The Grand Master Plan

As a writer- No, as a person it is important to have goals. As the old CHS cross country coach liked to say "A person without goals is like a tree..." The team spent ages trying to figure this out, but in the end just pretended to be insightful and put it on our t-shirts.

I'd like to think that quote means that without goals you won't go anywhere, much like a tree doesn't move from where it is planted. Though, a tree does grow upward and that is certainly an accomplishment if you think about it so maybe it's just a bad quote.

Goals are nevertheless important. Because without goals we are likely to squander our lives in events and tasks that don't take us to where we most desire to go. They don't add up to The Grand Master Plan.

The Grand Master Plan, for me, is the somewhat vague and oh-so-flexible plan I have for my life. It encompasses my future career, personal life, writing life, and family life. It's not something I spent hours contemplating and it's really not something I'll hold myself to forever (plans change, of course), but it's a basic outline of where I'd like to go in my life.

Now in order to fulfill the desires in my Grand Master Plan, I have to set goals for myself which will advance me along the path of the Plan. Currently I'm thinking a lot about the writing part of that Plan, and since this is my writing blog I'll share a bit of that plan.

Mostly I'm focused on Eventide, with the occasional side project (mostly short stories) to break up my focus (I find it difficult to stay interested in one thing for a long time if I try to focus solely on that one thing). I've been doing a lot of thinking about Eventide and my previous goals. These goals more or less failed, more or less because I keep changing up plot related items.

So now, ladies and gentlemen, here is where Eventide fits in on The Grand Master Plan:

- Finish the entire first draft of Eventide (which I'm imagining will end up somewhere around 100,000 words) by June.
- Spend the summer as a camp counselor at a church camp I attended when I was younger (making money to finance study abroad adventures).
- Get busy on editing and have a shiny second draft within six months of returning to the world of computers, internet, and writing.
- Post it up on YWS, either in the Advanced Critiques or chapter-by-chapter in the Fantasy Fiction Novel forum (an alternative to this would be to get several beta readers).
- Edit some more with the advice of YWS/beta readers and come up with a shiny third draft.
- Get a handful of beta readers to read for different purposes. One to read for grammer/spelling mistakes, one to read for content, one to read for pure enjoyment.
- Make a few more edits based on the advice of these new beta readers to come up with shiny fourth draft.
- Query agents/publishers
Now this is where the plan becomes tricky. There are two ways to go from here. Either A: the manuscript is loved and I make a deal or B: I'm rejected and need to work on the story more.
- In case of B (see further down for A). Do some hard core editing, find another beta reader, Query, rinse and repeat (this step is repeated as many times as possible).
- In case of A. Rejoice in the splendor that is making a book deal and go through all that is involved with publishing a book.
- Get on to a new project (there are several waiting patiently).

So that's basically it. Looks like a lot, but it isn't so much. And if I really get to work on it I should get through a lot of these items rather quickly. Editing is easier (for me) than the initial writing process and goes a lot faster. If all goes well, I'd love to get Eventide published by the time I graduate from college.

That's about it. This blog mainly fell into my musings and ramblings and goal-settings that are mostly for my own benefit. Oh well. It's my blog, I'll do what I want.

-Lauren-

Frabols-licious!

Very recently, I reached a massive milestone in my life: adulthood. It's lovely to be eighteen, and it was a lovely birthday. But the day really isn't the point. The point is that I recieved Frabols: The Bubblegum Ball from two of my best friends.

Now, I love them both deeply, but they must have lost it. These Frabols are probably the least satisfying things I've ever had. If you've ever spent twenty-five cents on a bubblegum machine at the supermarket, you know what I'm talking about. They're the exact same thing.

While I tend to be someone who enjoys and appreciates bubblegum, I can't seem to appreciate these. For one, only a few flavors (or, colors I suppose) are even good. (I've found purple to be my favorite, and orange is just nasty). But what really is the problem is that the flavor (color) only lasts for about thirty seconds before the Frabols descends into a pit of bland yuck.

So I'm left popping an unsatisfying Frabols into my mouth, chewing it for a minute at most, and then spitting it out into a tissue only to grab for another Frabols in the next motion. I don't know why I do this, it just happens. It's like the Frabols control my life now.

In (completely un)related news, I woke up this morning with the fabulous intention to spend a lot of time writing Eventide today. Unfortunately I did noth-

Dear God, the yellow Frabols are the worst yet! They taste like nail polish!

-ing of the sort. I did chores, and university-prep stuff, but no writing. Actually, I take that back. I wrote... a grand total of thirty words today. Well, I never was one to make deadlines or achieve goals anyway.

-Lauren-

Long Time, No Blog

Well it has been a while hasn't it? Not only did life seem to get in the way of my blogging experience, but I needed some time to actually figure out what I want from this thing.

What I've pretty much decided is that I want to focus on writing and my career as a writer with this blog. A bit of shameless self promotion here and there, as well as my own exploration into the world of literature and creative writing. I'm starting university as an english-creative writing major so I should kind of know what I'm rambling about here in a month or so.

I'm going to try and focus my blog posts on something writing related, since when I blog about life in general I tend to rant and that's never as interesting as I imagine it will be. Though, since writing is a major part of my life it will still get in there somewhere. ;)

That's pretty much all the updating I have right now. I'm going to work on spiffing things up a bit more around here, getting a few quality posts up, and then getting the word around my writing community so I'm not just talking to myself here.

-Lauren-

D'awww

So, basically, I'm a romantic fool.

Yeah, yeah, I know that's extraordinarily girly of me but I'm a girl and I reserve the right to be at least a little bit girly from time to time. ;)

Someone posted on their YWS blog this incredibly adorable story about their brother and his wife-to-be. One of those, they were best friends and inseperable but never dated back then but later in life they realized their love for eachother kind of things. Yeah.

I adore those sorts of things. Love stories, big romantic gestures, they make me all happy and fuzzy inside. But, strangely enough, I don't go for uber-romantic guys. I think it's sweeter when a not-really-romantic person does something unexpectedly-romantic.

Alright, this blog is becoming immensely full of my teenager girliness. I apologize, but I can't seem to help it. I have a crush, it tends to do that to me. Even if he did make me get really bad poison ivy.

-Lauren-

P.S. I promise I'll get back to more interesting blogging soon.

I'm In Love With This Feeling

Song of the moment: Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap

I can't quite explain it, but I feel really good right now. Really really good.

There's something about the kids in my bit of the world that I'm in love with. I don't mean kids, really, I mean the people I associate myself with around here. They're all fantastic, crazy people that I love to death. I know I'm not going to find these kinds of people anywhere else, and if I do they couldn't possibly mean the same to me. I'm leaving them all in a months time, but that's okay. These people are home, and they make home feel good.

There's something about my taste in music that wows me every time I put my ipod on shuffle. And there's just something about the effect really fanastic music has on me... From rock to classical to pop, there are just those songs that really make you feel. Being a writer, those feelings translate into stories and those stories are my heart. My heart beats the life of a thousand untold stories, and the thoughts and emotions of a thousand unborn characters. Maybe no one else will really understand this, but that feeling... It's more than words can describe.

