When you want to do something but your brain doesn't. What is there to do?

Please.

Raise your hand if your brain's voices sound like this.

Okay, I'm back from my mission.
You're not a missionary, so I'm just a person.
Not the same person. A different person.
I should do something with my time.
waaaaaait. I know what! I should write a book about my missionary adventures!
Or just start writing my new ones. That's it. I have to keep a journal.
But I've been drawing loads. Maybe that's my new journal. Maybe a could sign into Art School and learn how to paint.
But that's not necessary. I can learn on Youtube and It's for free. And then I can use that money to buy canvas to paint awesome things for the living room.
But I won't see them anymore because I'm engaged and getting married in December. Maybe I should start painting for our living room. Maybe not. Yeah, forget that. Who needs to have art in their living room in their first home?
Maye a should just save that money.
I could just write about my missionary adventures!
But that isn't really calling me.
I should write another book.
Al the Traveler, 19th. Floor, or all the other stories that are drafted in old notebooks and ripped pages.
Or maybe I should be a serious writer and get a freelance writing job like the one Hafid showed me.
Or I should take college more seriously and actually study and also find a career online.
Stop planning on spending money, Gaby. You should just write about your missionary adventures.

Don't have voices in your brain? Oh. Yeah. Neither do I. I mean, that's weird.

Nope. The world isn't gonna end. Yet.

Dear friends,

Since I first started this blog, it was my home. I remember how I put so much effort to make it look good and actually posting regularly. I remember me sitting down for hours to draw and thing how I was gonna do it. At that time I was participating NaNoWriMo and that was pretty much all I was doing. After that I went to Munich for a year, then came back and later, went on a mission. Here are some pictures. 

Being a missionary was an advanture, I will forever treasure the moments I spent in Guatemala, Berlin and Dresden. 

And I'm exited for what comes next. 

That's no Big Deal.

It's 8:08 AM and I have 5% battery left. That's not important when you're busy at work or at the gym because you have a week of vacations just like I was minutes ago. Of course, that's no big deal.

But it happens that you get extremely bored while excercising because you honestly didn't want to excercise so early. You get so bored and so dismotivated that all you wanna do is sleep on the wooden floor that coaches use for kickboxing, salsa and yoga. Your boredom is so intense you sort of feel that gravity pushes you down to the floor and your arms move slowly.

Then you decide you're done and you tell you brother you wanna go, you know you're acting like a little kid but you don't mind. You espect he goes home with you but instedbhe calls the gym instructor and you end up doing soulder excercises.

Slowly and quickly you get out of the gym and alk you carry with  you is your phone with a Blogger app you haven't used for months.

You laugh and decide there is nothing to do in 40 minutes so you're going tonwrite because that's what you think you're good at and you hope you're right.

But then, you notice you have 5% battery so you hurry and write as fast as you can trying to spell correctly because when you're done you probably aren't gonna have time to check grammar and spelling after you write.

But you're proud because it's 8:27 and you still have 2% battery. That's not important when you're busy at work or at the gym because you have a week of vacations just like I was minutes ago. Of course, that's no big deal.

Back on The Track

Recently I've been listening to a lot of speaches about goals. Let's say that people have very different ideas for achieving.

"Have lots of goals so you achieve some of them!" Uh, no thanks.

"Have one goal. Work on it even if you don't want to achieve it anymore!" Are you kidding me?

"Write down your goals. Put them where you can read them everyday." Not bad, will do.

"Find real motivation. Be passionate about your goals."

Touché.

I have a bunch of goals. I just haven find the real motivation to achieve them. If your goal is to loose weigth, think about the reason you want that. Thats when I realize not every goal was my idea. It was probably something I heard or sromething people normally set as goal.

Once I realize that. I discard it,  focusing on my goals.

So, this week I found out my goal is to edit my book.

And I found real motivation. What's yours?

The Writing Sunday

Hey guys. I just finished watching The Magic Beyond Words. You might know what I'm talking about if you're a Potterhead. I went down to my room after an awesome morning at church and an evening with my family.

