Camp NaNoWriMo happens every April, and it's a project to complete a certain amount of words in a month. My goal is between 16000 and 20000 words. It might not seem much from a glance, but when you actually sit doen to do it, you'll realize that 20000 words is a lot. You might finish your story and then realize that you're still a couple thosuand words short. And there's nothing you can do about it because your story's finished, so you have to put in a plot twist or an extra character just to fill up the space. To stop THAT from happening, here are a couple of tips that you can use to reach your word limit, but not make the story seem like it's boring and dragging on. 1. Develop Your Characters If you feel like your story is too short, write more about the characters. Let the reader get to know them, be able to relate them, feel like they've known them forever. In a good novel, when you're reading, you'll feel like you know what the main character is thinking and feeling, because you know them so well. A good example of this is The Hunger Games or Divergent, where by the end of the novel, you'll almost feel like you ARE the main character. Go into depth about your characters, their faults, their fears, their personality, etc. 2. Plan It Out When you need to finish a novel in 30 days, its important to know wher ethe story is heading. You have to lay out the train tracks before you start the train, because you don't want to come to a dead end. Start with a brief synopsis on what your story is about, then go deeper, writing about what each chapter focuses on. Make profiles for your characters, describe settings, have a whole document or a folder dedicated to it. 3. Quantity over Quality This is one of the rare times when quantity wins over quality. Your goal right now is reaching your goal. The important part is how many words you write, not how good it is. Focus on writing more, you can edit it later, after you've finished your novel. Think of this as a first draft, and later you can ho over it and edit it out properly. 4. Sideplots, sideplots, sideplots. If your main story is too short, throw in a couple of subplots in there. It can be a father-daughter relationship, a love triangle, a supporting character's struggle, whatever. Have another plot running alongside the story to amek it a little more interesting, ust make sure that your main plot is the focus of your novel. 5. Daily Goals This works for some people, while it fails miserable for others. Do the math, and set a daily word-count goal for yourself so that you finish on time. This doesn't work for me, however, because some days I have an unstoppable flow of words, otehr days I can only write so much. Whatever you do, just make it a point to write at least once or twice daily, and to write whenever you're feeling particulary inspired. Good luck!
0 Comments
Racism. It's happening everyday around us, but most of the time we don't notice it. Racism is usually referred to as an aversion to people of colour, or believing that white people are superior to people of other races. Personally, I don't understand why we must define people based on what colour their skin is. Why do people say. "That black man is annoying." Instead of "That man is annoying." One word is the difference between a sentence and a racist comment. Alright, we all have different coloured skin, right? Inside, though, we all have flesh and blood, we all have hearts, and we all are human. There's no need to divide people based on what colour their skin is, it doesn't make sense. People who have darker or lighter skin aren't wired differently, they don't think differently, they don't act differently, they are just human. If you don't like a person, don't just automatically blame it on their skin colour, because that has nothing to do with it. Now that I think about it, A packet of Smarties is actually a good metaphor. They are all different colours, but taste the same. They are all mixed up, though. On the outside, they look different, but really, they aren't. Racism can also mean that you think people of a certain race have certain qualities. I personally don't even understand the logic behind that. Just because they have the same skin colour, they are all the same? Just because one person you don't like is of a particular race, doesn't mean all people of that race are like that. Why must we judge people based on their colour? It's only skin deep. Why can't we learn to accept people as people, and not 'black people' and 'white people'? After all, there really is only one race. The human race. And if we want to keep it alive, discrimination of other races has GOT TO END. Well, that was just my two cents. :)
What do you think about racism? Disney princesses have been role models for little kids since forever (okay, 1938). Some of them might be weak, and they might have their flaws, but each one has definitely made an impression and has taught a lesson to small kids all around the world. Let's start from the bottom. Snow White, the first ever Disney princess. a) There is always good in everyone, try and find it- the huntsman was about to kill Snow White, but she appealed to his good side, so he spared her. b) Don't talk to strangers- Talking to strangers led to Snow White's downfall. The dwarves gave her some pretty good advice.