horror

I dragged my limp leg behind me as I fled for my life. The gravel road made it hard to have a solid footing as blood ran down my left leg from the puncture wounds it had left.

 I couldn’t get that terrible scene out of my mind. Me hiding in the living room, the darkness making it impossible to see where it was coming from, the terrible growling noise it made as it crept closer, then my blood curdling scream as it bit down on my leg with it's porcupine teeth. If I hadn't grabbed the broken lamp beside me to stab it, I surely would have died.  

 I quickened my sluggish pace as much as I could. The barn only a few hundred feet away. If I could make it inside I could radio for help. If, I could make it. My head was pounding, sweat poured off me, I had to make it, I had to live. I could hear the sound of clawed feet crunching on gravel nearby. I dove into the nearby bushes and prayed I hadn't been spotted.

 One dinosaur-like foot stepped inches from my face. I held by breath, not daring to make a sound. Its black scaly snout sniffed around the bushes, and saliva oozed from it's murderous mouth. Suddenly it turned away, as if something had caught it's attention. I hid for a few more minutes until I half ran half limped to the barn.

 I quickly shut and locked the doors behind me. Reinforcing them with chains, just in case.  I caught my breath as the adrenaline shot through me body in waves, making me shake and shiver. After some strength returned to my body I wobbled my way towards the radio, which was across the barn near the tool rack.

 "Mayday, mayday I need some assistance, does anyone copy? This is Markus Dwayland, I live on the farm down Manchester road I need immediate assistance?! Hello?! Hello?! Is anyone there?! I need help now god dammit!"

 The hairs on my body stood on end as I turned slowly towards the sound of growling coming from the dark corner of the barn. A black scaly snout, dripping needle teeth, bat-like wings with sharp talons and large clawed feet is the sight I am greeted with.  it was here.

mystery

1. Establish setting.

•  Large yacht is open for all types of parties for all types of people. Party goer has been murdered and off duty detective is on scene. Detective and  detective's partner were there because of partner's bachelorette party (other parties also taking place on yacht not just bachelorette party.) Detective is male, partner is female, victim is male, hostess is female, criminal is female (criminal's gender is found out later.) 

 

2. Unsolved crime.

•  who murdered the victim in such a public place and why?Body found in one of the private rooms within the yacht. Victim had been stabbed with jagged circular object. Detective smells perfume on victim and finds a long brown hair on bed. There is a red scuff on corner of bed and heel print of criminal from stepping in victim's blood.

 

3. Story of criminal -who? Why? How?

• Criminal is female party goer who had been having an affair with the victim. She murdered victim because he threatened to tell husband about affair if he wasn’t given money. Female stabbed victim in private cabin within the yacht with broken wine bottle and threw it over board after use. Hostess also sleeping with victim so suspicion on her at first.

 

4. Detective -who? How crime solved?

•  Detective is a young male pursuing a promotion in the force and solving this crime could be his chance. Partner is a young female. Detective and partner have been friends since childhood. First detective thinks it is hostess because she was wearing same perfume found on victim and has long brown hair. She confesses to have been sleeping with victim but did not murder him. Her heels are not right size or color so he concludes it is not her. Detective solves crime by seeing wedding ring tan line on criminal's finger. This sparks curiosity as to why married women would be at this event and not wearing her ring. He then notices she is wearing purple sandals with a fancy red dress and matching red jewelry/purse so sandals look out of place. He later sees Instagram photo with her in background wearing red heels earlier that night. (Red shoe scuff was left on corner of bed at crime scene but she threw them over board with broken wine bottle and changed shoes.) She also has a small cut on her right hand were the broken bottle nicked her.  Detective questions her and she cracks, spilling out all the details about her rage towards the victim and her reason for killing him.

 

 

Image of what yacht should look like

 

Fantasy

Magic abilities- Force field, invisibility, fire, ice and healing.

How he/she became magic- Born with magic abilities.

Price- Must be trained to perfect abilities and must be strong enough to perform certain spells ( strength comes from age, experience, and lineage.)  

