Outling

The writing of this post came just at the right point for me.

As I recently mentioned, I am in the midst of edits of AWAKEN. Lots of fun...joking, I am not a fan of editing. I needed something new to keep my creative juices flowing.

Enter...STORY WITH A NAME TBD.

I had this idea while reading some news headlines and I was just like WOW. WOW. Oh my gosh. I have to write this story. And, regardless of the million things I need to do this time of year, the idea would not go away. I was growing restless as it grew inside me. I literally could not sleep, I just keep feeling like I had words I needed to vomit. You're welcome for that visual.

I made a deal with myself. Finish three science assignments and you can start outline. Shake? Shake.

So I began to outline...

I have found that there is no exact formula outline. Perhaps for the specific writer there would be a specific formula, but overall, not so much. This is my outline process.

Well, scratch that. This my outline process for this particular WIP. I am literally constant with nothing my writing world. ANYWAY...

1. Define my characters. This involves writing out character descriptions, hobbies, as well as negative and positive character traits. Additionally, depending on the character, I write out their relationships to other characters.
2. Main story lines. These would be just two or three sentences about the main plot(s) of the story. Typically, I have two or three main story lines that I weave together throughout the course of the story
3. Nitty-gritty details. Lastly, I plan out the scenes of the novel. These are sometimes super detailed or sometimes just a sentence. Depends on the scene...and my mood.

And there you have it, folks! What's your outlining process?

(Remember, I'll be posting Saturday's post a day late! Thanks for reading, have a FABULOUS weekend.)

Not Posting (and an update)

Hello, fabulous blogging world. Happy Thursday.

So, I'm obviously posting...but not really posting...

Today is a super insane day where I need to reserve all spare brain cells (believe me, there aren't a lot) for filling out some work forms (blegh), school, planning for a middle school youth group, and getting ready for a TEC  retreat this weekend that I'm leaving for tonight.

SO. PUMPED. ABOUT TEC. Will definitely be posting about my experience some time next month.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have time to post O super quick tomorrow before I leave, but as for P, that'll be delayed until Sunday. I won't be able to comment on any blogs Friday or Saturday, so I look forward to catching up on Sunday or Monday!

Thank you guys so much for your incredible support of my blog. I am still in awe that people actually read (let alone comment) on my words. Wow. Thank you so, so much. Thanks for journeying with me on this crazy writing journey.

MHMMM CAN I GET AN AMEN?!

I'm a Catholic Christian. Hence the blog description.

I love my Catholic faith. I love Jesus Christ and I want to love Him more. Truly, above everything else, I want to serve Him in all I do. I want to lead people to His infinite, everlasting love and to the knowledge that, because of His love, each and every person is priceless and beautiful.

That is literally all I want. To be used to lead the world to Him.

I am bumbly, I am awkward. I am hurting and I hurt people. I am a sinner. I mess up. I don't always have the words and I rarely have the answers. I've felt alone, I've wondered why certain things happen. How can someone as messed up as me be used by God? I feel this often when I am writing. How can anything I--a sinner--lead anyone to Him? The answer is simple.

There is nothing I can do to lead anyone to Jesus. It's what He does through me, what He alone can accomplish by sending down His Holy Spirit upon me. By the grace of God, I can be love to others.

God created me in His image and likeness. He gave me gifts and talents.  I read somewhere (probably Pinterest) that our talents are God's gift to us and what we do with them is our gift to Him. Personally, I just want to give Him everything. Most especially, I long for Him to completely take over my writing and use it for His purpose.

This is hard for me, though. I struggle to communicate His message in my stories when I don't even write Christian fiction. And I don't want to write sappy fiction that involves a whole lot of cheesy church and praying. What I do want is to convey God's unconditional love to my readers. I want to write like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and even J.K. Rowling to some extent.

I just realized that all those authors go by their initials. Maybe I should publish under A.M.J.  Schlueter. Sounds legit.

ANYWAY.

What I mean by that is that all those writers all have themes of Christianity woven so deeply and intricately into their story. You may have to think a little to make the connections, but they are pretty plain. Those writers convey messages of Christianity without even using the word "God".

That's what I want to do.

I want to be able to fearlessly proclaim the name of God. But some of my target audience may be turned off by the use of His holy name, so I have to be sneaky...and my battle plan is this.

