Well, it's day 12 already, and my word count is definitely not as high as I wished it to be. 2,553 words... yup!

So, this is the very first post this month!  February is a very odd month.  Why?  Look at how you spell it.  February.  If you sound it out, it sounds like Feb-rue-ary.

Anyway, as the title explains... here's an excerpt of my Short Story!  While it is not drafted, and I have only looked once or twice.  So, here it is!

Chapter 1.

The stale leaves of autumn crunched under our feet as we headed for Stephen’s home.  I quickly handed him his paper bearing the title:  “God Loves You” before we arrived at the Fairfield’s large door.

       Stephen’s hand reached for the door, but it swung upon before his fingers touched the cold metal, sliding over its oiled hinges to reveal Misses Fairfield.

       Her cold glance shot shivers down my back, the pale, hard eyes drove themselves in like a nail beneath a hammer.  Something about her gave me a stomach lurching poison inside me, her eyes, predominately, though her dyed hair, streaks of a dirty brown mixed with a bright almost white blond, told me much of her person in and of itself.


This is from the very beginning, so, yeah!

I WILL post some writing tips soon, but that'll be tomorrow.

~The WordWeaver

P.S.  Sorry for no posts for the past few days.  Weebly, the host of this blog, was down, so while you could get on and see older posts, I couldn't blog new posts. ;(

By R.A.H.Thacker II

What Was, What Will Be.

He stands there, balancing, below him lay fathoms of the city's depths.

He has a choice.

One step forward.

One step back.

Onto the air beyond, that seeks to fail Him.

Or back into the corners that trap Him.

"Shall I be strangled, in the seas of my past?"  He says.

"Or shall I step into the nothingness, the nothingness which will never keep my ground, and the nothingness which I shall never come out of?"

The balance of His foot wavering on the edge of death, like a deceiving path of a thin blanket over a black pit.  One step forward, and all is committed.

Miles below, the racket of all Human creation steamed like a monster, eating up all that once was, once could have been, and the hope that had been.

Was going back not a choice?

Was reaching forward the only path?

Or, was He stuck now forever?

Had his indecision swallowed Him for eternity?

Had He been to late?  Was there no way left to go?

The soft breeze of the past, reminiscing what He had dreamed, breathed up to Him, wanting to steal Him away.

The simplicity of Before, was it gone?

And if it was, would it ever come again?

However, from the heavens, descended a being.  It is a bright creature, radiant in the early sun's light, shining silently and still.  And a sense of peace and rest is upon The Man.

Yet from the depths of the earth came another such soul.  It was dark, ghostly, being - glinting of the twilight sun.  It plants a seed of anxiety and hopelessness inside The Man.

Then the Light Being says unto The Man; "choose not what you seek in your earthly flesh.  Take the choice of the Light, and go onward."

The other - quickly retaliating - spake the gruff and booming words which caused only dread on the earth.  "Take not the path of the unknown, go back into the luxury of what seek.  For it alone shall be your rest."

"It's words take the path of others, do not go astray.  The path back only leads to glimpses of what had been, and not what will be."  Came the soft voice of the Other.

But the being of the earth took The Man's shoulder, and with a dreadful gaze, lifted him up, shaking him and taking him far from the Edge on which Man had once relied, and there, showed him the world.

"It is a place full of dread and sorrow, the road onward, let it be not your path.  Seek what was, and it will be.  Take not what might be, take what was."

The Being of Light was soon with them.  "It will only lead to the faint traces of what has already gone by.  Choose what may be, the Light and the Hope.  Do not Despair, take the Hope in which you have and live upon it."

"Take not It's foul words," the reply of the Dark being's came.  "It does not know what is good for The Man's soul.  It wishes only for you to suffer the sorrow and the tears of what will be, and not what was.  The To Be is a land of darkness and death, the shallow waters will not spread out for long."

"Listen not to It's words," the Light One says, "forward is the Hope and Peace that longs to be with you.  No doubt, hard times may lay ahead, but the shield of your Faith will Protect you.”

The two Beings hovering off, looking on as The Man stood in the shallow airs of the Earth.  His Choice remaining for Him to decide alone.

Yes, I admit, I didn't write any yesterday. :(

But I will today, and posting here is only the start.  I have a particular post I've been wanting to post for a while now that I'll put up today (though not in this post).

So, as I said above, I didn't write any, and that includes writing on my Short Story *facepalm*.

*Later that day...*

Originality can be one of the hardest enemies a writer can ever, Ever, have.

