Angel's Fall

This poem is dedicated to my great-grandma Hazel Johns, who passed away on August 29th. I love you!

Angel's Fall

One
would've thought
That a century
Would prepare to
To die
But I guess
Its hard to let go
If you don't know
Who will catch
You
Twenty years
waiting for the frayed rope
To snap
And join her husband
Ten years
living with nurses
Instead of family
Ready for the snap
Scared for the fall
Frigtened of that moment
Of darkness
Before Light
Yet once the rope breaks
And you fall
I guess it takes a minute
to get angel's
wings.




-Kirah

Special Speaker (Writer?) Rose Winters!

My best friend Rose Winter's agreed to do this post for me. I gave her free reigns, and she decided to say this to the writing audience out there:

"Okay. So. Something I've noticed is that many teen authors skip story building. I know Kirah has talked some about world building and character development. Well, seeing how she hasn't really spent time on story building so I'm going to say it. I have seen some writers who will completely skip this story building step. This is a very important step and you cannot skip it.

So. My personal oppinion is that story building should be your first, mmm, three chapters. You have to build a life for your character. You have to show what time period, what country, the gender of your character, (OBVIOUSLY SUPER IMPORTANT) and your world building needs to happen here.

My deffinition of story building is pretty much deffining your character. Tell your readers who they are reading about. Don't just give a name and time in the story, you need to give a name, description, and everything else you NEED the readers to know. Everything necessary to the character's personality needs to be here before foreshadowing and flashbacks appear. You NEED story building in order for your story to work."

Thank you Rose!

Kirah

Camp Nanowrimo Part 2

"The reason I talk to myself is because I'm the only one whose answers I accept." -George Carlin

Not insane yet.

Kirah

Camp Nanowrimo

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” ~Jack London

Welcome to August the first, aka my older sister's birthday, aka first day of Camp Nanowrimo. I'm using my dad's old laptop- thank you!- so that then I don't have to share with my computer-addicted siblings. I did Nanowrimo on the family computer last time, and this is my experience in a nutshell:

Me: typing rapidly
Sibling: Can I have a turn?

They don't understand typing crisises. I don't know how many times I tried to explain that November.

My overall opinion of camp: fun, but calmer than Nanowrimo. (And then watch me become a nervous wreck by the 5th.) Good luck to all other campers!

Kirah

How Your Mind is Set

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live." -Mark Twain


Wasn't Mark Twain a genius? I've spent a lot of time with people who "don't exist," and I think they're all fantastic. It's one of the more enjoyable schizophrenic forms of writing society. (See my "On the Roll Again" post to find the definition of schizophrenia)

I bet that none of you know that my grandpa used to teach at BYU. He taught that everybody has a certain predefined mindset from the time they were born. There are nine slots, ranging from highly logical to extremely creative. I got put in the "Creative Writer" slot- wow, fancy that!- which means that I have a little bit more logic than creativity. I can come up with great, creative, slightly ridiculous ideas, but I have enough logic to lay it all down and have it make sense.

With my characters, I have to sort them like this:

Evelyn Grace is extremely logical. She likes things to make sense. The betrayal is what really shakes her, since she has to accept something new.

Ambrr Cyrus Monstalki is orchestrated (balanced in creativy and logic). I actually do know why- they breed the guardians to be like that.

Stark Kavvenharbreis favors creativity, which is what makes him such a hopeless leader and is why he'll always be wondering "if I'd done this" and is why he always thinks that his stupid ideas will work.

I have other characters I could demonstrate- P'eter Eron Lionatus, Shretka Merimear-Detora, Zel Haiwal, Thodo of the Tenth Flame, Nae Voloni Reshancrea, Corsan Haiwal, and so on . . . Those of you that have read my previous versions of Realms may not recognize a few of the names, but it's okay, that's what this draft is for.

Camp Nanowrimo begins in August, so I'll have to try to pump up a few more words from Realms. Wish me luck!

Kirah

I've Decided

"Peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one." -Rita Mae Brown

Realms is going well- Evelyn Grace is actually turning out much better than Evan Andrews. I'm struggling a bit with the side characters in her story, but I think that they'll round out eventually. I just need to get it written down! I'm really excited to get into Ambrr and P'eter's POV. Stark, Thodo, and Acris (you knew her as Thorne, but I needed to change that for obvious reasons- Thodo and Thorne!) should be very interesting.

I've decided today that I'll write the whole trilogy- I will finish. I will! And I need to get it read by someone; I need to get it out there!

Kirah

Deus ex Machina

"When you're drowning, you don't say, 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to come and help me,' you just scream." -John Lennon

Deus ex machina is Latin for "god from the machine". It means that an unbeatable problem- person, item, or event- is suddenly fixed by a new character, event, or ability.

Examine your writing- how do they solve their ultimate problem? Is it something they can already do, something that they have to find within themselves and sacrifice for? Or is it deus ex machina? Does another character come from nowhere and rescue them?

I'm sure I used deus ex machina somewhere in my early stories. But I can't even remember how on earth my first story ended. I remember a long climax, fighting dragons and using magic, and then . . . they somehow got home. Does that count if I can't even remember exactly what happened?

Saving your characters can take away from the meaning of the story. Let them struggle, let them fight, and leave them the tools that allows them to fix their own problems in the end. Don't make it easy though. We authors are far too cruel to allow that.

Kirah