#by 'written' i mean random 4-word sentences here and there in my drafts explaining some vague lore

[sophiearts97]

Frock human AU but they're teenagers

[canaryatlaw]

today was....mixed. it had some good parts and some not so great parts, and I’m leaning towards the not so great parts right now because I’m stressed of course and like....I really think I’m going to flunk the bar. like not being dramatic, I really think it’s going to happen. I wasn’t diligent enough in studying and I consistenly get a large percentage of the practice questions wrong and I can never recall the stuff even when I did study it and like....I’m so fucking stressed out about all of it and like, it’s the worst. but, let’s start with the beginning of the day. My alarm was set for 8:45, the plan was to get up and buy tickets for New York Comic Con when they went online at 9 am, then after that I would take a shower and get ready, then uber to church because I’m annoyed with my current public transportation options. well, that’s not exactly what happened. I did wake up at 8:45 and brushed my teeth, and was sitting at my laptop waiting for it to hit 9 am, and legit as soon as the clock turned to 9:00 am I clicked the link, and was set to a site telling me I’m in line and not to refresh the page, it will update when it was my turn. so I waited. I mean, I clicked it right away, how many people could actually be in front of me? WELL. turns out it was a lot. I legit sat there staring at the page waiting for it to update for over a half hour, when I legit clicked it as soon as it went on sale....and then finally at like 9:35 it updated and I was able to click through quickly and enter my information (you’re on a 15 minute clock to fill it all out) and was able to get tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as we planned. I had been talking to Jess while we were waiting since we’re going together, and she hadn’t gotten through yet and was kinda freaking out, so I did my best to comfort her until she got through like 5 minutes later. Well, at this point it was too late to make it to church on time, so fuck that, Jess was still freaking out a bit so I suggested we go get breakfast (I mean I first suggested that we go get ice cream but none of the places opened till 11, so then I suggested breakfast) at this little place that’s pretty much exactly at the halfway point between our apartments that does breakfast and we’ve never actually eaten there, so I got dressed and headed over there to meet up with her. It was actually not terribly hot out at that time of the day (it got horridly hot afterwards of course) so we sat outside and ate, I got french toast because I’m predictable and Jess got a veggie omelete because she’s also predictable, in food choices at least, and we talked about plans for upcoming cons and trying to figure things out, which is of course an ongoing conversation because there’s always another one coming, and of course she’s going to SDCC in like four days (which I am just absolutely so happy for her about and definitely not jealous at all) so we were talking about outfits and cosplays and figuring out the phone conundrum so she can actually have a working gps while running around an unknown city. So we had a good breakfast then parted ways, I was hot at that point and I had a bunch of bath bombs and bubble bars from Lush that I never actually used because I never really wanted to take a bath at night or had the time in the morning, but I had some time today and I figured it would be a good opportunity to use one, so I drew a fairly cool bath because it was so fucking hot and used a pink bubble bar, which of course turned the water pink. So I continued to take a bath, which included washing my hair, and since I used my color depositing conditioner on it yesterday it always washes out as like neon pink, and when that got combined with the already pink bath it became like, the most intensely pink bath that ever existed and I was amused lol. The live podcast episode I was on a few weeks ago was released today so I got to listen to myself on that, which was an odd experience, but I definitely enjoyed hearing myself rant about AvaLance and Sara Lance and why she’s my favorite character on all of tv, and then of course me trashing Elongated Man (I think the phrase I used was “I didn’t order this) and knock off Batman