There's something about this feeling of grown-upishness and independence. University is right around the corner, and that terrifies and fills me with this insane feeling of greatness all at the same time. I know I want to be a writer, a literary agent, a publisher. I know it's not the same as teaching less fortunate kids, being a missionary in a dirt-poor country, or saving lives as a doctor but I really feel like I'm going to make a difference in my life. Writing distributes ideas and emotions; that can really influence a lot of things. And I have to say, I'm in love with it. Head over heels.

There's something about a crush that can really make you feel great. Maybe there are a lot of issues that come with this puppy love, but there are issues with anything. There's a time to worry over problems and a time to accept that certain things are out of your control and to just let those things not matter so much anymore. When you have a crush, the littlest things make a bigger difference than the issues. Oh, he looked at me, he's talking to me, he texted me. I'm spending time with this person who seems to be something really special to me right now, and that sort of feeling is really beautiful. I wish I could treat everyone I know with that same sort of attention. When just talking to someone, being close to someone, holding hands, when those little things really matter it's just awesome. And I really liked holding his hand and falling asleep on his shoulder last night. Sure, this is coming at the most inopportune time in our lives, but certain things are out of our control right? The heart wants what the heart wants.

There's something... There's something about my dear sisters. No, I don't have any biological sisters but I got lucky in my life. I have four amazing women I call sisters. To you four beautiful ladies, you have made me the person I am and you continue to shape my life. I would be nowhere without any of you. I only hope I have affected your lives in the way you have affected mine.

There's just something about this feeling of good that I have tonight. So many times do I focus on what's wrong and how I've failed or been let down. When I think about those things, I sink quickly. I'm not sure if I struggle with depression or if I just fixate a bit too much on things but when I get down I get really down. When I feel good like this, it's an amazing feeling. I never want to take this feeling for granted. This love for my life, for my friends, my family, for silly crushes that make you feel pretty inside.

I never want it to end.

-Lauren-

P.S. Excuse the excessive use of adjectives relating to beauty, happiness, and love. Like I said, I feel really really good tonight.

I Promise I Haven't Forgotten!

I'm on vacations a lot about this time of the summer! I'm on my last one for a while, so I'll be back around soon. I'm also going to probably put my blog out there more (advertising on YWS perhaps?).

I've also been toying with creating a different blog for more writing focused things, and one for life focused things. But then, that doesn't make much sense to me. Most of my writing coincides with my life. And I don't write more about life than writing.

We'll just stick with this one for now. :)

I'll be back around soon!

-Lauren-

TEASER TUESDAY OH MA GAWD

Sorry, I've been in a really great mood lately. A somewhat hyper mood, really.

Anywho, today's teaser is again from Eventide. Natura and Grena discover than Ina has not been completely truthful with them, and that this whole Guardian thing is really up to question. This is very recently written, and crappy first draft edition. Though, it is quite decent for my usual first draft material.

Teaser Time

“Ina suspects we may not be the true descendants of the Guardians of Icarthia and Rivalon,” Natura said, her voice quiet. She felt…betrayed almost, but also a small bit relieved. If she wasn’t a Guardian, then there was nothing holding her here. Natura pushed the thought away; what would she do if she wasn’t a Guardian? Go home, and leave Ina to handle this on her own? No, she couldn’t do that.

“The amulets,” Ina said. “They may be copies, or stolen from the true family, sold, handed down the wrong family line, anything. Possessing an amulet is not a definite sign of a Guardian of the Light.”

“But you found us,” Grena said. “You sought us out. Why would you have done so if we weren’t descendants. And how do you know you’re a descendant? Maybe we’re all fakes!”

Ina’s already pale complexion whitened even more. She stared back down at the book in her lap, her silver-blonde hair falling over her face. She was retreating, and if she did there was no telling when they would get any more information out of her.

“Grena calm down,” Natura said.

“Calm down?” Grena asked, jumping down from the windowsill. “How can you tell me to calm down? I left two helpless little girls back in Rivalon who needed me for this! And now I may not even be the right woman? What if something has happened to my sisters when I was gone? I could have protected them, and this will have been for nothing!”

“Grena calm down!” Natura said, getting up from her bed and approaching her. “This isn’t helping!”

“I can’t believe you’re not as angry as I am about this!” Grena shouted. “You didn’t even want to come; we had to force you here. You could have stayed back in your perfect little life in your perfect little village, but no. Ina dragged you here, and now your life back home might never be the same!”

Natura stopped, like she’d hit a stone wall. She turned slowly to Ina, who was staring over at her and Grena. “Ina, do you really doubt us?”

“I do not want to doubt either of you,” she said. “Facts are facts, though. I know that I am truly descended; I possess the power of Knowing. The fact that I sought you two, out of anyone else in Ascensia, is reassuring but never definite. Unless you show anything that proves…” She stopped and sighed, looking back down at the book in front of her for a moment. “I am sorry, but I doubt.”

“This is just great,” Grena said. She sat back on the windowsill, her hands clutching the edge of it, her knuckles turning white. “Couldn’t you have told us this before we followed you across the continent?”

“It is said that each of the Guardians of the Light possessed a form of magic that is no longer known to the people of our world,” Ina explained. “In the time of the earliest known Guardians, those who forged the amulets, magic was a well known thing. Elemental magic was not the only power that roamed this land.

“Then the Great War rampaged Ascensia, pitting not only our countries against outside nations, but against each other. It was a great, evil thing; many, many honorable men and women lost their lives to this evil of war. The Guardians of the Light came forth, and of course you know the legend. When they forged the amulets, they placed their acute magical abilities in these amulets.

“When they pushed the evil from this land, and ended the Great War, they also eradicated much of the magic from this land. In some places as punishment – as with Senai – and in some places as a safeguard against future war. Only weakened elemental magic remained, as well as the magic held in the amulets; though, only a true descendent of the Guardians of the Light would have the ability to unlock this magic and wield it.”

“You keep talking in circles, Ina,” Grena said, resting her head in one of her hands where she sat on the windowsill. “What do you mean by all this?”

“She means,” Natura said, “that unless we show we can use the magic in the amulets, there is no way of knowing we are true Guardians.”

“Alright,” Grena said, standing up. “Tell me what I’m supposed to be able to do and I’ll prove it to you.”

Ina frowned and looked back at the book in her lap. “Not every country keeps the detailed records of the past as Fearn and Tundarus keep,” she said. “Even then, no country keeps more recorded than it must, so only the history of that country will be recorded. I am doing the best that I can to find out, to know…”

Natura looked from Ina to Grena. Ina’s face was still as white as snow, and she looked almost like she was shaking. Grena, on the other hand, was glaring at Ina and Natura suspected that if she could, she would be growling like a wolf facing its prey. She clenched and unclenched her fists as she stared Ina down, and it would only be a matter of moments before she would go as far as to attack poor Ina.

“Grena,” Natura said softly, going to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down–”

“I thought we already went through this!” she barked. “I’m not going to calm down!”
“Grena,” Natura said again. “You need to leave; you need time to let this sink in before you do anything.”

She wrenched her shoulder from under Natura’s hand. “Don’t you feel betrayed?” she demanded. “Look what she’s done to us! Look at all that has happened. We shouldn’t have had to go through it, and now we might not even be descendants!”

