How The heck do I work things out?I've mentioned a lot about how I like writing even when it pains me to do things to my characters, and now I'm talking about when you have to determine how to interperate things.
I'm making a vital character in one of my books a wereperson. Still don't fully know what if any specific animal will be named, but eh. I don't reallyt want to give much away (You know, in case a miracle happens and these actually get published and crap). But I need to decide on the best way to work out my story with this guy. Long story short, I'm wondering if killing the animal should kill the person as well or he would turn into the animal but it would just be dead and he basically be asleep. Basically, I don't want him killed. He would either join the group on their final attempt to defeat the antagonist for VERY personal reasons, or he would declare himself too dangerous and potentially manipulated in animal form. See why I'm having issues? Both ways have potential! Both could make the story either A. So much more intriguing and eventually devestating or B. Almost infuriating that nothing could be done. Only issue, I don't fully know which would make for the better story in the long run. How it would affect the ending: would he be a good character to have around or would he just be another person to have to actively write about? I don't know! And I am not getting much advice besides "whichever you think will work." If I knew what I thought would work, I wouldn't be asking. If anyone actually reads this, please give me some advice in the comments. I need it. Anyway, today's post was short and sweet, there's honestly not that much I could say unless people needed to ask me questions about the book. So I hope anyone reading is doing well with their December and looking forward to Christmas! (And yes, I said Christmas!)
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Nikki The Nerdy Diva Teacher Will Not Be Named B/C internet is srs bsnss ELA A30 29 October 2016 The Butterfly.... Of SarajevoWhen people ramble to the point that you forget what they are talking about, conversations tend to get irritating. This was the case throughout the Steven Galloway novel The Cellist Of Sarajevo as it was tedious to attempt to keep up with. Making sure a story, real or fiction is organized is remarkably important. Unfortunately, this aspect almost appears to have been entirely forgotten during the publishing process. The lack of character interactions, back-and-forth narrations, and the excessive amount of unnecessary details made this book nearly impossible to keep up with. The book had potential, but the lack of reason to the given information made it an unbearably frustrating read. While it is not a general rule, most people expect the characters to interact: directly or indirectly. Half of the main characters in the novel never come across each other. While the characters of Arrow and The Cellist are connected, Dragon and Kenan come across as simple fillers to make the story long enough to be a novel. First, Kenan is just a man who needs to grow a pair and tell the crotchety old lady he gets water for that she needs to get containers with handles and save him the struggle of running around a war zone with two jugs in his hand. Although, I guess they could make decent shields. You know, Captain America has a shield! I'm not a big superhero movie person, but I gotta admit, that's an epic shield. But Kenan could use a shield, so I guess the jugs he carries are alright. Awkward, but alright. Then Dragon! He's a wimpy older man who again, needs to grow a pair and just leave so he can catch up with his wife and child who escaped already. You know, It's kinda cloudy today. I was considering going to Booster Juice, but I don't want to risk going out in rain or snow, whichever happens. It's kinda strange that there isn't snow yet. So Arrow and The Cellist are the only two characters whose lives intertwine in the story! It's so butterfly annoying! The Story also doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to where it puts its information, which could be interesting, if done correctly. When the author goes from ducking behind a wall to avoid being shot to the sort of person who might wear that guy's hat to the color of Emina's scarf to Dragon being tired to butterfly (spoiler alert) Emina's death on a single side of one page in a book, that is too everywhere to know what you should be thinking! Example of what it was like to read this, using my current situation: Nikki was writing about the crap book she had to read in English on her blog because her teacher wouldn't listen to her opinion in class. She looks to the cloak she bought for Halloween. It was such an itchy cloak. Then again, butterfly she never wore wool, so of course she wasn't used to it. The chair it resides on used to be in her sister's room back when she still had her loft bed. Nikki was always paranoid that the rail on the side of her bed wouldn't help her tossing and turning as a kid. Nikki moves on to the next paragraph. The details did absolutely nothing for the story. The purple of my walls are relatively dim. Not as bright as I hoped for, but I'm just happy that sea foam green color is gone. But it made my room brighter. While I like to be in the dark, it is nice to have butterfly not so artificial light in the room. Now, Naxamehael, a new character being added to one of my stories is epic! He adds a plot twist to the antagonists! I'd