Leap Into Life
First, slam poetry. A few weeks ago I made a spontaneous decision: deciding to slam poetry at my Middle School Talent Show in front of four grades---three hundred plus people. Crazy, I know. To make things even more.... let's say, exciting.... my poem basically "slammed" half the Middle School (maybe you remember how judging people is most middle schooler's favorite pastime). It was about judging people. Somehow I also managed to work in a snowy field (yay!). In case you don't know what slam poetry. It is original poetry with an emphasis on performance and emotion. If you've never heard of it, I recommend you watch it on youtube. Here, I present to you the transcript of my original slam poem Not Just a Field. The bus pulled up at a snowy field Doors opened No one got out But knowing we might never pass the same field again, I got up Walking down the bus's aisle Eyes glare, muttering why Why get out at a snowy field It's just a field Disputed with a sigh How some will never understand where real truth lies And finally the fresh cold air The snowy field I came to see Yet even my eyes were wondering why Why I stood and stared at just a field You're staring, I know Each of your eyes on me Thinking and wondering Because I'm the sweet looking, quiet girl I'm not the type to be up here In the field Snow and ice Plain and barren Not worthy of our limited time Or is it Beneath the fallen snow, is there more? Mud and grass The hope for spring and what it brings The memory of summer and what summer brings And hanging in the air are words Words spoken here Laughter laughed here Songs sung here A chorus of a thousand voices overlapping in the echo Floating too in the air are memories Memories that I for one cannot retell But others can relive Remember, re-cherish First impressions made in seconds were proven wrong in the same amount of time Because all those true things we fail to see Those judgements we make before we truly know Were like the field The field we judge Are like the people The people we judge It's not just a field And I am not That girl (cue shocked silence) And after reading that, I bet you really want to write slam poetry, right? So here are my top tips/ steps for writing slam poetry-keep in mind that I am only a novice.
Second, spine poetry. I discovered spine poetry today, thanks to my mom! It's simple, easy, and quick, plus you'll never be at a lack of inspiration. Basically, spine poetry is using the book spines as lines in a poem. Grab all the books you can find in your house and play around with them. My mom (@LaneyNielson) and I (@SaltareIntoLife) have been tweeting pics of it all morning (#spinepoetry)! It's fun and totally worth doing so give it a try! Both forms of poetry (slam and spine) are unique but both have the same goal.... self expression. In honor of National Poetry Month, grab some books or a notebook and pen and craft some poetry. And when you do, share it with someone. Celebrate self expression AND National Poetry Month! P.S. Last Sunday was my one year blog anniversary! Thanks so much for reading and following (box on the side of the page to follow- it takes ten seconds to get posts emailed to your inbox!)! I really appreciate all my readers!
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One year ago, I filled a plastic bottle with saltwater, carried it (almost) across the country, poured it into a jar, and placed it on my bedside table. This spring break, I will return to Florida to refill my jar of saltwater that is nearly all evaporated! Yay! Now, you're probably wondering: wow, why does she keep a jar of saltwater by her bed? Don't worry, I have answers. At the time, I had a book obsession (I still do, but....) and it reminded me of my favorite character. But now, one year later, it's more or less just a part of my life. Water is kind of like my element, so it's a constant reminder of that, and it also expresses my love of the beach- very few people have a jar of saltwater by their beds. And of course, the water inside has changed and evolved greatly, too. In other words, I am growing saltwater crystals in it. I think. Those little whitish clear things you see on the bottom were not there last March. In fact, they developed quite recently. I think they are little bits of salt stuck together, but I googled it a while back and no one has conducted any experiments on keeping ocean water in a jar for a year. So who knows what I'm growing. I just hope it isn't hazardous! I've been sleeping next to the jar for a year.
The jar of salt water sitting by my bed is my thing, but the question is: what is yours? Do you keep a treasured object next to your bed or is it a memory, sentence, lyric, or poem that you carry around with you. Whatever it is: I hope you get the chance to refill it or relive it sometime soon. Today, I conquered the daunting task of writing my voicemail greeting. You know, that thing that says "Hi, you've reached_____. Please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as possible." And I know, it could've been that simple, but I felt like making it more, well, me.