Natura took a daring step between Grena and Ina, hoping she would be enough to stop Grena from tearing Ina apart if she felt like it. “But we still might be descendants; it’ll just take time to be sure. Now you’ve been protecting me, and now I’m protecting you. Go and think about this before you do something you’ll regret.”

“I don’t appreciate being lied to,” she said through gritted teeth. “And you shouldn’t either.” She went back to the window and pulled herself all the way through this time.

Natura went straight to Ina’s bed and started picking up the books scattered over it and placing them in neat piles on the floor, as well as straightening the other piles already on the floor. She took the book from Ina’s lap – Ina was still yet to budge from her frozen position, staring fearfully at where Grena had been only moments ago

“Hey,” she said softly. She sat down on the bed next to Ina. “She doesn’t mean it; just give her a little time to cool off. Get some rest, now.”

Ina nodded slowly and inched her way down on her bed until she was lying flat. Natura went to her own bed but kept looking back to Ina, checking on her. Every time she looked, it was always the same: Ina lying motionless, staring into the empty space beside her bed, unblinking, unflinching.

End Tease

I'm really pleased with this bit. It throws a big pile of rocks in the middle of the road for Ina and the Guardian hunt, but it also gives Natura an opportunity to grow up a bit. Plus it's going to make it easier to bring Grena back in a way that settles her relationship with Natura. They need to get along better in order to help a much later plot point.

Hope it was an enjoyable read, and not too atrocious.

-Lauren-

A Journey of Heroes

The Hero's Journey is an amazing little thing. It's a very well-used skeleton for a story. So well-used, in fact, that you can look at almost every story ever written and see the Hero's Journey in it.

Not only is it known that most of literature is based on the Hero's Journey (both strictly and loosely), I have found that real life events can also be based off it. Here is an outline of the Hero's Journey that is more detailed than the picture above, and also how I have placed it around a specific event in my life - my first dating experience.

A. Departure
My notes will be made in italics, see how this works? Anyways, the Hero's Journey can be split into three bigger sections, Departure is the first.

1.The Call to Adventure
The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.
A young man began to show interest in me, in the form of writing many many notes to me.

2.Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
I, being an insecure pre-teen girl at the time, am nervous and basically avoid said young man.

3.Supernatural Aid
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known.
Several of my friends begin to convince me that yes, I should date this young man. Being an impressionable young girl, I agree.

4.The Crossing of the First Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.
I decide to agree to date this young man.

5.The Belly of the Whale
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.
I start dating this boy, which means a lot of big things in a pre-teen's life. The scary acts - scary to a nervous pre-teen girl - such as holding hands, dates, and phone calls begin to occur.

B. Inititation
1.The Road of Trials
The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
I must inform my parents of this relationship, I must aknowledge this young man in public as my boyfriend, and must become a girlfriend toward this young man. Several of which I did a very pathetic job at.

2.The Meeting with the Goddess
The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman.
This one I have a difficult time applying. Perhaps it is the acceptance felt in that first real boyfriend/girlfriend relationship.

3.Woman as the Temptress
At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.
Rather loosely, I'd say this is the point where my one very innocent friend starts to discourage me from dating this young man. This young man is also beginning to freak me out because he is becoming far more attached to me than I to him.

4.Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm.
Yes, this relationship is freaking me out. Plus, the young man went an entire summer without calling. Rude, much? I think it's time to break up.

5.Apotheosis
To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.
Once the breaking up has happened, I feel so much better about my relationship with this young man. Now, perhaps, we can be friends like we probably should have stayed in the beginning.

6.The Ultimate Boon
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.
Though the relationship was a major bust, I did get some valuable dating experience which would in return lead to another few busted relationships. Yay dating?

C.Return
1.Refusal of the Return
So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?
Man, I just had a boyfriend. Now I have none. Do I really want to go back to the world of single pre-teen girls? Not particularly. Besides, one of my friends keeps holding over my head in a very "I told you so" manner.

2.The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.
I return to the world of single life, trying to make said friend shut up by holding the fact that I at least have had a boyfriend over her head. Yeah, this one is pretty loosely based as well.

3.Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon.
Friends eventually bring be back to reality, plus it's tiring to be obnoxiously holding things over your friend's head. Plus, I found out one of my friends was epically jealous, and that's just weird. The guy was pretty much a creep.

4.The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.
Shall I use my dating experience to look into having another, less creepy boyfriend?

5.Master of the Two Worlds
In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.
Nope. I'll be single for quite a while.

6.Freedom to Live
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.
Yeah, single life is good. I'm happy.

And that's that! Amazing, isn't it? What's even more amazing, is just think about this Hero's Journey for a minute. Then think about Star Wars. See? Ah, how literature never ceases to amaze.

-Lauren-

Summary of the Hero's Journey taken from: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/ref/summary.html

English as a Second Language

It seems that in America today, no the world today, English is becoming a second language. Of course, most Americans learn English as children and grow up speaking it. It’s when those children grow up and wander into the world of Technology and the Internet that English is pushed aside for a wild and mysterious language that has few rules and a million exceptions.

What is this language? The most common term for it is chatspeak.

Chatspeak is basically that use of abbreviated words and phrases that has become so common on the internet that it’s seeping into everyday language.

Chatspeak has several loose rules to follow.

1.Use as few letters as possible when writing out anything.
2.Avoid vowels like the plague.
3.Never ever use any punctuation at all. Unless it is an exclamation point or a question mark, in which case you must use at least seventeen in a row.

Chatspeak rarely makes sense, which I suppose could be rule number four. And somehow, the majority of the world is okay with this. Grammar, spelling, and proper sentence structure are meaningless, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

Maybe we’re all just too lazy to make that extra keystroke or two to capitalize something, or put in an apostrophe. We just can’t possibly take the time to move our fingers less than an inch in order to type one extra letter into a word.

“Texting is meant to be fast, you don’t have to worry about grammar.”

That was actually said to me by a very educated friend of mine. She blames the fact that I’m a writer and an English-major-to-be for my frustration with her consistently bad grammar and spelling in texts and even on Facebook.

I don’t even think that makes sense. I know plenty of people who aren’t writers and who aren’t English majors who value at least proper spelling.

The fact is that chatspeak is not only an eyesore, it tends to make one seem uneducated. Take a look at this example:

“OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ttly sah tht ttly hawt guy frm clas n h3 sed ima qt n askd m3 0ut tmrrw @ 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” – 23 “words”

“Oh my goodness! I saw that really hot guy from our class today. He told me that I’m cute and he asked me out for tomorrow at eight! I’m so excited!” – 31 words (and I even added a few words)

Which one sounds more intelligent? And then, which one is easier to look at? I really hope you say the second one.

In the end, the second one was a little bit longer, but not even by that much. Not much time is saved at all by scrunching up your words until they are almost unreadable. I’d also like to point out that one of those words is longer in chatspeak than regular English.

Hawt
Hot

How much time is actually saved by that? None at all.

Then what is really frustrating is when chatspeak seeps into everyday spoken language. I don’t know how many times I heard “OMG” at my high school, or “prolly” or “probly” instead of “Probably”.

I don’t think I’ll ever understand the chatspeak phenomena, but I just wish people were aware of how unintelligent they look and sound when they use it.

