I found Mint Snowball to be interesting. The description of the store reminds me of the ones you see in old movies that are like a grocery/convenience store/dinner that everyone it town shops at. The mint snowball has a very vivid description that I can almost taste while reading. When the recipe got sold it felt like a museum selling a great piece of art to a private collector with the chance of never resurfacing again and I understood how the writer felt when she related herself to it.
Mute Dancers was able to have the information one would expect in a research essay put in such a way that it felt like a story. the essay jumped between telling peoples personal experiences with hummingbirds to explaining their history to describing their biology all in an interesting way. The writer was able to tell so much about them in less space than you would expect an informative essay. I have to say I didn't think I would find hummingbirds so fascinating.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
post 10
So I don't know what to think about Lenses. At first I thought that lenses were a metaphor for something and I wasn't all that interested in what that something was but I decided to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised when I found that lenses weren't a metaphor and that the story was actually about binoculars and microscopes. As I read through the first part I became more and more interested in it as it transitioned from talking about the skill or looking through a lens to him watching microscopic life, talking about them as if they were his life's passion. Then I read the second part.
The second part started to get a little weird especially when he talked about the urine samples but I didn't think to much of it since most kids have probably done equally questionable things at that age. Then he began to talk about what happens when you replace the five-watt bulb of a microscope with a 75-watt bulb and all of the "Oh he's gust a kid." jot thrown right out the window. I wasn't so much the fact that he replaced the bulb or that he thought them dieing was interesting because once again that doesn't seem too strange for that age but the way he writes about it referring to it as an apocalypse that he keeps repeating over and over again and his fixation with watching them realize that there's no hope for them chalked him up as a crazy mad scientist who's going to destroy the world in my book. Then he said that this wasn't a story about the heartless genocides he committed to tiny aquatic life but instead about swans. So I added a super in front of crazy.
The story took a turn for the more mellow life of a bird watcher and I was left confused and puzzled as to what was going on to the story. As I read on I was convinced that he would use a tranquillizer on one or both of the swans and then take them back to his secret lab where he would commit horrible experiments on them while singing Poisoning Pigeons in the Park the entire time. I have to say I was at least a little surprised when nothing happened but the swans flying away with him describing them in the creepy way mad scientists usually describe the thing that their fixated on being the only reminder of the previous part of the story. All in all I don't know whether he was trying to sound like a super creepy mad scientist, he really is a super creepy mad scientist, or I'm just over reacting but I will say that if the world is ever destroyed by genetically modified man eating swan algae hybrids, I warned you.
The second part started to get a little weird especially when he talked about the urine samples but I didn't think to much of it since most kids have probably done equally questionable things at that age. Then he began to talk about what happens when you replace the five-watt bulb of a microscope with a 75-watt bulb and all of the "Oh he's gust a kid." jot thrown right out the window. I wasn't so much the fact that he replaced the bulb or that he thought them dieing was interesting because once again that doesn't seem too strange for that age but the way he writes about it referring to it as an apocalypse that he keeps repeating over and over again and his fixation with watching them realize that there's no hope for them chalked him up as a crazy mad scientist who's going to destroy the world in my book. Then he said that this wasn't a story about the heartless genocides he committed to tiny aquatic life but instead about swans. So I added a super in front of crazy.
The story took a turn for the more mellow life of a bird watcher and I was left confused and puzzled as to what was going on to the story. As I read on I was convinced that he would use a tranquillizer on one or both of the swans and then take them back to his secret lab where he would commit horrible experiments on them while singing Poisoning Pigeons in the Park the entire time. I have to say I was at least a little surprised when nothing happened but the swans flying away with him describing them in the creepy way mad scientists usually describe the thing that their fixated on being the only reminder of the previous part of the story. All in all I don't know whether he was trying to sound like a super creepy mad scientist, he really is a super creepy mad scientist, or I'm just over reacting but I will say that if the world is ever destroyed by genetically modified man eating swan algae hybrids, I warned you.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
post 9
While reading through The Best of Betty I had several questions as to what it actually is. My first question was whether or not it was just a short story or was there an actual Dear Betty of some kind and this is a the best of compilation of it? Secondly if this is a compilation of Dear Betty's and not a short story how long did it span or at least what was the time frame of The Best of Betty pieces? Another big question I had in the event that Dear Betty was real is was it fictional piece of work or was there actually a Betty who wrote for a newspaper at some point? I also have several other questions about it but those three were the only ones that had any real significance over how I viewed the work.
