The U.N.I.T // Aesthetics (and a brief rant)

 I'm obsessed with making my Pinterest story boards as aesthetic and pretty as possible, it's not even funny. Pictures do such a good job of telling a story. I've hit a bit of a rut in The U.N.I.T right now. I'm so close to be finished with Part 1 of 3, but I'm starting to lack the motivation to just get it done. I thought it would be fun to share a bit of my aesthetics for the story and share something that's been on my mind.

I've been working on this story for a few years now. It's changed into something completely different than when it first was born out of a hobbit obsession. Now, it's almost like a personal journal of my emotions. Whatever I'm feeling when I write, my characters are feeling it in some way or another. Or sometimes something I've never felt before and write about will be something I feel later on. It's crazy to look back at the beginnings of The U.N.I.T and seeing the things my characters went through.

This is how I wish all writing was. We need more books out there that people can relate to. My main character is named Margret Kurt, she goes by MK or Marty. On the outside, this story might seem like any other cliche post apocalyptic book about teenagers being epic heroes and grownups being the villains, but within it is something much deeper and real. MK is not a hero. She is broken, feels depression and anxiety, and is constantly at war with her own mind.

Something I get so sick of in YA books is those badbutt female characters who know how to hunt, never seem to have a period, know how to fight, are extremely brave, always save the guy, and are witty and intense. I don't know about you, but I've never met someone in real life like Katniss, Tris, or Celaena Sardothien. We're all humans. We all break, we say awkward things, do awkward things, make mistakes, and deal with battles in our minds. I'm not saying none of these characters never had a breaking moment. But, real people have them all the time.

I didn't go through half the things any of these characters have faced, and they still seemed to be doing better than I am mentally. I want to write characters that feel pain you will feel and feel joy you will feel. I want people to read my books and nod their heads the whole way through because they can relate. They feel for my characters because what they feel is real. It's real emotions woven into words from my heart. The things my characters go through are what I go through.

MK gets scared; she gets scared a lot. Some people will call her weak when they read it. They'll call her silly or dramatic. But, what if your life was written down on paper? What if your life was your story and you were the main character? I know that if I was a character, there'd constantly be ups and downs. I'd feel great and ready to battle the evil one day and unsure the next.

That's just how real life is. 

If we could break the cliche of "strong female characters" who aren't even human, maybe it wouldn't so radical to read a book where people are afraid, have panic attacks, cry a lot, and have thousands of emotions they experience ever day.

My characters are real, deal with sin, and have complicated lives. Anyway, that's it. That's all I have to say.

Now, here's some pictures that give you an idea of what the colors/themes/and aesthetics of the book are:

You can also check out my Spotify Playlist for my book by searching 'shelby.genco.' My story playlist is titled, 'The U.N.I.T.'

I WON NANOWRIMO

GUYS.

IT'S FINALLY OVER.

AND I FINISHED ON TIME.

HOWWW?

Word Count: 50,120

I still can't believe I wrote over 50K words in 29 days . . .

This was my first year of doing it. I'm thinking about doing it next year too, because it's such a great way to get a head start on your novel.

My story is full of plot holes, bad sentence structure, and plenty of grammar mistakes. But, you know what? That's the beauty of a first draft.

Here's what the month was like for me described in gifs, because it's just more fun that way.

Week One // YAY NANOWRIMO! LET'S DO THIS!

I'm going to get up at 6 AM EVERY MORNING so I have an hour to write before school! This is going to be a PIECE OF CAKE.

Really, the hype only lasted for three days.

Week Two // JK, I am NOT getting up that early.

Word goal went from 3,000 words a day, to whatever I could get done without going crazy.

Week Three // I'm so done.

BAM. Writer's block. Every writer dreads it. It's when your fingers hover over the keys , the word document is blank before your eyes and suddenly all your ideas are crap, everything you've written seems awful, and you just don't even know anymore.

Week Four // I have no idea what's going on, but I'm rolling with it.

I feel you, Hamilton.

In which there are so many plot holes in my story and nothing seems to make  sense anymore, but I just go with it.

Note to self: IT'S A FIRST DRAFT IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE BAD.

If you want to read some snippets from my story, click here!

It's nowhere near done yet even though I had over 20,000 words written before NaNoWriMo.

Overall Word Count: 68,524

I'm not even done with part one yet and the whole book is three parts long. This book is turning out to be much longer than I expected. I'm thinking it might be 150,000 words long when it's all said in done. Yeah, MUCH longer than I thought it would be when I came up with this story two years ago.

Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? How did it go for you? Comment away, peeps!

xoxo

NANOWRIMO 2016

31K words this month. I'm probably behind all you Pro NaNo peeps. But, hey! I'm still happy. As long as I have ice cream to keep me alive for the rest of NaNo, I'm good.

Honestly though, the past two weeks of NaNo have been TOUGH. I suffered some pretty bad writer's block and a lack of self-confidence in my writing for a few days. It wasn't fun.

DON'T WORRY! I'm back in full throttle now and am ready to get NaNo DONE.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun for me to share what's been going on and a few clips from my story. If you want to read the first nine chapters you can check out my other blog here.

It's about spies, teenagers, donuts, futuristic New York, Joker like bad guys, rude bully peeps, crazy capture the flag battles, scary experiments, and much more.

