5 Random Updates

I should make all my headers like this…it took me about three minutes. Then again, it’s rather uncreative. But it works in a pinch when you’re tired and want to go to bed.

Well, some of them are random, anyway. They’re less random and more rambly. I should’ve called it 5 Rambly Updates. So, I don’t know what to post about but I decided I should probably post before I leave on hiatus for a little bit.

So randomness/ramblyness (rambliness?) ensues.

#1: Update on Blogging & Hiatus

Okay, this isn’t random, really. But I’m going to be gone next week. *nods* And maybe longer than that because I don’t know what to blog about if I’m not writing regularly. And I haven’t been writing regularly. *hides in shame*

Also, I now have over 100 followers! Thank you, everyone, for reading. It means a lot that you read and (hopefully?) enjoy my blog!

#2: Update on Life

I’ve been thinking a lot about college and stuff and whyyy does it cost so much? Some days it seems so far away and I’m like, “Oh, I’ll just not worry about it,” and other days I’m so overwhelmed and I feel like I’ll never be ready. (I spend a lot of time between two conflicting emotions like that.)

I also don’t want to think about school, so I haven’t started my summer homework. And I have been procrastinating a lot recently. It’s a problem.

I read around 20 books in June…some have yet to see the light of a goodreads review, though. But I’m working on that. Actually, I’m reading rather than writing reviews. Probably not a good thing, but I’ll get around to them sometime.

#3: Update on Self Growth

Hm. Hopefully I’m not getting any taller, but I think I am getting better as a person. More or less. I don’t really know. I’ve been praying to have more charity, and it’s helped, but then I also have days where I get frustrated and take it out on everyone around me.

And I complain way too much. Any ideas? Say two things positive after every complaint?

#4: Update on Musicality

After all, this blog is called The Music of Words. So, what musicking have I been up to? Not much. I’ve been taking voice lessons but I haven’t practiced much since my last one…eep. So I know my voice is probably getting worse as I sit here, not singing.

But I’ve been playing the piano recently, not practicing, but at least playing. Mostly as a form of escapism from the world. I can’t escape through singing…it’s too much of me, I think. I know people hear it and they hear me. But when I play the piano, they hear the music and I hear the music, and I don’t have to worry about improving my voice or how I breathe or that I miss a few notes. I just play.

#5: Update on Writing

*sigh*

Yep, that’s a pretty good description on it’s own. Lots of sighing. Lots of glaring at myself in the mirror (and at my characters if I feel like it). Basically, I haven’t been writing much even though I’ve had time to, and that just makes me feel all guilty inside. Grrrrr.

Plus, Camp NaNo? Ha! Especially since I’m going on hiatus. I’m going to lose again. And it’s because I’m too lazy to write.

But I have made some progress on Battle Song! I’m at a grand total of 8,570 words so far and I’m having a lot of fun exploring the world and some of the magic of the world. (The mers can do magical stuff through singing, which is so fun to play around with. And traumatize Amrya with.)

I want to talk to you about it! Though I’m not entirely sure what to talk about…what do you want to hear about? Characters? Plot? Setting? A Spotlight with an excerpt or snippets? What I’m struggling with? I don’t know, you tell me what you want to hear. I’ll try to oblige, unless inspiration suddenly strikes…

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Alrighty, there’s my updates & basically my tired, late night version of a monthly wrap-up post. (What happened to the Dares? I don’t know. I would still like to do them, but the posts took a long time to write, and I never seemed to accomplish much.)

Anyway, how have you been? Any updates you want to share with me? Tell me how your writing is going or what thoughts have been on your mind lately during life. Do you play an instrument or sing? How do you feel about music?

The Writer’s Tag

I know, I haven’t done a tag since…well, since the Week of Blog Tags, and I don’t remember how long ago that was. But what writer doesn’t love talking about writing? And when May @ Forever and Everly tagged anyone who wanted to do it, why not do it…a month later? (That’s pretty good for me, actually.) Thanks, May!

So, it’s time for The Writer’s Tag! Where I talk about writing!

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What genres, styles, and topics do you write about?

Lots of things, but I suppose it’s usually the same things that I like to read about!