The Best of Betty show a transition in Betty's mood throughout the pieces. The first few pieces show Betty as a little snarky but she also has a cheery feel behind it that gives the sense that she is trying to give helpful advice but she is very blunt about it. As the pieces continue her cheerfulness goes away and she begins to riff on the people who write to her. In last few pieces she begins to express the fact that she's upset about the many problems in her life and her last response makes me feel like she's starting to realize that she has to pull through the stress.
The Best of Betty show a transition in Betty's mood throughout the pieces. The first few pieces show Betty as a little snarky but she also has a cheery feel behind it that gives the sense that she is trying to give helpful advice but she is very blunt about it. As the pieces continue her cheerfulness goes away and she begins to riff on the people who write to her. In last few pieces she begins to express the fact that she's upset about the many problems in her life and her last response makes me feel like she's starting to realize that she has to pull through the stress.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
post 7
Writing a story isn't something simple. Even if you have good idea forming them into a good story can be a challenge and then you have to be able to translate that story onto paper without ruining it in the process. So what does it take to write a story? Let me tell you what I personally think goes into writing a good story.
The first step it writing a story is to figure out what you want to write about. There are many ways to create the concept for your story which have different results on how it will turn out. One way to create your story is through planing it out before you start working on it in depth. You first need a basic concept for it that will act as a starting block for your story. The concept can be a goal or person or even just a setting, you can't really go wrong with the concept but some concepts can be harder than others to make a good story out of. Looking at other peoples stories can help you get ideas for your concept but you half to make sure that your story doesn't rely too heavily on others work.
The next step would be to start turning your concept into a sort of story egg that has the basic plot or goal of the story along with some settings and characters you would like to use. Don't worry to much on whether or not all of the pieces of the egg fit together because you might decide that you don't want to use them later, the important part of these steps is to experiment on what you want to write about and how the pieces interact with each other. You may find out working with them that some might be trash, a character may be too generic, a setting might not fit with the story, or the plot might have too many holes but while working with them you might find some gems that you can use in a different story. You can never tell in the beginning whether or not an idea is going to turn out good so you have to work with it until you can decide whether or not it works and you may have to go through several story eggs until you are satisfied with the outcome.
With a story egg in mind you need to start expanding on it. Test the egg in many different scenarios. See what happens when your characters are put in certain situation, would the main character enter the supposedly haunted house or would he say "F#ck this!" and run away? Build upon the setting figure out what the inhabitants would do on a regular basis and how they would act when confronted with different issues as well as what happened in the past. Play with certain elements of your plot seeing what would happen at different points of it. None of these ideas have to be used in the story and may give you new ideas you want to work with. The point is to discover how they work, fleshing out your ideas so that they are dynamic. You want your characters to become actual people instead of puppets and you want your settings to feel alive (or lacking life) and have a purpose instead of being a backdrop for the plot. All three of these things also help you figure out how the plot is going to form and what will happen with it. These things also help you decide if your pieces fit together well. If your making a horror story having a character that says "F#ck this I'm out" at the first sign of danger might not make a good story.
Once you have your pieces fleshed out you want to start building the foundation of your story. Decide what events you want to occur and where your characters will be. This part is not an easy one because too much structure can cause the story to feel like a bunch of random events tied together. If you have too little structure you may find parts in the story that contradict each other and you may find that much of your isn't usable either because of those contradictions or that it isn't as good as you want it to be.
