Reflection

        Look back over the past year of my 20 time project and what I have accomplished, I take away some good things and bad things. I have realized that I did not start on my 20 time project until November and would have gotten more done if I had started earlier and put some more time into it. I have also realized that when something is given to me and i have a lot of time, I tend to push it down on the list of things to do. I really need to work on changing that, so it does not come back to haunt me later.

       Also I learned that when there is something that is given to me and I am told that there is a long amount of time that i have to work on the project, I tend to have times when I take these breaks and do not work on the project at all. That is not good at all, because maybe if I had not taken these breaks I could have gotten more work done on my project. Basically I need to try to work on not procrastinating on projects, because they are equally as important as studying for tests or doing homework. My 20 time project is equally as important as all the other things that I must do for school and if I had not procrastinated as much as I did I would have got more work done and would have accomplished my goal by the end of the year. However I think I will still work on my book still after 20 time is over so that I can reach my goal.

      Now throughout the year I also have taken some good things out of my experience. I learned that when I did work on my project for long periods of time I actually did get a lot of work done. Funny how that works! I would have got a lot of work done if I would have just worked, because I got a lot of work done when I worked diligently. I realized that when it comes to working on a project the beginning research is also important as doing the project itself. I would have not wasted time starting all over, because I did not know enough about my topic that i had to restart, but I was rushing to make a goal that I could have made if I started earlier.

     I also took away that at least I tried something that I always wanted to do and realized that I sort of like what I was doing and thought that I had some good ideas. I realized that with any thing that you try for the first time it will take time to get used to what you are doing and that you cannot just jump into it like you know what you are doing. However once you finally understand what you are doing, then you can just dive into your work. I also learned that I need to slow down when I work and take my time, because when you work fast you tend to make mistakes and become frustrated about the mistakes. They all can be avoided if you start earlier and take your time. Two things that I do not think that I did very well through out my project and now when its coming to an end now I look back on the whole experience and I feel a little regret.    

     

Thinking About Speech

           Now that it is the time for me to transition to thinking about my speech I have become very nervous. Not only do I have to write a eight minute speech, I also have to memorize it. Writing the speech should not be hard, because I have a lot to say about my project and what I learned. The only thing that I am nervous about is memorizing it and giving the speech in front of people. When I have to speak in front of people I begin to close up and almost spontaneously com bust. So my speech should be interesting. However I think that I might focus on speaking about do things that make you happy and how people do not put enough time aside for themselves, but that topic is not written in stone and I may have to go back to the drawing board.  

Not Much to Report

       Over the past two weeks I really do not have much to report for you guys. I guess the good news is that I began to research and write again and come out of this writers block as it may be called. Also I have decided the ending for the book even though I am not really near the point to be at the end, but it helps me write the material now that will be used to build up to the ending. Lastly I still do not have a title for the book that I like or that sounds really sappy or stupid. Hopefully it will be evident by the end of the book, but for now I am impressed with the progress I am making!!

Stuck In a Funk

    Over the past two weeks it has been considerably harder to write. I think it may be because I am trying to do to much ideas at once and the flow of the book has become a little choppy and the story goes from one idea and abruptly jumps to another adventure and it even confuses me sometimes. I think the best thing for me to do is to delete the past two chapters and keep on writing along the lines of Francisco during the Black death and how he loses his wife and child. That will start the process of him beginning to think that it is punishment for all the horrors he did in Mexico to the Aztecs. Also he will begin to hate the name he was given in Mexico, Fracisco de Muerto. I think that will show to be the most interesting path to the reader. I have also decided that I would like to have a great mind blowing event at the end of the book, like at the end of Interstellar. However I unfortunately do not know what that event will be, but I'm going to really try to incorporate it. If I can make that story line workout then I think the book will come along nicely!        

More Progress

      Over the past couple of weeks I have got more progress on my book. I finally found a website that has a list of names of men and women who lived in the 1500 hundreds. So now I can use names for my characters who actually lived in that time, so now my book will let the reader experience that time period and the events better now. Sadly while I was over break I really only did a little bit of writing and had huge amounts of procrastination. That really dose not set me back, because I have been really been writing at a faster pace and I can always just do a little more to make up for the lost time. Other than that everything is going well and I am still sure that I can make my goal by the end of the project. O will probably continue to write even after the due date!

Progess

          Over the past two weeks I have made progress on my book however I ran into a snag last week, where I could not find any names that I liked that could be used for characters. However I found this website that gives names that were commonly used in Spain in the 1500's. This is great because I can use a name that people from that time period would have and also it has that Spanish twist to it. I have really been trying to add vivid descriptions in every page, but sometimes it can be very hard and I do not want to seem over descriptive, so I will just have to read my pages over and make a decision on what I think. Also I am thinking of killing off his great friend, Bernaldino though the plague. However I might want to kill off his fiance Catalina de Amar. I want to show now the downfall in his life after he has gained riches untold from his atrocities in Mexico. He might have been one of the richest me in Spain, but he is the  most alone and internally at war person there is. They are just a little ideas I want to include in my book Other than that I still am making good progress and think it is coming along very well.    

A lot to Due

        Thank God that finals are finally over!! Unfortunately I have not really had the best amount of time to really focus on my project, but the week before finals I was writing and trying to study, but I realized they were not the best mix to do at the given moment. So I set my project aside to study for finals. Some good news, I began to work again yesterday and did some more writing today. This is the time now where it really has begun to challenge me, because I am starting to run out of ideas, also I and my second huge battle scene takes place when Francisco is 88 and the average lifespan of that time was between 35 to 40 years of life and for him to be 88 at that time would really be a huge stretch. Also somehow I want to incorporate the Bubonic Plague in the story, but I don't know how really it would effect him personally without having him die from it. Other than idea problems things are going well and I still think I should be able to procure the story without going insane in the end.