Snowflake

I sit down at the computer and decide to blog. So I open Blogger and spend half an hour staring at the screen thinking of things to write but typing nothing. *facepalm*

I think it's because I always overthink my writing. I'm always worried that people won't like what I write. That is one of the main reasons that my book series is still in the 'planning' stage. I know what I want to write and I've actually written a reasonable amount but I've scrapped most of it. So, although I've spent hours working on it, I've only got a few paragraphs of 'official' script.

Just having a bit of a laugh at myself cause I noticed that my first two paragraphs started with "I" and I mentally told myself not to start this paragraph with it. (Notice how by writing that sentence I prevented this blog from having it's first three paragraphs starting with "I"?) :D 

Anyways as I was saying, I really want to have at least a first copy of my manuscript finished by the end of this year. Don't know if that will happen but I'm hoping that it will. I decided to change the climax of my first book because I wasn't very happy wiith how the story flowed and I thought it had too many holes. This gave me an excellent reason to rewrite my entire story plan using the 'Snowflake Method' that I read about on one of the writing blogs I read but don't follow.

The 'Snowflake Method' is a very structured way of preparing your manuscript which I really like because I am a big fan of structure. It also makes sure that you always know what the part of your manuscript you are writing is supposed to accomplish. Which, hopefully, will mean that my manuscript will be completed this year.

Well I'm going to have dinner now. I felt like blogging about something else but, maybe next time.

Have an awesome day/night :D

A Lost World

So my English tutor got me to write a short story on the theme "A lost world". Here's what I came up with feel free to comment :)

 Dust rose like clouds, enveloping her as she walked and guarding the secrets of what lay ahead. Slowly – inch-by-inch – she crept forward into the forgotten world, peering into the gloom. What lay hidden from her sight? As she walked her mind sensed the memories locked in this crumbling land.

“Why won't Mummy and Daddy stop fighting?” 

The whimpers of a heart-broken child echoed through the decades. Suddenly there rose out of the mist a mammoth pillar, tattered and fallen. Looming before her, an obstacle to be overcome in the twilight world. She stretched out and grasped a hold of the straggly pieces of rope, all that was left of the broken leg's fur – once so thick and glossy. Rising out of the dust she surmounted the relic of a distant age. Her new world stretched out before her. Ahead she could see a plateau partially submerged in the dust like an island floating in a sea of shadowy mist.

“Where is my teddy Mum?” Asked the child with tears in his eyes. “I told you Daddy broke it's leg so I've put it somewhere safe,” was the reply. “But It's so dark in there, teddy will be scared.” The child pleaded. “You're teddy doesn't have feelings. Now stop whining and go finish packing your bags!” 

The fading land's doleful memories washed over her as she looked for a place to call her own. Descending once again into the shadowy fog, she left the leg and forged towards the plateau, well aware that time was short. However the ground felt different to her. It was smoother than before she had overcome the pillar. As she looked down her legs disturbed the mist enough for her to see. An oblong sheet lay on the floor. Three sides appeared smooth but the fourth side was a ragged edge, distorting the picture that occupied the expanse. 

“How had it come to this?” The woman wondered as she held the torn photo in her hand. The photo of their family that was now just a photo of her. 

Leaving the photo and the family's memories behind she reached the beginning of the climb that might lead her to her home. Desperation drove her like a pitiless master. They were coming and instinct told her that she wasn't ready. She fought, struggled, and battled and then she was there. She had made it to the plateau. But there was no time for her to recuperate. Despairing, she scoured the face, body and arms of the plateau, an inborn thought told her that this was the wrong place. Then her cheek tingled. Reaching out her face she strained all her senses. Somewhere deep inside her a pale flicker of hope blossomed into flame. She could feel the slightest of breezes and she knew where she needed to make her dwelling. Racing across the plateau she sprinted down the side. Mist billowed around her as the demented dash took her to the one place her family would be safe. 

“Wait!” Despairing he tore after the car but it was no use. “Please come back! I'm sorry! I'm sorry.....” They were gone. He returned to his home but it was no longer a home. He had lost the things most important to him and he would never get them back. He hurriedly packed a bag, locked the door and left never to return to the place where he had ruined everything. 

A dying memory for a dying land.
Her hectic dash didn't stop when she reached the boundary of the expanse. Instead it carried her up all the way up the wall until she finally came to a stop in the uppermost corner. The one place where the dust could not linger. A crack in the wood allowed a faint breeze to seep into the nook and she knew that she had succeeded. She gazed over the path that her journey had taken. She looked at the teddy bear that was slowly succumbing to the ravages of time and she watched as the dust settled after her flight. Silence reigned over her home. She had chosen the right place, her babies would be safe. And as she lay dying, consumed by her struggle, new life was born into the fading land. In an old cupboard, under derelict stairs, in a disregarded house, defenceless, little spiders tentatively explored their new world.

Great Glaux

The book series 'Guardians of Ga'hoole' by Katherine Lasky has always left me feeling very disappointed. And reading it again has reminded me just how close she got to writing a very good book series. Intriguing characters, a strong plot and very interesting sub-plots are all found in the story but are left unfulfilled by a lack of book length and quality of writing.

