It's the end!After weeks upon weeks of words, typing, organizing, and formatting, we have reached the end of Genius Hour. (I thought I wasn't gonna make it.) I ended with 50,438 words, and 110 pages. I did something I never ever thought I could do and I am extremely proud of myself. As for the final week...For week 12 of Genius Hour I didn't do anything too interesting, besides obviously writing. But I did take a moment to reflect on everything I had done. Here is what I realized: 1.) There is nothing holding you back from accomplishing your goals but yourself. As you can obviously see I have done a project that required a lot more work than your average Genius Hour project (not to brag or anything). It took determination, and a mindset that allowed me to fall behind and catch back up. 2.) I have a love hate relationship with writing. I love to talk, write, communicate, all of the above. Sometimes though, you can get burnt out, even doing things you love. This is where I found myself with the book, and the blog posts. After a long day of writing, planning, and doing homework, at the end of the day I didn't want to write the blog posts. Even though they were something I enjoyed doing. 3.) That I wish teachers would do more stuff like this. Let us do a project that shows us that we can do ANYTHING if we put our mind to it. I feel like a lot of kids grow up with the idea that they can't do what they dream of, which is not true at all. So with that said I want to say thank you Mr. Barker, for pushing me to do something I never thought I could do before now. One last segment for the road... (I'll post the book don't worry)I'm not going to make you buy the book on Amazon when I inevitably become famous. I'll publish it right here on my website, after a couple days of editing of course.
"“I’ve been outside these walls. And whats out there- It’s amazing. You have to trust me. I know that’s hard, because us as society have been unified through lies and manipulation. I want to put a stop to this. Let’s be truthful, lets figure out what is out there, let’s make life the best it can be for everyone. But in order to do that you need to trust me and my team, I glance over at Quinn, Asher, and Monica who are all standing behind me. We can do this, and we can make progress in the right direction this time."
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An Excerpt..."I hear an announcement boom on the airborne speakers; PEOPLE OF MELIORA WELCOME YOUR NEW PRINCESS, PRINCESS WAVERLY! A rumble of applause and cheers erupt, and people bow and curtsy as if I am a miracle in human form. Along with the positive cheers there are many boos and curses, presumably from the people who don’t want me or my dad to be in the palace. When the applause starts to die down, the oddly still man holds a blade up in the air, the light reflecting off of it perfectly. There are more cheers from the crowd. I do what Asher told me to do, hold my arm out, and focus on the different noises coming from the crowd. “You’re doing really well.” The King puts his hand on my shoulder, continuing to look out into the crowd. If only he knew what I was about to do." My Progress..The main thing I have accomplished this week was planning out my entire story. I've found that I write much faster if I know what I am writing about before I start. The way I have been planning consists of writing a brief one sentence summary of the section, and then writing a dialogue segment from each section. I color code the sections to keep them divided, and type each section on a different google doc to prevent from the lag on the main document. The divisions look like this: This method helps me to write faster, as well as keeping up with the plot. Bumps in the Road...As we are nearing Christmas break, teachers tend to up the work load on kids on top of final exams and tests. Although I've been very busy, I've still made time for the book, just not as much as I would like to. I do a lot of writing in class these days, as well as in my extra curriculars. This honestly makes me feel a little burnt out, and doesn't motivate me to write at all. Even as I'm writing this blog post, I am struggling to find the words to put on the page.
An excerpt..."As long as I have someone who knows what they’re doing I should be fine right? Wrong. Right before we turn the corner a stream of light illuminates the carpet. A guard must have heard us, and is now shining a flashlight directly in our path. “Hello?” a squeaky voice questions nervously. No doubt a new kid on the job. A new kid guarding the princess? I’m almost offended, but then realize the only person he is guarding me from right now is myself. I’m almost frightened as Asher raises his voice. “Gary calm down. It’s just me.” Gary sighs and walks back to his previous perch at the bottom of the staircase. “Gosh Asher, I just don’t ever know how careful to be.” He sounds so nervous, I wonder why he chose to be a guard. “I just was fixing my boot bud.” Asher reiterates. “Maybe you should get some sleep.” Gary fumbles with his flashlight, trying to get it to turn off but manages it to turn to a flashing mode that would give someone a serious headache if you stared at it for long enough. I almost groan but realize it would give me away, so I hide my pain by grabbing my shorts and squinting my eyes." My progress...This week I hit 40,000 words, leaving me with two weeks to write 15,000 words. I had originally planned to have two weeks at the end of my project to edit what I had written, but it turns out writing a book takes a lot more time then I thought it would. I'm a little frustrated at the entire process, as I'm no longer enjoying writing everyday.
