NaNoWriMo

I know, I know. I've already written about NaNoWriMo. You can read that post here. But, I wanted to talk a little bit about the novel I'm doing this year!!

My novel is untitled, but I do have a summary: Annie Rivets has been a fangirl her whole life. She's always figured it was in her blood, since her parents named her Anne Shirly Rivets, after the main character in Anne of Green Gables. And while she loves a lot of fandoms, her absolute favorite live-and-breathe fandom is that of the Dimitri Tennyson series, about a British writer. Annie has read all the books, and can quote along with the movies. But when Dimitri shows up on her doorstep, lost and confused and with no idea how he got out of his book, Annie is thrown into a whole new world that she never expected. Dragging her best friend Riley along for the ride, Annie sets out to reunite Dimitri with his books. But what she doesn't realize is how hard it will be to let go of the person she's longed for for years, and how many hearts will be broken along the way.

I am really, really excited to get started on this new writing journey. It might be harder than usual to get it done in time, since I'm a college student now. BUT. I am going to try my very hardest to write every day, and to get as much written as possible. 

I WANT TO START NOW. 

I'm Back!!

Wow. I haven't blogged in a long time. I started college, I've been working on a novel, and editing a novella, and... You get the idea. I've been busy. But that doesn't mean I should neglect my poor blog! So, I promise I am going to try to be blogging more every day more often.

Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter is the tragically beautiful story of Abigail "Apple" Bailey, a pregnant teenager trying to escape her life. Her mother is a drug addict. She's been in and out of foster homes since she was twelve. She's been physically and emotionally abused her whole life. She's never met her father. Her only connection to him is a letter he wrote before she was born.

I'll keep this relatively spoiler free.

The movie starts with Apple cutting off all her hair, stealing all her mom's money, and escaping in a cab with her mother screaming after her "you need me." Apple goes looking for her father, and finds him in Jersey. He works on Wall Street, and has a wife and kids. He agrees to let her stay with him for a while, until she can get on her feet. But she takes off again after discovering that she's pregnant, and being told she can only stay with her father if she gets an abortion. After several weeks, she steals a car and gets in an accident. She wakes up in the hospital, where she talks to a priest. She's then placed in a home for pregnant teenagers who want to keep her baby.

This movie starts off grim, and stay that way for most of the movie. She breaks into the home's owner's office with the other girls at one point, which turns out to be a major bonding moment for all of them, as they read each other what's written in their files.

I thought this movie was a very realistic portrayal of how hard it is for someone with a drug addicted parent. I found Apple's mother June (Rosario Dawson, in a stunning portrayal of this drug addled, abusive woman) particularly pitiful. She always has dark circles under her eyes, and she's thin as a rail. She stalks Apple throughout the movie, trying to convince her to come home. She tells her daughter that she wasn't much older than Apple when she got pregnant, and that "nobody wanted me to have you."

The last half of the movie is so moving, and so beautiful, when Apple has her baby, and finally begins to heal from her past.

 Vanessa Hudgens shone in this movie. She was adorable in all three High School Musical movies, but this showed that she has real acting chops. Her repeated mantra of "I'm not scared... I'm not scared..." made my stomach clench every time she said it. She gives forth an extremely convincing performance, especially in the dinner scene with Brendan Fraser (her father), where she yells at him for never being there for her. Another one of the scenes where she surprised me was when she's in the hospital, with the priest. He's trying to convince her that God is looking after her, but she shoots back with "Where was God when I was suffering and being abused all these years?"


Yes, this movie made me cry. Yes, I would watch it again. It's a rare combination of heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time, without managing to be preachy. A beautiful movie.

Research

I don't like doing research for stories. I wish I just knew everything, because tracking down reliable information can be tedious, and, well... I write thrillers. I can't just Google "how to poison someone without any trace." It makes life difficult.

But, there are some ways that can make research fun! Some of the things that have been the most beneficial to me are cop shows, and, yes, Tumblr!

1. Cop Shows
I watched Psych, Monk, Sherlock, and Awake. Psych and Monk are both full on information about how to effectively murder someone, which is great when you write thrillers! Awake was a very psychological show, and it got you inside the mind of someone who might be completely insane. Sherlock is a wonderfully crafted mystery series, absolutely perfect for anyone looking to write mysteries. If you write cop stories, thrillers, mysteries, or horror stories, I would highly recommend these four shows.

