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Writers N-T >
Paige's Portland Castle of Jedi Learning
Ok, I'm very new to this area of goodreads. Heck, I'm new to goodreads all around! From what I have scoped on other sections of the Write in 2009 group, I'm supposed to describe myself a bit and make it a point to write everyday in 2009.
Obviously, my name is Paige. My family recently relocated from a large city to a desert-esque lakeside community in California, for my husbands career. I don't like the weather or the nearby landscape. Writing has been a great distraction from my issues. I have a 2.5 year old son. He is the best character I have ever created.
It was 8 months ago that I decided that I wanted to write. Read & write, write & read. Since then, I have kept a notebook with me at all times just in case the ideas flow.
My Interests and Activities: I love to teach my son. He is like a ShamWow, absorbing everything going on around him. It is so rewarding. I love to read & write as mentioned above. I can't wait to travel, I have a list of places I want to see. I love snowboarding. It's such a fun/active way to enjoy the snow.
As of right now, I am very critical of my own writing. So, before I post any of my hope-to-get-published work, I would like to throw around a few ideas and post some of my less developed works to see if my current style is interesting to anyone.
I plan to write at least 300 words a day.
Below are a few quotes, not inspirational, but more comical to help with the intense boredom you are now feeling from reading the epic tale above.
*~Monty Python and the Holy Grail~*
Bedevere: What makes you think she's a witch?
Peasant: Well she turned me into a newt!
Bedevere: A newt?
Peasant: I got better.
*~Flight of the Conchords~*
Bret: This is another one of your weird songs, man.
Jemaine: In what way?
Bret: That bit, ’sometimes I put a wig on you when we’re on tour.’
Jemaine: Put a wig on you? No. Didn’t say anything like that.
Bret: That’s definitly a bit gay.
Jermane: What is?
Bret: Putting a wig on me while I’m asleep.
Jemaine: I think, sometimes you hear what you want to hear.
Jemaine: It wouldn’t be gay to put a wig on a man and pretend they’re a woman. How can that be gay if you’re pretending they’re a woman?
Jemaine: Not that I did that.
Dave: Why’d you tell me you were from Never Never Land?
Bret and Jemaine: New Zealand.
Murray: Stuff you Jemaine and stuff you Bret…and Stuff you again Jemaine
Jemaine: Why do I get double stuffed!
Murray: Well I call it the dad guitar cause it sounds like (Deepens Voice) da da da..I'm your dad...Hey Murray get into the shed and get the mower and do the lawns...doo doo dee. (Normal Voice) You need Bret's mum guitar to add the beautiful tones. (Higher Voice) Come now, Murray's ok, he's with me. Why'd you get home so late, Gordan? (Deepens Voice) I was just having a few beers.......(awkward silence)
Have a great day!
LOL I had hoped to make it to one of their shows this month, but it turned out that my husband and my son are starring in a wedding that same day. DARNIT! *Rolls Eyes* People in love........... LOL J/K
Hey, thanks for stoppping by. I will post some actual writing later tonight.
hey, nice to meet you paige! and I'm so glad you fell in love with Twilight! I'm a die hard also, and to be honest, that's what sparked me to start writing also! It was like a pep rally, or pep talk, it made me write even better. Which helped a lot. Keep writing! and welcome to the group!
Ok, I figure that since I did start counting my writing a few days ago, I'll go ahead and post my word counts for the last few days.
5/12
Word Count: 1,066
From: Portland, Prologue Option #1
5/13
Word Count: 2,763
From: Portland, Prologue Option #2 & 2/3 of Chapter 1
Welcome Paige!
I've lived in portland and am now in the high desert of SE Idaho, but thankfully we don't have your kinda heat.
I had green withdrawl when we moved too. TO go from having your very own fern garden to being happy to even find a tree- it's a shock to the system.
What's funny now though, since I've lived here the better part of 20 years, when I go back to Portland I get closterphobic because I can't see the landscape there. THe trees are so thick the only sky you see is straight up. Here we can go on a trip and say: see that mountain way over there? that's where we're going. In portland it was twists and turns and walls of green everywhere.
I still love the tidepools though. I take my kids there every few years.
Have a great day and don't let anyone "fart in your general direction..(or say) your mother was a hampster, (or that) your father smelled of elderberrys!"
Hi Paige! (It's a good thing we started calling Tink-Tink. =) ) Looking forward to reading some of your writing! Great word counts so far! Oh, and go snowboarders! *high fives fellow snowboarder* Snowboarding is AWESOME! =D
Hi Elaine. Thank you for stopping by and I am very happy to meet you!
Snowboarding is the best!!! LOL
Thanks for the high five. *extends fist for a bump*
I love snowboarding, but in the last year, I haven't really been able to hit the slopes. *sad face*
My husband and I just started planning a trip for this winter to Tahoe to snowboard, I can't wait. LOL My husband has never done it before so it will be a hilarious event. LOL
Thank you for the encouragement as well.
