The Fear You Won't Fall

So as my best guy friend would say, I sorta LIKE like someone. Not like like but LIKE like. :D

Okay so I can't truly say I'm in love. It's not that intense. And we aren't even together. But there's SOMETHING there. Something amazing and frightening and huge. And he'd be an IDIOT not to feel something there too. Because we have chemistry. Anyone could tell.

:)))))))))) I'm just a LITTLE over-happy today. You know how it goes. :P

But it is frightening to feel something that strong for a person. It's incredibly scary. Everyone says that love is wonderful. Love is the best thing they ever felt. And it's true. But love is also fearful. Love is suspenseful and adventurous and risk-taking.

A really good friend of mine likes this guy. She really REALLY likes him. But the thing is, she's never really had a good conversation with him. And she's like the FUNNIEST person ever. She's cute and smart and clever. Any guy would be CRAZY not to want her. She's feeling the fright right now. I keep telling her to just talk to him, and show him the fun and real side of her. If she does, I can't see how he could resist her! :)

I've been inspired by the song "The Fear You Won't Fall" by Joshua Radin. It is an absolutely BREATHTAKINGLY simple and awesome all in one three-minute piece. And it has the best take on love that I've heard in a long time.

I hope you like it!!!!

Take risks!

Emma Eldon

P.S. You know how I mentioned that best guy friend of mine? The funny one? Well.... he's the one. :)))))

Trying To Get Back To Work

Being in a rut is great, isn't it? I can't write, think or even create things in my head. It's been going for like 6 months but I think I'm slowly but surely pulling through.

Oh well, the best thing to do is wait it out.

Sigh.

Emma Eldon.

WOW CANADA!

One of my all-time favourite books that I've read a million times is WOW CANADA! by Vivien Bowers. I LOVE this book, which is about a family's roadtrip across Canada. It is AMAZING!

I just realized this past weekend/week how WOW and NOT WOW our country is.

WOW:
Are you watching the Olympics? Okay, good, then enough said. I admire athletic people cause I am so not one, so I totally revere all those amazing athletes (not just Canadians, but I do favour them). They have worked so hard to get to this point and they are so good at what they do. It doesn't matter if they won a medal!!! They are all fifty trillion times better at sports than I am.

Just a little funny: "Are you dissing Canada? I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my free healthcare."

NOT WOW:
In History class we are just learning about the pre-WWII time and the fact that Prime Minister King wouldn't allow any Jews into Canada just appalls me. We need to have open arms.

And the INTERNMENT OF ENEMY ALIENS DURING WWI?????? That enraged me. Basic racist principles in the first half-century DISGUSTS me.

But really, weren't we ALL a bit racist? Look at the slave trade or the Holocaust or the Crusades. All prime examples of racial/ religious discrimination.

I hate that!!!! It gets me so fired up!!!! I can't stand the fact that things like this are STILL happening! We should have been able to get over this and just accept other people.

Thank you for listening to my rant.

GO CANADA!!!!!

Later,

Emma Eldon <3

Long Time No See

HEY EVERYONE!!!!
And she's back, Emma Eldon, recovering after a painful injury {of boredom} and is here to stay!!! {she hopes}

Well, I'm just studying for German, and I had the sudden urge to log on, change a bunch of things around and get back out there... wherever there is.

Was machst du morgen denn?

Je vais parler avec mes amis a l'Internet!

Ja? Ich komme mit!!!

Excellent! Magnifique! Je t'aime!

Ich liebe dich!

I'm taking German AND French this year and LOVING it! I'm not sure if that conversation above is exactly correct, but I'll just fake it until I REALLY know how to speak the languages. Big shout out to ALICE MEYBECK, all the way in "ze soud of France" and KATRIN BRANDL all the way from beautiful Kirchdorf, Germany!

Okay, next time I'll write something a little more worthwhile, I promise.

Love y'all!!!

Emma Eldon <3

7 Random Bookish Things About Me

Sorry, I realise that I haven't posted in a while, but I've been really busy and all that. I know, not a good excuse, but SERIOUSLY! Disregard the lame post before this, kay? It was a mistake. This one's the real thing.

Well, anyways, I got tagged by Eileen of eileenastels.blogspot.com to say 7 random bookish things about me. So, here they are.

