A brief look at 2016

Hey Ya'll,

Am I the only one who cannot believe that 2016 is almost over? I really cannot, this year has been huge for me from a writing aspect AND an allergy aspect. Go me! :p (sorry guys, I'm a little full of myself at times ;) )

So, being the somewhat prideful perfectionist I am, I've decided to make a list of my accomplishments this year!! (within reason of course...)

From a writing aspect this year I have:

•  written a novella numbering 23,000 words
• finished my first novel at 57,000 words 
• Started editing my first novel
• Did NaNoWriMo for the first time, writing 30,000 words
• Won my local writing contest for the third year running in my age group. (Well I was the only one who entered in my age group this year... but that's beside the point...) 
• And, written a short story for a nation wide contest 

From an allergy aspect this year I have: 

• Found a church that will accommodate my allergies that I thank God for every day (or try to) 
• Become more independent in keeping myself safe as opposed to relying on my mom. 
• Started to become an advocate for food allergies. They ARE a big deal you know... ;p 

So.... nine bullet points wasn't as nearly impressive as I was going for, but that's alright, it's good for me to learn early my life isn't nearly as exciting as soon as I write it down. :p 

All in all 2016 has been very eventful year for me and my family, I'm very thankful for all the things I have been given this year. 

What about you? 

-Libby 

"And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing out eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." Hebrews 12:1-2

ROUGH Drafts

Dear Writer,

When I looked at the rough draft for my first and only novel I thought to myself, wow. This stinks. I've grown up with these fantastic books that were on the eighth, ninth or tenth draft when I read them. I'd never seen a rough draft of anyone else's book, so I compared mine to theirs. Mine lost.

Do you ever feel like your writing is too sloppy? That your rough draft is too... well.... rough? I have.
The books that we've grown up with, that inspired us to write in the first place, are not comparable to ours. Theirs are finished, ours are not.

Writer, rough drafts are supposed to be full of grammatical errors, missing punctuation, and remnants that you wrote that scene with WAAAAAY too much caffeine in your system. Rough drafts are your story in it's purest form, as messy as it may seem. You know why? Because this is our story just as it came out of us, just as we breathed it into this world.

It's kind of like when a mother gives birth to her child. She's kind of messy and not the prettiest to look at as soon as she arrives, but no one in the room is saying, "Eww! Look at how messy that baby is". They're all saying, "That baby is beautiful, her Mama must be so proud." They all know that babies have to be cleaned up before they're introduced to the world.

Sounds kind of like your first draft, huh Writer? Messy, not the prettiest to look at, but it's yours. You put your blood, sweat, and tears into that draft, so don't give up on it now. Rough drafts are supposed to be rough,Writer, nothing within this world is perfect by default. It takes a lot of hard work to get it that way.

You've done the hard part, you've told yourself a good story. Now, it's time to do the hard part, making it ready for the world to see. This draft is your baby,Writer, it may be messy, it may be flawed. It may have no punctuation other than a couple of stray commas and quotation marks, but that's okay, it's your mess, and you can't abandon it now.

Writer, I know that rough draft looks so rough... it looks sooo rough Writer, but like with everything, with a little elbow grease, it'll get better. This is your story, and it's waiting for you to share it with the world.

-Libby

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Proverbs 14:23

I Guest Posted!

Hey Y'all,

I did something I've never done before today, I wrote a guest post for another blog! Cool right?
Anyway, it's been posted on Reveries by the awesome Kellyn Roth. You can find it here.

Merry Christmas Guys,

-Libby

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Short Stories

Short stories.

Most of us writers have written at least one in our life time, even if it was a simple five word story when we were toddlers. No one goes straight into writing a novel, no one has that much experience, so why when everyone sees the words short story to they cringe? 

We've forgotten how to write short. 

In this world of word counts and fancy plots and descriptions there's no time to write a simple story anymore. Instead we focus on the idea that has enough meat to constitute a novel, tossing short aside once we get a grip on our craft.

Fellow writers, there is a need for a short story out there!

But, like all good novelists we've forgotten how. Minor problem...

Recently, I had to write a story with a word limit of 4,000 words. *shudders*  and here's how I, a girl who hasn't written anything that short since around 2009, did it.

I Kept it Simple
Do you know how difficult this is? This means one plot line, no subplots, at all. That means unless your story is a flat out romance Romeo and Juliet shouldn't be ending up together guys. Don't try to put too much in, that either a) makes it too long, or b) makes it confusing. Both are bad.

