Purposeful Pages- November

     Shed a tear, for this is the last edition of Purposeful Pages. (and it's only my second time. Go figure.) 

     Purposeful Pages is a monthly link-up designed to unite bloggers on answering questions about life, blogging, the Bible, writing, and books. It was created by Hannah and Amanda. 

     Without further ado, le questions:

     no. 1 Is there an organization, website, or collaborative blog that encourages you? 
In writing, the Go Teen Writers blog encourages me. Their tips make me want to improve, and it reminds me that I'm totally not the only writer out there. 

    no. 2 When do you feel the most empowered to live life to the fullest?
Deep conversations, usually about the Bible make me want to live life to the fullest, whether it's with friends or a mentor.  People who help me along in further grasping my faith and such. That empowers me, and makes me want to pass it on. 

      no. 3 Who is an author that has impacted you deeply?
Although I've never read her books, Nadine Brandes has a godly outlook on life and is quite bubbly. I respect her a lot, and much of the things she spoke about at the conference where I heard her speak were exactly what I needed to hear. Her blog also has top notch thoughts, as well as random fangirling. 

     no. 4 Love. What Bible verse has shown you the depths of God's love recently?
Just this morning I was reading in Psalms, and came upon Psalm 107:43 "Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD." God's love doesn't cover us only when we're honoring Him. He loves us all the time and we should keep that close at heart. 

    no. 5 What words do you love the sound of?
"Conglomeration" is my recent favorite. As are "mystical", "balderdash", and "elegant". I could sit here all day naming words I love the sound of. 

     no. 6 When do you feel most alive?
Walking outside in the wind and sunshine, surrounded by orange, red, and yellow leaves. 

     no. 7 How has blogging impacted you?
Blogging has helped me to deliver thoughts in a concise and (hopefully) understandable way. It helps me organize ideas and sift through what I want to share with people. 

     no. 8 What do you wish you could tell your five-years-younger self?
Oh goodness. We would have a nice long sit-down with tea and hot chocolate. I'd tell her to keep her priorities in line, not to bother about what other people are thinking and doing, that life changes and that's a good thing, and that *surprise* life really isn't what she thought it was. I would also say that God's got it and everything is going to be okay. 

     no. 9 When you think of joy, what comes to mind?
I think of colors and excitement in Jesus Christ, and also several people who embody joy come to mind.   

     no. 10 What kind of legacy would you love to leave?
I want to leave a quiet, thoughtful legacy. Of gentleness and creating beauty. 


     There you have it. Pick one of the questions and comment answering it! Or if you have a blog, you could do the whole thing and post the link here.

Writing Prompts and NaNoWriMo

     Well, well, well. I am rather failing at the 'blogging regularly' thing lately. But guess what month it is! November. Not only November, but National Novel Writing Month. *jazz hands* I am not participating, though I have promised myself that I will someday. For you NaNoers out there, -pause to glare at you all for not working on your novels- this post may be helpful. Hopefully reading this gives you a nice refreshing break so you can get back to the typewriter.

     This year is the closest I've come to actually signing up for NaNoWriMo. I had a story idea outlined at the beginning of October, my school has been much lighter that last year, and I even told a couple friends that I planned on doing it. I changed my mind, though.

     The main reason is that I'm just not a hardcore enough writer. On a good day, I can barely squeeze out 1000 words, much less approximately 2000. I work best in small doses, and that is perfectly fine. Completing NaNo is my heart's desire, though. I want to be able to put on that badge of success at the end of the month. But not this month. In order to be that epic, I have to train.

     I set up my own writing goals, suited to me, right now. I'm trying to get a 50,000 word novel in before December 31, which comes out to writing approximately 833 words a day. It takes my distracted little self up to almost 2 hours (give or take) to get all that done.

     That brings me to my title! Writing prompts. I decided that since I was going to be writing every day, there was no doubt that sometime I'd get stuck and burned out and agonize over every single word. The remedy: I wrote out 61 prompts for myself. They don't affect the plot very much; they're just filler things. So if I feel less than inspired, I go to my tin (it's very adorable, everyone should have one) and pull out a random slip of paper. Yesterday the prompt I got was "sickness" and it actually got me out of my stuck spot. The day before, the prompt helped me add depth to a character.

     I'm challenging you all to create your own writing prompt tin/jar/box/envelope. The plus side of writing your own prompts is that you can write them along the right lines to follow the mood and setting of your novel. It fits while still adding extra excitement to your writing progress. I find that the prompts I stumble across on Pinterest or wherever often require a very specific scene or even an entire story.

