Point Of Views!

When you go to write something people usually just write what comes to their mind at the time. But what you really need to think about is the Point Of View, otherwise known as POV. There are three main points of view. These include:
Third Person Omniscient Point Of View- The narrator knows what all the characters in the story are thinking and feeling.
Third Person Limited Point Of View- The narrator knows what a character is thinking and feeling and only the actions of other characters.
First Person Point Of View- The character speaks about themselves, their thoughts, actions, etc. (for example: "I walked down the stone pathway thinking what have I just gotten myself into?")
When deciding upon your point of view in the story it is crucial that you stick with it. This is so that your story makes sense through out the entire thing. For example, if you weren't sticking to this plan, it would turn out like this:
"I walked through the double doors, that lead to the classrooms at my local school, thinking about the earlier events. Then he walked up to a door with the two white numbers, 27 bolted into the front side of the wooden door showing the number of the classroom, his face looking unsure. The boy walked into the classroom and watched all the fellow classmates stare back at him as he moved to his seat feeling uneasy."
Even though this might all go together, storyline wise, the narration doesn't fit. Therefore making it more than one Point Of View and it is wrong. So when writing a storyline think of what you want. Once you have chosen your selected Point Of View then start writing your story. Remember that through out the story line, your chosen Point Of View. There isn't much more to say other than that be wise when choosing your point of view, since you will be staying with that throughout the entire storyline. Until next time!

No Excuses, Just A Change.

I do realize how much days I have missed and I feel horrible about it. Words cannot explain how guilty I feel about not writing. But there are no excuses. I do believe that updating every day is a little much. And theres not a lot that happens all in one day. So as of now I will forever be updating on Wednesday's and Sunday's. This way I have more time to write before I post, more things to talk about, and much longer posts. Again, I'm sorry for the long wait. Until Wednesday!!

Accomplish.

I finally did it. I woke up this morning and wrote about three to four pages before I started my day. Then at night I updated my blog, which would be right now. Overall I am pretty proud of myself. Even though this isn't much of a accomplishment in the big picture, it is a start. Since I have just been saying how my writing is going tomorrow I will upload some tips and advice. After a long day, all anyone wants to do is just fall asleep, maybe listen to some calm music, and that is exactly what I am going to do. Until then.

Daily Routine

Today I was bombarded with school work and had practice after school, leaving me with barely any time for writing. Since I overslept this morning. Feeling overwhelmed from work I sat down in a calm environment, listening to country music. I wrote. I wrote about two pages. Before I sat down and wrote I was only thinking of how overwhelmed I was feeling and pressured and busy. Then I got spare moment and sat down for a while and just opened my notebook. The minute I uncapped my pen, a boatload of ideas came rushing into my head. I guess it would seem that I would feel more overwhelmed, almost to the point of exploding. But that didn't even cross my mind. I felt happy that after having nothing on my mind but work, that I was able to sit down and recover all the ideas in my head from the past day. This way, even though I didn't write a lot, I now know what I need to do when I write. Get in a comforting environment. I think this helps a lot, it also relieves all the stress from the day, or from the day before ( for people who write in the morning ). So tomorrow I will be putting up my "reminders" of my daily writing. Seeing that I did not do that today, this is why I am updating my blog at 11 at night. I am tired and had to drag myself out of bed for this, but if I did not update I would feel horrible. The reminder in the back of my head saying, "Update your blog don't forget..." over and over again would just increase. It is the feeling of having a routine, a schedule. Some people enjoy this, some don't. I am all for both, meaning that my routine for this isn't horrifyingly strict. I write in the morning and update in the afternoon. Anyways, basically I wrote in the afternoon and updated very late at night (11 PM), meaning that tomorrow I will put up my reminder's , reminding me of my daily writing in the morning (this was stated in an earlier post). Until then!

Daily Reminder's

Even though it might be difficult it is critical to stick to the daily schedule. This schedule being able to write at a certain time of the day. This is an issue I am having some difficulty with and it is not even ten days into my goal. So if I really need to make this work I am going to put reminders everywhere. So that when I wake up I am greeted with a message of my daily writing. So that when I get home from school, there is a new text message:
Subject:none
Text: DAILY WRITING!!! don't forget!
This way there isn't anyway that I can forget this. So that by the end of the month I am tearing down these reminders, knowing that the next day I will reach this goal with out any help.
This is the plan I have until it won't be needed anymore.
Until tomorrow!

