Another Camp NaNoWriMo Passed...

Soooo, Camp NaNoWriMo has been completed for six days now. The golden question everyone is being asked, and answering is: Did you win NaNo? My answer? Yes and no.

Technically I did not. I didn’t reach my goal. I got about three weeks through it, words were going great, and all the sudden everything just died. I was getting the words done, yes, but I discovered that I knew the idea of the story, but not the story. Each time I sat down to write, I dreaded it because I didn’t know what I would be writing. It wasn’t long till I didn’t even like the story. It was such a mess, and every time I opened the doc, it simply stressed me out.

“You only have to write 2k to catch up, Hannah. You’ve done that amount once in two hours. You totally have this, gurl.” I told myself that every time I sat down to write, but that didn’t help. Eventually, it became more and more stressful, and I drew away.

I totally slide away from the story, immersing myself into anything else that would come to view. I finished a couple books I had been putting off, watched a couple seasons of two kid’s shows, (The Miraculous Ladybug and Ninjago guys...they’re fab) sketched endless fan art, cleaned up my playlists, finished up all my subjects (besides one English PACE) of school, prepared some for my O.Y.A.N. novel, and managed to actually people some. (Did I mention I got bit on the wrist by a spider, and rumour has it I’m spidergirl now? Cause it’s legit) *applause*, but my story remained shoved in a corner, and I grew more and more stressed.

Near the end of the month, I decided not to deal with the mess any more. I would start over, and structure it more. Planning happened and soon I was much more happy with the idea, structure, and direction of it. Not to mention it has a new title; Restless Wanderer. I’ve actually written some of the new and improved story, and I’m in love with it now.

Sure, I didn’t get where I wanted in my story. I really wanted to win this one. With my low goal, I had already planned where I would stick my certificate, but you know what? I feel so much more confident in my story in characters now that I don’t really care. I’ll feel just that more confident once I finished, and have a better work. The new revisions make this a personal story to me, and I love that. I feel like I’ve gotten farther in this story then any I have written yet, and that’s special.

Which is why I say I did win NaNo in a way. Camp NaNo isn’t a race. If you reach your goal, great! If you don’t, still great! The whole idea of Camp is to get you develope and further your story, and whether you got one word in or 50k in, you got further in your story.

I know a lot of people had a hard time reaching their goal this year, but I’m still proud of each of you who endured the month and gave it your best shot. I hope you’re not discouraged if you didn’t get as far as you wanted. If you gave it your best, you did well young padawans, and you are amazing.

How was each of you guys’ month? Did you reach your goal this month (whether it be personal or word)?

When I Just Don't Want to Write...

Goooooooooooodmorning, everyone! Two more weeks of NaNo has passed, and by now we’ve all probably reached a low on our stories. Either that, or you’re in the corner squealing cause FINALLY THE CLIMAX. or buildup to the climax. Buuuut if you’re like me...Distractions happened, and all the sudden, I've lost motivation.

All was going well in my writing. I was getting the words down, and I was even a nice amount ahead. It was perfect! Then...all the sudden I just had a slump. It’s not that I hate the characters. Not that I hate the story. I didn’t love it though. It’s was just kind of... meh.

When you boil it down, I just don’t want to write it. Maybe this is because of my binge watching the entire season of The Miraculous Ladybug, or simply the fact that, at the time, I would have much rather sketched, watched youtube, or read, or...just not look at Silver and Gold.

So what do I do? Give in and shove the story off? Sit in the middle of the floor with books and sketch pads? As lovely as that sounds, I’m adamant to win this Nano. In my quest of the answer, I came up with a list of things I typically do to come back and re-motivate. So, tada! My list!

1. Take a Break

Most people freak out and start squacking out a whole spiral of why they can’t, but think about it...You’re stressing yourself out so bad, pushing yourself to the brink of insanity. If you’re characters aren’t speaking, maybe it’s cause you’ve drained them.

I’m not telling you to take a huge year long break. It could be a day, a week. I don’t know, you would have to decide that. But you can’t just be digging yourself a grave with that pen.

Also, when I say take a break, don’t just close the doc and open youtube. I am telling you to close the laptop, or power off that computer. Go adventure outside, it’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s actually super amazing. And stay away from the food. That chocolate will offer no inspiration.

