Well, I hit writer's block about as hard as any author can. Literally nothing that I put down I liked, and nothing that I edited seemed to improve. Naturally, all of this has been slightly scaring me in consideration of the fact that I have four more days left to write, and then my junior year of school starts.
And everyone knows that your junior year is the hardest academically...
Yay for Chemistry!
Yay for Algebra II!
Yay for AP Music Theory! (...which I thought I'd have some head start on since I have been in music for years now, but...apparently not, according to my Music Theory textbook, which proved to me that I'm basically a music noob still...)
Anyway, my first class is on Wednesday, the 4th of August, so, if I don't post here until May of 2015, you guys will know what happened to me.
I got devoured by the mythical creature called School.
However, I have come across one conclusion that has helped me tremendously when it comes to writing while in writer's block:
Instead of writing according to an outline all the time and only writing for the set projects that you have, just write whatever you want until you get out of writer's block.
...I don't know. That sounded a lot more profound when I was thinking of it in my head. x) Basically, though, instead of trying to feel what your characters need to be feeling, you get to feel more according to yourself (who should be your greatest source of inspiration as an author). You're also allowing your mind to get out of a routine, critical view of your writing, and your writing is more creative and raw, rather than overly refined.
Anyway, that's just something I've found helpful. While you're at it, you might even discover some interesting things about yourself, who knows?
I certainly have. x)
But...more of my writing to come...eventually... x)
Write on!
Clove
7.31.2014
7.25.2014
Prepare for a Grammar Nazi conversions in three...two...one...
Social media. Online chatrooms. Virtual schools.
More and more, conversation in life shifts from supremely slow snail-mail to the laid-back, rapid pace of a chat box. With this shift (and a mass of abbreviations to boot), grammar and proper English are quickly spiraling down a tube until "lol-ing" and "y u do dis" are the only surviving phrases.
Now, I'm not saying that you should trash all of your internet jokes. Doge memes depend on poor grammar for their humor. (For example, you can't exactly say, "The picture was taken by such a camera", "The picture included many photoshops", "The picture instilled much boredom", and "Wow" while still earning "lol's" for your genius jokes.) In most cases, I encourage the practice of internet joking, simply because irony and puns are two strong skills that can be honed by scrolling through memes.
What I am saying, though, is that I'm about to rant on the internet because I'm tired of walking into a virtual classroom each school year and getting:
"Woe, so ur an author, Clove? I am too!!! I love writing, though my grammer skills always bother my parents because i corrrect them all the time on their bad english, rofl."
*cues music and rant*
THE STORY OF MY LIIIFE,
I'VE HEARD IT AAALL:
YOUR CLAIMS TO WRITING AND PERFECT FOOORM
AND I'M...
PARALYYYZED.
*cuts music and rant*
Guys, the point of the story is: if you claim to be an author, practice your skills all the time, even and especially in a chatroom. Out of this practice, you...
1.) add more minutes to your 10,000 hours
2.) avoid hypocrisssy
3.) appear more respectable
and 4.) become a ninja at typing quickly and grammatically correct. (To be honest, the number one complaint given to me online is, "Wow, Clove, SLOW DOWN. Give us a chance to type as well!" If you practice proper typing until classmates can't keep up, imagine how fast you could pump out a story; basically, as fast as you could think up the next scene, it's down on paper. Good stuffs, yes?)
Write on!
Clove
More and more, conversation in life shifts from supremely slow snail-mail to the laid-back, rapid pace of a chat box. With this shift (and a mass of abbreviations to boot), grammar and proper English are quickly spiraling down a tube until "lol-ing" and "y u do dis" are the only surviving phrases.
Now, I'm not saying that you should trash all of your internet jokes. Doge memes depend on poor grammar for their humor. (For example, you can't exactly say, "The picture was taken by such a camera", "The picture included many photoshops", "The picture instilled much boredom", and "Wow" while still earning "lol's" for your genius jokes.) In most cases, I encourage the practice of internet joking, simply because irony and puns are two strong skills that can be honed by scrolling through memes.
