The Cool Girl

I have never had a boyfriend. Okay, I had one, but I don’t really count that guy. Although it’s true that I don’t really want a boyfriend and probably never will want one, a guy has still never asked me out. Sometimes guys even tell me the reasons why. The most common one is this, “you’re too smart for me.” Once I was labeled, “undateable”. That guy never told me why, but I can guess why. Most guys think I’m boring because I’d rather watch a documentary on The Higgs Boson instead of a football game. Other guys don’t want to “ruin” me because they think I’m so innocent and pure.

 

In other words, I am not “the cool girl”. What is “the cool girl”? Why, I have a list for you right here:

 

1.      Sexy physique.

2.      Eats pizza and hamburgers (anyone else think this is a contradiction?!) and likes to drink beer.

3.      Loves to watch football and play video games.

4.      “Cool” enough to hang out with “the guys”.

5.      Loves “South Park” and crude jokes.

6.      Not emotional. Calm, down-to-earth, and not jealous.

7.      I think you get the picture and let me tell you, finding a girl with all of these qualities is highly improbable.

 

Now, I’m not saying that being a “cool girl” is bad! If you are a woman who likes video games, South Park, and McDonalds hamburgers, good for you! I am just saying that it’s wrong for men to expect this of women, and it’s not good for a woman to try to fit these expectations instead of just being the person she is. I guarantee you; a woman is much better being the person she is born to be than being a pretend “cool girl”.

 

I am not sexy. I’m short, overweight, muscular, and my long hair is never combed. I love pizza and hamburgers, but I also have to worry about my expanding waistline. I don’t drink alcohol as I am underage, and when I turn 21, I still won’t drink alcohol. I hate football and “Call of Duty.” I hate “South Park” and crude jokes (don’t get me started on rape jokes). I am a very emotional person with a deep inner life that people think is strange.

 

But I am also adventurous. I like to try new things and meet different people. I work hard, and people often mistake that for obsession, but the people who work with me excel. I love very deeply and if I consider you my friend, then I am loyal and understanding. I like philosophy and I enjoy having philosophical conversations that amount to absolutely nothing. I am intelligent and I love to learn.

 

Of course I have my insecurities, but they don’t consume me, and I don’t try to be someone I’m not because that is the worst thing you can do to yourself. You’ll never be happy and when you look back on your life ten years from now, you’ll regret it or become someone you hate. Once upon a time, I wanted to be the “cool girl”, but that was a path that spiraled down into depression and tears.

 

One of my role models is Taylor Swift, and she is also not a “cool girl”. She writes sappy love songs, wears high heels and dresses, and is a strong woman who is fine being who she is. People accuse her of having too many boyfriends, being jealous and bashing guys, and for her “slutty” wardrobe. I want to scream at them that she has only had six or so boyfriends from the time her first album was released to now, that she has the right to bash her boyfriends that were jerks, and that she can wear what she wants, thank you, thank you very much!

 

Also, some guys prefer their women to be insecure and not strong, which is why they throw all these labels at them. They do it to break them. Check out this piece-of-crap article: http://mattforney.com/2013/09/16/the-case-against-female-self-esteem/ I seriously want to punch this dude! He will never be able to have a meaningful relationship with a woman because he is oppressing all of the meaningful parts of his partner.

 

So women, I am asking you to please stop trying to conform to men’s expectations of you. If you are not a “cool girl”, that’s okay because YOU are probably much better than your idea of what a “cool girl” is. If you are naturally a “cool girl”, well, then that’s cool! J Men, the qualities of your perfect woman cannot be listed like quite a few of you assume. You may think you want a “cool girl” with a low self-esteem, but if you expect that from a woman, then the relationship will most likely be shallow and meaningless. There’s a saying that you don’t get to choose who you love, and I think there’s some truth in it. The person you end up loving the most usually does not match the qualities you listed on your Facebook status—and that’s probably the reason you love that person.

Ruminations on Life

Hey, it's me again, and I'm still alive. My family just moved to a new house and so I needed to take a blogging break. In fact, I think my blogging is going to drop off from three times a week to two times a month now that I'm prepping for the new school year and everything.

What a school year it will be too! I have a 19 credit load, swim team (2 hr practices everyday with 16 swim meets), a national reading conference to prep for, a potential TED talk, and I need to work on some personal projects too. I am very scared. Oh yeah, I might also have to be the manager of Bison With Attitude again.

Oh and my personal projects: a theology paper that I want to publish in a theology journal, my stuttering in ASL project with my professor, a potential music album, and my novels/stories. The TED talk and NRA conference were completely voluntary so I'll need to find time for those too. I am going to kill myself fosho.

It's very scary, but it's also very amazing too. I often wonder what life would be like if I hadn't made the choices I did. What if I had taken the road not taken? What if I had gone to Kenyon, where my favorite author John Green went to school? I would have a great English degree, but no education degree and I would be drowning in debt. Graduate school would be an impossibility. Now, I'm making plans to get into one of the best graduate programs for Creative Writing in the country. I have opportunities that I would never have had at Kenyon, and I live in Washington DC, one of the coolest places on Earth. I also have my sights set on a fellowship the Kenyon Review offers. That way, I would be able to teach at Kenyon, which makes up for the loss of my awesome English degree (sort of). I'm thankful for the opportunities Gallaudet has given me. I would never have been able to participate in a TED talk or do a project with my professor on stuttering in ASL.

