Happy Hafly Belated Holidays!

Well, folks.
Christmas has come and gone.
We've opened our presents and visited the in-laws.
And now, we're just waiting for new years to come around to see which of us are the "Cool Kids" and which of us will be falling asleep before the Ball drops.
I've been writing again, it feels nice. Wrote over 1k words today, which is virtually nothing, but hey, it's gotta count for something. Oh well.
One of my New Years resolution: Post more for my blog ._.

What are your goals?
Also, if you're a person who loves to write, and has facebook, request an invitation to the group WriMore International!
That stands for Write More International, where someone is on at all hours, waiting to sprint, giving out mini challenges, and over all, giving advice for fellow authors. Come join us, we're non elitists. And the majority of us don't bite.


~Lisa

Well then.

So, I know it's been ages since i posted.
So much for once a day, eh? That lasted about a week.


Here's a run down on my first ever NaNoWriMo Experience.
The first few days before it, I was becoming petrified. I was nervous beyond anything.
But I found that I did in fact, have this. So i wrote and i wrote. After about the second week, i fell behind and had trouble catching up, even though i was doing all kinds of word sprints.
Over thanksgiving weekend, i ended up writing an average of about 5k words per day and was able to finish early. I hit the 50k word mark on November 26th at around 8:30 pm. My 50,000th word was lips. 
I'd have to extend a giant thanks to all my sprinting buddies, and everyone in the NaNoWriMo page on facebook - all 24,900 of you. - for keeping me going with stories and mini-competitions.
It was fun, and i seriously recommend you all do it.
If you're a year round writer, feel free to join this page. It's called "WriMore International" and the people are just brilliant. I post from time to time, and plenty of us are still going on with our NaNo projects, as well as other things.
Feel free to join us. We don't bite.


well. Most of us don't.




~Lisa Stevens
i'll keep posting here. don't worry.

Oof

Ohhai guys.
i swear i didn't forget about you.
i just. was writing. and catching up with school work and what not.
How's your guys' novels going?
i just broke 22k words, and like. i found that Word Sprints are very effective. If you find yourself lacking, COMPETE IN THOSE!
Yes, compete. not participate.

When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen.  But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.  ~Samuel Lover, Handy Andy, 1842

Le Word Count Is A Struggling.

Yeah yesterday i only wrote like. 607 words. but i took my SAT so... /excuse.
i'm going back to school tomorrow, so my posts will be either really early in the morning, or sometime after school.
Fun fun fun. i'm gonna do my chemistry packet then go and write moar.


post another one later tonight.




Writing let's me be what reality denies me. ~Lisa Stevens 


Yeah, i just quoted myself. But 66 people retweeted this on twitter, including NaNoWriMo themselves.

Another Day In Paradise

I think i took a wrong exit. Today was so far from Paradise it's not even funny. Woke up at 5:10. Left the house at 6:30. Took a wee little road trip to Bamberg Germany to take my SAT.


Where someone thought my name was Lindsey. This is someone i have History with. ._.
Well, it's a step up from that time in Spanish class in my freshman year. They called me Sarah for months. Atleast this chick got the first two letters right.


Took my SAT. was incredibly bored during it.
Went home at about 1 pm. Got home around 2.
Way behind on my word count.
Killed a spider.
Ripped holes in my wall.
Am dying of Bronchitis.
Not really, it just sucks alot.




You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.  ~Saul Bellow

A Penny For Your Thoughts?

I'm sick and i'm stressed. I've got my first ever SAT tomorrow morning in a place that's an hour away, and i'm not even sure of WHERE the freaking testing site is. I'm behind on my word count for today, even though i've passed tomorrow's mark. 
I don't want to sit in a crowded room for four hours tomorrow morning at 8. I can hardly breathe, my throat is killing me, and my coughing makes me sound like an old man.
I want to sleep, so so badly. But if i sleep now, i won't wake up till the middle of the night, where i'll be exhausted by the time i leave for my test.
Someone spare me? 




Writer's block is a disease for which there is no cure, only respite.  ~Terri Guillemets

2126 words later.

That's how much i've written today, and it's only 2:14. I want to hit 8k words total by the end of the day, so only about 700 more words are needed. I've totally got this. 

