Saturday, May 25, 2019 7 comments

Guest post today! I met Joshua Pior through the Twitter writing community. His blog Jeune Authors has lots of helpful posts so be sure to check those out. Have a wonderful Saturday! -Eliza Noel

photo cred//stocksnap

You’d never know it was math homework—it looked more like a sketch pad for art class. The grids that were supposed to contain balanced equations and reduced complex fractions looked a little more like the panels of a doodly comic strip, filled with characters, sketches, squiggles, and decorations.

Even though I somehow managed to get good grades in math, I made up for it by hating every moment spent doing it. My mind bounced around like an overactive collie cooped up in a closet, daring me to let it go free.

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t a star algebra student.

But I did complete several novels. So, you know. Balance.

Now that I’ve graduated high school, I can look back and see what I did (and what I should have done) to find time to write during high school. So let’s get into it: five ways to be a legit, full-time, productive writer during high school, without sacrificing school or life.

Number one!

1. Use Your Free Time for Creativity

All of it.

Wait, what about, y’know, fun?

Here’s a trick that I’ve learned. If you struggle to find time to write, this will help you tremendously.

Writing doesn’t always mean tapping away at a keyboard. Or scratching notes in a spiral-bound.

Writing, according to the dictionary, is the act of composing text for publication.

This can be done anywhere. I have a constant stream of words running through my mind at all times. When I sit down to write, all I’m doing is wrangling those words down onto a page.

This means you can be writing while watching a movie. You can be writing while you’re babysitting your nephew. And if you’re like me, you can be writing while balancing quadratic equations.

So you can still have fun in your free time! I’m not suggesting that you sequester yourself off in your bedroom with a pad and pen during every spare minute. But whatever you do in your free time, allow yourself to compose text in your mind while you do it.

It’s idea-fishing—you’re relaxed and having a fun time, but your hook is in the water, ready for a bite.

And once a decent idea runs across your mind, snatch it down on a piece of paper or your phone. Never let one get away.

2. Only Write What You’re Passionate About

Yeah, occasionally that means you will start a story and never finish it. But it also meant that writing will never be a drag. It’s better to start a hundred stories you love and never finish them than to slave away on a project that you despise ... just to boast that you always finish what you start.

Yes, I managed to finish a couple of novels in high school. But let me clarify that they weren’t good novels. Nor were they very lengthy (the longer of the two was only 24,000 words). But that didn’t matter, because I loved writing them! I just wrote what I wanted to.

You may think you do this already, but if you struggle to find time to write, then you aren’t. Guaranteed.

You need a passion project.

Sometimes this means starting something new without finishing what you’re currently working on. Horrors! That’s hardly responsible!

Well, to break it gently, writing isn’t exactly all about being responsible.

The first priority in writing is gaining experience. And sometimes that means starting a dozen projects and only finishing two. That’s a dozen ways you gained experience. A dozen ways you learned something new.

I’m not desecrating the value of finishing what you start. I’m simply dropping it down on your list of priorities. Just start writing something you love, and stop worrying about whether you finish it or not!

3. Read About Writing

The writing section was just about the only nonfiction aisle I’d ever duck into at the library. I checked out every book I could find on the art of fiction. I seriously had no clue how to write a story, so I was determined to figure it out.

Did it help my writing? Definitely.

Yes, it’s possible to improve your writing without actually writing.

Can this tip be used as an excuse to not write? Yes! But who cares? Listen, if you’re not writing, read, because that’s the next best way to improve yourself as an author. There’s nothing wrong with learning the craft … even at the expense of advancing that precious word count. It’ll be all right. You’re still a writer. On to the next tip:

4. Take a Writing Course

In my humble opinion, this is the best way to get writing done during the pressures of high school. You “legalize” it by taking a novel-writing course!

For me, that was buying the One Year Adventure Novel (not a sponsor). This credited writing course taught me so much about what makes a story a story. It also pushed me to complete a much longer adventure novel than I had ever written before, all while giving me high school credit. My voice improved; my storytelling sharpened, and I started seeing stories with new eyes. So, all good things.

The One Year Adventure Novel is just one option out of many. Really, any way that you can actually do creative writing for school is a fantastic way to balance writing with high school. Take an early college course, order a fiction-focused English curriculum, or buy a bunch of how-to-write books and figure out a way to (legitimately) count them towards your language arts credit.

