Emilia’s Blog

I have three favorite memories from the school year. My first favorite memory was when me and Lilah were in yearbook yesterday and were cleaning out the storage room in the multi. We were getting stuff thrown at us left and right, including rat poop in stuff that was thrown at us. It was pretty disgusting and we were complaining the whole time but it was a funny moment. My next favorite memory would be our first ever yearbook party after our first deadline. Everyone brought their own food to share and there were lots of delicious treats and healthy food to balance out. It was a great memory to share with my friends while sitting around a table all eating our food. My last favorite memory of school was when we baked in home ec. Specifically our brownie lab because I got to bake with Jessie on my team and we made delicious brownies that we decorated like graveyards. Obviously we also got to eat the brownies which were super yummy. We had the opportunity to enjoy them with our team sitting around the table eating the brownies. I’m so grateful to have these great memory’s this year at school! I can’t wait to make many more next year!

On week six of writing my novel, I had more of a slow week. Although I struggled this week, I also had some great accomplishments. Some of those include writing a little more to my story, starting my script for my presentation, and imagining how to set up my trifold. I got through about 1/3 of writing my script to present in class and on Wednesday night which is great! My struggles this week though were only writing a tiny amount of my novel, Barely writing my script even if I started it, and not starting my trifold. These struggles weren’t as worrying though as I fixed them by planning the rest of how I will write my script, planning everything I will include on my trifold, and planning a whole scene I will make it a goal for myself to write next week. Week six starting my presentation information was an okay week and next week I will hopefully finish my script and start my trifold!

This week I continued with writing my Taylor Swift novel. There were ups and downs but mainly ups this week, which is lucky for me. I got to write deeper into the story and create different parts of the story to all her 16 tracks. My accomplishments this week were just like any other week. All I really did was continue writing the story with my head. I did get ideas of how to write farther into the story which ultimately helped me think and write the part of the story I’m currently writing. My struggles this week were very slim with the occasion of getting distracted and losing my train of thought with what I was writing in the moment. I fixed that by putting my AirPods in to listen to folklore and get back on track. After putting music on, I wasn’t distracted the rest of the day. Next week I will start writing my script for my presentation and plan everything I’ll need! Can’t forget writing more to my story aswell. That was my progress of week five, can’t wait for the next one!

This image has a strong message. It really demonstrates the amount of things that you require to be happy. You can notice that spoiled kids who get a bunch of things in their life may not be happy with anything. Them being spoiled and showered with gifts all the time could also higher their expectations of what they need in life, when in reality it isn’t anything they NEED. The other kid is a perfect image of being happy with the simple things, not needing money or many gifts to be happy. You can be happy with even little things you make like his stick car and be proud of it. Happiness isn’t all about the things you get or buy, but about being content with small things put into your life or made by hand. In my opinion, handmade gifts are one of the sweetest and nicest thing you can give to a person, it always warms my heart. Don’t always think about money and huge amounts of gifts when you think happiness, think about small but happy things in life!

This month I read Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. This book is about a young girl named Juliette Ferrars who was taken to live in an asylum after her lethal touch accidentally killed a little boy. Juliette has been trapped for 264 days and has been alone the whole time until one day she ends up getting a new cellmate, Adam Kent. Adam is a complete stranger to Juliette. Eventually, Juliette is randomly taken out of the asylum for unknown reasons. She was taken by the Reestablishment who has plans to use Juliette as a weapon. She figures out that her cellmate, Adam, also works for the Reestablishment, or more specifically, Aaron Warner. Aaron Warner, most known as Warner, is the leader of Sector 45 of the Reestablishment where Juliette is staying. Juliette does not want to be used as a weapon or a torture device. She craves to live in freedom and not afraid of herself. She must find ways to survive, escape, and sceme for the whole series of books.

What I really loved about this book is that it brought me back to my love for dystopian. I realized while reading this that I haven’t read a dystopian book in forever and Shatter me made me remember how much I love and enjoy reading a good dystopian. My favorite character of this series is Kenji Kishimoto. Kenji is my favorite character because he always makes me laugh while I’m reading but not only that, he’s also the most relatable character to me out of all the characters. Kenji has so many positive traits to him, but his biggest to me would be witty. One quote that represents this is, “I’m not dramatic, okay? My presence just commands a certain kind of attention.” and, “I don’t have the time, the energy, or the interest to deal with your problems.”