For genres: Fantasy with cool plot reveals and a dash of romance. But, you know, I’ve never read epic science fiction, and yet that’s something else I’m writing about? I need to read more sci-fi…anyone know of any books?

For styles: I usually write in 3rd person, past tense, but for Battle Song, which I’m starting to work on again, it’s actually in 1st person! And my writing style is usually fairly straightforward. I would love to develop better word choice and a more beautiful writing style, but mine is pretty simple right now.

For topics: I love to write about dragons, magic, fairy tale retellings, cultures/beliefs, deep characters, and war. Probably too much war. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure that I’ve written a novel that doesn’t have war in it…I just love the strength and heroism it brings out in people!

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How long have you been writing?

For as long as I can remember! I still have old notebooks from when I was in elementary school with unfinished stories in them (usually about fairies or orphans…who knows?).

However, I never really took writing seriously as something I’d actually want to do with my life until my dad suggested we do Camp NaNoWriMo together, in April 2013. That’s when I realized how much I loved writing.

Then, 2014 was when writing became more a part of my life, when I took the 365K challenge and tried to write a thousand words every day.

And now, I’m trying to make writing my career, so I guess it depends on your definition of “writing”. Maybe I’m just beginning!

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Why do you write?

I write because I love it. I write because if I don’t write, my mind fills with new ideas and new plots, and my Creative Dragon awakes within me, telling me that it won’t leave me alone until I write something. (True story.)

I write because I love to express emotions through words, because I can’t always speak, because there’s a beauty in showing how people progress through difficult challenges.

I write because weaving a story is my favorite way to spend my time. I adore my characters, I can’t stop the exhilaration of coming up with a new idea, and I love trying to puzzle out how everything fits together. In short, it’s awesome!

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When is the best time to write?

All the time! Just kidding. I don’t know if there’s a particular time of day that I feel more productive to writing, because that’s not something I normally pay attention to, but on my new schedule I’m writing from 3:00-5:00 p.m. I don’t know, if I did it a little earlier, I’d probably be a bit more creative, but it still works! I like having a timeframe that I have to stick to–writing, and nothing else, during those hours.

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What parts of writing do you love, and what parts do you hate?

Love: I love that moment when everything just fits together! After you’ve been thinking hard and pondering how anything relates, and it’s so confusing, but this flash of inspiration comes and everything makes sense!

When you think of an awesome plot twist or plot reveal.

When you’re developing a character you didn’t really connect with before, and then you figure out something about them, and you just love them to death.

When thinking about a character’s death makes you want to cry (even if you don’t).

When you write that super emotional scene and your heart feels like it’s being squeezed and your characters are all so awesome and dramatic and everything is awesome.

When you have dreams about your characters being shippy. *nods*

When you have dreams that spark story ideas.

When you share your work and someone loves it! And not only that, but they connect with it. That’s awesome.

When you look back on old writing and realize that it’s not as bad as you remembered.

When you think of a deliciously sad and emotional ending or scene.

When you get to be the evil author. All too often done by me…but it’s so fun!

When you’re so in love with your story that everyone else can’t help but love it too.

…that was kind of long…

Hate/Dislike: Being stuck and not knowing where to go next.

When you have such a great idea, and it doesn’t turn out as good on paper.

When your characters are all refusing to develop themselves. Hence all the character-glaring that I do.

When you start to compare yourself with other writers and feel like a failure.

When you feel like you don’t know how to write anymore.

When someone doesn’t like your writing that you’re really proud of.

When you feel so inadequate and like you’ll never measure up.

Gosh, why do we put the “hates” after the “loves”? That’s just depressing.

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How do you overcome writer’s block?

I don’t. Umm, probably through endurance, I guess? Sometimes all it takes is to keep going when it’s hard. But I think usually it helps to take a break and do something else (like drawing or playing the piano) to calm me down. After that, it helps to find where things went wrong and then try to fix it or go from there. Identifying the problem is half the battle!

(And fixing it is the other half. *sighs* Usually something needs more development…always more development.)

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Are you working on something at this moment?

Yes, I’m writing this blog post. Yup! I just started working on Battle Song, a retelling of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, with warrior mermaids + cool characters + cool religion stuff + wars! (See? There’s even multiple wars in this one.) I started writing it last November for NaNoWriMo, but I’m restarting.

