Teacher Teacher

Tomorrow I'm going to teach an actual class to actual middle school students. About 50 of them, I think.
I hope I'll be able to get them all involved in the lesson without overwhelming myself. XD
I have to teach a class as a project for my Environmental Education class, so I asked the ranch I volunter at. Luckily they had a group of students coming in, that's the age range I was hoping for. It's a lot earlier that most of my classmates will be teaching, but that means I don't have to worry about it later. Tomorrow I'm going down to the ranch for this class.
I'll talk about environmental fiction (books and movies) and I'll also read a short story I wrote. It's actually based of fof the Katani story (~10 years before). It's about when Shanka was a little girl, and how the riot started. It's 2 pages long, so it doesn't talke too long to read. But hopefully it will still be an effective example.
I think it'll be fun. I'll let you know how it goes!

Do they Count as Short Stories?

We discussed my "romance" short story on Tuesday. I kept forgetting to write about it, probably because there wasn't anything very memorable about that class XP.
I got a lot of very conflicting suggestions from class. One person said the characters were great, another said they should be developed more. One said my setting was great, and another said it needed work. So on. There didn't seem to be much agreement. I only got a couple helpful comments from my teacher. Most of them were just the same stuff that I knew already.
And I think it's because all of my stupid "short stories" are based off of larger works. I do my best to "hint at a larger world." But half the students in the class think that it means everything is undeveloped, or something? The other half of the students doesn't seem bothered by it.
I could add more detail about the existing stories/worlds, but then the short story would no longer be short, and there would be a lot of boring explanation that isn't really needed for that specific piece. Plus I don't particularly want to re-write a bunch of stuff for no reason.
The obvious solution would be to not turn in anymore short stories that are based off of longer works. Except I don't have any ideas that are short enough to turn in. Plus, I'm done turning in stories for this class. Each person only does 2.

Now I'm not sure what to do with this "romance chapter" either (I don't know what else to call it... Is it even a romance?)
Dad seems the only person, or at least the only person I heard from, who seemed to read the story as I intended it to be read.
Other people thought that Fei Yen was just going along with it because she felt like she had to.
So... that's unfortunate. I hope that's something I can fix.
The beginning also needs work. Which isn't surprising, since that's where I was trying to include all of the scattered bits of info from Katani's story, in order to set up this scene. So... I could got a couple different directions with editing that.
I'm kinda torn. I kinda want to bury this story for a really long time, and just keep it in my head as the perfect scene.
But I suppose there's also the possibility of taking it on as the last chapter of Katani's story. I'm not sure what to think about that yet... It might tie up that part of the story very nicely. But it would also change the ending, in a direction that I didn't originally intend.
So who knows.
At least I don't have any other romantic stuff to write XP.
Now I can go back to working on my grad program story. I've got to fix up a few more chapters of that to read at my OTHER creative writing class.
@_@

Warped

I seem to have a very odd sense for some characters...
For example, during most of the romantic scenes during Once Upon a Time, I end up laughing a lot. There's nothign wrong with the scenes. I think it has more to do with the characters, and me failing to imagine them in any sort of romantic scene.
But either way, I think there's something wrong with me. XD Since I don't think it's normal to laugh during most romantic scenes.
By the way, the new season of Once Upon a TIme. I love how they did Christophe and Anna (Especially when Christophe says "You didn't think to check if there was anyone in there before you used it?" XD. And I love that Christophe and Elsa actually get to interact with eah other. And Elsa has a big role~

And anyway, part two. I've noticed an odd trend when I start getting attached to characters that I wasn't previously attached to. it's when they start to remind me of a puppy.
I don't even know how that works. But something in my head goes, "aww, look at him! He's like a puppy~"

