send help.

A Ripple Effect

Two weeks ago, I was reading a blog post of an old classmate’s. (She’s a book reviewer with about 150 followers.) She had reviewed two poetry books, which was the first time that she had discussed these forms of writing. I had never heard of these women before, but I was intrigued enough to watch a video of their spoken poetry.

I enjoyed both of them but the first one seemed to have more of a storytelling voice, which I was drawn to. Unfortunately, I watched another video before I went to bed that night, and instead of actually sleeping, I pondered about the poet’s dog and how it enjoyed getting dressed up because maybe it wanted to be pretty like a teenage girl.

And then I traveled down the rabbit hole of memories, remembering when I took a poetry workshop class two years ago. It was a tight-knit class of only eight students (including myself), and when you have to trudge through the snow in the early hours to reach this class three times a week (gotta love those 8 a.m. classes), it was certainly memorable.

Not only did we have to read multiple chapbooks, but we were required to attend at least two poetry events on campus during that semester. I wasn’t too thrilled about it at the time, but now I see why my professor had forced us to go.

One of the events I attended was a Poetry Slam. While waiting in the lobby, I located a shy classmate of mine and made small talk with her. Another classmate of mine found us, and eventually, the three of us found seats together inside the lecture hall. The Slam consisted of various students reciting their spoken poetry, hoping to win one of the prizes at the end. A guy from my poetry class was one of performers, so we all made sure to show our support for him. (In the end, he did not win anything, though.)

Needless to say, after I spent so many hours in this poetry-like headspace, I wrote my first poem of the year two weeks ago. So even though I haven’t written any fictional stories lately, at least I have that.

Except now I’m spending quite a bit of time thinking about metaphors.

For example, I visited my local metropark this past Tuesday. The weather was great, and I had nothing going on that day except to do some proofreading in the evening, so I decided I’d go kayaking. I had wanted to go all summer, but everyone I know is always too busy, so I made the decision to go by myself.

Like I predicted, no one is really out on the lake on a Tuesday afternoon, so it was quite peaceful. At one point, as I was following the coastline of an island, I found myself paddling along in the part of water that was filled with vegetation. Farther up ahead, something caught my eye.

A single white flower on a lily pad among a sea of green.

I felt compelled to capture the beauty of it; I slowly rowed closer so I could take a picture.

As I was snapping the photo, my kayak began to drift. I promptly crashed into the entire cluster of lily pads, causing it to dip underneath the water and destroy the scene. I maneuvered myself away as quickly as I could, apologizing to the lily pads as if they could respond. When I glanced behind me the flower had bobbed back up, and the lily pads reassembled themselves back into formation. I felt guilty for colliding into nature like that, but I admired their resiliency.

After spending two full hours kayaking, I returned my rental and found myself a nice picnic bench along the water. The grass gently sloped downward not far from where I was seated, and the launching dock was nearby enough where I could watch all the people taking off on their own adventures.

I spent the next hour reading my book (BURIED HEART by Kate Elliott) and spent another hour after that writing (which was a little challenging due to my three new blisters on my thumbs from kayaking).

In between the reading and writing, I walked over to the shore and stepped into the water. Squinted my eyes against the sun, listened to the soft ukulele music being carried by the wind, and watched the minnows scurry away from me. When I wiggled my toes in the sand, I was mesmerized by how far the water rippled in every direction. I don’t think I could throw a stone far enough to reach where the rippling ended.

As I stood there on the makeshift shore, I wondered how far the ripple effect of my life had extended to various people. Do any of my old classmates ever wonder what I’m up to? Or those old friends that either moved away for a job or simply faded away in time?

Do you ever truly know how far the ripples extend until you look back in hindsight and can pinpoint its origin?

Did it start when I stepped into the lake? When I drove to the park? When I saw how great the weather would be that day? When I decided to kayak by myself this week? After I had kayaked for the first time last summer?

Perhaps it doesn’t really matter. Maybe I just wanted to witness nature humbly showing off as if it too were a teenage girl, looking for affirmation.

On the Word "And"

For the past couple of days, I was experiencing writer’s block on what I kind of subject I should speak about for this blog post. I almost thought about doing another life update – which I’m sure would have been entertaining – but I just did a life update blog post exactly a month ago.

Personally, various things have been frustratingly stalled for the past two weeks. I just started reading my leisure book again after having to take a three week break due to busyness, and I really want to get back to writing creatively – I haven’t done so since my Spring Writing Project – but I don’t exactly have time for that either. (It’s bizarre not to work on a July Writing Project; I’ve had one for the last 3-4 years.)

And just when I figured I might have to wing this blog post, because forcing yourself to write is really the only way to overcome writer’s block, a youtube video came to my rescue.

I’m referring to John Green’s video about prepositions. As an English writer and speaker, I found it so fascinating. I also never really thought much about the phrase “on the phone,” and how weird it actually is.

Mainly, I was relieved that I wasn’t the only crazy person who has put so much thought into certain seemingly ordinary words lately.

For me, though, I haven’t been pondering about prepositions. Instead, I’ve been focused on “and.”

My new obsession came about because of the last two manuscripts I had to read for my internship. In them, both of the authors loved stringing along lengthy sentences by incorporating multiple and’s within the sentence. Every time I came across this word, I had to pause and determine if a compound comma was needed in front of it.

In one manuscript I even had to suggest an edit to eliminate an “and,” because it was just too much. There were five and’s that had showed up, so I crossed the third one out and replaced it with a period. Boom! Two new complete sentences.

Maybe it’s just a writing style that some people have? Using many and’s to give it more of a poetic voice? There is a better way at writing lyrically or whimsically, right? (Not to say that it’s completely wrong to overload on and’s, though. I can see it being used to convey the panic or rambling of a character written in first person perspective.) Of course, this is coming from a girl who creatively writes in a more direct way. I prefer shorter sentences; they get to the point and if done well, packs a better punch. You know, trying to use my active voice rather than a passive one. Also, I was always taught if you can convey your sentence in less words than what your have, then go that route. Nobody likes to read a run-on sentence.

