Thoughts on COVID-19

Guys.

This Corona Virus thing has been hard. 

Trust me. I know.

Plans have been canceled.

People are stuck inside going absolutely insane.

People are bored out of their minds because they've done everything they could have done a million times and now there is nothing else to do.

There are some things that God has been showing me during this time of trouble, and I want to be able to share some of it with you all 

<33

During this time, some of the things I've seen (even from myself, you guys, I'm not perfect) is that people start thinking about themselves when they're going through a hard time.

Trust me. I have been doing the same thing. I thought I was going to be able to spend an entire week in Olathe Kansas with all my friends in June, and now I don't even know if I'll be able to go and it's been hard for me. But something that I have to keep reminding myself is that... It's not all about me.

My counselor told me something this week that I didn't think about since this entire thing started. She told me that a bunch of her PTSD camps had been canceled and that she was super sad she wasn't going to be able to speak. I had to pause because I realized, "Oh yeah... Other people's plans have been canceled. It's not just me." It was kind of embarrassing because I saw how selfish I had been through all of this.

Maybe you have thought about all the people who's plans have been canceled. That's awesome! You're not as selfish as me! But I know there are times where we look around and think, "Man. I have nothing to do."

the problem is... There is always something you can do.

Something my counselor challenged me to do was to just take a moment and think about what you could do /for others/ that would make their day. It doesn't have to be some grand elaborate thing. it could be you taking a couple minutes out of your boring day and making your siblings bed. Or your parent's bed. Write your parents a note. Tell them how much you love them. They're in the same boat as you, give them some encouragement! Wash the dishes, make dinner, vacuum the living room. Or just ask your Mom or Dad "Is there /anything/ I can do to help you with this or that thing?" Just that question alone could make their day. But you wouldn't know unless you asked, huh?

Something else I've wondered is, "WhEn iS tHiS gOiNg To Be OvEr?!?"

Well. Only God knows when it's going to be over, and quite frankly, I shouldn't even be thinking about the things of tomorrow.

Matthew 6:34 (KJV) says:

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

To be quite frank. Tomorrow is none of our business. We have plenty of problems with the day we are in now, why are we stressing out about what's going happen tomorrow, or the day after?

Yes, this is a little preachy, but I'm preaching at myself here too. I worry about what's going to happen tomorrow all the time! It's just our human nature, but we need to cling to God and his Word in the time of uncertainty and trouble. Yeah, You've probably heard that a million times just this last month probably. But we can't stress it enough because it is so important right now.

Being thankful is another thing that we humans brush off. Yeah, it's hard to be thankful when you're in a bad mood or scared or whatever, but take at least five minutes of your day, and think about what you're thankful for. Our family has family devotions every night and something we've been doing differently each day is just go around the room to say something we're thankful for. God has blessed us with so much, and we tend to forget that God was the reason we were blessed with it in the first place. So take a few minutes out of your day, and just think about what God has blessed you with and what you're thankful for.

Another thing I've found to be helpful is just... writing down words that make me happy. In no particular order. I just sit with a piece of paper and a pen and jot down these little words that make me smile when I think about them. It is a way of being thankful after all.

I hope this little bit is a help to some people. It's just a bunch of things that God is teaching me and I just feel like other people need to know.

God Bless

-K8

Character Personality Struggles

Something I've often struggled with, (And I know others struggle with it too) is when your Characters don't do what you want them to do. Maybe their personality changed -cough- I mean, developed, and doesn't match with how you imagined them. Maybe it messes with the way they do stuff and so it takes your story in a direction... you didn't want to go.

Well, today I hope to give you a couple tips on what to do when that happens!

I didn't know what gif to use this time. 

ANYWAY

The Phase of Character Development

When we start off any book of any kind, we come up with Characters for the story in our head. Characters are what make up a story, so if your characters aren't very developed, the story itself isn't going to be very good. Readers will get bored because the character is boring and end up putting the book down, and never pick it back up again.

So, when you start off with a group of characters, you want to develop them until they are realistic and personal to the reader. Then the reader will love the character and want to know what happens to them.

But, sometimes there are those characters where you think they'll be one way, but end up being something completely different. 

