Losing Things

So I haven't posted anything for the past few weeks, since my life at school has gotten really... unfortunately weird. A few weeks ago my roommate and closest friend on campus decided to leave school for mental health reasons. She was my companion in this adventure and her absence has been really hard to get used to, especially since we had no warning of this decision, and only two days afterward to pack up the room and say goodbye.

To make matters even more ridiculously hard I was just diagnosed with mononucleosis the other day. Basically this means that everyone expects me to be pretty much bedridden for a while, and I'm really really tired and feel like something is rotting inside me.

But this experience made me think of something I don't think I've treated very well in writing. Loss, especially of another person or relationship, can be a debilitating thing to go through. In Elle's journey she goes through multiple kinds of loss, be it losing her old life outside of the castle and her friends, losing her reputation, and even the death of a friend.

Everyone deals with loss differently; whether it be immersing themselves in work and being productive (a habit that I very much wish was mine), or lying in bed for days in sadness, or even going out of their way to avoid anything that would remind them of their loss. It's these differences and reactions to hardship, especially hardship regarding interactions with others, that show a character's inner self. A person's true character can be seen in times of hardship.

As for myself, I will be dealing with this hardship by spending a lot more time in bed with hot beverages and good bread and working on my nanowrimo attempt this year.

Happy Halloween and First of November, everyone.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Much News

I've had a pretty good week (or at least last few days) for writing and editing.

I have gotten some more editing done, only now it's actual good editing instead of just trudging through the lines like I have been. I'm going to do another thousand words before bed once I post this.

I've been planning out two new things, as well. The first thing is a short script, and I'm getting pretty artsy on this one. I've never written a script either so it'll be fun. I'll have it done within the week BECAUSE

I signed up for NaNoWriMo! Yayy 2013 run! I've already outlined my story. It's totally different and will be a wonderful breath of freshness. It's also going to be much shorter than my book; I might not even be able to make it over 50k words. It'll be exciting. It's a story I started forming almost a year ago and now I think it's ripe enough to be written.

Having not sketched for myself in a while, I cracked open my sketchbook again today and drew something. I'm just getting all kinds of creative.

I'm still in the same block of scenes I was last time, but I've got a handle on them now. I'll finish them this weekend.

Hope everyone's having a great pre-Halloween week!

and On and On

It's positively disgusting outside today.

So I've gotten quite a bit done.

Right now I'm working on cutting a lot of fluffy pretty things out, and just finished another chapter from the mountain setting. To be honest it's just beginning. I've just now stopped right before a ballroom scene because I have to get across campus to the art studio for a while, but I'm going to dredge through the rest of it tonight.

Not a very exciting update, but I'm making progress so this is good.

Interesting fact: remember this post? Well I've just gotten to the scene where Simon Tylor is introduced. It just made me smile, that's all.

I think I know what I'm going to do for NaNoWriMo; I've narrowed it down to two or three ideas and might try to outline my attempt this weekend since I've been on fall break. I've found a few writer friends I can consult with (none of whom have done NaNo, which I intend to fix!) So I'll keep you updated on what I decide and if I do decide to make an attempt I'll put up my NaNo account. We were supposed to activate this past week, I think. I haven't yet, but I can't wait to see the new setup of the site!

Also: I've found the most amazing song for drawing/painting/writing. I'm listening to it right now, even. Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey, anyone? I'm not a huge fan of hers but this SONG, man.

Hope you all are having a great Fall thus far!

Slow and Steady... Right?

Gosh it's been such a crazy month. College is so weird. But I have gotten a little editing done.

Not much editing, there isn't much to report. What little I've done involved a lot of cutting pretty fluff. There was a lot of unnecessary description of dresses because I spend too much time thinking about them.

One thing I hope to accomplish is a story that's interesting to anyone, so I can't have too much girly things. It's not a very limiting thing, but as I said last post, I get a bit carried away.

Thank you all for being so patient with me, here's a sketch!

... of a dress. You see my problem? This is Elle in just a plain dress. But I like it. I haven't been drawing for myself much lately because I actually have drawing homework. It's kind of amazing. So this is the last of the sketches from my last go-through of my sketchbooks. I shall make more soon.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do for NaNoWriMo. I kind of doubt it will be possible though because college is a lot of work. But no surprises there. I might just try a collection of creepy stories. I have a few theories about hauntings I could explore. Last night I was in the art building during a pretty good rainstorm and it gave me some good ideas.

I'm Still Alive, I Swear!

