Final Week

So this is our last week doing the 20% Project. I have really learned a lot from this experience. Mr.Lee told us from the beginning not to procrastinate and sure enough, that's what I did. At first, I thought I was going to write a novel on my own. Then I joined this group with these two people who were very unmotivated to write the book. But I think that that had a lot to do with the fact that it was the beginning of the year. Then we all seemed to separate and focused on our own projects. I thought that for sure once we split up, I'd get my work done because I'd have no more baggage. Boy was I wrong. I found that after they left or whatever, I had even LESS motivation than when we were a group. I guess I thought that I didn't have the pressure of letting down a group anymore. But something worse happened, I let down myself. This project showed me just how much one can disappoint themselves with nobody to blame but them. I know that probably wasn't the lesson we were supposed to learn, but that's what I got out of it.

Week 12

I feel really bad because the project is due so soon and I still have done nothing. Mr.Lee is always telling me that he wants to see my finished product but I continue to tell him that I am already planning on doing the final presentation on how I procrastinated for a whole year. I see where Mr.Lee is coming from when he tells me he is disappointed in me. He is somebody that I really admire and to hear him tell me that really sucks because he and I both know that I could do better. It's just my lack of effort. Here I am, yet another week in a row, talking about how I have done nothing once again. How am I not embarrassed? It's so annoying how much tolerance I have about the fact that I do nothing all the time in regards to my project.

Week 11

This week, I am still really annoyed at myself. I almost was going to start planning the story again but then I got distracted, as usual. I don't know why I have converted into this mediocre student and I don't know why I seem to be okay with that. If somebody asked me if I'm okay with not doing my work, I'd obviously say no. But I think somewhere inside of me, I indeed AM subconsciously okay with being this student. The reason I say this is because I don't really do anything to change the fact that I am a not-so-good student. It really amazes me that I managed to procrastinate for an entire school year. It's really truly amazing in the most horrible way. I constantly get down on myself for letting it get to this point where I have done virtually nothing for an entire school year long project. It's horrible.

Week 10

This week, I continue to look down on myself for not doing anything for my project. Nor have I done any work on how I'm going to present my project. I am the queen of procrastinators. Although it is nice to be called a queen, I do not like being on this throne. I feel so disappointed in myself for never doing anything. Like how do I feel okay with myself when I'm sitting in class just staring at the back of Kenny's head? That's so annoying. I legitimately annoy myself. I am way too smart a girl to be making myself do this. I need to find motivation. I realize that I should have had this grand realization to find myself motivation a long time ago. Motivation is everything. If one doesn't have motivation to do things that will bring good in their lives, then I personally think they are very week and easily distracted. I am one of those people. Unfortunately.

Week 9

This week, I basically did nothing. I continue to get lectured by Mr.Lee because he's very disappointed in me for not doing any work. He continues to tell me that he wants me to write the story. I have still not written it and I am kinda scared to see what he's going to say to me when I present a failed presentation that was really easy. I honestly know it was really easy but I just am so lazy to do it that I make it seem hard. I have only planned about one-forth of the story. I know why Mr.Lee is disappointed and it honestly makes me sad knowing he's disappointed because that means he knows I could do better. I don't like to be this type of student. I don't like to be grouped with kids that never do their work. I'm really not that kind of student.

Week 8

This week I didn't do anything for my 20% project. I am just really lazy I cannot bring myself to do anything for it, I don't have much motivation to put forth my ideas. I do think about the project often and wish that I did things for it because I do like my ideas but I just don't want to do it. I know that I'm going to regret not doing it but I just physically cannot do it I simply can't. I don't know what it is but I just felt really motivated at first to do this but then I got very lazy to do anything. For example, actually writing the book. I can perfectly imagine it in my head but I just don't want to write it. I hate writing dialogue and unfortunately books have to have dialogue so I get too lazy to do it.

Week 7

 

I realize that the project is all on my shoulders. If I do it or not, how well it turns out if I do indeed finish, or how far I get. So I want to start planning. We have about six weeks of this project left. So for the next two weeks or so, I will plan what will go on each page. I want it to be about 20 pages because that's how long Mr. Lee says children's books are usually so... I feel a little bit overwhelmed because that's a lot of pages compared to how many pages I have planned already. (Six, to be exact) I wonder at what point I will start concluding the story. Or how I'll even end it. To be honest, my goal right now (my realistic goal) is to have the outline finished and have the exact words that would be on each page.

Week 6

This week, we were instructed to start planning out what we were going to do every week about our projects. I don't even really know where to start planning, I feel so behind. I still have to finish planning out what's going to be on each page. I remember how when I first started researching about how to write a children's book, the websites always said that the planning process should indeed be long and it should be thought out very carefully but I feel like I've wasted a lot of time thinking and now it's time to act. I don't want to go up there and not have anything to talk about besides the planning. I want to at least be able to show how the entire story would have turned out if I had finished. (Because I know that I'm not going to finish) But hopefully I don't waste anymore time and get to working.

Week 5

This week, I decided that I didn't want to make the character go ask his mom if he could watch tv again because it really does not make any sense/doesn't support the moral of the story that I am trying to show. So the idea is that he'll be so distracted with his adventures that he won't even think about watching tv. He'll just keep saving the day in each room. Then maybe at the end of the story, he can go into the kitchen (or a room where his mom is) and save the day in there, then she can tell him that he can finally go watch tv or something. He'll deny and say that he has other things to do. And he'll run off and continue with what he was doing. I like the idea of that better than him constantly going to ask his mom for the tv.

Week 4

 

This week, I really didn't make any progress. I have been still trying to figure out other scenarios and scenes where I can make the main character go. I also have to figure out little details like his race and his name even. I have been struggling because after he finished his first adventure, he goes and he asks his mom if he could go watch tv since he already distracted himself for a while. But she says no. The issue I'm having is that I don't know if I want him to continuously ask his mom after all the adventures because then the moral of the story wouldn't make much sense. Since the moral of the story is that you can have fun as long as you have your imagination, I don't want him to go ask after each adventure because then that means he wasn't content with the adventure and still wants to watch tv.

Week 3

This week I continued to plan out what the story was going to be about, page by page. So I decided that the first room the kid will be visiting is his mom's room where he will be "saving the day". It's going to be a snow storm where he's going to save his sister's toy that's on the top of the shelf. I'm trying to think of other climates/regions where I can make him do more adventures in every room. Maybe a desert, a tropical island, a jungle, things like that. But I don't know how many I want there to be and I don't know how many scenarios I can think of. I'm also debating if he should be doing all these adventures on his own. But then again, I think the moral of the story is going to be that you can have fun wherever you go as long as you have your imagination.

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.