I've got a doctors appointment later on today since i missed the entire week of school. Le sigh. 

SATs this weekend. Kinda nervous. Kinda very nervous.

So far, i'm holding up though. Had my first writer's block of this novel yesterday. I was stumped for like, four hours before my sister and best friend were able to help drag me out of it.

Writing Quote of the Day: The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.  ~Vladimir Nabakov

I'll check in with you guys later :]


- Lisa Stevens. 

NaNo Day Two Summary

Oye. To carry on with what i was talking about earlier, my Writer's Block seriously beat the crap out of me today..


i pulled through though, and wrote a butt-ton more from my last post. And if i weren't so tired, and if my eyes werent losing focus every ten minutes, i'd write 300 or so more words so that i can hit an even 3k words today. But, i'm fine with what i've got.
How're your novels going so far? Any advice?

i'm out for the night - i'll welcome you with another post tomorrow morning. Add me if you'd like!

Day two and i'm stumped.

Phew. This sucks. I've written less than 700 words today. I'm stumped - the introduction is just like. Ugh, do i have to? i just have to write a bit of bitter dialogue until some exciting stuff can begin happening.  OH. They meet Annelise soon! YUS.

thank you, Sara, for your - POOKIE. ARE YOU SERIOUS? My cat's had like. the worst gas all day, and he's asleep on the floor behind me. jeebus. 

Anyways - thanks for your desire to have your character be a creepy/epic silent type. *Le hug*

i'll check in a little later.

Song of the day: Express off of the album from the movie "Burlesque"

Writing Quote of the Day: The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.  ~Anaïs Nin

Day One; Successsssss!

ohhai again.


I stayed home today, because i'm still sick. No idea if i'm going or not tomorrow... i know that i should, but yeah. no idea.
my word count was kinda. Meh. at first today. at 8 in the morning i only had two paragraphs, but then i was like. WHOA. IDEA. so i started writing, and when i checked again *i write in OneNote, so i have to copy and paste into word* i was at 2,387 when all I needed for the 50k goal is 1667 a day. I'm gonna shoot for atleast that much a day, and whatever's left is brilliant. Makes me book even longer, and if need be, can make up for days i missed.
i've got SATs this weekend, and i'm hoping my sick goes away by then...
How'd your first day go? Or, depending on where you live, how's it going now? I'm still gonna write some more, but I have to do some chemistry. Le Sigh.

It's Hereeee.

Well, hello again folks.
This is it; day nu- ew. nosespray just hit the back of my throat. and i just discovered i have a bloody nose. -le sigh- anyways. Day number one is upon us. Normally, i'd be going to school in half an hour, where i'd sit through the following -thrilling- classes.
AP English and Composition - i have an exam today.
Seminar - SSR (in which i'd write) and then during the time after SSR, i'd go to my computer animations and make up a test from yesterday that i missed cuz i was sick.
AVID - I have a debate today, about either the movie "Twelve Angry Men" or something my teacher found online.
Algebra 2 - the only class i'm stumped about missing. Mr Jordan's going to have to email me the lesson.
instead, i'm going to stay home, because both my mom and my sister are thinking i'm possibly on the verge of having mono, although, lemme tell you, i've only kissed one guy my entire life, and he moved almost two years ago.
While i'm staying home, though, i'll be writing. As much as possible, maybe i'll get tomorrow's word count in as well.


Writing Quote of the Day:

I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself.

J. K. Rowling

One Last Breath Of Freedom

Welp. Take a nice long look at it guys; the sun's setting on our last day of freedom. Literally. See? Look at that. The last day of October, and i've only got about an hour of sunlight left.
Regardless. Here we go. This is it. I'm thinking that i'll be watching Gilmore Girls throughout this month, just to keep a shred of sanity, no matter how counter-productive it seems. 


i'm honestly scared. i don't think i'm prepared. i've got six hours left max to get everything done. I'm going to go set up my notebook like. now. i think i need to find a daily encouragement thingy to keep myself going.


I got this. i hope. someone keep me sane. i need a reliable venting buddy. Someone? Anyone?