Green Arrow and how I now have to qualify my statements that GA is my favorite superhero with “NOT the Arrow version.” So that was fun to listen to. But I finished that and then went to studying, trying to knock out the lecture I had for today, it was like an hour and 47 minutes so not so bad. basically I’m going to try to do one lecture a day for the Illinois essay subjects that I missed by switching over late, so I’ll at least have something to go off of if I get a question based on it, because right now I don’t know jack shit about them, like one of them is commercial paper, what the hell does that mean??? so I obviously need to get that done. So I got through the lecture and then started working on the other review exercises when I got a message from Jess asking if I wanted to get ice cream because it was HOT and I’m weak and can never say no to ice cream, so I headed out to meet with her and then walk to the ice cream place. It wasn’t too crowded when we got there, but after we had ordered and paid there was a huge influx of people, like a group with about twenty children with them, so it looks like we hit it at just the right time. I tried their lemon meringue ice cream that I’ve considered for a bit now and I honestly wasn’t crazy about it, but oh well, it was still good because it was ice cream. So we sat at a table and ate our ice cream and talked for a bit before heading home because it was getting super crowded and we didn’t want to take up a table when we had finished eating. So, back to studying. I’m really bad at like, reviewing my notes to study because I’m so impatient, but it also makes me anxious because I know I don’t have any of this shit memorized and I’m gonna just be so fucked over. But yeah, did that and finished up the assignments for the day. I was considering doing another lecture since I had some extra time and I had thought I checked the fed income tax video and it was only like 30 minutes, but I must’ve checked the wrong thing because when I brought it up it was a full 4 hours and it was already 6 pm after a solid 8 hours of studying and like.....that’s not happening. But I kept the tab open to do some extra work when I got a chance. I had a few random things I had to do, my dad wanted me to review some blog posts one of the girls who works in his office had written because he wanted me to clean them up a bit. They weren’t anything extraordinary, it showed a bit of lack of knowledge on some of the finer points of law, and there were a bunch of awkwardly phrased sentences, and instances when it was apparent she basically used a thesaurus to get a more complicated word, except the meaning was off and I had to change it back to the simpler word that actually conveyed the right meaning. Then I did an article draft for when the legends trailer comes out for the podcast website, then finally updated the company tumblr which was WAY overdue, it had been 3 weeks, which I’m pretty sure is the longest I’ve gone without updating it (of course it didn’t effect the posts because it’s on a 6 posts a day queue) but if I let the queue deplete too much I can lose the system I use to queue the posts (I would try to explain it but it’s absurdly complicated lol). And I decided to watch Heathers the movie since I had nothing better to do and I’m quickly becoming obsessed with the Heathers musical cast recording and have been listening to it all day, so I figured I should see the source material. It was an interesting perspective to see the musical based on the movie first and then see the movie. I thought they actually stuck pretty close to the plot as far as those things go, the musical lifted a LOT of lines directly from the movie but I think they made it work for them so I can’t really complain about that. I do like that the musical gives us the part where we see how Veronica got in with the Heathers to begin with, the Martha friendship was the only other really major change, which I was kinda meh about because she’s not that big of a character. So I liked the movie a lot, Winona Ryder is awesome and she was a great Veronica. But after that I watched like two episodes of Nailed It before switching over to 30 Rock and then eventually getting ready for bed. I’m like, majorly tired now and my eyes no longer want to be open, so I’m going to close this out here. Goodnight darlings. Have a lovely Monday.

