| Closing? |
[Oct. 16th, 2007|12:21 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Cheldorado"-Road to El Dorado Soundtrack | ] |
I never use this journal. If you want to read my posts, please go to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) whiskpirate. It's just so much easier for me to keep everything in one place. So I'm on an undetermined hiatus from this journal.
Also...is there anyone who would be willing to read the 3rd complete revision of the first chapter (and prologue) of The Conqueror? If no one minds, I would like to email it to you to see what you think of it. |
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| Tara ABC's |
[Feb. 22nd, 2007|10:27 pm] |
I've started work on The Elemental Spell again, and I have to say, it's going very well. My break got me over my writer's block and I now know how to end the story. This calls for a celebration! Or at the very least, a quiz. It's one of thoes quizzes everyone fills out, but this is different! This is filled out by a fictional character! I had Tara fill this one out, I'll find some for Dylan, Bartimus, and maybe the rest of the cast too.
( ABCs ) |
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| Marshall Manor Chapter 1 Finished |
[Feb. 6th, 2007|10:35 pm] |
Yes, I finished the first chapter of Marshall Manor last night, and I've gotten quite a lot pounded out for chapter 2 already. It's coming along very nicely, I think. I finally figured out a way to open the book that I'm happy with...
It was a day when you couldn't remember summer.
The whole first paragraph makes me happy--it's loads better than the mainstream pile of sludge I originally had. Okay, so it wasn't exactly sludge, but it was mainstream, and certainly not the way I wanted to open the book--though I may use it later because it had great description of Selenia's weather.
Mister Marshall reminds me of someone a little now, but I can't remember who. I hope I find out soon so he doesn't become too much like someone else! But I do love Mr. M, he's such an honorable character already.
Colette is a character I just introduced and I like her in love-to-hate-her way, I hope you all will too. She's a servant in Marshall Manor, with an insane amount of pride and dignity, accompanied of coarse by a 'I'm-better-than-you-even-if-I'm-a-servant' look. And I hope that when people read it they find her conversations with Mister Marshall slightly humorous, and the little spats with Sophie hilarious.
Kendra and Sophie are becoming great foils for each other. Yes, I said it, foils--a literary term! *gasp* See, in my character sketches and notes I've described Sophie as "a realist with dreams" and "a follower/early adapter." She's the calm, collected thinker. Whereas Kendra was described as "an innovator" and "energetic and curious"; she's the creative one who acts impulsively. I even included a short paragraph in Kendra's chapter (chapter 2) where she says how thankful she is that someone was thinking about what was going on...and not blurting out a million questions ;)
Tomorrow I'm going to be doing a lot of research on the house I've semi-based Marshall Manor off of (i.e. the exterior and some history of the house itself). I'll also be asking my father lots of questions about it--he's a home inspector.
Anyway, I need to be getting off, but I'm still really excited about this book (let's hope it doesn't wear off--I've been writing everyday lately!) and wanted to let you all know how it was going. (Oh, and hopefully I'll be getting new icons soon--one for Marshall Manor even!)
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I just remembered some news I wanted to tell.
I keep getting published, but not in the way I want to be! Over the years I've gotten a lot of my poetry published in anthologies (but I won't brag right now about those) and I'm not a poet, not even all that fond of my poetry--I'm a novelist! I got news last night that Get Connected is publishing their book for teens to get involved in technology and they want to use an image of mine. My local library see is hosting a digital art contest, and I'm sort of the head of the group hosting it, so I made a logo for the contest that we've used on all of our fliers and posters and such. Well Get Connected has become interested and they want to use all of our things (we've been working side-by-side with them since the beginning) in their book--all of which use my logo. So I'm getting my digital art contest logo published. I'm happy yes, just a little frustrated at all the times I've been published (which is quite a few, but again, I won't brag) none of them have been one of my non-poetry writings!
Okay, well, You Always Knew did get published in both the classroom creative writing collection* and in my school's literary magazine. Only the classroom "magazine" isn't really a serious publication, it's just a collection where every student put in one of their writings and everyone got a copy. And Visions, the literary magazine, won't be out until about May**.
*I love alliterations XD
**Let me know if anyone wants to order a copy--they're only like $3 or so and I can promise it has some really good pieces (I should know, I had to proof-read them all!). If you do, I'll even send you this one brilliant poem that we could not put in because it wasn't school appropriate--but it was an excellent piece of writing. (oh geez, I sound like an infomercial!) |
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| Current Works In Progress |
[Jan. 21st, 2007|03:07 pm] |
Current projects:
Marshall Manor (working title)--Fantasy story. Main characters: Kendra and Sophie, 14 yr old girls who play in the snow on the outskirts of the Selenia Woods one day and make an interesting discovery; Mr. Marshall--Head of Marshall Manor, porter, had a spell put on him.
