"The Chronicle"

"The Chronicle"

I once read a really excellent article in "The Chronicle" in my ECA class the other day and I was really stirred by it. Back in January, when we had to do blizzard bags, I saw very many opinions being released about them. The title of the article in the paper is "Calamity day alternative brings more work, less play."

This article showed many different opinions over what people actually think of blizzard bag assignments on snow days. Some people say they are really well-planned, while some tend to have a little frustration over them. These opinions are really told out by the students the most, since they are the ones that are mostly affected by the policy here. 

One quote that I loved in this post that really promotes an opinion in a statistics teacher's point of view is "It's good because students are doing actual work that applies to the classes they are currently taking during the snow day. However, I think it's vague as to how much something is worth, what category it goes into, and more so students are kind of uncertain about how much effort they should put forth in the assignments. (Colleen Everett, Statistics Teacher)" 

This opinion was fully analyzed by me and I completely agree with the part where the teacher said that this policy is vague as to how much of a grade an assignment is really worth, and what category it corresponds to, so this leads to students are really uncertain over how much of actual effort they should put in the work.

I had to do blizzard bags during the winter when they first started this policy and I gotta say, I was really uncertain over how much of the grade each assignment I did corresponded to.

Teachers take grades outta blizzard bags sometimes, and so if I mess up on one single blizzard bag assignment, guess what happens? My grade hurts as well as my heart. In general, I still try to put in my effort on these assignments. I would work through each paper, I would work through each pencil, I would work through the directions. But it's still good to take the beneficial advantage of these days because what's it gonna be in the summer? School, or Play?

There can be a lot of debate going on over this topic, whether this policy is really beneficial, or just a load of extra work that some students view as junk.

I got a video to show you guys over this blizzard bag policy and here it is.

Final Blogging Assessment

Final Blogging Assessment

Quote

The article interviews many school people over what exactly they think of doing Blizzard Bags. A quote that adds value to this article's conversation is "It's good because students are doing actual work that applies to the classes they are currently taking during the snow day. However, I think it's vague as to how much something is worth, what category it goes into, and more so students are kind of uncertain about how much effort they should put forth in the assignments. (Colleen Everett, Statistics Teacher)" This quote was chosen because it has a benefit of promoting the teacher's opinion of blizzard bags. This adds value to my conversation within the blog because I say that blizzard bags are really helpful, but I don't see any vagueness going on. So there can be very many different opinions on blizzard bags because everybody is just different. Using this short quote allows for a more thoughtful analysis of the text by the writer and a more engaging read by the audience because that quote is just one person's particular opinion on the issue she's talking about. So the writer is enabled to use a more thoughtful analysis of the text because she can go on showing more opinions about blizzard bags. And a more engaging read by the audience is enabled to be true because the audience can react to the opinions on the paper differently. Some may disagree with the stats teacher and say that blizzard bags are useless or dumb, whereas others might partially or fully agree with the stats teacher. This can probably continue, and some real debate could occur soon over this.

Diction and Syntax

Now, I will consider diction and syntax techniques that I used to enhance my own voice within the blog post. One diction technique that I used within this post is casual diction. Casual diction, in simple words is the utilization of words that aren't unknown to the majority of people, and they help present the writing in a manner, so it feels like the author is talking to us in a casual manner. The key to casual diction is the absence of hard vocabulary and words that are mostly used in our society. A syntax technique that I used in my blog post is anaphora. The quotes from the post that exemplify the above explained diction and syntax techniques respectively are "Teachers in Mason High School take grades outta blizzard bags sometimes..." and “I would work through each paper, I would work through each pencil, I would work through the directions."

Technology

To identify the technology used in the blog post, I had given a video of our school where they extend this conversation of blizzard bags another step higher. Please keep in mind that this video was recorded from another YouTube video. All credits go to the William Mason High School MBC News Organization for this one video. The benefit of using this video to enhance the conversation is that the audience can open their minds about this conversation and view more opinions about blizzard bags. The conversation is enhanced because there are just more opinions being promoted and the real case is concisely mentioned. This video allows for further thought and consideration by the audience because there can be many different answers given by school people to questions over what they think of blizzard bags, and if they like it or not. Teachers also participate in the conversation and since they are the teachers themselves, they are more likely to have less agreeable thoughts to be agreed by students. The teachers are in a completely different position than the students. The students are the ones that are mostly affected by this blizzard bag policy, though, so they can have the set of the most diverse opinions. More thought and consideration by the audience could be that there is no single agreeable statement of point of view on this case because the opinions all depend on who that student (the opinion-giver) particularly is and what his/her personality and angle on school is really like.  