Conflict- very powerful magic user conquering cities by force and killing innocent people in the process, magic users and non-magic users must band together to defeat him.

Restrictions on magic- cannot kill innocent people with magic, only defend your life or the life of others. If you do kill innocent people with magic you become evil and soulless. Also, using powerful magic before being ready drains energy and can lead to death.

Name- Rhianwyn.

image of what my fantasy world should resemble

what my character should resemble

 

sci-fi

Setting-  The year is 3570 on a futuristic planet very similar to earth. The planet is called Paradisus and has lots of natural resources such as oil, water and minerals. The inhabitants of the planet have taken great care to keep their planet healthy and there are two moons that  orbit Paradisus.

 Conflict- Paradisus has been invaded by aliens called humans. They are harvesting all the natural resources on Paradisus to supply their own planet, earth. They have killed or enslaved all the inhabitants of Paradisus.  Humans have bionic suits attached to their bodies in order to prolong their lives. They have also run out of resources on earth. Their bionic suits and hardship have caused them to lose their humanity, making them ruthless and willing to do anything to survive. The main character is a slave and wants to stage a rebellion to free his people and save his world.

 Character - Zadicus Prong is a twenty five year old Paradisian. He was made a slave at age seven when the humans invaded. He has dark features such as his skin tone, hair, and eyes. He is athletic and strong because of the hard labor and training he was forced to do as a slave.  He is cunning, strong willed and brave.

 

Link to what my character should resemble

 

 what my sci-fi world should resemble

 

Post Seven

Personally, I am a fan of poetry. Lots of students dislike poetry because it is a more personal subject. I feel like poetry is a good way to express yourself. I enjoyed the challenges that came with writing poetry.

In the beginning of this unit I was nervous. I am not very good at rhyming words to make them fit into a good poem. Although this was a struggle for me, I asked for help from several students in class. The more I practiced the better I became.

What helped me a lot was following these steps while creating a poem: Opening line must hook reader, each line should convey idea, effective lines end with strong words, line length helps show expressing or mood, last line should be powerful like first. I  found incorporating  literal, figurative, metaphor, hyperbole, oxymoron(two contradictory combines for a new term), understatement and pun(play on words) difficult because I am not used to using most of them in my prior courses (except in English a bit.)

The fact that there were so many things due very close to each other stressed me out a bit. My other courses are also time consuming. Although the assignments where small I found myself falling behind because of the fact that there were so many. I did not always have the chance to take time and work on them as much as would have liked to so I was a little disappointed because I felt like I could have done better if given more time.

I was surprised at the amount of difficulty I was having with this unit. I still enjoyed what we did in class and the new challenges I had to over come. For example when we had to present spoken word poems to the class I was shocked at the amount of talent that was shown. Secondly I was not able to present my poem on Friday, but I did perform later. I was very nervous to go up and present but I faced my fears and did it. I was glad that I had that opportunity. Lastly the randompedia was difficult for me because I am not good at writing lyrics. Although it was difficult I finished it and was happy with the end result.

What I am basically stating is that the poetry unit was fun, yet difficult, and that I enjoyed learning new techniques about poetry. 

Post Six

VERSE

I need another DJ
Playing on the turntables
Put the good songs on replay
Plug in the power cables

I’ve helped to jump-start careers

People in the club with beer
Paul Wall and Chamillionaire
Yeah I ain’t no scrub, no
You see me in the club, so

CHORUS

They call me OG Ron C
DJ clubs and make them beats
Even Riff Raff signed with me
I’mma keep producing records all day

This time
I make a beat to go with the rhyme
I produce records you design
I’mma keep producing records all day

VERSE
My Man
Keeping DJ Screw’s music alive
Joined up with him back in 9 5
So our DJing can survive

And I been doing this since 87, Been in the game for so, so long
And when MCs and DJs need me, just write it into an album
Seen me at the club befo’
I really do like my flow, no, so

