ImaLime

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:49:11 GMT

Who doesn't like John Donne's poetry? :3 Trick does. <3

I kind of forgot to post a welcome home picture for my baby. He got here beginning of March :3
(Clicka picture for a bigger view of it <3)

Some more pictures ^^

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:50:46 GMT

Took some pictures a while ago and have finally edited and am now posting em ^^ Yay for not lazy

Rylan and all his stuffies <3

My boyfriend and friend filled my room with 160 balloons for my birthday as a surprise XD

My puppies, Kieko and Harley

Er.... tea kettle? :3

And thus concludes my silly random assortment of pictures XD

Horse Pics :3

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:08:22 GMT

(Apatchee, Robert, Willy, Faith (right-left)

Yup, those are our horses. I had to chase em around to get good pictures- lazy fatties. XD

That is all. More pictures of dollies to come ^^

Bleh...

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:08:06 GMT

I know I have a million rants about this buuutttt.... I hate the copy right ideas thing in fiction.

I hate coming across characters (whether in the dolly world in the fiction world, etc) that bear resemblence to my own. I know its completely and utterly impossible to claim originality on anything, but I tend not to share my creations until I feel ready. And, by then, I will have found at least one person who has beat me to making a character public. -sigh-

Basically, what I'm saying is that I'm afraid someone will point the finger of blame at me. My characters are 100% original. If you think I've stolen anything, ask for my (literally) hundreds of thousands of words of fiction written about them. Chances are, they won't be anything like yours and yours won't be anything like mine.

That's all. I just am so afraid to be pointed at and singled out.

Also, the politics of the doll world around here confuse the heck out of me. I'm afraid to get tangled in it.

I Can Has MasterCard??

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:29:13 GMT

Aha, it was inevitable. I now am the proud owner of a Mastercard. And slapped a $300.00 charge on it within the first 24 hours XD

So, after quite a wait, Trick's DG body is coming home. Poor little headless body.

I also helped myself to one of Sunny's (on Ebay) awesome wigs. Again. lol. And some shoes for Sierus- cause Rylan's sneakers aren't good enough for him it seems.

HappyHouse was a joy to work with- really, really fast with replying to my questions and helping me out. They quoted me 3 weeks and he'll be in the mail. XD So excited!

I should start posting my fiction here, but I'm too lazy. I'll leave a link and be done with it XD

http://www.fictionpress.com/u/559527/

The Sierus and Trick stuff is under "The Nothing Game" and the other stuff up there concerns other characters and other worlds ^____^ Check it out if you're interested.

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:03:51 GMT

I got the camera I wanted for Christmas and I've been taking hundreds of pictures daily since tearing off the wrapping paper, sooo... I thought I'd try my hand at a photo story!

Its my first one.. so it isn't like its fantastic or anything lol... I tried though. :)

So, it's cut into four sections... although I can't tell you why lol. Also, it might not make a whole lot of sense if you don't know the people in my head ^^

Let's see- there's Sierus (who... is the only doll in the comic lol) and he's been around for seven years in my head and in my fiction. A few years back he became involved with Trick- who has yet to aquire a body :( His crobi-doll Yeon-ho head is sitting on my shelf... bubble-wrapped and body-less. lol. I hope to get a DemonGarden body home soon and before their free shipping expires.

Anyhow, enjoy. Also- I'm really sorry about the huge pictures! I'll try to make them... smaller and different in the future!

.

Lolz

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:13:55 GMT

Long story short: the little stuffed dude was made my my friend, the resin idiot is from SOOM. XD They're both, in their respective forms, from the dark depths of my mind. Sierus Regan (dolly) is seven years in the making and now officially resin. The little stuffed dolly is Trick XD I currently own his head via resin ^^

There's a huge backstory between the two, but that's a bedtime story for another day ;) Eventually I'll post some stuff about them. When I bring Trick's body home, everything will be more settled. And Sierus will be a happy, happy man. XD

Btw, sorry my lack of photo taking skills + camera both really suck lol. Plus my shoes are in the background. Be distracted.