Ending

For now, in my opinion, blizzard bags are super helpful because they help us students prevent an amount of memory loss. Some amount, but mostly unnoticeable, memory loss can occur in just one day. But it's still good to take the beneficial advantage of these days because what's it gonna be in the summer? School, or Play?

"Nelson Mandela" + Quote Post

"Nelson Mandela" + Quote Post

Nelson Rohilahla Mandela has been one of the best role models of my life ever since I learned about him in 6th grade. He was president of South Africa after serving 27 years in prison because of his battle against apartheid. Since then, I have tried to take time and study this man more, even though it is impossible to eulogize him perfectly.

While I was hanging out at the BrainyQuote Site one day, I read a quote by him that really caught my attention and caused me to relate to my life. 

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

Now, I gotta tell you guys that I was real whirled the first time I read the big words like "impossible" and "done." My brain danced around my brain for reading something new. Thinking about my middle school career at that time (since I was in 8th grade at the time I read the quote), I started pondering over how this quote could be executed to my schoolwork for now and later on in my upcoming high school career. Jumping from thought to thought for like ten seconds, I finally came up with an interpretation showing that sometimes, middle schoolwork can consist of long papers and projects and on the day you learn of them, you think it is impossible, but after you finish and carry the task out, it doesn't seem impossible.

Frequently I have coped with this. After every long project I've been through since the day I read that quote, I've always said what the Easy Button would say. I've remembered this quote and refreshed it on me everyday. In high school, this quote has been playing a major semblance in helping me undergo long-term projects. 

Not too long ago, in Mrs. Parkinson's English class, I'd obtained my Creative Nonfiction Project introductory paper and yes, there were long paragraphs in really tiny font that made me think, "ARRRRGH AGAGAGAGAGAGAHHH!!!!!!!!!!! How the heck am I supposed to get this done in two weeks with other academics in hand?!" When I ran through my mind looking for solutions in each and every cranny and corner of my skull, I found Madiba's quote, hanging on a skull wall, and came back to me, were all the words.  

So, that's how Madiba's quote altered the method I have drove safely through high school projects ever since.
Come to think if it today, I can get my Creative Nonfiction Project done today.                                                                 

                                                 

Madiba sadly died on December 5, 2013. Through his journey from a prisoner, to a president, embodied the promise that human beings and countries can change for the better.

Fahrenheit 451 2?

Fahrenheit 451 2?

I remember about a month ago, when I finished the amazing book "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. After reading the book, I was really amazed at Bradbury's style of writing and how my English teacher Mrs. Parkinson stressed the importance of his style to better understand the story and many more allusions and aspects within the text. 

What I really liked most about the novel, was the main synopsis of it. I talked to Mrs. Parkinson by questioning what if remnants of the old society still survived the explosions after the war. She explained that we should just assume that the old society had ended. But, that didn't convince me quite enough to accept that belief. I wish there was a second novel to this to clarify my doubt, and I am assuming that many more people have other doubts like mine concerning the ending of the book. 

This doubt I have is really convincing me to write a sequel to Fahrenheit 451. After all, I am already near to finishing "About Tennis 2" by writing the final battle scene of defeating the main antagonist and getting the kids back home. Ray Bradbury died in 2012, but he lived a really wonderful life to see real progress happening with his book.

My version of writing Fahrenheit 451 2 would be where Montag and Granger's gang eventually reach the city and they eventually get all the survivors out of the rubble. However, remnants of the old society still remain and there is an old weapons factory situated miles away from where the explosions originally hit. The remnants plan to use the power of the factory to take over the society with the belief that books are bad. They also learn about Montag and the entire book-loving network he is working for. The remnants plan to kill Montag and eventually destroy the entire book-loving network. 