CHORUS
They call me OG Ron C
DJ clubs and make them beats
Even Riff Raff signed with me
I’mma keep producing records all day

This time
I make a beat to go with the rhyme
I produce records you design
I’mma keep producing records all day

BRIDGE
oh, got no lyrics, got no game
Got no bad MCs I can blame
Just don't kick me out the club
I'mma tell you everything

CHORUS
They call me OG Ron C
DJ clubs and make them beats
Even Riff Raff signed with me
I’mma keep producing records all day

This time
I make a beat to go with the rhyme
I produce records you design
I’mma keep producing records all day

CHORUS
They call me OG Ron C
DJ clubs and make them beats
Even Riff Raff signed with me
I’mma keep producing records all day

This time
I make a beat to go with the rhyme
I produce records you design
I’mma keep producing records all day

All the records all day
All the records all day

If anyone is interested in hearing more spoken word poems and other topics Suli Breezy talks about, the link below will take you to a YouTube page with all his videos. He is most known for his spoken word poems called "I will not let an exam result decide my fate" and "why I hate school but love education."  I personally like one of his segments called "she's not" it is a two part video so check it out when you have the time.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sulibreezy

Post Five

It is self-explanatory what the poem “Parents are the hardest people to please” is about. The poem is Suli Breezy’s take on the relationships between parents and their children, and how parents need to be more open minded with their kids.

Suli starts the poem by questioning parents, asking if they had forget that they too were young once. This technique is useful because it addresses the intended audience immediately. The use of rhyme throughout the poem is also very effective and makes the poem flow, almost like rap. The first section of the poem ends with a dramatic statement to keep the audience interested.

The second section is double tracked to put emphasis on a certain line. Although Suli is harsh in some of his statements, he always emphasizes how important parents are. By saying positive and negative things about parents it sounds more realistic and relatable. There are no perfect parents, all parents have faults and wisdom to share with their children.

Suli also uses metaphors and similes to get his point across poetically. He tells relatable stories to connect with his listeners. This shows his understanding of the situations they are in. By making this connection the impact of what he is saying is much stronger.

The last section of the poem deals with the idea of a backup plan. Once again he uses simile in order to explain why putting emphasis on children’s backup plan is discouraging. By emphasizing the backup plan it shows where the faith of the parents lie. Another way Suli discourages the emphasis of the backup plan is by using consonance at the end of several words in order to make his point clear.

Suli makes the listener think the poem is over, but in reality it is a false ending. This technique is useful because it shows how passionate he is about the subject he is preaching about. After the false ending the poem has a rising action. This happens because Suli’s voice becomes more powerful. At the very end his voice dies down and becomes calm, indicating that his final words are the message to the listeners.

Another key component was the music playing in the background while Suli was speaking. The music changed several times throughout the poem. In the beginning is was calm and serious, in the middle it started to speed up with the pace of his speaking, right before the end it became powerful when he was passionate, lastly the music slowly died down and matched the tone of Suli’s ending.

“Parents are the hardest people to please” is an effective and engaging poem. The message of the poem is portrayed creatively and poetically. Literary devices, editing to certain lines, and music are all used to emphasis certain parts in the poem and set the tone. The poem’s message is that parents should communicate and try to encourage their children. This message is received by both parents and children because it is so well communicated by Suli Breezy.




The link to "Parents are the hardest people to please" is listed below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uc_mvwOUf0

 

This is a patch poem. A patch poem is one line from several poems put together to make a new poem.

When you wake up in the morning
to guide us from afar
to live forever and always
the endings never clear
she never showed her tears


The links below are the full poems, the titles and the names of the authors.

http://www.ellenbailey.com/poems/ellen_396.htm>

 

http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-family-is-like-a-circle

 

http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/god-the-artist-by-angela-morgan

 

http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/for-a-soldier

 

http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-strongest-girl-i-ever-knew

This is a poem I had to create that represents my idea of heaven or paradise.

