What kind of writer am I?

        I am a writer who... makes mistakes and usually learns from them, takes from past experience, uses "-ish" a lot in some stuff, adds some funky words to other things, likes to write as I would speak, so it doesn't always flow right or stay on topic, but it sounds like me:)

        I am a writer who likes to write based off felling and use music and stories as inspiration.  Memories and current events I am going through, emotions, movies, anything really... how my day was, if I just did something really silly or something really serious.  If I'm hungry I'll hurry up, if I just ate, well I can just sit here and write, now can't I?

        I am a writer who likes to write about what they are doing, rant about their book, a guy, girl stuff, swimming, band, choir, friends and acquaintances, fun stuff, boring stuff maybe.  Random and specific stuff, colorful and dull topics, mostly and hopefully fun to read type of stuff.

      I am writer who strives to be perfect and knows they can't be really but can be in their head. I am a writer who can think things but can't say them, who can have a perfectly put together puzzle in their head but then on paper or in words its back to the first piece.

        I am a writer who wants to be heard, but not as me, as some anonymous amazing flawless person.  I am writer who wants to let myself show without giving too much away. 

I am a writer who wants to sounds like me.

Reading Response!!

days:                   time:           pages read:           book:



September 24       30 minutes        LITERACY NARRATIVE
September 24       15 minutes         12 pages     Clockwork Prince
September 25       20 minutes        LITERACY NARRATIVE
September 26       10 minutes         8 pages       Clockwork Prince
September 27       10 minutes         9 pages       Clockwork Prince
September 27       35 minutes        17 pages      To Build  a Fire
September 28       15 minutes        LITERACY NARRATIVE
September 30       30 minutes         25 pages     Clockwork Prince
                                                                                                    Total: 165 minutes  71 pages read


        The description and details in Clockwork Prince is AMAZING!!!  For example: pg. 274 "Will and Jem were like mice scurrying up and down the body of a cat, driving it to distraction." when they were battling a large automaton.  Also on page 307 when Tessa is thinking of how she saw Jem, as "a lovely silver shadow against the darkness."  Amazing word choice right?? Ha ha well anyways, time to do the REAL assignment...

       So any recent read that I haven't already told you what has happened over countless reading responses I wont do so that leaves a few books that I have as all time favorites to choose from, yay:):) So I'm going to choose The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern- any friends from last year can remember me talking about the book and how good it was and all that awesome stuff, well it's true- and so, ya...

Plot Structure:
Characters:  Marco, Celia, Alexander aka the man in the grey suit, Hector a.k.a Prospero the Enchanter, Bailey, Chandresh, Poppet and Widget, Tsukiko, Mme. Ana Padva, and Herr Thiessen.
Setting:  London in late 1800s and Concord, Massachusetts early 1900s.
Title and Author:  The  Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Conflict:  competition between Marco and Celia with the Circus as their chess board and the tent as their pieces.
Rising Action:
- When Alexander and Hector met up and restarted their "game" seeing who could be the best with "talent" I'm not really sure of a word for it... power? anyways, and have 2 students, Hector's daughter and a student that Alexander will find.
- the card Celia gets that says "Your Move", getting the ball rolling faster on the "game"
-  Marco and Celia meet at a Midnight Dinner at Chandresh's home.
CLIMAX:  When Celia and Marco discover they are opponents
Falling action:
- Marco and Celia fall in love
- Celia finds out from Tsukiko that only one will survive
- Herr Thiessen dies
Resolution:  Celia and Marco get themselves "out of the equation" and unattached to the Circus so that they can live happily ever after together.

      OK, well I hope that this was an OK plot structure of The Night Circus, an amazing book by the way.  Really good, you should read it sometime:) Alright well yep, so that's it:) Now back to Clockwork Prince...