I hope to chat with you more in the future.
:)
Paige wrote: "LOL I had hoped to make it to one of their shows this month, but it turned out that my husband and my son are starring in a wedding that same day. DARNIT! *Rolls Eyes* People in love........... LOL..."hehe that would be sooo much fun to go to~
lol. yesterday i was listening to robots and everyone was like "seth, what are you listening to?" and i was like "only the best song ever!" then they hated it :( some ppl are sooo lame.
paige wrote: "Is that a coconut?"
that depends- is it carried by an African swallow or a European one?
have a great writing day!
Hi Paige,
Welcome to our group. Anyone who likes the Twilight saga will fit in perfectly :]
Looking forward to reading your stories.
Wishing you a day filled with magical moments.
Dee Marie
Dee: Thank you very much for the welcome.
Update!
5/16
Word Count: 435
From: Random new short story, no title yet.
Hello Paige;A very good start to your story.
Am I right to assume that the 'news headlines' ultimately have something to do with where the story is going?
Look forward to seeing more of it.
Thank you for reading my story Gwendolyn.
You are right to assume that the news headlines will be important in the future of my story.
Thank you! I really appreciate that you've taken the time to read my story.
Hey, Paige! I commented on your story so far, and found it very good. I left a review. :)I'll let you know, but I'm hoping to post more Soulfire tonight.
Paige wrote: "Seth: LOL I absolutely love Robots!!! It's diabolical! LOL I'm lucky, my mother and my husband's friends love the Conchords also. Although, my husband's family is entirely clueless. LOL Sucky for ..."OMG!! *looove* haha. i also really like think about it :)
off to read your story right now :)
Thank you for the tip, Tink.
I am very bad at getting my paragraphs in order, I have always been. LOL I will work on that. Thank you! I did try to create a confusing feeling for her thoughts after learning about their deaths.
Seth: Thank you for reading my story.
LOL I know that it sounds very depressing right now, but I promise it will get better within the first 5 chapters, well, not exactly better, but the mood will lighten a little.
I'm off to post Chapter 1 tonight after one more edit. I will post when I have it on here. Thank you!! :)
Oh, and I'm working on something new that I intend to post. It is a comedy and it's basically going to be my rants about moving from a large city to a small desert-esque town of 160 people. It will be a laugh riot, I hope. LOL It's not going to be something that is going to be put together well, but it will be funny.
Thank you!!
UPDATE
5/17
Word Count: 1,326
From: Portland, Chapter 1 Edit; New! Ode to the Comedian: A Homage to Will Ferrell; New! The Curiously Extraordinary Adventures of Cody Plum, Junior Conspiracy Theorist, story development; New! Rants From The City in The Desert
LOL Lots to post, lots to post. I will post when they're ready. LOL
I'm loving the third and fourth titles, they just sound so interesting!
Can't wait until you post :)
Thank you Wendy, I truly appreciate all of your advice. As with the news headlines, I struggled with those for days before I decided with what I had, but you were able to put it the way I wanted it. Genius! Thank you!!!!
I will post Chapter 1 today.
Paige wrote: "Genius!"
*cough cough* No-no, not me. I have genes, and I wear jeans, I've an aunt named Jeanie- but I fall far short of the Genius level. THanks anyway though, I'm glad I was helpful. :)
Feel free to review the other people's stuff tere too. I'm really please with how many new submissions we have!
UPDATE!
5/18
Word Count: 1,942
From: Portland, Chapter 1; NEW! Rants From the City in the Desert
I have posted Rants From the City in the Desert.
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/4204...
Thank you!
Howdy Paige- here's a few symptoms of shock:
" The trauma that can cause a person to experience shock includes things as relatively simple as dehydration and as violent as a physical blow to the head. The most obvious exhibited symptoms that serve to indicate that a person has gone into shock would such things as general clamminess of the skin, a weak pulse, pale color and severely decreased blood pressure. In addition, the breathing of someone in shock tends to be very weak.
Those who are suffering from the effects of shock will feel faint and also may experience feelings of nausea. They may either complain of or exhibit signs of being chilly and often complain of unusual thirst. "
Perhaps if your mom is in shock you could have her face turn pale and her hands tremble slightly. Maybe when she looks at the daughter, her eyes could be dialated and slightly unfocused. ANything like that would ram it home to your reader that she does care- so much so that she is in medical distress.
Just a thought! ;) Happy writing.
That's great, because I had pictured the mother looking at Marley with unfocused eyes, but I still didn't want to give too much away, I guess. I will definitely add the part about the mother's eyes being unfocused and breathing strange. I'll have to figure out a good way to present that. Thank you for clarifying shock to me. I've never really looked it up, I just went with the movie's definition. LOL
Thank you!