Your voicemail tells the caller who you are. It's what decides whether it's a wrong number or someone who actually knows you. Because of this, I wanted to do something cool with mine. I wanted to give it a little pizazz! And trust me, I definitely accomplished it. My voicemail greeting now is: "Hi, you've reached _____________. If I'm not trekking through Tartarus or saving the world on a flying ship, please leave your name and number and I'll iris message you as soon as possible." You probably don't get it (fangirl jokes), but rest assured: if you're looking for some pizazz on your message, I have more options!
And if those don't seem to fit your personality (which is pretty likely), try writing your own! Simply pick a unique aspect of your personality (i.e. quotes or obsessing over books) and play on that. Can you work in something the caller will "get out" of the message? If so, that makes it totally more awesome. So yeah, there is major importance in a voicemail greeting. It's like a ten second introduction to yourself and who you (that is if you DON'T choose the boring greeting). What's your voicemail greeting? P.S. As always, please subscribe or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest (buttons at top of page)! Movies are always coming and going, so I decided to launch myself into the ever growing movie industry and review some movies for you. Today's movie review is of Project Almanac- that sci-fi time travel movie that I can't believe is still in theaters.
Stars: 2 Have you ever seen a movie where the more you think about it, the more you find wrong with it? Well, that's basically Project Almanac. Project Almanac is painfully written, awkwardly paced, and filled with jolty camera movements. The movie follows five teens- with stereotypical characterizations that barely skim the surface- as they try to build and use a time machine. The first half of the movie is filled with budding friendships (and romance) and fun adventures in time travel: winning the lottery, retaking tests, etc. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned when the protagonist- I don't even remember his name- betrays his team for selfish reasons and causes confusing time ripples. The rest of the movie is spent trying to solve this problem but is mostly more shaky cameras capturing footage that isn't even compelling or exciting, much less making any sense at all. Once the protagonist solves the problem- kind of- he learns that time travel is bad and can cause some major problems, yet he walks into the attic, discovers a random camera, and goes up to the girl he time travelled with before and says "I think we're about to make history." The movie is built on a faulty base of time travel with no world rules, meager character development, and an idea, that even if executed well, would've had problems. So yeah, don't get me started on everything they did wrong. Just take my review into consideration before deciding to watch Project Almanac. For school, we wrote Where I'm From Poems. The poems tie together you and generations of your family, so I thought I'd share it here.
Please don't steal or take credit for my work (but that goes without saying, right?) Where I'm From I am from Barnard and Mount Horrid From bubbly towns and taunting hills Worn out hiking boots and trail maps From never ending road trips with prizes at the end I am from writers and fake jobs Like an elevator operator at the Empire State Building From play kitchens and plastic food Red wagons filled with cans earning 5¢ I am from teen detectives Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys From John Lennon Paper-dolls and the labor of cutting out their clothes The frangible people, waiting to be played with I am from hippie slang Words so loose, gliding off the tongue From quotes and notes To highs and lows on the walk home from school I am from re-watching the Brady Bunch Penny candy that’s not a cent From American Girl Dolls and tiny shoes Cookies that burn your fingers Together we are an unwritten novel A first draft that never ends Characters no author could come up with Someday a bestseller, for now, just a family tale My name on the author’s page Because I am one of the writers And, now, I propose my question to you: where are you from? I can't remember why, but I went on the Chopra Center Website (sound familiar?) and looked at the fancy meditation workshops that they hold at Omni Hotels. And then, it hit me! Being a lifestyle guru seems like a good job. You get a huge following and you'll probably end up with your own TV show (or network if you get lucky), a host of self help books, and no matter how much you say "My life is driven by simplicity, not greed", you end up with money. Next time someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up, I'm definitely saying that (just kidding: I won't, but you get the point). Anyway, I've decided that becoming a lifestyle guru is a possible path for me, so I thought I'd share my guiding message with all of you. Become Your Own Guru Yes, I will achieve guru status by helping others achieve guru status! I can't decide whether it's stupid or in-genius, but it's catchy, don't you think? With "become your own guru", people discover the role model within them and embrace it. Once I'm famous, I'll have year long classes so people can find happiness, love, peace, and kindness in their life. Where's expression? It's weaved throughout the year long curriculum designed to help everyday people achieve guru status.
