The following is one of my previous works.

Lil' Timmy and his magical zit cream

One day Lil' Timmy as he was knownaround the block was walking around the neighborhood when suddenly he felt a strange anomaly burst from his face. He recognized it immediately, for he had never gotten one before, but he was getting to that stage in his life where he was starting to become big Timmy. He knew that this zit simply would not do, if he was going to woo his playground crush, regular sized Jenny. He knew that he had to act quick, so he immediately ran over to Steven's house. Steven was the smarty pants of the block and he always knew exactly what to do. So when Lil', almost big Timmy arrived to Steven's house, naturally there was a line for his genius. Lil' Timmy knew he couldn't wait for this anaconda of a line. He decided to go with a simple but elegant way of handling it. He stepped inconspicuously out of the room, and putting on his best grown up voice, shouted "hey, I baked all of these cookies and I don't know what the heck I should do with them!" Naturally, all of the sugar crazed children went running like the dickens for the prospect of the delectable little morsels. With no line to speak of, Lil' Timmy stepped right up to Smarty Pants Steven, and asked for his advice. Steven pondered this inquiry for several moments then spoke. "I think I have just the thing for you." He disappeared behind the curtain that led to the back room and just a few minutes later, appeared with a plastic baggy full of disgusting brown goop. This disgusting brown goop was just a squirt of Neosporin mixed with some mud, but Steven knew that others didn't know that. He had been able to capitalize largely from that stuff, "magically" curing anything from scrapes, to warts. The kids on his block swore by the stuff, which magically filled Steven's piggy bank. "This should take care of your problem" said Steven, holding out his palm, "for a price." Lil' Timmy sighed. He was saving up for a pack of super chewy bubble gum, but he desperately needed this solvent. "Ok, Ok, what's your proposal?" Steven stroked an imaginary goatee, as if pondering this. His price was the same for everything. "Let's say three quarters, or a shiny nickel, we'll call it the friend discount." This statement was absurd, because not only was Timmy not his friend, but even if he were, he would not give him a discount, because everything was always the same. Timmy dug deep into his pocket, looking for the appropriate payment. He was ashamed when he looked at what he had. "I'm sorry, Steven, I only have two quarters or a mediumly shiny nickel." Steven looked at the pathetic excuse for a payment, but then he looked at Timmy's face, and how horrible it appeared. He felt sorry for the guy. "Say," he said real slowly," I guess I might give you the stuff if you give me both the nickel and quarters" A huge sigh of relief flooded throughout Timmy. "Deal!" Timmy exclaimed excitedly, and shoved the contents of his pocket into Steven's hand. Just as the first kid that Timmy had duped came in with a disappointed frown on his face, Timmy was flying out the door to try out his new product. He found his way to a large tree under which he plopped and started applying the solvent. It had occurred to him that the brown goop might simply be dog doo, and he fell for an elaborate prank, but he quickly shoved that idea aside. The brown goop was his only shot to purge the disgusting growth that was sticking to his face. He knew he looked like an idiot, so he raced home before anyone could see him. The next morning, he put a hopeful hand to his face, and what a surprise he had. All of the zits were completely gone! He went over to the mirror, and how good he looked! It seemed the magical zit cream had done more than simply destroy the zits. He looked like a whole new guy. He decided to go straight down to the playground to show off his new face to his sweetums. Arriving, he decided to tap her on the shoulder and surprise her. "Guess who!" He was so excited. "Oh hi Ti-- AHHHHH!!!! What happened to your face? Timmy was puzzled. He touched his hand to his face, and was startled to find that it was no longer smooth as a baby's bottom. It was rough, and amorphous, for Timmy had unwittingly smeared Neosporin, and mud with fungus spores all over his face. He was going to kill Steven.

This was the first story I have ever written. Well, not the first, but the first which wasn't written by a sixth grader. I have revised it, however the tone and plot remain the same. I am not really sure what this story is supposed to teach us, but I'm sure there is something to be learned.

The following is one of my previous works.

