YA Highway RTW: Scary Movies

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic. 

This Week's Topic: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! What's your favorite scary book or movie?

Truth time. I HATE SCARY MOVIES!
I'm a baby. I can't even watch Jumanji with out having nightmares. I haven't really ventured into any horror novels yet. I'm too scared. I want to read a few, but I is ascared.
There are a few non scary Halloween movies that I do enjoy though.
Halloweentown:

I know it's a children's movie but it is still the best thing ever! I watched it a couple weeks ago with my best friend. It's the greatest. The other the are okay. The second one is a little too scary for me. Again I'm a wimp.
Don't Look Under The Bed. If you haven't seen it the story is basically about this girl who is harassed by the boogieman and must stop him with the help of her brother's imaginary friend. Basically this movie was so scary that Disney hasn't aired it in years. Here's a clip. Disney has not had a high quality scary Halloween Movie since.

Okay the last one I guess is a scary movie. I think it's more of a thriller with ghost and stuff.

Basically M Night Shyamalan at his best. I've watched this movie dozens of times in the past six years and I guess I can say this is my favorite horror movie.

What do you like to watch during Halloween? Also what are you dressed as. Because I'm a poor college student I had to be resourceful this year. As a result this happened. I'm a cat dressed in a Christmas sweater. Yeah.

Happy Halloween!

It's Coming...NaNo 2012

NaNoWriMo starts in less than 2 days. Holy crap. With all the plotting and outlining I've worked on this month I am still terrified. I'm all talk. I've never completed one. What if this year is no different? Quite Honestly NaNo is coming third on my list of priorities right behind School and the production I'm working on. (Notice that sleep is not in the top three.) I'll find time and when I do I'll sprint it out but still it's very terrifying.
This morning I received an email form the NaNoWriMo team. Basically they sent all the participants a road map for November. Today's instructions are to tell everyone you're writing a novel. This way they can constantly ask you how that novel's going and whatnot. So here goes.

Internet. I'm writing a novel. 

Well I knew you already knew that, but it's just for reassurance. Next month I'll be throwing myself into 30 days of literary abandonment. Obviously, I won't be checking up on the internet a lot and my other NaNo friends will probably be working hard on there novel to keep tabs with me. I'll be keeping you up to date with the word count daily on Twitter as well as having a "Teaser Tuesday" (and this time only a sentence or a paragraph)
I'm relying on a lot of support from friends, family and hopefully other NaNoer's from my region. Having a Thanksgiving break will help a lot. Sure I'll have other projects and reading to do, but I'm sure someone can keep me on track **cough** mom **cough**. As I stated before, while it would be great to actually finish, if I don't hit the 50,000 by midnight on the 30th it won't be the end of the world. My smaller goal is to write as much as I can everyday. If I can do that I'll be fine so even if don't finish I'll at least get far enough to actually finish the story completely after November. I'm just going to try.
NaNo friends, don't forget to buddy me. If you're game we could also do word wars and writing sprints.

Happy Writing!

P.S. Happy Halloween/50% Candy Day.

Love List 2.0

A few months for YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday I started a love list for my WIP. The idea was inspired by on Stephanie Perkins' post on Natalie Whipple's blog. I briefly touched on my plans for this years NaNoWriMo. Well NaNo is in less than two weeks away and I've added quite a bit. My list started out like this.

Superheros

Love

A not so mild mannered secret identity

a dramatic origin story

An evil pool playing shark mob boss

From there a lot happened. I started outlining, and working out the relationships and whatnot and my list got bigger. I even thought of a title. "Suspension of Disbelief" is going to be about the evolving relationship between two superheroes and how their pasts connect. There is a (somewhat) better synopsis on my "What I'm Working On"  or my author profile. I love the title because it is a recurring theme with most superheroes. For example, the fact that all Superman has to do is put on glasses and act mild mannered to become Clark Kent. NO ONE recognizes him. It's a hilarious concept I hope to with in the novel.

Love List 2.0
Lava Monster
robot army
mad scientist
a crazy stalker fangirl
earth powers (I put a lot of thought into this)
a very awkward "meet the legal guardian" scene
a surprise picnic
a utility belt filled with rocks
SALAD EXPLOSION!
terrible first kisses
floating second kisses
betrayal
deception
secrets
reunions
death (hee hee hee)

That's what I got so far. It will most likely grow. These are just random scenes and themes that go through my head. Whenever I get a thought for a scene I immediately have to write down the idea so I can get back to it later. I almost never leave the house without a notebook. I'm weird like that. 

Blogging might slow down in November. I might be able to do Road Trip Wednesday depending on my schedule. I'm thinking about doing another Teaser Tuesday. I don't know last time I did that someone got very attached to the unfinished story...you know who you are. ;) 

So friends who's doing NaNoWriMo this year? What do you love about your future project so far? 

Happy Reading!

YA Highway RTW: Attempting NaNo...Again

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic is: Are you doing NaNoWriMo, or have you ever? Does having a deadline inspire you?