My online classes, tv shows, and self help books are a long way off, but I encourage you to "become your own guru". Who needs someone else when everything you need is within you. And as always, please subscribe so you can learn how to become your own guru or simply receive email updates every time I make a post! Just a note to my subscribers: If you got an email about a post today and thought it looked familiar, you're not crazy. I made an edit last night on a post from last spring and it resent. Sorry. And, as always, thank you for subscribing! Am I the only one who reads fortune cookie fortunes? No, right. You at least read them. What I'm really wondering is if you devour these fortunes like I do (no pun intended, because you know, you're eating the cookie)? I was going through one of my camp journals and out came three fortunes from fortune cookies. I actually remember reading this and being furious about them (especially the first one- am I not doing the right thing? I thought money didn't mater?!) If you can't see it, the fortunes are:
I'm a pretty wordy person, but no, I'm not going to come up with fortunes. Instead, I'm going to tell you about the power they hold. Now, I'll tell you that all of this is based off my experiences with fortune cookies, so don't think I know what I'm talking about. When we first read our fortune, we think "wow, what does that mean?" because all fortune cookies are metaphorical. Now, you're probably thinking that mine didn't seem too metaphorical. Look up in the sky tonight. That's a command. Is there a hidden meaning in that? There are hidden meanings in everything. But, anyway, I'll continue. Our subconscious mind then starts thinking about what the fortune means. Do I need to take a minute for myself? Am I not doing the right thing? The tiny fortune that someone spent a minute or so writing is causing us to ponder our lives! Wow! Deep, huh? And it gets even crazier! The fortune starts controlling us! We look up at the sky or, more likely, we take a moment for ourselves. It's probably not on purpose and we probably never think about it, but it's true and the evidence is there, even if it's something small and silly. How does it feel to be controlled by a fortune cookie? Half of me feels like it's awesome! To think that just a little piece of paper can have such an impact on our lives. It's like me and my quotes or even my blog posts. Those are all impacting people. The other part of me is like if a piece of paper can control us/ change us, what else controls us?! So yeah. That's all I got on the power of fortune cookies. I hope you get a good one next time you eat one! P.S. I see subscribing in your future.... Just kidding, but, really, please subscribe- there's a box on the side of my blog page. I've written for National Novel Month Young Writers Program for the past two years, and I have two odd/ un-plotted/ messy manuscripts to prove it. For all of you planning to write for National Novel Month (if you've never heard of it, go to: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org!), I decided to start coming up with writing exercises... based off my unique personality.
Have you ever read a boring book? Have you ever thought characters were unrealistic or boring? Have you ever tried to guess the plot line of the next book in a series? I have and trust me, I have witnesses (my friends). Today, you can try to do this creative activity. It will help your writing and get your creative juices flowing! ***Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns Percy Jackson AND his books are great! It's just that his books are so good that it makes it hard (yet fun) to guess the plot line. His characters are relatable, too. (I love the Percy Jackson books!) This is for creative purposes ONLY.*** **I'm going to give examples; if you don't understand: pick up the Lighting Thief and read the series! You'll be changed for life.** *There might be spoiler alerts, but based on the titles of the books, you probably guessed what happened (The House of Hades).*
Tips: *Be sure your friend is okay with you guessing the plot line *If not, write it down and read the book *Make sure no one tells you the plot What can you gain from guessing the plot/ character personalities? You can understand how dimensional personalities are essential in writing. It is evidence that plot twists are really important... and, maybe, your crazy ideas will give you more ideas for your next novel! Good luck on the guessing! On Wednesday, I noticed that I probably wouldn't finish my novel in November and decided that I would have to re-plot, re-build, and write a second draft. At first it was an unfortunate revelation, but I, soon, adjusted my thinking (being the optimist I am) and came up with another ocean metaphor!
