7 Tips on How to Keep on Writing

 

At a very young age, I loved writing and reading. And I was very good art it. I remember in Grade there was a teacher who came up to me and asked what I was doing. I informed her that I was reading Nancy Drew and the Wooden Lady. She didn't say anything, and just walked away while I dove back into the world of Nancy Drew.

I also loved writing. I would take my old scribblers from school and I would fill them with little stories about me. And now where I've come from that!

I'm now writing a novel! But writing can be tedious and when you don't have inspiration, pretty boring.
There has always been days where I just feel like writing. And there are days where I don't feel like writing. But I always keep on writing.

Actually, that's a lie. I don't write everyday, far from it. But I try to do something related to my novel everyday. Whether it is role-playing, editing previous writing, or searching for my character on Pinterest. I've done it all.

But since writer's block loves kicking my butt, and other writer's too, I made so tips to kick writer's block back.

 

#1- Roleplay

It's pretty simple. Just act out what your character says or does. That's why if you walk into my room sometimes, I might be sprawled on the floor or trying out some punches and kicks in the mirror. You never know with my novel.

 But when you get into your character, you connect to them easier. That way it's easier to write those character's or scenes you've been avoiding.

Also, who doesn't like acting out a character. I love acting like Hotisi and reciting his the lines. My newest favorite line is, Very funny. I'm laughing really hard. 

And you'd never believe who said it. Hotisi Ito! My favorite male character's POV to write is definitely hands down, Hotisi. He is very cocky and he thinks he's the king of the world in all dangerous situations. He is full of wit and humor. (I even go off topic and start to blog about him)

 

#2- Find your character

If you have an idea of what your character looks like, then it's easier to write those drawn out description paragraphs. If you are born with those artistic genes that I conveniently missed, then draw the person instead. Both of my sisters can draw, but I can't draw for a hundred dollars, so I stick with Pinterest.

There are dozens of boards out there that have faces of people. All I did was type in character inspiration. There was so many boards of women, teenagers, little kids. I made a board on Pinterest for Erin, Airi, and Hotisi when I didn't feel like writing. I might even make a board for Ti-su.

If you want to check out the boards, just click on Erin, Airi, Hotisi.

 

#3- Just write

Even if you don't want to write, just do it anyway. Take advice from Nike, just do it. It might turn out horrid, but it might be awesome. And once you've written the 100, it could become 200, and then 500 and next thing you know, you've written 1,200 words.

So what if it sucks, you can always edit it. At least you wrote that day. Those 150 words you wrote may not be much, but it just put you 150 words closer.

I know I need some momentum to get going, but once I start writing, I can't stop. Well, sometimes I stop for a snack break or a walk around my room.

Find a place where you get inspiration and write there. My newest favorite place to write is on the deck in the sun. Or anywhere where the sun is. We don't get sun here until the end of April, so I'm taking full advantage of this nice weather.

#4- Make time to write

You may have to skip out on things in order to write. For me it's sleep. I sometimes stay up till 11:00 PM writing my story. Why? Because I'm a really busy person that loves being multi-talented. 

I'm not about to rant on my time management, okay?

It's something you'll have to accept. Once you've started down this path, there's no turning back. Actually, I just kidding. But in order to conquer goals, you have to make sacrifices.

Whether it's parties, family time, or sleep. Anything that you do to put off writing is something you need to rescheduled. Unless it's super important like church, a funeral, or school. But if you wanted to have a friend over, but that's the last day of camp and you only have 2k left, tell her to come in 3 days instead of 2. See how easy that is?

But I'm not saying to not have fun. We're just kids and I even skip out on writing. *gasp!* Yes, I'm guilty of doing it once or twice. When you start dreading your novel, it's time to hit the backspace.

 

#5- Do some word sprints

This is a great way to get going. There isn't anything like the thrill of trying to beat the clock and boosting your number count.

For the people who don't know what that is, it's a 25 minute timer where you try to write as much as possible. I usually write about 600 words every sprint, and that means 1.2k an hour. Challenge yourself and see how much you can write in 25 minutes.

But also when I write using word sprints, you have tons of stuff to edit later on. So just a warning if you despise editing writing.

