Writing with Amy

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 22,646 Can you believe we're halfway through November already?!  I sure can't.  Especially when I look at my novel and go, "AHHHH THIS IS NOWHERE NEAR DONE YET."  But that's okay.  We still have half a month left.  I'm definitely not as far in my novel as I'd like to have been by this point.  I do at least have an idea of where my story is going to go though, so I'll take that. Today I thought would be a more chill post since I've got some major writing left to do.  For some tips on writing from my favorite authors, check out this post  I did on it from a while back.  Also, check out my other NaNoWriMo posts for some help with Preparation , Starting Your Story , and Writer's Block . We've got more to come this month, but for now, let's keep writing! 

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 18,079 Now that NaNoWriMo is going strong, I figured it's time for another round of Inspiration Station!  I can use all the help I can get during NaNoWriMo, so I'm going to be talking about an artist who's really helped me in the past when writing my stories, and who's actually helping me right now with Fins and Fangs . That amazing, incredible, outstanding artist is Demi Lovato.  Demi is my girl.  I actually cried when I found out about her overdose, especially during those first few days when we weren't quite sure if she was going to be okay.  She's such a fantastic artist and talent, and she's been through so much.  That's definitely why her music has such powerful tones to it.  She's survived a lot.  She channels all of those turbulent emotions into her music, and she's so much more astounding because of it. I could go on and on about her for hours, but I just want her to get better.  I want her to live the happy ...

Me after Nonstop Writing. NaNoWriMo Word Count: 12,803 I hope NaNoWriMo is treating you all well!  I'm back today with a break from my novel writing to give some tips on something that can impact all writers: Writer's Block.  Eek.  It sounds so scary when I capitalize it like that!  I bring up Writer's Block now because it's the 8th already, which means if we're doing at least the 1,667 words a day, we should all be at 13,336 words or more by the end of the day.  Which is intense. And for me, writing this intense amount of words so fast can really end up pushing me into a wall.  I'll end up writing all the stuff I know I want to be in my story before even making it halfway through, and then I'll be stuck with no ideas!  I get blocked.  It happens.  Especially when I've been writing so much, so fast.  So, I thought today would be a perfect day to let you in on how I deal with Writer's Block, and how I kick it in the ass.  Ain...

Welcome to another book review!  This one is a little bit different as I'm sort of reviewing all three books in a series.  Mostly the third one since it's the one I just finished reading.  I'd show pictures of all three, but the first two are buried in the basement - where all my books live right now - and I don't feel like moving those crates and boxes around again until I move to a more permanent location.  So, that's why we're mostly talking about: Take the Key and Lock Her Up. Ally Carter has been one of my favorite authors ever since I picked up the Gallagher Girls series in middle school.  She has such a way with writing YA spy fiction thrillers that I swear she's a genius.  The Embassy Row series is her newest full-on series that's come out, and I think it's my favorite one to date. The third and final book came out back at the very end of 2016, and even though I've been dying to read it, I just got my copy like three weeks ago.  I...

Current Word Count: 1,257 NaNoWriMo has officially kicked off! That means I'll be spending a lot of this month doing my own NaNoWriMo project as well as trying to help with tips and strategies to keep you (and myself) on track.  That's always been the trickiest part for me.  If my word count for the day starts to get wacky, I start to get panicky and crazy. So, we want that not to happen.  How do we do that?  Well, if you've already finished your Preparation , we can move on to NaNoWriMo #2 Starting Your Story! Honestly, I find starting the actual story to be the most difficult part of writing a book.  I still struggle with balancing the right amount of action with exposition so it isn't too clunky and world-buildy.  I hate reading blocks of exposition, so it's always my goal not to write blocks of exposition.  And when you do have to world-build somewhat, that can actually be very, very difficult to do. So, first thing: November has 30 days ...

So we're just a few days away from November already, and like I've mentioned in some previous posts, that means it's almost time for National Novel Writing Month!  NaNoWriMo is an awesome time to finally start writing that novel you've been building in your head forever.  All you do to be a part of the craze is sign up at their website , make yourself a profile, and off you go.  You can keep track of your word progress, meet people doing the same thing in your area, and get all those helpful tips that just might be what you need to get through the month and still want to write afterward! So I thought we'd start a new series today all about NaNoWriMo.  Since it's going to be a big part of my November - and thousands of other writers as well - I thought I'd start today with preparation for writing that novel!  #1 Pick Your Novel Idea I've completed NaNoWriMo twice before - 2 years in a row, but it was years ago now.  And what helped me actual...

This is one of my last posts before Halloween, so: Happy Halloween, everyone! I thought it would be fun since I'd been posting a few different Halloween/spooky writing prompts this month to actually use some of them myself and write some fun little stories!  So, without further ado, here are the stories I came up with using a few of the Halloween Prompts I had written in these previous posts.  I only gave myself ten minutes to write per each story.  Click these links to check out all the different prompts! First Prompts .  Second Prompts .    #1 “You’re so chicken.   Nobody’s seen Old Man Jenkins’ ghost in twenty years." “You’re so chicken, Sarah.  Nobody’s seen Old Man Jenkins’ ghost in twenty years,” Hunter taunted.  That was because everyone who’d ever seen the ghost, never lived to tell anybody about it.  It was kind of what the entire legend of the Jenkins’ House was built on.  Dumb teenagers like us thought it w...

Spooky day is almost here!  I don't know what happened to October, or to this year for that matter, but Happy Halloween!  With Halloween being only about a week away, I figured this was a good time to do one last spooky post before all the ghouls and monsters get everybody.  Or stomachaches from eating too much candy. I really enjoyed writing those Halloween writing prompts from a few posts back , so we're going to do some more today!  Let me know which ones you liked best! Spooky Halloween Writing Prompts 1. The canal was dark, but there was most definitely a young girl standing eerily still in the water... 2. I've never liked camping, and now that my family's camping in the most haunted woods in America, I like it even less.  3. The dead were all rising from their graves, and I was trapped in a mausoleum.  What a terrible day this turned out to be.  4. What is wrong with me?  I mean, I woke up with a killer headache this m...

Today, I'm looking at something that's inspired me to write over the years.  Music.  I'm one of those people who writes and imagines their story playing out like it would in a movie.  So I have like an actual soundtrack to each book or novella that I've written saved in my iTunes account on my ancient and basically dead laptop.  Some of the songs were playing when I wrote a particular scene, and they fit the mood.  Some I chose after the fact.  Some songs, however, were put on the soundtrack because they inspired the book in some way. Today, I'm going to be focusing on two songs by the same band.  Skillet had a few hits on the radio when I was in high school, and these two songs were really the only ones I ever really heard and actually learned.  And both of these songs ended up inspiring me in some way.  Let's dive in!  "Monster" by Skillet.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjlM_RnsVE I think this song has had th...

Hello, everybody!  Can you believe we're already halfway through October?  I can't.  I still need to get my Halloween costume figured out.  And start prepping for NaNoWriMo.  Ugh.  So much to do, so little time! Well, with all that going on, I figured today's a good day to update you guys on what I'm working on, my progress, and what projects I'm tackling!  I've got a lot of good writing stuff going on right now. The first project I've been working on is rewriting the first book I ever wrote.  I wrote about this hot piece of garbage before and how it's gone through multiple drafts and edits.  Well, I'm making some pretty good progress on it now that I'm starting from scratch.  It's now called Fins and Fangs , and it's mostly a love story between a mermaid and a vampire.  I really think this will be the last time I have to completely gut the story which is amazing.  Now that I finally have it mostly mapped out as far as th...