Welcome to the land of giraffes!

I like giraffes.  Read that last sentence like the kid that likes turtles.  I have liked giraffes for as long as I can remember.  I recall my friends in junior high even giving me presents that were giraffe themed.  I don't know why I started liking them and I'm not exactly sure why now.  I just know that giraffes and I go way back.  There's just something about them.  I think it's because they're so ridiculous looking with their long necks and creepy tongues.

I collect everything that is giraffe.  It started out with just a stuffed animal here or there, but now my collection is huge. One day when I own my own house, it will be giraffe themed.  I'm sure you can imagine how bad-ass that will be.  Yeah.

Let me introduce you to a few of my favorite things from my giraffe collection.

This one is a dog toy, with squeakers and everything.  I have a few dog toys that are giraffes.  I guess dogs really like giraffes too.  I always feel bad when I bring one home and squeak it and my two dogs come running, but not bad enough to give it to them.  

This one I got for my last birthday from my Grandma.  I love it.  It is one of my favorites.  It has sparkles on it and opens up and has enough room for all kinds of useful things, like a tic tac or perhaps a penny. As you can see in the background I have some other giraffe themed things on my dresser.  Tiny colorful ones, a round squishy one and even one that is a tiny garbage can.  Seriously.  It looks like an earthquake struck the land of giraffes on my dresser, guess I should reorganize them.

The picture doesn't do this sir justice.  He is really big.  I got him from Costco, and Costco only knows how to do things huge.  As he is standing like this, he makes a good steed or prop to scare your animals.   Unfurled and laying flat, he would make a good area rug or a dog bed for both a Mastiff and a Great Dane to share.  But right now, he is just sitting on the other bed in my room, chillin.

This is a painting my sister painted for me during her artistic phase.  I know you're thinking how adorable that is.  She is 27.  I have to think it was based off of this picture. It's actually pretty accurate in my opinion. I love her style, it's called 'using water colors without water because I didn't know I needed water'.  It hangs on my bedroom wall.

And this is a hat, obviously.

That is just the very tip of the iceberg that is my giraffe collection.  I've had calendars, stickers, valentine giraffe themed plates, a whole tub full of stuffed giraffe friends, a ring holder, picture frames, sheets, a rug, figurines, earrings and on and on.  Yeah, my collection isn't unique and amazing, but it is obnoxiously huge and I love it.  I've been trying to cut down on giraffes, but it's hard.  

So, if you're reading this and you have a fun, interesting, unique or even boring collection, share it with me!  I like to think I'm not alone in my need to collect.

On the Writing Front

At a little less than two weeks with my blog and this is only my fourth post, oy! My mom who started a blog after me has a much more interesting and updated blog.  Even if I've been unsuccessful with keeping my blog going, I have been successful with writing.  I've been writing daily, averaging a little over 1000 words a day.  It's not much, so I'm working on getting that word count up.

I've been trying to read as many blog posts, articles and other advice for writing as possible.  Trying to soak all that in while writing my first novel has been a bit of a headache at times.  I need to stop taking all the advice so seriously.  They're good ideas and jumping off points, but trying to make a huge list of do's and don'ts will only make me confused.  So, instead of pressuring myself to follow any advice I've ever seen, I'm trying to be more relaxed and go with the flow.  It's hard, but I'm trying.

I usually sit down around the same time each night to write - 10:30 PM.  That's a little late for most people, but I've always been a night owl and I seem to have the most energy at night.  I don't know why, I just do.  I try to go over what I wrote the day before just to check for mistakes, and the overall flow of everything before I settle down to write new material.

I have found that I NEED an outline to write.  My first outline was over fifteen pages in Word.  I started writing my first draft off of it, but then came up with a great deal more ideas to add in, so I went back to the drawing board, or keyboard, and redid my outline.  It's much longer, I haven't checked the exact page count.  For the second go around with my outline I used Scrivener.  I saw a lot of writers raving about Scrivener and thought I would give it a try.  It is extremely useful so far.  Especially since I need everything organized and need to be able to shift scenes and ideas around in order to have any chance at not becoming too overwhelmed and ultimately confusing myself.  I did my second outline and then started my first draft off of the outline through the program.  Seriously, check it out.

And with that, I will conclude this post.  Hoping to maybe get some writing in early tonight.  Early as in 8:30 PM, ha!

A Bit of a Change

Third post in and I've decided to make a little change in my blog.  If that doesn't tell you something abut my indecisiveness, I don't know what will.  I was trying to write a blog entry about what I do when I feel overwhelmed during my writing process and it was making me feel overwhelmed.  Yeah, not ideal.  So, I decided that this blog will be a whatever-I-feel-like-talking-about blog, and that will likely include entries about my writing now and then, but I don't want to focus solely on it anymore.

