Again, please don’t take the quote to heart. They’re meant to provoke thought.

The topic of this “blogging session” =DD is to reflect on what we’ve learn in English over the course of this year. I like this topic; I like English so naturally the two go rather well together. My favourite thing this year was probably creative writing–encompassing short stories, haikus, poetry… Before this year, I had never tried writing a haiku, and then I went through a stage of writing them every night. (For example, the “butterfly” I put onto my blog.) Writing poetry in class also encouraged me to write more of it at home; before I would generally just write stories. Even in storywriting, I believe this English class helped me to broaden and develop my writing–as well as not writing much, if any, poetry, before completing a short story assignment in this class, I never wrote short stories either, as I wasn’t sure how to fit so much into just a short period of space.

Oh–I failed my NaNo. =[ But I don't truly believe it was a fail since I capitulated. I had too many projects, too much to catch up on at school, and I just realised some things had to wait--as a result, I'm trying again this December and January. I got about twenty thousand words last month, so that's SOME sort of an achievement, I suppose, even if it's not very big.

We also had the final meeting of the Writer's Group yesterday, as today we break up from school. Melanie couldn't come =[ but she gave us a gorgeous present, a scrapbook sort of thing, for our writing. The meeting was rather short, and I'm going to really miss the Writer's Group during the holidays, but most of us have exchanged emails. I'm looking forward to seeing if we can exchange some sort of writers' prompt or challenge.

I'm not sure if I'll use this blog again. I'm pretty sure I will during the holidays, but after then... I'm not sure. Even though this site is good, I much prefer LiveJournal, for the easy networking and the communities. But I've had fun writing in this blog. =]

Oh, what I ditch my poor NaNo for.

Yes, I know I made a post a couple of minutes ago. *embarrassed*

I just wanted to shamefully advertise a random piece of writing I did. *more embarrassed*

And!!–I remembered what I was going to say. Well, sort of. One thing. Okay, not really, but I remembered SOMETHING.

I made an advertisement on an LJ community, saying I wanted someone for a journal project. The idea, was that we both get a journal, and write in it each day, (or stick in photos, quotes, collages, song lyrics, etc.) and then, when three months is up, we send them to each other. Just like a snippet from someone else’s life. I actually got a few journal partners, and I am really looking forward to getting them. xD

So that’s going rather well. XD

By the way–my quote title isn’t necessarily my opinion. =] I just like other people’s views on things, and religion is something I love to study. So no offence is meant. (:

Wow. If my NaNoWriMo were doing any worse, it’d be famous. :S I’ve learnt that I write a lot LESS when I downright try to commit myself to something… I had the story I was doing all planned out, setting, character profiles, chapter structure, everything, and now I’ve gone off and done another ten thousand words on Shadow Aspect with absolutely no progress to my new story. Besides that, I’ve been writing songs, poetry, and even continuing a Deltora Quest fanfic I started several months ago. Which I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have bothered with if I weren’t just procrastinating in regards to NaNoWriMo.

I’ve read some pretty good books, lately. One I started today was ‘Fifty facts that should change the world’. One in particular that struck me was ‘Forty-four million women in China are missing’. In the chapter, it expanded on China’s one child policy, as well as the human trafficking industry. This reminded me of two things–first, a movie I saw several months with my mother, The Jammed. That in particular was about human trafficking here in Melbourne. I thought it was an excellent film, but it was incredibly disturbing when you considered the fact that it’s actually something that happens in our city, whether you’re mixed up in it or not.

The second was a book I read, Terra-Farma, which was in an (unfinished) trilogy, and the sequel to Galax-Arena. This book is one of my favourites ever, science-fiction (although, contradictingly, called my some people, anti science-fiction) and very, very intriguing. The first book is about three children who are taken on a journey in a spaceship, then told they are on another planet and are forced to perform death-defying stunts in an arena for aliens. One of the children is then taken off to become an alien’s pet.

Terra-Farma, the sequel, is when two of the characters from Galax-Arena are taken to a breeding farm, to breed female wives to sell in China. That was, I suppose, what most reminded me of the book.

Believe it or not… I actually had something to say. I started this post for a reason, and now I can’t remember what it was. *scratches head* Frustrating, yes?

I haven’t written in awhile, have I? Fittingly enough, the thing that inspired me was reading my friends’, Bri-oh-no, Lee-Lee, and Nardia’s blogs.

I honestly don’t know what to write about, though I really despise reading those words in people’s blog posts. ;] See the title of my post? I believe I’ve mentioned it before, but I love quotes, and one sort I like is people’s last words. If you’ve ever read the book Looking for Alaska, you’ll recognise this odd fixation, heheh. I would actually recommend that book –it’s the sort of story that could turn out really bad, but, ((in my opinion)) didn’t.

