Archive for the ‘Things I’ve Made’ Category

Book 2, Draft 3: Done

October 16th, 2013 by pladd

We talked about how much I hate the revision process like three months ago. Luckily Book 2 wasn’t so bad, and I finished yesterday! Well, with Draft 3. There are 3 major drafts in my initial writing process, which I will illustrate with gifs.

Draft 1

is all about building plot. Messy, funny, a little meandering. Sometimes the details at the end don’t exactly match the ones at the beginning, but that’s okay. It’s just important to get a vague shape of the story so you have something to knead into what you actually want. I am a rockstar at Draft 1, which is why my annual NaNoWriMo contest with James isn’t that much of a contest.

This is an accurate representation of my Draft 1 writing process. Including wardrobe. ROCKSTAR

Right now I’m writing a series of 4 books (I guess a quartet, if you want to be fancy about it), and I wrote all four Draft 1s all the way through first. Partly because Draft 1 is the most fun, and partly because I needed to know the end before I could match it to the beginning. Next comes:

Draft 2

is all about rewriting the parts of Draft 1 that don’t fit together. Tightening up the plot, deleting anything extraneous, adding parts that need more explanation. It’s definitely the most work, because you have to think about every piece and how it fits together, if it’s saying the thing you want, and if it could do that better.

Not pictured: lying on the floor in despair. There’s a lot of that too.

Since I’m dealing with four different books, it’s often been at least a year since I worked on the draft I’m revising. This is actually awesome because I can look at it much more critically, with fresh eyes. I usually make a list of the big things I want to make sure to add, either in specific places, or throughout, and then comb through the story bit by bit. This is also when I add chapters breaks.

Draft 3

is solely about language. And any little things I may have forgotten in Draft 2. For instance, one of my notes for this book right before Draft 3 was “Didn’t Percy have a cool watch???” Yeah, and it’s going to be kind of a big deal in the next book, so I can’t forget to mention it a few times. Draft 3 is usually the fastest (proofreading is also a huge part of my day job), but it’s the one I hate the most. It involves a lot of thesaurus searches and fact checks.

Also sometimes I spend like an hour debating capitalization

After Draft 3, I print that sucker out (I still prefer physical books, like some kind of medieval monk, I know) and send it to people who may or may not actually be interested in helping me. Sometimes being my friend is tough. Hopefully they read it and tell me what’s up. And catch all the grammar errors I inevitably missed in Draft 3.

My biggest problem in Draft 3 (that I catch) is commas. I’m always missing like a million effing commas, which is weird because I generally know how English works. I’m not sure what my biggest problem that I don’t catch is, because I haven’t actually gotten any feedback from anyone on Book 1. I assume because they’re too busy sharing it with all of their friends. I know, guys, I’m amazing. Try to calm down.

Anyway, hit me up if you are interested in being a Draft 3 reader. There’s a chance to win fabulous prizes.

I’m not promising a new car, but I’m not NOT promising one either

Tagged: animated gifs, book, drafts, writing

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life, Writing |

Look at this lion

August 23rd, 2013 by pladd

I crocheted this lion!

I only learned how to crochet at the beginning of May when I was visiting my mom at her school. It was IB exam season, so any teacher with mostly seniors had not as much to do. This included my calculus teacher, whose room is right beside my mom’s, and in between grading and organizing and different meetings and things, she taught me how to crochet! This instruction was almost exactly like I remember her math lectures to be: “So here’s this thing. Go play with it for awhile until you know enough for us to talk more about it.” I’ve watched a bunch of youtube tutorial videos since then, but crochet seems a lot easier than knitting so far–and faster! This lion took me like a day, in between work!

I posed him on a Food Lion flyer because THE PACK STICKS TOGETHER

Guess what you’re getting for Christmas!

Tagged: crochet, lions, things I've made

Posted in Things I've Made, Yarn |

Watercolor Round 2

July 11th, 2013 by pladd

Turns out, flowers are way easier than vegetables!!!

STEP ASIDE, MONET. There’s a new flower-painter in town

Sorry, Rob, but Monet is literally the only painter who does flowers I know, and that is only because once I ended up at his house.

Tagged: art, Rob, watercolor

Posted in Art, Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Book 1, Draft 2: Done

July 8th, 2013 by pladd

You know I’m writing a book, right? Well, four. I wrote them all the way through, and it took about two years. That seems like a short amount of time to write four books, I guess, but I’ve kind of been working on this story since I was 14, so I’ve had a lot of practice. Not that anything from back then is usable, for anything besides laughing sadly at how I thought the world worked, and the way I confused “lose” and “loose” constantly. Pretty much the only similarity between then and now is that a few of the characters have the same names.