go into details there, but I don't want to spoil anything. But his head is mostly shaved, the wrinkles on his face are just intimidating enough that he's that old guy who only requires one look to tick him off, so you try to avoid even looking at him in the first place. Also, my floor is cold. Some of the boards have weird v shaped shadings while others have the dark circle of a knot, others are circular zig-zags, just makes you wish they'd line up. Clearly, this post was annoying to read and went off to nonsense. That's how it felt reading that stupid book, The Cellist Of Sarajevo. If it was cut in half, say, getting rid of Kenan, Dragon, and the freaking butterfly distraction, it might've been a decent book. It is unclear if the author actually knew how to write, or if he was just trying to slap something together for a quick buck. Eh, about 200 words too short for the essay, but I'm not handing this in. I'd get one heck of a bad grade! Okay, enough rambling. That is the entire feel of this poorly written book. I would not advise ANYONE to read this, and unless you are stuck reading it for school like I was, I feel terrible for you! At least we know each other's pain... Literally, this book went all over. There is a difference between setting a scene and being like HEY! THERE'S A DOG OVER THERE!!!!
Now If you'll excuse me, I have an actual essay I need to work on. Probably won't tonight, but still. I have other things to do. Bye! When My Own Ship Can't WorkI talk a fair bit about the crap I write sometimes. Here are some updates and advice I can give you with my actual stuff and maybe if you want to write something yourself:
1. Make character sheets My friend *Drake told me he advises everyone who writes to do this. And I can say first hand, it is SO helpful and gives you so much more insight into your own creation. I hadn't even thought of 90% of the things on the sheets. Obviously I don't think about my character's sex interests because that is not what I write about (I'll actually say on the sheet, they're too busy with _____ to think about the secks to avoid thinking of that topic), but it goes far beyond the character's turn on's and into things like how certain people (family, partners, enemies, people above them in work environments, below them in work environments) perceive them at a first glance, their typical gestures, the sound of their voice, the relationship with their parents or kids, heck, it asked for their freaking daily routine! The entirety of the sheet is 16 pages (And that's before I write 5 paragraphs on their daily routine alone), but it really helps with character, and I have definitely benefited from it. As awkward as this wording was for me, Drake told me that you need to start off you know, with a simple handshake, but you need to be in bed with them before you are able to write with them. As... baffled I'd say about his choice of words as I was, he's right. Before I'd basically be like "I think he'd do this, based on the "development" I've done before AKA the generic character ideas I wrote in the front pages of my notebook, now I'm actually understanding how he thinks, how he would connect to situations and people, while this guy, Drake may be a little crazy, he definitely knows how to make sure you're good at writing! This is the template I use for my characters if you want a good one that goes into characters rather than asking what their different variations of their signs are. So basically if you want an actual character rather than a molded Cancer or Aquarius. http://www.epiguide.com/ep101/writing/charchart.html 2. Working On A Plot I mean this one is a given, but during a lit circle discussion in English today, a classmate told me that most books by Canadian authors that she's read appear to be all over the place and not entirely structured. She advised me to actually have a plot with my story, and I could possibly break from the "it's good for a CANADIAN book" mold if anything happens with it. I specifically made a word document I titled "Actual Freaking Plot" because up until 2 weeks ago, I had more of the idea, certain situations I thought were cool, and not so much how things would flow together. I just kept thinking of the cool ideas, I could make THIS happen to them, that would be cool more than how do they get from here to there. And in simple jot-note form, I currently have 2 pages worth of my plot, tying together most of my original ideas rather than just sitting there and asking 'when do you think I could throw this in there?' And with an actual guideline and the new behaviors I've made note of with the characters, I can tell how they react in situations, and since those situations will already be laid out in front of me, I can actually do crap with it! So When you get ideas, by all means, write them somewhere. Carry around a notebook, have a decent document app on your phone, just make sure things aren't just slapped together. 