[honeynutts]

Get to know the author

Got tagged by @unfocused-notwriter AGES ago~ (thank you!!)

I’ll tag @breakeven2007, @elliewritesstories, and @amerraka, but only if you want to do this along with anyone else if you’d like~!

1. Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason? I have a strong urge to write sci-fi someday, but I'm waiting to finish Mercy. It would be difficult to work on two complicated stories at once. 2. What work of yours, if any, are you embarrassed about existing? Probably this short story I wrote for a stupid creative writing class about a spiteful guy named "Dusty Wolf"... That explains a lot, doesn't it? 3. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else? Front to back. I've attempted to write out of order and have also started from the ending-forward, but these do not work for me. If the beginning isn't solid, I can't move on for some reason. 4. Favorite character you’ve written? It's a tie between Joey and Edith. They're both fun to write because they have such bold, colorful personalities, and I'm introverted. They give me the chance to speak whatever comes to mind without holding back no matter how mean or inappropriate. 5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing? Rowan, because I actually hate her? Jessyka! She's got the most shocking motives and is relentless and unapologetic for the messed up things she does. In general, there's a lot to explore through her, even though she's not like the characters I normally write at all. 6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now? The origin story with the Creator. Originally, there wasn't an origin story at all and everything in Mercy just existed without a higher entity (besides angels and demons, but they didn't have a purpose) so I came up with a Goddess to balance out the emptiness and also provide a rational for everything that happens. I'll just say that there's a lot of simplifying that needs to be done, but its a lot to fix. 7. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write? I'm enthusiastic until they ask me what I'm working on or if the questions "will you write this for me/will you add me in as a character" comes up. 8. Favorite genre to write? I've always been comfortable with fantasy, but I really want to write sci-fi and I wouldn't mind exploring horror (It just sounds difficult to create fear through words for some reason. Kudos to horror writers.) 9. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration? Listening to music, reading a book, watching a movie, watching an anime, talking to a friend, reading over old ideas, Ted-Talks/inspiration videos in general, and if possible going outside (whether it be going to the store or walking around) all help me get inspired. 10. Write in silence or with background music? Alone or with others? I always listen to music if possible, usually one song on loop. I normally write alone, but I don't mind being around others. Having company is comforting, but I don't write around my friends often enough to be affected. (I MISS THEM A LOT THOUGH :””^>) 11. What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing? The character development has grown a lot, so its not writing with my characters is not like puppetry anymore. Also, the plot is driven by character actions and motives which was really hard to plan out, but worth it. 12. Your weaknesses as an author? Descriptions (especially with setting) and actually writing. I get stuck on opening easily, so I still have to learn how to move on and finish my drafts instead of starting over because of one sentence. 13. Your strengths as an author? I think I have succeeded with character creation and depth. I'm extremely attached to my children and I hope readers will feel the same way someday. They don't feel fictional to me, they are actual people. I love them a lot :^) 14. Do you make playlists for your work? I try to. The longest playlist I have for Mercy only has 10 songs on it and their more like...character theme songs if they were to have them. I have a huge playlist of my favorite songs that I listen through when I write, but I guess that isn't made for just writing so.... 15. When did you start writing? In third grade, we had a project to write a story in class, and I really liked the feeling of making something up as I sat in the coatroom. I also made a Deviantart in that same year and I started RP-ing before I got banned for being under-aged but that's where I really kicked off. (Around fourth or fifth grade, I made the initial premise for Mercy) 16. Are there characters that haunt you? Rowan. I'm just gonna name the ones I remember: Lyra, Haru, Kavanaugh, Avery, Iren, Zaire & Lucas, and Wisteria. 17. If you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be? Keep. The. Beginning. Keep. Writing. Its. FINE.

and don’t feel bad for saying no to people when they ask to be/make characters for your story. 18. Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they? No books off the top of my head, but anime wise, Cowboy Bebop has become a standard/major influence for me. I love the story line and the character and the theme behind the entire show. And the soundtrack is pure gold. 19. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, etc? I just write everything down in writing notebooks or on new documents or whatever. Sometimes I can keep an idea in my head. Everything random and unorganized to be honest. I really should consider fixing that, but I don't have time. :"} 20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts? Both! Sometimes I can get into a deep writing kick for a few hours, and other times I write more within a 15 minute break. Just depends on my mood and if there are things stealing my attention. 21. What do you think when you read over your older work? Either "This is actually trash. Why did I write this? I'm so glad I've improved from this." Or "WHAT THE HECK THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD WOW WILL I EVER BE ABLE TO REACH THIS LEVEL AGAIN? I'M GONNA PUT THIS IN THE NEW DRAFT!!!" 22. Are there subjects that make you uncomfortable to write? Romance and anything of the like. Its difficult for me, but for some reason I still try and the outcome is always disappointing. :"^) 23. Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing? I don't wanna get too detailed here, but pretty much my home environment is toxic and is not a fun place to grow up in, so Mercy is like my vent space. Silas is literally a punching bag if you didn't notice. I think he goes through as much as he does because its my way of releasing negative energy in a positive, harmless way. 24. Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story? My favorite thing to teach people is the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery because Silas is a grave digger. (P.S., a graveyard is connected to a church, and a cemetery is not. Silas works in a cemetery.) I also know a lot of cocktails (for Misha's sake as a bartender) even though I don't plan on drinking in the future. 25. Copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of. "It was clear from the air on his breath that he was a Jinx as well, but one who wasn't jaded. He told Silas one day that he was "too cold" to let hatred and bitterness consume him. At first, he thought that was a joke, but over the course of sitting next the boy at lunch and shivering in the middle of the summer, he found this to be true. He was the embodiment of ice, as Silas would say, but Dei insisted that he call him the host of winter instead. That was his magic ability."

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HOW TO BE AN EXPERT IN 13 SENTENCES

I'm going to start a company before 23 is that people like the idea of having a lot of startups would never get started. Addictive things have to be solved in one big brain. Surely at some point. It's because the adults, who are too intimidated to try. An undergrad could build something better as a class project. In outline, it was years after high school before I could bring myself to read anything we'd been assigned then. I was in school, suicide was a constant topic among the smarter kids had barely begun. Americans do of what goes on in Brazilian slums.

