The Fish... thing

You may (or may not) have noticed the new little fish thing on the right side of my blog. If you click on the white part, it drops some 'food' and the fish swim around and eat it :) (so cute!). Anyway, I just felt like pointing it out.

Also, I kind of feel like naming the fish (because names are fun and I'm weird that way) so if you have suggestions, please comment! There are only two right now, but I'll probably add more as the weeks go on (I didn't want to start with only one because it might get lonely *nodnod*).

Heroes

For lack of a better topic and because I recently did a post about villains, I now get to talk about heroes :).

I think what makes a good hero is, like a villain, being able to identify with them. They need emotion, faults, and realistic actions/reactions. Basically, they're normal people in relatively abnormal circumstances (although the circumstances don't really matter that much--it's more how the hero responds). My favorite heroes are the ones that aren't perfect, but they still have something(s) that is(are) good, even great. I don't feel like I'm explaining this well, so let me give you a few examples:

Bilbo Baggins, from The Hobbit. He's not very brave (at first for sure), he's kind of sulky, and there's nothing really exceptional about him. But he keeps trying, and he really cares about his friends. He does have some moments of genius, but they aren't "the norm", so it's easier to relate with him.

Frodo Baggins, from The Lord of the Rings. (Seeing a theme here?) He is also a great example of perseverance. He's kind, merciful, generally good, but at the same time, he succumbs to the Ring's power (sorry, slight spoiler...). He undertakes this huge quest, but he really just wants to go home, so once again, I understand how he feels.

Janner... Igiby ;), from the Wingfeather Saga. He's a relatively normal kid in some pretty outlandish situations, but he still seems normal. He struggles with jealousy of his brother, and sometimes he gets angry when Tink/Kalmar is being obnoxious. But he's willing to give of himself to help his family all the same, even putting himself in danger more than once. And he learns to love his brother no matter what (sorry, more slight spoilers...)

Elinor Dashwood, from Sense and Sensibility. She has got to be one of my favorite Jane Austen characters, mostly because I feel like she's so much like me (so again, relatability. made-up word...). She has a lot of emotion, but she keeps it to herself and tries to stay strong for her family. She is strong, too, but... maybe this is more in the movie, but I think she tries to be stronger than she is or than is good for her.

This is kind of hard because I usually love books for more than just the hero. And I sometimes love books even if the hero isn't the best they could be. But hopefully you get the point. Heroes must be relatable.

What really gets me is when the hero's emotion isn't included. When they're going through this awful thing but there's no feeling written out, I unconsciously take it to mean that they don't have any feelings about whatever it is. Which is bad because, of course, I then stop relating with them. (This is why I always try to imagine how I would feel when I'm writing a scene. It sometimes has the not-exactly-desired effect of making my heroes significantly more like me, but at least it's some emotion.)

Also, I don't like it when everything goes well for the hero and they don't really have to fight for anything. Granted, this has more to do with the author and the overall story than the hero, but still. Easy isn't always best.

Now, I suppose I should give some examples of heroes I don't particularly like. This is a little harder because I've (thankfully) been spared from many horrid heroes. And I've probably forgotten many of them that I have read. Actually, they might be more in movies than in books. I don't know. I still don't remember (m)any. So maybe some basic types of heroes then:

The superhero. Overall, they have too much natural power and not enough goes wrong. They always win everything. There are some exceptions, of course, but in general... yeah.

The perfect hero. Think Cinderella. Things go wrong, but she never complains, she's always happy. Snow White too. It's an ideal temperament, I suppose, but I don't want it and I can't relate to it. (The one exception to this is Sam Gamgee. I can't think of anything wrong with him, yet I still love him. I'd love to discuss if you want...)

The 'fake' hero. They seem to have emotion and/or faults, but if you look a little deeper, it's all empty. This probably applies to many modern movie heroes. I'm specifically thinking MK from Epic (no offense if you like the movie a lot).

I can't think of anymore right now, but once again, I'd love to hear some of your favorites or least favorites!