(I’d link you to the page, but some things are changing and I need to rewrite it. And also make a better blurb. Because I’m great at that.)

Anyway, I’m still working on re-developing stuff, but soon I’m going to start writing. This time, I’m going to write the last 10K first because then I’ll know where I’m headed. Plus, there’s some great emotional/shippy/awesome scenes at the end. *grins*

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What are your writing goals this year?

Well, I do have goals from my New Year’s Resolutions post, buut a few of those might be changing. My new goals are to write every day, to publish at least two short stories, and have the first and second drafts of Battle Song done.

Unless you mean “year” as in a year from today, in which case to have Battle Song as ready for publishing as I can get it.

And, of course, to always be improving!

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Tag–You’re it!

If you read this and enjoyed it, consider yourself tagged. Because I only have a few people who I could tag, and I’m also not sure how many you’re supposed to tag for this…so tag if you want it!

(Also, if you do this tag, feel free to use the graphic!)

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we talk and talk and talk

Are you going to do the tag/have you done it before? I’d love a link! And if you don’t want to do the tag, feel free to answer the questions in a comment below! I especially want to know what you love and what you hate about writing.

Oh, and, P.S. I’m going to be gone next week on a family vacation. I was going to write a post and pre-schedule it, but I don’t know if I’ll have time. So if you don’t see me, that’s why!

Rambles on Writing #2: Things Are Looking Up

In my last post, Rambles on Writing #1, I talked about how everything in my novel seemed to be falling apart and I didn’t know how to write it and the plot was terrible and blah blah blah all of my complaining. So a big THANK YOU to everyone who encouraged, advised, supported, and commiserated with me in response.

I said I wanted my next post to be more happy and so it is! I am much more happy. There are still things to work on (like maybe actually writing something in Enhanced, but I figured out most of the problem and kind of how to fix it. (I found more problems, too, but mainly smaller ones.)

The main problem with my plot, I realized, was that none of my characters really changed. I’d made all of these lovely little plots for them to go through and struggle with, but they weren’t really struggling because the plots didn’t really affect them.

First of all, I added in the moralistic dimension that my writing had been missing. Obviously, you don’t want a book to end with, “And that’s why you should always…” because that isn’t going to change people. But if you can write a book with inspiring characters and play with the reader’s emotions, then they can learn a lesson from it and apply it to them. That wasn’t happening before, but hopefully it will now.

For that, I wrote down a list of a lot of the life lessons that I’ve learned (or should have learned) and a lot of them just fit with characters. Like, “You can’t change other people, so change yourself,” goes definitely to Taira. And Kai’s is clearly, “Heroism means integrity. You have to keep to your standards no matter the situation or justification,” which is possibly my favorite one.

Some of the others were tricky, like with Will or Bennett, but I figured them out. (“You can make a difference” and “if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything,” respectively.)

Then I took the plot and altered it just slightly so that it would affect all of them personally. Since Meryn is so separated from the rest of them and really isn’t participating in the main plot, she was the main problem, so I spent a couple pages figuring out why their plan would affect her.

And now I’m feeling much better about the plot. There’s still so much to do, but at least I know where I’m going and why it’ll affect the character and so hopefully I have enough to get back to writing on.

I may do a very short and basic outline so that I can figure out what I’m already supposed to have written and included, but I might not and instead just continue where I left off with the better plot. *shrugs*

Anyway, I know this is a rather short and bland post, but, hey, things are working out more and I’m feeling happy about the development I’ve done, so I figured that was worth sharing. (Don’t worry, I’ll have some more exciting posts after this busy weekend.)

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Oh, and before the questions at the end of this post, here’s a quick update on blogging that I forgot to post a week or two ago-I’ve gotten to a thousand comments! The thousandth comment was done by Kellyn Roth, who well-deserved this honor due to her many comments on my blog (somewhere around 150 by now. Actually, I lied–nearly 200 comments!). Thank you all for all of your comments and your conversation with me! It’s been lots of fun.

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How has your writing been coming along? Have you had any breakthroughs like I have had, are you stuck in writer’s block, or are you still just breezing along with amazing skills? I would love to hear about all of your novels–go ahead, ramble!