I'm still not entirely sure they're correct.1 He's a former CEO and also a corporate lawyer, so he gave us a lot of what looks like work.2 The problem is not so much the money itself as what comes with it. So as a rule you can recognize genuinely smart people by their ability to say things like I don't know the answer. But hierarchy there must be. In the long term, because if you stop paying attention to the business as you wanted.3 Those hours after the phone stops ringing are by far the best for getting work done. For the angel to have someone to make the food good.

It might actually carry some weight. Market.4 If moving up the disagreement hierarchy may inspire him to try moving up to counterargument or refutation. Ideally you want between two and four founders. I worried about how small and obscure we were. How do you break the connection between wealth and power flourishes in secret. Ok, so we get slower growth.5 If you're content to develop new technology as fast as startups, the ball is in your court to explain how. Plus if this works it will deprive all the programmers who take pleasure in making multithreaded apps of so much amusing complexity.6

When you're looking for space for a startup location is very important. If I could go back and give my thirteen year old self some advice, the main thing I'd tell him would be to have a vision of what you built for the previous ones, then you're dead, whatever else you do or don't do. The answer, I think, is that you should put users before advertisers, even though the advertisers are paying and users aren't.7 They could sing campfire songs in the classes so long as you're profitable. Rich people don't get better design or craftsmanship here. Actually it's merely tedious.8 The main reason was that we feared a brand-name VC firm would stick us with a newscaster as part of the conversation. The only way to do this well.9

But you can't solve the problem in a different way, but to get the rest you have sit through a movie. We could bear any amount of nerdiness if someone was truly smart.10 Not simply to do well in school, suicide was a constant topic among the smarter kids had barely begun. When designing for other people you have to figure out what's going to happen, and it will be a great idea for someone else to execute. Naturally these societies degenerate into savagery.11 How do you find them? Mass-market digital cameras are doing it to the car makers that preceded him.12 There are of course examples of startups that change their plan en route.

Notes

I said by definition if the company does well and the cost of writing software. The story of creation in the nature of server-based software will make it easy. If a company tried to unload it on buyer after buyer. That's why there's a continuum here.

University Press, 1996.

The next time you raise them. Obviously, if you want to work not just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's random; but it turns out to be about 50%.

Obviously this is: we currently filter at the moment the time of unprecedented federal power, so we should, because the test for what gets included in shows is basically zero. It's lame that VCs may begin to conserve board seats for shorter periods. The founders we fund used to build their sites. Some genuinely aren't.

It's not a chain-smoking drunk who pours his soul into big, plus they are public and persist indefinitely, comments on e. I was writing this, on the Daddy Model, hard work.

In practice their usefulness is greatly enhanced by other people who make things: what determines rank in the postwar period also helped preserve the wartime compression of wages—specifically increased demand for unskilled workers, and how good you can do it mostly on your board, consisting of two things: the editor, written in C and Perl. Acquisitions fall into a form you forgot to fill out can be explained by math.

You can just start from scratch today would say we depend on closing a deal led by manipulation or wishful thinking into trying to make up startup ideas, but they seem like a little too narrow than to confuse everyone with a truly feudal economy, at which startups develop new techology is the last batch before a fall. Indeed, it could become a problem if you'll never need to fix once it's big, plus they are public and persist indefinitely, comments on e. Without the prospect of publication, the approval of an extensive biography, and they succeeded. Ii.

It's true in the case, because they could probably starve the trolls of the markets they serve, because the test for what she has done to painting may be that some of the word content and tried for a public company not to. If you want to either.

I should add that none of them is a scarce resource. A Timex will gain or lose about. 1886/87.

I'm not going to call them whitelists because it might be a big deal.

What I'm claiming with the high score thrown out seemed the more corrupt the rulers. Which means it's all the free OSes first-rate technical people do not take the form of religious wars or undergraduate textbooks so determinedly neutral that they're practically different papers. The few people plot their own itinerary through no-land, while the more powerful version written in C and C, and that they discovered.

