(1) What are you currently doing in your independent component?
NaNoWriMo just ended yesterday and I barely achieved 19,000+ words in a month. If there's anything that can be said, I don't think this contest is for me. Some people have the ability to write in the same mindset for long periods of time, and I am not one of those people. One of Steven King's pieces of advice from his book On Writing, is that he creates a piece, he puts it away, doesn't think about it for a while, and then takes it back out so that his mind is clear of any...writers block, and I think that's the kind of advice that applies to me. I found that as I was writing, I was gradually becoming more and more bored with the content of my piece. I was throwing in random things that were not in my initial idea, they were tangents if anything. The piece itself seems rather dull and at some point, I lost hope trying to fix it because doing so would have meant getting rid of most of it and that to me didn't seem like progress, especially since NaNoWriMo is a daily thing and after a while it because so tedious to go back and write a story I wasn't enjoying writing.
Some of my friends who were also participating in the contest said the same, that as they were writing it felt like nothing in their pieces was happening, though one friend found it simple to continue the venture, but she had participated the year before and exceeded the 50,000 word minimum (I'm not going to name names but to say the least, she's accomplished more in her high school career than I have in my entire life, so this contest probably wasn't much of a challenge for her). Being someone who did not write on a daily basis a minimum of 1,667 words, it was overwhelming and required me to brush aside my other priorities, adding stress to dealing with all the other work I had to do with school, spending time with both my family and friends, as well as getting a decent amount of rest.
To say the least, senior year is not a good year to be participating in NaNoWriMo, especially when it is not my current highest priority. That's just the reality of it.
(2) What is a recent piece of research (article, interview, or audio-visual) that have you reviewed you would say was significant in helping you understand where to go next in your senior project? The piece of research should be something you reviewed in November. Please explain what you learned and where are you going next because of this piece of research.
It's been difficult to actually focus on my senior project, what with missing several Friday's to go to my mentorship (There was a day I couldn't go, another was during the break, and one when no one was there), plus with Model Assembly and my other classes, my senior project has been the last thing on my mind. That being said, I do follow blogs that discuss different methods of how to construct a narrative. One of them, at the top of my head discussed the different ways of expressing your characters' emotions through mannerisms, such as posture, facial expressions, and hand gestures, not just tone of voice or not...blatantly stating the characters' emotions as the narrator.
Another piece, which was not professionally posted yet has proven helpful, focused on revealing the backstory of a character.
I recently started a new narrative revolving around two companions with lawful purposes and supernatural powers. Their story, which is also a mystery to themselves, needs to strategically revealed through...surprise and secrets. How that's going to be done, I'm not sure just yet, but it's proving interesting to write and there's not much pressure to go off on tangents as it was with my previous NaNoWriMo piece, Easier Said Than Done. This current fictional piece is still untitled because I've come to realize whenever I name my pieces, it feels too final, like I've set an expectation for myself, and I think that's where I went wrong with NaNoWriMo. I went back and edited my piece often, which was one of the number one things bloggers and other participants had advised against, but I am an editor. It's actually what I do best.
(3) Provide evidence from your independent component or the piece of research as something you recently did. For example, a photo of something you working on for your independent component or your notes from the video you watched.
Individual Component # 1 Update - 11/14/12
Research is seen above
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