A small, story...thing

Ok, so I'm kind of copying Avery's idea here, but a little different. More of a story starter thing (and only one picture). Anyway, this is a picture I've wanted to do something with for a while so now seems as good a time as ever! Just so you know, I'm going to be writing this on the spot, so don't hold it to too much of a standard ;). Now, the picture:

Cool, huh? Here goes...

"Miss Ellie, Miss Ellie, will you tell us a story?" The children crowd around me in the kitchen, eager looks on their dirty faces. 

"A story?" I wipe my wet hands on my skirt. "What story do you want to hear?"

All of them answer at once.

"A new one!"

"The princess's kitten!"

"No, the king and the giant snake!"

"Alright, alright, come outside where it's light," I say. I grab a couple of blankets, spread them out on the front step and the ground nearby, and sit down. The children gather in a circle around me, waiting as patiently as I've ever seen them. 

"Let's have a new story today," I say, and I make a thoughtful face as I decide which one. 

"Is there adventure?" asks a girl.

"And danger?" adds an older boy.

"And a princess?" the youngest girl says, climbing into my lap.

"All three," I reply, smiling. "Long ago, before the king was king, or his father was king, or his grandfather was king, the kingdom of Saren warred against our enemies in Lorgon. It was a terrible war, and Saren's king almost lost his life twice. The second time he was badly injured, and his officers, fearing for his life, convinced him to return home. But little did they know," I lower my voice to a whisper, "the king's escort was followed. A band of Lorgons traced their path and, in disguise, snuck into the Great City. For three days they studied the city, learning everything about it, without being detected. Then they brought their information back to the Lorgon army. With knowledge of the city on their side, the Lorgons were able to find a way into the Great City, past all the guards, and right up to the castle itself." 

"All of Saren's soldiers were behind the Lorgons, expecting a normal battle, so the Great City was unprotected. Our enemy destroyed much of the city and took many captives. When they left, the remainder of the people were overjoyed to hear that the king was safe, but the king was distraught. Not only had the Lorgons taken his city, but they had captured his only child, the princess." 

"Oh no!" gasps the little girl on my lap.

"The princess was put in chains and made to walk all the way back to Lorgon to be sold as a slave. The army of Saren tried to follow, but they were fought off. Desperate, the king sent an offer to the king of Lorgon to ransom his daughter with a huge amount of wealth, but Lorgon refused unless they should be given the Great City of Saren itself. Though he would have given his life for his daughter, the king could not let his country fall to its enemy, and so he gave the princess up as lost unless some brave man could rescue her. He would have gone himself, of course, had he not been injured, but there was still no possibility of anyone succeeding." I pause. Just then, the horn sounds, signaling afternoon rest. 

"What happened?" asks a small boy, but I shake my head. 

"Hurry home now or we'll all get in trouble," I say. The children moan, and I smile. "But come back as soon as the hour's up and I'll finish the story."

The children scramble to their feet shouting, "Yay!" and "Thank you, Miss Ellie!" I wave until they all disappear and turn back inside to finish the dishes.

Villains *evil smirk*

So, I found this thing on Pinterest.

Villains can be fascinating characters. Or they can be awful. The list above contains several of the 'stereotypical villain actions' that are rather cliche at this point. They can be fun when used in jest, but if you want a realistic, 'dreadful' villain, you should avoid them.

Now, like I said, villains are fascinating. At least, good ones are. I know, I know, 'good villains' is an oxymoron, but what I mean is villains who are well-written and/or well-portrayed. Personally, I think the best villains are the ones who have some kind of 'good' in them still. Not the ones that are purely evil, because we can't relate with them. The good ones are those villains who still have evidence of being great people, the ones who we see could have been heroes if only they'd made better choices. I think we like them because we see some of the same things in ourselves. No one is perfect, but we're not usually all evil either (to clarify, I'm speaking in terms of actions--all people are born with a sin nature and are naturally bad.)