Resin Addiction leads to Camera Lust

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:40:05 GMT

So, with the delightful addition of high speed (Go Uni!), I've decided it's high time I started to post stuffs ^^ Also, I'm working on the idea... of getting a camera worth mentioning! I’ve never felt the need to buy a camera and suddenly, with the addition of the resin addiction, comes camera lust >__O Needs. Good. Pixel. Capturing. Abilities!

Off to Chapters I went yesterday and rang through a surprising amount in camera magazines. My evening was spent hunched over the glossy pages, trying to understand the little complicated world of cameras- DSLR’s! I learned new technology vocabulary lolz.

The camera my rents use for holiday pictures etc, isn’t… up to standard >.> <.< … I dislike it and its lack of concern for my ideas very much. Time for a camera of my own. So, in my glossy-paged search, I came across the Nikon D40… now, its reasonably priced and definitely not the newest model on the market, but I’ve seen pictures by people (not professionals!) who have them and they sure look good… I don’t know anything about cameras and I feel very silly, but I hope the people at Blacks or wherever can help :S My aunt also has some higher end Nikon Dsomething and I love it to death. Her pictures are so beautiful and I asked her how she managed to capture said perfection- she said she put the damn thing on auto and pointed it at what she wanted! I was all.. O___o! All I can say, is awesome. I’m so willing to put work into learning how to properly use a DSLR though, I just don’t want to pay for a super, professional high-end camera if I don’t need it for that reason- which I don’t. I just want a nice camera I can learn to use and that is a step up from the point-and-shoot pocket camera’s from Shoppers. I guess a camera is only as good as the photographer using it, so maybe I’m just going about everything all wrong. :S

I don’t exactly have enough excess to spend on a nice camera like that, but I was kinda.. maybe… hoping I could still pull the “Christmas List” deal? Ah ha… I’m such a bad mooch! I told my parents it was all I wanted this year for Christmas and my birthday (conveniently ten days after Christmas, Jan. 5). So, given they have any cash to spare (which I hate asking for- I know they have many more commitments than I do and feel like dirt asking for anything…but I do work.. and pay my own bills so maybe my karma isn’t so horrible XD)

Ah well. End camera rant of doom.

The Horrors of DoA?

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:40:57 GMT

You know, some days DoA just frightens me.

Some of the debates get so heated its a bit scary. People take everything so personally it's.. a little sad? I don't know.. I know how important the dolly addiction is to all of us who crave the resin fix(its very important to me as well), but really. Some things are said that are so hurtful and angry- and completely off topic. People end up just personally attacking each other over opinions. Ick. It never fails. Look up any debate and there's bloodshed.

I'm not an active person in forums or groups, I never have been. Too shy I think. I like to lurk and learn things, enjoying talking to people one on one but never voicing my opinion in a group. *shrug* I don't like to draw attention to myself. I have my own ideas and my own levels of creativity. While everyone enjoys sharing and receiving feedback on their work, I feel like sharing any of my ideas in the dolly world will just result in someone pointing an angry 'you copycat' finger. I'd like to say all of my work has been developed over many, many hours of pouring over fiction pages and personality profiles, but I know damn well that my work is (even if its subconsciously) influenced by the things I see around me. Now, this doesn't mean that I see a dolly that catches my attention and immediately try to replicate he/she. This means I see something about a doll- wig, eye colour, history fact- and it may find itself into a new character during the creation process. It really bothers me when people say doll ideas are 'copied' or 'stolen'. I wrote a long fiction rant about originality and it pretty much covers the same topics that are important here:

1.) Don't get so worked up. If you think your idea is truly stolen, chances are the 'thief' won't be able to keep that character constant. Characters are, essentially, little pieces of yourself. Unless that person knows you very well, how can they take a bit of you away?
2.) Characters change. No one can say their 'oldies' (^^Characters that have been months-years in the making) are the same as when they started.
3.) Give the person who you think has stolen your ideas a break. They probably are starting off just like you did: excited with the idea of uniqueness and probably young/naive. The character is still -yours-. No one has physically stolen them from you :)

These broad topics being said, I'd be upset if I found replicas of my boys too. It sucks, but it happens. You take it out into the world and you have to expect it to fend for itself. I've spent countless hours working on 'active development' with them- heavens knows I have 300 pages of fictional novel for one of my main characters alone. Bleh. I am a huge believer in personal rights/creativity claims/whatever; I think you should be proud of what you've accomplished and created but to say its 100% yours? Only ever thought up by your mind in all of the history of all of the world? Sadly.. no. Next time you feel defensive, try thinking about where you got your characters from. :)

That was a bit of an off-topic rant. My apologies. :)

Character vs Doll

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:50:47 GMT

Matching already well-developed characters to doll models and companies is officially no easy business.