Untitled-Humor. Short story I started this morning. You know the story about how Walt Disney is cryogenically frozen inside Cinderella Castle? Well, he wakes up when he's most needed. Will post in a few days when I finish it.
Zenith-Sci-Fi. It's about 100 years in the future and Kem has just convinced her father to sell his farm--farms are outdated. While packing up his things, Gramps decides to show his grandson, Kem's son Mace, his secret. Hidden away in his dilapitated barn is a plane--the last plane. He tells Mace how to fly it, and he does--right up to a modern city in the sky made to look like a cloud: Zenith City where Mace learns that his world isn't all the public's been told it is.
The Elemental Spell-Fantasy. This has pretty much been set on the back burner, but I'm working my way through it, fixing it up before I continue. I rushed through it before and it's currently crap, so I'm gonna work on that before adding more. I love the story though. I already have someone asking me for more chapters to read after I read the first two to her for a school assignment.
The Conqueror-Adventure. There's no way I would give up on this story, I love it way too much. Still working on it, it's just not my main project at the moment; I'm doing research for it ^-^ (Currently researching the end of the Romanov line, the overthrow especially, the cool thing is it counts for my Russia project in English too. Then I'm moving on to Il Duce)
That's about all. I'll post Reset, Rewired once I finish the final edits. |
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| Musings |
[Jan. 14th, 2007|11:42 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | writing tips | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Dreamgirls"-Dream Girls Soundtrack | ] |
I haven't been updating as of late because I felt I had nothing worth while to post here. I've decided though that because my memory is failing me more and more, I should just write out my musings on writing here, however complete or confusing they may be. Sorry in advance if these offend you at all.
Writing is easy for Christians, we already know how realistic archetypes can be, not to mention we had the very first villain (a snake who also gives us great symbols and personification tools) and the very first true hero (Jesus, the only one who can ever truly save us).
Write out your dreams, they may make good plot someday.
I don't like romance novels, they don't feel realistic enough (says the fantasy/scifi writer) to be as "normal" as they're portrayed to be.
In school they teach us what the call writing, but it's not really. They provided us with the words, spelling, and grammar, but they could never teach writing. Writing is creation, writing is something that comes from the soul, and writing is something you just know, but never learned. They can teach us all they want, but until we pour our heart into it, it's just a bunch of words.
Don't you dare throw away/burn/delete your writing! That may fit into some story you haven't even imagined yet, or maybe once you're a famous author you can include it in your anthology.
Make sure you've used a word correctly, and spelled it right too, check a dictionary if you have to. In the previous note I first wrote "anthography" instead of anthology, and I'm glad I looked it up when I thought 'that doesn't look right' because it turns out anthography is a description of flowers. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 10th, 2006|03:54 pm] |
The green is what I wrote last night, most of it was from word wars with my wrimobuddies on Yahoo Messenger. Tonight is the MSN chat, that's going to be tons of fun.
I introduced a new character, Chanlaron, a fellow "elementist" who will play a big part throughout the story. I also mentioned an old professor of Bartimus'.
I'm also on my 5th chapter, with some later scenes already written (word wars). |
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| NaNoWriMo Post 1 |
[Nov. 5th, 2006|01:22 am] |
This is post 1 for NaNoWriMo, and I assure you, there will be many more to follow.
First off, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It's a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It's crazy, but it's a fun sort of crazy.
On my novel...
Taglines
It started with an alchemist, and not a particularly bright one. He made a mistake, a big one.
All he wanted was beef Wellington, what a mistake.
Summary
Bartimus Literati is an alchemist in another world who was attempting to turn a cup of water into beef Wellington. Instead, he opened the rift between his world and Earth and accidentially pulled Tara and her new stepbrother, Dylan, through it. Now he has to figure out a way to send them back home when he doesn't even know how he brought them there in the first place.
It's fantasy, it's loaded with subtle (and some not-so-subtle) humour, and it's even got a good dose of drama added to it.