Anyway, yesterday I finished Draft 2 of Book 1. Which, to me, is a bigger accomplishment than finishing any of them in the first place. First drafts are easy. I’ve been writing first drafts for twelve years. This is the first time I’ve ever written a second draft, though, so it feels like a big deal. It’s not like I’m done. I’m combing it over again, mostly for language this time, and then sending it off to different people for criticism (YOU??), and who knows what changes that will bring? And then there are three others that get the same treatment. But still. I finished a second draft. I didn’t get bored and frustrated and wander away to start something new. Not that I begrudge past-Patricia for doing that. None of those books she wrote were worth a Draft 2, and maybe she knew it. This one seems to be, though, so I’m happy. I know there’s still a long way to go, but I climbed a mountain I never thought I would so:

The hardest part was the beginning, of course. I know how important first sentences are, and it took me forever to write this one. Maybe a month, I’m not joking:

The day this started, I was eating kettle corn and watching a volcano.

Maybe it’ll make it to the end, I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like this process is some kind of ruthless contest where each sentence has to JUSTIFY ITS EXISTENCE and BE ALL IT CAN BE or risk being deleted forever. Sometimes I imagine them crying as I backspace through them.

Critical Hit! A sentence can’t survive without its verb

I don’t even care that I sound like a crazy person, I finished a second draft alright and that’s all that matters. Draft 2 is 224 pages, at least the way I like to write, with 1.5 spacing (I checked just for you, and it’s 290 double-spaced). Hit me up if you’re interested in reading them for beta review. Some of you will not have a choice and it will just ~appear in your mailbox as if by magic~ because that’s how I roll.

Tagged: book, drafts, writing

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life, Writing |

Go Big or Go Home: Art

July 1st, 2013 by pladd

So I’m terrible at art, and always have been. My mom would always tell me that it was genetic and I shouldn’t worry about it because she sucks at art too. I don’t know if that’s actually true or part of the trauma incurred when a bitchy art teacher told her to never take another art class again, but I’ve been hearing it my whole life. The last time I had an art class in school we were gluing pieces of tissue paper to other paper and drawing hand turkeys, so no real help on that front either.

I’m just going to leave this here as evidence

I wish I could draw. It’s something I’ve wanted to change about myself for a long time. So this summer I decided to do something about it. I decided to take an art class. And instead of beginning drawing or whatever, I signed up for watercolors because, hey, go big or go home. This may have turned out to be a terrible mistake. The first day was fun, all painting squares blue. I can totally do that. Then the second day it became “draw this apple and make it look real with shadows and three dimensions and everything” and I felt like I had skipped a few classes. I’m still trying my best, but it’s hard.

My fruit has more mold than shadows, but that’s realistic too, I guess

At least you can kind of tell what all these are, right? Unlike week three, where I spent a careful 30 minutes painting a gross green blob:

It’s an artichoke, actually

But, really, when am I ever going to want to paint an artichoke? I’m okay with being bad at that. This week we start flowers!!

Tagged: art, go big or go home, watercolor

Posted in Art, Let Me Tell You About My Life |

2013 Cookbook Project: Coca-Cola: Refreshing Recipes

January 18th, 2013 by pladd

I wanted to start off my New Year’s Resolution to make one recipe out of each of our (completely underused) cookbooks with this one, partially because I considered it a challenge! Also because we’ve had it for like two years (I think it was a Christmas gift to Steven) and have never used it once.

Plus, I spent at least once of those years thinking it was a joke

This book actually has a ton of recipes in it, with chapters on Soups & Starters, Beef & Pork, Poultry & Seafood, Sides, Sauces & Salads, and Desserts. A lot of them don’t really use that much Coke–maybe a little in the sauce where you might normally use sugar–which would explain how they could work in so many different kinds of recipes, from Asian beef to paella. But, let’s be real, you could easily make any of these without Coke. In fact, for most of them I think you could follow the recipe in the Coke cookbook, but omit the Coke, and still be fine. It really didn’t seem like it made too much of a difference in most of these recipes, which is probably for the best tasty-recipe-wise. The one I decided to make was “Sweet and Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Mango Salsa” (recipe after the cut):

