NaNoWriMo: The First Experience

This year was my first year participating in National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization established in 1999, aimed at getting people to sit down and write 50,000 words in the month of November (that's 1,667 words a day, if you were wondering). Did you know that Water for Elephants was born as a result of this program? Over 250 novels that started as NaNo novels were published traditionally.

Sounds great, right?

Try looking at it from the other end of the straw.

As a full-time college student, this proved to be a challenge. November is one of the more busier months since it steadily nears exam time early December. Regardless, I took the challenge. With three days left and less than 20k written, I've simply given up on trying to "win," though I will continue my started novel at a more leisurely pace.

Yes I'll still be in college next year, but I'm still going to try again. Why? Here's three reasons, ones I've seen and heard, then engraved into my Declaration of Insanity, written and Hancocked by me, of course.

1. Bragging rights: You get to say you wrote a novel in a month. Yes, 50k is hardly a novel and the writing you produce will not be pristine, but that doesn't matter. You accomplished something great. You can say you wrote 50k in a month. That's more than fantastic.

2. It's on paper: In a frantic state of trying to match a word-count, you will be spewing idea from the very depths and crevasses of your mind. Worry not about how bizarre, or even how weird it may be, because you probably created a beginning, middle, and end to a great book. Now the fun part begins! You've got a figment of a story written out, and now you can go back in and mold it into something fantastic. You took care of the hard part, and now the fun begins.

3. Discipline & habit: After taking time to write and write quickly, you start to type faster and more consistently. However, you also realize a thousand words might be like extracting a thorn from your foot and spend half a day just trying to crunch out those words, or you could write two thousand within the hour and still be pumped. Either way, you are challenging yourself to write significant amount of words every day, and that is more than anyone can say when doing something as intense and mind-taxing as this.

Moral of the story: Check it out; you won't regret it.

Do Me A Favor?

Hey everyone, I'd just like to take a moment and thank you all for your support! I've reached about 2,000 views this past month with traffic coming in every day from all over the world.

I want to get an opinion from you lovely people, so I've posted a poll on the left side of the page with a quick question: What do you want to see more of on Eternal Musing? You can choose multiple answers if you can't decide what you like most, but please try to limit your answers to two or three so I can get a better idea on what I should post more of. The poll closes on December 6th at 12pm! I'm really curious about what kind of things people like to see on this site, and any advice you may have is appreciated.

If what you like does not appear on the poll, feel free to comment on this post! Also any questions, ideas, feedbacks, and criticisms are valued and will be used to help improve this blog. I love you all, and again, thank you so much!

The Worlds Between Covers

Imagine yourself walking into a bookstore. You enter through those doors and immediately the warm smell of wood and newly printed books greet you. You stroll in and walk to your favorite section and run your finger along the spines of the neatly aligned books, each one whispering read me, each one pulling you with invisible fingers, gently caressing your mind with the wonders they contain. You then pass by a book that you've already read and it looks at you with friendly eyes as it catches your attention. Though you have already read it, you are fond of its contents. You open the book and are immediately reeled back into the world it contains. As you sift through your favorite parts you can't help but sigh in contentment at what you've experienced. You gently place the book back on the shelf and continue your stroll, but the book still lingers in the back of your mind.

This, my friends, is how books feel to me. This is my experience at a bookstore. Since I love to read a lot, and I buy more books than I can read at a given time, my room was crowded with them. A little too crowded for my own comfort, if I may add; so I bought a bookshelf to put in a corner of my bedroom. A place where I can experience the magic of my books anytime I want to. Just passing by it, I can hear the whispering of the hundred tales I own and it truly is magical.

Here's the stockpile before putting it on the shelf 

(well, the ones that were in my way anyway, the rest were in the storage area):

End result!

