Names

If you strive to know God, you'll be one step closer to knowing who He wants you to be.
Who are you?
That depends on who you ask.
If you ask a person, they'll tell you their name.  If someone's lost their name, they would say they don't know.  If they know God and trust Him, they will know who they are.
Who are you?
That depends on who you ask.
If you ask someone, they'll tell you what business they're in or what social status they are in - King, Queen, Prince, Prince, blacksmith, doctor, commoner.  etc.
Take that away and they may not know.
For some people, who someone is is what their personality is.  You can't name each person's personality because they are too complex.  People are too complex for names but we must have them to use a language and to call someone.
Without a language we communicate by our actions, music, our faces, our emotions.
We hide behind our name because the person behind the name is too complex to know except by knowing God.  Without Him we don't have an identity.
It's interesting.
If you ask me who I am and give me a minute to think before I answer, I would say, "I am the daughter of the King, a prayer warrior, a music and story discoverer."
Why I came upon this subject is because there was a time I didn't know who I was.  What are words?  What is my personality?  How do I keep it without losing it?
I'm writing a story.  I haven't finished discovering it yet, but I am following it.
Finished a test, want to write.  Watched the movie Ink (great and inspiring except for bad language, not Inkheart) and rewatched Brave at the theatre.  Went to band.  Should go to bed.
Goodnight!
Who are you? :) 

No Adverbs? Why??

³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  
                                           ~~~~Matthew 6:3-4, 7-8 ~~~

So.  Why exactly are we not supposed to use adverbs?  Oops, I just used one.  There.  In the first sentence.
  Anyway, Mark Twain said this, "If you see an adverb, kill it."  that sounds pretty harsh.  Steven King also is very much against them.  Why is this?  Everyone else who just hears and does without asking, should look deeper into the question.  I was wondering this.  Then I googled it (oh how I love Google) and found some very good answers.
It is because, quite frankly, of many reasons.  Here are some, mixed with ways to counteract them or replace them.
1.  It doesn't sound as professional, using a word with 'ly' at the end of it, or -ness at the end of a word too.  All adverbs are adjectives with 'ly' at the end.  Show me otherwise and I will be enlightened.  We can always change them to adjectives.  "He spoke quietly" to "The man's words were quiet." 

2.  Some adverbs aren't even needed.  "She ran quickly", "He walked slowly" - I've used that one - "the man whispered quietly."

None of these are needed.  We all know when you run you run fast.  We know that when you walk, it's slower than running, but you could always replace it with a stronger verb: crept, tip-toed, or "He was slow, creeping closer."
But what happens when someone runs slowly because of a limp?  They "limped" of course.  What happens when a child whispers loudly?  We could always say something like "The child attempted a soft whisper, but it came out loud and hoarse."
You know when you try to get a child to whisper, the idea is that when you whisper you'll be quiet, but when a child tries to whisper, it is always loud and anyone can hear it.  They are experts at it.

But, there is one exception to this rule, and it lies in dialogue.  People can use adverbs all they want and readers won't complain.  But only have a character use a bunch of adverbs if it is their characteristic to do so.
Now, I won't be a hypocrite.  I do have a bunch of adverbs to deal with in my own work, but I thought this would be helpful.  Also, I'm saying this as much to myself as to you.  Not many people even read my blog. *sad face*
Could you spread this around to other writers/book-lovers?  I would appreciate it very much.

God bless you!
~~~Emilyn J Wood


 

New Hobbit Trailer and Other Things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYz0JWJioOM

For many are called, but few are chosen.
~~~Matthew 22:14


Have you seen the new Hobbit trailer yet?  It is really cool and I am more excited than before now that it is out. :D
Radegast the Brown in the trailer, is the Seventh Doctor from Doctor Who in disguise!  Really, it's him! 
Merry Tolkien Week, Happy Talk like a Pirate Day, and two more Tolkien holidays are to be here on Friday and Saturday: Hobbit's 75th Anniversary and Bilbo and Frodo's Birthday!  So mark your calenders.

