Interlochen School of Creative Arts

Back a while, in the first week of December, right after the madness that was NaNoWriMo, I was still typing like a mad man. For the first couple of days, I was fervently trying to finish the Night Stalker. But, a week before December the 15th, I was killing myself. During NaNoWriMo, I had decided to enter the Virginia B. Ball Contest. The winner would get a 30,000 dollar scholarship to Interlochen.

I just barely managed to enter myself on time.

And I waited and waited and waited some more for that email or that phone call.

The email came yesterday. And I..... Wasn't a finalist.

Oh well. There are plenty more contests and a whole lot of writing to do.

If you would like to read it, click here. I let my English teacher read it, and she left a lot of notes, but I haven't gotten around to actually editing the thing yet. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it!

In other news, the Night Stalker is nearly finished. I am currently working on Chapter Seventeen out of Nineteen. I'm getting to the really good part after bawling over a really sad part. I cry every time.

I am working feverishly on Loving Amelia Perfect. Last night, I did a complete read through and now have a list of things to fix on the over all plot. Tonight, I will be working on the outline and hopefully character dynamics. Fun stuff!

For a while, I have been thinking about writing a book called something a long the lines of Diary of an Atheist Christian. It will follow the life of a Atheist who is raised in a Christian family and the hardships he/she went through. It might also follow two or three other people. I was hoping to do this for Camp NaNoWriMo, but I feel like starting it earlier... Hmm...

That's all for now!

Best of Writings,
~Snowie

The Thames Family

They're smart and they're witty, 

Bloodthirsty and broken, 
They're all together crazy, 
The Thames Family. 


(Fail.)

Abigal and Thomas Thames

Abigal Thames is the sort of person who gives an order and people follow it, no questions asked. She is about 5'8" with orange, curly hair and brown eyes. In 2018, she was 53.

Thomas is quieter than his wife and very smart. He is a weapons inventor for the military and his wife's partner. Thomas is a year older than Abigal with brown hair and the Thames's green eyes. 

Abigal and her future husband, Thomas, met in high school. At age 18, she and Thomas joined the army. Abigal worked as a nurse, but soon made her way into the ranks with her remarkable knowledge of military strategy. Abigal's father was a general in the army. After seven years of fighting alongside Thomas, Abigal married him. Abigal and Thomas had three children: Matthew and Phillip, born when Abi was 25; and Gail, born when Abi was 32, just after Matt and Phillip were kidnapped. In 2000, Abby was selected as the Strategist for Operation Light. She and two others (Noah’s Dad and a general) prepared a plan to protect the United States from the impending Alliance Attack. Operation Light was finished just months before the attack. Abigal was captured and taken. She was assumed to be dead.

Abigal and Thomas were scientists in the first versions of The Night Stalker when The Night Stalker revolved around DNA and super soldiers. Although the story is told from Gail's point of view, the plot revolves mostly around Abigal and her part in the war, but that's a huge post for another time. I chose Abigal mostly to connect Gail to the rest of the war and put Gail in the center of everything- almost accidentally. Also, Abigal has a really amazing backstory, and is a kick-butt 50 year old woman.

Matthew

Matthew is tall with brown hair and green eyes, like his father. He has a very strong survival instinct and is a natural leader, like Abigal, his mother.

Matthew was kidnapped at age 7, and thought to have been killed because he was weak. A nice soldier let him go, and Matt spent time in Europe traveling from family to family and trying to get back to the United States. He couldn’t go to an Embassy because Alliance had spies everywhere. Matt met up with the European Rebellion after war started. He also met Abigal, but didn’t realize it was his mom. However, Abigal knew it was him. Matthew rose through the Rebellion ranks and was kidnapped by Hamilton to be taken to the United States.

Philip

Philip is the son of Abigal and Thomas Thames. He is the older identical twin brother of Matthew. He has been mentally and physically abused for most of his life, so Philip is filled with rage and hate towards everyone in his life. 

Philip lived in Brownings City, PA until he was kidnapped at age 7 with Matthew. He was raised in Russia under the guidance of Alliance leader Alyxandr Romov. Philip hates his parents and Gail which was the main reason he attacked the United States. This hate was caused by Romov's psychological torture on Philip. Philip married an older woman named Eleanor at age 15. They had Hamilton same year. Eleanor was 18. Philip was forced to marry Eleanor because Romov wanted two heirs to the Alliance throne. Philip later killed Romov and took over the Alliance.

Hope you enjoyed another round of Things You Didn't Know But Know Not About The Night Stalker! Happy Holidays!

~Snowie

Now That You Know

So, how did you like the plot? (Psssst Leave a Comment. I'd love to hear your opinion of it.)

