20% Time
For my Google 20 project this semester, I decided to start writing a novel. This is something I've been working on since middle school, actually, but I've never been able to actually get it off the ground. I thought that doing it for school would give me the push I needed.
Did it work? Yes and no.
Writing for a school project gave me the motivation to look at what wasn't working and what was. I was able to focus on what appealed to me in stories, what I couldn't find in other novels, and how I could focus on one plot idea without getting distracted by another. At the beginning of the semester, I was juggling three plot ideas, each equally appealing and involving the same characters but all incompatible with each other. I selected the one where it was the most relevant to have these specific characters and set the other two aside to work on later, either as a sequel or with another set of characters.
What I'd struggled with before was procrastination and perfectionism. The plot doesn't feel right, I don't have time to sit down and write, what I wrote was terrible and I'm too self conscious to show it to other people, is this really what I want out of the story, etc. In middle school, I'd just sit down and start writing without any idea of where to go next, which would eventually fizzle out. In high school, I'd do the opposite and start pages and pages of outlines without ever actually writing.
For this project, instead of writing a detailed plot summary before starting, I just wrote down the main conflict and listed what major scenes I'd envisioned when I first had an idea for the plot. This gave me the flexibility to improvise without losing focus on what I was writing about.
The best cure for procrastination, I think, is to not wait for specific circumstances but to just write. On the iPad, the laptop, at home, at school, etcetera. If something's not working, then eliminate the distracting factor; if I got too carried away on the Internet, I'd shut the WiFi down. If I needed to feel more alert, I'd take my laptop down to the living room, and if I was too distracted by other people, I'd move back up to my room. I didn't spend every free second of the day writing, but I was able to finish my goal of three chapters.
Another way to reduce both procrastination and perfectionism is to have others read and comment on my story. I'm extremely self-conscious about my writing--I think that's something a lot of people suffer from--so my original plan of publishing chapter by chapter on Wattpad didn't work out. I know that by the time I finish my novel, 90% of what I originally wrote is going to be changed and hopefully improved, so publishing my first draft online isn't going to work. To get feedback, I have both my sister and some friends read over what I wrote, so I have more than my internal critic telling me what works and what doesn't.
I think working on this as a Google 20 Project helped me get the focus I needed to make this project a success. I'm not at a level where I can whip out a novel in a month, but my goal is to finish the first draft of my novel by the time summer ends. When I'm completely finished, I'll publish it on Wattpad and start researching other ways to publish.
Did it work? Yes and no.
Writing for a school project gave me the motivation to look at what wasn't working and what was. I was able to focus on what appealed to me in stories, what I couldn't find in other novels, and how I could focus on one plot idea without getting distracted by another. At the beginning of the semester, I was juggling three plot ideas, each equally appealing and involving the same characters but all incompatible with each other. I selected the one where it was the most relevant to have these specific characters and set the other two aside to work on later, either as a sequel or with another set of characters.
What I'd struggled with before was procrastination and perfectionism. The plot doesn't feel right, I don't have time to sit down and write, what I wrote was terrible and I'm too self conscious to show it to other people, is this really what I want out of the story, etc. In middle school, I'd just sit down and start writing without any idea of where to go next, which would eventually fizzle out. In high school, I'd do the opposite and start pages and pages of outlines without ever actually writing.
For this project, instead of writing a detailed plot summary before starting, I just wrote down the main conflict and listed what major scenes I'd envisioned when I first had an idea for the plot. This gave me the flexibility to improvise without losing focus on what I was writing about.
The best cure for procrastination, I think, is to not wait for specific circumstances but to just write. On the iPad, the laptop, at home, at school, etcetera. If something's not working, then eliminate the distracting factor; if I got too carried away on the Internet, I'd shut the WiFi down. If I needed to feel more alert, I'd take my laptop down to the living room, and if I was too distracted by other people, I'd move back up to my room. I didn't spend every free second of the day writing, but I was able to finish my goal of three chapters.
Another way to reduce both procrastination and perfectionism is to have others read and comment on my story. I'm extremely self-conscious about my writing--I think that's something a lot of people suffer from--so my original plan of publishing chapter by chapter on Wattpad didn't work out. I know that by the time I finish my novel, 90% of what I originally wrote is going to be changed and hopefully improved, so publishing my first draft online isn't going to work. To get feedback, I have both my sister and some friends read over what I wrote, so I have more than my internal critic telling me what works and what doesn't.
I think working on this as a Google 20 Project helped me get the focus I needed to make this project a success. I'm not at a level where I can whip out a novel in a month, but my goal is to finish the first draft of my novel by the time summer ends. When I'm completely finished, I'll publish it on Wattpad and start researching other ways to publish.
Summary |
Excerpt |
In the world of Ether, the medieval setting didn't last forever.
When Vivian Wellspring moves to the city-state of Menagerie, her plan is simple: study alchemy and avoid her family, who would much rather she stay at home and take over the family business like a good little witch. Lark Laverne considers herself talented at getting out of trouble. (Her friends, on the other hand, think that her talent runs towards getting INTO trouble.) A long time ago, that talent earned her the wrath of a faerie curse that, even now, hovers over her life. Jeanne Lorraine's been stuck in Menagerie for over a hundred years, running a bookstore and pulling Lark out of trouble. As the barrier between magic and science grows thinner and thinner, she feels her chance to return home shrink every day. Thelonious Gage doesn't remember anything before waking up on a stranger's doorstep. As he begins to build a life and harness the magic that thrums in his bones, he's forced to ask himself: is that a bad thing? Brought together by Fate's twisted humor, a crazy assassin, and the need for rent, these four reluctantly find themselves sharing a home and, if they don't end up killing each other first, forming a family. |
“I don't believe this,” Lark grumbled out loud from her jail cell. “Don't you have anything better to do than stalk some poor innocent civilian?”
Inspector Garrett Fletcher, leaning on the other side of the bars, raised his eyebrow. “Okay, first of all, you were a known criminal on the roof of some private, very expensive apartments. Nobody thinks you're innocent.” Lark waved her hand, grumpily dismissing his comment. “Second of all, believe it or not, the world doesn't revolve around you. If I never saw you again, I’d die a happy man. But for some reason, you seem to have this irritating habit of popping up at the worst possible times, doing something blatantly illegal, and then of course I’m forced to do my job and arrest you.” Miracle of miracles, Lark actually fell silent for a minute, her head tilting as she studied Garrett intensely. Then a wicked grin split across her face. “I interrupted a date, didn't I?" |