IT'S DONE!

Well hey guys! My TED talk is finally over, and to be honest, I could not be happier right now. Over the past few days, I
I was informed by a bunch of people in my class that I'm supposed to grade myself here, using the rubric etc and then give myself a grade out of thirty. First, I don't really like that idea, I mean I feel really uncomfortable giving myself a good grade, but to be honest, I really feel like I put in a ton of work, and did really well.  So I figured since I am going to do so, I should probably explain myself.

First, my talk was 4-5 mins. in length, so woohoo! In addition, I had a great visual aid, a Prezi, that I
worked really hard on. I wanted to make sure that it flowed smoothly and had everything that I needed on it. The Prezi had to be edited afterwards to fit with my script, and it took a really long time to work out all of the kinks. All in all, I was really proud of it in the end, and it turned out well.
Speaking of script, during my talk, I didn't just focus on my project itself. Instead, I had a bigger purpose to the talk, giving the audience something to take away from it. I had an interesting hook/ conclusion that sought to engage the audience.

I practiced this talk for several days over break and this week so that I was very comfortable with the subject material. By the time I was actually due to present, I had memorized pretty much all of it. Because of this, I was able to present with confidence and eye contact (despite harsh lighting from the stage... blank faces much?). I also did not rely on crutch words, and stumbled only once or twice.

Now to review based on the "Ted Commandments"
(Whoever wrote these is actually the greatest. Seriously, they are freaking awesome. (I can say freaking can't I????))

1.This TED talk was much different from my "usual schtick" in that it was serious, but I was passionate about what I was saying. I had lived the experience and therefore gave a superior, more intellectual reflection on the process than I would normally.
2. In addition, the idea that passion is key in achieving goals was a "wondrous thing (or in this case idea) that I showed to the audience. The talk allowed me to not just tell them, but show them as well.
3. I explained my passion for writing and explained it several times over.
4. In addition, I told the story of my progress and how it was accomplished in both times of good ideas and bad (aka awful).
5. I found that this was not necessary for me to do, as it did not fit in with the context of my speech.
6. I expressed my failure, and fluffed the audience's ego up during the talk, not my own.
7. I didn't sell from the stage at all. Clearly, I want too avoid that whole "utter darkness" thing...(However, you know if you want to give me money now, I'm not complaining.)
8. My speech, while serious quite often, was also lighthearted at times, especially in the beginning.
9. I had practiced dozens of times, and so posture and eye contact were not that hard to maintain.
10. My speech was within time requirements I believe.

Overall, I am proud of the work I did, and I have received much positive feedback from fellow peers, most of whom were not prompted or bribed. Kidding. ;)

Judging from the rubric and my own belief, I think I deserve a 27.5-28/30
I hope this explanation provided insight, because I swear I am not just giving myself an A. Thanks! :)

Some More Advice

As many of you may know, I'm not one to sugar coat things, and if I like you, I'll probably make fun of you. A lot. Don't take offense to it, it happens to everyone. However, I've found that being nice to people, especially the ones that you don't know, can get you far. Just something to think about, and remember.
Okay, back to business! I can tell you straight up, The Stephanie Plum series is a must read. Also, YOU WILL NOT SEE MY BOOK DRAFTS. YET. At my TED Talk, I will bring in my "final product" but I beleive that until this book is finito, I will not have the true copy of what this will look like. It is for that reason that I have not published my book online as I had planned. Instead, I will offer you a glimpse of it... Maybe. What I can promise you is... MY TED TALK! Below is a script of what i will say, and pictures of the final cover and story map for my book. Thanks for reading, this has been incredible, and I will continue to update over time. Also, I'll try not to eat as much pie. Oh, and Happy Easter (and a not so happy passover, am I right? Like, WHERE IS THE BREAD? Stupid matzo(h)?)

TED TALK:
First, I will play this video:


My Ted Talk Video from Ally Abramson on Vimeo.
Then... the magic begins! 