The main synopsis of the story would be the main conflict between Montag, his group and the remnants, while Montag finds a disquieting link to his past family and how his ancestors turned the old society into the way it was before the explosions took place. Montag uses this knowledge for better use within this conflict.

I eventually finished "Divergent" and I have to say like "Fahrenheit 451," it ends on a cliff hanger. "Divergent" is somewhat speculative fiction at the end because it convinces readers to take a step and make "what if?" thoughts. "Fahrenheit 451" is all speculative fiction as well, but I think the beauty of speculative fiction plays its biggest role at the end, where a cliff-hanger is present. 

"About Tennis"

"About Tennis"

"About Tennis" is not a published book. But how do I know about it? I'll tell you who the author is. ME!!!!!

I started this story in 2012 and finished it in July 2013. Why did I go on with this task? I did this because I wanted to show my unique writing in a creative manner and so, I did it along with my cousin sister who lives in Bangalore, India.

To be honest, I didn't go for this book at first, but I eventually agreed. And so, I took a Windows 8 desktop and Microsoft Word, and got to work. The final book ended up being over 100 sheets on Microsoft Word, if I printed it on both sides. I put it in chapter book format and got about 320 pages.

Seriously.

I tried to include a lot of good writing craft in there. And overall I thought it was pretty good. I'm sure some of my fellow freshmen classmates have already read it, and they were really happy with it. 

There are a lot of funny scenes, and really dramatic scenes as well. It mainly concerns a group of tennis kids who have strong feelings against one another that results in various problems that slowly try to break the bond of unity among them.

I made myself one of the main characters of the book. So I play the role of Anirudh Talwar; a bitter and cynical former tennis player who is insecure of his friends' success in tennis and life as high school kids. There are other characters in the book, mostly kids in MHS. But I really don't feel like revealing their names. All the tennis team kids are Indians.

The book received major comments on Blogger but emerged as one of the top 100 best stories of the country.  

When I posted it on my writing blog (not this blog), I got really overwhelmed by the number of +1's I got. In one week, every single post received an average of 204,678 +1's when I calculated all the posts together. That's when I made the blog private, but I keep five unsold copies of the book in my locker, for anyone who wants to read it.


The contents of the book are as follows.

Chapter 1: The Win
Chapter 2: Meeting Sathya

4 years later

Chapter 3: Common Dissatisfactions.
Chapter 4: Dolphins vs. Tigers
Chapter 5: The Hospital Scene
Chapter 6: Sathya Gets Added
Chapter 7: The Dance Scene
Chapter 8: Problems Rise
Chapter 9: The Attempt for Revival
Chapter 10: Arguments

Intermission

Chapter 11: A Possible Solution
Chapter 12: The Conversation
Chapter 13: A Small Reform
Chapter 14: Kings Island
Chapter 15: The Yelling
Chapter 16: The Invitation
Chapter 17: Time Passes
Chapter 18: The Final Match
Chapter 19: The Celebration

Epilogue

You guys can ask me if you want to read the book and I'll be happy to lend a copy to you.
Two sequels will be released soon!!!

The writing blog where I posted the book is anirudhswritingblog.blogspot.com. But don't do anything stupid there.

"DIvergent" + Real Life Issue Representations

     

"Divergent" + Real Life Issue Representation

So as of now, I have finished reading 120 pages of "Divergent." And if you ask me what I personally think about the book so far, I think the book is an excellent choice for high-school readers who want some adventure to divert their thoughts a little. 

So let's get to the main point. A real life issue that I am noticing in the text is adapting to new changes in life. 

In the book, Beatrice had to go to a faction called Dauntless, and she ended up living without her family, but with other people who chose Dauntless as well. The major changes she has to go through in order to stay in this faction (and live a life, basically) involve changing her name to "Tris" and not seeing her family, learning how to fight, and at one time, learn how to use handheld weapons.

Veronica Roth uses Tris in order to enhance this issue's presence because throughout the book, Tris is shown to have a lot of reminiscing scenes about her family, and her brother Caleb. This shows how much she actually misses them, and she has to adapt to a new life with other Dauntless members (Christina, Molly, Al, Will, just a few to name out). So based on Tris's constant flashbacks, the change in her life is not easy, but it really hits on her hard, because now she is forced to do new activities that she has never done before. That's how this society runs. Get into a faction at 16 years of age or you have no life. 

