The End is in Sight...

This has been one crazy autumn.  From my online grad class to big changes happening at my school, the pace of my life has left me breathless and with a twitchy eye.  (For real, my eye has been twitching for months.  Stress or exhaustion induced.)

And as much as I've been enjoying my grad class on Newbery books, I'm greatly looking forward to having some free time at my disposal.

And here's why I decided to blog.  What will I be doing with said free time?

Two things.

ONE: Reading for Pleasure

My to-read list:

Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

And others, but those have made their way to the top for one reason or another.

TWO: Writing (New Exciting Project)

I had a fantastic idea in July for a novel that would be a steampunk twist on a classic book.  I made myself hold off on beginning to write, thinking I would use said idea for NaNoWriMo. (Click here if you want to know what NaNoWriMo is.)  When November rolled around, I knew I couldn't handle NaNo with the current state of my sanity (remember stress-induced twitchy eye?).  So I held off further.

And I'm glad I held off.  Here's why.

I've been brainstorming in a way that I haven't before.  I drive home to see my family pretty regularly, about an hour drive, and I've been turning off the radio and plotting in my head during the drives.  But I haven't just been plotting scenes--I've been thinking about character arcs.  (Click here for a nifty website explaining what a character arc is.)  The story has evolved over the past 4 months, and I'm pretty tickled.

I have three arcs that interweave for my main character; three ways she will grow over the course of the book.  I have a skill based arc, a fear based arc, and a human relationship based arc.  Each arc now has a clearly outlined progression and the arcs connect with each other in a logical way.

I never would have come up with this if I'd just started writing with the initial idea in July.  I would have had a really crappy first draft.  Probably one with a decent action plot but with no emotional plot whatsoever.  Having it brew over four months like this was something I'd never done before, and I'm hoping the payoff will be great.  I'm really optimistic and eager to start writing.

I also want to give a little tip of my hat to my Writing Fantasy teacher this summer who helped me learn to pay attention to both the action plot and emotional plot.


So look forward to more posts about writing in December  :)

Woo hoo!