We all have high expectations for ourselves. When we were little we all wanted to become a sort of superman, someone who helps others or does incredible things such as become a spy. As we get older, our goals become more realistic, but we also gain ambition and purpose.  

Over the past few weeks, I have found that anyone can accomplish their goals, to win a race, to become a doctor, to pass their finals.

You see, there are three things that must occur in order for someone to successfully accomplish their goals. These three things are as follows:

Number one: The process of achieving the goal must be interesting. If the process is not interesting, it will become tedious and eventually discourage someone from moving forward, pushing themselves toward success.

Number Two: The process can not be too difficult. If it becomes too much for one person to handle, they might become discouraged and give up on their dream.

Number Three: The end result must be fun, enjoyable for the person who has created it. After all, there is no point in reaching a goal if the goal does not benefit the person in some way, (unless it is to help others).

The steps of goal achievement can be daunting, thats for sure. However, I have found that with one single quality, anything is possible. That quality is passion, If you find passion within yourself towards your goals, you can complete them. 

Passion causes self motivation, self motivation gives you drive, it makes you work hard, and it because of this self imposed hard work that the three aspects to finding success are possible in one person.

Recently, I was assigned an amazing project. I was told to think of my goals, find my passions, and follow through with them. This project, the Genius Project gave me the push I needed to discover my passion, and complete my goals. I looked to myself and I found that I had passion for writing. Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with reading. I would read all the time, day and night, and it really influenced my actions and daily life. As I grew up, I wanted to influence other people in the way that other authors had before me, and so I took to writing my own stories, expressing my passion.

Without passion, the process of writing a book could have been daunting, but I was given a push to move forward by my personal love of writing, and incredible influence to move forward. I began to take this project seriously, I made a timeline of what I wanted to do and when, and I followed through. First, I did a little research on writing and editing books to lay a foundation on which to build. Then I created profiles of the main characters to fully understand them. This made it easier to write their reactions to the situations around them. I then figured out the style of the book, and created a cover and made an in depth story outline. Lastly, I wrote and edited the story dozens of times over, getting the opinions of others and rewriting everything. Overall, the multiple step process was hard work, but I found that it was worht it. I was finally realizing my true potential as bota  writer and a person, and my passion for writing became even greater.

I want you to think about something that you have passion for. You don’t have to be incredible at it, in fact, you don’t even really have to be good at it. Now think of a goal that you want to accomplish that deals with that. You might think it is impossible, but it isn’t. As long as you have passion in what you do, everything else will fall into place. 

During the presentation of my TED talk, I will use this Prezi that I have created. 

http://prezi.com/hgcl9yxojvyv/ted-talk-aid/

Now that I have finished with all of the things I was supposed to do, I am looking for volunteers who would like to continue to edit my story. If you would like a copy to edit or read, please email me at beary1021@yahoo.com or thisisforschool11.12@gmail.com (SO CREATIVE RIGHT?) 

Oh, and one more thing! I know a lot of you still have yet to present, so here is a few sites that helped me practice confidence and speech giving. Good luck!

http://www.presentation-pointers.com/showarticle/articleid/92/ For if you are having trouble identifying the audience and what they would like to hear/how to present it to them.

http://www.hightech-women.com/presenting.html Although the title boats confidence inspiring tips, the article is much more and provides tips on improving overall, through speech inflection, voice, and even posture.

The Best Advice

Through the process that I've encountered this week, I learned something. What I learned is something that will stay with me for a long time, hopefully throughout my career as a writer. All that I really know is that by writing it here, maybe I won't forget it. 

First, don't eat an entire pie. Bad idea. Even if it's key lime, and ESPECIALLY if it is chocolate peanut butter. Each are beyond amazing, but come on. You can't do it. 

