Beth (not really)'s Last Post

Dear Imaginary Readers,
You read that right. This is going to be my last post on this blog.
Why? Well, the other day, as I was preparing for my fifth year of participating in NaNoWriMo, I was getting really excited and I wanted to write a blog post. Only, the unfortunate thing was, I couldn't for the life of me remember my password to the e-mail that holds my account. After over an hour of trying everything to recover the password, I ended up giving up. I created a whole new e-mail account - something that, like with this one, I probably won't actually use for e-mail - and actually went and built two entirely new blogs.
Well, shortly after posting on one of them, I ended up recovering my password and regained access to this blog. At first, I was all prepared to go and delete everything I had just set up and return fully to this blog. But after giving it a bit of thought, I think I'm ready to let this go.
This blog has been around for years. Like... a few years. Although I've never actually managed to post regularly, every time that I had to get something else, this was an outlet that I jumped to immediately. I posted my horrible writing from middle school on here, I excitedly talked about NaNoWriMo every year and whatever else has been on my mind. It's been an awesome few years, but I think that I'm ready to start with an empty slate, somewhere where I won't cringe every time I glance at past posts.
Leaving this blog definitely doesn't mean anything along the lines of leaving the Internet. For any non-imaginary readers who actually would be interested in finding me elsewhere, here's a list of places that I can be found:
My New Blog
My New Writing Blog
My NaNoWriMo Account
My dA Account
And if anyone is interested, they can e-mail me at terid@truevine.net
For any writers between the ages 12-25, a bunch of friends and I hang out here and we encourage each other during NaNo, and chat about stuff and just... we're all good friends.

Well....
I guess this is good-bye then. Come over and see my new blog if you want to keep watching me struggle to post regularly and most likely failing ;)

Yours Truly,
Beth (not really)

NaNoWriMo, Reading, and Colleges

Whoops, well, I guess this is that 'future point' I said I would see you at. I'm pretty bad at updating, especially with everything that I've been busy doing. Some nights I don't have a spare minute to myself because of homework and practicing and trying to get in my word count for NaNoWriMo.
What's that you say? 'NaNoWriMo again?' Why, yes, I am participating again, and I have a good 36,000 words already written down, hoping to reach 40,000 by the end of today. Maybe not so realistic, but I can try my best.
Life has actually been pretty dull. That's another reason that I didn't post on here. What am I supposed to post about? How thrilling all of my classes are which they aren't ? The books that I haven't been reading? Fandoms I've been re-obsessed with recently? There isn't a whole lot that goes on in my life that people would want to hear about.
We've been reading The Scarlet Letter for my AP Language and Composition class. There are very few books that I've been assigned during school that I haven't enjoyed. This, thankfully, is one of the many that I have. Most that I haven't enjoyed include things such as The Prince and The Social Contract. We read The Crucible earlier in the year, and I have to say that's probably one of my favourite plays I've read for an English class. It's quite dramatic throughout.
I've also personally been reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes some more. I love mysteries from that time, which may be why Agatha Christie is another of my favourite authors.
Random thought, but I guess I've never really thought about how close college is, and how quickly it's approaching. I'm over a quarter of the way through my Junior year of high school, and there's only one more year after this. Sometimes, it hits me, like when I see friends I made during my freshman year, when they were sophomores, sending out college applications and getting ready for graduation in June. And yet it feels like no time has passed since we were all underclassmen trying not to get trampled by my brother's class (he was a Senior when I was a freshman).
I've started looking at colleges, and there are two in particular that I plan on applying for. I'm sure there will be others that I find interest in, but for now, my focus is on these. The Writing Programs are supposed to be impressive in both of them, and, seeing as writing is one of the only things I could see myself doing in the future as a career, I figured it'd be smart to start by looking for that kind of thing.
I'm not good at science or with technology. I can do math but I'm definitely no fan, and I quite enjoy history but my teachers in the past few years haven't been the best. Personally, I think I would do better to teach history in my own way at my own pace. My US History class (I decided against AP because of my schedule) is frustratingly simple and bores me near to tears sometimes. But what would I do with History anyways for a career? I have no skill with teaching, so becoming a History teacher would make no sense. What I actually thrive in is Band and creative writing, and while I would definitely survive playing music professionally, it's something I feel I need to keep as a hobby. It is used to help get rid of stress, and being a professional musician would more likely add stress, which isn't something I need.
So, yeah, that's all that I've really done. Hopefully, something more interesting will come up that I can tell you about, like the school musical (the pit doesn't have a part for alto sax, BUT if we can't get a French Horn player, which is quite likely, then my band director said he may ask me to play it because we have similar range in our instruments and I could transpose it without too much trouble), pep band, Christmas, something.

