Fern

So, I've been neglecting to put up the Fern pictures that have been building up in my notebook. So, I finally scanned them. There's a couple more I want to draw, but I'll put these up these for now.
Hahah! First one! I did not draw it. Crystal did! And I will take this opportunity to put her in the spotlight!!! And she's gonna see me tonight for Halloween. She's so good! Look at the cute little chibi! (I tried drawing a chibi Fern and failed miserably - it looks so creepy! But hers is so cute! I gotta practice my chibi!)
So, I realized a while in that Fern's scar was on the wrong side of my drawings. I didn't feel like going back and changing them, so I kept drawing it wrong. Then it bugged me too much, so I went back and changed them, but I didn't re-scan them. So, the first several pictures have her scar on the wrong side.

Here's my first picture.

Here's Fern and Fang, the black wolf. I dunno why she's crying. The point is, Fang's always there for her.

Here's Fern with her wings out. She's meditating.

Here's Fern with her cloak, and Ben with his jacket. This one's kinda lame.

Here's Fern, asleep. And Ben was nice enough to give her hi jacket. His jacket is really awesome. I'll show a picture of the pattern on the back. Took me a while to draw, but I WANT IT!!!

Here's the reason that Fern keeps her hair in a ponytail. And Chi is her ringtail friend.

Here's Fern with C, her horse. It can be See or Sea or C or Si, or anything.

Here's Ben's jacket design. Bat wings to contrast Fern's bird wings.

Here's the brooch for Fern's cloak.

CW-Poetry

So, Ellen just started the fiction section of her creative writing class. I'm the opposite. I just ended, and we're spending the rest of the semester on poetry. Now I do like poetry, but I wish it wasn't the longest section of the class. I want to spend more time on fiction! Waah!!
More on that later. We turned our journals in, so I gotta wait till I get it back before I can update on the stuff that's in it.

Secretariat

Happy Halloweeeeeennnnn! Muahahahahahahahah!!!
I'm dressing up as Yellow. Crystal, Kelly, and a couple of their friends are coming over, and possible Angeles.
There are so many things on my list of stuff to post about... that I've forgotten what they are. >.<
We saw Secretariat in theaters yesterday. A horse movie, so that was fun. I'd heard of Secretariat and knew that he was a Triple Crown winner.
But THIRTY LENGTHS. THIRTY FREAKING LENGTHS. I had no freaking idea he won by that freaking much!!!!!
Also, Ellen is here for a short while today, so if she's feeling okay, hopefully she can come over or I can go over and we'll watch How to Train your Dragon cause she hasn't seen that yet. Even though I just watched it I want to watch it again.
Oh yeah. I remembered something else I wanted to say.
On thursday, I stopped by after my creative writing class to talked with my teacher about the part of the Katani story that I've finished. I sent it to her a couple days before. She didn't get a chance to read the whole thing I sent her, but she scanned it and she's gonna read it and I'll talk with her again in a week.
So, yeah, we just talked about stuff that did or didn't relate to my stories for a while. I didn't really have any specific ideas for what I want to talk about, but I thought it was a good idea.
And for the Katani story, as of now, I've just finished the dividing up of candidates into the 2 separate groups.
I need to work on it some more. I want to write the part of what Katani does when he leaves the place.
I've been looking forwards to writing the sorting and what comes after. ^-^

LTCW-fiction! :D:D:D:D

So we're finally getting started on fiction/short stories for my creative writing class. And may I say...FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't do poem, I don't particularly like poems, and I can't write poems to save my life! But writing, writing is something I can at least sort of do. So I'm just ecstatic, regardless of the fact that I have to do a gazillion critiques on writer's work that I haven't done at all since the start of this class, and that I have a take home midterm that I need to do this weekend, and that I have oral surgery this weekend, and that I wont be able to go trick-or-treating at all! Oh and I'm supposed to have a whole ton of concept art done for the videogame I'm doing art for by Friday. So yeah I'm not worried about that at all... :D

In any case today's prompt was to write a two page character bio/description thingy. No plot movement, no meeting other characters, just the one character, what they look like, how they move, etc. I think I'm going to work with a Nexsidus-like character just cause he was so fun to write for...but it's subject to change so I can't be entirely sure. I was actually thinking of doing Zuben but making him an actual person...but I dunno...even Kailo would be fun to do ^__^

So if any of you reading this have an idea, post it cause I'm kind of at a creative block from trying to be creative with so many other things >_<

Oh and Tara, me coming over and Sunday this weekend is kind of up in the air, I probably wont even know until the day of, cause it all depends on whether I feel up to it that day or not. But if I do come over we have to HAVE TO HAAAAVE TOOOO watch the How to Train your Dragon movie cause I still haven't seen it.

But yeah fiction writing ftw! Try the exercise if you want :D

Ai no Melody

So, I decided to put this song on the blog. It's the ending song I mentioned from "Origin: Spirits of the Past."

I like the soft middle part the best.
In the movie, they actually translated the lyrics for you. You can find them easily online.

CW-Memoir

So, I'm finally putting up my memoir piece which we did a few weeks ago. I was putting off doing the editing.
I'm annoyed because of my failed flashback. On my final drafts, she said I shouldn't have flashed back, but she didn't even mention it on the first draft, so I thought it was OK!
So, yeah. I messed with my story to make it go chronologically.
We also had to cite 2 sources for this, so if you find 2 very randomly stated facts, that's why.