Keep the light as the first thing before your eyes so that it may light your path and keep you from stumbling angrily and afraid in the dark.  Make the Light your lamp and let it guide you on your path for your own race, so that you may confront every terrible truth of life with enduring hope, faith, love, and compassion; for these things are of the Light.
You are never alone.
~~~~Emilyn J Wood

Class

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, along with all types of evil behavior.  Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one-another just as God through Christ has forgiven you."
Ephesians 4:31-32



I followed two figures into the black night outside last night.  The clouds covered us in gray and black, and the sweetest, gentlist pricks of cold droplets touched me all over in the silence.  The road sparkled, with a tinge of purple in the black, and an eerie light from the lamp posts at the end of the street made the colors blur together.  I twirled in the light droplets of mist, walking quickly but yet slowly into the damp light.
Hello, again.  I have not written anything for a while now.  maybe... two months?  I wanted to write at least one post a month.  Don't worry - I wasn't following strangers.  They were my parents.
I started watching the new Doctor Who epies(that is what I call the episodes for short - epies) and I am really enjoying them so far, especially the third epie of the new seventh season.  They go back in time to the western small towns!  It was weird hearing English accents next to American accents.

I want to read Bleak House to say that I have read it.  Needless to say, it is very long book by Charles Dickens.  C S Lewis was reading it at a tea party when he said this familiar quote, "You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me."
So I shall think that he enjoyed the book Bleak House.  I hear it is a mystery. 

I want to do NanoWrimo this year, in November.  It will be so much fun!  It will take perseverance and creativity, but I think at least ten thousand words a day so I can write as much if I push myself.   

New American girl books are coming, and since I've been a big fan of them since I was five or six, I'm going to read them.

I began Co-op this year.  At the class, we do History, Literature, Truth Project (Focus on the Family), grammar, and economics.  It is really fun learning things about short stories and the history of it in a Christian class that owns a gray cat and a piano!
God bless you all, writer or not, reader or not.
~~~Emilyn

Books and Colors

²⁸ This light shining around Him looked like the rainbow in the clouds on a day of rain.
This was what the shining-greatness of the Lord looked like. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.
Chapter 2

 1. He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” ² And when He spoke to me, the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. I heard Him speaking to me. ³ He said, “Son of dust, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to sinful people who have turned against Me. They and their fathers have sinned against Me to this very day. ⁴ I am sending you to these strong-willed children who show no respect. And you must say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ ⁵ If they listen or not (for they are sinful people) they will know that a man of God has been among them. ⁶ And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or of what they say, even if thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or lose strength of heart by their looks, for they will not obey Me. ⁷ You must speak My words to them if they listen or not, for they do not obey Me.  Ezekiel 1:28- 2:7


Ezekiel is an amazing book, very mind blowing, like Revelations.
Finished reading Daddy Long legs.  It's a classic about an orphan and a bunch of letters.  The middle can be a bit slow but the ending is rewarding so pay attention when you read it.
Finished reading Hard Times by Charles Dickens.  Great classic about Fact and Fancy, mentioning a little bit of Fairy tales, which makes it my favorite book by Charles Dickens(but it's the first book I've actually read by him so I guess that Would be my favorite book by him so far).  I didn't know a thing about the story when I began it, which gave it even more of a feel that I didn't know what was going to happen!  I haven't felt that in a long time.  I've been spoiled too much with the end of stories.
Rereading Raven's Ladder, the third book in the Auralia Thread.  That series is my favorite for a few reasons:

1.  The plot was written really well.  The plot is so well written that when you reread the stories you can see that the author knew what was going to happen and left little hints here and there, and even answered a few questions in the first books(but the questions don't arise till the end of the series so you have to read them again).  And the story feels original.  I mean, if we read older fantasy books, we would probably find a few of the roots of the plot of these newer stories, but at this age, nearly every secular book feels the same!
2.  The descriptions are beautiful and vivid yet not paragraphs long!  The way Jeffrey Overstreet writes makes me feel like I am reading a book that was written long long ago.
3.  The books make YOU as the reader, have to pay attention to what you're reading!  I love that, because it just re-words a hidden message in the first book.  Pay attention to everything around you, like Auralia did.  She found beauty in the woods where everyone else never went to for fear of beasts.
4.  There are little morals hidden in so many places in the books!  You just have to hunt for them.
5.  The books make you Think about certain things in a way you've never thought about before.  Good questions and curious questions and lost questions and invisible questions that come up from us the readers.
6.  The characters are vivid, each unique and the rare scenes where children are present make me smile.  Auralia is so unique, I don't know where she came from!  I still don't know exactly where she came from; perhaps I'll have to study the books harder to find the answer to that.
7.  There is allegory in the story, you just have to search for it.  The "moonspirits" belief remind me of people in America who always say "Follow your heart and stand up in confidence!" and the consequences that may follow.  But I'll let you find that out for yourself later in the series.  The Keeper is like an angel.  Mr. Overstreet said there wasn't supposed to be allegory in the stories, but there is non the less, like there was in J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.  I don't know how I'll write my stories.  I don't want allegory to be obvious, but I want people to think after reading them.  I'll probably write a post on that later.

You have to slow down to read them.  Once I began the fourth book though, I couldn't stop reading it because of the suspense!  I was gobbling up the treasure a little too quickly, but when I reread it I will try to slow down a little more.  There is one sentence in the last book that was cut off, but I think that's the only typo.
I like Jeffrey Overstreet's style of writing and I will be sure to read his next fantasy novel when it comes out. 
  Have you read any good classics?

