My young writers page

08/26/2013

please read this and give me feed back

The shadow fiction science wolfden95

08/15/2013

here are some tips from a former teen writer named Beth reekeles
1. Dialogue

Dialogue makes up a huge portion of a book, and it's essential for character development, too. One of the best things about dialogue is that you can give away so much - what a character is thinking, how they're feeling (do they stammer, are they hesitant?) and the way they act around people. It can often be tempting to drop in big fancy words, too, just to show off your ability a little (not that there's anything wrong with a wide vocabulary!) but you have to be careful about how you use it. If the character's a thuggish boy, he's likely to swear and speak in slang, and not use proper sentence structure. A good flowing dialogue helps the book along so much, too - whether it's a heated argument, a bit of comic relief, or simply just some character development.

2. Show not tell

I know I probably sound like your English teacher, but bear with me here. Saying "she was nervous" is much less effective than something like "she gnawed on her lip, wringing her hands, unable to look him in the eye". Actions can convey so much more than a simple statement, and they tell the reader a huge amount about how the character reacts in certain situations and what's going on in their head. And besides that, it makes your characters so much more relatable! Even if your book is set on an alien planet far into the future, if your characters exhibit human reactions and emotions, then your readers will relate to them better, and they'll be far more engaged in your book.

3. Writer's block…Help!

You know those hideous days when you get so frustrated with yourself because you just can't write - nothing you do seems to work! Well you aren't alone, so don't worry about it too much. It's awful, but there are ways around it: you just have to try not to stress over it too much. It will pass. Sometimes I find it helps to read a good book, or watch some TV, even do some homework - just to clear your mind a bit. Or maybe listen to some music; you could try listening to soundtracks that would fit in with where you are in your book. And sometimes, you just have to walk away. Not permanently, of course, but just for a little while. On occasion, I've abandoned my work for maybe three weeks running just because I don't know what to write; but when I go back to it a while later, with a fresh mind and new ideas, I have something to write. The trick is simply finding what works best for you.

4. Are my books worth writing?

The simple answer to this is "yes". Always yes. Even if what you're writing isn't all that great, it's good practice and the more you write, the better you'll get. Practice makes perfect after all, right? I've written dozens of novel-length stories and when I look back on most of them, I cringe in my seat because they were so poorly written and so badly executed. And you are always your own worst enemy; I never thought I was any good until I found Wattpad, where people seemed to really enjoy my work and give me a confidence boost. You may well think that your books aren't worth it, they're terrible, nobody will like them, you should just give up now... I've thought that, too. But your work might actually be really awesome, and you don't know until you put it out there for people to see. And even if other people critique you and say you're not quite up to scratch, then that still shouldn't stop you - don't give up!

5. I want to write but what should I write about?

The best advice I can give you on this is to write the kind of thing you'd like to read. If you're a teenager who loves YA fantasy, then writing a mystery with an adult protagonist might not be the best way to go. When I started The Kissing Booth, I was craving a good YA romance to read - without any vampires or werewolves and whatnot. So that's what I wrote: a YA romance without any fantasy. If you aren't a fan of the kind of thing you're writing, then how much can you really enjoy it? You're likely to give up on a story if you don't put your all into it, because it will probably just bore you. So write something you're passionate about!

12/14/2012

The 5 Emotional Beasts that Prey on your Power to Manifest
By Thomas Herold in Forgiveness on June 26th, 2009 / 5 Comments
Do you know the difference between a feeling and an emotion? You may say that emotions are much deeper and stronger than feelings. From one viewpoint, that’s true. However, here’s a detail about feelings that you may not know about: you can observe your feelings but not your emotions. When you experience feelings you are the observer and in full control; when you experience emotions, you cannot remain the observer and you are not in control.

Emotion Seems to Have a Life of its Own
In most cases, you can only experience them and not control them. You are no longer in control – the emotions are! They act collectively as a kind of psychic clone of the more complete, more human you.

That’s the reason why we have emotional reactions to things that we sometimes later regret. We scream at our partners, we leave our friends, and we smash things until they break. Mostly, this emotional clone is reactive, uncontrollable, and seemingly independent from our core selves.

The Wolf Story
A sage once said that each person has both a white and a black wolf inside himself that constantly fight each other. The black wolf is aggressive and reactive and the white wolf is calm and social. The winner of this battle is simply decided by which wolf we feed. Most of the time we are not aware that, more often than not, we feed the black wolf and not the white one.

What can be done about this?

The black wolf can only live inside when you create it in the first place. A black wolf is a black hole that sucks up your energy.

1. The Black Wolf Called Anger
Anger is the result of not taking 100% responsibility for your life. You created the this wolf by reacting to an experience. Then you forgot that you created it. If you decide to take ownership of your creation, you must simply feel your way through the original experience. That feeling could be sadness, for example, but not anger. Sadness is the original feeling and an angry black wolf is the emotional result.

Perhaps you blame someone else for your anger. By doing so, you make another person responsible for the wolf creation that is yours and yours alone! It’s important to remember that everything in this world is a creation of yours in one form or another, even things that seem to have nothing to do with you directly.

