TeenPact Day 2

(pictures at end of post)


Today was really enjoyable. We started off the morning with worship and a devotional. After that, we walked around the State House on prayer walks in our committees. We stopped in the Senate and House chambers, as well as near a statue honoring the military. I find it SO cool that we're able to walk around our State House and pray in public for our leaders. The prayer walks are one of my favorite things about TeenPact. Everything that we do is centered around God and how He is in the center of things.

We returned to the "house floor" (also known as Rhodes Center auditorium) after prayer walks. The newbies went on their first field experience, which I believe was interviewing lobbyists. Alumni stayed for the first session in the Alumni track--Past and Present Movements. As part of our homework, we were required to write an essay on two different movements: one past, one present. I wrote on the Anti-Vietnam War movement and the Tea Party movement. We were separated into groups based on the essays we wrote and had to present about the movement in front of the rest of the class. Another girl and I were the only ones brave enough to talk about the Vietnam movement. There was some really good discussion on that issue, as well as many of the others. Our session ended earlier than I would have liked due to something silly called "lunch".

Lunch is in your committees as well and it's also a super fun part of the day. We talked about bills for the first time and I'm convinced we got all the ridiculous one. There was one about making Call of Duty the state video game (Call of Duty people--don't kill me), one about making it illegal to kill and catch frogs and a couple other ones. One of the people in our group wrote something about Ohio seceding from the US and we passed that one. I'm really hoped it comes up in TPL. The funny thing about that bill is we had some non TeenPacters comment on it. We all meet in a cafeteria type setting to eat and after our clerk read the bill, several people at a nearby table applauded. They came up and talked to him afterwards, so that was kind of cool.

I also found another writer in my group, which is SO exciting. He's written 5 books, various short stories and some poems. At some point this week, I'm planning to tell him about One Year Adventure Novel and Kingdom Pen.

After lunch, we did a brief session of TPL, had a speaker and then  did another session of TPL. That's another part about TeenPact that I really like. Maybe I should just start saying I love the entire thing.

The last thing today (besides the test) were the primaries. There were four parties: Agrarian, Libertarian, Capitalist and Workers. I was put on the Agrarian party. Each party is allowed to select one gubernatorial (governor) candidate and three senatorial candidates. I ran for senator, but wasn't picked. It was still fun though. General elections are tomorrow. A friend of mine (Spencer) got the nomination in his party as the gubernatorial candidate. Hopefully he'll end up being governor.


Tomorrow the alumni are going to interview random people on the street and ask their opinion on current events and things like that. I'm really looking forward to it.

I also just realized that I should probably take more than three pictures. I'll try to better on Wednesday and Thursday.

Abbie and Kit-Kat being goofy.

So, naturally, I had to follow suit.

Everyone on the way home. They look a lot tireder than yesterday. :P

Teen Pact Day 1

Today was the first of our 4-day long government class called TeenPact. The Marysville group of kids (picture at end of post) arrived at our house around noon and we drove down to Columbus.

Upon arriving at the Rhodes Center, we met other TeenPacters and the staff. Today mainly consisted of learning the ground rules, TPL (Teen Pact Legislature) and committee break-ups. For the rest of the week, we'll get to pretend that we're representatives and debate bills in committees before presenting to the "house" or TPL. It's pretty fun. I'm on the Health and Aging committee, so we got assigned some interesting bills.

Before TPL started this afternoon, we did something called first reads. Each student is required to write at least one bill to be presented before the TPL. Everyone came up, read a short portion of the bill and then it was assigned to the different committees.

There were a number of humorous bills read during first reads. My favorite funny bill is from last year and it was to start doing the Hunger Games in the state of Ohio. Last year, my committee got this bill and we decided to move it to the "house" to be discussed. We actually passed the bill. 

Since committees had not yet had the opportunity to debate bills, we used one that the staff put together. It was on education and requiring all teachers (public, private, home) to receive certification in each subject that they teach. So, the homeschool parent would have to be "certified" in math, english, science and a large number of things. Thankfully, the bill did not pass.

We also heard a few lectures by a lobbyist and the director of the state TeenPact class. Tomorrow looks to be about the same. We'll be leaving the house at 7 AM (I'm not exactly looking forward to that) and class will go until 3 PM. I glanced briefly at the material for the Alumni track and it looks pretty awesome. But, I won't talk about that just yet. I'll keep you all in suspense for another day.

From left to right: Colton, Spencer, Curtis, Me, Kit-Kat, Abbie, Marisa and Lily. 

How Much is Too Much?

