Seeing with new eyes

It's interesting, how when you've watched something your whole life, you become completely desensitized to it.
One thing I noticed recently, when I was watching Bambi.

It's the scene just after the "Great Prince" appeared for the first time, and walked through the field full of deer. And then he stops and the ominous music starts.
We never see anything. We don't know what's going on. We just know that all the deer start running in fear, and Bambi is panicking because he can't find his mom, and he doesn't know what's happening either.
And then just as they escape, there's a gunshot.

I'd seen the scene so many times. But suddenly this last time, I felt like I was seeing it for the first time. It is a really powerful scene, and I never even noticed.



I should try to watch and read things like that more often. Otherwise everything is just dull and repetitive. Especially since I've seen a lot of my favorite movies over and over.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful time with your family today~
And that you ate good food and got cool loot XD

I'm going up to Portland the day after tomorrow. I've been trying to finish up a bunch of projects before I leave (I made a bunch of quilted hearts to bring to Oregon! I also want to finish a pony order before I leave, if I can).
I'll bring some writing projects when I go. I think I'll probably work on editing Katani's story again, so I can take a break from Ashes and get some distance between it.
I haven't looked at Katani in a while, so hopefully I'll be able to look at it with fairly fresh eyes.

New and Improved Character Development Sheet!

A long time ago, I had a little character interview sheet that I made by blending questions from a few different sources. I posted it on the blog, using Katani as an example.
A few months ago, I started putting together an even bigger one. I added more to the interview, but mostly there are several pages of questions about charaters. The interview gets into the voice of the character. The rest of the questions are just information. 'I got the questions from several different sources, and I made up some myself.
Some of the questions are harder to answer, simply because the answer may change throughout the course of the story, and it's hard to pick a certain time to focus on. You could include all of them, I suppose. Other questions are tricky because you could either apply them to the real world, or the world that the character lives in. For example, Katani's world doesn't have movies. So I gave him one from this world. And I've given him some books from his world to like, but I also had ideas for books from this world that he would enjoy.
I just finished filling it out for Katani. It took a realllly long time... I neglected it for a few months during school even.

And now I really need to do it for Ashlyn. I don't have a good sense of her.
Sigh. It always seems to be the main character... Both Katani and Ashlyn. --_--
Although I've got Katani down better~
Now it's Ashlyn's turn!
We'll see hos long it takes to fill out this sheet fore her...

Into the Ashes, Out of the Ashes

Whoo, I think I did it, you guys!
I finished my first draft of my Ashes story!
At about 12:00 AM sharp. :3

It's only 90 pages long. Heheh.
That's because I skipped huge hunks of plot. I had no ideas about them as I wrote. I think I mentioned earlier that after a certain point, I had no idea how to fill most of the story.
So the second half is incredible bare.
But as I wrote, I thought of ways to fill it in!
So my second draft will probably be about twice as long as this (Well, maybe not quite that much. But many more chapters will be added).

I've rewritten the first four chapters already, for creative writing.
Although I'm probably going to have to add an entire chapter in there. To show the world and the peopel in Ashlyn's life.
And last night I read one of my chapters at my creative writing class. It was the last class of the semester there.
I read the chapter about Ashlyn's first encounter with a wild dog. It's the first chapter I ever wrote. And I've brought it to several different classes and rewritten it probably about five times. It's also what I used to try to get into my grad program. XD So I guess it worked.
The class liked it, so that's good. Considering how many times I've edited it.

And now... I must sleep. @__@

Recognizable, or predictable?

I've noticed something.
I seem to be very predictable. Either that, or very recognizable.

For example, a couple years ago I went to visit my old high school on Halloween. I wore my hooded cloak and wolf mask. And over half of my old teachers could tell who I was... With me completely covered up! It's not like I've had classes with them recently (not for a few years).

And when I went to give my talk at the ranch, I saw Robin up the hill right after I arrived. She was probably about 50 feet away, but she could tell who I was immediately.

And then I called up the video store we often go to. The guy who runs it knows my dad and uncle. I called up to ask about a movie, but didn't tell him my name. And he still knew it was me. XP

So I wonder what it is that makes me so recognizable, even for people I only see a couple times a year...
It's kinda funny though.

Performance Joys

A while ago, I ran onto this music video from the How To Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack.