Teaser Tuesday At Long Last

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? Not only for Teaser Tuesday, but for blogging in general. As you may have noticed, I've done some work on the ol' blog. I think it's looking pretty fancy, and I hope to be blogging more often now as well as blogging about more interesting and blogworthy things from now on.

These interesting and blogworthy things may only be about reading, writing, and general english concepts but there may be some interesting anecdote about life every once and a while too. ;)

I know, I know, where's the Teaser? Yes, it sucks to wait. So here it is; this weeks teaser.

Today's teaser comes from Eventide (as usual).

Background Information:
This is skipping a bit ahead from the last post. Actually, a lot ahead. The Trials are all said and done, Natura has passed and traveled to the Ascensian Academy in Lindai and is already settled into her living arrangements and so on.

Now, you may notice that Natura is referred to by both Natura and Liana in this novel through my teasers. I don't know if I've explained it or not. Since Natura wasn't even supposed to go to the Ascensian Acadmey, when Grena and Ina showed up and dumped the whole "you're a descendant of the Guardian's of the Light and we need you to come with us because Ina thinks that maybe something bad might happen in the distant future" thing on Natura and demanded she attend the Ascensian Academy some interesting things had to be done.

One of which is Natura being registered at the Trials as a girl who had been planning to compete but died. Yeah. So, Natura goes by Liana Halle at the Academy.

Teaser:
Natura stood at the open doorway that separated the stairway from the common room and looked around. It was a pretty little room; a few shiny wooden tables, comfortable looking seating, and wall-high windows along the wall of the circular room exposed to the outside.

“You!” someone shouted.

Everyone in the room diverted their attention to the entrance of the common room. A tall red haired woman Natura recognized as one of the women sitting at the table the previous day stood in the doorway, a smaller version of herself standing behind her. Or rather, hiding behind her. The smaller woman’s face was bright red and she was pulling on the first woman’s arm and whispering something.

The first woman grabbed her by the hand and strode across the room. “You!” she said again, though slightly less loud than the first time, as she made her way towards Natura.

She pulled the younger woman up beside her and smiled at Natura. “I remember you from yesterday, Lily was it?”

“Liana,” Natura corrected, though hesitantly.

“Liana, yeah,” she said. “I’d like to introduce you to Aqua. She’s in your year, and a great kid.”

“Arianna,” Aqua said quietly, stepping behind her sister. “Stop.”

“Hey,” Arianna said, loud and annoyed. “I told mother I would make sure you made friends. Here,” She pointed at Natura, “I found you a friend. Have fun.”

She flashed Natura a big smile before turning on her heel and hurrying out of the room.

----------------

I love the awkwardness of this scene. It's very rough, very first draft material. And I personally believe the first draft of most things I write sucks. Second drafts are where I shine. Plus, Natura's personality is hard for me to capture in a first draft. I have a better sense of her when I'm dredging through already written prose than when I'm letting the story pour out of me.

The Eventide goal is coming along pretty well, I suppose. If I stay focused and write everyday, and write more everyday than I do now, then hopefully the first draft will be done by the time I leave for Miami. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Plus, I'm kind of looking forward to getting back to my NaNoWriMo disaster from last year as well as trying to slog through another year of the madness this November. I have a few ideas going around in my head right now.

And then there's always the one or two novels that follow Eventide to look forward to. Still can't decide if the plot will require one or two. I hope it's one.

That's all for now!

-Lauren-

Love In Many Manners

I'm feelin' the love today. I posted the complete first chapter of my novel, Eventide, today on YWS and recieved three postive reviews on it. I'm so happy, you probably can't even understand. The first chapter has come so far, and now I'm feeling good about keeping going with this thing. I'm peridocially editing, and trying to write new stuff regularly.

The Big Goal: Have a complete first draft by the time I leave for college.

I'm regularly astounded by the kindness of people who have never met me. I have a lot of friends all over through YWS and everyone is so nice. I hope to forge closer friendships with these people, and make new friends this summer through the site.

My parents love me. It's crazy, sometimes, parental love. My dad spent the week fretting over my car (I'm leaving for a long distance car trip tomorrow) and made me learn how to change a tire and fill my tires with air and instructed me on where everything is under the hood. Both of my parents are madly concerned about my electronics (laptop and camera) which are rather expensive toys, as well.

My dad also keeps reminding me of what to watch out for and how to be safe at the beach. He's so worried, it's almost funny.

I love my best friends. We're leaving for a week-long vacation tomorrow. I won't be seen around the interwebs for a while, so try not to miss me.

Yeah, this blog was mostly pointless. I'm feelin' the love, though, and hope you're feelin' it too.

-Lauren-

It's Too Bad That I Don't Care

The average teenage girl spends thirty percent of her time worrying about how she looks. She spends twenty percent of her time worrying about how everyone else thinks she looks. She spends ten percent of her time worrying about how other people look/make her look. She spends fifteen percent of her time swooning over every boy that walks past. She spends another fifteen percent of her time in pointless debates and arguments with parents and friends. That leaves about ten percent of her time to act like a normal human being.


It really amazes me how much the average teenager can worry about looks in general. That's about sixty percent of those made up statistics up there. And then there's a whole other major section of the world that is poking and proding and telling them what is wrong with them and what they should be doing and looking like.

It's in people, it's in the media, it's in advertisements for every single product on the market. And it's not only for teenagers. Everyone is marketed. Everyone is told they aren't whatever and will never be whatever without being a certain way or having a certain thing.

They don't even care. It's how they make sales, it's how they get their product out there. It can be subtle, and it can be right in your face. Either way, it's there.

A girl has to look this way to be beautiful.

A guy has to have this to be masculine.

Outside of the media, it's from the people you see every day. The people you know. The people you love. Why do they do this? I don't know. Maybe it's because of advertising and the media that people think there is one way to be. Maybe people just need an ideal to reach for so that their lives aren't so bad.

It's really too bad I don't care about fitting into a mold, or living up to anyones fake ideals.

"Oh, you should dress more girly, be more girly, act more girly. See, don't you look nice now?"
Too bad I don't care.

"You should really do something about that acne you have, [insert event here] is coming up. You wouldn't want to have all that acne."
Too bad I don't care.

"Oh, don't you have some makeup to put on? You didn't do anything about that acne."
It's too bad I don't care.

It's too bad I don't care that I'm a tomboy and don't have the boys breaking down my door. I'm not going to care that I have acne, I'm going to do what I will to take care of it but I don't care that it's there. I don't like wearing makeup, I don't like how it makes me feel. I'm going to go run around outside and climb trees and fall down, I'm not going to sit around in a dress and be "girly". I don't need a boyfriend to be happy. I had a boyfriend for a while, it was cool, we broke up, now I don't have one. I don't particularly care if I have one or not, either. I'm not going to do the things anyone wants me to do, because I'm not that kind of person.

I'm going to be whoever the hell I want, and do the things that are me.

Sorry 'bout your luck, it's just too bad that I don't care.

Fuck You, Bitch!

One of the most amusing things that could ever happen at my high school was a rousing round of skank versus skank. For anyone who didn't go to a skank high school, this is when two skanks get into what they call a "fight" at school. Usually in the hallway between classes, and sometimes in the cafeteria.

These "fights" are hardly even fights. It's rare to even see someone walk away with a physical injury. What happens is something like this:

Skank one: Bitch!

Skank two: What, bitch?