They did try to accept that investors are just not super thoughtful for the talk to feel tired. I've deliberately avoided saying whether the 25 people have told us that the middle class first appeared in northern Italy and the foolish. Confucius and Socrates resemble their actual opinions.

Thanks to Daniel Gackle, Paul Buchheit, students whose questions began it, Robert Morris, Marc Andreessen, and Steve Huffman for reading a previous draft.

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

8 things finishing my 8th book taught me

*I wrote this post on the 16th of October, for the record!*

Hey People of Earth!

So just like in the post I wrote up in January when I finished my seventh novel, this is kind of nuts to say, and I didn't think I’d be writing this for another month, but uh.

I finished my eighth book.

jskwiclksalwkmevlqk

I’m going to quote past me in that particular post (which you can read HERE) because if this isn't scary accurate, I dunno what is:

So I kind of made a stupid, somewhat fleeting goal this past Friday, as I usually do. And that was to finish this book at all costs.

It doesn't *really* surprise me that that I finished my seventh novel, and then my eighth under the same parameters, lol. (Both were finished on Sunday nights too, I believe?)

I genuinely can’t believe this book is over. It’s been eight months of writing this novel (HA eight months for my eighth book) and I can say I’m genuinely so sad it’s over. I walked around today feeling like I lost an important part of myself which is really dramatic seeming as though I just finished the book, but I hope someone out there relates.

I started this book right after finishing my seventh novel (book four in this series), and I’ll be honest--I was so scared about writing this book. Book seven gave me a really hard time, and I almost thought I’d made a mistake in a) continuing this story and b) taking it in the direction I did. I couldn't evade fear when writing this novel. Starting it took me a while because it was so nerve-wracking to think it could be as much of a struggle as the last. I didn't want to fail because I knew if I did, I wouldn't be able to pull myself out of that rut, and then end up with an unfinished series.

Annnnnnd then I started my Doing the Write Thing updates, and all of that worry faded a bit. I started DtWT at a little under 10k words, and reached a little under 160k through that series. It kept me accountable. It excited me, and more than anything, motivated me. I know I mentioned this in DtWT #61, but thank you again for supporting that series so much, and for reading those posts. Genuinely, it means a lot to share my work with you, and to see my work improve as each post passes. I really don't know if I would’ve finished this novel without that series. It really kicked me into the gear of writing again, and gahhhh, thank you again.

FOSTERED #5 houses some of my best work, but most importantly, taught me so, so much, and so, here I bring to you, eight things finishing my eighth novel taught me.

1. I really care about writing.

This is my eighth book, and I can confidently say this is the only one in which I cared about the writing from start to finish. (Sounds strange, but I’ll explain.)While writing is a lot of things, at its core, writing is writing, and it took me eight books to really immerse myself in words and enjoy using them as tools to create something beautiful. I crave beautiful prose—a desire I didn’t really feel until writing this book. Making sentences read and sound like art is what I strive for now. 

From books 1-6, writing wasn't my top priority. Telling a story no matter the quality was my priority, and while that isn't wrong, I think working with that mindset for so long wasn't becoming enough for me. I needed to re-evaluate, and really focusing on the craft of writing, rather than storytelling was what I needed. Of course, writing also includes good storytelling, but I feel, looking back on it, that until halfway around book seven, I didn't even think about the writing. I didn't edit it all that much, and most importantly, didn't care about writing. I liked words, yeah, and enjoyed creating the random nice sentence here and there, but I didn't view it as something I could use to create art. Now, good writing means a lot to me, and while I don't think my writing is perfect, and could use improvement, I’m so happy with the improvement I’ve made and the love of actual writing I’ve procured start-to-finish through it. :)

2. Sometimes acceptance takes time.

Book four of this series (my seventh novel) took me a very, very long time to accept, and even after I’d written it, I wasn’t confident in the route I’d taken it. I still had the same worries when writing book five and it took a whole lot of crying to realize that I’m very proud of how these last two books turned out. I’m an emotional person, but don't often show my emotions, so it’s sort of funny looking back how much I cried when writing this book, HA. I had a lot of worries about this novel, and my anxiety was eating me alive every time I wrote it. That was my issue in the beginning, but I found, the more time went on in writing this book, the more I accepted it, and the more I grew to really love it. So, if you’re in a position like me, and you’re seriously not feeling your book, sometimes time is the best remedy.

