Week 7

 

I'm not sure what my group is doing to be honest. At first I was on my own, then I got into a group, and now it feels like I'm on my own again. But I'm not 100% sure. Alex is still writing a children's book, I believe. But I don't know what Arleene is doing. Our group feels really scattered and I don't feel like anything's getting done. We've practically had 7 or 8 days to work on our 20% Project and all I feel like I've gotten done is doubt our project and read children's books. I've also done research on how to start writing a book. So technically, I'm doing as the research told me to do. I'm thinking as much as possible about my topic. Putting out ideas and thinking about the characters and the main plot. In my mind I've made some progress. Just not as much as I'd like to have done.

Week 6

This week, Mr. Lee told my group that we should write our own stories and then at the end, compare our stories and edit them and stuff. So I really want to write about a little boy going through adventures in his house, in each room of the house. I know I want the main character to be a boy. I want to make the character exactly like my little six year old cousin, immediately I thought of him. His name is Adrian and I want him to be who I base my character on. I'm debating if I want to even be in a group anymore, I originally wanted to be on my own anyways. I just don't want to have to run my ideas passed anyone, I want my own decisions. But I think I really need pictures in the story and I'm no artist. So I'd really need Alex. And Arleene could serve as some help in writing, as well. But I feel like everything would be easier if they just listened to me, like the dictatorship I want this to be.... Just kidding about the dictator thing.

Week 5

This week, Alex isn't here so once again, we can't make any solid decisions or anything. Not that I think we were close to being on verge of our great idea. I went on the website 'www.dummies.com' and it said, "Pay close attention to common, everyday experiences, whether at home or at work. What may seem drab or ordinary on the surface might actually be a book in disguise." So that makes me feel like we're on the right track. But how can we interpret the things children like into a book? How can we appeal to kids? And not only that, but what topic would we enjoy putting a year's worth of work into? I kind of like the idea of there being a little boy watching tv, and then his mom comes into the room and tells him to stop and to do something besides watching tv all day. And then maybe the kid goes into different rooms of the house and there's different worlds that he's imagining in each room. Maybe he goes in and saves the day in each different room. I don't know, I'll run it by my group next week if Alex is here.

Week 4

 

This week I was once again researching how to write a children's book. I feel like we are really behind but I don't really know where to start. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we don't know what to do to begin writing. I found a book at my cousin's house that was kind of similar to the type of book we want to write but I forgot to bring it so it doesn't really help us at all. I have also been looking up themes for books and I was sort of leaning towards a kid that's secretly a superhero, and I ran that idea passed my group and they didn't want to because they thought it would be too hard or something, I don't remember what exactly they said. So now I'm trying to find more themes and ideas on Google but nothing really stands out to me. Hopefully we'll have a solid idea as to what we want to do within the next few weeks.

Week 3

This week, we are missing one of our group members. It's a little irritating because we can't really make any solid decisions without him here to tell us what he thinks. So we're just researching books and I looked up a website and took notes on how to start writing a book. It all seemed pretty obvious but now at least I know we're going in the right direction. The website talked a lot about putting out all the ideas possible, even the bad ones. It said to write down all the ideas of possible plots that come to mind. I don't know what better way to explain what kind of book I'd want to write than saying I want it to be like the Junie B. Jones series or the Captain Underpants series. Those types of books are so enjoyable to read that I'm thinking they would be even more fun to write.

Week 2

This past week was really crucial for our 20% Project because we completely changed our minds about what exactly we wanted to do. We thought we wanted to write a children's book because it seemed simple to think of a theme and then base the story on that. But once we started really looking at the decisions that we once thought were our best, we realized that we didn't like our idea. Nothing flowed together, everything just seemed really random and mediocre. I then realized that this "sudden realization" that I didn't like the theme wasn't so sudden, I hadn't liked the theme from day 1. We changed our minds to make a book for children a little bit older, and to make a book that would be longer and wouldn't require so many illustrations. From the beginning of the project, I had been saying I wanted to write a longer book. And two weeks in, my group finally decided to listen to me.

Week 1

Throughout the past few weeks, Alex, Arleene, and I have been trying to develop a broad idea about what our story will be about and what our main character will look like and be named. We've decided on the theme of the book to be about respecting all forms of life. Originally, we were just gonna make the theme respect but Alex asked, "Respecting what?" So we had to think about what we mainly want the book to be respecting. So we came up with the idea of not only respecting people but respecting animals and plants as well. The plan is that we want to make sure that there are no holes in our story so that the reader won't finish reading the story and be confused. Right now, for us, the development of the little details are the most crucial part of our process. We are progressing slowly but surely.