Until then,
Beth (not really)

Life

It has been a couple months away from a year since I last posted. I figured I would just take a post to update y'all on what's been going on recently, and give some changes that have been/will be occurring on here.
I have learned now that I can't really keep my promises of 'I'll come back fully and post once a week, I promise!!!'. My apologies, but I just need more time on my hands to actually fulfill that. I have a plan that may or may not succeed, but I'd still be cautious because I can't promise good results.
But okay, let's see... what's happened in the past year? I have just finished my first week as a Junior in high school, which is looking like it'll be a pretty full year, but that's to be expected. I failed Camp NaNoWriMo in April (but I had just gone to a funeral, so I'm not too upset over losing. I was in no mood to write). I did, however, succeed last month (July, if I update this at the right time).
Lots of my time now is going to be dedicated towards schoolwork and looking for colleges. I still have no idea what I'm going to do with my life, and beginning next year, I need to start applying for colleges (so I should probably have at least a Plan A for my life).
Also, I plan on joining my school's Jazz Band again, and probably joining the pit for the school musical around December ~ January (thankfully, Jazz Band takes a break because the director has to spend so much time and energy preparing not only for the school band's big concert in December, but also towards the school musical). Alongside Pep Band, I probably won't have loads of free time starting in a couple months.
It's looking like a pretty busy school year.

I stated earlier that I was planning on explaining what had happened in the past, but then I realized that aside from finishing sophomore year and beginning junior year, nothing has really happened to me.
Okay, so for some changes. As I'm sure most people who constantly follow (or followed, since it's been a very long time) this know, I have a separate blog dedicated to my writing. For now, I will probably dedicate that to a specific piece and spend posts world-building that novel series (and then, if time comes that someday I no longer need to update on that piece, I'll either leave it and start a new blog or make the posts private so only I can see them and then begin again on a new piece).
Also, I've been doing a lot of drawing. It's what I do. Whether using my art tablet on SAI or just in my sketchbook (or even on my homework, classwork, notes, agenda, etc.... oops), a lot of my time is spent sketching. So there's a chance that if I can actually get myself to start becoming more active (no promises, as this year is looking like it'll be busy), then I'll have a blog for that.

So, yay! Update!

If my plan succeeds, I'll post probably once every week or two. If not... I'll see you at some future point, Imaginary Readers!

Beth (not really)

The NaNo Experience

Dear Imaginary Readers,

I know that I haven't posted in a while. You can look at my 'Dwelling in Ink' blog for kind of more about why I'm busy and what I'm doing. I have a feeling that that one may be updated slightly more frequently than that one, seeing as most of my life revolves around reading and writing and that's kind of its theme.
But I just wanted to take a moment to really just appreciate how much NaNoWriMo has done for me. I don't want to make people feel guilty because they didn't bother attempting or they barely even know what it is or maybe they tried and failed this year, but I really just want to take a second and appreciate how much it has done for me.
Just over two years ago, I was working on a project during science with one of my friends. Somehow, we found out that both of us are writers, so she started telling me about this event -I guess it'd be called an event -called 'NaNoWriMo', where you try to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month. I had a lot of doubts. How was a thirteen year old supposed to write 50,000 words in one month when her greatest writing achievement so far had been writing 60,000 on one over the course of two years or so?
Still, some part of me thought it sounded kind of cool, so I signed up. I didn't realize then how much it would impact me then. I simply signed up for this site.
Immediately, I felt like I fit in. Where I'm currently living and where I lived at the time were pretty similar with their opinions of writing: there was nothing worse. If you wanted to rise on the social scale, you did not write stories for fun. Just the thought was and is absurd to them. Because here, being smart generally leads to a life of a nobody or a life of a nerd, some of the lower rungs on the social ladder here. And doing anything that furthers your education or, heck, could help in life later at all immediately makes you a nerd-level freak.
So I had been keeping my writing in hiding for the longest time. Few people knew that I enjoyed writing, and most of them were my closest friends that I knew that I could trust. After all, everybody here appears to be perfectly fine with reading, but they never stop to think about the person behind the book unless it's something huge and famous/infamous.
But the second I stepped onto this site, all of that changed. I was suddenly flooded with messages that were telling me the exact opposite of what I had learned from my peers. Writing was a good thing to be proud of, not something to hide away lest someone you know sees it.
There was a huge community of people there that all actually understood me. They knew exactly all of the problems I had trying to keep my writing hidden, and it wasn't just a bunch of intimidating adults. On the site, there were others my age that were writing novels in months. And that helped give me a boost of confidence.
And not only did NaNo grant me with an outlet where I can go whenever I need people to understand all of the problems I'm having in regular, everyday life about hiding my writing, it also introduced me to some of my favorite people on the planet. Just over two years ago, I started getting on the 'N.O.W.' chat, which was set up -I believe -for NaNo, and just continued on. I have met so many amazing people through the years because of it, and I can't thank my friends enough for everything they've helped me through. Even through the change of chat to Pencils to Paper -which is an even better and greater experience than the N.o.W. chat was because of trolls -I've enjoyed every minute of it. Now I'm directing this towards any PtPers that might be reading this:
We've been through a lot, ladies and the few gentlemen we actually have on the chat. You guys have helped me accept myself a lot faster and easier than I could have hoped to imagine two years ago. We've had loads of little adventures, from our pen pals to the channel on YouTube we attempted (and kind of failed at, whoops) to just all of our NaNos and holidays and birthdays we've shared. And there is no way I can put my thanks into words.
You have done so much more for me than I can even begin to say. I wouldn't even know where to begin. And I understand that some of you need breaks, that's completely understandable and I don't blame you a bit.
But come back as soon as possible guys because I miss you all so much and Christmas won't be Christmas without our Pencils to Paper celebration.