Basically, I wish people would rethink how often they use the word “and” in their writing. Also, I should probably find a better hobby. Or at least get outside more.



P.S. In case you were curious, I used the word “and” sixteen times within this blog post. However, seven of those times were me referencing the word “and.” (<---This last one wasn’t counted.)

Simple Writing Mistakes I'm Tired of Seeing

You know how, once you start looking for something or noticing it, you begin to see it everywhere? In the past, I’ve done this with shoes. I was interested in buying boots for the winter, but I didn’t know what kind was in style anymore. So every time I was out in public, I would glance at all the footwear of women who walked past me, noting what kind of boots they wore. Once I determined what sort of boots I should buy, I stopped paying attention to everyone else's shoes.

Lately, I find myself doing this with any sort of writing I come across. I’m mainly referring to non-polished work – pieces found on the internet or drafts of another’s work. With my current internship, I’ve somehow trained myself to pick out all the errors found in a writer’s sentences, even though my noticing of them is not going to make a difference.

There seems to be certain words and grammar mistakes that continue to pop up, which baffles me because I thought the correct way was pretty straightforward. I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt – like, perhaps they’re just typing too quickly? – but I’m pretty sure it’s because no one pointed it out to them. Or they’re relying too much on how the sentence sounds to their ears without realizing how it’s actually incorrect when it comes to writing.

But mainly, I think it’s just me being a stickler about grammar and writing in general.

Things I cringe whenever I see them in someone’s writing:

1.) toward/towards

“Towards” is considered slang, people. Unless you’re a writer living in the UK or Australia, I don’t want to see it spelled this way. It’s always “toward.”

2.) farther/further

If you’re speaking quickly, I can see why you might get these two words mixed up; they sound almost identical to our English ears. However, they do have slightly different meanings. “Farther” refers to a physical distance, whereas “further” refers to something figuratively.

Although, I will admit that sometimes there are certain contexts where it gets tricky figuring out which word to use. I’ve been told that if you’re unsure, it’s probably safer to employ “further.”

3.) etc./ect.

I’ve recently began noticing how people use “ect.” at the end of a list instead of “etc.” I had never seen this, and I started to wonder if this was some sort of shorthand that I wasn’t aware of. But, no, people are just switching the order of these words around because of how it sounds to our English ears again. The Latin version of “and the rest” is “et cetera,” so you really should be using “etc.”

4.) When to capitalize “mom” and “dad”

I get why people might have trouble figuring out when/if to capitalize these words (I used to be one of them, once upon a time), but it’s actually not that hard.

If you’re using the word in placement of someone’s name, then it needs to be capitalized.

     For example: Can you give this toy to Mom?

Any other time, it doesn’t need to be capped. If the word “my” precedes it, it’s a dead giveaway that you shouldn’t capitalize it.

     For example: This is my dad.

5.) Shouty caps

I never realized how much people like to use shouty caps for emphasis or when a character is yelling.

     For example: “I told you, I CAN’T GO!” (Extra cringe whenever I see an exclamation point thrown in there. It’s so redundant.)

In books, it’s usually frowned upon and will be changed to italics. However, this tactic might slide if the novel leans more experimental. Mainly, I just view it as a cheap way of creating emphasis or emotion for the reader. If you’re a skilled enough writer, you can find a way to describe the situation without capping everything.

6.) Ellipses

First off, this is another thing that I was always taught to avoid when it comes to fiction writing - either mention how the character’s voice has trailed off or end your sentence with a period to make it declarative. I have been surprised at how frequently ellipses have been used.

Second, I didn’t realize that people would actually mess up on how to properly use those three dots. There’s no need to include all those extra spaces, either between each period or before and after words.

     For example: What … what do you mean by that? (incorrect)

                           What . . . what do you mean by that? (incorrect)

                           What… what do you mean by that? (incorrect)

                           What…what do you mean by that? (correct)



Easy, right? There’s no need to make your writing appear weak with these silly mistakes. You’ve got more important things to worry about when it comes to polishing that piece. Like whether your sentence really needs a compound comma or not. (Kidding. Although they can be tricky buggers, many people won’t actually know if you’re using them correctly or not. Unless the reader is a proofreader of sorts.)

What a Busy Month

June has been one of those months for me where I feel as if I’m frantically running around, trying to keep all my plates in the air, but it never ends because gravity is not on my side. I’ve been crazy busy, and there just doesn’t seem like enough hours in my day to finish everything.

First off, I had three birthdays to celebrate and shop for. And after Memorial weekend, I had Father’s Day, and now Fourth of July is around the corner. (Today my family is doing a pre-Fourth of July BBQ, so I’m quickly cranking this post out. I ran out of time to write it days earlier.) And two days after that holiday is my Mom’s birthday, so guess who has to celebrate (and spend more money) again?

It seems like I’m Editing All the Things lately, too. Earlier in the month, I managed to acquire another internship at an independent publishing house (because unpaid writing/editing positions seem to be what anyone will ever offer me…hopefully all the experience I’m racking up will be worth it). I’ve proofread two complete manuscripts in the past four weeks. I find it oddly satisfying nitpicking all the sentences, locating all the incorrect usages of grammar and misspellings and inconsistent details. Of course, it can be time consuming though, since I have to read twice as slowly in order to carefully read the pages. My fingers are itching to do some content or line editing (especially with the second manuscript I had to read), but at least it appears that my project for next week will involve actually doing track changes to the writing instead of just recording all the errors on a separate document.

But that’s not all! Two weeks ago, I volunteered to be a part of the Writing & Content team for the young adults/professionals (people who are mainly in their twenties) at my church. I figured it was probably time that I should do something more than passively showing up and participating in their activities. And when they launched the program for this summer, they just happened to be seeking out some writers and proofreaders to join (which was decided on the day of the launch).

