There she slept, with her face unpleasantly pressed against her feathered pillow. Drool probably slipping from her twitching lips. Her eyes moving quickly beneath her eyelids, as if she were the bunny and a greedily hungry fox were chasing her through a snow drizzled forest. Finally her eyes snap open as she nearly knocks her bedside lamp off of its perch. Fiddling with the pen in her shaking hand from her hurried heart, she scribbles everlasting ideas on small square note papers. Paper fluttering around her tired figure as the clock ticks by without her notice. As sleep creeps up on her and finally wins the tug of war. Her hands holding onto paper and a pen, dreaming things that she wishes she could remember in the morning. This is a night of a writer. 

Two nights ago I went to bed like every other night, crawling under my blankets, plugging myself in with some good tunes and then letting sleep pull me under. Only I had to keep waking up in a frantic hurry. Maybe it was the song that I was listening to, but man was I ever getting crazy inspiration! Each time I would think that my ideas were drained for the night, I would just get settled into bed and BAM! I was run over by another idea. Later on in the night I gave up trying to flick on my light, that took to much time, because by the time I went to write down my idea I would forget it. Instead I held my phone in my hand, in the pitch of the night and press a button as soon as I got an idea, that way no time was lost. 

Last night I did not get any inspiration, of course as soon as I go out and buy a board to post all of my notes. This morning though, when I was thinking about my adventures with Marquessa on the train tracks an idea slammed into my chest, almost winding me from me previous endeavors. 

To be a writer, you live with the consequences of ideas. You don’t know where, you don’t know when, you just know that you bloody well have a pen and paper with you at all times. 

For the longest time whenever I took the time to write, I would stop reading any kind of literature. I always believed that by reading and then writing you would only write what you previously read. Then I was told by some authours that, you are in fact, supposed to read and write, write and read. Without reading others work you simply do not know what flows, how it can flow and how to make your words sound brilliant.

So now I have pushed myself to finish Carrie Ryan’s second book The Dead Tossed Waves. She is too brilliant for the writing world! Next up is Looking For Alaska by John Green and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I am trying my hardest to accomplish reading at least one book every week and by doing so I will improve my writing and learn what is acceptable literature and was is brilliant.

I realize what separates me from other authors in the Genre I write. Of course I cannot tell you what that thing is but my heart is soaring above the skies right now. Finally I have something that others did not incorporate into their books.

Watching 28 Days later, one of my favorites, is getting me into the writing mood. 

Sometimes it is hard to find that belief in yourself, and even if you find it, it is easy to vanish over time. Writing has always been something that could relieve my stress and wake me up for the world. I found a quote that makes more since to a writer then most things can.

I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning ~Peter De Vries

Now that speaks truth in a writer. I do say I will make sure that I am inspired at 5am every morning from now on. This quote makes me believe that I can accomplish something that I have been defeated with for months now.

Why is it that while I am working inspiration to write comes to me then? Strange how the world works, and even stranger how our minds think to state such things.
 

No doubt reading Carrie Ryan’s: The Forest of Hands and Teeth as well as its companion The Dead-Tossed Waves, inspiration has been set a flame. I believe that by studying how she writes I will be able to accomplish my own writing style by learning from her success. I have had these ideas pounding my skull for years now, it all started six years ago with my first novel, The Forsaken. A young girl whose life was in danger, as a young man tried to…..blah blah blah.

To be honest I am having an incredibly hard time remembering what it was even about. Last year was my second year of NaNoWriMo (National novel writing month.) I had created a 50,000 word novel called Life or Death that I sent into Delacorte for a contest they were holding. Waking up at 5am every morning for an entire month while trying to keep up with my last year of High School, and hold a job, I was more then determined to succeed. And thus came my first rejection letter. After holding off writing for the last semester of Grad twelve, preparing myself for my Diplomas worth 50% of my mark I stopped writing all together.

Then I began my Journey working at the Library for my third summer, and to tell you the truth, I cannot stop writing. When work is slow I steal away time to write some of my novel, and I know that the more time I put into it the better it will be. I understand the commitment it takes to write a book, and yet I still feel as if I do not have what it takes. Reading about how some authors had countless supporters while they were writing makes me think, who is supporting my writing? As of right now, I am not completely sure. Whoever is reading this is supporting me in the sense of reading my work, which do not get me wrong I love you guys for it! I just need someone to help me when I fall down, help me get the ideas that swarm in my head to fall onto paper. When I find that person I know my ideas will evolve before my eyes.

Right now I am trying to bring myself to wake up at 5am every morning again just to write to make my deadline. I know that I will not be able to “publish” my book by my nineteenth birthday, but I know I will be able to complete it by then. A little hard work and a few people willing to edit, all shall be well.

There is my rant for today, four more hours of work to go.

Wow. Writing mayhem here in the library. Ideas have been flying to me from the skies above and I can hardly keep up. Not only am I enjoying these new twists, I am enjoying the old ones too!

Here is a small snippet so you get an idea of what I am writing:

Being haunted by certain circumstances, Silvia Sparrow is at whits end trying to provide for her sick mother and her muted younger sister. Her world is filled with her own lonely voice, until she hears someone beckoning her to the forest behind her house. Fearing the worst she carries her steal bat ready to hit the skies. Only, she does not understand that the voice is leading her into Death.

There you have it, a little piece of information that may lead you to someday read the entire book.

Apparently while I am working, my writing knocks against my skull in an almost unbearable way where I HAVE to write something. Right now I have completed the first chapter of Life or Deathwith confidence in my writing style. I am not afraid to change or delete what I need to. This is the process of writing a book, if it doesn’t flow, it doesn’t go. There is now a new spin that ties the Death world with my characters, something even I did not expect to happen, and something I normally do not read in YA novels. What is it you ask? That is a secret, of course I would not want someone using my ideas before my book was out there, would I?

As well I have learned to pace my novel. Don’t rush into an event if that event is not meant to happen until later on. Just truly let your writing flow. One of the common mistakes people commit to is: looking over each thing you write to make sure punctuation and spelling is perfect. By doing this you have eliminated any possible way of getting anywhere. As well, you have now stopped your thought process, and allowed those thoughts that want to be lit in the fire of your writing, to only be extinguished by your distraction on spelling and grammer. I know with my very first novel I had ever written, it took me four years to convince myself that I was writing it wrong. Each time I wrote I checked my spelling, a big no no to getting anywhere. Now working on my new novel from November 2009, I have erased all urges to fix mistakes, instead I just write. I let my writing flow down the riverbank with no worries.

Truthfully you have to find the writer within you to go anywhere. Where is your voice strongest? What have you experienced that could tie personal events into your book? Do your characters feel alive? That is the most important question to answer and believe. If they are alive then your readers will feel as if they are living your characters journey, but if your readers do not connect in anyway with your them, then you have not breathed the life upon them.

Well that’s it for now, off to finish writing/re-vamping the second chapter!

At the start of revamping Life or Death I found that the begining was sounding more “childish” then I was trying to come off as. Therefore a new begining has been constructed in a more serious manner to grab the reader.

Now to ask you, when shall I post a snippet of the begining of the book?