     Instructions: (Because what's a blog post without a list?)
-Find a small container. You may want two, so you can store used prompts in the second one. I'm not throwing mine away, but maybe you won't be that attached to yours.
-Get paper. You could start with strips to write each prompt on, or cut them up later.
-Think of/find suitable prompts. They can be as simple as one word. I used colors, random quotes from movies, a requirement for a scene such as "someone has to break something", and moods. I wrote one for every day I planned to write, but you can put however many you wish.
-Cut the prompts out individually and put them in your container.
-Every day, pull one out and use it!

     There you go. I hope you find it helpful! I'd love to hear how NaNo is going for everyone, or if you do try the prompt thing, how that works for you. :) I always love comments.

     P. S. I find I write better if I promise myself chocolate chips afterwards. Just an idea. :P 

To Be An Artist

     Art. It has a broad definition. Frankly, I don't know where to start, but here's my attempt at defining the type of art I'm talking about today: Something created that adds to the world beauty, meaning, or an expression of the artist. (Specifically, I'll be referring to visual art, but writing will fit into some of the things I say.)

     People are all so extremely unique, and everyone brings a different angle of thought on any given subject. I marvel at the array of art others are capable of. Some people are given lots of natural artistic talent. Some people have to work at it. But I think it's safe to say that those two categories of artists together are still in the minority of people.

     Artists are different from the majority. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, we're supposed to be different. No one ever commended anybody for being a copy. You won't be complimented for writing a quote. Deviating from the usual and the known takes work. You have to actively dig for creativity. You may need to look to others for inspiration or instruction, but in the end, being artistic is about making the art your own.

     Being truly different is hard, but it can have beautiful results. It takes time, and loads of practice.  People may laugh at you or judge you. If that happens, remember who we are doing art for. The praise goes to God. The closer we get to Him, the more our art will reflect his beauty. 

     God calls us to be different, not just as artists, but as people. (Just have a look at Romans 12:2.) We are to be renegades to the world. Take that with you in your life and in your art.

     As my friend likes to say, "Don't forget to be refreshingly different."

     Comment: What's your artistic area?

Purposeful Pages- August

     Browsing the internet as I am wont to do, I stumbled upon a new thing and decided to be adventurous. (Shout out to Jonathan at Fishing for Ideas for doing the Purposeful Pages Linkup and causing me to get involved.) 

     So what is this? I have no idea. Here's the description: Purposeful Pages is a monthly link-up designed to unite bloggers on answering questions about life, blogging, the Bible, writing, and books.

     It's run by Hannah and Amanda. You can find more details on their blogs if you want to participate.

no. 1 What book of the Bible has taught you the most this month?

Ephesians. I've learned more about who I am and how I should treat others. 

 

no. 2 How would you react if you were in the position of Esther? 

I would probably be rather reluctant and "why me?" in all of it. I'd hope to act as courageously as she did, but I don't know if I would. 

 

no. 3 If you could have a book character for a sibling, who would it be, and what makes you two alike? 

 I had to consult my sister upon the matter. We decided Edmund from the Chronicles of Narnia would make a pretty cool brother and had a time of it figuring out what I had in common with him, but I'd say I have a similar outlook on life to Edmund. 

no. 4 How would your main character most likely spend his or her Friday night? 

The main character of my WIP, Scribblers, is Florence, and she'd most definitely be writing up in her attic.  

no. 5 What are the top three books you’re just dying to read? 

1- The Lost Girl of Astor Street by Stephanie Morrill.

2- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

3- Claervont's Cost by Bryce Roberts. 

no. 6 Can you briefly share the story behind your blog’s name?

Well, "A Pen For the King" reminds me that I want everything I do to be for the glory of God, including my writing and art.  

no. 7 What do you consider to be your blog's "branding," or signature? What sets your blog or social media apart from others?

 This is a super hard question for me. I'm still discovering it, but I hope I give my take on the world and help people with thoughts on what I know how to do, especially in writing and art. The aim is for my blog to be thought, discussion, and action provoking. 

no. 8 Who are a few of your favorite bloggers?

 Top four blogs:

1-Story Forger

2-This Incandescent Life

3- Musings and Stories  

4- Living Aesthetically 
 

no. 9 If you could go on a road trip of your dreams, where would you go and who would you spend time with?

