The quote! The Bible!

Along with She Went All The Way by Meg Cabot, I'm also reading the book The Art and Craft of Storytelling by Nancy Lamb, obviously for writing purposes. In the book, I found a nice little quote that, a few minutes ago, pretty much motivated me to do some character check-ups and what-not. The quote is here:

"A writer can never know about a character's feelings what is not somewhere mirrored in her own." -- Katherine Paterson

Speaking of interesting quotes and creating characters, there is, of course, a Book of Creation--also known as the Bible. I know of the controversy of religion in this world, and before everyone jumps to conclusions, I'm not here to preach about what religion is right and what religion is just downright wrong. I'm here to advertise. I'm here to post a Youtube video about a British vlogger named Alex Day who, following his footsteps of the Alex Reads Twilight series, is now reading the Bible. And voicing his opinions. And everything.

The interesting part though is that Alex is actually an Atheist, and I found the video interesting since it's from an Atheist's opinion. I'm not entirely sure if it was the first time he's read that portion of the Bible, or how much he knows about the Bible, but they were honest opinions and, in my opinion, they shouldn't be insulting at all. In fact, many comments from Christians on the Youtube video even claimed that it wasn't insulting.

So if you would like to watch this, regardless of your religion, please do. It's interesting and comical, though kind of silly. I'm not saying it's inspirational or insightful or anything--it's just an ordinary video about...the Bible.
And here it is:





- E

Wherein I go back to my yearly routine and realize how amazing the Food Network is.

School.
So repetitive, so unexpected, so boring, so exciting. I have mixed feelings for this wondrous, terrible place, and I'm sure all of you meager blog readers do as well.

Assuming you still go to school, anyway.

Today marks the first week (well, actually, the first four days) of the 2011-2012 school year (AKA my sophomore year/the-year-I'm-determined-to-make-a-lot-better-than-my-freshman-year), and my goodness, things are already starting to get dramatic, exciting, and bothersome. Marching band has gotten stressful and rushed--our first performance at our home football game next Friday (the football game between my school and the only other qualified high school in my city. which means it's a Big Deal) is freaking many people out, especially when our band director just told us that ESPN will be broadcasting the game--and us--live.

Which makes me wonder, why in the world would they want to broadcast this particular football game--of all football games--live? Especially my city which, although not a town, is still pretty small.

Aside from marching band, however, there's the homework. Spanish homework every day (my goodness, Señor!), Pre-Calc homework every day, AP homework every day...and the technology advancements and school remodeling worry me. Surprisingly enough though, I haven't broken down yet, although I suppose it's only a matter of time.

On the other hand, the first week went pretty smoothly as far as events go. There hasn't been the usual high school drama yet, no fist fights (and if I remember correctly, last year there were quite a few fist fights among the freshman class). I guess I'm lucky to go to a high school that isn't the "Typical American High School" depicted in chick-flick novels. And speaking of chick-flick, fast read novels, I am indeed reading one. She Went All The Way by acclaimed author Meg Cabot. And--listen to this--it's about a screenwriter! Stranded in an arctic location! With a gorgeous actor! Not that I care too much about the last bit...

And as this week continues, I'm sure my favorite TV channel will continue to remain Food Network. Iron Chef America, Chopped...yum. There's just something fascinating about watching food being made, even though I can't cook one decent thing. There's also something inspirational about watching food being made that motivates me to do my homework and write. Well, mostly the former than the latter since I haven't done much writing since school started. (In fact, I haven't written at all :D)

With that, everyone, I bid you goodbye. Time to read AP and Meg Cabot. A nice combination, don't you think?

- E

SUCCESS.

(Though I still have like three more pages to go :P)

First day of sophomore year tomorrow! Wish me luck...

- E

Scratchings and Schedules.

Nope. Forget it. I'm scratching Catch Me.
I know, I know. The one thing that most writers fear is starting on a novel, then abandoning it before he or she finishes the manuscript. Or gets it published. Or anything else. And I suppose I should know better--I should probably keep it until the end and then make the final decision.

But I already feel like Catch Me isn't going to work, and I tend to trust my gut feeling right from the start when it comes to writing. If I feel like it isn't going to work, then it isn't going to work, and I'll say goodbye. And then, that's that.

Part of it, I guess, is because I really miss Depravity and its whole set of urban fantasy. Maybe contemporary fiction really isn't my thing. Maybe I'm bad at writing about a girl who has OCD. Maybe I just didn't connect with my characters. There are a bunch of reasons, and I don't even know the primary one. But the point is...I'm scratching it.

*Sigh*

But now it's back to Depravity and I'm super excited! Time to knock off a few things on my list of Things to Do to Draft Eight before school starts. And also today, I'm seeing Captain America...should be fun, hopefully. At least, a lot of people said it was good. Band camp ended yesterday, school starts Tuesday, along with homework and band practice. Oh, and my schedule:

Mod 1: Resource
Mod 2: Physics I
Mod 3: AP U.S. History
Mod 4: English 10 Honors
Mod 5: Band & Lunch
Mod 6: Chemistry I
Mod 7: Spanish III
Mod 8: Pre-Calculus Honors

Mahh...does not sound fun at all. >.>  Well, wish me luck!

- E

Quick Post: New layout.

As you probably noticed, the blog's changed. Once again.

And this time, it's not just the designs and layout and colors--it's also the blog title and (soon) the banner. I don't know why I chose red/maroon, or whatever, but I think it looks nice right now. And as for the new blog title--what do you guys think? I was aiming for something that would incorporate the old name, and me as a writer.

The banner will be changed soon enough. The one I have right now is just a replacement until I can figure out what to do with the new one. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know because as of now, I'm fresh out of ideas.

Well, it's best that I get going again with my writing...after my month-long break and all.
*sigh*

- E

Quick Post: The weird realization.

Now that I'm fifteen, I'm the same age as Gwen, my MC of Depravity.

Weird.
That is so weird...
I'm rarely ever the same age as my MCs, if I can help it. I usually make them older than me, and they definitely cannot be younger.
But now we're the same age.
The good thing is that once you hit the teens, I feel like there isn't as big a gap between the different ages. I mean, if you're fifteen, you could get along fine with an eighteen year old and probably won't be able to feel all young and immature. Well, hopefully that's true. I tend to write better if my MC and I share the same age group, but it still feels weird to be the same age as them.

- E