Queen Antoinette

            Queen Antoinette had much. She had a kingdom that adored her, she had a large, loving family, and she had all the luxury that comes with being a queen. And yet, she was unhappy. Even with all that she had, she felt as if it was not enough. She climbed to the top of the tallest tower in her palace which was built on the highest hill and she looked. She looked at the vastness of the great forest that surrounded her kingdom. It was too great. She ordered a decree that stated that anyone who was of sound mind and body was to go to work toppling the great and mighty forest. Thousands of the queens subjects went to work cutting it down. And although it was a slow process, it was eventually accomplished, and everyone in the kingdom reveled at the glorious accomplishment; everyone except one. With the forest down, the queen, atop her tower had a clear sight at something that did not please her one bit. They were other palaces, just as large and opulent as hers, if not even more so. She could not comfortably have these palaces in the same area as hers, showing that she was not the mightiest of all things. She amassed an army clad in strong black armor to these other palaces. They were to kill all who resisted, enslave those who did not, and destroy anything that rivaled the glory of the queen. And so the massive horde went from palace to palace overthrowing the monarchs, enslaving the native population, and razing the kingdoms to the ground. All around her, there were signs of her glorious brutality, and yet, Queen Antoinette was still not satisfied. She knew there would always be something bigger and more glorious than herself: the gods. They would always be there, higher, more powerful. She lowered herself to the ground, and prayed for them to take her and make her one of their own. Almost in response, the gods came down and with arms of metal grabbed her and pulled her into the sky. The arms carried her for what seemed an eternity until she was finally placed down. She looked all around and found herself in a desert, surrounded by sand. Then a god showed itself. It was just a giant head, but no sort of head that the queen had ever seen before. It was horribly misshapen. Then another head appeared. And another. Then more and more continued to show up. There were about thirty in total, and all of their eyes were trained on her. Queen Antoinette tried to walk forward, but there was an invisible barrier separating the gods from herself. She tried to ask them something but they didn't seem to be able to hear. A few moments more passed, when they all began to leave. The queen tried to call them back but there was no use. She was stuck there. There she would remain for the rest of her life; there in Mrs. Jones' second grade ant farm.

This story is supposed to show that no matter what we accomplish in life, it will always be insignificant. Queen antoinette thought that what she accomplished was grand, and that it was a spectacle for all to see. She turned out to be an ant, effecting nothing but a small portion of a playground.

 

 

I have been struggling to make real progress in my stories.  I believe this is due to my skill level as a writer. These stories which I am trying to tell are near and dear to me, and I have decided that my current skill level as a writer does not do these stories justice. For instance, an artist does not create his masterpiece while he is still in art school.  This is why I am going to turn this project in a different direction! I feel as if I should acquire more experience before pursuing my masterpiece. I will start from the beginning, meaning finding out what the definition of  a short story is, and discerning what techniques and charcteristics go into a short story.

I have acquired a book! It is called "Vampires in the Lemon Grove", by Karen Russell, and it is a collection of short stories. I hope to read this book, and gain some ideas and note some techniques that she uses. So far I am almost done with the first short story and I hope to talk about it later, when I am finished.

Although I am still working on the original story for which I have researched, I have at the same time started on another story. It is kind of an autobiography, incorporating many of the things I do in my life. I would try to include many of the philosophies and theories of the universe which I have developed over my many 14 years in existence. I will still continue working on my original story, but I will find which one speaks to me more, while I write them.

Because I am writing a story, I will of course need names for the characters. In order to find which name is appropriate for which character, I will take a lesson from poetry through the use of cacophony and euphony.

Euphony: 
Euphony is the use of certain letters to achieve a pleasant sound. Letters that can be sustained, such as L, M, N, S, or any of the vowels are usually considered euphonious. Because these letters are more pleasing, words with these letters in them are usually associated in a good way. So, for the names of my positive characters, such as my main character and any that help him, I will try to incorporate more euphonious letters into their names.


Cacophony:
Cacophony is the opposite of euphony, using letters to create a harsh sound. Letters that cannot be sustained such as T, D, P, and K create a harsh tone in words. Since these are harsh and not as pleasing, I will incorporate these letters into my negative  characters.