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. XD For anyone who doesn’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The aim is, over the period of one month –November– to write a total of 50, 000 words, whether it’s fiction, fanfiction, poetry –whatever. You can see the rules here. I’m planning on writing a story I’ve had in my head for a few months, which is my attempt at creating a magical boarding school that does not resemble Harry Potter. A challenge, huh? ^ ^ That’s why I say attempt.

Speaking of Harry Potter– what does everyone think about the new revelations of Dumbledore’s sexuality? I was a little, uhm, surprised, but as my friends would know, I had Dumbledore / Grindelwald pinned from the start, hahah. I first got ((excitedly!!)) emailed the news by a penpal, and I ran off to get the paper from the milkbar to see if it was true. Sure enough, the Herald Sun had an article on it. I laughed for about an hour straight ((slight exaggeration, lol)) then went off to show everyone else.

I’ve been on several Harry Potter forums since then, talking with other fans about the impact the news would have. I think, although I could be wrong, that readers were split pretty much 50 / 50 on whether or not it would be bigger if it was revealed in the books, or as tight “canon”. Some of the people I talked to said that those who might have stopped reading during the books if they’d “known about Dumbledore” would be more affected knowing they had finished the entire series, then heard about a character they thought they had known during it.

On the whole, it doesn’t really affect me. I’m a HP fan through and through whatever happens. XD

I have been obsessed with butterflies lately.

What’s on my mind? I really don’t know. Unfortunate, as that’s what I’m supposed to be writing about.

Right now, it’s basically that self-pity of:: ‘Oh, I wish I wasn’t sick.’ Yeah, I have the flu. Have, had, whatever. I’m recovering. I spent yesterday in bed, writing ten pages of ‘Shadow Aspect’, which I think I’m going to have to rewrite because they’re terrible. What’s that word that means, I don’t know, writing in the midst of some extreme emotion? Catharsis, I think. Anyway, I hate doing that. Maybe one fifth of the time it produces something that is actually okay, but the rest of the time it’s just warped, distorted and melodramatic. Yesterday, for example, I got ten pages of some weird hyperrealism thing, which does just not fit.

So. I’m somewhat frustrated ’cause I have to rewrite that, but at the same time, I can’t rewrite things I’ve already done. So I guess it’s going to have to stay for now.

Next topic we’re supposed to write about? ((I know; I’m so subtle with incorporating themes.)) What I’ve learnt this week, and what I need to learn. What I’ve learnt is… I don’t know. I’ve learnt that bowling lanes are slippery, and that if you starting running down them, you will fall. And, if this is absolutely embarrassingly necessary, then it’s best not to have the bowling ball in your hand while you do it.

What do I need to learn? Well, that depends. There’s a lot of things I could learn, but nothing I suppose I really need to. What am I aiming for? Well, maybe to start looking for questions instead of answers. Helpful, yeah?

I received a package in the mail last week. Well, I receive a lot of packages, so this wasn’t exactly unusual. This particular package contained a manga –again, not unusual. I opened it up:: ‘D. N. Angel’. Again, not unusual, as it’s my favourite anime / manga.

What was unusual, however, was the fact that it was entirely in Japanese.

*growls*

Okay, I’m over that. But seriously. I can’t speak / read / write Japanese!! My penpal KNOWS that! But, I must say, it does add nicely to my D. N. Angel collection. xDD

I’ve read some pretty interesting books this week. Last week, I bought ‘Notes from the Teenage Underground’. I was expecting it to be a little more, I don’t know, pretentious or something. But it was surprisingly good, and it was amazing what strong voices the characters had. Yesterday, I swallowed down ‘Sybil’, that was the ((true)) story of a woman with multiple personalities. In the past few days, I’ve also re-read ‘Sophie’s World’, ‘the Perks of Being a Wallflower’ and ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’. ((All classic-ish ;P)) I would recommend any of these to anyone, as they’re all original, which is something I definitely value in a book, and somewhat simple to follow.

[I wrote this in two parts --'I' on Tuesday, 'II' today. yupyup]

I New post. xD We’re in English, once again, and have been writing descriptions of our bedrooms. I would post mine, except… actually I might soon. =] But for now…

Last night I received a letter from Elaine Marie Alphin. I was so excited; I only wrote to her a few weeks ago, so I wasn’t expecting a reply quite so soon. Her young adult novel, Simon Says, is one of my favourite books. ((I have been trying to get a copy for several months and I FINALLY SUCCEEDED, as well. =DD My faith in Borders has been restored.