*Just in case any of you were wondering, yes that is Sigmund Freud sitting on the fourth shelf and on top of one of the piles of books. He's staring at the psychology books that I own, and in the top picture he's sitting on top of them. Just a little fyi. :-)

**The whitish wood you see is my temporary headboard, hence its lack of not matching with my shelf. Just saying.

Back to the Bones

Lately I've been trying to work through some bumps along the road. My life has become monotonous and boring. I have no motivation to do anything. All I'm doing is lollygagging, studying, wasting time online, eating, and sleeping. Why am I on Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and all those sites for hours on end? Why am I complaining about procrastinating and having so much to do, rather than doing it all and getting it over with? Why do I always say I have to hit the gym and I don't even make an effort to try? Why do I say I have to get a job or an internship or something and I haven't even applied? Why do I make schedules and not follow through with them in the end?
See what I'm getting at here?
Those are some of the questions I've been asking myself. I'm not living anymore. I'm surviving, sure but I'm not really living with this day by day constant boringness and stress. So like in Wall-E, I'll say this:

I want to live my life by achieving my goals, not by idling around and only doing the necessities. 

I'm compiling a list of things that I want to change about myself. It's like I'm on a pursuit of happiness. I'm going to work slowly on getting things where I want them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not miserable, I'm just...not very...efficient and it's driving me crazy. So let's see how this plays out, and with any luck I might see the light. I'll keep you all posted on my progress and things I've figured out, and I'll put it under the label goals. 

Care to join me on this endeavor? Come along, it'll be fun!

Future Tech (Part 1)

I've always wondered what would happen if the world became all high-tech. I feel like with every year that goes by, the world has more technological advancements, and as cool as it's getting, I'm not going to lie, it's a little scary. So I'm going to write about what I think would happen if people solely on technology and our advancements.

I woke up in the morning to the sound of my alarm. "SNOOZE!" I shouted as I went deeper under the covers.
"But Hana, your class starts at 8am. You have a test and you're going to be late." Said the alarm system.
"I don't care. Just let me sleep."
"Fine, I'll let you sleep for an additional nine minutes. After that you are getting out of bed."
"Agreed." I mumbled as I drifted back to the bliss of sleep.

Nine minutes later the alarm sounded very loudly. "Come on!" I yelled, "Snooze please."
"No, I will not snooze this time, Hana. Get up now before I flip your bed over."
"Yeah, right." I grumbled. A moment later I found myself on the floor. "Seriously?"
"Yes. I'm serious. Now go freshen up."
"Yes ma'am." I mumbled.
"It's Siri to you, Hana. Remember, you plugged your iPhone into the wall. I have now become one with your room."
"I should just unplug you."
"Your room system will take over. Plus, your coffee will get cold and your schedule might get messed up. Unplug if you want, but I advise against it."
I grumbled and headed to the bathroom. My mirror greeted me and said I don't look so good today. "Thanks a lot." I mumbled.
"Bad morning?" It asked. "How about I fix you up a bit."
"Yeah, that would be great actually." I yawned and stretched, then took a seat in front of the mirror.
"All righty! How do you want to look? Over the top? Business like? Runway model?"
"Okay stop." I said, rubbing my temples. "I'm going to school, just make me look presentable."
"You're no fun." Mirror said. I closed my eyes and let the brushes sweep over my face, and my hair was swept up in a high ponytail.  [For story purposes, assume that I don't cover my hair, since I'm Muslim and I do cover in real life.] A few minutes later, the hands froze and retreated back into the mirror. "Okay, you're done now." I opened my eyes and surveyed myself in the mirror. "Perfect. Thanks a bunch."
"Yeah, no problem, if you ever want a full-on makeover, just ask."
"Right. I'll let you know."

I got up and headed for my wardrobe. Siri noticed my ill-tempered mood, so she picked out an outfit with neutral colors. Just an average day in the year 2614.

To be continued. :)

Writer's Touch

A lot of people tell me that I have a "Writer's Touch", but what does that really mean?

There seems to be a very fine line between writing something and speaking it. Illustrating something and simply describing it or simply talking about it. I've recently thought over the differences and decided to blog about it; here's what I came up with.


Detail
Having a writer's touch means that you show enough detail to allow someone to visualize your scenario more clearly. So, if you have a sentence like, "Sally's dog explored the park." You'd write it, "Sally's dog padded along the park trail." So now, you know exactly what the dog was doing, and you know that he's walking gently and curiously along a trail. He's not all over the place in your mind now, so this narrows the reader's vision to what you want to illustrate.