I promised myself that when I started this hobby, there was no way in hell I was going to start shelling characters. And now look what I've done.. I've brought Sierus home- my dearest and most well-developed character. He's already seven years created and now to have him as a doll... is just amazing.

Now I'm looking for more. XD Well, just like you can't have fiction with only one character, you can't have just one doll! I need at very least Trick and Matthias before I'll be a happy clam. Oh. October too. And then all of their respective mates and secondary characters. Mhm.

I want to know so much more about what I'm doing here- more about the hobby! I want to learn how to do tattoos and piercings, and moding and clothing making, wig making, everything! lol. As long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a new car. XD

I want to new camera but that requires a whole lot of money I don't have. Our family camera is a little... feeble at best. :/ I could borrow either of my two aunts cameras if they'd let me and I knew what I was doing with them :( I should have taken that digital photography course in high school. Damn free education! I want it back ;;______;; this paying thing sucks.

Most of all I think I want more free time lol. I need to get pubished. I want lazy days of writing all morning, going for a walk, playing with the dolls, making stuff, and falling asleep to do it all over again the next morning. I guess, in whatever aspect, that's what everyone wants. *sigh* C'est L'vie, non? Excuse my French. It's terrible.

Ah well. I think I'll go hunting for doll companies to explore.

Stress Sucks

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:36:36 GMT

Bleh. Why does stress seem to ruin everything?

I think I need to learn to manage stress better. As soon as my plate starts getting full, my anxiety kicks in and ruins everything I try to do.

Hopefully this rant will be theraputic for me. Best to stop reading now and just sum it up with 'yeah, so what- everyone is stressed. Get over it, loser' lmao.

My biggest stress right now is my grandma. She's been in and out of the hospital all spring and summer and now she's in.. for good we think. The doctor gave her six months, the nurses said six weeks, and now one nurse said about a week. Her liver problems are slowly killing her. She lost so much weight and she's so weak. On bad days, she can't feed herself. On good days, she can go for a little walk and is coherent enough to know we're there and talk to us.

It just feels so stupid. Like this is all just some big joke and we should just push it aside until the joke is over and every thing is okay again. I remember having indepth, ethical discussions with my grandma and having supper with her just this winter. Now she's lying in a bed like a zombie? What the hell happened? I'm still blinking in shock and my family is telling me that they're making funeral arrangements 'in time so its not rushed'. I mean, seriously. My brain can't even figure this out. Whenever I try to disect it, it just makes me more and more afraid so I push it away and don't think about it. And then I go visit her in the hospital and see her like that and it hits hard again. I had to leave the room last time.

I'm so close to my grandma and losing her doesn't even make sense in my head. How can I lose my grandma? The grandma that let me steal pieces of her perogie dough when she was making perogies, told me off for sitting too close to the TV, read me stories that she laughed out loud in, told me I look 'sexy' in my outfits and told me that I drive the boys wild, the grandma that made giant pots of bean soup and chicken soup every new years.... I remember so many things... Nothing makes sense.

School is starting to get close too. Only a month away. The stress is going to be fun for that too. I'm afraid of not being able to get everything together and done. I'm trying for some competitive courses as well as taking a full 30 hour load. Ontop of that, I need to be able to work two shifts a week at least to be able to pay for the gas to drive into the city each day of the week for classes.

I keep flip-flopping between beating myself up for not working all summer and not saving more money. I spent a good chunk and what do I have to show for it? Yeah I have a hobby I absolutely love and love to spend the money I earn on it, but what about when reality hits? I have a crappy old car that might give out suddenly one day and I still live at home. I have to pay for school, the gas to drive the hour back and forth each way ( I might carpool, if that works, but still.. ), I want to move out but there's no way I can afford it.