Now that I've got you hooked by that awesome summary, here's a few clips:


This dark place was already weighing down on her. She felt drained, like a pale creature who’d been hiding in a dark corner. The sound of marching boots echoed through the graffiti covered walls. A shiver slid down MK’s spine. Why did she feel like a soldier heading for battle? She was surrounded by dark clad figures marching up to the light. It felt eerie, but there was a strength burning under her skin, a determination she had never felt before.

OH YEAH. I'm so excited I get to share these with ya'll, by the way. *grins*

Gasping as the deathly cold water sloshed against her thin body, MK clambered toward the pillar, using other debris sticking from the water as support. Her foot jammed into something on the rocky floor. Pain shot through her foot and blinded her vision. She tried to breathe, but the impact had torn her voice away. The next thing she knew, she was slipping into the darkness.

Cold water slapped her body, seeping into her ears and filling her lungs. She fought to reach the surface, clawing for air to breathe, fighting to reach the moonlight dancing atop the water. Her lungs were burning and her head felt as if it might burst.

Her whole body screamed in relief as she broke the surface, choking on air. She grasped for something, anything she could cling to. A glowing light flashed past her vision. Was that the flag? Her head was swimming and churning. There it was, the pillar was right in front of her now. She reached out her hands, grappling at the rough stone. It cut into her tender fingers and she clenched it with all the strength that was left in her.

With shaking limbs, she pulled herself onto the concrete base and rolled over onto its surface. The flag glowing above her, stuck in a crack within the base of the structure. A laugh escaped her quivering lips. This was so stupid, she almost died playing a game of capture the flag.

THIS PART GUYS. It was honestly so much fun to write. Yes, I know she was drowning. But, it was still fun to write. *cackles*

Kyle nodded, then sunk his hand into his jacket pocket, digging around for a few seconds until he pulled out a rectangular object. It was covered in a glossy, silver wrapper that crinkled in his hands. He put a finger to his lips before yanking the wrapper open.

“I got the goods,” he whispered as if he was about to sell off a bag of drugs.

“Kyle, is that a pop-tart?”

Kyle is honestly my spirit animal. I love that guy.

Kyle glanced over at her, a puff of smoke following him, drifting in her face. She suppressed a cough and looked away.

“Where are my manners, do you want one?” It sounded like a joke, but MK didn’t realize that until after she replied, “No, I quit a few months ago.”

His eyebrows lifted in surprise, but he didn’t say anything. Folding her arms against the chill, MK looked away as a blush crept up her cheeks.

“You went through some pretty hard times, huh?”

She nodded then shrugged, looking back up to the sky. “Tried a bunch of stupid things, because that’s what we do, right? We call it living when we’re really killing ourselves.”

That last line is my favorite. PREACH IT MK. Also, peeps, please don't smoke like my poor confused characters are. STAY SAFE YA'LL. <3

She didn’t know why, but every time she attempted to piece together what was happening, her mind would drift to thoughts of her Mother.

How she always smelled like peppermint and how she always could make the perfect French braids that were never too tight or too loose and how her hands were always soft and her eyes always laughed and how she made the perfect blueberry cobbler and how she would never leave MK without a hug or hang-up the phone without saying she loved her.

Tears were streaming down her face before she could stop them. She missed her so much, it almost killed her. Swallowing down the lump in her throat, MK squeezed her eyes shut, and, with hot tears leaking from under her lids, she stifled a sob.

*cries* because MK's Mom was amazing.

A sob stabbed her throat. No, she could not cry. She was strong, she had to fight this. The next punch left more like a body slam. That was for this terrible demon whispering lies into her soul, slowly eating her life and spirit away. Maybe that was why she wanted to fight against this deceit and these lies. She wanted to fight for something, she wanted to be something. This terrible depression and agony had torn away everything she used to be.

MK wanted to be a person again. She wanted to love again. She wanted to just be.

Another sob, another punch. Her hair fell around her face and stuck to her damp, pale cheeks. Tears mixed with sweat and blood. Her vision was red with pain and every bone, every muscles, every fiber of her being screamed that they had had enough. A sob finally tore through her lips and she hit the bag one last time, blood bursting from the cracked skin on her knuckles.

The bag swung back, the chains holding it groaned. Colors swarmed and flew through MK’s eyes and she lurched forward on shaking legs. Her body smashed into the leather and she clutched it to keep herself from falling.

Her insides churned and emotions crashed through her mind like an angry storm. Squeezing her eyes shut, MK tried to stem the flow of hot tears boiling behind her eyes. Everything hurt.

 Oh Lord, please, everything hurts. Help me, save me, oh God, save me.

She was whispering it now, over and over. Henry had told her to pray and told her to trust. Was he there listening to her? Did he hear her cries and see her torment? She didn’t know.

She didn’t know anything.

Suddenly, the words of a scripture her Mom had once read to her on one of the last days came to her. “Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you.”

He cares for you.

Me writing that scene:

Well, I don't want to spoil too much for you! Hopefully, I can reach 50K. *crosses fingers* With prayer, tears, and lots of ice cream it shall be done. *fistbumps all you fellow NaNo pals* WE CAN DO THIS.

Tom Hanks though. *heart eyes*

I have a butt load of things going on in the next few weeks. Some pretty exciting things that I can't wait to share about. *grins* See ya soon, guys! xoxo