My favorite line in this book would be, “I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.” This quote is my favorite because I love how it’s written. The writing in this whole book is amazing but I especially love this line because It’s beautifully written which just makes it even better to read. It’s a perfect line.

My favorite room in my house is my bedroom. My bedroom would have to be my favorite room in my house because it’s the coziest place in my house and the place I’m always most comfortable. I love to make my bedroom cozy and enjoyable which makes it my favorite place to be. All of my books are in there, my record player and all my vinyls, my cd’s and cd player, my lights, my bed heater, everything that makes it my room. All those things are just reasons as to why I love my room so much and am in it the most in my house. My favorite place to read my books is laying on the floor with my record player playing music and an iced coffee right next to me on the floor. Laying atop a pillow would be preferred. My father always likes to say that he wishes he had my room and that it’s the best room in the house. I agree with him! That is why my room is my favorite room in the house.

This week was a great success week! I felt as though my success this week made up for all my struggles I dealt with last week. My accomplishments this week included starting my first draft of my writing, knowing what to do in my head, and just writing nonstop! I started with writing my first draft this Friday and it started out really well! I started it then just kept writing the whole period. While those were great accomplishments, I did have a couple small struggles. I struggled with figuring out how to start my writing. I was lost as to how I should introduce the story and characters, also which scene I should start with. How I fixed these struggles were looking back at my realistic fiction story about the Folkore Love Triangle and it helped to start from there. I reread my realistic fiction and decided to start with the same scene from another’s point of view. Can’t wait to keep writing next week!

This week was a little bit of a struggle week, but I got through it! My accomplishments this week included, finishing my timeline, making a character mood board for my three main characters, and getting ready to start writing. I worked on finishing my timeline as my main goal for this week and that’s what I did. I also got a great idea of my main characters in my head so I can feel like I know them when I write. I’m ready to start writing next Friday! My big struggles this week were mainly getting stuck struggling on the timeline. It was hard to decipher which songs fit in the timeline but I finished it by the end! My other main struggle this week was trying to focus on learning more about my characters. It was hard to figure out which traits fit the right characters. How I fixed these struggles was listening to Spotify playlists inspired by Betty, James, and Augustine and the songs based off them helped me decide three main character traits. When I struggled with the timeline I just had to focus without talking to anyone and think deeply about how it he soundtrack would look in a musical! I can’t wait to start writing next week!

This week in class i accomplished a lot which came with struggles! I decided to write the novel based off of Taylor Swift’s Folklore album which means I could include the Folklore love triangle that she wrote about in her songs. My accomplishments this week included sorting the songs on order of a timeline for my book, deciding my point of view character, researching about the Folklore love triangle, and listening to Folklore on repeat. These accomplishments really helped me this week! Although I did have these great accomplishments, I also had a few struggles this week. My main struggle was trying to sort the songs into a timeline because it was hard to make these decisions! Another struggle I did have was choosing whose point of view I would write from, but I think I made the right decision in the end! What I did to fix these struggles were listening to the music more and figuring out who I think the songs point of view is from and most of the songs are Betty’s perspective, so Betty it is! I also listened to the songs in certain orders deciding which made more sense coming after the other in a novel timeline! Next week I will hopefully start trying to write a first paragraph\chapter. I will also plan out how I’m writing this novel more before, all while listening to Taylor Swift Folklore for inspiration! I’ll see you next week!

This week for my 20% project I had many achievements that came with struggles. My achievements this week included many things such as brainstorming ideas, narrowing down genres, and coming up with characters. In class, I was researching book writing tips as well as coming up with plot ideas of my own. I have narrowed down ideas to a few in my notebook. I have also narrowed down my genres to three choices! Lastly for my achievements, I have chosen my main character and whos perspective it will be from. I did have many struggles this week as well. It took me awhile to get ideas in my head, I was stuck for the longest time. Although I was able to fix that by listening to writing inspiration playlists and researching basic plot ideas to grow from that. I worked on researching more about writing and tips that would help me along the way. Next week, I will hopefully work on planning out the whole plot since I have narrowed down my decisions. Once I work on planning out the plot, I will also go more in depth about the characters!