So that next post didn't materialize on time, sadly! (Still in the works.) I've been busy, busy, busy, first with exams and then with packing for a heretofore-unmentioned but very long in the planning trip down to San Antonio, Texas, to visit SolusLupus, who's blog is reachable on the right. So, with what's happened, this calls for a personal update!
Texas is known for being hot, but San Antonio is located very near the Gulf of Mexico, and it's not just hot, but humid. I was worried about this from the get go, though I knew I wanted to go see Solus, and when he offered to keep me in his apartment for the summer and told me he had room, I jumped at the chance. I don't handle heat well, so I had to wonder - would I be cooped up inside, forever chained to an air conditioner? I brought a pocket fan, which is coming in decidedly handy, but fortunately the heat isn't bothering me nearly as much as I feared. Yes, it's humid and it can be hotter than forty degrees outside, and it hits you like a blast of hot air whenever you open an exterior door, but after the first few seconds you get used to it. As long as you drink plenty of water (a canteen is another necessity) you'll be able to get out of the house no problem. Ironically, I seem to handle the heat better than Solus in some ways. The heat does tend to suck away your energy, though. Expect to be tired earlier in the day.
We've been settling in. With a recent shoulder issue that's been bothering him, he's been unable to do much in the way of cleaning up, so the first order of business has been to get the place more livable. We've been vacuuming and cleaning dishes and getting the dishwasher functional again. I've only been here two days and already the place looks far different from how it was when I entered.
In a way, I'm very glad that I'm a positive force as a roommate, no matter how temporarily I'm there. Living alone isn't easy on a person, and I know this from experience. When you live alone and have lost contact with many a friend, it's very hard to motivate yourself to clean up, exercise, or even eat well. Nobody is watching, nobody cares and nobody who you feel for is close to you is there to encourage you. It's far too easy to fall into simply not caring about your environment or how you treat your body. Solus' behavior and attitude has changed almost entirely the moment I got in the door. He finds it far easier to do chores, especially when I do them with him, or when we take turns at a physically demanding task. We made bread today, and he measured the ingredients, then took a break while I kneaded the dough and showed him the two phases (sticky and non-sticky) and a few of the ways my mom did it. Slowly, the place is being cleaned up and the food is getting better. It really is amazing how having a roommate can be so beneficial.
There are some downsides to a relocation for the summer, though. For one, though you have an abundance of free time, it's hard to find a quiet moment to write in the first days, and for two, my roleplay projects are pretty much on hold while I get settled! It might be a week or more before we've gotten enough stuff done to fall into any kind of routine where we have the time and mental capacity to come up with stories. Oh well! So far my vacation is turning out great.
I'll get that post on my characters up. Eventually. See you then!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Characters and Characterization: A Very Basic Guide
Character is perhaps one of the easiest things to understand about other people and about fiction in general. Even a young child making up stories upon the playground quickly comes to understand the concept of characters within a story, whether made up or based on real people or maybe a mixture of both. All but the most simple of stories (those, usually descriptive in nature) require some form of character, for without character there is rarely a story. Stories, being tales that move forward, are about characters; about their struggles, their trials, their conflicts and interactions with other characters. I will go even further, and say that without character, there is no story - just a series of descriptions.
It's very easy to create a character. Most of us do it without even thinking about it. We create caricatures of ourselves and others in our minds as we go about the day, we imagine hypothetical people who don't exist but have desires and goals and actions just like ourselves. However, creating good characters can be far from easy. The potential for characters are infinite, but their conception often leaves things to be desired in many forms of fiction. Sometimes characters are created that are dull, bland, lifeless, unrealistic, jarring or that simply don't fit within the framework of a story neatly, seeming at odds with it. Indeed, bad characterization is far easier than good.
When first creating a character, the time and true tested method, figured out by countless storytellers from the dawn of time, is to come up with a few core traits which initially define the character, along with their name, sex, and any other details that might be pertinent to the audience. This approach is perfect, and indeed is a great way of making the seed of a character. Note that I said the seed of a character. No character is complete upon first conception. Part of becoming one is a natural, organic growth from a list of traits into something that approximates a human being with desires, goals and personality.
Sadly, many characters stop and stagnate at this point, never progressing beyond "Bob the Human Tailor who likes fishing" or "Captain Yaarggh the Piratical Space Pirate". These are examples of incomplete characters - characters who never progress past a name, an occupation and one or two defining traits.