Secondly I learned that it is up to you to find inspiration. The things you surround yourself with give you drive and effect what you WANT to write about. When writing something, it is important to surround your work with the influence of similar novels and movies, anything along the same page of what you are writing. That way, ybegin to develop ideas that are similar to these influences and you can gain inspiration. In addition, a previous source that I read said that it was okay to borrow ideas from other writers, it's a cycle really. This means that when others write, it is expected that people may have similar ideas who will then look to that book and get inspiration. By looking at other similar works, you can better yourself and your story. By bettering the story you can aid others like previous authors did you, a main goal of mine in this project.  This week I have finished my story and it is being edited. I'm really proud of it so far, and I know that even when this is all over. I will look to continue writing. By the next blog post I will hope to have my story edited so that I may add the finishing touches . If you return to this blog, you will find the final draft of my story in a new page, entitled, well I don't know yet. As I begin to prepare my Ted talk ive looked to my fellow peers for advice and we found several resources to aid in the process of doing a Ted talk. The following: http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com/w/page/23101042/How%20to%20%22Do%22%20a%20TED%20Talk is a comprehensive list of several materials that I have found helpful. However, in the process of creating my Ted  talk I have relied heavily on my own creative will and I am glad to say that it has paid off. My final blog post will include my presentation aid, a script of my talk, and a video of my completing it. Thanks for reading! :) Also, I can't figure out how to fix the font on this... sorry! 

Hey Look At This Cool Person...

MY VLOG IS AMAZING. MY HAIR...NOT SO MUCH from Ally Abramson on Vimeo.

Hey guys look!!

I FEEL LIKE DOC BROWN

IT'S HAPPENING! I HAVE AN IDEA AND I AM ROLLING WITH IT! I STARTED THE STORY DRAFT OH MY GOSH IT'S HAPPENING TO ME! BE HAPPY FOR ME! I MEAN OH, YAY!

HEY LOOKIT!

So as you probably know I've been using the website goodreads for a while now. (If you don't know, it's on the side bar and I talk about it all the time... http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15185462-ally and you should join it.) On that site is a bunch of giveaways that you can enter for books, along with other cool things, but come on, free stuff? Hello, AWESOME. Anyway... I WON! THREE TIMES! And I've gotten all three books in the mail as of today! Woohoo!

Flow... Oh how wonderful this story is not.

I HATE WRITING!!!!!! IT'S SO DIFFICULT! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO WRITE ANYMORE. GEEZ, I MEAN SURE I CAN OUTLINE BUT ACTUALLY WRITING? ESPECIALLY A CRIME NOVEL. WHAT THE HELL DID I GET MYSELF INTO WITH THIS?

I mean, hi. As you can see, I'm a bit frustrated with this process... Not for lack of trying FYI. I've been reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich for inspiration, or rather I was at the beginning. Now I'm just reading them because they are amazing... but in all seriousness they help a little. In addition, I've been reading some websites online from bloggers and authors. What I'm trying to say is basically, I'm a desperate fool in terms of writing a book. It's like I have all of these ideas in my head and I can put the vague premise down on paper, but once it comes to actually writing? BOOM! Nothing.
So obviously I took to the internet to help me, because, why not? The internet=everything. Someone out there was bound to have the same problem as me!
So I mean, I guess I have what could be called writer's block. Or some form of that... Maybe? I don't know it's annoying though I can tell you that.

The following sources had much information on writer's block, several ways to get over it and tips on how to write a novel that I found helpful. That is... until I started to write again. So I'm going to keep trying, but for now, I'll let you know when I've got pages for you. Until next time, I'll leave you with this: I hope you never get writer's block. It SUCKS royally.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/567/1/
http://flavorwire.com/343207/13-famous-writers-on-overcoming-writers-block
http://io9.com/5844988/the-10-types-of-writers-block-and-how-to-overcome-them
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

Heads Up!

More new blogs to check out on the page over there >>>>
Food, paintings, and music this week. Does it get any better? Well, not really. That would be the point of a rhetorical question. Anyways, I'm off to go read some Janet Evanovich books as inspiration (on #4 now, obsessed much? I'm worse than Brianna and One Direction!) and work on my story. Oh and one more thing, I'd be willing to put you in my story if you bring me cupcakes...

Well This Went Well... Maybe.

