My Video Response #7

Margaret Atwood's Creative Process
This author thinks that if you can not get into a book/begin it, you should not be doing it. The question that you should be asking when writing is, which of the ideas will you be tackling (using more and most of). Sometimes you should stay in the safe zone and not take a risk, but do something with someone manageable. There are no rules, you just have to plunge into it.
An opening to a book/chapter that this author uses is to hint the point on how the book will end. Further into it you should use sticking outs (clues and/or main points). A bed side notebook for important thoughts is a great use because when you wake up and have an idea, jot it down.
There is no normal time that takes her to write a novel because it depend on how long the novel is and on how well or bad the novel is going. It can take a long time if you start on the wrong foot or if you get far on the path and find out that you have to change a few things/everything.

My Feedback on Video #6

Elizabeth Gilbert Discusses a Writer's Life
This author says that she writes because it is the only thing that she can do. I like this, because writing is a talent that not everyone has. My opinion is that some writers say that because they have not looked deeper inside of their heart. Everyone is passionate about something. Most writers are passionate about writing, but they also have some other talents. Most writers think that it is the only thing that the can do. That is why most of their other talents are hidden, but you have to dig deep in your heart to find them.
This author believes that having multiple talents is like a curse because you have to divide your time and be here and over there with using them, while when you have one, you will dedicate yourself to that only one. My opinion is that having multiple talents is something beautiful. Why only use one when you have many. Use all of them. Use one at a time or combine them and see what you get. It's true that's sometimes you will spend more time on one than the other, but when you have time to use them, use them the most and best that you can.
The authors states that she did not love or wasn't good at anything else other than writing. That may be true in some cases, but you can also experience other interest. I am not good at everything, but I like to experience new things and when I do, I give my all even if I am not good at it.
This author states that writing was just a simple gift that she received. That is why it is her only talent! Now I get it! She said that she didn't have any other talents because writing is the easiest for her. Some talents are easily given, others you have to work for to get them. Challenging yourself is good. When you don't have no  other choice in a challenge, you do the best that you can and the result is good. Challenge yourself with experiencing new interest and look at what you are getting passionate about, for that will bring out your talents.
The authors creative process begins with curiosity. I agree, and I also would add imagination to curiosity. Curiosity pulls your attention and imagination adds extra things (how you would want it or how you thought it would be, etc.)

My Feedback on Video #5

Ceridwen Dovey's Advice for Writers
 This author says that writing is hard work. I agree with her. Writing does take time and it also takes your most effort. If you do hard work and give your all, your writing will be good. If you do just whatever and not value your writing piece, it will not be good. Good writers are always working on new ideas and just writing and writing. Others are reading and reading. Not only should writers write and read, but live life to have experiences to write about. A writer takes lots of imagination. All writers have talent, but they should not be wasting it.

My Feedback on Video #4

Neil Gaiman's Advice for Young Writers

I really enjoyed what this author was talking about. As writers we need to read books. Many books. This world has many writers with different ideas and point of view of things. Many writers in the world have created stories and other writing pieces, but those stories say nothing (don't speak to you/ not interesting, or open your eyes in a different world). Gaiman spoke about writers needing to live. I agree with that. Live life as much as you can. Go through different experiences because it will bring the person that you are out. Go through different situations because those different situations create ideas. Those ideas create stories. Those stories are from your heart and they are true. You only have to do one thing as a writer. Just write and write about those experiences and your story will have something to say.

Comment what you have as a Bucket List for this year. (I am interested in hearing what you would like to experience and/or write about.

An Anti-Love Poem Exercise

               I still remember 'The One' 
I laugh,
everyday that I cared about your thoughts.
When someone hurted your feelings and I was there.
When they back-stabbed you, but I reminded you that I was always going to have your back.

I laugh, 
at all the times that I hugged you,
that I felt so protected.
That I had the chance to listen to your heartbeat.
Now that I think about it, I should've ripped it off.