The final step is to actually create the story. At any point in the previous steps you can skip to this point or even start here by designing a story on the spot which although can easily fail can sometimes become gold or at the very least create ideas to be used for another story. Throughout all of the steps especially this one it is important to get others opinions on your ideas. You are probably writing a story so that other people can enjoy it so it is important to see what parts they like and what parts they don't. It is always a good idea to get the opinions of as many people as you can but at the same time figuring out what there interests are. Someone who hates action stories might not give you as useful of an opinion as an action buff. You should build the story around how you want it to be but not to the point that others won't like it. If you can't seem to find a compromise in making your story so that both you and others will like it you might have to scrap it and start over. As you work with it you will start to see the others perspectives while making it and it becomes easier to make the story enjoyable to all. You can also look at the stories of others to see what people like in them and if you can use some of those ideas to improve your own but once again remember not to take to much from them or your story might become a shadow of their work.
Once you are done with your story or while you are still working on it you will begin to write it down. Turning a story into words is not an easy thing and can turn even a great story into trash if not done well. Your story may be interesting but it has to sound interesting for others to want to read it. You have to find a balance in how descriptive you story is. Too much description and your story becomes lengthy while not enough can make it confusing and in both cases the reader can lose interest in the story. The way you write also can impact people interest in the story and should not be taken lightly. You can become better at writing through practice as well as looking at how others write and as before others opinions can also help you write better.
That is about all there is to writing. Once again these are my opinions, you or someone else may not agree with any or all of it and that's fine. These steps are not the only way or necessarily the best way and as long as your work accomplishes what you wanted it to do that's all that matters. I hope reading this helps you become a better writer whether you follow it or not.
The first step it writing a story is to figure out what you want to write about. There are many ways to create the concept for your story which have different results on how it will turn out. One way to create your story is through planing it out before you start working on it in depth. You first need a basic concept for it that will act as a starting block for your story. The concept can be a goal or person or even just a setting, you can't really go wrong with the concept but some concepts can be harder than others to make a good story out of. Looking at other peoples stories can help you get ideas for your concept but you half to make sure that your story doesn't rely too heavily on others work.
The next step would be to start turning your concept into a sort of story egg that has the basic plot or goal of the story along with some settings and characters you would like to use. Don't worry to much on whether or not all of the pieces of the egg fit together because you might decide that you don't want to use them later, the important part of these steps is to experiment on what you want to write about and how the pieces interact with each other. You may find out working with them that some might be trash, a character may be too generic, a setting might not fit with the story, or the plot might have too many holes but while working with them you might find some gems that you can use in a different story. You can never tell in the beginning whether or not an idea is going to turn out good so you have to work with it until you can decide whether or not it works and you may have to go through several story eggs until you are satisfied with the outcome.
With a story egg in mind you need to start expanding on it. Test the egg in many different scenarios. See what happens when your characters are put in certain situation, would the main character enter the supposedly haunted house or would he say "F#ck this!" and run away? Build upon the setting figure out what the inhabitants would do on a regular basis and how they would act when confronted with different issues as well as what happened in the past. Play with certain elements of your plot seeing what would happen at different points of it. None of these ideas have to be used in the story and may give you new ideas you want to work with. The point is to discover how they work, fleshing out your ideas so that they are dynamic. You want your characters to become actual people instead of puppets and you want your settings to feel alive (or lacking life) and have a purpose instead of being a backdrop for the plot. All three of these things also help you figure out how the plot is going to form and what will happen with it. These things also help you decide if your pieces fit together well. If your making a horror story having a character that says "F#ck this I'm out" at the first sign of danger might not make a good story.
Once you have your pieces fleshed out you want to start building the foundation of your story. Decide what events you want to occur and where your characters will be. This part is not an easy one because too much structure can cause the story to feel like a bunch of random events tied together. If you have too little structure you may find parts in the story that contradict each other and you may find that much of your isn't usable either because of those contradictions or that it isn't as good as you want it to be.