Falling and Standing
Tony, my distant uncle, and his wife Pat live up near the northern Sierras, by Lake Almanor. As we drove up to their house, the first thing we noticed was Tony’s collection of antique cars dotted about the road to their ranch. We parked in front of their house, greeted by the four large dogs that made their home here.
Beside the house was a strange lot full of mysterious dilapidated structures. One of the shy cats was slinking amongst them. Past the hutch with a single spotted rabbit, and the dusty coop of hens, was the stables: home to Pat’s three horses.
Most people wouldn’t find this impressive, but I certainly did. Any place with animals that was surrounded by wilderness was a place I wanted to be, especially if it had horses. I hadn’t been horseback riding since my previous birthday. After years of western lessons, my awesome old cowboy of a teacher had retired and moved out to North Dakota several years ago. His ranch bore a striking resemblance to the worn parts of Tony and Pat’s house. Only his place was much dustier.
Our arrival was in the midst of a thunderstorm. I’d been looking forward to horseback riding at this beautiful new place, and a little rain wasn’t going to stop me from doing so. And Pat didn’t mind either. She was happy to have a riding companion for a change.
She asked if I minded riding bareback. I’d ridden bareback once before, but that had been with a blanket under me. I’d always wanted to go with nothing but my pants between me and the horse. That’s a privilege usually reserved only for those who own horses. I eagerly agreed.
So, out we rode into the thunderstorm, Pat on Summer and me riding Abbey. Two of the dogs tagged along behind us, swishing their tails and zigzagging back and forth to investigate interesting smells. The dirt road lead back into the forest, and was draped in a canopy of pines. The branches didn’t do much to keep the rain off.
It was great to be back on a horse, feeling the familiar swaying motion below me. Without a thick saddle under me, I felt more connected to my horse.
We hadn’t gone far before we arrived at a small lake. Dark green grasses and flowers clung to its banks. Abbey and Summer headed there eagerly and we let them bow their heads to graze on the fresh greenery. The dogs trotted about, exploring the familiar landscape. Rain darkened both fur and clothes. I could feel water running down my scalp. This was wonderful, to be able to sit at the edge of this beautiful lake, feeling the rain while the horses grazed.
A strange call reached out over the lake. A deep trilling “whu-puurrrrrrrrrr.”
I scanned the lake for the one responsible for the strange call and my eyes landed on a tall brown bird with a red forehead that was stalking towards us. It was a sandhill crane, the most common species of crane, though I’d never heard anything like the strange “Whu-puurrrrrrrrrr” that it was hollering.
Pat and I turned our horses home at last. We were completely drenched, but quite happy. Something about being soaked with rain has always made me feel refreshed.
The storm cleared later that evening, and Pat offered that we go out again. My answer was obvious.
This time, it was a trio of dogs that bounded along after Abbey and Summer. We took a different route, away from the lake and deeper into the forest. It wasn’t dark yet, but the sun was beginning its descent. That was when we heard the coyote yip. The dogs took off to chase their wild cousin. We continued to hear the yips as the coyotes taunted the tamed canines. Beneath me, Abbey was becoming a bit jittery, spooked by the laughing of the coyotes. She began to trot. Abbey is a very bouncy horse compared to others I’d ridden. Not only that, but I didn’t have the saddle that I always had to keep me in place, with its reliable stirrups and horn. In a saddle, I could have withstood anything. But Abbey’s bouncy trot threw me off balance and I found myself flat on my stomach on her back, my face beside Abbey’s white mane.
My body made the decision without the consent of my mind. It said that it was time to let go. Suddenly I slipped sideways, and one moment later, I was standing upright on my feet, on the ground. I was completely disoriented. A moment ago I’d been on a horse. Now I was standing on the ground.
“That was a beautiful dismount,” Pat said, impressed. And for good reason. Most people that perform an involuntary dismount don’t end up landing on their feet.
Abbey came to a halt not far away and I used a stump to get up onto her back again. The dogs came back and we rode the rest of the way home without incident.
I woke up the next morning to be greeted by Sophie. She climbed up onto my bed, holding something in her hands. Considering 3-year-old Sophie had been rather distant with me yesterday, it was a pleasant surprise to find her greeting me so cheerfully this morning.
Then I saw what she was holding. It was a huge black beetle. There was a momentary flash of alarm as I jumped to the conclusion that she was holding a stinkbug. What if it blew up in her face? But I realized that if it hadn’t yet released the smelly liquid from glands in its abdomen, it probably wasn’t a stinkbug.
I accompanied Sophie to breakfast with her new pet. Pat, Sophie’s grandmother, suggested that Sophie free her bug, but she refused, acting very possessive of her little friend. As we ate our pancakes, Sophie placed the beetle in her shoe on the table. The beetle did what beetles sometimes do, and it began to crawl out.
“Your beetle’s escaping,” I noted.
Her interest in the beetle had waned with the appearance of breakfast. “I don’t care. Syrup is better than beetles,” she replied.
Even though Dad and I had a long drive ahead of us, we went for one more ride that morning. This time I was riding Summer. Pat put a saddle on Abbey so that Sophie could ride with us. We were accompanied by the regular pack of dogs, and this time Dad came too. We wanted to show him the beautiful lake, and hopefully the cranes as well.
Pat walked beside Abbey, keeping a close watch on Sophie. She held Abbey’s reigns, leading the horse along. Summer and I walked along beside them with Dad between us. When Sophie got tired, she walked with Pat.
We went again to the lake, listening to the “Whu-puuurrrrr” of the cranes. The horses grazed in the grass and Dad enjoyed the beautiful view and the concert of birds.
On the way back, Sophie rode again. We all gave a cheer when Pat let go of the reigns, letting Sophie ride by herself for the very first time.
We were about half way back when it happened.
“A car’s coming,” Pat called. I could hear the rumbling from behind us.
I was in front of the others, and couldn’t really look behind me to see what was happening. I steered the resisting Summer off of the road and tried to bring her to a halt. She pranced in place, not quite stopping all the way. The roar grew louder. And it wasn’t slowing down. What idiot would drive by horses without slowing down, especially with a child involved?
Dad and Pat told me that the small off-road vehicle had started to slow down a little bit, though not to a safe velocity. The dogs got excited by the too-fast vehicle and ran at it. The driver hit the accelerator to get away from the playful dogs, and he continued to charge down the road.
That was when I saw Abbey gallop by with an empty saddle. Where was Sophie? I had no time to think about that. By that time, the car was upon us, and Summer panicked. She took off at a canter, despite me pulling desperately on her reigns. And again, I had no saddle to keep me in place. I watched helplessly from Summer’s back as she pounded off the road and nearly knocked me against the trunk of a tree. I was once again flat on my stomach across the horse’s neck. And once again, my body made the decision without the rest of me. I don’t quite know how it happened, but as that tree flew by, I slipped off of Summer’s back and did a perfect roll, winding up in a sitting position. Abbey and Summer were galloping towards home. And that car drove right on down the road without even looking back. I raised my fist and shouted after them as loud as I could, “YOU JERKS!”
I stood up, unscathed except for the smallest of bumps to the head. Thankfully, Sophie was fine. The moment Pat had heard the car, she’d grabbed the little girl out of the saddle. Relief spread through me. Sophie was OK. That could have ended disastrously for her. Even worse than I could imagine.
I was trembling with rage and adrenaline. Had I ever been this angry in my life? I didn’t really calm down, even when we reached the house again. Abbey and Summer were waiting for us, grazing outside of the fence. Pat got them back into their corral with no problems.
I’d never fallen off a horse before. You might think it would make me afraid of horses. But not at all. It wasn’t until my next birthday that I got a chance to ride again. That was what I chose to do the day I turned 20.
After all, they say that if you fall off a horse, the best thing to do is get back on.