One of the main problems I have had throughout this entire process is that writing feels like a chore. I normally love to write and read; spending my free time coming up with different plots for fictional stories. While writing this book, I have found that the idea of having to hit a word count everyday makes it feel two things; 1.) Like I am not doing a good job. 2.) That I constantly have something that I need to be doing. (RIP mental health) 3.) That I am just putting words on a page, like they don't mean anything. These thoughts I have tried to push out of my mind. It is only my first draft, and it doesn't have to be perfect. I obviously wish I had a lot more time before I needed to hit 55,000 words, but I don't. This means that throughout my whole project I have had to stay extremely motivated writing my book, along with working hard in school and at dance. Overall it has been a challenge, but I'm starting to feel proud of myself. An excerpt...“Why how are you miss- are you okay?” he says with a startle. I hadn’t realized how bad I must look, mascara smudged everywhere. My lipstick is probably not much better. “Oh, I’m great.” I end the conversation there, in hopes to avoid all further questions. Yet still he persists. He is a nerdy little dude, with big black framed glasses bordering his bright blue eyes. His voice is a little squeaky, as if he has to pinch off the end of his words. He is wearing a lovely black tux, but walks as if he’s naked. As awkward as he is, I have no sympathy. My Progress...I HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO. Online school has no mercy. Overall I have only accomplished around 5,000 words this week and I am not happy. Today, Saturday the 22nd is set to be one of my "spam days" where I will actually have time to sit down and write. I'll be sure to come back and edit this post as soon as I finish writing for today. I am stressed out, and all I want to do is edit. It feels like the end product isn't really forming, even as I am increasing the word count. As I scroll through my document to get to where I want to work for today, I find myself getting distracted by the issues in previous segments I have written. As a solution, I have started typing on separate documents to prevent myself from scrolling up. Useful Resources...I have found a program called "Write or Die" and it is made to make sure you keep writing consistently in a span of 30 minutes. Grammarly is also a website that has been a lifesaver for my academic papers in the past. I hope to use this site when going back and making my first draft cleaner. Last but certainly not least Hank Green's writing advice and his TikTok page has provided me with lots of useful advice.
An Excerpt...I turn on the alarm, code 1229. The day my grandma died. I’m not totally sure why we made the code so depressing. I mean at least we won’t forget it. My grandma was always the happiest person. She loved pancakes, llamas, and the color purple. She was smart too. When she was my mom’s age, she studied biology in college. She was amazing, publishing many research papers and getting lots of attention from other major scientists. That’s of course how she met my grandfather, Patrick, but sadly he passed away before I was even born. Then due to budget cuts, and my grandma’s lack of motivation after Patrick died, she began to stop her research. My Progress...I've officially abandoned NaNoWriMo, as it is so challenging to write every single day. I've found the best way for me to write is to sit down for hours at a time. Of course this is also a challenge because I have to find the time to write. As were nearing the end of the project, I'm a little panicked. I have around 32,000 words, but I still feel so far away from my goal. The books is taking shape, and I am starting to see more potential in this rushed first draft. I have found several resources where I can read about other author's experiences (when I have the time to read). They have been very useful in determining how to reach my goal in a timely manner. This something I plan to experiment with next week. My issues with NaNoWriMo...Specifying on what I said in the paragraph above, I am abandoning NaNoWriMo. Throughout this whole process of writing my first draft, I have found myself longing to spend more time writing fewer words. I've also wished I had a stronger plan to begin with, as it is very challenging to keep track of the plot and all the little details. I felt like the word count was honestly slowing me down. The more I checked the word count, the less motivated I was to write. And I have definitely not been writing everyday. I have been working a lot on weekends, writing around 3,000-5,000 words a day. During the week with online school, zoom meetings, dance, writing a book has been EXTREMELY HARD.
