A Little Story for Big Thoughts

I just jotted something down this week. It stemmed from listening to a song called "Boy With A Coin" by Iron and Wine.

Here is the story, my friends. Please by all means comment. I need to get back into writing (I have been neglecting it, let me tell you) and feedback - critical or otherwise - helps me keep going. I don't want to leave words behind in the snowdust of snowboarding on a mountain...

Boy With A Coin

    If he'd found it on the street, that would make sense. If someone had handed it to him from a generous pocket, the situation would seem much more plausible. But as it was (or rather, is) the boy seems a bit thoughtless. Careless. Confused.

     His name is Benjamin. I tell you this not because it is important, but because I want you to see him as you would a friend, acquaintance. Someone who's face and name you know and care about, if only because he seems to genuine and innocent to let anything bad happen to him.

     Benjamin worked hard. Every day there was some new job for him to do. In a world where little boys had nothing to their name, his was the life of a drifter. From shop to shop he begged for work, scrounging a living. No one begrudged him this life, though; he worked as hard as any of the grown men. Daily he earned more than food. He earned respect.

    It was on one of his odd jobs that he tripped on a loose cobblestone and unearthed a large coin. At first he could hardly believe it. It covered the whole palm of his hand.

    It was not a penny or a dime or any other such worthless piece of metal. No, this was a day and age when metal in your pocket meant more than any piece of paper crumpled in your wallet. This coin could have bought a weeks' worth of meals – in the boy's case, many more than that, as he usually existed upon bread crusts. He could have done most anything with this treasure.

    The world opens to your hand when you have money. That's the way it works. We all know this.

    Maybe the boy knew, and did not understand.

     He crammed it into his pocket and left it there. His face was aglow but his heart could only stare. True dreams are not of money (though they may be of wealth); true dreams are of beautiful things. Of adventure and love and desire and ambition and achievement of great things. Dreams take us away when our feet are shackled to the floor.

     He walked and walked till he reached the pier. There the sea breeze lifted the hair from his forehead and tore some of the stench from his grimy clothes. The world seemed to open before him. The see filled his vision, the horizon seemed closer than before, music sprang up in his ears. Without looking at it, he pulled the coin from his pocket and rubbed it smooth and clean.

    He held it up above his head, watching the last rays of sunlight catch the gold color and turn it brilliantly orange and yellow.

    What was he to do with it?

He tossed it into the sea.

    And then he wished.

    His eyes were wide open and the sunset over the ocean reflected brilliantly in them. His fists were clenched. His heart was throbbing with the idea of his dream being realized. That was all he needed to do. He turned and walked away.

*

     A sailor watched from the edge of his master's ship. His eyes drew together, then widened, as the scene played out before him. As soon as the boy's back was turned he ran, eyes fixed on the tiny ripples in the water where the coin had sunk. Money was tight, and not only for poor little orphan boys. He leapt out over the water and at the last second curled his body into a dive, fingers outstretched for the prize.

    Later, the papers reported a drowning. No one ever knew that it was the sailor's feeble graspings for treasure had brought him to his death.

*

    I cannot tell you what the boy wished for. Then it will not come true, you know. He never told me (though I guessed and I am sure that I am right). All I can say is that his wish does not involve anything that we have mentioned already.

   What if he had saved the coin? He could certainly have made great progress towards his wish. Perhaps even achieved it wholly.

   What if he had shared the coin with another, and brightened their day? He could have brought joy and eased someone's hunger, supposedly. He could have even given it to the sailor and saved that man's reckless life.

   But he didn't do those things. Instead he wished big and he wished wholly. Everything in him wanted this to come true. And it didn't matter that he was throwing away his livelihood. He was gaining life. Life such as he wasn't sure he could get.

   But it was worth throwing all away to wish for it.

     Just a boy with a coin. And then a boy without a coin. And does it all matter? That all depends on whether you wish you had the coin or not. Or whether you think you know what he wished for. 

Tell me: what one wish is worth wishing with everything you own? Wishing beyond what you could ever hope to gain?

Tell me, please. Tell me what this story means.  

New Words

Snow. How I'd love a bit more of it covering the ground outside.

I refuse to beg forgiveness for the fact that I haven't posted in a while. I have a life, and I am entitled to a break every now and then. [I really did miss you all, though.]