1. I LOVE to buy books for people. I love picking out the perfect book for someone. Recently, I found one for my friend in which the heroine had the same last name as her. I was freaking out right there, in the bookstore.
2. I have an account on shelfari.com at http://www.shelfari.com/o1518037578 I am a reading nut, so I thought it was a worthy addition to my little family of memberships to things.
3. I hate analysing books. Like, in English class and all that. It ruins the story for me, personally. That's why I do not put eons of time in learning the craft of fiction writing because then I'd be criticising everything. I've got a good handle on my voice, and to me, that's the only thing that matters.
4. Oh, I can't think... oh, here's one. I have two bookshelf units already full of books and they're both nearly full. I'm only fourteen! I love to buy books.
5. I couldn't work at a bookstore, because of the reason above: I love to buy books. I'd buy a book a day! Although, it would be an AMAZING job!
6. Oh, almost done! Think! My favourite books in the world are definitely the Harry Potter Series. Second definitely comes the Christy Miller Collection. See my list of fave books on the side of this blog for a complete list (not in order).
7. Last one! Um... Huh. I'm stumped. Oh, right, of course. My favourite Christmas or Birthday gifts are Chapters gift cards. Love them, love them, love them!

So there it is, 7 random bookish things about me!

Come check me out on shelfari!

Love, Emma Eldon

Title Change

It's fall, in case you haven't noticed. At least, it is in this part of the world.

And fall is a time of changes, so I decided to change my title. Something shorter, you know. Something swingy. So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. You are now reading "Christian Writing - Teenage Style". Today, I will be reviewing a new discovery of mine, The Christy Miller Collection, by Robin Jones Gunn. So this is a little stuff for the ladies. Suck it up, peeps.

The Christy Miller Collection

by Robin Jones Gunn

The Christy Miller Collection is a series of books that, ultimately, turned me over to God. There are twelve books in the series, with three books in each volume. See here to my right and above, Volume One. Sorry it's so blurry, my computer is messed, and I wanted to make the picture bigger. Christy Miller is about a girl named Christy Miller. There is also, after that, the Sierra Jensen Series, which is another twelve books (I haven't got there yet) and then the Christy and Todd: College Years trilogy.

Christy Miller goes through lots of things: a BIG move, jealousy, becoming a Christian, falling in love, giving, tough friendships and true friendships. She's a girl we can all truly relate to, except, of course, she lives in CALIFORNIA and she has the best boyfriend (Todd) ever. Todd is, without a doubt, THE best character in the series. Unfortunately, Todd is not real and is truly perfect for Christy. The best lines in the books are him saying, "Later, Chris," and jutting his chin up.

My favourite book of the Christy Miller Series, so far, is Book Five, Island Dreamer, when Christy, Todd, and Christy's best friend from Wisconsin, Paula, go to Maui for Christy's sixteenth birthday. By FAR the cutest and most romantic of all the books.

If you are a girl, I HIGHLY recommend the Christy Miller Series. Thanks to my friend Maxine for getting me into them. Without them, I wouldn't have turned my heart over to God when I did.

Today's Bible chapter (my new Bible has a reading plan, which I am following): Mark 2.

Good luck in school everyone!

luv, blessings,

emma eldon

Manga Messiah: Book Review

Hello everyone in cyper space! Today, I am going to start wha will seem like an endless stream of book and blog reviews. So, for all you people who AREN'T Christian who read my website... the next few posts will either give you something to think about, or totally turn you off. Hopefully the first one, though...

Manga Messiah

The Life and Teachings of Jesus, Manga Style!

This is the COOLEST way to learn about Jesus and what he stood for in his short life on Earth. You get visuals of all the characters you learned about as a kid, and gain some interesting insights on WWJD, or What Would Jesus Do? Manga Messiah follows the life of Jesus, right from Gabriel's appearance to Mary (the anunciation) to Jesus' ressurection. Whenever there's a demon or the devil in the story, the manga-ists get to show their tough side, creating collossal and deadly-looking demon-things. Anyway, it's cool, there's no doubt about that.

