Books and Plays

So I finished writing a brief outline for my story and started on name choosing. It is really hard!!!!!  Some names you come up with straight away but other characters refuse to be named. Other names look really good but don't fit with the feel of your story. Eventually I came up with a character list with some really good names and more importantly I liked them.

I haven't started actual writing yet though partly because I'm also writing a script for my drama company's upcoming show and partly because I can't seem to get the full vision I have in my head on paper. I kept scrapping my prologues and getting really frustrated with myself. I want this book to worth someone taking the time reading and I think I might just be putting a little too much pressure on myself to get it perfect.

The script writing is so much easier because you don't have to describe what people or buildings or anything looks like. The audience gets to see all that with their eyes. All you have to do is write entertaining dialogue and give minor directions to the actors so that they know what's going on. It's also easy because we are brainstorming for the play as a group and therefore I'm simply putting the ideas into a story rather than having to come up with all ideas myself.

Oh and I was at the library yesterday and decided to get the last 8 books in The Series Of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket out. I don't know why I did it as I don't even like them that much but I will finally be able to finish the series that I think I started three years ago.

Writing

I've always loved writing but for the last couple of years I've been focusing on my other talents and things (such as soccer, schoolwork etc..). I haven't written much lately and what I have written has been essays for school and not creative writing which is what I really enjoy. The English I do for Cambridge is based around interpretation and commentary on pieces of writing and there is very little creative writing involved. 

However since this year I made the decision to leave soccer indefinitely I have spent a lot more time thinking about other things than football. And one of the main things I've been thinking about is writing. I found a blog written by an author which some of the people I follow follow and as I was reading it I suddenly had this idea. I should write a book.

When I was 12 I wrote a story called Fort Wolfbane. It was heavily influenced by my favourite author at that time Brian Jacques and his book series Redwall of which I have 19 of the 22 books. I'm something of a Redwall fanatic and although I don't read them anymore (partly because I've read them so many times I know the stories of by heart and partly because they are aimed at younger people) I'm still trying to get the last 3 books to complete the series. 

Oops. That was slightly of topic there. Anyways book writing.....

So I was reading this blog and I remembered how much I loved to write so for the last couple of days I've been thinking about what I should write about. I've come up with a very basic plot and I am trying to order the jumble of ideas in my head into something that makes at least some sense and isn't just another rip off of a popular book series. If it ever gets published, which is unlikely but possible, I don't want it to be labelled just another rip off.

For some crazy reason I told a friend that I would show her my ideas tomorrow so I am just slightly stressing out trying to make sure that I do actually have some decent ideas to show her. I really liked my idea until that point and now I am stressing out about whether I am actually happy with the basic story line. It has already been subjected to some major tweaking/changing/complete re-writing and it will most likely undergo a lot more tonight.

Re-reading this makes me think I'm taking this all way too seriously. :P

Meow

So after my last, super-manly post I thought I better write something to prove my manliness. *insert load of rubbish about bench presses, 10 k runs, blah, blah blah, blah, blah*

Now that that's out of the way. Cats. :D

Cats are, in my opinion, one of the cutest things on earth. So why do I have to consistently convince people that they are better than dogs?!?!? I mean it's obvious that canines are nowhere near as cute, or loving, or adorable as felines. Isn't it??

Although I admit that dogs tend to want to spend way more time with you than a cat would isn't it nice to be able to sit in the vicinity of your pet and not be jumped upon/licked immediately? This also makes it even more special when your cat decides to sit on your lap and spend time with you.

I wish I had a cat...........

 Dad needs to use the computer now so I'm going to post this even though I wanted it to be longer.

:'(

*Warning this blog goes absolutely no where...*

I was just reading my least favourite part of the history of Middle Earth a.k.a The Silmarillion. It's the battle known as the Nirnaeth Arnoediad which means Unnumbered tears. Pretty much all the surviving cool Elven Lords from the last four battles are killed and most of my favourite men also die..... Morgoth (for non Lord of The Rings fans he was Sauron's master) absolutely annihilates the elvish armies and..... Well it's really sad.. :(

Here is an excerpt "But now in the western battle Fingon and Turgon were assailed by a tide of foes thrice greater than all the force left to them. Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, high-captain of Angband, was come; and he drove a dark wedge between the Elvenhosts, Surrounding King Fingon and thrusting Turgon and Hurin towards the Fen of Screech. Then he turned upon Fingon. That was a grim meeting. At last Fingon stood alone with his guard dead around him; and he fought Gothmog until another Balrog came behind and cast a thong of fire about him. Then Gothmog hewed him with  his black axe, and a white flame sprang from the helm of Fingon as it was cloven. Thus fell the High King of the Nolder; and they beat him into the dust with their maces, and his banner, blue and silver, they trod into the mire of his blood."

Fingon was like one of my absolute favourite characters!!!!!!!!!!! And they killed him....... (If I was a female I probably would have sobbed uncontrollably after reading this part of the book but cause I'm a guy I just pretended I had something in my eye.......) 

I'm leaving for work now so I'm going to post this even though I don't really like it. I hope you're having a brilliant day!! :D

Drama

I had my drama class last night and it is so much fun to hang out with a small group of friends (there are 7 of us including our teacher) with whom you can be slightly, okay a little bit more than slightly, weird. No one judges you when you mess up and there is no pressure to conform and be "normal". We do the weirdest things and I'm pretty sure that if anyone watched us they would notify a psychiatric ward but we don't care. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this but I just think that things are so much more enjoyable when you don't have to put on a front for others. When you are able to be your self and not worry about whether people are going to accept you.

 As teenagers there is often a lot of pressure on us to conform. Whether you're at school, in a sports team, or even sometimes when you're at church. You aren't allowed to be yourself or you're not able to be good friends with certain people, or if you are good friends then you have to be in a relationship if the friend is a girl.

 Now I don't have a huge amount of experience with school but I played for a football (that's soccer) club for the last five years and there were certain people who could make your life suck if you didn't fit in. That's one of the reasons I like my  drama class so much is that there is no pressure to conform.

We all have our quirks but that is what makes us so strong as a cast. It's also what makes our classes hilarious, though slightly scary some times :P

On a different note we start script writing for our mid-year production next week. Our plan is to do a wedding that goes wrong in every possible way. We've only got a cast of 7, maybe 8, but I'm pretty excited for my second production under the coolest drama teacher I've met!!!

My first step into the world of blogging

So a few months ago my friend told me that I should start a blog. I really didn't want to though as I was nervous about having other people view and critique my writing. But, after a bit of persuasion, I've finally decided to attempt to write a (hopefully not useless) blog.

I was originally going to choose a topic for this blog but I decided that I like the freedom of being able to post whatever is on your heart or mind at the time. I kinda don't know much about blogging and I have no idea what else to write in this introduction blog so I am going to take a leap of faith and hope my blog is at least semi-interesting for anyone that decides to read or follow it.

I like the colour orange so I think I'm going to use an orange template. :)

I don't know what else to say and I am trying to stop myself re-reading this blog cause I know that if I do I will most likely scrap it and start again......

So for the first time ever I am going to post a blog. :D :D :D