New Writing

I has this idea for a novel for a long time, but I thought it sounded too intimidating to write. Plus I can't write romance to save myself, which would be a main feature of the story. I thought I was terrible at writing non-fantasy, but in the end it was my competition story which made me decide to write it. Half of that story was non-fantasy, and I think it worked quite well, so I'm giving this one a go.

And I seriously need to try and force myself to write in discription :( i just wanna let the reader imagine it themselves, but it means the setting is almost non-existent!

Meanwhile, inspired by one of my sister's books on yarn bombing, I decided to give it a shot myself. I went for a walk around the block, and found a nice chair that no-one ever sits on, and making sure no-one was looking, I quickly measured it. I then went home, and in a few hours I had created some knitting to my own made-up pattern. The name reads "Llama" and a smiley face, and I realised through this that I need to develop my sewing letters skills more as both my parents walked past it, stopped and said, "this looks suspiciously like something she would make....." but couldn't read the letters.

Also, I didn't measure it well enough as I was try to get away as quickly as possible, and so it was far too bit and the seam bulges out quite a lot.

Competition

Hey, I haven't been on my blog for a while now. I have just entered "The Woven Story" which I completed earlier this year in the Somerset National Novella Writing Competition.

I am aiming to get at least shortlisted. About 3 people from NSW/ACT will be shortlisted, and the state winner from there will be up against the other state winners from Australia. I imagine I am up against some heavy competition, but I believe I have a fair chance of being shortlisted as only about 80 people compete, my friend tells me. But she might not be right... not sure.

Anyway, it would be so very awesome and life-changing if I actually won this........ ahem.

I started this story about a month ago that i thought would be a brilliant idea, but now im already sick of it after one chapter, but I hate ditching stories. I hate it. I have another idea for a story, which is awesome in my head, but the more awesome these things are in my head, the worse they are on paper. So i don't know if i wanna write it... anyway, I've been feeling a little agitated recently that I haven't had enough experience to really be writing stories at all. What I am basing almost all my material on is other books and movies, which is very unreliable for real life.

That's my main strong point in my Novella in the competition, I think though. It's one of the first things I have written about with more content based on what I have experienced, than fantasy stuff ripped off from other works. There is some fantasy at the end, but a lot of it sounds just like what I am like, which can be a little embarassing when people read my stuff, cause it's like this large insite into my brain. I never really thought about how much a book is the author's inner thoughts until I have been writing for myself now...

Completed Story

Just now I have completed another of my stories. It was one I feared might be neglected, but recently I've been working on it heaps, and I just wrote a bit more and I was like "that's enough for today" and then I was like "oh... did I just finish that?!??" and i had!! I hadn't really thought about it, but that's the 6th book I have now completed!

... Yay!!!!!

In the end though, like so many of my other ones, my views changed as I wrote it. At first I thought this would be a great one to show my friends, but by the end I think I used the words "soul" and "magic" far too much for my liking.

That's a terrible thing that's happened to my writing in the last year or so. I have made a dramatic turn from including overfilling details of magic-casters, to now writing warning to readers never to ever even consider such things. I can now hardly face up to having written my Doria triligy, cause I used the word "spirit" so much in it. I just worry how some people might take it...

So anyway, I've thought recently that I might take another shot at trying to find a publishing company that might consider my stuff. Dunno whether I'd send this one (I'm quite fond of this one actually! Despite the "soul" characters written about all the time) or my Doria triligy... hmm....

Swan Lake and Woven Story

A company has come to Australia and is performing the ballet Swan Lake only three times - costs way too much, but wouldn't that just be awesome too see! *sigh*...

A great anime series, Princess Tutu, is based on Swan Lake. I never realised till I was watching it for the second time and I realised the characters and themes and songs were straight from this ballet. I did ballet when I was 5, and only wish I had continued...

Anyway, yesterday I thought back to those crazy three months last year when I sat down and wrote my whole Tales of Doria trilogy. I remembered it was a time when I had a laptop alone in my room, and there was no internet connection. So, trying to copy these methods, I got my dad's laptop and plugged it in my room, and then found myself typing for about 6 hours!! All in all, I typed over 9000 words yesterday in a story I started a while ago called the Woven Story, and wrote about 3 times as much as I had already done.

I am happy I have finally worked out my best working methods. Now I should be able to write heaps more when I need to!

Oh great.

Not only have I ruined for myself that three key characters are kicked out of the show in Robin Hood - but i have recently read that a forth is also killed off.

HUMPH!!!

I never actually TRY to ruin these things for myself, but when I have to watch something that takes longer than a week, I eventually feel the need to look it up and accidently read the endings. And I DO mean accidently.

:(

I feel in the writing mood...... I seriously never ever have time to write. like, ever.

I reeeeeeally wanna read Howl's moving castle again though. I watched the movie last night in preparation for seeing Ponyo (Hiao Misaki's latest film) tomorrow but i couldnt help thinking the whole time if only i were reading the book rather than watching the movie... what has come over me?!