Now what about when you really can’t, or don’t want to, take a break.

2. Change Your Location

Ninety percent of the time I find myself feeling meh, is because of my setting. Quite a lot, I can get away with sitting amidst the covers of my bed, pecking away at my blue and white keyboard, but sometimes I need a change.

Typically I’ll go outside under the shade of the tree outside my window, or else at the table where I do school in the living room. I know a lot of people go to a coffee shop, and I do as well. My sister and I have been going to a farmers market with a coffee shop and writing. This actually helps a tooon. Anytime you can venture outside the setting of your home, I recommend it. It really helps. Not just with writing, but with any project you need done.

3. Pinterest

  

Pinterest is your best friend. Seeing the visuals that you originally placed with your story can be a big motivator, and can offer a renewed vigor. Plus, you can get new visuals, quotes, character inspiration, and settings. It may just give you the push you need to start up again.

4.  Watch a Movie\ Read a Book

Sometimes the problem is you need a little plot inspiration. You need a way for the character to get to get that evilized butterfly out of the akumatised victim’s pin before they make all of Paris filled with hatred and broken hearts. *hacking coughs* But, how!? I’m not telling you to plagiarize, steal the exact scene from that TV show you love, but it can help majorly in getting some ideas. Also, you really have to be careful to not go into binge mode. That’s the point of no return.

5. Share What You Have Already

Shhh, stop screaming. I know, it’s scary to show people the ugly, scraggly first draft with all the red lines, stars, and horribleness, but it could really help. I have my doc shared with my friends, Sierra, Rachael, and Matie, and the feedback they have given has really given me a boost to continue. I seriously wouldn’t have made it to the amount of words I have now without them. Yes, it’s scary to share the mess of words, but hey, it’s the first draft and everyone knows what a mess they are. It could just be a snippet, a scene, or even the whole thing.  

Annnnd that’s my five things! These are just five, not the only. Anyways, I hope you found it helpful, and will have the exuberance to finish your project.

MAY THE WORDS COME, AND YOU HAVE AN EVER FLOWING FOUNTAIN OF INSPIRATION. YOU AN AMAZING HUMAN, AND YOU GOT DIS!!!

Do you agree with the list? What do you do when you just can’t write? Please, comment down below and tell all! ^0^

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week One (Snippets and Squealings)

*ducks in and hides in shame* No, I didn’t post last week. I’m a despicable groundhog. But it was actually, in a roundabout way, intentional. I wanted to be able to do snippets and a little update for my Camp. So...As you guys may know, today marks the first finished week of NaNo. The question is: Did I survive? *throws confetti* YAS, I DID!!! YAY FOR ME! ^0^

(WARNING: post includes much squealing. Grammer Nazis, OCD humans, and people with fangirl allergies, approach at your own risk)

I actually haven’t written in two days, but I was three days ahead so technically I don’t have to write today. xP I’m going to though; shooting to do 3k… *coughs* We’ll see how it goes…Some people I know that’s a breeze for, but me...Ja, I’ve only done about 2k days.

Anyways, for those who don’t know, and want to know more of what my project is about, I have the post explaining it right here and the playlist here. ^0^ Feel ever so free to check them out.

So let’s get to the actual snippets and awesomeness! AND GUYS I AM SO SO HAPPY WITH MY STOOOORRRRY!!! *SHRIEKS* My friends have been like so stinking awesome and supportive, and they read it and like ^0^ *squishes dem* It’s been amazing and I lurveeee the characters...Like, goodness, I adore them so much.

OKAY FIRST THOUGH I WANNA SHARE THE COVER ME CAPYBARA FWEND MADE FOR SILVER AND GOLD THAT’S SO SERIOUSLY AWESOME. *dashes to fetch it*

^0^ that’s me squishy, Ross. Andandandand as you can see da silver mist and hoodie cause he fab like dat ^0^0^0^

Anyways, now snippets. ^0^ *dives to hide under a house*

This here is the prologue. I was having a super hard time starting out so the capybara said I should start with a prologue. AND I DID AND I LURVE IT ^0^. Sadly, the whole thing didn’t fit as I wanted so here da end. *sniffles* (Also, this is nearer to the end when Ross manipulates himself to not feel emotions AND DEN HE GET LIKE ADDICTED TO MANIPULATING HIMSELF AND *BAWLS* SO HE JUST LIKE THIS EMOTIONLESS LOG)