2. Tumblr
Thanks to Tumblr, I found this website: Havocscope. It's a great database for black market listings. It doesn't actually give you links to buy things on the black market, I promise. It's a compilation of news stories about the black market.

3. WebMD
WebMD has an entire article about autopsies.

4.  cdc.gov
Centers for Disease Control. Lists symptoms for various poisonings. I have found it very helpful in the latest thriller that I'm working on.

5. Movies
One of the benefits of writing novels, is that you can watch movies for research. I am currently working on a story about a girl in the foster system, and to research, I watched the movie Gimme Shelter, with Vanessa Hudgens. A beautiful touching movie, it totally deserves its own post. And it will get one. But right now, I'm mentioning it because it was another way I was able to make research more fun.

What are your favorite ways to research?

Second Blog

I started another blog!! You can visit me here, at "This is My Serious Blog." But don't worry, I'm still going to be posting here! Don't worry. :)

Beauty

Our society has a really screwed up vision of beauty. I'm so sick of seeing photoshopped women on magazine covers, and reading that people call Jennifer Lawrence (among others) "fat." I mean, have you even seen Jennifer Lawrence??
I am sad that such a lovely and talented actress/singer as Demi Lovato developed an eating disorder. I am sickened that Disney Channel mocks eating disorders.

I have a lot of thoughts about this that are really hard to process, but I'm going to try my best. (Disclaimer: When I talk about "starving ourselves," I am not referring to myself. I am referring to women in general, and I only use the word "ourselves" because I am a woman. I have never tried to starve myself, and I have never wanted to. I like food, and on most days, I like the way I look.)

I don't want to just make the same comments that everyone else is making. I don't want to just talk about the skinny/not skinny stuff. I want to talk about the whole big women-being-exploited-in-the-media business. And it's messy, so brace yourselves.

Women are exploited daily in the media. By men, and by other women. They are actively abusing themselves. I see it every time I go to the store, and read tabloid headlines. How many headlines are there about men in unflattering clothes? None. Because these tabloids prey on women. Shouldn't women be sticking together and defending each other, instead of belittling and degrading each other?

Fat-talk plays a big part in this. It's putting yourself down, making negative comments about your own weight. It's nasty. And a lot of women do it. Why? Why do we feel it's necessary to apologize for our weight? Why do women fat-talk? Why does society tell us that "fat" is ugly, but "curvy" is pretty? Why can't we all just accept ourselves for we are? WHY DO PEOPLE CARE HOW MUCH WEIGHT KIM KARDASHIAN PUT ON DURING/AFTER HER PREGNANCY??

(Ahhh. This post is getting away from me, and it's not nearly as eloquent as I was hoping it was going to be. Like I said before, my thoughts about this are hard for me to process, and form into words.)

Back to the media. That's what plays the biggest part in this whole big mess. Because we see those magazine covers, and we wonder why we don't look like them. We see those girls who have barely-there waists, and stick figure arms, and we know it's not real. But we still yearn for it, anyway. We still starve ourselves, and throw up any food we do eat. Why? Why do we do this to ourselves? Are the bodies God gave us not enough?

There's this fake, photoshopped beauty that's forced down our throats by the media. And then there's real beauty. Real beauty comes in ALL forms. Be it a curvy girl, or a girl who hasn't eaten all week. They're both still beautiful. Real beauty isn't about what's on the outside. I don't care what you look like. I really don't. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. If you're crying in your room because you get bullied at school, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. If you cut yourself, YOU ARE STILL BEAUTIFUL. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL NO MATTER WHAT. No matter what others have said about you. No matter how you feel when you look in the mirror. I'm going to tell you what the media won't: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.


Okay, rant over.

Bad Blogger

Okay. I'm going to make a confession. I'm a bad blogger. I forget about my poor blog, and I never know what to blog about. But now I'm done with school, and I am going to buckle down. NO MORE BAD BLOGGER. I am going to try to post every day, even if the posts are really short and meaningless. Because I love my blog, and I don't want to be a bad blogger anymore.

I'm graduating from high school this year, and it's scary. But I'm actually not as stressed about it as I thought I was going to be. Sure, for a while I was. But now that it's here, and I'm on the verge of being a high school graduate, I'm okay. God is showing me where He wants me to be, and I know what I'm doing. I'm actually getting excited for college, especially now that I know what I wanna do with my life (elementary school teacher).

Yay! I'm blogging again! :)