What I am saying, though, is that I'm about to rant on the internet because I'm tired of walking into a virtual classroom each school year and getting:
"Woe, so ur an author, Clove? I am too!!! I love writing, though my grammer skills always bother my parents because i corrrect them all the time on their bad english, rofl."
*cues music and rant*
THE STORY OF MY LIIIFE,
I'VE HEARD IT AAALL:
YOUR CLAIMS TO WRITING AND PERFECT FOOORM
AND I'M...
PARALYYYZED.
*cuts music and rant*
Guys, the point of the story is: if you claim to be an author, practice your skills all the time, even and especially in a chatroom. Out of this practice, you...
1.) add more minutes to your 10,000 hours
2.) avoid hypocrisssy
3.) appear more respectable
and 4.) become a ninja at typing quickly and grammatically correct. (To be honest, the number one complaint given to me online is, "Wow, Clove, SLOW DOWN. Give us a chance to type as well!" If you practice proper typing until classmates can't keep up, imagine how fast you could pump out a story; basically, as fast as you could think up the next scene, it's down on paper. Good stuffs, yes?)
Write on!
Clove
7.22.2014
Freewriting
"If you pretend to feel a certain way, the feeling can become genuine all by accident."
~ Hei (Darker Than Black) ~
Feelings are fun elements, aren't they? You think you've mastered yourself, and, the next day, you end up sobbing, screaming, laughing, trembling, blushing, and, more or less, exhibiting the emotions that are inseparable from your self.
We authors have the daunting occupation of conveying these emotions through written words in such a special manner that any reader - any reader at all - can empathize...but, indeed, this task is "daunting" because we ourselves are not devoid of feeling, and, if that feeling begins to cloud our minds, we begin to make characters who do random, inappropriate things based off of our own emotions.
For example, I'm currently working on Entropy, the sequel to a story I wrote last year, and, in it, my main character Jewel is engaged in a casual assassination mission with some of her closest friends, which, for her, is nothing short of sheer enjoyment. However, whenever I hop into Jewel's shoes to edit the scene, I bring sobriety and brooding with me, and I end up making Jewel respond to her world with a dark cruelty...
Problematic, isn't it?
Fortunately, I've noticed that one of the easiest way to avoid this issue is to freewrite.
According to Wikipedia, "Freewriting is a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism."
Basically, then, you
1.) set a timer for about fifteen to twenty minutes (I've been so volatile recently that I've had to extend my sessions to forty minutes at least, but you'll figure out what works for you after a few sessions.)
2.) sit in front of a blank Word document
3.) think about one matter on your mind
4.) ask yourself how to fix that matter
5.) and start writing without stopping or editing AT ALL
What you'll get might look something like this:
"i promises that i would and i thought that i though t aht everything wsd dscread iver and i hate everything and im staring at page of red letters but nooooo you have to keepin studiying because a bus eexist at schooola dne because the wrexpectations above you are crushing you so you hae to work hard tna dlways be reminded that you dont graduate for another two years and college college college oh how i want to sckp life nd just go to college no sw and my school year next year just looks to boring that i think i might die."
Yeah. x)
Again, this is unedited, UNPUBLISHED (I published only for the sake of an example), type-as-fast-as-you-can stuff. However, it does several things:
1.) It helps you get past the terrors of life to a settled calm of eloquence.
2.) It helps you get past apathy to an invigorating rush of words.
3.) It keeps you from editing too seriously. When you look at your freewritten material and see all of the red squiggly lines, suddenly, your other works are really good.
4.) It breaks down publishing anxiety. (You know, that anxiety that makes you believe everything you write must be perfect because everything will be published...?)
5.) Under all of the junk, sometimes, you find these very valuable, uncut diamonds: rough ideas that need much work and plenty of polish before they shine. I can promise, though, that the effort is worth the reward.
Write on!
Clove
For example, I'm currently working on Entropy, the sequel to a story I wrote last year, and, in it, my main character Jewel is engaged in a casual assassination mission with some of her closest friends, which, for her, is nothing short of sheer enjoyment. However, whenever I hop into Jewel's shoes to edit the scene, I bring sobriety and brooding with me, and I end up making Jewel respond to her world with a dark cruelty...