Hello! Wow it's been so long, I didn't mean for this to happen!

Things have been kinda crazy with packing, moving my brother into his college, moving myself down to College (it was an eleven hour drive) and even now trying to figure out how to be a College Kid. Life now involves a lot more naps and using froyo as currency than I'd expected.

So I haven't gotten a lot of editing done. Strangely I've been really inspired to write poetry the last few weeks, so I've done some of that and we'll see if that turns into a thing.

This month is (supposedly, according to my NaNo Newsletters) officially NaNoWriMo Planning Month, so are any of you all planning anything? I really want to do it this year, as always, and since I'm not actively writing another story I might do it as a side thing. In order to lessen the load my friend and I might do a cowritten thing, which I know is cheating, so I don't know how we'd put that on the site, maybe just track our own progress so we each aim for 25k. It's not a thing you're supposed to do, I know, but it might just be best. If my friend decides she doesn't want to I might attempt it with my roommate, or even on my own but I don't know which story idea to expand on yet. I could retry my original NaNo attempt or start on the sequel to The Prophecy (since I accidentally already wrote an opening scene for it on the car ride to drop my brother off) but I don't think so. I have a list of ideas, I shall see.

I've been thinking a lot, as well. I mean I'm always thinking but it's usually about like, someone's nose or why society is dumb or that really attractive person across the room or something. This time I've been thinking about watching people die.

On the long-butt drive down to Kentucky I witnessed a car crash in which the driver in the car in front of mine went into the median and then flipped over midair, sending both driver and passenger through the windshield to hit the ground. The car ended up in the north-bound lane, and thankfully didn't hit anyone else and no one but the two in the car were injured. However I'm fairly sure I saw two people die that day, and I was the only one who got such a good view of it.

It was startling to say the least, and really hit me that I saw two people (who were unconscious from the initial impact in the ditch of the median) fall to their deaths. It was strange that as I watched it happen I thought "this looks exactly like the movies" up until I saw two bodies flop out of the car. You see the crashes in movies, but never the people who supposedly die in them. This may be because in movies everyone supposedly has their seat belts on, which would stop people from being ejected, but I think it's because however realistic these movies are they don't want to horrify the audience of an action movie. We are so used to seeing the battles, the high speed car chases and the amazing crashes and disasters portrayed in entertainment media but they never seem to show the effects.

A couple days later I saw the movie Now You See Me, which has a high-speed car chase in it and my musings held fairly true there, and that got me thinking even more, as someone who has written battle scenes into this story of mine, who has put characters through death and made others witness it, that I didn't really know what I was doing. (I mean I knew that anyway but now I know it in a different way, you know?) And we'll see how well I did once I get to those scenes in editing. But still I wonder, are books even supposed to make us feel horrified in ways movies won't? Books are already so much more personal, and take place in your head, already occupy so much more time and brainpower, is it alright to have this kind of realism?

I suppose realism from books is in part contributed by the reader and the extent of their experiences and what they can imagine. I remember being particularly horrified in certain parts of the Hunger Games at the violence, I wonder how it would effect me now that I've actually felt those things? I wonder how it would feel to a veteran?

So these are all things I've been thinking about. I know this isn't a particularly organized post.

On another note.... Have some sketches!

These are things I did last spring while on a trip to the US capitol, Washington D. C. and they're based loosely off of the Desert queen (left) and Elle (right) though really (especially for the one on the right) I was just messing around with pens and the thought of those pretty old-fashioned cameo things.

Back to actually on-topic things, I have not, in the past chaotic month, been able to do much editing. I have done some! Just nothing really of note. It's really just me being lazy and/or completely overwhelmed by everything that's going on so once I find out how to be a College Kid and get to a daily routine (which, if you play Sims- protip: get your sims on a daily routine from day one) I will actually pretend to be professional and set aside time each day.

I'm sorry for the long wait, everyone! (I mean no one really seems to read this but still, to those who do, thank you! and sorry.) I'll be back to weekly posts I think from now on.

Rock on, y'all.

Return

Hello All, feels like it's been a while, hasn't it?

Well that's my bad. And I haven't touched my manuscript in all that time, either. Shame on me. But I will reconvene to begin again this exact morning, I swear- once I post this (and then do the obligatory read-through to catch all my grammar mistakes) I will close down my internet and start once again at page fifty-two of my manuscript.