The "what ifs" always catch up to me though. I could have become a doctor, and I would have never had to worry about paying the bills, and I would have time for writing. What if I took the road not taken? I want to do so much, but there's never enough time. I have to do what I choose to do or I'll waste my life reflecting and worrying whether the decision I made was the right one. I have to make it the right decision though.

That's the part I hate about life sometimes: how it's limited. I'm jealous of people that know that what they're doing is what they were meant to do. Stephen King says that he is meant to write his horror stories, but sometimes I'm not so sure if I'm meant to write my people stories. I stick with it though, and I hope I'm making the right decision.

I know I'm meant to mean something though. Someday, I want to be famous, but I'm just not sure what I'll be famous for, and whether I'll ever be famous enough.

Bookwormy Wednesdays: High Fantasy

Sorry for the Thursday blog post. :-( I forgot to blog on Wednesday, but hey! At least I remembered. ;-)

Anyways...Let me say that I was never a big fan of High Fantasy until I read "A Song of Ice and Fire". I always though Lord of the Rings stuff was kind of boring. I couldn't care less about Frodo and Modor.

However, I read the first two books of "A Song of Ice and Fire" in my GSR 240 class and I fell in love with it. George R.R. Martin has such talent, and it really took him a lot of time and effort to give us this series.

First of all, there's about...900 something characters in his books. That is insane. Could you create 900 characters and stick to you story well? My office/dorm room would be covered with post-it notes!

I think creating such an immense amount of characters made Martin exceptionally good at character development. I can identify each narrator's voice within a paragraph.

Also, his descriptions are great, but I have to warn you that it is kind of dense. If you don't read carefully, you miss out on important details.

Whatever. Read the books yourself and you'll see why I'm praising them. Sorry if I seem kind of distracted. I want to be working on my music album. Yes, you heard that right. I'm working on an album. :-) I'm trying to think of an artist name sort of like "Owl City" or something...Right now, all I've got is "Autumn Fall." Right now, I'm working on a song about Alzheimer's disease called "Nothing to Remember" and I think it's going to be great. Sad, but great. :-) Can't wait to share with everyone!

Paige's Pages: Education and Ruminations on Life

Sorry…I haven’t been a very good blogger recently. Things have been kind of hectic, but I’m back on track!

 

There are times when I wish that eternal life was possible because then I would be able to learn and be whatever I wanted. Before I went to Gallaudet, I was torn between three colleges: RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), Kenyon College, and Gallaudet University. RIT offered me a partial scholarship so I could afford it, Kenyon offered me nothing but it was the college I desperately wanted to go to, and Gallaudet offered me a full scholarship.

 

So guess which college I chose? Gallaudet University. A free education is better than a $200,000 debt at Kenyon. If I went to RIT, I would have gotten a degree in premedical studies, and I would have been broke by the time I went to medical school. If I went to Gallaudet, I would be able to get two degrees and a minor for free, which allows me to be able to go to grad school debt-free. That. Is. Awesome. A lot of work, but awesome.

 

My dream grad school is Boston University and I want to get two degrees there: deaf education and Creative Writing. Plus, there’s a deaf school a ½ hour away from the college that I could work at while getting my degrees. If I don’t get at least some financial help though, I won’t be able to get my Ph.D. At least not right away, but a lot of people find that it’s hard to go back to school one you’ve been away from it for awhile.

 

I don’t want to have to choose though. I wish I could have gone to RIT and got that degree in Pre-Med so I could go on to medical school and become a pediatrician. I wish I could have gone to Kenyon to get that ridiculously expensive English degree. I wish I could do everything and learn everything, but I can’t and that makes me feel kind of hopeless.

 

However, I am fulfilling the requirements for medical school by taking free courses with MIT. Right now I’m taking Single Variable Calculus. I just found out about this awesome resource for independent learners: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm. I plan to take classes during breaks so I don’t feel like my brain is rotting away.

 

I can get my unofficial pre-medical and possibly my unofficial M.D. I love this resource! However, I reflect on the past and I feel stabs of regret because I never did a lot with my free time before. I write, but I never wrote prolifically. One reason for this is because my own brain prevents me from doing so, but only to a certain level. I just have to tell myself it’s not over yet, that I’m not dead. I still have a lot of time left to live and learn.

 

That’s another thing I’m tentative about. Is it worth learning all this stuff? Shouldn’t I be doing? If so, what should I be doing with my time? It’s an impossible question to ask when you’re me.

Bookwormy Wednesdays: FanFiction

There isn’t a ton of “officially published” FanFiction out there because of copyright issues and all of that jazz. I will list some of what I’ve seen, and give you guys some resources on where to find good FanFiction.

 

In the YA/MG category, I’ve noticed that Disney Hyperion publishes a lot of FanFiction-esque stuff. Percy Jackson is a FF of the Greek myths, there are several fairy tale/children’s classics spin-offs. For example, they published one on Peter Pan and one Snow White tale is coming out soon.