3. Disappointing Myself For The Plot (The main conflict I have that was represented in the title. Believe me, it hurts my fangirl heart!) As the author, I can imagine most people are saying "Nikki, you can do whatever you want, it's your book!" I know I can, but I also want to stick with my original plot. And that means a couple that I ship doesn't become a thing! Again, I can make them work out, but it does nothing to the plot, and it doesn't make much sense. So basically, a secondary character in my Fantasy novel falls in love as they hide out from an assassin sent after them by the king who they are attempting to kill. Going to a different country, they hide out to try and work more on their approach. While they're there, this secondary character meets a deaf girl who can't talk. The guy and her bond over him teaching her my own (still work in progress) sign language for the books. She is grateful, he loves her personality and determination, not to mention he finds her beautiful. They kiss as her way of thanking him for teaching her a way to express her thoughts that doesn't take 20 minutes to write down. But they eventually need to leave. And let's get real. The couple would be freaking adorable, but he has a goal to achieve, and for her to just ditch the family she loves for one guy she is fond of who she probably knows for a span of about a week to a month (MAX) sounds a little stupid. This chick ain't stupid, so they don't become a thing because they never see each other again. And this makes me sad!!! But I have a few things to remember: (A) This guy's mission to destroy the people he hated growing up with is more important than a girlfriend (B) I originally made this guy to be forever alone, and I can still honor this trait of his (C) A decent plot needs to come before cheesy romance or else I'm going to recreate all the reasons I heard that Twilight was apparently a bad story. (Not allowed to read it because Vampires and Werewolves. I'm sheltered. If you read my blog, you should know this by now.) So those are a few things I picked up on this past month with my writing. If anyone else reads this who writes, I hope this helped you in some ways. With My friend Drake's advice for making sure you thoroughly know your character before writing, making sure you have a plot before writing, and knowing that things aren't always going to go your way in terms of making sure you have a good story. You need to put aside your personal OTP and make sure you actually have a story (Unless you're intentionally trying to write a chick book of cheesy romance, then go right ahead). Gotta get back to writing. Talk to you next week, Imaginary Readers! I Hurt Myself when I write stuffI don't know why I feel obligated to say this, but that doesn't mean that my own writing causes me to self harm. When I write, I get overly wrapped up in my stuff. so when I look at my writing, I get heavily invested in characters, I finally understand what it's like to be so wrapped up in a book that you realize it's not three in the afternoon anymore. This has many ups and downs, but the worst of the downs is when I have to write bad things my characters go through. (Quick disclaimer about the picture since people get overly offended these days, I know I didn't write the Bible, I'm just using that picture as it's similar to what I wrote about that hurt me today, and it was not inspired by Jesus' death either.) There I am doing my own thing, and I need something to happen to the characters because a story isn't good without conflict. So for what I was writing today, the main characters got caught, arrested, and a few had to be punished, so way, time to bring out whips... because I try to keep it all old fashioned-sorta and stuff. And Ii'm just there, typing away, but Oh my, it hurts. I become too invested in characters, but especially when they're my own. I drew them, I made their personalities, so to see them at their weakest, lowest, most vulnerable points in the stories makes me sad. I'll share some examples without giving names or the stories to avoid giving much away from the books. One guy was picked on all the time as a kid, and he became really cocky and goofy just to try to get people to like him since he was desperate for attention. He begins to date a girl he truly has feelings for and he starts acting like himself again after they date, but he's falsely accused of helping the antagonist, so she harshly breaks up with him, so there he is feeling like he's the worthless piece of garbage who would make everyone's lives better by just disappearing. Or one girl had an abusive boyfriend, self harmed when she was younger, and she saves her best friend as her way of saying thank you for talking her out of suicide when she was still depressed. In today's case, guys were being beaten for their rebellion against the antagonist, and it's a bit dramatic, and depressing. My friend read that bit and told me it was sad, so I consider that bit of that particular book a success. But I'm sitting there talking about him screaming in pain, and I stop typing for a few seconds and apologize to the character for making him suffer through that. The explanation for the title of the post is that I know I'm nowhere near God, nor could I be a good God if I ever tried, and today has proved that in only one aspect. I feel bad for making people deal with bad things, and if these were real, living people, I don't know if I could even do it. The fact that I do it to my own characters hurts me, and if any of these became successful and were being made into movies, I would probably hug the actors the day they filmed the bad stuff that happens to them because it would be the closest I would get to actually telling my character I apologize for making their life so hard. I know a lot of people have lots of fangirl/fanboy issues, but how many of them are about your own creations? If anyone finds this and has the same sort of experience, please leave a comment so I feel less pathetic