The only story I've ever finished is a novel that I ended up calling "Average." (This was my NaNo novel that I'm sure I've mentioned before.) I actually self-published it and can now hand out copies to my friends/family to read. Hopefully this shows people that a) I'm serious about writing, and b) that I can write.

I worked on that novel for about two years total - wow. Two years of my life. I've changed a lot since the initial idea came to me, and I haven't really created anything new in a while...

It's time to write again.

My next novel is already begun. I'd love for it to be a series, but I don't know if I have enough plot or ideas to keep it going. We shall see. The book will be divided up between a guy's perspective, Dominic, and a girl's perspective, Alana. It is NOT a love story. There may be a bit of romance somewhere along the way, but that is not the premise or focus, yada yada yada. Dominic and Alana's lives are twisted together in a different sort of way.

A writing tip (for you and for me): make sure you know what you are getting into. Why? Because in order for a story to "create itself," to flow, to have a perfect ending, you - the author - must first know your characters and setting forwards and backwards.

I've started several novels with just an idea or a scene in my head and I take it as far as I can just by that (usually about 10-20 pages). And then I leave it alone, because I had no idea what I was trying to create in the first place. So don't follow me that way...This novel, I'm doing it right.

I'm asking myself reader questions. Who is Alana? Why does she do what she does? What are the other conflicts in the story that push the plot along? Etc.

Don't get too caught up in the research and planning, though. Let yourself be inspired by the idea of the story. Just don't jump in without a little preamble and focus, okay? Right. Glad we're all in agreement.

So, wish me luck! Do you have any writing tips for me?

~Koree/Caitlin ~

Connection

CONNECTION - an excerpt

Clouds veil the sky. Wind blows at the lonely cornstalks on the hilltop and rushing down through the valley, chilling the air with its frosty breath.

Winter was on its way.

Hair twisted into an intricate braid, a girl climbs the hill, her hands balled into fists. An expression of distaste coating her otherwise pretty features.

When she crested the hill, she paused and took in the view. With a twist, the world shifted and she was falling - falling through miles of empty space, the ground below her spinning uncontrollably and getting closer every second, the cliff above her falling away just as quickly. Her scream rent the air.

And then she was standing again, the wind brushing her hair off her face, the hill as sturdy and ordinary as ever.

A tear trickled down her cheek. Would it ever stop? This second life tugged at her soul, and she could not escape. Help would never come; who could she turn to? If anyone knew...she shuddered. The thought of being forever an outcast, insane and alone, hurt worse than the suicidal visions that were so clear she seemed to leave the real world entirely.

They were hard to predict, these shifts in her reality. Sometimes they came in the form of dreams, waking her from her sleep. Other times, like today, they just happened, shocking her system uncontrollably. Every time they occurred, they left a blank spot in her memory, as if she'd skipped minutes of her life in real life.

A sheet of rain, carried on the wind, rushed from the east. She didn't try to run. As it hit her, she let the tears roll faster, mixing with the cold raindrops on her skin.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Her dress caught on a patch of briars. Angrily, she tore it free. She was angry a lot lately. Perhaps it was a safe emotion - everyone left her alone then. Something brushed her hair, and she reached back to untangle it.

But her hand brushed something else.

"Oh!" she gasped and spun around.

A man stood there. His eyes were an unusual shade of gray, his dark hair tousled by the wind. He was tall and almost intimidating, but she was not afraid; his face was open but so completely focused. His hand was still frozen in the air from when he'd touched her hair. Nervously, she took a step back. Her hands clutched the basket tighter than before.

They didn't say anything for a while. It was as if they both just needed to look.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

A hint of a smile crept over his lips. "No one."

She shook her head, afraid to return the smile. "This place isn't large enough to hide nobodies. You must be a relative of someone in town."

"You've stayed hidden this long."

She shuddered, as if something had crawled into her mind and seen things she didn't want them to see. What did he mean by that? Everyone in town knew her; she wasn't hidden at all.

"I'm not hiding from anyone." She pushed her chin in the air and turned to walk home.

He matched her strides with his own. "I'm Bryan."

"Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Marie."

She stopped, trying to hide the shock. "How do you know my name?"

He didn't answer. he only kept walking, the leaves crunching beneath his leather boots. She caught up to him, breathless. "My name. How do you know my name? Have we met before?"

"No." He smiled at her, a crooked, knowing smile. "But I have seen you many times before."