A proper character is not merely an actor (in the sense of acting on something for the sake of the story - being a "plot device" as it's commonly known when done badly) upon the story's framework, or a name, sex and (insert defining trait here), but a collected set of traits that combine into a unified whole. Characters that lack this unified framework tend to be called "extraneous" or "dull" or "one-note", but it all springs from the fact that simple traits do not make a character complete. They do not make a character feel like a real person. People are not collections of disorganized traits. They have wants, desires, emotions, and if these are not being communicated to the audience, the character is a mystery and so are his actions, and he may as well not be there. If a character's actions make no sense, he does not feel "real". If a character does not have some defining, overarching personality covering his collected set of traits, he will feel fake, like he is simply there for the story's purpose. They are not complete characters.
So, with this conclusion drawn, the next is simple: The secret to good characterization is making your characters feel "real", in the sense that they are not merely there for the storyline's purposes nor a loosely connected set of bullet points that describe their nature. If characters feel real, then the audience can empathize with them, and will come to love or despise them and suffer through their ups and downs, which is essential for getting anyone invested in a story.
Essential to making a character feel real is having a personality - having those wants, motivations and desires, having traits that are interconnected, and having a sense of complexity. This is a challenging endeavor, but one that can't be shied from if one wants to succeed at storytelling. Characters have to have a personality and complexity if they are to feel real.
It's important to note at this point that not every character can be what I call a "complete character". Imagine the Star Wars original trilogy, except that the film focuses upon every single character whose face graces the screen, alien or human. With every Stormtrooper, we flash back to an establishing shot of why they decided to join the Academy and spend fifteen minutes exploring their own personal desires and motivations. With every alien in the Cantina, we learn their origins, backstories, and why exactly that they are there on that one night. The film would be unwatchable, for it is impossible to care about so vast a number of people at the same time, and it would be so impossibly long that it would run for days. What I call "bad" or "incomplete characterization" here is a necessity for extra characters, who are by definition not as fleshed out or explored as who the story focuses on. After all, there need to be everyday people who come and go, those who have little to no importance upon the story, or are there to round out the setting and make it feel alive, and these needn't be fully realized. Extras can drive the story as much as the main character, but an extra should never remain an extra if he is in focus
I'm still exploring the main issues of characterization myself, and yet I can share some general tips for how to avoid pitfalls and work towards complete, fleshed out characters. (Take these bits of advice under advisement and use them to form your own opinions and try your own hand at it. Don't blindly follow what I say.)
The first and foremost is to try to link those traits together underneath a personality. Let's take an example character.
Rebecca is a 23 year old white woman. She's a bookworm and very quiet, preferring her own company and a good book to rampant socialization.
Two sentences. That right there is our seed, a basic description of traits from which the character now grows organically into something more. The character is incomplete but like all incomplete characters has potential, if she is used correctly. The mentality we should get into is that these traits are not enough and never will be enough. Instead of simply hammering them home (perhaps by having her restate her love of books every time one is mentioned) and relying on them as the character's identity, we should consider the bigger picture.
The first step to a character is concocting more traits that either "broaden" the character or add to existing ones, a process I tentatively call "feeding forward", as a trait is used to generate other traits by "feeding" into them and complimenting them. Let's take an example of each of these.
Rebecca likes books. What else does she like? Well, let's make her an insomniac, which in turn means she is rarely seen without a cup of coffee in her hands, which she uses to stay awake. She studies at university and is majoring in history.
What kind of books does she like? As someone who finds history fascinating, she loves reading both good historical fiction and books upon historical events which add to her knowledge. What others find boring, she finds fascinating.
We just added a number of traits, and are already starting to form connections between those traits that form something greater. Let's break it down:
(This bullet pointed trait list isn't a neccessary part of the character creation process, as traits can arise smoothly from the author's mind without much thought involved,. However, you could do something similar with a "mind map" or a graph to help you keep a character's traits straight and remember how they fit together. If you're so visually inclined, a good program, FreeMind, can be found here: freemind.sourceforge.net/ )
A character's personality is the sum total of their nature, wants, and desires, all of which come together to unify the list of traits and pull them together into a unified whole (Tired of that phrase yet?) which we call a character. As the list of traits expands and interconnects, you'll find yourself slowly gaining a handle on who this character is and how they're likely to act in any given situation, which you can turn into a broader description of the character. A good exercise is to do just that, and put down at least a paragraph or two on how the person would act.