If you ask me over adapting to new changes in life, I'm gonna tell you that they may seem hard for a week or two, but after a while, you start to adapt to the new change and you eventually find some amount of happiness within it. Now our society is distinctly different from the story's society, because we don't even have factions. So I can live with my own family for as long as I want, even though I still have to study hard. But where I see this issue in my life is when I started high school. I left the first week feeling wronged by some teachers and I thought I was gonna mess up here. But after 2 weeks, I eventually started to find some happiness within the high school and now, I am much more happier in high school than in middle school.

So, Veronica Roth basically uses Tris to say that adapting to dramatic, new life changes is just not easy. You can have a lot of reminiscing moments about your life before the change. But as time goes on, you eventually find some sort of adaptiveness to the change, as well as some amount of happiness in it.

Krista Ramsey Homework 4/14 Blog Post

Krista Ramsey Homework 4/14 Blog Post

The column I chose is named, "Locking into the magic of Legos."

This column talks about the following: Many young children are so attracted to Legos over the past 65 years, and while they play with them tiny pieces, they learn about the importance of progress, and trial-and-error situations.

To look at the actual column, click here.

The line that I think is best written is, "At 5 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month, a long line of small- to medium sized children snakes along the main concourse of Kenwood Towne Centre." This is the very first line in the column. The impact of this line on the reader is that the reader gets lured into reading more of the article because he/she may not know this fact that comes true in Cincinnati, and they may get even more lured into reading this article if they actually live in Cincinnati. So as a result, they want to read more over why this giant line of kids come at this specific mall in this specific city. For diction and syntax techniques that are present within this line, I am finding the presence of concrete diction and a balanced sentence type of syntax. The reason why I say this is that for diction's reason, there is a tangible idea and a physical quality present. And then for syntax, I see that the number of phrases and clauses in that sentence are equal. 

For Ramsey's writing style, I would describe it as journalistic and terse, because she is providing a service to the public by analyzing news and current events that are going on today, so eventually, her writing is emphasized and enhanced to look like a typical news reporter wrote it. Quotes that help prove this are, "In the U.S. alone, the percentage of people ages 12 to 54 who are nearsighted - meaning unable to see things clearly at a distance - rose from 25 percent in the early 1970s to 42 percent now" (From the first article), "And life itself regains the punctuation that says every day isn't the same as every other, that we are all part of a collective experience and that we honor each other and ourselves when we care about how we're groomed and dressed" (From the second article), "Like sparklers and hugs, Legos are things a child can never have enough of" (From the third article).  Her writing is also in a terse style because throughout the article, I can see that she is always talking up to the point about this current event article over kids' attraction to Legos. She never adds any irrelevant information to the article and she always talks in a cohesive manner up to the point. In addition, she also adds some personal opinions to her writing because that's what a journalist and/or news reporter would typically do. This can be seen in the third quote, for example, from the third column. 

Questions I would ask Krista Ramsey, if given the opportunity, are as follows.

1. How long has your career in writing been? 

2. In high school, did you work for a school paper? If so, were your first articles like the ones you publish today, and still continue to publish?

3. Where exactly do you get the information you need to write your articles, and what are your tips into making their writing so engrossing and unique? 

  

"Divergent" + Author Information

"Divergent" + Author Information

So, while I read pages 61-90 in "Divergent" this weekend, I wanted to learn more about the author, Veronica Roth, and what her life was all about. Well, I researched a lot on some reliable sources, and this is what I can say about her.

Veronica Roth was born in 1988, so she is about 25 years old, and she lived in Illinois. Her parents divorced when she was five, so her mother remarried Frank Ross. They all live near the Chicago area.

She is best known for her "Divergent" series. She studied at Carleton College and then Northwestern University to learn creative writing. 

She later married photographer Nelson Fitch in 2011, and they still resided in the Chicago area. That explains why Veronica's "Divergent" series is set in a fantasized version of Chicago.