Her heart pounded strangely. He was lying. He had to be. If he didn't live here, than there was no chance he could have seen her before. She'd never left this valley.

And now she was alone with this liar in the woods and darkness was approaching.

This is an extremely random story I just spouted out of nowhere. It might turn into something, but it also might not. I hope you enjoyed it:)

If Only There Was a Word that Summed Up This Post...

Since other people can get away with writing a blog post about virtually nothing, but at the same time about everything, and still come out with something entertaining, I'm going to attempt to sprawl my random thoughts across the "page" without corralling them into sense:)

[And now I feel like Paul, who has those long-winded sentences that never seem to end. It makes reading aloud very...breathtaking :P]

I actually ENJOYED drinking tea today!! I rarely drink tea and when I do, more often than not it's iced instead of hot. But I'm a bit sick-ish today (meaning I don't have the flu...yet), so I made some tea that's especially for sick-ish people. I really enjoyed sipping away at my mug of hot tea. I felt as if I were being healthy, for once, versus when I drink coffee and think of how many spoonfuls of sugar I dumped into it ;) But this tea-revelation could have been ignited by the fact that I was reading J.R.R. Tolkien, and you have to be drinking tea to appreciate good literature. I am now convinced. haha.

The snow and ice were gorgeously inviting today. Not to mention the sunshine lighting up a pretty blue sky! But I'm currently frustrated with my camera, so it stayed stuffed up in my room, being punished. I felt like I was the one being punished, though. Stupid half-cold forced me to come inside before I was ready.

Now that we're past these trivial trivialities, can I just say that tonight I'm going to WRITE? Well, technically, I'm going to edit, which is an entirely different thing, but there will be some writing involved, trust me. I haven't made any serious progress with any of my novels lately. Poor, neglected adventures!

Tonight it's all about my nano creation, though. Hence the editing. Even though I only wrote it a few months ago, it seems like forever since the idea hit me! The characters also seem very childish (although the plot is not). But I want to like my characters *sniff*.

Yet my author aspirations are lying dormant while I write a blog post. It seemed important. now I've watched the clouds scudding across the sky outside my window, I've watched the sky grow dark as the sun sets, and I realize that time is moving on. It's passing me by. Since time is one thing that can never quite be caught, I'd best hit "publish" and leave it at that. And go write. Right now. Write right now. Hee hee.

Au revoir!
[Which reminds me that I haven't worked on my French much lately. Oops.]

One Lovely Little Mess

So, like many hundreds (or is it thousands?) of others, I completed the NaNoWriMo challenge. Ta da! Thus follows pats on the back, applause, and general awe...

All of which makes me think that I deserve a break. But I don't.

The novel, my glorious story, is very far away from being actually finished. Revising is the next step, than editing, and than handing it out to those of my friends who are being conned into giving me their opinions (heh heh).

And after all of that relatively easy stuff, I have to go through the process of deciding what to do with the thing and how to do it...possibly publishing...query letters...

Ahem. Maybe I should shut up. I'm freaking myself out.

Anyway, to see to it that I don't chicken out and leave my manuscript in a corner gathering dust while I live out my life in snow-heaven (snow! :D), I am going to use this blog as an "accountability partner", if you will. All of you who would enjoy harping on me to finish, well, go ahead and do so :) (blog email: elizabeth.marie.inked@gmail.com)

Randy, over at AdvancedFictionWriting thinks that goals, penalties, and prizes are the way to go (and I happen to agree). My current goal is this: have manuscript through the first preliminary edits (I'm thinking three?) completed by the end of December.

I know, I know; I'm shooting for the stars here. Or am I? ugh. Tired of thinking.

I further hope to be handing my manuscript over to a real editor (a friend of mine) by the end of January.

I'm gonna need some real work ethic, writing tips, and a lot of support. The latter one means you guys :P Even if you're not reading this, I don't care. Just putting it up on the blog is going to help. Writing out what I've done (or not done, as the case may be) is going to force me to take action.

Life will go on, though: school, Christmas shopping (oh snap...), snowboarding (only four days to go! :D), chores, and my relationship with God. Also, I'm learning bar chords on guitar.

Life's one lovely little mess, isn't it? :)

A Moment

There are those times when you just stop and see life as being encompassed in one single moment of time. You can feel the seconds slipping by as you sit there. And then you get up and move on.

And forget that time is borrowed. That a second wasted is worth so much more than you think it is...