Turns out, I wasn't swimming in the Nanowrimo ocean. I was swimming in the novel ocean. The end of the ocean didn't end in November when I finished the novel or in December after making a few meager edits. It'll end when the novel is written, edited, and, if I'm lucky, published. It's a longer ocean, a much longer ocean but it's the ocean I'm swimming in and have been swimming in since November started. And then, I noticed this island. It was small, but when I reached it, I was able to sit on the warm, white sand for a minute and take a few deep breathes. Turns out, the island was big enough to regroup and plan for draft two. There's even space for me to build characters, build the world (dystopian), and re-plot! So, am I quitting? It all depends on your perspective. A goal oriented person could say "yeah, it's quitting", but being an ambitious, flexible, idealist, it's simply a change of plans. So yeah, you could call it quitting, but for me, it's a whole other part of the novel ocean to swim through, and I honestly can't wait! How does this all relate back to life? Good question. I think the biggest thing I can think of is how a lot of times, we're swimming in an ocean we didn't think we were swimming in. I thought I was swimming in the nanowrimo ocean, but, as it turns out, I was swimming in the novel ocean. It may turn out that it's a harder, longer ocean, but figuring out the ocean is the first step to swimming it. On a side note, you never know when you'll find an island in the middle of an ocean! With that, I'll end this blog post, so I can start planning draft two (I'll be sure to post on all the joys of plotting and world building). Good luck swimming your oceans and if you need it, I hope you find your island. I will begin this post by telling that unless you've got half a novel or are a really fast writer, you probably won't be able to start national novel month at this point in the month- sorry. If you are writing for nanowrimo (national novel month), want to write a novel, want to revel in my experiences for five minutes, or just want inspirational metaphors about life, keep reading.
National Novel Month is like an ocean. It's long and deep and you can't cross it in a day, and you can barely cross it in a month, for that matter (30,000 words?!). Sometimes the sea is rough and other times it's calm (sometimes you're thousands of words away from your daily target, other times your writing up a storm). No matter how you want to relate nanowrimo back to the ocean, you will eventually find that I am not crazy and neither is my metaphor! Being the 16th, we are one day over the half way mark. YAY! We've made it this far! The sea started out slow and shallow. If you were behind your daily goal, you could easily deal with it tomorrow. You could rewrite your opening sentence, and if you really wanted to, change your idea completely. There was freedom and little pressure because "hey, it's only day three". But now we're in the middle. We're struggling to catch up with the bare minimum word count. We have no idea where our story is going (well, I have no idea where my story is going). And worst of all, there is a part of us that is ready to stop writing or even make the dreaded switch between novels in the middle of the month! Giving up would be easy. I could stop writing and never update my word count again. I could quit. But that would be lame. To give up when we're only half way into the month. To give up when there is still half a story to write. To give up and leave our characters who we've put in terrible situations and major conflicts hanging, not knowing where to go or what to do. So, we have to keep writing. We have half a novel to write (or more)! We have to guide our characters to their destiny and hopefully to the climax and resolution (a good one if they're lucky). So we must keep writing because there is still half the ocean left, and at the end of this ocean, there is a calm area where your character run on the beach and where the waves lap up on the shore. That is where we're going. And we must get there. Now, how to relate writing a novel back to life? Well, for one thing, we are all swimming in a sea of our own right now and whether or not we are in the middle, there is an end to this ocean, with a beautiful beach. And then, you can swim through another ocean doing something else, following another passion, another pursuit. For now, we just have to keep swimming to get to the beach! (I'll be sure to fill you in on what the end of nanowrimo's ocean looks like!) |