This week for the Wo-Town Writers vlog, we’re talking about how we got started writing. So listen to me ramble on for a while about my writerly history.

Friday was a very important day. It was October 1. That can only mean one thing…

We’re officially under one month from National Novel Writing Month!

I love NaNoWriMo. It’s my Christmas (and Christmas is my favorite holiday, so you KNOW I mean business when I say that). This will be my seventh year participating. Many of those years were such epic fails that it’s humiliating, but last year I finally crossed that 50k finish line to win.

The first year I participated was 2004, the November of my senior year of high school. My first NaNo novel was a ridiculous piece of fiction about a bunch of kids in the marching band. All the characters were very solidly based off of my fellow band geeks. Everyone got really into it–everyone who had a character in the story bugged me about it for the whole month and beyond. It was great fun, but I didn’t win. In fact, when I finally did finish the story, the whole thing only clocked in at about 25k. Fail.

Over the years, I’ve learned two important lessons to success. First of all, you have to be actually excited and invested in your story. It’s been the years that I was actually interested in what I was writing that I made a decent dent. The years when I just didn’t care that much, I would only write a couple thousand words for the whole month. The other thing I’ve learned is that you need to have a story that you can actually pull out to 50k.

That first attempt in November 2004 was clearly not a story I could stretch to 50k, seeing as how the finished product was half that. I have no idea if the other years I could have stretched, because most of the time, I wasn’t fully excited about the story anyway.

Then, last year, I had a story I was psyched about and was pretty sure I could pull to 50k. Granted, I also had a lot of unemployment-induced free time and a diet that I needed to distract myself from, but those were just extra helps. And I won! And I was excited and ran around and scared people by my enthusiasm and I printed my certificate and bought a winner’s shirt and stared at the pretty purple WINNER bar on my NaNo profile for a year.

This year is going to be interesting. I have a story I’m really excited for and looks like I can make into at least 50k. On the other hand, I also have a full-time job and limited free time when I’m not working (between working out and various appointments and my freelance job and my activities). Last year was a walk in the park with the free time. This year is going to be a real challenge.

I’m going to try to post updates on here. If I remember. And we all know how much I fail with that from time to time.

Yay NaNoWriMo!!! <3

I apologize for the epic fail that was my posting some entries throughout Banned Books Week. I had this whole thing thought out and I was going to be like “here’s a book…here’s why it was banned…here why that’s a stupid reason,” but life got in the way. Stupid life. And now I’m tired.

However, I feel like I kind of made up for it last night with my friends. You see, a handful of us went to Border’s last night and milled around there for TWO HOURS (we went because one of my friends’ brothers just published HIS first book and was having a signing, so we were being supportive) and we ended up back in the YA area. If you watch the Wo-Town Writers vlog I post on Mondays, you’ll know these people too–three of the other four girls who vlog with me throughout the week…Jessi (whose brother is now an UBER-FAMOUS author because I have a signed copy of his book and I say so), Janet, and Caitlin. So we geeked out for a while and threw book recommendations at each other like the Apocolypse will be here tomorrow and then things took a turn for the serious.

I don’t remember what started it. We may have been talking about each other’s videos from last week or the fact that our other friend and fellow vlogger, Emily, almost made us all cry with her video, or perhaps it was when Caitlin started weilding around YA books that have been banned for stupid reasons. Whatever it was, we started ranting and debating and meaningfully chatting with each other about banned books and why those who ban them suck.

Here’s the consensus we came to: people ban these YA books for reasons like violence or drugs or sex or language. When you ban books for reasons like that, you’re just hiding the problem. You’re just pretending the problem doesn’t exist. But it DOES. Hiding the problem doesn’t go away. Because, here’s the truth…in the real world, violence and drugs and sex and foul language are EVERYWHERE. Hell, you can’t turn on the news without having all of these make an appearance at least once. Last week, a family from my church was the lead story on the news at least once (probably more, but that’s the only night I happened to have the news on when it started)–the dad freaked out, shot his two sons, shot himself, left a suicide note, and then his wife found them when she came home. TRAUMA much? These types of things are everywhere and it’s not happy and it’s not pretty, but we can’t hide from it. All the kids in my church who knew the two boys are having to face this reality and it sounds like their parents are doing everything to shield them from it–the mother from this family wanted the children’s choir to sing at the boys’ memorial service, but the parents freaked out. I guess I can understand, because it’s a horrible situation, but you can’t keep that veil down forever.

It’s the same thing with book banning and challenging. Parents read five sentences from a book or the synopsis online or see the cover or whatever and then subsequently shit a brick. NO! I don’t want my child to know that there is violence in the world! There’s no murder or rape or domestic abuse! No one drops the f-bomb or says terrible things! The world is a pretty, shiny place full of rainbows and butterflies and that’s all I want my children to know!

But then these kids grow up and realize that it’s NOT all rainbows and butterflies. They learn that bad things happen, or perhaps, god forbid, something bad happens to them. And because you banned [insert banned book here], your child can’t know how to cope with that. Because you took Speak off the reading list at school, now your teenager doesn’t know how to feel about the emotional effects of rape. Because you insisted that Harry Potter be removed from your library because it promotes Satanism (which is just crap on so many levels), your child can’t read about all those deep, underlying messages of love and friendship and fighting for what’s right. Because you took away Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, your pubescent girl can’t know that those thoughts are normal and those questions are normal and wondering about what on EARTH is going on to your body right now is normal.