"Rebecca Lynch is a 23 year old white female who studies at an as-yet-unnamed university. She is bookish and shy, and tends to prefer her own company, having little taste for parties or large groups. She's quite caring despite this, and has a small group of friends with which she meets regularly. Her bookish nature is sometimes an exasperation to others as she has a tendency to go on and on about something she finds interesting, but ultimately her interest is genuine and often ends up pulling people in. She is often insomniac because her mind is too active to sleep, and she has a reputation as a coffee lover and late waker, often arriving late to class. She enjoys the quietness of both the library and nature and her friends often joke that she would bring the tent from her occasional hikes into the library, if she could."
A further, useful exercise is to consult a list of questions as to how the character would act in any given situation. As you're grilled on how they would best act, go with the response that seems to make the most sense for the character, and you'll gradually build up an innate sense of who this person is.
A few random examples plucked from the top of my head:
"What would your character do if they lost all their possessions?"
"What were your character's parents like?"
"What happened early on in their development?"
"If the world ended, what would your character do first?"
"What does your character want to do with their life?"
You'll notice that many of the example questions I have there are also probing as to wants, desires and goals - things that are essential to think about at this stage, because they're just as essential to a personality. Even the most passive people are not lumps - they have wants and desires. Consider what the character, given your understanding of them, would want to do - short term and long term - and use that to color how they act. If characters act outside of their goals and their own nature, they feel unrealistic and stilted.
Once this is done, and you feel you have a strong grip upon the character's personality and desires, you can move on to...
A static character is a wasted character. Once your character has goals and desires, they will start acting upon the story themselves based on what would make sense for them, thereby altering their environment. This means ever more continual growth. As the character makes things happen and has things happen to her, her experiences will change her perception of the world. Perhaps not in dramatic ways, but enough.
This can be a tricky process as it often requires interest in the character itself, and if your interest in them fades, so too, often, does their development. (If the character bores you, consider having something major happen that upsets the status quo and gets you thinking again.) This is a natural outgrowth of the other two steps. Write your story, take part in your roleplay as them, or plan out the broad sequence of events, and before, after, and during the writing process, consider how the character will grow and change. If you're like me, this will be a highly smooth, natural process that takes place as much subconciously as it does conciously. Other writers may need to think more about the character to determine how they evolve and what direction to go in, but to each his own; find your own style.
Whatever the case, a good example of this would be such:
One day, Rebecca is caught in a building that unexpectedly catches fire. She is scared, and cannot articulate herself to the others trapped in the building, thanks to being unnaturally quiet, even though she knows of an escape route that nobody has considered in their panic. After a few seconds stumbling over her words, Rebecca manages to find her voice and confidence, and suddenly starts yelling and directing people towards the escape route. She goes unrecognized and uncredited after things are over, which suits her fine - but from that day forwards, though she may still be shy, she is far less cautious about speaking her mind.
This is the final step in the triad towards making your character feel real. Once they have a personality, act upon the story's events and are changed by what progresses, they begin to feel much less like a plot device and more like a real person.
In the next post, I'll discuss some of my own well known and cherished characters, how they started, and how they successfully grew into complete characters that grow and evolve.
I hope the advice in this spur of the moment guide has proven useful.
It's very easy to create a character. Most of us do it without even thinking about it. We create caricatures of ourselves and others in our minds as we go about the day, we imagine hypothetical people who don't exist but have desires and goals and actions just like ourselves. However, creating good characters can be far from easy. The potential for characters are infinite, but their conception often leaves things to be desired in many forms of fiction. Sometimes characters are created that are dull, bland, lifeless, unrealistic, jarring or that simply don't fit within the framework of a story neatly, seeming at odds with it. Indeed, bad characterization is far easier than good.
When first creating a character, the time and true tested method, figured out by countless storytellers from the dawn of time, is to come up with a few core traits which initially define the character, along with their name, sex, and any other details that might be pertinent to the audience. This approach is perfect, and indeed is a great way of making the seed of a character. Note that I said the seed of a character. No character is complete upon first conception. Part of becoming one is a natural, organic growth from a list of traits into something that approximates a human being with desires, goals and personality.
