Alyssa Pennini's Blog, page 5

A Midnight Meeting

By: Alyssa Pennini

Silence fills the forest dark

With scant a hint of light

The owl leads her through the trees

Wings flitting in the night

Gentle fingers brush the bark

Her beauty quite the sight

A hug is given from the breeze

Greeting the fair wood sprite

Wandering with her owl friend

She moves without a sound

Until she’s at her destined space

A sacred spot of ground

A place where time suspends

Home to a pond so round

Full of purity and grace

Where she is finally found

Overhead the owl appears

To rest on a branch nearby

Nothing more is done or said

But for the leaves that fly

The maiden stares into the clear

As clouds part in the sky

A single shred of light is bled

A glossy thread to spy

She peers into calm water

A crystal shade of blue

Her finger sweeps its facade

Throwing a ripple or two

For she is earth’s daughter

That was all she knew

The elements of nature called

Showing her what’s true

Across the pond there lives a man

Who wanders beneath the stars

His mystical quest began in dreams

So he travels wide and far

Each night he searches and scans

For a space without mar

Looking for that glint or gleam

Wherever the forests are

Under the shimmering moonlight

A divine voice is heard

The sound floats through the trees

Along with sweet songbirds

The shadowed wood fills with delight

As if a wish was answered

His future he finally sees

Throwing his thanks skyward

Across the midnight mirrored pond

He saw her standing there

Picture perfect clothed in white

With flowing raven hair

Invisible was their fated bond

Though it was felt in the air

The joy and love he felt just might

Be more than he could bear

A branch cracked underfoot

Revealing his arrival

Her eyes rose in a shocked gaze

And a gasp she did stifle

But a glance was all it took

To recover something vital

The emotion truly did amaze

More so than any rival

He called across the water

To his jewel of mankind

Long have I searched for you

I thought I’d never find

The life that’s filled with wonder

The one within my mind

There’s nothing I would not do

To ensure our lives entwine

I say, you gave me quite the fright

For no one comes here

Except for my winged friend

Who remains ever near

To see you is to know what’s right

It could not be more clear

For I know nature did portend

It’s our destiny, my dear

Duality

By: Alyssa Pennini

A constant war is raging

In the duality of my soul

Both equal and opposite

Are the two halves of a whole

With a clear face that’s seen

A light side like the sun

Which is shown to the world

But it’s not the only one

On the other hand there is

The dark side of the moon

The part that lives underneath

With subtlety attuned

Both my mind and my soul

Are simple and complex

Where inside myself there lives both

Optimist and pessimist

I wish more often than not

For my thoughts to be controlled

But the reality of my mind

Truth is, the chaos is untold

There are times in my life

When all I am is weak

But that is when the search

For strength is all I seek

I’ve found in my duality

A choice for who I’ll be

To find the balance between

The two different sides of me

A Memory

By: Alyssa Pennini

The wind and rain swirl round and round

Throwing me back to a memory found

Of puddle stomping on the ground

With echoes of splashing and laughter all around

Times Past

By: Alyssa Pennini

Arriving to the bygone land

An out of sight clock chimes

Eyes slip shut and in my mind

I’m transported back in time

The autumn air holds a chill

Though the sun shines on down

Leaves change, sail on the wind

Before falling to the ground

Splashing water echoes

From the old creaking mill

The clang of metal on metal

Rings under the hammer’s will

The clunking of horses’ hooves

Come to slowly be revealed

Followed by the tell-tale signs

Of carriages’ shaky wheels

The sounds create a picture

Of a world in sharp contrast

But today in the here and now

I’m reminded of times past

 

 

A Night Time Melody

By: Alyssa Pennini

Darkness falls and yet birds call

Beneath the starry sky

Whispers carry on the wind

As branches shake on high

Woods are home to many souls

Including ones with wings

Owls hoot and wolves howl

As crickets chirp and sing

A shadow world unto their own

Creatures build a harmony

From only dusk ‘til dawn

Sounds a night time melody

A Spot of Color

By: Alyssa Pennini

Outside a cardinal is seen

A bright spot of red

Against a background of green

The Climb

By: Alyssa Pennini

The ground grows steep beneath my feet

Life’s no longer an easy road

But no matter what the future holds

I’m alone to carry my load

Life slows down as I move higher

As through an endless night

Wishing it could all be over

For there’s never an end in sight

Steadily onward, I persevere

For I know if I stop, I fall

Tumbling backwards, foot by foot

I don’t want my life to stall

So with one foot in front of the other

Making progress no matter how slight

I hope one day things will get better

And the climb won’t be such a fight

Writer Series: Editing

After eight months of writing around 75,000 words, The Legend of Valtera was ready for the editing process. Having completed some preliminary editing myself, I started looking for a professional editing service to send my manuscript to. It was important for me to take this whole process seriously as I wanted the final product to be as professional as possible.

The goal was always to self-publish. I wasn’t really inclined to relinquish any control over my story, characters, plot, etc. All this effort went into writing and finishing this book, though, and I found there was really no downside in following through all the way, especially given how easy it is nowadays to publish on your own. But I had done significant research into self-publishing and offering a professional product was of the utmost importance if there was any chance for it to be successful.