Rambles on Writing

There have been so many thoughts going through my mind recently about writing and my writing journey, so this probably isn’t really going to be a post about Enhanced like I was planning for it to be. (But that’s okay, one of my February dares was to blog what I want to, so I will.) But I will give you a status update on it! And hopefully a post about it soon.

Current Word Count: About 38,350-ish. The exact count should be on the sidebar. Which is about 32% of my goal. I think that’s around where the plot is…*shrugs*

But the problem is that I’m starting to get bored of it… I love my characters and talking about them, but right now I feel like the plot is really…suffering. I mean, I have a plot, but it’s not very prevalent, and the whole book is very character-heavy so far without much action. The first draft of Enhanced was basically the opposite–all action and no character development, so I know I need to find a balance between the two.

The thing is, I’m not sure how long it will take me to find that balance. Do I work on developing that for a little while instead of actually writing so that I can try to fix it, or do I finish this draft because I want to finish it and move onto other things? Don’t get me wrong, I still love the novel, I just…I’m tired of it, like I said.

Another problem is that I’m not sure how to fix it. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually, but I don’t know how to get to that point without totally changing the plot and maybe even the characters again. I thought I’d had the right plot this time, but now, writing it, it seems way too character-heavy…but maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be…gah, I don’t know.

So because of that, I’m instead working on this really dark short story that I started a long time ago with lots of characters who are devious and murder each other. Fun, right? I do enjoy it, but I keep adding more characters and it’s getting longer and longer…already it’s over 15 pages… *nervous laughter*

But when I finish that, I’ll be looking for some people to read it and tell me what they think about it, so if you like the sound of it, then keep that in mind. (Of course, I could procrastinate on the story again for a few months and not come back to it for a while, so don’t get too excited.)

And then…well, I decided to get over my fear of sharing my writing with my family and share some of my novels with my dad to read. So I gave him a list with a little summary of each of them and he decided he wanted to read Raven, my very first novel.

And it just so happened to end up that sometime around chapter five, he started reading it out loud to both me and my younger brother. At first, I was a little bothered, but I love listening to him read, and he did such a great Kergan voice that I couldn’t help but let him keep going…

By a few chapters later, when he told us it was time for bed, my brother kept calling it “that amazing novel” even though he knew the name of it, and my dad said to me, “You know, this is first draft stuff and he’s saying that it’s amazing. That means you could probably start publishing for children really soon.”

I started to say, “I don’t want to publish for children,” thinking about Enhanced, but then my words were cut off as another thought came into my head–the idea I had for a middle grade novel about dragons that I had wanted to write for my little brother specifically.

And I do want to write it. I always knew Raven, despite it being my first novel and not that great in some ways, had a vibrancy and excitement about it that I’ve never been able to replicate…and I guess I feel that if I write that dragon book, for children, then it’ll bring some of that back. And, you know, the thought of publishing soon isn’t bad either.

So I’m in a bit of a quandary (I’ve been wanting to use that word for days now…). I want to finish Enhanced but I don’t want to work on it, in part because it seems actionless and has too much character development, especially when compared to a novel written for middle grade.

I’m thinking about writing the MG dragon novel for Camp NaNo in April since it should be shorter and I might actually be able to finish it in a month…so I think I might do that. Which means I should keep working on Enhanced, but the question is, should I keep writing or try to figure out what core elements need to be changed and…I don’t know, start rewriting it again?

Ugh, I don’t want to rewrite it again. Maybe there being too much character stuff isn’t a bad thing…? I think I might need someone to read what I have so far in order to tell me that. Any volunteers?

*headdesks* Any opinions, advice, comments, etc. are most appreciated since I’d love for help with this problem. Thanks for reading all of my complaining…hopefully next post will be much better and happier!

Blogging Evaluation Thingy

I didn’t know what to title this, so…yeah, it’s a “thingy”. Lately I haven’t been having too much inspiration for blog posts, and while it might just be doing Camp NaNo with Cryonic that’s been stealing all my creativity from me, I want to take a look at how I’ve been doing blogging–and mainly, what you’d like to happen on it.

