The Reading Pandemic

Imagine a world where books are pirated. I mean legitly pirated on a scale as big as music, movies, and TV shows. How amazing that world would be....

Wait. What? What is seven hells is wrong with you, snowie? Pirating books? How is that even the least bit good?

Okay. Okay. Okay! Calm down. Let me explain. 

Everyone hears about the problems with illegally downloading music and movies, but who hears about illegally downloading books. Well... It's probably because e-books were practically nonexistent until a few years ago when the kindle got big. But come on. Who hasn't read the majority of a book on Amazon preview? Oh. That's just me? Hmm. 

Alright, just stick with me and imagine for a moment a world where illegally downloading books is an epidemic, nay, a pandemic. We download book after book, reading as fast as we can so we can move on to the next book. A world where no one can get enough of reading and five people go to jail a year for illegally downloading books. A world where people look down at you for not reading more than two books in the last week. A world where books are a go to conversation piece. A world were everyone loves reading so much that it is classified as a drug. A world where doctors prescribe books to cure ignorance. That's a world I want to live in.

Sorry for being gone so long. 

Love, 

~snowie

Live Long and Write

Sources:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/book-gif

http://beautifullyred.co.uk/2012/12/02/5-united-gifs-from-the-reading-win-feat-evans-evra-and-rvp/

http://gifsoup.com/view/3563373/cat-reading.html

http://mrwgifs.com/emma-watson-opens-a-book-in-harry-potter-gif/

http://gifling.com/picture/664-girl-reading-book


http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/reading-gif

Above and Beyond the Call of Writing Duty

Today, I sat down at my computer with a challenge set and the bar raised higher than ever before. I had challenge myself to write 25,000 in five days. Yes, I am insane. 25,000 words? In five days? That is half of a novel, thats half of a NaNoWriMo!

You are already where you are supposed to be for NaNoWriMo. Why are you writing more that you need to?

Oh, there is a reason. Believe me. There is a reason.

If you love personality types and the Meyers-Briggs test, then you will know what I mean when I say I am an INFP. INFP stands for Introvert iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving. Among lots of other things, it means that I am a perfectionist and a procrastinator. Everything I create artistically has to be perfect or the piece will not make it anywhere but a trash bin. If I don't have a deadline, nothing will get done.

Ah, deadlines. I love those sweet little dates. <3 p="p">
All five of my rough drafts would not exist if there was not deadline stapled to my head with a goal tied to it. 50,000 words in 30 days was a little piece of figurative heaven for me. Four of my rough drafts were written for NaNo (I've actually done NaNoWriMo 5 times, but I don't count last year's novel as a novel because it, well, sucked). The other draft (The Night Stalker) was written with sheer will power, a calendar, and a goal of 9 written pages per week.

I am afraid that if I don't get The Night Stalker draft 4.0 done before the 30th, then The Night Stalker will never be done and the multiple years of I have put into this novel will be wasted.

After a 9,000 word long Chapter 10, I am happy to move on to a very exciting Chapter Eleven.

I am so excited to tell you guys everything you have ever wanted to know about the Night Stalker in December!

Happy Writings!

~Snowie

P.S. 5,000 Words Down, 20,000 To Go! Nearly at 50,000!

  

National Novel Youtube Reading & Writing Month

Yes, I did just make up NaNoYoReWriMo (National Novel Youtube Reading and Writing Month). I was actually just mashing the two things I wanted to talk about today- NaNoWriMo and my Youtube Project.

First things first- NaNoWriMo is coming up in just a few short days. (Yay!) I haven't touched The Night Stalker for weeks, but I have been working on Love By Text, or, as I now like to call it, Loving Amelia Perfect. It took me a while to find a name that fits. But, I had an epiphany and I realized that Loving Amelia Perfect is the best title I've found so far. I'm hoping that both novels will go far with in the next two to three years. I made a promise to myself that I would be published before I left high school. I intend to keep that promise.

