Creative Writing

Hey! I neglected to mention that, on wednesday, I started school again. And I'm taking a creative writing class this semester!
So, here's the phenomena. I like to draw, but I've never enjoyed taking art classes. Hopefully that won't be the case for a writing class. But some of my teachers from humanities have recommended it, and I'd really like to give it a try.
So, I'll write about that as it happens. Considering this blog is supposed to be about writing, but so much stuff here is not about writing.
We have 2 textbooks.
A Garden of Forking Paths by Beth Anstandig and Eric Killough.
Steering the Craft by Ursula Le Guin.

It looks like "Forking Paths" is writing samples, and "Steering the Craft" is a lot of writing exercises. We did one of them in class today. It corresponded to the first exercise in the book. It was about the sound of your writing. Sort of the childish way of writing where you include lots of sound effects.
What first popped into my head as I read about this was the Ponyo theme song (the Japanese one, not the bad english one). See, Japanese uses lots of sound effects. Lots and lots of them. You get them in manga, though most of them are untranslated, so I don't know what most of them mean, let alone the characters for them. And the Ponyo song used lots of them.
Maybe that could be a project for Ellen. Cough cough. To write out some of the Ponyo sound effects and their translations. And other sound effects too! We could start using them in America and start a trend! Wahahah! Although I think Ellen, Crystal, and Stephanie are the only ones reading any of this. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, however. Anyone else out there?
So, today's exercise was to write a short piece using sound - not rhyme or meter, but other sound devices like onomatopoeia or alliteration, ex.
And I drew my inspiration from Ponyo. First of all in the movie, I liked the sound Ponyo's feet made when she was barefoot. And in the song, there were sound effects for feet.
So I went with a barefoot theme.
I'll type it out for ya.

Sllipslapslipslap, bare feet slapping cement,
Little ones skip-slipping along.
Tomp-tump-tomp, feet stomping on dirt,
Puffs of dust fluffing around browned toes.
Slipslap, tomp tump, running back and forth
Laughing, learning, ringing running,
Fun under wide blue skies.

Yah.
They're meant to be read aloud. Some of us did read ours.
There are examples in the book too.

Here's a couple more short exercises. Last week we started the class by making a 5-word phrase to describe ourselves.
I remember one from our class, I think.
Live wire in a stagnant pool.
Something like that. I can't remember any of the others. -_-'
Mine was
"I hope to touch the world."
Not only traveling (though that would be awesome) but I'd like to write something that can touch people all over. Make people happy, and get them to think.

And we're also supposed to keep a sort of journal. In it, we write anything we notice with our 5 senses, and they gotta be between 10 and 13 syllables. 5 per week.
It gets you noticing your surroundings, and condensing descriptions. I'll find an example eventually.

Here's sad commentary. You think you've written something really good, and then you read it aloud to the class and realize that it sounds kind of pathetic. Sigh.

Obviously, you should not take my blog as a substitute for an actual class considering I don't seem to have a clue what I'm writing about, but I'll continue to write down fun exercises and whatever else I learn.

Plushies!!

A: Zuko, get over here! I want you to dance with me!
Z: What?

OK, glad I got that out of my system. I've been wanting to do that for a while. That's my favorite quote from the series. Heheh.
So, Nicole, Crystal, and I went to Ellen and Kelly's house today and made plushies!
Ellen's awesome, and she made both Nicole and I Zuko plushies! It took her a long time to finish them. she'd been working on them long before plushie day. And in addition to that, she made bases for the rest of our plushies.
Nicole's choice surprised me, but she wanted this one to pair with her Zuko plushie. So she made Iroh.
Crystal made one of her own characters - a cute little guy named Ferres (spelling?). He has ears and a tail. ^-^
And I made Ling Yao from FMA. I dunno why, but I kinda felt like it (out of my list of possible plushies to make) and he has an awesome jacket too!
So, picture time!
I don't have Iroh or Ferres. Maybe we can get Nicole/Crystal to put them up! Hint hint.



So, my plushie of Ling is first. Final is Ling, the Zuko Ellen made me, and the cute little winged creature that Stephanie made for me for my birthday. She named him Marco.
Just so's ya know, here's Ling.



He's really funny.
Oh yeah! Now I have to post these too!
Ellen, Nicole, and I went to Japan Town recently. While there, I got a pudding keychain (there were many little fake foods, and you never knew which one you were gonna get). So, when we got home, I thought "who should I give this pudding to?" And then I went "Ling!"
Then Ellen said that he should be defending it from someone. So we got this one. Heheh.



Roy: Hand over the pudding.
Ling: Never!

Kid Movies

There are movies/cartoons that you see when you're a little kid. Some of them are still amazing. They can be great to watch no matter how old you are. I own plenty of kids movies. They're fun and innocent and good for kids, but they're also interesting and deep enough for older people to appreciate them.
I've been going and watching movies that I remember from a long time ago. Movies that I don't own. for the most part, I don't like them anymore. Some of them are just too stupid, weird, or shallow. There have been a few occasions where I've gone "Did I really used to like this movie?"
It's great when you get a movie or book or something that can be equally appreciated by all ages. It takes real skill to pull that off. Most of the Disney movies are like that. And Ghibli has done a good job on that too (though Mononoke and Nausicaa are definitely not kids movies).

