What? Really? grawwrrr (frustration sound)

Ever sit down to write an idea you’ve had for a really long time and then halfway through it realize that it’s from a perspective that you never intended and then while you’re halfway through deleting it and fixing it however way you thought to should be realize that the first way was the right way because of a flaw you figured out a long time ago?

Just me? Darn.

That’s exactly what happened to me not long ago today. I’m sitting writing more of the uncharted territory and kind of getting into it when I think to myself, “this part isn’t supposed to happen here. These characters need to be in the other person’s house. Then I fix it and start writing from another person’s perspective and then realize there is a huge gaping flaw if I write it from that person’s house. So I have to move everyone back to the original location 700 miles away.

Facepalm.

Has anyone out there ever found themselves in that type of situation where you think you messed up fixed it mostly and then realized the other way was much better and how you really intended it?

Not Over You...Ever.

Hey, it's Heather. Thought I'd make my first post on here to help JoBeth out.

So, I’ve been becoming more and more nostalgic for some time now. I don’t know what happened but something clicked in my mind that I want to be a child again. To run through the forest with my brother, neighbors and cousins, discover Star Wars for the first time and try to lift a stick with the Force with my brother (you can guess how that worked out for us), feel the magic in sunbeams filtering through leaves, make one way paths in the snow by myself in the forest captured with my first real camera (that I still have), and so much, so much more. But I think the big reason I miss my childhood is my Grandma.

I want to hang out with her so badly it’s sickening. I want to cook things that turn out horribly with her. But I know it’s not going to happen. I’m going back to my home town again and I’m going to see her. Well, where she’s at. I don’t know how I’m going to handle that. I am so sorry I couldn’t come out when it happened. I’m sorry about not calling for months beforehand. I’m sorry you couldn’t hear we finally picked a day. You were my first inspiration. You always supported me even when my father didn’t think I should be. I think you did it in spite of him at times. I still miss you and I don’t think I will ever get over this empty feeling that I never got to say goodbye. I’ll be there on Saturday or Sunday, but it won’t be the same.

As soon as she found out my love of reading she got me hooked on some pretty crazy (and awesome) books. She even gave me the courage to get out of my little box and try other books out just to see how they fit. She had a knack of making things up as she went along, especially when cooking and baking.

This one time she decided daddy needed a cake. Apparently his favorite was checkered cake (as luck would have it she had the molding pan!) As we made the batter (by hand, of course) she insisted it needed more and more flour. It tasted great as a batter so I didn’t argue (and I was like 10 so I didn’t argue with adults anyway).

When I got it home and presented it to daddy he laughed and said that was one of his brother’s favorite but took a piece anyway. It was so dry and not sweet that it got thrown out.

Why is it that little mishaps like that make up the best times in nostalgic memory. I have tons of those with her and I’ll never get them back. I just hope I can have that kind of fun with my niece.

Writer’s block broken!

I had the hardest time over the past five or so days getting back into my second addition. With the first I had already written the vast majority of it. It was mostly typing it up, making it look pretty, and adding a few chapters that I never thought of before. (I mean what good is a ten chapter book?)

This second addition had been far harder. I’m in charted territory. I only know where it’s going to end up. I just have to get there because I already have the third section charted out.

I decided that an outline would be a good idea but that only got me so far. The tediousness of the details of getting to what I consider the good parts is hard on me and for some reason I get bored with them and then depressed that I might bore my reader with them.

But then the sun comes out and I’m granted a fresh light to look at those chapters with and then BOOM! I’m off to the races typing as many characters into words as I can.

Success Through Trying

Hi, It's Heather again

I got some good advice randomly from my boss on Friday. I thought about it all weekend really. “The only way to succeed is to try.” What have I got to lose by submitting my work through that website earlier than when my best friend finishes my book? She was hooked by the first three chapters so why not?

Now, I do understand that I will have some rejection letters coming my way, and why shouldn’t they have their own opinions? I encourage helpful criticisms. Anything that would help to improve my writing I welcome as a learning experience. Anyway I see each “failure” as an opportunity to try and try again. Some of those publishers won’t even think my material is worth them publishing or even in the same category.

I think I will start a subscription to that website at the end of the month. The sooner I do it the sooner the process will be over.

The beginning is a good spot.

So, I haven't has a blog since I was in high school and that was short lived. What with school, homework, friends, swimming and reading I never saw the point after I had established it. Oh, I should also mention that I was also writing on and off throughout that time also, which brings me to the point of this blog.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone arrived in my home after my aunt gave it to my brother for Christmas the year it hit the shelves. Rather than love the book my brother simply said it was okay and passed it to me. I took to the pages like they were a long lost friend. I could not stop reading it! (My mother even preordered the rest of the books. THANK YOU, MOM!!) Jo Rowling's imagination and my teacher's insistence on a journal in class started my writing frenzy.

The next year (with the same English teacher) began my creation of Isabella. Little did I know that she would morph into a legacy. Every week I would write another chapter in the series that had my teacher wanting more. I still have that journal. I later rewrote it in another notebook where Isabella took more dramatic and mature turns than my 8th grade mind could have imagined.

Today my first book is completed and waiting to be read by my best friend to give me the confidence to subscribe to a publishing website. Anticipation of her finishing the next two chapters before sending her another section is excruciating. So, I thought I would pass the time between my full-time job and writing the second installment to post here for new, young and old writers and other Nerd Fighters to gain the confidence that I desperately wanted and needed back when I first imagined Isabella.