Little update on Progress!

The Seasons books are coming along great, I think! So far Kiki is doing all the writing. Wish I could help!!! But I have only a vague idea of what happened in the story before I joined in. Still, it's an absolutely fascinating read! You'll have to take my word for it but really, so far Kiki's got me on the edge of my seat after only two chapters, and you can ask anyone who knows me, it takes forever for me to get into a book so that's saying something. Haha.

Reason I've been thinking about this today is that I've officially started writing the first chapter of our future set book "Bang!" (Meaning I've opened Microsoft Works Word Processor and have spent the last hour staring at this...)

But hey! That's almost three paragraphs right? So... PROGRESS!!!!!

Excited? Yea? Yeah? YEAH?! I am. ;)

Original Post -- http://secretlyimaginaryme.blogspot.com/2013/02/seasons-update.html

Saturday's Challenge!

Thursday's challenge went well actually. I forgot to talk in an accent almost every time it counted, but it did put me in the mind to write what I needed to and that's what counts! Today, I've challenge myself to put away the glorious distractions of Nancy Drew games and Barbie movies and actually get something done. Aside from the normal things like laundry and cleaning my room, my goal is to write at least three paragraphs of one story. Today I've chosen the story I mentioned Thursday with the character based on John Rolfe. I'm writing this story with my best friend and favorite author, Kiki, and she absolutely deserves another update! And so do you guys. I also thought it might be nice to share what I'm writing with you. So! Maybe I'll do that. =) We'll see. Until next time! *waves*

Thursday's Challenge

Today I've decided to challenge myself in several different ways. First, there is a page, floating around in my brain somewhere, that I haven't had the time to put on paper. So! I'm going to write that today at some point. The character in this piece of writing is a variation of Disney's take on John Rolfe from the second Pocahontas movie, set about ten years in the future. Our future, that is. Still, he's kept his very proper, old English way of thought and speech. To put myself in the mindset to write this character, I've challenged myself to speak, throughout the entire day, in my best British accent. Putting my mind to work in that way will hopefully inspire me to write a decent work. So then, I suppose there are two challenges. To speak entirely in an English accent, and to write the paper. Let's hope I can do this.

Tally Ho!! ;D

All Aboard!

Enjoy the Cheer Up Picture <3

Disappointment. The problem everyone struggles with. Disappointment is, well, disappointing. It's depressing when you were really looking forward to something, and then you realize that no matter what you do, it's probably not going to happen. I can say I'm planning on being an astronaut. I can go through all the training and get all the qualifications, spend years hoping and wishing and waiting and planning, but when it's all said and done, most likely I'm not gonna be spending any time outside of planet Earth. In sarcasm, for those of you who don't speak it, disappointment is called "a healthy dose of reality." In my book it feels more like a splash of cold water in the face on a freezing January morning. That chilly feeling you just can't shake. It hurts to be disappointed, especially when it happens because of someone else. When you were really counting on Becky to drive you down to B&N for that new book you've been waiting all year for! And then she calls an hour later because she over slept. Or when your mom absolutely promised you'd go to the midnight premier that movie you've been wanting to see, and then she gets stuck in bed with a cold. You can't do anything about these things. You can't prevent or change them. They happen. Life happens. But when someone else is involved we tend to blame the other person. Wrong! It's not their fault. They have lives too and the world does not revolve around you, no matter how many times you forget that you aren't the sun. The important thing is learning how to pick up and move on. This happens to be something I struggle with. Yes, it's easy to be hurt and to heap blame on people. It's easy to wallow in self-pity because things didn't go your way. It's hard to be mature and grown up and say "Hey, I didn't really need to go to the beach this weekend. It'll be there next week." So my challenge, to myself and to anyone else who's reading this, is to remember that when you're disappointed by someone, it's not always their fault. And even if it is, blaming them only hurts you. So be the mature one. Pick up. And move on. Life happens. We can't sit waiting for it to happen our way. If we did, we'd be waiting a very long time! So stop waiting, hop up on life's train, and take off!

Catch ya later!

New Wrapping! Is Christmas coming early?