Later on, in her college career, she wrote "Divergent" over Winter Break, and it immediately became a huge success internet-wise and publicly. She got multiple awards on GoodReads and Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction. She later wrote two more books, "Insurgent" and "Allegiant." I will be reading those books later on, after I finish "Divergent" that is. 

So that is my whole research over Veronica Roth, and if you guys wanna know more about this extraordinary person, you can go ahead and visit her blog. And you can also view her latest interview in the embedded video below.

Have fun exploring her life more with these resources!

"Divergent" + Vocabulary Observances

"Divergent" + Vocabulary Observances

As I am reading this book, what I have learned so far after reading pages 27-60 is that Beatrice has gone to a Choosing Ceremony the next day after her test, and her brother Caleb, chooses Erudite. And Beatrice, is nervous, but she lures herself into Dauntless. She leaves Abnegation, and so, her family as well. She basically treats herself into starting a new life, so she goes ahead and after a long train journey, she renames herself "Tris." She also gets to know the names of a few other people who have decided to be put in the Dauntless faction, like Christina, Molly, and Rita. Another new character, Max, is a man who is one of the heads of introducing the new Dauntless people in.

So that's what's been going on in pages 27-60.

Now, I gotta say that I think there's too little of the overall story being covered in so many pages to read all at one time. And I think that the reason why this happens not only in this book, but in lots of other books is because the author wants to show the reader his/her talent in writing. Like here, Veronica Roth wants to utilize more pages to show more imagery, vocabulary and her talent in writing. Most of the vocabulary she uses makes a huge effect in the overall imagery of the story. She uses crisp and really effective words to paint scenes more clearly. And as a result, I am more able to mentally visualize every single scene that Veronica Roth writes about. S

So I am gonna make an assumption here. I think that the more time an author takes to show his/her talent in real writing by utilizing more pages, more extraordinary vocabulary, and more imagery techniques, the more recognized his/her writing will be in the stories they write, and the more encouragement he/she will get to write more and more, and therefore, make writing a more enjoyable career.

I got a question for you guys to answer:

Do you really think writers utilize more pages just to show their talent in real writing and attempt to make their books more recognized, as well as teach us readers more vocabulary?

You guys can leave your answers in the comments below and thanks very much for reading and answering this question and post!!!

"Divergent" + Setting, Time, Place, and Imagery Details

"Divergent" + Setting, Time, Place, and Imagery Details.

Hey guys, it's been a while since I last logged on to my reading blog (Mainly because I didn't have Honors English class for about three months!)! 

Well, now, I have started a new book called "Divergent," by the author, Veronica Roth. 

And as of today, 3/27, I have read three chapters of the book, pages 1-26.

I am going to describe what I know about the setting of the novel, and I am going to include details about the place using lines from the book that provide the good imagery of the setting.

What I know about the setting is that it is in a completely dystopian society version of Chicago, with an unspecified amount of time into the future and year. 

This society uses five factions to determine where people will live for the rest of their lives. The factions are Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. Factions are societal divisions that classify citizens of this society based on their aptitudes and values. The citizens take the aptitude test to determine which faction they will join for the rest of their lives at 16 years of age. 

The novel focuses around a 16 year old girl named Beatrice who has to take this aptitude test as a 16 year old to determine which faction she will join for her life. 

For the setting for this girl, it focuses mainly in a dystopian school setting and particularly, one testing room where Beatrice has to go into and take the aptitude test. This is as of the first three chapters of the book.  

I am not sure about the exact time where this story takes place yet, so as I go on in the book, I'll probably learn more information about that.   

Quotes from the book that give good hints about the places in this book from the first three chapters are as follows.

1. Here's an excerpt that describes the dystopian school that Beatrice and her older brother, Caleb, go to.

     "The bus stops in front of the school and I get up, scooting past the Candor man. I grab Caleb's arm as I stumble over the man's shoes. My slacks are too long, and I've never been that graceful. 

     The Upper Levels building is the oldest of the three schools in the city: Lower Levels, Mid-Levels, and Upper Levels. Like all the other buildings around it, it is made of glass and steel. In front of it is a large metal sculpture that the Dauntless climb after school, daring each other to go higher and higher" (4-5).