I hope I took long enough of a break for that raw spot in my brain to heal. Editing this is like scrubbing as hard as I can with sand paper at this large glob of hardened gloop I've spawned, trying to make it change shape into something recognizable. It was really wearing on me, but let's hope I can handle it this time around.

I realize now I rushed things, taking only that measly week off after finishing the draft, and I did know that at the time, but it was all in vain since there was no way I could've gotten through editing by graduation.

I have almost the entire summer left now... I will put it to good use, though I resolve to take it slow and steady this time around. No pressure.

HOWEVER: I do want to participate in NaNoWriMo this fall. So if I could have it done by then... Haha, stop it Leigh.

On that note- July is apparently another Camp NaNoWriMo month, sorry I should have posted as soon as I found out (the day before, as always) but.... I didn't.

I want to do the November run though, like a lot. I can't wait to go to College and everything, and I would be participating along with both new and old classmates, so I feel like it would be a great experience.

I chose my classes for fall term yesterday. It's so real. I'll be taking a Humanities/Writing course, Differential Calculus With Review (blaarcgh kill me), Spanish, and Introduction to Drawing. I CANNOT wait. I think I know who will be teaching the drawing class and I already met him, so I'm that much more excited. "Introduction" to Drawing though, is a funny name. Drawing and I, WE'VE MET.

So there's the rundown on what's going on with what. Not posting Editing concerns this time because they haven't changed since I've been doing nothing.

P.S. I've just now gone back and looked at one of my favorite blogs re{d}ress or http://reddressredress.blogspot.com/ and reread her own post about editing troubles. She's making a film, and it's comforting to know even she has some of my same problems, albeit in a different way.

The End! Kindofsortofnotreallyyet

Good news for anyone interested in NaNoWriMo- "Camp NaNoWriMo" begins today! I'll put it up on the links list, I actually didn't know when it began until logging onto Facebook a minute ago. It's just like the November run, it seems, only for April.
Speaking of which, April is National Poetry Month. I have at least one friend participating in a Poetry Month challenge, and she'll be writing a poem every day, and I think posting it on her tumblr blog. I'll link to that as well, I guess; it's called Misused Words. I'm not much of a poet myself, but I think my English Lit teacher is planning to have our class do something.

As for my own story, I know I've said this before (kind of) but I'm almost done with my first draft. Seriously; I only have the final showdown and then the resolution, and I'm incredibly pumped. My word count is severely behind schedule, but seeing as I'm so close missing my Easter deadline wasn't that disappointing. I'm waiting until I'm actually done before setting a deadline for the edits, but I think I might shoot for my graduation this June-a deadline that is probably wishful thinking, as I know I left myself a lot of work in editing.

In other news about my personal life I just recently sent my first deposit in to my College of choice! This means, for those not "in the know" about American colleges, that the first check has been mailed and I am, upon the check's arrival to the school, officially enrolled for the coming Fall. I'm very excited as I love the school I chose and their art department is amazing. I know less about their English department, but it's a very well-known school and I doubt I'll be disappointed based on what I've seen thus far. I can't wait to be immersed in what I love- both the subjects and the process of learning. I plan on a double major in Studio Art and whatever Writing major they have (the terminology changes for each institution and I forget theirs at the moment). I've also been playing recently with the idea of minoring in History as well. We'll see, I suppose. But all this is very invigorating, and I feel that teenage sense of stagnation lifting finally.

Current Word Count: 179,654
[for now Blogger doesn't seem to be letting me add links to the list so they're http://misusedwords.tumblr.com and http://campnanowrimo.org]

Unproductive Month

So it's November 25th. Last year at this time I was rounding out my last ten thousand words before finishing my first successful NaNoWriMo challenge. This year there isn't the same amount of excitement, and alas, for this month I have only written three thousand words and counting. I'd like to say it's because my Nano challenge for this year isn't the same, since I'm just continuing an old story (because it's like an old shoe now; comfortable but not shiny and new and flashy) and besides, I had a rocky start with no power for the first two weeks of this month. But that's not why.