The final step is to actually create the story. At any point in the previous steps you can skip to this point or even start here by designing a story on the spot which although can easily fail can sometimes become gold or at the very least create ideas to be used for another story. Throughout all of the steps especially this one it is important to get others opinions on your ideas. You are probably writing a story so that other people can enjoy it so it is important to see what parts they like and what parts they don't. It is always a good idea to get the opinions of as many people as you can but at the same time figuring out what there interests are. Someone who hates action stories might not give you as useful of an opinion as an action buff. You should build the story around how you want it to be but not to the point that others won't like it. If you can't seem to find a compromise in making your story so that both you and others will like it you might have to scrap it and start over. As you work with it you will start to see the others perspectives while making it and it becomes easier to make the story enjoyable to all. You can also look at the stories of others to see what people like in them and if you can use some of those ideas to improve your own but once again remember not to take to much from them or your story might become a shadow of their work.
Once you are done with your story or while you are still working on it you will begin to write it down. Turning a story into words is not an easy thing and can turn even a great story into trash if not done well. Your story may be interesting but it has to sound interesting for others to want to read it. You have to find a balance in how descriptive you story is. Too much description and your story becomes lengthy while not enough can make it confusing and in both cases the reader can lose interest in the story. The way you write also can impact people interest in the story and should not be taken lightly. You can become better at writing through practice as well as looking at how others write and as before others opinions can also help you write better.
That is about all there is to writing. Once again these are my opinions, you or someone else may not agree with any or all of it and that's fine. These steps are not the only way or necessarily the best way and as long as your work accomplishes what you wanted it to do that's all that matters. I hope reading this helps you become a better writer whether you follow it or not.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
post 6
So looking at the short stories the first one to peek my interest is the Mystery Stories. After looking through them they all seam very weird and random. From The Talking Cat to The Record Store to Strawberries every story has nothing to do with any of the other ones and each has its own brand of weirdness. Maybe the "Mystery" behind these stories is how they fit together, maybe it's like buying a bag of mystery candy at a candy store (Yes they're still around.) but instead of candy it's seven weird stories, or maybe the name is just as random as the stories themselves.
Reading The Letter From Home I was reminded of Mystery Stories. The Letter From Home felt like a bunch of sentences that either lousily related each other or didn't relate at all depending on what part of the story you were on. The first part sounded like a disaster was ensuing with everything that could go wrong going wrong, the second part sounded a little creepy but that might have been because I had watched a creepy video just before reading it, and the third felt like just random stuff happening. So that's two weird stories let's see if we can find a third one.
Yeah I think The List of Famous Hats is a good third weird story. Besides only listing one hat (Two if you count the one she mentions in the beginning) the story is kind of odd. Whether or not the story is true it is very strange that Napoleon only ever wore one bathing cap or that he could ever wear a cap that he wore as a baby no mater how much Vaseline is on his head. The final part about his pyramid head is also raises many questions like is Napoleon the guy in the Silent Hills series or what could the something his head might be be? Confused? Yes we are.
Reading The Letter From Home I was reminded of Mystery Stories. The Letter From Home felt like a bunch of sentences that either lousily related each other or didn't relate at all depending on what part of the story you were on. The first part sounded like a disaster was ensuing with everything that could go wrong going wrong, the second part sounded a little creepy but that might have been because I had watched a creepy video just before reading it, and the third felt like just random stuff happening. So that's two weird stories let's see if we can find a third one.
Yeah I think The List of Famous Hats is a good third weird story. Besides only listing one hat (Two if you count the one she mentions in the beginning) the story is kind of odd. Whether or not the story is true it is very strange that Napoleon only ever wore one bathing cap or that he could ever wear a cap that he wore as a baby no mater how much Vaseline is on his head. The final part about his pyramid head is also raises many questions like is Napoleon the guy in the Silent Hills series or what could the something his head might be be? Confused? Yes we are.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
post 4
The first thing I thought when I read Tell Me What You Know About Dismemberment was that this guy (or girl) has some issues. The second thing I thought was that this person (seriously I can't read cursive that well so I have no idea who they are, I can make out what I think is a B, H, A, and N from the first name and I think the other names are Kapil and Rider. Anyway.) is extremely lazy and has some issues. I kind of like the feeling of laziness I get from it (I can relate.) but the violence in the poem really makes me think that he/she has issues. Did I mention I think he/she has issues?
