Time to write!
Begin with "I wish someone told me..."
I wish someone told me that eating tar was bad for you.
The end. Bahahahaha
Jk. But for real now.
I wish someone told me that boys were bad news. Like really bad news. Like really really bad news. Well, maybe not all boys. Maybe not even boys in general. Maybe just boys named Loren, especially if that particular Loren has an excellent nose and perfect eyebrows. Seriously. Perfect. They're the right amount of thickness to look manly without looking Groucho Marx-esque and they're shaped in such a way that they're pretty without being feminine. They are truly two beautiful twin marks of sublimity which grace his face.
But they're bad news. And I wish someone had told me that. Because if I'd known that earlier, I could've saved myself this whole big mess. Not like a mess when your mom calls upstairs and tells you to clean your room because "it's a mess" but really all that's even on the floor is two days worth of clothes and your backpack and maybe some folders and pens. No, the kind of mess like you had a giant flour fight, followed by a run through the sprinklers and then laid down on the kitchen floor. A real mess. The kind it takes forever to clean up, even though it was kind of fun to make. Maybe even really fun to make.
But just because making the mess was fun, that doesn't always mean that it was worth it. Sometimes the mess is just too...well, messy.
And I wish someone had told me that.
Showing posts with label emotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emotion. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
TMI
Time to write!
Write about someone with a super power.
The first thing you need to know before we go any further is that being able to read minds is not as cool as you would imagine. Sure, it has it's perks. I mean, who wouldn't like being able to read the teacher's mind to come up with the right answer when they try to call you out for daydreaming during class? And the idea of being able to know what your friends, let alone guys, really think about you seems like this great phenomenon. But really? I hear a lot of crap I really could have gone without knowing. And aside from that, being able to read minds causes seriously killer headaches.
Before we really jump into what my English teacher would call "the meat and potatoes of this storyline" let's skim over the FAQs. Origin story? Gosh. Well I wasn't bit by anything, didn't have anything dumped on me, wasn't caught in some type of freak weather accident. If they made a movie of my origin story, it'd be a pretty dang boring one. It would go like this:
A girl with medium long chestnut brown hair sits up in her bed. She can read minds. She couldn't the night before. She knows, because her mom just stuck her head in to see if she was really getting up and even though her mom smiled and her mouth said, "Please get up now, sweetheart," the words which sounded in the girl's head, in her mother's voice, were, "Get out of bed! How are you going to function in college? And did Dan leave the stove on last night? Something smells funny."
I mean, I'm no film critic, but I can recognize that as a pretty lame story. Hardly any dynamic. The mom character's pretty fun though.
Essentially, I have no idea what happened. I feel like something must have happened. People don't just wake up, suddenly able to read minds. Except for when they do. Those are strange times. The best answer I can get you though is: working on figuring out. Will get back to you.
How long have I been able to read minds? A whole week now, and it just keeps getting even more fun friends. Each day I get to see more and more how sad the human race really is. Know what they say about everyone having a secret that if you knew it, it would break your heart? Well that's true. And that would make me feel really bad for a lot of people, except another truth is that everyone has a little jerk inside them, and the judgments people pass and the lies they feed to each other...it's sickening, folks.
Does anyone know I can read minds? Not yet. I feel like I should tell my mom though. I'm scared though, that if I tell her she'll want to get my tested, or that she'll think I'm just trying to get attention. As for friends...well after hearing what goes on in their heads, I don't really want to tell them anything, let alone something this big.
The truth is, reading minds makes me somehow feel responsible for every bad thought I hear. And there's a lot of bad things. And it's honestly just too much information.
Write about someone with a super power.
The first thing you need to know before we go any further is that being able to read minds is not as cool as you would imagine. Sure, it has it's perks. I mean, who wouldn't like being able to read the teacher's mind to come up with the right answer when they try to call you out for daydreaming during class? And the idea of being able to know what your friends, let alone guys, really think about you seems like this great phenomenon. But really? I hear a lot of crap I really could have gone without knowing. And aside from that, being able to read minds causes seriously killer headaches.
Before we really jump into what my English teacher would call "the meat and potatoes of this storyline" let's skim over the FAQs. Origin story? Gosh. Well I wasn't bit by anything, didn't have anything dumped on me, wasn't caught in some type of freak weather accident. If they made a movie of my origin story, it'd be a pretty dang boring one. It would go like this:
A girl with medium long chestnut brown hair sits up in her bed. She can read minds. She couldn't the night before. She knows, because her mom just stuck her head in to see if she was really getting up and even though her mom smiled and her mouth said, "Please get up now, sweetheart," the words which sounded in the girl's head, in her mother's voice, were, "Get out of bed! How are you going to function in college? And did Dan leave the stove on last night? Something smells funny."
