Today’s blog is going to incorporate what I learned in class about What You Don’t Know by Lulu Wang and My Name is Margaret by Maya Angelou. I’m going to retell a story about a scene that had happened in my past when I was younger.
One of the most negative times of my life has to start back in 7th grade with my family. My mom works two jobs, one is at a small business making good money but no benefits and the other was at a hairdressing shop also not making benefits. My father makes great money and has benefits but he can be bad with how he handles his money at times making my mother the one that usually gives out the money to my four brothers and I at the time. So being the entrepreneurial 13 year old that I was, I wanted to have money made by myself and use for only myself. One day I was going through YouTube and I saw a video showing how to make parachute cord bracelets and I thought to myself “well that could make me some money.” Soon after, I went out with my parents and they had bought the supplies I needed to make a couple bracelets. I make two bracelets and wore them to school. My one friend , Greg, comes up to me and asks “what is that it looks sooo cool.” I proudly say “yeah well I make them and if you want this one I'll sell you it for five dollars.” He shook his head in agreement and we exchanged his money for my bracelet. I couldn’t help but smile and think “my first customer.” I continue on with my day and go home with a new found love for making bracelets that night I had made six more bracelets hoping that tomorrow would make more money. Fortunately, I was right and the next day I had 4 people come up to me and buy bracelets. Then the next day I had sold 8 bracelets. This continued on for about two weeks day after day making more and taking requests for other colors or multicolored ones to be made that night and given to them by the next morning. I had sold way over 50 bracelets and I kept close track of how much money I had earned a little over three hundred dollars and a twenty five dollar visa gift card. I was never more truly happy then at that moment just the knowing that I had plenty of money to last me for a while. After some thought, I knew I wouldn’t spend it on just candy or another toy, but that I would invest it into a bank account and save it for something more important. Knowing that my parents would be busy with work until the weekend, I still had a two days to hold this money so i put it into the safest place I could think of… under all the shirts in my shirt drawer. After two tiring days at school it had officially become the weekend it was Friday but it was time to make a bank account and deposit money for the first time ever. I get home go right up the stairs, run right into my room, into my shirt drawer and there’s nothing not even the twenty five dollar gift card. The worst part about it had to be that I know exactly who took the money.
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Composing a Present Scene with Dialogue and Symbolism
This weeks post is going to be a present scene in my life about a college payment. Before writing this blog I have read How to Format Dialogue, Symbolism and Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway) to help me compose a scene that includes both dialogue and symbolism. I lay in my bed with my eyes closed for 20 minutes before starting my day. The whole time I was annoyed by the sun peaking through my window straight into my eyes. Soon after, I wake up, check my phone, see that it it’s just past ten on Tuesday the eleventh and think to myself “pay day.” But, this weeks different from most I not only from my job but my mom offered me some money but I know I not be able to get it till about three when she gets done working. Knowing that, I call her to make sure that we were going to go get the money and she answers and says “of course I’ll go to the bank and give it to you to pay for it.” So I continue on with my day binge watching Netflix, texting friends, and messing around with my pit bike until about three. Soon after, I drive to Charlie’s where my mom also works and enter from the normal employee entrance. “Hey how’s everything going so far today.” Said by me to my mom “Not bad we were pretty slow today.” My mom said I then said “You are ready to leave right.” She didn’t say anything back and continued to run dishes to the front area as if I didn’t say anything to her. So, I then go out to my car to sit and wait for her to get done. I play a variety of games for about 50 minutes and check the time and see that it’s three fifty-five and my mom is still inside. Four minutes later she comes out smiling and gets into the car. Before I had the chance to change gears I asked her “sooo where do we have to go.” she says “home.” Not a second later I quickly changed gears and pull out of my parking spot and drive home regretfully not saying anything. When I had gotten home I logged onto my computer and paid my college bill. Composing a Present Scene
