My Scholarly Article

This is my very honest attempt at a scholarly article about something pertaining to writing in general. I'm covering all my bases here so I can't mess up. Aren't you proud of me?

I've talked about "jinxes" a lot in my blogs posts, mainly whenever I withhold information about whatever I'm working on. It seems that a lot of writer's have certain superstitions. Some won't let anyone read the first draft until it's finished. Some won't write it down in a notebook for fear of losing it (man do I know what that feels like!). Maybe they even insist that it's bad luck to write with anything except for their special "writing" pen. And that's okay. Superstitions are okay because they are part of a writing routine.

Think about it. Each individual's quirks didn't just show up one day. They developed over time as events cement more ideas into our minds. I wasn't always so afraid of jinxes. But as more and more stories started than stopped two pages in I found a reason. I'm not saying it's the right reason, I'm just saying it works for me. Every Start- Stop Story happened after I had told one of my friends my great idea. I would sketch out characters and who would fall in love with who and possible ideas for the second book. It was all premise - no plot. So then I worked on the plot, sometimes to no avail. You know those books that have some sort of story going on, but the writer mainly just talks about relationships and love triangles? I had a lot of those books. By the time I was done outlining and talking to all my friends I was bored with the story and ready to move on to my next "brilliant" story idea.

I blamed me talking to my friends. I was trying to entice them to read it. But I do not have many book-friendly friends, and there was nothing to read anyway. Because I talked about it before it was written, before the plot was chosen. I killed every idea prematurely for a year like this. Now I don't even want to go back and look at my so-called "good" ideas. That's how my jinxes came to be. I can't talk to anyone except my Pre-Beta or else the story will die. I don't know if it holds true for every single story (I had multiple writing problems back then) but I sure as hell am not going to test it out. For right now I'm content to live in fear of the horrible jinxes and just hope they don't find my new babies.

I would like to point out that while the jinxes look quite evil, they are sweet when you keep them away from other people and enjoy Earl Grey Tea. That's all.

Hope you all like my attempt (ahem) at a more serious post. It might not happen again for a while so cherish it. Night all!

-Jessie

Wassup?

I must say Just Add Magic (I don't know if I said this, but I have changed the name to Just Add Magic. It just makes more sense now that I'm writing the revamped version) is running much more smoothly than Being Evil. I think I'm hitting a stride with the characters, especially the main one and now one of the more interesting ones is about to show up. Mr. Plant boy himself. but I don't want to give away too much, just in case I change stuff later.

Anyway to keep y'all up to speed, the final tally is that five out a loosely planned 25 chapters are completely finished. I have a feeling more chapters will be added on though. being Evil started as 10 chapters and is now 18 including the Epilogue (I always count the epilogue : D).

I don't know what's wrong but lately I've been getting these headaches that kill me. They aren't migraines but i do have a slight sensitivity to sound and smell - but that's it. It's just a really intense pressure behind my eyes and feels like someone is pinching the bridge of my nose really hard. It's not helping with dealing with all the work I have to do on top of writing.

On the plus side I notice I can type a lot faster now and keep up with the thoughts in my head pretty well. I can almost type without looking. That's pretty good right? Of course if I lose concentration for a second that's where the mistakes come in. That's why I put a quotes mark instead of an apostrophe in "that's". Oh well you can't be perfect.

Sometimes I feel like this isn't really a writer's blog. I feel like all my posts are just updates on the story that are pretty vague in general. I can't help it - I don't want to jinx anything. Anyway I have to get back to dishes and math. My two favorite pastimes. Not.

-Jessie

Updates, Updates, Oh Beautiful Updates...

No, I have not finished chapter. Nor I have I found out how to make my novel perfect in every conceivable way. Or learned how to fly *successfully*. Notice I am pointing out impossible feats. There's a simple reason for that/that reason is:

I'm sick! I have this horrible pressure between my eyes, behind my eyes and my whole forehead. My shoulders and neck hurt and are all stiff. I've been sneezing and coughing, and (because that list wasn't enough pain and suffering) I think my sore throat is coming back.

To make up for accomplishing really nothing besides maybe a thousand words in Chapter three, I outlined the chapters. I hit a wall at around chapter 15, where the main character didn't know where to go, ergo I didn't either. I knew where she needed to end up, but how do I justify her going? Luckily I came up with a completely plausible explanation (and probably the only genuine reaction she would have in that situation) and solved the whole thing. (showers are very helpful when you have plot problems. I recommend them) Now the only thing I don't know is how the whole issue will be resolved. Oh, and which love interest will be chosen and reign supreme.

I thought I should post more often now, but only when I have a real topic or update. I haven't had a formal topic in a while, but I suppose I'm teaching through my experiences. At least I hope I'm teaching and not coming off like a newbie. But, hey, I am a newbie so it doesn't matter much anyway lol.

I really apologize for any spelling errors/grammar errors/errors in general in this post and my last one. I have not been getting real sleep lately and I get really tired. For no reason at all, today I woke up at 6:30. I felt like hitting myself.
Anyway, good night guys!

-Jessie

So...Tired...ZZZzzzzz....

So yeah I'm kinda feeling a bit sleep-deprived. I really wish I could just go to sleep but I have too much stuff to do. The good news is that I finished chapter two for Just Add Water.

One thing I'm noticing that's different with this book and BE is that I'm not playing around. if I'm in the mood to write, I'm writing a full chapter, no excuses. I don't want it to drag on and on like Being Evil. After a three month break (omg...I still cringe at that) it's the least I could do. So far the one complaint I keep getting form Pre-Beta is that I don't have enough details in my writing. I used to have tons of detail, a paragraph describing how the inside of a tent looked. However in BE it was told in first person and the MC was very short and to the point. Most detail came from his sarcastic comments. Because this one is third person limited, I don't have a lot of those inside thoughts. But at the same town I keep thinking that details = telling not showing. But how am I supposed to show? I can't describe the street my characters are walking on? I have to have them comment on how wobbly and dark the road is?

I don't understan the show don't tell thing in practice. Anyone wanna direct me to a crash course?
Well I'm off to exercise in the meantime.

That's right. Exercise.

-Jessie

So towards the end of MarNoWriMo, I kind of quit and just stopped trying. I stopped editing and pretty much all editing processes. I stopped caring. I just gave up and moved onto my next book. While I'm super excited about that book, and wrote chapter one today, I can't help but feel guilty.

I do not like giving up, despite some of the things I post here. I probably seem pretty "give-up" friendly. But I really don't like it. Stopping the edits on Being Evil...it makes me feel like I failed. But the edits I was doing didn't seem like they were doing anything. They seemed kind of useless. I was letting the depression type stuff leak in and was ignoring the voice saying shut up and just power through it. So when I gave up, I started looking for another project to work on. I started working on my graphic novel idea I've had forever but that kind of fell through. Finally I changed some things slightly with Just Add Water and Bam! My muse was back, giving me great ideas and getting me super excited about the book. I showed it to my Pre-Beta friend (remember her?) and now she's obsessing over those characters too. It makes me feel great because the last few ideas I pitched her she seemed kind of meh about. But these characters she loves, especially two of them (She always did like the romance-y stuff).

So where do I stand? I'm a little sad about abandoning BE. I have hopes it will come back. i miss those characters already, even before I let them go completely. But I'll visit them again, and maybe they'll have a sequel to tell me about. Meanwhile I'm going to focus on fleshing out my current book. I'm determined to make it novel-length this time!

-Jessie.