Monthly Highlights - April

Well.

April has been the most insane month so far this year, and I think you can all tell that this blog has suffered because of that. Posting has been scarce. I'm really hoping I can pick up the pace in May, but loads of catch up work hangs over with school. -.- 

I really can't wait for summer.

Anyways, to the highlights!

- Camp was this month. That was definitely the GREATEST highlight of this month. I wrote 65,733 words and had the best cabin you could ever have. See? 

We're pretty awesome. Together, we all wrote over 40,000 words in one day to make our goal. I had just a fantabulous time with them. :D

- I was in a Shakespeare play with a bunch of other homeschoolers from my Church. This is the only way that makes Shakespeare enjoyable. We had over a hundred people come, which made it really nerve racking, but we were able to gather lots of energy from the crowd.

- I don't usually do anything for April Fools, but because I was up until midnight waiting for Camp NaNoWriMo to start, I thought I might as well do something while I thought of it. 

- My family went to a pizza restaurant covered with tons of quotes on the wall. This was one of my favorites, just because I can relate so well. :p

- I went to a youth conference a couple hours away with my youth group that was amazing. It was nice to get away from the writing insanity for a couple of days, and really focus on God and spend some time in prayer while being with my friends.

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Despite the business of the month, I managed to read six books. It isn't a lot, but compared to previous months I'm impressed that I able to read that many. xD

  

 

I know, I just read Heartless in January, but I'm reading it again for the Goodread's read through of Moonblood that I'm doing with a bunch of other awesome people. I still have to reread Veiled Rose despite the fact that it starts tomorrow... But, eh. Details. :p

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I'm going to copy down the graphics of each of these lovely posts, and they'll lead you to the blog. :)

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I know I link to one of Athelas's post just about every month, but she offers such amazing advice, so you really need to read them.

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Basically, my favorite author is having a one year anniversary celebration the whole month of May that includes fan art contests, Q & A sessions with the characters, and a cover reveal of the prequel novella about the tortured gladiator's past: Jace. You should all go sign up to participate, because it will be epic. 

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And Mickayla wrote a post on priorities. (which unfortunately didn't have a handy graphic for me to share) Her words were so insightful, and it was really neat to see such a deep and meaningful message from her.

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I didn't ramble very much this month, which might have been a relief to you all. xD 

But I  did write up the post below, (picture leads you to the post) and this one where I talked about Camp NaNoWriMo.

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Byeeeeee!

- Katie Grace

Have you read any of the books I read this month? What did you think about them? And HOW DID CAMP GO? Are you as sad as I am that it's ending?

The One Tip that Helped Me Write 50,000 Words in Two Weeks

*coughs* I am not ashamed of this insanely long title.

So. You all read in this post about me going insane with Camp NaNoWriMo and writing 50,000 words in two weeks.

I know, it comes across as bragging, and I'm really not trying to phrase it that way. I was honestly surprised with myself that I was able to pound out so many words in such a small time, especially since I did NaNoWriMo last November and barely won. I am a fast typist, but I take lots of breaks when I write, thinking about the path the story's taking.

But I did something different for Camp. I used one, simple tip that prevented most of the "staring at the blinking cursor feeling frantic to write but just not sure where the scene should go." (It's a thing all writer's struggle with, believe me)

I planned the scenes I was going to write that day before I actually started writing.

That's it.

Every day before I plunged into my crazy writing world, I would either pull out a notebook or plan it in my mind. (Usually the latter, for who would want to go and get a notebook when you're completely comfortable on the couch?)

I thought/wrote three to four bullet points, no more than a sentence for each. For example:

• Walk through forest. 
• Save the injured horse. 
• Find directions to the nearest exit.

This is not an outline for my novel, but you get the point. It takes no more than a few minutes, but is surprising how much easier it is to write with. Planning out the scenes prevented pauses in between Word Wars, and helps me to write faster in general. 

And though Camp is quickly coming to an end, it is never too late to catch up! Go Teen Writer's is having a week long Word War until Friday, so if you need that extra motivation, join the other awesome writers there!

- Katie Grace

Do you plan out anything before you start writing or do you just go with the flow? How are you doing in Camp? DO YOU REALIZE THAT THERE'S ONLY EIGHT DAYS LEFT? Major freak out time, right?

Camp Update - I'm Back!

Hey! 

*smiles weakly and then collapses*

I'm back from camp! ...Mostly. I'm still writing, but definitely not as crazily as I have been these last two weeks.
 
Seriously. It's been insane. 

And that up there, fellow writers, is why I've disappeared from the blogosphere these past two weeks. Almost every moment of my free time has been dedicated to furiously writing in my writer burrow, feeding off of word wars and word sprints.

The words started to add up quickly, and in a matter of two weeks I had 50,000 words.

This is after the thing happened.

*flails* I'm pretty excited. 

Lately on a bunch of blogs I've been seeing them share playlists or songs that inspired their Camp project, or that they listen to while writing. Basically, I've only been listening to one song on repeat:

Your Love is a Song by Switchfoot. 

First of all, I love this song, and the lyrics fit my book perfectly. It's like the artist wrote it after reading my novel. Though the song was released in 2009. And my book isn't even finish. *shrugs* Confusing time-traveling related details.

And I have a short snippet. I would've shared other quotes with you, but I forgot to write them down while writing. :p

But all the excitement aside, I don't want to completely have everything in this post on me. I'm very blessed to be homeschooled. My writing friends have supplied me with many Word Wars. (You know who you are. Thank you.) I write rather fast.

((Really fast, in fact. I'm going to desperately hope that there are some full sentences in my document and the past two weeks haven't been me upchucking useless word vomit.))

Camp is hard. Writing is hard. But don't give up on your characters, or your story.

Don't become discouraged if you're a slower writer than others, or if you're behind on your word goal.

You will finish your novel. Every word you write adds up to the story you love and gets you one step closer to sharing it with the world.

You can do it. 

Byeeeee!
- Katie Grace

Well. Do you have a "theme" song for your book? Or how about a snippet or quote to share? And most importantly, how is Camp going? Let me know!