Oh NaNoWriMo. I've participated (and lost) in 2009 and 2010. I could blame it on a number of things, poor planning, to busy, or just plan procrastination. Whatever way the cookie crumbles, it all comes down to motivation. I didn't have it. The deadline was just a date. Both times around two weeks in if I wasn't caught up with the word count I just gave up. It's sad.
This year I am determined to finish. I've been struggling with my WIP lately and I think I'm just losing faith in myself as a writer. I haven't finished a novel in over four years. When that whole thing didn't work out self doubt kicked in and I don't know, I haven't been able to finish anything since. College doesn't help either. Since there is no deadline looming over me, I keep telling myself I have more time. Days pass, weeks, months. One year later when I finally look back at the story I lose interest. It sucks. I don't want to be like that. And this defiantly can't happen in the future.
This year's NaNo for me is more of a confidence booster. I need to see if I still have it in me. Even if I don't reach 50k I still want to be far enough in my story to finish after NaNo. It's going to be difficult this year. November, quite honestly, will be my busiest month. I have multiple papers due, a huge project for my stage lighting class, and I'll be assistant stage managing a show that goes into tech the last week of November.
Lucky for me I have a couple cheerleaders and my roommate has been instructed to yell at me when I'm procrastinating. Also I'll be able to attending a few local Write-Ins and I have a week off for Thanksgiving.
I've already started outlining and planning for this year. There is a synopsis under my "What I'm Working On" page as well as my author profile on the site. Add me as a buddy and I'll do the same. I could really use a extra boost of encouragement once November hits.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Are you a planner or a pantser? How do you get your encouragement/motivation?

Happy Reading!

YA Highway RTW: In the Future

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What do you hope to be writing in one year? Three? Five?

I've actually thought about this a lot. Where do I see myself in five years writing wise. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

One Year: One year from now I hope to be doing the same thing. Yeah it would be nice to at least have a literary agent, but I'm being realistic. As for now I like where I am, I'm in no real rush. Maybe things will change when I actually have a novel finished. Since I am a creative writing minor I'll probably write a lot more than I am this semester. I can predict what I will be doing a year from today. Outlining my NaNo Novel. As of right now I'm defiantly doing NaNo next year.

Three Years: I really hope things are different. I'll be out of college, starting a career as a Stage Manager. I've never really thought this part out through. I want to be a published author. I want to be a Stage Manager. I can do both, right? Both jobs are so time consuming. Time management is one of those things I'm working on. I can have the best of both world. And yes that was a Hannah Montana reference. Deal with it.

Five Years: Wow I'll be twenty-five years old. Theatre and Writing is what I want to do. Who knows maybe I'll write a play. I think the big difference between three years from now and five years is I'll actually know what I'm doing. In three years I'll be in that awkward "fresh out of college" stage.

When I think too much about this stuff my head hurts. I just need to take this one day at a time. But the one thing I'm absolutely positively sure about is that I will be writing YA. No doubt about that. It's what I love to read and write. That won't be changing.

How about you where do you see yourself in the future?

Happy Reading!

Get Ready

It's officially October. Less than a month until NaNoWriMo begins. If you don't know what that is check it out here. Basically at the start of Novmber you have thirty days to complete a 50,000 word novel.
I this will be my third year participating. Hopefully this year I'll actually win.
I'll try to do a few more post when it comes closer to the date. When November hits I will not be posting as much. Possibly a couple "Teaser Tuesdays."
Also I started a tumblr based on the #whatshouldwecallme trend called "#lifeduringnano. If anybody has emotions about NaNo that could only be explained through GIFs there is a submit page. Mostly likely I'll be busy or run out of ideas and I want to keep this going through NaNo.  If you submit something will be so grateful.
http://lifeduringnano.tumblr.com/
Lastly I was on the forums trying to find a superhero name for one of my characters. Based on my description of his personality and powers, a guy DREW ME A COSTUME DESIGN!!! I hadn't given much though about costumes yet, but as soon as I saw it I was like "That is exactly what Greyson would wear." I'm not going to post it yet without his permission, but rest assure it's awesome.
Here is my participant page.  You can check out my novel synopsis and send me a writing buddy request.
Is anybody doing NaNo this year? If you are doing NaNo on a scale of 1 to 10 how excited are you?

Happy Writing!

YA Highway RTW: The Changing Seasons

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic: How does your writing (place, time, inspiration) change with the seasons?

I'm not routine enough to actually have a changes in my writing. However there are a few things that change.

FALL: For the past few years fall has been dedicated to NaNoWriMo. Although I have never actually finished a NaNo Novel. A lot of time and effort goes into planning it or thinking about planning it. It's pretty backwards I know. Once November hits I get pretty focused on working on that particular piece of work. (or thinking about working on it, then not really) Strangely all of my unfinished NaNo novels are set in the fall. Interesting. That might change for this one.

WINTER: Okay this is really weird but ever since my junior year in high school I've had this idea for a Christmas YA novel focused on Santa's daughter. Every year around Christmas time I write a few paragraphs or hand write a couple pages. I've never actually got around to actually writing it because once Christmas is over I lose the drive to continue working on it. Weird I know.

SPRING: This isn't really writing related, but usually in spring I run around like a chicken with its head cut off flailing my arms around screaming "I'M NEVER GOING TO PASS MY CLASSES!" True story. Though I do that year round.

SUMMER: Summer is the time where I get the most writing done. I'm usually back at home and more relaxed.

How does your writing change over the seasons? Also if you are doing NaNoWriMo this year do you want to be my writing buddy? Here's a link to my author page. CLICK ME!

Happy Reading!