yourwords

The best short story I ever wrote happened in a high school english class. My teacher wrote out the first paragraph to a western story, wherein the whole town was waiting for a gunfight to start. Then she handed us the names of different townspeople as well as their occupation, and we had to finish the story as that character. *exclaimation* that was so fun… as geeky as it sounds…

I got Annita Apple the local teacher. That fit my personality perfectly back then, but I resented it a little bit till I got writing. What made me think about that assignment was that I found it in the attic this morning, read over it, and got chills at how good the story was. It was simple, the characters were dynamic, and there wasn’t too much dialogue. Now maybe I was searching for those things a bit much, because those are the exact things I feel like my current writing is missing, nevertheless I found those strengths in the story and it will hopefully help me in my current writing.

Which leads me to the prompt–

prompt #16

There were no sparks there, not for me anyway. I should have known that from the beginning, yet here I sat, watching this (”Kate” or “Cory”) blather on at me like I was a tape recorder. I started to plan how to get my revenge on that dating website that thought ‘we were made for eachother,’ and that was when KATE/CORY said something to make me pay attention… ***

That’s an example of a starter paragraph, although usually I would prefer to give the elements without the paragraph and let imagination run. The elements would be ‘dating website’, ‘annoying date’, ‘wanting to leave’, then the kicker ‘the date says something to catch your interest.’ It could be as simple as they have the exact same breed of dog that you do, with the same name- or it could be as exciting as them leaning forward to whisper that they’re ’sorry they have to bore you, but you’re in danger and it can’t look like they’re protecting you.’  Dun dun dun.

 Now I don’t know if this is proper non-believer talk, and I never really have gotten good feedback when bringing this up with people who don’t agree, but I am psychic. I can predict exactly what’s going to happen in any movie/book situation. Nay-sayers doing any nay-saying? I can prove it: come to a movie with me any day of the week, and I can feel out the entire movie by the first 10 minutes.

All in good fun. I’m not 100% accurate, and I love to be proven wrong. My mom is convinced that i’m either psychic or just a very good writer. But I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to be a writer to predict boring plot, you just have to read/watch a lot of mainstream pop culture. My friend and I compete on who can figure it all out first. But really, the trick is to not be a predictable writer. If you are the kind of writer who never has people read what they’ve written, but expect that the first time someone reads it they’ll fall right in love. No. You’re in for some harsh reality. They may gush over your works because they simply don’t know how to tell you what sucks about it, but you’ll find that by keeping your story completely inside your head, playing both author and audience, you’ll get a false sense of security about how good your plot came along. The only true test is to get yourself an unbiased reader, and learn not to jump all over them for not appreciating your genius. That’s the hard part.

prompt #15

Imagine that you wake up in the middle of the night and must go worship the porcelain god. Between revisiting old meals, you use the seat as a pillow, and try to figure out how you could have gotten sick. Go through some scenarios either using real meals you’ve eaten recently at dodgy fast food joints, or make up a fake co-worker that sneezed all over themselves before touching your keyboard. Or did you drink too much?

Next week I have a family reunion to go to. My mother’s family hasn’t had a reunion in years and years, so they’re taking this one very seriously. Certain families have chili days, desert days, breakfast days, babysitting days, bla bla bla bla. It’s all very organized. It’s also driving me mad because there’s weird things like ‘talent shows’ and ‘auctions.’ Ok, I understand a good chili cookoff and pot luck, maybe even a family hike, but a talent show? Like we’re some kind of church organization? What’s next, punch and cranium? Granted my family is very mormon, so they don’t know how to organize something without punch and talent shows. Go figure. Utahrds. Love them or hate them? I mean technically I was born in Utah, but I moved when I was 2 and haven’t lived there since. Nor do I go to church anymore. But what’s so embarrassing about having a mormon family that like to do things when they get together? I’m not quite sure.