So there’s a total of only six of us on this Writing team, and I’m the only one with some actual experience. One was part of his college’s newspaper, but he majored in Political Science. Another writes a lot of report stuff at his job, but it’s more of a financial advising slant. As for the other three people, they’re just doing it as a hobby. (Well, one was actually roped in by our leader because the Writing team is the smallest group, and this friend of his didn’t know which team to join.) It’s heartening to read all their writing in each of their blog post drafts (especially as I’m going through and proofreading them), but I fear I may be overstepping or becoming too intimidating/intense. I’m basically doing the same tasks that I did when I was the Editor-in-Chief for the Oakland Arts Review, and I find myself slipping back into my old role. I’m just trying to make sure things are moving smoothly, everyone! And that your work is polished so you look good!

Speaking of writing…

Tomorrow is the first of July, and I was originally hoping to begin my Summer Writing Project on that day. But sometime last week, I decided it wasn’t going to happen. Not on the first of the month, anyway. I haven’t really thought about what kind of project I want to do, and I feel like I need to wait until things start to settle down in my life before I dive into a new project. So perhaps in the middle of July I can get back to writing creatively?

Currently, there are three different stories that I’m pondering about. One is something that I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year, and it’s sitting at about 5k words. The other possible story is even shorter at only 681 words. (It was originally supposed to be a short story, but then last September I began to sketch out the world and its characters a bit more and the plot grew.) And the final story is the basic idea I mentioned in a previous blog post – you know, the Shiny New Idea that started to distract me during my Spring Writing Project.

Except…part of me thinks, after the two-month long project I completed for the Spring, I should take a break from long-form stories and focus more on writing shorter stuff. So I don’t know.

I’m disappointed at my lack of reading books this month, too. I only read one book: NOW I RISE by Kiersten White. And I finished that novel back on June 9. I suppose the manuscript reading I’ve been doing could count, but it’s not quite the same. I have to read those. Also, the pile of unread books sitting on my dresser is currently at eighteen.

Of course, it doesn’t help that I decided to watch a season of one series on Netflix during this month, too. But since I started it seventeen days ago, I’ve only gotten around to watching 8/13 episodes. I just keep running out of time in my day to watch (or read) anything.

So here’s to hoping that July will settle down a little bit…but probably not.

The Page 49 Exercise

Two years ago, when I was participating in my annual NaNoWriMo, I experienced something that every writer runs into at some point: writer’s block. Like most of my NaNoWriMos, I had decided to spend the month mainly writing short stories, with hopes that one would eventually stick and I could work on it for more than just a couple of days.

To generate some possible story ideas, I headed over to NaNoWriMo’s forums. They’re always a hit-or-miss for me, but it’s worth a try. And on this particular day, someone had given the suggestion of reaching for the nearest book, flipping to page 49, and then whatever the first sentence was that appeared on the page, it would become the opening line of your story.

Theoretically, you could choose any other page instead of 49. But the argument was that it was a page number early enough within the book where the action was beginning to take place, so it should provide exciting material. Also, every book should have at least 49 pages. (And I think, because it’s an odd number, it’s just more convenient to glance at the right hand of a novel rather than the left.)

So I picked up the first book sitting on top of my unread pile, turned to page 49, and then typed that specific sentence out as my opening line. This suggestion actually worked quite well for me – I ended up writing 38k words for it.

Now I’ve gotten into the habit of recording the very first full sentence on every 49th page of every book I begin to read. I scribble it into a notebook of mine, ready to use as a launching point for any sort of future story. The subject of some sentences certainly make it obvious which book I was reading, but I’ve found that the more “vague” the lines are, the wider the range it is for me to take the story into any sort of direction I choose.

Some great lines I’ve recorded that I haven’t applied to a story yet:

• He’s talking to her again. 
• You’ve probably heard that he never ages. 
• Her stomach tensed. 
• She unceremoniously withdrew from school and said good-bye to friends in awkward little conversations. 

(If you can figure out which books each of the above quotes are derived from, I applaud you. Because I can only remember two out of four of them.)

Perhaps it’s a weird habit of mine, seeking out every 49th page to see what the first full sentence is, but it’s now become a fun little activity. I think it’s so interesting to see what kind of story you can spin on your own based on those couple of lines.

I hope I’m not the only one who has such “silly” techniques to help ease writer’s block.

A Lesson on Semi-colons

My previous dentist had residency in a small office. It was a husband-and-wife team, with only two rooms that they really used for patients. (They retired last month, hence why they are now considered my “previous” dentist.)

Every time I went, I was ushered into the exact same room. And every time I settled into the dentist chair, my eyes would lock onto the framed picture hanging on the wall to my left. The faded poster talked about the dangers of gingivitis, but I was not fascinated in all the ways that poor dental hygiene could do to my teeth.

Oh no. It’s because there was a particular sentence on the bottom – written in bold font – that was grammatically incorrect.

The first comma of the sentence should have been a semi-colon.

My inner editor was triggered. Seeing a semi-colon being used improperly has always been my biggest (writing) pet peeve.

I always wondered if anyone ever pointed this particular sentence out to the dentist, but I didn’t want to be that nitpicky jerk who noticed such things. Especially on a poster that has probably been hanging for 20+ years.

It was one of those sentences with the word “however” thrown in the middle. Quick lesson: The word “however” indicates a relationship between two contrasting independent clauses. Therefore, you need a semi-colon before the word and a comma after it when writing a compound sentence. The only way you can throw “however” in the middle of the sentence without a semi-colon is if you’re simply rearranging the syntax. As in, if you move “however” to the beginning of the sentence and it still makes sense, then you’re okay with just using commas.

I will never understand why people have such a difficult time with how to use a semi-colon. I mean, if you replace the semi-colon with a period, and the two new sentences still reads fine, then you’re probably good to go.

And if you’re still uncertain, I’d rather you use a comma instead of slapping on a semi-colon just to appear sophisticated or intelligent. It’s less distracting for me to read your words as a reader, which means there’s less of a chance for me to stop reading your writing. (And, yes, this comes from a person who probably uses commas too frequently.)

Another quick lesson: A comma unites an independent clause with a dependent one. The latter clause is when it is missing a subject or verb, and doesn’t convey a complete thought.