  Annnnd now the first chapter. Okay, for those who didn’t know, it’s basically just this cheesy romance so…

 Okay, also here’s the deal with Kait being at their house. (I just figured this out the other day so…) Kait’s father died (cause he was drafted at the beginning of the war) and then her mother died soon after. Ross’ and Kait’s mothers were besties, so they basically adopted Kait. ^0^

(Kait, as said in the other post, has the ability to redirect and resist emotions. She’s also like really powers smart, and slightly nerdy. She helps train younger kids seeing as if anything goes wrong, she can just resist, and, I mean...she’s crazy smart seeing as her father did a ton of research on it and she got all his books and research when he went off to war. So here, she was studying, and trying to figure out her redirecting powers. Ross will help her out with her powers when he is needed.)

Ross and Kait will also travel to this meadow where they do training. He normally goes just to assist with the supplies and all that, but then sometimes if a child is having a hard time calming down, or is just too nervous, he’ll manipulate their emotions to help them calm, and listen to their teacher.  ^0^ This time, it was a smol human who can’t figure out her powers and she was like huuuurt and abused and she’s so precious and *sobs and squishes her tightly* though, that’s basically just from my knowledge that came to me while writing the tiny bit with her.

*coughs cause I need to stahp putting in the snippets where I put in the star things. I promise I don’t do that the whole time*

Tada! I won’t plague you guys with any more much-too-long snippets for now. BUT WHAT DID YOU THINK????? OF THE CHARRIES? THE STORY? ANY QS? Cause I know I’m like 0.2 percent sense, and 99.8 percent gibberish. Soorrrrry :P

HOW ARE YOU GUYS’ NANO PROJECTS? ARE YOU DOING NANO? WHAT’S YOU GOAL? WHAT’S YOU STORY? CAN I HAVE SNIPPETS? *SQUISHES EACH OF YOU FONDLY*

Emotions and Music While Writing

  Emotions are so very important in writing. If you don’t have the right feeling, or strong enough feelings in a scene...it can ruin it. So how do I get in the right feeling for a scene, or story? Well, my friends, this today is what I’m talking about today.

   As I said in my previous post, my character for my Camp NaNo Story, Ross, manipulates emotions. This especially means I have to have strong emotions for the story. So I am definitely preparing for this.

   As an INFP, and really myself being me, I am very emotional. I can normally get into the character or feeling rather simply, but what do I do when I just don’t feel it? Use Music. Music is so important to me while writing. It definitely sets the mood for me, and also makes me zone deeper in the writing process. When I got more into writing, I made emotions playlist. Some of you who follow me on Spotify might have seen this. But I have a sort of codeish to my playlists. Here, let me explain. 

  “Writing: Explosions” - this playlist helps me get into a more dark of haunting or powerful mood. I typically listen to this one only when writing villains. It really helps. I didn’t want to put “Darkness” on the playlist title. It wasn’t all songs that were dark. So I put the first word that came to mind…:P
 


 “Writing: Hope” - Okay, this one I admit I don’t listen to much. It has fourteen songs, and normally when I write hopeful, or along the lines of that, scenes, I will listen my typical month playlist, or my specific Praise and Worship songs. But if I do...I take a deep breath and really just listen to the song, then start writing, drawing motivation from the song.
 

 “Writing: Luuuurve” - Of course, this one is basically self explanatory. If I’m writing a ship scene, I’ll listen to this one. Actually I listen to this one a lot even if not writing. It makes me happy ^-^


   “Writing: Powerful” - Again, this goes along with Explosions. Though this one I parallel with my heroes too. Not keeping it with villains. Such as, whereas Explosions I save for the villains of my stories, this one I more save for my heroes. “Unstoppable” by the Score inspired this one because it made me feel powerful and in charge when listening to it. Like I could take on anything. I wanted a playlist that made me feel that ways, hence this one.
 


  “Writing: Sad\Depressing” - Ack, I love this playlist. It seems twisted I love it so much. All the feels that come along with it. Not to mention, almost every song has a story and a character that fits it from either books I’ve read, or books I’ve written. So basically, I put the songs that are just some of the saddest or most...just depressing. (If you need a quick burst of sadness, I would recommend “Why Would You Leave Us” by NF. The first time I heard it...I had to fight hard not to cry.)
 