All that I want to do, that I need to do, is present the truth about good and evil. I don't need to make truth look appealing, I just need to show it as it is. The truth is beautiful and it is what we were made for.

All that is true is of God.

I just need to present the truth, which we all long for. The Holy Spirit can take care of the rest.

I would like to leave you with this thought, from the amazing J.R.R. Tolkien:

"We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God." 

So true. MHMMM CAN I GET AN AMEN?!?

Are there themes that you struggle to convey in your writing? How do you weave your passions into what you write?

Life: It's yours, write it!

(I would just like to point out that I just survived a near death experience. I was sitting at my laptop, typing away, being responsible and doing science...when I heard this demonic buzzing noise. I was instantly transported, mentally, to an earlier hour when I discovered a huge brown, papery bug with antennas and stringy legs on my window. 

By huge, I'm talking half the size of my pinky. I have really long pinkies. Anyway, so I went to go get someone to kill this bug because...uh...I didn't want to break a nail...But I totally forgot until much later, when I slammed the window shut. Apparently, I have terrible short-term memory because I completely forgot AGAIN until about an hour-ish ago when I heard a demonic buzzing noise and saw a flutter of wings in front of my face. The mass of papery brown disgustingness landed on my keyboard and I slammed my laptop shut, literally swallowing screams of terror and jumping off my bed. Boom. For good measure, I applied some extra pressure. Crush. Cautiously, I lifted the lid...to discover squished a la bug. Yum. I used about twenty tissues to dispose of it.

Not quite sure why I'm telling you all that...but I survived. Guys, I survived.)

Today I present to you some brilliance written by the incredible Anna from over at WONDERFUL JOY.

When I was a little girl, I would put on plays based on stories I'd written. I'm talking outlandish costumes from my dress up box, a full cast consisting of all the neighborhood kids, and my parents and older siblings seated on couches watching. I loved creating something that people enjoyed (or pretended to enjoy, as my lovely big sister Erin would later tell me). I loved being the center of attention. I loved the happy endings. But most of all, I loved bringing a little literary magic into real life. It was a long time before I realized it was actually real life that made literature so magical.

Anne Lamott once said, "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your story." It's no secret that life can be hard. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and sometimes good things happen to people who don't seem to deserve it. Sometimes your heart gets broken, and sometimes you get stabbed in the back. But as cliché as it sounds, the struggle is part of the story.

You own everything that's ever happened to you. The good, the bad, the ugly, it's all yours. 

Annie had a wonderful post the other day about keeping readers interested and writing what you know. Like her, and many other writers, I used to be confused about the "writing what you know" rule. I got so confused that I actually started writing a book about a ballet dancer. I've now been dancing for eleven years, so I know quite a lot about ballet, but that's not what "writing what you know" really means. (The story was terrible anyway. The main character wanted to get the part of Clara in the Nutcracker, because the boy she liked was cast as the Prince. Then the main character's best friend got the part of Clara. DRAMA.)

What I really wanted to be writing was fantasy, but I thought I couldn't do that. After all, I had never experienced battles between to medieval kingdoms. I had never met a king and queen. I definitely had never dueled a wizard or sorcerer. I didn't know any of this stuff. So how was I supposed to write it? 

Eventually, I started thinking about J.K Rowling. She was just a girl born to a poor family in England. She had certainly never ridden a broomstick or waved a wand or attended Potions class. Yet the world she'd created seemed so real to me. That's when I realized that maybe it was the simple (or sometimes not so simple), every day experiences that make your stories come to life.

J.K Rowling never had the darkest wizard of all time murder her parents, but she did lose her mother to multiple sclerosis. She never experienced the hopeless feeling associated with dementors, or heard their eager, rattling breath, but she did suffer from extreme depression. These experiences weren't pleasant or easy, but Rowling used the pain to give Harry a story. An amazing story, in fact, that has influenced countless lives.

When you create characters, don't think of them as characters. Think of them as real people, with real problems, real personalities, and real emotions. Sometimes we get so caught up in wanting to make the perfect character, that we forget characters aren't supposed to be perfect. They're supposed to be human. The heroes can make mistakes; the villains can make good choices. We must remember to put a bit of ourselves into all of our characters, that way they seem real.