2. The Black Wolf Called Resentment
Resentment is very close to anger. When you harbor resentment, you limit the spectrum of your feeling nature and a major part of you closes down. When you resent someone, you are saying very forcefully that the other person is the problem, the cause and the fault, not you. You forcefully blame the other person so you don’t have to look within.

You are declaring the other person, group or institution to be your enemy.

The problem is that resenting your enemy creates a dilemma that centers around the conflict that come from not taking full responsibility for the the situation. Ultimately, it is you who has the conflict, you who faces the dilemma, and you who began to harbor resentment.

3. The Black Wolf Called Blame
Like resentment, blame is not much different from anger. In both cases, you attempt to make someone else responsible for what you feel by creating an emotional reaction. Resentment and blame are different faces of this type of emotional reaction.

Resentment is a form of disappointment that seems to have its source on the outside. For example, should you get fired it seems logical that the cause is your employer. If such a calamity happened, there probably wouldn’t be much you could do about it. The cause seems to be external (your boss) even though your emotional reaction is generated within.

Everything changes when you accept that the cause is always you. You created it (you took the job), you experienced and accepted the situation (you created a positive or negative environment in which to work), and you reaped the results (you got rewarded or fired). You alone are responsible for this wolf. Why did you create a black wolf when you could have just as easily created a white one?

4. The Black Wolf Called Guilt
Guilt is much like blame of others, but turned back on yourself. When you’re guilty, you actually take ownership of what you did. So why would you feel bad about it? Because you judge yourself as having taken the wrong action in a given situation.

You did it and now you are convinced it was wrong.

With a little introspection, you’ll realize that guilt does not come from the original situation or action itself, but from the self-imposed judgment after the action. This judgment is, in fact, an emotional reaction that questions the original action you took in a given situation. When things fall apart afterwards, you tell yourself, “I made a mistake; I did not want to cause this.” You blame yourself.

5. The Black Wolf Called Betrayal
This is one of the hardest beasts to tame. The emotion of betrayal runs deeply. Betrayal occurs mostly after you have trusted someone close who then fails to satisfy that trust in some fashion. By trusting someone, you opened yourself up to be in a vulnerable state.

At some point, your trust is betrayed or even used against you. You thought that you had correctly judged your confidant as trustworthy, but now you are being punished in some way. It just makes no sense – it hurts! Betrayal is the emotional reaction to this (perhaps completely justified) feeling of being hurt by another.

12/09/2012

The Emotional Vampire Survival Guide: Emotional Freedom in Action
Adapted from Dr. Judith Orloff’s New York Times Bestseller “Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life” (Three Rivers Press, 2011)

To be emotionally free you can’t remain naïve about relationships. Some people are positive and mood elevating. Others can suck optimism and serenity right out of you. Vampires do more than drain your physical energy. The super-malignant ones can make you believe you’re an unworthy, unlovable wretch who doesn’t deserve better. The subtler species inflict damage by making smaller digs which can make you feel bad about yourself—for instance, “Dear, I see you’ve put on a few pounds” or “You’re overly sensitive!” Suddenly they’ve thrown you emotionally off-center you by prodding areas of shaky self-worth. To protect your sensitivity, it’s important to name and combat these vampires. The concept struck such a collective chord in my book Positive Energy that in Emotional Freedom I illustrate how it applies to protecting your emotions and not absorbing other people’s negativity. In the book I discuss these vampires to watch for and ways to deal with them.

SIGNS THAT YOU’VE ENCOUNTERD AN EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE
(from “Emotional Freedom” by Judith Orloff MD)

• Your eyelids are heavy—you’re ready for a nap
• Your mood takes a nosedive
• You want to binge on carbs or comfort foods
• You feel anxious, depressed, or negative
• You feel put down, sniped at, or slimed

TYPES OF EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES

Vampire #1: The Narcissist
Their motto is “Me first.” Everything is all about them. They have a grandiose sense of self-importance and entitlement, hog attention, and crave admiration. They’re dangerous because they lack empathy and have a limited capacity for unconditional love. If you don’t do things their way, they become punishing, withholding, or cold.

How to Protect Your Emotions: Keep your expectations realistic. These are emotionally limited people. Try not to fall in love with one or expect them to be selfless or love without strings attached. Never make your self-worth dependent on them or confide your deepest feelings to someone who won’t cherish them. To successfully communicate, the hard truth is that you must show how something will be to their benefit. Though it’s better not to have to contend with this tedious ego stroking, if the relationship is unavoidable use the above strategies to achieved desired results.

Vampire #2: The Victim
These vampires grate on you with their “poor-me’ attitude and are allergic to taking responsibility for their actions. The world is always against them, the reason for their unhappiness. When you offer a solution to their problems they always say, “Yes, but.” You might end up screening your calls or purposely avoid them. As a friend, you may want to help but their tales of woe overwhelm you.