 The road trip of my dreams would take place in a very spacious van equipped with well-adjusted air conditioning. In that van, music would be playing, enjoyable to all present. (although silence is good too) Food would be readily accessible with minimum mess and maximum deliciousness. We'd be on the way to visit OYANers, obviously. The "we" would also consist of OYANers. 

no. 10 Using five words or less, tell a story.

Balloons float toward better adventures.  

Bonus one because I'm a writer and I can't restrain myself: Then, we all stopped lying.  

Hopefully, this will become a monthly thing for me. If you have a blog and end up doing this (which I highly encourage), comment with the link!

Procrastination

     Probably, that infamous title caused you to cringe a bit. (It caused me to cringe, too.) As you may or may not have noticed, I haven't posted for a month, and before that I hadn't posted as scheduled for quite a while. I owe my few faithful readers an apology.

     However, given my situation, I have a perfect example for my topic today. Let's stop procrastinating and get to the point. Lately I've been thinking hard on how to mitigate procrastination in my life, or minimize it, at least. I've come up with three steps. It may sound simple, but it takes effort.

     Step One: Figure out why you're procrastinating.
Some common reasons/excuses for procrastination include-
-1) "I don't want to..."
-2) "I'm too busy."
-3) "It's too scary/hard."
-4) "I'd rather do *insert whatever* "
-5) "I forgot."
-6) "I'm not good enough; nobody cares."

I'm sure we could go on. My non-blogging month was caused by a combination of 1, 4 and 6. (Number 1 fits into most situations.) I didn't feel like writing a blog post because I wanted to draw and write and ride my bike and a host of other things instead. I was also traveling for part of it, which completely threw off any sort of schedule I had. (There I go, making excuses...) But killing procrastination is about doing stuff even when you don't feel like it. Don't allow yourself to make excuses.

Once you have a concrete reason why you're not doing what you're supposed to, it's easier to get rid of it. That being said, step two is probably the hardest.

     Step Two: Throw away your excuses.
I'm going to give examples of ways to go about addressing the excuses listed above.
1) "...But I will." CONQUER THAT WILLPOWER.
2) If it's important enough, prioritize and /make/ time. Chances are, there are hours you're spending on random internet things that have no lasting value. (whew, preaching to myself here.)
3) Very few things are literally impossible. Get the help you need, summon that courage, rally those forces. You can do it. And facing fears builds character immensely.
4) This one goes along with number 2. Think how good it will feel to have whatever-it-is done when you get to do that other thing afterwards. Use the preferred activity as a reward once you finish the task you've been procrastinating over.
5) WELL, REMEMBER. While forgetting is sometimes a valid thing, it can be avoided. Jot yourself reminders, get another person to be your accountability and nudge you on it every once in a while to make sure you get it done.
6) I identify with this one all too well. (All of these, actually...) But even if you truly aren't good enough now, practice. Keep writing that terrible novel, keep drawing those atrocious doodles. If you keep at it, one day the terrible novel could be a published work and the atrocious scribbles may turn into lovely illustrations. Remind yourself that you are your own worst critic, and while the things you're working on may not be top notch, they might not be as horrible as you think. As for the "nobody cares" part, don't let that get to you. Colossians 3:23 tells us who we're working for, and even if not one person cares, God does, and you do. Keep caring even when there's no one else, and remember God is still watching you.

     Step Three: Do it.
You've wiped off all the excuses cluttering your desk, so you're ready for business.
Do your best. Do it for God. Take a water break if you need to. Get stuff done.

     Extra things:
-I've found that making a to do list is an amazing motivator.
-Breaks are allowed, but time yourself or do something else that's super productive. The internet has a magical function that sucks away hours while you think it has merely been five minutes.

     Comment:
     What sort of goals against procrastination do you have?
     What's the top thing you procrastinate on?

Invincible Summer

     Well. I thought I could keep up the blog thing while traveling, but it turns out that's a no. I just have a short little post today, since I'll also be away next Monday. 

     For the longest time, I couldn't choose a favorite quote. However, I recently discovered one which instantly became my favorite.

     "In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an Invincible Summer." ~Albert Camus

     During the school year, I tend to be despondent. Everything is meh, it's cold, I'm tired, school is hard, and I just want to sit and mope. But even in that ugly mood, I must remember that within my heart lies an Invincible Summer.

