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,...

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 ...

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...