3 tips on juggling writing and school

Sorry about the hiatus from the blog. As some of you might know, I was torturing teaching high school students on how to score the best that they possibly can on the dreaded SAT's. Unfortunately, I had to brush up on allll my math skills and read some painfully dry critical reading passages, but FORTUNATELY I loved my job. It was so rewarding to see everyone improve. And I've added more words (that I didn't memorize the first time around before my own SAT's) to my vocabulary. That's always a good thing. I just didn't have that much time to myself, and when I did, it was to work on my WIP. But now I'm back!

This post is inspired my friend Julia's post on how to balance school and writing. I really enjoy reading posts like this because I am a student myself (sophomore at UPenn), and while I know that a lot of adult writers have to juggle work and writing, juggling school and writing is just as hard! I would hesitantly assert that sometimes it's harder--I'm biased, obviously. It's just that a lot of the grown-ups I know don't have to stay up until 4AM in the library to do homework or prep for an exam that accounts for 50% of their grade. Meanwhile, the 4AMer in the library is a common sight at my college, and these aren't even people who procrastinate like me and cram.

This is not a how-to write and do school because if there's one thing I've learned from my years in academia, it's that everyone has to put in a different amount of time to do well in school. I don't want to tell anyone that this is the best way to get the most writing time out of your student years because there is no best way. These are simply my tips that I wanted to share with you. They work for me, sort of. Sometimes, I do get in over my head a bit even with these tips in mind. But that's life.

Here are the 3 tips:

1. Procrastinate wisely. 

If I'm going to procrastinate, I'm going to procrastinate because I mean, there are still XXX days until the paper/exam/assignment and I simply cannot muster the will to be like my roommates, who do all their homework for the week on Saturday. When I do procrastinate, however, I use that time to write. I could be watching random things on YouTube, or looking at pictures of food and cats and all the other random junk I like looking at. But I write. Strangely enough, I kind of like the sensation of having something schoolwork-related hanging over my head while I write. It doesn't bother me to the point where I can't put out words, but it's just enough discomfort that it is almost like writing on a deadline. And I'm so much more efficient that way.

2. Get into the mode by doing the little things.

This is mainly a trick to make you motivated for and committed to your writing time, because writing time is precious in school. If you prep before going to the gym (such as hydrating, putting on your favorite work-out outfit, tying your hair back, and packing your post-workout stuff), why not prep before you go to write? Whoever said that writing wasn't sport? It is, and you should treat it that way. Simply going through the motions of getting the little things together can really ease your mental state into one that is ready to be productive.

The little things for me are the beverage, the outfit, the hair, and the bag. Here's how it breaks down.

Beverage: If I know I'm hauling butt to the bookstore or the coffee shop to write for more than a few hours--this is usually on the weekends--I'll treat myself to a coffee. Nothing fancy, just an iced coffee, since it's still summer, will sharpen me up and get my mind going. If you don't have something that you particularly like to drink or eat, at least bring water. It's incredibly easy to get dehydrated when writing.

Outfit: I'll usually wear something soft and cotton and easy to wash on the top, such as a plain T-shirt, and then jeans for the bottoms. Also, dark colors are great. Less worry about chocolate stains. I affectionately call my writing day outfits my "ugly" outfits. The whole idea is that I want to wear something so plain that I won't be thinking if my camisole is bunching up or if my shirt is getting wrinkled. All the focus should be on the writing. Obviously, if dressing sharp is going to get you in the right mindset, then by all means do that. Once again this is just me, and although I love my fashion and looking put together, I am quite lazy with clothes when I want to be.

Hair: Out of sight, out of mind. I'll braid it tight, pin it up into a bun, and then put on a headband JUST IN CASE some flyways escape. I can't write with my hair in my face.

Bag: If I'm leaving my dorm to write, which I often do, I'll pack sure to pack everything that I need in my messenger--pen, notebook, earbuds for music, laptop (most important item!), and water.

3. Think of classes as research.

My last tip on how to juggle school and writing is about the times when you are NOT writing, AKA when you are in class. Unless you can subliminally learn your class material through the process of osmosis, you should probably not be writing in class. However, there is a way to actually use your classes to further yourself as a writer. I'm not talking about just the creative writing classes or english classes--of course those will help you as a writer.