 

The cupboards creek and crack,

The staircase moans and groans,

Finding my way back,

No matter all the homes




It is sunlight,

It is life,

It is moonlight,

Never strife




The cupboards creek and crack,

The staircase moans and groans,

Finding my way back,

No matter all the homes




Love and warmth envelopes me,

I revel in serenity,

Every room has memories,

Past scenes evoke sweet melodies



 

The cupboards creek and crack,

The staircase moans and groans,

Finding my way back,

No matter all the homes




This place,

My home,

Where I will never be alone




The cupboards creek and crack,

The staircase moans and groans,

Finding my way back,

No matter all the homes.

Post Four

This is a reflection on our short story unit.

A short story I read that stood out to me was The Veldt . The Veldt is a story about a family living in a technologically advanced house. At the end of the story the two children, Peter and Wendy, end up killing their parents because they consider the house more of a parent than the parents themselves. It was an interesting and surprising twist. The story also made me think about how technology is starting to replace human company. People are always on their devices instead of interacting with the people around them. The story makes the reader think about today's society and how we shouldn't let technology replace us, we should make the effort to care and socialize with one another. This really caught my attention and stuck with me.

The aspects of short story writing that I found most challenging was creating the plot and being able to connect key ideas. I struggled to come up with a story line because there are just so many possibilities and directions a story can take. I couldn't decide what I wanted to write about and which path my story would take. Once I had main points I had to brainstorm ways to smoothly connect them.  I also had to make sure my story didn't get overly cluttered or off topic. All these important aspects made the short story writing challenging but still a fun experience.

I prefer short stories that are not depressing, sad, or evoke any negative emotions. When a short story is interesting without being depressing I enjoy it much more. My favorite type of story is one with a happy ending, or a twist ending. These type of stories grab my attention and I am pleased when I finish it. One might say I like clichés. The happily ever after, cookie cutter endings are fine by me!

I like the drama in my story because the reader isn't sure about what will happen to the main character. I also like the plot and setting in which my character is in. I enjoyed writing my story and I am proud of the outcome. The areas I could improve on is revealing information. I feel like I have trouble showing rather than telling information. I would also like to improve my punctuation skills because sometimes I am not sure when to apply certain types of punctuation in certain situations. Also, if I as allowed to have a longer short story I would make the plot more dramatic somehow.

Post Three

This week our class was asked to create a character description and portray it in some sort of creative fashion. I chose to write an obituary to show information about my character.

Troy McKinley passed away this Saturday. He died of natural causes and was found in the shed, sleeping with his dogs, as was common for him. His death was quite peaceful for a man who lived an extraordinary life. He was born in Glasgow Scotland in the year 1897. He grew up with his mother and father until the age of sixteen when they died tragically in a house fire.

 At the age of twenty one, a big burly young Troy decided to explore the world. He went on safari in Africa, backpacked in Europe and hiked in the Himalayas. What called to him the most was the beauty of the winter tundra. He loved dog sledding, hunting, camping and many other outdoorsy activities. Troy was most-well known for his shocking survival story. Troy managed to survive being lost in the tundra in the middle of a snow storm. It was his favorite adventure, if you consider losing a few toes to frostbite as an adventure.

 Troy eventually settled down into a quiet cabin in the woods. He called it his "sanctuary", a place him and his sled dogs could live peacefully. Even as an old man he couldn't be convinced to move inland where it was safer and closer to medical help. He insisted on staying in his quaint cabin, saying that he "rather die in the beauty of nature than live in a city of concrete."

Even with those mysterious green eyes and thick brown hair Troy never settled down with a wife and kids. Not to say women didn't try to nab him, but he already had a love, his one true love, the wild. He will be missed dearly by his friends and his sled dogs. Troy McKinley, the man with an extraordinary life.

My teacher instructed the class write a 55 word story or twister (140 characters including spaces & punctuation). Below you will notice that there are one of each written.

 Twister:

Her eyes, fantastic. That smile, dazzling. Everything about her was amazing. She will be mine. I think, as I hide in her bushes… Watching.