I feel like I'm going in the right direction to life, but I can't see where it is. I mean, I did what I promised myself I would and I'm going to school. Even if I feel clueless about the whole thing.

I love my doll hobby- I feel like its dangerously addictive and like its my 'feel-good-patch' when I'm down. Which sounds good until you look at the money I've spent on it. Whenever I get depressed I want to buy things to increase my hobby. Like when my grandma was admitted again and started getting worse, I ordered my second doll. He was a huge chunk of my wages- a month's worth of wages at my parttime job. Was that a terrible thing to do? He makes me incredibly happy just to have him with me. It's a happy-patch I feel like I need already.

I have my boyfriend who is bloody amazing. I don't know what I'd do without him. He's the other bright spot in my life and definitely an anchor in my life. He's so incredibly supportive with everything I do. I pray to God he doesn't get fed up with my issues.

My writing is starting to fall by the wayside. I love it to death, but I don't have time for it. I try to make time, but then the stress gets to me and I can't churn out anything creative at all. I was supposed to be writing now, but I needed to vent because I kept opening all of my projects in turn and then closing them. I'm no stranger to writers block and usually I just plow through it, but this time.. it's harder. I feel like I'm ignoring all my other problems by trying to focus on writing.

Mostly, I feel tired. I need a change. I need to go somewhere and see new places or do something. I feel like I've been doing the same thing for a year- working parttime and writing. Yeah.

Hope no one actually read that vent. It was pretty pathetic.

The Rant about Paranoid Authors

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:35:44 GMT

The Rant about Paranoid Authors

The fear that I see far too often typed all over, covered in bold, unofficial little circled C’s, is the ‘Copyright to author- DON’T STEAL plz thx’ warnings.

Okay.

Let’s take a moment to be fair. Every author starts out with the same brainchild prodigy they think will take over the novelling world- there’s no denying that. Every author has their own ‘original’ characters and ‘original’ setting that they are drop-dead sure no one else could possibly ever have. After you work with the whole novelling thing for a while, you kind of begin to realize something- nothing is original.

I remember having the same horrified paranoia the first time I posted my work online for the public to chew on. Terrified, I typed paragraphs of tentative pleading for the copyright of my work- for people to please just enjoy and then back away from the original fiction! There are a few things I’ve learned since then.

What is originality? Is it the creation of something completely new and unheard of? If it was, there would be a lot more alien-race stories, now wouldn’t there? No, I believe originality and novelty (novels and novelty: ironic, no?) are simply the careful cover up of stereotypes. For example, how many of us drop a book faster than the bubonic plague when we read those first few lines of ‘Mary Sue/Marty Stu perfect character clichés’ or the ‘teenage angst/drama vampire love’ series? Okay, now, surely there must be books under these categories that are good; books that are well-written, imaginative and a joy to read. Even though they are built upon the very clichés that make us dry heave, they are still enjoyable. How is this done? Good writing, children, good writing. You can sell almost anything if it’s crafted beautifully. Not to say- listen up here, please- that I’m telling you that you’re allowed to pretty up the package with big words and deep metaphors. That’s just packaging rotting meat with shiny paper and a big ribbon- it still stinks. In all, if it’s well-done, the reader will accept almost anything even if it’s outside their usual genre.

With the topic of originality briefly covered, let’s move on. Why are we so terrified our dear characters will be snatched up by other passing authors? What are characters? Writers, this is a question for you! Did you get the answer yet? I’ll give you a hint- if your characters are truly worth being protective over, they are well-developed and (sorry to use it again for the millionth time) ‘original’. Now, how did they get to this point? Oh, wait, you know this one don’t you? After all, it was you who toiled over page after page of their development and back-story, wasn’t it? Hard work and practice, use and more use of the character, make them developed and original. Now, tell me, why we so terrified that someone is going to swoop down and steal what we’ve spent countless hours locked away and ingesting a sick amount of caffeine to create? Characters, my dear, are just a focused piece of yourself. To steal a character (a well developed one! Not a cardboard cut-out idea of a Mary Sue or Marty Stu), the thief would have to know you incredibly well. So, what I’m trying to get across here, is even if someone tried to take your general sketch for your babies, they could never use it functionally! The most they could steal is an awkward, stiff-legged prose that wouldn’t remotely resemble your dears. Characters are very loyal things- they don’t just work for anyone!

