A Random Story

So this has absolutely nothing to do with my novel I was just in a writing mood and this story popped into my head. I'm not sure if I'm going to add more to it but just for know her it is!

It was the first day of my sophomore year of high school. In my school, for some strange reason, freshman where still in with the seventh and eighth graders in the mid-high so tenth grade year was my first year in "the big high school." I was always the sort of nerdy girl who was friends with lots of people but wasn't really anything much to anyone around so I had, of course, decided that this was going to be a new start for me. I was going to "re-en-vent" myself as it where. Yes well, re-en-veiting oneself really only works in novels and made for TV teen dramas so that plan pretty much failed the second I walked through the big yellow doors that lead into the high school. My perfectly quaffed hair fell flat from the crazy Oklahoma heat and I walked into the school to face a crowd of people who had known me forever and new I was nothing like what I hoped they would now see in me. So instead of being the cute new girl wearing a barely dress code white tank and jeans I stayed the lame girl who was freezing in class and wore a wrinkled sweater over her tank top after pulling it from her backpack. And instead of being talkative and whitey I barely said a word to anyone because I was to consumed with the fact that I had failed my attempt to be a completely new person or at least and alter ego of myself.

After scuffing my feet and being all but impressed with myself through an entire day I came to my last class of the day. As I walked into sophomore Biology 1, the slacker on-level science class which I really should not have been taking because I was much more capable in the field of genetics and all things biology but knowing it meant no Chemistry in my entire high school career - a fact I am very proud of to this day, I took a seat in the front row at least two full rows in front of all the other kids who had already arrived.

I didn't mind the front. I'm sort of blind so I can see better and then I didn't have to see the faces of all the kids starring at me when the teacher announced I got the highest grade on the pop quiz he'd given the day before and so there would only be a one point curve. Granted I could feel their lazier beam hate eyes searing into the back of my skull, but at least I didn't have to look at their faces.

As soon as I took my seat it dawned on me. If I was trying to change my image why in the world had i sat in the front row in everyone of my classes that day? I could have kicked myself and I was really bad at this whole "re-en-venting myself" thing. I of course began wrestling with myself as to weather I could move to a farther back seat inconspicuously enough that I wouldn't look like an idiot. By the time I almost had enough courage to move back a seat or two while whispering a very well thought out script to the people in the seats around me that went, "why did I sit in the front that was lame," and maybe an additional something about having heard the teacher spit when he got excited about the reproductive system of giraffes I looked up to realize the classroom was almost entirely full except for the seat next to me which really wouldn't do me any good. I continued to be disappointed in myself while Mr. Stewart, the Biology teacher, called role. I had a glimmer of hope when I realized I could switch to a different seat tomorrow if Mr. Stewart was one of those cool teachers who don't believe in seating charts. Just as I started to get excited about this fact I heard Mr. Stewart announce, "This will be your seating chart for the entire semester. That way I can learn your names easier." My heart sank and I resigned myself to be the nerdy smart girl with flat hair who sits in the front row for the rest of my life.

The Fail Continues

Well, not much to report today. I still haven't done much at all writing wise. I have been way busy working on a big project for school and it has taken over my life! However, I will be done in two days and life can go back to normal!

Oh I almost forgot, I met a publisher last week. A real legit publisher! He has an online publishing company that publishes only electronic stuff but it is mostly things no one else would publish which is really cool! Also, he may be a teacher here at my school which would be wonderful because it was obvious with talking to him that he knows what he is doing and he has knowledge in an area that will really help me in what I would like to do.

He gave me some advice about writing which I would like to pass on to you:

Read great books! Don't read good books. Read great books!

So...read great books! Maybe one day one of mine will be one of those great books!

The One With No Title

I'm going to be honest here, I am in epic fail mode when it comes to this book. For those of you non-OKWU students or anyone else who doesn't know, epic fail basically means I am failing so badly that really I shouldn't ever be able to come back from the failure.

Okay, that was a little dramatic but you get the point, which is of course: I have done absolutely nothing! I haven't even done a very good job of writing this blog (which is also a grade for a class I have)!

Though I am in epic fail mode I did have a small epiphany a few weeks ago regarding my novel, and my life. It seems that my life this semester is very...slow, for lack of a better word, school wise. You would think being in my second semester of my junior year of college I would be busy...but no! Anyway, the point of the epiphany was that my free time means really I should be working on my book! Which I'm not but I should.

In conclusion, I have nothing of significance to share because I am a looser who does not use my time wisely! However, I make myself laugh because it is probably to late at night for me to take myself seriously!

The New Process

Well, the challenge for last week was that I would write every day for thirty minutes...it didn't happen. However, I wrote more than the week before, which is good.

