Encouragement For Wednesdays

Since everyone else is doing some kind of positivity week, and my Monday post started the week out on an uplifting note, I thought I'd just carry it through to the end of the week. So instead of saying something that I'd no doubt botch up and wouldn't be very inspirational at all, I'll leave it to a very wise hobbit, who said something once that I always remember.

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were; and sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances to turn back only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something." 

-Samwise Gamgee

PS Everyone seems to really hate on Frodo, so I'm going to clarify my position on everyone's favorite hobbit to hate. EVERYONE IS WRONG. The end. Frodo is awesome, and I am always reduced to a human hosepipe at the end when Frodo goes to Valinor, every time without fail. Also, the part (in the movie) when he talks about how he can't remember the taste of strawberries. I'm basically watering plants out of my eyes. I think this is a good time to confess (in small print, notice, in hopes that you won't read it) that a few summers ago, I decided to become proficient in Elvish (Quenya, to be specific, because there are two Elvish languages: Quenya and Sindarin). And I did. I was so good that I could translate songs and write in ancient Elvish script and conjugate verbs in every tense 'til the cows came home. I haven't practiced at all, so I don't remember much. But I remember some. Humiliating confession #85. I can see my coolness factor dropping in your eyes. I appear so normal in real life. DON'T LET MY NORMALCY DECEIVE YOU. Beneath this socially acceptable veneer, lies a nerd, just waiting to break free in post scripts on the Internet.

PPS Frodo is still the hobbit love of my life. Sorry, Sam. Your inspirational speeches are brilliant, but alas, you're still second place in my heart.

Little Happinesses on a Monday (In Writing and Life)

Sometimes, you just have to stop and remember them.*

1) The smell of coffee after you haven't had any for a week.

2) Getting a really nice review in your inbox first thing in the morning.

3) Reading a funny book (Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott).

4) Reading a really sad book that touches you so much you have nightmares about it (Alligator Bayou, Donna Jo Napoli).

5) Bringing a long story to a close.

6) Realizing as you research that your final paper isn't as boring or hard as you thought.

7) The good salad is available in the dining hall (with craisins and raspberry dressing).

8) Seeing friends again after spring break.

9) Wearing shorts.

10) Wearing sunglasses.

11) Seeing your name for the first time in the newspaper next to "copy chief."

12) Coming back to sleep in your twin sized bed where you can't get lost in the blankets (I prefer a smaller bed, call me crazy).

13) Listening to music and drinking tea.

14) Deciding to reread Harry Potter from start to finish after three years of letting the books collect dust on a bookshelf.

15) Meeting someone new.

16) Going into the main stacks of the library and actually knowing where the Africa section is this time (it's on floor nine and a half; who'd have thunk?)

17) Having just one class and having the lecture be on black holes in outer space.

18) Sleeping in.

19) Smiling.

*Make your own list! (I needed one - I have a gigantic outline for my final paper due on Wednesday and I might be pulling close to an all-nighter tonight because I work the rest of the week so I am firmly determined and equipped to be cheerful and relaxed about it all day. Stress is completely unconducive to anything, and I firmly believe you can choose to let yourself be stressed or take it all, as Anne Lamott says, bird by bird.)

Friday Favorites

Covers/Titles.

The things that grab you before you even read the inside flap. You can say you don't judge a book by its cover until you're blue in the face, but nobody can maintain that as truth. There's a reason publishers spend time (and money!) figuring out exactly what is going to catch the eye of the casual bookstore browser. Here are some of my favorites. I'll admit, this is skewed toward books I've read more recently because I can remember them better.

1) Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr. The things that catch my attention the most are simple covers, and this one really does the trick. Plus, the title is gorgeous. You just want to read it. (And you should. This book didn't disappoint on the stuff inside either!) 

2) Before I Die by Jenny Downham. Cover is black and white with semi-headless girl, so it's not super exciting, but the title stood out. Again, this book is wonderfully evocative, about the bucket list of a teenage girl with leukemia, but her list is not what you might expect. The story is uplifting and sad at the same time, and it had resonance.