Sadly, many characters stop and stagnate at this point, never progressing beyond "Bob the Human Tailor who likes fishing" or "Captain Yaarggh the Piratical Space Pirate". These are examples of incomplete characters - characters who never progress past a name, an occupation and one or two defining traits.
A proper character is not merely an actor (in the sense of acting on something for the sake of the story - being a "plot device" as it's commonly known when done badly) upon the story's framework, or a name, sex and (insert defining trait here), but a collected set of traits that combine into a unified whole. Characters that lack this unified framework tend to be called "extraneous" or "dull" or "one-note", but it all springs from the fact that simple traits do not make a character complete. They do not make a character feel like a real person. People are not collections of disorganized traits. They have wants, desires, emotions, and if these are not being communicated to the audience, the character is a mystery and so are his actions, and he may as well not be there. If a character's actions make no sense, he does not feel "real". If a character does not have some defining, overarching personality covering his collected set of traits, he will feel fake, like he is simply there for the story's purpose. They are not complete characters.
So, with this conclusion drawn, the next is simple: The secret to good characterization is making your characters feel "real", in the sense that they are not merely there for the storyline's purposes nor a loosely connected set of bullet points that describe their nature. If characters feel real, then the audience can empathize with them, and will come to love or despise them and suffer through their ups and downs, which is essential for getting anyone invested in a story.
Essential to making a character feel real is having a personality - having those wants, motivations and desires, having traits that are interconnected, and having a sense of complexity. This is a challenging endeavor, but one that can't be shied from if one wants to succeed at storytelling. Characters have to have a personality and complexity if they are to feel real.
It's important to note at this point that not every character can be what I call a "complete character". Imagine the Star Wars original trilogy, except that the film focuses upon every single character whose face graces the screen, alien or human. With every Stormtrooper, we flash back to an establishing shot of why they decided to join the Academy and spend fifteen minutes exploring their own personal desires and motivations. With every alien in the Cantina, we learn their origins, backstories, and why exactly that they are there on that one night. The film would be unwatchable, for it is impossible to care about so vast a number of people at the same time, and it would be so impossibly long that it would run for days. What I call "bad" or "incomplete characterization" here is a necessity for extra characters, who are by definition not as fleshed out or explored as who the story focuses on. After all, there need to be everyday people who come and go, those who have little to no importance upon the story, or are there to round out the setting and make it feel alive, and these needn't be fully realized. Extras can drive the story as much as the main character, but an extra should never remain an extra if he is in focus
I'm still exploring the main issues of characterization myself, and yet I can share some general tips for how to avoid pitfalls and work towards complete, fleshed out characters. (Take these bits of advice under advisement and use them to form your own opinions and try your own hand at it. Don't blindly follow what I say.)
The first and foremost is to try to link those traits together underneath a personality. Let's take an example character.
Rebecca is a 23 year old white woman. She's a bookworm and very quiet, preferring her own company and a good book to rampant socialization.
Two sentences. That right there is our seed, a basic description of traits from which the character now grows organically into something more. The character is incomplete but like all incomplete characters has potential, if she is used correctly. The mentality we should get into is that these traits are not enough and never will be enough. Instead of simply hammering them home (perhaps by having her restate her love of books every time one is mentioned) and relying on them as the character's identity, we should consider the bigger picture.
Step #1: Add traits and consider those that exist and how they "feed forward".
The first step to a character is concocting more traits that either "broaden" the character or add to existing ones, a process I tentatively call "feeding forward", as a trait is used to generate other traits by "feeding" into them and complimenting them. Let's take an example of each of these.
Rebecca likes books. What else does she like? Well, let's make her an insomniac, which in turn means she is rarely seen without a cup of coffee in her hands, which she uses to stay awake. She studies at university and is majoring in history.
What kind of books does she like? As someone who finds history fascinating, she loves reading both good historical fiction and books upon historical events which add to her knowledge. What others find boring, she finds fascinating.
We just added a number of traits, and are already starting to form connections between those traits that form something greater. Let's break it down:
- History student at university, which feeds forward into:
- Finds history fascinating, which feeds forward into:
- Reads a lot of historical fiction and accounts of history, which is also fed by:
- Likes books, all of which feeds forward into:
- Finds fascinating what others find boring.