First off, I want to talk about some of my blogging accomplishments! One of them is just starting a blog in general. I always thought it would be cool to start a blog, but when I actually started it, it was even cooler than I imagined! One of the biggest reasons for this is because of you. At the beginning I was kind of just amazed that people would want to read what I’m writing. Now, I have more than 900 views, I’ve written 35 posts, have 19 followers, and 423 comments! That is amazing, and it’s all because of you. Pat yourself on the back and give yourself some chocolate.

And since you’re reading all of this stuff, I’d like your opinion on what you want to see on this blog. Obviously, you won’t be forcing me to do anything, but I’d like this to be enjoyable for both of us.

So, what have you liked/not liked so far? What would you like to see more/less of? To jog your memory, here are some of the things I’ve done blog posts about:

• Writing stuff related to music stuff (I feel like I haven’t done one of these in forever)
• Short stories/poetry/other writing-y stuff
• Advice and stuff I’ve learned about through my current writing projects
• Randomness (blog tags, random facts about me, etc.)
• Character interviews
• The occasional ramble about my novel/plot bunnies I’ve had
• Book review
• Annnddd…I think that’s about it, actually.

Also, are there any things that you would absolutely love to read about that I haven’t really done yet? (Or just things you’d like to hear, that works too.)

So it’s sort of an evaluation thingy for myself. I accept constructive criticism and suggestions as well as praise and would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my ramblings!

A RaNDoM PoSt

I felt as if I should post something today. However, I couldn’t think of anything to write about (still can’t, actually). Therefore, I have a for you A RaNDoM PoSt. (Note funky capital letters.) Today, I shall gift you with 25 bits of random information glorious wisdom.

1. I am eating potato salad.
2. My Zel novel isn’t even at 40,000 words yet.
3. April is 9 days away.
4. If you combine bits of wisdom #3 and #4, you get a disastrous result of procrastination and novel-abandonment.
5. April Fool’s is also 9 days away.
6. According to my calculations, I’ve written over half a million words in novels and stories since 2013. (Around 650,000.)
7. Approximately 57% of those words were written during various NaNoWriMos.
8. I forgot to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.
9. I’ll probably reformat the design of The Music of Words soon.
10. The last book I read was The Emporer’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson. It was great.
11. I have a new idea for a old/current (ish) series that I’ll tell you about soon.
12. I like to wear hoodies and jackets everywhere. They’re comfy.
13. It snowed today.
14. I haven’t written anything for 3+ days.
15. I also haven’t written anything today.
16. I want to write a story where I roll dice when characters try to do stuff to see if they succeed or not. Like…a one-person RPG. I think it’d be fun, actually.
17. I’ve procrastinated more than 17 times today.
18. I’ve procrastinated more than 18 times today.
19. I’ve procrastinated more than 19 times today.
20. I’ve procrastinated less today than I did yesterday, though.
21. I’m running out of random bits of glorious wisdom to put here.
22. I have a cat. And some chickens.
23. 23 is my favorite number.
24. I like to use mechanical pencils more than regular ones, and the only kind of pens I truly like for writing are black gel pens.
25. There are 277 days until Christmas, in case you were wondering.

I hope you enjoyed this random post and my pieces of glorious wisdom. Have a fantabulous day!

Infinity Dreams Award

 

I was actually tagged to do this by three people, Kellyn from “Reveries”, kbl from “KBLSewing”, and Aurora from “Incomparable”.  Thanks you guys! But that means I have 33 questions to answer at the end…that’ll be fun.

11 Facts About Me (no, I’m not doing 33 of these)

1. I love the smell of yeast. (Random, I know, but it was the first thing that came to the top of my head.)
2. I have alopecia areata.
3. My favorite color is turquoise.
4. My favorite season is autumn.
5. I’ve finished 5 novels, but haven’t revised any of them. (I’m planning on it, though!)
6. I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. a Mormon)
7. I took piano lessons for 7+ years.
8. My favorite number is 23.
9. I get claustrophobic sometimes. Usually in cars or tents or in really small spaces.
10. My favorite tree is either the willow or the aspen.
11. I love orange juice–I think I could drink it all day long…

The 33 Questions…

Questions from Kellyn:

If you were to choose one place in the world to vacation, where would that be? What would you do there?

Hmm…I don’t know. Somewhere new and exotic, out of the country. Probably somewhere in Europe. And while I was there, I would go sightseeing and eat lots of yummy new foods.