I laugh,
at the dinners that we had together.
When we use to have those stupid conversations,
but yet they meant so much.
We ate spaghetti as our lips touched,
but why didn't I get a fork and ate a different plate of angel hair pasta myself.

I laugh,
as I think about how we did everything together.
We had fun together,
We cried together,
We were together in good and bad times.
My grandparents told me,
"always be there for your love one and enjoy your time together now that you are young."
I believed them,
but I can't believe you.

I laugh,
that day that you went home,
you delivered flowers and a big box of Hershey Kisses.
All the flowers were real, except for the one in the middle.
You told me that you will love me till the last one dies.
One of them never died,
but why did our love?

I laugh,
as I think about all the small gifts.
They use to mean so much.
Do you remember that ring that you put on my ring finger?
It meant a promise, if you do not recall.
But you never kept it.

I laugh,
as you use to be my sunshine in a rainfall.
The one who gave me a smile everyday.
The one who had my back,
but now you backstab it as they did to you.
But do you remember that I was always there?
The problem is that there is not another one of me to have my back.

I laugh,
that's because I fell to your story.
It was once a 'once upon a time',
and  you promised a happily ever after.
But it turned out to be a Romeo and Juliet,
about us killing our own love.

I laugh,
 at those wasted seconds,
wasted minutes,
wasted hours,
wasted days,
wasted week,
and that wasted year.
That was all because of 'The One'


To all of the Perfectionist out there that like to judge, read this before you do:
#1- It is not edited.
#2- I will soon be editing it (if you like it, make sure to comment and/or look at it again in a few days because I will update it).
#3- I am not a perfect writer. Writing is just something that I love and enjoy doing.
#4- I have never experimented with a 'anti-love poem' (1st time: Just experimenting new writing pieces).

Rattlebone Review

A class assignment was to read a book called Rattlebone. The author is Maxine Clair. It is about a girl that goes through many situations in her life while the Brown vs. Board of Education is going on. At the beginning of the book, she is a child with this innocent mind that does not know what is going on, but then she begins growing older and her life begins to change. She wants to act like a woman and put stuff on (make-up) thinking that she is a woman. Her dad was taken away from her and her mother by a teacher, but since she was small, she did not understand it. She hangs out in the street with her friends/neighbors. One of them is Wanda and she kept a diary once that lots of things that happened to her, such as the first experiences that happened to her. She then has a boyfriend that is a Quander and her mom did not want her with a Quander boyfriend. Many situations with a plot twist that adds a new character each time to let the reader see something more.

As this story added new characters, it was not meaningless. The characters were each there for a purpose. When your write a writing piece, do not add a character because they are beautiful, but add it because they are important and have something significant that needs to be revealed.

I rate it a 3/5.

Other readers are welcome to tell me what they saw about this book in the comments below and the rate they give it.

My Inspiration

Many things inspire me to write a new story, poem or play. I get inspired by what I see or by what I hear as new ideas begin to develop and connect with others. There is also people themselves that inspire me. That starts with home. In my house, we go through many things. When I say house, I mean the people that I spend time with and the loved ones. We go through sadness, anger, joy, loneliness , fulfillment, etc. But you know what? That is what creates stories. Your experiences with loved ones and the stuff that we do and have. An example of one of the people that inspire me is my mom. Me and her are always together. Many people think that we are sisters. Sometimes we even come out of our rooms with the same color of clothes as if we had planned it. We know each other as the palm of our hand. Even though, we have different personalities. That inspires me to write a story about twins and how they are different in personality. Another example is the vase that my grandmother has in the dining table. That could inspire me to write a poem describing it and I could give it human qualities as if it was me being alone until it's time to eat. Your best writing piece comes from your heart, and what's in your heart is what you love and value. In my case, my inspiration is the love ones that are always there for me and giving me new ideas.