But don't go overboard with that. You could get messed up that way, viewing life in seconds, and focusing on every little movement you make - bad idea.

Do stop and think, though. About what you're doing and who you're doing it for.

Today was my oldest brother's birthday :) So we celebrated, ate good food, played some games, and acted lazy [it wasn't just an act :P]. I missed out on quite a few hours of NaNo writing...oh, don't remind me...but I wanted to spend time with my family. God knows how much I've ignored them all November long.

Meaning that now, when I'm ready to curl up and read a book before climbing into bed, I'm going to go upstairs and write as much as I can for the evening. Write until my eyelids won't stay open, my fingers are cramped, my legs have fallen asleep from being squished by the laptop, and my body is going crazy from too many late nights.

The problem with late nights is that I have to reward myself with something, such as watching a movie or eating a carb-high snack...but this is life. Crazy, demented, a heck of a rollercoaster ride - with more downs them ups, it seems - and a journey of faith <3

KEEP WRITING ALL YOU NANOERS!!!

KEEP WRITING ALL YOU WHO REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN NANO :P (we still love you anyway)

...and for those who just don't write...KEEP LIVING CRAZY!

Out of Control:)

I'm on Day 27 of NaNo!!! That means I have 3 days left to write, not counting today. My word count is getting up there, but the problem is that my plot looks like it's going to over-reach the word limit. Meaning that I'm going to have to squish and yank to get my plot to fit this format of 100k.

I think I put too many superfluous scenes in my novel. lol. But I am enjoying this creativity of babbling :).

This blog is looking dull to me again. Should I change it? Or does anyone enjoy the notebook paper background? Or is it that I need more of a focus to have everything else about my blog revolve around? Hmm.

I'm going to be so sad when this month is over. December is going to hit me hard, with all the schoolwork, Christmas shopping, parties to plan, and cookies to bake. My hair has a million split ends, I have a giant zit on the side of my nose, my reading has been sorely neglecting, and our car is dead, but this month has been one of the awesomest months of my life! :D

Although...I have begun to miss people, a little. My social life has been sort of lacking during November, even though I've been on Facebook way too much x).

In short, my life is haywire and crazier than ever. But...I can't help but like it when it gets that way. Life isn't meant to be perfect and organized - or at least not all the time. When we accept that, we get a lot more done AND we learn to appreciate the spontaneous. Those delays that make us impatient, those mix-ups that drive us insane; it's all a part of His plan. We're not in control.

So here's to writing, living, dancing goofily, and loving the ones around me in a way that accepts this crazy life that's so out of my control <3

(Feel free to comment, or email me at elizabeth.marie.inked@gmail.com)

The Triumphant Returns!

I don't mean to brag, but I've just got to tell someone about today's achievement! And it feels spectacular, just spectacular, I tell you.

I wrote over 8,000 words today!! (Almost 9,000!) :D That's twice as much as my daily word count is supposed to be!

Needless to say, it was a good day. But now that it's over, and I'm headed for bed, I find myself wishing I had reached 10,000. Now isn't that just like me to never be satisfied? Honestly.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for here - a pat on the back, a reward in cash, a hug from a friend? - but I feel like I'm not getting it :P

Is anyone else exceeding their NaNoWriMo expectations? I'd love to know about your nano story, even if it isn't going so well. It's all in the learning and fun. And, of course, the words.

While we're on this subject, let me just say that all this time, I've been pronouncing it wrong. I pronounced it Nan - oh - wree - mo, when in reality, it's supposed to be pronounced nan - oh - rye - mo! Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner? I've been disgracing the name! Oh well. What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet (at least, I think that's how that quote goes...).

Goodnight. I'm off to bed with a *gag* sore throat. That's what I get for drinking two cups of coffee today -_-

Day Three

Hold your breath. It's only day three.

But I have now reached a total of...

NINE THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED, AND NINETY-THREE WORDS!!!!

Wow. That's a lot of words. Also, it sounds more impressive when written out, instead of just putting four little digits. Just sayin'.

First two days were cake. Absolute cake. I have no idea why. I started to worry that I would get cocky, or just totally deflate in about a week O.o Today was somewhat harder, but not difficult, per se. My brother is encouraging me to go for 100k (normal is 50k) since I'm not having trouble meeting my word counts. 100k! My first year!

Can I do it?

