Update and Plotting Goodness

It has occurred to me multiple times these past weeks that I have neglected my blog posts. My poor blog. :( At least I have the excuse of having been insanely busy these past couple weeks. September is the only month that all three pharmacy classes will be on campus at once (my class being the one leaving to go out on our final rotations a week from Monday). So there was all these events that had to happen and the handing over of the reins (I'm outgoing president of one of the professional organizations).

This past weekend I hung out with one of my friends from undergrad, attended APhA's end of the year banquet, got my hair done (and a massage. woot!), worked, went to an induction ceremony, then hung out with friends from work at Dave & Busters. I know what you're thinking... that doesn't sound like me. Trust me, I was exhausted on Sunday. I stayed home all day catching up on Tivo and giving my poor cat some attention. Oh... and also... I brainstormed/plotted.

My method is Rachel Vincent-inspired. She did a post on her blog a week or so ago showing her whiteboard method. As I didn't have a whiteboard this is what I came up with:
Yeah, I blurred it out since, surprisingly, my camera was able to capture enough to make it semi-readable. Not that my gibberish would mean anything to anyone but me. But nevertheless... you may have noticed that it's a cutting mat. For crafting. However, I've since come to realize the drawback of the surface... you can't write on it. And those red notes over to the right? That's what I would have liked to have written on a whiteboard, but wasn't able to b/c, of course, it wasn't a whiteboard.

I'm hoping to rectify the situation tomorrow by making a trip to OfficeMax. Yes, a 2'x3' whiteboard is a semi-investment ($45!) but I think in the end it'll be worth it. :)
Now, my post-its (thank you Rachel for the SuperSticky suggestion!) may look a little haphazard, but I will explain a little... The green and orange are for secondary characters that I want to see worked in. The purple is the main plot. The teal is the MC's inner struggle. And like Rachel, I've found that I work up-down, left-right instead of left to right. It just seems more logical when post-its are involved.

The pink ones are miscellaneous scenes that I'm not sure (as of yet) where they fit in the big scheme of things in terms of conflict. And the board isn't even finished yet. It did help me, however, in organizing some things in ways that my mind wasn't working before. So yay for inspiration...

The problem is I think I have to re-read and re-plot all of US, given its mammoth length. Therefore, some of those scenes may have to be used in this one I'm plotting on the board. *sigh*

One more thing before this mammoth entry comes to a close: the new Three Days Grace album was released today and next Tuesday is Breaking Benjamin's new album. They posted the song clips on the amazon page for it and I can't freaking wait. Both of those bands give me such great inspiration and writing material to work with. Their sort of my muses sometimes. :)

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to keep up a little bit more with blog entries in the coming weeks.

Cover Machine

I am a cover-making machine lately. Okay, I've only made 3 or 4, but they're addicting! Made some for me and one for my wonderful cousin. Just having a cover for a book makes me want to write more. "I must have awesome writing to go with this awesome cover!" I know these covers will never see the light of day, but nevertheless they are fun! I'd post them here, but I used deviantart pics that weren't stock and I haven't gotten permission to post them. Oh, except for the one I did for my cousin. That main one was stock. But I don't have my dear cousin's permission to post it. Let's just say that they kick ass. ;-) Ooh! Ooh! Wait, this one is stock too! I can show you! :D



And before I hear anything about how I'm wasting time doing these that I could spend ya know, actually writing... I will say that in doing one of these I was forced to think of a title. And it's a title that I'm actually totally happy with!! So it got some creative juices flowing and I got to find another creative outlet for my brain. :)