Ugh Okayyyy, not my family, because I'm still on Germany but my host family. We had double layer chocolate cake because they weren't here on my birthday, Anjo and I got to blow the candles and I got a ticket to Bruno Mars on November people! 

B-r-u-n-o M-a-r-s. Yes, you read it right. How cool is that?

Then I finally had a little time to play with my host brother/best friend. Today I was a baby, he gave me milk and told me stories because he was my dad. Then we were sharks and we protected each other from fishes. It was the longest day of the week. And it was a long week I might add. When you wake up at seven  to run to the train to go to german classes and make it back to you room at nine after cleaning the kitchen you just can't think anymore. All you can do is say you good night prayer and go to bed. At least that's all I can do. At least I got to read The Best Girl, by Emma Harrison. I think It was the ninth time. What? Don't you dare think I'm nuts. If you guys haven't read it, you should. I'm not a fan of Chick Lit, but this book was written by the Queen of  "Show, don't Tell." if you're a writer you might know what I'm saying.

So, today I had planned to go to church at night, but instead I decided to go to sleep early. Because that's what a normal person would do knowing that she has to wake up at five to Skype with her mom. So, I got to my room and after calling Ana I decided I could organize my photos again. I just can't deal with messy pictures. Now, that took me an hour. 

Later, I thought Well I'm not gonna have time to write to the missionaries tomorrow. Let's just do that. But. I had an idea on the back of my head. The Magic beyond Words. 

The Magic Beyond Words, Guys. You can't say no to The Magic Beyond Words. It took me a while to find it. That and my laptop was being stupid, so I restarted it. 

And I don't regret it watching it. 

Today I have absolutely no doubt that I'm a writer. I've known it since years. Right, not to many years, because I'm not even twenty but since I was a child. I might start editing again. It's time to get intrepid April Baker and her twisted family back on editing. That tiny little readhead is been waiting for moths. 

Well, I might start by seeing if I can still wake up at five. 

Confessing...

Every day I wake up looking at the clock. Knowing that I have to wake up and go to work, because I slept too long. Every day I say to myself that today it's the day to start writing in my blog again, I remember thinking that for a month or so. It never happened, because I kept waking up too late and at night I would be too tired to think.

So, today I woke up at 6, did some studying and decided that It was enough, today I'm writing.

Today I'm writing and I'm posting it, I'm not gonna try to be perfect, I'm just gonna be honest.

Germany is a nice country. It's safe, clean, very artistic and well organized. I mean yeah, It might be expensive and have the worst weather ever but I'm really thankful I'm here. I have three months left. I guess you guys haven't been wondered what have I been doing if I was not writing, because before I left writing was all I knew, all I wanted, all I did.

One thing I've been doing as an Au Pair is taking care of the kid and the baby. You know, playing soccer, building enormous rockets with Legos, painting, changing diapers, feeding, and making the kids fall asleep telling them the longest story I can instantly think of. It's fun.

I've been singing with friends from church just because we think we can sing. And I don't know about me but they surely can. I've been going to Institute with all the Young Singles of my stake, cooking for them of just helping to cook. I've been learning how to read the notes on the piano and just learning all I could about the Book of Mormon because that's priority.

I've also been taking some seriously good pictures, because I love sunsets and flowers. I've been getting some resto as well because we're on vacations, A sister gave me a Bible in german and I bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in german because you can't study a lenguage, you just take it as your own including it in your  life an normal routine.

My drawing have been improving as well :) okay! Not that much, I still can't draw a face.

I woke up early so I could write, but now it's time to go to work. But I really wanted to write.

goodbye.

I'm Alive!

And really alive I should say. Sorry I've been out for so long but I found so many excuses for not blogging "Oh, I need to sleep eight hours!" "I might need that time for something else." "I'm lazy and I don't wanna write right now." Okay, that last one is not an excuse, it's the truth.

Many things happened to me since I came to Germany. Things like getting pale because winter was really cloudy. I mean it. I can't remember a single sunny day.

Things like my hands being so not used to this weather that they started bleeding.