Say you’re trapped in one of your favorite books as the main character. What would you do differently than what he/she did?

One of my favorite books…but there’s too many choices! I would say something by Brandon Sanderson, but most of his books have multiple main characters…I’ll go with Dragon Slippers for this one. What would I do differently? I’d ride the dragons way more often. I’ve always wanted to ride a dragon.

What’s your least favorite thing about your favorite book?

I’m going to go with the Stormlight Archives series for this one, by Brandon Sanderson. My least favorite thing is that the next book isn’t coming out until 2017. Agh!

If you had a choice between being trapped in a frozen wasteland or a barren desert, what would you choose?

Frozen wasteland, definitely. I’d much rather die of cold than of heat.

If you were able to take three books with you on vacation, what three would those be? (And, no, you can’t just bring your Kindle….)

I’d bring my Book of Mormon (one of our religious texts), and then I’d bring The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, since those are both over 1000 pages long and should last me until the end of vacation. 🙂

If you had a time machine, where (and when!) would be the first place you went?

If I couldn’t affect anything, I’d love to go to the past and just observe what it was like (and I’d also really like to meet Jesus Christ) but if I would affect things, I’d probably go to the future and just see what it’s like. Then I could write really realistic sci-fi books, hehe!

What’s your motto?

I don’t know…I don’t think I have one specific motto that I follow or I feel is just meant for me. Also, my mind is blanking on mottos.

What would you hate to see someone throw away?

Interesting question…probably something that I would be willing to take, like chocolate or cookies or books or something.

Say you take up a new hobby (something you’ve never tried before). What would that be?

Something I’ve never tried before? Well, I think it’d be cool to learn to paint professionally, but I’ve tried painting before. Ooh, it would be cool to learn how to weave cloth by hand…I could make rugs and tapestries and it sounds like fun.

To be or not to be? That is the question!

To be!

What’s the #1 item on your bucket list?

To (when I get older) get married and become a mother.

Questions from kbl:

Least favorite food?

Mushrooms. Or squash. But I really don’t like mushrooms…they just kind of creep me out with how they look. They just look wrong.

Most bearable/favorite core subject in school?

English. Because I love to read and write.

Favorite day of the week? (Not Saturday or Sunday)

Hm. I like Fridays, but I also like Tuesdays and Wednesdays too. And Thursdays. I guess any day except for Mondays…

Favorite flavor of ice cream?

But there’s so many choices! I like peppermint sometimes, and strawberry, and cookies and cream and mint chocolate chip, and, well, most ice cream, because ice cream is delicious.

Coke or pepsi? 😉

Neither…? I’ve actually never tried either of them.

Favorite movie?

Lord of the Rings! I love that movie.

Book of choice to live in?

Hmmm…I don’t know. I’d love to live somewhere with magic and nice dragons, but not somewhere where I’d get hurt, but I’m pretty sure that anywhere I’d go would have threats and dangers. So…something with a really cool magic system that I could use. And with dragons. Uhh…I don’t know what book that would be. Maybe I’d go in Dragon Slippers even though there’s not much of that magic in it, but the dragons are awesome.

Favorite and least favorite character in said book?

In Dragon Slippers, my favorite character is Creel, the main character. She’s awesome. And my least favorite character…that one girl whose name I can’t remember that SPOILERSPOILER betrays her.

Favorite holiday?

Christmas! I love the Christmas season.

Favorite color?

Turquoise.

Favorite type of shoe?

Uh…flip flops. Honestly, I’d rather not wear shoes at all. Can I answer barefoot?

Questions from Aurora:

What would you do if you were stuck in a small pitch-black room, with no doors or windows, and you were only surrounded by walls?

Cry. And get claustrophobic. And try to find a way out. And pray for help. And if no help came, I’d pass the time by talking to myself or telling stories in my head or singing songs.

If you could choose to change a part in your favourite book which part would you change, and what would you change it to instead?

I have no idea. Most of my favorite books are so awesomely written that even though I don’t like some of the things that happen to the characters, I probably wouldn’t actually change them, because the conflict is what makes the books so amazing.

You are given a choice to choose between a sword and a bow and arrows. Which would you choose?