Regardless. You can see me ranting here. If you made it through this blog post, and it made sense to you; bravo my friend. Bravo. It almost makes no sense to me. i just kinda spoke out of everything. <--- made no sense. Roar. Erm. I gotta go. Plan my next 30 days. Pick out my notebook, etc. I don't know what to say any more. I was going to say something important, but i forgot...


as a side note; Happy birthday to my daddy! I love you <3


p.s.s. Happy Hallowe'en all!

So Close, Yet So Far...

Welp, guys. NaNoWriMo is literally right around the corner. How are you getting ready? Are you enjoying your final days relaxing before having the urge to face desk 50 million times a second? Are you planning ahead and writing an incredibly detailed plot outline? Or are you flipping a coin to decide if you're going to go through with this? Heads equals yes, tails equals no? Lemme go ahead and flip it for you. My App says heads. Pinky Promise it's legit. That shit is binding. Now, for those of us wanting to quit, i'm hoing to employ the use of a saying my friend Matt and I use, despite the fact that we're way too white to use it; Swag it up, you little bitch.

now, i've gotta go do my algebra homework and study for a Computer Animations test.

WriMos, get ready.

Look out, guys. we've got ten days. tens to make the finishing touches on our ideas. ten days to scare the shit out of ourselves. ten days to change our minds. we've got ten days to relax. after those ten days. it's gonna be sleepless nights and cramped fingers.


who's excited?

Derp, incase you do not know what NaNoWriMo is

Hello again, good friends.

I just realized, some of you do not know what NaNoWriMo is.

NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month" where thousands of people strive to write a 50k word *that's 50,000 folks* book in the span of only 30 days.

This of course, causes us to panic before we start, and while we're writing, plenty of us are considering writing our Wills instead, seeing as how we want someone to come up and shoot us in the face because we thought we could write a novel in 30 days. 

We're not allowed to edit in the month of November. Our inner editor is a jerk who deserves to be ignored. For those of you who were wondering, in order to write this novel, of only 50k words, which, in retrospect, is rather small for a novel, seeing as how the first book of my series is supposed to have 130k more words than that, one would need to write roughly 1667 words a day. Or if you're writing by hours in a day, and have a schedule like mine, you'll spend only 22% of your month writing! I believe it's 153 hours of November spent in the form of you bending over your notebook/keyboard/computer inches away from face desking.

Why do we put ourselves through this madness? No idea, really. Maybe it's the recognition that we can do this, and that we can possibly get published. Speaking of, did you know the author of Water For Elephants, which is that movie with the elephant and Robert Pattinson for those who don't know, is a winner of NaNoWriMo? So, it might be that. Or, it could be the million dollar prize if you do win.

Just kidding about the million dollar prize.

No, what you do get, which might not seem worth it for many, is a certificate thing for finishing. And if you're in San Fransisco, there's a 6 Hour Sit In Write-A-Thon thing. i really want to go, but you know. Germany =/= San Fransisco.

Follow @NaNoWriMo on twitter for more information, or check out their website at www.nanowrimo.org 

Consider it. Do it. Hate it. Love it.

--Lisa Stevens, first time NaNoWriMo Participant.

I Do Believe An Introduction Is In Order

Why hello there, 


Yes, you with the hair. I'm talking to you.


First off, i'd like to say a few things about myself as if this were the first day of school.
I'm German-American, living in Germany for year number 8. I write an assload of stuff, and always have more than one story going at a time.
My baby is the never-ending work in progress, <Series Title Unavailable Because I Can't Make Up My Damn Mind>, and I'm not giving any more information about it. /herp derp.


The story i'm going to be writing during NaNoWriMo 2011 is called The Requiem, whose title i nabbed from the Linkin Park album "A Thousand Suns." Linkin Park is the shit. So is Skillet. Le nod.


I read Maureen Johnson, JK Rowling, Rachel Caine, Suzanne Collins, PC & Kristen Cast, Richelle Mead, Cassie Clare, Maggie Stiefvater, John Green, LJ Smith, and a butt-ton more of epicly amazing authors. 


Anywho. I'm still in school, so my posts will be kind of late depending on our time differences. Regardless, feel free to follow, or check out my twitter and or tumblr, which i will put in links somewhere on this blog in the future when i'm not procrastinating on doing my AP assignments. 


11 days!


--Lisa Stevens