Whatever you do. DON'T FORCE THE CHARACTER TO BE SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT

this will make them flat and hard to work with because you're trying to make them do something when they don't even want to do it. They'll have two different personalities shine through because, on one hand, you're trying to make then do what /you/ want them to do, while on the other, the character just wants to do his or her own natural thing.

You might be thinking, what on earth am I supposed to do when that happens?!

1. Change Your Point of View

When I was writing my first WIP, I hit a rut in the road. My Hero's ally/Menor started developing and was becoming... a character I did want him to be. In my eyes, this character was going to be strong, mature, and kind of like a leader in a sense. Someone that will get my MC on the right track. But boy, after a little bit of developing, I realized he wasn't like that at. all.

He was slow, kind of blond, and definitely NOT the leader type.

I got stuck because he wasn't doing what I wanted him to do, so what did I do?

I took a step back, and thought, what can I do to keep this story going, but also have my characters feel real? And then I realized that maybe I was using the wrong characters for the wrong things. I just needed to switch my MC and my ally, and you know what? I kind of worked! the story started to flow a little bit better and now I have an idea about what I want to happen in the story.

2. Roll With It

If you find your character doing something that is out of the ordinary, don't get frustrated and stop the presses just because your character isn't sticking to the outline of your book. (That's why I don't even outline my book 😋)  Raise an eyebrow, say, "What is this?" and keep going. You might find out something that could be awesome for your book, or maybe, it was just something that helped develop your character.

3. Take a Break to Work on Your Character

If your character just isn't working with you, no matter what you do just take a moment to pull away from your story and try to develop your character. write drabbles, throw them in instances where you want to see what they'll do. If you don't have any inspiration on what drabbles to write about, go on Pinterest and look up writing prompts. It's seriously that easy.

Even if you don't have Pinterest, go to a family member, ask a friend for ideas or instances your character can go through. 

It'll help you take a break from your story but also help build your character up.

I hope this little bit of info can help you!

Don't stress out over your characters. Take a deep breath and just try to work it out in ways that will be fun for you!

-K8

How to Stay focused With Your WIP

This post is probably going to be very similar to my 'How to avoid Plot Bunnies' post, but this is actually just... staying focused on your work. Which people (including me) have a hard time doing!

I have written one rough draft, and when I started writing the second draft, I got bored and decided to work on something else. DO NOT DO THIS PLEASE!! Your book is going to be amazing when you finish it!! You just have to hang in there until the end.

When I got bored, I started working on a new rough draft. I had been developing the main character for this book for close to two years, and because of that, I had a ton of energy going into the writing stage. I'm in chapter nine out of twelve and I still have a ton of energy to get this book like... done. Like, put up on Amazon. So here are some things I have found that have helped me stay focused on my project.

Develop Your Characters till They Seem Real!

In my project, The Power Within my main character, Georgia, is a shy introvert who doesn't want to do anything that will get her in trouble or anything at all for that matter. Me being the extrovert it was very very VERY hard to write the character without cringing and wishing that I was more introverted. So, I did what any good writer would do, I started to develop my character Georgia with the help of my best friend. We did roleplay type situations for close to two years and in the end, all I have gotten out of the character are comments like this from my writing teacher:

"You have done a really good job getting into the head of your MC. I especially like her narrative voice."

For an outgoing extrovert, this is the best comment I could have gotten on my MC and it encouraged me to keep going, which brings me to my second point,

Helpful Compliments!

Everyone always feels good when someone compliments their work. I know I do! And when I get complimented on my writing I want to keep going. I just love knowing people's reactions and I love getting that positive feedback. This isn't really helpful for you as a writer to stay focused, but I know that it will help other writers stay focused. So, take maybe thirty minutes out of your day and read a chapter of somebody's work! critique it if you want to, or just say, "This chapter was so good!!" Who knows, maybe they'll do the same thing for you. Or if you want a guarantee real read from your work, Just ask if people wanna critique swap. We're all stuck at home right now anyway, it's not like we have anywhere to be.

Pinterest Pages

Now. I love Pinterest. probably more than I should. and I have a Pinterest board for ALL of my characters, and I find that every time I end up pinning a gazillion pins to one board I get very excited about that character and just want to write about them. I'm not saying you should spend three hours on Pinterest pinning pins to a board looking for inspiration. It may work for some people more than others, but if you're one of those people that likes Pinterest, I highly suggest you do this for like five minutes sporadically throughout the day.