CW-Simile

So, the new weekly lines (which were assigned on tuesday) relate to the short story we're writing.
You need 5 descriptive lines with similes in them. No adjectives. They gotta be noun/verb/ex similes.

And since this post is so short, I'll go on.
This was a quick writing exercise.
First, the example.
"Billy Baxter threw his backpack on the kitchen counter.
"I'm home."
No one answered. Where was everyone?"

So, you're gonna write something very similar to this. You know, action, then dialogue, then comment about the dialogue, and then dialogue following that. Do not think about it. Just go for it. your time is limited. You don't need to go too far.
(I'm pretty sure that explanation about how to write this made no sense. Sorry)

CW-Stories

So, here's a metaphor that our teacher's been using during class.
In a story, you have a person on one side of a river. The river is dangerous, with currents, undertow, crocodiles, ex. And there's something on the other side of that river that s/he wants to get to.
That's what a story is. A character has a motivation, and he needs to overcome obstacles to reach for it (and maybe he doesn't get it).
The place where the character's motivation and the obstacle clash is the climax.

Here's some hints for the short story (less than 10 pages, double spaced, which is our next assignment).
For a short story, you need a narrow focus. It can't be too complex.
It should cover a short amount of time.
The motivation is only one thing (you can show through action, dialogue, memory, ex).
In a short story, the climax doesn't have to be big.

CW-Edit

So, this was a free-write we did in class.
Our teacher wrote this quote on the board.
"Nothing you write is sacred; everything can be revised. Write passionately. Edit like the frozen tundra."
She told us to write until she said we could stop. And don't pause either.
Yeah, editing is important.
I think it was John Green (Vlogbrother and Nerdfighting author) who said that at least 90% of his finished works were edited, and most of his best stuff came out of editing.

CW-POV and Tense

So, the next chapter we read in the LeGuin book was bout point of view and tense.
A lot of people kind of shift the tense around in their writing. Don't do that (Unless you have a very good reason). Same with POV (except for a very good reason). You need to keep the same POV throughout. I'll summarize the main points of the chapter.
You got the first person - the "I" story.
Then second person, "you," is probably not advisable for most writing.
Third person, "he, she, it," ex is the most common.
Then you got the limited 3rd. That's where you have a main character. I'll use Harry Potter. You follow whatever Harry does and you know only what he knows, sees, hears, ex. That's a pretty common way to write.
(And you can have an all-seeing 3rd person POV, or a part seeing 3r POV, ex)
And tenses. Most things are written in past tense. You've probably noticed that. At least in stories. It can be different for essays and such.
Here's the exercise (just a page long). It's about an old woman who's doing something, and then remembers something that happened a long time ago. You're gonna switch back and forth between her as an old lady and her memory.
First, you choose either 1st or 3rd person.
Then you choose a tense:
Both can be in past tense
One can be in past one can be in present,
Or all can be in present.

You finished writing it? Good.
Because you're going to write it again . This time choose the other POV, and a different tense. Don't just copy and past on the computer. Rewrite it.

CW-Reading Reviews

So, I didn't mention this, but I thought I should.
Throughout the creative writing class, we've been reading several of the short stories from the Forking Paths book. She has us write responses to the readings. Not just like "This part sucked" (Once again, almost all of them are depressing or something...) but analysis sort of stuff.
Yeah. Just saying.

Quotes

So, a couple weeks ago. I said I went to that author event. As Iw as going through my notes to write my paper, I decided I'd write down some of the things he said (FYI, I just got his book from the library so I'm gonna try it out).
The first two were funny. Though they might not be as much so out of context.
"This books' about escape. I didn't know that... till just now."
"I put Houdini in there, and Houdini was just what I needed. Thank you, me."
Writing is all about talent, luck, and discipline. Discipline is the only one of the three that you can control.
The end is a beginning. (I think that's really important. Your ending needs to be the beginning of something new).
Someone comes to a book asking to be lied to (cause fiction is... fictional).
If you have a good book, the longer it is, the better.

Origin: Spirits of the Past

So, I need to do a lot of blog catchup, especially with my creative writing class.
But I just finished watching a movie a few minutes ago, and I wanted to write about it. It's an anime movie called "Origin: Spirits of the Past." I saw a commercial for it and it looked interesting so I rented it. (I watched it in Japanese)
It's very pretty and pretty cool too. I liked it enough that I'll probably end up buying it. Admittedly, the climax could have been a bit more suspenseful and I wish they'd done a little more with the forest girls and stuff. And those wood dragon creatures. But it was still good. I really liked the ending song too. It's pretty! Great artwork too.
So, I think it's good to spread news of good movies. Cause I'd never heard of this one before.
It's a bit similar to Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky. It's a futuristic world with a forest that some people think is dangerous. And the boy finds a girl who "leaves" and he tries to find her again.
Hmm. I wonder if I can find some pictures...
Ah, not too many. Here's one though.

Tribes

So, been doing more catch-up on Vlogbrothers, and Ir reached this.
This is the kind of thing I find very important. Please watch and form a tribe with me! We must reach level 5!!!!

Ed Plushie

So, I'm probably gonna take a break form making plushies for a while as I try to catch up on other stuff. But I finished Ed! His braid was an interesting challenge. I did his "antenna" too, and I made his arm gray. His hood is kind of in the way of the design on his jacket, but it's there.

And here's a lineup of all my plushies. again, Ellen made Zuko and helped ons several others.

