*cracks knuckles* Alright. Let's do this.

(because all posts start with knuckle cracking. let's be real, guys.)

There are two things I want to talk to you about in this slightly random Tuesday post.

However, I do know that they are good for writers to write, and good for authors and their books to receive. And I also know that a lot of people read book reviews.

So I decided to do a thing. I like short summaries, and I don't like negative reviews, so I thought, "Hey, why don't I just pick five things about each book I read that are worthy of noting and mention them, along with my rating?"

Thus, the Five Things About (insert title here) was born.

If you follow my goodreads, you might have noticed these. I started doing them about a month ago. They're usually very short, and I try not to write bad reviews. Bad, as in, critical. At least, not highly critical. If something really irked me, I might mention it as one of the five things, but I try to keep reviews generally positive. I am honest, however. I don't write ugly reviews, but I will give books low ratings.

Which leads me to this: I will not post book reviews on Stan.

My goodreads exists for me to keep track of books I've read and to write reviews. Stan exists for me to write about writerly things and encouragement and stuff. I will make a few exceptions, but in general this will be my code. Someday I might start a book blog, but Stan is not that.

And now, for the ...



I know, I know. It's shocking. I actually have a life. What? When did that happen?

I have quite a few things going on in June. Two camps and a writing workshop (*screams*) and several babysitting jobs. So, I probably won't post much ... at all. I will try to post on the fourth and the twenty-fifth, so you'll hopefully get at least two posts out of me. XP

I know you will sob and mourn my absence, but I will return, I promise! And I will give you a nice, big motivational post to spur you on to accomplish all the Things, and I will tell you wonderful tales of my experience at the Writer's Workshop. (here's the link. You should, like, totally go. XP http://www.mplsyoungwritersworkshop.com/)

Any-who. That's all for today, stalkers.

So here, Jesus tells us several things. First, our peace is not what the world would give us. Meaning, no, he's not going to relieve us of war. He's not going to take our trials and our hardships and give us a perfect, undisturbed life. We're going to have trouble in this world. It's just life.

But He's given us instructions. Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious for anything. But for everything, through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Pray. Pray a lot. If you have worries, just talk to God about them. Remember Matthew 6:26. "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. are you not of more value than they?"

God takes care of everything else! Look at His marvelous, delicately balanced creation! What makes you think He'll ever give up on you?




This has been the hardest question with every fruit so far. How to apply it? How to let it change you?

There's no easy answer to this. The main thing is to meditate on it. When you are afraid, when trials come, remember who God is and what He has already done for you. Remember the eternity awaiting you in heaven with God. Remember that He loves you.

In the end, everything is going to be okay. You have to remember that. No matter what, God wins. Paul has it spot on in Romans 9:38-39.

"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Take a deep breath. We're going to be okay. In the end, God still wins. And, as His children, we win too. If that doesn't give you peace, I don't know what will.



Your turn! How would you define peace? What are some of your favorite scriptures about it? What do you think peace should look like in our lives? Please tell me your thoughts! <3

And so, the unintentional blog post series begins!

Well, sort of. This is the second post about writing woes. So, I mean, last week would have been the beginning but ...

Ehem. Never mind. I do what I want.

Most of you, in one form or another, have at least heard of Nano. NaNoWriMo, where everyone tries to write 50k in a month, or Camp Nano where people can choose their own goals and are in cabins and stuff. It's a great way to get you writing.

One big part of Nano (at least for me) is word warring. Now, if you don't know what a word war is, allow me to give you a definition. *beams*

Hehe. He. Ehem. Not funny? Fine. *flips hair* I wasn't trying to be, anyway. Hmph. *sassy snap*


Sounds fun, right?

It is. And it's great motivation. It's great for pounding out allllll da words.

BUT.

(there's always a but.)

Word wars can be kind of ... *whispers* dangerous. And, since it is dangerous, it has created some woes. Woes that make it fit into this unintentional blog post series.

So. Here are some woes for word warring, in which I will hopefully give you insight on how to overcome these lies and also convey the real purpose of a word war.





This is really the main point I want to address today. Word wars are great, but their usual definition (the one I gave above) is deceiving.

You are racing and battling to write a lot of words. But, unless the writers you are warring with write at the same pace as you, your goal is not to beat them.

Your goal is to beat yourself.