Dear Blogger, 

I can promise you, I am not a robot. If I was, I wouldn't have to wake up every morning at 5:30 to get ready for school, two hours later. So, you can stop asking. Okay? Especially since those little words in the boxes are not legible. AT ALL. 

This week, I had several goals to accomplish. The goals I have for myself are only getting harder, and this is so not appreciated At times, I wonder if I can do this. Then I get random ideas and I think I'll be fine. It's a cycle that I'm not loving. I just wish all of this plotting and story lining etc. would just be done, but I actually have to write it and think of my ideas. Turns out, being creative and organized at the same time is a lot more difficult than it seems. For this week, I began writing my story outline and I planned on finishing the entire thing. What I found was that the process I mapped out was not going to work.  
This week I completed the following,

•  Style of the book, chapters, sections, etc.

My book will have several chapters, as you already know. At the beginning of every few chapters, there will be a newspaper article, similar to the one on the cover, that details the latest crime. This will allow me to introduce each crime nicely without interfering with the flow of the story. I think I'm going to write in first person. 

• Title the story and design a cover for it.

This story is about a journalist who is down on her luck. When she witnesses a crime first hand, she becomes thrown into the spotlight and the investigation. 

Since this is about a journalist, I have decided that the cover will feature a newspaper article with the details on it.

Basically it will look like this:

At this point, I'd like to say that the title is a work in progress and I plan on changing it. A lot.

In addition I have changed the main characters name to Katie Lawson.

• Freak out about how unoriginal and bland this whole thing is, and struggle a lot with outline writing and delving deeper than an overall plot. Great.

So yeah, that was especially fun. Even though I had this awesome website (featured in my mini post below), which was both humorous and informative, the outlining process was a disorganized wreck. What I ended up with this week was a basic outline for chapter one, and a small draft of it. The worst part was that I could think up a million details for this story in different places, but none all together, or I could think of an entire scene that didn't really have a place yet.

So hey, if you want to read my draft or take a look at my outline, let me know (HELP ME)! 
Oh, and... Big thanks to Mr. Perlman who sent me this source: http://www.openculture.com/2013/03/seven_tips_from_william_faulkner_on_how_to_write_fiction.html
It backed up what I have been doing so far and gave me some tips on how to move forward with the writing process.

Check Out My Other Pages!

 

Hey guys! On the side of my blog, well hopefully, because that's where I WANT it to be, is a list of other pages on this blog. There are two so far, one about books I have read and reviewed and the other listing some other fun blogs to check out. You should check them out and see what I have to say, after all, you are here anyway so clearly you think I'm funny or intelligent or something. Anyway, in other news, book writing is going well so far, I am mapping out my storyline and I should begin writing very soon. Oh, and I found this website to help me with the process: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/09/14/25-ways-to-plot-plan-and-prep-your-story/ 

 

Now, as you probably have noticed, all of the websites and helpful guides that I put up have different options or several ways to go, for example this one provides 25 ways to plan a story. This is in fact done on purpose. As a writer it is not good to limit yourself to just one thing, that can only bind creativity. Each new method or experience will provide new insight to your personal writing style, story, or even your personality. I find it useful to have different options because it helps me organize the constant flow of ideas and amazingness floating around in my head. Um, also, is amazingness a real word? (Note: If not, GE, I made it up and I'm using it anyway so too bad.)

Ally, out.

Oh dear lord, sorry about that. That was awful.

Meet My New Best Friends, Or Rather, Worst Nightmares. We'll see...

Jesus. Being creative is hard. I don't know how long I'm going to last in the writing world if I have to do this much longer. I mean, I get all these ideas at the most inopportune moments. I'll be in my bed at like 12:45 sleeping, and all of the sudden I'll wake up with some genius idea that my brain couldn't wait  five hours to develop. Yesterday, I was sitting on the bus, half asleep with no paper in sight when I had the ideas for two of the major characters of the story. Oh, and during my biology test, I figured out how I am going to start off my TED talk. Although I appreciate the ideas, they truly couldn't be any more inconvenient. So, thanks brain, but you're on my list. Well, except for the whole keeping me alive thing. Anyway, I like that this process is easy for me, thinking of ideas etc. I just wish that these ideas didn't pop into my head in the middle of math class. Oh the struggles...