Fifty five word story:

Lucas squeezes his eyes shut, waiting dreadfully for the sharp, agonizing pain to pierce his flesh. Sweat drips down the back of his neck. Will this be the end? He thinks to himself. Something cool suddenly touches his skin."AHHHH!!!"  he screams in utter horror. Sir, that was only the cotton swab, the nurse explains.

I find my twister a little bit creepy but it is exactly 140 characters so I am proud of it. Although, I have to admit that I enjoy my fifty five word story much more. It makes me laugh and is not nearly as creepy as my twister. All in all this was a fun exercise.

At first, I found it very difficult to come up with a plot for the twister and the fifty five word story. I found this exercise a bit more challenging than the previous ones assigned to me. I am glad I had this experience, it was fun and different. I am curious to see what will come next.

The link below gives a brief summary about the memoir The Glass Castle. If anyone has not read it before and is curious as to what it is about, I would suggest following the link to find out. I enjoyed the memoir and recommend reading it, especially if you want a reference on how to write a memoir.

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-glass-castle/study-guide/short-summary/

Post Two

During this unit I was taught how to write a memoir. My teacher asked the class to read the memoir The Glass Castle in order to see an example of exceptional memoir writing. I enjoyed reading The glass castle and I referenced it while writing my own memoir.

 The memoir showed how less is more when writing a memoir. When the author underplayed certain events it made it more significant and shocking. Also, showing rather than telling was used a lot in the novel. All these techniques were very useful and made my experience when writing my memoir much easier.

The Glass Castle was a memoir about the life of a young girl living in poverty throughout her life. it showed her as a young girl traveling constantly with her siblings and parents. As she grew older she started to see the flaws of her parents and became tired of living in poverty.  By underplaying shocking events it made the scenes more significant. Also, by her showing what was happening instead of stating it gave the reader the chance to come to a conclusion them self. I had never seen this type of writing before so it was very interesting.

 I found writing my memoir challenging but also easy. The easy part was getting the story out, the more difficult part was keeping the writing present tense and showing information instead of telling it. I enjoyed writing my memoir because it was a significant part in my life and I am glad I got to share it with other people.

For me, writing is a stress reliever. I love to read and write so I was excited to attempt this new style of writing. Writing my memoir was very calming and fun. The techniques taught to me helped me have a different perspective on how to portray information to the reader. I never considered showing information instead of out right telling it to the reader. It helped make my writing more interesting and impactful. I am excited to see what I will learn next.

This is a the first novel in a series that I really enjoyed. It is a fictional novel and it is a great read. There is also a movie based on the novel that is pretty good too. if you like fiction, action and suspense I recommend reading this book.

Post One

Hi, my name is sabrina. I have never done a blog before so hopefully it will go well. This blog is for my Writers  Craft class and is used as my summative mark.

 I started writing when I was around fourteen or fifteen for a school project on creative writing. I never knew how passionate I was about writing until I was assigned that project. I loved creating a new world with many different characters and may different plots. Since then my desire to write has grown more and more.

My favorite type of writing would have to be creative writing. I also love writing fictional stories in particular. Being able to make a character have special skills that people don't have in real life is exciting and cool to me. My passion for writing stemmed from my love of reading. I wouldn't be able to write as well as I do if not for my vast variety of novels. I love fictional novels that are action packed or suspenseful, they hold my attention and make me excited to flip to the next page to see what will happen next.

My strengths as a writer would probably have to be the creative part of writing. I love making interesting plot twists that grasp the reader's attention. I am also good at editing projects or rearranging sentences in order to make them flow better. The only thing that I find I am not strong in is punctuation and lengthening my writing. I hope this class will teach me all sorts of writing techniques and better me as a writer in general. So far I have been taught how to write a memoir, which I have never done before. I enjoyed it and I hope I will learn how to write several more genres.

 I am not sure if I will pursue a career in writing, but I know it is something I am passionate about and want to continue to do throughout my life.