Sunday, July 31, 2011

First Chapters

One of the hardest things for any writer to do, is to write their stories first chapter. This chapter has to have an enticing first sentence and a riveting first paragraph. If not, the reader will put your book back on the shelf and decide to get another book about something that has been over done.

So how do we do it? How do we write that sentence that makes the reader fall in love your book completely?

The truth?

I don't know.

But I am trying. Each day I work at it and work at it. I read stories and try to find my favorite opening sentences. From what I have read Jane Austen is the best at it. Her first sentences are so memorable that they are still quoted to this day.


"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters."
—Jane Austen, Pride and prejudice, ch. 1


You see it is clever and makes you want to read more of what this witty author has to say.

Once you have got that down though how do keep them interested? How do prepare them from what is to come without giving so much away? Leave your opinions in the comment box bellow and together we might be able to come up with the best written first chapter since Austen.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Deathly Hallows

I saw the last installment and it was awesome!!!!!!! Seriously the best ever!!!!! I cannot even go into full detail of how much I love it, I am still in awe...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgh-QyxbdXc&feature=relmfu

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Harry Potter Blog 7 of 7

Okay guys this is it! The last of the last! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and I hope you enjoy the movie tonight :D SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! I cannot believe it is all coming to an end tonight... Just look at what J.K. Rowling has created, she has made the world fall in love with something together again :)

P.S. Lily Evans Potter is my all time FAVORITE character!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JbPtDampKE

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Harry Potter Blog 6 of 7

Severus Snape. One of my favorite characters. Or at least, a character in one of my favorite chapters which happens to be at the end of the 7th book. I love him! So when I saw this video I practically died on the inside :D

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Harry Potter Blog 5 of 7

Here we are with only two days left after this. Thursday is coming up really fast and I am psyched!

Today I will be showing a video about Quiditch. Which, according to spell check, is still not a word. But yet it is a word that many people around the world not only know, but play. Yes Quiditch is an actual sport now. In fact colleges have their own teams and play the game rather competitively.

Here is a news reel about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UfPij5ABdo&feature=related

Monday, July 11, 2011

Harry Potter Blog 4 of 7

J.K. Rowling is not only the creator of Harry Potter and the Harry Potter world. But she helped discover an amazing actor who we might have never known if it weren't for her books. That's right everyone, I am talking about Darren Criss. A beautiful and talented young man, who wrote (all) and sang (some) of the songs in A Very Potter musical.

So are you guys excited for the Deathly Hallows? I know I am!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Harry Potter Blog 3 of 7

So if you are a huge Harry Potter nerd like me then you will know that the Hufflepuff house is known for Loyalty. It is not a house for misfit students that didn't belong to the other houses. Believe me if there were students that didn't fit in they wouldn't have gotten a letter to go there in the first place.
But still I find this video extremely funny and I hope you will too. It is done by the famous Second City Network. Enjoy!
(if you click the title of the blog you will go straight to the youtube link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Z5_wipT2o

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Harry Potter Blog 2 of 7

Okay guys, we have five more days until part two comes out and I thought it would be a good idea to watch one of J.K. Rowling's interviews. This particular interview is one of her earliest ones. It was made either right before or right after the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, came out.

I don't want to ruin the video for you, so I won't tell you everything that is in it. But I would like to draw attention to the fact that she is actually writing her books on actual paper and by hand! I know it doesn’t seem like much but once you begin writing on a computer it is hard to go back to just pen and paper. This is one of the reasons why she is my hero and one of my role models for writing. I wish had the energy to write an entire book on paper, but sadly I just can't focus properly. Maybe if I had nicer hand writing I could...

I wonder how many spirals she filled to write one of her books?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgDfmzpPf_Y&feature=fvwrel

Friday, July 8, 2011

Harry Potter Blog 1 of 7

If you are anything like me then you are a huge Harry Potter fan who is impatiently waiting for the final installment. If you're not then I am extremely sorry about the next six blogs (excluding this one), because you are about to see how much of a Harry Potter nerd I truly am :D
To start off the daily Harry Potter blogs why don't we watch a couple of puppets who we all have tried to mimic.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Back Tracking

This week I kind of… back tracked I guess you can say. My whole life was moving forward and sadly I went backwards.
You see ever since I can remember I have been doing plays. I always loved preforming, whenever I made someone feel something they weren’t feeling before I would feel accomplished. When I played Aunt Sadie in My Favorite Year and made everyone laugh, I was ecstatic. When I played M’Lynn in Steel Magnolias and made each audience member cry I had never been more pleased with myself. And at that time I felt as though it was what I was supposed to do. Touch people in a way that made their emotions run crazy. But whenever I was off of the stage, practicing and reciting, it was awful. The group I was with was filled with drama, they were all nice people, but we had been with each other for far too long. Plus I never felt like I belonged. I tried to though. I forced myself to like someone in the cast, which ended up being the worst decision of my life. But because of that decision, I found out how much I really didn’t fit in with any of them.
I started noticing that the only thing any of us had in common was our love for preforming. Besides that I was the only one who read constantly, the only one who was old fashion, and the only one who dressed in clothes that were from an older time period. I remember thinking I was just different. So I decided to write about it. I had always loved telling stories, so why not try writing them all down? And that was how I discovered my love of writing. Within no time at all I found a school for writers and sent my work to them.
I remember when I first met my class mates I found they weren’t like me either. They were all quiet, while I—got excited easily. But that didn’t stop me from finding out we had almost everything in common, the reading, the time periods, the imaginations. For the first time I ever I felt like I belonged. And for the last year my life has been perfect. My writing has improved immensely and I feel as though I have finally discovered the true me. But when the year ended I was depressed and bored. No one who went to my school lived near me and I was all alone. I wrote of course, keeping in touch with everyone, but I still need to hang out with someone. So I back tracked.
Yup. You guessed it, I rejoined the drama group. Even though I am having fun, I feel as though I am letting myself down. I was moving forward, making something of my life and there I was signing up for something that had nothing to do with my future. I am not saying I never want to do plays again. But I don’t want to preform until I can get something published. Until I get my dream started.
So get ready guys, this summer is going to be a clash of the old and the new.