As I’m sure you noticed, the last month or so on this blog has been devoted to the A to Z challenge.

This post will be no exception.

Mostly because tomorrow is International A to Z Wrap-Up day.

I may have made that day up.

Regardless!  Next week we shall return to normal blogging.  For today, we review what I learned during A to Z blogging during April.  Most notably, I learned that it’s hard to do both a blog challenge and Script Frenzy in the same month.  I survived, though, and have a 100 page graphic novel that I plan on doing something cool with some day.

I also must admit that I felt a lot of the month like I was being hypocritical and trying to preach/impart things that I do not fully do myself.  But then I remembered the purpose of this exercise was to sort out what I want to do with my writing, not what I already do.  The list that I created was more a list of intentions and goals, rather than a true manifesto, but it is completely based off of my beliefs and l turned into something pretty cool.

1.  My target audience (at least for novels) is the type of teenager that I once was: the kind looking for courage and self-confidence and to feel welcomed and part of a group.

2.  Subsequently, I shall strive to bring the relevant parts of my own life experiences to my writing.

3.  I shall write well-rounded, believable, likable, and different characters.

4.  I shall continue with my determination to hone and improve my craft to meet the rest of my goals.

5.  I shall be excited about my writing, in order to produce an exciting story.

6.  I aim to write in such a way that allows my audience to face their fears in fiction before they appear in real life.

7.  Gratitude will be the thought process I shall turn to when I approach writing.

8.  I shall be honest and open with my readers.

9.  I shall inspire my readers to whatever it is they aspire to be.

10.   I shall be jocular to be memorable.

11.  My writing will allow me to impart some knowledge and my passion for learning to my readers.

12.  I shall aim to teach my readers to look for the opportunity to learn in every life situation.

13.  I will encourage my audience to seek out mentors that can help them.

14.  I shall nudge my readers into a different way of thinking.

15.  I shall ensure that my work is hopeful and optimistic.

16.  No matter what trial shall face me or my characters, I shall persevere.

17.  I will learn and teach my readers how to quit, when it’s necessary.

18.  I shall allow my characters to demonstrate healthy relationships.

19.  I will consider my writing a complete success if I am able to indirectly allow even a single reader to feel self-confident.

20.  I shall impart a sense of the importance of trust.

21.  My writing shall celebrate the variety and fun that can only come when everyone in a group is unique.

22.  I shall strive for variety in my writing and my life.

23.  I will be willing to give all of these goals, and my writing, my undivided attention and energy.

24.  I shall keep my writing eXcting to keep myself and my readers interested.

25.  I shall tell my audience “yes”.

26.  I will be zany and off the wall to entertain and educate.

Zany.  Ludicrously or whimsically comical; one who plays the clown to amuse others.  In the case of writing, unique, in a fun way.

I’m not really an “off the wall” person.  I sometimes do silly things to amuse others: make faces at my godson, or dance down the hallway, or make unintentionally inappropriate comments in front of a group of writers.  But most of the time, I am plain old serious Candice.  She’s okay – she takes her life seriously, works hard, and even has fun sometimes.

But I think that there’s some merit in deliberately funny on occasion.  Who hasn’t made a funny face at a crying baby or told a really stupid joke?  We do these things to make a point.  Stop crying!  Lighten up!  Try not to take life so seriously!  Because we can really learn unless we let go.  We cannot be honest with ourselves if we’re always holding out to some higher ideal.  We cannot trust unless we open up to new experiences.  We simply cannot live without having a little fun along the way.

I’m going to try and make all these points entertainingly in my writing, both to entertain, amuse, and educate myself, and to hopefully bring my audience along for the ride.

Are you with me?

It seems to me that kids hear “no” far more often than they hear “yes”.  Don’t touch this, don’t do that, don’t play with that, don’t read this, don’t listen to that…  I’m not a parent or even pretending to claim I know everything, but I think that hearing positive things would likely have a more positive impact on a child/young adult than hearing negative things.  I know that it does for me, anyway.

There are a lot of things that I feel I cannot do well or cannot do at all.  Now, I’m not trying to say that this is because I heard “no” a lot as a child, but I can’t help but wonder how much braver/more outgoing I would be if I heard “yes” more often.  I notice it especially at work: I tend to feel less engaged and more depressed if I hear negative comments.  Subsequently, I try to focus on the positive side of things when speaking to colleagues, if I can at all.

I play to do the same in my writing.  I want my readers to think positively, about themselves and others.  I want them to be to hear that they can do whatever they want, that they are strong and smart and wonderful and cared for.  I want them to know that their friends and family are as well.  And most of all, I want to show them how to tell themselves “yes”, rather than “no”.

Excitement.  More often than not, it’s hard to muster up the enthusiasm and energy to be excited about something.  Especially when that something is a novel or story that I’ve worked on every night for the last however many.

But excitement is key to a good story.  It helps the reader become invested in the characters and plot, and keep wanting to read “just one more page” into the wee hours of the night (who here hasn’t done that at one point or another?).  It’s what keeps series like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games going strong – they are easy to become excited about and invested in.

