There
Are
Only
Six
Day
Left
Until
Utter
Scripted
Insanity
Begins!
I am so excited! I can't wait! I want to delve into Declan and Ashley's minds RIGHT NOW! But, if I do, I can't win. Six days, I have to wait. 144 hours, 8640 minutes, 518400 seconds until I begin Screnzy! Too long! I am memorizing Green Day songs as I type, as my mother bought me 21st Century Breakdown a week or so ago and I am so happy! Their music carries the potential for stories upon stories upon stories! I think that this script that will be written in April has the potential to be great, and I will make it so.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
"Hold onto your headphones, honey."
This made my day. The little girl is my wallpaper now. I smile whenever I turn on the computer. Too cute!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
A Change of Heart, of Musical Taste, of Writing Style
ACT I: Scene I:
INT. OFFICE - DAY
Open on FRANKIE, sitting at desk, waiting for inspiration to hit. Angle on Frankie's tired expression.
FRANKIE
(frustrated)
Oh, joy. NaNoWriMo's counterpart, set to take place in April, which is only 15 days away.
Screnzy - or, to those of you who use correct English, Script Frenzy.
I am going to write a script - a screenplay.
The worst part? I have no idea how! But, I will use Scripped.com, so it will all turn out peachy. I hope.
PLOT: Guitar prodigy, Ashley Holmes, runs away from home and joins a punk band called Crash and more-or-less moves in with them. But, when the bassist's girlfriend books the gig of the undiscovered century, she gets a wrist injury. So, the lead singer, aka Declan Hollister, must explain how he knows so much about guitars without being able to play.
CHARACTERS: Ashley, Declan, Joey, Coltrane, Bea, and Mickey, the dog.
SETTING: Somewhere down my street.
TIMELINE: 30 days to write 100 pages.
That's where it ends. 3 1/3 pages A DAY. This does not seem so daunting when you break it down, but I am so used to word count. I have no idea how I will be able to do this.
About the musical taste, I have migrated from my comfortable bed of indie rock and alt pop to garage rock, blues, and punk to get in the mood. For me, this is like admitting defeat because that is ALL my dad listens to, and I said I would always have my own music. Here we go! Foxboro Hottubs, Offspring, and Joe Bonamassa!
Oy. What have I gotten myself into? Ashley and Declan, you better be pretty darn interesting to cover 100 pages.
FRANKIE walks off-screen, leaving behind a swinging computer chair and prepped workspace behind.)
END Scene I
INT. OFFICE - DAY
Open on FRANKIE, sitting at desk, waiting for inspiration to hit. Angle on Frankie's tired expression.
FRANKIE
(frustrated)
Oh, joy. NaNoWriMo's counterpart, set to take place in April, which is only 15 days away.
Screnzy - or, to those of you who use correct English, Script Frenzy.
I am going to write a script - a screenplay.
The worst part? I have no idea how! But, I will use Scripped.com, so it will all turn out peachy. I hope.
PLOT: Guitar prodigy, Ashley Holmes, runs away from home and joins a punk band called Crash and more-or-less moves in with them. But, when the bassist's girlfriend books the gig of the undiscovered century, she gets a wrist injury. So, the lead singer, aka Declan Hollister, must explain how he knows so much about guitars without being able to play.
CHARACTERS: Ashley, Declan, Joey, Coltrane, Bea, and Mickey, the dog.
SETTING: Somewhere down my street.
TIMELINE: 30 days to write 100 pages.
That's where it ends. 3 1/3 pages A DAY. This does not seem so daunting when you break it down, but I am so used to word count. I have no idea how I will be able to do this.
About the musical taste, I have migrated from my comfortable bed of indie rock and alt pop to garage rock, blues, and punk to get in the mood. For me, this is like admitting defeat because that is ALL my dad listens to, and I said I would always have my own music. Here we go! Foxboro Hottubs, Offspring, and Joe Bonamassa!
Oy. What have I gotten myself into? Ashley and Declan, you better be pretty darn interesting to cover 100 pages.
FRANKIE walks off-screen, leaving behind a swinging computer chair and prepped workspace behind.)
END Scene I
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Short Stories
I recently had a teacher of mine read and edit my two short stories, Little Angels and Incandescence. She made many edits to Little Angels, and I fixed it based on her input. Then, as I was leaving her classroom, she told me that she was about half-way through (21-page) Incandescence. She told me that she gets to school at six in the morning, when the hall lights are still off and all is quiet. She told me that was when she started reading Incandescence (which is about a warehouse, an experiment, fear, and darkness) and she told me that she had to stop because she got scared. Now, at first I didn't believe her, but then I went home and turned off the lights in my basement and read the story aloud. I listened to myself talk, and I got shakier and shakier. I kept thinking that Xavier was going to run out and drag me to the warehouse and project my fears before me - that Genevieve would... Whoops! That would be a spoiler. :) Anyway, that is a huge paragraph and I used horrible grammar, but I just wanted to get that out.