If you don't put your life into your writing, your story won't come alive. Remember: you own everything that's ever happened to you. Now go tell your story.

Keep Calm and Write On

C-calm?! What!? No! I can't be calm! It's nearly the end of my junior year, I have a bajillion papers to write and books to read and studying to do for the ACT and SAT! No! No time for calm! Plus my job is starting soon, how am I supposed to find time for anything then!? Answer: I'm not! Calm is not a word in my vocabulary!

Just before this, while making my daily blog visits, my stomach started churning (which has NOTHING to do with the flu in my house--I've already made my mind up, I'm not going to get sick) as I thought of all I need to do in the next couple of months. I should not be writing, I should be doing a million other things!

Another freak-out moment happened yesterday. I've begun planning yet another novel (while still in the midst of editing...ugh. This should be interesting) and I realized that it is about to take over my life. I am literally obsessed with this story and my main character. I totally started to panic as I realized that this is the busiest time of the year for me, and here I am, sitting on my bed PLANNING A NOVEL. Which means I'm going to put off everything else until the last second and just work on my new WIP.

Usually, I do not have a problem making time for writing. Writing kind of runs my life.

But when I get out of the habit of writing every day, then the craziness of school, volunteering, and family stuff takes over. It seeps into the hours set aside for writing and steals all my energy. Then I begin to resent writing, and feel guilty about it...it becomes something I should be doing, rather than something I want to be doing.

The only way to remedy this is just JUMP IN AGAIN. Pen and paper is much more forgiving than the writer. It will always be there. We just need to get over the fact that we haven't written in a while and put one word in front of the other.

Of course, the best way to not fall away from writing is to just write. Write something every single day. It's probably something that you've heard a million times, but it has been proven true in my life time and time again. Whether it's a paragraph, ten chapters, blog post, or journal entry--JUST WRITE.

For goodness' sakes, we're writers. Don't let the busyness of the world steal that from you. You're a writer. You write. So go write.

Writing, Mermaids, and Ice-Cream?! An Interview with Jessica Wolf!

I am so excited to host JESSICA WOLF, creator of Simple Scribbles! Jessica is an incredible sixteen-year-old writer who loves to (you guessed it) write and read. Also, she has a twenty-two pound cat...you'll have to go over to her blog to see the proof, though!

Without further ado, I bring you...JESS!

AMS: What’s your writing history?

JW: I started writing as a youngster like most youngsters do. My stories ranged from gnomes that lived in pinecones to two princesses who were bffs. I stopped writing, then, from 2rd grade until 7th grade when I really started to write seriously in the fanfiction world. It's only been in the past year or so that I've begun working on original novels.

AMS: That's awesome! Sounds like you have quite the diverse collection of writings.

Which author would you most like to share a cup of coffee with?

JW: Oscar Wilde. He was such an interesting man and so, so funny.

AMS: I have never actually read any Wilde! I'll have to add it the summer bucket list.

What genres do you write? And why?

JW: Historical fiction is the only genre I write in, specifically the romance subgenre. I've always loved reading historical fiction and watching period films and TV shows; I just have a fascination with the past. I also read historical romance extensively, so I figured I would try my hand at it a while ago and haven't stopped.

AMS: I LOVE historical fiction, and there isn't enough of it out there, as far as I'm concerned! Also yes, go period movies and TV. And what's historical fiction without romance? Actually, what's anything without romance?!

Favorite fictional character?

JW: Tough question! I am in love with Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie's Poirot novels. He's such a dear little man it's hard not to love him.

AMS: Agatha Christie is a boss. Nuff said.

Social media of choice?

JW: Pinterest! It is beyond useful for organizing your writing thoughts and ideas.

AMS: PINTEREST. YES. YES. YES. Especially for writers, it's amazing. Plus, it's drama free! Why do you write?

Simple: I can't not write. If I didn't write, I would go insane.

AMS: That's a fabulous answer. I am the exact same way.

Favorite book? (Or books!)

JW: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde. It's incredibly moving and really inventive for its time. Second pick would be 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë. (Hint about me: I love the classics.)

AMS: Not enough people (especially teens) read and appreciate classics, I think. There is so much to be gleaned from that sort of literature, both writing-wise and just life-wise. Absolutely love Jane Eyre.

