The Writing Break I Should Have Seen Coming

With finals happening right now (I have one test tomorrow and two on Sunday) I should have been able to predict that I would be taking an (unintentional) break from writing but I didn't. It's really not a problem, but motivation has just been at a low thanks to constant studying and just being really really busy in general. I will return to writing Monday or Tuesday.

It's Been One Week Since the Election

It has indeed been one week since the fateful events that gave us President-Elect Trump. Since that time a lot has happened. For me:

- I finished the extended edition Lord of the Rings movies
- I finished my classes for the term
- I took a trip to Davenport IA and really enjoyed it (and I'm going back)
- I started getting ready for Christmas
- I nearly finished planning my trip to Colorado
- The sun rose
- The weather got really warm, then really cold, and now it's pleasant
- I got really mad at someone for not doing their job
- I laughed at the Joe Biden memes
- I had dialogues with people about why Trump was elected
- I cried a lot in the beginning
- My aunt had a baby boy (unnamed as of yet, but they're considering Chester, which I think is cute)
- The Beauty and the Beast trailer came out and I loved it
- New Hamilton mixtape songs dropped
- I started a lifestyle blog and love it
- I created a budget for winter break so I don't spend too much
- I sent some letters but one of them was returned because I have no idea where the person lives now
- I tried to get into contact with some friends but they are slow at responding, lol
- I read some books
- I bought a really pretty copy of The Once and Future King
- I got to hang out with my friends a lot
- I had pizza
- I actually paid for something with change instead of charging it because I'm becoming more mature I think
- I took some warm showers
And those are just some of the things. The world goes on and I am happy.

Do I still get upset when I remember that Donald Trump will be our president? Hell yeah I do. Sometimes people get cuts on their heart, things happen, and then those cuts scar. I have a few of my own and this, well, it feels kinda like how those feel. Except not really. Maybe it's just bruised my heart. It won't ever get better, it'll always be tender, but overall it will fade away bit by bit.

I saw a post by someone who said the way many people felt after the election was the way they felt when they were depressed. It was a very good way to put it, because it did indeed feel that way to me.

I ended my last post about the election with this

Is there more to say? Yes. So much. So much. too much. But not today. Today, I rest. Tomorrow I find my feet again- my strength. Take a day by a day until again we are not just walking but running. Until
Soon.
Don't let this stop your world. Let this reignite it.

and I want to comment on it.

There is still so much more to say but I don't think I'm the one to say it.

I did rest that day. The next day I did get back to my feet. I was sore but I did it. The day after that I may not have been running, but I was speed-walking. I was getting thing back on track and finding the road again. I did. And now I think I'm ready to run again. It is soon.

The next election isn't for another four years, but I'm already ready for it. These next four years I'm going to stay up on the news, on who's running, on what the current members of the government are doing, locally and nationally, and what all the policies are. I want to be an ACTIVE member of my country. I want to make it a better country- one I would be pleased to raise kids in (yes, that's far away for me, but still). And when it gets closer I want to donate to whoever I'm backing, I want to be a part of it all.  This is my plan. My re-ignition.

What's your plan?

A Change of Scenery?

Not literally. And perhaps scenery isn't the best word. But I just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it's got me yearning to write something epic. But I'm already writing something set in a fantasy world and I don't want to let it alone.

But what if I changed the story and made it an epic fantasy? Instead of a novella?

It could still be a fairytale, I think, so perhaps not so much of one. I'm not sure.

It's something to seriously consider, though, because there are, suddenly, a lot of ideas that would fit into this story in this new epic scenery.

So, new plan: finish editing and turning this draft from 1st person pov to 3rd. Then, rather than go through and fix all the continuity, I'm going to send it to alpha readers (though not all, just one or two I think) and see what they think of this version and also tell them what I'm thinking of for the new version, if I were to turn it to epic fantasy, or how I would fix this version and keep it fairytale. When they're finished I'd be curious to see their answers. Then, in that meantime, I think I will work on a epic fantasy version of this story, just to test out what it would look like. That's the new plan.

Let's see how it goes.

So.

I have many thoughts about this election. Too many to keep in my head and too many to write down. There are words to use but none that I feel like I can master.

I am sad.

Slowly, like something has been pumping in and out of my heart, not blood, is how I feel.

But the sun did rise. And it is setting again. And it will rise again- tomorrow.

Yesterday morning, before I knew what the results of this election would be, I started watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended edition obviously). They are my favorite movies and an eternal comfort. I chose to watch them because I was studying for finals and wanted something comforting as background noise that would neither distract me nor bore me.

I did not know how much I would need them. Not during the beginning of the election, before my nerves got the best of me and I could only watch election coverage. Not this morning, when I woke up. Not now, after I've been laying in bed for a few hours.

There is a message in the Lord of the Rings that is helping me get through today. And tomorrow. It is a message of hope- that even small people matter. that everyone can make a difference. we just have to stand up and try.

Is there more to say? Yes. So much. So much. too much. But not today. Today, I rest. Tomorrow I find my feet again- my strength. Take a day by a day until again we are not just walking but running. Until

Soon.

Don't let this stop your world. Let this reignite it.

November Writing Goals

Well, I've gotten back into the swing of writing again, and that's been great. Part of this has to come with mastering my schedule, and the other part has to come from just sitting down and actually writing and realizing I still enjoy doing this. So yay! Also, it's Nano, and while I'm participating it's editing participating, which I don't consider as hard as writing an original novel during this time. But I'm still here to cheer everyone on!

My plan is to continue the "rewrite" that I'm doing for the rest of this month, which is basically just changing everything from first person point of view to third. It's a pretty easy task and as I've been going I've been taking notes on what I want to change when it comes time to editing and some of the questions I've begun to ask myself about the story are huge plot and book changers. Which is fine, I'm not panicking (lies). I have this month and next month scheduled for this, but at this pace I might actually be able to finish it up in a quarter of that time. In which case I'll start the hard copy editing process, which will be very cool to be able to do. I'll keep you updated if that does end up happening.

One more thing: I recently read On Writing, which is a phenomenal book (I strongly recommend it) and in it Stephen King says that you often stumble upon the "moral" around the time of the second draft. Well, I found it. And, let's just say, it's not what I was expecting. While writing I did see it lurking around the corners of the text, and I kind of denied it because that's not what I had set out to write and I wasn't sure that was what I wanted to write. But the book has other ideas and now I must write it. That moral is something like this:

Using original fairytales to exploit what it means to have the right to live and die by your own hand.

Huh. Not the story I thought it was at first but I'm not complaining. It also changes the "audience" I was originally intending for it to be written for. In early drafts it was for YA audiences. Then I realized it was a kind of universal adult/ya reading (like how most fantasy in the adult section can be seen this way). But now I'm thinking, hey, maybe it's something closer to New Adult and Adult than straight up YA/adult crossover. Of course, that's just some thoughts, but knowing who the audience I'm writing for is really helps the writing itself.

Well, those are my goals, and I'm so glad to be back writing again because it's been really, really wonderful.

GO CUBBIES

We did it, Chicago! We just won the World Series! And yes, I am sobbing I'm so happy!

History happened last night and we got to watch it!

Off to go celebrate some more :)