Friday, January 1, 2016

The First: A Special Post



By “special” in the title, I mean I get to ramble about myself and the next year and the past year without really doing any sort of good for you.
Wait don’t leave!
I’ve got something really special at the end for you. So if you don’t like recaps or personal blurbs, skip down there (to the heading “Introducing…”

One year.
That’s right; this blog has been a thing [to put it quite poetically] for a year now.
I’m sorry.
And at the same time, it’s been a great year. For me, at least, it’s been a great year. I hope your year wasn’t too shabby, either. Never good to have a shabby year.
If you like links, the next part is for you. If you don’t like links, skip down a section.

A Look Back


Over the past year I’ve talked about… a lot of things. From minor villains near the beginning of my journey to mental illnesses  there near the farther half of the middle of the year (that is to say, in May), I held a Short Story Contest back in July and had some fantastic entries:


I’ve talked about Worldbuilding quite a bit, from the vague “why” and “how” to more specific ideas, such as Governments, Religions, and even Worldbuilding too much.
There was, of course, that unnecessarily long series about plots back in November, and more recently a pair of posts about familyin novels.

I like to think it was a pretty great year, when it came to this thing. I think I posted late once, which is quite the record, for me. Well, not a record in blog-posting, but in being late only once.


In Which I’m Sentimental about Myself

(That is to say, egocentric.)


If you like hear about people, this section is for you. If not, skip down to the next one. It’s the actually important one, I think. Maybe not, we’ll see.

This year has been great, for me. I’ve kept busy in my writing life and in life in general.
From taking the ACT (twice) to starting my senior year in high school (also do things like college classes because who doesn’t want to do Calculus their senior year, right?) to looking at colleges and hunting down scholarships.

I managed to fit in quite a bit of writing this year: my tally for this year is just under 300,000 words. That means that in the last two years (which could be considered the two years I most seriously wrote novels in the hopes of publishing someday), I’ve about 600,000 words. I’m quite proud of that number; even if it’s only got one comma in it (I use this narcissist sentence with sarcasm).

The first portion of the year was dedicated to a novella about a girl with a cute dragon. After I finished that (which took far longer than it should have), I put my steampunk-dystopian brainchild Asher’s Song through four drafts (it was my NaNoWriMo novel last year) and entered it into the One Year Adventure Novel student Contest. 

Meanwhile I began work for, and started, my brainchild of brainchilds (that is to say, I feel it’s my most precious idea) Agram Awakens. It hit the 100,000-word mark two days before the New Year.
The year began to come to a close with the writing of my time-travel satire Barnslow Died which became my second NaNoWriMo novel to stretch to completion. 

In addition I wrote short stories, started other novels and put them on hold, wrote blog posts (a feat you can witness and are witnessing at this moment), and poked around at the idea of poetry (none of which anyone will ever see, if I have my way). 

All this writing I squeezed into my schedule of Theatre and school and working construction (which, by the way, is the quickest way to build muscles and get a tan simultaneously).

It’s been a great year. Something tells me (that is, a future of college tells me) that next year won’t be the same. I doubt I’ll hit 300,000 words again for… quite some time. Maybe four years, maybe six. Who knows, maybe some summer I’ll sit in my room for fourteen hours a day and write like crazy.
Or… maybe not.
Regardless, I hope to keep writing. Rough drafts in the summers and editing during the school year. While writing isn’t going to be the focus of my college learning (Chemical Engineering is), I hope to take some Creative Writing classes. Huzzah for electives, right?

Above all that, I hope to keep writing this blog. It’s a nice thing, if rather repetitive at times and rather unprofessional looking in others. Someday I’ll buy my own URL and actually get a cool background that isn’t a template.
Someday.
Until then, this is a rather happy place, a place to come sit by the fire when you’re cold and weary and listen to the pealing of hammers. Hopefully it’s a place you can learn and enjoy yourself as you read what I like to think I know about the writing craft.

Have a seat, stay a while.
After all, this next part is where it gets good.

Introducing: Blips and Stuff


This is the section you should actually read, because stuff. All right?
Good.

I’m going to make a few changes about this blog, this year.
I still plan to ramble on and on in posts on Friday. That won’t change for a while (in August I may switch to Saturdays in order to keep up with school schedules as necessary).
However, I am adding a few things.
First things first. Or… least important things first. Remember a long, long time ago where I wrote this very random and out-of-the-blue book review? Yeah, that one, about Fallen Angels? Well, I’d like to do more of those. Spice it up a little.
So, starting in March (because my posts are booked until March) I’ll be posting one review (of either a book or movie, depending on what I feel like that month) per month. Probably on the third week or something. Maybe the first or second or fourth instead. Definitely not the fifth Friday, though. I like consistency, you know.


Now that that’s over with, I have an important announcement. Who knows, it might change your life. Maybe.

I’m going to start post on Mondays. 

[This is where you start gasping in disbelief and rioting until I calm you with a raised hand… now. Shhhh.]

These posts, however, will be short. Shorter, probably, than the main posts on Friday.
I’ve got two specific themes for these posts (which I’m affectionately calling Blips) which I hope to maintain. If we’re lucky, I’ll be able to keep up these Blips and my main posts even during the school year. We’ll see.
Until then, I give you:




Yup, that’s right.
I’m slapping a strange font on a white background and calling it a thing.

Basically, the two themes will alternate. So this Monday I’ll have a Prose Blip, then a World Blip the next Monday, then a Prose Blip, then a World Blip, and so on.

These posts will be short and to the point and very, very subjective.
Quite literally, I will present my opinion on a given topic related to either Prose or Worlds and then let you shake your fist in disagreement. 

Some of these topics will include:

-For Prose Blips
     ~Humor
     ~Irony
     ~Dialogue tags
     ~Describing People and Places
     ~Unspoken Dialogue
     ~Symbols and Hidden Meanings
     ~And more clever things

-For World Blips
     ~Clothing in Sci-fi and Fantasy
     ~Languages
     ~Geography
     ~Education
     ~Currency
     ~And more less-clever things

Here’s the part where I need you. Yes, you.
I need ideas.
I’ve got a few ideas for these posts, obviously, but I need more.
So, if you have a specific area of prose or world you feel I need to have an opinion on, leave a comment, shoot me an email, or throw poisonous darts at me. The more ideas the better.

That’s all I got. Yes, this is a lame ending. But hey, it’s 2016, we’re all getting into our groove again, right?
Okay, that’s a lame excuse.
But leave a comment with your ideas for Prose or World Blips! I’d love to hear what you have to say!

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