Details are the most powerful tool a writer has at hand. By skillfully describing a location or the way a character is feeling, the author can make their reader experience a mental movie. They don’t even notice the words on the page anymore, because they are so immersed in your writing. However, there is a problem that many writers struggle with and that is how much detail to put into something. How much is too much?

Before I get into this, let me give an example of how details can create a mental image. If I were to say, “My Dad is weird,” any number of things could pop into the reader’s head. One might think that my Dad stands on top of a hay wagon and yodels for hours on end and another might imagine him as a one man band on stilts. The list of possible mental pictures is endless. On the other hand, if I were to tell you, “My Dad likes to dance a jig while drinking hot chocolate and practicing his archery,” then those details plant the exact image I’m thinking in the reader’s head. When you’re writing, it’s important to convey what you’re thinking through your words and to convey exactly. Otherwise, there will be confusion as to your meaning.

So, how much is too much? God is the master storyteller, so let’s use the example of His Word, the Bible. During creation week, He explains everything He created. God wanted to make sure we knew exactly what He did and how He did it. Therefore, He used description! Also, look at the details God gave Noah in Genesis 6:14-16 when He told him to build the ark. “So make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.” See how many details are put into this? Even though we might not know exactly how long 450 feet is or how high 45 feet is, we still know that the ark was huge. This is called detail mode. Details create mental images in your reader’s mind.

I was at a writing workshop this summer in Kansas and the speakers talked about description (and the importance of it) a lot. You don’t want your reader to feel like they’re mentally walking into an empty room. 

Some things, it’s fine to leave to their imagination. However, there are cases when this isn’t good at all and can actually make the reader frustrated with you as the author. If you start writing about a character in Chapter 1 and give very vague details—gender, age, area they live in--, the reader will start to build an image in their mind of what they look like. It doesn’t take long for them to establish this and connect it with that character. Let’s say the next physical description you give them is at the end of Chapter 3. By this point, your reader has decided that the main character is a petite, dark curly hair, blue-eyed female. This isn’t what you were thinking, though. In your mind, the main character is taller, has straight, long blonde hair and green eyes. I know I’ve experienced this several times when reading and it’s really frustrating and difficult to go back and change that picture you’ve thought up. 

Just like God did when telling Noah exactly how to build the ark, we need to show our readers exactly what we’re thinking.

There are some cases where details should be avoided. Instead, something called “summary mode” should be used. Again, let’s see what’s in the Bible. When Cain murdered his brother, Abel, the only description we get is, “And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. (Genesis 4:8b)” We don’t need to know all the bloody gory details of how it happened. Abel was killed and that’s all we need to know. Or, look at the description we’re given of when Noah got drunk in Genesis 9:21, “Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.” Summary mode makes it so the reader gets the concept of what happened, but doesn’t plant any inappropriate images in their minds.

Used skillfully, details and description can be the best tool the writer has. There are certain things that are best left untouched, or very briefly mentioned. Some very ugly things happen in the Bible. Summary mode is used to avoid planting images of sin. A lot of literature these days does glorify sin and give lots of unneeded details about it. You can still write realistic literature without going into every detail. 

If in doubt, leave it out. You don’t want your words to be a stumbling block for a reader or yourself. If God didn’t—or wouldn’t—describe every detail that goes into an event, then you shouldn’t either. Follow the example of the Lord, because He is the Master Storyteller. 

My Dad, by the way, enjoys both archery and hot chocolate—however, rarely at the same time and never while doing a jig.

 

Update on writing.

I'm rather ashamed to say I've not been writing as much as I should lately. This is partially due to the fact that I've been pretty busy with school. The annoying thing about being busy is that I always seem to get tons of awesome ideas, or random bits of ideas...and of course, no time to write any of them.

I have a new novel started and it's called #754. A simple way to describe it would be to say it's a combination of Beauty and the Beast, The Holocaust, Esther and Moses. Yes, that's quite a combination. I'll hopefully do a post describing it more in detail shortly, but for now, here is a (working) synopsis:

Kiah is poisoned, or so says the government. She and all like her are forced to live in a prison camp and work until their death. No parole, no reprieve. It's for life. One day, Kiah decides she has to change her life and narrowly manages to escape from the prison. She ends up working in the house of the governor, the man she hates more than anyone else. For years, she's built up this image of him being a gnarly beast and biting off anyone's head who came near him. But that's not the case. Much to her dismay, she actually starts to like him. She starts out as a maid for just a weekend party, but he hires her on for longer. Word eventually reaches him that a poisoned has escaped. Will the governor discover Kiah's secret?