A Link to School of the Arts

      I remember my audition to School of the Arts. In this world there's probably lots of young writers like me and many of them want to go to a school that includes arts where you can flaunt all the talent that you have. Writers are not appreciated now a days. To many people, we are just simple, useless people. I just want to tell all writers that no one is useless and that not every single person in the world can not just write like you. We are all unique and have a voice. A different language that we can speak in because of the way that we put a writing piece in it's place. If there is any student in grades 7th-12th that is interested in attending a school with arts to show off their writing skills, I encourage you to apply for an audition for School of the Arts for the upcoming year when the applications are available. I want to see our Creative Writing Family grow bigger and bigger. Meanwhile, check out our school website, the talented and amazing staff, the upcoming plays and events. Make it feel as if it was your home too.
    
                                                      WE ARE SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

Favorite Book/Story

    My favorite book is the Bible. It is a very precious book about many stories that have a message in them.  There are stories that are also similar to our lives because that is how the Lord speaks to us. The Bible also teaches you. Just as it says in 2 Timothy 3:16- "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." This meaning that it has power. God speaks to us through it and comforts us when we are sad. When we are mad, he tells us to calm down because he will fight our battles. When we are happy, he is the reason for our happiness. God has everything handled. He knows you even before you were in your mother's tummy. He knows the future. Sometimes we have plans on building and creating different things as we get older, but God's plan gets in the way. Do you know why? That is because he sees what we can not see. His thoughts are way higher than ours. That is because he knows what will happen. You might be going through a hard time, or in your mind you might be saying 'there is no God.' Right now, as you read this, I want to let you know that God is real and that without him none of us would not be here. The joy that you have wouldn't exist if it wasn't for His mercy and love.  God has mercy and love toward the humanity. Even if humanity is doing bad things and not obeying, the Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.

    A favorite story of mine in the Bible is in the book of John, chapter 8. It speaks about a woman who had committed adultery. In Moses' Law, women who committed adultery had to be stoned to death. The pharisees and the scribes were always accusing people when they sinned, and they talked amongst themselves as if they were shocked, but were actually hypocrites and gossipers. That day, they put the woman in the middle of all of them and told Jesus that this woman had sinned. They spoke to try to make Jesus accuse her, but Jesus calmly wrote on the ground with his finger. They kept on asking and speaking about her. That made Jesus stand up and tell all of them that whoever was free from sin to be the first to throw rocks at her. Knowing that they were sinners, their conscience accused them, so they left from the oldest to the youngest and the only ones left where Jesus and the woman. Looking at the woman he asked her, Where are the ones that accused you? None of them condemned you? She replied with a "none of them" and Jesus told her to leave and not sin again.

    This story shows how people always try to accuse you when you do something wrong, but the Lord tells you that he is here to forgive all of your sins because he loves you. When the Lord forgives you, you have to leave the guilt behind because if you don't you will be feeling bad about yourself and there's no need for that when your sins are forgiven. God has mercy and love with those that he sees that are willing to not do the sin that they did again. As it says in the Bible in Luke 5:32 "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

In Search for a Writing Career

A Lyricist

In the world, there are lots of careers involving writing. Not just writing on a piece of paper, but creating writing pieces yourself. One of the careers that include writing, that I like is a lyricist, which means a song writer. I like music, especially church songs. I go to church and I love to sing with the brothers and sisters of church some songs to the Lord. That is something that I would like to do.