2. Here's an excerpt that describes the one particular testing room where Beatrice had to take her aptitude test in.  

     "Mirrors cover the inner walls of the room. I can see my reflection from all angles: the gray fabric obscuring the shape of my back, my long neck, my knobby-knuckled hands, red with a blood blush.The ceiling glows white with light. In the center of the room is a reclined chair, like a dentist's, with a machine next to it. It looks like a place where terrible things happen."



Oh, and by the way guys, I'm sure a lot of you are aware and want to see the movie adaptation of "Divergent," so to get you started, I gave you an embedding of the official movie trailer.

"The River" + Book Recommendation

"The River" + Book Recommendation 

If you liked reading "The River," the I recommend that you read "About Average," by Andrew Clements. 

"About Average" is basically the story of a sixth-grader named Jordan Johnston who's a perfectly average student. She's not short, tall, gifted, failing. She's just perfectly average. But Jordan wants to have a special talent like how everyone else in her grade and age seem to have. Everybody else in her grade seems to be gifted in a unique talent. And when Jordan looks at herself, she finds that she seems to have no unique talent. And if she did have a unique talent, she just hadn't discovered it yet. 

As the story develops, Jordan tries her hardest to find a unique talent that she has herself. But more than half of the story says that Jordan still hasn't figured out her special talent

Throughout the whole course of the story, the weather of Jordan's area and hometown seem to change as well, and near the end of the story, out comes a giant tornado that hits her school just a week before her sixth-grade graduation date.

This is when Jordan finds her special talent; helping others and not leaving anyone behind. When the tornado hit her school, she devised a well-thought plan in four minutes that helped her, her orchestra classmates, and their teacher survive the tornado, and she actually saved the lives of 24 people, including herself. 

At the sixth-grade graduation a week after the tornado, Jordan is clearly recognized for her extraordinary efforts in helping others and not leaving anyone behind. So here, Jordan realizes her unique talent as well.

Overall, I recommend this book for reading because this book and "The River" have similar themes of caring for friends and not leaving anyone behind. It is one of those books that grabs your attention in a unique lead, and then it leads you into a ride of events that sound sensible, well-thought, and very realistic. The first time I read this book, I loved Jordan's character throughout the whole book, and she is a dynamic character. The book's setting of being in an Illinois area that had possibilities of experiencing a tornado, really gave it a unique opportunity of having unique events, like the tornado scene. What if it had been set somewhere else? How would Jordan have found her extraordinary talent?

So therefore, I recommend reading this book if you liked reading "The River," because it engrosses you in a unique manner, and follows with some great, realistic events.

"The River" Update + Analysis Prompt

"The River" Update + Analysis Prompt

Well, it's about time I finished "The River." Overall, the book was really engrossing to me and intense events followed one after another. The most intense event was found near the end of the book, and after that intense event, comes an epilogue. 

The development of the theme within the novel is evident throughout the whole story. The theme is mainly to look out and care for friends and not leave any friend behind under any circumstances, based on all the events of the story. Gary Paulsen does seem to have this primary theme guide his decisions within the plot and main events of the story.

Gary also supports this theme through the main events, conflict, and the resolution of this conflict. The main events before the conflict are that Brian accepts the task to go into the wilderness for his second time, with Derek by his side this time, and while during these events in particular, Brian and Derek work and look after one another to prepare for their survival adventure. Soon after they arrive, they create a good well-created surviving habitat. The main conflict within this book is that while Brian and Derek are sleeping in their self-made shelter, a huge rainstorm came over them, and lightning was intense. Then this one particular streak of lightning hit a nearby tree and it also struck Derek, and Derek was then in a coma. So Brian needs to find some help to save Derek. He finds a map showing him a nearby trading post. And the way to get there is by the current of a river. Brian quickly builds a solid raft and he ties Derek to this raft, and so he starts to paddle down the river. Although the river is really intense, fast, and Brian encounters a waterfall, Brian soon manages to get the raft and Derek to the trading post. That is the conflict. And the resolution is that Brian gets the raft and Derek to the trading post. Therefore, this conflict and resolution present in the story clearly supports the theme. 

