Writing Frenzy Year

Hey folks. How's everyone doing this fine morning?

Last month I talked a lot about the new year and how I want to make it so much better than the last. But as usual I forgot to talk about the most popular topic this time of the year. Resolutions. I don't think my parents have ever made new year's resolutions in their lives. My mom is of the opinion that you shouldn't make a resolution that you know you won't do. Like how so many people make quitting chocolate or coffee theirs. I agree. So every year since I was about thirteen, I've been making a list of things I'd like to do in the new year. I've never completed the list, but I have been able to cross things off every year.

This year, I've decided to share my list with all of you. Maybe not by going into detail of how I'm going to complete each goal. But by telling you throughout the year when I'm one step closer to finishing something.

You might already know about the biggest goal of mine, especially if you've read my other blog. I've wanted to be an author for a long time. I think I decided on that when I was six. Of course, that was after the phases of waitress, detective, archaeologist, teacher, and lawyer. To be clear on those: my grandma was a waitress; I love dinosaurs and was totally sold on digging them up until my mom told me I might find human bones too; I watched way too many Matlock and Columbo episodes when I was a kid. Oh, and I still want to be a teacher. Anyway, writing. I have collected a large file box full of novel and short story ideas. Want to know how many of them I've finished? Zero.

In 2007 I started a writing course from the Institute of Children's Literature. I course they promise has a two-year plan, but obviously not for procrastinators like me. Through this course, however, I've written two first drafts of short stories, and an article. That's pretty good for me. I admit, I wrote two stories when I was a kid. That was before I could actually write it down. I don't remember much of the stories, but I'm sure my parents have the pictures I drew for them around here somewhere. I remember one was about a young witch on Halloween, and the other was something about a girl being neglected by her parents in favor of her two siblings - a little Cinderella-ish, maybe? From then until the course, I only wrote fanfiction. Harry Potter, mostly. Some Supernatural. A little Digimon. Not to mention the dozens I never got around to writing.

My goal this year is to get something published. I mentioned in my last post how thanks to NaNoWriMo I have a half-finished novel. I plan on finishing that and publishing it this year. Or at least getting the ball rolling so I can publish next year. I want to be a professional writer. Who has actual deadlines and doesn't have to feel guilty as she explains to her parents why she has to meet her personal writing deadlines instead of watching a movie with them. Or an actual office with filing cabinets, a cork board, big window, a comfortable desk chair, a desk that doesn't dig into my leg, and a computer that's not slow with bad speakers. I guess I finally realized I'm never going to be that unless I stop my procrastinating and actually write.

Maybe my irrational fear of turning twenty has something to do with that. As cheesy as it sounds, I liked being a teenager. Everything about me - my likes, dislikes, passions, obsessions, friends - came out in the past seven years. As stupid as it sounds, I don't want that to go away when I'm twenty. I don't want to wake up one day and find out that I don't want to be a writer after all, and that I've wasted years and a lot of money on learning things I'll never need to know again.

I don't want to lose contact with my friends because I stop role-playing, or lose interest in Harry Potter. Amazingly, those two things are all that's connecting me to a few of my friends. That's another thing. I don't want to be shy anymore. I've been shy my whole life, and I'm sick of it. Last year I felt what it was like to have an acquaintance die and realize how many opportunities I had to get to know her better, but I didn't take because I was too shy. I don't want to go through that again.

Aaaaand I'm getting off topic again. You see, this is why I shouldn't be allowed to blog when I'm tired. My mind goes in a million directions, I start remembering things from when I was eight, and I decide to tell you random facts about myself that you don't need or want to know. Terribly sorry. This won't happen again.

So, the main reason I wanted to write this post (when I started an hour ago) was to explain my latest writing project and maybe get some people to join me.

6 Months, 6 Novels is a challenge based off of NaNoWriMo in which myself and several other people will write novels in the months of January, March, May, July, September, and November. A woman I met on the NaNo site a month ago came up with the idea and I made the site for it. We've got well over thirty members now, and we all started writing yesterday. Our rules are slightly different from NaNo's, mind you. We allow you finish started stories, or write fanfiction instead of a novel. And I admit, I made these rules to fit my own needs.

