Writing, writing, writing...

Some of my favorite moments of a story is the really emotional parts or the suspenseful parts.  But I also love the sullen quieter parts where the character is trying to figure a puzzle out.  Not the jigsaw kind!  But the questions floating in the character's mind.  I also love it when an author describes something that doesn't seem to have any other importance in the book until the character vitally needs that piece of information.  I like writing, but write now (oops, punny typo!) I'm just writing all of these tidbits to learn how to use different techniques and, also, just to encourage myself to write more so that I can get better.  I'm thinking about trying to attach some of the tidbits I'm writing together so that maybe they'll have a storyline, clearer characters, and better descriptions.  My biggest problem writing is that I often write about children or teenagers who go to public school which I, myself, do not.  I've known people who go to public school but it doesn't help me know what I'm writing about.  And they never seem to have homework really.  And in most schools, especially high schools and middle schools, most kids don't even have time to do much besides eat dinner, finish up homework, and go to bed.  So I solve my problems by making it summer and they're all on vacation.  Or they have to get away from school somehow.  One of my characters quite literally ran away from home in one of my various, unfinished novel-wannabes.  Before that situation, she just called in sick multiple times.  And for a very insufficient reason.  Or maybe it was.  But that doesn't matter because that story was one of my first and most flawed works.  Not that my others are not.  But instead of continuing like I should, I just try again.  I keep thinking about maybe combining all of my ideas into one document but now that I've spent to much time avoiding my idea, there are too many various story and plot lines.  The only way it could work well would be that all of my "real world" characters get sucked into a fantasy world by the ultimate evil villain of all time who has a great amount of followers and minions from my different documents.  Some of the supposed-to-be-good forces could join the villains and the rest of my fictional fellows could come together to destroy the ultimate evil.  Then I would tie some sort of moral issues into it that are answered from the bible and thus leaving the reader completely utterly incapable of contemplating what just happened.

Main audience says, "What?"

Which is entirely my point it might be great but most likely it would just end up at the bottom of my files, titled, "Worst--Story--EVER"  But if something is named "worst story ever" it leads the reader to want to pick it up even more to find out what makes it such a terrible story.  Wouldn't they be scarred for life?  They probably wouldn't be able to get past the first three chapters.  But that is, if I did write this "worst story ever" and then there would be that one person out there who either knows me really well or is crazy who would say something about how great it is and then I would publish it with that one quote on the back, "BEST--Story--Ever".  There goes my writing career.  Assuming that I wrote this novel.  Which I won't because I'm smart enough to know the consequences.

I'm not saying that I couldn't combine a couple of my stories together, I'm just saying that it's insane to think that a story could contain three good fairies, a rock monster, several teenagers with depressing life stories, a super hero, a pair of twin giants, an elf, two smart chipmunks, a princess, McCavity's evil minions of Doom, a weird surfer, some funky person who thinks she can fly, several pairs of twins, lots of single parents for some reason or another, an evil fairy, and quite a few other strange wonders including two people who think they can fly.  Oh and one person who can read minds.  So no.  You will probably never find a crazy, disconcerting novel like that with my name on it.  Live with it.  Trust me, one crazy person is enough for one book, we don't need three, four, or even five psychological people in a book.

Have I said enough?  Well, hopefully I didn't say too much.  Now that you know how crazy my unfinished writings are, take a look:

“Mom!  Do you know where we keep the buttermilk?” said Jackie sticking her head in the refrigerator.  Now that it was summer, the heat was unbearable.  She could use any excuse to feel some cool air on her sweating face.

“In the garage refrigerator, bottom shelf.  Why?”  Her mom said from her computer chair where she was filing things that Jackie didn’t care about.

“No reason.” She said shutting the refrigerator doors.  She walked into the living room and picked up the remote.  She flipped the TV on to channel 52 grabbed a gossip magazine off the floor and flopped on the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table where a mug of coffee sat.  She picked up the glass with her toes, passed it to her left hand which then tipped the dark, bitter liquid down her throat as she took a long refreshing sip.

“How can you do that?” asked her mom looking up from her work, “It’s ninety degrees outside and you still drink your hot coffee like it’s lemonade!”

“You’re just jealous!” Jackie laughed as she took another long gulp.

“Whatcha watchin” she said as she stretched from fingertips to toes.

“Oswald Channel.  Recently the shows have been getting less interesting.  Like, they have a show called My Mother’s a Vampire.  I think the vampire theme should have run out by now.  It’s been two whole years since Dawn Light came out.”

“Are you planning on doing anything this summer?”

“Like what?” Jackie took a third and final swig of her coffee and tossed her magazine to the floor.

“I don’t know…Like taking up a new hobby.  Go play outside more, something like that; instead of frying your brain in front of the TV or computer all day.”

“Ahem…” Jackie said hinting to the fact that her mother spent a lot of time on the computer herself.

“Well, you know that what I’m doing is putting a roof over your head and air conditioning for the house.” Her mom got up from her spot at the computer and clasped her hands over her head as she stretched from fingertips to toes.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go outside for a while…”  She switched the TV off and slid her feet into some blue flip-flops and pulled her hair back into a ponytail that she had kept around her wrist, “Only if I can have a popsicle.”

“Certainly; would you like a lemon or cherry?  We only have two left.” Said her mother walking towards the freezer.

“Hmm…  Cherry.”

“All righty.” She said throwing the red one towards Jackie.  She caught it up in one hand, squeezed the rapper to form a bubble in one end and hit the bulging part with the other hand causing the popsicle to burst out of its casing.  Jackie then snatched it up one-handedly and took a large bite out of the frozen treat.   “You’re so weird…In a good way.  Well, you have fun outside.  Love you Sweetie.”

“Love you too.  I’ll be back in an hour.”  She walked into the hallway and looked at herself in the mirror there.  She looked at the odd scar on her forehead.  She had no idea where it came from but it annoyed her how big and obvious it was.  It was about the width and length of her pinky and went down at an angle.  When she got sunburned on her forehead, it stung.

This is an example of some of my good writing.  I sort of edited it early last month (I think that's right) and enhanced it with more descriptions and I fixed a few things to make it sound better and more real.  If anyone out there has any (kind) advice on making this better or any questions or comments, please feel free to do so.  I need to edit my tidbits more now because Frances is spelled Francis when it shouldn't be.  Adios, tu poco burritos!