Skank one: (insert accusation having to do with drugs, beer, or sexual partners and on rare occasions friends/family members being badmouthed by skank two).

Skank two: I don't know what you're talkin' about whore!

By this time, skanks one and two have wasted their time throwing curses and gramatically incorrect insults that several teachers have intervened and are now pulled them away from each other.

Skank one: Fuck you, whore!

Skank two: Bitchsticks!

Yeah, you read that right. Bitch. Sticks. Someone at my school actually said that. I heard it. With my own ears. And then I laughed.

Anyways, the fight is easily resolved because skanks one and two have accepted their defeat by the school faculty members who would never in a million years hope to be in shape enough to actually stop a real fight. Skanks one and two now walk to the front office and await their punishment in silence.

I just can't help but laugh at these fights. I mean, why get yourself so worked up if you're not even going to hit someone? And really, bitchsticks?

Once, just once, I would like to see two skanks really battle it out in the hall with real fighting and properly phrased insults. Maybe the intelligence level just isn't high enough in your average skank for this sort of fight. Maybe it's just my crazy school.

Who knows, but it'd make my day to see two people give it some thought before jumping into a failure of a fight in the hallway at school.

"You Know What They Say..."

Whenever someone is imparting some piece of wisdom, the mysterious "they" is always referenced.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about:

"They say you should wait half an hour after eating before going swimming."
"They say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
"You know what they say: a rolling stone gathers no moss."

But who is this "they"? Of course someone came around once and first said these things, but then wouldn't it make sense to say "You know what [insert inventor of statement] says..." or even "You know what he/she says..."

I like to imagine the infamous "they" as a group of wise gentlemen and ladies sitting on leather couches in a windowless room constantly repeating the world's words of wisdom. This group is the they that says all these things. They give us all wisdom so that we may better ourselves and avoid drowing by swimming too soon after we eat.

-Lauren-

Note: "they" is of no relation to the "she" that said all those things.

Character Development: Villians

One of the biggest cliche's in literature is the villian. The less-intuitive reader may not notice - they may just be enjoying the gore and fear spilling out from the villians reign of terror - but most villians are very two-dimensional characters, and seriously lacking character development.

A villian ought to be "evil" and ought to do dasterdly things and cause fear. These actions all need motivation behind them, though. A person doesn't just wake up one day and decide to take over the world, because they have suddenly deemed themselves evil and are kind of bored.

It's just like how no one wakes up and decides "Hey, it's a great day to do my taxes!". It's the motivation of it being the last day to do them that makes people wake up and say "Holy cow, I need to do my taxes!"

When you get to the root of it, a villian needs a motive, and the motive has to be more than boredom.

It can be disappointing how little writers care for their villians. They don't get the same loving affection as, say, the hero does. The hero gets widely developed. A good hero is three dimensional, almost a real person. They have qualities that make them human. They have emotions, fears, dreams.

Villians are almost always all powerful, power hungry, and massively unintelligent - because, of course, you can't make it too difficult for the hero to defeat them.

Honestly, it's more interesting to see the hero struggle a bit. It's probably immensely more interesting to write too.

In my mind, a good villian would be incredibly evil, but they would also be human. I don't care if the villian is a twenty foot tall china doll, I want it to have human qualities that make it more than some purely evil being bent on destruction of the world.

A good villian would have great motives. I want to be rooting for the bad guy at some point (of course, I should always want the hero to win in the end). I want their evil reign of terror to make sense.

I also want the villian to be intelligent. They should not equip their dungeons poorly enough for an imprisoned hero to escape. They should never be leaving important things unguarded. They should surround themselves with intelligent companions who will aid their evil. They should kill the hero when they are presented that always-present easy opportunity. (Seriously, when was the last time you read a book where the villian just waltses by the unequipped, untrained hero when they - since they are "all powerful" - could easily destroy them and leave nothing but ash in their place?)

Make the hero work to defeat the villian. Make them suffer. Make their outlook bleak. Because honestly, if the hero is good enough they'll be able to handle it.

I'm Such A Tease

I've actually been told this before. It was pretty much news to me. I don't see myself as a tease, or one who would desire to be a tease. Anyways, that's not the subject of this blog.

It's Teaser Tuesday! Horray! *throws confetti*

The subject of this Teaser is going to be one of my recent favorite characters, a young man called Rigel. Rigel lives in the Grand City of Icarthia, and someone I find to be a rather interesting character. Writing him is a task, it really is. This blog may be a bit long, as I'm going to include several excerpts that include him.

Background on Teaser One: Natura has ventured to the Grand City of Icarthia to compete in the Ascensian Academy Trials for Acceptance. Long story short: she was forced by Grena and Ina because of stuff. I know, wonderfully descriptive. It's not very important for this, though. Natura is currently under the alias of Liana Halle, for reasons that don't really matter.

She stood in the entrance to the stable, squinting to see inside. The day was bright, and now her eyes were having trouble adjusting to the dimmer light in the stable. Once she could see clearly, she saw Rigel standing in front of a stall towards the other end of the stable. Arian’s head stuck out over the stall’s low door. Rigel was talking softly to him and feeding him an apple. He glanced toward Natura, smiled slyly, and spoke louder.

“You lady is nearly as beautiful as your coat, sir,” he said as he stroked Arian’s neck. “Surely it is a fine quality in you both.”

“Charming,” Natura said as she walked to where Rigel stood. “You probably say that to all the horses though, don’t you?”

Rigel laughed. “Well I can’t be treating them differently, now can I? They may plan a revolt.” He flashed a smile at Natura. She had to remember to breathe, his smile catching her off guard again.

She laughed to calm herself down, but it came out awkwardly. She looked away from Rigel, and ran her fingers through Arian’s mane. He rubbed his nose on her shoulder and whinnied in appreciation. Natura smiled and buried her face in his mane, almost forgetting Rigel was still standing beside her.

“You have a fine horse, Miss…?”

Natura blushed, realizing he was watching her still. “Liana Halle,” she said. The name felt wrong on her tongue, but she tried not to let it show.

“Well, Miss Halle, I would love to stay and continue to compliment your horse but-”

“Rigel!” an agitated yell echoed through the stable.

“Duty calls,” he said. He smiled once more, nodding to Natura and Arian, before running out of the stable.

Background on Teaser Two: Natura has been knocked to the ground outside of the city's library. Grena has accompanied Natura to the trials (though Grena is not competing) to ensure Natura goes through with it. I'm really only posting this part because Grena comes so close to ass-kicking it's not even funny. Actually, it's hilarious. Grena is awesome.

“Are you alright?” she was asked again. Natura looked up further to see Rigel – though quite a different Rigel than the one she had met in the stable – standing in front of her. She blushed and looked back to the ground.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled.

“Let me help you,” he said.

Natura lifted a hand and he pulled her to her feet. She adjusted her clothes and dusted herself off once she was back on stable footing.

“I’m so sorry,” Rigel said. “We were playing and my friend has terrible aim.” He bent over to pick a ball up from the ground.

“It’s fine. I-”

“Liana!” Grena’s panicked voice interrupted. “What happened? I saw you fall! Are you okay?”

Natura looked over to see Grena running over to her. Natura opened her mouth to calm her down, but Grena didn’t give her time to say anything.

