With the Coming of Summer

Hello, again. Talk about a hiatus huh? I hope to bring this place back to normal, or semi-normal, posting again. But first I have to finish the first semester of my third year at college. Being a Creative Writing major means all my classes involve a heck of a lot of reading and writing.
It gets overwhelming writing for four classes at once. I think having a language class as my fifth course is the only thing that has kept me from spontaneously combusting on my laptop.
I just wanted to write something simple and give the glimmer of hope that this blog IS coming back -- as will my story ideas/excerpts. I'm currently working on getting the plot idea for a Inu/Kag fanfiction (one-shot) down but I'm also starting the process of developing ideas for a full fanfiction of the same pairing. If I manage to pull it off, let's just say, it'll be verrrryy interesting ;)

Also, I made a slight change in the side bar menu. I've seperated my pages from friends/pages I follow and added a link to my recently created formspring account. This will allow any and all of you to send me questions anonymously (or, if you have an account, you may choose to show who you are) and I will answer. It seemed like a fun way to kill boredom and stress and get to know my friends a little more intimately -- but then I realized it could mean the same to any and all readers I have here. :)
So if there's anything you'd like to know, feel free to ask: http://www.formspring.me/literarybug

I'm not sure if I'm going to continue posting my old writing assignments from my first Creative Writing class (refer to last couple of posts). So much time has already passed since then, and I was getting closer to the MUCH longer writings that I doubt I would have posted fully here anyway. Not to mention it would entail me digging through the travesty that is my room to find my old notebook xP
Yea I should really tidy things up a bit... But I digress.

OK! I think that's all the announcements I had to give. Oh, also (this just came to mind): Since I haven't been able to write out of pleasure for some time (thanks to my workload of term papers and reports) I might be a little rusty. If anyone happens to have a request for an excerpt--i.e. "Write about a cat that lost his yarn!" (weak example but just illustrating the process)--feel free to submit one here in the comments section. Remember that you don't HAVE to have a blogspot in order to comment on my page, simply choose the "anonymous" option and you will be able to submit a comment without having to log in or register--though feel free to leave your name somewhere in the comment so I can credit you when I write your story request :)

Alright. That's all she wrote, folks. See you soon.

Creative Writing Assignment 02

Hello, one and all. Sorry for the long hiatus; my homework-load turned out to be twice as heavy as I thought it would be so I've had literally NO TIME to blog--personal or otherwise. Today I found myself with some down time so I'm going to post the second of my Creative Writing Assignments =)

For this assignment, Prof. Kesler asked us to write a two-to-three page scene where the majority of the story relied on dialogue. He explained that SOME narration obviously had to take place ((otherwise everyone would be lost)) but that more than half had to be dialogue. So here is my scene, again I won't give it a special title. I've had a lot of positive feedback from this piece but if anything seems off don't hesitate to say so ^_^ Enjoy and please share your thoughts!!

CRW Assignment 02 -- Emphasis on Dialogue

Amy took a cautious step forward and placed her hand on the car-door handle. "Are you sure I'm ready for this? I mean, I did run over a lot of cones during practice..."

Dismissing her comment with a wave of his hand, Amy's father, Noah, climbed into the passenger seat. "You'll be fine! We'll just avoid parallel parking today."

"Still," she said while climbing into the driver's seat, "you really think I'm ready to drive out on the road?"

"Well you've got to learn sometime," he said with a lighthearted chuckle. "Relax! I'll be right here if anything goes wrong. Now buckle up, and tell me, what's the first thing you do?"

"Check my mirrors." Amy examined the rearview mirrors and made the necessary adjustments for her height. She started the ignition and slowly pulled out of the driveway. Amy had never driven anywhere outside of her school's parking lot and the thought of driving onto the public roads (with real traffic) was, she will admit, a little frightening.

As they neared the exit of the complex, Amy gave her father a quick glance. "Did you want me to take Maple or Orange?"

"Take Maple, we'll stop by the supermarket and pick up some groceries. I thought you might enjoy a home-cooked meal tonight instead of frozen pizza again." The smile on his face eased Amy's nerves. "Merge left here, we're going to turn at the next light."

As she merged safely into the next lane, Amy returned to the original subject. "Yeah, we really are hopeless whenever Mom goes on her business trips." She let out a small laugh as one particular occasion came to mind. "Remember that time we tried to bake a chicken but forgot to defrost it first?"

Noah made a sound of disapproval. "It took hours to cook and still didn't taste right." He watched as Amy waved at another driver, signaling that they could merge in. The sound of her laugh made his next statement difficult to say. "Listen, Amy, about your mother--careful that car is turning."

Amy sighed as she adjusted her speed to let the car through. "I wish more people would use their signal, I mean it doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"But you're doing great. See? I told you it'd be fine."

"Thanks, Dad," she sent him a quick smile before turning her attention back to the road. "What about Mom?"

He looked for a way to approach the subject. "She... She decided to extend her business trip a few more days."

"How come? I thought she was coming back Monday?"

He took a deep breath before answering. "She's been upset with me and needs the time away."

Amy sent her father a puzzled look. "What do you mean? You've had your arguments--a lot of them actually--but you always get through it."