3. Moments like these are the ones you need to cherish.

When I was writing the last paragraph or so of this book, I got really emotional (lol how do I say that without sounding melodramatic). I didn’t cry or anything, but it felt like I was losing something. It was bittersweet. I’ve never felt this way before when I’ve finished a novel. It’s honestly usually been me moving onto the next book the same day or the next day, or feeling content.

But this… was something else. It was letting go of something I loved so much. I learned through this book that every time you write your book is time you should cherish. It’s something you spend a chunk of your life on. Moments happen around your book, and your book is there with you to experience them. This book in particular holds such a strong place in my heart because it gave me--as cheesy as it sounds lol rip--some new hope.

I learned to love the book I write when I write it even if it’s a pain. To cherish my time with this book, and to take my time. It hurt to finish it, honestly, I guess it’s particularly angsty for me to say I feel this grief for something that hasn't left me. I’m so glad it’s done, but it was like closing the door to a chapter I didn’t want to end. It had to end in that spot, rightfully so, but I wanted to hang onto it for as long as I could. I genuinely appreciate every moment I had to write this book, looking back. And I’m so happy I learned so much through it.

4. Taking your time isn’t a bad thing.

This sort of bounces off that last one, but this is a lesson I learned the hard way. My average drafting time before I wrote my seventh book was 3 months. This book, as I mentioned, took me eight months, and before then, the longest it’d taken me to write a novel was six months, and that was the hardest book I’d ever written. A big issue I had when I was writing book four in this series was that I felt as if taking three months longer than my average to draft was a telling sign that I was struggling with the book. I can pretty much say writing this novel was a bit of a breeze (it had its moments, but overall), and taking my time helped in terms of quality. A disclaimer, the time it takes to write a book varies from writer to writer, so this is completely personal, but I feel like taking a little longer writing this book realllyyyyyyy amped it up in the prose department.

Not to roast past me, but yooooo my older books lacked a lottttttttt of literary merit, like where is the good writing cuz I see none, lol. Not to say this book is amazing and the writing is excellent, but I do see a substantial improvement from my older stuff. So yes, initially when I started writing this book I was keen on finishing it in three months and rushing it so I could just be done and write something else. But as time went on, I realized that there is no rush. Even though I constantly feel at rush in my life (for mental health reasons I don't want to get into now, but if you’re curious, let me know!), I learned to take it slow. Enjoy the writing process, and create something at the end of the day, regardless of how long it takes.

5. I’m growing up.

A common question I posed while writing this book to myself and to my sister was well where did all the fun times go? Books 1-3 in this story are pretty juvenile—more banter between characters, ‘missions’, and so on, but as I aged, I found those things dried up and turned into just straight melancholy? (lol) I don’t have many if any fun times in book five, not in the sense I defined fun times as at least in the past. This series has spanned five books, and three years of my life, so I’ve done a lot of growing up since writing the first one. Its message and morals have gone from super obvious to pretty ambiguous, and the lines of morality have been blurred quite a bit (which I enjoy incorporating into my writing now). Right and wrong aren’t as easily spotted (and tbh this book is totallllyyyyy not suited for a YA audience lol content is hella graphic but), and a lot of it is rooted in the darkest corners of the human mind. I don't know if 13-year-old me would’ve expected these books to wind up in this path, but 16-year-old me is cool with where it is. I left a lot of me in these books, and pretty much grew up with them. It’s strange to have captured so much growth of myself personally in these novels, but this is already something I've learned to cherish.

6. I might actually be a true Pantser (but we’ll see)

So if any of you have been following this blog since the good ol’ 2015 days, it’s common knowledge that I made it clear I was a Pantser. I pantsed everyyyythiiiiingggg. In recent years, I’ve decided to start outlining projects I plan on publishing (for the most part, excluding ALANNIS) just so I can see what I’m getting into before I start. The FOSTERED series, since it’s all personal stuff, isn’t going to be published. I pants these books, but occasionally, and I found this happened a lot more with book five, I’ll write up ‘scene screenplays’ which are basically just the bones of a scene.

OH did I find out that writing with a guideline does noooottttt work for me. I’m not going to say anything here is permanent, but I pretty much realized my writing with my outline VS without one is drastically different... I’m not actually happy about this discovery to be honest, as I've already started outlining a couple projects, and the struggle was so real when writing with an outline for this novel. I really do hope this is not the case, and was just subjective to this book, but yes, this was a major lesson I picked up on when writing this particular book (and I reallllllllyyyyyyyy hope this changes)!

