Update from the Early Morning WAPPer

That is an image of my emotional state as I face my AP Chemistry homework. My Early Morning WAP program is to blame. After not working on my novel in two weeks (one Spring Break, one ABSOLUTE WEEK OF INSANITY) I got back into it and good things happened:

a.) I still liked it!

b.) I wrote two pages!

Both very important. However, as I follow Kelly L. Stone's Time to Write, I have failed to complete the crucial piece to being a WAPPer (besides yelling WHAP! to myself when I want to fail school and move to Honolulu): forming my Writing Action Plan (AKA the WAP.) I'm not really a WAPPer without one. So this week, I will start to formulate my WAP. I need to figure out how many pages I have to write to finish a 300-page first draft by June; I have 38 right now. Any math people here?

Oh! And this week bookshelf will be chatting with Dr. Barbara Holstein, author of The Truth (I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything). I am coveting her book title.

My Burning Desire to Write

You can WHAP with a flyswatter,

but you WAP with Time to Write!

So, I've been blogging about following Kelly L. Stone's book Time to Write. One of the first concepts that Kelly introduces is "The Burning Desire to Write." This is your vision, the reason that you push to succeed, and as Kelly says, the reason you don't push the snooze button at 6:30 AM.

My burning desire to write is kind of complicated.

1. I write because I can't think of anything else to do. I'm a passionate, emotional person whose spoken sentences often come out in a jumble. Most of my jokes only sound funny in my head. I can never stop reading (my legal drug.) So I write.

2. I write because I'm ambitious. Before I started Innovative, I decided I wanted to become the voice on teen writing. The expert, the big kahuna, the dorky girl in the glasses that newspapers interview for opinions on Kaavya's plagiarism. I'm not that person yet, but I'm getting there. And I love the getting-there part. I want to write books that teenagers will be reading a hundred years in the future, but also that teenagers will read today. It's like a desire to produce something great, something I haven't written yet.

3. I write because, in simple words, I love it. I love the act of crafting a chapter, of getting a sentence right, and yes, I love getting up at 6:30 in the morning, turning on my Birthday Playlist, and writing for an hour before school.

Stay tuned next week as Gabrielle begins to make her WAP and shares the scandalous details with the blogosphere. AND tomorow we have a new issue of Innovative to look forward to!

One WAPPer's Take on the Twilight Obsession

WAPPing Update: With the exception of the weekend, I have WAPPed successfully. It's actually kind of fun to be creative this early in the morning. WHO KNEW? And, if I'm good about getting sleep, it doesn't phase me at all. Except that I have piano to do, an AP Chem test to study for, and about five pages to write (and thirty to edit) for a contest due this week... um... stay tuned for later this week when I talk about THE BURNING DESIRE TO WRITE. Mine. That is.

Twilight. I first read it Easter Saturday last year when I was bored and tired of my friends yapping at me to read it. I didn't finish, so the next day I ran back (on EASTER SUNDAY) to read Twilight and then New Moon in a total of three hours.

I bought Twilight and then persuaded another friend to buy a copy. She called me on the week of her exams, and said, "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you so much." Freaked out, I said, "What did I do?" "THAT BOOK." She had stayed up till 3 am that night reading, and taken an exam later that morning.

Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer are a phenomenon because they have sold an unbelievable amount of copies. Because every girl that reads it falls in love with it. Because it's mostly sold through word-of-mouth. Because a million reasons. Twilight, to me, is proof that teenagers do read when it's compelling. The market for our time is competitive, but regardless of high religious holidays or high school exams, we will read if it is just that good.

The Teenager Awakes

This a vague idea of me in the morning. Add cuter clothes and a non-boyish haircut.
Fiend, you lie! You know that you look like MIKE MYERS in the morning! (and act worse)
Sometimes getting up looks as easy as climbing all... the... way... up..

For years people have been complaining that teenagers sleep too much. Teenagers complain they never have enough sleep. Justice smiled upon us, and there's now a whole lot of research to prove that a) teens really can't sleep till after eleven pm and b) they need a lot. Of sleep. Take that, cranky adults!

However, in compliance with Proof B, I experienced an unpredicted side-affect of WAPPing (WHAP!). I was exhausted by 9:30pm. I had to drag my feet upstairs and try to climb over the mountains of clothing/books/paper in my room to... just... reach... my... bed...

This morning, cheery and chipper! I avoided the seductive advances of sleep and used the Mordian technique to spark my creativity. Never heard of the Mordian technique? I made it up. It is composed of "play-music-and-think-about-your-dreams." Dreams are inspiration-full. I think about what I felt during the dream (wonderful, scared, excited, tense) and try to translate the emotion onto the page. Anyone else use dreams?

I feel very proud of myself for sticking to the Early Morning Schedule for two days. The real test will be tomorrow (Saturday, sigh) where I plan on still waking early, and then going to my exercise class.

3 weeks to form a habit? It only takes one cigarette. WHY DOES IT TAKE THREE WEEKS TO WAP PROPERLY?

Will the heroine be seduced by sleep on a Saturday? Will she come up with a name for the Anti-WAP? Will E. Lockhart show up at Innovative on Sunday? Join us next time...

The Adventures of an Early Morning WAPPer

Oh no, it's a nerd! RUN AWAY!
Don't be stupid, stupid! Gabrielle is really the incarnation of Belle. Sans Beast.
Alas, ye fools! You mistake her! Gabrielle is not a Disney Princess! She's a voluptuous, scantily-clad superhero! SHE'S A WAPPER! (Put on some clothes, PLEASE.)

Y'all may remember (SHOULD remember, it was an awesome interview) our interview with Kelly L. Stone (http://innovativeteen.blogspot.com/2008/02/bookshelf-interview-with-kelly-l-stone.html) the week I was sick. Well, in Kelly's book Time to Write she talks about writing schedules, Writing Action Plans and Burning Desires to Write (among other things.)

I can never saying WAP like an educated middle-schooler and shouting WHAP! Kelly has a great outline for people (like moi) who need to structure their creative genes in to steady and quirky productivity. Now, I am not sick and I have spent a month in my new school (totally adjusted, my locker and I have made peace and are baking cookies) so I am out of excuses. This morning, friends, I began my Early Morning Schedule as part of my unwritten WAP (WHAP!). The only way I'll stick to it is if I let the international literary world know about my progress. Lots of helpful, angry comments will spur me on, too.

Day One (The Only Day I'll Remember, the Rest will be a Creative Blur)

6:30. AM. Oh. My. Gosh.

I literally sat on my bed and stared at my computer for a while, thinking about my choices. Turn on the laptop and become a bestselling novelist. Go back to sleep and become a creative failure. I chose the bestselling novelist career after about five minutes of thought.

I'm working on a new novel, Suspended, and in about thirty minutes I typed out four DSP pages, which is pretty good. The key to my productivity, however, was not the dulcet tones of birds and Snow White appearing on my windowsill (or Prince Charming, though I'm sure he would have been inspiring.) It was music!

Thanks to the gods of Windows Media Player, I listened to Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra and hard-playin', girl-rockin' Sara Bareilles and that, my friends, is a great way to wake the mind up.

Will the heroine last for another day? Will the novel plummet or fall? Will male movie stars flock to her side to rescue the damsel under stress (haha, book title) with words of encouragement? Who knows! But if you need somewhere to chill, check out Lisa Yee's blog of her Colin Firth obsession at lisayee.livejournal.com. Hands down, best author blog ever. Although Shannon Hale gives her a run for her money at squeetus.com.