Looking Back

Now that the end of the semester is approaching I have notice tremendously my writing skills and techniques have grown much stronger.  My writing skills coming into this class was more of a structured process with repetitive types of wording.  As I have gone through this class I have seen myself become more relaxed and being able to just go with the essay.  Writing down anything and everything that would come to mind before I would forget what point I was trying to make.  I truly believe that in writing and posting these blogs has helped me come to the point quicker than going around the subject in a confusing mess of nothingness.  I am thrilled to look back and think how much I have improved over the semester. 

The Count of Monte Cristo

I was recommended to read The Count of Monte Cristo by one of my high school AP English teachers.  I had no idea what to read and it was a requirement for the class to read so many pages a semester.  She recommended The Counto of Monte Cristo novel to me not only saying that it would keep my attention but that it would be a fun novel to read, and it was.  It kept my attention throughout the whole novel and I enjoyed reading it.  It was adventurous, mysterious, gripping, and cunning.  The novel had twists and turns throughout the book.  With the main character being undercover he could come up with ingenious plans on the go and how people fed into his plans was amazing. 

It's a story about the right and wrong, and the deed of revenge which in the end shows that it is never the way to go.  I would recommend it to anyone who loves adventurous novels.  Hopefully it will be as inspiring to you as it was to me.

Thanksgiving Break

Going home for the Thanksgiving break for me was a week that was well needed.  My Dad who was just being a Dad came over Friday afternoon to come and pick my friend and I up.  He thought that Lookout Pass was going to be horrendous for us to go over alone, but the roads were really ok.  By the time we hit Coeur d'Alene I couldn't hold still I was so excited.  When we got home my family and I had our Thanksgiving dinner that Friday night because my sister and Mom were leaving the next day for a type of school trip and were not going to be coming home till late tonight.  The next day Dad and I dropped them off and the rest of the week was a relaxing and fun.  Sleeping in as much as i could till Dad came in and flipped all the lights on and started throwing my pillows at me (my alarm clock).

Usually our Thanksgiving in Newman Lake is cold and rainy.  We did have the cold part this year, however it was joined by a foot and a half of snow!  I love the snow and I was so ecstatic when it came and so were many of my old friends from high school.  However they thought it would be hilarious and a blast to come up behind me and give me a white wash.  Not the most fun part of the break but it was great to see all of them again...somewhat ha ha.

Invincible

When she was about twelve years old it was her first time riding her little bright red four wheeler down the long stretch of grassy fields that lay on the other side of the tree line where her family's tent was set up.  She would spin, cut corners, jump whatever hill or bump there was to be found, and try to kick up as much dirt as possible.  She would come up behind her Dad and honk that God awful horn several times in a row to let him know that she was coming up behind him on his four wheeler and he better look out. 

She thought she was invincible, that nothing could touch her and nothing could stand in her way of feeling the freeness that she loved to feel when she went as fast as that little red four wheeler could go.  She was flying and she never wanted to come down from the high she got from it.

A couple days into her camping trip, her family and close friends decided that it would be about time to go out and explore the new trails and see what they could find up there in the new area. The two pairs of parents set up the four kids (her and her sister and their two "brothers") with their jackets and snacks and they were off for a day of fun.

Day went on, they had fun, and it was about that time to head home ward bound to their camping site.  Mike the oldest of the four kids decided to take the lead on this one and show the way back to the camp site.  She knew how to get there too and both decided before the departure had commenced that they would have a race back to the camp site. 

However I must tell you that Mike's four wheeler was a much powerful four wheeler than her little red four wheeler, but she didn't care.  She knew that he could get her on the straight aways but she was much quicker at cutting the corners and looping in and out of the trees than he was, and since most of the trail back to the site was curvy she liked the odds to the outcome.

So they were off into the trees, dodging in and out, back and forth with Mike in the lead and her right on his butt waiting, just waiting for that perfect moment to come in and around to the front of him.  They came out into a clearing that held a dusty trial that had been previously used and visibility was ok but not perfect.  She knew right then and there that the perfect moment that she was waiting for was never going to happen, but he kept the same speed as he did zipping in and out of the trees.

He was taunting her, she knew he was.  She knew that Mike was the type of person who loved to rub in the wins that he had made, but all of a sudden he hit the gas and gone in the dust and she was left in his dust.  She gunned it, not thinking of whatever would lie ahead for she thought she was invincible.  She squinted hard into the dust and saw his figure in the distance, and then he dropped.

Confusion overwhelmed her brain but as she came up on the spot where Mike had dropped she hit the brakes as hard as she could leaving only a foot and a half of distance between her and the six foot drop to a mud hole where Mike laid with his four wheeler on top of him.

