“If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.” 

― Rick Riordan

NaNoWriMo Kick starter

This has probably been one of my favorite experiences ever. Honestly, I am still pumped about how tonight went. Tonight was the kick starter for Nanowrimo at the Upland Library. It pretty much went down like this:

I walked into the library and my first thought was "I don't have a library card here." A troubling thought, I know. But I was already going to be late so I just went on ahead and found the conference room. When I walked in I was immediately greeted by Jennifer, the one who put this all together. I knew this was gonna be amazing instantly because the first thing she noticed about me were my buttons on my bag and she started getting really excited. That's when I noticed her Agent Carter hat and Captain America bear. I was practically ready to squeal because I knew we were going to have a nerd bond, but I held it together and served myself some cookies and crackers instead.

 This what was going on in my head for the majority of the kick starter.

Fast forward to when the rest of the party got there. There were around 15 of us in total and it ranged from people with 8 years of NaNoWriMo experience to people who learned about it about 2 hours prior. We went around the room telling our stories of how we came upon NaNoWriMo and what we wanted to accomplish. I guess we all felt pretty comfortable because that took up the rest of the time. My fellow writers are absolutely amazing. There are book publishers and cosplayers, there are actors and video game designers. Some of them travel around the world on a regular basis and some of them  name their children after my favorite book characters. While we talked we gave each other advice and book resources. It was a dream finding all of these great websites and books, because I knew that they would actually be focused on what I am trying to find. I have enough recommendations to last me a few months of research check.

The lovely folks from my first meeting 

I was the last to tell my story and I happily explained to them my experience so far and the hopes I had for myself as well as for the senior project. They all oohed and ahhed at the right moments and it felt rather lovely to be surrounded by so many people who really understood my passions. We exchanged numbers and email addresses and packed up our complimentary coffee mugs and were promptly kicked out of the library as we were pushing the closing time.

There will be plenty more meet ups in the future and I am absolutely ecstatic to be apart of this. There are no words to describe the giddiness in my rambling on the way home. (Well, there probably are but...) I could probably write my entire 50k just trying to describe this experience. (But I won't.)

So that concludes my first 2 hours of independent component, I can't wait for what's next.

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” 

― Shel Silverstein

Blog 9 - Advisory prep 3

The Monty Python and the Holy Grail is just one example of the wonders of Medival Stories

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduledf the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

I totally did my interview this afternoon.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.   

Funny, this is totally true. The two areas that I am looking at right now are 

• An authors writing/thinking process
• Mythology/ medival literature

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

My mentor gave me a list of books and authors who write specifically about medival literature so those are going to be some of my new sources. I'm also going to be looking for seminars and lectures on youtube that revolve around my topic. As for the authors one, I am planning on meeting a few other people participating in nanowrimo and a few of them have been writing for years. A few of them are even published and are willing to help with interviews. I am planning on asking them where they go for tips/ideas and using those resources. I'm also going to look in the autobiography section of the library for personal insights on authors. 

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

How does medival literature stay relevant in todays society/ world?

"I believe small though we are and insignificant though we may be, we can reach a full understanding of the universe." 

                                                                    - Hawking

As it gets closer, I lay on the floor, groaning with nervousness

After typing this up, I couldn't help but add this.

Do you know how stressful it is to know that you are going to be writing a book in approximately 12 days 5 hours and 55 minutes? It's pretty stressful. Especially when people keep coming up to you asking what you are gonna write about and want you to make them main characters (I'm looking at you Gen)

So even though it's not November yet (oh god) I still have things to do to prepare for NaNoWriMo. First off, I have to make a complete list of things that I do during the day, for a week. This way I will be able to figure out when I will be able to have my writing sessions and where. In other words, I have to figure out what times of the day I procrastinate on my responsibilities the most.

Let's be honest, most of my procrastination is looking at Chris Evans

It's actually pretty interesting though. When I first read the book that introduced me to NaNoWriMo I was thinking about rearranging my life in order to do this, but its the complete opposite. NaNoWriMo isn't for full time authors, it's for people with busy lives who want to try something new. So instead I will look at my schedule and categorize how I use my time by importance. When I find places where I am doing less important things, such as scrolling through tumblr for two hours, I will replace them with writing sessions instead. 

Here's a sneak peek to the month of November 

You know what's lame though? I'm going to have to remove those distractions for the entire month. For a whole month I will have to ban myself from tumblr and instagram and everything else. I don't know how I am going to do that. How am I gonna update my blog?! What about my followers!! My queue is going to have to be jam packed, oh my god. I cry just thinking of all the memes and gifs of Chris Evans I will never know. I shed a single tear as I think of all the snapchats I will miss out on. Oh the horror! (Nah I'm kidding, no way I'm deleting snapchat) 

The Time is Almost Upon Us

Eight-teen days and three hours until November first; until I begin the NaNoWriMo challenge and write a book in 30 days. Today I created an account for myself on the official website and found some locals that are also participating this November.  I joined in a "region" and on October the twenty-eighth I am going to meet up with my fellow writers at the Upland Library for our first meet. It's pretty exciting to see how many people are planning on doing this. I went from knowing nothing to finding an entire community of part time authors in the span of a few weeks.

"Fairy tails are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." 

-Neil Gaiman, Coraline

Independant Component 1 Proposal

50,000 words in 30 days. BRING IT ON.

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I'm going to write a book in a month. There is a national competition thing called the National Novel Writing Month for inexperienced first time writers. Earlier this month I picked up the book that explained the process in detail. In one month I will write 50,000 words. That means I will need to write little over 1,500 words a day. The book explained where to write, how to keep calm and how to stay motivated. It was really cool and I decided I wanted to participate. The whole thing starts in November, and so will I. This is definantley not going to be easy with my schedule but I will make it work. There is an entire chapter explaining how to fit this into your everyday life. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

Honestly I have no idea how i'm going to give proof but I guess the thing that comes to mind right now is to update my blog every time I finish my writing session. Another thing I could do is encourage my friends and family to constantly ask me about it. The increase of pressure and questions will definantley send me to work.

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

Well, one of my major interests right now is what goes on in an authors mind. If I go through with this and Finnish my book by the end of the month, I will have personal experience as an author to contribute.

4.  Update your Senior Project Hours log.

Ehhhhhhh

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” 

― Madeleine L'Engle