Revision work

OK, so I cant really tell y'all whats going on in my book at the moment without spoiling a huge important part in it so you'll just have to read it for yourselves.    Its such a good book, plus it's fiction, so that's always a good thing:)  Clare's description and attention to detail is superb as always and its hard to put down.  So because of this, I'm going to talk about my narrative revisions.
       My literacy narrative is about how reading a dreadfully boring non-fiction book in first grade changed my outlook on reading and got me to stay away from the genre for quite a while.  For my revision I plan on adding vivid detail as well as change some word choice in a few spots and add a little more dialogue to emphasize why I chose the book in the first place.  That I needed to do some research for.  About halfway through class today, while working on the narrative, I remembered an important detail as to why I had not minded that the book was on Benjamin Franklin- I had been hooked to a television show called Liberty's Kids at the time, which was in the time period and had Ben as a character, so I thought that one perk of the book would be that it would somehow, maybe relate to the show.  It did in a way.  The main character in the book and Ben in the show had the same name and description.  Other than that I remember little so, ya...
       I looked up the show on PBS.com and couldn't find it so I asked my mom when I got home.  She thought it was Patriot's Kids so I looked that up.  No luck but I got a hit in the search bar for google on the real title and ended up finding a whole website on the show, confirming that Ben Franklin was a character and that it actually happened.  I have added that part into my narrative as well as a little more description to hopefully bring the reader "into the scene" and... ya:)  Um... I added some more about why I thought that the book couldn't be that bad and how I was wrong.  Way off base with that one.  Well, that's about all I have on revisions so, yep:)
<3 Wendy

Thinking...

"Have you ever crossed the road, and looked the wrong way? A car's nearly on you? So what do you do? Something very silly.  You freeze.  Your life doesn't flash before you 'cause you're too scared to think- you just freeze and pull a silly face." - from the movie Snatch, in 2000.
     
      OK, so I know what you're thinking, why put this? Well, I'll tell you:)  So, when I'm bored or just need some inspiration to think or some motivation, I look up quotes.  Sometimes they're funny, sad, quizzical, or from specific movies or people.  For this one I just searched  "movie quotes".  This popped up as one.  I find it interesting because it's true, now that I think about it.  If you see the car before you cross, you run fast across or you wait until the next big gap between cars.  But if you are halfway across and turn and see a car, you freeze mid step.  Like you don't know if you should go back or not.
      I've personally had quite a few experiences with that feeling, none ending badly though, so that's good, but it, I don't know... I just found it really interesting.  That split second or less of pure mental and physical block where you just cant decide what to do because thousands of scenarios are flashing through your head about what could happen and your body's trying to tell you what to do... I'm not sure why, but this one quote just caught my eye.  I felt somehow compelled- however cheesy that sounds- to write about it. 
       And who knows? Maybe next time I'm in a situation like that I'll think of this post and just kinda go in a circle with my thoughts, what should I do? I wrote about this... did I say what to do? what's more logical? I don't know... but I found it very interesting and relate able to most, so... ya:)  Topics are kinda hard to just think of to write about, so quite a few free posts will probably start with a cool quote or some lyrics...  So think about it.  Have you ever experienced this???
<3 Wendy

Literacy Narrative Idea, Maybe

        Well, I'm not really sure about what I'm going to write about for this literacy narrative, and my mind is drawing a blank right now.  I mean, if I read a really well- written, entertaining, fun, and amazing book I'll usually end up thinking about different stories that I could write for fun or something, I don't really know, but it usually centers around some part of the book I read, whether it be character personality, looks, or location.  I don't know why, but I do.   So maybe writing isn't my best option...
         Maybe for reading I could do something like how my whole family at home reads and how my dad would read to me for a long time at night when I was younger and how that got me to like reading more than if I weren't hoping to see what the next night and few more chapters would bring in the Nancy Drew, mostly, or sometimes Indiana Jones books, whatever they may be.  I would think about what was going to happen in that book and then, when we finished that one, he would take me to the library and I would go into the childrens' section and grab 2 or 3 different books in that series, not necessarily in order, and go back to the front where my dad would be making his way to the check out counter as I did that.  I remember how my dad would make his way up the stairs and read a while and, when I was asleep, turn off the lights and go downstairs and I would at times wake up when he had made his way downstairs and hear his chair creak as he sat down and went to the kitchen or where ever he went.  I think it influenced my reading because if he didn't read to me, even when I knew how to read, it gave me something to look forward to each night that involved books, and it helped me sleep, so it was all good:) But it's not really a short event/scene, so there's that issue... but I don't know... Maybe it could work, I'm not sure...
Well thanks for putting up with this brainstorming:)
- a confused teenager

