My Writings Lately

You guys have no idea how happy I am right now. Like...

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I posted a poem on TeenInk called "Key to Her Heart." It's a romance one, which I typically don't do, but that seems to be what the TeenInk people like. You can find it right here. If you read it and rate it on the left side (the stars), I will be veryveryvery happy. :)

But that's not all. It was voted as one of the top poems for today, so it's posted on the front page of the poetry section all day! (See it here.)

There's actually an odd story behind this poem. I bought a key and some chain like a year ago and made it into a necklace. My dad asked me if it was the key to my heart, and I told him no, because it wasn't. But that one question gave me the idea for this poem. Except it was supposed to end differently. The boy was supposed to die. But I decided not to have him do that, so he's alive! :p

And as for the rest of my writings...

I started:

The Runaway House

I wrote and completed:

"Key to Her Heart"

"Plummet"

I updated:

Letters to the Past

♥

Bekah Joan

an excerpt [3]

{via}

[From The Dixon Project. Enjoy, sweeties.]

. . . .

     Dara was in the dressing room, pinning her gorgeous hair into a bun. “Hey.”

     “Hi. How’s school?”

     “Fine. Homeschooling?”

     “As boring as ever.” Amber sat down in front of the mirror, next to Dara. “How’s your family?”

     Dara shrugged. “All right. My mom has been a little down lately. I have no idea why my uncle is up here. He’s being really protective.”

     She has no clue. “Weird.” Amber started working on her hair. “Although it has to be nice to finally have someone acting like a father.”

     “Yeah.” Dara shrugged. “I miss him. I wish he was still alive. My mom said I would’ve loved him. So in that sense, it’s nice to have my uncle. But I still like my alone time. He’s like a personal body guard, except he’s splitting his time up between two people.”

     Elias hasn’t tried to contact her yet. Just her mom. Good—he’s waiting on me. But why?

     Dara smiled at her. “Are you doing anything tonight? I wanted to go see a movie, but my uncle doesn’t want me going alone.”

     Because he knows she trusts me. That thought made Amber almost puke. She was lying to Dara, pretending to be her friend. Amber was keeping Dara safe, but she was betraying her at the same time.

     But the thought that came after that made her whole body feel cold.

     He’s watching me.

 . . . .

When I wrote that last sentence, I smiled my evil smile.

Muahahahaha!

Honestly, this scene is probably one of my least-favorite ones from the book, because the dialogue is weak and the whole scene is virtually pointless, except the end. But this post has been sitting around, waiting for December to happen so I could post it. So I must've had some reason when I started making it. Oh, well. What did you think?

♥

Bekah Joan

[1] [2]

Allegiant (Spoilers and All)

WARNING: This post contains spoilers (hence the title) and probably some typos. I just finished writing this post, but I can't edit it. Sorry. If you read all the way through, you'll figure out why. I'm terribly sorry if my sentences don't make sense and the whole thing is crazy.

{via google}

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I've been busy reading Also Known As by Robin Benway, and then Insurgent and Allegiant. Oh, and making a few-day trip to Baltimore.
But really I just need to rant about Allegiant. That. Stupid. Book.
This post is probably going to be short, because even thinking about the ending kills me inside. I get this sinking feeling in just about every part of my body, pulling me down to a dark place I don't want to visit again. Because Tris is dead. Uriah is dead. Basically, everyone is dead.
I don't remember when I realized what having Tris and Tobias splitting the POVs meant. I think it was somewhere near the middle of the book.
One of them is going to die. That's what I thought, and then I banished it from my head, because I couldn't bear it.
When Tris died, I started crying. Then I flipped through the rest of the pages to see if it was real. Maybe it was some trick. But when none of the other chapters were from her point of view, I started crying harder. It took me awhile to start reading again. But when I did, I cried a lot more.
See, Veronica Roth is a brilliantly cruel author (no offense...I'm just saying my opinion. I don't feel any real malice toward her. Awe, maybe, because she had the bravery to kill of one of her main characters, who I'm guessing she loved. A lot). If the book hadn't been in first person, it wouldn't have been quite as bad, but it was. She let us get inside of Tobias's head. Then she broke him. In the process, she broke us.
I kind of get why Tris died. Somewhere in the book, I remember someone talking about an honorable death. Dying for a bigger cause, the bigger picture. Making a sacrifice for those you love, because that's the only way a sacrifice can be done.
At the same time, though, I don't get it. Veronica didn't have to put David in that room. He didn't have to still have his gun with him. Or maybe Tris could've still had her gun with her. Either way, anyone with an ounce of sense would've seen that she still made the sacrifice. She had no idea if she'd be able to survive the death serum or not. She still saved Caleb. She still tried.
And if Veronica could've just been a little nicer, then maybe Tris would still be alive, Tobias wouldn't be broken, so I wouldn't be broken. Yes, I watched this. I get that her death did her story justice. I understand that they couldn't have a happily ever after, but Veronica could've put that in the epilogue instead. She could've said Tobias and Tris were together, married, whatever. She could've said that they were struggling, because life is full of that, but they were doing okay and the threat of death was gone.
But at the same time, I get it. I'm not okay with it. Yet. And that's why I can't think about that book. That trilogy. All of it. I. Just. Can't. I will not read the rest of the Divergent books that Veronica has written, at least not in the near future. If there are any comments on this post, I probably won't respond, because I can't. Maybe by spring I'll be okay with it, and I'll be able to watch the movie.
Right now, though, I'm stuck in this horrible sadness. I know it will fade, just like it did with Tobias's pain, just like it did when I cried over Beth in Little Women and Dobby in Harry Potter. (Yes, that's right. Before Allegiant, I only cried over two literary characters.)
All right. I have to go. The tears are threatening.
♥
Bekah Joan

success!

I did it. I won—barely. (YAYYYYY!) Congratulations to all of my other buddies who finished on time! And for those who didn't, you guys are awesome too! I mean, come on. How many people are crazy enough to do this?!? (Except the real writers with real deadlines. I've read that this is how quite a few of them write their novels.)
Just kidding about the whole "real" writer thing, though. WE ARE TOO. And we're all pretty awesome for even attempting this thing.

What I Learned:

1. It's okay if you don't make it. During the middle of the month, I was freaking out because I wasn't sure if I was going to win. But then during the last week-and-a-half, I calmed myself down and decided that was okay. And then I made it. (I'm not saying that thought has anything to do with it. I'm just making a point that stressing yourself out isn't worth it.)

2. It actually is possible to still hang out with friends, watch almost a whole season of Doctor Who, AND write 50,000 words in a month!
3. People really are important. When it comes to NaNoWriMo, doing this alone is a reallyreallyreally bad idea. Just saying.

...And more. But I've been working on this post forever, and I just want to get it published, so this is what you're getting on my NaNoWriMo 2013 experience. :p

On the random side:
The Ripple Trilogy. Go read it now. (At least today, the first one is FREEEEEEEEE on Amazon!)
Go Teen Writers: How to Turn Your First Draft into a Published Book is on sale for 99 cents! Well, the ebook version is, on Nook, Amazon, and Kobo. I'm pretty sure it's just this week, though, so GO BUY IT.
♥
Bekah Joan