Things like getting lost many times in the U Bahn (That's underground train).

Some other things that aren't bad at all.

I went to Rome.

I got some seriously beautiful views :)

 And I baptized as a Latter Day Saint. Yes, you read it right. I'm a Mormon :)

That's all for today, I do have a lot to do today haha, I'll tell you more about some things in another post. Bye :)

Writing Tip #10 - The Editing Time

So, you have to edit a book. A book you just wrote.

And you have to go to work, school or both. You have to eat and you have to do it slowly because is healthier, do homework, housework, do exercise because It's very important, sleep at least 7 hours, read that lovely book you bought one day, watch you favorite T.V. Show and hang out with friends, family or people. Because you're a writer, not a hermit.

You happen to have to much to do. As a writer I know you do want to edit you book, even If you're too busy. Maybe you could do two things at once.

But.

When you edit while you do something else you don't pay full attention to it. You barely edit anything, then you'll be somehow disappointed because you're doing an awful job. And you don't want that. Don't let yourself feel that way.

So, this is a simple tip. Find the proper time to edit, and make it only for your book. No editing while eating, no social networks, stop going to the kitchen to get something sweet because you eat more than you write (Yes, I'm speaking for myself right now).

Give yourself a deadline. Make a schedule. Don't waste you time. Do something!

You book will thank you. 

Drawing! :)

Hey guys, I know I mostly post about writing, but I started drawing like crazy and thought I could share it with you. No, I'm not an ilustrator/designer and neither I intend to be. I just like creating. I love art generally. I just feel like I'm more like a writer, but yet, who knows? Here It is.

I didn't intended this drawing, It just kind of drew himself. But I liked it, even though I have no idea what It is. Hope you have a good week!

Writing Tip #9 - Brainstorming!

So, I really read a lot about this before I posted it but,

First things first.

What's a brainstorm?

Not that.

That's my today's Brainstorm!

So, I wrote a book (Yes, I do like saying it a lot.) and there was a hard part. My characters needed to find an enormous amount of money but the first idea I used was too obvious. First, I asked my friend for help because he's creative. I wrote down his ideas, my ideas and then I brainstormed it. and it ended up looking like that. Don't try to read it because It's in spanish haha. 

But yet, what is it?

Brainstorming is a creativity technique. It consists on writing several ideas or solutions related to a problem. This is mainly done in groups but you can do it individually and if you're a writer, you're not gonna have a problem with it. Here are some advices for you.

How to Brainstorm?

Well, there is really no tutorial for that, Brainstorms normally use mind maps. But you can gather ideas by Free Writing, Free Speaking, and Word Association.

Free writing: 

Free writing is another technique, it's mainly used by writers to overcome the famous Writer's Block and avoid self criticism But I find it useful.

Let's say you have too much in your mind and don't know how to put that in order. You have some ideas but somehow you can´t manage to list them. You don't need to! Allow yourself a bit of messiness. Just get a piece of paper and write all you can. Write nonstop until you run a out of ideas, and then keep writing. When you finish you will probably have a bunch of paragraphs, hopefully a ton of them. Re read them a couple times and list ideas.

Free Speaking:

If you're the talkative type like I am, you might get a lot of ideas by talking. I think talking is similar to Brainstorms because you improvise all the time. You don't plan when you're going to say.Except when you give speeches, obviously.

The problem is, you forget about them when you talk and don't write. So, get a recorder. If you can't, most phones have one. Set an alarm and don't stop talking until it rings. Then you can write them down.

Word association:

This one is my favorite. It's considered a creative technique, but also a psychiatric evaluation. If what you're looking for is a logo, a title or a name then grab a dictionary and look for synonyms, related words, similar words to what you're looking for. Be extravagant. Be ridiculous. Go for the most bizarre, abnormal words you can because you never know what you can discover.

Mind map

If you ever heard about Brainstorms before (and I know you did) This is the one you know about. A Mind Map is a type of diagram where you put the main word in the middle of a paper sheet and write ideas around it. The secondary ideas can be written around another idea, like a branches. Don't worry about order, don't worry to repeat ideas. Just let it go!