Now, as promised in early December, here are my story ideas for 2010:

January: Oh, Baby! (a Digimon fic)
Go on fanfiction.net and search the author Aduial Evenstar. Under her stories, you will find an incomplete fic called Oh, Baby! which I fell in love with almost a year ago. Realizing she hadn't updated in quite a while, I decided to finish it for her. I'd written three chapters and posted them on my own page before life and writer's block got in the way and I suddenly stopped as well. I plan on having the fourth chapter posted by Monday, and the story complete this month.

Summary: Ten digidestined have been de-aged, and now it's up to Kari and TK to look after the babies while trying to find a way to turn them back with help from Gennai and their families. Plus ... new digidestined?

March: Untitled (Harry Potter fic)
Something I came up with just last month. I couldn't get it out of my head and decided to swap it with another story.

Summary: (summer before 5th year) Severus Snape is working on a potion for the Order and, being short on time, enlists the help of Sirius, Remus and Tonks. Something goes wrong with it and the four adults are de-aged into infants. Harry arrives at Grimmauld Place days later. By the end of the month, Dumbledore has only found a way to slowly age them, but no one to take care of them while they do. The Order members are obviously busy, and Molly can't handle four young children on her own. Hermione then - somewhat jokingly - suggests she, Ron and Harry take them back to Hogwarts. Dumbledore agrees and so beings a re-written fifth year - with no Umbridge!

May: Left Me Breathless (Twilight fic)
Came up with this months ago, but only managed to write a few pages.

Summary: What would have happened if Alice never had the vision of Bella jumping off the cliff in New Moon? Would Edward ever have come back? Would she have moved on? The night Harry Clearwater died, when Bella and Jake are in her truck - the night Alice was supposed to come back - Bella said yes to him. They dated, they married, they had children ... and then they divorced. Bella had been a good wife, giving him everything but the love he wanted from her. And Jacob couldn't put her through that anymore. But he married again, this time imprinting, and was expecting another child. Bella still lived in La Push, was still best friends with Jake and the pack. Still looked after all the kids on the reservation in her daycare. Then, while shopping in Port Angeles on her birthday, she saw him. Edward. But he looked different from how he had the last time she saw him ten years ago. He looked ... human.

July: Afterthought
A vampire novel. -squee-

Summary: Saphetta Mackenzie was your average teenage girl in 1996, until the war started up. Every man, woman, and creature fought to the death - or close enough to it. Vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, elves, fairies and all sorts of other things crawled out of whatever holes they'd been living in for the past few hundred years and started to revolt against the humans. Saphetta's family was one of many that fought on the side of the creatures. They wanted equality. But not everyone knew their views. At twenty-four, Saphetta found herself on a battlefield, trying to be the peacemaker and stop the attacking humans, but a vampire mistook her for the opposition and bit her... Now going by the name Saphy Wallace, the century-old vampire works as a college professor. The two roommates who she claims are her cousins happen to be her great-great-nieces. And she really hopes her newest colleague will one day become her husband and mate - if only he'll agree to it first.

September: The Historian (Covenant fic)
I've had this idea pretty much since the first time I saw the Covenant. After several false starts on it, I'm settled on a beginning, but nothing else.

Summary: Defying all odds, Caleb and Sarah had a daughter. Together with her younger brother and the sons of Pogue, Tyler, and Reid, Ashleigh Danvers completes the new generation of the Ipswich witches. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks she deserves to be included. The Parry boy may be the oldest, but he doesn't like Ashleigh being second to Ascend. Tyler's son hates the Power and anyone associated with it since it drove his mother away. Her little brother Zach is just plain jealous. And Reid's son? He's her only real friend. That is, until a mysterious new boy comes to Spenser academy and Ashleigh quickly learns that his life depends on whether or not she stays in the Covenant.

November: Untitled
I actually thought of this while I was half-way through my '09 NaNo.

Summary: Four teenaged friends go camping one weekend in the summer. While they mostly talk about the upcoming school year and have a good time, they each name a reason they'd rather just run away from home. They talk about the possibilities until they all pass out. When they wake up, they're no longer together. Or even in the same town for that matter. And they find that they've somehow aged ten years. Now, while trying to locate each other and figure out what happened, they have to live through what would happen to them if they did run away.

Well, that's all for now. I'm exhausted. So, see you next week.

-Lizzy<3

P.S. If you want to join 6 Months, 6 Novels go to the site - http://6wrimos.proboards.com