I Speak For The Firstborn | Draw Your Swords!

Every little kids across the world has some kind of mystical fairy realm locked away inside of their imagination, just waiting for it to burst forth in an explosion of excitement. Meanwhile, most teenagers have a lot of built up boredom or stored energy from sleeping in until 3 P.M. during the weekend, and they need to get rid of it so they can fix their biological clocks. (Don’t try to defend your sleeping pattern, here. We all know.) 

So, let’s say you’re stuck watching your younger siblings over the weekend, or really any time of the week. Younger children are easily engaged in anything, and it doesn’t take much to amuse their minds. However, if you’re not doing anything to entertain those minds, they’re going to start bugging you. All older siblings have been there, and they know what kind of a pain it is to keep a level head when you have a five year old smearing peanut butter on the walls and a 12 year old whining of boredom. I have a simple fix.

A little bit of improvised acting goes for a long way of fun, especially for the young ones. Send them to world full of mermaids dragons. They’ll have fun pretending to slay the fire-breathing beast and saving the princess from her tower, and you may even get a few laughs out of the event. Train your battle ready siblings in “sword-to-sword” combat while tapping back into your creative side by making some weapons out of cardboard or Styrofoam that’s laying around. Use sheets and cushions to build a cave or a magnificent castle. Might I even add that your old clothes will make the perfect dress-up pieces for any young girl’s wardrobe?

Let your imagination run wild, because as long as everyone is having safe fun, no one’s going to be complaining. (Just make sure you clean up the messes along the way and demonstrate safe and proper battling techniques so no little ones get hurt.)

-Annie 

I’ve Been There | Dodging the Finals Freak Outs

May is coming, and everything high school and college students knows what that means. The dreaded finals are just around the corner, and the mental meltdowns have only just begun. If you’re student meter is set to “panic” mode, then take a step back, relax for a second, and enjoy these little tips.

Start Studying Early
I know. It’s crazy, right? Who has time to study when there’s so much fun to be had? Please, trust me on this one. Take at least twenty minutes a day and hit the books. It’ll relieve your stress and make your personal time more enjoyable! Your grades will thank you later as well. Procrastination is definitely not the key in this time of the year.

Break Out the Gum
Studies have shown that chewing the same flavored gum while studying as testing makes information retrieval a much easier task. Of course, you’re still going to need to keep the studying up, but you can lower your in-test stress levels by knowing that the answers are just on the tip of your tongue!

Keep A Level Head
I personally know that test season is killer on the moods of the whole family. You’re freaking out because knowing one topic can be the difference between passing a failing. Meanwhile, your parents are stressing because of typical parent things (house, water, electric, gas, car, etc payments) and… Let’s face it. There is a high possibility that you’ve been slacking on your housework while being crammed in the books. Don’t lie. We’ve all been there. It’s not pretty, but it is easy to stay calm. Keep the shouting to a minimum. Your parents will appreciate it.

Study In Blocks
AVOID THE CRAMMING DEMON! Studies have shown that cramming too much information into one sitting can, in fact, diminish your ability to retain what you’ve studied. Give your brain a break! It’s like a fine tuned machine, and it needs rest just as much as an athlete after a long run. It’s ok to have a little “you time” during pre-finals week. You will actually benefit from watching that episode of Supernatural you missed last week. Just… use breaks sparingly. For every hour of studying, take a break no longer than twenty minutes.

Get Creative
I don’t mean throw glitter all over your notes, but adding a little color never hurt anyone. Go pick out your favorite color highlighters and mark up the stuff you just can’t seem to hold in your memory. Divide the colors into categories if you want to get more organized. People, places, dates, events, every little detail is going to help you pull those numbers and complex names out of the back of your mind. If that doesn’t seem to be working, find a study method that works for your learning style.

Night Before Tips

• Take a long bath the night before. Soak in some hot water to calm yourself down. The majority of us get pre-game jitters, so it’s best to get rid of those before bed. It’ll make it easier to sleep and kill the headaches and worries the next day.
• MEDITATION. If the warm bath didn’t quite seem to cut it for you, or if you’re in the mood for a little zen after a week or more of highlighting and flashcards, sit back and relax with a little calming music or sounds of nature. Don’t have anything on hand? Go to YouTube and search “meditation music” and I’m sure you’ll find something for your taste.
• Go to bed early! I can’t stress this enough. The teenage body needs between eight and ten hours of sleep. Know what time you’re going to have to wake up the next morning, figure out what time you’ll need to go to bed to get ten hours of sleep, AND GET IN BED AT THAT TIME. If your body needs and hour or so to cool down before you fall asleep, getting in bed that early will insure you get between those eight and ten hours.
• Eat. Your. Breakfast! You know your parents have been right all year when they’ve told you to eat breakfast. It is not your parents breathing down your neck. You need a pick-me-up in the morning to keep your body going until lunch. The human body has adapted to not needing food for those nine hours while you’re sleeping. That’s why if you eat junk before bed, go to sleep at 1 A.M., and wake up at six, you’re not hungry. Regardless of whether or not you feel hungry, grab a granola bar, apple, yogurt- Anything that will give you some energy for the morning rush.