And now, I give you the Brainstorm Rules.

The more, the merrier:

Brainstorm's goal is having lots ideas. Focus on the quantity and not in the quality.

Stop Criticism: 

It's not the time to judge. Write down stupid ideas, strange ideas, useless ideas, and between all that trash you probably wrote down two or one that might be useful.

Improving Ideas:

What is described as a good idea? How do you find it? You might not find the answer to this question until you do a Brainstorm. You might find clichés, very common ideas and even childish ones. Don't be disappointed! You can always combine them or make another brainstorm.

So, here's the thing. (Dairy extract)

So, here is the thing.

Dorothee and Heinz came over because the baby will soon be born, i just hope Yazmin and Jan name him Pablo Arael and not  or San Diego. Dorothee is always nice to me and has made me coffee for three consecutive days.

Yes, three days.

You see, when you're sensitive to caffeine like I am, a cup of coffee at afternoon might be a killer. I haven't slept in three days.Yesterday I went to sleep at three in the morning and got up at six to take a shower because I am nuts.

But, who wouldn't be nuts after a month of sedentary state? Today I finally bought a bathing suit. It's not that pretty but I don't care. All I care is doing some sport. (By the way, Gaby. You just realized the ink is passing through other pages and you don't get up to get a pen. Look! There is even a pen right next to the lamp, that gray one. How lazy. Whatever. 

Maybe it's because these dumb markers costed you only 1 euro at Allerei and you needed a reason to use them, because you're too chicken to draw with markers. You also want to write with other colors but you have always written with a black pen in here. Or a blue one. Or one week you wrote with a brown marker because whenever you went upstairs to write, you forgot to grab a pen, but that was in 2009. So, why not trying something new?

*Grabs a hot pink marker*

There you go. See how can writing help? You're just lucky you want/enjoy/are relatively competent for writing. Because initially you didn't wanted to write today, did you? You wanted to sleep.

So, if you wanted to sleep, Why on earth are you writing?You haven't slept much and today you found and interesting book, a book you think belongs to Yazmin because she like interesting stuff; a book about Brain Rules. You didn't pay much attention to it because you eyes were as heavy as that wool sweater you bought at Zara and got the color mixed because you washed it together with a red sweater.

But back to the book. You do remember something about how the lack of dream affects the brain. You also saw that movie one time. Where the kids didn't slept, they had micro naps and got killed by a man with knives on his hands. So you know your brain is exhausted but you can't sleep. Even when Dorothee volunteered  to clean up the kitchen after dinner so you could go to bed early, because dinner are your turn of cleaning. But yet, you won't sleep.

You even laid down in your bed for a long hour and closed you eyes but all you got was visualizing how you want your room because you haven't had the chance of sitting at that comfy  couch because you don't think it gets enough light to read. You also imagined your next haircut and thought a lot about yours and Josué's favorite Universities. But yet, no sleep. 

You know you are tired and you need to sleep more because today Yazmin gave you some simple instructions but you forgot them a minute later, just like you can't remember what you read in the Second Book Of Nephi today evening before Anjo spotted you and went to "cure" you because you were "ill and had lots of spiders in your head" then you drew spiders and pasted them on the wall.

You know perfectly that you need to sleep because tomorrow you have dance lessons at 19:00 and also because you don't wanna wear a disgusted pillow face. And so, we're back to the fist question. 

Why on earth are you writing?

Rigthhhh. You couldn't read because you need your memory for that and your brain is a bit dry. You couldn't draw because you're somehow frustrated because you keep thinking Anjo draws better than you. Like that Africa drawing he made. You didn't want to use your laptop because it gets you into a little stress. So, you made your way out of bed and grabbed your dairy. You didn't know how to start so you read a few older pages and laughed hard at how you used to say you were in love and at the next page you didn't want to see him again, you also found useful material for the new book you're looking forward to write, because you're always looking for material. Then you turned the last page, took a deeeeeeeep breath, grabbed the black marker, and highly exited, you wrote down. 

"So, here's the thing".