“Did he push you?” she demanded, glaring at Rigel.

“What? No! Of course not!” he insisted. “My friend has terrible aim!”

Hah, sure Rigel. Terrible aim. (Actually, the friend - Ashton - has godawful aim.)
Background on Teaser Three: Rigel is a failure, his team lost a nameless game to Natura and Grena. This is short, but it amuses me.

“I demand a rematch,” Rigel said.

Natura opened her eyes and looked at him. He sat with his arms crossed and the ball in his lap.

“For the seventh time, Rigel, shut up,” Braden said, smacking him on the head with his wooden hoop.

“Yes, Rigel, just accept that the women win,” Grena said, giving him an impish smile.

He frowned and continued to grumble to himself.

“It seems we may have injured his pride,” Natura said to Ashton.

“Trust me, Icarthia is a better place with a more humble Rigel,” Ashton said.

Background on Teaser Four: Another short one. Rigel is quite the looker, as many of the young women of Icarthia have noticed. In this scene, a gaggle of young women was gathered around Rigel. Until he started talking.

“What happened?” Natura asked, trying to suppress a laugh as she watched Rigel looking around himself for the rest of the women who had just been there.

“The last one to leave had asked a very simple question about the Icarthian Castle. Rigel explained everything, in great detail, from the building process to every slight repair that had ever been made to it,” Ashton explained.

Natura watched a dejected Rigel wander over to where she stood with Ashton. He collapsed onto the ground and groaned, “Women.”

“No luck?” Ashton asked.

Rigel sat up and shrugged. “Some women just can’t handle a real man.”

Background on Teaser Five: Last one, I swear. Natura, Ashton, and Rigel have all passed the trials and are at a celebration for anyone who progressed to the final trial. Natura was sitting with Ashton, but encouraged him to go ask a young lady to dance. Rigel has been dancing and flirting, as is his usual.

“What’re you sitting all alone over here for, Liana?” he asked, leaning forward on the table to grab a roll from a basket. He took a bite from it, and continued talking. “This is a celebration and you’re over here brooding.”

“I’m not brooding,” Natura said, crossing her arms defensively. “Ashton was just here.”

Rigel looked around at the empty benches. He even glanced under the table. “Well I don’t see him,” he said with an exasperated sigh.

Dramatic fool, Natura thought. Christiana would appreciate him.

“He was here,” she said.

Finishing off his roll, Rigel brushed the crumbs from his hands and stood. He held out a hand to Natura. “Come on, Miss Liana,” he said.

“What for?” Natura asked, staring at his hand like it would kill her.

Rigel groaned and grabbed her arm, pulling her from the table. “To dance,” he said as he led her closer to the fire and the other dancers. “Jeez, you sure can kill a moment.”

“I don’t dance,” Natura said, pulling her arm away. She hadn’t danced in a public place since she was seven years and Alger Penn stepped on her foot and knocked her into the fountain at a gathering back in Parcel. No boy had asked her after that, either, since Christiana took it upon herself to repay poor Alger with a black eye.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rigel said. He grabbed her hand with one of his, and wrapped his other arm around her waist. He pulled her close to him and swung them into the dance with the other young Icarthians.

------------
Alright, I'm done. There are definitely a few others that come after this but this blog post is long enough. Some of these parts aren't as well written as they could be. Most of them haven't been edited at all yet. First drafts are fun, huh?

Happy Tuesday

-Lauren-

Praise versus Criticism: The Battle of the Century

As a part of a writing community like YWS (Yes, this is another Young Writers Society related blog entry) I see a lot of interaction between writers and reviewers. Especially since I've recently been made a Junior Moderatior and have been given modly powers over the fiction forums, and have to make sure people are being nice and obeying rules and the sort.

The whole reviewing thing typically goes pretty well:
-A writer posts a work they worked very hard on, and are quite proud of.
-A reviewer reviews the work, giving some praise and a lot of constructive criticism.
-The writer says "Thank you, good sir. You have commented constructively on my story/poem/script and now I shall take your suggestions into consideration so my talent may improve."

Unfortunately, this is not how it always goes. Sometimes, we have what I like to call Bad Reviewer Syndrome:

-A writer posts a work they worked very hard on, and are quite proud of. (Same as before)
-A reviewer reviews the work in one of two ways:
1. "OMG U ROCK I LUV U THIS IS AWSUM MARRY ME?!?!"
2. "Uh, you suck. Why on earth are you posting on here? You should go in a hole and die."
-The writer is confused, and perhaps a little hurt, but just ignores the review because the reviewer is obviously cracked and doesn't understand what YWS is for.

This is a lot easier to deal with, and something I see a lot as a JM. Usually it's the first one, though it can be the second. I can easily send the reviewer a messege and give them tips on reviewing well.

Then, we have what I like to call Bad Writer Syndrome. Now this doesn't mean the writing is bad, not at all, it means...well just watch.

-A writer posts a work they spent a lot of time on, and are far too proud of. They expect praise, a lot of praise. In their cracked little sunshine world, they are the best writer ever. Nothing they do is wrong. Everyone will love them forever.
-A reviewer comes along and sees the work isn't as good as it could be. The reviewer takes time out of their busy day to give contstructive criticism on the work, hoping to help the writer improve.
-The writer responds in a way something like this: "Oh, God, what is wrong with you? This thing is brilliant! You're just stupid. I hate you. I didn't want criticism. I put this here to get praise. AND ONLY PRAISE!!! You can just [rest of comment censored]."

*face/palm*

It doesn't make sense to me. Really it doesn't. In a place like YWS, we thrive on constructive criticism to make us better, and some praise to make us feel good about ourselves. Plus, a good reviewer always finds something nice to say about the work.

People just seem to take constructive criticism as a personal attack. I don't understand it, but they do. Constructive criticism is mean to help not hurt. That's why it's called CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.

And that goes for anything. If someone is telling you something constructively, whatever the situation, you shouldn't react by bringing out your battle ax and kicking some ass. If they're intentionally trying to hurt you or make you feel terrible, then kick all the ass you want.

But constructive criticism is meant to help you. So listen to it!

Also, never expect praise from everyone. Not everyone is going to like you all the time, or ever for that matter. Praise doesn't do anything for you besides giving you an inflated sense of self. It can be good when you've really done something worth praising, but when you don't deserve praise then it doesn't help you at all. When you don't deserve praise, but people are praising you anyways because you bring out that battle ax whenever you get criticism, then they are just praising you because they don't want to die and not because they actually think you did anything great.

Deal with the constructive criticism when it comes (and please, use it to improve!!), and revel in the praise when you deserve it.

-Lauren-

When Life Gives You Lemons...

The lemonade never tastes as good as you hope.

Pardon that rather depressing comment. It's been a rough day.On to the subject of this blog, then. Which, in fact, is completely lemon-less.

Why are teenagers so stupid? I know, I'm a teenager. But still. Why?? I mean, it's like every little bit of common sense has been sucked out of almost every teenager alive. It hardly makes sense that a high school student can't seem to make sense of things.

I personally believe I have well developed common sense abilities. I am able to figure things out by deductive reasoning. I can use context clues. I know that no, it's not intelligent to eat the paint in the art room. (Yes, this happened in my art class. More than once.)