But the worst offense I ever saw about semi-colons came from a manuscript I once had to read for a past internship. Judging by the author’s dreadful cover/query letter, I was already preparing myself for what I might encounter with her submission. (Don’t get me started on query letters, and what some people believe passes for one.)

I won’t get into the story itself, but on each page, there were at least ten semi-colons. She would use them instead of commas. And I had to read at least thirty pages of this manuscript. I desperately wanted to ask her to pick up the nearest novel she had lying around and count all the semi-colons she came across on one page – because I can guarantee you that there was probably no more than one.

Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t had nightmares about it. I can imagine me waking up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat, shouting, “Semi-colons! Everywhere! They were everywhere!”

Oh, the horror of improper grammar. More terrifying to me than a trip to the dentist.

P.S. Fun fact, but spelling "semi-colon" with a hyphen is considered the British way, whereas Americans typically spell it as one word. Obviously, I prefer to write it with a hyphen, only because it looks weird to me if it's just "semicolon." Either way is correct, but don't let anyone tell you that I follow the crowd, lol.

Spring Writing Project: Final Update

It has officially been three days since I completed my Spring Writing Project. And by that, I mean I reached my two-month mark and not because the story itself is finished. (It’s close, though. According to my outline, there are only 7-9 scenes left to write. Most of them are just small scenes.)

Also, this post will contain a mix of what I experienced during the last sixteen days of my project and my overall thoughts about it. So here we go.

1.) General Statistics

I’m quite proud of myself for managing to write every single day during the entirety of the project, never dipping below the daily word count goal that I was aiming for. I actually ended with a total of 89,586 words. (I’m pretty sure this is the largest manuscript I’ve written.) Therefore, the average amount of words I wrote every day is about 1,445. Not bad.

However, I can’t calculate my exact average writing time. The document that I saved the information on was deleted on May 7.* Luckily, I had been recording all the word counts in an Excel document, but not the times. So judging by the information I had remaining – I had lost six days’ worth of recordings – my average time is probably around 1 hour, 43 mins.

Also, because graphs are fun, here’s what my daily word count looks like:

^ Can you tell when I began to write at least 1,400 words/day?

*I was so upset when I found out that I couldn’t save this particular document. It was like my own personal “junk drawer”; I have saved all sorts of random stuff in there. Things like quotes I collected, data, websites, various reminders for myself, etc. It had FIVE YEARS worth of material saved. But something happened while I was trying to save the document before restarting my laptop, and the file got corrupted. I researched all sorts of ways to bring it back. As a last ditch effort, I even personally emailed a Microsoft Tech Support guy to try and retrieve it. Alas, all he could do for me was convert it into a notepad, and all the words were nonsense. Once reality set in, there was only one thing left for me to do: I slowly rose from my desk chair, sat down in the middle of my bedroom floor, stared off into space with an unblinking gaze, and contemplated the true meaning of life. And then I created a new document. (Yes, I realize how dramatic I’m being.)

2.) Character Names

Honestly, I’m surprised that I made it through to the very end of the project without really assigning names to characters. I guess I wasn’t kidding when I said how, back in March, I wasn’t going to let my lack of names to stop me from moving forward with my story.

(Too bad I can’t pull something like Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD. None of the characters have actual names in that book. Then again, it’s quite easy when you’re basically only reading about two people.)

3.) Plot

According to what I had mentioned in the very first paragraph of this blog post, you know that I had enough story to get me to the finish line. I may have stretched certain scenes out, but you know what they say: it’s better to write more than less. After all, it’s easier to delete paragraphs than to sit there and have to write additional sentences. Also, even if you have to hack away certain lines, there’s still a chance that it might have helped you discover something about the story or characters. Words are technically never wasted in a draft.

Remember when I had mentioned in previous updates how there were two major scenes that I kept avoiding? Simply because it was too daunting to write? Well, on the night that I had lost my particular document last week, I wrote the first important scene. Got to channel my anguish for the protagonist. As for the second one, I actually wrote the tail-end of the scene on the last day of my project. I hadn’t planned on writing the last scene of the manuscript on the final day, but it worked out quite well. It was quite satisfying to type the last line out of the story on the 62nd day.

A majority of the story has been written out of order, though, so I’ll have to re-arrange everything if I ever want to get it to the editing stage. Luckily, I’ve been recording where each “chapter” belongs within the story. Outlines are helpful.

4.) Final Thoughts

Overall, I would call this project a success. I accomplished everything I had set out to do with it. I focused on only one story throughout the entire process; I wrote every day for two months straight; and I exceeded my daily word count goal.

Next time, though, I need to make time to write when it’s not after midnight. Sacrificing sleep is not good in the long run. But it seems like I never learn this lesson.

Strangely enough, despite how I had made it a habit to write daily for two months, I haven’t felt the absence of it in the past three days. Maybe I just need time for my brain to recover? I don’t know.

It’s clear now that I have the writing endurance to withstand a project of this length. So we’ll see what I want to do for my Summer Project this year…

Spring Writing Project: Update #3

These past two weeks have been quite the struggle when it came to writing. You’ll quickly figure out why in just a moment, but before that, let’s review what I’ve accomplished so far:

1.) General Statistics

As of yesterday, my current word count is 64,464 words. (It was by mere coincidence that I stopped writing at a number with all 4’s and 6’s.) I’m still doing quite well with getting my daily word count goal. And, yes, nothing has changed in terms of me beginning to write for the day during the after-midnight hours. It is officially a full-blown habit of mine to write at around this time.

However, somewhere along the line, I had subconsciously upped my daily word count an extra hundred words. I’ve rolled with it, and now it’s my new goal. Because apparently writing 1300 words/day was not challenging enough for me. (Why you always gotta make things harder for yourself, Amanda?)

Also, not only have I been writing slightly more each day, but I’ve managed to write quicker. My average time has dropped significantly: 1 hour, 46 mins. (Mathematically, it’s 1 hour, 45.71 mins.) I did not set out to shorten my time frame. I guess I’ve just become more efficient?

Basically, I’ve been a writing machine the past two weeks. Not quite sure why…

2.) Character Names

Nope. Zero progress has been made here. I’ve decided that I’m not going to worry about it until I finish the project next month.

