Aurora 365

Planning is finally starting and my wall is starting to fill up!

Bunnies are watching me at work… *shifty eyes*

Sorry, was away last night… So here are the pics I took today and yesterday (not in that order, obviously).

G is for …

gummi bears!!

H is for…

Highlighters

I attended the Bestword writing group tonight.  It wasn’t my first meeting ever, but it was my first since the move (obviously, since I only moved last week!).  Now that I’m so much closer, I’ll be able to attend on a regular basis.  This is exciting (in case you needed to be told)! So I thought I’d mark the occasion with yet another ‘writing in a coffee shop’ photo.  :P

I love taking a few hours, or even just an hour, to hang out at my local coffee shop and have a ginger cookie and (not coffee, but) tea and write.  I work on blog posts or my story.  It’s just such a great atmosphere! For more of my musings on this subject, visit my main blog.

What about you?

I use to love writing letters.  I had pen pals all over the world and was the only one in the family to write to my grandmother on a regular basis (mum, of course, did keep in touch with her but by phone :) )  It lasted about 15 years, until I went back to college.  Regretfully, I had to put it aside for those two years.  I had no spare money to spend on the postage and no time, between school, homework and all the extracurricular stuff, to spend on it.

When I graduated and started working it was just… too long.  I always wanted to get back to it but in the end I abandoned it all together.  A couple of my pen pals were on facebook or I had their email addresses, but we just never kept in touch.

I was never a good letter writer; I could never craft a timeless letter of any sort, but it was fun.  I got stamps for my collection, I learned about different people and cultures and nothing can beat getting letters and and other things in the mail that aren’t bills or junk mail or other undesirables.  I wish I had been able to keep more of my letters, but space proved to be an issue.

Lately, I’ve been realizing that, even though the Internet is suppose to bring everyone together and make communicating easier… it doesn’t help.  At least it didn’t help me.  Of course it’s an excellent tool, if used correctly, but… I don’t know… it made me complacent I suppose.  So I decided that it was time to pull out the letter writing kit and get back to it.  I have started with two extremes – an old high school friend (our letter writing ended when she got on Facebook) and someone I met at Celebration 5 this past summer who sent me a Christmas card.

I hope to expand the letter recipients in the future, and get better at the ‘art’ of letter writing (more than just catching the reader up on the latest news).

What do you miss, if anything, about real letter writing?  Were you a good writer?  Did you or do you simply include an event listing of the past year with your Christmas card?

This was inspired by the first of 52 Projects.  I didn’t exactly do as the project dictated, but it was the inspiration for me picking up the pen and writing the letters.

I’m currently searching for something for my own Project #2… suggestions?

2nd Person POV badge from Merit Badger

I <3 second person.

There is no “I” in 2nd person, unless it’s in dialog.  He, she, it, they, etc. is used when talking about something other than the narrator.

In second person, the author, the narrator is addressing the reader.  It pulls the reader into the story and makes them part of the story.

I’ve just started listening to the audio book of The Time Travelers Wife and the first chapter has a great example of second person POV, so far at least :)

Second Person is definitely my favourite POV to write in.  Unfortunately it’s also the hardest, at least for me.  Some people say it doesn’t work at all, but I know it does.  I find it works best for intense, passionate pieces.  Short pieces, as well.  Most of my 2nd person POV pieces are 100 words (some of which are linked to or posted below) although I have written two 500 word pieces.  I’m challenging myself to write something longer; start in baby steps: a thousand words, five thousand… more?

What about you?  Have you ever experimented, either reading or writing, with second person POV?  What are your thoughts?

Links to some 2nd POV pieces.

Broken

(Another Moonlight fan fic resurrected from a few years ago)

The body lies, bleeding and broken, on the ground.  It’s still gasping for air, screaming in pain, spilling thick red fluid around you as you race to save it.  It’s still warm, still alive, but not for long, no matter what miracles you pull from your bag of tricks.  The blood assaults your senses and some part of you deep down wonders if it would be so bad if you just had a taste.  You’re thankful that wasn’t something you had to deal with in the war.  He’s broken almost beyond repair and you wonder if she’ll ever forgive you.

I love ending a piece of writing with a twist.  I especially love it when I’m able to do that in just 100 words!

Here are a few drabbles (works of fiction in exactly 100 words) that I have posted over the last year or so that end with a twist.

And just to post something “new”, here’s one that I wrote a few years ago and has never been posted on one of my sites.  A little bit of Moonlight Fanfic…

Enemies

You don’t do something like this and get away with it.  You hurt me and mine and you will pay.  You won’t know how or when or who in the crowd to be wary of.  All you’ll know for certain is that you will be found and dealt with – permanently.  You’ve made the wrong enemy in Josef Kostan.  I have a special place for scum like you who fuck with what’s mine.

Remember this on your way to the tar pits: my beautiful Ferrari was innocent; she did nothing to you.  So why did you scratch her perfect red paint?

Photo from jferzoco on Flickr

Favourite thing #4…

… is a website:

Reasoning with Vampires is a Twilight Series (books, not movies) website unlike most of the others (not that I’ve actually seen any others…)

The author of this site posts snippets of the book that are, well, less than stellar in the grammar and/or prose department.  These snippets are accompanied by her snarky commentary and equally hilarious post tags.

The site was recommended to me by @ayochellia on Twitter, in response to a question that I posted on the site: “I’ve heard Stephanie Meyer is a ‘bad’ writer. What makes her a bad writer? (pls tell me so I don’t have to read the books 2 learn 4 myself!)”.  I was then lost in this site for two hours, only saved by an over capacity error.

I’m not normally a fan of websites whose sole purpose is to complain about something (especially in the fandom area) but this site is different.  I find that it’s not just about nitpicking the books.  The reason I asked the question in the first place was to get tips on how to improve my own writing; things to look out for.  This website does that.  I look at it more as a writing/editing site than a ‘complaining about Twilight’ site.  It gives (A LOT) of things to look out for in my own writing, reasons why it doesn’t work and, sometimes, suggestions on how to make it better.

I have no idea of the qualifications of the blog author, but its good information nonetheless.  If you’re a writer or a hater (or even a fan) that want a good laugh, you should definitely check it out!

Not a very interesting photo today… I spent the day rearranging my room.  This is the writing nook I set up in my bay window.  Complete with window seat. :)