 

I’ve noticed that fairy tale spin-offs are very popular in YA. Here are a few examples: Cinder, Beastly, and Ella Enchanted. There are tons more out there though. Right now, Alice in Wonderland spin-offs are pretty common too. Splintered and The Looking Glass Wars are a couple.

 

And of course, there are parodies such as Nightlight (a parody of Twilight) and The Hunger Pains (a parody of The Hunger Games).

 

Shakespeare spin-offs are common too. Warm Bodies is a spin-off of Romeo and Juliet, and lord knows how many other spin-offs of that story are out there.

 

These authors might not be aware of this, but these examples are all FF. Heck, Fifty Shades of Grey started out as a FF of Twilight. However, people accuse FF of being a lesser art because it supposedly takes less work and it steals someone else’s story. A lot of FF writers say that their writing is NOT FF because they don’t want to be stigmatized.

 

Excuse me, but I beg to differ. FF takes a lot of time and skill. Right now, I’m writing a FF of The Vampire Diaries that is set in Machu Picchu during the Spanish Conquest. I did a bit of research on a single line said by a character in the show and voila, my idea was born. A love rectangle between two brother vampire Emperors and the Original vampire Klaus over the human girl they all love. It’s pretty hardcore, and it takes just as much work (if not more) than an original story because of all the research involved and the new characters I’ve created. I’m quite proud of it, and the response to the story so far has been pretty good.

 

I kind of get why some authors hate FF though…Maybe they’re jealous. My FF has been getting a little more attention than my original works, but I’ve gotten over it. FF is more a practice tool and a writer’s block filler (how I kill time when I am having trouble with my original stories). It’s a nice way to get feedback on your writing and it’s a self-esteem booster when you feel crappy about your writing skills (Whaa! I got rejected by an agent AGAIN!).

 

But seriously, don’t be a snob about FF. It’s not a lesser art form. Some of the stuff people come up with of FF.net is incredible. Publishing companies should seriously think about picking up some of this stuff. Just look at how successful Fifty Shades of Grey was! The Kindle Store has got the memo and now you can self-publish FF on TVD, Pretty Little Liars, and several other stories. I might get into self-publishing if it means I can publish my TVD FF. The site is called “Kindle Worlds.” Go ahead and check it out!

Paige's Pages: On Writing FanFiction

Hey guys, sorry I was AWOL last week…I went to San Diego to visit my Grandmother and some of my family. It was tons of fun: I went boogie boarding, ocean swimming, and I spent some quality time with my little second cousins.

 

Anyways, onto the theme this week: FanFiction. What is FanFiction? It’s basically twisting an original work (like Harry Potter or Doctor Who) to make your own version of the story. There are three kinds of FF: Oneshots, Multi-chaptered stories, and collaborations. Oneshots are basically just expanding or re-writing a scene. They’re just one chapter. Multi-chaptered stories usually start from a specific scene and the author of the FF twists the story completely. For example: Bella dies when she jumps off the cliff and Edward meets a new girl…The author expands on that change in scenery. Collaborations are just when two or more authors create a FF together.

 

What is really cool about this is that you know that FF writers are just writing for the heck of it. They’ll never get published, but they don’t care. That is true loyalty to a story. If I ever get published, I can’t wait to see the crazy stuff my fans come up with.

 

However, FF isn’t really filtered out for vulgarity, inappropriateness, or just flat-out BAD writing, so it’s sometimes annoying trying to pick through what you want to read. Sometimes I’ll be trying to find a good quality piece on a scene I really like, but it’s so damn hard. It’s like rummaging through junk mail.

 

So you know what I do when I can’t find anything I want to read? I open my word processor and write it myself. ‘Cause you know, the best way to get anything done is to do it yerself! I really enjoy it too. Right now, I’m writing a ton of Ed Sheeran/Vampire Diaries FF, and I love it! I love the challenge of it, and I like talking to people who enjoy TVD too. It’s also great practice for me. Why? I’ll tell you.

 

Character consistency is important for any medium of writing, but especially in FF because they’re not your characters. If the characters are not consistent, readers will automatically stop reading the FF because it doesn’t feel real to them. In one TVD FanFic, Elena punched her best friend (and she would never do that) so I scoffed and left a review for the author telling them about character consistency. It’s really good practice for those who struggle with character consistency.

 

If there are a lot of people who are willing to read your FF, they will leave reviews, which will help you with your writing. Some of these people are very good writers so they leave good-quality constructive criticism , which helps me a lot (but unfortunately, I’m not insanely popular so I don’t get a ton of reviews). Some people are dorks and just say “Great job, update soon.” -eyeroll-

 

Do you think writing FanFiction helps you with your writing skills?

Bookwormy Wednesdays: Good Vampire Books

I know, I know, I know. “There’s no such thing as a good vampire book! Twilight ruined all of them! Whaaa!” I am here to tell you that you are wrong. There is such a thing as a good vampire book, and Twilight isn’t nearly as bad as you think. Here are some examples, and I’ll talk about what we can learn about them.