Was there some brainwashing ceremony around the age of fourteen that I wasn't aware of?

It just kills me how much people don't know. And really, it's not just teenagers. But it probably starts around then. Here's a little scenario:

A teenager knows nothing about anything.
Their parents don't care that they know nothing about anything. "Oh, they're just a teenager. They'll grow out of it."
They don't grow out of it.
"Oh, it's just a phase."
It's not just a phase.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now."
Yeah, you're right. They're thirty-four now and still don't know that at a stop sign, it's a pretty good idea to stop!

This rant is pretty pointless, but it's one of my major pet peeves. Another is people over-reacting and blowing things out of proportion. I also dislike chat-speak and the bad grammar it encourages. But those are different rants, for different days.

-Lauren-

The Tuesday Tease

Hey, it's Tuesday! I can't believe I even remembered about teasing. I've been majorly busy with school lately, and I even took a week-long break from the Young Writers Society to deal with it all. I haven't been writing at all this week either because of the massive school stuff.

But that's okay, because I'm starting this blog off with the start of Eventide, and working my way through the teasers I posted on YWS up to where I'm working on now.

Background info time:
Natura has just woken up from a hauntingly realistic nightmare, and is in her bed in her room in her family's cottage in her village in Icarthia. Exciting, I know.

This isn't the best bit of Eventide, and it is part of a big section that needs some massive editing. But I really like the interaction between Natura and her friend Christiana.

--------------

Natura opened her eyes slowly, finding herself staring at the straight wooden boards that spanned the ceiling of her bedroom, and not floating in perpetual darkness as she had feared. She blinked a few times, wondering if she was, in fact, further away from the ceiling that usual.


The answer came with a slobbery lick-to-the-face by Alaster from where he stood on the floor next to her. Natura pushed him away and sat up. Once she had a grasp on her surroundings, the dream came rushing back to her. It was all she could do to not shout as pain shot through her head again. Alaster whimpered and nuzzled her shoulder, and she semi-consciously pet him while she stared into space.


The dream had been so real this time. The man in the shadows, as she had begun to refer to him as, had spoken to her. He had spoken to her with the most bone-chilling voice she had ever heard, and it had been comforting yet disturbing at the same time.

“You were dreaming,” a familiar voice stated, breaking Natura from her daze.


She peered over the edge of her bed to find a young woman lying on it, staring at the ceiling, light from the window reflecting off her familiar color-streaked hair . “What?”


“You were dreaming, and you screamed,” she said. “Loud.”


“And somehow ended up on the floor,” Natura added.


A devilish smile crept over her mouth, and a strand of pink hair fell into her face, “Again, you were screaming.”

Natura raised an eyebrow. “How exactly does that result in me being on the floor, Christiana?”

“Well I had to wake you up somehow."

Christiana laughed and tossed the pillow back at Natura. She sat up on the bed and stretched her arms to the ceiling, and ran her hands through her multi-colored hair. Yellow, blue, red, pink, and purple strands curled around her fingers as she moved her hands through the brown roots of her hair.

“So why are you in my room this early anyways?” Natura asked her.

Christiana shrugged. “I forget everything before I found you screaming.”

--------------

Hope that was enjoyable to read. Any comments on what was good? Any comments on what should be improved?

-Lauren-

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shineA
nd twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Teaser Tuesday

On my "blog" on The Young Writers Society, we [the members who keep up blogs] post teasers every tuesday from things we have been working on writing wise. It's a fun exercise, and so I'm going to keep it up here.

After much deliberation, I have decided to start from the beginning of my current novel project, Eventide. It's fantasy, I guess you could say high fantasy but I'm not very up on the lingo so maybe not.

A little background:
Natura and Nolen are siblings, Natura being my MC (main character). They live in Parcel, a small hunting village in Icarthia. Icarthia is largely forest, and one of nine countries on the continent of Ascensia. In this scene, Natura and Nolen have been playing a sort of dueling game in the forest outside of their village (it includes arrows under some sort of magical influence, running around barefoot, and other aspects that don't matter for this scene) and Natura has clearly won.

-----

She stood over his body triumphantly. “Told you,” she mocked.

He didn’t move, but mumbled a few indiscernible words into the dirt.

“What was that, Nolen?” Natura asked. “You say, yes Natura, you did tell me you would win. I was a fool to believe I could ever defeat you?”

Nolen managed to turn his head to the side slightly. “Nu,” he mumbled, “I sed, thet wus unfer.”

Natura fell to the ground laughing. “You should hear yourself!”

“Nah funey, Natra.” he mumbled.

Once she had composed herself again Natura pushed Nolen’s large body up so he was sitting against the earth wall. He sat slumped to the side, a discontented expression clinging to his face.

“I hate you,” he finally spoke clearly.

“Oh, don’t say that,” Natura scolded as she pulled the arrow she had hit him with from the wall– it had passed straight through him and lodged itself in the earth wall. “You know, these arrows are quite handy. How did you manage to get them to work that way?”

“You wouldn’t be interested,” Nolen said, “And don’t change the subject.”

Natura sat next to him and smiled. “Okay. I’m sorry that I beat you so bad, even after I warned you I would.”

Nolen frowned, or rather attempted to frown. It looked more like he had just eaten something that had spoiled. “Well on the positive side, you have to carry me home.”

Natura groaned at the thought of carrying Nolen back home. “But you’re twice my size,” she complained.

“Come on now, big sister. Help your little brother get home.”

Natura sighed and pulled him to his feet. His legs gave out and she found herself with all of Nolen’s weight hanging on her shoulder. “So much for you being a little brother, what are you, fifteen years? Shouldn’t your big sister at least look like she’s three years your elder?”

“Nope,” he gloated, leaning further on her.

Natura groaned, the weight buckling her knees. “Do you want me to leave you here?” she asked him.

He sighed. “No, I guess not.” He took some of his weight off of his sister.

Even with the extra weight off, Nolen was still extraordinarily heavy. Natura struggled to walk with his weight, and to avoid the two rambunctious wolves – barely out of pup-hood – that entertained themselves by running around Natura’s legs and being as underfoot as possible.

Progress was slow, as Natura struggled between keeping Nolen upright and trying to avoid stepping on a wolf’s paw. And, much to Natura’s chagrin, Nolen spent his time spouting off reasons why he, in fact, won and Natura didn’t.

“You see, the ending arrow shouldn’t be the decision of the true victor. The true victor ought to be the one who tracked the best, fought valiantly, and proved himself the strongest!” Nolen said, waving his arm that wasn’t around Natura’s shoulders to prove his points.

Natura rolled her eyes and pushed him off of her. He fell backwards on the ground, his eyes and mouth wide open. “If you’re strong enough to wave your arms around, you’re strong enough to walk,” Natura said. She walked away, leaving Nolen to the mercy of the wolves. Alaster and Nolen’s wolf, Jade, ran circles around Nolen, jumping into his lap and licking his face.

“Oh you’re just sore because I should have won!” he called after her. “Hey - get- get offa me!” he shouted, pushing the wolves away and clambering to his feet.

He jogged after Natura, stumbling a bit here and there, and grabbed her around the waist. He threw her over his shoulder and kept running.