One thing I know for sure is, I won't do it unless I decided to do it. I'm just not one for snappy decisions. Wish I was, but that's not how it's going to be. Sooo after some consideration, I've come to the conclusion that I am going to try to write 100k words during the month of November in a worldwide "contest" of sorts (aka NaNoWriMo) that may or may not end up killing me/ruining my social life/and making me into a recluse forever!

How's that sound? Forceful enough, you think?!

The Countdown Begins

FIVE DAYS TILL NANO!!!!!

Pardon me. You wouldn't believe how long my computer has been waiting, patiently, to get put on CAPS LOCK. He just enjoys it so much, you know? You really can't blame me for indulging him in it every once in a while.

FIVE DAYS till my writing abilities are PUT TO THE TEST!!!

The excitement is building. I've been waiting for only a month, but I still feel as if I've had to much time to build up my expectations of how NaNo is going to pan out for me. It will either exceed my expectations, or it will considerably disappoint them, because there is absolutely no way that I would be dead right on my assumptions.

Take it from me, I've been wrong before. Wrong before a lot. But that isn't important right now. What's important is...

OH LOOK A SNOWFLAKE!!!

(Not really. Mr. Caps is just getting annoyed again, since I started using some italics there for a minute. Italics and CAPS and bold are all at war. Didn't you know that?)

Everything in life is at war. Negative numbers vs. positive numbers (that's one war I seem to be losing *sniff*). Cake vs. pie (cake is sooo much better!). Winter vs. summer. Girls vs. boys.

Lots of wars. As long as we're just talking about friendly competition, and only a few casualties ;), I'm in! I enjoy a good war (just not the ones our country seems to be participating in...but that's a different story entirely). Please tell me I'm not imagining all of this. You do remember cheering for the positive numbers as you worked your math problems, right?

Oops. Never mind. I'm revealing far too much information about my crazy, mad-hatter imagination. You know, if I was talking like this back in the 18th century, I'd be locked up by now O_O in an insane asylum *gulp*. We don't do that anymore in America...do we??

Tell me I'm not on the same scale of delirium as the guy who wrote Alice In Wonderland. His characters are quite fascinating, though...

YIKES! that was an *epic* rabbit trail x)

Anyway, I'm counting the days till NaNoWriMo. Ahem. Drumroll, please. DRUMROLL! Fine. Be that way. The days are slowly slipping away; I only have so much time to do a quick sweep of research so I can get down to the fun part - writing!! :D

Are you counting the days down till Nano?

<3 Elizabeth-Marie <3

Relative blogs and truth

I'm thinking my blog's new skin is a bit too...airy. Almost as if it's just going to float off the page when you're not looking. But then again, I'm prejudiced ;) - I love anything dramatic...

Nano is getting closer every day!! :D *Cue jumping up and down and waving a pen in the air* I really hope my happy little excited bubble isn't popped by the evil Editor within me that simply refuses to let unchecked babble litter my pages...soon, I will let the spontaneous and babbling parts of me loose! "Freedom!" they cry, as they attack this adventuresome project with anticipation.

Except, right now I have some research to do. Since my book is going to include a couple of places I've never been to (like Alaska and Shanghai, China - random, I know), I have to look them up and try to get a general idea of what they are like. It's really interesting, though, and I'm enjoying it =)

I just hope that a) time, b) research, and c) writer's block don't curb any of my enthusiasm. No use worrying about it, though.

God is the lord of my life. Sometimes I forget that. Sometimes, I start to think that it's all about...well, me *sheepish look*. Stupid little me. So if I start sounding completely self-centered, please give me a slap. Or a splash of harsh, cold reality. Or maybe...just a little truth. Because the truth is what's keeping me alive these days.

When you write about anything and everything, you start to dream of the impossible (not a bad thing, really). And you start to live in a world that's not real (which can be a very, very bad thing. So, pardon me, if I slip away into a nonexistent place, or start talking to invisible (aka nonexistent :P) people. Heh heh.

It's okay to imagine and dream and create new things. But it's God, my lifeline, my truth foundation, that I hold onto, that I count on to keep me from being swept away in the flood of Relative Truth. To Him I return after I forget about Him - and He always accepts me back into His arms :)

Writing to Save My Life

Or...something like that.