Worlds and Emotion

Ellen, seriously! You don't know the third world? It's the place where we wrote our story! Soreina, the dragon world! You wrote it yourself on the post! Hahahah! And then there's Magic-Earth and Technology-Earth.
Yeah, I kinda realized that I write some of this blog stuff without summarizing important stuff that's actually in my stories. I'm sure I wrote this a looong time ago, but I'll write it again.
But before I do that, I had another field trip for my class today. And we had to come home the long way because a certain festival made it really hard to go home the normal way. SO, I thought "Ellen lives in this direction!" So, I called her and we had lunch today, which was totally unexpected and really fun and I got to try the scones she's been raving about. Nicole will be jealous. Heheh. I keep calling her and she never picks up! Bleh.
So, when Ellen asked me what the third world was and I told her, she just kinda smacked herself in the forehead. Heheh.
And Ellen told that scary story at Halloween a few years ago while someone was making scraping sounds on the couch, and Nicole got really freaked out. That was funny! And then I actually read that story (cause they had XXXHolic at the library, and I prefer to read manga in hard copy instead of on the internet cause it's easier on my eyes and I don't have to wait for pages to load-more on that later). So, I read that scary story in the actual manga and went "HAHAH! I know this story! And now I know where Ellen learned it!"
Back on task.
Shadow Split is the name of one of my stories. What you were probably thinking of are the "Great Splits." And The story "Shadow Split" includes information on one of the Great Splits. It's confusing. I'll mention this once I set everything else up.
So, what I'm about to tell you I first decided upon in my "Lullaby of Awakening" story a looong time ago. And I liked it, so I built on it and added Soreina eventually.
So, here's how I told it. There started out as being one Earth. Then humans began to evolve. From what I learned, modern humans arrived about 30,000 years ago. When humans appeared, the Earth knew that they had the power to change the face of the planet. So, she split into two, giving one Earth the power of magic, and setting the other Earth on the path to Technology.
Tens of thousands of years pass and the two planets continue to evolve with many things the same, but many things different.
And then on our planet, Technology-Earth, things start to get out of hand. Humans start going a bit wacko, which involves killing off all of the dragons and other creatures that possess magic. You may have heard of the dragon-slaying knights around the time of King arthur, and such? So, Earth splits again around the year 500 (The Second Great Split), creating Soreina. Earth then takes all of the magical creatures and some of the humans who are willing to live with those creatures (along with tons of normal animals) and she puts them on Soreina. All of the humans kinda got randomly scattered over the center continent, hence the lack of really solid cultures that resemble ours. This is the world where you and I, Ellen, wrote a certain story which happens to be over 250 pages long.
And you don't remember that planet!
Now, onto the story Shadow Split.
It takes place in present day. Once again, our Technology-Earth is causing problems. You may have noticed. Destruction of habitat, air pollution, plastic islands in the middle of the ocean, global warming, overpopulation, crazy laws, countries, and people. So, as we speak, Earth is attempting to bring about the Third Great Shift, to try to help our planet here get back on its feet. (It's more complex, but I'll stick with the basics for now).
Does that make any sense?

OK, onto the title of my post.
Also sort of a reply to Ellen's post.
It can be hard to write scary stuff. Even if a reader is already on the edge of their seat, if a story character leaps out and scares the main character, that won't be nearly as effective on the reader as if they saw it on a movie screen.
And then we have the opposite. Writing something funny. That can be hard too.
Sigh. It's hard to tell if what you're writing is funny or not. I want to get better at writing funny. I'm probably better at creating tension than writing funny stuff.

Psychological Scary

So first I want to clarify, partly for myself and partly for anyone who doesnt know the history of Soreina, so feel free to correct me Tara. There was at some point in the distant past, one world. Then the Shadow Split came about and split the world into three copies, so now there's three worlds. These worlds just happened to evolve differently i.e. magic, technology...and I dont know the last one, but I'm sure there were three...

And the countries in technology-Earth (our world) and magic-Earth (where the stories take place for the most part) have ancestral roots with each other, they just decided to grow in different directions, so that's why a country/country's people can resemble a certain ethnic race here.

Did I get that right?

Ok so onto the main point of my post. Scary stories. Like the title says I'm more interested in psychological scary for my story. Why? Because unlike movies, books cannot have those scary moments of "BOO!" and having something random jump out at you. I mean technically they can but that doesnt mean that it's as...effective as actually seeing/hearing said scary monster leap out at you.

Out of the few scary stories that I have read the psychological ones stick with me best. It doesnt have to have a lot of blood and gore, but it leaves you with the creepy feeling of 'whaaaaaat?' and you spend hours thinking about it.

Now I'll post maybe two stories to explain what I mean. I'm recreating it from memory so if you actually know the story dont be mad at me ><

There was a small hotel by the ocean, a traditional inn. It had three floors and had spectacular views of the sea. The old man who owned it, had died, and with no heir to succeed him, the inn was given to his favorite nephew.

So the nephew began running the place. He took the bedroom at the end of the third floor, the room his late uncle had used. That night, just as he was about to fall asleep, the man heard a scritch-scratch-scritch noise. He sat up in bed and scanned the room. There was nothing.

'It must be the house settling.' Without another thought he went to sleep, the scratching noise continued.

The next morning the man got up bright and early, forgetting all about the previous night's noise. He went about his duties as an innkeeper, but that night, as he lay in his bed, the silence engulfing him, he heard it again.
scritch

'Not again' he thought, 'maybe it's rats! I'll have to get some traps and find it.'

The man grumbled to himself and slept.

The next day, the man looked all over the inn for signs of a rat, but found none. He searched his room, the entire third floor. As he searched the second floor he was struck by an odd thought. The second floor hallway seemed longer than the third. The man counted the doors as he walked down the hall, he totaled six on one side, six on the other.

He climbed the stairs and began counting doors on the third floor. Six on one side...five on the other. He stopped at the blank expanse of wall that stood at the end of the hall right next to his room. The man dashed into his room and stuck his head out of the window, looking towards the end of the building. Sure enough there was more wall stretching out, enough so that there could be another room...

The man called a contractor and asked for the man's opinion on the mysterious wall. After some inspection the contractor deemed that this was not original wall. He asked the owner what he wanted to do.

The man thought about it, then decided to knock down the fake wall.

So the contractor began work, within minutes the drywall had been reduced to rubble to reveal the rest of the hallway. At the end of the hall was a door, sealed with chains and locks, boards were nailed into the doorframe, criss-crossing each other, each crack was caulked so that it was impossible for anything to get in...or out.