 

Twilight isn’t as bad as you think. I mean, think about it. It has everything the average girl would want: eternity with a cute guy, a strong-ish female lead, weddings and babies, a love triangle, and seriously badass vampires and werewolves. The plot is great and it hooks readers. Pick up Twilight again to read it and ask yourself why it is so successful. It’s: alluring to female readers, has a good mix of romance and adventure, and is easy to read. There are lots of reasons. Meyer isn’t a fantastic writer and she doesn’t need to be. The story did it for her. You don’t have to agree with the message in the story, which is basically preaching Mormon beliefs. I don’t. I just like to analyze it.

 

I am also in love with the TV show, The Vampire Diaries. It rocks, seriously. I haven’t read the books yet, but I’ve ordered them from the library and can’t wait to start reading as I am going through serious VD withdrawl because I watched the whole series on Netflix and season 5 doesn’t come out until October. L The plot is even better than Twilight, the characters are interesting and complex, and there’s several love triangles going on. Plus, there are more magical creatures: vampires, werewolves, witches, doppelgangers, and hybrids, and they actually stick to the legends (vampires burn instead of sparkle!).

 

Dracula is not so much a vampire story as it is a piece of gothic literature. I personally don’t think Count Dracula is a vampire. My paper on the book had this title: Dracula: The Fault in His Fangs? I got a B+, just in case the grade is important for you to know. Really, the narrators (Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Van Helsing, Quincy) saw their own faults and projected them onto Dracula because he was a stranger and could be easily blamed. Agoraphobia and his “vampiristic (is this even a word?) traits” is what made Dracula a vampire in symbolic terms. If you want an MG version of this book, check out Bunnicula. It tells the story of Chester the cat and Harold the Dog and their fear of the vampire bunny, Bunnicula. Is Bunnicula really a vampire though? Who knows?

 

During the vampire book craze, I was reading mostly dystopia among other things so I haven’t read a lot of vampire stories. I have a reading list though: The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith, Vampire Academy by Rachelle (sp?) Mead, Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, and Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. Wish me luck! Do you know any well-done vampire books?

Paige's Pages: Writing About Vampires

Well, I can’t say that I know a lot about writing about vampires as I have never written a vampire story. I will try my best though. Here is what I’ve learned when it comes to reading about vampires though.

 

Stick to the legends. What I like about vampires is that they have their various strengths—but they also have their weaknesses. Here’s a list of the knowledge I’ve accumulated from reading the various stories: the drink blood (obviously), they can’t go out into sunlight, they can’t go into a home without being invited, garlic, salt, and holy water are weaknesses (The Vampire Diaries added vervain, but I’m not sure if it’s real), they are super strong and fast, they sleep in coffins, they are eternal, their emotions are heightened, you can kill them with stakes, and werewolves seem to hate them.

 

Dracula also has a problem crossing running water, but I think he’s a wimp. Do what you want with these legends. Some you can keep, some you can eliminate, but I personally think all of them are way cool and that they shouldn’t be messed with. Now, I know everyone hates Twilight, but believe it or not, I don’t hate it completely. One thing I did not like in that story though, is how Meyer made the vampires sparkle instead of burn. It really didn’t make sense to me. I could go on to justify how I don’t think Meyer is a horrible author, but that would be beside the point. I’ll rant on Wednesday, when I get to talk about books!

 

If you don’t get your legends/facts straight, then the story doesn’t feel real. A vampire that doesn’t drink blood is like a zombie that doesn’t eat brains. A vampire that doesn’t burn in the sun is like a werewolf without the full moon.

 

That doesn’t mean I don’t encourage originality though. Sometimes the myths are lame like the running water one. I don’t really like the coffins or the garlic and salt (holy water’s pretty cool though). I know us writers have God Complexes, but sometimes you have to keep the hand out. I may be tempting to make vampires sparkle instead of burn if it’s easier for you, but you have to embrace character weaknesses. It makes them more interesting. ;-)

 

Of course, the same goes for all stories, not just vampire stories.

People Watch: How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

After watching and reading about zombies, I would say I’m very much an expert on the ways of the zombie. Read on to learn about my observations.

 

Be really fast. If you can run fast, great, but it’s better to have a jet plane or sports car…Zombies hate fast food, and you’ll be able to make your getaway in style.

 

Crossbows are better than guns. You see, zombies are attracted to noise and the sound of gunshots is annoying as the Mexican Hat Dance to zombies. Like us, they immediately run to shut off that stereo AND the person stupid enough to play the song. You want LESS zombies, not more so put away the gun for when you really need it.

 

Be afraid of dark and creepy buildings. Zombies don’t like the wide open sky—it scares them. Plus, have you learned nothing from horror movies such as 28 Days Later (oh boy, what a crappy film)? Dark and creepy places are a big no-no.

 

When all else fails, go UP. Zombies are a little like drunk people—they go down. If you find that the streets are crowded with zombies, high buildings are always best to hide out in.

