Random Stuff IX: Rogue Admins

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

 

I think each character represents a different stage in reading your old writing. 

Randall illustrates the moment when you reach about the third paragraph and realize just how clunky the prose is. "Good Gandhi," says Randall, "did I really write an entire paragraph where every sentence began with 'and'?" 

Mike shows us the moment when a more mature writer discovers a romance that moved a bit too fast. "Wait," he says, "why….why are they confessing their love for each other? They're not even finished with their spaghetti…." 

Finally, Sully perfectly captures the moment when a more experienced writer reads their old writing….and stumbles across the part where they decided to tackle serious issues.

 

This made me laugh so hard. I just saw someone refer to baby killdeer as "AT-ST walkers."

 

Do you see the resemblance?

 

 

Oh my gosh that is one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  

[Orlion Blight he/him]

[Sunbird she/her]

@ Orlion:

 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

The Noid ruins pizza. Avoid him!

[Sunbird she/her]

Twi, baby piping plovers are perhaps even cuter:

 

 

[Silverblade5 he/him]

Winter has finally come.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I plan on getting my cell phone plan switched over to my name this weekend. Not looking forward to yet another expense (great Noodly One, adulting is expensive), but it'll be one less thing my parents are paying for. 

 

Actually….I think that might be the only thing they're still paying for. So, I guess a more accurate way to put it is, this weekend, I'll become completely independent.  

[Mistrunner]

Twi, baby piping plovers are perhaps even cuter:

Speaking of plovers...

Snowy plovers are some of the most adorable things ever. Not necessarily because they're small and cute, though they are; it's because when they run their little legs move so quickly they look like tiny eggbeaters or something. I call them twiddly birds.

[The Invested Beard]

I plan on getting my cell phone plan switched over to my name this weekend. Not looking forward to yet another expense (great Noodly One, adulting is expensive), but it'll be one less thing my parents are paying for. 

 

Actually….I think that might be the only thing they're still paying for. So, I guess a more accurate way to put it is, this weekend, I'll become completely independent.

 

Just wait. Adulting never gets less expensive. Only more. Freedom comes at a price.

 

On a happier note it also comes with more control over your own affairs which is a plus.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Just wait. Adulting never gets less expensive. Only more. Freedom comes at a price.

 

On a happier note it also comes with more control over your own affairs which is a plus.

 

Yeah, I'm getting that. But I don't mind. Every time I see some Facebook post about how they wish they were a kid again, when all they had to worry about was elementary school politics, I point and laugh and say "You should meet Twimom." 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

Yeah, I'm getting that. But I don't mind. Every time I see some Facebook post about how they wish they were a kid again, when all they had to worry about was elementary school politics, I point and laugh and say "You should meet Twimom."

You just gave me an idea for a post in the Pet Peeves thread!

[+Slowswift he/him]

Just posting this here, in case anyone is interested: 17th Shard Camp NaNoWriMo cabin

[The Honor Spren she/her]

Okay, I need some advice on stuff. ( <-- That should be my slogan.)

I want to be a writer, and I have so many ideas for stories. But every single time I decide that I want to write something, it takes every ounce of willpower in my body to finish it. Whatever I've written is so bad that I feel like it doesn't deserve to be finished.

And I know nothing will ever be perfect the first time and I know that I am my harshest (and only) critic. 

But . . . how can I make myself write more?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Okay, I need some advice on stuff. ( <-- That should be my slogan.)

I want to be a writer, and I have so many ideas for stories. But every single time I decide that I want to write something, it takes every ounce of willpower in my body to finish it. Whatever I've written is so bad that I feel like it doesn't deserve to be finished.

And I know nothing will ever be perfect the first time and I know that I am my harshest (and only) critic. 

But . . . how can I make myself write more?

 

[Kaymyth she/her]

Okay, I need some advice on stuff. ( <-- That should be my slogan.)

I want to be a writer, and I have so many ideas for stories. But every single time I decide that I want to write something, it takes every ounce of willpower in my body to finish it. Whatever I've written is so bad that I feel like it doesn't deserve to be finished.

And I know nothing will ever be perfect the first time and I know that I am my harshest (and only) critic. 

But . . . how can I make myself write more?

 

Here's the thing:  everyone's first stories are terrible*.  Just unabashedly, irrevocably terrible.  But you need to write them anyway, because for a while, the end result isn't the point.  The point is practice.  The point is learning.  The point is finishing a story, going back through it, acknowledging that it is terrible and finding all of the things about it that are terrible so that you learn what not to do next time.

 

So if you never finish a story because it is terrible, you will never get the terrible endings out of your system, and soon you will be left with great story beginnings that you have no idea how to end satisfactorily.