The men looked at each other and nodded. They began cutting the chains and removing the boards. Finally they managed to open the door. The door creaked open, as if it had not been used for many years. The two men stared into the room, trying to see. They pulled out their flashlights, turned it on, and entered the room.

Scratch marks covered the entire room as if something had frantically tried to escape. Blood was mixed with the scars on the walls.

What made the men truly frightened was the blood. But not blood that was splayed across the floor, nor the blood that indicated that whatever had clawed at the walls and floor had done so until they were using nothing more than bloody stumps. It was the fact that written in blood, over and over and over, on the walls the ceiling, and the floor were the words

'Father please let me out'
'Father please let me out'
'Father please let me out'
'Father please let me out'




So...yeah that's the kind of creepy I was talking about....this one might not be so much as a 'whaaaat?' moment as a 'gaaaah that was creepy' moment. For the most part this one wasnt scary, well at least it wasnt scary until the end...or maybe it wasnt scary at all? I dont really know, but it certainly was creepy.

By the way this is not my story. this is one from the manga xxxholic written by CLAMP. So in no way do I claim this story as my own. Also it would be more effective with something scratching while the story is being told. I'm gonna post this now, and maybe post the other scary story later, cause I gotta go to aikido club soon. I hope you enjoyed the story :D

Mucho Stuff

There's one short story that I want to write. I don't know it it's scary... but it's kinda depressing, I guess. Heheh.
What ideas do you want help with? I can't really help till I know.
So, yesterday as I was driving to school, I was playing the soundtrack to Avatar (The blue people movie). I'd already listened to the first half, which is my favorite up to "Jake's first Flight" (Though "I See You" and "Gathering al the Na'vi Clans" are great too). Usually I don't listen as much to the loud parts of the soundtrack. They can be great in the actual movie, but listening to them elsewhere is usually too intense. It's not usually as fun to listen to either. But, anyway, I wanted to listen to the second half. It was morning, so my brain was still in morning mode. And even though I'd listened to the whole soundtrack before, I was kind of blown away. Heheh. When I listen to music, I always think about what it goes to. So, my brain was on Pandora. That movie was so intense and amazing that the music made me want to cry too! Waaaahhhh! Like when they attack the tree? Aaaahhhhh!!!!
Anyway, moving on. I'm trying to keep you updated on the Katani story.
I keep having trouble with exotic names. It would probably help if I knew about 50 languages, but I don't. At least I know people who speak some of those languages. It's been easier to do it for Katani's story than for Shadow Split though (cause I'd given all the characters names before I even thought to give them names that sounded like they came from their home countries... and now I don't want to change their names because changing names is hard to do! I already did it for Kiya too...). Anyway, if you start with names in mind, it's a little easier.
So yeah. Reyu is very loosely based on some Asian stuff. That means that some of it is Asian-like (as much as I know about it) and some of it isn't. Mainly on some of the names though. The palace looks Chinese. A lot of the people are Asian too, though not all.
I forget if I wrote this yet. I'm tired and don't feel like going back to check. But Soreina is a random patchwork of many things. Not everyone from one culture was brought to the same place with the Split occurred. So their countries aren't the same as ours.
So, I just introduced Katani's parents. I needed to think about what they were like and their names and stuff. And then I needed to figure out how long it was till Katani and his friends go to the GRA orientation and what they do during that time. I just skipped over the month because not much interesting happens.
I could have gone into more detail but I'm too tired... and I have a saturday school project too... Bleh.

Scary stories

I've been trying to write a scary story in the spirit of Halloween, and cause the extra chapter of Tara and my collaborative story is kind of like a psychological horror story.

Problem is I'm a little stuck for ideas. So if anyone has some good ideas post them, I've got a few, but they dont feel very original/mine.

Cereal Bowl

Yet again ,this post takes place over a week since it actually happened. >.<
It was a couple weeks ago that I had this cool dream about Avatar: The Last Airender in which they found a colony of sky bison. I mentioned it to Mom that morning, and she told me that the Yogis believe that whenever you have a dream, you're seeing in to something else. Like another world or time.
And I went O-O
That's exactly the same as the idea that both Ellen and I came up with (Granted they were a bit different, but essentially the same skeleton).
I keep doing that. Accidentally using other people's ideas...
But anyway, Ellen, you know it's true. Saleera can be really scary when she's in a bad mood. She's not always lie that. I'm just saying that Katani can unleash his dark side too. Though maybe not quite as intensely as Saleera does. Like when that guy asks her to dance. Heheh.

Oh yeah . Another note about the dream. In my dream, we flew mast this huge mountain in the middle of a valley. And on the mountain was a beautiful tree that was BIGGER than the mountain. And in my dream I actually thought "aw, man. I wish I could this tree in one of my stories. But Avatar: The Last Airbender stole it!" And then when I woke up, my brain caught up and I realized, "Oh yeah! I can use it because it was MY dream!" Hahaha! So, my beautiful tree will appear eventually. I gotta try drawing a picture of it...

Random Poem

Ha ha ha, Katani only acts like Saleera if he's in a really bad mood :D that makes me laugh so much! Wonder what Saleera would have to say to that! ^_^

Cool prompts by the way! I think I might do some myself! I'm pretty much procrastinating right now. Actually...I might not even have any homework to procrastinate from doing...weird.

Anyhow, I think Tara wanted me to post the poem that I wrote for my creative writing class. The prompt was to think of how a poem gives you creative license to change the flow of time, and write and event thinking deeply about this concept.

So I had no idea what to write on, I was hyped up on sugar/espresso/chocolate and I decided that I shouldnt be the only one to be allowed to change the progress of something, the reader should too. So I wrote a poem and cut it into ten pieces. The stanzas/couplets can be rearranged in whatever way you want, and the meaning might change a little each time, but it all kind works...I dunno

Here's the poem in one huge block, in whatever random order I decided just now. You can rearrange if you want.


So what if time makes no sense at all.
So what if we're all in for the long haul?

The rivers may move in due course
But the ocean is the final source

I have no means of proving why
Why I think that time goes by

It's not a river, soon you'll see
Exactly why I think like me

Change the lines and it becomes apparent
That for my words, order is not inherent

I'm a person, just like you
I have hopes and dreams, it is true.

