Camp Nanowrimo Part 2

"The reason I talk to myself is because I'm the only one whose answers I accept." -George Carlin

Not insane yet.

Kirah

Camp Nanowrimo

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” ~Jack London

Welcome to August the first, aka my older sister's birthday, aka first day of Camp Nanowrimo. I'm using my dad's old laptop- thank you!- so that then I don't have to share with my computer-addicted siblings. I did Nanowrimo on the family computer last time, and this is my experience in a nutshell:

Me: typing rapidly
Sibling: Can I have a turn?

They don't understand typing crisises. I don't know how many times I tried to explain that November.

My overall opinion of camp: fun, but calmer than Nanowrimo. (And then watch me become a nervous wreck by the 5th.) Good luck to all other campers!

Kirah

I've Decided

"Peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one." -Rita Mae Brown

Realms is going well- Evelyn Grace is actually turning out much better than Evan Andrews. I'm struggling a bit with the side characters in her story, but I think that they'll round out eventually. I just need to get it written down! I'm really excited to get into Ambrr and P'eter's POV. Stark, Thodo, and Acris (you knew her as Thorne, but I needed to change that for obvious reasons- Thodo and Thorne!) should be very interesting.

I've decided today that I'll write the whole trilogy- I will finish. I will! And I need to get it read by someone; I need to get it out there!

Kirah

Change

"Change is inevitable- except from the vending machine." ~Robert C. Gallagher

Well, life just changed for me. It's this little thing called high schoool, ever heard of it? In three months I will be going there, and until then everything I do will be voluntary and homework-free. (Voluntary = running and weeding.) It doesn't seem real- three months! Come back to me in July and see if I've accepted this "new" reality yet. I'm really going to miss my friends.

By the way I will be vacationing from Memorial Day (Monday) to Sunday, so I won't be able to post then. Thanks!

Signing into summer,
Kirah

To the Edge and Beyond

"Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it." -Mahatama Ghandi

We ran the 5K at school today. Or I ran it; almost all my friends walked it at a seperate time. My thoughts on the 5K:

Run. Must run. Listen to the music.

It was actually pretty eventful- Mikey lost his shoe, I gave a dramatic "Go on without me!" speech and we ate popsicles even though it was only 60 degrees outside.

How this applies to writing: everyone has a limit. I have a running limit, an anger limit, a fatigue limit, and an overall This Is It Limit. As your story progresses, try to push your characters beyond anything they've ever done. Break your character. Smash him into the ground. Because character development is extremely important, and watching them change, for the better or worse, is what makes a story memorable for me. If a character truly changes, I enjoy reading a book again just to compare who he/she was at first to the finished product. So push your character. Snap them in half. Does it make me a bad person if I enjoy it?

On another subject, I've reached page 18 of Stark's backstory, and I think I'll have to rewrite the whole thing. I left out so many details! Anyone want to give me extra motivation?

Two days left of school,
Kirah

Dead Mice and Odd Paranoias

I'm still under sock arrest. It isn't as fun as it sounds.

I forgot to mention it, but yesterday Pip walked in holding something in his mouth. Mom talked him into dropping it, and it was a dead mouse! I made some sort strangled gasp; you would've thought I'd been stabbed. The freakiness of the moment has not worn off, unfortunately. This morning I practically had a heart attack when I saw a hair clip that was in a position to look like a mouse's corpse.

I haven't had a chance to write/edit yet today, but I'm going to Brynn's soccer match soon and I might write there. This has been a very mellow day.

Kirah

Sock Arrest

Mom placed me under sock arrest after I split my heel really badly while running outside playing with cousins for four hours. I must have lotion on my feet and socks on at all times. I hate socks and shoes. I love being barefoot. And since my sock arrest two hours ago, I'm already going crazy.

My cousins were here today. It was amazing. They have eight kids, but their oldest was at college, so it was twelve of us between the ages of 17 and 2. We played Wall-Ball and Ultimate Frisbee. Seth turned on the treadmill and got locked out of the house, I got a foot injury and found my 12-year old cousin in my room, Brooke made all the decisions for us, and Ian was mad at someone the entire time. Near the end, we flash-mobbed the lemonade/popsicle stand down the street and bought almost everything there. The girls in charge of it were freaking out at all the business.

Revising chapter 2 has gone well. I've probably scribbled out more than half the chapter.

Kirah