The next point is mostly a continuation of the last. Even said author-thief did manage to steal your dear characters and, hypothetically, use them functionally in a piece of their own copy-cat work, how could they even use the same person you created in text? Do your characters stay the same when you work with them? Was your protagonist the same person he/she was when you first sketched them out in carefully arranged and nervously crafted paragraphs and dialog? No, of course not, sillies. They change and grow alongside you with every problem you give them to solve. So, now how could someone take your work and use it? Unless they can read your mind and see into the future, they will never come up with the genius ideas you will, author. Relax, take a deep breath, no one can take your ideas from you before you can think them up.

Now, let’s think about which kind of people would stoop so low as to commit the heinous crime of character-thievery. People who already have their hands full with their own ideas and projects, don’t need to steal much. I mean, how can you not subconsciously take things from the world around you? Its unrealistic to think that your writing isn’t just pieces of the things around you and your life. Now, people that crave these ideas are more than likely new authors- people who want to jet-rocket straight into the heart of the writing jungle without having to hack through the dense underbrush of self-taught writing education the rest of us went through. Think carefully, did you start out where you were now? No, no you didn’t. You probably shadowed an author you respected and admired, even subconsciously or consciously snipping at bits of their work. Try not to bite heads off even if you do find plagiarism you think is from your own work- you were there once too. After all, your thief will more than likely get bored of characters they can’t even use because they don’t properly understand. Either that, or their stolen protagonists and antagonists will morph so much they won’t even be close to what you created.

Close your eyes and count to ten- it’s a tough fact to swallow, but you will never be able to keep your work sheltered completely. How is it going to go into the world if you won’t let it? Let it go. It’s yours and you know it. Isn’t that enough?

He is here!

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:10:06 GMT

Aww, my Rylan is here! This is a bit of a delayed post as he got here on December 20th (of '07), but here he is!

He came all the way from Korea in 2 days O___o they said 2-3 weeks so when I was woken up one morning with the call he was here I had to do a bit of an embarassing dance of joy.

He is molded by Cerberus Project and purchased through Luts ebay store. (which I may add, is not great with answering questions. Go through Luts site (eluts.com) if you want feedback and great help). He is their El model, which I had been lusting after for many months prior to his purchase. And what a purchase he was XD The BJD are not a cheap hobby to get into.

He is 60cm tall with 18mm glass eyes and molded from a lovely blushed resin. ^_____^ I love him so much.

More later!

Imalime rants about "original fiction" at 2 am

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:05:39 GMT

Hoo this may be a nasty one that only writers may understand.

Now, Imalime writes on Fictionpress.com, which is a lovely site that hosts original fiction from whoever signs up. The catch comes in under the category of stereotypes and clichés. Not funny. It seems insignificant, but it makes or breaks a story.

1. No Mary Sues or Marty Stu's please.
If I had a freakn penny for every quote on quote story with a 'Destinaye' or 'Faythe', some snot nosed dreamer longs to be, Bill Gates would be serving me crumpets at three every afternoon. Please: a perfect character makes me shrivel inside. Seriously, something dies. I have to close the browser to save myself from doing something brash. I'm so sick of seeing all the academic-singer Sally's and Johnny-jock boy's flounce their way through angsty teenager lives, moan and whinge on about how much their parents yell, how mean their friends are, how gdmmed in love they are with Mr./Miss Untouchable. Would it kill an author to get some creativity? Or is that an unknown term with that crowd?

2. No. More. Melodrama.
If you're going to play the whole routine 'My parents hate me, wah! I have no friends! Wah! Pity me because my teachers are racists and my neighbour shot my dog and my sister stole my lunch money and the paper boy glared at me and my Aunt Sally deliberately stinks in my general direction!' then for fck's sake, do it right. Realism is the key here, and a lot of "writers" lack it apparently. Less is more people. Does your sister want to kill you? No.. Do your parents lock you in a cellar with nothing but uncooked cabbage to eat? No.... Does your teacher cackle evilly at odd times and mutter out loud about how he/she is going to personally make your life a living hell? er... no. Now, what have we learned? I know it's called Fiction, but every tale has truth, no?

