time on my hands, or lack there of

I really wish there was more time in a day, or at least that we didn't have to sleep. Yes, I really do love sleep, like, I really love my sleep, at least a good ten hours a night, but if I didn't need sleep to properly function, I could get so many more things done.

I work, go to school and am trying to write a novel, as well as developing new ideas. Trying to find time to do all these things and get an adequate amount of sleep as well as nourishing myself is somewhat difficult. I find myself telling myself that I will have time do to it all, but then I find myself running out of time and going to bed because, fail sauce! I ran out of time. Now, saying that I ran out of time is true but it is also somewhat my fault. I tend to get very distracted, very easily. I also find myself doing or reading things that I want rather than what I have too.

Time management people! That is what I need. And once I have figured out time management, I need to put myself in a place where I can not possibly get distracted by ANYTHING!!! Also, along the lines of time management, I need to learn not to procrastinate! I find that I am one of the worst procrastinators EVER!! I always tell myself that since I know what I am supposed to do a long time before it is due, I will get it done really early then will not have to worry about it, but I never follow through with the getting it done early. NEVER!!

In my novel writing class we are supposed to turn in fifteen pages a week on Mondays. I happened to have thirty pages done before we even started the class so I was like yes! this gives me two weeks to get even further ahead, but what happened you ask? I got behind and am finding that I am still behind. How many pages behind am I you may ask? About fifty pages, and though I try to get, not even ahead, but just caught up, I find that it is exceptionally difficult.

So, though as you may be able to tell, I am terrible at time management, I believe that we all should be better at it, and stop procrastinating! Especially us creative folk!

My Characters part II

So, I know I talked a lot about characters the other day, but when I read over it, I realized I left a few things that I deem important out. One of those things is that a lot of the time, your characters need to be in some ways like you but yet different. And the other is that in some ways and in some cases, you need to let your characters do the talking.

Thing one: When I write or develop a character, I think about the ways I can make them like me, or the things I like about me that I can put into my characters. I absolutely love music, so about 99% of the time, my characters are going to love music. I love movies, so I am going to incorporate movies into my story or into my characters.
Some times I make my characters into what I want myself to be. Smarter, taller, skinnier, get the perfect guy (although my guy is pretty great so I'm not complaining) have green or purple eyes, have the perfect hair, preferably black or deep red. But you get the point.
And sometimes I make my characters completely different from me, well not exactly completely different from me, but some ways like me and some ways not. I am writing a character now who loves to run. I hate running so I can't really get into that mind set. But what I can do is let my characters tell me why they love running, and that leads me to the second thing.

Thing two: I was writing a scene about an hour ago where I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen but when I was writing it, it changed drastically. But I felt it was something my character was telling me she wanted to do and I just had to let her do it. You may be the writer, but your characters are what make the story, so sometimes you just have to let them do what they want to do and trust that they know what they are doing.

Tata for now!

My Characters

As you all know, a few days ago I got Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I cracked it open as soon as it arrived and read till I was finished. It was great, I suggest you all read it. The characters were dynamic and very interesting and were just great. And on top of the characters, the book itself was amazing!

Developing your characters can be daunting and challenging but if your characters are no good then your story is more than likely going to be no good. And you may think oh she's only twenty and still in college so what the hell would she know about developing characters and writing them. But I can tell you that I am an avid reader and like to really get to know my characters so the author really needs to know them.

I started writing my first novel a few months ago and let me tell you, I knew everything about my characters and their lives and how they were going to end up before I even started writing. There are many different ways to develop a character: through dialogue, through their actions, the way they carry themselves, etc. I will admit right now I am not very good at detail and it is something I really need to work at, but what I am really good at is dialogue so that is mainly how I develop my characters, by the things that they say. And I try to throw in a little detail and action to help accentuate them.

I also think that a name is very important to a character, not necessarily what you name them or how you choose their name, but just making sure their name fits who they are. The way I choose a characters name is simple, if I like a certain name I will give it to a character. Sometimes that means that my characters develop around their name and sometimes that means that I have a character and because they act a certain way I give them a name I think fits and I have to like it. I chose Malia for the main female character of my book and had a whole personality for her and I could see her so clearly in my head. She was sweet and caring but also independent. Shortly after starting my book, I fell in love with the name Blair and thought that my main female character had to be named Blair, so I switched it from Malia to Blair, but as soon as I did that, my character and her personality disappeared from my head and I had no idea who my character was. So I thought about it a lot and wondered if I should change her name back or change it to something different. My final decision was to name her Jaden because her eyes were green. As soon as I decided to name her Jaden I could once again see her very clearly, but in some aspects she changed very drastically as a character. She was now very sarcastic and very independent but also had a softer side.