#6- You'll benefit from it later

You know all know the story of the ant and the grasshopper. The ant worked hard all year while the grasshopper made fun of him. In the end, who got the better end of the deal? The ant. He had worked hard and had a great winter while the grasshopper froze and died.

So as it goes in writing too. If you keep putting it off, then when what will it happen when the deadline appears? You'll rush it and end up with bad work. "Haste makes waste" as my friend so wisely said.

If you write now, your future self will thank you.

 

Also, if you know you have a party on Saturday and you wanted to write on that day. Instead of shrugging and leaving it, work on it Friday and go to the party on Saturday. You still went to the party, but you got writing done to. It's called killing 2 birds with on stone.

#7- Have a simple playlist that you play on loop

This is a big help for me. If I have a long playlist of 40 songs, then I spend the most of my time skipping ahead to different songs.

So I made a playlist of all instrumental songs to listen to. And when I was making the playlist, I picked songs to fit moods I had in the book. There are happy and upbeat songs, intense samurai music for the fights, and sad music for those sentimental moments.

If you want to check out the playlist, click here: Playlist

And even after writing for 15 minutes, I tune out the songs and they become background noise.
 

Those are all the tips and tricks for you today. I hope I inspire you to write more!

 

What is your favorite noveling music? What helps you write on a day-to-day basis? Comment down below

-Carlye

Behind the Scenes of Trying to Trust

You may recall the last post I made that was about my Trying To Trust. Well, I'm making a behind the scenes of it.

Some may know how much time and effort it actually takes to make a photo-story. You have to make the idea, write what happens, dress the dolls and make sets. Then figure out the best angle for the shot and get the lighting just right. Now multiply that by 10. That is what I have to do for each part.

And you're also wondering when I'm actually posting part 1.

I decided to make the entire thing first, then post them one after another. So mark your calendars for May 1, which is when part one of the photostory is going live. At the bottom of this post, you'll find the posting schedule.

With out further ado, let's hop into the actual post you wanted to read.

This may not look messy, but the wall I made is very unbalanced. If you nudge it, the whole thing comes toppling down.

I needed a wall for the bedroom, but we don't have any cardboard or poster board handing around. Instead of going into despair, I took the lid off the bins I have under the bed. but the lids are transparent, so I draped a scarf over the lid, making a starry wall.

It's all about innovation.

This is what my picture would look like with a light reflector, light umbrella, and using the auto mode.

I really wanted to improve my photography, so I looked it up on YouTube. Now, I understand f-stop, shutter speed, and IOS.

I would definitely recommend learning to use Manuel on your camera.

This is what my light reflector looks like. You can't tell, but it's propped up against a basket. But sadly, there is no grip on the bottom of the reflector, so I had to borrow some plants from around the house.

And the hallway in our house has very bad lighting. Thankfully, I know how to edit them. Kinda.

This is the outfits Riley, (My main character) has worn. I needed to make a closet in her room, so after digging through my overload of clothing, I found what I need.

For the next season, (yes, the next season) they only wear one outfit. That proves to be challenge. They'd need something practical, yet stylish. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

As mentioned above, I needed a way to hang the clothing. So here is a little AG clothing hack:

You'll need a hanger, some clothing bottom, hair pins, and little hair elastic. Tie the hair elastic around the bottom of the hanger, where the slit is. Then secure the knot by putting the hair pin on the other side. Repeat on the other side of the hanger. Finally, slip the hair pin onto the back of the bottom. There you go, a handy way of hanging all your dolls clothing.

Comment down below if I should maybe do a post about AG DIYs.

This is mini look at Riley's room. (Riley is being played by Isabelle)

Time for a mini room tour! Her bed is Kit's retired bed from AG. The cabinet is actually Z's desk, folded up. And there is some stuff hanging on the hooks. The closet is a maker tapped to the top of the desk, and tapped to the side of my actually desk. Then I just hung the clothes on the curtain rod, aka the marker.

I have the light reflector propped up against the basket again, and you can't see it, but the light umbrella's light is shining onto the reflector. Then the light bounces off, lighting up the room.