How to Protect Your Emotions: Set kind but firm limits. Listen briefly and tell a friend or relative, “I love you but I can only listen for a few minutes unless you want to discuss solutions. Then I’d be thrilled to brainstorm with you.” With a coworker, listen briefly, sympathize by saying, “I’ll keep good thought for things to work out. Then say, I hope you understand, but I’m on deadline and must go back to work. Then use “this isn’t a good time” body language such as crossing your arms and breaking eye contact to help set these healthy limits.

Vampire #3: The Controller
These people obsessively try to control you and dictate what you’re supposed to be and feel. They have an opinion about everything. They’ll control you by invalidating your emotions if they don’t fit into their rulebook. They often start sentences with “You know what you need?” and then proceed to tell you. You end up feeling dominated, demeaned, or put down.

How to Protect Your Emotions: The secret to success is never try and control a controller. Be healthily assertive, but don’t tell them what to do. You can say, “I value your advice but really need to work through this myself.” Be confident but don’t play the victim or sweat the small stuff. Focus on high priority issues rather than on putting the cap on the toothpaste.

Vampire #4: The Splitter or Borderline Personality
Splitters see things as either good or bad and have love/hate relationships. One minute they idealize you, the next you’re the enemy if you upset them. They have a sixth sense for knowing how to pit people against each another and will retaliate if they feel you have wronged them. They are people who are fundamentally damaged—inwardly they feel as if they don’t exist and become alive when they get angry. They’ll keep you on an emotional rollercoaster and you may walk on eggshells to avoid their anger.

How to Protect Your Emotions: Stay calm. Don’t react when your buttons get pushed. Splitters feed off of anger. They respond best to structure and limit setting. If one goes into a rage, tell the person, “I’m leaving until you get calmer. Then we can talk.” Refuse to take sides when he or she tries to turn you against someone else. With family members, it’s best to show a united front and not let a splitter’s venomous opinions poison your relationships.

12/09/2012

Not just annoying people, but darkly seductive. Emotional Vampires draw you in with charm, beauty, talent and pulse pounding excitement. Then they drain you – not of blood but of every last drop of emotional energy.
You know them – Sexy, but unreliable lovers, drama queens who use emotions like terrorists use Kalashnikovs, jealous spouses, demanding parents, manipulative coworkers, and bosses with gigantic egos, who are so small everywhere else.
It’s almost supernatural how quickly Emotional Vampires can get you to trust them, then, just as quickly, get under your skin and drain you dry. It’s downright scary how quickly they can trick you into letting them come back and do it again.

Psychologists would diagnose Emotional Vampires with Personality Disorders, those strange mental illnesses drive other people crazy. To protect yourself from children of the night, you must understand what personality disorders are, and how they operate.
With checklists, examples, humor, and detailed, step-by-step instructions, Dr. Albert J. Bernstein, Psychologist and best-selling author will tell you all you need to know to save yourself from a tremendous pain in the neck.

12/09/2012

How to Protect Yourself

1. KNOW THEM, KNOW THEIR HISTORY, AND KNOW YOUR GOAL
The way to anticipate vampires is by knowing how they've acted in the past. Chances are pretty good that they'll do the same thing in the future. The big mistake you can make with vampires is assuming, without evidence, that though their record has been bad in the past, that they have learned their lesson, and will do better this time. When you deal with vampires, always ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish and why. If you're not sure, don't do anything until you've thought about it carefully.

2. GET OUTSIDE VERIFICATION
Vampires want you to listen to them alone. To control you, they'll try to isolate you from your usual sources of information. Always check out what they say with a trusted friend, especially when you'd rather not. Vampires can't operate in the light of day.

3. DO WHAT THEY DON'T
To prevail over Emotional Vampires you must rush in where they fear to tread. Your greatest strengths lie in doing the things you can do that vampires can't.

4. PAY ATTENTION TO ACTIONS, NOT WORDS
What vampires say is often very different from what they do. To avoid being drained, always focus on what they do.

5. IDENTIFY HYPNOTIC STRATEGY
Vampires are consummate hypnotists. When you see through the smoke and mirrors, their illusions don't work nearly so well.

6. PICK YOUR BATTLES
To be an effective vampire fighter, you have to be able to pick the important battles and ignore the rest. You also have to avoid fighting battles you can't possibly win.

7. LET CONTINGENCIES DO THE WORK
A contingency is an if-then situation. If someone does a particular thing, then certain consequences will follow. The only way Emotional Vampires learn anything is by experiencing the consequences of their own behavior. If you're ever tempted to rescue a vampire, think about what you're teaching him or her about how the game of life is played.

8. CHOOSE YOUR WORDS AS CAREFULLY AS YOU PICK YOUR BATTLES
With Emotional Vampires what you say, how you say it, and when you say it are
all crucial to the outcomes you are likely to achieve.

9. IGNORE TANTRUMS
When vampires don't get their way, they throw tantrums. They can explode into all sorts of emotional outbursts whose only purpose is to get you to give in. Don't.

10. KNOW YOUR OWN LIMITS
Dealing with Emotional Vampires requires a lot of effort. They may be worth it, they may not. Only you can decide. Sometimes it's better to run away, or not get involved in the first place.