Time moves not in rivers here
Time moves as it will and anywhere

I'm a little weird, I know
But I'm not stupid, I'm just slow

Past, present, future, who cares?
But none contradict it, none dares.

Yet why does it all seem,
Like everything is just a dream?

CW-Prompts

Hang on... you said Saleera has reddish brown eyes. And I think I kinda stole the red eyes from FMA too... And they both have brown hair... but lots of people have brown hair. And Saleera's is straight and Katani's is kinda wavy.
There is that thing about the demon eyes, but I'm not really using it in the story. That was just mainly cause my brain was fried as I was trying to write the character sketch.
XP
And Katani doesn't act a bit like Saleera, except I guess when he's i a bad mood which luckily isn't too often for those around him.

OK, on to business. My teacher just emailed us these prompts. We have to do 5 of them in the next week. Ya.

1. Begin a short-short story. Required Opening line: (the character’s name) wasn’t sure she/he knew she/he was setting out on an important journey…Required Final line: (Name) understood she/he had finally come home.
2. Begin a story based on the title of a track on a cd
3. Begin a story based on someone’s comment on facebook
4. Begin a story in which a parrot is the only witness to a crime
5. Begin a story using someone who is in one of your other classes as a main character. What’s behind what they do, look like or say?
6. Open another textbook to a random page, math, history, whatever. Count down 21 lines. Use this as the first line of a story.
7. Review your daily lines to date, observation or dialog. Choose one as the first line of a story.
8. Begin with the line, "Some people swore that the house was haunted," and end with the line, "Nothing was ever the same again after that."
9. “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Think about this quote by Leonard Cohen for a few minutes, then begin writing whatever comes to mind.
10. Scan the news for a headline that makes you want to keep reading. Start a story in which your main character reads this headline and what happens next. (Use Spartan Daily, nytimes.org, etc).

Ha ha ha

Oh the 'silly' expression for Nex :D I had no idea what to do! I think it actually suits him pretty well...dunno if he would ever make a funny face, but still if he did that's probably what it would look like ^_^

Cool creative writing stuff by the way! I think I'll try the randomization and the character sketch, dont think i could do the adverbs/adjectives one, considering I wouldnt be able to tell what an adverb is. I mean I know what it is (adjectives too) but when writing I wouldnt be able to tell what word is what. Yes, I know I fail miserably.

In any case I'll give the CW assignments a shot.

We had one for my class. Write about a color or the sensation of drinking root beer. I dont drink root beer, so I chose a color. It's pretty tough to do actually. I mean in the end I chose black cause I thought it would be easiest (it kinda was) but it was still really fun.

And ha ha ha Katani's eyes sound just like Saleera's! Actually...his whole description kinda sounds like her, darkish skin, dark hair, bangs in face, red eyes...hey!

It was really good, I liked how it turned from a narrator's point of view to a friend that knew him, and then Katani comes in and starts yelling. It was funny.

Ah back to the 25 expressions, I think I'll be doing Hiei (yu yu hakusho) or Zuko (AKA Zuzu from Avatar: The Last Airbender) next. But not a 25 essential expressions one (ok so maybe I'll do that too but) I wanted to do this other meme of blushing expressions. I never noticed how many kinds of different blushes people can have. Like embarrassed, nervous, averting eyes, etc. pretty interesting stuff. Dunno if I'll ever actually use it, but I need to expand my abilities ^_^

Give the memes on deviantart a shot for those of you who've got time.

CW-Randomization

This was a fun exercise in class today. We opened up the Forking Path book and counted 17 lines down the page. Then we took the sentence from that line and wrote a story starting with that sentence.
Try it. It's fun and challenging.

CW - Character Sketch

So, our latest project was to do a character sketch. 2 pages (double spaced, so 1 page) that reveals your character. This isn't an event, but a showing of "who" (I started typing this out, then I realized that I'd gotten the wrong prompt and I had to start over. ^-^' ).
So, this is 3rd person. Not 1st. As in he/she.
Give their physical description.
Let them talk some. How do they act? How do they respond to others? Use good sensory details. It might help to have them interact with another character.
(And we had some examples we read in class too, which is why you should take a real class on this considering my blog posts will never substitute a real class).

Now, last night I had to write this. Except Ellen forced me onto Skype (It's Mom's account so I'd never used it before) and she started telling me about her assignment in creative writing. Once again, she's challenging the norm. Her poem is cut up into pieces and the reader may arrange the stanzas to their whim. Hey, post it, OK, Ellen?
As usual, Ellen's hyperness rubbed off on me a bit. And then, not helping at all, Crystal started chatting with me and we were talking about our stories.
So, when I finally started writing the assignment last night, I was in an odd, bouncy mood in addition to being tired (I think under normal circumstances, I would probably do a very normal and interesting character sketch, but not last night). It took a while to think of a character cause I have lots of notes about possible characters, and lots of characters that I've already used. Finally, I settled on Katani. I started writing in my odd mood. It sounded kind of odd at first, and I kinda froze about a page into it. Then Katani got annoyed about what I was writing about him and decided to take over.
So, yeah. Ellen, it's mainly your fault for how this turned out, but I blame Crystal too.
I wonder what the teacher's gonna think...