Progress...This week was my first week of NaNoWriMo and it was INSANE. Writing 1,667 words a day is no easy task, and I didn't do very well. I found myself uninspired to write. I would sit at the computer and stare at the writing I had already accomplished, but no new thoughts were coming to mind. I successfully did two full days writing over 3,500 words for both of those days. For the other days I didn't keep track of my word count as I didn't write much at all. Problems and Solutions...I have run into the problem of word count putting a whole other layer of stress on my project. I would check my word count every five minutes, just for it to stay the same. I have developed a system of writing on a blank document until I hit 1,000 words, and then copy and pasting it into my final product. For some reason it feels like I am getting my work done a lot faster, along with the numbers seeming much less intimidating. A segment...“Tell me what is going on. Now. You promised.” I say, tears welling up in my eyes.
“I’m afraid I am not allowed to. Madam Stage will inform you on our next steps, but for now I have to leave.” I grab him by the shirt before he can turn. “Wait, at least tell me where I am. Where’s Quinn and Monica?” As Asher cups his hand into mine a worried expression flashes across his face. “Monica and Quinn are in jail. They’re about to post bail.” I gasp. “Why did they get arrested? It wasn’t even our fault!” “The drivers of both cars are being held for an incident that happened after the accident. Monica got in a pretty nasty fight. Quinn, being Quinn, tried to defend her. He almost killed somebody.” Monica ruins everything, she always brings her own personal issues into things. Now one of the only people I still trust in my life is in jail. Asher turns to leave again, I start to sob. A segment..."I scan out through the bug stained windshield and gasp, we were never meant to see this. Ever since we were young we were taught not to go beyond the borders of Meliora, as what lies beyond them is unthinkable. Criminals, crooks, abusers, rapists, and of course the homeless were shipped out of the city and into the barren land that lies outside of the main population. We have always been told to fear this place and all of its contents. To combat this fear the government decided to build a wall. The wall spans all the way around Meliora and the outer reefs which reach five miles off of the coast. The wall was nicknamed “ad captandum vulgus”, which is Latin for “to captivate the mob”. " My overdue return...Over the past few weeks I have not been posting on my Blog. I have run into an issue. It feels like I have NOTHING to write about. Everything has been going smoothly with the writing process, and I have luckily found myself running into zero issues. Today I find myself at 25,000 words, and it is officially the start of NaNoWriMo. If I successfully complete NaNoWriMo I will have 75,000 words before the start of December which is astounding to me. I thought this was something I would never accomplish. NaNoWriMo: Planning, Goals, Process, and more...NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place during the month of November. Novelists of all ages are encouraged to take on the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month. This means writing a total of 1,667 words per day. I previously calculated just how fast I write and on a good day I can shell out 1,000 words in an hour. I will have to designate around two hours to write each and everyday on top of everything else I have to do in a day.
I have taken the last few days to plan out my goals. I really want to push myself to write every single day in November, as I can then spend the last few weeks editing. I am also pushing myself to add some more of a backstory into my writing, as it has been kind of bland in the last few chapters. Another goal of mine is to research formatting and exactly how I am supposed to separate my dialogue from my descriptions. Every week I want to make a collage of daily word count goals. I hope that it will look something like this: An excerpt...I think the bugs are my worst problem. I walk over to them, holding my dress up by the skirt. Suddenly I hear a rip, and I gasp as I see Monica chopping off my skirt! “Hey, this was expensive! Don’t destroy it.” “Fine, princess, I won’t cut it. But have fun climbing with a full skirt. I tend to opt for pants.” Monica says with a wink. I already don’t like her. The Wow factor.This week flew by. So did last week. And the week before. And all of September. On a positive note, now that it is officially October, I can finally listen to Christmas music while I write! Just kidding. Thinking about my timeline, I've had the shocking realization that if I continue working at this rate, before Christmas I will have a 55,000 word project completed. That is insane. I will have accomplished something I thought I would have never done before Genius Hour. "Merry Christmas, I got you a book!", I will say too all of my family members. The other day I asked my Mom if she was actually going to read what I write. She has a habit of not being able to finish any book, she reads about 70 pages and quits. So I have ultimately decided to shift my goal, to make my book interesting enough that my Mom can finish it. Progress. Progress. And dance?Progress wise, I am killing it. I make steady progress every night, and try to go back and briefly edit what I have written. Although I am doing well currently, I am a bit concerned about what this dance season will interfere with. We got our results from try outs, I am doing 11 dances this year. 11! I have to memorize and compete 11 routines, more than I have ever done before. This will obviously require lots of practice; Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays to be exact. You may think that I should just do it after practice, but when you are at school all day and get done with four and half hours of practice, you don't really feel like writing. So I will have to push through, my schedule this year allows for Thursdays and Fridays off, so I will have to set aside a few hours those days to make progress. I will be sure to document how next week goes, starting the official class schedule.