I enjoy writing to authors, because it’s like another path in their story. I like knowing where things come from, and what they think about. Every author I’ve written to has replied, save one ((though I’m not going to mention who, as their could have been a reason. And their writing is STILL extraordinary)). So, naturally, I was superhappy when she replied, and so fast. =] I also liked the quality of her letter, and, well, yeah. The way she talked about Simon Says was amazing.

I attended the Melbourne Writers’ Festival yesterday, along with almost thirty other year nine students, and ((I think)) two teachers. This is the third year in a row I’ve been, and it’s still awesome!! The first session we had booked was two women ((Tagrid and Nadia, I think…)) speaking about the Islamic faith ((which they believed in)) and how it had been distorted over the years. I really liked that –I don’t tend to think particularly negatively of any religion, because I don’t believe in one, so I treat them all the same –I don’t think badly of them for their beliefs, since nobody has expressed any negativity at my beliefs ((or lack of, lol)). So, anyway– even though I’ve never thought badly of the Islamic beliefs, I’ve never really felt like I got the full picture. Basically, I was in ignorance of them.

My story, ‘Shadow Aspect’ is still going rather well, apart from my terrible habit of procrastination. One thing I’ve been asked is –what genre is it? And that’s the very question I can’t answer, and this is rather annoying me. It started off as, I suppose, high fantasy, as most of my stories do. Then, when I decided it was set, I don’t know, kind of in an alternate universe, kind of in the future, it turned into science-fiction, then contemporary fiction. Then speculative fiction, somewhat young adult, horror, just some weird plot consisting of religious / philosophical / moral / mythological themes… and so forth. I don’t know what genre it is, and while I don’t want to label it, and make my writing feel restricted in that sense, some closure would be nice, for refining it maybe. Now it seems like there’s just some big political war behind it all, and that’s odd, as I gave up my political obsession last year when it all became boring to me. ;P

II So. I pretty much spent all day today reading poetry on fictionpress.com ((oh, except when I sat down to watch ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ with my dad)). I, uh, have an account on there, but my stuff’s all pretty dodgy, heh, and I haven’t updated it for awhile. Basically, I like chaptered poetry, which is what I’m trying to attempt write now. The past week or so, I’ve been working on haikus, but I think this pretty much sums up by emotions for them–

too few words?— how sad.

I almost wish I had some;;

feelings won’t come out.

Uh-huh. I find them frustrating, and I’m starting to fall in love with chaptered poetry. My favourite, favourite poem is this political thing called ’static’. It’s short and totally random, but I love it, and have a copy on my bedroom wall. My other favourite poem is ‘The Rose’ by William Carlos Williams.

By the way –thank you to everyone who commented on my poem!! I really am amazed people like it, that so many of you commented it, and it’s always great to get an opinion on something you’ve done. =] Thanks to Mrs. McLeay, as well, for the link!! And starting the Writers’ Group in the first place, of course. *worships*

And, for Mrs. McLeay– =]

my ’s’ poem.

This is probably going to be short, since I’m kinda tired, kinda lazy, and have a whole heap of letters I’m hoping to finish tonight, as well as a story for a competition and a sketch. But, I did want to make an entry. Like the title? It comes from my abnormal interest in the gnostic texts, my favourites being the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas.

We had another meeting of the Writers’ Group today!! *dies* Ahh. It is SO good. I mean, I love English and everything, but it’s just a really different environment being with people who want to be there. I wish we could have it every day, rofl. I would honestly go if we did ((apart from the fact that I’d miss the Edge, the Environment Group, and… the Fanfiction group, as soon as we set it up)).

I’m going to the Writers’ Festival on Monday, with other year nines and two of our teachers. I’m excited –I’ve been the last two years, and it’s been great!! We usually go with the Edge, except we had a different sort of excursion this semester, so I had convinced my dad to take the day off work, let me take the day off school, and come with me to the Writers’ Festival ((shh, don’t tell my teachers ^ ^)) but luckily, I didn’t have to do that after all! I wanted to see Sonya Hartnett, to be honest, but as she’s reasonably local, I guess I can do that another time. =]

I was reading what we were *supposed* to be doing on our blogs last lesson, except I was absent. So, I’ll do it now? It basically said to include a hyperlink, I believe. I can’t think of anything right now I’d like to link to, except maybe my fanfiction and original fiction pages. I will, however, include a link to a ((admittedly sucky)) poem I wrote. I think it needs something, so criticism would be warmly welcomed. ;P I’m not very good at poetry, but–

link.