about being as emotionally attached to my amateur fiction as I am to real people. Would help out a lot! Behold, all the books I'm using to write with. That's 8 books for five stories and occasional song ideas I get. The binder is for the musical I thought to write, the two books on top are for my sci fi novel, the next book up is the pirate story, the fantasy story, the superhero novels, a book for all of them that I take to school to avoid an overweight backpack, and that tiny little book on top is where I write songs. Seeing how much I'm writing, what inspired it all? When I was younger, I made a derpy superhero crew with my friends because I looked up to my older sister who made one with her friends, and I was copying just about everything from them, until she asked me to stop. Well, it was more so calling me out on the copying, but hey, I was in like fifth grade. Give me a break. And not just you, Crystal! I was originally Wild Girl since I couldn't pick just one animal to turn into. Afterwards, when I wanted a new hero persona, I created Sparkz, who has power over electricity. To this day, I still imagine myself abusing the power and taking the power out all over the block when I didn't feel like doing school that day. I kept Wild Girl on my new superhero team, but eventually had to get rid of the superhero team as well. But back to grade 6, as my sister was in a superhero/ninja phase, I got into spies, creating the absolutely cringe worthy "movie scripts" that I called the secret sisters. I have put some of that on a different post before called "I'm having cringe attacks from the past". Made with characters revolving around my actual two best friends at the time and myself, Gah... rjgergoijaisfjsigfhjufhudfghoijfifj I read it and it physically hurts me... and just in case my last examples weren't bad enough, here's the kind of thing I wrote about my character (Taylor) which just looks like the garbage you'd see on Disney Channel.. X{ Taylor: What’s wrong? Parker: It’s Brandon. He is so confusing! One minute we’re best friends, next, he says we never were friends, and I would be lucky to have one. Taylor: Ouch. Parker: He even slammed me into a locker! Taylor: Double ouch. Parker: So how are you? Taylor: Well, he broke up with me. Parker: Wow. Taylor: Via text message. Parker: Now THAT’S an ouch. While I read that, and say "Oh my gosh" at each sentence because it sounds so lame, my new stories have a lot more potential, more character, and unlike the three girls, they aren't the popular girl stereotypes with the added twist. I was the girly rich girl who PSYCH! I was a nerd all along. My still best friend was the girl who's good at everything sports and is that kid who's singled out at every event for being the MVP on the team, and my used to be best friend who's still a not as good friend now was the smart girl/social butterfly. I wrote this after wanting to become the next big thing in Hollywood. But the rest of my stories which also take a lot longer to write (which hopefully means they have actual stories, character and not some garbage that would just air on Nickelodeon and never get into theatres) and I'm so much more into them than I was with the older stories. And the way I got them started was pretty weird... The Sci-Fi Story Always stealing other people's drawing style, I was nagged for that again, and my mom bought some how to draw books to maybe help me find my own style. I eventually did, but that's not the big thing I got out of it. Stealing the head off a fairy from the book, a random guy, a cyborg, a robot, the blaster which became the basis for Alycia's gun and a space ship, I created this cringe worthy drawing. There I was, hum tee tum drawing when suddenly I decided, This drawing should have a story with it! Being so proud of that derpy little picture I thought it looked so cool that I wanted to write a story based on it! (Now that is how you get art work into a museum.) But no, I just came up with her name, which was supposed to just be Alisa, but I was young, still a bit stupid and decided it should be spelled differently, so I spelled it Alycia. My sister read over my shoulder, despite me hating it, and called her Alis-ee-ah. At first I was like "NO, IT'S ALISA! I just wanted to spell it differently. Then deciding it sounded different, and with this being a different universe, it would fit, so I started calling her Alycia, and that's been her name ever since. It's funny because most of the characters have relatively normal names like Daniel, Arthour, Aymie, Janna and Kevin. But yes, I based an entire story around that "attempting to draw" picture I made. The Fantasy Story It was after I had seen Lord OF The Rings. After watching them for the first time, I was just meh with them. They were good stories, but I hadn't cared too much. Then a couple days later, I wanted to write my own. Feeling like it was Lord Of The Rings that inspired me, I watched them again, alone in my room on Netflix over the course of a few days. I realized they were really well put together stories, the characters were amazing, and I went in with more of an open mind, and enjoyed the movies, also resulting in the first flood of tears when Frodo goes to the undying land. But I swore to not include any form of jewelry as important to the story to avoid any drama. I want LOTR to be the inspiration for my story, not the foundation of it. I still don't have that big a story line yet, but I have ideas, important