by Naomi L. | January 29, 2016 | J.C. Wolfe's Writing, Poetry |
I don’t have a clue who I am,
But I know exactly what I want.
I want to act selfish sometimes,
But I like being seen as a nice person.
I want to prove myself an individual,
But I care too much what other people think.
I want to share my interests,
But I’m afraid I’ll annoy people with them.
I want to be offered help,
But I get angry when I can’t do things by myself.
I want to talk about my problems,
But I don’t want to burden anyone.
I want people to know me well,
But I hate being predictable.
I want everyone to know how I’m feeling
Without me having to tell them.
I want close friendships
Without the effort of maintaining them.
I want to pour my heart out
While still being mysterious.
I want to be loved by everyone
Without giving a damn what anyone thinks of me.
I don’t have a clue what I want,
But I know exactly who I am:
A walking paradox.
by Naomi L. | January 27, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing, What If? Writing Prompts |
Life is keeping me extra busy these days, so why not help yourself to some more “What If?” Writing Prompts until I can catch up again? This week’s post features yet another set of prompts in the paranormal genre. See what mysterious tales you can spin around these ideas! Enjoy!
What if… you felt an electric shock up your arm whenever you touched someone who had committed a crime?
What if… you could hear the voices of people who had passed on to the next life?
What if… you found out you had telekinetic powers… by accidentally unleashing them in public?
What if… you could see into the afterlife?
What if… the days a person had left to live appeared to you as a number over their head?
Have fun writing some more paranormal stories!
If you have any “What If?” writing prompt suggestions (for any theme), please feel free to share them in the comments below. Ideas I like may be featured in future “What If?” posts, with full credit and a link to your blog (if you have one)! Also, if you’ve written a piece based on an idea you’ve found here, be sure to link back to the respective “What If?” post. I would love to see what you’ve done with the prompt! Thank you!
by Naomi L. | January 25, 2016 | Blog, Word of the Week |
Word: obtuse
Pronunciation: əb-T(Y)OOS / ahb-T(Y)OOS
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
Tails: What luck! This rock would make a perfect focusing lens for my hyper-exo-madifier! All I need is a refracting chamber and an influx reflector! Right, Knuckles?
Knuckles: Do you use big words just to make me feel… um… what’s that word that means ‘not smart’?
Tails: Obtuse?
Knuckles: Yeah, see? That’s what I’m talking about.
– Sonic Boom (Season 1, Episode 31 – Closed Door Policy)
Okay, so maybe I watch Cartoon Network once in a while just to unwind, and maybe I’ve gotten a little hooked on the newest Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. But that’s not really important. The point to focus on now is this week’s vocabulary word in the above dialogue from an episode of Sonic Boom. In this scene, young inventor fox Tails is going on about a complex gadget he plans to build, and the brawny but not-too-bright echidna Knuckles has a hard time keeping up with his friend’s “techno babble”. When Tails offers an uncommon definition for a slowness to understand things, Knuckles hilariously proves yet again that he’s a little too “obtuse” to grasp such big words!
An “obtuse” person is someone who is slow to understand things or is otherwise annoyingly insensitive. The word arose in late Middle English in the sense “blunt” and comes from the Latin adjective obtusus “dull”, which in turn derives from the verb obtundere, meaning “to strike”. This verb comprises the preposition ob “against” and the verb tundere “to beat”.
There are a handful of definitions for the word “obtuse”. Aside from the above meaning used for people, it can also refer to something that is difficult to comprehend or an object that is blunt as opposed to sharp-edged. Of course, anyone who paid attention during trigonometry lessons in Math class remembers that “obtuse” also defines an angle between 90º and 180º. So if you ever find yourself writing about dull people and/or objects (or even about math problems), “obtuse” may be a word you’ll want to work into your stories!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
by Naomi L. | January 22, 2016 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
The phoenix is a legendary bird of strength and wisdom.
But it’s nothing if it cannot set itself ablaze.
She feared she would never have such courage.
Until the first time she touched fire.
Now she hungered for that power.
She summoned the magic within.
Suddenly, her feathers ignited.
She burned fiercely.
True phoenix.
Rise.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Back to the story
by Naomi L. | January 20, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing |
Remember that list I shared last week of five books I want to read this year? Well, I just thought of five more. I feel a 2016 reading challenge coming on! It’s hard to say if I’ll be able to read all these books in one year, but I’ll definitely keep them on my list for future reading!
Just for fun, here are five more books I want to read in 2016. Enjoy!
6) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
I recently received this book as a surprise gift, and I have to say I couldn’t be more thrilled to have it in my collection. The Harry Potter books were a huge part of my childhood, and no Harry Potter fan’s bookshelf is complete without the spinoffs! The best part is that the profits from sales of Fantastic Beasts go to Comic Relief, a charity Ms. Rowling has long supported that was founded to “bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people”. It’s been too long since I finished the main series, so I look forward to diving back into the magical world of Harry Potter! Of course, after I’m done with this book, I’ll have to tackle Quidditch Through The Ages next…
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
It’s this tragic love story between Cathy and Heathcliff, and it takes place on these really creepy moors in England, which I think represent the wildness of Heathcliff’s character. I totally get symbolism!
– Phoebe Buffay, Friends (Season 5, Episode 9 – The One With Ross’s Sandwich)
Yes, more period drama! This one’s another book that’s been sitting unread on my shelf for a while. My mother read Wuthering Heights a long time ago and recommended it to me because she enjoyed it, though she did warn me that it’s a rather tragic story. Just as well; I’ve always been one for a good dramatic tragedy!
8) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I know, I know, I’m really late to the party on this one. The last movie isn’t even in theaters anymore (at least, not where I live)! I did buy the first Hunger Games novel in ebook format a while back; I just haven’t yet gotten around to reading it. I have been looking forward to immersing myself in some dystopian fiction, though, and since this one’s been on my to-read list for years and I’ve already seen most of the movies, The Hunger Games trilogy is almost certainly the best place for me to start!
9) Divergent by Veronica Roth
While we’re on the subject of dystopian fiction, Divergent is another title that piqued my interest some time ago but that hasn’t yet made it to the top of my reading list. I actually read the synopsis for this story well before the announcement of the first movie (which I haven’t even seen yet), and it definitely struck me as the sort of story I’d enjoy. The idea of a society divided into factions based on valued qualities is hardly a new concept (Hogwarts, hello?), but I find it always makes for a thought-provoking read!
10) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
It’s high time I got back into reading Shakespeare. Luckily, I have a complete single-volume collection of his works sitting on my shelf! There are several Shakespearean plays I’ve been meaning to read, and one of the plays at the top of that list is Hamlet. Yes, it’s another tragedy, as were the last couple of plays I read, but even though I would like to read some more of his comedies too, I just can’t resist drama! If I’m going to get back into Shakespeare, I figure why not start with the story that loosely inspired one of my favorite Disney movies?
Thus concludes my top ten to-read list! Now let’s see if I can take on the reading challenge this year! Thanks for reading!
What about you? What books do you plan to read in 2016?
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