Question. All thoughts would be lovely on the subject.

Each writer has a unique voice and writing style. We all know that.

There are times when I read another author and I think they way they wrote the book was brilliant. Like, Ann Dee Ellis, in This Is What I Did. The way she showed her main character's silence was so cool.

Recently, I found a video segment online where Laurie Halse Anderson is talking about her book Wintergirl (I think that's what it was called anyway). The main character is anorexic and to show her thought process in an artistic and unusual way, Halse types out the first thought like, "Oh, that pizza looks good." and then she'd literally crosses it out and types her character's next thought, "Don't eat. Don't eat." It's published with the crossed out thought in the book. Does that make sense? It's hard to explain.

Well, when I was listening to Halse speak about it I realized that would be such a fun thing to do with my character. A traumatic event happened to her when she was 10 and since then she has disappeared into herself. But she still has real thoughts. So, can I use Halse's idea of crossing out thoughts? Or is that stepping on another author's geniusness? I totally don't want to look like I'm copying the idea (even though I would be), I just think it totally rocks. Opinions?

And I totally won't take offense if people are like, "Heck No! You can't do that." I just need to know some thoughts.

Ashley

A Day Late, But A Goal Fulfilled.

Reading The Hunger Games this week put a halt to my writing. What an amazing book. But, finishing it late at night did give me disturbing dreams. Pretty much, me or a loved one, almost died five or six times during my dreams. I would not recommend reading this book late into the night. But it was an amazing book. Very well written. And dare I say, I'd have given it Savvy's spot in the Newbery Honor books? Yes, I think I will say that. :)

So I now have two more scenes in rough draft form. From my rough outline I have around seven to nine more scenes to write. And then connect them together. Which means this week I need to write four more scenes one week. And five more then other week. That means a lot of focus, but I finally cleared out our computer room and set up a work station, so I feel more stable about having a writing spot. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it!

Sorry that this blog is more of a journal entry blog and not full of fun interesting thoughts and opinions. Oh well. I think we'll all live.

For those of you going to the LDS Storymakers Conference next weekend, see you there. I'm excited to be going!

Ashley

The First Chapter Rocks!

Nothing beats lying in bed at 3:00 in the afternoon, listening to the rain, and reading a great first chapter.

I can tell, The Hunger Games is going to be a disturbing and yet thoroughly enjoyable read. It's been a while since I've enjoyed an opening as much as I did with this book. *Much bowing to Suzanne Collins*

Now, I'm going to get back in bed and keep reading.
-Sorry children, hope you don't feel too neglected today.

Bye.

A Stream of Concience

Well, one whole week later and I finally finished my goal of character sketches and a rough draft of one of the most pivotal scenes in my book. I took the scene with me to critique group last night. I wanted to know if I pulled off the emotional pull I needed. My fellow writers said I accomplished the feeling -Yay! Now I just need to clean and tighten it up. The more I write the more I discover that I write three drafts before I finally get to what I call my rough draft. Haha. It gets annoying, but I can't leave a scene until I feel it's halfway decent.

Lately, the thoughts of how I need to stop watching so much TV at night and read instead has been jumping in my brain like big, red bouncy balls. Currently, I'm reading Savvy by Ingrid Law. It's such a fun book but is taking me forever to get through (due to too much TV at night and not enough reading). I also got Hunger Games from the library and can't wait to get into that.

Since I'm so non-visual I decided to assign my characters actors and actresses. THAT WAS SO FUN! I've always been a fan of Emmy Rossum and using her as my main character is almost like meeting her in real life, only probably cooler.

The last thing in this rambling post is a Shout Out to Molly and Smart Cookie. THE best sugar cookies I've ever had. The Easter Bunny would totally replace Santa in my book if he filled my easter basket with those cookies this year.

Forgive this nonsense of a post. It's pretty much just a stream of concience. My goal for this week is to get two scenes hashed out in my book. I'm excited!

Oh, one last thought - to all fellow writers - check out the TV show Castle on Monday nights (I think at nine). It's about a murder writer that helps solve cases. It's pretty fun. :)


Hugs,
Ashley

"Why hello there, new character. So nice to meet you."

So I finished my character sketches. Oh, they were so much fun.

I can tell I'm going to have to go over them many times during the writing process. It's like meeting someone new and them telling you their name, where they live, where they work, what their family life is like, and so on. It can get kind of confusing keeping it all straight in your head. Does anybody have any tricks on how the remember their character's little facts so well?

Ashley

Goal update

Holy crap, I assigned myself a lot of work! I have Carlina's character sketch done and am almost complete with Harleys.

New goal - have original goal done by saturday night.

Ashley

Goal Setting

Hey y'all, (No, I'm not southern. That "y'all" came out of nowhere)

So I joined Trisi's Challenges today, which means my goal of having a complete rough draft of my current ms done by the end of April is now sitting on my plate of things to get done, along with getting off my rear end and at least giving my house the minimal cleaning treatment.

I know myself well enough to know though that I am the queen of procrastination. So, to try to remedy this flaw of mine, I'm going to give myself a daily goal. Hopefully, by doing it that way, I will get the rough draft finished.

Today's goal - finish character sketches of my four main characters - Harley, Carlina, Eileen, & Robert. Also, give the "coal draft" of the current scene I'm writing and small polish and turn it into a rough draft.

Definition of Coal Draft - for those of us who don't outline it's the first writing of a scene. It's really bad, but after a lot of pressure and hard work, diamonds appear.

I'll report to you tomorrow morning to let you know how I did!

Kisses,
Ashley