Like, here's a picture of my kittens.

I took this on their first birthday in April, so they're not exactly kittens, but I call them my kittens.  Monkey on the left, Daisy on the right.  I've talked about cats in every post so far, so get ready for that.

I live a fairly boring life, lately I've been writing and trying to pick up on crafting.  I have all these great craft ideas - Sock Monkeys, Ribbon Wreaths, Pillow Cases, Yo-Yo trees (yo-yo's made out of fabric, not the toy, although that might be interesting too) - and then I buy everything for them and end up never doing it.  I'm trying to work on that.  I love the idea of doing something, but usually have a hard time following through.  Like, creating a blog for my writing.  Hey-o!  It's been a struggle with trying to write my first novel, but I'm really pushing myself by setting up daily writing times.

So, now that I've established that my blog is taking a somewhat different journey than I first planned for it, I hope it will still be interesting.  Maybe it will inspire me to do that long list of crafts so I can share them, or something else entirely.  I don't know, but we'll see. 

Writing While Sick

My first piece of wisdom, is something I can relate with right now – how to write when you’re sick.  No, not serious illness or anything, but a pestering cold with a stuffy nose, runny eyes and the feeling like your head might explode.

If you’re like me and you feel like your getting sick, your first instinct is to say well, guess I’m not writing today! then gleefully go play Facebook games with a Kleenex shoved up your nose.  Don’t do that.  Be strong.  Tell yourself you’re going to write whether you like it or not.  You will put up a fight, but eventually you will see reason.

Next grab a glass of orange juice, a water bottle, Kleenex, and make sure there’s a garbage can nearby so you’re not throwing your germs everywhere.  Pull up whatever you’re working on, whether it is a word document, notebook, or 100 year-old type writer.  Stare at it for a long time.  Wonder how it is possible for your face to feel so puffy and painful.  Write a word or two - if you’re really motivated, a whole sentence. 

Oh, hey kitty!  Nice of you to visit.  Proceed to serenade your cat with a song composed only of meows. If you don’t have a cat, just meow it to yourself. If you’re really creative come up with your own tune, otherwise, the latest chart topper works too.  After cat runs away in terror, stare off into space in a half comatose state.  Come back to consciousness, try to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing.  Remember you convinced yourself to write.  Feel cranky. Blow your nose really well.  Get your game face on. Finish a paragraph or two. Feel accomplished. Save.  The rest can wait until tomorrow.  Try not to think about what utter nonsense this will look like when you’re feeling better.  For now, it’s nap time!  Good job!

(I promise my blog posts will be more coherent once I feel better.)

Introduction Time

Hi, I’m Kristen.  I’m in my mid-twenties.  I have a BA in Anthropology.  I live in Washington - the state, not D.C. I'm in the process of writing my first novel. What else am I supposed to say?  I have three cats – Daisy, Monkey and Weasley.  I’m a self-proclaimed cat lady.  Well, maybe that’s too much sharing now.

This is my first adult blog.  I say 'adult blog' because I used to obsessively LiveJournal when I was younger.  I would post my teenage angst and go on about my then current obsessions ad nauseum.  I would also post my fan-fictions. I loved writing.  I’d write fan-fiction about Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Peter Pan, Lost, anything that I was interested in.  I rediscovered my writing LiveJournal recently and my early writing was very dark. Everyone died and the endings were always morbid.  It made me cringe seeing how original and edgy I thought it was.  Most of the stories didn't even have a proper ending because I thought it was cool to leave things extremely open-ended.  No, just no.

So, why did I start again now?  Well, I've been slogging through the process of writing my first novel.  I came up with the idea for it about three years ago, but then started a love/hate relationship with it.  During the summers I would get excited about it and develop characters or come up with ideas but when I would go back to college, I would try to avoid it at all costs.  I don’t know why, but I would put up this wall between me and writing and make lots of excuses not to write.  I used to love to write, and now I was telling myself I had other things to do instead, which wasn't completely true. 

I finally decided to just go for it. It has been a huge learning experience.  An experience that I have decided to document in this blog.  The writing process has been teaching me a lot and I hope will continue to teach me a great deal more. I am not someone to give solid advice to anyone on writing, because I’m only just figuring it out for myself.  But, by writing these lessons out, I'm hoping to document my process and if other amateur writers stumble upon my blog, feeling overwhelmed by the writing process as much as I have and still do, maybe they will learn something from my experiences too.

So, feel free to introduce yourself!  When did you first start writing?