Now that you know the story, it's time to meet the two sides of it. 

The Alliance

Meet the Alliance. They are a Russian-based Mafia that was headed by Alyxandr Romov. Romov has held a grudge against the United States since they illegally captured his parents. When Romov died in 2010, he still had found them. In order to get back at the United States and a handful of other countries who interfered with his criminal web, Romov sent agents to a little house in Brownings, Pennsylvania. The agents kidnapped the twin sons of well-known Military Strategist Abigal Thames and her husband Thomas, a military weapons inventor. The seven year old boys were smuggled out of the country. 

On the way to Russia, one was deemed too weak for Romov and was killed. The boy, however, escaped. For 13 years, the twin that was still with the Alliance, named Philip, was heavily abused and trained by Romov. Plans to invade all six continents and kill Romov's enemies were put into place. Philip had plans of revenge of his own, but went along with Romov. Romov's death in 2010 is still suspicious. 

Philip took over after Romov's death and put the invasion steps into place instantly. The Alliance army was already in place in every country. Countries fell before any one knew what was happening. In less than 24 hours, bombs were falling. World War Three had begun. 

As a government, the Alliance is a Dictatorship, ruled by King Phillip. The next in line is Philip's son, Prince Hamilton. A majority of the major army positions and government positions are filled by old Russian, North Korean, and Chinese leaders. 

The Rebellion

The Rebellion was started as a part of Operation Light. OL was created by the President as a back up plan to the Alliance threat. 3 people (Abigal Thames, Alaric Cook, and General Crosley) worked together to create an army that would come together and fight the Alliance if the world powers were to fall. 

When the Alliance invaded and took over America, the operation was implemented and leaders gathered troops. 8 years into the war Newfoundland, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut have been won in the USA alone. The European army is gorging their way through the middle of Europe in an effort to cut off West Europe from the Alliance.

All over the world, there are ten Rebellion armies: one in Europe, four in Asia, two in Africa, one in Australia, one in South America, and one in North America. Some are lead by a single person, others, like the one in North America, are headed by a General and a counsil.

I hope you enjoyed this little break down of the Night Stalker's armies!

~Snowie

The Who, The What, The Where, The When, and The Why. Everything You Need To Know About The Night Stalker

What is The Night Stalker?
Why is it called that?
Who is in it? Why?
Where is it? Why?
Why? Why? Why?
Why?

Many of you may be wondering what in the world The Night Stalker even is. And, if you are a close friend, you probably can't ever remember. How supportive.

So, to clear up the confusion and put it down on paper, I now give you a short less than three hundred word summary of The Night Stalker's wonderful plot.

Two years after World War III began, Gail Thames's mother was captured by the Alliance, a Russian based mafia. Six years later, there still has been no word of Abigal's status. The Alliance now controls the world and the people in it. There is only one hope for freedom- the Rebellion. As Rebel and Alliance forces clash world wide, Gail is handed a paper proving her mother is still alive and well in the Freeland. Traveling with a Rebel battalion, Gail heads to Maine to search for her mother. But, a soldier's journey is never straight, and dark secrets never stay hidden long.

There you have it. The Night Stalker summary in less than 300 worlds.

~Snowie

Camp NaNoWriMo 2012

Oh yes. It is that time again! Time to write another 50,000 words in the name of writing. But wait! What's that you say? It's not even November yet? It's May, you say? That is why the lovely people over at the Office of Letters and Light put a Camp in front of NaNoWriMo. This year there are two Camp NaNoWriMo sessions, one in June and the other in August. Camp NaNoWriMo is exactly the same as regular NaNoWriMo. You still write a 50,000 word novel in one month, there are still "winners" and t-shirts, and of course, and the words per day goal is still 1,667. The one thing that is different from NaNoWriMo are the cabins. Cabins are exactly what they sound like. You can either pick who you want for cabin mates, let a computer make the decision, or not be in a cabin at all. Cabin mates are supposed to provide encouragement and ideas for you along your month long novelling adventure. Another great part about Camp NaNoWriMo is that if you have done NaNoWriMo or Script Frenzy before, then you do not need to sign up again. Your NaNoWriMo Username and Password work perfectly with the Camp NaNoWriMo website.

I have participated in Camp NaNoWriMo once before. I used it to start writing Light, the sequel to The Night Stalker. At about 25,000 words I realized that TNS doesn't need a sequel, so I stopped writing. I am actually quite fond of Light. It would be a good story on its own. I liked Camp NaNoWriMo since it was in the middle of summer and I had more time to write because I wasn't in school.