Playlists

I was never really a playlist person up until about a month ago, but ever since I created a playlist for my book, I enjoy writing so much more. Every time I start writing in my rough draft I open up my Spotify and press play on my playlist that I have organized. and I have found that I write better and I actually enjoy writing more when I do that.

Don't forget to take a break

Writing is exhausting. So when you find that you're having a hard time staying focused... take a break. it's okay! But just be sure that you don't take to long a break because who knows how long you'll end up not writing when you do that. 

I hope that some of these tips help you all! I'm not an expert, but I can help as best as I can

<3

Summer Workshop 101 for newbies.

Summer Workshop 101 for newbies

(advice from someone who's only gone once)

It is finally that time of year where everyone in the OYAN universe is hyping up for that one week in Olathe Kansas that teenagers from all over the world (like 300 of them) save up hundreds of dollars just to be a part of.

That's right folks. It the Summer Workshop.


^^^^
(actual footage from one Summer Workshop that I wasn't a part of.)

ANYHOO
I had the privilege of going to Summer Workshop 2019: Theme park.
It was an amazing week for me, but... there were some things that I wasn't ready for and that I wish someone had prepared me for. So I am here to help you newbies brace yourselves for what to expect.
BUT
also give you tips on what to bring and just help you out with a bunch of stuff.
So, here we go.

To those OYANers that have made friends on the forum and can't wait to see them in real life at Summer Workshop

When you make friends with people on the forum and you find out they're going to Summer Workshop, naturally, you freak out. You think, "Oh my soul!!! I am going to spend a week with all my friends from Summer Workshop!!!"
Maybe you are! Maybe you find your squad and hang out with them all week long.
But there are other people at Summer Workshop that probably want to hang out with them too, so don't feel left out when they want to hang out with someone else for the morning, or afternoon or evening.
Also, if you think that you're going to do something with someone... and they don't know about it, don't be surprised if they have something planned out with someone else.
Plan. things. out. with. people. ahead. of. time.
There isn't a lot of time to do everything you want, so make a list of things that you would like to get done before the week is over.
Another thing is, there are so many people there, you probably won't be able to meet everyone you want to because the campus is so big and again, you don't have a lot of time.
One thing I don't want to do is discourage you. If you read this and find yourself discouraged, or suddenly really scared that your plans aren't going to go your way. Don't be discouraged.
Even if you do find yourself alone at some point, find someone that looks like they're alone.
It does wonders!!
Last year I saw a guy sitting all by himself during lunch and I made it a point to reach out to him.
and you know what? He was a pretty awesome dude! We had an amazing conversation that I wouldn't have had if I didn't go up to him and talk to him.
So, if you see someone that looks alone, talk to them! Invite them to sit down with you in the cafeteria or the main auditorium, you might make a new best friend!

Summer Workshop Expectations
If you are anything like me, you are going to have a lot of expectations about how the week is going to go.
my advice?
Don't have expectations.
you don't know what you're going to expect at Summer Workshop so just don't have expectations.
I honestly thought it was going to be the best week of my life.
I had high hopes... and those hopes were crushed.
I thought I was going to hang out with my best friends all week and just have a blast with them.
But... that's not how it worked at all.
They all met up with other friends of theirs and I really didn't have a lot of time to spend with any of them.
And it was super disappointing!!!!
So yes, don't go with high hopes and expectations.

there are some things you can expect though:
1. Hugs
from everyone
2. Clapping 
(i won't specify where)
3. Random Weirdness
from OYANers and Mrs. S
4. People asking your forum name
5. Clothespins from who knows where
6. Kind Notes <33
7. Cool Cosplays
8. Kansas Heat
9. Inside Jokes
10. just general amazingness 

Sessions
Ah yes. The long, one hour sessions that happen every morning and every evening.
They. are. amazing.
When you get there you are going to get a small notebook with session titles and who is speaking.
You can't go to every session (sadly) but bring a highlighter and highlight the ones that you think would help you in your writing journey the most.
they give you a notepad so you can take notes, but bring a notebook just because ;)

Critique Groups
One of the best things about Summer Workshop is the critique groups. They run from 1:30 to 4:30 every day starting Tuesday and let me tell you. They are so. much. fun. If you think that three hours is a long time.
You are dead wrong.
When you are done every day, you are going to wish you could stay longer.
Here are just some tips for things you can do and bring to make your critique group the bomb.com
 1. Bring snacks!
Everyone loves Oreos and Hershey's kisses the most (just don't bring anything with peanuts. ever.)
2. when critiquing, say more positive things than negative things.
when you say positive things, it really encourages the writer to like their work. Yes, point out the stuff they need to fix, but make sure to compliment on it too!