Katani never felt different. For the most part, he looked pretty normal. At 16, he was of average height and faintly dark skin. His dark brown hair was long enough to fall in front of his eyes in wavy locks. In fact, his eyes were the most amazing thing about him. His eyes were a vivid blood red that made passersby double take. Katani had lost count of the number of times people had commented on his eyes. A few years ago, it had reached the breaking point and he’d cracked.
“Holy cow! Look at that! Never seen the like!” The man turned and stared at Katani’s retreating back, having hust seen beneath the boy’s hair to his face. Katani continued walking, hands jammed in his pockets. It was infuriating how people could act so inconsiderate.
“Eyes like a demon, he has!”
Katani froze, trembling. He whirled around and stared coldly at the man. The man recoiled slightly at the withering look from those red eyes.
“Then I guess you’d better watch out, hadn’t you?” Katani turned and continued walking. As he retreated, he heard the faltering voice say none too softly,
“Looks like those demon eyes really do suit him.”
His blood continued to boil for a while until his senses caught up with him. Then he started feeling stupid. Yeah, he knew people thought that, but most weren’t careless enough to say it so loudly. He couldn’t help what he looked like.
Katani usually didn’t let his temper get the better of him. For the most part, he was calm and cool. But it bugged him how people assumed that he’d fly into a rage for any little thing because he had scary eyes. Except sometimes he did get mad. And when he got mad, he got MAD.
Katani’s friends no longer thought about his red eyes. True, Garrett would often tease him about it, but it wasn’t in the infuriating generalized way that strangers had. It didn’t really bug Katani, because if he poked Garrett in the side, his friend would double over and let out an amusing squawk and the topic would be lost. Len was indifferent, and Lari thought they were very cool.
With his friends, Katani could relax and goof off. It was the only other place besides home where he could do that. He was usually more reserved around those he didn’t know quite so well.
“… Hey, Katani! Knock it off! Move! I need to finish my paper!”
“What are you writing about? What… this is about me!? Why are you focusing on my eyes so much? My eyes don’t govern the rest of my life! And I only get mad when I have to. If you have to write about me, couldn’t you at least have wrote about the school and the stupid sorting? Or the beach and the games I used to play with Lari, Len, and Garrett?”
“Heheh. Sorry. Too late. Besides, you’re fun when you’re embarrassed. It’s a whole different side of you.”
“Seriously! Most people don’t even notice my eyes! People don’t go around staring into other people’s faces to see what color eyes they have! Most people never even notice!”
“See, you’re focusing on your eyes too. And for the record, I think your eyes are awesome.”

CW-Adverbs and Adjectives

OK, so this was an interesting exercise. People use lots of adjectives and adverbs.
The stunning view.
It flowed quickly.
A green monster.
But some people overuse them.
So, remember the 5 weekly observations? First we had sensory observations for a few weeks. Then eavesdropping for a week. This week, we need 5 sensory observations (of any length) that have absolutely no adjectives or adverbs.
You may think, "then what is there that's left to write about? How can I describe things?
Well, what you need to do is use absolutely fantastic nouns and verbs. They need to take over what adj. and adv. usually do.
And then we had an assignment to write an entire paragraph or page like that too. It was tricky. I guess i'll post mine, though I'm not entirely sure that it's adv. and adj. free. Partially cause some adjectives can be swapped around to play the roles of nouns and verbs.
Anyway, my mind returned to the camp I was volunteering at this summer. That was such a nice night...

Darkness pressed in from all sides. the fire flickered, casting light and warmth over us. Parkle's guitar thrummed and I hummed along to the song. Jahslyn sat on a stump, leaning towards the heat. Parkle switched songs and I let my voice drop out.
No sound came from the tents. It was just the guitar and the flames, singing their duet.
Sparks flutter into the air and blink out. Smoke ripples towards the sky. Stars glow between pine boughs. It's as though peace is settling in the air, thickening to the point where I feel I can place my hand on it. Yet it's elusive to my fingers, like the smoke.

Presentations

That's a good point, Steph. You can show by telling Hahah! Yeah, showing is important. I think I've done a bit too much telling in... uh... some cases. But you can show through dialogue, and I guess that that's telling, huh?
Oh my gosh, ellen. Some of those emotions don't suit Nex. O_O Silly? No. Just no. DOn't get me wrong. Your thing is great. I just cannot imagine Nex doing that.
I really ought to try that... whenever I get some time. Bleh. I hate being a slave to homework and group projects and field trips and and and... I used to get annoyed when people said that they had no time to do something. If you want to do it, make time to do it. I still make time to do the things I want to do, but it's pretty hard to do that this semester.
So, I gots lots of stuff to talk about again. Not even including updates on my CW class.
So, I just got back from a presentation that I had to go see for CW. We need to see 2 author presentations this semester - one before midterms and one after. So, luckily I found one that was near my house instead of far away at school. The author is Michael Chabon. The book he was talking about is called "The Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Considering I just found out about the presentation on tuesday and I've been working on schools tuff since, I didn't even get to pick up a copy of his book beforehand. I might check it out of the library though. From what I gathered, it's about comic books. Or about 2 guys in the 1930's who are writing a comic book. I like the name Kavalier. It's sounds fun.
And let's see. Last saturday, I had to go to a different presentation for my environmental law class. This was a speech by Pete McCloskey. I posted about him a while ago cause Uncle Rob made a documentary about him. So, I met the guy, and he's a friend of my uncle's, and I know his wife. She's nice. I talked to her after the presentation.
And then a couple years ago, there was that interview by Miyazaki. Now, I'd like to do a quick comparison.
The first one, by Miyazaki, I was desperate to go to. We managed to get ahold of the elusive tickets, and the whole time I was in the audience, I felt as though I was basking in the presence of greatness.
For Pete McCloskey, I was like "dude, I kinda know this guy! Cool! And look how many people are here to see him!"
And tonight, I was like "cool. An author. I wonder if his book's any good." I hung around for a few minutes after to watch the book signings. I guess I was kinda hoping to see what an actual author looks like up close. No, not really. I was just amusing myself with that thought as I was standing there. Besides, I've met other published authors before. One thing struck me. There was a long line for book signings. Yeah, I want to be an author. But if I do, how will I ever deal with so many people? O_O What would I say to them all? Am I even stupid to be thinking that I can even get there?
And one thing that always confuses me about the speech. They have someone go up on stage and talk, and then the introduce a DIFFERENT person who comes up and introduces the real person you're there to see. Is there a reason that happens?

25 essential expressions

So there's this meme on deviantart. Gives you space to draw 25 expressions to test out a character design. And I did it. took me three days but i did it!

Anyway the character is Nexsidus, very rude, brash, outspoken, mean, sarcastic guy. Also he's blind and wears bandages over his eyes. really hard to show different emotions with a guy with bandages...what was I thinking? So here it is...and now I'm gonna sleep. I'm crashing from an espresso cookie with chocolate chips (it was very delicious :D)

Show, Don't Tell Debunk

That last part about using dialog to convey the personality & the environment the character is in makes a lot of sense. It kind of defeats the saying "show, don't tell", cause you can show significant parts of the story through the character telling in dialog what is going on while also showing the reader the setting.