Second and Last of all, I had an idea for a Youtube Project, which I believe is one of my goals on 43things.com. If it isn't, it is now. Anyway, my idea is this. I need to world on my speaking, reading aloud, and individual speech skills. In order to work on these things, I thought I would read from a book (That is in the Public Domain), record myself, and put it on Youtube. To make this exciting, I would preform each section that I read as if I were preforming a Prose piece in Speech. For those of you that have no idea what speech or prose even is, basically, I'm reading a story and acting out little pieces of it along with changing my voice to match the characters' voices. I wanted to know what you guys thought of this idea and what Public Domain books I should read. Feel free to post a comment, or vote in the voting box to the right.

I hope this project will not only help me, but also spread awareness about free literature and books in the Public Domain. If all goes well, more people will be inspired to read more.

Better Writings,

Snowie

July 18th WSEIJM

Trigger Point

Anger

Builds up

Inside me

Ready to go off

Like a gun.

Maiming, 

Killing

Everything

In it's path.

Woah there. So, a bunch of intense poems right in a row there, what's up with that? How about we lighten the mood with another book review.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Goodreads
Amazon
Veronica Roth
Divergent

Insurgent was a very, very, very good book and I'm glad I picked it up the moment I saw it in the library. Insurgent is the sequel to Divergent, and both are dystopian novels. If you haven't read Divergent, I highly recommend you do before reading Insurgent. Also, if a long time has passed since reading Divergent, you might want to review what happened, otherwise Insurgent is a little confusing. For now I'll pretend you have read Divergent and just dive right in. 

Insurgent picks up where Divergent left off after the Erudite's simulation attack on the Abnegation. Tris and Tobias (Four) are on their way to Amity headquarters to take cover from the Erudite and figure out what they should do. With war on the horizon, secrets are about to be discovered and relationships are put to the test. Tris discovers that Marcus, Tobias's abusive father, and Johanna, an Amity leader, are privy to a secret that could change everything. It is the secret that caused Jeanine, the Erudite leader, to attack the Abnegation. Tris makes a choice to discover this secret no matter the cost. 

Roth's words and ideas are an effortless read. They seem to come right off the page and pull you into the story. It was really hard to put this book down. All of the characters had multiple layers and grew and changed throughout the book, and I love Tris's relationship with Tobias. I would recommend this book to anyone with a dystopian or fantasy obsession.

Happy Reading!

~Snowie

The Greatest Speech Ever Made

"There is a certain standard we must all hold ourselves to. We must not allow ourselves to grow lazy and foolish because with laziness and foolishness comes only evil. We need to be kind and caring to whoever we meet. We are all travelling the same road, we are just at different places. We need to be individual and independent, but with that we need to have a certain unity. It is our uniqueness and our individuality that unites us. We only have one life. Would you rather your one life be for good or for evil?"   ~Opi at Opinionated

A New Chapter... Maybe.

I've decided to become a Youtube vlogger. And, since I love my blog so much, I thought I'd share my first video ever with the Blog.




Best of Writing!

~Snowie

If you know what Dexter Is...

Yup. I was looking for some quick feedback. My main question is does this actually look like Dexter? I have been staring at his face for three hours (Creepy, I know) so to me it does. Since taking this photo, which does no justice to the real thing (Or at least not to me), I have darkened the shadows beneath the chin and darkened the hair. 

This is for a friend who is Graduating soon and whose birthday recently passed. I feel really bad because I can't make it to his graduation party. He is a big fan of the T.V. show Dexter, so I drew a Dexter for him. Plus it was great practice for my self portrait that I am doing in Art Class. (Art class really does help!)

You can also view on my deviantart. 

Thanks so much!

~Snowie


*Edit/Update* I have decided that no, it does not really look like Dexter. At least not right now. Thanks to my art class for being truthful! I've got three hours of my time already put into this baby. It will turn out good! Dexter, meet my eraser.