Yeah, I think something's wrong with me...
XD
XD
XD

Revelation

So, I was reading one of the books from the same series as the Da Vinci Code. And when we got near the end of the book, they finally started to reveal the identity of the villain. And I realized who he was moments before they actually told us.
That right there is some genius writing: to help the reader come to a realization moments before they actually give the answer to you. The timing of the clues has to be absolutely perfect.
If you figure out the mystery too soon, then the suspense isn't there for half of the book.
But it makes the reader feel so clever if they can figure it out for themselves too.
Although some writers don't want you to know until the answer until they can give you the dramatic reveal. And shock factor can be exciting too. I remember the first time I read Harry Potter, near the end of the first book. We got to the point where Harry reached the end of the obstacles before on the way to the mirror, and the chapter ended just before telling us who Voldemort's servant was. I couldn't wait, and had to flip to the next page, just to find out. That was a long time ago, but I certainly didn't guess who it was.
This can sometimes backfire if it's not done well though (For example, Amon in Legend of Korra. I was convinced that he was we'd met him before, but he ended up being some totally mysterious person who we couldn't possibly know about).

Fail early

In response to Tara's latest post I thought I'd talk about something we covered in my own class.  Although my thing has more to do about videogames and playtesting I feel like it could easily be related to writing, art, or anything else that can be put up for critique. (and honestly what isn't put up for critique these days?)

I angst over putting out our work for the world to look at. There are a lot of things that discourage me from showing my work.

For me it usually boils down to the "it's not done yet." There's something that's not quite right, or I need to evoke more emotions from this one scene, or it's not how it looks in my head, there's a minor bug in the code, whatever.  So by the time I actually do decide to show my work to people I'm already fed up with it and never want to look at it again. (A big apology to all my artwork that I gave up on)

It's a big hurdle, putting your soul into something but being able to leave that "it's my baby!" attitude out.

Sure it's easy to get defensive,or try to explain why something is the way it is, or why it's not there at all. Maybe you didn't get around to it. Maybe it didn't work. Maybe it works better that way. We all know that not everybody is going to love our work. It'd be nice, but it's just not statistically possible.

Still feedback is feedback. Someone is taking the time to go over your work, to look at it, read it, play it, listen to it, what have you. Someone is actively paying attention to your baby. It doesn't matter if they tell you that your baby is the ugliest baby in the world if you know it's actually a pretty decent looking baby. (And it's what's on the inside that counts, right?)

Fixing stuff is great, if it makes it better. I can't even begin to describe how many times I've been working on a program, think I've fixed a bug and twenty thousand new bugs crop up. Remember fix stuff so it's better, not worse.

Not talking is a great way to see your tester (or reader) in their natural habitat. Watching and observing them is great too. This may be harder for things like artwork, but for games and stories you can definitely catch when people laugh or frown or look super confused.  If they're confused enough to ask you something, then something is wrong. Think about it like you're giving them a new microwave without a manual. It should be intuitive but if they need to look it up in the manual (you, the creator) something is wrong.

Oddly enough, for games players tend to offer solutions rather than telling you the underlying problems, but for stories people tend to tell you something is wrong rather than giving you a potential solution. Interesting, huh?

The last thing I do when I'm working on something is generally the hardest thing for me to do. I walk away for awhile (this is the easy part) then I come back and try to go through my project like I'm brand new to it. We develop bias and get used to certain things after a time with our developed knowledge of what's going on.  So we tend to skip over certain areas that we think are fine and don't need fixing. Go back read it like you've never read it before (like you're brand new to it). Spellchecker is your friend but it can't catch everything.

Also I really liked this blog called Terrible Minds. It's by a writer for writers. The author is amusing and brutally honest.

Terrible Minds: A Post about Editing
Terrible Minds: 25 Steps to Edit the Unmerciful Suck out of your story

Just Listen

During many of my creative writing classes, when the class is discussing a story, the writer is discouraged from talking too much.
Admittedly, this can be annoying if you just need to clarify one thing (so not all the comments are about the same topic). But the reason for this is understandable. You as a writer don't need to justify everything that people disagree with. Just listen to the advice. And some of it may be bad advice. But most of the comments well help you learn something. Even if you only need to switch a word to make an idea clearer.

But it's really annoying when the class is commenting on an author's work, and they have to go on this long justification every time someone gives a suggestion...
(I may do that sometimes, but usually I try to mostly listen).

