Well that title was very disappointing. I was going to put "you hear I'm writing" but I've not actually told many people I'm writing it so that would be a lie. It's just me and my one-man fanclub!! YAY!! Anywho, I am currently writing a novella. I wasn't writing anything for a while, and instead I was working on developing ideas, but if you remember from my WIP page, I have another project called DIVIDED on there—well, it turns out that it was so much fun to write and I love the characters to death, so of course I have to write a sequel! I feel kind of bad about this, because no one other than Lydia has read it and so y'all have NO CLUE what I'm talking about, but bear with me. XD


Title: Fractured
Current Word Count: 4,014 (I know, it's still a wee baby of a manuscript)
Synopsis: ...

So I currently don't have a great synopsis, but here's what's on my Camp NaNo page.

 

Speaking of which, YES! I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo again in July, and FRACTURED will be my project. I am also struggling participating in the 100-for-100 challenge that Go Teen Writers hosts every summer, and so I decided to blend the two challenges for this project. ;)




Usually I write deeper, a little bit darker stories full of tragedy and personal meaning. (The tragedy has nothing to with the personal meaning, by the way.) If you saw my post about NaNoWriMo 2017, I wrote Shadowskin which I must say was pretty intense because my first MC had morality issues and was ruining her family's lives, while my other MC was a cinnamon roll trying to keep her from ruining her family's lives. After that, I worked on a mostly secret project about a futuristic government with rebels and etc. so that was also intense, and then after that I tried writing Grey Skies which was also intense because of the fact that the plot was a mess and the themes were depressing. So I usually like intense.

Which means that I must have gotten tiered of intense, because Fractured is fun and impulsive and funny and creative and I LOVE the flexibility and the lightness of it all while still including those intense action scenes and BETRAYAL y'all I like betrayal. It's like my personal playground for all those cute yet embarrassing scenes that don't fit in my other projects.


The characters are Ginger, Will, and Grace. Ginger and Will are 19 and 20, and Grace is 14.  They're all so diverse (Ginger is African American, Will is British, and Grace is your All-American New Jersey gal) and that makes them a really fresh cast to work with in my head, not to mention how their personalities all clash to some degree and yet they still get along. I love the trio, because we have the lovebirds over here, and then there's third wheel Grace who gets to make embarrassing comments. I have a lot of fun writing them. Samples HERE.

For setting, let's say that this is in New York City somewhere in the near future—think years 2090-2100. I wanted to retain a familiar setting while still giving it this futuristic vibe with all the timespace-travel sciences going on. FRACTURED takes place a little more than a year from the ending of DIVIDED.

The plot goes something like Will invents another time machine that can toss him into the near future, allowing for a person to set up a situation in a way that will end in the best possible outcome. His colleague, Marina, uses that to her advantage for a mysterious reason and Will tries to stop her. They get stuck and Ginger and Grace have to go hunt down Marina's boyfriend to figure out this mess and save them before they get stranded in timespace.


So I've been thinking about the story for MONTHS. I finished writing DIVIDED last year in August, and I've been thinking about a sequel since June 2017, which means I've been trying to figure this out for almost a year. I've been working on it off and on, but crazily, the story is one that has stuck with me for that long and I feel like now is the time to write it.

Now, USUALLY I am a loose plotter. But for DIVIDED, I kind of just winged it, and that is exactly what I'm doing with this one. It just feels natural for the story. Ginger is a very impulsive character, which is almost completely opposite of me, so I feel that if I am to write her realistically, I better get loose. Also, this is my playground. I have room to run and change it. Just as the story has stuck with me, it's grown with me, and I want that to be written all over the paper by that time it's done.


I just think it looks more dramatic. Feel free to write it like a normal person. XD


Of course! DISCLAIMER: these are from my first draft, so they are likely to change. ;)










That is all for today! I will try to post on Saturday, but I have a company over, so you might see two posts up next week if it doesn't work out. Thanks for reading!

Hey guys! I am back to a regular posting schedule, and while I was supposed to last week, I decided not to. I also may or may not have decided to completely drop blogging from my schedule for a week—that means I haven't read posts, written posts, or commented on posts at all. Nada. Zero. I didn't even sign into my blogger dashboard to check stats.