5. Call Yourself A Writer

Just do it. It’s easier than you think. I can’t begin to tell you what this will do for your self-esteem, your motivation, your confidence. You write. You are a writer. You need to acknowledge this to yourself so that you stop wasting time with thoughts like, “I’m not really a writer.”

It’s okay. You can say it and mean it. The day you get published is not the day you become a writer. Take yourself seriously! Don’t feel embarrassed about what you do. Say it and smile. Even if it doesn’t feel natural at first; you’ll get used to it. And your productivity will begin to skyrocket!

And those are the five ways I figured out to be a writer during high school. It’s not a science. There’s no magic formula. But I know you can do be successful at writing, right now, as a student. You got this!

All right, time to start writing! What passion projects have got you excited right now? I’ll be hanging out in the comments section here for a while, so tell me what you’re working on right now!

Special thanks to Eliza for letting me guest post on her blog! If you haven’t already, definitely consider subscribing to her newsletter to stay in the loop and stay current with her latest posts.

Joshua Pior is a twentyish author who gets up early in the mornings to sit in Starbucks with a laptop and pretend to be a famous author. So far nobody has asked him for his autograph, but he passes the time by writing stories and blogging about it. If you want to connect with Josh and other young authors and read more of his weekly posts about writing, check out his blog at JeuneAuthors.com!

Saturday, April 27, 2019 2 comments

Hi there, my name is Bree Dawn. I'm one of Eliza's friends and I cannot tell you how honored I am to be guest posting over here on her amazing blog. Eliza and I share many things in common: we both love putting our heart and souls into our stories, as well as spreading hope and joy amidst the world. And if I recall, Eliza is really the true reason I'm even here right now because if it wasn't for her, I would have never stumbled upon the blogosphere. So thanks for that, Eliza dear. ;)

Soooo, now that the introductions and formalities are all out of the way, let's dive right in, shall we?

photo creds//Pinterest

School can be hard. Like, bold-all-caps kinda hard. I remember feeling overwhelmed and stressed out like crazy during the latter years of high school as well as the beginning of my time in college. And let's face it: Academics are no easy thing, my friend. So what are we poor students to do? Are we doomed to suffering all throughout our education?

The answer? Absolutely not, because as a very wise person once said, "You only fail when you stop trying."

So to help you out, I've created a little basket of seven handy tips and tricks to help you not only succeed, but fly, my darling.

Tip #1. Create lists.

Now, I know that you've probably heard this about a zillion times and you've probably tried it already and blah blah blah, right? But wait! Have you been doing it how I used to which basically means you opened your iPhone's notes app and made a to-do list on there? Cause guess what? That's probably why it didn't work. I did the same thing for awhile and it kinda worked, but I wasn't really happy with it. But here's the thing: If you don't physically write it down, you're missing that little energy boost that comes from physically crossing an item off your to-do list! This is such an important step, so please don't ignore it.

In order for this to be as satisfying as possible, I suggest getting a small notebook that you can use to physically write down all the tasks or assignments you have for a given week or maybe even just a day. Then, once you've finished something, you can cross it off and get that little burst of happiness because YOU ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING.

Another idea would be trying out a bullet journal technique for organizing your assignments according to due dates. I tried the bullet journal for a time, but it didn't really work out long-term for me. But that doesn't mean that you won't have WAY more success with it than I did, so go give it a try if it sounds like something you'd be interested in.

Tip #2. Schedule in your homework (and mark ALL important dates)

I don't know why I waited until college to start doing this because honestly, it saved me freshman year! For me, this has just become a regular part of my week, but you could always reserve this as something you do every Sunday or Monday night if it suits your schedule. (I get assignments all throughout the week, so I have to constantly update my homework schedule.) Depending on how you want to do this, you could use your iPhone calendar, a physical planner, or a physical calendar: any way works totally fine.

Once you've decided how you're going to schedule things, next is simply figuring out how you want to do it. For me, I use my iPhone calendar because I've found that it not only works best for me, but the app also allows you to select specific colors for certain calendars, so mine looks like this:

regular events and activities=blue

homework due dates=red

concerts/shows=orange

exercise=brown

homework=yellow

important college dates=green

So using this color scheme, I'm not only able to better organize the different parts of my life, but also instantly recognize what is what when I open the app because I've memorized the colors that coordinate with each event. This is helpful when I'm in a rush or even when I'm just too lazy to really read whatever I'm supposed to be doing next.