The next few days (until sunday, actually) I'll be very busy or away or whatever, so I won't be blogging. Check out the links to other blogs on this site, though, particularly the new addition to the 'links' list, Camy Tang's Blog, Story Sensei. I WILL be reviewing this blog.

If you're looking for Manga Messiah, go to a Christian bookstore, or maybe your church's library (it's where I found mine) has a copy.

Well, Toodle-oo,

luv,

emma eldon

How Can I Say This?

Well, maybe I do know how...

I've just started high school; I am forced to balance my internet life, social life, writing life and school life; I'm beginning my Grade 7 Piano and learning how to play the french horn; and also trying to figure out where God and my spiritual life fit into all this.

Probably almost everybody who reads this will have gone or will go to high school at some time in their life, so they will know that high school is a very awesome, very high-stress, also ironically laid-back experience, and having to balance that with your writing life (online and off) is very, very, very high-stress. Tonight I still have to make lunches for tomorrow, finish this post, update you on my life, do my math homework (yawn), shower, and make sure I don't forget one of these things so my Mom doesn't have to nag me about it.

Anyways, I JUST got a new Bible (it's a tradition for grade 9's at my church), and it's got this awesome little reading plan in it that helps you stay on track with reading the Bible. Which I am FULLY planning to do.

Also have to update you on some things that will be coming up. Book Reviews!!! I have tons of great ones, that I wish to share with you.

So: so long, farewell!

Goodnight and Blessings,
Love,
Emma Eldon

Summer Jobs

Okay, so four weeks from today, it's the second day of school, and wouldn't you know it, I wait until AUGUST to get a summer job! Since I'm just so INCOMPETENT (Brady will never read this blog, but I can give at least that just to annoy him) and slow and YOUNG! I am the youngest person working at my job, and everybody else is just so OLD!

By the way, if I didn't mention it, I'm a cashier at the local family-owned market. It's a great work environment and even though all the other girls are way older than me, they're still fun to talk to. I'm working with VEGETABLES all day... yawn! But so far I really like it, other than a few mess-ups when I forgot to give people their change... and then stand there for a few minutes figuring out how much change I still owe the person. I'm stupid with math.

But it's so much fun to talk to the other girls I work with. Tia just told me today how her bellybutton ring was torn out when someone bumped her when she was swimming and how she had to go to downtown Wasaga on the Civic Holiday weekend to a tattoo parlour on the main drag with cops swarming the place and screaming people. And Amanda was telling Jalyssa and Lauren how her boyfriend (who lives in North Bay) was mad at her for not spending $200 to hop on a bus and visit him for the weekend. Everyone was sympathising with her. He has a car, why doesn't he spend the $40 gas money to come down here? Geez! Men! And Lauren was wondering if she should buy a double bed for her dorm room this fall. She could do with a single but she thought doubles were so much more comfy.

You see what I mean? Good, quality girl talk. I need to organise a sleepover soon. Now that I have SOME girl talk, I want MORE.

So, all of you who have a summer job they love, kudos to you! I love mine too! And for all those of you who have a summer job they hate, well I guess you'll do better next time... oh, and HA, HA, HA!

Yours,
emma

VBS and Writing Ideas

Hi readers!!

I've been at my little country church's Vacation Bible School (VBS for short) this past week!!! In the past ten or eleven or twelve years that I've been going, I've always been in the programs, from a student's perspective... but this year... the grade eights were taken from the program to look after little, annoying, funny, children as group leaders.

I was leading a group with my friend Amanda and we were the GREEN GROUP!!!! We had grades 3, 4, 5 and the names of the kids were Makayla, Michaela, Duane, Logan, Olivia, Sarah, Jonathan, Leelind and Matthew. And weren't they fun? We were learning to Listen Up! for God's messages!! We were the Slowpoke Messengers (our own group name, that we made ourselves, due to our stuffed tortoise mascot Slowpoke) and our mascots were the aforesaid Slowpoke and Big Eyes the stuffed frog!! And we ALMOST had a live mascot, but Amanda was carrying it (a live frog) and she dropped it and squished it by accident. Within about five minutes, the entire bible school knew that the Green Group had killed their live mascot!!!

It was a very spiritually enriching week, even for me, the old teenager...

I've had so much fun with friends from EVERYWHERE that I think I've talked myself out!!