Job Facts
A lyricist writes song lyrics for performances in songs, musicals, film/TV, and commercials, etc. There are two types of lyricist. There is a Freelance Lyricist who is a self-employed writer who tries to publish in companies. Then, there is a Staff Lyricist who are the salaried writers employed by a publishing company. Lyricists sometimes work alone, but mostly they have to work together with other lyricist, composers and recording artist.
Some lyricists are advanced because they work with better-known artist. For that you need more skill, but it would lead you to an increase in income.
An advanced degree is not necessary for this position, but language skills are necessary. Being able to play and instrument or two is also important. Lyricist should also know the difference between a poem and lyrics.
Lyricist also need some experience. They must know how to edit a song to keep it engaging. Lyricist can not write of a genre that they have not lived by because a good writing piece comes from experience. Knowing how to use a computer is also important for research.
A lyricist has to be a optimistic person. Someone who is able to work with others, being grateful and allowing someone to help if it is needed. They also should not give up on any of their work because even if it doesn't get accepted or noticed by a company, other companies will open up at the correct timing.
As a lyricist, you would not get noticed a lot because what  some people really care is about the one who performs it.
Average Annual Salary- $40,000
General Salary Range- $0-$100,000 per each project
Some get paid more and some less, just depends on what they do.
Staff Lyricist receive a weekly salary while Freelance Lyricist need to sell their songs to a music publisher to receive income.

Writing for Publication Video Response: Top Ten Rules

Top Ten Writing Rules Advice from Famous Writers

Rule#10
Write a draft. Then let it rest
                                                - Stephen King
I agree that you should let it rest and while it is resting, give it to a friend or partner to review it for you. Also you need to think about the stuff that you would be adding, but make sure that you remember that there is a deadline.

Rule#9
Read a lot.
                 - Stephen King
Writers do need to read a lot in order to look at other structures of writing. Don't read too much in the meaning that you want to copy someone else's idea because good writing pieces are not copied or written in a trendy style way, but of what you know and have experienced.

Rule#8
Never use a long word when a short one will do.
                                                                           - George Orwell
This is true because some people use large words and sometimes the reader doesn't know that vocabulary word. If  there is a shorter word that means the same thing, use it. (ex. receive and get)

Rule#7
Never use the passive voice when you can use the active voice.
                                                                                                  - George Orwell
Rule#6
Know and understand your audience.
                                                         - Pierre Berton
When we write, we need to understand what our audience likes and are passionate about. We also need to know what makes them mad and angry. To catch the audience attention, you need to make it interesting.

Rule#5
Recycle and read the good stuff before you write.
                                                                          - Pierre Berton
Revise your work to know what you want and what you don't want in your final writing piece.

Rule#4
Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary.
                                                                 - Andrew Morton
You do not need to look outside of the ordinary to find inspiration.

Rule#3
Good copy = draft - 10%
                                      - Stephen King

Rule#2
Look at every word in a sentence and decide if they are really needed. If not, kill them. Be ruthless.
                                                                                                                         - Bob Cooper
Don't be afraid to kill the unneeded and unnecessary parts of the writing piece.

Rule#1
Remember: writing does not love you. It doesn't care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.
                                                                                            - Al Kennedy



In my opinion:
As a writer, I need to work well on Rule # 6 because since I am using a blog and publicizing my work to the world, I will be needing to know my audience and the people that are seeing this because I want to write about things that interest you by giving advice and showing my own writing pieces.
I also like Rule # 2 because stuff that is not important or necessary should be deleted since it would not add any meaning to what you are writing about. (ex. The girl had blue eyes with long eyelashes.) That is important because? Rule # 5 tells the writer to revise their work to see if you like what you wrote in that certain place or move it to another or just delete it. Also if you want to add anything you can do so since you were able to revise it. It is important that writers revise their work and that's something that I am trying to become better at as a writer.

A Fulfillment Poem

Fulfillment

Because the day before yesterday I woke up very early in the morning,

I could hear the birds chirping and flying all over the sky.

When I took off my pink and purple eye mask,

I could see the sun rays in my room through the window blinds.

I knew that it was morning and that it was time for the regular routine.

I had went to my sisters room,

but she wasn’t there.

I knocked on my parents’ room,

the door opened by itself.

My house was empty,

just like my heart.

To symbolize loneliness

And then going down the stairs and not hearing a single sound.

 And because then at night,

I drove around town.