In the later development of my story, I may even try to make it so my characters's speech follows cacophony and euphony. But if that happens at all, it will come later.

Because my main character is going to have supernatural powers, I have been researching various creatures, and monsters that have supernatural powers. Below are the front runners as options for what the child could be:

Vampire:
The vampire was my first thought and probably the best choice right now. It would allow the child just stumble upon his powers, by getting cravings for blood and having events build up to him coming to terms with his powers and going on a rampage. Most people also know what a vampire is and therefore it would not require much explanation as to what precisely had happened. The only reason that I would prefer to stray away from vampires is that I feel as if they have become somewhat cheapened, and overused with Twilight, and all of the other vampire romances.

Dhampir:
Dhampirs are the products of a vampire and a human mating. They get the same powers as a vampire but none of the weaknesses, because of this. The Dhampir would be a good choice, because it could help explain why the child is an orphan, having his mother die in child birth, and his father being a vampire, so he would not be able to stick around. The other benefit of the Dhampir, is that it has  not been cheapened and overused like vampire. The only real drawback is that they are relatively unknown to many people, so I would have to somehow slip what Dhampirs are into the story tastefully.

Witch/ Warlock:
Having the main character be a warlock would good in that they are very known, and there is a lot of variation with them, so it would give me a lot of freedom. The difficulty with them is that I feel as if witchcraft is something that the main character would have to learn to do, but since he's supposed to be completely alone, I don't know from whom he would learn it.

Psychic:
I explored the possibility of making it so that he had psychic powers, either allowing him to move objects with his mind, set fires with his mind, read other people's minds, control people's minds, see the future, or combinations of these. With this, I had many of the same issues and benefits with it as I did with him being a witch. I feel as if he would somehow have to be taught it, not just stumble upon it. However there could be a lot of freedom with it.

           The next two possibilities are in the case that the main character dies early on, but is somehow brought back. He doesn't realize that he ever died and tries to go back to normal life only to find that the people of the village thinks that his body has been possessed by a demon and tries to kill him.

Draugr:
A draugr is a bit like a mummy or a zombie with super human strength, and they can increase their size. Like the Dhampir this is not a very known monster, and would likely require explaining of some kind. I also believe that, like a zombie, a draugr is mindless, which would get rid of the possibility of  the character actually being a character after death, unless I went against the lore of the draugr.

Revenant:
Of the two creatures for the second direction that the story could take, the revenant is probably preferable. Like the draugr, it is a reanimated corpse, except that the revenant has an actual agenda, usually trying to take revenge on those that wronged it in live. This would make since because the kid will have been picked on and unloved. The revenant does not seem to have any real special powers with which to get their revenge.  However,  both the draugr, and the revenant are undead, and with all of the recent shows and movies about zombies and ghosts, it could make the main character unlikeable, and unsympathetic.

Other:
My last option is to create something else completely, made just from my mind, or to combine or edit some of the above options to make them more compatible with my story. None of the above are perfect, but it may be possible to mold them just a little to make them perfect.

Well I have thought of a plot for my story. I do not have it fully figured out yet, but I figure that the rest will come to me once I start. Anyway the basic premise  is

                                        

                                   Warning, if you wish to read the story in its entirety 

                                   when it is finished, and you do not want it spoiled, do 

                                    not read any further!!!!

 

that a small boy named Ben will be an orphan who nobody likes or loves, will discover some sort of hidden power (I am not sure what kind of power yet, though I have been researching various monsters and demons which he could potentially end up turning into or discovering that he is already) . He will try to control his power at first, but will then succumb and be engulfed in rage at all of the cruel people in his life. He will go on a rampage, and exact his revenge on these mean people with his special powers. The people of the town will get angry at him and declare him a witch. They will attempt to burn him at the stake, but being so powerful, he will get out of the sticky situation, and kill all the other villagers. He will then die somehow, I'm not sure how exactly, but I'll figure it out.