In case you're wondering about the title, #754, it's Kiah's prisoner number. She has it tattooed right below her elbow in black with an arrow above it. All prisoners have a similar tattoo. 

Another idea I had has to do with WW2 and Auschwitz, one of the main places Nazis used for extermination of the Jews during the war. I was doing some reading for my World War 2 class and found out that the prisoners arranged a secret newspaper. They managed to smuggle information out to the Polish resistance, some of which helped capture Nazi perpetrators after the war had ended. Having a great Uncle who fought in the war, it's always been a big source of interest for me. I've wanted to write a book based in that time period for quite a while, but struggled with how to make it un-cliche in the mass market of WW2 historical fiction already out there. I think I've found the way to do it.

I have a couple other bits of ideas, but they don't really fit into anything I have yet. Seems like almost anything can spark a novel idea.

The plan is to have the rough draft of #754 finished by June, the final version by August 1st and to start the Auschwitz one in September. That one will need a lot of planning and I'll need to make sure everything is historically accurate. I'm thinking of changing my favorite genre to historical fiction now.

When I was at the library yesterday, I checked out 15 rather large books on various aspects of the war, so I'm looking forward to reading those. I hope to be writing again soon, but schoolwork has to come first right now. The good news is that classes end in three weeks, so I'll have more writing time once they're over. Believe me, that can't come soon enough.

I suppose I shall stop rambling about my writing now (except, the blog IS called Writer's Ramblings. Guess it's an accurate title.). Be looking for a few writing articles in the near future!

Auf Wiedersehen!
~Katie

Our Trip to the Creation Museum

After several years of wanting to go, my family was finally able to make it to the Creation Museum in Kentucky yesterday.

(Photos will be at the end of the post)

The first exhibit I went through was Verbum Domini. There were over two dozen different original manuscripts of the Bible in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, German and English. My favorite in this exhibit (besides the German Bible) was the Esther scroll. This scroll is kept in a decorated ceramic case and written in Arabic (I think, I don't remember). Part of the scroll was laid out and it's beautifully illustrated. Jews read from this scroll during the Feast of Purim, which honors Esther.

We went through 'Walk Through Biblical History' next and got to see the 7 C's of history: Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross and Consummation. All throughout were life-like wax figures of people and animals. They were so life-like that at one point, I thought a person who was standing still was a wax figure. In my defense, he fit right in with the section we were in.

I enjoyed the whole museum very much, but my favorite part was the Stargazers Planetarium, where we got to watch the film "Created Cosmos". We sat in reclining chairs and stared up at the dome shaped ceiling where the movie was played. Before I watched it, I knew that outer space was huge, but I wasn't sure HOW huge. I'm still not sure I can even grasp it.

It started out by showing us our planet system--the sun with all the planets stretching out around it. That's when things started to get really amazing. From there on out, it went further and further out into the stars. They compared the sun to several other giant starts in the universe and really, the sun isn't that big. There are some stars that are 70x bigger than our sun--and we think it's so huge!

The film kept going further out until we were "out" of the Milky Way, looking down on it from above. From that distance, you can't even really see our solar system. It's just another group of planets and stars in the galaxy, indistinguishable from the rest.

The coolest part about all of this was when the film went out 50 million billion light years away. At that distance, the entire galaxy of the Milky Way was just another star cluster. Our sun obviously couldn't be seen. It then zoomed in, slowly at first, back to our solar system. I forget the exact number, but it was a large number of light years.

When we got home this evening, I walked outside to feed the horses and just looked at the stars for a minute. We're so, so, SO tiny in the grand scheme of things. Our earth--our GALAXY--is just a speck. And yet, God cares about us, a very tiny portion of His creation. It's just so mind-boggling to think about, and yet so very awesome.

We got to meet Buddy Davis!!

One of the many beautiful spots in the Creation Museum gardens.

Emily and I nicknamed this the stone table.

Tools for Story Building (repost)

One of the most helpful things you can do to make your story better is to build to the story. Now, this does not mean going out in your backyard and building the whole story world. I think everyone would agree that’s a little extreme. Your friends would think you were crazy and your parents would lose their backyard. No, story building is something you do on paper and in your mind. “How do I do this?” you might ask. I’m about to give you a few tips that should help you out with building your story.

"How do I do this?"