My dark blue Jeep that had half a tank,

my empty pockets sitting on the seats.

My red big eyes with a puffy cloud under them,

To symbolize need, I thought.

I stopped at Uncle Jimmy’s Pizzeria.

I questioned everyone's disappearance.

I went back to my car,

grabbed a thick black Sharpie,

and went near the closed glass window.

I wrote: Am I the only one in this world?

If there is another human being, please come near me.

Nobody seemed to see me.

Nobody seemed to hear me yelling what I wrote.

I waited more than ten minutes at front of the bus stop of Uncle Jimmy's Pizzeria.

I checked my phone to see at which time would the next bus be arriving.

It was supposed to come half an hour ago,

but yet, next to the next bus coming schedule it spelled, DELAYED.

To me, that meant hope.

 and because I was afraid that I was going to be alone,

I tried to think of a place that was always full of people.

At first, I thought about the marketplace mall.

That is where everyone enjoyed to be at.

To buy clothes, perfumes, electronics and spend time together.

But then I worried.

What if something happened to my family and the rest of the people?

It was impossible if I was here though.

I couldn’t think of a place that everyone could be.

They all told me that they loved me.

If they did, why aren't they here in my time of need?

My first thought was that they went on a trip,

and they left me.

I turned on the Jeep and left home.

A very bright light bulb turned on, on top of my head.

Home is where everyone is.

To symbolize fulfillment.

I took out my keys and opened the door.

That was when I turned on the light and I saw everyone.

My mom smiled because she knew that I was worried.

I was then, surrounded by hugs.

Those hugs fulfilled the emptiness.

Happiness began to be fueled by love.
That was when I realized that companionship is needed.

My Pet Peeve Speech

I need to get home

 Well, you see, the other day I was at the Super-Market in a rush. You know, last minute shopping for this beautiful Thanksgiving dinner that my family had. There wasn't any problems with buying food, because food is great and it gives me nutrients. The problem was that there were more than seventy-five people throwing random foods in their carts and there were only five cashiers. Like are you kidding me? Not kidding. What a nice Manager, Shelly. I admire that on a Thanksgiving night, you have lots of lines being able to open, but only five workers tonight. Beautiful job done, woman. You deserve to be the employee of the month. You do, because these five cashiers are all working slower than my great, great, great and great grandmother that took more than half an hour to get from the church in the corner of the street to here.

      I do not like (you know I would use hate, but I actually need to learn to be patient) waiting in long lines especially when I am in a rush or hungry or both. I’ve been to different places to buy things and some people are not as quick to be a cashier. Sometimes stores and markets have only a few people working at a time and that makes it difficult. Sometimes I see people waiting in line when there giving good stuff out and it seems hard to wait in a place in this cold and in line.

 According to an old friend of mine, Kimmy, whom is currently a junior in another school hates to wait in line. Sometimes we remember the good old days in elementary school, but then she tells me that the only thing she dislikes was waiting in line for everything. If we went to the lunchroom, to the music room, to gym or any other room, “I wanna see a single file line”. Women this is not a military school. It was difficult to even walk in line with so many people. Especially when there are some slow walkers. Oh please don’t get me started with that. Let’s leave that for another day. Being in line and staying in line was hard for Miss Williams and I guess that for this generation it might be even worse.

 This Black Friday, a man with the name of Jarvis Johnson camped out in front of an Arizona Best Buy. He camped out for six days and was excited when they finally opened the door to get five televisions. You know, it’s better to be first in line than last. The things is that the person who has been waiting first and the person that comes last, sometimes take the same time waiting. Being first will not make you worry that much. Being last will get you a little angry, especially if you're hungry.