A Secret Masquerade

Even if you dont see me, I'll be there...
        I'm still on Clockwork Princeby Cassandra Clare and still loving the book.  I really like Clare's word choice and how she describes things such as the rain on page 178 when she writes "great, icy drops that tasted of cahrcoal and silt." and that it- the rain in London- had a "needlelike sting" to it, and compared it to the rain in the countryside and the "green fresh taste of it, the way it felt to roll over and over down a damp hillside, getting grass in your hair and clothes.  You think of different scenes in each.
       So, Tessa has kissed Jem now.  But still maybe likes Will, so... there's that.  And then Sophie and she have seen Jessamine leaving her room at night dressed as a boy and then Sophie catches her with a masquerade ball invitation that is pretty secret and held by Mr. Lightwood.  Nate, Tessa's brother is apparently back, and Jessamine is his lover because he wrote her a note on the back of the invite with what dress to wear and called her "Jessie" in the note, very informal for a gentlemen then.  So, since they had the invite and Sophie knocked out Jessamine, Tessa is Changing into Jessamine for the night and going to the ball with Will, who will be hiding in the shadows, but will be there for her when she needs him. Tessa has to pretend to be her brother's lover... weird right? So she goes and Changes and gets all dolled up and then walks out and her and Will are picture perfect contrast in their get ups.  She, as Jessamine, has blonde hair which contrasts with Will's dark hair and her white dress and gold domino half mask that is sharp contrast with his black suit and mask.   Some things go down at the dance about what Tessa may be that you will just have to read the book to find out.  I'm not gonna spoil the book.  So then she and Will kiss on the balcony when she Changes back on accident.  But it was probably because of a drug in a drink? Ya right but whatever, I think it just made them show wha they really fell but that's just me:)
       After the ball, Will chases the demon that cursed him and gets his tooth stuck in his arm and acts a little weird, which Magnus finds might be a coincidence, might not be one.  Then Jessmaine is sent to the Silent City so that the people there can try and figure out what she knows besides what she told Charlotte and them all in her room when she woke.  Right now, Jem and Tess have gone there to convince her to write a note to Nate, asking to meet him, and Tess will Change into her and dress in boy's clothes and go meet him, and catch him.  Also, Sophie and Gideon Lightwood might have a "thing" going on between them, but maybe not, according to Sophie.
      I really like this book and can't wait to finish it.  What is Tessa? Jem or Will? Nate and Jessmaine... together forever? I'll just have to find out.


Reading times:
9/11/12: 9 minutes, 9 pages
9/13/12: 10 minutes, 10 pages
9/14/12: 17 minutes, 12 pages
9/16/12: 120 minutes, 77 pages
       

Response to Comment

        Well, I just revised my "In Defense of..." post with tips from Dr. D's comment.  She typed: "Wendy, you have a really developed post with a lot of good reasons. I want you to think about where you could strengthen by simplifying. For instance, how would this post be changed if you began with "Without music, life would be boring: no background music in movies, TV, or commercials, no songs at all, and none of your favorite singers would even be doing what they are doing." While it is good to know your thinking about choosing a topic, putting that at the beginning prevents you from having a strong, striking opening."  I took that into consideration and changed my opening to a question... "What would life be like without music?"  I mean really, what would it be like?  Can you imagine?  Anyways...  I simplified some of the rambling I did in the blog and shortened it and added some more specifics to make it a little better. 
        By changing the opening, I think I let it be a little more readers' thought based rather than think about if this happened and this happened and all these specifics on how life would be different.  It lets the reader think on it for a second or two before reading my reasons as to how it would be different and how I feel it is important in my life.  I know I don't really do the whole "simplifying" thing and ramble or add unimportant things, and I'm trying to get out of that habit.  I also know I'm not that great of a writer, so I hope this makes sense as to why I revised and how it changed the post.

