that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown

favourite Christmas movie ever? No, but it's up there with It's A Wonderful Life and The Polar Express. I like my Christmas movies, okay? I like my Christmas.

So I thought I'd post for the first time in, oh god, over a month, since it's Christmas and I'm actually somewhat relaxed at the moment. I'm not going to write some cheesy post about what Christmas means to me, but I want to write something. 

How Do I Keep Writing When I'm Bloated All The Time And Starbucks Is Closed?

This is a serious question I ask myself every holiday season, and here are a few nuggets of wisdom I've picked up in my very short time on this Earth.

Let's be honest with ourselves here: are we really as busy today as we claim to be? well, you might be, I dunno, you guys are grown ups. I'm sixteen, I'm just sitting on a couch with nothing to do until my dad and I go Starbucks hunting.

Yes, up until Christmas, we are pretty busy. Almost all of my parents' Christmas shopping was done yesterday (I got mine done early, hee hee, so I could still buy all the nice wrapping). But once the real holidays come around- once you've bought the presents and cooked the turkey- we usually have a surprising amount of time to relax. That can be part of the reason we don't want to write- it's work! You're on vacation! Your New Year's resolution is to write more anyway, you still have a few days of rest ahead.

The problem with this line of thinking is the part where you group 'writing' with 'work'. Because here's the one truth about writing that I've learned: if you're going to do it, you have to love it. And you probably do; we all know that feeling of satisfaction when we come up with the perfect plot twist, or when we write a really heart-pounding climax, or when we read over our own writing and think 'that's actually not half-bad.' But people tend to have this problem of thinking that our hobbies and work have to be separate. "I have to make time to write." "I have to fit this into my schedule." "I need to squeeze some 'me' time in with all this writing."

Tip #1: If you don't want to write, don't make excuses. You're allowed to not be in the mood.

Tip #2: If you do want to write, it doesn't have to be work. You can just do it for fun. Like I will. Right now.

And on that... incoherent less-than-classy unprofessional pointless note, Merry Christmas, and to all a good night!

Road Trip Wednesday: Finding Time To Write

When I checked YA Highway today, I found this week's RTW question quite relevant to my life. Not because of Thanksgiving; I'm Canadian, and even though you Americans tend to forget this, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October. (Which I consider much more appropriate, because I get to spread out my massive eating seasons!)

But that doesn't mean I'm any less busy.

I'm in the International Baccalaureate program, which means I am basically committing academic suicide. I'm in grade eleven and have an average of four hours of homework every night, plus a constant, overwhelming flow of papers, essays, and orals, I spend about 10 hours at school every day, and I have to have at least 50 hours of each creative, active, and service extra curricular hours.

And let me tell you: it's really, really hard. 

Finding time to write is pretty damn difficult. 

Luckily for me, when I write, I write a lot. I once pounded out 25k words in three days, and if I was on a roll, I could probably do more. I don't really get to write during the week anymore; I write on weekends, sometimes; whenever I'm on a plane or a train; and very late on weeknights when I'm too stressed to sleep.

Does it work? Sort of. Do I need to work on it? Hell yes.

I can't really go into some detailed explanation of finding time, because at the moment, I haven't really, but all I can say is that if you want to write- if you really, truly want to write- you will find time, no matter how busy you think you are.

How do you find time to write?

Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Let me start by saying that Sarah Rees Brennan has been my favourite author ever since I finished reading The Demon's Covenant and promptly bawled my eyes out. 

I first heard of The Demon's Lexicon on a writing forum I frequent, and when it popped up on my Grade 9 summer reading list, I thought "why not?" I later discovered the answer to that: your emotions will never recover. 

Wouldn't trade it for the world, though.

I bought Unspoken the day it was released, after months and months of breathless anticipation. Everything Ms. Rees Brennan had ever said about it made me squeal with excitement (lady reporter team? not-so-imaginary friends? a gothic heroine who is an angsty teen boy? yes, please!), and every review and excerpt I read just contributed to my excitement. 

It totally lived up to the hype.

I should have written this review months ago, when the book was fresh in my mind, but... well, clearly I didn't. So, here goes!

Introduction

If you know anything about me, you probably know that I am terrible at blogging.

It's not that I don't have anything to write about. I go through my life with hundreds of ideas in mind. I walk down the street, and think, "how interesting! I should blog about that." "Oh, I should take a picture of that." My life is a string of sudden inspiration.

My problem is that I am really freakin' lazy.

But I've been a writer all my life, and I'm trying to go somewhere with it, and I keep hearing that if I really want to be published, creating an internet presence is a pretty good step. And I'm also obsessed with starting new things, so instead of trying to keep up an old blog, I'm just going to start a new one.

I know, I know. It's a bad habit.

But here's my start, and I'm really going to try to keep this all up. Even if I have to find posts on dead blogs and repost them here. I really, really want to do this. And I really like this blog's URL.

So. Let's do this.