Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
~Colossians 3:16~
Thanks to Anna at The Daily Life of a Homeschool Teen for tagging me, and I'm finally getting to it! Instead of tagging someone else though... I guess I'll just let anyone do this if they want to. (:
What are you working on now?
Well, I came up with two really cool titles ("Her Empty Book" and "Ellawynd's Locket), and then one of the titles sparked an idea for a short story so... and the other title I may have to reserve for the second book in the series I'm working on. The title, "Her Empty Book" made me think of a girl who wandered the world with an empty book that was somehow special, so that's turning into a short story... No one ever notices her, till a boy bumps into her. That's pretty much all I had to go on. But back to my Nano project that's failing miserably... I'm only at about 10,000 words so I'm probably not going to finish 50 by Saturday.
Anyway, the title for it that I'm using now is Ellawynd's Locket. It's similar to Red Riding Hood, Fitcher's Bird (but nowhere near as gory), and a Charles Dickens book. And maybe a little like Inkheart, but no promises, cuz it's not finished yet.
How does it differ from other works in its genre?
It's quite different because it's part historical fiction part fairy tale part fantasy. And I'm trying to keep it accurate to the times instead of making it more "modern".
Why do you write what you do? I shall tell a story. Since we have this old Mac computer that no longer has internet on it, we were wanting to get rid of it, but I wouldn't let us get rid of it till I had collected my old writings off of it. You see, this was one of the old computers I used to write on before I got my laptop. So as I was going through each file I had made and copied and pasted it onto one document, I found a document I typed up saying how much I wanted to be a great writer and was eleven and a half and how I wanted to be a missionary to Germany and Ireland and to go to Europe. I had forgotten how long ago I began writing passionately (even if not very good), and it surprised me a bit. Of course, I had been making up stories before then (stapling paper together and drawing pictures that told my story) since I was five or six. But yes. The reason why I want to write is because it's been in me so long and I want to change the world for the better. I want to make the world think, and weep, and laugh, and I want to show children the narrow, hopeful path through the mountains of growing up, one possibility in many. And perhaps, help people find a glimpse of God's love and majesty. There is something magical in creating your own world and watching as it comes to life under your fingers, or by the tip of a quill pen or pencil. It's not so much that I want to be famous as I want my stories to be read and hopefully enjoyed. And so I want to write to be worthy of that.
How does your writing process work? Well, when I get book ideas I write them in my journal. When I have interesting dreams I don't want to forget, I write them in my journal. When something stands out in a movie or book, I write it down and ask myself why it stands out. One book I highly recommend (though I haven't finished reading it yet) is Through a Screen Darkly. And even though it's a nonfiction book about movies by a Christian geared more toward people in their twenties and up, I recommend it to both writers and readers. It's actually very interesting (about critical thinking and looking for messages in films and art), and it's written by my favorite author/movie reviewer, Jeffrey Overstreet, who wrote the Auralia Thread series (four books).
Besides that, I haven't been writing in my stories on a daily basis, though I wish I was, and I want to (but then there's school and Thanksgiving and Turkey Bowling tonight and cooking apple caramel pies and going to movies and concerts and the Children's Nutcracker and more more more school and plus that... distractions.).
Any departing words of wisdom for other authors?
"A good book isn't written, it's rewritten."-Phyllis A. Whitney
And... if you want to write, just do it. Stop what you're doing and do it. And try to organize your thoughts/ideas (on paper or computer). That makes it a lot easier. But yeah. Keep reading and keep writing.
Don't be stressed. Enjoy what you do. Anything you do can be done as if you were doing it for God. Think of writing as play, not work. (: That's what Mr. Overstreet says anyway.
And think of what you're thankful for! Not just one thing, but five new things each day. And write them down too. That is what will keep you happy. Remember. God is real. Therefore, he loves you because he made you, and because he is love. We love others because he first loved us, and he still does because he can't change (which explains why he is infinite and lives forever). Happy Thanksgiving! (:
How are you going to celebrate it?
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