In class today we had to bring a rough draft of our first paper. I didn't know that it had to be a maximum of five pages, and I had eight, but that's okay. It's easier to cut things out (sometimes) than it is to add things in without sounding like you're just BSing it.
Our professor had us group up with a partner. I tend to be on the shy side of things, so he had to set up a partner for me, but it was all good, and I even saw her later today in front of the language tutoring lab. She forgot her paper, but had her plotting paper with her, so I added in some things on her paper. It's a ghost story, and it sounds really interesting. She said there was some trauma that was in the family, and I wrote down different ways that the trauma could affect the family. I hope it was useful.
She said that my story sounded interesting, and I was happy, but while I had described the places and scenes, she said she wanted to know more about how the characters looked. Whoops. I tend to like to draw out what my characters look like, and because I have that image in my mind I tend to forget to write in a description of my characters. Also, sometimes it feels awkward writing a description of my protagonist. I don't want it to be like a list of attributes, kind of like you write in a journal, "oh I have blue eyes, brunette hair, I'm 5' 3.5" and I hate oranges." (For the most part that's me, except the oranges part. I like them.) So, I don't want to list out what my character looks like, but I have to describe her somehow. Hmmm. I mean with the other character, it's not that hard. My protagonist can describe him in different ways like, "She glared into his dark brown eyes" and "She watched that bob of brunette hair from her peripheral vision as she took down one of the robbers" and "She pushed his slight figure out of the way of the kicking horse." I was going to say short, hehehe, but then I remembered that he's only like an inch or two shorter than she is, but he's going to hate that. He's the king, he shouldn't be shorter than his guard. Or maybe he should be. It makes the guard look better.
And, Argh! I hate conclusions, for the most part. Like some of the stories I write, I'm writing towards that situation. Like the one I wrote over the summer about how a woman is haunted by a dead stalker, and in the end she dies in the same spot he did. Or maybe it's the fact that she died. It's almost always easy to conclude with the death of a protagonist. I mean, after the protagonist dies what else can an author do? It's not like anything of interest to the reader is going on.
Anyway, getting off track here. So, my conclusion ended in some weird, that so doesn't sound like a solid conclusion type of conclusion. It reminds me of my Public Speaking class. I had a few speeches where I would end with a kind of non conclusive word, and kind of flounder my arms in an attempt to make it known that I was done. That's how I feel my ending is like.
Huh, I was just thinking how sometimes in a story you end as you began. So my story began with her jumping from tree limbs in search of the kings camp, so maybe I could end with them walking back into the camp? But, she's injured, oh, wait, that'd be cool. She starts above the ground free because she hadn't found the king yet, but now she is bound by her promise to her father, and bound to the king, who is bound to the land.
Awww, poor Mia. Of course, if she hadn't made that promise she would be married and having her fourth child by now. Instead, she's a totally awesome ninja, navigator, commander, jack of all trades kind of woman, and a master in each area. I think that sounds so much cooler than being married and having kids, although I wouldn't mind it. Hey, that'd be kind of interesting. I mean, this is just a short story, but it was part of a bigger, probably novel like idea, but I was thinking if I did start writing it, I could create a character that is married and has four children and pregnant with another baby to, um, contrast to Mia, who is "anything the kind needs her to be." She could even have long blonde hair and brown eyes and is short to contrast even more with Mia.
So that's day one as a beginning writer. Interesting.
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