Would you rather ride a unicorn or swim with a mermaid?

JW: Even though I'm not a fan of swimming, I would definitely swim with a mermaid. What girl hasn't swam in a lake/pool pretending they had a tail?

AMS: Plus I would probably be afraid of being stabbed by the unicorn. Even though mermaids are sometimes depicted as having major attitudes, so I really don't know which one I'd pick.

Do you ever use a pen and paper to write?

JW: Only when I have to. I would much rather use my computer, but if that's not available, I'll use a pen and paper.

AMS: Gotcha! I always favor my laptop, though I do love journaling by hand and I hand write most of my outlines.

Any hobbies besides writing?

JW: Does reading count? I don't play sports or sew or crochet, but I can play the piano.

AMS: GIRL. We are literally twins, I don't play sports either! I used to play piano, too, though I kind of lost it a while back...and yes, reading always counts, as far as I'm concerned!

What time period would you most like to live in?

JW: I feel that, as a girl, going back in time would not be smart no matter what era, but I would love to go back to the late 1800's. Oy those dresses were beautiful.

AMS: Yes, I suppose that there would be pros and cons either way...but I'm a sucker for that clothing, too.

Are your characters based on people in your life?

JW: Oh gosh, I'm not sure. Maybe inadvertently, but I've never sat down and thought up a character with someone I know in mind.

AMS: Interesting! I suppose life naturally bleeds into our writing, whether we realize it or not!

Do you listen to music while you write? What music inspires you the most?

JW: I used to. Now I can't; it's too distracting. But, if I did, I would probably listen to John Williams' soundtracks.

AMS: He's amazing, good choice!

When is your favorite time of day to write?

JW: Early to late evening. So from 7 o'clock onwards.

AMS: I'm the same! Inspiration comes to me on rainy days and through star-filled skies.

Favorite ice-cream flavor? (really, this is the most important question)

JW: I don't actually like ice-cream. (*hides*) My dad is an ice-cream snob and makes it and eats it all the time, but there's something about the combination of the cold and the creaminess that I don't like. I do eat it sometimes, and when I do, I go for chocolate chip cookie dough.

Well, we can't be friends...joking! This interview was so much fun. Thanks for doing it, Jess! Everybody else, be sure to head over to Jessica's blog and subscribe to her wonderful posts! =)

Journaling

Well, I have not yet succumbed to the flu, this A-Z Challenge, my editing, nor the new idea that is tormenting my brain. I'm alive and kicking folks, very much so.

Journaling is something that everyone seems to recommend. I've never seen a quote on Pinterest (or anywhere else, for that matter) that said "Don't journal!". So many authors (published and non) say that journaling is so important.

Personally, I've always journaled on and off. I still have a bunch of unfinished diaries from when I was little. Truth be told, they are the funniest things ever. When my cousin visits, sometimes we read them out loud and every time, giggles fill our lungs where the air is supposed to be. Most of the entries are on how much I hate taking naps, how much I love my mom, how mean my mom is, how much I love my mom again, how much I love Barbies and Polly Pockets, and the list goes on and on. Later on, the entries evolved to writing about the fun my best friends and I had and my crush and how much he was totally in love with me, because, let's be real, an eleven year old and a fifteen year old is NOT weird.

Now, when I journal, it's mostly thoughts and feelings, about people and life in general.

Journaling is a great way to just keep life in order. To just breathe in and out, and be who you are. It's all about self-discovery. To truly journal is to embark on a great adventure, one of finding out so much of who you are. It's also a fabulous way to work on your writing voice and discover your strengths and weaknesses, both writing and otherwise.

I have a tendency to get caught up in the heat of things and to react RIGHT AWAY. I have a thirst for justice, for things to be as they are supposed to be. Unfortunately, I have caused people I love to suffer because of the hastiness in which I have reacted to things in the past. Journaling has really helped me to pause and self-reflect before responding or retaliating.

For my Harry Potter homies, it's sort of like Dumbledore's pensieve. I use journaling as a way to "get out" my excess memories and emotions. It helps me to see things differently and calm down and, ultimately, just enjoy life more.

It's also perfect for when you need a break from your characters. You can take a needed escape (because, seriously, we all need it sometimes) from your WIP and yet still be writing.

Do you journal? What do you journal about?