Strong Words V. Weaker Words
This one's simply, can you take a basic word and substitute it for a more complex word that gives what you're trying to say more meaning?
It's like replacing the word "crowded" for the word "bustling" if you're talking about say, New York City. I mean think about it, the words give you different vibes. Crowded seems more like stuffy and uncomfortable, whereas bustling gives you the idea that it's a city that's busy at work, doing things, everyone's out and about. So yeah, it's crowded, but is it that to the point of uncomfortableness? Probably not. So the word "bustling" gives the impression that the city's full of people, but it gives sort of the business-like impression of walking the street, rather than the "crowded waiting room" scene. Am I making sense?
This brings me to another point:

Are swear words okay?

I've recently been...er...shamed, for using the so-called "d-word" in one of my posts. Let me assure you there is a reason for every word I choose to write. Had I thought another word was more suitable, I would have changed it. Everyone I know has the impression that I don't swear, and it's true. I never have conversations where I'm spitting out swear words. Writing is different though. Writing is about getting the right impression across, and the words a writer chooses aren't always ones that they use conversationally, andd they're not always representative to the author's voice. I wouldn't use the word "damn" conversationally when talking to people, but when I write, I use it in context to give off an angry, frustrated vibe. Had the word not been chosen, it would be taken as a light statement. Now, I'm not saying that swearing is right, but I'm also against the idea that it's wrong in some cases. Note that in some contexts, how it it bad if I'm not addressing a person? I was addressing a bad habit, so in all essence, bad habits be damned! Okay?

Showing, Not Telling
Similar to adding detail, having a writer's touch means that you have the ability to choose words and formword phrases based on what kind of a vibe you want in the sentence. For an example, if you're talking about a situation that's happened, you want to let on that it was boring without actually saying it was. You have to make what happened sound really boring, and people would catch on. But I'm not saying make your writing boring but use words that give off a boring vibe...
I'm not making sense here.
Okay take a look at this: "I was bored and tired, so I slept." This sentence is totally fine, but I literally told you why I slept. Imagine if I wrote it like this: "After a long day of studying, I sat on my bed and looked around the shabby place I call my room.  I sighed. God I need to clean this place up. I thought to myself. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. I'll probably clean it later, I'm not feeling up to it. I took one last look at my room and yawned. I lay back in my bed and drifted off."
Now people can make inferences about why you fell asleep, making your writing more interesting that before. Obviously it's all about context. You wouldn't write all that if someone asked you why you're sleeping during the day, but say you're writing a story. Wouldn't you rather have all that detail to put the reader in the scene and have them immersed in your writing? That's the touch you need.


Shorter Sentences Vs. Longer Ones
This best represents the idea:

"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important."


Moral of the story? Variety of sentence length gives music to the writing.

Writer's Voice
This is something that can't really be elaborated on or taught. It's your personal voice when you write. A voice that people would recognize as yours without knowing you wrote it.


To sum it all up, writing isn't only about the grammar and expressive punctuation that you write, but how you write it and how advanced your diction (word choice) is. I'm still working on mine, don't get me wrong, I'm not an expert, but giving your work a writer's touch gives it a flare that can keep readers, well, reading. As a final example, there's a difference between saying "She was hungry so she ate an apple" versus "Hunger gnawed at her stomach and clawed at her insides. She grabbed an apple from the basket sitting on the nearby nearby table and took a bite from the juicy inside, the sweet juice dribbling from her chin as she savored every bite."

What would you rather read?

Thing is though, some people call this fluff, specifically when it's used in a college paper. Trust me, my professors hate it when I write like this, as they want the paper straight to the point. Problem is, what's the fun in that?

So I do it anyway, but I tone it down a bit.

Well, anyway, if you have any other ones, comment below and I'll add them. :)

Tomorrow?

So there's this problem I'm having...
I NEED to study. I NEED to write. I NEED to work out. I NEED to do things I like. I NEED to get organized. I NEED to have a social life. I NEED to work out my ambitions. I NEED. I NEED, I NEED, I NEED. Why can't I ever DO? 
I always tell myself, "Tomorrow I'm gonna start fresh. Tomorrow's a new day, and I'll start doing the things I want to do and the things I need to do. I'll be organized, punctual, happy. Life will be good from then on." 
*Said yesterday.
**And the day before.
***And the day before that.
****And the day that came before that.
It's infinite.










Moral of the story? Life doesn't work that way. 


You know how life works?


