NaNoWriMo and Other Thoughts

It feels good to be blogging right now. I've been taking a break from vlogging due to school, and although I'm glad I've done so, it can be really hard to take a step back from creativity for the sake of sanity, especially when creativity helps keep me sane in the first place. 

I never really use this blog for anything except posting some stories and poems, or book-related stuff, but today I'm just going for it. I feel like I have a lot of random thoughts. 

First: 

NaNoWriMo is here! Glorious November, why must you be my busiest month? (That's an exaggeration. October was definitely my busiest month.) But for real, why can't NaNoWriMo be during the summer, when I have ample time without schoolwork to be writing and thinking and creating? I've heard though that the busier you are the more prolific you will actually be, because you're more prone to forcing yourself to manage time, and that in turn helps you be more productive. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise after all? 

I do have some advice for my fellow NaNos:

Now is not the time for second-guessing. 

I'm serious. No second-guessing, no backspace--nothing like that. This is a sprint. Not a careful curation of words. It's a burst, an outpouring, a vomit of words onto a page that gets you from idea to creation. Genesis to... maybe not quite apocalypse, but maybe halfway there. The hardest part of writing is getting that first draft out there. Everything after that is rewriting, fine-tuning, etc., which inevitably is challenging in its own way. But fine-tunes, rewrites, rearrangements, red pens, are all a labor of love. And there's time for that. For now, just write. 

Second: 

Lately I've been extra into history, literature, and folklore. As these are all intertwined in my major, this is no surprise. But a particular class I'm in right now has been eye-opening to many subject, and I'm feeling a renewed love affair with these subjects. 

Some of the fun/interesting/exciting content I've been ingesting these days: 

The Modern Lives of Medieval Monster Scholars

I'm obsessed with anything that connects old folklore to modern conversation. If we aren't finding those little commonalities, why study old literature and history in the first place? It's "interesting" isn't really a compelling argument for scholarship or academia. It's something more. And this article sums up that need pretty well. 

Unboxed

I've never been into podcasts, but the last couple of weeks I've suddenly found a great love for them. This one, Lore, in particular deals with cool historical phenomenons, such as creepy folklore and unsolved mysteries. Aaron Mahnke, the man in charge, does his research, and always makes compelling psychological arguments. 

Third: 

I've neglected "making" for the last little while. One of the ways I used to "make" was sewing. So, I sew again. I just made a cool polka-dot jumper dress, and this month I've got all the pieces cut out for a space-print dress. Stoked about that. Next year, I hope to tackle my sewing Everest: a suit. Specifically, a velvet woman's power suit. Google one and you'll fall in love. 

love, 

Sarai 

PS: 

Media Naranja (Prose Poem)

Media Naranja

In the beginning we were all just whole—we were sweet oranges, rolling around, content. But all it took was one divine decision—a split—and now we search every wrinkle of the earth for our Media Naranja. But if you were anything but an orange, that’d be okay too. If you were a tree, shocked to the core by a lightning strike, left smoldering and broken—or if you were one half of the grand canyon, yawning and yearning to be reunited. Or even if you were half of a grapefruit—I would just want to be a grapefruit too.

A Toast

A Toast

For all the times I baked a pie for you

Knowing you’d tilt your smile my direction—

For all the times I asked and you said soon,

And by avoiding you thought that you had won.

For all the times I slept against your breath

And hoped you’d stay to keep my feet warm.

For all the times I thought I’d fix that mess

Of spines and blinders without getting torn.

But even with the blinks and all the smiles

That never quite rang true, I know I tried—

But even with your heartless, heatless guile

It wasn’t ‘til you left I learned to cry.

            We both had orbits never quite our own—

            We caused the brick walls to crumble and drown. 

A Beautiful Poem

I found this lovely piece and I thought I'd share. 

Ginger

The ceiling above my bed

Was cracked the night we met

By the storm that turned this

House onto an x axis.

I couldn’t stop staring,

Freckle-counting and still caring

For the constellation-faced

Boy with impeccable taste.

I piled my books up high from the floor,

Fortress walls, like I’d always done before.

Do you remember laying like stars

On the concrete, comparing our scars?

I remember singing Billie Holiday

Classics, and dreaming one day

We’d fall asleep on each other

The way you always said we would.

We Need to Talk about "The Darkling"

Photo cred: wendyoghurt 

I've been there before. Back when I first read Twilight, just like every other fourteen year old girl. I ended up being Team Jacob. But at first, I was, without a doubt, Team Edward. It was sexy how he told her forcefully that he loved her, and that he wanted to keep her safe at all times. Stalked her, watched her at night. Followed her down a dark alley only to miraculously save her from the rapists. I mean, we all know it's a contemporary paranormal romance, so rationally, we all realize that's actually unbelievably creepy in real life. Right? 

Maybe. 

But the whole, bad boy who loves you theme is maybe not so easy to shake. Think of the Vampire Diaries, where girls had to decide between Stefan and Damon Salvatore, one of whom enjoys killing his victims.

Or in The 100, when tons of fans ship Bellarke, despite the fact that Bellamy is a morally gray ant/protagonist who frequently treats people as dispensable. (I'm only on the first season, but the shipping is a little mind-blowing right now. He's truly horrible.)

But I think the worst one is The Darkling. And yes, I get the appeal. He's dark, he's mysterious, he's obviously into Alina, who seems more than willing to accept his attention. (Mind you, it's been about three months since I read the books and I don't have them in front of me, so apologies for anything that isn't perfectly accurate.) And, there's the fact that he seems to really, truly understand Alina, the way that no one else does. Never mind the fact that he willingly murders multiple people to further his plans. Never mind the fact that he slaughters her friends and refuses to see reason. None of that matters. Because he's the sexy, dark bad boy, and he's the one who taps into the passion that Alina never knew she had. 

I won't deny it's a little bit sexy, the way he speaks to her. In an emotionally fraught moment he actually says to her "Fine, make me your villain", and that is easily one of the sexiest lines I've heard in all of literature. Taken out of context, that is. In context I'm pretty sure he's just a zealot for his cause who believes that Alina is his perfect, powerful, counterpart. 

I know that Mal might be a little bit boring at times. And he's also the guy who "holds her back", for lack of better phrase here. But he's the guy who's known her since they were kids. The guy who was forced to grow over the course of the books. The guy who saw that she had to sacrifice him for a cause he wasn't completely sure of himself, and walked into that fire for her. Meanwhile, The Darkling is a brooding, angry, murderous man-child who literally uses every power he has to manipulate her. The Darkling makes her selfish and manipulative, and power-hungry, while Mal makes her a better, calmer, kinder person. 

If we're being real here, the man who was most perfect for Alina was Nikolai, but only because her personality took a nose-dive when she got so powerful. 

And if we're digging into the text even more, Alina was clearly not supposed to end up with The Darkling, because he is representative of the seduction of power. He's not really a person here. He's Alina's desire to take the power that is being presented to her, and using it to her own advantage, just the way The Darkling does. And by eventually choosing Mal, she's not really choosing Mal. She's choosing to be a hero, a normal person who sacrifices everything she loves for what she knows is right, even if it means giving up the power that has taken such a strong hold on her. 

The truth is, I won't judge you angrily for shipping a main character with a murderous psychopath, or a stalker. I actually don't really care who you ship, or which characters you like. That's up to you. And I sometimes do it too. We all do! So, friends, keep on shipping, keep on reading, and don't date murderous psychopaths in real life. 

Love,

Sarai

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