By the way - Mrs. Burke, are you about finished with my book? My mom wants to read it!
By the way - Mrs. Burke, are you about finished with my book? My mom wants to read it!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Titanic
I just watched Titanic and, as predicted, I cried like a baby. But, then, I realized what it was that made me cry.
It wasn't only that Cal lived and married and made millions and then shot himself, proving that he shoudl have given up his seat on the lifeboat for Jack so that he and Rose could be together forever instead of Jack dying a cold, soaking death and sinking to depths to rest with the ship and leave behind a forever-changed Rose.
Not only that.
I realized how attached I had become to the characters and how James Cameron spun the tale to make it that way. How he used such a sad time in history to show that love is strong and can come from anywhere. I realized that the novel and short stories I have recently completed don't stand anywhere near that area.
They are miles away.
I realize how proud I was (sort of still am, but to a lesser degree) of these two short stories is sadly overstated. I have to do much better to be that proud of something I wrote.
I am not saying that I think I'm a horrible writer and that I am going to quit that "career." Quite the contrary! I am going to write with renewed energy and try to do better than I ever had before!
Thank you, James Cameron, and all the actors in Titanic! You have pulled out another layer of the authoress inside me!
It wasn't only that Cal lived and married and made millions and then shot himself, proving that he shoudl have given up his seat on the lifeboat for Jack so that he and Rose could be together forever instead of Jack dying a cold, soaking death and sinking to depths to rest with the ship and leave behind a forever-changed Rose.
Not only that.
I realized how attached I had become to the characters and how James Cameron spun the tale to make it that way. How he used such a sad time in history to show that love is strong and can come from anywhere. I realized that the novel and short stories I have recently completed don't stand anywhere near that area.
They are miles away.
I realize how proud I was (sort of still am, but to a lesser degree) of these two short stories is sadly overstated. I have to do much better to be that proud of something I wrote.
I am not saying that I think I'm a horrible writer and that I am going to quit that "career." Quite the contrary! I am going to write with renewed energy and try to do better than I ever had before!
Thank you, James Cameron, and all the actors in Titanic! You have pulled out another layer of the authoress inside me!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Pitch
For the ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) contest, we had to create a pitch for our novels. The first round winners are decided on these pitches. Here's mine:
At night, when we fall asleep, sometimes we have strange dreams. Usually, we don't think anything of these dreams. They are irrelevent to our life.
But Harlow Castleberry's dreams are a different story.
Harlow's dreams began a while ago, but they have started to get worse as time progressed because her father made her stop writing them down. Now, she is seeing her dreams come to life when she is not asleep. She doesn't know what is real and what is fantasy.
And now, there are secrets coming to the surface, floating there, waiting to be overturned so their identity will be revealed. They are calling to Harlow, and she can't resist them.
Harlow's sister, Lee-Elba, knows about these secrets. One is not a secret to her anymore. She wants to tell her little sister everything, but it isn't until her parents begin to act strange that she does. She tells her about their parents, the club, the Hate Crew, Catastrophe, Exodus, and Armageddon, and the mysterious deaths surrounding their family.
Harlow doesn't know what to do. Her brain is filled to the brim with questions, and she has to replace them with answers, before it's too late.
At night, when we fall asleep, sometimes we have strange dreams. Usually, we don't think anything of these dreams. They are irrelevent to our life.
But Harlow Castleberry's dreams are a different story.
Harlow's dreams began a while ago, but they have started to get worse as time progressed because her father made her stop writing them down. Now, she is seeing her dreams come to life when she is not asleep. She doesn't know what is real and what is fantasy.
And now, there are secrets coming to the surface, floating there, waiting to be overturned so their identity will be revealed. They are calling to Harlow, and she can't resist them.
Harlow's sister, Lee-Elba, knows about these secrets. One is not a secret to her anymore. She wants to tell her little sister everything, but it isn't until her parents begin to act strange that she does. She tells her about their parents, the club, the Hate Crew, Catastrophe, Exodus, and Armageddon, and the mysterious deaths surrounding their family.
Harlow doesn't know what to do. Her brain is filled to the brim with questions, and she has to replace them with answers, before it's too late.
In Memorium
A few hours ago, I got back from a memorial for a friend of our family. She died on the last day of January, succumbing to cancer after a long fight. She was a nice woman, always with a smile. She used to swing her arm around my neck and say, "Hey, Shrank, how ya doin'?" I cried when speech's were being told, though I did not know her well. I can't believe how much I cried. I think it was my cousin that went up and talked about how they used to go mushrooming that really did me in. Thanks, Kolter! Anywho, we love you, Carla, until our dying days.
In memorium - Carla Arbogast (1968-2011)
In memorium - Carla Arbogast (1968-2011)
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