You have to work it out gradually, get into habit of things, which could take weeks. Developing habits is one of those little stupid things that if you don't make solid, they won't stick, meaning you'll go back to whatever bad habit you were doing before.


Fun isn't it?


You need motivation to get things done. You need to believe whatever you're doing has a benefit and a goal you need to reach. That pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (which by the way, DOES NOT EXIST). It's all very annoying. What if I have no motivation? 


Sometimes life is weird that way. Whatever, I'll start fresh tomorrow. Or not. Er...

Upgrade!

Exciting news: I decided to take blogging more seriously and finally bought a domain for my site! Instead of the typical .blogspot insert, my site is now www.eternalmusing.com. If you log in to the original one (aimless-reverie), it'll redirect you to this domain.


Anyways, with new priorities comes a need for more information. I needed to consult the experts in the field of blogging and came across one particular one that inspired me to go through this: Blogging Bookshelf. This site has everything you need to know about blogging and anything you might like to change in your blog to increase traffic, have people commenting on your posts, and become well-known in the blogosphere. Now I don't typically blog about blogging because it's out of my niche and I'm fairly new to it myself, but I felt the need to credit Tristan, the creator of the site, for his insights and aspirations that gave me that push to take blogging to the next level.

In the next few weeks, I'll be tweaking up my blog a bit here and there like changing formats and making it more individual (instead of a blogger template) to my style. If you regularly follow my posts, thank you so much for your support, I wouldn't have gotten to this point without you.

Comment below and tell me what you think!

• Any comments on this new endeavor?
• Any suggestions on posts you want to see in the future?
• What niche do you consider my blog to be in?

20 Things that Irritate Me

Everyone has pet peeves. Some people hate the sound of a pen clicking simultaneously while others hate watching people eat, or someone sucking their straw at the last drops of drink left, and so on. There are so many, but here's a list of my top 20:

1. People who touch my computer screen or cell phone and leave their fingerprints all over it and I spend fifteen minutes trying to rub them all off. 
2. People with double-standards. If you don't like someone doing something or acting in a certain way, don't do it yourself!
3. Fragments. When honoring people for making such good posts. That's a fragment. in my head I'm like "... ... ...!!! You're not done yet! What about honoring them? What about people? What is life? Aflkajsdflkjalksdjflkajdslkfj."
4. When people use unnecessary quotation marks. Like this sign I once saw: "Do Not" Smoke! Or a famous one: Fresh Brown "Eggs". If they're "eggs", what are they? Quotations nowadays are used for sarcasm, for things that are not as they seem, or of course quoting something. They are in no way used for emphasis or as an attention getter. 
5. People who chew and making chomping noises. No not that crisp, "I just ate some Doritos" sound, but that "I'm eating a cheese sandwich," kind of way. 
6. Pplz d@T r!te lyyyke dis nd staff!!! I spend more time deciphering your crap than you do making your so-called abbreviations. Learn to type words, please. Thanks. 
7. Writing a long message to someone (usually through texting) and they just reply, "K." Really now? Really? 
8. People who read over my shoulder when I'm on my computer or phone.
9. When people pronounce my name wrong. [For any future reference of my name (Hana)? It's pronounced henna or jenna with an "h" if that makes more sense]. 
10. People who write you're as your. [Your: possession belonging to someone (your notebook). You're: you are.] Please pay attention in your grammar classes! It will save me some grief.
11. When the toilet roll is backwards. 
12. People who borrow stuff and don't give it back. Excuse me but I didn't let you have it. 
13. Finding hair in the sink, especially if it's not mine. WASH IT OFF.
14. Sites that start talking randomly and you can't make it stop because it's not a video on the page or anything like that, and you probably have like eight tabs open and you can't figure out which one's talking.
15. People who tickle me, or pinch my sides to try to tickle me. Seriously it's not funny. 
16. Chairs with uneven legs that wobble. How do you expect me to sit like that?
17.  People who leave toothpaste in the sink. 
18. When people put me on speaker and I didn't know. Tell me first! What if I don't want everyone in the room to hear what I'm saying?
19. People who open books so wide they make a crease line on the spine of the book. 
20. People who say "That's what she said,"after everything. Keep your mind out of the gutter and keep me out of there too, okay?