3.) Plot

Ah, yes. The overarching plot. I’m slowly running out of “red” scenes to write from my outline. At this point, I think I’m stretching certain scenes only because I’m trying to avoid writing the two major events that happen (one of which being the major climax at the end). I kinda know what will happen during these two events, but because how important they are to the story, it feels daunting to write them out.

Also, I’ve learned that it takes me longer to write a particular scene than I think it does. Once again, it could simply be because I keeping adding to it rather than moving onto a new scene (where I would have to sit and roughly sketch what should be happening with the characters next). Or maybe it’s because I’ve learned to slow the story’s pace down. Perhaps it’s both reasons?

All I know is that I’m starting to get nervous about not having enough story to tell for the next seventeen days (including today).

4.) A Wrench in the Plan

Two days after my last blog post, my mind was roaming while I was doing my morning routine when a thought occurred to me. I had wondered why there weren’t many books based on a particular subject in world history. I’m not talking about historical fiction, but more like using it as a jumping off point to create a new fictional world. (Full disclosure: A novel based off of this time period and its people was published this month, and I instantly ordered it because of this fact. Even though this is the author’s debut, so I have no idea what the new writer is capable of.) 

I had pondered about it, and the conversation in my head basically went like this: 

“Why don’t you write this story, then? I mean, you write stuff.” 

“What?” 

“Well, I guess you shouldn’t. After all, you’re currently in the middle of your Spring Writing project.” 

“Okay, but this story you were thinking of - ” 

“We still have twenty-eight days left of this project. Exactly four weeks. We can’t think about another story. We already made a commitment to see this project through.” 

“…” 

“Wait. Amanda, what are you doing?” 

*glances at my notebook where I record story ideas* 

“NO, AMANDA, NO! Stop! What are you doing? Stop!” 

*scurries over to notebook and scribbles down the vague story concept* 

So, yes, now I’ve spent the last twelve days thinking about two completely different stories. I’m obviously still writing for my Spring project, but I have another foot brainstorming ideas for my next project. My Spring story has lost its sheen now because it has to compete with shiny New Story Idea.

Sigh. Why do I keep doing this to myself? And here I thought I was going to take a little break once this current writing project is over in May. Nope. It appears that I’ll be working on a Summer project, after all.

Maybe this is the reason why I focused solely on writing short stories last year. They were less of a commitment, and I got to dabble in however many stories/genres I wanted to write.

5.) Final Thoughts

I get the feeling that the last stretch of my project is going to be difficult. Based on my new 1400 words/day goal, I have roughly 24k words left to write. Do I have enough story material to get me to the finish line? Can I keep pushing back Shiny New Idea, hoping it will stop interfering with my current project? Will I ever have a decent sleeping schedule? (Probably not.)

I guess we’ll find out next month.

Six weeks down, two (and a half) more to go.

Spring Writing Project: Update #2

Yesterday marked exactly one month since I embarked on my Spring Writing Project. Therefore, I’m now halfway through it. Let’s take a look at my progress so far:

1.) General Statistics

I’m still doing very well in terms of word count. As of yesterday, I’m currently sitting at 45,281 words. (Basically, I’m just 5k words shy of what a typical NaNo story would be at the end of one month.) I’m now 3681 words ahead of schedule, so all the extra words certainly have started to add up. And, yes, I have continued to write every single day so far.

The average time I spend writing per day remains at about 1 hour, 50 mins. (Mathematically, though, the average time is now 1 hour, 50.4 mins.) My sleep schedule is still messed up. I have discovered that drinking lemonade helps me stay awake whenever I begin my two-hour writing excursion after midnight. It beats drinking pop during that time for the caffeine. (I don’t like coffee. But then again, no sane person should be drinking coffee after midnight anyway.) Why I wait until after midnight sometimes to begin writing? I have no idea. Procrastination?

Also, I’ve been thinking about my actual end goal. Since I’m a little ahead of schedule with my total word count, I was wondering which was more important for me: to reach the 80.6k word goal or to write continuously for two months (62 days)? In the end, I reminded myself how I was trying to build writing endurance. If I wanted to reach a particular word count, I could have upped the daily word goal. So I’ll keep trekking along, and hope I have enough material to work with for the next few weeks, no matter how many words I reach by its end.

2.) Character Names

Sadly, I’m still not making much progress with the names. I have not added any more new names into the story other than the previous four. Instead, I keep using my three-letter code names.

I have, however, been circling around two possible names for the protagonist (and their various spellings). They both have the same first syllable, so clearly I’m after a particular sound for her. I also might have names for two of the characters that she interacts with, but I’m not fully committed to it. (One of their names could sound too similar to the protagonist’s.)

At my rate, I’ve pretty much accepted that I won’t really name anyone until this first draft is finished next month. I’ll just keep identifying them with nonsense instead, haha.

3.) Plot

I’m at a point in my writing where I just write scenes out of order. Therefore, the plot seems to be always tweaking. I’ll write one scene, and then the next day, I’ll write a scene that belongs in earlier parts of the story, so I’ll have to adjust the new scene to fit what I had written the day before. By doing this, there is now a character alive longer in my story than I had originally planned.

Last week, I finally created a general outline of the entire story. All the scenes I have yet to write have a red font color to stand out. Also, to keep all of my out-of-order scenes somewhat organized, they’re all labeled by their “chapters.” And by that, I mean each segment is described as Chapter Xa, Xb, Xc, etc. (The “X” was originally used as a placeholder for a number, and then I just found myself adding more letters to it, so I rolled with my thought process.)

Also, I’m still not sure how to go about writing the major climax at the end, so I keep avoiding it. At some point, I’ll have to buckle down and just write it. Eventually, I’m going to run out of “red” scenes to write and I’ll have no choice but to figure out how everything should be clicking together at the end.

4.) Final Thoughts

A strange thing happened by the end of last week. I realized that my daily writing has now become a habit. I don’t struggle so much to get myself to sit down and write. Once it’s time, I pick an unwritten scene (or continue writing the scene from the day before) and go at it without much thought.

