Small Thoughts
I don’t know what I’m writing this week, to be completely and utterly honest. See, I started a writing club in my middle school, and today (I’m writing on Friday) was meant to be the very first meeting. However… school is being let out at 11:15 a.m. due to a winter storm, so all club meetings are cancelled. T.T (That’s a crying face, by the way.) So what to write about? That’s the question.
Well, I think I’ve semi-permanently banished writer’s block from my brain! And I have to credit a new friend of mine, who did writing sprints with me and encouraged me to “Just write”. So recently, I’ve been doing just that. Instead of writing, editing, editing, editing, repeat, I now write, rest, read, repeat. (I read books, not my WIP, to be clear.) And with my new system, reaching 80k words in my manuscript—in other words, the completion of the fourth draft—in 2025 is looking a whole lot more doable.
I recently finished this book I got from a thrift store called “The Truth Game” by Anna… something. (I don’t remember her name because it’s extensively long and difficult to pronounce.) I really liked it, and while I was reading I was impressed with the extremely specific and detailed backstory of all the characters. For a moment I was worried that it was a sequel, but after checking the spine for confirmation I was relieved to discover that it was not part of a series.
Or so I thought.
So I went five days and about 50000 words completely convinced that I was reading a standalone, only to discover in the afterword that this book is, in fact, the fourth book in “The Dirt Diary” series.
…
It was a very frustrating moment for me. I hate reading things out of order! Hate it! It makes me feel so out of the loop—I mean, I get that enough at school, but in reading too? I just—
Bye.
Okay, something I discovered about myself recently is that I love thrifting books. You never know what you might find! And where I live there are tons of great thrift shops, many of which have large book selections. And um… in the thrifting session in which I acquired “The Truth Game”, I also bought ten other books… But they were selling for seventy-five cents! How could I resist? Also, this was me pushing myself closer to one of my goals this year, which is to read one hundred books, so… This technically wasn’t an impulse buy.
(Actually it technically was.)
With self-publication on my mind, there are a lot of expenses I need to consider. For example: Editing. Proof editing. (Because apparently one type of editing isn’t enough T.T) Cover design. Formatting. Marketing. Blog expenses (like domain and publication subscriptions). And probably a handful of other things that I’m not thinking of right now.
While I’ve already received tons of conformation that my parents will back me up with this process—be it emotionally, mentally, financially, etc.—I also want to be able to pay for my endeavors, because let’s be honest: Publishing can get pretty expensive. So I’m going to start looking for a job I can work about twice a week after school, and start saving for the big day when my dream finally takes its place in Amazon, and maybe (hopefully) even in Barnes & Noble.
This is now Leah from January 13th writing, and I would like to report that it snowed, ladies and gentlemen! Real snow! My sisters, parents, and I went on an evening snow walk so we could experience the little flurries without needing to worry about the sun melting everything the next day (which it did, by the way) and we made palm-sized snowmen, snowballs, and wrote our names on the blanketed sidewalks as we passed.
And now that I have that “first snow” experience fresh in my mind… I can write my characters encountering snow. :D This is what it’s like to be a writer, isn’t it? Constantly dissecting my own experiences and turmoils so that I might accurately depict them in my writings.
*holds in laughter because I’m in a room with twenty other eighth graders* (Shhh….)
I do realize that this has been a rather odd post, and I apologize for that. (As I mentioned in the beginning, I was supposed to be talking about my writing club…) But just one last thing before I sign off:
Do you have a favorite card game? Mine is spoons—and if you don’t know what that is, look it up and play it with your friends. 10/10 game, I highly recommend it. I just played it with two friends of mine—and my English teacher—and it’s definitely a great ice breaker. (This is why I always have a deck of cards on me!!!)
Anyways. That’s all for now. Talk to you next week!
P.S. Would you guys be interested in another writing competition? I’ve been thinking about them recently, but the last one I hosted I only received a handful of submissions.
P.P.S. My word count is at exactly 33,ooo! As of 2:12 p.m. on January 13th, at least.