A well-informed writer has more tools in her arsenal than someone who closes herself up in her room 24/7. You may never know what sort of research you need to do for your next novel, or what genre you're going to delve into next. Who knows when that information that you learned in Astronomy is going to come in handy when you decide to tackle a space opera? Or maybe some concept in Economics 101 is going serve as a major inspiration in your novel. If you do well in your classes and actually learn the material, not just get the grade, you'll save yourself time in the future when you are writing because you'll understand some things without having to research them. And that means more time to write. See? There are so many ways you can make time to write.

Hope this was somewhat helpful! I'd love to learn what are the things you do to maximize your writing time while still fulfilling all the other obligations you have (doesn't have to be school).

A Short Post of Updates and One Big Congratulations

For once, I actually have a clear idea of what posts I need to write for this blog in the coming weeks. I also have a slew of things I need to do before I leave for Taiwan on the 4th of June (eeep!), which is sort of annoying because I want to write those posts!

To give you a heads up, here's what's coming: 

• I'm changing the blog name and the blog URL for reasons that I will mention in a post. This will most likely happen after the Writer's Voice contest. I know this will cause some confusion at first, especially if you're subscribed to me by email (I've read that you might have to subscribe again, but to the new URL) but bear with me and hopefully I won't lose any of you. 
• I am currently querying Hesperia, and you know what that means: new novel time! Drafting! I have a series of posts planned on my drafting process because I definitely feel like this blog needs one. 
• Expect *maybe* a post detailing my attempts at writing on the 15+ hour plane ride and my traveling essentials for writing stuffs. The *maybe* is there because I haven't traveled overseas for...four years? and there is a very real possibility I will lose all my baggage board the wrong flight set off the metal detector screw up somewhere and be unable to deliver the post. Sacrifice some offering to the cat gods for me please.

And now to the part of the post I've been itching to write*...

My biggest congratulations goes to Carissa (you should totally check out her blog because it has some really cool features and helpful tools for writers, but mostly because she's just awesome all around) FOR SIGNING WITH AN AGENT. Yes, signing with an agent is only one milestone in the long road to publication, but still, I am seriously SO EXCITED for her. About two years ago I read some of her first novel, and the writing absolutely hooked me. Everyone should watch out for her as the next big thing. 

*If you've followed me for some time, you'll see that I've done some similar posts of this sort (e.g. cover reveals and pub day posts). While there aren't that many, writing one always makes me sort of sentimental. I've been on the road of seriously pursuing publication for over three years now, which is not that long of time comparatively. Yet I've experienced the highs and lows, and I feel a lot of empathy with everyone on the same path as I. To see other writers whom I respect and admire attain what they deserve is so rewarding. I'm very lucky to be able to celebrate with them.  

Post-Manuscript-Completion Thoughts (HESPERIA)

This is VERY overdue. Like, five months overdue. But I remembered that I had a post like this for my NA contemporary IF LIFE WERE FAIR, and I think it's a nice thing, being able to read back on your thoughts about a manuscript.

So here we go. Here are my post-manuscription-completion thoughts for HESPERIA, my YA Fantasy.

Some stats:

Started: sometime around November of 2013
First draft completed: November 2014
Number of times dropped: beyond what I can count

Back when I wrote this post for ILWF, my manuscript numbering system was already starting to get slightly unruly. I considered ILWF my third manuscript completed ever, but I also considered it my second manuscript completed with the goal of publication in mind (as I've mentioned elsewhere, I sent out one query for MS #1 completed ever before realizing that the MS just wasn't anywhere near publishable). So what is HESPERIA, now? MS #4? Or MS #3?

I think I'm going to stop referring to my novels by the numbering system. Maybe every now and then, I'll refer to HESPERIA as my fourth MS ever, but it's starting to get a little hard to keep track of, especially when I think about how I began this journey of mine wondering if I would even be able to churn out a second, let alone a fourth, completed novel.

HESPERIA was definitely a hard one to write. Stylistically, it was different. I hadn't written in first person past in a while, and switching away from the present tense to the past was a bigger transition than I expected. I really believe that the tense you write a novel in makes a big deal. It just gives the story a different feeling, and while I knew I wanted to give first person past a serious try, I wasn't quite sure. Even when I've gotten to chapter 20, I was still playing around with the idea of switching the tense and person-narration of the whole thing. I wrote some chapters in first person present. I even wrote some chapters in third person past. Ultimately, my initial choice--first person past--was the one I stuck with, and I am glad I did because it's one of the things that sets HESPERIA apart from my other novels in feel and means of narration.