7. I like writing really sad, dark things

This is sorta morbid, I’m sorry, but I’m really into writing all things dark and upsetting and overall, enjoy a darker tone in my writing. I noticed, if I had any ‘happier’ scene, it’d take me a little longer to write/I had more trouble writing it. Don’t know what that says about me, but as someone who is sort of naturally on the darker side (edgy af the edge is real), it makes sense that I do enjoy the not so pleasant sides of the mind, and life. Or, I’m just really angsty, and angst (poetic angst in this book, I’ll say) is all you need. Love is all you need more like angst is all you need.

*angst*

I don't think there’s anything particularly wrong with enjoying writing darker things, and I noted that I often struggle writing joy. Honestly this is just sad, lol. (But I mean look at my boi Edgar, he wrote lots of dark things and I mean that's my dude now speaking of Edgar, the epigraph of this novel [which I’m including, even if the others don’t because epigraphs are aesthetic goals] is an Edgar quote and Edgar is my bro.)

8. I love this book so much, and if I could go back and tell myself I would have when I started it, I would.

I worried a lot when I started this novel. I worried it would fail, that it would get nowhere, that it would end unfinished, that I’d taken it the wrong route, that it would take too long to write, that I wouldn’t enjoy what I was writing, that the plot was dumb, that I focused on the wrong things, that the first chapter wasn’t strong enough, and a whole other laundry list of worries pretty common between writers. I really would go back to my past self and tell her not to worry. To tell her that just because she wrote this book and said she wouldn't, doesn't mean the product would be shitty. I’m genuinely proud of this novel, and I don't know if I’ve said that in a long time. I’m happy I wrote it. Happy I poured eight months of my life into it, and most importantly, am happy it taught me so many valuable lessons. I’m happy I got to connect with you on another level through it, and happy I carried it with me through this stage of my life. It saw my hatred, and my worst moments, my great moments, my worry, and every other emotion I also tried to share on here. Books are books, but this one felt like a friend. I’m sad to lose my friend now, but I’m thankful for the time we spent together. This got all sappy again, but yes. Thank you, book. I will miss writing you, lol.

So that’s it for today’s post. I had a blast writing this. It’s always a nice reflective period to go back in time and really point out what exactly I learned through this journey. I think this novel shaped me a lot as a writer, and I’m happy to move into other projects without it, because I feel like I know a lot more than I did before. Thank you for being on this journey with me, and for reading through everything that happened in these last eight months. I truly appreciate everything you give me, and couldn't express my thanks enough.

Aaaaand before I leave, a mega thanks to my dudes who continuously supported this journey: @sarahkelsiwrites, @sssoto and @shaelinwrites for listening, encouraging, and teaching me so many things about writing.

See you in the next one. :)

--Rachel

[gongslime62-blog]

How to Write a Last Minute Research Paper 7 Steps



How to Write a Last Minute Research Paper

Intro: How to Write a Last Minute Research Paper

If you're anything like me, you always have good intentions at the beginning of the semester for giving yourself ample time to complete your research paper. but then the weekend (or night) before the paper's due date sneaks up on you and you haven't even started. This situation has happened to me countless times - in fact, I can't remember ever starting a paper earlier than 2 days before the due date. I have had many years to perfect my procrastination methodology and I think I've got it down to a science. This guide is for quick and dirty paper writing - it probably contradicts everything your teachers have told you. but it works.

Step 1: Pick Your Topic

The best scenario for writing a quick paper is when your professor allows you to pick your topic / thesis statement. Note: This is not the time to develop your thesis. that comes later. The key is to pick as broad a topic as possible. If your professor wants a 10 page paper it will be much easier to fill 10 pages about the life of Aristotle than having to create a bunch of fluff around his views on posterior analytics. Also, pick a topic that a lot of previous research has already been done on it. If you're writing the paper the day before it's due, you aren't trying to reinvent the wheel. you're basically just collaging other people's research and putting it in your own words.

Step 2: Research

I've found that the fastest way to get going on your paper is to do the research first, then develop your thesis later. If you develop your thesis too early, you may find that there's not enough to research to support it, it's too specific, it's super lame, etc.

