11-7-12
I spent a lot of time scrolling through old Accents, ostensibly looking for stuff for the article I'm attempting to gather information and interviews for, which is due next week and I barely have anything because everyone (including me) is freakishly busy.
People keep reminding me that the semester is quickly coming to an end. Like I don't already know that. I'm trying to get from one assignment to the next, thank you very much. I'm trying to not fail and to apply to graduate schools and what not. *sigh*
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Contemporary
11-6-11
I've been wondering why I don't write anything that's particularly contemporary. I usually write far in the future or in some indeterminate time that could be both alternate reality or the far future. Depends on the story. I've read some great contemporary novels (and even beta'ed one that I hope gets published), but it's not something I'm drawn to write.
I think part of my problem is that I feel that I've just never fit any of the particular stereotypes while growing up, and so it's hard to depict something that I've never experienced. Oh, the emotions would be there, perhaps, but the experience wouldn't be. For example (and forgive me, it's a rather shallow example), I was not the teen girl who was all into boys and make-up or whatever else the shelf and screen depict teen girls to be. I was the gifted bookworm who was neither outcast nor popular, concerned with my grades and scribbling away at stories when I was finished with my homework. I had issues, but I was largely unaware of them until after high school.
The other part, I suppose, is that I have no desire to relive high school. I mostly enjoyed it while I was there, but I don't miss it (especially the not-so-great parts). I don't feel as if I could add anything to the table when it comes to depicting real life.
Besides, the stories that I identified with in middle and high school weren't contemporary. I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in sixth grade (although I did skip all the poetry in that first reading and have only come to appreciate the depth of LOTR as I've gotten older), and I started reading the books my mom had been assigned in high school (like The Great Gatsby and 1984).
But the characters I identified with I can point to with relative ease: Ender and Harry. I met Harry first, in sixth grade (or should I say second year?). I actually read Chamber of Secrets first and had to backtrack to find Sorcerer's Stone. I never waited in a line for new books or new movies, but I did read it because I could see my experience echoed in the story of the bespectacled boy who lived in a cupboard under the stairs--not the experience of being a wizard, but of feeling alone and outnumbered and isolated due to events not under one's control.
And Ender? I met him my sophomore year of high school, right around the time that things socially started unexpectedly falling apart for me. I borrowed the book from one of my classmates, my principal's son, and I finished the book within two days (definitely on the flashlight list). To be set apart because of one's intelligence--I had known that since second grade, and so I bought a copy of my very own during Ringfest when we visited the mall after practice. I take great care of my books, but my copy of Ender's Game is so read that its spine is creased and I have to take care when re-reading it to ensure that the pages don't come out.
And neither setting is contemporary. Well, sure, Harry lives on Earth, and it's technically taking place in the early 90s, but that's never directly stated and besides, wizards live in a reality alongside the "real" world. The setting is fantastical, and it's not what I consider contemporary. And Ender's Earth is far in the future. Even if its origins are our present time, Ender's society is not the society of today.
And I guess what I'm trying to say is, as long as the characters and the emotions and the feelings are real, the setting (for me, at least) doesn't have to be. And since that's what I read, that's what I write. (Plus, then I'm not constrained by how things are now. But that's another matter for another post.)
More later.
I've been wondering why I don't write anything that's particularly contemporary. I usually write far in the future or in some indeterminate time that could be both alternate reality or the far future. Depends on the story. I've read some great contemporary novels (and even beta'ed one that I hope gets published), but it's not something I'm drawn to write.
I think part of my problem is that I feel that I've just never fit any of the particular stereotypes while growing up, and so it's hard to depict something that I've never experienced. Oh, the emotions would be there, perhaps, but the experience wouldn't be. For example (and forgive me, it's a rather shallow example), I was not the teen girl who was all into boys and make-up or whatever else the shelf and screen depict teen girls to be. I was the gifted bookworm who was neither outcast nor popular, concerned with my grades and scribbling away at stories when I was finished with my homework. I had issues, but I was largely unaware of them until after high school.
The other part, I suppose, is that I have no desire to relive high school. I mostly enjoyed it while I was there, but I don't miss it (especially the not-so-great parts). I don't feel as if I could add anything to the table when it comes to depicting real life.
Besides, the stories that I identified with in middle and high school weren't contemporary. I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in sixth grade (although I did skip all the poetry in that first reading and have only come to appreciate the depth of LOTR as I've gotten older), and I started reading the books my mom had been assigned in high school (like The Great Gatsby and 1984).
But the characters I identified with I can point to with relative ease: Ender and Harry. I met Harry first, in sixth grade (or should I say second year?). I actually read Chamber of Secrets first and had to backtrack to find Sorcerer's Stone. I never waited in a line for new books or new movies, but I did read it because I could see my experience echoed in the story of the bespectacled boy who lived in a cupboard under the stairs--not the experience of being a wizard, but of feeling alone and outnumbered and isolated due to events not under one's control.
And Ender? I met him my sophomore year of high school, right around the time that things socially started unexpectedly falling apart for me. I borrowed the book from one of my classmates, my principal's son, and I finished the book within two days (definitely on the flashlight list). To be set apart because of one's intelligence--I had known that since second grade, and so I bought a copy of my very own during Ringfest when we visited the mall after practice. I take great care of my books, but my copy of Ender's Game is so read that its spine is creased and I have to take care when re-reading it to ensure that the pages don't come out.