First off, you want to let the Word of God fill your story. That doesn’t mean it has to be allegorical or you must have references to every Biblical truth. An example of this could be from the opening scene of Sherwood Pictures movie ‘Courageous’. The overarching theme in the movie is Biblical fatherhood and that’s shown right off in the opening scene. A father is at a gas station filling up his truck. He notices that there’s a smudge on the windshield so after checking in the back, goes to get something to clean it up. Unknown to the viewers at that point, his baby is in the backseat. Suddenly, a gangster runs up, jumps in the truck and starts to drive away. The father (Nathan Hayes) throws himself part-way through the window. It progresses until the bad guy finally can’t hold on to the wheel anymore and runs into a tree. Nathan was holding on to the wheel this whole time and jumped off the truck when it struck the tree. The gangster runs and gets into his accomplice’s car while Nathan painfully limps toward his truck. Two women had seen the last encounter and called 911. They tried to stop him from going towards the truck, but he refused. He reaches it an opens the door, at which point the viewers are shown his screaming baby. This scene right off shows the Biblical example of fatherhood without telling us Bible verses. It shows us that a father is supposed to be willing to lay down his life for his family, not tells us.

"Let the Word of God fill your story."

Another thing that I’ve found helpful is to start your story keeping the ending in mind. If you have no clue what your ending is, it’s going to be obvious to your readers. The characters need to be working towards something. It sometimes helps to write the ending first. “But I don’t have just one solid ending in mind!” you say. That’s fine! Sit down and think of all the possible endings your story could have, good and bad. Then, just write them all. They don’t have to be long or perfect, but it helps (believe me—I know!) to get the ending down. The story then sort of keeps you in line, because you already have things written. Writing things down helps so much.

Characters are obviously a very important part to your story. No one would want to read your story if it weren’t for the awesome, colorful characters you have, right? One of the things that makes characters interesting to the readers is the depth. Create backstories for your characters. It doesn’t necessarily have to be told in your story, but as you figure out their past you’ll be able to figure out their personality. It will make it easier for you to learn how they react to different things, what their passions are and what their dreams are. Characters also have to be different from each other. For example, the protagonist and the anatagonist obviously can’t act the same, talk the same and like the same things. There’s got to be an obvious difference (other than the fact that they’re fighting against each other) between your characters.

Claudius, a page in medieval times, walks up to his page friend Damian. After Damian acknowledges him he says, “Hey dude. How’s it going?” Confusion starts to muddle your brain. This is a medieval story…they aren’t supposed to talk that way! Yet another thing that helps your story is research. I can’t say this enough, so I’ll say it again—Research the time period you’re writing in! All of us are guilty of not researching enough sometimes, but even though we may not enjoy it, it’s a necessary part of writing. It will help you out in writing and make it easier, so that you’re not constantly worrying about breaking rules. You know the rules, so you won’t (hopefully) break them. Simple as that.

"They aren't supposed to talk that way!"

God gave you this wonderful talent for writing—use it to glorify Him. Pray that He’ll give you ideas to use in your novel that will glorify Him and show His truth and His glory to a dying world.

"My Writings" page

I realized I hadn't updated the "My Writings" page in over a year...whoops! Check it out to see the latest progress on my various writing projects.

Love and Doctor Who

Over spring break, I become somewhat of a Whovian (again…). While this blog post will take about love, I need to give some background on the show and specific episodes. So, for those of you who haven’t finished Season 4 yet, DON’T READ AHEAD. Spoilers lie within. And for those of you who aren’t Whovians, I’ll try to explain some of it.

The Doctor is a time traveling alien, part of a race known as the Time Lords, who look the same as humans. The differences are that they have two hearts, don’t age and if they’re going to die, they can regenerate (basically become a whole new person, with a different body).He is the last of his kind and travels around not only our universe, but to other planets and saves the inhabitants. He travels in his ship called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), which looks like an old-fashioned police call box.

He picks up humans along the way, who are his companions and assist him in his adventures. The companions are Rose Tyler (season 1 and 2), Martha Jones (season 3) and Donna Noble (season 4).

(I feel I should point out that nothing inappropriate happens between the Doctor and any of them)

Rose and the Doctor fall in love, but while trying to save the world, she gets trapped in a parallel universes, walls of the worlds closed off forever.

That is, until the end of Season 4. The walls of the world start to break down because of some bad things happening, and Rose comes back. She, along with the other companions, assist the Doctor in saving the whole of creation from an evil race known as the Daleks.

Through some interesting circumstances, there ends up being two Doctors: The fully Time Lord, and a mostly human copy of himself—specifically human in that he ages.