I Kept it (somewhat) Realistic 
This tip is more subjective, but I've been reading entirely too many short stories lately, and most if not all have been realistic fiction, no fantasy here. The reason being that it's too hard to explain a reader to your world, explain how things work AND try to tell a story in 4,000 words or less. Now, that's not to say that you cannot tell a fabulous fantasy story in 4,000 words, but for most of us out there that's wayyyyyy too difficult.

I Kept it Concise
In stories without word counts we can afford to set up a scene with a two hundred word intro, in a short story this is not an option, we need those words for writing! This requires us to get more creative with our intros, but in the long run what would your reader rather hear about? The scenery or the scene?

Well that's what I've come up with, anyone have anything to add?

-Libby

"This is what the Lord Almighty said 'administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another." Zachariah 7:9

Editing

Editing, one word that holds so much meaning to writers. I know, I know, it's tedious, its boring, and frankly you don't want to do it, but it has to be done.

Today we're going to get down to the nitty-gritty of editing. Or my version of editing which isn't very nitty-gritty at all :p
Now, call my crazy, but for the most part I actually enjoy editing *gasp* Yes, I do enjoy the tedious work of going through my stories and combing them for mistakes. Why? Because I can see how far I've gotten. When I'm editing and changing certain scenes I can automatically tell my mood from that day, was I writing because I wanted to or because I needed to? Did I actually enjoy this scene or was I just trying to get to the next one? I can tell all those things just by my writing style. How? Because I edit all the time.

I see things all the time telling writers not to edit until their stories are completely done. I hate it when they say that! I feel obligated to edit as I'm writing, because sometimes the story isn't going to get any further until you go back and re-read what you've already written to remember why you're writing this thing in the first place. Sometimes you need to add that 1,000 word scene that makes or breaks the story.

I was watching a documentary on the Disney Pixar movie Frozen a while ago and was startled to hear that the song 'Do you want to build a snowman?' was almost cut from the movie! What?! But they kept coming back to it because the story didn't work without it. That 2.5 minutes of song made or broke the whole movie according to this documentary. That simple sentence hinged on the existence of one of the biggest movies Disney had ever made. And they didn't know they needed it until they looked back at what they had! Sometimes writing is like that, you need to look at what you've done in order to get any farther.

Editing may be a pain but it's totally necessary in good writing so I'm going to give you some tips that might make it a little easier to drop the black pen and pick up the red one.

1. Edit when you can't think of anything to write.
When I was writing a story last Christmas I knew I could finish it, I knew that it was going to come together but it just wasn't working for me that day. But instead of ignoring it and saying 'oh woe is me' I sat down and edited what I had to make the beginning of my story stronger. Eventually after enough editing that light bulb popped on in my head again and I was able to finish.

2. Edit as you go. 
Like I said earlier: I hate it when people say you need to wait until the story is done to edit it. I agree punctuation and spelling can wait until you write 'the end' but the actual meat of the story needs to be molded and crafted as much as possible in order for it to reach its full potential. Even if you look at a hunk of the scene you just wrote you're probably going to be able to find something that needs fixing, or is that just me?

3. Think of yourself as a reader not a writer when you're editing. 
We writers pride ourselves on our intellectual standards. But readers, especially child readers, aren't going to want to read a story full of words that sound like the alphabet threw up! Make sure your words are correctly gauged toward your audience. Read your story through other eyes, what do you want to know? Is something hard to understand? Does something else need to be added to make the you know what's going on? Remember your reader unfortunately didn't make this world they don't know whats going to happen. That's your job.

4. Don't beat yourself up. 
I do this all. The. Time. When I edit I'm picking out my mistakes, which results in me thinking Oh my gosh, no wonder I'm not published yet. This is horrible. Which results in me not wanting to write because its "just going to be a mess I'll have to fix anyway." Then REALLY wanting to write, then having to edit said writing and the cycle continues. We writers have to find that balance of yes this needs fixed, and you are not a horrible writer because that needs fixed. We're going to have so many critics in life. We don't need to be one of them.

I saw a quote on Pinterest I love "Write without fear, edit without mercy." I don't remember who said it, but I saw this almost a year ago and it resonates with me so deeply. Am I really editing without mercy? Am I really doing the best I can to make the story the best I can be? Probably not, while I love editing, I really do stink at it. My essays I have to write for school have proven that. But I'm trying to do better, and that's really the best I can do.