I mean, I'm no film critic, but I can recognize that as a pretty lame story. Hardly any dynamic. The mom character's pretty fun though.
Essentially, I have no idea what happened. I feel like something must have happened. People don't just wake up, suddenly able to read minds. Except for when they do. Those are strange times. The best answer I can get you though is: working on figuring out. Will get back to you.
How long have I been able to read minds? A whole week now, and it just keeps getting even more fun friends. Each day I get to see more and more how sad the human race really is. Know what they say about everyone having a secret that if you knew it, it would break your heart? Well that's true. And that would make me feel really bad for a lot of people, except another truth is that everyone has a little jerk inside them, and the judgments people pass and the lies they feed to each other...it's sickening, folks.
Does anyone know I can read minds? Not yet. I feel like I should tell my mom though. I'm scared though, that if I tell her she'll want to get my tested, or that she'll think I'm just trying to get attention. As for friends...well after hearing what goes on in their heads, I don't really want to tell them anything, let alone something this big.
The truth is, reading minds makes me somehow feel responsible for every bad thought I hear. And there's a lot of bad things. And it's honestly just too much information.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Fantasy
Time to write!
Why do people love to read so much? The answer can and does vary from person to person, but one reply I know will come up often in a survey of such a question is that reading takes people away, transports them to another world, gives them an adventure.
Yippee! Adventure! Dragons! Trolls! Dungeons! Witches! Princes! Curses! It's all very exciting, being whisked off into some fantasy, a make believe world where the fantastic is the norm and where somehow men are charming and handsome and intelligent all at once. Such a combination on earth is rare, believe me, I'm still looking for one that isn't already taken.
Where the concept of finding enjoyment in a book because it "takes you away" falls apart is that it really rarely does take us someplace altogether pleasant.
Oh sure, we may find ourselves in a beautiful meadow for a time, but sooner or later we're going to find ourselves in a rather nasty scrape. Even those dreamboat men have to seem unattainable or interested in someone else in order to keep the story interesting. To really keep the reader invested we might as well kill off a character or two. Adventure! Yippee!
We escape the real world from our real live stresses to fantasize about a world just as troubled as our own. We struggle to free ourselves of the heartbreak of that spellbinding young male who things just aren't working out with by allowing ourselves to drool over the men of fiction. These men caused their fair share of mischief and heartbreak too, however. After all, what's a good story without a little romantic tension?
It is when this is realized that it all becomes very clear. All the stories we love so much are just life, twisted into another shape, allowing us to deal with it in a less painful way.
If you really had to choose between taking an upper level English midterm or attempt to slay a dragon, which would you pick? Sure, slaying the dragon sounds more glamorous, but it also sounds a lot more, well, death inducing. If such an option were truly placed before me, I must admit, I'd take the test and be glad that test was there for the taking.
So you see? Dragons are just trials. Trolls are just those people we thought we were rid of, but cannot seem to escape. Curses are bad days. Dungeons are boring classes. But in all stories those things pass. So too, in life. That green meadow we escaped to in the story? That's tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe next month. That's when we meet a real man who can make our hearts pound without scripted dialogue. That's when we graduate, when we make a new friend, when we make the team.
Life is a book. Just remember, maybe you're in the chapter that makes everybody cry, but the next one is very funny. Stick it out, and you'll be laughing sometime. And even if you aren't ready to laugh yet, or feel like you'll never laugh, you're learning and you're growing. If you were standing there, sword in hand, and the dragon was drawing its breath and preparing to breath fire, and you were already tired, would you just drop your sword and shrug? No. You'd take your shot. You'd charge the dragon. You'd swing your sword, and most likely let out a battle cry which would seem totally appropriate in the moment, but will sound dumb when played back later. And that's how it is supposed to sound! That's how it's supposed to be! That's life! Your story is only hard because no one likes a character, and no one wants to read a novel with no plot. Not even you. Not even me.
Why do people love to read so much? The answer can and does vary from person to person, but one reply I know will come up often in a survey of such a question is that reading takes people away, transports them to another world, gives them an adventure.
Yippee! Adventure! Dragons! Trolls! Dungeons! Witches! Princes! Curses! It's all very exciting, being whisked off into some fantasy, a make believe world where the fantastic is the norm and where somehow men are charming and handsome and intelligent all at once. Such a combination on earth is rare, believe me, I'm still looking for one that isn't already taken.
Where the concept of finding enjoyment in a book because it "takes you away" falls apart is that it really rarely does take us someplace altogether pleasant.