Research of third party editing services was next on my to-do list and I’m incredibly thankful I came across Bubble Cow. I found their services online and they seemed to be the most reasonably priced for what they were offering, especially since they seemed to be focused on self-published authors. But the reviews of their services, as clients had great things to say, were the most convincing in my decision.

The decision made, I sent my manuscript off and settled in to wait the six or so weeks until my book would be back in my possession. When the time came, Bubble Cow sent me an editor’s report and my manuscript with edits. The editor’s report contained overall notes about the story as well as a chapter by chapter breakdown of what worked and didn’t throughout the book. The manuscript with edits, on the other hand, was more specific with comments and notes as well as a line by line edit.

I can’t even begin to tell you how invaluable this whole experience was for me as a writer. It gave me a different perspective, allowing me to take a step back as an author to see my work through a more objective lens. Even if nothing comes from this book, even if it just sits on the digital shelf for all of eternity, I still feel like this was all worth it and the whole process definitely improved my writing.

The break was over now, though, and I had my work cut out for me. At first glance, the feedback was overwhelming to say the least, but after a few read throughs it became a slightly less daunting task. Grateful for my thoroughness from the onset, it turned out I didn’t have to make any major or drastic changes. My main focus was elaboration on a few different aspects of the story and the supporting characters and their development. After another six weeks of working, reworking, adding, editing and cutting, my story was finished, coming in with final word count of around 85,000. The final draft now complete, I was ready to move on to the publishing stage.

Light My Way

By: Alyssa Pennini

Wandering through the dark trees

There’s a quiet stillness, not even a breeze

Only pale stars dot the night sky

As the moon has said its brief goodbye

With no path through the forest maze

Panic burns through my body like a blaze

Within my chest, my heart pounds

The pulse of blood the only sound

Fear eventually turns to sorrow

With no direction in which to follow

Now I place my faith in the earth

And wait for a sign from the universe

To remember hope is not lost if I stray

For fireflies have come to light my way

Writer Series: Time to Write

The most important thing I can say that I learned about strictly the writing process would be to take your time. I found it a bit frustrating and disconcerting when I read about the journeys of other authors, some of which wrote their books as Nanowrimo projects. With some people cranking out novels in 30 days, I felt somewhat pathetic and less creative in terms of how quickly ideas came to me and how long it took me to write it all down.

Now I don’t know much about Nanowrimo and I think it’s an impressive feat to write over 50,000 words in 30 days, but unless you are specifically participating in that challenge, I think you have to completely ignore it. I know I did. It was hard for me to limit my comparisons and expectations, but eventually I realized that my journey is my own. Some people can crank out books in days or weeks, others take years. It took me about eight months to finish the writing and initial editing of The Legends of Valtera.

It took eight months, but it wasn’t a consistent effort of producing a certain amount in any given day or week. I didn’t really set goals for myself be it small or large and I think that I would have become increasingly frustrated if I had. Working a full time job, I wrote at night and on the weekends when I had time. At some points, the ideas and writing came easily and others not so much. I remember taking a break probably in the middle and I started the beginnings of another book because a new idea sparked my interest. I wrote around 30,000 words for that new project before I got stuck, then it was back to Valtera again. It was a good break, worthwhile, and it kept me writing.

Maybe some of my issues stem from my writing style. I like to jump around a lot in a story. The general idea and major plot points came rather easily, but I found I had trouble during the in between times. My goal was always 30 chapters and 90,000 words, but the 30 chapters was really important to me. It was easy to separate the story into three acts that way. The word count was probably overly optimistic, but I knew that if I fell short I would still be okay. I did write the beginning few chapters at the start (chapters 1-4), but I quickly moved on to the parts I had a better grasp on what I was trying to achieve (chapter 9). Then it was actually easier for me to write a third/half way through to the end. The middle 10 chapters were by far the easiest because I had a clear outline of what was to transpire in each chapter.

The end (chapters 22-26) only became an issue because those chapters surrounded the character development that I hadn’t even written the baseline for as those were the areas I was stuck on in the beginning. It’s harder and takes longer for me to write filler because I don’t typically have a concrete idea of what I want to happen, I just know in my mind that a certain amount of time has to take place before the next important part.

Towards the end of the eight months, I was jumping around like crazy between my weaker chapters and editing the story as a whole. Reading through the chapters from start to finish, in order, and editing them became my main goal. There was a good amount that I liked and felt strongly about, that it was easier to bridge the gap with the weaker moments and find what was missing overall.

That editing process continued, with input from my mom, until I felt like I didn’t have any more changes to make. Now I’m not saying I thought there was nothing left to be done. Far from it. It was more about believing that I had a good enough manuscript to send off to a third party, professional editor because my author lenses were no longer able to pick up the problems in my story, plot, characterization and development. I knew I was at a good place to achieve positive, yet critical, feedback about the important aspects, such as the overall storyline and cohesiveness, instead of focusing on a wider variety of problems if I had sent my book in earlier. I felt I had produced a good base product that with rewrites I could enhance my overall story to make it better as opposed to having to rewrite and rework major sections of the book.

And after eight months of hard work and writing around 75,000 words, I sent my book off to the amazing people at Bubble Cow (seriously they are awesome) and took a break. My time for purely writing was over for Valtera and it was on to waiting for the next stage in the book writing process to begin.