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

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

Who is your mentor and where do they work? If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert? 

My mentor is Alison Baker, an english professor at Cal Poly Pomona. She is an ‘expert’ because she has years of experience as an english teacher, children’s english teacher and specifically with folklore. I’m not sure if I’m going to focus on folklore but I think it would be something to look into.

 What five questions will you ask them about their background? 

• What college did you attend and did it help you find your your current job?
• Did you plan on becoming  a professor or was it unexpected?
• When did you start to love reading/stories? (for ex. I didn’t enjoy reading until the 4th grade)
• Do you think you could be an author? If not, why not?
• How important do you think language is when telling a story?

"So Matilda's strong mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all the authors who had sent their out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. "

-Roald Dahl, Matilda

Update on Mentorship

Here it is in all its glory, The Lewis Library and Technology Center

I have been working at the Lewis Library for a little more than a month now in the children's section. It's sort of like trying to sort through a dictionary the size of a small house and never being able to sit down for a break. Oddly enough, I still enjoy it (tiresome as it is) and I've started to refer to the books as my children.

Some difficulties I have encountered during my time here:

1) The bloody nonfiction section. I absolutely detest those horrible shelves of doom and pain. Just imagine putting an entire stores worth of clothes into your closet and trying to sort it by its shade of color. Now you have an idea of what the nonfiction section is like. I spend about an hour desperately trying to shelve a cart full of books by decimal points that go as far as the thousands. When I finish, I feel like crying because I'll turn around see that someone just dumped their pile of books onto my cart.

2) Children are strange. Something that I have noticed is that they are intimidated by me, despite the fact that I look 12. Whenever I have a cart, I see a few kids looking at it from afar as if they desperately need to know what's on it. If I ever talk to them directly to explain that they can look at the cart if they want, they scramble. So, since I have to cooperate and help as much as I can,I have devised a system. I leave the cart at the end of an isle near the kid and walk away with a couple of books. As they slowly drift towards the cart, I pretend to be busy with the books. I continue to straighten already straightened books or re-shelve some stragglers until they're satisfied and then I take back the cart and continue whatever it was that I was doing before.

3)  I was just minding my own business in the D section when it happened. You see, you can look through the shelve, past the books, into the next isle. Well, in the next isle (The C section) there was a boy about 7 years old. He hadn't noticed me but he was looking around like he didn't want to get caught so I watched to see what he was doing. He pulled out a pencil from his pocket and pushed it behind some books on the shelve directly in front of me. He checked again that he was safe, smiled, then walked away. Honestly, children are weird.