Mentor appointments
Now, every year you can purchase a mentor appointment.
I say purchase, but it is completely free (while slots last)
When you get a mentor appointment you get fifteen minutes with one of the special speakers of your choice to just... ask questions.
You can ask for advice, or you can even give them an excerpt from your novel for them to read and critique.
Last year I signed up to be with Stephanie Morril, and it was amazing the stuff I learned in just fifteen minutes.
If you don't want a mentor appointment, that is fine, but I highly highly recommend you get one.


Stuff to bring
Now, I will get into the stuff that You should bring (if you want to come totally prepared)
1. Sharpies 
Bring alllllll kinds of colors. For signing your notebook, and/or drawing on other people. (super duper fun)
2. Clothespins
This is optional, but I highly recommend you pack some so you can sneak them on people.
3. pens or pencils
for taking notes.
4. extra notebook
 yes, they give you one at the beginning of the week but bring an extra one because why not.
5. Backpack or something to carry all your stuff in
It's really hard carrying your notebook, and sharpies and pens and excerpts with just your hands (that sounded bad) so bring something to carry all that stuff for you!
6. blanket, or some means to keep warm in the dorms
I don't know how it is in the boys' dorms, but the girls' dorms are generally pretty cold, and the blanket they give you isn't the thickest thing in the world, so if you want to stay warm during the night bring another blanket just in case.
7. Toiletries 
This includes shampoo, body wash, conditioner and you know all the stuff that you need when you take a shower.
8. Water bottle
The Kansas heat is merciless in June, so please please PLEASE stay hydrated. We don't want anyone passing out this year or any year.

The End
Well, that about wraps up this post for Summer Workshop.
For all you newbies that are going, I hope you enjoy yourselves, and you guys have a fantastic week
thank you for reading this long post.
leave a comment down below about what you are looking forward to the most at Summer workshop!

How to write shy and quiet characters

So, haha, I've been all over the country and haven't had any time to write, but I am here now!! And today I am going to hopefully help you how to write a shy and quiet character.

Now, I am better at the more snarky kind of characters, but I have had experience with some shy characters and here are some tips that have helped me when it comes to writing these kinds of charries.

So, one of the things I've found is that: Not all shy characters stay shy forever.

Surely this character has a friend or a relative that they are comfortable talking to, and if they don't at the beginning of their story SURELY someone has to come along to try and pull them out of their shell eventually right?! I mean, if they are super shy we, as the audience, are never gonna get to hear the voice of this character because they don't trust anyone to talk to. Now, my character Georgia is pretty shy, and when people talk to her that she has never met before, she is pretty quiet and will basically only give very short answers to their questions (if they ask her any) She won't exactly smile unless she feels comfortable, and she definitely won't start any conversations, which brings us to our second point!

Most shy characters will not start any conversations

If a shy character is approached by a person that they don't really feel comfortable with they will. not. initiate. the. conversation.
From what I've found, they like to listen more than talk so just be aware of that too. Trust me I forget this rule a lot and them people are like, "bruh, she wouldn't do that."
:D
Blushing
Blushing doesn't just come from thinking about the person you really like or love. Blushing also comes when you're embarrassed. Now, just be aware that this tip isn't just for shy characters, I just see it more often in shy characters.
If a character says something wrong or hears people laughing behind them and thinks they're laughing at them, 9 out of 10 times they'll blush without even thinking about it.

This post isn't very long but I hope it helps y'all in some ways!

How to write Rebellious Sarcastic characters

Some of my favorite characters to write are my sarcastic, witty, annoying characters that just make everyone say, "I love him/her but I hate him/her at the same time!"

These are my kind of characters. 

  

Now, every person has a character personality that they're good at writing that some aren't good at writing. Some may be good at flirtatious characters, or scared quiet characters, while others are just the opposite! In the couple years that I've been writing, I've found that it gets annoying trying to write these characters when you don't know how to express those emotions or have anyone express them to you. So, I can't write the flirty characters, but I can write rebels, and so I'm going to help you start in the right direction of writing these.