BIG NEWS! I have decided to direct my story to the mystery/thriller genre. 

As I said, I created character profiles. While the real story would include dozens of characters, I figured that the beginning would only include a few major ones. These profiles are subject of the beginning of the story, who knows what could happen? Except, oh wait! I DO! While I was creating characters, I wanted to get into as much detail as possible so that I really know my characters and how they will react to situations that occur in the plot. I found this website, http://www.squidoo.com/character-development-questions that helped me through this process. It lists multiple questions in each area of development and by thinking about these questions, I developed my characters even further. I got rid of some of them, as they weren't important to my story. Anyway, meet our main character, Charlie Kirland. I kid, I kid, that isn't really her name. Well, I hope not. The name is in progress right now...

BASICS: 

1. Name Charlie (Charlotte) Kirkland(SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
2. Age: 27
3. Approximate height: 5'5
4. Approximate weight? 135
5. Hair colour? Normally brown
6. Eye colour? Gray
7. Where are they from? Suburbs of Washington
8. Where are they now? New York

BACKSTORY: 

1. Who are their parents? Parents overprotective, annoying, overbearing, worried, don't approve of journalism career
2. What did they want to be when they grew up? An actress or a journalist
3. What did/do their parents want them to be? A Lawyer
4. Do they have siblings? Older or younger? Brothers or sisters? Nope, only child.
5. Do they or have ever had a significant other? Are they still with them? Why? Why not? Had a boyfriend, she asked him to move in after 6 years and he got freaked out
6. What were they doing right before the story starts? Just fired, out of work with no money
7. Up until now, what's the most noteworthy thing they've done? To them? To the people around them?high school valedictorian went to Oxford to get away from parents

TASTES:

1. What's your character's favourite colour? Teal
2. Do they/would they choose to wear a scent? What would it be? Men's cologne
3. Do they care about what things look like? All things, or only some? Used to care, not much any more because broke etc.
4. What's their favourite ice cream flavour? Moose Tracks
5. Are they a tea, or coffee drinker? Or soft drinks, or do they drink a lot of alcohol? What kind? Java chip frappacino with whipped cream and salted caramel every morning
6. What kind of books do they read? What TV shows and movies do they watch? Reads mysteries and celebrity biographies, also enjoys any book recommended by (...) the coffee shop guy, Watches Survivor (OBVIOUSLY!) and crime shows, especially Body Of Proof (Highly Recommended)
7. What kind of music do they like? Do they like music at all? Adam Lambert, Bon Jovi, and INXS
8. If they were about to die, what would they have as their last meal? (What the heck kind of question is this? No answer, this is so stupid. I mean, um, oh)

 So that you don't die of utter boredom, I'll stop there. The list goes on and on, but basically, the characters amounted to this: 
Meet Charlie Kirkland. With a name like that, her parents didn't really give her a shot. Charlie is an out of work journalist who can't exactly afford the New York City apartment she rents. In fact, the eviction notice on the front door seems to show that she can't afford it at all. Charlie is single, and miserable. She has hope still that her big break is coming, a feeling keeps nagging at her to keep an eye open. She lives alone, far away from the familiar comforts of Wichita Kansas. As a kid Charlie always felt like a bubble, lying low on the surface, always ready to pop up and explode her creativity all over, but eventually she came to realize that staying in the confines of her hometown would do no good. After all, one can only write so many stories about vicious cows and proper grass care before they're about to take a lawnmower to their head. When Charlie sees (x crime) occur, she knows that this is it. She calls up whoever will listen and finds herself thrown into what could become the most dangerous experience of her life.