Characters (in order of introduction)
Dylan Wright-9 years old, curious, knowledgable (Tara's stepbrother)
Tara McAllister-16 years old, slightly cynical, sarcastic (Dylan's stepsister)
Lydia Wright-McAllister-Tara's mother, recently remarried (after being widowed)
George Wright-Dylan's father, recently remarried (after divorce)
Bartimus Literati-alchemist/wizard
I have 3 more, but they're spoilery
Chapters
1. The Ferris Wheel
2. The Spellbook
3. The Market
The Prologue
The dictionary defines alchemy as a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages concerned principally with transmuting a substance of little value into something of greater value. The men who practiced this, alchemists, are viewed now with hindsight to be complete lunatics and delusional madmen. Sometimes, though, these so-called madmen made great leaps in their studies, in that of a science, or of magic.
Be sure to check me out, I'm TypesetJez there. And watch Typeset World for nanowrimo updates in case I don't cross post them here (like I've been forgetting to since the first). |
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| 10 more characters |
[Oct. 2nd, 2006|09:58 pm] |
As per usual, snagged from super_nico13 and may contain spoilers, but only little ones if any.
( Pick 10 characters... )
I promise I'll post something real again soon. But until then, check out my blog, Typeset World, where you can find book reviews, general blogging, and the beginnings of a post about the connections between the book As I Lay Dying and the movie, Little Miss Sunshine. |
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| Civil War/Protectors: Ghost |
[Sep. 4th, 2006|03:39 pm] |
Okay, still, this is sort of like a fanfic, so will not be published formally.
A part I cut from the first chapter:
“I’m obviously a mutant, and some of you may even recognize me from the group the Protectors. I’ve never worn a mask, and I never will. I do this for one reason: I have nothing to hide. I’m an orphan, I have no family. But if I did, I would be wearing a mask, because I wouldn’t want to put any of them at risk for a decision I made long ago. I didn’t sign up for this job, and I didn’t take a class to get here either, I simply decided to use my powers in a way to help people, to keep them safe. We all have our own reasons for becoming superheroes, and we all have people to protect. Because of that I’m here right now to say I’m Ghost, I’m a mutant, and I am against the superhero registration act.”
I cut it out because I realized something: it was stupid and out of character. She does make her stance known, and different pieces of this speech will be used for different parts of the story, but it will all be done in a much smarter way.
And +5 points for anyone who notices the line that's a reference to the original Protectors draft.
( Think you've got it? Answer behind the cut ) |
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| Heart of a Hero: The Protectors (redone) |
[Sep. 3rd, 2006|11:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  creative | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Praying for sunny days"-Hyperstatic Union | ] |
Sorry I haven't put up any public posts lately. Most things I've been posting are kept as private because I have a fear of people stealing my work (because they're unfinished, therefore unpublished). I have been doing a lot of writing since I started my creative writing class.
I'm also writing something little based off Marvel's current cross-over, Civil War. I was reading through all of Civil War and I thought to myself "how would my characters react to the registration act?" and next thing you know I had pages worth of writing done already.
So, since I was already writing that, and working on the characters involved I thought I'd give you a few details on the main heros of Heart of a Hero/Confessions (whatever I finally decide to call it).
Name: Leila Stone
Codename: Ghost
Power: Can sense other mutants and superheros, wings, limited telekinesis
Stance on registration act: In Heart/Confessions, she complains about keeping hidden. She does want the world to know who they all are, but knows better and is totally against the act.
Name: Jason Mikena (notice anything? +2 points for whoever catches it)
Codename: The Flame
Power: Uh, isn't it obvious? Fire
Stance: He's for it, no doubt. He also argues with Lei over it a bit in the first chapter
Name: Toby McGrathe
Codename: Phantom
Power: Invisibility
Stance: Well, he's still a bit on the fence (isn't he always though?). He believes it's wrong, and will not sign up for it, but he won't oppose it or his government.
Name: Amelia Brown
Codename: Thumbelina
Power: Shrinking
Stance: All for it, and has actually been working with SHIELD on it, but I won't say much more for fear of spoilers
Name: Karl Angler
Codename: Armour
Power: Technopath
Stance: Sees the upside of the registration act, but thinks the government is going about it all the wrong way and therefore will not comply. Whether or not he'll oppose it is undecided |
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| Why Sci-Fi? |
[Sep. 3rd, 2006|11:13 pm] |
Someone asked me recently "why scifi?" so now I'm replying.
Why do I write in the sci-fi/fantasy genre?
Science Fiction/Fantasy is interesting, and more fun to write. With things like mutants, parallel worlds, and space travel acceptable, there's a million possible stories that can be written.
Why not some realistic fiction?