“Nolen! Nolen let me down!” Natura yelled, hitting his back with fisted-hands. “Oh, I knew you were fine enough to walk!”
-----

Well, that's all for this tuesday. I'll try to post frequently if I remember and have something written.

-Lauren-

Death To Prologues (A Rant)

Dear disillusioned writers, often in the genre of fantasy, often in my midst on the Young Writers Society,

Please, please, please stop writing prologues. Or prefaces. Or "introductins". Just. Stop. I don't care if they give you an epic sense of accomplishment, or set the tone amazingly for your story. None of it is true. None. So stop. Right now. My demanding words aren't enough fo you? Alright. Here are reasons why you should put down that pencil/close that word document and stop writing that prologue.

Anti-Prologue Reason #1
If you are relying on that pathetic bit of prose to spark excitement, hook the reader, and carry the story for the next 50,000 words then you are my biggest problem. A prologue should never ever be relied on to be a hook. I'm guessing six out of eight people completely skip the prologue anyways. So those six people don't even get to experience the "awesome beginning". They get to read the first page of the first chapter, and then they're bored because you wasted all your excitement on something that doesn't even matter.

The first chapter, no, the first page should be what hooks the reader. From line one the reader should want to read your story. Now, those six readers might actually want to continue reading your story instead of closing it and throwing it out a window.

Anti-Prologue Reason #2
Okay, so you aren't relying on the prologue to be a hook. You have a pretty damn good hook in your first chapter. But, still. There's something "epic" about an action-packed prologue. If you just reveal a little action from later in the story (ahem, Stephanie Meyer. On a sidenote, this is one of the few things I will actually "bash" her for. All those paragraph long prologues need to be ripped out and burned. They are doing a pathetic amount of good), when the reader gets bored in chapter two they will keep reading because action was promised later, right?

WRONG.

Chapter two should be as enthralling as chapter one, chapter seven, and chapter sixty-four. It doesn't matter if there is a massive action scene, a heart-pounding romance, or if the main character is just washing the dishes. To be a successful story, it should still be good. This comes from author style, good characters, and an overall good plot.

ANY PROLOGUE THAT EXISTS FOR THE SAKE OF "EXCITING ACTION" IS A PROLOGUE THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST.

THE SAME GOES FOR A PROLOGUE THAT EXISTS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF HAVING A PROLOGUE.

Anti-Prologue Reason #3

Okay. So the prologue isn't the hook, and it isn't for exciting action. This prologue, this gem, is forshadowing. *Cue audience ooh's and aah's*

Again, no. Chances are, the events you are forshadowing won't even come into play until the last fourth of the story. In which case, one of two things will happen.

1. The reader has forgotten about the forshadowful prologue and just keeps reading. Or, they vaugely remember it and spend the next fifteen minutes flipping back through the pages to figure out what was actually forshadowed so they can effectively move on in the story.

2. Upon reading the forshadowful prologue, the reader is intruiged and wants to find out what is going to come of this forshadowing. The reader then proceeds to read quickly - mostly skimming - until they get to the part that was forshadowed. When they get to it, they are less pleased than they should have been because they don't really know what happened up to that point.

Forshadowing is good. But in small doses, and scattered through the story.

It is more exciting this way.

Anti-Prologue Reason #4

The prologue is just an over-glorified first chapter. Basically, the action from the prologue flows directly into the action in chapter one.

This is an easy fix.

Erase the word PROLOGUE.

Write CHAPTER ONE in its place.

Pro-Prologue Reason #1

The big problem with prologues is that 98% of the time they are written badly. They do several things mentioned above. Though, forshadowing can be utilized effectively in a prologue. The action it is forshadowing just should happen before the end of the story.

What a prologue should be is something necessary. The story should not be the same without the prologue. If you read your prologue, and then think of the story and think "you know, I probably don't need this in order for someone to be able to read and understand the story" then you should just lose the prologue.

A prologue should give necessary and vital information that the reader absolutely needs in order to start reading the story. Tolkiens "Concerning Hobbits" in the Lord of the Rings is a good example. It's not the most exciting thing to read, but it gives important information the reader would not have known otherwise about Hobbits.

My advice doesn't go much further than that, because for all these reasons I do not write prologues. My biggest suggestion is to write the story first and then add in a prologue if it seems necessary.

(end rant)

-Lauren-

Twihard or Twi-hater? How about Twi-middle-of-the-road?

There is a great debate over Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, lately. Especially in my writing group (The Young Writers Society). It seems like the majority of the people really hate Twilight and a few people like it on this site - in the outside world there seems to be more of a majority in the 'Twihard' category, though. People's opinions aren't what bother me most; it's their reasoning and evidence for these opinions that does.

The people on YWS who hate Twilight - and I mean loathe, despise, wish it was never written - seem to really only hate it because they just don't like it. This isn't a problem to me; you can hate as many things as much as you want. It's how they spread this opinion with bashing Stephanie Meyer's skills as a writer, claiming the book as the worst thing written, and a literary nightmare, and even once someone posted on their YWS blog something along the lines of this: "Comment on this or Stephanie Meyer writes another book! Save us all!"

Is it just me or is this a little rude?

I mean, yes you can dislike it, but there comes a point where a line is crossed.

Twilight is in no way going to become literary gold, or the next great american novel, but it isn't terrible, I do not wish to burn it, and I certainly wish Meyer the best of luck in her future writing endeavors. But the people who are saying it's the worst thing ever written, and who believe Meyer should never write again are plain rude.

The book - ahem, the saga - was published. If it was the worst thing ever written, it would not have been published. There are certainly worst things written than Twilight. I've personally written worse things than Twilight. It has a decent story, preteen girls are all over it. Even if it has some literary flaws, and supports some themes I don't agree with, it is still an entertaining story.

I bought the books. I read them all. I even, dare I say it, enjoyed them. Sometimes, all the haters who hate because it isn't 'classic literature' need to chill out and accept it for what it is. That goes for anything. And if you're going to hate on something, don't read it. It's that easy. It doesn't need to be bashed, the author doesn't need to be bad-mouthed, and it doesn't need to be burned.

Being criticised for something that isn't awful would probably hurt my feelings. I'm a part of YWS, a site for constructive criticism on my work, so I appreciate the constructive criticism from my peers. But claiming something is awful, and that the author should stop writing, is not constructive. It's just mean.

Writers learn by experience. Twilight is written and published, it isn't going to change. I hope Meyer keeps improving, and keeps writing. To give up the craft would be a shame.

So if you hate something so much, be it Twilight, or anything else remember what you're saying about it. Someone put a lot of time and effort into that, and since it exists in mainstream society it certainly isn't atrocious. Don't bad-mouth something for the sake of bad-mouthing something.

If you don't have anything nice - or constructive - to say, don't say anything at all.

-Lauren-

Hello World of Blogs

I guess I should introduce myself or something.

I'm Lauren. I'm not entirely new to blogs, I guess. I have more of a social little thing on YWS (the Young Writers Society) but I wouldn't really consider it a blog blog. I suppose I must have important, or at least interesting thoughts because I started a blog to talk about them on.

I am a young writer; more young skill-wise than age-wise, but I am still young in age as well. I'll be heading off to uni in the fall, where my young writer-ing will become old writer-ing.

This is a pretty pointless blog post isn't it. Oh well. I'll try to be more exciting next time.

-Lauren-