Problematic, isn't it?
Fortunately, I've noticed that one of the easiest way to avoid this issue is to freewrite.
According to Wikipedia, "Freewriting is a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism."
Basically, then, you
1.) set a timer for about fifteen to twenty minutes (I've been so volatile recently that I've had to extend my sessions to forty minutes at least, but you'll figure out what works for you after a few sessions.)
2.) sit in front of a blank Word document
3.) think about one matter on your mind
4.) ask yourself how to fix that matter
5.) and start writing without stopping or editing AT ALL
What you'll get might look something like this:
"i promises that i would and i thought that i though t aht everything wsd dscread iver and i hate everything and im staring at page of red letters but nooooo you have to keepin studiying because a bus eexist at schooola dne because the wrexpectations above you are crushing you so you hae to work hard tna dlways be reminded that you dont graduate for another two years and college college college oh how i want to sckp life nd just go to college no sw and my school year next year just looks to boring that i think i might die."
Yeah. x)
Again, this is unedited, UNPUBLISHED (I published only for the sake of an example), type-as-fast-as-you-can stuff. However, it does several things:
1.) It helps you get past the terrors of life to a settled calm of eloquence.
2.) It helps you get past apathy to an invigorating rush of words.
3.) It keeps you from editing too seriously. When you look at your freewritten material and see all of the red squiggly lines, suddenly, your other works are really good.
4.) It breaks down publishing anxiety. (You know, that anxiety that makes you believe everything you write must be perfect because everything will be published...?)
5.) Under all of the junk, sometimes, you find these very valuable, uncut diamonds: rough ideas that need much work and plenty of polish before they shine. I can promise, though, that the effort is worth the reward.
Write on!
Clove
7.11.2014
Another Muse
This is heresy on a writing blog, but I'll say it anyway:
I hate reading so much sometimes.
Some books…I pick them up because they interest me and because I like the plot, but then, after I begin to see the characters begin to develop midway through, I start to despise the book because I've related to those characters' imperfections, to their struggles', but I can never see how they, or I, will ever get out of life's chains.
My older brother is different. He can read about a book's characters like a scientist, observing them and probing them but never really growing as they grow or dying as they die. Sometimes, I wish I could read like he reads and listen like he listens and watch the world like he watches the world: with total apathy and calculation, detached in most all ways from his heart.
Someday, too, I hope that I will write a book so relatable to human nature that people will want to stay up until three in the morning reading my book, that they'll cry when a character falls short of his/her dreams, that they'll buy my book and treasure it because of how much it speaks to their heart.
First of all, though, I have to figure out my own heart...
Write on!
Clove
P.S. I promised that my story chapters would be posted, and, despite internet-al silence, much writing for said story is occurring. The problem is Module 7 of Chemistry, a full cadenza that needs to be written in a week, and website designing, which all keep me too occupied to really get into the "writing groove". However, do not lose hope, oh, faithful blog reader; my art will come in time. ;)
I hate reading so much sometimes.
Some books…I pick them up because they interest me and because I like the plot, but then, after I begin to see the characters begin to develop midway through, I start to despise the book because I've related to those characters' imperfections, to their struggles', but I can never see how they, or I, will ever get out of life's chains.
My older brother is different. He can read about a book's characters like a scientist, observing them and probing them but never really growing as they grow or dying as they die. Sometimes, I wish I could read like he reads and listen like he listens and watch the world like he watches the world: with total apathy and calculation, detached in most all ways from his heart.
Someday, too, I hope that I will write a book so relatable to human nature that people will want to stay up until three in the morning reading my book, that they'll cry when a character falls short of his/her dreams, that they'll buy my book and treasure it because of how much it speaks to their heart.
First of all, though, I have to figure out my own heart...
Write on!
Clove
P.S. I promised that my story chapters would be posted, and, despite internet-al silence, much writing for said story is occurring. The problem is Module 7 of Chemistry, a full cadenza that needs to be written in a week, and website designing, which all keep me too occupied to really get into the "writing groove". However, do not lose hope, oh, faithful blog reader; my art will come in time. ;)
7.03.2014
My newest invention: Clovechés
I'm.
