Adventures Up North

NaNoWriMo is less than two weeks away.  Cue panicky GIF: So for those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  NaNoWriMo takes place in November, in which around half a million people around the world attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November.   To find out more, visit NaNoWriMo's About page. (Someone count how many times I say 'NaNoWriMo' in this post. :P ) Surviving NaNoWriMo is no easy task.  Believe me, I've participated since 2012 (and never been very effective at it either...the best I've ever done was last year with 30,000 words).  In order to stay alive this month, a Survival Kit is necessary.  Naturally, since each writer is different, each writer's kit will be different, too.  But these are that things I need to survive this November: 1.  Computer.  Now, technically speaking, I don't have my own computer, but our family's laptop is barely ever used by anyone else,...

     My name is Rebekah   and Luke asked me to be a guest blogger. Now a few things you should know about me is I procrastinate. Like a lot. I only dabble in writing. My problem is I end up with a ton of ideas, but no idea how to begin or carry on. I know it's good to have an outline, character details, et cetera. But Writing may not be my thing. However something that is, is music and movies. Ask me something about Sherlock or Marvel, and I can most probably tell you all the facts, and fan theories about that subject. So I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to stuff like that.       But that isn't what I want to talk about. I want to talk about words. Words can be used to inspire. While many of you write, or just dabble at writing, it can be the spoken words which have more of an influence on people.  It's also the unspoken words that can cause an influence. It is because of this that we must be careful of what we say and write. As you put...

The 21st Century is amazing in a lot of ways.  We have medicine and other medical technologies that help us remain healthy.  We have electronics that help us stay closer connected.  We've made our own culture, the likes of which the world has never seen before.  And we have Twitter.  Twitter is definitely the best part of the 21st Century. While many aspects of life now are much better, one of the hardest things about living in the modern age is the difficulty to connect to the past.  Even 100 years ago, culture was far closer to the ancient cultures of Rome and England, China and Egypt, to name a few.  In other words, our culture is so different from those we learn about in History class that it becomes hard to relate to them and envision them. This is especially difficult for writers because unlike  commoners  non-writers, many of us write historically-based works.  Some of us write about specific moments in history, like durin...

Hey Everyone! My name is Abby, and Luke asked me to guest blog this week. A little about me: I met Luke through our homeschool group, I could eat pizza everyday, I LOVE reading and writing books\stories, I have a blog but I don’t post there, I procrastinate alot, I like snapchat, I hate when people eat food loudly and I am probably going to be the youngest guest blogger here. Now that we are acquainted let me tell you why I decided to talk about writing life hacks. As I was mulling over millions of ideas (okay it was only 5 but...) the idea of trying some writing tips came to my mind. I had several ideas of things I could try, and several other ideas I had seen on Pinterest. However, then I remembered how on YouTube the whole “life hacks” and “trying ___” has been super popular! What better of a way then to kind of poke fun at it a little bit, and title this Trying Writing Life Hacks. Hack #1: Download the app Evernote I saw a lot of writers recommending this app, so ...

First, a huge thanks to my friend Rachel for guest blogging for me last week!   She’ll probably be back in a few months, after I give my other friends a chance to guest blog for me first. :) One map is more helpful than an entire travel guide.   Maps visually reveal the location of important countries, cities, and landmarks, and even more important, where all those places are in relation to each other.   All that can be shown on one screen or sheet of paper.   That kind of information is invaluable. So obviously, then, you need a map for your novel! I have gone through several drafts of maps for my novel’s world (I drew my first map for the book I’m currently editing when I was thirteen), but the basic directional locations stayed the same.   Now, I’m completely satisfied with my novel’s map, and hopefully some of the tools and techniques I used can help you in some way. In my opinion, every novel needs a map, at least a reference map for yo...

Alright, I guess I'll just jump right in.  Hi, I'm Rachel.  I'm a friend of Luke's.  I've know him for probably about four years, maybe only three, but it seems like longer.  We met through our home-school group.  So yes, I was also home-schooled.  I say was, because I just graduated high-school this past May/June.  I have been traveling for the last month.  And in case, you're wondering, no I'm not going to college right away, but that's a topic for another time. Anyway, I love reading.  Reading has always been a huge part of my life.  Writing?  Not until middle school.  That's when I started writing poetry.  I started story writing some time around that time, I don't remember, but I wasn't quite as interested or concerned about how well I wrote until a couple years ago.  So I thought I would share some things that I have learned with y'all. Here are some tips for you. 1. Write when you're inspired or have...

As an author, I feed off inspiration.  And one of my favorite ways to get inspired is to just sit back, plug in my headphones, and be transported to another world with the power of soundtracks.  Here are ten of my favorite scores that will both delight and inspire the listener: 10: Titanic (1997) Just because you haven't seen a film doesn't mean that you can't still enjoy its soundtrack.  In fact, you may end up enjoying the soundtrack even more.  The famous 90s film Titanic is no exception for me.  This glorious score is glazed with nautical themes, sounding authentic and original.  A fascinating listen. 9: Avatar (2009) Not to be confused with the Avatar: The Last Airbender TV series (which also has a great score), Avatar  displays sounds completely unique in a new approach to soundtracks.  The film is based on the supernatural, so why wouldn't the soundtrack host some of the supernatural as well? 8: The Hunger Games (2012-2015) Fou...