****************************************************

Hey guys. Please excuse the spelling, grammar and typos. I initially wrote it in spanish and I traduced this at two in the morning and my computer failed so I had to to it all over again and it's tree in the morning.

Again. 

This is an extract of my personal dairy, it's the first time I ever publish something. The thing went on but this is the part I found funny and decided it deserved a second part of eyes to read.

Or maybe a bunch of them.

Hopefully a critique, a comment, something.

Is someone out there reading this? I'd like an opinion.

Schloss Oberschleissheim

For those who don't know, I said I was going to Germany,  and I wasn't kidding. I arrived here on 30th December and I've been here for a week. I haven't had time to go on Blogger before, also because I didn't have anything good to post but because I used Internet to write important emails. But today, I have something interesting to post. I live in a small part of Munich called Oberschleissheim. It's 4 grades here and they say that, for winter; that's pretty warm. I couldn't believe it.

One day we passed by this place and I promised myself I was going to visit it.

A Castle.

I quickly went on the internet to know more about this Castle, and It happened to be a Museum. It had many historical paintings and an awesome yard. I decided to go on Sunday, It was only two blocks away so I went on feet.

It was absolutely beautiful, the ceeling, the floors, the walls were extremely decorated. This Castle is called Schloss Oberschleissheim and It was built by this architect called Joseph Efner by 1,600. The architecture was decorated mainly Rococo, going foward to neoclasical. Perhaps not the decoration because It was Rococo; but the rooms were so simetric. The castle had a main room in the middle and the same amount of rooms in both sides of the main room, every room had a story, you could tell by the Rococo decoration and the Frescos in the ceeling.

A dinning table for victories had armery and battles all over the decoration, a room for praying had angels, Jesus and other religious figures. Even the paintings had a story, each room had like a tale if you looked at the paintings closely. The castle had very catholic tendencies, but also many mythological creatures such as dragons, gods. Let's just resume that I really enjoyed it and spent like four hours staring at paintings.

Later when I went back home I disliked walking, because I couldn't feel my arms, or my knees. But It was worth it.

Coban, Guatemala

Hey Guys! Merry Christmas. I hope you had an awesome time with your loved ones and ate lots of candies. I went on a trip for the holydays. It’s a place called Cobán, here in Guatemala. The reason I went there is because my dad is a military officer and had military service for Christmas. When we found out about this me and my brothers were very upset. I hate when he can’t spend the Holydays with us. I was already picturing my Christmas back home, sitting in front of the T.V. watching extremely tacky Christmas movies and falling asleep before midnight because there is nothing to do.

One day, my mom sits down at the table with us, her smile is so big that It seemed It was too big  for her face. “Your dad has a House for us where he works” She says “We’re going to go spend Christmas with him”.

And we did. I just had a good Christmas, I spent midnight singing Karaoke with the Commandant’s daughters and other officers, we had champagne, we ate a lot and laughed at other people singing, I even got my parents to sing, they were so nervous. I came here con 24^th in the morning, it was a four hour trip in which I couldn’t sleep because I was copilot and I didn’t want my mom to fall asleep too. It was tiring and I caught the flu. But you tell me If this view isn’t awesome.

You know, I live In a very green area but it’s different, this is a town, and there is something about the cold, It’s not a windy cold like the city, It’s more like a dry cold, I love it.

I would definitely come back here. 

GERMANY!

Guess what? I'm traveling. 

Guess where? 

Yeah.

So this guy went to talk to me and my classmates at school. He informed us about this volunteering, and also this Au Pair Program. I was initially interested in the volunteering but I ended up applying for an Au Pair Program. You probably haven't heard about this therm.

Au Pair: A domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a Host Family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a small monetary allowance for personal use. Au pair schemes are subject to government restrictions which specify an age range usually from late teens to mid to late twenties. In Europe, where the concept originated, au pairs only work part-time, and they often also study part-time, generally focusing on the language of the host country. 

The title comes from the French term au pair, meaning "on a par" or "equal to", indicating that the relationship is intended to be one of equals: the au pair is intended to become a member of the family, albeit a temporary one, rather than a traditional domestic worker.

