Writing Journals

I have started a writing journal.

I owe it to Susan Dennard, writing and blogging extraordinaire, and her posts here and here. To Ms. Dennard, I am eternally grateful.

I have no idea if it'll last, but for the past two weeks, I've been pushing myself everyday to work on my novel. (This novel, Untitled, is something I wrote during NaNoWriMo of April 2014. It was not very good, so now I'm trying to make it better.) Usually before bed every night, I plan something, create a few more characters and map them out, or write a scene. Then, I catalog what I did to move forward, how I felt about it, and what I need to accomplish next.

This surprisingly easy way of listing out what I do and what I need to do has been extremely successful.

Not only has writing in a journal kept me on task, but it's also psychologically pushed me to write or work on my story even when I don't want to. I look forward to getting the chance to brag about my success or complain about my lack of motivation. I find it attaches me to my work more and more as well as loosens my creativity.

Last night, I wrote something I was really proud of. To anyone increasing their productivity, I highly recommended this method of documenting your process.

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current music: the spirit of adventure : michael giachinno : up

May Wrap-Up

I read three books this month! I also finished my AP US history text book (all 921 pages of it) and started another book.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas was spectacular, but I already wrote about it here so I'm not going to go into depth. 

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson was amazing. Amazing doesn't do it justice, but I don't know how else to describe it. The writing was so easy to read, and I read it so quickly. I fell in love with a lot of the characters, and though it wasn't a perfect book (at times, I wasn't a fan of Taylor and Henry's romance) I liked it enough to grant it 4 starts on Goodreads.

Lastly, I read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Sallinger. I really didn't like it. Holden was too unlikable, and his narrating seemed too unreliable. The ending was good-ish but it ended too soon. No wrap-up, no explanation, no Jane Gallagher. Overall, pretty disappointing.

In addition, I started Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson and I'm eternally grateful to BookTube for suggesting this to me. I'm blown away by the plot and world building. I haven't been reading it for a few days, but I've been busy with homework. Hopefully I can get to it tonight for awhile.

Next, I plan on reading An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Maybe I'll tune into the Booksplosion discussion taking place next weekend.

On a similar note, it's Book Expo America this weekend, and I'm sad because there's no place I'd rather be. Alas, I am stuck in the cool and rainy Midwest. Perhaps someday.

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current music : lose it : oh wonder : oh wonder

I Need A Break

I need a break. 

I have been working hard for school nonstop since spring break ended. Exams are coming up, and things are only going to get harder before teachers pass out exam reviews. I'm still learning in most of my classes, an alarming but true fact. In just a few short weeks, my knowledge on this new and old information will be tested. 

My brother's graduation party is up north at our cottage this weekend. I'm excited for the party, but I'm mostly looking forward to relaxing. It's been better now that APUSH is over, but I still can't claim that I'm totally relaxed. Soon, though. It'll be summer before I know it, and I can spend warm days at the cottage and put with friends and reading in my back yard. 

In conclusion to this very short post, life is hard and stressful, and I need a break from it. I hope this weekend is every bit as cathartic as I need it to be before I dive head first into final exams. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Last night, I finished A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, My Queen. I adore her Throne of Glass series, so my expectations for the long anticipated ACOTAR were set high.

I was not disappointed with the world building and new set of characters! I noticed a lot of similarities and differences between Feyre and Celaena, which impressed me. Feyre was genuine and likable, even when she made dumb choices. Tamlin is also a beautifully constructed character, but he was quite absent from the second half of the book, so I lost a lot of my emotion for him. Lucien is my favorite (Oh, how I love the tragic back stories!). His life was cruel before we met him, and it just goes downhill from there.

The villains in this book are powerful and scary from the beginning. While Throne of Glass takes some time to build up terror towards the King, ACOTAR jumped right into making them real. Amarantha was horrifying, but I'm curious where SJM will go from there, since it was already so intense. Rhysand is more complicated, and I still haven't sorted out my thoughts for him. I like his character, but I'm not sure that I like him/admire him since he makes such poor decisions? I don't know--it's just something a lot of fans have been talking about. (This is me trying/failing to avoid spoiling.)

All in all, I really did enjoy the book. The plot was so interesting, and the build up to the climax was probably my favorite part (especially the second trial). I gave the book a 5-star rating on Goodreads, but my opinion might change in a week or two, as it usually does.

A disclaimer: I hate writing book reviews. My hope will always be to briefly share my thoughts while not spoiling and not boring myself.