 

 

* Yes, including mine.  The difference is that I got all of my terrible out of my system back in the days when MUSH RPs were a thing and I learned all of the lessons about being terrible and then got rid of all of the evidence of my terribleness.  Muahahaha!

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

When you have the profound realisation that Goosebumps books are parables for life lessons o.O

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Here's the thing:  everyone's first stories are terrible*.  Just unabashedly, irrevocably terrible.  But you need to write them anyway, because for a while, the end result isn't the point.  The point is practice.  The point is learning.  The point is finishing a story, going back through it, acknowledging that it is terrible and finding all of the things about it that are terrible so that you learn what not to do next time.

 

So if you never finish a story because it is terrible, you will never get the terrible endings out of your system, and soon you will be left with great story beginnings that you have no idea how to end satisfactorily.

 

 

* Yes, including mine.  The difference is that I got all of my terrible out of my system back in the days when MUSH RPs were a thing and I learned all of the lessons about being terrible and then got rid of all of the evidence of my terribleness.  Muahahaha!

 

I started RPing back when I was 14 and unhealthily obsessed with Lord of the Rings. My signature character back then? A half-wraith. Yeah. When I learned about Mary Sue litmus tests, I did one on her….and I quit halfway through and told myself the test was biased and that numbers weren't everything.  

 

After that, I made a few terrible attempts at original fiction. One was called The Legeand of the Black Diamond (spelling mine, and no, it had nothing to do with the story). For another, I spelled my own name backwards and made the resulting character my Mary Sue protagonist, and had her interact with a few dozen other cardboard characters whose names were also backwards spellings of people I knew. When I gave up there, I moved on to fan fiction. 

 

Here's the thing: When I was doing all of this, it was as though words were cats and I was trying to herd them. I couldn't get them to do what I wanted. I'd write and rewrite and if I was lucky, I'd hit on a phrasing I was halfway content with. Sometimes, I gave up. Other times, my zeal to tell the story was enough to make me say, "Screw it, this sentence might not be pretty, but it gets the point across." So I'd put my plain and downright ugly sentences down in the document, hit "Post," and nervously watch the reviews come in. Some of them were positive; some were not. But through them, I learned. 

 

Now, I'm at a point where I can usually make the words do what I want. I wouldn't call myself a master by any stretch, but I can write a sentence and make it sound the way I want it to sound, and I can string them together into a solid paragraph, and I can link those paragraphs into a chapter. And people like what I do, so I assume I'm on the right track. But honestly, the self-doubt never goes away. I still have a little panic when I post a new A Kind of Magic chapter, wondering if the first comment will say, "Nice going, Twi, you wrecked it!" I still wonder, every time I post in Creator's Corner, if I'll get a dozen downvotes and something to the tune of, "This idea is so bad it makes Twilight look like The Book Thief." Don't wait for a day when you feel completely confident in what you're doing, because it's not coming. Instead, keep practicing until you can make the words do what you want. That is the day you'll know you're ready. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Buffy: 

 

 

MOO? Really, Joyce? You can't expect us to say that with a straight face. You don't have the nerve.

 

And Ms. Rosenberg? Um, a "cry for discipline" isn't really a thing. That's something parents made up to make themselves feel righteous when grounding their kids.

[Kaymyth she/her]

Buffy: 

 

 

MOO? Really, Joyce? You can't expect us to say that with a straight face. You don't have the nerve.

 

And Ms. Rosenberg? Um, a "cry for discipline" isn't really a thing. That's something parents made up to make themselves feel righteous when grounding their kids.

 

Well, in their defense, their brains were being affected by spooky stuff.

 

...which actually explains why Willow's mom even did anything at all, because this is literally the only time you ever see her.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I've talked about my school's Make-a-Wish Club before. We're awesome. This small group of around 20 students has raised more than the entire ASB (like 100 students and 2 class periods a day) this year, generating a little over 15,000 dollars to grant the wishes of 3 kids with life-threatening medical conditions. That's more than the next 3 clubs combined, as I've said before.

 

The school is in debt because of our former CEO's terrible decision to build a gym without the funds for it (he was fired). The principal sees Make-a-Wish's handy 15,000 dollars, and decides he wants a piece of that. So, that's when he tried to get us to give 25 percent of everything we make to him so he can build an "amphitheater" (probably wants help paying off debt). As the club's new president, I wrote him a letter politely telling him no, and he then found out that taking money from us, a 100 percent charitable organization, is illegal. He laid off.

 

But since then, he has been refusing to approve many of our fundraisers. He can't get sick kids' money to build an amphitheater or pay off school debts from a crappy choice? Well, he'll just stop the money from getting to the sick kids in the first place! I can't help but feel that this is out of spite, because this has never happened before. It is completely disgusting and utterly enraging. 

