Christmas

I love Christmas, though not because of recieving gifts or because of the good food. I love Christmas because it celebrates giving instead of recieving. So often we find ourselves asking, “What am I going to get out of this?” and yes, this is the mindset of the world. We live in a highly competative dog-eat-dog society, but on Christmas, we can step back and be blessed by watching someone else recieve. My question is- Why does this only have to happen on Christmas? Why can’t we be this way every day? Surely, the world would be a better place. It remains a mystery to me why there exists so much joy during Christmas, because in fact, we are celebrating the sad truth that the act of giving has fled from our everyday lives and we must compensate by celebrating it on the day (well, technically this is not THE day, but we recognize it as such- most of you know the history of Christmas) that God gifted us with a Savior. Giving doesn’t have to include material things. You know, I would greatly appreciate someone asking, “How are you?” and sincerely meaning it as a question instead of a generic response given in an attempt at courtesy. Thus, it is my challenge to each of you to give something every day. Give a word of encouragement or a smile; brighten someone’s day, even if at the expense of your own. Sacrifice will be rewarded. Know, though, that even though I am suggesting this, I am in no way perfect. I myself struggle with the same things because I have been conditioned in the same society that you guys have. I’m a work-in-progress.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, my Christmas has been awesome. I believe that this year, the bad economy had a tremendous effect on the amout of material things that my family was able to give, but they did it all the same. Being with family and alive is enough for me. The next couple of days will consist of rest and relaxation. After all the craziness of family dinners and parties, I think everyone deserves some R&R to recoop. I am currently reading Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” as well as attempting to work on the novel. The next few days will offer a good opportunity to re-evaluate and make changes in order to iron out the main sequence of events. Look for updates soon.

I hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas.

Transition and Change: An Update on the Novel

Since I haven’t really updated to let you guys know how the novel writing has been going, I decided to do an update before all of the Christmas craziness begins tomorrow. Writing continues on the novel, though not quite as I had expected. Things are being rearranged, concepts are being readressed, and the paragraph summary is not quite as concrete as I had hoped. Every day, it seems, a new idea will pop into my head and I will have to go write it down. I have decided that this is just the nature of writing a novel; things are transitory. Although I have written almost a 10-page manuscript summarizing the main sequence of events, I know that this is subject to change. Brilliant ideas seem to come in bursts, and I have learned to utilize them when I recieve them or they will leave just as fast as they came. Being the perfectionist that I am, all of this abstraction and craziness has me unnerved, but I know that it will all come together in the end, and I am determined to make it happen. After celebrating Christmas, I plan to do some intensive research related to my ideas and nail down the main sequence of events and construct character analyses. This is my goal by January 5. We’ll see how it goes.

Phase 2: Paragraph Summary

Here is the updated one-sentence summary. Things are coming along nicely. I can’t wait to begin character development in the next couple of days.

Despite a successful career and a recently published book, college professor Nicholas Santini realizes his marriage has failed when his wife asks for a divorce. While trying to piece his life back together after the collapse of his relationship, Santini receives a mysterious phone call from Europe informing him of the death of a relative he never knew existed and advising him of the existence of a secretive object located in a vault in an undisclosed location left to him by his recently deceased relative. However, in his attempt to retrieve the object and to expel the shroud of mystery surrounding it, he begins researching his family’s past and traces his roots to Italy, where he discovers his family has been a part of controversy involving secret societies, the Italian government, and even the Vatican over the years. In his efforts to learn as much as possible and solve the mystery of the object, he realizes there are those who wish to leave the past in its rightful place. As things begin getting dangerous, Santini must enlist the help of someone but doesn’t know who to turn to because he has hurt most of those he holds dearest to his heart, and the Italian government seems to be leery of him as well as any of his associates. In his quest for answers, he must also decide what is most important in his life, but the mysteries of the past hold him captivated and he may endanger too many people before he realizes the consequences and it’s too late.

Phase 1: One-Sentence Summary

After many hours of deliberation and tweaking it, I have drafted my one-sentence summary. I know it may seem like this was an easy task, but it was anything but. For me, this step was of the utmost importance because everything else will build upon this one simple sentence. Yes, it’s vague and elusive, but it’s a start and my hope is that it will keep you guys interested. From here on out, it is going to be more difficult to post what I am writing because I will be creating the “meat” of the novel, but I will be posting excerpts and character synopses as I go along. Here it is:

After going through a tumultuous divorce, an uncertain college professor researches his European lineage and enters a world of mystery and conspiracy as he uncovers the secrets of his family’s past, discovering more about himself in the process than he ever could have thought possible.

Phase 1: Pre-Writing

These are some themes I am considering exploring in my novel. I am almost ready to create my one-sentence summary which will serve to sell my idea to a publisher later as well as precipiate the writing process in the meantime.

• “closed-mindedness” in the South/ rising above it
• “magical” feeling of European metropolitan areas
• quest for happiness/ self-made happiness (at expense of others?)
• learned wisdom vs. experience (college education vs. real world knowledge)
• modern-day family drama
• self discovery
• ancient cities and the discoveries therein
• cultural heritage
• emotional struggle
• social standards
• conspiracy theory
• natural disaster
• governmental secrecy
• technology and its implications (good or bad?)
• ancient artists/ symbolism/ riddles
• wealth and happiness

As you can see, these are in no particular order and are not related in any way. The challenge of writing a novel is deciding what you want to say, and incorporating it into the plot. I’ve discovered that I will not necessarily be able to do this right away since I am starting small, but coming up with themes I may want to explore has led me to develop a sense of what has to happen in the novel for me to be able to explore those themes. Thus, I will post the one-line blurb when I have perfected it, probably very soon.