moments, and characters in place. If you listen to a song from the end credits of Return of the King called Into The West, I listened to that song numerous times after starting my story and decided "I want my story to end in a way that would be worthy of that song. Something that if it were a movie, I could have a song similar to it." Yeah. That's how it all got started. The Pirate Story I wanted to write a pirate story, and since I had no ideas, I had the idea to make it the backstory of the antagonist from my fantasy story. It's as simple as that. The Musical Thing Coming up with interesting stories, and considering I loved writing song lyrics, I decided it would be cool to try and write a musical theatre play. Also don't have most of the plot, but hey. I'm 17. I have a while. But yeah, I basically just wanted to attempt to write a play rather than a story. It's a bit difficult as it's stage directions, not narrating the actions of the people. And I find the second easier as I can express emotions which helps me a lot more than just deciding they feel a certain way while leaving it open enough to be interpreted by actors. Superhero Thing Long story short, I missed having superheroes to imagine I wanted to give myself a new hero, and I created my superhero novel I asked if it was okay to write on a blog post I put up two months ago. So I'm working on making superheroes. So far, it's going well, and the thing people might find odd is my hero isn't even the main hero. I won't even get my powers until the second book. But it's fun. Difficult coming up with antagonist names and powers, but it's a lot of fun to come up with. My only worry is having to write the fights since it's one on one not just a general large battle with swords clashing, men dropping to the ground covered in blood and stuff, it's like 'so and so swung their right fist which collided with that person's chest' for every movement that happens. We'll see how it goes. Songs Mainly started back when ten year old me wanted to be Selena Gomez. Most of my garbage songs have been destroyed, but I still write songs, now motivated by my dream of YouTube. I've written parodies, original songs, and they range from songs just made to dance to, songs I wrote about my crush to let emotions out since everyone told me not to tell him, and encouraging songs about my faith and things I've personally experienced. There's a strange variety. Well, if anyone reads this and wants to write stories too, I'll say don't be afraid. It doesn't matter how weird you think your inspiration is, if it's a good story, then no one will care where it came from. If my fantasy book became big, it would be the difference between inspired by Lord Of The Rings and FSOG's origins being Twilight fan fiction. If the story is well written, people can get lost in the book, or if it is your goal to get shipping wars started, then ultimate couple debate will give you a good selling book. On the other hand, if you want a story to be respected, enjoyed by people who aren't just reading it to ship people and you want it to be remembered for the story itself. not the origins, not the shipping wars and not the jokes about how everything is better than it, then make sure your story is well written. Those are my words of "wisdom" for the day. Hope you enjoyed the stories and cringe worthy garbage I am for some reason willing to put on this blog. I need to practice for VBS! Bye! Is Over...This post is two days overdue, but I promised no set in stone schedule. On Wednesday April 27th in math class when I was supposed to be reviewing for a math test I had today, I finished the book. Not writing it, but that notebook I mentioned in my post saying I'm too attached and I was nervous to let it go. But now I had to. Ended it nice and strong by fixing up the original ending to the second book. I think it was good, and in my mind, the last sentence was good, but incredibly depressing. I don't know who reads this or if they care, but if you have read this and plan to read the writing I talk about all the time, then this has a bit of a spoiler, but it doesn't spoil the actual plot. So here's the last sentence: "He dragged himself to his room where he could be alone and not a disappointment to anyone else." I mean, I gave my stuffed duck, Jessie a very depressing origin. That egg was her stuffed toy which was given to her by her mom before she died. So with this duckling being an orphan, she walked door to door trying to sell it in order to buy food. But my sister and I had made a story line where all our Webkinz and Shining Stars (It was a less popular, Webkinz wannabe, but look at that duck! It's freaking adorable!) all came and were adopted into this giant family. So she got a home with my giant, pillow cover panda named Sarah, my stuffed Clifford The Big Red Dog and the other webkinz. This seems very random, but I'm talking about how I've been creating depressing stuff since I was like 8 or 9 years old! How did that happy go lucky child create something so sad?!?! Anyway, back to the book. It's weird. I tend to treat my characters like they're real, or I at least get fangirl-ish feels when I write. Like I'll either be intensely into the action sequence I'm creating, or someone's taking a punch to the face, and I say out loud, "I'm sorry Daniel!" I mean, why is it so easy for me to get so involved with my own characters as if I'm freaking out over Han Solo's death in The Force Awakens? I mean it's my