This week I also came up with a great new tactic to help me write more.I got an ipod for Christmas and it has a voice recorder on it. So instead of typing out the story first I speak it into my ipod. Sometimes I delete it after and start over, sometimes I edit it as I go but so far it has been a very helpful tool. After I've recorded it I can then go back and listen to it and write it down and add or subtract as I want to.

I am hoping this will help me write more and just like last week I am setting a goal of writing at least thirty minutes everyday.

Wish me luck!

The Solution

Don't worry the crisis has been officially solved!

Okay, you might not have been worried but I was! I know have what I hope is an official "cast list" of sorts. I decided to make the redheads name Ryane. Then the blonde who was named Ryane is now named Kara. (Please tell me what you think of this.) And Emmie's name I changed to Brooke. I was sort of on the fence with this name but I knew Alex,the man she falls in love with, and Emmie wasn't going to work for me so I'm hoping Brooke and Alex will work!

With one problem under the belt it is now time to face the next one. I feel like this is going to be an ongoing thing. One problem, one solution, followed by another problem. The next problem which is actually a continual problem, is NOT WRITING. I for some reason just never stop and write and I really need to. But no worries I have a hopeful solution: set a goal.

GOAL: Write for at least thirty minutes every day for a week.

That is the goal. I will let you know how it goes this time next Sunday!

The 1st Delemma

The 1st Dilemma – Character Names

I have reached my first problem! I have the four female characters nailed down as to who they are and what God is going to teach them throughout the novel the problem is their names. I had names picked out but I want to change some of them now and I’m not sure what to change them to.

Here are the characters and their current names I’m having problems with:

Abigail (Abbey) Kessler – She is a red head who loves architecture and literature. She is a dreamer who hasn’t thought a lot about her future and is sort of the type of person who just goes with the flow and doesn’t plan much ahead of time. She is very independent. The “lesson” God teaches her is that she needs to rely on Him not just herself and also the people He has put around her who love her and want to help her.

Emmaline Hammon (Emmie) – She wants to be a missionary and doesn’t really understand why God brought her to a place with a bunch of Christians that is in the US when she knows she is meant to go over seas. She has sandy blonde hair and is what my friends and I call “granola.” This is hard to explain so some characteristics are: likes coffee, wears lots of earth tones, Chaco’s are the shoe of choice, likes the outdoors, likes soft jazzy music and stuff like Jack Johnson and John Mayer. Emmie is sort of quiet but loves people and is really sweet. She is going to be working in a coffee shop in the novel.

Ryane Shannon – Yes this is a girl! She is the character I’ve had the hardest time with and I still don’t like her name. She is sort of the “blonde bomb shell” type. She is ambitious and hardworking, maybe overly so. She is a journalist and gets a job at the local paper in the novel. She sort of does what she wants and doesn’t listen to anyone else most of the time. Her struggle in the novel is with faith. Her faith in God is just slipping because she is just doing her own thing. Also being a journalist she is very involved in the worldliness of media and it is starting to affect her.

Now you know the characters so here are the problems with their names:
I really want Abbey’s name to be Ryane. Maybe because she is a redhead and the r and r thing is really cool! (I should know that is how my name is.) Also I just feel it fits her better. But then Ryane needs a new name, which I have no idea what to name her.

Then Emmaline (Emmie) Hammon, the problem here is I have three names that end in the “ey” sound. Jackie, Abbey, and Emmie. I know I want to keep Jackie but the other two I am fine with ditching! Also the boy Emmie falls in love with is named Alex and Alex and Emmie reminds me too much of “Alex and Emma” the movie. And I also really want to keep Alex’s name so that would mean we need to change Emmie’s.

So that’s the problem. Comment if you have any ideas!

The Beginning - Here goes nothing!

My name is Rachel, I am a twenty-one-year-old college student and I am writing my first novel and my first blog simultaneously.

The novel idea started about a year ago but I have wanted to be a writer since I was little. (I know it’s a weird dream for a kid!) I grew up with a mom who was a great storyteller. She would spend hours at night telling stories about a boy and his dog or about a traveling sales man and his family. They were wonderful stories and somehow that, along with an avid love for reading, it translated into me wanting to be a writer. I have tried several times to start novels with little success. I currently have a few short stories, a very bad one-act play, and the beginnings of a screenplay under my belt but none of that compares to the journey I am about to embark on.

As I said, this is my first novel. To be honest I really don’t think I’m a very good writer but we will see if that’s true! With this blog (an assignment from one of my teachers) I am hoping to catalog my progress on the novel as well as get a grade for class! To me, this is an opportunity to force myself to write and maybe, if I’m lucky, get some feedback from anyone who might read this. I will be posting my struggles and some excerpts from the novel. If you’re reading this please comment and let me know what you think. I am new to the criticism thing but I believe it is helpful especially because of my inexperience in this area.
Well, that is the plan! Oh I think you should know, the novel doesn’t have a title yet. Thus the reason I keep saying “the novel.” It also only has nine pages so far! So this really is the beginning.