Before Eraser

After Eraser
Eyes and Ears Redrawn, Hair Tamed,
Nose Lengthened
Nose and Lips still need work.
Highlights and Shadows Needed
Eraser and Blending tool wanted.

With Highlights
The new mouth makes him look funny.
More Hair.
It's getting there. Sort of.

An Amazing Person Destined For Amazing Things

In April I went on and watched one of Charlie McDonnell's new videos: Cooking With Charlie, and of course recognized Charlie and Michael Aranda. There was one other person that I didn't know though so, of course, I checked out her youtube channel. After watching two or three of her vlogs, I was hooked and the rest as they say is history. Today I still watch her blogs just for a laugh and a sprinkle of inspiration and happiness. The person I am talking about is the wonderful Cassandra Croft aka NerdzRL aka Nerdz4L! Welcome to the blog Cassandra! ...Sorry. I've never actually really talked to her... Maybe I'll send her a letter! In the mean time, no interview from my second childhood hero, the first being J.K. Rowling.

Moving on to the reason for telling you all of this. There is a game of sorts called King of the Web. According to kingoftheweb.com this is what it is:

King of the Web is a free-to-play online game of skill and persuasion in which players create campaigns and solicit votes in a competition for cash, prizes, and recognition.
King of the Web is also a place where you vote for who and what is awesome on the web.

What Cassandra and her 12,000+ subscribers on youtube would love is if you would vote for her to become this months King Of The Web!!!!!! Please?  Vote Here!  Watch some of her vlogs. You never know, you may like them. They may become the daily things that make your day. 


Where ever you are, I hope you have a goodnight. 


Soon to be FTB-Snowfire... but not really. 
=)

Feeling Amazing(ly tired)

With track, softball, Script Frenzy, and the Night Stalker taking up all of my free time..... That sentence was going somewhere..... I just can't remember where.

Anyways... I feel like I should do more write-y stuff and tips....

But first a few updates....

Script Frenzy-

Status: Very Suckish

Data: I am on page 23 and have been for the past week. I am supposed to be on page 43, I think.... Maybe, just maybe I'll have time over the weekend. =D

The Night Stalker-

Status: Amazing!!!!

Data: I can't believe how well it's going. So far I am right where I want to be. I just filled my third notebook and I am on page 446. The final battle is just barely 11 hours away and so far in the last "hour" Gail has had a melt down and two people have been stabbed by Justin.  I can't wait!!! Then over the summer I am editing and typing it up. I have no idea when I will start Night Stalker 2.0. It depends on how much free time I have in the summer.

Track-

Status: Tiring but fun

Data: Our first meet was Monday and our team won second place.

Now- Write-y stuff.......

I think that this week I will share the tips that I try to follow while writing. You do not have to use them, but you can modify them to fit you're needs....