Oh sure, we may find ourselves in a beautiful meadow for a time, but sooner or later we're going to find ourselves in a rather nasty scrape. Even those dreamboat men have to seem unattainable or interested in someone else in order to keep the story interesting. To really keep the reader invested we might as well kill off a character or two. Adventure! Yippee!
We escape the real world from our real live stresses to fantasize about a world just as troubled as our own. We struggle to free ourselves of the heartbreak of that spellbinding young male who things just aren't working out with by allowing ourselves to drool over the men of fiction. These men caused their fair share of mischief and heartbreak too, however. After all, what's a good story without a little romantic tension?
It is when this is realized that it all becomes very clear. All the stories we love so much are just life, twisted into another shape, allowing us to deal with it in a less painful way.
If you really had to choose between taking an upper level English midterm or attempt to slay a dragon, which would you pick? Sure, slaying the dragon sounds more glamorous, but it also sounds a lot more, well, death inducing. If such an option were truly placed before me, I must admit, I'd take the test and be glad that test was there for the taking.
So you see? Dragons are just trials. Trolls are just those people we thought we were rid of, but cannot seem to escape. Curses are bad days. Dungeons are boring classes. But in all stories those things pass. So too, in life. That green meadow we escaped to in the story? That's tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe next month. That's when we meet a real man who can make our hearts pound without scripted dialogue. That's when we graduate, when we make a new friend, when we make the team.
Life is a book. Just remember, maybe you're in the chapter that makes everybody cry, but the next one is very funny. Stick it out, and you'll be laughing sometime. And even if you aren't ready to laugh yet, or feel like you'll never laugh, you're learning and you're growing. If you were standing there, sword in hand, and the dragon was drawing its breath and preparing to breath fire, and you were already tired, would you just drop your sword and shrug? No. You'd take your shot. You'd charge the dragon. You'd swing your sword, and most likely let out a battle cry which would seem totally appropriate in the moment, but will sound dumb when played back later. And that's how it is supposed to sound! That's how it's supposed to be! That's life! Your story is only hard because no one likes a character, and no one wants to read a novel with no plot. Not even you. Not even me.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Hurt
Time to write!
Hurt is a difficult emotion to describe. Hurt is not the same as sad, or as angry, or as disappointed. Hurt does not necessitate betrayal, although the two often coincide.
Hurt is something which refuses to be suppressed, refuses to be controlled. The tear stains or the clenched jaw do not characterize Hurt. Hurt sits inside of someone's eyes. Tears aren't necessary, neither is the dangerous flash. People can smile and pretend that Hurt isn't there, but it is.
So what makes Hurt hurt so bad? Possibly the fact that more often that not, Hurt is borne from hope. Hurt follows happiness. Hurt is unforeseen, unpredicted.
Hurt follows fast on the heels of ecstasy and excitement. We are lifted to a place where we feel as though things are right, and then Hurt comes, laying a leaden finger, just a finger, on our shoulder, and slowly pushing down. Sometimes we offer little resistance and we sink straight to the floor. Other days we stand tall as we can for as long as we can, but Hurt pushes us down eventually anyway.
Because you can't help it when you get hurt. So maybe Hurt isn't an emotion, because those you can decide. Maybe Hurt is just an emptiness, and that's why it's hard to get it to go away. You can put something else inside the Hurt, but the Hurt is still holding it, pulsing and living, reminding you that once things were not this way.
Hurt is a difficult emotion to describe. Hurt is not the same as sad, or as angry, or as disappointed. Hurt does not necessitate betrayal, although the two often coincide.
Hurt is something which refuses to be suppressed, refuses to be controlled. The tear stains or the clenched jaw do not characterize Hurt. Hurt sits inside of someone's eyes. Tears aren't necessary, neither is the dangerous flash. People can smile and pretend that Hurt isn't there, but it is.
So what makes Hurt hurt so bad? Possibly the fact that more often that not, Hurt is borne from hope. Hurt follows happiness. Hurt is unforeseen, unpredicted.
Hurt follows fast on the heels of ecstasy and excitement. We are lifted to a place where we feel as though things are right, and then Hurt comes, laying a leaden finger, just a finger, on our shoulder, and slowly pushing down. Sometimes we offer little resistance and we sink straight to the floor. Other days we stand tall as we can for as long as we can, but Hurt pushes us down eventually anyway.
Because you can't help it when you get hurt. So maybe Hurt isn't an emotion, because those you can decide. Maybe Hurt is just an emptiness, and that's why it's hard to get it to go away. You can put something else inside the Hurt, but the Hurt is still holding it, pulsing and living, reminding you that once things were not this way.
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