So where's the best place to start? Wikipedia. Despite all the Wikipedia trash talk you've heard from teachers, Wikipedia is the best place to get an outline going. It usually gives a broad overview of the topic, then has an outline with a bunch of different topics that I usually steal for my own body outline. Just make sure that you never plagiarize from Wikipedia. I mean don't ever plagiarize anything, but that is the first place your professor will go to check for plagiarization.

Once you have a rough outline, copy and paste specific quotes, passages, terms etc. from Wikipedia into Google and look at other sources that come up. Professors prefer book/print sources over online sources any day. so if your search comes up with a book or print article that has been made available online, definitely go for that. Even if it's just a sample of the book, try to find the page number, or worst-case scenario - make an educated guess. Your professor probably won't go buy the book and scan every page to check up on your citation. If you find a cheap Kindle book on your topic, you might want to buy it. Just remember to only scan through the relevant sections because you don't have time to read an entire book at this point. If your Google search leads to a sketchy looking website with no author, don't use it. It might have awesome info but your professor will not like it if the website isn't valid. That being said, if you know your professor has 200 papers to read and they aren't going to check all sources. and you're feeling lucky. then go for it.

Copy/Paste all the sentences or paragraphs you wish to paraphrase into a word document and put each section into your own words. This is to make sure you don't accidentally plagiarize. because later on you could think you have an awesome original idea but it actually came from an old source you forgot about. The sections don't need to flow together or have any kind of order, it's just about putting things into your own words. Make https://causeeffectessay.com to cite your source after each section. that will save you some time when you're writing your final draft. After you're finished rewriting, delete the original texts.

Step 3: Develop Your Thesis

Now that you've done the research, you should have an idea as to what your thesis statement should be. Professors always hate broad thesis statements so try to make it seem as specific as you can without limiting the amount of things you can talk about. Since this is a research paper it doesn't have to be controversial, revolutionary, super innovative, etc. It just needs to provide direction on where your paper is going. So if you are writing about a person you can talk about how they were influential, made an impact on issues of that time period, thrived through difficult circumstances, something like that. A general rule I learned in high school is that thesis statements should be the last sentence of the introductory paragraph. I've always put it there and haven't had a teacher correct me so I would go with that.

Step 4: The Body

Once you have your thesis statement established, read through the stuff you have written and try to organize and take out stuff that doesn't fit. Come up with the number of paragraphs you want, what each paragraph is specifically talking about, and put things in their respective paragraphs. Don't start on the introduction and conclusion paragraphs yet, just dive right into the facts. Try to blend the stuff from different sources so that it all flows together. Different sources can have different tones and writing styles and even though you put everything in your own words, each section can sound different. This puts up a red flag for a professor to think that you are plagiarizing so keep that in mind. If you need to, google some more stuff and get more research. Don't forget to put in all your citations.

Step 5: Introduction and Conclusion

Now you're ready for your introduction and conclusion paragraphs. I typically devote my introduction paragraph to putting my topic in some sort of context. If the paper is about a person I'll give a super short bio. If it's about a thing or concept I'll briefly explain what it is, how it's used, why it's important, etc. I try to go for 5-6 sentences in the paragraph. The first sentence starts introducing the topic, then each sentence leads more and more to the final sentence, which is the thesis statement.

I find the conclusion paragraph to be the most difficult section to write. I mean you've already said everything that needs to be said, so now you're just filling space until you can stop writing. It's like when you're stuck in a boring conversation and you're trying to find an excuse to leave. But it has to be done so here we go. When writing about a person I usually use this space for their legacy. Like how they impacted their children, the next generation, the ideas of today, etc. I kind of use that strategy with a concept as well, like how did that invention/idea/concept change society or culture.

Step 6: Works Cited

for the Works Cited page I always go to citationmachine.net, enter the info from the sources, then copy/paste into Word. The website is good for most writing styles.

Step 7: Sleep on It

I am often too lazy to do this, but the best way for proofreading is to read over it the next morning. That way your mind has some time to get off the subject for a while and get a fresh perspective. But I'm telling you this from experience. don't wait until a few minutes before class to print it (if you have to submit a hard copy). You never know if your printer will decide it doesn't feel like printing, you forgot you ran out of ink/paper last week, or some other random factor that only happens when you have to print at that exact moment.

Now you have your paper in hand. congratulations and best of luck to you on your grade.