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current music: stoick's ship : jim powell : how to train your dragon 2

Inspiration at World Championships

This past week, I had the amazing opportunity to attend FIRST Robotics Competition's World Championships with my robotics team. For some, this was a chance to observe the best high school-made robots in the world. For all, it was a time to learn and experience all that FIRST had to offer. For me, it was the experience I had been dreaming of to bond with my fellow robotics team.

The things we do at robotics are not simple. In 6 weeks, we are expected to build a fully functional robot for a specific task. But in addition to the mechanical aspect of the team, we have to maintain a group that takes a lot of planning to run. My closest friends on the team are probably those I've worked with the most: the marketing team. Together, we help manage--keeping us hyped and ready for competitions while making us look like a cohesive team.

Like any other sport or extracurricular, friendships are forged through the experiences with each other. The more time you spend with these people, the more you come to enjoy their presence. I realized this early in competition season last year. While at a regional competition my freshman year, I felt a bit of what the seniors felt in their four years together--utter adoration for each other and the program.

Being at worlds gave me a similar, but more powerful, feeling. The juniors and seniors above me and freshman below me have always been amazing friends. But until our time together this past week, I had not truly observed the familial bond that's been keeping me a part of FIRST robotics.

I am not a technical person. I've learned many things in my time on the robotics team, and I hope to learn many more throughout the rest of high school. But being on the team is an opportunity for me to work in business type relations with people to manage the team. I can respect how everyone has found his or her niche on the team while never excluding others. Hopefully, as my class gets older, the bonds between the students grow deeper and even more loving and compassionate. Hopefully by senior year, we can inspire incoming freshmen the way that the seniors inspired me.

I think it's really important to get involved with something and find your niche. I never would have envisioned myself on the robotics team if it weren't for the passion of the upperclassmen who looked like they were having the time of their lives building and making things. But here I am now, and here is my passion. Even if my passion is just the love within the team, the passion exists, and it will hold me to them until senior year.

The 5-Star System

There are so many reasons rating books is hard.

The comparison exists to make some books stand apart from the rest. I love the idea of having some favorites, some least favorites, and some in between books that leave no significant impression on you.

But what, exactly, are we comparing these books to?

In some ways, the 5-star system is rating books among genres. But because same system is used to rate books in historical fiction and fantasy, the historical fiction that I read would always have less stars. I find this frustrating because I like fantasy infinitely more than historical fiction, but I don't want to grade a good historical fiction down on the fact that it was historical fiction.

The star system is also used to compare books by a singular author. But if there's an author I love who has written books I love, I start running out of stars to differentiate the ways in which I liked the books. Perhaps one's plot was on par, and another had good characters, and yet another had a good message. Nothing is done to contrast the meaning behind the 5 stars I've given each.

Or perhaps the book is just being compared to itself. When rating books, this is the only way I can stand to do it. Does it have a good plot? Writing style? Likable characters? All of these things contribute to whether or not I like something.

But until I can explain my rating in words, the star system seems insufficient in doing what I'm trying to accomplish.

I use the 5-star system because it's universal. Goodreads uses it, and everyone understands the scale of "terrible" to "amazing." And I'm lazy, so I rarely write out my own reviews.

Despite my lack of motivation to write reviews, I still get angry whenever I think of the 5-star system. Maybe I should start rating books based on multiple categories. Maybe I'll come up with my own system sometime.

My Excuses for Pathetic Reading Habits

Life has been crazy, I haven't been reading, and here's why!

New semester means new classes, also: everything gets harder. My writing for publication class is a little more than I thought it'd be. I enjoy it a lot, but there's added homework that I'm not used to. Also, my classes are all kicking into high gear because it's third quarter, naturally my busiest time of year. 

I'm also in the school musical this year: Once Upon A Mattress. I have a small part in the chorus, but I've still had rehearsals 1-6 times a week since the beginning of January. The show is the weekend of March 19-21, so stress regarding it will be over soon. However, I'll be more busy in these coming weeks than any time ever. 

I'm also on my school's robotics team. We had a competition this past weekend (made it to the semi-finals!) and have another one the week of the musical. Meetings for the team have been about 10-15 hours a week for me, which is a lot on top of musical rehearsals. 

If that's not enough, I also need to prepare for State Solo & Ensemble. 

All of this has made me push off reading a little, not for lack of interest, but out of necessity. A few weeks ago, I was also having a reading slump but another book got me going last week (thanks Lola and the Boy Next Door!). 

Right now, I'm just trying to fit everything in (homework, robotics, rehearsals). March will be even busier than January and February!

This is just for the sake of documentation. Thanks for bearing with me.