- Don't talk to strangers and don't let them into your house and ALSO don't eat anything they give you. a) Don't care what other people think- The stepmother and stepsisters were brutal to Cinderella, and told her she was worthless. She never listened though, and in the end,she always knew she was fabulous. b) Find the people who really care about you- When her life was tough, she found someone who actually liked her- the godmother. Not to mention the mice. She realized who her real friends were. a) Curiosity kills the cat- sometimes- Aurora ended up in her predicament because she was too curious for her own good. This teaches kids not to let curiosity get the best of you. a) Never stop dreaming- Ariel was a girl (mermaid) who dreamed of the outside world, of land, as much as her sisters and father told her not to. In the end, her dream came true. b) It's okay to be weird- Ariel was considered odd, both in sea and on land. In sea, she was the girl who hoarded human objects and imagined going there someday. On land, she was queer in the way she used a fork to comb her hair and used other objects in the wrong way. She didn't care, of course. a) Don't judge a book by its cover. Belle fell in love with the Beast despite his, well, beastlike appearance. She saw his true personality. She wasn't impressed by Gaston, though the other girls in the village were smitten by him. b) It's alright to be a bookworm- The villagers teased her for being an odd girl who only had an interest in books, but she didn't mind, of course, because she was smarter than all of them. a) You're not a prize to be won- Jasmine does not want to be 'won over' like she's some sort of prize. She's strong and independent and her own person. b) Break traditions- Jasmine was supposed to be married to a prince, since she is a princess, but as she said, 'if I do marry, I want it to be out of love' so she broke the tradition and literally married a street rat. a) Race and religion does not matter- Pocahontas fell in love with a person of different skin colour, a foreigner. She stood up for him even though he was an outsider. b) Letting go- Elsa might be a better example of this, but even though she loves John Smith, she didn't leave behind her family, friends, country, and culture for a man. This teaches two things- 1. Don't leave everything behind for a man. 2. If you love something, let it go. a) Make your country proud- Women weren't allowed to fight in the war. What did Mulan do? She disguised herself as a man so she could join the army and fight for her country. It wasn't about personal glory or anything, no. She wanted to make her country proud.
b) Gender does not matter- Mulan proved that a woman could be just as brave, strong and powerful as a man could be. She showed that she was capable of fighting, and didn't just let men do all the work. It's finally spring! Now that the weather's getting warmer, it's time for some spring cleaning, and us much as you might be dreading doing it, here are a few tips that might help.
1. Change Up Your Room Spring is a time to totally change and start afresh. After clearing out the clutter from your room, give it a totally new look and brighten it up. Add some more lights, have furniture in lighter hues or even paint the walls an eye-catching colour. 2. Deal with Junk You will no doubt find a lot of useless junk that you have never bothered to clean up before. Instead of throwing this away, though, you can donate it to charity, reuse it for something in the future, have a garage sale, or recycle it. Try not to throw a lot of stuff away, you never know when they might come in handy. 3. Have Fun with It Try not to make spring cleaning a chore. Listen to some music while you're at it, invite a friend over to help you out and even give yourself a reward when you're done. Not only will you be pleased with yourself, you will also be satisfied that you have done something productive and that your house (or room) is finally clean. 4. Replenish your taste Spring is a perfect time for finding new interests. Chuck your wardrobe and build a new one, with different colours and styles than you are used to. Create a new music playlist to listen to. Paint your nails a different colour or decorate the walls of your room. Make some new friends. *dramatic trumpets* Spring break has officially started for me! I'm ecstatic, but you know what I realized? Each and every spring break, I do not do anything useful and end up wasting my time. Here's a list of things you can do during spring break to keep yourself busy. 1) Enjoy Spring Spring is like the time of year when the Earth wakes up, you know? When everything starts seeming a little greener, and the last signs of snow are disappearing? Enjoy the weather before it turns into the sweltering hot summer. 2) Learn a New Hobby This is pretty cliche, but try learning to play an instrument, take up photography, or something else you've always wanted to do but have never had enough time. There's an infinite amount of things you can do, go wild! 3) Get Organized Spring cleaning time! Clean out everything you've neglected for a long time, everything that you have been procrastinating. You'll definitely feel a sense of accomplishment when you're done. 4) Find new Interests Is there that book your friends have been nagging you to try? Or a movie that you've been dying to watch? This is the perfect time to do it! Read new, different books and watch movies of a genre you don't usually watch, and you might just be surprised. Spring has begun, officially. The first day of spring was yesterday, so here's a mood board based on spring! This basically expresses how I feel about spring. There are cupcakes, decorated with butterflies. The outfit is light and airy, just like spring. The nails are gorgeous, green with daisies. The large 'Spring' picture is made up of different elements of nature. The flowers, of course, are impossible to miss out while the last picture is just an amazing yet simple drawing.