I am so thankful that my parents never restricted what I read. Never once did my mom see I was reading something and tell me I had to wait until I was older. Not once did my dad storm into my school or my library and say that they couldn’t have this book on display because I might somehow get my hands on it. I read Harry Potter many times, and while my parents rolled their eyes and wondered how many times I could possibly read this series before I grew bored (answer: I have no idea, because I’m still not bored with it yet), they never thought I was going to want to do witchcraft. I read The Lovely Bones many times as well, and while my mom said I was morbid and couldn’t understand why I love this book so much, she never said that I was going to scar myself for life. They let me make my own mistakes with my reading. One time, while we were at the library when I was younger, I somehow got my hands on a book about the Black Plague and proceeded to read it before we left (it was just a short book…with pictures…in the older kids’ area). I scarred myself. I locked myself in my room when we got home and didn’t come out, nor did I say anything was wrong when my mom asked. But that was my own mistake to make and my parents always let me make them (with reading, at least). That book was way too old for me and far too graphic and I was traumatized for a few days, but there we are. I didn’t read the book again.

I’m sure that book is still in the library, though, because my parents never challenged it or said it should be on a higher shelf.

The moral of this very long story is…you can’t shield your kids from the world. You can’t assume that they are too young to handle the tough stuff and the deep emotions. They need to learn how to cope with these things now, they need to learn that what they feel is normal, and they need to understand how the world truly is. You’re just hurting them more by hiding them from the books that would teach them these things.

…which is kind of like a silent movie…but not.

In honor of Banned Books Week, for my week four video for Wo-Town Writers, I give censors the silent treatment.

I plan to post some blogs right here throughout the course of this week as well, about the banned books that had a particular meaning to me.

This is my week three video from the Wo-Town Writers vlog, but it’s also a fun opportunity for all of YOU guys to see the places where I write. It’s all very exciting.

Fail. I was going to post them here as I posted them on YouTube and Facebook, but lo and behold, I have yet to do that. Other than Week One. I just recorded my video for Week FOUR. So…fail.

This is the Week Two video, in which I ramble for a long time about my favorite novels through the years. I like books. I have a lot to say when it comes to books. What can I do?

Today I had an interesting conversation with one of my best friends. “Interesting” in that it annoyed me more than usual. And by “conversation” I mean it was only a few lines of exchange and then we both quickly moved on, because my friend isn’t stupid and if I had continued talking I might have slapped her.

Me: My goal in life is to be able to make a living off of just writing.
Friend: How’s that going for you?
*awkward silence*
Friend: *smirk*
Me: It’s a process.
Friend: *smirk*
Me: Stop smirking.
Friend: *smirk*

Okay, first of all, I know very well that this particular conversation was my own fault, because I opened my big mouth. But what you have to understand is that I’ve been having battles along these same lines with this same friend for at least six years. And it’s very draining.

This is my friend who informed me constantly in high school when I was looking at Creative Writing programs, then constantly in college when I was majoring in Creative Writing, all the way to now (read: she still does it) that majoring in English/Creative Writing is “majoring in unemployment.” She shut up about it for a while when she left school, and then again when I pointed out that at least I HAVE a job of some sort (she’s the unemployed one currently), but it’s started up again ever since she went back to college to major in Accounting.

Here’s the deal–majoring in Creative Writing is NOT majoring in unemployment. Nor is majoring in any of the arts. It annoys the living daylights out of me when people tell me things like that, like I was stupid because I chose to study something I’m passionate about instead of studying something only because it would make me a ton of money. I wasn’t going to be one of those people. I wanted to study something I love and I was lucky enough that my parents fully supported that.

What really, really got under my skin during today’s conversation with my friend was the fact that she had the audacity to smirk at me when I said that, as though that dream is completely implausible. Sure, not every writer can make a living only off of their writing. I get that. I’m not saying that it would be an easy choice to make or road to take or anything. I’m saying that, should things work out, should I find myself capable of living only off my novels, then I want to try. No, I haven’t sold a novel yet, but who cares? It’s hard. It takes time. Like I told my friend, it’s a process.

For now, I’m happy with living off my day job and writing on my off-hours. But I’m a dreamer and a writer and I’m not about to let the disbelief of anyone in my life keep me from trying to achieve those dreams. I’m going to keep standing up for what I studied in school. I’m sick of people, particularly this one friend, being holier-than-thou because they’re doing something like accounting and all I want to do is write. I’m going to keep doing what I love. For me, writing makes life worth living.

“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Exciting news! Four of my wonderful writing friends (Caitlin, Emily, Janet, and Jessi) and I have decided to start our own writing vlog! Random? Perhaps.

Anyway, here’s the first video. I’ll be posting on Mondays. This is my intro video. 🙂

I wanted to share one of the songs that has kind of become one of my current project’s theme songs. I have many, many songs on the playlist for this WIP…but this (along with a few other songs) is one that ALWAYS puts me in the mindset of the story. So, please, enjoy. 🙂

I might be sharing more of the “theme songs” for this WIP down the road.