     Life is not going to all be flowers and laughter and free time. That has already been proven. But we also have the Joy of Christ which shall not fade. It's the same idea as an Invincible Summer. Because of it, I can look up when everyone else is looking down. I will hold tight to the Invincible Summer, and when I come to the depths of despair, it will be the rope that assures me I'm still all right. This summer is going to be over all too quickly. But I have my Invincible Summer that will stick with me always. No one can break it or steal it or tell it to go back to school. I hope it will rub off a little on everyone.

     I drew the title image you see,(featuring the OYAN compass, which reminds me of something else and is a different post for a different day) and I'm going to write the quote out so I can be reminded of the Invincible Summer when I see it. Growing up is scary, and it's going to be hard to keep hold of my Joy, but hopefully the reminders will help.

     Comment: What's your favorite quote? 
 

Critiquing Tips

      Quick post today. (Since I'll be gone on Monday.) I thought a post on critiquing might be helpful.

     Real fast, there are two basic types of critiques, 'line-by-line', and 'general thoughts'. I prefer to call the latter 'thought dump' but it's not as official-sounding... Line-by-line is as the name implies, where one carefully reads through the excerpt of writing and comments on things throughout, down to the nit-picky details. (Well, depending on what draft it is.) General thoughts is a bit more, well, general. For that one, a person would ignore the tiny issues and make blanket statements about what the excerpt needed or lacked. It mainly gets the big problems. Line-by-line critiques are usually better for work that's further along, and general thoughts can be helpful for a first draft. 

     Now that that's sorted, let's get into actual tips.

     1- No grammar. If they wanted a grammar critique they could have asked their mother. It truly isn't helpful; grammar isn't the meat of the story at all. I’m guilty of pointing out spelling and things... I do it because messed up grammar makes things impossible to read for me. Don’t be like me. In a line-by-line, you can sometimes get away with fixing grammar here and there since that type of critique is often fairly dense in other comments, but as a rule, unless someone specifically asks you to point out grammar problems, DO NOT DO IT. 

     On the other hand, if you submit something to be critiqued, try and catch as many of the grammar issues as possible before sending it, believe me, it helps the critiquer a lot. (Yeah those squiggly lines under stuff in the word doc? They usually mean something's off.)

     2- Choose a focus. Ask the person you're doing a critique for if they have a certain element that they most want to improve, and examine that the most. Characters are my specialty, and I enjoy character-driven books as opposed to plot-driven, so I find myself making comments that reflect that, where I point out ways to help people get more into characters' heads and things of that nature. It's impossible to critique everything about a novel, so find your niche and help in your way. 

     3- Analyze the genre/target age/setting and critique accordingly. Make sure the things you point out aren't specific to your preferences. There's nothing wrong with saying "this isn't my type of book, but if you added sports/romance/clowns/talking dragons/oompa loompas/whatever it would be more appealing to me." However, it's important not to force someone's writing to be something that it isn't. If you like sci-fi and are critiquing a medieval fantasy, there's a slim chance time travelers are gonna zoom in on a space ship. (Although by all means, give people crazy ideas like that. It might be helpful.) Likewise, a middle-grade book is going to be geared towards that age, and while it can still be enjoyable for older people, it might not resonate with them as much as with the intended age range. 

     4- Use your discretion with sarcasm. I am a sarcastic little human. However, the first time I got a sarcastic critique, I totally felt mocked and was a bit offended for kind of a long time. (I now find sarcasm in critiques entertaining, so all you snark sharks have full permission to go all out on my work.) For me, deciding whether to tone down the sarcasm or not depends on the person. If I don’t know them very well, I’ll definitely toss sarcasm out the window. If I sort of know the person, depending on their personality I might put in a bit. And then with my very good friends it’s just like a wall of sarcasm. But when in doubt, throw it out.

     5- Be truthful but tactful. This goes along with the previous point. Be considerate with how you present comments. Don’t dismiss things as “well this is the most horrible sentence I’ve ever read.” Remember that writers are people too, and for some people it takes quite a lot of guts to show writing to someone else, and even more to accept others' feedback on it. Writing is a little part of someone's mind, soul, heart, so be very careful with how you suggest changes. That being said, don't sugar coat stuff. Don't say something is good if it needs alteration. Be gentle and thoughtful with critiques. Of course, like with the sarcasm thing, once you know someone well enough you can get a feel for what degree of blatancy they can handle. 

     Overall, when critiquing, keep in mind the Golden Rule and remember you're trying to help the other person's writing improve, you aren't there to gratify yourself by pointing out other peoples' flaws.