Sound of Typing

You've heard the phrase "he likes the sound of his own voice," right?
Well, right now, I'm reading a book and the author seems like he likes the sound of his own typing. He goes pretty much way overboard with his words. He seems to think that he's being really clever in his descriptions, but it's just over the top most of the time and it gets stupid.
Be pretty and descriptive, but don't go overboard.

Tank

So, at school last semester, there was a big (expensive) fish tank sitting out on one of the benches. I mean BIG. There was a free sigh on it.
I came back for it after classes, but it had already been taken.
I was pretty annoyed about that. Those tanks cost a LOT!
So, on friday at the humane society, Jane and I went to look in the exotics department cause we had some free time. I decided to ask Scott if they ever got rid of tanks. He said there was one in the dumpster out back. I went to look, and lo and behold, there was a massive glass tank out there! Jane helped me, and I dragged the huge thing out of there and we wheeled it to my car.
Granted, my snake Lan doesn't need this much space, but how often do you find a tank like this?
So, now I got it and Mom's mad cause we don't have anywhere to but it, but I'm keepin' it anyway cause I know i'll use it eventually!
The moral?
Summon something with your mind and act on it, and if you're meant to find it, it'll find you some day!

Also at the humane society on friday, I went into one of the cat condos. There were 5 full grown cats.
The moment I stepped in, they all converged on me, wanting to be pet. I needed several more arms. was crouching down, and one of them climbed up onto my lap anyway.
I want a really good artist to draw someone buried in cats.

Knowing

So, two nights ago (I kept forgetting to post about it) we saw a movie called "Knowing." Nicholas Cage was the main character (since "Knowing" isn't a really unique title - anyway, I loved National Treasure, and we saw The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and he was really good in that too, and Dad rented a movie called "Next" a while ago, and the premise of that one was really interesting).
So, This had a really good creepy beginning. don't usually watch creepy/scary stuff. But this one kept me on the edge of my seat.
So, really creepy stuff, but the coming together of it all and the finale could have been better. I mean, the people who were behind some of it.

So, going into a skip. Cough cough. That has nothing to do with the movie. Cough cough.
The end of the world. It's weird to think about. Admittedly, the world would be better off without humans. Humans can be so destructive. But I also think that the world would be sad without humans. Humans are special. They're different than other animals. The world is always a little less spectacular when a species goes extinct. Humans included. Yes, humans can be destructive, mean, immature, stupid, and they disgust me. But not all the time. There are wonderful humans out there. There are the people who write wonderful stories, who sing beautiful music, who paint beautiful artwork, and who work tirelessly to make the world better for everyone else. If humans were gone, all that artwork would be meaningless. Your favorite characters would be dead, the music would fade out, and artwork would be nothing more than stained sheets of canvas. But there are also those normal people. Those people, who without them, life wouldn't be fun. The people who stop you on the street if you drop your wallet. Who will lend a quarter to a stranger without thinking that the person is an idiot to not have a quarter of their own (and I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I occasionally fall into that category...). People who aren't afraid to strike up a conversation with someone they don't know, to make the person laugh (which Dad does all the time). And most of all, there are your family and your friends. Your friends who make you smile and feel happy.
I read this quote on a postcard a few weeks ago. And I though about all the people this applied to.
IF I HAD A FLOWER FOR EVERY TIME YOU MADE ME SMILE, I'D BE WALKING IN AN ENDLESS GARDEN!
Honestly, I'm not too afraid of dying. But I would be sad if all humans were gone. Humans really have something to offer the world, if they put aside their own selfish purposes and actually try to help other people.
So, if the world was going to end, how would you want to spend your time?
Yeah, i'd want to spend it with the people I love. Family, friends, and yes, my animal friends too.

Shadow Link

So, a couple days ago, I had a long, very meandering discussion with Ellen about my current Zelda fanfic with Shadow Link.
I hit a blank spot in my story after they met Din, so now I'm in the Twilight Princess era and am just making things up as I go.
I know the direction I want my story to go, but there's many blank spots in between. I asked Ellen to read it to help me try to fill those gaps. Cause one of the readers said she thought I was losing interest. I'm not! There's just a gap in some of the excitement. But the next chapter starts to get fun again. ^-^
And my Pokemon fanfic's about to get more exciting too.

Long Car Rides

So, a while ago, I wrote about stuff that helps me think of good ideas. Hot showers are good for jogging ideas.
I discovered a new one. Long car rides. We've gone on a few this summer. This year, I haven't been playing too many games or anything in the car (I haven't been playing as many games as usual recently). I've just been looking out the window and letting my mind wander. Uh, letting your mind wander in class might work too. Heheh. But you got to pick a direction for it to wander, if you want it to be useful (usually).
You shouldn't force ideas. Let them come to you on their own.
Also, a lot of times, the simplest explanation works best. For example, a while ago when I was writing my Fern X-Men story, I couldn't think of a good enough reason for something. They needed to travel back in time to prevent a disaster. I couldn't find a reason why they couldn't go to a certain time and warn people about it. I went through all these things, and then I finally came up with the very logical reason that they simply didn't have the power to travel back that far.