This theme that Gary Paulsen chose clearly guided his decisions within the whole plot of the story. If he hadn't chosen this theme, then the events that happened in "The River" probably never would have happened. 

As the main events, conflict, and the resolution occur, the originality of the theme is definitely one of a kind to have created a story, such that it is set in the wildernesses of Canada. In my opinion, the author probably never would have made their own opinion towards the story's subject more distinctive, because he himself has made the story in a way that throughout the story, Brian and Derek are working together to create a survival experience and all through the rest of the story, including the river scenes, it is clearly shown that they are not leaving one another behind under any circumstances. 

Fun Reading/Writing Update

Fun Reading/Writing Update

 

 

 

As I am reading "The River," and many other books written by many different authors, I am finding that all good authors don't like try and rush through their story. They take time to describe every detail they can find to describe whenever they can. I can see that they start off with a good lead that grabs the reader's attention and then they go ahead and slowly flow along with the plot. And as every action occurs in the book, they don't rush to get to the next part; they try to describe every action and they also try to show us how experienced they are in writing based on figurative language, diction, syntax, theme, and many other aspects of writing contribute as well.

 

It really isn't that easy to write a good novel; one that engrosses the reader and he/she actually finds it ionteresting so that they are encouraged to read on.

 

Like this happened to me and my cousin sister. We decided to write a novel of our own and so we got started. My cousin sister's dad had published three books on his own and he wanted to write a fourth book, so my sister and I decided that we should give him a break, and so we started writing one on our own. And when we got to work, we had no idea where to start. But after we saw a movie, we came up with a plot similar to that of the movie, and so we got started. We borrowed the first half of the movie's ideas into our book, and then we made up the second half of the book and ending. The first book has already been done, but now, we are on the second book, and we promise, it will be better than the first one.

 

But when we looked over the first book and compared it to a real published book in English, we found that the major difference we had was that we just typed in huge big paragraphs and we never indented lines whenever a character spoke. Also, we seemed to be rushing through the plot within the pages, so that's where we hit a wall. The thing was that we never actually took time to stop at moments within the book and describe every single detail that was taking place at that time. A good book's writing needs to describe details very thoroughly all the time in order for the writing to be considered juicy. So after me and my cousin sister saw the errors we had made, we decided to edit the first book from start to finish and try to make our book's writing more juicy.

"The River" Update + Reading Skills

"The River" Update + Reading Skills

As of Chapters 1-15, a prediction I am making is that Brian will be able to transport Derek via the log raft through and down the river all the way to the trading post. I say this because since Brian has put a lot of work (with the help of some beavers) into making the log raft, one that can float, along with the help of an oar, then he'd be able to carry himself and Derek down the river and to the trading post.

I also predict that the journey might have a few rainstorms and some unexpected bad weather. I say this because ever since Brian and Derek have arrived in the wilderness, they had to go through two rainstorms. The first one was when they spent their first night making a shelter, and the second one happened when Derek got shot with electricity.

But still, I question why and how exactly Derek got shot with lightning in the first place. And what move did Derek make that made him get shot? Why didn't Brian get shot? Or why didn't anything else in the area get shot?

A text-to-text world connection I can make is that in this case, when Brian needs to transport Derek to the trading post by a raft, and there are no raft supplies readily anywhere in the wilderness, that means that Brain would have to be creative and make a raft from scratch. Brian decides to be creative and make a log raft out of old fallen logs with the help of a family of beavers. In another case, the movie "Ice Age: Continental Drift," where Manny, Sid, and Diego get washed up on the island, is where another example of creativity takes place. The three characters need to find a way to get Captain Gutt's boat in order to reach their home, but they couldn't do it by themselves without help. So when they meet all these little gophers who also live on the island, they decide to be creative and use the gophers (who are ready to help them) to help them derive a plan in order to steal Captain Gutt's boat. They eventually succeed in taking the boat. So these two examples from "The River" and "Ice Age: Continental Drift" both exemplify a time where the main character(s) had to be creative in order to do a task that would help them succeed. In Brian's case, he needed to build a log raft to transport himself and Derek to the trading post, and in Manny, Sid, and Diego's case, they needed to find a successful method in order to get Captain Gutt's boat, so they use the gophers' help.