This year I am planning to write in June, but probably not August. In August, school and volleyball start up again and writing will be put back burner of my life. I am planning to write a full on romance which is something that I've never done on a grand novel scale. This time (Unless I get really bored), the main plot will be focused on the romance, not supernatural beings or a war. I am a little bit worried because I don't have a lot of things or ideas on romance and what problems will affect it. I want the romance to be perfect, but that's the problem. Romance is not perfect, there are conflicts. I just have to find exciting conflicts.

And here is the Rough Plot.

I know that I want it to be a sort of Romeo and Juliet forbidden romance type novel. I even have the perfect songs to go with the novel.



and




(Going through an Adam Lambert phase, sorry)

The two main character's names are Amy and Ben. I want to tell the story from either both their points of view or just from Amy's view. They meet in high school and Ben graduates a year before Amy. They meet at a party and hang out for the rest of the summer until Ben goes to college. Amy and Ben talk to each other via text and letter and find comfort in each other away from their lives. (Learn more about the plot and characters HERE.)

.... This should be a great Camp NaNoWriMo.... As you can see, romance is not my thing. That's why I need to work on it. The novel (Title: Love By Text... maybe?) could turn out really good or really bad. My money is on really bad, but that is ok. I'll learn how to not write a romance novel.

~Snowie

P.S. Perhaps Camp NaNoWriMo is a good way for a certain Blake to get his novel done.... =)

P.P.S. Here's a link to a letter Amy writes to Ben. And another link to a short romance that I wrote.

Writing Plots and Subplots

???

Writing plots, subplots, suspense, problems, and a majority of other things are just some of the things that I have trouble with. Every writer goes through that time where they discover that they really aren't that good, despite what they think, were told, or use to think. Some writers can get though this slowed learning curve and eventually become great writers. Others put down their pens and never pick them up again. That story is for a whole other post.

I think I've gone through a learning curve where I realized that, no, I am not better than anyone else and if I want to be better, I have to work for it. I figured that I had to start somewhere and that somewhere is plots and subplots. Plots and subplots are perhaps, at least to me, the most complicated thing about novels. There can be anywhere from one plot to one plot and an infinity of subplots. For me, keeping track of all those layers is a hard task and finding a way to make sure they all are ended or resolved by the end of the book is nearly impossible.

So I did some research. And I found one thing to help me.

The ABC Tracker

The ABC tracker by C.S. Lakin is really easy and helps make things much less complicated. 'A' is the main plot, the over-arcing plot. Usually the main plot, or Plot A, is the protagonist's main goal. In Harry Plotter, the main plot was Harry and Voldemort battling to the death. Most of the time, a story with just plot A is really boring. You don't just want to see Harry battle Voldemort. You want to live through all of the adventure and tension it takes to get to that battle. Plot B is the first subplot. Plot B should strengthen A and make Plot A interesting. This subplot is the second most important subplot in your story. A Plot B of Harry Potter could be Harry finding and destroying the Horcruxes.  From there is goes on in order of letter C, D, E...Z, AA, AB, AC, and into infinity.

Links 
Plot Outlines By Darcy Pattison
Fiction Factor
The Bookshelf Muse- Where I got the idea from C.S. Lakin. I tried the ABC Tracker and I liked it, so I wanted to blog about it.

~Snowfire

When Living is not Living: A Short Story by Me

When Living is not Living

By Snowie

“As soon as there is life there is danger.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The robot’s green eyes stared right at her, no, not right at her, right through her. Kassie stared straight back, saying nothing, thinking nothing. They had been like this for hours. Kassie had barely noticed. She had forgotten why she was staring at her father like this. How long had Kassie been standing there? The robot’s eyes flashed in a sort of automatic blink. Kassie blinked back. A ping came from the robot’s speaker. Kassie’s father turned around and rolled down the hall. He disappeared around the corner.

Kassie stood in the the hallway waiting for the nothing that would never come. Or possibly, the nothing was already there. Maybe the nothing was all Kassie’s life was. Maybe everything that ever existed was nothing at all. Everything that ever mattered to her (Which was nothing of much importance) was blanketed in nothing.

She moved her foot forward one inch, two inches, three, down. Kassie stared at her heavy feet as they shuffled. For some reason unbeknownst to her, it seemed like they were not her feet. Somehow the feet seemed to have detached themselves from her feet and found another person to carry around. She took another step and watched as the padded floor rose around her white shoes. Another step. Her hand touched the padded wall. Kassie looked up at the fake sunlight pouring from the fake windows. For a second she wondered what actual sunlight felt like. She froze. Why had she thought that? Sunlight was dangerous, the government said so. She could be thrown in jail for at least a month for just thinking about sunlight. Kassie held her breath. She waited for alarms to sound. None went off. Within seconds, the thought was forgotten and Kassie was left wondering what she was doing standing in the middle of the hallway.