Well, there's two reasons for that. The first is that the majority of real life is boring, dull, and monotonously mundane. The second is that my real life is pretty rough and I'm afraid I'll end up having an emo fest in a book. The reason I started writing was because I wanted to imagine things differently, not write about how they are with my life.
You've always wanted to write some historical fiction, why don't you do that?
This is simple: research. In sci-fi you can get away with pretending that engines can run on butter or something in the future, the facts don't all have to be, well, factual. I definately love looking up some things (like say, spiders or dictators), but I don't like looking up everything to make it work in with history. Why do you think The Conqueror takes place on a fictional island?
Besides, I love reading Sci-Fi/Fantasy and I know I say this all the time, but "the true key to being a good writer is being a good reader." |
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| Merka Redone |
[Aug. 5th, 2006|04:20 pm] |
I'm joining a new roleplay, and I've decided I'd like to play Merka in it (it's sort of a sci-fi/fantasy rp I guess). Only one catch, I have to modernize him. And he can't have his Zarconian history. So here's Merka v. 2.0 ;)
(I'll be using the bio format they gave me)
Name: Merka Thodbury (as opposed to Tala Merka)
Age: 17
Birthdate: March 31st, 1989 (he's born year of the snake, lol)
Place of Birth: Chicago, IL (write what you know, and I know Chicago)
Appearance: He's about 5'7" with short brown hair. His eyes are a yellowish-green, and sometimes resemble those of a snake. He has scales on his shoulders and the backs of his hands (which he hides, but says the ones on his hands are a rare skin condition). Usually wears a baggy t-shirt and jeans, sometimes a black jacket.
Personality: He's very suspicious of others, but is really nice to someone once he starts to trust them. He's a little secretive himself, very quiet. Sometimes he can get a bit critical of others too.
Hobbies: He likes hanging out with his friends and playing sports.
History: The Thodbury family has a secret, their blood is of Chryou decent, they're snake people. But after a millenia the blood had become diluted and the Chryou traits are recessive. Merka's parents are both totally normal, but Merka is not. He gained some snake traits, some scales on his shoulders and hands, and odd eyes. He also has heightened senses of speed, sight (night vision), and smell. His family has been keeping their secret for hundreds of years, and Merka has to keep his abilities secret as well.
That's all I have so far, I'm sure I'll add to it sometime. But those are the basics. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. ^-^ |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 28th, 2006|11:53 pm] |
I always get good ideas at night, I'm an insomniac, it comes with the territory. But I never get to write them down. Well, last night I decided to pick up my notebook on the nightstand and my pen and write, in the dark.
So, what I was thinking actually, was "what if I ever had to write my memoirs?" And of coarse, I don't remember my life much, and it was that thought that spawned this:
28.7.06, 2.08
I miss life. Not so much that I miss having one, I never had much of one to begin with, but rather I miss life in general. It's like I'm driving down a street; I'm going one way and life is rushing past me in the other lane going the opposite. It's there, I can see it, I can hear it, and I can feel the wind as it passes by, and of coarse there's always the possibility that I'll crash into it or it into me. But life was always going somewhere else than I wanted to go, so I found my own way and watched it pass by. Nowadays I live 24-7 in a dream world of my own creation, but I still wonder where that road called life would have eventually led me. I guess I'll never know, but maybe I'm better off that way.
And because I never actually use this notebook, I've only got one other entry in it, but I'll type that up too while I'm here.
21.6.06
I'm thoroughly convinced that everyone has a good singing voice, but most people don't know how to access it and are then convinced that they don't have a good singing voice and stop trying. This is easily translatible to any task or ability, we have the potiential, we just lack the knowledge of how to achieve it.
"Since you can't actually remember anything about who was here, your mind has just falled in the room with an amalgram of who you might expect to see in a teashop in Winchester. Mnemonic wallpaper, so to speak. There is nothing in this room that won't be familiar. The cutlery is your mother's and the pictures on the walls are all odd mixes of the ones we had up in the house. The waitress is a compound of Lottie from your lunch with Bowden and the woman in the chip shop. Every blank space in your memory has been filled with something than you do remember--a sort of shuffling of facts to fill in the gaps" Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book
If you were able to read yourself into one of your favourite books, would you see the setting and the characters as the author imagined them, or as you did? Everyone imagines, or "sees" if you will, a single book different from everyone else who has ever read that book. Why? Mnemonic wallpaper. When reading a book you fill in the missing details and make connections to your own personal experiences and other things you may have read, heard, or seen.
Unfortunately it seems I never finished that entry, but I was certainly onto something, eh? |
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