So, I suppose, only tell if the character is saying it? xD

CW-Forward

OK, so during the nonfiction unit before we turned in our memoir, our teacher was talking about how important it is to keep the story moving forward (I guess this applies especially to short stories, more than longer ones). In a short story, you don't want to interrupt the action with details you don't need, or flashbacks, ex.
You want everything to be significant in some way. Every dettail should count. If a person has a vase in their living room, what does it reaveal about that person? You don't need to come out and say what the statue represents, but you've gotta give the hint.
And I think it was Mark Twain that said something about the difference between a good word and the perfect word. For example, is your character reading a book, or are they reading a novel? (That's the example my teacher gave).
And I thought I'd say what I've found most helpful in this class so far.
The setting assignment, and the dialogue assignment.
The setting one because it gets you thinking about really important details and the feel of the place.
And the dialogue because you can show so much through the dialogue. Why write that your character is impatient and hot-headed if your character can show us through his speech?
Try to show things with dialogue when possible, without going overboard. Like Shakespear wrote plays, so the dialogue needed to include things like "is that a blue gown with puff sleeves in the window of that shop?" (He never wrote that, FYI, I made it up). He needed to do that because it's a script, and there isn't written description of the setting, so the characters have to tell you. But if you're writing a story and not a play, you can describe the gown without having your characters say every detail to the reader.
Did that make any sense?

Laptop Upgrade~!

Huh, my last post was kinda all over the place. Well this one will be short & sweet.

Recently I got a new laptop, a nice Mac; the main drawback was I couldn't use ".exe" Windows programs or my Adobe CS4. Well no longer! I have got it upgraded so it can use both, plus my drawing tablet! Oh ho ho~ I can now bring my laptop & tablet around & draw in photoshop anywhere! It's not the same as paper & pencil drawing, but I still like digital art, especially with the tablet which is nice & pressure sensitive (although the thing is fairly ancient in the product line xD).

In theory that means I can draw stuff on the go & upload it. Let's see if that happens. xD It certainly makes me want to draw more.

A Bundle of Stuff

I was in my Web Design class last Monday night looking into cool website designs when I found an old roleplay site I always lurked that had been completely redone & revived (although it's school time, so there's hardly any activity at the moment). I was pleasantly surprised. I haven't rped in a long time (or written much of anything story related) but this makes me want to get into it again and actually get something writing related done.
http://kr.spleafnet.com
Acornrack is no more, it's spleafnet now.

On a sour note, they're replacing pipes on the main road near my house and the last few weeks or so I've had to walk through construction to get to my bus stop. And the machines are always kicking up dust and the materials smell foul. :| I'm sure they are doing what they have to & are getting paid for it but it makes me wonder sometimes what it would be like if we lived in a more medieval yet sensibly modern (ie women have similar rights/responsibilities) era. There'd be dirt & cobblestone roads, horses, carts, simple yet functional clothing, and I would hope a greater closeness to nature. Plus less noise overall. That's been a real annoyance to me lately. Everything makes a lot of noise; cars, machines, overly loud music. I hate it. It feels like I'm losing my hearing more and more to all of this noise. The medieval times didn't have that problem I believe.

Which reminds me, I went to the Renaissance Faire down at Casa de Fruta ("house of fruit" xD) as part of my b-day present. I was amazed that the weather was much milder this year. We got to see the comedians Moonie & Broon. They didn't have the shoulder gryphons this year but they did have the expensive but beautiful leather masks. We all wore costumes, which is the only way to go personally (they have rentals :D). I got a nice black parasol (so not Ren Faire appropriate though).

Random Thought: It's funny how easily we can slip from rigorous routine into loafing. That is, if we don't try or apply ourselves daily, nothing will get done. We are different from our ancestors, we are not doing this to survive but simply acting as society expects us to, without all the added life/death pressures that were at the forefront of ancient life. I would like to find it, that balance of doing what's necessary and functioning in society to a certain degree and to enjoy doing it; I suppose this is the human condition.

Posts, Logo, and Imaginary Friends

That's what I was aiming for! X3 yay lots of posts!!!!

Um...oh yeah! So I've realized that I havent actually drawn much the last few days. I remember Tara saying one some post or another that she wanted to update the dragon's pen blog logo picture thing. So if it's ok with you Tara I can draw up a few logos and you can pick which one you want. The idea excites me greatly :D

Also, I've talked to both Tara and Nicole within the last few days about an idea I've had for a story. It's still not committed to paper, (mainly because I have no idea on how to go about and actually start this thing) but the idea surrounds imaginary friends.

Now I never had an imaginary friend, and honestly I feel a little ripped off. If I went around talking to an invisible person now (being nineteen) people would probably cart me off to the loony bin. But honestly I really kind of want an imaginary friend. But then i got to thinking.

Little kids. When they have imaginary friends, it's because they're lonely and dont have anyone to talk to, so they make someone up. So whenever they need a friend, they've already got one on reserve. The imaginary friend (being imaginary) doesnt really mind (or at least seem to mind) the fact that their creator will potentially ignore them for long periods of time until they are needed.

Seeing as small children really dont have a concept of how other people behave and how they actually have feelings, their imaginary friends probably exists as more of a servant/slave to the creator than an actual friend. I mean all of the 'friend' qualities are there in the relationship, but once the friend is obsolete, they essentially die.

Now being of a little older age (ok a lot) I started to wonder. Could i take full responsibility for another sentient being? One that has feelings and thinks and functions? My imaginary friend would essentially be a person who's kind of around all of the time...so is it rude to ignore the imaginary friend who has not much else to do but talk to their creator? What does an imaginary friend eat? Are they limited by walls? Are they privy to only information that they know? Can other people touch them? Does the imaginary friend have a family? Do they have a past? What makes up their personality and decisions? How do you even go about meeting an imaginary friend? What if they dont like you?!?!

I'm still pondering over many of these questions and quite frankly their making my brain hurt, a lot. O_o

I guess for little kids none of these questions matter an awful lot. But to me their very important! I want to know my imaginary friend and their past and talk with them and stuff...but I'm beginning to think that maybe they're just best suited for a story than my actual life. I'll just settle with the existential questions and implications of creating a sentient being (not unlike Artificial intelligence) and whether someone could live with the burden of being responsible for said being and not become insane based on the idea that they're completely crazy or a schizophrenic.

If any of you have ideas, let me know cause my brain hurts so much that I cant even think about it and I've had to distract myself with cryptography and cryptoanalysis (i.e. code breaking) but yeah let me know.