 “Writing: Wilted Roses” - This one is connected to Luuuurve. Basically, I didn’t want all the sad love songs on Luuurve, cause...I didn’t wanted sadness twisting in with my happy, cheesy ship scenes. xP So, I created this one to move all of them. I haven’t moved all of them from Luuuurve yet, so...You may find sad\breakup songs in Luuuurve and not in this one.

 Those are the emotions playlists I have created so far. I wish to create some more, but I haven’t yet for I have far too many playlists right now. Though These are quite effective for me.

   Now. I know that a lot of people make story playlists when they write. I did when I first got Spotify and was writing, but eventually stopped. Why? I put every song that reminded me of my story on. Eventually all the emotions got mixed up. I would have Mansion by NF (a more sad song) and all the sudden, a sweet love song would play. I didn’t want this because it was constantly drawing me out of the current mood.

   After a while, I did pick it back up again. There was songs I had that I wanted on a playlist specifically dedicated to the feel of the story, theme, or feel. (Such as a superhero story is of course going to have quite a bit of songs about power, sides, heroes and villains, probably Superman, darkness.) I don’t really listen to story specific playlists as much, but I still love having it. (I’m a playlist hoarder, yes.)

   ANNNNND I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO SILVER AND GOLD’S PLAYLIST ALL DAY ^-^ Sooo, *coughs and slips playlist here* *sneakily points to gold and grey\black cover* It bootiful peoples. I lurve it. (Silver and Gold playlist)
    

    So what do you all think? Do you have emotion playlists, or Story Playlists, or both??? How do you get into the mood while writing? What do you think of the playlists above?

Camp NaNoWriMo is Coming!

It surprised me when my friend and I were talking and she asked if I would be doing a post on my NaNo project for my blog post this week. I thought it was in two or three months and o.o turns out it's next month. Soooo, change of plans for the post.

So, I'm going to be doing a tag about my story. Now, before I get started, I'm going to say that I'm not doing a novel. I'm going to do a short story, seeing as school is going to take up too much time to plan and write out a full novel. But I luuuurve my short story!

Okay, so the questions. Let's get started on this...

1. What is the genre\setting\world like?

    Well, when I started it out, I was like, "YAS, LET'S DO A CONTEMPORARY!" And then...It's a fantassssy. A fantasy with potions, and superpowers, and kingdoms, and palaces, and manipulation and betrayalll. Okay, more detailed...It's an city that had been burned and abandoned. But after war, many were driven into hiding in said city. It's at a neutral spot, so they were all safe there. It still remains in ruin, but now they wish to build the kingdom back up and start a new city. That's where Ross comes in...

(This is an idea what it looks like, but more darkened and scorched looking)

2. What is the plot about?

    So, as I said, it had superpowers. Ross Orman was ripped from his home and family and taken as a test subject by the *opposite side of the war peoples*. He acquired the power to manipulate emotions. With a snap of the finger he can send some one into paralysis by sending depression into their brain receptors, kill some on from Broken Heart Syndrome, or drive them into insanity by sending too many different emotions at once. (Okay, he doesn't kill anyone. He's not a good guy, but not a bad guy either.) 

   Then of course with every villain, there's a hero. Kaitlyn Layel. Her power is the ability to redirect and resist powers. If Ross sends a emotion to her, she can either resist it, or have it redirect and pierce him instead. 

   Whereas once they were best friends, they now are forced to rivalry. And dere mucho betrayal, hurt, and pain, and emotionsssssss. *cackles*

3. Who are the main characters?

    Yaaas, there is twoish! Mostly one, but kind of two...*coughs*  Firstly, we have Ross. As I said up there, he has the ability to manipulate emotions. He more enjoys having freedom, then being bad. More then anything though, he wants revenge on the people that gave him the powers, cause they...totally ruined his life.

 





Then there is Kaitlyn. Best friend of Ross, and ;) totally ;) not ;) the ;) love ;) interest ;). They are so precious. Also like I said, she can redirect or resist powers. She also may be secretly in love with him, and won't give up on him, and is determined to bring him back to the light side and get him to see what he's doing. She's my precious squishy. She also has fab, colour changing eyes. ^-^

4. What are you most excited about in this story?

     The characters!!!! I'm definitely a character driven person, and I literally jumped into this story with just knowing I had a character named Ross and Kaitlyn...Then came up with superpowers and kingdoms after. After planning the characters, I fell in love with them and they are now my precious squishies, and I shall treasure them forever and ever. 