Plot-wise, I believe it was more complex that anything else than I've written so far. I'm a very loose outliner, so while I knew there were going to be twists, I didn't expect twist after twist to pop up. There were times where I'd just be on the treadmill in the gym (hah! The days when I still exercised...) and I'd start thinking about how a twist was going to work out, how to even build up to that twist so that it wouldn't seem like I was waving my writerly wand and slapping you in the face. I started to listen to my writing playlist on repeat while doing my miles, just so that I could think about my plot in a better ambience (like, to the sound of epic Two Steps From Hell music rather than the usual gym-sounds of dying people, including myself).

Character-wise, it initially had one of the largest casts I'd ever tackled. Through the drafts, some characters have gotten cut here and there, but there are still a large number of characters, and not just ones that I name-drop or introduce in a couple scenes (as was the case of INGENICIDE and ILWF). No, most of these characters had their own backstories and they wove in and out of the narrative. At the same time, I got really attached to all my characters, which is a surprise. Normally, I'm very attached to my main character and the love interest, and maybe a side character or two. But this time around, I just knew so much about my side characters that I couldn't help but root for them, too.

Luckily, the world came pretty easily to me. I was very inspired by Chinese stories and legends, and Deviantart also provided a lot of the artwork that inspired my visions of the setting.

Mechanical struggles of writing aside, my drafting of HESPERIA came at a time in my life when a lot of things were changing for me. Thus, I had a lot of dry spells, and there were times when I seriously wondered if I'd ever be able to finish the novel. I loved the story and the characters, but as you've seen, it was one of the hardest novels I've attempted to write, and that didn't help how I was generally having a tough time writing. Even when the mood struck, it wasn't one of those stories where I could randomly plant my butt in a chair and write for an hour. It required a lot of thinking and just figuring out how things were going to pan out.

That's why at one full year, it's the novel that has taken the longest to write (and it's also my longest novel, with draft 3 clocking in at 96k). At the same time, I venture to say that it's also one of my cleaner drafts in terms of character development and *most* plot elements. I still had to do some heavy revisions in parts, but overall, I came out of draft #1 pretty satisfied with Hesperia's character arc and her interactions with other characters. Lack of satisfaction in this area factored into my decision to pull ILWF from the query trenches, so I was pretty scared that was going to happen again.

And something else I've noticed? I've improved as a writer. After four novels, this might come as a given, but it's taken a long time for me to accept. I'm with my writing every day, and just like it's hard to notice changes in yourself until someone who hasn't seen you in a while comments, it's hard for me to see sometimes how I'm gradually getting better.

But I am. In a way, HESPERIA was sort of a turning point for me--I've never given up on a novel that I've seriously committed to in terms of finishing, but this one time I found myself on a precipice. I didn't fall, and now I'm ready to tackle my fifth novel.

*Thinking about HESPERIA makes me sort of sentimental. It really couldn't have happened without the support I've received from all my writerly friends. Thank you, Rivka and Deborah, for taking the time to read some of the rougher stuff and being excited about the work. Thank you, Molly, for honing it into the draft that it is today. Thank you to the boyfriend who didn't run off in fright when I asked him if he could  read the rough manuscript to me aloud (and thanks for putting up with all those conversations regarding the novel).  

And lastly, thank you, Anne, for sticking with the story despite the month's of silence and being the kindest, most generous cheerleader you are. I churned out some of those chapters thinking this might be the last--I can't write another, but then you would demand more, and I really couldn't turn you down.

With that, I'll finish with some of the art that inspired some of the scenes in the novel:

by Fel-X

by pictsy

by TylerEdlinArt

by JJcanvas

by Exphrasis

The Creative Blogger Award

The fantastically awesome Julia Byers nominated me for the Creative Blogger Award (click on her name to check hers out). Look how pretty it is:

The Rules:

• Nominate 15-20 blogs and notify all nominees via their social media/blogs
• Thank and post the link of the blog that nominated you 
• Share 5 facts about yourself to your readers
• Pass these rules on to them

My Nominees:

• Deborah Kreiser
• Anne B. Cole
• Rachel Stevenson
• Carissa Taylor 
• Laura Pohl

If I didn't nominate you (it's either because I couldn't find your blog link or because my brain is still dead from finishing finals), I still encourage you to nominate yourself! Who doesn't love awards?