Now I'm not saying it's poorly written, because for a children's story it is well-written, but I just wish that it had been written for an older audience. The ideas just feel too complicated for a children's story (eg. Fleckasia, Higher Magnetics, shattering and moon blinking).

I just can't get over how good her ideas were.... St. Aegolius Caverns, A rogue smith from Silverveil, even the way she describes the air and how the owl's mold it to aid their flight is incredible (to me).

That is probably one of the strengths of her story. The way she describes the air. Each kingdom has different patterns and ways that the air moves and even fire has it's own air patterns. The young owls are taught how to find updrafts, how to create, almost, vacuums to carry injured owls, and especially how to fight and use the wind to their advantage.

There are so many great things about the books and that is why I am left feeling disappointed whenever I read them because it could have been a great series but instead it isn't quite good enough.....

"Are you really an owl, Aunty? he wanted to ask. are you really a true Snowy Owl descended from Glaux, come from the North Kingdoms - or are you a white demon? 

-The Capture

Playwrite

I really enjoyed hanging out with my Drama teacher and another Drama Factory member at the Botanical Gardens on Monday. We finalized the main ideas for our production.

That was one hours worth of blogging *facepalm*  Come on Reuben concentrate. Think bloggy type thoughts....

It has been a really cool experience being involved in the construction of a play and although we had a very basic template we had to pretty much come up with all the twists and turns that occur during the play ourselves. That was a lot harder then I had expected and it has kinda meant that I haven't thought much about my book that I am attempting to write writing. To prove that I am actually writing it here is the first seven sentences.

 "Although it was already quarter to nine in the morning no sunlight shone down on Thorburn High School. Instead the school grounds were barely illuminated by flickering lights trying to fend off the shadows and guide the schoolkids to the warm, well-lit school building.

One such schoolkid who was desperate to reach the shelter of the school building was Kale Lindop. But it wasn't the sleet or the storm that drove Kale's rush towards shelter. It was the shadows. Or, to be precise, the blood, red eyes that gleamed out of the shadows. The eyes that, when you looked close enough, belonged to a cloaked shape that seemed to be woven from the very shadows it inhabited."

I welcome any comments on what you think about this little section of my book :)

No School!!!!!!! (kinda)

It's the last day of term and I've been thinking about what I want to do these holidays. So I've decided to make a list of my plans.

1) Meet up with my drama teacher to write the script for next term's show together
2) Write enough of my book so that I can actually say I'm writing a book and not just planning on writing a book
3) Get ahead in my schoolwork that I'm a little bit behind in due to my operation and my school books arriving late
4) Find a decent book series to read in my spare time next term

I'm hoping I accomplish them all but I'm not sure about the last one as I've been searching for a long time.......


Rus Challenge days 4-5


Pro 4:1-4  Listen, children, to your father's instruction, and pay attention in order to gain understanding. I give you sound teaching, so do not abandon my instruction. When I was a son to my father, not yet strong and an only son to my mother, he taught me and told me, "Let your heart fully embrace what I have to say; keep my commandments and live!

This chapter talks a lot about not just listening to instructions but "keeping them within your heart". It made me wonder do I put God's, and my parents, instructions in my heart? Like actually valuing them so much that, for example, when I read my Bible I don't just read it but I memorize verses and then think about what I've read and meditate on what God is speaking to me about..... Often I read my Bible and that's it. I've "done" my reading for the day when really God's words should be guiding me all day not just when I feel like reading His Word.


Pro 5:21  Indeed, what a man does is always in the LORD's presence, and he weighs all his paths.

This verse reminds us that no matter what we are doing God is watching. And you can't make excuses because God can see your reasons for why you do things. It also encouraged me because I was reminded that whatever we are doing even when we are sinning or being tempted God is there. He reminded me that no matter what situation we find ourselves in God is ready and waiting to help us.

The 31 day RUS Challenge

On Sunday our pastor challenged us to the RUS challenge. The challenge is to read part of chapter of Proverbs every day of April and the first day of May and then share what you've learned.You start with Proverbs 1 on the first and then read chapter 2 the next day and so on so forth.

I know I am a few days behind but better late than never right?

Pro 1:15  My son, do not go along with them, and keep your feet away from their path

Often there will be things around me (books, movies, etc...) that tempt me to do things I know aren't right. I find it really easy to mentally tell myself that I won't do what I know to be wrong but then for some reason I leave those temptations where they are and have to struggle against them all the time. It would be so much simpler if I removed those things and then I wouldn't have to worry about them.


Pro 2:1-6  My son, if you accept my words, and treasure my instructions, making your ear attentive to wisdom, and turning your heart to understanding, if, indeed, you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and learn to know God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

This really made me question how much I value God's instruction (eg. the Bible). Do I treasure what I read? Is it something really valuable to me? Do I wake up each morning really, really looking forward to reading it? Yes I enjoy reading it but often I place other books I'm reading or schoolwork ahead of it in my priority list. Definitely something to work on.

Pro 3:12  because the LORD corrects the person he loves, just as a father corrects the son he delights in.

When I read this it reminded me that God loves me and it's because God loves us that He corrects us. He could just give up on us when we sin but instead He decides to lovingly instruct us and teach us. He doesn't just tell us we sinned He shows us that we made a mistake and then takes us on a journey to heal us and help us overcome obstacles in our walk with Him.

I'm so glad that my God cares so much about me

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.