Meet (Estelle). Estelle works as the evidence locker security desk worker. A glance at her will take you back to the sixties, her beehive hair reaching so far up that it was comical. She looked like one of those characters in Horton hears a who, a whovian. Estelle has a raspy, deep voice that could only come as a result of a serious cigarette problem. Always trying to quit though, estelle promises to change. As the research journalist that she is, Ethel always finds new "cures" for addiction that Estelle can try, and the two have developed a bond over the years. Where as most people won't let reporters anywhere near the scene of the crime, Estelle calls up Ethel with any promising case. 

I am still ironing out the details for the final main character, who will become a love interest for Charlie. So far, I have this: 

Meet (James? no... Phil? Nope. Jake? WHY IS THIS PART SO DIFFICULT? IT'S A SINGLE WORD!) Shawn: Shawn is a love interest, he works at a coffee shop, likes Charlie, offers to help her with the case, proves to be very helpful.

Other Possible Names: Zack, Ian, James.

Over the next week I will write out a detailed story map of all events and plot details including crimes for the story. In addition I will begin the drafting process. Here's to hoping it goes well! Oh, and if you are up for a challenge and would be willing to edit my drafts, comment below and let me know! Until next time, keep it creative! I'm sorry, that was terrible. Anyway, Sayanora! Okay, I should just get off the internet before I ruin everything.

Why I Hate Incompetent Fools (aka YOU HAD ONE JOB)

When I read I book for fun, I expect two things. Only two. Seriously. It isn’t that hard. In fact, only one is up to the author and publisher. Since I expect so little from these people, when my expectations aren’t met, I find it really annoying. The ONE THING that I ask is that the book is properly edited. This isn’t a 7th grade paper, it is a professional, published story and I expect that BASIC writing rules and grammar, spelling and typing are up to par. I recently found though, that sometimes it’s a little hard to differentiate professional writing from my own language arts homework.

Last week, I started reading a book by Josh Kilmer Purcell, who has led quite the interesting life so far. The man led a double life as both an alcoholic drag queen and successful advertiser. I read his memoir about that earlier in the year, and while I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the storyline, I appreciated his humor and writing style. I looked up Purcell and bought his second book, “Candy Everybody Wants” and judging from the fact that this was “a fiction novel based off of how I would want my life to have gone” I figured I was in for a ride. 

I’m sure you’re wondering a lot of things right now, why on earth I would read Purcell’s first book and especially his second, and mostly how these two things go together in the slightest. First, I’d like to say that the initial decision was thanks to Tyler Oakley, a youtube persona, and that I chose to read the second book quite honestly because it has a shiny silver cover that reflects light like a rainbow. Second, well I’ll just let the story explain itself.

I was reading my book with an open eye, or as open as I could be. However, I found the story boring, and kind of unrealistic. I sort of hated it. Or rather I hated it after what happened next. On page sixty, the main character Jayson (whose “y” is self imposed because of the “flair” it adds) is talking to a woman named Franck. With a C. I get that the story is supposed to be outrageous and the author wanted the characters to match, but come on. Franck? Either way, it isn’t up to me, what’s written is written, you know? Even though I abhor the idea of characters with odd spelling names, I was willing to accept it. Until of course “Franck” became “Frank”. This one mistake really bugged me, I mean if you are going to go as far as changing a normal name to some weird rendition of what it is, GET IT RIGHT. 

I get it, I was being a little judgmental. I figured I wasn’t being fair, it’s probably a small misprint that could happen to anyone. I gave it another shot. What a mistake that was! Now, I don’t know who personally edited this book, and I don’t think I should know, because if I ever find them, I am going to literally slap them in the face. Or get them fired. It depends how I’m feeling that day. I’ve found TWO MORE ERRORS so far in the book, both stupid, easily solvable mistakes. In one, a “directly” gave orders to actors. I’m sorry, but I was not aware that hollywood came to a decision that all directors are now called “directly”s. Oh wait, that’s because A DIRECTLY IS NOT A THING. The other involved a character “our” foraging in the night. It may seem unreasonable for me to be so angry, but this is someones job. They literally have one job. ONE. And they can’t even do it right? If you were an engineer, and you screwed up one little piece of a machine, people can DIE. So really, this incompetent person is a FAILURE. 