        The other day, I was at Wal-Mart with my cousin. We were waiting in line to pay for some candy, but then we began looking at those chocolate bars and potato chips that they put near the paying area to make you grab some and buy it. Yep. I got caught in it and I began searching for one that I wanted. The problem was that this lady comes and she goes with her cart past us and thinks that we are not waiting in line. “Um, Excuse me, Ma'am, we’ve been waiting in line already.” I looked at my cousin. “You’re looking at something and I gotta go home.” She rudely said. I have been waiting in that line for about five minutes and was going to be next after two more people. This lady was more impatient than me. Lady, we all want to get home, but we all have to wait, so you wait too. Those were the thoughts that I couldn't say out loud because I didn't want to get beat up by a 60-year-old looking woman.

 Some people are rude and don’t really respect. They think they own the lines and want to cut. Waiting in line around people that act like they are doing something, but then eventually get in front of you, like if they are blind, gets me frustrated. That’s why, I have my two eyes look around, and to not let any of these impatients cut me when I want to go home. Waiting in line might take seconds, might take minutes, and sometimes hours. My advice is to never go hungry, go at least early just in case, and stay calm in line. The moral story is “There's a time to be patient and there's a time to be impatient.”

Fences Review

Fences was a good book. I wouldn't say great because I don't like historical books that have lots of information about a persons life that confuses you a bit, but that's my opinion. If you like those type of books, great (I would like to hear about them in the comments below). The main character's name is Troy and he is a bossy person. He is a very honest man that has a best friend called Bono. His wife's name is Rose. I don't want to spoil the story too much for the people that would like to read it, so I won't be saying much. Although I did like something about this book (play), and that is because it carried a symbol through it all. That symbol was the setting, and the setting was in the backyard. Why in the backyard? I asked myself at first. If it is a story about a baseball player, why not make it somewhere were baseball players are usually at. The author used a clever way of a setting because if he would've placed the setting on baseball stadium, it would be obvious and not that much interest. A backyard is in the back of the house. It's were children spend their childhood. That connecting with the story of Troy because he being who he is because of his childhood. A backyard is also a place where children play sports. Troy is a great baseball player and probably played sports in the backyard with relatives. Most importantly, a backyard is a place where the stuff that we don't see about his family happens. Troy goes through a lot of things with his family. No one knows about it because they only think about him as a baseball player. This setting allows the reader to understand that the world didn't know about what was really going on in his life, only the close ones did. People see from the front yard because that's what we think is happening in a persons life, but the backyard is what we don't see and what we need to understand that is really happening.

Advice to writers: Always pick a symbol to carry out throughout your writing piece because it would make the reader understand what you are writing about and why.

An Inspirational Qoute

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

—George Eliot


I chose this quote because it speaks a lot to young writers who are in need of motivation. When you are a young writer, sometimes you get criticized a lot. You then don't feel that sense of confidence and you think that everything that you write is not good enough. Well, I motivate all writers to keep on working hard because not mattering what others think or what you think badly about yourself, others will be seeing your hard work and effort. Your hard work will be determining who you are. If you don't work  hard enough, you won't be doing great writing and it will be hard to start all over with the process. If you keep the positive thoughts and do hard work, then you will be doing great because good writers never give up.
Keep doing hard work. Keep the positive thoughts. Never give up because it's not to late to become the writer that you want to be.

My Feedback on Video #3

Isabel Allende (novelist): Writing Process

An analogy that Allende uses is that of a seed. Seeds that are inside and need to grow. That meaning stories that are in your imagination and they need to be developed to be made into a book. If it has something to do with a history, then you should probably do some research. If it is and idea,  then you should sit down and generate them to begin writing. Writing takes time and sometimes lots of it. Allende thinks that in a year, you should have a book done. Working with one thing at a time
(one writing piece at a time), but if you have to work with researching for your next piece, that should be done when you have time. When you write you have to put pieces together by knowing who the main character is. If you know the type of main character, you should also think about the other characters that you want to add as the story begins to develop. Allende has a very great desk idea for writers that write books. She has dictionaries, her computer and lots of research on her desk. It is also great to have pictures of people that you love and inspire you.