I like Gabion Parapet because now everyone can feel how I do when I try to read poems. I seriously have no clue what this is about. I feel like I'm in the movie The Shining (I have not actually seen it but I have seen the Simpson's version and that's pretty much the same thing right?) realizing that the person who wrote this is going crazy. The only message I can see this poem giving is don't do drugs kids, and no TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. (That's how the movie goes right?)
So I looked at that one Emily Dickinson one, you know that one, the one with the thing and the other thing, yeah that's the one. It's the one with the 377 (949) over it. Anyway from the looks of it the poem is saying that we are fare away fro the dead and I mean FAR away, like so incredibly far that- alright I'll stop. I'm not really sure what actual meaning is in this poem, it sounds like she just found a poetic way of saying that the dead are very very very very very Very very very very very very very very very very very very *Deep inhale* very very very very very very^1000000000000 far away. I'm not trying to be insulting I just don't know what's going on in any of these poems so I look for humor in them and go off of that.
I like Gabion Parapet because now everyone can feel how I do when I try to read poems. I seriously have no clue what this is about. I feel like I'm in the movie The Shining (I have not actually seen it but I have seen the Simpson's version and that's pretty much the same thing right?) realizing that the person who wrote this is going crazy. The only message I can see this poem giving is don't do drugs kids, and no TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. (That's how the movie goes right?)
So I looked at that one Emily Dickinson one, you know that one, the one with the thing and the other thing, yeah that's the one. It's the one with the 377 (949) over it. Anyway from the looks of it the poem is saying that we are fare away fro the dead and I mean FAR away, like so incredibly far that- alright I'll stop. I'm not really sure what actual meaning is in this poem, it sounds like she just found a poetic way of saying that the dead are very very very very very Very very very very very very very very very very very very *Deep inhale* very very very very very very^1000000000000 far away. I'm not trying to be insulting I just don't know what's going on in any of these poems so I look for humor in them and go off of that.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
post 3
The first thing I looked at was the Shakespeare Sonnet 130. Honestly I'm not sure what the intentions of the poem were, the poem could have been about beauty only being skin deep and love will always find a way or it could be an rude joke. A large part of the reason I think it might be a joke is because of lines like "If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head." The line makes it seam as if the poem is not taking itself seriously leading to the thought that it is in fact not serious at all. Whether or not the poem is serious I don't think it's the kind of thing you would read to anyone you were interested in.
After Shakespeare's poem I looked at the one that copied it. The poem is obviously a parody of Shakespeare's work with every line being the same just with different words like "If her mop were Slinkys, then dishwater Slinkys would grow on her noggin." It's the exact same line as before but every noun is changed into something funnier. Even if Shakespeare's poem was meant to be serious there is no doubt that this one isn't in the least.
The third piece I looked at was Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Either this poem has some profound meaning about life that my unenlightened mind is to feeble to comprehend or this person really liked Blackbirds and I mean REALLY liked them. The premise is one that could be considered silly and something that I myself would probably use if I had to write a poem. There are hints that the poem might be more than just a person's obsession with blackbirds but I like my view of it so I'm going with that one.
After Shakespeare's poem I looked at the one that copied it. The poem is obviously a parody of Shakespeare's work with every line being the same just with different words like "If her mop were Slinkys, then dishwater Slinkys would grow on her noggin." It's the exact same line as before but every noun is changed into something funnier. Even if Shakespeare's poem was meant to be serious there is no doubt that this one isn't in the least.
The third piece I looked at was Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Either this poem has some profound meaning about life that my unenlightened mind is to feeble to comprehend or this person really liked Blackbirds and I mean REALLY liked them. The premise is one that could be considered silly and something that I myself would probably use if I had to write a poem. There are hints that the poem might be more than just a person's obsession with blackbirds but I like my view of it so I'm going with that one.
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