Step one: face-claim. 

If you have a good face-claim that looks and feels like a rebel, then you'll feel obligated to toss in a rebellious spirit into that character. 

You can't have a character that looks like this: 

Act like a character that should look like this:

Face claim (In my opinion) is one way to help your rebel take flight. The best part is, you can name your character literally anything and will be cool. because if you have a super sweet name, and a not-so-sweet personality, it's gonna be fantastic.

Step two: Aesthetics/quotes

If you just scroll through city aesthetics or snarky quotes it'll help you get a basis for what your character's personality will be like. 

Just a few to start out with:

(your character may not ride a motorcycle or do graffiti, but I just said it was a start)

Step three: Actually developing the character

Why read a blog post about writing a sarcastic rebellious character if you're never gonna actually write him/her?? If you have a good backstory for the character, write it out as a test run! It'll help you start out with the development phase, and if you still need help with stuff, grab a friend and have them ask the characters random questions to put the characters brain to the test. You can go on for as long as you want until you feel like your character is ready to be plugged into his/her appropriate story.

Step four: character dialogue/ facial expressions

Character dialogue and expression is VERY important with these characters because thats how you show how bratty they are when you can't see or hear them in person.

Each character has their own way of answering a question, and most of the time it depends on the character themselves, but with your now rebellious character, they should be able to answer with different attitude than most characters. 

If I were to ask my character Alex and Georgia (both from The Power Within) The question: "What is your opinion on school?" They would both give me very different answers.

Georgia would be more like, "It's... Fine? I guess???"

But ALEX on the other hand would be much more blunt with her answer which would probably something like: "Psh, it's stupid." (Her answer would be soooo much longer than that because she has a very strong opinion about it, but I gave you the short answer because I wouldn't want to bore y'all.)

If I were to ask them both that same question and tell them to only give me facial expressions to answer me, Georgia would most likely just give me a helpless look and a shrug while Alex would roll her eyes ever so dramatically and wish she could talk.

In the end, it's all up to you, but these are just some helpful pointers to get you send in the right direction. (At least I hope it was helpful :P)

Language in books and my thoughts about it

          Hey guys!! Sorry, I've been sick the last couple of weeks and I'm finally feeling up to writing again! Sorry about such a long break. 

          So I wanted to talk about language in books. I am not allowed to read books with language in them, and that gets really annoying at times because I see all these people talking about books that look super amazing and that I am legitimately interested in, and when I ask if they have language in them, I feel like 9 out of 10 times the answer is always yes.  

           This gets really old because I would love to read those books, but now I can't. 

         So, now I'm here to tell you why I don't believe language needs to be in books.

 It doesn't get your point across any better 
Have you ever heard a person swear or curse and just thought, "Why did that word even need to be in that sentence? Was it really necessary?"

you might be like, "Kate! What about this character that swears like a sailor!? It's vital to his character, he isn't the same without his swearing!!" Well, what's wrong with just saying, He swore? or replacing it with an even milder word than your using already? In my book A Case of Revenge, it has characters that swear on occasion but I don't write out swear words because I don't believe that it's relevant to the story. Some of the best selling novels like Hunger Games, Mysterious Benedict Society, and many others don't have language in them and they are some of the best books in History! (And if you haven't read those books they are excellent and I highly recommend them)

Now, I'm sure people will probably hate and probably spam me with a lot of questions on this topic because this is a tricky topic to talk about. Some people don't have a problem with writing or reading language in their books, and you know what? That's great! People are entitled to their own opinions, but are your opinions going against what God's word says? I'm glad that you can read those kinds books without having to worry about anything, but there are some people out there in the world (aka, me) who can't read books with profanity because we believe that it isn't pleasing to God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." If you write language in your books do you think you are pleasing the Lord with your writing? Another good verse that is good on this topic is Ephesians 4:29 says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." 

If you do write language in your novels is it edifying your readers? Most importantly is it edifying God?

I hope y'all will think about these questions. I am going on vaction this next week so I won't be able to write for a couple weeks, but as soon as I come back I'll be sure to write something up as soon as possible!!

-Kate