 

 

Do you have any other observations? Leave a comment! FYI, just so you know, I am just a zombie scholar…I wouldn’t survive two minutes in a zombie apocalypse. J

Bookwormy Wednesdays: Original Zombie Stories

Remember how on Monday, I was ranting about my very unoriginal zombie story? Now, I’m going to talk about a few original zombie stories. There are two that I really love: The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy by Carrie Ryan and Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. I’ll talk about what they did right.

 

The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy is about how humanity is still clinging to life by a thread centuries after the zombie apocalypse. They have managed to survive by corralling themselves into fenced-up towns and the rooftops of tall buildings in the cities. Any attempt at communication and non-local government has long collapsed. The three books are narrated by different characters and they each have very unique perspectives on the world they live in.

 

First of all, this trilogy is different from the rest of the zombie slush because of the time period it’s in. Most books take place during or right after the zombie apocalypse, but this book takes place centuries after zombies have taken over the planet. It’s fun to speculate what society would be like after such a long time living with zombies, and Ryan’s take on it is very interesting. Ryan also created very strong, unique narrators for the books, and they each have a very different outlook on life and the broken world they live in. I already talked about the importance of strong MCs. There’s also one important thing in her book that not many zombie stories have: a message of hope. It shines out between the lines, and the book seems to say: “As long as there is hope and love, humanity will survive.” For someone like me, that is a very comforting message.

 

Warm Bodies is probably going to end up being one of my favorite books. I had to put the book down to write this blog post, and I can’t wait to get back to it. Anyways, the book is about a young zombie named “R” who is in a sort of existential crisis. He’s a zombie, and he’s not sure if that means he’s dead or alive. What defines life? R goes hunting one day and he eats the brain of Perry Kelvin and relives his memories. In his memories is a girl named Julie, who is just a few steps away from him. R can’t bring himself to eat Julie’s brain so he takes her back to the hive to keep her safe. R falls in love with Julie and he starts to feel it slowly transform him.

 

I haven’t finished the book, but I hope R becomes human and that he lives happily ever after with Julie. The book is based on Romeo and Juliet so I’m not sure if there will be a happy ending…But I can dream, can’t I?

 

Really though, I never thought I could care so deeply for a zombie…Isaac Marion has gone where no writer has dared go before and what he has given us as a result of that literary bravery is unconventionally beautiful. I would have never thought about telling a story from the perspective of a zombie because I thought they wouldn’t have much to say. I was wrong though. If a person (or zombie) can’t express their thoughts perfectly, that doesn’t mean that their thoughts are imperfect. I’m actually ashamed of myself because people have often made that assumption about me. I will not discriminate against zombies anymore!

 

Back to the point though, here is what Marion did right. First, it was obviously a very original story. Second, the writing is exceptional. Sometimes I would find myself reading a sentence over and over thinking, this is my favorite sentence ever. It’s so beautiful. Also, like Carrie Ryan, he’s asking very important questions: “What does it mean to be alive? What is the nature of love?”

 

So basically, if you want to tell a good zombie story, you need to make it stand out. Zombies have been done to death and the idea is rotting like a corpse. Make your ideas come to life. The zombie apocalypse raises very interesting questions about humanity, hope, and existence. They’re not just dead husks of people that you gun down, they’re symbols. If you ever want your zombie tale to sell, you must make people think.

 

Next on my zombie reading list: World War Z! I can’t wait to see the movie, it looks way cool. I also want to read “Generation Dead”. I think it’s a satire of something, but I hear it’s really good and funny. :-D

Paige's Pages: Writing About Zombies

Hi everybody, I completely forgot that it's a blogging day. O.o Sorry for the late post.

Some people love Edwards, some love Jacobs, but if there was a zombie in Twilight, I would totally be on his team. I love zombies, and someday I hope to publish a YA zombie novel. I thought "The Dead and Dying Embers" would be that story, but I'm not too confident in it. The sequel might have had a chance at being a good zombie story, but the first book was not strong enough. There are several reasons why:

1. I was telling the story in first person, but there were four people I was telling the story through. You have to be a pretty talented writer to pull that off, and I'm not there yet. Two characters were pretty well-developed, but one was a rip-off of Katniss (at least that's what people told me), and the other seemed to have no personality. If you don't have solid narrators, it's hard to keep people interested in the story.

2. It was just another zombie story. Lots of people like zombies too, not just me so there is a lot of competition out there. My story plot was this: Get from point A to B to see if there's still hope. The immune in the group gets kidnapped by the dystopian government. They get the immune back, but there's a small problem: they have to overthrow the government AND fight the zombies at the same time. The more awesome part is in the sequel that I never wrote.

3. The plot was too quickly paced. "The Dead and Dying Embers" was my last pantser book EVER. I don't write well when I don't have a plan. It's easy to get lost in your excitement. Yes, yes, I know zombie attacks are awesome, but PATIENCE, padawan. PATIENCE. The scene will get written, but you need to make sure the scene is done well and that it is perfectly paced.

If you like to write about zombies, learn from my mistakes. Really, what I learned from writing "The Dead and Dying Embers" applies to any novel you plan to write. My three rules: strong narrators, original story, and perfect pace. If you have those in your book, then you're good to go.

People Watch: Deaf People

Deaf people certainly have their quirks…Here are some weird things I’ve noticed.