If you're looking to take better pictures, then definitely invest in one of those. I bought mine off amazon for about 20 dollars, including shipping and tax. It shipped pretty fast and I really love it.

There is the giant bin that holds my accessories. They just slide under the bed, because my closet is a little full.

I was listening to music as I was working, because music just makes it more enjoyable. The hat wearer is Alex, or better known as Kit. Then Zoey is wearing a spifty all black outfit. (Spifty is the combination of spiffy and nifty. My friend and I made it up.)

I think I was doing the hair during this picture. I honestly don't know.

This was before I realized taking pictures on the ground was better. This is actually Zoey and Kit's room in the doll house.

Now I use the ground for the rooms in my photostory. When I film stop-motions, then I don't use the floor. Carpet is hard to stop-motion with.

I used a chair from the desk to hold the reflector. And once again, there are pots preventing the reflector to slide away.

Now onto the most important part of the post, the calendar!

May 1- Trying to Trust Part 1

May 3- Trying to Trust Part 2

May 5- Trying to Trust Part 3

May 7- Trying to Trust Part 4

May 9- Trying to Trust Part 5

May 12- Trying to Trust Part 6

May 14- Trying to Trust Part 7

May 16- Trying to Trust Part 8

May 18- Trying to Trust Part 9

May 21- Trying to Trust Final

Are you excited for Trying to Trust? Comment down below

- Carlye

Pictures #3

I have the last rounds of pictures heading your way.

Let's just jump right into it:

There was this awesome sunrise the day before spring break and I just had to take pictures. This was an attempt of a silhouette. I don't think it looks that bad.

The clouds look like waves of curtains hanging from the sky.

It is super hard to focus on clouds. You just don't know where to focus on.

These pictures remind us of the beauty of nature.

This one is my favorite. You see part of the blue sky, but there is also the stormy pink clouds.

Now we transition to the doll pictures.

This is me when I head outside. I have the reflector under one arm, a doll under the other, and the camera around my neck. Isabella actually is my look alike. We both have long blond hair, (although I cut it) earrings, and glasses.

My neighbor has a side garden right beside our driveway. So I just took pictures in garden by this ivy stuff he has on the ground.

I really like this picture. Like a lot. I think the colors just look nice together. But that's just me, not an photography expert.

And we round to the last picture, just a single random one with her on the side of the road. I was taking this picture and the light reflector would not cooperate. After grabbing several paint cans and sand buckets from the garage, I got the reflector to go in the desired spot. And just as I took the shot, the mailman comes walking up and starts talking to me. I had my headphones on, so I smiled and nodded with what ever he was saying.

That wasn't so bad. I only had like, 10 photos. It was a shorter round then the last 2.

I hope you enjoy this post.

What was your favorite picture? Do you have any interesting stories behind you photography?

Comment down below

- Carlye

Shadows Book 1 Days 12-17

I have a new Shadows page! Click here to view it: Shadows.

It has a little about my writing and what the novels are about.

This isn't a long post, because it was only 5 days. But I did write for 4 out of the 5 days.

April 6

Words written: 3,876

Total words written: 15,324

I started writing this at 2 in the afternoon and ended writing around 9:30 at night. I did a bunch of editing before and that took longer then expected. It added a lot to my word count though and that was nice. (I sounded so excited)

April 7

Words written: 879

Total words written: 16, 221

I didn't really do anything that day. I think a did half a scene and that was it.

April 9

Words written: 1,003

Total words written: 17,224

This was a rainy day so I wasn't all upbeat. Also I was really tired from my lack of sleep. But I've caught up on my sleep now.

April 10

Words written: 1,297

Total words written: 18,521

This was yesterday and I was writing this at night. I had a headache, but instead of sleeping I wrote. I was like, let's write even though I don't feel good. I did get 1.2 k written and I finished a scene.

This was a really boring post that you don't care about because I don't have snippets for you. But you get to find out about the books. That'll make up for it.

Do you want more posts like this? Or do you want more AG posts? Comment down below.

- Carlye

A Day in the Life of Carlye

Welcome new/old viewers! I have a great blog post planned!

As the title states, it is a Day in My Life!