Ok, here is Chapter 1 of Portland.
This is very sloppy even though I went over it about 15 times. I couldn't word some things correctly and I couldn't take most it out. It is very very long, but I hope that it is liked. Please, let me know what you think, because this was very hard to write. I will be happy when I get to move forward with the other Chapters, because the mood will be less depressing and the mystery will grow. But I had to create this setting in order to move forward to the next chapters and to show how Marley deals with this tragedy.
Thank you!
Working Title: Portland, Chapter 1: Enveloped By Sadness
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/4183...
Thank you!!!! :)
Paige;I read through the new Chapter last night.
Having lost family and those close to me, it was very hard to read it and not find myself nodding my head...
On the question of the texting in the prologue ... although from the discussions I know it raised a few eyebrows, I'd leave it. I think it works extremely well.
... and to answer someone else's question about why the character didn't press to know more about what happened... the answer is simply that you don't.... at least not at first.
It becomes completely irrelevant in the face of the loss.
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/4207...
Gwendolyn: I'm so sorry that it has been hard for you to read. I know that will happen as people that have been through tragedies will read my story. I just hope that it doesn't deter people from reading on. Also, as for the texting, there will be a reason behind that in the chapters to follow, I'm not sure which one, but it will come out and she will speculate up until as well. Thank you! I hope that you enjoy how the story progresses also.
Tink: Yay! Tink, thank you so much!! I'll read right away.
Hey everybody! I haven't been on for two days. A giant crow landed on a transformer in the town next to mine and did something to cause the transformer to explode and so about 5 little towns were without power for two days in upper 90 degree heat. It sucked really really bad, but we are good now. We have the AC cranked up and the TV is on and I have my internet back. YAY! I should rant about this, because two hundred dollars worth of food that was in my fridge and freezer had to be tossed out. Crappy! LOL Glad to be back though!!!
BOOHOO!
Update
5/20
Word Count: 123
From: Written on notepad due to power outage, idea for new story
5/21
Word Count: 173
From: Formation of new story characters
5/22
Word Count: 0
From: Spent the day outside doing various garage and yardwork chores. :(
5/23
Word Count:590
From: Review for WWW; Rants From the City in the Desert, Are you kidding me?
Pretty sad word counts in the last few days, but I hope to improve upon them this next week.
Hey Paige,
I enjoyed reading The Portland Chronicles, please drop me a note in my cubical when you post your next chapter :]
Thank you for reading my story, Dee. I shall let you know when I post Chapter 2. It should be next week sometime.
:)
UPDATE
5/24
Word Count: 0
From: LOL First case of Writer's Block, I Guess. :(
5/25
Word Count: 178
From: Portland, Chapter 2 Edit
5/26
Word Count: 34
From: Portland, Chapter 3
5/27
Word Count: 0
From: I just couldn't think when I sat down to type. :(
Wow, I've had a hard week. Hardly able to write much. It was like when I got all settled in to write, my mind would draw blanks. Very frustrating. Tonight, I think I will do better though, because I am really feeling creative. LOL I hope that everyone is having a great day (well, night now, but I mean like tomorrow or something. LOL)
I'm so tired, I think I'm becoming sleep deprived. I write best at 11:00pm and 3:00am. The kidlet goes to bed between 9:00pm and 10:00pm and wakes up atound 7:30am to 8:00am so I think it's starting to catch up with me. Even though, I haven't been writing much, I still stay up. I'm just not tired. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!?! LOL J/K I knew this would happen at some time in my life. My mother probably gets about 8-10 hours a week, so as it is right now, I'm pretty lucky, but my future doesn't look good. LOL
Hope to chat with you all later!!!!!!!! :)
Hang in there Paige. Don't you know that moms are superwomen who don't actually sleep? Whe just pretend to - like Edward- Just use that big crank attatched to your back and wind-er-up for another day.
UPDATE
I'm pretty proud of this one.
5/28
Word Count: 4,877
From: The Business of Being Fake, Short Story; Rants From the City in the Desert, Are you kidding me, The Great Outage of 2009, Seriously This is Going to Take Forever
LOL WAHOO!!!!!!! I guess having so many zeros to report encouraged me to go big or go home. LOL I will post the new rant stories before Saturday, I just have to edit and embellish.
Ok, it's 2:30am and I'm deliriously tired. My eyes burn and I have the creeps, like always. LOL
Goodnight everyone!!!
Wendy: LOL I'm really learning that now. I thought it was bad when I worked and my husband was gone during the week fro training, but it's nothing like now. I actually have something that I love doing and it's best when down so late at night when the little one is out. Oh well, at least I love what I'm doing. LOL
Thank you! I totally feel like the crank is there now.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Evermore (other topics)Twilight (other topics)
Party in My Tummy (other topics)
Across the Pond (other topics)
