Science Fiction

You may remember from my post about Christmas that I received the writing curriculum "Other Worlds" (OW) for said holiday. OW is a follow-up to the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum that focuses specifically on Fantasy and Science Fiction. As you may or may not know, one of my favorite genres (to read and write) is Fantasy, so that was why I originally wanted OW.

Anyway, this semester, my sister Avery and I are doing OW together. We haven't done much so far, but I'm already enjoying it! One thing I didn't really foresee was deciding to try Sci-fi instead of Fantasy. I really don't have a lot of experience with the Sci-fi genre at all (except for Star Wars, but that's about it) so I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into. I don't know a ton about science, at least, I don't know how much I'll be able to support any technology I think up. (I suppose I have had three years of high school science. This is where physics comes in handy!) But I'm still really excited. Part of OW is learning about the genres themselves before learning to write them, so it's a great way to start out with Sci-fi. I also have access to a bunch of books through the curriculum, so I'm looking forward to getting to know the genre (as well as having new reading material!)

I think one thing that fascinates me about Sci-fi is all the incredible technology. It will be so fun to come up with some of my own this year, but I don't know how well I'll be able to describe it! Some things are so complex... But, to inspire myself and to get an idea of what kinds of things I want to work with, I've been putting together a Sci-fi ideas Pinterest board. It's been really fun to imagine what kind of 'image' my made-up world might have and what kinds of crazy things might exist there. One of my favorites has got to be this one:

It's this 'umbrella' that uses air to keep the rain off. The air is pumped up through the handle and released out the top in a kind of 'curtain' that blocks the rain. How cool is that?! I really have no idea how I would use this in my novel (or any novel) but it's just. so. cool. 

Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun. I don't know if it will continue, but I hope so, and I think it will be a great thing to try all the same!

College Stuff...

I've been trying to think of something to blog about for a few days now with no success, but I think I finally thought of something! Yay!

So, I'm a senior this year. It's exciting (because high school's almost over! :)) but it's also weird and a little scary. Weird because I'm one of the oldest students in like everything, and scary because, well, I'm very possibly leaving home next year.

I've told some of you about this already, but one of the biggest things that happened in Michigan (although it really seems like it would be incredibly small) was that I heard about Cornerstone University for the first time. It's a Christian college in Grand Rapids (near where my grandparents and aunt & uncle live). What really made it stand out was, when I looked at the website, I found more than one major that sounded really truly interesting. Like I would actually want to study it. Looking at K-State, I had only found a few things that sounded OK, but not really exciting. At Cornerstone, there were at least three that I'd have to choose between. (I know you're wondering: they're Ancient Studies, Linguistics, and Spanish Education. Click to find out more).

I'm definitely excited about the possibility! I like the idea of a smaller, Christian college, and I do kind of like the idea of getting away from home. It's rather odd actually. After we moved to Kansas I never wanted to move again, but I almost wonder if it's one of those things where you tell God, "I'm not doing that" and He says, "Oh really?" You know what I mean? :) Of course, I don't want to leave my family and my friends and my home :(, but I suppose I've come to accept that it's probably going to happen at some point. I've kind of been battling the whole idea of moving for a few years for various reasons that I might talk about later, but now... yeah. I'm not so opposed. It's weird.

Of course, I have no idea what's going to happen. Cornerstone is significantly more expensive than K-State (big problem), not to mention far away (possibly my mom's biggest problem ;)). But I'm learning to trust God and his plan, that he'll carry it out and he knows what's best. I am planning on applying to Cornerstone, though, and hopefully we can set up a visit for when we go to Michigan for Thanksgiving!