However, it is a good segue into talking about Hurricane Sandy, as if you haven't surely heard enough about it already. (If you live in the US, anyway. Blogger has informed me I have international viewers, so thanks and holler to y'all) I live in central New Jersey, which was literally smack in the middle of the storm. It was scary as heck, but I don't live right on the coast, and I'm also on high ground so flooding wasn't a problem. I did lose power for almost ten days straight, however; seven days from Sandy and then two days later, another three day outage from that badass snow storm we got. The snowstorm was really the scariest, though it wasn't as violent. We got about five to seven inches of really wet and heavy snow-- heavier than I've ever seen before in my seventeen years, but the scary part was that I live in a heavily wooded area and we literally had trees bowing under the weight. There were trees taller than the telephone poles that had their higher branches tugged down so far that I could jump on my driveway and touch them, assuming that I wanted a potentially painful faceful of snow. The night of the storm we realized that there were trees (that we could hear very loudly groaning and cracking under the weight) bending and swaying directly over our roof and specifically my room. Between the audible stress on the tall oak trees and the neon blue explosions of the transformers up and down the road we were pretty terrified. At some point we got our coats and shoes and were ready to walk out for fear of trees crushing the house. (I live kind of in the middle of a small forest with a bunch of heavy trees)

The reality of all this though, is that I really got out scott-free. I know people whose cars were flooded out, who lost their homes either to the storm on the coast or flooding farther inland, or for other reasons have had them condemned. People are equating this with the damage Katrina wrecked on New Orleans, which I think is a bit excessive, but it's a valid point, seeing the damage on certain areas. There's a really (dare I say cool?) interesting collection of before-and-after satellite photos of the worst of it, which I'll link to. The Jersey Shore and boardwalk is seriously an icon for everyone who lives in the area and to see some of the rides, like the huge ferris wheel making their way towards Europe in the ocean is really startling. Most of the damage is due to us Northerners not being prepared for hurricane or tropical storm-force winds, which is our fault, but that's really because we never expected to deal with it. That's historically Florida's cross to bear. (and ironically where we send most of our old people) So basically this isn't related to my writing much but it really sucks for a lot of people, and here's my high five to everyone dealing with it like bosses. It's kind of funny that this happened right before Thanksgiving, because it's given me and a lot of other people cause to think of how really lucky we are and how thankful I am for everything I have and everything that hasn't been taken from me. It's more than just 'thank you for not smiting me with a branch to the head, God'. I am sincerely thankful for everything I have, all the opportunities I've been given (yes, even those I didn't take) and everyone I know, whether I like them or not.

So stay safe everyone, and brace yourselves for the holidays, where everyone is going mushy. The Lifetime movies have already begun.

Sandy Before and Afters: http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/hurricane-sandy-before-after-photos/

Current Word Count: 130,966

Blockage

Writer's block is something that I've always been stupid about. You know how you'll see people on the news, or read about, for instance, accidentally pregnant teenagers? (Sorry; I watched the Pregnancy Pact last night while I wasn't writing.) They stereotypically say "I never thought it would happen to me!" as if the world is at fault due to their ignorance. Well that's me, with my writer's block. I never thought it would happen to me.

NaNoWriMo is the cure for this, but unfortunately my writer's block is very specific, as in it only applies to my book. Thankfully, I suppose, because not only can I still write rambling blog posts complaining about it, but I can still get school work and college essays done. But I also can't do NaNoWriMo with a mostly finished story; it's just wrong, and I also wanted to be done with the first draft by the end of this month. I'm not so sure it's going to happen now.

I've never had real writer's block before, figured it was just something I could push through, like the rough patches I've hit before, but it isn't. Maybe it's this bad now because of other stuff that's been going on. I haven't been having a good time lately, vague, I know.

Anyway, I just wanted to vent, since I set aside almost four hours last night to write and came up with a measly 1.5k. Ah, helpless frustration.

So that's why I haven't had a lot to post about lately.

Current Word Count: 127,874

Hello All

Thank you for visiting. My name is Leigh Shine, and right now I'm in the midst of writing. Writing what? Well a book, naturally. It actually is yet to be named, but for now The Prophecy sounds dramatic enough, so that's going to be the page name. That won't change, even if the book title does. This story has been in my head since I was five, growing each night as I told it to put myself to sleep. I decided, for the past year's NaNoWriMo to use this story, after failing the challenge in the 2010 round. (If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, check out the link in the sidebar!) I finished the challenge, writing fifty thousand words of the story in the month of November, and am now on a quest to finish it. I'll update with my word count as we go along, and I'll have a premise up soon. Please, stay along for the ride, and hopefully the book will be finished soon.

On this blog I'll post character and setting sketches, and maybe a teaser or two once I get into editing. I'm currently a bit over halfway through the story, with nearly one hundred thousand words. I plan on finishing the book by the fall, and spending November to edit it.

If you want, you can check out the blog I run with my good friend Alison, over at LithographyoftheMind.blogspot.com -- that's in the links also.

Well wishes,
~Leigh