Do any of you guys have any editing tips or tricks? I'd love to hear them!

-Libby

"This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another." Zachariah 7:9 

Write what you know?

Hey Y'all,

As I've just finished the NaNoWriMo chaos (which resulted in me writing 30,000 words) I've been thinking about some writing advice"Write what you know."

I think this is misleading.

As writers we're supposed to uncover that which is unknown, shed light on that which is unseen. If we're only writing what we know fantasy, wizards, and dragons wouldn't exist! Think about it, if J.K Rowling only wrote what she knew Harry Potter would've never come to fruition. Neither would the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Maze Runner, Hunger Games... I could go on and on.

That being said, there needs to be a sense of familiarity in your stories. I'm not reading a book with a thirty year old man as the MC because that is foreign to me. I want to read about someone either
a.) of a different age
b.) a girl
or c.) someone who I can relate to.
If this said thirty year old man turned out to be a life long allergy kid and this is about his journey through med school to find a cure I'd be waaaaaaaaay more likely to read about him.

Why? Because it's familiar, I feel safe with this topic, I know where I stand.

Now, from a writing standpoint why do we write what we know? Because it's easier! Duh! Because we can write a better story with things we've experienced, but is it good to only write what we know? I think not.

I personally switch around from historical to contemporary fiction in order to trying and write something new and exciting. Like for instance my NaNo novel was my first ever mystery. I stank at it, but I did it in order to expand my writing knowledge. We writers have to do that some times.

Writing what we know can limit us, but writing what we don't know can result in a pretty weird or untrue book so we need a mix of the two.

What do y'all think?

-Libby

"Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created." Esther 4:14 (paraphrased, not by me.)

Being 'Difficult'

Hey Y'all,

I've had a revelation this week I thought I'd share.

I'm currently in the process of registering for a large multi-day event that serves food, and throughout that process I've had to email the director about making it free of nuts and asking for her to send out emails to the scores of people attending about my allergy.
At the end of my latest email I had the urge to tack on "Sorry to be difficult", but thought against it. Why?

Because I'm not being difficult when I'm trying to keep myself safe. 

Yes, I require more in the planning phases of an event than others, but I'm not doing it to be difficult or a pain or needy. I'm doing it so I can have the same experiences as my non allergy friends.
So why do I feel the need to apologize for asking these things? Is this what sub-consciously I have been taught? That my allergy needs warrant the need to apologize for being an inconvenience?

That saddens me.

So how do I write an email that outlines what I need done without feeling the need to apologize fifteen times for being over dramatic and whiny?

Here's what I've come up with.

1. Explain the situation 
In my experience as soon as I explain the situation as the forefront of the email it lessens the need for me to apologize because I'm restating to myself this is why I'm doing this. This is why this needs put in place.

2. Be polite 
While this seems like a given, at least for me it really isn't. My first instinct is to outline my needs in a list form with a simple thank you and smiley face tacked on at the end. Uh no. This is what I'm trying to avoid, when I'm talking about allergy accommodations I simply thank them at the beginning for offering whatever it is they're offering, then say what I need done, and reiterate why, then thank them again. This way I come across as asking instead of telling.

3. Don't be afraid to say what you need
Early in my allergy journey I thought of myself as a nuisance to everyone, that asking the bare minimum was too much to ask.
This isn't true. If you are capable and invited to go there is no reason you shouldn't be given the opportunity. State what you need done upfront so there aren't any last minute complications later.

4. Don't go overboard
 I confess, I am a worrywart. Everything that can go wrong has already run through my head five times with varying horrible outcomes, so when I'm asking for accommodations it's also my instinct to explain every little thing that could be done, including x-raying all participants for signs of nut protein.
I don't need that. 
Would it be nice to know no one has eaten nuts in twenty four hours? Yes. Is it necessary for my well being? No. Only ask for what you need, no more. Now this may seem to contradict number 3, but they really go hand in hand. Don't be afraid to ask for all the things you need, maybe that's only a simple reminder email, maybe it's a lot more. But at the same time if you really do only need that email done, don't ask for more.


This list isn't the end all be all, and maybe I've messed something up, but this is what I'm trying to follow to attempt to get my point across without appearing needy. Anyone else have any tips?

-Libby

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity." Proverbs 17:17