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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