RSW! Week 4

1.  How I did on last week’s goals:
- Well I have written a lot more than usual because Abby over at This Entirety told me about an awesome writing app that sends you reminders to write and makes writing on your phone much easier! Also, I've been reading more, which I should be including in my goals.

2.  My goal(s) for this week:
-  1000 words and, I won't forget this time, but reading!

3.  A word to describe what I've written:
- Change!

4.  The biggest challenge I faced this week:

- Trying to decide between writing or reading, which isn't a bad challenge to have, in my opinion.

5.  Something I love about my WiP:

- I'm watching my characters change and become more demanding and caring. It's really wonderful seeing them grow.

How has everyone's week been?

RSW! Week 3

1.  How I did on last week’s goals:
- Worse than last week with about three hundred words total, but I did a lot more thinking about my WiP and some more brainstorming, so that's always a plus side.

2.  My goal(s) for this week:
- I'm not going to lower my goal at all, it'll stay at 1000 words and hopefully this time I'll reach it.

3.  A favorite line from my story:
- He saw how mesmerized she was with the stones that no longer bore any names. He wanted to know exactly what she saw in them that left her in such a trance. "Why are you so obsessed with these old worn down stones?"
She turned to him, a faint smile on her lips; she knew he wouldn't understand. "Because one day I will be an old worn down stone and I can only hope that someone will notice me and think of how once I wasn't."

4.  The biggest challenge I faced this week:

- I just don't seem to have enough time or energy. I'll have to make time and forget the energy.

5.  Something I love about my WiP:

- I have a better grasp of where this next chapter will go, which may be subject to change, but I'm holding onto the idea for now.

RSW! Week 2.

1.  How I did on last week’s goals:
- Pretty poor. I only wrote about 500 words out of the 1500 I planned on.

2.  My goal(s) for this week:
- I'm going to knock my goal down to 1000 words and see if I can reach that. Hopefully as I go I will be able to increase my goal as the temperature increases.

3.  A favorite line from my story:
"What is the point in owning such a large house if it is empty? Things don’t fill rooms like people do."

4.  The biggest challenge I faced this week:

- Motivation.

5.  Something I love about my WiP:

- I really enjoy getting to know my characters, they're a surprise.

Ready. Set. WRITE! 2015

Ready. Set. Write! is back in gears this summer! What is Ready. Set. Write! you may ask. Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison Miller, Jaime Morrow, Erin Funk, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.

My Goal:
1. For my goals this week I plan on easing back into writing my WIPs, so I'll try to add a total of 1500 words. It might be a stretch but I'll try.

This summer I hope to get back into my writing habits and rewrite/edit my first WIP and write more for WIP2. Balancing them both my be difficult but it should be fun!

Let's get this thing started!

Hello there!

Where'd you go, Bailey?
Well, I was just at college.
You don't say...

Yep! It's been quite the school year. College is crazy. I have so many stories to tell and not enough time to tell them. With all these stories that keep piling up in these moments it becomes quite hard to absorb the change that is happening in every second. One thing I've come to realize is that change happens frequently.

It's a thrilling and terrifying time, trying to find yourself, realizing that you aren't just who you were. I am more than I was in high school, more than I was over the summer, or even just months ago. This is the most rapid change I've gone through since I was 18 months old. All this growth is leading me to more questions than answers and that is not something I expected to find here while I was in college; I came to college thinking this is where I figure everything out. In a way it's the truth, I am figuring a lot out, but not everything.

I have more questions than answers right now and it kind of drives me crazy. There are times when I can see it, see this little dream of what's going to happen next. Then there are other times when my vision is dark and I can't see anything besides the hour that's in front of me.

In reality it's because of these questions that I am growing. The challenge in finding out the answers is what drives me. But these questions are also what makes my vision so dark. I can't see the future, and I realize that more now than I think I ever have. I used to get so anxious over the idea of growing up because I thought once I was grown I'd be completely on my own, and now I'm realizing that it isn't true.

This past year has been exhilarating. I've found so many more people that I can relate to, it's crazy for me to think that just nine months ago I didn't know any of them. They've made such major impacts on my life, on the way I think, on who I've become. All of them have helped me in one way or another by teaching me a lesson or helping me step outside of my comfort zone or by being great listeners and even by proving me wrong.

They have questioned me and made me realize that I couldn't answer everything. They've brought me a little piece of reality, each of them, showing me that there is more to the world than the place I came from and there is more to me than what I knew there was. Stunningly enough, it has made me look at the world in different ways and these ways have helped me take off my blinders and instead given me the ability to see more than what I could.

Each person I've met here has a story behind them, and from what they've shown me, I can see the world in different ways. It's given me this ability to understand how the world works and why it works the way it does. It's also led me to a lot of unanswered questions about the world and the people and so much more.

I'm still searching for so many answers, I probably always will. People aren't so easily understood. Neither am I.

The Definition of Success

"Joy is the essence of success."

This is from my wonderful yogi tea again, but this time I wholly agree. I often catch myself thinking about the future, about where I want to be later in my life, about success in general. But I'm always caught on this key question: how do I define success?

I've been told many times that I have high expectations. However, there are so many possibilities; how could I not expect great things. As long as I follow through with these expectations then I know I will be successful.

What if I don't? Am I still successful?

Success shouldn't be defined by the size of a persons house, or the money in a person wallet. The definition of success varies from person to person; for some, success is defined by money and houses but for others success is defined by relationships.

As I think of how to define success I've decided that experiences and knowledge define success. Relationships define success. Contentment defines success.

In my definition college is making me successful. Not because its a way to earn more money but because of the experience I have here. Because of the friends I'm making here. Because in college I am learning how to handle myself.

And that is how I am becoming a successful person.

An Anxious Mind

I have some wonderful tea that leaves thoughtful quotes. As I poured my energizing tea today, I pondered upon a quote that I strongly, very strongly disagree with.

"A relaxed mind is a creative mind."

The reason I disagree with this quote is because, as an aspiring author, I pay attention to the life authors led/lead. I would say that some of the greatest most creative minds were anything but relaxed.

relaxed

1.

being free of or relieved from tension or anxiety:

in a relaxed mood.

In fact many artists, including writers, suffer from things such as depression and anxiety. Maybe that is what makes the greats so great. Maybe the depression that taunted Edgar Allan Poe was the reason he could write such amazingly dark poetry. Perhaps the failure for F. Scott Fitzgerald to "relax" is what gave him the ability to write THE GREAT GATSBY.

Relaxing is not creative, it does not bring ideas about, it does not draw worlds inside of a persons soul, because none of those things are for us, for the person they belong to. Those ideas, those worlds are for themselves and they engross themselves inside a person, which is anything but relaxing. If relaxing resulted in creativity then the artist would relax for their work and not just for those short moments of self-preservation.

There are so many artists/writers/creators that suffer from the tension that is left in their minds after the artwork is no longer stored their. When their creations see sun light, more tension pulls them every which way. Veronica Roth, author of DIVERGENT, felt so anxious with all the comments on her blog that she felt the need to turn off the comment option.

I refuse to believe that the author of a bestselling dystopian series, by the age of twenty-four, is not creative because she get's anxious.

As much as an author would like to be relaxed, it is so hard. As we build stories, people, lives, we decide what our characters should be as if it weren't hard enough already deciding who we should be; deciding to take a chance on a piece of ourselves. We are creative, because there is simply no other way to be. But we are also taut with emotion, afraid that the piece of us we want to break away, to see sunlight, never will; we are anxious, but that does not mean we are less creative.