If you don't already know what your pace is, I want you to find out. Next time you sit down to write, set a timer for twenty minutes and write for all you are worth. Don't stop for anything. Just write.

However many words you get in that amount of time is going to be close to your average pace. You can do it again and officially add it up and actually use math (whaaat?), but even just doing it once gives you a good idea.

However you do it, find your pace. Say you write an average of three hundred words every twenty minutes. So, when you sit down to war, you need to say to yourself, "I need to write over three hundred words."

You want to break over your average. You want to pass yourself. It's not fair to beat yourself up about losing to someone whose average words per twenty minutes is twice yours. In that case, it's almost impossible for you to beat them.

Don't beat yourself up about being a slower writer.

Everyone has their own pace. Find yours.




Haaaaha. Ehem.

Yeah, no. If you're word warring, don't expect your words to be perfect. If you're writing to get the words down, if you're writing for speed, don't beat yourself up about not writing magic. It's okay. You can edit later.

Now, there are also edit wars. I've been doing those lately for draft two. While I'm doing a lot of rewriting, I'm not as careful about how well written my stuff is yet so I pretty much plow ahead. When I get to draft three, that's when my goal will drastically change from quantity to quality.




This is something that happened to me. After completing the first draft of my WIP and taking a nice long break, I came back to start draft two. I was warring with some friends and I was like, "Okay guys. I'm editing now, so I'll probably get more than usual. Just so you know."

Ha. Ha. Ahaaaa.

Yeah, no. My average word count for a twenty minute war was cut about two hundred words at least. This came as quite a shock to me when it kept. happening. every. war. I was like, "What's wrong with me??? What's happening???"

Don't freak out if your pace changes as you change drafts. Editing/rewriting (at least for me) takes much more thought and focus than first drafting. Hence the slow in pace.




Okay, this is a lie. Yes, you can go pee. Yes, you can go take the screaming kettle off the burner. Yes, you can eat chocolate. Yes, you can acknowledge your mother's existence. (That would be wise. just saying. Unless you want to get grounded from writing. Does that just happen to me, or ...?)

Now, the goal is to ignore everything else and write for the designated time. But this doesn't always happen. That's okay. Just don't get on social media, don't take unnecessary ice cream grabs (those are for after wars) and do your best to be a good writer and write and not play Sudoku.



What are you warring for?

Are you warring to get the words down? Then yes, you want to write fast. Obviously. But if you're warring simply because you want to write with other writers, this does not necessarily apply to you. You don't have to write fast in a war. The important thing is that you focus on writing. Or brainstorming. You want to be working to get further along in your story. Brainstorming, writing, editing, playing Sudoku. You want to end up in a different spot than you were when you started.

Progress. Effort. Focus. These are the true points and goals of word wars.




Everyone has their own pace.

Find yours. And, when you war, it's you challenging other writers to all challenge themselves. That's what you're doing. You're pushing yourself. You don't need to measure yourself by other writers. Measure yourself by yourself.

I hope this was helpful to you! Word wars are wonderful and I really enjoy them. But the right mindset is critical to get the best out of them.

Do you enjoy word wars? Have you ever done one? What issues have you found with them? Please share your thoughts with me! <3

Every writer's greatest fear. Every poor novelist's downfall.

You've cranked out a massive manuscript. A whoppin' 100k beastie.

And it is. a. wreck.

WHAT TO DOOOO? WHERE TO GO??? GET THE COFFEE BREWING PLEASE AHHHHHH.

Editing is terrifying. It is a massive, carnivorous BEAST. If you're not careful, it will eat you alive.

But like, what even is editing? I have composed a definition for you.


Jk, jk.

(mostly)

While that definition is certainly true, it doesn't help us much. Let's try this instead.


There we go. I can work with this.

My definition of editing is anything you do to your novel, beneficial or not, after the first draft has been written. Editing is what you do after you've laid the ground work.

Which (since I like lists) leads me to my first woe of editing.







I know, I know. *lets the shudder ripple through readers* But it's true. I can 'edit' my book, completely changing chapter one, and it could be worse than the first try. That's just reality. It isn't fun. It isn't nice.

The goal, of course, is to improve. But sometimes, that just doesn't happen.

Now, before you storm off yelling nasty insults at me, let me make something else clear: you can always write another draft.

Sometimes, we have to wreck our books to make them better.