To fight with, or just to have? If it was just to have, I’d way rather have a sword. I’d want a really cool looking one too, with a spiky/really serrated blade that generally is just super awesome to look at. To fight with…I don’t know. I feel like a bow and arrows would be less dangerous, so I might choose that, but I’d love to learn how to fight with a sword. So I’d probably go with the sword either way.

What was your scariest dream/nightmare?

Out of all of them, the scariest are probably the ones where someone in my family dies. I don’t like those ones at all.

What is your dream job?

Being a stay-at-home mom and an author! That’s what I want to do when I grow up, and hopefully it’ll work out.

What are your thoughts… on apple pie?

It is delicious and probably my favorite kind of pie there is. Yummm. *mouth waters at the thought of apple pie*

What is your favourite subject?

In school? English, Choir, or Creative Writing. I like all of those.

If you had to choose between turning all water into blood or turning all food into stars, which would you choose?

All food into stars because it would make the sky look pretty as I died…

Are you on NaNoWriMo?

Yup! I’m bookishgirl on the YWP and bookishgirl23 on nanowrimo.org/Camp NaNo.

What is your favourite book?

Probably any of Brandon Sanderson’s books. He’s an amazing fantasy author, and I really need to write a blog post on him sometime because his books are so fantastical.

Which of these questions did you enjoy the most?

Out of these eleven, I really liked the sword and arrows one, since I like fantasy-ish stuff. Out of all thirty-three…I don’t know, I can’t decide. There were too many good ones that I enjoyed answering.

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Guidelines

•  Use the Infinity Dreams Award picture
• Thank the blogger who tagged you
• Tell us 11 facts about yourself
• Answer the 11 questions
• Tag 11 bloggers

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Tagging

 

I’m pretty sure every blogging person that I know has already been tagged, so…if you haven’t read Brandon Sanderson, you’re tagged. And you should also go read some of his books.

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Questions for Tagged People

1. What is your favorite hobby?
2. Out of all household chores, which is your favorite/the least tedious to do?
3. What is your favorite meal to eat?
4. If you could only say ten words throughout your life, what would they be? (You could say them over and over again, but you could only use those ten.)
5. What book are you reading right now/the most recent book you’ve read?
6. What is your favorite kind of fruit?
7. What is your favorite picture book from your childhood?
8. Do you prefer orange juice or apple juice?
9. Do you speak any languages other than English? If so, what are they?
10. What is your favorite song or artist?
11. What is your favorite type of cookies?

Have fun! 😀

A New Adventure

I’ve never blogged before, so this really is a new adventure for me, but I’m quite excited for it. For a long time, I’ve thought the idea of having a blog was really cool, but the cautious side of me never made one until now. But let me tell you, now that I finally have, I can’t wait to get started.

“Lana, do you even know what you’re doing?” you might ask. Honestly, not really, but I’m going to find out, and I’m going to have fun doing it. I have a few ideas for some posts, so if this blog does decide to nosedive and crash into the ground, there’ll at least be a few posts finished before it does.

“Lana, what’s this blog going to be about?” you might also ask. Well, I think the blog’s title is pretty self-explanatory. It’s about music and words, meaning it’ll be about my love of writing and music. Writing may have a few more posts than music, but music will definitely play a role. And then there’ll probably be some random posts.

“Lana, when you say you’ll talk about writing and music, what does that even mean?” Ah. Well, you see, I’m an aspiring author, writing novels, worldbuilding, all that fun stuff. But even though I’m relatively new to writing, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve, and I’m going to share those with you. (Okay, maybe they’re more of opinions than tricks, but I’m still going to share them.) I’m also working on a project or several at all times, so you’ll likely hear a lot about those. I may also share some of my favorite books and authors and talk about what makes them so good in my opinion.

As far as music goes, I like all sorts of music, but I especially love music with lyrics that really mean something. (See how that fits right in with writing?) I’ll share with you some of my favorite songs, along with songs we’re singing in choir, and talk about the lyrics and how they fit the message of the piece. After all, it’s like poetry, and everyone knows that writers analyze poetry.

“Lana, are you ever going to finish this post?” Heh, yes, I am. At the end of this paragraph, I’ll hit that publish button and embark on this new adventure with you. Keep your arms and legs inside the cart at all times (or at least most of the time if you can’t contain yourself) and enjoy the ride!