Indecisive and Unimportant

I was going through some old projects of mine. A few years ago a friend of mine found a list of 2-3 sentence horror stories and we used them as prompts. Though my first prompt is the only one that ever got finished as a short story (though never published) I thought I would share it with you. This was the short horror story The last thing I saw was my alarm clock flashing 12:07 before she pushed her long rotting nails through my chest, her other hand muffling my screams. I sat bolt upright, relieved it was only a dream, but as I saw my alarm clock read 12:06, I heard my closet door creak open. This was the beginning of my short story (it continues to the end but as it is stiller anther long for a blog post I thought I would only post the beginning)             Sharp, jagged nails ran down her cheek and towards her throat. Claire’s breathing was heavy as she stared intently at the wall to the right. Too terrified to look at the face that went wi

Today I read a newspaper article on how most people don't really understand the true meaning behind Memorial Day anymore. During the time of WWII when up to 12% of the population served in the military, everyone knew at least 1 soldier. Today with voluntary service less than 1% serve. So let's remember those who have volunteered to serve our country. No matter what your politics no matter if you disagree with where/why they are where they are, remember the fallen soldiers. The Soldiers Fallen We celebrate Memorial Day to remember the soldiers fallen though it is not the 30th of May we remember the soldiers fallen. During your backyard barbecues remember the soldiers fallen While friends and family rendezvous remember the soldiers fallen. Though it is not the 30th of May we remember the soldiers fallen For some, everyday is Memorial Day as they remember their soldier fallen Take this day, your holiday to remember the soldiers fallen and though for some it

Organizing. I've been writing this word a lot lately since I have to take Management and Organization as a summer course. So it got me thinking, could I organize my writing notes in a more efficient (writing this word a lot too) way? Currently: I have one word document that is my actual novel and one word document that is my notes. The notes page isn't necessarily disorganized, it's just not as neat as my perfectionist brain would like it to be. In order I have: Description of characters The "Situation" the Creatures and their descriptions (highlighted with what the readers and characters know and not highlighted with what I know) A few sentences with what I want to happen in this book (I'm thinking trilogy here) It's not a lot of notes. I could have more but a word document allows me to go back and change my notes, add in more or change a creature as I want to. I tried using a notebook but it ended up with a lot of discarded pages when I ran o

Twitter is awesome. Seeing as I now have 104 followers  on Twitter (@TheAmandaKim) I thought I would do something special for everyone.  For 104 followers I give you 104 words from Creatures (still not sure on this title name. Will probably be changed in the future) (I'm actually giving you 113 words because I couldn't very well cut it off in the middle of a sentence) This is a very unedited and unreviewed portion of the very first draft and it's the very first sentences.              “The creatures come out at night. Be home by dusk” his mother’s words ran through his head to the tune of his feet slapping against the asphalt, each word matching with each smack of his feet. The sun was low in the sky, barely visible now and he was still miles from the little shack he called home.               His mom was long gone, taken by one of the creatures years ago. It was just him in his tiny little shack, his safe haven after his mom was taken. He thoug

This meme made me laugh out loud when I first saw it and now it is my background. It actually reminds me to recenter when I am feeling too overwhelmed. So here's a little bit about me. Me: Trying to enter a new career, maintain my relationships, work, drink enough water, exercise, blog, tweet, write, stay sane, survive, and be happy. I've never been a very good juggler. I tend to set some of those things down in order to better handle the rest of them. Trying to enter a new career - after graduating nearly 3 years ago with a Bachelor's of Science in Biology and being in my career I have had a change of heart and am going back to school for a second Bachelor's of Science and a Master's. Maintain my relationships - my fiancé and friends are wonderful and understand my inability to handle everything at once. They are patient with me (to an extent) and remind me when it's time to surface and spend time with them. Without their (not so) gentle reminders I

Yesterday while trying to write I kept getting distracted. It's easy to do for me.  I was trying to create the creatures that the main character encounters. I had a rough idea of them in my head which got me through the first 3 chapters but then I really needed to get down to the nitty gritty to describe them.  As I was writing out the information for each I had to do a bit of googling because as a previous biology student I have to make sure my science fiction makes a little bit of sense.  So I started a google search and then found something slightly related that was interesting and as more and more interesting things came up I found myself on Monsters University website. It's a thing http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/ right there. Then I found one for Hogwarts where you can take magical classes online and I signed up for that then realized that I was supposed to be writing. So I pulled up my novel and remembered I was researching for my creatures. The internet is

While trying to think of what to write about today the show 13 Reasons Why popped up on the Netflix screen (yes I'm multi tasking) I haven't yet sat down to watch it as I still don't know if I'm going to since I have heard mixed review about it. I'll wait until a few more people have seen it. But since this is my 16th post I thought I would do 16 Reasons Why I Write. 1. Some people use yoga, or running, or meditation to relax and clear their heads. I write. Sitting down after a long day and getting lost in my story helps me stop thinking about all the things I need to get done, it helps me calm down after a particularly anxious day and it relaxes me, almost like reading does. 2. I am an avid reader. If there is a book I want to read and I can't find it anywhere I write it. There are so many good story ideas in my head and I want to put them on paper. 3. I have always been a writer at heart. While I was moving into a new home my mom dug out everything of

