Graduation

I found this great video by Rhett and Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAUF8ow6xf0

Basically, I Can't Keep a Blog.

This just isn't working out very well...

Goals Completed and Started

Last week's goals:
-Finish editing three stories
-Write two stories from my idea book
-Make two covers and get feedback from a few friends as to which is better
-Research other werewolf books and figure out how mine is different

Goals Completed:
-Research other werewolf books and figure out how mine is different
-Make a cover (I ended up making just one cover that I really liked. So I'm going with that one instead of taking the time to make more than I need.)

Goals Started:
-Finish editing three stories (I finished one)
-Write two stories from y idea book (I started one)

Overall, not a bad week. I touched on each goal as opposed to ignoring any one completely. I think that having these goals was really helpful and gave me a good idea of what I wanted to accomplish for the week. By keeping my goals simple and specific I didn't allow myself to get overwhelmed. There are many things I have to get done before publishing this book but keeping my goals realistic for each week lets me move steadily toward the finished product instead of madly dashing in the final stretch.

This Week's Goals:
-Finish editing two stories
-Finish writing the story from my idea book
-Choose an audience for my book
-Pick a day to be finished writing new content for my book

Starting Point

Today is the day I begin this blog again.
Today I am writing not as an inconsistent teenager but as a future self-published author.

Let's start at the beginning. I've always wanted to be a published author. It's always been in the back of my mind but I knew that it would probably never happen. It's a lot of work to get published and I just didn't have the time or know-how to make that happen. I just accepted that it couldn't be.
Then I took Creative Writing in high school and started to learn about all the different ways to be published. I soon had my heart set on self-publishing an ebook. And the more I thought about what I could publish, the more I came back to my short werewolf stories that I had written over the years. I decided that my first self-published ebook would be a collection of short stories instead of a novel or novela.
For the past few months I've been editing, writing, rewriting, and compiling the list of short stories I will use in my first book. I have  almost 20 stories written and ideas for almost ten more. Right now I have finished editing, with the help of my friend Charlotte, about a dozen stories. It's so exciting to have so much ready!
This week I found the picture I will use for the cover and I'm planning on finishing the cover sometime this coming week.

I'm writing this blog as a reminder to me to keep going on this. I want to set some goals for myself and I want to follow through. Even though this has been my dream my whole life, I'm almost afraid of it. I don't fear the criticism or even failure, I've been rejected before. I don't even know what I fear, honestly. Publishing, even self-publishing, is a daunting task. I want my manuscript to be perfect before it's sent out into the world.

This week's goals:
-Finish editing three stories
-Write two stories from my idea book
-Make two covers and get feedback from a few friends as to which is better
-Research other werewolf books and figure out how mine is different

The Beginning

In a land far away.
In a time like last Tuesday.
Is a girl, from the future.

"Okay, this is just dumb." Charlene crossed out the words.
"Hey! It was great!" Catie said. "It's supposed to be a cheesy commercial anyway."
"Cheesy, not out-right stupid."
Catie rolled her eyes. "We're selling a book, and only hypothetically so it doesn't matter if it's cheesy. In fact, if it's cheesy, people will remember it and we'll get a good grade on this assignment."
The bell rang. "I'll work on this during next block, okay?" Charlene said, gathering her books.
"Okay, just have something by after school. I just want to get this done." Catie said.

~*~

Charlene walked into biology, the lights were dim. "Movie day?" She asked Brett.
Brett nodded. "Sub too so I'm taking a nap."
Charlene pulled out her notebook. How the heck was she supposed to write a commercial for some lousy book that didn't even exist? All they had decided on was that it was about a girl from the future. There was nothing to work with! She stared at the blank sheet of notebook paper. She put her head on the desk and closed her eyes. "Totally stupid," she mumbled.
A brisk wind rustled her hair and she opened them quickly. She was still sitting at her desk but had moved to a city street. Tall buildings rose on either side of her. She stood cautiously. What had just happened? She had just been in biology and then...

Procrastonation

Procrastination is a kind of avoidance. It's about not doing something for as long as humanly possible. Usually it's something that you hate doing. You decide to write that paper in a few hours or a few days. Rationalization is incredibly important to procrastination. The better you are at rationalizing your motives the better you will be at procrastinating. The paper isn't worth very many points, it's not like if I fail the paper I'll fail the class, Sarah is having a really great party, Sarah is my friend, I don't want to lose her friendship, I'll go to the party instead of write the paper. Thus you have not only succeeded in procrastinating, you have also succeeded in making it seem like it was the right decision. You not only have an excellent excuse for putting off the paper, you also have avoided writing it for a few more hours. Mission accomplished!

Listening to Audio Books Online

Found a website where you can listen to books online. Looks like a really great site and I've already listened to several short stories. A bit morbid but these ones are good :)
http://websearch.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=websearch&cdn=compute&tm=3&f=21&su=p284.13.342.ip_p504.6.342.ip_&tt=3&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.podiobooks.com/