Inspiration

I did not post yesterday and felt bad about it when this morning came around. So today, instead of watching the game, I went to the beach. I brought my notebook in so that I could get some writing done while I was there. I did manage to get a lot of writing done as well as time to think about my story. The most important part of it all was the fact that I had inspiration. The beach was peaceful, quite, and inspirational. It helped me think of ideas and get them moving. The setting made me want to finish this. That is why I think that everyone needs to find their inspiration, that way it can help finish your task.

Post-It Method

This morning I wrote about two or three pages at the most. Even though I had mentioned that my time to write during the day was in the morning today wasn't the same. It is best to keep a straight forward and constant schedule if you are wishing to pursue something like I am. This is why I still wrote a little. That morning, something else had caught my imagination.

My guide. As it says on underneath my "Guides" on my homepage of my blog I am using a "guide" called "This Year You Write Your Novel" by Walter Mosley. So this morning I was reading through the book and using it as a guide and source for and helping me with my writing. I do think that it has some good ideas within this source. One helping way for me to remember these phrases and parts in the text in to highlight. If you have a book like this, and it is yours (not the library's or a friends), then you can write, highlight, underline right in the book. You could also put those small post-its on the page so that you can just turn straight to it. So this morning after I wrote a little, I went through this book footnoting all the parts that I wanted to look back on some time later. I had grabbed a highlighter, pencil, and some mini post-it's, and the book and sat down for a while. This is a method I think works very well. Whether it be a rough draft of a paper for school, or magazine you can use this anywhere.

Since I only wrote a little bit this morning I have a plan of writing more than usual tomorrow morning. So until then, off to bed!

Your Time of Day.

This morning I woke up with a sudden burst of energy and creativity. After my mourning routine I grabbed my notebook and a pen and went downstairs for about thirty minutes. In that amount of time I got down at least ten pages of writing material. Now that it is later I went to write but my creativity bubble was no longer there. This is why it is a good thing to choose a certain time of the day to do your writing. The ideal time is the time you have the most imagination and ideas. For myself, the best time for me is in the morning. I think this is because waking up from constant dreams ongoing all night can sprout millions of ideas in your head. All you need to do is put all that energy onto the piece of paper. Now this isn't always the case for everyone. In some way it could be the end of the day that gets you thinking. Or it could also be the middle of the day. Maybe you would need to sit down at lunch and write a couple pages or two. Whatever works. It is not the same for everyone but the most promising thing is that you, personally, find your own time of day. Once this is determined you create a daily routine. For example, for some people it might be to go along with your day but once you arrive home, escape to a quite room to get in a couple pages of writing. Another way could be to wake up in the morning and take to your writing outside, watching the sunrise. It doesn't really matter when you write, just as long as you do it. Although I just mentioned that the best time for me to write was in the morning, I think that the best time for me to update my blog is in the evening. This way I can add on the writing I did later in the day, if there was any. This way, everything gets accounted for. Well, the fact that my eyelids are getting ten pounds heavier by the minute means that it is time for me to sign off. I will be writing tomorrow with the company of the morning sunrise. Until then!

Day 2!

I wrote a page and a half today. It may not seem like a lot but for the first day, under the circumstances, I think that that is pretty satisfying. When you are working on your GPA at school it takes up a lot of your day. Therefore leaving you without any time for extra curricular activities. Such as writing, like this. This would be an experience I am familiar with since, today thats exactly what happened. Like I had said in one of my earlier posts, you don't always half to start with the beginning. I started with the end yesterday and worked about three pages. Today I made a goal for more of the beginning. This way I know how it starts and I know how it ends. Then all I would half to accomplish is what happens in the middle, to link those two together. I am going to write a little more when I am done here, before I rest my eyes for the night. Until Tomorrow!

365 Day Countdown Starts!

Hello everybody. As you can see I had postponed my daily posting until today, which is February 1st, 2011. This means that my 365 day countdown has officially started. I just wanted you all to know that I will be writing up my daily on how my deadline is going and the progress I have made. I already wrote this morning and I got a couple pages down so I am good to go as of now. In my three hundred and sixty five days I have a goal of accomplishing many things. I do plan on stating these later on in my posts. So until tomorrow, keep on reading. I have a long ways to go!

Parts of Plot Diagram

If you are writing a novel, novella, or any other type of story there aren't set rules. You don't have to make sense and you don't have to start with the beginning.When most authors are composing their books, they usually start with the end. You know, you always half to know how the story ends before you figure out how the rest falls into place.