A Novel Idea

Due to spyware and viruses on my computer, I haven’t been able to update the blog in a while. I apologize. The first semester at South has come to a close, and I can honestly say that I survived without major harm. In fact, I consider my first semester a great success. Not only did I successfully overcome major personal and social hurdles, but I ended up finishing the semester with all A’s. Well, I’m about 80% positive. Final grades have not been posted yet. Like millions of other college students around the country, I have returned “home” for Christmas, and the holidays are probably my favorite time of year. Something about the sound of a crackling fire and the idea of curling up next to it with a good book makes me smile. While most worry about whether or not they will be spending Christmas with boyfriend or girlfriend, I fret about which authors I will get to read or which books I have heard advertised that spark my interest. Call me crazy or call me prioritized, whichever you prefer. This year, however, I have something else I plan on doing during the short recess from school- begin writing a novel.

I have always been interested in writing. Something about being able to express myself through words is extremely appealing, and I do it well. I promise I’m not bragging. Some people are just gifted with the ability to write and some aren’t. Through feedback through peers as well as college professors and high school teachers, I have been able to come to the conclusion that I am. Since both my parents seen to have the same ability, maybe the trait is hereditary, but I will leave that to scientists to figure out.

Returning to the subject, I have decided to finally write a novel. For many years, I have tossed ideas through my mind without concrete intentions. However, after coming across an article online written by an author about writing a novel, I have decided to try his method. Of course I will have to tweak it as I go along and discover my own method of writing, but I think everything is learned from observing and imitating and this principle can be observed especially with the Renaissance. Writers and artists during that period learned from having a mentor through an apprenticeship. I simply wish to make my mentor some of the greatest authors of the time that I respect. Namely, Dan Brown- probably one of my favorite authors.

I intend to document my experience in writing the novel here on the blog, including the methods I am using to go about the writing. First, though, I need to give a lesson in meteorology to explain the method I will be using. The method I will be using is called the “Snowflake Method.” You may have noticed the snow falling on the blog in celebration of the holidays, and as most of you know, snowflakes begin thousands and thousands of feet above the surface of the earth. What you may not know is that they begin as supercooled water droplets, that is, miniscule droplets of water that exist below freezing temperatures as liquid water. When these droplets to freeze, they become heavy and can no longer exist suspended in the cloud they originated from. As these complex geometric shapes begin to fall, they may pass through a layer of air that supports temperatures above freezing. When passing through this layer, the edges of the snowflake melt, allowing snowflakes to coagulate and become larger snowflakes. (Note: This is what produces the heavy wet snow that falls in the South.) It is during this stage that the falling snowflake demonstrates the “Snowflake Method.” Basically, I will start extremely small- with a sentence- and gradually grow the novel from that one sentence. Granted, there are things I will need to do outside of the actual writing of the novel, such as character synopsis and things of that nature, but that still could be considered “coagulation.”

Now that you understand more of what I intend to do, I will being posting and documenting my experience as I begin the process. Know, though, that I may not be able to post everything I write because of copywright issues, but I will try to at least give you an idea of what I am writing and how I am writing it. Please feel free to post comments and suggestions. Hopefully, I will be a published author one day. That is the plan.

Thankfullness

Usually, family-oriented times like Thanksgiving are full of awkward conversations with people you haven’t seen in ages who want to know every detail of your life from last Christmas to the present. Yes, it’s excrutiating, but we all endure. After all, they are family and have the best of intentions. However, this year, my Dad’s family did something out of the ordinary. Instead of congregating until everyone had arrived, as each person came in, they had to tell what they were thankful for. Since my sister and I were a little late to ours, we had the advantage of being put on the spot AND having to speak in front of the entire family. This excercise, though, really made me stop and clear my mind of the thousand thoughts that accompany family gatherings and really think about what I am thankful for. Colbye went first, so I had a few seconds to think about my response, but I have to say, it was extremely difficult. The first things that came to mind were the generic responses that thousands give when asked the question. Family, friends, etc. Yes, I am thankful for these things, but I am thankful for so much more. This Thanksgiving especially, I value family and the incessant support they give me. Personally, I would be insane without my family at this point. The move to Mobile has been a big step in my life, and although I am adjusting nicely, it has been a big leap. Because of this challenge and oportunity, this year I am especially thankful for the ability to step out of my comfort zone. I am thankful for the ability to pursue my dreams with a strong support system backing me every second of every day. Many people have to settle (or chose to settle) to make life easier or because of a lack of resources, and I am extremely thankful that God has provided the means for me to pursue something that brings me pleasure and that I will enjoy doing the rest of my life. Most of all, I am thankful for the goals I have set for myself related to that pursuit of happiness. Without goals, I think everything is bound for failure, and I am extremely thankful for preparation and expectation. Moreover, I am thankful for a direction. Like I have said a million times, I know where I have been, I know where I am, but most importantly, I know where I am going.

I hope each of you has a very Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the awesome food, but more than that, enjoy the time with your family.