- Insomniac, which feeds forward into:
- Coffee lover
(This bullet pointed trait list isn't a neccessary part of the character creation process, as traits can arise smoothly from the author's mind without much thought involved,. However, you could do something similar with a "mind map" or a graph to help you keep a character's traits straight and remember how they fit together. If you're so visually inclined, a good program, FreeMind, can be found here: freemind.sourceforge.net/ )
Step #2: Interconnect traits and start to form the personality.
A character's personality is the sum total of their nature, wants, and desires, all of which come together to unify the list of traits and pull them together into a unified whole (Tired of that phrase yet?) which we call a character. As the list of traits expands and interconnects, you'll find yourself slowly gaining a handle on who this character is and how they're likely to act in any given situation, which you can turn into a broader description of the character. A good exercise is to do just that, and put down at least a paragraph or two on how the person would act.
"Rebecca Lynch is a 23 year old white female who studies at an as-yet-unnamed university. She is bookish and shy, and tends to prefer her own company, having little taste for parties or large groups. She's quite caring despite this, and has a small group of friends with which she meets regularly. Her bookish nature is sometimes an exasperation to others as she has a tendency to go on and on about something she finds interesting, but ultimately her interest is genuine and often ends up pulling people in. She is often insomniac because her mind is too active to sleep, and she has a reputation as a coffee lover and late waker, often arriving late to class. She enjoys the quietness of both the library and nature and her friends often joke that she would bring the tent from her occasional hikes into the library, if she could."
A further, useful exercise is to consult a list of questions as to how the character would act in any given situation. As you're grilled on how they would best act, go with the response that seems to make the most sense for the character, and you'll gradually build up an innate sense of who this person is.
A few random examples plucked from the top of my head:
"What would your character do if they lost all their possessions?"
"What were your character's parents like?"
"What happened early on in their development?"
"If the world ended, what would your character do first?"
"What does your character want to do with their life?"
You'll notice that many of the example questions I have there are also probing as to wants, desires and goals - things that are essential to think about at this stage, because they're just as essential to a personality. Even the most passive people are not lumps - they have wants and desires. Consider what the character, given your understanding of them, would want to do - short term and long term - and use that to color how they act. If characters act outside of their goals and their own nature, they feel unrealistic and stilted.
Once this is done, and you feel you have a strong grip upon the character's personality and desires, you can move on to...
Step #3: Playing with the character.
A static character is a wasted character. Once your character has goals and desires, they will start acting upon the story themselves based on what would make sense for them, thereby altering their environment. This means ever more continual growth. As the character makes things happen and has things happen to her, her experiences will change her perception of the world. Perhaps not in dramatic ways, but enough.
This can be a tricky process as it often requires interest in the character itself, and if your interest in them fades, so too, often, does their development. (If the character bores you, consider having something major happen that upsets the status quo and gets you thinking again.) This is a natural outgrowth of the other two steps. Write your story, take part in your roleplay as them, or plan out the broad sequence of events, and before, after, and during the writing process, consider how the character will grow and change. If you're like me, this will be a highly smooth, natural process that takes place as much subconciously as it does conciously. Other writers may need to think more about the character to determine how they evolve and what direction to go in, but to each his own; find your own style.
Whatever the case, a good example of this would be such:
One day, Rebecca is caught in a building that unexpectedly catches fire. She is scared, and cannot articulate herself to the others trapped in the building, thanks to being unnaturally quiet, even though she knows of an escape route that nobody has considered in their panic. After a few seconds stumbling over her words, Rebecca manages to find her voice and confidence, and suddenly starts yelling and directing people towards the escape route. She goes unrecognized and uncredited after things are over, which suits her fine - but from that day forwards, though she may still be shy, she is far less cautious about speaking her mind.
This is the final step in the triad towards making your character feel real. Once they have a personality, act upon the story's events and are changed by what progresses, they begin to feel much less like a plot device and more like a real person.
In the next post, I'll discuss some of my own well known and cherished characters, how they started, and how they successfully grew into complete characters that grow and evolve.
I hope the advice in this spur of the moment guide has proven useful.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Busy, Busy, Busy
Well, when I started this blog, I sure didn't expect the school semester to be this hard. The Murphy Centre may be a great place, but out of necessity it's curriculum moves at blinding speed. Unfortunately from the start of this year onwards I've found myself with very little energy for creative projects in general - what I do have seems to be going towards roleplaying rather than writing, unfortunately. With any luck over the coming Easter break I'll have plenty of time to recuperate, sleep in and spend the day exercising mind and body. On the plus side, my priorities seem to be in order, given I'm getting high marks. I just hope I can pass the two 12th grade courses I'm in when it comes time for the final, as my mark there determines whether I can eventually get into university.