An excerpt...“Better than last time.” I mutter to myself as the score loads in on the computer. The reddish tint of the computer screen was reflecting in my glasses as I sighed, failed again. At least this time it was only by ten points. Biology was my idea anyway. My mom thinks it’s dumb to take the “old school” classes. I think they bring back the emotion in life, it seems like everything now is just cold shiny metal. How I felt this week...Starting week two of Genius Hour was a breeze. I was ahead on word count, and motivated to write. On the Monday of week two, I had an online day. My goal of this week was to wake up early, so I did just that. Turns out, you are not motivated when you are hungry. Along with being hungry, I wasn't too keen on being awake when I didn't "have to be". I think I wrote a total of 100 words Monday morning.
Due to the ineffectiveness of the early bird strategy, I decided to ditch it. I already knew I wasn't a morning person, much less be motivated to write in the morning. Tuesday was an in-school day, so I didn't get much work done until that night. Late nights are for sure the best work time for me. I get up early to go to school, finish my homework during smart lunch, have practice until 8-8:30, and then go home and write. I am always more creative at night, so I got a lot done. I was on pace from last week, and have had no doubts that I will have trouble meeting my goal. My idea...When Mr. Barker first spoke to us about Genius Hour, this was the first project that popped into my head. Writing has always been one of my passions, so why not include it in my project? Actually, reading was what always interested me. I could finish a 700 page book in a day, and immediately pick up another novel and start reading. Although I have my favorite types of books (science fiction), I'll read almost anything. My problem with reading is that I always wish something was just a little different than how the author wrote it. That is when I realized, why don't I just open my laptop and write it myself? A few years ago, I would write short stories (that were never very good). Using writing prompts I found on Instagram, I would sit down and write about two and a half pages of grammatically incorrect non-sense. Since my short story days I have improved a lot. I took an academic writing class through Duke Tip, which was extremely helpful even though I wasn't writing fiction. Around two years ago I got it in my head that I was gonna write a book. It didn't happen. I wasn't motivated and was far to concerned with normal 8th grader things. Now that I am participating in Genius Hour, I have a source of motivation. I also have a goal to reach, and I intend to reach it. My plan, successes, and failures...So far my book is progressing well. I have split my book plot up into "acts" instead of chapters, so I can have broader goals to reach. I am supposed to write 600 words per day, but I plan to not be to hard on myself about daily goals. If I write less than 600 words per day it is okay, and if I write more that is fantastic. My goal is less of the need to meet a word count, and more of making myself sit down and write each and everyday. This is my plan to not become burnt out. I have found that it isn't the best idea to start from the beginning of the story, as you'll give too much away. You have to understand that the reader doesn't know the plot, and you can't just list out all the facts to them. I decided to start writing at one of the main tragic events in the story. This will not only keep me motivated, but allow me to go back and slowly unveil the important events. As piling them all on at one time, will lead to the book becoming boring at some parts. One of the main problems I have run into is that I have so much other school work. I am motivated enough to write, I have solid ideas, I just can't find the time. Starting next week, I am going to try to wake up and work in the mornings. On online school days I will wake up at 7 and work on my book until I feel that I have accomplished something. I feel that designating hours to work will allow me to progress faster. On school days, I am going to set aside smart lunch to write. I am a bit hesitant about this because I normally use smart lunch to finish my homework. I don't want to be so caught up in writing my book, that I have a pile of homework to do at night. Overall I feel that I have a good understanding of the methods I will use to reach my goals, it is just a matter of working towards them. I know that throughout this writing process I will have to be hard on myself to meet deadlines, while giving myself a break from time to time. My Mom is actually very excited about my endeavor, and I know that she will continue to motivate me. I hope to be this happy with my progress every week, and will continue to tweak and observe which methods of working are best suited for me. - Madi Rogers |
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