A good way to plan out your own story is a parts of plot diagram. The beginning spikes up into the rising action. Which means, all the events leading up the to main event in the story. The peak of the diagram is the climax, the middle. When the diagram stoops downhill it is called falling action. Otherwise known as all the things that happen after the climax, including how the conflict (if there is one) is solved. Personally, I think that these diagrams are the best way to plot out your story line. You can substitute in what happens in the middle for the word climax. Also with the rest, rising and falling action, beginning and end. When and if you plug in all the events on a diagram like this one, you see kind of how your story line is going to be laid out. Right in front of you. I, personally, think that this method is the best way to plan out your story line beforehand.

Everything Needs Patience

I have a while till my 365 day goal starts so I thought I would talk about some necessities I would need to write a novel. When I first think about writing a novel I need to research, just like anything else. Buy English grammar books and catch up on my reading, noticing the elements of fiction and elements of plot. There are many different types of books out there and I will need to decide which type of book I want to write. For example, some books are non-fiction, fiction, bibliography, and autobiography. When I go to the library and look at all the books there are I think that mine could one day be among them. My name could be on the spine of the book for all to see. That is another thing you need in order to write a book, inspiration. In my case I'm inspired by listening to all the different authors rise to fame stories. How J.K. Rowling started out in a local coffee shop and Ishmael Beah in his book “A long way gone”.

If I am to finish this book I will need to publish it of course. Everyone says that publishing things are really hard. I mean look at Julia Child. She is this historical woman who had this amazing idea and wrote the book but she got turned down many times. I am plenty aware of this task I’m beholding and need to be patient. So to practice my patience I half to wait until February 1st, 2011 to start writing. For now I might as well go and eat some breakfast. Until then!

My 365 Day Deadline

Starting February 1st, 2011, I will have 365 days to write a novel. My deadline is February 1st, 2012. If I am to write an hour or two every morning for three hundred and sixty five days, then I should have a good amount of work done. Ever since I was little, I have wanted to be an author. My greatest inspiration was being able to transfer your dreams onto a stack of paper. Especially with little children having all that imagination in their heads. From flying pigs with mustaches to living in an igloo on the North Pole, all that imagination has to go somewhere. As you get older that imagination seems to fade, just like in the movie "The Polar Express",as the kids got older they stopped believing. My project is to transfer all my imagination onto a stack of paper of my own within the next year.

My guidance throughout this journey is a book written by Walter Mosley, "This Year You Write Your Novel." In Walter Mosley's book, he states "Ideally, the time you decide on is also the time when you do your best work. There are two reasons for this rule: getting the work done and connecting with your unconscious mind."(1) It is true about getting the work done, since this has been a life long goal for me. This is the first time I'm pursuing it. Connecting with your unconscious mind is a phrase that took a while for me to come up with the fact that when you write think positive and your subconscious mind thinks positive as well. This meaning, don't take time to think about what you're saying just write it. When and if you connect with your unconscious mind while you write you're more in tune with yourself as well as what you write down. Another way of looking at it is "Don't take time to smell the flowers."

There are thousands of blogger's out there, each with their own blogs. This being said it does take some time to think of a title that is unlike any others. It is just like when you create your email for the first time; your email has to be different and something that you like. After I spent some time thinking of a title that fit my blog and was catchy, I was satisfied with my decision. The "365" at the beginning represents my deadline. That being three hundred and sixty five days for me to write my novel. Now I could have put those three numbers in front of anything to make a title, but it wouldn't have been the same. For example, "365 Days" or "365 Days Until My Deadline", these don't have the same appeal as "365 Coffee Shop Napkins."

The three words after "365" in my title are Coffee Shop Napkins. You always hear these stories about how famous authors first started out writing their stories on a napkin in a local shop. For example J.K.Rowling, who is the author of the "Harry Potter" series, first started writing her books on a napkin in a coffee shop. Who knew that sitting in a local coffee shop can inspire such great work.

When you're young many different things can get in the way of your "To Do" list. Being perfectly honest I would know, but to keep me on track with this task I will blog everyday about how its going, keep you up to date. Day to day updates will help me meet my deadline. A year passes by faster than you think it would. As Walter Mosley says, "The process of writing a novel is like taking a journey by boat. You have to continually set yourself on course."(2)

(1),(2)-Mosley, Walter. "The General Disciplines That Every Writer Needs." This Year You Write Your Novel. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. 1, 14. Print.