So maybe you're wondering why the heck I decided to do that if I was just going to pass out from all the posts gathered in my reader? (Which I almost did, believe me.)

So this is gonna get a bit religious right now, so you might want to prepare yourself because I'm not normally super religious-sounding on here.

A couple of weeks ago, the youth of my church worldwide (I'm Mormon*, by the way, for those who don't already know) were challenged to cut our dependence on social media by going on a one week social media fast. We were promised that we would feel more freedom to live up to our full potential as children of God and by taking up this challenge we will be able to develop our personal relationships with Jesus Christ.

Now of course I wanted to do this. But since I'm not a heavy social media user (I only have Instagram and even on that I'm not very present), how could I implement this challenge into my life? I decided, hey, I spend a lot of time on blogging, which is a form of social media, right? So—*gulp*—let's drop blogging for one week! I didn't have any good post ideas anyway.

And THE RELIEF! One week away gave me a moment to breathe and realize that I have developed some sort of dependency on blogging. You could even call it an obsession. Sometimes I catch myself scrolling through my reader looking for a post I haven't read yet, when I know I've read every single one. I stress over not being able to put up a post on time, or wail over having to miss a week because I feel creatively drained. All of this has caused me to reflect on how I have been viewing blogging recently. So I asked myself the question that makes us all scream internally for a million years.

Why do I blog?  

Cue the uncertainty. Because...I love it, right? And I want to share my thoughts with other people with similar interests as me. Right?...Okay, I got it. Eventually, this is what I came up with:

People have knowledge and introspective that can help change the lives of others, and just think what would happen if everyone shared their most profound, God-given inspirations with each other. The world would be a so much better place!! So I guess blogging is one of my ways to help make the world a better place.

BUT THAT'S NOT HOW I'VE BEEN SEEING THIS LATELY!

I've been viewing blogging as a schedule, an idea, and DEADLINES. I have been running my blog as if I'm both the CEO and the worker and for every word I delete I lose a dollar. I'm stressing over something that is supposed to be fun for me and helpful to others!

And that has literally sucked all the fun and purpose from me as a creative. I have been struggling for weeks to come up with good ideas that are meaningful to me. This haze of "I have to do this and this for my blogging to work" has guided me to this corner where I can't help anyone through my words because I'm no longer focused on the words—I'm focused on the lesser things and I've lost sight of the bigger picture. Does this make sense? I kind of feel like now I'm just rambling.

Anyway, by taking this challenge and completely dropping blogging for a week, I have been so blessed.

1. I have regained my focus on the bigger picture of what blogging is to me
2. I have gotten so many ideas during this week!! It's honestly insane, because suddenly all these things that are coming to mind are exciting for me to think about writing and I have lots of ideas to share
3. I have been able to focus on other things and not obsess over false duties like "I have to read ALL the post in my reader and comment on EVERY SINGLE ONE" 
4. I remembered that the best inspiration comes from life itself, which, when you're obsessed with getting a post up on time, you kind of fail to participate in and thus inspiration gets ignored
5. I can post way more on here than just writing how-to's and tips and yeah
6. I can be a little more free with expressing my personality and not tie myself up to this rigid non-fiction writer voice I keep slipping into. I wanna make this place fun for y'all!
7. This idea resulted from the challenge!! So huzzah, I got a post up this week!!

The challenge I took really helped me to free myself from made-up duties (that don't actually matter in the long run) and learn to BREATHE and actually LIVE. And, well, I honestly would love for you guys to feel the same thing because it is wonderful. So next month, from July 8th-14th, I'm going to take this challenge a step further and take one more week off from blogging and social media and focus on life and God. I would love for you guys to join me, and after it's over, we can talk about it. Maybe together we can realize how we can better bless the lives of others. :)


*If you guys have any questions for me about my church and what we believe, I would be happy to answer! I know there are a lot of misconceptions people have about our religion, and if you are curious to know if something you've heard about us is right or wrong, then don't hesitate to ask!! :) <3