Tuesday 27 November 2012

Twitter Fiction


1 – I heard the crunch of a branch as I tore it off the vine. The grapes tasted sweet with a hint of bitterness. I was addicted until I dropped.
2 – You yelled at me for being second best. I’ll always remember the tone of your voice, the rage in your eyes. I’ll never look at you the same.
3 – “Tragedy,” he said, “I’ve been through it.” The boy looked up at him differently. Tears filled his eyes because someone finally understood.
4 – It had never been just me and my dad alone on a trip. Why now? He came up to me. He said, “I’m so happy we can do this. I’ve been waiting.”
5 – It was four a.m. I woke to the ghastly smell of smoke, flooding into my nostrils. I yelled. There was no response. I panicked. I ran.
6 – She stroked the dull side of the metallic blade. She thought long and hard, but something held her back; something spiritual, almost holy.
7 – He raised his rough hand and placed it along her delicate jaw line. She stared into his eyes. He whispered, “This is just the beginning.”
8 – Why did I leave? Why did I give up on the most inspiring and real person I had ever met? Pain hit me quickly. It came randomly, sharply.
9 – She was rock climbing a grand mountain. He was on the edge. He held her rope up. She begged and cried. He cut the rough rope slowly.
10 – I was with him. I was always with him, but today was different. Standing in the scratchy wildgrass, hearing it blow in the wind. I saw love.
11 – Every day after lunch, I feel the scratchy tip of a toothbrush at the back of my throat. I feel sick. I feel tortured. However, I feel fit.
12 – My father isn’t who everyone sees. I’ve seen a side; a side that isn’t so caring or loving or beautiful. I’ve been a victim. #beaware
13 – I dream of the wooden runways, the high heels jabbing my feet creating blisters. I want to hear the crowd, smell the stuffy backstage air.
14 – I asked my father a question. He asked me one back. He lost his keys, he doesn’t know what month it is, and his question was, “Who are you?”
15 – I kissed his sweet, soft, loving lips and a smile spread across his face. A good feeling swept through my body, my muscles, my bones.
16 – I remember when we were young we would sit on the cold, hard concrete and pick off sticky tar. Why can’t we go back to feelingless days?
*(One group of small story tweets, same topic, could be conjoined)
17 – The field can be soft as clouds, hard as rock. When you slide, the mud can smear up your leg or you can feel the pain of the stiff ground.
18 – Playing in the drizzling rain is exhilarating. Your cleats dig into mud. Feeling the cold drops falling onto your hot skin is refreshing.
19 – Hearing the pound of your foot meet the blown up sphere and fly through the air to exactly where you aimed it to go is an amazing thing.
20 – I smell my sweaty self. I start to taste the blood and spit in my mouth from overworking, but I push harder and score. They yell.
21 – It was sunny and hot. She went on the dock and dove in. A man arrived. He dove in after. Her head went under and stayed under.
22 – I held the silver rod in my hand. I heard the waves crashing lightly against the boat. I felt a tug. I used all of my strength to catch one.
23 – The usual crosswalk didn’t interest me. It was much quicker to cut across one busy road. My adrenaline rushed. I made the wrong choice.
24 – I walked into the bland smelling doctor’s office. A bigger body pushed past me. It took long to get called. I was diagnosed with cancer.
25 – It was fall. I heard the crunch of the leaves, smelled the crispness of the air. I picked up a rough stick and I ran into you. Beginnings.
26 – I sat in my new car. The fresh smell filled my nose. I felt the smooth, firm leather and started the engine. I drove until I heard a bang.
27 – I took my garbage out one cloudy day. A terrible, rotten stench crept up my nose. One I had never smelled before. What if it was a body?
28 – The train whizzed by. Nothing was going to stop it from bulldozing the woman tied in front. No one was around. I leapt from my bench. Dead.
29 – I said, “It’s not you, it’s me.” He replied, “Yes you’re right. It is you. All it ever is is you”, and ran into the cold, November sun.
30 – I stroked the soft fur of my dog, my favorite companion. The smell of outdoors floated off his fur. I heard him whimper and his eyes shut.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Personal Addition #24


I believe this was in the Minneapolis zoo a while back. You can walk under aquariums of sharks and pet stingrays. It's freaky to touch something so powerful and usually wild. This was definitely a cool memory and who knows if I might go back someday!

Personal Addition #23


This picture was taken several years back. I remember camping often and going on long family trips all across Canada and the United States. I used to go and explore a lot more often and I really miss having the time to do that. I love nature and I don't mind the frogs or snakes or toads. I hope I can take some time in the future to go back out and explore nature a little bit more. 

Personal Addition #22

I learned two words today and thought they were quite interesting. I bet many people don't know what these mean!

Nudiusterntian - The day before yesterday
Dactylonomy - The art of counting on the fingers

Personal Addition #21

I'm missing summer so much, but there are many good things about winter. Here are a few of my favorite things about winter:

-Hot chocolate, tea & coffee drinks!
http://www.moxieq.com/hot-chocolate-the-right-way

-Snuggling up to watch movies
http://pillsplace.blogspot.ca/2008_12_01_archive.html

-Tobogganing, skating & skiing!
http://www.huntsville.ca/en/living/skating.asp

-Holidays like Christmas, New Years, and Birthday!
http://thefabulousreport.com/1028/today-is-national-champagne-day.html

Monday 19 November 2012

Twitter Fiction Board



 These pictures are of my twitter fiction planning boards. There's nothing too special about them. Since I decided on doing VSS style, there's no certain order for them. On the top I wrote what techniques I used or jotted down ideas for images. I finished 20/30 twitter stories so far and filling out this planning sheet has helped keep me organized and on track for this project.

