Pages From My Journal

                          You may have noticed that I added a new page to my blog about my novella, More Than This.              I completed my novella in the beginning of this past summer. Presently, I am searching for an agent to represent it. I was inspired to write this story from my family's experience with the foster system. God has taught me a lot through all of this and it has played in my story.              The walls that once stood to hide Erynn from the scoffing world are now crashing.   Her mom has given up on her, and a foster home has taken her in.   With her new found faith, life’s challenges change.   Will she let the past hurt and abuse prohibit her from making the right decision, or will she let God change her life and in tur...

    I decided to do a thankful post, figuring that it was appropriate for Thanksgiving. I chose to pick things that started with the letters of my name to be creative. As I was going through my list, I found that my answers, while not all inclusive, were very simple things. They were creative, but not generic. I think back to all the times I have been asked "What are you thankful for?" and my answer was always things like "Food" and "House." People across the globe have these things, even in the poorest of areas, but do they have them to the extent that I do. Not always. I tend to thank God for the big things, but I seem to forget all the extra things he gives me. I forget how in-depth my thanks should really go. Apples dipped in chocolate caramel dip Anticipation of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Awesome friends who can tell when I am upset and will stick with me Laughing with my family watching the A-team Laptop of my own Little marshmal...

     The very first painting I competed with was a watercolor of a rose. I hate it! My mom continues to hang it in our house. I just finished this painting and I love it! I hope to enter it in a couple competitions this coming year. Redemption : ) I hope you guys like it!

How many times have I walked out of a room and said something that tore someone down. How many times have I raised my voice out of anger and told myself that it was just to be heard. How many times have I pointed my finger at somebody else. How many times have I made a mountain out of a pebble. Too many. I am so imperfect and cannot number the times I have messed up and said something that I regret. How could a God who is absolutely perfect want to use someone who makes so many mistakes? I found these verses a little while ago and they meant so much to me.  1 Corinthians 1:27-28 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, The thought of God choosing someone weak seems so crazy, but when you think about how many times God chose the low for his plans in the Bible it’s more obvious. G...

     This is my first video blog. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think.

Something I have been thinking about recently is dialogue. This may because I have been writing more recently with Go Teen Writers 100 for 100 challenge and because I am in Speech class. Does your character own their dialogue? What I mean by that is: Can you take the words that one character says and put them in another person’s mouth and sound the same. If you can, then you need to reconsider your dialogue. Speaker tags and speaker beats point to person talking, but the words that they say should too. You don’t have to get nitpicky here. Words like “Yes” are going to be the same, but people have different ways of saying things. Dialect, Slang, and Jargon are examples of the differences in language. An example of this is Mozzie in White Collar. His choice of words is so unique that if you looked at his language written, there would be no doubt that he was the one to say it. This is more Jargon. Another example of this is Sherlock Holmes in Elementary. This might just s...