Maybe I’m trying so hard to get away from the religion I was raised in that anything that reminds me of it makes me tense up and become agitated. I’m not sorry I was raised mormon, because mormons have a lot of good qualities, and I learned a lot that I wouldn’t have in another, more diet-coke/less hands on religion. Now I’m going in a more spiritual direction that has no boundaries and no organization what so ever. So it’s very likely that right now I can’t sanely have anything to do with Mormonism, till I disassociate from it further, and become less angry about some of my religious issues. I don’t think the people at the reunion will exactly understand that…. I suppose I’ll have to keep my mouth shut… AGAIN. Religious issue? Yes.

Prompt #14

For my talent show production, I will be singing Carrickfergus. It’s a tradition Irish folk song that is very pretty and melancholy as most Irish folk songs are. I chose it because my step dad wanted to do something musical with me and I can sing Irish Folk, and he can sort of play the tune. The problem is that he would like to sing melody with me, and his voice really isn’t very good, especially since he can’t hit the high notes. So, we had to bring the notes down for him, and I am much saddened that my singing quality for a song that I can sing very well on my own will be brought down because he likes to be a part of what everyone else is doing. (I’m no opera singer, but I’m decent anyway).

The prompt is to discuss in journal mode if it’s better to hold in the opinions that might hurt someone’s feelings, or if it’s better to tell the truth so that you don’t go mad at compromising yourself. On the one hand, you’re being humanitarian and learning to compromise. On the other hand, you get very stressed and frustrated when you bottle things up. What would you do in this situation?

Obviously what I would do is keep my mouth shut on the fact that he can’t sing for crap, give him pointers, compromise- but come and blog about it to relieve some of the pent up aggravation. :) Atleast in this circumstance.

There are certain items in everyday life that we need. Cars, clothes, books, computers, cell phones, sinks, bags, food, etc. These are necessary and since we need them we tend to pick out the practical mundane ones. However! We need not be restricted by the beige lovers. Out of all the choices at your fingertips, choose which items make you smile and happy, rather than just ‘work.’ Items you can be proud of. When I go clothes shopping, I pick out blouses and pants and skirts and shoes and things that are out of the ordinary. If I look like everyone else, I feel like I’m trapped. If I wear something that is say electric orange, on the other hand, I can hold my head high and feel like I’m being myself, which means being unique.

That’s why I have a new font. :) This one makes me happier.

Then again, this kind of attitude also leads to me thinking I have to constantly keep looking for something waaay different than what I’ve got. Meaning I need new things to keep myself feeling ‘fresh’ (and not in the “mother, do you ever feel less than fresh?” way). Just that I only like new crazy things till they’re not new anymore. Consumerism much?

And sometimes you need the beige lifestyle. Like at a job interview. It makes me sad that I have to pretend to be someone else when I’m looking for a job, but I guess that’s why I don’t have any conventional jobs for long.

prompt #13

Watch the Billy Connolly youtube thing linked up there under ‘beige lovers’ and laugh. Then when you’ve done your laughing, and seen some of the other Billy Connolly youtubes, write your own standup. No one ever has to see it, so make it outRAGOUS: complain about gas prices, talk about how your mom ruined your life, give an impression of your ex-boss.

EXAMPLE— I don’t know about you guys, but I like to get high. Not regular, “Dude… what’s up with peanuts?” high. I’m talking fiery dragon bong, suck the smoke out of his nose for three hours and then take a fucking adventure in your broom closet high. “These shoes… these shoes! These fucking shoes! Are JESUS! If these high heels *tries them on* came up to Pontius Fucking Pilot and kicked his ass, he would say ‘thank you!’”

See, it doesn’t make much sense, but it makes me and my buddies laugh. Making people laugh is like finding your marketing niche. You learn who your audience is, you learn what you can do to make them laugh, and you make them laugh. Like my ‘getting high’ joke. My friends and I laugh at weed jokes, and I can tell a funny weed story, so that’s my ’standup’ niche.

Writing things like standup comedy gives you diversity. Sometimes I get stuck inside myself and get nnervous about letting people reaqd what I write, especially if I was trying to be funny because I worry about them thinking it’s not funny. If I force myself to tell jokes that I make up myself, (I joke around all the time, but it’s in the moment type stuff, situational comedy that’s only funny in that minute), then I’ll feel more confident in my humor-abilities, which makes me less stoic in my writing. Freedom!


- Robbie Williams Lyrics