Beyond that, though, I've found myself cutting ties with old friends who I'm no longer finding it satisfying to be around and reinforcing the ties with those that I do, a lesson I think I should have listened to when it was being beaten into me by events over the summer of last year. I won't mention specifics or name names, nor will I passively-aggressively call people out on a blog that none of them read anyway. Suffice it to say I'm taking a look at my relationships and deciding who to spend energy on, as I have precious little of it to spare.
Since there's little of note I have to post right now (I may post some of the essays I've come up for World History class later, as I'm quite proud of them) I think I'll take an hour or two this night to write down some of my thoughts about characterization in storytelling and give some examples of characters who have worked out well for me in both roleplay and in freewriting. I hope to share some of my own experiences in the next post to give up and coming storytellers and RPers and tabletop gamers some helpful info. Details to follow in the next post, as I believe firmly in keeping titles relevant!
Beyond that, though, I've found myself cutting ties with old friends who I'm no longer finding it satisfying to be around and reinforcing the ties with those that I do, a lesson I think I should have listened to when it was being beaten into me by events over the summer of last year. I won't mention specifics or name names, nor will I passively-aggressively call people out on a blog that none of them read anyway. Suffice it to say I'm taking a look at my relationships and deciding who to spend energy on, as I have precious little of it to spare.
Since there's little of note I have to post right now (I may post some of the essays I've come up for World History class later, as I'm quite proud of them) I think I'll take an hour or two this night to write down some of my thoughts about characterization in storytelling and give some examples of characters who have worked out well for me in both roleplay and in freewriting. I hope to share some of my own experiences in the next post to give up and coming storytellers and RPers and tabletop gamers some helpful info. Details to follow in the next post, as I believe firmly in keeping titles relevant!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
An Awesome Day
So, I had a really good day today. Hell, that's the reason I restarted this blog.
I'm a student at the Brother T.I Murphy Center in St. John's Newfoundland. The Murphy center is an alternative education center that takes people who have difficulty thriving in a regular high school environment, giving them an adult basic education. It's an absolutely wonderful place where the class sizes are small and you get a lot of personal attention, and it's much quieter than a regular high school, which makes it far easier for me to concentrate. (I'll post about my high school experiences some other time, if anyone's curious, but the short version is that Gonzaga was so massively loud that I could barely last three hours before my head wanted to split open, and that makes it kind of hard to get any work done.)
I woke up at 10 AM, way after I should have. I rushed to school and managed to get in there for half of the math class. Now, the Murphy Center is a place that believes in second chances. Come if you can, it's alright if you don't, we'd really like you to make it. There was no fuss when I came in midway through, and I was just relieved to have gotten there, as there was a biology test today which I'd been stressing about.
I took a biology test after that, which I'd been preparing for all week. It was much easier than I'd anticipated, and I had no troubles at all. Then I went to lunch. There was a bake sale, and my lunch for the day consisted of a slice of fudge cheesecake and a muffin which was absolutely delicious. On top of that, I got to sit with half the faculty, speaking as equals. We were the loudest table in the lounge as we joked and laughed together, talking about psychology and leadership and relationships and the interesting way human beings behave in general. The entire experience left me with a smile on my face. It's hard to describe how relaxing it was.
So, I had missed a math test earlier this week, and my math teacher scheduled me to take it in the afternoon. I had to go to Trudy, my English teacher, to get some handouts so I could study at home, since it would take place over her class time. When I did so, she gave me back the test I took last week as well as an essay I'd passed in.
Now, let me be clear here. Trudy has a reputation as a very tough teacher. A very fair, but tough teacher. She never gives 100% on any kind of essay. True enough, I didn't get a 100% - I got 96%. The only mistake she could find was that I hadn't used enough quotes from the play. She took me aside before class began, to compliment me. She said that my writing was "head and shoulders above everybody else" and that I would have absolutely no trouble in university. I felt swelled with confidence. On top of that, the test mark was 100%. Trudy was impressed, and she showed it.