Well, I'd better sign out now,

Love, and Blessings,

emma eldon

P.S. I don't know if you're like this or not, but writing ideas keep popping up EVERYWHERE for me! I started a whole new story because of random ideas!!!

Summer!

So...

WHAT TIME IS IT? Oh, don't worry. I won't go on a tirade of high school musical numbers just to annoy you! I get enough of that from my annoying little sister.

But it IS summer. I have been reading all these magazines talking about finding summer love! For me, finding ANY love would be great! Never mind summer. Well, I'll be busy.

First of all, my graduation went quite well; I didn't faint or barf or cry or even pee my pants during my speech. And you know what? I was SO SO SO nervous right up until I stood up to go up there and speak with Andy, and then I was fine! And I grinned and laughed and I said the first line! And many lines after that, but still, I didn't choke up! And then the dinner was delicious and my slide show went awesomely and we danced right until 10:30 and my feet were KILLING me and I could barely even smirk after smiling for fifteen straight minutes while getting my pictures taken. Eeeepp!

And the last day of school was so short! Oh, I could have died at the shortness of it all! I didn't have enough time to spend with the people I had come to love over the past year. All of a sudden, we had fifteen mintues left of the day and I just couldn't stop CRYING!

And I start my new job in August, working at a local farm market until the season closes in October. And then there's VBS (Vacation Bible School) and I am one of the group leaders this year! One of my best friends volunteered me!

And then there's every sort of get-together and sleepover and movie night and party that I could want and then HIGH SCHOOL comes up and just knocks my socks off. I am SO excited except just a teensie, tiny bit afraid. Well, maybe ALOT! I'm sure to get lost!!!

Anyway, enough of me burdening my business on you, why don't YOU tell me a bit about yourself. Please leave comments in my comment section, I like hearing from you all!

Next time I'll be inventive and come up with some writing tip for you! I have quite a good little handbook on writing!

Love, Cheers,
emma eldon

Grad!

Tomorrow night is Graduation and I am PSHYCED!!! I get to dress up in a pretty dress and get my hair done and wear heels and everything. We're having a dinner and a dance and we're going to have a BLAST!!!

I know I will be ALOT better once I get my speech over with, though. I have to say a speech, as I'm valedictorian. AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Tie me down, I may run out of the building. Or barf. Or, worst of all, cry. At least I get to share this misery with my co-valedictorian, Andy. Hopefully he will catch me if I faint, before I hit my head on the baptismal font.

I have to go out there in front of almost 200 people! And speak. Something that I wrote. It's weird, I don't really love sharing my writing with people, but then again, I'm writing a blog. Stupid, I guess.

But, I hope I'll have a good time, and that there isn't too much grinding at the dance! I don't want to go through THAT with my pure virgin eyes.

They might not like it that much. My eyes, I mean.

But on the other hand, I'm terribly sad, because next year, more than half the class isn't going to my high school! I love them all so much, and now they're going to be gone. We're so close-knit, too. We're all going to cry! I know I'll be bawling.

Well, on that spirited and firey note, I will leave you.

Hasta La Vista,

emma eldon

Well... Long Time No See!

I guess it HAS been quite a while since I posted. Sorry to maybe just the few of you who actually LIKE my blog, although I cannot see how you can.

Well, now my lovely corally-flourescent-pinky-orangeish nails are clacking across the keyboard, and I have nothing to writed about (except of course my corally-flourescent-pinky-orangeish nails).

Maybe I should write about WHY I have corally-flourescent-pinky-orangeish nails. How about that? Today was what we call Mission Day at my primitive elementary school (which is now officially going to stay open, after a tough and critical review!). The object of the whole day is to buy Gator Money (our school mascot is the Gator) for 10 cents a ticket and then you go around and enter yourself in raffles and visit Mrs. T's famous White Elephant Sale, and get your nails painted (hence the corally-flourescent-pinky-orangeish nails) and eat lots of goodies and get as FAT as you POSSIBLY can!

In case you're wondering what I'm heading for with this blog, my main objective is to give you things to write ABOUT. Maybe it will inspire you as that little picture in my History textbook inspired me. Or the Metis sash that I bought at Old Fort William last summer. Or the Sound of Music (which I think is a movie that surpasses ALL others). Or maybe the thing that inspires you is a picture of Taylor Swift's long, golden hair. Or maybe just a picture of Orlando Bloom.... awwww... dreamy!

