My First Blog Post!

This is my very first blog post... so here goes!

         Since I like to think of myself as an aspiring author, and the name of my blog is 'Kristina the Writer,' this first post is going to be about my writing. 

          I have always loved books and reading. I can still remember being a kindergarten student and feeling so so so excited to check out my very first library book from the school library. And last year when I was volunteering at my town library, I found the card my mom had helped me fill out when little four year old me received my very first library card. I can't even begin to imagine how many books I've borrowed from the library since then... that number is probably way up there in the thousands. If I truly enjoy a book, I won't be able to put it down. The first time I read The Hunger Games (I've read it at least five times now), I read for 12 hours straight and stayed up all night to finish it. When my sophomore year English teacher in high school assigned To Kill A Mockingbird, I was the first one in my class to finish it. I visit the library in town at least once a week, and I love hearing about book sales and visiting bookstores. Even though I have bookcases full of books, I always find myself picking up more to read.   

          I've loved to write for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, I would beg my mom to get me a new notebook if I were at the store with her. Today, I have piles of notebooks in my bedroom, next to my bed, under my bed, in a box at the end of my bed... Even if I already have a lot of useable notebooks, I still always want to have more of them. A lot of the time, if I'm working on a story (book), I'll write a few pages and then type them up on my laptop. To me, there is nothing quite like a fresh, clean, smooth page in a notebook.

          The earliest I can remember wanting to become a published author was in 7th grade, more than 8 years ago. Since then, I have thought up many, many new story ideas. I can find inspiration for my writing in a lot of different places. Right now, I am working on two different novels (it feels neat to say I'm writing a novel!). I don't want to say much about them in this post, I'll save that for a future post. But I will say that sometimes it can be difficult to decide which one to work on at a certain time. Far too often, I'll be thinking about both of them, and I won't be able to accomplish anything on either of them... I'm working hard on finding ways to organize my ideas for my writing so I can get more accomplished when I do sit down to write. 

          I also need to continuously remind myself that right now, both of my novels are only in the first draft stage, and that... first drafts don't have to be perfect, they just have to be written! I can be such a perfectionist when it comes to my writing, and for me that's a bad thing, because of that I think it only slows down my writing. So reminding myself that right now, it's just a draft is something else I'm working at. 

          I think I'm going to end this first blog post here... so I can get back to my notebooks and my novels! I hope you've enjoyed reading this post, because there will be many more posts to come. They won't all be about writing... some posts might be about my obsession with Disney movies (because you can never be too old for a Disney classic!), some posts might be about my pony and my miniature horse, some posts might be about hockey (go Bruins!), and some posts might simply be about something that's on my mind. Each one will be different, but equally entertaining!
      
          I hope you'll come back and visit my blog again, but for now thanks for stopping by!

~Kristina