We like to think that we're all invincible and that nothing can come close to touching us, but we are wrong.  The story that I had read "The School" really didn't inspire me to write this story but it did go along the lines of that life is an important thing we have and to never take something so precious for granted.  Live it to the fullest of course but be wise and smart about all that you do.

Cathedral

The narrator throughout most of the beginning of the story shows his jealous side not only to his wife's ex husband, (who is out of the picture) who the wife loved dearly and showed her affection to.  However her husband now (the narrator) does not see the affection being showed to him like it was to her ex.  He is also has in the back of his mind that the that the wife's ex is an officer and he doesn't have anything to show for.  The narrator's jealousy is also shown to Robert, the narrator's wife's blind friend who comes to stay with them.  The narrator does not have sympathy for us he mainly cares about himself at the moment and is upset and disturbed that this so called blind man who is going to be invading his house.  Does he have a reason to be jealous?  No, with the ex husband out of the picture and Robert who is just being himself the narrator is mainly dealing with how he feels about himself and by tearing people apart he feels better about himself.  His wife is confused and at one point of the story disgusted at her husband of who he is and how he is portraying himself to Robert.

As the story goes on the narrator begins to understand and realize who Robert really is.  He begins to see that Robert is truly an amazing person.  He sees that being blind and going through each and every day of not being able to see the world for what it really is is beyond him.  When Robert asks the narrator to draw with him and to close his eyes, he finally understands the world that Robert lives in and is breath taken by what he sees.  In the end the narrator does change his point of view and grows into a different man than what he was in the beginning and with the authors writing skills and style it was an easy read.  Even though the sentences were cut short throughout the story it would be easy to do the same like I had in the beginning of the semester.  However I believe my grade would drop right off the bat if this was done again.

Writing Tips 101

Writing for some people is a tough thing to do.  Essays, poems, even blogs can be a challenge for people.  However following basic steps on how or what to write can be the key to success in this constant writers block.  These are some of the things that I use when I begin to have a problem, maybe they can help you.

1.  Put everything down!  No matter what putting something down about the topic you plan to write out can be beneficiary down the road for you.  When having all these ideas floating around you are then able to formulate it and come up with this mad creation of a "messy" outline, the beginning of your essay.

2.  Once you have this chaotic of an outline going, start to formulate it into a neater, not perfect and precise but a nicer formulation that you would call a "sketch" of your writing. Start to put together your ideas to create the "meat" of your paper, the body paragraphs.  Introduction and conclusion are not needed to be worried about at this moment.  Just getting down the main part of your essay is what is important at this point.

3.  Now that the "meat" of your essay is done it's time to add the introduction and conclusion to your paper creating your rough draft.  Why did you have to wait till you got the body paragraphs in before you could add the introduction or conclusion?  Well now you know what you plan on talking about in your essay.  Starting with the introduction and going straight through to your conclusion is extremely tough and in the end you usually end up changing things up in your body paragraphs that doesn't even come close to your introduction.  Once this is all done and placed into order have someone from your class read it and give their input on the matter.  Have them give you advise on any grammatical errors and/or punctuational flaws in your essay.

4.  Once you have the advise of your classmate use them!  Getting or having any advise on your essay can help you in the long run for your paper.  This advise could even help you meet the number count for your essay is you are to low, who knows!  No matter what though do use their advise and create your second rough draft.  When your second rough draft is done instead of going to the same classmate you went to the first time, go to another one of your peers.  Having more than one person read your essay will give you a better insight on a more precise essay in the end.

5.  Finally!  The final stage of your hard work.  When the chaotic mess of your ideas are put together in an outline, the creation of your scetch is complete, two rough drafts with two different pairs of eyes to look over the problems in your essay and have typed it all out into a precise final draft you then are done!  You then have a beautiful and highly detailed essay that is ready to be turned in to your professor and be graded.

Hopefully when you come down with a writers block perhaps look these tips over.  Who knows, in the end it might just help you. 

Two Truths and a Lie About Me

Which one is the lie about me??

1.  I have been over seas in two separate occasions.  One being with my AP class going to Ireland, Wales, and England.  The other time I was able to go with my family to France and the Netherlands.

2.  My dad owns a dirt biking track outside of Spokane and works as a spokes person.  When I was ten I entered myself in my first race and came out in second place.

3.  I have an aunt who moved over to France to become a nun when she was twenty four and hasn't been back since then.  She has been more at peace than she ever has been and absolutely loves being there.

Have you figured it out??  Let me know what you think and send me a post.