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. 

A Bit of Conversation

     Well, summer is almost here, and my life is officially crazy. I promised myself that when school was over I'd be able to relax and read all day and draw and listen to music and finish my novel and all the things. Ha. Ha ha. I should never believe myself when I say things like that. This week is shaping up to be quite full. Ice cream party, pool party, SAT, a dance recital(I don't dance, but several of my good friends do and I'm going to be supportive and nice and go watch it)... And then next week also has a heap of things. Not to mention next Saturday my family is leaving for a three week road trip. I'm totally excited and totally not ready.

     All that to say, no, I haven't had time to plan a blog post. *cries* I do apologize. However, this is your chance to have a say in what sort of posts I write this summer! :D I'm gonna ask several questions and I'd be very pleased if you'd comment and answer.

     What writing-related posts would you like to see?
     What posts would you like to see related to other things?
     What has been your favorite post so far?

     Ok so enough about my blog. Let's hear about you. What are you most looking forward to this summer?
As I said, we're leaving next Saturday and we're going to a teen writers workshop hosted by the One Year Adventure Novel and I am very pumped.(and unprepared) In July I'll be at a service project daycamp sort of thing for a week.

     A last little thought: Make goals this summer. Don't just flop around. (although relaxing is good) Remember all the things you were yearning to do during the school year and get out there and DO IT. A good idea might be to grab a friend and discuss goals and then poof you will be accountable for each other.

Double Review: 'Airman' and 'The Marvels'

     --A quick announcement: My last post was published one day after the exact one year anniversary of this blog! So a big thank you to all you charming folks who actually read it and comment and all that. ^.^ It's nice to know I'm not over here typing to myself.--

     I've recently discovered two very great books, so why not review/give thoughts on them?

     Part 1: Airman, by Eoin Colfer.

     I spent a long time trying to figure out what genre Airman was, and finally decided on 'alternate history, with an air of steampunk'. The setting is the non-fictional Saltee Islands off the coast of Great Britain(yes I looked them up and they exist, but not quite the same as the author has us imagining them) in the Victorian era.

     The book centers around the idea of flight(as in, airborne travel) and freedom, and is filled with beautiful prose and lovely description. Each character has a very distinct voice and individual personality, which is one of my favorite parts of a book. The characters weren't all from the Saltees, either. There were Frenchmen, Englishmen, Irishmen, Americans, and even a dandy pirate. The main character, Conor, has definite goals, dreams, and values, and it makes us care for him from the start.

     As many books will, Airman slowed down toward the middle section, and while it felt slow going with hardly any action to speak of, I never lost interest, so strong was Conor's determination, and so enjoyable(or detestable) were the characters. Unlike any other book I can think of, this one made me cry a little near the beginning, instead of at the end. It invoked emotion the whole way through.

    I would absolutely recommend Airman to everyone. (although maybe those under 10 wouldn't understand it or enjoy it to its full level) It did have light swearing, but other than that, there was hardly any objectionable content. In fact, it would make an awesome read-aloud. (I mean, who doesn't want to practice their different British, French, and American accents?) I can only describe it as a wonderful and inspiring read.



     Part 2: The Marvels, by Brian Selznick.

     One thing you should know about Selznick: He tells parts of his stories with huge sections of illustrations, and it is fascinating and glorious. (Especially to me, as an artist) His other books are also amazing, and I believe I mentioned them in a previous post.

     The Marvels is a super quick read. The illustrations weave a magnificent history, and when it got to the prose section I didn't want to stop looking at all the fabulous pictures. They're all so well thought out, one can tell Selznick didn't just like scribble them all out, they're very meticulously planned and composed.

     I won't spoil it for you, but I must say the picture story and the prose story connect beautifully in the end, and there were lovely symbols and continuing ideas and everything matched and tied together. I was impressed. And it totally didn't end in the way I expected.

     However, I came away unsatisfied, because there was mention and acceptance of homosexuality. -_- How dare you associate such a thing with such a great book?! In all other ways, though, The Marvels is brilliant. I'd recommend it to anyone 12 or older.


     At any rate, both of these books inspired me, and they're grand. The Marvels is fairly new, and my library, for one, doesn't have it yet, and it costs a pretty penny at Barnes and Noble, but perhaps you're like me and have a fantastical best friend who decided to buy it and is willing to loan it to you. Airman should be easier to find at the library, and definitely costs less if you want to buy it. Anyhow, go find something awesome to read!

     What amazing books have you been reading lately?

The Quest for Inspiration

     So I was inspired to write a blog post. Ironically enough, it was another blog post that inspired me. Just goes to show, inspiration can be found almost anywhere. Outside, in the grocery store, at the dinner table, youth group... The list goes on. Everywhere you look, there is a piece of dialogue, an object to describe, a plot point, a character. Inspiration should be easy. You only have to look for it. Searching for inspiration is a skill you develop.

     Sometimes the smallest things can lead to a burst of inspiration. A little spark can throw you into a dreamy, inspired mindset for a whole day. Inspiration can't be faked. You can force yourself to write a story or draw a picture. And that's great. But it isn't the same as writing or drawing under inspiration.

     Inspiration can't be faked, but it can be found. You can't decide when to be inspired, but it certainly helps to know where to look for inspiration.

     I have a list of things I do when I'm searching for inspiration. So here:
-Take pictures. Zoom in, look closer than usual and everyday things.
-Go watch a play. There's nothing better than seeing a well plotted story being acted out right before your eyes.
-Read a story. Analyze what bits are your favorite, and how you might implement them in your own writing.
-Go for a walk. Fresh air, flowers, trees, sky... Quite inspirational.
-Observe the people around you. Take time to wonder what really makes them tick. I guarantee you will at least get a character trait out of it.
-Scroll across Pinterest. Ok. This one's tricky, because Pinterest can also turn into "Oh, look at this hilarious cat meme." And that's not inspirational. (I mean, maybe it is to some people.) But I find that looking at writing boards or travel boards or character boards or art boards are most inspirational for me.
-Visit a few writing blogs. Some amazing ones are GoTeenWriters, StoryForger, and This Incandescent Life.
-Write a letter, or journal, or something that's not what you need inspiration for. (For some reason, writing in cursive makes me feel really fancy and that sometimes inspires me to continue along in my creative endeavors.)
-Do something new. Changing it up can get you out of your usual pattern of thinking.
-Play an instrument or listen to music. Unplugging and just immersing yourself in music can be a great way to get thoughts going.
-Organize something. This one's more of something I do, because organizing relaxes me. Also having a clear work space is important.

     A few months ago I did a post on artist's block that kind of builds on this topic.

     ...That's about all I have for today. Apologies for the late post. I haven't got an excuse for it, either. Although I did manage to type up 700 words in my WIP after having writer's block for a while!

     What inspires you? (Comments are great, and guess what? They inspire me to write more posts. <3 )