So, yeah, that's what I'm doing next year. And the best of it: I will be able to edit my book. I'm leaving in 8 days to Münich, Germany. 

Eight days. 

I'm still processing it. 

VOTE!

Hey guys, I just signed in to tell you this.

Vote for this video please.

December Reading List

Hey guys, I finished my book, and I am allowing myself a month of recess before editing because I'm in no rush. In order to refresh my mind I am reading a lot this month. And by a lot, I mean a lot.

These are the books I still have to read:

Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher
If Wishes Were Horses - Robert Barclay
The Autobiograpy Of Miss Jane Pittman - Ernest J. Gaines
Put Your Dream To the Test - John C. Maxwell
Percy Jackson and The Olympians (The Whole five books) - Rick Riordan

 I have already read Divergent by the second time and finally finished Insurgent. They are awesome! But there's still a lot to read.

Why? Because I need to distract myself, get new ideas and forget about my book. This month I will take notes while reading and when I finally decide to start editing I will be able to see my book with critic eyes, and take notes of what's wrong.

This is my whole month then. That, and hanging out with someone :)

A Cactus?

I'm gonna be quick right now. Meet my Cactus.

Its name is Tauro. 

Tauro is the first earth sign, the most stable and the strongest. Taurus are known for their stubborn nature and their unwillingness to change. Since Cactus are plants that might survive in the hottest of places I decided this name was perfect. Now, I asked how to take care of them but I don't remember what he said. Or if he said anything.

Does anyone know how to take care of a Cactus?

Writing Tip #7 - Draw

Hey guys! You probably know I wrote a book, finished NaNoWriMo and so. Yeah, I know I talk a lot about his, haha.

So, this week I remembered that meanwhile my writing I had a really blurry idea if how my characters looked. I even forgot it and whenever I had to mention someone's semblance, I invented another one instead of going back because I had no time. It was a really messy first draft.

In order to put this problem down I tried this. I drew them. It doesn't matter If you can draw or your drawing looks like a 3 year old's. We're not trying to be Picasso here, we write. That's what we're good at. I have never read about this working for writers but you know, every writer is different, you have to keep trying new things that might work for you.

To me, this works because It makes them real. Now, my characters are not just a bunch of ideas in my head, they have a face, expressions, flaws and differences. So this is my advice.

Draw. You might discover new things about them.For example, these are my main characters:

Abril Becker:

Small, short red hair usually messy, freckled, gray eyes.

André Franco:

Tall, tan, brown hair, red cheeks and stunning eyes. (Still, haven't decided what color because in my first draft he has three different colors). I can't draw smiles, but he's always smiling.

Tito Ferrati:

Slim, tall, blond long hair, blue eyes and he never shaves properly His torso is filled with tattoos.

Writing Tip #6 - Character Crafting.

Hey there. Most of writers know about this, and It's very logical. You can't tell how people is if you don't know them. You can't write about a character without knowing who she/he is. If your character is a guy how is rude to everyone you don't want to find him comforting someone he doesn't care about, you don't want him to magically change his temper. You need to know who he is, the reason he's like that and why is it important in your story.

For this, I will post some pictures that were very useful to me. I do not owe them, I found them in Tumblr.

Here they are.

Writing Tip #5 - Noveling Music

Hey guys, meet my noveling playlist for the book I just wrote. 

Okay, so you probably have heard about this. Some writers have what they call "Noveling Music" this is a playlist, a genre of music or a band that inspires them to write. It doesn't work for everyone, some rather silence, some others rather a person as inspiration.

Personally, I rather a playlist. 

How does this work?

If you're really into music, you know a song has a personality. Music has a melody, lyrics and voice. It has a message.

Now, you happen to have a book, your book has a plot, characters and feelings. It has a message. By instance, your book also has a personality.

Find the type of music that matches the personality you want your book to have.

If you're writing a romance novel then go get the most cheesy album you know.

Know what I mean?

I hope you do, this is not very easy to explain.