And there you have it! My tips, from experience, for getting over the pre-test stress. I hope you found these helpful. If you have any specific questions, leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you A.S.A.P. Now, I’m off to begin my own studying. Procrastination has not been my friend.

-Annie

I Speak For The Firstborn | Brownies In A Cup

Being the firstborn, I know what it’s like to be in charge of watching a few younger (and often time annoying) siblings. “Why won’t they shut up and sit down?!” I get it. It’s frustrating and headache inducing. However, I’ve come to realize that when your younger siblings start to irritate you purposely, they just want you to pay attention to them. That’s all it is. You’re the oldest and they look up to you! Get off the computer and do something fun with them. They’ll thank you later, and you’ll be headache free. Not to mention, it’ll get your parents off of your “lazy back”. 

You may have seen this on a hobby site such as Pinterest. In fact, I’d like to thank my friend for pinning this, because I wouldn’t have been graced by its mouth-shutting glory without her. It’s very simple, kid safe, and money easy. In fact, you probably have all of the ingredients in your pantry.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp. flour
• 4 tbsp. sugar
•  2 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1/3 tsp. vanilla (Or to your taste, because who doesn’t like a little extra vanilla?)

It’s kid friendly, because no oven is required! Just mix everything together and pour it into a microwave safe coffee mug and pop it into the microwave for a minute. Voila! You’ve interacted with the little demons AND their mouths will be occupied by yummy brownie long enough for you to gather your wits. 

-Annie

Writing 101 | Lesson 2 | Character Creation

In Lesson 1 we saw that one of the easiest ways to kick off a story is by starting with a character. Of course, it can’t be a random background character unless they’ll play a key role in the ending. Really, you need to focus on the main character, because he or she will be what influences the journey which the reader will go on. A lot of people really enjoy creating characters, but I’ve found that with novice writers, they can’t fully grasp everything that goes into creating a character. A few adjectives isn’t enough for the writer to know his or her own character, so the reader can’t be expected to understand the character either.

To make this easier to comprehend, I will quickly design a character for you.

Some people will tell you to start with a name, but that’s not the method I’m giving you. Actually, to start, we’re going back to those adjectives I told you about before. I’ve found that description words best build a foundation. Do you know the “rule of threes?” Now is the perfect time to use it. For adjectives, you want to give yourself three physical descriptors, three personality flaws, and three positive personality traits. Think of building a character like building a home. You want the foundation to be good, so start off with strong characteristics, and you should have to go back and fix anything later.

• Physical: typical feminine shape, fair skin, sky blue eyes
• Flaws: naive, can’t say no, quickly jumps to conclusions
• Strengths: is a friend until the end, fairly trustworthy, can get what she wants 

At this point, you have a basic idea of who your character is. There is a general idea of how he or she looks and feels. From here, you can continue to branch. The easiest route may be physical appearance. Use the background of the flaws and strengths to aid you in building the physical outline of the character. It’s in this portion you would begin to add little (but possibly major) things like scars, tattoos, piercings, clothing style, etc. 

***I should also tell you that if you are starting with a general idea of what you want your plot to be, you need to design the character to fit the plot. I will continue building as if I have no idea of a plot. 

• Long, slightly wavy, light brown hair
• Almond shaped eyes
• Average sized lips, no too lush but not too thin
• Smaller waist and slightly larger hips
• Average bust
• A scar on her left collar bone

Keep building! I can’t stress it enough. For time’s sake, however, I will stop here. If your character has something like a scar, tattoo, or piercing, now would be the time to explain it. It may not be very important, but simple ideas such as “the time I got my scar” can be easily used as character development within the story. You will need to do the same with his or her flaws and strengths, however it is up to the author as to whether he or she does this now or in this next step.

In order to develop a character for the reader, the author is going to have to know the character’s history. There are two parts a character’s history.