Steven and I are both pretty bad at folding tacos so the stuff doesn’t fall out so we usually don’t even try

It turned out delicious! I’m always a little nervous about cooking shrimp, and the process usually involves me yelling “What do you think now?” at Steven multiple times before we both agree that they’re probably beyond done. I really liked the mango salsa, although we started late so it didn’t get to steep the required 1 hour in the fridge before we ate it. This meal was kind of weird, but good, and not really as much work as its length made me think it would be. I guess this book makes the cut, even if it is a little silly. Especially since I still want to try some of the desserts, like Coca-Cola Float Cupcakes.
Recipe: Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: 2013, cookbooks, recipes

Posted in 2013 Magnificent Seven, Food, Things I've Made |

NaNoWriMo 2012! Now with Audience Participation

December 1st, 2012 by pladd

I’m back!!! NaNoWriMo wrap up time!!!

For my fifth year of NaNoWriMo I decided to give James Fox a fighting chance by doing a confusing Pick-Your-Own-Adventure novel, but alas, I’m still just too talented:

Although James put up a much better fight than last year! One day, James. One day.

Here’s another chart, just because this is how I motivate myself:

Unlike previous years, my progress was much more sporadic, with days of slacking off followed by days of wild writing abandon. It’s hard to be disciplined when you’re also responsible for sending James multiple texts a day that just read “ARE YOU WRITING YOU CAN DO IT DON’T GIVE UP!!!” I know what you’re thinking, and, yes, it is amazing that we’re still friends.

Condescended version

I know usually I just give you a wordle and tell you it was “like reading the whole thing” but this year, you actually can!!! I figured because it was a Pick-Your-Own-Adventure, it might be fun to click your way through and attempt not to die (hahaha, good luck) so I forced Steven to make THIS!

Unlike crappy paper book versions of interactive stories, there’s a handy back button at the top and a “Start Over?” button at the bottom! Plus, it is super mobile friendly. Hours of fun are soon to be yours! Highlights to look for include:

Sometimes after you die, you can choose to come back as a ghost!
The part where you can just choose to keep reading random romance novel excerpts I’ve written for you
Inexplicable Captain Planet crossover
The part where you turn into a face-eating tiger
Sir Mix-A-Lot guest appearance

Get pumped

Also, I got rid of all the curse words that were in the original draft by replacing them with either “blast” or “malarkey” with a find and replace. Apparently that’s how they roll in Mazelandia.

Tagged: nanowrimo, writing

Posted in Things I've Made, Writing |

November Apology

November 16th, 2012 by pladd

It’s time again for my annual November Apology for being bad at updating. I like to blame NaNoWriMo for this, but recent evidence suggests the problem goes further back. For instance, of the 14 years I’ve kept a journal, November is easily my least prolific month. May, the month during which I’ve written the most entries, has twice as many.

Of course I made a chart, do you even know me?

In fact, of the seven days on which I have never written a journal entry, 3 (or 43%) are in November:

Also a bunch of them are on the 6th for some reason.

So clearly this problem dates back to 1998, way before I ever heard of NaNoWriMo. Incidentally, since I know you’re curious, the date I’ve written the most journal entries (7) on, is a tie between February 6th and October 17th:

Anyway, this year is my 5th doing NaNoWriMo, so it’s a little less exciting. I write a lot, so I’m pretty good at churning out the required word limit every day. I decided to try to spice things up by writing a Pick Your Own Adventure novel, complete with so many grisly death scenes. This is more complicated and confusing, but actually makes it easier to write a lot of words. I’m already three days ahead.

The green bar is James

He was ahead of me, until the third day, and then never regained his lead. YOU CAN DO IT JAMES JUST GOTTA BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! In case you don’t remember why this is important:

Come on, James, if you can learn the Hoedown Throwdown, you can do this

Anyway, in the meantime, I managed to make a peach slump:

Peach and berry!

Slumps are kind of weird. I like that they don’t require an oven, and therefore seem like less work, but the way the biscuit topping is steamed in the pot on top of the fruit instead of baked gives it a weird consistency that Steven hated and I was just kind of meh about. Probably will not be slumping it again!

Also, this is the tree outside my window right now!!!

Fall!!! I love you!!!

So, yeah, I have stuff going on. Expect reports on how I am still MASTER OF MY OWN THANKSGIVING soon!

Tagged: archivery, baking, charts, James Fox, journals, nanowrimo

Posted in Food, Let Me Tell You About My Life |