3. Why is there -always- an annoying boy next door?
Many questions arise from this. What a coincidence your dreamy-sex-type-you-don't-realize-yet lives next to you and has an impulsive urge to come subtly hit on you. Hm. Another case of 'omg I'm a writer who wants to live in a book', me thinks.

4. -Using- Character Traits.
Okay. If Ally is so badass... why isn't she? Why does she have a 'rough, hard exterior that naturally makes people stay away from her' but yet Sexydreamboycliche #98872 sticks to her like gum? My point is, if you're going to label your character as something, you had better start showing it.

5. Showing not telling.
Yeahuh, guess what writing is about, kiddies? Visual images that readers feed upon! Yay, have we learned something today? No? Figures. Writing has to grasp a reader and pull them to read. It has to create questions, stick images in the readers mind, form characters that are unique and that the reader will remember and bond with. 'Kiai McPerfectPants' who sings, dances and is top of her class on weekdays, but has friends listed #3 through #9001, is just a 2D cardboard cut out. Can you connect to someone perfect? Hell no. None of us are perfect, why should the characters in the stories we escape to be?

6. Crappy Summaries.
If you cannot manage to write a 100 word summary, why the hell do you think I want to read your writing? I mean, wtf, surely you can say something about your writing in a paragraph? One that doesn't consist of 'Meh summerie sukx, reed inside fer mor!!!!111!!' ......Good God why?

7. Flare and Originality
Not as hard as they appear. You can take the most boring plot and stir it into something exciting. You're protagonist does not have to ride dragons or rescue vampires from barns in his/her spare time. I personally find a protagonist who works at a coffee shop for too long hours and too little pay far more interesting. How about one who works walking dogs? That opens up a world of ideas for romance writers. Its not big or bold, simply down to earth and easy to relate to.

8. Rushing the writing
Do you have some place to be mid chapter? It makes me hit the back button pretty fast when I start reading machine gun dialog with zero narrative, zero description and zero character originality.

9. Rushing Plot
To get back story out of the way, a lot of writers will just go and dump it all into the first chapter. Not a good idea. You've just lost a ton of readers. Keep in mind; no one cares about your protagonist's last 18 years until they actually know him or her. Wow, what a concept hey? Slow it down, create some suspense and draw your reader in carefully. If they start to ask questions, you know you're doing your job as a writer.

10. Stories that aren't.
Again, if I had a penny... The motto of FictionPress, everything that it stands for, is FICTION. A place for writers to post and get feedback. Not to gdmmed whine about their lives! It makes me want to kick a small child when I read a summary that says 'My life basically as a journal. It sucks. Read it." ..... dear God take them instead. I want fiction, not your shtty angst of a teenage whine. That and the '101 things I love/hate' posts. Go get a livejournal so you can rant like Imalime here, I don't give a dmn about your tastes.

11. Bad Grammar and Spelling.
Word has a spell check. Fck it checks it as you type. Why is it so difficult? Enough said. It just ruins any chance that 'writer' had for feedback when I see constant, miserable errors. I'm not saying I'm perfect; I make a lot of spelling errors, but dmned if I can't take the five minutes to spell check my work. I will leave the topic of 'chatspeak' alone.

12. The R&R beggars
Alright, I'm a little guilty of this but only in the category of becoming snappish at the 'silent readers'; If you're going to read and tell me to write more, you had better pay up and give me some criticism and edits. I despise a summary that ends with READ AND REVIEW ME PLZZZZZZZ. If it's good, you'll get a review. If it's utter crap, you get what you deserve; nothing.

13. Yaoi excuses
Just because you have boyslove, does not mean you have an excuse for lack of plot and lack of character development. I write a fair amount of MM myself. I do not, however, strive towards that for being my only point in the story. Sexual preference should not be the point of a story. It's not really a story then is it? "Alliee is so popular and beautiful but she has a secret: She's a lesbian!" OMFG NO WAII! Christ, people, so what? "Jaysnn is quiet and shy, but will Tom, the school jock ever notice him??!" We can only hope not, to save us the anguish of yet another fckn stupid cliché. Now, this is not meant to be discriminatory at all; for heavens sake, the majority of my stories end up as gay romance. Only implying that if you're gonna do it, dmn well do it right. Give it flare and give it fun if you're going to go cliché. Make it stand out from the rest.