Sick.
Of.
Clichés.
*clears throat with a pointed glare*
Hi, everyone.
Is anyone else tired of editing out there? *raises hand* IIIiii aaam. Studying for the grammar section of the PSAT to me is like doing excruciating story-editing work for hours on end, only worse, because the PSAT authors are such genius idiots that they can make sentences with absolutely NOOO structure or sense whatsoever so that you can't figure out the answer because you can't even understand their original point IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Super fun stuffs.
You know what else is super fun?
A CLOVECHÉ.
Yes, I know what you're thinking right now. "Ummm...Clove...aren't you thinking of a cliché?", but, no, I'm not. I'm definitely thinking of a Cloveché, which is my newest invention. See, clichés are when you settle for being lazy and using a common phrase when you could instead better impress and inspire your reader with beautiful description and abnormally strung-together adjectives.
A Cloveché, however, is a positive term, used when you take a cliché and give it a fun spin.
For example:
CLICHÉ: She was afraid of her own shadow.
Sick.
Of.
Clichés.
*clears throat with a pointed glare*
Hi, everyone.
Is anyone else tired of editing out there? *raises hand* IIIiii aaam. Studying for the grammar section of the PSAT to me is like doing excruciating story-editing work for hours on end, only worse, because the PSAT authors are such genius idiots that they can make sentences with absolutely NOOO structure or sense whatsoever so that you can't figure out the answer because you can't even understand their original point IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Super fun stuffs.
You know what else is super fun?
A CLOVECHÉ.
Yes, I know what you're thinking right now. "Ummm...Clove...aren't you thinking of a cliché?", but, no, I'm not. I'm definitely thinking of a Cloveché, which is my newest invention. See, clichés are when you settle for being lazy and using a common phrase when you could instead better impress and inspire your reader with beautiful description and abnormally strung-together adjectives.
A Cloveché, however, is a positive term, used when you take a cliché and give it a fun spin.
For example:
CLICHÉ: She was afraid of her own shadow.
CLOVECHÉ: She was afraid of her own shadow, and her own shadow was afraid of itself.
CLICHÉ: His heart skipped a beat.
CLOVECHÉ: His heart skipped so many beats that he almost died.
CLICHÉ: It was too good to be true.
CLOVECHÉ: It was too good that, whether it was true or not, she snapped at the opportunity, assuming that she'd enjoy it before the hallucination faded away.
CLICHÉ: He was as old as the hills.
CLOVECHÉ: He was older than the hills' great-grandparents.
CLICHÉ: Every cloud has a silver lining.
CLOVECHÉ: His heart skipped so many beats that he almost died.
CLICHÉ: It was too good to be true.
CLOVECHÉ: It was too good that, whether it was true or not, she snapped at the opportunity, assuming that she'd enjoy it before the hallucination faded away.
CLICHÉ: He was as old as the hills.
CLOVECHÉ: He was older than the hills' great-grandparents.
CLICHÉ: Every cloud has a silver lining.
CLOVECHÉ: Every cloud has a silver lining, she knew, but, of course, in the torrential rain, she wasn't able to view the money-making cloud-lacing.
CLICHÉ: She woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
CLOVECHÉ: She woke up on the wrong side of the bed, stepped on a Lego, and immediately hit her head on her nightstand.
Recently, my sarcasm has reached a peak, so I've been using far too many of these, but I like them, and I probably won't ever take them out because they exhibit such ingenuity, humor, and wit. No more of those ridiculous clichés~
Now that you know about Clovechés, you will never go back.
CLICHÉ: She woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
CLOVECHÉ: She woke up on the wrong side of the bed, stepped on a Lego, and immediately hit her head on her nightstand.
Recently, my sarcasm has reached a peak, so I've been using far too many of these, but I like them, and I probably won't ever take them out because they exhibit such ingenuity, humor, and wit. No more of those ridiculous clichés~
Now that you know about Clovechés, you will never go back.
MWAHAHAH--write on.
Clove
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