I also have had an itch to go back and flesh out the world mythology more. But then I have to remind myself how I can do that in the next draft during the editing phase. For now, it’s important for me to just finish this particular story. After all, first drafts are when you’re still trying to find the story. It’s probably why I keep modifying certain events within the plot as I continue to write them non-linearly.

Overall, I’m quite happy with my halfway progress so far. I still believe I have enough story material to write for the second half of my project.

Four weeks down, four more to go.



P.S. Last Saturday, I started reading Book #12. GIRLS MADE OF GLASS AND SNOW by Melissa Bashardoust. It’s a fairy tale adaption story of Snow White, which I hardly ever hear being retold. Then again, I don’t read many fairy tale adaptions. Although, Leigh Bardugo’s novel THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS is probably my favorite from this particular genre out there. I read her collection of stories back in January (it was Book #3), and I’m still mesmerized by the artwork that fill the page borders.

Spring Writing Project: Update #1

I have officially completed fifteen days into my Spring Writing Project. (Note: Today marks Day 16, but I’m not counting it because this blog post is going up before I get a chance to write for the day.) Let’s see how my progress has been going so far:

1.) General Statistics

In regards to word count, I’m doing quite well. Overall, I have written 21,018 words these past two weeks. Considering that my goal was to write at least 1300 words/day, I’m 1518 word ahead of schedule. (So, yes, I have been hitting my daily word count goal every day.)

And since I also keep a record of how long I write each day, I can tell you that I spend an average of 1 hour, 50 mins per day on my project. (If you want to be mathematically precise, the total is 1 hour, 49.8 mins.) Basically, I spend about the same amount of time writing as I do during NaNoWriMo – but writing fewer words. And I’m okay with that. It means that I’m not rushing, that my story is moving at a proper pace.

However, my bedtime schedule has gotten worse because I’m usually awake late at night, writing away. I fall asleep closer to dawn than what I should be doing.

2.) Character Names

Remember how I mentioned in my previous post that I didn’t have any names for my characters? Well, things still have not changed. Literally, only four characters in my entire story have a name. One of those is not the protagonist. (She's referred to as MC - you know, "main character.")

Instead, all of the characters are identified by a sequence of three-letter phrases. Like “qwe” and uio” and “hjk.” (And, yes, I know exactly which characters I just mentioned.) These sequences are also placed within brackets, so I can easily recognize that they are my placeholder names and not a misspelled word.

As for those characters that don’t play too large of a role within the story, I seriously have their name become [firstname#]. The “#” is replaced by an actual number, starting with 1 then 2 then 3 and so on.

Essentially, if someone were to sneak a peek at this story, they’d probably believe that I’m crazy. Why do I have all this gibberish inside so many brackets?

But, hey, the lack of names obviously hasn’t stopped me from moving forward with the story, and that’s all that matters.

Also, I discovered that 22-year-old Amanda was a genius. On the first day of my Writing Project, I pulled out the character list from my last completed manuscript. I had written a fantasy story then, and my current story mostly falls in that genre, so I was hoping it’d generate some ideas on how to go about crafting those “fantasy” names. And on the very bottom of the document, I had described my process on how I created those fictional surnames – complete with a list of Latin words and their meanings to use as a base.

Clearly, I haven’t gotten around to the process of generating first and last names for my characters, but at least I have something to aid me when I do. Past Amanda was so smart to record all of this. And that’s why it’s important to never delete any past creative works. Never know when you’ll need to look back at it.

3.) Plot

For the most part of the past two weeks, I’ve been writing the story linearly, starting from the very beginning. But earlier this week, I hit a snag. I wasn’t exactly sure how to connect the story from where it was to where I wanted it to be once the first major turning point occurred. So I left some space on my Word document, and skipped ahead to begin writing at that first turning point. And I’ve been continuing onward from there.

Of course, I keep meaning to draft a more detailed outline for the overall plot, but I keep pushing it off. Basically, once I start writing every day, I usually have no idea where I’m going with it. I just write, and try to figure it out as I go.

That’s actually my biggest struggle these past fifteen days. Getting myself into the actual act of putting words on the page. The first ten minutes are the hardest, because I don’t know what type of scene to write. But after that, I get my groove, and those two hours of writing fly by quickly. Even if I sometimes have to take a break for a few minutes halfway through in order to figure out what scene I should be (or want to be) writing next.



All things considering, my Spring Writing Project is going well so far. I’m hitting my daily word count goal, and I’m not bored of the story (yet). I also believe that I still have enough material to write for the next month and a half.

Two weeks down, six more to go.



P.S. And in case you were wondering, I did begin reading Book #11 during all of this. WARCROSS by Marie Lu. I’m obviously reading it at a slower pace than I did for the other ten books, but not by much. I started it last Thursday (03/22), and I currently have 32 pages left. Therefore, it should be finished tomorrow. After that, I will be halfway through with completing one of my 2018 New Year’s Resolution goals. (If only the other resolutions were so easy…)

Looking Back/Looking Ahead

Last week marked exactly five years since I decided to consider taking my writing seriously. And although I’ve certainly taken steps during that time period to put me on the path of a writer, I still feel like I have a long way to go. (The struggle is real.)

When I reached the decision to pursue writing half a decade ago, I still a junior in college and majoring in the sciences. I had already participated (and “lost”) in two NaNoWriMos. However, I had never actually written anything that could be considered the length of a manuscript, let alone actually complete a story of that size.

So I set out to prove to myself that, yes, I could write an actual manuscript. I mean, how else was I going to learn how to one day write a book?

Of course, the process was very stop-go at first. I spent that spring just in the brainstorm phase. During the summer, I wrote the beginnings of the story, but I wasn’t truly committed to writing it until that year’s NaNoWriMo rolled around. There is when I fully dove into my story, never veering off to write in “short story land.”

By the end of November, this working manuscript of mine still wasn’t finished. Heck, there were multiple characters that still didn’t have a name. I just gave them gibberish code names, knowing that I’d go back and replace them with their true names later. My main concern was to just keep writing, because I didn’t want something as silly as what to call the characters to hold me back.