Here's a few of my favorites as examples:

Captain Hook, as portrayed in the 2003 movie version of Peter Pan. I like this version especially because Hook is shown as an intelligent man with some kind of sad backstory that we don't know, yet can see evidences of. Does that make sense? He almost seems like a lost boy himself, except he's a grown man who has chosen the wrong path. I'm not trying to justify his actions at all, or anything like that, just trying to get the point across. You'll just have to watch the movie. Actually, Captain Hook is probably the best part about that movie...

Loki, specifically in the movie Thor (because I haven't seen The Avengers). He is so obviously struggling to get his father's approval, but he goes about it the wrong way. Throughout the whole movie, I was trying to figure out how he would turn bad because, at least at the beginning, he seemed like a better guy than Thor. Again, I'm not saying he did bad things because of his situation, but throughout the movie, you see him dealing with so much... emotional stuff, I guess, and you see where he goes wrong. (Side note, it's just as important to develop your villain as your hero, in my opinion).

Severus Snape, from Harry Potter. Yes, I'm counting him as a villain, because that's what he is for most of the series. (I'm really sorry if you have a problem with Harry Potter. I don't want to start a huge discussion or anything here, but if you have questions, please feel free to email me or something.) Anyway, Snape obviously (obviously) hates Harry and at first we have no idea why. We slowly learn about him, but through all that, and even without it, there's something so intriguing about him. Just with his actions, for example, the times he saves Harry, we see that he's not just a big bundle of hate. He's also incredibly intelligent. (I have to say, though, some of the main reasons I liked him were his sarcasm (and that you could never tell if he was joking) and that he was pretty much the only teacher who consistently enforced the rules... anyway...)

I wasn't going to include him, because he's not quite in the same category as the others, but Gríma Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings. He's not really one of my favorite villains, mostly because I just can't stand him, but part of that is because he's still well-written. He's an awful person, and Tolkein shows us what he's like, which is what makes us hate him.

Now, some villains I don't like. (These are ones I don't like because they're badly written, not because they're bad). Just a few:

Captain Hook in the Disney version of Peter Pan. Stupid villains annoy me so bad... All he does is chase Peter and yell at Mr. Smee and run from the crocodile. *shudder*

Mr. Wickham in the 2005, 2-hour version of Pride and Prejudice. Ok, so he's not really a villain, but still! He's fine in the book, but... ugh! How could they ruin such a perfectly good bad guy?! You see him, like, once before he funs off with Lydia. Badly done, people. ;)

Sauron in the Lord of the Rings. In reality, I don't consider him the actual villain of the story (I won't  elaborate here, but it's the ring). But really, all he does is sit in Barad-Dúr (I think that's right) and freak people out with his giant creepy eye. Anyway...

I can't think of anymore right now (I'll let you know if I do!) But hopefully you see my point. I think we're drawn to conflicted villains for the same reason we like flawed heroes: we relate to them. And because we relate to them, we can learn about ourselves through watching them.

So, who are your favorite and/or least favorite villains?

Science Fiction

You may remember from my post about Christmas that I received the writing curriculum "Other Worlds" (OW) for said holiday. OW is a follow-up to the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum that focuses specifically on Fantasy and Science Fiction. As you may or may not know, one of my favorite genres (to read and write) is Fantasy, so that was why I originally wanted OW.

Anyway, this semester, my sister Avery and I are doing OW together. We haven't done much so far, but I'm already enjoying it! One thing I didn't really foresee was deciding to try Sci-fi instead of Fantasy. I really don't have a lot of experience with the Sci-fi genre at all (except for Star Wars, but that's about it) so I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into. I don't know a ton about science, at least, I don't know how much I'll be able to support any technology I think up. (I suppose I have had three years of high school science. This is where physics comes in handy!) But I'm still really excited. Part of OW is learning about the genres themselves before learning to write them, so it's a great way to start out with Sci-fi. I also have access to a bunch of books through the curriculum, so I'm looking forward to getting to know the genre (as well as having new reading material!)

