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.

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.

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. 

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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 :)

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.