1. Forget everything- don't think.
2. Include as much detail as you want, it can always be edited out later.
3. Don't worry about overusing words in the rough draft
4. Stay to say, said, asked most of the time
5. Don't know how to spell it? Just keep writing.
1. When I don't know how to spell something or a piece of information may not be correct, I put a question mark in the margin to remind myself to check it while editing.
6. Try writing junk during writers block. 
1. When you write junk, you're basically getting a new sheet of paper and writing what ever is on your mind on it. Usually mine look something like this- My foot hurts. My pillow smells funny. Gail should jump off a cliff and nearly die.... Sometimes new ideas can spring forward or something you write down will make you start to think again.
7. Try to stay in the mood that you started writing in. 
1. If you're like me, then you're mood will change often. When I write, I like to try to stay in the same mood. Why? Because my writing style depends on my mood. If I'm angry, my writing voice will sound angry. Or if I am happy, good things will happen to my story and my characters will sound a bit happier. 
8. Write down ideas while you still remember them. 
1. I have terrible trouble with this one. An idea will pop into my mind and either I won't have paper near by or I'll get sidetracked. By the time I finally have time to write it down, I won't remember it anymore. The best solution that I've come up with is to carry an "Inspiring Notebook" around. I can write down beginnings to stories and story ideas or anything else that inspires me in it. 
9. Keep going even if it doesn't make sense.
10. Put blanks if you don't have names yet.
11. Wing it with whatever information you have.
12. So what is its a bit cliche? You can always go back and edit.
13. Try writing a poem if you're stuck.
14. Write it even if it's not grammatically correct
15. In one way or another, get it on paper.
16. Weird conversations can make a book interesting
17. Laugh at your own jokes
18. Doodles are pretty and often inspirational
19. If it's not really real make it fantasy
20. Quotes are fine, but not all the time
21. When in doubt kill a character, then nearly kill the main one.
22. Show, don't tell
1. I know, I know. You've heard this so many times... But what does it really mean? It means instead of telling, show it.
1.  Here's an example of telling: A long time ago in a far away place there lived a Queen and King who had a beautiful daughter named Rose. One day as a child Rose was kidnapped and never seen again for ten years.
2. An example of showing: Rose picked up the sea shell and ran her tiny fingers over the rough edges. She turned it over, smiling at the pretty pink glimmer on the inside. A sea gull squawked loudly and she looked over at it as it flew off. Not ten feet form her was a crippled woman. The old woman smiled and beckoned Rose with a long, knobby finger.
2. See the difference? No? When you tell, the reader is just getting the basics. They don't know what exactly the character did, how they did it, or what they looked like. In my example, you know that Rose has been kidnapped, but you're being told straight to your face. Can't see Rose or the kidnapper. In my second example, the showing example, you can see Rose looking at the shell and rubbing the edges. You can imagine the old woman beckoning her over. You can guess what will happen next but you are never actually told "Rose was kidnapped." You can see it happening, unfolding right before your eyes. 

Well, I hope that helped a bit. If you still have questions, just comment below and I'll try to answer the best I can.

I have an idea for next week's blog. I think I might try to email some well known writers and ask them- What inspires you? What are some writing tips that you have?

http://inkpop.com/projects/101095/epic-nerd-war-/

Peace, Love, And Writing!

Snowie

Please subscribe because you're cool like that! =)

If Friday were a Person...

If Friday was a person, I'd date him. I mean I'm sure that somewhere there is a person named Friday, but I'm talking about the day. For me, Friday is the best day ever. It means no school for two whole days, sleeping in til noon, staying up til midnight, seriously recking your sleep habits, and managing to play sports and still write thirty pages.
I've taken to drinking coffee in the morning (actually I can't stand coffee unless it's in Mocha form) because if I didn't I'd fall asleep in reading on one of those comfy bean bags. And, I've heard that coffee in the morning is good for you. I try to get at least seven hours of sleep, but psychological questions and chats with my friend about them usually keep me up until one in the morning. I'm going to get in to Aristotle pretty soon. And Homer. And more Shakespeare. Okay, Shakespeare has nothing to do with psychology, but I love Midsummer Night's Dream. =)

Okay, enough about my sleeping habits. Lets talk scripts.

Washington's Secrets has been falling behind all week mostly because when I come home from track, it's shower, eat, and bed.

I am supposed to me on page 26, but I am only on page 23. It's better then what I did last year before my computers died. RIP Little Laptop. But, I've gotten to that awkward part. You know, that awkward part when you're writing and it's going absolutely amazing then all of a sudden you come to that point where you don't know what to do next.
Currently Annie, Todd, Joisie, and Holly, Todd's sister, are looking over letters written by this 19th Century lady named Christine Rose de Ronchambeau. Holly just came in the room and Annie and Joisie introduced themselves. Now, it's kind of awkward and I'm not sure what to put. Comment below with ideas! Please?

Now, this is a writing website, so I do feel that I should do something involving writing. So, to better your writing I came up with these writing prompts and challenges.... I actually made them up during the 2010 Winter Olympics for a writing website that I sometimes use, behindthename.com. The writers there enjoyed them, so I hope you will too.

