Giving Myself A Kick In the Ass

Dear Bloggie,
        I've been so supremely lazy these days. I've been using excuses like school and play practice to get off from doing things. You know where that got me? An F in Math and Spanish for the third quarter and no writing or blogging done. But I'm over that. Now the work must start. I got a C on my Math test the other day (which is a great improvement when you think of how much time and effort I put in to it, staying for extra help just so I could understand and not fail), Friday the 29th I'm starting with the big end of the school year musical (I'm just deck crew this time instead of assistant stage manager but I am still excited), I've started working on The Curse of the Good Girl once again, I'm trying to get back into the reading spirit, I'm trying to help out with this charity called Locks of Love (I've donated hair to it in the past and my school wants to host an event so I've signed up to be part of the committee -- though it might not work out because right now I'm the only person who has signed up to be apart of the committee), and I have a goal to make 300 paper cranes. The last one is because my school wants to make 1000 paper cranes (there is a whole legend and true sad true story behind it, here's a link because I don't feel like explaining and I sorta want to keep this post short) and so I've taken it upon myself to make 300 during my Spring Break (I've only made 125 by now, but plan to make 25 more today and again 50 tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday).

    So this is my little update in life. Hope everyone is having a great Spring Break -- well, that is if you are on Spring Break. I know not everybody is because some of my friends had it in March instead -- during the time I was doing the play, I must add, so I didn't get to see them then either. For those who are on break, can you believe it's almost over! School starts on Monday. *sigh* I wish my school gave to weeks like Cat's school does. Though her Spring Break was in March. Whatever.

                  ~XOXO,
                         Ariana

P.S. I can't wait for May 25th! I'm going to see Panic! At the Disco!!! (The three explication points I put after their name are not normally there, just the one after "Panic". The other three are because I'm excited. I know, I'm acting like you dear readers are idiots. Sorry, I ramble.) In had mentioned them in past posts because I sooooo loved their first CD. I still love their first CD more, but I like their third a lot too. Lets not even talk about their second.

P.P.S I'm in love with this band (Coma Cinema) and this band (Sleeping At Last) right now. Get their music. Now. For Coma Cinema it's free because the singer is very Indie and isn't sighed to any record label (though he should be because of how great I think he is). The second, well I don't know why the CD is up for free on this site. They have their music up on iTunes for $9.99 for the same CD and for their other CD's, but maybe because they aren't that well known they decided to put some of their music up for free in hops that people will be interested enough to buy the rest of it. It worked. I love the CD so much (except for "Clockwork" which does nothing for me even though the word clockwork is my favorite word ever -- for obvious Steampunky reasons, as well as how pretty I think it looks) and definitely plan on buying more of their music once I have more iTunes money.

P.P.P.S. Have I ever mentioned how awesome I think you, my dear readers, are. Though I would appreciate if you commented more. Or at least clicked on those thought box thingies at the end of my posts. Just saying. :)

Birthday Girl

Dear Bloggie,
       So yeah, it's my birthday. Just felt like announcing it. I mean, I'm having a small party later, just my close family. If it was up to me, this would be my cake:

   But since I'm saving up for my super sweet sixteen next year, this cake isn't an option. Now, I do have one birthday request. It's quite simple, juts go here (inkpop) and read and comment on the first chapter of The Curse of the Good Girl. Is that too much to ask? I just want to know what people think about it. I haven't worked on it in a few weeks because of my really busy schedule (the play is going good and I'm really excited that we open Friday) but as soon as the play is over, I'm back to business. Well, maybe not exactly when it's over. My goal is actully to restart on April 1st. I thought it would be a funny start date, plus that gives me six days to regroup and redirect my energy into it.
    That's all for now I guess. I don't officially turn fifteen until 5:32 P.M, but whatever. Life's good for now so why complain?
                                   ~XOXO,
                                            Ariana

Excerpt, Excerpt, Read All About It!