3) The Ever After by Amy Huntley. The title looks like a photographic negative with orchids, but I liked the title. I haven't read it. It's about the afterlife, but the title evokes the idea of what happens post- happily ever after. The book, I suppose, was successful, because I did pick it up and read the inside at the bookstore, although I didn't buy it.

4) Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. I adore the cover and the title. The whole effect is really beautiful, regardless of what I actually thought about the story (it wasn't my cup of tea, although I didn't hate it).

Other titles I liked:

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares

When Dad Killed Mom by Julius Lester

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeifer

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Guitar Highway Rose by Brigid Lowry

Yes, I think we can all agree that titles and covers are important. But you know what's more important? The content. Two anecdotes to remember and take away from this post:

I received the first Harry Potter book as a gift from my mother's friend, and I didn't read it for two years because the title and cover were hideously boring. The inside flap sucked too. I finally read it when my mother's friend was coming for a visit, and I figured I couldn't BS my way out of a conversation it ever came up (this was before Wikipedia was available and before I knew how to use the Internet). I think we all know what happened from there. For the record, the Harry Potter series is awesome, and even if I didn't think so, the rest of the world does.

Secondly, it took Twilight one month after publication to reach #5 on the NYT Bestsellers list. Sol Stein's book On Writing, which came out before the Twilight series did, says explicitly in one of the chapters that titles are important because they grab attention. Do you know what example he used as a bad title? He drew on a random word that he claimed was not flashy enough: Twilight. He said, and I remember, that the title Twilight would be bland and nobody would pick it up and it would never sell.

Ain't it funny how things work out?

Resonance

I think I should start each one of my posts with a weird confession about my writing habits, but then you might all think I was psycho. But here is one: Sometimes when I write, I listen to epic instrumental (movie) music because it makes me feel like my writing might turn out more epic.

Okay, I got that out of the way. Isn't it true, though? Putting an epic soundtrack behind anything makes it sound epic. I could make putting in contacts sound epic if I put Lord of the Rings music behind it. (Sometimes, it takes me so long to put in contacts, that it really could be considered an epic task once I finally shove those buggers into my small, Asian eyes).

So I finished reading Stay With Me (Garret Freymann-Weyr) and you know when you read the ending of a book, and suddenly it feels like there should be some terrifically epic trumpet music behind it because you get that "ah ha!" moment? That is how I felt when I finished that book. Because it had resonance. I felt like that book was going to stay with me (edit: wow, that was a totally unintentional pun), that I was going to continue giving it thought later. I think that's when you can say a book officially had a successful ending, when it gives you reason to reflect on it. 

It seems like an illusive quality, this resonance. Have you found a common thread in books with resonance? Or is it just something that happens when the writing is good?

(PS you know what is epic music is the soundtrack for Dragonheart, and I know this is like a 90's era film, but dammit people, if I didn't cry my freakin' eyes out when I watched it at the age of eight or whatever. I haven't seen it since, but I found the music on Youtube, and I am not lying to you when I say I was bawling by the end. Music can do that, I guess. Also, dying dragons do that.)

POV and YA

It's spring break for me! Which means I have consumed almost an entire box of cookies today, slept thirteen hours in one night (to be fair, I pulled an all-nighter the night before I left college, but don't worry - it wasn't for homework; it was because my friends and I are idiots), and am being forced to confront my final paper on Pan-Africanism and decolonization in Ghana and the veritable mountain of primary sources in my bag. The horror!

It also means I can sing everywhere and all the time, which I can't do in a dorm room because it's embarrassing.

But it also means I can do more reading for fun! Right now, I've checked out Stay With Me (Garret Freymann-Weyr), Alligator Bayou (Donna Jo Napoli), and Cybele's Secret (Juliet Marillier). I have a new project being rolled around in the back of my head. The main character's name is Clare. She is half-Asian. It's an urban fantasy and has Irish/Celtic mythological influences. I haven't fully decided what POV and tense it's going to be in (sorry for the acronym-happy blog title).