*****

I read one of my poems in class last night. It got five stars. ^-^
The first semester of the class, you turn in a poem almost every week. But in the following semesters, I focused on fiction, so poetry was optional.
That first semester though, I wrote one, maybe two poems that earned five stars.
I only turned in a couple poems last time I took the class. And this was my first poem this semester. I do want to write a couple more though. One about Alaska. TT^TT
And one about a weird pair of shoes that I used to have, based off a prompt the teacher gave us yesterday.

Anyway, his poem was based off of elves. I've been reading a book of Irish folk tales recently, and decided to write a poem about elves calling out to children to come and play.

Rush @__@

Wow, this is something that I didn't know could happen!
Jeez, the power of writing!
There have been many times where I have written very intense part of my stories and gotten really excited and worked up as I wrote and lived the scene in my head (Especially the assassin scene in Red Seeker - that's the one that's been getting me a lot recently, even as I think back on it. Whoo, rush!)
It really is an awesome sensation. I love writing exciting parts because of that.
I didn't really expect that this time. Because this scene I'm writing for my creative writing class doesn't have much action in it.
This is a scene from Red Seeker too. Well, not actually. It takes place a couple weeks after the end of the story.
The beginning touches a ceremony in which Katani and his friends show up briefly, as do Shanka and the Betas. But the story is Fei Yen's.
Hmm. Does this count as spoilers for my story? Well, everyone here probably knows about this, but you have been warned.
This is the scene where Kazuhi proposes to Fei Yen.
I got the idea for the scene a couple months ago, maybe. And since I don't have many short story ideas, I thought I'd use it as my second creative writing story (The one at my main school, not the one I take for fun at the smaller college near my house). I just finished the first draft a couple minutes before I wrote this post.
I started getting very excited about this story a while ago. Especially when I got new ideas for it.
Now I tried to write a romantic scene once a few years ago. I haven't looked at it since, and I don't particularly want to look at it again. I don't really read romance, and I certainly don't write it. I've never been in love or in a relationship or anything, so I don't even have anything to compare it to. So I don't know how good the scene will be written out in the end.
But the scene feels so great in my head. I love Kazuhi and Fei Yen so much. I've heard that authors should be careful about getting so attached to their characters, but I can't help it. I really love these two guys (to be fair, I love everyone else in the story, but these two gotta be my favorites).

I got a major rush writing the last part of this scene. Although I have absolutely zero romantic experience, as I wrote this scene, I could feel it completely. Wow. I had no idea writing could do that. For all the times I've gotten energy rushes from writing, I didn't know that it could actually let you "feel" a romance even if you don't know what romance is like. It's like a whole new experience.
Does this even make sense? I feel as un-eloquent as Fei Yen was during that scene. XD

Wish me luck in editing. I really want to make this scene worth it.

Animation

I recently watched a video about the staff that did the visual effects to Life of Pi. Which was an awesome movie.
But the story of what happened to the animation staff was not awesome. And unfortunately, it is not an uncommon story for animators.



Animation can really bring movies to life. And because of special effects, it's used now more than ever. It's not only limited to cartoons.
Cartoons, on the other hand, don't seem to be doing too hot...
I heard that Disney actually demolished their cartoon staff, in favor of digital animation. Which sounds awful. All those talented artists, kicked out. I don't know anything about digital animation, but it must be completely different from drawing cartoons.
And animation can be a really hard field for new students coming in.

Cartoonists seem to have a really tough time of it. When I read Starting Point, by Miyazaki, it talked a lot about how the artists who worked in the studios were intensely overworked. Some of the staff have to stay after hours all the time, and sometimes work into the night. And then when the season is finally done, it's time to start a new one.

And animation just doesn't seem to get noticed by a lot of people.
I mentioned in a previous post about how the people who judged the Oscars didn't seem to care about the category of best animated picture.

The Wind Rises went mostly unnoticed, even though it was so beautiful and inspiring.

And then I found this~