"Amy... this time it's not the same..."

"What do you mean?"

There was a short pause. "We're getting a divorce."

"You're WHAT?" In her shock Amy spun the wheel and the car swerved into the next lane. She screamed as the cars honked and swerved to avoid her, only half noticing her father reach over and grab the wheel.

"Jesus, Amy!" Noah swerved the car away from traffic and into the grass where Amy slammed the brakes. "Amy! You can't just--"

"You and Mom are doing what?" She yelled. Her heart was beating at a painful rate, her body was shaking from fear, and her face had turned sickly pale--but it had nothing to do with the car accident she almost caused. "A divor--A divorce?"

He held out a hand, motioning her to calm down. "We tried to make this work, we did. We even went to counseling if you remember. It's just not working."

"What do you mean it's not working? Everything was fine! Everybody fights, Dad, it doesn't mean you just quit! You work it out! You and Mom are supposed to work it out!"

"I'm sorry, Amy, but it's just not happening. We're tired of kidding ourselves--"

"Kidding yourselves?" Amy noticed her father's wince, but didn't lower her voice. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Amy, your mother and I grew apart long ago, but we stayed together for your sake. But it's time we both moved on with our lives and now that you're old enough--"

"I don't believe this!" Amy ran her hands over her face, wiping away the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. "I can't believe this is happening!"

Noah reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a box of tissues. "I'm sorry, Amy..." He sighed as he watched the tissue box fumble in his daughter's trembling hands. He tried again, "Your mother and I just can't do this anymore."

"I can't believe this," Amy repeated quietly over and over. "I can't--"

"It'll be alright, sweetheart," Noah said as he pulled his daughter into an awkward embrace.

"No it won't, Dad. It won't be all right."

Thanks for reading, I hope you all enjoyed it. Please review and comment.

Creative Writing Assignment 01

**EDITED: OCTOBER 28TH 2009!! Thanks everyone for your feedback!! Since the main issue everyone found with this was the overwhelming amount of times I wrote "Janira" [[which I didn't even realize I did until I reread it afterward]] I finally got around to editing it and fixing it. It SHOULD be better now... Thanks again!!**


As some of you may know, I'm currently attending college with the intent of earning a BA in Creative Writing. Right now I'm only in my Sophomore year but I've finally made it past the general credit classes: Now comes the fun stuff. Currently I'm taking a course specifically for English Majors.

Creative Writing ^__^ Yes.

In this class we're given writing assignments due weekly. It's two weeks into the school year, thus two writing assignments have gone by.

This is the first. We were assigned to write a non-fiction scene were we included ourselves as the main character. The scene had to be in third person -- which was awkward because I hate saying my own name -- and it had to be at a length where we could read it aloud in under two minutes.

I'm going to be posting every assignment we're given, but I won't assign any special titles to them other than what the assignment was. So this one will be titled after it's time limit.

Please comment your thoughts =) And I hope you enjoy.

CRW Assignment 01 -- Two Minute Scene

Janira looked over her note cards again for what must have been the seventh time in the past ten minutes. It was the day of her first speech presentation and her nerves were getting the better of her. She looked around the room and spotted the other five students that would also be presenting that day, identifying them by their formal attire. She couldn't help but notice that none of them looked as nervous as she was. Turning back to her note cards, she noticed her hands were shaking slightly so she slowed her breathing in an effort to calm her nerves.

Three students came and went, but their gracious and impressive performances only intensified her fears. It would be her turn next. As the previous presenter took her seat, Janira stood on shaky knees and walked to the front of the room. There were only twenty students in the classroom but there may as well have been a hundred. She could feel the weight of her fellow classmates' stares as she plugged in her flash drive and opened her Power Point file.

Once everything was prepared, Janira directed her eyes to the back of the room where the instructor, Mrs. Bledsoe, was writing down her comments of the previous speaker. She took this opportunity to take a few deep breaths, trying not to focus on the forty eyes that were staring right at her. "You can do this," she mentally coached herself, "it's just for five minutes then it'll be over." At the instructor's nod, she took one last breath before beginning her presentation--the small beep of the stopwatch not going unnoticed.

The slow breathing failed to help as she felt her anxiety grow. She began to shift her weight from one foot to the other in attempt to keep them from knocking. She grasped the note cards with both hands hoping that no one would notice them shaking, and she cleared her throat after every other sentence in hopes that her voice would stay even. The sympathetic looks from her classmates only horrified her more. It was at that point Janira realized she had lost her place; with a mumbled apology she consulted her note cards, her face growing hot. When she finally resumed her speech she couldn't hide the quiver in her voice. There was no kidding herself now; this was a disaster.

When her presentation was finally done, she thanked the audience quietly before collecting her things and returning to her seat. She exhaled sharply, feeling her heart pound against her ribs. Someone gently touched her shoulder and she looked up. The girl that sat directly beside her smiled gently and said, "You did great."

All Janira could do was nod and smile graciously before turning back to the front of the room. This was going to be a long semester.

There you have it. My first writing assignment. It's not as descriptive as I wanted it to be but that's because of the time limit I had so if it seems a lacking in that aspect, that's why.

Thanks, share your thoughts.