Friday, April 24, 2015

Writing Sketches


      I like drawing sketches of people. With words. Because I am really horrible at drawing I like writing better, and it's fun to try and describe someone with words. For example... I'll give you a writing sketch of my sister.

       "She dances, out of step with the music but it's beautiful anyway. Cause she doesn't care. Doesn't care who watches or what people think. The day will come when she will, but now is not that day. Right now, it's just her and I in our room, me watching her dance in the small circle of light. She doesn't dance to an exact genre, it's not tap or ballet, it's just her dance. And that makes it even more beautiful to me. It's not some ballet steps that she rehearsed so many times beforehand, but it's just her letting the music flow through her. Like the way I write when I listen to music, or sing along, that's my way of expressing that feeling that music gives us. Her way is dancing, flowing along with the music, twirling a scarf or just dancing crazily around our room. Sometimes she dances slowly, using one of my scarves to twirl around. If she's happy, she'll dance around with her stuffed bear and sing loudly, sometimes ignoring the real words of the song and making up her own. And sometimes, she'll throw a couple cartwheels into this dance that neither her nor I have ever seen before. It makes me feel happy, just watching her dance around in our room, while I am writing on my computer. It's one of those quiet moments, the ones that photographers try so hard to capture, but they can't. Some things are just for those who experience them. And this, this is one of those things. I know when we're both old and in a nursing home or something, I'll look over at my sister and say, "Do you remember when you would dance around our room?" Her eyes will probably look dreamy and she might start doing it again. One thing I can not see is my sister not dancing. Whatever bad things happen in this world, I know I can always run into our room and see her dancing to whatever music I have playing." 

     Stuff like that, that would be my writing sketch. If something impacts me, you'll find something like that in my notebook or in a word doc on my computer. Well, that's about it for today! If I find something else I think I should write about, I shall update on here!

'Till next time!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Little Reminders Everywhere


            Pens. A writer's tool, a writer's friend. I wear pens actually, always keep them behind my ear, in case a plot bunny attacks me. Which happens sometimes... still have some bruises from the one last week. I love getting asked "Why do you wear a pen?" and then I get to say (I never get tired of saying this) "'Cause, I'm an author." It feels so good to say that! I'm. An. Author! All of you writers out there say that with me right now. "I. AM. AN. AUTHOR!"

          Doesn't that feel awesome? To say that? It always makes me smile. That's why I wear my pen, because it's this little reminder for me. Its weight is saying "You're an author." That, that makes me happy. Really happy. Plus, they're good for whacking siblings with, but they're mostly for writing ideas (or are they?).

         Also, I love mugs. I love the warm cozy feeling of a mug in my hand. I love what's inside the mug. I had Vanilla Chai this morning (Thanks Mom for sharing! Thanks Aunt Julie for bringing 'em over here!) and it was delicious. Seriously, you have got to try Vanilla Chai. Go make some before you read the rest of this post, I'll wait for you. Ok, good? You have your chai now? Alright, let's continue...

     Something about mugs though, and pens, and both of those feelings mixed is reminding me "Hey. You're an author. You're good at this." Who doesn't love that feeling? That you're doing what you love and it's good! It's that wonderful feeling you get when you get an email or a reply to a chapter and it might just be a couple words, but it's saying "You did good."

         I've started saying this a couple times a day, when I feel like my writing is crud and I'm never gonna make it out there with all those other books, "I'm an author. I'm still a beginner, BUT I'm an author." Just because I'm not the next Tolkien now, doesn't mean I won't be able to publish a book in four years. I can do this. I am an author. And if you write, you're one too. So let's get out there and kick some words' behinds! I'll get the pens, you get the Vanilla Chai, we'll meet later by the tree out back okay? See you then.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Struggling To Swim Across the 40K Ocean

        Hello again everyone! I believe I told you that I was doing Camp NaNoWriMo in my first post, if you forgot, or haven't read it yet, here's the link: I'm Back. So, I was trying to reach 50K, but a lot of stuff happened. Probably the most important event was that my aunt and cousin came to see us for a week! We live overseas so we don't get to see family much so that was a HUGE surprise. And sadly, my writing lacked that week...