I liked the song, but I also liked the performance of the singer. He's fun to watch, because he looks like he's having so much fun.
And then Nicole said that he won this big contest in Europe. Let me look for the video...



And he still looks like he's having fun.
I've seen a lot of really good performances, but even if the performers were unbelievably good, they rarely look like they're enjoying themselves.
Maybe it's just like a job to them. Or maybe they're nervous. Or they could be enjoying themselves, but don't necessarily have a big smile while doing so.
I want to start looking for this more when I watch concerts and such. It makes a performance that much more exciting, when the performer is really into it.
I've gotta keep that in mind for myself too. Though admittedly playing flute is almost impossible to do if you're grinning.

Winter Freeedom~

I had my only final today, which was very easy. ^-^
So now I'm pretty much freeee for the holidays.
Though of course I need to keep working on my project, and communicating with teachers and reading some research stuff. But at least I'm doe with my comute~

Big Summer Snags

So, over the summer, there was one week in particular where it seemed like my college was trying to sabotage me. There were three big things that happened one after another (there may have been four, but I can't remember the fourth, which is probably a good thing. Maybe I couldn't get into some classes I needed).

My main adviser said he had to stop being my main adviser. I later discovered that this was because he was promoted to head of a department, but he didn't tell me that at the time.
Then an English teacher who I was hoping to have as an adviser said he wouldn't do it. He was too busy.
And third, one of my teachers gave me an incomplete. She never told me about it. If I hadn't stumbled across that "I" on the school website, I would never have even known about it, and not done anything until much later. She has absolutely no reason to give me an "I." She had weeks to give me the changes she wanted to make to my project, and she never gave them to me. Not until I emailed her more than once, asking why I got an incomplete. She told me that she wanted me to change my project.
So I did. I think I got it back to her in a week. And it took her an entire semester to do anything about it. I was stuck with an incomplete almost this entire semester.

Because she gave me an incomplete, I couldn't submit my project plan to the school.
And because I couldn't submit my project plan, one of my classes may have been in jeopardy.
I emailed her several times, over several months. I rarely got any response. And when she did respond, she kept saying she'd work on it. Finally I had to go into her office and talk to her. Now I knew this teacher from before. I had gotten along very well with her so this behavior was a lot more frustrating that it would have been if I didn't know her. And it was even more frustrating that she as very subtly implying that she didn't think my project was going to fly.
It was only a month ago that she finally changed my grade.
I think she just doesn't like my project idea. That's probably why she didn't make my grade higher. It wasn't a bad grade, but I'm certain I deserved higher.
So, yes. Frustrating.

Those three big things all happened within a week. It was very hard to fight the stress of all that, especially over vacation.
But I managed to get through the first two problems after some emails. And the third problem was only completely finalized yesterday, when the school approved my plan (the plan that I couldn't submit for several months because my teacher hadn't graded my class).

Is there a moral here? Yes. I could have panicked that week, and gotten all depressed during my free summer. Instead I managed to keep it together. And I managed to get everything fixed, without any negative consequences (except for delays and the fear of consequences).
Moral #2: If you're a teacher, don't screw your students.

Don't worry about hurdles, guys. You'll get through them. I believe in you!

Pink Toes

Here's a fun project.
Find something that you're not allowed to touch, but that you'd really like to touch. Take a picture of it, and tell us about it.



Cat toes. They look so squishy and fun to play with. Especially these adorable pink ones.
Unfortunately if you try to play with them, you often end up being chewed on by the owner of the toes.



#theartassignment

Mini Nanowrimo

So I guess our mini Nanowrimo ended a couple days ago.
How did you guys do? (Did you get anything done? O__O )
Mine went pretty well. I got close to the end of my first draft. I probably could have finished, but I didn't work as long on it as I should because my project felt kinda short XP. I guess I kept tlling myuself "oh, I'll have time."
Plus I got a Wii U... that doesn't help at all for conserving time...

I'm glad I'm almost done with draft #1. Although the next draft will probably be about twice as long as this. As I worked, I thought of plenty of ways to flesh out the second half of my story. Which is great. That's what I hoped for. But this first draft is very much a skeleton. Poor thing.
So now I've gotta finish up the draft. I have a slightly stronger idea of the climax now~