Write ... Edit ... Publish ~ THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD (Mar.)

It's that time of the month again when we participants in the WEP get together and share our thoughts on the monthly theme, set by Denise Covey. This month's theme is as follows:

What comes to mind for the March WEP challenge - Through the eyes of a child? Rewriting a passage from a child's POV? A montage of images through the eyes of a child? A poignant or exhilarating poem? A non-fiction piece told from a child's POV? The possibilities are limitless! 

I thought about this briefly, and came up with the idea to share some diary entries I wrote when I was in primary school:

January 1 - 1/01/1991

The first day of 1991 We are going to Lake Leschenaultia. Annie is comeing.

January 13 - 13/01/1991

Today Annie goes home Bye Annie

January 23 - 23/01/1991

We are going to kings park Today to do bike riding, it is free.

January 24 - 24/01/1991

Today we are going to rottnest We're getting gloucouse lollies to take there

March 31 - 31/03/1991

Today is Easter Sunday. I'll get lots of EASTer eggs

May 29 - 29/01/1991

Sure, the turtles are only half human, but I don't know what makes me like them.....

LEONARDO

He seems sensible and witty. He does take things seriously, although he does often long for a hang out with a pretty gal. I really admire him.

Mike.

He's a fat pig. But he's real good. angry

DON Don is never angry. I like him.

Raph. Raph stores the most radical JOKES.

May 30 - 30/05/1991

I KNOW A SECRET, ESTELLE HATES THE TURTY'S That's Dumb

May 31 - 31/05/1991

OLIVIA'S Birthday I KNOW ANOTHER SECRET, ESY'S FAVOROUT COULOR IS GREEN some people are strange ? MEANIG meaning Estelle

June 10 - 20/06/1991

Today is 2 days before Jakes birth day

July 10 - 10/07/1991

Today is Jesse's birth day. he is 10

July 25 - 25/07/1991

Today is my birthday. I am 11 years old.

July 26 - 26/07/1991

Mum, I saw anelec-trec train go by. and Mum, I thought, I could take you for a ride. Oh oh yeah Mum, I saw, an eletrec train go by. and mum, yeah, with a flash of mind my brillient mind. I saw on the time table ooooooh the price of the tickets, woh ho yeah, It s said on a ticket, lieing on the groud ground, enjoy the joyride, your body is bound.

August 1 - 1/08/1991

Today we are goin' to Dwellingup with Carlos and Olivia and it will be fun. We are nearly there now. I can see little roads in the hills and the lambs are just sitting. We can see Caliminos and chestnuts. It is great here because I got a bunk and I'm on the top! James can't have his way! We are goin' to the river soon and I have green bathers.

My favourite has always been the last one, with the "little lambs just sitting". But there are more I haven't got around to transcribing yet. Most of the time it was just boring stuff like "Today is Jesse's birthday, he is 10", or "Today we are going to King's Park." :P

I also wanted to link back to a post I put up back in Feb 2012, for the Origins blogfest. In this post I shared a bunch of primary school art, and sometimes stories I'd written that were accompanied by art. So that post can be found HERE.

Origins blogfest - how'd you get started writing?

Today's the day when we're sharing our "how I got started with writing" stories as part of the Origins blogfest. For more details on what's involved, see the blogs of any of our gracious kick-arse hosts: DL Hammons, Katie Mills, Matthew MacNish and Alex J. Cavanaugh. But now it's my turn to tell you how I started out writing, and...well, I want to take you on a little illustrated journey.

So far in my life, I've written...

Heathen short stories

Heathen rhyming poetry

Dramatic tales full of ellipses...

Fictional stories (no really, they weren't true) about my cats

(and yes, I meant "dork", but wrote "daulk")

Tragically overbloated epic fantasy (not finished)

Illustrated biography

Horribly 'emo' high school poetry

Raunchily illustrated poetry intended to be lyrics

(is still not lyrics)

Actual real lyrics (with music to match)!

Fan fiction

Instruction manuals

Travel memoir

Travel fiction

(I lied in this primary school assignment, I'd never been to Tasmania - still haven't)

A nonsensical language that every linguist would roll their eyes at

(for the aforementioned epic fantasy mess)

Fantasy? Magic realism? The tree talked

 

Compelling literature

Makeshift picture books

And novels that actually got finished

I've received a fair bit of critique, starting back here:

I was also quite open with my self-critique:

I've written by hand, by typewriter, by awful dot matrix printer, and by fancier (20th century. Gasp!) laser printers...

