Hey Guys,

I decided to join NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. The point of it is to write a 50,000 word novel during November. If you succeed, you get a certificate; if you don’t, nothing gained, nothing lost. I started my novel today, wish me good luck

To find out more about NaNoWriMo, go to www.nanowrimo.org

Hey guys, here’s the story I wrote for the Dennis Hamely workshop we had last year It’s just the first draft so there’s lots to improve if I wanted to, feel free to leave any feedback you may have!

My story is in black, while I left Dennis Hamely’s comments on there too, marked in red, if anyone’s interested in those too

Fragments of a Dream

Hidden

When I remain still
Then it is almost as if
I do not exist.

Sooner or later one of you guys out there has got to find your way back to the blogs and see my lonely little post

Anyway, I checked my school email today and saw that Dennis Hamely had finally sent the story I wrote in his workshop back, with comments… And it most definitely cheered me up. I’ll see if I post it here later sometime, if someone’s actually reading

More stuff coming up too, as soon as the IB is being nicer to me again so I actually have time to write…

Otherwise, if not here, I’ll post a link to some other blog, some other where!

The quote at 0:50. Remember it.
Oh look, how great. That quote happens to be the cover of the video too

I have quite a few infinite moments, I must say. Memories that are stuck in my head forever, events I’ll always remember.

One of my best is from about 2 or 3 years ago.

Me and my family were decorating the christmas tree a few days before Christmas, when the doorbell rang. My best friend, Alexandra, was standing outside the door. She quickly said bye to her parents, ran inside with me, and jumped on the christmas ornaments. We spent the next hour or so decorating the tree.
Later that turned into a quote about our friendship. It’s in the style of “Good friends knock on your door, but best friends slam the door open and scream ‘I’m home!!’” Our modified quote ended up being “Good friends knock on your door, but best friends slam the door open and scream ‘I’m home!!’ and start to decorate your christmas tree.”

Some of my other infinite moments are my first kisses. I won’t bore you with detailed stories about them

Below is a link to my short story “Apartments”.

Apartments – A Short Story

I hope you like it =) It was inspired by a real building which I saw from the roof of “La Pedrera” in Barcelona, as well as short stories from onesentence.org. It was an apartment building, but all the apartments had such an individual and unique personality I HAD to use them in a story.

Also, I submitted this one to Merlyn’s Pen. Wish me good luck with it!

1. Don’t be scared to write bad. Write lots and lots and LOTS of bad things. Write until your hand hurts and your arm falls off. Then go through all the stupid and very bad things you’ve written and find what’s worth keeping. The halfway good stuff. Find the little lights at the end of the tunnel (see? bad cliche writing right there) and make them brighter.

2. Revise till you can’t stand revising anymore. Then revise again. Allow yourself breaks in between though, to go to the bathroom or get a cookie. Maybe go on a mini holiday in between two revision periods. It’ll give you time to think about where you want to go with your story, and it’ll turn out better.

3. Get inspired. By anything and everything. Did your teacher say something crazy? Write it down. Did you see someone on the streets wearing funky clothes? Make a mental note of them. Find a crazy building with a unique “personality”? Take a picture. Use them in your writing.

And most important: Have fun.

Below is a link to my one act play, about a bride-to-be and her butler. I hope the problem is clear enough, and that the ending surprises you enough. My test people so far have liked it anyway.

Bride and Butler

I think most of my learning has been subconscious.. I’ll try to get it out.

Mostly I think I’ve realised that you can write about everything, and that even really weird stories that you barely even understand sometimes can be good. It gives me hope.

For example, both “The Bees” by Dan Chaon and “Catskin” by Kelly Link were both really weird, but at the same time, strangely good. “The Bees” was about a man who was haunted by the son of his ex-wife, whom his current wife and son knew nothing about. In the end, very strange things start to happen. Even though the ending is twisted and kind of freaky, it made for a really good story. “Catskin” basically followed a kid who thought he was a cat and who could talk to cats, and it was just strange. The cat tells him to do the weirdest things, but again, it made for a good story.

The characterisation is probably what stuck with me most, and I used a lot of it in “La Fleur de La Vie” and “Apartments” mostly, although some of it shows up in “Small Red Car Crash”. The twisted ending and the darkness is in that one, definitely. I just took notice of how the authors of the stories had used characterisation such as “Though the big cop had lived and worked violently, this was his first murder, and he was surprised by how easy it was.” (“Ghost Dance” by Sherman Alexie). Although this is direct characterisation, and so maybe not the most exciting, it showed me that sometimes direct characterisation is better, and can have a much bigger impact on the reader. This quote immediately told me “This man is brutal and ruthless. Stay clear.”

Subconciensly, “The Bees” must have stuck with me as well, and influenced my writing. There are similarities between the ending of “Apartments” and the ending of “The Bees”, which I hadn’t noticed until looking back just now.

And again, as always when reading a good book, I had it confirmed that these people are amazing at creating their own believable worlds. I mean, how many people would think of turning plates into weapons (“The Tale of Grey Dick”, Stephen King), McDonalds into a philosophical heaven (“Goodbye to All That”, Harlan Ellison) and an elephant into a murderer (“The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter”, Jim Shepard)?