It seems to me like a lot of people hate present tense. With a passion. Well, let me rephrase that. It's one of those extreme things. You either love it (like I do) or hate it to the point where you will literally put the book away because you can't handle a whole novel written in that style. It also seems like one of those things that could potentially kill your novel for publication if done badly (which is often, supposedly). 

I've also noticed that progressively more people enjoy YA. I, for one, definitely read more YA than any other category. But do you think that YA has stylistic differences that set it apart from other fiction? For instance, it is not abnormal for a YA novel to be in present tense. Actually, there are a lot of novels that are in present tense. It brings the narrator and the events more directly to the reader, and I think it connects better with teens. Maybe. And maybe it's a newer movement, so it reads strangely to older readers, but not to younger ones? I've noticed a trend to present tense, especially if the author wants to talk about "serious" subjects, like present tense makes a book more "literary" and "deep." I think this way too, actually, so the quotes aren't meant to be ironic.

The point is, do you think present tense is more acceptable in the YA genre than in other ones?

Friday Favorites

Teams. There are a lot of stories that involve a main character and his closest friends, going on quests, figuring out life, you know. The most obvious is probably the Golden Trio from Harry Potter: Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I'm not going to include them, because that would be unoriginal of me.

1) The Pevensies (from the Chronicles of Narnia). They're siblings, it's pretty stereotypical, but I like them anyway. They end up becoming kings and queens together, and I think I like them even better when they're grown up than when they're little kids. The Horse and His Boy is my favorite in the series, and they have great chemistry there. It's rare to see siblings crowned beside each other, so I liked that.

2) Gemma Doyle, Felicity Worthington, Ann Bradshaw, and Pippa Cross (from the Great and Terrible Beauty series, Libba Bray, ILU). Unlike a lot of main characters, I spend a lot of time ridiculing them and being ticked off at how annoying they are sometimes. This might not sound like a positive, but I do this because each character is incredibly and uniquely flawed. They could be a real group of friends. They have fallouts over stupid things and power struggles and other things teenage girls fight about, except with more magic and death. Very realistic characters and they have good chemistry together, even though they all hate each other in the beginning.

And, short post again, but I'm brain-dead and hopefully, you guys have better examples than me. Happy Friday!

Time Management, Otherwise Known As Procrastination

I'm sure in the past I've had a post on this before, but this topic becomes increasingly relevant as the semester goes on. Firstly, let me just let you in a little secret that is going to make you feel better about your life. This week, I've been trying to wean myself off Facebook by using it as a reward for doing homework and timing myself when I'm on it. Did you catch that? Yeah, I am just that lame and addicted.

My life just became a lot more busy because I got promoted to copy chief for the newspaper I work at. I'm a boss in-training of people now! Theoretically, I could even FIRE people, but of course, I'm not that mean (and I'd probably need a semi-legitimate reason to fire anyone, but you know. MINOR DETAILS in the larger scheme of my AWESOME AUTHORITY). I even get to hire an assistant this week. I am so legit. I have underlings! Anyway, I thought that I would be taking over next semester, after I get training and stuff, right? Well, obviously I thought wrong. The new desk editors take over after spring break, which means I have a grand total of two and a half weeks to get my shit together and learn my new (time consuming!) job. So when we come back, all of us will be running around "like chickens with our heads cut off"* trying to figure out how to not make the paper tank.

Did I mention that I'm not even a journalism major? Apparently, I am a glutton for extra hours and responsibility and getting yelled at for failures. 

Also, I joined another fashion show. Because I'm an addict and all my friends are doing it, and I fall quickly to peer pressure like that. Plus, I have all of these pretty new clothes! More excuses to wear them!

What I'm wondering now, is how am I supposed to write with all of this stuff I'm juggling? The answer is I haven't in nearly two weeks now, and I promised at least a fan fiction update yesterday. Whoops. I don't know when that's going to happen. I have two midterms coming up. I want to start a new project, but I don't know how I'm going to dedicate any serious time to it with the way my schedule is running at the moment. 