story, I have the right to do what I want to it, and the right to react to it however I want to, but I am basically the fandom of my unwritten/unpublished stories. It's kinda weird. Anyway, I'm off to make popcorn and play video games with my sister. Later, imaginary readers! The ol' Book That sci-fi thing I've talked about in my I'm writing things section, this is where it all began. Creating the character of Alycia in here back when she and Daniel were the only things I had planned. There's so much in here from character 'development' to older ideas I had before they were needed. And as of this moment, all of them are somewhere in the books. Only, there's something that I think is kinda weird. There's only six pages left in this notebook, which has been THE book I've used for this story ever since the beginning, like four or five years ago. And with there being only six pages, I'm kinda nervous. Heck, I always wrote "Thanks for listening" on the last pages of my old diaries, so this doesn't really surprise me. Although I have another book the exact same size and company that is just chillin' on my shelf, mostly untouched which I will use to replace the book in the picture. I mean, I was tempted to use it for my superhero thing, especially since I had the most adorable idea, which made me gushy and all "er mer gersh, ir lerve it! Ir shirp therm!" So yeah. I wote the superhero stuff on my phone, and I just need to wait until after fan expo to buy a new notebook. Is it weird that I like to keep different stories in different notebooks? I have one for the Fantasy Story, One for the pirate story, a small binder with looseleaf for my musical thing, and I'm coming up on two books for the sci fi thing! And then to add to the weight, an 80 page sketchbook for character drawing. (Those make up most of the weight of my backpack at school, and I only have two tiny duo-tangs in my backpack that I take home which are related to school. I'm getting a bit off topic. I saved the old book because it's been around as long as the book that's almost used up is, and I always had them as a pair. Originally with a lame idea for some kids who secretly work for the school paper writing the advice columns, but that idea was scrapped, and I will use it for sci-fi ideas once the six pages have run out. Plus, it makes the transition easier for me. Basically the same book only it's bright pink and says "I KNOW WHERE LOVE COMES FROM JOHN 3:16". But same style, same torn out first pages, same Bible verses on the back of the cover, I still can't believe I bought those at Walmart! USA, you're lucky. You have Christian notebooks in Walmarts! Or, at least you did when I was like, thirteen. Second and (So far) the last time I've been out of Canada! But yeah. I finally started writing in this book again. It's not like I've given up on the story, even if nothing happens to it, then unless God tells me that I need to stop with it, then I'm finishing it! I'm done the first book and a half (the second one is basically half written, just not put together), and that only took me five years. I know about a third book, but I don't know if I want to release a fourth. If so, the third book would be the one i'm not sure about as it is sorta the story going on in the first two books from the point of the antagonist. I mean, you don't hear enough about him, or his decent into insanity, so I feel like that would be a good third book before the for sure last one in that series. And I'd like to say right now, if any of my work became a movie, I'd make sure I helped cast, because I don't want my stories which I fangirl and daydream of getting ruined, and for that same reason, I'd want to help write and edit the script as well as direct. I'd want my stories to be how I imagined them since seventh grade. Or tenth grade. Or eleventh. Whatever years I started writing the rest of my crap. Well, gotta finish watching danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil while I procrastinate from doing science homework. Byeee! Can I make a superhero novel?I understand this is incredibly stupid, but to me, it's a legitimate question. All the biggest superheroes the world knows and loves today, Spider-Man, Bat Man, Ant Man, Super Man, The Flash, they all originated from comic books. While I am someone who likes to draw, they aren't good enough to create an entire comic series, and how could I compete one superhero and two teams of superheroes I stopped writing about for personal reasons a while ago with Marvel and DC? I know my older sister asks the same questions all the time, but her drawing skills are insane, she's passionate about her characters, and she's brilliant when she writes. I'm not saying I'm not passionate about my stuff and I'm not a half bad writer myself, I can always make things better if I use mainly words. I can get really lazy with my drawings, and while I enjoy drawing, I don't think I'd want to illustrate not only every page, but every single sentence or action someone makes. I'm not patient enough for that, and I don't even know how I'd come up with everything like that and keep it consistent. So feeling like I can make a more compelling story using only words, could I make it a book? Or should I just try and write a script out of it? I can do both just fine, it's just a book is easier to create the details without having to write it as descriptive, but I'd want this superhero to be a superhero in a movie if I ever had the chance. Although