Writing Reflection #9

I am not quite done my twitter fiction yet. I'm done approximately 20 short story tweets at this point, so 2/3 of the way finished. However, I think once I start posting the ones I do have and seeing how people react, I might be more inspired or able to think outside of the box. Being in a classroom or in school doesn't allow me to think creatively so some of my stories may have the same topic or feel to them. I chose to write a VSS. It's easier for me to be creative and incorporate all of the techniques and tools for writing that we learned if I'm writing a shorter story. I like change and variety, and I assumed that if I wrote a long story it would drag on and I'd run out of cool ideas. There are a few elements that I have yet to include in my twitter fiction. These elements are: taste imagery, a clear "so what", and possibly another character development tweet. Overall, I think I've thought of some interesting stories that differ from one another. There are some with 3 kinds of imagery in them, which makes them detailed and the reader will be able to relate. I think my character development skills need work. I'm not exactly confident in how to explain a character but still tell a story all in a few words. I have thought very shortly about what kinds of images I can include to my tweets. I will continue to try to produce some quality writing and I'm hoping that my twitter fiction turns out okay! Can't wait to start posting!

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Personal Addition #20


"I love those kind of nights that turn out unexpectedly good, great, and sometimes just all out amazing just because you didn't really expect anything to happen at all. If only we could live just like that - with no expectations in mind. It’s possible we’d be much happier, with more memorable moments that would last us a lifetime."
-unknown

I really like this quote because I can relate to it. I've had these nights many times and I do believe it is true that things that are unplanned or unexpected are far more meaningful sometimes than things that are. I think these moments are important in peoples' lives and should occur every once in a blue moon just to convince you that there are wonderful things within the world and they will happen to you when you're least expecting it.

Monday 5 November 2012

Personal Addition #19

Lone Wolf: A Novel
I would like to read the book above which is Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult. If you read any description about it, it sounds personal and realistic. I like stories that are or could be seen as non-fiction. This is because they could happen to me or could have already so I feel a better connection to things that are realistic and am also more interested in reading on about them. It sounds like there is an intense conflict in this book and I'd like to have the chance to read on to see what it is and if it is solved and how.

Personal Addition #18

http://www.travelcuts.com/reading-week/volunteer-abroad/#.UJfWkcXA_ZE

I was looking for a student vacation and I came across this site. We don`t have reading week yet, but this would be perfect for next year. You can go to the beach or on an adventure, but I would be most interested in the volunteering opportunities abroad. That would be amazing to get away during spring break in university and to help people in need. The prices are very good and everything is included. Some volunteering opportunities are:
Wildlife Conservation project in Costa Rica
Water Safety Project in Ghana
School Improvement Project in Ecuador
Reforestation Project in Nicaragua

All of these trips sound amazing! I`ve always wanted to do something like this, but have never tried to find the chance. I think I will be highly considering this for the next while!

Writing Reflection #8

In the month of October we did a project called 'Newspaper Blackout Poetry'. This was actually my favorite project or assignment so far. I think it was a fun project because everyone's turned out so different. Some people did longer ones, some did shorter ones. Some did jumping around, while others stuck to straight down. I looked at the project and assumed that they would all be quite similar because newspapers aren't that exciting. In the end, there's so much variety to them and that makes for a good project. Newspaper Blackout Poetry does have some challenges to it. One challenge I found was thinking of what to blackout or I guess what to leave the way it was. You kind of have to make the story as you go along and that's tough for me. I did not want to use letters from a bunch of words or jump around a lot, so it was tough to find words that would fit into my poetry correctly. One success I had was my theme. I wanted to focus on love and in the newspaper there are a lot of he's and she's and fighting going on. I think all of my poems fit my theme correctly and I'm proud of that. Newspaper Blackout Poetry is unique because it's not your writing. You're using someone else's writing and writing your own poem inside. You don't decide what words you use, you pick the words out of a selection. All the things so far in this course have been ourselves writing all of the words so this assignment was definitely different. From doing this project, I learned that I like variety. I like doing different things every once in a while to spark my inspiration. Overall, this was a great project and I would recommend it for everyone to try!

Reading Reflection #8

Boy Proof
Cecil Castellucci
Pages 1-53

This past week I started reading Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci. So far, it hasn't really been my kind of book. I'm not that interested in the whole technologic, sci-fi thing, but the girl pulls me in to keep reading. She's not like most girls and that's why I'm so interested. I like reading about a variety of people because then I may learn something I didn't know. Going out of my usual reading categories also opens the door for learning. The girl, Victoria, who calls herself Egg after a movie character has qualities or characteristics that are similar to mine. One big thing she talks about is shyness and how she likes to work alone. I think in a way that is like me. Alone time is important in my life and I don't consider myself an outgoing person. There's also this guy that comes in to her life. He starts going into the same clubs and in class he shows her up. I can understand the feeling of jealousy or being frustrated when someone comes in and tries to take over what you've always known or done. Right now, this guy in her life is frustrating her. He is in all the same clubs and I believe most of the same classes. I predict that by the end of the book they will have some sort of love for each other because they have common interests. Sometimes the people that bug you the most are actually really good for you. Overall, I'm interested in reading the rest of this book and creating conversation about it!