Continuing My Research

 Hello everybody!

This week has been quite a long week, and I was not able to get too much done which was the trouble with this week. So much personally going on that I will need to catch up for our next Genius Hour. However, I have decided that through the research so far - I am not in the right spot to be writing a book and so I have decided on using a space that my boyfriend can provide for me once a week to begin writing my book. 

Given everything I have been through in the last year with losing my sister, I have decided I will be trying to write a somewhat original (because that is the whole idea that I am not writing something everyone has read before) family story. I'm not sure if it will involve the death of my sister, perhaps about navigating life without someone you never thought you'd lose. This is where I am at right now - or I will not be writing about my sister and the hardships at all and try to come up with an original love story. I think I will be going with the first one because I can speak more personally to it, and feel as though the words and the story will come more clearly to me once I begin writing. 

My biggest question right now is as someone who has been a reader her whole life, but took somewhat of a 'break' the last couple years, how do I know if what I am writing about actually hasn't been done before? It's unlikely that it hasn't given we are in 2022 and there are a vast majority of novel's out there I could never possibly examine them all, but if my goal is to write an original story - where do I get the proof it is original? This is going to be the question that guides my research this week and by next week I will have completed my research, have a story plot/theme decided on and hopefully have begun writing the first chapter. I apologize for being so behind, I have a few more notes on the concept of writing a book but it was a tough week overall and as mentioned last week, my mental has to be in the right space in order to really commit to this and that is what I am working on now. 

Until next week, thanks guys and keep reading!! 

Beginning my Genius Hour

As expressed before, my genius hour idea is going to be how to write a book with absolutely no background in book writing or creative writing. Do I think this is insane and probably not attainable? Absolutely. Am I super excited anyway? Yes. 

This week I decided it would be best to pull out some of the old "writing a book for dummies" links, so I did some research on what steps people go through to write books in their experience. I haven't come too far with it yet, and so next week I will be continuing/finishing up this research and attempting to come up with anything to go with my book - i.e. a theme, concept, character, setting, idea, plot, anything at all to get the gears rolling on moving towards the first chapter. Even if I cannot write an entire book in the span of this class, I would at least like to get a few chapters or perhaps a short story. Either way, some of the research I did and the links I looked into are below. 

Throughout this research and inquiry about the steps that go into writing a book, I've come to realize it's not necessarily about the content or the idea which I thought it was. Most of what is suggested within the concept of sitting down and writing a book is about your mental capacity to do it. Some of the questions asked on one website were "Do you have the time and energy to commit to writing a whole book?" and one of the suggestions underneath as the #1 tip was to have a consistent writing space. I knew environment had to do with writing because you can't write a book in a room full of screaming kids, but I never considered how much time and energy goes into book writing. Not to mention if you hate what you write, or a deadline is approaching, or you get writers block the level of anger or frustration that must arise. Some of the other websites I looked at mentioned similarly along the same lines of the first one - about environment, mental capacity and the phases or stages or writing, editing and publishing. Here they are below: 

        https://goinswriter.com/tips-writing-book/

        https://self-publishingschool.com/how-to-write-a-book/

While it isn't huge strides towards my genius hour product quite yet, I feel as though the information from these websites made me more consciously aware of how much energy and time really goes into writing a book - which from the side of the reader can be deeper appreciated on behalf of those authors who do this for a living. That's it for now - until next week when I finish the research and start brainstorming ideas!

First Blog Post!

 Hello Everyone, 

My name is Katie and I am here to explain that I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do for my project in this class. I have numerous different passions, but the main ones focus around history and reading (which I tie into English) and so I think it would be fun to come up with something like that for my genius hour. I have to be honest though, my anxiety is through the roof thinking about how open nature this course looks like it is going to be and how much free range I have with these projects. I think maybe this is why it took so long to implement ideas like this into the classroom, because of people like me. Even when I was in high school if I was given the option to do anything else besides a written essay, I didn't do it. I enjoy my safety nets and being told what I am supposed to do and how I am supposed to do it for the way my teachers and professors expect it, so this concept and class is throwing me for a loop right now. I plan on getting through it though (obviously) by creating checklists with specific expectations for what my learning should look like and how I should be getting there throughout the semester until I reach my final product. 

Anyway's this is how I am feeling so far, hopefully the rest of the semester goes well! 

UPDATE 01/14/21: 

Hello again, I also did not realize I was supposed to even put what I was originally thinking about for the genius hour blog because apparently I am unaware of what's going on around me. Anyway, I have recently rekindled my love for reading for pleasure and so I started thinking about how I, a person with no creative writing background or know anything about writing a book, could write an original book. I am incredibly excited to see where this project takes me, whether it just be finding out more about what goes into creating a novel or if I end up starting to write a book or short story so be sure to stay tuned!