I only have the leading hero and the depressing moment. Other than that, I'm still trying to technically figure out her powers. Her name's Venus, in reference to a venus fly trap. Yet I don't really know how to give her any plant powers. I guess the idea was it being sort of exotic, despite the fact that they aren't very exotic. You just hear it, and it sounds like some deadly plant that you would find somewhere in the rain forest or something. (At least that's what I always thought). Anyway, I'm pretty stumped, and I'm just wondering if I should go Movie Script or Book. If anyone actually visits, please help me. I know that no one reads this, but if you do, please leave a comment telling me what I should do. Thanks imaginary people on the internet. My horrible writing made me the writer all my friends love(Gifs found on Giphy for messenger) All those gifs of (mostly) Phil and Dan show what faces I've made at least once in the past hour or two. Tonight, as the title suggests, I've been attacked by my past. Back when I thought I was capable of writing scripts in seventh grade.... Reading them now, they'd be worse than Adam Sandler movies. I mean, as a pre teen, I wanted to be the next Selena Gomez. That meant I not only wanted to sing, but I wanted to act in movies as well. And always getting good grades when we had to write, I thought I was a natural. I mean, I guess you could say that, but when I look back at how just four years ago, I was writing nonsense about teenage spies who were popular kids with a pathetic nerd nemesis, (My how things have turned around!), But reading these, while it causing me physical pain, I can't bring myself to get rid of them. When I compare something like my old scripts "The Secret Sisters" to something like the Sci-Fi series I'm writing now, I can clearly see growth. I'm sure I'll regret sharing this online, but here's a bit of a sample. (Brace Yourself) The Secret Sisters: Rivers: HOW DID YOU DO THAT? Taylor: (Stands up and sassily walks towards him) Well, Mr. Poop face, ever since... some dreams I've had, My Uncle installed trap doors all over the house, and at different depths, and set them to go off spontaneously when people walk on them. He said it would help us all with trap door issues. (Spontaneously freezes) What just happened? Rivers: (Grinning evilly, and kinda chuckles) Well, angelfish, I have been having a reoccurring dream myself. Maybe this will help me get over it! Taylor: (Steps forward) OH CHEESE! Sci Fi Story: “My trainer, Daniel.” “Then why the longing glances?” “I don’t know...” “I mean what ever happened to Felix? I thought you loved him.” Herotis teased. Alycia looked at him, irritated, and he chuckled, as he left to make Daniel a warm beverage. Alycia grabbed a stool, and sat beside Daniel. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. And it wasn’t just the injury, but she was still wondering where this whole emotionless boy came from. She suddenly felt an urge to pray. Nervous that he would wake up, Alycia slowly put her hand on his arm. She closed her eyes and took a breath. “Father, something is happening with Daniel. I can’t explain it, I have no idea what it is, but he’s hiding something. There’s something- or someone in his life that’s holding him back. Please help him to get over that, and please help him to overcome this obstacle in his life. Be his strength, be his comfort, and please soften his heart. Make him want to feel something. Something other than anger. Please save him. Just help him.” Alycia looked up to see Herotis standing there. “Sorry...” Secret Sisters: Rivers: Those my loverlies, are sharks. (TAP start snickering) WHAT’S SO FUNNY!? WE ARE ABOUT TO SEND YOU TO CERTAIN DOOM! Avery: It’s always just hard to take you seriously when you’re talking like that! Lavinia: (sighs, pushes Rivers aside, and repeats in an unimpressed voice) We are about to send you to certain doom. Taylor: NOW I’M SCARED! Lavinia: There are hungry sharks down there. Peyton: So? Anybody who knows anything about animals knows that sharks won’t intentionally hurt a human, unless they mistake us for seals. Avery: If you remember from Biology, we learned lightning kills more humans than sharks do. Rivers: If the brains here also remembers from biopsy, we learned that sharks are drawn to blood. Peyton: So…? Rivers: Oops! (looks at wrist) Look at the time! It looks like you have an appointment with the monsters from below! (pulls out a sword like a pirate in a fight) And we’d hate for you to miss it! Sci Fi Story "... so one day, when I'm king of Encynewave, you'll get what that Griffin got. And worse! Get it! So stop running so fast, and let me kill you now." Arthour finished Daniel grinned, and slowly started to back away. "Am I too fast, or are you just a little too slow.” Daniel noticed how Arthour was failing to keep it together, so he had to think of ways to aggravate him. “I mean seriously, how could a little twerp like you ever be king?” “Shut up right now, peasant!” Arthour yelled. “Why are you calling me peasant? You’re on the same level as I am. A young, stupid, immature ADOLESCENT!” “I’m warning you!” Arthour called. “Abbess, Felix Phiferfeathers would be a better king than you.” Daniel shrugged, before running. Secret Sisters Taylor is attempting to confront Rivers, but can’t control herself. Taylor: Why is it that whenever you want to mess with me, you cower behind a necklace instead of facing me head on, like a man? Rivers: You’ve