A writer's life for me

when I was little I never liked writing. It was a very painful experience. The fact that those large red pencils hurt my hand if I wrote too long didn't help matters much. My handwriting was bad, and I couldn't read anyone else's. But my printing was worse, and hasn't improved at all over the years. In middle school I discovered that I could use a computer to do assignments. That was the only thing worth going to middle school for. In high school, my typing speed improved and I learned how to use more than two fingers while typing. Then my English teachers occasionaly gave me high marks on assignments. At first I just thought that it was a fluke, but then in grade eleven my teacher said that he actually liked my writing. And to my surprise I was enjoying it too. Thats when I found out that writing essays can be fun, short stories can be AWESOME and you just have to bullshit your way through the poetry explication. (Incidentally my poetry explication mark was very very high) Since then I've taken a course on writing, become an award winning writer, (I have a certificate to prove it) and routinely been chewed out by my math teacher for "wanting to major in philosophy"

Everything Else

Poetry can be either hard or easy. If you get inspired to do something then you could run off five or six easy.
However, if you aren't inspired it is an arduous process that can feel like it's ripping your soul into tiny pieces.
Hey, I could write a poem about that.

I think that poetry can be best defined by "Everything else" or, "If you can't classify it then it's a poem"

Anyway, we've been writing poems in class and I actually like a few of mine.
These couple were inspired by being led around and touching things while blindfolded.
Seeing as all the class pretty much knew where all the things in the school were it wasn't that difficult to guess what everything was.

Mine are in haiku.
Five-seven-five is cool.
It excites my mind.

Lock
Small and cold dial.
Expected. I thought of it.
Think of something new.

Vendor
Huh. No change in it.
I wish my hand was smaller.
No free drink for me.

Table
I can fit under.
I shouldn’t rub it too much.
I don’t want splinters

Another one we were told to write had to begin with "If someone put a gun to my head"

Oh dread
If someone put a gun to my head.
I think that I would wish them dead.
Should they ask “Is your name Fred?”
I’d say “I wish that I had stayed in bed”
They would say “Want to eat lead?”
I reply: “Of course not sir, for I am Ted”
“Oh dear” they’d say “You’re a herring, Red.”
A shot rings out. He falls, soon to be bled.Should this scene happen, I will have soon fled.

For this last one we were given slips of paper with places around town on them and told to go there and write.

The Sanctuary
The prickly limbs of the pine trees shield me from the harsh sun as the willow branches tentatively weave a cloak to shroud me from the blaring noise.
It is hot out, but in this sanctuary it is cool.
The ever encroaching din is silenced for a moment, the trees breathe a sigh of relief.
Almost as soon as the quiet began, the blare begins anew.
The neverending war between Tranquility and Dissonance.
A lone bird strikes up a chorus.
Fighting an everlosing battle he sings harmony to the peaceful lead of the trees.
Their music cuts a hole in the wall of noise and another sanctuary is born.
Perhaps this battle may yet be won.

The Screenplay and I

One of the latest projects I have been assigned in school was to create a screenplay. My first thought was "GAH! Twenty pages!" my second thought was "Oh, the format allows me to put in extra spaces where there's talking" my thoughts throughout writing it were "Great, now I have to go back and put more spaces in" and "Why did I pick an action movie? It has almost no dialogue!"

I discovered that writing a movie isn't so different from writing anything else. Except you can't have your characters thinking without voiceover. And there's a load of formatting that really could be done without. And you can't even specify camera angles. (Even though I know a professional who says otherwise)
Not to mention you don't really have any say in the finished product. Ever hear of a Writer's cut? Neither have I. Why does anyone write scripts again?

In case you want to read it, it has the unoriginal title of "SAMURAI"

Busses or Bust?

Every teenager, myself included, has wanted to just get away from it all at one time or another. Unfortunately for us, the only way out was owning our own car. And when you’re 17 the insurance rates go through the roof. Luckily an opportunity has presented itself: the new bus line.

Busses are great all by themselves: they are more fuel efficient than carpooling and can carry many more people. They also allow people without cars to travel far distances and can connect cities together. Elmira’s new bus line is currently in the second year of a two year trial phase. If ridership continues to climb, it will likely be made permanent.

The busses are pretty standard. They are wheelchair and baby buggy accessible and have bike racks on the front for in case you want to go exploring. They have plenty of seating and come every half hour.

Once you pay the fair of $2.50, or bought tickets in advance, you will be given a transfer which you can use to continue your bus journey to many parts of the K.W. area. Transfers are good for an hour and a half after you get them, and seeing as the Elmira bus goes to the mall this means you can get an hour of shopping in for just one ticket!
The bus drivers are helpful and will gladly tell you which bus you need to take to get somewhere and maps are available so you can plan your own routes.