I'm sure many of you are busy people too, with jobs and children and a whole host of responsibilities that I don't even want to contemplate. How do you do it? The first thing I'm starting with is trying to not be on Facebook as much, if that counts as a step. I'm trying and kind of failing!

*quote by my friend, the news editor, and I think it appropriately sums up how well I'm going to handle it when I take over.

Friday Favorites

Today: Villains.

I'm going to go over the top three scariest literary villains ever. The top three scariest that I can come up with at 2:00 am when I'm supposed to be reading The Iliad, anyway. Here we go!

1) Lord Voldemort. Super obvious, but who would disagree? The guy is so scary that people don't even use his real name out loud. He is terrifying because he's pure evil, no redeeming qualities. He doesn't understand love, so he doesn't understand positive emotions at all. He is like the ultimate definition of sociopath, except with magic, so that makes it even worse.

2) The Other Mother from Coraline. She really terrifies me, probably because she takes something familiar (ie your family) and changes them into something that can hurt you. But she does it under the guise of love. And she has BUTTONS for eyes, besides wanting to sew them into yours too! Plus, she can lock you in a mirror indefinitely. I think that's pretty scary.

3) Roger Chillingsworth from The Scarlet Letter. There are a lot of characters in that book that scare me, Pearl among them. I guess I can't explain this one, but I read this book under my covers with the lights on because was so afraid.

Who are your favorite/scariest villains? Sorry for the short post, guys. My forearms hurt, for some strange reason, and I hope it's not something serious, but I should probably lay off hardcore typing for a while.

March Is Here

I've been sick (again!) the past week, so I disappeared for a while. But I'm much better now, and it's officially March. Let the welcome for spring begin.

Good things about March:

1) Improving weather! During February, you can't even pretend like the weather is getting better. You get one good day and you get all excited about spring coming back and then you remember, right, it's February. Nothing good comes out of February, ever, except false alarms for warm weather and Can't Get Enough of Gump Week on AMC (yes, it was last week, and YES, I watched Forrest Gump like four times, but don't judge me; IT IS INFINITELY REWATCHABLE - especially since I had nothing to do but hold tissues up to my nose and hide under my covers).

2) Trips to the library! And I don't mean the school library where there are only nasty old non-fiction books for papers. I mean the Champaign Public Library. If you know me at all, you know that I plan out trips to the library somewhere like a week in advance. It's thirty minutes walk. I could take the bus, but I like taking walks. This library is made of all glass, surrounded by pretty trees and brick roads, plus it has a cute cafe called Latte Da and all the books you ever want to read EVER EVER and it smells deliciously of them. I only go occasionally, but when I do, I spend the whole afternoon there relaxing, and it's better than a spa, seriously. (Wow, I think I just out-dorked myself there.)

3) Fashion show! It's this Saturday, and I'm a model. It's going to be fun! Also, this is the only time I'm ever going to be a model for anything in my life. I'm 5'1". I buy jeans from the kids section, which earns me strange looks from store employees who evidently can't see how abnormally short my legs are. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Nope.

4) New novel! Probably towards the end of March, when I catch my breath. I'm trying my hand at something more modern (my last two are set in the past). I have been contemplating dabbling in different genres for a while now. Trying to find my voice, that illusive voice, darn it. Also, I'm going to write this one slower, more thoroughly. There are plenty of people who swear by just writing the first draft and then fixing it later. I, however, am not the world's greatest revisionist, and it might do me some good to be a little more discerning with my first draft. Like I said, trying out a lot of new things, which should help me grow as a writer.

Bonus: this is a really stupid one, but ever since I got contacts at the beginning of the year, I've been obsessed with sunglasses (because I've never been able to wear them before). A quick shopping trip to the mall to finalize my outfits for the fashion show turned into a THREE HOUR extravaganza because I got side-tracked by every display of sunglasses I passed. You can bet March is going to involve the purchasing of sunglasses. And I will wear them every time it's sunny, yes I will. So, Illinois, please for once hold back your lame penchant for sucky, epic-rain spring weather and bring on the sunshine!