Today in art I saw some old drawing i did this year and was so embarassed I tore them all out then and there and threw them out. I shall never be satisfied with my drawing.

Drained and Memories

I feel drained of interest. All my life I have had time to read, write, draw, play outside, visit friends, watch movies, play computer games and relax. This year, even though I get home earlier than normal, I have felt I never ever have time for anything. And then when it is the weekend with spare time, I shrivel up and want to be thrown back into the world of school or church where I can't ever think but follow routines and instincts. So I have hardly produced anything this year worth while.

So I want time, but when I get it I just can't use it.

I feel rather annoyed too, as I have ruined for myself that three of my favourite characters from the Robin Hood series die. One I have already seen at the end of season 2, but in season 3 I have accidently read the deaths of two more key characters. Humph!!

I have been writing up my memories from Primary School and High school. These are some funny moments from my writings:

Kindergarten:
Show and tell was a very important part of Kindergarten for a number of reasons:
* The person who would bring in the most interesting thing would be quite popular for the rest of the day.
* If you have been good all day then the teacher will chose you to sit on the table during it and look out for the person paying the most attention (In other words, your best friend). This was a great honour for you were publicly the teacher’s favourite.
* If you payed a lot of attention and you were picked you receive a lolly.
* There is a vote at the end and the person who receives the most votes for an interesting speech gets their object drawn into ‘the book of interesting show and tells’.

A large problem in Kindergarten was the toilets. There were only about 10 to share among 2 classes of 30 after every Lunch and Recess. And of course, everybody had their favourite cubical. I remember I only ever went in the second last on the right but one day I went in and there was the biggest spider I have ever seen on the door and I rushed out screaming. I never went in it again.

Year 5
There was a mass food trading going on in this year. Usually what was in your lunch box was not what you ended up eating. I would always bring a doughnut to school. I got sick of having all my friends talking about it. Sometimes I think back and I think that the reason so many people clumped around me was mainly because of the delicious nice food mum always packed for me. Doughnuts, Vegemite rolls, fruit sticks, popcorn, poppers, chocolate bars and lots more. I had a thing where almost every lunch I would give Jessica Lesson my popcorn packet and she’d give me a packet of salt and vinegar chips. People soon caught on and tried bringing S & V packets to school to trade but me and Jessica had a deal.

Year 6
Game Name: The Cell game
Description: Started when Kiera was being silly and pretended to be a teacher and made us all ‘stand in the corner’. She then put us in jail so we were all allocated a ‘cell’. Eventually, the game evolved into a game where one person was the ‘door’, one was the jailer and all the rest were residents of a hotel/jail. We had to give our passwords to the door to access our apartment (a slab of concrete between two lines). If we were naughty, the jailer would put us in the jail. Of course, the whole game was played in an out-of-bounds area.

Then, of course, there was the tambourine. Whenever we were talking too loud or the teacher needed our attention she would ring it. When she was angry at someone, she struck it onto the table in front of them, making everyone jump or even scream. Some people were in tears because it was so scary. Eventually, she broke it and got something like a single key of a xylophone and donged it instead

Another great memory is another game we made up that didn’t really have a name. It started when I looked through Zoe’s notepad and found she’d designed the front of it to resemble a mobile phone. I thought it was cool and copied her. Soon everyone was. Then I started making myself a paper laptop. Soon, it developed into a huge paper game behind the teacher’s back to be done when her lessons were getting tedious. I had a pet shop and made paper animals. I also made mobile phones. Kiera had a food shop; Amy changed her shop many times; Zoe was banker and Annika made Laptops/computer games. We used pretend ‘checks’ rather than money that had to have the banker’s signature to be valid. (this was because at first everyone made their own checks for things like $1 000 000

Year 7
We did a literacy reading circle this year. My first. We were separated into groups and every group read a separate book. I think we had me, Amy, Jess and one or two others... and we read the worst book in the world. The Incredible Journey. At the end we had to present our book to the class so we did a game-show where the conclusion was Amy being asked what she would re-name the book if she could, and she said: “The Incredibly Boring Journey”. We all shared this opinion.

Slow progression

I actually had the chance to sit down and write some more recently. I was so proud of myself! But just when I was getting back into the swing of writing, our computer decides it hates us again and won't let us access any internet or documents. So I can't write any more... or continue any of my 3 assignments due next week!!!! So I have to revert back to using Dad's laptop AGAIN.

I'm in the process of writing a short-ish story based on some ideas I got from the Japanese mini-series called Princess Tutu which I was watching recently. The idea of charcters being inside a story, and finding a way out of it into reality. Pretty random... anyway...

I'm STILL editing my Emeralds in the Tower story that's going on www.elizabethdanara.mysite.com though. It's a very long process. I need to start advertising that soon... I made a whole load of advertisements for it :D

I've been watching a musical on youtube recently called "A Very Potter Musical". It is extreamly funny in some parts, and just stupid and dumb in others, so if I keep watching for a while I'm bound to come across a good bit that makes it worth watching :)