 

The worst part is that this guy is now judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to these approvals. He is now both principal and dean in one hellish, bearded package. All decisions go through him. We have no power but to file complaints and send letters to him.

 

I didn't know that I could get this angry.

 

Wow. He has no business being in charge of anything….which is probably why he's in power.  

 

How's your vice principal? Is there a sympathetic member on the administration? If so, talk to them and see if there's anything they can do. 

 

If not, or if all of that comes to nothing, you should absolutely go to your local paper with this story. Not your school paper—your town or city paper. If your principal won't kowtow to the forces of basic decency, he'll bend when journalists start turning an anonymous tip into a full-blown scandal. 

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Wow. He has no business being in charge of anything….which is probably why he's in power.  

 

How's your vice principal? Is there a sympathetic member on the administration? If so, talk to them and see if there's anything they can do. 

 

If not, or if all of that comes to nothing, you should absolutely go to your local paper with this story. Not your school paper—your town or city paper. If your principal won't kowtow to the forces of basic decency, he'll bend when journalists start turning an anonymous tip into a full-blown scandal.

Just remember - with great power comes greater joy at seeing the unjust rightly thwarted

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Well, in their defense, their brains were being affected by spooky stuff.

 

...which actually explains why Willow's mom even did anything at all, because this is literally the only time you ever see her.

 

"You earned this, Buffy. You toyed with unnatural forces. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't punish you?" 

 

Wow. That….that sounds like something Twimom would say.

 

Yeah. I'm a little freaked out by that realization, thanks for asking.

 

We have no vice principal, for some reason. The upheaval caused by the firing of the CEO caused our previous principal to take the empty position, and the dean extended his greasy fingers into the powers-of-the-principal-pie. So, he pretty much represents all of the school's upper administration, as far as it pertains to day-to-day management.

 

There is one person who might be sympathetic, so I'll speak to them. If not, I'll figure something out… Thanks for the input, Twi. Sometimes all it take to brighten my day is a caring voice.

 

No problem.  

 

I will say, though, that it sounds like this is a situation ripe for corruption. If you can't solve this within the school, I'd say it definitely sounds like something you should take to the paper. Even if it's just to ensure nothing like this happens again. 

[Zathoth]

Wow. He has no business being in charge of anything….which is probably why he's in power.

 

How's your vice principal? Is there a sympathetic member on the administration? If so, talk to them and see if there's anything they can do. 

 

If not, or if all of that comes to nothing, you should absolutely go to your local paper with this story. Not your school paper—your town or city paper. If your principal won't kowtow to the forces of basic decency, he'll bend when journalists start turning an anonymous tip into a full-blown scandal. 

According to my theory that is why teachers become teachers in the first place, then they become principles and... yes.

 

Twi that is devious! Never change.

[Kaymyth she/her]

We have no vice principal, for some reason. The upheaval caused by the firing of the CEO caused our previous principal to take the empty position, and the dean extended his greasy fingers into the powers-of-the-principal-pie. So, he pretty much represents all of the school's upper administration, as far as it pertains to day-to-day management.

 

There is one person who might be sympathetic, so I'll speak to them. If not, I'll figure something out… Thanks for the input, Twi. Sometimes all it take to brighten my day is a caring voice.

 

I'm going to second Twi - you have power.  The power of the Press.

 

Sit down and write up a full detailing of exactly what happened when.  Include names and dates.  Every specific incident.  Describe in loving detail exactly how he tried to extort your club.  Then list all of the fundraisers that the guy has killed.

 

Then send a copy of it to every news organization in your metropolitan area.  Newspapers, magazines, TV stations, radio stations - EVERYBODY.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I'm going to second Twi - you have power.  The power of the Press.

 

Sit down and write up a full detailing of exactly what happened when.  Include names and dates.  Every specific incident.  Describe in loving detail exactly how he tried to extort your club.  Then list all of the fundraisers that the guy has killed.

 

Then send a copy of it to every news organization in your metropolitan area.  Newspapers, magazines, TV stations, radio stations - EVERYBODY.

 

And don't think for a minute that this won't work. Evil principal tries to steal money from sick kids to fund a pointless cosmetic project only the sports team will appreciate? When rebuffed, evil principal starts strangling the club dedicated to raising money for sick kids out of pure spite? Trust me, as someone who once seriously considered a career in journalism, this is the kind of story journalists will jump all over. It has a compelling storyline, intrepid heroes, a remorseless villain, and a very worthy cause hanging in the balance. Tell them, and they will eat it up.