Then I took the math test and got 82% on the spot, despite only having had the chance to study half the material. On the way out, my biology teacher thanked me for spending money to support the bake sale. Before I could even take a further step towards the door, another teacher told me about how they had had too much milk donated, and couldn't keep all of it - so would I like a free carton of 0% skim milk? Sure!
When I got home, it turned out we needed milk badly at the house.
So to sum up:
I got high marks in everything, I had an absolute blast in conversation, I got to eat delicious sweets and support a charity at the same time, I got high compliments from a notoriously hard to impress teacher, and I got a free carton of milk. What more can you ask for?
I am so high on life right now that it's not even funny. I am charged with confidence. This was a ridiculously good day.
I'm a student at the Brother T.I Murphy Center in St. John's Newfoundland. The Murphy center is an alternative education center that takes people who have difficulty thriving in a regular high school environment, giving them an adult basic education. It's an absolutely wonderful place where the class sizes are small and you get a lot of personal attention, and it's much quieter than a regular high school, which makes it far easier for me to concentrate. (I'll post about my high school experiences some other time, if anyone's curious, but the short version is that Gonzaga was so massively loud that I could barely last three hours before my head wanted to split open, and that makes it kind of hard to get any work done.)
I woke up at 10 AM, way after I should have. I rushed to school and managed to get in there for half of the math class. Now, the Murphy Center is a place that believes in second chances. Come if you can, it's alright if you don't, we'd really like you to make it. There was no fuss when I came in midway through, and I was just relieved to have gotten there, as there was a biology test today which I'd been stressing about.
I took a biology test after that, which I'd been preparing for all week. It was much easier than I'd anticipated, and I had no troubles at all. Then I went to lunch. There was a bake sale, and my lunch for the day consisted of a slice of fudge cheesecake and a muffin which was absolutely delicious. On top of that, I got to sit with half the faculty, speaking as equals. We were the loudest table in the lounge as we joked and laughed together, talking about psychology and leadership and relationships and the interesting way human beings behave in general. The entire experience left me with a smile on my face. It's hard to describe how relaxing it was.
So, I had missed a math test earlier this week, and my math teacher scheduled me to take it in the afternoon. I had to go to Trudy, my English teacher, to get some handouts so I could study at home, since it would take place over her class time. When I did so, she gave me back the test I took last week as well as an essay I'd passed in.
Now, let me be clear here. Trudy has a reputation as a very tough teacher. A very fair, but tough teacher. She never gives 100% on any kind of essay. True enough, I didn't get a 100% - I got 96%. The only mistake she could find was that I hadn't used enough quotes from the play. She took me aside before class began, to compliment me. She said that my writing was "head and shoulders above everybody else" and that I would have absolutely no trouble in university. I felt swelled with confidence. On top of that, the test mark was 100%. Trudy was impressed, and she showed it.
Then I took the math test and got 82% on the spot, despite only having had the chance to study half the material. On the way out, my biology teacher thanked me for spending money to support the bake sale. Before I could even take a further step towards the door, another teacher told me about how they had had too much milk donated, and couldn't keep all of it - so would I like a free carton of 0% skim milk? Sure!
When I got home, it turned out we needed milk badly at the house.
So to sum up:
I got high marks in everything, I had an absolute blast in conversation, I got to eat delicious sweets and support a charity at the same time, I got high compliments from a notoriously hard to impress teacher, and I got a free carton of milk. What more can you ask for?
I am so high on life right now that it's not even funny. I am charged with confidence. This was a ridiculously good day.
Renovations complete!
I've purged the last four posts that were made back in 2007 as they're laughably out of date and are just me rambling, as well as all comments. I'm starting afresh!
As the new profile indicates, I'll be posting both about everyday events in my life as well as snippets of writing I happen to come up, as well as my own thoughts on the literary world or interesting topics that creative people can use. Yeah, it's one of those blogs. Mostly intended for friends, but hey, if you find my ramblings interesting, please let me know. I'd also welcome any criticism of my writing style, so long as it's constructive.
Let's get this train wreck rolling!
As the new profile indicates, I'll be posting both about everyday events in my life as well as snippets of writing I happen to come up, as well as my own thoughts on the literary world or interesting topics that creative people can use. Yeah, it's one of those blogs. Mostly intended for friends, but hey, if you find my ramblings interesting, please let me know. I'd also welcome any criticism of my writing style, so long as it's constructive.
Let's get this train wreck rolling!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)