Great semester so far

I thought a little update here would be good since it's been a while. I've been pretty busy with school and with writing. My workload is much lighter than it was last semester, though, and I am so glad for it. I'm auditing Brandon Sanderson's creative writing class at BYU, and it's got to be the best class ever. The atmosphere is very chill and relaxed, not to mention that I get to hear advice and writing tips from Brandon Sanderson. Even though I'm not getting a grade for this class, it's the one for which I consistently get all of my work done. This means writing 2,000 words each week and posting them on livejournal.com. I'm in a writing group of auditors, there are five of us in the group, but only three or four submit. It's really great though. We meet every Thursday after class and give feedback on the week's submissions. I can't focus very well on my homework right now, so I think I might go on and write my 2,000 words to post on Monday pretty soon. This means that I'll have over 16,000 words after I write the latest 2,000.

My story is a completely new idea, and I have to say that I really like it. Yeah, I haven't worked very much at all on my book that I started last year. The progress bar, as you may have noticed, has been in the same spot for a very long time. But I feel that my current project is coming along much better than Shards of Night. I'm learning much more about my own writing style and how I write best. So, after I finish this one up, I'll definitely return to Shards of Night to try to fix it up and finish it.

I really want to see if I can finish my current project before the semester ends. That would be pretty sweet. I want to try sending it out to an agent or editor as soon as I can. Of course, I want to have a rewrite or two done on it before it goes out there. I went to Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers last Spring at BYU, and the editors there said that if we sent them submissions, they would be moved to the top of the slush pile, or something like that. Basically, I'd get a response sooner than I would otherwise. The thing is, the deadline for this was a year after the conference, which would be sometime in June. This is one reason why I'm wanting to finish the book, edit it, and send it in before then. Chances are that it will only yield a rejection letter, but whatev.

If anyone is interested in looking at what I've got, feel free to ask about my livejournal account. Of course, this blog is mostly just me rambling and few (if any) people reading it, but you never know. My current project doesn't have a name yet. I have to name it something cool, and I don't want the name to change my story. I'll probably name it after I finish it, or when I get a good idea. It's a fairy tale spin-off. I was tired of hearing this fairy tale told the same way over and over, just with different people and whatnot. So, I have done my best (or worst. hehe) to change the story drastically. I can't wait to see how it all works out.

I really like how I'm writing this story as well, meaning how I plan and stuff. So, I have a general plot floating around. I know basically how it will end and how it begins. I'm just getting into the juicy mystery stuff that I've got planned and am super excited. But anyway, I haven't done any extensive outlining. I just have some basic points outlined. And then, for each scene, I think for a couple of minutes before I write. I come up with at least two things that need to happen in this scene, and then I leave it up to my brain to fill in the rest. It's a nice mix between outlining and discovery writing for me, and I like it a lot. My writing group helps a lot too. Man, writing is just awesome.

Oh, good news, I am actually going to Wales this summer! Yay! This means that I will actually get to see different castles and whatnot. This is great because I definitely need to see one if I'm going to write about one. One thing that my writing group has said is that I have great pacing, but then I'm definitely lacking in detail. I think I focus so much on the interactions between people that it's weird for me to include too much description of the physical surroundings. Anyway, I'm super-duper stoked about Wales.

And now I have to do something. Why must we have midterms? Hehe, Brandon Sanderson's class doesn't have midterms, which does contribute to my happiness. I can't say the same for my other classes.