Dear Bloggie,
       Last night I finished chapter four (I can't believe it either) and today my goal is to write chapter five. this, I know, will prove to be harder. It's a high emotion scene. My character, Chelsea, is for the first time since they were children starting to connect with her sister. Part of is because her sister needs her for the first time in a very long time. She's eighteen and pregnant. Yeah, she may be engaged, but obviously it's got to be scary when suddenly everything you had planed to goes out the window and you find yourself on an unknown path. The other reason they are re-connecting is because Chelsea is starting to see her as less then perfect. She can understand her now and isn't trying to live up to her.
    So I have to write about these buds of a sisterly relationship, but also about their parents who have a very complicated relationship. So it's a chapter about her family life and how it pertains to her and all. It's going to be hard, but I'm up for the challenge.
   Last night, as I tried and failed to sleep (I think I might seriously have insomnia; I should probably tell a doctor or something, but whatever)  thought on a somewhat alternate ending. It's almost exactly the same, except for her relationship with one of the characters. The only reason I haven't chosen this option is because I think it might actully work better as the end of the whole Addie Baudelaire book. I don't know, it would work well both. Maybe I'll keep it a mystery until the end, then write the last scene whichever way it comes best to me.
    For now, I want to instead give you an excerpt from the story. Enjoy (hopefully).

    After high school, I’m off to New York. Loud, fast, and noisy New York. It’s so different from Clearport. Clearport is where you go to raise a family. Go to live peacefully. Go to die. It’s the Florida of the north. We might not have the heat, or the city life, or really anything at all, but we have quite and relative tranquility.

    Maybe that’s why I want New York. I want to go somewhere that, if I choose, I can get lost in. I want to be some place where it’s all happening. I don’t want to be my parents in thirty years, both of them have risen to the top of Clearport and now find can’t move up anymore. Maybe that’s why they do what they do. Do who they do. Because in Clearport, it’s so scandalous and gossip worthy that it’s become something new in a town where everything is so old. 

                              
                                 ~XOXO,
                                            Ariana
                      

Outlining: Part One Done

Dear Bloggie,
        Guess what? I outlined the first part of my book today! That's one third outlined! Well, sorta. I used flash cards (a writing tip I read in a book once) to write down scenes. Now I know what my plot is to work off of. It's only the first half (up to the part where she decides to...[no spoilers!]) but at least it's something. I know how the last half goes, but it's the middle part that's going to be hard. I normally never really know what is going on in the middle. Oh poop.
     Still, I have a while before I even have to start outlining that. I'm only on chapter three (though it's my goal to finish it tonight) and have written a total of sixteen cards,  meaning I probably have six to eight chapter of material (that would bring me to ten chapters for the first part). That in mind, I'll probably end up with around twenty-five to thirty chapters in total. At around 2,500 words a chapter (around my average), that's about 70,000 words, 300 pages. Not bad. Becoming was almost 400 and over 90,000 words. On average, a YA manuscript is 50,000 to 80,000 words. This book should fit that bracket perfectly.
    I really need to stop procrastinating. I can do all

the math in the world (with a calculator since I suck at math) on how many pages my book will be and how many words I will write, but at the end of the day, if I don't write anything nothing is going to happen! I'm like the biggest procrastinator! I'm writing about procrastination, all the while procrastinating on writing my book! *Sigh* More more later. (Much later, like after I have written chapter three!).

      ~Ariana

The Writing Gods Have Found Favour In Me

Dear Bloggie,
        As you can tell by the title of this post, I have been getting back into the writing mojo. I don't want to jinx myself since I'm only on chapter three, but I really hope this all works out. I love writing, but recently the only writing I have been doing is for essays and this blog. Oh, and a bout a billion and one poems that I have written since I've become a creative writing major. Gawd, I have written so many poems that I am all poemed out! I swear, soon I'm going to be writing about my Polar Springs water bottle. That seems to be the only thing I haven't written a poem about. Well, not really, but you get the point.

    So your probably wondering what story I'm working on. Because I'm only on chapter three (almost 6,000 words in) I'm not going to give it it's own tab yet (you may have noticed that I took down the C.O.A.O.P. tab and just placed the story under Current/Future Projects), but it is under the projects tab. It's called The Curse of the Good Girl and you may remember that I first mentioned it back in September. At the time, I hadn't really written much, just the first draft of the first chapter. Nothing was really rolling with that idea past that point, so I put it aside. Eventually, my schedule became a bit over whelming so I basically put writing aside except for school work and this blog.