Anyone here know about Rubik's cubes? I learned how to solve one last year. My little brother taught me, step by step. You start with a mess of colors. Then you make the bottom layer the same color. And then the next layer. And you work your way up to the top. And then there comes a point where there are three little pieces out of place. You're three pieces away from a solved cube.

And to put those three little pieces where they need to go, you have to ruin the cube.

Seriously. There's an algorithm. If you stop in the middle of it and just look at your cube, it will appear to be a wreck. If I ever stop, I always get messed up.

So I don't think about it. I don't think about how, to everyone else, it looks like I'm ruining all my progress. I just do it.

And then -- what do you know? It's solved.

I'm not saying editing is going to be that easy, but you have to keep in mind that sometime you have to seemingly wreck things to make them better.



Like, seriously. Say your MC and his mom are fighting. This could happen in MC's bedroom, the kitchen, the car, the hallway. It could happen in the morning right before school. It could happen as soon as he gets home. It could happen on the way to school.

And then, what they're fighting about - they could fight about a gazillion things. I assume since it's in the story, there's a purpose for the fight, but there are so many ways to word the comebacks.

Point being, you could write a single scene a million times, each way completely different, yet supposedly the same.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE?

Choosing is hard. What if the way you've done it isn't good enough? What if it would be better this way? What if ...?

My advice for this danger would be to wait for betas. If you have doubts about how the scene happened, give it to betas or your critique partner and have them look it over. Do they feel the same way? If so, talk it out.

Don't let yourself fall into woe 3.

You are a human.

Not a sloth.

Don't let one scene that doesn't feel right turn you into one. Just let go and move on. Your writer buddies will help you. Staying with that scene is just going to make you a nervous wreck. It's not going to help. Plus, moving on will help more than staying put. It will give you fresh perspective on the scene. It will also allow you to finish the draft and then you know everything that happens and can fine tune it to be properly foreshadowed.

Just move on. Your critique partner and betas will help you.


NO.


just. no.

SHUT YO MOUTH WRITE NOW.

(hehe. you see what I did there? Yeah? aha. ha. ehem.)

I'm going to tell you guys something you probably won't like.

Your book will never be perfect.

You know why?

Because it is art. There is no perfect way. There just isn't. Since there is always another way you can write it, you have to remind yourself that you aren't writing it those ways. You're writing it this way. There are other ways that might be better, but no way is 'perfect' because there is no perfect way.

Are you with me on this?

It cannot be perfect. But it can be good. And it will be good. You just have to stick with it and keep trying. Don't give up.


I'm really feeling this right now.

Like, it would just be so eeeeeassssyyyyyy to start a new book. I love the thrill and freedom of first drafts. It's so glorious. But. There's something to remember: when you finish that first draft, it's going to need editing too.

And then you'll have TWO manuscripts to edit. So my advice would be to space it out. WAIT. Be patient. Let yourself write a new project, but wait at least until you've made it through the next draft of your story. Right now, I'm letting my next project The Dream Walkers stew in the back of my mind. When I finish draft 2, I'm going to let myself write it. Maybe draft 3 ... it depends on how thoroughly this draft kills me. We shall see.

Point being: it's really, really good motivation and bribery. So find something to bribe yourself with and push onward! You've got this!

You're not a sloth and you're not a machine. You're a lovely human with a gift and passion to write. Give yourself a pat on the back! Editing is hard.

There are so many other woes of editing that I could cover. But I think I've said enough for today. XP

*hugs all the stalker humans and hands out chocolate and coffee*

SO. Now it's your turn. What woes have you unearthed in the editing process? Do you struggle with any of these in particular, and do you have a certain way of dealing with it that I neglected to mention?

Hai guys!

So, this is a tags post (YES I DID NOT FORGET I LOVE ALL OF YOU AND AM SO HAPPY TO HAVE BEEN TAGGED AHDSLFASDLKJF).

Ehem.

If you don't want to know more about me, feel free to just ... leave. *sniffles* I'll get over it. *flips hair*

I have four tags I've been nominated for. I will try to be brief, since I'm mashing them all into one big post. The fourth one I will do next week, seeing as it's a three day challenge thing.


So. First tag is from Abigayle Ellison at The Left-Handed Typist!

Needless to say, that's why I was a little late posting. Sorry about that. I'm sure you all were mourning my disappearance and drinking loads more coffee on my behalf. XP