I thought of this idea a long time ago, but I never have interesting days. This post orginally had like, 54 pictures, but I had to delete some for the blog's sake. You still get to scroll through 40 pictures.

It's spring break, (when I took these) so I woke up at 8:00 AM. I was dead tired from the day before. I had stayed up till 12:00 AM the night before writing. Anyway, I woke up and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.

Since I can't actually cook or bake, my mom made me bacon and egges. And just to make it more fancy, I put the egg and bacon on a toasted english muffin. 

Once my friend and I were baking cookies. We were expirtmenting with different flavors, so we dumped some marshmallows in for s-more cookies. The cookies got burnt and turned green.

After eating, I helped my mom clean the house and I clean my room.

My dad was working and so was my older sister, so it was only me, mom, and my little sister at home. I had a shower and then we headed to Walmart to shop for clothing for my little sister. I tagged along because, I didn't have anythign ese to do.

We arrived at Walmart. I didn't really take that many pictures because it was crowded. So many people stared at me. I guess it isn't everyday that you see some carting a camera around and taking pictures.

I'm currently in the learning stage of Manual, so I was playing around with shutter speed, f-stop, and such.

I thought I'd turned off the camera, so I was just clicking the button while walking around. I think it looks cool even though there isn't a focus point.

My little sister took this picture. I was waiting for the kady to give a dressign room. She wasn't there, so mom went and hunted her down while I stood there annoyed.

We came home and my older sister came home from a half day at work. Her room was a mess so I offered to help her clean it. 

After lunch, I edited my stop-motion and and uplaoded it. I try to upload every week, so filming takes u a lot of writing time. I actually edit on my mom's laptop, because it has the editing system.

I dressed my dolls and go them ready for my next stop-motion. (I should actaully be working on it right now, but I want to write this)

After setting up for the stop-motion, I wrote for about and hour and a half. I mostly did editing from the last few days, so I didn't write that many words.

This is me getting distracted from writing. I'm like, "When I finish this snack, I'll keep writing." That happens more often then I'd like to.

It was about 5 o'clock and I collected my library books. Yes, those are all my library books. Don't laugh.

The whole family headed out to the library and I checked for holds. There wasn't a single one. 

We needed to do something in town. The town 45 minutes away. 

My sister- Gemma- and I fooled around taking random pictures. This picture reminds me of an old lady scolding someone. 

This is another picture of her. I love the look of the blurred background.

We headed to my favorite Christian book store to pick up a book I ordered. There was a box of 1 dollar books, so I had to take pictures of the books.

I definitly recomend this book to any Scit-fi fantsy lovers. It is great book and a book I'll read again.

If you're like me and go through books super fast, what are some of your favorite books? Comment down below.

For supper we headed to Timmies! All of the Americans reading this is going, "Huh? What in the world is Tim Hortons?"

Well, Timmies is a Canadian coffee shop with basically any donut, coffee, or sandwich. It's really good and not over priced like Starbucks.

It's Gemma's ice tea set aglow! The sun is hidden behind the bottle, so it looks kinda fiery.

I got a toasted bagel that was amazing. You should seriously consider moving the Canada, you don't know what you're missing out on.

For the people that don't know, my dad and Gemma are big into archery. We're actually going to a archery competition today to cheer Gemma on.

So we went to this hunting and outdoor store. It was really boring except for fooling around in the store.

Above the door there was this giant display of a stuffed deer and a cougar. It looked like the cougar was stalking the deer.

This is me fooling around in the store. I'm supposed to look like a serious hunter person.

I have no idea what this deer is doing. Maybe he's jumping?

There was some sign about the Sasquatch about how it apparently lived 40 miles from that exact place.

I'm not going to ask a thing. It's the end of March when this was taken. Christmas is little late.

A cheesy selfie I took that I regret. I can not take selfies.

My little sister tried out a compound bow. I think that's what it's called. She actually wasn't half bad.

And that was the end of my day. I had another picture, but I don't know where it went.

We headed home and I crawled into bed at 9:00 PM. I read my bible, prayed, and then settled in reading my new book until 11:30.

So that was basically my Saturday.

I hope you enjoyed this post and have a great weekend!

Do you want more posts like this?
Comment down below.

-Carlye