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Blogging with different ideas. |
| Ultimate Adventurers Group" |
| Word count: 813 As much as I like blogging, and I don’t, I would like to just be able to say this whole contest was beyond fun. This is not going to be allowed though by the people running the said contest. I would be telling the truth when I said I enjoyed the experience. I try not to get into contests that are so involved and take up so much time but I was drawn into it just by the premise. Faries and the fantasy world are a strong pull for me. When you are told you are going to visit six fantasy worlds and you are shown artwork that is beyond beautiful you are pulled into the clutches of the writers. The worlds all have a theme and your endeavors need to revolve around the theme. You are given hints on what you need to tell the world about. There were pictures or words for each world, you have to write a blog. Have I mentioned yet, that I do not like blogging? You also need to write a story that falls in line with the suggestions given. To finish off each area you need to do six reviews in the genres given. I think I’ve made myself clear on how I feel about blogging. Luckily I have “kissed the blarney” stone many times over my writing career. I also know you do not use contractions because using two words instead of the shortened word helps whatever looming word count there is. Several of my blogs came real close to the established count of seven-hundred-and fifty words. (writing out numbers also helps.) The storytelling was not an issue. I have a knack for turning a suggested genre such as horror (not anywhere close to a like) into one such as science fiction or fantasy which I love. No definite word count markers were given, but the stories all had to qualify as short stories. Many literary directions classify short stories as starting with a minimum of fifteen-hundred words. Luckily Writing dot Com, will let you do a thousand and still fall within the parameters of what they consider proper. I always try for at least a thousand plus. Now sometimes my muses take over and allow the characters to just keep trudging forward and I get more. I would rather have a minimum number of words than a maximum. Those darn muses can get carried away sometimes when they are yelling in my head to keep typing. Reviews are no problem to me at all. I actually enjoy doing them. Over the years I have set up a system which works for me. I start off by letting the writer know how I feel about the story and add any suggestTions. I then give a line-by-line review, showing clerical errors in red and suggested changes in blue. When I rate the review, I very seldom go under four stars, because the way I look at it, they should get at least that many just for putting in the effort to write. A piece has to have absolutely no mistakes or very few mistakes but an outstanding take on the genre, to get five stars. One thing this contest did do was to get me reading tales from genres I normally stay away from both in reading and writing. I am not a fan of horror/scary, normally I think because so many writers think you have to add killing, and blood into a story to make it horror. Not my kind of visions I want to add to my brain. I am not much to reading religious stories. This is not because I have an adversion to them, and have anything against the genre, it is just because I am not interested in other peoples opinions which they tend to try and jam down you throat. “Read what I wrote. If you do not agree with me there must be something wrong with your thinking.” Granted they are not all like that, but so many are. Over the past few months, I have tried to broaden my horizons by delving into several of the genres I don’t visit often. I would do this contest again, after a short rest. The only suggestion I have is to lower the word count necessary to complete the blogs, of course. Myself and the other adventures were given two months to complete the total contest. I agree this is an adequate amount of time. Although I finished three weeks early, there were a couple of writers who finished before me. Most of my tie was taken up in the blogging section. Have I mentioned I do not like blogging? If there is anyone out there who likes a challenge, the contest could be finished even now before the July thirty-first deadline. You may not get much sleep but you could do it. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Word count - 849 I fully realize the directions for this blog, say we are supposed to pick one or more proverbs and discuss how they have possibly been interwoven into our lives. There are a lot of them listed, and this makes it a bit overwhelming. I’m a two maybe three-choice type of person, but I’m going to try and see if I can whittle them down a bit. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. When someone along the line added to this proverb I have to laugh every time I read or hear it. The wise person said the reason the grass is greener on the other side of the fence is that it is padding the top of a septic tank. What makes a person remember a Proverb? I would be willing to guess it is because there is a reference in it to a part of the person's life or experiences. They are ah-ha moments when you hear them. Take “too many cooks spoil the broth” for example. Several things can be in play here. Maybe you like to cook and when you tried, others decided to give you unwanted help. The meal was ruined because of this help, either through ingredients being added to the recipe, a burnt offering or you were not able to get the enjoyment you usually obtained when cooking. Of course, these two contradict “many hands make light work” at least where cooking is concerned. “The early bird catches the worm” and “better late than never” go together in my mind. I was always taught if you had an appointment you arrived early. It was appropriate for you to wait but not for the person meeting you to wait. I was also taught you should never cancel an appointment unless there was an emergency of some kind. If you needed to cancel you always called as far ahead of time as possible to let the other person know, that you could not make it at the prescribed time. The possibility exists you could set up a slightly later time and still accomplish whatever the meeting was for. These all seem to go together when you have something to do and you are not looking forward to it. “Don’t make a mountain out of an anthill” A lot of us tend to look at a large problem and say to ourselves it is impossible. I try to break the big problems into smaller segments. I was told once if you take care of the small stuff the big stuff