I think one thing that fascinates me about Sci-fi is all the incredible technology. It will be so fun to come up with some of my own this year, but I don't know how well I'll be able to describe it! Some things are so complex... But, to inspire myself and to get an idea of what kinds of things I want to work with, I've been putting together a Sci-fi ideas Pinterest board. It's been really fun to imagine what kind of 'image' my made-up world might have and what kinds of crazy things might exist there. One of my favorites has got to be this one:

It's this 'umbrella' that uses air to keep the rain off. The air is pumped up through the handle and released out the top in a kind of 'curtain' that blocks the rain. How cool is that?! I really have no idea how I would use this in my novel (or any novel) but it's just. so. cool. 

Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun. I don't know if it will continue, but I hope so, and I think it will be a great thing to try all the same!

College Stuff...

I've been trying to think of something to blog about for a few days now with no success, but I think I finally thought of something! Yay!

So, I'm a senior this year. It's exciting (because high school's almost over! :)) but it's also weird and a little scary. Weird because I'm one of the oldest students in like everything, and scary because, well, I'm very possibly leaving home next year.

I've told some of you about this already, but one of the biggest things that happened in Michigan (although it really seems like it would be incredibly small) was that I heard about Cornerstone University for the first time. It's a Christian college in Grand Rapids (near where my grandparents and aunt & uncle live). What really made it stand out was, when I looked at the website, I found more than one major that sounded really truly interesting. Like I would actually want to study it. Looking at K-State, I had only found a few things that sounded OK, but not really exciting. At Cornerstone, there were at least three that I'd have to choose between. (I know you're wondering: they're Ancient Studies, Linguistics, and Spanish Education. Click to find out more).

I'm definitely excited about the possibility! I like the idea of a smaller, Christian college, and I do kind of like the idea of getting away from home. It's rather odd actually. After we moved to Kansas I never wanted to move again, but I almost wonder if it's one of those things where you tell God, "I'm not doing that" and He says, "Oh really?" You know what I mean? :) Of course, I don't want to leave my family and my friends and my home :(, but I suppose I've come to accept that it's probably going to happen at some point. I've kind of been battling the whole idea of moving for a few years for various reasons that I might talk about later, but now... yeah. I'm not so opposed. It's weird.

Of course, I have no idea what's going to happen. Cornerstone is significantly more expensive than K-State (big problem), not to mention far away (possibly my mom's biggest problem ;)). But I'm learning to trust God and his plan, that he'll carry it out and he knows what's best. I am planning on applying to Cornerstone, though, and hopefully we can set up a visit for when we go to Michigan for Thanksgiving!

Some Words about Worrying

One of my very favorite Bible verses is Philippians 4:6-7: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 

It's way too easy to become anxious. I find myself worrying about lots of things, from whether or not I'll pass my driving test to what I should do about college. When I catch myself worrying, I almost always bring it right to God (it's taken awhile to get there, though). I ask for help to not worry and to not try in my own strength, but for a long time I stuck with only the "prayer and supplication" part of the verse--asking God for what I needed or wanted. A few months ago, I 'rediscovered' this verse, and the word "thanksgiving" stood out with me. It was almost as if God was telling me, "You're forgetting something." So from that point on, I started thanking God for what he's already done for me and for his example of faithfulness in the Bible whenever I asked for his help. I don't always remember, of course. It can be hard to be really thankful when you're in a tough place. But I've found that when I do entrust my worries to God and remind myself of what he's done before, I do experience his peace. It's amazing how God can make you feel so peaceful in the midst of a ridiculously crazy life. But I know it's possible, because I've felt it before. 

Now, the end of the verse says that God's peace "will guard your hearts and your minds". The way I understand it is, when we tell God our requests with thanksgiving, he gives us peace. Then, when we feel that peace, we are less likely to be anxious. Then, with God's help, we can really "not be anxious about anything". Yes, we'll probably fail. I know I have. But I keep coming back to God with thanksgiving and requests, because it helps. His peace does prevent worry. And who likes worrying?