Her mother came around the curved corner carrying the portable IV in her padded robot hands. Her usual monotone voice came on. “Time for lunch, Kassie.”

Kassie’s feet moved again and she was walking out of the hall and into the dinning area. She sat on the white padded floor and took the padded white IV from her mom. Kassie lifted her white shirt a couple of inches revealing pale white skin that had healed around a closed tube. Kassie took the tube from the IV and locked it into the tube that disappeared inside her. Kassie touched the start button lightly. A clear fluid filled the tubes and vanished inside of her. Three minutes later lunch was done. Kassie relaxed a bit. She had heard that lunch, breakfast, and dinner were the most dangerous parts of the day. Mom had told her that the government was working on making IVs safer. Kassie carefully unhooked the IV and stood. The robot bent over and picked up the IV. Kassie watched. Something shiny and pointed stuck out of the robot’s back.

“Mom, can you stop?” Kassie moved closer and the robot froze. It was an odd object. She had never seen anything like it in real life. Maybe she had seen something like it in the dangerous listings. What was it called again? ...Metal. That’s it. Metal. Kassie reached out and hesitated. This was wrong. She should not touch it. She should call the police and turn Mom in. Mom was dangerous. It would be the right thing to do, wouldn’t it? Kassie looked down at her mom. But, it was her mom. Would Dad notice if Mom left? Kassie looked at the metal sticking out of her mom’s back. She stared and turned her head to watch the fake light reflect off of the tip. The thing was so beautiful. Kassie’s hand shook as she moved closer. Her fingertips were inches away from the tip. Touching it once could not do any harm, could it? Even closer still. Perhaps everyone was wrong. How could something so beautiful be so dangerous?

Kassie poked the metal. She screamed.

Mom jerked up as Kassie snatched her hand back. Alarms blared through the house. Doors locked and the light flared. Kassie stared at her finger. It was throbbing slightly. A dot of red sat on the tip of her finger. She stared at the droplet and watched it fall to the ground. The padded floor soaked up the red and it spread through the fibers. Another droplet formed on her fingers. For a moment she stared at the droplet. Kassie hesitated then touched her finger to her lips. She licked the red dot. Something funny happened to her mouth. Her spit seemed to change and be different. She spit on the ground trying to make the funny spit go away. Mom stared at her. Her blue robot eyes blinked simultaneously.

The padded door swung open. Three men and a woman walked in wearing helmets and thick suits. The three men walked straight over to Mom and opened the control panel. One of the men punched in a code. Mom followed them out the door. Kassie looked away from Mom and the men. The woman was standing by her, waiting with a large medical kit. Kassie held out her finger for the woman. The woman bent over and opened her medical kit. She took Kassie’s finger and wiped away the red. The wipe dissolved in the woman’s hand. The woman brushed the remains away and the floor cleaned up for her. Kassie watched silently as the woman took out a lighted wand. The woman pressed the wand against Kassie’s finger. When the wand was removed, there was nothing to prove that the red had leaked from Kassie’s body.

The woman smiled and put her equipment away. “Now go lay in bed. By morning you will have forgotten everything terrible that has happened today.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Socrates

Trying to Upload Once Every Week (Is a hassle)

I'm not complaining, uploading once a week is hard especially when the week goes by so fast that you've barely made sense out of it and have nothing to blog about. Now I know what the "famous pro's" feel like and why Charlie McDonnell hasn't uploaded anything in a while (Come on, Charlie!). Let's see, the last post was about that little rat called procrastination. I admit, I do procrastinate sometimes (okay, a lot). Usually homework and writing are the procrastinatees and I am, of course, the procrastinator. I did in fact procrastinate on the Night Stalker. I waited a good two and a half weeks before I started revising when I only planned to wait one. My excuse is that I had two and a half weeks of school left and I wanted to go out strong and without any stress. So, to de-stress and go out with a big summer-y bang, I arrived home at 6 o'clock most nights, ate, showered, did an hour of homework, and was asleep by nine-thirty. Lucky me, because I had no homework for the last week, unlike some of my poor stressed out friends. It's a believable excuse, I know.

That brings us to our topic of the day: Revision or Rewriting.