And his jaw, don't you like it? I've never seen such a beautiful jaw!

toodle-oo,
emma eldon

Some Hard Things

Hello, all!

(Was that a geeky opening?)

I have had some things this past week that I found quite hard to put in perspective. And also, very maddening and complicated and stupid and annoying and terrible.

I have to ask you a question, though, first.

Has any of you ever lost someone close to you? I mean, really close? I haven't.

But my friend Michael has.

Michael's father, Joe, passed away peacefully surrounded by his large family in the wee hours of Thursday morning, of cancer. When my class found out, from the pastor, Father Charlie, on Thursday morning, alot of us were crying and we were all VERY serious, for once.

Father's Day is in one week.

Can you imagine your father passing away ONE WEEK before Father's Day? Can you imagine your father passing away ONE MONTH before your graduation from grade school, and your brother's from high school? Can you imagine your daddy dying TWO MONTHS before your big brother's wedding? Can you imagine your daddy dying ONE YEAR before his first grandchild comes into this world?

Can you imagine?

I can't comprehend any of it.

What do you think we should say to Michael when he comes back to school? How are we going to joke around him? How are we going to talk about stupid movies, or gossip, or laugh around him EVER AGAIN????

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

Help us, here in our humble class and our humble group of friends, please!!!!

Luv,

Emma Eldon

Apologies!!!!

First of all, I would love to take this oppurntunity to thank you all for being patient with me while I had company from Germany for the past two weeks. It was a blast, I can tell you! We hit all the high spots around Ontario; we even sprinted through down town Toronto in order to catch our GOtrain back out of the city.

We had to stop at the lights, though. That was a bit of a hold-up. (We did catch the train, by the way, in case you're wondering.

And I played Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the FIRST time a few weeks ago. Man, did I ever SUCK! I love the songs though! XBOX 360 was the gaming console of my choice.

And Canada's Wonderland was AWESOME! Although, I cannot see how some lunatics would go on Behemoth, I just can't comprehend it!

I've been contemplating doing a contest (other than my polls) but i don't have any ideas for one. Could you guys please leave some suggestions on the comment pages? Thanks, you're all dolls.

I love this one blog about writing. It is informative, beautifully written and helpful. It really makes me revise and edit my writing alot better. It's http://www.eileenastels.blogspot.com/ . Don't be intimidated by the fact that Eileen deals with a certain denomination and a certain genre. Most of her tips can be converted over to use in any form that you write in. Enjoy!

I have decided to have a mixxture of posts. They will all hopefully be a bit of writing help and a bit of nothing, like what I'm writing about now. That's my favourite kind of posts!

Well, I'd best be signing off now. If you're wondering what this chart over here is, it's a writing chart, that my teacher actually gave me. But it really helps me think my editing through, to make sure that my writing is the best that it can be.

Guten tag!

emma eldon

Believable Characters: What Makes Characters Believable?

I have decided to begin my study on Believable Characters. I had to take notes and everything and organise what I was going to say before I just slapped it down in writing on my blog! I have been taking these notes from Writing the Christian Romance by Gail Gaymer Martin, which is an exceedingly helpful book, disregarding the genre or denomination you write in/about.

Okay, so now I begin.

Believable characters must be solid, 3-D individuals with depth, goals, needs, motivation and complex emotions. Your characters- to be believable characters- have to change and grow, a little or alot, along the course of your story. Your characters are naturally impacted by the events and situations that you place them in in your story.

The reader's greatest wish is to be able to connect and relate to your amazing, 3-D characters. If your characters are "real" to them, then they will be able to do just that, because your character's plights in themselves or those around them.

The past is what formulates your character's present and future; it's what makes up their goals, weaknesses and present needs. Characters need to have flaws. Flaws are what connects you to other people and will be what connects readers to your hopefully fabulous characters. An unflawed character is like an unflawed, 2-D cartoon character, not a compelling, believable character that readers can relate to.