5. Tell us about some of the food involved (because there has to be food)!

     #Hannah'sconfessiontime I never ever think of food in any of my stories...There will probably be potatoes and cookies...Probably not mentioned, but there will be cookies.

6. Tell us about your OTP\friendship in the story!

     Ross and Kaitlyn. Definitely. Rivals yet still besties at the same time. I find it hilarious cause like Ross is sitting there trying to use his powers against her, and she is just sitting there chill, resisting him, and all the while they are just holding up a strained, but casual conversation...xP

7. What's the theme or point to the story?

     Theme....Teaaamwooork. Betryaaaaal. Fwendshipppp. Courageeee. Honourrr. 

8. Post some pictures from your storyboard!

    Pictures! Pictures! Mucho pictures!

(Kaitlyn's eyes are golden, but sliiightly more galexy\sparkly looking. But in this manner that they are super evident.)




(Different clothes, but Ross, this be Ross. Especially if it was darker and still in the sunshine there)

9. Do you have a cover for your book, or a main picture? 

   Yes, yes, I does! My fab capybara friend made me a temporary cover!!

Anyways! That's the short story I'm doing for Camp NaNoWriMo! Thank you guys for reading and I hope you have a marvelous day and weekend! 

 Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo? What's some of your thoughts for the short story? What's your word count for NaNo if you plan to do it? 

Current Writing Project- Nazi Book

  So, after going on an eight hour road trip, and seeing my sister in another state, I finally sit down to write the post. And it’s late...and I have no coffee...I know, I should have done this earlier when I had more brainpower but…*coughs and guilty scoots out of camera view* ANNNNYWAYS, we didn’t come here to talk about my procrastination superpower.

 The real topic is Nazi Book. (I know, right? You just can’t beat the originality of the title! Jk it’s a work in progress. ;)) This is a book I and my friends, Rachael Steele and Sierra Blasko are writing together! Also, THIS GONNA INCLUDE SNIPPETS PEOPLES! IT WILL BE FABULOUS! PREPARE TO SWOON AND BAWL. (Okay…no. No, you’re not going to swoon or bawl, but…much swooning, and muchly tears have been shed by all three of us during the writing process of this book)

Now. What Nazi Book is about…This, of course, since I can’t ever put into words, made me seek out da fabulous Rachael and Sierra to give me something to put.

Nazi Book, according to Rachael: “Um, girl goes to spy in a German town and meets a hottie and a cutie.” (Starring: Liza Grates as, girl who goes to spy. Stefan Engel as “hottie”, and

Wilhelm Adler as “cutie”.)

Nazi Book, according to Sierra: “Two soulmates on the opposite sides of the war. Betrayal, pain, patriotism, to the point of fanaticism, and forgiveness.”

  So…A girl working with the allies group who goes to spy on a German town and befriends two HY soldiers (Or becomes friends with one, and falls in love with the other) which proves to be both a good idea, but a terribly bad one at the same time…*hacking coughs* Sorry, I’m being to very vague. (This is what happens when deprived of coffee and sleep) It’s good in the sense that seeing as they are both respectable, they help protect her from the others. Though it’s bad in the sense, she knows she’ll hurt them when they find out the truth, and Stefan is still loyal to Hitler so…

Anyways, let’s go to the characters. Hopefully this will help clear it up. Here is the three mainish characters we have, and who writes who.

  Rachael- Rachael writes are mainish girl, Liza Grates. Liza is the Ally spy, and she’s a little sweet heart. She’s stubborn, and brave. I am drawing a blank on how exactly to explain her…She’s secretive... fearful yet incredibly strong. She’s a dear, though has the ability to tear your heart to pieces without a second thought...All in all, she’s a very complex charrie. *squishes her*

  Sierra- Sierra writes everyone’s little adorable angel, Stefan. He is seriously impossible not to love. Trust me, I tried to hate him. It didn’t work. He’s my precious. Yes, I have claimed him as my own. *coughs* Okay, Stefan’s a dedicated HY soldier who just so happens to fall for Liza…who is half Jew so…*pets his head* The little dear. His heart all befuddled.