After the Doctor and his companions (and the Doctor clone) defeated the Daleks, he takes them back to their homes. He takes Rose back to the parallel universe last, along with the human copy of himself. She is completely shocked and begs him to let her stay with him. At this point, she doesn’t know that the copy can age.

The Doctor starts to explain to her who the “clone” really is. He is identical to the Time Lord—same thoughts, memories…feelings. The Doctor explains to Rose that this other will age with her—something he could never do. Rose decides to stay with the human Doctor. The Time Lord leaves, knowing that he did what was best for her.

The real meaning of love has really been lost in our society. It’s become this self-serving and very focused on self thing. “Love” is about what we can get out of a relationship, whether it’s romantic or otherwise. Other languages have several different words for love: different words for different strengths of love. In our culture, we use the word love to describe our phone and love to describe our family. See a problem?

But society’s definition of “love” isn’t what love REALLY is. The Doctor provided such a good example of what true love is. It’s sacrificial. It’s doing what you know is best for the one you love, even if it tears you to pieces.

Even though it hurt him SO badly to do so, he did what was best for Rose. He truly cared about her and her future, not what he could have gotten out of her still being with him. If he had decided based on his feelings, he would have convinced Rose to stay with him. The Doctor knew it would just cause her pain to see herself aging, but not him, knowing that they couldn’t “grow old” together. 

He put her needs above his own, and that is what love truly is. Caring enough about the other person to do what’s best for them, and sometimes that’s letting them go. I challenge you to love others this way. Put their needs above your own. That is love.

"Oh, I have to plan?"--The Importance of Planning

One of the few things that I’d rather not do when writing is plan. Seems silly, I know, but the initial “dirty work” isn’t my favorite part. Sure, I like figuring out some things like the plot, but I’d rather just plunge ahead with the story and write it. What’s the problem with that?

May seem like an obvious answer, but even though I’ve learned that I NEED to plan things, I still ask that question. As a writer, you may think that you know every piece of your story (and I’m not saying that you don’t), but sometimes that isn’t the case. You need to write down what’s going to happen and sort of “see” it, rather than have it just in your mind. I’ve found it’s very helpful to me to write things out. I don’t mean just typing them out, although I’ve been doing that more. The act of writing and forming the letters—the words, sentences, paragraphs—cements something in your mind in a way not possible with typing. This is where an outline or overview (post coming on that soon…) really helps.

Even if you don’t fully outline your novel, you always want to know where you’ll end up—your story goal. I heard something once that it’s the beginning and end of something that people remember. Think about some place that you drive to often, maybe church or the store. Now you may be able to picture the entire route, but the beginning point and end point are clearer, yes? It’s the same way with a story. People remember most what’s at the beginning, but especially the end. 

It’s so much easier to write towards a goal than just come up with it as you go along. By having a set goal, you as the author are more motivated to see it achieved. That in turn (hopefully) makes your characters more motivated to achieve the actual goal.

Several novels ago, I decided that I didn’t need to actually have a set story goal. I thought that I could figure it out as I went along. That novel ended up being a complete disaster. My characters weren’t motivated at all, weren’t very developed and the story bounced all over the place. Things happened for the sake of happening while I racked my brain to find a story goal. When I finally got to the end, it didn’t work. The goal didn’t feel real and that’s because I didn’t have it in mind (and my characters didn’t either).

Another thing I would suggest when you’re planning your novel is to get feedback from others. This helps me so much, probably the most of anything I try to do in the process. The author is so close to their story world and much of the time, we tend to “zoom in” on one aspect: a specific scene, a character—you name it. When we get feedback from others who aren’t so close to the story, it helps you to see the bigger picture. They can point out plot holes that you may have missed or inconsistencies. Getting at least a second opinion—generally more than that—is something I try to do before I start writing a story. Let the people willing to help you give some advice.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it seems important enough that I need to reiterate it again. Don’t let fear stop you. A lot of the time, that’s what holds me back from sending an overview or an excerpt to someone who would otherwise be able to give me a great critique. I’ll admit, I AM afraid to be laughed at sometimes. As hard as it is, (try to) forget about it. Attach the file and hit the send button. Now yes, I know that’s easier said than done. The feeling I get before I send part of my writing off sometimes is what I think I might feel if I were setting off a bunch of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons...I may have to use that in a story.

If you only take one thing away from this post, then remember this: always know where you’re going with a story. The characters may be underdeveloped, the plot lacking, but having an endpoint in mind will make it easier to go back and rewrite. Don’t do what I did and think it’ll just come on its own. In some cases it may. But play it safe and make sure you know where you’re going. It will help you in the long run.

Keep writing!

~Katie