14. Real Experiences
You cannot write what you do not know. If you could not stand in front of a crowd and explain the topic of your story (whatever it is, medical based, crime based, music based) you should NOT be allowed to write about it. It does so much more harm than help to you. You end up looking like a fool to readers who actually know about the topic and your story winds up 2D, flat and boring as you have nothing more to tell your readers about the topic than what they already know. Point Example being horses: I have horses, I ride horses, I care for horses, and I sure and hell know when a writer has never been within petting zoo distance of an equine. Little things about the topic make the story come to life for the reader; how to put on a saddle, the flicking method of grooming to get dirt out of a horse's thick winter coat, how heavy and hard it is to hold a horse's hoof when they rest all their weight on you. Those are the things that bond non-horse readers and even horse-readers to the subject. Replace horses with music or assassins and the same point can be made.
Same can be said for rape or abuse. Have you ever been in such a situation? It would be pretty painful to write about then, hey? Do some godmned research people. Talk to people and understand the psychology behind what experiences do to people. Caycee the WonderbreadFaker is not going to bounce back the weekend after she is brutally raped at a party. She can't be 'magically healed by love'. Fck, she'll suffer from it all her life; her relationships will more than likely strained, her commitment issues might explode, she might have trouble trusting or being in sexual situations, she might spiral into depression or else become removed from social norm. Does that sound like fun to write about in fluffy girly stories? No, guess not, so the baby writers opt for 'she gets magically better'. Angst dripping with fake is not a great way to bond your reader with your protagonist.

15. Otherworldly Loves/Hard work
Vampires, werewolves, demons, angels, etc. are a huge no for novice writers. No no no. Think long and hard about starting an otherworldly fiction; if it has no original spin to it, don't bother; its been done to death and back again. If you cannot spend a month researching and creating your own ideas, quit writing. Seriously, you will not make it. Do you think a publisher will even glance at your work if you have nothing but a Hollywood movie script in story format? I'm not saying I'm publishable material here, but I'm closer than a lot of FP. Arrogant worm I am. I've also spent the last three years of my life striving to get better; reading and researching, working on plot development, and learning techniques and what not to do. I have made sacrifices in the name of my work; choosing to spend time working rather than going out, or booking time to do research. Writing is not a gift; it's hard work.

In closing, Imalime is a little nasty in this rant, but oh so sick of seeing losers post. Get a day job shallow cliché dreamers, writing is for the hard workers of the creative field.

~Imalime

ImaLime Rants about Grocery Stores

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:10:31 GMT

Hookay, I work at a Superstore customer service and I have to say: People are honestly dumb.

I had a lady come up to me and try to return the top leaves and bottom bit of a whole pineapple on the grounds that it was 'rotten'. Well, honey, why did you eat the whole thing first?

Another woman demanded to know if she bought lemons at our store, could she take them across the border? I wasn't aware my nametag read 'Canadian Border Patrol and Regulator'.

I have people go into mini temper tantrums because we run out of things in our flyer or because they are delayed. I had one woman actually yell at me because we ran out of motor oil. I know, it's my fault; I should have magically produced some around my person for her.

I had another woman (notice they're all women?) also yell at me because I wouldn't give her a return on a case of Pepsi she neither had a reciept or the item for. She began screaming that the Pepsi's had leaked all over her hardwood floor. All I could think was, why the heck didn't you notice when you bought the case? Wouldn't it be at least a little obvious if your case of Pepsi was leaking when you picked it up and carried it to the till?

One man debated with me for fifteen minutes that the Hallmark Cards we sell should be the same US as Canadian price-wise. Why does everyone think I run the world? He demanded that we change the price diffence.

Lastly, shoppers has this misconception that I have a mental map of where every single item in the store is. Go the frig out there and look for yourself; the isles are bloody well labelled for you.

Indeed, people are not the most intelligent species. Point two, be warned: Never get a job in customer service.

-Imalime