And it lies to us, it says it is originality, and yet, it is not.

We will always have this problem, however, we must prevail.

If something is clichéd, fix it.

For instance, as I am patching up one of my very first novel, first off, I see that the climax, well… it’s a bit clichéd, but here’s where it gets good (or bad, actually).  The antagonist invades the country, and the people in the country set out to defend themselves.

A battle ensued (the battle at the end of the book), and the good guys started loosing.  Then suddenly some people came to rescue them.  Throw a party, get excited. :/

The reason?  Well, because I didn’t set out a good plan, and didn’t have an outline, I had to make one up on the fly.  Guess what I got?  An overused, predictable cliché.

Wow, great ending to the entire story.  Not.

For that, and numerous other reasons, I have decided that the second half of my novel is unfit to have as my five NaNoWriMo book copies.  Alas… I sort of wish I could get the original, yet have it still be as good as I will make it.  Too bad life doesn’t work that way.

Anyway, I think I’ll have that other post up later today, but I need to write some first.

Inkblots are writers (random quote)

The WordWeaver

January 20th, that was the day I said It started.

Yes, It.  That's spelled with a capital I.

I'm not sure how many others have started, or will start in a few days, but I have started.

Day 1's calculation:  872(or so) words.  I had some inspiration last night, and I really got going once I started, but then had to stop. :(

But, I'd love to read all your word count so far (if you've started yet), you can post them in the comments!

As you may have gotten from the title, I will be keeping track of my progress each day and be putting it as a sort of journal.

Now, I'll give a little summary of my short story:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written from 1st perspective, Wayne Griphynn sets out to 'conquer' the world... or at least his neighborhood.  That is, conquer it for Christianity.

Wayne met Stephen as soon as school started.  They grew to be friends, but Wayne knew Stephen is not a Christian.  Wayne is now determined to help Stephen become a Christian... but he has more than a mountain's climb to overcome if he will succeed.  God will help him, and he knows it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's basically it!

Happy Short Storying!

The WordWeaver

(Borrowed from Jag Swiftstorm: http://jagswiftstorm.blogspot.com/)
"Should a 'series' be one story, or several?

What I am meaning is, are the books totally separate stories, or do they just all meld into one story?

Using the fantasy genre, an example of books that are more disjointed would be the DragonKeeper Chronicles, by Donita K. Paul. The main characters stay the same throughout the series (with the main exceptions of some dropping out in book 4, and more characters being introduced in book 2), and some of the antagonists are the same, but the storylines are separate.

An example of stories that are joined are The Wormling series, by Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry. The books are merged into one story, and even after reading them three? times, I still can't mentally say exactly where each book starts and begins, apart from the gap between books 1 and 2.

So which is right? And which is wrong? I would say that there is no right and wrong. It is simply a matter of style and preference.

However, I would suggest against being too extreme, as with anything (or just about anything).


If a series is very disjointed, then readers may not feel drawn to read the second book. If the plot has been totally finished, then continuations may be received as pointless attempts to make money.

On the other hand, if the series is totally in one part, then it may be better to advertise it as one book, rather than as a series. The Lord of the Rings is an example of a long work that is advertised and thought of as one book, but can be and is sold in three volumes, as well as in one volume. With Kindle publishing, it will be quite simple to sell the whole series as one unit.

Even if you try to write your series as separate novels, it may, and likely will, merge into one story in the later books. Examples of fantasy book series that did this are easy to name; Oracles of Fire, Binding of the Blade. I can foresee my series, The Arboreal Shadow, doing this, as the first three books are clearly delineated, but then the last three, and especially the last two, will merge into one storyline and one unit as the story builds up to the climax.

And yeah, I really should be working on The Rise of the Shadow now. But I'm just waiting for my current readers to get back to me. (You know who you are...)

So, I would say that the jointed-ness of books is really a matter of opinion and personal taste, as long as it doesn't get too extreme."

This, readers, was borrowed from one of my online friends (Blog: http://jagswiftstorm.blogspot.com/, by the way, if you are there Jag, thanks for letting me use your post.)

I especially like this because not so long ago I was thinking of the same thing.

My first example to clear up my half of this post.  Harry Potter.

I have read the books, but I have watched all the movies, and therefore I have at least a brief understanding of them.  Each book has it's own plot and conclusion.  In 'The Sorcerer's Stone' Harry Potter achieves victory over Voldemort.  The second book, Harry Potter defeats Voldemort again (though not as directly as the first time).

And it goes on.