To Dream of Falling Upward

So this movie isn't out yet. It's in the process of being created. I know nothing about this director, and I don't really know what the movie's about yet, except it has something to do with a spell going wrong...
The reason I bring it up is because my cousin Beau was the art director. He designed the apartment of the main guy. Woot! Go Beau! He had a party about it tonight, so I went with my aunt and uncle cause Mom and Dad couldn't go. So, The apartment that was in the movie was Beau and Kelly's apartment, so I got to go in the room. (Kelly is a guy-Beau's room mate-not the Kelly who I occasionally mention on the blog, who is in fact a girl)
First of all, Here is the link to the movie.

So, I saw this layout first hand. By the way, that Anubis ad Horus in the picture are mine. Beau borrowed them (Egypt animal gods are awesome!) .

And Beau painted this. There's another too. But these were on the site, so these pictures were easily accessible.

Ethnicity

So, now that I've actually kinda started typing up Shadow Split, I've started an annoying switch. So, this story has a lot of main characters. Each one comes from a different "country" although the countries of their planet aren't like ours. But in my original draft, only Kiya, Marok, and Shiar looked at all like they belonged to the areas that they came from. And then, Kiya's name was originally Terra-definitely not African. And Shiar isn't a very Chinese name either. I was thinking maybe it's technically Xi-ar, or something, but the others just call her Shiar.
So, I've started trying to make the characters LOOK like their actual ethnicity. There are lots of immigrants all over Magic-Earth, but still, the majority of people living in a place are native to that area. Up till now, Briena has lived in America, but she wasn't Native American. So, in addition to making Teri Native American (and several of the teachers) I made Briena half Native-American (just cause I already kinda had a vision of her in my head).
And for Shadow-Split, I've tried to give them more traditional clothes. Like Shiar now has a sort of sleeveless kimono, Tania has the Indian-style sari kind of clothes (she used to be from Russia, but I changed it to India). But again, many of them need special clothes to accommodate their magic - like Leya, who's got wings, and Eliandra, who spends lots of time under water, and Jeromi, who has a tail, ex.
Now Jeromi's a problem. He's from South America. But he definitely doesn't look it. But I can kind of cheat on that cause he's a shape-shifter, and his human appearance is very similar to his animal appearance.
Leya didn't look Hawaiin at all. It's gonna feel really weird to make her look Hawaiian cause I got an image for her already too.
Eliandra doesn't look Australian. Unless I gave her darker skin. But since Aquaticas spend so much time in the water, would their skin be darker or lighter? I don't know how that would effect skin color. I mean, if you spent a lot of time deep down, you wouldn't be in much danger from sun. But they also spend time on land...
I guess Brant could be Italian (but of course he's got the red hair cause he's got fire magic).
See, some things can be explained away by that all-encompassing excuse of "magic." Also, this is a world very different from ours, and their immigration and everything follows very different rules. And some of them probably AREN'T native to the countries they come from.
Also, a lot of them are from countries where everyone has dark skin, black hair, and brown eyes. I wanted there to be a bit more variety in their appearances...

Barbies

(Ellen's final Zuko plushie was very cool! I want one!)
So, I've been wondering about this for a while. Barbie dolls. Though they're certainly not alone, they're definitely one of the big factors that's corrupting kids. Normal people don't LOOK like Barbie... And little girls want to look like her and stuff... And I saw some Barbies at the store today that looked just plain creepy.
Now, admittedly, I had a few Barbies when I was a kid. But honestly, I had them so I could use them to play with my animal toys (yes, I'm crazy nature girl). I had, like, the Barbie farm set and stuff.
And some of the CLOTHES you see... Don't make little kids wear that horrible clothing and tons of makeup and everything! Don't corrupt our kids!
I was just walking through Sears - not by my own free will, trust me - and looking at all the horrible "modern" clothes that they have. Duuuuude, humans are so weird. And in my mind I kept quoting Arith (actually, Ellen wrote this line for him) "Girl's are crazy." The things some girls wear are just... crazy.

Counselor

Yaay! Nicole finally posted about Vlogbrothers!
I really want to see the Zuko plushie! Bring it on tuesday!
I just got home from a week long camp where I was a counselor. I'm really tired cause the commute home was really long. There was something I wanted to post about, but I don't remember what it is.
But anyway, while I was away at camp, an order from Amazon came in, so I get to look at all my new books now!
And I just talked to Uncle Rob. He's writing a proposal for another documentary that's about environmental problems. I told him that he has to let me help, since my major is environmental science.
I also told him that he REALLY should use the clip from Ponyo where Ponyo's dad is going through all the ocean scum on his boat and saying how gross humans are. Cause Rob's a Miyazaki fan too! That would be SO awesome if we could get that!!!!