Jackson Pearce has a video of her in an airport talking about characters and saying that they must be real, people must be able to relate to them and must be able to sympathize with them and I think that is so true. Characters are the center of your book or your works so they need to be the most important part of your developing process.

So anyone who will actually talk back to me or comment on this, let me know what you think and how you develop your characters. I'll talk to you all later. 

Look what I got in the mail/ preference

Look what I got in the mail today, if you can actually see it, because right now, as I'm typing this, I can't. But anyway, so I ordered Delirium but Lauren Oliver and though I paid extra for the 1 to 3 day shipping, it came in 5, but that's beside the matter. It came in the mail today and I'm so excited I can't wait to read it. And this is the basis for today's blog post. What I like to read.
My favorite books happen to be Ya or Young Adult books. Now, most people I talk to will tell me that I should be reading intellectual books and I say if they were interesting I would. In some of my classes my professors ask me if I've read Faulkner or Tolstoy and other authors like that, to which I cower in my seat as my classmates raise their hands and I say no. But you know what, I am down, I will no longer cower in my seat because I read YA books and I am damn proud of it.
It's not that I don't read them because I think they are bad or anything, they just don't seem to appeal to me, eccept for those books that are actually bad. Now there are probably a million reading lists that have the top 100 books you should read before going to college, and the top 100 books to read in your lifetime or before you die and these lists always include books like As I Lay Dying, The Good Earth, My Antonia and other books like that, but not once have I seen a reading list that says what books we should read that include YA books. Now I have to say that that really pisses me off.
A lot of those books happen to be written in the high modernist era and I won't go into much detail about that but those shit heads like TS Elliot and Ezra Pound were so high on their own shit that they thought the common person had no business reading their works that they made their works so high over people head they didn't want to read them, but the fucking dumb ass part of that is that they didn't even want their writing to sell. How fucking dumb could you be. I want to be able to write full time, and the only way I can do that is to have people like and buy my books, but they must be able to understand them first.
I love reading! When I was young I couldn't read very well, so I hated it, but I got better at it. When I was a freshman in highschool my sister told me to read the Harry Potter books, and that is when I fell in love with reading. And I have not been able to catch up ever since. There are too many books and not enough time to read them, so what is the point in reading books I don't like when I can read the ones that I do like. When I was a junior in highschool I started reading the Grapes of Wrath. When I got at least 100 pages into it the only things I could remember were something about a hitch hiker and something about a turtle so I quit reading it because I didn't think it was worth my time to read a book I didn't like.
Ok, so enough of my ranting and defending, well, not that I did much defending, but I will get there. Here are some of my favorite books and authors of the YA genre, in no particular order.
Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
Fallen series by Lauren Kate
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater
The Dark Divine series by Bree Despain
As You Wish by Jackson Peace (you should all check out her blog by the way http://www.jacksonpearce.com/)
The House of Night series by Kristen and PC Cast
Evernight series by Claudia Grey
Night World series by LJ Smith
Dark Visions by LJ Smith
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Beastly by Alec Flinn
and the list just goes on

Now for the defending part of my blog. I really don't understand why people who think they are intellectuals or even so many other people think YA is a terrible genre, I really don't. If anyone can honestly tell me, like really give me a legitamit answer to why YA are such terrible books please let me know. Even though I couldnt give a rats ass because that is what I like to read and that is what I plan on writing for the rest of my life.
When I read a YA book, which they tend to all be mostly series, I love it. I get into the story deeply and really care about the characters so much so that I cry when they cry or root for one certain guy in a love triangle and so many other things you would not believe. These authors fill these books with their whole heart and soul and it really shows. Yes these books may be meant for a teen audience but have you ever seen a twilight mom? OMG! do they love their Edward.
By the way, Jackson Pearce says it perfectly when she defends the YA genre in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC7BRavnPWg
So anyway, to sum this all up, I love reading YA books and I am not going to stop anytime soon. I would really like to know your feelings on the matter. You can tell me what you like reading and why you like reading what you like. So leave it all in the comments. Thank you and goodnight!