Endless Rewrites

Listening to Blue Ocean Floor, by my man JT. I really cannot get enough of this album.
Thinking about writing and the many issues that accompany it.
    I was reading old posts to be sure I still wanted them on the blog. Just on a whim. I stumbled on one from the December I'd first started this blog. I'd just finished my first NaNoWriMo, and I was filling in the blanks between big events in the story. The same story I'm working on now, only this is a complete rewrite. I was having problems, I wrote, with the boring and the mundane. The every-day events. Now that I've changed so much of the story, I'm trying to tone down the big events so that they don't take so much stage. I don't want them to be the center of the story, to stand out from it. I want it to all be one continuous line. The way the novel should end, were I to put it in musical terms, is on a softer note, and the whole story should lead up to it at the same tempo, but still with a sense of forward motion. Does that make sense?
    The thing is, I took two short story writing classes, and my strength, unbeknownst to me, is writing the mundane and still making it entertaining. I would take small vignettes and make a story out of them, and though nothing huge happened, it was still a moving and engaging story. That's the feeling I want to evoke in this novel. It doesn't lead up to the big bang ending you want, but you're content with it nonetheless. This is apparently my strength, isn't it?
     So why do I find myself struggling with it? Someone de-riddle this for me, because I'm losing my patience with myself.
***Added*** Shout out to my good friend Hannah from Hannah Cynthia Lane for being such an awesome reader and writer, for that matter! (Y'all go check out her blog ASAP; she makes me giggle like a hyena during a hostile takeover.) Hope you have fun in Fiction Writing this semester with Big Daddy Platt. Also known as the Plattypus. (Side note, don't call him any of these names. We kinda got him angry a few times.)

The Big Girl Bow

Listening to Pusher Love Girl, JT. Don't worry, though. I still love That Girl. I'm just trying to break the streak.
In the mood for some iced tea.
    So lately I've been kind of obsessed with wearing bows. Thank Beth and her little DIY tutorial here. I made one (only I hand-sewed mine) and then fell in love and made two more. I have one big polka dot one, a medium sized red one, and a tiny black and white if I wanna just clip back my bangs (which I'm growing out, so they're driving me mental). I really want a big blue one so I can wear my hair like this. Don't judge me.
    One of my favorite ways to wear it is half up and half down, with the bow in the middle of the back of my head so it's loose. Wearing these bows, I feel that there's a fine line between looking chic and cute, and looking like a four-year-old with a giant bow on top of your head. I have enough trouble looking like I'm younger than I am; I don't need to exacerbate the problem with an ill-placed bow. So here's a tutorial for wearing The Big Girl Bow, and rocking it. (N.B. I part my hair on the left. So if you part your hair on the right, do the opposite of what I tell you for the curling process.)



Click to enlarge.

1) Brush your hair. Duh. But really, since we're using a flat iron, you do not want to flat iron tangles into your hair. They're a nightmare to deal with after that.
2) Part your hair into two sections, from the top of your ears...
3) ... to the center of the back of your head...
4) ... and twist the top section so it'll be easier to secure.
5) Take a big alligator clip (my mom used to call them that, am I the only one?)...
6) ... and clip that top section out of the way.
7) Now separate the bottom into left and right sections and our prep work is done!



Click to enlarge.

1) On the left side, take a 1-2" section (the bigger the section, the looser the curl), and curl it under with the flat iron.
2) Move slowly down the section with the flat iron on medium heat, with your wrist flipped under, like my wrist here.
3) This curls the hair towards the face.
4)Finish curling the left section then spray. I like Aussie's Mega Finish Hairspray. It's still flexible and touchable and it smells like Pez.
5) For the right side, take the same sized section, but this time flip it up and wrap the hair over. Because you're using the same hand on the opposite side, if you flipped it under, it would curl away from your face, not towards it. Bizarre, but there you go.
6) It's slightly difficult to see in this photo because my hair is dark underneath, but it's curled towards my face.
7) Finish the right side, and spray again.



Click to enlarge.

1) Now take down the top section and separate it on your part. For me it's on the left.
2) I like to curl the underneath towards my face, and the top away, so on the left, we're going to flip it up this time.
3) ... And away from the face.
4) Since I have a ton of hair, and there's way more on the right side, I separate it into two sections - a front and back - and clip the front up with the alligator (mine's missing a few teeth. ha. haha.)
5) for the right side, flip it under, and it will curl away from the face (the opposite of what you did underneath on this side).
6) See? All flipped away.
7) I take one or two sections at the crown at the back and flip them under as well, and give 'em some hair spray.



Click to enlarge.

1) Last section! I'm starting to get a little loopy here. Curl the front section, flipping it under as well, then spray.
2) If you have bangs, like me, hold them up like so...
3) ... and part them at a diagonal to get the most natural layering of hair (rather than in vertical or horizontal sections, or all in one section - do not do that unless you want super flat bangs).
4) Flip them under just like the rest of the right side.
5) See how nicely it flips back away from the face?
6) After you've curled each section of your bangs (my sister Maggs would kill me if she saw this - she goes to Toni&Guy, and evidently, they're called fringe), which is about three sections for me, spritz them and run your fingers through them to break it up.


Click to enlarge.

1) Now, the fun part! Run your hands through the curls to make them looser.
2) Flip your head over and give it a few good shakes.
3) Look at this adorable bow!
4) Separate two sections at your temples...
5) ... pull them to the middle of the back of your head and secure with the bow!
6) Now grab your brush...
7) ... And brush both sides...
8) ... to make it even looser.
    And voilà! Rocking that bow like the awesome big-girl you are. ha ha.

What do you think? Will you be wearing a big girl bow soon?

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Products Used

• Aussie Mega Finish Hairspray
• Revlon 1" Titanium Stay Smooth Hair Straightener

 

YA in the College Setting

Listening to nothing, but you'd better believe That Girl is playing on repeat in my head. Oh, JT...
Thinking about how daunting this semester is going to be.
    Before finalizing his plans for the semester, one of my professors did something that none of my other professors have done before. He did two things, actually. First, he sent the whole class a survey with about twenty books on it, asking us which we were most interested in reading. Secondly, almost every book on that list (it might have even been every book - I don't remember them all) was YA Lit.*
    Finally. Finally someone sees the significance of YA literature. Finally someone realizes that there is so much to be learned from these authors and their stories. Finally, y'all. There is hope for the future of YA. And I have to say I'm most excited that John Green's wonderful The Fault In Our Stars is on the list. I've been dying to read this book, but as an English/English Ed./Latin major, I really don't have time to read for pleasure during the semester. Oh, delight, someone's finally realized this book is worth studying in a class.
    Now I realize that so many educators have already seen the importance of these books, but not at my university. I've been reading the same books over and over for classes for the past nine years. I can't tell you how many times I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin (yes I can. Twice, and I didn't like it either time), and it's on yet another class's book list for this semester. At least one professor has finally realized that there is significance and import in contemporary YA authors' works that should be studied at a collegiate level. Studied, for that matter, so that it can be taught at a high school level.
    Thank God I have at least two classes I can look forward to this semester, because the other three will likely destroy me with the canon. (Get it? Lit pun. And you thought I was over those.)

Have any of your professors introduced YA into the college classroom?

 

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*Which is what I have always loved, read, and write.

**He was supposed to post the finalized book list today, and has not yet done so (it's nearly midnight), but I'm resting assured that most of the books on the list were books that I'd like to read.**