This blog needs a purpose. Erstwhile, it was a form of expression for myself, an outlet for my creative ramblings that are so random and disjointed that they cannot be used in any reasonable form of authorship (poetry, novels, how-to manuals). But because it is simply that - a network of rabbit trails - no one will benefit from it or be interested in it.

Therefore, it will have a NEW purpose. For the month of November, I will be documenting (or ranting or sulking or all other moods that I am likely to encounter over the thirty-day period) my journey through the Land of NaNoWriMo, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Fighting off editorial thoughts, battling with procrastination and writer's block, and encouraging the constant flow of the River Babble locked inside my Imagination, I'm going to put 50,000 words on a piece of paper and hope that they become something more than black-and-white graves.

I'm going to write a novel in one month.

It seems almost as frightening as Jack Sparrow's plight: sitting on a deserted island, surviving on rum, and left with nothing but ponderous thoughts and a gun to shoot himself. If I wimp out, if I give up halfway through my mission, then I will have given in to suicidal thoughts against my writing career (meaning, shooting my intended authorship lol). But if I complete it...there's no surety that I will actually have a publishing-worthy manuscript; in fact, I can nearly guarantee that it won't be anything close to publishable. If i succeed, though, I will have gained experience.

Which, as we all know, is invaluable.

I dare you to join me on this crazy life-journey to no foreseeable end in a place where anything can happen - and generally does ;). You can laugh at my blunders, wail with me when I fail, and cheer me on (silently, of course) as I blog about writing, writing, writing.

Writing *gulp* 2000 words per day.

But hey, I can do this...right?

Or, you can choose to go on your own adventure and join us nanoers at .

<3 Elizabeth-Marie <3

The Let Down :(

In case you haven't noticed already, I'm a pretty forgetful person. It's something that I'm certainly NOT proud of (because it means that I seem very undependable). I mean, I keep forgetting entirely about the Word of the Week!!

Sorry favorite bloggers :(

...I don't really have any, do I?

Right. So...no one's disappointed. Oh well. What matters is, I'M DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF.

Maybe I need to do less. Or maybe I just need to have more discipline. Either way, I realized that dictionary.com has a Word of the Day thing that will be much more organized and *dependable* than mine, and it's free (obviously); it's what I'm going to be using :)

Also, I found this great thing called NaNoWriMo!!! :D I'm extremely excited about it - pumped, actually! It's this great thing where every November, writers get together over the internet and spend the whole month writing a novel. 50,000 words in one month. Think I can do it??

Well, that's okay if you don't, since I'm not entirely sure I can either :P but it would be awfully nice if I could have some SUPPORT from you guys!

Never mind. That's really selfish of me. I am excited, though, and I just thought I'd tell all ya'll :) And you might want to check it out, as well.

September, I greet thee :)

September! It's here! The first day of a new month!

The season's changing, yet again - woke up this morning, the sun was just rising, and there was fog still floating just above the ground. Fresh, crisp. The autumnal splendor is coming!

Yesterday, I read Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, in its entirety! 'Twas a good book. It had a sort of twist on Beauty and the Beast (which is my all-time favorite fairy tale, btw), although don't go thinking that it was a remake. It most definitely wasn't. The ending was extremely satisfactory :). I couldn't put it down (though that might have more to do with the fact that I haven't read a just-for-fun YA novel in a couple months and less to do with the story's suspense...)! Also, I kind of snuck in some reading during school hours...

Yes, I'm horrible.

But I got to check it off my reading list! I wish I could buy it, though; I had to settle for borrowing it from the library =/ The library is one of my best friends, though - I hope we never lose it!

I am currently writing two novels and a short story (at least, I hope it's a short story - it may decide to morph into something altogether different though :P). It helps me to have more than one story going at the same time, so when I get bored and/or stuck, I can just switch my creativity into a different outlet, without feeling as if I wasted it :)

Chapter Titles

What do you think about chapter titles in fictional books??

Personally, I dislike them. It usually gives away what's coming next, and the whole point is to end the chapter with some sort of cliff-hanger or means of suspense (even if it's not an action/mystery genre, you still want there to be a sense of unknown).

I'm sure there are some people who use them as a means of foreshadowing; maybe they've found a way to do it while keeping the suspense. But I find it easier to go with just numbers, instead of titles.

Writing is so much easier when there is inspiration. But we don't always have the luxury of that. Sometimes, we have to write just to get the words out, just to keep writing. It's hard to keep the focus, though.

<3 Elizabeth Marie {or Em} <3