Have you ever had the feeling something is missed? Like there is a piece to the puzzle of life you just can't find. When you're sitting at work or flipping through channels or cooking dinner and you just stop and think to yourself "I need... something... But what?" It seems I've been having those moments more often then not these days when I sit down to write. I have the idea running through my head, I know what I want to say, but after writing - and rewriting - the same three pages over and over... All that's left to do at the end of the day is sit back and admit that it needs...something. But what? I truly wish I could figure out what that something was. Passion? Emotion? Some other "shun"? Perhaps my characters are too boring, I found myself wondering today. Too flat. Perhaps if you write for too long without seeking new inspiration, your writing becomes as familiarly repetitive as a singer who writers too many songs all at once. It all starts to sound the same. This week I've trashed three stories. Three. I never thought in a million years that would happen! It's been hard to part with them, and yet...I keep finding these stories in other stories. "Nothing new under the sun" is a rather depressing concept when you're trying to think of something new and interesting for people to want to read. But then... and I'm just thinking out loud here... maybe people don't want to read something new. Maybe they just want new wrapping on it. Gail Carson Levine has made her career retelling popular and well known fairy tales and elaborating on the ones that tell us too little to begin with. She had some of her own, but Ella Enchanted is really just Cinderella with an amazingly brilliant and clever array of twists and turns and flip-flops. And there are plenty of other examples. Some of them not so well disguised. Beastly is obviously Beauty and the Beast. And with or without a name, who hasn't heard the human/vampire love story a million and three times? So maybe, as a writer, I shouldn't be so focused on trying to write what is new and exciting. But more focused on my story and telling it the way I want it to be told. Perhaps it is better to explore the characters more. To get to know and understand them the way I should before trying to force them into situations impossible for them to climb out of. This is my challenge to myself for the rest of this week. To focus on the story the way it ought to be told. I'll do my best to keep you posted.

So Until Next Time!

And check out these amazing women!

Alex Flinn and Gail Carson Levine. 

They deserve much Praise!!

Sunny Days and Busses

Some days, you wake up, and it's like the sun smiled at you. Everything is going your way. Life couldn't be better! Other days, you wake up, and that's about the only good thing that happens. Day to day stress piles up like a shaken soda can and explodes in your face while laughing at your sticky fizz-filled pain. You can either feel like the world's on your side, or feel like life just hit you with a bus. It's a total toss up that'd keep you awake at night if you allowed yourself to worry about which coin fate's flipping for you this time. Today I got hit by life's bus. Yay me. I felt like the world was against me, which sucks since I was kinda hopin' the world might like me just a little? But today was a wake up call for me too. Today that bus knocked a little sense into me. Or maybe the road did when I fell... Either way, something knocked something into me! Or maybe something got knocked out... Or maybe I was just knocked out...!

But I digress.

Today I was hit with the realization -No, not the bus. There was no bus. It was a poorly planned out metaphor for realization and has absolutely nothing to do with an actual bus! Forget the bus!! - that life isn't about getting from day to day like it's some kind of chore. It's about living in each day, making the most of every moment we have. Yes, we should have goals and plans for the future. It's good to have things to work towards. But that shouldn't be our only focus. If all we're thinking about is the future we miss the present, and time isn't something you can get back.

Sometimes, life throws things at you that feel pretty impossible. Sometimes we can feel pretty low. Not getting the job, not acing the test, not being liked back by the guy (or girl) you've been crushing on for forever. Buses can really knock you down and make you feel like you've hit the assault-y rock bottom. Remember this. No matter how many times you get knocked down, you can always get back up!!

 So. Live in the moment. Get back up. Avoid the bus. Okay, guys!! Good talk!!

 See you peeps next time! Bye-bye!

Table Talk

My sister and I went to Applebee's the other day for lunch. While sitting there, enjoying our own meals, I couldn't help but over hear the conversation between two women sitting behind at the table my sister.

"What?" the younger lady gasped in utter shock. "It's a fruit? Since when??" 

The older woman, appearing to be the mother of the younger girl, shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know."

"Wow..." the daughter shook her head, still bewildered. "Stupid tomato."

Oh! The things some people say!! My sister and I certainly shared a good laugh. =) 

Until next time. Au revoir!