Some Words about Worrying

One of my very favorite Bible verses is Philippians 4:6-7: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 

It's way too easy to become anxious. I find myself worrying about lots of things, from whether or not I'll pass my driving test to what I should do about college. When I catch myself worrying, I almost always bring it right to God (it's taken awhile to get there, though). I ask for help to not worry and to not try in my own strength, but for a long time I stuck with only the "prayer and supplication" part of the verse--asking God for what I needed or wanted. A few months ago, I 'rediscovered' this verse, and the word "thanksgiving" stood out with me. It was almost as if God was telling me, "You're forgetting something." So from that point on, I started thanking God for what he's already done for me and for his example of faithfulness in the Bible whenever I asked for his help. I don't always remember, of course. It can be hard to be really thankful when you're in a tough place. But I've found that when I do entrust my worries to God and remind myself of what he's done before, I do experience his peace. It's amazing how God can make you feel so peaceful in the midst of a ridiculously crazy life. But I know it's possible, because I've felt it before. 

Now, the end of the verse says that God's peace "will guard your hearts and your minds". The way I understand it is, when we tell God our requests with thanksgiving, he gives us peace. Then, when we feel that peace, we are less likely to be anxious. Then, with God's help, we can really "not be anxious about anything". Yes, we'll probably fail. I know I have. But I keep coming back to God with thanksgiving and requests, because it helps. His peace does prevent worry. And who likes worrying?

Waterfall Picture

This is completely random, but I took this cool picture of a waterfall in Michigan. I've been wanting to try this technique on moving water (to make it look smooth) but the lighting has never been just right or the pictures all turned out blurry. But I finally got a good one! :D See?

The technique is like this: you set your camera on a slower shutter speed to blur the motion. It either needs to be really shady, so as to keep it from being over-exposed, or you need a special filter (I think it's a polarized filter--they're not hard to find.) I can't remember exactly, but I probably used the filter on this picture. Then you either need to hold your camera completely still or put it on a tripod (which I didn't have with me). I was actually kind of lucky. I took 8 pictures of the waterfall, hand-held, and one of them turned out clear. Yay! Anyway, that's it. Try it sometime, though, and let me know if you get some good ones. I'll keep trying too!

My Summer Adventure

Probably the biggest thing that happened this summer was my trip to Michigan. I spent the whole month of July living with my aunt, uncle, and cousins and watching the kids while their parents worked.

It was quite an adventure! I had never flown by myself before, so I was a little nervous. Also, I had to make a connection in Chicago with just enough time to get to the next flight.

The view from the plane was incredible! I spent most of the flight looking out the window and listening to the soundtrack from The Hobbit on my iPod :). 

The connection in Chicago went fine as well. It turned out that the plane was delayed, so I ended up waiting for at least an hour. At least I wasn't rushed! And it was awesome to fly over Lake Michigan too. Again, amazing view! (I don't have a picture, sorry.)

The rest of the month I spent hanging out with my extended family. I had so much fun with my cousins, playing in the pool, playing with toys, and much more! 

This is my cousin Jackson. He's nine, and he loves sports (specifically baseball). That picture was from the day we found three little tiny frogs in the pool (yes, I'm serious--look at his fingers!). We had fun carrying them around and giving them rides on the pool toys (and shrieking a little when they jumped). When we got out of the pool, we put the frogs and a little pool water in an old gatorade bottle so we could show the kids' mom and dad. (We let the poor little guys go that night--the live one(s?) at least...)

This is Margo. She turned six the day I left, and she loves Barbies, unicorns, princesses, and the colors pink and purple. I was there for her birthday party (a pink-and-purple-princess-themed pool party with a unicorn piñata) which was fun and a little crazy (I think there were seven or so little girls). The picture above is from an evening when we got dressed up for a photo shoot. That was fun too! Margo and I played a lot of Barbies and My Little Ponies while I was there... Sometimes Jackson joined in with his Transformers (like if we needed an ambulance or something ;)). 

They're a busy family! Jackson plays baseball, both kids take piano, and that's just the start! (I don't have any baseball pictures, unfortunately, because I only took them on my aunt's camera.) Another thing that raised the busyness was that they got a new puppy about a week before I left! She's a little German Shepherd puppy, absolutely adorable and she'll be a great dog... but she's still a puppy. Which basically means someone needs to be watching her at. all. times. 

The picture is from a few weeks ago, so she's probably a lot bigger now. Her name's Rune.

