This is not the post I had planned for Friday, but after two long days of working to clean my room and pack up books (I’m making over my room) I’m exhausted – physically and mentally. You never know how many books you own until you have to pack them all up.
I’m now a believer of you can have too many books. I see another purge in my future and this time I’m not going to let the books just sit in my house for months. Once they are off the shelves, they are being sold or donated. I can’t wait for this whole process to be done with. Two days in, and there are probably another two or three until the painting and furniture/shelf building is done and then I have to put all the books back on the shelves.
To be honest, I’m not looking forward to it. I’m already tired of all of this.
Not to mention that we’re also down a bathroom (it’s getting a facelift).
I’m done ranting. Let’s get into what this post is supposed to be about. Writing.
I’ve done a lot of little updates on what I’ve been working on currently, but we’re going to take it way back. To the first thing I remember serious sticking with and writing. No, there won’t be any visuals. I’m absolutely embarrassed by this story. Even only a few people I completely trust have ever seen it. It’s awful, but we all start somewhere.
My somewhere was a very exaggerated and fictional high school setting. It was the kind of high school setting that you see in movies – the kind that (at least in my experience) doesn’t exist. I was in seventh grade at the time, going to school on RAF Alconbury in England. I didn’t even really know what middle school was, let alone high school. Seventh – twelfth were all in one building on Alconbury, and kindergarten – sixth were in another. So my idea of what high school was really only based on what I saw in movies.
We know how they’re depicted and the actors are never actually high school age, so that ended up heavily influencing this story. It’s currently sitting on the floor in my closet due this makeover, and the 5-subject notebook that it’s written in is falling apart, and since I wrote it in pencil some of the words are disappearing. I know I should probably copy it into the computer or type it up, but it actually hurts to read.
Trust me. If you could read it, you’d want to gouge your eyes out if you read it. It’s that bad.
I can’t remember specifics now, but the MC’s name was Cassie – wait, maybe it wasn’t, I’m not actually sure. I’m definitely too lazy to go find out.
There is this one scene that is seared into my brain though. I’m probably going to regret paraphrasing it for the internet, but – ugh, I’m embarrassed – but my girl MC was storming through the halls of the school, because of whatever reason, and my guy MC was chasing after her, and when he catches her he kisses her.
Then dot, dot, dot. (Taking a page out of the Mama Mia playbook).
Right there. In the middle of the hallway. Why I thought that was logical or feasible I DON’T KNOW.
This story isn’t even something I look back on with fond memories of it being my first * serious * attempt at writing. I just cringe. It’s like a bad memory that plagues you for the rest of your life. When you’re lying in bed at night, and your brain won’t turn off, so it starts replaying all your most regrettable moments. That’s what this story is to me – a regrettable moment.
I can appreciate it enough for being my first attempt at writing, and I can be beyond thankful that everything after it has been significantly better. I still hate it though.
Jumping back to the present, I’ve taken about a four day break at this point on working on my SF WIP – I’d rather not be taking a break, but everything has become a little crazy this last week. On a good note, I finally figured out my Prologue issues and I have a prologue now!
I’ve also re-written the first attack scene in the SF WIP, and it makes so much more sense now and flows better. It’s definitely more realistic now. It’s a little more brutal than the original, and I’m sure McKenna would punch me if she could, but it makes for a better scene.
My biggest hurdle right now (minus editing the whole thing) is condensing the first three chapters. They are way too wordy, and I probably need to cut about another 1700 words. That will put me around 3000 words cut from those chapters. I think they’ll end up flowing better. Already with 1500 words gone the first two chapters sound much better.
I won’t lie, cutting and condensing this novel sucks. As it stands it’s the story I’ve always wanted to tell, but it’s also way too long. I’m hoping to have edits done by the start of NaNoWriMo – that’s the deadline I’ve given myself.
I’m not sure what I’m going to work on for NaNo this year. I have three options – I’ll do a dedicated post closer to NaNo time. I can either work on the contemporary I was working on right after my beach vacation, this other summer camp contemporary that’s been nibbling quietly in my mind (this one is in last place) or my fantasy that I worked on last year for NaNo. I love the fantasy story, and going to Scotland has made me want to work on something fantastical, but I don’t know if I want to work on the same story two years in a row. I like NaNo as a way for me to play with shiny new story ideas. Like I said, I’ll do a dedicated post closer to November and hopefully I’ll have decided by then.
I’ve decided that I’m going to start putting my “Currents” at the end of posts.
Currently Reading – Part of Your World: Liz Braswell
Music Obsession – Head Above Water: Avril Lavigne / Come From Away Soundtrack
Currently Watching – The Vampire Diaries (rewatch)
If you write, do you remember what your first project was? Are your memories fond or do they make you cringe? If you don’t write, what’s the first book you remember reading that made you cringe – whether it was due to bad writing/story/scene/wasn’t your thing?
Writing The Universe 