Okay, readers that aren't a part of Pencils to Paper, I promise that's finished. I would have posted this on my Dwelling in Ink blog, but this one needs some love and attention, so here ya go. I don't know the next time I can really post at regular intervals (have I ever posted at regular intervals?) because I have been flooded with school work recently, but I'll be sure to update whenever I possibly can. I promise.
Yours Truly,
Beth (not really)

Just got back from vacation!

That's right, guys, I was away for two weeks and just got back. I won't be getting a house until next Tuesday, but I get to enjoy hotel WiFi until then! After I move in, the company who will provide us with internet has told us that it could take 2-6 weeks to set us up. Ugh, I know. But we can't really do anything to help speed up the process.
I enjoyed seeing all my family this summer, see my cousin get married (the wedding was really sweet. c: ), and see some friends we haven't seen for years. It was all a ton of fun.
School will be starting up again soon. Time for me to become a sophomore! But unfortunately, since I moved this summer, I don't know a whole lot of people in my new school, and I don't make friends very easily. You'll have to wish me luck.
If I haven't posted this already, I will be using this blog as more of a updating day-to-day things that are happening in my life. I may change the blog title, though I promise I won't change the URL without a ton of notice beforehand. You can look at my profile, and there'll be a new blog in there. Something about Dwelling in Ink. That'll be my new, writing blog, in case anybody cares to see how my writing's been doing. I'll try and update each one equally, unless there's a big writing event going on, in which case I'll be updating that a lot more, or if a lot is going on in life non-writing related.

Well, I have to get going for now. I'll try to update as much as possible before I lose my Internet connection.

Beth (not really)

A couple of changes

This blog was originally going to be my writing blog, and Searching for Paradise would update what was going on in my life every once in a while. However, now that Searching for Paradise is rarely used, I started using this blog to update my everyday life. So I'm going to be creating another blog for my writing and this one can become my update-everyday-life blog.
I honestly would have been updating a lot more, talking about how I'm moving and how I'm going to be visiting my cousin for her wedding, and to see some friends I haven't seen in four years, but Camp NaNoWriMo has been taking up most of my time.
So I'll put up the link once I've got the new blog up and running, and a bunch of the tabs will probably be removed and moved over to the other blog (and some of them WILL be removed, as a warning. I'm going to be using current WIP and finished works, NOT stories that I used to be writing and have since given up on, though I may start them up again in the future).

Softball Games... yay.

Joy, it's time for another game of softball tomorrow! (actually, I have two tomorrow and two on Saturday, won't THAT be tiring!) I'd actually be a bit more excited if I was allowed to talk at all on the bus. Apparently we were 'too loud' on the bus ride up to our last game (honestly, it's a BUS ride, we're SUPPOSED to be loud!) so there will be no sound above a whisper, and no even looking at the baseball team in front of us (well, not seriously, but... yeah, it's pretty strict).

But one of my... more... strict coaches won't be at our games. I don't know how to feel about that because she generally is more out there and telling us to quit making mistakes, but generally when she IS there, we DO tend to make less mistakes. So it's both a win AND a loss for us.

I'm hoping we do better than we have this season. Having decent umpires would be nice, you know. *coughs at our last two games*

Well, I'd write more but I'm actually thinking of preparing some story for my 'We Are Not Alone' blog (http://we-are-never-alone.blogspot.de/) because recently life has sucked (and I have no idea why I called it 'We're Not Alone' it's about crappy situations generally overexaggerated to seem kind of funny).

So, I'll probably whine and complain on here on Sunday (OR if we win I'll be cheering and maaaaybe giving a play by play and bothering the heck out of you guys).

Beth (not really)