Allegory Idea

I am wanting to write an allegory that I felt just needs to be written.  I see the story in the scriptures, it just hasn't been told into the story I see.  It is about a lot of spiritual things, like spiritual food, how people starve themselves of the Bible and only "eat" of the Word every Sunday, and even then they sometimes pick at their "food" and don't eat what's been prepared for them.  That's what the allegory was supposed to be about(and it's also what was taught me on a Sunday earlier this year).  But then I got interested in the backstory and the world around the backstory and the characters and so on.  It takes place in a big big city called Wuldon(pronounced like Wool den) that looks like nineteenth century London, except it is always dark there.  And far away beyond the guarded walls and the black forest is the white Kingdom(unnamed) where the good King lives.
Now there's a messenger boy who ran away to find the King in the castle and became his doorkeeper.  A girl whose mother died runs away to find the castle and seeks refuge, and meets the King and eats at his table.  But then she has to go back to Wuldon, and things happen there.  Words are important.

One Month to Rule the Pen

 Proverbs 17:1
Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.





     
Okay, I do believe this is the first time I've put an image in a post.  I'm glad to have figured out how to do it.
I only have one month to rule the pen
Before school opens again
To take me into it's clutches to learn.
Thankfully, this year will be different.  I will be meeting new people my age, going to a co-op for a few of my subjects(history, geography, literature, and English).  I feel like I will be an apprentice, like a professor's apprentice in a bookshop or library, learning properly in a hobbit hole(which means comfort, if you have ever read the book).  I am taking a few questions from a blog - this one here - http://katie-writingblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/actually-finishing-something-july_04.html
What is your writing goal?
My writing goal is to finish the first draft of the Fading Story like I should have done by last Christmas.

Tell us about this project. Give us a small synopsis.
It is about a girl and boy on a cold white island who have lost their memory to an Enchantress.  They go on a journey to a magical place to find it again while running from the secretive villain.
  
How long have you been working on this project?
I am not entirely sure.  I have been working on the story for quite a long long time and it has changed drastically from what it used to be.  The character's names were different, there were more characters, and the story's skeleton was the same though everything else was changed a LOT.  Since I was ten, maybe.  

Introduce us to three of your favorite characters in this project.
Melody - she is about twelve where the story begins, on a snowy island.  She is probably the character that is most like me.  She is curious, and when there is another world to be discovered, she would do anything to get there(much like me).  Where there is a strange boy she has never met, she doesn't know how to act at first, so she is a little more straightforward and tough than she would be to someone she knew.

Phil -  He is about fourteen where the story begins on that snowy island.  He has no idea who he is other than his name which was written on his arm.  He's not sure how to accept the world around him at first, because everything is so foreign to his memory.  But when danger arises, he finds he knows how to ride a horse and how to use a knife.  He must have known about it from before.  And he's a little uneasy to find out who he is for fear he would find himself to be a criminal.

Raven - She is a minor character but somehow she got a slightly bigger part in my stories recently.  She is quiet, watching with piercing eyes, about thirteen where we meet her in the Work Wood under the charge of Ruth.  She has a secret, which is why she doesn't talk much.  But when she finds out about Melody and Phil's curious book, she will pull a few strings to learn more.  She reminds me of a fox - secretive and not a trusting sort.

Writing this information about them helped me remember more of who my characters are.  I had to think a bit before I could write. 

How often do you intend to write in order to reach this goal by August first?
Well, on vacation I am bringing my laptop so I will have a bit of time to write some then, and it is summer so I will try to place goals on every day to write some in the book every day till August.  
How will you make your characters behave long enough to finish this goal?
What do you mean by behave?  They're not my children - oh, I guess they are.  Well, if they do something slightly different than what I was expecting and it works well with the story, then I shall congratulate them.  But, I am promising them a happy ending if they Live within the page like they should, growing like a flower would.

Go to page 16 (or 6, 26, or 66!) of your writing project. Pick your favorite line or snippet on the page.

~~~A basket of steaming hot loaves of bread was passed around.  The Enchantress rested on the golden throne.  She ate so mannerly and so proper, that anyone would have thought she was a queen.  And the Lavender dress she wore stood out, along with her ink-black wavy hair.  ~~~ 

Tea or coffee?

Hm.....  coffee smells wonderful, but I'll take tea since coffee makes me tired(I know, quite odd).  Perhaps mocha mint tea or... if I really want to be proper, some cherry tea with some honey and cinnamon, and a little cake/cookie on the side.

 God bless ye all on your journey.  I hope you enjoyed this Fourth of July.  The fireworks were very magical to me, and this one was my favorite of them all thus far.