 

At Gallaudet, we call this specific trait of deaf people, “Deaf Time”. Deaf people tend to be fashionably late A LOT. I think this is improving though.

 

Deaf college kids like to party. Gallaudet is the number 5 party school in Washington, D.C., and we only have 1,500 or so kids.

 

One thing I really like about the deaf culture is how there’s a real sense of community. If one of us falls, the community helps them back up.

 

Deaf people really love “The Cupid Shuffle”. I’m serious. They ADORE it. Every time there’s a party, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE gets onto the dance floor. I don’t get it.

 

Feel free to add your own observations. J

Bookwormy Wednesdays: Deaf Characters

I admit that I haven’t created any deaf characters for my novels and stories even though I am actually deaf myself. There are a couple reasons why I haven’t done so though.

 

The first reason is that I just wasn’t ready to. I didn’t think I could write a believable deaf character because I’m not a very good deaf person myself. I’m hard-of-hearing and was homeschooled/mainstreamed for a lot of my life. It would have been hard for me to get that unique perspective.

 

The second reason is that I didn’t have a reason to. Many people plop deaf characters into their stories just because they’re deaf. There’s not really a specific reason why the character has to be deaf. A good example of plopping is the TV show, “Switched at Birth”. Why does Daphne have to be deaf? She could have just as easily been hearing. I’ve only seen one or two shows so I might have missed an important reason. Maybe the family didn’t want a deaf child so they secretly switched the babies or something like that. What I understood is that the hospital made a mistake and that’s it. I kind of scratch my head at those kinds of decisions.

 

My math teacher wrote about a hard-of-hearing character in a deaf school once so that she could show people the positive and negative sides of being able to hear in a Deaf world. That’s a good reason to put a deaf character in the story. I’ve seen stories where a person becomes deaf, but they use their strengths to overcome that obstacle. That’s a relatively good reason. Just make sure you’re not putting a deaf character into your story just because you think it would be cool or interesting. They have to be important for the plot.

 

In July, I’ll be writing my first ever story with a deaf character in it, so I’m excited, but a little nervous at the same time. Here’s a short synopsis of what I’ve come up with so far:

 

One day, six teenagers committed suicide by jumping off a bridge spanning over a canyon. They're gone forever and no one knows why they did it, but the event has shattered the lives of the people who live in the small town of Summerland. What the people of Summerland don't know though, is that the kids took a secret with them.

 

Two years later, fourteen-year-old Jonah Harrison still feels responsible for his sister Jenna's death. Jenna would take Jonah to the meetings with her and he knew these meetings were wrong, but he didn't have a clue as to what they were saying. Jonah is profoundly deaf, and Jenna's friends threatened to kill him if he said anything to someone. His sister even interpreted the message for him to make sure he understood.

 

Jonah never told anyone what he saw at the meetings because only six of the seven people that went to them died, and the missing person is the boy who threatened to kill Jonah if he told anyone.

 

Just when Jonah is starting to put the past behind him though, weird things start to happen to him. Weird, creepy things, and he's worried that the seventh person wants him dead. So Jonah sets out to find why his sister committed suicide, and what he finds just might change his life forever.

 

I love books with secret societies in them…My only problem is that I’m having a bit of writers block on what the secret that changes Jonah’s life is exactly. I have ideas, but they’re not BIG enough ideas.

 

The point of including a deaf character is because that the fact Jonah is deaf means that he does not know a lot of vital information because he can’t hear. He still has enough information to know more than most people do though. I am not sure if Jonah will go to a deaf school or a mainstream school yet. I’m even considering making him homeschooled like Rain (the MC in my MG novel) was.

 

Another tip when including deaf characters is to not try too hard. They don’t need posters of Marlee Matlin and Matt Hamill hanging in their rooms. You don’t need to tell the story of Laurent Clerc and Thomas Gallaudet in your book. Just relax and remember that deaf teenagers are a lot like hearing teenagers. If you’re not familiar with deaf people, then stop by a deaf school. Don’t write what you don’t know.

Can you think of a few books with deaf characters in them? Were they believable? Were they important to the plot or were they "plopped"? Did the author seem to know their stuff? Were they trying too hard? Ask these questions the next time you read a book with a deaf character in them.

 

Good luck, and I hope this helped!

Paige's Pages: Literacy of the Deaf

I believe that learning English or the native language of their country is important for deaf and hard of hearing children, but learning a sign language is more important in the early stages of language development. After deaf children learn sign language, they can learn English or the native language of their country. Speech is a nice skill to have, but it is not as important as learning to read and write.

 

Let me emphasize that deaf children should learn a LANGUAGE. Not a code such as Signed Exact English or Cued Speech. It doesn’t help them and it wastes time that could be spent learning two languages. Yes. Deaf children need to be bilingual if they are to ever be a part of the hearing world. No. Teaching them two languages isn’t “confusing” for the child.