Taking a break from writing all during the month of November, I focused on finals in December instead. I didn’t get back into writing that story until January.

During the first week of the new semester, we were hit with a mountain of snow. My school actually declared two snow days. Seeing how I was hardly in class that week, I had no homework to labor over, and I didn’t have anywhere to go because of the weather.

So I toiled away in my dorm room, determined to finish this manuscript once and for all. There was one day where I wrote for 7-8 hours, only taking an hour break in between to scarf some dinner down at the caf before heading back to my laptop.

And wouldn’t you know? By the end of the week, the story was finished. Of course, I had written many of the scenes out of order so I had to go back later and rearrange everything to make sense (and then write some more to fill in all the gaps), but I did it. I wrote and completed what I consider my first manuscript.

Was it any good, you may ask? Not at all. (But then again, most first manuscripts never are.) In fact, I haven’t re-read that story in a few years because just thinking about it makes me cringe. But you bet I was devastated when the flash drive containing the story broke two years ago. Luckily, due to my laziness, I was able to retrieve the manuscript through Word Document Recovery, and saved the manuscript onto my laptop until I got it transferred somewhere else.

Now fast-forward to the present. Tomorrow I will be officially embarking on my new Spring Project. I still plan on making this a two-month journey, and I plan to hopefully write at least 1300 words/day. (So less words per day than NaNoWriMo, but a more drawn-out process.) I’m also going forward with that New Story Idea that I mentioned in my last post.

During the course of the past two weeks, you’d think that I’d have all the brainstorming details figured out for this story. You know, like character names and plot and what this setting looks like on a map?

Yeah…no. I did sketch out a map, but I’m not sure if I’m going to follow it. Right now, perhaps it’s best not to confine myself to a particular setting before I even set out to write the story. And everyone in the story is still nameless. Including the protagonist. Last night, I started jotting down some possible names, but I haven’t assigned them to any characters yet. At least the overall plot has been thought out, including how I want it to end, so at least I have that going for me.

But mainly, I’m just going to dive into this project tomorrow and see where it takes me. If I wasn’t too concerned about naming characters five years ago, then I shouldn’t have them hold me back from writing nowadays, too.

I’m going to try my best to harness the drive I had all those years ago, and see this project from start to finish. Because the last time I had completed a manuscript was almost three years ago – which is too long of a time. (Although, that’s not to say all the writing I did in between was a waste.)

The only downside is I might have to sacrifice the part of my day when I read a book. But considering how I’m currently on book number 10 out of 22 for the year, and it’s only March, I should be okay. (In case you were curious, I’m approaching the end of GOLDEN SON by Pierce Brown.)

Indecisiveness

In these past two weeks, I’ve been reminded once again how indecisive I can be when it comes to what kind of stories I want to work on. I hope I’m not the only writer (or any other creative art person) out there who constantly feels torn on projects.

It all started when I decided to pull up the document of one of my unfinished manuscripts of 2016. (You know, the one I mentioned in my previous blog post.) Turns out, the manuscript contained fewer words than what I remembered – about 38k words. I grabbed a sheet of paper so I could jot down notes for all the editing errors I encountered while re-reading it.

Yeah…On every single page, there would be something that I’d need to fix. It could have been something as simple as syntax, to something as complex as I need to slow the pacing down or add more description. I got to page 40/146 before I decided to set it aside for a day or two. It was dawning on me that I’d have to start from scratch with the re-writing, if I was planning on making this my Spring Project.

I then began to brainstorm other stories I had either briefly wrote about or never made it past the idea phase. At the seventh idea, I found myself expanding on the concept. Taking this as a good sign, I even created a chart to draft how I wanted the story arc to go.

But at some point last week, I returned to read that unfinished manuscript again. I set my notes aside and just decided to do a read-through. Tried to turn the inner editor off in my head and not worry about all the mistakes I was coming across. Got to page 90 before I called it quits.

Then I turned my attention back to that New Story Idea I was working on. I’m still figuring out the plot (mainly, how I want the story to end). And none of the characters have names. In fact, all of them are assigned a letter of the alphabet to identify themselves. And I also need to do a rough sketch of a map.

It’s clear that I'm not ready to begin writing this story on March 1, like I was hoping to do. The pre-planning stage is still in progress. But perhaps I can get going on it by the middle of March?

For this Spring Project, I’m also not sure how many words I want to aim at writing on a daily basis. I’m also thinking about making this more of a 2-month project, rather than my typical 1-month span. Just to see if I have the endurance to write regularly for that long.

I guess we’ll see what I end up doing in the weeks to come. Because even I don’t know what direction I’m going with all these variables.

Update On How Much (Or How Little) I’ve Been Reading/Writing Lately

For the past two or three months, I’ve been in the Season of Absorbing. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see my previous post HERE.) Since the start of the new year, I’ve already read seven books. And considering that there has only been seven weeks of 2018, you don’t need me to do the math for you.

In case you were curious, the last book I finished was THE GAUNTLET by Megan Shepherd. It’s the last in a trilogy - I hadn’t read its previous book in almost a year and a half – but I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the series. I liked the variety of characters, and I have to give a special shout-out to the alien Bonebreak because I thought he was hilarious. I was sorry to read that a few of the characters died by the end.

Anyway…with seven books already read this year, it’s nice to know that one of my New Year’s Resolutions/Goals has been going well. I’m 31.8% complete with my goal of reading 22 books. (I’m trying to think positive here. Compared to my other resolutions, this is the easiest one for me to assess my progress.)

Therefore, the pile of unread books sitting on my dresser is slowly shrinking. Except it currently possesses 17 books and not 15 because I bought two new novels last month. I’m obviously bad at trying to keep the pile under control. (So many books to read, so little time.)

And even though I’ve been doing a great job at trying to read on a more regular basis, I actually haven’t written anything creatively since NaNoWriMo ended back in November. I gave myself permission to not think too much about it, especially since I wanted to take a little break after winning NaNo and read books or watch tv shows instead, but now my fingers are starting to get antsy on my keyboard. They want to get back into the act of writing fiction.