         Hence that, I have changed my word count goal to 40k, and I don't even know if I'm going to be able to make that. I hope so, and I'm writing as fast as these fingers can go, but it's hard. I knew that when I signed up for it, so I need to suck it up and get writing. Thanks to all you lovely people who continue to motivate me to keep on writing!:)

         At the moment, I am warding off writers block and trying not to run after plot bunnies. I've got a pen for a sword and my rough draft for a shield. It's fun, but it's challenging. I'm swimming across an ocean and I don't know how wide it is, still avoiding the word count shark, though it did almost bite me the other day... Gotta go! Novels don't write themselves (unless there's a novel writing tree I don't know about...)

Oh! Before I go, there's a challenge over at my friend's blog, here's the link: The Challenge. I'm hoping to finish my entry by Wednesday, so watch for me over there. I think that's it...

Until next time!

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Stepping Into My Book World


         Well, as many of you people know I am an author. I haven't published a book yet, but I am getting pretty close, still finding my footing on the mountain that we call "Life". Today, I thought I'd introduce you to some of my characters in my second book (not a sequel).

        First off, we have my protagonist, Kao. Kao is an Elenien, if you roughly translate it into English it means "elf". But Kao is much different than normal elves that we hear about. First off, he's only a foot tall, and he has long, bright red hair down to his shins. He's a prince and one day, the secret of his kingdom is passed onto him but he doesn't want to keep it a secret anymore. He wants to figure out if the common people should know about the portals into other worlds, other opportunities. He goes on this quest for knowledge and enlightenment with a dryad that he meets. Who's name is Tristan.

          Tristan looks kind of like how you would expect a martian to look. He is two feet tall with green metallic colored skin. He has the biggest light green eyes and dark green hair that is always getting in his face. He wears brown pants and a silver cross necklace (that he found in a cathedral). Tristan is my "anti hero" and he's a lot of fun to write. He doesn't like Kao at first, but then he grows to look up to him like an older brother.

       Here's a snippet of their first meeting:

        
He kept watching the large star that would lead him to the river, where he could run upstream and hopefully find the merfolk. If he could figure out how to get into the portals, he could see what it was like out there. See if it really wasn’t safe for the common people. The star twinkled in the night sky, almost as if it was winking at him. Kao smiled softly, and continued running in the night. Maybe a couple more nights of this, he mused, and then he would reach the river. He could just jump right in the portal, that was what he wanted to do, that was what he felt like he should do. But he needed to know a little bit about the unknown. Only a couple days, no more, he thought, then he would embark on the journey to find the other realms. And hopefully he wouldn’t get caught along the way.

“Hello, hello, hello, what’s all this then?” He heard a voice behind him.

Kreth, he thought, I’m gonna be caught before it even starts. He slowly turned around, trying to keep his head low and wishing that his hair didn’t look so darn red in the light. What he saw, thank goodness, was not a guard but a Dryad. But he had never seen a dryad like this before. He had dark green hair, but instead of being kept short and orderly like most Dryad’s, it was long and hung over his eyes. Just barely touching his nose, then it stopped. He also had a posture much different than normal Dryads, he leaned against the tree with his arms crossed, smirking.

“I should ask you the same.” He kept his head low, trying to talk with respect.

“I’m an angel, you go first.” The Dryad tossed his head, making his hair not quite so over his eyes and Kao caught a glimpse of the greenest eyes he had ever seen.

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.” Kao really didn’t like this guy. Not at all, he didn’t care that he was a dryad. Didn’t care that he was like an “angel” to his people. No, he was just majorly ticked off that this kid, younger than him, could talk to him like that.

The Dryad smirked again, it seemed to be a permanent expression on his face, Kao thought. “I’m no stranger. I’m a dryad.”

“Don’t care that you’re a flippin’ dryad. I don’t just go around giving out my name to whatever person thinks they want to know. So get out. I’ve better things to do then sit around and talk to you.” Kao was gritting his teeth now.

“Touchy, are we?” The Dryad said, “All I asked was a question. But no, apparently we don’t get any respect anymore…”

“I don’t respect people like you.” Kao sneered, “Get out!”

The Dryad moved over until he was standing right over Kao, and he was twice his size. The smirk was gone now, and he looked mad. “You better.” He lowered his voice, “Kao, heir to the throne of Niadra.”

Kao cursed under his breath, “What do you want?”

“I just want to know how a small little Elenien got lost in the big bad forest.”

“Kid, I’m older than you. Watch who you call small. And my business is mine, and mine alone. Not some Dryad kid who thinks he’s seen it all.” Kao drew a knife silently, hoping he wouldn’t have to fight.