• Personal history
• Family history

The personal history is, as it sound, the history of the character. This would be anything from the time he or she was born to the present story. Here is where you can start developing a plot, as well, but I’ll save that for another lesson. In the personal history, you would have things such as “got a butterfly tattoo with his friends as a dare,” “lost her parents in a house fire when she was five,” “graduated with high honors,” and anything else pertaining specifically to the character.

Family history, however, is anything significant that happened before the character was born. For this portion, you need to have a basic idea of the character’s family. Parents tend to play a major role in the family history, but grandparents not only add on a generation, but they tend to hold the most secrets. This is another great place to start developing plot. You can get creative here, more than you have with anything else! This is the time where you decide if the family has led a normal life, paying bills and working full time jobs, or if the family was involved in a secret underground society or waged war with another family back in distant era.

I can’t stress enough how much of a opportunity you have to start developing plot with the family history. Everything you put into the past is going to effect the outcome of the story in some way whether it be the character taking a wrong turn or character’s ultimate demise. There must be a background to every foreground. 

If you have any questions on this or other topics, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll reply when I can or possibly may turn it into it’s own Lesson.

Look out for Writing 101 | Lesson 3 | Plot Development

-Annie

 

Unlike Mother

I spend my life walking on broken glass;
The shattered remains of your highly unjustified expectations.
Behind I leave pieces of who I truly am
Because your expectations do not fit me
The way the glass slipper fits the foot of a Cinderella.
I am no princess because I cannot be what you want me to be.

 Every day my life slips away
Because you think the world stops for you.
Your egocentrism hurts like the spindle of a spinning wheel
In which case I am Aurora stopping my life for you.
I am no princess because I will no longer wait.

 And I pretend I am ok with the beast you’ve become
Because, like Belle
I hold onto that last glimmer of hope
That everything will turn out ok.
I am no princess because I have run out of hope.

 You steal away who I truly am
And I cloak myself in a false identity
Trying to run from the life I have to live
A wild Jasmine among the tamed roses.
I am no princess because I do not want this life.

 And I spend my time searching for what I’ve lost
Despite how you turn into a raging sea.
I am held back by my rulers
And scolded like Ariel for being who I am.
I am no princess because I want my own life.

 But the lies hurt me most
Penetrating my heart like the sharpest of knives
And you hide my soul away because
You are embarrassed by my Snow White beauty.
I am no princess because I will not be fooled.

Then you tell me that life
Is about facing my fears
But when the only thing I fear is you
Taking away my identity
The only thing I’ve to hold onto
I cannot be the princess you want me to be.
I am no princess because you are no queen.

-Annie

30 Day Creative Writing Challenge

While browsing through the internet, I stumbled upon this little gem, and I thought, “What a brilliant way to get out of a writer’s rut!” A person’s writing skills only grow with practice, but sometimes ideas don’t come that easily. The idea of “writer’s block” might just be an author’s worst fear. No one likes being stuck, and let’s face it. Being a writer isn’t the easiest task in the world. Even the greatest authors come to a point in time where they’re at a total loss for words… literally. However, with a “30 Day Challenge,” you are at least getting practice even if the ideas aren’t original and aren’t your own. 
After all, writing is a skill which can only be mastered with time.

-Annie

Writing 101 | Lesson 1 | Getting Started

There are quite a few way of which to go about starting a story. I have narrowed it down to the two I’ve found to work the best. Regardless of the fact that they are two separate plans of attack, they’ll lead you down the same road.

The first of the two is probably the most exciting part of writing for most people. In fact, it’s where the majority of writers begin. That is character creation. More often than not, writers are struck with the idea for a single character who is too out of place for anything else they’ve started. This forces them to think up new ideas, and unless you have complete and total determination, you won’t go much further than creating the character. You have to be in this 100%. Once you have the character completely thought out, you must develop a plot around him or her.

This takes us into the second approach. Perhaps you were struck with the idea for a story. Just a simple idea such as “A man discovers his true fate and must go on a series of adventures to fulfill the prophecy which foretold of him,” is enough to start with. That, however, isn’t a fully developed plot. You have to build on it, because no one wants to read a story that takes them on a wild ride with no purpose. Also, building a plot prevents the writer from falling into plot holes along the way. Those are nasty little things that no one wants to come across. It’s aggravating for the writer to have to fix, and if he or she decides to leave them be, it shows laziness. No one will read the work of a lazy writer.

If you have any questions about this or other topics, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll reply when I can or turn it into a lesson.
Look out for “Writing 101 | Lesson 2 | Character Creation.”

-Annie