When you are forming a character's backstory (which will discuss on a later date) give them situations they want to forget and hide from others- secrets that smother their growth until somehting or someone else in your story uncovers it to learn the truth. In stories, and in real life, people can't hide from the past. They may try to cover it up if it is particularly ugly, but it still affects their relationships, values, actions, and behaviours. Some people construct their pasts on a foundation of lies or twisted truths, and try to make sure their flimsy "lie structures" don't collapse around them.

Okay, so not EVERY SINGLE one of your characters needs a deep, dark sin, but still, there must be SOMETHING there that they wish to hide.

Although flaws are major in the creation of your compelling characters, you must keep the character's positive attributes foremost in the reader's minds. Characters with a strong desire to change (for the better) are the type of characters readers love.

The best thing that you could ever give to ALL major characters is a passion and determination to succeed (even the villain). Blending weaknesses and strengths will help you create compelling, beautifully put-together, believable characters that will make your story the belle of the ball.

Which is what you want, of course!

That concludes my study on What Makes Characters Believable. Next post we will be looking at some techniques and Characters, Story and Theme.

Merci pour votre attention!

Much Love,

emma eldon

Believable Characters: Introduction

Hello, all!

Up until now, my blog has been simply that, a blog. I've been writing about boring daily life and everything, so now I decided that my site should have some purpose.

I have decided (with the help of a few great friends) that I am going to do a blog study on Creating Believable Characters. Of course, I sort of have to research quite a bit first, because I myself am not the best at creating nice characters. My characters are all flat... as I'm sure yours tend to be sometimes, and we all need a great way to make those people be 3-D!

It will be a great learning experience for me, and for you. Hopefully. Of course, if you already have fantastic characters (like, J.K. Rowling, if you're reading this) then I'll have to say, you've got to stop reading, cause all this will do is bore you. To death.

I'll be taking my information from many different sources, just to let you know... I've got about five writing help books on hold at the library!

Have a great day!
Love,
emma eldon

Jealousy

Jealousy is a very real emotion.

Real emotions are what you technically want your character to have. They can't be so perfect that they never feel anything. Your characters need to be real, so real, in fact, that the reader will be able to feel a sort of friendship with your character.

Jealousy is one of thos e very real emotions that we feel all the time, even if we don't know we are. Maybe it's a member of the opposite sex who's with someone else and not you, or how sometimes it seems as if someone's stealing your friend.

There's this girl in my class, let's call her Katy. Everyone hates her except one of my bff's Regina. And, you know how this goes... Katy needs help in math and everything like that, so Reg helps her. I, on the other hand, am perfectly capable of math, thank you very much, and do not need any help.

Sometimes I think I should just pretend to be suckish in math so reg can help ME not Katy. But Regina's a really good friend, and I know that she'd never desert me.

Well, cheerio,
emma eldon

Kittens!!!!

How many of you who are actually reading like kittens? Probably a great number of all one of you do.

Well, as some people well know, living on a farm can bring certain ... joys into life. Like Kittens.

We have like 20 adult cats running around, and we expect many, many, MANY more to come soon, as it's spring, and they always give birth in the spring. I think it's partly because they have nothing else to do all winter...

There are four kittens, about a month old, who we absolutely LOVE. There's three boys and one girl. The girl's name is Tonks (from Harry Potter, of course), and is brown, orange and white. Then there's Teddy (who's orange and also a HP namesake), Edward (white with black patches, bet you can't guess how he got his name), and Aerrow (white with a brown stripedy pattern on his back, and the namesake of Stormhawks).

I am writing a joint novel with my friend, and how it works, is that we each have a character, and we formulate the character and everything and create her friends and enemies and her environment that she lives in. Since we live sorta far away from eachother, we email it to eachother. It's like what we do, except we know eachother. These two girls don't.

I believe this form of writing is called a Two-Headed Story. I'll do a little research on it- maybe we'll even be able to have a little three-part study on it!

I'll tell you one thing: Reese's character lives in Toronto, and mine lives in London, England.

Cheerio chaps!

emma eldon

PIX!!!!!

These are some sorta random pix that I took ... I hope you like them!

This is my impressive writing pile... symbolising that I have started more stories than I have finished -much, much more.

Well, this is annoying.... i can't get the pictures to load. Oh well, more pictures for another time, then.

Bye!

emma eldon