 

There’s one phrase in an article by Francois Grosjean that I really like: If the child is blind, language input must be auditory. If the child is deaf, language input must be visual. If the child is deaf-blind, language input must be tactile. There is a specific window for language development: 0-7. A child can learn language after age seven, but they will never be a native speaker/signer of the language. It’s hard to learn language, but acquisition is natural. I took a French class last semester, and I had to learn grammar and syntax through videos, exercises, and repetition. I was LEARNING a language and it was difficult. I’ve forgotten all the verbs and signs I learned so now it feels like the class was sort of useless.

 

There’s another phrase about language that I like: if you don’t use it, you lose it. Sign language should always be the first language a deaf child learns, but if they don’t learn English right after or at the same time they learn sign language, English won’t be a native language either. If deaf children don’t use English as much as they use sign language, then they won’t learn it at the same level as educated hearing children do. Deaf children must USE English and sign language. What happens a lot for deaf kids is that parents/the schools use too much of one language and not enough of the other.

 

Helen Keller said something like this that kind of disturbed me when asked whether she’d like to be deaf or blind: I’d rather be blind because it separates me from things. Being deaf separates me from people. This is not true. Lack of a language separates you from people. If you teach your child ASL and English at around the same time that a hearing child learns language, that barrier between your child and the rest of the world will shatter.

 

Parents of the deaf, please remember this when making decisions about your child’s future: if a deaf child is not bilingual, it will be hard for them to be part of both the hearing and deaf worlds.

People Watch: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“It’s just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life.”

This is my favorite quote and it’s something Bill is saying to Charlie. I explained it in my previous post, but this is a really interesting observation. Sometimes I would use thought as an excuse to not be productive. Thought really is a passive leisure activity though, like TV. You may be learning (or not) from your thoughts, but if you don’t do anything with your thoughts, they’re useless. If you want to be a philosopher, write your ideas down and share them with the world.

 

“’He’s my whole world.’

‘Don’t ever say that about anyone again. Not even me.’ That was my mom.”

This is reflective of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. Her philosophy says that we should live for no man and ask no man to live for us. In a way, she’s right. We should live for ourselves. However, you can’t take this philosophy too far like Howard Roarke did. The reason I hated “The Fountainhead” and stopped in the middle of it is because Keating couldn’t make decisions himself and Roarke was a cold rapist (yes, he did rape his girlfriend) that needed to learn to interact with people. You can’t live like Howard Roarke. You have to interact with people if you ever want to reach your goals. Despite what Kant would have us believe, it’s impossible to NOT ever use people as a means to an end. Just understand that you have to help others reach their goals too.

You should live for yourself, but live through the world. That’s participating in life. You can’t cut yourself off from people like Roarke did and call that living.

Okay, soapbox over! J

 

“Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.”

It’s true that if we have lousy self-esteem, we’re going to get lousy lovers. I don’t know…I think love is more complicated than this. Sometimes it’s not about self-esteem, it’s about how you can love someone all you want, but you can’t make them love you back. However, what I think this is saying is that we deserve someone who loves us back, but if we don’t let that person that doesn’t love you back go, then we can’t ever find or see the person who does love us back. If we can’t have that person who doesn’t love us back, then we go without love or we settle for second best. What’s important though, is that you tell/show the people you love that you love them. It’s like what Sam was saying to Charlie at the end of the book. If they don’t love you back, so be it. At least you know. There’s other fish in the sea, and you can let this one go.

 

“I just think it’s bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl actually is.”

I thought this quote was really interesting. I agree that the beauty of photographs and art comes from the subjects and not the artist. A camera lens doesn’t create beauty, it captures it in a unique way. We all offer different perspectives of a person or object, but the person/object being observed is beautiful, not the way we observe them/it.

 

“I just hope I remember to tell my kids that they are as happy as I look in my old photographs. And I hope that they believe me.”

Happiness is only relevant if it’s what you’re feeling at the moment. You can’t compare it to anything else. It’s easy to fall victim to nostalgia and believe that the present has all these problems compared to the past, but the past had its problems too.

 

The following quote is paraphrased. “You know that moment when you feel not alone? When you understand that other people think the same thing about a person you love, that many other people have read the same books that you have and come to the same understanding about them? Sometimes it’s comforting, but sometimes it just pisses you off.

“I was very grateful to have heard it again. Because I guess we all forget sometimes. And I think everyone is special in their own way. I really do.” –Charlie on being called special. It’s interesting how sometimes we want to feel special and how sometimes we want to feel connected. I noticed that people usually want to feel connected about bad things (oh, other people have gotten in trouble, not just me) and they want to feel special about good things (no one else feels the same way that I do about The Fountainhead). Sometimes the bad things just take over and you need to be reminded about the good things that make you special.

 

“And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad.”

Everybody suffers and no suffering is ever trivial. There may be kids in China dying of starvation, but you still have to take care of yourself and make your life better.

 

Here’s a really interesting poem: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1035166-the-poem-what-did-it-mean-to-charlie

And here is my response: http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/msysip.htm

            Some people just never learn to deal with their rock, I guess.