Writing Olympics Challenges

-Day One, the 16th

Squirrel Challenge: The story must involve a squirrel, must be in the past, and involve plumbing. 

-Day 2, the 17th

Minus the letters Challenge: Write a story. You can't use the letters y, q, z, v,  or x.

-Day 3, the 18th

The Misunderstood Challenge: The story takes place in the evening. During the story there is a misunderstanding, a question of authority, and a cat riding a dog down Main Street.  

-Day 4, the 19th

Shakespeare Challenge: Nay! A Shakespeare challenge! Upon this day tis thou's turn to scrawl a tale o' magnificent wonder using Shakespeare's language. (Example: Tis time for thee to retire to thou's bed.)   

-Day 5, the 20th

Disney Challenge: Create a twisted Disney type story. Include an undefined evil character that does evil and good, no happy endings, and anything else to make it unDisney-like.   

-Day 6, the 21st

Elmer Fudd Challenge: I'm gunna get that wascally wabbit! Include an animal that's smarter than it's predator and a human who has twubble with the lettew r.

-Day 7, the 22nd

Harry Potter Challenge: Include a wizard or two that has a quest to complete, but is killed by Lord Moldywart in a vehicular crash.  

-Day 8, the 23rd

Evil Animal Minion Challenge: Include an evil animal minion. It might not be all that serious, but haven't you always wanted to say "Release that radioactive super-intelligent bunny rabbit!"

-Day 9, the 24th

People Challenge: Include an annoying screw-up sidekick who seeks to avenge the murder of his family, a super-smart and super-tough genius adventurer whose odd ideas are actually true, the last survivor of an alien race who surprises people with his/her ability to survive and has a treasured personal weapon, and a wanderer with a unique gift.

-Day 10, the 25

The Glory Challenge: Write a story including the Olympics*, being mistaken for Shaun White, the Harry Potter look alike, or a Olympian from your country**, having to do that Olympian's sport, and winning the Gold!

*Winter or Summer

**Some people of the world would prefer if you didn't write about the Luger that died. But, if you want you can in his good memory. 

Well, I hope you try a few of those. I'll have to post a sample or two....

Peace, Love, and Unicorns .)>   <=== A really bad unicorn....

Subscribe if you liked this post!! Please?

=)  

Updates!

Because everyone loves a good update!


First off...

OMJ. Script Frenzy is just 28 HOURS AWAY!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!! I managed to get one of my friends to write with me. She still doesn't know what she's going to do. I'm winging it which won't turn out very well, but at least the first two scenes are kind of plotted out.


Second...


Wow! Almost 500 page views! Last time I looked it was at 498 views. Yeah it's not a lot, but I try. Please subscribe!

Third...

The Night Stalker is nearing the end! After eight months-ish of hard work and determination, I have reached 424 pages and I am about to go into my fourth notebook! Yay!

Right now Gail is just waking up from her cold sleep after almost freezing to death in the hard Montana winter. For about the past five pages, the story has been in the perspective of James, one of Gail's friends. He is in love with her, but she is secretly hung up on Noah after breaking up with him and Gail won't acknowledge the fact that she kind of likes James. She knows he likes her.
They are about half way into January 2019 (A pretty bad winter) and probably will attack in March. So they have a little time for a lot to happen. Some major events WILL take place, but I won't say here because I really don't want to ruin the book for you!

I am planning to be done in the next two months. The summer will be full of editing Night Stalker 1.0 and beginning Night Stalker 2.0. I haven't named the second book yet, but I am thinking about The Night Stalker's Son. It's a little unoriginal, but I kind of like it. If you have any ideas, comment!

I'll try to get more info on 2.0 soon!

Lastly....

A pretty picture to happy-ize the post!

400

400 hundred is such a good number. Its so even and round and perfect. You know what I'm talking about????? Just that amazing feeling that you get when you get to 400, say 400 pages. Hmmmm? Thats right I have hit four hundred pages in the Night Stalker!!! Yeah!!