Donald Trump could be the next President of the United States, since he's gaining followers and comes up with more ideas. I hope this isn't really offensive or anything. Here are a few of the things he's done and said: (Note: Before you think that this post is going to launh into a page long discussion about politics, let me just assure you that it's not about that) The Great Wall Of Trump “I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” Donald Trump wants to build a wall. Not just any wall, but a wall drawn inspiration from The Great Wall Of China, to be named after none other than himself. He's not just looking for a new attraction that'll be easy on the eyes, though. He wants to keep Mexicans out of the USA and has decided that the best way is to build a wall, but make the Mexicans themselves pay for it, since he is apparently charming enough to persuade them to do so. *slow, sarcastic applause* Offending Obama "Sadly, because Obama has done such a poor job as presdient, you won't see another black president for generations!" He can't get as racist as that, can he? I don't think anything more should be said on this subject. Targeting Looks "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next next president? I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posed ta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" Mr. Trump said this to his rival Carly Fiorina. Sure, he was trying to offend her, but really? Why would you target someone's looks, out of all the things? When an article was written about this, Trump responded that he always gets criticized on his hair, but nobody writes an article on that. (in fact, there are a lot of internet memes running around about his hair.) Wel, that's all. Do you think Donald Trump would make a good president?
Fairytales are pretty decent, since they are generally meant for little kids. But what you don't know is that before Disney turned all these stories into sweet animated movies with singing chipmunks and true love, they had pretty dark endings. You might not even want to know them.
POCAHONTAS So, in the Disney version, Pocahontas is part of a Native American tribe. She falls in love with John Smith, an Englishman, and stops her tribe and his crew from going to war. In the end, she must let him go back to where he is from. Pocahontas is a real person, and to be honest, her movie didn't do her justice. John Smith was actually captured by Pocahontas's tribe, and she saved his life by placing her head upon his own just as they were executing him. Also, a tiny detail the Disney movies left out, Pocahontas was only 10 when this happened. Hard to see any romance happening there. After that, Pocahontas was kidnapped, held hostage, renamed Rebecca, then died at the early age of 21. Yikes/ THE LITTLE MERMAID This is a classic love story. Mermaid exchanges her tail for legs, but gives her voice as payment. The prince falls in love with her, marries her and they all live happily ever after. What really happened was that the mermaid had to cut off her actual tongue in payment. Then the prince ended up marrying someone else. So the mermaid had only one way to get back her legs. To kill the prince and let his blood drip on her feet. Unfortunately, she couldn't bring herself to do it, so she dived into the sea and became sea foam (that's what happens to mermaids when they die). What a happy love story. CINDERELLA Everyone knows this one. A rags-to-riches story, orphan Cinderella gets a lucky break and falls in love with a prince who probably doesn't even know what her name is. This happens in the original story as well, but Cinderella, thirsty for revenge gets birds to peck her stepsisters' eyes and make them blind. Isn't she just a ray of sunshine? GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS So in the real version, there is no cheeky little girl who tresspasses upon a bear family's cottage. In the earliest version, it was a fox who sneaked into the house, messed up their beds and ate their food. When the bears get back, they either throw her out or rip her apart and eat her. I'm personally glad that this version of the story was changed. Well, this wasn't too disturbing. Above is an example of gender roles. A gender role is basically something that a person of particular gendermust do since imust do because it expected of their gender. In these days, you don't see it much, but it still exists. Nevertheless, it was worse a long time ago, and here's an example. It is a 1950's ad. What it is saying is that men work and make money to support a family while women stay home and cook and clean. This has been going on for ages. Women were not allowed to participate in the Ancient Greek Olympics. Why? One of the reasons was because being defeated by women would be a disgrace. In ancient civilizations, women were sort of second-class citizens, treated the same as slaves. This did not stop after the Modern Olympics came into existence. For many years, women were not allowed to participate. It was a long time until rules were established so women could enter every event. Even after that, men are not allowed to participate in synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. Why? Why were men not allowed to take part in these?
In the 14th and 15th century, which was the age of exploration, you might have noticed that women were not dominant. Sure, there was Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo, and they are household names. Female explorers like Gertrude Bell and Jean Batten are not as famous. What do you think? absorbing your tears
a casket of feelings more than just words etched on a page emotions entwined into words each page holds a part of your soul more than just letters strewn together escape into endless worlds distorting reality more than just binded pages tolerating your anger accepting your sorrow more than just meaningless words heart and soul poured in each sentence fragments of reality broken off more than just a book Books. People think that they're just stories, just words. What do you think? |
Subscribe to my blog: Bloglovin'
Categories
All
Archives
January 2018
|