Today’s blog post is going to explain where I write at and how my surroundings affect me while I’m writing at times. Your surroundings can really throw your focus off if they are loud and/or continuous. They can also distract your story from the main idea at times, so I always reread my texts and make sure I know what I’m writing about. Before writing this I read What is Creative Nonfiction? (Lee Gutkind), Making Scenes in Memoir (Lee Martin) and My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou) to help me create a presant scene. To start off, I must tell everyone that I live with my parents and my two younger brothers. Josh is sixteen years old and bursting with information about cars always talking about them or watching YouTube videos about them. Lucas is thirteen years old and he’s the exact opposite he doesn’t really talk too much and when he does it’s typically immature like a normal thirteen year old but he also watches YouTube videos but his are usually louder. The best part about this is that my wall is against their wall so while I am trying to write I always have some kind of YouTube video going on in the background that can be very distracting. Such as today it was one of the loudest days they have had in a while, Lucas was playing daily video logs and they were yelling and screaming a lot but it sounded like gibberish, Josh was of coarse watching videos about cars and it was so loud that I thought that I was in the car with him racing someone because I felt vibrations through the floor boards. Then, I also hear my father is downstairs watching a older style army type of movie. Today I chose to tune all of these annoying sounds out By putting in my earphones and listen to music to relax but to also get me into the mood I need to be in order to write the style I need to which today is to write a in a present text. Since my bedroom is positioned right above the kitchen, I already know what she’s making just from the aromas from the lasagna that my mom makes to perfection with five layers of pasta, sauce and ricotta cheese. The desk that I use for my computer is bowed in the middle making me feeling like I’m in the middle of a canyon. The ridges on my desk are from the knife ripping packages and cutting into my desk making more and more memories from the exciting moments before I open the package and use whatever is inside giving me chills every time. My chair that I use for writing is hand picked by me today, from a choice of about sixty different chairs all ranging from twenty dollars to at the most three-hundred and fifty dollars. But, no matter the cost because to me there’s nothing better to me than being able to come home and sit on a nice, premium feeling, chilling leather chair that allows me to lean back and relax. The led lamp, that I had recently bought about two weeks ago, sitting on my desk is also a very treasured piece by me because it has three different lighting settings the first one is the brightest being a bleach white light blinding anything within its range, the second one is a softer white light that I do not often use, then there’s my favorite the soft yellow lighting giving off the perfect amount of brightness carefully balanced in between being harshly blinding but not bright enough to light my paper good enough. Every single thing on my desk was handpicked by me because of something that pleasantly appealed to me at the time of buying it. My Writers’ Round Table
This extremely coincidental story started like most other normal day that I work, I wake up and hang out around my house until about 4. Soon after I get ready for work and drive there expecting a decently busy shift being that it was a Friday. About an hour or so passes by and this familiar looking gentleman walks in the door and sits down under the television and says he wants to wait till his friends to arrive before he orders. Not too long after two other familiar women walk in and sit next to the guy they order their food and I can’t help but notice the one woman say “He stands in a pair of his oversized loafers on the worn skin of a lesser kudu-the typewriter and the reading board chest-high opposing him”[1] talking about a famous writer whose name I heard from somewhere, I just couldn't remember where. She then brought up Maya Angelou and said she had an interview with her and had said “I write in the morning and then go home about midday”[2] indicating that she would go somewhere to write her amazing and influential masterpieces. It then made me wonder why would someone like her would feel the need to go to a place to write when she could probably make up the best story I’ve ever heard just by looking around the room? But not long after my question had been answered “Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it. Nor do they go about their business feeling dewy and thrilled… We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose upon being the most natural and fluid. The right words and sentences just do no come pouring out like ticker tape most of the time.”[3] After about another twenty minutes of hearing them go back and forth about how to teach writing, I decide it's time to go over and ask a few of my own questions to help me with my english project. My first question is how do i prevent writer’s block? The first one to answer was the gentleman and he said “Don’t look back. Yes, the draft needs fixing. But first it needs writing.”[4] then he continued on with “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. The amount of time a writer spends in each stage depends on his personality, his work habits, his maturity as a craftsman, and the challenge of what he is trying to say. It is not a rigid lock-step process, but most writers most of the time pass through these three stages.”[5] Then in an almost angry way the one lady said “I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you wont be good enough at it.”[6] Which had kind of insulted me at the time but i had just brushed it off because hey, at least i’m not majoring in anything english related so who cares. Then the other lady starts bragging more about another famous writer she interviewed saying “I write in spirts. I write when I have to because the pressure builds up and I feel enough confidence… and I can write it down.”