Watched the movie "Captain Fantastic" tonight with the family. A family with 6 children living off the grid go on a cross country road trip out in the real world. Dealing with feeling like freaks and the danger of the way they chose to live. It deals with issues like feeling abnormal growing up, learning to love yourself and your family, and accepting change as part of the process to better your life. Overall it was a cute movie and I feel like it delved into some pretty normal concepts despite the abnormality of the way the family lived. From a writers perspective: It was interesting to watch and think about how they might have developed the plot for the movie. Writing something like this for me in particular would have been difficult because I would have to use my own imagination as well as research to make sure I got the details right and even then I have never experienced an off the grid life style so I still couldn't be sure it would be accurate. However, M

Has someone ever recommended a book to you, or you see a book in one of those 'Must Read' lists? So you do a little research into the book and find that it is simply not your style, or you just know you won't enjoy it. Have you ever asked yourself why? Most people have a specific genre or storyline that draws their attention so they don't branch out and try new things because they just KNOW they're not going to like it. While this is true for my writing (I really enjoy writing dystopian or post-apocolyptic stories) it's not true for my reading. If someone recommends a book to me I will put it on my "to read" list. (I use GoodReads to help me keep track.) It wasn't always like this. I didn't just pick up any book that someone handed to me. I was very much into fiction and adventure. Love stories be damned. Historical fiction?! History is boring! Biographies? Pssh please, that might as well be history! Give me a whole new universe with magic

Came home late from work Roughly 4:30 Started online class Finished a 7:45 (earliest ever so far) My fiancé is lovely and made me dinner so I didn't have to stop homework So tired of typing notes That I can't even bring myself to continue my story But I haven't written a post in so long that I wanted to write one. I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about until this very sentence. Creatures Synopsis: "The creatures come out at night. Be home by dusk." Two sentences that haunted Charlie's dreams. It's been years since the creatures first started attacking the world. Creatures that took Charlie's parents and countless others from him. He has managed to survive on sheer luck alone, until he finds another human hiding in his shack. Two teenagers venture out to go on the biggest adventure of their lifetime to find the source of the Creatures that have invaded their world. It's probably not the official synopsis, seeing as I just pulle

Starting off writing doesn't pay the bills. Even after you've been published sometimes writing won't pay the bills. I have a Bachelor's of Science in Biology and spent 2 years in my career. After deciding to go back to school for a career change I am now a student, working a part-time job, and trying to exercise. All of this leaves little time for writing. So while I am out of school for summer (all of 2 weeks because of summer school). I decided to start this blog and whole new project. I did not anticipate my job. I started working full days again in a very physical job. I come home so exhausted and after making dinner and showering I don't have the energy to write anymore. But it's something that I love so I sit down with some caffeine to try and stay awake long enough to write a few lines of my new project that still doesn't have a title as well as keep up on this blog. It can be difficult to keep up on everything I love and everything I have to get

I hate editing! My own stuff that is. Reading through other people's works and fixing small errors here and there is really enjoyable. I love reading a new story, or a revised story and seeing how it plays out. Editing my own stuff though is time consuming and frustrating. I end up taking out whole chapters in the editing process because I can't stand the way they sound. Usually my writing takes place during the month of November for NaNoWriMo. National November Writing Month. So I am trying to follow a rough outline that I created in October and keep up my word count, usually around work, family time, and Thanksgiving of all holidays where my family usually takes a no-WiFi-available vacation. Now, you'd think, writing is just a pen and paper, or a word document. But when you really need to know the name of that one tiny town and the population of that tiny town you use a lot of fillers and have to go back and google everything when you finally get WiFi again. Trying

I just made a twitter account for this blog to hopefully get it out there. Though looking through other people's twitters and seeing just how many blogs are out there like this one I almost feel like a fraud. While some people may find comfort in the idea of other people going through the same situation, I feel like others may feel pretty tired of all of us up and coming writers and why do I think I am any different? Thoughts like this have kept me from putting my thoughts and works out into the world. But here we go. I am "coming out" if you will, as a hobby writer. I have been brave enough to share my stuff with 2 close friends of mine who have read this blog and one of them suggested I take my blog to twitter. So squashing all my negative thoughts about that idea I did it. It takes a lot to remind myself that my thoughts, my stories, my poems, whatever i deicide to write, is mine, unique to me. They may be similar to other people's works, a mash of stories I hav

I was working on the Character development for my new project and I was going to post it here. I found this worksheet that would help you bring the character to life. I got halfway through in 2 hours. So, since i had other things going on, I scrapped it for now and will find a different way to do it later. I'm a little upset that because of this character development I wasn't actually able to work on said new project at all tonight and since it is late and I haven't posted anything I will continue this random story that I started. As I got closer to my bedroom, I could see the shape of a person hovering over my dresser with his back to me. His hair was cropped short, with large ears that I could see sticking out. His neck was thick and matched his broad shoulders. From where I was standing I thought he would be at least a foot taller than me. I heard him grunt and watched as he frantically looked through the middle drawer, throwing my t-shirts over his shoulders as he rum

I just finished listening to the audiobook of "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman.  This book is supposed to be a tear jerker of tear jerkers. As someone who empathizes more with fictional characters than I do real people, I really expected to be bawling my eyes out and I questioned if I should really be listening to this while driving.  There is never a book I will tell you to NOT read. You do you, read what you like. Yes, I can see where the tears would come out, but it wasn't as heart wrenching as a few others I've read (ugh Time Traveler's Wife killed me).  This is the story of Mia. A girl trying to decide her future at 17 years old. To stay with the one she loves or move across the country to Juilliard, the school of her dreams. Her future changes when it goes from a decision on what to do in the future to, whether or not she will have a future. 24 hours of an out-of-body experience in a coma she debates, back and forth as to whether or not she will st