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This summer I’m trying to write somewhere between 500 words and 3 pages a day, not including weekends. As of yesterday, I have about 140 pages in my manuscript (I just began chapter 13), and I’m guessing I’m about halfway done, but it’s hard to say. I’m glad I’m going to take a “plotting and scheming” class next week–I need a synopsis of my project and I can’t bring myself to write one on my own. Of course, it will all be up in the air until the first copy is printed, as I’ve heard. Other than writing, I’ve been …

Coincidentally, I was in San Francisco when they were having a Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. Interestingly, though, the celebration was on the 15th rather than the 17th. My cousin said the Pope had changed the holiday because it interfered with holy week. Personally, and to show my love for Ireland, I wore my green on the 17th. Nothing against the Pope. This parade was interesting enough, filled with dancers and drummers and even a hurling team. No, it’s not what you think; hurling is an Irish sport involving an “axe-shaped stick,” like a long-handled paddle, and a small ball they …

It’s strange how inspiration works. I’m not sure I even believe in it. I’ve heard some of the best writing has been done when the writer forces themselves to write, rather than waiting for the inspiration to come. Now that I’ve waited nearly two weeks, I think I’m finally ready to continue chapter 9 and keep rolling. I’m not exactly sure what started it, but it might have been a thought as I was commuting to school on the bus the other day. I finally figured out what should happen–at least temporarily–in a paragraph I was stuck on so I …

I’ve started an exercise mentioned by the book The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, called “morning pages.” After you wake up, the first thing you do is write three pages (on paper, but I’m modifying it and doing it on the computer). Spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. don’t matter, and if you write “I don’t know what to write,” for three pages, that’s fine. Of course, nobody wants to be that monotonous (at least I don’t). You can use it to write angry, fearful, worrying things if you want, and it helps to get them out of your head. It …

Amazingly, I’ve nearly made it to chapter 9. I have to fight the twin demons of procrastination and… procrastination… to get here, but when I sit down and make myself stick my flash drive in my computer and open the document, I realize it’s really not as hard as I tell myself it is. After I get past my mental critic (it sucks, no publisher will pick it up, your dreams are too big), things just flow. I began, after my last session with my writing tutor, to have a goal of 1500 words a week, and realized that I …

Thanks to the gathering of my ideas, a great writing mentor (Thank you Katherine!), and squeezing in free time, I finally feel like I can say I’m writing a novel. It’s such a strange feeling, and I have no clue how it all will work out, but I have dreams of being right up there with Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks. I could venture to say it will be a trilogy, but who knows! Now, I’ll be story journaling and plotting till my head hurts. Time for a hot mug of green tea and leftover Halloween candy!

Photo: Meet Midnight, …

I find the solitude of looking at mountains in chilly air quite refreshing. On the way to eastern washington this past weekend we visited a rest stop with a spectacular view. For the first time I saw jagged mountain peaks and stark grey, mossy trees. I could truly imagine the countless fantasy stories I’ve read happening here, and I’m sure that now, whenever “jagged peaks” shows up in a story, I’ll think of this place. Plenty of photagraphers lined the path up here, taking snapshots of the pristine peaks, and it made me think of my photography class coming up …

I’m moving again. I can’t seem to stay in one place very long–I don’t even think I’ve stayed in the same school for more than 2 years. Of course, it’s mostly been in the same district, that only changed once. I’m sad about leaving certain things here on Whidbey, but overall I think I’m ready to go. Something’s calling me over at Bellevue Community College, and in Lynnwood where our house will be. I’m hoping our house will sell, but because of the market right now, we might have to rent it. I’ve met many memorable people, and most of …

New writing projects can be frustrating, especially when you’re unsure whether you bit off more than you could chew. I’m plotting a story, potentially more than one book long, but any details I might want to work out crumble in my fingers when I try to grasp them. Ooh, I must be hungry with all these food analogies. But knowing how much to plot and plan beforehand is hard for me, and my story could go in so many directions. I try to read interviews with authors to see what they recommend, but none of them, understandably, know where their …

Music has always made me smile. Right now, out my window, I’m suddenly hearing a harmonica played somewhere in the neighborhood. I am happily surprised when this happens, especially when my mom is playing the classical radio station and I suddenly hear a bassoon. Now that we have plans to move this summer, I am incredibly sad to leave the place where I learned to play the bassoon. My instructor and fellow musicians on Whidbey have been wonderful to learn from and play with. I thought about this as I rehearsed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in …