[7] My next question for them was have you ever worried that the book has a problem that you didn’t notice? The first one to answer was the mean lady and she said “You really must get your piece or book just right, as right as you can. Sometimes it is just a matter of fine-tuning, or maybe one whole character needs to be rethought. Sometimes the friend will love the feel of the writing, the raw material, and yet feel that it is a million miles from being done. This can be deeply disappointing, but again, better than your spouse or friend tell you this than an agent or an editor.”[8] Which i couldn’t help but agree with because no one wants to receive an F because they didn’t have someone to proofread their work before submitting it. My second to last question was if they had any secrets to becoming a better writer? The gentleman was the first one to answer this question “By the time this is published I will, I hope have moved on… No matter I have no choice. The pieces of writing I have not yet thought of writing will become the different from what I expect them to be when I propose them to myself. My constant is change.”[9] They were all finishing up their food that I had made them and were getting ready to leave but before they could i had one last question i had to ask them and it was their names and one by one they told me their names first starting with the gentleman his name was Don Murray, the mean woman’s name had been Anne Lamott, and finally the other lady’s name had been said Maria Popova. All three of them were the same people that we had been talking about in my English class and I couldn’t have been more shocked because the very people i had to write about were the ones right in front of me answering my questions and getting to know me as a writer. This had been by far the most coincidental day that I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. [1] Ernest Hemingway’s prefered position taken from The Daily Routines of Great Writers [2] Quote by Maya Angelou taken from The Daily Routines of Great Writers [3] Bird by Bird: Some Instruction on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott [4] The Essential by Don Murray [5] The Essential by Don Murray [6] Bird by Bird: Some Instruction on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott [7] Quote by Susan Sontag taken from The Daily Routines of Great Writers [8] Bird by Bird: Some Instruction on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott [9] The Essential by Don Murray The Proust Questionnaire
First things first I love my money and I love keeping it unless it’s worth it. By worth it I mean less than what people normally buy it for I like the rush of getting a good deal and making a little money off of it and doing it the right way. I prefer to play sports and not watch them. I also am really competitive when it comes to games even though there just games. What is your idea of perfect happiness? My idea of perfect happiness is being able to wake up everyday and be able to do what I want whenever I want because some days I want to work and other days I wanna go out and hang with some friends or go on some type of day trip. What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear is not being financially stable for the lifestyle I want to live. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? My indecisiveness. What is the trait you most deplore in others? I dislike when people don’t use their manners when someone’s being nice. Which living person do you most admire? Honestly I couldn’t admire one person because everyone has their faults and they typically don’t notice them which depending on what it is can drive me crazy. What is your greatest extravagance? I can never say no to going out to eat. What is your current state of mind? I’d say pretty happy and relaxed. On what occasion do you lie? I try not to lie but sometimes if it’ll make the person feel better I will but to an extent. What do you most dislike about your appearance? Not really anything because if I find anything I try to fix it . Which living person do you most despise? I would say Kim Jong-un. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Ive been told I say bro a lot. What is the greatest love of your life? Making money and spending it. When and where were you happiest? My grandfather has a house in Maryland and it’s located in a small town and on a long and windy road that leads the the river that we used for our boat. Which talent would you most like to have? Juggling for some reason I always wanted to learn but never have been able to do it when I try. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Being able to budget money consistently and pay bills on time without having to worry about if I’ll have enough. What is your most treasured possession? Probably a pair of shoes that I have they’re called “bel air” and there Jordan retro 5s just because of the way they look. What is your favorite occupation? Accounting I took a class on it and enjoyed keeping track of money going from different accounts What do you most value in your friends? I value honesty and trust because not many people are honest. Which historical figure do you most identify with? I’d say Abraham Lincoln. Who are your heroes in real life? Volunteer Firefighters because they fight fires and don’t even get paid to do it. What is it that you most dislike? People that scam online or in person with expensive things. What is your greatest regret? Not playing sports when I was younger. What is your motto? If you want it go get it. |
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