     I had written the beginning of chapter two and was dabbling in about a hundred different projects, when last week or so I started back up with this. I finished chapter two and am almost down with chapter three. Plus (!), I have a good idea what the storyline is here. Things are going smoothly. For now. I want to finish chapter three this week and then try to do a chapter a week. I don't know yet how many chapter there will be, but it's probably over 20. So, with that in mind, if all goes smoothly and I can figure out the plot line and outline it all out and ect., I should be done before summer. Then, if that really does happen, then I can edit during the June and the beginning of July, and have it up on inkpop and wattpad (a writing site my friend Sierra introduced me to) by hopefully the second or third week of July. I have the first two chapters up on inkpop now, but I'm not putting anymore up until I'm done.

      I learned a very valuable lesson with C.O.A.O.P: Once you put it on inkpop, you have almost NO time to write. You're constantly reading other people's work so they can read yours, that you barely have time to do anything else! That's basically why I stopped writing it. I only really had time to write during the summer, but I was always reading. Once school started, I had almost zero time so writing was put on hold completely -- so was reading (inkpop and published books). But I've found time now and am going for it. Hopefully. Good night.

                     ~ Ariana

P.S. This is the cover I've made. Actully, I've made many, but this is my favorite and the one I'm going to use.

              
  

Good Girls: What's Their Problem

Dear Bloggie,

I can be rebellious. I can do things just to piss off my mom or see peoples reactions. I love my red hair, but when I pick a color, I normally go for one that will make my mom nervous. Basically, I'm a typical teen in that department.

Still, I'm sort of a good girl. I've never been in a fight (except for yelling) and I respect my teachers (though I curse them in my head when they annoy me). Like my mom, I'm a good girl. Most of the time. I still have my faults and I know it. I don't strive to be perfect, though I wish I did.

The idea of a good girl has always eluded me. Well, like always, when I have an idea I start rolling with it. And what starts simple always grows for me. This is how I came up with the idea for my new novel, The Curse of the Good Girl.

Never fear, I have not ditched C.O.A.O.P, I'm still working on it. But at the same time I'm brainstorming for this novel. I'm trying to storyboard but that's not going very well. Still, I'm having a fun time working on it and coming up with ideas. My main character is Chelsea Frayer, a seventeen-year-old senior who has her whole world turned upside down, leaving her scrambling to play her dutiful part as the good girl. The one who never argues or loses her cool. Who always knows how to act and react. Here, I'll just put up the summery I have right now:

Seventeen-year-old Chelsea Frayer’s senior year has started off less then perfect. Two weeks before schools begins, her long time boyfriend and love of her life Danny Price, cheats on her with her best friend Sydney Thorn. Chelsea, being a good girl, of course forgives. Her perfect eighteen-year-old sister, Tiffany, is pregnant and living in their parents’ basement with her fiancé. Her parents are possibly getting a divorce -– that is if they can stop having affairs and then making up by doing the nasty. She is unwilling nominated (and wins) the spot of school vice president, a job that requires her to spend time with class president Danny. And, to top it all, her cheerleading coach has been fired after caught steeling from the school!

Can Chelsea juggle a dysfunctional family, a flirty maybe not-so-ex, and a scheming best friend –- all the while trying to save her beloved cheerleading squad from demise? Let’s not even mention a certain brooding, artistic, musician who she might want to be more than friends with? What’s a good girl to do…?

What do you think? I like it (obviously) and I really want to write about Chelsea. She's an interesting character. She's the glue in her dysfunctional family, and the person friends go to when they have a problem. On the outside she acts perfect in every way because she sees it as her job. Even if she resents it. She hates the thought of ever being a girly-girl and finds marriage a sham. She is a character I'm having a fun time exploring.

OK, so it's late... -- OH SHIT! It's 2:10am! I have to get up at 6:23am! Goodnight!

~Libby

P.S. I downloaded a free trial of Photoshop and love it! I used it to make the cover. First, I used Photoshop to paint the pink background and add the girl, then I used picnik to add the title, quote bubble, authors name, and happy faces. Too bad my trial is only for 30 days; I only have 22 left.