Z is for Zenith

Zenith means the highest point of a mountain. Let me paint you a picture...

You did it. You finished your novel, and your book is published. It is a New York Times best seller, and one of the best selling books in existence. Millions have read your book and cherish and love your characters. You got everything you ever wanted! Right.....? 


But, what then? What are your other goals, your other dreams? Are you so poured into your writing that, when and if things happen, you have no goals left?


Writing is wonderful, but it's not all there is. Even if you are not, by the worlds standards, overly successful with writing: There are more adventures, more things in life to look forward to, more reason to hope.


Life... Life is a climb. You go up, and you go down. You are energetic, you are tired. You are weak, and you are strong.


But there's always gonna be another mountain, 
I'm always gonna wanna make it move, 
Always gonna be an uphill battle, 
And sometimes I'm gonna have to lose, 
Doesn't matter how fast I get there, 


Ain't about how fast I get there, 
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side, 
It's the climb.... 


-Miley Cyrus

~Elizabeth 

Y is for Yird

Yird means to bury.

When is it time to decide that some ideas just. don't. work? 


I've quit one project about half a year ago, because I realized it didn't work. I, being only 13, need more experiences in my life to truly write some situations with the quality they deserve. So... I'm waiting. I'm doing things that I can write, characters I can relate to.

And maybe, in a few years, I will know what it's like to do those things. But for now, I'm happy writing stuff that's... well.. that's me. 


What about you? Have you had times similar to mine, where you just had to leave something behind?


~Elizabeth

X is for Xenomorphic

Xenomorphic. I bet you haven't heard of that word before! Actually, I hadn't either until this morning. It means something that has a form that is not it's own.

What makes your characters act..well... different? 


And I don't just mean different from other characters, I mean different from themselves. I'm not even talking about typical mood swings, emotions, etc; I mean what makes them completely change their character?

For me, at least, it is generally a tragedy, but it can really be just about any life-changing event... Things that make me (us) never the same.

Because, once we go on an adventure, we can never come home. It just simply isn't the same place. The people have changed, the place has changed.... and whether we want to admit it or not, we change.

Take The Lord of the Rings, (the book!) for example. Frodo goes on a long journey. He sees people die, he sees war. He sees beauty, too... Elves, love, and loyalty. But once he saw those things, it was impossible for him to go back to his old life at the Shire.

You can never come home.  


~Elizabeth

W is for What?! Are you crazy Leslie?

Ok, this is going to be interesting. I am going to take you on the crazy mental process called "Leslie's Train of Thought". I was thinking about the letter W and what to post on. At first, the name of this post was "W is for Water". Why? Well I was just pondering the other posts I have been doing and I realized that we have been posting on complicated topics. So I thought about simple things. (like Water)  Then I thought about the song, Simple Song by Miley Cyrus. (I usually dont use Miley Cyrus in any type of... anything, but this is actually relevant) There is one line that I really like.

Somebody push it away

Cause all I wanna hear

Is a simple song
 
Miley Cyrus
 
I think that is what I feel called to write about today. In our books, we find the need for more. More plot twists, more love triangles, more of anything that will set our books apart. Maybe sometimes we just need to push all the complicated stuff away and go for simple. One book that I love, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a reletively simple plot. Now I am in no way saying that this book is a simple, 1 dimentional story, quite the contrary, it is full of amazing stuff that you see as you read into the book, but it is not full of soap opera drama or crazy things. It is a plot that all can read and love. It is simple. So, I say, make sure that you have depth, but not to be too crazy. Sometimes all I want to hear, is a simple song.

V is for Vacancy

He makes me feel so wonderful. When I'm around her, everything changes and I feel like I can really be myself. 


We, as authors, strive to show what our characters think, feel, and do when around other characters. And there's nothing wrong with that.

But what are characters like when they aren't around those characters? After all, if one character is practically the crutch for another person, won't the person stumble when they are alone?

I dare you today to not only show what characters are with this other person, but show what they are without them. It adds a lot of depth to any book.