The main problem with the Elmira busses is that they don’t run all day. The final bus from the mall is at 7:23 pm. When school ends at about 3:00, and it takes half an hour to travel there, it means that there are only four hours you can spend before you need to be back on the bus coming home. If you wanted to get a job in the mall there wouldn’t be much time to work at it, unless you could get someone to pick up after you’re done.

I give Grand River Transit 3.5 stars (out of five) and a ‘B’ for Effort.

Thirteen steps for creativity

I recently wrote a short story for Writers craft class.
My teacher asked me to write about things relating to that, so I think I'll write about my creative process.

First step:
Stare at the computer screen untill an idea comes. If idea comes, write about it. Else, procede to step 2.

Second step:
Attempt to remember all sci fi and fantasy novels ever readand crib just enough of each so that it looks original without setting off any radar.

Step three:
Play online games untill a decent opening comes to mind.
If opening is actually good, write it down.

Step four:
Play with cats.

Step five:
Get something to eat and refuel creative juices with a nap.

Step six:
Get an outline of the progression of the plot in your mind. Don't write it down, that will make you see how silly it looks.

Step seven:
Try on various hats around the house while impersonating Humphrey Bogart.

Step eight:
Talk to friends on IRC.

Step nine:
Attempt to write middle of story while listening to music that makes you want to dance.

Step ten:
Dance.

Step eleven:
Realise how late it is and stay up far too late writing your story out.
Go to sleep when you decide it would be easier to have aliens kill off all your characters (whether they are live or not) than come up with a decent ending.

Step twelve:
Wake up early and have a last minute epiphany on an incredably awesome/ironic ending.

Step thirteen:
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Btw, this method can be used for almost any creative material, not just short stories.

My short story (using google docs)Which I'd really rather not

Connections

My teacher asked me to talk about how I'm connected. I'm mostly connected by what I hear from other people. I get most of the things that have stirred the public conciousness. I heard about Twilight, Haiti, the Olympics. If I'm interested in something I'll look it up on google and search for stuff until I'm satisfied. For the three I mentioned it took no time whatsoever. I don't use Facebook, Twitter doesn't pique my interests, I'm pretty 'unconnected' as a teenager. Heck, My parents use them. One of the main reasons I don't use Social networking sites is the fact that they own your stuff. If you put on Facebook "I'm going to a friend's house tonight" they own it. Not your friend's house, that'd take some sizeable gambling debts, but the post on facebook.

That means if Facebook decides to not publish it, they don't have to.

(I have just found out that this site won't let me press tab)

This might not seem like a big deal, but if the government of Australia decides to kill off all the kangaroos and someone starts a facebook group against it, Australia can pay Facebook to take the group down.



Another reason is privacy. I started a mock Facebook account to play a game on it with some online friends. Now it keeps trying to make me friends with his brother, who I have had no communications with ever. By friending people from two different groups that you're in, you're letting Facebook know that you like hockey, but also basketball, chess and everything else you put on it.

People have been fired from their real jobs for stuff that they've put on Facebook.

Gay people have been forced out of the closet because they have gay friends on facebook.

Besides from the computer, I guess I am pretty unconnected. I have a T.V. but no cable. I don't read the newspaper much. My news is all secondhand.

Then again, I don't really care that much about headlines. A hundered thousand or so people died in the earthquake at Haiti. Millions die evey year from AIDS but thats not headline news.

Creativity

What is Creativity? How do you define it? I don't think you do. Being creative often involves creating something. But people who don't create things can be just as creative as those who do. Where does the person who creates the things get their Ideas? They have to come from somewhere before the process started. Looking at it from an etymological standpoint, it is made up of Create and -ivity. First off: Create. Creation is to make something, thus the verb Create is used in this word to have it describe making something. The suffix -ivity is slightly more interesting. Words such as ACTivity and PRODUCTivity use it to 'noun' verbs. You measure productivity as how much someone produces. Activity is how much one acts. Thus, measuring creativity would be how much someone creates, right? Wrong. I'm sure when the word was new, it meant this. But over time, The english language has had this word evolve into something completely different. Instead of what comes out of your hands, creativity is what goes on in your head. To be creative you have to do something new, think of something wild, go somewhere no man has gone before. In order to measure creativity, you would have to go into a person's head aand look at all of their ideas, one after another. Naturally, with current technology (as of February 2010) this is impossible. (at least to my knowledge as one of the uncultured masses, I'm watching for you big brother) Unlike productivity or activity, creativity is unmeasurable. There are no thought-charts to show the quality of your thoughts, no thoughtometers to measure how many thoughts you have. Each person has to measure their own creativity. While there is nothing wrong with being boring, society has it ingrained in us that we need to dare to be different. Just like everyone else.