Independant Reading

If no one cares for you at all, do you even really exist?... 
I'm currently reading Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare and am really enjoying it.  This week I have read:
9/5/12- 10 minutes, 8 pages (16-24)        9/9/12- 42 minutes, 33 pages (40-73)
9/6/12- 10 minutes, 8 pages (24-32)        9/9/12- 26 minutes, 23 pages (73-96)
9/7/12- 10 minutes, 8 pages (24-32)        9/9/12- 60 minutes, 50 pages (96-146)
I dont think that I have really devled all that much into this book, so here it goes...  There was this trial because Charlotte, who runs the Institue in London with her husband, Henry, is deemed responsible of losing Mortmain, an evil man who is making automatons- viscious, inhuman robots, and is assigned the task of finding his whereabouts in 2 weeks, or Benedict Lightwood canchallenge Charlotte for being in charge of the institue.  There's Will, a Shadowhunter and his parabatai- like his brother, but not.  It's where you, as a Shadowhunter, find another Shadowhunter before you turn eighteen.  Not everyone gets one.  You are then bound together and protect one another.  It can come in quite handy- Jem who is sick and has to take a drug to keep him alive but it makes him silver.  They seem to be very different.  Will, a lady's man who goes out to drink and the like and Jem, quiet and sweet and friendly.  There's also Tessa, a warlock... maybe?  She's unmarked- some have cat- like eyes, some a tail...- but shes not mundane- human.  She can change into someone, look into their thoughts and memories, become that person, just by holding an item that is close to them from a coat button to a locket they wore. In the pages I read, she changed into Aloysius Starkweather, a senile old man who might have been hiding some pieces of information when she, Will, and Jem visited him.  She saw the thoughts as fragments of mostly unsensable fragments, with little help.
        Gabriel and Gideon Lightwood are brothers and the sons of Benedict Lightwood and are training Tessa, Sophie, a maid in the Institute, and Jessamine- shes a Shadowhunter, but not proud of it.  She hasnt participated in any of it so far.  They are training them so that they can defend themselves in case of an attack, like what happened in the first book.  There's Magnus Bane, a warlock, and he is helping Will when he comes to see him distraught.  Will spills his story as to why he is so cold towards others and why he wants Magnus to send him to the demon world.  When he was 12, he curiously opened a box in his fathers office from when he was a Shadowhunter- he wasnt one anymore because he married a mundane and left that life- and a blue demon appeared and cursed him.  Anyone who loved him would die.  Not necessarily over night, but they would.  The demon started with his sister.  After that he left and stayed at the London Institute, making everyone think of him as cold and mean.
        He's only 17- I tend to forget that sometimes.  They act older than their age but then again not.  Will loves Tessa and thinks that he has to make her not love him and that that's the most important thing at the moment.  Tessa loves Will... or does she? She might be falling for Jem, who clearly to Sophie- in love with Jem- but not to Tessa, is in love with her.  Complicated and curious. Now at this point in the book, Will, having just seen this house that is housing his family- he cont go near because Mortmain has automatons ready to attack if he warns them- is freaked out and talks to Magnus who writes to Tessa telling her that Will may be getting himself into trouble.  She gets Jem and together they find Will, having abused subastances at the place where he buys the drug for Jem, passed out and some stuff is about to go down...
       The line from the top of this post- sorry its so long, but a lot of stuff had to be said and described...- and Will says it when talking to Magnus. He got it from a letter that Tessa sent Nate- her brother, not exactly the nicest person now- when she was being forced to use her power. I really like it and it makes me think.... well, do you? So far, I really like this book as I did Clockwork Angel, and am excited to see what more will happen...will they find Mortmain? Who does Tessa really love? What about Jem's illness and Will's curse?  We shall see...