Here are my facts:

1. I started out as a fanfiction writer (for Spirited Away, if you were wondering). Initially it was just something I did for fun, and I didn't really treat it seriously. But then the story got longer and longer, and the number of readers I had exploded, and suddenly I realized how important the fic was to me. Unfortunately, once I turned my focus my own original stories, I lost momentum for the fic. It's currently at 140k and waiting for me to write the last two chapters (hides from readers). 

2. This is related to number one, but I love the stories found in anime. They are really different (as are many works of art based in other countries) and a huge source of inspiration. Obviously, like many things, there is good anime, bad anime, really good anime, and really bad anime. But the good anime have plots and characters that are worthy of having novels written about. And beyond that, I love the art and the soundtracks. I will probably spend some of this summer catching up on all the anime that I missed during the school year. 

3. I like to chase pigeons. I also like to chase squirrels. You do not want to be walking with me in a city because I will inevitably end up looking like a weirdo and a sadist when I go running after the critters. 

4. If I couldn't write and had no college degree, I'd probably try to open my own bakery. It would feature primarily cupcakes, but I love all baked goods. The downside to having my own bakery would be a decline in my health, because who can resist???

5. My writing style changes from novel to novel. There's still that constant backbone that makes my writing mine, but I find that compared to authors who have published multiple series/books of different genres, my style changes more drastically. Depending on the POV character, the type of narration, the tense, the pace, and the genre, I fluctuate between The Hunger Games-esque writing style (minimalistic and punchy) and Daughter of Smoke and Bone-esque writing (richer and more description-heavy). 

Hope you enjoyed learning a little about me (and hope fact #3 wasn't too weird)! And a huge thank you to Julia for thinking to nominate me :)

Writing Mediums

I realized that the last three posts I've done have been more on the serious side, so I thought I'd do a more fun one before I disappear into the cave that is called college finals (2 out of 4 done!)

I can't remember if I've ever mentioned it on the blog before, but I do the majority of my drafting (around 98% of it) on Scrivener. If you're unfamiliar with the app, then I'll let you search up the details on the internet because there are a ton of informative posts floating around and reasons as to why you should use it. The quick and dirty as why I prefer it to other apps such as MS Word when it comes to drafting is:

• It's super easy for organizing chapters and scenes while keeping them all in one place (you don't have to have a mammoth of a Word doc that takes forever to scroll through, and you also don't have to have a bunch of Word docs for each chapter). 
• It has a cool cork board function that allows you to outline in a more visual way (I actually don't use this function enough).
• It just makes me more excited about drafting.

The last point is something that sounds sort of silly, but I like the LOOK of Scrivener and that alone makes me more excited about putting words down on the screen. 

So Scrivener is one medium I like to write on. The other? Old fashioned paper.

Behold my two notebooks:

 The black one is actually a sketchbook. I've had it the longest--it's 3/4 of the way filled--and I love writing in it. I think it might be because the paper is unlined...there's something less restricting about it. I'll write it in whenever I'm stuck on a scene, sometimes writing the scene all out by hand. And sometimes I'll simply use to it figure out plot things and character motivations.

I picked up the tan notebook this year because I'm going to be traveling this summer, and I wanted something lighter than the black one (which is nice and weighty) to carry with me. I have a random scene from a New Adult novel written on the first page, but I'm not sure if I'll continue it yet.

As for my preferred writing instrument? I love gel pens (or any pen with water-based ink) with super fine tips. I am actually very picky when it comes to pens. It's weird, I know, but I can't help it. But usually, I turn to my notebooks when I'm at a super stuck state in a novel, and so I need all the help I can get. For once, instead of just having a party in my head, I need the writing to feel good. I need to be excited by something tactile, such as the flow of ink as I form letters and words and the way the words cling to the comb of the paper. 

Did I just slip the fact that I'm picky about paper comb too? Well then, I think that's enough for this post.

Let me know of your favorite writing mediums and whether or not you ever draft by hand!