I've written by candle light and even by starlight.

I've written on planes and in coffee shops around the world. Mostly, I've written in my living room while trying out for the Couch Potato Olympics.

I've written songs the day after heartbreak (very cathartic!). I've written songs in tribute to friends' loves and losses.

I've written crappy poetry, and poetry I think is actually half decent.

I've written umm, I think 7 novels, and I have a few more not far off being finished.

I haven't had anything published except a poem in a University "street publication", but nor have I got around to trying yet.

I've written for myself, and for others. For friends and yes, for strangers, in the hopes that there'll be something entertaining, invigorating, inspiring in what I write.

I write to make people happy.

But mostly, I write to make myself happy.

I guess writing (and spelling, and English) has always been my thing:

Really, I'm just glad I didn't have to rely on my Maths grades for sustenance:

I can probably thank my parents - both their creative genes and the fact that they read to me as a baby/toddler/what have you - for how I turned out. They are, after all, my origins. My dad would argue that I was my own person from the get go - that he had nothing to do with how I turned out. But I just don't buy that. And I'm happy to give my parents credit where it's due. 'Cause I'm happy to be a writer, and a part of this great community with all of you!

A-Z blogging challenge "V" - Voltron (and...)

When I was a kid, there was Voltron.

My brother and I loved it, but we loved the toys more. Like this one:

That guy actually came apart and the lions were their own separate creatures (yes, I remember that from the cartoon itself). Incidentally, I don't remember much more about the show itself. Blasphemous, no?! But I do know we watched the show religiously, and had the toys.

Of course, I wound up using the lions in other games, namely as Barbie's "pets".

Yeah...

I hear it's being made into a movie!? I don't even know if it has happened yet. That's how "up" I am on my childhood favourites and their current status in society. Of course, if there was a Jem and the Holograms movie rumour, I'd be scouring the internet for more information!

Music Spotlight & A-Z letter "N" - Nirvana (the band)

Well, I know I talked about Music in general last time, but I think it's only fitting I dedicate an entire post to Nirvana this time. This is a band that really did change my life, and I can't listen to any of their stuff without getting all nostalgic. Mostly it's the first album of theirs that I bought, Nevermind, that takes me back. It was the first CD I ever bought, and I had saved up for a fair while to get it. I was eleven years old when I bought it, and I didn't have a CD player, so I had to use my aunty's CD player to record it to tape. The tape I put it on was denoted by a shiny sticker (in those days I still bought a lot of stickers, the closest I probably ever got to being crafty. hehe) on one side.

I admit that one of my great influences in getting to like Nirvana was the guy I had a crush on in my last year of primary school. He was a huge fan of this album, and though I had already known and got to like "In Bloom", I think I can thank the crush's influence for me actually purchasing the album. Ha.

I also remember that I around the time I bought the album, Weird al Yankovic's version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was out on all the music shows. That may even have been my first exposure to Nirvana. Of course, I prefer the original tune, but I do totally respec' Weird al's take on it. Especially the sheep. I loved the sheep.

Nirvana get a lot of flack for being completely and utterly overrated. And maybe they are. I don't particularly care about that. What I care about is the music, and what it means to me. Nirvana, for me, were the beginning of a dramatic change in my life. They led me to Silverchair (who were teased and called "Nirvana in Pyjamas" in their early days), who in turn led me to Helmet and Primus and Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and all sorts of other bands that are today amongst my favourites.

Nevermind reminds me of primary school. Bleach (Nirvana's first album) reminds me of high school. It also reminds me of video games. For the letter D I focused on Donkey Kong Country, my favourite video game of all time. Well, Bleach and in particular Incesticide remind me of other games, mostly the Mario All Stars game that I had on Super NES. Bleach also reminds me of being down south with my best friend and coming down with chicken pox. Yay? ;) In Utero is an album that has less nostalgic value, but still features some amazing songs. And I still remember the funny moment when my friends and I accidentally discovered the secret song. Over twenty minutes of silence, and then BOOM! Not what we'd expected at all. (I have the Nevermind singles box set too. There are a few great b-sides, including the beautiful "Marigold", sung by Dave Grohl.)

Anyway, I'm done talking about Nirvana and the major impact they had on my life. But I'm not done listening, or loving, this band. In closing I'll say that right now, Nirvana are at number 7 on my Last.fm overall charts. They've got 1,271 scrobbles, but of course that doesn't count the hours of listening I got done during primary and high school. If only I could go back and count up those listens. ;)

THANK THE LIGHT tomorrow is Sunday. Ha.