~Elizabeth

U is for Unrealistic

If you look at any Disney Chanel TV show, you can see what I am talking about. There are unrealistic scripts with unrealistic characters. Confused? Well, how about I give an example. Lets take the show Ant Farm. It is about middle school kids going to high school because they have a gift. Each of them is a genius in a different way. (eg. Photographic memory, gifted musician ect.) This show irks me. All of the authority figures are portrayed as idiotic. In real life, parents and other authority figures are smart and we are to respect them. The situations that come up in these TV shows are simply unrealistic. I do not like unrealistic plots or characters. I think a good piece of literature is relateable but just different enough to create interest.
Your thoughts?
~Leslie

T is for Tacenda

Essentially, tacenda means things that shouldn't be mentioned. I think that sometimes, writers (and people in general) go a little overboard on what needs to be said, or what a certain age group can handle.

Let me give you an example. I was at a Christian weekend camp, and the pastor was giving a sermon. They started talking about Jesus' death, and to explain it thoroughly, they played a long (I want to say 10-20 minute long) clip of The Passion.

Now, for those of you who don't know, The Passion is a movie emphasizing on Christ's last human hours. And it's rated R--for good reason. It does a great job showing what really happened then, but it is very gruesome.

I would say that it would probably be appropriate for people 16+.  So, if it was just a high-school weekend, it probably would've been fine.

But there was more then just high-school students there. There were 6th, maybe even 5th, graders there--most of which were covering their eyes and looking the other way.

They weren't getting the message of "Wow, Jesus went through all of that for me--He must really care." They were getting the message of, "Oh my goodness, please turn this off before I throw up!!"

Sometimes, I think it's best to keep it simple. Try dropping small, yet clear, hints to your point--minds mature enough to pick up on it will get your meaning, but those too young for the message will skim right over it.

Christopher Paolini, for example, does an excellent job at this.

I hope that you found this useful!

~Elizabeth

S is for Skinny

We all see the examples of "the perfect body". All the models, movie stars and celebrities seem to be these super thin creatures who are almost impossibly good looking. I am so annoyed that I care about how they look and that I compare myself to them. I do not want to be like them, yet I find myself doubting how I look because I will never be like that. I feel that I am not pretty at all. There are so many others like me that feel like they are not beautiful because we do not all look like a stick figure. It hurts. The "perfect body" is forced upon us all the time. On TV, in schools, even in books there is this belief that everyone will have skinny legs and flat stomachs. I believe that a character who has a perfect body is not as relateable to the common girl. Instead of getting ingrossed in the story, they will obsess over how the character looks. Now, I may be wrong, but I find myself doing that. I challange us all to reject the unabtainable "norm" and embrace being different with the way we write. Your thoughts?

~Leslie

R is for Randomness

I have been told by many a people that I am very random (in both good and bad ways). Some (ahem) claim that my ideas are absurd and unrealistic. Others find them merely entertaining.

What I want to know, however is this: What is wrong with the occasional random idea? I realize that ideas can't always be strange and silly, but honestly, isn't life random in and of itself?

Like, how Leslie said in her "Q" post, one of her characters has a strange thing with garlic bread where it will show up in random places, dragging him to new levels of aggravation.

So what if it's random? Use it!

~Elizabeth

Q is for Quidditative

quidditative = quirky; eccentric


I am almost positive that none of you have ever heard this word before. To be honest, I looked up "obscure words that begin with the letter Q" and this word was on a huge list of Q words! When did anyone have time to come up with that?! It was pretty cool. Well anyway, I really love this word. It describes me to a t. (Liz agrees;) ) Because of this word, I chose to give one of the characters in my book a strange "thing" with Garlic Bread. Shocking, I know. So far, he has burnt it and eaten it with a spicy taco. Later, he is going to be assaulted by a man in a garlic bread costume and have a dream where he is eaten by garlic bread. Oh, if anyone has any good ideas about how else I can use garlic bread, please leave me a comment with your idea. (Liz, you are not allowed to post any crazy ideas from two in the morning!)

What does this have to do with writing? It is an awesome way to flesh out your characters. Giving them a quiddity of some sort can make a character more relateable. If you want, send in some quirks that you think are good ideas!


Here are a few more words that begin with Q!

quiddity = unique essence; eccentricity

quat = a pimple; an insignificant person

quatch = a word; a sound

quadragesimarian = one who observes Lent

quadragenarian = a person between 40 and 49 years of age

quomodocunquize = to make money in any way possible