When I got home, my family had made a giant banner for me (of which I also have no picture...). Keeping with the adventure theme, Avery drew a picture of Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit coming back to his home (it looked kind of like the picture from the movie advertisements). And keeping with the Hobbit theme, they wrote "There and Back Again" and lower down, '(we promise we didn't sell you stuff to the Sackville-Bagginses)'. It made me smile :). 

And that's about it for my adventure! There was more, of course, but I can't really fit everything here. I know I'll talk about some of the other parts in other posts, so I'll end here for now. It was a great experience, though, and I can't wait to see my aunt and uncle and cousins again!

Interviewing Characters

So much for blogging over the summer... I'm glad to be back though!

Anyway, I'd thought about talking about my summer, but then decided I didn't want to, so instead you get to hear (ok, read) about something much more exciting. At least, I think it's exciting.

If you've read any of my posts last school year, you hopefully know by now that I was at that time working on a novel. Well, I'm still working on it, but I have gotten farther! I wrote the rough draft of the first 3 chapters in time for OYAN Summer Workshop ( I might consider letting you read them... email me). Unfortunately, I had (have) no idea what is supposed to come next. Aand, I didn't work on it much (at all) over the rest of the summer. Yes, I was busy. No, I didn't really try. You're probably wondering what's so exciting about this. Don't worry, it's just background.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to try something new. See, there's this glorious thing called a Character Interview, which is exactly what it sounds like. You ask your character(s) questions and write down their answers. I know, it sounds a little strange, and it certainly feels strange at first. But I have yet to find something that better helps me understand my characters! It's just fantastic. Anyway, I decided to try asking my characters what they wanted to happen since I wasn't thinking of anything by myself. I started with Bryllen, my main character, since I know her best. (I had also interviewed her earlier with some more general questions.) It was so fun! I didn't make any incredible breakthroughs or anything, but at the very least I got to know Bryllen better. Which is always good.

After Bryllen, I moved on to my ally, Kendric. I felt like I didn't know him well enough to ask about the plot right away, so I started with just my general questions (I have a list from a book which works great). It was a blast to see how different Bryllen and Kendric are. Even so, when I asked them the same questions about the plot, there was one big thing they agreed on. I'm not going to tell you what it is because it would take a ton of other explaining. But I was kind of surprised (I have a feeling those two agreeing will be a rare occurrence), and I now have to figure out what to do with it. Do I make it happen, since they both want it, or do I make sure it doesn't happen, for the same reason? *evil author grin*

I understand if you don't find this as exciting as I do. It's hard to explain how amazing it is to get to know someone you created. But if you're a writer, I would seriously encourage you to try interviewing your characters. I can even send you the list of questions I use if you want! :)

P.S. I might post some of my character interviews here sometime, but I think it would be even more fun if my characters answered some of your questions! (See this post and this post to learn a little more about my novel.) If you have a question for either Bryllen of Kendric, please comment below! It doesn't have to be related to the story either...

Also, I started a Pinterest board for pictures/quotes that I associate with Bryllen. (here) I'm purposely trying not to pick ones with distinct faces because I rarely imagine my characters with distinct faces. But it should still give you an idea.

Writing Rough Drafts

I can't believe how long it's been! But I did decide I wanted to try to blog through the summer (although probably not as consistently...) so I might as well get started.

Yeah. I've been working at my novel outline over the past few weeks, and I'm to the point where I actually start writing! The beginning of chapter one (version one) is written, but... that's about as far as I've gotten. As a perfectionist, I have a bit of a problem writing a rough draft. I am perfectly aware that it doesn't have to be perfect the first time through, but actually writing it without worrying about getting it "right" is... well, hard, to say the least.

When I'm writing, say, an essay or a report, taking a little time to refine stuff as I go isn't much of a problem. It makes things easier later too! But when I'm writing a story, trying to fix stuff up along the way really gets my focus off telling the story and I end up with a bunch of needless stuff. Well, I end up with needless stuff anyway, but it's easier to work with if it sticks closer to the story. However, it also takes a lot (a lot) of concentration and focus for me to write something without trying to get it perfect. Which means I'm usually mentally exhausted after an hour or so. But I s'pose it's better than nothing!

That's all I really have to say. Have a good start to your summer!