I like the idea of each book having its own story, otherwise the ending will never really be satisfying.  Then again it could be a sharp cliffhanger.  Another danger would be to have the books so far apart in general the general story line, that they seem like a 'series' of random books, possibly not even with all the same characters.

However, if the whole of the story is combined and smoothly polished so it is nearly transparent to the reader (though still staying in the bounds of a clear, explained plot), I, for one, would enjoy it much more.


Doing this is often hard, and many series don't.  For example, Wayne Thomas Batson's The Door Within Trilogy is, to some extent, disjointed, especially noticeable for me between book 2 and 3.


Even Christopher Poalini's Inheritance Cycle was somewhat jagged in that area.


Now, I'm not trying to pick these books apart.  Instead, I am pointing out some of their faults so that you may steer clear of them.


To the average reader, these areas may not pop up in a reader's mind, but subconsciously it wears down at the series' likability, which is never a good thing (unless you don't like selling books...).


But back to the meat of this post (I'm trying to cut off my rabbit-trails as it's nearly tomorrow O.O).

Is it 'allowed' to write in a broken up series, or not?  And is it 'allowed' to write a series in one flowing storyline without a more final (though not necessarily the final) ending?


First off, you are the creator, it is allowed, and you have complete control over that.  As a writer, I enjoy the freedom of just creating.  No restrictions, no logic (well...) and absolutely no math.  Thus, I can do whatever I want with my story, and I like that.


(Rabbit-trail cut-off)


So, yes; of course it is allowed.  Now we go deeper in.


I think a mix of the two questions is the best (which I believe I have stated before).  A good stirring helps the story brew (as I have always said... always since a few seconds ago).


An Example:


Book 1 started off with two main characters.  Jack and Jill.  The book ended with Jack falling down a well, eventually being rescued, though.  So the whole town has one, big, happy feast.


Book 2 started out with two new characters, John and Joe.  They were Jack and Jill's little brother and sister, and once Jack and Jill were older, John and Joe went up the hill on their own first little adventure.  Suddenly, they were set upon by wild, savage wolves and John's arm was brutally scarred.  Joe ran back, her little red hair flying and wolves nipping at it in the wind.  But she made it back to the village, and there, she told the village elders of John's plight, for even then he hung dangling from a hemlock tree.  But the village elders could do nothing!  (I can't think about this plot bunny to the left right now, I'll straighten it out later).  So Silly Sally is preparing to leave with Joe, but before that!  Dun dun dun!  Book 2 ends.


Book 3 starts out with Silly Sally and Joe getting to the tree the wolves had once surrounded.  They see blood on the tree, but no John.  All they see left of him is a small trickle of blood, going from the tree off to the Magician's cave to the north.  The wolves are gone, trampled grass where the blood trickle was gave their trail away.  So Silly Sally and Joe set out to the Magician's cave.  There, the wolves under the Magician's rule turn on Sally and Joe.  They take them prisoner, binding them in hard, cruel chains.


Book 3 ends.  But Book 4 picks up the story.  Jack and Jill were warned by the village elders of the trouble, so they immediately set out for the tree.  They do the same as Silly Sally and Joe, until at last coming to the Magician's cave.  There, they demanded the Magician hand Silly Sally and Joe over.  The Magician refuses, yet begins a bargain.  If Jack gave him 50 gold coins, he would hand over both Silly Sally and Joe.  Jack and Jill accept, and the four set back to the village, wary of the wolves behind them.  At last they come back to the village, where Joe feels something is missing in the village, but can't remember what from all the excitement.  And then she remembers it was John.  He was still back with the Magician!  Then, BAM!  Book 4 ends.


And here, the epic conclusion of... the epic (or saga, call it what you wish).  Book 5.  Jack, Jill, Joe, Silly Sally, along with over half the village, set out for the Magician's cave to retrieve John.  When they reach the cave, they speak with the Magician.  The Magician claims John escaped, but the villagers don't believe him so they look through the cave, coming to the cell in which John was once kept.  But he wasn't there!  After some scrounging, they find a little tunnel.  They go through the tunnel and at last find John, hurt badly and nearly dead, for the tunnel had caved in.  And thus, they took John back to the village to be fixed up.  And then they had a feast.


That was a long example, and I should shorten it probably, but I wont.  Here's why I even wrote this:  'Book' 1 is in a series, yet by the end the crisis is over and there is no continuation that could be seen.  So this is in Class 1.  Class 1 is (by my own made-up definition) when a book is in a story, yet there is a definite and sure ending to that plot.