On the 21st of May, I sat down in a three hour car ride, pulled out my new grey notebook and started writing the first chapter of the Night Stalker.... Again. I can hear those British, "WHOTS!" From the invisible people in the back. Yes, I started writing it again. Almost nearly never is a first draft the perfect draft. The first draft is all about getting your ideas on the paper, forming characters, and a very, very experimental, rough plot. With me, the farther I get into a book, the better my writing gets. I fall into the actions, my characters grow, I start thinking that this is the best book ever! Then a couple of months later, I'll read through it again and think,"Wow. That's really terrible." I think the first great writers were just like that. And enter Shakespeare with a sign that reads "Revision". Yes, this is where the great thing that is called revision comes in.

Hundreds of years ago, there was no such thing as revision. Writer's wrote one draft and called it good. Well, this one little writer, Freddy, was terribly smart. One day he was sifting through his animal skins looking at and reading his earlier works and he realized that all of these writings were really, really bad. So he said to himself," Hmmm... All of these things that I have written could be extremely amazing if I rewrote somethings here and took out this part here then maybe added some detail here. And hey! I'm going to call this process revision!"

You get my point.

I often think that this is the one thing that most teachers leave out of their teachings. They have you do all these silly things like making up three plots then picking one out. If you like doing that it's fine, but I can't stand it. After you pick out one, they usually make you write out the events, characters, plot, setting and then you can write your draft. Once you have a draft they say,"Read through and edit and proofread, dearies!" Though it's probably not that creepily said.


AND STOP!!

Key words: Edit and Proofread.

The teacher should have said," Read through then revise. Revision is an important step that shouldn't be missed. Every draft needs revision at sometime or another. Take the Night Stalker for example. The first chapter is very poorly written with a lot of info filler, LONG paragraphs of information having to do with the story, and poor plotting. I couldn't fix those things with editing!

Believe it or not, revision and editing and proofreading are completely different things. According to dictionary.com revision is: to alter something already written or printed, in order to make corrections, improve, or update: to revise a manuscript. Whereas editing is: to prepare (text) for publication by checking and improving its accuracy, clarity, etc. 


Revision has nothing to do with spelling or grammar correction. It pertains to removing unwanted words, paragraphs, chapters, and characters. It involves reworking the plot, characters, and settings to make the story flow smoothly and to make it more believable. That is why revision is also called rewriting. Usually you are changing so much in your story that you have to basically rewrite it. Also, you may rewrite a story hundreds of times (That was a hyperbole, an extreme exaggeration) before you ever start editing. 


When and Where?

When and where do you edit? When is simple and the answer is right before editing. Always revise before editing is more appropriate. Think about it. Why would you take the time to proofread and fix all of the grammar first only to delete it entirely from the story later? Where is in you manuscript where ever it needs rearranging, retelling, strengthening, and structuring.   

P.S. Editing is a term I sometimes use loosely. Usually when I say edit I am referring to revision, editing, and proofreading. In this post when I say edit I mean the process of correcting grammar. Also, editing and proofreading are very, very closely related. They are so close that they could be, and sometimes are, counted, together, as a single step.




I hope that this post was helpful to you and if you have any questions about writing, just comment or message me. 

Happy Writings, 
Snowie  




    

Who's up for a movie?

Well, Script Frenzy is well underway. I'm already fourteen pages in and hopefully I will be close to thirty by tonight.


Joisie and Annie have already found one clue and teamed up with Todd. They are discussing the clue and trying to figure out the secret message that is on it. And the plot thickens as they say.


This morning I was also pleasantly surprised when I learned that my friend who moved away texted me. It's a long story that I'd rather not tell.


After a run and lunch, I sat down and just thought a bit about last night. Last night was one of the saddest nights ever. I can't tell you why I cried because it will completely ruin the Night Stalker.


I'll say this- someone really close to someone died from something and the dying someone said really inspirational and heartbreaking words to someone right as the someone died. Then the someone who the now dead person told the inspirational words to went completely insane and completely closed everyone out until about two weeks before the final big battle. Now the insane someone is being comforted by someone so the insane someone can help lead the army to somewhere to fight the Alliance.


I think that the Night Stalker will be finished within the next thirty pages. I'm so emotional right now. I'm happy that book one will soon be done and proud of myself for actually finishing a book and so sad that this story will soon be over. I don't want it to be over but at the same time I do. It's so complicated!!


Now that you are thoroughly confused, I will continue. =)

"You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,  

Love like you'll never be hurt, 

Sing like there's nobody listening, 

And live like it's heaven on earth." 

— William W. Purkey

I think that that quote is amazing. One it is inspirational. Two it tells you to just be yourself. Three No one's perfect, but it is those imperfections that make us human and lovable.

Think about that for a while.

Snowie

P.S. Doctor Who Season 6 Starts April 23!!!!!!!