If I’m not excited about my story, it’s a pretty fair bet that it’s going to be boring to the reader as well.  I’ve found that the most difficult scenes to write are, for the large part, the most boring ones.  It’s a hard process, but I’m going through my latest novel scene by scene right now, trying to identify which areas are exciting and should stay, and which are boring and need to go.

Those scenes that need to stay for plot development, but are boring even to me, will need to be seriously re-worked in the very near future to add conflict, drama, or tension to keep the reader turning that page.  Because the most exciting parts of my current novel are, as perhaps they should be, near the end.  It won’t do those parts any justice if the reader stops in the middle!

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), for all of my goals to be successful, both me and my audience will have to be willing.  Willing to give the ideas and characters a chance, willing to at least try writing and reading each new idea.  Willing to keep going without giving up, at least until it’s apparent that a given project, concept, or technique just isn’t feasible.

I am willing to give all of the above my undivided attention and energy.  Whether or not my readers are willing to do the same will, I suppose, depend on how engaging I can make the characters and the story.  Theoretically, this should be easy: I’ve written engaging, likable characters in the past that were, at least from what I’ve been told, beautifully three-dimensional.

Whether I can keep this going on a continuing basis is the real question: as I become more mature as a writer, my opinion of what my writing should be is getting more and more unattainable.  Not that I think it’s completely unfeasible, it’s just that I need to spend more time honing my craft to get my characterization there.  And I’m more than willing to do just that!

Variety is truly the spice of life.

Okay, I promise, that’s the last cliche statement I’ll start a blog post with.

I think.

Anyway… Variety.  It’s key to so many things.  I mean, who would like to eat the exact same thing every meal of every day.  Sure, it sounds appealing at first (chocolate 24/7?  Where do I sign up?) but I’m reasonably sure we would all get tired of the same thing pretty quickly.

My partner and I have recently started a new way of eating, which I’m finding a challenge, but also exciting.  We’re learning new, healthier, ways of preparing our favorite foods, but also trying out new recipes!  Some of them have even turned out to be edible.

Just like eating, writing/reading will become boring if there’s only one thing on the menu all the time.  Therefore, I think it’s clear that I should strive for a certain variety in my writing.  I’ve already penned a few short stories (a completely new experience for me that I really enjoyed) and have a few different novel ideas tucked away in my back pocket.  Each of these explores new scenery and new ideas, and there’s a few different genres involved.

I’m pretty excited about them and I can’t wait to get there!

Everybody is different.  You may now pause and salute Captain Obvious.

I think that we all know that everyone in the world is different.  Unique is another word for it.  In a lot of cases, especially during adolescence, we’re led to believe that uniqueness is wrong.  We struggle to fit in, to find a group where we belong and feel safe.  The pressure to conform is intense.

Even at my age, I still feel that pressure sometimes.  But what I’m coming to learn is that there’s no point trying to be exactly the same as everyone else.  Not only would that be boring, but its futile: I’ll never be more than plain old me.  BUT!  I think that there’s a lot to be said for a group that celebrates each other’s differences, learns from them, and supports them.  It seems to me to be a far more positive way of handling the differences that are so prevalent within society.

Not to mention that I think a lot of High School students would probably agree with me!

In any relationship, trust is absolutely paramount.  True connections can never be made if one is lying.  As I already mentioned, I plan to be completely honest with my readers.  That doesn’t mean that I’ll be writing memoirs or anything (because, honestly?  Those would likely be boring).  No, it means that I will be open with my readers, let them see the real me through my characters.

I hope, also, to impart a sense of the importance of trust.  With the advent of the internet, it’s easy to be dishonest between a layer of anonymity and I think that many of us have become so jaded that we don’t feel that we can fully trust anyone, least of all, those that we have never met.  But with trust being so important, I think that it’s necessary, sometimes, to go past our now innate sense of hesitation and get to know, really know, the people that we interact with.  To see past the mask that they present to the world and to drill down into what makes them who they are… And why.

I think we might find ourselves surprised!

Admittedly, this is an area where I am weak myself.  I have always had a low level of self-confidence, for a variety of reasons that it doesn’t merit going into here.  I think that a lot of people, especially younger people, struggle with self-confidence and I personally admire those who have a high self-worth.

In my case, a part of my low self-confidence either stemmed from or resulted in not feeling like I truly belong with any group.  I’m sure that many people feel the same way (it can’t just be me who’s this weird, right?).

Anyway, things started to get better when I found supportive, fun groups of friends to hang out with.  And as I felt more accepted, I began to learn how to accept myself.  Sure, I’m far from perfect and have (more than) a few flaws, but there is an even larger number of things about me that are good.  Learning to focus on those things has been difficult, but it’s starting to show some results.

Living with low self-esteem and self-confidence sucks and it’s a hard trap to break free of.  But I would consider my writing a complete success if I am able to indirectly pass that feeling/ability on to even a single reader.