'Books' 2 and 3 were in Class 2.  Class 2 would be the plain series, the books ending abruptly and with little conclusion to the plot, which can be good, but is usually best for comic books or a TV series.

Books 4 and 5, however, were different than either Class 1 or 2.  But the thing is, they were different because they were the same.

Black and white are opposites.  They go against each other, they clash.   Pretty much the same with Classes 1 and 2.  However, if you change the Classes just a bit, you can get something really good.  Take colors, again.  Black will not co-exist with white.  Think of them as two warring kings, they'll fight and fight until they run dry.  BUT, if you mix black with white, you have a product of grey.

And grey is what you are looking for.

While book 4 of my example ended as a cliffhanger, it also had a conclusion to its own plot.  Silly Sally and Joe were rescued!  Which, if you would remember, was indeed the point of book 4, it was only that the Magician had tricked them.

Book 5 ended the saga with a roaring boom and a thunderous exclamation of happiness and awesomeness (okay, well maybe not).

But book 4 and 5 were the same.  No, 5 didn't have a cliffhanger as 4 did, but considering that the original setting out of 4's plot didn't have anything to do with John, the plot did come to a close... until they remembered.

But the similarities are that 5 was a continuation of 4, which had the ending to its own plot, but 5 had more to continue on.  Therefore, books 4 and 5 were alike, for they were a blend of black and white.  Previously, in the other books, there hadn't been that blend, it was either black, or white, which can be rather annoying in some cases.

Well, I guess that wraps this super-mega-long post up.

Farewell, and may your pen stay sharp and your pencil sharper.

The Kid Author

THE CONSEQUENCES OF EVERYONE BEING THE SAME AS ME.

1.  There would be no electronic devices.

2.  No video Games nor Movies.

3.  No cars, busses, trucks, or any other motorized vehicle.

4.  There would be no weapon other than Medieval technology... possibly not even that.

5.  No one would ever land on the moon.

6.  Neither Communism or Capitalism would exist, only dictatorships, monarchies, or anarchy.

7.  Mathematics would be a dreaded subject, if it was even comprehended.

8.  Everyone would be an author of at least several fantasy books.

9.  There would be to many fantasy books for man-kinds good.

10.  Only people with the right moods at certain times would like mystery fiction.

11.  Everyone likes history.

12.  No body likes horror novels.

13.  Paintings and other pictures would be of the poorest quality, though the people would like to draw.

14.  There would only be a 25% chance that humans would advance beyond Medieval or Dark Age technology.

15.  Cats would, most likely, be extinct.

16.  Everyone would dream of being a good artist.

17.  Everyone would think that their brothers (even though they are the same as him/her) were very odd.

18.  Only a certain measure of politics would surface in the busy, and befuddle minds of the nobles.

19.  Everyone would hate swimming pools or anything water related (i.e. showers).

20.  Hiawian Punch would never have been invented.

21.  Henry Ford would have spent his time dreaming up things he called a "Model T", not actually making it.

22.  Pink would be outlawed.

24.  Buildings would be sloppily constructed.

25.  The likelihood of bread being discovered by growing wheat and grinding it would be very, VERY, slim.

26.  Everyone would be saying "Politics equals, disguised lies."

27.  Leonardo DVinci would have finished most of what he started, unfortunately, that would only be a series of fantasy books.

28.  Kids as old as 12 would have an interest in politics.

29.  Kids 12 and older would be attempting to take over the world...

30.  Hand pumps would have never come into the mind of it creator.

31.  Everyone would hate Legos (though... I must say myself that that wouldn't be such a bad thing...)

32.  It would have taken a genius of his era to invent the bow and arrow.

33.  A genius 33 times that would be required to invent ballistas or catapults.

34.  If boats were built, no one would be able to comprehend how they floated, let alone sailed against the wind.

35.  Markus Perrson, the creator of Minecraft, would have written a fantasy book called, Minecraft, rather than making a video game.

36.  Everyone would eat butterbread for lunch, breakfast, and super.

37.  Macaroni and Cheese would be one of the top three favorite foods of every one, along with Pizza and Chicken Cordon Bleu.  (I don't see a consequence here though...)

38.  When someone said "genetically reverse engineered it" the other person would run away screaming.

39.  Everyone would be inventing a slew of new words weekly.

40.  The bill that says "The right to bear arms" would be abolished for its silly wording.

More to come probably, those are just the ones I thought up real quick.  :)