I should probably warm up with a short story or two, but it’s been so long since I’ve written something with more of a manuscript length, so I’m thinking about taking up a large project again. I don’t really have anything “new” in mind for a story, but I’m wondering if I should rewrite/revise one of my previous manuscripts.

There are two unfinished manuscripts that I worked on in 2016 that I find myself being drawn back into. For one of them in particular (the more finished project), I revisited my old charts today for its storyline, which reminded me how much I liked the characters. Plot details need to be tweaked, though.

But then I recalled my almost-completed manuscript of summer 2015. Part of me wants to go back and read it, especially since I haven’t done so in almost two years, but then another part of me is afraid how much I’ll cringe upon reading those words. I wrote it two months before I officially went back to school for another degree, so I can’t imagine how bad my writing is compared to what it is now. (At least, I hope my writing has improved over the course of three years.)

So that’s what I’ve been pondering about lately. (Among other random things in life.) Stories that I’ve read, or stories that I’m thinking about writing. Stories in general, I guess.

Anthropomorphic Books

Last week, my sister and I were reminiscing about the animal fantasy (anthropomorphic) books that we had read while growing up. We certainly took a liking to novels written in the perspective of animals, but I suppose it’s not entirely uncommon for young girls to love all things animals.

And I thought to myself – hey! – I have never actually mentioned anthropomorphic books in this blog. So today, I’m making a list of novels that I enjoyed in my younger years. (The age ranges for the books are all over the place, so I’ll be sure to mention them for each one. I mean, there are definitely some Middle Grade books that are still considered classics to me. Perhaps you had read them once, too?)

*Cats

Ah, I couldn’t start a list of anthropomorphic books without talking about the WARRIORS series by Erin Hunter. Kids my age were growing up with Harry Potter, but I declared my love to these cats instead. Started reading them when I was in seventh grade (fall of 2004, in case you were curious), and the series nowadays has ballooned into a behemoth. You could probably spend a couple of years just reading all of them now. As for me, I’ve read far too many WARRIORS books that I’d care to admit (they still take up a good chunk of my bookshelf), but their journeys entertained me.

Another cat book that caters more toward Middle Grade is VARJAK PAW by S.F. Said, and its sequel THE OUTLAW VARJAK PAW. The books also deal with fighting cats, but these cats have more of a martial arts slant. Plus, they have some really cool ink pictures on the pages.

*Dogs

I feel like the subject of dogs for an anthropomorphic book is a very common occurrence. Perhaps it’s only natural that we’d like to write about “man’s best friend” as if he had human thoughts.

In terms of Middle Grade, I remember reading THE GOOD DOG by Avi multiple times as a child. I was torn alongside the protagonist, McKinley the Malamute, as he had to make a decision to either join the wild or stay with his human pup. Not to mention the neighborhood Irish Settler who seems bent on overruling McKinley as leader.

As for more of an adult book, I also read THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London a couple of times. (Fun fact: I once wrote a research paper on Jack London in tenth grade.) Written in 1903, the well-known story follows Buck as he slowly ascends into a feral creature.

*Foxes

In the vein of London’s book, I think of VULPES THE RED FOX by Jean Craighead George. I think it’s technically categorized in the Middle Grade section, but since it was originally published in 1948, the writing could be a bit dry/difficult for a child. It has a bit of a sad ending, though.

*Wolves

Let’s not forget the dogs’ famous cousin – the wolf. Another popular anthropomorphic subject, I have a special place in my heart for David Clement-Davies’ book, THE SIGHT. The (Young Adult) story mainly follows white wolf, Larka, who is the center of an old prophecy. She grows in her Sight powers, and learns the meaning of true sacrifice. The ending broke my heart, but I understand why the story had to end in that particular way. (I would have done the exact same thing.)

Its sequel, FELL, is less anthropomorphic than its predecessor. It’s named after Larka’s black-furred brother (who also possess The Sight), but the novel focuses more on a teenage girl instead of Fell.

*Deer

Before THE SIGHT, Clement-Davies wrote a (Young Adult) book about deer called FIRE BRINGER. Once more, the protagonist finds himself wrapped up in an ancient prophecy. Switched at birth for his protection, Rannoch must hide his trademark white oak leaf marking on his head while he and his friends run from a tyrannical stag leader.

*Unicorns

A book of a similar name, there is also THE FIREBRINGER trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce. And, yes, it’s about unicorns and prophecies (sensing a theme?), along with wyverns and griffins. I’d consider this more of an Young Adult/Adult book. The unicorns speak in Olde English, so the dialogue could be a bit difficult for younger readers. And there’s possible *cough* sibling incest *cough*.

Interested in other anthropomorphic books? I got you covered! I haven’t read any of the books mentioned below, but they’re on my list of “One Day I’ll Read Them. Hopefully. Sometime in My Lifetime, Anyway.”

*Rabbits: the REDWALL series by Brian Jacques (Middle Grade)(With twenty-one books in the series, it could keep you busy.)

*Bats: the SILVERWING trilogy by Kenneth Oppel (Middle Grade)

*Mice: the TALES OF DIMWOOD FOREST series by Avi (Middle Grade)(There are six books within this series. I’ve read one of them as a child.)

*Prehistoric Cats: THE BOOKS OF THE NAMED trilogy by Clare Bell (Young Adult) (I’ve been told that many former WARRIORS lovers turn to these books for a more adult read.)



If you’re interest in more of a semi-anthropomorphic novel:

*THE LAST UNICORN by Peter S. Beagle. I’ve never read the book, but I watched the animated 1982 movie multiple times growing up. (It’s strange how I can still remember the characters’ names. Although, sometimes I wonder how I got away with watching this as a child.) It follows the tale of a unicorn who believes that she is the last of her kind, and undergoes a quest to find the others.


And, finally, a list about books in an animals’ perspective would not be complete without ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell. I’ve written a blog post about this in the past, so I won’t talk too much about it again, but it’s still up there as one of my favorite books ever.