The Dryad leaned down and whispered, “Oh. It’s mine now.”

“Kid, don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, just leave me alone.” He held his knife up in the moonlight and carefully spoke, annunciating every syllable. “Go. Home. Now.”

“Not a chance, and my name’s Tristan.” He clenches his leaf life hands and lowers his head, concentrating.  Then a branch and a vine started floating towards him and a rock, which was very sharp, I might add. And it slowly came together and Kao watched as the vine tied the rock to the branch and it became a knife. Well, a clumsy knife, but a knife all the same.

“Nice trick, kid. What else you got?” Kao was the one smirking now. The Dryad wasn’t smiling, he looked mad.

“I said ‘I’m not a kid!’ My name is Tristan!” He jumped at Kao, with his clumsy knife in hand and their blades crossed. Tristan had an advantage, being twice the size of Kao. But Kao had been training with a knife since he was born. He was no stranger to swordsmanship. Their knives clashed again as they continued swinging and ducking the other’s blows. Kao was getting ticked off, this kid just didn’t know when to give up. Finally, when their knives clashed, again, Kao kicked Tristan in the shins, causing him to drop his knife.  

“Cheater!” He shouted, holding on to his shin.

“Never set the rules.” Kao began to walk away.

“Wait! Let me go with you! I’m good at a lot of things!” Tristan said, pleading.

“Why would you want to go with me?” Kao said.

“I’ve got nothing to lose, and it looks like you’re going on an adventure. I can help you.” Tristan said.

“You can eh?” Kao smirked.

“Yea. Plus I mean, no one here cares, I’m the outcast Dryad.” Tristan said, “Tristan Skylar, the black sheep.”

Kao softened a bit, maybe the kid could help him. “Alright, come on.” Tristan smirked, the child that Kao glimpsed gone, “Told ya, your business is mine.”

Well, that was kind of long, but I had to put all of it, it was just too good not to! I hope you like it!:) Please leave a comment, I would greatly appreciate that. Just five minutes of your time to tell me what you thought and you make 24 hours of my day awesome. It's a win-win!:)


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The Story Behind The Name

      Well, tada! Mom remembered the password, (finally...) It took some serious brain racking to get it out of there. But hey, at least she remembered the dang thing. But I thought I might give you a bit of insight as to why I named my blog "singingtothesea.blogspot.com"

         It's actually a shout out to one of my first poems that my dad posted to FaceBook. Us as people find release by writing, dancing, singing, drawing, painting, playing music, etc. Something that calms me is singing out into the ocean, because I can't hear myself, so it doesn't matter how I sound, the wind just carries it away. And I can sing as loud as I possibly can and no one will look at me weird, unless of course, they're beside me. But point is, it's extremely relaxing. Here is is:

  "Singing To The Sea"

I sang out into the sea wind today
It didn’t care how I sounded
I sang to roaring foam as it pounded
I sang all my songs to the roaring waves

I sang out to the sand this morning
I sang loud and I sang clear
I sang about spring coming near
I sang songs of joy, songs of warning

I sang out to gulls today
They answered with their cries
They didn’t care if I sang too high
They were so busy diving where the ocean floor lays

I won’t sing to a camera, I won’t sing for you
But I’ll sing along with the ocean waves
Pounding and foaming and roaring and raving
I’ll sing for the ocean’s hues.

I went out to the sea today
I went out to sing all my songs
To empty my heart at the top of my lungs
I went out to sing to the sea today

Monday, April 13, 2015

I'm Back!

      Hello, all you wonderful people who read my blog! I am so sorry for my absence, it's a long story... One that involves a computer filter, my mother, and forgotten passwords. In fact, my filter still blocks my blog but I can edit it and write new posts (just found that out...) but I can not see my blog. It's quite annoying.

        Hopefully soon, the password will show up in my mother's mind and I will be able to unblock my blog... I still don't get why my computer filter blocked it. But, anyways, I shall hope to get back to you later on the "Story of How Mom Remembered My Password".

        Anyways, enough on my computer's odd habits... I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month! Basically, I am trying to write the rough draft of my novel in a month! Crazy? Yea, oh yea, it's crazy... I might be slightly out of my mind, I might be swimming in some really deep waters. Hopefully the word count shark won't get me. Right now, I am 5k behind, but, I can still make it.

       I have friends who are pushing me to get the word count in and I have awesome characters who's story needs to be written. We shall win this!