That isn’t even the best part! This happened in ANOTHER book I read, by Janet Evanovich. It was a characters name again, and I just want to say that as a writer, I will always keep a close list of my characters names so that I don’t screw them up. If I do, please knock on my door, and just punch me. I honestly can’t deal with this. I thought books were professional writing. I can tell you right now, my book will be edited properly so that I don’t make the horrendous mistakes of these authors. I took it upon myself to read up on grammar issues and mistakes that people often make in writing so that I do not fall to this unprofessional, super irritating level of writing.

Grammar and style: 

These articles discussed common mistakes in grammar that I, amongst most others are privy to making. 

http://litreactor.com/columns/20-common-grammar-mistakes-that-almost-everyone-gets-wrong

I also bought this book, which I should be receiving in three days, to further inform myself of how to write better.

The Elements of Style by E.B White and William Strunk

Here's to hoping that I can do this properly, because I'd really prefer not to get punched.

What's this all about?

  Hey everyone. My name is Ally. I've been alive for quite a while now and I've lived through many experiences both good and bad. I have found over the years that no matter what I am dealing with, I can always count on a good book to distract me from reality. If times are great, everything is going well at school, my family is happy, I can hole up with a book and really enjoy the entertainment value that it provides. When things aren’t as peachy keen as they could be, books allow me to escape these harsh times, absorb myself in their pages and become part of the story. Ever since I was little, I knew that I wanted to give others what many great authors have given me. I decided that one day, I would write a book that could influence me as I had been influenced so greatly.

The current experience in my life has allowed me to begin this project, not just for me, but for others as well. This blog will bring you through my journey as an author, the high points, the low, the ones that want to make me rip my hair out. I hope that through this blog, you will be inspired, not just to read my book, but also to write your own story. Writing a book, or even reading one for that matter has helped me find myself and it is my greatest hope that through this blog, I will be able to help you find yours.

The saying goes that one should not judge a book by its cover, and I am a steadfast believer in this philosophy. Instead, one should give the book a chance, read the beginning. If it speaks to them they should continue on and read the entire story. As an author, this personal belief has shown me the value of the first few chapters. They are what hooks readers, reeling them in and selling copies. Even if the rest of your story is comparable to the work of Edgar Allen Poe, if the beginning isn’t interesting than it will not be successful. For the next seven weeks, I will begin the process of writing a novel. At the end of this time period, I hope to have the first 3 to four chapters of my novel complete as to me this is what can make or break a story.  Along with these chapters I will have a detailed timeline and story map. In addition, I will mock up a cover for my book that comes with a short 250 word summary/ hook on the back. 

Seven weeks is a long period of time, and in order to stay on track, I will keep a list of small goals that must be completed in order to write a book. 

I will have to...

• Create character profiles on the main/recurring characters 
• Decide what genre the book will be
• Decide on the style of the book, chapters, sections, etc.
• Create a detailed story map with all aspects of the story, setting, plot, etc.
• Title the story and design a cover 
• Write and revise chapter 1
• (Repeat with chapter 2)
• (And, SURPRISE, chapter 3 as well!
• Have several others revise the chapters
• Edit the chapters one more time and create the final product.

Along the way, I will most likely run into some problems. I may suffer a creative block, or become unsure of what to do next. I believe that by reading published works on the art of story writing, creativity, and overall success in the writing world, I will be able to solve any issues I come across. Each aspect of my story will be improved with these readings, plot, setting, and character development. I will also look at blog posts and interviews of successful authors to see what they have done that I can do as well.

When I have completed this seven week process, I will know everything about my story. After all, it is all in my imagination, each aspect my own. Doing so will make writing the rest of the novel much easier for myself, and hopefully, I will be able to turn what was once a dream into a reality. It is my hope that I can help you as readers of my blog to one day write your own story, or follow your dreams in the ways that I have begun to do so. Thanks for reading!