One more tip is to try and schedule your homework in designated time chunks with little breaks in between. I haven't always been able to estimate very well how long it'll take me to do something, but it keeps me on track more times than not.

Tip #3. Learn to recognize when you need a break or a self-care night.

This is an important one because you need to take care of yourself. Burning out and crashing won't get you any closer to being ready for that test on Thursday. So learn your limits and how far you can push yourself before it's too much. And don't beat yourself up because you need a break or a night off. It's healthy to take breaks because you can't just work all the time! Sometimes you need to just take a breath and take care of YOU.

Some of my favorite ways to indulge in some self-care are long baths with a good book, a nice warm cup of hot chocolate or decaf coffee, watching a movie with my family, journaling, working on my novels, or writing some poetrical nonsense. But those are just the things that work for me! Maybe you'd prefer something more outdoorsy? Whatever it is that helps you relax and decompress, that's what you're self-care should focus on.

Tip #4. "You DO have time."

A big part of my first year in college was about learning how to balance my school life with my social/personal life. It wasn't easy, I struggled a lot, and there were a lot of times when I just didn't think I could do it. But guess what? I'm learning. I may not be there yet, but I'm well on my way to discovering what works for me and what doesn't and how to truly balance everything without completely giving up my favorite things. But how did I get to where I am now? Well, the big part of it was really just realizing that I needed to better manage my time and in turn, my anxiety because I actually did have time to go hang out with friends or family and maintain a social life. The big change came when I started learning how to just relax and choose not to stress because if I believed that I had time, it turns out I really would.

Tip #5. Tired plus caffeine doesn't always equal good.

One of my biggest tips would be this: Try not to become dependent on coffee or caffeine to get you through the week. During my senior year of high school I had some run-ins with coffee and I eventually realized that caffeine had a tendency to give me a bad attitude (though maybe that was just me). So now, whenever I get the occasional coffee, I always make sure it's decaf. I also don't drink a ton of caffeinated soda. On the rare occasion, I'll slam a Coke to get me through a long day on campus, but I try to avoid it if at all possible because it's really not good for one's health and I don't like feeling dependent on something to get me through the day.

So moral of the story: Try to sleep and if possible, avoid caffeinated soda and coffee. One way to do this could be to get a decaf coffee and just pretend that it's caffeinated. This could possibly trick your brain into thinking you're getting caffeine, thus engaging in the placebo affect. (Honestly, I do this all the time and it actually...works?)

Tip #6. Surround yourself with God's word and good friends.

This year, I came across the Bible app, YouVersion and I really don't want to turn into an advertisement, but this app changed my Bible reading around this year. In the past, I've really struggled to find time or make time to sit down and really read God's word. And while I still struggle, this app make it a little bit easier.

There are hundreds of plans to choose from, all of which come in a variety of themes: hope, fear, faith, grief, love, and many others. All you simply have to do is choose which one you want to do! They also have yearly plans and plans to help you read all the way through the Bible!

It's honestly been such a huge blessing for me this year and I hope it's able to help you too, my friend.

Also, please don't neglect your amazing friends! I know how hard it can be to schedule in time to hang out when you have homework assignments at every turn, but friend time is important too! God has placed these people in your life for a reason and we need each other to make it through with the best possible experience. So go plan a coffee date with your best friend or if that doesn't sound like fun maybe go grab dinner and a movie with a friend you haven't seen in awhile.

Tip #7. Believe in yourself and be confident.

If I can leave you with one thing to remember, it's this: Be confident! You have no idea what you're capable of achieving, my friend. You are so beautiful and I know that you can do whatever it is that you're facing right now. I know how hard it can be to believe in yourself because what if you're not good enough or what if you can't?

photo creds//Pinterest

I saw that and it just made me stop and realize that we constantly hold ourselves back because "what if I fall?" when in reality, we have no idea that if we jump we could fly! So I urge you, go take that leap of faith because darling...you will fly.

All you have to do is have faith and leap.

-Bree Dawn (To know more about me, go follow me on Pinterest and Spotify)

How do you balance school and life? Do you have any tips to add? Drop your thoughts in the comments and I'll hang out and chat with all you lovely humans.

Thursday, March 21, 2019 10 comments