I'm Alive!

I know, right. Surprise!

Okay, I've been really busy lately. Like, really uber busy. I had four assignments to complete in five days last week ... not one of my more relaxing experiences. Because of this, I didn't get around to participating in the Second Campaigner Challenge, which was quite a shame - I was all mentally geared up to write a post about the "fantasy imago", incorporating the words miasma, lacuna, oscitate, and synchronicity. Maybe I'll have to do it anyway sometime.

AND IT EVEN HAS AN AWESOME LOGO

Right now it's school holidays, so that's freed up a bit more time in which I can work on more homework, my drama production, study for exams, plus catch up on way too much blogging, reading and writing. Busy holidays.

Anyway, while I'm on the subject of announcing things (such as that I have actually not fallen off the face of the planet), I would like to make a mention of a great new site for bloggers, inkPageant.

Basically, it's an additional tool to get your name out there and to meet other people and find other great blogs. It's beautifully designed, is incredibly easy to use, and I personally think that it's a very good idea. There's a lot of potential for it, and it will undoubtedly spread like wildfire. Also, to celebrate inkPageant's opening, they're giving away a $50 Amazon gift card. Don't tell me you aren't tempted now.

Next, I shall tackle something that I should have done a while ago ... and that is giving out an award! So, Jennifer Groepl gave me the Versatile Blogger Award a few weeks ago, and I still haven't claimed it because of all my busy-ness. Here are the award rules:

1) Thank the person who gave you the award. Check.

2) Share seven things about yourself. Okay, then. See below.

3) Pass the award on to fifteen other recently discovered bloggers who are legendary. Sure.

4) Go and tell the bloggers you awarded about it, so that they can claim it. Will do. 

5) Throw a dance party. Wait, what?

Okay, I made the last one up.

Anyway, here are the seven things about me:

1) I live in New Zealand, down at the bottom of the world.

2) I've wanted to be a writer every since I learned what writing was.

3) I never knew what sneans were until I wore them on mufti-day last month. I'm not even kidding.

4) I'm fifteen. Yea, creative, I know.

5) The first story I remember writing was a Peter Pan fan-fiction when I was five or six.

6) I hate the way I hold a pen because it causes me to smudge the ink on the page.

7) I sometimes write letters to my thirty-year-old self.

Now, the part you've all been waiting for! I know the thing said fifteen bloggers, but I've only picked twelve because I'm a rebeeeeeeellllllll! Here they are:

Rachael Frost

Yvie Gonya

The Monkey

Sangu Mandanna

Kelly Lyman

Kelsey Sutton

Madeline Bartos

inluvwithwords

Bryce Daniels

Dawn M. Hamsher

Christine Tyler

Angela Quarles

Truth is, I don't follow nearly as many blog as I should, and I would love to follow more. So, if anyone has three more blogs they would like to recommend for the award then I would be very grateful if you did so.

Anyway, nice to be back on the radar again! See you guys later.

The Other Outlet

You're probably here because your creative outlet is writing, and you want to connect with another writer. If not, there could be other possibilities: maybe you simply enjoy what I have to say, or maybe you are one of those first fifteen people whom I bullied into following me at the very start of my venture into the blogosphere. Yes, I bullied my friends into following me. But I'll assume that your reason for visiting this blog is because you're a writer.

As writers, our creative outlet is, well, writing. We express ourselves through putting words to paper. Maybe you write poetry, or you're writing a novel, or you keep a journal, or you write essays, or, or, or. Writing is a broad term. Maybe you do all of those. But ultimately, that is how we vent our emotions and portray all the voices in our heads. Other people have other ways. This is ours.

Now, if you are serious about writing - and I'm assuming that you are, remember - then you probably see the craft as more than simply an outlet or a hobby. Until about a year ago, I thought that writing was a hobby of mine. But then it began to dawn on me how much I actually loved it, and suddenly I realised that writing was more than merely something I was interested in: it was a passion.

The same is probably true for you. Somewhere along the line you will have switched from the "hobby" mindset to the "passion" mindset. And now, while you still think writing is beyond amazing and rewarding and glorious and beautiful, it is also decidedly work. It isn't something you sit down to do every half a year when you feel suddenly inspired to express yourself. It doesn't work like that. It's something you do almost every day, because that's how much you love it. And, let's be honest, it's draining. Incredible, but draining.

(Source)

And that's where the other outlet comes in. My mum (excuse my correct spelling of "mom"), in all her wisdom, used to always tell me that if writing was going to ultimately be my job in the future, then I needed another creative outlet that would help me to wind down. And so I found something a little different. The piano.


I used to play the piano when I was younger, but I didn't really like it, so I quit. But now I play it practically everyday - not heaps, but enough to help me relax. To be honest, I'm not very good at it, but I still enjoy it, and it helps to relieve stress.

I suppose you could turn this on its head: my cousin, for example, is an incredibly gifted pianist, and practices for many hours every single day. She loves it. But music, for her, is work.

So, what's the moral of the story? Basically, it's this: writing, for those who are serious about it, certainly does not equate to field-frolicking in terms of dandy-ness. It's tough work. I love it, of course, but I've found it great having the piano, an outlet that allows me to relax - no goals or deadlines or fears. Just bliss.

So, tell me, do you have another creative outlet? What is it, and how does it help you to relax?

Normality, Abnormality and the Return

Today was my first proper school day since 21 February.

Six hours. Nine to three.

Here's the thing (and those of you who have been following me for a while will probably already know this): on 22 February, the city where I live was struck by a massive earthquake. Fortunately no-one I know was killed or injured, and my house was hardly damaged - but my school was wrecked.

And so for the last seven months my school has been site-sharing with an undamaged school. The host school used it between 8 and 12:30 in the morning. My school used it between 1:15 and 5:45 in the afternoon. As you can imagine, things this year have been pretty hectic.

But today was my school's first day back at the old premises, with normal hours.

I say "normal" for lack of a better term, when they really feel abnormal now. The truth is, in fact, things really haven't been too hectic - at least in terms of school. I've gotten used to sleeping in a bit longer than I should, blogging and writing and doing homework in the morning, walking to the bus stop at lunchtime, watching the sun go down in my last class, getting home in the dark. Those things have become my definition of school, they've become normal. So the fact that I'm writing this at five o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon from my dining room table is actually kind of weird.

And, to be honest, I think I'll miss those seven months.

Unsurprisingly, I got thinking about how my response to my school's return to "normality" could apply to storytelling. I say this is unsurprising because I always try to relate everything in life to storytelling. Maybe I do it a little too much. But anyway. I got thinking.

It didn't take long before I realised that the experience I've been through this year can be paralleled with an aspect of a character arc in stories: I was forced into an uncomfortable situation, from normality to abnormality; then I spent a good deal of time in that abnormal world; and upon returning, I see the old normality differently.

I'm reminded particularly of an example of this in the Lord of the Rings. When the hobbits return to the Shire after their epic adventure, either Merry or Pipin remarks that it's as if they're all waking up from a big dream, to which Frodo replies, "To me it feels more like falling asleep again." Abnormality becomes normal for him, and when he returns to his former life, he does so with an entirely new perspective and as a greater person than before.

So, tell me, what experiences have you personally gone through that have given you a new perspective on the world? What abnormalities have become normal in your life?