Now I realize that I haven't given a summary of the Night Stalker so you really don't care. Well that might change tonight. Here we go!

On June 19, 2012 the United States of America was attacked and completely destroyed. Six years later millions of people across the world are all running from the same thing- the Alliance. They did what no one thought was possible, total world domination. My name is Gail Thames. I am twenty-one years old. I started the war. And I am the Night Stalker.


Well thats the short summary. 


Basically the Night Stalker is about a girl named Gail. She was the third child in her family and her parents are high up in the military. Her two brothers were kidnapped before she could remember. In two thousand ten, World War Three started. It was the whole world against a military based society called the Alliance head of which is a man named Philip. By 2012, every country but Canada had fallen to the Alliance. Gail's mom had been taken and cities were completely destroyed. By order of the Alliance all weapons and technology was to be turned in. If you didn't, death was the punishment. It was 2013 and over 2 billion people were dead. The Alliance was in complete control.
There were still people fighting. They called themselves The Rebellion and the head of this was called the Prince of Light. In 2014 Gail made a very important decision that would change the world forever. She became the Night Stalker. 


Now when I say Night Stalker I don't mean the serial killer or the TV show (By the Way I didn't know that it was a TV show or a serial killer before a month ago... I don't mean to violate copyright stuff). Sadly the title might change.




Until next time!


snowfire

Dare You To Move

Okay, so today at school these people, Camfel Productions, came to our school and gave this really awesome presentation. There was Switchfoot, Muse, Harry Potter, To Save a Life - all the stuff that makes life good. =) Anyways about two hours later during English we where asked to write about the movie we saw (which was about standing up for yourself and others and pushing yourself everyday to become the best that you can be). I put mine in the form of an interview. So... here we go.

DARE YOU TO MOVE
An Interview With Miss Liz Beth Cooper

-Will you change from the video?
        -Yes, I think I will. I try to stand up for people at times and other times I just watch and feel bad for them. Because of the movie, I think I will try and stand up for others even more.

-Do you have a connection to the video?
        -I don't know, maybe, I think so. I haven't been bullied much and if I have I say STOP, I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU NOW PLEASE GET OUT OF MY FACE AND LEAVE ME ALONE! Well, maybe not like that, but I don't put up with crap like that.

-What do you do when you are scared?
        - I try to face my fears as much as possible. If I am afraid of heights (which I am), I force myself to walk up to the next floor or look over the edge or at the view. Sometimes I realize how beautiful the view actually is.

-How have you overcome fear or when did you have to courage to do something?
         -I have an insane fear of roller coasters. I've only ever gone on three in my entire life. The first time I rode one called the dragon. I had to mentally and physically force myself up the ramp and into the car. In the end it was really kind of fun- scary fun.

-How did watching the video make you feel?
         -Sad, because we can't all get along and accept people for who they are. We are all different and we all have our flaws. That's what makes us human.


Thank you, thank you! Applause! Bravo!

Now, some news on the Night Stalker. I just reached 356 pages and if all goes well I should be at 400 by the end of February. The book is happily nearing the end. I'm just excited because I could be writing the sequel by the start of next school year (Bring it on High School!).

By the middle of March I'm supposed to have written a mystery, a poem or two, and a biography for English class. Not to mention researched and read five books from each of those three genres. I'll take on the challenge. Come on! Bring it!

(Have I ever mentioned? I suck at writing mysteries.)

Bonne Soir!

P.S. I am finally getting around to editing my NaNoNovel, The Thirteenth Games. 50 Pages down. =)
 

Off on a tangent, but it doesn't matter for this is about Harry Potter.

This video PROVES that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is real and I'm not talking about the theme parks.

Just click this link and see for yourself. Dun Dun DUNNNN Lord Voldi had taken over Grand Central Station! AHHHHHHHH! I applaud you Voldi.

Epic Harry Potterness


Best of Writings,
Your esteemed friend,
Snowfire