And neither setting is contemporary. Well, sure, Harry lives on Earth, and it's technically taking place in the early 90s, but that's never directly stated and besides, wizards live in a reality alongside the "real" world. The setting is fantastical, and it's not what I consider contemporary. And Ender's Earth is far in the future. Even if its origins are our present time, Ender's society is not the society of today.
And I guess what I'm trying to say is, as long as the characters and the emotions and the feelings are real, the setting (for me, at least) doesn't have to be. And since that's what I read, that's what I write. (Plus, then I'm not constrained by how things are now. But that's another matter for another post.)
More later.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Adding to The Portfolio Which I Have Yet to Put Together
1-27-11
Last week I (along with other people) was asked through Facebook if I could please contribute something for the Religion page in the Southern Accent, Southern Adventist University's weekly newspaper. I took something I'd written for my journal report in Expository Writing last semester, made it a little longer, polished it up, and sent it along to the religion editor.
Well, lo and behold, it appeared in today's issue of the Accent. If you'd like to read my story, which was published in the Religion section, you can go here to read it.
It's not much, but I can put it in my still-hasn't-been-put-together writing portfolio.
More later.
Last week I (along with other people) was asked through Facebook if I could please contribute something for the Religion page in the Southern Accent, Southern Adventist University's weekly newspaper. I took something I'd written for my journal report in Expository Writing last semester, made it a little longer, polished it up, and sent it along to the religion editor.
Well, lo and behold, it appeared in today's issue of the Accent. If you'd like to read my story, which was published in the Religion section, you can go here to read it.
It's not much, but I can put it in my still-hasn't-been-put-together writing portfolio.
More later.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Thanksgiving Break
12-1-10
Yes, break ended on Sunday, and so the busyness descended upon all of us students once again. This is the first chance I've gotten to write some blogs, and I'm trying to be fair to both my blogs.
Anyway, break gave me a great chance to do a LOT of writing. I spent about four hours on last Wednesday putting the rest of one of my unnamed stories onto my computer, and so then I had to do what I promised and start putting it on the critique forums.
It felt nice to get that third draft done--and then I moved onto some of my other stories. One story has been shelved for a while because one, I was learning how to actually write in the viewpoint character's viewpoint, and two, the story wasn't working. I actually have this one sort of planned out. Vaguely, anyway.
One of the other characters wanted to talk, even though he really doesn't talk to the other characters much and has secrets that he doesn't even want to admit to himself. So he's guarded and cynical and actually telling the story better than my original main viewpoint character did (and she's been my viewpoint character since I created the story in eighth grade). He's not the only viewpoint I have, but it did change the beginning point as well. Anyway, we'll see how that goes.
-Ashlee
Yes, break ended on Sunday, and so the busyness descended upon all of us students once again. This is the first chance I've gotten to write some blogs, and I'm trying to be fair to both my blogs.
Anyway, break gave me a great chance to do a LOT of writing. I spent about four hours on last Wednesday putting the rest of one of my unnamed stories onto my computer, and so then I had to do what I promised and start putting it on the critique forums.
It felt nice to get that third draft done--and then I moved onto some of my other stories. One story has been shelved for a while because one, I was learning how to actually write in the viewpoint character's viewpoint, and two, the story wasn't working. I actually have this one sort of planned out. Vaguely, anyway.
One of the other characters wanted to talk, even though he really doesn't talk to the other characters much and has secrets that he doesn't even want to admit to himself. So he's guarded and cynical and actually telling the story better than my original main viewpoint character did (and she's been my viewpoint character since I created the story in eighth grade). He's not the only viewpoint I have, but it did change the beginning point as well. Anyway, we'll see how that goes.
-Ashlee
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Today in My Life
8-24-10
I walked to Four Corners with Katie, ate at Subway with her, and walked back to campus. That's two miles. Add in the fact that I walked from and to Southern Village and that we had to walk to get to the Greenway, I think I can honestly say I did about three miles of walking today.
I also hung out with Alan, Beth, Katie, and Chase (that seems to be becoming a trend), saw lots of people I haven't seen in months (including the person that I really like, but I'm not telling on this blog), worked on stuff for the Organizational Showcase with the other English Club officers, and made myself dinner while reading a book for Honors Seminar. Now Katie's coming over to use Skype.
Oh, and I actually got done and submitted an entry on the Writers' Digest Sci-fi/Fantasy Forum's for-fun Flash Fiction Contest. I'm excited about it.
More later.
I walked to Four Corners with Katie, ate at Subway with her, and walked back to campus. That's two miles. Add in the fact that I walked from and to Southern Village and that we had to walk to get to the Greenway, I think I can honestly say I did about three miles of walking today.
I also hung out with Alan, Beth, Katie, and Chase (that seems to be becoming a trend), saw lots of people I haven't seen in months (including the person that I really like, but I'm not telling on this blog), worked on stuff for the Organizational Showcase with the other English Club officers, and made myself dinner while reading a book for Honors Seminar. Now Katie's coming over to use Skype.
Oh, and I actually got done and submitted an entry on the Writers' Digest Sci-fi/Fantasy Forum's for-fun Flash Fiction Contest. I'm excited about it.
More later.
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