Bookwormy Wednesdays: Stephen Chbosky Speaks at SBWC

My mother gave me a newspaper article about this guy and when I saw that he was going to speak in Santa Barbara, I knew I had to go. I couldn’t afford to go to the conference, but the lecture was open to the public, and I thought I would learn something about writing YA lit if I went. I fought to get an interpreter and read the e-book as well as watched the movie of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” so that I’d be able to fully participate in the lecture. Unfortunately, the interpreter was unskilled, tired, or not familiar with writing terminology so I didn’t understand much. I tried to explain what he talked about to my parents, but I found myself stammering because I only had these shiny stars of ideas and I was trying to make them into a constellation. Hopefully, writing these ideas and stories out will help me make sense of them. Of course, I can’t discuss everything, but here are some chunks that stand out in my memory.

 

 

One thing I am always self-conscious about is how I’m a slow writer. It takes me a year or two to crank out a book. I’m not as prolific as Stephen King or Nora Roberts. Mr. Chbosky isn’t either because he wants to find the right words. I remember that he said sometimes he would write out 45 pages for a letter and then shrink it down. He would write and then rewrite, which is a lot of work and it takes up time. Really, he was writing the book in his mind throughout his life so he just needed to piece everything together, find Charlie’s voice, and write the right words.

When he finally felt that “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” was just right (which was back in the 90s), there wasn’t really a market for YA. Now, it’s a hot market so lucky us! He gave his manuscript to his film agent hoping that he might be able to sell it, but the agent told him that it would never sell or something negative like that. Eventually, he sold the book to MTV and “Perks…” is now a modern classic! Never give up on your story if you feel it deserves to be read by the world.

The world loves his story, so it’s good that he didn’t give up. He had some stories to tell about his fans, but there was one I really liked about what a friend of his did after he read the quote, “We accept the love we think we deserve.” The friend was so inspired by it that he told this girl he’d loved for a long time that he loved her. Now, they’re husband and wife! Isn’t that a great story? I hope I have stories like that to tell someday. I’ve moved people to laughter and tears, but never to actions like that.

Of course, Mr. Chbosky was asked whether he outlines or not. That question is more common than “how are you?” in the writing world. He said that he was half a pantser (someone who doesn’t outline) and half a planner (someone who does outline). I missed what he said about that. I personally think that you shouldn’t let the outline completely take over your story. It’s good to at least have some sort of plan, but let it be flexible. Go with the flow, see what happens. Stephen King’s “On Writing” mentions this, and he is not a fan of outlining. He prefers pantsing because then the story feels more real, but it helps me to have some sort of plan. Really, I think it’s a personal thing. King kind of scares me because in his book he sends the message that it’s, “My way, or the highway!”

 

Mr. Chbosky plans to write another novel. He didn’t say much about it, but he says that it’s a tribute to one of his favorite writers: Stephen King. J He also said that he wants to direct the movie of the book and hopes to do that for every book he writes. He even is considering writing another book about Charlie and Sam when they’re older.

Mr. Chbosky is of course, a novelist, but he is also a screenwriter. He has written “The Four Corners of Nowhere”, which went to the Sundance Film Festival. He wrote the post-apocalyptic TV show, “Jericho”, which is pretty well-known. Unfortunately, it got cancelled. He also wrote the screen adaption for the film of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. He also directed and was a co-producer (at least that’s what I understood) for the movie. Not many authors can say that they directed the film for their novel! It was interesting to hear a little about screenwriting as I don’t know much about it. It’s really quite challenging as you have only thirty seconds or so to introduce characters. If you ramble, you lose the audience. I had to write a screenplay for class once and got a B. I’ve never been confident in my screenwriting skills, but I think it’d be fun to write a TV show or something.

 

The interviewer let people in the audience ask questions too so I asked: “One of my favorite quotes in your book is, ‘It’s just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life.’ I’m not sure if I quite agree with it because isn’t writing thought? I often feel like my thoughts are not complete unless I put them down on paper. Do you agree with this quote?”

 

I made sure to pay special attention because I knew the answer would be very important to me. First, he said that the teacher intended to tell Charlie to “get off the wall” and start living. That was my interpretation too, but I’m a philosopher. I want to see if this idea would work in various situations, and Stephen said that it doesn’t. I agree with him. Without thought, there would be no progress. Thoughts are the fuel for action. However, if you don’t do anything with your thoughts, they’re worthless. When thinking about what Bill was trying to say to Charlie though, Mr. Chbosky said, “Look, you’re a young person, and there are things that I know that you don’t just by age. There will come a time when you have a heart broken by a boy or something and it’ll feel like the worst pain in the world, and it is. It gets better though. Don’t dwell on those thoughts and let them prevent you from participating in life.” I completely agree with him. Sometimes life sucks. I have been in the wallflower zone and it is not fun. I went through a Charlie-esque period (although it wasn’t about a boy), but I got off the wall and moved on. My life is much better now. I just wish I moved on sooner.

You know you’re deaf when you’re sweating while trying to listen to somebody. J After his answer, the interviewer started to talk about a quote she liked when Charlie was with his grandparents, but I missed what it was. It’s too bad. I would have liked to have known.

I unfortunately didn’t catch a lot of the writing advice. Sometimes I would catch something and then think about it so I would miss chunks of it. L Talk about thought preventing you from participating! What I understood though, was great and will always be important to me. I will always remember that we laughed a lot, so it really was a lot of fun.