will take care of itself. Always remember “where there’s a will, there’s a way”. The way may take some time to make itself known, but it will come, usually when you are doing something totally different. Now that you have the problem fixed firmly in your mind, and you have come up with a few of the smaller steps to get to the end you need to “strike while the iron is hot”. Please don’t put it off. You have the information clearly in your head. If you convince yourself to wait until a later date you will not remember some of what you have figured out. Have you ever had a fantastic idea, and said to yourself there was no way you would forget it, only to have a short period of time pass and the idea is not anywhere to be found. I have reached the age I can walk from one room to another and forget what I was after. Yes, you want to start as soon as possible to solve your problem but you “always look before you leap”. I cannot tell you how many times I have started something to realize I didn’t have all the supplies I needed, or enough room to place the object where I thought it should go, or permission to put it where I knew was the exact right place to position my creation. Once you have the plans set, you have everything you could possibly need to complete all of the steps you figured out before this, “always put your best foot forward”. Another proverb, not in the original list is, “if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.” You should always try your hardest to complete whatever it is you are doing. Most of the time you can ask questions. Asking for bits of information is a lot easier in today’s world than it was when I was younger. We had the library and depending on how big it was, you might be able to get a helpful answer. We also had friends and family, but sometimes you would get contradicting information. Today you have the internet. Yes, I know you can still get contradicting information from “experts” but you have more than one of these people in the know who you can choose from. Hope this “sage advice” has helped someone out there. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Word count: 755 I am still fighting my way through the Blogging parts of this contest. It is definitely not one of my favorite things to do. The time around we are given five pictures to choose from, in Dark, Ghost, Gothic, Horror/Scary, Paranormal, and Thiller/Suspense categories. Although I have delved into the paranormal and thriller/suspense areas in my writing, they come second in any story I may write. I try and stay more on the light, with a smidgeon of edgy, areas when I tell a story. The only time I dive deep into the ones listed above is when it is for a contest I am entering, or when I have been drafted to help with judging. There are too many not-so-nice things happening in the world at the moment to spend time thinking about the processes in play in order to write about them. The Paranormal and even Ghost categories allow you to walk away and even wall up the real world. Although many of the categories we are working with in this section can be easily combined I am going to attempt to separate them. Mind you I will most likely miss the mark. In the Dark category, the stories have a semblance of nightmares. The symbolism of darkness, showing negativity, connotating death, evil the unknown, is intertwined with lightness giving positivity to the story and allowing hope, life, and goodness to bleed through. You are going into an area where everything around you is trying to pull you to somewhere you know you don’t want to go. Nothing turns out to be what it seems. The feeling of dread is prevalent. I think the old television show, The Twilight Zone, would fall in this category. The Ghost category is one of the easier ones to explain. There is some sort of apparition that shows itself in some way to a human. The ghost may be fully formed and visible or it may be a force with the ability to talk to or move objects in the real world. The Ghost does not always need to have danger in mind but maybe there just to give information or add protection. My favorite ghost story is The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, where a sea Captain ghost and a lady fall hopelessly in love in an old lighthouse. Now let’s delve into Gothic. The Gothic style comes from the people who lived in East Germanic lands in the 4th through the 6th centuries AD. Western Europe bought into the style in the 12th through the 16the centuries, with buildings characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses, together with large windows and elaborate tracery. According to the online dictionary: “Gothic literature can be defined as writing that employs dark and picturesque scenery, startling and melodramatic narrative devices, and an overall atmosphere of exoticism, mystery, fear, and dread.” Horror/Scary is self-explanatory. Things are going to happen to nice unexpecting people which will fall outside belief. The happenings will be unbelievable even as they are happening and most of the build-up ramps you toward greater fear. Paranormal stories give many examples of unusual experiences which have no scientific explanations. It’s a free-for-all and can include clairvoyance, supernatural creatures, UFOs, ESP, and telepathy. Psychics can go completely off the charts. I tend to write a lot of shifter stories, where animals can take on human characteristics. Paranormal can be interwoven in many different genres. The last in this section’s list of genres to be covered is Thiller/Suspense. This area can start with an everyday simple story. Over a time period, which can be minutes to years, in the story, the adventures of our main characters can go sideways really quickly. Clues, so subtle and hidden, some in print as neon signs, are given to the reader. The reader needs to keep track of the clues and come to a conclusion on what is happening, with any luck before the end of the story. One of my favorite things in this category is giving clues which are red herrings. The reader thinks it is a definite clue, but the information has nothing to do with the ending. Smoking gun clues are also good. An example would be, a half-filled glass mentioned, or the material of curtains mentioned, two seemingly filler information, but they turn out to be an integral part of the story and the ending. I hope some of this information has helped you understand the genre you should be adding to your descriptions. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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This is a lovely share with some wise advice at the end. And it fits the prompt well! Thanks for sharing your experience.
