Dreams & Aspirations

Well. Yeah. We all do, riiiight? 

Yeah, okay, enough with the cheesy Tangled references. HAHA I just realized that it's MLKJ day... This is just too perfect. I woke up this morning with a thought, "I must blog about my dreams today." 

My brain is strange, okay? Okay. 

So. 

Dreams.

.....

Besides becoming Hermione Granger or having hair like Rapunzel, my dreams and aspirations are a bit nonexistent. Just a bit. Okay, maybe a bit more than a bit. Whatevah. Potato potato. Anywhozies, I've really wanted to create some sort of schedule to stick to in this madness of the book world. Both for consuming and producing. Kind of like eating and working out. You eat a lot and you work out a lot *raises eyebrows*. The more energy you consume, the more intense/long your workout can become. You get my analogy? No? *stalks off* Well, I thought it was good... Just kidding *peeks around door*. Don't leave. I'm a runner, which is probably why it makes sense to me. 

You see, in my mind, in order to be a good writer, one must be a good reader. It's a give and take situation, here. For me, my best writing comes after reading a really good book. I dunno why... Perhaps it's just one of the OCD pieces of a reading high. The bottom line is that literature affects us. It really does. Some part of our brain is changed every time that we read something. More so when we read something good. 

Here are a few good (a gajillion times better than good) titles: 

Harry Potter

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Lord of the Rings

A Tale of Two Cities

The Hunger Games

The Giver

etc. 

My literature teacher puts it quite nicely, "Read good books. Reread great books." 

But where's the balance? How much should I be writing with the amount that I'm reading? I don't believe that there's a set number. Personally, I would LOVE to crank out 1,000+ words daily. I would simply fly through novels, if I had the time. But I don't have the time, and that's the issue. I'm not a full time writer. I'm a full time high-school student, big sister/oldest daughter, who usually has a big pile of stuff to do. Whether it's laundry or a stack of math homework. I can usually find time to procrastinate my writing. And, guys... I had to come to this realization a while back, and it's really done my heart a lot of good. It's okay to fail. WHAT? Yeah. I did just say that. If I stretch myself so thin to hold myself to the expectation/stereotype of 1,000 word days, then my writing is only valued by the amount of time that it takes me to do it in. I would much rather spend a day dedicated to writing one chapter (making notes in my outline for accuracy) and have a BEAUTIFUL bookstore ready, polished section of words. Beautiful words. But if my focus is on how many words I write, instead of actually writing them, my writing won't be as good. Thinking of adjectives is something important to creating a vivid picture. Sometimes it takes me forever to think of the right wording. But you want to know something else? It's always worth it. It's worth the time that it takes, because rushing through is not efficient. 

That said... I am NOT talking about NaNoWriMo. You just rush and get that novel done, November Novelist, you! But in every day writing, we should make our writing mean something... 

More than a string of words, but something truly beautiful.