A text-to-text connection is that in Brian's case, he needed to be creative in order to build a raft to transport him and Derek through the river, to the trading post. Well, I read an article about Native Americans not too long ago off some website that said that Native Americans needed to find a way to protect themselves from harmful and wild creatures, so they built spears and other weapons from nature that helped them fight against wild creatures at anytime. So here, the Native Americans had to be creative in order to do a task of defending themselves, and they used natural resources to build basic weapons to help them fight. That's the connection.

A text-to-self connection I can make is that I remember having to be creative a lot of times throughout my life, but the most memorable time where I had to be creative is when me and my cousin sister had to build a small fishing rod in order to retrieve something we had accidentally dropped into a fountain. This happened last summer in India. So basically, we had to be creative to retrieve our item from the fountain pool. So then we went back to our house in a hurry to find some supplies to help us retrieve the item. We finally settled on a metal necklace, a basket and a large metal rod. We got the permission to reshape the end of the metal rod into a hook for the necklace to hang on. Even though we only had three supplies, we still had to be creative in order to find those supplies and make use of them. We went back to the pool and hooked the necklace onto the metal rod's hook and one end of the basket, and then we tried to fish the item we had lost in the pool. After about five minutes of trying, we succeeded and got out item back. This is the connection from the book to the time when me and my cousin sister had to be creative in order to retrieve an item we had lost in a fountain pool. 

"The River" Update + Character Prompt

"The River" Update + Character Prompt

I wish I had more time to read these days, because I find that the main reason why I seem to be going slow with this book is mainly time conflicts, and procrastination. With time conflicts, high school freshmen studies are piling up to mountain loads of work, and with procrastination, it's a long story. Some days, I seem well-determined to finish up a chapter of the book, but at other days, when I try to finish my homework up till 10 in the night, I get a little cranky and lazy (I have to admit) to crack open the book. A goal I'd wanna make to my general reading life is that I will resist procrastination and do my duty to read more often. 

Anyway, apart from those two problems that conflict with my general reading life, I have now read as of today, Chapters 1-15. The newly read parts of the book I did read are Chapters 12-15.

So now, Derek is still in his unconscious state, and he is basically in a coma. Brian is still struggling to try and help save Derek. Just when he thinks this trip is gonna be catastrophic, he opens up Derek's briefcase and finds a map. He had seen this map with his mother before leaving. As Brain observes the map, he finds the Brannock Trading Post. He thinks there would be help there in order to save Derek. 

But to get there, the only course of transportation is through a nearby river not far from where Brian was located. Over some time, he manages to craft a raft made out of logs (with some help from a group of beavers) which would help him travel to the trading post to get help. Then he decides to take Derek with him to the trading post. That proves to be a struggle. The course of the journey down the river is going to be revealed in the next few chapters. This might be a big important part of the book because the book has a separate part (that I am gonna begin later) called "The River." 

Brian, a major character within the story is comparable to another character I have seen in another book. There is a book called "Troublemaker," written by Andrew Clements. The main character in that book is named Clayton Hensley, and in the beginning of the book, he is this one absolute troublemaker. But when his older brother Mitch gets in some serious jail trouble, Clay (for short) realizes that he'd better change his mischief-making ways and start doing things that are good for his society. In "The River," Brian decided to teach the modern-day society how he survived in the wilderness, but in "Troublemaker," Clay decided to help his town after a Halloween graffiti incident, clean up all the graffiti in the town. He was really devoted to do that, and eventually, he succeeded. So basically, both Brian and Clay are alike, in a way that they want to help others like how Brian decided to teach his society about survival, and how Clay decided to clean the town's graffiti after the Halloween incident.

I real life, I can compare Brian to a person I know in real life. I don't want to tell the name of the person, but he is someone I see in school, in my orchestra class. This person always likes helping other people, like tuning instruments, supplying people with extra music if they don't have some, and this person does many other things that make the whole orchestra class successful every day. He is a really happy person who cares about others, and not just himself. Like how Brain cared about others in his own society and then he agreed to go on another journey into the wilderness to teach the people how to survive in the wilderness.