seen my ‘man’ moments. They’re as manly as a four year old little girl cutely licking a big colourful lollipop. Taylor: Oh yah? (Rivers is typing something on his phone) Well when I get out of here, I’m going to- (Stiffens up, gets a weird, cheesy smile on her face and says the following robotically) Hi! I’m Taylor Electra, and I’m Rivers McPuffpants’ girlfriend! (Stops the robotic voice and panics) What did I just say??????? Rivers: You see, not only have I remade the necklace, but I upgraded it. I made an app on my phone, so I can control what you say! And how you say it! Taylor: (Before each sentence, we see Rivers typing how she’ll say it) (Stereotypical girly-girl like) Oh my gash! My BF is like, the best thing that’s ever happened to me! (Scared) Ah! Spider! RIVERS! SAVE ME!!! YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE!!!! (Angry) Now if you DARE get between me and my River baby, you’ll be as dead as... zombies!!!!! (Sing to the tune of wrecking ball) I came in like a poker ball! Just wanted to collect them all! (her own will) You’re typing in the wrong lyrics. (irritated) I don’t care, how good your arguments are! I’m on the wolfie man’s team! Vampires are creepy. Sci Fi Story “Get up, boy! When did you turn so weak?” Brutacus taunted. “I know who you really are, you would have murdered me right after I gave you that black eye! Where’s the trainer I know?” “I got strong...” Daniel groaned, clutching his chest and arm. “I won’t fight. I am not going to fight out of pure rage again.” “You really are a coward, aren’t you? I murdered your mother and have your girlfriend-student! You hate me, but you’re scared of me!” “As difficult as this is to say, I... don’t- hate you. And I’m in no way afraid of you. You might be a monster, but you’re my dad. Plus, I shouldn’t hate... So I won’t.” Daniel muttered, feeling faint. “Is that so, my son?” Brutacus asked, walking towards him. (Gifs found on Giphy for messenger) When I see the stuff from The Secret Sisters, I'm making so many faces of disgust, embarrassment, and I wish I could time travel and delete them while my past self was asleep every night. Now when I see the stuff from my Sci Fi series, I often put myself into those stories. Knowing the scenery, what all the characters look like and not having a generic plot with generic characters, I can actually see things, I'm more attached to the characters, and I find it easier to relate to them. In The Secret Sisters, the three main characters are just popular kids who are popular for one of the generic reasons why. Taylor for being rich and having everything that everyone wants, Peyton was the athletic chick who gets all the glory (in other words, a female Troy Bolton), and Avery was the smart kid / social butterfly who could get along with everyone. That was it. The only character conflict was when Taylor starts dating a nerd, revealing that haha, psych. The girly girl was secretly a nerd all along and has to hide it because up until she finds some magic confidence at the end, she can't handle the possible rejection she'll get for being herself. And most characters have no backstory, no "planned" motivation, and it makes them really one dimensional Meanwhile, in my Sci Fi story, Alycia has dreams, reasons why she is who she is that aren't just sudden pop ups, you can clearly see her motivations, and she seems more like a person than a character. Even Daniel. He's basically that generic, "I swore to never love again" character, only you can see he has drives and motivations that keep him from only being angry or an emotionless blob. Janna, Alycia's best friend seems like that happy care free best friend, but she's quite temperamental and she expresses her happiness to sometimes not be the truth. There's more than one side to the characters, and I've actually been able to create that. While the secret sisters gives me the feels that Dan has in the gif that opened up this post, twelve year old Nikki was proud of that. Being the first 'big' not-for-school project I had finished on my own, it was the greatest thing I had ever made. Then I got older, and I partially blame my 9th grade English teacher for this, but he was one of the more tough teachers. I started by getting sixties, then after learning what he wanted to hear, I was able to lean what he wanted and get back into my eighties and low nineties marks. The highest (not book quizzes) mark I got from him was when I had to draw. I've even had great improvements on that since grade 9. But those things not only show my growth, but I was proud of them. It's not the same as hanging your four year old child's scribbles on the fridge because it's adorable for a child of that age, but feeling like I made something that I hadn't and in some case, couldn't have done before, I loved my work. It was fun to do, it let my creativity out, and I'm still getting better. What can I say? I'm only 17. I've got a lot ahead of me. I'm still going to get better and look at the stuff I write now and cringe. And since I'll be reacting to this for a vlog or something one day, or even just to read it, Hi Nikki of the future! You used to listen to Justin Bieber and One Direction! Also, Han Solo and Frodo's deaths both make you cry. NERD!!!! (All Gifs were found on Giphy For Messenger)
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AuthorI'm a dork who needs a place to vent. I try to blog on Wednesdays. Archives
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