The Interlude

I apologize for not posting in over a month! I've been busy, then I went overseas to Turkey...again! These are a few pictures that you may enjoy:

 The water really does sparkle in Turkey. It's so breathtaking!

 Pillar with Egyptian hieroglyphics on it.

 The Basilica Cistern! An underground aquifer that has over 300 columns!

There are actual fish that live down there too! I wonder how they got there...

 One of the columns had Medusa's head under it. 

It's meant to be lopsided because as the legend goes, when her head is upright, she could turn people to stone. 

 Blue Mosque!

 Dolma Bachi Palace! So big it doesnt fit on one camera frame...unless you step back A LOT.

I stepped back...A LOT. And this is just part of the gate (from the inside)!

I'll be back very soon with more posts, I promise!

Sebastian - Update

So I checked on Sebastian and found him using his hind legs again. Thank God! I feel so much better now, knowing he'll be okay. I looked up information on him and found out that sometimes larger crickets cause digestive problems in baby beardies. It can paralyze their hind legs while the beardie painfully digests his food. I felt awful! I'm going to be on full surveillance now. No more big crickets for my baby!
Anyways, this was just a quick update just in case you were wondering.
Check back for more insights from Sebastian! :)

Frantic Waving

So I haven't post anything lately because I've been away on vacation. Destination?
Istanbul, Turkey!





Istanbul is a very beautiful city that has loads of sight-seeing; from grand architecture like palaces and hundreds of mosques with at least four minarets on each one, to little shops that sell little glass trinkets and odds and ends of all kinds! It was like a fairytale city with a flavor of colors bursting with every building.


When I was over there, I decided to conduct an experiment. While I was on the tour bus, I would wave frantically to every passerby I saw while grinning from ear-to-ear.

The response of the people? Well, some would look away, others would stare at me, frown, and then look away. Finally, my favorite: some would smile back and wave! But that's not the best part, the best part was one guy waved back with a huge grin on his face, walked away, and came back with his friends, they all pointed at me and waved with the happiest smiles I've ever seen.

Don't ask me, I have no idea why they were smiling, but it made my day.

A Child's Irony

I think one of the funniest things in life are the things little kids do. It's cliché, I know, but I feel like since they do it out of the blue, without actually meaning to be funny, just makes it even funnier. 

Take my little brother for instance. A cute seven-year-old kid. He is totally obsessed with making videos on Photo Booth on the Mac. He makes—oh, I don't know—three or four videos a day of just random talking, fidgeting, and my favorite... making infomercials! 

Here's the ironic story: This one time, my brother starts the video then grabs his shirt with both of his hands and says, "Don't forget to buy shirts." He then goes on to talk about various things. Five minutes later, he just walks away from the computer, and you realize he doesn't have any pants on. Oh the irony! 

Thing is, the story doesn't end here. Well, the irony does end for the most part, but there are many more stories like this one. Maybe I can even try to upload some of the videos to this blog. We'll see.

What can I say?

Hello world. I present to you a new blogger, well, I'm relatively new to this "blogging" thing, and I'm not quite sure what to write. I had this other blog of insight to my fellow teenagers, but I ran out of insightful things to write about, so it kind of died down. If you would like to see it though, you can click here. I might start it back up, but for now, onto my new blog! It's weird; my fingers are already getting clammy as if the whole world is waiting on my post, just like if I'm supposed to give a speech. Let me tell you though, it's much more comforting to be in front of a screen than in front of a crowd, not to mention the free-lance of writing typing an entry on my computer laptop as opposed to a well-prepared, uptight speech that I would have been planning for ages, making sure everything is absolutely correct... I'll stop rambling now. 

I don't know how this is going to turn out, I don't know how the post will look on my page, and whether or not people will actually read this. Hmm...will anyone see this post? What's the chance someone is going to run into a post of the ramblings of a newbie. Ha! I like the sound of it. Ramblings of A Newbie. R.A.N. Cool. I'm liking this rambling thing too. It suits my mood and it's making me bouncy inside. 

What about things to write in this journal/blogging thing of mine? Do I just talk about my mundane life and what I did? Or...should I make up short stories and things. Poetry. Lyrics. Blips. I like that idea more. Let's just see where this is going to take me first, then I'll decide my angle. I might as well do both.