I didn’t put a snippet of Liza, cause I’m giving you a bit of a Steza Scene. This is Stefan and Liza’s first meeting. *casually slide over a snippet* *whispers* Also, two of Steza’s songs is Sad Song by We The Kings, and A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.

 Yes. Yes, you may flail and pet their heads at any time. ^-^ *crickets* *casually pets their heads and gives them cookies* *whispers* Also, we haven’t put thought of what rank Liza’s “dad” is so that’s why it says (rank), and also this was going to be a historical retelling which is why German is in parenthesis.

Hannah (Me)- I write Wilhelm. (Will is what everyone calls him. Including me, though for this post, I basically called him Wilhelm throughout it all xP) He’s my angelic, darling precious, and seriously my favorite character I’ve everever written. Basically, he’s in the HY, but he hatttttesss it. He has the same personality type as me (INFP), and I feel really connected to his charrie and...have shed many a tears over Will cause seriously, this book is sososo feelsy.

 In the first scenes\draft, he was one forth Jewish, but we’re still trying to figure out how to keep him a fourth Jewish without him getting killed so…  He’s also besties with Lizzaaaa too. Oh, and did I mention he has really, really bad vision. *beams angelically*

(This snippet is from Book Two, but it’s one of my favorite scenes with Liza and Will so I’m doing it. This was after a failed counseling session with da preciouses, Stefan and Liza, because after the war in the first draft, Liza was a counselor human.)

So yes, this is my post. *coughs and nervously glances around* So...I guess this is goodbye? I hope you guys have a fabulous rest of the week! May you get straight As, write and read fabulous things, and always have much coffee. *beams and goes poof*

  So, yas! I’d love to hear you guys’ thoughts on the snippets and characters. What’s your currect WIP? Do you have any snippets you could share??? I’d love to read them!

I am Back and I Have Coffee!

  Hello beautiful peeps! Tis I, Hannah da Groundhog. In short, today,  I’m going to try and get back into blogging. I got a burst of inspiration...aka OYAN is staring at me and I’m ignoring the call and doing this…

  Okay, so I owe you all an explanation for my absence. I know I never was a very planned, or organized blogger, but I also haven’t been on my BookTube much. The reason? Number one… School. It killed me. I have taken on some new subjects and a new cicculem, OYAN (One Year Adventure Novel), and overall, I’m doing school really late and don’t really have enough time for some school, and if I would do YouTube...Yeaaaah.

        (WARNING: I’m also writing this while empowered only coffee. So, I just being like…)

                             (Yes. Yes, the picture should be this large. Don't question me.)

 Next thing was, for my YouTube, my sister moved to a different state and is now a school teacher. When she was living at home, I would use her camera to film. But after she moved, I was like, “Okay, this is chill. I gots dis.” And then...Yeah, I was using my mom’s camera until she said she’d rather not have me use it. Then I used my laptop, which...Nein. Didn’t go well. So...until I get a camera of my own, and have more time to actually read, I’m off YouTube. (Also, I am so sorry for not explaining this earlier. For my delayed ness, I have no excuse. *hides and piles cookies around me as a shield*)

 Anyyyyyywaaaays, I didn’t come here just to make excuses for my awful groundhogness. I came because, I am intending to pick up blogging again. Though this time, not just books. Don’t get me wrong, I love having my blog centered on books, and I lurve book blogs as well, but soon after I started blogging, I realized I didn’t want to do just books. There were many small things I wanted to blog about, but I didn’t want to take away from the main focus.I mean, I will still have a lot of bookish and writerly things, but I don’t want that to be just it…*coughs* okay, most likely, it’s a 99.999 percent chance this will be like a ton of writing stuff, but anyho. *cough coughs*

  Also, I’m still not going to assign myself dates to post, cause whenever I do that... I epicly fail. Soooo, hoping for two every month, on every other Saturday, but I am not sure how it’s all going to work out.

  So, yes! Welcome back to my blog, and if all goes as planned, I will have a new post on the eighteenth! Thank you guys so much for reading! Have a fabulous day!

~Hannah M. Rodes

 How has school been for you? (That is, if you are in school) Or what have you been up to? How are you? *gestures to comment box and beams*